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Does today, or worse yet, your life, feel out of sync?  Is this feeling impacting your career?

When you get up in the morning to go to work, does it feel like it is the middle of summer and you’re walking around in your winter coat, hat and gloves?  Does your work feel more like shoveling snow than playing on the beach?

It saddens me to think about the number of talented professionals who say their careers feel like a “heavy winter coat on a hot summer day.”  Life is meant to be fun and enjoyable.  Earning a living and sustaining your career shouldn’t feel like a burden.

If you feel out of sync in your work, or in a career transition, it is not a huge problem.  In fact, it is much easier to solve than you think.

But, you say, “The economy is still not very good.”  Well, guess what?  You can have a job you love in a good economy or a bad one.  The economy does not drive your career — you do!

When you feel restless or like something is missing in your career, it might be that you are just a little out of touch with your talents.  Maybe you are not fully using them or you got sucked into someone else’s opinion of what your great career looks like.

These three steps will help you get clarity, find focus and feel in sync:

• Assessing where you are
• Assessing what you are saying and doing
• And, asking yourself, “Are these things in alignment?”

To help, answer the following questions:

• List three things you did this week that felt wearing a winter coat in summer.
• Now, list three things you love to do.
• What do I talk about?
• Does what I talk about feel like a burden or a joy?
• What would happen if I did more of the things I do well and enjoy doing?
• What would happen if the things I enjoy doing were the things I talk about and share with others?

Being in sync is really only steps away when you align your talent to your work, and your message to your talent.   Using the steps above, create a plan to use your unique gift and execute your plan at least 9 minutes per day.  If you have a question or need some help to get started, contact me.

Having worked with thousands of professionals to improve their personal brand and help them develop a clear, unique brand message I can tell you it takes time, energy and desire.  For many, it is a struggle.  I know it was for me.

Once you know what makes you unique and what to say, most people think it communicating it in a clear manner will be easy.  That’s not always the case.

I realized developing my message was something I could not do alone.  I held on to this belief for far too long.  Why?  Because I was stubborn and I thought I didn’t need help.

And, if I’m really honest, I was afraid of what others would think of me if I could not do this for myself.  Then my coach so wisely asked, “Can you give yourself a good haircut?”  I laughed and got help!

The result was a better message.  I realized the process of clarifying my brand message as a collaborative process was more fun, faster and the message was more authentic.  I needed a pro and a coach to help me get real.

After several conversations with professionals and reflecting on my experience helping others, I recognized there are 10 key steps to the process.

You are special and your message needs to be genuinely you.  It needs to be focused and speak directly to your target audience.  Here is an activity to get you started:

1. Identify your value and why it is important to your target audience.
2. Gather feedback from those who know you.
3. List five to seven adjectives that describe you.
4. Review your adjectives and narrow the list to the three that reflect how you talk.
5. Describe your ideal employer in detail.
6. Jot down phrases that include your value, your adjectives and focus on the employer’s needs.
7. Write many variations of your message.  Say them aloud.
8. Ask other people what the messages ‘sound’ like and watch for their reactions.
9. Ask and answer (honestly) how do you feel about your message?  Is the message you? Are you being truthful or blowing smoke?  Are you communicating your value in a way that is important to your audience?
10. Continue to test your message.  Adjust as needed.

Get help if you need it.  Not everyone “can give themselves a good haircut.”  I couldn’t.  It took me far too long to get help and the cost of my stubbornness was significant.

What does your brand marketing message say about you?  Does it communicate your value to your target audience?  Are you still searching for your message?

What makes you different?  What make you unique? 

Answer these questions and you tap into your unique value.

Oftentimes, people applying for a certain job will have similar backgrounds (education, previous experience, training, etc.) — because without these basics you are not qualified for the position.  Merely listing these basics on a resume or in an interview will not help you stand out.

When you are ready to transition to a new position, you must highlight how you are different.

When you are able to clearly communicate your unique value, you gain favorable attention, build trust and attract your target audience.

