I hope you’ve enjoyed this short series… day 1 was writing articles, day two was writing a book (no kidding!), and today’s is…

Have a radio show!

HUH?? Who, really, can have a radio show? This is more ludicrous than writing a book, right? Not really, it’s actually quite simple.

My only real experience with accessible “radio” programming is through BlogTalkRadio. I’ve listened to the Recruiting Animal’s radio show a couple of times, and been on it once. I have also been on Darlene McDaniel’s radio show twice. And Thom Singer just started a radio show there. It’s obvious to me how this can play into your personal branding strategy, but HOW do you actually do it? Here are some thoughts:

1. Go to BlogTalkRadio and click on Become a Host. Of course you might want to read through the How It Works page before you commit. It’s that simple!
2. You can choose from a bunch of time slots… I think the only limits are on prime time slots (thanks Thom, for that tidbit)… Darlene’s show is on Saturday morning at 7am my time (9am her time). Thom’s is Sunday afternoon. Both of these times are not convenient for me… but there’s an added bonus (see #3)
3. The shows are … recorded!! This means that it doesn’t really matter when you do your show, as you can post it on a blog or website quite easily.
4. This means that you can also call yourself a podcaster, if you want. Wondered how to put together a podcast, so that all of those smart people that commute to work can have something from you to listen to during their commute? All you need is an account and a phone line (cell, skype, landline, whatever). Do your “radio show” and then post it on your free blog… you don’t need to think about the technology at all!
5. Since you are a podcaster you can also post your show on some of the podcast sites (Podango.com, PodcastPickle.com, PodcastAlley.com Odeo.com), to reach that audience! (thanks to podcast veteran Daniel Johnson, Jr. for letting me know about these resources)

It seems to me that you will be able to kill a few birds with one stone here (“I host the xyz radio show,” “I have a podcast,” and no hassle with technology, all for free!). One thing I like about blogtalkradio is that you can have up to five people call in… which means a discussion. As a blogger I really dig that, and think it will be way more interesting than just one or two people talking (although 2 people dialoging can be quite interesting).

I’m not doing it yet because right now I’m pretty busy with my blog, my blog marketing strategy, other marketing and branding things, as well as running a business (hey, I can only do so much in twelve hours, then I need to go home!). But if you aren’t doing any of the other things for your personal brand, and you can commit to an hour a week (or 15 minutes, or 30 minutes – it’s up to you!!) for this, I think it’s an excellent idea.

Ok, so let’s wrap this up. Do you buy any of this jazz? Is it important to build your personal brand? Are you proactively managing yours? I google people all the time and am amazed at how few really have an established brand that comes up. But really:

• blogging requires commitment (hence, the purpose of this series)
• articles require a few hours of concentrated intellect (since it’s final, you can’t edit it after you’ve submitted)
• the book can be a gargantuan project, which probably stops tons of people from trying it,
• and radio was probably only for the lucky people :p

…so it’s all hard, right? But you can do it – the technology is there, and it’s all free! Does any of this make sense for YOU to do?

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Yesterday I started a post about personal branding without a blog and realized that it was going to be too long… so I turned it into a three-part series Yesterday’s post was on writing articles. Today’s is to…

Write a Book

Stop laughing… I’m serious! This is entirely possible, even for you (I’m saying that for the people that are disregarding this idea and saying “no way, not me!”)

I’m not just saying this because I’m wrapping up my book I’m on LinkedIn – Now What??? As I’ve spent time with authors over the last year I’ve been amazed that these are just regular people with a passion. You just need to have an idea (I’m sure you have one), the discipline and a publisher.

The Idea: I’m sure you have a dozen ideas, and have probably even said once “I’m going to write a book on … ” So, what do you know about? What can you be passionate about?

The Discipline: In January I was dining with Thom Singer (and some other bloggers). He was working on his second book and he gave me excellent advice, something like “spend 45 minutes every day writing something. By the end of three months you’ll have your book.” I started my book a few months later and regretted not following that advice right when he said it… I felt that if I would have followed it I would have been able to get my book out a lot earlier. I’ll tell you right now, if you have an idea, sit down and start writing, each day, and you’ll make progress!

The Publisher: This is actually the easy part. There are four ways that I know about doing this.

