Career Goddess

Personal Branding - Be Yourself!

It’s no wonder Chris Brogan makes it to the top of the top 50 social media power influencers’ heap! He has great stuff to say. And he willingly shares his wisdom with the rest of us via his blog and social media outlets such as Twitter (where I follow him and am an unabashed fan!)

In his recent blog post 97 Ideas for Building a Valuable Platform, Chris reveals how to;
Start Somewhere. Embrace Brevity. Video, Video, Video. Ideas Drive Platform. Be Yourself. Humble Is Better Marketing. Your Three Roles. Overnight Success. What to Talk/Write About. What to Avoid.

The section of tips (41-50) on Be Yourself directly relates to personal branding, my passion. So of course I have to share these with you. Follow these tips when you want to express and live your personal brand every day. And you want to, of course, don’t you?

Be Yourself
41. The more I act like myself, instead of like what I thought the world wanted, the more successful I become.

42. Realize that there’s a “hot mess” line, meaning that you have to filter the “you” that you put out there a little bit. People don’t want to hear every woe and misery in your life. (Most times. Dooce not withstanding.)

43. Realize that being yourself means you won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Embrace that.

44. The “yourself” that most people want you to be is the one that they can learn something from. And yet, if that’s not what you want to be, disregard me and be yourself.

45. Part of being yourself is untangling from other people’s expectations. This is a very difficult matter, and yet important to building your platform.

46. “Be yourself” doesn’t mean be only about yourself. Connecting with and caring about others is always a trait that earns more attention.

47. It’s great to have a lot of passions. When displaying this via your platform, try to tie them to a larger storyline so that people understand how they connect.

48. Never let your shortcomings become your reasons why not. Richard Branson is dyslexic. Ryan Blair went from gang member to millionaire success story. Excuses are Band-Aids on wounds that don’t exist.

49. Marsha Collier said it best: “You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.”

50. Start where you are. Lots of people worry that everyone’s so far ahead. Those people? They started somewhere.

Design a Career You Can Love

Having changed careers myself several times before discovering my dream career as a career counselor/career coach, I know how daunting and frustrating it can be to figure out what to do next. Many times all we know is what we don’t want to do job-wise, but not what we actually do want to do.

So Nicholas Lore’s book, The Pathfinder: How to Choose or Change Your Career for a Lifetime of Satisfaction and Success (updated, revised edition of the original), is a gem! Jam-packed with hundreds of pages of career guidance information, informal assessment inventories and exercises, and motivating stories, it describes a career design system that has worked for many individuals. A top 10 national bestseller, this book has been endorsed by Jack Canfield and Marianne Williamson among others.

Here’s the caveat: you must be disciplined to get through the book and exercises (it is detailed and long). If accountability to yourself is not your strong suit, then you may want to partner with someone else going through the same career-exploration and decision-making process. Or, for professional guidance and accountability, use the services of a certified career counselor or certified career coach.

While Mr. Lore feels most career counseling and career coaching is well-intentioned but ineffective, he does admit that the do-it-yourself method, even with the use of a good book such as this one, could be “insufficient to make the best career decision”. He goes on to say that the most effective programs include a “complete career design process that coaches you through the complex process of making the best choice”. An expert career coach can provide the structure, support, insight, and feedback you would never get in a DIY approach.

My recommendation: read this witty, smart book. Do the exercises (however many interest you). Then think about partnering with a careers professional to fully flesh out your best-fit career options. Otherwise, the flood of information your brain will generate after reading this book might overwhelm you and sabotage your efforts.

Let’s face it: you likely spend more hours researching and planning your vacations, where to eat out, and where to live than determining a career you could really love. Does that even seem reasonable to you?

Land the Job You Need with Expert Advice

Whether the unemployment rate in your state was 3.4% for November 2011, as it was in North Dakota, or 13% in Nevada (according to the Local Area Unemployment Statistics of the Bureau of Labor Statistics), your individual rate is 100% if you are unemployed. This means that every unemployed person has started 2012 with a daunting goal: landing a job in the face of stiff competition.

You can ramp up your job-search success by staying up-to-date with advice offered by professionals in the know. To that end, QLab’s Huntsy searched the Web for the best-of-the-best blogger articles to include in their free ebook “Handbook for the Recently Unemployed”. My Career Goddess blog post “Does Your Resume Have FLAVOR?” was chosen for the chapter on resume writing. I was honored to be chosen as one of 15 blogger authors for the ebook.

With witty and highly useful introductory content for each chapter, the five chapters include:

1. It’s All About Who You (Virtually) Know – LinkedIn, Twitter, and QR Codes
2. Goodbye, Cookie-Cutter Resumes!
3. Scanning Job Sites Is NOT a Game Plan
4. 9-to-5, Just One Way to Make a Living
5. MIRROR, MIRROR On the Wall, Who Interviews Best of All?

Download the Handbook for the Recently Unemployed. Whether you are unemployed or employed and looking for your next great career move, check out the entire ebook. It’s a quick and enjoyable read, and you will be glad you spent the time. It could just make all the difference for your career in 2012!