Life Tips

9 Ways to Brand YOU

Photo credit Deniz Ongar

In #editorchat, Lydia (moderator) asked, “authors: have your editors and publishing companies ask that you ‘brand yourself’ by blogging, twittering, or using other SM #editorchat”

It doesn’t matter if you work for a corporation, nonprofit, government or small business. Don’t wait for someone to tell you to “brand yourself.”

You must develop and promote brand YOU. Whether you work with a company for five years or ten, it will never look out for you. Only you can look out for you.

So how do you build brand YOU?

1. Establish yourself in social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs and so on) prepares you for the time you need to tap into it whether it’s to promote a client, your brand, your platform or your product.

2. Build relationships. Don’t wait until you have something you want to promote — then you’ll lose credibility because you won’t have built your relationships first.

3. Participate. Signing up and creating a page in Facebook and LinkedIn isn’t enough. Respond to people’s questions and comments. Visit blogs and leave thoughtful responses.

4. Set up alerts. Receive an email every time someone mentions your name, your blog, your site, anything you. Yes, this is ego surfing. Alerts: Google Alerts, Twilerts, Tweetbeep.

5. Respond when someone mentions you. A link, an @you in Twitter, whatever. Respond. People love it when you notice. I don’t thank everyone who #followfriday and links to me. I use my best judgment or return the favor by commenting in their own blogs.

6. Create a web site. Even if you don’t sell anything or offer services, a basic web site with your background is always wise. It’s your calling card. Sometimes people don’t respect those who only list a Facebook, Myspace or LinkedIn URL in a Twitter profile. You don’t need tech knowledge to build a web site. If you can use a word processor, you can handle a web site.

7. Respond in different ways. Link to them, quote them, retweet (RT) them, reply to them. Do share your own thoughts with no link, RT or names. People who do nothing, but post links in Twitter lower their chances of getting followers. People who RT every time give the impression they can’t think for themselves.

8. Think variety. It’s good to participate in the same group of blogs, but it’s better if you visit a new blog a couple of times a week and leave a comment. Stretch yourself and your presence.

9. Post carefully. If you don’t want kids or a future client or boss to read something you write, don’t post it.

Hillel’s pre-techie days quote still applies:

“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”

How do you brand YOU?

Slapping around Twitter, SMS and the Internet

Oh, my! Read a story about a jury where multiple jurors researched the case on the Internet and posted updates in Twitter and Facebook. Have they lost their common sense?

Too much information (TMI) isn’t just about not revealing inappropriate details in your life, but also publicly sharing things online when it’d be better to talk to close family and friends offline.

I’m all for getting all the possible details in a case so the jury can make the right decision. That’s why you have two lawyers involved instead of one. They represent both sides of a case.

Most lawyers and their staff are smart enough to find all the information possible — I know that some might discover something and never reveal it. But they have rules to follow and we can only hope for the best.

Information from online research may or may not be accurate, truthful or important to a case. If jurors keep this up, then we might expect the court to collect their phones.

No doubt, you’ve read stories about people losing jobs and opportunities because of something they said in Twitter or elsewhere.

I know you realize that the Internet is open for all to see. Even if you delete something within seconds after posting it, count on it showing up somewhere. It could be in alerts, cached searches and elsewhere.

That’s why it’s important to think about who might read what you write. It could be a future hiring manager or client. Maybe you decide to run for office. Citizens will uncover everything possible. It doesn’t matter if you’re a celebrity or not — every single one of us impacts other people’s lives as employees, as family members, as friends and so on.

So next time you feel down or frustrated, write it down without posting it, sending it or mailing it. Sit on it for a day, several days (even better) or a week (best). Ask yourself if you would want a boss, client, family member or friend to discover this.

Besides, talking too much online sends signals that you might not be able to keep things to yourself whether it’s proprietary information or details about someone’s personal life.

Yes, I’ve made the mistake of posting something online (I thought it was private). I’m glad I did. The incident drilled in my head — HARD — ensures I think before I submit.

The best social networkers get personal and build relationships. You can add a personal touch without going overboard. Many of the online celebrities do.

What experiences have you had with TMI? How did it help or hurt the people involved?

Links: Post Tax Day 2009 Edition

Survive tax day, I hope? Accountants and CPAs can breathe easy now even with some clients filing extensions (which you have to do by April 15) — at least, they don’t have so many to do at once.

• MyThings: Organize receipts, warranties and user guides in one place — free.
• The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks: “Love” it.
• Latest on WWD: Find the Right People to Follow on Twitter, Getting Started as a Web Worker, Web Worker Careers: Coaching (more careers coming — what web working careers do you know about? Add them to the comments so we can cover ‘em all.).
• Readbility: Make the web more readable (I wish it would have less gray text on white background and it’d be a heckuva lot better!)

