Definition

Portable Personal Brand: It is the ability to take your online personal brand assets with you when you move from company-to-company, change careers, change positions, or transition to being an entrepreneur.  Essentially the digital characteristics and assets of your personal brand move wherever you go.

Why is this important?  The number of times a person changes careers is about 5-7 from the research that I have done.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) doesn’t provide data on career changes but on the number of jobs a person holds in his/her lifetime (which is 10.8 jobs from ages 18 to 42.) So it is not a matter of if but when you are going to change careers and/or change companies. It is critical that you keep your personal brand portable.

Tips for Portability of your Personal Brand

• Personal Branded Social URLs: Always maintain separate personal branded accounts.  Your personal social network account URLs should not be tied to the company accounts as the only accounts you have or manage.  When you leave a company your accounts should come with you no questions asked, but this can only happen if you own the accounts.  In an ideal world you want to bring your pre-existing accounts with you to your place of employment if they are relevant.

• Own Your Network: If the contacts in your network are housed only in the social network there is an inherent risk if your account gets comprised or the terms of service changes.  Your network will become more of an asset in the workplace, not necessarily because of numbers but become of influence.  Create your own personal database from your social network contacts, you need to own your contact list.  Download and import your contacts into a personal list that you own and manage (Note:  If you are tweeting from company accounts legally you don’t own the contact list. Everyone knows there is a difference between contact names and relationships.)

• Set-up Linkedin Profiles Properly: Set up your Linkedin accounts with your own personal email address (i.e. Gmail account).  There have been situations where people have been locked out of their accounts because the account was set-up with a corporate email address.

• Own Your Hub (Don’t just rent): Every professional should own the online hub of their personal brand (the online destination/dotcom.)  Make sure your dot com isn’t linked to your current job (i.e. www.HajjFlemingsNike.com.)

Case Study:  Frank Eliason v. Comcast Cares

The new poster child of portable personal branding is Frank Elisaon who most of us have known online as @Comcastcares.  Frank recently changed companies and is no longer the Comcast Cares guy, like LeBron he has decided to take his talents elsewhere (Note:  There was no TV special and Frank left on good terms with Comcast from what I can tell).

Franks former Twitter handle @ComcastCares is obviously not portable and will be maintained by Comcast. Let’s be clear both Comcast and Frank have mutually benefited from the work that was done.  Has Frank lost the total value of his personal brand or the work he has done?  Absolutely not!  There are something’s he will have to start from scratch on and build awareness of his new portable personal brand. If you look at the web location on his Twitter account it is linked to: www.frankeliason.com. Also you can follow Frank on Twitter at @FrankEliason to date he has about 1,700 followers.

@ComcastCares

@FrankEliason

Benefits

One of the major benefits of having a portable personal brand that it can create a unique opportunity for a portable career.  What do I mean by a portable career?  Portable careers are job situations that don’t depend on location with flexible work environments that allow you to do your job remotely for the most part.  With the development of technology:  Skype, WI-FI, and other technologies that allow you to work remotely these types of opportunities are starting to increase.  Portable careers will grow in popularity in the future as work changes.  The forerunner to this is alternative work arrangements which companies have become more comfortable with as a way to provide a benefit to the company and cut cost when they can’t pay an employee more money.

When is this critical?  Portability of your personal brand will come into play the most when you are executing a career change or moving to a new employer.

How Portable is your Personal Brand?

This post focuses on numerical or data consistency.  Consistency of voice, tone, personality, behavior, culture, image and message are the constants that have to be established and delivered on for all successful brands.  The sample group I have selected has been basis to consist of people delivering quality content in a targeted area.

Personal Brands with Numerical Consistency

My sample group consist of Brian Solis, Chris Brogan, Gary Vaynerchuk, PR Sarah Evans, MC Hammer and Kobe Bryant. I took a swag at some very high level data: quantity of tweets and number of blog posts. Let me lay down the ground rules I am not stating by any means because someone tweets a lot they will have a loyal committed following that is organically grown. I am also not saying that because you post regularly that you will become a rock star.

