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ChangingCourse.com, Find Your Life Mission and Live It

Issue 155

January 11, 2007

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Changing Course is dedicated to helping you:

~Live Life on Purpose
~Work at What You Love
~Follow Your Own Road

Inside Today's Issue

Featured Article

Having Trouble Changing Course? The Solution May Not Be What You Think

Featured Resource

You Can Get Paid to Do What You Love

Guest Article

Resources for A Change

View From the Other Side

If you don't like the way the world is, you change it. You just do it one step at a time.
~ Marian Wright Edelman

Having Trouble Changing Course?
The Solution May Not Be What You Think

By Valerie YoungValerie and her dog, Cokie

One of the best parts of my “job” is getting to hear how someone I’ve somehow touched made the shift from dreaming to doing. I’m not talking about achieving their dreams, although that’s always great to hear when someone has finally taken the leap. But I find it equally exciting to learn about the small successes.

Just this week I received lovely box of handmade chocolates in the mail. It was a gift from someone who attended the annual “Work at What You Love” seminar this past July. The note read, “Thanks to you, I can’t look at work the same way anymore.” High praise, especially when you consider it came from a college career counselor. As far as I’m concerned a shift in how we think about work itself is progress. And when it comes right down to it changing course is really just series of small steps – and as you’ll soon see, the right information.

All these progress reports from others got me thinking about my own journey from corporate America to self-bosser. So I decided go back and take a look at the very first article I wrote for the inaugural online version of Changing Course back on August 8, 2000. It was a question and answer exchange between a reader named Anne and me.

In case you weren’t around in 2000, I thought it might be helpful to share it again:

Dear Changing Course,

I have been reading, planning, thinking, taking notes, etc. on starting an at-home business. My love is sewing and crafting and faith in God. My idea? Creating and selling inspiration quilt blocks. The problem? It seems that almost 95% of what I have read about at-home business and finding your life purpose/path ends up being based in a service-oriented business. It seems like providing a service vs. producing a product is the truly sustaining career path. Am I wrong?

I love my husband, my family, my friends - I am blessed with a myriad of beautiful and loving people in my life. What I am missing from 7-5, Monday-Friday is my "life." Any advice?

Anne from Wisconsin

Dear Anne,

I am not sure what you are reading but as I flip through my
copies of Entrepreneur, Business Start-Ups and other small
business-oriented magazines, I see no evidence that service businesses have an edge on those that sell a product. In fact, in some instances, products
may have the edge because people can "see" what they're buying.

The issue for anyone thinking about starting a home-based business is not service vs. product. The real question is: Will people buy what I have to sell? Finding the answer means you have to do your homework. The first thing you need to do is determine who your potential customers are and where to find them.

Not sure where to begin? Here are seven ideas to get you started:

IDEA #1: Approach local specialty gift stores about selling your quilts on consignment. You'll have to sell your wares to the store at wholesale but your expenses will be next to nothing.

IDEA #2: Sell your product from your own website. This may be a little labor intensive at first but would also allow you to reach literally millions of potential customers. Contact spiritually like-minded sites to propose setting up reciprocal links.

IDEA #3: Investigate what it takes to get into specialty catalogs featuring hand-made products aimed at your target market.

IDEA #4: Place classified ads in magazines, church newsletters, ezines and other publications aimed at people who share your faith to see what kind of response you get.

IDEA #5: Craft fairs abound this time of year. Do a little "on-site" research by walking around and seeing what other vendors are doing. Compare prices, style, quality, displays and so on. If it looks like a viable way to market your craft, get a table of your own.

IDEA #6: Talk to other crafts people about their experiences. You'll find that most people -- especially entrepreneurs -- are only too happy to share what they know with kindred spirits.

IDEA #7: Experts come in book form as well. Barbara Brabec is one of the more prolific authors on succeeding in a crafts-related business. Check out:
"Creative Cash: How to Profit From Your Special Artistry, Creativity, Hand Skills, and Related Know-How," or "Handmade for Profit: Hundreds of Secrets to Success in Selling Arts and Crafts"

For your convenience, both books are now available in our bookstore at ChangingCourse.com/bookstore.htm

As for advice about what to do about your life being "missing" during
the workweek... the first step to reclaiming your life is to
believe you deserve to have one!

