Many people in this day and age have experienced several different and totally unrelated tasks over the course of their lifetime, as opposed to pursuing a single linear career. I’m one of those people. You are.
In a culture where we are invited to pursue a linear career where every job builds off the one before it, it can sometimes feel as if you’ve got no professional skills to bring to a new place independent career.
That is so not true.
My career exploration led me to have several different and apparently unrelated abilities, and with some perspective, it’s all tied together to uncannily to help me now in my current career as an entrepreneur and freelance writer.
In this chapter, I summarize which arbitrary jobs/skills led to that applicable professional skills I use to this day.
Piano = Typing
My musical history includes being a concert pianist at a young age, touring China with a ballet as the flautist (at 16), and much more. Among a pianist’s skills is that of creating muscle memory.
Consequently, my understanding of a computer keyboard and muscle memory is powerful enough that I could type at a ridiculously fast pace while simultaneously having a conversation with someone in the room. (I can, but I really don’t — unless I am being an ass and showing off.)
That’s me, in the purple dress up front, in Crazy For You
Between dance, acting, singing, and musical instruments, I have been doing in one capacity or another since I was three years old. Into addressing audiences I parlayed these abilities.
Now, my performance experience serves me in creating (hopefully) entertaining videos, and talking to groups about my travel adventures and lessons learned.
Television Production = Video Blogging
Not only have I been in front of cameras, but I have worked behind them also (I lucked into it via a co-op course in high school). I shows and have experience at a television channels, and a studio for high-school co-ops running.
The shooting and editing skills I learned are frequently applied in my own videos.
Property Direction = Admin & Computer Skills
I often refer to my three or so years in property management as my”blue period”, but there is no denying the fact that my humble beginnings as a temp in an operations office (progressing to assistant property manager, overseeing multiple residential/commercial/industrial possessions ) served me well concerning acquiring computer and administrative skills. (and of course an overall appreciation of ductwork).
Financial Planning = Revenue & Business Skills
Equipped with an innate ability to conserve and manage money together with my administrative abilities (and a couple of dozen acquired licenses and classes ), I took a leap into starting a financial planning practice. I worked under the umbrella of Investors Group (Canada’s biggest financial planning company), who supplied a number of the very valuable skills and training that I could have hoped for.
I had to hustle for customers, which taught me the finer mechanics of earnings — that now assists me to create inspirational articles, and write persuasive pitches to editors.
And in handling my practice with hundreds of customers and millions of dollars at stake, I learned the identical business skills that help me to create a vision for Your Professional Hobo, plan my business tasks, manage my time and customers, and more.
Financial Planning = Finance/Lifestyle Design Niche
Once I worked with my customers, I focused less on investments and numbers and more about what they wanted from life, redefining their relationships with money, and technology their own financing to help them create the lives of their dreams.
I parlayed this financial planning experience into writing about the fund of travel and its complexities. My focus on lifestyle design isn’t just based on my personal experience of selling everything to travel, but I draw on the experiences of the ones that I influenced (and that affected me) in my financial planning days.