They’re glorying in the fact that there are so few jobs available that they receive hundreds of applications for a single position. They’re thrilled that they can wring salary concessions out of their employees by holding the threat of job loss over their heads.  (British Airlines is even asking their workers to work for no money!) They’re throwing away benefits and paying less to new employees.

Why this is happening is obvious. Right now, employers hold all the cards. People who don’t have jobs will gladly do whatever it takes to get a job, while people who are still employed are keeping their heads down and working hard to keep their jobs.

It’s a simple question of supply and demand. Too many people for too few jobs.

For all of you out there who still have jobs, it’s very tempting to put off the personal branding right now. When your job is hanging by a thread, it makes a lot more sense to devote all your energy to keeping that job, right?

Branding or focusing on work

But this overabundance of workers is not going to last. Eventually, this country will come out of the recession. Then, two really interesting things are going to happen:

• The Baby Boomers, who are now putting off retirement, are going to start retiring in droves. This won’t be a consistent, orderly retirement where only the people who turn 65 go every year. It will be a mass retirement of all the eligible people who put off their retirement for several years and are now jumping at the chance.
• Companies will be losing a lot of leaders and experienced workers at one time. There are 77 million Baby Boomers. There are only 48 million Generation Xers, not enough to fill all the jobs vacated by the Baby Boomers. There are nearly 80 million Generation Yers who are now in (or will be entering) the job market over the next years.

Regardless of which age group you’re in, it’s obvious that when the Boomers begin to retire, there will be new (higher-up) jobs available.

Even if you have your nose to the grindstone right now and keeping your job is your top priority, you need to look ahead and start your personal branding now. As soon as the Baby Boomers start to go, there will be plenty of great jobs available (if you want them). If you can position yourself as one of the top people in your specialty, or even in your company, you will have a major head start over all the other applicants who only spent this downturn working hard just to maintain their job.

If moving up in the same company isn’t appealing to you and you’re only keeping your current job because it’s too hard to find another one right now, you should still be branding yourself like crazy right now. Because when companies start hiring again, you want to be ready to go after your dream job. And you’ll have a lot better chance of getting it if your brand is already in place and the people you want to hire you know who you are (and think great things about you).

Priorities for the long haul

This may be a time when employers hold all the cards and your top priority needs to be keeping the job you have. But, don’t forget that the tides will turn. The economy will recover, the Baby Boomers will start retiring, and employers won’t have all the power anymore. Then, the people who will really win big are the ones who have a very strong personal brand. They’ll be the ones getting early consideration for leadership positions, and the ones scooping up prime positions at their dream companies.

They’ll be the ones who can bargain for the best salaries and responsibilities, or demand the kind of work-life balance that they dream about.

Make sure that you’re one of them.

Author:

Katie Konrath writes about creativity, innovation and “ideas so fresh… they should be slapped!” at www.getFreshMinds.com.

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Here are some takeaways you can apply to building your personal brand:

• Patience and passion are personal branding virtues.
• Stop doing stuff you hate – you can lose just as much money being happy as hell.
• Become part of a community/tribe and really, really care about them.
• Find out what you want to do every day for the rest of your life and do that – you can find a way to monetize it.
• You have to hustle and want it more than everyone else – you need to work hard.
• You need a business model so you can make some cash along the way.
• Legacy is greater than currency – but you have to create it.
• We live in a world where the gatekeepers are losing control.
• If you’re pumping out good content – people will follow you.
• If you don’t believe in what you’re doing, whether it’s your personal brand, or the product you represent – you need to get out now.
• Everyone is going to be consuming content everywhere.
• It’s about brand equity in yourself.
• Get out and network – people are the people who will help you.
• Use the tools — connect to your user base anyway you can, everywhere you can, as often as you can.
• Niches can go crazy – find a niche you love.
• Time is not an excuse. If you really want it, 7 o’clock at night, to 2 in the morning is plenty of time to do damage.

What are your thoughts on Gary Vaynerchuk’s presentation? Please leave a comment.

