Are you hoping to sort out some of what is out and about on personal branding?
Meg Guiseppi, C-level Executive Job Search Coach and fellow CPBS offered this keen insight worth sharing in her recent post Personal Branding Hype and Myths vs Reality.
Major companies know investing and building a strong brand and communicating it well improves ROI.
Have you invested in discovering and communicating your brand?
Enjoy!
How did you accelerate your search today?
Yes, I believe it will if you know how to network and you do network. Understanding and leveraging your network may be one of your most powerful tools to accelerate your search.
First the power and generosity of your network is amazing, second the reach of your network extensive.
Networking allows you to connect with people.
When you network, you have the potential connect and build relationships with people. The energy generated from connecting and sharing with people can be a simple spark or a flow of energy. The spark can be an idea, tip, or a trigger for you. The flow of energy can be an exchange of information lasting minutes, days or years.
The energy exists, just walk into a room. The energy only becomes power if you are open to it.
Much like a small appliance plugged into an outlet with the switch off, the energy is flowing however the power of the energy is not available to run the appliance because the switch in the off. When you attend an event or network, you put yourself in a place where the energy is, you plug-in. If you want to connect to the power of the energy your next step is turn the switch, to be open to the flow of energy.
If you are new to networking or uncomfortable with networking, show up. By being at an event in person, allows you to be available to plug-in to the energy and power.
I have connected to some amazing opportunities just by showing up and being open to the energy in a room. I am a planner and I go into all situations with a plan. Some of my plans are detailed and complex and some are very simple. Sometimes my networking plan for an event is as simple as showing up and being open.
You too, may be drawn into a power and generosity of your network. The flow of energy allows you to experience the compassion, generosity, personality, and the knowledge of others. When you are open and available those connections allow you to directly or indirectly connect to and have the opportunity to identify people whose values are similar to your own, and who have contacts are within organizations that are meaningful to your goals.
What is your plan to tap the power and generosity of your network?
Here are the steps to help you create a plan.
Ask – What can you do for your network? Where will you network? How will you tell your network about what you do? What results do you want?
Create a plan to connect with your network using the answers to the questions above.
Execute the plan with openness, next evaluate the results.
Celebrate your success and adjust the plan accordingly.
Do you have a networking success story to share? Feel free to share your story or a tip here.
People searching for a new job usually fall into one of two groups. Those who are did not elect to be in a job search but were forced into a job search and those who elected to be in a job search. It is interesting that both groups commonly struggle to land the job they want quickly for the same reason.
They race from the starting gate into a job search and begin doing “stuff”. Usually without recognizing the need to think about the results they want, how to best achieve those results.
A job search is a marketing project. With all marketing projects there is a need to determine the desired results, assess the resources at hand, organize, plan and execute the plan to achieve results. What is the desired result?
Is the desired result sending out résumés until you get an interview?
Or
Is it generating multiple job interviews?
Or
Is it accepting an offer for a Chief Operating Office for a 300+ unit operation on the East Coast at 17% increase in total compensation by August 1st?
One of the most critical elements of a job search is your marketing plan. Daily, I talk to people who need to organize, target and plan their marketing efforts.
If you fail to ensure all your marketing efforts are going in the same direction and your efforts aren’t aligned with your needs, goals, ideals, passions, talents, and experience the job search process becomes frustrating and LONG. The rejection rate is higher and the final outcome less desirable.
Signs your current marketing plan is extending your job search:
– You can’t tell someone in two sentences or less about the job you want
– You can’t state in a credible manner what differentiates you from your peers
– You can’t describe your marketing strategy
– You can’t list your target companies
– You can’t state why you want to work for your target companies
– You can’t measure your marketing activities and assess your progress
Would focus and a clear marketing plan accelerate your job search?
A week from Thursday is my favorite holiday – St. Patrick’s Day!
The celebrations have changed over the years. I rarely wear shorts on St. Patrick’s Day, as it is still too cold in New England for shorts in mid-March, and my networking reach is far beyond J Patrick O’Malley’s, but you can bet I will be networking, enjoying the day and hope you will be too.
In the days of JPats, I tracked contacts with paper and ink, I had no real strategy for networking, or managing my career, there was no LinkedIn, or online relationship management systems – WOW – what if there had been – who knows?
