I did it!  Last week I finished an exhausting week of 13 keynote presentations in a four day period.  It was hard, but so rewarding and exciting.

Some of my rewards:

• James, who said: “Jason, if Minneapolis had a rock star, it would be you!  I’ve heard your name, or about JibberJobber, every week for the last three months!”  That is so awesome – huge THANK YOU to all the people who continue to spread the career management message (from 2.5 yrs ago when I spoke there 9 times in three days).
• An attendee at my “101 Alternatives to a Real Job” presentation who said: “I have been wrestling with a few decisions recently, and after listening to your presentation I now know what I need to do.  Thank you!”  As a speaker, that is one of the most rewarding comments I can get – to know that what I did in some way touched and impacted you.
• Arriving early at one of my presentations and chatting with another early attendee for more than 30 minutes… it was a quiet, peaceful time and we had a very enjoyable conversation.  This lady has gone through some amazing hardships, including serious family issues, serious medical issues, and job loss, any of which would debilitate any normal human being.  She strengthened me as we talked, and I’m appreciative for her openness and time.
• Getting my first real meal on Friday morning.  No kidding.  I was running so hard from Monday through Thursday night that I had not treated myself to a real meal.  I was blessed by a bowl of cereal here, a tortilla wrap there (thanks Anne Pryor!), but it wasn’t until Friday morning when I sat down in a restaurant and had a full meal.  Bonus: the friend I was with is a mentor/hero, and I was greatly inspired by the time with him.
• My Groupies!!  How can I not thanks and appreciate my “groupies?”  These are people who followed me around from presentation to presentation and said “we’re stalking you!”  I said, nah, you aren’t stalking me… you are just my groupies!  Having people go from meeting to meeting helps me strengthen and believe in my message.
• Presenting to the Minneapolis chapter of the National Speaking Association – this is a unique group of people… NSA changed my life a few years ago, thanks to Marc Wolfsfeld who invited me.  It was cool to do a presentation, and give back, to my peers from another state!  I’m always inspired when I meet other speakers and learn about how they inspire others.

It’s been years since I’ve been in Minneapolis.  Even so, I met many people who came to my presentations years ago, and I was welcomed with open arms.  Minneapolis is cold in the winter, but the hearts of the people I met with over those four days warmed me to the bone….

Thanks to everyone who touched my life last week, and made it possible.  Definitely a week I’ll remember for a long time!  And a big thanks to the sponsors who helped pay for parts of my trip

Today I get on a plane to Minneapolis.  And then an epic moment in my business – this is the first time I’m scheduled to speak 13 times in 4 days.  I have very, very fond memories of Minneapolis from my speaking tour there in 2008 (where I spoke 9 times in 3 days).  This one is going to seal the deal for me.  Although, I would like to see what this town looks like outside of the winter months :p

Here’s my schedule. I will have goodies and freebies in abundance – so COME!

Monday, December 12

Fly in late in the evening.

Tuesday, December 13

(1) 7:30 – 9am Easter Lutheran Church (on the hill) in Eagan;

Topic: Career Management 2.0

(2) 10 – 11:30am Minnesota Manufacturing Networking; St Michaels Church in Bloomington (9201 Normandale Blvd, Bloomington, MN)

Topic: JibberJobber! This is the ONLY presentation on JibberJobber this week!!

(3) 1:30 – 3:30pm Minnesota Career Coaches Association ; Private event for members of the association

Topic: Career Management 2.0 for Coaches

(4) 6:30 – 8:30 pm: Basilica of St. Mary (88 17th Street North, Minneapolis, MN)

Topic: Happy Holiday Handshaking – this is a new presentation I’m copresenting with Catherine Byers Breet of Arbez – jazzed about this presentation! RSVP HERE

Wednesday, December 14

(5) 8:00 – 9:30 Starbucks Networking Group (Private – MEMBERS ONLY)

Topic: Career Management 2.0

(6) 10:00 – 12 noon: St. Andrews Career Management 2.0 ; St Andrew Lutheran Church, 13600 Technology Drive, Eden Prairie

