I’ve many held many titles in my life, but “Spammer” is a new one.
My titles include Bellhop (my first job), Door-to-Door Salesman (my first unreal job) Camp Counselor, Union Construction Laborer, Speed-Bump Painter, Typist, Shuttle-Bus Driver, Customer Service Representative (phone jockey), Quality Process Analyst, Team Leader, SAS Programmer, Marketing Analyst, Financial Analyst, Segmentation Leader, Innovation Director, and Consultant. But never was I a Spammer!
Until recently.
As my thoughtful and caring readers already know, I was recently diplaced from my role at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida. “Displaced” is another word for downsized, reorganized, right-sized, re-engineered, moving in a different direction, and “It’s not you; it’s me.”
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not bitter. Really. I’m not. I’m just giving background.
So, when you’re displaced, you have to find a new job. You do this in order to have a happy wife. And, as the o
ld saying goes, “Happy Wife = Happy Life.” And, I’m all for having a happy life.
Time to get to work. My career counselors at Right Management are quite good, and they say that the jobs in the job market fall into two segments. You have the “reactive” segment of jobs which are those posted on job boards like Monster and Career Builder. Right estimates the reactive segment to be about 25% of the jobs. The “proactive” segment is made up of jobs that are unadvertised, or they haven’t been created yet. Much harder to find, especially in the current economy, but proactive jobs represent 75% of the market. Knowing this, I came up with a 3-Step Plan.
Step 1 – I, being really good at math, decide I will spend most of my time looking in the proactive market.
Step 2 - Write a funny letter to my friends.
Step 3 – Get a job.
It turns out there’s a lot that goes into Step 2. The first parts are easy (2a – write the letter, 2-b send the letter), but the part right before Step 3 begins (2c) is complicated, so I’ll leave that to the end of the blog.
Part 2a was fun. I copied the idea from another letter I wrote to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis. 
I know the last thing people want to hear from newly-displaced people is “Woe is me.” Even if I felt like, “Woe is me,” I’m not letting on. The letter had to have an upbeat tone, give people something to laugh at , and it had to give them a way to help if they wanted to. Here’s a link to the letter I sent. I sent it out in waves of 50 at a time through my GMail account, so I could keep track of the responses. I didn’t want to get too many Out of Office and Bounce responses at one time because it would be hard to make all the changes to my address book.
The 11th time I sent out the e-mail to 50 people, I became a Spammer! How awful. That’s right up there with the Biblical version of the tax collector.
Apparently, if you send out more than 500 e-mails in one day, Google blocks your e-mail account for 24 hours because it thinks you’re a Spammer! This action is taken regardless of the nobleness of your cause.
Long story short, I got the rest of the e-mails sent out the next day, and it has been a rousing success. My favorite recruiter told me she liked it so much she read it to her family and friends at Thanksgiving. I highly encourage anyone finding themselves in this situation to do the same.
Step 3 is still not accomplished, and that is where the complexity Part 2c comes in. This is the part where after I send the letter, I have to corral all the suggestions, make a thousand phone calls, send hundreds more e-mails and practice being patient.
So, please keep thinking about me. Let me know if you know of someone I should meet or if you have a suggestion for me. I really appreciate it.
Happy Holidays!
Carey
Tags: displaced, friends, funny, job, new, spam
Here’s the text to the e-mail I sent to about 800 of my closest friends, acquaintences, colleagues, former co-workers, vendors I met in meetings, people from the internet, and people I met in bars (social, not penal).
**
Hi There and Happy Holidays,
Well it happened. I’ve joined the ‘Career Transitioning’ crowd.
The reasons, while interesting over drinks, are not particularly new or provocative. Please just know that I’m moving on, I’m happy, and I’m looking forward to the next challenge.
You may be asking yourself, ‘Gee, how can I help you, Carey?’
You are so smart. How did you know I was going to ask? Actually, it’s really simple, and you can absolutely feel good about being able to help.
Here’s how it works. I’m going to tell you what I want to do for a living (some of you have wondered about this for years), and I’ll give you some examples of companies that do this type of work.
All you have to do is tell me if you know of anyone who works at any of these companies or similar companies. Or, maybe you know someone who does similar work and can give me some tips.
It’s OK if you can’t think of anyone because here’s the best part – you can give me advice. I love to give people advice (solicited or otherwise), and I’d love to hear what you think I should be doing better. I’ll keep a record of all of the comments and report back later on how I used them.
So, here’s my plan. I want to continue to help companies identify and develop cool ideas to grow their businesses. My qualifications are in the attached resume, but I’m a QFD Black Belt, and I have deep knowledge of both health care and financial services.
This role can be a ‘real job’ inside a company, or it can be done as a consultant. Both are good.
There are lots of companies that are looking for new ideas and for people to develop them. I’ve done this type of work at AT&T, Citibank and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, but lots of smaller companies are looking for new ways to grow their businesses as well. In Jacksonville, these companies may be:
- Healthcare firms like PSS World Medical and Availity
- Financial Services like Fidelity, Bank of America, etc.
- Any of the logistics businesses like Landstar, Ceva, etc.
- Any of the new technology companies
Do you know anyone at any of these companies?
Do you know anyone at another company that’s interested in growing?
Do you know anyone that does a similar type of job?
