How To Land Your Dream Career – What to do After the Interview

The best thing you can do after the interview is to be “politely persistent”.  Be aggressive in your follow up after the interview.  It is better to be a bit on the annoying side than to not show enough interest.  Send a quick email to everyone you met with to let each of them know you enjoyed the time you spent together and look forward to the next step.  Don’t be annoying, but make sure to stay in contact regularly with each person who interviewed you.  Employers
will appreciate your persistence.

It is important to note that no one of these individual tips will make or break your chances of securing the right opportunity.  However, following all of them will separate you from your competition and give you a significant advantage.

How To Land Your Dream Career – What to do During the Interview

By doing a few simple things during an interview, you will look better than the other people who walk through that door.  Many young professionals have a bad “look”, have no confidence in themselves or are not prepared at all.  Just follow these steps and you will be significantly more impressive than your competition.

Make sure to show up 10 minutes early for the interview and then make a great first impression.  You will be well dressed and look sharp; if you are unsure about the dress code, then be safe and overdress.  Be enthusiastic and confident from the start.  Have a friendly demeanor with the receptionist; ask her how her day is going and professionally ask for the person you are meeting with.  Do not sit down while you are waiting in the lobby; instead, stand tall, be confident and be ready to impress them.  I promise none of the other people you are competing with for the opportunity will do this.  When that person arrives, give him or her a firm handshake and say that it is a pleasure to meet.  Let them know you have been looking forward to this opportunity.

Once the interview gets rolling, intelligently answer each question asked of you.  Be brief and to the point.  Don’t hesitate when answering.  Simply be honest, confident and brief with your response.  They will appreciate this strong communication.  Your answers should also be well stated; for instance, “I will” sounds a million times better than “I think I can.”  Go into this interview knowing you are the best candidate for the position and that you will be extremely successful if given the opportunity.  Don’t be arrogant; just be confident in your abilities and skill set.

Throughout the interview, maintain a high level of enthusiasm.  Market yourself effectively by bringing up past experiences that exemplify why you have the necessary skills or personality for the opportunity.  Show the interviewer how valuable you will be to the company and what you bring to the table (such as selling lots of product, coming up with great marketing ideas or transitioning into a leadership role).

Make sure you are being yourself during the interview.  Be comfortable and honest, there is no sense in pretending to be someone that you aren’t.  Earn the opportunity based on the type of person you are, not on who you think the interviewer is looking for.  If this truly is the best opportunity for you, then the interviewer will appreciate you for your personality.  Ask every question you can possibly think of and remember you are interviewing the company just as much as the company is interviewing you.  Virtually every other person they interview will be nervous, trying to act like someone they aren’t and feel uncomfortable.  Keep in mind that you are there to determine if you want to be part of this organization, not to pretend to be someone else.  Taking this approach will give you a unique attitude and a great deal of confidence.

How To Land Your Dream Career – What to do Before the Interview

Prior to any interview, the biggest thing you need to do is prepare.  Research the company, their competition, read current articles on the company, read through as much information as you can about the specific opportunity you are interviewing for and talk to others who are familiar with the position or industry.  Prepare a list of questions that will show your sincere interest in the opportunity and will reflect the effort you have put into your career search.

In regards to your resume, the biggest thing you must keep in mind is that every one of your past experiences needs to translate into a reason why you will be perfect for the opportunity for which you are interviewing.  Explain how your past community involvement, leadership positions, internships and work experience will allow you to excel in this position.  You need to be able to intelligently explain why serving as president of your fraternity developed your leadership traits, and gave you a high level of confidence, great organizational skills, and the perseverance to be successful in difficult situations.  Be able to explain how volunteering in the community while being a full time student gave you the ability to balance a variety of responsibilities while being successful at each of them.  Make sure that each of your past experiences is a huge part of who you are and who you will be.  Be proud of your past successes and find reasons why each of those experiences will factor into your future successes.

Keep in mind that those who interview you may meet with 5-10 different people each day.  You need to separate yourself from the others and impress the person interviewing you.  Being prepared with detailed questions about the opportunity, organization and industry will make your discussion a lot more interesting than the conversations had with other interviewees.

Lessons I Have Learned as a Young Entrepreneur – You Have To Surround Yourself Well

In order to become a successful entrepreneur, you have to excel in a number of areas.  As far as I see it, you really only have two options:

1.  Become an expert in everything
2.  Surround yourself with experts that will help you grow your business

Which of those sounds more appealing?  Which one do you think will give you the time, energy, focus and resources necessary to grow your business?  In order to become a successful entrepreneur the fastest and easiest way possible, you MUST surround yourself with quality individuals that have a high level of  integrity, share in your vision for the business and are experts at what they do.  Building this team around you will let you work on your business, not be  an employee in your own business.  Here are some of the amazing people that I have on my team:

- CPA
- Mentors
- Business Coach
- SEO Expert
- Social Networking Expert
- Family & Friends
- Printing Expert
- Referall Marketing Expert
- Marketing Coach
- Grammar & Editing Expert
- Professional Partners with High Levels of Integrity
- Any many others….

