Melissa Grabiner

Senior Talent Acquisition Partner

Hi there - thanks for stopping by. 😊

👋 Follow me for daily tips on Job search advice, HR & Talent Acquisition wisdom, productivity tips and heartfelt inspiration.

✍️ 𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀: I collaborate with B2C and B2B brands on sponsored LinkedIn posts and videos, webinars, and speaking engagements, highlighting products and services that deliver meaningful value to both the brand and my audience.

⭐️ 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘆 & 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: I serve as a trusted advisor to early-stage companies and partner with organizations to help optimize their Talent Acquisition strategies.

You can reach me at melissa@grabiner.us

🚀 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝘁: 𝗵𝘁𝘁𝗽𝘀://𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲.𝗶𝗼/𝗺𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗿

Top-Rated Resume Writer, Job Search Coach & LinkedIn Branding Expert — Helping 700+ Job Seekers Land Their Next Opportunity!

Whether you're struggling to get interviews, making a pivot, or trying to bounce back after a layoff, I offer straightforward help that actually get results. 

My offerings and how I will help you win: 

🔸 Resume rewrites that showcase your true value
🔸 LinkedIn profile makeovers to attract recruiters
🔸 Interview coaching & salary negotiation tips
🔸 Personalized job search strategy & mentorship

𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗺𝗲:

I am an Entrepreneur, Content Creator and HR and Talent Acquisition professional with over 2 decades of experience. On LinkedIn, I am considered one of the biggest thought leaders having over 480,000 followers. 

I am Ranked #2 Female LinkedIn Creator Worldwide and Ranked #1 HR LinkedIn Creator in the USA.

In the past year, my posts have amassed 2.1 million engagements and over 194 million impressions. I have been a guest on over 60 podcasts and host various LinkedIn Live Events.

I have been interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Market Watch, Fast Company, Indeed Business and was featured three times on the Times Square Billboard in New York City.

I am also a multiple award-winning Global Senior Leader with extensive multi-industry experience in HR and Talent Acquisition.

> Built and led a strategic Talent Acquisition function for one of the world’s largest companies.

> Eighteen years of experience managing 35+ direct reports with zero attrition.

> Oversaw hiring activity for more than 25,000 employees throughout my career.

> Proficient in full life cycle recruiting across multiple levels, functions, and industries.

> Specialize in designing and implementing talent solutions and strategies for organizations of all sizes.

Senior Talent Acquisition Leader

I'm happy to announce that if you are job searching, you WILL be ok and you WILL land a great opportunity.

You are more than your current situation.

Being unemployed does NOT change your value.

Keep networking. Keep learning. Keep showing up.

The right opportunity might not be today, but it is coming.

I'm rooting for you, always. 💗 

P.S. I created a Job Search Guide to help in your search, feel free to send me a DM and I'll send to you.

💙 Please share to motivate job seekers

After being laid off twice in five years, I felt like everything was falling apart.

Looking back, those layoffs were actually the best turning points of my career.

They pushed me to pause and take the leap into starting two small businesses, something I had always dreamed of.

Through it all, I discovered a resilience and strength I didn’t know I had. 

I learned that setbacks often plant the seeds for something even greater.

If you’re facing a career challenge right now, remember this:

The chapter you’re in is not your whole story. 

And sometimes, it leads to a future brighter than you ever imagined. 💘

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Never base your self-worth on the decision of a recruiter who spent 10 seconds reading your resume.

It’s easy to take it personally when you don’t hear back. 

When your experience, skills, and the countless hours you’ve poured into your career feel like they’ve vanished in an instant. 

Here’s the truth: 

Your worth isn’t a bullet point or a job title.

It’s the work you’ve done, the impact you’ve made, and who you are. 

If you’re waiting for someone else to validate you, please try to stop. 

You’ve already earned it. 🧡

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Dear Hiring Teams,

Behind every resume is a human being with dreams, ambitions, and potential.

Every great company is built by people who were given a chance.

Never underestimate the power of seeing potential over perfection.

Skills can be taught. 
Experience can be gained. 
But mindset, curiosity, and the willingness to grow are priceless.

