Saturday, August 15, 2020

Create A Portfolio Website With These 10 Resources

Make A Portfolio Website With These 10 Resources Make A Portfolio Website With These 10 Resources Once in a while your resume doesn't exactly recount to the entire story. Individuals in innovative enterprises, for example, craftsmanship and web composition have since quite a while ago comprehended the benefit of keeping up an online portfolio. In any case, as more occupation searchers head online with advanced buyer items, it's gotten increasingly regular to construct a site to show your reputation inside your field, paying little heed to your vocation way. In the event that you figure it would be important for your pursuit of employment (or assist you with exhibiting authority aptitudes), it might be to your greatest advantage to jump on the web and build up a portfolio website or blog. Here are a few free and ease site creation assets that can assist you with making a portfolio site. WordPress as a Portfolio or Blog WordPress has 26 percent of the Internet, making it one of the most well known site improvement stages accessible. You can utilize the free and basic variant, WordPress.Com, or the more confounded and adjustable facilitated adaptation, WordPress.Org. WordPress is an extraordinary stage for building up a basic portfolio with a free site topic or beginning a blog that others can discover and follow by means of online networking and RSS channels. You can likewise get familiar with the stage as you go, making it an incredible resume-promoter on the off chance that you have an enthusiasm for web architecture and advancement. Squarespace, Weebly, and Wix as Portfolios Squarespace, Weebly, and Wix are all brisk web designers that permit those without a great deal of web composition experience to move a site together. Each organization has a free and paid adaptation accessible, and each highlights a web architecture process that is apparently substantially more easy to understand (if less strong) than a WordPress establishment. Web based life Sites As Portfolios In case you're innovative about it, you can likewise utilize web based life stages to sort out your work. Numerous authors compose their clasps with Pinterest as a free and simple to-explore method of featuring their work. LinkedIn additionally has a portfolio function that permits you to include ventures with colleagues so you can without much of a stretch feature and portray a task of any sort in your LinkedIn profile. Industry-Specific Portfolio Ideas Inside explicit enterprises, you'll likewise discover a great deal of free and ease portfolio site thoughts. For instance, authors may favor an essayist explicit site on Contently and Clippings.me. Visual planners, then again, might need to look at Coroflot and Behance Network. The most ideal approach to discover a portfolio webpage that suits your necessities is to understand web journals and sites inside your industry and see what your friends will in general use to feature their work. At that point think about your exceptional experience and needs and pick the choice that sounds good to you. Do you have a portfolio? Connection to it beneath!

