In early January, we partnered with Identified.com in order to examine Gen Y based on their Facebook profiles. Out of 4 million Gen Y profiles, we found that only 7 percent work for a Fortune 500 company, and that they are connected to an average of 16 co-workers and 700 friends on Facebook. The study became an international hit, with media coming from The Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, TIME, MSNBC, CBS and over 60 other outlets. We learned that young people are looking for more flexible, high impact and entrepreneurial jobs. This poses a major change for companies that are operating under legacy workplace policies.

In our new Premium Gen Y Research portal, we will be publishing data, analysis and insights on Gen Y workforce management and consumer trends. We will be releasing quarterly studies and whitepapers exclusively to members at $5,000 annual subscription rate. The reports will come out each quarter (January, April, July, and October). All new subscribers will receive a 19 page whitepaper from our first report. Each whitepaper will give you an overview of the research findings, corporate interviews and case studies, third party research and actionable advice on how to better manage or sell to Gen Y. There will also be additional content provided to each subscriber in the form of podcasts, videos, articles and case studies we receive between reports. We see this as extremely valuable for your business, as this research will help you stay on top of emerging trends, allowing you to stay competitive. You will be able to drive more revenue, allocate your budgets more effectively and make decisions based on primary and secondary research.

For more information, review our new Premium Gen Y Research portal.

If you feel like this research and consulting offerings can be beneficial to your company, please contact me directly. If not, please forward this email to someone in your network that could benefit from it. Please note that we will continue helping authors, entrepreneurs and executives develop personal brands using social media tools, as we’ve done since 2007.

• Perseverance
• Consistency
• Working to solve problems and serving your clientele well

When I began in sales the Internet did not exist. We were required to “cold call” business parks. Cold call refers to not having prior knowledge of the people you are about to contact. The advice was to contact 100 companies per week and out of those numbers, by the end of the month, 10% of the companies contacted would most likely purchase.

Advancing in my career, the advice was to make ten new phone calls per day. This was in addition to appointments, demonstrations for product and writing proposals. The days were crammed with activity. Each time I followed the advice and by the third month I became the top producing salesperson.

Fast forward to entrepreneurship the world changed. The online sales cycle is reverse engineered. Due to the excellent content delivered, people find us having familiarity of how we think piquing their interest prior to our personal connection. Over time, our followings get to know us and once again a modest percentage will request our services.

So the question becomes as we slowly head out of a recession, how do we further increase sales? Some things never change. It’s a requirement to pick up the phone, send a personal email or have a Skype conversation multiple times per day.

Modifying the original advice, I suggest you make three personal connections every single day when you are most energetic. High energy serves to put forth a more enticing message. Adapt the sales motto, “People buy from people they know, like and trust” to my entrepreneurial motto, “Call people you know, like and trust!” Making a sale should always be about finding the best-qualified matches to include being in sync for how you conduct business and level of integrity. The calls create sales momentum.

Successful salespeople are very goal oriented and pursue them every day no matter the setbacks they may encounter. They are motivated to accomplish all in a short period of time. Even on a day where everything goes wrong, motivate yourself to get into a positive mindset to make three phone calls every single day. The qualifiers are to call the people with whom you like, feel synergy and with whom you know will be a great collaborator.

Connect to update one another, brainstorm and find new projects that you may create together. You may be surprised to hear an immediate need for your service. Even if there is nothing you can do together at the moment, you may hear they have an upcoming event themselves. Volunteer to help promote online. It takes little time to promote and when your time is ready they will reciprocate. Cross promotion attracts increased sales too.

Referring back to the three traits at the top, the consistency of making three calls every day to those with whom you are already acquainted and like will bring about a flurry of possibilities. Your next job will be to prioritize the activities that will meet your goals and say yes to just a select few. Over delivering on expectations will further build your partnerships, clientele and of course dramatically increase sales.

As you build upon excellence in follow-up and delivery, you create an impeccable personal brand. You are now on the wave of the Smooth Sale!

