Posts filed under 'miscellaneous career advice'
I love this post from Dave Navarro, the personal productivity and internet launch coach with the same name as a famous guitarist.
I consider myself as an independent thinker, able to separate everyone else’s agenda from my own and to stay firmly attuned to the latter. But then I read this post and I realize, of course other people control my life. And they control yours, too.
Think about who you admire, who you respect, who you envy, who you love, who you fear, who you rely on, who you value personally and professionally, who you cannot stand… They all have a hand in shaping your self-image, your world view and your actions. Make sure they shape it in the right way.
Dave will break it down for you:
http://www.rockyourday.com/5-people-who-secretly-control-your-life/
What do you think? Are you immune to the sway of any or all of these?
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April 29th, 2010
I found this slideshow by Betsy Streeter on The Affluent Artist inspiring. Hope you do, too!
LET YOUR BEAST OUT!!!
April 3rd, 2010
I’m all in favor of people taking responsibility for things that happen in their life, but two recent discussions I had, one with a stranger and one with a friend, reminded me that sometimes it’s good to recognize when it’s not your fault.
The first conversation was during a job interview I was conducting. The candidate was in her late-20s and was interviewing to make a move from supporting three executives elsewhere to supporting the head of a film company. She was well-dressed, seemed sharp and somewhat confident, but in the background, there was also something tentative about her.
Now, being big on stories of all kinds, to get an idea of the narrative of a person’s career, I always start my interviews (after a little introductory chit-chat) at their educational background and move forward to the present. This candidate had gone to a good school, and post-graduation, had worked for the manager of a very, very successful rock band. (Think U2. The next band you think of after that is the band she worked for.)
I was impressed and it sounded like a good job to boot. ”Yeah, I had five good years,” she said with a smile. It was a joke made because after that, she’d had a series of career setbacks due to budget cuts and company closures. It was clear to me that she had been on a path to being an executive in music marketing before the economy steered her off path and left her feeling she was simply meant to be an administrative support person in any capacity in entertainment rather than targeting that “dream job.”
Nothing against administrative support people in entertainment- a great one is worth their weight in gold. And had this candidate been right for the job, I would’ve snapped her up.
But, long story short, I told her she wasn’t right for the job she was meeting me for and that she needed to get back on her path, find a job in the music business that would position her for the junior executive position that she needed in order to make the leap off the assistant’s desk.
The other conversation was with an actress friend who is taking an acting workshop and recently had an encounter with a sleazy old guy who claims to be a producer, but has neither credits nor internet search results to back up that claim.
Somehow, though, he has weaseled his way into being a recurrent guest at this workshop with the casting director’s blessing. The actress had one conversation with the sleaze, casually (!) referred to her husband and caused him to back off in a flash, no doubt looking for some other innocent young lovely to prey on.
The actress wanted to know what it was about her that drew this type of guy to her. “Are you kidding?” I said. “This town is full of them. If you are an actress, there is no way to avoid running into them. The trick is to get them to go away as quickly as possible.”
Both of these women were relieved by what I had to say. “It’s not YOU, it’s the economy,” I told the job candidate. “It’s not you, it’s the industry,” I told the actress.
And I am happy to report that after returning to her path just a few weeks ago, the job candidate has landed the perfect job in the music industry. And the actress, her mind free of self-blaming garbage, is confidently going about the business of being an actress, knowing that, while sleazy men will no doubt cross her path, she can make the go away in short order.
What have you been blaming yourself for? Can you let it go and move forward on your path?
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March 28th, 2010
Earlier this year, in a post entitled This Guy Is Your New Guru, I wrote about how you could apply the same tactics Tyler Weeks used to lose 125 pounds in one year to any goals you have in your life, whether you want to makeover your career, your finances, or even your body.
But as anyone who’s ever watched one of those Biggest Loser “Where Are They Now?” interviews with the contestant who has gained most, if not all, of the weight back, the hardest part is maintaining weight loss once you have achieved your goal weight. How is Tyler doing?
