Thoughtful Kick Start Podcast

You’ve had your interview. Now what? What happens between completing an interview and wondering whether or not you are the candidate who got the job?

Usually people will wait, and then wait some more hoping for the best. They email to prod the process along by asking, “What’s happening?” Then they get no response and end up frustrated. How many times have you heard that story or have been in that situation?

In the follow-up process of securing your ideal job, you might want to think of yourself as a salesperson looking to secure a client. A proven technique in sales and marketing is the direct response campaign. A sales and marketing campaign might have as few as three steps and as many as 28 follow-up touch points. For example, a marketer starts with a postcard or flyer, followed by a relevant report, and then sends a special discount offer.

So let’s create a campaign for you to follow after any interview to position you as that outstanding candidate:

1. Hand written note

People have gotten lazy in the cyber world in which we live. The thank you card has been replaced by the email. Sending that handwritten thank you note will have you stand out. Make it more personal with imagery or graphics related to the interests of the people who interviewed you. Let me give you an example. I had a client who sent a thank you card with a picture of a horse knowing that the hiring party was a horse lover. Guess what? He got the job.

2. Be relevant and thoughtful

One of the most efficient ways to demonstrate this is to send an article related to the interest of the target person or company. Perhaps it is a report about leadership, inter-office dynamics or how to motivate employees. Instead of just sending the article, summarize it in a sentence or two. This shows three things:

o It conveys how you are thoughtful

o It gives people a taste of how you think

o Your summarizing shows them that you respect their time

3. Say that you want the job

This piece of advice may be the most over-used in career coaching but it remains one of the most important. People make decisions driven by emotion. When they know that you really want that job, they get the feeling that you will be committed, will stay on the job longer and will therefore provide more value.

4. Here’s a bonus tip

Act as if you are already a part of the team. Invite other executives or employees to have coffee or lunch and brainstorm on a current challenge with them. Ask if you can visit them in the office or at the company’s cafeteria to get a sense of their culture. How about volunteering to work for free or as a consultant for a limited time - like two weeks or a month. That will let them know that you are committed. The limit in scope will prevent you from sounding desperate.

So what about you? What company are you committed to working for and how will you use these follow up techniques to secure your ideal job?

“Our bodies change our minds, and our minds can change our behavior, and our behavior can change our outcomes.”

Dr. Amy Cuddy - Social psychologist and Associate Professor at Harvard Business School

How you perform in a job interview is important, and we will focus on that next week. So today we focus something equally as important - preparing for the interview.

So much of a decision about you is made in the first ten seconds of the meeting. Here are some ways that you can walk into an interview calm, confident and totally set up for success:

1. Do your homework

Get to know something about the company or the person you are about to meet. You don’t have to do comprehensive research to know everything about a company before you walk into a meeting. But if you know something about the person’s experience, point of view or the company’s vision, it shows that you are interested, have put in some effort and therefore are willing to work hard to be a useful to the company.

2. Know your own details

Too many people skip this important step and seem surprisingly shaken when asked questions about themselves. You must know your resume cold – your experience, work history, dates. Be prepared to answer questions that provide a lens to your behavior and values. For example, what will you do in a situation where you find that a colleague may be cheating, breaking the rules or stealing? They are testing your character. The way to

prepare for this is to think about and get clear about your values.

3. Prepare your mind and your body

Make sure to get a good night’s sleep the night before an interview so you arrive well-rested and energized. Drink plenty of water. Dr. Amy Cuddy has done a lot of work on how body language produces hormones. Pumping your arms above your head in a victorious I-am-a-winner gesture, as if you just won a race, actually reduces the stress hormone and gives you the feeling of a winner. You will start off with confidence when you walk in the door for your interview.

4. Think success

Imagine yourself nailing the interview. Imagine yourself in the job and enjoying it. This visualization will do its own magic to enhance your performance.

Preparation is a key ingredient for building confidence for each of your interviews and will make a big difference overall in your success.

So what about you? Which aspect of preparation will you take on more rigorously than you have before?

“All of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.”

--Tom Peters – American writer on business management practices in Fast Company.

