A little over three years ago (holy crap), I launched Career Coaching for Word Nerds, a career coaching service for beginning freelance writers.

I did it because, for several years, I had been receiving emails from writers pleading for advice, and I realized there was a real need for the help I could provide. Besides, the bottom had fallen out of the economy, I needed to diversify, and I knew that — with my knowledge and experience — this was something I could really kick ass at.

So I went through a career coaching certification program to make myself legit, and then I opened for business.

In the years since, however, it’s gotten so that you can’t cross the street without bumping into a coach or a ninja or a guru or a Guide To Ultimate (Career) Enlightenment. Entrepreneurship blogs have proliferated… which on the one hand is a good thing. It means that people are opening their minds to alternate career paths.

But so much of the content I see these days is regurgitated crap I’ve read a trillion times before, from a trillion different people.

In yoga, I keep hearing the sentiment that the teacher shall remain as a student, always open to learning something new. It’s a concept I’ve always believed in.

But suddenly, I wasn’t learning anything new anymore.

And I worried that you, my dear readers, weren’t learning anything new either. [Read more…]