Why daily practice? Learning from the teaching profession
GigWarriors succeed only when they practice their work on a daily basis.
I teach rural Government school students in Karnataka two to four hours every week during these two years using Skype as a technology channel to reach them. And, I am assigned with English teaching to Kannada medium students in the primary classes. Indeed, it is a challenge to deliver my part and get some results that the children in the class accept English as a friendly language.
I did not stick to the conventional style of school teaching and the framework. Instead, I prepared certain rituals for them to practice every day so that they keep learning English of their own irrespective of me or any other teachers taking the class every week. One such piece goes like this… English is just another language like Kannada! When we think of English skills, the ‘four skills’ of listening, speaking, reading, and writing readily come to mind. Of course, other skills such as pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and spelling all play a role in effective English communication. You know how much time you can dedicate to learning English, but a short time each day will produce better, longer-term results than a full day on the weekend and then nothing for the entire week. Learn new words, listen to English News, Read Books, talk in English with your friends and practice it every day…I was surprised to see a few students in the class really practicing it daily. Most of them are 1st generation learners in their family. They are the role models for others to follow.
This is what we expect from GigTeams precisely! A daily commitment of at least one hour is essential to win the jobs in the GigEconomy marketplaces. t is suggested to keep aside at least 1 hour in a day for yourself, a calendar system works better than random timings. When you setup your profile in any of the freelancing platform, please remember to setup an email alert for new jobs matching your criteria. Most of them have a feature to set an email alert and you would get it in your inbox. So, even before you login to the system, you are aware of the new opportunities. Those who have Android or iOS Apps anyway could get real-time alerts for every new opportunity…Every job post matching your profile criteria is a potential revenue source even if you do not bid on it and hence researching and nurturing those contacts must be a routine task for you. Proposal submission is one part, the equal importance has to be given to a) Research about the client, his company and their activities. Normally, better insights would be available at Linkedin. Please do not forget to follow that company, send a connection request to the key people there and that is the way get familiar wi the client. The chances of getting the job are far higher when there is a KNOWN factor. b) Build the contact list either using MailChimp or any other personal CRM kind of tool. This is the list which helps you to broadcast the updates from your end to all the prospects on a regular basis. …What if you don’t win the bid, but building a relevant international network and targetted prospect database itself is a big win for you. I call this as a digital asset. You could really translate every interaction with the prospect clients into revenue in a strategic way. …Finally, build your personal brand in the freelancing world with which you could sell your services for a few dollars more.