10.1 HABITS TO REINVENT YOURSELF

The number one question I'm getting from friends, clients, customers, colleagues around the world. TJ how do I reinvent myself? It could be that your career has gone down the tubes. Maybe your job doesn't exist anymore. Your business may have vaporized. Regardless of what position you're in, there are very few of us in the world these days who aren't facing a radical change. And that's why Today's topic is 10.1 Habits on How to Reinvent Yourself. Habit number one, accept reality. Now, I don't mean be pessimistic, I don't mean saying oh, the world is ending, but you've got to accept reality. Things are not going back the way things were before. It's not a matter of just waiting one month, things will open back up and everything is going to be fine. The world is going to be a radically changed place. And if you are in a business where the entire sector has been wiped out, you must face reality. If you are in a profession where people are not going to want or need your services anymore, you've got to accept reality quickly. Again, I'm not saying be pessimistic, I'm saying be realistic. This coronavirus was a world changing event and certain businesses, industries will never be the same. So you've got to get an objective analysis of what's going on for your job, your field, your career. Habit number two, you must solve short term crises. For you and many other folks, it may be about cash. If you can get cash from your government, go ahead and do it. You may have to spend 14 hours a day on the phone or on a website. If that's what it takes, you've got to do it. It may be going back to a job you did when you were in high school, even though you've been out of school for 30 years. It may mean you have to take a job in the evenings doing customer service by the phone to help an Internet retailer if that's what you need to get cash in. Focus on that. Just sitting around thinking, well, my credentials, my career, my diploma says this, so I'm only going to do that. That way of thinking could lead you to severe deprivation and starvation. Again, I don't mean to be alarmist, but we've got to face reality. This is a different world we are living in right now. So you've got to focus on solving your short term needs while still focusing on a long term solution. Habit number three, you must do an inventory of the things that you like to do that you are good at and that people are willing to pay money for. Now, there are a lot of things you might like to do watch tv, but no one's willing to pay you for that. There might be things people are willing to pay you for dig ditches, but you really don't want to do it. You need to figure out what is something that you like to do that you're good at doing and that people are willing to reward you for doing. I had to reinvent myself 20 years ago when I had TV show after TV show, website after website, go belly up, bust. I had no money and I had to ask myself, what are the things that I like to do that people are also willing to pay money for? Now, I like to talk about politics and I like to host political talk shows. And I was good at it, but no one would pay me money for it. And when I was really objective, I narrowed it down to I was good at helping other people learn how to speak. So it wasn't 10 things, it wasn't 30 things. I narrowed it down to one thing. You've got to start doing some serious analysis and figure out what is the one thing that you do that's most valuable in the marketplace today that you like, and then focus on it. Habit number four, realize that other than the legal profession and the medical profession, nobody cares about your diplomas, your credentials, degrees on the wall. It is a new world. You've got to focus on where you can deliver value to people. It's not about how many years experience you have, saying you have 20, 30, 40 years experience. It just means you're old. It's not going to help you in this new environment. You've got to focus on real, tangible benefit you can give to customers, clients, people within a company. That has to be your sole focus. Habit number five for reinventing yourself. You must experiment daily. Read new things, read new books, watch new YouTube videos, explore TED talks, really cast a wide net and look at all the possible things you could do. No, I don't mean that all of a sudden you should become the center of a basketball, NBA team. No, that's highly unlikely. But you've got to broaden your horizons and experiment with different things. You may fail at some, but at least you're experimenting. At least you're learning new things. You should be spending hours every day reading books. These can be free books online about your profession, new professions, new aspects of business, things that are relevant and real in the Marketplace today, not five or 10 or 15 or 20 years ago. So immerse yourself with New things. Try new things. I try new things all the time. A lot of times they fail. I did an online course a few years ago teaching people how to appreciate wine tasting and to not get sucked into all the marketing and baloney of the wine industry and the wine snobs. Guess what? Nobody liked the course. It didn't make any money. You know what? It didn't matter. I learned by creating the course. I learned by what didn't work. And I used that knowledge to make the next course and the next course. So try some things. Experiment. Even if you fail, it's better than sitting back in your chair, emailing resume after resume to generic inquiries on the web. Habit number six. Ask for help. Put away your pride. Ask family. Ask friends. Ask colleagues. Ask former colleagues. Ask them for advice. Ask them for help. If you need financial help, do that. If you need help trying to figure out a new business plan, do that. If you want help redoing your resume, ask for that. This is not the time to say, I worked too hard in my career to have to bend down to other people. No, this is the time not to do anything that is going to strip you of dignity. But there's nothing undignified about asking people for help, asking people for advice, getting feedback from people. Now is the time when you are trying to reinvent yourself. Ask them what they think you could be doing or should be doing. Sometimes the answer might surprise you, but you may toss out ideas. You have areas you're exploring, and your friends and family can't quite picture that. Don't be discouraged. And whatever you do, don't feel sorry for yourself. Before the coronavirus ever started, there were nearly a billion people in the world who make less than $2 a day. If you have the resources to watch me now, and you have a cell phone or a computer or Internet, you're better off than they are. So we gotta get rid of the pity party, roll up our sleeves, and get to work reinventing your career, your business. Today, there's simply no time for pity. Habit number seven. Realize that time alone is not going to solve the problem. It's not a matter of 30 days going by or two months or the fall, and everything is going to fall back into place. No, time is not necessarily going to work for you. The only thing that is going to work is if you use your time every single day to do the things you need to do to reinvent yourself. Some things will get better, there's no doubt. But it doesn't mean that your specific career, your specific Business will be a part of that. You've got to use your time every single day to maximize your ability to reinvent your career. Simply letting time pass, thinking, well, let me watch TV today. Let me relax today. Oh, it's so