Saturday, August 8, 2020

5 New Career Networking Tools to Boost Your Job Search - Jobscan Blog

5 New Career Networking Tools to Boost Your Job Search - Jobscan Blog Posted on January 30, 2018October 23, 2018 by Lewis C. Lin Systems administration is one of the best approaches to find a new position or keep on moving upward and ahead expertly. Be that as it may, for some, individuals, organizing winds up keep going on the plan for the day. Like any great propensity, compelling systems administration is attached to consistency instead of with rare explosions of exertion. Consider it running a mile 3 times each week, instead of just going to one CrossFit class for every month. With regards to vocation organizing torment focuses, regular issues include: Finding the perfect individuals to associate with Making sense of how to get in touch with them Keeping composed Be that as it may, some incredible apparatuses exist that can assist you with exploring the vocation organizing game like a master. Look at these five new apparatuses that explain basic systems administration cerebral pains and can support your systems administration adequacy in 2018. 1. Wave I have to become more acquainted with specialists in my industry, yet I don't have the foggiest idea who needs to network. Ripple takes care of this exemplary issue for those that don't have the opportunity to go through hours on LinkedIn: Simply swipe right. The innovation takes a portion of the mental exploration that was utilized to make Tinder and applies those standards to proficient systems administration. Rather than swiping yes or no in light of pictures alone, Ripple presents piles of experts by featuring work history, training, and industry aptitudes. It rapidly coordinates you with possible associations and evacuates the sat around idly of contacting unengaged experts. 2. Shapr Shapr is another instrument that utilizations swipe usefulness to assist clients with meeting applicable and commonly intrigued organizing accomplices. Clients register through LinkedIn and set inclinations dependent on a rundown of up to 10 expert interests. Every day, Shapr recommends 10-15 potential matches dependent on geographic area, work understanding, and interests. Clients are possibly coordinated when the intrigue is common. This limits avoiding irritating systems administration asks for or struggle with who to contact for a meetup. 3. Clearbit Connect Clearbit Connect is a convenient answer for those minutes when you understand that you lost an email address. It likewise assists with responding to the inquiry, Who at X organization should I become more acquainted with, and how would I contact them? Clearbit Connect utilizes a Google Chrome augmentation that fills in as an internet searcher. Clients click the Clearbit symbol in their Gmail record and quest for contacts by organization. Clearbit then creates a rundown of individuals who work at that organization alongside their email address and employment title. The initial 100 inquiries every month are free. 4. PeopleMaven PeopleMaven resembles a Pinterest board for your expert systems administration process, giving association and motivation. It permits you to make your own arrangements of individuals who you find on the web. This shrewd bookmarking device enables you to rapidly spare individuals in a composed way from any outsider site. The site utilizes a Google Chrome augmentation to convey this ability. PeopleMaven permits clients to make records, add individuals to those rundowns, and offer them with the world. This device kills the dissatisfaction with returning and search for individuals who grabbed your attention while you are perusing on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or somewhere else on the web. PeopleMaven's classifications extend from amusement to business. You can likewise look through records produced by the PeopleMaven people group. 5. CityHour CityHour is a helpful device that promptly associates clients with comparable expert profiles who need to organize inside a 50-mile sweep. This is particularly helpful on the off chance that you have moved and need to fabricate a neighborhood proficient system. CityHour is a functional answer for experts who like to utilize impromptu personal time for systems administration purposes, especially while on business travel. Notwithstanding the ever-expanding requests on time from a work profitability viewpoint, the correct apparatuses guarantee that vitality spent on systems administration can be more engaged and powerful than any time in recent memory. Utilizing new innovation assists with finding the perfect individuals, associate with them consistently, and remain sorted out. At the end of the day, systems administration will perpetually be the significant undertaking that gets left for last. In any case, if the correct devices are utilized, what difference does it make? Let the applications accomplish the filthy work, with the goal that you can concentrate on bringing your best, best self to the systems administration game. Lewis C. Lin is the author and CEO of PeopleMaven, another web-based social networking instrument to help work searchers spare and find new position and systems administration contacts. Chelsea K. Exhaust likewise contributed this article. Jobscan LinkedIn Optimization Searching for more profession organizing instruments? Get progressively out of your LinkedIn profile with Jobscan LinkedIn Optimization. Simply interface your profile and glue in work postings that intrigue you to produce a moment report that will control you to make the ideal profile for your fantasy work. 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Saturday, August 1, 2020

What To Do When You Regret Referring A Friend For A Job - Work It Daily

What To Do When You Regret Referring A Friend For A Job - Work It Daily There has likely been once or twice when you wound up urging a companion to go after a position at your organization. Out of the generosity of your heart, you went along many resumes attempting to help. Be that as it may, have you ever lamented alluding a companion for a vocation? Today, vocation specialists J.T. O'Donnell and Dale Dauten share their recommendation on managing a referral you lament... Dear J.T. what's more, Dale, I supported my companion â€" we should call her Tina - to go after a position at my organization. She did, and afterward began messaging me each other day inquiring as to whether I'd heard anything. I went to HR to check. They said Tina wasn't qualified. Presently, I need to return to her. She's going as me a million inquiries. I lament ever beginning. - Blake What would it be advisable for you to do in this circumstance? Is there a simple way out? In the first place, how about we comprehend where your companion is coming from now in their vocation. By and large, the individual in question most likely lost an employment and is in a predicament. Despite the fact that the open door didn't work out at your organization, there's no motivation to lament attempting to get her out. You never, never lament helping a companion, especially in a period of scarcity, said Dauten. .... This is a chance to support the companion and set up with the irritating requests. With regards to your companion not landing the position, consider it along these lines. You offered to assist her with getting presented, which is incredibly liberal. Notwithstanding, it's not your place to land the position for her. You can't do that. It's dependent upon her to land the position all alone. You did all that you could. You got the data, you passed it along, you even went down to HR and got an update. What I would do is return to Tina and be extremely legitimate, said O'Donnell. State, 'Here's the circumstance. Here's the criticism I got from HR. I have no other data. They didn't uncover why you weren't qualified. I can't get you that data. There's nothing else I can do.' Later on, set some standard procedures for yourself. Give the individuals you're attempting to support a few desires. Clarify that you can just go along the data and that there's nothing else you can truly do to assist them with pushing ahead. Disclose to them that you're glad to get them out however it's dependent upon them to seek after the open door after you've done your part. Alluding a companion for an occupation doesn't need to make an ungainly or irritating circumstance. At the point when you set these desires in advance, it brings down the opportunity of your companions hassling you every day requesting an update you can't give them. Need to ask J.T. Dale an inquiry? Email your inquiry to advice@jtanddale.com. Related Posts: Would it be advisable for me to Rat Out A Co-Worker? What School Forgot To Teach You About Job Search The Terrible Job Search Advice You Are Getting By Accident Have you joined our profession development club?Join Us Today!

