By Amy Nielsen

Somehow this all seemed easier and less daunting when I was a new college graduate, still wet behind the ears and full of myself.

Now that I am older, and know more about me, I should, in theory at least, be better at taking a calculated risk. Instead, I seem to find myself stepping back from opportunities I would have plowed forward towards when I was younger.

Perhaps my age has made me more cautious. Perhaps my age has made me less ambitious. Perhaps I really just like how my life is now and a new job would mean change and change is scary.

I have three months left in my current training and a bunch of conferences I want to attend to this year. Now, I just need to figure out how to raise a client base to pay for the continuing certifications I want.

Alternately, I need to find an organization that wants my specific brand of knowledge and is willing to hire me and pay for more classes and make me an even better asset.

Isn’t that what everyone wants? A job where they are appreciated, compensated appropriately and  given the opportunity to expand their knowledge? To be a more productive member of the team?

For someone in a career change, that first job is a heck of a leap of faith, both for the employee and the employer.

Finding or creating that first job in a new field is where I am stumbling right now. It’s getting my foot in the door that is tough. In this age of on-line applications, if you don’t click the right box or have slightly different, yet related, experience, the application algorithm won’t make the distinction that you might be a good candidate and your resume never even makes it to the possible pile. It’s amazing anyone gets hired for anything these days.

Case in point: I applied for a position at a local school. It is a new position new for the organization and has never been filled before. The nature of the job is pretty vague in the posted description. The organization is related to a past career of mine and the job title lends itself to the kinds of experience and training I have.

However, because I don’t have a way to relate the crossover on the on-line form, my application was automatically rejected by the automated system as not having appropriate experience.

Many employers won’t accept snail mail resumes now, often making the assumption that the person sending the letter doesn’t know how to use the computer. It is a valid yet flawed assumption as most assumptions are.

It also means that there is no way to circumvent the process to get in sideways.

The remaining option is a phone call to the human resources department in hopes that you might reach someone with a clue about the actual position in question. If they can answer your questions about the position, you might be able to get an in. At least you will have a specific person who might actually read your information.

If you have been reading my blogs, you will know that I have been going round and round about what I really want to do when I grow up. I have a shiny, new career and the will to use it for the greatest good.

Because this career is in the emerging field of wellness rather than the established path of health care, I am free to follow my wiles and make a mash up of a job that suits exactly me.

I am old enough that I know a lot of things but young enough that I have plenty of time to learn new tricks. I’m too old to go back for another bachelor's, but a master's isn’t out of the question. Better yet I would prefer to earn a collection of certificates in specialized training that allows me the freedom to create a specific niche and service for my clients.

The effort involved in a new venture isn’t daunting, it’s the fear of success. When I was younger I felt like I could fail and still succeed at something else. Somehow now I feel that if I fail at this then succeeding is less possible. Failing is easier than succeeding in this case because there is nothing at stake yet. I can just continue on as I have been.

That leaves me with networking my way into a job or working for myself. I was originally intending on opening a business of my own, but the idea of being totally responsible for yet another entity, other than my children, makes me quake. I am sure I can probably do it. I am an intelligent, resourceful woman of means. But it is not my first choice and I think I would struggle with the business side to the detriment of the art side.

So I put my trust in the universe. I have to tell myself that I don’t have to have it all figured out, exactly right this second. I have to trust that there is a niche for me out there and that it will find me. Until then I need to concentrate of finishing my studies so I can be as knowledgeable as possible when I bump into that person who will be the key to my new job.

We could meet in the grocery store. Or in line for coffee. I firmly believe that is how this new venture will start. It will be an energetic spark that flies between us and compels us to do this work together.

Or maybe, the automated system will let my resume slide through. Just this once.

Either way, I will get my foot through that door.

By Amy Nielsen

I am a woman in my mid-forties. I am raising two young girls who are of the age to start to explore what they want to be when they grow up. I also have a stepson who is starting the journey of choosing a college, or not, for his chosen career path. It is an interesting time to be a parent for sure.

If you asked me what I wanted to do for a career when I was a kid, I can say I would have not been able to answer. I had no idea. To some degree, I still don’t. Because, what I am good at isn’t really career or field specific.

 As a child growing up in the seventies and eighties, I was told that I could be anything I wanted to be. Any career was open to me. What I came to understand was that it wasn’t so much the perceived sex of the job it was the color of the collar that made a difference in what was an acceptable career choice or not. Looking back now, I can see that I was never really asked what I wanted to do because it didn’t matter to the adults in my environment. More important was that I wasn’t limited in any way at all. Certainly not at this tender age that my girls are at when I see how much difference the choice of direction, any direction, opens up paths.

