Copyright 2013 Success Network

I’ve already written several articles about how to introduce yourself in a way that sounds compelling and gets your networking contacts interested in what you do. However what I have never really spelled out before is the realisation that very few people on the networking scene are actually interested in ‘what you do’.

I know from personal experience that coaches and other business consultants frequently don’t ‘get’ this: we assume that our potential clients will want to buy business services (raising my hand here!) and so we focus on what we do, perhaps combining this with superb qualifications or extensive experience.

Even if impressive, my own 20 years of experience as a business owner may not necessarily be enough to convince my contacts and potential clients to be interested in me. Whilst my experience may help me to stand out from my competitors – together with other ways in which I may be different- these just help my potential client decide who can solve their problem best. 

So, what you need to be able to understand when talking to people, are their real concerns and worries. Concerns such as …

• “I have too much to do, am stressed and don’t enjoy my work like I used to.”
• “My finances are in a mess and I don’t know what to do about it”
• “My business doesn’t seem to be growing.”

Whilst most solopreneurs know their problems (intimately) few of them actually think consciously they want to hire an accountant/ business coach/ marketer/ virtual assistant.

You can apply the above thinking to any business- people don’t really care that much about what you do. What they do care about is their problem, and if you’re lucky, that this problem causes them the kind of pain that makes them desperate to find a solution.

But please don’t get too excited yet – in my experience not everybody with a specific, even serious problem wants outside help for their micro-business. Many solopreneurs, in an attempt to solve their own problem, will rather take the risk of greater pain than to be seen to be needing help. Sad but true!

So even when you can see they need you, they may not want your help or at least not right now.

But there are two things you can do:  

The first is the sure-fire way to get the right prospective customer to sit up and be interested! Share the results that your clients have achieved with your help. Talk about convincing solutions that you have found for your clients’ problems. It is much easier for people to relate to that and make them want a bit of that too! And surprise, surprise, people then want to hear more about how YOU can help them!

And if they are indeed promising potential customers, who just don’t want your solution right now, here is the second thing you need to do:

Find a personal way to stay in touch with them. Don’t just send them your newsletter or the occasional impersonal sales email! Find a suitable way to stay connected to them so you can ensure that you are on the scene, or they remember you, as soon as they are ready to buy! 

About the author: Ute Wieczorek-King helps busy female entrepreneurs to be visible, effective and profitable in business. 

Read Ute’s daily business tips on Facebook (Success Network Recipes) or visit the Success Network website and sign up for a free ebook with lots of tips for solopreneurs!

Simple Strategy: To get help solving a problem be nice, keep an open mind and be persistent.

I was chatting with some family recently and they were saying they wanted a company to take care of a situation. They purchased a high ticket item and it wasn’t performing as you would expect. But we all know what happens when you call a big company….you punch a bunch of numbers, wait, talk to someone with no authority, get frustrated and hang up. We’ve all been there and I know, to my embarrassment, I’ve even lost it and been all crabby with the poor person on the phone – this person who has to spend their day talking to disgruntled customers and who has little to no authority to do anything.

And that’s the key right there. The person on the other end of the phone, the sales clerk in the store, the agent at the airline counter, they all deal with unpleasant people on a regular basis and they usually have very few options available to them to truly solve your problem. BUT they also know who else you can talk to…they know their company’s systems and policies…and they are people who deserve to be treated with respect.

So, keeping all that in mind, I’ve developed this simple, common sense system for dealing with sticky situations.

1. Be nice! I know you’re stressed or frustrated but it isn’t their fault. Don’t take it out on them.
2. Tell them you don’t know if they’re the person you need to talk to but you hope they can help you out. — This seems to relax people. They realize you probably need to talk to someone else so they are focusing on your problem and what you need instead of how they can deflect your anger.
3. Simply and clearly state your problem or what you want.
4. This is important – Be Quiet! — We have a tendency to blab on and mess things up. If you close your mouth and wait, give them time to think, you’ll be amazed at what you can find out.
5. Talk to the person they recommend. If they don’t recommend someone then tell them you appreciate their help and completely understand that there isn’t anything they can do. Then ask to speak to their supervisor.
6. Repeat as necessary.

