Five Ways to Promote Yourself Powerfully

Promote Yourself Powerfully

Our First Five Methods you can use to Promote Yourself Powerfully and Create Opportunities for Your Career

Jessica Kiely-Schebesta

The modern marketplace is very competitive and we are required to sell ourselves every day, whether it is to ensure you are chosen for a new project at work, to win a new client or get a new job.

As the CEO of your Me Incorporated (Me INC) you need to be promoting yourself in that marketplace. Here are our first five strategies that you can use to promote yourself powerfully and create opportunities for your career. Stay tuned for our next 5 coming out soon!

• First Impressions

It is vital that you get the basics right first when it comes to first impressions. You have 5 to 15 seconds to impress someone and create a powerful impression, and you are the one that has a large say in what they think of you, so use that power.

Make sure the way you are dressed is right for the environment and occasion. Do your research before hand to find out what this is, especially if you are in a different country and culture. Always look smart and well presented, as this proves that you care and have taken the time to present yourself well, which says a lot about how you approach work as well.

Make sure there is a smile on your face. This makes you approachable and can give you confidence. Keep your energy levels high, without bouncing off the walls! Someone who is energetic, interested and enthusiastic always stands out.

If you need to wear a name tag make sure it is easy to read and see, so wearing it on your waist is not appropriate.

Starting with a firm handshake can also work wonders. No one likes to shake hands and get a wet fish on the other end. Practice your handshake with someone and ask for feedback. Again you want it to show your confidence.

Have open and positive body language in the way you hold yourself and walk into a room. The ‘ole shoulders back, head high and eyes up is very true, and will make you feel more confident. Sitting up in your chair and forward as you speak also shows interest and creates a great impression.

And of course, choose your words wisely. Positive language, well thought out responses and a confident introduction of yourself are a great starter. Don’t worry if you don’t get it right straight away, learn from each experience and do it better next time.

• Follow Up

Basically, in my experience 90% of people are lazy and never follow up and just sit and wait for people to get back to them. Be a part of the 10% and really stand out and be remembered by following up. It seems basic, but most people just can’t be bothered, and so miss out on the true opportunities.

You can follow up with a speaker you heard at an event and were really impressed with, after a job interview, after sending your resume, after a meeting with a manager or supervisor, after a seminar you attended, after a networking event with the people that you met, after the first meeting with a new project team, after a teleconference......it just goes on.

Your follow up obviously needs to suit the occasion and situation, so choose wisely, but ALWAYS follow up.

You can:

1. Send an email
2. Make a quick phone call
3. Send a letter, card or postcard
4. Write up a testimonial or recommendation for them
5. Ask for a testimonial or feedback from them
6. Post them a small gift
7. Link with them on LinkedIn or Facebook etc

• Professional Online Profiles

You probably already have a Facebook or MySpace set up that keeps you in contact with your social circle, and perhaps even some in your professional network on there as well. However, there are lots of places where you can now have your professional online profile set up and link with others, and it can all just be about your professional side of life.

The one that we use and highly recommend is LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com). You set up your profile and outline all of your past jobs, achievements, education and interests; almost like an online resume. Then you get to search for people you know and have worked with professionally and link with them. Once they have accepted you, you are able to see their network and who they know. It is very powerful.

To make the most of it make sure you have a fully updated profile, a picture of yourself that is professional, get people in your network to write recommendations for you (and of course you will need to do it for them first), and keep your status updated with what you are currently working on or achievements that you want others to know about.

LinkedIn is becoming a market place. Jobs are advertised and people ask for referrals, you can join professional groups and associations and get updates about opportunities, people ask questions and seek feedback and tips are provided by the network.

The most powerful thing I have found with LinkedIn is the ability to search for someone you really want to talk with or have a chance to meet, and you can then see how many degrees of separation between you and them, and then just work your way through getting introductions to others to then eventually get a personal introduction to the person you wanted to chat with. Very powerful stuff! So get cracking and get your LinkedIn profile up and search for me Jessica Kiely-Schebesta!

• Online Reputation Management (ORM)

To ensure that you and your brand are protected and working for you positively you need to be monitoring what is online about you. 80% of employers and others will Google you before meeting you or even considering you for a position professionally, and sometimes those Google results (word and image) are the difference between whether you get an opportunity or not.

