How to Grow Human Capital During Hard Times

 

Without a doubt, the most important capital right now remains human capital. Organizations that will thrive after the pandemic are taking actions now to improve their future stock of this form of capital that delivers over 90% of organizational results.

As I write this, medical and financial fears abound. Much of the U.S. (and the world) is reeling from either the direct effects of the corona virus pandemic or the restrictive orders in many areas. Coming into sight is another fear – of the long-term losses in our personal financial and national economic systems. What degree of financial security do individuals and families still have?

Businesses have been forced to close or have lost many of their customers. Local and state organizations may face substantial reductions in budget. Cash is in short supply, and the future is looking murky, at best.

Under these conditions, what actions should hard-pressed leaders take? Accept government grants and forgivable loans? Cut costs and reduce full-time staff? Motivate shareholder or customer loyalty? Maintain or acquire tangible assets like machines or upgraded factories?

The answer might surprise you.

But first…

What Is Human Capital?

Many people are surprised to hear that something called “human capital” even exists.

That’s because, in the U.S., we don’t always think of developing our people as an intrinsic, necessary part of growing our organizations or our economy. This attitude is left over from the Industrial Age, when manufacturing was the primary driver of results, success was based on your ability to build a better, faster and cheaper widget, and manufacturing employees were considered just another cog in the process.

Old ideas die hard. But if we look at the past thirty years, it’s clear that our most successful organizations — from Amazon to Apple, from NASA to Walmart to Pfizer— aren’t thriving because of their superior assembly lines, but rather because of their superior ideas.

And who is it that generates ideas?

People.

To Understand Human Capital — and How to Develop It — Look to the Military

It used to be that — just like in the private sector — the world’s military organizations were competing to amass equipment. If you wanted a dominant military, you needed to have more ships, more tanks, and more munitions than your adversaries.

But today, military equipment, like all other tangible capital, has become a commodity. It’s reasonably cheap, readily available and in great supply. That’s why it no longer signals superiority. That’s why the U.S. military now understands that physical capital is no longer a differentiator for the world’s militaries and that superiority today isn’t based on having more equipment; it’s based on having better trained people.

Look at the example of education.

Does the Military Have a Human Capital Strategy for Education?

For more than eighty years, the U.S. military has led the nation with its efforts to optimize its human capital systems, adopt novel human capital strategies, and use analytics to assess and improve its human capital performance.

In keeping with this, our military has a simple and effective strategy for education: It makes education and training available to all recruits, based on their talents and desire to learn.

How has this strategy benefited our nation?

The “American Century” was kicked off by both our country’s technological advances during World War II and by the gains in middle class education that allowed us to turn those advances into global business dominance.

But the military’s commitment to education didn’t end with armistice. Every year, our armed services operate the world’s largest educations system, where male and female Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines engage in formal professional development. And as the cost of private and public colleges continue the skyrocket, the military’s training and education system, costing well over $30 billion per year, is free for service members and remains a major reason for enlisting in our all-volunteer military.

Does the United States Have a Human Capital Strategy for Education?

Yes. And it is also simple, though much less effective than the military’s. Our strategy allocates the quality and amount of education according to your zip code and family’s financial acumen. Facts are stubborn things and we need to own this one.

80-90% of our current high school students are qualified to earn either a college degree or a technical training certification. Yet many of them will not achieve that dream because it’s become unrealistically expensive.

How would things be different in this country if education were allocated based on your drive and desire to learn, not on line 42 (adjusted gross income) of your parents’ federal income tax return?

How much more would an educated and certified national population be able to contribute to our growth and resilience, during good times and bad?

I believe that our wealth and productivity would grow exponentially, along with the percentage of our citizenry that was vested in that growth. And perhaps the current pandemic will clear the way for developing bold new experiments such as student loan forgiveness, free virtual learning, even mechanisms for containing college costs to help us test that proposition.

