Saturday, November 14 · 8:15am to 3:00pmIn person: 929 Colorado Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90401
The Saturday Career Lab
A one-day, in-person intensive for professionals ready to land their next role.
You know you need a change, but you're not sure how or when to make it. Find where you fit, connect with people who can open doors, turn conversations into offers, and do work you care about.
Reserve your seatOpens secure Intuit QuickBooks checkout in a new tab. Your seat is confirmed once payment clears.
Your faculty
Meet the faculty
Vanessa Mendes
Yoga Teacher and Health Coach
Stacy Geck
Associate Professor, USC Marshall
Luetrell Toler
Lead Faculty, True Talk Advisors
Christopher DeHau Lee
Founder, Storytelling Hero
Dr. Rob Carpenter
UCLA Professor and Author
Do the work. In person.
The Saturday Career Lab teaches you to move with intention: find where your strengths meet what the market pays for, get in front of the people who decide, and close the offer. You stop being a passenger in your career and start driving it.
The cohort
For experienced professionals, from individual contributors to C-suite leaders. You've built a career and you're ready for a better next move. You might be:
The outcomes
Your own career direction, outreach approach, story and interview preparation. Built through hands-on work, not just notes from a lecture.
Identify where your strengths meet market demand, then decide which roles or industries to pursue and how to position your experience.
Work on who to reach and what to say, so your networking puts you in front of the people who make hiring decisions.
Shape and practice the narrative you'll use in interviews and networking conversations, with live feedback from the room.
Practice the questions, your presence and the close, then leave with a plan for your next conversations.
Saturday, November 14, 2026
Meet your cohort over breakfast and coffee, then we get to work.
Leave with your plan. Start Sunday. The rest is up to you.
What the day covers
Find the point where what you offer meets strong demand. Decide what to pursue, then position yourself to win it.
Proactive beats reactive. Reach the people who decide, before the job is posted.
Build the story people repeat when you're not in the room.
Deliver your story with authority, in the room and on camera.
Bring it all together and practice turning interviews into offers.
Reset, so you do your best thinking for the rest of the day.
A fireside chat with Dr. Rob Carpenter: The Art of Getting Chosen, on how to persuade, influence and win career opportunities.
Final times will be shared with registered attendees.
Why it works
If you're pivoting careers, how do you get someone to take a chance on you?
We focus on three parts of how you come across to hiring decision-makers: qualified, interesting and likable. We call them The Three Perceptions, and the Saturday Career Lab is built around all three.
The Three Perceptions
Qualified
Career Market Fit and Offer-Focused Interview Prep
Interesting
Storytelling
Likable
Executive Presence
Structured sessions, university-level teaching experience and time to apply the frameworks to your own career. Not just a day of lectures.
Hiring has changed, and the playbook has to change with it. Everything here is built for navigating the current market.
The Lab brings frameworks from Luetrell's private career-coaching practice into a live group experience. You apply them to your own search, with faculty feedback and practice.
Live feedback, collaborative exercises and unplanned conversations are built into the day. You can try your story out loud and hear how it lands before your next interview.
Meet your faculty
Founder and Lead Faculty, True Talk Advisors
Luetrell Toler has spent 20+ years making hiring decisions for top organizations, so he knows why one candidate gets the offer and another gets a polite no. His General Assembly workshop, How to Get a Job in Silicon Beach, became one of its top-rated programs. At the Lab, he brings the frameworks from his private coaching practice. You'll leave knowing where you fit, who to reach, and how to turn interest into an offer.
Yoga Teacher and Holistic Health Coach, Soul by Vanessa
Vanessa Mendes is a Los Angeles-based yoga teacher and holistic health coach, and the founder of Soul by Vanessa. Certified in yoga (RYT-200), health coaching (IIN) and nutrition (Precision Nutrition), she helps busy professionals manage stress, build energy and feel at home in their bodies through movement, breathwork and mindful living. She has led wellness sessions for teams at companies like Snapchat and LIVE Fitness Wear, and believes that health is the best wealth. In her session, you'll reset your body and mind so you think clearly and act with energy.
soulbyvanessa.com ↗Associate Professor, USC Marshall School of Business · Founder, SWG Associates Consulting
Stacy Geck has taught leaders at USC Marshall for 29 years, focused on the part of the job that never makes the résumé: how you walk into a room, read it, and leave people confident in you. As founder of SWG Associates, she has coached executives on presence, persuasive communication and emotional intelligence since 2004, across government, entertainment, finance and consumer brands. She is a certified MBTI, SDI 2.0 and EQ-i 2.0 practitioner. In her session, you'll learn to show up like the person they want to hire, trust and recommend.
Founder, Storytelling Hero
Christopher DeHau Lee has pitched in boardrooms, spoken on stages, acted in Oscar-nominated films and taught hundreds of business school students how to tell a story that moves people. As founder of Storytelling Hero, he coaches executives, entrepreneurs and teams to turn experience into a narrative people remember. In his session, you'll shape the story you'll tell in every interview and networking conversation, and leave with it ready to use.
storytellinghero.com ↗UCLA Professor and Author of More Than 10 Books
Dr. Rob Carpenter is a UCLA professor and author of more than 10 books, including The Persuasion Protocol, The Creative Leader and The 48 Laws of Happiness, on persuasion, storytelling, leadership and human behavior. Before academia, he spent 15+ years as a technology startup founder and CEO, worked on Hollywood productions including Netflix's Bird Box and HBO's Ballers, and served as a Los Angeles Transportation Commissioner overseeing a department with a $500 million budget and 2,000 employees. In his session, you'll learn how to persuade, influence and win career opportunities.
The Room
Come as you are. We insist on it. This is a judgment-free room, where you can test ideas out loud, try new versions of your story, and get honest feedback from people who want you to win. Bright, open, and in person. Serendipity happens when you're around other people.
The standard
Your prework is done. We start at full speed.
Phones down, minds on. Everyone gets your best, and you get theirs.
This room runs on contribution. What you put in is what you take out.
Focused work. Space to reset.
You spend your days showing up for everyone else. This one is yours.
Step away from your usual demands and give your next career move your full attention.
Gentle yoga for all levels. Everyone's encouraged to join, and we'll have a mat for you if you need one.
A short guided meditation and breathwork, so you can be fully here for the work that matters.
Breakfast, coffee and lunch
Breakfast features complex carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats to keep you fueled and focused.
Your coffee order is waiting when you arrive, and lunch is set aside for conversation with the cohort.
Breakfast from the juice bar and cafe, included in your day.
Sandwiches from Bay Cities Italian Deli & Bakery, a Santa Monica institution since 1925, with vegetarian options.
Fireside lunch chat
How to persuade, influence and win career opportunities.
With Dr. Rob Carpenter, UCLA Professor and Author of More Than 10 Books.
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45 to 60 minutes, so you arrive with your thinking already started.
We'll take care of everything else.
Seats are limited.
Registration
One offer, one better title or one negotiated raise pays for this many times over.
Live group coaching, expert faculty and time to practice.
Your seat is confirmed once payment clears, and we'll send your prework right after.
Seats are limited.
$295.00
A full day with expert faculty · Breakfast, lunch and your coffee order · All materials · A personal read of your prework before the day
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Full refund, less a 1.5% processing fee, through Friday, November 6. After that, full credit toward a future Saturday Career Lab.
Questions
For questions, email us at info@truetalkla.com.
1:1 career coaching
Interested in more personalized 1:1 career coaching support? Schedule a conversation to explore your options.
Schedule a conversation