Are You Trying to be a One-Man Band?

Photo by Jaroslaw Pocztarski

At one point, I wrote resumes for local television media on-air personalities and reporters in news, sports, and even weather. During time, I learned their jargon and the insider details in the media industry.

For instance, I learned how television market rankings are defined. Did you know that each area has its own market ranking. Wausau, Wisconsin (where I live) has a market ranking of 135. New York tops the list at #1. (Surprise?)

Television reporters, anchors, sports reporters, and even meteorologists rarely can make large market jumps.

One of my clients, a meteorologist, jumped from the Wausau market at 131 to Grand Rapids, MI at 31. That’s a huge jump!

At the same time, I worked with a number of sports reporters. One, in particular, taught me terms that cross over into news reporting too. “One-Man-Band.”

Used as a verb, a reporter who is “one-man-banding” will both shoot a story and do the reporting. This is harder than working with cameraman who films the story while the reporter does the interview. The reporter has to concentrate on positioning the camera, doing the on-air commentary with the appropriate background, and interviewing subjects for the piece.

Business owners, like myself, often try to one-man-band it too.

We try to be all things to our business, accountant, marketer, sales, web designer, social media expert, as well as whatever our actual business does. Recently, I have been trying to be a little less of a one-man-band and outsource to professionals who can leverage my time.

Some job seekers try to be a one-man-band and do it everything themselves.

Fear of asking for help or paying for professional career marketing strategies and resume writing services often deprives them of the career move they desire.

For unemployed job-seekers, the temptation is to not invest in career help.

The fear of not being able to pay next month’s rent or mortgage payment is ever present. But if that investment could shorten the job search, how much does it cost you to try to one-man-band your career management strategies?

When I leverage my time by becoming less of a one-man-band, I can do what I do best – help others reach their career goals. How about you? Is it time to analyze how you do things?