From Publishing to Pastry

From Publishing to Pastry Success Story > From: Job To: Solopreneur From Publishing to Pastry “I didn't feel fulfilled creatively or intellectually.” * From Publishing to Pastry Melanie Moss knew that she'd always been happiest pursuing her childhood hobby, so she set out toturnit into her profession. Now, she's realising her entrepreneurial potential doing something that makes her smile every day. Here's her story. What work were you doing previously? I worked in book publishing. What are you doing now? I am the Founder and Pastry Chef at Mini Melanie, an online desserts company. How did you feel about your work before you decided to make a change? I didn't feel fulfilled creatively or intellectually. Why did you change? I grew up baking and was always happiest when I was in the kitchen, but no one in my big family was a chef. I made it my focus to land a job after universityin book publishing, and I did. But once I was there, I was only thinking about food. When was the moment you decided to make the change? While at my post-college book publishing job, I started a side hustle private cheffing and it got really busy. Are you happy with the change? I've never looked back. The journey I've been on from going to culinary school, to having culinary internships, working in restaurants, and now running my own food business has beenboth addictive and exceedingly exciting. What do you miss and what don't you miss? I don't miss anything about working in the corporate world. Although I always have Mini Melanie on my mind and am always somewhat working, I feel so fulfilled that I have this baby to nurture day and night, and a team to grow to help us be better and bigger every day. How did you go about making the shift? And how specifically did you choose your new career? My first step was to go to culinary school part time. I didn't know anyone who had a job in the food industry, so it seemed like the only thing to do to break into the industry. As it turns out, culinary school isn't entirely necessary. You learn the most working in restaurants. But I still learned a lot at school and made lasting relationships. In terms of choosing my career, I got my feet wet doing private dinners and cooking classes in clients' homes. It let me get a sense of how hard it is physically and mentally to work in a kitchen, and thatultimately it was right for me. I worked in a couple of restaurants. I was the Pastry Sous Chef at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, and prior to that I was the Pastry Cook at Babbo. I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit. I enjoy being creative and solving problems, and I also enjoy the process of working with and managing a staff. In restaurants and cooking privately, I tried to grow my skill set in these areas, to ultimately apply these qualities to my own business. Baking has gone from being my childhood hobby to my profession. It still makes me happy to get up and get in to the kitchen every day. I love that dessert isn't absolutely necessary, but it's so memorable and makes people happy. Customers buy our truffles and cakes either as an everyday indulgence or to mark special occasions. It's very thrilling to be a part of such occasions and to make people smile when they dig in. Opening a storefront bakery is such a risk for a new business that has grown organically, without any funding. The retail landscape has changed as people are shopping online more and more. I decided we would sell our desserts online via Shopify, so that we could give our customers convenience and a pleasant, consistent user experience, without taking a huge risk financially and operationally. What didn't go well? What 'wrong turns' did you take? I don't think I took a wrong turn. Every step and transition turned out to be worthwhile. Plenty of drama happened, though! I sliced my thumb working service on a busy night at Babbo. My biggest mentor, a famous pastry chef at Babbo, humiliated me for months in front of the other cooks before making me her sous chef. This is just a small sprinkling of kitchen tales! How did you handle your finances to make your change possible? I was able to save money while working in book publishing and living at home. And I saved as well from my private cheffing business. What was the most difficult thing about changing? Time management. I was working Monday to Friday in book publishing, while I went to culinary school all day Saturday and Sunday. What help did you get? My family. I'm very lucky to have close family nearby as well as a very supportive (and well-fed) husband. What resources would you recommend to others? LinkedIn is an incredible tool. Contact your university's alumni network and use social media to get the most out of your network of family and friends. What have you learnt in the process? Following my passion has not been an easy route, but it's an exciting one that's made me leap out of bed every morning. What do you wish you'd done differently? I would've loved to have had more time for more experiences before starting Mini Melanie, but I'm glad I started the business while I was still in my twenties because it takes a lot of energy! If I'd had more time after working in restaurants, it would have been so helpful to have worked for another food start-up. What would you advise others to do in the same situation? Find people who have jobs that you want and speak to them about their experiences. Not only will it help you figure out your path, but you will be able to build a network of contacts before even career shifting. To find out more about Melanie's business, visit www.minimelanie.com. Melanie uses Shopify to sell online. To learn more, visit www.shopify.com. What lessons could you take from Melanie's story to use in your own career change? Let us know in the comments below.

