Coach'm Up Boni

I recently heard the best advice on how to handle crippling fear.  I was listening to a women caller recently who expressed extreme fear when contemplating taking the first step to market her business.  She said she created her web copy, designed her marketing materials, researched the needs of her potential clients but was too scared to make it real and take action.  All of her work was still in her head!

Many of us experience a crippling fear or anxiety when venturing into the unknown.  For some of us, it’s applying for a promotion or a new job.  For others, it’s starting your own business and putting yourself out there.  What should you do when faced with this?  Get out of your head!  That’s right, stop thinking about the problem and instead listen to your body.

The moment you feel the fear, analyze where it’s sitting.  Is it an ache in your head, a rock in the pit of your stomach, or does it feel more like butterflies?  Is your heart racing? Are your shoulders tensing up, or is your stomach tightened? Do you feel faint?  Stay with the feeling even though its uncomfortable because in a few moments, you will start to calm down.  It will pass like a wave and you will realize that the fear was not as big as your mind played it up to be.

Homework: Begin to break down your fears and have a reality check. On a piece of paper, start listing your fears when it comes to your career or business.  Get them out on paper and they begin to lose strength and power over you.  Afterward, write a few action steps that you can take to alleviate some of these fears.  Don’t make them too extravagent because then you won’t implement them.  Make them simple and attainable.  If you need to ask for help on a specific problem, determine who that should be.

I recently attended a “personal branding” networking event hosted by Tricia Brunton of Xcel, Inc and found a packed house.  It was great to see so many people at different levels in their careers having a great discussion on the importance of personal branding.  Though our blogging is national and many times international in scope, don’t forget to attend local networking events.  They help you stay in tune with what your local market is focused on and are a great way to market yourself.

Leading the discussion, was “America’s Marketing Motivator”, Kathy McAfee and Image Consultant, Mallory Mason.  They led a well-rounded discussion on the importance of managing your brand from the inside and out.  It was a lively and intimate experience on how we create, sustain, and market our personal brands.  Including the biggest lesson of all — if you don’t manage your personal brand, others will do it for you by running with their first impressions and judgments.

Additionally, it is extremely important to be consistent with your brand instead of being scattered.  Many people go to conferences and have multiple business cards for each of their businesses and interests.  What this does is confuse people and dilutes your brand.  Instead you must find a common thread and define your brand handle.  In 2 or 3 words, sum up your brand.  For Kathy McAfee, it’s “America’s Marketing Motivator”, for a participant who was an executive assistant it was “The Go To Person.”  For me, it is “Coach’m Up Boni” because I empower others to rise up from their current situations to reach higher levels of success.  What is your brand handle?

Finally what I took away from this wonderful event, in addition to the great women I networked with, was the importance to be authentic.  Don’t compromise your values for others because when you are authentic, you build trust in your personal brand.  I am excited to be a panelist at Xcel, Inc’s next networking event in August on the topic of “Owning your Career.”  You can bet that I will have my brand handle ready and my personal brand in my soul.

You may be asking what valuing yourself has to do with moving up the corporate ladder, landing your next job or turning a profit in your business?  It has everything to do with it.  This is your foundation, your ground zero, your step 1.

First take an inventory of your skills — all of them.     Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle.  On the left-hand side title it “Hard Skills”; on the right-hand side title it “Soft Skills.”  Both are important aspects of your overall value in the marketplace.  Hard skills represent easily transferable, tangible, and technical skills.  For example, your education, computer skills, certifications, designations, mathematical ability, software skills, statistical analysis, sales forecasting etc.  Soft skills are equally important but harder to measure because they are intangible and subjective such as being a leader, dependable, optimistic, patient, methodical, collaborative, persistent, diligent, competitive, honest, etc.

So now without censoring yourself write down what all of your skills are.

Next make a separate list of who you respect and admire.  They can be from the present or the past, from your family or from history.  This helps you understand who you are and  the traits you admire in yourself.

Once you determine what and who you value, I want you to spend some time asking yourself why?  Work through this question and you’ll be surprised at what comes to the surface.

You need to be able to define your value for yourself and embrace it before you can market yourself to others.

1.  Personalize as well as customize your résumé.

2.  Don’t just list your job description and tasks in each job. Describe the goals and reasons you were hired and how you achieved them.

3.  Liz Ryan, workplace expert and in demand speaker says to avoid, “corporate speak” such as “results oriented individual”, “excellent communication skills” and other stock phrases and replace with a human voiced summary and résumé. It should read as if you are speaking to the recruiter. This is a world of difference from what we have been taught.

4.  Don’t be afraid to use “I” in your résumé summary. When describing your abilities in a particular industry or job family. Describe why you enjoyed the work and your long term career goals.