The first person I speak to is rarely the person who actually solves my problem. Sometimes I have to speak to three or four people, but rarely am I not able to find a satisfactory solution. If you calm down, treat people with a bit of care and respect, and keep an open mind you can probably get the help you want.

IS LIFE PREDETERMINED? – a search for clues

——————————————————————————————————-

WHY IS IT THAT LIFE IN RETROSPECT LOOKS SO TOTALLY DIFFERENT?
WHY IS IT THAT LIFE MAKES SENSE ONLY IN RETROSPECT?
and
WHY IS IT THAT WHEN YOU THINK YOU’VE GOT IT ALL, YOUR LIFE TURNS UPSIDE DOWN?

———————————————————————————————————————————————-

THE SAGA CONTINUES ….

Sanity is overrated. I have the proof.

Friday 3.30pm I was on to my solicitor who was handling my divorce to exchange contracts on my new home in Seaforth. Surprisingly, he specialised in both matters.

“I can’t possibly do that” he argued, “we need council certificates, building & pest inspections, I am advising you against that”. He didn’t even bother to mention the impending divorce, though I could hear it on his mind, in total disdain for the obvious.

“I am not ringing you for advice”, I said firmly, I AM INSTRUCTING YOU to exchange at 5.00pm and draw up contracts to move under licence and pay rent if necessary.

My husband walked in on me as I was having this heated discussion with my solicitor. “You’re crazy” he said “if you think you can organise all this by 5.00pm. You’re dreaming”

Now the real crazy thing in this conversation was that it didn’t occur to him to protest about buying this house jointly, considering we were heading for divorce.

At 5.00pm on the dot we were at the solicitor’s signing contracts. I was sighing with relief, my husband was sighing with bewilderment, my solicitor was sighing with total disapproval.

On Saturday morning I did indeed have an address for the removalist to move to.

I spent the whole weekend unpacking with resolve, yet expecting at any moment to wake up and find out it was all a dream.

Dreams, daydreams and waking life overlapped and intruded on each other and my sense of reality had changed permanently.

Within days and without preliminaries my husband moved out.

He set up his office in one of the spare rooms, he would come at 7.30am to drive our son to school, something he rarely did before, return and work in his new home-office all day, then pick up our son and bring him home and leave after 8.30pm to go to his bachelor pad.

We rarely talked during the day but I cooked and he joined us for dinner. I also paid all the bills from then on. Somehow, as promised, the Universe kept on providing.

I never asked for his motives for such an unusual arrangement. I hardly had the right to object when he had invested his share of the money in the current property.

I even looked forward to his trips to Queensland, supposedly on business, so I could immerse myself in my new ways, without intrusion. If he was going there to see his girl friend, that was his business.

Though we often shared the same physical space, in my mind and in my heart, he no longer occupied any space. I allowed him total freedom to conduct his life the way that suited him and, to maintain balance in my life, I allowed myself exactly the same privilege.

I had stumbled on the formula for detachment by suspending my judgement for his behaviour, and had consequently reduced suffering to redundancy status.

Coinciding with the move to our new environment, I had fallen into new patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving and these patterns were now second nature to me, unfolding without any effort or will power.

• I did away with worrying, as worrying never seemed to solve a problem.
• I divorced myself from anything that didn’t concern me, as these were futile to my life.
• I no longer had any emotions invested in outcomes, as this saved disappointment.
• What others did or thought were of no consequence to me, as they no longer had power over my life.
• Enough money and opportunities presented themselves to me as and when needed, as I had transferred my faith to my invisible means of support.
• Obstacles were my opportunity to practice my blossoming magic, as I delved into this and reaped the rewards.
• When things seemed impossible, I saw them as the perfect time to expect a miracle, as life reflected that experience.
• I laughed my problems away, as the Gods smiled on me.
• My new way of being enchanted me, as I played the game of life.

Segregating myself from my outer reality and turning inwards had taken me from the roller coaster of my existence to a place of serenity and inner knowing that all was well in my world, as the riches of the inner world extended in front of me to eternity.

