It always surprises me when I talk to those downsized, or "edged out" of a job due to their medical situation. I have heard countless stories from people that went through the experience being the best at what they do, (whether salaried/plus commission sales, or straight salary and working for a larger company) and then they become ill, and the company looked at them as more dispensable than indispensable. Have you gone through a similar experience? Please write to let me know at shamrocktie@gmail.com.

From time to time I come upon a story that is so gut-wrenching when it comes to corporate betrayal that I just can't get it out of my mind.

Today I heard just such a story when talking with a friend. He told me about a friend of his (named Joe) who just lost his job that he had 16 years. In this case Joe started working for this company while he was in college. After graduation he was promoted into a higher level job within the company and was given added responsibility and increased pay as well.

Over the years that Joe has been with the company, he consistently received excellent evaluations, hardly missed a day of work (with the exception of a brief hospital stay after surgery.) Joe felt the company appreciated his efforts through the promotions he received and into the management team and a nice advance in pay.

Joe felt he was at the top of his game and felt it was time to settle down, and so proposed to his girlfriend Maggie, and they were married later the next year. Along came a house and soon their first child James, and two years later along came Molly.

With all the added activities in his life, Joe never strayed from his allegiance to his employer and the work that he provided 40-48 hours per week. So when a new employee was hired to be Joe's "associate" Joe's trust in the company never decreased. As this associate worked very closely, Joe looked at his efforts in mentoring this associate as part of the teamwork to help a new teammate learn their role within the company. Imagine Joe's astonishment when after 1 year of working with this Associate, Joe was let go of his position and this Associate was brought in as a (younger, lower-paid) replacement.

This is just one war story from many I have heard. It is a sad state of affairs when the time and aspirations of an eager employee are cultivated to the point that a company cannot afford to keep them any longer, and they are replaced with a much less qualified, younger and less paid associate.

Over the past week (ever since my birthday), I have increased the opportunities to listen to recorded conference calls, participated in webinars, and listened to CD's while enroute to various meetings.

One of the things that really motivated me when I was going through my career diversion in 1994 was the power of the spoken word on tape, or CD. I have found this to be very empowering over the years. I find my most productive weeks are when I listen to a recorded conference call while I work out on my treadmill.

I found last week was far more productive than this week, which I haven't worked out as much due to my travel schedule (needing to be on the road by 4:30 or 5:00am curtails my workout time.)

My goal is to get in the groove of daily listening while I workout, for the betterment of my week and business at large. I will keep you posted on my progress...

Craig Campana

Last Thursday I had a wonderful experience as I do each Valentine's Day by "checking out" of my business for a day.

Early in my employment roots, while I was in high school I worked at Anaconda Floral Shop in my hometown of Anaconda, Montana. I started out as a delivery boy and worked there for several years. Our town was subject to a great deal of labor strikes having the Anaconda Copper Smelter located there. One year the floral shop told me that I would need to give up my job as a delivery boy because of the approaching strike. In order to keep my job I had to do more than delivery floral arrangements, so I opted to learn how to design floral bouquet and in particular bridal bouquets. That way my delivery job could be offered to a person on strike with a family to feed.

What I learned other than how to design bridal bouquets was that I found floral design as something that relaxed me and I enjoyed doing. Consequently over the years I created the wedding flowers for many of my family member's weddings. I remember my brother Kevin whose fiance' Dulcie wanted all types of flowers and colors for their wedding in the late 70's. My mother planted her garden that year so I would have all the flowers and colors I would need to create all of the bouquets for the wedding. In fact I even created the wedding flowers for my own wedding (in silk), and found my wife to be the most demanding bride I had worked with, and the one I wanted to please the most.

Well anyway, because of the enjoyment I had as a teenager working in the floral industry, I have carried that with me through the years. I look at this as an opportunity to give back to a local florist on a day that creates a great deal of anticipation and stress for them.

In the case of last week, I spent the day doing whatever could help out the florist and enjoyed the day away from my usual daily tasks and phone calls, and helped out by adding greens vases so they would be ready to use when a supply order came in, and someone wouldn't have to stop and green the vase before designing the bouquet. I also filled lots and lots of helium balloons so they were ready when someone ordered a bouquet with balloons attached. I also helped by doing deliveries, organizing the route for the other drivers, sweeping the floor.

Something I didn't expect would happen. As I worked in someone else's shoes for a day, my marketing mind kicked in and I thought of a myriad of ways that the florist could build their brand this first year in business in a new community to them. My marketing mind was churning all night long and several brain purges allowed me to sleep, but all in all it was a refreshing day to walk in someone else's shoes for a day.

Each week I receive numerous e-newsletters from news agencies reporting employment statistics, major companies planning to eliminate jobs "to reduce expenses." I have seen major companies listed among these notices, which I would have thought were doing well and would not be in a position to cut jobs. Some of the companies are those whom I have bought the product or services of such as cellular telephone, computer companies, software companies, consumable goods, mailing equipment, etc.

