Four Ways to Improve Your Life and Achieve Greater Success as a Resume Writer

I saw a reminder yesterday that we're already one-fourth through 2013. Wow. This year has gone by quickly. So, this week, I'd like to tackle the topic of self-improvement in a four-part series, "Four Ways to Improve Your Life and Achieve Greater Success as a Resume Writer."

The quest for self-improvement can have a profound effect on your personal life, your resume writing business, and your overall success. There are several approaches that you can take to reinvigorate your life and career. (And there's been some mention on career association e-lists recently of burnout, so reinvigoration is an important benefit of self-improvement.)

This week, in a series of blog posts, I'm going to highlight four of the most powerful self-improvement tools available. The first is The Power of Effective Goal Setting.


Why Goal Setting?

Setting, and achieving, goals can give you a significant sense of pride and accomplishment. When you set goals, you are also establishing priorities — for yourself, your family, your clients, and your resume writing business.  Ideally, you will set both short and long term goals and a plan of action to achieve them.

Goal setting is a learned behavior. By this I mean that — like all behavior modifications, i.e. changing your diet, becoming more positive, increasing your income, etc., it is something that you have to practice and adopt into your daily life, not something that happens overnight.

Step One: Define the Goal
To achieve your goal, you must first set an appropriate goal. What is an appropriate goal, you might ask? Well, first your goal must be specific and quantifiable.  For example, "I want to serve more resume clients this month" isn't a quantifiable goal but "I want to work with 15 new clients this month" is. "I want to earn $24,000 this quarter." "I want to launch one new information product this month." If your goals aren't measurable, they are easier to dismiss. This is why so many New Year's resolutions fail.  Goals like "I want to lose weight this year" or "I want to earn more money" aren't strong enough to hold yourself accountable, nor do they give you a clear plan of action.

Step Two: Set Yourself Up for Easy Wins (Initially)
When learning to adopt a goal-setting mindset, you should begin with smaller, achievable goals.  Sounds silly, right? Why set a goal that is easy to achieve? Because you're establishing a pattern of achievement and success. If you set a goal of "$100,000 in sales for 2013" and your sales last year were $27,000, then you will be setting yourself up for failure, and that's the opposite of what you're trying to accomplish. If, on the other hand, you set your sales goals for $42,000 (or, even better, "Bill $900 in client work next week," then that's a more reasonable goal — and one that you're likely to achieve. (That's three $300 projects, or five $200 projects.)

Small goals = a pattern of success = bigger goals = more success.

Step Three: Put a Date On It
Make your goal time frame short. By this I mean, if it takes six months for you to accomplish your goals, the satisfaction will not be as strong. That's one of the reasons so many programs advertise "Lose 30 Pounds in 30 Days." or "Write a Book in a Month."  People desire instant gratification. While you are learning your goal-setting and achieving behavior, make the beginning goals happen quickly.  "I want 2 new clients this week,"or "I will send a 'how are you doing' email to 20 past clients today."

Step Four: Make Your Plan
Once you've set your goal, plan on how you're going to achieve it. Remember that the shortest point between two distances is a straight line. If you want 2 new customers this week, get on the phone and call 20 past clients or send out an email to your client base with a special promotion that must be redeemed ASAP.

Step Five: Reflect On Your Accomplishments
Lastly, once you've accomplished your goal, take a moment to pat yourself on the back. This is important! If you don't take time to relish the accomplishment, then you're missing a crucial motivator to reach your next goal. Once you've taken a moment to feel pride and accomplishment, set another goal.  Don't wait, don't procrastinate, do it while you're still glowing with success.

As you continue this process, you'll establish a pattern of behavior within yourself. You'll see success move into other areas of your life. Goals like, "I want to exercise 3 times this week for 15 minutes," will come naturally to you as your goal-setting behavior gets incorporated into all facets of your life, not just your resume writing business.

Like this topic? Check out our special report on goal-setting for resume writers: "Ready, Set, Goal: Business Planning and Goal Setting For Resume Writers."

SPECIAL OFFER: Purchase the "Ready, Set, Goal" workbook for just $7 from April 2-April 14, 2013. The 50% discount (off the regular price of $14) is automatically applied when you click the "BUY AND DOWNLOAD" button.)

And check out tomorrow's blog post, "How Positive Thinking Can Change Your Life," the second in this series on self-improvement.

Do You Want All the Business You Can Handle?

Strategic alliances and partnerships often start out with that promise: All the business you can handle. One individual or organization has connections with jobseekers, and they promise to send a flood of new clients your way...usually in exchange for a commission or profit-split.

