Resilience and Reinvention: Adapting Your Career and Finding Your Niche

Claudia Lechtman’s career and life motto is to put yourself out there and good things will happen. When things have been challenging, she’s let people know. She believes that “if you are a hard worker with good intentions, people are happy to help. If you are curious about people you can have authentic conversations and when they ask how you are doing, you can answer honestly. If you put it out there, people help you when they can and opportunities come your way.”   

Claudia began her career after college at Columbia House where she worked for 11 years in entertainment direct marketing and eCommerce. She loved it. She had the opportunity to build one of the very first eCommerce sites back in 1993, even before Amazon got started. The ability to figure out workarounds to integrate complicated, and sometimes antiquated, systems ended up being a skillset she has leveraged throughout her career.

Finding Her Niche

After becoming a mother in 1998, Claudia consulted part-time for Columbia House and other eCommerce organizations. In 1999 Napster streaming was invented and in 2000 the dot com bubble burst. When the Great Recession hit in 2007, many of the traditional direct marketing entertainment companies couldn’t keep up with Napster’s impact on their business and the waning economy. Claudia found that much of her consulting work dried up. When her mother passed away, Claudia hired an attorney friend for trust and estate issues. This move turned out to be the beginning of a new chapter in Claudia's career. Her friend asked her to do marketing for his law firm, which led her to develop a unique skillset: helping lawyers with their marketing needs.

When Claudia’s kids were in 2nd and 6th grades, she took on a part-time job providing the marketing for the law firm Nukk-Freeman & Cerra, a women-owned law firm. The job was flexible and local. She worked there for 10 years, increasing her hours as both the firm and her responsibilities grew and her kids became more independent.

While working there, she became a well-known expert in the field of legal marketing. When she was ready to move on, she realized she had a niche skill which could allow her to open her own marketing agency. This seemed like the perfect next step as she looked to discover a different sort of flexibility now that she was an empty nester.

Claudia’s 6 Tips to Starting and Growing a Business

Claudia was methodical about her approach to launching a business. She knew her family needed her income, so she couldn’t be cavalier about it. Here are Claudia’s six tips for launching and growing a business:

1. Hire a coach: Claudia and I worked together to figure out different scenarios, looking at the worst and best case scenarios to assess her risk. She figured out what she needed to do to succeed and then we strategized how to put that plan into place. 

2. Utilize a coworking community: The Co-co is a local coworking space that offers a supportive environment to work. They also provided workshops which were helpful as Claudia transitioned from employee to business owner.

3. Joining a Network: The Upside is a nationwide network for consultants looking to level up their business. She joined a community circle to access peer-to-peer support which was exactly what she needed as she developed her business.

4. Invest in your business: Get the right equipment. Set yourself up the right way. Get a good laptop, a great chair, the right business software. Don’t cut corners unnecessarily.

5. Hire a Virtual Assistant: After 18 months in the business she decided to hire a Virtual Assistant. She has found great Virtual Assistants through The Mom Project. It took her a little while to figure out how to best utilize a VA. Ultimately, she realized she needed someone with a marketing background which required her to pay a little more. She did this and has found it to be money well spent. 

6. Define your client avatar:  Who is it you want to work with? Over time Claudia decided she only wanted to work with firms that are giving back in some way. This could look like treating their employees well, strong DEI initiatives, programs to support their female attorneys, having a robust pro bono program, or some other north star that involves being a meaningful contributor in the world. 

Claudia’s business is busier than ever and she is looking ahead to her next steps. She is wondering how to maintain a quality of life and run a business. It is a constant evolution–figuring out how to serve her clients while also having space and time to enjoy this time in her life. I am sure she will bring the same curiosity and thoughtfulness to this next phase – I may have to write a part two to her story at some point!

You can learn more about Claudia and her agency by visiting her website here.

Questions for you:

-How do you feel about letting people know when things are challenging? Has this helped you in the past? Would you consider doing this in the future?

-What do you need to invest in your career? Do you need more training? To hire a coach? To spruce up your home office? To join a network of other professionals?

This article is part of a series called Career Shifts & Pivots. To read other stories, click here. And to never miss a blog, sign up for my newsletter here.