Life & Work By Design Blog

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In the text of my web-site home page, I tell the stories of two different entrepreneurs who changed their course in mid-life.  I’ve had the chance to re-connect personally with both of these folks this summer and am happy to report that they are both not only still living their dream, but their businesses are growing and rising to new challenges. 

Evelyn Brumwell of YBNormal Farm looked right at home in her new expanded location at The Crossroads when I went by last Saturday.  Evelyn and partner Peter are the scientists who decided to chuck it all, buy some acreage, and start up an Alpaca farm in Western NY State a few years back.  Their herd of these wonderful, gentle animals has increased to more than 60 and their breeding business has become very successful.  Evelyn’s shop, which only operates during the summer months, is bigger, brighter and chocked full of beautiful skeins of alpaca yarn, wonderful locally produced hats and sweaters and mittens, and a careful selection of imported coats, socks and other wearables made with alpaca wool from around the world.  She showed me some new colorful naturally dyed rovings that have been added to the mix. YB Normal Farm is now listed on Vocation Vacations if you want to try life on an alpaca farm for a vacation!  

I’ve also been able to visit with Hope Alcorn of Joyful Noise Studio in Pittsburgh who is showing some of her beautiful jewelry at “Artists at the Market” here at Chautauqua Institution. Hope left the medical field about 10 years ago to “divorce my work and elope with whim” so that she could devote more time to becoming a full-time artist. Although she still works part-time as a hospice nurse, she continues to explore new ideas and is receiving noteworthy exposure. The summer issue of Surface Design Journal includes a photo of one of her acrylic on wool pieces entitled “Migrations Down Waterfall Number One”. Also, one of her pieces is currently included in the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh show at the acclaimed Mendelson Gallery on Ellsworth Ave in Pittsburgh, PA.

When I asked her about new projects on the horizon, she mentioned that she had a collection of the acrylic on wool pieces that she had never been willing to sell. Now, after several years, she is allowing a concept that would use those designs in a new media to percolate in her the back of her mind. Her philosophy is “to just let ideas grow in their own time” and that it is important for artists to resist forcing an idea to completion before it is fully formed.

Watch for a couple of stories next week about some other creative career folks I’ve found in the area.    

Technorati tags: creative careers, small business, changing course, mid-life career change, encore careers, second acts, life and work by design

My favorite entrepreneurial mentor, Barbara Winter, always reminds us to talk to everyone we can - in lines at stores, in elevators, on planes, in cafes - it doesn’t matter where it is.  Find out what they do - you might get a great idea - and  spread the word about what you do or want to do.  You never know who they will tell.   

While I was waiting for a class to start this week, I saw an acquaintance sitting in the lobby at the YWCA waiting for her child’s class to end. When I told her that I was there to do one of my “What Do You Want to Do?” classes for a group of mothers, she immediately responded with a great story. 

She and a friend were sitting in the bleachers at the ball field last fall watching their kids play.  As they were talking, her friend mentioned that she had decided it was time to try going back to work, at least part-time, since the kids were now in kindergarten.  

They went on discussing her background in International Business Law  and the “problem” that she had no interest in getting back into the full-time grind of a corporate office . Suddenly, the Dad in front of her (whom she didn’t know) turned around and handed her his business card.

“I need someone to handle mergers and acquisitions for my company - send me your resume.” he said.   A month later she had a position as a consultant who works from her home with once weekly trips to the office for meetings.  She was able to negotiate a high billable hourly rate since she did not want to be full-time with all the perks just yet. 

This is a win-win for a small company who just acquired a very skilled team member to do only what they need her to do, and for a Mom who wants to get back into the flow of real work but with the flexibility that a pair of kindergarten-aged twins are going to demand.   I’m guessing she may never go back to the full-time grind of corporate law - she’s carving a niche that she can take to other small companies.  

I can hear you saying, “well, that was just a lucky break.”  Wait - there’s more.   My friend continued that she also found her part-time, home-based, media writing position by telling people at a cocktail party that she was a writer who was looking for free-lance assignments. 

Then, once I got into my class, two of the moms there had similar experiences to relate.  Sooooo…. what do you answer when someone asks what you do?    Work on constructing your career goal statement - here is one way to do that. 

I want to work with (who)______, doing (what)________at a (where)_________ during (when)_______ because I (why)_____________.  

Then start saying it a lot - to anyone and everyone around!