From agony to ecstasy, 2 years had elapsed.

…. At what point did I come to land into this blissful state? I marveled

~~~~~

]]> http://hjustice.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/conquering-the-fear-of-social-media/ Fri, 04 May 2012 00:17:05 +0000 hjustice http://hjustice.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/conquering-the-fear-of-social-media/ What does it take to convince the “forget it” crowd that social media has value?
Do you use Twitter, Facebook or Linked In?
How do you keep your image professional?
How does social media serve you?

Choose to do something over nothing! Every time we choose to put an idea or plan of action aside, we add more fear and doubt into our mind that it’s okay to be quiet and wait for someone else to take the risk. What if that someone else is……YOU? God gifted us the ability to reason and pass on sound judgement to others. Stop complicating action with the fear of not doing anything at all. If you are determined to be successful, then the only thing left to do is prove yourself RIGHT!

LIFE SAVER:

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.- Corrie Ten Boom

REVIVE UNCOVERED!

We have all done the “I’ll try it” game. Its time to do the “I am doing this through the help of God” game!

I was watching a TV show about working dogs, and I was really struck by the story of this one dog that had been put up for adoption at a shelter, but really seemed to have a problem with the idea of being adopted.  It was strange – he was sweet and friendly to everyone who came near him except when it was a person who wanted to adopt him – then he would snap and snarl and bite!

How could a dog have enough awareness that he would sabotage every adoption attempt?

One day, the dog’s foster mom noticed this dog had a passionate need to search for and find things, and also to fetch them and bring them back.  It wasn’t just like a normal game of fetch for this dog, either — she could toss a ball while he was tucked away out of sight, and he would miraculously appear primed-and-ready to go find whatever had just been tossed.  He almost had a drive to go find things, like it was his purpose in life.

Luckily, his foster mom was sensitive enough to this that she picked up on his passion and got this pooch to a training center to be tested as a search-and-rescue dog.

The trainer began the test by tossing an object into a room full of stacked boxes.  The dog immediately dove in, nose first, and happily emerged with the object in his mouth.  Then the trainer upped the challenge, tossing the next object into a bin full of empty plastic bottles.  And wouldn’t you know it, the dog popped out like a firecracker with the object! Exclamation point!

Suitably impressed, the trainer said he believed this dog could be trained to find drugs, bombs, bodies, anything.

This really affected me.  Profoundly.  I remember sitting in front of this TV show with tears just pouring out of my eyes.  “The dog found his purpose in life!” I just wailed in my living room, “He knows what he’s meant to DOOOOO!!!”

Inside I was applauding enthusiastically — “Good dog, ohhh, good DOG!”   He had deeply inspired me!  It was so raw and so real that I couldn’t help but wonder how amazing it was that I’ve found my own purpose in life, and now I help other people pop out of a stack of plastic bottles, beaming with joy because they’re found theirs!

Looking back, it’s almost like the dog knew.  He was literally snapping at potential adoptive families because he knew he would be miserable as a family pet. He knew that was not his purpose in life.

Imagine what it would be like to have no more self-doubt … to radiate confidence instead of hiding, or feeling apologetic, or biting at other people. To feel like things are opening wide, like a faucet turned all the way on. Can you imagine?

I’m interested to know if you’ve found your passion and purpose in life. Tell me about it!

***

What is the purpose of life? Everyone asks the meaning of life at some point, and this free webcast addresses questions about passions, purpose, and fulfilling one’s destiny: “Find Your Passionate Life in 5 Easy Steps – how to create stunning new possibilities in life!” January 24th at 4pm EST. Hosted by best-selling author Rémy Chaussé http://www.findyourpassionatelife.com/

So how do we make decisions and choices that serve us?

It’s really quite easy. So easy, in fact, that it almost seems impossibly easy.

There’s a kind of automatic tendency to believe that decisions have to be difficult, especially the big decisions. It almost seems gratifying to mull things over, to think-think-think, to puzzle through, to agonize.

Have you ever been there … what’s the last decision you had to make?

As gratifying as it may seem to come out the other side with this seemingly brilliant decision after racking our brains, I think we do it because making an easy decision somehow doesn’t feel right.

Or is it because we’ve made snap decisions in the past and they haven’t turned out so well. And as a result, we’ve decided to take our time in the next important decision so it doesn’t kick us in the butt!

May I just say how many times I’ve done this in relationships!

