Are you a slash?  I am!

So is my husband.

So is my son.

This makes us very happy at the moment.

And I have friends and other family members who are “Slashes”, too.

A slash is someone who has more than one career and usually at the same time, and who perhaps has made a second career out of a hobby or passion. 

A slash can transition you from one stage in life to another or it can accompany your other career through most of your life.

I am a slash and I have friends and family who are also slashes:

My husband has become a slash by adding massage to his repertoire. Now he can teach English, lead a band, and massage!

My cousin Mark, for example, is an engineer, project manager and is nearing retirement.  He also, along with his wife, makes soda, mainly root beer, in a huge pole barn next to his house. Mark Glewwe of Glewwe Castle Brewery produces black cherry, cream, orange, ginger ale, raspberry ginger ale, and ginger beer besides the spicy adult-flavored root beer.  He has been doing this for years and is quite famous among the Minnesota root beer and other specialty soda fans. Glewwe Castle Brewery is doing well, so well, in fact, that local beer breweries and bars have begun to order his soft drinks for their customers’ use.  What is next?  Only he and his wife, Laurel, are in the know.  We Swiss relatives are hoping for a “factory” here! 

My second cousin, Eleanor Glewwe (niece to Mark), is a two-time author of YA science fiction and fantasy, publishing with Penguin/Random House.  In her other slash, she has a PhD in linguistics from UCLA and is a lecturer in Iowa at a prestigious private college.  Her books, Sparkers and Wildings are quite thought provoking and still fun to read.  Eleanor may have other slashes in her future, who knows.  

My friend Doug Brouwer is a retired pastor and an author who is publishing a new book in 2022.  After a very successful 40-year career in ministry, both in the US and Switzerland, Doug retired early to concentrate on his other passion, writing, and on his children and grandchildren. His wife, a successful lawyer has taught herself how to be the building director of homes and is finishing up a second house in Minneapolis after designing and building a “cabin” on Lake Michigan.  I was honored to have been in a writers’ group with Pastor Doug a few years ago.  Besides books, Doug writes a blog and a column for a local Michigan newspaper called the Holland Sentinel, too:   http://www.dougsblog.org

Another friend, Sarah Tesnjak, is a singer, a furniture restorer, and a life coach.  She hopes to also add speaker to her slashes.  Sarah has also been an event planner and who knows, maybe she will add this to her list of slashes again one day.  Her business is called Simply Transformed.

Another friend, Daniel Gargliardi-Paez, is a surfer on the Swiss National Surfing Team, has his own business finishing/shaping and selling surfboards in Switzerland called Force Line Surfboards, Intl., and is a very successful computer sales specialist the Apple® Team on Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich.

Hats off to other friends, colleagues and (former and present) clients who have slash careers:  my husband Patrik and son Daniel Jehle, Mary Yee, Dilek Cansin, Selime Berk, Olivier Pirlot, Kate Pendergrass Norlander, Holger Hendricks, Brian Sparks, Dina Ioannou, Albert Klein, Jeff and Kristen Kidder, Urs Rey, Melissa Kurtcuoglu, so many others, and especially the supposedly “retired” Dr. Prabhu Guptara and Douglas Brouwer.

Now for me: besides being a writer/blogger, I am a business coach and supervisor/ business communications lecturer and trainer and a sometime speaker.  

I am also a mentor and coach/helper of start-ups and artists and other creatives and an independent member care and debriefing provider.  

What pays?  Most of it pays because I do what energizes me and am well qualified and experienced. 

Besides teaching here are some of the activities (besides teaching, writing, and speaking) that have filled my time recently:

·       General business coaching

·       Team and organizational coaching (focus on change and positive work environments)

·       Supervision

·       Executive and management coaching (including coaching and supervising new managers)

·       Career and job transition coaching (both at beginning and middle management levels) 

·       Life and career choices coaching (for young people, but also for those who are making decisions after some years of work)

·       Member Care and Debriefing

·       Expat coaching (intercultural transition and adjustments, especially for Asians and Europeans (and N Americans)

·       Time management and work optimization coaching

·       Decision-making coaching

·       Conflicts at work coaching

·       Burnout and burnout prevention coaching

·       Coaching people with slash careers

·       Start-up business coaching (both regular and creative businesses)  including starting a coaching business coaching and mentoring 

·       Assisting friends who are artists and creatives

·       Masterminds (a kind of small group coaching)

·       Life Coaching with a focus on emotions and well being

So, are you a slash?  Do you want to try it out? 

I can help you manage some of the and highlight the benefits.  

Even if we don’t work together at the moment, at least you have a new name for what you are doing:  you can say “I have a slash career – one person, multiple jobs.”  You are not schizophrenic, you are multifaceted!!!  Now you have a name for “what you do”: a slash career.  

Enjoy the variety!

Patricia Jehle                                              patricia@jehle-coaching.com