But developing the wrong kind of relationships can put your resume writing business at significant risk. They can make promises to you about providing a volume of clients that can be enticing — but can they deliver? And at what cost (both in terms of finances and the commitment it will require from you)?

Going into these relationships armed with the right knowledge and information can help assure you pick the right recruiters to work with — and negotiate an agreement that works for you — and for them. Here are some guidelines for working with a third-party individual (recruiter) or organization, excerpted from the "Developing Strategic Alliances and Partnerships With Recruiters" special report. (These same principles apply no matter who is promising to send clients your way!)

Page 10: Developing Strategic Alliances and Partnerships With Recruiters

Questions you should ask before entering into a strategic alliance or partnership:

• Will you (the firm) be the “client” or will I be working with (and billing) the job seeker directly? 
• What kinds of clients do you work with? Any specialties? What salary ranges do you usually work with? Remember that “generalist” firms in particular might send you some clients you don’t usually work with. If this is the case, you might want to make arrangements ahead of time with a subcontract writer to handle those clients. 
• Do you anticipate these project to be resumes only, resumes and cover letters, or other types of materials (bios, portfolios, LinkedIn profiles, etc.). Would you be interested in offering any other services to your clients — i.e., career workshops, interview coaching, salary negotiation advising? 
• How many projects do you think you will be sending me (per week, or per month)?
• How do you anticipate the client management process being handled (how I normally conduct business, or do you have something else in mind — i.e., meeting the client at your offices, or representing myself as your agent?) 
• How will referrals be made? Online? Will you email me the client information and I make contact? Will you set up a formal affiliate page and/or link? Or will you give the client my contact information, and the client will contact me? 
• How will sales be tracked? Are you responsible for tracking leads and clients, or am I? 
• How will payment be handled? Will the client pay you, or me? 

Issues to address when structuring an agreement (these are addressed in detail in the special report, but here is an overview):

• Tracking referrals 
• Compensation 
• Scope of commissionable work 
• Reporting requirements 
• Pricing 
• Contact details 
• Clients you don’t/won’t work with 
• Client ownership and ownership of work (copyright) 
• Nondisclosure/confidentiality 
• Payment details 
• Expense reimbursement 
• Defining the nature of the relationship (“status”) – i.e., independent contractor, employee, or agent 
• Responsibilities of each party 
• How default/breeches are resolved 
• Limits of liability 
• Term of the contract 
• Contract termination 

The special report contains definitions of each of these items and how they may impact the contract you come up with (no matter how informal!) with your partner.

Excerpted from: “Developing Strategic Alliances and Partnerships With Recruiters” by Bridget (Weide) Brooks.

Procrastinator? [Guest Post]

Do you tend to put off the activities that you least like in your business?

Do you find a million other so-called 'urgent' items on your to-do list; like hanging the laundry or dusting the bookshelves?

Are you a bit of a procrastinator?

It was 9 a.m. and I had a deadline to get a proposal in. I had met with a pretty senior person in a great company and they were interested in a workshop and coaching program. It was an exciting project and I was itching to get the bones of it down and ready to send out.

No procrastination here. No hesitation at all. I was on a roll. It was flowing beautifully and I sent out the proposal out a day before it was due.

I hit 'enter' on my keyboard and stood up and stretched. As I reached out my arm I knocked over a pile of documents on my desk. It was the pile that had been sitting there for the last 6 weeks, waiting to be sorted through, dealt with and filed.

This was about the tenth time I had knocked over that pile. I was pretending that it wasn't there. It is the work that I least like to do. And I had gotten to the point of absolute desperation with it.

In fact what had happened was that I was telling myself an amazing story about how dreadful, long, tedious and unnecessary this type of work was.

And the truth is, the story was much worse than the reality. When I finally forced myself to deal with it, it was over in less than two hours. When I surrendered to the pile of papers, it was a lot less complicated or tedious than I had anticipated. In fact, there was quite a sense of satisfaction in actually dealing with the issues, and especially in the new space available on my desk.

I have to say, that story made me feel pretty stupid. I had procrastinated for 6 weeks over less than 2 hours of work! Where's the sense in that?

So here's what's interesting and important in this whole issue; we are constantly telling ourselves stories about everything in our lives. We define our reality by the stories we tell.

There are activities that we do that we call 'hard work' and other activities that we call 'play'. It's not the same for everyone. What I call 'hard work' could be 'play' for you. What is the best fun and enjoyment for you, I may be calling a chore.

The exciting thing is; you can change it. You can discover and decide which story will make your day feel like fun and ease rather than difficulty and challenge. It's all in the story you tell.

