Self Promotion and Branding Checklist

Posted On 1/14/2010 by Carl E. Reid | | 0 comments

It was a pleasure and honor to speak at the recent Northern Bergen County Networking Group meeting.  Many thanks to the NBCNG leadership team for bringing us together; Lou Piombino, Maureen Kinsey and Keith GrossBelow is a quick checklist of the topic I presented on "Self Promotion and Branding".


Self Promotion and Branding Checklist
 
Online

  • Ride the long tail with article comments
  • Answer questions on LinkedIn
  • Develop a positive web presence
  • Blog, Blog, Blog
  • Acquire a vanity domain name
  • Make yourself an industry expert with articles
Offline
  • Remote networking using telephone and contact management database
  • Use voice mail as a marketing tool.  This goes for voice mail you leave and your outgoing message.
  • Maintain business posture through email with proper grammar, spelling and email signature.  Rapport with potential business connections makes a terrible impression when using text message abbreviations.

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Take a Vacation Everyday with Instant Karma

Posted On 12/27/2009 by Carl E. Reid | | 0 comments


 8,879 Ways to Give Yourself and Others Good Fortune Right Now by Barbara Ann Kipfer

 As you do a little business realignment to prepare for the new year, give yourself a mental time out with this delightful book. I like to read a page from this book to start each day off in a peaceful mind set. If my day gets a little crazy, I calm myself with another 1 page read from this book.  It's like taking a mini vacation to get perspective on what is really important in life.

Barbara's web site ThingsToBeHappyAbout.com, provides a nice search tool to explore "Instant Karma".  Below are some words that impact people, which you can click on to see how "Instant Karma" can redirect your current environmental thoughts and attitude for improved results.  

The search results will will be surprising and eye opening.

Holiday * Project * BusinessMeet * Goals * Partner * Income * Deal * Opportunity * Children * Board * Supervise * Manage * Research * Plan * Plans * Vacation * Bonus * Raise * Profit * Minutes * Schedule * Family * Network * Friends * Leader * ReportPromote * Quit * Hire * Fire * Motivate * Computer * Telephone Letter * Disagree * Argue * Results

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Beware of Complacency Trap Ahead

Posted On 12/14/2009 by Carl E. Reid | | 0 comments


While driving along the business highway of life it would be so nice if we could constantly see the road sign "Beware of Complacency Trap Ahead".  No one wakes up in the morning, looks in the mirror while shaving or putting on make up, then  deliberately says to themselves "self, I'm going use all my energy today in achieving my long term goals by going out of my way to be happily satisfied with all my accomplishments".  We don't plan for it to happen.  Complacency is an unexpected phenomenon that occurs.  The cause of the complacency trap is allowing environment to control us, instead of being in control of our situation.

Adjective: complacent (kum'pleysunt)
Contented to a fault with oneself or one's actions

  1. "he became complacent after years of success"
    - self-satisfied, self-complacent

Savvy Intrapreneurs and smart business owners know it. Seasoned entrepreneurs are keenly aware of it.  The trip wire that creates an explosion in any career management plan is the claymore mine of complacency

Career management is not limited to staff professionals.  It also includes entrepreneurs and business owners.  Why? Because your career is your business and your business is your career

Complacency is that little sneaky toad that we willingly, yet unknowingly, allow to slowly creep up on us.  It is perceived as a secure environment of satisfied self accomplishment.  We don't mean to do it, but it can easily happen anyway.  The income produced through our efforts of closing a deal or landing a job, dictates every aspect of our life style. "Stick me with a fork, I'm done." is what you say to yourself.

Smart business professionals worth their salt know, if more than 25% of your income is derived through a single source, you just relinquished control of your business and family's life style to someone else. If that's OK with you, the Complacency Soufflé recipe is a perfect read for you.

How do you know you're stuck in the complacency trap?
  • Landing a deal or job is the single focus of maintaining your income. Now you spend every waking minute to maintain position in the organization. Promises of upward mobility, partnerships, more business referrals, being promoted as a valuable team member pushes the success adrenaline into high gear.  Doesn't the sound of "ka ching" in that cash register called your bank account, sound so sweet?  Woo hoo!!  Now 100% of your income and family life style is in the hands of one single entity, called a client, customer, supervisor or manager.
  • You have several job interviews or business meetings scheduled.  Until you receive job offer letters or signed contracts, all you have is a firm grip on an empty sack. It's easy to lose focus and become complacent when this happens.  It's a deadly mistake to stop looking for other jobs or business opportunities, just because a few people have shown interest in what you have to offer.  Interviews and sales business meetings are window shopping excursions for potential buyers.  Be honest with yourself about this process.
Continue to search for solid, profitable opportunities until the goal of avoiding complacency is achieved.  Spread income sources over 2 or more entities.  This is the best way to be good to your family.  Constantly ask yourself the question "If this single source of income disappeared right now, could I maintain the life style I or my family deserve"?

