The time has come…to launch a new (media) career – End of the Day for July 6, 2014

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax–
Of cabbages–and kings–
And why the sea is boiling hot–
And whether pigs have wings.”

— Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872, Lewis Carroll

As many of you know, I have been in heavy career transition mode, especially since the beginning of this year, when I dove into a variety of work full time. You might not have been able to tell the status of that transition, as I have been a bit closed-mouth about it all. I was trying many things, testing the waters, diving deeper into areas I only waded in before. I have given my self the time (and been given time and understanding from my family) to see just where this all might lead. Now, 6 months later, I think i am ready to go a little further and actively seek out some opportunities that could make this new career move forward.

Douglas E. Welch Profile Picture

Over the last 6 months I have divested myself of all my computer support clients and focused, fairly exclusively on the New Media areas, such as blogging, podcasting, YouTube and teaching others how to use these New Media tools to improve their lives and businesses. Over this time I have learned a lot about this area of work and also about myself. The time has come, as the Walrus said above, to monetize these areas of my work and reenter the
work world”, at least as a freelancer, once again.

I’ll be writing more about this transition on each blog and how it relates to the specific area of interest, but I wanted to use this more causal space to lay out some general thoughts on my new line of work and how, perhaps, you can help me to be successful with it. First, I figure I need to tell you where my skills and interests lie in each subject area, so that you can be on the lookout for opportunities that night match not only with those interests, but also what you know about me as a person. Some of you know me face-to-face, while others know me only through my writing and podcasting, but even then, I think I present quite a similar face no matter where you may have met me — face-to-face, online, podcasting, video, whatever.

Can you help me build my new career? Any help is greatly appreciated!

Here are some areas where I think my skills and interests could help you and your friends, coworkers, business owners and even family.

New Media Consulting

I have been working with a few close friends on New Media projects to test out both what services I could provide them and how best to do it. In some cases, I have taught them how to use New Media tools themselves — Twitter, Facebook Pages, Tumblr, YouTube and more. There are a certain number of people who actively want to learn and use these tools on a daily basis. On the other side are those people who prefer to spend their valuable time doing their chosen work — writing, publishing, voiceover, music — and leave the day-to-day New Media operations to me. While I originally worked with more of the former types, I have found that I can also work well with the latter. They can feed me information (which I often help them discover they are already creating) and I can package that information for whichever New Media tools make the most sense for them. This has involved creating blog posts, modifying those for Facebook and Twitter, packaging photos, audio and video and generally acting as their liaison to the New Media world. I think the combination of both these types of clients serves both them and myself very well.

I have also been doing some video production for a few, select clients. As I was doing this work for myself already, it only made sense to reach out to others who needed this production assistance. Together with Rosanne and her production and television industry knowledge, we have been able to produce 2 large projects over the last year. For myself, I am looking for smaller projects, since I tend to work by myself and feel that my skills lie more in helping individual and small business make the leap (a smaller and smaller leap every year, though) into creating their own video productions.

One new area of expertise for me has been in the creation of Kindle ebook and Createspace print publications that allow writers to sell directly to their audience. I have produced several books for myself and, last year, created both the print and ebook editions of The Promise for my wife, Dr. Rosanne Welch and her co-author, Dawn Comer Jefferson. I have always believed in writers having to the tools to deliver their message wherever and to whomever they wish, and ebooks and print on demand have made the an easy and inexpensive possibility today.

Part of my own personal outreach for New Media work and education is the Careers in New Media blog and podcast. Here I share concepts, advice and techniques for using New Media in your life and work. I also do this, and my other blogs and podcasts, as good examples of how New Media can be used by nearly anyone. I can explore the use of New Media in my own life and work and hopefully reader and viewers can find parallels to their own work.

A Gardener’s Notebook

Gardening has always been a deep interest of mine and this was rekindled when we purchased our first house back in 1996. It came with an established garden, so I had to reimburse myself in the gardening world. This led me to create A Gardener’s Notebook as a weekly column, then a podcast and now a series of video podcasts on my YouTube Channel. This all eventually led to a paid position as a member of Troy-Bilt’s Saturday6 bloggers for 2 years.

While I do a lot of my gardening content first for myself and my dedicated band of readers and viewers, my experience with the Saturday6 showed me that I also have something special to offer to specific groups and companies. I am always on the lookout for similar opportunities to Saturday6, where I can help a gardening-related company (or other companies) create New Media either as “talent” i.e. writing, producing, hosting or as a producer, helping them structure all aspects of their New Media program.

Career Opportunities Column and Podcast

I have been writing Career Opportunities as a regular column since 1997, began podcasting in 2004 and continue to this day. Career Opportunities gives me the “opportunity” to speak to a wide variety of groups and share my concepts of “Building the Career You Deserve” to a wide variety of people whether that is via the blog, the audio podcast, professional speaking engagement and, now, One-to-One Career Consulting.

As with the New Media Consulting mentioned above, I have been slowly testing the waters with career consulting, carefully seeing if my skills and knowledge provided a high level of value to a few clients. After initial success with One-To-One Career Consulting, I am ready to add new clients to that area of my work. I have had excellent experiences working with clients here in the US and even, in one case, Australia. The world of Internet allows me to consult with anyone, wherever they might be in the world. There is still a language barrier, of course, but I dream of one day being able to consult with anyone, no matter which languages we speak. You can find more information on my One-to-One Consulting on the Career Opportunities web site.

Since the magazine that originally published and supported Career Opportunities financially folded a few years ago, I have been producing the column and podcast for my own reasons and without financial support. This year I will be exploring alternate ways of funding Career Opportunities including crowdsourcing, commercial products like books and videos and subscription programs. (I hope to have the next book of collected Career Opportunities writing available for sale this Fall) I have a dedicated group of readers and listeners for Career Opportunities and it is up to me to develop ways they can support something that they find useful in their career. I’ll be looking at a host of value-added ideas so I can continue to provide the content they love and also support the overall production of the program.

Those are the largest area of skills and interests in my new career. If you spot some connection between those skills and your needs, or those of your network, I would love to hear from you. It is very possible you might have an opportunity I haven’t even thought of before or important people that I have never met. Just as I share my best information, knowledge and ideas with all of you, I hope you will do the same for me. Let me know what you think would be good opportunities in this new, new career.

Thank you for all your support in the past and especially during this transition. I look forward to this next phase of my career and my continued involvement in your life and work!

Previously on End of the Day: