Accelerate Your Search™ Now

The fourth quarter is upon us.  And, in just 92 days the new year begins.  Are you ready for a successful final quarter of the year?

Below are four essential (albeit, a little unglamorous) tasks to help you improve your personal marketing for fourth quarter and create a solid foundation for a sustainable career in 2015:

1. Be present in the marketplace.  Get out from behind your computer and demonstrate your unique and compelling value in the marketplace.  Connect with others and offer your expertise to a person or organization who needs it.

2. Know your prospects.  Are you effectively marketing to those people who need what you offer?  Who is in your funnel?  Target 10-15 companies who could use your skills and talents.

3. Add to your value.   How will you become more valuable in 2015?  What skills could you add to your offerings?  Seek out opportunities to learn new tech skills or productivity tools.

4. Up-level your image.  Nothing stays the same.  Sustaining success means evolving over time. Review your professionalism and self-management skills and pick an item to up-level this quarter.  Perhaps you could update your business cards or resume?

Consistent focus in these four areas is key and easy to achieve by simply adding them to your calendar.  A year from now you will be glad you invested the time today.

The world around you runs on ideas, thoughts, judgements and conclusions.  Those you interact with help write your story.  Some will fill in the blanks with a “good” story, others with a “bad” story.   But, they are not the only ones influencing your story  — you are also are critical to the story told, to your reputation.

Ask people what they have too little of and odds are the response will be, “Time and money.”  Usually in that order.  With most of the world feeling the time crunch, people will naturally look for the fastest, shortest and easiest way to do things.  Can you relate?

People are built, at least in my view, to look for the shortest and quickest path possible to a decision or the solution to their issue.  Employers are people.  Employers, especially hiring managers, seek information from others to help solve their problems and get more done, in less time.

This is where your reputation [a.k.a., your personal brand] comes into play.  Your reputation includes what others think and feel when they interact with you -AND- what others are saying about you.  These things speak volumes and impact your success and the speed at which you land your next position.

As a kid, my mother would say, “Cindy, your reputation precedes you. Think about who you hang out with and what you do.”   I did not get it then.  I saw it as nagging and assumed she just didn’t like my group of friends.  However, she was right.

A reputation, whether great, good, neutral, poor or bad, is critical.  Your reputation alone can be the reason you receive an interview, or not.

Recently, I read a description of your reputation as a “shadowy twin.”  A twin that is everywhere and ensures you are in two places at once.  Be sure your “shadowy twin” is helping you rather than causing harm to your career.

You and your reputation are always evolving.  If you are currently seeking a promotion, are in career transition, or thinking of a career move, pause and look at your reputation.

Discover how to be your own best ambassador, both in person and online.  Understand how others view you.  Leverage that information to enhance your online profiles and all your professional and personal communication.

As people, including recruiters and hiring manager, seek to make quick decisions and draw conclusions about your value and whether or not to offer you an interview, make sure your reputation is working for you.  Don’t let your LinkedIn profile, resume or emails wound — or worse yet — assassinate your career. 

What time or energy have you invested in positively communicating you reputation?

How do others view you?

When was the last time you paused and really looked at how your unique values comes across to those who are making hiring decisions?

Do you have a question about communicating your reputation?  Post it below or contact me.

What is your fear?  Telling the truth?  Sharing your truth?  Or, perhaps, of being rejected?

Fear can stop you in your tracks.  Why?

First, it is not easy or comfortable to step into your truth.  Second, telling and sharing your truth and what makes you unique makes you vulnerable.  Third, some will reject you for your truth.

“When you are true to yourself, people will love the truth in you” – Stacey Martino

The above quote is from an amazing woman I am honored to know.  She has built a business that few would dare to.

Additionally, she is sunny, bubbly, warm, open and highly excitable.  Stacey can be loud and describes herself as “overly-loving.”  To be in her presence is like unlocking a door and walking into a room filled with pure joy and fun.

So what does this have to do with you securing your ideal job?  Absolutely everything!

Stacey Martino is a person who knows herself.  She discovered she wanted to be herself all the time and she stopped hiding her strengths and talents because of fear.    A few weeks ago, in her blog, Stacey shared she was afraid of, “getting crushed by people who wipe the floor with OPEN people like me.”

