The Bologna Sandwich Era of Success (Episode 142)

Your inbox is empty, rent is due, and every application feels like it vanishes into space. That’s the reality a lot of teens and young adults are living in the 2026 job market, so we brought back Lawrence C. Harris, a 20-year-old author and youth empowerment speaker from Philadelphia, to talk through what it takes to keep building when the door looks closed.

We get real about the “grind” people don’t see: editing content, sending countless cold emails, hearing constant no’s, and getting ghosted. Lawrence explains how he learned to stop taking silence personally, how persistence compounds over time, and why entrepreneurship is not the fantasy social media sells. We also dig into phantom jobs and fake job postings, why they happen, and how knowing about them can protect your confidence while you keep searching.

You’ll walk away with practical career advice you can use today: how to translate your life experience into interview language, how to stand out with specific details instead of generic claims, why applying to uncomfortable roles can reduce competition, and when it makes sense to expand your search beyond your neighborhood. We end with a mind-shifting principle that ties it all together: determination is not stubborn repetition, it’s the decision to keep seeking answers until something works.

If you know someone who’s discouraged right now, share this conversation with them. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us what job-search challenge you want us to tackle next.

Connect with Lawrence:

https://www.lawrencecharris.com/

Transcript

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Meet A 20-Year-Old Builder

Fatima Bey 0:02

MindShift Power Podcast. This is Mind Shift Power Podcast, the number one critically acclaimed podcast where we have raw, unfiltered conversations that shape tomorrow. I'm your host, Fatima Bay, the Mind Shifter. And welcome everyone. Today we have with us Lawrence C. Harris. He is out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the U.S. He's an author, a youth empowerment speaker, and he's 20 years old. Now, Lawrence has been on here before, so welcome back, Lawrence. And we are we're honored to have you back on again. You're always a powerful guest. So today we're going to talk about building a future in a job market that feels closed off in 2026 for people your age. So let me start, as you know, I'd like to dive right in. You're 20 years old, and you are an entrepreneur. You're building your own career as a youth empowerment speaker. What does the grind

The Unseen Work Behind The Stage

Fatima Bey 1:06

actually look like for you right now?

Lawrence C. Harris 1:09

For me, right now, in the grind that people see, the fun part is you're making the content, you're posting videos, you're going on stages and speaking, and you're on all these podcasts. That's the fun part of the grind. But the grinding part is I have to edit the content. I have to send out countless emails. I face a lot of no's. I get ghosted. I go through all the same stuff that people do when they're looking for a job at, let's say, your local McDonald's, just instead of applying on nd.com, I'm emailing strangers.

Fatima Bey 1:51

Right. And I that's something I want people to understand. You're an entrepreneur, but what you're experiencing as an entrepreneur is the same thing that many young people, many young adults and older teens, as they're going into the job market, they're experiencing. Um, so when you say you're sending out emails, can you explain to the audience what that context? Like, why are you sending out emails? What does that mean for you?

Lawrence C. Harris 2:14

So opportunity doesn't come knocking on your door. You have to go ask for it. Like, I don't know if you've ever had somebody knock on your door and say, Hey, I want to hire you for a job. No. You have to go and ask. You have to apply. So me sending these emails is so that podcasts who don't know me, they can find out who I am and they can say yes or no. Schools that I want to speak at, they can find out who I am because no one's knocking on your door with a job. No one's knocking on your door to pay you. You have to go and ask.

Fatima Bey 2:57

So you sending out emails is pretty equivalent to somebody sending out job applications. You got to get people's attention so that they can hire you for a speaking engagement. Or at least have you come in for a speaking engagement and then uh hire you for a program or whatever's next for you. So some teens think applying for jobs means getting responses. What does it feel like to send out hundreds of messages and hear

Dealing With Ghosting And Silence

Fatima Bey 3:31

absolutely nothing?