Author:

Elinor Stutz, CEO of Smooth Sale, LLC, (800) 704-1499, www.smoothsale.net. Open View Labs selected Stutz to be in their “Top 25 Sales Influencers for 2012.” Elinor authored the International Best-Selling book, “Nice Girls DO Get the Sale: Relationship Building That Gets Results”, Sourcebooks and the best selling career book, “HIRED! How to Use Sales Techniques to Sell Yourself On Interviews”, Career Press. She provides team sales training, private coaching and highly acclaimed inspirational keynotes for conferences. Elinor is available for consultation.

The challenge for most during the performance review is to successfully sell your personal brand to your employer. You’ll want to ask yourself – What value does my personal brand bring to company and how does my personal brand transcend into the company’s goals?

To help you plan those answers into constructive documentation, WorkSimple’s “Performance Review Survival Guide” lists 24 tips to prepare and ace your performance review. Check out these three tips to sell your personal brand during your performance review:

Audit Your Work. Your personal brand is partly comprised of your “work story,” or reputation within the company. Talk about the projects you worked on and the results you contributed. With this, your employer will get an idea about what you bring to company.

Rattle Off Active Goals. For your career and for the company, you’ll want to extend the scope of your personal brand, which is possible through attaining goals. Be ready to share and demonstrate progress toward your goals, as well as discuss three to six short-term (less than 45 days) or long-term (up to several months) goals you want to achieve.

Don’t Get Defensive. A good attitude will go a long way for your personal brand. If you and your employer disagree at one point, you can either show documentation that clarifies your point. If the disagreement still exists, you can agree to disagree respectively and ask for feedback about how you can improve.

It’s essential for your career that branding transcends into the workplace. Infollowing these tips, your personal brand will be apparent in your performance review and to your employer.

How do you feel about performance reviews? How else can you sell your brand during your review?

Author:​

Heather R. Huhman is a career expert, experienced hiring manager, and founder & president of Come Recommended, a content marketing and digital PR consultancy for organizations with products that target job seekers and/or employers. She is also the author of Lies, Damned Lies & Internships (2011), #ENTRYLEVELtweet: Taking YourCareer from Classroom to Cubicle (2010), and writes career and recruiting advice for numerous outlets.

Is there one small item – something as low as $1 that your prospects could buy from you?

Could it be a trial offer that costs just $1, and a payment of significantly more – if the trial offer proves to be valuable and effective?

We all think of hitting home runs, of developing the killer app, closing the monster deal or getting the absolutely ideal job.

What if you could get exactly what you want, it’s just that you started really, really small. Micro-small.

We know it’s true with learning new skills and unlearning bad habits. Almost everything good starts with a baby step. Try to knit a whole scarf – you can’t at one time. You can only make one stitch at a time.

Can’t read a whole 200 page book in an instant or consume a whole 16 ounce steak in one bite.  Got to take it all a bit or a bite at a time.

Do this today. Break down your biggest goal – or your unfulfilled resolution – into micro-dots along a line toward the ideal result. Create the tiny points – maybe calorie by calorie, maybe letter by letter, maybe just finding the phone number of just one person who you need to call.

Every great chain of events starts with one link and then only grows as you add them.

Let’s take all the heat down a notch. Baby yourself. One small step at a time.

Need ideas about making your large goals small? Email me: Nance@NanceRosen.com

Author:

Nance Rosen is the author of Speak Up! & Succeed. She speaks to business audiences around the world and is a resource for press, including print, broadcast and online journalists and bloggers covering social media and careers. Read more at NanceRosenBlog. Twitter name: nancerosen

It’s been a long-held belief that 50% of businesses fail in the first year and 95% fail within the first five years. However, according to recent statistics published by the Small Business Administration (SBA), seven out of ten new employer establishments survive at least two years, half at least five years, a third at least 10 years, and a quarter stay in business 15 years or more.

While these latest statistics may pleasantly surprise you, it still holds true that a significant percentage of new businesses fail. And the reasons they do range from poor planning and insufficient capital to the wrong motivation.

I just celebrated five years of being in business in probably some of the worst economic times since the great depression of 1929! I am in that 50% that make it to 5 year mark! This is amazing to me but it is also the result of being committed to the fundamentals.

