Chandler

Archive for February, 2010


Are You Digitally Disasterous or Digitally Distinct?

February 11th, 2010 in Uncategorized comment No Comments »

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I am somewhere in the middle: digitally dabbling.  This is according to the results of this Online Identity Calculator I used earlier today to assess my online identity.  This article by Meg Guiseppi, CPBS, MRW, CPRW  of Executive Career Brand (as posted on www.workbabble.com) tells you why you too should find out how you rate, and do it regularly. And while Meg focusses on executives, when you are a business owner it is very important to test your company’s online rating regularly as well.

In executive job search, having accurate, brand-supporting search results associated with you is essential. Recruiters and hiring decision makers rely on online searches to uncover and qualify candidates like you.

If they can’t find you online, they may never find you, and you may miss the chance to be considered for those jobs.

Conversely, if they find anything to discredit you, you’re probably dead in the water, too. But don’t worry. You can work to build up positive results which will push those disreputable ones down to page 3, 4, or lower of results for your name, rendering them ineffectual. But remember that nothing on the Web is ever permanently deleted.

William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson, Reach Personal Branding founders, broke out 5 possible online profiles in their book Career Distinction: Stand Out By Building Your Brand:

Digitally disguised

Your vanity search does not match any web pages. There is absolutely nothing about you on the Web – you have no online identity. You’re hidden from those who may be looking for you.

Digitally dissed

There is little on the Web about you, and what is there is either negative or inconsistent with how you want to be known – your personal brand.

Digitally disastrous

You have plenty of search results, but they have little relevance to what you want to express about yourself. Results for others sharing your name may be in the mix, too.

Digitally dabbling

There are some on-brand results for you. Even though there aren’t many results, the information about you is relevant and on-brand – nothing negative. From here, you can easily move to the next level.

Digitally distinct

There are lots of results about you that reinforce your brand – the right message about you is out there. This is the nirvana of online identity! You’re among or approaching the superstars in the world of online identity. But your work isn’t done. Google results can (and do) change overnight. You need to keep an eye on your online identity and keep building up the good stuff. There’s always room for improvement.

To quickly run your own digital check-up, try the Reach Personal Branding’s Online Identity Calculator. It’s a nifty little tool to assess how strong your online presence is.

When you take the quiz, you’ll be asked to type “your name” in a Google search and note the total number of search results, how many are NOT about you, and how many accurate, on-brand results ARE about you in the first 3 pages.

Among the 7 questions provided, you’re asked which statement best describes the career level for which you are aiming:

        ■   University/College Student or Recent Graduate

        ■   Entry-level (1-5 years’ experience) or Individual Contributor

        ■   Manager with 5-10 years’ experience, Director, Consultant or Small Business Owner

        ■   VP, Highly-regarded Consultant or Acknowledged Thought Leader

        ■   C-level Executive, Partner, Board Member, Celebrity, Renowned Consultant or Expert

When you submit your answers, your digital ranking compared to the expected number of accurate results for the career level you chose is revealed – digitally disastrous, digitally distinct, or somewhere in between.

The quiz is free and takes about 5 minutes to complete. The results can be eye-opening and impel you to get busy. And if you “pass” the quiz, you’ll be given the code for the “I’m digitally distinct” badge shown above to place on your website or blog.

Need some help building your online brand identity and positioning your unique value proposition? Check out my posts:

The Personal Branding Worksheet: 10 Steps to Defining Your Authentic Personal Brand

Health Insurance for Your Personal Brand – The 3 Cs

2010 Top 10 Executive Personal Branding and Job Search Trends

© Copyright Meg Guiseppi, 2010. All rights reserved. Used with permission from www.workbabble.com

Business Experiments in the Test Kitchen of Life- Part II

February 10th, 2010 in Uncategorized comment No Comments »

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This past weekend Tanya and I created what I’ve dubbed our Business Experiments in the Test Kitchen of Life Challenge in which we gave ourselves $50 each to buy food in secret which we would then combine to cook up a menu and meal together.  

Tanya bought: I bought:
Morbier cheese Chocolate with pink peppercorns
Mussels Oatmeal crisps
Red chilli peppers French country farm sausage
Frisée lettuce Cashews
Speck bacon Dates
Papaya Dried pineapple
Dried big ear mushrooms Mango ginger Stilton
tomatillos Green onions
  Cilantro
  Blood oranges
  Pink grapefruit
  Papaya raisin chutney
  Limes

 

I share the ingredient list simply to show you the choices we made and what we had to work with.  It was like Christmas morning as we unveiled our lot; we were both impressed by the diversity of choices and the potential for the meal. Interestingly, our first take at a menu was a very safe pass. It was easy and predictable to group the oranges, grapefruit and limes as a great light dessert  to accompany a bite of chocolate and to decide that the dates could be stuffed with the Stilton etc. 

