He’s back! Christopher Jerard is joining us today on the podcast, we’ve had great conversations lately. I’m thrilled to have Christopher join me again because it’s so much fun for us to act as co-hosts! We get to switch things up, bounce ideas back and forth, and share with our podcast community.
Christopher is the VP of the Outside Creator Studio, which is responsible for the content, socials, and events for Outside Interactive. Christopher is an expert in the field of media and publishing. He has experience running a publishing group that produced free ski and snowboard magazines, was the CEO of ROAM, a venture-backed company, and founded Inkwell Media Company.
Jump in and join us as we explore the power of experimenting and how it relates to our success.
There Has Never Been A Better Time To Build New Skills
I get a lot of questions about the fears and challenges we face when it comes to employability and getting hired. This could be as an employee in a creative role, contractor, or freelance. I’m hearing it feels hard right now.
Your downtime can be your opportunity. When you’re not gainfully employed, it’s time to focus on your personal work. What are you creating to differentiate yourself?
We can use our downtime to learn something new, build more confidence, and make gains from there. It’s a popular topic. I’ve been sharing a lot more about this topic through my weekly newsletter if you want to learn more join me there too.
Learn to Embrace Mistakes
The world would be pretty stale if people didn’t make mistakes. We grow through our willingness to try new things. These are things we haven’t mastered that are outside of the box. The risk is we might fail. On the other side of that is fulfillment. It isn’t about avoiding mistakes, it’s about learning how to recover quickly.
It’s a creative process when you step into an area and you can solve problems.
Self-Directed Curiosity and Execution as a Hiring Manager
Self-directed curiosity and execution around those things are substantial hiring markers for me. When a person has hobbies outside of their main area, or they’re adjacent to their main area of expertise or knowledge, that’s value.
When we see that they’re continually building knowledge and skills, it’s a popular marker for me in hiring. If you’re wondering how to get hired, give more weight to your self-directed curiosity and your commitments. I think the value is seen across most executives and people I know who have hired hundreds if not thousands of people.
Taking Breaks from Technology and Engaging in Play
We heard recently very poignantly from Dr. Anna Lembke about addiction. We’re always on. Our lifestyle has the potential to lead to burnout. Christopher and I explore the ways we pay attention to taking breaks from technology so we can engage in more play.
I’ll leave you with this challenge (below), and please listen in because we share our personal experiences with this on the podcast.
I invite you to think of some activities that require your attention where you are not at all using technology. You do not have a relationship with technology at that moment, you are entirely technology free.
What does it feel like while you’re doing that activity?
What does it feel like when you get lost in this?
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