To learn more about the difference between making a living
and having a life, I invite you to read Step 1 of my "10 Steps to
Escaping the Job World and Creating the Life You Really Want"
ChangingCourse.com/articles

Finally, perhaps the most important thing about pursuing a dream is to just
begin. Why? Because as the great opera diva Beverly Sills once said, "You
may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try."

Valerie Young

Linus Pauling once said, “The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.” Even though this particular Q&A is seven-year-old, re-reading it got me thinking about some common myths about changing course. Like, for example, the mistaken belief that the main reason people don’t strike out on their own is because they’re too afraid. I don’t think it is fear that holds us back. What I think keeps most people stuck is a lack of information. I mean, if you were Anne can you imagine how excited you would be to receive not one, but seven solutions to your problem?

Which leads me to the other huge misconception namely, that it “takes money to make money.” The truth is there are only two things you need to make money – a creative mind and the information you need to implement it. Think about it. What if someone handed you a fistful of money and said, “Here… go start a successful business doing something that would make you incredibly happy.” If you didn’t have a clue as to what would make you happy or you had a great idea but absolutely no idea where to begin, where would you be?

I’ve seen firsthand how information and a little creative thinking can literally change lives. So over the years I’ve tried to deliver as much information and as many ideas as possible. It was a lot easier to answer individual question in 2000 when I had around 900 readers than it is today with more than 23,000. As much as I’d like to, there’s just no way that I can respond to everyone personally. That’s why when I created the Fast Track Your Dream Community, I wanted to make sure there was a place where the Anne’s of the world could go to get their individual questions answered – and that there would be more people than me to answer them.

So in September I started a training program to teach people how to start their own business helping people figure out how to turn their interests into income. It has been an incredibly gratifying experience to use what I’ve learned over the course of a decade to help others start their own businesses in about three months. I was even more excited when this new cadre of Outside-the-Box Career Consultants (AKA “The Dream Team”) agreed to staff a password-protected Q&A Forum just for Fast Track Members.

One of the people who signed up for the Creative Career Consulting Certification Program is Ken Robert, the author of this week’s Guest Article. Starting in couple of days, Ken and dozens of other creative minds from the U.S. and Canada will be popping in and out of the Fast Track Your Dream Q&A Forum. They’ll be answering – and as importantly, posing – questions to help people like you to find the information and ideas you need to turn your passions into profits.

The great idea lover George Bernard Shaw once wrote, “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” Exchanging ideas is powerful stuff. The more people there are generating ideas, the more ideas there will be for everyone. And if lots of people are sharing their ideas just imagine how much fruit all of our collective ideas will bear. It’s like an ongoing virtual idea fest!

As some of you already heard though, there is a flip side to all this personalized Q&A and idea sharing…

Giving Fast Track members so much individual attention also meant I had to make the tough decision to limit the number of people I can accommodate to around 200. I know this means that less than 1% of the 23,000 Changing Course subscribers will be able to get in. But I decided it was better to disappoint a few people initially than to bite off more than we could chew at the Q&A Forum – and then not be able to properly serve the people that get in the program.

Registration for Fast Track began a few hours ago. The response has been incredible. In the first hour, more than 25 percent of the seats are gone. At this rate it looks like 50 percent of the membership spots will be spoken for in the first 24 hours.

Things are really crazy here today. Right now my plan is to keep the registration process open for two weeks or until we reach 200 members, whichever comes first. Given the tremendous response I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen. If you aren’t able to get into the program initially, once things settle down in a month or two and I get a handle on what the Q&A Forum coaches can handle, I’m hoping to open up the program to more people.

If you’re ready to fast track your dream then click here to learn how you can become one of a select group of people to turn their interests into income in 2007 (ChangingCourse.com/fasttrackyourdream.htm).

About the Author

Off the beaten path career counselor, Valerie Young, abandoned her corporate cubicle to become the Dreamer in Residence at ChangingCourse.com, offering free resources to help you discover your life mission and live it. An expert on the Imposter Syndrome, she's presented her How to Feel as Bright and Capable as Everyone Seems to Think You Are program to over 30,000 people.

Find more articles written by Valerie at ChangingCourse.com/articles/

The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty YES to your adventure. ~ Joseph Campbell

Featured Resource

You Can Get Paid to Do What You Love

 

This Time Next Year, You Could be Living Your Dream of a More Flexible, Satisfying Life…

 

Please Join me as One of a Select Group of People Who Will Turn Their Passions into Profits in 2007. Starting Here. Starting Today.