When I voluntarily left my 20-plus-year career  in Broadcast Radio sales and management  in Miami/Ft Lauderdale, in August 2006, to figure out  my  ”next,” who could have ever imagine what I was diving into! Regardless, I climbed to the top of the diving board and did a swan dive into the unknown in February 2007  and launched my consulting and training business.

My motivation: I wanted to help people and I wanted to do what I loved and what I was good at!

Over the last five years, I have been through many changes, challenges and transitions … more than I have ever experienced in my entire life! I have moved four times, including moving back here in December 2010. I have reinvented and diversified my products, services and brand consistently to keep pace with a relentlessly changing business environment. And, I have had many moments where I woke up and said “WTF,” Work Through Fear and keep going.

If you’re thinking about starting a business and are having difficulty overcoming the fear of career change or transition, check out Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months by one of my colleagues Melinda Emerson. It will help you focus on what is possible,  if you are the right person for this job and a step by step guide!

What I have been able to accomplished over the past five years is a result of putting my intentions (what I wanted to happen) out there and then preparing myself for things to happen. I get ready and stay ready.

I made a plan and worked the plan.

• I wrote a book about Career Transition and told my story.
• I built a local and national niche and footprint through speaking and writing.
• I aligned myself with certain communities and people who I admired and respected.
• I put myself in the pulse of the business community by joining chambers and professional organizations. 

Here are five insights over the past five years that have helped me to reach this landmark and develop the ‘next’ version of my personal brand.

Know Yourself
Be sure that you are doing what you really want to do and are good at. Look back on all your job titles over the last 10 years and see what qualities and skills underlie them all.

Love what you do
If you don’t love what you do, then you probably won’t last. Find what makes you leap into each day and live there.

Give people reasons
What value can you bring to each day and what you do? Share your wisdom, kindness and human capital consistently.

Always be relevant
Live in relevance. Be current, up to date, and in the buzz of what is happening. Invest in yourself so that you can offer this. Lead, innovate and experiment with purpose and instinct.

Ooze confidence
Nothing is more attractive than a self-confidence and self-love that is cool, humane and authentic. Celebrate who you are and share what you know.

The successful people and companies, who I watch, emulate and admire all have these in common. They know who they are, what they do, and whom they serve, and they go about serving in a consistent, value-based way. They can be counted on and are always a resource.

Thank you for encouraging me, inspiring me, and standing by me. I couldn’t have done it without you.

Move your career and business in the direction you want it to go. Watch what can happen!

What are some of your success insights?

Author:

Deborah Shane is an author, media host, speaker, writer and branding strategist. She hosts her Toolbox Blog and is in her third year of hosting a weekly business radio show called Deborah Shane’s Metropolis that has over 32K downloads! She is a regular contributor to several national business, career and marketing blogs and websites. Her new book Career Transition-make the shift is available on Amazon.com and all major book sellers. Deborah delivers smart, no-nonsense ideas and solutions, which make her a popular go-to resource for clients, national media and influential blogs.  Visit her at www.deborahshane.com.

Entrepreneur life vs. corporate life

Entrepreneur Life: Brainstorming meant connecting over coffee once a month with a mastermind group (hi guys)
vs. Corporate Life: Brainstorming happens every day in many ways with a talented group of peers, colleagues and staff I’m grateful to be a part of (thanks)

Entrepreneur Life: If I had an issue with my laptop, I fixed it
vs. Corporate Life: If I have an issue with my laptop, I put in an online request which submits an order to IT who then schedules time to fix it

Entrepreneur Life: Late nights and weekends = work
vs.  Corporate Life: Late nights and weekends = work

Entrepreneur Life: My coffee addiction was fueled by our office Flavia machine + 2 Starbucks
vs. Corporate Life: My coffee addiction is fueled by 2 on-site cafe’s (oh yeah)

Entrepreneur Life: My dress code was mainly jeans and heels
vs. Corporate Life: My dress code is full of new clothes

Entrepreneur Life: If I needed office supplies, I walked to Office Depot and bought them (and paid for them)
vs. Corporate Life: If I need office supplies, I send a list to an admin that orders them (and they pay for it-double yay!)

