How can you strategically use the right tools to distinguish yourself in your field, and attract the opportunities you desire?

 Try to brand yourself in a unique way:

Minoo Jha

 · 5y

What’s your most marketable skill? Why?

Hi, You asked, What is your most marketable skill and why? I am an independent Commissions Administration Consultant. I became an independent Commissions Administration Consultant in 2010, after leaving a full time job as a Sr. Commissions Analyst at a tech company. At the time of my leaving, I had no plans to go independent. But after doing the Xactly commission software training in 2010, and then spending a year and a half doing Xactly implementations, I decided it was worth giving it a shot. My first experiment was with a company called Epicor. Their Sr. Commissions Analyst had resigned. This was someone who had handled their commissions administration for 17 years. Epicor urgently needed to find a replacement for her, so there could be some knowledge transfer between the outgoing analyst and her replacement. I spotted my opportunity to market myself as an independent Commissions Consultant. A staffing agency gave my resume to the hiring manager - who was the Director of Strategic Finance at Epicor. Soon after, she called me. As soon as she did, I made a proposal to her. I said, “I know you advertised this as a permanent position, but I propose to come and help you keep the commissions processes going, until you find a suitable back-fill; and then train the back-fill before I leave.” It took a little bit of convincing, but she could see my suggestion made sense. After all, there were only 5 days left for the knowledge transfer to take place. “Would I be willing to get on a plane with her and go to L.A. the next day,” was her next question. The LA office was where the outgoing commissions analyst worked from, so that’s where we would have to go to do the knowledge transfer. I immediately said yes. So this is how my marketing of “temporary commissions administration”, actually, “emergency commissions administration” began. With that first assignment at Epicor. I have done the same thing, in one form or another, at 14 different companies since 2010. The most recent of them being Linkedin, Rubrik, and Zoom Videoconferencing. So the answer to your first question, what is my most marketable skill? It is Commissions Administration - everything and anything to do with it. And the answer to your 2nd question, why?… Because finding experienced and non-flaky temporary commissions administration help is difficult. It’s a niche field. And possibly, I am the only one who works it as an independent professional.

Here’s one more trick I used. This was to be memorable after an interview:

Minoo Jha

 · 2y

What are the best/innovative ways to introduce yourself to anybody?

Triple Hatter After reading Richard Nelson Bolles’ What Color is Your Parachute?, I found myself doing some soul searching. I thought about my past, my present and my future - all the colors and threads which were the patchwork of my life. And then I wrote a one page “dare to share” piece about myself, I titled Triple Hatter. I created it as something I would leave behind at an interview. I would hand it over to the interviewer at the end of the interview and say “This will tell you things about me that may not have been caught or covered in the interview”. If I was interviewed by 3 people in turn, I would hand out a copy to each of the interviewers as they left the room. I am sharing Triple Hatter with you. I hope it will motivate you to read What Color is Your Parachute? (when you get a chance) but more importantly, to learn to accept who you are in your entirety (past, present and future)... ... and then to “dare to share” everything you are with the world. Read Triple Hatter. Then go write your own Triple Hatter. And start sharing it with the world…. Triple Hatter One Gal. 3 Hats. I am a Commissions Analyst who writes advertising copy and a blog. I am a Copywriter who does Commissions Administrations and Implementations. I am a Commissions Admin who does Xactly Implementations You could call me a Triple Hatter. One Gal. 3 Hats. Solution Partners Inc, Los Gatos This is where I picked up my Implementations Hat. I said goodbye to fear and a regular paycheck when I signed up to be a contract Business Architect with Solution Partners and do Xactly Incent Implementations for different companies. 2 years and 4 projects later (including two 3-month stints at Salesforce Inc) – I am still entranced with the nuts and bolts of the Xactly Incent Commissions Machine. And now I can’t wait to see what it’s like to work both sides of the equation – the administration side and the implementation side. Which company will provide me with the opportunity to put both these skills to work? It’s exciting to speculate and wonder. Extreme Networks, Santa Clara This is where the Commissions Admin Experience I had gained at Palm was put to the test. And my ideas about my skills and traits. Excel whiz. Good at picking up new software. Accurate. Deadline Oriented. Dependable. I was there 5 years and had a fantastic relationship with my boss. Need I say more? Palm Inc This is where I got my training wheels as a Commissions Admin. No sooner did my boss sign me on to assist with commissions, when she went out on Maternity Leave. And never returned. So I was Palm’s one-woman commissions team from that point on. Of course, this meant I needed to take off my training wheels ASAP. Staying up nights with multiple Excel books, I did. It paid off. Minoo Jha Life Strategies My writing hat. It’s my oldest hat. Writing comes naturally. As flying to a bird. For a while, it looked like I had a broken wing. But when in December of 2010, I started blogging, I knew I was back in the groove. I write the Minoo Jha Life Strategies blog. Posting regularly to it, inviting guest posts and promoting it via Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Triple Hatter. That’s me.

