I sat on our couch and scrolled through Upwork one more time. Nothing. No jobs that appealed to me, nothing that utilized my knowledge and skills, nothing that was going to start bringing me worthwhile income. I only had 18 more “credits,” which equated with about 4 more tries to get hired, before I had to pay to apply for jobs, and I was starting to feel hopeless. I would have looked up jobs in my little town, but I already knew that Hardee’s and Dollar General were the only ones hiring, and I didn’t look forward to living in fast food grease or storeroom dust.
So, I prayed. “Lord, I have no clue what to do!” I don’t know where it came from, but my blog came to mind. Alright, so I would focus on my blog. But what on earth would I write about? I was no health and fitness guru – I barely convince myself to do one 25 minute yoga video every morning, and my brother will inform you that creating new recipes is not one of my strong suits after he ate my creations every weekend for a year in college. I was no finance wizard – I spent AP Macroeconomics in the floor next to my dad’s computer so I could ask him what all these crazy terms like “supply side economics” meant. (I’m pretty sure that’s the only economic term I somewhat retained.) In other words, I was useless at all the commonly recognized “money-making” niches.
That’s where Facebook came in. Somewhere between another “RIP Fall” meme and a picture of someone’s overseas adventure, I saw a personality quiz by Cathy Heller at Don’t Keep Your Day Job. “What is your creative archetype?” At this point, I thought, what could it hurt? So I took the quiz, put in my email, and waited for the results.
“Investigator!” The email exclaimed. “You’d love nothing more than to get paid to research and dissect this subject all day long.“
That was pretty true. As the Facebook ads started pouring in, I decided to do a little investigating, and I thought Mrs. Heller’s creative site was a good place to start.
The Pros
- Perhaps most importantly when it comes to these courses and communities, Mrs. Heller is incredibly positive and encouraging. It is easy to engage with her sweet and optimistic style of writing. On top of that, she has a slew of fascinating podcasts that I look forward to consuming in the next few weeks.
- The archetypes are a really neat way of looking at personality and interests as inspiration. It also helped me figure out the appropriate media outlets that would be best for the content I wanted to create.
- Since the course is by email, it doesn’t take a lot of time to digest. If nothing else, the quiz is definitely worth trying for the fun of it! In addition to being a fun thought exercise, the follow up emails are engaging and give even more free content. In the third email I received, Mrs. Heller did promote her latest book, but she incorporated the promotion so well into the rest of the content and encouragement that it felt very natural.
The Cons
- The quiz was a bit obvious, although I did cheat in a way by reading through the comments before taking the quiz. I could see the different archetypes fairly easily in each quiz answer, and even in the first question I could tell what my archetype would be.
- The course doesn’t have much life-changing content in terms of actionable steps. For example, in the first email I received, one of the quiz questions (“Which action most appeals to you,”) became the implementation suggestion later (“Get sponsors for your blog, podcast, or YouTube channel / video series.”) However, if you are interested in podcasts, she sends you a really great “Podcast Checklist” to help you get started.
My heart is happy!
What I tried
- This quiz sparked the idea for reviewing self-help courses with my blog, so I have to give Mrs. Heller a great big THANK YOU for that!
- I’m still debating whether or not to add a podcast or Youtube element to my blog, and her Podcast Checklist will be super helpful if I do!
Initial conclusion
After reading through the emails and perusing the content on Don’t Keep Your Day Job‘s Facebook page, I recommend completing the quiz and digging through the content on the site. It may not dramatically change your business, but it could spark an idea when you are stuck. At the very least, the encouragement and optimism in the emails and posts are a great pick-me-up when you’re feeling discouraged.