Right out of Western Michigan University, I was selling cheese in South Florida. About twenty grocery stores. At night I waited tables in Fort Lauderdale, and because the bartenders were making way more than me, I signed up for bartending school in a beat up strip mall.

The day we got to wine, the instructor, a guy from Queens, asks the class why you smell the cork when you open a bottle. Nobody moves. Finally one guy half raises his hand and says, "For the memories?"

The instructor lets it sit for a second. Then he tells the whole room the wine doesn't care about your memories. You smell the cork to find out if the wine has gone bad.

I think about that guy a lot. Because most of us are smelling the cork of our careers for the memories. We remember how good it was when we started. We don't check whether it's still good to drink.

Based on your last 30 days, would they rehire you?

The short answer to why it works: the last 30 days are the most honest data you have about how you're showing up. Not your title. Not your résumé. Not what you did three years ago. The last 30 days are what everybody around you is actually experiencing, and they're the clearest sign of what the next 30 will look like.

The first time I asked that question was at a training event for a big international company in Amsterdam. The room went silent. People who'd been making eye contact with me a minute earlier suddenly found their shoes really interesting. I've been asking it ever since. Would your company rehire you? Would your customers choose you again? Would your team?

The easy answer is "Absolutely." If that's your truth, great. But most people who sit with it for more than a few seconds get a little less sure.

Why this question matters right now

Because a lot of people are showing up, doing the job, and quietly coasting.

Gallup found that only 32% of U.S. employees were engaged at work in 2025, and 51% were actively looking or watching for a new job. Globally, Gallup's 2026 State of the Global Workplace puts engagement at 20%.

Those aren't lazy people. Most of them are good at their jobs. They just stopped choosing anything on purpose a while ago. That's what I call living on autopilot, and I wrote a whole book about it, Stop Living on Autopilot, back when I was doing it myself.

When I looked at my own last 30 days back in 2016, I was running my own business and the honest answer was no. I wasn't watching the numbers. I was waiting for business to come to me instead of going after it. I was paying more attention to social media likes than my balance sheet. If I'd had a boss, I wouldn't have rehired me. The reason I started asking audiences this question is because I was really asking it of myself.

How to use the last 30 days as a diagnostic

You don't need a retreat for this. You need your calendar and about 20 minutes.

1. Look at what you actually did

Open your calendar for the last 30 days. Not what you planned. What happened. Where did the hours go? Who did you spend them with?

2. Ask the rehire question three ways

• Would my company rehire me based on these 30 days?
• Would my customers or clients choose me again?
• Would my team pick me again?

Answer honestly and don't clean it up. In my experience the messy answer is usually the right one.

3. Pick the one thing

Don't try to fix the whole picture. Pick the one thing that would most change the answer over the next 30 days. One conversation you've been avoiding. One habit. One project you keep pushing to "next week."

4. Run it for 30 days

Thirty days is long enough to see progress and short enough to feel urgent. Put the date on the calendar. When it comes back around, ask the question again.

What this looks like for a team

When a leader asks the rehire question about themselves first, out loud, in front of their team, something shifts. It stops being a performance review and starts being a standard.

That's the heart of my keynote Transform Your Next 30 Days. With humor, some hard truth, and a lot of questions, I help audiences look honestly at how they've shown up and decide what the next 30 days are going to be. It works especially well for teams going through change, teams that are tired, and kickoffs where leadership wants people to leave with a decision and not just a good feeling.

Organizations bring it in a few ways:

• Keynote for conferences, kickoffs, and all hands meetings.
• Workshop, in person or virtual, where people actually do the 30 day diagnostic and leave with their one thing.
• Coaching, group or one on one, for leaders who want someone checking in on day 30.

FAQs

Q: What does "would they rehire you" mean?
A: It's a question from Antonio Neves's book Stop Living on Autopilot. It asks people to judge themselves on their last 30 days of actual behavior, not on their title or past success.

Q: Why 30 days?
A: It's recent enough to be honest and short enough to act on. Your last 30 days are the best predictor of your next 30.

Q: How do I stop living on autopilot at work?
A: Start by looking at what you actually did in the last 30 days, ask whether your company, customers, and team would choose you again, and pick one specific thing to change in the next 30.

Q: Is this a good keynote topic for a team going through change?
A: Yes. Transform Your Next 30 Days is built for teams navigating change, burnout, or people who are quietly coasting.

Q: Does Antonio offer this as a virtual workshop?
A: Yes. It's available as a keynote, an in person or virtual workshop, and group or one on one coaching.

Final Word

So smell the cork. Not for the memories.

Based on your last 30 days, would they rehire you?

If you want your team sitting with that question, let's talk.