I came to understand that I could do anything. Every door was open to me. Which was paralyzing to me. I was somehow supposed to be able to know all that was out there and all the possibilities.  And then be able to choose one without any interference from outward sources. I was being taught to be self-sufficient and resourceful. I knew what I wanted some parts of my life to look like, but I had no idea what careers out there might help me on my path to be the most successful me I could be.

I come from a home of some privilege, more than some, less than others. My family traveled a lot, through Canada, Europe, India and China. I spent most summers abroad. I lived in Switzerland for a time. I have lived, worked in, or traveled by car or truck through every state in the U.S. except South Dakota and Alaska. I went to public grade school, catholic middle school and a private, girls only boarding high school. I hold a bachelor’s degree from a large land grant university where I studied mostly at the local, private, Ivy League colleges through consortium study programs. I also hold an associates certificate, and several certifications.  I have seen a lot of different ways to be, a lot of different careers. What I love to do has nothing to do with any of my studies. What I am good at is used in every career.

Throughout my entire schooling career, I was told I could do anything, be anything; what I wasn’t told was how to get there. I was taught was that girls can do anything boys can do, and that women can do anything men can do. We are just as smart. Just as strong. Just as intelligent. We are capable and able to succeed at anything we choose to do.

“So what do you want to be when you grow up?” isn’t really the question to ask. The question should be, “What lifestyle do you want to follow?  What problems are you good at solving? What do you have a natural aptitude for? How do you exist in the world? What room in your house do you spend the most time in, doing what?”

While I was out busy seeing all of the wonders of the world, I was filling my head with all sorts of interesting places I wanted to go back to. I saw people doing all sorts of neat things. I still had no idea what I liked to do, what made me tick, and what I was good at doing. I didn’t know how my piece fit into the world.

I have been struggling most of my adult life with figuring out not only what I want to be when I grow up but what that life looks like, exactly. I have had several somewhat related careers in my life. If I had had conversations specific to my adult life when I was in the formation stages of my younger years I feel I would have been better settled and less searching in my careers. I might have seen a straighter path.

Until recently I didn’t know what it was that tied all of those fields together and why it was that I was good at them. Turns out it wasn’t the fields, it was how I work within an organization that I excel at. It’s something I have been good at for a long time. Something I have been using for decades. Until it was pointed out to me by a recent mentor friend, I would not have put the pieces together. I don’t know who would have initiated those conversations with me when I was a kid, but I know that I will begin to figure out how to have them with my girls starting now.

It is a difficult thing to tease out the essence of a being and find how they move in the world. It is easier seen when kids are younger, when their natures are so much closer to the surface. But it means being observant and leaning in close to hear the whole story. It’s one thing to ask a kid what they want to be when they grow up, it’s another to help them find their calling.

As a parent it means searching deeper within myself to find out what questions I ask myself, then simply ask my girls and listening to their answers without judgement. My older daughter wants to be an astrophysicist, but not an astronaut. There is a big difference and it is as fundamental in her as wanting to touch the stars and lead teams to great discoveries, but not let her feet leave this precious earth of ours. By hearing her now I can help her set her dreams for the future. By asking her to be specific she can start to explore her strengths as a leader and as a researcher even if her eventual field of career is underwater basket weaving. If I just told her she can do anything, she would have no direction to reach for, no specific reason to hone her leadership skills.

So while it is good to be told you are terrific and that you can do anything you want to do, without direction, passions and talents can become buried and sidelined. A better question might be, what do you really do all day? How are you all day? Where are you all day? Where are your thoughts all day in your quiet times? Then find talents and passions to support those talents and that allow those natures to shine.

By Amy Nielsen

When your skills can fit the job descriptions of multiple industries, your resume will look disjointed at best, and unreliable at worst. This is where the art of the cover letter comes into play.  

My particular superpower is logistics. I can organize cats to march out of a paper bag in nice neat lines, in any industry, as long as I know what or who needs to go where and when. To that end I have worked in industries as disparate as a theater, a water treatment lab and a school kitchen.

What ties all of my work experience together is the ability to logically and quickly see the bigger picture or pattern and identify the flow, where it is ebbing and where it is hitting rapids. Then I smooth out those kinks so everything ends up where it is supposed to be, when it is scheduled to be there.

