Getting Fit--Again

Being me sometimes can have its lumps. OK hell it's not easy being me, at least these days. But again in trying to answer the challenge of one in my cabinet, I am on the quest, the mission to be in the bracket of Ph.D.s who make six figures and still have their summers off. Now to do this is going to require multiple streams of income. I mean, if I can make the first 50K, the rest should be easy. Shouldn't it? Ok well here is the challenge: you've got to use what you got to get what you want, or so the expression and song lyric goes. What do I have that makes me marketable? Strangely, I have my story, my experiences, my ability to listen, my ability to give feedback, -- ok who doesn't have those attributes? So then, the extension of that question points to the query of what makes experiences, services, and abilities to be unique and why would someone pay for them? What is my story? What is my brand. I think about that question and I go back to a book that still leaves me with inspiration today, Nathan McCall's book Makes Me Want to Holla. I remember reading that book at an extremely troubling time in my life. I was going through a grieving process and to read someone's story- who to me represented "everyday folk," going through was what really kept me on track. McCall was a former inmate who liberated himself through writing. He became a well known news paper journalist for the Atlanta Constitution and eventually went on to writing another book which chronicled race and gender through the eyes of the African American male. Believe it or not, one of the stories from his second book What's Going On, inspired my short film Elevator Music. What I took form his first book strangely was how to be assertive and still maintain what Majors and Billson refer to as Cool Pose. Please refer to my previous entry who's afraid of the big bad warewolf? So again I have to go back to the question about what I offer... Multiple streams of income is the key. My aunt says on the side I should consider becoming a certified personal trainer.. My friend says I need to stay focused finish my dissertation and farm myself out to media outlets in the country. My other friend says I need to become more linear in my thinking/methodology. Reflection and self criticism have always been one of my good points. I actually take in bits and pieces and digest what I could use and put them to work. This is what I call forward planning-plan your work, then work your plan. OK so how do we solve the conundrum where I am happy, bringing in 120K per year and still have my summers off. Someone told me the government takes off 20% from the top...
Step 1-- Location, Location, Location
Step 2--Baseline income--something needs to start coming in other than subsidy
Step 3-- Professional Income--Putting my Ph.D. to work
Step 4-- Creative income-- Telling my story -- while motivating others
Step 5-- Professional Consultation--Putting my Ph.D. to more work
Step 6-- Building my brand--What is it that makes me consistently billable
Step 7-- Make the money work for me..
Deadline to have put all this in place-- 2012 on year from now....