Here’s what I’ve learned. Thinking-thinking-thinking is a sign. It’s often a warning sign. Life decisions don’t  have to be so complicated. And they also don’t have to be made in a snap decision. Life decisions only require one question: “Do I feel contracted? Or do I feel expanded?”

That’s why, as a member of the human race, we come fully-loaded with our own, state-of-the-art, Inner GPS System.  It’s our own personal, internal guide that keeps us headed in the right direction by sending nature’s messages about what’s up ahead.  Paying attention to our Inner GPS means being able to tell when things are expanding all around us and moving us forward, or when they’re contracting and holding us back.

Basically, that feeling of expansion is like a green light, telling us that it’s safe to move ahead toward whatever thing or experience we’re pursuing.  Those are the times when we can feel safe that the step we’re about to take is the right one.

On the other hand, when we feel contraction, that’s like a red light telling us to stop whatever we’re doing and not move forward.

This is how we begin to change life for the better, and make better choices.

I’m curious … what was the last really great choice you made?

On the other hand, if you seize the opportunity to get to the bottom of your doubts and ask what they are trying to tell you, you can turn them into desires, and even strengths.  Yes, it takes discipline to stop obsessing on the negative and focus on what you want to create, but the rewards are SO worth it!

Consider this: The heart only speaks the truth. It won’t confuse you.

It’s when you stay in your head that logic and overthinking can wreak havoc. Maybe you start obsessing, maybe you do more research than is necessary, maybe you start stonewalling, maybe you make one of those little pro’s & con’s lists that we all make at some point.

The thing is, you already know what you want to do … there really is no decision to make, if you just know that your heart only speaks the truth. So get outta your head, and into your heart!

I’ve had my bouts with indecision from time to time, so I’m the first one to say, “I get it.” The mind confuses you. That’s its job, after all. You have all these parts that make up your unconscious mind – the optimist, the strategizer, the fashion critic, the snotty inner child, and many more. But they all have one thing in common — they want to protect you.

So where do you start? Start by asking, “What’s the fear?” There’s something you’re afraid of … and that’s why you’re stuck.

Let’s say you’re thinking about taking on a new job or a new client, and you just aren’t sure if it’s the right thing (or maybe you want to leave a job or a particular organization). Make a list of all the reasons and excuses and doubts. Write them all down. Write for three pages if you have to. Then go back and review them – the reasons you’ve written are spelling out your own limiting beliefs. They’re reflecting your inner fears.

If you’ll take a step back, you may see that you’re making up a lot of stories around the situation, and they’re probably mostly false stories. Maybe have a gift for fiction! Ahhh … that’s quite a talent!

But inside, in your heart, in your soul … you do know what you want to do.

One of the most common questions I get is, “How do I get unstuck?” Reflect on the idea that maybe you aren’t stuck at all. Maybe you’re afraid of losing control, of looking bad, of making a bad decision, of not surviving. But as with everything else in life, there are no guarantees.

You do have a choice – never say, “I’m stuck.” Because hooo boy, that will keep you stuck, for sure! Try this choice instead: Say, “I’m afraid.”

Be honest, and say what you’re afraid of. Admit it. Own it. Deal with it. That’s about as authentic as you can get. What would you do if you
weren’t afraid? You already know the answer.

That isn’t being stuck. That’s being clear.

Maybe you’re angry at yourself because you aren’t where you want to be. Maybe you’ve made some bad choices in the past. Maybe you haven’t grown UP to your greatness.

I’m just suggesting that you know what you want, so embrace that vision. Be clear about it. You get what you want in life when you’re clear about exactly what it is – and only to the degree that you have that clarity.

So it’s okay to be clear about what you want, because you already know what that is. And it’s also okay to be clear that you’re frightened. After all, if you aren’t a little bit afraid, you’re living too small!

One day a client told me that he used to avoid doing the dishes like the plague, however when he did that it was existentially draining it brought him no peace, because the entire time he was thinking about the dishes. So he timed himself and realized it took 10 minutes to do the “damn dishes” rather than 2 days of avoiding, pretending and ignoring. What he realized is that it takes a lot of energy to avoid, pretend and ignore and it take less time, less stress and is a whole lot easier to just “do the damn dishes”

So, I ask you what are your “dishes” what are you avoiding, pretending and ignoring? What is sapping a lot of your energy to create an imaginary nemesis?

