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How & Where to Research Career Ideas

Lesson 20 from: Create Your Dream Career

Michelle Ward

How & Where to Research Career Ideas

Lesson 20 from: Create Your Dream Career

Michelle Ward

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Lesson Info

20. How & Where to Research Career Ideas

Lesson Info

How & Where to Research Career Ideas

Considering today's theme is exploration, I wanted to spend a few minutes on the wear and how to research your career ideas, right? So by now, hopefully especially for those that have been here were like at our at our halfway, just over our halfway point for this course. So you should have should I'm not saying that word? You probably have some careers in your mind that you keep coming back, teo, and they could be really scary ones that are in the back of your mind that really why didn't really tiny and really little or they could be ones that air shouting to you right now, but what's the career you keep coming back to that you want to know more about what's exciting you in this moment, right? So sometimes we like to overthink about things and analyze and talk ourselves out of it, right? But really, the bass line is what career idea is exciting you in this moment, you could write it in your workbook pick seventy eight we want to hear these answers in the chat room. We want to share you...

r answers on twitter or facebook with the dream career life hashtag and remember no censoring vampire voices are not allowed in this exercise tell them thank you for thank thank you for telling me about your fears and wanting to keep me safe but this is just something that I am exploring today's theme is exploration this is not a commitment to do anything but research again we're only just over the halfway point through the entire course so keep the pressure off of yourself this is on ly what's exciting you what feels exciting I know this is really scary to talk about anyone wanna volunteer joe and I feel like you've been so quiet the segment I want to call on you know not really now I'm still in the that's okay everyone is right we're still this is not this is not michelle this is what I've decided and I'm going to announce it to all the people watching it's not it's this is what's interesting me right now this is what's exciting me a little bit this is what I'm potentially considering I'm still I really love the publishing work done huh and so I can see that as being central I would love to find a way to bring my photography into it during travel great with greats so you could write publishing plus photography plus travel okay that could be the potential career and we don't know what it's called we don't know what it looks like but it's there and you know what the components are that's absolutely an answer okay that's a great answer for right now love that and we're going to come up with a passionate career idea generator to see what that means, what we need to smush together, what that means, and we're also we're going to talk to jeanette gorney tomorrow who's, a recent former client of mine she's going to join us from bali because she has a hard life and, you know, she's amazing. She left her long term relationship, she left her stable job and she says, I'm going to travel, I'm going to take pictures, I'm going to tap into the spirituality piece that's important to me, I'm going to power others and I'm going to write so she just recently ash launched a site called traveling light dot com so she's she's figuring it out now how to put travel and photography and writing and spirituality together and it's gonna look different for everyone? Yes, e like I just had ah ha moment and I think it's because of something you say yesterday, it's not the or is the and I can do these things together and before what I was feeling was like, I have to quit my job because I can't do that, I have to do this, and now I'm kind of seeing that I can do it hank aaron and you get as much together too if you want right so it's like how do you bring in jewelry and designing and accessories and fashion and style to helping other people in the work you've done with kids and it's interesting when you start thinking of that instead of oh my god, what on my pecker hanging right uh legal uh fitness coaching and ma running and it encompasses like possibly writing and traveling and, uh, skin care I mean, it kind of covers a lot of my interests, I think great. Okay, but it's not a commitment it's just like what you do but you see the expansiveness of use see how it could blossom so much on you could pivot and do you know today a modeling team coach and today I'm teaching today I'm writing today, teaching a course in creative live that's attic what's going through in the chat are people being strong? I know this is a hard thing to say out loud no, they're coming back with the careers that they really keep coming back to that they want to pursue and they're excited about laura is saying newborn photography oh that's a whole new field that's like exploded nicky's saying floral design and botanical illustration oh that's a good one amanda is saying art director, artist and desktop publisher hell, yes. Shelley says I want my dream is to work in performing arts the theatre in broadway in some capacity maybe you two should talk. Yeah, you know, she just e mailed me yesterday. So hi, shelly. I'm hel guess shelly in the chat if you see me, I winterbourne says she's still got the scary idea that she wants to be a web design designer, but don't be scared by that. I don't think you know, I don't want to say don't be scared, okay? I think being scared shows you that you care about that thing, so don't try to push the scariness away just welcome it and know that if you're pursuing the thing that, like I've said before and I'll say a million times again feels equally scary and exciting as long as there is excitement with that fear, then like food, there is nothing to be afraid of. It's what you're supposed to start looking into, who else wants teo? I want to just I want to hear from like all of you, really? Jenny, I, um I wrote down that I wanted to pursue something that was more about being an educator organizer with an element of charity or giving back like that if I did teach chris classes or had a way for people I'm gonna come and just hang out, make crafts that