Now for Plan A

Plan A - so what is it?

It has been two months almost exactly since I was informed I would be separating from 3M. Today (December 1) is my first day "retired" but I'm way too young to retire so thought I would document for all to see my thought process, resources, tools, inspiration, etc. that I am planning to use on my journey to my next "happy" place. 

I'm going to lay out my plan of attack here and let you follow along with me as some things fail (and what I learned from that failure) and also let you know what worked. I'm going to document the process I have gone through ... what IMO went well, what I should have avoided, what I should have accelerated

Hopefully, if you're following along, you might glean some insights, ideas, or cautionary tales to avoid. I'll do my best to not sugar coat anything and highlight all the trials and tribulations along the way.  

If you have questions or comments - feel free to leave them below and I'll do my best to respond to each one. 

So Rob, what have you been doing these last few months?

I received what I believe to be some really excellent advice very early on (~September).

PAUSE. TAKE A BEAT. BREATHE

This will all work out in the end. This too shall pass. You have been through harder things in your life. 

What I was advised to avoid was to scramble and do things that would be more reactive and less thoughtful. No applying for loads of jobs willy-nilly.  This turned out to be good advice. Take a few weeks and “do the bare minimum”, just keep the wheels on the bus. Focus on the family, stay healthy, and make a plan.

Plan Zero (0) (October)

Urgent and Important 

Reaching out to several key mentors, and lifelong friends were a super important first step. They filled my cup with their generosity and willingness to engage and roll their sleeves up with input into building a plan for Rob. 

First things first. Reach out to Breitenfeldt Group (Health Insurance Broker) and figure out our plan for health care. A lot of initial stress regarding how do we navigate this change? Breitenfeldt is an awesome resource and can’t recommend it more highly.

Next - what is our financial plan? Immediately create an inventory of all assets and debts. Create a monthly cash flow accounting, and look out for the next 12 months are there upcoming commitments to plan for?. What are our needs? Build a budget and get spending under control. Get a financial planner and build a plan to work the plan. Too young to retire.

Lesson 1 - activate your network. 

I have a pretty good close personal network (20+/-) that I was able to activate almost immediately. Probably had 500 contacts on my phone. And then there are 1500 LI contacts that I have worked with at some point along the way. Honestly, I’d taken my extended network for granted these last several years. Time to build a plan to reengage with them.

That really is Lesson 1. I have this asset (my network) that I had not been nurturing. Going forward I need to build behavior and pattern where I’m reaching out 2-3 times per year and touching each one. 

• Something helpful. 
• An update on me and the kids. 
• What my status is work-wise. 
• Things I might have read lately and how that may be relevant or helpful for them. 

You have people around you who want to help and are willing to engage. Let them. Give them a job (a task they can complete with little effort)

• Can you visit my LinkedIn profile and vote for some skills you think are a strength.
• Some people were also generous enough to write a recommendation
• Interesting aside if you take all the recommendations and grab all the text and put it in a single document and run it through a tool like tagcroud or wordsift. You can gain a lot of insight into how other people view you and how you add value
• If you're aware of a job or a contact I should reach out to, please forward it to me
• All of this traffic and interaction with my profile boosts the LI algorithm 

End of September, I updated my LI profile and set my status to "#OpenForWork". Traffic to my profile has (on average) gone 13x (per day) over baseline (1 per day). 

On LinkedIn, lots of people are willing to help you find your next role by offering their services:

• Resume updates and re-writes, and free webinar that ends with "sign up for my program". 
• Offers 1:1 coaching, join up for my course. 

I am sure lots of these programs are really great. Their infomercials did really intrigue me - and I may investigate some of these in the future.

Before paying for any of these paid services I decided to fully explore Right Management (good decision). Loads of helpful webinars, templates, group sessions, one on one coaching. 

One thing I would highly recommend picking up is a book - Never Search Alone, Phyl Terry. 

They propose a 5-step methodology and a 2 month timeline. Besides being a really sound and thoughtful approach to searching for the "next job", the external resources (facilitating finding a JSC for instance) and regular Zoom meetings where you can connect with a community of people working through the same hurdles. 

One thing I can't stress enough - is don't panic. Pause. Take a Beat. Breathe

Listening tour - lots (>20) of executive recruiter conversations - each one has informed my thinking.

You might find your next role advertised on LinkedIn, Ladders, ExecThread, or AboveBoard. So by all means get your resume in top shape, update your LinkedIn profile, and optimize your doc for ATS. But more likely you’ll find your next role through your network. Or if you do find a job listed, you will want to leverage your network to support your application (get introduced to people in the company, connect with the recruiter, 

Activate my network / Work on my network / Expand my network

In the end, will look back at this period as a really good thing. Hard to see now but will see it that way in the future.

Here's where I have landed (areas of focus)

1. Full-time roles - VP Marketing, CMO, or Chief Digital Officer (CDO) - I believe this to be my end goal but have to say a lot of people I engage with try to convince me a better (happier) option is consulting, and fractional work. And that consulting or fractional work could lead to a full-time role as well if there's a company that turns out to be a great fit. 
2. Fractional roles - it would appear there are a lot of companies that need a 25% CMO or CDO to act as a general contractor to build out a strategic digital marketing plan, align organizations, build processes, implement technology and then optimize; but they're only able to support a fractional commitment due to organizational size. 
3. Consulting - similar, I suppose, to the fractional role but really focused on a specific deliverable wherein I can act as another set of hands, augmenting the current team and support the existing CMO/CDO. 
4. Advisory/board roles - it would be excellent to identify a few companies to become an advisor or board member for. Coming out of COVID many companies realize simply having a website and a CRM is not sufficient to compete in a digital world and are looking for answers.