Today I invite you to take a new view on using social media in your business development, networking or job search. Whatever you are up to, social media can help build you a strong authentic reputation.

There are lots of sources for tips and techniques on how to use social media, like searching LinkedIn to find other people through your existing connections. That’s not what we are going to talk about today.

We are looking at social media from a standpoint of your personal branding, so more and more people know who you are and what you stand for. You are broadcasting to a large audience of hundreds. We couldn’t do anything like this from our homes just as recently as 10 years ago.

You are interacting one-on-one with individuals around the world and within your region with the same ease of interface. How are you going to make that relationship tool worth your time and energy?

I have in previous blogs talked about clarifying your strengths and passion. What if several or all of your social media posts are driven by your passions, your talents and particularly where these two overlap? For example, you might be interested in the creative use of color in advertising, or are fascinated by sound in film, or the analytical use of derivatives investing. That’s the professional side. I encourage you to balance your social media posts to blend your professional side with your personal side.

Sure it’s fun to publish photos of meals you cooked, the family get-togethers and perhaps some of your wilder adventures. That being said, do be careful what aspects of your personal life you share, and the impression you leave forever on Facebook, LinkedIn and the like. Will you show up as a mature, confident and professional person who also knows how to live a great life? How might you focus on personal activities that express your values? For example, I love slowly and carefully exploring the critters under the water when I am scuba diving. It relates to my interest in behavior. I love exploring what makes human beings and sea creatures do what they do.

The balance you strike will more likely produce the positive impact you want if you are conscious, consistent and intentional in your posting habits.

So what about you? What are some themes you want to explore or express more often on social media to improve how you get known for who you really are and what you stand for?

“SUCCESS IN LIFE = (THE PEOPLE YOU MEET) + (WHAT YOU CREATE TOGETHER).”

--Keith Ferrazzi in Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time

Let’s continue our conversation for mastering the art of networking. In our last entry, we talked about initiating and enjoying the process of connecting and reconnecting.

Today, we delve into how to feed those relationships so that you stay on top of the minds of the people with whom you are connected when they learn about opportunities that are of value to you and for which you are a good fit.

Instead of badgering people, you want to be the person who provides something of value to make the relationship interesting. And here are five ingredients and they all begin with the letter “I”:

1. Information and Insights: Your connections are busy people. So if you come across some report or information that you know would be of value to them, it would be thoughtful of you to pass it on to them. Perhaps you could summarize the article and add a line or two of your view on it. Now you show that you are not just thoughtful, but you also give them a sense of your personality.

2. Invitations: You probably find out about or get invited to concerts, networking events, panel discussions and other kinds of programs that are of interest to other people in your network. Sharing these invitations shows that you are thoughtful. Of course, inviting someone to lunch or coffee always furthers a relationship. Have you tried inviting two or more people you know to get a "bite or beverage” and allowing them to meet each other? That leads us to…

3. Introductions: Introduce the people you know to other people you know. And you will be thought of as a resource and a connector.

4. Ideation: Two heads are better than one. Don’t you love hearing the term “out of the box” thinking. What if you arrange to sit down with a contact you’d like to know better and you each bring a challenge to the table, with the goal of coming up with at least 3-5 new ideas that would make a difference for each other? Exciting!

5. Inexpensive gifts: Email and even snail mail can get ignored, but nobody ever can ignore a thoughtful 3 dimensional item on one’s desk. A box of candy or a clever mug are starting points – but if you really put some thought to finding something that relates to a person’s professional or personal interests, you’ll truly stand out. Oh…and expensive gifts have an impact, too, but be careful you don’t come across as bribing where that would be inappropriate.

Of course, when all of this leads to and comes from an intent for open, interpersonal sharing about your personal and business lives, you build a deeper relationship of knowing, trusting and liking each other. You’ll build career enhancing relationship and also enjoy greater personal fulfillment if you focus on these activities in a way that’s enjoyable to you. Have fun with it.

“I’ve come to believe that connecting is one of the most important business—and life—skill sets you’ll ever learn. Why? Because, flat out, people do business with people they know and like. Careers—in every imaginable field—work the same.” Keith Ferrazzi in Never East Alone.

