Mindset Monday: Have You Considered a Vision Board?

One of the ways you can increase your positivity and grow your success mindset is to create and use a vision board. A vision board is pictorial of the success you want to achieve. The main point is that you want the vision board to be easily visible and usable after it’s created. 

• Know What You Want. The first course of action for you is to know what type of goals you are working on for your vision board. Some people like making an “overall” vision board that depicts their entire life, but it can also be helpful to create one for each individual goal that you have so that you can focus on one thing at a time. 

• Set Your Goals and Objectives. When you know which life area you’ll focus on, write down your goals and objectives. Use the SMART goal format so the goals you make also have tasks and actions associated with them.  

• Choose Your Tools. Now that you know what you are creating, choose the tools you will use. Plan to look at the vision board daily. It’s not going to do any good if you can’t see it when you need motivation. You can choose a print format or use a Pinterest board.

• Choose Images / Words That Support Your Goals. As you choose the pictures and words that depict and support your goals, store them in one spot, such as Dropbox or a folder. Write down or copy words that help support your goals, too, because you’ll want to connect the images with affirmations too.

• Design the Vision Board. Now that you have all the information and materials, start preparing your vision board. Focus on the feeling of meeting your goals. Feel it as you create it. 

• Look at The Vision Board Every Day. Look at your vision board every morning before starting your day and even every night as you consider your actions and set up your day for tomorrow. The only way your vision board will help you is if it’s tied to the actions you take each day.

Finally, allow yourself to experience emotions about how you’re going to feel when you succeed by meeting that goal. 

Resume Writers & Estimated Taxes

If you’re a self-employed resume writer, then you are responsible for paying your own taxes. In contrast, if you work for someone else then taxes are automatically taken out of your paycheck. Depending on your annual income and your circumstances, self-employed iresume writers may be required to pay taxes on a quarterly basis.

Check with your accountant or refer to past tax returns to determine if you can pay annually or need to pay quarterly. There’s no disadvantage to paying quarterly. You can, on the other hand, be assessed fees if you decide to pay annually but earn too much (and should have paid quarterly).

The 1040ES is a form that will help you estimate your quarterly taxes. It’s available here –

https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-1040-es

You can also learn more information about quarterly tax payments and what is required here - https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/estimated-taxes

Once you know how much you need to pay every three months, it’s time to create a plan to save for it. This isn’t your emergency savings plan. This is a different savings plan designed to take the financial pain and stress out of paying your taxes.

Step One: Where Will You Save The Money?
Unlike an emergency savings plan, your tax savings doesn’t need to be stored in a separate account. If you keep good records you can simply keep your tax savings in your standard business checking account. If you believe you might be tempted to spend the money, then open up another savings account specifically for your quarterly taxes. 

Step Two: Weekly or Monthly?
The easiest way to build your savings is to establish automatic deductions. For example, you may have $500 deducted from your business checking account each month and added to your tax savings account. To determine how much to deduct, simply divide your anticipated quarterly tax payment by three months or 12 weeks.

If you are keeping all of your money in one account, you’ll want to make sure you build up the amount in your account on a monthly basis so when tax time comes around you have enough money ready.

Step Three: Add It to Your Budget
Treat your quarterly taxes as any other business expense and incorporate your monthly tax savings into your monthly budget. By doing this, you’ll make sure that you always account for the expense and never fall short. When tax time rolls around you’ll be stress free and in the black.

Saving for your quarterly taxes may not be fun, and there are certainly other things you’d like to do with the money. However, by creating your quarterly tax plan you will remove the stress of paying taxes and you make sure you’re not hit with a large payment (and possibly even financial penalties) at the end of the year.

Case Study: Shortcuts in Resume Writing

 

SHORTCUTS IN RESUME WRITING – A CASE STUDY

A client called me yesterday to tell me he had a first interview on Monday with one of his Top 4 Target Companies and that it went well. He’s been asked back for an in-person interview next week. 

There were a couple of tools I used on his project that were helpful “shortcuts.” This client isn’t my “ideal” client these days. (I work mostly with Marketing, Advertising, Public Relations, and Sales – or “MAPS” clients — but he was a returning client from 2014, so I was happy to work with him again.)

His previous resume (2014) had focused on his role as Warehouse Manager/Shipping & Receiving Manager (that resulted in him landing a job initially as Maintenance Technician with his current company). I did an update to his resume in 2016 for an internal role and he was promoted to Warehouse Manager. He was then promoted to QA Inspector/Lead Technical Writer (without a resume update). Unfortunately, last year his employer lost a major contract. He was given the opportunity to switch to a manufacturing position or be laid off. He decided to change to the manufacturing role (with a pay cut), but wanted to start looking for new opportunities. That’s when he reached out to me.