Does everything in life have a solution?

Here’s my answer, based on personal experience.

Actually, based on a few different personal experiences of mine.

One, it is in looking for solutions, that discoveries are made.

It is how I discovered Dr. Jason Fung and intermittent fasting.

Here’s the story…

In 2015, I was freelancing at Aruba (subsequently acquired by HP).

My team and I were eating lunch.

During lunch, I told my team I was going for a fasting blood sugar test, the next day.

“I am pre-diabetic, so I am worried,” I said.

In response to this, a team member chuckled, and said something to me, that baffled me at the time…

“Oh, I practically fast the whole day, before I go for a fasting blood sugar test, and I get a normal reading,” she said.

Totally ignorant about blood sugar, in those days, I was taken aback.

“What”, I said, “If you fast the day before a test, your fasting blood sugar reading will be normal?”.

“Yes,” she said, “works for me every time”.

I went home that evening, and because I didn’t believe her, I decided to do a Google search to find out if what she said was correct.

I typed… “Will fasting the day before a fasting blood sugar test result in a normal blood sugar test?”.

The answers to that Google search question changed my life.

One of the top search results was a video by a Canadian doctor called Dr. Jason Fung.

It was a video, in which Dr. Jason Fung talked about how intermittent fasting could reverse diabetes.

Fasting? A cure for diabetes?

I was very interested to learn more.

I watched the video.

I found out how, and why, intermittent fasting works on controlling diabetes.

My understanding of diabetes changed that day.

I started intermittent fasting.

And I watched other YouTube videos by people who belonged to the low-carb movement, and made changes to my diet.

I also bought a home blood sugar meter, and started pricking my finger, at different times of the day, to check what foods and activities increased my blood sugar.

I checked first thing in the morning, last thing at night, one hour after anything I ate, two hours after anything I ate, three hours after anything I ate.

I found out that foods like rice, wheat, potatoes, corn, and other starchy foods, and simple carbs, increased my blood sugar.

Hard though it was, I largely gave them up.

Minoo Jha

· 7y

What was the most amazing physical feat you’ve managed to pull off?

Hi, You asked, What is the most physically impressive feat you have ever accomplished? I was able to go low carb and do it successfully. This was a very hard thing for me to do. I grew up eating rice and bread and potatoes. And my favorite foods are either rice based like biryanis, ghee rice, pilaf, dosas, idlis, or wheat based - nans, puris, bread. Going low carb, I gave up all of that. And I gave up more than that. I gave up lassi and milkshakes and ice-cream. The only dairy products I have are heavy whipping cream and butter. I gave up fruit, including some of my favorite tropical fruits like mango, sapota, jackfruit. I gave up anything which had high-fructose corn syrup on the label…and you will be surprised by the number of things that have high fructose corn syrup on the label, including ketchup. I did this to reverse my pre-diabetes and I succeeded. But make no mistake, going low carb is a very tough thing to do. In fact, it’s my most physically impressive feat. I succeeded only because I wanted to reverse my pre-diabetes so badly. As I said in my answer to the Quora question, What are some tips for becoming successful? …motivation is the key to succeeding at anything. If you want to succeed at anything, you have to be highly motivated. If you are, you will achieve things you never thought you were capable of. I am so very proud of myself for succeeding at going low carb.

I learned so much from Dr. Jason Fung, and all the voices of the low-carb movement.

And it had a positive impact on my health.

So to go back to your question, "is there a solution to everything", what my experience shows is that...

One, in looking for solutions, discoveries are made.

How else can the search for solutions solve a problem?

Based on my personal experience again, I found, that in looking for solutions, I am able to find alternate solutions.

This is how I once hired 4 people, who arrived for an interview at the same time, when I planned to hire just 1 of them….

Minoo Jha

· 7y

What are good ways to make a decision quickly?

