Today’s guest post is courtesy of Oscar Del Ben, a freelancer, blogger and entrepreneur. He writes about personal development, productivity and lifestyle design at freestylemind.com. His personal mission is to help as many people as possible to switch to doing what they love.

People often ask me if my job is secure or not. The reason they ask me this question is that I don’t have a regular job. I’m not employed by anyone and I don’t have a fixed paycheck.

Instead I am a freelancer, blogger, and internet entrepreneur. The majority of my income comes from freelancing work that I do for internet startups. Recently I also started building internet assets, like my blog, a web application, and a few mini-sites. My goal is that each of these assets will eventually generate an interesting stream of money one day.

So, is my job secure? Actually I don’t have an answer, mainly because it depends on what you mean by secure, but also because I don’t believe in job security at all. The real question is: can any job be secure?

Unfortunately the answer to the last question is no. It doesn’t matter if you are employed full-time in a big corporation, because history teaches us that you can lose your job any day. Even working for yourself isn’t secure, because when you lose your client you have to start over again.

Does this mean there’s not a solution to job security? Not at all. It is possible to build a relatively secure lifestyle if you plan ahead and follow some guidelines. The main problem is that our society doesn’t teach us how to do it. When we go to school they prepare us to work for one company, not many, and when you quit working there, you are often in a big trouble.

There are many solutions to this. For example you can build a remarkable resume by staying competitive and managing your reputation, so that when you quit working for a company, you’ll already be considered an expert and you’ll get another job more easily. Another solution is to create different sources of income, so that if you lose one, you’ll have many others that support you.

How to build a second income stream

The good news is that it’s not hard to come up with a second income stream. You don’t need to be an entrepreneur or an internet marketer because there are plenty of opportunities available to everyone.

If you have trouble thinking about how you can diversify your income, the following list might be a good start:

• Find a part time job. Having a part time job is not uncommon; many people have one. For example you can work in a bar during the weekend or do baby sitting on Saturday. If you are good at math, or you master a foreign language, you can also offer repetitions. Do a local search in your area to find out which part time jobs are available.
• Offer consulting. If you already do any kind of technical work (writer, programmer, marketer, accountant, etc.), you can offer consulting to companies or individuals in your free time. By offering your expertise you can earn higher rates, even if you work only a few hours per week.
• Build a website. Creating a website is a good idea if you are already familiar with technical stuff. The trick here is to find a niche where competition is not huge and where you can fulfill some necessity. Building a successful website it’s not easy, but it can bring great rewards, and potentially a lot of money.
• Ask your friends for collaboration. Many times you don’t need to approach new people to find a part time job. For example I have a friend who runs a company and he needs someone who does some errands for him. He can only hire for 4 hours a week, so he’s looking for someone who can do this just on Saturday mornings. Another thing I often do is to offer my help to people who are creating a new product. Everyone is willing to accept your help if you can add value to them in some way, so don’t be shy and just ask.

There are tons of opportunities available to anyone who wants to start making money in his free time. You just have to remember that there’s no quick fix and you have to put real work and time in whatever you choose to do.

When you find an alternative stream of income, it’s important that you don’t immediately raise your lifestyle expenses and spend all your money. Save cash for later, or better yet put it into a high interest saving account, otherwise you’ll be in the same situation as before.

Case study

I have a friend who works full time in a company during the day, and then offers design consulting at night. She usually has no time to do other work during the day, but she can manage to find one hour in the evenings and another six hours on the weekends.

I asked her how much this part time work brings her. She replied to me that her hourly rate is 30 dollars, and in a normal month she can make $1,400–$1,500.

That’s not bad for just one hour per day and six hours in the weekend. I expect her to quit her job soon if she can find even more clients, but that’s another story.

Remember, it’s better to find something else now, rather than waiting for the necessity to arise later.

UPDATE May 10: This contest is now closed. The winner will be announced via Twitter & the blog soon. Thanks to all for your participation.

I’ve been back in the States for a few weeks this month—my only brief trip home this year—and it’s been a lot of fun catching up with friends and going to the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in the Southern California desert. But I had very mixed feelings about coming back to the U.S. right now, and my visit has been a little bittersweet.

The U.S. has been hit hard by a down economy, and California is showing visible signs of the recession. Restaurants are empty. Small businesses are closing their doors. A lot of folks are looking for work, a lot are depressed, a lot of people are stagnating.

In this economic downturn, it’s time to take your reputation, and your career, into your own hands. There is no such thing as job security anymore. Pensions and benefits can be taken away at a moment’s notice. And even your retirement savings can’t be relied upon these days.

I believe that entrepreneurship, as risky as it can be, is truly the best solution. As a freelancer or business owner, you take your destiny into your own hands. And if you prefer the “security” of a full-time job, these days you should at least develop a second, side income stream, and actively manage your “employability”. That means staying sharp on developments in your field, keeping your resume fresh, and regularly adding people to your professional network. You should never quit job searching really, because the unfortunate reality is that everyone’s job is disposable.

It’s funny—in conversation you notice there are fundamental differences in the way employees and entrepreneurs think. I won’t say one is better than the other, but I think at least a little bit of entrepreneurial thinking is good for everyone. It keeps you on your toes and makes you realize that you can create your own prosperity if you try hard enough. My mission here at Thrilling Heroics is to help people break out of conventional thinking and pursue their potential, so I expect you guys to be able to hear me say that, or else you wouldn’t be my audience!

Anyways, I’m working on a few things to help everyone kick ass at life just a little bit more. My mission this year, in everything I do, is to empower as many would-be freelancers, entrepreneurs, and other do-gooders to take back their power, to realize they don’t have to be just a cog in a wheel and take what life gives them. You can build an awesome business, you can live a remarkable life, and you can do anything and go anywhere you want! You just have to work for it.

Here we go:

Discount Social Media Consulting for New Clients

It’s no secret that I provide social media consulting and blog development services for select web entrepreneurs and professionals. Just this month I helped Kare Anderson—a dedicated blogger and author who already kicks ass even without my help—launch her new site HowWePartner.com. And I helped coach Eileen McDargh—a professional speaker and management consultant—on introductory ways to utilize social media more effectively for her business. Eileen was completely ecstatic and said this after our first hour together:

“In just one hour, Cody cut through the chaos and confusion of social networks, showing me what I needed to do and—even more importantly, what I did NOT need to do. It was very valuable and worth the time.”

My fees are typically somewhat substantial, because I try to filter out only the most dedicated and remarkable clients, and dedicated people tend to have money to spend on their remarkable projects. The amount of attention and commitment I give to each client makes the investment worthwhile. My job is to follow industry trends in the social media and blogging space, filtering through the noise to find the most important solutions for my clients. I maintain a wide knowledge base and an active network in the blogosphere so that I can provide my clients with relevant news and resources, software and tutorials, and even introduce them to like-minded professionals and key influencers in their niche, to establish authority on the web and improve their business.

Because we’re all feeling the negative effects of this economy, I’m offering a small discount on my consulting for new clients right now. If you’ve got something important to say, I want to help you get the right web technology and social media strategies in place to increase your online exposure. Add me to your team and leverage my expertise in the following areas:

• WordPress
• Blogging
• Social networks
• User-friendly, accessible web design (XHTML, CSS, PHP)
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Personal branding
• Online project management & collaboration tools

I usually bill $95 per hour for my consulting time. But if you book an Introductory Blog & Social Media Consultation with me in the month of May, I’ll give you your first hour of consulting for just $75. I’ll talk with you directly via phone or webcam to understand your specific business situation and your online marketing objectives, and help point you in the right direction.

An Awesome FREE WordPress Theme in the Works

There is a sizable market for my premium web services. But I realize there are also several important demographics out there who can’t afford pricey web consulting and development work, including young professionals like myself who are interested in personal branding and establishing their reputation on the web, micro-business owners and other solopreneurs who are tightening their belts right now.