Hire for potential. 
Lead with belief. 
The rest will follow.

🩷 Please share if this resonates.
🙏 Follow me Melissa Grabiner, for more.

There is so much going on in the world right now.

Choosing kindness is something we can always control.

To everyone. In every moment. 
Always.

Each person you meet is carrying a story you may never see.

Kindness doesn’t cost a thing, but its impact is limitless.

Let’s make kindness our default setting, today and every day. ❤️

I have gone through many tough times in my life.

Being laid off twice was one of one the most challenging.

Rejections, silence, self-doubt… it can take a toll. 

During those moments, these are 8 reminders I kept close:

➡️ There is always something to be grateful for.

➡️ Other people’s opinions aren’t worth your energy.

➡️ Every interview, rejection, or pause is a learning experience.

➡️ Everything can, and will, change. One opportunity can shift everything.

➡️ You’ve overcome challenges before. This process doesn’t define your worth.

➡️ Not getting the role you wanted may be redirecting you to something better.

➡️ It’s okay to step back, breathe, and allow yourself small moments of joy.

➡️ Being kind to yourself matters as this journey is already hard enough.

To anyone currently job searching: keep going. 

Your effort counts, even on the days it doesn’t feel like it. ❤️

I’ve failed many, many times in my career.

The kind that makes you question your judgment and sometimes your worth.

> I’ve taken roles that didn’t work out.
> Trusted people who disappointed me.
> Built things that didn’t scale the way I hoped.
> Missed opportunities I can clearly see in hindsight.
> Stayed at a company too long as I was afraid of starting over.

For a long time, I thought failure meant I was doing something wrong.

Now I see it differently.

Every failure sharpened my instincts.

Every setback forced me to get clearer about what I won’t tolerate.

Every “no” pushed me closer to work that actually fits who I am.

Success didn’t come from avoiding failure.

It came from surviving it, learning from it, and continuing anyway.

If you’re in a season where things feel messy, slow, or disappointing you’re not behind.

Rather, you’re becoming.❤️

Belong & Perform.
Most leaders focus on results, yet overlook the science that drives them: belonging. When teams don’t belong together, they fracture, slow down, and miss opportunities. But when leaders build belonging into their operating system, performance accelerates.

I show leaders the overlooked performance science of belonging — the #1 driver of both performance and well-being. This isn’t soft. It’s neurobiology. Belonging sustains oxytocin and serotonin, the chemistry behind trust, resilience, speed, and sharper decision-making. That’s why I help leaders build their #TeamOS to Unite & Fight — teams that move fast, win together, and sustain excellence.

My work spans coaching, ghostwriting, and speaking. As a coach, I partner with executives to strengthen culture and performance from the inside out. As a ghostwriter, I capture leaders’ voices to tell strategic stories that unite teams. As a speaker, I bring belonging science to life with energy, clarity, and practical tools.

If you’re a leader or investor who wants stronger performance, faster execution, and teams that refuse to fracture under pressure—let’s talk. Belonging is not a nice-to-have; it’s your competitive advantage.

--------------------------

Throughout my education & work, I've been fortunate to have people share their incredible hearts & skills with me. This allowed me to develop abilities and deep familiarity in the following areas, where I love to help others belong and perform at their highest: 

Executive Leadership

Coaching

Strategic Story

People Operations

Corporate Culture

Employee Engagement

Leadership Development

International HR

Behavioral, Social & Psychological, and Neurological Sciences

Agile, Lean, TQM 

Teaching. 

Our emotions either accelerate or inhibit our efforts. The hardest thing that we try to do- anything that runs into our emotional walls. And when that happens, we get caught between the carrot and stick. The majority of our work world relies on influencing just two of our base hardwired emotional states: aspiration and fear. Then we, in turn, design our world around these two emotions. 

But, there’s another, a third. 

Belonging, the #1 driver of our performance and well-being.

___________________________________________
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[fôsem] ADJECTIVE (f*#&ing awesome!)

Paul Haury

What if the biggest productivity unlock at work isn’t talent, tools, or incentives — but belonging?

Some data points don’t line up quietly.
They line up loud.

