SheMentor's musings
(or, "I have a lot to say")
(Ok, my title is a bad attempt at a take-off on “getting caught with your pants down”, modified for my female audience).
Lots of layoffs happening these days. LOTS OF LAYOFFS. Every industry, and every level of organization is being affected by layoffs right now. So – since you’re a smart cookie, you’ve probably polished up your resume a bit, “just in case”, and you’re probably feeling pretty smug about your preparedness right now.
BUT SHOULD YOU REALLY BE SMUG? SHOULD YOU? (cue dramatic stare like this here)
In today’s competitive job market, you simply cannot afford to go one more day without having a definitive personal brand that potential employers can find almost IMMEDIATELY about you. And lest you panic about how time consuming or difficult this may be to accomplish, I am here to tell you that in ONE WEEKEND you can easily establish the beginnings of a personal brand that will make sure you are competitive in the marketplace.
So – here we go – establishing a personal brand in one weekend:
- Brainstorm and decide how you want to be branded. Your personal brand should describe who you are, what your specialty is, and perhaps a small flavor of your personality, where appropriate. Later in this article, I will share with you samples of other people’s personal brands that I think are highly effective.
- Get a professional headshot taken. Notice I didn’t say get your husband to take a picture of you looking cute sitting in the backyard. I said get a PROFESSIONAL headshot taken. You are about to introduce yourself to the world with your personal brand, and your picture will be KEY in this branding.
a. Make an appointment at a Target photography studio.
b. Dress up in business-wear, and be photographed.
c. Purchase the package that simply gives you all your images electronically on a CD (should cost around $100 bucks). - Purchase a “domain” that consists of your own name. This will cost you approximately $10. In case you’re not sure how to do this, let me demonstrate:
a. Go to www.godaddy.com (there are other sites where you can purchase a “domain”, but this is my personal favorite.) Also, included in the cost is a “starter web page”, which you will need a little later.
b. Start a domain name search – i.e., see if your name is available (www.jimsmith.com)
c. If it’s available, proceed to check-out and buy it! - Join Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In. Do the following on each site:
a. Upload your newly taken professional headshot.
b. Fill out any past and present employment information FULLY.
c. Where you are allowed to list web sites, make sure to include links to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. - Remember that free “starter web page” you got with your “domain” purchase? Well, this is going to be the place where you have the opportunity to showcase your personal brand, and organize links to all areas on the Internet where you have a presence. Here are some examples of “starter web pages”:
a. http://www.settlenow.org/Twitter - this is an attorney (who I met on Twitter, by the way – JOIN TWITTER PEOPLE!!). At a glance, in one minute or less, you can see what she’s all about, and find all kinds of ways to hit links and learn more about her. Nice.
b. http://www.glittermonkey.com/ - this is a more lighthearted branding page of a very creative programmer, whose personality certainly shines through his “brand”!
And there you have it – in one short weekend, you’ve established a strong personal brand (with time left over to go to a movie and do some other stuff too). I would also further advise that you actively participate in these new social networking sites that you’ve joined, because your goal will be to establish yourself as an “expert” in your field, and the best way to do that is by showing first-hand what you know! You may even think about authoring some articles about subjects related to your field, and submitting those articles to some free article directories – AND creating a blog! A blog in and of itself can be its own personal branding tool! Ahh well, that’ll be fodder for another blog entry, so let me not get ahead of myself.
Ok – LISTEN UP - here’s your assignment for the New Year. Go create your own personal branding site supported with all of the detail from above. Send me a comment on this blog that links to your landing page when you are finished, and let us ALL learn from your wonderfulness! Looking forward to seeing all of your progress.
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Hopefully, you’ve already read my article on “peace time” networking and have reminded yourself how critical it is that you maintain all of your professional relationships on a regular basis. This week, I wanted to delve a little deeper and talk about how you can be using Twitter to achieve your online networking goals. How does this apply to creating and maintaining your own “personal brand”? Read on.
In case you haven’t started using Twitter yet, it’s a site where people make statements using 140 words or less (called “tweets”), and other people who like what they say follow them. The “statements” people make can be things like:
- Links to interesting articles or content.
- Statements or comments about what that person is doing currently.
- Blurbs on things they’ve done to be successful with a particular project.
- Quotes from famous people.