As a low-cost alternative for these rockstars in training, I’m currently building a killer app—a premium, all-in-one blog design, which I’ll release as a free WordPress theme. “Thrilling Theme” will be my masterpiece. It will serve as the framework for my future web development projects, and it will have everything you could ever dream of! The free theme will include:

• Multiple color schemes and style options to choose from
• An easy way to upload your own custom logo or header image
• Integrated Twitter updates, Flickr photos, and more
• Easy insertion of your Google Analytics tracking code, your FeedBurner RSS feed, etc.
• And tons more. Please share your ideas in the comments!

For do-it-yourselfers, the theme will be available as a free download. For individuals and small businesses that want some basic help getting started with Thrilling Theme as the template design for their site, a basic setup & customization package will be available for a nominal charge. (We’re talking about a complete social media platform—possibly the framework for your online business—for less than 400 bucks!)

What About for Non-Blogging Nerd Types?

Additionally, I’ll be doing as much as I can to provide free, valuable advice on this blog to help as many people break free as well—talking about going solopreneur, building a strong reputation on the web, and taking your business location-independent if you desire. Blogging and leveraging social media has allowed me to make awesome friends in all corners of the globe, and I’ve even attracted clients from five continents! My only desire is that I can help you guys experience similar success.

I have a few projects on my back burners, some things that have been marinating for a while. In the coming months, I look forward to teaming up more with great folks like Lea Woodward, Jun Loayza, Jonathan Mead, Carmen Isais, Mark Weins and Tom Barrett to deliver some fresh, unique perspectives and experiment with some new ideas.

Locally, I’ll continue to work with Dwight Turner of In Search of Sanuk to host charity events and fundraisers in and around Thailand, and I hope to provide discount services to many more non-profits this year. I’ve just partnered with Fusion International on a new project to help them relaunch and revitalize their website focused on victims of extreme poverty, conflict and internal displacement. When you support this site, do business with me, or tell people about Thrilling Heroics, you’ll help me continue to support good causes, and promote events like our Bangkok Tweetup for Charity.

The Part Where I Ask for Your Help

In order to empower as many people as I can this year, I need your help to reach the biggest audience possible. What can you do? You can subscribe. You can tell people about my mission and about ThrillingHeroics.com. You can check out my company, Thrilling Heroics Consulting. But I’ll go a step further: if you blog about my mission with link to this post by May 10th, you’ll be entered for a chance at a FREE 1-hour Blog Consultation. It’s simple:

1. Write about my mission to help as many people become Rockstars as possible with discount consulting. Write about the upcoming free Thrilling Theme. You can even write about the competition itself.
2. Include a direct link to this post or to ThrillingHeroicsConsulting.com
3. To make sure I get your submission, leave a comment on this post and include the URL for your blog post about this competition.

On May 10th, I’ll choose one commenter at random to receive a free consultation with me by phone or Skype. You’ll get a full hour to ask me any questions you like about blogging, social media, and WordPress.

Thanks for staying with me this long. Forget the crummy economy. Let’s all combine forces to do some good this year. Check back soon for more on living a remarkable life.

Feature photo credit: Elmo Keep

Can’t get enough Thrilling Heroics? Follow @codymckibb on Twitter.

Hey Jun, so give us a little professional background on how you got to be where you are and what your role is with Future Delivery.

As an undergraduate at UCLA, I got a taste for entrepreneurship by founding Bruin Consulting, the UCLA Undergraduate Case Competition, and the Veridical Group. Each experience taught me something new about myself and really amplified my abilities as a leader and consultant, and my business sense.

After I graduated from UCLA, I worked at an international consulting firm for about three months. At the three month mark, I realized that the corporate life was just not for me. I mean, the pay was good, the job was steady, it was around 55 hours a week (not bad for consulting), and we even had an amazing Flavia machine in the kitchen! What drove me to step aside from the corporate world was that I felt unchallenged, and that I was in cruise control. You go to work, come back home, eat dinner, you might have time for the gym, and then you sleep. It became an endless routine!! From my experiences as an entrepreneur, I knew that my passion was in having my own baby (company).

I stepped aside from my corporate job and teamed up with Yu-kai Chou, my Delta Sig pledge brother who co-founded Bruin Consulting and the Veridical Group with me. Together, we founded Future Delivery. This is a startup company; therefore, I wear at least twenty different hats. My main responsibility is that of Chief Marketing Officer. I am in charge of everything having to do with our branding, advertising, lead generation, conversion, and client fulfillment. I am the face of Future Delivery, so I must always make sure I look my best!

What is the new FDCareer roleplaying game all about? Give our readers a run-down of the community and why it’s such a great benefit.

Many of you play video games and watch TV all day. Many undergraduates go to class, play and party all night, and ignore their careers until right before they graduate—which in many cases, may be too late. We created the FD RPG so that undergraduates and young professionals can have fun while developing themselves professionally.

In the FD RPG, every time you gain an internship, get a high GPA, or become a leader of an organization, you gain experience points and level-up on the site. As you level-up, you gain prestige, new abilities, access to new areas of the site, and will be able to recruit with more prestigious firms. We’ve also implemented Quests that help you develop career-wise. For example, a Quest for a Consultant could be a business analysis case. You will have to solve a company’s problem—could be profitability or an acquisition—and you will submit your solutions online to be reviewed by our expert panel. A Marketing Quest could be to gain social influence on Twitter by gaining more followers.

Monster.com is about helping people apply for a job.

Vault.com is about helping people research companies.

FD Career is about getting students and young professionals prepared for their careers. It helps you discover what you want to be, and how to get there.

You’ve got a great blog where you share your journey with entrepreneurship. Can you share some of your thoughts on the startup life and your opinions on work-life balance?

Hahaha… there is no work life balance. To be a successful entrepreneur (not that I’m successful yet), your work and life have to be one thing. That is the key. My personal relationships, family relationships, and girlfriend relationships have suffered because of the path that I have chosen. But these are the sacrifices that you have to make in order to put yourself in the position to be successful.

For example, I probably have time to hang out with my friends from UCLA or high school once or twice a month. I do see my girlfriend a lot during the week, but this is how we spend time together: her sitting in front of the TV watching a show or movie, me sitting by her side with my laptop and earphones on so that I can concentrate and meet my project deadlines.

This life is NOT for everyone. Cody, I chat with you all the time at 3am because we’re both still up doing work. We don’t even complain about it because we know this is the life that we have chosen, so all we can do is laugh. Though the road is tough, you will love what you do.

I keep pushing because I truly believe in the idea, I love my baby, and I love my team. If we fail, I would gladly start another company will all of them.

I’ve heard some rumblings about a sort of reality show that you guys are putting together to showcase your experience starting up a company?

Glad you brought it up! Our first video will launch this week! Hopefully it’ll launch before this is posted so you can link to the first episode. [See Episode 1, Part 1 here, and Part 2 here, also see below. —Ed.]

The Living the Startup Life video series is for all of those people who have a great idea but don’t know where to start, for everyone stuck in their corporate job afraid to leave their company to pursue their dream career, and for everyone who just wants to watch some guys have a lot of fun while succeeding or failing.

Lastly, would you mind sharing a bit about your education and how your experience has helped you become an avid entrepreneur. I’m interested if you have any good tips for students or twentysomethings that want to start their own businesses and really exercise their entrepreneurial muscles!

Why yes I do. My major at UCLA did NOT prepare me for my entrepreneurial quest. The three main things that prepared me to pursue the entrepreneurial life were:

1. Finding a mentor who guided me on my path to become an entrepreneur
2. Getting a taste of it while starting an orginzation and a company as an undergrad
3. Reading business books in class instead of paying attention to the teacher

• The E-Myth Revisited and E-Myth Mastery by Michael Gerber
• Good to Great by Jim Collins
• Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi

If you do these three things, then you will be prepared to become an entrepreneur.

Thanks for your willingness to share your wisdom with the Thrilling Heroics community, Jun.