stressful. Losing my job, losing my business. Let me just not think about it. You can do a little of that in the evenings, a little that on the weekends. But do not use your precious time Monday through Friday during the day and let it slip through your fingers. You must use that time to. To plot your reinvention habit. Number eight, realize that you are now competing on the international stage. You are now a part of a global economy. Now, I realize this coronavirus crisis has caused a lot of people to say, well, maybe we shouldn't be farming everything out to other countries. Maybe we should control our supplies domestically. The one thing I can guarantee you is more and more people are going to have less money. Therefore, they are looking for the lowest cost provider or the highest quality provider of any service or any product. And ultimately we all provide some service or some product. So you're going to have to compete on the international stage. You're going to have to be part of this global economy. Sure, some barriers could be put up. Maybe some need to be put up. That's a debate for another channel. But with governments everywhere strapped for cash, they're going to have to deal with the lowest cost provider. With corporations and individuals feeling pinched like they've never felt before, they are going to scrutinize every dollar they spend with whether it's for your product, your service, or before hiring an employee. So realize that you can't just say, well, I've been a part of this town and everybody knows me. And of course there's got to be a place for me. It doesn't work that way anymore. You've got to really work hard to be the best in the world at whatever it is you do if you want a successful reinvention habit. Number nine, be focused on your goals, but be flexible on how you reach them. If you've always had a job, you may be thinking, my only priority in life right now is getting a job and a regular paycheck. Well, that might be the answer. But let me ask you this. If you could do what it is you do and do it well and make as much money as before or even more, isn't that really the goal? And if the answer is yes, maybe you are better off freelancing. Maybe you're better off starting your own company. Now, I realize in this current era, freelancing doesn't sound very attractive. Freelancers are the first to get cut. They are the hardest when it comes to getting benefits from the government. Unemployment, it's harder to get retirement, health care, everything else. But it's a lot better than sitting home watching YouTube videos and worrying about mounting credit card debt. So there are different ways of doing it. Maybe you've always worked in the private sector, but a great government job has popped up that you might be ideally suited for. Be flexible. If you can make money and you can do activities that are helping you grow, that you enjoy doing and that are valued, that's the real goal. It shouldn't be I have to work for this company or I have to be in this town, or it has to be at this set salary or I have to have a parking space. You've got to be flexible if you want to reinvent yourself. Habit number 10 realize that right now you have a full time job. Your full time job is managing, building, cultivating your reinvention of your career. This is a full time job. You've got to be thinking about it, reading, studying, reflecting, experimenting, updating resumes and sending out cover letters and calling people. If you're job searching, looking for more capital, hiring people, looking for ways of reducing cost. If you're running your own business so you have a full time job already, you've got to treat it seriously. It's tempting in these times when you're stuck at home to say there's no alarm. I don't have to be at a meeting at 8am, let me sleep late today, I can do it tomorrow, I can do it anytime. I can catch up in the weekend. No, you need to focus. Treat it like a real job. I would recommend you have some set start time every day. When you are at a desk in your home or somewhere and you are actively thinking about your reinvention, you are actively studying it, you're making phone calls, you're connecting with people in your industry or the industry you want to go to. Of course we all need some downtime, we all need some stress release. But be careful not to overdo it. It's so easy to get into a binge watching mode where you're just watching TV all day or binging on alcohol or drugs. So if you need some relaxation, we all do. Try to limit it to the evenings, the weekends. Keep the very same time that you used to do running your business or conducting your job. Keep it pristine to focus on reinventing yourself and coming up with your New Career path and habit 10.1 let's put all this together and make it meaningful. I use a system called the Selfie Speak program. Simply take out your cell phone, hit the audio record section and give a memo to yourself to just talk to yourself as if you're leaving a voicemail and say, tj, you are going you would use your name. You are going to focus every single day on researching new industries, new companies you might want to work for. You're going to learn every single day by watching a YouTube video about and then specify what the topic topic is. TJ, you're going to spend the first 20 minutes of every day updating your resume and your LinkedIn profile. The point is, spell out exactly what habits you want to do. I've given you 10 habits here, but I need you to talk to your cell phone, record it just once, and then listen to it every day. It may only take two minutes, but it's a great way to make these habits become real. It's essentially audio radio advertising. It's marketing to your brain and your body so that you fulfill these habits every single day automatically. That's the power of the Selfie Speak program. I want to thank you for spending some time with me today and I really want to be wish you good luck in your own career Reinvention. Today's video is sponsored by the online course the Complete Daily Positive Habits Building Course. In this course, you're going to learn how to build extraordinarily positive habits that are going to guide you through your reinvention of your career and help you get better and better at managing your own time, whether you work at home, ultimately back at an office or some other place of business. But how can you build the exact habits you want to have so that you lead the life you want? I think you'll enjoy this course, so click right here to learn more about the course and you can sign in. You can get a discount on it today. That's it for this week. As always, I would love to hear from you. The whole reason I did this video on this subject is a whole bunch of you last week asked me to cover this topic, so I am listening to you. If you have tips on how you've reinvented yourself, your career in the past, share them right here in the discussion group. Also, if you have any tips for anyone or any other issues you're going through as so many people are going through Reinvention right now, please post your comments here in the Q and A section below. The comment section and let's have a discussion here. I read every single comment. I will answer your comments and so will other members of the community here. So please let me hear from you. Thanks. That's all the time we have for today. Thanks so much for joining me. If you haven't already done so, please, please like this video, leave a comment and please, please subscribe. If there's anything you found valuable here today, please share it with your friends right now.