I have some hope today because I am going to meet with my Vocational Rehab employment specialist. I know that she is working hard to try and help me build my consulting business; it is just going to take time. In the State of Delaware, the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation contracts a lot of services to vendors. The vendor that I chose to work with is The Heartlight Foundation. Wendy Claiser of The Heartlight Foundation is fantastic and I believe in the mission she does. Since her organization is a non-profit, I can volunteer and help her out in return. Thus it works out well because I can actually showcase my skills and actually prove what I can do and be more than just words on a resume.
After the meeting with Wendy, I am doing a top down evaluation of Heartlight’s information technology processes to see what it is they’re doing and if it makes sense and works well. Then I am going to type an executive summary and make my recommendations for improvement. I also have a demonstration of an ERP system for them that would be more cost-effective than simply going with QuickBooks. Wendy and her partner could work with their accountant and see if ERPNext would be viable solution.
Yesterday I also begrudgingly realized that I am long on ideas but short on follow through and I know this is really because my self-esteem is low. My brain figures what’s the point of even trying because it is not like I will be able to turn the idea into anything worthwhile anyway. I would really like to move past this mentality. I saw some real learning opportunities on Coursera that could make my resume shine a little more and open up some potential consulting doors for me. I just want to move past this self-esteem mental block that’s preventing me from getting started.
Maybe if I discuss these ideas with Wendy and ask her if they will make me marketable? After all, she is really an expert here. She could tell me if this would be time well spent and she advise me how I could market myself in this space. It’s worth bringing this up. I just want to believe in myself. I just want to not be so sad and not to give up so easily at the first sign of difficulty. This seems to be what happens when I see that I must market myself. It has the appearance of being insurmountable because I do not really know how to do this. It is not a skill I have but is it a skill that can be learned?
How do I market myself so that I do not sound like a douche? How do I market myself so that I sound likable? Maybe I ask ChatGPT for pointers? Maybe I Google for articles? There should be knowledge out there for the taking. Maybe there are library books out there to read.