Regularly check through Google, MSN and Yahoo what comes up with your name. Ensure that anything unprofessional is removed, if possible – like those Facebook pics from last weeks party! Facebook and other sites all have ways to keep certain parts of your profile private and only viewable by those who you want seeing it, so utilise those locking tools.

You can even set up a Google Alert with your name and any other identifiers, so that on a weekly basis you get sent anything that has come up online and being indexed by Google with your name. That way you can monitor it yourself and then manage it regularly.

Also start looking for as many ways to be known online for good stuff eg; articles being published, awards being won etc. We will look at these in more detail in our next edition of Ways to Powerfully Promote Yourself, so stay tuned.

• Face to Face Networking

Yes, it is an oldie but a goodie. Actually meeting new people in person in a professional environment is very important to build your network but also to promote yourself. You are never too young to start networking, so “being a student” is no excuse and you can get out there and start meeting new people right now.

Making sure you get out to 1 or 2 networking events a month is a good goal to aim for. There are heaps of different opportunities and events out there to choose from, and not all of them cost money; get searching! The Frank Team run regular networking events for young entrepreneurs so ask us about the next one coming up near you.

Network not only within your industry but also venture out to other industries and extend your network and professional development.

There are a heap of great articles you can find online that give you tips and strategies on how to network effectively, so do some prep before and read up. But keep in mind:

1. Always have business cards with you. Even if you are a student or between jobs, you can get a set of business cards done up pretty easily for not much cost with your basic contact details.
2. Arrive early and find other people who are alone and looking to chat.
3. Research the speaker before and then introduce yourself to them at the event.
4. When you meet new people ask lots of interesting questions that help you learn more about them, then customise your 30 sec pitch about “what do you do” to them and their needs.
5. Add the new people that you meet to your contacts database afterwards, or find them on LinkedIn and connect.
6. Always follow up with new people and old acquaintances that you met.
7. Note down each time what you learnt; tips, strategies etc and then post that on your blog or someone else’s to help other people learn.

Stay tuned for our next 5 WAYS TO PROMOTE YOURSELF POWERFULLY; Mentors, Work Experience, Volunteering, Speaking Opportunities & Twitter

The Frank Team have a 1 hour, 3 hour and Full Day workshop on POWERFUL SELF PROMOTION – The Why and How. To learn more and get a session outline contact jessica@frankteam.com.au or (02) 95186244. We present these all over Australia and travel to you.

The Frank Team specialise in career, entrepreneurship & youth development programs across Australia. Our experienced and professional youth presenters, coupled with our selection of set or customised programs deliver high impact presentations, workshops and ongoing programs for young people, young professionals & young entrepreneurs. Through our 8 years we have worked with schools, local councils, universities, government departments of all levels, corporate, community groups and training organisations across Australia and internationally.

We truly care about assisting and empowering young Australians to take their ideas and make them a reality in their careers, their communities and in their own business. And always doing this in a fun, innovative and authentic way.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you motivate, inspire & empower the young people that you work with.

www.frankteam.com.au and www.youngentrepreneurs.net.au
Ph: (02) 95186244 E: jessica@frankteam.com.au

iDlogik - Online Resumes

I recently found this site – iDlogik.com and thought wow this is cool. Then I found out it was Australian and a new start up by an Aussie entrepreneur – I had to learn more.

I caught up with founder of iDlogik Michael Costin – here is what he had to say…..

Where did the idea for iDlogik come from?

iDlogik came about from a simple idea to develop an innovative and dynamic online resume builder to help jobseekers with resume creation and storage. The concept continued to evolve, and as a result, jobseekers now not only build an online resume with iDlogik, they get to create and manage their entire online career portfolio with which to maximize their full career potential.

With an iDlogik account, Jobseekers can write and store cover letters, verify key career milestones, manage references, upload important documents, apply for jobs, and even elect to have their resumes searchable online by the top employers and recruiters in town… ensuring that they never miss out on any great opportunities.

What have been the challenges in starting up an online business?

It’s been a huge effort over the past 2 years to get iDlogik up and running. The main challenges have been in the development of our exciting ideas into actual web products. The relationship between the IT and R&D sides of the business have been strained at times but we are all really proud to have finally launched a truly innovative online product.

What is your ultimate vision for your business?

iDlogik’s ultimate vision is to create the worlds leading online space, where jobseekers can create and manage their entire career portfolios from the one online location, in effect creating the world’s first independent resume board. The result will be an environment where jobseekers can achieve their full career potential by taking a more proactive role in promoting their resumes and career experience to recruiters and employers.