Topic: Career Management 2.0

(7) 1:00 – 3:30 pm: SamsNet Good Samaritan Church; 5730 Grove Street, Edina, MN

Topic: “Happy Holiday Handshaking” RSVP HERE

4:00 – 7:00pm: Not speaking… just networking! I’ll mingle until about 5p – Mingle Bells sponsored by Arbez and Thrivent Financial

(8) 6:00 – 8:30 pm Minneapolis Job Support Workshop; Christ Presbyterian Church (6901 Normandale Road), Edina, MN

Topic: “Getting More out of LinkedIn”

Thursday, December 15

(9) 10:30am – 12 noon: Face2Face Job Search Networking Group, Bet Shalom Synagogue, 13613 Orchard Road, Minnetonka, MN 55305

Topic: Getting More out of LinkedIn (emphasis on searching and finding people)

(10) 2:30 – 3:30pm: Private engagement at outplacement firm

Topic: 101 Alternatives to a Real Job (based on my next book)

(11) 7:00 – 9:00pm: Soar4Jobs Transition Support Group, 3495 North Victoria Street, Shoreview, MN 55126

Topic: Career Management 2.0 (with some 101 Alternatives)

Friday, December 16

(12) 8:30 – 10:30am National Speakers Association – Minnesota Chapter, Ridgedale Library, 12601 Ridgedale Drive, Minnetonka, Minnesota

Topic: Social Networking to Grow Your Speaking Business

(13) 11:00 – 2:00pm 7 Degrees Creativ, Ridgedale Library, 12601 Ridgedale Drive, Minnetonka, Minnesota (SAME LOCATION AS MORNING)

Topic: Career Management 2.0 + 101 Alternatives to a Real Job

Evening: FLY HOME! 

There are many, many people who made this possible… too many to name… you know who you are, I am indebted to you… so call me on the favor. Thank you!!

This isn’t really a new product line… but it is indeed awesome. I just haven’t announced it before, because I know my competition likes to see what I’m doing and try and do it on their own.

I wanted to get some clients before I announced it… I have some clients on this system now, and sometime next year I’ll fully announce it.  For now I’ll tell you this:

1. It is for university career centers,
2. It is NOT JibberJobber (although JibberJobber is integrated with it),
3. It is my version of a “learning management system” (not based on popular learning management software, like Halogen’s product line).

I love referrals to career centers, and alumni offices.  If YOU have a connection at your career center, reach out to me.  I’m happy to give you information about this system, and even show you a very short demo of how it works. If you are comfortable with it, you can introduce me to your career center… cool?  I’d love that – thank you in advance!

NOTE: this is for the career center CLIENT, not for their office staff.

Tomorrow (Tuesday, November 15, 2012) I am doing two awesome webinars.

At 4pm EST (Tuesday, Nov 15) I am doing an updated LinkedIn for Executives: Beyond the Basics, for Experts Connection.  The cost is $60.  I’m amazed at all the crappy LinkedIn advice floating around… rest assured, I won’t go into anything superfluous.  I’ve always recognized that my audience is busy, or feels overwhelmed, and needs to know what to DO to get the most value, and then move on.   Click here to sign up.

At 7pm EST (Tuesday, Nov 15) I am hosting Mark Hovind for our second “tell me about the economy” NO COST webinar.  The first one blew me away.  I almost-guarantee (I hardly ever guarantee anything) that you will learn a ton.  Is the economy going up?  Is it going down?  Disregard the crap you get from the media and check out Mark’s analysis, taken from current economic numbers and compared with the trends from the last 60ish years. Click here to register. (here’s the last one I did with Mark, in July of 2009)

Sign up for at least one of these!

Happy Halloween.

Now that that is out of the way…

I’ve been working on a new project.  It was inspired by parts of many conversations I’ve had over the last couple of years.  This will be my next book, hopefully in print by the end of this year (or early in 2012).  I’m really hustling on it.

In part, it was inspired by Dick Bolles, author of the mega-best-seller What Color Is Your Parachute. Dick impressed the idea on me that as we (as speakers, authors, etc.) show people their alternatives, we give them hope.  I thought back to my job search when I felt all my alternatives had dried up, and how hopeless and out of control I felt.

When I got the idea for JibberJobber, which was an alternative, I know the hope I had, and exuded, was like night and day.