"To thine own self be true . . . " -William Shakespeare

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Branding and Marketing on a Shoe String Budget

Posted On 12/13/2009 by Carl E. Reid | | 0 comments


The employment market is flush with job candidates.  The competition numbers many for each job opening.  Many vendors are competing to close a deal with your potential clients. How do you make yourself or your company stand out? It's absolutely essential each person take charge of their own marketing brand awareness campaign. 

It's never been easier and inexpensive to brand and market yourself or your company. This was proven recently with "The eMarketing Toolkit: Getting Big Results with Small Investments" webinar. Hosted by the American Marketing Association and sponsored by Conduit, I had the awesome honor of being one of the presenters at this very informative webinar.  Moderated by Alli Libb, AMA's Online Event Marketing Manager, this webinar had almost 800 attendees.  

Conduit President, Adam Boyden, led a panel discussion that included twitter twenius, Dan Hollings, as well as Paul Rothkopf, Louise Bowden, Michal Konicek and I.  As the Chief Operations Officer, my portion of the webinar provided various social media tools being used by Empowering Today's Professionals Network. The other presenters also showed various high impact marketing tools available on the Internet to brand a company or individual.  Presenters shared results of using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and many other eMarketing tools to create "brand name recognition" for their respective companies.

Many thanks to Conduit team members, Shiri Gamon and Dayna Verstegen for inviting me to participate in this training event.  Click here to view the webinar recording.  This recording is available free to the general public for a limited time. 

Consider adding some marketing tools to your branding campaign, in order to stand out from the competition.  It's crucial to business and career survival, no matter how often the economic landscape changes.  If you are gainfully employed, branding and marketing yourself within the company is an ongoing process, to maintain position.

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You Are a Person of Influence

Posted On 12/09/2009 by Carl E. Reid | | 0 comments




Being a "person of influence", "change maker" or "rainmaker" are all interchangeable words.


How do you get 300 people to each drop $200,000 for a space flight reservation, which was accomplished this week by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic?


How does Barack Obama, a relatively unknown senator become the 44th President of the United States?


How does a very successful international global enterprise become founded and headed by CEO, Jason Alba, from a person who had no job?


How does David Geffen go from working in the mailroom to become one of the founders of DreamWorks?



How does the world catch a cold and go into a feverish buying frenzy for a particular book, when Oprah Winfrey sneezes on it?


How does Rod Colon turn a 1-day temporary assignment at JP Morgan Chase into being on staff for 13 years?  How does Mr. Colon then go on to become one of the top career management experts and "in demand" speakers in the United States?


How is it Keith Ferrazzi comes from obscurity to become the Dr. Phil of networking relationship management?


Coming from a major brokerage firm, how does Suze Orman become one of Time Magazine's most "Influential People" in 2008. How was Ms. Orman previously designated in Business Week as the top female motivational speaker in 2007?



When we think of influential people the thought of politicians, wealthy people, entertainers and company CEOs immediately comes to mind.  We think of a few select individuals as only having influence.  The truth is everyone possesses the power to change things or make an impact without having prestige or wealth. This ability can be learned, but must be carefully cultivated over time.  

"Up Through the Mailroom" by Martin Lieberman points out a mail room clerk or a temporary worker can exert as much influence as the company CEO.  Michael Ovitz, Barry Diller, and David Geffen (one of the founders of Dreamworks) all began their careers in the mailroom of the William Morris agency.  I also know this from personal experience. I jump started a very successful 28+ year career in information technology (IT) by working as a temporary mailroom clerk.


A person who affects another, by leveraging their position, is said to be influential. When someone facilitates a situation that produces a change or particular outcome, a change maker accomplishes this through intangible means.  The easiest, yet most powerful way to become a person of influence is through your network of associations.  You must be willing to go beyond the basics of networking.


There are many articles that deal with foundation skills of networking like "10 Powerful Networking Tips Using Business Cards".  To reach that rare distinction in being recognized as a person of influence, advanced networking skills must be developed.


In the mid 90's telephone companies were charging per minute rates. My wife was livid every time I paid a $700 to $800 monthly telephone bill.  After a couple of years she once commented "you're always calling people, but very few call you. When they call, they usually want something".  The jaw dropping look on her face was priceless when I responded with "honey, if anything ever happens to me you can call anyone in my contact database and they will help you, without hesitation".   I never again heard another word from my wife about the telephone bill.  Thank goodness for flat rate telephone billing these days, as I continue to reach out and touch people.


