What's your plan they ask me...I don't have one, I tell them!

My announcement to go solo has been filled with warm reactions, kind words and wishes which is not only extremely rewarding but also personally very emotional. I've had wishes from people with whom I have lost contact for many years yet they took a few seconds to wish me well.

But that's not really what I wanted to talk about... I just felt I had to say how appreciative I am of all the comments and kind wishes for success in my new (ad)venture.

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Here's what I really wanted to write about... 

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People ask me "What's your plan? What are you going to do exactly? What is your main proposition? What is your USP? Why would someone choose you?"...all very valid questions - questions that I would be asking too... "What's your Go-To-Market plan? How are you going to scale up?"

And they're quite surprised when I answer...Actually... I don't really have one... I don't really have a thought out, laid out plan... I've done quite a few Go-To-Market plans for the companies I've worked for having passed through marketing... And yet here it is... the time when I have to do it for myself, for my new company and yet I haven't done so. Not because I don't know how to but because I'm chilled. It's that simple. 

 

I have zero stress about what the future holds.... I have a few good contacts with whom I've already had some discussions and this is already working very well for me... And truth is that (a) I do have some money set aside to cover the first period of lower revenue inflow (b) I have the support of my husband and we at least have 1 steady income still flowing 😎and (3) I already have some collaborations going that have secured some income to start with, all of which YES …obviously helps me feel at ease. I kick off from a good starting point.

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But even with all this, I think my positive mindset, my can-do attitude is not to be taken underestimated. I am stress-free. I have been a stress-free person for many years now. Work has never ever stressed me. Of course it might get me agitated, tense etc but never stressed me... I think it's because, like many things in life, I don't let it stress me.. and as I had said in my 'Turning 50' article, what I have achieved after all these years of working is calm and balance.

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It may sound arrogant if I say that I feel not only excited about my new endeavour but also very confident... Confidence without the arrogance combined with a stress-free mindset is a very good and healthy place to be.

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I've always been...actually no...I haven't always been an optimist...I became an optimist with age.. after 30 ...when I realized that hmmm...I wasn't doing too bad in life. Optimism grew alongside me feeling more sure of myself.

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In my professional years I have created many deep, rich and mainly authentic professional relationships and the confidence I have stems from the trust that these past relationships will easily open the door for me to get that FIRST FOOT IN. If you can get that 'first foot in' then you have overcome the most difficult challenge of business development. The rest... I'll figure out...Since I am doing something I love and feel I am good at, I have the confidence that when I secure that first intro meeting, proving myself worthy will magically fall into place sooner or later. That is the main reason I think that I am stress-free.

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I know my shit. And the shit I don't know, I won't pretend to know. I will seek out and partner with experts to fill in my gaps. So everything is cool man...😎

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Perhaps the confidence of going solo has been years in the making...silently and subconsciously. Going solo was never an obsessive end goal because as I've said in previous posts and article, this was never my plan. In fact, I thought I was going to die corporate... Till death do us part.

And yet my being laid off from Microsoft at the age of 49 was a blessing in disguise.

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My decision not to go back to another multinational was also a very conscious decision... A calculated one... Which led me to my next decision of going to a local company to help with the transformation which is what I did for 2 years... Successfully or not others will judge, but it did have many many learnings for me and this was my stepping stone, my jumping board, my catapult, my bridge to the world of freelancing.

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So I am at a place where I feel confident that I'm not just a multinational pretty PowerPoint presentation consultant but someone who can roll up their sleeves and get things done. And I now know from actual experience, where and why a transformation plan may fail, where the difficulties lie and what cultural foundations need to be set in order for transformation to succeed.

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Quickly before I close, I want to talk about a trend I truly believe in. I believe that the market will go towards more interim executive placements, part-time employment for shorter or longer term needs and fractional leadership. There are some roles within a company that don't need a FTE…similar to outsourcing, you don't need everything in-house.

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You 'rent expertise' only for the period that you truly need it. You don't have to forever keep on paying for it, when the need you have and the value-add they give drops. This model is very popular outside of Greece and I am pretty sure that it will land here hopefully sooner rather than later.

So…the big conclusion?  The moral of the story? I'm starting this new endeavour excited, confident and very optimistic with NO BIG MASTER PLAN. Just going with the flow man 🤘

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And I really don't care if come back in 2-3 years to write that this whole thing just didn't work out.

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Because I will have come out of this wiser and thus a winner.

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Never stop exploring!

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