Beverly Harvey is one of my expert partners. She runs Harvey Careers, and specializes in “empowering senior-level executives with savvy career marketing materials and job search tools.”

Beverly is conducting a three-part teleseminar called “How to Conduct a Highly Successful Job Search and Land Your Next Position Quickly.”

She asks: Is your job search stalled? Are you confused about the market place?

That is how my job search was. And I was confused since it was a “job seeker’s market” but no one would call me back.

I totally could have used this training. Here’s the deal… this job search series includes 3 calls (60 minutes each) that are recorded, and you’ll have access to them anytime (so you don’t even need to be on the calls). You also get a 45-page resource guide, a roadmap, and much more.

I haven’t taken the class, and I don’t have the resource guide. But I have seen Beverly at conferences and know that she is always keeping up on trends, is principle-based, and well-respected by her peers.

And she partnered with JibberJobber. That’s good enough for me… when a coach forks over some money to partner with JibberJobber they really show they “get it.”

Beverly gets it, and for less than $100 bucks you can tap into a wealth of knowledge.

How do you register? Just go to her website and scroll down to the bottom… or you can call 386-749-3111.

One last point. Even if you aren’t in a job search… you know, you already have your comfortable job… I strongly encourage you to sign up for this training. You never know when you’ll need it!

At the risk of diverging too much information about my business, and making it look smaller (or bigger) than what you might think it is, I wanted to share some stuff from my last coaching session.

I’ve been concerned about making sure that I tie up all my 2007 loose ends, and am prepared to hit it hard in 2008. We spent our last coaching session figuring out what all of this meant, and I left with an action plan so I’m pointed in the right direction.

It’s interesting to note that as we were ending the call I told Kent that I didn’t really like the fact that I got so much value out of our coaching sessions. You see, I’m quite self-directed, and independent. A lot of the stuff that we go through weekly is either “seeing the forest” or “seeing the trees” … stuff that’s pretty obvious if I would just steal some quiet time and think about it on my own.

Kent replied that he finds a lot of his clients get value, like I do, from these sessions. It’s not like we are going over anything as profound as physics, but having someone to walk you through the logic, helping you come up with an action plan, eliminate the noise, and hold you accountable later is quite valuable. Kent, by the way, is offering a free coaching session so you can see what it’s like… if you are in need of a job, career or interview coach you can check out my list of partners here.

Let’s get on to my list, though, as I think this might be helpful for some of you. In order to finish 2007 well I’m going to:

1. Finish the I’m on Facebook — Now What??? book. I wanted to get it do the editor last week but missed that. I need to get it there this weekend, and so this is the main priority for this week. Man, it will be great to have this writing done and not bleed into next year!
2. Wrap up all of my outstanding contacts for prospective partners. If you are a coach or resume writer you *might* hear from me next week (ah, that cat is out of the bag :p). Since early last year I’ve made over one thousands contacts with people that might want to partner, but I was rather disorganized in the early days and I know there are many who haven’t heard back from me after the initial contact. Plus, I have new, cool stuff to offer. I’d like to get this figured out and mostly wrapped up this year.
3. Get all my finances in order. I purchased Quickbooks a few weeks ago and have been putting in my expenses, and some revenue items. But I really want to get this all done by year end so that (a) I can know where I’m at, (b) have a system so I will be on top of this monthly, and (c) not have to worry about cramming this into next quarter.
4. Understand JibberJobber growth, trends, etc. so that I can plan accordingly on my marketing. Did you know that January is a huge month for people to reevaluate their career and job plans? It was a huge month for us this year, but in going over the numbers, I found that February was about 20% bigger. I want to have a better grasp on these numbers and not just fly by the seat of my pants (who comes up with these sayings??).
5. Spend time on my 2008 goals, strategies, needs, and figure out specific actions/tasks for the first quarter of 2008. I think the most important thing I can do for 2008 is to plan now. I have a lot in place (like my visualization), but having a concrete plan should help a lot.