• The hard way, where you write a proposal, need an agent, and probably get an advance. I’ve been totally intrigued by my friends Penelope Trunk, Alexandra Levit, Susan Strayer, Anita Bruzzese and others who have gone this route. What I have learned about their trek with a publisher is that the process is hard, seemingly impossible for someone like me. But it works, and it works out. Each of these four ladies have benefited greatly, I’m sure because they had a big-name publisher.
• The too-easy way, by self-publishing. You can write your book, go to Lulu.com or iUniverse.com, and have your book in print on demand. I’m not sure but I think that this is just a step up from an eBook (more on that in a second), and I’m not sure how traditional channels view this type of published book. I won’t think any less of you if you go this route but for some reason I have in my mind that this isn’t the best route if your are serious about having your brand reinforced.
• The almost book, the eBook. I love the eBook idea, but I’ve had a hard time with it because I like to read away from the computer (and mark up my book). If it’s long I want to put a bookmark in it… and reading a big paper on my screen just bugs me. I thought I was unique, and then I read a post from famous blogmaster Liz Strauss wrote 7 Reasons eBooks Are Losing Readers. Now, I’m certainly not knocking ebooks… my book is available in ebook format. And there are other excellent ebooks out there (Liz Handlin has one on Interview Tips and another on Ultimate Cover Letters, and Career Hub has put out three awesome free ebooks on interviewing, resume writing and the job search)
• What I chose, the “Happy About” publisher. Many have asked me who is publishing my book, and what my experiences have been. My experiences have been excellent so far. It’s not over yet, and it is a HUGE job doing what I’m doing. My publisher keeps reminding me that the hard part is marketing, which we really haven’t started yet. If you have a book idea, I strongly encourage you to reach out to Mitchell at Happy About and pitch your idea. You don’t need an agent, and I don’t know what the details of your agreement will be, but it seems to be an extremely fair (and out of the box) relationship compared to other publishers that I’ve heard about.

Now let me clarify one thing here… I am most certainly not knocking any of the methods above. I’ve come to some of these conclusions based on information I got at dinner with Scott Allen and Thom Singer (so blame them :p). Here are two things to consider:

1. When I asked them whether I should do an ebook, self-publish or go with a publisher they said, hands down, go with the publisher. They said that the Harvard Business Review (or whoever those folks are) will not do a book review on an ebook or self-published book… I’m not sure if that’s entirely accurate but it sounded logical to me. While I doubt my book will be reviewed by them, it seems to add more validity by having it published by a publisher.
2. The purpose of this post is to share ideas on how to build your personal brand without blogging. Even though there are better and less-better ways of going the book route, I think that anything along these lines is excellent. In other words, if all you can do, because of time or energy, is to put out one (or more) ebooks, then GO FOR IT! You can still say you are “author of.” Check out my new e-mail signature:

Jason Alba
:: Owner – http://www.JibberJobber.com
:: Blog – http://www.JibberJobber.com/blog
:: Author – I’m on LinkedIn – Now What???
:: pre-order it here: http://tinyurl.com/22oh72
:: Career Management || Personal Relationship Management
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Wouldn’t it be cool to put “author” in your e-mail signature? What would that do for your personal brand? What’s your book going to be on, and when can I review it on my blog???

Update: Part I is here, Part III is here

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Over the last year as I’ve enthusiastically evangelized blogging to build your personal brand, I’ve had a number of you say that it’s too hard, too much work, too much of a commitment, etc. It doesn’t help that you might be holding my blog as a goal or standard, which is not fair, because I blog as part of my business, and I know that many of you won’t have the time or purpose that I have. I don’t think I’m anything amazing, but please don’t consider my blog to be the example for what you should be doing.

Instead of telling you to blog for your personal brand, how about if I share three other ideas that can have a significant impact on your personal brand?

In today’s world, with so many communication barriers removed, we can all take more control about spreading various messages, and the messages that we choose to spread will have an impact on how others come to know us… the first tactic is to…

Write Articles

This is the easiest, quickest tactic to employ. You don’t need to commit to anything long-term, and can literally put out a great article in just a few hours (depending on how well you write). If you have any expertise in your field consider sending the article to one of your trade magazines (every magazine that I’ve seen has a call for articles, and there are e-mail addresses in the magazine that you can ask for more information).

If you don’t feel that you have what it takes to write an article for the trade magazine, well, I disagree. I’m sure you can figure something out – if it’s not technical or topical, it could be an article on trends, which I understand is very popular. If nothing else, you can write about a career management issue (if you are reading this blog I’m guessing you have your own list of 10 things that people should do for their job search, career management, network management, personal branding, etc.

