Job Responsibilities
I coach emerging leaders and teams into transformative creative
abilities with creative problem solving tools. As a consultant,
only 20% of my week is spent working directly with clients. 80%
of my weeks is spent on business development and writing for
trade magazines.
|
Job Requirements
My undergrad degree is in Creative Writing, Masters of Science
in Creativity Research from SUNY Buffalo, International Center
for Studies in Creativity. Fellow students represent every
imaginable domain around the world, but one thing we have in
common is we are artists first, creativity leaders second. My
electives were accomplished in the fields of Adult Ed, Org
Psychology, Instruction Development, and e-training.
|
Uppers
My work depends on my practicing my own creative craft. I have found that many
leaders I work with have to put their creativity on the back burner so they can
"have a real job."
|
Downers
Building a one-woman consulting agency in an abstract field
who's results are intangible has been a daunting exercise at
every level of my business and marketing plan. Follow up reports
are qualitative and anecdotal, appealing to the executive that
hired me, but difficult to translate to the larger org culture.
Because there are very few of me in the U.S., I have to rely
heavily on the quantitative results gleaned from other agencies.
|
Lifestyle
This is the big plus for me. I have had to move my family 5 times in 18 years
because of my husband's job, and each time have had no difficulty setting up shop
in the new city. I work in a home office from 8-6 every day, except those days
when I'm working in the field. My contract for January is in Mexico where I'll be
working to shift their Dept of Ed to a creative curriculum, I'll stay for a week,
then drop in once a month for a year. In July I'll train a group of teachers from
the South in a college in Cambridge and then visit them in Mississipi in October.
Corporate work is in Boston and Cambridge and is cofined to 2-4 day workshops
with follow-up coaching sessions for individual leaders for 6 months.
|
Compensation
Consulting is feast or famine. My first year I didn't even cover
my expenses - it was all about building my portfolio and
credentials. The contract with Mexico is $10,000/week, Cambridge
College is $5,000/4 days. Individual sessions are billed at
$140/hour. I haven't estimated what my income will be for '05.
|
Advice to Jobseekers
Colleagues who've working in this field for 20-25 years have
evolved from training individuals and groups, to causing
tectonic shifts in entire organizations including governments
and the national treasury. The bulk of their income comes from
keynotes. The highest paid creativity consultant/speaker earns
$600,000 from the work and passive income: book sales and e-
training modules. For newcomers I'd suggest they decide what
motivates and sustains them, the money, or the
creativity........ because there's a lot of other creative ways
to make their fortune.
|
