We go “back to school” for Career transitions. I did!

Back in the old-days an employee with a degree, and MBA and job safety would go for years without training. I don’t mean the on-the-job, but training that enlarges stimuli and perspectives, on soft and hard skills. Growing and developing competence wasn’t that clear of a target if you had an above average performance.

Today, we are in the middle of a devastating transformation. No matter what life, career, or business transition you’re in, one thing is clear: the knowledge economy is everywhere around you. In any device, every interaction, in an app, at any conference. People have started breaking out of their silos, to share tonnes of ideas, actionable push, and fascinating experience. Vloggers, Influencers, quote-maniacs, experts, coaches, agencies and trainers for anything you can desire (from marriage consultants, up to life and future mentors). Not always the best, but you have options.

Can you really grasp that:

You can find, learn, and exploit anything you can imagine:

• Babel app teaches you any language with a smartphone and a pair of headphones
• Cursera, Khan, Udemy, Teachable aggregate billions of students
• In the last 5 years, only, there were announced 150 global restructuring programmes (…and startups as well)
• Youtube is the 2nd largest search ‘machine’ (you can find videos from how to boil an egg, up to how to create your website)

When I left Ericsson

It was time for Change. I knew it was coming. After two years abroad (and 7 of hard-work), I’ve seen the business and innovation hurdles, the people complacency and the resistance to change. For me it was liberating, avoiding a burnout. It was the needed trouble, to sit down with myself and rethink a career of 30 consecutive years.

But where do you start? Internet was the place to go. I’ve started browsing around. From link to link, I was transferred to 1-2 webinars, 1 growth marketing school, reading books suggested by influencers. I’ve done it all. My late night sessions, when kids were sleeping, were full-class time.

Of course, digital was everywhere. Digital this, digital that. But behind the lines and the hype, I’ve started realizing the steps to go, if I wanted to build a business.

Now, take a notepad

No1. Research what’s going on

Do your audit. Hear opinions. Capture the market sentiment. Go to professionals you trust and listen to their thoughts and estimates. This is a valuable exchange compared to the “Have me in mind, I’ll send you my CV”. You can grab insights on tiny details you haven’t thought of. I’ve done 360 personal discussions with former customers, peers, partners sampling from business owners, marketers, and startups.

No2. Be really open-minded

Don’t hold assumptions out of your ‘safety zone’, what you were good at. In the discussions I’ve had, there were many ‘pivot’ directions on offer since they wanted to exploit my professional experience. Have a really open mind to this. The change means accepting that you’re on new grounds.

No3. Evaluate your best learning sources

Select the best learning and insight sources. Yes, pay for Seth Godin’s Marketing and not some €50 internet marketing(?) seminar by the Mr. Fabulous-have-done-nothing-but-have-done-it-all. Go into Google free learning sources, Teachable, Convertkit, you name it. They are offering tonnes of experience, and at the end of the day, they are the internet tools for any physical or digital business you think to go into.

No4. Investigate partners

Talk and investigate partnerships. Might not be the best, might not be your first priority, but be open and clear: “What if we could X? I’m not sure we can, but let’s discuss the prospect”). If you carefully see around you, new models, startups, companies are created by the unification of complementary forces and minds. There goes the old-fashioned model of business owners “me-myself-I”

No5. Review and reposition yourself

Revisit your Brand. I’ve gone through a transition counseling to reposition myself for a new job search but reading between the lines, I’ve realized that I should go in the real market and create. I’ve written for others, for years, many plans, ideas, scripts, and campaigns. Now it was the time to do it for me.

No6. Don’t get distracted

There are times of anxiety, boredom, feeling out of your waters. There are times of being really alone in silence. Stick to your “building-brick-by-brick” wall (don’t forget your journey), exercise, and go out for walking (sorry to the sports’ enthusiasts, I’m a bit lazy to jog). Breathe the fresh air and rethink the feedback X, the issue Y, the webinar Z in retrospective. This practice leads to new discoveries and ‘a-ha’ moments.

No7. Organize your learnings

Use Office’s OneNote to take notes, compile info, paste from the web, and organize all your learning materials, trends, quotes, and thoughts. Segment those in Learning, Market, Trends, Me (+ / -) and update it constantly. You have it on desktop, on-the-go, to any device and costs less.

No8. Work on your model canvas

Start assembling the factory line: vision-target (industry, area, higher purpose, brand proposition), business targets (income, from who, how, when, your role, partners, delivery, pricing-value, content). Believe me, it will be a huge-huge project plan. But if you put all the details, not only you will follow-through with ease, but you get a new purpose. No matter if you’ll start a thematic farm, or just a website steps are the same. But wait, go to No9.

No9. Use know-how

Dive into the partners. They are your knowledge partners. They are everywhere, 24/7, online. Seth Godin for Marketing seminar and innovation. WordPress market, themes, template (it might take you months if you don’t know what you look for, and you simply gaze upon aesthetics). Patt Flynn on Podcasting. and then The PodcastAnswerMan. Blog Success for blog strategy, design, implementation and SEO efforts. Their learnings and input are essentials (the core) before starting implementation. They give you hints that improve your whole plan. Sometimes unpleasant feedback, but needed one.

No10.  Test what you’re planning

Necessary ‘beta-testing’. Now be very selective. You know what they say about opinions… Select up to 10 people you trust as real experts in their field. My list had a representative sample of new economy ambassadors, old-school experienced managers, academics from abroad, and all gave me their opinion on my more-finished proposition. Too many words, low-cost, more content on X? All kinds of issues were addressed. Don’t forget your OneNote.