I have put together a Venn diagram to highlight my experience to hopefully narrow down the field for opportunity targeting. As an aside - it is an out-of-body experience to think through a product-market fit exercise where you are the product.

And now for Plan A

Over the next month (timeboxing here) my plan is to intentionally reach out directly to targeted people in my network and let them know:

1. What I am seeking - preferred engagement model (#2 Fractional)
2. Where I am seeking - my target market
3. How they can reach back to me if they are interested in following up.

That's it. Three steps. I'll report back.

Giving Thanks

I hope this note finds you and your families doing well. 

This is a time of year when I like to take stock of what I am thankful for. As I reflect this year I give thanks for all of you - my network. I was overwhelmed with the response to my news. Literally hundreds reaching out through email, various social channels (Facebook messenger, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, …), text messages, and phone calls setting 1:1 personal meetings. If I failed to get back to you for some reason I apologize; all those tools are great for connecting - not so good at organizing and keeping track of who's been replied-to and who has not. 

I was also humbled by the lengths people went to (and continue to go to) to help me find my next role. Please do keep the suggestions and introductions coming. You never know which one will be "the right one". I have become convinced my next role will be found through my network and not likely through job postings - so I have been spending a lot of energy engaging with and expanding my network.  

It has now been almost two months exactly since I received the news that my position at 3M was being eliminated. That first month was a whirlwind largely spent sorting through the job separation details, getting a plan together for finances and health insurance, really working on a plan for this next phase. Month two has been invested in intentionally expanding my network and doing a "listening tour". I have had many conversations to try and sort out what might be "the next thing" for me. I see my future state being a combination of a few kinds of roles - and this will continue to evolve as opportunities reveal themselves. One of the first things people ask me when we meet is, "What do I want to do?". 

Here is my current thinking:

1. Full-time roles - VP Marketing, CMO, or Chief Digital Officer (CDO) - I believe this to be my end goal but have to say a lot of people I engage with try to convince me a better (happier) option is consulting and fractional work. And that consulting or fractional work could lead to a full-time role as well if there's a company that turns out to be a great fit. 
2. Fractional roles - it would appear there are a lot of companies that need a 25% CMO or CDO to act as a general contractor to build out a strategic digital marketing plan, align organizations, build processes, implement technology and then optimize; but they're only able to support a fractional commitment due to organizational size. 
3. Consulting - similar, I suppose, to the fractional role but really focused on a specific deliverable wherein I can act as another set of hands, augmenting the current team and support the existing CMO/CDO. 
4. Advisory/board roles - it would be excellent to identify a few companies to become an advisor or board member for. Coming out of COVID many companies realize simply having a website and a CRM is not sufficient to compete in a digital world and are looking for answers.

I have put together a Venn diagram to highlight my experience to hopefully narrow down the field for opportunity targeting. As an aside - it is an out-of-body experience to think through a product-market fit exercise where you are the product.

If you have any feedback or suggestions on above--or any opportunities to pass on--please reach out

As always, if there is ever anything I can do for you - do not hesitate to connect. 

With thanks,

Rob

LI | linkedin.com/in/robfredsmith/

mobile | 651-206-0187

book a meeting with me here

Topics for Future Updates:

• Right Management experience
• "My search approach" - may be a helpful roadmap for others
• Books I have read - 4-hour Work Week, Building a Second Brain, Never Search Alone
• Stoicism
• New business ideas / Energy into starting my own business (more on that in a future update)
• Calendly as a productivity tool
• Building a Second digital brain
• Personal CRM
• Robfredsmith.com
• Ouvu - the new business card 
• Fractional-Digital.com
• I have learned a lot about the digital executive search landscape - happy to share if you're interested

Until we meet again

 Hello, 

 As some of you are aware, I've been laid off. 

The last (almost 26) years have been fantastic and I've grown in my career in ways I never expected. Recognizing no one accomplishes anything alone as it takes a team. We’ve been a good team.

It is hard to imagine the range of emotions one feels with a life change such as this (not of your own choosing).

• I am thankful for the friendship and laughs we’ve all experienced together as we’ve done important and hard work to make 3M and the world a better place.

• Anxious about what is next. Not having a proper resume for more than 20 years; will my “3M skills” translate to the external world?

• Then excited to see the spectrum of opportunities in the external marketplace and not sure what the next chapter has in store for me.

• Sad that I will not get to continue to work with my friends. You have been the best part of my 25+ years at 3M.

• Frustrated by the separation process (could REALLY USE some CX end-to-end work).

• Humbled by the outpouring of proactive support from past and present colleagues who have heard of my termination through “the grapevine”.

Many of you also know that I have had bigger challenges than this in my life, and this too shall pass. Life is, after all, one big adventure. By far, the best part of my time here has been the opportunity to work with talented, supportive, and kind human beings. I’ve truly enjoyed working with all of you!

Here is my contact info. 

robfredsmith@gmail.com 

LinkedIn 

Please reach out if there is ever anything I can do for you. I’m always available for a coffee (virtual or real) or a beverage of your choosing. 😁

I’ll be watching and cheering you on from wherever I land! Go TEAM!