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We're really quite famous. Okay, a little famous, but be prepared to see us all over the tube/magazine racks/newspaper stands/bookstores/blogs/Twitter/radio in 2010! Here's a little sample of our news-worthy-ness!
Here are some TeeVee and radio interviews that you might find helpful. Or funny. Or weirdly addictive...
http://www.better.tv/videos/m/30767391/thank-you-for-firing-me.htm
and
http://www.king5.com/video?id=92676154&sec=619972
and....
http://amystable.com/2010/04/04/on-the-radio-thank-you-for-firing-me/
Huffington Post
Guest Blogger: Candice Reed (formerly of the L.A. Times)
The American dream of earning a degree on Friday and walking into a high-paying job on Monday is so over. And the ridiculous idea of purchasing a McMansion with a waterfall in the pool and a six-car garage has come to an end, and rightly so. Over the past decade people acted as if they had endless amounts of credit to upgrade their kitchens with Italian marble sinks and built-in pizza ovens and buy vehicles the size of apartments in Paris. If it weren't so crazy and real, I would laugh. But I won't just yet.
If you haven't noticed, the job market has changed. So why haven't you? Your new challenge needs to be is this: if you can stop longing for the consumer driven climate of a few years ago and switch gears to the new trends out there while finding your niche, you'll be better suited for success.
Yeah, I get it. Every position out there has 1000 people applying for the same opportunity. There are too many people out there that are unemployed at the moment, but seriously, that's the attitude that you need to change. There are open positions and business opportunities out there, right now. Those jobs will be filled by people who persist and approach these prospects with willingness to change and a progressive attitude. You have to maintain a sense of optimism and humor -- especially humor -- about your future.
Seriously, you're more adaptable than you think.
Take your great-grandparents. Did they live through the Depression and make it? Were they in World War I or II and lived to tell about it? Those who have gone before us lived through upheavals so great we may never appreciate the strength and spirit they needed to survive. History shows that we humans are remarkably flexible and can adapt to a wide variety of situations and environments. Realizing this will encourage you to embrace change rather than avoid it
I speak from experience. I worked as a journalist in Southern California for more than a decade earning decent money while my husband who worked 7-days a week and supported us for 30 years took a break and went to part-time work. We didn't need much. We had a 40-year-old house with a mortgage, older cars with no payments and one credit card with a $2000.00 limit and, to make it even easier, the kids had flown the nest. Everything was good. Until I lost my job.
Then the mortgage went up -- long story -- and I found myself doing everything and anything to hold on to the house-even renting it out as a vacation home while my husband and I slept in our RV in a friend's driveway. Finally after juggling bills and wondering when the sheriff would be knocking on our door we sold, and then we left California renting for the first time in our lives on a lake in upstate Washington. It's been six months now. Since leaving the Golden State I've found two great jobs in journalism, and my husband has also had two dream jobs: making wine and working on a golf course. We love renting and we've made friends. I've even lost weight because there are no fast food joints in town.
So there you go! We became excited about our future again. We realized that being out of work was actually a good thing. The great thing about a crisis is that people start pulling together to seek support and help from each other. People are nicer and more willing to listen and help during tough times and almost everyone has a story
Whether you still live in your big, refinanced house with loan modifications or in a camper in the Wal-Mart parking lot, you need to laugh just a little at the situation while job searching. I did, and it doesn't get much worse than what happened to me. Step-by-step you will inch closer to a job -- and hopefully it will be fulfilling and something you are passionate about, but you'll have to change. Change your ideas about how much money you need to make and where and how you need to live. If you can't change, don't blame me or anyone else. It's all on you now, so get to work.
Candice Reed's new book Thank You For Firing Me becomes available on Tues. Order it here.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Dear California, I'm dumping you
I thought it would last forever, but you've changed and I want out.
August 16, 2009|Candice Reed and Candice Reed starts her new job in Chelan, Wash., in September. She is the co-author of "Thank You for Firing Me! How to Ride the Wave of Success After You Lose Your Job," which will be published in February.
Dear California,
I've been thinking about this for a very long time, and I've come to the conclusion that we should go our separate ways. I thought I loved you and it would last forever, but I was so very wrong.
I know that our relationship has lasted 50 years and that we should fight to stay together, but you've changed so much that, frankly, I don't know who you are anymore!
When we first met I was young and rather naive, and I loved you unconditionally. I spent years running with abandon across your sandy beaches in the bright sunshine, playing in your beautiful parks and attending your top-rated schools, which were a national model for the other states. For 18 years or so, I can honestly say that I was truly in love with you, but then came your first major transgression: Proposition 13.
Oh sure, you tried to tell me that property taxes were bad for our relationship, but I knew you were lying. Low taxes, you said, would bring us closer together. You wanted to have your cake and eat it too. You said we could build schools and roads and parks without that tax money, but even back then I knew you were in denial.
I didn't leave because I thought you'd get over it and we'd still have a future. But, to be totally honest, I stayed with you mostly for your weather. No other state has your perfect little sunsets (don't get me started on that sexy Pacific Ocean), your 364.5 days of sunshine each year and your mild climate even in winter. I know you occasionally turned on me with your random earthquake tantrums, and you tried to chase me away with flames more than a few times, but I forgave you. I always forgave you, which I suppose says something about me. I was weak when it came to you, California. But now you're hurting everyone we know, and I can't stand by and watch.