A clear, consistent marketing message shares what is unique about you and helps strengthen your personal brand.  It allows your audience to really ‘get’ what you do and how you add value. We often take our unique skills for granted, assuming others will automatically understand our gifts as well.  Not so.

Do not take your uniqueness for granted, rather highlight it.  It is important to carefully craft your marketing message to share your unique value.

If you are struggling to identify your differentiating factors, ask your network.  Ask your peers how they would describe you if asked by a potential employer.

Maybe you are a CFO who has a special talent for communicating bad financial news to investors.  If you fail to clearly communicate your unique ability, you may not be called for an interview or selected for the job.  On the flip side, if you share your brand personality in your written and verbal communication, odds are it will set you apart from the competition.

Want to get started?

Make a list of the characteristics that separate you from your peers.  Then, share your uniqueness in all your communications — including introductions and in your resume.  Emphasizing what makes you different is a sure way to stand out in a crowd.

One note of caution:  it is rare the unique qualities or abilities an organization seeks will be included in a job posting.  However, those qualities are how candidates are selected for interviews and positions, so bring ’em to the table.

Who knows your name?

Being known in the marketplace is critical to job search success.  Your name, what you do and your reputation are intimately intertwined.

What are people saying about you?   If the answer is Zilch, Zip, Nil,  don’t you think you should change that?

If no one knows you or can’t say anything about you, your odds of being hired may go down to zero!

Jeffery Gitomer, author and president of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer, says that when someone asks about you or says your name the response will be one of five things:

1. Something great
2. Something good
3. Nothing
4. Something bad
5. Something really bad

Gitomer believes these responses determine your fate.

I agree — what people say about you impacts your providence.  More often than not it is because people say nothing about you or share too little.

Building your name recognition and a great reputation takes dedication, execution and time.  Are you putting time and effort into being known by those who need to know you?

When someone asks about you, my theory is that most people say nothing for one of two reasons.  One, they don’t know anything about you – Zilch, Zip, Nil – therefore have nothing to say.  Or two, they are unsure what to say and therefore say Zilch, Zip, Nil.

What if you converted either of those groups into people who said something good?  WOW!  You would double the number of brand ambassadors you have in the world.

Why not start today?

Here are three easy steps for getting known:

1. Define your personal brand.
2. Consistently communicate a clear message.
3. Connect with the people who need to know you — on and off-line.

LinkedIn Continued …

A few weeks ago a friend called to ask if she could share my name with someone seeking information on using LinkedIn, my reply was sure.  Interesting and as usual, the best part of those types of connections is they are fun.

It is a chance to talk to and meet someone new, and learn something new which I love to do.  Maybe it leads to work, other new connections, or an interesting relationship.  One just never knows what or where being open to an opportunity that presents itself, will take you.

In this case, at least so far the opportunity has lead to an interesting conversation and a point to ponder – What and how do I use LinkedIn for …?  The caller was engaging, focused and did not waste time, great qualities in my book.  Yet, this one call has prompted me to really think about a question I get at least a few times a week – How do I use LinkedIn for my job search?

There is not a single answer.  There are many good books, blogs, videos, workshops, seminars, forums, and the list goes on covering the topic.  My best guess is the ways and the “how” to use LinkedIn for a job search are unlimited.  At least, if you are open to the possibilities and opportunities that could be presented to you.  Google offered 151,000,000 hits on the question in 0.22 seconds!

No, I am not being flip.  LinkedIn is a tool, not unlike a car. If you know how to drive and you have a license to drive, and access to a car – how do you use the car?  To go places, to get things, to have fun.  That list too goes on and on.  Maybe the question is – how do you want to use the car?  

My point is this – learn how to use LinkedIn and then change the question – How do you want to use LinkedIn in your job search? or to build your business? or to hire great employees? or … ?

If you can drive, have a license, access to a car that is in good shape, well maintained and some fuel, you can go just about wherever you want.  That is great.  If , but it you never get in a car and go places you will never know how far it can take you, or how to drive in different places or conditions.