Well, he’s had his ups & downs, including gaining a whopping 10 pounds in a single weekend of binge eating. But by and large, he has stuck to his plan, forgiven his diversions from that plan, and continued his healthy weight loss journey.
I had a meditation teacher who used the term “putting the puppy back on his path” to mean gently guiding your mind back to it’s relaxed state when it starts to wander. I tend to use this expression for any time you wander off the road from A to B.
For me, from almost the moment I declared my intention, in last week’s post, to do one thing a day with the goal of getting my eBook for Your Industry Insider done in 30 days, I wandered off the path. Part of it wasn’t my fault. I had my parents in town, which meant not just entertaining them. It meant the 2 1/2 year old son would not be going to day care. The same 2 1/2 year old who won’t nap except in the car now.
So, I did not get seven things done in the last week for the eBook. I did talk to my graphic designer and got her started on creating the cover. I did read some of the music industry book. I did finalize the outline. But I need to make serious progresss now if I want to launch the book in April.
This weekend, Brian has a class so I have the little one to myself. I hope to get him to nap (in the car only, but better than nothing) so I can read (hopefully finish) the music book this weekend. I can also write freehand in a notebook. (A laptop would definitely be too enticing for him to sleep while I worked on it.) And today I can use my lunch break to do some things. And next week, do the same.
[By the way, I just took out the word "hopefully" out of the last sentence. I had started "And hopefully today..." But who am I kidding? It's up to me. I can gently put the puppy back on the path.]
So congratulations and thanks to Tyler Weeks of 344pounds.com- for your weightloss overall, for re-losing those ten pounds you gained (readers, it took him about a month!) and for being an excellent guru.
What goals are you working on? Check out Tyler’s site & see if he can help you, too!
March 19th, 2010
This is going to be short. It’s a simple concept. The trick is in the execution.
Your career sweet spot, the place where you get the most personal satisfaction and the most material success (position, promotion, cash money) lies at the intersection of the answers to two questions:
A) What do you like doing?
B) What are your most marketable skills?
Simple, right? Coming up with the answers to those questions and finding the common ground is often one of the challenges for my career consulting clients. BUT once they are able to get a clear picture of the common ground, it creates first a sense of relief and then a direction for forward movement.
So before you make a career move or set to work on polishing your resume, do this little exercise and see what you discover. It may surprise you.
Photo courtesy of jimmiehomeschoolmom.
February 25th, 2010
(This post originally appeared on Your Industry Insider on January 17th.)
Say what you will… She’s sometimes abrasive, sometimes obscene, and sometimes downright mean, but comedienne Kathy Griffin has made a well-above-D list entertainment career out of billing herself as stuck on the D-list. But what does Kathy Griffith have to teach us about being successful in entertainment?
As luck would have it, not only do we have articles about Kathy and interviews with her, not to mention her book and many DVDs, we can actually watch her in “real life” (as much as reality TV is “real life”). As regular readers of YII know, we believe there’s always plenty to learn by tuning in to reality TV.
Here are six lessons from Kathy’s career we can take with us on our own journeys:
1. She remained true to herself. Watching Kathy on her Bravo TV show, “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List,” interacting with her family and friends, her staff, her publishers, her fans, and the public at large, you can see her act is no act. She really is obsessed with celebrities (the more troubled the better), defensive at times, potty-mouthed, and deeply devoted to the gay men at the core of her fan base (not to mention the ones she is actually friends with). How can your career be a reflection of your true self?
2. She found her people. Speaking of gay men… Before the rest of the world discovered her, gay men were showing up at Kathy’s gigs. Loyal followers are hard to come by when you are a struggling comedienne so she recognized them, as a niche audience and as kindred spirits, and sought out opportunities to perform for them. Her audience has grown enormously both inside and outside the gay community, but she will always appreciate them filling the seats at her gigs and keeping food on her table in the early years. Where are your people?