There are article submission sites that will shoot your article out to various publications. I have only used The Phantom Writers, but Mike Schaffner recently sent me a link to Ezine Articles…. I’m sure there are dozens of these types of services. Some are free, some you pay for. But just getting your article published once makes you a published author. Cool, eh?

—

Tomorrow I’ll talk about another tactic, and wrap it up on Monday.

Have you ever written an article? Would you consider it?

Update: Part II is here, Part III is here

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Last week I spent an hour with my coaches and another hour with my users on two free webinars. I was amazed at the excitement and participation during the webinars, and wanted to make sure you know when you can join us.

This Friday, August 17th at 2pm EST is the second private coach/resume/counselor webinar. I will e-mail the details to people on my coach list, if you should be on that call but aren’t on my list please send me an e-mail (Jason@JibberJobber.com) so I can let you know about future webinars. Last week we spent about 25 minutes on “how-to” for you and your clients and then 35 minutes on new ideas – it was very exciting!

Next Friday, August 24 at 11am EST is the second public user webinar. I’ve created a new “Page” on this blog that will have the latest information on all upcoming webinars, so feel free to refer to it for instructions and dates.

I do these webinars once a week, but don’t plan on repeating topics much. Jump in on any webinar you can. Right now I’m not recording them but will do some recordings in the future (if you want to see short, two minute tutorials you can see a bunch on the video page).

Throughout out life and career we meet a lot of people. And we leave an impression on them.

It doesn’t matter if we are the kid in the mailroom, the person behind the cash register, the doorman at the hotel, or the executive in the cafeteria.

Each time you have an interaction, whether it’s in person, on the phone, or digitally, you are affecting someone. Yes, they will walk away with an impression of you, but I’m not talking about that.

My post from yesterday, about winning, got much more commentary than I expected. I’m not just talking about the comments on the post, but also feedback off-line.

It affected someone.

Want to know something funny?

About 75% of the time I finish a blog post and think “that was a dud. Boring, cliche, not much to it.” I think this comes from the fact that I read the post and think “man, how do I really get my message across?” Sometimes words seem so inadequate.

And those are the posts where someone let’s me know how much they loved it. Not “oh, you are such a great writer,” rather “that post really had an affect on me today.”

I guarantee that you are affecting people today. Your responses, the respect you show, the actions you take to show someone you care about them or their issues… somehow today you are going to affect someone.

You’ll never know how you affect them, and how many people you affect.

Can you think of something… one thing, that you can do today that will have a positive impact on someone?

I should say that this is good for your career and your personal brand, and it’s a great way to network, etc. etc. That’s all true. But for me, it’s much bigger than just having a stronger network. We all have a chance of changing the world for the better, even if it’s just one person’s world.

What can you do today to affect just one person?

I’ve been in Chicago for three days – I’m attending a conference for association professionals (that is, this is an association for associations ) The trip has been excellent, but I’ll confess that I’ve been nervous about this meeting for a while… I have to stretch my brain, learn how my business will apply in this environment, and get out of my comfort zone.

But I’m here for a purpose, and there’s a news clip I saw on Saturday at the airport that I keep thinking about that reminds me of my purpose.

Tiger Woods was being interviewed. I missed the question but his response was something like:

“I came here to win. I didn’t come to hit a few balls, or to walk around on a nice day, or to drop a few pounds. I came here to win.“

It really made me think about why I came to Chicago. I came to win.

Winning is fun, but getting there is hard. I will have to do things where I hear “no,” I will have to introduce myself a ton of times to people who will look at me as a “vendor” and automatically try and figure out how to get rid of me. I don’t really like rejection, and even though every “no” is one step closer to a “yes” I still don’t get a kick out of hearing it.

But I came to win.

So I’m going to the meetings. Yesterday, I wanted to leave a little early. But I stayed, and I met amazing contacts after the last meeting.

I cannot be complacent about this. Tiger’s thoughts are in my mind while I’m here – I’m not here to walk around the expo floor just to look around. I’m here to win.

What about you? What are you doing and why are you doing it? Are you getting… complacent?

If your work is boring, unfulfilling or not headed in the right direction, think back a while ago when you had big goals and dreams for where you would end up.

It’s going to be hard, and there will be uncomfortable growth phases, but getting through them will make it all worth it, won’t it?