maybe we could do in a thad or maybe just them learning those things that have some personal development portion of it and those are all things that you know I never really put together huh? Sense and when I think back on when we did the dream and I was like seeing people after I wrote this and wrote my, um like the ideal job description, huh? I thought this looks just like my dream, but I didn't have like the words to go with the dream yes, yes, so weird chills again I'm getting like a million children today like the shit going way that could be a great collaboration oh my gosh for sure jennifer what did you what do you write? I mean, we know we know, right? We know what we're reading is awesomeness coach a thing I'm amazed balls coach baseball amaze balls coach is already thinking already, okay, but yeah, so all my coaches a co creator of awesomeness then yeah, yes, co creator of all and I love this right? This could be really great if there's career that like you know the title of it doesn't excite you or it just doesn't say what you wanted to say or if it's something that you don't know what the title is yet make up your own so literally writing the career that I keep coming back to that I'm exciting, excited about is co creating awesome, and that says a lot to me, yeah, and, you know, maddy gave me a shout out yesterday, j k o for maddie, absolutely. So I told her she said, what is it that you want to do that you're thinking you want to do? And I said, if people want to be awesome, I want to help them be awesome and as a co creator, you're talking about the relationship, right? That it's not just right, it's, not me being the creative creator of I'm not going to make you also where will your going? There means co creator of awesome dot com go buy it at the break no one by co creator of gossip dot com leaving for jennifer. Really good idea. Jenna, what are you ready down? So first, I wrote travel photography, which I think I've been writing a lot, but then I thought about it and added consulting because it's not that I just want to go take the picture I want the picture to, like, be part of a story. Uh, and then I thought about how I like managing and organizing and other things and like, I'd like tio, consult and give ideas and tips. I love it I'm gonna mention briefly tomorrow, but I'll mention her again now uh my former coach and to your friend her name is kylie velarde she's at effervescent stop me and she does coat empowerment coaching and she does professional photography that she ties them together so she says it's empowerment through photography and so it's more than just I'm taking someone's head shots or you know I'm photographing this wedding which I don't think she actually does a lot of but it's I'm helping you gain your empowerment through photography so it's interesting if you think of it that way well why you taking these pictures and wanted to tell a story? How could that connect tio what you want to work on with? You know your your client cool fantastic jen, where are you right now? Uh I don't know. Yes you d'oh you're writing something down. I see there's writing what? You ready down alright so I keep coming back to this idea that I like. I like interviewing creative people about the creative process. Yes, talking to them about that. Yes, why is that? And I don't know why is that a like I was idea people already you're doing this nobody's going to pay me for this? I don't even know how to set up a video tio dio they're all these roadblocks already the vampire voices there they are. There they are one right after the other all telling you the reasons why you can't see what are some reasons what you can do it, jen, not that you're going to do it. Not that you're committing to do it, but just it's only fair, right? So if you're coming up with the reasons why you can't do it, one of the reasons why you can do it, um, well, because I am actually I really do love to talk to people, and I'm a really good listener. I do want to learn a little more about other people's creative process to connect with them and collaborate with them, and I just feel like it's kind of inspirational, and actually these are things that really help people through transitional times and that's I mean, that's, where I go during a trend, my transitional time is listening to other people about what they went through, and so then that information will help people. And you were also kind of touching on wellness coach ing on this stuff before and that kind of wraps. So do you think that's kind of a wellness? I was actually thinking it was leaving that out, but I never personally, I just heard all about the personal transformation in the growth, which is that over and over and over that we've been talking about with you so it's really interesting that this could be the project that encompasses all that think you're a coach, you know, but that's, that's, exactly. I heard that also, there is a lot of personal transformation and growth in that I would yeah, right? And I have to tell you, they're millions of not millions, hundreds of thousands people working in personal transformation and the growth field. But you know what? They're not you. They're not in your voice there, not with your experience there, not with your story there, not with your unique personality there, not you. Uh, one of my favorite stories. I'm surprised I haven't mentioned this yet. My co author of the declaration of you, jessica swift, she is an unbelievable talented pattern, surface designer and illustrator and artists. And right when I quit my job, I was so excited because she came to town. She lived in a glance at the time she came to new york city. We already started working on the declaration of you. It started as an e course, like way before it became a book. And we have known each other for about a year, but we had never met s o we like decided we're collaborating on something we're working on something together. I cooked her, she made a custom painting for me, and she was coming to town for a big, uh, trade show called surtax for surface designers, and it was like two or three months after I quit my job, and I was so excited because I said to her, I'm gonna come help you, like, I want to go to the javits center, and I got a name tag, but I was, you know, just a swift, you know, employee helper, when I sat next to her as she talked to people