Human Capital Will Light Our Way

Even before the corona virus pandemic, the United States was wrestling with major social issues such as inequality, the mismatch between workers skills and available jobs, apathy, alienation, and unnecessary displacement and despair. Too many, we’ve lost our way and we tend to fight over trivial issues, forgetting that long-term national success depends on perpetual strategic investments in national human capital.

The pandemic has laid bare, for those who choose to see, how impoverished our stores of both tangible and intangible capital had become. We’ve woken up to an understanding of how low our levels of not just medical supplies but also of leadership, truthfulness and problem-solving skills, have dipped.

Yet the pandemic has forced each of us — from business owners to employees, from policymakers to members of the public — to begin to develop our own human capital strategies. To ask: where, in these hard times, do we put our energy? Our creativity? Whatever money we command?

Do we compete to accumulate wipes and masks and tangible goods, confident in the individualized idea that “he who dies with the most toys wins”?

Or do we also support, help, train, educate and invest in each other — strengthening our families and work teams, sharing knowledge and know-how, coaching each other to higher levels of capability until this challenge begins to pass?

Our nation’s first responders and medics have already courageously answered this question.

Now it’s up to the rest of us to follow.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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How and Why to Ask For What You Want at Work

I still cringe when I think of the time I got my haircut during my teenage years. The hairdresser asked how I wanted it cut and I replied, “I don’t care. You choose.” In that moment, I gave away total control of how I looked to a complete stranger!

As a child, I never learned to clearly ask for what I wanted. I always said, “I don’t care” even when I did care. I didn’t want to rock the boat and create conflict, so I kept quiet instead of voicing my opinion or request.

Through lots of personal development work, I slowly improved in speaking up. In fact, I went a little overboard and became a touch demanding at times. Telling my mom, “I need you to do this by tomorrow” was probably not the best way to treat her! Over time, I’ve slowly learned when to speak up and when not to speak up.

What is Self-Advocating?

Though it often doesn’t come naturally, speaking up and self-advocating is a vital professional and personal skill. What is it? It’s the ability to say what we need, want and hope for in life and at work. It’s the capacity to ask questions humbly, and admit mistakes. It’s about standing up for yourself and others in the face of large or small injustices.

Why You Need to Speak Up at Work

Let’s talk about work. When you don’t self-advocate, your approach to your career is passive. You rely on your manager to know what is best for you, how you’d like to progress, and what factors and peer behaviors are impacting your work. But not all managers can keep track of exactly what’s going on in their team member’s day-to-day life, and zero managers can read minds. Without communicating what you want, and what is standing in your way, you are relying on the unknown to shape your career and life.

Much of my coaching focuses on speaking up and asking for what you want. And I don’t just mean asking for a raise or a new position. It can be small things too, like when a colleague does something that irritates you, or when a client asks for more than the contract stipulates. These are examples of speaking up for your own good, as well as the good of your team or organization.

But How Do You Self-Advocate?

So how do you do it? I asked Jezra Kaye, a public speaking coach who works with people to improve public speaking skills. Her company is called Speak Up for Success; she’s the perfect person to turn to for self-advocacy help! Here are her five steps for asking for what you want.

Asking For What You Want at Work: 5 Steps

1.    Know Your Value— What do you bring to your company or team that they would otherwise have to do without? What have you accomplished for them? Can you put a dollar figure on the clients you’ve won, or the time you’ve saved through good practices? Even intangibles like increasing team morale can sometimes be quantified (“Our team lost only one member last year; the other teams all lost two or more”).

2.    Do Your Research— What do others at your level, in your field, get paid? How fast have others in your company been promoted? Are you being fairly compensated (often, women and people of color are not)?  Should you be making more than others, because you supervise more people, manage more projects, or have special expertise?

3.    Develop Your Strategy— You know your manager! Are they best approached at 8 am on Monday morning? Over drinks on Thursday night? After a difficult project has wrapped? Should you make an appointment, or have a casual conversation? Do they need time to process, or pressure to decide? And WHAT is the argument that will win them over?

