Yes. It’s a shitty picture. But, perfection isn’t my top priority.

Doing work and art that matters is a higher one.

I’m publicly taking and publishing the required exercises in Seth Godin’s Professional Freelancer Course on Udemy. The required exercises force you to ask: “Am I Taking This Path for The Right Reasons.”

I completed the first five (5) lectures and first exercise this past Saturday morning. It’s great stuff taught by The Godfather Himself: Mr. Seth Godin.

Seth asked his course participants to go all-in and publish their assignments. As I perform the course exercises, I will publish the results. It’s Seth teaching his students to write down, commit to, and deliver on our personal manifestos.

Here’s my public contribution and commitment to Seth’s class: 

Part 1 Assignment: Who Are You?

What do you want to do? (Not your job, but your work, now, tomorrow, and in the future)*

*If you’re having trouble answering this, you’re going to have trouble moving up, because you’ve abdicated your dream to whomever walks in the door next.

I want to do work that’s meaningful to me by genuinely helping others improve their professional livelihoods. That’s why my personal mission statement is to teach other people and organizations how to market their expertise on The Internet.

EVERYONE who runs a business is an expert at something. She/He can be an expert in an organizational design and executive coaching firm serving Fortune 500 companies with over $30 billion in revenues. Or, she/he can be a growing lawn and landscaping service who does great work in a specific neighborhood’s subdivision (and wants to command the Number 1 spot on “that subdivision’s list” as the go-to lawn care and landscaping provider).

I want to help these people spread their expertise and grow their respective businesses so their buyers find them. Why should “the big guy (or gal)” company always get the first shot. Why can’t “the little gal” have an equally competitive market presence (or better)?

They can. If those individuals (and organizations) are willing to learn, I’m willing to teach them.

Who do you want to change, and how do you want to change them?

I want to change the mindset of the people (and organizations) who are my current (and future) clients that “this online presence, social media, content marketing strategy, blah blah blah, Internet stuff, etc.” can’t have a measurable, bottom-line, revenue generating result.”

It can. I know how to do it.

It requires a creativity and know-how that begins and ends with defining a measurable, business outcome.

Those business outcomes when specifically defined can be measured in credible, proven tools like Google Analytics.

The reason others aren’t successful in measuring the bottom-line, revenue generating impact is because they value the easy-to-track metrics in one-off scenarios (i.e., vanity metrics: “likes” / “shares” / “page views”) more than evaluating the overall set of activities forming a consumer’s path to completing a specific behavior impacting overall revenue (i.e., become a subscriber).

A 21st century buyer’s journey is comprised of multiple activities (online and offline) that have to be looked at from an integrated view. People and organizations have to execute integrated marketing strategies because consumers don’t interact with “just one thing” when making a purchasing decision.

Consumers interact with “multiple things” when evaluating a purchasing decision. That evaluation is further complicated if the price point for services exceeds a specific threshold.

Part 2 Assignment: Who Are You?

How much risk? (from 1 [a little] to 10 [bet everything]), how much are you willing to put at stake to make the change you seek?

I’m already at a 10. I decided in November 2014 to leave Corporate America and pursue the career and work I want to do for the next 35 years.

I’m driving the bus. I’m in control. If the bus crashes, I’m wrecking it on my terms.

That’s what I want.

How much work are you willing to do to get there? Be specific about the tradeoffs.

For the first time in years, I’m getting up at dawn without an alarm clock to excitedly do one (or more) of the following: 1) Work I’m Billing to Clients; 2) Work I Know Will Help Me Grow My Business — Reading/Researching Important Books and Articles, Writing and Publishing My Blog; 3) Work I Know Will Help Me Increase My Professional Skills as a Professional Freelancer (aka “working your curriculum” and “doing and publishing research with your personal spin” as Dorie Clark teaches in her great book, Stand Out: How to Find Your Breakthrough Idea and Build a Following Around It).

The tradeoffs are massive. I don’t get a lot of sleep. But, I’m able to focus and be productive without distraction while my family’s asleep. That’s a big deal especially now that school ended for my kids, and they’re at home. I have a narrow window of unfettered productivity.

That “working window” is mine to lose.

The other thing I have to balance is physical exercise.

I can’t just work constantly. I’m at my mental peak when I’m taking care of myself physically. That means cardiovascular work (i.e., running, walking, biking). Finding 30 to 45 minute exercise breaks is challenging.

Most importantly, I can’t just turn my back on my family. Yes, I’m taking tremendous pride in the client work I’m doing and the consulting practice I’m building. That feeling or rush from building something I own is indescribable.

But, my daughters are still very young. I want to be part of their lives and a good dad. I want to be a good husband to my wife as she works full-time while I’m building my business. She just got a new job, and I’m so proud of her. She already worked in a challenging healthcare field, but she wanted to grow her skills and knowledge beyond her current field of expertise. That took huge guts on her part. She’s a gutsy, smart, and hippy-chic woman.

That’s why I married her.

I’m still figuring this work-life balance thing out. I’m still learning how to do it on the fly. Maybe, there isn’t an easy solution. I don’t know.

If you want to be successful in something in either your personal and/or professional life, you have to be “all-in.” Everything good in life is a gamble or a calculated risk (e.g., relationships, parenting, career moves, etc.).

It’s what you decide to do “after-the-flop” that makes all the difference.

Part 3 Assignment: Who Are You?

Does this project matter enough for the risk and the effort you’re putting into it?

Yes. See the answer above.

Is it possible — has anyone with your resources ever pulled off anything like this?

Yes. Dorie Clark writes about successful people who’ve reinvented their careers and lives in her remarkable books: Reinventing YOU and Stand Out. She rocks and is beyond wicked smart.

David Meerman Scott describes what people in my position have done to exploit openings and advantages in sales and buyer processes in his great book, The New Rules of Sales and Service. I’m a huge fan of David’s work/art. I’ve bought and studied every book he’s ever publishied. He’s been an incredible friend and mentor since 2009. I still have yet to meet him personally. I owe him several good dinners and beers. I hope to make good on that promise someday.

Avinash Kaushik has published two thoughtful and insightful books on web analytics and measurement around the concept of “defining economic value” in online behaviors: 1) Web Analytics: An Hour a Day; 2) Web Analytics 2.0.

The success stories highlighted by Dorie, David, and Avinash all have a central theme: these people had the courage to just get on with it. They bucked conventional wisdom and established thinking.

No more asking for permission. No more giving a shit or caring about what other people think.

The winners dove in, got their hands dirty with data, and figured it out from there.

That’s it.

It’s not rocket science. But, it requires courage, guts, heart, sweat, and an all-encompassing belief to trust MY instincts.

That’s why I know and believe I can pull this off.

I’m finally back to trusting MY instincts. I’m finally back to trusting MY swing.

 

Your Turn

Please let me know if you agree or disagree with my thoughts in the comments. I would love to hear from you. I’m here to read, listen, and learn from YOUR PERSPECTIVE.   Comments are open. So let’er rip!

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