For those of you are in the Boston area, next week you can tap into one of my network contacts, Jason Alba at one of several events. In other areas connect with Jason’s blog as he speaks throughout the US and internationally.
Mark your calendars, register, and go hear Jason Alba speak. You will be glad you did.
Jason gets career management. He was an IT Manager who got laid off in 2006. Jason is street-smart, has great stories, an engaging smile and like so many, he figured out career management is critical.
Our connection, Don Huse at Venturion introduced me to Jason Alba. Jason is the author of three books, and someone I looked to for update to date information on relationship management systems, LinkedIn, and other social media. He is also a certified personal branding strategist – yet another connection! We are also talking about his returning to New England in the early fall, but don’t wait till then to connect with Jason Alba.
Do you have questions? Contact me.
Your phone may soon replace the credit cards in your wallet, if you want it to do so. You can get text alerts for many services, coupons, sales, and Thorntons will send you a “Thorntons Gas Price Alert” before fuel prices change in their market.
What are the benefits? Are the benefits faster, easier transactions and saving few cents or more by filling up your gas tank at a lower price per gallon? Or are the benefits much more? Does it mean more freedom, more individuality, more choices, or more loyalty to a brand?
The text gas price alert is a way to communicate relevant information to customers. Matt Thornton, president and CEO of Thorntons notes that the text alerts support providing the value his organization is known for in the marketplace.
Do you have a way to stay visible and communicate relevant information?
We can, do and will continue to get, if we want it, and sometimes even if we don’t want it, relevant information via text, email, mail, phone and other media. This information does impact how a person or an organization is viewed, at the very least is helps the marketplace know more about the organization or person. It may also impact if someone does or does not do business with you or hire you.
There is a new world of work. Change is everywhere. The access to information is amazing. Your Personal Brand is your greatest asset in today’s new world of work.
Every solid business knows to stay profitable in business, their brand must be visible and relevant to their customers and provide something of value to their customers.
How does the access and use of media and technology change how you manage your career and your personal brand?
How do you use new media and technology to stay visible and relevant?
Coaching or preparing to fire, which is it?
I got a call from someone who had attended one of my presentations several months ago. He said he landed a job after 50 weeks of searching and had been on the job about 30 days. His question, “Am I destined to fail in this job and should I quit now and I start a new job search?”
Hearing fear in his voice, I ask what had just happened. He shared that in 20+ years of work he had never been coached on his performance until that morning. His new boss sat down with him to discuss his performance during the first 30 days. His reaction was that he was destined to fail and that his “30 something boss” did not like him because of his age and experience and he wanted to know if he should go in the next day and quit.
WOW! The company he joined had high standards. He was told during the interview that the boss would review his performance and goals monthly. His attitude was he had heard that before, it had never happened. He viewed this experience in a very negative light and wanted to quit rather than be fired.
As the severe recession ends and companies rush to hire they may relax their hiring criteria, but not their standards. They may also hire rookies without industry experience and train them. Not at all a bad thing, everyone does their best to consistently hire talent with the skills to do the job, and who fit into the culture of the organization but no one bats a 1000 all the time. In my view, a 30- day check in is great for all and a win-win.
One bad hire can cost a department or a company big time, in profits, morale, etc. As this gentleman noted in over 20+ years, no one had discussed his performance with him. Was his new boss doing the right thing?
How do you feel when someone agrees to a meeting with you to review progress, and offers input on areas that require improvement?
Many people work for 90 days or a probation period without the personal awareness to ask about their performance or a boss who trains, coaches and is interested in their performance or its improvement. The result the job does not continue and they don’t have a clear understanding of why they didn’t make it.
What advice would you offer? Should he quit?
What would you do?
Do you want to dramatically increase the number of personal referrals to the job you want?
Then engage your personal advocates! Personal advocates are people who know you, like you, trust you and want the best for you and it is up to you to educate your personal advocates, and be sure they know what you’re up to, your goals, who your target companies are, what positions you are targeting and why you are a good fit for both the target position and the target companies.
When you start your job search prepare what I call an “update letter” and send it to your personal advocates. I suggest sharing what you have been up to, what you are looking forward to doing, your one-paragraph résumé, and as appropriate a personal update. Next review your contacts, network, colleagues and co-workers. Create an initial list of possible advocates. Create your plan to engage your advocates. Execute – send your “update letter” and don’t to follow up.