Saturday, July 25, 2020

Ep 126 - How to Use Emotion to Improve Your Workplace Communication - Workology

Ep 126 - How to Use Emotion to Improve Your Workplace Communication Episode 126: How to Use Emotion to Improve Your Workplace Communication with G. Riley Mills (@grileymills) No matter what business you work in communication  and presentation is important. Even at work, we are performing on a stage where the conference room or boardroom meeting is our set and the executive team, employees, or special project group are our team members as well as the audience. How do we improve our performance using acting and emotion to help motivate others and drive change in our organizations?  It all starts with evoking emotion in the workplace. Episode 126: How to Use Emotion to Improve Your Workplace Communication with G. Riley Mills (@grileymills) Riley Mills is the COO of Pennacle  Performance Company. Hes a former actor who helps companies use acting methodologies in the workplace including presentations, meetings, and collaborating with team members. Riley believes that since you play a critical role in every employees experience, from the C-suite to summer interns, effective communication is critical to professional and company success. He walks us through some basic practices and things to consider to purposeful inject emotion into your communication to help push forward programs and give a great performance worth  remembering. Leading Meetings and Presentations Is Critical to Career Growth and Success From delivering clear and concise information to providing constructive feedback effectively, to leading effective and efficient meetings and listening actively to others views, to helping others consider new perspectives and openly discussing other points of view, your success depends on your ability to communicate. In this podcast interview, Riley provides communication and influence behaviors strategies to achieve desired reactions using the secret technique leaders and professional performers have used for centuries. Riley also talks about the power of aligning your voice and body language to clearly communicate your messages and ways to improve how you provide and receive feedback. Not surprisingly, Rileys interview was flawless and fun. He certainly has a way of making anyone comfortable and commanding a room. Emotion is generally considered to be negative in a workplace. Many of us think about crying at desks and angry coworkers but properly placed it can drive change and inspire your team and employees to complete a program or embed an important organizational change. In previous podcast interviews, Ive talked about the neuroscience of change and leadership. Emotion plays an important part of that, and I think there is real value in giving a great performance whether its a powerpoint presentation, leading a conference call, or talking to individual employees or team members. Riley gets us going in the right direction to create memorable workplace performances whatever the stage. Connect with G. Riley Mills on  LinkedIn. RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Non-verbal Communication Tips in the Workplace   Do Emotions Impact Productivity at Work? Ep 117 How Neuroscience Changes Learning at Work ~ Podcast 19 Ways to Improve Communication in the Workplace How to Subscribe to the Workology Podcast Stitcher PocketCast iTunes Podcast RSS Google Play YouTube You can also  click here  to find out how to be a guest on the Workology Podcast.