And, as always, have a relaxing weekend!

Author:

Chad Levitt is the author of the New Sales Economy blog, which focuses on how Sales 2.0 & Social Media can help you connect, create more opportunities and increase your business. Chad is also the featured Sales 2.0 blogger at SalesGravy.com, the number one web portal for sales pros, the professional athletes of the business world. Make sure to connect with him on Twitter @chadalevitt.

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Cosmetic and plastic surgery entered the mainstream years ago, but outside the adult and many modeling industries, it’s still rare to hear about people getting “enhanced” specifically for the purpose of finding a job or finding a better job.

Not anymore.

My Twitter friend @shim34 sent along this article, Job seekers in China go under the knife to boost prospects:

“It sounds like a drastic solution, but in a country where 6.1 million new college, university and vocational school graduates are just coming onto an already depressed job market, these qualify as drastic times. Young job applicants and entry-level workers are looking for whatever kind of leg up they can get.

…

The waif-thin Chinese woman said that in 2004, after she had double eyelid surgery, her new wide-eyed appearance was her ticket to success. “I had more opportunities for jobs and I was more accepted in all sorts of ways,” she marveled.”

In fact, the story mentions that the woman actually underwent surgery TWICE. Since she felt that it helped get her first job out of university, she didn’t really hesitate to have more surgery when the time came to job search again.

Is this really a good idea or not?

PRO: A Personal Branding shortcut

If you have the money and are certain that the surgery will help you stand out in a tough job market, enabling you to find a job sooner and thus paying for itself with months of salary you might not have had otherwise, go for it. If you’re careful about the work you have done, you might even be able to “go back” if you change your mind later on.

CON: A Personal Branding shortcut

Like most shortcuts, this is a bad idea. Personal branding is not just about standing out, it’s about distinguishing yourself for the right reasons. Just because you look more appealing to a hiring company doesn’t mean you’re more capable of achieving success for them. Although that can be written off as their problem, it could quickly come back to haunt you if the company decides to end your contract once the expected results aren’t there.

Would you be willing to undergo surgery to improve your job search chances of success? Do you know anyone who already has?

Author:

Jacob Share, a job search expert, is the creator of JobMob, one of the biggest blogs in the world about finding jobs. Follow him on Twitter for job search tips and humor. In July 2009, he will be releasing The Ultimate Twitter Job Search Guide, the first ebook about using Twitter for job search.

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Some high profile personal brands are:

• CEO’s - Tony Hirsch,  Richard Branson
• Marketers – Brian Solis, Seth Godin
• Entrepreneurs – Guy Kawasaki, Gary Vaynerchuk
• Authors – Tim Ferriss, Penelope Trunk

When is the last time you heard of a construction worker getting a job due to branding himself? What about someone who is homeless? A server or waitress?

These are the personal brands that can have the most impact on career transitions and creating a lifestyle than a lateral move in the corporate world. The working class, entry level and blue color workers have the skills, experience and drive that can get them out of paycheck to paycheck by promoting these qualities through new media outlets.

Working with local Orlando nonprofit groups, career education center and associations, I have talked and helped many individuals paint pictures of what the Internet can do for your career if you have the drive and the vision to see what it is you wish to accomplish with your life.

Not every person aspires to be an entrepreneur or a social media guru, a YouTube star or be location independent. Reality is that most people would love a job where they can pay their bills, take care of their family and have some time and opportunity to enjoy life outside of work.

Here are the 5 things I tell them to start taking action in their career development – even in this economy, even if they have a decent job and even if they have nothing and need to start from scratch.

1. Find what makes you special

Everyone that I encounter has a special intangible quality. You need to take this quality and put it on paper and work backwards to see how you can use that special quality and improve your career situation.

When working with a homeless individual, we started to improve his confidence level after finding what it was that made him special before he became homeless. He said it was his ability to entertain people and make them happy through his cooking. We had him open up about his previous jobs as a chef and realized that we had an entire new path with which to promote him to local companies. Less than 48 hours later, we helped him into an assistant banquet manager position where he was again having that feeling of making people happy through his cooking.