about her work and people came through, and I asked her questions and pricing and whatever, and when she needed to go to the bathroom, I said the artist is in bathroom, she'll be right back, but what was interesting was that there were a lot of students walking the traits show a lot of students seeing the work, and someone came up to her and said, oh, I love your work so much, it's. So, uh, you know, don't you think that there are too many surface designers and there's just not room for any more, and I was expecting just I wasn't expecting just to say like yes you're right there's no more room for surface designers but I expected her to give some sort of an answer of like well it's really hard have to work really hard and you have to do this not in the other thing and you know, those are the kind of things that I was told as an actor, right? Well you could do it maybe but it takes hard work and you need to catch a break and you need to be lucky and you need to look like this and I was expecting that sort of answer to come out of her mouth and instead she looked this woman straight in the eye this is not the answer this one on one and she said no absolutely not said walk the show with a new set of eyes and see how different every single booth is even if the genres are the same, you're going to see similar looks you're going to see similar styles but within those similar looks and styles there's going to be differences and there's room for every a single one of us and the woman I think was willing not happy because I think she wanted the outright she wanted her to say like yeah, you should really give up but I love that story and I loved hearing her say that stuck with me now for four years so so you know, I know that voice that tells you I'm not enough and I'm not special and I'm not unique and I'm not different but again go to google type in creative career coach see the pages and pages and pages of people who pop up and take the first five legs and look at them next to each other and see and know you're going to resonate with this and not with this this looks interesting not with this this offering us different this person's educations different this person's experience is different this person says amaze balls in place of pink ukulele this person doesn't and so you know there might be if you look at creative process interviews you might find tons and tons of tons of pages but there's none being done by gen well what I was just thinking when you're talking is well so then the first thing to do is to reach out to one of them and see if I could talk to them right and we're gonna talk about that in the second jasmine I know you kind of just got here but is there anything that's in your head that you keep coming back to well on that note I'd like to go back really fast and just say that if I may like for me that the inspiration that I kind of get is um you know for me what what helped me was watching like it's very specifically um film uh like it south by southwest I went to the film segment and I watched a lot of the movies there and you see like real people making real documentaries about really like really legitimate things that interest them whatever it is and you start to see that like, hey, I could do that I could make that like that's something I see every day or it gives you a little bit more um, of a realization of how easy it can be to kind of jump that gap of being creative with that day to day what you see and give yourself a little more credit for what you already know s o if I could recommend that I helped my creative outlet a little bit I was really surprised by that it hit me in an interesting way and I thought might help because you seem really creative but wanting to health and maybe if you can further cause that way to that might be an outlet for you well and that's an interesting point for you it might be film and someone else might wanna listen to podcasts someone else might wanna watch ted talks and someone else might want to read books and so you know it's all about the voices that we resonate with and if you put yourself out there it's so hippy dippy but it's true if you put your authentic self out there this is who I am. This is what you're gonna get when you buy my thing when you read my thing when you often for my thing like this is who you're getting your attracting the right people and and that's how you're finding your community of people that want teo, uh, connect with you and work with you s so what is it that you're thinking about? Well, to be honest, I think I came up with something so interesting that I'd rather not okay, you want to keep it to yourself, you might see it. Yeah, it just got excited about something. Okay, all right. I'll allow it for now. Thank you. Ok, no problem. Okay. First to know that. Okay, good band. I'm gonna hold you to that. So the most helpful thing that you could do to learn more about your career, right? So in researching, like, how do we find out more about these ideas? Oh, do we have more chat stuff? We do, but I mean, I was actually just thinking something as you you have almost talking because what it looks like what's going on in the chatroom again is we're still getting these people whose dreams and they're coming up with the people who told them they can't do it it's so automatic rain like we have to excuse ourselves right away and I remember that because I mean, when I wanted to get into tv I actually wanted to be always on camera but I've started in production on I was told I'd never get it because I can't direct apparently that was just something that somebody around randomly throughout may and things like that all those comments I remember talking to a girl who was from jordan and she was saying in the countries like that there's another lady from tunisia and they're they're always told they can't do anything as well and that's that's a cultural thing you have to move beyond because you can do anything you want if you really trouble you need that support you you know yes it's possible to do things without being supported it's possible but it's really hard really hard and it's not any fun and so let me just say again goto when I grow up coach dot com slash creative live you will be part of the dream career creators closed facebook group just pop in your e mail I'm going to send you the link to the facebook group you're gonna be