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A career as a Financial consultant offers great opportunity, and an abundance of work.

Organisations from a wide scope of industries are contracting working out to a range of financial consultants to help them make the right business decisions, set a strong strategy and help direct their companies toward more profitable results.

Whether you already offer consulting services to your clients, or considering moving away from traditional employment, you have a scope of great opportunities that are waiting for your consideration.

In a poll done by multi-national HR firm Robert Half, more than 900 CFOs were interviewed about their plans to use Financial Consultants.  Approximately half of all CFOs were looking to outsource some component of work to a financial consultant.

Here are the top niches within Financial Consulting:

1. Finance and accounting

57 percent of the CFOs said they were interested in hiring Financial consultants who could help optimize their finance and accounting projects.

As a financial consultant in this area, you’ll be hired to work on forecasting, analysis, budgets and reporting. If you like variety in your role, can articulate your advice and suggestions and have a proven ability to adapt easily into new environments, consulting in this area may be a good option worth considering.

2. Business Systems and Performance Improvement

48 percent of the CFOs were looking to a financial consultant to guide them in implementing business systems and handling conversion and integration.   Many businesses are looking for an external set of eyes to provide a fresh perspective to improve their processes and performance.  They’ll be relying on you to help with strategy in resolving issues, and averting risk to ensure the business meets it growth objectives.

Speed and problem-solving skills are the name of this game. If you enjoy challenges and innovation, you could find this area quite satisfying. You’ll need to have proven experience with resolving complex issues in an effective manner, while building relationships with key stakeholders.

3. Taxation

Keeping up with the constantly changing Taxation Laws is a key challenge for many Australian CFOs. 42 percent of CFOs polled were interested in hiring a financial consultant that could guide them through the ever-changing landscape.  They were also interested in new approaches to legally minimising tax, saving the company money and creating a strategy for more efficient procedures.

4. Governance, risk and compliance

Similar to Taxation Law, Industry Regulations are constantly evolving and business owners as well as senior managers are interested to hire consultants who have a proven track record in providing interim management to help update their systems to ensure compliance.  If you can help lead and manage the changes while reducing compliance costs, you’re consulting services will be in great demand.  Get ready to show your prospective clients how they can optimise risk-return outcomes, improve business performance and help reduce personnel time and costs.

5. Finance optimization

Working effectively is a key focus for many CFOs and senior managers, and 36% of CFOs surveyed were interested to hire a consultant to help with workflow management and streamline their financial cycle. Your expertise in this area will help reduce costs and improve accuracy rates.   As a financial consultant, you could be asked to set the strategy and implement standards that result in a better more productive work flow.  Depending on your experience and area of expertise, the organization may also want your feedback and advice on mergers and acquisitions, and even the CFO’s role.

robert halfInterested in Financial Consulting roles?

We recommend you have a high quality professional resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile prepared, and then upload it to 2 or 3 of your favourite executive search firms.

As this survey was conducted by Robert Half, we’ll provide a link to their page where you can submit your resume and be considered for Financial Consulting roles.

 

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Your Net Worth is in Direct Correlation to Your Network

Now that you have your personal brand in shape, your new resume and LinkedIn profile updated, you are now ready to make a move and start firing up conversations with employers and recruiters.

 

 

Here is the transcription of this video training:

 

Hi there, Bonnie Power here, and today we are going to be talking about your network of people.
Now this is the last video in the Career Success video series. If you haven’t watched the previous 4 videos, then please go back and watch those just to give you a really good overview.
This is the final piece of the puzzle to really accelerate your career so that you are more satisfied and you are more successful. So Key number for to having a successful and satisfying career is building a strong network of people.
And there is a saying that is well known, it goes something like this: Your net worth is in direct correlation to your network. What that means is that the money that you bring in as an income, is correlated to the people who you know, the people who you hang out with, so if you’re hanging out with people who are very advanced in their thinking, who do their best, who constantly challenge themselves, then it’s likely that they are earning a lot of money because they are bringing more value to the world.
And if you’re hanging out with these people and doing similar things, then your net worth is going to be higher or in the same category as them. So it’s something to consider.
So at this stage we‘ve got your personal brand in shape from earlier videos.
You’ve got the new resume and your LinkedIn is all done and updated. Now you’re ready to really start firing up conversations with the right people. And this could include with employers, and with new recruiters and new search consultants. But before we do that we’re just going to have a look and see what we’ve already got, everything on our network. And this is something that a lot of people forget to do, but it’s definitely worth doing.
So I want you to think about your current network of people. This is your current colleagues and your past colleagues as well so if you were to write down, start writing down the list of people.
You can put me on pause at anytime because it is majorly important, is to start actually doing stuff with these videos, so write down, and I would even say go for 100 people. So you want to write down people, and this is the criteria: you don’t want to just write down everyone that you’ve worked with or every manager that you had or every client. You want to work with people who you know, like and trust, and who may be in a position to help you move forward in your career. So people who are inspirational to you, or people who are just positive or people who went the extra mile or people who you know who you believe they can help you move forward somehow. You might not even know how they can move you forward; just write their names down anyway.
So there’ll be colleagues, there’ll be maybe past managers or there might even be current managers that know of your situation, they know you are not happy, maybe you’ve already have a conversation with your direct report and you’ve told them for ages that you’re not happy but they’ve just refused to do anything about it. But they will totally understand if you go, sort of thing, so they might actually be in a position to help you, you never know.
Think about the clients that you‘ve got, past and current, and think about other stake holders who you know. Think about mentors that you’ve have had in the past, and current mentors you have at the moment. And think about people like your suppliers as well. Like people within your network, people who you work with on a day to day basis, week to week, month to month basis. And these people again are people who you know, like and trust, and believe that for some reason, you’re not even maybe sure, they might be able to help you move forward in your career.
And then think about the non obvious people, and these could be people who you know through you know, if you‘ve got kids, through your son or your daughter’s school like maybe their friends have got their parents who are in different industries, and you might meet up with them in a sporting event or at the school and that might be the perfect time that you start to get to know them a little bit more and just sort of see where the conversation goes, and you never know.
You know, you never know unless you start having conversations with people. Think about the people who are you know at your sporting clubs, any other extracurricular activities that you do. Start to take the blinkers off and look at everybody as a potential person who could help you.