In part, this book was inspired by people I’ve talked to, after my presentations, about what they are doing, or what they could do, to earn some money “on the side.”

In part, this book was inspired by Robert Allen, and his book Multiple Streams of Income.

In part, this book was inspired by Timothy Ferris (4 Hour Work Week), who shares examples of people who are doing it (he calls their businesses their “muses“), and GaryVee (Gary Vaynerchuk), who included 4 killer ideas at the back of his book, Crush It.

In part, this book is inspired by the stories I hear about, and read about, of people who are ready to take the plunge and JUST DO IT. One in particular came from DOBA founder, about the dude who wanted to clean his garbage cans, and ended up making more per day than some make per week.

101 Alternatives to a Real Job is a book about hope.  It’s about alternatives. It’s about ideas.  The message is “these people are doing it, and maybe you can, too.”

Whether that means you start a business with the potential to make thousands each month, or just a hobby that makes a few hundred bucks a month.

I want to take the inspiration I’ve gotten from my audiences over the years and share it with millions of people… people who’s hope has been gone for a long time.  People who have been told there’s only one way to a good career.

This book shows 101 alternatives to that old definition of a “good career.”

Alternatives and options = Hope.

If you want to preorder, email me and let me know how you want to pay.  I’ll reply back with the options (check, Paypal, credit card)

To keep updated, watch this blog, or get on my LinkedIn Group.

UPDATED: November 14, 2012

I’m flying into Minneapolis to speak for a week, and I want you to tell people about it…

I am now booked. I hoped to speak 16 times, but I found that Monday and Saturday are pretty much no-speaking days.  Here’s my schedule:

Monday, December 12

Fly in late in the evening.

Tuesday, December 13

(1) 7:30 – 9am Easter (location: Eagan) Career Management 2.0

(2) 10 – 11:30am [Reserved for Minnesota Manufacturing Networking]

(3) 1:30 – 3:30pm Minnesota Career Coaches Association Career Management 2.0 for Coaches

(4) 6:30 – 8:30 pm: Basillica of St. Mary (88 17th Street North, Minneapolis, MN)  ”Happy Holiday Handshaking” RSVP HERE

Wednesday, December 14

(5) 8:00 – 9:30 Starbucks Networking Group (MEMBERS ONLY) Career Management 2.0

(6) 10:00 – 12 noon: St. Andrews Career Management 2.0 ; St Andrew Lutheran Church (13600 Technology Drive, Eden Prairie)

(7) 1:00 – 3:30 pm: SamsNet Good Samaritan Church (5730 Grove Street, Edina, MN) “Happy Holiday Handshaking” RSVP HERE

4:00 – 7:00pm: Not speaking… I’ll mingle until 5p – Mingle Bells sponsored by Arbez and Thrivent Financial

(8) 6:00 – 8:30 pm: Minneapolis Job Support Workshop “Getting More out of LinkedIn” Christ Presbyterian Church (6901 Normandale Road), Edina, MN

Thursday, December 15

(9) 10:30am – 12 noon Face2Face Job Search Networking Group, Minnetonka “Getting More out of LinkedIn” (emphasis on searching and finding people)  (Bet Shalom Synagogue, 13613 Orchard Road, Minnetonka, MN 55305)

(10) 2:30 – 3:30pm: Private outplacement engagement “101 Alternatives to a Real Job”

(11) 7:00 – 9:00pm: Soar4Jobs Transition Support Group “Career Management 2.0 (with some 101 Alternatives)”, 3495 North Victoria Street, Shoreview, MN 55126

Friday, December 16

(12) Tentative! 8:30 – 10:30am National Speakers Association – Minnesota Chapter “Social Networking to Grow Your Speaking Business”

(13) 11:00 – 2:00pm 7 Degrees Creativ “Career Management 2.0 + 101 Alternatives to a Real Job”

Evening: Afternoon: FLY HOME!

It’s going to be a crazy/busy week!  And, if all goes well, this will set the record for me (the previous record was 9 presentations in 3 days… this will be 13 presentations in 4 days!)

Check out this short 4 minute video from Dice.com’s Cat Miller shares ideas on How To Build Your Business Network.

