Career Makeover Wednesdays: Daycare Duty to Writer Extraordinaire

By Guest Blogger Gina Blitstein

Here I am - living my new career. I am faced with lots of new challenges that I am tackling on a daily basis and others that I know are waiting to be tackled in the near future. It's proving to be quite the learning experience.

I am loving being a writer and arranging my time to suit my projects and inspiration level rather than around the schedule of others as was necessary in my "old" career as a daycare provider. Honestly, however, I have some days when I feel tremendously productive and others when I feel like I haven't accomplished nearly enough. Perhaps somedays I over-schedule myself or simply try to bite off too much. Ultimately I think it will prove to be a matter of trial and error.

I feel as if I am in the most creative and productive time of my life. I think the freedom has a lot to do with it. Yet within all this freedom, I know that I need to keep moving forward, keeping my "pipeline" full of new projects. After all, without projects, I would have no career at all. So the most pressing of my challenges is to find the time - and wherewithal - to do the necessary networking in order to drum up some future business. My current projects will soon be completed - and then what?

As the first step in my networking education, Ellen has tasked me with developing my "pitch." Of course it made perfect sense to have a way to easily express what I do for a living. How else am I going to gain new clients? But no matter how many times I tried, what I came up with sounded artificial and forced. Maybe clever, but never natural sounding. So I put my pitch on a back burner, hoping with time the right words would come to me. And they did - but in an unexpected way!

I made an appointment at a new eye doctor. It occurred to me that in the course of my visit, the subject of my employment may arise - and there it was! That was exactly the scenario I needed to imagine in order for my brain to put the words together without sounding like I was trying to sell my services. Now I get it - my pitch is simply the words I will use to tell people what I do - not sell them on my services! At last, the pressure was off and I could imagine myself, very naturally, telling the eye doctor that, "I Create written content for the web." That was it - from there I can expound and refine it but I have the foundation. I just love a good "a-ha moment!"

So here's my pitch, for the first time ever in print: "I Create written content for the web. I've discovered that even those people who are fantastic at what they do often have difficulty putting it into words. That's where I come in - to put words to your passion and express it on your website, newsletter and in social media."

So I can check "pitch" off my to-do list - whew!

Next up on my assignments from Ellen was to identify the strategies I was using to obtain the business I've won from the Internet. I would have to say that I've gotten that business from my website and from maintaining a reputable and consistent presence among small business owners in online communities and chats. I think it's very much the same as face-to-face networking in that I make myself known to those who may be in need of my services. In many cases, I believe that the Internet provides a more targeted audience for my message because the people can actually search for my particular skill set, rather than a more hit-and-miss approach at a luncheon, for example. Of course I'm not discounting the importance of face-to-face networking - only that I haven't found any that feel as natural to me as what I've been able to accomplish via the Internet. I will continue to look for those opportunities among local businesspeople.

So I'm continuing my career reinvention - one step at a time. I learn something new about myself on a regular basis. That's sure to keep things interesting!

Career Makeover Wednesdays: Daycare Duty to Writer Extraordinaire

While Gina catches up on her workload - and her action items! - after handling a recent family emergency, I thought I would give some general pointers on goal setting.

Set SMART goals. Most of us know this acronym. Goals must be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Timely

If we don't set goals we can achieve in a reasonable time frame and enjoy not only the feeling of success that comes with meeting a goal but also the process of getting there, we are doomed to fail. Starting a business? Looking for a job? Longing to change careers? All three require careful thought and planning. Without a compass, we can't start our journey let alone reach our destination.

The surest way to meeting your established goal is...consistency. Let's take weight loss. If you've ever been on a diet, you know you have good days and bad days. Consistently following a reduced calorie menu, tracking your weight loss, and making adjustments when you reach plateaus are all part of the process in reaching your goal. It's the same thing with any goal you set for yourself: consistency is key. So in Gina's case, getting back into the swing of things after her family emergency and sharing the realizations that came from her time away from work are important ingredients to her continued success.

Revisit your goals and make adjustments. While starting out with SMART goals is a must, you also have to be flexible - and kind to yourself - along the way. Sometimes opportunities come our way that we didn't expect, or, life interrupts our plans. Perhaps you want to try out something new with your business that you hadn't thought of initially, or, an unexpected job opportunity comes knocking on your door that you hadn't considered. Making adjustments and course corrections when required are important.

While we wait to hear from Gina next week about her success with completing her action items along with the the dual challenge of catching up on client work, take some time to visit YOUR goals. Do you have clear goals? Do you have trouble sticking to your goals? What is holding you back from reaching your goals?

If you need help with goal setting, or, you would like more information on our training programs around goal setting, contact us at trueprofessions@gmail.com. We'd love to help!

Career Makeover Wednesdays: Daycare Duty to Writer Extraordinaire

After handling a family emergency, Gina talks about how life forced her to put work on hold. Here she shares an unexpected learning experience - but a valuable one - as she continues to build her new business as a professional writer.

By Guest Blogger Gina Blitstein

I have been busy, busy, busy writing for my first significant client who found me via the Internet. This is a HUGE project comprised of six 5000-word articles and four 2500-word articles. It really has been a challenge to have one all-encompassing project while continuing to keep up with my other writing assignments that are due on a weekly basis. I am learning a lot about my working style - that when confronted with a large project, I prefer to attend to the smaller responsibilities first so that I can delve into the big project without the gnawing distractions of the other jobs on my mind. This strategy worked remarkably well for me until there was a family emergency...

