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This season on Strategic Momentum, we released a series of podcourses in tandem with the launch of Building the Business of You — a book about understanding what the future of work really means for us as individuals and, most importantly, how to create and execute a plan that establishes our own career mashup so that we can be our whole selves. And the guests we heard from shared their own stories of how they were able to do so by building their own dream careers and fluid businesses, gaining valuable perspectives on the future of work in the process.

Each episode corresponded with a theme from the book, including fluidity, career success, and the components of the Fluid Career System: Spotting the Trends, Creating Your Compass, Preparing for Change, Networking Your Way to Your Path, and Building Hard and Soft Skills. 

In this episode, we revisit key takeaways from the season and tie together the trends that emerged across the interviews and what they mean for the future of work in our new normal. Connie is joined by Strategic Momentum marketing manager Alexis Anthony and operations manager Alan Corcoran who have been integral to shaping the narrative arc of the season. In this recap, we explore our most surprising and inspiring moments from Season Five of Strategic Momentum all with the same focus: helping you answer, “What’s next?”

Key Takeaways:

• Tim Guleri’s episode exhibited the growth mindset that we are seeing more commonly among today’s workers —the ongoing curiosity, willingness and persistence to just try sometimes. 

  • Don’t be afraid of failure, rather embrace it because you know you’ll learn from it. 

  • All of that provides insights on what works, what doesn’t and where you may want to go next in your career. 

  • You inevitably can’t predict what will happen because uncertainty is the new certainty but if you are able to be fluid, parallel path, and test and learn along the way, you’ll be able to find that traction. 

• Career success is varied but involves developing skills and balancing passion with financial security.   

  • Definitions of career are closely related to skills workers have developed. “Using my skills to perform work” was the top definition of a career across 3 age brackets. employees are keen to use the skills they have learned, and employers should be aware of this. 

  • When workers think of their career in the present tense, using their skills comes to mind. BUT for career goals, purpose and passion become more important than developing skills. 

  • Many people want to pursue their passion while also having financial security. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.

• The future isn’t about technology and remote work or changing cultural dynamics. It’s really about how we now have to go with the flow more than ever personally and professionally (a.k.a. Fluidity).

  • No one wants to be boxed in when it comes to the way we identify ourselves and how and when we work. There is a greater desire and expectation to have freedom and control over what works best for us because we now have the optionality to do so. 

  • Fluidity is who you are, what you do, how you do it; it’s your thinking and approach, where you do it, when you do it, etc. 

• Spotting the trends is critical as it helps you analyze, assess and realize where you’re at may not be where you need to go.

  • This is important in driving your own career path. Look at your strengths and weaknesses and understand what you need to develop further to determine what is working.  Kyle Hunter, AKA K.Sparks was a great example of that.

• Planning occurs even at a more granular level because you have to map out how to deal with change, network with the folks they wanted to and build the necessary skills to help them move forward. 

• Soft skills are so important and they matter even more in helping to move you forward in whatever it is you want to do.

  • In today's world, you really need to connect with people in order to help you move forward in whatever initiative you have. Whether that is networking with others to understand the type of information needed to help you accomplish a goal, whether it is, working with people on your team to support them in wherever it is that they want to go.

• Pursuing a business that enables you to be your authentic self is a trend of the future, as well as relentlessly pursuing your goals.

  • Joe English has been driven by purpose, but also desire for being his true self in life and in his career. He noticed that there wasn't inclusive literature in schools and he was able to go and fill that gap in the market.

  • Brian Wish’s ambition was neve to build a big company and get rich. His mission was to be authentic to himself and do something that helps people and makes a difference. He took a risk pursuing that interest but knowing what the potential impact could be for the people around him.

  • Catherine Bowman started pursuing that actively at 13 and just kept on chipping away. She was always very clear in her goal, but testing, learning, iterating, optimizing, and letting that information and that data helped guide her.

•  Fluidity can be learned.

  • Just as you can develop new skills, you can also adopt new approaches, new frameworks to how you live your life and approach your career.

  • Fluidity seems to be so natural to some, but that shouldn't discourage other people from trying new things or attempting to adopt new frameworks themselves. 

• Make sure each of your moves is a smart, strategic one that ultimately leads you to where you want to go in the long-run.

  • It's great to be able to shift and embrace different kinds of opportunities, but you still need to be on a path that is most authentic to you. 

  • Working from anywhere doesn't mean that you're necessarily going to be your best self from anywhere. 

• If we can’t be our whole selves, we won’t be happy, fulfilled and able to truly bring forward our true potential at work and at home.

  • This non-linear path that a lot of us have taken isn’t isolated anymore. It reflects this trend towards figuring out how we want work to fit in our life, not the other way around. 

• Spend time to plan for yourself. Figure out what you may want and be okay with that not being a fixed point. 

  • None of us ever know exactly what we want to do but what is clear is that we never want to stop learning and growing. How we get there will differ depending on where we are. 

• You truly need to look at yourself as a business. You now are a product/service on the web, which means you need to do strategic planning for yourself to direct where you want to go. 

Resources:

• Connect with Connie: Email | LinkedIn

• Connect with Alexis: Email | LinkedIn

• Connect with Alan: Email | LinkedIn 

• Share Your Feedback and Suggestions

• Visit BizOfYou.co

• Order the book on Amazon

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