Each day what are the things you do that you LOVE and things that you do each day that you DISLIKE but just have to do?

The best thing about this job is that every day is different. We work with a wide-range of people from jobseekers, students and career advisors to employers and recruiters. All have an active interest in the iDlogik brand so it’s never a dull moment meeting new users and watching the business grow. Dislikes are few and far between but like any job there are niggling little tasks that just have to be done, but the good times definitely outnumber the bad.

So go and set up your online resume now at www.idlogik.com

Here at The Frank Team know how valuable and cool this online resume idea is. We do career success presentations all over Australia to young people and young professionals and think the iDlogik idea is awesome and we can’t wait to spread the word!

And stay tuned - this has just given me a great idea! Next blog post will help you learn all about HOW TO CREATE A KILLER ONLINE RESUME!

Build Your Creativity – Build You as an Asset

I went to a business innovation workshop this week, and interestingly enough it focussed on creativity. Being able to come up with new ideas, new questions and being able to express them clearly is becoming a fundamental skill for all of us, in order to fuel innovation with those ideas. Those who have the ability to be effectively creative (come up with ideas) and implement them (innovative) are highly valuable and becoming even more so. Sounds right enough, but how creative are you? How do we become more creative?

Someone did a study on creativity. I’m not 100% sure how “creativity” was defined, but the results were interesting nonetheless. Apparently 98% of 5 year olds are creative, 30% of 10 year olds are creative, 12% of 15 year olds are creative and less than 2% of over 35s are creative. (Source: Dr YKK You Are Creative). Woe – I understand all of those 5 year olds wondering around in their fun fantasy lands are highly creative, but that it declines so rapidly is quite scary.
So how can we lift ourselves out of this void and re-ignite our brain that created all of those battles in the backyard with aliens from Plotonia?!

Ways to ignite and develop your creativity:

- Laugh alot; this helps creativity

- Activate your right brain as much as you can by using the left half of your body eg: brush your teeth with your left hand, tie your shoe laces with your non-dominant hand, brush your hair with your non-dominant hand etc.

- Hang out with people who have different ideas, views, styles and lives to you. Tom Peters says “Hang out with weird people and thou shalt become weird. Hang out with dull people and thou shalt become dull.” So bring on the weirdness!

- Find a role or take on a role in your work life that requires you to come up with new ideas all of the time, there is nothing like the constant need to have new ideas to have new ideas.

- Hang out with 5 years olds and create and fantasise with them. Just throw yourself into it and build the cubby house and fight the dragons, put on funny accents, wear dress up clothes, dance silly – and I promise I wont tell anyone how much you enjoyed it!

- Do some theatre sports; this requires on the spot thinking which is great brain exercise, but also pushes you to just go for it with ideas.

- Do something “cultural” regularly eg: look at art, listen to different music, see a live show. Anything that makes you look at life from a different perspective and so opens up new ways of thinking and seeing things.

- When people around you mention or contribute what you may consider to be silly or outrageous ideas, instead of responding straight away with a “geez that is stupid, no way is that possible”, answer with “That sounds interesting. What do you mean? Please tell me more.” This is because often in the somewhat silly idea is the seed of an amazing idea, and with discussion and input from others it becomes that amazing idea.

- Deliberately ask the “Why” and “What if” questions to yourself and others. This will force you and others to re-think assumptions and come up with new ideas.

- Meditation is a great way to quiet the mind and focus on nothing for a while. From this nothingness all possibilities open up. Find a meditation that works for you – whether it is just 5 minutes of breathing with complete focus on your breath, or saying a mantra......there are many methods, so find yours.

- Create a new look with your clothes. Wear them in different combinations, wear colours and just create something new with them for yourself.

- Brainstorm with coloured paper and textas. Bring out the kid in you.

- BIG TIP: Start a scrapbook or notebook and record all of your ideas that you have. You can also record your dreams in this book too. This is so your creative flow of ideas comes out in front of you, to re-read at another time when you can act on those ideas. Some of these ideas may for you to do something with, or for you to give away to others to help them. Just give your ideas a place to be.

- Take a piece of paper and write 10 – 15 words that are not associated at all. Then take another colour and circle 2 of those words – then force yourself to think of how they are connected and record that connection. Do that again until all words are linked and you have found ways to connect the ideas behind them, from no-where.

