The Job Nobody Dreams Of

Don't Have a Backup Plan

I'm reading a book titled, "How I Broke Into Hollywood" which is a collection of interviews with Producers, Writers, Set Designers, etc. and how they first broke into show business. There's a lot of "Don't give up," and "Take any job to get your foot in the door," quotes but a couple individuals had an interesting take on pursuing your dream.

They talked about not taking a job that you half-way like while waiting for your dream job to materialize. The thought process was that if you get used to a job you don't hate, you could end up becoming content and giving up.

One of the people profiled was offered a job that paid three times what she was currently making but she turned it down so she wouldn't be tempted to give up her dream of becoming a costume designer.

I experienced something similar in high school. At the beginning of my sophomore year (there were no freshman back then - 9 grade was Junior High) I got sick and ended up in the hospital. Since I couldn't play football that fall I went out a got a job. I liked having a few bucks in my pocket so I blew off sports completely and missed out on a state baseball championship.

There is a tendency to fall back into a state of just being comfortable, especially when your ultimate goal is challenging. You need to sacrifice short term pleasures for long term commitment (like giving up a nightly package of Pop Tarts to help lose a few extra pounds - but I'm giving advice here...not following it!)

Job wise, I understand this advice is easier followed if you are 20 years old and not 40. I hope that I keep reminding my sons about this philosophy when they get out of school. We all know people with degrees working at a job that has nothing to do with their diploma. Along the way the encounters trials and chose "Plan B."

Remember what Tom Hanks said, "It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't, everyone would be doing it." If you have a dream worth pursuing, don't give yourself an out with a backup plan.

Happy Selling!

You Tube University

Whether you are unemployed and looking for a new skill set or want to get a little "employment insurance" and upgrade your current skills to safeguard your present job, You Tube offers a great FREE source of training.

Sure there is a lot of junk on the site but there is quite a bit of quality content on You Tube as well. Do a search for whatever you want to learn and then look at the reviews on that particular video. You'll see the number of stars that video earned and the number of views (if it got 5 stars but only has 3 views it might be suspect).

On the right side of the page will be similar videos that are available, many times by the same poster. I am training to increase my vertical jump so I searched for "plyometric exercises" and found some great videos to watch of exercises I can add to my workout program.

At work, I often share You Tube videos with clients and prospects. Maybe they need to learn a specific function in SharePoint and don't want to wait for a class. I quick search turns up several videos with decent ratings that can help immediately. If someone needs to quickly learn about pivot tables in Excel, they can see a video instantly.

Whatever you want to learn there is a video on You Tube to help. There's even sales training videos to help learn or polish your skills. You might think about sharing your own skills and helping others by posting your own videos. The exposure you "could" get will help build the network of people who "know you" or "know of you" and that is always important in times like these.

Happy Selling!

Van Halen - Brown M&M's and the Secret to Success

So what do a legendary rock band and one of America's all time favorite candy have to do with job success? A lot actually!

Musicians are famous for asking for bizarre stuff in their concert riders. The Smoking Gun - http://www.thesmokinggun.com - because famous for posting these documents. Van Halen's rider became infamous in 1982 when it included the class "NO Brown M&M's!" Was this just an outlandish demand by spoiled multi-millionaires or something more? After all, why not just ask for all GREEN M&Ms!

Turns out Van Halen's management were pretty savvy. The point to the no brown M&M's clause was to see if the promoters actually read the document. If the band shows up to their dressing room and found a bowl of M&Ms which included the brown ones, it meant the rider wasn't read very well and warning bells went off. If they couldn't get a simply candy request right, maybe they didn't read about the lighting or sound requirements.

The analogy is simple...listening to what people want or need is the key to success. When I am selling training or consulting services and someone states a desire for SQL help, I am not going to try and sell them Server training. If a potential employer states they need someone with "X" skills, you don't talk up your "Y" skills.

Selling is pretty simple...whether it's IT services or selling yourself in a job interview. LISTEN to what your audience wants and find a way to get it to them.

Happy Selling!

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

How would you like to get a check for a million dollars? Maybe 2 million or 3 million dollars. You could, just use your sales skills. Making millions normally requires great risk. Today it just means finding someone who already took the risks and have struck out.

In yesterday's Wall Street Journal there was an article on the overbuilding of warehouses in the Phoenix area. Over 8 million square feet of space is sitting empty. Billions of dollars spent on a storage boom that never came. So how you can cash in? Figure out how to help the owners fill that space.

You say you don't know anything about commercial real estate? Do you think the person who is writing a mortgage check on an empty building cares? If you figured out a way to help fill a 700,000 square foot warehouse that has NEVER had a tenant don't you think there would be a reward? Duh!

Here's the thing...the professionals have been thinking about what to do with that empty space and have come up snake eyes so far. Who's to say that someone from Waterloo, Iowa couldn't come up with a plan. Selling the warehouse on a tenant is the easy part...finding them is what will get you your million dollars.

The point of this post is simple. Even in bad times there are great opportunities. People with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake are game for solutions from people they may have never given the time of day to in better days. If you spent $170 million dollars on a project that has yet to pay off, wouldn't you gladly pay someone a couple million bucks to bail you out? The banks that are really on the hook sure as hell would!

Find someone who is in trouble...with millions of dollars at stake and figure out a way to help them. Maybe it's a big real estate project like the warehouses in Phoenix. Maybe it's a company whose largest customer just filed bankruptcy. Thinking big today doesn't require taking risks...it's helping someone who already took the risk and reaping the rewards finishing the job.

Happy Selling!