Around the World at UCLA - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Around the World at UCLA - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career This weekend, I held my twice-yearly personal branding boot camp at UCLA, brilliantly guest lectured by Jeffrey White, the SEO/reputation management genius and attended by a full complement of fired-up attendees from around the world. The intellectual endurance athletes hailed from Japan, Germany, Venezuela, the US and beyond. Personal branding knows no bounds The group’s lack of any shared, defining demographics shocked and impressed me. Apparently, personal branding matters whether you are a patient’s advocate who was nearly killed by flesh eating bacteria or a street musician who just shot a film about the solar eclipse in Mongolia. We also had a professional organizer plus the guide dog she was training for the blind and a college administrator bravely making her way from enemy territory (our rival school that used to have a football dynasty). If you wanted to ask how to get a ticket for the Kentucky Derby, where to hear G-rated comedy or what media really delivers the best CPM for your local business, you missed out on meeting all the right people. What does this tell you? Whether you were on campus with us or not, you are among the futurists. That is, you are among those people who are not just on social media. You are among those who by virtue of thinking about social media are shaping it. That crosses a lot of cultural or occupational barriers and binds you to people with whom you might not share any other interest. Isn’t that interesting? It gives you so many opportunities to lead a truly global tribe. To us it matters that Facebook is selling our posts to advertisers, who then target the newly engaged among us with wedding trinket promos or the like. Not that we necessarily mind the targeted attention, mind you. What’s important is we are aware that social media is evolving before our eyes and under our thumbs. Awareness in personal branding, like with substance abuse, is a giant first step toward controlling how your life turns out. What you do brands you, whether you take action with intention or by accident. As personal brands, we choose to live our lives or at least our careers intentionally. At boot camp, we build strategies for life before we build strategies for LinkedIn profiles and presence. Before impulsively liking Pinkberry or broadcasting your devotion to the Beebs, consider what that means about you to your 650 friends on FB and the roving recruiter checking out how you spend your free time. You are branded by the brands (companies and people) with which you surround yourself in clicks, pics and posts, after all. In reality, there are neither surefire privacy settings nor BFFs. If you leverage social media for a living â€" not just use it as a place to leak your good news or frustrations â€" give some thought to your life’s mission and purpose, at least as far down the road as you can imagine. At camp, our work for the first eight hours was to decide on those qualities and traits that made us or betrayed us, given what we each want to accomplish and be known for during the balance of hours we will be here â€" and I don’t mean at UCLA. Have you asked yourself the big life questions yet or in the very recent past? A personal branding boot camp (which you can do at home instead of a Shark Attack marathon) needs to include your taking your life’s inventory, divulging some true stories, getting inspired revelations, and surviving the surprising pain of accepting your limitations. When you have a grip on you are and where you might like to go, only then does it make sense to dig into social media details, like in how many languages you need to translate your FB posts and what to do with that drunk friend who keeps tagging you holding beer. Both really good questions to address once you’ve asked and answered some larger ones about your life. And, what did you do this weekend? Author: Nance Rosen is the author of Speak Up! Succeed. She speaks to business audiences around the world and is a resource for press, including print, broadcast and online journalists and bloggers covering social media and careers. Read more at NanceRosenBlog. Twitter name: nancerosen

