Portfolio career

Simon Strong’s portfolio career #2

April 16, 2015 By // by DigitalJenIPC

This is the second in a series of 6 blog posts by Simon Strong about his portfolio career. Reading how people have created their own portfolio career can be useful to inspire you to create one yourself.

In case you missed it, here is part 1:
http://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

The rest of this blog is in Simon’s own words.

How have some of the projects in your portfolio career come about?

Engaging students in learning

A couple of years ago, an ex-colleague from advertising days contacted me. She’d started teaching German at Radley College (boys public school just outside Oxford) and was intrigued as to how we could do something creative with her students. So for the last couple of years we have run the Radley Business Challenge in which we give the students a real business issue (Stabilo pens in the inaugural year and the German National Tourist Board last year) so that the students have to learn about German culture in order to create a marketing campaign. Last year another 6 schools took part in the challenge and I got the former Head of Sales and Marketing for Diesel UK and former Brand Communications Director of Orange Mobile to run workshops. Last year, for the first time, all her ‘A’ Level German students got A*, and more students have signed up for German than ever before. This year we hope to get extend the project to even more schools.

Coffee shop

My wife commutes to London every day for her job (CSO at ad agency Ogilvy and Mather) and she wanted a decent coffee on the train. So, because I love her, I opened a coffee shop at our local train station. The Zoo Café at Milford Train Station opened just over 6 months ago, and it’s just doubled in size when I took on my first member of staff three weeks ago. We serve 100’s of cups of awesome every day with clients including Lord Seb Coe and my very happy wife. I plan to develop a deli for commuters to pick up their evening meal on the way home, and also offer a dry cleaning service so they can drop off on the way in and pick up and the way back out. I’ve also go permission to set up a semi-permanent photographic exhibition on the platform, and I also want to run a pop-up restaurant out of the café (I’m in contact with Kerstin Rodgers of the Underground Supper Club who I met at a KFC workshop a couple of years ago who I hope to entice to cook at the café).

River of lights

A couple of years ago I organised an event in Guildford I called River Of Lights. It was inspired by a memory I had as a child of watching an event on TV (probably John Craven’s Newsround!) where tens of thousands of candles were thrown off a bridge like a waterfall, and which then floated down a river. In 2010, and again in 2011, I invited the community around Guildford to celebrate the winter solstice by floating candles on the River Wey. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvdBbMqy6NQ

It got flooded off in both 2012 and 2013, and last year I took a break. Next year I am planning to do it in the village of Witley where I live.

Other projects

I chaired the PTA for our local infant school where my two boys went (Lucas is still there). Although I stepped down almost 2 years ago, I still run the annual fireworks event that I initiated, as well as dad’s poker night!

There are lots of other projects that are simmering in the background (a community energy project, Shakespeare in the park, something to do with pants, a Quidditch tournament, “hats for cars”, and I have a strange desire to direct ‘Waiting For Godot’…). And I’m sure other stuff will crop up…

Part 3 of Simon’s 6 part guest blog series coming soon.

View Simon Strong’s LinkedIn profile:
http://https//uk.linkedin.com/in/simonstrong

View the Human Zoo web site:
http://www.humanzoo.biz/

What could your portfolio career be made up of? Find out what your transferable skills are by downloading our free report:
http://careerstrategies.co.uk/changingcareersreport/

Simon Strong’s portfolio career #1

April 11, 2015 By // by DigitalJenIPC

This is the first in a series of 6 blog posts by Simon Strong about his portfolio career.

Reading how people have created their own portfolio career can be useful to inspire you to create one yourself.

The rest of this blog is in Simon’s own words.

What are the components of your portfolio career e.g. study, paid freelance work, part time job, volunteering etc.?

I don’t really have components as such. More a load of stuff that I’m doing. Some I get paid for. Some I invest in. Some is just because I want to. Interestingly, it’s often the stuff I do just because I want to that leads to the most satisfying and lucrative work opportunities. Probably the easiest thing to do is tell you what I’ve been doing recently and what I’m up to now.

I ran Pecha Kucha Night in Guildford for a couple of years which allowed me to connect with so many amazing creative people and their stories. This led to being asked by Ellen Dowell (who runs Einstein’s Garden at the Green Man Festival, and whose academic work is based on interdisciplinary collaboration) to help set up Bright Club Guildford – where University Academics do stand-up comedy based on their research. Ellen and I ran Bright Club for 3 years before we stepped down in January this year. We have handed over to a fresh committee who we hope will be able to take it on to the next level.

I run a creative consultancy, Human Zoo, named after a book by the amazing Desmond Morris with whom I had the great honour of working when in advertising. We work with our clients across a broad range of projects including branding, innovation and culture change, running lots of seminars and facilitating workshops and conferences. We act as Ambassadors for the University of Surrey Business School and are involved in delivering seminars on their MBA and executive MBA programmes. I’m currently consulting with a global print company and am about to go out to Dubai to run a conference.

