Always beware that an entitlement mentality – It will kill your job prospect
An abundance mentality will produce the ultimate outcome that you want to achieve.
Do invest time and effort to research and develop your 90-day business plan. Add tangible value to the business without any strings attached.
Offer to do the implementation work as set out in your business plan for FREE.
You can say that the experience gain would be good for you. They won’t be taking advantage of you. If they don’t like the work you do, there’s no hard feeling at all.
Practice makes perfect.
You can professionally sharpen your problem-solving skills while looking for a job. The learning experience will be invaluable to you.
The work done in preparing business plans can be repurposed into an article that is published on your personal blog. It is part of your branding exercise and all work done is not a waste.
If you do get rejected for the job, find out the root cause and work on any improvements identified. This way, you can certainly improve yourself and will be a better person to get closer to the prize.
Develop your value proposition
Here’s a value proposition email by Charlie Hoehn that landed him a job with best-selling author Tim Ferriss.
Notice how the proposal is short, to the point, and directs Tim’s focus.
| Mr. Ferriss- After visiting your site countless times since May ’07, I’ve come up with a few suggestions that could improve your readers’ experience. Here are two of the things I think you need… 1) A network for your followers: Right now, you have a lot of passionate and devoted readers who comment on your blog. These are people who are likely to spread your ideas. You need a place where your loyal readers can interact with each other more freely, and share their stories about how your book has inspired them. What it would take: A micro-network. You could frame it as “a crusade against the 9-5 workday.” How I could help: While I was interning for Seth Godin, I learned how to create micro-social networks for very specific niches. I could easily set this up for you, making it a more exclusive “invite-only,” if you wish. What the benefits are to you: Allowing your most devoted readers to share their lifestyle design stories will provide you with even more case studies for blog posts (or for a follow-up book). It will also serve as a spot for your readers to get to know one another, and they’ll appreciate that you’ve given them that opportunity. 2) A more dynamic “About” page: Currently, this page starts off with a quote about you from Albert Pope, followed by three thumbnail pictures of your face and a great deal of text outlining your achievements. While your credentials are impressive, this page doesn’t really capture your personality or the lifestyle you’ve designed for yourself. What it would take: You need a video, between 2 and 5 minutes, that captures the excitement that comes with lifestyle design. The video would showcase exciting things you’ve done (skydiving, tango, motorcycling, etc.), and would be a great way to show your readers that you are the real deal. How I could help: I can make this video for you for free. I’ve been editing video for more than four years and started a business in creating movies for special events. All I would need to make your video are great pictures and videos of you. The more they show the human side of you, the better. What the benefits are to you: Reading something is fine, but an image is far more powerful. This video will establish an even deeper credibility with your new (and old) readers. Even if you end up deciding that it’s not right for your site, you’ll still be getting a great video about you that would normally cost several hundred dollars. If you like my work, we can discuss other ways to implement videos into your site (including higher quality and more exciting videos for your blog). In exchange for these things, I hope that you’d consider taking me on as an intern (real-world or virtual). I would love to help you out on future projects. Let me know what you think, and I look forward to hearing from you. |