When I was a daycare provider, I always dreaded the thought of needing to take time off for such things as a personal emergency. Of course my clients would have understood me taking time off but I could never justify charging my them if I wasn't able to watch their children. As a result, when I didn't work, I didn't get paid. As a freelance writer, I assumed that I would have more control over my time. The same "no work, no pay" would apply, of course, but I thought I would have more flexibility in my schedule so that if I should need time off, it wouldn't prove such an all-or-nothing scenario. I assumed that even though I would not be home, that I could still keep up with my work. After all, have computer, can write, right?

Not true, I discovered. When I heard of the family emergency, I needed to make plans to go out of state for an undetermined amount of time. Of course I thought I could take my work with me and keep up with the writing there. It was empowering to think that I could work from a remote location and not feel tied to my home when I was needed elsewhere. What I hadn't taken into account was that while by body and computer were there, my head and heart were with my family. It soon became evident that little if any work was going to get done until I combined those two organs again.

So I have discovered that just because I can physically get away from home if I need to does not guarantee that I can work. Even though I can take time off without jeopardizing my career, the emotional factor trumps my location. Thankfully all my clients were so very accommodating when I asked for their patience as I dealt with the situation. I was so worried that some would deem me unprofessional but I received unanimous understanding and an attitude of "family first" from each and every one. I am extremely blessed to work with such caring people!

Now that I am back to "normal" working conditions here at home, I am finishing up those projects that were put on hold for several weeks. I especially want to get those huge articles completed and submitted as soon as possible. I want to keep that relationship solid because, first, they have been pleased with my previous work and secondly, they put a lot of trust in me when they hired me for this larger project. They are my ideal client and I would love to work with them again and have them refer me to others.

On top of this and my other existing clients, I have a very full to-do list of things to focus on when I have time. Those things include honing my pitch so I can clearly and concisely describe what I do for a living now. There are also aspects of networking I would like to explore but for now it is all about catching up. I would like to discuss with Ellen how to work on getting business when you are already busy doing your business...That is an aspect of time management I can't get a handle on.

Career Makeover Wednesdays: Daycare Duty to Writer Extraordinaire

Well…...Gina is on a roll! Who knew she would be busy so quickly with an influx of writing projects? Even she is surprised - way to go Gina!

While Gina is certainly thrilled with the fact that she is getting more and more projects, she continues to work on aspects of her makeover that we have identified as challenges. One of her challenges is self-marketing, which includes fine-tuning her ability to describe to potential clients what she offers, as well as continuing to network to win new business and realize her goal of making a living at writing.

In our next coaching session, Gina talked about how much of her work was coming from existing clients and from the Internet, which is going to “keep her busy for weeks”. While we had previously discussed face-to-face networking strategies to secure new business on a local level, Gina’s excitement on the amount of work she was getting through the Internet was palpable.

I challenged Gina to do to two things:

1. Identify how she was getting this steady stream of clients (i.e. what strategies was she applying) and what was it about the medium of the Internet that made it easier for her to get clients, aside from the statements she shared in her last post when she described herself as being more comfortable interacting with others via this method (i.e. being more of an "introvert").
   


2. Continue with face-to-face strategies (i.e. meeting with the local Realtor) to ensure she was addressing her desire to get clients on the local level. This included following-up with the women she met at the event she attended and schedule a lunch or coffee to talk about each other’s businesses and/or to pitch one of the interested parties on her services.
   
   Now on to the dreaded pitch. Why is creating a “pitch” important? Being able to describe yourself and what you want is critical.
   
   I’ll never forget when I was job hunting 10 years ago and my sister connected me with a friend of hers at Discovery. When we talked on the phone the first question he had was “what do you want to do”? Uhhhh….I couldn’t put it together! While I was looking for an opportunity that combined HR with my consulting skills, I could not articulate what I wanted into words…and I lost the opportunity to have someone inside a great company identify opportunities for me and pass my resume along.
   
   It’s the same thing in business: if you don’t know what you want when you are talking to someone, or, you don’t know how to describe your business in such a way that people want to continue listening or want to hire you, then you are wasting your time and more importantly – OTHER people’s time.

Here are a few pointers I shared with Gina in creating a pitch:

1. Make it memorable. While the point of an elevator speech is to be concise, it has to achieve the goals of letting people know what you do, how they can benefit, and why you are unique. Still stuck? Write down all of the above and extract from your brainstorm the nuggets that you can use for your pitch. It is also helpful to write down examples of work you have already performed for clients and the benefits they have received by hiring you.
   


2. Feel good about it. If you are passionate about what you are telling others about yourself and your business, it's a sure bet that others will get hooked on your energy.
   


3. Practice! Try it out on your friends, family, whoever feels most comfortable. At first it can be awkward, but others can help you gain greater ease so you can deliver it when it counts.
   

Lastly, Gina and I focused on the adjustments that she was experiencing in getting used to her new life in the 24/7 lane as a professional writer. She mentioned the transition not only of not watching children all day, but using and managing her time much differently. Now that Gina is super busy, it will be interesting to hear how she is managing her time and getting her work done, and how she is feeling about how she is spending her time.

In fact, it raises an interesting point: the challenges of transitioning into something new. We have all experienced it: we start a new job, we are out of work for a period of time and our job becomes looking for a job and filling our day with those actitivites, or, in Gina’s case, starting a new business. I asked her to observe how she feels about how she fills her days and how satisfied she is with how she spends her time and the end result.

If you have strategies for Gina on how you adjusted to a new situation and made it successful, we’d love to hear from you! Email us at trueprofessions@gmail.com.