Road to Financial Abundance – Week 46

Last week I said I would do the following:

1. Check craigslist everyday for writing & modeling jobs
2. Find and reach out to other websites centered on film/movies, and offer my awesome writing services
3. Diversify my writing portfolio every day

I put all my tasks on hold due to the discovery of a certain book - What Color Is Your Parachute?, by Richard Bolles.  A friend from the Landmark Education recommended  it, and it’s proving to be extremely useful in job hunting and figuring out a career.  I’m only half way through it, and I feel very hopeful reading Bolles’ different suggestions and advice on job hunting techniques.  For example, in one chapter, Bolles lists the 5 least/most effective job hunting techniques (craigslist, networking, cold calling, etc).  Turns out that job hunting via craigslist is one of the least effective methods; networking is among the most effective methods.

So I’ve been devouring this book and am just now doing a self-inventory exercise to determine my skills, passions, knowledge, etc.  Apparently, this is the most effective method of job hunting (don’t ask me how just yet, as I’m still figuring that out).

Have NOT been reaching out to other websites centered on film/movies, because last weekend I got two calls – one from a technical writing agency regarding working for them (turns out the majority of their work doesn’t start till June), and one from a temp agency regarding a temp job that was supposed to start on Monday (that job fell through).  So, in my excitement, I celebrated by not job hunting and writing Thursday – Monday.  Oh well.  I’ve been feeling guilty about it, but I know guilt doesn’t accomplish anything, so I’ll let that go and move on to better things.

Also have not been diversifying my writing portfolio for the same reason as above.

So I have been making reading this book my number on priority, because I believe it has some great job hunting techniques, and I should probably reassess my transferable skills.

Next week:

1. Finish reading What Color Is Your Parachute?
2. Complete all relevant exercises in What Color Is Your Parachute?, to better aid my job hunt and goal of getting a flexible, part-time admin job by May 31st
3. Check craigslist everyday for writing & modeling jobs
4. Find and reach out to other websites centered on film/movies, and offer my awesome writing services
5. Diversify my writing portfolio every day

Road to Financial Abundance – Week 45

Last week I said I would do the following:

1. Check craigslist everyday for writing & modeling jobs
2. Find and reach out to other websites centered on film/movies, and offer my awesome writing services
3. Diversify my writing portfolio every day
4. Attend BNI networking events in Kirkland, then assess whether I should attend those of surrounding areas

Been doing pretty good about checking craigslist everyday for writing & modeling jobs.  I applied to some ideal positions.

Great news!  Campus Point (a local recruiting agency for college graduates) called and said they might have a temporary full-time job for me starting Monday!  It’s right by my house and it’s a data entry position for an entertainment-like company, which is great, because I’ve been wanting to work in the entertainment industry.  I should hear today whether I got the job, but even if I didn’t get it, I feel like things are happening.  Plus, I got a phone interview for a technical writing agency this morning, thanks to a great friend from a money management class at a local Center for Spiritual Living.  Woohoo!

Reached out to about 10 movie websites last week and offered my writing services, so I’m hopeful they will see my potential and respond.  I’m excited to reach out to more, as I got really excited at the idea of writing about movies/entertainment.

I started diversifying my writing portfolio even more, after a professional writer recommended I use the site, WritersDigest.com.  I found one section to be particularly helpful – the Weekly Writing Prompts section.  So in an effort to maintain and strengthen my writing muscle, I will start creating content based off of these writing prompts.  I’m looking forward to seeing my imagination and writing style diversify and expand to colorful, gargantuan proportions!  You can see these weekly writing exercises in myWritings section.

I attended my first BNI networking event this week and it was very productive.  It was amazing to see so many driven people helping each other succeed.  Turns out you have to be a member (which costs about $350 per year) to attend the networking events, so I’m not sure I can afford that at this time.  And once a member, you have to attend one meeting per week, which sounds like a big time commitment.  Regardless, I met some great people made some great contacts, so I am really glad I attended the event.  I’ve been questioning whether or not to attend surrounding BNI group events, since I can only go to two events per group before they ask that I decide to become a member.  I think I might attend one in Fremont, since the lady that suggested the BNI attends those ones, so I would have a great connection.

