Last week on Creating Your Encore Career, I taught how to stay relevant as you enter, create, and develop an Encore Career. 

This process involves three key questions. Firstly, why do you need to develop your value proposition? Secondly, how can you keep your skills relevant? Finally, how will people find you? 

The week before, we talked about people skills and emotional intelligence on the podcast. That whole idea is a starting point to today’s topic. It’s crucial that you get to know yourself and learn how to understand others. That could be a key source of value for you in your value proposition.

Let’s dive into all of that and more.

 

Why You Need A Value Proposition

First things first: why does a value proposition matter anyways?

You have been relevant in your past work. You have recovered from mistakes and negative external events (think the 1980 recession, the 2000 Dot Com bust, and the 2008 recession). It’s important that you reflect on things like these so you stay relevant in your Encore Career. 

Think about activities or events that you were most proud of. Make a list of the activities (not titles) that you have done. Out of all of those, where did you lose track of time or find “flow?” 

Ask five of your former colleagues what they appreciated about you or what they saw as your best contributions or strengths. 

Also, check out the book Wisdom @ Work by Chip Conley for more tips on developing your value proposition.

Staying Relevant

Developing your value proposition is just one way to stay relevant in your Encore Career. The next strategy is to keep your skills relevant. 

The first way to do that is by changing your mindset around relevancy. Though you can’t change your age, you can be curious and demonstrate energy.

Secondly, learn some tech like Zoom, LinkedIn, collaboration software, and video. If you need help with technology, find someone who can mentor you in it and offer to mentor them on the things you know.

There are some skills that you can hire out. If you aren’t naturally talented in a skill or just don’t want to spend the time learning it, you should hire it out. However, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t learn anything about the skill. You should be familiar with it in the broadest sense of knowing why it’s important and what it does. 

How People Find You

Once you determine that you are still relevant, you need to start growing your business. Here are some ways to make sure people are finding you:

1. Social media: LinkedIn, Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram.

2. Your website (you only need 5 elements to start).

3. Create pillar content. This is an extended piece of content that explains what you’re all about. This can be written, audio, or video content.

4. Join groups in your area of expertise.

5. Figure out where your potential clients hang out (online or in person).

6. Friends of friends are often the best sources for clients.

7. Explore contract sites like Upwork.