2. Having nothing online is just as bad as having something negative

One thing many people know about having stuff about them online is to not have something that shows them in a negative light, specifically videos and pictures. What they fail to realize is that if they have nothing online, they are seen to not have any initiative for promoting themselves and their career.

When we worked with a young retail professional who was looking to jump from an hourly position to a management position, we worked with her to not only clean up her online reputation but also to start making connections with relevant industry professionals. This started by answering questions related to the retail world on LinkedIn and Yahoo! Answers. Then she started to connect with top retail brands through Facebook fan pages and Twitter. After a few weeks of building credibility and showing initiative, she was able to move into a department store’s MIT program.

3. Document things with multimedia

This one was tough for many of the lower income groups we worked with, but we were surprised by how much media they didn’t realize they had. There was a crane operator from New Jersey who had pictures from the past 20 years of the job sites he had been a part of. From Trump Towers in NYC to bringing in million dollar pianos into multi-million dollar penthouses and everything in between.

There was also a mechanic who had a huge collection of before and after pictures of restored cars, fix ups and show cars. He even had videos of car shows where he had won trophies and other best of event type awards. By getting these things online and marketing them to their intended audience, they can increase business for not only themselves, but the companies that they work for.

4. Think like a recruiter

This is my SEO for beginners part of the session. I ask them to use Google, or think how they would use Google to find someone to fill a job, find a local company or search for information on a service they offered. Using this mindset is what we use to put together content for resumes, blog posts, websites, videos, in pictures and other things that they put online. If they want to be found, they need to be put in a position to be found.

5. Begin to think bigger than your current life situation

If they dream of becoming a fashion designer, they need to start working on the things today to be that person in 6 months, 3 years or 10 years. Just because you are working at a retail store in the mall does not mean you will be there forever, but you need to take initiative. If you want to break free from the company you are working at, start taking steps to gain clients on the side. Begin finding mentors, listening to industry leaders and giving your input to what top bloggers, social media types and people online are saying.

I always loved the quote:

“Physical networks are the people you know, online networks are the people you want to know.”

This holds true for the blue collar and entry level workers. By building your brand and credibility through online channels, you open yourself up to the unknown, you open yourself up to people that can help advance your career and you open more doors which can lead you to living the rock star lifestyle that you always thought you could.

Guest author:

Greg Rollett is a Gen-Y marketing guy who helps young professionals, small businesses and adventurous individuals live the Rock Star Life. Contact him via email or on Twitter.

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The follow up process is one of the areas of networking that still seems to confuse some people. Most realize that meeting someone at a networking event for five minutes isn’t enough to build a relationship, and that follow up is critical.

The fortune is in the follow-up

But while they may have good intentions of following up with the contacts they meet at events, once they’re back in the office they find themselves staring at the stack of business cards they collected and wondering what’s the next step?

Follow up can be awkward if you don’t have a plan. Sun Tzu once said, “Every battle is won before it’s ever fought,” and I feel the same could be said about the follow up process. What you do BEFORE the follow up will make it easy or hard.

5 steps to make follow up happen

To make the process as smooth as possible, before you end a conversation with someone you want to follow up with later, make sure you follow these steps:

1) Find a reason during the conversation to follow up. It’s always easier to make the follow up call or send the follow up email if you know the other person is expecting it. Ask enough questions during your conversation to learn about their goals and what’s important to them, and listen for ways you can help.

2) Make sure the reason to follow up is a value-add for them. Look for a reason to give information that will have value for them, not just something that benefits you. In other words, unless they specifically asked for it, promising to email your sales brochure or your resume doesn’t count.

3) Once you find an opening, make the follow up offer. When you find a way to connect them to a resource or contact in your network, speak up. You can say something like, “I have a contact who may be able to help you with that. I’d be happy to send you her information.”

