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5 Back to School Lessons for Your Personal Brand

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Children are returning to school in Canada this week. It brings a mixture of excitement, trepidation and relief, and that is just the parents!

I am sounding like my Dad, but in my day it used to be all about learning the 3R’s. Reality for children today is the world they end up in after school will offer many more options and challenges. They will need to learn more than reading, writing and arithmetic!

Understanding and developing their personal brand is going to be a key skill that the students of today must have.

September is often viewed as ‘a start to a new year’ for adults too and it gives you an opportunity to take a moment to check in on your own personal brand.

Is your personal brand following the 5R’s lessons?

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Should you bother using hashtags on LinkedIn?

Just in case you are not familiar with hashtags, on social media you have likely noticed the # pound symbol with a word or words after it – that is a hashtag! Their use is extremely popular on social media networks such as Instagram and Twitter, who’s own research suggests that using them can increase engagement for you by 2x and for a brand or company by 1.5x. Previously when… Read More »Should you bother using hashtags on LinkedIn?

Easy Marketing of Brand You Even a Newbie Can Do It

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One constant in today’s work world is change. Look at the jobs available now and in the future and the older you are then the more likely they have little relation to what you thought you might be doing when coming out of school. Making yourself a viable candidate in this changing landscape falls to you. You have to take charge of your own career, and own the definition of who you are because no-one else is going to do it for you.

Here are 8 steps to help you survive in the ever changing world of work:

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Lessons From Discover Your Personal Brand Conference – The All Star Panel

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This past weekend I had the opportunity to speak again at the Discover Your Personal Brand Conference.  DYPB 2016 was different from 2014 in a number of ways.

The focus was more toward small business and the caliber of speaker, panels and attendees was awesome. There were many inspiring young Canadians in attendance that really gave me a lift about the future of our country. All held within the back drop of Telus’ state of the art office in downtown Toronto, an environmental LEED building, bursting with technology and balanced with space and light.

The opportunity to attend conferences is always a big investment, even if its local so it was great to get such a rich experience. 

After introductions from the motivating conference organizer and founder Bobby Umar and keynotes from the always excellent Mark Bowden and inspiring Real Food for Real Kids founder Lulu Cohen-Farnell the highlight of the first evening for me was the Personal Brand Leadership All Star Panel. They were;

Cameron Gordon, Head of Communications, Twitter – Moderator
Erin Bury, Managing Director at 88 Creative
Jennifer Ettinger, Founder & President at Fit Your Style
Jagmeet Singh, MPP, ONDP Deputy Leader
Bobby Umar, Founder, Raeallan & DYPB

Full bios and more details on the schedule http://www.dypb.ca/schedule/ and other speakers can be found here http://www.dypb.ca/speakers/ 

Here is a Summary of the questions and panel answers;

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Do you have a face for video?

This week saw the announcement of the roll out of short 30 second video specific content from LinkedIn’s 500 or so Influencers, including the CEO Jeff Weiner. This is a screenshot above of his reply to the question – What is your personal vision statement? and in the comments my reaction. This was part of LinkedIn’s announcement on their blog – “When an Influencer you follow posts a video, that… Read More »Do you have a face for video?

5 Helpful Tips For After Attending a Conference

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Travelling to my first European speaking engagement in Slovakia really opened my eyes to the benefits of being a ‘Conference Guerilla’. I was travelling almost 14,000 km in the space of 4 days to speak for approximately one and a half hours. Just like when going on vacation, I tried to clear the decks before I went. In the end a few things had to get left unfinished and I had to accept that.

It was most important to me to ensure that everything was taken care of back home. This was key to being able to focus on the conference and my wonderful girlfriend really stepped up and took on the responsibility for my two kids.  I am really grateful because I knew they were in good hands.

There are three distinct phases of conferences – Pre, During and After. In ‘How to be  a Conference Guerrilla – Part 1’, we looked at the pre-Conference activities and in ‘How to be  a Conference Guerrilla  – Part 2’ we discussed optimizing the time while at the conference.