When you sign up for Twitter, you are asked to upload a photo of yourself, and to list a bio. I strongly recommend you upload your photo for likeability purposes, and make sure that your bio is a strong key phrase that outlines what your personal brand is. FOR EXAMPLE…let’s say you are a young female executive with 10 years’ experience in the insurance business who was just promoted to her first management gig. Your goal is to move into upper management in the next 10 years, so you’re building your personal brand currently. Your goal is to make people feel comfortable that you are an expert at managing people and processes in the insurance business, while at the same time showing them the unique side of your personality. Your bio might go something like this: “Expert people and processes manager in insurance industry”
Then again, once in a blue moon, some Twitter users will inject statements that are total non-sequitors, to really define their zany sense of humor, or to give the followers some sense of their personality. As long as you don’t get carried away, I think this is terrific and something you should do, if you are so moved. DO remember that anything you say contributes toward your personal brand, so I don’t advice being too graphic or too racy. Some of the funnier and more random tweets I’ve seen:
- I don't eat bacon. So let me know...good idea or bad? http://tinyurl.com/3vcep4
- Wondering how long it takes a dog to fully digest a stick of butter?
- I'm not sure how I missed this one, but 46% of women said they'd rather give up sex than the internet. hmmmm...http://tinyurl.com/93rgva
So…quit being afraid that you don’t know how it works, suck it up, and just go sign up for a Twitter account today! For more accountability, send me a comment on this blog to let me know that you signed up, and what your Twitter name is. If you are doing “peace time” networking for the purpose of building your personal brand, my recommendation would be to tweet at least twice a day AND try to add at least two new people a day to follow. However, if you are in “war time” – increase your frequency to about eight tweets a day. For the record – my Twitter name is @shementor (of course), so come follow me!
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When is the last time you reached out to a former co-worker, just to say hello and ask about their dog Fluffy? Or, in the past 2 months, have you touched bases with that interesting woman you met at the Kiwanis meeting who has similar interests as you?
If you haven’t done either of these things (even if you don’t really know Fluffy and haven’t ever been to a Kiwanis meeting), then you are not doing enough to protect your personal brand.
What do I mean by personal brand? There is a lot of information on the Internet that can explain what a personal brand is much better than I can – go on, just Google the phrase “personal brand” and you’ll see what I mean. But in short, your personal brand is how you are perceived by people who might want to hire you, or buy your company’s goods and services. How do people find out information about you? Well, they Google you, for one. They also “ask around” – they talk to your mutual acquaintances, your competition, and your co-workers. Controlling the information that people have access to about you is the most important part of protecting your personal brand – and is completely within your control.
Anyway, back to networking. If you are one of the fortunate people that still has a secure job in this awful economy of ours, then good for you – I am happy for you – but you still need to be actively networking. The time to strengthen your personal network is NOT when you need them for something. You can think of your relationships with your personal network as “peace time” relationships, and “war time” relationships. During “peace time”, things are going well for you – you’ve got a job, or business is booming, if you’re an entrepreneur. This is the right time to spend some percentage of every week being in touch with your personal network. The number one rule of successful networking is to NOT wait until “war time” – i.e., you’ve lost your job, or business is terrible – before spending time networking. Establishing your network can take several months to get off the ground, and maintaining the network properly takes time as well – if you wait until “war time” when you REALLY need folks in your network to pull through for you, you are already several months behind.
Ok – hopefully the importance of networking during “peace time” is firmly established in your brain. So – what types of activities should you be doing on a routine basis to maintain your relationships? Having lunch together, sending an e-mail, sending an e-card, forwarding online articles and websites of interest are a couple of the ways you are probably the most familiar with. Here are some additional “must do” items in my book, and all 5 should be done consistently at the same time:
1. You should be in touch with every person on your personal contact list a minimum of 2 times a year. If you are not in touch 2 times a year, then they are not really in your network. There are many different ways to be “in touch” – simple reach-out’s like a quick e-mail, to more elaborate touches like having lunch together.
2. If you do not already have a LinkedIn account, get one now. If you do have a LinkedIn account, make sure that you have spent time filling out all of the personal information they ask for, including the different companies you’ve worked for. This is the best way for former vendors or co-workers to be in touch with you. Even if you’ve had a LinkedIn account for years, I recommend everyone read Guy Kawasaki’s article on getting the most out of LinkedIn here (http://blog.linkedin.com/2007/07/25/ten-ways-to-use/) – he says it better than I ever could.
