Learn to 'Recession-Proof' Your Career

"Your belief system is really limiting, so you're cutting off your options before you even explore them, right?" she told Kloefkorn.

"I've gotten several job offers in the Bay Area, had to turn them all down," Kloefkorn said. "Now I'm beginning to see, well, you know, there's possibilities. I was being way too picky because I basically was limiting my job search to the location and job description of my last job, and that doesn't have to be the case."

'It Was Me! It Was No One Else!'

To get Kloefkorn out of his comfort zone and to show how she gets revved up before a meeting, Klaus demonstrated her "over-the-top" exercise.

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"I am the expert, and I cannot wait to tell you this!," she exclaimed. "Sit down and listen to me because I have something fabulous to tell you! I am so excited to be here! Thank you so much for having me!"

Kloefkorn was nervous, but he gave the exercise a try.

"Peggy, I am so excited to tell you exactly what I have been doing! You better buckle that because I'm going to blow you away! I am the one who actually wrote the process for profiling data. It was me! It was no one else! It was me because I am the expert! I am the go-to guy!"

"I'm incredibly grateful and awed by the fact that he would put himself in such a vulnerable position," Klaus said.

Kloefkorn was on a roll, until Klaus suggested he cut his long, rock 'n' roll hair. "You can always grow it back, right?" she said. "Again, just knowing how much is dependant on that first impression, OK?"

One week later, Kloefkorn had a new haircut to go with his new outlook. Klaus said these types of strategies can help you recession-proof your career, but only to a point.

"You can do it as much as possible, but I think that this is the way of the workplace. There are no guarantees," she said. "But I think Dale really gets that, and I think he's going to do it."

"I'm actually excited to get up tomorrow and start my job search," Kloefkorn said. "This is going to make me a better person, and I'm going to wake up tomorrow and ... just flat be a better person."

After his meetings with Klaus, Kloefkorn retooled his resume and posted it online. Less than 12 hours later, he'd heard from 11 recruiters, one of whom gave him a promising interview for a senior level position at a health care company.