3. She networked well. Kathy wants to meet everyone who she can learn from and who can help her advance her career. And she is not afraid to reach out. She knows that paying a sincere compliment is a good way to start and asking people for the secrets of their success, being humble and a good listener, is the key to getting good information out of a busy professional. Who have you reached out to lately?
4. She worked smart (not to mention hard). Whenever Kathy has a new challenge, whether it is performing in front of a different audience than her usual crowd (the military, the Apollo Theater crowd) or breaking into a new area (publishing), she goes on a research mission, talking to whoever she can who might give her insight she can use (her own industry insiders, if you will). Whose wisdom can you tap for your next step?
5. She failed. Oh, Kathy. She’s been kicked off more talk shows than most celebrities have appeared on. She’s bombed in front of 1000s of people. She was booed off the stage at the Apollo Theater. And yet…
6. She never gave up. In any entertainment career (in any career period), there will always be moments of failure and even some periods when it seems like nothing is going right. But then you vow to fight another day, strategize, redouble your efforts, try yet again for success.
And like Kathy, if you stay true to yourself and find your people and network and work smart and never give up, you may just find yourself graduating from the D-list to the C-list, and maybe even beyond that.
Who’s your reality TV role model (or anti-role model)? Comments welcome…
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February 4th, 2010
Okay, so the “before” picture is YOU now. You weigh 344 pounds.
Not literally, but in terms of where you are in your life (unhappy, overworked and/or underpaid, overweight, financially underwater, single, bored) and where you want to be (happy, well-worked and well-paid, fit, financially flush, coupled, stimulated).
How do you get from 344 pounds to 215 pounds (and below)?
You ask Tyler Weeks, the guy in the picture.
This is what Tyler wrote when he determined that he wanted to lose weight, that he had to lose weight (right before he bought the scale that could accommodate his frame and before he started his website, www.344pounds.com).
My name is Tyler, I’m 23 years old, 6 feet and 2 inches tall, and I don’t know how much I weigh; I don’t own a scale that has the structural integrity to weigh me (most scales have a 300lb limit). I am considered by the American government’s health standards to be morbidly obese.
My weight is literally off any Body Mass Index (BMI) chart I can find.
I started my new healthy lifestyle today. A life where I can take my shirt off at the beach. A life where I’m free to sit in a normal chair without it squeaking for its poor little life. A life where I can walk down my driveway without being winded. A life where I can see my daughter marry her high school sweetheart.
A life where I’m not extremely obese.
Now you might not be “morbidly obese” in terms of the distance from where you are to where you want to be, but there are always areas where forward movement could be made (otherwise, why are you reading this blog, right?).
Here are some of the keys to Tyler’s success:
1. He made a firm and specific decision. See above for the firmness. The number of pounds he wanted to lose came shortly thereafter.
2. He was broke it down. On his journal, he recounts using a calculator to figure out the math behind his weight loss project. “At 344 pounds, 73 inches, and living a sedentary lifestyle the calculator said I needed roughly 3,576 calories to maintain my weight of 344 pounds. If on any given day I had more than 3,576 calories, I’d gain weight. If I cut back a little and ate less than 3,576 calories, I’d lose weight.” He followed that up with figuring out what kind of calorie deficit and what kind of increased activity he needed to aim for in order to reach his goal by his deadline.
3. He created accountability. Hence, the blog.
4. He started small. He knew just a little change was all he could handle at first. For instance, instead of going to a salad with dinner, he got potato skins instead of fries. Or got a turkey burger instead of a hamburger.
5. He allowed for backsliding. In fact, he never decided to always be good about what he ate. He knew that kind of deprivation would cause him to backslide. Instead, he let himself have cheat meals, but kept an eye on how many and reigned it in when they started working against his overall goal.
6. He never declared victory (and I believe he won’t). He still has a few pounds to lose and then he’s going to focus on getting fit. It’s a mentality that successful people have, they piggyback or roll in another goal after achieving the first.