Lawrence C. Harris 3:33

It's very discouraging, and I'm gonna take you back to when I first started doing this because now I've gotten used to it, but Lawrence, when he was 18 years old, starting out, and I finally began, you know, building up the confidence to email people. I would go 40, 50, 60 messages, nothing. Silence. I'm questioning: are they even reading it? Are they opening my email? Are they is there something wrong with me? Am I not saying the right things? I would question everything. It's the same way how when you're applying to jobs, you might not hear anything back and you start to question yourself. So it was really discouraging to hear nothing. I was hoping somebody at least said no. I want something, but when you're trying and trying and trying and nothing seeming to work, it's painful. So how did you how how do you deal with that? Sometimes I would just take a step back and remind myself that it's not personal, even when it feels like it is. They're not ignoring you. They might just have not seen your application, they may have just been really busy. I would find ways to make it less about me and just keep showing up, keep trying. And eventually people started to say yes, and I began to find what worked, but during the time when I wasn't hearing anything back, I would just keep trying and find something to make me feel a little happier on the day when it was really hard.

Fatima Bey 5:32

I

Phantom Jobs And Fake Postings

Fatima Bey 5:33

want to also say something to the audience. Uh this isn't something for that you necessarily deal with, but it's something that they deal with. And that is that there are a lot of phantom jobs out there. Oh, yeah. And there are many different terms for them, and I'm choosing to use phantom jobs. So these are jobs that aren't actually real. They're not really looking to hire anybody, they're looking to farm information, number one. Number two, some companies put job postings out there because it's a numbers game. Because then they can go back to their shareholders and say, hey, we sought out this many positions. And the truth is, they were never trying to fill those positions in the first place. They were laying people off. But they still put the job postings out there. So if you are applying for a job right now, unfortunately, you there's no way for you to really like I'm not an expert to tell you how to point them out, how to tell which ones are the phantom jobs, because I don't, you know, I'm not an expert at that, but just know that many of the jobs you're applying for, and I do mean many, are phantom jobs, and you're not hearing back from them because they have absolutely no intention of hiring anybody. Every time you put your job application in, that's very personal information. I think that industry needs to change how they do that, quite frankly. Um but because it used to be fine, but now it's dangerous to do that. So, you know, they they are looking to steal information sometimes. It's a fake job. Uh, or it's a fake job because the company's not actually hiring people for those positions. They just want to look like it so that their report looks good later. What kind of report? All kinds of reports, not just one. Um, but Lawrence, with you, you're an entrepreneur. So I you have to rely on you know, work in order to pay bills. So how do you, how does what how does that's that's really, really hard. So you say sometimes you make it not about yourself. What are the other things? So obviously you keep going. So tell us a little bit about where you were when you started versus where you are. Has there been any growth?

Lawrence C. Harris 7:51

There has been a lot of growth. Um I like to, you know, there's a phrase that a picture is worth a thousand words. And because I've documented my journey on YouTube, when people go back to my oldest video, it's just me, the camera quality is terrible, the audio's messed up, it's windy, it's terrible. Me too. My hair looks a mess. Like people can visually see where I started, and then they could see me now, and I'm on these stages, I'm traveling the country, I'm speaking on all these podcasts. I think I'm on like podcast number 80 something. Um I'm writing books, I'm offering one-on-one coaching, I'm doing so many things, and really it's because I didn't give up even when no one was answering back, even when people were leaving hate comments, even when it was hard, I just didn't give up, and it's that willingness to not quit that got me here.

Why Entrepreneurship Is Not For Most

Fatima Bey 8:59

That's a big statement, because I think for um for a lot of people your age, it's gonna take that. Do you think a lot of people should get into entrepreneurship?

