Answering the “Tell Me About Yourself" Question (Creating Your Elevator Pitch)

“Tell me about yourself,” the interviewer says.

“So, what do you do?” asks the person you just met at a networking get-together.

You find yourself on an elevator with a person you’ve wanted to meet. What do you say?

 

Be ready to say something! It’s smart to prepare a brief summary of your background and experience. Often called an “elevator pitch” — because it should be short enough to give during an elevator ride — there are many situations when a short, pre-prepared introduction (no more than 30 seconds) will come in handy.

This type of introduction can be used:

• When networking
• In a job search
• On career documents (in the cover letter, for example)
• In job interviews
• When a stranger strikes up a conversation with you in line at the grocery store
• To request an informational interview

You have probably heard the saying, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” So how do you provide a brief, concise introduction of yourself? 

I’ve created a simple 5-page guide to give jobseekers five easy formulas to choose from to help them create a succinct, memorable introduction — no matter their profession or the circumstances that they’re using the introduction.

 

An effective introduction should answer four questions:

• Who are you? (education, work experience, skills, specialization)
• What do you do?
• What sets you apart?
• Where do you want to go from here?

The guide includes five specific formulas to choose from. Jobseekers can pick the one that helps them create the best introduction to describe themselves and for the specific situation they are using it in. It includes lots of specific examples, plus eight tips for creating an effective introduction.

Purchase the guide here.

(Note: Bronze members of BeAResumeWriter.com, this is INCLUDED with your membership until March 31, 2022.)

This is Pass-Along Materials content, so this is content you can re-brand and/or re-work to use with your clients. Put your name on it. Publish it on your website, give it to clients as a bonus with their purchase of a job search package, or use it as an opt-in to gather names for your email list. (See the license below for what you can — and can’t — do with the content.)

Pass-Along Materials License:

[YES] Can edit, take apart, add to, or use/sell as is

[YES] Can be bundled with other products and/or content

[YES] Can be offered as a bonus

[YES] Can be used to create audio/video products

[YES] Can give them to affiliates to publish to promote your products/services

[YES] Can be used for opt-in bonuses (newsletter signups, etc.)

[YES] Can claim full ownership

[YES] Can alter e-cover graphics (if supplied)

[YES] Can publish as web content (except on free article directories)

[YES] Can be added to your own free membership site for job seekers

[MAYBE] Can be added to paid membership sites (if approved  — contact Bridget for approval)

[NO] Can submit to free article directories
[NO] Can sell on the Kindle platform (Amazon.com)
[NO] Can use as content for a LinkedIn Published post (unless stated in description)
[NO] Can sell resell or master resell rights (You can use these with your clients,

but you can’t pass the materials on to other resume writers for their use,

or sell the content to other resume writers for use with their clients.)

Are You Thinking About Your First — Or Next — Career Course?

More and more resume writers are starting to think about how they can generate passive income and recurring revenue in their career services business — and I AM HERE FOR IT!

There are only so many hours in each day and tens of millions of jobseekers that need us. One way to not only generate revenue but ALSO serve clients (and prospects) is to create content for them — in the form of ebooks, special reports, membership sites, and online courses.

If you’ve thought about creating online courses in 2022, I wanted to let you know about a free training next week from Teachable (which is the platform I use to host Resume Writer’s University and also my school for jobseekers.)

The free training is called teachable:u live, and it is based on Teachable’s flagship training program (typically reserved for Teachable customers), and it’s happening next week — January 18-20. I’ll be there — I hope you will join me!

During this virtual event, you’ll hear from established creators who will cover the most urgent topics related to growing and scaling an online business through courses. Whether you’re a new creator just starting out or an established creator looking to grow your business, there’s an event for you to join and learn from. 

The three sessions in teachable:u Live are:

7 Proven Steps to Launching Your First Course

Tuesday, January 18, 12:00 p.m. ET

This is the best place to start if you’re looking to build your first course with Teachable. Hosts Monique Daniels and Jess Catorc will walk you through Teachable’s proven seven-step process for turning your skills into a profitable online course business. 
 

How to Drive Conversion by Speaking to Your Customer's Emotions

Wednesday, January 19, 1:00 p.m. ET

This webinar is for you if you have grown your audience and are nearly ready to launch your course and make sales. Host Grace Abbott will teach you how to focus on your values, voice, and visuals to speak to your audience’s emotions and drive conversions. 

The Course Ladder: How to Level Up Your Course Strategy

Thursday, January 20, 2:30 p.m. ET

If you're already an established course creator and want to scale your existing business, don’t miss this session. In this fireside chat-style session, speakers Pat Flynn and Matt Gartland will talk about ways to build up from your first course to a full-scale course business. 