Applying online is the norm now. But, that online application is rarely going to get you the job. We are in a world that may seem based in our technology, but when push comes to shove, you get the job when your personality, and abilities, are noticed. A well-constructed cover letter can be the foot in the door that moves your resume from the ‘never in a million years pile’ to the ‘how soon can we get her started?’ pile.

How to say enough without oversharing in that letter is the issue. Human resource personnel don’t have time, and won’t the take the time, to read pages and pages of your most beautifully written life story. Save that for your memoirs. What you do need to convey is how your experience can benefit their business.

In order to be clear and concise in the cover letter, first learn as much as you can about the company. First and foremost, learn the name of the direct supervisor or reporting manager you would be working under. Address the letter to them, not to the HR staff, as this person will be hiring you or working with you on a daily basis. All it takes is a quick web search or call to the company.

In my own cover letter, I have a varied job history that spans multiple duty stations and careers. To describe my abilities, I chose to use one paragraph per year to describe the salient points pertaining to the job from that year.

Also, I have several years of unemployment on my resume. I was a stay-at-home mom raising my two girls. I was not sitting on my tush eating bon bons. However, it behooves me to explain that during those years I was very active in our Compass Team, an international peer to peer mentoring organization for Navy Spouses. Volunteer work is just as important and often says a lot more about you as a person than your specific work history.

Work history listed on your resume only tells the hiring company so much. Every industry uses similar terms for hierarchy, but those positions can have vastly different responsibilities. Listing your title as “manager” tells me that you were responsible for something, but not who, what or how you were responsible. A good cover letter can drill down into the how of the jobs you have held and allows you to briefly explain your successes as a manager. It becomes a spring board for later conversations at the interview process. It sets you apart.

So when applying for a new job, stretch your wings in your cover letter. It’s the place to shine and show your personality. It needs to be professional, concise, and grammatically correct. There is nothing worse than bad grammar or spelling in a cover letter. So make sure someone else reads it over, out loud. Then send it off.

Always follow up with a phone call to make sure it was received and ask if they need any information to complete your file. This gives them the chance to ask for references or letters of recommendation. I do not send these with the cover letter and resume, I wait for the HR staff to ask me for them, but I always offer to send them in, both in the cover letter and again when I call.

If you’ve been out of the workplace or are changing careers or even looking for something new in your current field, write out a cover letter to complement your resume, not to compliment your potential new employer. It will help set you apart from the hordes of applicants who are not as shiny as you.

By Amy Nielsen

I got bitten by a crazy bug after having wild vivid dream a week or so ago. In that dream I saw my new studio space exactly as I want it. So I went looking for the space, the building and place I dreamt I was taking my new class in.

I have been casting about for the most appropriate place to build my business. What I do doesn’t require more than an office with a door for private conversation. I could rent space in any number of successful multi-practice buildings in the area. I could teach my classes at several different studios and community centers around here. There are many practitioners who have businesses like mine who use several different locations.

I’m still working out the best scenario for my need for large creative space and privacy. My needs for the day will really depend on who I am seeing and what I am teaching. To that end it might behoove me to find a space to lease or own and customize. If I were to do that, I could position myself and my business as a community resource. If the space were to allow I could even invite other practitioners to use my space to teach, which would of course, benefit my clients. It would become a community wellness space of sorts.

There are two very different locations near me where I could easily find spaces and clients. One is a large northern town with a long standing hippy, crunchy reputation and as many yoga studios and wellness stores as days of the week. Every other shop is an upscale boutique selling some local handmade kitch to the well-appointed city folk in squeaky clean Uggs. I know for a fact those folks will be able to afford my services, though they all probably already have six other guru whispering in their ears.

The other is a small forgotten corner of the Borcht belt that was a big destination in the fifties though has since lost favor to the more affluent area up the valley. Local people here drive pickups with bailing twine holding the goat in the truck bed. NPR regularly has lost sheep and cow reports. These are hard-working hardy folks. Salt of the earth kinds of people who make it because there is no choice but to make it. While they can pay less, I love this little town and its quirky mountain people. There is a depth of soul here that is missing from the flashier northern crowd.

In the summer the population of both towns swell with families who rent bungalows in camps to escape the oppressive summers in the city or have private getaways tucked in the hills with long driveways ending in mysterious grand gates and conspicuously placed video cameras. Those folks tend to stay mostly to themselves and would not be a possible client base for me.