In my view LinkedIn is much the same as a car, or any other tool needed to get the results you want.  Learn about LinkedIn, understand the rules of the road, decide what you want (make and model that is on brand for you), how much you are willing to invest, (don’t forget to look at the cost of not using LinkedIn too), clarify the why using this tool is the best for the job (if it is), decide where and when you will use it, and then go for a drive!

Travel, go places, experiment, and see where it takes you.  Be open, share, and discover how LinkedIn can work for you in your job search.

LinkedIn is an ever changing tool.  Assess where you are, decide the results you want, create a plan, execute the plan and adjust as needed.  That is one surefire “How” to use and to leverage the power of LinkedIn to accelerate your search.

How are you using LinkedIn?  Have a comment, tip or thought?  Post it below.

Do you have a question about your search or using LinkedIn?  Look to the right and sign up for next Q & A session, join the next session and ask your question.

Do you need a personalized plan for your search?  Contact me I will see if I can help you. 

Last week I spoke at two unique events about how to leverage your personal brand, your online presence and online networking.  From the questions during both Q & A sessions it was very clear most people have only touched the surface of standing out in a crowd.  Most don’t know the quick and easy ways to stand out.   Some people shared nothing, yet many shared they don’t leverage their LinkedIn profile, résumé and business card.  Some were surprized at how little things make a BIG difference. 

So when I read, the post “Presidents’ Day 2012: Who is the most underrated president?” by Jon DeNunzio and the comments on the nominees (you can find on Twitter using the hashtag #underratedpresident or below the post) I thought, WOW – we have 44 people who have served as a U.S. President and the conversation is on the MOST underrated in 75 words or less.  Interesting!

Can you state why you are underrated in less than 75 words?  

Do you have 75 words or less that help you STAND OUT if you are on a list of 44 people?  

Do you know how others view and rate your work over a four or eight year span of time?   

Many seeking a new job are underrated, and sadly they underrate themselves.  The impact of that is a lower value in the market place and not being noticed.

Are you lowering your value in the market place with your current LinkedIn profile, résumé and business card?  Most professionals even if, on the most-praised list of others don’t leverage that praise or marketing power.  Many people don’t know how to uncover what others think of them or the value information can provide. 

Which list are you on “underrated” or “much-praised” or not on the list for the job past or present?   Have you reviewed your brand, LinkedIn profile, résumé or business card?

Who will win the underrated vote and be the subject of the Tuesday guest post on The Fix for Tuesday?

What would happen if you changed your personal marketing? 

Could feedback from you network help bring you some clarity around your personal brand and accelerate your search?

Would a few key words or phrases help you to leverage your brand and your value to make a hiring managers list?

Need help with your personal brand contact me. 

Need LinkedIn Profile or tips to enhance your current profile?                                        

Check back next week for LinkedIn tips.

You have heard it and you know your reputation counts in your job search.  It is a given that employers will check your references.  Employers and recruiters will ask you and others about your experience, how you work, the quality of work you deliver, and many other questions to help them determine if you are the right person for the current opening in the organization. 

Do you know what others say about you when asked?  Do you know how others view you? 

Your reputation – who you are and what makes you tick all help you communicate your value to an employer.  What others share about you is critical.  Do you understand how others view you?

When you have a keen understanding of yourself and how you are communicating who you are, how you work, play and do all things it is much easier to communicate your value in a way that paints a clear picture for others.  When you also have an understanding of how others view and value you, you are better able to market and leverage your brand.

After all your reputation (your personal brand) is about what others think of you, not only what you think.  Do know what others value about your knowledge, your experience, your skills, your style, your value in the workplace, your vision and your values?

What would happen if you did?

All of these items are elements of your personal brand and who you will be as an employee.  These elements make up ‘fit’.  “Fit” for the job is one of the critical factors in hiring a new employee.  Employers want not only the skills need to do the job they also want employees who “fit” on the team and within the organization.  Don’t you want “fit” too?

One of the best indicators of future performance is past performance, and most if not all hiring managers know this.  Therefore, as employers seek employees for new or open positions they not only identify the skills and experience needed for the job, employers seek to discover how you have performed in the past and they seek information from others to learn about your possible ‘fit’.

When you began your job search you probably updated your résumé, your LinkedIn profile, contacted a few key people in your network, maybe asked for a reference or two, posted your résumé online, and set up a few online search agents to send to you emails of job openings in your field.  Then you may have made a few calls to see who might be hiring, and began to look at the job openings online.  You submitted a few applications or emailed out your résumé and now you are waiting to the phone to ring or the emails asking you to set up an interview.  Does that sound like your marketing efforts and your search plan so far?

If so maybe it is time to leverage your reputation and actively market yourself.  Here are the steps to leverage your reputation (your personal brand) and actively market yourself and have a better understanding of your personal reputation and how to market and communicate your ‘fit’ to employers who will value you.

1. Get feedback on your reputation.  Learn about what others think of you and how they communicate your strengths.  Assessments, interviews and conversations will help gather feedback.
2. Review the feedback.  After you selected those to provide feedback and gathered enough data, you will want to review the data.  This type of feedback will often provide valuable data to help you create a very on target message to share your value.
3. Review the feedback with a trusted advisor or coach.   To look at your reputation and grow and leverage your personal brand you will need help.  Companies hire teams of experts, don’t short change yourself by lacking the benefits and insights of having a trusted advisor or coach help you review the data you have gathered.
4. Establish your brand aspirations.  Your reputation evolves.  This occurs with or without your intention.  How can your reputation and your strengths help you achieve your goals?  How will you communicate these as you continue to grow and evolve?  Strong personal brands grow and evolve and your personal brand is a tool to help you market yourself and to achieve your goals.  What is your desire for your brand?  How would you like to communicate your desire?
5. Plan and execute.  Ideas, Thoughts, Aspirations are great, however without planning and action nothing happens.  Develop your plan to leverage your reputation, make a commitment to yourself to take action, now execute and market yourself communicate your value and use your reputation and what others say about you to demonstrate your “fit” for the job you want.

One of the common mistakes is not being clear about what you do.

Over the years, as I work with executives and professionals, I have discovered that it is often the most talented who face the biggest challenge in clearly communicating what they do and make the mistake of not being clear.  Most people forget to keep the message simple.   

That is why I smiled this week when I read this post “Randy Fenoli: ‘Say Yes To The Dress’ Star At Brides Magazine White-Hot Hope Style Shop”.   Randy Fenoli is very clear about what he does and does not do – “I don’t sell dresses. I dress brides”.

Randy Fenoli gets it and communicates it in 3 words! 

For those who are interested, curious or want to know more about Randy Fenoli, he has a clear 133 word; 6 sentence Bio or his Twitter Bio to complete the picture. His message is consistent and clear.

Is your message clear?  Do you tell others quickly and clearly what you do?

Do you have a question or need some help to clarify your message, develop or communicate your personal brand?

 Sign up to the right and join the next Q & A call.

One solid way to build your personal brand online and share your knowledge is to write articles for online publications.  Sometimes there are little hassles to know about and avoid.  One of those issues can be your quotation mark style.

If you are publishing articles online and never had this issue – that’s great!  If not, here’s an important tip from Susan Friedmann, CSP.  Susan helps companies put their best foot forward at trade shows and events.  Her focus on increased results, and on building better relationships with customers, prospects and advocates in the marketplace is not only solid information for companies it can help you too.  She is also a literacy volunteer for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Here is Susan Friedmann’s tip to “Avoid a common hassle when submitting articles online”

If you write articles for online publications, you need to change your quotation mark style to avoid hassles.

Many online text boxes don’t accept “smart quote” or “curly quote” quotation marks. When smart quotation marks are copied from a MS Word document and pasted into an online text box such as a blog editor, the result can be text mashed up with incomprehensible symbols. It’s easy to change your quotation marks.

