We Are All Ambassadors: Part I

The first blog post of the new year is always a tough one for me. (Last year, it took me until Jan. 26 to come up with something worthy -- but it ended up being one of my most popular blog posts ever. Check out "I Got Distracted" if you want to know more.)

The first blog post is important. You want to strike the right chord -- set the right tone -- for the year. But you don't want it to be trite. (Or about New Year's Resolutions, if you can help it!) So I debated Sunday (New Year's) about writing one, and made it through all of yesterday (Monday) without coming up with anything profound ... but lying in bed last night, the pieces finally came together.

It all started early Monday evening. I was trolling Facebook (instead of writing the resume I was supposed to be working on, or doing anything else on my lengthy-at-the-moment to-do list). I saw a status update from a casual friend of mine, "Anyone out there can help me with a cover letter? I'm applying for a job at {Company Name}."

I commented, "Are you talking to me?" because I had written a resume for her a few months back, as a favor. I didn't hear back from her, but one of her friends commented a few minutes later, "check Microsoft Word templates :)" ... to which I (somewhat snarkily) responded back, "...only if you want to have your cover letter look like every other one." My friend's friend, came back with, "Well, she can use it as a guideline so she can know what to include in it."

Ugh. At that point, instead of responding back with something even more snarky, like ... "I'd take the Gallery of Best Cover Letters over what Microsoft's engineers thinks passes as an effective resume," or, "I'm thinking of reading WebMD in hopes of being able to assist the surgeon the next time I have a procedure" -- I realized that 1) I was wasting my breath and 2) I wouldn't be representing the careers industry very well by escalating the conversation. So I went back and deleted my two comments... and managed to restrain myself from using the "block user" function on my friend's profile. (It's not her fault her friends don't understand how to job search effectively, right? See, I almost said, "It's not her fault that her friend is an idiot" ... but I didn't.  -->  :) -- right?

The message here, however, is that many of us as resume writers use Facebook to generate new business -- through use of Fan pages, events, Facebook ads, and even status updates on our personal profiles -- but it's a double-edged sword. We Are All Ambassadors for the professional resume writing community.  When we're sharing posts we've written on our careers industry blog, or mentions in the Career section of the local newspaper, or giving general job search tips to coincide with key dates (i.e., in September for "Update Your Resume Month"), we are increasing the visibility of professional resume writers. (Tell me you don't get requests for service or referrals from what you post about careers topics on your personal Facebook profile.)

But we're also representing the industry when we get snippy with one another in LinkedIn Groups. (Guys, these groups are public, and job seekers can see them too. One of the hardest things about resume writing is that there are very few "hard-and-fast" rules, so politely disagreeing is fine, but some of the threads really get out of hand. Or on Twitter. Don't have a fight with another resume writer on Twitter. The whole world is watching.)

Unless the reputation (and personal brand) you want to cultivate for yourself is that of a jerk, be careful about your tone when posting on social media. "Animal" on Twitter has solidified the reputation of many headhunters as "jerks" by some of the comments he posts -- he's well aware of that. (His tagline on Twitter says, "SENSITIVE? DON'T FOLLOW ME -- Feel free to criticize me in public.")

But this approach can (and does!) turn people off. (And paint a negative stroke on the whole industry ... a topic I'll get into later this week.)

We're all ambassadors. Including me. And remember, digital dirt persists.
So think before you post, and post carefully.

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I'm going to take up this theme -- "We Are All Ambassadors" --  as a multi-part series for the week.
Check back tomorrow for Part 2: Why Pro-Bono Work Can Set the Wrong Expectations.

And I'd love your comments.

Imperfect Action is Better Than Perfect Inaction

I came up with this quote ("Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction") when talking with a resume writer last week. (Note: A quick Google search indicates that Harry Truman said it first -- or, more likely, most famously.) It's something that I should post on my bulletin board, because it's easy to do nothing when faced with an obstacle of any type.

It's something that applies to our job-seeking clients. How many of them don't move their job search forward because they're afraid that they're "doing it wrong," or they need to take step "A" before they take step "B" -- or so they think. ("Well, I couldn't put up my LinkedIn profile because I didn't have my resume done." or "I couldn't apply for that job because I hadn't had a chance to line up all my references yet.")