I am focusing on the behavior and patterns of people who are successful in the new media space and adding in the best active basketball player (Kobe Bryant) in the known world based upon results (winning and championships.) There is something that happens when a person goes to work every single day and produces quality stuff. Your reputation begins to spread, your colleagues begin to take notice, promotions begin to surface, and new career opportunities begin to open up. Your network begins to expand because there is something that is inspiring about being around people that produce, being around change agents, and people who are not only passionate but committed to execute on their ideas.

Kobe Bryant is the gold standard for active NBA players by which everyone is being judged against.

(Note:  The average number of tweets per day is an average over the life of active Twitter account and is not weighted for current activity.)

Result of Consist Behavior

According to John Jantusch Author of The Referral Engine and Duct Tape Marketing blog he states that it 17 brand impressions of a company before a typical buyer will consider doing businesses.  There is a threshold for personal brands as well before customers, career opportunities, and business opportunities will be generated.

What is the result of consistent output of relevant content to a target audience?  Consistency creates loyalty, impacts behavior, and connects people emotionally.  The business opportunities that can come from consistency are: endorsements, additional financial streams, expanded network, book deals, speaking gigs, and delivering championships to name a few.

The Michigan Technological University’s School of Business and Economics – Tech MBA Online has developed a Career Re-Tool Workshop to help you Re-Tool, Re-Wire and Re-Think your career and future.

This FREE event is designed to enable you to evaluate your career planning strategy and position you to grow personally and professionally.  This is a must attend event for job seekers, those in career transitions and people who want to re-tool themselves for promotion in a challenging job market.

Register Today!!!!  Seats are limited!!!!

Register at:  http://bit.ly/2010retool

Speakers

Hajj E. Flemings – Personal Brand Strategist/Founder of Brand Camp University

Brenda Rudiger – Director of Alumni Relations at Michigan Technological University

Paul J. Hindelang – President at Results Systems Corporation

Agenda

Networking

Re-Tooling yourself with Education

We will explore the value of education as a career strategy to help you stay globally competitive in a challenging job market. This session will focus on the benefits of an MBA and higher education to empower you to reinvent and re-think your future.

Re-Wiring your Career with Social Networks and Online Tools

Come and learn how to rewire yourself through social networks and online channels to connect with companies and identify new career opportunities.  Become a person that understands how to translate their network into value.

Re-Thinking your Financial Strategy

Has your 401K got you down?  It is time to re-think your financial strategy and prepare financially for your career transition?  Come and get fresh new ideas for investing, financial planning, insurance and social security.

Can a personal brand be defined by numbers? Let’s talk about it.  To set the tone for this blog post let’s talk numbers anything that you want to grow you need to measure.  As a personal brand what are the numbers that you should be focused on?

I decided to compile a list of some of the top personal brands and people that I highly respect in terms of their passion and business acumen. Here are some of their numbers:

Facebook Friends/Fans

• Joseph Jaffe – Founder of Crayon which was recently acquired by Powered and author of ‘Flip the Funnel. (3,252)
• Rohit Bhargava – SVP Senior VP, Strategy & Marketing / Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence/Author of ‘Personality Not Included’ (2,300)
• Gary Vaynerchuk – Author of ‘Crush It’ and Founder of ‘WineLibrary.TV’ – 46,723 – Rock Star Numbers
• Lady Gaga – Musician (10,959,266) – Rock Star Numbers

Blog Comments

• Seth Godin (www.SethGodin.com) – Author of ‘Linchpin’ and over dozen best selling books and runs the most read Marketing blog on the planet.  There are no comments because Seth doesn’t allow you to leave any. (0)
• Sarah Evans (www.PRSarahEvans.com) – She is the President of Chicago based public relations and new media consultancy Sevans Strategy and runs #journchat. (23 – Average number of comments per blog post in 2010)
• Darren Rowse (www.ProBlogger.net) -  Founder of ProBlogger.net and co-author of ‘Pro Blogger:  Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income’ ) – Rock Star Numbers

Twitter followers

• Kevin Carroll (www.kevincarrollkatalyst.com) – Author of ‘Little Red Ball’ talks about the concept of play and is a internationally sought after speaker. (1,841)
• Noah Brier (www.NoahBrier.com) – Works for the The Barbarian Group and created Brand Tags and was on one of Fast Company’s 2009 100 Most Creative People (3,964)
• Tony Hsiesh (www.Zappos.com) – CEO of Zappos and Author of ‘Delivering Happiness’ (1,704,249) – Rock Star Numbers