Your “dishes” may be the mail. If I don’t open the mail = I won’t have to face the bills. Your “dishes” may be a meeting where you have to give a presentation = If I don’t prepare and I sabotage it, I won’t have to face my fears of public speaking. If I don’t call her back= I won’t have to have that tough conversation.

Does that work? Is it really that bad to face it? Isn’t it harder to avoid, pretend and ignore? Doesn’t it take more time, energy and effort to avoid the mail, pretend the confrontation doesn’t need to happen and ignore the facts? In not facing the pile of mail, the frustrating friend and the looming meeting it becomes Mount Everest in your mind. You blow it so far out of proportion that facing it feels impossible. It makes sense because avoiding creates anxiety, which pretending promotes with wild nightmarish unreal scenarios and then you have thought yourself so far into a hole the only way to get relief it is to ignore it.

So let’s reframe and instead of avoiding the bills, which creates late fee’s which then in turn feeds your pretend story that you will never be able to pay any of your bills and you will be homeless in 3 months STOP and solve the problem before it and your thoughts get out of control. As my brilliant client and Alan Saporta found “The best way to escape a problem is to solve it”

Wouldn’t you rather use your energy in solving the problem and feeling accomplished rather than avoiding, pretending and ignoring an imaginary mountain? It is tiring to carry around dirty dishes, unpaid bills, unmet goals and awkward unfinished conversations. It is your choice. I choose to solve problems and move on and use all that energy on feeling empowered!

  -Anna Papalia   -Life Coach   -215-901-3088   -Shift Philadelphia

Instead focus on one step at a time and break those small steps into 30 day challenges.

With my clients I have found a fun and easy way to challenge their personal status quo, bribery. It only takes 30 days to create a new habit, and with any good behavior experiment there is a prize at the end to re-enforce newly learned behaviors, so challenge yourself to change one behavior for 30 days and at the end reward yourself. 30 Days is all it takes.

If you have a goal to buy a home but you need to clean up your credit and save money you can begin to not only save toward the down payment but you can start to reverse those bloated spending habits by challenging yourself to take your lunch to work everyday for 30 days and when you succeed treat yourself to something special. (Ideally not something that costs a lot of money but a treat that makes you feel as though you are rewarded)

Once you establish a new habit, you will get into the groove and whittling down your debt and watching your savings grow becomes motivation itself. The positive momentum will get you going in the right direction and you will begin to feel the flow leading you toward your dream as opposed to away from it. Identify an area of your life you would like to change and take it one day at a time, times 30 and you will get there

  -Anna Papalia   -Life Coach, Career Coach -215-901-3088   -Shift Philadelphia

Every social media platform exists to solve a problem. Just like computers are part of our modern world, these tools are the new wrench to turn on rivers of information.
Read more on the next page.

Have tough times forced your family or friends to move far away? Are you working odd hours that restrict your ability to meet or talk with your local crowd?

Social platforms like Facebook allow you to reach across time and geography to stay in touch with friends, family or former work buddies.

Are you interested in a professional connection to those from college or past work?

A Linked In profile helps you reach into business communities. You can see where your colleague’s careers have taken them. You can learn about companies and join online groups. Meeting new people? Giving out a public profile link allows everyone to look up your talents.

Are you interested in researching companies? Do you want to share and learn from other experts?

Twitter is an open global platform. People post short headlines called Tweets that contain links to informative websites and blogs. Begin by finding an interesting website that shows a Twitter symbol. Then look them up on Twitter.com, no account needed. Once you do have a Twitter account, you can follow experts in a nonthreatening manner.

Facebook and Linked In are communities that encourage security controls. Twitter is designed as an open network. All of the tools share the idea of friends helping friends. Once you show an interest in a person online, that person often returns the favor.

So what problem are you trying to solve? For those who use these tools, how has social media helped you?

P.S. I am undecided on Google+. Please feel free to post your comments!

BEGIN ANYWHERE and ask yourself “Do I love what I have? Do I have what I love?” How many times have you walked by the treadmill in your bedroom and thought “I really should use that” or every time you go into the garage you think “All of those old clothes are just taking up space, I really need to get rid of them” I say DO IT get rid of them. Eliminate the sources of stress in your life the best you can so you can vibrate higher, be happier and allow yourself to walk around your home and enjoy it rather than feeling like you are avoiding emotional land mines.