As it happened in my travels over the last week I was in the smaller town for appointments. I took a little extra time and parked my car on the opposite end of Main Street. I walked the 10 or so, short, small town, middle-America city blocks, passing empty, dusty, storefront after dusty, storefront. The solemn walk was peppered by the few bright, new openings and a couple of freshly remodeled, long-standing businesses.

This town has recently gotten a major investment in the form of a new casino breaking ground. People are excited but cautious about the opportunity the venture will bring. There is already a casino in town and it is not all it is cracked up to be. This new one promises big things. Along with the casino there are plans for a large upscale community with a new shopping center, to be built if the casino takes off.

When we first moved to the area a couple years ago, we lived in town here. We could walk to Main Street and worked hard to frequent as many local businesses as we could in our daily needs. It was rough coming from much wider options, but it taught me a lot about needs and wants. It took me down a notch and reminded me of what is important. As I walk along the street I felt the vibe of energy radiating from the newly remodeled storefronts. They didn’t leave. They toughed it out. In two cases they opened new stores and have managed to hang on. That’s hope. That’s chutzpah. That’s seedling vibrational energy that can be stoked.

Then I saw it. Cue trumpets and beams of light; actually kind of literally since it was cloudy and the sun started to shine. There is an empty, stand-alone, building with a large, open lot next to it. It sports a big nicely framed window with deep vestibule. There is a separate entrance to the second floor. I peeked in the windows and saw beautiful, if dusty, wide, wood floors in decent shape, open all the way to the back where there are three transom windows letting in beams of gold. Yep, methinks it’s a sign.

I snapped a few pictures, wrote down the number on the for rent sign, and headed to my appointment.

Later that afternoon I was meeting friends in the center of the town, who were visiting for holiday tea and cookies. As we wandered the beautifully lit, neat as a pin town, I thought to myself; “Self, you would feel intimidated here. You would be spending your time fending off your fears and theirs. This town may seem to be the ideal location, but the vibe is all wrong.” I know I could make it work and be successful but do I really want to rail against that every day?

My line of work is all about vibrational intention and energy and how you spend your energy. Clean, pure intention is key when teaching in this line of work. The ability to get to a place of deep comfort and deep grounding to be able to support the work of others is paramount. Many practitioners choose to use their homes as studios for just this reason. I found out this week that where I thought I was going to practice just plain feels wrong and in this case, I am going to trust my gut.

I am also going to take the time over the next six months to hold a few classes in different buildings in both towns to see what happens. I’m not willing to discount the decades’ worth of people doing what I do in the northern town just because I’m new and shy about my knowledge base still. To do so would be to toss out the chance at meeting a fantastic new teacher. However, I think I might go there in supplication as the new kid looking for knowledge, then teach from my center in the well of hope building in the slightly dusty hill town.

By Amy Nielsen

Have you ever had that moment when something came to you in a dream so clearly, that no matter how hard you try, you just cannot think of anything else?

The whole picture is exactly as it should be and you know in your core that what you just witnessed, not saw, but witnessed, is your personal calling of destiny?

Sounds totally corny, right? But it happened to me a few nights ago and I want to tell you about it.

I was settling into bed after an especially busy day. I had been up early getting a few segments of lectures out of the way for my nutrition school. Then I had gone to an appointment with a friend.  In the afternoon I worked on a writing project, a short guided meditation for kids about the chakra associated with action and doing. It soon became later than I usually go to bed and I knew I was getting close to just staying up to see my husband when he got home from his second shift duty.

Then I realized I still had to move the freaking elves.

As I stumbled around half asleep, still working through the wording I wanted to use in the meditation, I kept thinking about how to make the program I am learning about in school, my own. What is my spin on it? Why would someone want to come see me? I set the elves into their new spot and headed back up to bed. 

I settled down again hoping for a fast sleep knowing my husband would interrupt my difficult sleep transition if I stayed up too much longer. I decided to work on the pacing of a section of the meditation I was writing earlier in the day. As intended the mantras did settle my energy down enough for me to sleep.

I am not sure what woke me enough to be lucid in my dream. I suspect it was my hearing the dogs react to my husband arriving home. Nor do I know how long I was actually having the dream for. Most scientists say dreams only last a fraction of minutes yet feel like they last hours, days, even years. In dream time, I was there for five or so days. Time is wibbly wobbly in dreams, though

When dreams come from meditatively directed sleep, interesting things can come to light. Sometimes this is intentional and can lead to – well – exactly the kind of dream I had. Most times it happens to novice practitioners who fall asleep in the middle of a guided meditation because they are so thoroughly and completely exhausted. I like meditative sleep and lucid dreams when I prepare myself for them. Except that I hadn’t set myself up for it so it was a bit shocking when it happened. If I had done my proper practice I would have done a properly delineated end to the meditation which would have allowed for less lucidity in my sleep state.

