Career

Online Seminar Survey Results

September 6, 2024 by Jim Peacock Leave a Comment

Thank you to everyone who responded to the Peak-Careers Online Seminar survey! The results were insightful and will help me with planning for future seminars. Here are some highlights from the survey responses:

More than half of respondents have taken an OLS (58.8%) and of those:

83.3% were prompted to take a seminar based on the topic
63.3% were prompted by continuing education requirements
Format (46.7%) and affordability (40%) were next most popular reasons

Of those who have not taken an OLS, the following reasons were most often given:

47.6% cited timing and availability conflicts
33.3% cited cost as being prohibitive

Preferred method of professional development was split fairly evenly between Online synchronous and Online asynchronous. The largest segment indicated a preference for hybrid training (37.3%). Here is a visualization of the results:

Forms response chart. Question title: What is your preferred method for professional development? . Number of responses: 51 responses.

When choosing professional development, the respondents overwhelmingly rated the seminar topic as “most important” to them. The factors of price, instructor, and continuing education credits were rated as “important” fairly evenly with price getting the highest number of “important” votes.

Forms response chart. Question title: What factors do you consider when selecting professional development?. Number of responses: .

It looks like February and March are winners for most preferred time of year with October coming in third. Good news! We have several seminars slated for October, February, and March.

Forms response chart. Question title: We typically offer a group of seminars 6 times per year with each session lasting 5 weeks. Please let us know which time frames work best for you. (Select all that apply) . Number of responses: 51 responses.

Ted Talks for Career Coaches

March 17, 2024 by Jim Peacock Leave a Comment

I reached out to the Peak-Careers Community for TedTalks that inspire, assist or support, or educate us in our work. Some of these are great for our clients and some might be best for career coaches. What I’ve seen, they are great for both.

As always, if you have some favorites, please share them.

Taking Care of Ourselves First.
I realize this isn’t career specific, but I often share with my clients the Ted Talk from KC Davis, because there are times when we just cannot even take care of ourselves anymore. Best, Jessica Edwards

Finding Fulfillment
This Talk is from Alicia Ramsdell’s TEDx Talk in York Beach Maine and a framework for people to find fulfillment in their lives (professionally and otherwise). Everyone deserves that 🙂. Alicia took my FCD class a few years ago and her business has grown so fast with the great work she does.

Dealing with Rejection
Jia Jiang adventures boldly into a territory so many of us fear: rejection. By seeking out rejection for 100 days — from asking a stranger to borrow $100 to requesting a “burger refill” at a restaurant — Jiang desensitized himself to the pain and shame that rejection often brings and, in the process, discovered that simply asking for what you want can open up possibilities where you expect to find dead ends.

Motivating the next generation.
This talk was given at a Michigan TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. It is about motivating the next generation.
John U. Bacon energizes his audience with the story of the Ann Arbor Huron High School hockey team. This came recommended from a high school classmate I haven’t seen in 50 years. Ann Arbor Huron was one of our hockey rivals in the 70’s and my home town Trenton is mentioned numerous times throughout.

Understanding the next generation.
Here is a link to one I share often with clients in their 20’s. Jon Daniel (recent participant in my FCD class.
Clinical psychologist Meg Jay has a bold message for twentysomethings: Contrary to popular belief, your 20s are not a throwaway decade. In this provocative talk, Jay says that just because marriage, work and kids are happening later in life, doesn’t mean you can’t start planning now. She gives 3 pieces of advice for how twentysomethings can re-claim adulthood in the defining decade of their lives.

Tiny Habits
What if someone told you to floss only one tooth everyday? Or start the new year, not with grand resolutions, but with a simple challenge.. like ONE pushup a day? BJ Fogg shows us that the key to lasting change does not lie in planning big, monumental changes, but in thinking really, really small. Chosen by Fortune Magazine as one of “10 New Gurus You Should Know”, Fogg directs the Persuasive Tech Lab at Stanford University.

Finding Joy.
Cherry blossoms and rainbows, bubbles and googly eyes: Why do some things seem to create such universal joy? In this captivating talk, Ingrid Fetell Lee reveals the surprisingly tangible roots of joy and shows how we all can find — and create — more of it in the world around us.