So this is particularly with your work crew or your old work crew, or ex supplier etc. You want to get them to recommend you on LinkedIn. If you can get 3 or 4 recommendations for every job that you’ve had in the last 3 – 10 years, then your LinkedIn profile is going to look so good. It’s just going to be outstanding.
Can you imagine being an employer, you’re looking at all these resumes, and you’re looking at their LinkedIn profiles and they see your LinkedIn profile and you’ve got like a gorgeous awesome photo then you’ve got a professional summary and then they are looking down at the employment section, and they can see that you know, 10 people have recommended you.
It’s just you know, bit by bit you’re building this case that you are definitely someone who needs to be interviewed. The other thing, after you’ve ask them you know, well like you can ask them for LinkedIn recommendations over coffee, but at some stage you want to start giving, having you know, those belly to belly conversations as I’ve heard that sort of said.
If you can catch up for a coffee or after work drink and just have a conversation, and not even, you don’t even have to be specific at the start about what you’re wanting to do or what your agenda is but you just, you never know unless you just start meeting up with people and let them the know the general direction and start fishing around to see what might happen.
Put yourself in those situations a little bit more. The other thing you also want to do is to find out industry insider news, especially on the hidden job opportunities. Because I don’t know if you know this, but 80% of jobs are never advertised on seek.com – they’re not anywhere, they’re not advertised because they don’t need to be. Because most employers would love to fill those roles without all the hassle so they’ll put the word out through their current staff that they’re looking for a new account manager, or they’re looking for a new general manager or they’re looking for a new executive, or you know board appointment or you know, anything. So the hidden job market is alive, well and kicking and you have got to tap into it so that you can be aware of opportunities that are actually getting filled this week and next week. It’s all happening.

Okay so another thing that you can do to really start expanding your network, so you’ve written down your current network, now I want you to start looking, especially if you if you’ve got a long term career goals. Like if you’re wanting to go places in your career, you want to start building relationships with people who you will know in 5 to 10 years time. So you’ve got to start thinking bigger, thinking more strategically, longer-term, and so expanding your network by attending or even running events or workshops is one thing that you can do. Not only will you become more educated and up-to-date, within your industry, but you’ll also be sitting next to people who you just never know.

You know like there’s a room full of people who are all working in different organizations and it’s just amazing how powerful your network becomes when you start meeting people in these types of events and workshops. And if you’re a coach or consultant then you can start running events and workshops to help your prospective customers or clients by giving them you know, great valuable information in this type of environment.

So the next point is, when you’re networking, you become like a valuable contact by sharing your knowledge and expertise which is great for them, but this will present you for future opportunities so sort of like what comes around goes around. So when you’re going to these networking events you’re obviously not sort of desperately asking people for jobs or for new business, but you’re adding value, you’re participating in conversations, but really the underlying foundation is that you’re showing your expertise. You’re showing that you’re well informed, you’re clearly showing that you’re well presented, you’re well liked, you’re well known, you’re building your personal brand which will lead to future opportunities.

Now the next little tactic that I would say to do, especially if you’re looking for a contract or you know an employer or employee type role, is to find out which agencies are really hot to trot at the moment within your industry. So if you go to Seek for example and use the classification drop down menu and have a look and probably you want to look at 2 or 3 classifications because sometimes there’s different jobs.

