For the few lurkers that venture this deep into my personal/professional “love me” site, I’m back to start doing some regular updates. I’m not sure if they’ll be daily, but I’d like to start doing something more on a routine basis during my downtime from working. On Sept 17th, it’ll be my 7th month out of work. It’s definitely not due to a lack of trying. I submit dozens of resumes weekly to companies that fit my expertise, worked with a recruiting coach for a few months, and go on regular weekly interviews.
Competition in the marketing field is fierce. So, I need to maintain patience as I work to earn that opportunity to release my inner beast of brand and value.
To help cope with the downtime, I’ve taken up a few activities that allow me to keep my skills fresh.
1) Get my health in order – Being healthy can go a long way with so many dimensions of a person’s life. The everyday small acts of self-consciousness can open a person’s eyes to new ideas and personal motivation. Since early March, I embarked on a health trip to better handle my weight. I wasn’t in any way obese, but I was overweight according to most body proportion indexes I reviewed. In the last half year, I’m happy to report that I’ve lost 25 lbs. in a healthy way that I can continue to maintain without severe sacrifice. I’ll probably make a whole post on this journey later on as I’ve got numbers, activities, recipes and of course progress pictures that I’m reluctant to share today.
2) Going after my MBA – During the COVID lockdowns, in the middle of my tenure with Crunchyroll, I decided to enroll in an online course to earn my MBA. It’s with great excitement that I can say I’m on the final leg of class work with the current semester leaving only the Capstone project left scheduled to end this December. I’ll be the first person in my immediate family to earn an MBA, and I hope it acts as encouragement to the generation that follows. It may seem strange that I go for my MBA almost 20 years after getting my Bachelor Degree in tech, but I find it an interesting refresher to the concepts of business. The landscape of marketing is so different now than if I was go for my MBA two decades ago. Coupled with my affinity for tech and my deep knowledge in global fan culture subject matter, I figure I’ll be a amazing ally or a dangerous competitor in my field. I do feel the real world experience adds so much color to the class concepts. Its as if going back to school simply formalizes all the processes I’ve been a part of and all the skills I’ve learned. And the things you do see differently in class are absorbed so much better as I could better envision how things might have been better with my own endeavors. Holistic lesson to communicate here: after getting your Bachelor Degree, go out into the world and work to get some experience, then come back for a Master’s about 8 to 10 years later. The classes will be easy peasy because you’ve already gone through it all. Plus, the lessons will be better understood getting the most value for your tuition.
3) Reading – In all my interviews (I’ve had over 20 in the last 2 months – not all different companies), I regularly ask what books had inspired the interviewer professionally. I normally ask senior level members this question as I feel I can learn best from those holding higher positions than what I’m applying for. I’ve gotten some amazing recommendations, some more relevant than others, but all great reads to keep my mind moving and to better align with some of the ideas that these leadership members recommend. Here’s a list of books to get you started if you haven’t been asking. I’ve gotten through a good amount, but still have more to go, and if you have any recommendations, let me know! You’ve made it this far in this post, so we probably have a mutual connection at some level.
a) Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow
b) Outliers – Malcom Gladwell
c) Zero to One
d) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
e) Make Your Bread
f) Human Compatible
g) The Tipping Point – another Gladwell book
h) Only the Paranoid Survive
i) Shoe Dog
j) The Power of Habit
k) Creativity, Inc.
l) Emotional Intelligence – Why it can matter more than IQ
m) The Magic of Thinking Big
n) How Brands Grow – Byron Sharp
o) Think Like a Marketer – Kate Colbert
p) Crucial Conversations (3rd Edition)
q) The Goal – Eliyahu Goldratt
r) The Way of the Peaceful Warrior
s) What Got You Here Won’t Get You There – Marshall Goldsmith
t) In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
u) The Catcher in the Rye
v) The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey – Kenneth Blanchard
Some teacher recommendations
w) Built To Last – Collins & Porras
x) Start With Why – Simon Sinek
a friend’s recommendation
y) Nudge, The Final Edition – Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein
… and my personal recommendation to even out the alphabet
z) Basic Economics – Thomas Sowell
Reading is an activity with no physical way of showing results, but I’ve found the practice to be like bicep curls for the brain. The continuing levels of attention on all the various subjects help keep me mentally sharp and satisfies the internal perpetual learner. I hope it can do the same for you. Happy reading!
If you have any thoughts on my post above, feel free to reach out to me: keep@figwiz.com
Be well, and cheers to you for putting your best foot forward!
– Reggie