Self Defining Our Lives.
She talks about intersectionality and how it is at those intersections we find the freedom to create and the opportunity to self-define. Her talk also speaks to the importance of nurturing women, and in her case Black women, who are interested in STEM careers. Moira (Peak-Careers Communication Specialist).

Thank you to everyone who shared their favorite Ted Talks. I appreciate you.

Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move and The Adventure of Finding Me in New Zealand. He is also the recipient of the 2020 Kenneth C. Hoyt Award from the National Career Development Association and the Mid-Atlantic Career Counseling Association’s Professional Contribution’s Award in 2020.

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Three Words to Guide Me in 2024

January 8, 2024 by Jim Peacock 6 Comments

For nine years now, I have chosen three words to guide me throughout the year rather than creating New Year’s resolutions. Writing and thinking about the words daily inspires me and gives me the power to start each day. For example, in 2023 when I wrote the word Joy, I would stop and think about what I could do that day to bring joy. Throughout my day I would look for where the word Joy could be found. It was amazing how often it came to fruition in some form.

To choose my words this year, like the past eight, I scheduled a day-long tech-free retreat during which I could read, write, reflect, meditate, and take walks away from my distraction-filled home. I turned off my social media and phone and found that in and of itself to be cleansing. I spent the morning in one cafe and early afternoon in another.

It is amazing how by simply changing location I can be inspired to see things differently and be motivated to write. Being in a different environment helps me to think differently. I encourage you to try it if you can. Even a half-day can be powerful, but I recommend trying a full eight-hour day.

Peace. This word feels right to me as I look ahead in my life and with hope towards our country’s future. I was choosing my words shortly after the Hamas and Israeli fighting started, and as the war in Ukraine was coming up on two years since it broke out. So sad.

I try to start my day with stretching, walking, and reading before I begin working. This helps me start each day slowly and this year, I hope, peacefully. I am looking for ways to be more content with myself by incorporating meditation into my day and finding ways to be calm and kind to myself.

Catalyst. This word jumped out to me as I was reading J.P. Michel’s new book, The World Needs You. He is calling for career coaches to be career catalysts and help propel our students/clients to their future careers. My passion in life now is to give back to our profession by being a Trustee on the NCDA Board of Directors. I want to use my three-year commitment to NCDA to be a catalyst for our association.

Another passion of mine is offering a mentor relationship to people new to the field. Over the past few years, I have worked with several people who had various questions about how to get into the career development field, how to create a company that is currently centered in Brazil and move it to the US, what types of jobs are available for someone with the Certified Career Service Provider (CCSP) credential, or how to start their own consulting business. I want to help every one of them in whatever way I can, and I believe I can be a catalyst for them.

Discover. This word has several different layers to it. I like that the word feeds my love of learning. I am always looking to discover new information through reading, podcasts, listening to news shows, talking with people, or watching TV. I simply love learning. The layers include looking at ways to improve Peak-Careers and thinking about what I’d like to do with the business over the next few years.

The word Discover also has great meaning for who “Jim Peacock” is and will become over the next few years. I am in my mid-to-late 60s and find life is constantly evolving as my family grows (more grandchildren), my siblings are all facing retirement and we talk about how we can get together despite living 1000s of miles apart, my lifelong friends and I are closer now than ever, and my wife and I are traveling more.

I look forward to seeing how these words develop throughout the year.

Do you choose three words to guide you?

If so, please share your words and a little about what they mean to you.

Here are all my words from 2016-2023

2016 – Health ★ Mindfulness ★ Focus

2017 – Intentional ★ Authentic ★ Wellness

2018 – Reach ★ Capacity ★ Consistency

2019 – Reflection ★ Purposeful ★ Gratitude

2020 – Philanthropy ★ Rebalance ★ Strategic

2021 – Be ★ Kindness ★ Understanding

2022 – Community ★ Balance ★ Positivity

2023 – Joy ★ Humility ★ Exploration

2024 – Peace ★ Catalyst ★ Discover

If you’d like to read about how I choose past years words and/or watch some interviews with other people who choose three words, check out my website here.

