Blog
Due to my recent relocation to New Orleans (May 2010) as well as my transition towards working in my other passion in life - culinary, events, music, and hospitality - I am going to continue my weekly blog postings at www.velocitycoachingservices.wordpress.com.
I will also post blog entries here at the VeloCity website on occasion. Thank you for your support!
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Written by Michele Wilke
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Thursday, 12 August 2010 01:53 |
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"Every survival kit should include a sense of humor" - Unknown
Someone, please pinch me already.
I know that tomorrow morning I may not have even a residue of gratitude I am experiencing at this moment, but someone has to write about the good stuff. The lighter side of life, for goodness sake. I am sick of only hearing about the dark, deep, greedy secrets and power gesturing of the so-called movers and shakers of the world. The top six percent of the world’s population controlling something like 80% of the wealth. Huh? What about folks like me, who live in middle-class non-celebrity, moving metaphorical mountains and making some noise? The good kind. The kind of noise that resonates, and contributes something positive. Even if I am just another white chick transplant. Stackman, a local alto sax player I met at the Candlelight Lounge in the Treme, says that his people call us “culture vultures”. Took me awhile before the light went on. I laughed out loud. That’s a good one.
According to my friend Joe’s neighbor, Coach, an old local who told Joe with a shit-eating grin: I gotta say Joe, that maybe the best thang that evah happen to New Orleans is you white people movin on in aftah The Storm. The city has changed since then with the arrivals of, yes, all us white people. Joe, a retired white guy from Detroit, who moved here almost 2 years ago, lives in the infamous Seventh Ward just next to the Treme. Murders and crack houses and AWESOME musicians live there. Joe is one of them (musicians I mean, tenor sax to be exact). I stayed in the Seventh Ward for 10 days before finding my flat here in the trees in Uptown. Two days before I arrived, a kid got murdered right in front of my flat. Four days after I left, my neighbor got shot twice in the leg. He said it was a drive by. Random. Probably a gang initiation shooting. People say these words very steadily. Very calmly. I just learned that the Times-Picayune used to print the homocide numbers and stats at the upper right hand corner of the front page. Right next to the weather forcast.
I am now living in the Garden District of New Orleans. One block away it is dangerous, crack-pipe scary. Half a block in the other direction just at St Charles Avenue, it is tree-lined and expensive. Plantation sized houses with small perfect gardens, and old slave quarters out back turned into thousand-dollar-a-month studios with granite counter tops and stainless steel gas burning stoves. I walk and walk and walk around the streets. I meet people as I walk, talk to them for a long, long time. I never know what time it is. I meet dogs as I stroll slowly in “feels like” heat of 110, and they tell me all sorts of great stories about their happy lives here in this dog-friendly town. I want a dog. A Katrina Canine who is older and way cool.
It is said that people live outside here. I am starting to understand how connected that makes people feel as front-stoop conversations unite the unspoken knowing of hard times. And of celebrations. Always have a reason to celebrate something, people say. Cheers to that. Joe tells me that most people here are poor, so nobody really pays much attention to the recession anyway. Makes sense. If you got nothin, then nothin is just fine. As long as you can dance and celebrate and live in gratitude for what you got, everythings gonna be alright. Hmm.
I just submitted a proposal to the company I am consulting at, a small business with a method to their madness. I am re-designing their entire business, starting with a retail space makeover, and a special event celebrating the fact that the company has survived thirty years of hurricanes, floods, two recessions, two heart attacks, and a divorce. And a partridge in a pear tree. They had been making plans to do their 25th Anniversary party in August of 2005 when Katrina and Rita hit. They were lucky. Their building is on St Louis and Decatur down in the French Quarter where they got only 3 feet of water. But many of their staff didn’t return. And they are still here, now thriving and ready to grow. Indeed a reason to celebrate. Their story is in abundance here. Sad and yet uplifiting.
The lack of complaining here is humbling. Resilience is a word used by all who have witnessed the miracle called New Orleans Rising. Yes, Katrina and Rita are still felt almost five years later, but in many parts of town, their talons of mud and chaos are not even a whisper. I am in awe. I have much to learn from these traditional, loose-tongued, politically incorrect locals. It is a pity that Bill Maher called the hard-working people down here kinda dumb. I think Bill Maher, who I actually agree with most of the time, really got it wrong here. I would like him to come with me the next time I go out and see the BEST musicians play their hearts out for close to nothing. I am talking really great music, a good vibe. For only a dollar or two in the tip jar and a three-dollar beer, the dancing, sweating, swaying bar would lift him up to the magic that is New Orleans. I would also take him to Crepe Nanou, a local French bistro with the best filet mignon on this planet… and the most elegant service. Might change his mind.
My friend Joe told me that either you get the magic or you don’t. I guess Mr Maher will never get it. Took me a few weeks, while getting through some of the PTSD lingering from my first 10 days in the Seventh Ward. And then one day, standing on Prytania and Washington at the Lafayette Cemetary Number One, I saw fern moss growing out of a brick wall. The beauty and resilience of this plant, living on a wall built in 1833, shook me. The tree moss, the white brick, the moist air, the diffused-yellow light. It was my moment of magic.
Even with the murders, the mafia, the gangs, the drunken tourists, the pot holes, the crack heads, the corrupt bureaucrats, the hurricanes, the overt racists (black, white, and brown), and even with the 14% sales and Louisiana tax on just about everything, I do think I have found my version of Heaven on Earth. Yep, I get it. I have finally exhaled. After almost seven years of living on the edge in North American hell, I have survived. Next thing you know I’ll be looking at condos and settling down.