Last year my business partner in Human Zoo and I got bored of expending so much energy on client projects that went nowhere, so we decided to start investing time in our own innovation projects. We’ve got three projects currently underway:

1) We won a funding competition from the Technology Strategy Board (now Innovate UK) under ‘Re-Imagining The High Street’ for a feasibility study on an innovation we developed and we’ve just been asked to apply for phase 2 funding for a market test which we are just about to submit.

2) We are working on developing an accelerated learning platform which has been proven to deliver the same learning outcomes as 27 hours of traditional classroom based learning in just 1 hour. We are working with the University of Surrey Business School to run a learning tournament to compare different learning techniques in one of the largest studies of its kind – and we are engaging the top 1,000 businesses in the UK on how this will impact on engaging Gen Y and creating ‘Business Ready Brains’.

3) We are working with one of the University MBA students to take a charity start-up idea to market. We are about to go into a funding round…

Part 2 of Simon’s 6 part guest blog series coming soon.

View Simon Strong’s LinkedIn profile:
http://https//uk.linkedin.com/in/simonstrong

View the Human Zoo web site:
http://www.humanzoo.biz/

What could your portfolio career be made up of?
Find out what your transferable skills are by downloading our free report:
http://careerstrategies.co.uk/changingcareersreport/

Guest blog: Nigel Haddon – creating my portfolio career

April 4, 2015 By // by DigitalJenIPC

A portfolio career which is where an individual has multiple works strands, is a fast growing trend, with the majority of people predicted to have one by 2020. (Source: Professor Lynda Gratton, London Business School). I help professionals and executives to create, manage and market their portfolio career and sharing current portfolio careerists’ stories in their own words is a great way to inform and inspire aspiring portfolio careerists. Could you be one of them?

This is the first in a series of three guest blogs by Nigel Haddon about his portfolio career – this blog is about how he created his portfolio career. The second two guest blogs by Nigel will be about how he manages and markets his portfolio career.

The rest of this blog is in Nigel’s own words.

The start of my career

I qualified as a solicitor back in 1981. Then, it wasn’t unusual to be a generalist, a ‘jack of all trades’, and that was my first career in the law, working out of a market town in Cheshire. Specialism caught up with me eventually, and I became a Family lawyer. It’s too long a story to go into here, but by the turn of the millennium I’d morphed into a Construction lawyer!

In the mid 2000’s, the opportunity came my way to assume the role of Managing Partner at the firm – I’d been with since 1995. I took the firm through a merger in 2006, and became Managing Partner and later CEO of that firm. Leading over a hundred people across a number of sites and through the worst recession of our lifetimes was no ‘walk in the park’, and one of the first things to suffer was my legal practice – which I gave up in 2008 to concentrate on my leadership and management roles. My fourth career in the law was under way, and it was one which I knew full well would end at some point with me probably either unable or unwilling to revert to practising as a solicitor.

Career crossroads

So when the end of my time as a law firm CEO came, what next? Well, like so many people, I initially sought out the comfort blanket of the familiar. I talked to a number of law firms and other businesses about CEO and other leadership roles. That talking process went on for several months, involving some interesting challenges and potential opportunities. But nagging away at me was this question, do I really want to do that again? Being CEO had been in many ways the most rewarding of all the positions I’d held, but it was also at times the most difficult and frustrating. And that’s saying nothing about the relentless, 24/7 nature of the job, that sense of being permanently responsible.
My present portfolio career really came about by accident. As months went by, I had to do something to ‘earn a crust’.

Deciding what next

I began to discuss with my contacts in the law how I might be able to use my experience to their benefit. I launched a management consultancy for the legal sector which is now my principal occupation. My experiences of and interest in law firm mergers then led to the formation of Mosaic Legal, a joint venture with a Chartered Accountant to help professional services firms acquire or be acquired by other firms. And then my experiences of and keen interest in pricing for lawyers led to my teaming up with the UK’s leading Pricing & Costs consultancy Burcher Jennings to deliver pricing training to law firms.

Transferable skills give options

Many former law firm Managing Partners try their hands at consultancy, but most will have more to offer than that. They have transferable skills which are valuable not just to law firms but other professional service firms and indeed former client businesses. I am also an executive committee member of the Law Management section of The Law Society and a chartered arbitrator.

The pros of my portfolio career

My fifth career is the most varied since my first general practice role. Variety is without doubt the principal joy in having a portfolio career. There is a profound sense of liberation to be enjoyed from the lifting of the burden of full time management responsibility. And you’ll have time for other pursuits, e.g. family, friends, hobbies or trying new things. I’ve managed to re-engage with a voluntary role which had become a chore but is now a pleasure once more. And I’ve gone back to school, where I test the teacher’s patience with my terrible attempts at Latin & ballroom dance!