Blog Post

• Evan Williams – Founder of Twitter.  Over the last year has three blog post to EVHead.com (3)
• Guy Kawasaki – Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures, Author of ‘Reality Check’ and 8-other books.
• Majora Carter – From 2001 to 2008 she was Executive Director of the non-profit she founded: Sustainable South Bronx – where she pioneered green-collar job training and placement systems in one of the most environmentally and economically challenged parts of the US. This MacArthur “genius” is now president of her own economic consulting firm, a co-host on Sundance Channel’s The Green, and host of a new special public radio series called, The Promised Land. Spoke at TED. (10)
• Emily Pilloton – Founder of Project H Design/Author of a Design Revolution: 100 Products That Empower People.  Spoke at Pop Tech. Doesn’t have a blog. (0)
• Chris Brogan – Founder of New Marketing Labs/Author of ‘Trust Agents’ (Blogs Like everyday) – Rock Star Numbers

Videos Uploaded in YouTube

• Mitch Joel – Author of ‘Six Pixels of Separation’/Founder of Twist Image.  Number of videos uploaded in YouTube (into the Twist Image & Mitch Joel Accounts).  Runs an extremely popular audio podcast that you can subscribe to on iTunes.  (6)
• Chris Pirillo - Chris has been participating in Internet conversations since 1992, having launched Lockergnome as a content publishing network and building Gnomedex to be one of the blogosphere’s highly regarded conferences. (2,880) – Rock Star Numbers

E-Commerce Sites

• Tom Peters – There are no financial transactions made on his site. Clicks Required to Make a Financial Transaction: (0)
• Mark Victor Hansen – Author of ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’) – Rock Star Numbers

If you listen to the tips of all the ‘EXPERTS’ they will tell you that you need to:  blog everyday (or regularly), you should do video, you should write a book, you should have an insane number of Twitter followers, you need 10’s of thousands of Facebook friends/fans and you should have an e-commerce site that you can make a financial transaction within three clicks.

Maybe I am looking at this issue beyond the numbers because I only have 5,300 Twitter followers and 3,280 Facebook friends.  Maybe my opinion is jaded because I don’t have the big numbers, but my point is find the numbers that matter to your personal brand versus chasing others.  My blog post is not about the numerical silver bullet for personal branding but that looking purely at numbers will not always accurately tell the story or the strength of the personal brand.

Let me know what numbers impact your personal brand?

(Note:  The data for this blog post was as of 07/05/10)

She is the President of Chicago based public relations and new media consultancy Sevans Strategy and runs #journchat. She is an influencer in the new media/pr communities and is a great personal branding case study. She has emerged as a leader in the social space but she isn’t an overnight success she has earned her stripes and put in the time.

I really wanted to share Sarah Evans story to inspire other women who believe they have a message that the world needs to hear. One of the great things that I like about Sarah’s story is that she has turned her passion into a career/profit.

Earlier this year she was featured in Vanity Fair with a list of other influential women in social media, which obviously has tremendously impacted her business. The flip side of this story is that Sarah received some negative feedback from some of her peers about the article since it didn’t appropriately reflect women in tech or show a diverse perspective. After talking with Sarah it showed me her depth as a person as she tackled the situation head on when confronted with those facts and addressed the valid concerns with some of those same peers.

#journchat

Sarah Evans is the originator of Twitter Chats. She launched #journchat in December 2008 which has hosted CNN and will host NBC News later this year

How to Follow Sarah Evans

There are a million ways to follow Sarah online I have listed some of the main ways below.

Twitter: @PRSarahEvans
Blog: www.PRSarahEvans.com
Twitter Chat: #journchat (Monday’s 7:30pm-10:00pm CST)

For Other Influential Women in Social Media

Check out my Twitter List of Influential Women in Social Media:

Come and pick the brains of these practitioners who are living the entrepreneurship lifestyle and not just talking about it in theory.

How to Follow and Participate:

To participate you can use http://search.twitter.com or http://tweetgrid.com/. Watch for tweets with the hashtag #mbachat and follow the conversation on the @TechMBAOnline Twitter account.

This chat is sponsored by Michigan Tech MBA Online program:  www.mbaonline.mtu.edu.

