Tim’s Strategy is about ideas. Ideas that can create change, encourage people and drive positive results in life. Written from the perspective of a job seeker and a hiring manager, the site delivers free advice, tools and templates to support anyone looking for a new job, to create a new career path, network into a better situation or find the right life/work balance. Tim’s Strategy is written by Tim Tyrell-Smith, a former consumer marketing executive living in Mission Viejo, CA.

How it all began
In 2007, I became officially unemployed (in between) for the first time in my career. It was joyful, stressful, freeing, exciting and frustrating all at the same time. And, in some ways, I needed to make a game of it.

To find unique analogies that I could use to maintain a positive and confident psychology. You see, there is something very stimulating about being on the job hunt. You get to test your skills against many others and in front of a great variety of hiring managers. Where else do we really get to compete in life anymore?

Plate spinning as the first analogy for job search, career and life
The act of plate spinning was the first analogy I identified because its focus was on efficiency – the best, most productive use of time spent.  And it led to the original name I used for the blog and website.  You see, I found during my own search that people were tapping into too few resources and using them up beyond their usefulness.  See my intro blog post for the full story. And I think we have opportunities to apply this idea broadly throughout life.

I originally called it “spin strategy”
Building this community is an act of thanks to all who helped me during my own search. To get started, I created a name and a logo (after all, I’m in marketing) and started to share the idea with a few friends. I then created a set of tools to help job seekers identify and determine how best to use their network – all based initially on the analogy of plate spinning. As the concept matured and caught on, job seekers wanted more than just a concept or a tool. They wanted a broad menu of resources so I started to blog and began to create free downloads to support the job search.  And plate spinning became just one of many ideas to share.

Then I made some changes . . .
About 15 months into creating the concept, I decided to make a change.  To re-jigger things a bit.  So I re-named the blog and combined it with the website.  It became Tim’s Strategy.  After all, it did originate in my head, right?  And every day I write or build a new tool, the strategy gets more complete.  So now I am working on ways to pull it all together.  There is an e-book, an e-workbook, and a new hard cover book in process that I hope to publish in the more traditional way.  But in reality, the content is not mine alone.  Like anything that is created from experience, it is never one person’s strategy alone.  But it’s mostly mine!

You can read more about my story in this article by Peggy Lowe of the Orange County Register “Unemployment Was My Big Deep Breath“.

It’s A Competitive Market
But, let’s be clear. Tim’s Strategy is still a very young concept. I hope it will become a great resource for lots of people. But today it is an interesting idea waiting for you to share it with others. There are a lot of great resources out there on the web to help with career and personal development. I only hope Tim’s Strategy can add to the quality content available and do so in a fun and inventive way.

So, what’s next?
As I find time in the early morning, evening and on weekends, I continue to write on the blog and look for new ways to bring this concept to life. We may do a few national webinars or seminars in Southern California to get away from the computer, meet you and share our ideas in a more personal way. Looking for a speaker? Let me know!

The rest? Well, that’s up to you.