What do YOU need to do this year to wrap it up? What about your 2008 - what are your goals for yourself and your career, and what are you going to do? You don’t have to leave a comment here, but I found that going through this exercise is extremely helpful!

On a job seeker Yahoo group that I’m on we saw a sad plea for help that ended like this:

Can anybody please give me any constructive suggestions. I don’t need slams or criticisms, I do that to myself enough. Any help would be appreciated.

I don’t want to post the entire request here because I don’t have permission to, but this is from an accomplished professional who has family and bills and all that stuff tugging at him, his job search has been fruitless, and he’s about to get his utilities cut off and his cars repossesed. It’s pretty bad. Here was my reply to this plea for help:

[username], wow, this is a painful e-mail, I’m sorry to hear about your trials. I went through a very difficult, non-fruitful job search last year and it changed my life. Here are some of my non-preachy thoughts:

1. What is your name? I’d like to do a Google search on you and see what others find when they want to find out more about you. Do you have a LinkedIn profile, a blog, any articles, any mentions online?

2. When you say “worked all of my contacts,” I’m trying to understand what that means. Do you have a weekly or monthly e-mail (like a newsletter) that you send to your contacts to keep them apprised of your situation and progress? I found that a lot of people didn’t seem helpful but it was either because (a) they didn’t know how to react to me, an unemployed guy, asking for help, or (b) it was out-of-sight-out-of-mind. Just letting them know that you are still fighting to find a job, and letting them know about what you are looking for, may prompt them to think a little harder.

3. Do you attend a local network meeting? I found the contacts at these meetings, over the months, were excellent. I would gravitate towards people that were really good at networking OUTSIDE of this meeting, and we were able to share leads in a big way. There should be at least 2 or 3 people that you can hook up with that will provide you emotional strength as well as good leads from the networking that they are doing.

4. Do you have a job search coach? This isn’t necessarily someone that you pay (you can’t afford that, as per your e-mail below), but you should be able to find someone that can help you and ask “I really need some help. Would you be able to be my job coach, meet with me weekly, and hold me accountable for my job search?” This person should ensure that you are doing the right things in your search, and will have an interest in your success. Do not underestimate the power of bringing someone in to help you (but, not your spouse).

5. Do you do volunteer service? You should look for some non-profits that could use your help and go give your services to them, like a consultant. This is an excellent way to meet new people AND show them how competent you are, and they should be able to help you meet others (lots of professionals and execs work with non-profits).

These are just some thoughts off the top of my head. Please hang in there, I know how horrible this is, and you aren’t alone, even though it feels like it.

I don’t push JibberJobber, even though I want to (I’d probably get kicked off the list if I did).

If someone has reached out to you in the last couple of months about their job search, please follow up with them today to see where they are at. You never know, they might be ready to give up on their search (or life), and just a call or invitation to lunch can make a huge difference in their life.

In ecommerce web hosting what matters a lot is the affiliate program, which is why people prefer using search engine optimization services as a lot is at stake. The webmaster is asked to go for online backup and a broadband that offers secure wireless internet connection.

Tomorrow is the huge international Personal Branding Summit. See the post from yesterday to see the schedule of speakers. There is no cost to you, just go register and then figure out what sessions you want to call into!

I’m no expert in this, but I thought I would present this e-mail I got from a friend of a friend and see what you think:

In September, I walked away from dissatisfying career in order to venture out on my own as a freelance web designer. Currently I have a full time contract with a company, but it ends in a few weeks and at that point I’ll have to find my own clients. I may get rehired in the spring, but that’s never a sure thing.

Six months ago, I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Since then I have been taking medication and recently started seeing a therapist. She said a coach might be able to help me learn to cope with ADD in my life and in my career. I can see that many of the problems I’ve had in my career may have been caused or at least worsened by my ADD. Throughout my life, I have had trouble with time management and motivation. I get distracted easily and end up wasting a major part of my workday on meaningless things. In addition, I’ve always been a terrible procrastinator and a perfectionist, which ends up being an impossible combination. Estimating how long a task should take is also a huge stressor for me, but it’s a required skill for bidding on projects and billing. It’s imperative that I deal with these issues right away. Otherwise, I don’t stand a chance.

If you have any ideas on coaching and coping with ADD in the workplace or know of anyone that I might talk to, it would be much appreciated.

Do you know anything about Adult Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)? Are you successfully managing a career (or your own business) with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)? (yes, I know there is a difference between ADD and ADHD) What advice can you offer this person?

Last week I flew to Savannah, Georgia, to attend the National Resume Writers’ Association conference. It was the second conference that I’ve been to in the career professional space and I absolutely loved it. My last industry was building maintenance/management, and conferences there were filled with people that didn’t want to be there, and wondering where the next golf course or restaurant was. However, people attending these conferences are usually paying their own way to be there, so they don’t really want to miss a thing. In addition, the conferences are small (around 100 people), so during the three days you can meet just about everyone.

Resume writers are special people. I couldn’t do it - I know my personality and what drives me, and the level of attention and creativity needed to write a strong resume in a challenging situation is something that I doubt I would be able to make a career out of. I remember last year when I did The Resume Experiment, Pete Johnson left a comment saying that he believes everyone should write their own resume. I definitely agree, going through the process is important, and we should all do it. But there are times when calling in a professional is necessary, or wise (or both)!

Sitting through the sessions at this conference gave me a new appreciation for professional resume writers. There is art, mixed with science, and these professionals are at the top of their game (and working to improve). Some have chosen to partner with JibberJobber to add value to the client relationship, as well as make their operations and marketing more effective and efficient. I’m pleased to present to you my seven newest partners (in the order that they signed up):

1. Kathy Warwick, Confident Careers
2. Linsey Levine, Career Counsel
3. Bonnie Kurka, Executive Career Suite
4. Susan Whitcomb, Career Coach Academy
5. Eleanore Farmer, Be Ready Resumes
6. Claudine Vainrub, EduPlan
7. Marcia Baker, Mark of Success

Many of you know where I’ve come from since last January. I was the guy who couldn’t get an interview (because my resume had problems). I was the guy who went from “60 to zero” pretty quick. It was demoralizing. Now, I have something cool that industry leaders are jumping on, and it is very, very flattering. I’m honored to be associated with these new partners, and thrilled to add them to my existing partners list!

One of the first things my coach had me do was develop a document titled “The Visualization.” This is a very personal one-page document with very specific targets, written in present tense. I was reluctant to spend time on my visualization, but I realized that in order to have our coaching relationship work, I needed to “play along” (I can’t think of a different phrase for that - I don’t mean to trivialize the coach’s system, but sometimes I’m too proud for my own good and disregard things as silly or meaningless).

At first I thought it was going to be a hokey mission statement, with all the feel-good words and cliche phrases that are in just about every mission statement in the world. I memorized the mission statement from my last company - there was the president’s version, and the workers version (which put an irreverent twist on the president’s version). It was fun to memorize, but really, when you got down to work it was easy to disregard.

I didn’t want to come up with a meaningless statement that sounded too good to be true, with little regard for my day-to-day battles.

I found the visualization to be different, though. To get me started, my coach sent me his. I was quite amazed - it was very, very specific. At first glance it seemed a little over-the-top, but as I re-read it, it was indeed achievable. In addition to goals, there was a resulting dollar amount tied to most everything. His was written in a way that it broke big ideas down and detailed certain parts of his visualized accomplishments.

Using my coach’s visualization as a model, I developed my own. It is one page. It serves as a motivation and helps me focus every single day (I have it right next to my keyboard, and on my fridge).

It’s easy to get distracted, or at least wonder if I’m distracted (I have JibberJobber stuff (design for the programmers, marketing and PR, accounting, admin stuff, etc.), this blog, book marketing (thank goodness the writing is done!), and a conference that I’m putting on with a partner in October. Not to mention stuff outside of work… I’m pretty busy, and it’s easy for me to either get too focused on one thing, or spend a lot of time on a lot of things with no focus.

