Three years ago, everyone’s lives were given a shake up. I wrote this article for my LinkedIn account, as a way of sharing how I spent the time locked away during COVID. I thought I’d share it here too…
After missing out on the trip of a lifetime, cancelled on 13th March 2020 due to Covid-19, I decided to take a small career break. During this time, I was able to shift my focus away from complex business analysis and enterprise architecture, and focus instead on illustration again. I rediscovered a lost passion.
Over many years I have written and illustrated a number of children’s books, however have never quite completed any or had any published. How funny then was it to find myself creating a KANBAN and brainstorming all of the things I would need to do?
What was it I wanted to achieve? I explored what success looked like. I set myself targets and timelines.
I dedicated time to research. I learned the publication process. I tore apart publisher websites. I learned a whole ton of new acronyms. I even created a business model, enabling me to visualise how different scenarios would work, depending on the publisher I chose, and the production model (on demand or up-front publication). The business model built a picture of the outgoing costs and what I would need to achieve in order to make a profit.
From this process I then not only began to illustrate again, but was able to brainstorm a series of new book titles and ideas!
Switching into “Business Analysis” mode was so natural that I didn’t even realise that I was doing it.
Every role we perform, we collect skills. We learn better ways to communicate, negotiate, articulate. We learn how to investigate, analyse, problem solve and create options. We learn about people, personalities, traits and states, and so much more. These capabilities are transferable. They are transferable across industry and they are transferable from job to job. You can’t teach in school or at university what you will learn through experience. It was through my experience as a business analyst that allowed me to pick up pieces of project that I started over 20 years ago, and finish what I set out to do.
Oh, and by the way…you’ll be pleased to know that I have now completed my first book and it is ready to be published. Wow what a year!
Thanks for reading, fast forward to today, Pig’s New Bed was published on 8th September 2023 and is now available for purchase.
Thanks for reading.
Jodi & Erick the Snail
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