Letting go and making changes is difficult to say the least but there is a magic in it, who knows what you will find. What old photo will make you laugh or cry, what important file you thought you lost will be uncovered or perhaps you will find that the old crap that has annoyed you for years is the exact stuff a friend needs. Old maternity clothes you are holding onto for sentimenatl reasons- give them to someone who can use them. A table that is taking up space in your basement- donate it to the Salvation Army or a community center. Once you let go of the past you open up a space energetically to receive your future.

-Anna Papalia -Life Coach & Career Coach -215-901-3088-

-Shift Philadelphia -Life and Career Coaching for Professionals-

Participating is not enough

It is not prior behavior that predicts success it is prior performance. Just because a candidate has done a task does not mean they have done it well. Most interviewers, including interviewers using “behavioral interviews”, ask questions and focus on the candidate’s past behaviors but do not adequately tap into performance- another indication of broken interviews.

To fix you interview, talk about your performance not just your behaviors. For example, question- “Give me a specific example of a time when you used good judgment and logic in solving a problem.”

Candidate “I was working with a team to determine if my company should submit a proposal for a $15MM piece of business. The business would have grown the company but we were not sure we had the internal systems and personnel to deliver on the project and failure with this high profile customer would have severely damaged our reputation and chances for further business. I developed a decision matrix which contained all the pertinent factors and used the matrix to make the decision.”

Where is the performance aspect? A better response,

“… I developed a decision matrix which contained all the pertinent factors and used the matrix to make the decision. The decision was to pass on the business. This decision turned out to be correct, saving the company a significant loss and positioning me as a thorough and logical problem solver. As a result, I received a nice year end bonus and was promoted to Director.”

Adding the performance element will differentiate you from other candidates that simply report their behaviors, impress the interviewer, and position you as a stronger candidate.

Use an interview presentation focus on performance

This book has the strategies you need to win interviews

It's a long line

With our economy it is difficult to just get a job interview and with so many applicants interviewing for the same spots, it is important to find a way to edge out the competition and win the job.

Luckily, there is a new and inexpensive resource for job seekers to use when preparing and presenting themselves at their next interview; the iBest Presentation.

The iBest Presentation, featured on InterviewBest.com, is an interview tool that assists job candidates to communicate their job specific qualifications and personal attributes during the job interview. Not only does it quickly and clearly show the interviewer how they fit each requirement, but also leaves a powerful impression of professionalism and enthusiasm for the job.

“It’s really designed to create a conversation,” said Eric Kramer career expert and creator of InterviewBest and the iBest Presentation. “The best interview you can have is a conversation rather than the typical interrogation.”

Kramer said that the design of the presentation is based on his belief that every interview is, essentially, a sales call. Therefore, Kramer said candidates should enter each interview with a sales style presentation that clearly answers the three main questions of all job interviews—can the candidate do the job well, are they motivated, and will they fit the company’s work environment.

The iBest Presentation

The iBest Presentation is a brief eight to ten pages in length, beginning with the requirements of the position and the candidate’s qualifications that directly match those requirements. The interviewer can read through the booklet to find the candidate’s personal strengths, career accomplishments, and a 30 and 60 day strategic action plan detailing the candidate’s initial goals. It finishes with a list of reasons the candidate should be hired and questions the candidate has for the interviewer.

How do I prepare?

When candidates walk into an interview, Kramer said only about 25 percent are fully prepared. He said that many do not do the necessary company research or prepare for difficult questioning. By creating the iBest presentation, Kramer said applicants walk in with a clearer assessment of the job, the company, and how they specifically fulfill the requirements of the position.

Janice Bilotti, who successfully used the iBest Presentation while interviewing for a Customer Service Supervisor position at Jones Apparel Group, said that the presentation enabled her to be prepared for the interview in addition to keeping her thoughts organized during the interview.

“iBest helps to make sure you cover the most important things that you want to discuss,”
