The Career You'll Love » marketing

Visibility for your expertise

Carl — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:15:17 +0000

I had a wonderful opportunity last week to deliver a presentation to a bunch of software company CxOs who were gathered for a conference in Denver. It generated a whole lot of excitement and good interest in my coaching services.

The primary value was to show a lot of people in different companies what kind of expertise I have. The same concept can be applied to others as well.

There’s a good chance that you won’t be working for your current employer for the rest of your life, so it’s wise to start building visibility for what you can do. Sorry, a résumé or CV isn’t nearly as powerful as getting out there and showing people.

Of course, giving a presentation ALSO looks good on your CV, because people will expect that you’re more expert in your field when you’re able to go outside your current company.

I understand that a lot of people are terrified at the idea of giving presentations. So even though it can be quite powerful, perhaps it’s not quite within your grasp yet. Look into other opportunities:

Writing an article for an industry journal
Becoming a member of a small cross-company mastermind group
Mentoring others
Writing a book
Leading a discussion group at your church or kids’ school

It’s really only limited by your imagination.

I’m going to be presenting for an Entrepreneurship class at the local University – just an hour talking about my experience in setting up businesses, successful or not, and leading a discussion with the students. It’s a chance to contribute to the community and build my presence in general. Is it likely to bring in coaching clients for me? Not especially – although it certainly can’t hurt.

You have expertise that most others don’t. How can you start showing others outside your current employer how useful that might be?

P.S. If you’re interested in my presentation I gave last week on employee retention in the software industry, go check out my other blog.

Carl Dierschow is a Certified Small Fish Business Coach and author of the career management guide, Mondays Stink! 23 Secrets to Rediscover Delight and Fulfillment in Your Work. He is a career coach for those going through interesting transitions, and works with small business owners who need to create breakthroughs in achieving their business goals. Find out more at www.Dierschow.com and www.SmallFish.us.If you are interested in individual career coaching, group coaching, or other resources which might help you with difficult choices, please contact Carl at carl@dierschow.com.

Connect with Carl on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to get timely updates and connections to a broader range of professionals.

The element of surprise

Carl — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 18:35:09 +0000

Most of the experiences you have every day you don’t remember. They’re forgettable exactly because they’re unexceptional.

What we remember, what we pay attention to, are things we DON’T expect. The surprises.

Spending money to make money

Carl — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 15:51:17 +0000

The Career You’ll Love

Sponsored by Carl Dierschow’s career blog at www.Dierschow.com

Welcome to my career tips newsletter! I encourage you to pass this to anyone who might have an interest in revitalizing their career – instructions for subscribing are at the bottom.

Spending money to make money

Now that I’ve moved out of the corporate world and am running my own business, I’ve experienced a huge mindset shift. Quite simply, I now look at my life decisions – not just business – in a Return On Investment (ROI) frame.

Growing up, my schooling and activities were paid for by my parents. When I got to college, they helped me out with the first year and a half, and I paid for the rest.

But I wasn’t thinking of this as an investment of my money that would give me great returns – I wasn’t that sophisticated. To be honest, I went through college because it was expected, because I was good at it, and I looked forward to the kind of work that would give me after I graduated.

When I moved into the corporate world, any work-related expenses were generally paid by my employer. If my boss said we could afford it, great, and if not, I’d get annoyed but would comply with the constraints.

This is a dangerous mindset. You’re giving up responsibility for key decisions to other people.

When it came to personal expenses, I adopted a frugal savings philosophy taught to me by my parents, and combined with a great-paying job, we’ve done very well. I was never challenged very deeply.

Then I lost my job.

It was hard to know how to make decisions in this environment. With no income, everything was more than I could afford. So I had to switch to a different way of thinking about it: What would give me the greatest return on what I spent?

Here’s an example: I recently signed up to have a booth at a local business expo. $400. I need to have a big sign that will make a professional impression, $325. Other bits of necessary marketing paraphernalia, another $100 or so. All things considered, this is actually quite cheap – it would have been trivial for me to spend $3000 on this.

