Abundance Mindset: Spark
You’re reading the “Spark” edition of Abundance Mindset.
On the second week of each month, I share a personal reflection, story, or mental model to help you think differently, stay inspired, and take meaningful action in your career & life. For more on-demand insights, career thinking, and career coaching, follow my YouTube Channel.
RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT
Why I spent 5 years doing something “boring”
…and why you should too.
I have a theory, that the secret to a great career is being 5+ years ahead of the trend.
But what does that actually mean? To me, it means working on things before they’re seen as “sexy” by the mainstream.
For example, I spent the 2010s working in email before the newsletter boom. I was:
Coding emails and figuring out why they looked like a hot mess in Gmail
Segmenting audiences
Running A/B tests
Setting up automation flows
Sending push notifications
At the time, it just felt like… email marketing. It was very monotonous, and my days largely looked and felt the exact same. But what I didn’t realize at the time, was that I was quietly learning a skill that would become the entire backbone for the creator economy.
Newsletters exploded around 2020–2021.
Suddenly businesses, weren't just using newsletters for sales, EVERYONE had a newsletter...writers, creators, investors, founders, and media companies.
What used to be a quiet backend marketing skill became a core engine of owning a business AND owning your audience in the creator economy.
That’s when I realized something important... The best career strategy isn’t about chasing what's happening right now. It’s about spotting the infrastructure behind the next big thing.
When you're strategizing your next career move, the #1 question you should be asking is: "What job function is becoming important right now, but most people haven’t noticed yet?"
Here are a few areas that feel similar to where email was around 2017...
AI Workflow Design: I'm not talking about building models. I'm specifically talking about designing how people actually use AI in real work.
Examples Include:
AI Operations
Prompt Systems
AI Tool Stacks
AI Automation Design
Right now companies are experimenting, but soon every company will need people who knows how to design AI-enabled workflows. I'm already seeing job titles like "AI Workflow & Automation Engineer" and "AI Transformation Manager" pop up!
Data Translation: There are tons of data analysts, but very few people who can translate data into business decisions.
Data analysts will be expected to transform into data storytellers and be master data interpreters. Marketing managers and creative strategists have already had to do this for YEARS, but now the number experts will need to learn how to do it too.Community Infrastructure: Community used to mean being a Discord moderator or responding to comments on social.
But now companies are realizing community is actually a secret weapon, where you can also get:Brand Advocacy
Event Attendees
Learning Networks
User Ecosystems
Product Feedback
Knowledge Systems: Access to information is abundant, and people are now drowning in their own information.
And tools like Notion, AI copilots, knowledge graphs and AI note taking tools make capturing data easier, but now, we're drowning! In the future, businesses (especially small businesses) will need professional information managers.
Knowledge Management is already a job function that is growing, but the future might also include roles like:Knowledge Architect
Insight Curator
Research Operator
As I've navigated my own career, I've always looked for the "weird" job titles and tasks. The pattern is always the same. Something starts as a niche operational skill, and then a technology is invented that helps take that thing mainstream and consumer behavior shifts. And suddenly that skill becomes a high demand job.
It happened with email, SEO, social media, influencer marketing, storytelling, and even podcasting.
Now we’re watching the next wave form in real time.
“Unsexy” Industries: Who’s Next?
Anytime I hear the phrase… “Who’s Next” my mind immediately goes to Hip Hop Harry. 🤣😭. All jokes aside.
Job functions are just one part of the equation. But industries tell you where the real opportunity is forming. Some of the biggest opportunities aren’t in the obvious places.
Here are a few “unsexy” industries that I think could boom in the next 5 years as well:
The Clean Data Economy: AI is only as good as the data behind it.
There’s growing demand for data labeling, data cleaning, dataset structuring, and synthetic data generation.
The Fix-It Economy: As supply chains fluctuate and products get more expensive, repair becomes more valuable than replacement. Be on the look out for industries that include repair services, equipment maintenance, and infrastructure upkeep.
The Mental Load Economy: Modern work comes with an invisible burden: keeping track of everything. Because of this, productivity systems, personal knowledge management, executive assistance tech, and AI copilots will see a boom.
The Longevity Economy: The population is aging rapidly. But the biggest opportunities are in the services that help people live well longer. Industries like aging services, health coordination, elder tech, and accessibility design will become increasingly important.
The Automation Economy: This shift has been happening for years, but it’s now moving beyond physical labor into everyday knowledge work. The companies that figure this out first will move faster, operate leaner, and scale quicker than everyone else. Industries to pay attention to include AI agents, robotics, self-checkout systems, and autonomous operations.
When you explore new industries or ideas, what catches your attention first?
Option A: The end result (the brand, the creator, the outcome)?
Option B: Or how it works (the systems, tools, workflows behind it)?
If you choose Option B, and consistently find yourself more interested in how things operate than how they look, you might be someone who’s naturally positioned to capitalize on this framework.
If you’re someone who tends to focus on how something looks, don’t worry, you can retrain your mind. Try this:
Take something you’re currently interested in (AI, media, fitness, etc.)
Now ask: “What has to exist for this to work behind the scenes?”
This is where early opportunities normally show up.
🤔 QTNA #1: What’s one skill or job function in your industry that feels boring right now… but might quietly become very valuable in the next 5 years?
🤔 QTNA #2: If you had to bet your career on one “unsexy” industry for the next 5 years… which one are you choosing?
Hit reply and tell me your answers! 🙂
RESOURCES
YOUR THRIVE ESSENTIALS
Until next time,
DEJA WHITE | BREAKROOM BUDDHA