That’s where the visualization comes in - like I said, it does two things for me:

1. It motivates me. I look at the numbers, which right now are targets, and think about how things will be different once I achieve them. My visualization very specifically declares the income I’ll have from various revenue streams, and for a guy coming out of unemployment, that’s very motivating.
2. It refocuses me. My most important target is in the first five words of the visualization document. It just happened that way - which is interesting because it’s obviously the most important thing on my mind when I wrote it. But now, more than 60 days after I wrote it, I find myself using the visualization to see if I’m deviating, or indeed working towards the goals I set.

I can’t share my personal visualization here on my blog - it’s too private. But tomorrow I’ll write a visualization that I should have written for my job search… and you’ll see how it differs from a regular old mission statement.

Have you gone through the visualization exercise, formally? If so, has it been beneficial to you?

The bank charges usually differ for each creditcard. But for those who always buy to let mortgages tales care of the rest, everything eventually leads to debt. Having a look at homes for sale is no reason to go crazy. People who work from home are well aware of the value of money and instead value becoming insurance leads instead.

A couple of months ago I had a chat with Linda Lopeke, who teaches at a university in Canada. Linda has had a career outside of the university but designed an MBA-level course called Fortune 500 Intelligence. From what I can tell this has been an excellent testing ground for her to refine her Smart Start program, as she works with hopefuls and wannabe’s (I was an MBA student so I can say that :p).

Linda has a program for “the rest of us” (meaning, not her students) where she makes some very strong claims. I don’t think the claims are far-fetched. A lot of what is being taught is not necessarily new stuff - although professional coaches are going to not only base their coaching on principles, but know the trends, fads and current career management stuff a lot better than someone who isn’t immersed in it all day long.

You can get a taste of her program here, with the free stuff.

You can get an idea of what she teaches here, with the Cash for College challenge questions.

Listen to her on the radio or read a press release here, to get to know her and her program better.

Her home page is really long but has a lot more info, if you are interested. The pricing seems nominal for someone that wants to get started on the career fast track… you can read all about it here.

Linda has a system, with newsletters and communication catered to those that are trying to figure out how to get ahead. She has teleseminar classes that you can dial into, and I think peer communication opportunities to get to know other people that are in the program. This isn’t a replacement for one-on-one career coaching but if you have been hesitant to jump into something like this, I think for the price, it’s a great alternative.

Do you have a coach yet? Do you have a mentor? Has it been beneficial?

As promised in an earlier post this week (I Hate My Coach) I’m going to out my coach today. I can’t really do a drum roll because the picture gives it away.

I came across Kent Blumberg back in September when I read Louise Fletcher’s post about Kent’s blogging, and how he was a great example of personal branding. I reached out to him and we’ve had a really neat relationship since then. Kent was knee-deep in an executive job search, and had recently started blogging - so we had both of those things in common. His job search was going to be a long one, just like mine was. He very quickly saw the value of JibberJobber and I found myself the recipient of his e-mails and ideas.

A month after I found him I awarded him the You Get It prize for October, 2006. I remember calling him the morning I posted (our first call) and I said “hey, I have this award I’m giving to you, I just wanted to know if you are in a job search, and could I say that?” That was our first call, and we’ve had a number of them since then.

When I went to Houston over Christmas he found out about some days I scheduled for business and offered to meet me. Pretty cool, huh? Here’s what blew me away - Kent had to drive about six hours to meet me. He came early (our first meeting was at 7am in a restaurant), stayed in a hotel with his wife, and spent most of the day with me in my meetings. Of course, he had many excellent contacts in Houston so I think he got other stuff done on that trip but for me it was extremely flattering that he’d make that effort to hook up with me and spend that much time with me.

A few months ago he told me he had something big he was working on but wouldn’t tell me what it was (you have to be careful what you tell bloggers, you know!). When he was ready I learned that he decided to become a coach. He would coach people in their career (management or executive) or executives in transition. He asked if I’d be interested in a free coaching session to see how it goes.