It always irks me when I think of the numbers of workers whose jobs are indispensable, even though the company appears to be running in the black. This day and age there appears to be no safety net for those who have spent considerable years toiling away for the company. I have heard numerous news reports on TV, in magazines, newspapers and via the internet about how stability and job security is a fallacy for today's workers.

With all the types of insurance being offered today, it would be great if someone could come up with a type of "career insurance." I wonder if the best career insurance is for all workers to have a "Plan B" in their arsenal to fall back to when their safety net gives way.

I watched the minutes slip away until the stroke of midnight (Central Time) and the New Year began on my 47th year. Soon I was off to sleep thinking I would enjoy the slumber of 5 or more hours. That would not be the case for tonight. As I tried to doze, thoughts raced through my mind of the new order of top ten priorities (resolutions) for my New Year. After tossing and turning for what seemed like hours, I decided it was time to do my usual brain purge. Instead of purging the thoughts in my brain in my headboard notebook, it was time to race to the computer to do a full scale brain purge so I can empty my thoughts and sleep will return.

So, here is my list of (not yet organized) business priorities for my New Year:

• Setting new financial goals (creating more opportunities for abundance and wealth)
• Office organization (desk organization should start tomorrow with my mounds of business cards)...
• Setting office hours and sticking to them (creating a better balance between my work and family)
• Investing in others (H.E.L.P.; sending lots of unexpected cards, and living a "pay forward" or Givers Gain philosophy)
• Creating a weekly writing zone (day/time that will be consistent and help me develop my writing routine)
• Focus on networking/business building/marketing (getting more involved in the chamber, attending more Meet-ups, tapping into my LinkedIn contacts)
• Continuing Education (reading a book a week, listening to my audio university on my I-pod)
• Investment in myself (more exercise, eating right, lessening stress, creating time to have fun with friends)
• Increasing the Vitamin H (humor) in my workweek (having the time of my life, rather than working away the hours with no fun)
• Recharging my batteries and actually taking a vacation this year (instead of dreaming about going on a cruise, put it on the schedule and take action)

I have a feeling this list may grow to a top 20 list, but at least for now I feel that the ability to get to sleep may actually happen, now that I have purged my brain.

Goodnight wherever you are...

Craig Campana

Today I had a fun time celebrating my birthday with my wife and one of our sons. We made a trek on snow-covered roads to Mall of America to meet a friend who flew in from Ohio to meet us for lunch. We were awestruck by the wonderful company and conversation for our 4-hour "luncheon" appointment.

Tomorrow is my Happy New Year's Day. I always look at the day after my birthday as my New Year's Day, so therefore am seeing tomorrow as an opportunity to reflect upon the blessings bestowed upon me over the past year and be thankful.

This past year brought turmoil as my wife's cancer diagnosis, surgery and recovery, but so many relatives, friends, business colleagues, church friends, and a few complete strangers poured their messages into my wife's caring bridge website and sent thoughtful cards to her. We have been so impacted by their caring messages.

There have been many people that I had lost contact with, whom I have been able to reconnect. Through my new contacts in BNI and SendOutCards, my network has grown by 500 people over the past year. It will be interesting to see the interactions that have transpired this time next year. I have some new irons in the fire for this year and would hope to be able to provide some new resources to home-based businesses we connect with, and those as well who are impacted by a sudden change in their career pathway.

The opportunity to move forward with a greater capacity with my book (and this blog) also are bountiful blessings. Thanks to my friends for posting comments in this blog.

Thank you for being part of my journey.

Craig Campana

This week I want to focus on the impact of networking in my personal life and business life.
On a personal level, my wife and I became parents through networking. We wanted to adopt a child and delivered a message to anyone and everyone we met about our goal to adopt a baby. We developed business cards to share our goal and the adoption phone line we installed into our home. We passed out hundreds of business cards, and in fact sent them out with all of our holiday cards that year. Within one month a contact we sent our card to - put us in touch with a birthmother in Montana who wanted to place her baby for adoption, and recommended my wife and I highly to this individual. Six months later this baby became our adoptive son. So on a personal level, we adopted our first son through networking.

Three years later I became involved in Business Network Int'l or BNI, when I started my video production business. I then saw the impact of networking from a business sense. I read about BNI through several books written by Paul & Sarah Edwards. What I understood BNI did, was link business professionals together into a "sales force" that would promote each other and create business referrals. There were no BNI chapters in Milwaukee that I could participate in, so I made a choice to start the first one. From there my small fledgling video production business generated $30,000 due to the referrals I gained. As a result of our chapter and its success, people began calling me wondering how to get involved in a BNI chapter, or start one. For the past 13 years I have helped small business professionals become involved in BNI throughout Wisconsin.