amongst the other dream career creators there's already I think about fifty people in there and I haven't been able to approve anyone all day, but I I will at the end of the day um and I'm gonna be in there and you're people are going to be in there and other people that are going through this and doing this work are going to be there so you know when you're in tunisia and you're in it that's amazing to me honestly that's one of the coolest things about what I do when I have clients that are in israel that air in puerto rico that are in the uk that air in france and I'm ableto reach them that's because of how this wonderful thing called the internet way just do what you are just found out about the internet um let's just talk about the most important thing the best best, best, best best way to find out more about your dream career ready it's a really difficult it's a really hard it's going to take a lot of effort and money it's going to be pretty impossible and that thing is to talk to someone who's working in that career now and I like this image because these were just like two gals probably in paris and they're just chatting it up this doesn't need to be an informational interview you don't need to go into someone's office with the suit and a pad and say here my questions about you know, doing ah creative process interview usar here is my questions about you know, travel photography like it doesn't have to be this thing it's always amaze balls to me is besides the fact that with my clients we don't ever not find the how once we find the what but when they want to know more about a career even when it's a far out career I'll say do you know anyone that does that or know anyone that knows someone that does that they always say yes always they always say yes or I actually get in front of them and say, I know someone that does that you want me to send email because I love connecting people because I'm about relationship building so we need to stop going off assumptions we need to stop going off of this doesn't make any money I need this degree this is going to take five years like all of the things that we've told ourselves about that particular career idea where we're suspending it we're suspending those beliefs until you talk to someone who's doing it and hopefully when you talk to them about their own path unknown experience you're also now that you've done all this work you could put that through your own filter and really be able to say it was their experiences that gonna kind of mirror my own experience does this sound like the same reaction I would have something that they might not like you might be able to recognize oh I would like that part of the plot so you're not necessarily if they tell you don't like this job, well, you're finding out why and why not? And what would you do differently and your own questions to put it through your own filter? Okay, but if no one comes to mind, ok, I still want you to find ways to talk to people. So here is how to find a career interview, a number one ask on the facebook, right? Just how easy is it? You don't have to say like, I'm gonna quit my job and I want to find a new career like you don't just say that you could stay hey, I want to talk to somebody who is a fitness coach, uh, and it could anyone put me in touch with one the end, like, I guarantee you, oh my gosh, there'll be someone that if they don't know someone that I follow this person online and you could look up their stuff and maybe send them an e mail through the contact for him and maybe they'll talk to you, um, you can go to the game career creators group, which I just, uh mention when I grow up, coach, dot com slash creative live any single time you guys were in that group, if you're in it right now and you want to talk to someone about a career just post it right now I want to talk to this person and we'll see what connections we could make linked in is actually more robust than a lot of us think it is so when you're in the home page once their logs and you click contacts in the network dropped down filter I wrote this down to remember it on dh in the network drop down and you could filter your job titles and companies to watch and see who you're connected to so you could go toe linked in and type in type in health coach you could type and let's say you want to maybe do window dressing you could type in anthropology where you could type in window dressing and it's automatically going to give you your first degrees second degree and maybe even a third degree connections is going to tell you how you are connected so that's a really, really great tool I think also look just looking up cos looking up contacts, joining groups lincoln hat has thousands of groups that you could join your alumni group that's a really great connection and so you're able to see see the post that are going there you're able to say I'm looking to get into this career anyone doing this I'm willing to talk to me the fact that they're part of your alumni association could really make a difference you could also if you have some chutzpah you could join the groups that are related to the career you want to know about, and you could join it and then just asked that question anyone willing to talk to me or even just see what they're discussing that might really give you some insight into what you want to dio okay, facebook's search bar is also more robust than you think you could actually put in the face bar friends who work at anthropologie uh, people who work at artist and you could see and your friends list who comes up and so that's like that kind of blew my mind when I learned you could do that because I thought the facebook search bar was only to write names of people and email addresses to find people. My grown up gigs interview siri's at when I grow up coach dot com slash g iven interview syrians can, uh, where for the last couple years now I interview people who are have dream jobs and it's, an inside look at dream jobs held by real people, and I'm doing more and more interviews every month actually, the book I mentioned before by terrorist sofia more she's coming on grown up gigs next a week, and we're going to talk all about how she found her way to her current. Work and all about playing big so you could go there you could just peruse I have kind of organized everything by job title so see what's sparks your