TIWIKE

Journal Article 12/07/09

Opportunity Week 5, Day 1:

Got up and wrote the outline for the TIWIKE book.  I don’t know why I did this, but inspiration has its own timetable so I didn’t ignore it.  It bloomed on the paper pretty well, and that’s encouraging.  Once I’d created the outline, I researched copyright, trademark and ebooks.  I also contacted a friend who happens to be a publisher.  I’ve never written a book before, so there will be plenty of discover to be done.

Followed up on job leads from a few weeks ago. Recruiters seem to be saying, “call us, ‘cause we’re not calling you.”  I expected that, in this weakened job market.  That’s okay.  I will continue to stay in touch.

I had a great call with someone at a training organization affiliated with a prominent Boston University.  My original contact was an e-mail from them soliciting me as a potential client.  I turned it around into a prospecting call for training and OD contract work.  They like my resume, and want me to submit an outline for a proposed webinar, and come in to demo for them after the 1^st of the year.  That’s good news.

A family emergency took me out of the game in the afternoon and into the night.  Unfortunate; but necessary.  Family is the most important thing. 

TIWIKE:

Follow your energy.  If something speaks to you, look into it, and if you have the time to actually take action; take it.  If you don’t have the time to actually do the work, take a few minutes to make some notes about it for future reference, then block time to work on it.  Listen to your intuition.  Capture your ideas.

When you need information, use the web to answer questions quickly.  There is plenty of information that can be uncovered with a simple search.  It can be overwhelming.  After some time, you’ll get good at filtering out the information that isn’t going to get you what you want.  You can take the approach of doing some web research on your own, and then reaching out to your network when you either feel less effective with your research, or need to hear the voice of experience.

Recruiters are only one component of an income search, though they are an important component.  In a challenging economy, they’re struggling, too.  Don’t take their distance personally, or as a sign of disinterest.  There is no reason for them to do a lot of outreach if there isn’t anything for them to talk to you about.  Establish a routine of communication.  If you take a contract or perm position, tell them.  If you update your resume, let them know.  If you’ve chosen 5-6 appropriate agencies to work with, you’re probably covered for anything that’s a good fit for you anyway. 

Resources:

< http://www.copyright.gov>

<http://www.uspto.gov>

http://www.ebookdevelopersassociation.org

www.job.com

Journal Article 12/8/09

Opportunity Week 5, Day 2:

Derailed again by family matters.  I’m waiting for movement on a couple of things, but I am really distracted by this issue.  I know it may disrupt my plans for the afternoon, which involves job search coach at the outplacement agency.  I only have a month of services there, and the clock is ticking.  I hope I don’t have to reschedule.

Since I couldn’t seem to focus on anything complex, I did other things.  I packaged some expensive pants via mail that I wanted replaced by the manufacturer.  I also successfully disputed a vestigial service charge on a credit card that I’d paid off months ago and got it removed. Handled the dishes and the food shopping.  All these things were designed to get me back in motion, and it worked.  

Eventually got the family thing done.  I was emotionally drained.  Decided to stop at my fave mex place along the way home to pick up lunch.  The food was great, but I have to be careful not to reward myself with food.  That is an easy and familiar trap for me.

I received an e-mail contact from yesterday’s business call.  They want to move forward, and have requested a January date for a demo.  This is excellent news.  Every income stream has value, and adding the name of a prominent University to my portfolio will help generate other business as well.

I finally received the sample print from the lab for the wedding shoot.  The timing is about right, since people will be ready to order prints for the holidays.  I contacted the bride, and she e-mailed the guests to let them know that the wedding was posted.  There is potential revenue here, and that’s very welcome.

I met with my former manager, and then had dinner with the core professional members of my Committee.  We’ve stayed together as friends after meeting as colleagues over 10 years ago.  They’re great people, and I love seeing them. 

I got a call back from a Recruiter while I was at dinner.  It seems that a job lead that I thought had gone cold has not gone cold after all, and they want to submit me.  Excellent.  You never know.

TIWIKE:

Sometimes you become so distracted by something in life that you can’t seem to put two thoughts together until it’s resolved.  That’s okay.  What’s important is to break out of that inactivity.  If your way of doing that is to work on mindless tasks, that works.  It frees your mind up to turn over ideas, while still enabling you to get things done.  Like it is in physics, a body at rest tends to stay at rest and a body in motion tends to stay in motion.  Get in motion.  Eventually, you will move from less important mindless activity to more important work.  But sitting there and thinking about something you can’t control or fix does nothing at all for you.

It ain’t over till it’s over.  Sometimes a lead or opportunity that seems gone isn’t gone after all.  Follow up and confirm.  You can be a finalist for a position, be told it’s been filled, then get a callback later to let me know that the deal had fallen through and they want you after all.  Or you can call about an opportunity you think must have been filled weeks ago, but they haven’t found a good fit until you called.  Perhaps the position you were looking for is closed, but another has opened.  Follow up on leads.  Use e-mail and the phone to your advantage.  The time and money you spend doing that is insignificant compared to the potential for income.

 

Journal Article 12/9/09

Opportunity Week 5, Day 3:

It was a granola bar morning.  No time to eat breakfast, since I had an early photoshoot.  Unfortunately, New England weather strikes again, and a drive that normally takes 15 minutes took 90.  I called along the way to let my contact know that I was stuck in traffic.  She was fine with it, and there were several people involved as subjects that were suffering with the same traffic we were, herself included.  Once there, what should have been a 1 hr shoot took three.  I had technical problems, and well, there’s no excuse.  I need to be in control of my equipment.  And there additional shots they wanted.  The images came out fine.  I edited them this afternoon, and she was delighted with the results. We negotiated a slight additional charge for the extra work, and I invoiced them.

The mail included a notice from the health insurance company.  The COBRA information was wrong.  I’d been specific that I didn’t want the FSA included.  The call to them was quick. They fixed the problem and promise to send me new payment coupons.

I got three tech trainer job leads in e-mail from a recruiter.  I responded for myself, as one of them was a fair fit for my skills, and then forwarded the leads on to the appropriate people in my LinkedIn network right away.  In this job market especially, time is of the essence.  I don’t want my network colleagues to miss out on an opportunity, and I would like to believe that they’re just as keen to help me.

Had a contact from my main client.  They’re scheduling the next training session.  Good news!  Revenue is front and center on my agenda.  I have some additional billable work for them this week that I’ll be doing from my home office as well.  All good revenue for the cause (that being me).  They’re a great client, and I like working for them.  It is definitely a mutually beneficial situation.

Called a former colleague today who’d been laid off back in the first quarter of the year.  I was surprised to learn that she really hasn’t been looking much beyond surfing the job boards.  She said she’d been pretty depressed about being laid off, and decided to take a little vacation on unemployment and be a housewife for awhile.  People do this.  Most people I know can’t for financial reasons.  It’s the same for me; but the fact is I can’t manage that low level of activity over long periods of time.

TIWIKE:

Be flexible.  Sometimes things don’t shake out the way that you expected them too.  It can be positive or negative.  Try not to label the things that get in your way as negative.  Think of them as circumstances.  If they’re things you could have had some control over, then treat it as a learning experience and try to be more effective next time.  If they were out of your control, then pass it off to the Universe and walk on.  Dwelling on unfortunate circumstances can only hurt you.

Follow up when some organization messes something up.  Assuming that they’re right and you’re wrong, or that there is nothing you can do about something is defeatist.  It’s at least worth a phone call, especially if error will cost you money or the potential for revenue.  Do your research first.  Have information to offer to clear things up.

Push job leads out to your network right away.  Networkers who regularly help the people in their network get helped regularly by the people in their network.  It’s a two-way street and a contact sport.  They’re your colleagues.  You should treat them that way.