7 Brilliant Ways to Use Your Contacts to Get a Job

7 Brilliant Ways to Use Your Contacts to Get a Job Do you ever feel like you have lots of contact names from networking, your current job, and life in general, but you don’t know how to leverage them? It can be difficult to think of ways to approach them, or even what you want to approach them for. The chief thing for us to remember is that a network is important not because of what we can ‘get’ from our contacts, but because of who, and what, they can introduce us to. Leveraging contacts is about adopting the right attitude to your network. Here’s a breakdown of what this means in practice. 1) Get to know your contacts It’s infinitely easier-and fairer-to ask your contacts for help if you actually know them well. Many of us believe networking is about collecting a mass of contacts. In truth, this is not a useful attitude to have when it comes to building a beneficial network. What’s really valuable is how well connected we are to our contacts. The tighter, and more personal, the bond between you and each contact, the more valuable it is. Instead of collecting ever more business cards, be interested in those people you already know. Who are they? What are they interested in, what’s their educational history, their quirks? Do you know their family, where they live? It is only by being curious about the detail of people’s lives that you can begin to have a useful, and valuable, connection. Can you pick up the phone at any time, and ask one of your contacts almost anything, and get some sort of positive response? If not, you do not have a close enough relationship with them, and they are not a useful contact. They are merely someone else in your database. 2) Treat contacts with respect If we treat our contacts like scalps, or notches on the bed post, our message to them is that we do not value them highly. Instead, we should treat our contacts as potential allies. Nurture them and aid them. Really get to know what they want, not just tell them what we want. Ideally, your message to your contacts is that you are there to support and help them. Once you are treating them this way, they will respond in kind. 3) Give as well as take Getting to know what your contacts want is a big part of treating them right and so is actually making the effort to help them with what they want. Once they’ve told you what they’re looking for, really think about how you can help. Do you know anyone who would be beneficial to this person? Could you use your own skills and expertise in some way, be it by doing something for your contact, or showing them how to do something? Once you’ve done a contact a favour that’s meaningful to their ambitions, they won’t forget it. Once you’ve done them many such favours, they’ll actively want to help you out too. If someone’s bought you hundreds of gifts, you kind of start thinking that you’d like to buy them a gift in return. 4) Work out what you want Before approaching a contact, get clear on what it is you want from them. What type of job are you seeking? What sort of boss are you looking for? Once you’re clear on these things, approach the contact you think is most likely to be able to help you based on your preferences. It’ll be much easier to communicate to them what you want, once you know what you want.  You may well be asking, “And how exactly do I work out what I want?” You probably want to do something that you’re good at and that you enjoy. So make a list of your strengths and your passions and work out from there which careers, which work environments, which organizations match up to those. You’ll also need to consider constraining factors, such as financial requirements, childcare restrictions, travel issues, or whatever applies to your own life. 5) Communicate clearly It’s not only important to be clear about what you’re asking your contacts for, but also to communicate it clearly. Have you ever been approached by someone in your network who was not really sure what they were asking you for, but instead just rambled on about vague ideas and plans they had? Frustrating, isn’t it? Make sure that you are clear and concise in your conversation with your contacts and give them a direct description of what you’re looking for. 6) Think about what to ask for This is all very well, but what exactly are you asking them for? A job? An introduction? Opinions? Ask your contacts for whatever you want, just make sure you’re asking the right contacts. If you want to ask a contact if they know of any jobs going, be sure to ask a contact who has their own contacts within the specific industry or organizations you’re interested in. If you’re asking them for an introduction, then they obviously have to know someone who’ll it be worth you being introduced to. If you’re asking a contact for their opinion, then they should be knowledgeable on what you’re asking about. 7) Don’t rule anyone out Even though it’s important to choose suitable contacts, you shouldn’t necessarily exclude anyone just because you don’t think they’ll be able to help you. This mainly applies to those contacts you don’t know so well yet. If you know that a certain contact is connected to the industry you’re interested in, then obviously it’s better to talk to them than to a contact that isn’t connected to that industry at all. But what if you don’t know which industries a particular contact is involved with? If you get to know that contact better, they may surprise you with what they can suggest to help you out, once they know you well. Based on their newfound understanding of you, they may know exactly the person you should speak to in order to open up options suitable to you, your personality and your circumstances. To get to a position where you can effectively use your contacts to find a job, you have to work really hard to get to know them. It’s about connecting with your network, not growing it obsessively. Related: 5 Great Ways To Use Social Networks for Your Job Search. Nisa Chitakasem is the founder of Position Ignition  â€" a careers company dedicated to taking you to the next step in your career.  For free advice, guidance and information on careers follow Position Ignition @PosIgnition.  Image: Shutterstock.