4) Ask how they would prefer to be contacted. Ask for a business card so you have their contact info, but also ask what’s their preferred method of follow up. Some people like email while others prefer the phone. They’ll appreciate that you asked and are likely to be more responsive.

5) Follow up soon after the event. Do your best to send the information you promised within a few days of the event. Not only will it clear up your to-do list and mental bandwidth, but it will also show that you have your act together and that you care about the relationship.

6) Stay in touch. Connecting with each other on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter allows you to stay in touch unobtrusively and follow what is happening with them so that you can continue to find ways to add value and strengthen the relationship.

Follow up doesn’t have to be a numbers game. You don’t have to spend time meeting hundreds of new people every year hoping that a handful of them will convert into good contacts. By following some simple steps, you can turn just about any contact you make into a lasting connection.

Author:

Liz Lynch is founder of the Center for Networking Excellence and author of Smart Networking: Attract a Following In Person and Online (McGraw-Hill, 2008). She writes, speaks and consults to experienced professionals on how to seamlessly integrate social media and traditional networking to save time and accelerate results.

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Jacob has one true passion in his life - films.  Not necessarily watching films, but rather, he loves to create short films on his digital camcorder.  Every month, he’ll create a short film, maybe 5-7 minutes in length, and privately watch it on his computer.  The thing is that he’s really shy about his films.  He doesn’t show it to anyone because he feels they’re not good.

After months of bugging him about it, he finally let me watch one of his short films.  And believe it or not… it stunk.  I mean, it was really not good at all.  I felt so bad to crush his dreams, so I just said, “Hey that was pretty neat Jacob.  Keep working on it and I know that you’ll get better.”

He smiled, but I think he knew the truth…

Discovering your authentic brand

Since that day, I’ve been constantly thinking about doing what we’re passionate about. I mean everyone talks about it, but how many people are actually able to do it?  Jacob loves films, but it seems he lacks the creativity and skills to be able to make a career out of it.

So what should Jacob do: Should he learn to love his sales job? or should he devote more time and effort into short films?

Learn to love what you do

Is it a sin to learn to love your job?  The Gen Y community sure makes it seem like it is.  I hardly find a single Gen Y blogger who writes about how much she loves her corporate job.  Most of the content I find online reads about escaping the cubicle, automating life, and living location independent.  I think that’s great, but it makes it that much harder for people to learn to love their job, stuck in a cubicle.

Analyzing Jacob’s situation, I feel that he would lead a much happier life if he would just swallow his pride and accept that he’s good at selling online advertisements.  If he accepted his gift, then he would walk into work happy, he would probably make more sales because he would be in a better mood, and he could potentially get promoted faster because people would like to work with him much more.

If Jacob learned to love his job, then he would lead a happier and more fulfilling life.

But Jacob is holding on to something more.  His pride won’t let him give up on the quest to become a filmmaker.  Everyone online tells him to make money doing what he loves to do, so he continues to pursue this hopeless goal.

But is it really hopeless…

Do what you love

This is the holy grail for social media.  To be able to do what you love is the greatest feeling anyone can have, right?  But, how can you make a career doing what you love when you’re not good at it?

The simple answer would be: Start a blog!  Jacob can start a blog about Short-Films.  He can write reviews, post pictures of screenings, post posters, and even interview the actors and actresses.  That sounds like so much fun!

But to who?  I actually pitched this to Jacob, but he replied saying he doesn’t necessarily want to write a blog, he doesn’t know if he likes to interview people, and he feel maintaining a blog would be too much work for him.

I could have easily responded by telling him that he could learn to love blogging; but then that’s just circular isn’t it?  He should just learn to love his sales job since he’s good at it anyways.

There is a way to do both

It’s all about accepting who you are. Jacob is unhappy because he doesn’t accept the fact that he’s good at selling; he’s unhappy because he’s very self-conscious about the short-films that he produces.  But if he just accepts who he is, he can live the same life and be happy doing it.

Jacob can be happy that he’s a stellar employee and making good money.  He can be happy that he has the time and drive to pursue something that he loves to do.  And so what if he can’t make a career out of film.  What ever happened to hobbies just for fun?