If you have any questions about entrepreneurship, Jun is genuinely interested in helping you guys out and making new friends on this great online web community of ours, so please feel welcome to contact him at Jun.Loayza (at) FDcareer (dot) com or on his blog Living the Startup Life. If you are interested in the FDcareer RPG, I highly recommend it! In my experience on the community site, I’ve already reached level 25 (currently #7 on the leaderboard!) so feel free to connect with me if you have questions about blogging, WordPress, or web development, and keep an eye out, because I will be creating some web design and blogging-related quests for you guys in the next few weeks! (Check out a little more about the FDCareer RPG in this intro video below.)

Since it’s brand-spanking new to the blogosphere, I could really use your help promoting the Thrilling Heroics Consulting site to the community, so please vote it up on the social media sites and share the URL address if you’ve got friends or colleagues who are bloggers too. Thanks!

CodyMcKibben.com Will Now Serve As My Social Media Homebase

I’ll be compiling my portfolio and services listing at ThrillingDesign.com, but I’ve also recently transformed codymckibben.com into a static homepage. All of my articles that were originally posted there have been moved here to the Thrilling Heroics blog. codymckibben.com will serve as a social media HQ of sorts, so please feel free to reference it if you’re looking for my contact info or to see what projects I’m currently involved in, but looking ahead I encourage you to follow all my future updates on personal development, careeer, Gen-Y issues, social media, and more here at Thrilling Heroics (get the RSS feed here).

Visit the New Thrilling Heroics Bookstore!

In addition to the Thrilling Blog Search tool, I’ve also recently created an online bookstore for the Thrilling Heroics reader community. People that know me know that I love reading personal development and business books, and I really enjoy sharing the best of what I read. I’ve started an Amazon aStore where I’ve hand-picked the best personal and business development books. Several of these have been the most impactful books in my life, while others have been highly suggested by mentors and colleagues.

Whenever I find great new resources that I think the community will benefit from, I’ll add them in. For transparency, I receive a 4-6% commission on any books you purchase through the TH Bookstore and it will go to help offset the costs of running the site. Please consider buying a book to help support the site! (You can also purchase other books through my Amazon link for up to 34% discount!)

Browse the Thrilling Heroics Bookstore »

Thanks for being a member of my online community and please feel free to get in touch with your thoughts and feedback. Cheers!

How long did it take me to fill my schedule with freelance work?

I’m actually consciously building my freelance business as a part-time venture to allow myself to concentrate on writing and a few other pet projects in my spare time. But, I left employed life about 11 months ago, and I strived to over-deliver and impress the pants off of my first several clients, which has paid off ten-fold in referral business. I’d say that after four or five months of freelancing, the work just started to come in on its own without me having to chase it too much, because I had built a good reputation, a great network, and a quality communications platform for my business.

Who do I consult with and where have I found my business clients?

I work with all kinds of small-to-medium companies and professionals, but my consulting is definitely aimed towards authors, columnists, speakers, coaches, and other thought leaders who already have decent writing skills or something important to say—blogging is a great tool for broadcasting a discussion and maintaining client relations, and particularly for personality-driven businesses where a CEO’s personal brand is tied to the business, for instance.

My first few gigs started with a few mentors of mine and clients who just happened to stumble across me, and I went all-out to deliver the best product to them at a low cost, so that created a lot of word-of-mouth and referral business which still keeps my freelance inbox full to this day! I’ve also found many clients and partners just through interacting with writers and users on existing blogs and social media sites, or just through conversations with other professionals at business conferences for example. But for me, it’s been truly impressive how many interesting people I have been able to connect with virtually through the blogosphere, and how much work one can find globally via the web! I’ve had clients across the States, and now in Canada and even France.

What skills or strengths does it take to be a freelance blog consultant?

Personally, people tell me that my strongest ability is in translating technical information and jargon into business-oriented language. My favorite part of what I do is actually hashing out ideas with my clients—talking directly with authors and business owners and helping them learn how to use their technology or interact with other online writers. So as a consultant, you definitely need some people skills and you need to be able to sell yourself. On the other end of the spectrum though, I currently do every part of this process from finding new clients to customer service to coding, and to be successful at the web design and programming, you just need the patience to sit at a computer screen for 10 hours straight some days, and a hungry desire for continued learning and improvement.

What are some good resources to learn the basic skills necessary for web design?

My college degree was in religious studies and history, so my business and web design skills have been completely self-taught over the last two years, often through lots of trial and error. Some people may not realize that web design and development are actually huge spheres, so there are tons of niche-specific resources and organizations, but the World Wide Web Consortium, W3Schools, and A List Apart are a few good places to start learning to write valid, attractive code. If you work with open-source content management systems like I do, there is usually a large, knowledgeable developer community with lots to offer (see the WordPress Codex, for example), or guidebooks like Building Online Communities With Drupal, phpBB, and WordPress might be useful.

What surprises have there been working as a web developer? What should other hopeful freelancers know?

As a consultant in any field, some people will expect you to be available at all hours, and some clients will have unreasonable expectations, so you need to learn to establish firm boundaries and you need to learn to say no sometimes. The earlier you learn these things, the less painful your experience will be. Other things to think about are the stigmas and challenges of self-employment and working from home, so I would recommend you do some research on those things before you take the jump, but I also highly recommend it to anyone who’s got the determination to do so.

One other huge tip I’d offer is to establish relationships or partnerships with people who complement your weaknesses or just areas you don’t focus on. So for instance, my niche is blogs, but I can pull in someone who’s a great graphic designer, or a wiki or podcast expert, or a web hosting guy when necessary.

How much have I invested to start my business and what were some of the biggest expenses?

Most of my operation has been budget-free because I work from home and use a lot of tools I already had from school. After I’d had some cash-flow, I did invest about $2k in a new desktop Mac for my development work, but I use all open-source and web-based design and development software, so licenses are almost always free or very inexpensive. My next move will be to put some money into very targeted online ad campaigns, but my research shows that investing even just a few hundred dollars via Google Adwords can be very effective.

Great related resources on the web about freelancing:

• 10 Misconceptions the Self-Employed Deal With Daily
• How to Ensure Working from Home is Not Boring
• How Working from Home Improved My Social Life
• A week of journalism: How to be a freelancer without starving
• Freelance Switch

Michelle Goodman, the blogger behind Anti9to5Guide.com, asked in her Career Management column at ABCnews.com, “Ever Dreamed of Working at Home in Your Pajamas? Make it Reality.” And she answered with Five Low-Cost Ways to Be Your Own Boss, an article that looks at five great occupations for new freelancers: professional organizer, copywriter, blog designer, bookkeeper, and virtual assistant.

It’s an easy read if you’re thinking about going into a freelance profession, and the cool part is that Michelle interviewed me for tips from my experience as a blog designer and consultant. This was my first time breaking into traditional media, and it was a cool opportunity for a little publicity of my freelance business, ThrillingDesign.com.

So how did I do it? I’d like to say that I was fortunate enough to score this brief interview for ABC because I was willing to invest into building a relationship. Michelle is someone I established an acquaintance with nearly a year ago when I interviewed her for Ramit Sethi’s I Will Teach You To Be Rich blog. I took a genuine interest in her work and her book The Anti 9-to-5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube because obviously, freelancing is something I’m passionate about. We’ve stayed in touch since, and she must have kept track of me as I started up my own freelance business in the last several months. So when she was looking for a freelancer who helps business owners and writers customize their own blogs, she came to me knowing it was right up my alley.

The lesson here is simple: if you have a genuine interest in what others do—be they columnists, authors, CEOs, or whatever—don’t be afraid to reach out and ask them a few questions about it. I’ve met the second richest man in the world, and interviewed a billion-dollar hedge fund manager, and I think that almost anybody, no matter how rich, powerful, successful, or famous, likes to feel like others have a genuine interest in what they do. And often times, if you show that toward others, they will reciprocate at some point.

