Archive for 'personal brand'

Change Your Image

Lori Bumgarner of paNASHstyle.com possesses a combined fifteen years experience in career coaching and image consulting/media coaching. She specializes in the areas of image consulting and interview/media coaching to assist a variety of clients including emerging and established recording artists, music industry professionals, job seekers, and anyone looking to improve their image!


Lori Bumgarner of paNASHstyle.com possesses a combined fifteen years experience in career coaching and image consulting/media coaching. She specializes in the areas of image consulting and interview/media coaching to assist a variety of clients including emerging and established recording artists, music industry professionals, job seekers, and anyone looking to improve their image!

Check out her ebook Advance Your Image. I reviewed it on CareerTipsBlog.com if you want to take a look at that.

In this interview, Lori answers these questions.

  • What difference can you make be being purposeful about your image?
  • How best to get started with creating or managing your image?
  • What is most important to remember managing your image?

How to Get Started Blogging

a blogger with a flag in red, the crowd in whiteIf you are thinking of starting a publicly viewable blog, you have a few important decisions to make. I will sum them up here an add my opinion along the way.

Self-hosted vs Free

Self-hosted requires some money to start. There is a less expensive way and a more expensive way. WordPress.org with one of their recommended hosts will cost around $85/year. A less expensive way is to use Blogger.com and buy a domain name through them for $10/year and it will still be hosted for free.

You’ll need to decide on a domain name too. You can use your name or something clever or catchy. I like to see people use their own name for personal blogging so it becomes a hub and electronic portfolio for their online presence. Choose that route if you intend to maintain a professional presence online with your new blog.

One reason to consider a different name is if you are wanting to build a community around a certain topic. Then you need a keyword in your site name. The free Google Keyword Tool is helpful in that case. For brainstorming self-hosted site names check out NameBoy.com and InstantDomainSearch.com.

Free blogging is available too and takes about 5 minutes to get started. The biggies are Blogger.com or WordPress.com. Both are very good options. I suggest you check both sites, see blogs build with each, and see which appeals to you most. I do think of WordPress.com has having better potential to grow with you but that may be just my personal bias. I have used both platforms though.

Comments or Not?

A blog doesn’t have to have comments turned on. Many people love having comments though because the feedback or interaction is important to them.

I usually do not take comments on my blogs mainly because I have no interest in moderating them, but also I like to encourage people to set up their own blog. There are a few reasons I think it is good for people to have their own blog.

  1. It helps you develop your online presence and personal brand.
  2. It encourages learning about online technology.
  3. You don’t need permission to say what you would like to say (many blog owners moderate the comments that come in deciding who gets through and who doesn’t).
  4. It helps you practice creating –which doesn’t only have to be done through writing…for example, you can have a blog of photos, you can have vlog (video blog), or you could have a audio blog (aka podcast).

The Rest of the Story

Even after you decide on the these initial choices there are still other decisions to make like deciding on the look of your blog and how to organize information. As you post to your blog, you’ll start developing your personal style which will happen as the process rolls along. Then you will need to decide on a posting schedule and topics to write about. There is a learning curve whatever route you choose but consider starting a blog to be the beginning of an adventure!

I began posting just once a month a few years ago on this blog and I can definitely recommend it as a low stress way to begin. If you want to start even smaller though, you can do microblogging with Twitter, Tumblr, or Posterous which are all easy and free.

Get A Snazzy Electronic Portfolio

words http and browser bar in 3dI gotta tell you, I’m very pleased with Flavors.me for putting an electronic portfolio together. It was easy, it’s pretty, and you can get it on your own domain with a little extra work. Take a look at mine for an example, SteviePuckett.com. Other than just the front page, it is bringing in content that I have already created with my blogs and social media…wowza! It makes a nice impression for hiring managers and networking, don’t you think?

If you decide to put one together, please Tweet Me the link. I’d love to take a look and give you a pat on the back. Go for it!

Look in the Mirror

This has some strong language but the core message is really something. He is talking to web entrepreneurs but I think what he is saying is also applicable people who are working to develop their careers.

Listen to the passion in his voice…he has an important message to share. Find your passion and use it to serve others by developing your personal brand.

On Resumes

I’ve posted before about the resume’s downward spiral. Deb Dib tells it like it is so well today at the CareerHub blog. Check it out!

