Last night I attended the Refresh Phoenix speaking event featuring Pam Slim, author of the blog Escape from Cubical Nation. Pam focuses on transitioning corporate employees to the freedom of entrepreneurship, and gives us some simple steps to freeing ourselves from the bonds of the cubical.  

1. Create your life plan: Visualize where you want to be and what kind of life you want.
2. Find your passion: What do you love to do and are great at?
3. Find your market: Who do you want to help and market to?
4. Execute and Implement: Don’t focus on making it perfect, just start working on it.

Pam instructs that your life plan should always guide the rest of your decisions regarding making the rest of the decisions regarding your new business or career. Make sure to always regroup and say to yourself, “Does this help me get to where I want to be?”  

Regarding selecting a passion and a market Pam says to truly be happy in your new career you should only accept “projects you would do if no one paid you.” This insures that you won’t be overworked and will be able to truly enjoy the life plan you’ve set out as your goal. Joshua Strebel, owner of Obu Web Technologies, suggested to double or even triple your prices to create value of your service as well as to be able to hand select the cream of the crop of your clientele. Pam related this comment with that of high school romance. “If you seem desperate no one will want to date (work with) you. Being secure in your value and turning away clients will make clients see value and be drawn to you.” 

Pam discussed team building and how to successfully build a great support team. She suggests finding a balance between your “big picture thinking” by finding employees who are detailed oriented to compliment you. She warns to not select employees that are exactly like you. If you have trouble on trying to find excellent employees, try finding a mentor in your field that is just a few steps above you in their business and ask for guidance. She sited Bruce Tuckman’s Four Stages of Team Building as a good model to follow as well as mentioning real value in Myers & Briggs personality inventories as good ways to find a truly balanced group. 

Pam also touched on making sure that you keep with your life plan, don’t feel pressured to work a straight eight hours because that’s how you were “taught to work in the corporate environment.” Make sure you take the time to do what you set out to do in your life plan so as to not burn out. Also, during the course of your business, feel free to take a time out and make sure your business is aligned with your life plan. 

I really enjoyed Pam and her opinions, and even though I may never start my own business, I feel a lot of the discussion can help people shape their careers, regardless of whether or not they’re self-employed. :) Thanks Pam!!

Just finished reading the book The Dip by Seth Godin.

I enjoyed it! The majority of the book covers quitting and when the right and wrong times to quit are. As I was reading the book, through my mind I was going through all the times I had quit, wanted to quit or didn’t quit and how those really affect where I am today. I asked myself, “Do I really want to be the best in the world at what I do?” and if so, “How do I get to be the best?”

However, if you take away one single section, I would like you to read the following:

You’re Astonishing

How dare you waste it.

You and your organization have the power to change everything. To creat remarkable products and services. To over deliver. To be the best in the world.

How dare you squander that resource by spreading it too thin.

How dare you settle for mediocre just because you’re busy coping with too many things on your agenda, racing against the clock to get it all done.

When I read that passage. I realized the answers to my questions. To clean my plate, to make what I do all consuming (not too hard considering how much it consumes me now). To quit the busy work, the griping, the worrying. To simply KNOW I’m going to be the best and to do everything in my power to become the best.

I am changing my status, I’m no longer “just the html/css layout lady” I’m the expert in my chosen field and damn good at it I might add. To take the time to read more, study more, learn more, push the boundries, become the best. Look out world!

I always read these on the side of Starbucks cups everytime I get my Venti (some silly word for large) Vanilla Latte. However, they usually never express the way “I” see it. Which may be the point, to expand the WAY I see it.

Anyhow, I read the one on my cup today, and I think it really does have merrit.

The Way I See It #150

All unhappiness and stagnation result from a feeling that you are at the mercy of the world and the people in it. But what a joy it is, what a major shift to strength and power, when you no longer wait around for others to favor and love you, for others to flatter and reward you. Reward and flatter yourself, favor and love yourself.

– Kira Salak, Writer and National Geographic Emerging Explorer

This is what I aspire to be. Self-loving and self-rewarding. I don’t like depending on others to give me the satisfaction of joy and happiness. What I don’t like even more are those people who feel that you shouldn’t be joyful over the simple things in life. What happened to contagious happiness or laughter? Are we all so cynical that life’s simple pleasures can’t be enjoyed?

If you don’t have anything to do tomorrow night, check out Refresh Phoenix.

On the Menu:

Joshua Strebel of obu Web Technologies Inc. will be introducing our guest speaker; author and business consultant, Andy Fuehl.

Things are finally settling into place for me. This new job is going to be really good for me. They’re responsive, team oriented, goal oriented, helpful, honest, willing to teach, willing to learn and so much more. I feel like I really have found a place to grow and learn. I’m no longer bored, or watching the clock. The days fly by and I feel productive.

In other news, today, while I was going to a client meeting, I noticed a familiar face, a woman who I was originally subletting a room with when I first moved here, and whom I hold a lot of resentment for. I try not to stay angry with people who give me a raw deal, but just seeing her today brought back some harsh feelings. I remember first moving here, with no friends or family, not knowing anyone or really anything about what I was getting into. I move in, and instantly I feel like I live with REAL parents, not the type I grew up with (the cool, understanding parents) but the kind that inflict curfews and laws around the house. Not really a feeling I care to have while I’m paying to live somewhere. Anyways, long story short, she kicked me out in two weeks with no where to go because I frequented two bars in one week… I had just moved here for crying out loud! So, I left and then she starts making a fit about all these bills I need to pay and how the carpet needs to be cleaned after two weeks with my dog. Please! Anyhow, sorry to vent, but just seeing her face makes my skin crawl with resentment.

So it’s been one year since I made the fateful move to Phoenix, AZ. I’ve learned a lot in the past year, like how well Ford Contour air conditioners don’t like the desert heat. I still enjoy the area and I think I made a good “rash” decision.Since moving here I’ve gained a boyfriend, a couple of cats, and several good friends. I really enjoy all the design activities that the area has to offer such as AIGA Arizona, Refresh Phoenix and Creative Connect. I feel that this has allowed me to meet designers and developers that have shown me different methods and best practices. Growth is good.

I miss my family, rain and sometimes (not very often) snow. I miss days where it pours for hours and the sky is all green and gray, the smell of wet dirt, squishy wet mud and dirty toes. I miss my father’s smile and the way he says, “You’ll be alright kid.” I miss looking out the front windows at glistening white, dripping icicles and even holding on for dear life to not fall down on slick, icy steps.

However, for all those memories, I now make new ones. Like visiting the ocean for the third time in my life, collecting REAL sea shells while my toes squish into REAL beach sand on a REAL beach. While I wonder around posh art events with tall models and the multi-million dollar marketing companies that do work for large companies that any back-woods American would know. Bumping shoulders with drunk college kids getting in a round of billiards with newly-made companions. All good fun.