I feel very honored to be a part of Michelle Goodman’s piece on ABCnews.com. She’s a fantastic writer and the article takes an interesting look at the lives of a few different freelancers. She recommends you look at the Small Business Association (SBA) and SCORE if you’re interested in going self-employed, among a few other resources. I’m also looking forward to her upcoming book in October, “My So-Called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire.”

She had a number of great questions for me when we spoke, but naturally there was only space for a small portion of what we discussed in the finished news article, so I’ll try to share some more thoughts on freelancing and blog design in my next post here at Thrilling Heroics.

[see: Five Low-Cost Ways to Be Your Own Boss on ABCnews.com]

Ad: The 11 Forgotten Laws that Complete the Law of Attraction

This was supposed to be a New Year’s post, but unanticipated changes due to my travel schedule forced me to postpone writing it. That’s okay though, travel will teach you a few valuable lessons about embracing change and rolling with the punches. The nice thing about resolutions is that New Year’s Eve isn’t the only time you can make them!

In fact, you can set positive new resolutions for your life anytime you choose! New Years just gives us a great opportunity to reflect on our achievements in the past year and set some meaningful new goals for the year ahead. But you can do this anytime you choose—you can make yearly goals on your birthday, or on tax day, or you can set resolutions every six months, every quarter, or you can even set monthly goals! You get the picture…

It’s already three weeks into the New Year, why should I set resolutions now?

The advent of a new year simply serves as a good reminder to reflect on all the progress you’ve made over the last 12 months and take what you’ve learned, and build a roadmap for the coming year and beyond.

It’s actually better that there has been time for the hype of the New Year to pass by. A lot of people intentionally avoid setting new goals on January 1st because they see New Years “resolutions” as oh-so-cliche. Or perhaps you set a traditional resolution and already fell off the wagon. Revisiting what “resolutions” mean now might give you an opportunity to set more meaningful goals this year. So, stay with me here and embrace the change. Don’t think of this as a New Years post. Instead, we are going to focus on goal-setting for this year.

We’ve already seen how powerful it can be when you set goals for yourself. You won’t succeed at every goal, but review your personal development progress at the end of each year to see how much you do accomplish! Simply setting the goals for yourself will greatly increase the likelihood that you’ll get much closer to your dream lifestyle in all these areas of your life.

But I can never keep my resolutions anyways. Why should I care?

So, as you can already see from my experience getting this post out much later than I intended, embracing change means that you don’t always get to do things exactly when you planned. But that’s okay, just because the timing changes doesn’t mean you should throw away the whole plan! Just having made the plan in the first place makes you about sixty percent more likely to follow through on the action than if you hadn’t made plans and set a time in your head in the first place. So the timing has changed. So what? You can still follow through. That’s what goal-setting is! It’s setting a plan—not a commandment set in stone. Don’t give up on your goals if you miss your timeline.

Another thing about your goals is that they may change over time, or things may happen that prevent you from achieving them. Or you may simply not put in the effort to complete all of your goals by the end of the year. But what matters most is that you set them. The act of making meaningful, clearly-defined goals, and writing them down, will put you ahead of 95% of people out there, and it will certainly point you much closer in the right direction toward attaining the lifestyle that you desire in the year ahead. I guarantee that if you set ten goals for yourself in 2008, simply the act of setting goals for yourself will put you MUCH closer to achieving your dreams! As Abraham Lincoln said, “A goal properly set is halfway reached.” Get clear on what you want to accomplish in the next year, and focus your energy towards those ends, and you’ll likely achieve many of your goals.

Okay, okay. So how do you actually do this?

Now it seems to be a popular thing to try to create 100 life goals or 100 goals for the new year. (Just do a Google search for “100 goals” and you’ll see how many communities there are out there talking about the number 100!) Maybe it’s just that the number ‘one-hundred’ has so much appeal… There’s nothing wrong with wanting to go about it that way I suppose, but I think that’s going about it backwards. You’ve already started out by adding another goal to the top of your pile of things to do: To create 100 goals! But does having any particular number of goals really objectively have any value to you? No. In fact, the number is fairly meaningless, so don’t start out with any particular number to reach.

Instead, try starting with the bigger picture in mind. As Stephen Covey said in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “Begin with the end in mind.” To do this, we will examine what roles we play, and what we want those areas of our life to look like in a year from now.

Brainstorm your personal Roles & Areas of Focus

The necessary first step is to brainstorm your life roles, and other important personal areas of focus. Some goal-setting systems will tell you what categories to set goals for, but I believe you will come up with much more meaningful “categories” if you reflect personally about what roles you play and what areas of focus are most important to you. This is the system that Tony Robbins uses in his Personal Power seminars, and many other professional coaches (like my friend Tim Walther) use successfully in goal-setting workshops with thousands of people every year.

Think about your work, your family, your hobbies… What roles do you play? For example, when I brainstormed, my roles included freelance web designer, business owner, professional networker, peer mentor, writer, traveler, and artist. But perhaps you are a mother, a CEO, an accountant, rock climber, church member, or amateur filmmaker. The roles that we play are different and unique for each individual. But what “hats” do you wear? What roles are important to you that you want to improve upon in the next year?

Roles tend to sound like titles or jobs, even if you don’t get paid for them! They are how you relate to other people. But besides your roles, what other areas of focus are important to you personally? For most people this will include things like personal finances, health and recreation, social life, and so on. But maybe your areas of focus include nutrition, or spirituality, or professional development and training…

Take some time to brainstorm and reflect on what roles and areas of focus are most important in your life, and once you have them all written down on a piece of paper, imagine one-by-one what each of those areas of your life could “look like” in a year. This is called visualization, and it’s an important tool in attaining your desires. Visualize how much progress you could make towards positive relationships with your family. Or how much you could improve upon your strengths at work. Imagine yourself in a new profession, being paid to do something you love. Or even picture yourself on vacation to some beautiful exotic location! But don’t imagine these things passively—visualize yourself participating in making those changes…in experiencing those improvements and accomplishments. Write down a sentence or short paragraph next to each role and each area of focus about what that “picture” looks like.

Now set some goals!

Now that you have your big picture and you’ve thought about where you’re going with each of your personal roles, you finally have some direction. Visualizing what each of those areas of your life could look like one year from now should give you vivid images of what you want to DO, BE, and HAVE. So the final piece of the puzzle in making meaningful resolutions this year is to break those visualizations down into smaller steps you need to take to get there. What are the next actions that will get you closer to your desired outcomes? If you want to buy a new laptop, how much money should you set aside each month? If you want rock-hard abs, how many crunches are you going to do each day?

The best way to set goals that are longer-term than your weekly To Do list items is to start practicing SMART goals. SMART, in this case, is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. You can review these questions in your head as you set goals, or you may want to write them out for each major goal you set.

Specific — Is it something concrete, that you’ll know when you’ve completed it? This is one big reason why “resolutions” fail. People often set ambiguous goals that are too broad to be actionable or too unclear to know when you’ve fulfilled the requirements. For instance, a popular New Years’ resolution is “to get in shape.” But how are you going to achieve that? That is only a very murky version of the visualization that we’ve already practiced above. Now make it specific!

Measurable — How will you measure your progress at the end of the year, or how will you know when you’ve achieved your objective? Think about what specific criteria you’ll have to fulfill to reach the specific outcome you want. And a good way of measuring may be to keep a notebook of your progress toward the goal, or involving your friends in keeping you on track.

Attainable — Is it realistic and possible for you to achieve this in the year ahead, or are you reaching too far? Do you have too much on your plate already? Set goals that will make you stretch, and learn, and grow. But don’t set unrealistic, far-fetched goals that will only discourage you when you don’t meet them.

Relevant — This is actually my favorite of these questions to ask when you’re doing these mental exercises, and it is the first one that I ask because it is the best filter because I think it is the most important. Put simply, is the goal important? Is it really going to get you closer to your dreams, and is it really worth investing your energy in? Or should you focus on other, more important goals?

