Accelerate Your Search™ Now

“Regardless of your lot in life, you can build something beautiful on it.” ~ Zig Ziglar

Zig Ziglar’s point is on target. This quote is one that reminds me that I have many gifts and opportunities and it is up to me to use these to build a beautiful a life to accomplish my purpose. To do this I need to be connected to my purpose and to communicate my purpose. One of the ways I have learned to communicate and achieve my purpose is to build and use my personal brand.

Are you building your personal brand? Is your brand working for you?

It is amazing how building your personal brand, will help you stand out from your peers, reach your career goals and live your purpose. Once you identify and communicate what makes you unique, compelling and relevant in the marketplace, your personal brand helps you connect your purpose, values, strengths and what you do.

Think about Bill Gates who has a stated purpose of a computer in the hands of everyone. His purpose connects to what he does, what he wants to do and he has a strong brand. How does your purpose connect to your career and what you want to do?

Do you need help to explore and live your brand?

What are the attributes that you set you apart?

What are your unique points of differentiation?

Create a list of these and your values. Write down your purpose.

Reflect on your attributes. These are the things that help you stand out and create a strong brand. Strong brands demand a premium.

What are you doing to build a strong brand?

If you want some help to explore your brand you may want to check out 360˚Reach is the first and leading web-based personal brand assessment.

Being known in a job search is critical. Your name, what you do and reputation are intertwined. If people don’t know you are, what you do, what value you add or type of service you provide that impacts your position in the marketplace, within the community and impacts your short term and long term success. Who knows your name? Who knows you?

What are people saying about you? Jeffery Gitomer, president of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer and author says that when someone asks about you or says your name, people are going to say one of five things about you. These things are: something great, something good, nothing, something bad, or something real bad. Gitomer also says that whatever people say about you determines your fate.

Building your name recognition and a great reputation takes dedication, execution and time.

What are you doing to be known?

Social media and social networking are here to stay and tools that can help you build name recognition and your reputation. Using social media to be known is a process, it takes work and to be effective requires systems.

What systems are you using to be known?

“You are never a loser until you quit trying.” ~ Mike Ditka

AUTOPILOT, cruise control, and automated systems are great tools. I highly recommend them. My long drives and life would not be the same without these tools. I use great tools to enhance my life and my work. I encourage you to find and use as many tools as you can to automate and streamline your job search, your networking and all the things you do.

There is one caution I would share. Mike Ditka got it right; I don’t believe you fail at anything unless you stop trying. Don’t lock on the cruise control and assume you can stop trying. You are still in charge of the wheel of the car! Using tools to automate tasks does not let you off the hook for the important work that needs to be done.

One of the best ways to save time to work on important things is to put systems in place to take care of time consuming task that need to be done. So do it. Would you be shocked to learn that you can automate most of the passive activities in a job search? Of course not, you have done it. My question to you is by doing so, did you quit trying or quit working on the high value items with the time and effort you saved by setting up “search agents” and posting your résumé to 150+ sites?

Do you spend all or most of your time looking at job postings that are dropped in your inbox? If so, you are more of a “buyer” of the products (jobs) offered, than a seeker of “opportunities”.

Are you trying to find opportunities with your automated systems? Or have you stopped trying, and just hope the “prefect” job will show up in your inbox one of these days?

You can counteract the rollercoaster of the market. You are set up systems and create a pipeline of opportunities in a good or a bad job market.

Here is what you do. Set up systems and a schedule with very specific activities. Create a specific market plan and market yourself consistently. Assess where you are, define the job you want, determine your goals, set up the tasks to be done, your marketing plan, your schedule and do. Automate, delegate and execute the really important things each day.

This ensures you know what you are doing each day, week, month, quarter and year to market yourself and that you are working on the important things. Yes, even after you land the job you want you still need to market yourself.

Have you quit marketing yourself?

Are you waiting for the “right” job to show up on your computer screen or inbox?

Are you taking action and getting results?

Are the results you are getting great or just okay?

Do you need some help to tweak your systems or results?

“Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into.” – Ghandi

The job search can be the toughest job you will ever have, sometimes despite “Positive Thinking”, great marketing, resolve, determination, focus on your goals and vision, doubts jump into your thoughts. Go ahead, admit it.