4.    Plan Your Speech— Don’t leave this important conversation to chance! Work out what you’re going to say, and then…

5.    Practice, Practice, PRACTICE Look, asking for what you want can make you uncomfortable. It can make all of us uncomfortable. The truth is, there is a very slim chance you will get what you want unless you ask. Follow these five steps and give it a shot.

Do you have a story about self-advocacy in your own life? Maybe a time where it made all the difference for you or a time that it could have?

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send us an email, or find us on Twitter.

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Online Learning Increases Employee Engagement: What is Online Learning?

In my last post, I discussed why it’s important to incorporate multiple learning styles in a training program. Technology offers to best opportunities to do that. In this post, let’s look at what online learning actually is.

The U.S. Distance Learning Association (USDLA) seems to concur that there is no official, agreed-upon definition of online learning. There is however one commonality among various camps: the integration of instructional media. The USDLA calls out the use of technology infrastructures to make more “effective learning opportunities more accessible to all learners, whatever their age, location, or reason for learning.”

They go on to say, “It includes e-learning, texting, social networking, virtual worlds, game-based learning, and webinars. It’s the Internet. It’s Google. It’s broadband and satellite and cable and wireless. Corporate universities. Virtual universities. Blended learning, mobile learning. It’s using our phones and computers and whatever technology comes next, in new ways.” In other words, online learning is using technology to help students of all ages learn new concepts. We see it all the time with children’s apps to learn spelling, math, music and more.

We’re starting to see online learning more with adult learning as well through Learning Management Systems (LMS), which are often programs that incorporate videos, podcasts and academic information for adult learners. These can be synchronous (the course participants and lecturer all have to be online at the same time) or asynchronous (the course participants can access the information online, at any time).

Learning is Collaborative

Despite the appeal of customization, learning is collaborative and continues to rely on community. Most people think that collaborative learning means face-to-face training. However, online learning allows students to engage in meaningful ways through video, chat, journals or other multimedia options.

A New York Times piece concluded that the “real promise of online education” is the nature by which it can be tailored to suit individual needs.

It’s not just the addition of multimedia, such as video and chat that engages students better; the way multi-media are used in course design may have a strong impact as well. For example, the study shows that interactive video vs. non-interactive video may impact learning more significantly. Interactive video allows students to control the way they absorb information, such as fast-forwarding through a video or watching it multiple times. Are the students able to watch video in any order they wish, or is course content set to prevent any form of deviation? These types of tweaks make training programs more or less effective.

One big advantage of online learning is increased collaboration, which every organization could use. In traditional college classrooms, most students try to engage with each other and form study communities, to help each other learn the material. Online learning makes collaboration easier. For those who normally would not be able to collaborate in person, technology brings a wealth of knowledge to the student’s fingertips, giving access to the best experts and resources in every medium you can imagine.

Being online is already a part of our everyday life; it makes sense to integrate it into one of the most important pillars of our society: education.

Being online is already a part of our everyday life; it makes sense to integrate it into one of the most important pillars of our society: education.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send us an email, or find us on Twitter.

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How to Prepare for Jobs that Don’t Yet Exist in a Multi-Stage Life

85 per cent of the jobs that will exist in 2030 haven’t even been invented yet, estimates a Dell Technologies report, written by the Institute for the Future (IFTF) and a panel of 20 tech, business and academic experts from around the world.

So how do you prepare someone for a job that doesn’t exist yet? How can we prepare the young people who will be entering the workforce in the next five years? How can we prepare ourselves?

Wave Goodbye to Your Three-Stage Life

Before we talk about preparation, here’s a contributing factor to consider: The three-stage life we’ve been accustomed to is coming to an end. What are the three stages of life? The first stage is education, which can last up to 25 years. The second stage revolves around work and lasts 40 years until we retire. And retirement is the third stage in life, which lasts between 15 and 20 years on average.