- Read, read and read more! Turn the TV off – that thing is a sure way to dull the brain and have you NOT THINKING – and pick up a book or search online and read. Read biographies, read stories, learn how others come up with new ideas, see what the latest inventions are in the world.......just sit and read for 30 minutes and fill your brain with new content. Oh, or course watch some great content – see below for 2 great ones to start with.

- And lastly get out and exercise! Yep, the good ole run or walk or dance or skip starts that oxygen pumping around the body with helps to relax and clear your mind so creative thoughts can then pop up. And of course, it is great for your health aswell!!!

Dr YKK (www.mindbloom.net ) – who gave the workshop – also left us with a great quote from Albert Einstein: “Great spirits have always experience violent opposition from mediocre minds.”

So great spirits out there – go forth and unleash your creativity and ideas unto this world, we need them. And don’t listen to those mediocre minds!!

Tell us about the ways you like to be creative and massage that right side of your brain....

Two great watches:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AGTpu_i8sc – Tom Peters
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html – Do schools today kill creativity? Sir Ken Robinson.

Your Career Pathway

Did you know that $1.3billion is lost to the economy in poor and mixed transitions of young people per year (DEEWR 2008). That is from young people starting in one area and then changing after realising it is not for them, or changing tertiary courses, or moving around to really find “what they want to do”. Part of this is inevitable as it does take some time to work it out, but perhaps with a little more self reflection and quality career advice at a younger age it would reduce this amount and have more young people “living” what they really want to do earlier in their careers.

Through our Frank Team workshops and programs we often hear the comment “I wish I had done this analysis earlier”. What is involved in this analysis?

• Explore past experiences, achievements and milestones since your were about 14 years old.

• Identify those elements that stand out because they helped you to learn something, you thoroughly enjoyed, you felt strongly about or gave you great satisfaction.

• See what actions and skills describe those moments and how important they are to you

• Combine your top ones into a perfect job description.

• Reflect and see is your tertiary studies or current work conditions in line with this job description.

• If yes, woo hoo! Keep progressing in that area. If no, then where would you like to get to and how are you going to do that. This may involve a re-think and some changes.

This basic analysis of skills, actions, values and interests is essential and really listening to what the results are saying to you.

When you are at the beginning of your career journey, what should be a part of everyone’s career program to help this analysis?

• Combine study with work experience and on the job training. This is so you can take your theory and put it into practice straight away. But also it has you experience the “real” world in that area/industry earlier so you can really work out if it fits with you.

o You can do School Based Apprenticeship and Traineeships these days that do on the job training and school study. It is a wonderful way to get this combined experience and get a foothold into the job market early.

• Don’t expect it all to be “fun and games.” Some people start in their chosen career/industry and within 2 weeks start saying “I hate it.” Now if this is truly connected to not enjoying the core work involved then fair enough perhaps you need to re-think and potentially change. But I would say 2 weeks is not enough to truly experience and see the opportunities in that career/industry. Everyone has to start somewhere, and sometimes that is at the bottom but there are always opportunities and ways of learning more and moving ahead; so perhaps you need to grit your teeth and see it out a little further before making the rash decision of doing a complete change. And remember, your progress is UP TO YOU so start finding the opportunities and doing something about it.

• Online personality and career quizzes are available to help you too. Check these out below, but remember that many of these “quizzes” are limited and need to put you into a box so use them as a guide only rather than a decision making tool! But be honest with yourself when you are filling them out. See if they indicate you are heading in the right direction.

o http://jobsearch.gov.au/careerquiz/careerquiz.aspx

o http://www.jobjuice.gov.au/jobjuice/apps/quiz/views/quiz.aspx

o http://www.princetonreview.com/cte/quiz/career_quiz1.asp

o http://www.personalitytype.com/quiz.asp

o http://www.hr.unsw.edu.au/osds/mycareer.html

• Go to networking events to meet the people who work in that area. See if they are your kind of people, what they are talking about and what different career paths are available in that area.

• Check in with your own motivations. Are you going into that industry for the right reasons? If you are doing it cos all of your friends are doing it, your parents want you to, it makes good money or cos it sounds like fun then you may not be 100% happy in the near future. Career choices need to based on your passions, interests and aspirations. Combine this with your skills you enjoy using and you should see a few options open to you.