Stacey didn’t ask me, but if she did, I would absolutely tell her to include that she is a sunny, bubbly, warm, open and sometimes loud and highly excitable person in her résumé.  Would this screen her out of some jobs as a marriage counselor?  ABSOLUTELY!

Why?  Simple.  There are workplaces, that no matter her skills, education or experience, her unique style would not be appreciated and in the end it would not serve the organization or her.  The result?  You guessed it — rejection!

If any of these fears are holding you back, consider this:  when your resume is one of 200 (or more!) being considered for a single position, it is not only your skills and career history that are reviewed.  Résumés need to be sifted and sorted and the pool narrowed to the select few who will be granted an interview.  In the end, your “unique truth” plays a huge role in securing an interview, a second interview and an offer.  Each applicant brings a unique and different dimension to a potential position, in addition to their skills and experience.  Remember, hiring is a process and not a perfect science.

Believe it or not, hiring managers are looking to make the best decisions using the facts they have or can obtain.  Every organization and every hiring manager needs to narrow the field and the methods used to do this vary.  Some immerse themselves in the pile of résumés, others search LinkedIn profiles or request recommendations from key contacts — some do it all.

Although there are proven methods to improve your results, getting your resume to land atop the pile can be a frustrating process.  And, while everyone understands how maddening the process can be, few are willing to do what it takes to positively impact their results.

The truth about who you are, what you do and how you do it helps in this process.  So does the truth that you are loud and fun!

Yes, many résumés are filled with lies.  Many lies are easy to spot.  Such as when a résumé states “excellent writer” and then the résumé is filled with bad grammar and misspellings.   Many more résumés simply omit the truth.

Have you neglected to help the hiring manager say “Yes!” to you?

Have you omitted your unique value and your truth in your résumé?

Are you pursuing a search of limiting your rejection rate in lieu of a search to land the job you want?

If you are unsure how to add your unique value to your résumé or you need assistance landing the job you want, contact me.

“What simple things do you do every day that impact your life and income?”

“Please share the ones that absolutely help you enjoy life and work and improve your personal income.”

I recently asked the above questions to my clients and colleagues earning 6+ figures.  While not a scientific survey, I’ve compiled the top and most common tips to share with you.

Why do so?  To help you make 2014 a year of improved performance, higher earnings and, simply, more fun!  Perhaps you too can adopt a few of the things that these highly productive, and happy, people find helpful.

Here are the results:

1.  Maintain your health and care for yourself.  Eat right, rest and exercise.  Self-care, staying fit and maintaining your health adds to your wealth and well-being.    This is a top tip on almost every list!

2.  Know yourself and leverage your strengths.  Performance and earnings increase when you do what you do best.

   “Once I learned to stop focusing on and trying to fix weaknesses, my income jumped 26.5 %.  What an impact that had on me and my family.”  – DDA

3.  Look ahead and set goals.  Know where you want to be in a year, 5 years and 10 years from now.

4.  Maintain personal discipline and be organized.  The tips on this vary.  While there is no one way to do this, each person queried stated that having a set of rules or guidelines for achieving tasks and goals is important.  Whether lists, calendars or assistants, find your system and use it daily.

5.  Read and continue to learn.  Read books, newspapers and blogs.  Read to your kids or family.  Learn and stay current.  Many shared they re-read books that impacted them.  Odds are when you re-read a book, you will learn something new.

6.  Market yourself and stay connected.  One of my mentor says, “Not marketing yourself is selfish.”  Share your talents and passions with everyone who needs to know — you never know when you can be of service.

7.  Invest your time wisely.  Time is the great equalizer.  We all have the same amount of time each day.  Think about, plan and invest your time wisely.  Invest in yourself each day.  If you don’t invest in yourself and think you are worth investing in — why would others take a risk on you?

8.  Don’t fly by the seat of your pants.  It is fine to take risks and to be spontaneous, but know the impact of what you are doing and then decide what you want to do.  Don’t just allow things to happen.  Make a decision.

9.  Be personally responsible.  Whether the outcome is good or not so good, own what you do.  When you’ve made a mistake, own it, and figure out how to correct the action.