she said, “because now it’s right there in writing and it organizes you during the interview as well as beforehand.”

Bilotti introduced her presentation in the interview when the interviewer asked her to describe herself. Pulling out iBest, Bilotti said that she and the interviewer read through it, touching on the important points she felt the company needed to know about her qualifications.

“It keeps you focused,” she said. “It makes you talk about what you want to focus on when you’re having your interview with the company.”

Bilotti said that her presentation impressed both of the individuals who interviewed her, adding that she didn’t think they had seen anything like it before.

It's a win and a job

Bilotti got a call later that same day with a job offer.

In addition to the iBest Presentation, InterviewBest.com has information for anyone involved in the interview process including candidates and hiring managers. Information includes links and tips for things to do before, during, and after the interview. The site also includes information about how to conduct an interview and ways to improve the selection process.

To create an iBest Presentation, job-seekers can go to http://www.InterviewBest.com and find an easy-to-use program that automatically generates a presentation as they add text. Included are expert libraries with phrases or words suggested for use in presentations. These libraries make developing an iBest quick and efficient. Once the presentation is made, users can either print it at home or take it to a local office supply store for professional binding.

Bilotti said that she would use the iBest Presentation in any future interview due to the positive impact it had on her last one.

“…It sets you apart,” she said. “Very few people would even go to that point of having a presentation much less having one of this quality.”

Go to InterviewBest for a Free Trial of iBest

Buy the book that will help you win your interview

Most candidates claim: “I have the skills; I’m a good, smart person; and I’ll work really hard for you.” That line describes you and about 20,000 other “stars”.  Skills aren’t enough these days because they’re just a baseline of what you offer. What you need to promote is your unique skills that will provide different and remarkable benefit to the hiring company.

Here is an example, I am working with a client that was a mid-level manager working in a large telecommunications company doing accounts receivables. Accounts receivable sounded pretty ho-hum until she began to talk about managing monthly receivables for Federal and Government business units for contracts valued between $2M and $20M. Expertise at collecting money from the government as Obama’s stimulus package gets delivered; that is a great selling proposition. Collecting government funds is the most unique benefit or value she can offer to an employer.

Take your value a step further
When preparing for an interview, first understand the company’s and the hiring manager’s basic needs and understand how your skills, experience, education match those needs. Then take it a step further and identify your outstanding area(s) of value; and yes we all have one or more. Once you have identified your outstanding value, prepare examples of times when you applied that value successfully in a work situation. During your interview be sure to talk about these examples. Do not leave the interview without having clearly communicated the outstanding, and differentiating, value you will bring to the company. If the interviewer does not ask questions that elicit the value just say, “I have outstanding value I will bring to your company, I would like to give you examples”.

Your Hired

In our current economy companies are interviewing more candidates for each position. Their belief is there are a lot of stars looking for jobs and they can be choosier than in the past. Every person interviewed meets the basic requirements of the position. You need to meet those requirements and then shine brighter to ace the interview and land the job.

Use an Interview Presentation to communicate your unique value

What if the knife stuck halfway in between the tree…it’s same with dealing difficulty while you’re studying. There are ups and downs, sometimes you’ll find satisfaction when one you done with much success. The way you can solve this problem is to get the knife back out from the tree. To do that, you need to work harder, as well using your intelligence to solve the problem.

Sometimes you may try different ways to solve a problem, just like working out a mathematical question. For example you could cut the surrounding shape of the tree so it will come off easily. Once it hit the middle point, the tree would fall off immediately. There is like a process, the process which require you with time and intelligence, studying is just the same, once you get the path, knowing what to do, and keep doing it, at last, you will reach your goal.

One who reads three millions words per day, it sum up to one thousand million words in a year. It’s not impossible. Each step you went through, you gain some new knowledge.