Yet life expectancy is increasing and health care is advancing. Over the last 200 years, life expectancy has increased consistently more than two years every decade. This trend indicates that a child born today has more than a 50% chance of living to 105! And they won’t simply stay alive—but can actually live a healthy life in those years.

A lifespan of 100+ years doesn’t fit well into the three straightforward stages of life we are used to. For example, an education gained in your 20s won’t sustain you for 60 years of working. Saving up for a retirement that lasts from age 65 to 105 (40 years!) is unlikely if retirement age remains the same.

Meet the Multi-Stage Life

Instead, people will adopt multi-stage lives. What will that look like? Based on trends we are seeing now, it would include education on a reoccurring cycle to accommodate career shifts based on technology advancements or personal choice. Remaining relevant for 40 years is hard enough—how about 60? And perhaps the stages will vary in focus—one stage for building financial resources, another for focusing on work/life balance, another for flexibility in order to build a family or care for aging loved ones, etc.

The implications of multi-staged lives are vast. Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott put it wonderfully: “These multi-stage lives require a proficiency in managing transitions and reflexivity – imagining possible selves, thinking about the future, reskilling and building new and diverse networks. At its best, it offers people an opportunity to explore who they are and arrive at a way of living that is nearer to their personal values.”

I agree. A multi-stage life requires flexibility, a drive for continuous learning, and the emotional intelligence to transition into ever-changing and diverse work relationships. And I propose that these are the very skills needed to prepare our employees, our youth, and us for jobs that don’t exist yet.

Preparing For the Unknown Future of Work: Four Essential Skills

Let’s take a closer look.

1.     EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (EQ)

A person with a high EQ is curious about people they don’t know, aware of their strengths and weaknesses, skilled in active listening, and aware of their own emotional states, enabling them to respond rather than react. This is a skill that can provide balance, insight, and flexibility when facing responsibility shifts, career changes, and life stages. It doesn’t matter what job you’re in—if you have emotional intelligence, you can navigate interpersonal relationships successfully, leading to productivity, collaboration, and an increased ability to face change.

In order for leaders to prepare for an ever-evolving working world, they must be skilled in constantly creating, organizing and dismantling teams. That requires a high EQ because it’s so relational. Also, they can help prepare workers for the future by implementing EQ training and displaying emotional intelligence themselves.

2.     COMMITMENT TO LIFELONG LEARNING

We’ve all witnessed how quickly technology has changed the fabric of our world. The increasing global pace of growth only adds to that rapid-fire change. In order to keep pace, people must be constantly learning. Whether this happens in the form of MOOCs or peer-to-peer information exchange is irrelevant. What matters is a commitment to learning—how else can someone transition smoothly into a role they’ve never even heard of yet? We must seek this learning out ourselves—yet it’s also imperative leaders make it a priority to offer personal development opportunities for employees. We can all work together to ignite and maintain the cycle of learning.

3.     ABILITY TO THRIVE IN DIVERSITY

In the future, what we consider minorities will be the majority of consumers, clients, employees, and leaders. This requires that the leaders of the future understand their diverse employees and consumers, and make sure their employees do too. Whatever the job, the teams will be more diverse than ever. And if you’re unable to learn from and embrace the benefits of a diverse team, you’re not going to succeed in any role.

4.     A NIMBLE APPROACH

We’ve established that change is happening at a rapid pace. If you’re unable to respond quickly, you may lose your place at the table, and severely limit other opportunities. Yet if you can leverage constant change, you will thrive. As Chris Heiler said, “Survival of the fittest? Today–and tomorrow–it’s survival of the nimblest.”

What does being nimble look like? Is it a skill you can develop? Yes, you can practice being nimble, just like you can practice EQ. Here’s what to do: Focus on building self-reliance, facing fear, being decisive yet flexible, and regularly seek out new skills. Also, work on managing your own bias, so that you can walk into new situations with the ability to see possibility rather than blockades.

With our new workforce functioning as more of an ecosystem than a pyramid, leaders of the future need to be nimble as well. Their ability to pivot, pull teams together quickly, and exhibit out-of-the-box thinking will influence their success in a decentralized structure that is constantly evolving.