Like there’s great jobs in different categories that you are actually qualified to do. So have a look around, and then start looking at the agency or the firm, you know the consulting search firm, that’s advertising for candidates and start making another list of the top recruiters who are advertising within your area. And what you’ll find is that there’ll be 5 or 6 really really busy recruiters like they’re just, they’ve got work on, they’ve got momentum going. Find out the actual recruiter who’s actually advertising for that particular role if you can, and send them your resume and let them know, say, “I’ve just noticed that you’ve got 3 really great positions available, you know.” I’m not sure, well maybe they’re not exactly right for you, but just say, “I’m interested in talking to you about similar roles if you could contact me at your earliest convenience. Here’s my phone number.”

Put your LinkedIn profile in there and then they will contact you. So, and recruiters will definitely not mind because you are a commodity to them. Like they deal in people so you know, perhaps you’ll be worth 20, $30,000 if they were to place you into a role. So it’s not like they’re going to say, “oh no, you know only apply for roles, only apply to me if you want to apply for a specific role.” If you’re really good, if you’ve got a great resume, you’ve got a good LinkedIn profile they will be crazy to not actually receive your resume. Because you know, you’re going to be going to another recruiter and showing them your resume and you are, you know you’re worth something to those recruiters so.

It’s just like you’ve gotta pay the game. In the other way you’ll notice when you’re on Seek, you’ll notice that you’ll see the top organizations that are recruiting, like a lot of the banks these days, a lot of the charities, and a lot of the big companies are just going direct. They don’t even use recruiters anymore because they don’t need to, because they’ve got LinkedIn and they’ve got Seek, and they just hire an in-house recruiter and then they save the $20-$30,000. So find out the big companies who are advertising within your industry niche and send a letter to, an email to the HR Manager or to the Manager who’s in charge of that department and say, “this is my resume. I’m really interested to work for an organization like yours, ” and let them know why, because of you know their reputation etc.”

Please feel free to contact me, you know, if you, I’d be really interested to speak to you for 15 minutes about future opportunities if that’s okay.” So you start really expanding your network with the right recruiters and the right employers who are in a position to be able to talk to you about roles that you’d be interested in.

So your assignment for this video is to consolidate a list of the people that you already know within your network, and then contact the top 5 recruiters and ask them to view your resume and consider what types of roles your may be eligible for because a lot of the roles don’t get advertised on Seek as well. And then the last point is to contact the top 10 companies that you would like to work for and let them know that you’ve got an interest in working for them by sending an email or connecting with them on LinkedIn or meeting them at an industry event. How you do it is up to you but just do it. So I hope that’s helped. If you have any questions feel free to get in contact. It’s been an absolute pleasure sharing these strategies with you. That does conclude this video series. I’d like to know your feedback if there’s any way you can you know, get in contact through our contact page or by leaving a note if there’s a comment section available. If you’ve got any questions definitely, definitely open to helping you answer them. Bye for now.

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Your LinkedIn Profile will be viewed by recruiters and employers who are searching for candidates with your skills, knowledge and experience, so it’s vital that you have your LinkedIn profile up to date, especially when you are thinking about moving on in your career. Clients who have had their LinkedIn profiles done with us get approached for new job opportunities, but also for the products and services their current employer offers

Recruiters and Employers will:

View your LinkedIn profile
Read Your LinkedIn Posts and Comments
Search for Your Name via Google
Look for Media Mentions and Bad Press
Check Facebook to see what you reveal

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How to Create Your Personal Branding Strategy

 

Once you have identified where you want to be in 2 to 10 years time, you need to think about your personal branding strategy.

The term ‘personal branding’ is a term that is getting used more often these days, because social media platforms such as LinkedIn are causing an urgent need for its attention by professionals such as senior level managers, executives, coaches and consultants.

As the diagram shows, your personal brand is made up by the common denominators of how you see yourself and how others see you.

As a professional, you want to be seen as well presented, well known, and highly knowledgeable within your industry.

Your Assignment

  1. What do you want to be known for?
  2. How can you quickly show people you are trustworthy?
  3. How should you present both yourself and your Intellectual Property to achieve your goals?
  4. What methods will you use to stay updated about industry and global trends?

Watch the Next Training Video Now:

 

How to Update Your Resume and Cover Letter 2016 Style

Read the Transcription of the Video Training

How to Create a Strong Personal Brand

Hi there, Bonnie Power here, so we are returning back after step one of the career success video series, which identified your career goal. So if you haven’t watched that video, go back and watch it now and this video is a continuation of the training program that I am creating for you.

So the four areas that will help you achieve your career goals are listed here.
• The first one is your personal branding strategy.
• Second is the LinkedIn profile and online reputation.
• The third is your resume and your cover letter.
• And the fourth is your network of people.