We can get so consumed with what we’re not good at; It’s time to appreciate what we are good at.

Author:

Jun is the Director of Social Media for SEOP, a search engine optimization company.  He is also the Founder and CMO of Viralogy, the social media rank.  His personal blog, How to Succeed as a Young Entrepreneur, gives a real, unfiltered view of the Startup Life so that current and aspiring entrepreneurs can learn from his successes and mistakes.

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I was researching for a UCLA Extension Marketing Master Class I’m giving in Istanbul in October on Global Branding and International Expansion and came across a subject I thought would be of interest to Personal Brand Blog readers:  the brand tagline.

For the class, I’ll be looking at taglines for cities, counties, and countries.  But it got me thinking about taglines for personal branding.

The “Lost Art” of the tagline

A tagline is one of the most cost effective ways to express the value of a brand.  The advertisers of the past knew the art of the tagline and spent time, money, and research in developing a short and easy way to communicate a brand message.  Here’s a few taglines,  many of which have endured, some fallen by the wayside:

• You’re in good hands with Allstate. Allstate Insurance
• Reach out and touch someone. AT&T
• Cotton. The fabric of our lives. Cotton Incorporated
• Quality is job one. Ford
• Fair and balanced. Fox News
• They’re g-r-r-r-eat! Kellog’s Frosted Flakes
• Melts in your mouth, not in your hands. M&Ms
• M’m, m’m, m’m, m’m, m’m…toasty! Quiznos
• Eat fresh. Subway
• Takes a licking and keeps on ticking. Timex
• Only you can prevent forest fires. U.S. Forest Service
• Can you hear me now?…Good! Verizon Wireless
• Where’s the beef? Wendy’s

Twitter profile as your tagline

Your profile statement on Twitter is a perfect opportunity to extend your brand value. As you build followers, you have an audience that you are communicating with.

One of the values of social media is “find and be found”.  I encourage you to be fairly straightforward with your profile statement and describe either you personally or what you do.  Don’t squander this valuable opportunity with cryptic or “too-cute” message.

A successful tagline should amplify your marketing message:

• Who you are
• What makes you special
• Why the world should care

What’s your tagline?

Author:

Beverly Macy is the Managing Partner of Y&M Partners and teaches a social media class at the UCLA Extension.  She also co-hosts Gravity Summit events and provides personal branding coaching.

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You’ve probably noticed each Monday that my posts have been more aligned to the networking aspect of personal branding and this trend will be ongoing for the next year or so.  I’m very interested in how brands grow through networks, both online and offline.  I believe that your network is your only insurance policy and that people searching will replace job searching.  In addition to these bold statements, I would like to add that a personal brand cannot grow without a strong network of supporters.

The personal branding success triangle

All of this leads us to a new framework for personal branding success. I touched on how passion and expertise are key elements for career success, but I left out the missing element, a support system.  The below diagram is more related to the “discover” phase of personal branding that is discussed in Me 2.0.

All three parts of this triangle are inter-related. They are all critical for personal branding success and if you’re missing one, it will prevent you from moving forward in your career or you might not be able to establish the career you want in the first place. Let’s quickly go over all three:

• Passion: I like to think of passion as having “kinetic energy” that drives you into accomplishing goals.  The lack of passion is obvious online and offline.  If you aren’t passionate, your audience will be turned off and you won’t have the ambition to work hard enough to succeed.  Also, if you want to develop a following, you have to get people excited about your work, so they want to join you and participate, instead of feeling isolated.
• Expertise: Passion alone won’t make you wealthy enough to live a fulfilling life.  If you’re very passionate about a topic, but you aren’t an expert or have any knowledge, then it doesn’t matter.  Without the skills, you won’t be able to make enough money doing what you love.  I tell a lot of people to find their passion and use it to work as hard as they can to gain the skills necessary to solve client problems.  Having both skills and expertise allows you to position yourself, where you can be happy, while making money.
• Support System: The good news is that you already have a support system.  You have your family and your friends, which account for the strongest relationships in the “network strength pyramid,” which I blogged about a long time ago.  A support system is less about professional networking and is more about strong relationships build over a long period of time.  It’s about finding people who compliment your weaknesses and actually want you to succeed.  You don’t need thousands of followers, but you do need a few close friends who are watching you every step of the way and giving advice.  You should be selective about who you deal with at all times because you don’t want to waste your time or theirs and shared interests in always encouraged.

