About our anonymous guest today:
She is a stay-at-home mom of two children who obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in 2012 and completed teachers college in 2013. She said she knew instantly this was the wrong career choice for her. As her personal and family life moved forward, she became a full-time mom and was left with little formal work experience. Over the last year, both of her children are transitioning into full-time school, and she is looking to take the next step to fulfill her career goals.
What is she looking to create?
Our guest is looking for a way to serve individuals (and companies, perhaps) by helping them fulfill their written, communication, and really any kind of interpersonal demands they may face in their business. In short, she can articulate just about anything. She loves to communicate with people. She is the friend that is always in the know about all things pop culture, media, fashion, and what's trending. She is super friendly and easy to get along with, and she can chat with you or give you advice about just about anything under the sun. She is extremely organized, almost to a fault. Over the years, she has become her friends and family's go-to person for organizing, writing, editing, or proofreading just about anything they are working on. She is hoping to provide a service virtually, as opposed to in-person, so she can continue to be present for her family. She is struggling to narrow down what this service would be or what it would fully entail. She wonders: “Is there an industry for this? Did I describe something that already exists, like a virtual assistant, or is there a bigger picture that I'm missing.”
Questions covered in this session:
1. You spoke a lot in your book about using every bit of work experience, whether it seemed relevant to my genius or not, in a way that could be applicable. Frankly, I have little formal work experience. I'm 31 years old with a pretty empty-looking resume, and I'm not sure what to do from here or where to begin. Between finishing school in 2013 and now, I have accumulated little to no formal work experience. Now what? I'm intimidated because I feel extremely inadequate in what feels like a sea of extremely young, ambitious, over-qualified people. Where do I begin? On paper, I feel like I do not measure up.2. Sometimes I think, "my resume doesn't matter because I'm going to be my own boss," but ok doing what? I see so much focus on Instagram and social media about how women (specifically, moms) are bossing up and building their own brand, but I'm not even sure the services I excel at could be marketed at all, let alone be a brand. I feel extremely anxious to start a service of my own because I lack real experience so what would I know? And on the flip side, I am also intimidated to gain formal work experience by putting myself out there because I am older and I am embarrassed that I have so little work experience at this point in my life. I am full of hesitation and self-doubt no matter how I slice it, and I'm not sure how to overcome it.3. Do you have books, podcasts, ted talks, etc. that you can suggest by people, specifically women who may be in my situation? Are there reading materials I can take on to discover my next steps? I have poured my last 5 years into giving my children all I've got, I'm not sure there's anything left for me in the tank. If there is, where can I find it, and how can I navigate my next steps to build something from it?
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