 

You really can escape the 9-to-5 world. You can find ways to do what you love and get paid for it. Lots of people have… 

…like Beverly who finally pursued her love of decorating. Today she goes into people’s homes and shows them how they can redecorate on a shoestring budget using the furnishings they already have.

… or like Bob, a former public school teacher, who now runs snowmobiling tours in Quebec in the winter and sells vintage car parts out of his barn in rural Massachusetts in the summer.

A whole world of possibility exists out there. It's just that sometimes -- as I suspect you well understand -- it's hard to navigate your way through it on your own…  

You know you don't want to be doing what you're doing… yet an escape plan hasn't exactly materialized… 

That's what I would like to help you with -- I'd like to give you the tools and support you need to discover what you love to do… and then get started doing it… right now.

When you join the Fast Track Your Dream Community, you gain all the tools, resources, expert guidance, mentors, and networking you need to reinvent yourself faster, more efficiently, and more economically than you ever could on your own.

That's because I'll give you every single proven and effective resource I've created or uncovered in the past decade… books, special reports, worksheets, audio recordings, and more… all designed to help you discover, follow, and achieve your dream, fast… 

Plus members can tap into an incredible amount of targeted, timely, expert advice through monthly teleconferences hosted by dozens of experts I've lined up to teach you how to quit your job and get a life.

And that's just the beginning.

A group of Outside-the-Box Career Consultants is always on call to answer members' questions. The "Dream Team" as I call them are there to help you brainstorm ways to turn your interests into income, navigate any nagging fears and self-doubts, deal with the dream dashers in your life...

And there's a lot more, too…

But what it comes down to is this: If you're ready to propel yourself from where you are today to where you want to be… if you're ready to turn 2007 into the year you finally gain the freedom and flexibility and satisfaction you've always longed for… then the most efficient, time-saving, and cost-effective way to do it is as a Fast Track Your Dream Community member.

Learn more and get your new life started, today at ChangingCourse.com/fasttrackyourdreams.htm

Every artist was first an amateur. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Guest Article

Are You on the Wrong Bus?

By Ken Robert

How do you know when you’re headed in the wrong direction? It’s easy to miss your destination if you’ve given no thought to where you’re going. If you took the first job that came along, or the one everyone told you was right for you, with no consideration for your own desires, you may feel as though you're traveling on the wrong bus headed somewhere you never wanted to go. That feeling came over me one day like a thick, green cloud of exhaust fumes.

I was sitting in a hotel conference room listening to a mantra from the pages of a popular business book, “Good to Great” by Jim Collins, a book about how good companies become great ones. It was required reading for everyone in management, and on this particular day the members or our region business team seemed very excited about one line in particular. Get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus. They really loved that line. They repeated it over and over.

Get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus. In other words, hire the right people and fire the wrong people. Not exactly ground breaking, but it really seemed to excite the speakers who chanted it. The rest of us took it as a thinly veiled threat we could deliver to our teams or apply to ourselves, but it impacted me in an unexpected way.

Get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus. In my mind I saw a bus filled with passengers dressed in business attire and clutching briefcases. I realized my job was a seat on that bus and I noticed how so many of the passengers around me clamored and scraped for their seats, how they played games to take them from others, and how, in order to keep them, they often held their tongues, stifled their thoughts, and pretended to be enthused about where the bus was headed. And after all that clamoring, maneuvering, and pretending, most of them spent much of their time complaining about their seats and dreaming of the day when the bus would finally stop and let them off at a place called retirement.

Get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus. Over and over they chanted it, and each time I heard a voice grow louder in my head: I’m on the wrong bus. I’m on the wrong bus! I’M ON THE WRONG BUS!

I realized I’d spent a good portion of my life on one wrong bus after another, trying to fit in and keep my seat. But no bus would ever be the right one, because being a passenger on someone’s bus had never been my dream. If I were ever going to reach my destination, I’d have to get off the job bus and drive my own dreams.

Are you on the wrong bus? Here are five telltale signs to help you decide.

