Save $200 on "Serious Revenue" Program (Buy By Oct. 19)

Yesterday, I wrote about Career Directors International's Career Innovator Awards. Today, I learned that two of those award-winning innovators -- Susan Whitcomb and Pat Schuler -- are offering a $200 discount on their program if you purchase by Oct. 19.

The Career Innovator award are presented to individuals who have developed a resource, tool, program, or initiative that has added significant value to the careers industry -- either to jobseekers or career professionals.

Susan and Pat's program, "Serious Revenue: Landing 4- and 5-Figure Clients...With Integrity and Heart" earned the 2012 Career Innovator award.

Here's the description of the program:

Susan Whitcomb here! . . . I’ve spent several decades in the career field as a practitioner like you, and have also trained and coached hundreds of career professionals over the last 10 years. During that time, my heart has been broken to see the many talented, passionate professionals who LOVE what they’re doing — in fact, feel called with a divine destiny to do what they do — but are STRUGGLING to make ends meet. And to be painfully honest, I’ve struggled with the same issue in the past!

Serious Revenue: Landing 4- and 5-Figure Clients with Integrity and Heart – Binder and Audio Collection on thumb drive

I wanted to do something about this (and boost my own skills in the process!). I’d heard about several people in our industry who were also in that mode (doing great work but not making the income they wanted) and had worked with the amazing sales coach, Pat Schuler — doing so, they took their income beyond what they had dreamed, landing 4- and 5-figure clients on a regular basis.

The problem was, a lot of people can’t afford Pat Schuler’s $400-600 per hour rates. So I asked Pat to team up with me and create a product where people could get more than a dozen hours of her and my time at what it would cost for approx. one or two hours of her time, as opposed to $7,000 to $8,000! . . . a product that would have a lasting change on the way you do business and enable you to earn more for the priceless services that you offer.

So, if you . . .

• Feel like you’re at a crossroads with your business
• Are a recent startup
• Or perhaps have been doing this for years, but worried that if you can’t find a way to earn more money, you may have to go to work for someone else . . . read on!

You know you make a difference in your clients’ lives, and if you could you’d do this work for free. You’re self aware, and you’ve done a lot of personal growth work.

Are you beginning to suspect that, like me, you have some old beliefs or old habits that are potentiallysabotaging your business success despite the expertise with which you deliver your services? What if the major obstacle in your way is just that there’s a skill set you haven’t yet mastered?

• How many weeks or months of training have you had at actually growing your business?
• How well is that training working for you?
• How often are you getting push back on your fees or programs?
• What percentage of prospective clients are saying, I need to think it over?

These are all challenges that you can master with the Serious Revenue: Landing 4- and 5-Figure Clients … with Integrity & Heart program that helps you conquer self-sabotaging beliefs, that leads you step by step through a process that empowers you to ask for the business from a place of confidence and power without being arrogant or pushy . . . in fact, with integrity and heart.

In about a dozen lively, interactive interview sessions (I love interviewing thought leaders!) between myself and exclusive sales coach Pat Schuler, you can get the skills you need to grow your business and land those 4- and 5-figure clients that would make such a difference to your confidence, your career, and your checkbook. In fact, here’s what a recent beta tester, Robyn Feldberg, said about the program:

I’m really impressed with the Serious Revenue: Landing 4- and 5-Figure Clients … with Integrity & Heart training and genuinely grateful to have been among the first to learn these innovative techniques — things I would have NEVER thought of on my own, and I consider myself a fairly decent salesperson to begin with. I grew up in a family of sales-people, but this program taught me techniques I’d never heard of before, and it gave me usable tools to implement in my business immediately that will inevitably help me reach my revenue goals more quickly. The program also made me much more aware of why it’s important for me to reach my revenue goals.

Robyn L. Feldberg, CCMC, NCRW, “The Abundant Success Career Coach”

Certified Career Management Coach & Nationally Certified Resume Writer

What’s included in Serious Revenue: Landing 4- and 5-Figure Clients … with Integrity & Heart?

• More than a dozen audio sessions on a thumb drive (in MP3 format so you can download to your iPod) covering everything you’ll need to know to land 4- and 5-figure career clients, from mindset, overcoming limiting beliefs, to setting revenue goals, qualifying clients, and asking for the business … with integrity and heart!
• A beautiful binder with approxiately 200 pages of transcripts, for those who prefer to read along while also listening.
• Outlines to bring the comprehensive material into focus.
• Special Bonus: To ensure you implement the program and reach your revenue goals, we’re addingMomentum Monday – Six MONTHS of LIVE monthly calls with Pat and/or Susan on the 4th Monday of the month (we take a break for summer and December).

