🔎 on changing careers

I am a scaredy cat.

I, for the first 30 years of my life, had let what other people think dictate what I did.

then, NFTs happened.

(please don't stop reading)

I know that NFTs have a bad rap. if you haven't heard people lost a lot of money buying JPGs of monkeys on the internet in 2022 (it me). as you read this, most people hate NFTs.

not me though. in fact, quite the opposite. I love NFTs still.

as a lifelong collector, the idea of digital collectibles was super appealing to me. I started collecting NFT trading cards and moved into the cartoon monkeys, cats, and doodles you probably all heard about.

I found a community and stopped caring what others thought about me. I started a newsletter. I made YouTube videos. I tweeted (bad) jokes constantly on Twitter.

(yes, I understand it's quite sad that an adult needed to find cartoons on the internet to finally stop caring about what other people thought of him. but this is my journey)

from there, I lost my job and found myself staring at that tough question we all have to answer one day, "what do you want to do with your life?"

I have always been fascinated with the SEO world. unfortunately, my resume didn't show that. all I had there were sales and customer support roles.

so that's what I interviewed for.

shockingly, with little enthusiasm for any of these jobs, I made it far with a few companies, but could never get that elusive job offer. soon, 1 month turned into 3 months which turned to 6 months.

the NFT stuff was a dead-end too. I was bad at trading them and monetizing my audience was not possible (it was too small even though I wasn't morally opposed to doing that).

but all you need in life is to get lucky once.

as many people will tell you, luck is when hard work means timing.

I took an interview for an account management position at an agency. this agency did websites and SEO for medical professionals.

on the phone interview, I could tell this was a no-nonsense kind of guy. he quickly jumped into questions like 'what is bounce rate?' and asked me how to use search console.

I answered each with zero confidence, but he was impressed. "not many people I've talked to even get this far."

suddenly I was feeling confident. he was right, I did know a lot about digital marketing. in fact, I knew more than most. some might even consider me a 'specialist'.

I eventually went in for an in-person interview where I made it too casual. like many potential jobs, I left with a handshake and never heard from that company again.

but that was the moment where it clicked for me. not only could I do this, I wanted to do this.

titles be damned. I had to start getting the experience in digital marketing. I reworked my resume to focus more on my background in SEO. luckily, I had worked at two places that were tangentially related.

then, I started applying for digital marketing jobs. SEO, PPC, social media...it didn't matter. with my new confidence and fervor, all I needed was to get lucky again.

I just needed one.

and eventually I got it.

now I look to you. are you looking to make a career change? it's scary. you constantly hear people telling you to follow your passion, but what happens when your passion doesn't make money?

somewhere in between realistic expectations and your interests/hobbies lies your next career. for me, NFTs seemed like a viable career path. I pursued it by going to a few in-person events where I tried to network. I accept non-paying roles to get my name out there and get experience. none of these amounted to any sort of paycheck. I'm talking $0.00.

but essentially through my NFT obsession, I learned how to use social media and email lists to build a following. I learned a lot about marketing by watching NFT projects try and fall flat on their face. but most importantly, I learned my voice and how to put myself out there.

I coupled these new skills with my existing ones, which were in the SEO world. I knew how to setup websites, build content strategies and backlinks, and do on-page SEO. I knew how to do keyword research and do technical SEO when needed.

viola...I'm now a digital marketing specialist. the answer was staring me in front my face all along.

the path to a new career is not always obvious. in fact, it's downright confusing. somewhere in there though, you know what you're good at. it might take some people prying answers out of you to realize it, but deep down you know it too.

go try and make the change. you never know if you might get lucky.