Doing what you love

The name escapes me at the moment, but there is a fun independent line of clothing built around the theme, Do What You Like, Like What You Do.

There is a very big difference between liking what you do, and hating the environment you do it in, and actually loving what you do. You can love writing, but feel like your brain matter is being slowly sucked out each day with every five rounds of approvals your drafts must go through in a traditional corporate or bureaucratic environment.

Some people think that the magic bullet is to quit and become a consultant. Not true. Being a freelance PR agent, or a communications consultant will not solve the problem if you do not plan and structure your business in a way that fits you. We may be tempted to chase the money projects, or take whatever work comes along, simply because we can. But ability should not be your driver, if what you are seeking is fulfilment.

Read what Seth Godin had to say recently about passion – “When what you do is what you love, you’re able to invest more effort and care and time. That means you’re more likely to win, to gain share, to profit. On the other hand, poets don’t get paid. Even worse, poets that try to get paid end up writing jingles and failing and hating it at the same time.” Read the rest of his article here.

The virtual village

If you want to build a village, or empire, you can’t do it alone. When I entered into my own business I decided I did not want to follow the public relations agency model of hiring staff and subcontracting creative services. I have chosen instead to work with a limited number of clients, on larger projects, and develop information products and other sources of passive revenue that allow me to leverage my knowledge, rather than work for an hourly rate, one client at a time. It works for me because I enjoy teaching and writing, and it fits my lifestyle of working irregular hours and balancing this with a young family.

This would not be possible without help – I am big on not wasting my time doing things I am not good at. It is more economical (and far less stressful) to pay someone who has the expertise than to struggle with learning and doing something that takes me away from my own paying work. In today’s world, location is irrelevant. In the past year alone, I have outsourced the following kinds of services to virtual assistants:

• typing and transcribing to a virtual service firm in India – $24 and three day turnaround
• editing and formatting by a wonderful VA in Colorado, Peggy Peterson - who saves my sanity every month
• enewsletter publishing by a friend and former colleague, Wendy of E-Touch Services
• teleseminar and other support from fellow Canadian Erin Blaskie - thank you Erin for getting me started!
• ongoing e-business support from Patti Rahn in Wisconsin – with whom I also enjoy many meetings of the minds and share a time zone
• portal page design to Victoria of Remix Promotions in St. Louis – done entirely by email, in days and for the cost of a few hours of her time! Wow!
• supreme technical support and website redesign (in progress) by David Burch in New Mexico, a web developer who gets marketing and creative services, and can explain it too!

All of these people are fellow ex-pats from the corporate world who have developed their own businesses doing what they love to do. Because it’s their focus, they do it quickly, and expertly. They also don’t waste time, as they are balancing life and client work. They work from home with no padded overhead costs.

All of these projects combined were completed and done mainly by email, paid for by the hour, and at far less than the cost of a staff person for a month. Now if I could only find someone to buy and deliver groceries I will be in heaven.

On creativity for a living

The fear of having to be creative “on demand” – after selling your intangible services and finding a client – is enough to stop many would-be solopreneurs in their cubes. Getting over this hurdle is a necessary step for anyone who intends to work in a creative enterprise. Even if you don’t know where your vision is going to take you, and all you have is a little seed of curiosity about starting your own business, you need to let it grow and take form.

Here’s a couple of favourite quotes on the concept of imagination – “the workshop of the mind” (from Napoleon Hill’s classic Think and Grow Rich first published in 1945:

Gradually, the idea became a giant under its own power, and it coaxed, nursed, and drove me…Ideas are like that. First you give life and action and guidance to ideas, then they take on power of their own and sweep aside all opposition.

Another from Pamela Wallin’s Speaking of Success book: Many creative people must take risks and do something no one else has done. The audience doesn’t want to keep reading the same book or hearing the same tune. Even the award-winning, internationally successful Margaret Atwood feels pressures, and she shared with me her sense of them:

Think of it – what could be more risky than going in with nothing but what’s inside your head and what you can do with your hands? You have nothing else… You have what’s in your head and what can come out by your hands, and that’s it.

So clear those obstacles, and get ready for the ride of your life. In case you’re wondering, the birthday card above was sent from a fellow corporate fugitive on my 42nd birthday, this past summer. We worked together in a corporate communications department many years ago – where the seeds were planted. She tagged me with the nickname Galloping – neither of us remember why - and it has stuck ever since.

Don’t believe everything you read in the papers

Ok, here’s the point where I get all WOO-WOO (insert Twilight Zone theme crescendo) and say something deep like, Choose Your Own Reality. Ommmm… or The Truth is Out There (always wanted to find a use for that one). No offense to my New Age friends, but I am way to Nouveau Prairie practical for that.

Everywhere you look, and everywhere you don’t, there is another bad news story bombarding us. My local paper actually ran a front page article yesterday headlined “Things to Worry About.” Shame on them!

While I can’t argue with the facts of financial bailouts, mortgage crunches, deeply devalued investments (gotta few of those myself), focusing on these things make you feel sick and powerless — IF YOU LET THEM.

I am not belittling the worries of people who are in over their heads in debt, or have worked at a mom and pop business for years only to see their nest eggs slip away, with no time to rebuild them. But if you are in my age group (you do the math, I’m not spilling) and you have a number of years left to work, there’s a world of opportunity out there.

Here’s why I feel positive about the future:

• I have more control over what I earn, how much, and when, then I would as an employee
• companies that lay off people often depend on contracted services
• as a solo-preneur, I control my expenses and overhead and can nip and tuck if needed, and can take on more projects if needed
• I am confident there will always be a demand for skilled communications professionals
• as someone who loves what I do, I continue to learn and keep my edge, so I could adapt to changing circumstances more quickly than someone going through the motions in a job they dislike.

We are meant to be resilient, and we have the freedom to choose our own path. Ommm…