Reframing Whats Wrong to Make It Right - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Reframing Whats Wrong to Make It Right - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career President Obama is currently on the stump advocating two things. First, he wants a raise in the minimum wage. Second, he wants women to receive equal pay for equal work. These have been decades long intractable issues. I believe that language has played a big part in their failure to gain traction. Perhaps reframing these issues is the change that would serve everyone. It’s clear that paying people more would benefit everyone. And, by everyone I include corporations that at least one presidential candidate declared are “people too, my friend.” What if we simply changed the language of President Obama’s advocacy, since any economic theory bears out that business needs consumers. Simply put, corporations need people to buy stuff. Investors need corporations to sell stuff, so they make money on their investments. What if language would change everything? Instead of “raising the minimum wage,” I recommend President Obama rename the issue. He should call it the initiative to “make more customers for business.” The nature of the argument would be that it is anti-business to allow 50 million people to make less than $24,000 annually. It’s not a moral issue. It’s just that these folks can’t buy stuff. A similar change in language might work for the women’s equal pay issue. How about President Obama changing it around. The new initiative could be: “men’s right to earn equal pay to women.” That might scare up some funds to level the paying field. Of course, these politically charged issues seem like they aren’t a simple language fix. But, we’ve seen language make a difference. When we called “inheritance tax” a “death tax,” even people who have no chance of ever inheriting a dime rallied to stop it. I don’t know if government will work better for us if we simply change the way we talk about the issues of the day, but I do know that language matters. I wonder how you can talk about your concerns at work and perhaps in life, in a new way. And, I wonder how you can successfully win over your opposition, just by reframing your issues.

Writing a Rockin Resume - How to Find Respectable Resumes

Writing a Rockin Resume - How to Find Respectable ResumesIf you are thinking about writing a rockin resume, you can bet your credentials are all over the place. Most people have at least one or two that include skills that are obsolete today, or they have several that are dated and not relevant.There is no need to be so over the top on your resume that it doesn't represent you, nor do you want to list your abilities that will make you the ideal candidate for a specific job position. While you may think of yourself as a writer, that is an inaccurate description.You need to write a resume that can best represent you, not the writer you pretend to be. There are some things you should avoid including in your resume. In order to effectively do this, you need to get a little creative.First, you should know that there are no rules that apply to the type of resume you can create. They all have to do with making the most persuasive, making the recruiter wants to call you and offer you the job . They are not about how you are educated, how you speak, or what skills you possess. These are all specific guidelines to the job you are applying for.You don't want your resume to detract from the specific job you are trying to get. Instead, you want to emphasize what you are good at, so that you can show that you have what it takes to take on the job.To do this, you should take the focus off the important points that you don't have and put them in front of the recruiter. In fact, you should take the time to understand their requirements, so that you can give them exactly what they need. Then, you can build your resume around those points and the skills you have.It is also important to write a resume that is relevant to the job you are looking for. This means that you should not write a resume that makes you sound like a film director. It is OK to write your resume for someone who is the sales representative for an auto parts store, but you want to make sure that you make yourself stand out from the crowd.Rockin' resumes can do this for you. The key is to give the recruiter exactly what they need, without giving away what you are truly capable of. So put some creativity into your resume, and you can get noticed for your skills, instead of for what you believe to be irrelevant and unappealing.