5.  Customize your résumé to the company you are applying to. Yes, this may take extra work on your end but it pays large dividends. Do your homework on the organization and describe the exact department you would like to be a part of.

6.  Include volunteer positions in which you held a leadership role or accomplished something significant. This is especially helpful if you have large time gaps in your résumé due to childrearing, economic layoffs, or switching careers.

7.  If you are successful at social media such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or others list them in their own social media section in your résumé. Highlight this area if you have found a lot of success. Feel free to include your blog if it relates to your career.

Update:  May 17, 2010 -  Here is a link to another great article by R. Slager on EHow on how to keep your résumé to 1 page. Check it out here, http://www.ehow.com/how_4481961_write-one-resume.html.

1.  Assess where you are.  After being laid off and not getting hired after multiple interviews you must check in with yourself about how you’re feeling emotionally

• Are you feeling like a failure? Are you feeling rejected?

• Being accepted is one of our most primal and primary desires in life

2.  Don’t take rejection personally. Many times, not getting the job is usually because someone else was a better organizational fit. Skills alone will not get you the job.

3.  Do your homework on the organization prior to an interview. You must know ahead of time that you will be a good fit for the organization and vice versa.

4.  Talk about your feelings to a close friend or partner. Don’t hold your feelings inside, many times they are irrational and built up because of imagined fears. A friend or partner can help you see them for what they are.

5.  Resiliency is the key to rebuilding your confidence. When stressed, do you stretch like a rubber band or snap like a twig?

6.  List your skills and abilities regardless of job title. Write without censorship. Many times you have skills that you have discounted or dismissed that are very important to your job search.

7.  Try something new and conquer a fear. If you have a fear of heights, climb a rock wall. If you fear water, learn how to swim. Conquering these fears will help you build your self-confidence. Take karate lessons or other lessons to empower yourself. Have your friends and family join you in a 5k run or a mile hike. You will feel accomplished and ready for that next job interview.

Guest Post by  Jessica Holbrook, CEO of Great Resumes Fast

We’ve all heard of the book, but what a great principle to apply to our resumes, cover letters, and job searches.  Instead of utilizing a generic or jack of all trades (and master of none) resume, we should be using (and with great success) a purpose-driven, focused, and customized resume.  In fact, if you have expertise in more than one area, then you should be broadcasting more than one resume.

After working recently with a client who had an extremely unfocused, all-over-the-place resume, I was prompted to sit down and write about how important a focused, customized, and branded resume really is.  This particular client had his resume nicely written, and to tell the truth, it wasn’t half bad.  It contained great wording, had an appealing format, and even included some great accomplishments.  The problem was that this resume had multiple personalities—ten different job titles and no clear direction.  It was not a surprise the client didn’t even receive one call back.  Hiring managers were probably reviewing the resume and thinking, “I have no idea where to put this person or what he really wants to do.”

If you have experience and expertise in several different areas it certainly is not a negative, but blasting everything you have ever done all over your resume—where it looks like job titles and keywords just threw up all over it—is not going to get you an interview … or a call back for that matter.  Here are three points you should consider in order to clean up your resume, communicate your purpose, and customize it:

1. Focus. Pick one position, one role, one industry.  Then convey your achievements, contributions, experience, expertise, talent, passion, and vision for that one key role.  This does not mean you can only apply to that one position; this is where the technique of employing multiple resumes which are focused in different areas comes in to play.
2. Don’t just develop a resume with any old content.  Create your personal branding statement, and then tie in all of the other elements of your resume to support that statement.  If you are an amazing sales manager in the XYZ industry, then what makes you so great?  How do your talent, passion, and vision play into that?
3. Customization is crucial.  Form an appropriate branding statement and relevant career summary to industry specific keywords and pertinent accomplishments.  They should all relate back to the exact position to which you are applying at that very moment.

Everything about your resume should address the key points of the job description and answer the question: “Are you a perfect fit for this job?”  If you can review the description and honestly answer, “I addressed all of their requirements—either through my branding statement, career summary, keywords, or accomplishments,” then you can be assured you’re the perfect fit for the position and you have a purpose-driven resume.

For a free resume analysis send your resume to info@greatresumesfast.com.  You can visit them online at http://www.greatresumesfast.com to view sample resumes and find information about professional resume writing services.

Jessica Holbrook is an expert resume writer, career and personal branding strategist, author, and presenter.  She has written more than 100 articles that are featured on some of the best career advice Web sites today.  In addition, her writing has been included in Launch pad, a career search strategy guide featuring exclusive information by the top career experts in the industry.

As CEO of Great Resumes Fast, Jessica enjoys collaborating with forward-thinking professionals and executives, identifying their personal brand and value proposition and leveraging their unique talent, passion, and vision to position them as a leader in their industry.  Her passion is helping professionals and executives uncover what makes them stand out in the crowd.