Taking a brief hiatus from working after a layoff is fine.  Some people choose to spend more time with their family, get important projects done or engage in personal growth work.  The folks at unemployment do expect that you’re looking for work, and you could be asked to submit evidence of an ongoing job search.  Also, a prospective employer may have some questions about an extended period of inactivity, though in a weaker economy this is more easily explained away.  So while taking a little time off from working is okay, it has to be managed.  Perhaps more importantly, it is easy to get used to inactivity and become resistant to getting in gear.  That’s dangerous.  Watch out for it.

 

Journal Article 12/10/09

Opportunity Week 5, Day 4:

Billable time – yeah!  I got a lot of work done for my client today.  It seems that there was some confusion on the client end.  I looked into it, and there were two misunderstandings on their part, including a file versioning issue.  We cleared it up, partially on the phone, and partially via e-mail.  In the end it was all good.

Last week I’d seen a discussion LinkedIn about an organization looking for professionals to, amongst other things, blog for their site.  As a newer blogger, I would love the exposure.  We spoke on the phone, and I agreed to blog for their site; “TrackAhead.”  It’s described on the site as, ” An education and career focused social network dedicated to offering choice, not chance, for success.™”  It’s about getting information to young people who are just entering the workforce, and I like the idea.  It seems almost like a bridge between Facebook and LinkedIn.  Better than working blindly, as I did.  I will probably contribute when I have the time.  Not the highest priority right now.

The job leads keep rolling in from my network.  I have a few new ones to follow up on now, and maybe a few new websites to monitor.  Everything needs to be followed up.

I spent some e-mail time negotiating dates with my former employer, now a client again, for March.  I felt a little frustrated, since we seemed to be playing e-mail tennis about it.  I finally decided to ask them to propose dates, and if there was anything that wouldn’t work for me I’d let them know.

TIWIKE:

The billable time needs to be at the top of your priority list.  Your clients need to be served and you need the income.  If you have the flexibility of scheduling desk work in your home office, you might schedule the time in specific slots throughout your week.  You could choose to create a floating time block in each day, where the work gets done when it best suits your energy level or fits with other important activity.  The key is to watch your activity end ensure that you don’t let other lower priority work get in the way.

Find affinities.  Is there some pro bono or lower paying work you can do that might help boost your professional effort elsewhere?  It may very well pay dividends that you can’t predict.  Be careful.  Everyone wants free or cheap help, and it can be attractive, especially if you’re a “helper” by nature.  At the end of the day, you have to put a roof over your head just like they do so you have to put this work in its proper place within your priorities.  But there will be times when someone notices that you also donate your time and skills to a cause that they believe in, and it could be that leg up that you need.  Also, it’s good to help, right?

Resources:

http://www.trackahead.com/

 Journal Article 12/11/09

Opportunity Week 5, Day 5:

I met a friend for her birthday breakfast.  It was nice to get together at my favorite local diner.  She’s a struggling single mom with two teenage boys to manage.  She just bounced back from a layoff herself, and started a new job.  The pay isn’t what it should be, but she’s in a bind and hoping to augment it with other work.  I don’t know how she does it.  For that matter, I don’t know how most single moms survive.  My friend is wonderful, and manages to keep a smile on her face most all of the time.  We had a great time.  I felt good as I moved on to my next appointment.

I met with my ex regarding the Joint Petition for Modification.  I still didn’t get it quite right, though we’re almost there.  I brought the wrong version of one of the documents, so I still didn’t get it right.  She was nice about it, despite having to meet me and go into work late.  As it turned out there are a few more things that must be done before we can sign these anyway, so we wouldn’t have been able to wrap it up this morning.

I created the training webinar outline for my new potential client; the university-affiliated training organization.  It was a topic that is familiar to me, both conceptually and practically.  I think it came out okay, and I forwarded it along.  There was a slight twinge of guilt that I should have spent more time on it, and also run it past the committee for a second look.  But I had to choose between getting the outline in on time and spending more time on quality.  I may have chosen poorly, but I won’t know until I hear from them.