So we will go on to personal branding. So once you’ve identified where you want to be in 2 to 10 years time, you need to think about how you are going to get there. More to the point, how you’re going to create your personal branding strategy to help you achieve the goal.

So, I love this model, it shows you what definition of personal branding is; the common denominators of how you see yourself and how others see you. Now I don’t really like the word “personal branding”, but it’s a term that’s getting used more and more these days because social media platforms like LinkedIn are causing an urgent need for its attention by professionals like senior level Managers, Executives, Coaches, Consultants, anybody in the sales industry, anybody in the IT industry, anyone who is a contractor definitely needs to listen to this on personal branding.

So as the diagram shows, the common denominator is your personal brand, it’s a combination of how others see you and how you see yourself. So as a professional, you want to be seen as like a well presented, well known, highly knowledgeable within your industry. You want to be really respected, like if somebody googles your name, they will see a professional LinkedIn profile probably as the number one search result and on there they want to see your LinkedIn profile, and we’ll talk about this and more in detail, gives your professional headshot and an overview of your career achievements in a style, like in a writing style that’s conversational. We don’t use this stilted professional tones on our LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn is about connecting with people; it doesn’t have to be stilted like a professional bio.

So you want to be seen, your personal branding goal is that you want to be seen as well known, well trusted, well presented, well informed within your industry. A lot of people make the mistake of not being well presented; so they can be well known through having for example a Blog or LinkedIn profile and being active on LinkedIn with the groups and discussions, or being active with their networking and etc., etc. they can be well known, they can be definitely trusted but they are not often that well presented. And that’s not my opinion, that’s an opinion of a lot of the Australian Personal Branding experts. They just say that people, like the guys look a bit scruffy and tend to wear suits that apparently are a little bit too small for them. And women don’t take the best care of themselves, like they could take up their image up a notch and it would really help them with their career and with the opinion of what others believe in them.

And I really don’t subscribe to being focused 100% on looks and things like that, but it’s so important to be well presented, so it’s about image and we’ll talk little bit more about that in the future, blog posts; but definitely worth having a look at in the mirror and say, what can I improve. Yeah, so that’s the goal of your personal brand, you want to be known for being well-known, well trusted, well presented, well informed within your industry.

So, your assignment with your personal brand is to have a think about:
1. What do you want to be known for? So, in terms of say the top, I would say five things, like the five pieces of advice that you would give someone or if you’re in customer service, or if you’re a subject matter expert, what do you want to be known for? And if you want to be a thought leader within your industry, then I would recommend you have like a model, a diagram, that illustrates what you believe to be true and correct, like something that you’ve been working on the within your field over the last few years. If you can develop some sort of a model or a diagram to really clearly illustrate what you know, then that will really help you and your personal branding. There’s other terms like “Authority marketing”, “Thought leadership” and they’re all pitched at making you look like you’re really well informed, like you know what you’re talking about, you’ve consolidated your thoughts, you know your stuff.

2. How can you quickly show people that you are trustworthy? Now a lot of people, just answer this question, if you’re an employee, you can be transparent with showing people what you have achieved in your last 3 to 5 roles, everything that you’ve helped attain, helped achieve the company’s goals, you put them there in generic language, you don’t have to go specific with the numbers. If you’re a Coach, Consultant or like a business owner who needs to promote their products or services, then you might have a website that will offer like a free report or a cheat sheet or a checklist or something like that, that really helps your prospective clients to make the decision to say, “Oh yes, I’m going to download that and check out how helpful she is, straight up. And then I might subscribe to the e-mail campaign, like the e-mail offer that she’s got on her blogs/websites and start to get a feel for the type of person that she is and the type of information that she has.” So that is the answer to question two, but you might have something else; it can be networking, it can be a whole host of other things.

3. How should you present both yourself and your intellectual property to achieve your goals? So have a look at yourself in the mirror and think, “If I wanted to be the best person in my industry and be known to be an industry leader, what can I change about my personal appearance so that when people are told that I am the number one, they believe it because I look like I am the number one in my industry?” And that’s something that you could get help with as it’s really hard to criticize yourself and to really look genuinely at yourself and say, “Well, how can I improve?” Sometimes it’s good to get an image consultant in or go for a shopping spree with someone who knows how to dress, or go and get a great haircut; going on a fitness campaign so you feel fabulous within the next three weeks, can really lift your spirits; all those little things to really help you present the best version of yourself that you can.

The other part of the question is intellectual property and this talks about your IP’s the model that you have for your knowledge, so when you’re communicating your best tips or you’re communicating the services that you can offer, you need to present it in a really professional way. So that’s like infographics, yes of course, and it goes back to your logo and on your web design and everything like that, like if you’re a Coach or Consultant or business owner, people are going to judge you by all of those first appearances, you know, with your website and how you present your blogs and how you present your content on your page.

