Archive for February, 2015
She Quit Her Teaching Job to Become a Coach, Author and…Teacher
Many people take a winding path when they quit their jobs to do something more meaningful. I’ve written about my own journey that took a number of unexpected turns before I began my consulting business.
It might run in the family! My sister, Kristen Sutich, left her long-time job as a kindergarten teacher in the summer of 2013. She became a certified coach, starting a business that focuses on clients with grief issues and or parents of young school children.
Those areas might overlap – I know plenty of kids who give their parents grief!
While Kristen launched her coaching business, she wrote a book of tips for parents of children who are starting kindergarten. She knew that a published book would be useful in many ways: the hard copies are something tangible she can give to clients, authoring the book demonstrates her credibility as a subject-matter-expert, and it is one more way that she can reach prospective customers.
Then, just before publishing the book she decided to start teaching at a preschool near her. She was drawn to their creative approach, started as a substitute, and quickly became a staff member.
If you had asked her in July of 2013 if she thought she would be teaching preschool a year and a half later, she would have said no – she just quit her kindergarten teaching job!
Yet, by following her interests and building on her experience, Kristen now enjoys teaching preschool, giving book readings and growing her business by connecting with people who may need her coaching services. These three roles complement and add value to each other.
If you’re leaving your current employment soon or have recently started a new career path, keep an eye out for unexpected routes. Once you start putting your time and focus on what brings meaning and enjoyment to your life, you may discover opportunities that you wouldn’t have thought of before. Opportunities that lead you closer to your happiest career yet.
P.S. You can purchase The Kindergarten Toolkit for Parents on Amazon. It manages to be cute, interesting and helpful all at the same time.
How I Got From There to Here
When I first decided that I needed to leave my corporate job for my health and happiness, I didn’t know what else I would do for a living. It was the summer of 2012, and while recovering from a series of cold and flu’s, I read several of Martha Beck’s books. Most notably, Finding Your Way in a Wild New World, that I link to on my Resources page (I receive a small commission for items purchased through this link and appreciate them very much!). The book helped me broaden my thinking and to expect to discover little hints and nudges that would point me towards my next career.
I also did a series of mind mapping exercises. I took blank paper and markers and wrote words that described what I valued, what I enjoyed, and what I was good at. Then I drew lines to connect the words and phrases that had something in common with each other. What I discovered surprised me – I was very interested in ambiguous problems, and doggedly researching clues and analyzing my findings until I had a resolution. And then I liked to write up my results in a report. As I considered what I’d learned from Martha Beck’s books and looked at my mind maps, I thought the obvious conclusion was that I should be a detective. More specifically, a Private Investigator.
All the pieces lined up: I wanted to focus deeply on finding the truth and the details in missing persons cases, skip-tracing people who failed to show up for court dates, and run background checks. The results of which I could package into neatly organized reports for my clients.
I was so certain that this was my next career move that I got certified to work as a PI, wrote a business plan, took a human footprint tracking course, and registered a domain name for my future investigation business: Truth and Details.
As I completed more and more of the items in my plan to quit my job, I decided that immediately after quitting I would spend a month in writing classes at Boulder’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics before launching my PI business. Then in the weeks before heading out to Colorado, a former colleague and I decided to start a real estate investment company that would democratize the way people invested in rental properties.
Suddenly, the PI business was on hold: I could start that at any time. I wanted to immerse myself in writing for a month and then when I got home, to bring this new business idea to life. The writing classes were great. The real estate business didn’t take off. I still believe in the concept, but it would have been a risky, long-term investment and I needed income.
So I turned to consulting, which I always thought of as a backup plan. It turns out that I love consulting, and use many of the skills that attracted me to investigation work. I like to unravel clients’ problems, analyze data, formulate solutions, and wrap everything up in a tidy report-out of results.
I did not transition into the business I planned on in 2012, but taking those steps gave me the confidence and preparation I needed to get to where I am now: in a satisfying career that aligns with my interests and skills. It is interesting that my company name and values remained the same: providing clients the truth and details they need to achieve their objectives.
Backup plans: I like them
In the tech world, I’ve always been drawn to the practice of redundancy. I’m not at all embarrassed about it – I embrace my geekiness.
Redundancy means you’ve planned well and are prepared for problems. Back up your data on another drive or in cloud storage and if your PC crashes you can recover your work. Sync your phone with your PC address book and when you get a new phone, your contacts are transferred over. For big projects, have multiple servers running your site so that when one goes down because a technician accidentally kicked the power cord out of the wall (this happened) or forgot to apply a patch (this also happened), your customers can still find you on the web.
I also like backup plans for business. Cash reserves keep you going if business slows down or you have unexpected expenses. Maintaining a wide network of contacts provides more future opportunities if your current situation doesn’t work out. Having more than one fine-tuned skill lets you be flexible if the business landscape changes and there isn’t a strong demand for what you used to do.
When obstacles appear, backup plans let you handle them more effectively. When everything is running smoothly, they give you more options.
Gotta keep this short – I’m having fun installing a new backup drive and creating a system image for my PC. One handed. Because the other hand is flyin’ my geek flag!
Wave those geek flags!
What we do for money
I was talking to a friend the other day about how people believe they are limited in their career choices because of money. We both know many people in well-paid professions who aren’t happy with their jobs. They work exhausting hours or feel like their skills are being wasted, or they can’t stand their work environment. The options they consider include finding a similar job elsewhere or toughing it out and hoping things improve.
There are more options, of course, but many people eliminate the ones that involve scaling down their lifestyles unless they are forced to. Expensive houses can be sold to live in smaller, more affordable homes. Luxury cars can be traded in for economical models. Resort vacations can be replaced by… camping. I’m laughing as I write this – I’m not much of a camper. But you know what I mean.
The point is, if you hate your job but love your paycheck, is it worth it? There’s no judgment if the answer is yes. It’s great to have money to spend on things that we enjoy and different people have different priorities.
I’m glad I got to experience some incredible vacations in the past, and my biggest expense is still my mortgage. But I spend less and save more in order to have the career that I want. And I wouldn’t trade it for a bigger house or a Mercedes or an annual trip to the Four Seasons Hualalai.
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