This doesn’t even include all of the people that I invest in through books, audio programs, home-study courses and seminars.  Those individuals have also been instrumental in my business and don’t even know it!  Surrounding yourself with these people will make your road to success and a business owner so much easier and exponentially increase your chances for success.  Surrounding yourself with these people will also teach you incredible lessons and learning as  much as possible is a huge key to your success as an entrepreneur.

College Success Tip – Balance Everything Well

Balancing everything that you are involved with as a college student sounds much easier than it actually is for many.  It is common to think that balance involves two things:  class and a social life.  The truth is, you will more than likely need to balance most or all of the following:

• School Work
• Student Activities
• Physical Activity
• Staying in Touch with Friends/Family
• Earning an Income
• Leadership Positions
• Intramural Sports
• A Significant Other
• Internships
• Attending Campus Events
• Friends
• A Social Life
• Searching for Internships/Careers
• Attending Religious Services

College is the time to do as much as possible, and do it well, but you must have a system in place to balance it all.  Make sure to prioritize what is most important and dedicate the appropriate amount of time to each of those areas.

The Bottom Line: It is easy to balance a social life and class, but as an ambitious student you will more than likely have a lot more than that on your plate.  You can balance everything as long as you have a plan in place and manage your schedule efficiently.

The 3 Things You Need to Know About Using Social Media for Your Business

1. It can be very profitable…. If you do it the right way
Have you ever seen the person who attends every networking event in town, collects a huge stack of business cards and comes home thinking they had a highly productive day? I’m sure you have plenty of them over the years – they feel busy, therefore they assume they are productive. In reality, none of the people will remember this person and he/she will close little or no business out of their business card collection efforts. Promoting your business through social media is very similar; if you are running around trying to add a bunch of friends/connections with no rhyme or reason, it will produce little or no business. Sure you will feel busy, but you won’t be putting any money in your bank account.

If you would like to be profitable using social media, you must do things the right way. You need to know the most efficient way to use these tools, how to find your target prospects and the best way to turn those relationships into revenue for your business. At a traditional networking event, you are better off having three meaningful conversations in two hours, rather than collecting a stack of business cards. Social media is no different – you need to do it the right way, not just do activities that make you feel busy.

2. You need to determine how you will use social media
When we initially sit down with our clients, we focus on learning what their specific goals are as an organization. Every business has different objectives – attracting new clients, creating awareness in the community, upselling existing clients and many others. Each business is unique so there cannot be a “cookie cutter” approach to social media marketing. Determine what you big picture goals are for your organization and then leverage social media to help you accomplish them. If you try to do 10 different things, you probably won’t be successful at any of them, so choose your main objective and get started.

3. You must create a specific strategy
Your business MUST have a specific strategy for social media. If you own a restaurant, you will want frequent communication with your social media network, reminders about happy hour, special deals, new menu items, upcoming events and other exciting happenings at your establishment. Do you think that an insurance company will do the same things? Of course not! They will be talking about the importance of asset protection, the value they bring to clients, the services they provide and the overall importance of financial organization.

You must develop a specific strategy that is unique to your business! Make sure that you understand your objective and then utilize the appropriate social media tools to move you towards accomplishing your organizations objective.

Make the Commitment to Become Successful as a Young Professional

In order to be successful, you need to be committed to doing whatever it takes to achieve your dreams.  You must know exactly what you want to accomplish, know what it will take to get you there, have the desire to be great at everything you do and be willing to do whatever it takes to get you to where you want to be.  You will face adversity on your journey to success, but you must make a commitment that no matter what, you will reach your vision of success and do whatever it takes to get there.

The difference between successful people and everyone else is oftentimes that the successful ones know exactly what they want.  Consequently, each of their decisions reflects those goals.  Think about how difficult it would be in life to consistently make decisions that align with your goals and dreams if you didn’t have a vision.  Your decision-making process has nothing to be based on if it’s not going in a specific direction.  Those individuals without a vision are simply floating along without purpose or meaning because they aren’t working toward anything.  Would you rather have your decisions in life be based on a vision or simply based upon whatever is easiest and convenient at the moment?  Knowing exactly what you want in the future will allow your decisions to have a specific purpose.

As you develop a vision of your successful future, you must be aware of exactly what it will take to get you from where you are to where you want to be.  In order to achieve your goals, you will need to make sacrifices and some very difficult decisions.  Life is full of decisions and often you won’t be able to take the easy road.  It is crucial to be aware of the sacrifices you need to make and then having the commitment to do whatever is necessary on your journey to success.

In order to be successful, you must be the type of person who strives for greatness in everything that you do.  It doesn’t matter what it is; successful people always give their very best to everything that they do, whether it’s in relationships, careers, parenting, or volunteering.  You can’t be the best at everything that you do, but you can certainly put forth your best effort and be passionate.  Put your heart into everything that you attempt.

Make the commitment to being successful in everything that you do.  It seems so simple, yet very few people have the discipline to give their best each and every day.  Be one of those people who others can look at and admire for the hard work and passion you put into everything you are involved with.