If you are in a job search right now, you have to play to win. It’s not a casual thing, you need to be the best game in town! Play to win! Have an excellent resume. Really, really prepare for the interviews, prepare your personal branding statement (aka, elevator pitch, aka, me in 30 seconds) so that it is captivating and natural.

Are you playing to win?

A number of weeks ago a very successful businessman that I’ve networked with signed up for JibberJobber. Because of our friendship/relationship I e-mailed him right away, something along the lines of “wow, it’s cool that you are checking out my website and poking around! Let me know what you think.”

His immediate reply was “please don’t tell anyone I’m in the job search.“

Can I just tell you, I nearly fell out of my seat? Here is a guy that, from where I’m sitting, is a business giant. In fact, one of the most successful people that I know. The shock of someone “like him” in a job search just really threw me. Eventually we had some conversations so I could understand better what was going on, and try and figure out what role I could play in helping him.

This whole experience made me think back to my layoff last year. Why did I get laid off? I must have been a loser. Why couldn’t I get a job? I must have been a loser. Why couldn’t I get any interviews? I must have been a loser with leprosy. Even though I had done all the right things, in a traditional sense, to build my own job security, I was still, well, a loser.

Actually, those were all the stereotypical feelings that I had. But I think too many people feel the way I used to. I wondered how many people are wondering what in the heck went wrong with him?? It made me think about reasons why you might lose (or leave) or your job:

• You can’t do the work, or
• you are a slacker, or
• you don’t understand office politics, or
• … something like that.

It all comes down to Because you suck, right?

Wrong.

Here is why this guy is leaving: because he wants to follow his passion.

The last 24 months at the job that laid me off were pretty much hell. It affected my marriage, my relationship with my kids, and my morale. I should have left a lot earlier. But I didn’t – I was hanging on to a false hope. I sometimes felt like the abuse victim that had this twisted hope that things would get better, things would change, everything would be alright. But it didn’t happen that way.

I wish I would have known this guy a few years ago, and learned the lesson from him that it’s okay to leave what looks like an awesome job when the passion just isn’t there anymore.

Are you passionate about what you do? If it’s time for a change, are you scared about what others will think?

I blogged about this yesterday but learned something new this morning on the private coach webinar. The MixMeeting code I put was wrong Here is the correct information:

On Friday morning, 11am Eastern (10am Central, 9am Mountain, 8am Pacific) I’ll spend about 45 minutes with users showing some of the intricacies of JibberJobber. I have done this a number of times for certain partners and know it’s really valuable… please carve out some time on Friday morning to check out JibberJobber from my perspective. Here’s how to Join:

FIRST, go to http://app.mixmeeting.com/brands/mix/mixmeeting/default.htm and enter 7754081 (updated 2:41 EST, August 9th) for the Participant PIN (on the left side) and then fill in the rest, and hit login.

SECOND, call (712) 432-9998 and use this code: 370520#. PLEASE MUTE your phone, and only unmute if you have a question.

Please come join us if you can – it should be fun!

Actually, that’s not the title of the book – the title is “I’m on LinkedIn – Now What???” The book has gone a few rounds with the Executive Editor, Scott Allen (author of The Virtual Handshake, columnist for Fast Company, entreprenuer guide at About.com, and more) and is with the copy editor right now. Then it will go through a layout process and will finally be ready for print! We’re shooting to have the process done towards the end of next month!

But the website is up (yes, there are a few things to finish, like number of pages and endorsements) and I just can’t wait any longer – today’s my first official blog post about the book! I’m really not sure how to “review” my own book… so I figured I’d (a) share the table of contents, (b) share why I am writing a book, and (c) share why I decided to write a book on LinkedIn.

I’m On LinkedIn – Now What has the following chapters:

Part 1: Getting started
- Ch01: Introduction
- Ch02: What is LinkedIn?
- Ch03: Your Profile
- Ch04: Account and Settings

Part 2: Making it Work for You
- Ch05: Connecting with Others
- Ch06: Searching
- Ch07: How Degrees of Separation Works
- Ch08: Recommendations
- Ch09: Jobs & Hiring
- Ch10: Services
- Ch11: LinkedIn Groups
- Ch12: LinkedIn Answers

Part 3: Wrapping it Up
- Ch13: LinkedIn for Personal Branding
- Ch14: Shady Practices
- Ch15: On Netiquette
- Ch16: Complementary Tools and Resources
- Ch17: Conclusion

Why did I decide to write a book?