Your success in business is very much about the story you tell. Think about what you replied that last time someone asked you about your business. What story did you tell? Did it excite and inspire that person? Did it excite and inspire you?

If not, you are telling a dis-empowering story and that's your choice. But it won't bring you business success. Start telling more powerful stories that create buzz and excitement around what you do. You'll see an immediate shift. You'll experience a transformation in how you feel about your business and how it is being perceived externally.

Remember, it's all about the story! Where do you need a more powerful story?

LISA BLOOM is a Professional Storyteller who helps entrepreneurs and business owners beat overwhelm, stress and discomfort with marketing to find confidence, attract ideal clients and make more money by finding their success story. Lisa's Leadership Development & Coaching Programs and Speaking gigs have engaged, motivated and inspired people worldwide! She is delighted to offer you the complimentary ebook "Using Stories to Get Great Clients": http://www.story-coach.com

Personal Branding: An Interview with Susan Chritton

What makes you stand out? How will people remember you?

Personal Branding for Dummies

These are important questions for resume writers to ask clients -- and ask ourselves! I had the opportunity to chat with/interview Susan Chritton, author of "Personal Branding for Dummies" in a Colleague-to-Colleague discussion series as part of the Career Thought Leaders Virtual Conference earlier this week, and I wanted to share some of her insights into personal branding, and how a few simple questions can help resume writers more easily create a theme for their clients' career communication documents.

Chritton is an Executive Career Coach and branding strategist who was mentored by the "godfather" of personal branding, William Arruda. She says her personal mission is to "educate and empower others to use their gifts in the world." I am confident she will reach this goal, as the information she shared during her presentation at the CTL conference — and her willingness to share her ideas with me during this call — was both informational and inspirational.

Question: As a resume writer, I don't often have a lot of time to explore a client's personal brand like a career coach would. How can a resume writer quickly ascertain a client's personal brand?

Chritton: Personal branding can be distilled into two concepts: "What do I think of me?" and "What do they think of me?" So one way to get to someone's personal brand is to ask them this: "Give me five words to describe yourself," and then "What are 2-3 words someone else might describe you as?" People are generally harder on themselves than others would be, so this gives insight into how they want to be seen (by others).

Chritton noted that if clients are receptive to this kind of work, you can give them homework (or a self-study assignment). In chapter 4 of the book, there is a personal brand profile worksheet (pictured) that they can use to develop their personal brand statement. You can then incorporate that into the documents you create.

She also said that one key is getting the client to "get out of themselves" and get a different perspective on how to articulate their brand. Two good questions for this, Chritton said, are: "Who are your competitors (for the job) and describe the qualities they possess." And then follow up with, "Which of those qualities do you have?" Chritton finds that often what clients say in response to these two questions "describes (the client) at their best."

Question: You talk about being authentic in personal branding. How might we get to someone's authenticity (again, quickly!)?

Chritton: Get people to "light up" and talk about themselves. Ask them, "What do you do that is different than others (who do what you do) — maybe something that people don't know about you, or that doesn't seem relevant."

She shared the story of a recent client, a business analyst who, she discovered, is also an accomplished drummer. Once she discovered that fact, she was able to use more colorful words to describe the client. The patterns in music mirrored the patterns the individual was able to see in data analysis. This was a key component of the client's personal brand.

Chritton said resume writers can use their "B.S. meter" to make sure that the client's brand that they are articulating is authentic to them. She shared the story of one young client, in his mid-twenties, who had crafted a personal brand that wasn't authentic. This became clear when the candidate would land interviews, but no job offers. Hiring managers quickly saw through the "style" of his brand and found there was no "substance" to back it up. "If you haven't been completely honest (in developing your personal brand), you won't get the response you're seeking," Chritton noted.

Question: Where do you see personal branding going next?

Chritton: "I hope more and more people use personal branding, because it humanizes people, and helps companies find the right people."

More and more companies are using personal branding, which gives her "a lot of hope" because "personal branding is the ultimate diversity" tool.

Half of the work Chritton is currently doing involves corporate coaching and personal branding consulting within organizations — she is often hired by the company itself, but sometimes by executives directly to work with them. She says the hardest part of this work is the diverse skill set it requires. "In working with corporate clients, you have to be a good coach, a good writer, you have to be social media savvy, and you have to have experience with video," she noted. (Video is an emerging area. She sees more and more of personal branding moving to video.) Chritton points to the video on her LinkedIn profile as an example of this in action.

No matter what the format — resume, LinkedIn profile, video — Chritton says the essence of personal branding work is "representing the client in the best, most honest way."