Pat and I have invested hours and hours of time over a six-month period to make this product powerful. We have finished beta testing and put final touches on production, so the product ships immediately!

If you’re committed to seeing some Serious Revenue in 2012, this will be the key tool to make that happen!

BONUS! PROFESSIONAL MARKETING SYSTEM is included when purchasing Serious Revenue WITH an Academies Certification Program

On top of the Serious Revenue program with Susan and Pat, which covers the selling side of the equation, you’ll also be able to participate in a proven marketing system with a professionally trained and licensed Get Clients NOW!“! facilitator–Kim Avery!

Kim, a graduate of Career Coach Academy and now completing the Job Search Academy program, is an experienced coach AND marketing maven, passionate about marketing and helping you build your practice. She provides foundational marketing education, training on how to build an effective marketing plan, and coaching through the process of implementation. I guarantee you will love her warm and caring style, insight and wisdom, and deep level of competence!

Get Clients NOW! teaches you over 100 tactics and tools for marketing professional services with step-by-step recipes for their use. This systematic, structured program shows you how to design a focused, cohesive marketing action plan that produces results. (Requires that you purchase a copy of the book, Get Clients NOW!)

Step-by-Step Approach

Using the Get Clients NOW! book as a text, you will learn a simple but highly effective step by step approach, straightforward tips, and specific techniques like these:

• What really works to market a service business, and what doesn’t
• How to diagnose what’s wrong with your marketing using the Universal Marketing Cycle
• How to design a marketing program that is suited not only to your business, but your personality, strengths and favorite activities
• How to break out of “analysis paralysis” and determine exactly what you need to do first — and every step of the way
• How to overcome the fear, resistance, and procrastination that block effective action
• How to create a customized, affordable, reusable, and realistic marketing plan
• Ongoing support and encouragement to stick to your plan throughout the program

With both the selling tools you’ll learn in Serious Revenue and the marketing tools you’ll implement in Get Clients Now!, you will have the critical information AND the support you need to get on the right track.

Register here for Serious Revenue: Landing 4- and 5-Figure Clients … with Integrity & Heart audio program (if not registering for CCMC or CLC or CJSS program):

Purchase Serious Revenue: 1 payment of $895 or 3 payments of $299

Use promotional code INNOVATOR when you buy -- and get the program for only $695 (instead of the usual $895). Code is valid through Oct. 19, 2012.
Payment plans are also available.
Learn more about -- or purchase -- the Serious Revenue program here.

Career Innovator Awards Announced

Four years ago the Career Innovator Awards were launched by Career Directors International (CDI) to encourage industry professionals to grow, learn, and innovate. The awards encourage and celebrate excellence and innovation.

Entries have been seen in a variety of areas, such as career management and job search apps, social resume tools, university-development dual career programs, social search strategy books, employment information and job seeker support websites, job search how-to programs, and much more.

For 2012, former winners were once again asked to return as judges in helping to select the winners from the entries received this year. The competition was tremendous and resulted in a tie that led to six total winners (vs. the five typically selected).

In no particular order:

• Jennifer Hay of IT Resume Service for: Twitteresume: The Twitter-Enabled Real-Time Resume 
• Laura Labovich of The Career Strategy Group and Miriam Salpeter of Keppie Careers for: 100 Conversations for Career Success: Learn to Network, Cold Call, and Tweet Your Way to Your Dream Job 
• Murray A. Mann and Rose Mary Bombela-Tobias of Global Diversity Solutions Group LLC for: Multicultural Career Management Program (MCMP) 
• Pat Schuler of The Gemini Resources Group and Susan Whitcomb of The Academies, Inc. for: Serious Revenue: Landing 4- and 5-Figure Clients … with Integrity and Heart 
• Barbara Safani of Career Solvers for: Job Search Mobile Phone and iPad App 
• Chip Cohan of Preptel Corporation for: Preptel’s solution to optimize resumes-based computational linguistics

CDI’s President, Laura DeCarlo states, “It is an honor to see the levels of quality and innovation that our members aspire to; we’re proud to have leaders of this caliber affiliated with our association.”

Full 2012 Innovator Winner application descriptions can be viewed at http://www.careerdirectors.com/cia_2012.htm.

Advanced Resume Writing Strategies from Career Directors International

Twelve years ago Career Directors International (CDI) launched Update Your Resume Month. While there are always great resume writing tips to be had, sometimes the master techniques that are employed by the most elite of resume writers tend to get missed.

Why? Not because they are trade secrets but because they require flexing a lot of creative, technical, and strategic muscle.