How to develop a support system

In Me 2.0, the personal branding process I developed is called DCCM or discover, create, communicate and maintain, as it pertains to developing your own brand over the course of your life.  As we start to think of ourselves as brands, we must be aware that our support system is co-branded with our success.  They must have a stake!  When it comes to personal branding, we need a new process for relationship/networking success.  In the past few months, I’ve honed down a four-step process for building a powerful network: become interesting, conduct a people search, connect with the right people and develop your relationships.

1. Become interesting: Would you rather meet someone who is interesting or boring?  Becoming interesting is part of the discovery phase of personal branding because you need to figure out what makes you interesting before you communicate that to the right people.  You’d be surprised how many people there are that choose not to be interesting over job security or because they are either afraid or too comfortable.  The more interesting you become, the more people will want to talk to you and thus, you can become more connected and more successful.
2. Conduct a people search: I’m really big on using search engines to find the right people that can help support your career.  It’s like recruiting people to be on your team.  You’ll want to do your homework before you start sending out job applications.  You’ll want to be associated with the media/bloggers in your industry, as well as other experts, authors and people in your geography.  You get additional points for finding people who are more successful than you are and those that have already earned respect from society.
3. Connect with the right people: It’s not hard to make a new friend, but it is hard to make “the right friend.”  I have no problem with making as many friends as possible because you never know when one can really help you, however, I feel that you should be more focused.  I always talk about narrowing your lists down, so that you don’t waste people’s time and so that you can pair yourself with those who can really make a difference in your life.
4. Develop your relationships: Once you’ve found the right people, then it’s imperative that you focus on building those relationships.  Keep a short list of those who you should be checking up on.  They can be your board of advisers.   These relationships may start online and then be pushed offline with some effort on both of your parts.  Either way, you’ll want to get to know these people as much as possible and let them into your world.  Be slightly vulnerable and let them help you when necessary.
   

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Yesterday, while out with friends, I ended up talking to a young guy who is trying to break into the copywriting field. “What kind of writing do you want to do?” I asked him, trying to get a sense so I could give him useful advice. “What’s your focus?”

“I don’t know,” he told me. “I’ll do anything. I just want to get started.”

“That’s your problem right there,” I blurted out, not even stopping to consider that he might not be interested in “how to get a writing gig” advice at 11:30pm on a Saturday night. But I’ve been there and I know.

When you’re just starting out in a field, you want so badly to get hired that you will do anything for anyone who will hire you. If you’re a copywriter, you’ll write radio ads, or press releases or blog posts or articles. You’ll even spend hours applying to every project posted on websites like Elance.com. If anyone has any writing needs, you can fill them! Right?

Except that doesn’t work. It actually hurts your chances of getting work.

(This isn’t just a problem writers face, by the way. Anyone who is trying to break into a new field has probably faced this issue.)

Won’t you rule out potential opportunities?

The main reason it’s hard when you’re a jack-of-all-trades is that it’s nearly impossible to find clients. That sounds so counter-intuitive… isn’t it better to keep your options open so that you don’t accidentally rule out a potential client?

What happens though is that you make it less likely that you’ll connect with someone who wants to hire you.

This happens for a couple reasons. First of all, when you’re completely unfocused, you don’t know where to look for potential clients. On the other hand, if you’re a copywriter who focuses specifically on (e.g) small to mid-sized companies who are looking to get into Business-to-Consumer (B2C) social media, it’s relatively easy to find companies that could hire you. All you need to do is find events and associations that will attract people from those small to mid-sized companies.

