I had a great call with Margaret Meloni a number of weeks ago.  She does “soft skills” training with professionals and organizations.  As we were talking told me she has a Congratulations You’re Out of Work program.

You can get her free audio and ebook here (scroll down to the bottom).  Oh wait, there is a signup form there.  She said if you don’t want to be on her list, you can download the goodies from this hidden page.  THANK YOU Margaret!  (everyone, send Margaret a thank you, and refer her stuff to project managers!)

I liked what I heard from Margaret because:

• Some people are out of work because they need to work on their soft skills, 
• Some people haven’t “needed” to but they have time to work on them now,
• Some people are having zero success in their job search because of their soft skills.

From her products page you can see she lives in the business world, helping people communicate better.  She has a soft spot for professionals in transition.

Check it out!

I have a blogger crush on James Altucher.  I love his story, his advice, and his writing style.  I’ve blogged about him before.

I was reading How To Go From $0 To $1,000,000 In Two Years on TechCrunch and wanted to share this with those interested in job search, career management and personal branding:\

Rule No. 5: Blogging is not about money. Blogging is about trust. You don’t sell ads on your blog (rarely), you don’t get the big book deal (rarely), but you do build trust and this leads to opportunities. In Bryan’s case it led to more inflow, rather than him going door to door, and it also led to his biggest early opportunity. My own blog has made me a total of zero cents but has created millions in opportunities for me.

Blogging is pull marketing.

Providing great content, relevent information, intriguing stories, tips and ideas will bring people to you.

They might end up reading your blog regularly, or they might be a flash in the pan, coming in from a google search.

But when you provide awesome content, you can “become a trusted source” (quoted from right above the excerpt I took out – read the whole article).

Want to have a strong personal brand?

BLOG.

Meg Guiseppi wrote a blog post with 10 blogs she recommends, although she says these are not necessarily her favorites… but she keeps coming back to them.

The JibberJobber Blog is on the list, as well as my LinkedIn blog.

That’s cool.  But what was really cool was this line:

“There are actually 12 in my list. Two of my favorite writers run two sites.”

I had to go through her list again and found that… yeehaw!  I’m one of her two favorite writers (in very good company with Susan Joyce).

I’ve read all of the blogs she listed.  They are all excellent suggestions, if you are looking for inspiring reading. Here is the list.

Thanks Meg, for the list, and for including me

When I first started JibberJobber I had a few marketing people who said I must promise that this would help people get a job faster.  Even, get a better job faster.

I could not claim that.  I know unscrupulous companies would claim that but I really had nothing to back it up with.  I was too new to have testimonials from people who had gone through a job search.

Unlike switching from a horrid resume to a clean and effective resume, I couldn’t say the purpose of JibberJobber was to “get a job faster.”  I didn’t want to be like some college career centers who, on the day of graduation, called their recruiting friends begging to get little Johnny into ANY job, even entry level, so they could say they have high placement.  Yes, this really happens.  The recruiters tell me about the frantic calls, just so the school can save face.

Let’s go back to one of my favorite concepts in marketing, branding and positioning: The Pill vs. The Vitamin.  I wrote this post in 2011 and it is one of the most profound concepts I think everyone in sales (that is, any entrepreneur and every job seeker) needs to understand.

I can’t promise JibberJobber will get you a job faster.  There are too many factors that I have no control or influence over.  The economy might stink, you might stink (literally), your resume might be folded up in your back pocket, you might be in a dying industry, your competition might be ten times better than you, you might be wasting your time on job boards like I did, instead of networking effectively… the list goes on and on and on.  And I can’t say JibberJobber will be the job search silver bullet for you.

I’ve blogged about the job search silver bullets various times, including here and here and here and here.

So what is JibberJobber’s Promise?  I’m not sure. After almost seven years I think it is:

Hope and Inspiration.  Not through blog posts.  These blog posts are my therapy more than help to/for you.  But I want you to remain hopeful, and be inspired, and that is why I do what I do.

Empowerment.  I felt so powerless and out of control as a job seeker.  JibberJobber should empower you, and make you feel more in control.

Career management has changed.  The Vitamins and Pills need to change, too.  That’s one reason why I am working on 51 Alternatives to a Real Job.  It is a new set of vitamins.

Venture Capitalists would hate that JibberJobber is not a Pill.  You can sell and monetize Pills quick and easy.  Vitamins are harder.  But that’s what we are, and I’m not going to make fraudulent claims that we are the Silver Bullet Pill that will make all your wildest dreams come true.