Social Networking Websites

These sites strive to bring people of similar interests together in a “meeting place” online. Once a member of a social networking site, you are able to search the member directory, participate in discussions online, and share information and files. Joining is often free for a basic membership with upgrades of service costing an optional monthly charge.

With social networking online, it becomes easier to visualize your personal network. You can also connect people you know with other people you know by online introductions.

It is wise to exercise caution with any online profiles you create on social networking sites just as you would with writing and sending email. Info you put out there can be used against you.

Examples of social networking sites include www.plaxo.com, www.twitter.com, www.myspace.com, www.facebook.com, www.linkedin.com, and www.xing.com.

Child’s Play Hints

I was thinking the other day about how child’s play reflects interests and strengths. It is amazing to me how very quickly you can begin to see a child’s natural strengths emerging. Also the preschool years are a time when the child is just doing their thing without worrying about other people’s opinions for the most part.

If you are stuck trying to figure what what you want to do for your career, or if you are trying to build your personal brand based on your strengths, you might try thinking about your preschool years to get back in touch with what really brings you joy. Or you could talk to several people who knew you as a toddler and preschooler. Ask them what you seemed to learn quickly at those ages and phases of interest you went through. What would your relatives and caregivers say about you? Now, you may need to take this info with a grain of salt but by asking 3-5 opinions you should get some interesting data to consider about yourself.

Infopreneur Must Over-Deliver

I wrote previously about very high priced info products. My biggest question is how does the infopreneur over-deliver at those prices? It seems to me that over-delivering is such an important factor to an infopreneur’s reputation…an infopreneur that wants to sell more than one product anyway. I guess someone could consciously decide to be a one-hit wonder though especially with some of the huge product launches that some people like to talk about.

In fact, over-delivering is important for an infopreneur or careerillionaire really. The infopreneur who over-delivers sells more products and the careerillionaire who does is met with more opportunities.

Over-delivering begins with knowing precisely what you are offering and being able to appropriately communicate that to the potential client. There must also be some understanding of the client’s point-of-view too. All together, no easy task when you think about it and that is why over-delivering can have such a big impact.

Resumes. Can’t Live with ‘em, Pass the Beer Nuts

As soon as I read this post by Seth Godin, I thought about Norm Peterson’s line (title of post above) from the old TV show, Cheers…with just a slight adjustment, of course. Seems a lot of folks are feeling the same way about resumes. It really does stink to get a pile of resumes in that do nothing but list job responsibilities, and I know that usually people hate writing them as much as others hate to read the average resume. Seth has a good point though because extraordinary people are moving more towards a portfolio rather than just a resume. Yes it is true, they very well might have a blog, an electronic or hard copy portfolio, an outstanding reputation, or a network of people that propels them forward…or all the above.

I personally love to see people get a job without a resume because that means they are using job hunt and career management strategies that have a higher chance of success rather than just sending a blind resume to some giant job board somewhere. It is much more likely that the offer they get is for a wonderful job that they will be well suited for too.

Even so resumes are still relevant and usually necessary even if only asked to submit one “for the file” after being hired. And, frankly, writing a resume right can be an excellent exercise in formulating the marketing message for your personal brand.

Here are a few “beyond the basics” guidelines to make your resume writing exercise more fruitful from a personal marketing message development standpoint and to help you end up with a resume that stands above the crowd.

  1. Customize a resume for each position you apply for after learning what you can about the company and position. The best way to manage this is to create a master resume file. Include in it every bullet point you develop and don’t worry about the length of the document. When you need to customize a new resume, open your master resume file and do a “save as” to rename the file appropriate to who the new resume is for or what the position title is (i.e. 2008-02-06 Acme Sales Rep). Then update the objective and delete bullets points that are not relevant to the position being sure to save the new file as you go tweaking along.
  2. When writing bullet points, don’t tell me what you did on the job; instead tell me how you made things better while you were there. What where you especially known for? How did you help save the company time or money? How did you help the company make money? How did you increase client satisfaction or help to find new clients? How did you contribute to tracking the details or insuring follow through of processes?
  3. Always write in terms of results on a resume. Give me the bullet point listing your accomplished results then be prepared to give me the full power story once you have intrigued me into inviting you to an interview.