4. What methods will you use to stay updated about the industry and global trends? So like for you to have a personal brand, have a reputation where you are well informed, which was one of the key points, you really need to know that you’re going to be up to date. So I could say join an industry Association or become a little bit more engaged on LinkedIn so you get updated by others, which is the easy way and you can stay on top of the global trends and then you can also comment on them and really use that in your career/future business goals, if you are a Coach, Consultant wanting to improve your business.

So that’s it for personal branding. If you’ve got any questions, get in touch. We will see you in the next training video.

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Are you planning on moving into a new job role soon?  If so, there are 5 Key things you need to think about, so you have a smooth career transition.  Watch this 5 part video training series that I have put together for you, and discover a few fantastic career strategies that you can easily implement yourself over the next 30 days.  The Key areas we cover will be identifying your short and long term career goals and then developing a strategy on how to achieve them.  We’ll go over the 4 essential parts that will build a successful career including:

  1. Your Personal Branding Strategy
  2. Your Resume and Cover Letter
  3. Your LinkedIn Profile and Online Reputation
  4. Your Network of People

 

This training is designed to lead your through a series of thoughts and decisions to help you move forward in your career.  I want you to have the best career and the most exciting and interesting career that you can possibly have, and I hope these career tips help you achieve just that.

Career Planning Continues….

Watch the Next Video Training Now

 

 How to Update Your Resume and Cover Letter 2016 Style

Get yourself a pen and a special note book to record notes, and also the thoughts you have while watching this video.

Video Training Notes:

Think both short term and longer term:

What type of job do you want to be doing in 2 years time?
What type of roles would you like to be qualified to do in 10 years time?

Consider Your Top Strengths.
What are you really good at ?

I believe you have natural talents, there are skills and abilities you have that you are recognised for. People really appreciate these traits and abilities you have. What are they….pause this video now and write down the top 3 skills that you have been most appreciated for over the past 5 years. Think about what your stakeholders have said when they have thanked you for the work you have done. There will be a common thread with all of these positive comments. You need to identify and be able to articulate what you are good at doing…and then make sure that ANY job you have in the future will not only use these skills and traits, but will develop them to the next level.
By becoming great at what you are already good at, you will become a leader within your field in a much faster way than trying to be all things to all people.

Focus on getting a role that will develop your key strengths.

 

If you are motivated to make the best decision about what type of roles you should be aiming for, I would recommend researching the market. It will take about 30 to 60 minutes and all you need to do is scan through seek.com or indeed.com and get a feel for the types of roles that are available within the industries that are relevant and interesting to you.

If you want to take the short cut to success in your career, then join 2 or 3 industry associations and start networking with people who are one or two levels higher than where you are right now.

While mapping out where you want to be in 2 to 10 years time, I would encourage you to think big about this. This is your life, your future. Your career can give you so much satisfaction and fulfilment if you are in the right job, within the right working environment. Don’t settle for a mediocre role. Stretch yourself and go for roles that will help you develop new skills and build on the brilliant reputation that you are now forming within your career.

For all anyone knows, you could be the next General Manager, the next CEO, the next Project Director, and you could be working with one of the top companies in your industry who has a reputation for taking care of their people.

Find a company and a role that will expose you to bigger and more interesting projects. Start thinking about the top 10 organisations within your industry or similar industries that you know are great places to be in.

You have a great amount of potential, and I would confidently say, you’ve got a lot more potential than you may even realise yourself.

When going for interviews, you need to have your own criteria on how they will be judged as your potential employer. You want to work with good people, for great leaders and be within a culture that will support you to do the best work you can do. You want to make this a win:win situation. They will be lucky to have you on their team, so be careful in the interview process to make sure you are making the right decision on who to accept a job offer from.

You need to surround yourself with people who believe in you,..and simultaneously who expect more out of you – because they know you can do it, they have faith in you. You want to be in an environment where you are challenged to be better. You want to be around people who have a positive energy and who will see your potential, and let you take the reigns in your next role.

  • So don’t settle for a mediocre role.
  • Don’t settle for a role that you already know how to do.
  • Stretch yourself and apply for roles that will allow you to develop the skills and abilities that you would like to do more of.

3 Top Tips for Career Success:

  1. Stop Holding Yourself Back from Greatness
  2. Leverage Your Natural Talents, Skills and Abilities
  3. Align Your Goals with the Current Market & Future Trends

Your Assignment

  1. What are the titles of 3 job roles that you would love to have within the next 2-3 years?
  2. What type of job / business would you like to have within the next 5-10 years?
  3. What internal dialogue is going on within you that could be sabotaging your own success?
  4. Name 2 or 3 people who could be become your mentors over the next 12 months.

Prefer to read than watch video?