Accelerate your search today!
Do you have tips that have helped you engage your advocates? I would enjoy hearing about them. Feel free to share them here.
As a follow up to a recent Q & A call and your many questions about working with recruiters and if age matters, I wanted to share with you, Meg Guiseppi’s recent post on Working with Recruiters For Senior Executives Over 50.
Meg Guiseppi is a fellow Reach Certified Personal Branding Strategist who partners with top-level executives. She nailed it, if you are targeting a good fit, wisdom and experience should add value and outweigh a age issue.
Read the post as she also shares advice from Jeff Lipschultz of A-List Solutions.
Are you wasting time? Are you targeting and engaging your advocates?
Accelerate your search today!
There was a time when you could sit on the sidelines and not incorporate social media into your job search with little impact, however many including me believe that time has come and gone. Social media is a now a mainstream way of connecting and conducting business online. You do not have to like social media, but you do need to understand that it is part of business and here to stay.
Many businesses are increasing their use of social media for marketing and recruiting. It may not be your favorite marketing choice or the way you prefer to discover opportunities nor may and you enjoy participating in social media, but it is a facet of the internet that continues to grow, and to become more and more important as a business tool and the way business is done.
Are you still holding out, hoping you will land a job without having to jump into social media or having to learn more than one social media platform? Ok, I get it.
But the truth is as the use of social media grows, you should at least consider how you could use it, and create a strategy to become familiar with the different social media platforms. As you do so, you can decide if and which social media platform is best to use it to achieve your goals.
Here are a few questions to ask:
Could a step into social media to add value to your career?
Would social media create or improve the experience a potential employer would have with you?
How much time are you willing to dedicate to any a social media platform you use now and when you return to work?
Currently there are about 15 million unemployed persons in the US, and there are more than 2 billion product marketers, businesses and consumers that use the internet each and every day. To stand out among that level of competition, you need a plan to succeed.
What is your plan?
For years I have been helping job seekers tell their story in a clear manner. At some point almost all job seekers figure out the importance of being able to tell potential employers their story, and to respond to “tell me about yourself” in a clear and authentic manner.
In today’s world managing your personal brand online and offline is not just a good idea, but a requirement. If you are serious about your career, your job search and your reputation you not only need to be able to tell your story in person in a clear, consistent manner to be known, liked, trusted and hired, you must also be able to tell your story online.
Your online presence, and your online your identity will tell a story. You can either manage your online presence and your online identity to tell your story or you can allow search engines and maybe others to cobble together information about you.
If you are still sitting on the fence, hoping those around you are wrong about all “the buzz” about social media, or if you still think social media and an online presence is just for tech savvy professionals and not for you, for those in your industry or professional – think again!
There was a time you could elect not to have an online presence, I believe that time has passed. Not having a strategy for an online presence may be very costly. So maybe you will be lucky and find a job before you need to worry about your online profile, or online identity or maybe not. Stop making excuses and think of the benefits of offering your story.
A solid personal story communicated via your online presence offers a consistent message to help you grab the attention of your audience. It defines who you are, and what you have to offer with the right amount of history and detail about the value and impact your can offer without choking the reader’s interest with unwanted or surplus details.
Telling your story well helps your create an emotional connection. It can be the first step in helping someone, get to know you, and like you. Once someone has knowledge of you, and finds you likable, you are on your way to creating a foundation for trust. All lasting relationships are built on a solid foundation of know, like and trust.
You can overcome first impressions, and the cobbled together story search engines may tell about you, but at what cost? Do you have time to do that? Do you want to do that?
In most cases it really comes down to “pay now, or pay later”. Do you want to invest time and energy now, to be prepared, to establish your brand, and take time to building your online presence now or later? Do you want to set yourself up to be known, liked, and trusted? Then spend a little time and energy each week managing your brand, and your online presence, or do you want to take your chances and invest later.
What are the costs the missed opportunities and that you need to overcome a poor first impression? Maybe you believe the cost will go down over time! That has not been my experience neither the experience of most of the people I know.
Everyone has a personal brand and an online identity. Is your story helping your online presence? Does it help you accelerate your search? If not, what are you doing about it?