10.  Be who you are.  Be comfortable in your own skin.  Know who you are and show and share it with the world!

Enjoy these tips.  Adapt them to help you.  Unleash your uniqueness, your energy and earn what you deserve this year.

Do you have a great tip?  Post it below.

In late January, I am hosting a 3-part workshop:  Identify, Leverage & Own Your Uniqueness.  The workshop is designed to help you quickly identify your strengths and see how others view those strengths, so that you can stand out in the eyes of hiring managers.

If this opportunity speaks to you, drop me an email.  I will send you the details and information on how to sign up for the workshop.

Have an amazing week!

A basic building block for effectively communicating your personal brand is color.

Color is key in creating visual connections to your personal brand.  It helps you stand out and reinforces your brand attributes.  According to a University of Loyola study, “Color increases brand recognition by up to 80 percent.”

Think about strong corporate brands.  They absolutely leverage color to help the marketplace recognize their brand.  For example, UPS, thought of as the world’s logistics company, uses what colors in their branding?   That’s right – brown and gold.  Brown and gold are everywhere — employee uniforms, delivery trucks and marketing campaigns.  

Color instantly creates a visual and emotional connection to the brand.

What color is best for you?  Select your brand color(s) carefully as they determine overall impact, help spread a clear, authentic message and make you more memorable.  This process of selecting your brand color is not about picking your favorite color.  It is about selecting color(s) that reinforce your brand attributes.

How are you using color as a component of your personal brand?  What personal characteristics and brand attributes are you reinforcing with your use of color?

Does the color you are using set you apart and authentically communicate your value and brand?  Have you developed a solid strategy for using color to support your personal brand identity system? 

Review all the components of your brand identity system and use your color selection consistently.  Color can be used in your résumé, email signature block, business card, personal stationery and all other career marketing materials.  Your brand color should permeate all you do, helping to set you apart and enhance how you are known and recognized. 

Share how you use color to be recognized or stand out.

It is mid-year — time to review where you are, update your résumé and plan your career strategy for 2014.

Does your résumé share YOU and what makes YOU unique?  What should change?  Ask the tough questions as you review, edit or craft your branded résumé.

Performing a mid-year check of all your personal marketing tools, including social media profiles (LinkedIn) and your elevator pitch, is important in maintaining an up-t0-date brand and career focus.

Here are three tips to guide you:

1. Use your words.   Your words are the best words to describe your work and what others experience when working with you.  Repeating the words in a job description will tell someone you can read, yet it won’t help you stand out or create a competitive advantage.  You will sound like every other candidate.
2. Tell about your experience in short stories.   Share your current experience.  Write down your accomplishments and results in the last six months. Draft your short specific stories and be sure to include how you work.  Your stories will help you communicate to your boss, the CEO or a hiring manager how you work, the results you achieve and will provide evidence that you can solve the problems the manager, team or business faces.  Remember, a hiring manager wants to know you can do the job, how you will do the job and what the results will be.
3. Express why you do the work you do.   What is it about this work that excites you?  What is it that drives you, interests you and makes you want to jump up each day and engage in the work? Are you the architect who loves to create beautiful buildings? Sharing why your work matters is important – what is the emotional connection for you?

It is time to stand out, share what makes YOU unique and leverage your powerful competitive edge.

Additionally, think about who needs an updated copy of your résumé.

Help others keep YOU top of mind and quickly recall what you have to offer your employer, your next employer and the world.

Do you fret about rejection as you prepare or send your résumé?

Are your thoughts so focused on rejection that your résumé is ambiguous, general and plain?

Hopefully, your fear is not driving you to send out a boring résumé.  If it is, it is time to revolutionize the way you think about your résumé. (Remember, not every employer or hiring manager is going to like you or your experience — and that is OK!)

At the end of a recent presentation, a woman approached me and shared how frustrated she was having to spend endless hours targeting her resume to the large list of job openings found on the internet.  She shared her disappointment that after 100’s of applications, she had received a handful of rejection emails and not one interview.

Her kind soul, bright smile and brief words led me to believe that she was an organizer of projects, people and things.  She was someone who knew how to keep customers happy and projects moving forward.  I knew this in just a 3 minute conversation.

