age of the opportuneur - the 7 strategies to successfully make a career change or become your own...
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Gary Brown's 7 radical strategies to successfully change your career or become self employed regardless of a lack of paid work experience in your field.TRANSCRIPT
Gary Brown, Director, The Symmetry Group
The Workforce Revolution & the Age of the ‘Opportuneur’
There is a revolution going on. The financial crisis has taken all the headlines but beneath the headlines major social, economic, demographic and technological shifts have been happening.
Asia, Automation, Outsourcing and Ageing Populations are all contriving to create a whole new world of work.
The smartphone in your pocket is now 10,000 times more powerful than the computers that landed man on the moon.
The advancement and democratisation of technology means that a power shift has happened.
The Workforce Revolution & the Age of the ‘Opportuneur’
An online blog managed to shrink Dell Computers market capitalisation by 300%.
Recently companies such as Blockbusters, Comet, Jessops and HMV have all gone the way of the dinosaur.
The UK’s largest book publishers Penguin and Random House have merged to stave off the threat from online bookstores.
No industry is immune.
If your job can be automated or outsourced likelihood is it will be over the next 10 years.
The Workforce Revolution & the Age of the ‘Opportuneur’
Companies are becoming flatter, more connected, more collaborative, more global, more decentralised, more dynamic.
In this new world of work there is a global talent pool of skilled people everywhere, experienced people are common, but new skills are in constant demand.
In this new world of work your value will depend on how well connected, communicative, collaborative, networked, knowledgeable and specialized you are in your area of expertise more than ever.
Simply having 5 years experience in a particular field is not enough. Your uniqueness will be paramount.
These massive structural changes in the economy, technology, demography and work I call the ‘Workforce Revolution’.
HOW WE FIND WORK
HOW WE FIND AND MANAGE
WORKERS
WORKERS ENTREPRENEURS
THE AGE
OF THE ‘OPPORTUNEUR’
THE
‘COOL BOSS’ REVOLUTION
HOW WE WORK
The Workforce Revolution & the Age of the ‘Opportuneur’
In this workforce revolution there are two types of people. ‘Functional’ people and ‘Vital’ people. Functional people may be great at what they do, but they are just one solution to the problem. Hence, they are replaceable. A Vital person is the only solution.
Functional people execute a set of processes. Vital People are aligned to the result rather than the process.
Functional people worry about being downsized or overlooked. Vital people have their own unique take on things that makes them almost impossible to replace or overlook.
Functional people have a fixed mindset. Averse to trying something new they focus only on getting better at those processes they are used to and make only marginal improvements. Vital people have a growth mindset and know that no matter what they will always be okay to adapt and change dynamically.
Gary Brown
Age of the ‘Opportuneur’
The Seven Secrets to Making a
Successful Career Change
(or becoming your own boss)
Age of the ‘Opportuneur’
The Seven Secrets to Making a
Successful Career Change
(or becoming your own boss)
Age of the ‘Opportuneur’
Workers trade their time for money.
Freelancers seek time and want to achieve a ‘work-life balance’.
Entrepreneurs seek wealth and want to earn a passive income, get rich and retire early.
‘Opportuneurs’ seek purpose and want to create change. They follow their passions and look for opportunities where they can use their talents to create this change.
Control over their time and wealth flows freely from focusing on their passions and their talent.
Today is the Age of the ‘Opportuneur’
Age of the ‘Opportuneur’
Many of us may wish to change career paths altogether, re-establish a career, or start up on our own as self-employed, a consultant, business or social enterprise.
How can you do this successfully without years of paid work experience in the field?
How can you become an Opportuneur?
1. Start with Why?
Don’t chase the next big thing.
Find your passion
If you don’t know your passion start with ‘WINY’:
What are you Interested in Now and Why?
1. Start with Why?
Most people start with what they want to do.
Wrong.
Ask yourself why you want to do it.
Ask why 5 times.
Get to the core of the impact you want to make, the difference you will make, what is your passion and what that means to you.
If you don’t know your passion yet ask yourself ‘WINY’ What am I Interested in Now and Why?
2. Ask yourself How?
What is your Talent?
Your talent will determine how you best use your Time
What is your Character?
Your Character will determine how you best conduct yourself
2. Ask yourself How?
Many people underestimate this part. Want to start your own design business? Great at designing but terrible at sales, marketing, admin?