As it was, I happened upon myself in the guise of a participant in my own workshop sessions. At first I didn’t realize I was watching myself teach. I was interested in the flow of the class, the way the leader wove the science and the spiritual to create a whole cohesive structure. I saw her confidence and light as she shared this knowledge like little packages of understanding to be unwrapped by each participant in their own fashion. I saw clearly the direction the classes took and how each fit into the next with a distinct progression. It was like being in exactly the right class for me.

Then I realized that I was both participant and teacher. I started paying attention as much as I could while still allowing the dream to flow as unhindered as it was.

It was me teaching; weaving those words, shining that confidence, cradling the warmth of understanding and ushering the participants toward a deeper, clearer connection with and within themselves. Then, once taught to be grounded in self, leading the participants to be shown how to bring this understand to others about their selves.

I was able to take the time to really hear myself. I felt like I could look at this plan and poke it with a stick for a bit before I called it mine in this dream. I remember disagreeing with the teacher and she smiled and said, “That’s why we are all individuals, dear.” I thought, “Ugh, never call a participant dear.” My sleep pattern deepened and I moved into a meditation in the class in the dream, where I was able to hear the fix to some of the wording and pace I had been missing.

At the end of the sequence I remember feeling an immense sense of pride as I boarded a plane for a home I knew to be the one I currently live in with the family. That was important as it shows that this dream was a current event. 

I woke, snapped on the lamp, grabbed a tiny notebook and a barely sharp pencil, and scribbled notes about the dream for the next two hours. I wrote everything from the name of the class to what I was wearing, from what we served for meals to the exact topics for each session within the 3-day intensive seminar. I knew enough about the dream and it sparked enough in my mind to be able to “remember” that this was a 3-day intensive version of another class I dream-teach that is eight weeks long with the same progression. I wrote that all out too. I have 37 pages of hand scrawled pigeon scratch to sort through, flesh out, and develop. It’s all there. I can see it all. I just have to get it all out of my head. And soon.

It was like being handed the entirety of an existence all wrapped up in a neat bow. Thanks for the early present! Now I can get on with the Yuletide cheer.

By Amy Nielsen

Last week in school we started working on branding ourselves as our intended profession. In my case, this is in the field of health and wellness. Because of the laws of my state, there are some very specific words I cannot use to describe what it is that I do because these words are the sole domain of licensed practitioners who have a different educational background than I do.

This topic brought on a lively debate among my classmates. We are a far flung bunch of 500, spread literally around the world, who range in age from mid-20s to mid-60s. Our debate: what do you call yourself when someone pays you for the knowledge in your head rather than what you produce?

I can’t use the words counselor or therapist, according to my state laws. But then I wouldn’t use those words because I am not really either of those things. My particular practice will have several aspects to it in order to reach the clientele I want to help. I plan to teach classes, but I am not specifically a teacher. I am writing a hands on lectures series, but I am not a lecturer. Part of my practice is holding space for people to release but I am not a facilitator either.

I could use the word coach, but that implies a different sort of relationship than the feeling I am looking for. I didn’t grow up playing team sports a lot, but I did play grade school community soccer. I played some individual sports, gymnastics then horsemanship and eventually competitive highland dance. I excelled at the individual sports in competition even though I dislike competing very much. So I had relationships with professional coaches.

The relationship I had with those coaches feels different from the one I want to present my clients with. Perhaps it is because I can only see those relationships through the eyes of a child. Perhaps it is because, for the most part, those relationships were built around the competition rather than the life skills those sports could teach. My business has nothing to do with that sort of endeavor.

I have had a sports coach as an adult. I spent 10 years studying target archery under a coach. Our relationship was very different from my previous coaching experiences. Perhaps it is part of the sport of archery, and perhaps it is based on the sort of formal framework our relationship was bound by. I didn’t just learn to shoot arrows, I lived the life of an archer in another time. I was Yoeman to Baron Li Kung Lo in the Society for Creative Anachronism.