At minute 2:35 she says “… so we need a personal equivalent to a customer relationship management program.  My favorite is JibberJobber.” Here’s an image (video below):

Yippee!  We agree!

Check out the video, and take notes – Cat includes a lot of gems in the four minutes.  You might know a lot of it, but are you doing it?  Take notes, then see what opportunities you have for improvement.

Here’s the video from YouTube… you can go to Cat’s post to comment or tweet

Here’s some much-anticipated news:

1. We finally, finally, finally got our new server in place. We debated going strictly “cloud,” or getting a new box, or just milking all we could out of our existing box.  After various considerations we decided to get a brand new server.  A few weeks ago it arrived and was prepared for the big move… on Wednesday morning in the wee morning hours the change was official.

Result: You should see a significantly faster JibberJobber.  We have, and we hear good things from users.

2. We have added a new job board aggregator to the experience. On a company or job posting page, you’ve seen the “related jobs” section where you would see links to related jobs.  These were provided by Indeed.  Now there is a tab for Indeed and another tab for LinkUp.  We’ve been asked to provide a link to LinkUp, which we now have.  Jobs from LinkUp should only come from an employer website… in other words, they spider employer websites (not other job boards or aggregators), so the probability that the jobs posted are REAL jobs should be higher.  See this page for more on LinkUp jobs. They say they are “always current,” often unadvertised,” and “never fake.”  That sounds good to me!

Result: More relevant jobs, supposedly from a more trusted source.

Here’s a picture:

Our “to do” list is still a mile long… if you have any specific requests please let us know.

Tomorrow I fly to Oakland, and will do my first of nine presentations in that area.

I’m really excited to go back, under special circumstances (helping EU celebrate a major milestone in their history).

Are you in the San Francisco, East Bay or Silicon Valley area?  If so, please come!  Please let your contacts know about my trip – it will be a while before I’m in the area again!

Tentative schedule:

Sept 8 – Thursday

(1) EARN Event: 6:30 – 9:30

Shadelands  Art Center (111 N. Wiget Lane, Walnut Creek, Ca 94598)

Reservations and Questions: EARNcontracosta@gmail.com

non-members: $10 donation

Sept 10 – Saturday

(2) CPC: 9:00 – 11:30am

Community Presbyterian Church (222 West El Pintado Road, Danville, Ca 94526)

Sept 12 – Monday

(3) GRACEWorks: 9:15 – 10:30am

Grace Cathedral in San Francisco – Wilsey Conference Room (1100 California Street, San Fransisco)

(4) SING St. Isadore: 7:00 – 9:00 pm (inviting CrossWinds Job Networking Group and St Raymond Church)

Cardelli Ministry Center (Across from St. Isidore, Catholic Church – 440 La Gonda, Danville, CA)

Sept 13 – Tuesday

(5) San Francisco Professional Career Network: 9 – 11 (meetup info, address here)

(6) Right Management – San Francisco Professional Career Network: 1:30 – 3pm

100 California Street, Ste 1300, San Francisco 94111

Sept 15 – Thursday

(7) CSIX Saratoga: 10:30-1pm

Saratoga Federated Church, Richards Hall (20390 Park Place, Saratoga, CA 95070)

(8) Right Management – Silicon Valley: 3:00 – 4:30pm

910 E Hamilton Avenue, Suite 550, Campbell, CA 95008

(9) Evening Engagement [to be confirmed] (Christ the King in Pleasant Hill?)

Here I come California!!

You’ve asked (and asked and asked and asked) for an evening webinar.  When you ask I send you a link to the archived webinar.

But you still ask for an evening webinar.

So, I finally, finally scheduled one.  Depending on how many people come we might do this again.

On September 20th, Tuesday, at 5:30 MST (do the math if you are not in mountain zone), we’ll have our webinar. And I’ll go as long as I need to (usually that means 90 minutes).

By the end of the webinar I want you to feel like you are ready to get to the next step…

Click on the image below and find the webinar you can attend.  The evening one is on Sept 20th.

Please send this blog post to whoever you know needs it. People in transition, in a job search, people who are at risk of losing their job, people who are a tad bit disorganized, people who… are …. breathing

Thank you!