What happens when you move past the possible?

If you haven’t yet stumbled across Jim Connolly’s latest project, the Creative Thinking Hub, you are missing something special. His article, How to do the impossible, particularly caught my eye. Read all of the article when you finish this one and then savor these words from Jim:

Rethinking your possibilities

Take time out today, to rethink your own possibilities. In particular, examine the stories you have told yourself, which may have wrongly removed possibilities from your treasure chest of options.

It’s not a huge secret that Jim is my marketing coach and mentor. He’s been guiding my business in December 2009 when I left Wausau Whitewater.

Here’s the back story:

I’ve always had an interest in how marketing works. When I reviewed Wausau Whitewater’s contract in 1997, most of it, frankly, from the legalize of the contract looked totally boring. But what caught my eye was the clause that said:

work with the corporation’s public relations firm to assist in the production and distribution of materials for media and the public.

In retrospect, even that sounds boring, but it sounded like I was going to be trained by the PR firm.

It didn’t work out that way. The PR firm handed a pile of boxes and I learned marketing for Wausau Whitewater on my own through trial and error. I got better at marketing and I did get some pointers from media here and there. Wausau Whitewater turned out to be more fun than the original contract looked. But I didn’t get the marketing training I wanted.

I bought marketing books and read.

By reading blogs from marketing people, I gleaned the right direction for my business. But I still yearned for something more personal and more direct, especially with the advent of social media. Somehow I knew that social media was key when I discovered it in 2006.

When I left Wausau Whitewater in December 2009, the first thing I wanted was to build my business, Design Resumes, the right way, with the right marketing. I followed Jim Connolly on Twitter and his marketing blog had become my favorite. Right before Christmas in 2009, I e-mailed him this:

For quite awhile, I have been studying your blog and your website. As you know, I disconnected from Wausau Whitewater to pursue Design Resumes as a “real” live business for the first time in my career. There is no marketing person in the world that I would rather have coach me than you…

And that was the beginning of me starting to reach my goals.

What’s on the other side of possible? The impossible. It was impossible at first to think that someone like me would have an opportunity like this.

It was impossible to think that a business built on contract income could survive without them in the worst economy in 80 years. But I did more than survive. Thanks to guidance and encouragement from Jim, I set out solo, finally running Design Resumes on my own.

Those contracts from the non-profits were a nice base income. However, they were also a huge draw on my time and energy. By then Design Resumes was 27 years old and I never really marketed it at all.

I guess you could say when I left, I opened my treasure chest of options.

If you take the time to read the article by Jim, you will hear him tell you How to do the Impossible. There were plenty of people who whispered I was crazy. They told me I would be sorry I dropped contracts which often represented 50% or more of my monthly income. But they were wrong. I found peace in the midst of the storm and a way to correctly market my business.

I have been blessed with the best clients who are now literally all over the world. I finally figured out the Julie difference, why the way I deliver career marketing services and strategies resonates well with my clients. The people who work best with me like the personalized touch of being part of the whole process.

Personalized touch

Working with Jim via Skype during our coaching sessions made me realize I could replicate the personalized experience. I would be able to match the experience of clients who met personally in my office with clients throughout the world.

The Skype share screen option meant they would see the resume as it developed just as if they were sitting across the desk from me. I could to ask them probing questions and find accomplishments and stories as if they were across the desk.

As my clients follow me from website to website, I demonstrate social media, write LinkedIn profiles, and show them ways to market themselves as job seekers. A new delivery system was born!

Today, I want to say thanks to Jim who has helped me move past the possible into what seemed totally impossible!

Stuck in your job search or just ready to move on or up from your existing position? I can help you! To find out how, Click here!