Welcome to Side of the Mic, your dedicated thought partner for the drive, the walk, or the quiet moments in your incredibly busy schedule. This is the space where we question the obvious, unpack the complicated, and figure out what we can actually do about it.
Through the lens of a career coach, educator, and fellow lifelong student, we break down the silos of learning, business, and personal growth.
Reflect. Adapt. Take intentional action. I'm not here to tell you what to think. I'm here to give you something worth thinking about.
SOTM 4 | The Job Description is a Wish List & Stop Rejecting Yourself From Opportunities You Deserve
Newsletter - Stop Gatekeeping Yourself From Opportunities You Deserve: The Job Description is a Wish List (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/stop-gatekeeping-yourself-from-opportunities-you-job-wish-brown-mba-ax2dc/?trackingId=2VV40XfASsGROfi9HsmOag%3D%3D)
What if the biggest barrier between you and your next opportunity isn't your experience, your degree, or your resume?
What if it's the way you're reading the job description?
In this episode of Side of the Mic, Alex takes a closer look at the pressure job seekers feel to meet every requirement before they even consider applying. The popular “60% rule” says you should apply when you meet roughly 60% of the qualifications, but Alex takes the idea a step further: the real question isn't whether you can check every box. It's whether you can make a credible case for what you already bring, what you can learn, and what makes you different.
We'll shake the tree on the idea that job descriptions are contracts, unpack the difference between essential qualifications and preferred qualifications, explore transferable skills, and talk about why being a learner can sometimes matter as much as being an experienced doer.
You'll leave with a practical way to read job descriptions differently, identify evidence you already have, communicate your transferable skills, and decide when a stretch opportunity is worth pursuing.
Because sometimes the opportunity isn't asking, “Can you do everything?”
It's asking, “Can you contribute, learn, adapt, and grow?”
And that's a different question.
23 Sept 2026
SOTM 3 | Managing Up Without Losing Yourself
Your boss is not your project. The relationship is.
And the goal isn't to teach listeners how to “handle” difficult bosses. It is to help them become better at reading priorities, translating their work, communicating strategically, challenging appropriately, and protecting their own agency.
The four takeaways:
Managing up is not sucking up. It is relationship navigation across a power difference.
Your boss's behavior contains information. Learn the pattern before deciding how to respond to it.
Translate your work instead of assuming your work speaks for itself. Connect what you're doing to the priorities your manager actually cares about.
Adapt your communication without abandoning your identity. Flexibility is not the same thing as becoming fake.
And the central question listeners should leave with:
“What does my manager need to know, understand, or trust about my work and have I actually made that visible?”
That is a much better question than:
“Why is my boss like this?”
(https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bossless-generation-managing-up-when-you-challenge-brown-mba-uibwc/?trackingId=8beXTBEqRHepM3UCtj4iTA%3D%3D)
13 Sept 2026
SOTM 2 | Who Taught You How to Be a Professional?
We expect people to “be professional.”
But…who actually taught them how?
Who taught you how to disagree with your boss? How to ask for clarification without feeling incompetent? How to recover after making a mistake? How to say no professionally?
Because you don't have to know everything to be professional.
You need to know how to navigate what you don't know.
Side of the Mic: I'm not here to tell you what to think. I'm here to give you something worth thinking about.
In this episode of Side of the Mic, Alex (SoBizze) shakes the tree on one of the biggest assumptions in the workplace: that professionalism is common sense.
Maybe it isn't.
Maybe some of what we call “professionalism” is actually a hidden curriculum. Unwritten rules, expectations, behaviors, and workplace norms that people are somehow expected to know.
Alex explores what happens when people are evaluated on skills nobody explicitly taught them, why asking questions can actually demonstrate professional confidence, and how career adaptability can help us navigate environments where the rules aren't always obvious.
(https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/who-taught-you-how-professional-alex-earl-brown-mba-jheec/?trackingId=FSC1WqkcSHKGwVZpNTRorA%3D%3D)
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