First, a short sidebar into what the heck this weird thing the SCA is. As defined by the organization, “The Society for Creative Anachronism is an international organization dedicated to researching and re-creating the arts and skills of pre-17th-century Europe. Our “Known World” consists of 20 kingdoms, with over 30,000 members residing in countries around the world. Members, dressed in clothing of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, attend events which feature tournaments, royal courts, feasts, dancing, various classes & workshops, and more.” (SCA.org)

In short we are historical reenactors who live, work, and play in the middle ages recreating the arts, sciences, life skills as closely as possible, including a whole lot of primary source research. We play in the Society by a version of King/Queen, Royalty Household/ Family, Peers, minor nobility and court, on down to us measly peasants, or because we are anachronistic and democratic and politically correct – not to mention 700 years farther evolved (current political situations aside) - commoners. Some of the best artisans, researchers, and historians I know anywhere are or once were SCAdians.

Within this context, my archery teacher and coach was, a Peer of the Realm, a Pelican, as well as a Grand Master Archer, and member of the Order of the Sagittarius. Now I tell you this all because he was so much more than my archery coach. By the titles he wore and his time within the organization, it was incumbent upon him to have students.

Master Li is – um - not exactly the teacher-like type, if you get my drift. He is a crotchety, opinionated, frustrating, zen master of pure heart that shine through when the grasshopper finally gets it.

Part of the agreement we made when I became his student was to learn not only to shoot but to be an archer. Within the SCA, this means learning to make and maintain my own equipment. Learn about the life my sort of person would have lived. Make or acquire clothing appropriate to my station, and that pleased my Lord Master, to be a credit to his household. I had to learn not only the rules of archery within the SCA competition, but to sharpen my skills he took me to modern target archery competitions as well.

Archery is an unforgiving sport. You either hit the X or you don’t. In order to do that you must be exactly still. Everywhere. For a spilt second. To teach that is impossible, but to lead someone to it is genius.

Now I am certainly not a master, and Master Li would tell you neither is he. But he will also tell you that to become a master one must teach. Well, I know I have a lot to offer. I am just beginning to understand how teaching, becomes leading.

I see my business set up in three distinct levels: fun crafty classes, group or tribe style wellness coaching, and then eventually, I would like to have a few clients who are more intense and who want to work deeper with me on things we find mutually interesting. Like my studies with Master Li. I studied as his archery student for a while before becoming his yoeman. He became my mentor. We were able to use our archery practice to work through a whole lot of real life stuff together. We both grew from our relationship.

So perhaps in an effort to spell it out for the universe, I should call myself mentor. And I will work up and into that esteemed title.

If your boss caught you red-handed looking for another job, hopefully it wasn’t because you left your resume on the copy machine or she saw your headline change on LinkedIn.

But if it was one of these or any other misfortune, you’ve got some explaining to do. The best thing to do is to be honest.

“Fess up and tell them that you are looking for a new job. But also, tell them why,” said Abby Kohut, human resource professional and contract recruiter (www.absolutelyabby.com). “If they like you they may try to convince you to stay.”

For example, no one will fault a professional for managing his or her career, which often means checking out the market for potential opportunities or to see how you measure up and where you need development.

Make this an opportunity to discuss your findings and potential next steps at your current company. Elicit the boss’ help and advice on what training you could get, what projects might arise or what vacancies may come up internally and he just may be flattered enough to give it, now that he sees you could leave.

“Or, they may send you packing,” Kohut said.

If the real reason you are looking for work has to do with intense dislike for your current job, your boss or your co-workers, tread lightly. They might feel the same about you and welcome the chance to open the door for you to leave.

But, until you get the next job, take this chance to professionally discuss what you are unhappy about and how it can be fixed so you don’t burn any bridges.

And, from now on, proceed with caution.

“Don’t give permission for potential employers to call your current employer,” Kohut said. “It’s typical. They shouldn’t expect to call them and get you in trouble. There is no explanation needed.”

Being discreet can be tricky but it’s worth it.

“Don’t tell everyone in your network or at work that you are looking (for a job). You never know who you can trust, so keep it confidential for as long as possible,” she said.

By Amy Nielsen

Working on the road again and school has me staring to think about branding my business. What image do I want to present to the world? What is my elevator speech? Can I tweet my business mission statement?

Currently, I am traveling in the greatest state in the union for branding, Florida. I should have lots of excellent examples to examine up close and personal.

What exactly is branding anyway? If you type “branding” into Wikipedia you come up with no less than four major categories of branding, containing 17 subcategories. They range from livestock branding to vehicle title management branding to faith branding. There is even an entry for BDSM branding, but I digress. Thanks wiki – didn’t need that at 5 a.m.