The suggestions below are habits to slowly implement.  Although each requires a bit more work past basic networking approaches, the results will better position you as a person of influence.


1.  Elevate and Upgrade Your Network.  Start to develop 5 star relationships within your network.  You can have many people in your network.  Which persons can you call, right now, who would not hesitate to help you.  A free tool called Jibber Jobber has a feature that facilitates this process. To the untrained eye this feature appears innocuous. It's provides a 1 to 5 star ranking system for each contact. When used properly it elevates a person’s network, while improving relationship skills that achieve powerful outcomes. You become a person of influence in regularly staying in touch with people, without asking for anything.  You connect with proven people of influence, who reciprocate by touching base with you regularly.


Proper use of the Jibber Jobber contact ranking feature involves slowly upgrading the star level for each person.  It's up to you to decide how you want to rank your contacts. For me it's a combination of the longevity of me staying in touch and how the person responds in kind.  When these 2 criteria are met [or not] my 5 star contact rankings are adjusted accordingly.


The goal is to have 200 five star contacts. These are the top people relationships in your network. Be patient.  5 star contacts take time to cultivate.  These become those few persons of influence that you can rely on, because they know they can rely on you for assistance.  This only occurs by being disciplined in consistently reaching out to 5 star contacts.  Below are smart ways to stay in touch, while maximizing your most valuable commodity called "time".

2. Nourish Your Network. Share information related to each contact's interests.  You have a business associate that collects stamps. Keep an eye out for stamp collecting articles to send that person. When opportunities or relative networking events come into your email inbox, share them with your network. Call at least 1 to 2 persons in your network everyday.


Reconnect and warm up old contacts by sharing free tools like Jibber Jobber or the Career Management Swiss Army Knife.  Making deposits into the goodwill bank http://coachingcompass.blogspot.com/2004/10/good-will-bank-pays-big-dividends.html always places you in a position of influence.  People are more receptive to being contacted when you show an interest in them.  Think of creative ways to keep your name in front of people all the time.



Email: Let people know what's happening in your professional life. Send out reprints of articles along with a quick note. One of the easiest ways of doing this is by setting up a mailing list. The small investment in time will pay huge dividends.


Voicemail:  Your outgoing message and messages you leave can be powerful marketing and networking tools. Get voice mail tips . . .


Make Email Your Silent Sales Tool: Never assume friends, associates have your contact information readily available. The easier it is for anyone to get in touch with you, the faster they will contact you.  Having contact information, as a signature, in every email you send.
Creating a mailing list of people in your trusted network.  To stay in compliance with the U.S. Canned Spam Act of 2003, consider using a list server.  This technology works much better than most newsletter list services.  These days sending email to more than 10-15 email addresses in the same mailing, may be considered spam.  A list server best minimizes spam related issues. Email Savvy Intrapreneur for a free list server of up to 50 contacts.

4. Create your own Business Card.  Just pay for shipping and you can get free business cards at VistaPrint.com.  Read "10 Powerful Networking Tips Using Business Cards" to begin your campaign of influencing people.

5. Schedule Relationship Development.  In addition to using LinkedIn, consider using true client / contact relationship management software, like Act! or Free CRM.  These programs fine tune the tracking of your interactions with people.  Developed by author and speaker, Harvey Mackay, I highly recommend incorporating the Mackay 66. This powerful tool is essential  for developing 5 star contacts.


When I have a conversation with someone, I write notes in their electronic contact card.  This allows me to have a superior memory the next time I speak with each person.  I reference personal tidbits mentioned previously. (i.e. did your son pass that test, did your meeting go well, did your anniversary dinner go well etc.). Entering the date I last spoke to someone produces a wonderful result.  By entering the date of a conversation, my contact management system allows me to run a report that of people I have not talked to in 60, 90, 120 days etc.. Now I can catch up with a quite few people each week.


Schedule personal meetings over breakfast, lunch, dinner or a cup of coffee.  There is no substitute for personal interaction.  If an associate is coming to your local area, it's always nice to see a friendly face. So be disciplined about scheduling regular meetups throughout the month.


6. Read "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie.   Follow up that up with "Skill with People" by Les Giblin.


Last Thoughts . . .

Becoming a person of influence requires developing advanced networking skills. It will require extra time and effort, but the dividends are huge for expanding your sphere of influence. Ongoing development of relationships positions you to ask for help from others.  Being able to leverage your influence with your network, to help others, makes you the rainmaker people will constantly seek out.

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