Or, if you use a sales tool, you can find a list of companies that fit your parameters and then find out if they could be a potential client by checking out their website.

It’s a lot easier to start with a small, focused list of potential clients (and expand it later), than to not know where to start. Or worse, to start with a list of all the local companies and to weed out the bad fits by contacting every single one of them. (It’s very depressing to hear “No” all the time when you’re starting out.)

The watered down effect

Secondly, when you insist that you can do anything, people don’t think you’re very good at what they want you to do.

I saw this demonstrated really well in a product my mom reviewed for her blog. It was a small, portable projector that (according to the press release), could be perfect for businesspeople, teachers, home theaters, kids playing video games, etc, etc! But those are all really different environments, and it’s physically impossible for a product to be the best when it’s designed to be used in many different ways.

Companies don’t want to hire someone who is only marginal at a job. And they’re not stupid. They know that a person who spends 30 hours a week writing press releases will do a much better job on their press release than someone who regularly writes in 24 different writing styles.

Anything, anyone or anybody

Finally, it looks desperate when you insist that you’ll do anything (anything at all!) if they just hire you. Desperate is bad because it tells a potential client that no one else is hiring you. If no one else is hiring you, why would they take the risk? (See the thought process on this?)

There’s a lot of power in looking a potential client straight in the eye and calmly saying, “I work specifically with (size or industry) companies who want to accomplish (a goal) through (a writing medium).” That says to the potential employer that you’re a professional, that you specialize in a certain type of work, and that you’re busy enough to be able to focus on a certain topic.

Choosing to focus in on specific companies is a scary decision because it closes the door on potential deals. But it will actually make you far more likely to succeed than if you leave all your options open.

Author:

Katie Konrath writes about creativity, innovation and “ideas so fresh… they should be slapped!” at www.getFreshMinds.com.

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Let’s get at it!

Start at the end

What is your ultimate goal for your career, life, and family? How do you want to be remembered in each of these areas? The answer to these questions may take some time to find, but I promise when you know what you want for your career, life, and family, you’ve got a great foundation. You’ve also done something most people never take the time to do.

Really think about the following quote:

“There are qualities one must possess to win – definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.” Napolean Hill

Can you honestly say to yourself that you have definiteness or purpose, the knowledge of what you want, and a burning desire to achieve it?

If you don’t, that’s okay – get started immediately by thinking about and writing down the answers to these questions. When you do, you will be on the way to both personal branding and personal success!

What’s your reverse timeline

Now that you know what the end looks like, start working your way backwards to today. Think of major accomplishments you would like to achieve, personal milestones you will reach, and the job you truly desire to have. This part is all up to your creativity and is completely about what you want for yourself – have fun with this part and don’t hold anything back!

Really think about the following quote:

“You might well remember that nothing can bring you success but yourself.” Napolean Hill

All the goals you have for your personal brand and yourself are completely up to you to achieve – nobody else. The magic is found when you know what these goals are and want them bad enough to keep fighting to achieve them — no matter how many times you stare failure in the face or what people say or think about you. Just keep at it and keep going – that’s how winning is done.

Start where you are & begin taking action

Now that you know what you want all that is left is for you to take action towards achieving your goal. Most people think everything needs to be perfect before they begin pursuing their goals – but the perfect scenario will rarely present itself. Just start where you are, with what you have and keep at it until you have what you want!

And I will leave you with my favorite quote.

“It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward — how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done. Now, if you know what you’re worth, than go out and get what you’re worth, but you gotta be willing to take the hits.” Rocky Balboa

Are you willing to take the hits?

Have an awesome 4th of July weekend!

Author:

Chad Levitt is the author of the New Sales Economy blog, which focuses on how Sales 2.0 & Social Media can help you connect, create more opportunities and increase your business. Chad is also the featured Sales 2.0 blogger at SalesGravy.com, the number one web portal for sales pros, the professional athletes of the business world. Make sure to connect with him on Twitter @chadalevitt.

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