New web site design launched

We launched a new, cool web site design last night - it looks fantastic and it works way better than the old site (not that the old site was bad). Check it out and tell us what you think!

The Brand of You: Your Brand Positioning Statement

The best brand ideas are conveyed in as few words as possible, and those words cannot be misinterpreted or misunderstood.

There are many corporate brands whose tagline or slogan is vague and open to interpretation. United Airlines slogan "Rising" aspires to lofty ideals (sorry for the pun), but the idea of "rising" is open to interpretation - rising means something different to everyone.

The best brand ideas are concise and clear. Target's "Design for all" fits beautifully with their business of inexpensive but nicely designed merchandise. Or HBO's "It's not TV, it's HBO" - this positions HBO's unique content well against traditional TV.

A personal branding statement doesn't necessarily need to be this concise (and it takes a lot of work to get it this concise) but you should be able to sum up what you do and how you do it in 15 words or so. This becomes your "elevator pitch" or resume summary.

Taking a look at a couple of corporate brand positioning statements, we see that they comprise of three elements (adapted from Allen Adamson's BrandSimple):

• Who you're talking to
• Your features and benefits vs. your competition
  
• How you're going to beat your competition
  

Every job reports to someone who is your client or customer. You do a job for this person so that they in turn can do their job and move a business forward. Figure out who you are talking to, and make that a part of your positioning statement.

Who is your competition? You need to identify the people you're up against, what they have to offer, and beat that. If you're an administrator, you're not just an administrator, but an administrator with exceptional organizational skills, or an administrator with an eye for details that everyone else misses. The sharper you can focus your position - the features you offer and the benefits that those features have - the stronger your branding signals will be.

What do you do that your competition doesn't? What has your competition overlooked? Finding out what employers dislike most about previous hires and making that a part of your brand will get you noticed. You're appealing to an emotional need, and this is very powerful.

A couple of sample statements:

For small business owners, Kathy Jones is the accountant who can design small business accounting systems that will help you understand your financial positions more clearly than ever before.

For busy corporate executives, Susan Smith is the executive assistant with an exceptional time management ability that will keep your schedule on track and organized.

For small entrepreneurs, Joe Williams is the web designer, developer and marketer with the all-in-one skills to make your web site look like you are a huge company.

Exercise #3: Develop your brand positioning statement

Incorporating the three points above, write your personal brand positioning statement. Use your "features and benefits" list from exercise #2 to keep this statement focused.

The Brand of You: Discovering Your Product

You have a special combination of skills, abilities and attitudes that is your "product". Unfortunately, not many of us know what those abilities are, therefore we don't know our product. If we don't know our product, we can't market ourselves. Your resume is another bland, unmemorable piece of paper that crosses the desk of an HR person every day.

We need to ask ourselves a few questions.

1. What do I want to be?
2. What have I done this week to make myself stand out?*
3. What would my colleagues, customers or coworkers say is my biggest strength?
4. What is my most remarkable personal trait?
5. What do I do that adds remarkable, measurable, distinguished, distinctive value to my job?
6. What do I do that I am most proud of?
7. What have I accomplished that I can unabashedly brag about?

*I make a note of this because, in general, most people don't like to stick out - our society values conformity. However, if you want to be noticed, you need to stick out. This means not conforming and doing things differently.

Tom Peters: "If you're going to be a brand, you've got to become relentlessly focused on what you do that adds value, that you're proud of, and most important, that you can shamelessly take credit for."

The "feature-benefit model" is an excellent place to start developing your brand. Every feature you offer - for example, getting your work done on time - has a distinct benefit for your customer (your employer) - projects move smoothly and reliably. Feature: you answer the phones clearly and professionally; benefit: your company looks professional and organized, and customer satisfaction is high.

Exercise #2: Features and Benefits

Make 2 columns on a piece of paper. In the first column, write 4 features that you can offer. See questions 3 and 5 above for ideas.

For example:

• I love talking to people and can approach anyone at any time and make smart small talk.
• I can write clearly and concisely.
• My colleagues say that I'm easy to get along with and they like having me around every day.
• I'm organized and can plan work schedules for the future.

In the second column, write down the benefit to your client (your boss or company).

Are you starting to get a picture of your "product"?

Tomorrow: Your branding statement.

The Brand of You: What is a personal brand?

Branding is the art of capturing the essence of a business in a simple-to-communicate message. In this series, I'll explore the process of creating the professional "you" and your brand.

If you are taking a job or career hunt seriously, you need to discover three things:

• who you are
• what you do well
• how to communicate these points as quickly as possible
  

A popular misconception of a brand is that it's just for big companies, or it can only be created by marketing professionals. However, if you have a clear idea of a couple of things, you can easily create your own brand.

Tom Peters, marketer extraordinaire, wrote an article for Fast Company magazine in 1997 that started the whole personal branding idea. In the article, he says: "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."