Saturday, July 18, 2020

Why Some People Need Reviews of Resume Writing Services

<h1>Why Some People Need Reviews of Resume Writing Services</h1><p>There are numerous reasons why somebody may require surveys of resume composing administrations. Now and again, the best thing you can do is to locate the correct help and afterward settle on a choice with respect to which one to enlist. There are numerous surveys of resume composing administrations that you can browse, yet they are not all accurate.</p><p></p><p>The first thing you need to search for in audits of resume composing administrations is input from others. This should be possible by requesting them in your email or by rounding out a poll. Some survey destinations necessitate that you answer a couple of inquiries before you can see any more. A portion of these sites have even expelled a few administrations from their rundown when you don't give criticism on them. It is truly up to you what you feel is increasingly significant, regardless of whether a general informa tion on the business or a huge rundown of reviews.</p><p></p><p>Some audits are exceptionally simple to stop by and some are extremely elusive. Numerous individuals will disclose to you that the most troublesome thing about seeing resumes is attempting to peruse the name of the individual that made it. There are additionally a few administrations that really incorporate the essayist of the resume so you can understand his/her conclusions about the matter.</p><p></p><p>All on the whole, there are a few sites where individuals survey administrations. A portion of these sites are more notable than others. I suggest you pick the one that is the least demanding to utilize. A portion of these audit locales will significantly offer an installment framework for those that need to have the option to utilize this feature.</p><p></p><p>When searching for a site that gives surveys of resume composing administrations, the mo st ideal approach to pick is to take as much time as is needed and research. On the off chance that you are simply beginning, you should attempt to locate a real survey site and pick the one that is the most educational. There are a great deal of tricks and individuals that work off of the way that you don't have the foggiest idea how to utilize the web. Make certain to set aside some effort to take a gander at each survey that you read, since you need to ensure you are getting the most precise data possible.</p><p></p><p>The next thing you need to search for is 'pay per look'. These kinds of destinations will pay a specific measure of cash for every individual that glances through the survey. You need to search for surveys that will permit you to pay a specific measure of cash for a particular number of individuals. The main sites that will permit you to pay cash are the ones that give you audits of resume composing administrations. In all actuality there ar e no free locales that will permit you to take a gander at resumes.</p><p></p><p>The surveys that you see are significant and they ought to be mulled over while looking for continue composing administrations. When searching for surveys, you need to pick the one that is the most respectable and will give you the most exact data conceivable. Ensure you discover surveys that permit you to pay before you keep on utilizing the site.</p>

Friday, July 10, 2020

What to Do When People Get Your Name Wrong - Career Advice Blog for Millennials

What to Do When People Get Your Name Wrong - Career Advice Blog for Millennials Is your life one consistent blooper reel of individuals continually incorrect spelling and misspeaking your name? It's one thing when somebody on the road fails to understand the situation in passing â€" you most likely won't see them once more. It's another when experts you normally manage get it totally wrong constantly. In the long run, they settle for simply calling you. Hello, you! How's it hanging, amigo? they begin saying. Following quite a while of hearing this strategy, you won't let anybody pull off being cunning. The ones who continue fizzling at your name get some credit, on the grounds that in any event they continue attempting. You can just coarseness your teeth cordially for such a long time. At the point when individuals neglect to assemble a couple of letters, it causes you to feel littler than the length of those letters. It harms, in any event, when you've become accustomed to it. You shouldn't need to become accustomed to it. This is what to do when individuals get your name wrong. Go With Phonetics During gatherings, talks and workshops, you can seize