Hi, You asked, What are some examples of quick decision making? Here’s an example from my life… I was an advertising copywriter in my first career. After several years of working for ad agencies, I started my own creative shop, Purple Patch. Soon after starting Purple Patch, I decided I needed to hire additional copy help. I was willing to train someone who had the copy talent and potential to grow. At the time, I was guest lecturing in Advertising Copy at Loyola College, Chennai. I thought, why not, just hire one of my students. They had class only in the morning, so they could come to my house in the afternoons. I operated Purple Patch from my home which was not far away from Loyola College. I looked at the homework assignments and identified 4 suitable candidates from my batch of students. I asked these 4 students to come to my house for an interview. Little did I expect, they would arrive at my house together since their interviews were half hour apart. Anyway, when they arrived, I took them one by one into my home office to interview them, leaving the others sitting in my living room till it was their turn. I interviewed all the 4 students, and then I told them I was going back into my office for a few minutes to decide between the 4 of them. This was when I made a quick decision. I had planned to pay 3000 INR per month to the student I hired. A new thought suddenly occurred to me… What if I hired all 4 of them and paid them 750 INR each? I would have 4 talents instead of one. I made a quick decision about this and went back into the living room. “Do you want to know who I have decided on?” I told them. They looked at me with the excitement and nervousness of those on American Idol. “All 4 of you,” I said, and quickly added, “And I thought I’d pay you,” and then I stammered out, “750 INR each. They jumped up from their chairs in unison and shouted “Yay” as if they had won the Powerball or Mega Millions lottery. I was very proud of my quick decision making that day, especially in all the months and years to come running Purple Patch.

One last and final insight about the search for solutions, based on my personal experience...

If when you are looking for solutions, you have a resource crunch - such as limited money, time, health, or other resources to use, this often forces you to think creatively.

And if something embarrassing happens to you, or there is an embarrassing lack in your life, it will force you to come up with ways to validate yourself.

In both these circumstances, the solution you are likely to find to your problem will be, not an ordinary solution, but a creative solution.

This is true, whatever the problem, whatever the situation …

Example 1 - resource crunch, based on a personal experience...

Minoo Jha

· 7y

What are some unique ways to prepare avocado?

Hi, You asked, What are some unique ways to prepare avocado? Avocado Pani Puri. Instead of putting potato in the puris (puchkas), put avocado. Just substitute potato with avocado. I discovered this recipe by accident and wrote a post about the discovery. Reprinting an adapted version below: My Avocado Pani Puri Story: I meditate on asteya. Asteya is one of the yamas (ethical precepts) of yoga. It means taking from the world only what you need -- without greed, excess or wastage. I am far from where I want to be when it comes to asteya, but I get a little better every day. One day I spotted a can of beets and a can of pineapples in my kitchen cupboard. The cans had been sitting there forever. I had picked them up and never gotten around to using them. They were a glaring example of not living by the principles of asteya. But now I looked at the cans and decided “Enough is enough. I need to use these cans and not let them lie around gathering dust anymore.” Of course, there was the challenge of what to do with them. I thought if I opened the two cans and mixed the ingredients together - they might pair well. But the pairing needed something to make it work and taste good. That made me think about fruta picada – the Mexican street vendor snack they sell at the Beryessa Flea Market. It is a mix of chopped fruit dusted with lime and chile. “Fruit chaat, that’s it,” I thought, “All I need to do is add some chaat masala to the beets and the pineapple.” It worked. This got me thinking about the avocados I had in the fridge. “I wonder how they would taste with chaat masala,” I thought. I gave it a whirl. This was a successful experiment too. Encouraged, I wondered what avocado pani puri might taste like. I typed avocado pani puri into the Google search box. Several recipes came up. Avocado pani-puri turned out to be a great spin on pani-puri which is traditionally made with boiled potato and garbanzo beans. Thanks to constraining myself to use up all the canned food I had at home, I experienced one culinary breakthrough after another. My avocado pani puri was a family hit and I was asked to make it at family events for at least a year or two. Here is the recipe: Avocado Pani Puri (Serves 3-4) * 1 Avocado * 1 Lemon * 30 Puris (Crisp, hollow, spherical crackers) * ¼ Cup fresh mung bean/dal sprouts * Salt and chilli powder, chaat masala to taste * ¼ Cup sweet tamarind chutney * Pani or spiced water (recipe follows) 1. Slit the avocado into 2 halves and remove the seeds. Scoop out the flesh using a sharp-edged spoon and cut it into chunks. Transfer the chunks to a bowl and squeeze some lemon juice all over the chunks. Sprinkle with salt, chilli powder and chaat masala to taste. 2. When you are ready to serve, crack the tops of the puris and make a hole just enough to fill them. In each puri add an avocado chunk, some mung sprouts and a dollop of sweet chutney as the filling. Pass the Pani (spiced water) in wide-mouthed cups, one for each person. Dip the filled puris in the Pani and stuff the entire puri in your mouth.

Example 2 - embarrassing event, such as Mahatma Gandhi getting thrown out of first class, on a  train in South Africa, or the ouster of Steve Jobs from Apple.

So to summarize,

In looking for solutions, discoveries are made.

In looking for solutions, alternate solutions are found.

In looking for solutions, and having limited time, money, or materials, or an embarrassing situation or lack, creative solutions are found.

So this is why., even when you think there are no solutions to your problem, you should never give up, never stop searching.

You never know what answer you may find.

And you never know how much delight finding that answer may bring you.