But here’s the return:

I’m making a significant impression with my target clientele that I’ve had some trouble reaching.
It looks professional and substantial, reinforcing the value I provide to clients.
If I sign just one new client out of this, I’ll pay for this entire investment in just the first month.

Of course, I have to make sure I’m not kidding myself about getting a client. But I’ve done my homework and I’d say the probability is well over 50%.

In the past, what would have held me back from this?

This is something new I’ve never done before.
There’s a risk associated with getting the return, it’s not a sure thing.
I’d be looking for other authorities to make the decision to spend money.

Here’s the challenge I’ll give to you, then: When you’re working on your next job change or career transition, what’s it worth to YOU? Not to your current employer. Not to your future employer. To you.

If you’re going to get value – in having a better life, achieving your goals, increasing your possibilities – then go ahead and spend the money and time. Don’t look for permission or help from your boss. OK, go ahead and ask for some assistance, that might help. But don’t let that hold you up.

If you are interested in individual career coaching, group coaching, or other resources which might help you with difficult choices, please contact Carl at carl@dierschow.com.

Connect with Carl on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to get timely updates and connections to a broader range of professionals.

To subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter, send an e-mail to newsletter@Dierschow.com

Non-traditional jobs

Carl — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 18:48:14 +0000

The Career You’ll Love

Sponsored by Carl Dierschow’s career blog at www.Dierschow.com

Welcome to my career tips newsletter! I encourage you to pass this to anyone who might have an interest in revitalizing their career – instructions for subscribing are at the bottom.

Non-traditional jobs

This morning I led a short discussion about non-traditional jobs. What is this?

Well, a traditional job is where

An employer creates a job description
They open up the job and select the best candidate
In return for doing the work, the employee receives a predictable (if variable) income

So a non-traditional job would be one which breaks these conventions. For instance, many jobs are filled which don’t actually have job descriptions. This is normal in a small business, and if you’re a solo entrepreneur, your job description is “whatever’s necessary.”

You can also look at how the job is filled. Now just because someone is placed into a job without ever having an interview doesn’t make it a non-traditional job. But what happens when a job description isn’t stable enough to go through a hiring process? There are environments where tasks are performed by various people, all contributing to the larger goals. Useful work is getting done, but it’s not what you would think of as an identifiable job.

There’s also a lot of jobs and vocations which don’t provide pay. Some of these you might call hobbies, or even “wasting time,” but often these can provide opportunities to contribute to your career path.

As an example, I worked at my personal development and leadership in coaching for a decade before I was given the opportunity (OK, pushed) to launch out on my own and gain an income through coaching. But while I was still employed at other jobs, I:

Honed my skills
Became known as a coach
Established some leadership in the area
Developed my network of supporters
Learned how to create a coaching business

As a result, when I did finally take the leap last year, I was much more prepared then I was ten years prior.

Here’s the big question for you: What kinds of non-traditional jobs and career choices might you be ready for?

An important resource

I’ve been following Seth Godin’s blog for some time now, and have run across a lot of others who also get a great deal of value out of his short snippets and thoughtful observations about marketing. And it’s not just about marketing your business, but also yourself. How do you want to be perceived?

Check it out at sethgodin.typepad.com.

If you are interested in individual career coaching, group coaching, or other resources which might help you with difficult choices, please contact Carl at carl@dierschow.com.

Connect with Carl on Facebook and LinkedIn to get timely updates and connections to a broader range of professionals.

To subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter, send an e-mail to newsletter@Dierschow.com

How to build a personal brand inside a company

Carl — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 03:29:19 +0000

There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about the importance of creating a personal brand. I first came across the idea in an article by Tom Peters in Fast Company Magazine in 1997, but he didn’t originate it.

Here’s the concept: Any powerful brand (Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, iPhone, Facebook) stands for much more than the products that it names. McDonald’s stands for more than just a certain kind of food, it’s also about kid-friendliness, reliability, cleanliness, and value. These attributes are incredibly consistent over the long term, and drive much more visibility and loyalty than just the food they sell.