interest see what's there and you're gonna find when you click the length is gonna lead you to either a video interview and there's an mp three with every video or a written interview by that person and if there's someone that you want to see profiled your career you want to see profile then then treat me or facebook me and I'd love the I love the suggestion the career connections board on pins arrest this is your last resort, right? So pinterest dot com slash when I grow up coaching us there's no w and grow because it was too long uh that's where when I find information on like salary information what cos they're good and blah blah blah I like place it online places that connect people meet up dot org's is there like that's my pennant there so it's not as good as talking to people and getting that connection but it's still uh you know it'll it'll get you there eventually. Yes jasmine I liked that I thought it was really clever and that you made it group like a play and grow up with the group yeah, it kind of wasn't um but you could see no, I know when I initially did it I cap, it was twitter and I capitalized w I g the u and the sea so I was like, when I grow up, coach and then I realize, oh, you take the w away it's still reads when I grow up, coach, because it was gr ow capitol u p and I've made that my twitter handle back in two thousand eight, and then I did it in lower case o when I croup coach aye, but okay, thank you for this grieving environment is really I'm finding it's really helpful. Nice, like a lot of people around my same age in the same industry and, you know, different don't just enough variations of everything that's part of what I think is really beneficial being getting to be a studio audience. Well, that's, that's great. And I'm glad you said that. I think it goes back to that accountability buddy like, if you know you need that accountability, if you know you learn best in a group environment, I say this to people who come to me and say, should I do your group program? Or should I do your one on one? And I say, if money's not an issue, you you just know how you work best, you know, like they're people that say, I know I'm going to hide if I'm in a group setting or I know I'm going to get lost and I need that individual attention if that's you then like, you know, you need something more, but I think group experiences are so powerful and great yeah, before we wrap up anything in the chat, any questions and think that anyone's happening so really there's the questions that bean voted up many, many times, so I think we should ask if you think some people are asking why we have three minutes left, you know, sort of fits in with this all about reaching out except because some people are saying they're basically very private, but the idea of putting themselves out there is very scary is they don't really want to be on things like facebook or blocking et cetera do you have a solution to the people who were really scared like social media? Yes. And now, uh, I think you have to get used to doing scary things to do this work, and I think you have to get used to telling people what it is you're looking for, and I know how scary it is to go on facebook and say, I'm I'm looking to talk to a health coach or a fitness model anyone know anyone that is not I'm leaving my job tomorrow and I hate it so everyone that works with me who's on facebook now you know that I'm leaving it doesn't say that facebook actually I think one thing they really do right are the lists so you could have that ask just for your friends just for your family I filter my friend lists on facebook so that when I'm posting pictures of my daughter it goes to people who I haven't flagged as acquaintance says, I don't want those people to see the picture so you could do that but you know, you could always send private emails you could always do things a bit more privately but like let's take advantage of the internet and the connections we make and it's gonna be a baby step for you to start talking about what it is you want to be doing I think that that's an important piece we can't shy away from that it's absolutely right? And I think also people are a little bit scared of ridicule, which they just don't need to be mean, we had some really wacky ideas, didn't we? Yes, yes, but you know, I think so what? So what? And I think what we need to remember is that people are usually so thrilled to help you like they want you tell you go to someone and say I really want to talk to you, joanne did this with pola that was that was a good spot, right? So paulo is here talking about being a project manager, and joanne said, uh, I talked to you more about being a project manager and they, you know, exchanged emails and, like, it takes wants, but to go and go up to her and wait for you don't know she is and do that, but that's, that's what we need to be doing that's, how we're connecting, we can't be showing away from that at all. I mean, that was some of you covered in second one where you really don't identify some really bizarre ideas, but we're so entertainment people made them work. We have the lego builder and yeah, there's a lego builder making like, probably seven figures, exactly a lego artists, a grown up man, and they were bed there were black here once and that but that's just one that stuck in my mind that people made it work for themselves. Anyway, jenny, you're, um you're a crafter and you do embroidery and crowe shows exactly. Now I'm sure at some point somebody said you'll never make a business out of that, but you have and you've used your talent to do that. That's inspiring, I think, to a lot of them, the people watching, and I think the people who are scared to death, I'm also scared to death. I flew across the country and came here. You know, I'm talking in public, and I'm scared, but it's something that you have two d'oh jell o wrestling wei let's, put it back to to our proudest moments, were really pinpointed. This stuff that we did that showed us how brave we are and how courageous we are and how strong we are in the face of the things that's scare us. They're the things that we don't have control over, that. Those were the moments that have made us proud. So think of this is the start of your next proudest moment.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Michelle Ward - Create Your Dream Career Workbook.pdf