Quality Assurance is the focus for his current job search, but it required completely overhauling his resume. (Which was necessary anyway, with the 7-year timeframe between his last work with me and this job search.)

To gather information for his new career focus, I used one of Evelyn Salvador’s Career Worksheets. The “Documentation: Manufacturing and Production” worksheet provided insightful questions to gather information about his most recent relevant role (2019-2023). I provided him with a checklist to identify the keywords relevant to his experience, and incorporated some of the Documentation questions into my questionnaire. 

Once I had his information, it was time to tackle the resume writing. Lately, I’ve been starting the writing process by browsing Michelle Dumas’ Distinctive Resume Templates to find one that feels like a fit for the client, job target, and industry. I decided on the Blue Collar Resume Template (with Blue Collar Coordinating Documents – resume addendum, cover letter, and references templates). The templates are visually appealing and ATS-friendly and I find it easy to populate them (changing the color scheme with an appropriate color for the client — in this case, blue to denote “trust, security, and stability.”

I also had this client take a DISC profile assessment (I’m a DISC administrator through Jane Roqueplot and Profiling Pro), which I culled insights from to include in his resume. 

He used his new resume to apply to a handful of positions last week and got a call last Friday to set up a phone interview on Monday (yesterday). Because it had been a while since he had interviewed (especially for an outside role), I sent him a couple of resources over the weekend to help him prepare. One was my “Pre-Interview Worksheet & Checklist” (a Fillable Worksheet). I also sent him my guide to Virtual Interviews (based on this Pass-Along Materials document: Jobseeker’s Guide to Virtual Interviews). 

I had previously sent him my “Be the STAR of Your Career Story” worksheet to put together a couple of accomplishment stories while I worked on writing the resume. He reported back that he had used a story about reducing production time from three months per unit to three weeks and said the interviewers were impressed. 

In the phone interview, they basically offered him the job (they asked him how much it would take to get him to move on from his current employer), so his next step is doing salary research and prepping for the in-person interview. I’m going to be sending him some resources to help with that later today.

Resources mentioned in this case study: 
Evelyn Salvador’s Career Worksheets 
Distinctive Resume Templates 
( use promo code 50offbearesumewriter on the Distinctive Resume Templates website to save 50% on your first purchase of any amount.) 
DISC Testing 
Tools for Job Search 
Pass-Along Materials Archive 2011-2020 

What did you think of this case study? Are there resources you use as shortcuts? What are they? Comment below!

Mindset Mondays: Exercise to Practice Gratitude

 

Practicing gratitude can go a long way to helping you feel happier and more successful in life. The most interesting thing about having a success mindset is that it is indeed a mindset. Studies have been done on numerous people throughout history that show that even people you may not see as successful can feel successful if they have the right mindset. 

• Write It Down. Keep a small notebook by your bedside, your desk, or in your glove box. Whenever you feel a wave of gratitude, write it down. This helps you to remember the experience and even relive it when the need arises.

• Record It. Almost everyone can record themselves today with smartphones and tablet computers. If you don’t want to write down your feelings, you can record them. Whenever you feel grateful, or need to feel it, make a short two minute recording to document it. 

• Focus on It. Allow your mind to focus on all the gratitude you feel, but in a tremendous way. Amplify the feeling by describing it as fully as possible. How does your morning walk feel? How does your morning coffee smell? What do you feel when you watch your sleeping child?

• Say It Aloud. Even if you’re not writing it down or recording it, you can still state your gratitude out loud. 

• Feel It. Don’t just write down or record and state your gratitude. Take a moment to feel it. Focus carefully on how it feels to breathe in the fresh air, and take the moment in fully. Immerse yourself in the feelings as much as you can. 

• Share It. When you are feeling gratitude, it’s a great time to tell others about it. When you share your feelings of thanks to the world either by calling someone and telling them that you’re thankful for them or by sharing on Instagram or Facebook or X/Twitter your gratitude, you’ll feel it more fully. 

Focus on what makes you happy and less on what makes you unhappy. It may seem silly, but it’s backed by science. Your thoughts control your feelings, and you control your thoughts. It’s that simple.

We’re expecting our first big snowfall of the season today … they’re saying 4-7 inches – so I’m going to be grateful for the moisture … and that Jon and I work from home! 

What are YOU feeling grateful for today? Comment below!