What do you do for a living?

5 min reading time

So, especially because of the Medical Devices Group, I get asked, “What do you do for a living” and its cousin, “So how do you make any money” more than any other questions.

My answer is, “I have three main revenue streams, none of which cover my mortgage, all of which (together) keep me in my house with my kids fed.” The three are:

Marketing services. I help medical device companies with their marketing. They pay me.
Paid distribution. Sometimes but infrequently, a company will pay me to talk about them in my correspondences. I only accept compensation if they are getting something concrete in return, such as the contact information of subscribers who sign up for a webinar or to download a white paper. It’s not huge money, but it adds up.
Conferences. I sell tickets to attend my 10x Medical Device events. Sponsorships too.

A distant fourth, I sometimes earn referral fees for match-making buyers and sellers.

That’s what I do for a living and how I make money. Glad that’s settled.

Now, how about you?

How Anita makes money

I have a dear friend. Let’s call her Anita. (It’s not Anita.) We had a lovely conversation last week. I asked her, “How’s the new job going?”

Her pause told me everything I needed to know.

“No, it’s good…,” she trailed off. “But….” She detailed this frustration and that frustration. She wished her boss were more “this” and her co-worker were less “that.”

She told me she thinks this is better than her last gig. She said she could always go back if she needed to. She wondered what she really wants to do career-wise.

Anita told me what she wanted out of this job; specifically, what she’d like to be able to say she did when she applies for the next job in her career.

Anita’s scholarship

I told Anita to think of her job as a paid scholarship.

She’s studying what she wants to study and, while she has to take some courses she doesn’t particularly like, they are requirements for her degree.

She has to do well enough in these mandatory classes to keep her benefactor willing to fund her scholarship.

Beyond that, she should push to take all the electives she wants on her path to becoming the career woman she aspires to be. And if she needs a little help figuring out precisely who that person is, there are plenty of guidance counselors available to help.

Implication for you

Are you doing what you really want to be doing? If not, are you “taking the classes you need” to get the job you want?

If not – and this is reckless of me to say; I have no idea what your personal situation is – quit.

Go to a “school” where you can learn what you want to learn. To be what you want to be.

The alternative doesn’t help anybody at all.

And, as we’ve amply covered, life is too short. See “time left,” “saved my life,” and “to-do list.”

Leave it to “The Onion”

I’ve been an Onion fan since 1989 when I picked up a free copy from one of those “Take One” machines in San Francisco.

On the cover it had a picture of a stapler with the headline,

New stapler makes all other staplers look like worthless shit.

(Reply to this email if you just chuckled.)

I still have that page laying around here somewhere. It still makes me laugh and I use it sometimes in marketing presentations, saying, “Now, THAT’S a point of difference!”

Anyhow, I discovered the image and headline below two days before my “Anita conversation.” It was too coincidental not to share.

NEWS: Job Applicant Totally Nails Interview With Person Who Will Make Life A Living Hell For Next 5 Years

It begins, “SAN ANTONIO—Appearing upbeat and optimistic upon leaving the offices of Red Spur Media on Thursday, local job applicant Marc Tullman told reporters he totally nailed his interview with the man who will make his existence a waking nightmare for the next five years.”

“The 32-year-old prospective marketing analyst said he “knocked it out of the park” during his meeting with Red Spur vice president Peter Palmero, who in just several weeks will start casually dismissing Tullman’s ideas and begin to routinely embarrass him in front of colleagues, setting the hellish tone of his work life for years to come.”

Click here for the rest.

A personal story about something that’s happening today

Shortly after this email drops, I’m visiting a rental office and paying a stranger’s back rent.

I belong to a volunteer organization that helps local families in financial distress. I don’t want to share too many details here. I don’t want to get in trouble with them.

So I went on this Saturday and met a woman who is a domestic violence survivor. She suffers from PTSD. She’s a licensed massage practitioner who didn’t go to her daughter Crossfire soccer match that day because crowds “still get to her” and she can do her job well because it’s “usually just one-on-one.”

She is in a cash-crunch situation because her roommate moved out and, in addition to not contributing his half of August’s rent, needed his security deposit back.

She called around everywhere and no charitable organization in the vicinity has the funds available to help her this month.

But eviction looms and she’s out of time.

Goods and services

I’ve always wished for a licensed masseuse with a table to come to my home for personal massages for two reasons: One, I’m too lazy to make appointments and drive somewhere for a massage, and two, because there are few things I enjoy more than getting one.

So I agreed to pay the rent as pre-payment for a string of massages to grace my family’s tired muscles. I also have a marketing idea for her and plan to introduce her to my chorus. (Standing on the risers for three hours makes for tired backs!)

Anyway, I’m telling you all this because:

We’re family and I tell you things.
This one charitable act will save her and her AP-class-taking 16yo daughter from homelessness.
Perhaps you’d like to help her too.

Her rent is covered and, mercifully and responsibly, she has zero credit card debt. But her bank account is overdrawn and she drives ~ 60 miles roundtrip to her job at a chiropractor’s office in a car that, from what I’m hearing, is borderline unsafe to drive. She just can’t afford to repair it.

So if you’re inclined to chip in $10, $20, whatever, maybe we can get her car fixed and give her a little breathing room as her daughter gets ready for another school year.

To contribute, visit https://paypal.me/medicalmarcom/ and donate whatever feels right. Even $5 will help if enough of us each help a little.

In anticipation of your generosity, my profound thanks. We did something good today. ❤️