Time-Bound — When will you complete this goal? Specifically? By October? In Q1? On your birthday? Remember what I said about being flexible with changes in timing toward the beginning of this post, but attaching a time to your goals makes them immediate and important. Remind yourself regularly that you have a goal to meet. When do you plan to start, and what is your target date for completion?

You may come up with a hundred goals for 2008, or you may come up with just two or three really important goals for the year. I go through my list and eliminate all the non-SMART goals, and I try to focus on the ‘attainability’ aspect of my goals and think about how much I can realistically accomplish in just one year, so I have about 3-4 top concrete goals for each of my 10 roles/areas of focus.

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Examples of My Personal and Professional Development Goals for the New Year

In my own brainstorming, I found that my most important Roles included Web Designer/Consultant, Entrepreneur, Blogger, Peer Mentor, Traveler, and Artist. And other Areas of Focus for me included things like Social & Relationship-oriented goals, Health & Recreation, and Financial goals. After I settled on these nine top areas of importance for my life, I visualized how I’d ideally like to see each of those realms in a year from now… What sort of progress would I like to make? What things would I like to learn? How successful can I be in a year? And I not only asked these questions, but I tried to actually put myself in that future reality—what will it feel like? How will I get there? Is it truly important?

So, once I had the broader picture of where I’d like to be in a year (yet still very specific mental images), I worked backwards to think what smaller steps I’ll need to accomplish to get to that point. I tried to frame each of my goals into the three areas of things I want to BE, DO, or HAVE, and I tried to frame them in the affirmative, to reinforce to my own brain that I will accomplish these things this year! I also tried to phrase my goals positively, focusing on what I should do to get there, not what I want to do less of. Here are the 24 major goals I’ve set for myself this year, broken down by my Roles and Areas of Focus:

I. My goals as a Web Designer & Consultant

• I WILL HAVE a dedicated freelance site for my social web development work.
• I WILL HAVE a new Apple desktop computer.
• I WILL EARN $60K as a freelancer in 2008.

II. My goals as an Entrepreneur

• I WILL BE the owner of an incorporated social web consulting business.
• I WILL HAVE multiple streams of residual income (through products, training materials, and partnerships).

III. My goals as a Blogger

• I WILL WRITE at least one high-value article each week for Thrilling Heroics (52+).
• I WILL REDESIGN ThrillingHeroics.com.
• I WILL DO one interview each month for Thrilling Heroics.
• I WILL COMMENT on other relevant blogs for one hour each week.

IV. Career Development and goals as a Peer Mentor

• I WILL CREATE a dedicated Career MasterMinds website with forums to enable remote discussion of personal & professional development.
• I WILL COMMUNICATE with CMM members monthly to follow up on their goal-setting and career planning.
• I WILL READ one personal development book each month.

V. My goals as a Traveler

• I WILL COMMUNICATE with international friends once each quarter.
• I WILL PARTICIPATE in online traveler communities like The Thorn Tree Forums and The Couch Surfing Project.
• I WILL LIVE in Thailand for 3+ months.

VI. My goals as an Artist

• I WILL SELL my photography professionally via an online gallery or stock photography community.

VII. My Social and Relationship-related goals

• I WILL CONTACT old friends on their birthdays.
• I WILL ATTEND Burning Man 2008.

VIII. My Health and Recreational goals

• I WILL DO 30+ pushups each day.
• I WILL DO 3 half-hour cardio workouts per week.
• I WILL HAVE a great road bike.

IX. My Financial goals

• I WILL ELIMINATE any credit card balances.
• I WILL HAVE a $2000 emergency fund.
• I WILL HAVE my own self-employed medical/dental/vision insurance.

Remember, the more specific you get, the more likely you are to actually achieve your goals! I went through all of my goals to see if they were each Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely, and if they weren’t, I’d throw them out. I won’t include each step for ALL of my 24 goals here because I don’t want to bore you! But, I’ll demonstrate with my first goal how I answered these questions in my head:

GOAL: I WILL HAVE a dedicated freelance site for my social web development work

1. Specific: I will create an online portfolio with client testimonials, service & product offerings, and business contact information.
2. Measurable: I’ll know this goal is completed when I have a freelance site on its own unique URL that directs potential clients properly to my pipeline.
3. Attainable: I have built numerous websites in the past, so I will easily be able to build myself a business site (it doesn’t have to start out perfect!)
4. Relevant: This is important in order to establish an online home for my business and build instant credibility with potential clients.
5. Timely: I will complete this project before the end of February, 2008.

Now that you’ve seen my own detailed example of brainstorming Roles & Areas of Focus, visualizing outcomes, and SMART goal-setting for 2008, what are your personal resolutions for the new year? What goals are important for you to achieve this year? If you haven’t already spent time thinking about meaningful resolutions for the year, brainstorm on this and let me know what you think of my process in the comments. Please hit that comment section below and share your thoughts…

Good luck goal-setting!

Other Resources:

• Perform a Year-End Personal Development Review for Continued Success
• “How to make a New Year’s resolution that you’ll keep” on Brazen Careerist
• “Don’t Make Resolutions — Set Goals for 2008″ on Get Rich Slowly
• “Recover Your Abandoned New Year’s Resolutions” on Life Optimizer

1. A while ago I remember you were very keen on going to study at Stanford. Are you still with that goal?

2. What new changes are you planning for Thrilling Heroics?

3. If you’re planning to detach your income from your time (as so brilliantly put by [Steve Pavlina in this podcast]) how do you plan to do it?

I ask these questions out of curiosity and as I too am facing them in my own version of things, I’d like to hear your approach to them. To be more specific, I’ve had a long-running goal of going to film school, I’m currently in the process of making some changes to my blog and I’m interested in the concept of detaching my income from my time.

I thought these great questions deserved a little more in-depth discussion, and they give me a perfect opportunity to recommit to my mission here at ThrillingHeroics.com and share some of the plans for its development in 2008, so I’m happy to answer them here on TH with this post!

Revamping Thrilling Heroics for 2008

New Developments & Directions
Some great news — ThrillingHeroics.com has recently been accepted as one of the first handful of blogs to join the new Brazen Careerist blog network! I’m deeply flattered to be chosen by Penelope Trunk and the guys at Employee Evolution, and I’ll be honored to work alongside some other fantastic Gen-Y career bloggers.

Thrilling Heroics has evolved and changed over time alongside my interests and pursuits, and it will continue to do so, but I remain committed to my central mission: to inspire and empower others to pursue their dreams and goals in the face of adversity. The discussion is concentrated more in the direction of personal and career development now than it was at the birth of this blog in 2006, but the central message is the same, with a new twist: namely, Thrilling Heroics is a career-oriented resource for college students and young professionals, with a strong focus on leadership, personal development, productivity, personal finance, entrepreneurship, and “lifestyle design.” Above all, I am passionate to encourage Generation-Y readers to pursue their dreams with reckless abandon!

TH started out with strong foundations in green business and social entrepreneurship. But whatever your interests, what remains central to the purpose of Thrilling Heroics is to empower the members of our generation to “think outside the box” of traditional work and traditional business, and really take advantage of all the things that are at our disposal to achieve our wildest dreams. Yes, that’s right — the ones you had when you were a kid. The world is your oyster! Whether your goals are to save the planet or to be the next CEO of GE! Join with other college students and young leaders who want to excel, make their dreams reality, and change the world. Watch as I experiment with entrepreneurship, living the mobile lifestyle, and practicing personal development and growth. Follow my adventures by subscribing to the blog, and share your own adventures as well!