More billable time today for my main client.  I’m pressing now, since they’ve given me quite a bit to do over the next few months.  I am trying to spread the work out over the upcoming weeks, and keep the billing steady.  If I really crank out the work as I could, the larger invoices may cause them to balk a little.  Also, by knocking the majority of the work out now, I could unintentionally create a dry spell in March.  We’ve kept a pace that works for all involved, and I would like to keep it smooth and steady through 2010.

I quit working early to go to my youngest daughter’s Swim Meet.  I’d never been to one and it was really interesting.  I was so proud of her.  This was an opportunity that I was very grateful for.  She is with me for the weekend, and I always look forward to that.  We talked about college over dinner, and she still has a lot of application work to do.  She worked on that through the evening.

 TIWIKE:

There are other people out there who may be struggling as you are, and who manage to stay positive, or at least neutral.  Take care of each other.  Learn from each other.  Enjoy the connectedness that comes with shared experience.  These people in your life help you keep a sense of belonging at times when it might be easy to feel that you’re alone.  You could learn from them as well, and gain new methods and perspectives that can help you.

Sometimes it is a challenge to balance quality and deadline.  Quality should always be the goal.  By building preparation time into your schedule, you can manage the quality.  However, sometimes life just gets in the way and puts you into a situation where you have a choice to deliver an acceptable product on time, or a great product after the deadline.  You will figure it out.  You may not always choose well, and you won’t know until you see the results.

If you decide to become a soloist, one thing that may take some time to master is keeping work in the pipeline.  You’ll spend your energy doing three things: sales and marketing, delivering your product, and billing.  Sounds simple; but isn’t.  You’ll work harder as an independent than you ever did as an employee.  You may find it easier to manage your finances if you create smooth, predictable revenue streams by spreading the work out a little and working toward multiple streams.  Of course, it depends on your clients and the nature of your work.  The good news is that it will be up to you.

 

Journal Article 12/12,13/09

Weekend Edition

Saturday

Finally got fed up with the mess in my apartment after the crazy week I had.  I started in the place that would affect my work the most; my home office.  There were papers and files here and there throughout my small living spaces that really belonged in my office, so step one was gathering them up.  Then the sorting.  I filled my office trash can with stuff I really didn’t need that had simply accumulated because I was too busy to handle it at the time.  I need to get better at handling it as I go, but I’ve been straight out lately.  I as I was trying to put things away, the one drawer in my desk was overflowing so I pulled it out, cleaned it and put it back.  Finished the filing.  Dusted and wiped everything down.  Cleaned the monitor and keyboard.  It looked great when I was done.  I don’t know about you, but if my workspace is disorganized, I am, too.  And the holidays are fast upon us, so the whole place needs sprucing up (no pun intended).

I did get out to the gym for the first time in a week.  I really need to manage that better.  Even with everything that happened this week, I should have found more time for exercise.

I was playing online games far into the night.  It was fun, but there is such a thing as too much fun.  I looked at the clock and it was after 1:30 AM.  Not good.

Sunday

My daughter had to go to work early this morning, so I got up at 5:15 to make her breakfast.  I like to do that, and I think she really appreciates it.  Once breakfast was on the table, I made my apologies and went back to bed.  I always like to sit and eat with her, but with less than four hours of sleep behind me, that wasn’t going to happen.  After a few hours I was able to face the world and get to finishing up the blog for the week.

I got out to the gym again, but after my youngest returned we went out for Chinese food.  I could have eaten healthy but didn’t.  Paid bills. Oy vey.  I had to put on some music to get through it.

I was delighted to meet with a friend who is working on my websites and logo for me.  It’s barter – I photograph her grandkids and she works on my internet presence.  Of course, since we’re friends we’d do it for each other anyway, without the need for reciprocity, but I think we both like helping each other, too.

Then, off to hang out with a very close friend of mine, and it’s been too long since I’ve seen him.