Reimagine And Redefine Your Career To Stay Relevant - Part 2

In part 1, we discussed the 5 most common reasons that justify a career change or pivot. If you haven’t listened yet, I’d highly recommend to do so because everyone gets in a funk, everyone gets annoyed sooner or later with their team members, their bosses, their projects and tasks. That doesn’t mean it’s time to hand in the resignation and storm off. As we know, any type of changes are hard and come with a ton of challenges so you want to be sure you do it for the right reason.

Once you know though that it is time for a change, it comes down to being strategic about it and also intentional with the steps you take as in the end, a job search or business repositioning is a massive undertaking and time- and energy consuming.

So first things first: 

1. Take a step back and get clear on your unique value proposition.

For those who’re new to my world, this is the foundation for everyone who wants to establish their authority brand and/or improve their executive skills. In the end, you need to be clear what makes you tick and why so you can create the best possible playground for yourself. Truth told - not many actually know what their competitive edge is and how they can put themselves into the flow state but this is certainly what I highly recommend you to focus on first.

For me, I look at my brand archetype (which I always say is your DNA, you can’t change that, it’s something you identify with and you’re naturally drawn to). It’s the combination of your personality and your strengths. For me, I’m a magician so anything I can develop or build from scratch, create new IP or innovate products, services and companies- this is my sweet spot. I love it, it’s easy for me, I enjoy immersing myself into exploring all opportunities. It doesn’t feel like work and I can see so many different ways straight away.

So when I then assess where I am and how many tasks fall in this bucket and the type of people who enable me to do that, it already shows that I haven’t maximised this potential.

I’d say it’s about a 6 but I want it to be an 8 because I also want to be realistic. In every business, there is some day to day admin work involved and refining existing products and processes. It’s something I can do but not necessarily something I’d jump into. 

So I invite you to do the same: go through all tasks, projects, environments and people you spend a lot of time with / on and rate yourself on a scale from 1-10, how satisfied you’re with each of the tasks, projects, people and environments and don’t stop there. Put a reason to your score as it forces you to reflect. This is also where your values come through because when you do the exercise, you put logic and language toward emotions and behaviour and that makes you already more aware of possible areas of improvement.

So many people are on auto-pilot and have never done the groundwork to clarify their competitive advantage  so that they can then create a career and/or business around it and can also build their team that compliments strengths and as well as weaknesses.

What made this exercise easier for me and working with my clients is to take a couple of specific personality / brand DNA tests as the results an be a bit of an eye opener and explain certain behaviours and responses. Whilst I always thought living in the future and having so many ideas is hindering me from progressing because I lose interest quickly as I already think of the 5 steps and 10 new ideas after that, it has absolutely been the catalyst for what I’ve achieved to date with my own business. No one can argue or compete with your own IP.

Once you know your natural drivers, motivators and how you’re wired, it’s time to get a little more tactical and take step 2 which is

2. Assess your skills and strengths:

This is one of the most valuable exercises you can ever conduct as often, we just keep doing tasks that we’re most familiar with but don’t take this next step to identify whether they are aligned with our natural strength and have a high level of enjoyment. I hosted a round table with entrepreneurs at the TIF and I was asked a question about how to priortise as a business owner where to invest your time when you have so many ideas and so few resources. Here’s the thing- this is something we all deal with because in the end, entrepreneurship is allocating limited resources to unlimited opportunities. So doing this exercise and focusing on the high capability + high enjoyment level is where the magic happens and this also puts you in control over your sustainable success. I’m sure there are a ton of skills you’ve acquired over time but as I always say- just because you can, doesn’t mean you should :) Once you have that, take it one step further and decipher the results you’ve achieved using these skills and strengths. And this is where the often tricky part comes in as most stop at the deliverable or responsibility but aren’t able translate that into tangible outcomes / results that are relevant for their [future] decision maker. An example might be that you’ve implemented a new CRM system in your organisation. If you leave it like that, you’re falling in the technical expert category as this is an execution rather than a strategic change. When you however, zoom out a little and realise the biggest picture deliverable aka it may be a digital transformation in a highly regulated industry with lots of red tape so that the business is now up to standards and avoid a fine due to not being compliant or you were integral part of this big transition to streamline processes and save the business a lot of money - that’s a completely different value proposition, one that is relevant to often commercial decision makers.