New Format & Improved Features
For 2008, I will renew my commitment to sharing great content with you here at TH regularly, and the strong focus on career development and personal growth will hopefully manifest itself in several ways over the next few months: you should see a fresh, new, more personal design; articles will be organized into new categories and more useful chunk content; I’ve selected a new motto based on input from dozens of friends and colleagues; and I’ll continue to work hard to bring you great interviews within two new series: “Bright Young Minds” with young professionals who are making a difference, and “Proven Success,” a series where we’ll learn from the successes of established entrepreneurs and leaders. Check in later this week for an exclusive new interview with “Duff” McDuffy from Falling Fruit TV — Conscious Media for People Who Care!

Other features in the works include my definitive guide to networking, an introduction to lifestyle design, and further discussion of leadership, travel, personal finance, and personal growth. I’ll be serving up more consistent updates and sharing new, exciting content as I write from my experiences with personal entrepreneurship, and experiments with remote work, living the mobile lifestyle, and geoarbitrage. This is an adventure, so come along with me for the ride and learn from my successes and failures!

Help Me Create a Community for Young Professionals Who Want to Rock Their Careers!
I’ll be looking for guest writers that are interested to share their own stories. Other young bloggers who want to help encourage college students and Gen-Y workers to reach for their dreams, apply here! And to encourage user participation and build a true community, I’d like to potentially set up community forums to continue the discussion beyond the blog posts! That’s up to you guys too, though, so please help me spread the good word about Thrilling Heroics and tell your friends and colleagues. Get involved in the comments, submit your own ideas, and help me encourage our generation to kick ass and take life by the horns! Remember that my mission is to build your confidence to succeed, and to help you realize the freedom and flexibility to invest your time doing what you are truly passionate about.

Cody’s Entrepreneurial Roadmap

Freelancing & Entrepreneurship
To answer questions 1 and 3 above, let me start with the personal side. In the last three months, I left my traditional office job to pursue my true passion and I have been experimenting with freelancing and entrepreneurship. This is why I’ve been somewhat absent from Thrilling Heroics recently — I’ve been very busy with my freelance web development projects and laying the foundations of a business! I now work solely as a freelance web designer and consultant, building WordPress-powered blogs for professionals and small companies. I enjoy serving all kinds of clients, but work particularly well with other professional consultants who want to build up their personal brand, authors and columnists interested in transitioning to a web 2.0 platform, or speakers and coaches who seek to build an online community of raving fans! Some of my recent projects include Life Beyond Code, Moving From Me to We, HighlyObsessed.com, and TomAlexander.com.

I am in the very beginning stages, but my eventual goal is to incorporate and build my own web design company. In the next few months, you should see a full-fledged new business and website dedicated to my freelance design services, and at some point I may need to build a team from among my network of designers and creative-types — or outsource to other freelancers to help me increase my project capacity. This is not something I plan to do for my entire career, nor is it the only project I plan to have going at any one time, but over the next few years my end goal is to create a business that I own. The advantage of being owner, as opposed to president or CEO of a company, is that you profit from a company without necessarily having to run the business. (Not that there isn’t work to be done — but you hire smarter people to maintain things for you.)

How To Automate Your Income
Now to truly separate my income from my time, I plan to generate products that can bring in recurring income. You create it once, and see the profits from it repeatedly. Zen Habits has a great article on automating your income that discusses turning your service into a product:

Do you currently provide a service? If so, you have to devote many hours each week to provide that service. However, if you can turn that service into a product, such as a book or DVD or web site or CD, you can create it once and sell it over and over. Brainstorm the best way to create a product that gives customers the same information or skills that they would get from you in person.

Leo also goes on to speak about other forms of automated income:

Instead of creating an information product, you could create a real-world product, such as a gadget or nutrition product. Freelance designers can turn your idea into an actual design, and contract manufacturers can turn the design into a product. Other types of automated incomes include real estate, online retail businesses (including an eBay business), affiliate marketing, a blog, and a membership-type website. There are many possibilities. Find ways to turn your strengths into a revenue generator.

On my new web design blog, I hope to provide valuable free content, such as WordPress and business blogging how-to’s and instructional training videos that will attract both web design contracts and point users to products like website templates, podcasts, and eBooks that they can purchase from my site.

How To Get Into a Top University
Finally, I do still plan to apply to the Stanford Graduate School of Business, but not for a while. Once I prove myself with a few more years of career experience, either through the success or failure of my business and other professional pursuits, I feel I’ll be more qualified to work alongside other entrepreneurs and young leaders at one of the world’s best B-schools! I still maintain my strong interest in studying green business and social entrepreneurship at the University’s Center for Social Innovation and the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, but of course, coming from a not-quite-so-prestigious state school, it will be quite a challenge. For anyone who wants to apply to a big, competitive university, the keys are to show your dedication to achievement and personal growth, and to convince the program’s admissions officers that you’ll do great things with a degree from their school. Also, it doesn’t hurt to build relationships with faculty or with members of the alumni network from the school you hope to attend! Here are more valuable tips from Penelope Trunk.

I’ll be sure to post more about my personal goals and my 2008 resolutions very soon, so stay tuned for that before the New Year if you’d like to learn more.

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I will be leaving to travel overseas at the end of the week (spending the holidays in Spain), but read my upcoming interview with Duff McDuffee — Co-Founder of Falling Fruit TV, philosopher, life coach, and yogin — in the next few days! Duff will share some great thoughts on things from conscious business to GTD to Buddhism!

Thanks again to Gautam for the great questions! Gautam Valluri is a friend from the blogosphere, a sharp young filmmaker, writer, and designer in Hyderābād, India. He does some fantastic exclusive interviews at BrokenProjector.com.

I left my full-time employment at Sacramento State University almost two months ago, after which I took a short break while my broken hand was healing. I continued to do my freelance web design, and then I also took a temp job with my stepmom’s company in Roseville. I worked just four days a week helping the scientific company rebuild their website. The experience was valuable, and the people were great. But I was still working in a cubicle, taking assignments from someone else without having any creative input. When I stepped back and thought about the bigger picture, this still wasn’t getting me any closer to the lifestyle and the career I truly desire.

So I left that job after only three weeks, even though the pay was great and I was making more in four days than I had in five days per week previously. I decided that if I don’t devote myself–all of my time and energy right now–to doing what I really am passionate about, I may very well never take that big, scary step. Right now, when I’m young and have no car payment, no mortgage, no wife, no kids–that is the time to take a risk and see if I can work for myself or start a company!

I’m tired of being an employee. I know I haven’t done it for very long compared to some of you, and I haven’t “paid my dues.” But, I know that’s not the life I want. I want to be in control of my own time. I want to be in charge of my own personal and professional development. I want to decide what tasks inspire me enough to take on. I just had to realize that I have skills that other professionals are ready to pay me for! In some areas, I have a lot of knowledge that can benefit others. So I started designing small webpages for professionals and small businesses. Creating blogs as public relations tools for small companies, and doing technical consulting on the software and programming used to create and run them (I work with the WordPress open-source content management system, so if you or any of your friends need technical assistance, consulting, or web design, please get in touch!).

So I’ve been working on my freelance web design and business blog consulting full-time for a week and a half now. It’s a brand new experience that I’ve just started, and I realize that it will take some time to adjust to (and it will take some time to be lucrative). Other reasons that I decided to quit “work” and eliminate a few other things from my plate right now include focus on healing my fractured hand, keeping a schedule that agrees more with my own circadian rhythm, and practicing a healthier lifestyle…so I am perfectly happy to take it slow and accomplish one goal at a time. But in the first week I have already experienced a few of the challenges that await me: we become so trained in school and the traditional workplace to accept tasks from someone above us–staying motivated and determining the priority of tasks is a new experience to get used to; and the workplace does provide one thing even I can’t live without–interaction with other people! Adjusting to the frequent social isolation of working for yourself/by yourself is tough too.

Regardless, I chose to make the change. At least for now. I enjoy the work that I do–I am able to keep learning and growing, I get to be more flexible with my time, and I get to work with new, diverse groups of people from time to time. I’m self-employed, and my long-term goal is to set up the infrastructure of a full-fledged, legitimate business. Start my own design and consulting firm! It’s a lot of work–defining specifically what products and services I offer and what I don’t, conveying that concretely for the non-technical client, refining the business process, setting up the DBA and tax paperwork, and possibly writing a business plan and trying for a small business loan. Maybe I will fail…but either way I will learn a LOT along the way.