The Cherry on Top: Purpose

The last thing Gratton and Scott said rings true as well: A multi-stage life will enable people to live closer to their personal values. This is perhaps the most exciting outcome of a longer lifespan, and aligns with one of the goals of integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into the workforce. AI has the potential to enable workers to focus on work that is more aligned with their values rather than monotonous tasks.

Don’t Forget Our Youth

This movement towards purpose with multi-stage lives and the assistance of AI also applies to our youth. Social Impact Entrepreneur Peter E. Raymond explains, “As automation will continue to reduce the need for human jobs there is an opportunity to prepare our kids for the challenges that will keep them empowered and give them purpose. These challenges will create new markets and economies we have not yet imagined.” And new education platforms preparing youth for this impending reality are already in the works.

In closing I’d like to point out that while fear of change is expected (and neurological!), there is a lot of positives in line for the future. Instead of seeing yourself in a position of impending irrelevance, see yourself as empowered to build key skills that will prepare you to succeed not matter where, or how many times, your career pivots. Start practicing your emotional intelligence today, work on being nimble, dive into the benefits of diverse teams, and regularly ignite your brain with new skills and knowledge. Before you know it, you’ll be in the middle of a drastically different workscape—and you’ll be thriving.

What did we miss? What is another essential skill to prepare for jobs that don’t yet exist? Let’s crowd source the answer:

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Online Learning Increases Employee Engagement: Seven Learning Styles

“On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction,” concludes a report by the Department of Education (DOE). In fact, in the DOE’s report “Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online learning,” students doing at least some of their course online ranked in the 59th percentile compared to wholly in-classroom taught students, who scored in the 50th percentile. This performance was found to be statistically significant, meaning these results are not due to random error or chance.

If this is the case, why aren’t more organizations using online learning to improve training, increase retention, reduce travel costs and minimize time away from the office?

Perhaps organizations don’t know why online learning matters, what it is, or how to execute it. Let’s start with why it matters.

WHY DOES ONLINE LEARNING MATTER?

Adults learn in different ways. The more learning ways that a training program includes, the higher chance of knowledge retention. In other words, using a variety of learning styles in a training program will help the trainee remember the new skills longer and deeper. Online learning offers the best chance to incorporate many learning styles at once.

Seven Learning Styles For Designing Training Materials

1. Spatial Learners

Interconnected ideas rather than linear, sequential processes are easier to digest for spatial learners. Bulleted lists don’t do it for this crowd. This learning style leans heavily on patterns and visual pictures to explain a concept.

Here are three examples of designing for spatial learners:

a) Image-based Power Point

Sometimes it’s hard to get away from presentations, but they can still be fashioned for visual learners. Presentation Zen is one of my favorite books. If you browse through Ted.com, you’ll also find fantastic examples of effective, visual Power Points.

When using tools as communication aids, it’s important to understand their purpose and role. Visuals make it easier for spatial learners to recall or apply a concept. Powerful visuals can help your audience remember your content, which is at the core of knowledge transfer.

b) Game Simulations

Timed exams can make spatial learners extremely anxious as the pressure of translating their mental images into words can take longer for them than others, which creates a stressful situation for them. Game simulations make it easier for visual learners to create a link and memory, to better absorb the information.

The Use of Computer Simulations and Gaming to Enhance Authentic Learning from zollnera

c) Mind Mapping

Mind mapping is an increasingly popular tool to visualize ideas and brainstorm ideas effectively. Though this might be more difficult to do in a traditional setting, there are lots of online tools which help facilitate the creation of mind maps, providing an easy way for a group to brainstorm together, versus the traditional outline model. Mind mapping can be incorporated in a variety of ways to assist in planning presentations. Mind Tools has a great article explaining how to use mind maps effectively.

 2. Linguistic Learners

Written words best explain a concept to these individuals, so activities involving reading and writing appeal the most. Spoken word can also be effective with this crowd.