As many as 8 out of 10 people find the jobs they are in through people they know, otherwise known as networking. However, many people I speak with are uncomfortable, disorganized or unclear about how important it is to have the right view of how the networking works. So let’s take the discomfort out of networking and get inspired to initiate, energize and enjoy the most successful job search tool in the business world.

At the most basic level, networking is re-connecting with the people you know, connecting with the people they know and making new connections that can lead to exciting outcomes. A lot of people unfortunately think that networking is all about desperately wandering around groups or their community asking for a job. It’s no wonder that they find this an embarrassing and daunting thing to do.

I propose instead:

1. A mindset shift - flip from desperately seeking employment to enjoyable connecting with people in the working world. They may help you and you may help them. Take on an attitude of exploration and discovery and make it enjoyable to connect with people to support each other. You will find yourself with a new level of energy for networking.

2. Go to events - with the following clarity of purpose - to meet new people, gather new experiences and share information. Networking events are neither the right places to ask for new jobs, nor even necessarily to broadcast that you are looking for work. You don’t have to do much selling of yourself in a networking event, but you can let people know what you are up to in a calm confident way. Events are where you make connections that you’ll want to follow up with (see #3), not necessarily where you ask for or get job interviews.

3. Follow up - with a bite or a beverage. A meeting for breakfast, lunch, coffee or drinks is where you really get to connect and explore opportunities and possibilities. I invite you to approach these like you are two people who have a lot to share with each other. Know and trust that you have a lot to offer from your experiences and the people you know. Share jokes and personal humorous stories. Human beings are wired to connect. Just connecting alone can be valuable to the other person.

4. Make and honor requests - this is the most important step, and the one that most people don’t fully follow through on well. Ask for the connections you want. Be clear about who you want to meet and what kind of opportunities you are exploring. If you are seeking a CEO or other C-Level or executive position, ask people you meet to connect you to board members, private equity investors and relevant recruiters. Make a request to look on LinkedIn together to see what connections you can make for each other. You’ll see how closely we are all connected when you have been on LinkedIn for some time.

These steps will get you started on the networking road. Next week we look how to nurture the relationships you start or renew in your network.

So how about you? What will you do this week to upgrade your approach and activity in this wonderful world of networking?

Last week we talked about how to streamline the streamline the process of creating cover letters that shout (or scream) that YOU are the perfect candidate for that ideal job.

Here are some more ideas to make your cover letter, your resume and you pop visually. This is critical in such a crowded marketplace.

1. A picture is worth a thousand words. In a world of words, words and more words, which can drain the energy of the person reading your submission, shake things up a bit and include a photograph, drawing, schematic or anything visual that conveys something about yourself. I had a client who included a technical drawing of a giant slingshot that he and some friends built between jobs. After three years of being unemployed, this client got a great job at IBM.

2. Large fonts! Staying with the visual theme – DO THINGS TO STAND OUT… Go over the top, and then come back a little if you feel you have to.

3. Color. You will stand out in a world of black and white with multiple bars of color and two or three different hues.

4. Fit – Your fit for the job described is what will ultimately get you the job. That is what matters most from a strong opening line to the bottom of your resume, Don’t over reach for jobs that are not a fit and don’t “dumb down” your resume either. This is a waste of time. Focus on finding the right job. Respond to the key bullets of the job description using the experience from your resume as the bullets in your cover letter.

Good luck and keep me posted. I love to help and I love good news.

P.S. Career content creator “Career Jimmy” suggests that a P.S. is one of the most powerful tools to getting the interview. End with a powerful postscript as a call to action like P.S “If you contact me today to schedule an interview, you’ll be very happy with what I’m committed to contributing to your company."

So, P.S. If you contact me, I’ll help you create a killer cover letter for your next job application.

Last week, we discussed your resume. Today, we cover the cover letter.

In the pursuit of job interviews, I find that the cover letter is a necessary evil. You can’t send a resume without it but if you’re not careful, it could get in the way of your resume being given the proper amount of attention. The people you send your resume to are either looking at a large quantity of other resumes or are overwhelmed with other work – everyone is super busy these days. If you don’t grab it, the reader’s attention might get diverted and never return.