What is YOUR promise to an employer, or your career?

I like the Recruiting Animal.  A lot of people find him offensive but he brings out real issues and doesn’t let you hide behind rhetoric.  You can hear his show on Wednesdays.

Here’s something he wrote on Facebook earlier this month (I’m posting with his permission):

Yesterday, on The Recruiting Animal Show my guest was Chris Fields.

He wrote a blog posting in which he declared: “We all know that diversity helps make everything better.”

I challenged him on this. How is a Greek programmer better than an Italian programmer? How is a woman programmer better than a man?

What about a Dutch accountant? Better than a Russian accountant?

He hadn’t thought the issue through and all he could say was, “The teams I’ve worked on have always been better when they were diverse. I don’t want to work on a team full of me.”

But, in fact, he also said that people are naturally attracted to people like themselves. That’s why every minority needs affirmative action.

Because most of the hiring managers are going to be from the majority population and they are naturally going to favour people like themselves. Inotherwords, everyone in the world is, by nature, averse to diversity.

So, if people like people like themselves, how can teams be better when they are diverse? Chris didn’t tell us that either. He wants to come back on the show. And maybe he’ll have answers then.

When Ed Newman was a guest (here’s a less-than-three-minute clip), he said that diversity programs are just to prevent the standard bias in hiring. But they don’t promote innovation through the hiring of diverse thinkers.

There are a lot of things to hate about affirmative action, whether you are a minority or not.

It is an ingrained part of HR and hiring… so for now, how do you get around any decisions based on discriminatory hiring and focus on talents, skills, deliverables, etc?

Check out this post and video from Jill Konrath: How to Nurture Prospects Without Being a Pest

She is spot on.

Jill is a sales expert, training sales professionals.

You need to learn from her because as CEO of Me, Inc, you are also Chief of Sales.

If salespeople say “it often takes between 10-12 emails or phone calls before you actually connect,” and I say “you need to put your brand in front of someone seven times before you have brand recognition with them,” you should be getting a message loud and clear:

Networking is not a one-contact event.  It is something that happens over time, with continual communication.

Whether you need to communicate ten times or seven times is not point… the point is that you need to do it regularly.

NURTURE!

Check out Jill’s post and video.  Here’s the key to her post:

“The key is to be a ______ ________….” read the entire post here.

If you are not using JibberJobber, or some other relationship management tool, how in the world are you going to try to keep track of how many contact points you’ve had with your prospects and contacts?  IT IS TIME…!

Sorry for the late notice on this… here’s a killer deal from the authors of the new personal branding book Ditch! Dare! Do!

I love the book.

You’ll love the bonuses.

Buy the book on Amazon and follow the instructions you can find at the top of this page.

On a recent user recently one of the attendees referred to JibberJobber as the “information hub for the job search.”

I loved that for two reasons:

1. When I started JibberJobber I wanted it to be the central place for your job search intelligence… contacts, follow-up, target companies, etc.  Theperson describing JibberJobber as the information hub for the job search got what I hoped for seven years ago!
2. Having others tell you how they perceive you is really critical.  To have THEM come up with those words, instead of me coming up with those words, is powerful for marketing.

Yes, JibberJobber should be the long-term hub for your job search and all of your career management.

My questions to you:

How are others describing YOU?  Is it the way you want them to?

If they talk about it about you the way you want them to, was that because you did something intentional, or is it just because?

Today on the user webinar (which I do weekly – sign up here) I mentioned a job search newsletter.

I’ve written about this before:

How to write a job search newsletter (1 of 2)

How to write a job search newsletter (2 of 2)

It might feel presumptuous to send out newsletters this way but you have to risk.  You have to help people know how they can help you.

Have you heard of push marketing and pull marketing?

The concept is simple: are you PUSHING your stuff to prospects or are you so interesting (or appealing) that you are PULLING prospects to you?

Apple products are typically PULL.  People talk about them, everyone knows about them, they are relatively easy to find and buy.

Apple competitors spend lots of money on PUSH strategies.  They are saying “hey, look at me, over hear!  Get your eyes off that iPhone for a few minutes and see how COOL we will make you!”

In yesterday’s post I talked about four things to incorporate into your job search strategy, and the amount of time to spend on each one.

The one thing I didn’t talk about was how to switch your strategy from a resource-intense PUSH strategy and make it more of an attractive PULL strategy.

How do YOU think this happens?