Here are some advanced strategies to make the resume jump from the stack:

1. Quote Your Last Boss. A resume is all about saying why an individual is the perfect one for the job. However, it is easy for employers to be jaded about what they read due to the amount of puffery that jobseekers sometimes employ.

Take a look at letters of recommendation, accolades, awards, and letters of thanks from employers and clients to find a quote that represents the value offered for the target job(s).

Consider the difference between a jobseeker writing in the resume:

“Recognized for consistently driving triple digit revenue growth in new territories for five consecutive years.”

or quoting his recommendation letter:

“Tom is a simply amazing sales manager; under his leadership we’ve seen his division’s sales demonstrate triple digit growth for each year he has been in charge. No matter what failing division we give him, he makes it one of the top three nationwide.” – Steve Mills, XYZ Company
The quote lends credibility and can be verified, which makes an employer more trust its validity.

To make a quote stand out, try centering, bolding, and italicizing it near the top of the resume; or perhaps use a text box or other lightly shaded background.

2. Chart the Way to Success. Charts are a lot like the use of color in the resume – don’t add it in unless it makes sense. Using a chart or graph on a resume in relation to a particular job makes sense if the job seeker can show progress in fiscal responsibility, beating colleagues in goals, meeting/exceeding quotas, or simply showing the amount of sales achieved each year.

Why use a chart? Because many people are visual and begin to go cross-eyed after reading line after line of text, no matter how good a job the writer did in making it bite-sized and easy-to-read. A chart will draw the reviewer’s eye and provide a quick summary of top accomplishments.

To create a chart in MS Word, just consult the help menu for ‘insert chart’ or ‘insert graph.’

3. Link to Your Profile or Webpage. It is quite common for employers and recruiters to look for information on job seekers beyond the supplied resume. Make it easy for them by including a link to a LinkedIn Profile or other major web page, such as a web resume or about.me page.

Take steps to ensure such online content is robust and complete. Include information such as further project details, in-depth skills lists, and letters of recommendation or testimonials (with approval from the author).

As always, no matter how visual a resume, there is no excuse for slacking on grammar, punctuation, and content. Every resume should work to present the job seeker’s individual unique selling propositions or brand, key areas of expertise, and the challenges faced, actions taken, and results attained in employment positions.

For more tips, CDI’s Job Seeker Center also provides a variety of free resources along with search tips, more resources from Update Your Resume Month, and information for locating and selecting a professional.

CDI also encourages resume writers and career professionals to spread the word about Update Your Resume Month. This event offers a crucial reminder to job seekers about the value of keeping their resumes up-to-date or simply taking advantage of recording their new experiences as they happen in order to prepare for their next professional update.

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About Career Directors International – http://www.careerdirectors.com
CDI is a global professional association committed to ensuring that career and resume professionals can grow and thrive in a rich, vibrant, exciting, and nurturing environment. CDI is focused on championing the industry’s cause for credibility and visibility; fostering exceptional success in every generation of career and resume professionals; and cultivating the career superhero that exists within each one of us.

Introducing LinkedIn Endorsements

If you work with your clients on creating or enhancing their LinkedIn profiles, you may have seen something new from LinkedIn in the past week or so. Called "LinkedIn Endorsements," the enhancement builds on the LinkedIn "Skills" categories by giving your LinkedIn connections the opportunity to "validate" your capabilities.

I first came across the "Endorsements" option when accepting a new connection request. Up popped this box:

LinkedIn displays the Skills your contact may exhibit, and allows you to either endorse all of them (simply click the yellow "Endorse" button), remove Skills (click on the "x" next to the skill), or add additional Skills (type in a Skill).

You may also encounter a pop-up box when interacting with a connection's profile. It will pull up the individual's name and a single Skill. If you click the blue "Endorse" link, it will add your Endorsement to the individual's profile.

Click on your own profile, and you can see which of your Skills have been endorsed.

Your Skills are listed, along with the number of people who have Endorsed you for each Skill, and their photos (if displayed with their profile).

You can also conduct blanket Endorsements:

You can choose the yellow button to "Endorse all 4" or you can click the individual blue "Endorse" buttons in each square to Endorse a specific skills. Or, you can remove an individual Skill Endorsement by clicking the "x" in the upper right-hand corner of the box.

At the NRWA Conference in Charleston last week, LinkedIn expert Joshua Waldman mentioned the increasing emphasis LinkedIn is adding for Skills. The use of Endorsements to validate Skills is the next step in this evolution. Skills (and validated Skills especially) are useful for recruiters, who are one of the largest audiences funding LinkedIn.