Category Archives: Success

Follow One Course Until Successful

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I heard this F-O-C-U-S acronym mentioned on a free teleseminar by copywriting coach, Chris Marlow.

She’d invited her own coach, Gary Ryan Blair (The Goals Guy), to talk about his 100 days goal achieving challenge. Of course, this allows Gary to also pitch his product but I’m fine with that for two reasons:

a) Gary freely covered some good content on goal setting – enough for a student of copywriting to get and apply the basic idea to their own business / personal goals without having to buy anything. However, he also pre-sold his own program very effectively and that was a valid marketing lesson in itself!

b) Chris is sharing some of the resources she’s using to set and achieve goals. And since I’m ‘into’ copywriting, I make it a point to find out how the top people in that field are developing themselves. (Anyone can apply the same approach in a field that interests them.)

Here’s What I Got From This Call With The Goals Guy

I always aim to learn something from these calls (I listen to them on the train, when there’s not much else to do anyway), and this time I was reminded of two important ideas:

focus-tokyo-odaiba

1) F-O-C-U-S

2) A ‘Sense of Urgency’

The practicalities of implementing a ‘Follow-One-Course-Until-Successful‘ FOCUS approach can be debated endlessly (hello procrastination, my old friend…!) and, in my experience, they vary from person to person.

However, let’s assume you’re committed to making a mid-career change.

That goal’s become your ‘focus’ for the next one, two, however many years you believe it will take to: a) make the change and b) achieve and savor the tangible and intangible goals that go with this new lifestyle.

Combining the ‘focus goal’ with a ‘sense of urgency’ is the tension that helps keep you moving forward. Sure, that tension will not always be present and there will be times where you may be ‘slacking’.

But, in the unknown time period that we call ‘our life’, inspired tension can be both your own motivator and reward generator.

That’s what I took from this teleclass.

- Mark McClure

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Playing The Generational Homework Concentration Game

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Here’s a conversation that recently took place in our household:

“You’re almost fifty, getting shorter and just don’t understand how FaceBook and multi-party video chats help with our studies.”

“Now, just a minute, don’t you know it’s taking all evening to finish?”

“That’s because we mix online socializing with study. You guys don’t have a clue.”

OK, I’m paraphrasing what was actually said (mine’s the middle sentence of the three above) but if you’ve got a teenage son or daughter with Internet access, I’ll bet you can probably relate. Continue reading →

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“Small Moves, Ellie. Small Moves”

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Watching the Carl Sagan-inspired SF movie, Contact, recently (I’m on my fifth viewing in two years!), reminded me of how important role models and their words and actions can be.

In the movie, Jodie Foster’s character, Dr. Ellie Arroway, has her childhood fascination with Astronomy and amateur ‘ham’ radio reinforced by the kindness, patience and encouragement of her father.

(Ellie’s mother died from complications during childbirth.)

Sometimes I like to think that Dr. Sagan wrote the novel to not only challenge future generations of scientists, who he knew would be grappling with funding problems and all the professional frustrations that can arise when working in unpopular fields. But that he also had the non-scientists in mind too – in fact, anyone with a goal or dream worth pursuing.

Although her father’s role in the movie ends early with his untimely death, his influence echoes through Ellie’s adult years and the script artfully illustrates various ‘thought memes’ at key turning and decision points in the unfolding drama.

My favorite line of dialogue is in the form of wise words from her father – spoken whenever Ellie’s youthful enthusiasm and curiosity about topics of interest innocently overlook the time and effort often required before useful results are seen:

“Small moves, Ellie. Small moves.”

- Mark McClure

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How To Market Yourself In The Shower

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Just how far would you (legally) go to get your ideal job?

What impressed me most about Eric Romer’s pursuit of an online marketing role with HeadBlade was how he got their attention by using the very skills they were searching for.

headblader-daily-routine

Here’s are four specific things he did:

  • 1) Made an engaging YouTube Video under the targeted name ‘hiremeheadblade‘ that showed him using their products, and demonstrating a good understanding of what makes them so attractive.

  • 2) Created a very compelling wordpress blog at HireMeHeadBlade.com (which as of March 2012, had fulfilled its original purpose; the domain name is now being used by someone else.

  • 3) Got involved via Twitter with HeadBlade and others who could help.

  • 4) Created a FaceBook page.

In effect, Eric was ‘walking the online career walk’ and not merely ‘talking the resume/CV talk.’

It was therefore no surprise to learn that HeadBlade’s people got in touch with him within hours of launching his online marketing ‘job hunt’ campaign.

(I suspect Eric was targeting keywords that HeadBlade were probably tracking using tools like ‘Google Alerts’.)

So what was Eric’s primary goal for all this online branding activity?

Well, I think the strategic goal was, of course, to get hired by HeadBlade. Big time win!

Employers Really Do Check Out Your ‘Online Profile’…

But the tactical goal was something many job seekers can learn from – and that was (imho) to get an interview. Eric’s use of online tools and personal branding are a great example of the potential offered by social media for savvy people looking to show potential employers what they can offer.

And in an increasingly interconnected world where the educated labor pool continues to grow by the millions each year, smart and ambitious people will need to use all the tools at their disposal to stand out and compete.

To finish this post, take a look at this screenshot from his YouTube page:

Eric-Romer-Hire-Me-HeadbladeNotice how he has his online contact info in the profile box, as well as ‘tags’ for searches within YouTube.

Very smart!

Two other nice touches in his ‘hire me’ campaign were:

  • - A ‘thank you’ YouTube video.

- A followup blog called, appropriately enough:
HeadBladeHiredMe.com !!

These are really clever moves because in years to come such ‘digital footprints’ will remain on the Internet and may come to replace the purpose behind having paper-based resumes and CVs.

Sounds a wee bit outlandish?

Well, in the words of one of the leading online content marketers I’m following, Joe Pulizzi:

“I never look at resumes anymore”.

That may be ahead of the curve for most HR departments out there in cubicle land – but give it time, give it time ;-)

More importantly:

Do You have an Online Social Media Presence and Career Marketing Strategy?

If not, why not?

- Mark McClure

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Will Smith On The Separation of Talents and Skills

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The successful Hollywood actor and musician, Will Smith, has been a source of inspiration for many people, young and old.

Watching this short YouTube tribute video to him, I picked out the five quotes below because they speak to anyone looking to make the best of their talents and skills.

(Oct 2011 Update: Alas, “This video has been removed because its content violated YouTube’s Terms of Service.”)

On The separation of Talents and Skills:

1. “Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft.”

2. “Dedicate yourself to being better every day.”

3. “Focus on making a difference.”

4. “The first step before anyone else believes it… is that YOU believe it.”

5. “If you’re not making someone else’s life better, then you’re wasting your time.”

Of course, this is wisdom known by the ancients but still as relevant today.

I found the video of Will delivering these truths very inspiring.

How about you?

- Mark McClure

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