These learners respond best to reading and writing assignments, so think of how to incorporate blogging, articles, white papers or online discussion boards into the training. These learners also like to debate, so assignments that look at two sides of an argument can be an effective way for these individuals to apply knowledge and increase engagement.

3. Intrapersonal Learners

Using auditory information, and then allowing the participant a time of internal reflection, best helps these learners retain information.

These individuals like to control their environment and take in new information at their own speed, which allows them time to process and think about a matter deeply. Two examples that best demonstrate this style are:

a) Podcasts

Radio shows have received a comeback through the form of Podcasts. One of my favorite podcasts is This American Life which distills 2-3 short stories with common themes and presents them to listeners in an hour-long podcast. These engaging podcasts allow listeners to absorb the information while also prompting them to think deeper as the show continues.

b) Lectures

Sometimes traditional lectures are essential to get your point across; however they can still be peppered with the other learning styles mentioned here. Make sure you insert questions and other activities throughout lectures in order to keep listeners engaged. TED talks are full of excellent presentations for this crowd.

4. Interpersonal Learners

Using group dynamics to explain a concept is most effective for this group of learners.

Dynamic conversations can be a fantastic way of explaining concepts, especially when dealing with sensitive topics. Discussions can integrate other engaging activities, such as role play or games to get the discussion going. Planning ahead is necessary to achieve the desired learning outcomes. Do you want participants to remember and understand a concept, apply and analyze on a deeper level or evaluate and create something new? One tip is to ask open-ended questions that prompt, justify, clarify, extend, redirect and help guide group discussion.

5. Musical Learners

Using music as the trigger to remember new knowledge is powerful for this group of learners.

Playing The Who’s song, Talkin’ Bout My Generation, during a presentation to Baby Boomers helps this group of learners remember that time in their lives. This then evokes a powerful memory which keeps them engaged during the training.

6. Bodily-Kinesthetic Learners

Using the bodily senses to describe and ‘feel’ a concept help this learner remember new knowledge.

Do you exhibit at conferences? If so, let the conference attendees touch your product so they can physically experience the product features. If this type of in-person exchange isn’t possible, think of how you can demo your product and use the web to relay this in-person sensory concept.

7. Logical-Mathematical Learners

Using mathematics to describe a concept allows this group of learners to effectively learn new information.

Graphs and data can really bring it home for some learners, as they are both visual and applicable. One of my favorite presenters is Hans Rosling who brings statistics to life!

As I said earlier, the more learning methodologies that a learning program includes, the more the trainee will remember. Why? Whether they realize it or not, people have preferred learning styles. Think about it; when you have to learn something new, do you prefer to hear it, read it or touch it physically? Do you naturally make up songs about things? Do you see the patterns in something new? Or do you learn best when you can discuss it with someone?

Whatever your answer, that’s your preferred learning style; most people have two to three preferred styles. So if a training program offers one or two of your preferred learning styles, you’ll likely remember the content better. If a training program incorporates six to seven learning style approaches, then the chance of everyone in the class retaining the knowledge increases even more.

In the classic face-to-face, live, organizational training, the course participants sit for 3-6 hours, listening to the ‘teacher’. Some classes include videos, role-plays, interactive theater or games to increase retention. However, it’s difficult to do this on a regular basis. Technology makes it much easier.

If I create an online course, I can easily add in video links, podcast links and simulation games, which covers two learning styles. Then I add PDFs of white papers that explain the patterns and academic context, covering another learning styles. I can also add in real-time ‘Journals’ allowing participants to post their homework for the rest of the course to see, which then allows others to comment and start an online conversation, covering another learning style. Finally, to ensure group dynamics stay strong, I could create group phone calls or some face-to-face sessions, covering more learning styles.

So you can see that it makes sense why the DOE found higher retention with online learning. In my next post I’ll talk more about the relationship between online learning and the seven learning styles.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Nine Unconventional Ways Freelancers Landed Gigs

According to a recent study by Upwork and the Freelancers Union, the most common places for freelancers to pick up work are friends and family (36%), professional contacts (35%), and online job platforms (29%) like Upwork, Freelancer.com, Guru, and even Craigslist.

