Career sidestreet

Further to yesterday’s post about not signing up to the course that’s all about writing a book, I was thinking about the instructor’s suggestion that it would be swell if I wanted to use publishing my idea about strategies women use to shift careers around age 50 as a way to start, say, a coaching and speaking business.

This guy framed the suggestion within the context of knowing me, but if he did, he’d know that such a business is not anything to which I’d aspire. Spending 14 weeks writing about anything doesn’t make you an expert in it; it only—best case—scratches the surface. I’m not going to prance around yapping at people about the one tiny part of the subject I think I understand; so, no.

But it occurred to me, looking at the profile of a self-described coach and speaker on Twitter, that this is in fact the model for a good number of people describing themselves as speakers and coaches. They keep regurgitating the same few one-size-fits-all “guaranteed [number] of steps” to success, regardless of the audience. The only guaranteed success element of their methodologies is the one that fills their bank accounts. I wonder if they started out in a writing course?

I’m insulted that the instructor thinks I’d want to join their ranks.