Your passion (the ‘why’) will only get you so far.
You must fully understand how you work (i.e. your character, your talent) to know where to focus your activity and what type of people or services you need to partner with in order to really succeed.
Take the time to identify and really understand your Talent Profile and your Character Profile as this will determine how you will best deliver value for a client, employer or customer.
3. Then determine ‘What’
What you do will be determined by your Passions and your Talent.
It is not simply restricted to your experience.
Why + How = What
What you do is not restricted to your core experience. The service you deliver, sector you
choose, and legal entity you choose to deliver your service by will be determined by answers to the
questions ‘Why’ and ‘How
3. Then determine ‘What’
Think ITunes Apple had no experience in selling music
but ITunes changed the entire music industry. Now Apple control the whole market and
HMV has just gone into receivership
Think Dr. Dre Andre Young was a rapper and music producer
with no experience in audio electronics but ‘beats by dre’ headphones is now the market leader with a $500million turnover
Lack of experience is no longer an excuse
4. Find your Niche and Add Value
Find your niche within a niche – your ‘microniche’
Solve a problem or ‘find’ the problems and offer a solution
Add Value
Recessions require innovation
4. Find your Niche and Add Value
Once you choose an area or discipline or subject, choose an niche.
Then choose a niche within that niche and solve a specific problem that exists within it.
The mistake most people make is trying to be too general.
The more specific your ‘micro-niche’ is the more unique you will be and the more people will be able to find you.
5. Become an Expert
Become an expert in your ‘micro-niche’. Not the expert necessarily but an expert
nevertheless
Become noticed. Become known.
Become unique.
Build your personal brand
5. Become an Expert
Establish yourself as an authority in your micro-niche.
If you have a passion for it and a genuine interest in it talk about it, blog about it, tweet about, write about it, lecture on it, give talks on it, share your ideas, your thoughts, your comments, your questions, your view.
If you don’t have the answers, define the problem instead and then seek out those that do. Become an expert. Don’t worry about becoming the expert. There may be many. Just become an expert.
The process alone will build your knowledge, your expertise, your contacts and your network. Become noticed. Become known and build your personal brand.
6. Build a Campaign
Advertising is Dead. Marketing is so 2008.
Attraction is king. Pull not Push.
Attract like minded people. Create your ‘tribe’.
Find ‘1000 raving fans’
Think KONY 2012 Think Obama 2008
6. Build a Campaign
Build a network of like-minded people around your ‘campaign’. Either create a campaign or join an existing one.
Link with people who like your ideas, share your thoughts, do similar work, have similar values, understand your cause, share your frustrations or your passions.
Build up a relationship with those in your network successfully and that network will sustain you with projects, partnerships, collaborations, business opportunities, work opportunities, clients and contracts.
7. Freemium
Give it away. Don’t worry about
the money.
Provide services for free. Volunteer your expertise.
Speak for free. Provide free tasters and testers.
Deliver Outstanding Value every time. Build Trust and the money will flow.
7. Freemium
Give your basic services away for free.
If you have limited experience, work for free.
This will build your experience as well as your expertise, network, testimonials, confidence and
more.
If you have years of experience, provide samples, basic services, information, advice, an initial
consultation, whatever it is that adds value for the customer, provide it for free.
Provide an outstanding service every time, deliver real value and this will build trust. Build
trust and they will be prepared to pay you a premium for further or additional services.
The 8th Secret. Fake it ‘til you Become it
The 8th Secret. Fake it ‘til you Become it
Adopting the focus, the language , the non verbal communication, the stance, the emotions of a
successful person in a role, position, job or opportunity when we have yet to obtain that
position, job or opportunity not only has an impact on the person or people we are seeking to influence, but it has a profound impact on
ourselves too.
By internalising the focus, the language , the non verbal communication, stance and emotions of
who or what we want to be, we become that person more quickly.
Watch this video for more:Click here
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Get the e-book at Amazon
The Top Ten Secrets to Finding the Right Job Right Now – available for Kindle
Other books by author Gary Brown from the Workforce Revolution series due out in 2013:
The Job Hunter Revolution Age of the ‘Opportuneur’
The Cool Boss Revolution
Copyright Gary Brown www.thesymmetrygroup.com