Instructions:

Open a new text document or the document you are working on. Click on the “Tools” menu.
Click on “AutoCorrect.”
Click on “AutoFormat As You Type” in the AutoCorrect menu.
Deselect the “Smart Quotes” option and select the “Straight Quotes” option in the ticker boxes.
Click “Save”

Thanks – Susan for sharing this information!

I appreciated this tip and I bet my readers will too.

Accelerate your search today!

Have a comment, tip or thought?  Post it below.

Summer is a great time of year. Summer in New England is very different than the HOT summer days of West Texas.  I love summer and the abundance of fresh vegetables, watermelon and the ease of finding good ice cream.

One of New England’s big surprises was the number of great easy to find little ice cream shops.  To find one I discovered I could just look for where people are lined up waiting to purchase ice cream on a summer evening or afternoon.  The second part of this surprise for me was that most of the ice cream shops close on or about Labor Day! 

The impact is that it feels like ice cream is in short supply in the fall and winter.  That of course is nonsense, good ice cream is not in short supply in the fall, winter or spring, it is just not as convenient to get and takes a bit of effort to find it during the other seasons of the year.  The result, if I want ice cream in the other seasons I have to make an effort to locate it.
 
Sometimes in a job search it is easy to feel ‘lack’ or think jobs are in short supply like ice cream in the off season.  That too is nonsense. 

Once you spend a little time reflecting on where you are and what you want from your career and your next position, you will also discover an abundane of opportunities.  These may not be as convenient as going around the corner and looking for the line or opening an email with a long list of your ideal positions.

Your ideal job is not in short supply, but effort is required to locate it.  You must be willing to market yourself, and you need to know what you are looking for and be willing to seek it out. 

Your talent, skills and abilities are wanted and needed, opportunities are abundant.  Are you willing to do the work for the ideal opportunity?

Most of the people lined up outside the ice cream place, knew where to go because of word of mouth marketing.  Someone told them about the great ice cream, they went and experienced it, they told others and line grew! 

This word of mouth marketing did not happen without work, a plan and day-to-day execution on the part of the ice cream shop owners.

Are you leveraging your word of mouth marketing?   Why not?

Sure there is a shop, a place for people to go to experience and learn more, (your online profile), the unique story of the ice cream shop and the ice cream it sells.  How it is made, what makes it different and the best in the area (your USP, your brand, your story).  The shop has a sign out front, (your job title, your business card), a menu board of the ice cream they offer (your résumé). 

The ice cream shop communicates their message and they help others communicate and share their message.  Maybe in print with a flyer, a storyboard, and as people gather in the line they are talking about the ice cream.  The line and those conversations are part of their social proof that the ice cream is good (your recommendations, references, your network).

All of these marketing elements are critical to drawing people to the shop to experience the ice cream.  They built the message and their reputation over time.  This did just happen. 

The shop assessed what they had to offer, worked to understand the wants and needs of their customer, and then they create and enhance a market for the ice cream as they communicatie and encourage others to share the story.  They focus on the experience and they have customers willing to stand in the long summer lines for ice cream!

The behind the scenes to creating the end result – a great reputation, long lines, perception of short supply, and high value, began with a careful assessment of the value available, how to communicate the value offered to the marketplace, followed by the creation of a plan and the daily execution and evaluation of the plan.   Time and hard work!

Have you taken the time to assess, plan and execute your personal marketing plan to land your next job? 

What is your story? 

You are unique, in short supply (there is only one of you).  You will be available for only a short time, and you have a high value in the marketplace.  What are you doing to tell your story, to pull people and interested employers toward you? 

Wouldn’t you rather have employers seeking you out? 

What would it be like to be like the ice cream shop in the summer with long lines of people waiting for you? 

How would it feel having people standing in line to interview you, experience you, to talk to you and to want to work with you? 

Would that lead to having several offers to review and then select the ideal one for you?

Have a question about creating your personal marketing plan? Sign up and join me on the next Q & A call, ask your question and get an answer.

Need specific ways to speed up your search?  Look to the right and request my gift to you – “162 Ways to Accelerate Your Job Search and Land the Job You Want”.

Have a comment or thought?  Post it below.