Entrepreneur Life: For lunch I could go outside to any of the cafes or restaurants near my office
vs. Corporate Life: For lunch…well, it’s the 2nd largest cafeteria next to the Pentagon…need I say more?

It’s pretty damn good

All in all, life inside Corporate America is pretty damn good. There may be more meetings, a whole lot of departments, 800 acres of buildings to find my way through (I’m still getting lost) and a plethora of names to remember – but it’s worth it.

I’m excited to be working alongside so many intelligent professionals – something that I missed as an entrepreneur! Stay tuned as I share my journey back into the land of corporate America.

Author:

Adriana Llames is a master career coach and acclaimed author of “Career Sudoku: 9 Ways to Win the Job Search Game”, released with top book seller Amazon.com. She is the chief engagement officer at adrianallames communications and a highly sought after keynote speaker motivating and inspiring audiences with her high energy, focused programs on personal branding, social media and networking. For more information, visit www.adrianallames.com.

It sends subtle messages about your attitude, your intelligence, your background and even your motivations. Yet, its not something that we always think about changing, so its often sub-optimal.

Our personal brands often speak the wrong language.

This really struck me when speaking with a client of mine, Elizabeth. She is looking to transition from management into leadership and while writing her resume, I was coaching her on talking about her experiences as a mentor.

She weaved a wonderful story about helping out a woman who was unhappy and underpaid at work. She helped her define her values and her goals and then the two of them broke those down into tangible steps. Since that time, the woman has taken classes outside of the office, been promoted and become a lot happier. She gives Elizabeth credit for jump-starting this major shift in her life.

Wonderful story. I was thrilled to hear that she had made such a difference in the woman’s life.

Wrong language.

So, the two of us worked on what the right language for an interview would look like:

I identified a woman at work that I could tell had potential to contribute far more value that she was at the time. I pro-actively asked her to coffee, so we could talk about what success at our company looked like for her. Together, we plotted a course of action that resulted in her enrolling in classes outside of the office, taking on more responsibility in her position and eventually being promoted. Her confidence and increasingly positive attitude have been huge benefits of our work. We have recurring monthly meetings to ensure that she grows in ways that are most beneficial for herself and the company.

Do you see how the change in language completely shifted the vantage point of the story?

In the first one, Elizabeth was a good person doing another person a favor. In very effective dinner-table language.

In the second one, she was an effective leader, who identified and coaxed out potential, yielding real value for her company. The language of leadership.

Your own tactical implementation

I want you to take a minute and think of an aspect of your personal brand that may be targeting the wrong audience. Its okay if you aren’t sure. If you’re having trouble thinking of one, try to think of things that you think are good stories, but are not particularly impressive.

Got one? Good.

Now we’re going to answer three questions, all about your audience:

1. Who are they? (ex. hiring manager at company X)
2. Why do they care? (ex. they want to evaluate my mentoring experience)
3. Why do they care about that? (ex. they want to ensure I will bring value to the company by mentoring my subordinates)

Keep asking that last question — 2, 3,10 times — until you come up with a really powerful answer.

Hiring manager X wants to evaluate Elizabeth’s mentoring experience to ensure that she will add value to the company by mentoring her subordinates.

Then ask yourself the question, does my personal brand written in the language of their why?

For Elizabeth, she was addressing her mentorship in a personal language, dinner table language, while her evaluator was addressing her in a business language.

By shifting her story – her language – to the language of her audience, her accomplishments became stronger and more pertinent. Her brand became more attractive. She became more hire-able.

Elizabeth became a more attractive job seeker simply by changing her language.

How are you going to become more effective by changing your language?

Author:

Rebecca Rapple has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Business Insider, Keith Ferrazzi’s My Greenlight and more. You can learn more about the fundamentals of a remarkable job search on her site, The Resume Revolution.

“Every meeting should be planned with a specific change in mind. Nobody needs more status quo!”

As I thought about this, it occurred to me that the whole problem with meetings is that most of the time, things don’t get done. Or not enough gets done.