With tears and a crack in her voice she asked if I would look at her résumé.  I did.   The skills and personality that I experienced in our brief meeting were totally absent from her résumé.

I inquired if my impression of her was correct.  She confirmed it was.  Then, I inquired why she had elected to omit her uniqueness from her résumé.

In a bolded voice she stated, “Rejection is awful.”  She pulled her résumé from my hand, saying, “I am old school and what you are asking about does not belong in my résumé.”

Standing out, sharing who you are and how you deliver value can feel uncomfortable.  Clearly, this was outside of the woman’s comfort zone.

I smiled – I do get it.

Many people like to play it safe.   Innovation can feel risky.

For years, I was afraid to stand out or to share how I am different and unique.  Why? I didn’t know how to communicate my unique value in a way that worked for me.

Therefore, I took the safe, blend in, be the same as others, approach.  It seemed far less risky than standing out and facing the ridicule I feared.

Here is what I discovered — there is far more acceptance of my unique value when I genuinely share who I am.  It doesn’t mean everyone likes me or that I don’t experience rejection, I do.   Not everyone likes me, wants to work with me or hire me.

Are you leaving YOU out of your résumé?  WHY?

Is it fear of rejection?  Fear of ridicule?  Not sure how to communicate your unique value in a manner that is comfortable for you?

Here is a activitiy to help you revolutionize your thinking:

• Write down all the possible rejection and ridicule you might experience in a week, a month, in a year.
• Beside each item, note how many times you experienced the specific rejection or ridicule.
• Describe the rejection or ridicule experience in detail, then note how likely the same experience is to occur again.

The discovery for me?  The odds that the response I feared would actually occur were minimal.

Here are additional questions for you:

What is the real risk of genuinely sharing what makes YOU unique in your résumé?

Will sharing your unique value really increase the number of times your résumé is rejected?

What are the potential benefits of taking the risk and sharing your unique value?

We make hundreds, maybe thousands, of choices every day — some critical and others not so much.  Grape jam or strawberry jam on toast is a choice.  Is it critical?  Generally not.

Confidence is also a choice.  A choice I put in the critical bucket.  The “critical bucket” holds the most important areas of your life, the areas where you need to make intentional, conscious and informed  choices — those that include your career and personal brand.

Confidence is that simple acceptance and certainty in your ability to succeed.  You can see and feel confidence.  Confidence has a clear, positive and powerful vibration.

Confidence is one of those qualities we admire when we see it.  It is that quality of self-assurance that we see from both afar and up close.  You see confidence, or the lack of it, as someone walks into a board room, onto a football field or even when a small child begins to peddle a bicycle down the sidewalk without training wheels.

Confidence is a mindset, a belief and an attitude.  For me, that mindset comes from doing what I believe is right.  It is also acquired by taking risks, learning, improving and graciously receiving feedback.

Sometimes confidence just shows up, but for me, at least at this point in my life, confidence is a choice.  This has not always been the case and there are still times when my confidence wanes — like when I try something new or dare to step out of outside of my comfort zone.

I understand the power of  personal branding on my personal and professional success, yet it was once a BIG struggle for me to have confidence in my own personal brand.

Clarity did not come as I thought it would.  As I grew and evolved as a person what once fit no longer did and that created an internal struggle for me.  The process was much like hanging out in the morning fog on a day when the fog never clears.  I struggled and wandered through the fog because I lacked the confidence to share my uniqueness with the world.

If I did that I would stand out — what if someone laughed or thought I was nutty?  What would that do to my career, my stable business, and my self-esteem?  I wasn’t sure I wanted my apple cart turned upside down.

Then, I lacked the confidence to share myself in a bold manner — for all the reasons above and the additional fear of ridicule.  Years ago in high school, I had dared to do be bold.  I was met with laughter and mocking from the very girls I considered to be my best friends.  When I reflect on that experience, the pain still pieces my heart.  So, what would be worse?  An upside-down apple cart or ridicule?  I voted for neither.  I was stuck — with no clarity and no confidence.

I had made the intentional choice to move in a direction.  I wanted to move on to a more satisfying, fulfilled and happy life.  Yet there it was – that one little ounce of doubt, showing up again.  Where did it come from?

