Being Laid Off Feels Lousy

(Actually, it’s worse than that, but we’ll get into that below.)

I remember how cold and lonely it felt to be laid off that first time. It felt to me like I was living in the basement of my own house (and an unfinished basement at that).

It felt cold (it was winter, we were trying to save on heat), dark, and damp.

It’s like the world is cheerfully going on about its daily business of commute-work-school-dinner-chores-family just outside your house, and there you are down below in the quiet and the cold, looking on.

Thankfully I learned – through much practice – how to deal with this so that it didn’t’ hold me back when I needed to find my next job.

“Lousy” Is Putting It Mildly!

A Layoff Is a Trauma

It’s time to free yourself from “what-if?” and “if-only” (blaming yourself) and realize that a layoff is a trauma, pure and simple. Like a car accident, your house burning down, a health emergency or the death of a loved one, it’s a trauma (an event) that becomes trauma (the ongoing experience of stress and aftershocks).

And the first – hidden? – secret to dealing with trauma is to recognize it’s there. “No wonder I feel so awful! Anybody would.” 

You Use The Liftoff Program

to Build a Mindset – And a Toolset

After a layoff you’re living in a cloud of negative emotions: shocked, panicked, furious, ashamed sad. The Liftoff Program is what I developed over the course of multiple layoffs (more on that below) to build a better mindset and a toolset.

It’s a toolset that takes you

from shame, fury and panic

to being calm, confident, focused and determined.

I Have Been Laid Off

Seven Times.

That’s: Seven. Bleeping. Times!

And I was even laid off twice by the same company.

Like all learning, the more you repeat an experience, the better you get at it. I never would have chosen this as an area of expertise, but here we are. There simply aren’t that many people who have had this many chances to go through this experience and build up expertise in it. I guess practice makes perfect!

Over the years my friends remarked that I seemed to deal remarkably well with being laid off, in terms of getting through the shock, shame, fear, and anger. I got to where I had a positive outlook – and pretty quickly and consistently, too! – which freed me up to work towards my goals, better and faster.

I learned how to speed up the comeback after the setback.

What’s Included

in The Liftoff Program?

The Liftoff Program is available online on a platform called teachable.com, and includes:

A 1-Year online subscription to all program materials, Zoom meetings, and layoff stories.

Over 4 hours of video instruction organized into 10 units.

Over 60 pages of explanations and worksheets. You can print out the worksheets to write on or type your work into an MS Word version of the worksheets.

The Trauma of a Layoff unit helps you realize that what you’re experiencing in terms of negative emotions is normal.

The CBT Concepts unit walks you through ideas and techniques taken from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and applies them to your post-layoff emotional state to build a mindset that will help you navigate the post-layoff stress.

You will use documents such as your Inventory of Emotions, Healing Dialogues, Book of Better Beliefs, and your Progress Tracking to work through the program.

As more people join the program, there will be regular Zoom meetings to hear from and talk to fellow program members and answer your questions.

It’s early days with The Liftoff Program (which is one reason I’m offering the crazy discount, which I talk more about below) and I hope to make myself available for up to 10 individual coaching sessions a week (my schedule and Parkinson’s symptoms permitting, more about my condition below). As more members sign up, we will have the opportunity for group Zoom meetings.

You Customize It For Yourself

I designed The Liftoff Program to be customized to each individual in the program in two important ways. First by planning it to fit your schedule, and second by focusing on the post-traumatic emotions and stress that are specific to you.

Your Timeline

Let’s talk about the schedule, what I call your Timeline. You have many things going on in your life that don’t stop needing time and attention simply because you are laid off. Chores, errands, meals, partners and spouses, children, parents. Plus you have new things that are required now that you are laid off. Job search, including resumes, applying for jobs, networking, unemployment claims, managing your changed finances, and that’s by no means a complete list.

The Liftoff Program is designed to help you into a better mindset – better, happier, and faster. Some of the benefits may come in the first hour that you start the material – I do not believe this is an exaggeration – but you’ve got to put in the time.

So how do you fit the program into all the other necessary activities? At the start of the program, you will customize your Timeline to plan how many hours, which days, and what times you will do your Liftoff work. It’s a plan – and I always keep in mind the saying “plans change” – where the Timeline will let you work at the pace you need to both complete the program and keep on with those other things, like, you know, your life.

