How to Achieve Career Success, Be Happier and Earn More by Not Planning Your Career or Having Just One

“What do you do for a living?” used to be an easy question to answer. At school you were asked to make a black and white choice to the question of “What do you want to be when you grow up?” and for the rest of your life you were One Thing or Another. You were a designer, or an accountant, or a doctor, or an artist. But now a new book reveals how a generation of ‘mashers’ are leading a work and careers revolution where you can be both a designer and an accountant, a doctor and an artist, and be happier, more fulfilled and better paid at the same time.

In their new book, Mash-Up: How to Use Your Multiple Skills to Give You an Edge, Earn More Money and Be Happier published by Kogan Page in September 2012, authors (amongst other things) Ian Sanders and David Sloly show readers how to get in on the act and ‘mash-up’ their full skill set to carve out a more fulfilling work life and be more than just their job titles.

Along the way Ian and David introduce readers to an army of ‘mashers’ who are already making the most of all their multiple interests and skills to live more authentic lives. Interviewees include Dave Stewart, Phill Jupitus, Sarah Beeny and a platoon of mashers whose plural careers include making an award-winning film series, running a spice trading company, writing a bio of Florence and the Machine, founding a famous series of ‘ideas’ lectures, setting up a DJ agency, and blogging for the London 2012 Olympics.

**‘Personal Unifiers’ replace job titles (and help when writing a Twitter bio)**
Practical advice on how to make the jump from a restrictive single job title existence to the unlimited possibilities of a plural career includes how to answer the dreaded dinner-party question all mashers hate: “What do you do?” and how to use social media platforms such as Twitter where mashers have to condense their plural identities into 140 characters, whilst still standing out from the crowd. As mashers are more than their job titles, David and Ian coin the brand new concept of the ‘personal unifier’. For Ian it’s ‘communicating ideas’; David is a ‘change agent’; Sarah Beeny ‘makes things simple’; and for Jose Castillo whose varied work life has included writing about new media, speaking at conferences, and consulting with Fortune 500 companies and start-ups it’s ‘adding spice’.

**Goodbye to the ‘Five-Year Plan’**
Calling time on the concept of the ‘five year plan’, David and Ian also show how it’s mashers who ‘unplan’ that are most successful. The ‘unplan’ is at the heart of the Mash-Up philosophy and is about being agile enough to adapt to unexpected opportunities. The happier more fulfilled masher realises that in a world that’s more connected than ever, but increasingly unstable and uncertain, it’s those who adopt an agile mindset, who can do more than one thing and be adaptable and enterprising, that stand the best chance of success.

To further help readers unleash themselves from the black and white single career mindset Ian and David also offer advice on:

• How to use the concept of ‘mash’ to give you a competitive edge in the job market
• How you can get satisfaction and stimulation by getting close to the work-life that reflects you
• How to go plural when you already feel time poor by making the most out of hobbies
• How the native masher is more productive when portable rather than chained to a desk

...and even more tools and tips to manage a mashed-up life.

About the authors
Ian Sanders is passionate about capturing and communicating ideas. He works with businesses turning their thinking into marketing content that tells a story across multiple platforms. His career has seen an obsession about 'doing', driven by curiosity and insight rather than a big plan. Ian applies a rapid mindset to all projects, recognising that the value lies in execution. Through his own ideas and writing he's on a mission to disrupt the business status quo. His books have inspired readers to change their lives; Tom Watson the British MP who famously challenged Rupert Murdoch, said "thanks Ian. You helped me rediscover the inner rebel". Watch Ian interview Dave Stweart, Guy Vaynerchuck and more.

David Sloly trained as a journalist with the BBC. Fired for humiliating a politician, he became highly sought after and was soon snapped up to create award-winning content for the UK's first independent radio production company. David is also a psychotherapist and hypnotherapist, so if an employer tries to fire him now, he hypnotizes them into drastically increasing his salary.

Notes to the editor: Mash-Up!: How to Use Your Multiple Skills to Give You an Edge, Earn More Money and Be Happier by Ian Sanders and David Sloly. To be published September, 2012. ISBN: 978-0749465902, Paperback, 256 pages, £14.99.