Meanwhile, I have known people who have subsequently become my coaching clients, who had otherwise spent one or two hours with each job submission because they were agonizing over the cover letter. With purely good intention, people who are hungry for a new job all too often try to fit themselves into less-than-ideal job descriptions. The result of that approach is fewer good interviews and tons of time wasted on applying to and sometimes interviewing for the wrong jobs.

It’s important to keep your cover letters short and focused (and if you’re a writer, you can make references to writing samples).

I am going to help you make the process short and focused as well. Here is your inspiration for writing tips and techniques to save you tons of time and energy while generating more and better interviews faster:

1. Start with a one-line paragraph identifying who you are and how you made the connection. For example, “John Smith recommended we connect” or “I’m the one best candidate for your listing in “Ladders” for “Chief Marketing Officer”

2. Then tee up the next section with something like, “Here are the key reasons why you would find me worth meeting” or “Here’s why I am the number one most qualified candidate for this position.”

3. After you’ve framed this up, present three bullet points of your most relevant qualifications for that particular job. I recommend you simply copy and paste directly from your resume. This will save you tons of time, and also provide the advangage of your reader seeing these compelling bullet points twice - once in the cover letter and again when they go through your resume. Repetition works. Repetition educates. Repetition sells. This method creates a matching game for the reader who might think back to your cover letter when they see this evidence on your resume. We want the screeners and decision makers to find reasons to select your submission and bring you in for an interview, and the more ways we can engage them in, the reasons you are a fit and the more likely that will happen.

4. Close it with a call to action like: “I will follow up with you in three days to schedule an interview.”

Keep in short, keep it simple and you will get results. Enjoy the process.

Next week we will go a little further into how to enhance your cover letter with creativity to grab the reader's attention and truly stand out from the crowd. For now, I ask, how about you? How many MORE cover letters can you see yourself sending out this week using this new approach.

I am going to share some secrets in resume crafting that will give you an advantage in any career transition that you are currently making or would like to make in the future.

Your resume is your first foot in the door. It's the beginning of making yourself known as the best candidate for the career of your dreams, the career that excites and fulfills you. Yet the resume is where people make their first mistakes. Instead of using it as a powerful marketing tool, most people make it a record of history by listing all of their past experience and responsibilities.

OR, even worse, sometimes people are lead to believe that functional resumes are the way to go. The pitfall of doing functional resumes is that it’s commonly known that candidates use this format to hide job hopping.

Most of the tips people tell me about that they hear and read about on the internet end up making everyone’s resume look the same as everybody else.

That is not for you.

Let’s have you create your resume as a sales presentation tool that represents you to be the-one-very-best-candidate for any position you are truly qualified for and would be excited to get.

Instead, let’s transform your approach from historian to marketer.

Here are a few important elements for you to create and customize your own unique outstanding resume.

1. You're the only you there is on this planet. Why should you look the same as everyone else with the same fonts and layout? Shake it up a bit with a carefully chosen font that expresses your personal brand in a way that is slightly off center from the usual style you believe your new employer would typically use.

Why should your objective look the same as everyone else with too many words?

You want to pinpoint what is your objective is, with powerful language of what you uniquely deliver, whether it be that you are a leading source of creative or analytical thinking. What are your greatest strengths and how would you express those values in words that match the language used by your potential employer?

2. Consider using a photo of yourself on the front or back of the resume or a schematic of something you designed, or a favorite person in history. Something visual is one way to make your resume stand out.

3. Use large font for your objective and small font for your name and address. Your name and address may be at the top of the resume, but it doesn’t make a powerful headline because where you live is not as important as what you are out to deliver.

4. Use color. This must be done with some taste – bright yellow or orange if you’re pursuing a job or path were such bold colors would be appropriate – or accents in blue’s or greys for a more conservative look. As soon as you vary from the usual black ink on white background, your resume will stand out.

There is a lot more to creating a resume that really pops. Get in touch with me if you want to discuss this.

