How to make your paid education pay off

Three top tricks for making more money
 
Quick: How much of your college education do you put to use at work each day? 
 
Second question: By contrast, how much of your career experience do you put to use at work each day? 
 
We’ll guess your answer to the second question outweighs the first one, mightily. 
 
We’re not going to spend this article dinging a college education. Rather, we’re going to focus on that education you got—and continue to get—while earning a living, and how to leverage it to your advantage. To make it pay, even more. 
 
The Man From Infinity
 
Years ago, we were working at an ad agency in New York, and were tasked with our first “color separation” for a full-page newspaper ad. Back then, this was a complex assignment that involved a high-tech vendor, a considerable budget, and special skills. (Today, it’s not even done anymore. If you create a newspaper ad on your computer, the file automatically includes the “CMYK” [cyan, magenta, yellow, and black] “plates” that are “separated out” for the different inks on the printing press, hence the term “color separation.”) 
 
This was new to us. Daunting, even. Because it’s one thing to get the funds for the separation and call in the vendor—but that’s only after you’ve applied these “special skills” to create the input artwork in the first place… skills which we didn’t have. 
 
A senior art director at the time gave us the magic tip: “Ask the vendor to show you.”
 
Simple as that. 
 
The company that did the “sep’s” for us was called Infinity. And the guy who worked there was named Steve. Steve From Infinity! Sounds like a super-hero. And in this case, he was: he swooped in and taught us all we needed to know. 
 
Was he being nice? Sure. Was he “cultivating a new client to boost his income”? Absolutely. 
 
Did we get an education? Indeed. Did we pay for it? No. In fact, we were on the company payroll at the time. Paid education. Put another way: Free food tastes better. 
 
The joys of email
 
There are a few guidelines you can apply toward bolstering your paid education: 
 
1. Pay attention.  

2. Be humble.  

3. Build. 
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“Paying attention” is easier today than ever, thanks to email. If you’re cc’ed on the latest iteration of a deep thread from a client or a higher-up within your own organization, read the entire thread, from the bottom up.It’s amazing what you can learn from the depths of a conversation that was sent to you only for the benefit of the last addition. You can see how other functions function. You can see who the players are. You can get a handle on protocol: what’s accepted, and what isn’t. You can pick up on useful terminology or jargon. You can discern important strata of politics among stakeholders, sponsors, and customers. You can even pick up the timing of events and correspondence, based on the meta-data. In short, it’s a trove. Don’t pass it up. 
 
“Be humble” is another way of saying “Ask.” Think of it this way: Whenever you need to ask someone something, the tacit implication is that they know more than you. So when you ask someone—when you request to tap their expertise and experience—you’re complimenting them. It’s such a win/win: You look great for expressing humility, interest, and curiosity. The “teacher” feels great for being respected and valued. And you come away with new knowledge that’s valuable to your career. Would you gain any of these benefits if you cop an attitude or are afraid to admit your ignorance? Of course not. 
 
“Build” means that you can find synergies that aren’t handed to you as such. If you’re serving several clients in various verticals, you can apply the lessons of one to the business of another. And Business B will be all the more impressed that you did, simply because they lack the visibility into Business A’s industry that you possess. 
 
And take advantage of all venues. We’d mentioned email as one simple example. But there are optional meetings that could pay off handsomely, if the attendee list looks ripe. Ditto for conference calls, webinars, vendor presentations…. don’t look at them as “chores.” Look at them as “opportunities to learn.”
 
Making it pay
 
Each new skill set you add to your quiver is valuable. It’s as much “breadth” as it is “depth”; indeed, your paid education will often yield you more of the former than the latter. 
 
Of course, there are times when you simply need to tap the services of people who have been there, done that. Like us. For your next creative or communication challenge, we’d love to help—and put our hard-earned education to work for you. Contact us today for a no-obligation consultation. 

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