Overall I felt that Pre & During I did a fairly good job. What I tend to find though is that once I return home, it can all start to fall apart.

So what happens once you get back home or to the office?

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Will Volunteering Boost Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn?

Adding volunteer experience can be a great way of communicating your personal brand to your professional network. Three benefits to you of being able to see other peoples volunteer experience; You can see who in your industry, voacation or network has similar interests to you. Particularly if you are looking to connect with that person, it is another area of commonality in which to make that first approach. You can search by… Read More »Will Volunteering Boost Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn?

Get Noticed And Appreciated By Your Boss With These 7 Personal Brand Exercises

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It is critical to your success that others know about your personal brand and what it stands for, here are 7 ways to help you do that.

Jane was a Senior VP at one of the banks. She had been there for 15 years with regular career moves and promotions.  Now she was frustrated because  her last performance review made her realize that her desired promotion to the C-suite was blocked.

She came to me for coaching and we soon determined the reason why she was not being considered for this key move. She was invisible. Not to her colleagues or boss in the local office but to the people making the C-level decisions in New York.  The solution was clear. We had to raise her profile in New York even though she was not based there.

We put in place an action plan to raise her credibility and visibility with the decision makers.  Within 9 months she was promoted to the CFO role.

This was a classic case of the right people not knowing about Jane and her personal brand. This may be the very reason that you too are not progressing in your career or getting invited to join the latest project or team. More of the ‘right’ people need to know about your personal brand.

Here are 7 key things about your personal brand that you need to ensure everyone (who matters) knows about you;

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7 Best Practices For Being a Conference Guerrilla

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The following story is an example of how the actions recommended in this series of articles can work for you. Whilst they are intended mostly for longer conferences they can apply and work equally well to one off events.

How to be a Conference Guerrilla – Part 1 – Pre-Conference can be read here. 

In our time-crunched lives and with the option of virtual events, physically attending conferences can be a hard decision to make.  Approach events with more than just looking at the speaker line up, the complimentary networking sessions or in some cases to get the professional development credits checked off.  Instead actually measure the ‘return on investment’ of attending a conference. Start using this mindset and you will see the value to your organization and your personal brand in getting out there.

I once went to hear Keith Ferrazzi, author of “Never Eat Alone” speak at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Business. I learnt about the event from the organizer who had booked me to speak there a few months earlier.

I followed Keith’s advice in his book about ‘bumping‘ the speaker before they go on stage and engaging them quickly to gain a follow-up.  I had brought my copy of the book and asked him to ‘sign it before he became famous’ – a quote from the book. He commented that I had obviously read the book and I said it was (and still is) my most referred and recommended book on networking. I have even given several people copies as gifts.  I then told him that I would like the opportunity to follow up with him to discuss how to make his book the #1 business book in Canada. “Absolutely” he said and handed me his card.

As I walked away,  someone behind him had taken my lead and asked for their book to be signed.  I heard Keith ask the person….Read More »7 Best Practices For Being a Conference Guerrilla

What the LinkedIn Acquisition by Microsoft Might Mean to You

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There had been rumours in the past of LinkedIn seeking strategic partners or an acquirer, with several technology companies being the possible ‘one’.  Yesterday saw the news that the successful one will be Microsoft.

My initial thought is I hope this has positive results for many of the areas that LinkedIn seems to be falling short on with technology and that Microsoft does not allow this purchase to squander or suffer like it has with Skype and other poor past acquisitions.

The challenge with any merger, big or small is the merging of leadership styles and cultures. Everything said initially is for the benefit of the stakeholders – investors, employees and users. The reality rolls out differently over the coming months, after all the deal does not close until the end of 2016, so don’t expect any wholesale changes until well in to 2017.

Naturally this was big news in the business world and a lot has been said, with much more to be said over the coming days and weeks. I have collected a few thoughts from the main parties involved as well as some social media, social selling and LinkedIn experts, here is what they had to say;

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