Tom Henrickson is an IT project manager and career coach. He has built up the coaching as a side hustle over the last few years. He began writing about learning agile software development and Scrum. From there he learned how to leverage his work to create passive income. Tom has continued to learn more about career coaching and helping people find careers that match their passion. To help promote his writings and coaching Tom has begun to speak to groups about career issues. “You need to make sure you understand and are willing to market yourself and services. Don’t think you will have people lined up at your door. You need to go find them. Everything you want to sell think about how to find people who need it. Test out different methods to see what works best. In software development we use lean methodologies to try out things and re-position as we make changes. Think of three things you can try”.
Being still in side hustle mode, Tom doesn’t think he as made enough mistakes yet. “We need to get to the point where we embrace failure. You learn so much more from that. I tried an experiment recently trying to sell a service on Fiverr. I thought I could upsell people to premium service. I soon realized how people on Fiverr are not willing to spend money on that”. This failure helped me fine tune my strategies. I have heard of similar strategies for sales reps trying to get to five nos. Think about something you can try and fail five times in one month. You will learn a lot from these experiments”.
Testing the Waters
As a future escapee from the 9 to 5, Tom is already getting a taste of the freedom working for yourself offers. “I think as you make the transition and start to move away from trading time for work is a major mindset shift. It takes time for that to sink in. I also find many people I talk to that don’t understand the talent they have and how they can leverage that for profit. Too many of us are locked into the time for money paradigm”.
Tom and I first connected on Dan Miller’s community 48Days.net. We both have backgrounds in IT project management. We also are both readers of Dan’s book 48 Days to the work you love and listeners to his 48 Days podcast. “He has many great resources and suggestions for people in a similar journey. Another podcast that has been helpful is the Side Hustle podcast. It shares great ideas to get you thinking about as you prepare to transition”.
Like many Escapees, Tom is working towards consistent re-occurring revenue models in his business. He is building a membership site and is developing training programs that can bring monthly revenue. “I see many big names find creating this can bring consistency. Another thing I would like to pursue is affiliate marketing with other online partners. There are many good people out there that I would like to promote to my clients. I have also learned how marketing and selling is a big part. Writing a new book is not easy but simple compared to marketing. The way we market things is changing so fast so I try to use new things. Keep learning and trying. That will be the key!”
Follow Tom at http://myitcareercoach.com/
