Be the captain of your career stc
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The document discusses how to advance one's career through personal branding and positioning, using the phrase "Ask me about..." to define your expertise. It also provides tips for responding to market changes while staying true to your values, such as reeducating yourself, as well as five steps for reducing financial stress like thinking positively, planning for opportunities ("sending out ships"), managing your money, preparing for difficult times, and seeking balance.
![• I recently went to a conference where
attendees’ name tags included the
phrase, “Ask me about… [then an
answer we provided when registering].”
• From this came a major career
realization:
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Be the captain of your career stc
- 1. Be The Captain of Your Career! Jack Molisani Twitter: @JackMolisani
- 2. About the Speaker • President, ProSpring Technical Staffing • Executive Director, The LavaCon Conference on Content Strategy and User Experience • Author, Be The Captain of Your Career: A New Approach to Career Planning and Advancement
- 3. In this Session • Advancing your Career Using Branding and Positioning • Five Steps to Financial Stress Reduction
- 4. • I recently went to a conference where attendees’ name tags included the phrase, “Ask me about… [then an answer we provided when registering].” • From this came a major career realization: Introduction
- 5. The whole concept of personal branding can be summarized by that simple phrase, “Ask me about…” Introduction
- 6. • Before we look at some examples, let’s define some terms. Introduction
- 7. Branding vs. Positioning • A brand is: “a unique design, sign, symbol, words, or a combination of these, employed in creating an image that identifies a product and differentiates it from its competitors.” BusinessDictionary.com
- 8. Branding vs. Positioning • Companies spend billions of dollars advertising and building brand recognition. • Why? • So people will remember and buy their products.
- 9. Branding vs. Positioning • Often a name-brand product and a no-name (or store brand) generic product are the same product produced by the same manufacture
- 10. Branding vs. Positioning • What matters is that consumers perceive that a brand is better and therefore buy it (usually at a higher price than a non- branded generic equivalent)
- 11. Positioning • Positioning: to communicate about a product or service by comparing it to a better-known product or service • “Stronger than steel,” “Faster than FedEx,” “Cheaper than Walmart” • Each phase above identifies what makes the product different (quality, speed, price) and then a better-known product (or company) against which the item is positioned
- 12. Personal Branding • Branding and positioning obviously apply to selling shoes or laundry soap, but what do they have to do with you, the technical communicator? • That’s where personal branding comes in.
- 13. Personal Branding Just as a company creates a brand and promotes why people should buy the product or service, so should you create a personal brand and promote why people should buy your product or service.
- 14. Personal Branding In Tech Comm 2.0: Reinventing Our Relevance in the 2000s (Intercom, Feb 2012) I asserted that technical communicators are in danger of becoming a commodity, a product or service to be acquired for the lowest possible price given an acceptable level of quality.
- 15. Personal Branding • Why? • Because many companies do not perceive the value that individual technical communicators bring to their organizations • And why not? • Lack of personal branding!
- 16. Personal Branding • Personal branding and proper positioning communicate why companies should buy your services and pay the rate or salary you want to be paid.
- 17. Personal Branding • Example: • STC fellow Andrea Ames, when asked what she does for a living, answers, “I solve business problems.” • Not, “I’m a technical writer.” • Not, “I write release notes.”
- 18. Personal Branding • While she may actually do those things as part of her job, they’re not the way she approaches her job, and they’re certainly not how she defines her corporate mission. • “I solve business problems.” • What a great personal brand! It instantly communicates what she does and why she is valuable!
- 19. Responding to Market Changes • In their book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, James Collins and Jerry Porras state that of the visionary companies they studied, all had a history of responding to market changes while staying true to their core values. • Content Strategist Sharon Burton’s rebranding story illustrates this beautifully.
- 20. Responding to Market Changes • “The whole reason I got into tech comm was not because I loved to write, it was because I loved being at the crossroads of people and technology and I could make a difference. That’s why I do what I do. • When the recession hit and I got laid off, it forced me to reexamine what drives me in this field, what excites me. I realized what was true when I started is just as true today: I love being at the intersection of people and technology.
- 21. Responding to Market Changes • Unfortunately, writing online help topics just doesn’t excite me anymore. But helping companies adopt a content strategy that gives people the information they need so they can go out and change the world? • That excites me!
- 22. Responding to Market Changes • Our industry is changing. We’re in a content development revolution. Companies don’t need just user manuals anymore, they need social media and webinars, YouTube videos and multi-channel publishing. • These are the areas on which companies are spending money, and they need help to do it right.
- 23. Responding to Market Changes • So the process of rebranding wasn’t just calling myself by a new title, it included reeducating myself and repositioning myself so I could effectively offer the services that companies need as the very ground beneath them changes.”
- 24. Responding to Market Changes • Alvin Toffler, an American writer known for his works discussing the digital revolution, takes the concept of reeducation a step further: “The illiterate of the twenty-first century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”
- 25. Ask Me About… • How can you respond to market changes while staying true to your core values? • What can you do well that you can promote as a specialized service for which you should be handsomely paid?
- 26. Ask Me About… • Are you expert in content management systems? A specialist in Simplified English? A wiz at creating cascading style sheets? • Or perhaps you make software easier to use through embedded user assistance, or increase sales though better marketing collateral?
- 27. Ask Me About… • What should people ask you about?”
- 28. Five Steps to Financial Stress Reduction • Chellie Campbell in her book The Wealthy Spirit says there are five step to achieving financial stress reduction: – Think positive – Send out ships – Count your money – Survive the storms – Seek balance and enlightenment
- 29. • Mind over matter • Do daily positive money affirmations: – “People love to give me money!” – “I win often, and I win big!” – “Money flows to me like water from a faucet!” • I believe you don’t only choose the path you walk in life, you create the path you walk Think Positive
- 30. Send Out Ships • Most people have heard the phrase, “When my ship comes in” • Do you know where that term originated? • Back in the 19th century, merchants in Europe would mortgage everything they owned to build clipper ships and send them off to the New World.
- 31. • When (if) they returned loaded with rum and furs and spices, and the owner would become rich beyond their imagination. • But there were no ship-to-shore radios in the 19th century, so merchants would never know exactly when their ship would return. • They were literally waiting for their ship to come in. Send Out Ships
- 32. • I know plenty of people who are waiting for their ship to come in. • The problem is, they’re not sending out any ships! • You have to send out ships! Send Out Ships
- 33. • Create a ships log • Run basic financial reports, create graphs • In the game Making Money, that’s how you keep score Count Your Money
- 34. • There will be ups and downs in the economy • Companies are bought and sold and people get laid off • Put money away so you can survive the lean times Survive the Storms
- 35. • All work and no play is no way to live • Neither is having no money to pay the rent • Seek a balance – Work vs. family time – Saving money vs. splurging a little – Don’t neglect your physical, mental or spiritual health Seek Balance and Enlightenment
- 36. • Think positive • Send out ships • Count your money • Survive the storms • Seek balance and enlightenment Recap
- 38. Reach the Speaker – [email protected] – Twitter: JackMolisani – The LavaCon Conference: www.lavacon.org