New Urban Mom Podcast Show 10 – A Visionary Builder
Eat local, protect our green spaces, stop urban sprawl, rebuild our cities, drive less, work closer to home (or at home) – are all buzz words today that are making front page headlines in most major news papers across America. Listen in to today’s show as we talk to one of the leaders in the new urbanism development movement, David Pace of New Broadstreet Companies.
David Pace, was Director of Real Estate Development for Walt Disney when the much talked about early new urbanism community, Celebration was developed in the late 1990′s. He later joined Pritzker Realty Group to lead the redevelopment of the 1,100 acre Orlando Naval Training Center into Baldwin Park, a $3 billion project comprised of houses and apartments for 4,300 residents and 1 million square feet of commercial space. Today David is president of New Broad Street Companies.
David represents the expertise that goes into re-shaping inner city neighborhoods and suburban/rural areas into welcoming and rejuvenated communities that bring residents together for social and business benefits. These “sustainable” communities are also designed to make it easier for residents to not only work and carry out their businesses close to home, but to lead their personal and family lives in ways that are healthier for them and the environment.
Website references:
Listen to the MP3 – click here
Work Local Option – Freelance
You’ve decided that new urbanism fits with your beliefs and focus on green living and vibrant, local communities. For many of you that means cutting the environmentally unfriendly commute to your daily job so that you can work in your community. The problem is no one is hiring where you live. What are some of your options?
Well the fact that no one is hiring can be a temporary thing. It takes a lot of smart searching and networking to find what you’re looking for and I’ve already posted about some of the strategies to finding a job. There is, however, another option for replacing your income and it depends on the skills you developed in the workforce or your overall training, experience and interests.
I’m talking about freelancing. Let’s say you were a marketing specialist for a firm during your 9-5 life. Perhaps you could promote your marketing strategy development skills as an outside contractor to local entrepreneurs and employers in your region. Replace “marketing specialist” with graphic designer, administrative assistant, customer service specialist, etc. and you’ll soon realize that what you do at your full time job represents a skill-set or specialty that many companies might appreciate on a project or outsource basis.
In many cases it makes better business sense for companies to hire outside contractors than to take on full-time employees – especially in tough economic times.
Many freelancers who market themselves well to business owners are able to replace and even surpass their previous full-time incomes. How much you earn really depends on how much your clients enjoy your work and how well you succeed at marketing yourself.
I’m going to share with you a great way to market yourself and to reach employers who may be local or even thousands of miles away and you won’t necessarily have to step outside your door to do work for them (depending on the type of work you do).
Shelancers is an online directory of professional female freelancers. That’s a unique angle for a freelancer directory and one that is sure to get the attention of your potential future clients. You want to featured in a directory with that kind of promotional appeal.
This directory is being promoted far and wide by the two innovative and leading women entrepreneurs who created Shelancers – Nicole Dean and Darina Loakman.
I’m a member of Shelancers and I can tell you that we have freelancers in various fields from graphic designers to accountants to virtual assistants. Best of all, we have monthly resources to enhance your business, and a great forum called “The Watercooler” where we share ideas, questions, look for partners on projects and generally support one another.
If you’ve made up your mind that now is the time for you to make your move back home to create a lifestyle where you can work where you live instead of 20,30, 40 miles away, then think about freelancing and visit Shelancers by clicking on the graphic above.
Life is Too Short for Toxic Work
In the last year I have had four good friends become disillusioned and fed up with their 9-5 jobs and have either quit or come to a mutual decision with their managers to “part ways.”
Four women in my small circle leaving high paid, professional career positions in one year. For me that is statistically pretty significant especially when HR managers around the country have spoken publicly about the difficulty they are having in keeping highly skilled women in the workplace.
While the reasons women leave good positions is varied what I’m hearing and reading about in terms of why they leave good jobs falls into the following categories:
- Frustration dealing with personalities and colleagues who aren’t professional or all that skilled
- Unable to justify the cost in time and dollars of commuting to work
- Strong, burning desire to have more control over earnings and work hours also called the “entrepreneurial bug”
We really have left the era of where work was just something you did until you built up enough pension to leave. I’ve always looked at work as something that MUST be about the things in my life that I consider important.
My husband and I have moved across state lines and even countries to accept job offers that reflect our personal interests and life priorities.
I think some friends thought we were a little nutty in deciding to move so often with our household belongings and babies in tow, but we have tremendous memories and experiences from our many moves. We feel blessed to have our health and to have the choices we have as residents of an affluent continent like North America.
Of course it also helps to have dual citizenship and grandparents who will travel to babysit in a pinch!
My friends’ recent experience with abrupt career changes highlights another fact we can’t ignore – there is no more job security. We hear plenty about companies closing in this struggling economy or going offshore for cheaper labor. The message is pretty clear: you are expendable.
You can’t look upon employment in any company or organization as a sure thing anymore. Each of us has to look upon our skills and abilities as our personal assets and then figure out how best to market and secure the best compensation for the abilities we have honed and developed.
Headhunters, job boards and good networking can help to get you into the career you want. But it will be up to you to market yourself so that you can get that job that truly fits your idea of quality, satisfying work.
The same applies to your business. If you have a skill, profession or interest that is steering you towards entrepreneurship, what’s holding you back? Research, talk to others and don’t lose site of that goal. The Internet has opened up a WORLD of opportunity allowing more people with modest resources to start businesses of their own.
I realize that sometimes we have to do what is necessary to care for our families and address urgent needs like health care and housing. But I have never understood how healthy, able people torture themselves in jobs that are life draining and toxic. Life is too short for that.
I have a career that is ideal for me and I’m thrilled that I’m also able to pursue my entrepreneurial goals as a business writer. My life is very purposeful. My thought process has always worked something like this (for better or worse!):
- This is what I love and what gets me up in the morning, so…
- How can I find a job that allows me to do this work for competitive compensation AND/OR
- Start a business around my passion to give me the independence I’ve always cherished
For more than 15 years these questions have guided our family and I doubt that will ever change. Both my husband and I have learned tremendously from the different and amazing people we have worked with through the years, in different countries and states as our clients, colleagues and business partners.
Work need not be a four letter word. We need it to survive so why not ensure that what you do fits in with your life priorities?
Are you running a business or in a career that reflects some goal or passion in your life? If so, please share your comments here!
I’m Also Here…