Books I’ve Read in 2023

December 4, 2023 by Jim Peacock 2 Comments

Each time I read a book, I write a summary description of it, often with a few opinions. I do this for two reasons.
(1) So I can remember the title and author and what it was about.
(2) So that I can easily share books with friends and colleagues. Today is your day 🙂

The Adventure of Finding Me in New Zealand — Me reading when I was backpacking in New Zealand in 1983

Reading can teach me things, give me new perspectives, and entertain me. I love a variety of books and often have two going on. One which helps me learn or grow which I typically read in the mornings. And one to entertain me which I tend to read in the evenings to quiet me down.

There is a link to each book below if you’d like to learn more about that book.

Books that made me think…Challenged me in some way

Of Boys and Men by Richard V. Reeves

The Purple Parachute by Paula Battalia Brand

From Wild Man to Wise Man: Reflections on Male Spirituality by Richard Rohr

Dare to Lead by Brene Brown

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert

Eager To Love. The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi By Richard Rohr

Books that taught me something about history

The Arsenal of Democracy FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War. by A.J. Baime

Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Nolan

The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams By Stacy Schiff

The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts

Books to Entertain me

Livid Patricia Cornwall

The Never Game by Jeffrey Deaver

The Plague Ship by Clive Cussler

The Flood Tide (Dirk Pitt)

Special Books

24 Amazing Facts About Titanic. For Kids. By my nephew’s 9-year old son, Niklas Zacheretti

Of course, I also read many books to our 1-year old + grand daughter who needs at least 3 to 5 books read to her before bedtime.

*In October, I posted on LinkedIn I was looking for book ideas and received a number of great suggestions.
Here is the link to my fellow book readers recommendations.

If you want to read my list from 2022, check it out here.

Inhale the Future. Exhale the Past

October 9, 2023 by Jim Peacock Leave a Comment

Recently, my two backpacking buddies of 40+ years and I hiked a 70-mile section of the Colorado Trail, most of which was around 10,000 feet above sea level. It was, as always, a great trip being with people I have known for

3 men backpacking — Colorado Trail near Tennessee Pass

nearly all of my adult life. We have hiked over 2000 miles of trails together, mostly on the Pacific Crest Trail through California, Oregon, and Washington. We use our hiking time, uninterrupted by our typical daily living, to be together, to reflect, to talk about our lives now, and to set goals. It is a special time that makes me feel more like the authentic me than any other time.

On this trip, we met a woman who was backpacking by herself and had an interesting tattoo on her arm with a saying on it. We asked what it said. “Inhale the future. Exhale the past.” She had gone through a difficult divorce, and this was her mantra as she was dealing with it. It was so powerful for her, she had it tattooed on her arm. She is now happily remarried and backpacks with her husband or alone depending up on his schedule.

I can’t stop thinking about this statement. It resonates for me and for so many clients I have worked with. It is so important to move on from the past and to look to the future. It involves way more positive thinking than being stuck in the past.

Inhale the Future. Exhale the Past

inhale exhale — Photo bykathleenport @Pixabay

The trail provides us the uncluttered space to ask each about our lives over the past two years since we hiked a section of the Long Trail in Vermont in 2021. We each had more than two hours to talk about our past 24 months and ask each other questions or make comments on our stories. When do you get the kind of time to do that?

More importantly, we have always found ways to look to the future. We often create 3-5 year goals on our hikes and then hold each other accountable afterwards. This year was no different except that I brought a values exercise Brene Brown shared in her book, Dare to Lead. (The exercise can be found on her website if you’d like to do it.)

Brene has identified a list of over a 100 values. The first step is to circle 10 values important to you now. It is harder than you think. I didn’t tell Rees and Howard that after they were done struggling to get their list to 10, they would have to reduce it to five. Ouch. Brene says that to be a leader and to make your best decisions, you must make sure you are focused on what is important to you at all times. (She actually wants people to reduce it to two!)

The next step is to list three things that you are doing that support each of your top five values and to identify three “slippery slopes” or things that get in the way of you living that value. Then describe one activity you have done recently that exemplifies this value in your life at its best.

We then took the next four days (yes, four days) to share our values, what has been working, what gets in the way, and an example of living this value. The exercise gets you thinking about what has worked or is working for you with this important value, but most importantly what gets in the way.