• A large BetterUp study found people who believed they belonged showed ~50%+ higher productivity and dramatically fewer sick days

• Elite military units outperform standard units by orders of magnitude — not because of skill gaps, but relational cohesion under pressure

• The Seattle Seahawks publicly credited belonging and trust as a core driver during seasons where they outperformed league averages by multiples, not margins

These aren’t motivational anecdotes. They’re observational signals pointing to the same mechanism.

When belonging is present:
• Stress recovers faster
• Learning speeds up
• Errors repeat less
• Health costs drop
• Performance compounds

When belonging erodes:
• Presenteeism rises
• Burnout appears “mysterious”
• Healthcare claims increase
• Turnover accelerates
• Output quietly decays

This isn’t about being nice.
It’s about whether the nervous system is regulated enough to perform.

The most consistent pattern across business, military, and sports isn’t “best people win.”
It’s teams that belong outperform teams that don’t — at scale.

The real question for you isn’t whether belonging matters.
It’s whether you’re designing for it on purpose — or paying for its absence every year without realizing it.

Belonging & Performance Coach | AI-Powered Ghostwriter | Speaker To belong is the #1 driver of performance & well-being! (Also known as The Dog Whisperer) Get your TeamOS to Unite & Fight.

Posts always talk about people needing to show up as their authentic selves at work.
It's sad.
But not because of what you think.

That leads to a disservice — for them and company.

Authenticity and performance, well,
are more nuanced than that.

––

“Can I show up as who I actually am in my values and strengths —
and be held to it?” 

Can you answer, "Yes?" Especially with the last part?

Authenticity, without this "Yes," drives us towards protection. Fight/flight instead of Unite & Fight.

––

Belief without one’s own agency from their values and strengths becomes performative. 

Your employees will probably stay. And they may even succeed to some level of acceptability. 

But they won’t be whole. 
To get to this, yes, we need to clear up a common misunderstanding.

––

“I get to be myself here”  doesn’t mean anything goes. 
It doesn’t mean comfort without challenge.  Or expression without responsibility. 

It means something more accountable — and requiring of the person.

––

It means the company requires people to live and perform from their personal values, strengths, and chosen self-accountability — not suppress them.

––

When people can’t live from their values at work, something predictable happens. 

They don’t protest.  They don’t quit immediately. 
They quietly disengage. 
They compartmentalize. They comply externally while withdrawing internally.

––

They stop bringing the parts of themselves that make their contribution distinctive and even more powerful. 

Not because they don’t care — but because caring costs too much when it puts their identity at risk.

––

Strengths don’t surface in isolation. 

When strengths are welcomed without accountability, 
they turn into indulgence. 

When accountability is enforced without strengths, 
it turns into pressure.

––

People don’t fail because they lack strengths. They fail when their strengths get pushed down out of service from the company purpose. 

Or, more often, the lack of company belonging leaves them untapped.

––

This, yes, above, delivers a different posture. 
It tells us: 
You don’t flatten yourself to fit in here. And you don’t get to hide behind authenticity either. 
You’re mandated to bring your full self — and to be responsible for your impact on the company tribe.

––

This invitation changes how your people show up. 

They stop managing impressions. 
They stop guessing which parts of themselves are acceptable. 
They stop editing their voice before they speak.

––

They speak for themselves, and they speak for the company at the same time. 
And when that happens, performance gains something rare: 
range.

Most leaders want Mike Macdonald–level performance...
and, most won't stop to ask whether they’ve built the conditions that make it possible.

I'll admit, I'm a little obsessed with the transformation that Michael Macdonald's done with the Seattle Seahawks.

Very few stop to ask whether they’ve built the conditions that make it possible. Watch teams coached by Mike Macdonald, and what stands out isn’t hype

Open article: Most leaders want Mike Macdonald–level Performance by Paul Haury • 2 min read

Most leaders want Mike Macdonald–level Performance

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The Battle

Melissa Grabiner

Paul Haury

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The Battle

Melissa Grabiner

Paul Haury

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Melissa Grabiner's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreMelissa Grabiner's LinkedIn Performance