Rebounding with contract employees

Carl — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:17:39 +0000

I heard a great presentation by Edward Hernandez in Denver last week which was quite interesting. He was talking about one of my hot topics at the moment, employee engagement. I thought I’d share with you an additional observation which I believe is much more important than it first seems:

As the economy rebounds, companies will be reluctant to hire full-time employees. Fairly obvious, right? But this has broad implications.

First, why would this statement be true?

Companies have recent painful memories of how hard it is to shed permanent employees.
They will be unsure about the magnitude and longevity of the rebound. Is it for real this time? What happens if it’s slower than currently projected?
Full-time employees come with the expectation of stability in job assignment. There’s more flexibility with hiring contractors to address short-term pain points.

There’s some very interesting implications from this statement for anyone who’s in the job market:

Be open to the possibility of part-time and/or contract work, possibly for the rest of your career.
Tap the available resources to learn how to manage yourself as an independent contract business. Fortunately, there’s plenty available.
Market yourself as an excellent contract worker – this may well place you ahead of others who are only looking for full-time positions. Change your résumé/CV, put up a website, and start describing yourself as a business.
Start tracking what’s going on in your market – what’s happening with strategic moves at various possible employers, where pain points are emerging, and map that to short-term projects that you could engage with.

It’s tough to find a job right now, so anything you can do to increase your odds will be time well spent!

How to brag with style!

Carl — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:05:00 +0000

Nobody likes a braggart. But there are times where you need to promote yourself – to your boss, to potential customers, to future employers. How do you promote yourself in a way which doesn’t come across as shameless and inauthentic?

Here’s the trick: You promote in a way which is well-founded, or where promotion isn’t the primary message.

Here are a few examples:

Share the recognition. The message is a lot softer when a group of us achieved something, as opposed to just my own personal accomplishments. And it can be more powerful as well, because typically a group can achieve more than just an individual.
Provide objective evidence. The fact that I’ve published a book or delivered 433 hours of coaching is more powerful than just claiming that I generally have lots of experience. In addition, the book is almost always a great conversation starter: people want to know about my writing and publishing experience.
Relate it to a future goal. I may not be the world’s best expert yet, but it’s very interesting to tell people about the business I’m building. It’s not uncommon to find people who want to help me, then find that I already have considerable expertise to offer.
Demonstrate expertise in a helpful way. I often sell my coaching services merely by having coaching conversations with people, or as part of a presentation I might give. When people like the way I come across, they see that I can bring them value in a paid coaching engagement.

More than anything, keep the conversation open, honest, and useful to your audience. Let that work to build up the impression that you have expertise and experience.

I don’t know what I don’t know

Carl — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:36:31 +0000

My thoughts today are about my lack of experience in marketing and selling my company’s services. The problem is how to get started, because I don’t know how deep I’ll have to dig before I’m done.

Fortunately, this isn’t a totally new experience for me, so I have some aids to help me navigate through this swamp.

The most important thing I do, first, is to admit that I have a big gap in my knowledge and abilities. Trying to fake it isn’t going to work. So next is to line up resources that I have available to me:

Books, websites, and other static resources
Other coaches I know who appear to have worked past this stage
Communities that I can connect to where I can learn from other experts

I started organizing my work by going to a class at the local Small Business Development Center and writing down my thoughts in my business plan. Even though it’s sketchy, it’s helping me to get a feel for how large this area is.

More on a whim than anything else, I’ve started reading a book on B2B marketing. I love reading, but oddly enough, I seem to learn more from discussions with people. So I’ve started making a number of contacts with others who can share their expertise with me. I also went to a couple of networking meetings last week, one of which was for small business owners in the area.

But finally, in the end, I have to put some trust in myself to just get started. Learning and planning are great, but I need to move into DOING marketing and sales. That’s what I’ll be focusing on this week.