incorrect spelling botches by working your name out and put a nail in the final resting place of misspeaking by verbally sounding it out â€" or if nothing else attempt. It despite everything goes in one ear and out the other, yet not as frequently. Addition a phonetic spelling of your name into your email signature, for example, Sigh-Oh-Wren for Sioryn. This methodology will help other people change in accordance with your name if it's not normal to where you're working and living or excessively present day for people. It's covert and direct enough to work! Take the technique viral, and embed the phonetic spelling of your name on your web based life profiles. On Twitter, Iva Dixit, internet based life organizer of The New Yorker, put phonetics in her handle along these lines: Its articulated Dixit as in Fix-it; the Iva as in Gen-eva. No connection to Madhuri. A little funniness goes far. Continue Being Straightforward Rehashing yourself is depleting, yet it's all the more tiring and irritating to adopt the detached strategy continually. You attempted cordially rectifying with a delicate voice, yet individuals simply continue missing your appropriate name. You took a stab at overlooking it, and obviously, nothing changes. Along these lines, quit stressing over how you run over, and be clear. It's presumable embarrassing to the individual who constantly gets your name wrong, as well. On the off chance that you keep it brief and utilize an expert tone, you won't fall off seeming like a yank. Be that as it may, you additionally need to consider your relationship with the individual and how they would feel on the off chance that you adjusted them in broad daylight. Fifty-five percent of people relate to what they do and will pay attention to their misstep as an impression of themselves when you right them. Along these lines, take a stab at pulling the individual aside first. Prior, you alluded to me as Bob. I need to ensure you realize I really pass by Rob. Concentrate on the slip-up, yet don't express it as though you're accusing â€" or disgracing â€" somebody with phrases like You committed the error of Many individuals will acknowledge valuable analysis carefully. Lamentably, not all individuals are self-intelligent or accommodating of such important subtleties as names and language. Rather, take a stab at something like My name regularly gets mistook for Katrina, however it's really Karina. Once in a while, you may need to submit a social violation of social norms and intrude on somebody. Do it at any rate. Individuals frequently regard those in authority positions for being to-the-point and blunt, so in case you're hoping to ascend the stepping stool, better beginning rehearsing now. Try not to be reluctant to interpose with It's Karina. Sorry to intrude! If it's not too much trouble continue onward. These three strategies won't prevent individuals from getting your name wrong, yet they offer instruments that tackle various kinds of characters and learning styles. The tranquil people who are visual students and need reiteration can check your web-based social networking and email marks. The ignorant can get a respectful to-the-point update in a private discussion â€" or by being interfered. You can likewise have some good times by alluding to yourself in I proclamations or the third individual in case you're feeling additional flighty one day. Allude to Yourself This methodology may cause a commotion, however most will disregard it and learn. The astute, pleasant people at in your life will snicker alongside you. Why not have a fabulous time while revising others? You're not being malignant, just conceivably appearing to be a flighty person. Let's assume somebody asks you something like: Well, how could you choose to turn into a lion mentor and advertising executive? You state, At some point, a maverick lion discovered its way into the workplace, and somebody will undoubtedly get nibbled. In this way, I contemplated internally, Sioryn (said effectively), you can either tame this lion and adapt to the situation, or kick the bucket. Clearly, I made another companion. In case you're a jokester, you can take a stab at alluding to yourself as an outsider looking in, however the last methodology is likely the best â€" ideally, without the lions. Whatever approach you take, its chance to recover your name! Buy in to Punched Clocks for additional tips on remaining consistent with you as an expert and taking a stab at your vocation best. Proceed with the discussion by remarking or sharing. Get all that you have to assemble a profession you love by pursuing the pamphlet.

