Your job: a gold mine of ideas

Question sent to me by LiquidHeaven:

I work in a call center, and all day long I get to listen to people yell, cry and moan over their financial situation. I just got this job, I thought it would be a good job, but the stress of listening to people yell at me all day is too much. Does anyone have advice on alternative careers, preferably in an art type industry? I'm just so frustrated. The money I'm making is nice, but at the end of the day I feel like it's not worth it. Any suggestions?

My answer:

You know what? I'm the type of person that can make crazy money from situations like this. Do you realize what a gold mine you are sitting on with that job?

I can understand that you may not be comfortable writing -- and that I am very comfortable with this medium -- but have you thought about writing a book or a couple of articles using generalized (no specific/individual information -- make sure to protect customer's privacy) accounts?

You know what I would do? I would write down all the really crazy phone calls and sell it as a "believe it or not" kind of book, for instance:

"The top 100 excuses that your creditors just don't want to hear."

or

"The 25 most outrageous bad credit excuses!"

Then, to make the piece informative as well as humorous, add information on what to do when you have bad credit and how to deal with crappy credit.

Even better, I would create a contest for the other service reps at the job, asking them for the craziest excuse ever heard. The top three winners would get a prize and a mention in the "piece" (article, book, website, etc.)

Expand on that idea and create your own website or blog on the subject matter -- material comes in via your phone daily, so you won't have a problem blogging about it. Your website could become an excellent educational/satire tool. Create a following of devoted readers at the website, and you could sell advertisements or have affiliate links to credit counseling services (making money off the commissions.) Your website could sell your "crappy credit" book. You could provide consulting services. You could offer to write articles for financial magazines. The economic possibilities are as limitless as your imagination.

Your crappy job could just make you an expert on "crappy credit" and in turn give you additional income . . . which ain't crappy at all.

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