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 44

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 interests, and promote myself
3. Diversify my writing portfolio every day

I’ve been doing very well with checking craigslist every day for writing & modeling jobs.  I applied to some, which felt great, though at the same time, I think, “It would be a lot better if I got a job through a contact, so there would already be a level of trust established”.  Oh well; I guess either method works, as long as I find a job I love.

So my mom & I attended a guest speaker event last night at the Landmark Education office.  The event was centered around breakdowns.  The biggest thing I got from it was that it’s so very important to COMMUNICATE, especially during a breakdown, as your peers can help you spot your blindspots and help you think up new actions to take.

So I made a new commitment out of last night-

To have a flexible, part-time job that I love by May 30th

As you all might know, I’m also working hard on becoming a writer full-time, so I am writing every day, in order to diversify my portfolio and just to exercise my creative muscles.  But in the meantime, I figured I’d do admin work, since that’s what I have the most experience in, and it seems like it’s a more stable job than writing.  Ideally, I’d love to work with the entertainment industry (i.e., tv, radio, flim, etc).

A lovely young lady sitting next to me last night recommended I check out BNI.com, which is a global networking organization that organizes regular networking events.  She said I should come to the one in Fremont on Thursdays.  Their website also lists networking groups/events happening in my neighborhood (Kirkland), with all of the events taking place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  So, I’ll attend both until I find a part-time job.

Just ordered 250 free business cards from VistaPrint (Christ, I’ve heard that ad so much on Pandora.com).  I’m excited to start using them to promote myself and my skills, and to network with others.

I need to find and reach out to websites centered on film/movies & video games, as I would love to write for free for such industries.

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
4. Attend BNI networking events in Kirkland, then assess whether I should attend those of surrounding areas

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!

Road to Financial Abundance – Week 1

It’s been one week since I downloaded and subscribed to a bunch of wealth, investment & finance podcasts.  I have been so inspired and fired up by so many of them.  Some not so much, but that’s part of the filtering process.  There were some podcasts where it was simply a narrator reading quotations from deceased millionaires, like Russell Conwell, Ben Franklin & P.T. Barnum.  But I listened to all if not most of those old English podcasts, so I could glean anything from them, and I usually did.

The following people I found to be especially inspiring:

• Suze Orman
• Marc Allen
• Thomas Stanley & William Danko
• Jim Cramer
• Robert G. Allen

I can’t wait to look up more readings and material produced by these people and others that I will discover.

Some important things I’ve learned from the above people are the following:

• Have clear, specific goals and effective affirmations to go with them
• You don’t have to be an energetic, type-A business person in order to attain wealth; you can attain wealth in a “healthy & positive manner, and in an easy & relaxed way” (Marc Allen)
• Trust your voice about money; you have the strongest connection to it than anyone because you have earned it
• Put your dreams & goals in little pink bubbles (Marc Allen) and visualize their manifestation; they have a way of manifesting in the future, even after you’ve given up on them sometimes
• Don’t settle for less, only settle for more (Suze Orman)
• The impacts of macro- & micro-economics

I will keep ya’ll updated as I learn even more and discover new wealthy digital mentors.