It also applies to us as resume writers. When I recently put together my "Career Membership Sites Made Easy" program, I could have waited until the whole thing was perfect before launching it. But for a perfectionist (which I am!), that day could be a long way off. Instead, I put together the written curriculum for the program, the accompanying step-by-step setup guides, and modified the November Pass-Along Materials LinkedIn report into lesson format so CMSME buyers had a ready-to-go curriculum to launch their first membership program.

Is there a trade-off for going with "imperfect action"? In my case, yes. I decided to offer the first 25 resume writers who took a chance on this new program a substantial discount. When I reached that objective (we got the first 25 group members in about 72 hours), I decided to keep looking for "charter" members who would grow as the program grew. They can get in for a low price while I keep building the resources around the program (I'm doing a training webinar for group members next week), and a guide to driving visitors ("web traffic") to your membership program website. I didn't want to wait until the full system was done before I let in additional group members. The sooner you start on a project, the sooner you can start getting results. And results -- no matter how small -- are often what motivates us to take even more action.

The most important thing to remember is this: Take one step to move forward. If you're thinking of offering a new service to jobseeking clients (like a job search support group or service, or interview training, or whatever), don't wait until everything is perfect. Launch, then improve. In the movie "We Bought a Zoo," Matt Damon's character says, "You only need 20 seconds of insane courage and I promise you something great will come of it." It may take more than 20 seconds, but you can do something great.

Remind your clients of that too.

One Word for 2012

Mari Smith gave me a great idea -- every year, she chooses one word that is her "theme" for the year. For 2011, her word was "Commitment." For 2012, her word is "Growth."

I am going to take her idea and choose my own word for 2012. The word that kept coming back to me is "Abundance." I'm reading a great book, "Today We Are Rich," by Tim Sanders. It's the story of how having confidence can lead to success. The "Rich" in the title doesn't refer to money. And in my theme, "Abundance" doesn't refer only to money ... but also to a richness of faith, gratitude, and joy.



The last few years have been tough for my family, but things are definitely turning around. I am looking forward to 2012. It's my goal to help resume writers bring more abundance into their resume business. It starts with the launch of "Career Membership Sites Made Easy." I'm going to be leading and coaching about 30 resume writers to bring passive income and recurring revenue into their business in 2012.

Choosing a Payment Option for Your Online Resume Sales

More and more resume writers nowadays are taking full payment upfront from resume clients on their resume writing business websites -- and if you haven't yet taken that step, you've probably started thinking about it.

If you are going to sell your resume services online, then you will need a way for those transactions to be processed. Choosing the right payment option is an important step. Here are some tips to help you find the right option for you.

Hardly anyone deals in cash or checks with an online resume service. They are too unreliable. Clients want to get started right away, and waiting for payment in the mail takes time. And, there are too many steps to follow to retrieve your money should a check bounce or get lost in the mail. It is better to deal with credit cards. However, many prospective resume clients are wary of letting their personal information float around in cyberspace.

With all this in mind, here are a few things to consider:

• What type of shopping cart do you have? Your shopping cart is the program that you have integrated into your website to register customer sales. Customers will be able to add to the cart, check to see a total, see descriptions and basically choose what they want to buy. The shopping cart records their choices. 
• Decide on a payment gateway. A payment gateway bridges the gap between shopping cart and the credit card information that the customer will enter. Some third party merchants charge a fee for each credit card processed. With a gateway you still need a merchant account, but you can avoid these unwanted fees. 

The one thing to remember is that all payment gateways are not compatible with all types of shopping cart programs. Before installing your shopping cart program, check to see which payment gateways are compatible with each so you donít have to change midstream.

• Ask questions.What most customers look for is verification on your site that your payment gateway is secure. They want to be sure that their information will not fall into the wrong hands or be sold to a third party site. You can assure them that they are safe by checking your payment gateway for AVS protection to prevent fraudulent transactions, and that it is PCI-compliant -- which ensures credit card information is protected.
• Perform a test transaction. Once you have set up your shopping cart and payment gateway, check to be sure that it is up and running 24/7 and accurate. Go through the process as one of your customers would. Check admin on both the shopping cart and the payment gateway to see that everything was logged properly. Also, check your credit statement to be sure the transaction went through correctly.

Choosing the correct payment option is important to the growth of the resume services you sell online.