Happy Friday, War & Peaceniks! Who’s ready for change‽
Fall 2022 has seen a reckoning for the media companies who used the Pandemic to grow their businesses, or believed that customer behavior during lockdown was a new normal.
Business models once thought indelible (Meta, YouTube, Amazon’s e-commerce, Gaming) have proved extremely delible. Mergers once thought additive now seem substractive (Disco Bros). The Streaming Wars have turned into subscription fatigue. The Ad Biz has soured into an Impression Recession. The unrealistic growth curves at the core of many business models have turned into the dangerous curves of an economic right-sizing. And in almost all cases the cost will be jobs, tens and tens of thousands of them, across media and tech.
This piece is NOT about how we got here. I’ll deal with that another day. This essay is about what happens to you, now.
Whether you are facing an impending layoff, dealing with the anxiety of the unknown, or are facing an existential question of a career at an impasse, know this: you are far from alone. The question for many is, what now?
The year ahead feels utterly unpredictable and entirely uncharted, no matter the stage of your career, or the state of your company at this very moment.
I’ve been incredibly fortunate to pivot numerous times in my career - sometimes by my own choosing; often not. From live theater, to advertising, to film, to TV, to digital; from management to producing; from to consulting to cartography… I’ve managed to keep shedding my skin, and evolving into new opportunities. Throughout my career, I’ve put a lot of energy into this evolution - born out of a dread of irrelevance, and a deep-seated hunger for a lack of boredom.
Over the last 30+ years, I’ve developed a compulsive routine/ritual that has helped me constantly evolve, and enabled me to pivot whenever I needed, whether by my choice or others. In the last few years, I’ve also been lucky enough to use this regimen to coach others through their own evolutions.
So, here it is:
Take Stock. Many of us worry about our careers, yet few take the time to give it a fulsome MRI. This involves equal parts introspection and extrospection. It means looking within to ask yourself how happy you’ve actually been in the work you’re doing; and asking others about how you are truly seen in your community. Think of it as a “self-awareness dipstick.” So few of the people I coach (even those well into their careers) truly know what they want - simply because they’ve never given themselves the chance to think hard about it. I’ve been promoted into jobs that I thought I wanted, which then made me miserable; taking me away from the things I loved to do, and forcing me to spend most of my time talking about doing things rather than, y’know, doing things. I confused my title with my happiness, and lost myself in the trappings of those jobs, rather than doing work that made me happy. It is very easy to wind up there. It is hard to avoid it - unless you make time to rise above your daily din, separate yourself from your position, and really ask yourself why it matters and how you can make it matter more. If you’re at a career crossroads now, it’s a great time to Take Stock, and be intentional about which path you take now. BUT, the best time to do this is before you reach that fork. Before you NEED to make a change, it’s always good to ask yourself what you WANT to change.
Brand Management. Each of us has a brand. Most of us do not manage it. Even senior marketing people I know rarely look at themselves as a Brand they need to promote. We aren’t taught to create a personal brand and promote it - in fact many of us are taught the exact opposite: That it’s “impolite” or “crass” to be too self promotional. It is incredibly difficult to evolve your own career, when your personal brand is entirely wrapped inside that of the corporation for which you work, or the title that you currently carry. Establishing a solid personal brand having nothing to do with your business card, is key to controlling your own evolution and creating an enterprise within your own skin that you can take with you wherever you want. Again, launching a strong personal brand when you NEED to pivot is imperative; doing it before you MUST, gives you substantially more power over your future.
Invest in yourself, wisely. Many of you have gym memberships. Most have stock portfolios. These are investments in your long term physical and financial health. How many of you invest in your continuing education or professional development? How many of you take time away from work to attend conferences outside your current real of responsibilities? How many of you read the quarterly earning reports of the companies that most influence your careers; or the companies where your careers might possibly lead? My research says not many. Investing time and resources into your development and professional network is as, if not more important than investing in stock. These days it’s also far safer. Think of it as personal portfolio diversification. The return on these investments come in the form of knowing where the puck is going; understanding why; and knowing how to get there before it’s too late.
Rinse. Repeat. Routinizing your career evolution makes it substantially easier to evolve continually, rather than only at times of urgency or emergency. The rate of change has changed. Change is no longer something you can schedule once a year for your employee review; or once a quarter at corporate retreats. Like it or not, disruption is now the operating system of our ecosystem. If you delay investments in yourself, or wait to take stock; you allow change to happen to you, rather than harnessing change for your own advantage. Waking up stupid every day and learning something new about new, is a career prophylactic. Investing in yourself, constantly, puts the power of your career in your hands, rather than in the lap of those who don’t give a shit about it. This routine - or whatever regimen you design for yourself - is as important as any part of your “job description.” It is an every day thing. This may seem daunting, especially for those of us with demanding jobs, lives outside work, and families to take care of. But making evolution a normal part of your everyday life, makes it way easier to do over time. That first day at the gym is always the hardest. But strengthening the core of your personal evolution does get easier, and more rewarding, the more effort you put into it.
This Monday, I’ll be holding a webinar on ALL of this - with specific and actionable advice and tactics; information to aid in transformation; and a Q&A session for everyone who attends.
The info is below my signature. If you are a paying subscriber, you’ll see the details. If you are not yet, you’ll need to sign up for a week’s free trial; but you can mos def feel free to churn out right after the session, long before billing starts, if you so wish.
I hope to see you Monday.
Enjoy the weekend!
ESHAP
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