I am at a conference right now in Minneapolis that is celebrating the impact of networking on an international basis. There are as many as 200 events going on throughout the world this week during International Networking Week. I hope you have a chance whether, employed or not, to become involved in an International Networking Week event this week.

As you step out from a career diversion, whether planned or not, it is best to know if your next step is the right one, and if you are stepping on concrete or thin ice.

After my career diversion happened, I remember trying to take the obvious step by seeking a new job within my area of expertise. We had a 3 year old son and had recently purchased our first home, so it was important to do what I could to find a position that would allow me to stay where we were. I reworked my resume, tried to plot out open positions in the Milwaukee area that fit my area of expertise and then started broadcasting my resume out to all those locations. From there started a Sunday tradition of reading the employment section of the paper, that for some reason I still do today (now 13 years later.)

I heard about one position by networking with a friend who worked part-time at the location. The position was the type that I usually like, where it was to create a new video production department in a small educational facility. It seemed like the perfect position as I started the interview process. Even though it was 45 miles from my home, I visualized myself working there and being the one to spearhead this new department. Then the interview process took a strange turn, and I found myself being bounced back and forth by two professors who played "20 questions with me." Each one seemed to be more interested in what the other asked of me during my prior interview, than asking any new questions of me or about my expertise.

Unfortunately their behavior gave me a birdseye viewpoint of how difficult it might be to work at this location, because there seemed to be somewhat of a communication boggle right before me in the interview process. I was more interested in getting a job done than having to getting the "runaround" in decisions that had to be made that affected my position. After the strange round of interviews, I was offered the position with a nice compensation package, however the offer was such that the facility required me to work 60 hours/week, plus I would have to get my Masters degree to work there. So technically they were ready to hire me if I agreed to work and get my degree at the same time. Thinking about the 45 mile commute one way, the amount of hours they were requiring for the position and somehow each day would need to provide an extra 4-6 hours so that I could complete my Masters degree (just to work there.)

All of this seemed like a case of a cat chasing its tail. I thought about all of it, giving a thorough SWOT Analysis (Strengths - Weaknesses - Opportunities - Threats) and realized there were too many weaknesses and threats to my family's survival, so took a risk but turned down what I felt was a ridiculous job offer. Sometimes it is hard to tell if you are stepping on concrete or thin ice when making career moves, but as long as you can keep a focus on the vision you have for your future - you can end up in the right place.

More in my next blog entry about my next career step...

I have to credit my circle of friends to helping me face the future when I was downsized. Don't get me wrong I was optimistic about my future and what I could offer to a company, or to my home based business, but some days when things were moving slow, it was great to turn to my circle of friends.

This circle included people I knew in the community I lived, my former co-workers, vendors whom I worked with, even my former supervisor (who felt bad that there was nothing he could do to turn my situation around), and countless people I didn't actually know personally, but whose books I read.

As the days unfolded following my downsizing, I updated my resume and tried to jump back into the job market. I had 5 interviews for various positions in video production or marketing. In several cases I seemed to "smell" some of the same politics I was faced with at my former job, so noting such, I actually was OK after waiting for a call and received a gentle "no" letter. Ironically, one of those who interviewed me - I came to know later in a different capacity and years later (he shared some of the inside knowledge of how disorganized the company was) so in a way this person became part of my circle of friends.

There were others who I worked with in a capacity of a vendor when I produced the video productions I did. They rallied around almost immediately, and took me to lunch and gave me ideas and options to look into. Ultimately when we decided to start an independent video production company, I was pleased to be able to give work back to that company.

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I want to share a message with you that I found to be very inspirational at the impact of my career diversion throughout my life that followed.

Several days after I left the company I worked for, a friend gave me a call and wanted to take me for lunch. Unbeknown to me he had assembled some key people (vendors) that I had worked with when I was employed. I will never forget the luncheon we had and the positive support they offered to me as a friend in need.

During the conversation that took place at that luncheon, the guy who invited me for the lunch made a remark that stuck with me and has proven to be a reminder that change is good and all turmoil shall pass.

He mentioned to me, that when one door closes, another opens (usually a larger door that we never could have imagined.) I took that message to heart and call it my motivational message of many points in my life since then.

Basically what he wanted to instill in me was the understanding even though the door was closed to me in this particular employment experience, but it meant that a much larger and beneficial door would soon open, and so I needed to be prepared for its opening.

That message has become my mantra that I have applied to numerous situations in my life (career related or not), such as when the pastor of our church accepted a call to another church. When I heard the news I couldn't imagine what our congregation would be like without him. Then I reminded myself that a larger door would open, and in this case our congregation would find someone to lead it that in some ways a better leader than our current pastor was. At times it was hard to think that we would get along without his leadership, and then realizing the door would soon open, and prepared myself for that door to open.