#mbachat Guest

Melinda Emerson – Author of Become Your Own Boss in 12 months/Host of #Smallbizchat

Melinda Emerson “Smallbizlady” is a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach. Her areas of expertise include small business start-up, business development and social media strategy.  Melinda hosts #Smallbizchat, a weekly talk show on Twitter.  #Smallbizchat is the trusted resource on Twitter to discuss everything entrepreneurs need to know about launching and running a profitable small business.  Melinda has been featured on NBC Nightly News and in the Wall Street Journal, U.S. News and World Report and Black Enterprise.  Melinda publishes a resource blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com and has several special reports including 44 Things To Do Before You Go Into Business and The 12 Cardinal Sins of Small Business—and How to Avoid Them! Melinda’s first book Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to Start a Business that Works!” was released in March 2010 by Adams Media. For more information, please visit www.melindaemerson.com

Matt Wilson, Co-founder of Under30CEO.com

Matt Wilson is co-founder of Under30CEO.com a website dedicated to giving young entrepreneurs the tools and resources they need to succeed.  After using social media to create huge buzz online around the brand, landing Under30CEO on MSNBC and BusinessWeek, he began helping others build their brands online through his own digital marketing agency.  Wilson’s passion for entrepreneurship began at Bryant University after where he led the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization to becoming the world’s #1 entrepreneurship organization and earned personal accolades as National Student Leader of the Year.  His personal mission is to inspire young people to use technology to create opportunity and become leaders.

If Matt is around he will be easy to spot as his long luxurious hair is generally flowing freely in the breeze.

Cindy W. Morrison – Author of  Girlfriend 2.0/Emmy Award-Winning TV Broadcaster

Emmy award winning TV Broadcaster Cindy W Morrison successfully reinvented herself after the economy lead to corporate downsizing. Leaving a 20 year news career behind, Cindy wrote a book, hit the speaking circuit and created her own consulting business. She now teaches people how to reboot, upgrade and reinvent through networking, social media and branding so they can make more money and live a better life.

Cindy’s new book “Girlfriends 2.0″ is already a cult favorite and she hosts a popular show by the same name for The WIN Online (Women’s Information Network). Plus, Cindy does a weekly radio show with the founder of the Diva Toolbox based on the Girlfriends 2.0 concept. The idea is to empower women to reboot and upgrade their Girlfriend Network so they can not only survive but thrive our changing times

Cindy also speaks across the country about “Reinvention 2.0″ and how anyone can network strategically to be more successful. In fact, Cindy is the media contributor to Startup Princess which has been named one of the top women’s websites by Forbes and Entrepreneur. As a consultant, Cindy’s clients range from TV stations to major universities to heavy hitting corporations. Cindy helps companies and individuals use social media to create brand loyalty and get the kind of media coverage that money can’t buy.

Chances are you set out to create your brand in order to attract more business or interest from employers, peers and investors. Let’s reach out to these target groups and bring your brand to market. You will have to be where your customers are and the goal will be to be perceived as better than the competition.

Here are a few steps you can take:

1. 1. Be the expert

Everyone wants to work with or buy from the expert in their field. This means the expert can pick and choose who to work with and they can set their own price. Becoming the expert is a long-term process but it starts with you making sure to know more than others. You should read blogs, books and periodicals, listen and discuss with industry leaders and fully immerse yourself in your subject matter. In addition to that, always strive to develop new ideas so that you are able to deliver eye-opening concepts to your audience. Look at Seth Godin, this man’s ideas are usually ahead of their time and I would venture to say that he reads and listens more than most of his peers.  (Note:  Being an expert is not a title that you anoint yourself with but is confirmed by the community you serve.)

2. Share your expertise

This is all about believing in the law of reciprocity and trusting that your hard work will come back to you. Although the obvious way of doing this is by blogging, there are lots of other ways you can offer free information, advice or coaching. The point here is that you want to be seen as a person that happily shares great advice with others and this will attract a need for your services as an up-sell. A great example of this would be Chris Brogan, who churns out quality content every day that ensures he stay at the top of his game. His up-sell are consulting services to major blue-chip companies, I suspect you wouldn’t mind being in his shoes.