You may have a few strategies of your own, but start with applying these six, which have worked so well for Tyler, to the areas in your life where you are a little overweight – or even morbidly obese. Do not be tempted to take on some kind of rigid plan that replaces Tyler’s. Those don’t work. If they did, he would’ve lost the weight before. (He’d dieted many times before.)
If you have no emergency savings account and you have decided you must have one, figure out how much you want to accumulate by your deadline. Firm and specific, remember? Then break it down per paycheck and have that amount direct deposited into a savings account away from your normal bank account. Then figure out where you are going to take that amount out of your monthly budget… and so on. If you want a better paying job, make that a firm decision and then figure out how much better. Etc.
It worked for Tyler, it can work for you. Let us know how it’s going. And if you need help with the job transition, you know where I am.
January 22nd, 2010
I have reviewed thousands of resumes as a hiring executive (and another couple of hundred as a professional resume writer and career consultant) and worse than the occasional type-o or overly-flowerly language or some of the other resume sins I could mention (and there are many), it really all comes down to one thing:
Please don’t bore me with your resume.
That’s the least I should be able to expect. And I have known perfectly lovely and even fascinating people in my career and I have freakin’ come thisclose to dozing off while reading their resumes.
If you are even considering sending your resume out to score a new job in the next few months, please give it a critical read. If you are bored with it, it will definitely bore the poor recruiter or hiring executive you are sending it to.
Forget about all the talk about computer scanners looking for industry buzzwords on resumes being submitted for jobs. There are people reading your resume, actual human beings deciding whether you should be contacted for an interview. If they start thinking about what they are going to have for lunch while trying to get through your resume, you are in serious trouble.
You are an interesting person. Your career has had some interesting highlights. Make sure that comes across on paper.
Photo by b_heyer.
January 8th, 2010
Here’s a good question to start your year off: How do you define career satisfaction?
My career has a few pieces to it, which I think is part of my career satisfaction. I enjoy juggling several different tasks at one time and each of the “jobs” I do feeds me in a different way.
As a writer, it’s about telling the best compelling and authentic story for the goal of the assignment, whether it be a bio, a resume, a blog post, an article, a speech, or some other piece of written (or, in the case of a speech, verbal) communication. When I am doing my corporate work, it’s about solving a big problem or completing a project in a smart way. And when I am doing career consulting, I am helping my clients find the balance of between what they get the most personal satisfaction doing with where they can make the most money (along with some other factors which allow us to design and implement a strategy).
So, for me, career satisfaction boils down to storytelling, problem-solving, and helping others find their own source of career satisfaction.
What about you?
Photo courtesy of stagewhisper.
January 1st, 2010
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to stories these days. Earlier in my life, I wrote a lot of fiction. I became very adept at creating characters from scratch and then, during the rewrite phase, changing key aspects of their personalities and lives.
Now that I am a professional writer of resumes and bios, it has become apparent that the lives we lead are often dependent on the stories we tell about ourselves, first the stories about ourselves that we tell to ourselves and then the ones we tell others.
“My career has kind of been all over the place,” I was told by a client over the weekend when discussing her resume. She was apologetic.
What she didn’t know was that I hear that same thing all the time. And in most cases, as in this one, I don’t agree. “No it hasn’t. You’ve had four jobs in the past twelve years and all of them have been in the area of communications. Writing, creating presentations, giving talks…” I said as I surveyed the page.
“Oh, yeah,” the client replied after a pause, her voice betraying some relief and surprise. “I guess that’s true.”
So “I’m a flake.” or “I’m a mess.” turns into “I’m a communicator.” and, with the new resume I have written for her promoting her in that way, she can confidently go out and look for their next job. And even if she still feels like a mess sometimes, as long as the story she projects is “I’m a communicator,” she should have no problem getting hired.
What stories do you tell in your life or in your career that are holding you back?
June 17th, 2009
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