Guest blogs parts 2 & 3

I will look at the challenges of managing and marketing a portfolio career in later blogs. For now, when I’m asked what I do, I reply that I wear a number of hats, and then sit my interlocutor down for a cosy chat…

Contact Nigel Haddon

Nigel Haddon, Management Consultant, Haddon Consult
http://haddonconsult.co.uk/

Follow Nigel at Haddon Consult on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/haddonconsult

Nigel Haddon, Principal, Mosaic Legal
http://www.mosaicma.co.uk/

For insights and news on M&A, follow Mosaic Legal on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/mosaic_ma

Pricing & costing Consultant, Burcher Jennings
http://www.burcherjennings.com/people/n/

For insights and tips on pricing & costing issues, follow Burcher Jennings on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/burcherjennings

Career evolution or revolution?

March 15, 2015 By // by DigitalJenIPC

Work can start to get a bit repetitive after a while; a bit ‘same old same old’.

Some people find this comforting, others brain numbing. I am the latter. How about you?

Many many people have been sitting tight in the same job during the downturn years. Staying put for security. A wise strategy. Or is it?

If your career is starting to feel a little stale there are 5 strategies to explore:

• Portfolio career
• Job sculpting
• Sabbatical
• Attitude shift
• Secondment

An interesting book about the revolution of work shaped my thinking 4 years ago. It is by Lynda Gratton – ‘The Shift: the future of work is already here’.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Shift-Future-Work-Already/dp/0007427956

My decisions during the downturn years have been the opposite of most people. They have been shaped by Lynda Gratton’s predictions and other reading. 2020, about which the book focuses, is now just 5 years’ away and it really concerns me that most people don’t have a career strategy, they leave it to chance.

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” Abraham Lincoln and Peter Drucker. (both have been credited with this quote).

The rest of this blog gives an overview of portfolio careers, a major trend according to Lynda Gratton.

Portfolio careers have been growing for a while. Some people have them because they have to as a source of work is going out of fashion or cut-backs are being made, others because they want variety and stimulation. I am the latter – it fits my values.

What is a portfolio career?

A portfolio career is when your work is made up of different components which you flex, in response to changing market conditions and/or changes in your personal circumstances or life stage. This makes your career future-proof too.

Portfolio career components

The components of a portfolio career might be a part time job, volunteering, consultancy or freelance projects/contracts, travel, study or a non-exec directorship (s).

My portfolio career

My portfolio career is made up of career coaching, executive coaching, events, content creation, content curation, books, chapters and articles and consultancy work. It can be very full on but never a dull moment!

Employers and portfolio careers

Companies are starting to take note about portfolio careers for a number of reasons.
– Flexible resourcing – as needed
– Generation Y/Millennials demand flexibility
– Talent/skills shortage in business critical areas

I am writing an article on this topic next week and one recruitment agency I interviewed predicts that recruitment will not look the same in 4 years’ time. I agree. Why then are so many people carrying on as though nothing is changing?

Portfolio career example

Read about our client Jon’s portfolio career:
Part 1:

Portfolio careerist – Jonathan Green #1

Part 2:

Portfolio careerist – Jonathan Green #2

How do we help?

Here are 4 ways:

• We offer early bird and weekend Skype appointments.
• We help you create, edit, market and manage your portfolio career
• We define your personal brand
• We assist you in creating a career strategy

What next?

If you are interested in exploring a portfolio career, want to create or review your career strategy, or know someone we can help, get in touch.

Don’t wait until the General Election result in May 2015, start future proofing your career now. Get in touch.

Portfolio careerist – Jonathan Green #2

March 13, 2015 By // by DigitalJenIPC

This is part 2 of a 2 part blog by one of our clients – Jonathan Green. We coached Jon to create his second career – a portfolio career. The rest of this blog is in Jon’s own words.

To read the first part, please click on this link:
https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/03/12/portfolio-careerist-jonathan-green/

Time out for reflection

In 2010 I had a year-long sabbatical, six months of which were spent in the Outer Hebrides where I spent time writing my first book and working on songs in my recording studio. We then moved back to the mainland to have our second child. By this time I was growing as a recording artist and author but we also needed to get a regular income as publishing wasn’t paying yet – partly because I gave my music away for free! Looking back now, I don’t think that I valued my craft enough and that was something I had to confront and work through.

New beginnings – my portfolio career

I found a job working for the Methodist Church nationally to develop chaplaincy, a role that required someone who could start things from scratch. The role involved me speaking, travelling, writing a lot of material, including a course which has been published and used all over the world. The job also required us to move twice. However, in the midst of the demands of that role I managed to set clear boundaries around the time that I gave to the work, a discipline that coaching helped to develop in me. This allowed me to continue to record and release music and write. I was feeling really good about the balance between my church work, music and writing – everything was finding space, including my family, by this point my wife and I had three children under the age of five.