3. Be well-connected

With the power social media it’s easier than ever to get to know people. Make sure you are active on Twitter www.twitter.com as this is where you can get a feel for what is going on in your industry. Using a combination of offline www.meetup.com and online networking tends to be very effective. Get to know the ‘big cheeses’ in your industry, it really not that hard – they are just regular people that have more experience than you. See your peers as colleagues and not competition, there is plenty of work to go around. Make sure you connect your contacts with other contacts, as they will do the same for you.

4. Work all angles

Avoid becoming a one-trick pony and risk boring people to bits. Mix things up a bit by writing and speaking about your hobbies, about your family and generally injecting a bit of personality in your brand. Don’t just be in ‘work mode’ when you are working and don’t just be in ‘chill-mode’ when you are not. Some of the most lucrative business partnerships ever have been formed outside of the professional arena, when it’s actually a great deal easier to fly in under the radar and create solid contacts.

5. Stay in business mode

The downside to promoting your personal brand is that you can easily get carried away. Taking on too many speaking opportunities, attending too many networking events or blogging too much are all symptoms of this. Your first focus has to be on sales and you have to stay profitable no matter what phase your branding exercise is in. Remember that success breeds success and you will only achieve monetary success by keeping your eye on the business first of all. Richard Branson has one of the greatest brands ever but the no. 1 factor that brought him there is his strong business acumen.

Bottom line

That’s the smoking hot tips for you today; these tips have worked well for others and will work for you. Just bear in mind that whatever you do has to stay authentic and above all consistent with your brand. If there is any discrepancy or discord in people’s minds, you risk doing more harm than good to your personal brand.

Jorgen Sundberg is a London based personal branding consultant with a passion for social media and blogging.  He blogs at JorgenSundberg.net http://jorgensundberg.net and his company site is Personal Branding UK http://personalbrandinguk.com. You can connect with him on Twitter @jorgensundberg

What prepares you to work as a recruiter or in career services? Is there a certain educational path? Are there strategically aligned companies to work for that will put you on the fast track?

The Story of Seven Rock Star Recruiters and Career Pros

• Jennifer McClure – Started in Human Resources
• Kelly Lux – Started as an Executive Assistant
• Tammy Turner – Started as a Public Accountant
• David Benjamin – Started as a Social Worker
• Kim Benjamin – Works with the Michigan Prisoner Re-Entry Program
• Molly Sly – Started in the Tourism Industry
• Kristi Daeda – Start as a Computer Programmer

Our list of recruiters have started College & Career Chats (#cchat), work with prisoners to get them prepared for the job market, and been ranked as the tops in their field to name a few of their accomplishments.

Jennifer McClure
President of Unbridled Talent
Twitter: @CincyRecruiter
Website: http://www.cincyrecruiter.com

Jennifer McClure is President of Unbridled Talent, LLC a Cincinnati based consulting firm providing services to clients in the areas of attracting, recruiting, developing & retaining key talent in their organizations.

She is passionate about helping businesses to improve their people strategies through consulting and training opportunities and she’s also a popular speaker who is regularly engaged to present at conferences, associations and to HR, Recruiting and leadership teams at a variety of organizations, including Fortune 100 clients.

Prior to beginning her Consulting career, Jennifer led the life of a full-time Human Resources Pro with leadership and executive-level experience in privately held and Fortune 500 companies and also worked as an Executive Recruiter and Executive Coach partnering with C-level leaders to find, recruit and develop key leadership talent. An active participant and user of a variety of social networks and social media, Jennifer has been named a Top 10 Employment Blogger to Follow by Monster.com, one of the Top 25 Most Influential Online Recruiters and has been ranked as one of the Top 25 HR Pro’s to Follow on Twitter. She writes frequently about a variety of talent management topics on her personal blog www.cincyrecruiter.com and the industry leading blog www.fistfuloftalent.com.

Kelly Lux
Career Development and Relationship Management Professional at Syracuse University
Twitter: @KellyLux
Website: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kellylux

One of the things that led me to the career field as a profession is the fact that I have always been conflicted about exactly what it was I wanted to do. I believe it is the rare individual who knows what they want to do and never wavers from that course. That has not been my experience.

