I’m Losing My Grip Here!?

All too regularly I am in touch with friends who are finding themselves with a lot of extra time on their hands due to more corporate “right sizing” and we sort thru the immediate steps of goal reassessment and plotting the job search strategy.  Then comes the step of actually putting yourself and your talents out there and opening up for the harsh reality of a very tight job market.
I try to frequently tweet and post articles relating to staying engaged and motivated in our creative endeavors by volunteering some of our talents to organizations to which you feel connected.  They are feeling the economic crunch from all levels and can probably really use the help and support of your time and talents while you get the creative rush of doing something new, different and challenging of your skills in a whole new working environment.  We don’t mind “making money for the man” when it’s a cause we believe in and it is particularly satisfying to be around like minded people making progress toward our mutual goal.
Showcase your talents, connect with others in your field, stay primed and ready for the next job and feel great at the end of the day for all that you’ve accomplished on the way.  Positive energy can be created quickly while the alternative is often lost focus, dwindling momentum and precious time wasted while waiting for things to happen as opposed to making good things happen.  Forward your phone to the cell and you won’t miss a call that day or two a week that you are out pro bono.
Some corporate structures include pro bono as a part of who they are, like GSD&M in Austin, and it helps balance and center creative energy to apply it positively to mankind as well as to the bottom line.
For many this is a great opportunity to decompress, reassess, and properly address our most heartfelt passions and that energy created will cross into your job search as well as the excitement of learning the systems employed by the non-profit.  I just put together an IP Television system for streaming races for my daughter’s team and had a blast doing it!
When asked in your next job interview what you have done since leaving company X, it will be fun to feel your pride as you explain the progress you helped facilitate within that favorite organization and that will speak volumes on who you are!
Let’s get busy.

Garry Leigh
Snafu Consulting, LLC

Welcome To Self-Employment And It’s All Good!

The day of the gold watch after time served with a single company is long gone and the project-by-project employment model has now been the norm for much of America for years, so why do we in broadcast and marketing so lament moving on to the next project? Maybe because we feel that all of the time and effort we put into the medium itself has somehow been wasted? Traditional media’s mutation to both new and emerging media platforms is necessary and natural, although challenging to each of us and to our individual skill sets.
Radio, from programming to sales, has always been an intensely personal medium for the producer as well as the consumer, so it stands to reason we all take any change very personally. Any good sales person has cultivated deep relationships with their clients and has thereby lived the ups and downs of each client’s business cycles and strategic decisions, good or bad for years. Sales people feel just as much loss from those relationships being severed as an on-air personality no longer being able to share in the daily life of each listener.
We are all being forced into making deeper decisions on our own path to success and relying less on any one company’s employment.
So lets try to separate ourselves from the emotion of the moment, and look at the bigger picture of starting our own business. Of course, this process begins with building a business plan for you own new company.
(From the myownbusiness.org site)
Does Your Plan Include the Following Necessary Factors:
* A sound business concept
* Understanding your market
* Healthy, growing and stable industry
* Capable management
* Able financial control
* Consistent business focus
* Mindset to anticipate change
* Plans for online business
We all need to be able to do our market research and build a model that will be in demand not just today, but into the future far enough for us to develop the skills and gather the capitol we’ll need for the next business cycle and then the process begins anew.
Now is the time for all of us to embrace our newfound independence and do everything possible to control our own destiny and no longer be working at the whim of some investment company and their momentary valuation of our worth to their strategic market play (most of those models crashed and took billions of investor’s capital with them).
Since deregulation began with the subsequent “right sizing” of some of the most creative minds in broadcast, we should do as many of them have and go about creating and building the next platform for the delivery of entertainment. As the number crunchers in San Antonio are literally executing their vision of corporate value for the next five minutes, so should we develop our own individual plan for the next several years and begin it’s implementation about right NOW! Research thoroughly, plan well, work hard and just as you always have, do it BIG! Let’s get started!     -     Garry Leigh          Snafu Consulting