Experience gains plus the right mindset equals victory

This months newsletter is focused on should you make a career pivot?, the power in recognizing small victories, and 5 tips for accelerating in your new sales role. The Weekly Nugget focuses on providing weekly marketing ideas, tips, and strategy nuggets to help grow your startup, small business, creator project or professional career.

Most of the initial topics I’ve recently been writing about have been focused on my work career coaching and mentoring marketing & sales folks, young professionals, and mid-career people considering a career pivot.

I will continue to provide career coaching advice, but I’m going to begin shifting content towards detailed success stories and nuggets of wisdom gained from my previous roles, as well as in-depth interviews with successful entrepreneurs of startups, small businesses, and creator projects. You can subscribe to my regular content here. I hope you enjoy this journey with me.

The pandemic was a tragic time in American history, however, there were a few blessings that flowed from the overall experience. The first is that many people were able to live a stronger work/life balance while being more productive at their job due to the boom in remote work (and saving on commute time). Secondly, more than half of workers were stuck in the house daily and had a lot of time to self-reflect on their personal life, career, family and what was truly important to them.

For many people this meant making a pivot in their life that would reap more joy, contribution, social impact, or financial prosperity long-term. If you’ve been considering a career pivot or you’ve just now decided that you need to make a change, this article is for you. Here are the main reasons why people make a career pivot, questions you should ask yourself, areas of discover that you need to consider, and direction on setting your expectations. Read more about “should you make a career pivot” here.

For the entrepreneur, there will be a lot of ups and downs, cycles, and waves to ride. Here is a very important lesson to learn as a startup founder, small business owner, or creator. I wanted to share something God has shown me in life and in business the past few decades. There is power in recognizing small victories.

Recognizing small victories helps you stay motivated, and it builds momentum towards the big victories. Back in college at a regional angel fund where I worked as an intern creating due diligence reports, I remember the owner (a very smart guy) telling me “As a founder, your plan and forecast will always take twice as long, and cost twice as much as expected.” I’ve found this to generally be true from past experiences. Read more about recognizing small victories here.

I recently polled my following on LinkedIn to get feedback on where people found their last job. The results were surprising. Zero used a staffing agency. In my 32 years of working, I’ve gained 3 jobs from using a staffing agency (Randstad US, Robert Half, and West Coast Careers). From my experience, these three organizations have amazing professionalism, dedication, and customer service when placing candidates.

I was also surprised that almost half of respondents found their job from a friend, referral, or someone in their professional network. Obviously, this is ideal and why people should really start focusing on building a professional network as soon as they graduate high school. Its great to see that this strategy is working for people.

Sales is still the dominant field where someone with or without an education and experience can chase after their dream of financial success in any number of industries carving a new path for their career. This advice today is more for the junior salesperson or someone who has recently decided to pivot to a career in sales.

The five tips for accelerating at your new sales role are aim to master the fundamentals, embrace digital tools, slow is smooth, and smooth is fast, get an A+ at the easy things, and be bold. Read more about “five tips for accelerating at your new sales role” here. ?

If you’re considering a career pivot or need mentoring in business, marketing, or sales - you can schedule your first session here .