6 Reasons to Use Social Media in Your Business

1. Avoid a Gate Keeper
The days of cold calling an office, getting through a receptionist, smooth talking an executive assistant to finally reach a decision maker are over…  if you know how to use social media to gain access to the right people.  You can approach almost anyone through social media these days:  CEO’s, actors, musicians and anyone that used to be virtually impossible to connect with directly.  By building your presence on social media and knowing the method/tools to strategically reach the right people, you can avoid the old-school ways that no longer work in business.

2. Innovators Always Win
Those that jump in early, get acquainted with technology and carve out their space are more often than not the big winners.  The longer you wait to become fully engaged in social media, the harder it will be to get caught up and build a presence.  Invest your time and money into learning the most innovative methods to leverage social media in your business.

3. Wider Net = Greater Opportunities
The fisherman who has a huge net will more than likely catch more fish than a fisherman with a much smaller net.  The same holds true for the internet – the more exposure you can create for your business online, the more likely you are to attract your ideal prospects.  Social media is a very efficient way to reach a lot of people and get a lot of exposure online; this exposure will undoubtedly provide you with greater opportunities to convert prospects to clients.

4. It’s Who Knows You That Counts
Since we were young, we were constantly told that “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”  In reality, it’s not really who you know that’s important, but rather who knows you.  You can know thousands of people, but we want to focus on how many people know you and the product/service that you offer in your business.  Social media will allow more people to find out about you and your business, which will lead to more people doing business with you and referring you to others.  It’s who knows you that counts!

5. Free Market Research
Do you remember the days of walking through the mall and being asked to do a survey?  They would quiz you about things such as products, commercials or politics and then pay you $10 for your help.  Companies would obviously pay a great deal of money for these results, which would dictate the direction they went in.  Social media allows you to conduct FREE market research in so many different ways – you could post a potential TV ad on YouTube and ask for feedback or ask your Facebook friends for ideas on a new business slogan.  You can also search through blogs for certain keywords and see what others are saying about your business, your competitors or current trends in the industry.  There are literally unlimited ways in which you can use social media to do market research.

6. Top of Mind Awareness
It is so important in business to have top of the mind awareness for your product/service.  If you aren’t constantly visible to your target market, they can forget about you and try your competition.  For some of you, it is impossible to call all of your clients/prospects on a regular basis, or it would be terribly inefficient and might annoy them.  So how can you be in their mind constantly?  By being connected with them through social media and then providing the right type of value on a consistent basis.  They might not want to receive a call from you every day, but they love the informative articles you share about your industry, the blogs you post, the videos you create and the discounts you offer.  You are accomplishing the same objective (lots of touches), but in a much more efficient and less intrusive way (social media).  This is a great way to reach more people while doing less work and providing them with great value!

The 5 Factors Young Professionals Must Consider Before Relocating

As a young professionals, the potential living situation can take you to one of three places – the home you grew up in, living on your own in a city you are familiar with or relocating to a brand new city that you may or may not have any connection to whatsoever.  Before looking at each of these three, let’s talk for a minute about the decision making process.  You really need to evaluate what is truly important to you and there simply is no easy answer.

The main factors in a young professionals decision about where to live include one or more of the following, each with varying degrees of importance:

People – Do you want to be as close to your family as possible?  Did you make a pact with your high school friends that you would all move back home after college?  Are you and some college friends all moving to a certain city together?  Is your boyfriend/girlfriend already living somewhere?

Money – Are you at a point financially where you feel as though your only option is to move back home?  Do you want to move to a big city but can’t afford to even split a studio with your income?  Are you being offered twice as much money to start your career in a certain city?

Location – Do you need to be near a beach?  Or can you not live without the lights and sounds of a big city?  Do you need to be on the mountains and ski as much as possible?

Education – Does a school 1,500 miles away have the best program in the country?  Is your field of study only offered in certain parts of the country?

Industry – Is it easier to become an actor in Los Angeles than it is in Omaha?  How difficult is it to be a ski instructor in Miami?  Are you at an advantage to choose one location over another based on your industry?

What is important to you may not even be a factor in someone else’s decision and vice versa.  We all value different things in life and those things can often change significantly and quickly.  The bottom line is that no matter what you decide to do, put yourself in control of the decision making process.  Make sure to consider all of the above factors and not only one.

The Bottom Line: relocation is a great way to learn, grow and challenge yourself at a young age.  It can also open the doors for some amazing opportunities and experiences that you never thought of before.  Consider all 5 factors and do what you feel is best for yourself; both in the short-run and long-run.

Happy 89th Birthday To My Pup Pup

There is no person in this world that I am more inspired by than my grandfather.  He is the best person that I know and I’m absolutely thrilled that he is healthy, happy, active and loving life at age 89.  One of the most important things that I learn from him everyday is to make the absolute most out of life – at 89 he is going to the gym, going out at night, meeting new people, learning new things and always surrounding himself around great people.  Very few 29 year olds can say they do those things consistently!!

Among his many accomplishments are raising and putting his two amazing daughters through college, being an incredible Grandfather, being the oldest employee in the history of our school district, volunteering his time weekly at our church and being one of the most well known and respected people in our community.  He truly is an inspiration to us all!

Happy Birthday Pup – you are the best!