Pause and think about how you FEEL about building and connecting with your network and how you ACT and interact with your network. It does dictate how your network grows and how fast your search moves forward.

Sometimes when you reach for the phone or start to type an email, that inner voice or doubt begins to chatter. “Why, would this person be interested in hearing from me, we’ve not talked in 8 years” or “what will this person think of me, I am unemployed and begging for help” or “this person doesn’t like me” or “this person doesn’t know me” or “this person wants the job I want or is my competition” or “my dream is gone, I am so unhappy, why am I doing this”.

We all have inner doubt at one time or another. The way we feel directly impacts the actions we take, especially in marketing ourselves, our value, and what we can do and with whom we are willing to share information. How we feel directs the action we take. Also how the person you contact is feeling directly impacts their actions.

What we choose to do (or not to do) will determine the opportunities we have and find. Our actions directly impact the results we achieve, our income and our success. The choice of what we do will also impact how we FEEL and ACT this afternoon and tomorrow.

In times of doubt, how we feel and act may not be moving us in the direction needed to change the status quo. Marketing yourself requires building your network, and ensuring your network knows who you are and what you do.

Why? So when opportunities present themselves you are thought of as a solution to the problem or a person who may be able to help. You don’t just need a network when you are looking for a job you need a network and a “Book of Business” as it is called in the sales world, to connect you and keep you connected with people and opportunities all of the time.

If you feel and act like you just want to connect NOW because you NEED a miracle to show up TODAY, what do you think the impact of that is?
What would happen if you feel and act with positive expectation?

What would be different if as Ghandi suggests in the quote above, you grow into the faith that connecting or re-connecting with each person will bring good things to you and to them?

You and I already know intellectually that you have significant value to offer. I also know that there are no accidents, and that if you are considering the contact you should act on it because it is the first step to connecting with an opportunity and allowing that opportunity to show up in due time. My bet is that you know that too!

What action will you take? Yes, I know it takes a lot of courage to BELIEVE that results actually do occur based on our actions or lack of action, unless you stop to think intellectually about cause and effect.

It is much easier to listen to the voice of doubt, or the media telling you there is nothing you can do things are just BAD. It is easier to take no action than it is to have the courage to listen to the REAL call to action and actually do what you need to do.

Everyone wants life and success to be easy. Me too! I would love it, if I could just wait by the phone or open the email and someone would agree to hire me and pay me giving me wonderful work to do. However, without marketing, connections, contacts and demonstrating my value in many settings and in many ways, time and time again. I don’t land the job and neither will you.

Grow into faith, grow your network, nurture your vision have the courage to BELIEVE that the results are indeed coming based on your actions, and be a magnet for success and prosperity in your search. FEEL confident about your value, skills, and the job you can do, be willing to ACT. You must take action and be aware of your feelings or you will miss opportunities that are available to you by connecting with your network.

Assess your network. Take inventory of the people you know. Inventory your network now. As in any business, inventory is an asset and will impact your bottom line.

The network of people you know is a component of your social and business capital. Who are your critical connections? Who are the critical connections you need to add to your network?

Create a plan to connect and stay connected. Who knows you? Who likes you? Who trusts you? Who will you contact with this week? How will you stay connected?

“The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what a man or woman is able to do that counts.” ~ Booker T. Washington

Do you have a personal brand? What does your personal brand say about you? Does it tell others what you are able to do? Is a personal brand important?

Yes, you have a personal brand, everyone does. You are a walking billboard. Everyone is!

Usually, we think of this as reputation, how someone dresses or acts. These are all piece of who you are. Components of your brand!

If you are a professional and also looking for your next job, being aware of and communicating your brand is critical to your success now and in the future.

We live and work in a hyper-connected world, so don’t under estimate the power of your personal brand. During a job search a strong personal brand helps build a foundation to engage and connect with others. A strong brand quickly allows others to know who you are, what you do, inspires action and positive communication on your behalf. What is your brand communicating?

Do you have a strong personal brand?

What role are you allowing your brand to play in your job search?

What is the “word of mouth” communication of others regarding your brand?

Have you taken a look at your online and offline persona?

Does your persona engage others, communicate value and touch others in a positive or negative way?

Is it time for you to set aside some time to take a look at your personal brand?

What is preventing you from looking at your personal brand?