Back to branding. Google says, “/brand/ verb, 1. Mark (an animal, formerly a criminal or slave) with a branding iron. 2. Assign a brand name to.”  Hmmm, well, since I am not going to put a hot iron to myself just yet, that’s not the most helpful entry in the Grand Google vocabulary.

Entrepreneur.com says, “Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates you from your competitors. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.”

Ok, great, now we are getting closer to something I can work with.

Branding is a giant, totally wonderful and totally infuriating journey into the depths of yourself and your business. Because, let’s be honest, this business is about what you personally bring to the table. Even if you have partners, each one of you has to decide what your piece of the whole package looks like. Then together, you can choose what the brand will look like.

The most basic question starts with you.

Are you a visual person or a words person? Once you decide this you can start to gather the concepts you want to work with. If you are a visual, pictures person, I suggest a visual pin board, either internet based - for old school freaks like me – cork bulletin boards and magazines. If you are a words person you can start to gather words that speak about your endeavor. Passages out of books, individual words, fonts, and even music, work in this realm.

Take the time and spend the hours to really go far out and wide in this phase of your gathering. Gather as much as you can – this is the time to cast a wide net. Think about all five senses, even if you don’t use all five in your business.

Think about every aspect of your business. What does it look like from your perspective, from that of your employees’ and from your client’s viewpoint? What does it smell like in your office? Is your business card glossy or matte? Why that shade of green and not this shade of green? Sage leaf or rosemary needle?

The next part of the process is crucial.

Go look at the competition. Find out who does what you want to do. How do they look personally? Are they professionally attired for your industry? What colors do they use in their logo? Do several of them use the same or similar language?

I’m not talking about industry standard speak, I’m talking about lingo or tone. Do they use the same or similar pictures or graphics? Follow some threads and find out who is linked to who. What media do the majority of competitors use to get their word out?

Even if you have been in your industry for a while you still must do this step, especially if you have been in the industry for a while. Often, new business owners take this step for granted. They think they already know who their competition is. Take my word for it, don’t skip this step.

Figure out why and how to set yourself apart by figuring out how your competition is all the same.

There is one last piece of this gathering stage that has to be addressed. Who are your clients?

Think you have it figured out? But did you really think about it. What do they want from you? Why do they want your services? Why don’t they want the other gal’s advice? Look specifically at each of the five senses categories you created for yourself and for your competitors, and now make one for your client base. Know exactly who you want to draw into your office.

Regardless of which type of person you are, you will eventually need to work in the other medium so the second phase in the process is to gather corresponding images or words for your first lists. So if you are a visual person, what words work to convey your concepts? Find a thesaurus. Same for you Mr. Word Monger. Play with paints. Get messy. Get creative.

Take the same amount of time whittling down the ideas you gathered in great swathes to a refined, elegant, concise image, word - and Tweet. Yes, Tweet. If you can tell me what you produce in 140 characters, then you can sell it to any venture capitalist anywhere. Which means you can sell it to pretty much anyone.

Think about the examples I am hanging out with this week: Disney and Universal Studios. Both are terrific examples of well branded companies who have stuck to their original branding with little change because it fit the original concept so well.

Can you tweet what Disney is all about? Can Disney tweet what Disney is all about? Let’s think about another brand that has undergone several changes. Pepsi Co. is local to the Orlando area. Can you think of how many different versions of the Pepsi logo and product you can think of? It’s a strong brand, but it doesn’t really fit, it keeps getting reworked both in logo and product.

So now it’s time to go play in the brand of you. Remember to start with you. Use your five senses. Who, what, why, where, when and how are you going to do what it is you do? What exactly is it that you do? Can you taste it? Are the blinds red or the curtains purple in the office? Then see who walks in your door. Now, know why they are in your business and not your competitors. Once you know all of this – then you know your brand.

By Amy Nielsen

Getting down to brass tacks, just exactly how and when do I start this business thing?

How do you open the doors of your business when you don’t have actual doors?

I am planning to teach classes later this winter and will organize my personal mentoring business into a teachable system before I start to look for clients in January – my projected launch date.

I need to just decide on the class I want to teach the most, find a place to teach it, contact the venue, set up the date and contract for the event and print a bunch of fliers. Easy peasy, right? But it feels so daunting!

I am feeling a bit stuck as I envision how this system will play out in practice. I have seen so many different ways to use it. I need to focus on one aspect. Something concrete, a bridge. I feel like maybe a class around the food link to chakras, a basic principle in my system. In order to do that I need to concentrate my own studies more.