I will admit that in my younger years I was not very career-oriented and was just looking for a way to pay the bills. With a bachelor’s degree in psychology, I worked as an executive assistant for several years and in various places before ending up at Anheuser-Busch in 1997. In my role as Assistant to the Plant Manager I was given much more freedom to be creative, to lead teams and to develop all kinds of skills that would serve me well in the next phase of my career. However, there wasn’t much room for advancement in this position, so I ended up leaving to pursue a Masters in Education. To make a long story short, I never ended up securing a full-time teaching position and had to go for plan B, which led me to a job at Syracuse University. Initially, I had to swallow my pride and go back to an administrative assistant role, Masters degree notwithstanding. However, within a year of being hired at Syracuse, the position I currently hold opened up. While I had no experience in Career Services or working with alumni populations, I was able to sell my transferable skills, education and passion for the job. While employed at Syracuse University I have continued my education and taken classes in higher education administration, career counseling and, most recently, social media. Two years later, I have greatly expanded my knowledge in the area of career, become a certified career coach, delved into social media with great enthusiasm, and learned that I have a gift for managing relationships and finding creative ways of communicating with people from all walks of life. This is what I was meant to do.

Tammy Turner
President of Kapstone Recruiting and Training Services
Twitter: @TammyTurn
Website: www.Kapstonejobs.com

Tammy Turner is an entrepreneur, author, professional speaker, consultant and career coach. Tammy started her career at Plante Moran, LLP in the tax department, later moving on to Deloitte & Touche, in Enterprise Risk Services, and then to Arthur Andersen in International Payroll and Global Human Resources. After more than 6 years in Public Accounting, Tammy realized that her true passion was in Human Resources, and more specifically in Recruiting. In 2003, she became a recruiter for Robert Half Finance & Accounting, specializing in the permanent placement of Finance and Accounting professionals. In 2004 Tammy had an opportunity to travel overseas and work as a Recruiting Consultant for UNICEF and HR, Inc. Cambodia. Tammy spent nearly 3 years in Cambodia working as a consultant and ultimately started her own recruiting business International Employment Solutions (IES), in 2006.

In February 2007 Tammy returned to the United States and launched a second recruiting business Kapstone Recruiting & Training Services, LLC and in 2009 she purchased a franchise exclusive to Food Service & Hospitality (Food Team). Tammy has aspirations to grow her business globally and open a Kapstone Recruiting office in Singapore in 2012.

David Benjamin
Principle of Dave E. Benjamin Consulting, LLC.
Twitter: @DaveBenjamin
Website: www.davidebenjamin.com/

Graduated college, became a social worker for 3 months. Got tired of restraining adolescent girls all day, became a financial advisor for almost a decade. Successful career, got into management enjoyed it but got burnt out. Transitioned into recruiting industry, first staffing nurses at hospitals, nursing homes, and correctional facilities. Moved to Direct Hire – placed accounting/finance professionals and other miscellanous positions. Left corporate workforce in 2005, joined The Sales Matrix (Sales Consulting Firm) as a consultant and Recruiting Mng, placing sales professionals with clients. Still with TSM, started own consulting firm in Jan 2010 (David E Benjamin Consulting LLC), primarily helping clients with everything digital/social media. Enjoy speaking for Universities, Corporations, Associations, Etc. on a variety of topics: Social Media related & job seekers. Getting ready to launch SalesBasix (Sales and Marketing E-Learning Co) with 6 other guys.

Kim Benjamin
Founder of A Purposed Transition
Website: www.HRStrategiesPlus.com

Kimberly’s has over 19 years of human resource experience working for Fortune 500 Companies such as General Motors, Ford Motor Company, ITT Industries, Cornerstone Schools and the Michigan Primary Care Association. She also teaches job readiness, human resource management and entrepreneurship classes at local universities, community colleges, churches and correctional facilities. Kimberly enjoys teaching entrepreneurship classes at the State of Michigan Mound Correctional Facility in Detroit, Michigan. She has taught three classes at the correctional facility over the past 2 years and plans to continue to teach more classes in the future. Her students eagerly call her “Professor Benjamin” and enjoys receiving first-hand knowledge on how to identify their preferred skill sets, understand how to start a business, write a business plan and pitch their business idea to potential investors.