Inhale the Future. Exhale the Past

The things getting in the way are the most thought-provoking as they led each of us to think about what we could change in the future to embrace this value more. For example: one of my five values is “family” and I recognized that my wife loves to veg out at night watching TV, and I don’t. So this means we don’t get as much time together as I’d like. I thought about one of my “successes” last year with this value when we binged watched Ted Lasso together. So this year, when I came home, I signed up for a month of Hulu so we could watch Murders in the Building together.

It is a small way for me to exhale the past (me not watching much TV) and to inhale the future (identifying a TV show we could watch together).

Many of you know that I like to take regular “tech-free retreats” inspired by Richard Leider. I am drafting this blog right now on my September retreat. On these retreats, I take time to think, write, read, walk, and meditate. I listened to one of my favorite guided meditations from davidji, “Taking Your Life to the Next Level.” One line is about moving from the past, like lifting your back leg when walking, lifting it up and moving it forward to get anywhere (that is my interpretation). This resonated with me today as I Inhale the Future. Exhale the Past.

We cannot change the past.

The question is, how do I want to move forward in the most authentic way?

How are you moving forward in your life?

Are you embracing and living the values most important to you?

Do You Hate Making Cold Calls as Much as Me?

July 10, 2023 by Jim Peacock Leave a Comment

Pricing is one of the most complex parts of running my own business. What am I worth?

Why do I have to “sell” all the time? If I’m good, why can’t people just find me?

When I was working with my business coach a couple of years ago, she suggested I make some calls to college career centers to see if they might be interested in some of my professional development services. I dreaded the calls. I set a goal to do five calls every Wednesday and would find a way to avoid them every week.

When I met with Mandy again I told her I hated selling and dreaded the calls. Our conversation went like this:

Mandy, “Do you offer a quality service?”

Me, “Yes.”

Mandy, “Do others benefit from these services?”

Me, “Yes.”

Mandy, “Then you are not ‘selling’. You are sharing your skills with others to help them.”

She was always good at getting me to think about my business differently. I still had a bit of imposter syndrome going on and worried about my credibility. Can I charge as much as I do? Am I worth it?

I stumbled on this TedTalk by Casey Brown who is a pricing consultant. She suggests if you focus on serving others in your work and adding value, it won’t feel like bragging, ie selling.

Her questions help me get my head around my worth.

What are my unique skill sets that help my clients?
What are my clients’ needs & how do I help them?
What do I do that no one else does?
What problems do I solve for clients?
What value do I add to their lives?

If I am honest in answering these questions about adding value to their lives, then I need to work on communicating that value and not being afraid to set my price for the value I bring to them.

The other game-changer for me was reading The Earned Life by Marshall Goldsmith and his “credibility matrix” idea. He states you build credibility twice. Once over time as you hone your skills. Next, it has to be noticed by people. You don’t need to brag about yourself, but people need to see you to build your credibility. If you have something to offer people, it’s ok to let others know. Not everyone will “buy” but what you hope is more people will “see.”

Secondly, you make a difference in the world through empathy. Make sure you put those you serve utmost in your mind. Build your relationships with others by empathizing with them: What are their problems? What are their pain points? What are their needs?

Look at Goldsmith’s Credibility Matrix pictured here.

Where do you find yourself on the “Making a Positive Difference” line?

Personally, I feel like I am on the right side, making a lot of difference.

Then think about where you are on the “Proving Yourself” line. If you are doing good work and other people see that you are doing good work, you are Earning Credibility (upper right corner).

If others do not see your work then you are Underselling Yourself (lower right corner). If others don’t know what you are doing, how can they support you?

So what are things you can do to get into the upper right corner and “earn some credibility?”

Present at conferences
Write articles for journals or your professional association
Comment thoughtfully on LinkedIn posts
Network wherever and whenever you can

What other ways might you earn some credibility?

Regardless of what you decide to do, if you are providing a quality service, be proud of it and price yourself accordingly. If you price yourself too low you diminish your work and our profession. If you want to work with underserved people, I recommend you determine your value and then you can offer discounts, but your value should be set in your head first. Then proudly state your value and don’t be ashamed…you are worth it if you do good work.

Online Seminar Survey Results

Ted Talks for Career Coaches