Lawrence C. Harris 9:12

Honestly, I would if I had to put a number on it, like the percentage of people who I would say should, it's probably under and in my age range, I'd probably say under five percent. And I know that sounds well, because in entrepreneurship, it's not it's not what people advertise it as. It is a lot of nights where you're trying to figure out everything. You start out as a one-person band, you're trying to figure out marketing, you're trying to figure out advertising, you're figuring out content creation, product distribution, customer profiles, psychology, sales tactics, um, how to stand out in a competed market. It it's a lot more than people say it is. Now, if someone is willing to go through that, and not just the work aspect, but the psychological aspect of you're gonna have to make a lot of personal sacrifices. You don't know when you're going to get paid, but rent is due, so rent is due every month on the 15th. I don't know when I'm getting paid. That's a pressure that a lot of people don't want to deal with. And yes, there are people who are built for that. There are people who are willing to do what it takes, but I would recommend to anyone, especially teenager or young adult looking to get into entrepreneurship, get into door-to-door sales. Do that first. Because that is going to give you a real taste of rejection, not just ignoring you, but people in your face rejecting you. It'll teach you what it's like to have builds, but not have guaranteed income because you have to make your money based on what you sell, not on how many hours you work. It will teach you all the skills, well, not all of them, but most of the skills needed for entrepreneurship. You can learn them through doing door-to-door sales. So start there. And if you're able to handle that, go into entrepreneurship.

Fatima Bey 11:44

That's a pretty rough uh response, but uh I could say. I know you are.

Lawrence C. Harris 11:51

I know it's really rough, and I want to be honest with people because when you search up entrepreneurship on TikTok and Instagram, you see Lamborghinis, you see laptop in the Philippines, you see Miami Penthouse, but you don't see I have to spend hours every day emailing podcasts and schools and doing this and doing that. You don't see the stressful nights where your website breaks and you're trying to figure out computer code and you're you don't know when you're gonna have money, but the rent is due, and people don't show you that part. So I know it was harsh, but it I want to give people the truth so that they don't let TikTok and Instagram fool them.

Fatima Bey 12:44

You're absolutely right. People, I I have a uh a saying, you know, most millionaires ate bologna sandwiches before they ate filet mignon. Oh yeah. You know, you don't, as an entrepreneur, you don't you you don't just start off with um glamour. You work your way through that. And what they don't show you in most of those videos is how many years and lost friendships and relationships they have, and tears and getting ready to quit that emotional, major emotional breakdowns that they had in order to get to that point. They just show you sitting on a beach in Tahiti. But the truth is it took all of that to get there. And so for a youth starting out, for a young adult starting out right now in in the work field, they are just like you. They gotta go through the rejections, they gotta go through the silence. I personally don't like giving people silence. I will tell you for myself, even when I uh even when I reject people that uh pitch to be a guest on my podcast, which is uh FYI quite a bit. I I I I would say I reject at least 50 to 60 percent of the people that request to be on here, uh, because I'm very particular. But even then, I I send a I have an email template. I send a rejection email because I just think it's more respectful than silence. Because silence makes you, like Lauren said, question everything. Am I doing something wrong? And am I, did I write this wrong? And maybe you did everything right and you submitted to a phantom job. Maybe you did everything right, but they really only put the job out there um because they legally had to, but they're really gonna hire Bob or Angie or whoever. And because they do, there's a lot of that too. That's another fan, oh, another form of a phantom job. Um, but I think it's so important for people your age to understand they have to, like you said, Lawrence, you have to keep going. You have to keep trying. And if one method doesn't one thing I know about you, Lawrence, and I want I want the audience to hear from you, you one thing I know about you is if you try something and it doesn't work, you figure out another way. You try again. Yeah, it's the reason why you've grown. So you tell the audience about that.

Interview Skills That Make You Stand Out

Lawrence C. Harris 15:19

Yeah, so I want to give also a practical piece of information that they can actually, you know, do instead of just hearing, just try and try more. Like, what do I do? One of the greatest skills that you can develop in order to land that job is when you do get in that interview, know how to talk their talk. So let's say you're applying to a McDonald's and you get the interview, and they ask the question of, hey, do you have any experience working in fast-paced environments? Instead of saying, no, I don't, you can say, as a brother or older sister of five siblings, I'm used to working and having I'm used to chaotic environments, so I'm able to handle this kind of environment. You could word it a lot better than that, but the point is knowing how to come prepared, knowing how to leave a good impact. Which that was something that I struggled with a lot. So I I did a lot of interviews where I was stuttering, I was fumbling over, I didn't know what to say. But the more you come prepared, the better that you're able to increase your chances of landing the job if you get an interview. Another thing I found that worked really well for me when I wasn't hearing back from Taco Bell and McDonald's and all those places was I started applying to stuff that kind of scared me a little bit. Like sales, doing door-to-door sales, that's a pretty scary job. But I know most people would never apply to that. So you have to find something that, yeah, like most people are scared of doing that, understandably.

Fatima Bey 17:15

Yeah.

Lawrence C. Harris 17:15

So you have to be willing to get out of get out of your comfort zone and go for the things that might be different, like sales, or um, there was a job in my city where you would help clean up, like it wasn't a garbage man exactly. It was similar to that though. So applying to the things that most people don't want to do. That's a that's an actual practical action you can take. What is a job that I can tolerate that most people would not be willing to do because that means there's less applicants for that job.

Fatima Bey 17:56

Very good point, actually. And there are some out there, you got to think outside the box, right? One thing I will say about Lawrence, I'm saying this to the audience. I have watched this young man grow tremendously over the past year. And I'm saying it as a person on the outside watching him. So the person that I met last year is not the person that I talked to today. There's been a lot of growth. But Lawrence has been very, very, very intentional about finding an answer. And that is something I want you to talk about a little bit more, Lawrence, because I just think you're so used to it, you probably don't think about it that way, but you are the type of person where you are determined to reach your goal. So you try something. People give you canned, you know, oh, you should do this, and they give you canned advice that everybody else is doing, which just makes you blend in with everybody else. And eventually you realize, wait a minute, I need to do things a little bit differently. And so while listening to advice, you try things, but then you're like, but this ain't working, this isn't advancing me. So you will seek out an answer and you will find a way to make to make something, to do something different. And I love that. Can you give some examples of some of the things that you've done that are like that?

Lawrence C. Harris 19:17

So one that also directly relates to my past job experience that was something different that I did to stand out. When I applied for that door-to-door sales job, they asked me the question of obviously, do you have past sales experience? Not required, but preferred. And I mentioned that I sell books. And I was telling them about I used to go to these events around my city, I would bring a table and I would sell books face to face to strangers. They loved hearing that. So when it comes to finding an answer and finding a way to stand out, I didn't just give them a blank yes. I didn't just give them a yes, I have experience. I gave them their answer, plus details on what exactly I did. And something you mentioned too is that this is just very normal to me because I've gotten so used to it that you pointing out my ability to find an answer, get advice, but when it doesn't work, I know how to tweak it to find a way that makes it work for me. That thank you. That's a really nice compliment.

Fatima Bey 20:40

Well, you do, and I and I I point it out because it's something I think the audience needs to understand that you can if you might try one thing and it doesn't work, it doesn't mean it doesn't make your failure not at all. Not in the least. It just means that you might need to make adjustments, like Lawrence just said, or you might need to try something different. But be determined to find an answer for your problem, find a solution for your problem. And because that's what's going to get it get you ahead. And I know from watching uh and and staying connected to Lawrence over the past year that he is like that. And that is why I'm seeing the growth in him that I'm seeing. I'm seeing him getting more responses than he's ever gotten before, right?

Lawrence C. Harris 21:22

Yes. I've gotten um opportunities where I've traveled and flew across the country to do podcasts. I've gotten opportunities to speak around my city and different places. I've I've come a long way, and I think that a part of why I don't brag or boast about it is because you realized that you couldn't have gotten this far without other people's help. When it came to jobs, I had a lot of help from teachers in school where I asked them, Hey, can you guys teach me how to write a resume? Like, I don't know how to do that. Can someone show me what to put? Um, going on YouTube and searching up things like how to do a job interview, asking my family, hey, so I'm gonna go and try to work at this McDonald's. Do any of you know what I should say or how to prepare? So that's another tip that uh if you're a teen or young adult, you can do. Don't be afraid to ask somebody for help.

Fatima Bey 22:29

Again, another form of seeking the answer, because everything you just said are different forms of seeking the answer, of looking for a solution instead of sitting under self-pity. Because it's real easy, it's real easy, um, especially for someone like you who's self-employed and you're not getting responses. It's real easy to sit under self-pity. When you're sending out all these job applications and you're just getting ghosted, everybody's ignoring you, and you really, really, really want to work. And it's and that's where a lot of people are in this country right now, at least in the U.S. I can't, I don't know about everywhere else in the world. But specifically in the US, that is where our current economy is. And it's, you know, it it can be scary. And that's why I wanted to have this conversation so that they can see someone their own age already doing it. And um, and I love the fact that you are very, you're very determined, and it doesn't matter if it just doesn't matter what blockages you get, Lawrence, you might get discouraged for about 30 seconds and you get right back up and you find another way. Yeah. Because you're you're just like, well, I'm gonna do this, and I don't care if I I'm gonna do this.

Lawrence C. Harris 23:39

Uh you know, you find a way. Um one thing that like really strikes me too is that even on the day when it's really hard, you can feel upset. It's okay to it's okay to feel sad. It's okay to feel angry and frustrated. Those are normal human emotions, but the important part is you say, okay, I don't like this situation. What can I do? And then you send a couple more applications. You go in person if possible. You try, try and figure something out.

Persistence With Schools And Networks

Fatima Bey 24:19

Absolutely. And I'm hoping that this this episode encourages somebody who's really feeling down and out right now, because there's a lot of you feeling that way. You do have it is tough right now, not gonna lie. But it doesn't have to stay tough. If you're determined, you will find a way. But the determination has to be there. Lawrence is living that right now. He really is. And let me let me add to this because Lawrence didn't say this, but I'm gonna say it for him because I understand what he does and what he has to go through. He is a youth empowerment speaker, which means he he it's it's his specialty to speak to youth. That includes high schools, middle schools, and some colleges. Those are all young adults, those are all was in the same arena, but mostly high schools. And I will tell you, as someone who has spoken at high schools, who's done workshops, a lot of what he's doing. I it one of the hardest places to reach and get into is actually high schools. And it's it's primarily because you don't get responses. And it's primarily not always because they're ignoring you. They are genuinely, any high school just about that I've seen, they are genuinely bombarded with a lot of bureaucratic BS that doesn't allow them to actually see your email sometimes. They might get hundreds of emails in one day, and I'm not even exaggerating. Your average school teacher, school administrator, anybody in a school, you know, position, counselor, whatever, a lot of them really are literally getting a hundred emails a day. So it's really easy for them to not see your email, number one. Number two, a lot of these school systems uh uh make emails unnecessarily go to spam, which is nothing that the teachers have control over or you, but it's unfortunate, which is why you should try to talk to humans over just emails. But sometimes you don't have a choice. That is hard. I'm explaining that to you because I want people to understand that when you say you're getting rejection, like you send out all these emails, he's not exaggerating. He can literally send out a hundred emails and he might get four responses. That is so discouraging and it could be like depressing. But yet he is still doing it, he's still going. And now, uh, one thing I know about Lawrence because I've stayed in contact with him. Now, Lawrence, you are getting uh, I don't want you to tell everybody all your business, but you are getting more and more, I would say, higher or uh higher connections, I would say. Yeah. Would that be a way to say it? You're getting even more connections.

Lawrence C. Harris 27:03

That people wouldn't expect, I know.

Fatima Bey 27:07

Not only that, but now you're getting to the point where people are seeing you more and recommending you more because you won't get out their face, basically. So you're in everybody's face, but in a in a nice professional way. So please don't misunderstand that audience. Don't get in people in the bad way. No, I'm talking the audience. So people's face in a bad way. But make yourself relevant, make sure that they can't forget you. And I don't mean be obnoxious and in somebody's face. I just mean be persistent, be professional, and be persistent. And that's something that Lawrence has done that you can do too. You might do it differently because of whatever you're going after. But like, for example, if someone is graduating from a trade school and they want to get into the field, most of the time the trade schools have connections with where they can go. But sometimes they're full. Like, what do you do? You find another way around it. You be persistent. Do what Lawrence is doing. There's always an answer. You just sometimes have to find it or create one. Um, so Lawrence, if you could give a message to teens, give a message to all the teens and young adults right now who are feeling discouraged. What message do you want them to hear from you right now?

Lawrence C. Harris 28:19

I would say the message is, you know, as cliche as people throw this around, is the truth. If you don't give up for long enough, you'll find something that works. It's kind of math. Let's say there's one in a hundred jobs that will say yes. Every time you email one, it doesn't mean that it's one in a hundred. It becomes one in ninety nine, one out of ninety-eight. And eventually there'll come to the point where one of them does say, yes, we want to hire you. Now, a strategic action they can also take, and this is what I did. If possible, don't just restrict your job search to your one and only small town or your one and only city. Look at like the next city or next town over. When I did that door-to-door sales job, that was a place two hours from my house. What? I did yeah, I did not like taking a two-hour bus ride, but I needed the money and I knew that doing door-to-door sales would give me a lot of skills that would be beneficial as an entrepreneur. Most people won't probably have to do that far, but maybe look within like an hour of your city. So think of like the next town over if the jobs in your city you don't get a response from, and then the city right above yours, and the city right below, and the city right to you know the next direction.

Fatima Bey 29:58

Very good, very good advice. And you're right. As simple as that sounds, a lot of people actually don't think that way. Um, and for many, searching outside of your area is what you're gonna have to do. Well, how can people find you?

Lawrence C. Harris 30:14

I'm very easy to find. All my social medias are lawrence.cmpowers. Well, it's lawrencec.empowers. I said it a little backwards there. My website for books and one-on-one coaching and all my products is lawrencecharris.com. And if you're a podcast host, school principal, or run a youth organization and you're looking for speakers, you can contact me directly at lawrence at lawrenceceharris.com. Lawrence at lawrenceceharris.com is my email address.

Fatima Bey 30:52

Well, Lawrence, thank you once again for coming on and having an amazing conversation once again. And I'm very proud of where you have grown. I I've watched you grow over the past year, and I just want to publicly say that I'm expecting you to excel. So you better do it. I will and I am. You you are. Just keep doing what you're doing, and you will continue to excel. You've already grown eons above where you were a year ago. I don't know if you realize that or not, but you are way above where you were a year ago, and I'm expecting to be able to say the same thing a year from now. So keep on keep on keeping on. Thank you for coming on.

Lawrence C. Harris 31:33

Thank you, love for being here.

Determination As The Real Advantage

Fatima Bey 31:37

And now for a mind-shifting moment. I want to talk about an underlying principle of this entire conversation, in case you didn't notice. An underlying principle in almost everything that Lawrence said is determination. He is determined to find answers when he doesn't have one. He's determined to get somewhere, to reach somewhere when it's not working. He doesn't just keep doing the same thing. He tries to find another way. You see, determination is the one key thing that every single hu successful human being on earth has in common. The willingness to seek out the answer. And I mean success of any kind, not just financial or social status. Any kind of success requires the willingness to seek out the answers. So my question to you is, are you sitting around waiting for something to fall in your lap? Because that's not how the world works. What is it that you want to go after that you really want but haven't gotten yet? Did you stop trying because it didn't work the first time? Try again. Did you stop trying because it just looks hopeless and keep going? Did you stop trying because it just feels like everything you do doesn't work? That's why you have to keep trying and keep going. Be determined to seek out the answers. Be determined to get to where you want to go. Because it's not you don't just need knowledge and tools. Those are good. Those are part of the recipe. But the largest part of the recipe is you. Your decision to seek out the answers for what you need. And to every person listening to me right now, between the ages of 13 and 24, I'm especially talking to you. You are the generation that's gonna have to fight in some ways harder than the rest of us did to get your answers. Be determined to get your answers. Seek them out. You've been listening to Mind Shift Power Podcast for complete show notes on this episode. And to join our global movement, find us at fatimabay.com. Until next time, always remember there's power in shifting your thinking.