My Brother’s Trip to the Job Fair

My brother Jacob  recently asked me for advice concerning a job fair he was going to attend at The University of Texas at Austin.  Jacob is a Senior getting ready to graduate next May, but unlike many college seniors, has much less to worry about than most.  He runs his own very successful design studio which he’ll be running when he graduates. 

So why would he be attending a Job Fair?  There are a few good reasons why he needed to attend this event. 

1.  Keeping his options open

2.  Meeting new people

3.  Gain practice networking

When Jacob came up to me, he asked me what things he should do to prepare.  Although he would have done amazing without me, I told him he could do a few things to stick out. 

Be Cool.   

The first thing I did was reassured him that he had nothing to worry about.  He has a very successful business and he really didn’t need any of these jobs.  I told him to view it as a chance for companies like Lehman Bros., Bank of America, and Target to impress him enough to leave his business.  With that frame of mind, he would automatically stick out over other students who were hoping to take the first job offered to them. 

Don’t Be Afraid to be a Ham

Next, I reminded him that recruiters are people too.  They liked to be chatted up and joked around with.  Be Charismatic!.  Most people at these events are too uptight.  They want to “make a good impression” and create a brand image which is professional.  I told him to break the rules. 

His advisors told him to bring his resumes in a black leather portfolio and to keep the business cards at home as no one would look at them.  I told him to do the opposite.  How many 21 year old’s have their own company?  His advisors also told my brother to keep his resume to one page.   While my brother could do this, I gave him the advice to print out his 11 recommendations on LinkedIn and then attach them to his resume.  My brother stapled his business card, resume, and LinkedIn recommendations on one pamphlet.  How many people actually stick their testimonials on their resume? 

At the end of the event who do you think left a more memorable impression?  The guy who was chatting up the recruiters with interesting collateral or the hounds of drones with black portfolios and one pagers?

Salamon Rules of Personal Branding: Rule # 4 — Be Accessible

I recently wrote about my trip to New York where I met a rapper selling his Cd’s on the side of the street at $20 a pop.  I wrote that giving away your content and mass-communicating your brand will get you much better results than creating a barrier to entry.  Acquisition is king.  You have to do what you can to create a relationship with people.  Companies do this all the time.  Read here about a movie theater that gives away popcorn for free.  What they’re doing is giving their customers a reason to be loyal.  Even though most theaters make a killing by charging $4-8 on popcorn, this theater is making their money by creating loyalty.  Giving away their popcorn sparks their customers to return and tell their friends. 

While part of value-building is exclusivity, even the most exclusive of brands (Oprah, Trump, Tiger Woods and others) stick with the basics.  They are big and have brand names for a reason.  They mass-communicate their value and they’re accessible to their fans through PR, TV, Books, etc.   

I have a personal philosophy of providing value first, connecting, and creating the relationship.  Are you a person is who’s looking to take value rather than add value?  Is there a barrier to entry with your personal brand?  Do people first have to invest in you before you ever add value to them?  How many of your bosses know what you do and what your brand really offers?  This type of information needs to be accessible. When creating your brand, be sure to let others know what kind of value you have.  Be open and have easy ways for people to get in touch with you.   

All the best in your journey!

Charisma–Foundation for your Brand

Why are some people so damn charming while others seem like they’re still stuck in 6th grade?  When I was in High School, I had a friend who was the most charismatic person I had ever met.  While he wasn’t the best at school, he always managed to charm his way through everything.  He always got A’s and I sure don’t remember him ever paying for a meal at lunch. 

Whether you consider yourself charismatic or not, there are things you are doing that are either making your more attractive or less attractive.  There are certain social rules that you need to follow to make sure you are being as charismatic as possible.  Charisma if a pillar of your brand, so be sure to improve your social skills every day. 

What is the base of Charisma?

Humor:  The easiest way to get rapport and have people feel at ease with you is to be funny.  I am by no means advocating for you to be a clown, but the ability to get people laughing is priceless.  Generally having a good fun loving attitude is the best way to be in the mood to use humor.  Make sure to Smile and never get angry when humor is directed towards you.  Learn to spit smack back! 