Career crossroads

Eventually, last summer I was made redundant, the Chaplaincy Development Project finally ran out of money. On the one hand, being made redundant was hard, because there was still so much work to do. However, on the other hand it was tremendously liberating. I felt like I had been given the gift of space and I really believed that I shouldn’t rush to find a new job. I realised that this was the perfect opportunity to jump with both feet into a portfolio style of work. My wife was offered a great job which meant that I didn’t have to find a full time paid job. I was approached by a national organisation to develop something from scratch… it was for two days a week, was home based and time limited. PERFECT! For me this was also a profound personal statement – for the first time in my life I can genuinely say that I write music for most of the time and work for the church part time. I have given myself permission to not make “working for the church” the main thing – and you know what? The world hasn’t stopped turning!

Money from music

My wife said to me recently, that if I treat music like a business then it will pay like a business. So that is what I have done. I released my first commercial single in January 2015 and I am currently working on an EP scheduled for the summer. I also have two albums in development for 2016. It has taken me eight years to get to this point, but I feel that the songwriter in me has been truly liberated and more importantly, I feel like I am being true to myself.
I am super excited about arriving at this point in my journey. So much of the thinking and insights about who I truly am: my values, priorities and vision for my life stems from the coaching I received all those years ago. I also picked up and learnt to work with a number of tools that helped me get here! Coaching has been so valuable and was worth every penny and I apply the insights to everything I do.

You can listen to lots of my music over at www.soundcloud.com/recreativemedia for free and you can buy my first Single – Rest in My Love from every online store and streaming service in the world! I live on Twitter @recre8ivemedia

10 pros of a career portfolio

October 24, 2014 By // by DigitalJenIPC

Portfolio careers are growing fast – because of need and want. More information below if this is a new concept for you.

http://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2014/05/25/could-a-portfolio-career-make-you-dance/

A career portfolio or portfolio career has many pros. I have thought of over 70. Here are 10 of mine for now:

1. Doing what I want
2. No week ever the same
3. Always learning
4. Planning my own tasks around the sunny weather
5. The ability to be spontaneous
6. Taking a day off if I feel like it
7. Avoiding rush hour
8. Avoiding queues and busy times in shops
9. The variety and stimulation of varied work
10. Getting better value train fares from travelling off peak

What would be your biggest pro?

For more insights and tips, follow us on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/talentliberator

Below are two analogies for managing your career portfolio:

Comparing a portfolio career to Doctor Who:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/comment/columnists/doctor-who-and-the-portfolio-career/2016469.article

Managing a portfolio career like investments

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/manage-your-career-just-like-an-investment-portfolio/articleshow/44913756.cms

Are you plural or singular?
http://www.harveynash.com/uk/news-and-media/publications/portfolio_careers_the_business_of_pluralism.asp

Does a portfolio career appeal to you?

June 8, 2014 By // by DigitalJenIPC

Our last blog looked at what a portfolio career is, the components and why they are growing.

http://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2014/05/25/could-a-portfolio-career-make-you-dance/

This blog shares the pros and cons of a portfolio career and some examples.

Pros of a portfolio career

• Variety & stimulation
• New experiences
• ‘Weather’ economic storms/market shifts
• Honour your different needs and wants
• Balance financial security & dreams
• Time for hobbies and travel
• Time to invest in new skills

Cons of a portfolio career

• Need to market yourself
• Need to be good at managing priorities
• Multi-tasking ability ‘a must’
• Uncertainty can be uncomfortable for some
• Can be ‘full-on’
• Have to explain to others what it means

Examples of a portfolio career

My portfolio career comprises; career coaching, executive coaching, content creation, content curation, events, writing, facilitation and consultancy.

Below are some other examples of a portfolio career.

• Lesley combines associate freelance work, a part time job and volunteers for a charity
• Ben works long hours earning for 6 months of the year to fund his travelling the world for 6 months
• John is a non-exec director and also does paid project/contract work
• Claire has 2 paid retainers, volunteers and is studying to increase her skills and marketability
• Charles Handy and his wife Elizabeth split their year 50:50. Half the year his career is the priority and the other half she calls the shots

One of the great things about a portfolio career is that you can design it to suit you and the mix of the components changes over time, so you don’t feel stale.

Last week for example, my portfolio career comprised; a 2 hour session on personal branding for women in advertising, executive coaching/business development mentoring, career coaching with current and new clients, editing some content, writing on diversity and inclusion and attending an industry awards on best practice in learning and development.

What next?

Are you at a career crossroads?

Now is a great time to take action. Career coaching helps you focus, create change and achieve more faster. Starting now, 6 weeks on a fast track programme would enable you to move forward before the summer holidays. Get in touch for more details.

What do our clients say?
http://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/energise-client-testimonials/

Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/talentliberator