The dumbest career hack that's worked 100% of the time 🍓

I've used this in 1,000+ meetings...

I’ve never failed a job interview.

Not when I was 18 with zero experience. Not when I was massively underqualified. Not even when I fumbled every creative question they threw at me.

The secret? I smiled like I just won the lottery.

When I finally asked recruiters why they kept picking me despite my obvious failures, their answer shocked me:

“You’re the only one who smiled through the whole thing - even when struggling”.

This unfair advantage is literally hiding on your face 🤫

I know it sounds stupid (like something from a cheesy self-help book).

But hear me out:

If you want to advance your career faster than anyone else → start every interaction with a big smile.

You should smile so wide it makes your eyes wrinkle.

Last week, I gave a marketing update to our entire company over Zoom. Nothing special - just our regular team sync. But I smiled like crazy through the whole presentation.

The chat exploded. All I did was smile.

It’s like finding a cheat code in a video game that makes you invincible… Except this one works in real life.

The timing secret nobody tells you about ⏰

Now, here’s what 99% of people get wrong:

They wait for the interaction to start, and only then force a smile ❌

That’s wayyyyy too late.

The magic only happens if you start smiling BEFORE:

• 5 seconds before you open your camera on Zoom call

• 5 seconds before you pick up the phone

• 5 seconds before walking into the meeting room

You should start smiling before anyone sees you. I discovered this by accident during COVID. Starting to smile while still on mute and camera off completely transformed my calls.

But what if I just don’t want to smile? 😞

Look, we all have bad days. Sometimes your brain screams “HELL NO” and smiling feels impossible. But I have a solution.

Here’s my actual pre-meeting ritual that works every time: