Secrets of the Career Game

Hosted by Kendall Berg - That Career Coach

Business Careers

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Episodes

167

Latest episode

Nov 2026

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EN-US

About the show

Do you want to know a secret? The corporate world is a game: one laden with cleverly hidden and unspoken rules that most employees don't know they are playing. On this show, we help you peek behind the curtain to understand the corporate game and set yourself up for accelerate growth and progression.

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60 recent

November 9, 202624 min

160. Your Boss Has No Idea What You're Doing: 5 Rules of the Career Game

The corporate game is more subtle than office politics: your reputation follows you into rooms you never enter. FREE Accomplishments Tracker: https://stan.store/thatcareercoach/thatcareercoach_funnel_1236067 Being excellent at your job doesn't mean leadership understands your impact. Kendall Berg explains what the Career Game actually means on Secrets of the Career Game. It's not simply corporate politics, manipulation, or taking credit for someone else's work. It's understanding the unwritten rules that shape career advancement. Kendall shares how senior leaders overlooked a 10-month project despite regular updates and executive presentations. She reveals five essential rules for navigating corporate America, from communicating your value to building a strong professional reputation. Because career growth requires more than hard work, technical skills, and hoping the right people notice. Key questions and takeaways: What is the Career Game, and why isn't it just office politics? How do you communicate your business impact when your boss doesn't recognize your work? Why are career advancement decisions made when you're not in the room? How do you build a personal brand and professional network that advocates for you? How does your manager influence company culture and your career growth? The Career Game isn't about becoming someone you're not. It's about understanding the rules, taking ownership of your career, and making intentional moves. About Your Host: Kendall Berg | That Career Coach Kendall Berg, known as That Career Coach , is the host of Secrets of the Career Game , a career development podcast helping ambitious professionals navigate corporate politics, get promoted, and advance their careers. Kendall shares practical career advice on workplace communication, leadership, executive presence, performance reviews, and building visibility at work. Her mission is to help you understand the unwritten rules of corporate America, advocate for yourself, and make strategic career moves without compromising who you are. Join The Office Insider Doing great work but not getting promoted? Join The Office Insider for monthly career coaching, expert masterclasses, and practical strategies to advance your career. Join for $27/month: https://stan.store/thatcareercoach/p/play-the-career-game-community Connect with Kendall Berg 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatcareercoach_/ 🌐 Website & Career Resources: https://thatcareercoach.net/ ▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thatcareercoach _

November 2, 202636 min

159. How to Play the Corporate Game When They Underestimate You with Katy McFee

Office politics can make speaking up risky, but strategic communication can earn respect when leadership underestimates you. Get my FREE Communication Guide Now: https://stan.store/thatcareercoach/thatcareercoach_funnel Being underestimated in the corporate game is frustrating; being expected to agree with every executive decision is worse. On Secrets of the Career Game , Kendall Berg and executive coach Katy McFee examine managing up and workplace communication. A former VP and EVP, Katy recalls challenging her CEO's misaligned strategy without damaging trust. They tackle executive presence, workplace bias, and how to speak up with authority without changing your personality. Katy's three-step framework shows how to push back professionally, suggest alternatives, and build influence without becoming a yes person. What's one "corporate game" rule you've learned the hard way? About Your Host: That Career Coach, Kendall Berg Kendall Berg is a career coach and creator, helping ambitious professionals master the unspoken rules of corporate life. Through Secrets of the Career Game , she shares honest conversations and practical tools to help you communicate clearly, lead confidently, and navigate work with strategy — not stress. ☕️ Want personalized career advice? Book a free 15-minute Coffee Chat with me — let's talk strategy, leadership, or your next move. Book your Coffee Chat → https://calendly.com/thatcareercoach/15-min-follow-up Want to know more about Kendal Berg, that career coach? Follow her on Instagram: @thatcareercoach_ Check out her courses on the website: https://thatcareercoach.net/ Watch on YouTube: @thatcareercoach_ About Katy McFee Katy McFee is an executive coach and founder of Insights to Action, dedicated to helping women advance into senior leadership. With 18 years of experience in tech and biotech sales, including VP and EVP roles, she has built commercial teams and driven nine-figure revenue growth. After navigating her own challenges moving from Manager to Director to VP, Katy now helps ambitious professionals develop strategic thinking, executive presence, and leadership confidence. Her mission is to close the gender gap in senior leadership and help women thrive as executives without burning out. Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/katy-mcfee-3880b4a Website: https://insightstoactioncc.com/

October 19, 2026Episode 15834 min

158. How to Respond to Difficult People at Work (Without Getting Emotional) with Dr. Kate Mason

Being right at work doesn't mean you're winning the room. Here's how to build influence without damaging trust. You can have the strongest argument in the room and still walk away having damaged your professional relationships. Executive communication coach and Powerfully Likable author Dr. Kate Mason explains why effective workplace communication takes more than confidence or being right. Kendall Berg lived this — earlier in her career, she was told she was excellent at her job, but difficult to work with. Together they break down how to be assertive without being aggressive, how to disagree professionally, handle difficult conversations, respond to resistance without getting emotional, and build executive presence with senior leaders. You'll also hear why trying to appear confident backfires, what "kill your confidence" really means — focus on value, not performance — and how accountability and owning mistakes protects your reputation and helps you recover faster. Because winning every argument won't help your career if nobody wants you in the room. Learn more about Dr. Kate Mason and her book Powerfully Likable: https://katemason.co What's one "corporate game" rule you've learned the hard way? About Your Host: That Career Coach, Kendall Berg Kendall Berg is a career coach and creator, helping ambitious professionals master the unspoken rules of corporate life. Through Secrets of the Career Game , she shares honest conversations and practical tools to help you communicate clearly, lead confidently, and navigate work with strategy — not stress. ☕️ Want personalized career advice? Book a free 15-minute Coffee Chat with me — let's talk strategy, leadership, or your next move. Book your Coffee Chat → https://calendly.com/thatcareercoach/15-min-follow-up Want to know more about Kendal Berg, that career coach? Follow her on Instagram: @thatcareercoach_ Check out her courses on the website: https://thatcareercoach.net/ Watch on YouTube: @thatcareercoach_

October 12, 202611 min

157. Performance Review Prep: Turn Your Accomplishments Into Evidence

Stop listing tasks in your performance review — turn them into evidence for a raise. Description: Strong performance can still disappear inside a weak self-evaluation. In this end-of-year performance review guide, Kendall Berg shows how to turn accomplishments into evidence with impact, metrics, and stakeholders, plus stretch assignments, leadership growth, and professional development. You'll learn how to write a forward-looking review, how to mention promotion at work without sounding entitled, how to address negative feedback without writing a case against yourself, and how to get 360-degree feedback your manager can use to defend a stronger rating. Includes performance review examples for documenting fire drills, soft skills like executive presence and delegation, and the Compliment Oreo for giving constructive feedback. For high performers who did the work but need to articulate their value clearly so their boss — and their boss's boss — can advocate for them. Drop a comment: What's the one win you need to document better this year? What's one "corporate game" rule you've learned the hard way? About Your Host: That Career Coach, Kendall Berg Kendall Berg is a career coach and creator, helping ambitious professionals master the unspoken rules of corporate life. Through Secrets of the Career Game , she shares honest conversations and practical tools to help you communicate clearly, lead confidently, and navigate work with strategy — not stress. ☕️ Want personalized career advice? Book a free 15-minute Coffee Chat with me — let's talk strategy, leadership, or your next move. Book your Coffee Chat → https://calendly.com/thatcareercoach/15-min-follow-up Want to know more about Kendal Berg, that career coach? Follow her on Instagram: @thatcareercoach_ Check out her courses on the website: https://thatcareercoach.net/ Watch on YouTube: @thatcareercoach_

October 5, 202633 min

156. Why Your Boss Gives You More Work—but Not a Promotion with Maya Grossman

Hard work alone won't earn your next promotion—executive presence, visibility, and strategic thinking will. Hard work can make you indispensable at your current level while keeping you out of senior leadership. Moving from high performer to executive requires different signals: strategic thinking, executive presence, and workplace visibility. Drawing on 17 rejections on her path to two VP roles and experience at Microsoft and Google, executive coach Maya Grossman explains how changing what she prioritized transformed her career. She and Kendall Berg reveal how to build a promotion business case around future value, create executive advocates before review season, and eliminate low-value work that drains leadership capacity. If you're stalled at senior manager or director, you'll leave with a practical 90-day plan for proving your executive potential without working yourself into the ground. What's one "corporate game" rule you've learned the hard way? About Your Host: That Career Coach, Kendall Berg Kendall Berg is a career coach and creator, helping ambitious professionals master the unspoken rules of corporate life. Through Secrets of the Career Game , she shares honest conversations and practical tools to help you communicate clearly, lead confidently, and navigate work with strategy — not stress. ☕️ Want personalized career advice? Book a free 15-minute Coffee Chat with me — let's talk strategy, leadership, or your next move. Book your Coffee Chat → https://calendly.com/thatcareercoach/15-min-follow-up Want to know more about Kendal Berg, that career coach? Follow her on Instagram: @thatcareercoach_ Check out her courses on the website: https://thatcareercoach.net/ Watch on YouTube: @thatcareercoach_ Connect With Maya Grossman Website: https://www.mayagrossman.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maya.grosmn/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayagrossman/ Free masterclass: Visit Maya's LinkedIn profile to identify the biggest gap preventing your promotion and access tools to address it.

September 21, 20269 min

155. Why Isn't Your Resume Getting Interviews? 4 Changes You Can Make

Hiring managers take 4 seconds to decide if they'll interview you. Here's how to make your impact clear before they move on. 👉 Improve your self-advocacy: https://stan.store/thatcareercoach/p/get-my-promotion-guide-now Is your resume full of experience but getting zero interviews? You're not alone. Hiring managers give your resume 4 seconds before they decide. Career coach Kendall Berg has reviewed hundreds of resumes, and she breaks down exactly where qualified candidates lose attention and 4 changes to fix it. In this Secrets of the Career Game episode, you'll learn how to target no more than two job titles, keep your layout simple and easy to scan, write a top section that earns a closer look, and replace routine duties with measurable impact. Plus: why you should stop using AI to write your resume and how to use it to check your draft instead. What's one "corporate game" rule you've learned the hard way? About Your Host: That Career Coach, Kendall Berg Kendall Berg is a career coach and creator, helping ambitious professionals master the unspoken rules of corporate life. Through Secrets of the Career Game , she shares honest conversations and practical tools to help you communicate clearly, lead confidently, and navigate work with strategy — not stress. ☕️ Want personalized career advice? Book a free 15-minute Coffee Chat with me — let's talk strategy, leadership, or your next move. Book your Coffee Chat → https://calendly.com/thatcareercoach/15-min-follow-up Want to know more about Kendal Berg, that career coach? Follow her on Instagram: @thatcareercoach_ Check out her courses on the website: https://thatcareercoach.net/ Watch on YouTube: @thatcareercoach_

September 14, 2026Episode 15432 min

154. How to Stop Applying for the Wrong Jobs with LinkedIn's Career Editor

Job search strategy for 2026: more applications are not creating better odds. AI made generic applying effortless, recruiters are drowning in identical resumes, and qualified people are getting ignored. Here's what actually earns interviews. 👉 Improve your self-advocacy: https://stan.store/thatcareercoach/p/get-my-promotion-guide-now Kendall Berg sits down with Andrew Seaman, LinkedIn's Editor at Large for Jobs and Career Development, to break down why the numbers game most job seekers are playing has stopped working, and what to do instead. Andrew leads LinkedIn's Get Hired franchise, translating labor market shifts into practical guidance for job seekers. In this episode, he explains why the 2026 job market is better than the headlines suggest, why broad positioning hurts your job search, whether LinkedIn Easy Apply actually works, and whether AI belongs anywhere near your applications. You'll also learn how to turn transferable skills into a competitive advantage, and how many jobs you should actually be applying to each week. Kendall shares the interview return rate her clients get from 2–5 quality applications a week versus mass applying. If you've been applying for months and hearing nothing back, this is the episode that shows you it isn't you. It's the strategy. What's one "corporate game" rule you've learned the hard way? About Your Host: That Career Coach, Kendall Berg Kendall Berg is a career coach and creator, helping ambitious professionals master the unspoken rules of corporate life. Through Secrets of the Career Game , she shares honest conversations and practical tools to help you communicate clearly, lead confidently, and navigate work with strategy — not stress. ☕️ Want personalized career advice? Book a free 15-minute Coffee Chat with me — let's talk strategy, leadership, or your next move. Book your Coffee Chat → https://calendly.com/thatcareercoach/15-min-follow-up Want to know more about Kendal Berg, that career coach? Follow her on Instagram: @thatcareercoach_ Check out her courses on the website: https://thatcareercoach.net/ Watch on YouTube: @thatcareercoach_ About Andrew Seaman Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmseaman/ As LinkedIn's Editor at Large for Jobs and Career Development, I lead the Get Hired franchise, which is a multi-channel ecosystem that shepherds people through the complex intersection of AI literacy, career resilience and skills-based hiring. My work focuses on translating macro-economic shifts, such as unemployment data and sudden industry pivots, into actionable strategies for job seekers at every level. Additionally, I serve as an informal ombudsman between the world's professionals and employers.

September 7, 2026Episode 15322 min

153. How to Build a Referral Network Before You Need a Job

Cold applications are broken. As AI floods ATS systems, referrals are the only way to reach a hiring manager. Learn how to build your referral network before you need a job. ⭐️ Get My Networking Guide Now https://stan.store/thatcareercoach/p/get-my-networking-guide-now-yhvpak6i Cold applications are broken. As AI job search tools flood ATS systems, referrals are the only way to reach a hiring manager, so build your referral network before you need a job. On Secrets of the Career Game, That Career Coach, Kendall Berg shares how relationships from one five-week project led to two jobs. She breaks down her always-on networking rule: how to get a job referral without making it transactional, how to use internal and LinkedIn networking to uncover better roles, and how to make former coworkers referral connections when you need them. If you're planning a career move, this is how to make networking authentic, AI-proof your job search, and turn connections into offers. What's one "corporate game" rule you've learned the hard way? 🎯 Take the full Level Up Leadership Course: https://stan.store/thatcareercoach/p/get-started-with-my-play-the-corporate-game-course About Your Host: That Career Coach, Kendall Berg Kendall Berg is a career coach and creator, helping ambitious professionals master the unspoken rules of corporate life. Through Secrets of the Career Game , she shares honest conversations and practical tools to help you communicate clearly, lead confidently, and navigate work with strategy — not stress. ☕️ Want personalized career advice? Book a free 15-minute Coffee Chat with me — let's talk strategy, leadership, or your next move. Book your Coffee Chat → https://calendly.com/thatcareercoach/15-min-follow-up Want to know more about Kendal Berg, that career coach? Follow her on Instagram: @thatcareercoach_ Check out her courses on the website: https://thatcareercoach.net/ Watch on YouTube: @thatcareercoach_

August 24, 202610 min

152. 9 Productivity Apps That Help Me Organize Work and Life as a Mom of Two

You're not disorganized — you're using the wrong systems. These 9 apps get every task, deadline, and commitment out of your head so you can stay on top of work, family, and business without the mental drain. FREE webinar: Your Difficult Boss Survival Guide https://stan.store/thatcareercoach/p/managing-up--even-when-theyre-impossible Your productivity isn't the problem — your systems are. Kendall Berg shares the 9 productivity apps she relies on to get every task, deadline, and recurring commitment out of her head and into a system that actually works. As a corporate executive, business owner, and mom of two, she tests these tools against a genuinely overloaded schedule. In this video she walks through her full stack — reMarkable for distraction-free planning, A Note and Any.do for recurring tasks, Notion for project management, Trello and Monday.com for team visibility, plus HoneyBook and Stan Store for running her business. If you're constantly holding your to-do list in your head and feeling drained by it, this is the digital planning system to help you get organized and stay on top of your time — without relying on memory. What's one "corporate game" rule you've learned the hard way? About Your Host: That Career Coach, Kendall Berg Kendall Berg is a career coach and creator, helping ambitious professionals master the unspoken rules of corporate life. Through Secrets of the Career Game , she shares honest conversations and practical tools to help you communicate clearly, lead confidently, and navigate work with strategy — not stress. ☕️ Want personalized career advice? Book a free 15-minute Coffee Chat with me — let's talk strategy, leadership, or your next move. Book your Coffee Chat → https://calendly.com/thatcareercoach/15-min-follow-up Want to know more about Kendal Berg, that career coach? Follow her on Instagram: @thatcareercoach_ Check out her courses on the website: https://thatcareercoach.net/ Watch on YouTube: @thatcareercoach_

August 17, 202627 min

151. The Productivity Lie That's Destroying High Achievers with Sade Kelly

Time management for high achievers fails when every available hour becomes another opportunity to take on more. My Ideal Weekly Schedule Guide Now https://stan.store/thatcareercoach/p/get-my-ideal-weekly-schedule-guide-now High achievers often confuse capability with capacity — then wonder why their demanding workload leaves them exhausted. On Secrets of the Career Game, Kendall Berg asks Sade Kelly how ambitious professionals can stop planning around available hours and start planning around energy, priorities, and realistic capacity. Sade reframes time management for high achievers: why completing more tasks doesn't equal meaningful productivity, and why burnout often comes not from doing too much, but from spending too long on work that feels misaligned. Kendall and Sade break down a weekly planning system, themed days, and three core routines — a productivity system built to protect your energy at work, build high performance habits, and keep you productive without burning out. What's one "corporate game" rule you've learned the hard way? About Your Host: That Career Coach, Kendall Berg Kendall Berg is a career coach and creator, helping ambitious professionals master the unspoken rules of corporate life. Through Secrets of the Career Game , she shares honest conversations and practical tools to help you communicate clearly, lead confidently, and navigate work with strategy — not stress. ☕️ Want personalized career advice? Book a free 15-minute Coffee Chat with me — let's talk strategy, leadership, or your next move. Book your Coffee Chat → https://calendly.com/thatcareercoach/15-min-follow-up Want to know more about Kendal Berg, that career coach? Follow her on Instagram: @thatcareercoach_ Check out her courses on the website: https://thatcareercoach.net/ Watch on YouTube: @thatcareercoach_ About Sade Kelly: I'm Sade Kelly, the CEO & Founder of The Fire Inside, a high-performance coaching company that helps high-achieving women reclaim 10+ hours a week to grow their careers and businesses, stay consistent, and make space for what matters most—without burning out. Website: https://thefireinsidesade.com/ Instagram: @sadekelly_