Teachable events never disappoint. You’ll get to connect with fellow attendees — and the speakers — via live chat during all three days. You’ll walk away with valuable insights you couldn’t get anywhere else (or at least not for free). And you’ll be more prepared and inspired than ever before to take action in your business. 

Register for free here.

Struggling With Marketing Content Creation for Your Career Services Business?

You know you need to create content to market your career services business.

Content is at the center of your email marketing, driving traffic to your website, marketing, branding, conversion, list-building, authority-building, relationship-building, credibility, social media presence, revenue generation, and everything else you do to generate benefits for your audience and profit for your business. 

But do you sit down at the keyboard and think, “What should I write about?"

If so, you’re not alone!

In December, I added a new Bronze member benefit for BeAResumeWriter.com members that is designed to help increase the productivity and profitability of the marketing content you create!

Content Checklists are a series of checklists — really, mini blueprints — that give you an overview of the steps you need to take, plus plenty of tips, ideas, insights, examples, templates, dos and don’ts, and more to make your marketing content creation faster, easier, and better.

I’ve already uploaded five of the checklists to the Paid Members Resources section … and I am adding a new one on the 7th and 21st of each month.

The ones already up there are:

• The Ultimate Checklist – gives you an overview of everything you need to do to create high quality, highly effective content to grow your career services business.
• The Goal-Setting Checklist – helps you decide how to use your content in the most profitable way.
• The Topic Generation Checklist – helps you quickly and easily generate dozens — if not hundreds — of topic ideas that your audience is sure to love.
• The Brainstorming Checklist – shows you how to expand your creativity to brainstorm topic ideas, content angles, and more
• (NEW! Added today!) The Idea Starters Checklist – helps you generate dozens or even hundreds of content angles and ideas for ANY topic and ANY niche.

Whether you have a blog or online newsletter you need to create content for — or you’re looking for ideas for LinkedIn Publishing posts — these checklists will give you a boost, giving you only the best and most important steps and strategies and ideas to help you with your content-creation needs.

You can download one of the Content Checklists for free here:
Download the Ultimate Checklist

It’s just one of the many benefits of Bronze membership in BeAResumeWriter.com – including Pass-Along Materials (done-for-you content you can use to educate, help, and inspire jobseekers), Special Reports to help you be more effective in managing your career services business, Career Worksheets to help you gather impactful information from clients to create interview-winning career documents, Ready-To-Use Social Media Graphics to increase engagement with prospects and clients on social media, and now the Content Checklists! (Plus, more great stuff is coming soon!)

Join now:
BeAResumeWriter.com/join

Membership is $13/month or $144/year currently. You get immediate access to content you can put to work in your business right away!

And if you’re facing writer’s block when creating your marketing content, be sure to check out the Content Checklists first!

Here are the ones scheduled through the end of 2022:

The Talking Points Checklist (Jan. 21, 2022) 
Shows you what to include in every piece of content you create so you always have something helpful to share. 

The Knowledge and Experience Checklist (Feb. 7, 2022) 
Shows you how to maximize your knowledge and experiences to create unique, highly effective content.

The Research Checklist (Feb. 21, 2022) 
Shows you how to do great research for any piece of content so your audience grows to trust what you say.

The “Know Your Audience” Checklist (March 7, 2022) 
Shows you how to get deep insights into your audience so you can create content they want that really resonates with them. 

The Surveying Your Audience Checklist (March 21, 2022) 
All about the RIGHT way to survey your audience while avoiding skewed and biased answers. 

The Titling Checklist (April 7, 2022) 
Delivers a surefire process to help you create attention-getting content titles that stand out and get clicks.

The Outlining Checklist (April 21, 2022) 
Helps you create a logical order for your content to make it more useful for your audience (which makes them happy).

The Organizing Checklist (May 9, 2022) 
Goes a step beyond outlining to help you organize your content in a way that makes it faster and easier to write.

The Writing Checklist (May 23, 2022) 
Provides tips and tricks for making the writing process itself faster, easier, and better. 

The Opening Checklist (June 7, 2022) 
Helps you get your readers’ attention immediately and builds anticipation so they keep reading. 

The Closing Checklist (June 21, 2022) 
Provides instruction for closing your content, including encouraging readers to click on your links or take your other desired action.

The Transitions Checklist (July 7, 2022) 
Helps you create content that flows smoothly from beginning to end so that your audience doesn’t get “stuck” anywhere.