I am feeling excited about contributing to the universe, to our family financially and to share my knowledge. And, to be heard and appreciated for it.

However, I set a certain amount of personal discovery and building time into my plan and I don’t want to rush it. If I take on my first clients or teach my first classes now, before my pre-set time, I feel like I might be cheating myself and my clients out of valuable processing.

That brings up a good exercise. I have to write a bio to put with my general public classes so people have a clue who I am. Sounds like a good place to start building my own confidence. Designing who I want the world to see. Do I have enough chops, enough credentials, enough time in this to be listened to? Would I take a class from me? If not, what do I need to add to my credentials?

Stepping up and stepping in. Every time I choose to introduce myself with my new title, in my new business, I choose to step up and into my self-created space. My circle. I become the center of the ripples. What do I want my pond to look like?

Listening to myself, it almost feels like I am listening to the introduction to my new self. I hear the words I say and it’s like I am testing out the language to see if I can spit the syntax out right. Sometimes I change it up a bit and stumble and find a new turn of phrase or a new connection I hadn’t made before.

As I introduce myself to others, I work to solidify my ideas. I am growing my own ideas. I am seeking out more connections for my circle. Sometimes, when I make a connection that person leads me to a new avenue to explore.

I have some interesting friends, who in turn have interesting friends. The universe has seen fit to place me in the path of some folks who can help me along my journey, if I take the time to connect with them.  I am enjoying that the people interested in deeper conversation are from a very wide range of disciplines and professions. It is helping me to learn new paths to take and in turn, teach me more options to offer to my future clients.

So back to where this all started, what are the concrete steps I am going to take to move forward in the journey to open my business? I need to make several appointments with friends who could be colleagues in a more formal context. I need to make appointments with some of the practitioners I have met to learn their systems and be inspired to create my own. I need to decide on a format for my class and find a name for my business.

And, I need to allow time to just be me, enjoy life, and not work on work all the stinkin’ time. I have quite a balancing act to figure out.

By Amy Nielsen

As I get farther along in my schooling I find that what I have to share as a mentor is pretty open ended and can be tweaked to help me work well with different people.

I don’t want to specialize in a specific disease or condition. I feel that limits the kind of mentoring I can offer. Instead, I want to work with individuals who suffer a wide range of ailments and need a path to follow and hand to hold.

Now, I need to solidify my concepts, choose key words and a graphic to tie the concepts together between levels of classes I want to lead and the individual clients I want to mentor. I need to solidify the concept so other people will be able to understand it easily and quickly.

In other words, I need to meme it. It is fun to see the evolution of ideas that come early in the process of developing a teaching plan. I really enjoy the open thinking and connecting the far flung dots to make a connection. I am a very visual person. The only sense I couldn’t live without is seeing. So I do a lot of my work using graphic organizers. I started a long time ago with felt boards and magazine clippings, and my house looked like a hoarder’s home.

Then, I found my new darling, Pinterest. It is my favorite site for visual dreaming and has a neat feature where you can set your view to show your items in chronological order. Reading back on it is like having a conversation with myself. I love it. I get new information from things posted months ago that now resonate in a different way with new understanding. I can see how I built up to an idea and where I got sidetracked by the pretty shiny graphic. Getting sidetracked by so many options is easy. Focus and clarity are hard to come by when you have a new idea forming in your head. I know what I want to do, but I can help so many different kinds of people that choosing who not to help is frustrating and daunting.

How do doctors decide what specialty they want to practice when they are in early medical school? Some have a specific disease they want to cure or ease, some have a specific population they want to help, others are in it for the greatest amount of impact they can make. I have heard the same sentiment in the voices of the women practitioners I met at a recent conference.

I am confident that the ideas floating around in my head will consolidate to form a coherent and successful overarching concept. I know that the science and the spirit is out there to support this path.

Like ripples from a pebble on a pond, as I describe these concepts to my supports, my tribe, all nod and agree it makes sense in a new way to them. When I toss out the ideas to those farther from my center, they all agree it sounds like an interesting idea that might fare well in their communities as well. The question becomes, how far can I stretch the concept to meet the needs of that community. I chose my own mentors because they are specific to their teaching but understand that information can come from many informed sources. One of the best things I have learned is to use my resources. I am

visual, I like memes, I like succinct. So perhaps that is my answer. I teach what I live, in a simple colorful manor with cross-referenced resources. Because, that is how I know it. I can’t teach it any other way.