This breakdown spells trouble for some. American workers looking for projects on online marketplaces, for instance, are often competing with workers who live in countries where the dollar is strong. That means many foreign workers can accept far lower rates. If you can hire someone to transcribe an interview for $3 an hour, you aren’t giving that contract to a freelancer charging $15.

So where else can freelancers find work? Just ask these ten people, who picked up gigs in some unexpected places.

1. TAP YOUR DATING LIFE

Joy Yap found freelance work by unintentionally mixing business with pleasure. She went on a Tinder date with an entrepreneur who was just about to launch a company.

They didn’t hit it off romantically, Yap recalls. But, remembering her line of work, the entrepreneur reached out a couple months later with an offer to do some freelance marketing for his startup. “I agreed!” she says. “I’ve been doing freelance work for him off and on for about a year now, and saw the company grow from inception into a million dollar company today.”

Anyone who’s used an app like Tinder knows that modern dating often involves a little harmless cyber-stalking to gather extra intel on the person you’ve just met or are planning to meet. “One funny way I got a client on Fiverr,” says Alex Genadinik, referring to the gig marketplace, “was from a girl I was dating about a year ago. Early on during our dating, she and her friends decided to Google my name, which is very unique, and my Fiverr profile was one of the things that came up in their search.”

The woman and her friends shared Genadinik’s Fiverr profile with someone they knew who was looking for his line of freelance work, and the two ended up striking a deal. “All along I thought he was just a regular client that randomly found me on the internet,” says Genadinik. It was only months later that the woman let him know she’d played professional matchmaker. “[It] was pretty embarrassing for me because everyone was clued in except me,” Genadinik says, but hey—he got the work.

2. ADVERTISE IN REAL TIME

If you’re a freelancer, chances are you’ve sat at coffee shops with your nose in your laptop. So why not let passersby know exactly what you’re doing and that you’re available for hire?

Shayla Price says she landed a gig by creating and placing a makeshift placard saying “freelance writer” in front of her computer while working at Starbucks and other public places. Price says she’s received a few inquiries every time she whips out the placard.

3. EMAIL THE CEO DIRECTLY

“I’ve been obsessed with a large, multinational hair care brand for many years now,” says Termeh Mazhari, “so when I became a freelancer, I decided to just email the CEO directly.”

Going straight to the source may sound like a waste of time—execs usually aren’t the ones hiring contractors. But in Mazhari’s case, it paid off. “I told her about myself and the value I could bring to the company, and to my great surprise her assistant wrote me back and arranged a meeting with the CEO at their posh Manhattan office!”

What’s more, Mazhari landed more than just a tiny one-off project this way. “I ended up getting a year-long consulting gig with the brand, even though they already had a large internal PR team as well as multiple external agencies working with them.”

4. HUSTLE FOR FACEBOOK SHOUT-OUTS

After Stephanie Moore got laid off, she decided freelance full time and turned to Facebook to market her services.

“It started with one client . . . that I met through Facebook. She was very popular with a national brand,” Moore recalls, so she decided to attend one of the client’s networking events. There, Moore told her she wanted to “shift my focus from marketing and design to PR,” and the client “agreed to be my guinea pig.”

Their bargain went like this: “After each big accomplishment,” Moore says, “she would shout me out on Facebook as her publicist. Every time she tagged me, there was a guaranteed client on the way. All of her friends and potential clients began to reach out and ask for press releases, designs, etc. The more work I did, the more tagging I would get.” By tapping into one happy client with the influence to amplify Moore’s work, offers began piling up. “People would post my designs tagging me in the post, almost bragging that Stephanie Moore did it.”

Like another “solopreneur” who recently shared her method with Fast Company, Moore never thought Facebook could drive so much of her business—95% of which she now estimates comes from the social network.