One objective = one meeting.

What we need isn’t more time. We need less of it.

See, we’ve become far too comfortable in trying to do a lot with the time we have. Because we come armed with too many objectives.

Whether we’re talking about co-workers or clients, the excuse here has always been that getting everybody together at once is rare, so we need to make the most of when it does happen by shoving everything possible all those people have in common in one meeting.

You don’t. Staying true to Ms. Hogshead’s mantra, you couldn’t possibly make more than one big change as a result of one meeting that’s efficient. That’s why it’s more than a meeting. It’s a mission. And the purpose of that mission is to achieve an answer to _____. As I mentioned in an earlier post about brainstorming, this doesn’t have to mean locking everyone in a room for hours. It means having a clear agenda, having a defined period of time when brainstorming is going to occur and having a clear stopping point. Part of the reason meetings are such a drag is because they have no clearly defined beginning, middle and end.

If it’s not that big of a deal and doesn’t change business as usual, why are we meeting? Good question. Maybe we shouldn’t be. At least not in the conventional way.

Which brings us to some tools that maximize what we really need to be having most of the time – efficient conversations.

Yammer, Skype, Google Hangouts and 37 Signals’ Basecamp product are just some of the simple tools to help us collaborate quickly by instant message or video.

What about that extra-curricular stuff people tend to chatter about that isn’t absolutely central to the main reason for assembling together? Push it into this area too, using these types of tools for what they’re best for – communicating quick questions or even holding a virtual brainstorm.

Call these the new “meetings” if you like. Because they aren’t business-changing like a “mission.” But they are still much better than the tired, old method of waiting for everyone to cram together in one place to talk.

We’re not getting any more time to spend with our colleagues and clients. We’re getting less of it. So don’t just meet. Make it your mission to hit the ground running – with one purpose, one defined period of time and one result that strives to shake up the status quo.

Although they may not actually say it, everyone in the room will be mentally thanking you for it.

Author:

Dan Gershenson is a Chicago-based consultant focused on brand strategy and content marketing. Dan has guided a variety of CEOs and Marketing Directors at small to medium-sized companies, providing hundreds of strategic plans to help businesses identify their best niches and areas of opportunity. Dan blogs on Chicago Brander, mentors advertising students and cheers relentlessly for the Chicago Bears. Dan graduated from Drake University with a degree in Advertising.

Yet don’t be discouraged – after all, everyone started out new at one time or another. The major hurdle is getting that first client; after that, it typically gets easier, since you now have someone who can recommend you or refer you to others in need of your services.

But how do you get past this major hurdle? How do you get recommendations when you’re new? What do you tell a client when they ask about your past experience doing the job? What do you do?

Be honest

Though you may be tempted to tell people that you aren’t new to the industry, this is not going to do you any good. First of all, you can’t really back it up since you are a newbie. Secondly, lies are never a good way to start a business relationship – it’s a sure recipe for disaster.

So be honest. Let your potential clients know that you’re new and that they’ll be your first clients. But let them know that you’re going to do your best, which leads to this second bit of advice…

Inspire confidence

This doesn’t mean bragging about the medals and awards you earned during high school and college – most people don’t really care about that. To inspire confidence, you should be knowledgeable about what you’re doing and you should be able to effectively communicate what you plan to do. If you can’t even explain what you can do for your clients, how will they be convinced to hire you?

Effective communication is the key here. Nothing inspires confidence better than a good speaker. You should be able to convince your potential client with your words that you’ll do a good job on the project.

Utilize your network

Networking has always been an effective way of getting business, since nothing beats word of mouth referrals. People trust the people they know, and this is why they would typically hire someone who has been referred by a person they trust.

Through your network, you may be able to find clients who are willing to take you on. You can ask the person linking the two of you to recommend you. Utilize the network you know – your former professors/mentors, your colleagues, even your friends. These people know you and what you can do, and they can be invaluable in helping you land that first client.

Even your social media network may be able to help you get that first project. LinkedIn, for example, is an excellent professional social networking platform for finding leads and prospects. You can join groups related to your industry, answer questions to show off your expertise, and so on. The connections you form there may be the ones who will introduce you to potential clients.

