Skip to main content

Freelancer Course: Who Are You?


Question 1 of 6 for the first assignment
What do you want to do? Not your job, but your work, now, tomorrow and in the future?
The first question of the first assignment and I'm already stuck. And this is why I need to be forced to do this introspection. I have not been able to put what I want to do in terms of an actual service but here is what I know I want to do regardless of what role I'm in.

  • Be curious. Be given the freedom to try new things. I was thinking today about all the tools I've been able to try in my current role (perhaps a later post). Encouragement of this desire to learn, either passively or actively, is a requirement for me.
  • Share information. I think better when I have people to bounce ideas off of. Whether that's a responsive PLN or just a mentor relationship with a boss or co-worker, I want to be able to share what I know and what I learn, so I can better apply it.
  • Ask questions. Not so much in an investigative journalist kind of way. More in a "what do you think?" kind of way.  I tend of form opinions slowly, and I find listening to others and asking them for explanations often help me clarify my own thoughts. Questions help me see other perspectives, which is crucial when you are trying to teach someone a new tool or concept.
  • Help people. Cliche, right? I want to know that I've made someone's life easier, made them excited about something they dreaded or just helped them understand something a little differently. I think that's been the biggest difference in my professional satisfaction since moving from marketing to training: I get to work directly with the people who use our products. I can put actual faces and questions to services and products.
What I still struggle with is how these qualities manifest. Do I want to write, which was my first love (even before Steve Perry from Journey). Do I want to present, a skill that is becoming more and more exciting for me. Is it about creating? Connecting? 

More than likely, yes.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's All About Style

I'm a terrible sister. The fact that I haven't talked to my sister in months in no way means I don't care about her, her life or my nephew's latest Evel Knievel stunt. I blame a lot of things for my lack of talk-talk with my sister -- crazy schedules, current addiction to social networking sites, Harry Potter. But I think the real reason is much more psychological (aren't all the good reasons psychological?). Communication style. I'm a writer. She's a talker. I pick up a pen and paper or a keyboard. She picks up the phone. I think to talk. She talks to think. We are opposite communicators and therefore we have trouble connecting. This happens in all facets of life. Your boss. Your coworker. Your friends. Your lover. People communicate differently and unless you can give them information in the medium they digest it best, they probably will only get half the story. But if you can pick up on and cater to those communication styles, you are much more likely to ...
2 comments
Read more

This week's Thank You: The door closer

I have a reminder that goes off each Monday at 8:30am. The reminder says "Write a Thank You Note". I work in a large building, housing several hundred employees during our peak rush season. A large portion of the building is our warehouse, with conveyor belts whirring and totes strolling their merry way to the shipping stations. Within this large building, I work in an open configuration of desks and cubes in a fairly quiet area. Fairly quiet, that is, when the door to the room is closed. That door maintains the balance between concentration-enhancing white noise and a cacophony of heavy steps on concrete, snippets of conversation and the buzz of machinery. Maybe because my desk is closest to that door, or perhaps because I have the concentration of a gnat while I'm procrastinating, but my productivity drops to sloth-like levels when the door is left open by unaware (or less distraction-prone) co-workers. Many times have I looked at the door left ajar, will...
1 comment
Read more

Unchosen: The Graduation Invite

Sometimes I'm really bad at predicting which design a customer is going to choose. And that leaves me with some of my favorite designs unclaimed. I'm going to start highlighting some unclaimed designs here in the blog, as well as some of my favorite designs that were chosen. I'm pretty proud of my concoctions, and I want to show them off! I've been doing a lot of invitations lately, and they are a lot of fun. I'm sticking to the small, intimate parties (no Bridezillas here, please) like bachelorette and graduation parties. My customers have great ideas for themed parties and you just can't find invitations at Target for the "She Got Knocked Up" baby shower. Okay, I haven't done that one yet, but I bet it would be a blast! This unchosen design came from a recent graduation party invitation. The soon-to-be alma mater's colors were green and gold, and the graduate is a big fan of pink. That's where the color scheme came from. Because it was a ...
Post a Comment
Read more