Many of you have asked to hear the stories of our clients, so we're starting a new feature: Reinvention Success Stories!
For this first report, we asked Jeffery Rudell, who was a participant in the Reinvention Team coaching group earlier this year, about his reinvention journey:
What was going on in your life before you joined the group?
I was 43 years old and I'd been running my own graphic design company in New York City for the past 8 years. My strengths had always been in ideation and design development but I 'd become bogged down in the daily demands of fabrication, production, and revision. I felt trapped in my job and I'd been thinking about changing careers but was at a loss at how to go about it. At my age I didn't want to—and couldn’t afford to—go back to square one to start down a different career path. There had to be a way to put my skills and my experience to good use but I had no idea where or how to begin.
How did the group help you, specifically?
The Reinvention Group gave me a ready-made network of like-minded people who themselves were engaged in very similar struggles. My usual network of friends and associates were of no use to me since most of them were seeking ways to advance within their careers and I was looking for a way out of mine and into something more rewarding. The group helped me do just that by being part "career laboratory", part "focus group", and part "flight simulator" for the life I wanted to create. What makes the group unique was caliber of the people in it. We had investment bankers, realtors, entrepreneurs, and others all bringing to the table their insights and ideas. The cross-pollination and focus was like a graduate seminar on steroids.
What did you find to be the most difficult and challenging part of your reinvention process?
What was most difficult for me was the intense self-evaluation inherent in the process. I'd built a business on my ability to honestly analyze and evaluate design challenges and reinvention required me to apply the same critical approach when looking at my own assets and liabilities. It was scary business parsing out my skills from my defenses and I often felt either frustrated or angry while doing it--but it had to be done.
The Reinvention Group gave me a ready-made network of like-minded people who themselves were engaged in very similar struggles. My usual network of friends and associates were of no use to me since most of them were seeking ways to advance within their careers and I was looking for a way out of mine and into something more rewarding. The group helped me do just that by being part "career laboratory", part "focus group", and part "flight simulator" for the life I wanted to create. What makes the group unique was caliber of the people in it. We had investment bankers, realtors, entrepreneurs, and others all bringing to the table their insights and ideas. The cross-pollination and focus was like a graduate seminar on steroids.
What did you find to be the most difficult and challenging part of your reinvention process?
What was most difficult for me was the intense self-evaluation inherent in the process. I'd built a business on my ability to honestly analyze and evaluate design challenges and reinvention required me to apply the same critical approach when looking at my own assets and liabilities. It was scary business parsing out my skills from my defenses and I often felt either frustrated or angry while doing it--but it had to be done.
What's going on in your life now?
Seven months on, a lot has happened. I was skeptical at first but once I changed my approach to things, my results changed as well. I've left behind the production work I was doing and I'm now handling projects that take advantage of my ideation and writing skills. This is no small feat considering my first new client was one of the country's leading universities who hired me to consult on their curriculum! I even convinced a former client to rehire me, not for design but for strategic consulting--and at triple my former rate. The group really helped me figure out my goals and come up with a plan to successfully target a career market beyond design.
Seven months on, a lot has happened. I was skeptical at first but once I changed my approach to things, my results changed as well. I've left behind the production work I was doing and I'm now handling projects that take advantage of my ideation and writing skills. This is no small feat considering my first new client was one of the country's leading universities who hired me to consult on their curriculum! I even convinced a former client to rehire me, not for design but for strategic consulting--and at triple my former rate. The group really helped me figure out my goals and come up with a plan to successfully target a career market beyond design.
Name three benefits you got from participating in the group:
1. A map of the terrain.
1. A map of the terrain.
Most of my achievements have come from diligently following a career path. I knew the path well but I didn’t have a clue about the surrounding terrain. The group helped me inventory my skills instead of my accomplishments (e.g.: climbing mountains is a skill, climbing Everest is an accomplishment.) I’d been trying to promote myself based on my accomplishments, which limited me to the mountains I’d already scaled. By focusing on skills, suddenly a whole world of opportunities opened up to me.
2. Tools of the trade.
I came to the group convinced that most, if not all, of my past experience would be of little use to me in any new career I wanted to launch; how could all of the things I was trying to leave behind help me to get ahead? The group challenged this assumption and convinced me that it wasn’t my experience that was holding me back, but the way I was using my “tools.” After taking a long, hard look at my resume, my pitch, my elevator speech, and my interview skills, I realized some serious adjustments and improvements were needed. There’s nothing magic about this aspect of reinvention, it’s hard work but it pays great dividends.
3. "I’ve got your back.”
2. Tools of the trade.
I came to the group convinced that most, if not all, of my past experience would be of little use to me in any new career I wanted to launch; how could all of the things I was trying to leave behind help me to get ahead? The group challenged this assumption and convinced me that it wasn’t my experience that was holding me back, but the way I was using my “tools.” After taking a long, hard look at my resume, my pitch, my elevator speech, and my interview skills, I realized some serious adjustments and improvements were needed. There’s nothing magic about this aspect of reinvention, it’s hard work but it pays great dividends.
3. "I’ve got your back.”
The most unexpected benefit is that I’m still in close contact with most of the people I met there. Each of them knows what I’m going through because they’re going through similar transformations themselves. They offer advice and encouragement and they also help keep me focused on my goals. In all of my previous successes I’ve surrounded myself with advisers to help me make make good choices and wise decisions: reinvention, I’ve found, is no different. I refer to my group as my own personal "think tank" and I go to them regularly in my continuing efforts to reshape my career.
Click here for information on our next Reinvention Team! Action Group that starts October 4th.
Click here for information on our next Reinvention Team! Action Group that starts October 4th.
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