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A Personal Brand to MARVEL

There are probably very few of us who can say we have not been touched by the work of Stan Lee in some way or another. Be it watching one of the awesome Marvel movies over the last few years, tuning into the TV series of Spiderman or Bruce Banner & The Hulk from the 80’s and 90’s or picking up and devouring a Marvel comic as a kid. In… Read More »A Personal Brand to MARVEL

7 Things You Need to Know About Personal Branding

This year is the 20th anniversary of Tom Peter’s article in Fast Company entitled “The Brand Called You.” Most recognize the article as the ‘birth’ of personal branding or at the least the first time that the concept of having a personal brand appeared on the business radar. If you Google “Brand Called You” the article still appears at the top of the rankings. He wrote; “Regardless of age, regardless… Read More »7 Things You Need to Know About Personal Branding

Connecting Sales, Marketing & You Inc on LinkedIn in 2017

Below is my TED-style talk at the Haste & Hustle conference earlier this year – includes the Pinata BBQ Accountant story. It is imperative that you understand how to leverage LinkedIn’s benefits for the sales AND marketing of You Inc. and build a profile that stands out. Paul Copcutt will show you how to use LinkedIn to communicate your personal brand in 5 minutes a day, as well as offer… Read More »Connecting Sales, Marketing & You Inc on LinkedIn in 2017

7 Ways to Boost Your Career in 2017

I was enjoying a beer over the holidays with a friend and sharing our recollections of the past year and what we had to look forward to in the coming year. Dan had his best year ever, he hit his sales numbers about two-thirds of the way through the year, earned a huge bonus and enjoyed promotion to a senior account manager role.

His boss was expecting to see him take a higher profile role in the team with added responsibility, he was going to be traveling more, and his new sales target appeared atmospheric. He didn’t know how he was going to fit it all in. He was dreading 2017.

If the end of 2016 for you was anything like it is for Dan, you found yourself having to try and wrap up some key projects, drive in some final numbers, perhaps even complete performance reviews and other year-end tasks.

Then, before you can catch your breath or even start to worry about work, you were straight into planning, preparing and, hopefully, enjoying the holidays with family and friends and not getting despondent from all the negativity that many people felt this past year, in particular, brought them.

You must be exhausted already! Kicking off another year can be a daunting proposition. A new year brings a fresh set of challenges and almost a feeling of starting all over again. It doesn’t have to be that way. First things first, bid a final farewell to the last year, you can even use the 15 questions from the Review Your Year With No Fear Workbook to feel entirely complete, get your copy by clicking here.

Now for 2017. How do you find the energy to kick off another year, build your personal brand, maintain momentum and ensure you don’t get bogged down or distracted to still achieve what you want to in your career?

Here are seven ways to boost your personal brand and get things done without feeling overwhelmed.

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Why Have My LinkedIn Recommendations Disappeared?

This week’s LinkedIn tip is a result of a question coming from Dean. “I have clients that have posted recommendations for me on my Linkedin profile. I have noticed one is missing. Do you know why this would be?” There are a couple of possibilities; Whenever LinkedIn are tweaking the platform (which is often) random glitches seem to occur. With the impending user interface changes, this might be the reason. I… Read More »Why Have My LinkedIn Recommendations Disappeared?

The One Question I Always Get on Personal Branding

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Image Fast Company Magazine August 1997

Next year will see the 20-year anniversary of the Fast Company magazine article “The Brand Called You” by Tom Peters. This was two years before his book series, which included “Brand You 50” were published. Most recognize the article as the ‘birth’ of personal branding or at the least the first time that the concept of having a personal brand appeared on the business radar. When you Google “Brand Called You” the article still appears at the top of the rankings. Read the article here

Many people still minimize the power of personal branding and some label it as egotistical and ridiculous. The criticism is legitimate towards those who have likened branding yourself to branding a bar of chocolate. In fact, the intention is to show the contrast between a person and a corporation when it comes to branding.

It probably took ten years after that article, for the notion of owning your personal brand to be embraced as an accepted way of managing your career, business, and even life. Celebrity branding has exploded with constant exposure and an unquenchable thirst for more. This leaves many people feeling inadequate unless they too garner the same visibility. Sadly credibility can sometimes take a back seat.

Social media has been both a blessing and curse and can be blamed for some of the hype, expectation, and disdain that personal branding attracts. But fault can also lie at the feet of the ‘gurus’ and experts who tell you to “Fake it until you make it” or encourage you to turn your social media streams into a one-way flow of personally branding me, me, me that should never be turned off.

When it comes to personal branding the one question I always get is

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Will Today be Trump or Clinton’s Best Day at Work?

whats-your-best-day-at-work

By the end of the day, one of the candidates may well be looking back to today as one of their best days at work, at least so far. Of course, the work for the successful President of the United States is only just beginning, some future days maybe best days and some may be the worst, it’s not an easy job for sure. The best and worst seems to be how many of you look at your own jobs and careers.

Presenteeism, time spent at the workplace while not productively engaged in work, is the new absenteeism

The conclusion of a 2015 Canadian study, The True Picture of Workplace Absenteeism, with 1,300 people including just over 1,000 employees, found that 80 percent of respondents self-reported experience with presenteeism. 81 percent indicated that they had gone into work while they could not perform as well as they would have liked.

The reasons for doing so included physical sickness (47 percent), stress or anxiety (40 percent) and workplace issues and/or problems with co-workers or managers (22 percent). Depression was specified as the cause by 15 percent of respondents.

A quick Google search of #BestWorkDay uncovers plenty of top 10 lists on ways to ensure you have your best days at work. The common advice to these problems seems to fall into two camps.

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Can LinkedIn Tell You What Your Salary Should Be?

There are a lot of changes happening with LinkedIn right now, and more to come, so watch this space! The latest new feature to roll out in the US, Canada, and the UK is a salary calculator called LinkedIn Salary. “Earlier this year, LinkedIn emailed members asking them to anonymously disclose their salaries”, said Ryan Sandler, a product manager. “In exchange, they were given insight into what peers in their fields are… Read More »Can LinkedIn Tell You What Your Salary Should Be?

Are Skills Endorsements on LinkedIn Really Worth Anything?

Many believe that the endorsements, given by others, of your skills on your profile, are next to worthless. Following several acquisitions of companies in the artificial intelligence (A.I.) space, LinkedIn has been incorporating some of the technology into upgrades of its platform. This includes looking to make the endorsements of skills more relevant to those viewing your profile. We all appreciate the value of a solid recommendation from a colleague or client.… Read More »Are Skills Endorsements on LinkedIn Really Worth Anything?

10 Ways LinkedIn Can Help Build Your Local Business

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Imagine standing at a local networking event and every second that passes, two more new people walked in the door. It would soon get packed!

This is exactly what is happening 24 hours a day on LinkedIn as 7,200 new members join ever hour. As the world’s largest professional network, with over 450 million members, LinkedIn offers a huge global business opportunity.

But can it be useful on a local level and can it help you build new relationships and grow your business or career? Yes!

LinkedIn is business focused unlike Facebook or Twitter where the lines are blurred. On LinkedIn it is understood that you are connecting for business purposes. Around 40% of LinkedIn’s 12 million Canadian members live in Ontario. A simple postcode ‘Advanced Search’ can connect you with people as close as a 15 km radius to your location or target area.

You can also search by industry, company, job title and specific keywords to accurately pinpoint the connections your business needs. It is important for you to be very clear about who you want to connect with and why.

With that in mind, here are my TOP TEN ways to use LinkedIn effectively;

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