Hey friends

I've been doing a ton of voice typing lately. Where I speak instead of type with the keyboard. Why? Because its so much quicker. Like crazy fast. And you don't need any special software. You can voice type in almost any of the normal productivity apps on your laptop or phone. Including in your email. Then just clean up the results and fix grammar. Life changing.

Bonus: If you are voice dictating longer reports/emails where manual editing would be time consuming, get AI to do it.

Here is the prompt I use: Please have a look at the voice dictated text below and fix spelling and grammar without changing the essence of my message. Make only minimal edits.

I wrote a pretty large amount of the chapter on How to Identify your Unfair Advantage in the book I am writing with you all, in public. If you would like to read how to get into project management please check it out and share it with others. For free. Because I get the same question in the majority of my coaching calls and I want to help as many people as possible. I would love your input so feel free to comment too.

The Big Idea

Everyone has unfair advantages. But most project managers have trouble getting noticed. They all describe their work the same way.

But you have special skills you don't think about. Your special skills are your unfair advantage. For example, a nurse who becomes a PM understands why hospital workers don't like new computer systems. Someone who worked in money matters knows how much it costs when projects are late.

The trick is figuring out what makes you different. Think about your old job, what you're really good at, what problems people always ask you to fix, and where you work best. Don't try to sound like every other project manager. Instead, find your special skills and tell stories about how you solved problems in your own way. This isn't about being better than everyone else. It's about knowing what makes you different and why bosses would want that for their company.

Takeaways

• Most project managers sound the same when they talk about their work, but you have special skills from your past jobs that make you different.
• Your old career gives you an advantage.
• The problems people always ask you to solve show what you're really good at.
• Don't try to be like every other project manager. Figure out what makes you special and use stories to show it.
• Companies want the right person for their specific problems, not just any project manager.

Try This:

• Write down what old job or special interests you had before becoming a project manager and how they help you today
• Ask yourself: What types of problems do people always bring to me to fix?
• Think of a time when your different background helped you solve a problem in a special way
• Practice telling that story using this format: What was the problem? What did you do? What happened because of it?
• Look at your resume and LinkedIn. Do they show what makes you different, or do they sound like everyone else?

Deep Dive

I studied thousands of critiques to understand what makes a good project management resume. A comprehensive guide to the best resume... ​Read full story →​

From my Toolkit

I recently spoke with a group of project managers on Substack about how to do better work. We were sharing ideas about how to get the most important things done each day. The best advice was to write down three big tasks every day and do those first. I really liked this idea, so I made a simple worksheet to help with it. I call it the "3 Big Goals Daily" worksheet. It's really cool how you can get five times more work done just by doing this one easy thing.

Let me know what you thought of this email. I read every reply.

Have a great week ahead.

Jonathan