The Recession is Bullhonkey Tess Story - When I Grow Up

The Recession is Bullhonkey Tess Story - When I Grow Up This is part of  The Recession is Bullhonkey series, where I share stories of those who have gotten hired and/or started their own businesses (or sometimes both!) since 2008.  Tess Blankenship  was in my March 2014 session of Career Camp, and  man oh man she is working the Nancy Drew angle of her career change in the best way possible! Her story shows that you dont have to put your multi-passionate self yourself in a lil box that you can have a full-time gig *and* have time to put not 1, not 2, but 3 (!) career ideas in motion. Love! I have no sad story to tell, no traumatic life changing event, years in the corporate world, decent bosses, and good payso what’s the big deal? No soul, no passion. It’s just a job and I now refuse to believe in the camp that says you should just keep any old job and live with just your free time to do what you love. I don’t want to spend the next few decades doing something that doesn’t get my creative juices flowing.   I know it all sounds so fluffy and sometimes I think it still does, but why should I settle for just a J…O…B. I have way more to give and lots to do and I love the feeling of getting so excited with my projects I lose time, feel exhausted and completely satisfied! Since life has been pretty hunky dory in my corporate job, it’s probably taken longer to get out of my own way.   I haven’t kicked the current corporate gig yet and I’m not saying I wouldn’t work for the right company (start-ups still whisper to me), but I’m testing ideas like crazy to see what sticks and what doesn’t. So what’s making me even consider ditching the corporate world? 6 key signs I see now, but missed earlier in life because I didn’t know what I was looking at: Sign #1: In high school, I was the preverbal doer, too many “irons in the fire“, multiple jobs and interests, and doing it all because I loved it. Sign #2: I applied to the School of Business in Undergrad thinking it would give me a career guarantee even though I wasn’t thrilled with typically business stuff.   I wasn’t accepted and ended up in Psychology, a more creative area, which I loved since it gave me the tools to figure out people. Sign #3:   A major career switch from paralegal to marketing manager.   This wasn’t a blind leap, I tested marketing with unpaid volunteer work to build my experience and make sure I loved it before making a major switch!   Marketing was the first job I was excited to get up for every day.   Looking back, I loved it because I could use all my creative skills, worked with interesting people and learned a ton since I was defining my role as I went. Sign #4: Through all the corporate years, I’ve always created things on the side. Painted furniture, created handmade market bags, interior and landscape design, paintings etc. Not all of it pretty and some pretty ugly. Sign #5: I’m a generalist. I accept it and own it now. I do many things well, but don’t have one deep expertise area. I’ve been told being a generalist is a strength since I can bring together seemingly unrelated ideas to create a better result â€" I’d say it’s called ‘integration’ in the fancy pants corporate lingo. Sign #6:   After over 20 years in the corporate workforce I finally realized from a previous boss, I’m really good at figuring out new things and I thrive in chaos, the type where you have to figure what the question is before you can find a solution. I love designing the stuff that hasn’t been figured out yet and I’m really good at influencing people. So what have I finally done with all these signs and my new learning of the word ‘multi-passionate’ and ‘renaissance soul’ from Career Camp? Seriously, I just learned these words no less than 6 months ago and I swear I haven’t been living under a rock! I’ve learned I need to ‘plant’ many business idea seeds to see what grows, figure out what I love and what I don’t.   For many years I’ve been planting ‘seeds’ without realizing it. I’ve planned out several businesses on paper, researched a few others and many were ‘killed’ off in the process. I’ve realized planning is good, but doing is best. Nothing makes you iterate or drop an idea like doing it. One seed I planted a year before Career Camp, was leaving my name with a bricks and mortar shop in case space became available.   Part way through Career Camp a call came from the bricks and mortar shop â€" a space was available and did I want it? Hesitant maybe, then a hell yes because how many signs do I need! So, within 3 weeks I’d launched my side gig of a vintage shop within a shop, Bella Rustico, and a month later the website with eshop and blog.     Sometimes not having enough time is your best friend because it forces you to find the answers instead of finding reasons why the answers might be wrong. Was it hard to start buying inventory for my new vintage shop â€" put cold hard cash behind my idea? You bet, every voice in my head said I was just sinking money into something that wouldn’t sell or I didn’t know my customers very well or I was paying too much on the buying end. What did I fight back with? I became my ideal customer in my mind. I bought based on my imaginary second home, an adorable bungalow. It would be filled with rustic and vintage finds, pieces with a story.   It got so much easier after I bought the first couple pieces, it felt like greasing the skids and I got into the groove. Yes, it was intense and a lot of work to start up! I had to find and remake the inventory, style the space, set up all the business pieces like a license and resellers permit and come up with a business name.   I launched the website, plus launched into two social media channels I had zero interaction with before just to test it out and learn.   Every month I try to focus on one social media channel to learn a bit more and dial it in a bit better. I’ve learned you have to invest your precious limited time to test a business idea, even in a small way, because it’s an investment in YOUR future!   You will always learn from it and a paper only test won’t cut it. I’ve built business plans for other people, I’ve given away my time as a volunteer for tons of worthy groups, but never invested much of my time in my business ideas. I’ve always believed the surest way to succeed is to fail fast and often.   Failing is just learning what works and what doesn’t so you can change directions!   Where else am I investing my time to test business ideas?   Drought tolerant landscape design. I recently moved and designed my front yard with all drought tolerant landscape.   I’ve designed previous landscapes for myself and self-studied so I was comfortable working through the design process.   People continuously passed my front yard and would comment on how great it looked or ask about plant types as it was being transformed.   I casually mentioned to my husband that if so many people were loving it, maybe I should do design work maybe… but I didn’t do anything. The tipping point was several months later when a lovely note landed in my mailbox. A neighbor I’d never met said she loved my front yard and if I could share who did it.   HELLO! this was a ‘sign’ I couldn’t ignore!   My crazy thinking was, I could go out on a limb and offer my design services for free… pilot my design skills to build up my portfolio, see if I could replicate my design process and interpret someone else’s wish list.   So I called left a message and emailed my offer half hoping she’d accept and half not.   She did accept my offer!   I mapped out my design process, questions to ask and figured out a software program I could learn quickly and went into test mode. Where did I land with my landscape design test? A landscape design my portfolio client absolutely loved the first time, a reference book with plant maintenance, how to work with contractors, how to manage a landscape budget and even several vetted landscape contractor references.   All the materials I wish would have been handed to me at the beginning.     I didn’t realize how much information I already knew until I started putting it all together.   She’s working on installing it now and I’m still helping her along the way with the contractors.   I picked up a 2nd landscape portfolio client with double the project size, super picky wife and completely different design requirements. Where did I land? They again loved the first design and even loved the things they didn’t ask for, but I suggested after listening ‘between the lines’. What else am I testing? Local classes.   I’ve taught before, but not these type of classes and I’ve never had to pitch what I wanted to teach.   So I pitched two classes in less than 60 words each without already having created the class content, but knowing I could if they were accepted.   Total excitement and an ‘oh crap I have to create a real class’ moment when both were accepted for launching next spring. Drought Tolerant Landscape Design and a productivity, time management type class, “How to Do it All just not at the same time.”   Where does the productivity class fit in? I want to test to see if my long time personal study translates to sharing it with others.   Will my style, material and approach connect? Do I even like teaching this topic?   I hate hearing two things, “I don’t have time” and “You can’t do it all”. Why? Because you have enough time, but choosing how, when and where to spend your time is where we usually get bogged down. All this boils down to I’m still figuring it out, but now I’m feeling really great that I’m experimenting in different areas. I’m building proof of where I want to invest more time, what works for me and in the end hopefully leaving the corporate gig forever. Tess Blankenship is the shop owner of Bella Rustico, vintage decor that  tells a story and currently testing business concepts for drought tolerant landscape design and productivity with a class on How to Do it All- Just not at the same time. Shes still tied to a full time corporate gig, but ready to ditch it for creative, passion filled work on her own schedule! Follow her on Twitter, Instagram  and/or Facebook. Registration for Career Camp is technically closed, but we dont start for another week and, well, I can talk to the boss about letting you in if youre interested in joining us. Email me at michelle(at)whenigrowupcoach(dot)com and Ill send ya the password to check out the sales page and get yourself a virtual sleeping bag!