Friday, July 3, 2020

Resume Writers Digest Meet Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter

Resume Writers' Digest Meet Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter Resume writer Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter, owner of Career Trend, will be interviewed on Meet LeadChange today (Aug. 12, 2010). The show will air at 3 p.m. EST. Use this link to listen live or to a replay at your convenience. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Here are some excerpts from today's chat between Jacqui and Mike Henry, Sr.: Mike Henry Sr.: Tell us a little bit about you and how you got where you are:Jacqui: The most important things to know about me is that primarily that my passion and my value to the audience I serve is strategic writing and strategic careers writing. Writing and positioning individuals in the careers marketplace. Serving leaders who are at a point in their career where they want to position themselves in such a way that they stand apart uniquely. Theyre not just espousing their leadership, but painting a picture that is colorful and shows the nuances of how they solve problems. And people who, in their careers, are not at that place but, but want to break through. How can they create tracks in their careers and in their career messaging. Helping them understand: What type of leader am I individually? (Integrity-wise, ethically?) Companies are interested in the bottom line, so how do we knit that all together? Its a real challenge to understand for yourself how to do that very well. We dont judge ourselves as objectively as wed like to think. You write for a lot of different websites. Thats a large community of folks that do what you do, right? Folks in the career business who are helping with resumes? Yes, absolutely. Whats happened for me in the last, probably fewer than 3 years, is an explosion of communication throughout the Internet because of social media. Ive created my own blog on CareerTrend.net that I enjoy and that is driving more of my communication. However, a large part of these affiliations (Career Collective, Resume Chicks, Careerrealism, JobHunt.org, and TalentCulture) these are all talent/career/jobhunt/resume focused areas that many resume writers and careerists and recruiters and job hunt experts and career coaches aligned together to build a stronger voice that we couldnt have alone. I appreciate the more than I ever did. Ive been doing this for 13 years, but the last 3 or so years have driven the point home how important it is to drive the point home. Within the community, you need leaders. There is an interesting dynamic going on. I see this in the leadership world, relative to leadership design, too. There are issues around talent management and defining yourself. Then social media took off and the economy bottomed out. Im looking at a lot of those places and trying to turn the LeadChange group into this type of thing. I do leadership consulting and coaching. Im trying to separate my business and the group. I want to create a community of leadership professionals who are doing what you are talking about, in the talent space. We do that too as a collective as a group in these different initiatives. Each of them have their own unique goals and missions. Some of them Im in a leadership role, and others Im just contributing. They each seem to have their own mission style and goal. And the participants have their own entrepreneurial ventures to promote. Theres another group where its her business, but shes integrated in a community blog. In my case, CareerTrend is separate from the organization, but it obviously becomes aligned with these organizations and they feed each other. Being in the career management/talent management around leadership space, how do you see career management and leadership overlapping? How do they fit together? Or do you? You want to see some results and youre trying to help people put the results of what theyve done in their resume and their information about themselves that they release to the world. Where I was going with this original question was: I think a big part of career management, to me, is actually having done what you wish everybody thought you did. Having the results to show for those kinds of things. I recently had 3 clients, back-to-back, come to the table ready for what I call the interview. As part of my process with executives, I have my clients go through a rigorous process that involves a lot of heavy lifting on their part. Once theyre done with that, we go over their high-level, over-arching accomplishments as leaders and try to break them out into stories that arent so heavy that the reader gets lost. We think about what it is about their leadership style that sets them apart. Im thinking in particular about a client who was aspiring towards companies that have a double-profit-margin focus its where the company considers both financial and social consequences for their arriving at their business decisions. You dont want to dilute the resume with social causes, but you want to blend that in a way to attract the kind of leadership opportunities that they desire. And then pull in their past record to show that theyve been there, done that. Most people are proud of their sto ries but theyre so close to them, they forget the level and breadth of what theyve done because theyve moved onto the next strategic initiative. Do you see any changes in what people are looking for in a job, or in a candidate, or how they present themselves? I am. I am seeing more people come to me who say, I really want to make a difference. There is a lot of hard reality talk involved. Sometimes theyre in the midst of career coaching and theyre fighting that battle: Can I make a difference and make a living? Are they willing to make the sacrifice? There is a lot of internal struggle. There is no easy answer to that, for most people. Also, companies, I see, in the position descriptions, looking for a certain sort of person mentioning ethics and integrity. I see more of that message. When I was first Twittering last spring and summer, I was following people who were talking about leadership, and then invited them to join the LinkedIn group. We seem to have found a group of people who are passionate about making a positive difference, and not just talking about leadership. We are all challenged by the same thing: Not just doing this to make a buck. Im hearing that more. Im hearing more people coming to me, this year than last, who are saying, Im not in fear of my job ending, but theyre just really tired and its as simple as not being thanked or appreciated. Im hearing it more than I ever have in my 13 years, and its not just about the money. The people I work with, the leaders, the ones I really learn from, speak to that. And they speak with such conviction about what has helped them rise to where they are. They want their teams, or the people that report to them, or they collaborate with, to feel that they are the heart of the company; that theyre not just being dictated to. Most recently, I was surprised to hear one of my clients describe one or two opportunities that she passed up on, or even left a role, where she was asked to go against her own value system. And I think thats a good example. Im still learning from her how to be when push comes to shove. One thing Im noticing, in my own perspective, is that a lot of us see the emptiness of just pursuing money all the time, or just pursuing trying to be one of the people who hit the home run when the