3. Match market with your value proposition:

Now you know what you can bring to the table, the next step is to define where and to whom it would add the biggest benefit, taking also your personality and characteristics into consideration. There’s no point going all in to one industry when you can’t stand what they do or are not interested in and also avoid possibilities where there is no demand / budget for what you do. This is where research and exploring options beyond your previous experience comes in.

For me - it’s the tech space simply because I love learning about it, have built my network in and the overall market trajectory is definitely heading in that direction.So this is how I chose my niche or focus. It aligns the most with my interests, my already existing opportunities and overall market potential. However, when I made the jump from marketing into recruitment, I didn’t have any connections, knowledge and tobe honest, not even an interest in digital or tech because I had not been exposed to it properly so I mostly didn’t understand. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t possible to make the jump.

How i did market research then (which I’ve also done this time) is by having a lot of 1:1 conversations with people who’re already in that space, may it be because we’ve been connected on LinkedIn, or someone knows them and I asked for an intro or because I’ve met them at an event but never had the chance to connect further. Key is to not wait for anyone to run your door in but to be pro-active and set up informal interviews. This by the way- applies for both, when you’re looking to switch a corporate career but also if you want to change direction in your business.

4. Experiment and gain experience:

Depending on whether you’ve had exposure to the industry/ profession before or not but now it’s all about exploring further, expanding your knowledge and understanding. Every industry and even profession has their own lingo and remember- if you’ve been listening to the poddy or have been following me for a little while, I always talk about you having to be the translator of the 2 worlds that you can connect. So learning the specific sayings, technical terms etc is important so you can then take it a step further and explain in plain English and through metaphors, analogies or similies. 

It may also be worthwhile considering some more structured or formal upskilling to fast-track your learning. It could be simply through LinkedIn learning courses, reading specific industry books or blogs or completing a micro- credential.

5. Strategic Networking:

As much as the world is going digital, having strong relationships with key stakeholders and strategic decision makers will never go away. So once you’ve made a few connections, it’s important to keep working on it and continuously expand your network. You will see- no matter the industry or specialisation you get into, it’s always a small village where people know each other.

This way, you get exposed to opportunities that are not publicly announced or advertised, you put yourself in the consideration pool for roles or as potential commercial partners. For me, one of the ways I continuously do it is by speaking at industry events and strategically reaching out to people I want to connect with. Will you get rejections? Absolutely! But that shouldn’t discourage you.

Think about it - in the marketing world, we always talk about the 0.5-2% conversion rate aka if you are getting your message in front of 100 potential buyers, only 0.5-2 people will actually opt in to what you offer so the rejection is in the math :) For me, I always say we’re gathering data - nothing is good or bad, it’s just feedback and with that, we can tweak, change, adjust or go all in with it.

6. Align offline with online branding:

The last step is to update your marketing material and your digital presence. You want all of your assets (which could include your ‘about me’ in your resume, your LinkedIn profile or your website) your new direction. You also want to update your speaker or media kits (if that’s relevant).

If you run your own business, you also need your deck to reflect your new direction as the last thing you want is confusion as we know: confused minds don’t buy. So make sure you explain the change (through storytelling), practise how you would pitch it to a future potential decision maker and also make it clear in your marketing assets. I always say- if you can’t hide it, feature it so this is also your chance now to focus on what makes you different and hone in on it as your competitive advantage rather than being conscious about not having it.

7. Working out loud:

This is when the actual work begins as it means that you have to be extra conscious about sharing your progress, your learnings and milestones achieved and give people a glimpse behind the scenes. In my Trusted Authority framework,

I lay out 3 ways to build credibility, depending on where you’re in your journey. ‘On the go’ refers to documenting as you go and being transparent with your learnings. This is what builds massive trust as you are vulnerable since you don’t know the exact outcome but also relatable as people see you as the real deal. Nobody likes a know it all and people love being part of other people’s journey.

Think about it- how cold would it be if Buffet or Steve Jobs would have documented their journey? But truth told- this is also a tricky part as we’re often so conscious about sharing the details especially when we don’t even know yet what exactly it is or the pitch doesn’t just flow.

And what if we get a rejection? Again, there’s an art and science to it and this is what I’ll discuss in my next episode as I’m currently in the midst of doing it (again) and have done it 3x before. And yet- despite having it done before, it’s still daunting but this is my commitment to sharing my journey, learnings and experiences.  

I’d love to hear from you! How’ve you made the change into something unknown? What do you wish you’d have known earlier before making the change?

Send me a DM on LinkedIn or Instagram and I’’ll make sure to add it to the list (anonymous or with full attribution) .

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