5. OWN YOUR OUT-OF-THE-BOX THINKING

If you want to freelance, you have to be willing to share your ideas, even if you’re not sure they will be well received. Don’t wait for the perfect, full-proof pitch to go out and get your gig.

Just look at Chris Post. He held steadfast to his out-of-the-box thinking when he was building his freelance business. He says,

“At the time, just about every local property management company was trying to hold onto and gain tenants by offering them one or more months of free rent.

I had previously worked as a commercial real estate agent, and made a pitch to a property management company I was friendly with from that time: Instead of offering free rent to tenants, offer marketing assistance in the form of a free website in exchange for signing a year lease. They would spend less paying me to build a website than they would lose by deducting a month’s worth of rent.”

Post’s freelance career has now become a full-blown web development and marketing company called Post Modern Marketing.

6. NETWORK ON INSTAGRAM

Mallory Musante is one of the co-founders of Bold & Pop, a collective of social media, branding and web design freelancers. While they mainly find new clients from referrals, they occasionally use freelancing sites to find work. In this case, they sent a proposal to a client, researched the company a little further, and decided to follow all of their social media accounts. Musante never heard back so assumed the company had gone with another freelancer.

But wait—Instagram to the rescue. She says, “we were surprised when we received an email through our website requesting more information on our social media marketing services. While they didn’t remember us submitting a proposal on the freelancing site, we were able to catch their eye on Instagram by occasionally networking with them.”

7. PARTICIPATE IN YOUR COMMUNITY

Abandoning the traditional workplace can feel isolating, participating in your local community can be a remedy, as well as a fantastic place to drum up freelance work. Photographer Tammy Lamoureux shares a great example of community involvement leading to jobs.

“Wanting to get more product photography gigs, we started hitting up our local craft fairs and farmer’s markets.  We get a room full of small businesses who will most likely need professional photos of their merchandise at some point or another.  So, go around from booth to booth and chat with the vendors. Take some photos of their products and make sure to get their contact info so you can send them the shots later.  They will appreciate the free photos, and you’ll be top of mind the next time they are in need of some product photos. We did this at one craft fair, and ended up with five new clients for about 2 hours worth of work.”

8. GO WITH YOUR GUT

Kelly Boyer Sagert’s usually picks freelance work based on the right amount of income attached to it. But sometimes, she decides to go with a gut feeling to see what happens. She explains how one of those gut-driven exceptions landed her unexpectedly great work:

“A few years ago, a nonprofit agency asked me to take their research about the first woman to solo hike the Appalachian Trail and turn it into an ebook. I did — and then they asked for it to also be written as a first person storytelling performance, so I did. Concurrently, the agency was having some of their video footage turned into a mini-documentary and discovered that they couldn’t get the grant funding they wanted/needed unless a play was written on the subject. So, I wrote a play script and we talked to a theater that had produced some of my work in the past, and they put on the play. So, the funding was secured, the documentary was created and, since my play was used as the foundation, I got writing credits — and the documentary was picked up by PBS: Trail Magic: the Grandma Gatewood Story.”

9. TELL PROSPECTS WHAT THEIR COMPETITORS ARE UP TO

If one company is looking for services, then their competitors are probably looking, too—or will want to as soon as they learn of it.

“I had one company contact me for a strategic marketing plan for the upcoming year,” recalls freelancer Stephen Twomey. He saw that as not just one potential opportunity but several. “I knew they were looking at other consultants as well.”

“So, since I knew company A was looking for something, I contacted companies B, C, [and] D and mentioned that one of their main competitors was looking for strategic marketing consulting”—without mentioning which one. Twomey says “Company A ended up going with a different [contractor], but company C actually bought a consulting package.”

The services you offer may not belong in a creative field, but it still often takes ingenuity to land those gigs in the first place. For just about every freelancer, thinking outside the box can really pay off.

Have you landed freelance gigs in an unusual way? Share your story in the comments below, on Twitter, or send me an email.

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