There’s even a Crash Course version (I provide examples of four weekly commitment levels in terms of time to help you make your Timeline quickly) for those who want to complete the course in five days, followed by a couple hours per week.

Your Inventory of Emotions

You’ve been laid off. It sucks, plain and simple. You are living in a cloud of emotions like anger, fear, shame, and shock. As you work The Liftoff Program, you will take your Inventory of Emotions multiple times to get specific about which negative emotions you are dealing with, and the priority for tackling them. Then you tackle them one by one. Together with the Timeline, you are automatically customizing the program to suit your urgency, your priorities, and your schedule.

When you become a member of The Liftoff Program, you make it your program.

Questions? Concerns?

How Long Will It Take?

Most members will use the program over the course of 4 to 6 weeks by reviewing their Inventory of Emotions multiple times to improve their outlook and build a Liftoff mindset, one that supports them in pursuing the next step in their life (new position, different job, going independent/entrepreneur/consultant, working retirement, beach bum in Tahiti). You will have access to the materials and Zoom calls for an entire year. Here I am talking days and weeks, but I sincerely – and I mean most sincerely, I want to hear about if you find it’s not the case for you – that some of the benefits come in the very first hour that you start the material.

Also, the techniques you learn will stand you in good stead for the rest of your life as you face any variety of tough situations.

Is This Therapy?

Hmmm … while it’s true that I rely on some Cognitive Behavioral Therapy tactics and some therapy-like words like trauma, have you ever heard of a therapist that specializes in helping people eliminate negative emotions which specifically tie to actions you need to take to recover after a layoff? I haven’t. Maybe they’re out there.

And since we’re on the topic, this is important:

[Note: I am not a mental health therapist or credentialed healthcare professional. My expertise is in layoffs and how they SUCK (can I say “suck” on the internet? I guess this isn’t exactly network television, is it?) and how to get over the aftershocks so that you can move forward.]

Is This Job Search Advice?

The Liftoff Program is help that (as far as I can see) uniquely helps laid off folks to get past the emotional aftershocks so they can move forward with their job search and overcome the career and financial setback. Embedded in the materials are insights into how improving on a specific negative emotion has a positive impact on your job search.

There are people and entire companies out there (the term is career outplacement coaches and services) who can help you with resumes, job focus and how to conduct a job search. But let me tell you a story to illustrate the difference between these services and The Liftoff Program.

My Colleague's Story

I was talking with a former colleague (fellow subject of a layoff) about my concept of this program earlier this year. He was utilizing outplacement services provided by our former employer, and had attended a Zoom about targeting your job search. And he told me the story of how

“There were several people on the call who
you could tell were still enraged

about being laid off.

They were so angry that

they weren’t in any state of mind
to focus on their job search.”

So while an outplacement coach might spend some time helping you to work through your anger, there’s only so much time and it’s not their area of expertise. There’s no way they can address all the emotional fallout you’re experiencing.

By contrast, The Liftoff Program helps you clean out this ugly emotional mess so that you have a solid foundation to support your job and career goals. It takes time and focus to clean this mess up. And the benefits extend beyond your job search to your personal life.

And I don’t see such systematic help happening anywhere else out there.

Written and Presented

By a Real Person

When I recorded the 30-something videos for The Liftoff Program, I used my own voice. This despite the fact that I have been living with Parkinson’s Disease for over a decade now. One of the 60-or-so identified symptoms of Parkinson’s is talking too quietly, running out of breath at the end of the sentence, talking too fast, or not talking clearly.

But I didn’t want to use some vaguely creepy AI voice, or an inauthentic professional narrator. I want you to get this guidance directly from someone who has been through it all. I tell my story (my seven layoffs) in the videos and I explain what I did that can make the whole layoff experience easier and shorter for you. So I’m the narrator in the program materials, in all my imperfection.

The slides are simplistic, no AI there,

but I believe the content is invaluable.

I hope you also notice some improvement from the earliest recordings at the beginning to the ones at the end. I have in fact started taking speech therapy to help me speak more clearly. I’m glad the development of this course motivated me to do so, because it has helped my speaking a lot.