bonus material with enrollment

Michelle Ward - Operation Creative Career Cheer.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

jenscerri
 

This class was sooo incredibly fun and inspiring. It was wonderful to meet Michelle and interact with her in person. She is warm, kind, approachable and genuinely passionate about helping creatives find a career they can love. Having been raised to believe that the only route to a secure retirement was to find a job with a pension or, at least, a good 401k, this class gave me the courage to believe that I could do work I love and still finance a fabulous life in retirement. It also put things in perspective because it helped me to see that I deserve to be happy as much as anyone else who has carved a successful niche for themselves doing work they feel good about. And, it reminded me that if I try something and discover it isn't the right fit, the worse that can happen is that I go find that job with a pension at that point. So what? Why not me? Amen! xoxo, Jen

MomisaPhoto
 

My dad used to tell me, "You don't get to do what you love. You just learn to love what you do." For years and years, I've been wandering from job to job wondering why I just wasn't feeling the love, no matter how much I learned to be good at what I do. Although, I tried to resign myself to the idea that work would always be something to dread day in and day out, I couldn't help but day dream about the elusive "perfect" job! I searched for years for tests or counselors who could help give me some direction as to what I would be good at and just before I lost hope, I found this class. I snuck it in during work on my cellphone (shh don't tell lol) and was running back to my desk when I had to be pulled away. It's nice to know someone understands what I've been going through and Michelle's energy is just so positive and motivating that I know that I can make things happen! I watched the free live broadcast but even before the end of day 1 I knew this class was a resource I'll gladly pay for! I would and have recommended this class to many people I know feel the same way I do! Changed my life! We're not made to fit into a mold so why not create your dream career! My review in one word? Amazeballs!

bypaje
 

I purchased this course and made sure to finish it before 2015 started. It was so easy to go through the course and I made sure to be diligent in actually doing the activities and homework. I never knew there were other MULTI-PASSIONATE out there like me! I thought I was just a confused human being who needs to figure out her life! Haha! Michelle's energy and passion to help others are so eminent in the way she presents and guides us. I love the setting of Creative Live as well because I felt involved with the studio audience despite having to watch these sessions by myself. :) I learned so much about myself, about how I can incorporate my multiple interests into a unique ball of career perfectly molded for me, by me. All thanks to the help and wisdom of Michelle's experiences and talents. What a great end of 2014 and a great way to start 2015! THIS COURSE IS WORTH YOUR TIME AND MONEY. :)

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