It’s not about being, it’s about doing
“I think I want to be a management consultant.”
“I want to be an HR analyst”
“Yeah? I want to be a user experience specialist.”
Great. We can help you.
You’ve got goals, and now you need some tips and some skills.
You’ve come to the right place.
Except… we need you to understand one thing.
It’s not about being. It’s about doing.
Let us explain.
Pivot2Consulting is all about visualizing a better future. A future in which you are in charge of your time, your work, your income, and your schedule. We exist to help you realize your dreams, and we’ve got knowledge, skills, tips, and advice to share with you.
So here’s the first piece of advice:
Don’t dream about what you want to be. Dream about what you want to do. It’ll keep you grounded.
You’ve probably already figured out that freelancing is going to be challenging sometimes. (It’s also going to be a blast sometimes, trust us.) There will be times when you feel alone; when you feel like an imposter; when you’re not sure what to do next.
That’s ok. We all feel that way.
So to help you plan your time and your learning path, we need you to start visualizing your future. We need you to start working exactly what your days are going to look like in your freelance consulting journey.
If you concentrate on being, you’re thinking about status and possessions and image.
You want to be a management consultant? Are you sure? Do you want to do the things a management consultant does? Because that’s awesome. That’s where you need to do your thinking and dreaming and planning.
Instead of being that consultant – picturing yourself in a smart suit and a nice car- you need to imagine doing the things. Picture yourself wading through your clients’ earnings reports and hiring policies. Imagine yourself interviewing managers and stakeholders. Imagine yourself alone at your computer crafting reports full of recommendations.
See what I’m saying? If that sounds good to you—if you can think about the ‘doing’ part and honestly say “yeah, that’s my jam. Sign me up. That’s exactly what I want to do” you’re on a good track.
You want to be a finance analyst? Great. Can you see yourself doing all the things? Motivating yourself to fish through receipts and reconcile ledgers and track down discrepancies and put together statements and spreadsheets? Because those are a few of the “doing” things attached to being in that role. Again, can you see yourself doing those things? All by yourself, because you enjoy them and they bring you intrinsic rewards? Do those nerdy finance things, those actions, sound like they’ll be meaningful and positive for you? Like for days on end?
If yes, you’re going to do a great job and you’re going to have fun doing it. If you haven’t through through the “doing” stuff yet—if you haven’t got past the cachet of being a freelance finance analyst, well… now’s the time. Sit yourself down and think about the doing.
Oh and while you’re at it…
When you’re a new freelancer, there’s a whole lot of ‘doing’ that is probably, well, peripheral to the stuff that brings you joy.
Can you picture yourself doing things like…
- Setting up a website to promote yourself?
- Tracking down leads and making proposals to them?
- Costing out quotes?
- Researching and purchasing office equipment and computer gear?
- Putting together some social media about yourself?
- Tracking your mileage and your other expenses?
We’re not here to dampen your dreams. We’re here to stoke them.
And we can tell you from experience that those ‘extra duties’ like bookkeeping and marketing are really not so bad. We’re here to help you get good at them, in fact.
But as you begin to go from the wishing to the planning phase of your freelance consulting career, take our advice.
Concentrate on the doing, not the being. There’s a whole lot of doing to get done.