  • You purchased your ticket using price as your sole criteria. Even though you don’t buy a job, money’s definitely a major criterion when choosing a career. If money’s the only thing keeping you there, that’s a very strong sign you’re on the wrong bus. You wouldn’t take a bus to Toledo when you want a trip to Vegas because a Toledo ticket was half the cost. Why would you settle for work that sucks the life out of you, even for higher pay, when you deeply desire to be inspired and energized?  Drudgery at double the salary is still drudgery.
  • You hopped the first bus out of town. Did you take your current job because it was the first thing to come along? Maybe your circumstances didn’t allow you to be choosey, but yesterday doesn’t always dictate today. Start taking steps right now to get your own set of wheels.
  • You took this bus because everyone else was taking it. Your friends were doing it, your father or mother did it, or maybe your family has been doing it for generations. But you’re all grown up now and life is not a game of Follow the Leader. Mary H. Jacobsen wrote an entire book about the perils of “Hand Me Down Dreams.” Start exploring other destinations, find out where you want to go, and look for the first safe exit.  If your parents jumped in a lake . . .?
  • You find yourself looking out the window and wondering . . .  What lies beyond the streets you’re traveling? That bus you’re on, the job you took some time ago, may have been just the thing you needed. A job can teach you the ins and outs of a business, develop skills you never knew you had, and yes, pay the bills, but it’s okay to change. It’s okay to grow. I’m giving you permission to explore new options. If you find yourself in a daydream stay with it and see where it takes you.
  • You just can’t wait until the stupid thing stops. Constantly checking your watch is perhaps the number one sign you’re on the wrong bus. In all my travels (all the jobs I’ve ever held), once I got beyond the learning phase, once I’d mastered the ins and outs of the job, I was bored - painfully bored, and I watched the clock like a time keeper at a sporting event.  But taking the steps to build my own business rooted in things I truly love serving the kind of people I love, I only check my watch to make sure I haven’t missed an entire day. And that’s a clear sign you’ve taken the wheel and started driving your own dreams.

Doing work you love transcends time. You get lost in it. You’re absorbed by it. An intensity comes over you and as Barbara Sher writes, “Life is just too short to live without that kind of focus.” And it’s way too short to spend riding around in circles on a bus going nowhere.

About the Author

Ken Robert is a Creative Career Consultant, Writer, and Idea Freak who loves helping people find creative and exciting ways to make a living doing what they love.   During his fun, idea-popping, 90-minute brain storming consultations, Ken leads clients through a full blown exploration of their passions and purpose and provides them with soul stirring ideas for sources of income that flow from who they truly are and what they truly love.  He offers follow up coaching and is available for speaking engagements as well.   You can contact him at ken@creative-career-ideas.com  or by calling 1-888-TRULY-YOU.  Find more details at Creative-Career-Ideas.com

 

Editors Note: Ken Robert is a member of the Outside-the-Box Career consulting team who will be answering questions on the Q&A Forum. The Forum is available to members of the Fast Track Your Dream Community. Look for more articles from the “Dream Team” coaches the coming months. 

Click here to learn more about the Fast Track Your Dream Community.

Nothing is predestined: The obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings. ~ Ralph Blum

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The Changing Course Newsletter
Copyright 2007
Lisa Tarrant, Editor
Valerie Young, Publisher
info@changingcourse.com
www.ChangingCourse.com
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Montague, MA 01351

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First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. ~ Epictetus

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The View From
the Other Side

“We praise people who want balance in their lives, but reward those who work themselves to death.”

~ Roy Neel, former President Clinton’s deputy chief of staff who quit to take a job allowing him to spend more time with his family.

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Resources for a Change

 

John Lennon Song Writing Contest

The current session of the contest is closed. But if you are a song writer you may want to get in the loop for the next round or just go to get free songwriting tips from famous musicians like Al Jarreau, the Veronicas, Pat Methany and others (JLSC.com).  

Greetings Magazine

I subscribed to this magazine over a decade ago when I had my own line of humorous greeting cards (at least *I* thought they were funny!). Much of the magazine is aimed at the larger greeting card industry, but the classified section lists greeting card companies looking for lines to represent as well as greeting card designers seeking reps to add them to their line. It’s also a great way to just get a feel for the business in general and to, as Barbara Winter puts it, “join the conversation.” (GreetingsMagazine.com/greetings/index.shtml)

How to Start a Home-Based Catering Business  

Author Denise Vivaldo shares her experiences and advice on every aspect of setting up and running a thriving home-based catering business, from estimating your start-up costs and finding clients to outfitting your kitchen and staying profitable. The book covers how to define your market niche, sell yourself, establish your daily schedule, price your services, organize parties hone your food presentation skills, avoid the 10 most common home-based mistakes, and much more. (Amazon.com)