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We all want to become more authentic and true to ourselves.  When searching for a career or calling use these techniques adapted from the movie and book to help you find it.

Eat

Find pleasure in your craft and journey.

Nourish your soul with things you find pleasurable.  What things move you and create a positive emotional reaction?

Research and shadow someone in your desired field.  Just like when you’re eating something new, try it to see if you like it.

Fill your mind and soul with new experiences.

Pray

Go inward and still your mind.  Begin writing about your ideal career situation.

Envision it and don’t censor your writing.  Let it flow and you’ll soon see patterns emerging.

Distract yourself from stress by listening to a meditation or soothing music.

Get a massage, and feel tension melt away while opening your mind and heart to new inspiration.

Pray on it – if it comforts you.

Love

Love the process

Know that you’re not just searching for a career, you’re looking for yourself.

Don’t pass negative judgments on your ideas.  Say yes to them and think them through.  Give them a chance to develop.

Love yourself unconditionally and surround yourself with loving and supportive people.

You don’t have to travel across the globe to find yourself.  You just have to be present, open and welcoming when you decide to show up.  Embrace your positive emotions whenever they are present and make note of any patterns that emerge.  Such as, “I get so excited talking to people about how to market themselves better” or “I love making floral arrangements and personalizing them for others.”  When these patterns and positive emotions occur they mean you’re on the right track.

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.

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 whatand 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.

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.

The Internet, and specifically social media sites and tools, are defining the new economy and our future success.  We can lead the call, as we are a growing economic superpower.  Research from the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia shows, “In sheer dollar power, Hispanics’ economic clout will rise from $212 billion in 1990, to $490 billion in 2000, to $951 billion in 2008, and to almost $1.4 trillion in 2013.”  The Multicultural Economy 2008.

Teaching our communities the power of the Internet to promote their businesses, and non-profit organizations while creating powerful intellectual networks with colleagues, investors, and constituents is vitally important.  Our economic independence and prosperity depends on it.

We have all witnessed the power of the Internet during the last presidential campaign and in bringing awareness to important environmental and charitable causes.  As an educational tool it is limitless.  With adult monitoring and supervision, we can help our children navigate responsibly, share ideas and engage with their peers in a productive way.  Social media used maturely, is a great tool to challenge negative stereotypes and perceptions by showcasing our intellect, personality, and spirit.

Whether you agree or disagree with Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation, you cannot deny its significance to America’s history and its positive impact to the greater American Latino community.

Cited: The Multicultural Economy 2008, http://www.terry.uga.edu/selig/docs/buying_power_2008.pdf

I’m a huge “Dancing with the Stars” fan (please don’t judge), and there was a couple who had a disappointing performance the previous week, but came back and received great scores.  They were asked what made the difference.  The difference, they said, is they decided to focus on the character of the dance, the real soul, and then learned the techniques and steps later.  The same goes with your network, take notice of those around you who emulate the morals and standards you value before focusing on their business or position.  For example, you know people who are always kind to everyone regardless of title, and never compromise themselves for greed or pride.  Get to know them.  In my own journey, I decided to reach out to colleagues and company officers who really impressed me by their actions and unwavering character.

So let’s stop and think for a moment about who stands out in your mind as having fascinating interpersonal skills and a career history that mirrors or complements your interests and passions.

Then, come up with a lunch list.  Jot down a few names of those you would like to have lunch with.  For some readers, this will immediately take you out of your comfort zone but the reason they are on your lunch list to begin with is because they touched your spirit in a positive way.  So this should not be a painful activity but rather an uplifting one.  Include people that are easy to invite but also include 1 or 2 who would normally reside on your wish list.  Think big!

At these lunches, begin with explaining to that person why you wanted to have lunch.  Explain that you would like to learn what they do to keep their head above the nonsense and remain true to themselves.  The purpose is for you to express your respect and admiration for their character and genuine spirit and the kicker is, you don’t want anything from them.  You don’t want a raise, a job, a client relationship, a free product, or a favor.  Nada, nothing, zip.  You only want to spend some time and listen to them.  The person you choose will be flattered by your authenticity and openness.

You must place yourself on a higher plane than those who are only flattering and helpful because they want something.  So enjoy your lunch and broaden your network with like-minded people.