Here’s the Transcription to the Video:

Hi there, Bonnie Power here, today we’re going to be talking about how to become more satisfied and successful in your career. So this video series will help you get clear direction on identifying your career goal and creating a career plan which will include your personal branding strategy, your resume and your cover letter, your LinkedIn profile and online reputation as well as developing your network of people.

So, step one is identifying your career goal. And you might find this easy or might find this totally confusing and very gray as an area that you’re not too sure where you want to go. It doesn’t really matter if you don’t know where you want to go or what you want to do when you grow up. The truth be known is that there is so many different opportunities that come along anyway that things change, so I guess my biggest advice here is that you just put one step forward at a time, so you go in the direction that you think that you’re going to be interested to go in and when you get to that next step, then you take a look around, have a look at the opportunities and you will discover all sorts of new opportunities that you would never have even considered beforehand. And then you can maybe change directions if that’s what you’re interested in, or you keep going with your original plan that you put in place today.

So most people can really say where they want to be in two or three years’ time. And if that’s you, then fantastic; I would suggest, just for this video series that you grab a notepad like a journal or somewhere where you write your thoughts or do your planning or your personal notes, so that we can start to record some really important information.

So step one, your career goal, where do you want to be in 2 to 3 years time? And if you’re not sure of the exact job title, then think about the type of job functions you will be doing, what you are responsible for, what you will be doing on a day to day basis, like the top five things that you will be doing. And then while you’re at it, if you can think about what you would like to be, say, qualified for or be perfect for in say 5 to 10 years time, then write down those types of jobs as well.

Now while you are considering these, I would urge you to really make sure that you’re going to be using your key strengths. So, I believe that everybody was born with a natural talent, something that they do better than everybody else around them. So what are you really good at? So I really urge you to think about maybe think about what the people have around you in your working environment, or even in your personal or voluntary type work that you have done, what they really appreciated about your work. Is it certain traits and your abilities, or your attitude towards things, or the way that you communicate; it can be anything. And even though you don’t think that it’s really significant or important, I tell you it’s really is, like that’s a really big indicator of where you should be heading and what skills you should be really leveraging and working on to get to the next level in your career.

So, if you can have a think about it, I encourage you to pause the video now and just to write down two or three skills that you’ve been most appreciated for over the past five years. So think about what your stakeholders have said when they have say, thanked you for work you have done and that might include colleagues that you have been working with or clients or customers that you have delivered a service for, just think about what they have said. And when you take me back of pause, then I’m going to tell you that there will probably be a common thread with all of these positive comments. So, pause it now if you haven’t and I just urge you to write down those top three things that you have been really appreciated for. It doesn’t matter if it appears insignificant to you right now, trust me it probably is majorly significant. So when you’ve taken me off pause then we can continue after that.

So, we’ll continue on now. So you need to identify and really be able to articulate what you’re good at. So, doing the exercise that you’ve just done is imperative to move ahead. What you’ve got to make sure now, is that any job that you apply for in the future will not only use these skills and traits, but will help you develop them to the next level. So if you think that you’re good with people, if you’ve got a knack with dealing with difficult situations and you can deal with anybody, you just find that naturally, like that’s just easy for you, then I would urge you to get into a role where you’re dealing with more complex situations, more difficult people, bigger projects, so that your skills can be really capitalized on and you can develop that people skills even to the next level; that’s just as an example.

Or if you really really like analyzing numbers and data and information, then make sure that the next job really makes those a huge focus of the actual position, so that you get better at it and you get more knowledgeable about the area. Because that becoming great at what you’re already good at, you become a leader within your field in a much faster way than just trying to be good at everything and please everybody. So just focusing on what you’re really good at would be my advice with your career at this stage.

So focus on getting a role that will develop your key skills; that’s a main point that you can probably write that point down.

Now if you’re motivated to actually make the best decision about the types of roles that you want to be aiming for, I would also recommend that you do something that we talk more about in the last video, which will be really researching the current job market. And you can do this, it takes 30 to 60 minutes, have a look on Seek, start browsing through, it’s almost like you’re flicking through a magazine when you’re flicking through Seek and you’re just looking at the different jobs that are available, you’re getting a feel for the market, you’re seen the types of responsibilities and the job functions, you’re looking at the key words that the recruiters and the employers are using. So you’re getting familiar with the jargon because you’ll need to use it when you’re in the interview and it will need to be in your resume and cover letter and LinkedIn profile as well. But you just start to become familiar with the job market so that you can make an educated decision when you’re thinking about your career goal.

