Breaking the Glass Ceiling

 

What is the Glass Ceiling and How Do I break It?

Explained in Five of My Own Lessons

My Credit for this Lesson Goes to a company called Cydcor, an MLM Company that Trains Direct Sales Professionals

The Glass Ceiling is a Metaphor for a Breakable Ceiling in Your Life That is Impeding You From Climbing the Ladder to Success

You Are Worth More Than You Think

There was once upon a time that I did not have my own business, nor did I have a client list, or even a list of goals.   Starting this business has been a massive undertaking and there has been plenty of time to reflect on the past year’s triumphs and learn from the hundreds of mistakes that were made. I’m not saying that YOU have to start your own business. You may have a different set of goals, like finishing college, learning a new foreign language, or getting a promotion at your current job.A collective of very influential thought leaders have progressed my work to this point.  My credit goes to the internet marketing and self development community for helping me develop a positive mindset.Find people that will encourage you to succeed, whether online or offline, and discard the people in your life (politely) that are distracting you from accomplishing your goals.

I was surprised to learn that most successful online entrepreneurs discuss the subject of personal development more than anything else.

Lesson #1

Understanding Factory Worker Mentality

Originally, I was indoctrinated into a factory worker system and became a good soldier.  My first full-time job inside the Atlanta perimeter that paid a decent wage was working as a grill cook at the Cheesecake Factory.  I still remember waking for orientation in January of 2004 and hiking three miles in 14° weather with a sense of excitement.   This job was insanely difficult and physically punishing.  The first thing I was told by a coworker was that I needed to only memorize two words, “No Problem”.   So the factory worker mentality had begun.

Show up to work on time, work hard for eight or more hours, and push to excel in your work.  Then go home and watch TV or play Xbox.  Go to sleep, repeat cycle the next day, and nothing ever changes.  Despite all the praise in the world for the work ethic, the pay grade never changed either.

Learn to identify this cycle in your life that is holding you back from accomplishing your goals.  Does the work really end after that eight hours?  Are you really happy with your paycheck and your job?  Is your job making you so miserable that you cannot work on any of your other personal goals or hobbies after work?

The physical and mental punishment from working at this job gave me a blue collar work ethic, you must transition the good from your previous experiences and discard the bad. (Good:  Strong Work Ethic, Bad: Factory Worker Mentality)

Lesson #2

Your Education Doesn’t End with School, It is Only Beginning

One day a manager at the Cheesecake Factory came up to me and asked me why I was working at the restaurant when there was a rumor floating around that I could fix computers.

Despite studying the A+ Certification and MCSE Networking Essentials book and assembling several computers and building several home networks, the thought of branding myself as an expert that could work as a computer tech without the certifications seemed absurd to me.    I spent hundreds of free hours fixing friends’ computers and troubleshooting networks before I ever charged a red cent for my services.   The piece of paper that said I was a certified expert meant nothing to me.  It was about being able to produce real world results as an advanced problem solver.

Ask yourself about your hobbies or duties at work (if you love your job).  Would applying yourself more to the work that you love bring you prosperity and success?

The world is changing rapidly, the recession has erased hundreds of thousands of jobs and given rise to the need for many American workers to retrain for a new career.   Constantly retraining and reinventing yourself will help make you become indispensable in the workforce.

Lesson #3

Use Professional Networking to Break the Perpetual Cycle

By 2006 I had been working in the restaurant business for 7 years.   After meeting a head hunter in my building that recruited for entry level corporate positions I was able to make a transition to cubicle life simply by asking her for a job.

I thought that I was trapped in the restaurant business because my resume was littered with seven years of experience in that one particular field.   Having earned a reputation as a responsible adult in my community that went to work on time was all the credibility I needed from my neighbor to go get a different job.  I just had to set my mind to making a good first impression and asking for help getting the position.

After several months on the job, the floor manager asked me why I wasn’t making any sales.  I was showing up to work and performing my duties in the call center like a robot, but wasn’t really motivated by the $2 commissions for the sale of the Homewire Protection program.  So the call center kicked the commissions up to $4 a sale.

Lesson #4

Learn to Identify the Opportunity When it Knocks

The call center was a boring and redundant job where I fielded over a hundred customer service inquiries a day.  Having the door opened to earn more money brought about a different mindset.  No longer was I locked into getting the same amount of pay for the same amount of hours.

The transition from clock puncher to performer had begun.  Within weeks I was earning an extra $150 a week from my sales efforts in the call center.  I began to realize that I could help my financial situation by improving my performance on the job working the same amount of hours.

I left this job for a direct sales position with Cydcor in late 2006.  The MLM company embraced a system of strict values involving leadership and accountability.  60 hour work weeks ensued with the idea that I could “Break the Glass Ceiling” and one day run a company of my own (only after recruiting a sales force and training them and staying within the Cydcor umbrella of course).   I would show up at 8am and go through unpaid sales training for three hours before even going into the field.  The most important thing that happened during this experience, is that I left them with the idea that I COULD one day run my own company.

Find a successful business in your community to work for and absorb all their techniques, systems, and philosophies like a sponge.

Lesson #5

Reinvent Yourself as An Expert only When the Time is Right

In late 2008 I read an article about someone getting fired after having their picture posted on Facebook at a party after calling in sick.  The posting circulated around the office he worked at the very next day.

 

I reformatted my only social media account at the time, Myspace, to read like a resume.   Then something magical happened, in early 2009 I was hired to work for a professional property management company after being hand picked over 500 other resumes during the worst recession ever.

My boss even admitted that he thought it was very detailed-oriented the way I formatted my Myspace account.

The realization that I had leveraged the Internet to sell myself to a company was startling.   If I could market myself over the Internet, then I could market another company’s products and services.  That same year I joined Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin.  I started this website which was originally a blog and began cataloging my ideas about content creation and Search Engine Optimization.

After stumbling upon an article about “Permissions Based Marketing” by Seth Godin I emailed it to one of the partners at the company and began pitching every internet marketing idea that we could implement from email capture forms, facebook ads, to creative contests that could be broadcast across Twitter and Facebook.

 

Later that year I read a book about time management called the 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris.  The book outlined a blueprint for starting an information based business and how to maximize your time to reach elite productivity levels.

Embracing time management techniques allowed me to remove every distraction that was impairing me from ever achieving anything.  More importantly,  being able to focus clearly on short term goals became the catalyst for my mission statement of helping other businesses get more customers through their front door.  I didn’t ask for this honor, it was handed to me by others because of my involvement with new technological platforms on the internet.

I never called myself an expert, other people did because I knew how to build websites and twittered.  So I rebranded myself as an expert only when other people said that I was.  Period.

The world needs critical thinkers and creative talent to solve complex problems effecting our business community.  The world needs you to decide it’s time to lead, not follow.  Factory worker mentality and following orders to the letter will get you a nice pat on the back, maybe a pink slip.  Being quiet and sinking into the background to fit in or be unremarkable will earn you exactly what you deserve, nothing.  Breaking the glass ceiling involves innovating whether within your company or as an entrepreneur.  The world needs you to solve these problems, before indecisive apathy leads the human race off a cliff.

 

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