3. Develop some kind of electronic way to maintain a list of everyone in your personal network. This means tracking their name, e-mail address, physical mailing address, and an area to briefly log your last contact with them. This can be arduous to get going at first, but once the list is up and running, it’s very easy to record your interactions going forward, and it’s INVALUABLE for reminding yourself who you haven’t reached out to in a long time. I personally have always loved ACT for this purpose, but you could even use an Excel spreadsheet if you like – just make sure that you keep up with updating it.
4. Don’t forget the US Mail. In this day of electronic contact, there is still something very special about getting something physical in the mail. Keep up with your contact’s birthday and shoot ‘em a card once a year. See an interesting article in Newsweek that reminds you of them and their cause? Cut it out and mail it to them. The holiday season? Send them a holiday greeting card (hey – it’s not too late to still do that this year!!)
5. With your personal network, focus your reach-out efforts on finding things you can do for them. Find out every time you contact them what they need at this particular time. Are they looking for a vendor referral, do they need a recommendation on a new daycare for their child, or are they looking for a job? The best possible way to maintain strong ties with your personal network is to focus on what you can do for them during “peace time”. And besides being a savvy trick for keeping in people’s good graces, it’s really the most satisfying way to maintain close relationships, “karma”-ckly speaking.
And for those of you who say “but I’m not looking for a new job right now” or “I’m not in sales” - ignore networking at your own peril. Do not wait until “war time” is upon you to invest in these critically important relationships.
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When was the last time someone hurt your feelings at work, or made you angry? How did you handle it – and how do you now WISH you had handled it? This is definitely in the list of top three questions about which I am asked.
Displays of emotion at work are a touchy subject for many women, who are sometimes accused of using strong emotion (i.e. tears) to “get what they want” from men. I am often infuriated by this accusation, because I am one of those women that can – on occasion – be brought to tears. And I assure you – they are ANYTHING BUT an attempt to “get what I want” from anyone.
My “trigger” isn’t someone hurting my feelings, but rather it’s strong frustration coupled with anger. And if there were ONE thing I could change about my professional personality, it would be the ability to turn off ever tearing up “at will”. Now don’t get me wrong – I am not the type to cry easily. However, there have been a handful of moments where I most wanted to stay strong – and felt myself welling up. So…how is one to handle this situation?
1. Do not remain in the situation that has moved you to tears – once they start, they can be impossible to stop, am I right? STOP what you are doing and take a break. It is important that you remain in control in front of your professional network, and if you cannot do so, remove yourself from the situation until you can.
a. If you are in a one-on-one situation and you feel yourself being overcome, make a polite but short excuse, and leave the situation. “John, I’m pretty angry on this subject, so I’d like to go compose myself – I’ll come talk with you again when I have calmed down.”
b. If you are in a group situation and you feel the tears coming on, you might say something like “I need a moment to collect my thoughts – I will return momentarily”.
c. When you return to the meeting or conversation, don’t make a big deal out of your leaving. Saying something like “I’m better prepared to finish our discussion now” or “thanks for allowing me to take a moment”.
2. After removing yourself from the situation, go to a quiet place – bathroom stall, office or conference room with a door you can close – and do some breathing exercises. You are now all about getting back control over your emotions, and the best way to do this is by controlling your breath for several minutes. You won’t believe how much control you can regain of your emotions once you have spent 3-4 minutes focusing on your breath (good examples of this are exercises #2 and #3 here.
3. What happens if you have removed yourself from the situation, you have composed yourself with some breathing exercises, you have returned to your conversation, only to find that you still feel the tears returning? You may need to do a more lengthy postponement of the discussion you are having until another day.
I like to sum up the “crying at work” subject by quoting Jarrod Moses, the president and chief executive of Alliance, an entertainment marketing firm that is part of Grey Global Group, who says he looks down on crying at work because he “dislikes extreme behavior of any kind”. And that really says it all – it’s not that crying is a bad thing, in and of itself. But we do need to strive – for the most part – to make sure our work demeanor is of moderate emotion, so that we will be taken as seriously as we want to be.
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I did. I got up at the crack of dawn, and stood in the cold for close to an hour, but I VOTED. In fact, every single person I spoke with today voted. In fact - I don't think I know a single person who didn't vote in this important election.
I got chills when I went to "fill in the arrow" on the portion of the ballot for "Office of the President of the United States" (those of you in cities where you had to fill out paper ballots - you know what I mean about the "fill in the arrow". Those of you who don't know what I mean - be thankful that you had a more 21st century voting experience than I did).
I am hunkered down for an evening of news and speculation on the results of our votes. I hope all of you took the opportunity to make your voice count today.