I wonder when the SPCA opens in the morning?
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Written by Michele Wilke
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Friday, 23 July 2010 15:51 |
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“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life… Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want.”
- Steve Jobs
Not being a big fan of empty promises with one-size-fits-all methods for job search strategies, I am reluctant to share my tips and tricks. Although I do not claim that what I just did to get a great job in 48 days will work for everyone, perhaps this information will at the very least inspire YOU that life can be filled with limitless possibilities, indeed.
Here are SEVEN STEPS that landed me a job that seems to be customed-designed for almost every skill I possess. No really. The job I just got has my name on it. And it was not that hard to do. Don’t get me wrong – I did not say it was easy… I am just saying that the concept of something being easy or difficult is relative. Think about that for a moment. Ready to get inspired and nudged out of some of your more stubborn mind-sets to land a job? Onwards…
ONE – Comfort Zones: Get out of your comfort zone for an entire day, and pay attention to your real-time environment. This is the most difficult step because you will need to look at things like possible relocation, wage cuts, fear of change, and your local economy. The big stuff. The wisest thing you can do right now is tell your comfort zones to go on holiday at least until you get a job. Say a tough-love sayonara to what gets you regularly stuck. You can do this.
TWO – Money: Wage gouging is here to stay for awhile longer. How much longer is hard to predict, but it is an employer’s market. If you made 110K for the past 4 years, you may have to wrap your head around earning, say, 70K for the same position, depending on where you live. A recent client almost refused a job offer at an EXCELLENT organization because the salary offered was half her ‘usual rate’. After an hour of intensive coaching, she took the job. The first week made her ego hurt badly. Now, after two months on the job, she LOVES the job, and sees room for growth. A success story.
THREE – Geography: Detroit, where I just lived for the “crash of 09”, is like Ground Zero for the Unemployed. The market is beyond tough there, and I watched dozens of people leave the state to get work in stronger economies. (In fact, whenever I hear my friends from San Francisco or Denver or Switzerland complain about the economy, I politely inform them to wake up and appreciate how GOOD they have it… sheesh!!!). If you have elderly parents, under-valued real estate, or kids who will make your life miserable if you move them, I honestly emphathize. AND… what is your goal? To find a job, right? Is being unemployed for over a year in a very bad geographical market working for you?
FOUR – Forward Momentum: I NEVER get tired of saying this to myself, to my clients, to anyone who will listen! Positive forward momentum is KEY and is the essential ingredient for your daily operations. You are selling yourself, and all great Sales Professionals will tell you that a lack of forward momentum is death. What have you done today to create traction in your search? Everything counts: sending a thank you e-mail, researching one more company, connecting to one more networking contact.
FIVE – Research: Websites can be a façade – companies pay good money to create an image that may or may not be real. And, some job postings already have an ideal candidate, however companies need to do their due diligence and post the job anyway. Yes, they are perhaps wasting your time, however you never know. The Hiring Manager might like you, and keep you in mind for future positions. I would estimate that 75% of the last 48 days in my job search entailed some form of research, including online, books, experts, other networkers, and just good old-fashioned paying attention. I got a great lead on a local company from a local bartender at 1am. You never know.
SIX – Targets: Where do YOU want to work? What kind of position do YOU want? Of course when money runs out, we need to get any job (my friend calls these ‘McJobs’). However, statistics consistently show that 87% of the people looking for their target job (like a dream job) will land it within 18 months. For more stats, check out What Color Is Your Parachute? I just got a job at a company I targeted, in a position that was created for me. They were not looking for someone at the time I contacted them, but they were thinking about implementing some positive changes for future growth, and voila! My resume arrived in their mailbox (I send snail mail resumes and cover letters – another guerrilla method that has worked for me), and Serendipity did the rest. In the past 48 days, I targeted 21 local companies here in New Orleans: I received 4 no thank you’s, 14 no replies, and 3 companies who called me in for an interview. It only took ONE.
SEVEN – Nail It No Matter The Outcome: Negotiating with NOTHING TO LOSE is the most powerful position. This is a fact and can also be backed up by stats (do yourself a big favor and read Negotiate This! by Herb Cohen). I knew I nailed the interviews and felt solid the whole time. The first ten minutes of meeting the owners of the company who just hired me went smoothly, and the rest was just a matter of time. Those first moments are KEY – if you go into the interviews (and into the entire process for that matter!) with the idea that you are going to nail it no matter the outcome, you have now created authentic self-expression and peace of mind, even BEFORE you get started. This is powerful, and good Hiring Managers will sense this inner calm and confidence, too.
Recently, I got an email from a fellow networker and client I met in Michigan and on Linkedin last year. She did a one hour session with me to get an overview of her strengths, weaknesses, successes, and roadblocks. She recently moved to South Carolina where her sister lives, and she is feeling a renewed spurt of optimism as she continues to navigate her job search efforts in her new state.
She wrote: Thanks for the wonderful feedback. My sister moved to South Carolina a couple of months ago. I drove down from Michigan last week and I've started searching in this area. I'm sure that I will be working in this area soon. So, I've followed your lead! I'll write back when I accept a job offer! (Can’t you just FEEL her forward momentum?!).
Ready to get back to work?
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