The Revision Checklist (July 21, 2022) 
Shows you how to turn your first draft into a high-quality piece of content that makes you look and sound like a pro.

The Say More Checklist (August 8, 2022) 
Helps you decide when you need to expand on parts of your content to make it more useful to your audience.

The Say Less Checklist (August 22, 2022) 
Helps you determine when to cut portions of your content to make it more focused and fluff-free. 

The Simplify Complex Processes Checklist (Sept. 7, 2022) 
Shows you how to better help your audience with how-to processes (which, in turn, helps establish your expertise). 

The Readability Checklist (Sept. 21, 2022) 
Helps you create content that’s so easy to read that your users are more likely to stay glued to the page right until the very end. 

The Fine-Tuning Checklist (Oct. 7, 2022) 
Reveals how to do those final tweaks on your content draft to create something your audience truly will benefit from. 

The Graphical Enhancement Checklist (Oct. 21, 2022) 
Shows you how to provide extra value to your readers (and increase effectiveness) with a variety of graphics. 

The Formatting Checklist (Nov. 7, 2022) 
Shows you how to format your finished content so that it looks professional and easy to read. 

The Recycling/Repurposing Checklist (Nov. 21, 2022) 
Helps you speed up content creation by showing you how to repurpose your existing content. 

The Using Pass-Along Materials Checklist (Dec. 7, 2022) 
Provides another way to speed up content creation by licensing other people’s content. 

The Engagement Checklist (Dec. 21, 2022) 
Offers ideas and insights for creating content that engages your readers right in the beginning...and keeps them interested right until the end. 

LinkedIn is NOT About Sales!

I’ve heard this complaint from many career industry colleagues recently — and seen it myself in my LinkedIn inbox: You get a connection request from someone, and as soon as you accept, they send you a sales message! And worst of all, it’s not even usually a personal sales message. 

LinkedIn is NOT about sales. It’s about relationships. Would you walk up to a stranger on the street and make a sales pitch? Probably not. But if you strike up a conversation with a stranger in a line at the grocery store, it might naturally lead to a discussion of how you help jobseekers.

With 260 million monthly active users, LinkedIn may seem like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Who wouldn’t want the opportunity to sell their product or services to 260 million people?

Let’s remember, however, that LinkedIn in NOT about sales: It’s about building connections and developing relationships with people who may (or may not) be interested in what you have to offer.

Here are some tips for networking naturally on LinkedIn so you don’t develop that pushy “used car salesman” reputation that make people want to run away:

1. Do your research first. Do some Google searches and peruse company websites to search for ideal clients instead of bombarding employees at that company for introductions. You may have a great track record helping Fortune 500 executives but spamming them with connection requests out of the blue won’t win you any favors.

2. Personalize your messages. When you finally decide to send a connection request, don’t fall for the easy way out by using the LinkedIn sample text. That’s a perfect way to show your prospect that you have no idea who they are or what they do, so why would they want to connect with you? Instead, include a snippet of how you met. Did you see their post expressing frustration with their job search? Mention that. Were you introduced by a mutual friend? Say that. Prospective connections will pay more attention to your personal message than any automated, text template.

3. Ask for personal introductions. Stalking someone’s connection list on LinkedIn is a little creepy, especially if you cold call these people and say, “We’re mutual friends with Jamie Smith,” as the start of your conversation. Instead, ask Jamie Smith directly for an introduction. Remember, most people will only make introductions for those they actually know and who they trust, so make an effort to befriend Jamie Smith first before asking for those introductions.

4. Build the relationship first instead of going straight for the sale. Don’t be the person who accepts a new connection request and immediately sends a message with a sales pitch. Not only will that new connection cringe at the tackiness but they will likely tell others about your spammy tactic and you’ll have others hesitate or ignore your connection requests. Instead, send a “nice to meet you” message, thanking them for connecting. Publish consistently on your feed. Like valuable information they have posted on their own feed. Ask to meet in person if you’re local or if you’re attending the same conference. Show your new connection that you are interested in them and what they do.

5. Keep your profile up to date. New connections will most likely check your profile before joining your network or responding to your messages, so keep it up to date. Always post a current headshot; fill in your headline and description with power words so prospects know exactly what you do; and don't lie on your resume.

One note: There’s a huge difference between introducing yourself with your company name and what you have to offer versus introducing yourself with a hard core sales pitch. Craft your introduction carefully and you won’t be perceived as a tacky salesperson desperate to make a sale. Create opportunities to have a conversation … it is more likely to lead to a sale than an unpersonalized email.