How I Made Up My Own Profession.
This post was originally posted on my personal blog in June of 2013.
I’m constantly evaluating my own strengths and figuring out what I love to do most. It’s an ongoing process that takes me step by step closer to my dream life.
Spending a few months in NYC bought me some time to reflect on what I did so far and where I wanted to go. That’s when I decided that I would become a talent developer. It’s not a new career it’s just defining what I was already doing for years.
We are the generation who will have to make up our own jobs and job descriptions. I had some brainstorm shower sessions and talent developing was the only one that stuck. I like it because it’s nothing pretentious like expert or chief, and developing is a verb that implies you’ll actually do something unlike consulting.
In the rest of this post I’ll try enlighten you what my interpretation is of those two words.
Something about talent.
For me talent belongs in the same category as creativity and ideas, the category overrated. They are really hyped at the moment; while for me native talent, a creative approach or an awesome idea is at most 10 % of your success. So I define a talent as someone with the possiblity for success.
Being talented breaks down into a few parts, if you want to achieve greatness you need them all.
- Native talent
I know, I said talent is overrated but if you want to achieve something you’ll need it. Luckily everyone is from birth equally natively talented. You just have to figure out what your talent is. - Willingness to put in the work
Nobody achieves something truly amazing, without first putting in the work. It could be that you weren’t there to witness it, or they didn’t tell you or it happened at a very young age, but believe me they did put in the work. If you are not willing to go the extra mile on a daily basis you are not going to make it, because I you don’t put in the work somebody else will.
When I was studying physics I thought I could be in the top of my class, just based on my native talent. Truth is, whether this was the case or not, it doesn’t matter. The other kids though were just putting in way more work, and crushing me. It’s a good test to see if you found your true passion though. Only for your true passion you’ll be able to put in daily extra work for years. - Be able to change
This is where I see most people getting stuck, because people overrate native talent. This is the main reason a lot of people are giving up even before they got started, it’s not because you can’t today that you won’t be able to change so you will be able to do it tomorrow.
Having a bit of native talent neither means you’ll be right all the time, nor that you are walking on a straight path to success. True talents listen and learn, from other peoples failure and success. You hear a lot that this is just the way they are and can’t change, they are just lying to themselves. I’m not saying it will go fast nor that it will be easy but everyone can change, try harder. - Be ambitious
Might be obvious, but if you’re not aiming for greatness you won’t reach it or even get close.
I became a pretty good judge of talent because I’m obsessed with it from a pretty young age, talk to me for 10 min or less and I can tell your career is going somewhere. The trick is not to focus on the native part. That’s impossible, unless you are an expert in the specific field.
Focus on everything else. Try to figure out how they handled difficult situations in the past. This will tell you if they were able to adapt and put in the work. Also ask them about future goals, do they have ambition.
Something about developing.
Rule #1; Never ever will there be someone who will/can do the work for you.
What I can do for as talent developer, is help you to be more effective and efficient. So that in the end every hour you work you maximize your potential.
Effective and efficient are almost written the same but they are not the synonyms. Being efficient means, you found how to maximize the progress you make on a task in a day. Someone effective on the other hand might have figured out why they didn’t need to do this task in the first place.
Effective
- Setting goals
Before you jump in and start running, decide where you want to go and which path you are following. Take your time to do this, even it would cost you some days, it’s worth it. Don’t stop with setting your goals, also evaluate your progress, check every week if are still heading in the right direction. Check every month if with what you know now you don’t need to adjust your direction. - Outside perspective
It’s almost impossible to have an outside perspective on your own projects. This is also the way it should be, you need to be in the zone, solely focused on creating awesomeness. That’s why you need to get outside perspective from people around you, if they have a totally different background it works even better. Ask them how they would have solved the problem you are dealing with. This will allow you to view your business from different angles.
Efficient
- Creating structure
Creativity is madness. It’s going with the flow and seeing where your gut feeling leads you. Madness doesn’t make it easier for you to get work done or reach goals. That’s why you need to create a structure that sets some boundary conditions, this will guarantee that your creative labor will take you in the direction of your goals. - Remove distractions
A musician you need to make music, an illustrator needs to draw and so on. That’s where you make a difference and the biggest impact. Every moment you have to spend worrying about something else is a waste of your time.
These are some of the key elements where I want to facilitate and make a difference as a talent developer.
Business model
Working as a talent developer is not the easiest way to get rich or even just to make some decent money fast. The issue is that (young) talents don’t have budgets, unlike big corporations. Luckily if are really good at something, you’ll always find a way to make a living from it.
- Longterm commitments
When you are aiming for greatness it won’t be a quick win, most results will appear in the long run. I plan on committing myself to a few talents, and take them step by step all the way till world domination. This requires dedication and almost a daily follow up.
In return I ask a percentage of their revenue. - Interventions
Not everyone needs a longterm solution. For most a short intervention, few hours till a month, creates enough momentum to put them on the right track. This could be at the very start, setting goals and mapping out a path; just reevaluating, to optimize or help with a very specific goal.
The fixed price depends on the size of the challenge. - Spreading the word
I’m only be able to work with very few people at a time, which is a shame as there is so much talent out there. One solution is sharing knowledge through blog posts to reach more people. Don’t worry you don’t have to pay anything ;). It also helps to get the word out which might lead to potential new clients. So please share my story! Giving talks to schools, companies or other groups is also another revenue stream.
Lectures is at first probably not the most paying job, but it helps to position yourself as an expert and improve your story.
My goals
Like mentioned before it is important to set goals that can me be measured including a deadline. Here are some of my goals I want to reach by the end of 2013, so in the next 6 months :
- Get 60% my income from talent developing.
- Make sure that at least one of the people I work with has a big international win because of my work.
- Do at least 3 talks or interventions outside Belgium.
Starting today ( June 23 2013) my official job description will be talent developer. I don’t expect it to be easy and the start will probably be challenging. I’m ambitious and willing to work hard and ready to adapt to all challenges that I might encounter. I’ll be alright!
All good advice, recommendations, shares and love are really appreciated!
Retrospect
Now looking back two years later I can say it was the best move I ever made.
- I worked with some of the biggest national and international talents.
- Developed Musketon to a house hold name.
- Collaborated with some of the biggest brands. MTV, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Mazda, HP, ..
- Spend 10 out of those 24 months abroad. Including spending time in Hong Kong, LA, NYC, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, London, Berlin, Barcelona, Seattle, San Diego, Ottawa, ..
- I didn’t go broke.
Thanks so much for reading! If you enjoyed it, would mean the world to me if you shared it with someone. :)