Do you have any advice for me?
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
p.s. The idea for this e-mail came from a different e-mail campaign I used to raise $1,500 for charity. Read about it at my blog, Bold City Innovation, and please feel free to use any of the tips I provided.
p.p.s. I want to stay in Jacksonville for the next few years, but I’m happy to travel.
p.p.p.s. Click here if you’d like to be RickRoll’D.
All the best,
Carey W Hepler
904 707-2326
Follow me on Twitter.com/BoldCityInnovat
LinkedIn.com/in/BoldCityInnovation
Yovia.com/Blogs/BoldCityInnovation
Tags: displaced, e-mail, friend, fun, happy, help, job
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I’m a runner, and I like to do races. I’ve run most of the Jacksonville races, so, when a new one comes along, it peaks my interest. It’s always fun to try something new.
In 2009, the MS Mud Run was the race. It’s a 10K run with obstacles and lots and lots of mud. You walk through it, you crawl through it, and you slide into it. It’s fabulous!
The only drawback is I had to raise $100. These kind of charity fund-raisers had always bugged me in the past because I didn’t want to ask people for money, and I sure didn’t want to pay the whole $100 by myself.
So, I modified an idea I heard on a pledge drive from NPR’s podcast of This American Life. I love this podcast, and the host, Ira Glass, does a great pitch to raise money for his podcast. It’s great because he starts out by asking for $1. Who doesn’t have $1? Then, he says, If you pledge $5, you’ll cover four of your lazy friends. Great humor.
So, here’s the e-mail I sent out:
Hey There,
I’m doing something cool and good at the same time. I’m running through six miles of mud to support MS.
Can you spare $2 to support me and MS?
I know it’s a terrible time to be hitting people up for money, but I’m not asking for much. Just $2. MS is a tough disease, and every dollar we raise will help bring it to its knees.
So, why $2? Well, I’ve got a lot of friends like you, so, if everyone gives a smidge, we can raise a bunch. So, will you be a mensch* and donate $2?
Added Bonus: If you donate $5, you’ll be a total sweetheart, and I’ll buy you a beer the next time I see you.
Super Bonus: Donate $10 or more I’ll buy you a beer , AND I’ll write your name on my back as an “Official Sponsor” for all the fellow competitors to read as they eat my dust (or mud – as the case may be).
That’s it. Thank you for your support!
Please use this link:
http://www.active.com/donate/mudrunjax/CareyHepler
You will receive email confirmation of your donation and I will be notified as soon as you make your donation. I thank you in advance for your support, and really appreciate your generosity!!
Thanks again!
Carey
*(Mensch (Yiddish: means “a person of integrity and honor”). It’s a good thing.
I sent this e-mail to about 230 people whose e-mail addresses I had through work or through LinkedIn.
Here are the results. About 80 people donated, I raised $1,500, and I was the Top Individual fundraiser. 80 people responding meant that I had about a 35% response rate, and most people donated $10 or more. In the first day, I sent out the e-mail, I raised $400. I was blown away the efficiency and by people’s generosity. Raising money was so much easier than I imagined.
Conclusions
I did not delete anyone from the list because I thought it might be inappropriate to send to them, or I thought he/she may not want to donate. I left that decision to each person to decide.
People whom I barely knew contributed. Some people have an affinity for giving to charities. It will be more than your best friends that will help you.
People with ties to MS through a friend or a relative with the disease were especially generous. I didn’t know who these people were ahead of time.
The idea of starting with a $2 level made giving accessible to everyone. I doubt anyone felt like they couldn’t afford it. The tier system made it compelling and more fun to contribute more.
My Jewish friends loved it that I used the term, ‘mensch’ in my letter. An unintended happy consequence.
Finally, this was wayyy easier than I thought it would be. You can do it to.
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I heard this story on this morning on NPR.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113673324
I’m not an audiophile, so I wasn’t paying much attention until they mentioned the Black Eyed Peas new song, “I’ve got a feeling.” I like this group regardless if I’m not their target demographic. I saw them perform on Ellen DeGeneres’ show, and I remember thinking how simplistic the words are. Very catchy.
Plus, I recently saw the Oprah video of the group performing “I’ve got a feeling” in Chicago with a Flash Mob dance thrown in, and I was hooked. If you haven’t seen the Oprah video, it’s definitely worth a click.
Anyway, the interesting thing about the story is that a company called Music Intelligence launched a Web site for songwriters called Uplaya. The website allows songwriters to upload a song gives it a “success rating” based on a series of algorithms.
According to the article, the “software found that hits have certain common patterns of rhythm, harmony, chord progression, length and lyrics. A study conducted by the Harvard Business School found that the software was accurate 8 out of 10 times.”
The amazing fact is that an algorithm can predict success 80% of the time. What if your business had an algorithm that could predict the success of your new offerings 80% of the time? You’d be a huge success!
In the past, I’ve done conjoint analysis studies to find the right combination of attributes and levels to make a successful product or service, but a lot of people are turned off by the “mathiness” of the process. It seems too sterile for the non-quant folks. Maybe I can use stories like Uplaya to revisit some of the findings and generate new enthusiasm. I’ve got a feeling…
Tags: black eyed peas, conjoint analysis, innovation, npr, sawtooth, uplaya, wisdom of the crowds
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