So if you also want to take, this is while we are on that last quick extra tip, if you really want to take a shortcut to success, you will start to network and get into industry associations and meet people who are doing the type of job that you want to be doing in two or three years time, and you will start meeting with them now, you will start developing relationships with them now because they have got the answers to a lot of questions. All of the hard work that they did in getting themselves to that level in their career, they could have half an hour coffee chat of have a drink at the pub on a Friday night and just chat with you and talk to you and they can give your best tips on how they have really been successful in their career to date. They can tell you of the problems and the obstacles that they had to overcome. And then they can give you the tips on how to overcome them. So you don’t have to make the same mistakes that they have made. So really, I just wanted to plant that seed, we’ll talk a little bit more about it; it’s basically getting a mentor and you don’t have to just one mentor, you can have two or three. Like why settle for just one? So you can get [inaudible] to people and start thinking about people who you really resonate with who you really trust, who you really admire and offer to buy them a few drinks on a Friday night or by then coffee or lunch or whatever and really start to learn about how they did it.

Now while we are on this, I’m going to ask you to think big. So while mapping out where you want to be in, say, 2 to 10 years time, I really encourage you to think big about this, this is your life, this is like your future, you only get one crack at it, so I’m saying give it your best, aim for the stars. Your career can give you so much satisfaction and fulfillment within yourself if you’re in the right job within the right working environment, working with the right people. So don’t settle for a mediocre role, don’t settle for a mediocre company, really make sure to protect yourself, protect your future and make sure that you’re going to making a good educated decision when you say yes to a job offer.

So I really really really hope that you’re going to stretch yourself and you’re going to go for roles that will help you develop new skills and build on that brilliant reputation that you’re now forming within your career, so keep developing the skills and keep developing the areas that you’re really interested in. Because for all anyone knows, you could be the next General Manager or CEO or Project Director of a very big, large successful organization that sells products and services or has a cause or charity that you really really believe in. You could be working with the best company for you in the entire world if you aim for that.

So I’m going to urge you to find a company and a role that’s going to expose you to play bigger, play a bigger game. And I want you on your notepad to start writing down the list of 10 organizations within your current industry or similar industries that you know are great places to be in. So when I say similar industries, these industries that are connected to the industry that you are working with now. So for example, if you’re working in hospitality, maybe supply chain management or fridge services could be industries that are associated with your core industry but you know a little bit about them because you deal with those side industries week in and week out; so in actual fact, you do have experience in those sort of connected industries. So have a think about the industries that you know, if you want to start looking around and possibly changing industries, those other industries that are somehow connected are the next step for you.

Without sounding like I’m harping on a battle about this, I really, I don’t know if you’ve actually ever done any work on yourself, if you’ve ever had a life coach or a career coach or you’ve had a mentor, so I’m just going to take this opportunity to, in closing off to this video, I want to let you know that you probably have a great amount of potential. And I’ll probably say confidently that you’ve got a lot more potential than even you realize yourself. So, when going for interviews, you really want to walk in believing that you are an asset to an organization, you’ve got a lot to give, you’re going to give your heart and soul to this organization for the period of time that you are working there, so you want to make a really good judgment call to make sure that you are choosing the right employer or the right organization, if you are a contractor, coach or consultant.

So, when going for interviews you need to have your own criteria on how they will be judged as your potential employer. You want to work with good people, for great leaders, and within a culture that will support you to do the best work that you can do. So all of this will be a win win situation because you’re going to give your best and they’re going to support you to do what which remains their, you know, achieve their organizational goals. So they will be lucky to have you on their team, so be careful in the interview process to make sure that you’re really making the right decision on who to accept a job offer from. You really need to surround yourself with people who believe in you and simultaneously who expect more out of you because they know that you can do it, they have faith in you. You want to be in an environment where you will be challenged to be even better than what you are right now; you want to be around people who have got a positive energy and who will see your potential and let you take the reins in your next role. So don’t settle for a mediocre role, don’t settle for a rule that you already know that you can do, for example. You don’t really want to be bored; stretch yourself and apply for roles that will allow you to develop the skills and abilities that you would like to do more of.

Now, I really like this next saying, it says “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will land on the stars.” And that is a beautiful saying so go for gold like go for the top level role that you can imagine, like go for, to be the boss or be a business owner of multimillion dollar company, aim for that and start acquiring the skills to be able to do that role in 5 to 10 years time. And do the best you can. And by doing that, even if you go halfway, and you end up with a job that’s not quite to the level that you wanted, you’re still going to be in a great role because it’s, you were aiming so high. So I hope that resonates with you, I love, love, love that saying, so I just wanted to share it with you today.

Now, so the three tips, just in summary.
1. Stop holding yourself back from greatness.
2. Leverage your natural talents, skills and abilities.
3. Align your goals with the current market and the future trends. And that’s by looking on Seek and checking out what’s going on, what jobs are coming up, etc. which we’ll talk about in the last video.

