Following the example of France and several European countries that implemented a similar measure, this bill seeks to help workers in NYC retain a sense of work-life balance that is more difficult to maintain in the age of digital communication.
1. People
DM all of your connections. We all make connections here, but how many of them do you actually reach out and talk to?
In her case, she has nearly 1,000 connections. Message them and offer them value before asking for anything. See if there are ways you can help them. You’ve all heard that it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. So true, in today’s age. Establishing relationships with people is a key part of making progress in any career.
2. Post
Post content every day or at least every week. People get super annoyed at this one. “But I’m so busy!” you wail. But, in a competitive job market, you can’t afford NOT to put yourself out there, share things of value, and differentiate yourself.
Sharing valuable content — even if it’s just your take on a piece of content someone else made — makes you a resource for people, demonstrates expertise, establishes credibility and initiates conversation.
Post short written LinkedIn updates, LinkedIn videos, and LinkedIn articles (i.e. your blog). In a competitive job market, you must get used to doing this work. Otherwise, risk losing the job to someone else who is willing to do it. We must all become personal brands and thought leaders to some extent, even if we rather remain anonymous.
3. Profile
Last, but not least, optimize your LinkedIn profile. For a job seeker, this is most important.
Make sure your bio is sterling and captivating. Include the most up-to-date, relevant info in your resume. I’d even recommend hiring a resume coach. Have a good photo (Literally Google ways to optimize LinkedIn profile and photo).
And, most importantly, feature examples and case studies of your work. As an employer, I’m more interested in seeing what you can do for me right now than reading your resume listing past accomplishments.
I have no time for annoying formats, plugging into formulas, or regurgitating someone else’s process.
This is in part because I simply don’t have the patience to follow along with someone else’s rules and instructions and partly because I like to do things my own way. This is how I’ve been in many areas of life in ways that are both good, and perhaps, bad at times, for as long as I can remember. Might be one reason I didn’t enjoy school.
Of course, I studied the fundamentals of copywriting and I have listened to experts and learned about different headlines and certain words that work etc., but at the end of the day, I spend much more time these days creating than consuming the work of others. And, experience has shown me that the things I write straight from the gut do far better than things which were written while following a recipe or applying some sort of methodology.
Nowadays, I write more like I speak and I let it flow. So far, the responses have been great. 🙂 I understand that not everyone is going to dig me or my style. Not everyone is going to buy what I’m selling. There is nobody who is for everybody. What matters more to me is making an impact and connecting with others authentically. Keeping it natural.
Like anything else, marketing is something that only produces returns if you put sufficient time and effort into it.
We all want our businesses to grow. We want customers to buy what we have. We want phone-calls from people who epitomize our “ideal clients.”
But many of us make one of two mistakes:
We either:
A) Invest too little effort into marketing and developing a brand, dismissing it as too costly or time-consuming, hoping that our good work or name alone will somehow get across and attract people to come to us.
This mistake is fatal because what ends us happening is we don’t get the attention we need in a world where attention is increasingly hard to get.
And, worse we spend money and time on marketing, but since we’re going about it “half-pregnant,” and not fully investing our efforts, time, and creativity, the time and money we spent ends up being a waste.
Or
B) We try to rush the sale. If our business is new or our numbers are lacking, we scramble to move prospects and leads to the finish line.
Desperation is a foul smelling cologne. Your prospects can smell it. Furthermore, it causes you to resort to short-term tactics and behaviors.
You end up thinking small and neglect a key part of effective marketing and sales — providing value.
When you become a one-way broadcast machine constantly pumping out promotions and pushing prospects to claim your offers without first providing them any value, it’s clear that you’re thinking primarily of yourself and not about your prospect or customer.
This is a HUGE turn-off. And in our customer-centric world where people’s attention spans have numerous outlets across platforms and devices, that old style of “push-marketing” is increasingly ineffective.
The only way to avoid either of those mistakes is to spend the time and do due diligence to learn about your audience and figure out the best way to provide them value.
Worry less about the sale and focus more on helping the prospect by giving away value — either in terms of content which they find helpful or interesting, educating them and giving them practical advice, or literally giving some product away.
I believe that if you do that, the sales and loyalty will follow.
Building a business is hard.
Coming up with content every week (day?) is hard.
Earning the trust of people in a cynical world with so much competing for our attention is hard.
But, if it wasn’t, would we ever appreciate the reward?
I think how you answer the following question is very telling of how you feel about your work: If you were handed a million-dollar check every year, what would you be doing with your time?
If money were no object, would you be investing it in building your business? Would you be trying to earn more than that? Would you be exploring a different passion or hobby which you had not previously had the opportunity to pursue?
Or would you chill all day at the beach with a drink (or play video games or insert whatever other leisure activity you enjoy)?
I don’t think there is a wrong or right answer here.
But one thing is for sure. Nobody said getting to live life on your own terms doing something you love was supposed to be easy.
It isn’t, but I think embracing the struggle of it and loving the process will be a huge part of long-term success Perhaps, we can learn not only to savor the rewards but to love the journey itself.