How to stop spraying and praying in your job search

How to stop spraying and praying in your job search Maybe your primary job search strategy is to apply to lots of positions by just sending your résumé. Then waiting. And waiting and waiting. Sam has a great résumé. He found 10 potential jobs that are a perfect fit. He sprinkled in a few carefully selected keywords for each job, hoping that the companys applicant tracking system would flag his name as one to consider for interviews. Now Sam waits, right? Wrong! Sam is only 5 percent to reaching his job-search goal. He needs to put in 95 percent more time and effort now that he has applied. For example, Sam applied online for an account manager position #4629 at XYZ company. As of this moment, only a robot has viewed his résumé digitally. What are the remaining actions Sam should take to win this job? There are four steps: 1. Targeted connections Now that Sam has applied for a specific job, he needs to connect with people he knows and even total strangers to try to get his credentials in front of the hiring manager and recruiter. How? Sam should search LinkedIn to see if he knows anybody at XYZ company or if someone he knows is connected to any employee there. He next needs to master the skill of advanced searches in LinkedIn and seek out possible hiring managers and recruiters for this specific job. 2. Networking Connecting with people on LinkedIn is not networking! Its just connecting your profile and theirs in a massive database. Thats it. Networking begins with a phone call, a face-to-face meeting or, at the very least, an e-mail exchange. Here are Sams next steps: Request a Linkedin connection with a personal message rather than the default message. Open the full profile of someone with whom you wish to connect, then erase the default message. Instead say something like, Dear , I just applied to a position in your company and am eager to connect with you to learn more. Regards… Once they accept, send an e-mail (if thats available) to request a phone introduction: Thank you for connecting with me. I just applied to the account manager position #4629 at XYZ company. I would appreciate 15 minutes of your time on the phone to ask you two questions. If the e-mail address is not available, send the message through LinkedIn. After the phone conversation, if the person is willing to meet, request just 30 minutes of time in the office, not at a loud coffee shop. 3. Enlist specific support Here are Sams questions and items to request from the new contact: Can you please confirm that the position is still open? Do you have an employee referral program within XYZ company? If so, will you please submit my credentials? In order to help me follow up on my application, could you please provide the names and e-mail addresses of the hiring manager and the recruiter? If I send you an email with my credentials, will you please forward them to the hiring manager and recruiter? Rule of thumb: Follow this process with at least three people for each job you are applying for. 4. Follow up with each person Its amazing how many of my job search clients only do this with one person, then wait. And wait. Follow up with each one at least three more times, spaced out a week between each message. If you cant do it, your job search must not be that important. Yes, the first time you go through these steps it will feel awkward. However, once you are over the hump and start seeing results, you will get over the awkwardness. And this method will help you network for other important goals in your life such as selling, building alliances, building a business or just meeting fabulous people. Remember: People are on LinkedIn to network and help others. If you dont ask, you will never know. Change your game, job seekers, and stop spraying and praying!

These Bad Habits Will Slay Your Productivity

These Bad Habits Will Slay Your Productivity You only have so much time in the day, right? Right, so you need to ensure you are as productive as possible when youre in the workplace. But if you arent getting your work done on time, then you may not be as productive as you should be. The following bad habits may be to blame. Bad Habit #1: You are not getting enough sleep We need around 8 hours sleep a night, so if youre burning the candle at both ends, and not getting enough shut-eye, then you are going to feel sluggish and tired throughout the day. You might even fall asleep at your desk in extreme situations! Do yourself a favor then, and get to bed at a decent time. These sleeping tips may be useful to you. Bad Habit #2: You are not eating properly A poor diet will bring down your energy levels, and this will, in turn, make you less productive. Therefore, look for ways to eat better at home and at work. Start with a healthy breakfast (it really is the most important meal of the day), eat fruit in place of less healthy snacks throughout the day, and prepare something nutritious at home for your lunch. Make use of wholesale vegetable suppliers too, as well as any healthy takeout options from local stores, so you always have something nutritious to eat at home and at work. Bad Habit #3: You skip exercise Where can you find time to exercise during the day? Surely you have too much to do! Well, you could try getting out of bed earlier, for a start. A brisk walk or jog around the block will set you up for the day. You might do the same thing during your break times. You might also walk or cycle to work instead of using your car. There are even exercises you can do at your desk. Always make time to do something rather than nothing, as while you might resent the time it takes, your renewed energy will power your productivity. Bad Habit #4: You dont delegate enough Heres the thing… you cant do everything! You want to be the master of everything, but you might become the master of nothing! If you have a team around you, delegate to them, especially those tasks you shouldnt be doing anyway. There are also things you should outsource in your business, as this will give you more time to concentrate on aspects of your business that you are better at. Otherwise, you will have too much to do, and your ensuing workload and tiredness will scupper your productivity. Bad Habit #5: You fall prey to distractions This encompasses a number of bad habits. You might waste time looking at Facebook for personal purposes, for example. Or you might get involved with office gossip and banter, to the detriment of your mounting workload. And there will be distractions that are personal to you, each one of which will counter your attempts to be productive. You need willpower; the ability to say no to these things, as you will never get your work done otherwise. Are you guilty of any of the bad habits we have mentioned? If so, follow our suggestions, as your productivity and your business depend on it. Let us know what you think, and if you have any suggestions of your own, be sure to let us know.