Molly Sly
President of Hire Logic LLC.
Twitter: @MollySly
Website: www.HireLogicLLC.com

I never thought I could sit behind a desk. This would explain why I graduated from Michigan State with a degree in Park, Recreation and Tourism Management. I emphasis the Management because otherwise it’s a fairly embarrassing degree, especially because I have been sitting behind a desk for years! I will say that my first job upon graduation was tied to my major. I was in marketing for the Greater Lansing Convention and Visitors Bureau. While I was starting out there, I had a friend in California that kept telling me I should work for his company because I have the right personality to recruit. I didn’t know what recruiting was so I declined. However, about a year later his company was opening up a Chicago office and Chicago seemed like a great idea. This move to Chicago and this move into recruiting was definitely the best thing I could have done for myself. My first job was for a large consulting company hiring CAD engineers. Since then I moved into IT recruiting, then corporate recruiting, then field recruiting, then an independent gig followed by another corporate recruiting position at a large advertising agency. The advertising job really did change my life and opened up doors I didn’t know existed. It was so refreshing to recruit for really interesting and exciting jobs (creative positions, digital strategy, experience planning, social media, etc.). The timing of it all perfectly coincided with the changes in the web. I become immersed in LinkedIn, Boolean searches on Google, tweeting and friending like it was my job. That’s because it was, and is, my job. I’m now working at Hire Logic, LLC which is an independent contingency based recruiting firm that is comprised of me, just me. I specialize in all things digital. I love making connections with people through the web and then meeting them in person and in a perfect world, finding them an awesome new opportunity or an awesome new employee. Some of the biggest risks I’ve taken in my career have absolutely been the most rewarding and I’m always excited to see what is coming next.

Kristi Daeda
President of Successitechs
Twitter: @Kristid
Website: Successitechs.com/articles?

I was a computer programmer, a marketing copywriter, and an HR leader and recruiter before a layoff helped me discover where my greatest value lies–creating foolproof success plans for others. Now, I help career-minded professionals define and confidently market their value so they can find their ideal job sooner. Plus, my tech background keeps me in touch with the specific needs of my core client base — IT professionals. It’s great that what seemed at the time to be twists and turns in my career have equipped me to make sure that my clients don’t have to go through that uncertainty.

The end of the story confirms that there are no silver bullets in any industry even as a recruiter or career pro but, that passionate, committed, competent people will always find their way.

Photo Credit: wanted, originally uploaded by babblingdweeb.

The poster child of corporate culture and the usage of technology to connect with customers is Zappos.  Zappos is ran by one of the smartest, most relevant CEOs on the planet Tony Hsieh.  What does Tony do?  Does he build brands, create corporate culture, deliver happiness or all three? I had the opportunity to hangout with Tony Hsieh and the Zappos Team in March 2010 in Austin, TX on the Happiness Bus at SXSW.  I experienced the Zappos corporate culture for a few hours and I will validate he is doing all three.

I am an avid reader and I am excited to share with you the latest book that I am reading, “Delivering Happiness:  A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose” by Tony Hsieh.  Tony is a proven leader who is living what he is teaching. He has developed two companies LinkExchange which was sold to Microsoft for $265M in 1995 and Zappos.com which was sold to Amazon.com for $1.2B in 2009. 

Be a part of the movement his book ships June 7^th purchase part of his brain for under $25, what a deal.

Zappos’ Core Values

The Framework of the Culture

1. Deliver WOW Through Service
2. Embrace and Drive Change
3. Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
5. Pursue Growth and Learning
6. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
8. Do More With Less
9. Be Passionate and Determined
10. Be Humble

Follow Tony/Zappos
Follow: @DHBook (Delivering Happiness Book Twitter Account)
Follow: @Zappos (Tony Hsieh – CEO of Zapppos)
Blog: www.DeliveringHappinessBook.com

Seth Godin and Hajj Flemings – Linchpin Interview (Part I) from Hajj Flemings on Vimeo.

I recently conducted a personal branding interview with Seth Godin Marketing Guru and best selling author of dozen books including Purple Cow, Tribes, and The Dip to name a few. The focus of our conversation centered on Seth recently released book called Linchpin, which in my opinion is his most profound book.

In my interview with Seth Godin we discussed two significant topics from his book: Genius and the Factory. Being a native of Detroit both of these topics resonated especially the Factory concept. ‘The Factory’ has been the motor of Detroit for almost a century with the automotive industry building the middle class in our nation with mass production.

Seth also provides his perspective on personal branding.