What do you do if you’re not funny?  First, don’t try to be funny.  Understand that comedy starts with the character, not the joke.  If you’re serious 100% of the time and try to crack a joke you heard from an outgoing fun-loving friend, I guarantee you won’t be able to pull it off.  Find your humorous voice and try to understand whether people are reacting positively or negatively to your humor. 

Vibe:  We’ve all met a socially awkward person that makes everyone feel uncomfortable.  What was it about that person?  Did they try to hard?  Did they say the wrong thing at the wrong time every time they opened their mouth?

Vibing is a skill that people learn after having a certain amount of social exposure.  It’s the ability to listen, laugh, and make people feel comfortable with your presence.  That of course starts with being comfortable in yourself.  Having self-confidence in who you are and what you bring, are the core components to being able to vibe with people.  Have you ever hung out with people who were WAY more accomplished than you were?  I have.  And even I felt a little inadequate.  I wasn’t able to vibe comfortably with them.  That all stems from self-confidence.  Build your confidence and be able to vibe with anybody. 

Value:  Building your self-confidence ultimately builds your self-value.  The more you value yourself, the more other people will be able to value you.  There are ways to show you have value.  But please, don’t show off.   Showing off doesn’t show how accomplished you are.  It shows how desperate you’re in need for validation from the people around you.  The more value you have for yourself, the more you’ll be able to have a sense of humor, and the less judgemental you’ll be about others (judging is a cover for your own inadequacy).  Value is proved by being humorous and being able to shoot the hay with others no matter how accomplished they may be.  Being comfortable around EVERYBODY, shows that you’re a person with value that they should respect.   It’s called Charisma.  If you have charisma, you have a solid foundation for your brand. 

The Relationship Between Brand and Personality

My grandparents had strong personalities. In every aspect of their lives, you knew where you stood with them.  People of that generation allowed their personality to be ingrained in every part of their brand. 

Technology and especially the Internet has certainly slowed that type of brazen persona.  What we say and do today can be communicated to the world within moments.  Our generation is accountable for what we think, do, and create.  Just ask Rosie O’Donnell, Britney Spears, or anybody else who has gotten torched in recent memory. 

On one hand, this type of accountability is great.  It makes each of us strive to produce quality work and be nicer people.(lest people in our social networks spread the message)  Mike Lally over at Diligentia argues that we don’t have one brand, but many brands, each managed by the different people we deal with on a regular basis.  While that’s certainly true, I think that’s still old-school thinking.  In an age where social-networks and blogs tell the world who we’re connected and who we work with, our brand is converging not splitting. 

My grandparents had many brands.  The people they dealt with had no easy way to communicate their experiences to the greater community.  That has changed today.  If I have a terrible experience with a person or a brand, I can let others know.  This is called word-of-mouth.  Check out Andy Sernovitz’s blog for his experiences and thoughts on word-of-mouth as it relates to companies. 

On the negative side of our connected world, it’s much harder these days to state your true opinions and let your personality out. People fear getting reamed in blogs, the media, and in social networks.  No one wants to be abused.  However, this type of accountability has led people to become boring.  People are creating brands that lack personality, yet we are still people.  If we want to create a NAME brand, we need to be people.

John Kerry and  Al Gore hid their personalities behind their brand while Bush rode his entire campaign on his personality.  Who had greater success at creating a following?

Personal Branding Wiki

Dan Schawbel came up with a great idea to start a Personal Branding Wiki.  Given the explosion of the personal branding craze, a wiki is a phenomenal idea.  In short, the definition and ideas about personal branding continue to evolve as more ideas pour in–what better way to organize those thoughts than to have a wiki? 

More important than the actual wiki, I must say that I am quite impressed with Dan Schawbel.  Interest in Personal Branding is rising–why not be the defacto thought leader by being the first to market with a personal branding magazine, wiki, videos, etc. 

There is something we can all learn from Dan Schawbel.  Do you have an idea?  Are you creating a following with that idea?  Then make sure to keep innovating.  That is the one thing Dan Schawbel is doing absolutely right.