The Invisible Mentor Weekly Newsletter: Brain Food Wednesdays Number 95: Is It Time to Pivot in Your Career or Business?

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Dear Reader,

The new buzzword is pivot. People are talking about making a pivot in their business or career. But how can you pivot when you haven’t conducted any kind of personal self-assessment? You need to determine what you’re good at. And what you’re not so good at. Additionally, you have to look at opportunities and threats that arose because of the pandemic.

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A great place to start is conducting a personal SWOT Analysis. It will help you to focus on your strengths, minimize your weaknesses, and take the greatest possible advantage of opportunities available to you. And it will help you to eliminate threats that limit your ability to push ahead. You need to fully use your talents if you want to succeed. If you’ve ever done a SWOT Analysis, this will be very easy for you. It’s worth saying that opportunities and strengths are in your external environment.

In the Ask Avil section, I’ll provide instructions to conduct a personal SWOT Analysis.
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Will you participate in the Read Multiple Books at the Same Time Reading Challenge? Join my Facebook group Reading Rocks: Read a Book, Discover Solutions, Change the World.

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Ask Avil

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Is It Time to Pivot in Your Career or Business?

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Do a personal SWOT Analysis to develop strategies to pivot in your career.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths: Identify the things you do well

1. What unique skills and abilities do you possess?
2. What do you do better than anyone else?
3. What characteristics, competencies, or skills do others commend you for?
4. Are you part of a network that no one else is involved in?
5. What activities would you gladly perform even if you were not getting paid?

Weaknesses: Identify the things you do not do so well

1. What areas could you improve in?
2. What things do others do better than you?
3. What things do others see as your weaknesses?
4. In the past, what specific behaviors have been obstacles to your success?
5. What are your negative work habits?
6. Do you have personality traits that hold you back in your field?

Opportunities: Identify a relevant need not filled

1. What kinds of breakthroughs and innovations are you aware of, or can anticipate before others?
2. What new technology can help you?
3. Are any of your competitors failing to do something important?
4. Do you have strategic contacts?
5. What and where are the interesting opportunities in your market?
6. What do you anticipate happening in the future that may represent an opportunity?

Threats: Identify obstacles

1. What threatens, or has threatened your success?
2. Which of your weaknesses or limitations could seriously threaten your success?
3. What obstacles beyond your control could thwart your success?
4. What obstacles do you face in the workplace?
5. Could any of your weaknesses lead to threats?

Pay close attention to the above. And answer the questions. You’ll create an inventory of your Strengths and Weaknesses, and the Opportunities and Threats in your external environment, which will determine possible areas to specialize in, if you are looking for a change in career. Or, you can simply use the information to hone the skills that you are weak in.

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Develop ways to use your strengths to exploit opportunities and avoid or defuse threats. In what ways could you exploit your knowledge and wisdom to create a niche that you can dominate? Are you ready to conduct your personal SWOT?

Reading List​
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During October, I’m going to try to read multiple books on leadership and self-leadership. I’ll let you know how that works out. I’ve started the parallel reading process — reading multiple books at the same time. I’ll give you an update next week to let you know how I’m doing.

Avil’s Reading List​
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1. The Score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison, and Craig Walsh
2. Self-Leadership by Ryan Reed
3. The Leadership Gap by Lolly Daskal
4. Love Leadership by John Hope Bryan
5. Brave Leadership, Kimberly Davis
6. How Women Rise, Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith
7. Business Model Shifts by Patrick van der Pijl , Justin Lokitz
8. Launching a Leadership Revolution by Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward
9. The Invincible Company by Alexander Osterwalder , Yves Pigneur
10. Love-Based Business Models by Shawn Driscoll
11. Why Leadership Sucks by Miles Anthony Smith, Book 1
12. Why Leadership Sucks by Miles Anthony Smith, Book 2
13. Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo
14. The Airbnb Story: How Three Ordinary Guys Disrupted an Industry, Made Billions . . . and Created Plenty of Controversy by Leigh Gallagher
15. Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal by Nick Bilton
16. Levers: The Framework for Building Repeatability into Your Business by Amos Schwartzfarb
17. Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great by Carmine Gallo
18. I Got There: How a Mixed-Race Kid Overcame Racism, Poverty, and Abuse to Arrive at the American Dream by JT McCormick
19. One Big Thing: Discovering What You Were Born to Do by Phil Howard Cooke

The Invisible Mentor Blog

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Blog Posts
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​Stefanie Booker Atchison, Wisdom Coach & Motivational Speaker​

​Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, Summary​

​Personal SWOT Analysis: It’s Time You Conducted One​

The One Problem
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I’ve published 34 podcast episodes already. It’s important to get started. It seems to me I just started a couple of months ago. The videos are short, so they’re easy enough to listen to. And if you read books, I want you to start connecting ideas between the books you read and the podcast episodes you listen to. Why not come on a learning journey with me.
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1. ​Stefanie Booker Atchison, Wisdom Coach & Motivational Speaker​
2. ​Michelle Griffin, Founder Brandthority, Building Your Personal Brand​
3. ​Donna Knutson, Founder of Write Journeys​
4. ​Sophie Gray, Founder of DiveThru: Being Disconnected from Yourself​
5. ​The One Problem Interview with Lois McGuire, Author​
6. ​The One Problem Interview with Roberta Liebenberg, Senior Law Partner​
7. ​The One Problem Interview: Angela Payne, Founder Leed HR​
8. ​The One Problem Interview: Rose-marie Fernandez, Founder Coaching Worx​
9. ​The One Problem Interview: Reverend, Dr Cheri DiNovo​
10. ​The One Problem Interview: Hillary Sobel, Lawyer​
11. ​The One Problem: Janet Zaretsky, BS Brilliance Master​
12. ​The One Problem: Julie Foucht, Art of Feminine Marketing​
13. ​The One Problem: Evelyn Jerome Alexander, Magellan College Counseling​
14. ​The One Problem Interview with Rosalin Krieger, The Unstucker​
15. ​The One Problem Interview: Tetyana Dudnyk, Director, Technology Project Management Office​

Product Alert​
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​7 Day Reading Makeover Challenge
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This is an affordable program to get started on leadership reading. Leaders read to learn what they need to know. You’ll also learn how to synthesize information.

​Art of Learning Membership Site​

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How would you like to access the best, most useful information I have, that’s better than book summaries? Buy monthly access to the Bookish Note that’s behind my paywall. I group Bookish Notes together by a common theme, turning them into a course. Imagine reading themed Bookish Notes and starting to lay the foundation for a new skill.

Until Next Week,

Avil Beckford, Founder, The Invisible Mentor!

​theinvisiblementor.com

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