Dean and I had the honor Saturday of presenting to Job Connections, a wonderful group that supports unemployed Bay Area professionals. I lead the group through an exercise intended to bring their ideal career vision to the surface. Afterwards I asked what obstacles get in the way of pursuing that vision. The first reply was one I hear every time: MONEY.
There is no doubt that those of us who are not independently wealthy are more concerned with making enough money than nearly anything else. Yet most of us lose sight of how much control we do have over the money we make. Think about it this way. You are like a store that offers your skills and talents in exchange for money.
The amount of money you make is driven by:
- The marketability of your skills and talents
- How well you get the message out about the value of what you have to offer.
This holds true whether you want to maximize your earning potential working for a company or working for yourself.
If you are someone who has been a victim of a layoff, acknowledging your power over your paycheck may seem like positive thinking propaganda, but it’s not. You may be temporarily without a paycheck, yet you’re not without opportunities to increase your marketability and get the word out about what you have to offer.
In our quest to support individuals to create the careers they desire, Dean and I have recognized the real need to help people get beyond the fear of money. We have decided that we can do this better by expanding our training to more fully educate you in the hard skills that are necessary to be successful in today’s business world. For example:
- Learning how to be a more effective networker will enable you to exert your power to get the word out about what you have to offer.
- Learning how to blog will enable you to better promote your expertise to potential hiring managers or potential customers.
- Learning how to customize an inexpensive web publishing platform will give you the power to build and change your storefront without paying someone else to do it for you.
We’re in the process of adding this training to our event schedule. We are very excited about our mission to inspire you to reach for your dreams while educating you on how to use Web 2.0 technology to make your dreams reality. We’d love your suggestions on what kind of training would inspire you to take steps forward towards your vision.