Quickly though, we realized we weren’t actually integrating our two sets of ingredients at all.  So in the true spirit of the challenge, we threw out the idea of ”safe and proven” and moved to true innovation. It was really hard to let go of the idea of making a great tasting meal to focus instead on creating something new. Yikes, did we really have to risk good taste and use $100 worth of groceries just to prove our creativity? Yes, we did. The result of our more wild/ less safe meal was delight and pride:

  • Dates stuffed with Morbier, cashews and speck bacon
  •  Frisee with Mango ginger Stilton, blood oranges, and curry vinaigrette
  • Farmer sausage with pink peppercorn chocolate sauce and mushroom chilli slaw
  • Mussels with papaya chutney, lemon grass, cilantro, and speck bacon
  • Citrus chutney salad with oatmeal crisps

While we aren’t likely to be invited to Iron Chef anytime soon, I think we were punching above our weight this time around.

Before I get all heavy about what I learned from the challenge, let me state emphatically that the day was a blast…fun, fun, fun from start to Fimo finish.  That’s right. As if we hadn’t made enough food in our five courses, we then moved to creating miniature Fimo quesadillas and PEI strawberry shortcake with Tanya’s daughter while Greg did the dishes.

And so, the learnings (according to me):

  • We are most creative when we aren’t attached to a specific outcome
  • When you think you are being creative already, step back, turn up the volume even more and take another pass; there is always room for more innovation
  • When stuck, it is a great time to take an entirely different perspective/ approach that may seem totally unrelated to the problem at hand (i.e. this food challenge for a Coach Buffet problem)
  • In a business partnership, making playing together as important as working together
  • Have a support team; in our case, one husband (procurer of wine, food critique and dishwasher) one five-year old (who is fascinated by food made from Fimo) and two coaches (Tanya and me) who would have driven you crazy with all our “noticing” throughout the day!

And about that espionage….while shopping earlier in the day, one of us had a huge urge to look into the other’s bag while she had stepped away for a few minutes.  If you do this challenge, don’t be suprized if it happens to you too. And if it does: stop yourself, get curious about what is going on for you, and tell on yourself the minute your partner is back. Your trust in each other will grow and you’ll have a good laugh too.

Tanya and I agreed to not read each others’ posts this week to avoid group think as we reflect on the learnings of our challenge.  But if you are really curious about the almost espionage, I am betting her blog will tell you whether it was Ms. Morbier or Ms. Stilton who wanted to peak!

Business Experiments in the Test Kitchen of Life

February 8th, 2010 in Uncategorized comment No Comments »

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I am just back from a weekend in Toronto with my dear friend and business partner Tanya (hereto forward known as Tanya with no preamble about how we are both best friends and business partners!).  The working weekend was set up about a week ago when we recognized that some face time was our answer to busting through the Seth Godin style resistance our lizard brains had been mounting at various times over the past month about next steps for our beloved Coach Buffet.

After a couple of successful Coach Buffet events in the fall and some demand for more, we found ourselves royally stuck.  A new approach was the answer, we decided, so we spent several meetings in January designing a new virtual approach. And then, lizard brain again.  It seemed that something was keeping us from moving forward to ship it out and make it happen. 

As part of our weekend plans, we decided it was important to include some fun. We recognize that while all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, it makes us grumpy and grumpier!  As coaches, we also know that inspiration can be found in funny places.  Tanya challenged me to come up with something we could do during our visit that would be so memorable that I would write about it in my 2010 recap of what I am most proud of.  No pressure.

You guessed it.  Once again.  Stuck.  Zut, alors. What could we do?  I help my coaching clients get unstuck on a daily basis and there I was stuck again. 

Luckily, when you have a business partner who is also a coach, you don’t have to stay stuck for long.  Together we brainstormed a challenge for ourselves that very well could make the ranks of things I am most proud of in 2010.

Our challenge:

Make a meal together for Saturday night. Big deal, right?  Hold on.

The rules:

  1. Visit at least 3-4 foodie neighbourhoods in Toronto together
  2. Spend exactly $50 each and not a penny more (Tanya’s husband Greg sprang for the wine)
  3. Split up to make purchases
  4. Make no menu plans in advance
  5. Hide our purchases from each other for the entire day. In other words, NO discussion on what we were each buying independently for our joint meal
  6. Make a full meal together that would include every single ingredient we bought.
  7. Eat every dish.
  8. Insist that Greg eat every dish :)

The results?  A pinch of stuck, a sprinkling of anxiety, heaping scoops of laughter, and five surprizing courses.  All this and some almost espionage too.  You will have to read my next post for that.