Join forums

Joining forums that are related to your industry is a great way to meet new people, build relationships, and get recommendations. Be helpful, answer questions, and contribute to the discussions. There are lots of stories of people who got businesses through helping people in online communities.

Always deliver on what you promise

Once you get that first client and deliver on what you promise, then it’s going to get easier the next time around. This is what’s going to make you referable – delivering the work successfully. So make sure to do your best, and the recommendations will follow. After all, it’s hard to imagine a client who would begrudge you a great referral if you did a great job on their project.

Starting out can be tricky, since most people don’t want to serve as guinea pigs for a newbie on the industry. But if you’re honest and inspire confidence in your potential clients, then they just might be willing to give you a chance. Remember to utilize your connections through your different networks, be active on community forums, and don’t be afraid to ask people you know to recommend you.

And most importantly – be referable. As long as you deliver what you promise, then you won’t find it hard to find people who will recommend you. In the end, it doesn’t really matter whether you’re new or you have years of experience to back you up, as long as you do the work well.

Author:

Maria Elena Duron, is managing editor of the Personal Branding Blog, CEO (chief engagement officer) of buzz2bucks.com – a word of mouth marketing firm.   She helps create connection, credibility, community and cha-ching through mobile marketing and social commerce around your brand. She is co-founder of #brandchat - a weekly Twitter chat focused on every aspect of branding.

If this was true in the pre-digital age, it is even more so now. It is only by attracting brand advocates ready to viralize our content – be it a CV or résumé, a blog post, a video, tweet or the buzz about us – that our personal brand will gain enough momentum and we will become relevant in our chosen field. This is why – following inbound marketing tactics – our contents should be magnetized and addressed at least initially to a specific audience niche that can help us reach our goals fast track. And experience proves time and again that the greater your network, the more chances you have of becoming an online success.

It is crucial at this stage that you become thoroughly familiar with two online species that are essential to your success: evangelists and influencers.

Evangelists are people who grow enthusiastic about you and your contents and become engaged ‘consumers’ of your brand. They are your frontline brand advocates who share the news about your brand across their online networks reaching wide and far. They are an integral part of your online personal branding strategy and keeping them happy is one of your first and foremost duties if your brand is ever to take off.

Influencers are key people often considered referents in your field (and every field has its distinct influencers) who command the respect of the online community. Having them on your side is one of the greatest bonuses to any sound personal branding strategy, since their stamp of approval will give your brand the credibility it needs to be respected and taken into account instead of letting it drown into a sea of obscurity.

Just as Einstein was able to capture the complex realities of the new physics in his famous equation, I propose the following Personal Branding Formula to account for online success for personal branders:

Personal Branding Success = #Brand Advocates × Level of Influence

whereby we equate success with the number of brand advocates we have at any given point in time times their level of influence.

Luckily for us, the strides forward of the novel (and as of yet imperfect) online influence metrics means that sooner than we think we should be able to express with a surprisingly high degree of accuracy this success formula for any given individual. Its practical implications are clear: our online personas must be designed to be fundamentally likeable for strategic segments of the online community who can elevate us to success. And this is exponentially more likely to happen if we build a personal brand that truly adds value to the community, responds to the best within ourselves and is not afraid to be talked about and/or engage others.

With the exception of those who previously had a powerful offline network at their disposal and therefore enjoyed a head start, every online personal brand success I have known or worked with (including my own) has been built – knowingly or not – on the application of this formula. I therefore challenge you to adopt it as one of your key personal branding guiding principles and let it shape the building and management of your personal brand. You may be amazed at the results.

Author:

Oscar Del Santo is a lecturer, consultant, key speaker, blogger and populariser of online reputation and inbound marketing in Spain. He has been extensively featured in the Spanish and Latin American media and is a regular contributor to several TV programs. Included in the ‘Top 70 Spanish Tweeters’ and ‘Best Marketing Tweeters in Spanish’ lists (@OscarDS), he is the author of ‘Reputacion Online para Tod@s’.