It was kind of weird because I have about 20 partners who pay money to be my partner, and many of them are coaches! But of course it was free, and it would help Kent as he was working on his certification, and I had immense respect for him as a business leader and executive. I had longed for a real mentor at my old job where I was the general manager and got nothing. So to get a chance to have a real coach or mentor of Kent’s caliber was really, really enticing.

We’ve since had about seven sessions and, as I alluded to in my earlier post this week, they are not really that easy. I don’t want to lose Kent’s respect, so I put effort into the sessions, I keep it real (honest), and we have some pretty deep discussions. I feel bad about not doing all of the “homework,” but hey, I’ve got a business to run. Last week I told him that I feel bad about missing two homework assignments and he said “you know, maybe these assignments just don’t work for you.” Man, they don’t! It’s cool that he has the wisdom/maturity to recognize what I really need and not make me fit into the ideal candidate.

So anyway, that’s how it happened. It’s been hard but it’s been good - I feel like I’m more grounded, that I’m doing the urgent/important things and not the emergency things (Covey’s quadrants). Kent’s background and career were a huge part in the decision to pick him as a coach, and the fact that he’s getting trained and certified were critical.

A couple of months ago he said that his goal is to have 100 coaching sessions in 100 days. I’m not sure where he is at but I’m sure he would love to give you a complementary coaching session - I know I have many readers who are in management or business ownership that would be perfect for this type of discussion. If you have never done it before I encourage you to shoot Kent an e-mail.

Tell me about your coaching experiences, who your coach is, etc!

If you are thinking of domain registration, make sure that you trust a reliable windows hosting and only then go ahead with the domain name registration. Even then, look for services like internet phone service as well as the web design consultants. If you work at home, that does not mean that you have to compromise on your website design.

I’ve been really big on coaches since I really started to learn about them last year. As a job seeker we were told to “get a coach, not your spouse!” It was during the time when I was just figuring out the job search and career management thing, and as I learned more about coaches I kind of came up with my own thing - you can read the three things that a coach must have in order to really be effective here.

I partner with coaches, which is really quite fun. I’m not sure if it’s their personality, or that they are just “in the zone,” but usually when we are on the phone talking about their business and JibberJobber they’ll start coaching me. This happens about 30 minutes into the call and I’m not sure if they realize they do it, but it really is interesting to have these impromptu coaching sessions.
I announced that I had engaged in a coaching relationship about a month ago. And today I want to give an update:

• I do not look forward to my coaching sessions.
• We have weekly sessions. I have not had a week off since we started.
• I have homework.
• I’m supposed to recap our sessions… AND write an e-mail before our session recapping my week.
• He asks really simple questions that, deep down inside, I already know the answer to.
• He asks some questions that I know I should be asking myself but have been purposefully ignoring.
• He tries really hard to not give me the answers, rather, pulls them out of me in a sometimes painful dialog.
• While our discussions are generally low-key, I know that I’m not going to “get away” with anything.

Our coaching relationship is built on trust and mutual respect. I have immense respect for him as a leader and manager. He trusts that I’m being honest with him.

Probably more important, he trusts that I’m being honest with myself.

Has it been beneficial? No doubt.

Is it fun? …. it’s rewarding, but it’s a growth process, so it’s more painful than fun.

Do we go over common-sense stuff? Yes… I have a business degree, an MBA, and years of management and strategic experience. But I find myself not being able to see the trees through the forest (or however that goes). So I need to be grounded regularly.

What’s the most beneficial thing I get out of our coaching relationship? I can’t decide between (a) having a smarter, wiser person to help me solve current problems with or (b) the regular accountability (I’m not one that “needs” accountability, but this takes it to another level).

Do I really hate my coach? No, of course not. But this is something that makes me grow, and growing is hard an uncomfortable. I’m fortunate to have a coach that is helping me through, even pushing me through this period in my life and business.

Who is my coach? I’m going to “out” him this week - stay tuned.

Are you a coach? Did you know your clients go through this? Have you had a coach? Does this ring true?

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.