The Verse Playbook for Your Second Half
Your second-half special team.
We at The Verse like to think of ourselves as drafters of a playbook for the second half. And we all know that any strategic gametime choreography is likely to call up special teams when a little extra kick is needed. Luckily, when it comes to learning what we need to conquer our second half, we have a constellation of stars we tap for next-verse wisdom. Here’s a highlight reel we like to review from time to time before a big game.
Your linking is underleveraged.
LinkedIn devotee and copywriter Amy McGlinn helped us rediscover that platform’s personal brand-building magic. Her simple pitch? It gets results.
Bring in Don Draper.
On the hit series “Mad Men,” advertising mogul Don Draper famously said, “Success comes from standing out, not fitting in.” Clink the cognac: This is wise advice for his fictional clients and for you, too. We tapped our own former Madison Avenue heavyweight, Philip VanDusen (who created The Verse’s one-and-only brand) to help us brand ourselves with abandon.
To move forward, plan backwards.
What happens when you WFH with a former Secretary of Defense, like our founder? You learn military planning. And borrow it IRL. It's called planning backwards, and it worked for D-Day, when weather (and moons and tides) created a finite window for the Allied Forces’ amphibious landing in France. With a date and an objective, planners worked their way backwards, doing everything in their power to deliver a positive outcome. Was there plenty of nail-biting between 1943 when they started planning and June 6, 1944? You bet. But they were undeterred from doing the things within their reach. In times of uncertainty, planning forward is a fool’s errand. Instead, start with setting an intention toward what you want, when—then work your way back with manageable steps and tangible actions.
Find your point of return.
For those of us who have hit pause in our work lives—to raise children, care for a parent or tend to something else—the search for a reentry point is a BFD. But you’re a Verse reader—so we know you’re up for the challenge. And we got you (we’d never leave you hanging). We brought in the expert: Diane Flynn, Co-Founder & CEO of ReBoot Accel. After her own 16-year pause, Diane returned to a workplace transformed by tech. Right then, she made it her mission to help others like her get current, connected and confident.
Play the circle game.
Speaking of childhood metaphors, we have never understood the see-saw idea of work-life “balance”—as if they are each meant to consume exactly half of your overall being. We’re more putafingeronitpeople people. An exercise we return to again and again is the “wheel of life” from high-performance coach Cathryn Carruthers. By examining 10 facets of your life and work, and measuring your fulfillment on each, you can ascertain whether you’ve got balance in check. You can google sleuth images of the wheel—it’s actually a widely used tool—but we’re partial to the same idea in the form of Cathryn’s simple spreadsheet. It’s invaluable as you think about what you might want more of as you contemplate what’s next.
Build a cabinet.
Once upon a time in our pre-Verse corporate lives, we heard some stellar advice when faced with business curveballs: Build a cabinet. It’s a concept as established as the US Presidency itself; none other than the Constitution prescribes its role in advising the President on any subject he (or how ‘bout SHE) might require. It’s slowly gained popularity in a business sense, and is even a regular Saturday feature in The Wall Street Journal. We can attest to its value for writing your next Verse.
