‘Tis the season for celebrating with friends and family and for making resolutions. If career improvements are on your radar for 2013, I’d like to encourage you to ditch the resolutions and set yourself up for career success instead!

Ah ha! You have a personal brand whether you choose to take control of it or not. As more people find themselves working as independent contractors or entrepreneurs, there is an increasing realization of the importance of taking control of our personal brands.

It’s in the taking control of your brand, however, where it becomes apparent that a strong and effective personal brand is a LOT more than websites and marketing.

It’s easy to jump in and set up a personal marketing plan – to figure out what events to attend or set up, to put up a website and do some work sorting out which social media applications you “click” with best.

That’s because these things are “what” we are doing. Until these “what” activities are built on a solid foundation of  ”how” and our own very personal “why”, our personal brand is in real danger of being unclear and/or empty to others… and even worse, being nothing more than busy work to ourselves. If you’ve forgotten to do some work in figuring out “why” you’re doing what you’re doing, your brand is in real danger of confusing others.

or empty to others… and even worse, being nothing more than busy work to ourselves. If you’ve forgotten to do some work in figuring out “why” you’re doing what you’re doing, your brand is in real danger of confusing others." target="_self">Read the rest...

I'm a career-changer. In my mid 30s, I left my job in biotech to retool as a high school teacher. When you make a significant change to your life, you expect to encounter challenges. The most interesting, though, came not from institutions (like the bank or university) but in the form of people's sometimes negative and hostile responses. I upset not the people who were closest to me - but work colleagues and acquaintances. My decision struck a nerve that made a number of people defensive.

I figured that once I'd explained my decision to my parents and explained about how even the bank was happy to float me a line of credit that that would be that. Y'know? Afterall, I reasoned, my parents would be the people most likely to object to a career change.

My parents, I discovered, were the easy sell. I had the financial angle sorted out, and most of my dad's family were teachers, so my parents' questions were easily answered. While my parents lived their lives well within the 1970s and 80s rules of working for one employer for the majority of a career, they had instilled a few rebel thoughts into the heads of my brother and me. My father repeatedly turned down promotions into management because he was a stereotypical Dilbert-style engineer who was (and still is) self-aware enough to know that managing other people is not in anyone's best interests - especially his own. My brother and I learned that there are always alternatives to doing things differently than in the ways that other people take for granted.

My father was also the person who first started to tell us that times were changing and that people would increasingly have more than one career during their working lives.

My parents taught me to look critically at cultural norms. I didn't realize how different that made me - until I decided to change careers.

Read more...

I'm a career-changer. In my mid 30s, I left my job in biotech to retool as a high school teacher. When you make a significant change to your life, you expect to encounter challenges. The most interesting, though, came not from institutions (like the bank or university) but in the form of people's sometimes negative and hostile responses. I upset not the people who were closest to me - but work colleagues and acquaintances. My decision struck a nerve that made a number of people defensive.

I figured that once I'd explained my decision to my parents and explained about how even the bank was happy to float me a line of credit that that would be that. Y'know? Afterall, I reasoned, my parents would be the people most likely to object to a career change.

My parents, I discovered, were the easy sell. I had the financial angle sorted out, and most of my dad's family were teachers, so my parents' questions were easily answered. While my parents lived their lives well within the 1970s and 80s rules of working for one employer for the majority of a career, they had instilled a few rebel thoughts into the heads of my brother and me. My father repeatedly turned down promotions into management because he was a stereotypical Dilbert-style engineer who was (and still is) self-aware enough to know that managing other people is not in anyone's best interests - especially his own. My brother and I learned that there are always alternatives to doing things differently than in the ways that other people take for granted.

My father was also the person who first started to tell us that times were changing and that people would increasingly have more than one career during their working lives.

My parents taught me to look critically at cultural norms. I didn't realize how different that made me - until I decided to change careers.

Read more...

Try not. Do, or don't do.  (Yoda)

Yoda distilled the first rule of almost every self-help book down to one phrase.  In a previous post, I talked about moving from whiner to winner. Here's one little change to your thinking and speaking that will give you a big payoff in becoming a dream-following success.

“Can't” is an excuse word that people use (and accept from others) to absolve themselves of responsibility for their choices. An "easy out", perhaps, but it comes with a price that's just too much to pay.

Yoda's not here, so I'll tell you: "Can't" is not your friend!

“I can't follow my dreams because [fill in excuse here]” is an overwhelming statement– to you and everyone around you. The negativity lingers like a bad smell. Blame permeates your being and keeps you down.

Change "can't" to "won't". When you change that one little word, the statement becomes “I won't follow my dream because [fill in excuse here]”, and you magically put the whole problem into context. The statement is positive and it just begs you to question its validity.

Are you really too old? Are your goals really too lofty? What changes do you need to make so you can set up your life to allow you to go back to school? Or keep your pension?

Your dreams aren't asking you to stop upholding your responsibilities – they're asking you to start listening more to them.  Take baby steps. Find advice. Start talking to people about your dreams, and begin your journey with one life-changing action: ditch the word “can't”.

A big part of personal branding is in knowing and defining yourself and your niche audience.

Your goal is to connect authentically with the people you can help.

Establishing yourself as an expert isn't about false and overinflated claims - it's about using opportunities to share your knowledge with your audience. Most people I've met have difficulty in promoting the skills and knowledge they have. They undersell themselves and are reluctant to toot their own horns.  My job usually becomes one of helping people find or create venues that will allow them to share their knowledge and passion with their audience. Sometimes I even have to convince people that there is an audience!

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Whichever personal success self-help book you pick up, the first rule is always the same:

Take Responsibility For Your Actions.

Sometimes this gem of advice appears in other forms: No Whining Allowed, Put on Your Big People’s Pants, Step Up To The Plate…. etc.

All other success habits in life are built on the solid foundation of this rule. When you find yourself overwhelmed, frustrated or just plain at the end of your rope for any length of time, chances are good that you’re not taking charge of Rule #1.

In the last while, a complaint I’ve been hearing more frequently from small and medium-sized employers is that employees (now-a-days ) consistently fail to take responsibility for problems or roadblocks they encounter in their jobs.

While this may be a perennial complaint, it does seem to be cropping up more frequently. And the irony doesn’t escape me – because these employers, too, are having trouble with the first rule of success.

How quickly can you expect to get all kinds of followers on Twitter and Facebook? I’ve fielded this question from a few people recently – and there is a bit more to it than “if you build it they will come”. Building a “following” takes time, true, but there are some questions you need to be clear about before putting a lot of time into setting up social networking accounts “willy-nilly”.

Back up a minute and ask yourself “Why”?

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Last night I had 2 events that I wanted to attend:

A savvy, sassy butt-kicking from Kim Duke, The Sales Diva, and

A discussion evening about the importance of eliminating the clutter of overcomplication from our lives.

Anyone who knows me knows that only a significant, catastrophic event would keep me from seeing the Sales Diva – IN PERSON – so it was really no contest (and she’s great in person, BTW. Look right for the link to her website).

Kim gave a number of tips about what we absolutely must stop doing to truly become Sales Divas. My personal favourite was #2: Stop Avoiding Technology. Anyone with anything to market absatively posolutely needs to be maximizing the opportunities for creating a community of rabid followers (another Sales Diva-ism).

But doesn’t getting in to all of this online technology violate the rule of Simplicity?

I bet I'll say, "No".

Becoming aware of your strengths and goals and then strategically putting your best foot forward is called "personal branding". A personal brand incorporates free and low-cost online tools with more traditional marketing strategies so that your band message is available to anyone at any time.

See how this clip is used on my own personal brand @ www.CampbellDuke.com.