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Passover’s over!! Now what to do with all the leftover matzah? [Link: Robin Belkin and Lorrie Thomas]
• 24 Great Films Too Painful to Watch Twice
• The Vanity of It All: I love vanity plates — reading them and having them. Mine is boring: “Meryl” is all it says. With my name being uncommon and often mispronounced and misspelled, I thought it could use help. Besides, it helps me be a better driver knowing I have memorable plates (then again, if they misspell it — heh). [Link: George].
• Central Station in Antwerp: Instant smile. So what if Sound of Music is too sweet — admit it. It has songs that make you smile.

You Can Have a Photographic Memory

I memorized these for the first time last night:

1. Golden goose egg, 2. Firefly, 3. Paint roller, 4. Diamond ring, 5. Stop sign, 6. Kitchen table, 7. Ticket stub, 8. Leather jacket, 9. Ice cream cone, 10. ATM machine, 11. Scalpel, 12. Champagne bottle, 13. Stroller, 14. Couch, 15. Rose bush, 16. Swimsuit, 17. Apple core, 18. Candy cane, 19. Cowboy boots, 20. Train.

And I just remembered them all again. The only one I miss is #17. It’s “Rotting apple.” I didn’t cheat. Let’s see if I can do one more list and then I’ll share whose fault it is for remembering all of this.

1. Rusty razor blade, 2. Goalie mask, 3. Red VW bug, 4. Blender, 5. Coffee cup, 6. Brown paper bag, 7. Chess set with broken white king piece, 8. Marble statue, 9. Megaphone, 10. Shower curtain, 11. Canopy bed, 12. Plaid wool blanket, 13. Pencil, 14. Salt shaker, 15. Wooden baseball bat, 16. Private jet, 17. White apron, 18. Button, 19. Superman costume, 20. Fluorescent light bulb.

W00t! Mike “The Toilet Paper Enterepreneur” Michalowicz does a beautiful job of explaining how to have a photographic memory in 30 minutes. I didn’t sleep well last night and yet, I managed to memorize 40 items. The key is to have a base list of 10 items. I stole his (hey, he offered!).

1. Gun
2. Shoe
3. Tree
4. Floor
5. Bee hive
6. Sticks
7. Heaven
8. Skate
9. Slime
10. Hen

Notice these words rhyme with the numbers and they’re things you can visualize. “Alive” is not as a good a visualizer as “bee hive.” Sticks and slime give me all kinds of fodder involving my young sons. I visualized #6 as “kitchen table” by thinking how the boys brought in the sticks and put them all over the kitchen table as they always make a mess of the table. Then #16 is “swimsuit” because the kitchen table is right by our back door to the pool. They’d track in dirt and other things sticking to their swim suits right into the kitchen.

Since “brown paper bag” is the other #6, I visualized the boys collecting sticks and putting them in a brown paper bag because they always love to bring stuff in from outside and make a mess in the house. We can’t take much on an airplane, so I figure my boys can bring their brown paper bag full of sticks on a “private jet” as we can do whatever we want if we had one

Think I have a great memory already? Think again. I have a weird memory — remembering things I don’t want or need to remember and yet forgetting things I need to remember. I’m working on making this a habit.

Read Mike’s entry on how to improve your memory. Another good memory process is the Roman Room Technique. It also uses visualization. Ron White who can memorize impressive stuff like a long list of numbers explains his process.

Can I use this to remember all the US presidents again? Yikes! Too tired to try.

Do you remember things well? What process do you use?

Facing Adversity without Lessons Learned

While working for a company, I moved to another position within the same company for a promotion. It was exciting to switch from process management to marketing. It didn’t take long to regret the change. The person I thought I would report to went on a special project and never returned. She had such an energy that I knew I’d love working for her and learning from her. I ended up reporting to someone who would make a great coworker instead of a manager. I also discovered morale was in the basement with this department. A total shift from my previous one.

Then came the waves of nausea to take the situation to a new low. I discovered I was pregnant with number two. Instead of being excited, I was miserable. I liked the company, yet I couldn’t transfer because I hadn’t been in the new job long enough. The excitement of another baby couldn’t bring me out of the darkness of my job situation. After all, I had the nausea thing happening causing me to feel green whenever I drove to the office.

My only choice for getting out of the situation was to leave the company. I landed an interview with another company and the job sounded like it was written with me in mind. But I had a new dilemma that I had never faced before and no one else to ask. Should I tell the hiring manager I was pregnant? I researched this and asked around including a friend who worked in human resources. No one had definitive answers. I knew I couldn’t be the first dealing with this, but I couldn’t find anyone who had.