I’ve also studied a lot about automating my income, lifestyle design, and geo-arbitrage. Tim Ferriss talks at length about these exciting concepts in his book The 4-Hour Workweek. And I recently came across an older yet fantastic podcast from Steve Pavlina in which he discusses moving away from trading your time for money. Eventually, I would like to shift my paradigm from thinking of myself as merely self-employed to being a business owner. As Pavlina discusses, the idea is to detach your time from your income, put your income on autopilot, through generating information products for instance, that can earn you residual income, even while you sleep. Or I could develop my web sites further, and try to monetize them. He says how his multiple streams of passive income allow him to spend the bulk of his time doing what he is passionate about, regardless of whether or not it is profitable. Eventually, I would love to develop this business structure, so that my work is less of a means to pay the bills, and more a way to express my passions and continue to learn and grow.

Keep me in your thoughts. Your motivational words (and small contributions to my startup fund!) mean a lot. =)

You describe yourself as a Corporate Sustainability Strategist and a Social Enterprise Creation and Ideation consultant, which sounds very interesting! So, in layman’s terms, what do you do?

Well, as this field barely existed when I started my career 12 years ago and is still in the process of formation — I’ve done a lot of things to get to where I am today. Currently, I operate as an independent consultant providing business and non-profit development services (marketing/communications, fundraising/sales, multi-stakeholder partnerships, and strategy) to corporate social responsibility (CSR) ventures and social enterprises. I really enjoy laying the groundwork, connecting people, integrating ideas and data, and publicizing to get these ventures launched and/or scaled. And I most enjoy it when I can draw upon my experience in information technology/technology innovation, the environment, and small business and entrepreneurial development.

What does “business sustainability” mean to you?

Figuring out how to avoid the risks and take advantage of the opportunities presented to a business while still balancing economic, environmental (and human health!), and social considerations. All too often businesses focus on taking advantage of economic opportunities and only pursuing a risk management approach in terms of environmental and social considerations. This is probably not the best long-term strategy (but then how many businesses think long-term?). On the flip side, I think there is real value to be created when businesses start to think creatively about how to turn environmental and social challenges into a business opportunity.

When I say “social enterprise” in this context, I mean that the enterprise is “mission driven” — the founders have a passion for addressing a societal or environmental problem with a particular approach, service, or product. And then they just form the most appropriate vehicle around that solution (non-profit, for-profit, etc.) to accomplish the mission. Money is still important, but secondary to the mission. Especially in the case of the non-profit structure, they are often just seeking enough money to keep themselves self-financed.

Your most recent position was consulting for Envirofit International. Walk us through what a typical project like this looks like.

Envirofit is a growing clean tech non-profit in need of “expansion stage” funding. I developed a fundraising strategy and kickstarted it building relationships with government agencies, international development organizations and banks, social venture capital firms and foundations, as well as pursuing additional opportunities such as competitions, strategic partnerships, and low-cost publicity. Developing a fundraising strategy is a lot like developing a sales and marketing plan — you identify your prospects and determine your approach with each group. It’s just that non-profit fundraising is probably a lot more regimented than private sector sales and marketing; there are certain prescribed formats for letters and proposals.

You’ve worked in non-profit, government, and private business. Describe what that experience has been like, and how you got to be where you are now.

I never realized how unusual that was until I lived outside of Washington, D.C. as a professional. I formed my career in Washington, where it’s very commonplace for people to be “multi-sectoral.” It’s my sense that, at least within the space of CSR and social enterprise, the lines between these groups are increasingly becoming blurred. It was already clear to me 12 years ago when I started my career that there is no “us against them,” and the wave of the future was multi-stakeholder partnerships. Unfortunately, despite the popularity of such partnerships, they are often not as successful as they can be without mutual understanding. I think that my background enables me to provide this unique perspective.

What got you interested in sustainable development and sustainable growth?

I think it was a combination of things: many summers trips to Alaska during my high school years — was there the summer before and the summer after Exxon Valdez; saw the dried up Midwest from a plane during the summer drought of 1988. My father also worked for a large energy company, so growing up I was very aware of where my power came from — I was taught to conserve energy at a young age. Many people in my family, too, have been Peace Corps volunteers, so at a young age I was exposed to their stories about life in developing countries. I latched onto environmental issues and became a vegetarian somewhere around the age of 15…and it all evolved from there.

Do you feel like you make a positive impact with your career?

I think just about every career can be seen to have a positive impact, and some of us are more driven by impact than other motivators. I am definitely strongly driven by impact, and I do think that my career makes a positive impact at least in the short term. I cannot predict the impacts that I’ll have in the long-term. The impact that I value has changed over the years. I think it’s easy to get caught up in pursuing impact that is of national or international significance. However, all too often, such impacts lack a human connection. You may begin to wonder who did you really help. Because of this, I now gravitate toward opportunities where I can have a large impact on a small group of people or on one enterprise. Not that one way is better than the other, but you have to know what really gives you satisfaction.

When the job gets tough, what keeps you going?

I don’t know if I even think about work being “tough.” If there’s a problem that needs to be solved, it’s all I can think about to get to the bottom of it and move on. Work needs to be viewed in perspective: Think how lucky we are to even be given the opportunity of having work that also brings us great personal satisfaction. My parents and grandparents certainly did not have this. So, what on Earth do I have to complain about?

What do you recommend to students who want to get into your line of work?

I’m not quite sure if I know what “my line of work” is! I personally think it’s important to be a multi-sectoral professional and to be able to think “integratively” and creatively about business opportunities — to be able to flip an environmental challenge into a business opportunity by tapping into the resources of government agency X. But I’m not sure if a multi-sectoral career path is possible for all people, and I’m not sure if creativity is teachable.

International experience is always valuable even if you don’t intend to work internationally because it will test and change your ways of thinking about the world if you allow it to. An MBA degree helps to open doors, and these days is in demand by government, non-profit, and the private sector alike.

There are also many ways to have an impact — you don’t have to be a CSR or social enterprise professional. You can be a marketing manager who works for a green products company. You can make a bundle of money on Wall Street and then start your own foundation. There are many paths, and it’s not my place to value one over the other.

Karen, again, thank you so much for your willingness to share your incredible professional experience in corporate social responsibility and sustainability with us. For consulting inquiries, you can contact Karen at karen@jihiconsulting.com.

What is EMC² Corporation, and what do you do for them?

EMC is the leading information company in the world, selling hardware, software and services globally. We also provide solutions that take both products and services together to solve specific IT or business related needs for customers. My role at EMC has evolved since I started here last July. My previous role was to generate marketing collateral for the launch of new services and solution offerings for the midsize market segment. I already created a series of business plans for the various practices here at EMC to grow their business for 2007. Then I shifted roles to eServices marketing, where I was in charge of our online support offerings, along with training customers, partners and employees on a global scale. At the same time I led a six sigma high performing team to create the new marketing process within my organization. My role has shifted again to eServices, Education Services, and I’ve been tightly aligned with our social media strategy, where I’m able to spread my knowledge [of web 2.0 technologies] across my organization.

What challenges have you faced because of your age?

Leading a team, where others have 7 – 25 years of experience can be difficult as a 23 year old in a Fortune 500 company, but the key is to not let that get to you. You need to show leadership and no matter what obstacles occur; you need to drive the project to completion. The challenges I’ve faced are related to credibility, experience and length of time spent at EMC. As one of the youngest members it can be difficult to sell your ideas and to showcase new ideas like social media to those who have continuously performed tasks in the same way through their lifecycle at the company.

Tell us about the businesses you’ve started.