You've totally lost perspective, and I'm sinking into depression! We can't pay our bills, and the phone is ringing off the hook with creditors calling from all over the world. Children across the state are losing healthcare, more than 766,300 Californians lost their jobs in the last year, and we're at the top of the foreclosure charts. You need to change, and you refuse to admit it. For the first time in our relationship, I'm embarrassed to say that we are together.
There's no doubt that I still have feelings for you, but since I lost my job in the newspaper industry and my house is being sold under duress, I want out. I'm leaving you, California, and you might as well know the truth; there's another state and I'm falling for it hard.
Never mind where it is, let's just say that it's above you and leave it at that. What I will tell you is that I can afford to live there without stressing every day that my expensive electricity will be shut off, or that my water, which I can use only sparingly, will dry up.
Oh, and my new state still has jobs in the newspaper business, which I will admit makes my heart go pitter-pat, and I find myself daydreaming about healthcare benefits again. I know my new state isn't perfect. Oh sure, the weather isn't as nice as yours, and it's got its own budget shortfall, but it's coping, and I can dress in layers. Nothing is perfect.
So that's it, California, it's over. You've cost me too much. I'm starting over, but I can see happy times ahead. Like we once had.
Please don't call my mother to try and find out where I live. You could be a great state again, but I can't wait for you to turn it all around. Good luck!
Hasta la vista, Candice
Show looks at light side of losing a jobBy Marcia Manna
November 21, 2008
CARLSBAD — Pencils. Erasers. Paper clips shot from a rubber band.
In a stressful office, the array of desktop items that could be thrown at an unreasonable boss make for great daydreams.
But marshmallows?
Reed and Martini want the audience to know there's life after layoffs and that getting fired can even be, well, funny.
They say their show resonates with an expanding demographic, considering the U.S. Labor Department announced that the number of people applying for unemployment benefits reached a 16-year high last week.
What's more, the pair speak from experience.
Last year, Martini was earning $85,000 as a senior copy editor for Ignite Health, an Irvine-based marketing agency. She said she was developing concepts for ad campaigns when she got the idea to paste head shots of department managers on cartoon bodies.
Her boss told her things weren't working out.
"I think I overstepped my boundaries," Martini quipped.
Undaunted, Martini used her last check to rent Dave & Buster's in San Diego. Then she booked a lineup of female comedians, including Barbolak. The evening was billed as Girls Night Out Comedy Dinner Show, and all 200 seats sold out.
"I learned that it is best to trust myself," Martini said.
"Humor always seeped into my serious journalism jobs in the past and I would often hear, 'You just aren't a good fit.' A lot of people want to trust the job, but I learned to trust my own resources."
Reed, who lives in Vista, was fired as a funeral director 10 years ago, one of many unfulfilling jobs. Her husband supported her desire to become a writer and after her initial success, getting published in True Confessions magazine, Reed's confidence blossomed.
"When I found that check in the mailbox, it was the greatest day," she said. "I had 20 jobs before I realized I could write."
Since then, Reed's byline has appeared in The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor and numerous other magazines and newspapers.
The women are working on a book titled "Thank You for Firing Me!"
"Both of us are 50 and we are ready to live the second act," Reed said. "The point is, we learned to trust ourselves and our passion."
Marcia Manna covers arts, entertainment and community news for the Union-Tribune
http://legacy.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20081121/news_1mc21fired.html
Help, Hope and Hilarity for the jobless and the Soon-to-be JoblessCARLSBAD, CA---- Thank You for Firing Me! is comic relief for the working world and those worried about being downsized, laid off, fired, pink slipped or 'asked to leave' their job.
On Saturday, November 22, this wild and hilarious interactive show will be held at the Carlsbad Village Theater in Carlsbad, CA at 8 p.m. and will give audience members the opportunity to vent their bitterness, tell off the boss and get crazy!
The show features a line up of side-splitting comedians---some who were former executives and who have made a career out of comedy ---- as well as Malibu Mike, who plays "Dick Tator" the idiot boss in the lobby who will fire theater-goers as they enter the venue. Headlining the show is Vickie Barbolak, a San Diego comedian voted on network TV as America's Funniest Mom. Before she became a success in comedy, Barbolak worked at her family- owned carpet store ---- until her family fired her!
Have you been fired? Do you hate your job? Does your career suck big-time? If you answered yes to any of these questions then it's time to escape and have your 'humor revenge.' Oh, and if you invite your boss, we'll make sure they are abused and amused.
Thank You for Firing Me! dishes out advice from anti-career experts, Kitty Martini and Candice Reed who warn, "Be extra careful about government jobs. If you try too hard, they'll fire you for working!"
Martini and Reed are authors of the humorous blog: Jobs4yourfiredass and the forthcoming book, "Thank You for Firing Me."
Aside from the laughs on stage, the lobby will feature a job placement table to visit for resources on new and upcoming positions, a CD packed with information about new careers in emerging green industries and other hot markets as well as training programs.
This one-night- only event will change someone's life, possibly jump-start a new career and definitely deliver the laughs.
Just because Bush is leaving and McCain and Palin are not moving into the White House, doesn't mean you don't need comedy to survive!
We have one of the highest rates of unemployment in history. Even the unemployment office is laying off workers!
The grim news about the economy is nothing to laugh at. Or is it?
BigNewsBiz.com
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