If I didn’t tell her, I felt like I was cheating her and not being truthful. If I told her, I could lose the opportunity to move to a better position and a happier situation.

I went to the company’s building and met with the manager and a colleague. They explained the position, expectations and hopes for the team. We all clicked.

Then I met with the manager in a one-on-one situation. We had a friendly conversation and she confirmed I was one of the finalists for the job. I paused. Let out deep breath. I explained to her I was in a situation and I felt the right thing to do was to tell her. So there, I told her I was three months pregnant. She responded like coworkers do when they heard of such exciting news.

That company was the last one I worked for before becoming a full-time freelancer. I landed the job and stayed with them for seven years. Interesting twist. The manager took a new job while I was on maternity leave. I returned from leave with no manager and only one colleague left behind (we had four of us when I started). That was another adventure, but one that set me on the path toward my freelance writing career.

So while I regretted accepting the promotion, it sent me on my way to eventually landing my first paid writing gig and becoming a full-time freelancer. Had I stayed with the original company, that might have never happened.

This post is an entry in the What I Learned from Adversity group writing project.

By the way, I had a third child. That was a breeze to announce to the boss as I was still with the company and it had been over three years since #2 arrived.

How She Got Her Reading Groove Back

In Get in the Mood for Love, I mentioned that a book could explain how I managed to get my book love groove back. That book is One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way by Robert Maurer. This was the fourth book I read since reuniting with my books (I read five books in a couple of weeks). Because of this, I knew this process worked.

People try to exercise more often, stop a bad habit, practice writing or improve at something. Maurer says the answer isn’t jumping in or quitting cold turkey. That can lead to failure.

Instead, start small. Exercise for one minute. Smoke one less cigarette. Write 100 words a day adding another 10 or 100 words per day or per week. Whatever pace suits you.

That’s the idea behind kaizen. Kaizen is a Japanese word that means “improvement.”

Thus, I stumbled on this by accident in “returning to regular book reading.” Fried Green Tomatoes, although a good read, was a longer book and didn’t quite push me. The next three books all had fewer than 200 pages and those stimulated me to keep on reading.

I just finished Girl, Interrupted and started Ordinary People. A friend loaned me those books, so I wanted to finish those to return back to her. Next, I believe, will be Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich because I enjoyed reading a magazine story about Hill and his life. Plus, so many speak highly of this book that I want to see for myself.

After that, the plan is to read three books waiting for a book review. And I hope that reading groove sticks with me for a long time to come. Maybe I’ll get through more of my own purchased books.

So if you struggle to meet a goal or make changes — start small. In the case of reading, it meant starting with shorter books. The tricky part is finding short books that captivate enough to motivate you to keep reading.

This process works beautifully for companies. Too often, employees think they need to come up with ways to save thousands of dollars and do something big. No … no … start small. Those little steps can and do turn into giant steps.

Don’t worry about reading a Jane Austen or tackling a literary classic. Just find books with no more than 200 pages with a topic of interest or ask for recommendations. My spark started with Carrie Fisher’s Wishful Drinking — hardly the book I typically read.

What small changes have you made that led to bigger changes? How can you make a change beginning with small steps? What small books do you recommend and why?

Get in the Mood for Love

Photo credit Katie Tegtmeyer

Married couples often hit a dry spell especially after children come along. They find less time to spend together alone and in the bedroom.

I ran into problems of my own in the bedroom. Between my hand injury and doing many game reviews, I had a dry reading spell. How I missed ending my day cuddled in bed with a book. Goodness knows, many books sit on shelves waiting for me to caress them and feel the love in exchange for giving me knowledge.

A hand injury preventing me from reading? Indeed. No matter what I did, the pain made me grimace. I tried a few tricks so I wouldn’t have to use the injured hand to hold the book. However, the hand hurt constantly causing me not to pay attention to the contents of the book.

It took one book. One small one to get my reading groove back. The book only had 176 pages — officially. A few pages didn’t count because of photos and the line spacing went wider than the average book. So the book was more like 100 pages. It made me laugh, too, an important aspect of a happy relationship.

The book? Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher. Hardly the kind of book I typically read. Before we get into that, let me back up.

I finally worked up the nerve to watching Fried Green Tomatoes based on the book by Fannie Flagg. I heard about a young boy’s death in the movie and didn’t know if I could handle it. Oh, sure, I’ve seen sadder movies. All the movie recommendation sites said I would like the movie. When it appeared on cable, I recorded it.

