Front Steps & Some Wisdom

My career transition coach, Dr. Helen Harkness at Career Design Associates is having an event on Saturday afternoon called "Wisdom and Wine Open House."  (Well, she's calling it a "Special Wisdom Event" but she's serving wine & cheese, so I've renamed it..lol)

______________________________________________________________________________

JOIN US this Saturday for an Open House     

Date: Saturday, October 26^th

Time: 4 to 6 pm

Location: Career Design Office, 2818 South Country Club Road, Garland, TX 75043

RSVP Requested: Email Options@Career-Design.com

This event is Open to the Public at No Charge. This open house is a celebration of "Work Life Wisdom", my chapter in the book Words of Wisdom co-authored by Dr. John Gray, Brian Tracy and others.   

If you have any books or products to sell, etc... bring them with you. We have asked a few individuals to spend five minutes each to share their wisdom with all of us.

Be ready to introduce yourself with your one minute elevator pitch! 

Do read our "Wisdom Blog Post" which includes the countless bits of wisdom earlier shared by CDA clients. This was part of my research for my "Work Life Wisdom" chapter and inspired this Wisdom Open House Event.

RSVP Now, so we can have enough wine and cheese for all! "Share" the word with your friends! We would enjoy meeting them.

Email Options@Career-Design.com with questions. 

Dr. Helen Harkness
________________________________________________________________________

When I got the email invitation, I RSVP'd "yes" - I always try to attend any event she sponsors because I meet such a broad mix of people; I never know who might be there!  A few minutes later, however, I got a follow up email from Dr. Harkness asking me to be one of the individuals who speaks on wisdom for 5 minutes instead of 1 minute.  Me?  Wisdom?  I crawfished.  But in the end?  I'm doing it. (She has this way about her that makes it hard to say no...)  

But the point of telling you all of that is to say that Dr. Harkness wants ME to open MY house to folks so that they can see what I'm doing with my life.  And as a result, I thought steps to get into the house might not be a bad thing.  I know - that was a really long story to get to the point of this post: the tiniest set of steps you've ever seen...

"Strategery"

I don't know what's up with my Vanna moves.  Weirdo.

I intentionally made the design very small and very utilitarian; they need to be easily stowed when I travel, and not too heavy to move single handedly.  Here's the end result:

They will blend in better when they are stained darker.  The top of the top step wedges nicely under the ramp bars on the trailer, sort of locking the steps in place.

More weird Vanna moves...

And then of course we had to get action shots of me trying them out - because everything that happens in or near my house these days is happening for the first time, and well, must be documented.  : )

Honestly, those three photos are almost too dorky to even post here, but at this point in the blog I'm pretty sure I have no shame. So there they are.  lol  If you're local and want to attend - c'mon down - get some wisdom & some wine, and try out my new front steps!

 

Career Workshops

My career (transition) workshop is a group of 8 people, and we meet every Monday evening for two and a half hours.  That is quite a time commitment, at least for me, and we also have homework to complete in between.  It has just been a phenomenal experience!  I've met people I never would have met otherwise, and I've learned so much about myself...

A greatly simplified explanation of the process is that we have been working steadily using a variety of methods to identify our skills, our passions and our talents. After that we brainstorm and come up with three potential new careers that match up with what we have learned.  I sort of cheated on that part, because when I entered the program I had the tiny house idea in my head already.  (My other idea is construction related.)  I remember telling my coach when she passed out the list of careers that matched me, "I am pretty sure that my career doesn't exist on any list anywhere yet.  It's probably something that I am going to make up."  She was completed unfazed by that - in fact, she encouraged it.  She said when she started her business of coaching people through career transitions that nobody was doing that at the time, either.  So - onward! 

But what the workshops have done for me is to validate that I do indeed have the skills and talents for a career involving tiny houses, and that those skills and talents are somewhat unique. That sort of surprised me, because I thought everyone could do the things that I can do - I really didn't think they were unusual. The workshops have also given me the foundation to see how I can turn the tiny house into a life style and an occupation.  It's so exciting!  

I went to college to be in the legal field, and I've done very well in legal. But I am ready to try something new.  My coach tells me that being an engineer would have been ideal for me, but when I was choosing what to pursue in college, nobody ever uttered the word "engineering" to me, and I don't recall taking any type of assessments to see what I would be naturally good at.  (And I cannot see myself going back to school...)

After we identify potential careers, we research people and companies in that/those field(s) and then contact them.  We aren't necessarily contacting them to be employed by them, but more to gain knowledge about the field.  I chose to first contact Jay Shafer, the Founder of Tumbleweed Tiny House Company.  You really can't say "tiny house" without saying "Jay Shafer."  More to come!