I had my own website consulting business during college, where I helped companies take their ideas and materialize them into creative web pieces. I also [gained a] strong foundation in the core of marketing [through internships] at Reebok, Lycos, LoJack, TechTarget and smaller firms. I have done marketing plan consulting where I developed complete marketing communication plans that not only uncovered new opportunities but explained how to communicate it to the target audience. Currently, I consider the magazine that I publish my own business, as I gathered multiple authors globally together to collaborate through this medium, while raising money for charity and building a community around the topic of Personal Branding.

What can you share with us about Personal Branding Magazine?

You can subscribe to the magazine through the website at personalbrandingmag.com. There is a lot to look forward to in the next issue, which is due out in November. [Guy Kawasaki contributed an interview with Donald Trump for the first issue!] I say this because I’ve pooled around 40 authors together and now there will be columns targeted at specific ideas around personal branding. My goal with this magazine was to show others how valuable blog posts were and the content they write can be used in new and exciting ways.

What does personal branding mean to you?

I define Personal Branding as an individual’s total perceived value relative to competitors, as viewed by their audience. It’s composed of four main elements: 1) personality, 2) appearance, 3) competencies, and 4) differentiation. As a marketer, I feel that every individual needs to know how to use the principles of marketing and apply them to their own individual career. Personal Branding is the way by which I live, including how I dress, the words that come out of my mouth and my skill set. My philosophy is that it’s what you do that makes you who you are and how you project that to others that makes you memorable.

Can you give us a few of your favorite examples of strong personal branding?

I featured Donald Trump in the recent issue of my magazine because he is a world renowned brand. His brand gives off attributes like high quality and craftsmanship, which are built into his business as well. There are a lot of bloggers out there, such as yourself, that take a niche and have a slogan that really stand out. The idea here is to get noticed for your expertise in a specific field and then to be recognized by others by communicating that message. I think Oprah and Madonna have great brands as well, and the special part of Madonna’s is that she has evolved it over time to match the latest generation of people.

You recently wrote an AWESOME post on the “Beginner’s Toolkit” for establishing a great online brand. What are the most important steps in building a strong complimentary brand offline?

Your brand online and offline should be the same. There are tangible and intangible aspects to Personal Branding, but at the core is your overarching message that you want to convey to your audience. That message should be wrapped around the four elements of Personal Branding and be consistent across all media, both online and offline.Use your brand to network with other individuals who share your passion. Do for them first and then let them do for you later. Personal Branding is all about that mutual relationship or bond that you share through similar brand characteristics or tastes. Anyone can become a star if they have the drive and network to support them.

What’s in your personal press kit?

The Personal Branding Kit I created was my way of showing everyone that we are our own publicists. It captures most of what you see on DanSchawbel.com, but in a way that the media can consume and report on. You will see many quotes, the media I’ve created, my work experience, my speaking engagements and other information that will give you a firm understanding of my brand.

That’s a great idea, to package your resume as a marketing kit! I know you’ve been involved with the American Marketing Association (AMA) and several student organizations. What sorts of activities do you recommend to college students to increase the effectiveness of their personal branding and career building?

Life is about networking, so as you progress through your career you will always want that mentality. You need to keep meeting people and expanding your network, especially because you never know when you might need someone’s help. Getting involved in communities is not only good to connect with others, but it’s fun and can help you learn more about specific areas that you would not normally consider.

What can we look forward to seeing when you launch your new site DanSchawbel.com?

DanSchawbel.com is going to be a revolutionary site, which exposes all aspects of my brand in a format that I preach on a reoccurring basis. The special part of it is that it is written in such as way that it not only showcases my achievements, but serves as a training course on how to build your brand by using the site as an example. I think that most people will be shocked when they see it because I’ve done quite a lot in the past six months to build my brand. The idea is that as you build your brand, your site must adapt to that growth by growing at the same rate.

I want to thank Daniel so much for contributing time to answering my many questions and follow-up questions. He shares a very unique perspective, and serves as a great role model for young professionals everywhere! Here are a few of his great articles that elaborate on the necessity for personal branding:

• “Personal Branding — Changing the Game” on Success.com
• “Online Reputation Management through Personal Branding” on Marketing Chat
• “Gain a Competitive Edge by Establishing a Personal Brand” on About.com
• “Personal Branding – The Future of Recruitment” on MarketingPower.com

Already in this series we’ve heard from Pam Slim, who specializes in helping people transition out of corporate life and into self-employment, but you actually encourage young people to stay and excel within the corporate world. Why?

I’m fond of saying that not everyone is cut out for the life of working for oneself. Not only is being an entrepreneur costly, nerve-wracking, and incredibly hard work, but because of the way our economy is structured, it’s simply impossible for everyone to be one. It reminds me of a psychology study my husband told me about recently, which showed that 75 percent of people believed they were above-average looking.

I bet the same thing is true of would-be entrepreneurs. A lot of people believe they have what it takes to run a successful business, but in reality, few probably do. When considering employment, young people should look at an array of options, including those that involve working in the business world.

At the end of the day, most people will end up employed in a more conventional work environment, so it may be wiser to develop the skills and the attitude that allow you to succeed and achieve your professional goals within the context of that setting. Maybe someday you will have the opportunity to “go entrepreneur,” but your happiness and success shouldn’t be contingent on it.

So tell us about your book They Don’t Teach Corporate in College. What makes you an expert on the challenges facing young employees in the workplace?

Well, you see, I graduated from college as a straight-A student hell-bent on skipping up New York City’s corporate ladder. But after six months on the job, I was so stressed out that I was ready to join the large numbers leaving the business world for graduate or law school. Eventually, though, by sticking around and paying attention to the few people around me who weren’t dropping from stress-induced coronaries, I developed many of the skills crucial to staying sane and building a career.

I wrote They Don’t Teach Corporate in College because I thought that if I shared my experiences with other twenty-somethings, maybe I would save them some of the pain I went through. The premise of the book is that the business world is not a natural fit for graduates who leave school expecting results from a logical combination of education and effort. Suddenly, the tenets of success they were taught since kindergarten don’t apply, because getting ahead in the business world has little to do with intelligence or exceeding a set of defined expectations.

If twenty-somethings want to survive in the corporate world, they have to treat their first jobs like first grade and learn the practical lessons that will help them climb the ladder painlessly. They Don’t Teach Corporate in College focuses on tangible tactics that twenty-somethings can put to work immediately to be successful and satisfied working in the business world.

You say that twenty-somethings experience lower morale and higher turnover in the workplace. What can young professionals do to avoid such challenges? And what can organizations do to improve their employees’ experience and productivity at work?

There’s no doubt that the business world can be frustrating at times, so I recommend that twenty-somethings combat poor morale by understanding their hot buttons (i.e. what pisses them off or stresses them out) and plan in advance how to react without getting angry or upset when those buttons are pushed.

They should also try to banish irrational expectations regarding what their organization or boss SHOULD do (i.e. my boss should give me a raise, the company should have a policy against this). Life does not always play out in a logical or fair way and twenty-somethings do themselves a grave disservice when they hold on to a fantasy of what work or people should be like. Finally, young professionals can motivate themselves by focusing on the big picture and acknowledging little but significant career successes along the way.

I tell managers of twenty-somethings that they should aim to understand each individual’s unique capabilities and go out of their way to develop mutually-beneficial relationships. The manager should position himself or herself as someone who is available to help twenty-something employees grow and improve, taking them to lunch to learn more about their career aspirations and the type of work that get them excited.

Twenty-somethings don’t want to be micromanaged, but they do like to receive timely and consistent feedback, and to have assignments customized in a way that helps them meet their individual performance goals. Managers shouldn’t be fooled by twenty-somethings’ assertiveness and independence – there’s a lot these young professionals don’t know and they’re looking to the more experienced managers to help them learn it!

Continue reading at IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com: Heroines of Personal Finance and Entreprenuership #3: Alexandra Levit. Also pick up her book They Don’t Teach Corporate in College and check out her blog Water Cooler Wisdom.