My Crazy Idea for

Discount Pricing: 80 Percent Off !

Really? 80% Off? Yes, Really!

I’d like to tell you the story of how I came up with the

Prove Me Wrong! 80% Off Discount.

Bear with me …

I am … naïve, idealistic, and stubborn. It’s a quirky combination that can lead to wacky results. And these three traits of mine played into how I price The Liftoff Program and the 80% discount.

As I prepared to launch this program on teachable.com, I had to set a price. I am offering a program that requires, typically, 6 – 12 hours per week for 4 – 6 weeks, maybe a couple of months. After that you go into maintenance mode with a weekly, monthly, or quarterly effort that works for you. I had to make sure that people will dedicate the hours, so that The Liftoff Program truly gets them good results. Good results mean good word of mouth, and referrals, and the program will gain momentum and it will help more people, and I can expand what it has to offer.

Conventional wisdom states that in such a situation, you need to put a price on the program that is high enough to be painful. If you pay the price, and it hurts to pay, you’re going to value what you get and you’re going to follow through and complete the program.

I’m not knocking conventional wisdom. It’s called wisdom for a reason. But I found myself wondering: “Hey, if I charge a hefty price to someone who has been laid off, isn’t that like kicking them when their down? If nobody goes for the program, nobody’s going to benefit from it.”

And for me, “hefty price” means $500 at least. It seems that anybody who’s not in the very upper crust will find paying $500 – as an additional expense – to be painful.

More conventional wisdom:

charge something like $499. Subconsciously,

it feels much less expensive than $500.

So how did I respond to that idea? With idealism. “If I make it painful, why should I try to make it appear less by going for $499? In fact, I’m going to set the price at $555.55. Not $549.99. Not $499.” I don’t want that kind of fake-out price. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. And making it all 5s turns it into a cool, spiritual number (5) that symbolizes progress and growth in numerology (if you’re into that sort of thing.)

Also my response: naïve. “People should be able to see through that whole illusion that $499 feels like way less than $500 to the average human mind.”

Finally we’ve got the fact that I’m stubborn. “I don’t care if everyone said to do it that way, I’m charging $555.55.”

Okay, so now I had my price! It’s suitable for a one-year subscription to unique, powerful content to help you in that dreary and rough post-layoff time. Plus as the membership grows there will be Zoom calls that build a sympathetic community of appreciation, support, and mutual aid. And even, it’s early days, I can offer up to 10 individual Zoom sessions a week (schedule and Parkinson’s willing).

But, but … The reason I chose this price is to ensure the people do the hard work and reap the rewards. “There should be a way to ensure that they complete the full program without having to charge so much. But if it doesn’t work I’m sunk, because ‘The Liftoff Program’ won’t become a ‘thing’ that takes off and grows, maybe even to the point where (someday) having completed it counts as a positive with recruiters and hiring folks.” Naïve with a generous helping of idealistic, I suppose.

And also stubborn. Because I decided to offer a discount anyway – a big discount – packaged with a plea to think of the benefits you can get from the program, and others can get from it, if you follow through and prove me wrong that for it to succeed, it has to be a price that hurts. Because a lot more people will join this program at the discount price.

So here’s the Prove Me Wrong! 80% Off Discount: 1 year for:

$111.11

(1 year subscription includes video lessons, worksheets, group Zoom calls)

And I still got to use a symbolic numerology number (1) that stands for new beginnings!

And In Exchange?

In exchange for the discount, I cannot demand anything of you, but I request with all my heart that you:

Attend group Zoom meetings and participate in surveys

Book a one-on-one coaching session, schedule permitting

Provide your stories to be (anonymously) included in the program materials, with examples of negative emotions, healing dialogues, better beliefs, and ultimate mindset

Above all, Prove Me Wrong ! by making full use of The Liftoff Program, which can provide you benefits long beyond this layoff you’re suffering through.

Because all those things will lead to the widest use of this program.

This discount will last as long as it appears to be successful. I leave myself the option to remove this discount offer at any time. And if it’s successful enough, I’d like to make it permanent (idealistic), because I can’t help thinking (stubborn) that a lower price would work better (naïve).

Sincerely,

(maybe too sincerely for my own good)

Jacques Murphy -- The Liftoff Program