I liked it. I hated the boy’s death. Nevertheless, it was necessary as it kick-started a friendship in the movie. It didn’t happen the same way in the book, but the death’s impact was important in the development of a character. After the movie, I picked up the book from the library.

In this case, watching the movie before reading the book did no harm. You can do it either way. I also liked the book. Despite this, it didn’t kick start my reading habit. It took a couple of weeks to finish it since I read it during physical therapy while my thumb sat in the sauna (heating pad).

Back on a dry spell until last week. While sitting in the waiting room for over an hour, I found Carrie Fisher’s book. The gal I had been chatting with in the waiting room every Friday told me she left it there for others to read saying it was a fast and funny read. I took her up on it reading all but the last 20 pages when my son finished his meeting. I took it home and finished it that night. Yes, I returned the book to the waiting room.

The topic of Jonathan Livingston Seagull came up in a conversation with my mom. How? I don’t remember, but she encouraged me to read it. Saying it was a short and powerful read. Went to the library to check it out and finished it that night.

I could feel the craving for books returning. In reading a weekly email newsletter, the writer mentioned that she received a book and was embarrassed she took so long to read this little book. I happened to have that book and pulled it from the shelf. Almost done with it, too.

Ironically, the lesson in this book could very well explain how I got my yearn to read books again. What book? That’ll be another post.

6 Steps to Get It Done for Home Office Workers

Why do we “get a feeling or craving” for something at a certain time of year? It’s Pavlov at work. These become habits and with habits come expectations.

Not everyone can succeed in working in a home office. The temptation to procrastinate and do non-work stuff is too great. Lone workers don’t have to worry about people watching over their shoulders or Alt-Tab to switch away from the improper web site.

Turn “forcing yourself” to get things done into “habits that make it easy” to get things done in six steps:

1. Create a general schedule: This depends on what you do for work. As a writer, my activities are: communications (emails), writing, editing, research, administrative, and interactions. Assign blocks of time for the activities for the day.
2. Stick to schedule: I’ve made it a habit to start the day with an email, followed by a blog post (when I do one), and then article writing for the morning. The afternoon is for the tedious, less creative work and social networking (reading blogs, tweets, etc.). I know I don’t function as well in the afternoon as in the morning. I also exercise mid-day.
3. Give it time: You won’t have that “feeling it’s time to do something” overnight. It takes 21 days to form a new habit. It works, I promise. When I got into habit of not working due to hand surgery, I thought I’d never get back into work. I did. Just had to push myself to do #2 and it fell into place.
4. Work from the same place: If possible, set aside a space for work. I have two places: my little home office and my bed with a laptop (I had back problems plus that’s where I play games for reviewing).
5. Handle guilt: You might feel guilty about household chores and other personal activities that we must do, but don’t want to do. Set aside 30 to 60 minutes a day for such activities and do them then. That gets rid of the feelings of guilt and carries you through the day.
6. Take a break: Don’t let yourself get carried away with working at your computer all day and eating lunch at your desk. You may feel like you’re on a roll and not tired, but a break revives you. Make this personal chores time, if need be. The physical break gets you moving and your eyes away from the screen. I have a dog, so unless I want her to do her business in my house — I must take a break to walk her. We don’t have a backyard and she refuses to go before walking at least half a block.

Think about the different times of the year. Do you find you crave something or expect something? For example, my family can’t help but crave cake in January with three of us having birthdays this month and one in early February.

I used to play tennis on Saturday and Sunday before I got hurt. It’s going to take time to get back in the mood for it after a long time off plus the cold weather. So I’ll start with one of those days and build back up.

If my routines don’t convince you, maybe these people in Daily Routines will.

Habits can work on an hourly, daily, monthly, and yearly basis. It’s what you make of it. Steps 1 through 4 work for most habits. Pick one thing to turn into a habit and try it.

Links: 2009-01-23

• Simply Scripts: Read screenplays, movie scripts, and more.
• Twitter Tips: Twitter tips in 140 characters or more.
• Daily Routines: It sounds boring, but having a daily routine helps successful people get things done. I’ve made it a habit to read emails first thing and follow that with my biggest writing work of the day. I save the tedious work for the afternoon when I am not as effective. It takes 21 days to create a new habit — so pick one and stick with it for three weeks.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Inaugural Preparations: W.O.W.
• Long Exposure Photography: W.O.W. #2.
• Wii Fail: Why you should keep the remote strap around your wrist.
• Reflections: Photographer captures scenes through puddles.
• The Dullest Blog in the World: So dull that it’s so funny. It gets LOTS of comments… does that mean mine is more boring?