My Lifestyle Career

Are You Playing Your Career on the Right Court?

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the US Open, a fun event that I've attended for the past three years running.  Truth be told, I am not much of a tennis fan, but there is something about being in that venue that gets me all pumped-up about the sport.  For a week or two after the Open, I find myself watching tennis on television, checking match scores in the paper and talking tennis over dinner. 

While my enthusiasm for tennis inevitably dissipates over a few weeks, I find it interesting that just be physically placing myself at a tennis match, I absorb "all-things-tennis" without expending any conscious energy on my part.  Almost by osmosis, I learn about the top players, meet people who are employed in the industry, read about tennis camps and observe the latest tennis fashion trends.  

Best of all, this learning takes place without my trying to do it. It just happens. It's easy, it's fun and it requires no heavy lifting on my part.

I remind my clients of the importance of placing themselves on the "right court", when they are considering a career reinvention, especially when they are tempted by offers of higher salaries and nicer benefits that might keep them away from the courts where they need to be. It's easy to get trapped by perks and money, but...

• If your dream is to work for Google,go figure out how to play on the technology courts, even if it is only on a part-time basis. Attend a conference, take a tech course or work at night for a computer store.  By placing yourself in the tech world - the people you meet, language you speak and skills you learn - will all revolve around technology.
• If you want to be the next Top Chef; find a way to work in the food industry, even if that means starting out as a waiter or a salesperson at Williams Sonoma. Surrounding yourself with other foodies will enable you to learn about hot new careers, food trends, and the business realities of this career.
• If you want to be an author; volunteer at your library, join a writing group or hang out at your favorite bookstore.  You'll meet other writers, hear about classes and learn helpful hints about getting published.

Change is always hard, especially when it requires you to start at a lower level than you'd like.  But when you're willing to wear a rookie uniform, volunteer at an event or work for a farm team as a means to gain a foothold in a new industry, good things can and will happen.  You'll be exposed to new concepts, meet industry insiders and learn the ropes far more quickly than you will as a mere spectator.

Figure out the court you want to play on - and then - find a way to spend time there.  Volunteer, take a class, work part-time or attend a conference. Even if you can only play for a few hours a week, that "insider" exposure will pay enormous dividends as you work towards polishing your skills, perfecting your swing and build towards creating your own championship career.

Want to Start Your Own Business? Remember, "Location, Location, Location!"

Location, location, location.

It's the oft-quoted answer to the question, "What is the most important factor in choosing real estate?" and increasingly, it is proving to be a key factor in career reinvention as well.

The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article titled, Where the Action Is, that highlights the importance of location when choosing to start a new business:

"It's a lesson that's all too easy to forget in a world driven by mobile devices, cloud computing and home offices. There are big benefits to setting up shop in the right spot—especially among lots of peers in the same field."

Of course, choosing the right location is critical for both job selection and entrepreneurship. Finding the "hotbeds" takes a bit of sleuth work, especially when your target industry is relatively small. While we all know that if you want to work in politics, it helps to live in Washington D.C., or if you want to work in the film biz, it pays to be in Los Angeles, you might not know about all the smaller cities and towns that have become home to niche industries, many of which are booming in this lackluster economy.

To give you a sense of some of the breeding grounds for smaller niche industries, here are three of the smaller towns and cities profiled in the WSJ article:

Asheville, North Carolina: Love beer? Move here. With 10 local breweries (and 2 more under construction) beer is all the rage in this charming mountain village.  Even the bakeries and ice cream parlors carry beer-flavored products, and the locals host several home-brewing contests and beer festivals each year. 

Albany, New York: While not nearly as scenic as Asheville, Albany is now a hotbed for the growing field of nanotechnology. The city boasts more than 4,000 people in the industry, centered on the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the University at Albany.  

Nashville, Tenn: Known for being home to country music legends, Nashville is also cited as a great city for healthcare. There are more than 250 health-care companies in the city, which, in turn, provides fertile ground for companies that create medical devices and patient-care systems. 

While not everyone can afford to move for their career, choosing the right location came sometimes be as simple as selecting one neighborhood over another.  In New York City, writers tend to cluster in Park Slope, Brooklyn, artistic types reside in Soho, and foodies cluster in Chelsea. Even within the small towns of Vermont, different villages are known for different things; Hardwick, VT has become a model for sustainable farming, while Manchester, VT is best known as an upscale ski and tourist destination ripe with charming inns and bistros.

So the next time you're contemplating a career change, take some time to explore the possibilities for improving your odds of success by looking into the benefits of a relocation.  

Who knows what could result?  With luck, you'll not only charge up your career prospects, but you might get to enjoy a mighty tasty beer - or some fabulous country music - in the process!

P.S. Is your hometown known as  being a great place for _________ (fill in the blank)?  Share your thoughts by posting below.

Ready to Put Your Career Reinvention on Fast Forward? Seeing is Believing

 

Ever notice how the act of dressing in a stunning outfit transforms the way you feel about yourself? Psychologists call this effect, apparel therapy. When you look a certain way - you think a certain way -and that leads to you acting a certain way.

Enhancing your look not only impacts how you feel and act, it changes the way others react to you.  I experienced the impact of apparel therapy several years ago when we celebrated our daughter's graduation from high school.  Intellectually we knew she was heading to college, but nothing prepared us for that lump-in-the-throat moment when we saw her march into the commencement ceremonies wearing her cap and gown. 

Wow, what a difference a few yards of fabric and a mortar board can make!  The moment she appeared in the traditional graduation garb, any illusions we harbored of her still being "our little girl" vanished in an instant. 

Applying the transformative power of "seeing is believing" can be useful to your career reinvention process as well.  When you act "as if" by employing visuals that reflect and support your new self, you will start to believe that you are actually living your new reality, instead of merely dreaming about it. This altered perception will help increase your confidence and comfort level.

The visual props need not be restricted to clothes.  By leveraging technology, you can quickly assemble an arsenal of tools, including blogs, business cards and twitter feeds to support your new look. Fortunately, there has never been an easier time to design great-looking marketing pieces for very little money.

Here are five ways you can use visual aids to fire-up your reinvention process.

1) Grab a Domain Name: Stake your claim to your new career by registering a great domain name for just a few dollars at sites like GoDaddy.com. 

2) Write a Blog: Thinking about becoming a photographer?  Start a photo oriented blog.  Interested in establishing your credibility as an expert on event planning?   Create a blog filled with event planning tips and resources.   Once your blog has a reasonable amount of content, share the URL with friends, and ask them to comment.  

3) Order new business cards: You'll feel much more comfortable at networking meetings if you have an up-to-date business card.  Don't worry that your job-title only represents a goal and not an actual position (you're not going to be put into job-title jail, I promise!). You can order business cards for free at sites like vistaprint.com.

4) Try out a new outfit: Different professions have different uniforms; artists dress with a casual creative flair, bankers favor conservative but elegant fabrics and ranchers wear rugged jeans.  Dressing in the style of your intended profession will help to reinforce your intentions to yourself and others (just remember to keep the wardrobe changes subtle if you still need to hold on to your old job).

5) Invest in a few "props": Just as every profession has it's own wardrobe favorites, most occupations have accessories, tools and gadgets, that are part of life in the trenches.  Whether you invest in a tech gadget, paint brush or fancy baking pans, owning the right tools can make doing the job much easier and enjoyable.

Remember, sometimes seeing really is believing. Acting "as if" you are established in your new career role, before all the details are finalized, can be a powerful antidote to the inertia that often troubles the reinvention process.