In business, “rainmakers” bring a metaphorical kind of rain: dynamite ideas, crucial solutions, and the knack to generate new clients and increase profits during business drought. A rainmaker is someone who makes things happen, like in the movie where the young lawyer wins his case against all odds. Every business needs a rainmaker.
Whether you are an entrepreneur, an inventor, or an employee, being a rainmaker will ensure career options and opportunities.
How it all started…
I was really drawn to the Rainmaker meaning when I opened Rainmaker Résumés, right after the economic downturn of 2007. I wanted to be the trusted one that people called for help and I wanted to portray my clients’ achievements in a powerful way so that their target employers would ‘get’ the ways they’re problem solvers. And I also hoped to inspire folks to feel empowered in their lives, to know they could make it rain opportunities.
When starting the resume business, I set three intentions:
- I wanted to support job-seekers to best present themselves in such a tight market.
- I was eager to use some of the skills I most loved and were part of my personal brand, but hadn’t been using professionally: seeing the best in people — their unique genius and potential — and innovating ways they could realize their dreams, and writing.
- Perhaps most importantly, I yearned to help people create and find work they loved, rather than working like I had for so long at work that I excelled at (and looked good on my resume), but crushed my soul.
This is where the calling part comes in.
Scholars identify 3 types of work orientation:
Job: do it for a paycheck at the end of the week, you don’t seek other rewards from it
Career: entails deeper personal investment in work; mark achievements through money but also through advancement (e.g., law firm associates become partners); but when the promotions stop, alienation starts, and you begin to look elsewhere for gratification and meaning
Calling: most satisfying form of work – done for its own sake rather than material benefits it brings; individuals with a calling see themselves contributing to the greater good, to something larger than they are; the work is fulfilling in its own right, without regard to money or advancement
So I started Rainmaker Résumés to support job-seekers to gain employment (jobs, mostly, in the early days) through expert custom-crafted resumes, cover letters, LinkedIn profiles, and job interview coaching. I thought this work might be my calling, since I cared so much about my clients and the work was fulfilling. But over time I began to secretly want more.
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Callings can be like breadcrumbs, leading us one step at a time.
As the economy recovered, I was thrilled to hear clients looking for ‘better’ jobs, more ideal situations, career opportunities, not just any paycheck. I also heard from folks who were a little bit lost. They wanted to do work that mattered and was fulfilling, but weren’t sure what that might be. Their dreams were often buried under a huge pile of ‘shoulds,’ ‘have tos,’ and ‘doing the safe and acceptable’ thing.
I also grew ill. So ill I could barely lift my fingers to type. One of my practitioners told me if I didn’t take a year off and go to bed, that I might die. But I couldn’t take a year off! And I didn’t want to go to bed! My clients needed me! I bargained and begged and resisted. And eventually, I began to wonder if my body was telling me exactly how to serve others and my soul. I noticed I felt better when I engaged with others about their deepest struggles, dreams, and desires.
So I took what felt like a crazy leap and followed the breadcrumbs to my own deepest dreams. I gradually began to support people on a deeper, soul level, to be a healer of sorts. I hired first one, and then two, writers, and worked my tail off to learn tools to effectively help others to head their calls.
Now, as an executive coach, in addition to resources we provide via Rainmaker Résumés, I write, teach, coach, and lead workshops and retreats. My own calling and my business have evolved to helping people in transition to (re)connect to their callings, prevent or recover from burnout, and then take inspired action based on their soul’s guidance to live their most authentic lives..
The Rainmaker is also powerful mythological figure
called on to help nature bring rainfall when it is most needed.
While it’s a great career move to make things happen, to become indispensable to your employer or clients, I’ve encountered a whole lot of busy and burned out and just plain exhausted folks. I was one of them. As I stopped pushing so hard, I began to get a sense of direction, like an internal compass nudging me down a different path. You might say it was calling me. And I might call that internal compass my inner Rainmaker.
Sometimes the only action required to make it rain is to stop and listen. You probably won’t need to go to bed for a year, but it sometimes feels wildly radical to tune out cultural expectations, shoulds, and have tos. To tune in to your inner guidance. To Be the Rainmaker. In stillness, I tap into creative energy, healing, inspiration, and inspired action. I’m often amazed how much can change from this knowing place. Maybe even the weather.
Yearn to hear your own calling?
Want to tune in to your inner Rainmaker, but not sure how?
Hit an obstacle in your career where you’re not performing to your desired excellence?
Sick, in chronic pain, or burned out, and wonder if these could be breakcrumbs?
I invite you to check out a coaching program or retreat or simply schedule a free Discovery Chat. I’d be honored.