company makes its mint, or whatever. As the group of people who dont get to hit the home run gets larger, we just get tired of that, so we start saying, What do I really want to do? I think built into all of us is a desire is to make a dent bigger than we are. Like Steve Jobs quote about making a ding, or a dent in the universe. I think wed like the impression, when our pebble hits the metal, Id like the dent that it leaves to be bigger than it was. Thats a good analogy. Another gentleman Ive been working with has a long career in HR. We wrote his biography recently, which usually gives me a sense beyond their resume of their personal side. He and several others Ive written for in that way, has been a common thread of being brought up in a situation where they didnt have a lot, and worked hard, and had a customer service ethic, and achieved this but they wanted to leave a mark, and make something better than when they came in. Its hopeful to hear that with some of the bad that surrounds us, if we focus on the good, and those people, then there is a lot of pebbles gathering together to make a difference. How did you get involved in this, from the beginning? I had been in corporate America for 10-12 years and I had a writing degree (a bachelors degree, with a journalism emphasis). I liked the written word, and I had been in a PR role with a company. When I separated from my last company, one of the partners actually left (the one I directly worked for) and rather than taking another position, I had this little niggling goal to start my own gig, using my own writing. I wrote a restaurant menu as one of my first freelancing jobs. I continued to do stuff like that, but I advertised to do resume writing. This was back in 1997. I had a little ad in the local Kansas City newspaper that someone at a career management firm saw. They asked me to come and consult for them but I wasnt looking for a job. I had a financial severance package to last me for six months. I did start to work with them. I enjoyed it, and did pretty good with it, and one of the partners of that company was the original owner of CareerTrend and she mentored me. Here I was in my 30s, and I hadnt had much mentorship, but I felt this person doing this for me, so it was a good example for me, and as well for my clients. They offered to sell me a spin-off, CareerTrend, from their company. I liked it enough to narrow my niche and the more I narrowed it, and the more I got involved, I started absolving myself of other types of writing, because it was too distracting. Then I started focusing on the conferences, and training, and the development to be the best I could be. Im more strategic and gaining the credentials I felt would serve my clients, and serve my business. And thats kind of how that happened. It was brick-and-mortar when I started, and now its totally Internet-based. Was is a difficult transition to go from brick-and-mortar to Internet-based?It was difficult, but yet it was organic. Paying for the overhead and really, I was in a very high profile business district in Overland Park, Kansas gave me a lot of confidence, but it became onerous after a while. It was like another mortgage. As the Internet became more integral, I had a website developed, and I did a lot of things that made that happen. I also went through a divorce, which made it a lot harder. But it worked out. You just keep making adjustments. If this isnt working, how can I contain costs and build revenue? Its great how creative your mind gets under the pressure of desire. I had a great desire to make it work. I brought it into my home for a while. The partnerships, like ExecuNet. There are so many partnerships, like Career Management Alliance. Theyve given back to me 10-fold. I meet people all over the country, sometimes the world and suddenly youre lifting each others businesses co ncurrently. Like youre doing with LeadChange; its such a rising tide. There are times when its stormy, but if you can not let that make you be afraid to do what you need to do. If you can keep your focus on what you want to do. Thats what happened for me. You reference not being afraid. I think doing courageous things are the least scary. What we call courage in hindsight is the least fearful option.I couldnt agree with you more. I ask this question to everybody. Jim Holland asked me this question several weeks ago. When we talk about character-based leadership, its less about the character traits, and more about the character. Its about leading about from who you are. That makes everyone a leader. We are all self leaders. When did you first begin to realize you had some leadership ability? I was trying to think about this and I already used part of my response, which was: Where my business has gone. That introduced me to more leaders, and made my need for understanding leadership more necessary. I sometimes think Im in leadership roles, and sometimes I dont. I have a board role, for example, in Career Management Alliance, which requires leadership in a particular area (the credentialing), which is good for me. There seems to be a morph from when I was following and I know you dont like that word, following but I was doing my own thing; I never liked to be told what to do. But I wasnt in a leadership position, per se. I was just trying to grow and be the best I could be. You aspire to be like the people in the industry who are the named leaders. Ive had a couple of people comment on me being a leader, but I think its just more a comment on my activities. LeadChange is very visible on Twitter; its very real-time and visible. This has allowed me to lead and be led by so many people. I enjoy that back-and-forth. I understand that ultimately in business, you have to have someone making the decisions, and I get that. Sometimes Im making the decisions, and sometimes Im seeding the leader with some ideas. I had a couple of people in my industry I work really closely with projects, and one of us takes over the ultimate leadership role. I dont see myself as a leader in general, but functionally, and in certain instances. I have to lead my business. Thats the challenge. Theres a dichotomy between the position-based activity and the internally-inspired activity. Position-based followership is what we always talk about. No one want to grow up to be a follower. For me, its just been transformative. My business has just changed so much, the texture of it, the past several years. People I may never have met I hopefully would have so many people I communicate with daily, I didnt even know. I may have heard of them, but even then it was a blip on the screen. We have so many opportunities; it can be overwhelming, but if we keep our center about us. Is there one message or one idea youd like to give people?You sound like a question Id ask my clients, because thats a big question. I think theres so much to be hopeful for, and groups like LeadChange contribute to that. Be involved and get involved and we cant be involved in every group, but step into areas of discomfort and start exploring and youll find that your life, and career, and business will improve. Dont ever get stuck in the same-old, same-old, and youll find opportunities to grow, and that can grow you. Just keep moving. You cant steer a parked car.Exactly. If you are looking forward to doing something different with your career messaging, especially in a leadership role, get in contact with Jacqui. You can reach her @ValueintoWords on Twitter. I love to converse, rather than just tweeting and retweeting.