I’ve always wanted to write a book. I started a book when I worked for Don Aslett, King of Clean, who had authored about thirty eight books (and had another five or ten in progress) – my book was going to be on basic issues that every IT manager should know about (since I was a new IT Manager). But my heart wasn’t behind it. I’ve always been intrigued with the whole book author thing and I started to meet people who were authors. I began to realize that I could, I should, do it. And I’ve leaned on many of the authors that I’ve reviewed here as morale support – even though they don’t know it. But that will be another blog post!

But why a book on LinkedIn??

JibberJobber is complementary to LinkedIn. As I developed a strong network with professionals in transition I would frequently get e-mails asking questions about LinkedIn. “Can you look at my profile and let me know what I can do to make it better?” was a common question. But all questions had this common theme behind them… “okay, I have an account… now what???” I always thought it would be a good idea to write a book to help my general audience and JibberJobber users (not always the same thing ).

Then, at SOBcon in Chicago I was listening to Andy Sernovitz give a presentation on Word of Mouth marketing. One of the gems I picked out from his presentation had to do with finding something that people are already buzzing about and latching onto that, as a way to generate word of mouth buzz about your own stuff. I thought, hm, people are talking about LinkedIn, which is growing at about a million new members each quarter… what if… what if I could jump on that? It really was the needle that broke the camels back (or some clever analogy to say “it was the inspiration I needed to get me moving”).

One more point – there is NO WAY I would have tried to do something like this without the support I get from YOU! Just writing this blog daily, and getting into great discussions in the comments, has been a support for me and made me realize that maybe, just maybe, a book should be in the future. So you can take some credit for inspiring me to do it, and inspiring the topic.

I hope this book is well received. Of the 12 million people on LinkedIn I’m guessing that 11.99 million could use it. I’m really excited to get to this point and am anxious for the writing process to come to an end. Check out the official book page here (there is a separate website/blog coming to support the content of the book – I’m not ready to announce that yet )!

So, Jason, are you going to ask me to buy it???

Ok, well, since you asked, you can go to the buy it now page to pre-order it… but really, no obligations! I’m such a soft-sell kind of guy, so I didn’t really want to put this in here, but I know that if I don’t I’ll get a bunch of e-mails telling me to.

I. Radio Show Today!!!

Today at noon Eastern (11am Central, 10am Mountain, 9am Pacific) I’ll be on the Recruiting Animal’s usually controversial and never boring radio show. Here’s his write-up (it’s not about JibberJobber, rather, my blogging secrets from June):

Jason Alba’s Blogging Secrets
The boss over at www.JibberJobber.com says that he knows something we should know. Okay, I’ll listen. But if he doesn’t.. watch out! Tune in for this report from the trenches.

Wed Aug 8 2007. NOON Toronto Time. (same as New York time).

It’s free to listen, just click on this Blog Talk Radio link, and if you want to chat call in at (646) 652-2754.

Am I nervous? Heck ya, more than normal. The Animal has a reputation, is very smart and quick, and makes sure the show isn’t slow. I just hope I walk away without tainting my reputation!

II. Free User Webinar on JibberJobber

On Friday morning, 11am Eastern (10am Central, 9am Mountain, 8am Pacific) I’ll spend about 45 minutes with users showing some of the intricacies of JibberJobber. I have done this a number of times for certain partners and know it’s really valuable… please carve out some time on Friday morning to check out JibberJobber from my perspective. Here’s how to Join:

FIRST, go to http://app.mixmeeting.com/brands/mix/mixmeeting/default.htm and enter 7754081 (updated 2:41 EST, August 9th) for the Participant PIN (on the left side) and then fill in the rest, and hit login.

SECOND, call (712) 432-9998 and use this code: 370520#. PLEASE MUTE your phone, and only unmute if you have a question.

III. Private Coach/Resume Writer Webinar (also free)

Tomorrow morning at 11am Eastern (10am Central, 9am Mountain, 8am Pacific) I will spend 30 – 45 minutes with coaches, resume writers, counselors, career experts, recruiters (?) etc. Specifically we are going to talk about using JibberJobber for personal branding statements, elevator pitches, and all the other parts of interview preparation. Please contact me (jason at JibberJobber dot com) for calling/login information. This is private to career professionals.

Checkout information on internships at Experience.