Next week:

1. Check craigslist everyday for writing & modeling jobs
2. Find and reach out to other websites centered on film/movies, and offer my awesome writing services
3. Diversify my writing portfolio every day

 

Road to Financial Abundance – Week 42

Last week I said I would do the following:

1. Search for jobs on craigslist
2. Search for websites & blogs centered on interests (video games, film, languages, fitness, technical writing, food, travel, etc) via AllTop.com.  Ask website owners if you can write for them
3. Finish reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
4. Write every day, whether it be on this blog or GamersRoute.com

I’ve been focusing more on adding to my writing portfolio, than I have been about searching for jobs on craigslist.  No reason why I can’t do both though, so I will check craigslist for part-time technical writing or customer support type jobs, as well as modeling jobs.  Right now, I’d really like a part-time customer support or virtual assistant job that will at least pay my monthly expenses.  That would reduce a lot of stress.

I have only reached out to a few webmasters, since I’ve been focusing more on writing/editing articles for GamersRoute.  So far, I’ve been writing/adding one piece every other day.  Reason being, I was at my boyfriend’s this past week doing tons of yard work.  But I don’t want to use any excuses; I want to diversify my portfolio every day, or at least 5 days per week.

Finally, I finished reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People!  Woohoo!  The chapters about Habits 2 & 3 were a little too technical, and I almost gave up reading it, but I chose to read all of it so I could glean as much useful information as I could.  I definitely recommend it.

This Sunday, April 29th, I will be modeling for a collaborative shoot for AMDEF – an independent collaboration between the communities of Art, Music, Dance, Entertainment and Fashion.  I’m really excited, because I’ll be able to promote myself as a great representative for the hybrid (half Asian, half white) community.  I’m committed to inspiring and empowering people from my modeling, through creative, original media formats (photography, television, film, etc).  For more details, check out the Facebook event details here: Collaborative Promotional Photoshoot for AMDEF Artists

Next week:

1. Check craigslist everyday for writing & modeling jobs
2. Find and reach out to other websites centered on interests, and promote myself
3. Diversify my writing portfolio every day

 

 

Road to Financial Abundance – Week 2

Been listening to Suze Orman predominantly the last week, which has been inspiring.  Listening to her regular listeners/callers, they really know their shit!  When Suze does the “Can I afford it?” portion of her show and asks her callers, “Show me the money!”, the callers list the following:

1. liquid savings
2. monthly income
3. monthly expenses
4. debt
5. investments
6. retirement money
7. 8-month emergency fund

I find it a bit difficult sometimes NOT to get depressed, listening to some of these callers who are my age or younger, who not only have their money in order, but have so much of it.  But each time I catch myself feeling down, I remind myself that those feelings are not helping me achieve wealth any faster.  So I ditch those negative vibes and remind myself that not only I will be one of those listeners someday soon, I will be one of the most impressive Suze has ever heard.

I want to vary the millionaires I listen to, so this week I will listen to more of the podcast “Wealth Building by Nightingale”, which has many short, eclectic podcasts, which introduce me to other millionaires and methods of becoming wealthy.

Subscribed to Marc Allen’s podcast, but his limited episodes have been lacking of info, so I will look for other media by or about Marc Allen.  I also want to learn more about Robert G. Allen.

Got a 20% raise at work this weekend after working there 90 days, which is great.  My short-term goal, inspired by Suze Orman, is to save up $8,000 for my 8-month emergency fund, which should take about 4 months.  Ugh.  Need to find ways to speed up that process and other ways of generating more income.

Oh!  I discovered this great web page via StumbleUpon today, which not only talks about small ways to generate money, but about 9 other ways to increase one’s quality of life.  The article is on LifeHacker.com: Top 10 Solutions to Real Life’s Most Annoying Problems.  The specific solution (#6) links to several other web pages regarding saving and generating money, but this link really gave me ideas to generating more wealth: Make Money in Your Spare Time Doing Simple Online Tasks.

Basically it talks about signing up and participating in online focus groups/research studies & blogging, and it also introduced me to two new ideas:

• visiting a website and providing live, honest feedback about it
• providing answers via chat, phone, & how-tos

Two things I will definitely look into.

Well that’s it for me.  I believe this is the lengthiest article I’ve written on my blog.  I’ll be back next week to update ya’ll on my progress on my road to wealth!