Next week, we will talk about how we accompany this resume with a cover letter, a necessary evil, but I will tell you how you can create one that stays out of the way so that your resume gets seen and you are called in for the interview.

So what about you? What’s unique about you that if you represent it on a resume, it will stand out from the others.

“To Thine Own Self Be True” - William Shakespeare

I’d like share with you a terrific experience I had visiting the CF Martin guitar factory. The company has been producing the finest quality acoustic guitars under the “C.F. Martin” or “Martin Guitars” brand that since 1833. I was extraordinarily impressed by the craftsmanship and quality that I saw behind the scenes at the CF Martin factory, whether the guitar was built with a blend of hand craftsmanship and new technology or if it was a custom guitar made fully by hand. Listen to this podcast for more about my walk around the factory floor.

Everyone in the music business who played guitar has a Martin guitar, from Hank Williams and Johnny Cash through John Lennon, Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Eric Clapton to Ed Sheeran and many more.

Today theme is all about personal branding. While branding is important in business - that is having a consistency of look, communication and experience that reliably represents how a product or service reliably delivers value, the same can be correlated to individuals. Whether you are in a position of leadership or in a roll of business development or simply looking to advance or make a career change your career is really dependent on what people can rely on regarding the value you can produce.

Here are three points to refine your personal brand:

#1. Looks Can Kill: Consider anything visual that represents you from your personal grooming and your sense of style and how your clothing fits to how your look represents what you stand for and how you fit within your community. How things look also includes your resume or email - formats and fonts and layout. Anything that is visual should look consistent and should convey a feeling that represents your value

#2. Consistency of language The words you choose and the energy with which you speak and write also must be consistent with what you stand for and must speak specifically to the market you're speaking to. In an earlier segment of this blog and podcast, we talked about how your passion and talent must meet a market need that will give your career a trajectory and direction. While you're applying your passion and talent to a particular market need, make sure you're using language that matches the vernacular and the sophistication of your market.

#3. Walk Your Talk You must be really conscious of keeping your word to what you said you would do by when you said you would do it and honoring your word any time when you can't follow through. Always make things right with people. You can have the best presentation but if you're not walking the talk you won't have the credibility to build the reputation you want.

There’s lot more to personal branding that we’ve covered here, but this should get you started in the right direction. If you’d like to explore the subject more please contact me - I'd love to discuss it and see what upgrades we can create together.

So how about you?

What enhancements to your personal branding will you make this week?

The clarity of your career direction is key for your success whether you in a leadership position, in a business development role or if you are looking for a new job. It is actually particularly important if you are looking for a new job or to start on a new career path.

How do you find clarity of a career direction?

What I have found works with my clients is to for us look at where the intersection of these three circles come together – your passion, your talent and where these overlap with a market need or a need in society. Where is there a need in the world for what you offer?

What are you good at that people have seen you do and about which you can tell stories? One way I help my clients wake up with clarity to their career direction is to get them to write their success stories. Look at what are you good at that you love to do and do well. With accomplishment stories, you can talk about these things and get known and hired for them.

So I challenge you to write 10 success stories. What have been your favorite accomplishments? If these are your favorite, then by definition these are what you love to do and that you are good at. And these will also clue you in to where there is a need in the world.

An accomplishment story has three parts:

1. What goals were set? What where the challenges that needed to be overcome?

2. What was the process? What were the steps that you took? You don’t have to write a lot about that. People are more interested in results but they like to know that you have a process and thank you know what you are doing.

3. What was the result? What was the outcome of the accomplishment story you wrote about?

Your accomplishment stories probably end with exciting results. But you can also write a story where the result didn’t hit the goal. Sometimes goals are set arbitrarily. I have had clients who have discovered great results even though the goals that were set in the beginning weren’t met. Listen to the audio recording of this blog post for more on that story.

You may find that failures and setbacks can lead to good stories if journey challenged you and your process represents you well.

All these are breadcrumbs on the trail of your career path.

Next week we will take that clarity and use it towards a rebranding of yourself so that you are communicating your value and meeting a need in the world. This makes you employable.

So what about you? How many accomplishment stories will you write this week to clarify your career direction.