Was it a look backward?  Was it my strong fear of ridicule or another past experience?  Did I fear failure or was it success?

Any thought could lead me to dwell upon that distraction.  After all, distractions and making excuses saved me from making a choice.  It saved me from taking action and moving on to either success or failure.  While I did not enjoy feeling in limbo, it was easy and held less risk.

That place of inaction became a place of comfort.  Fear, worry or concern shook my confidence just enough to send me back to my comfort zone — to the place of inaction.  I didn’t have the confidence to leverage who I was becoming and to share it with the world.

Rather than take action, I convinced myself I could do it own my own.  I used every excuse and then judged myself for the excuses.  I was not ready to step out and be confident in my ability to succeed.  The excuses and inaction allowed me to not select success.

It was very hard to ditch the “go it alone” attitude, to seek honest feedback, to engage an expert to help me and to choose to be successful.

It took me a long time to gain the necessary confidence and make the choice to pick up the phone and engage the expert I knew could help me.

So, I absolutely understand the excuses.  I know the fear of getting feedback — wanted or unwanted.  I, too, hear that little voice that begins to chatter and causes confidence to wane.  I answered no to the question, “Do you have the confidence to leverage what makes you unique ?” many, many times.  I did it all — wandered alone in the fog and plodded along for years hoping to sort it out  — before I got tired of holding success at bay and ditched my fear and finally said “yes” to success.

Post your comments below – what is holding you back from leveraging who you are and building a strong brand?

Do you look for ways to be indispensable?   If yes, that is wonderful.   If not, you should be.

Pause today and list some of the ways you are indispensable to your current — or future — employer and to the world.  Do you maximize relationships?  What is your unique place within the business model, organization or industry?  Do you bring new ideas or ways of doing things?  Do you produce the best widgets?  Are you the master of quality?

There are unlimited ways you are indispensable in the world.  Use your imagination and ask others for feedback.

Becoming vital to a client, boss or organization creates a bond and a relationship.  When the people you work for and with have a connection to you and to what make you vital, your value changes.  As those in your closest circle experience who you are and what you do best, you strengthen your bonds and your circle of influence expands.  These relationships open doors and provide you with valuable assets — people who tell your story and share your vital skills. 

These people naturally share, with excitement, how critical you are and what make you so valuable.  As this occurs, more and more people and organizations discuss you, what you do and how helpful your presence would be in other situations.

Simply, once your story is told, you stand out and your value shines!

Be vital, it is a smart career strategy.  Be vital and maximize your value.  Be vital and you will watch with amazement as doors open and the ease at which others want to share your story.  Be vital and soar!

Post in the comments below and let me know what makes you vital and who will help share your story.

Bonus Tip:  If you want to learn more about how to be vital, I recommend you read:  Ditch. Dare. Do!  3D Personal Branding for Executives: 66 Ways To Become Influential, Indispensable, and Incredibly Happy at Work.  

You can learn more about the book at www.ditchdaredo.com  or purchase it at “Ditch. Dare. Do!”  

During the month of May I was asked to conduct staff training for professionals in the employment services field.  As I conducted individual interviews to prepare for the training program I was astonished at how many people lacked the desire to stay current and proactively adjust to the changes happening within the organization.  This disinterest in learning and for staying current in their professional field was interesting.

It immediately brought to mind a quote from Jack Welch, former GE CEO, “If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.”   I could not help but wonder if, indeed, the end was near for the organization or at least some of the team.

Change is constant and learning is critical in today’s workplace.  Those with a strong personal brand understand staying relevant is a fact of life.   Successful people evolve, grow and continue to add value.

Keep in mind, most people are at least a little resistant to change — including me.  I like my comfort zone as much as the next person.  Embracing change is not always fun, yet it is necessary part of continued success and effective brand building.

What are you currently doing to develop new skills?  How will you evolve to add value and stay relevant now and into the future?  Are you learning and shifting as your environment changes -OR- are you holding out, digging in or hoping the change will simply go away?

One of the easiest ways to stay relevant is to take action.  Learn.  Find a new way or a better way to create value.  Be a change agent.

Staying relevant, developing new skills, embracing new technology and tools will place you in a position to take advantage of new opportunities.

What will you do this week to help you remain relevant?