• Encourage your school/university (or seek out for yourself) to start:

o Having guest speakers in many different areas/industries.

o Regular reflection on activities (from work experience, to sport, to musicals etc) to see what skills you have learnt but most importantly what elements of them that you enjoyed and would like to learn more about.

o Check out websites about careers and early career development.

o Encourage parents to tell their career stories to students and their kids.

o Build your career management skills eg: networking skills, presentation skills, goal setting.

o Have local employers do presentation about what day-to-day is like in their organisation and the career opportunities.

These are just some initial ideas – what do you wish you had done earlier to help to work out what you “really” want to do?

They say that you can tell you are on “purpose” when your work doesn’t feel like work; well for at least 60 – 70% of the time! That feeling of enjoying yourself, feeling happy and being positive the majority of the time in the workplace shows that you are in the right place. If there is a lack of motivation, you are disengaged or just plain unhappy then you probably want to have a re-evaluation of your career and put yourself in the driver’s seat of making some changes. Anything is possible, so see what you can create for yourself!

Online Reputation Management

One of the KEY ME INC: Career 2.0 Skills I have identified is the ability to promote yourself and run your own marketing campaign throughout your career. Obviously the web is an amazing tool to open yourself up to the world for opportunities, but it can also work against you. Part of your self marketing campaign needs to also be about online reputation management.
Everyone Google's everyone. What comes up when they search for you? Are those results going to help or hinder you?

A recent piece in Trend Hunter reveals what some celebs are doing to protect their reputations online. Compare the results when you type in Paris Hilton to Kate Moss. Moss has looked after her rep by employing an online rep team to "launder" some of the information about her to ensure only the good stuff turns up first, and all of the other more dodgy stuff is hidden about 3 pages in! This service can cost anything u to $25,000 apparently.

Now, most of us don't have that sort of cash of course, so we need to be our own online rep cops to ensure our reputation and profile is the best it can be out there on the world wide web!

What to do?

Every 3 - 4 months do an online rep audit - checking through all of the usual places (MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter etc) and ensure only the BEST YOU is being seen!

Better go and do my audit right now!! Happy searching.

Career 2.0 Whitepaper NOW AVAILABLE

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Career 2.0 Whitepaper

The Essential Skills & Attitudes Needed For A Successful and Fulfilling 21st Century Career

The emergence and proliferation of Web 2.0 technology has not just changed the way we use the internet and communicate with our friends, its impact is also being felt in the career world. This new technology, ever evolving, is profoundly influencing the range of essential skills and attitudes needed today to initiate, build and grow a successful career.

The Web 2.0 World is faster, interactive, immediately global, constantly shifting, interdependent, user controlled and highly connected. This has bought with it great opportunities for individual careers as the world is now your market. The potential is exciting but it places new demands on the individual who wants to thrive in this Career 2.0 world.

Web 2.0 is a catchphrase that has come to describe the “new” generation of services and sites found on the internet that are highly interactive and user generated. In the past websites were mainly used either as information portals, or ways to purchase things. Now, web 2.0 is used to describe the social networking sites, wikis, blogs and aggregators that allow users to command and create their own content, collaborate with others and share it with the world. With this in mind Career 2.0 is a term that I have created that describes “new” generation career skills and how web 2.0 technology is being used to build and manage careers in the 21^st century.

An ability to adapt, to change, and be flexible are now standard expectations, as is an ability to use Word, PowerPoint, email and Excel. Web 2.0 demands a new generation of skills, which are set to become the basics for successful career development.

The first adaption to make is to your attitude. Think of yourself as a business, ME Incorporated or Me INC. The new generation skill sets are departments in your business that need to be functioning effectively in order for your business to be profitable and sustainable.

You are the CEO in charge of your business, your career, and its ongoing development. Your goal is success in the 21^st century, in whatever way you define success. How can you be a successful CEO? How do you create success when times have changed, where new rules and where new knowledge is required?

Like any good CEO worth their million dollar bonus (!) you need to find out what resources and skills are required to attain the goal, and how to obtain them so they are part of ME INC.

THE Six Career 2.0 Success SKILLS

• Self Leadership Skills
• Ethical Entrepreneurial Skills
• Self Promotion & Marketing Skills
• Global Networking & Relationship Building Skills
• Team 2.0 Skills
• Technology 2.0 Literacy Skills

For your copy of the FULL whitepaper to learn your Career 2.0 Skills - email jessica@frankteam.com.au