Just off the phone with a Toronto client. She is in the running for a big internal promotion and in my opinion, makes an excellent candidate.

However, while she can talk with passion about the organization and her teams, she has a heck of time summoning that energy to talk about and sell herself. This is so common. Often, the most successful people are the worst at communicating what they do, what they’ve done, and how they do it.

If this is you, don’t feel bad. You aren’t alone.

Now, get over i…

The various uses and benefits of blogging

Let’s get this out of the way first. Blogs are online journals, incredibly easy to publish, with powerful abilities to link between posts (individual entries), and between other blogs. Bloggers write and post short messages and ideas and comments. They write articles. They link to relevant posts from other sites on the web, and they can publish audio and photos on to their blog. Blogs make it really easy as a reader to follow your favourite sites by subsc…

Heather Hamilton at Microsoft has a superb blog.

Any long-time readers here and my clients will know that I am a strong advocate of the hand-written post-interview thank-you note.

In my opinion, Heather has nailed the subject with her recent post:
Heather’s “Marketing and Finance at Microsoft” Blog : Post-interview ‘Thank You’ notes

Back in the 18th and 19th centuries, once the printing press had become more common, there was a self-publishing phenomenon. Books, yes, but from what I understand a great deal of pamphlets, or what we might understand as articles, white papers, and booklets. For political purposes. For scientific glory. For vanity. For scandal.

Great titles like "The Migratory Habits of the Peruvian Mudhatch, Modestly Proposed by a Gentleman."

The means of publishing had become accessible enough that people were …

Marketing guru Seth Godin posted a great quote. He applies it to marketing. Have a read:

“What Bootsy said: Here’s some profound marketing thought from Bootsy Collins.

“You have to bring some funk to get some. You just can’t walk in a place and expect to get some funk. If you ain’t bring no funk, then you can’t get no funk… Another thing is, you can’t fake the funk or your nose will grow.”“

Now, if this quote resonates with you, think about your work. Your career. Your solobusiness. Doesn…

Networking well is an art. I’ve written about networking tips here.

I came across an insightful piece from Venture Blog that is worth a read if your future depends on building relationships with well placed people (which is pretty much everyone!!!). Practical Networking: Make Your Own Luck

Almost all of the good things that have happened to me in my life were a result of managing and cultivating relationships. Most people get jobs through people they know. Opportunities are usually created through networks. However, many people make the mistake of focusing on quantity rather than quality when they network. They think that having met someone now qualifies that person as a contact. Perhaps. But, meeting someone and leaving a lasting impression are two different things. For most of u…