So, if you are a high achiever and you want to implement these tips and tricks, I’ve got four little tasks for you to do.
1. Know what are the titles of three job roles that you would love to have within the next 2 to 3 years time.
2. What type of job or business would you like to have within the next 5 to 10 years time?
3. What, if any, internal dialogue is going on within you, that could be sabotaging your own success? And this relates to the inner critic, which everybody has. And you can help yourself by looking at little bit more into this, there’s an awesome book by Tara Mohr called “Playing Big”, it was released a couple years ago, really, really great in helping you achieve success in your own career and life. So very, very good book, I highly recommend it.
4. Name two or three people who could become your mentors over the next 12 months.

So if you can do that, that would be excellent. Write those in your Journal where you have been writing the other notes and I will see you in the next video.

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Best Personal Branding Tips:

Dress for the Job You Want Not for the Job You Have

Best Personal Branding TipsWith the rise and rise of LinkedIn, an Individual’s profile is now more important than ever. HR Managers are worried that their staff are not getting it right on LinkedIn, and as a result, are representing the company in a poor light.

Similarly, poor personal presentation and grooming are also key issues for companies, as their staff are just not paying attention to how they look.  Both men and women need to sharpen up their appearance, according to a recent Sky News report. I stumbled across this interesting interview with Personal Branding Specialist Sue Currie and Media Trainer and Communications Expert Andrea Clarke that may be worth watching if you haven’t yet considered the image that you are portraying to your prospective employers and work colleagues.

If you are looking for new job opportunities, now might be a good time to take a look and review your image. You want to make sure you look like a strong candidate for the roles you are applying for. You want to wear clothes that suit your current body shape, you want to make sure that your hair is well-cut and you are presenting as the best possible version of yourself.

Watch Video:  Best Personal Branding Tips
by Australian “Personal Branding” Thought Leaders

best personal branding tipsSo What is Personal Branding?

Personal Branding is what you want to be remembered for, says Sue Currie. It’s what you want to be known for.  It could be a certain element of your personality, your look, your name, a trait that you are known for.

 

“There’s a lot of women and men who tend to look untidy, they lack a good fit for what they wear.”

Andrea’s Personal Branding Tips:

  • Identify what words do you want to be associated with. eg. confident / honest / well-groomed / genuine / loving / caring / sharp communicator /
  • “Narrow down those key words that you want to be remembered for” suggests Andrea Clarke
  • Build pieces around that to make sure your messages are consistent to make sure that that’s how you are actually perceived by people in the work place.
  • Its easy to do this when you have a strong sense of self worth and you have defined your career goals.
  • Choose the types of companies that you want to work for, and make sure that your image is congruent with the company’s image and reputation.
  • Make sure you are co-ordinated in the clothes you wear!  make sure that your clothes are flattering for your figure.
  • Book in with a stylist if you feel like your clothes and overall image might need a review.
  • Communicate with confidence and authority in the workplace.
  • Dress for the job you aspire to have, and you will generate confidence within yourself.
  • People will make sweeping statements about the way you dress and the way you communicate.
  • Watch your body language, your use of language and your vocal techniques.
  • Be very aware that people will judge you based on the signals you send them.
  • Ladies – step up as a leader and get the confidence you need to communicate effectively.

Sue’s Personal Branding Tips:

  • Be authentic! Don’t try to be like anyone else. Be Yourself, and let the true you shine through.
  • Know Your Values and what you stand for. Then find out the values of the company that you are looking to work for, and see if they have similar values.
  • Get honest feedback about you other people would describe your brand.
  • At the very minimum, you should have a professional LinkedIn profile, and be using Social Media to raise your profile.
  • Make sure your Facebook profile is professional, as prospective employers, future clients and other stakeholders will be searching your name on Google.
  • Dress for the job you want, not for the job you have.
  • Career Starters should research the company and look at the images, get direction on how to dress for the interview by the visuals cues that you see on the website.
  • Guys – iron your shirt, and don’t wear those ‘too tight’ skinny jeans, and finally, wear suits that actually fit you.
  • Girls – don’t dress so casually all the time and don’t wear shoe string straps.
  • Be comfortable with communicate, and be able to articulate the key message that you want to send.
  • Make sure you can live up to the brand that you promote yourself as!

best personal branding tips Andrea ClarkeAbout Andrea Clark

After 15 years as a on-camera television news correspondent and three years as a senior communications professional in Washington DC, Andrea now trains women how to prepare for a presentation, how to use their voice, the importance of body language, grooming and dress to restore their confidence and ambitions to deliver with authority without being too assertive or perceived as a ‘bossy boots’.

For more information go to:   http://www.andreaclarke.com.au/

 

best personal branding tips sue currie

About Sue Currie

Sue Currie is a leading personal branding and image management speaker who informs, entertains and helps her audiences to achieve impact, influence and personal brand recognition.

Sue has been delivering conference speaking, corporate training programs and consulting services to executives, emerging leaders and managers since 2003, with the primary focus on reputation management strategy of personal branding, executive image and presence, business etiquette and PR communication to promote yourself.

For more information go to:  www.suecurrie.com.au