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Opportunity Development for Seconds

Hey, it’s Nathan. This is the "Welcome" series for How to be Second, especially built for us that are "Seconds", this kind of person. If you signed up for the email list, you're probably already getting these! But of course, you can absorb them as fast as you'd like.

Here's the whole series:

Buying into Your Self (A Second?)

Introducing H2B2 and your Second's Community

OK, I’m a Second… now what?

We want Seconds to have resources for themselves and those you care for, and work you feel good about bringing into the world, which often means finding work for pay. Here’s how we’re supporting that moment of the Second’s journey:

  • We list Open Roles in our Skool platform through vetting and educating more orgs about Seconds and getting roles directly available to us
  • We run Transition PODS for Seconds looking for new work or wanting to learn how (whether a job or clients)
  • We keep “The List of Seconds for Matchmaking”, and being on it means you’re considered first when we have a First in Command looking for their Right-Fit Second (not because you’ve paid, but because you’ve done the work of self required)
  • We work to promote Seconds in the market, AND to answer questions and test market-value phrases with others, out loud for everyone to see and learn from

Here’s why opportunity development tends to be hard for Seconds:

Finding work is (supposedly) straightforward enough... somebody puts out a job, you say “I will do that job”, you compete with some other people over qualifications to be chosen for the job. Unfortunately, that has never been harder (perhaps even fully broken) and according to most popular wisdom the way to make it easier is to get “clear and specific” on what you do and who you do it for, which for Seconds is nearly impossible for two reasons:

  1. You have to be clear and specific
  2. You have to know the person to be clear and specific to

Why is that particularly hard for Seconds?

Seconds are people who tend to be most inspired by the needs and/or dreams of others, and we put our heads down to doing that work and give up developing our networks. (esp. people [with money] to be clear and specific to.)

One of our most powerful (and dangerous) phrases is, “I can do that”. It’s powerful because people tend to grab for solutions within arms reach; if you’re someone they trust, within arms reach, and say “I can do that”, you’re the solution. Which is (partly) awesome! And also how we end up with careers that look less like a through-line and more like a jackson pollock painting. “Sure, I was an account manager… that also did HR & Procurement & Delivery & sometimes filed the taxes.”

The work feels CERTAIN and SAFE, and we’re risk-averse people, whereas “growing your network & being in community” feels very uncertain. The uncertain stuff takes back burner to the certainty (and great feelings) of being the “I can do that” person to whoever we’re working with.

When the “unthinkable” happens **and we find ourselves ready to move on, voluntarily or, much more often, INvoluntarily, we’re in real danger…

We don’t know how to be clear and specific about what we do, and we don’t know the person to tell. During that transition, we also regularly discover that:

  • Most people we know are tied to that role
  • Only a select few understand the scope of “what I can do”
  • Our transitions are typically closer to divorces than happy farewells, so they won’t vouch for or intro us anyway

We’re often left making sense of a jumble of competencies that don’t obviously form ANY clear narrative, and when we start meeting new people they ask “what do you (want to) do?” and it takes everything we have to not just say “I can do anything, please just put me to work.” (And uh, sometimes we DO say that)

How do we press into that in a healthy way, even if it’s uncomfortable?

I (Nathan) have personally learned these painful lessons, and together the whole H2B2 team (and community) are working to make this less difficult for ALL Seconds, including you, by doing the things I mentioned above.

Supporting as many of us as possible to STOP

  • Saying, “I can do that”
  • USING community when we find ourselves in danger
  • Re-drawing our shape for everyone we meet
  • Going Alone

And to START

And most importantly, to go together, and then GROW together.

That was a lot - but we always like to ask what you’re ready for next: To grow alone, or go (and grow) together?

If you're ready to grow alone:

You could check out the next parts of this series (if you're on the email sequence, do nothing, it'll just show up)

If you'd like to listen to what it feels like to "Be this person", especially contrasted with a "Dreamer" type, the One Second podcast is for exactly that experience

If you're ready to stay on the pulse of H2B2 and the community, you can make sure you're set to get the weekly email

If you're ready to go (and grow) together:

You can register for the Monthly Meetup and come spend some time in community - or check out the main nav and touch base for what's interesting to you, and talk to a real person about that!