Why your personal brand is important

Dan Schwabel at Personal Branding Blog describes personal branding: "Personal branding describes the process by which individuals differentiate themselves by identifying and articulating their unique value proposition to achieve a specific goal".

In other words, you describe who you are and what you can do in a very clear and concise way. This cuts through the clutter of undifferentiated people and gives you a clear and memorable definition in the minds of a recruiter. When a recruiter or hiring manager is plowing through thousands of resumes, a clearly branded person will stand out very clearly.

What is branding?

Branding is somewhat difficult to explain in a few words, but the essence of a brand is "the mental associations that get stirred up when you think about a particular car, soft drink, pair of jeans, bank, celebrity or even country" (Allen Adamson, BrandSimple).

When you think of "Cadillac" cars, you have a range of ideas, images and associations with that car. Same with Clairol's "Herbal Essences" brand. Companies go to great lengths to establish these images in the minds of consumers, and each brand has a different set of associations designed to appeal to certain people - people who drink Diet Pepsi have a different idea about themselves as compared to Mountain Dew drinkers. Canadians have a different reputation (brand) around the world as compared to, say, Germans.

You can create your own brand relatively easily; in fact, it's very important to successfully convincing employers to hire you.

Over the next few weeks, we'll create your brand and talk about communicating this brand successfully.

Exercise #1 - Describe yourself in 5 adjectives

To get started in defining your personal brand, I want you to think about how you would like employers and potential employers to view you.

Write down 5 adjectives you would use to describe "you", and we'll use these adjectives to create your brand.

I will do this exercise with you, so here are my 5 adjectives or phrases I use to describe myself:

• knowledgeable
• creative thinker
• problem solver
• fast learner
• friendly

I'll leave you with Dan's excellent branding presentation:

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How much money do you need to live?

I was chatting with a 17 year old high school junior this week who was looking for some career direction. He wants to engineer and design cars, but also wants a lot of money. The average annual salary of $65k for industrial designers seemed low. Mmm, OK...

Over the years, I've learned that money is a very strange beast. People are obsessed by it, mostly because you never seem to have enough. It's all an illusion.

If there's one thing I've learned from 15+ years in the workforce, you'll never be happy if you chase $$$. You'll hop from job to job, company to company for a small pay increase. After a few years, you won't have anything to show for that, and you'll never be satisfied.

The acquisition of stuff is an evil cycle. With some money, you buy some stuff. You need a bigger place to put your stuff, so you buy a bigger house. You need a better job to pay for the house. Suddenly, you have more money again, so you buy more stuff. Repeat.

Looking back at the happier times of my life, it's always been when my lifestyle fits within my means. I may not have the biggest TV, flashiest car and so on, but I have enough so that I don't have to stress over not having enough.

I know that most people think "If only I had a little more", but this is the trap. You need to learn how to be happy with what you have - chasing "more" is an endless cycle (of course, this doesn't work for everyone; there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people in this city that cannot afford the basics like food and clothing - making more is critical to maintaining basic health and security - I'm not insensitive to this).

Step back and reevaluate. how much do you really need?

Interview mistakes: how to make interviewers uninterested in you

Jennifer Tortorella at The Headhuntress Blog points out some of the stranger interview behaviour that was uncovered during Careerbuilder's annual Interview Mistakes survey. Somehow, flushing the toilet during a telephone interview didn't go over so well...

Anyway, from the hiring managers themselves, here are the biggest mistakes you can make during an interview:

51% said dressing inappropriately was the most detrimental mistake
49% disliked candidates talking negatively about a former employer
48% disliked candidates who acted uninterested in the interview
44% disliked candidates who appeared arrogant
30%: not answering questions well
29%: not asking good questions

Good interviewing is all about engaging the interviewer. Anything that distracts or takes away from that engagement can hurt you badly in an interview

What not to wear to a job interview

I'm speechless...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16577770@N00/2329011550/sizes/m/

Found via Digg.com

Death to the Killer Resume

Karen Swim at Secrets of the Job Hunt has a great riff on the "killer" resume. This (formerly) trendy term has run its course and it's time to focus on the real purpose of the resume: to leave the prospective employer wanting to know more about you.

An employer posts a job because they need someone to do a certain task that will help the company meet its goals. Your job, when you apply, is to show that you have the experience and skills to help the company meet that goal. If your resume reflects your objectives, experience and qualifications and they mesh with the needs of the company, that is what it takes to engage the hiring manager. That's the "kill".

Apologies

My apologies for taking a bit of a blogging vacation - things around here suddenly got very hectic. We got slammed for people by our biggest client and one of Calgary's biggest employers, and it was a bit of a madhouse trying to find people to fill all the jobs we had available.

Also, the boss discovered the blog and I'm not 100% sure what will happen next. I'll keep blogging until a decision is made one way or another. My fingers are crossed that it will become an official thing...