In this case our congregation found a pastor that was much more oriented to leading a congregation with young families. Nothing against our former pastor, it was just that the person who replaced him had better leadership skills that would not have been realized if our former pastor had not chosen to accept another call elsewhere.

Right now our congregation is going through the very same thing, except both our pastors and youth director are leaving in 2008. All are burned out having been at our congregation for 22, 15 and 9 years respectively. One is retiring, one is seeking a call elsewhere and one who has been there for a number of years and is seeking something new. When I heard the news during the holiday season several weeks ago, I truly felt devastated and wondered how on earth our congregation would survive losing all its leaders in the same year.

(I don't know how this will turn out and I find it hard to think about), but am assured that somehow a larger and more beneficial door is to open soon for our congregation. This gives me peace amidst the turmoil of all the staffing changes that we will find individuals somehow more suited to the needs of this growing congregation.

This inspirational message is something I want to share with you as you endure the turmoil of a career change. Hang on to the understanding that even though your current employment door has closed (or is closing) that somehow a much better and more lucrative opportunity or endeavor is being aligned in your career pathway.

Several years ago, I found a poster that I had framed and hangs above the desk in my office that reminds me daily to understand that all doors closed bring about larger doors soon to open. The print shows a door being closed in a dark room and a light on the other side of the door creating a sunburst coming through the slit in the door that illuminates the darkened room with a pathway coming from the door across the room.

This is the message I want to share with you today. Jot it down, print it up and put it in place that you look at frequently in your home or home office.

Opportunity: When one door closes, another opens. Seize the opportunity while the path remains lit.

When the unthinkable happens and you are relieved of your duties in a position you worked hard to gain, and keep, how do you keep your composure and make the best of the times ahead.

Here are some simple tips to help you rebound if you are faced with an unexpected diversion to your career pathway.
• Immerse yourself in current events via newspaper or more popular means these days (internet), this way you can keep your knowledge of market trends, and flourish new interests which can sustain you during the process of find your next career step. (When I was going through this stage, I remember the internet and my computer at the time were really sluggish and it took forever to surf the internet.) Nevertheless, once I decided on the pathway to starting a business, I picked up a number of self-employment resources at a bargain book store and found invaluable resources to help me along the way.
• Surround yourself with a circle of friends who can support you in this time of indecision and help guide you to your next career step. Friends were an invaluable source of inspiration and activity for me. I found myself surrounded by people who wanted to help me, no matter what my next step would be.
• Don't just wait for things to happen. Make them happen! Fill your thoughts with positive messages from books and CD's, and keep the learning pipeline going with positive reinforcements that will help you endure the waiting time to your next career move.
• Don't just become a couch potato. Take a daily walk (or if you are in frigid conditions like those in Wisconsin right now - take a walk on the treadmill while reading or listening to an inspirational CD.) See how many books you can read - and you will find daily inspiration to accomplish the tasks needed to secure your next career step.
• Have a vision for what your next career step is, and think about it when you go to sleep and when you wake each morning. The more vivid the vision the better. To create a vision of my next career step - I did what I learned in a workshop I attended that told me how to make a "Visionboard." A visionboard is a poster filled with images and resources that would help me visualize what it would be like after my next career step. To make your Visionboard, simply cut out images or quotes from magazines and affix to poster board. I kept the board adhered to the inside of my closet door, so it was a daily action of stopping to take time to look at my visionboard and think about the images on the board that helped me to create my action plan. I realized the vision I was creating for myself and my family, and took steps to create that reality over the years that followed my downsizing.

It is my hope that these resources will enable you to have the same result!

When the unthinkable happens and you are relieved of your duties in a position you worked hard to gain, and keep, how do you keep your composure and make the best of the times ahead.

Here are some simple tips to help you rebound if you are faced with an unexpected diversion to your career pathway.
• Take a long look at your resume, if you haven't done so recently. (In my case I hadn't looked at my resume for quite some time, but felt I needed to after my boss walked into my office one day and said, "have you looked at your resume recently?") I felt that was his attempt to give me a warning sign of the impending doom of my job situation, and heeded his advice to update my resume.
• Set some goals for the direction you would like to move toward, whether that be retiring, hitting the job market to look for a similar position, or going full time in a small business you started prior to this, or deciding to start a new business that you have been yearning to do.
• Take a look at your accomplishments, so you can confidently update your resume and prepare yourself to market new skills you acquired in your former position. I have a multitude of specific resume resources which I will cover in a future blog.
• Create a "who do I know" list. This list of people can be invaluable as you start to network and identify what the next step of your career pathway should be. It serves a good purpose to connect with people you know to let them know that you are seeking a certain position. You never know who they know and can recommend you to.
• Be sure to share your feelings with people that care about you, and include them in your plans so they can check in on you and help you be accountable to the things you have set out to do (during this unstructured time after a job loss.)Watch for more tips in the next edition...