Youngsters and teenagers have very strong memories; middle aged and elders understanding would increase but memory would decrease, it’s like the things they’ve learned has been drawn on the sand by a wood stick, at no time once the words has been covered with another layer of sand, the words would gradually disappear.

Jump to the conclusion: To the people who are still young, you should study a lot harder or regret very soon as you’re getting older.

By, Perfectionist Gal

Organizations hire people to solve problems. The problem can vary from, we need another set of hands to get our trucks unloaded on time to, our stock price has declined and we need someone to take this corporation in a new direction. When interviewing, thinking about solving a company’s problem provides a perspective that helps focus your interview preparation and guides your presentation in the interview.

The initial step in preparing for the interview is defining the problem. Typically, job descriptions do not specifically say “here is the problem, the problem is we need someone who can sell more of our product in a difficult market” or, “we need someone who can manage this new project and bring it in on time and on budget” or “we need someone to help the emergency department process medical records accurately”. Job descriptions talk about what the person needs to know or do to fix the problem but does not specify the problem directly. Interview preparation, and the initial part of an interview, should be dedicated to defining the problem in as much detail as possible. Once you have defined the problem you can clearly state how your skills and experience makes you the best solution for the problem.

Pre-interview, defining the problem is a matter of researching the company, the industry and the position. Also, use the screening interview to ask powerful questions that will define the problem. An example of a good problem-defining question is, “what are the three or four priorities for the person in this position in the next six months? Learning the priorities will inform you of what the “hiring problem” is. In the interview, spend the initial part of the interview listening to the hiring manager talk about the position and his or her needs and think, “what is the problem that needs solving?”

Once you have the problem clearly defined, follow a two-step process. First, clearly state the experience, skills, background and education that demonstrate you can do the tasks required to fix the problem and you can do them with good quality. Second, provide an action plan of how you will fix the problem. What will you do in the first 30 days on the job what will you do in the first 60 days? Your action plan items can be as simple as learning company policy and procedures so you can get along in the company or as complex as an initiating an analysis of current sales strategies and market trends. An action plan communicates to the hiring manager a high level of motivation and a proactive orientation. It says, “I am going to hit the ground running and contribute to the solution of this problem right away. I have good ideas and I am eager to get started”.

Hiring managers love to hear a candidate talk about having identified the hiring problem and how they are the best choice for someone to solve it.

 As a salesperson, I try to be open to hearing about new products, it’s only fair.  If I want people to be open to my services, I must be willing to do the same.  I sell on the foundation that by using me to do your Site Selection and Contract Negotiation, I can save you time, money and add value to your meetings.  I know I can.  The question is how do I show you as my potential client that my services will do all that.

So what will demonstrate that? 

This brings me back to the Bank.  Today, the teller asked me if I ever had the discussion with Justin about opening an account with them.  I answered, “Yes, and it was a good discussion”, she replied, “Obviously not good enough, you still haven’t opened an account with us.”

I said that is correct, at this time you aren’t offering anything different then what I already have at my other bank.  This part I loved!  She replied “what is it we can do for you to earn your business?” 

Yowza!  Great opening.  I admit, I am impressed she asked the question.  I won’t bore you with the rest of the conversation, but you get the point. 

I want to earn your business!   I don’t expect you to just hand it to me because I tell you I can save you 10% to 40%: Let me show you.  Here is a brief story of something that just happened to me:

Recently a former client called and asked me to review their final bill from their last event. Due to cost saving measures implemented by corporate, they had negotiated their last event on their own but when it came to the final bill, “something didn’t seem right”.   

Boy, were they were right!  I reviewed their final billing and found they had been overcharged $20,000.00! I also discovered over $10,000.00 in “could of, should of, wish we would have” over charges.  ALL that could have avoided by using my FREE Site Selection Services.

So basically I am asking for you to let me in.  I know you are busy, I know you have a job to do, but if you give me 5 minutes and some honest answers, I believe I can earn your business.   

You have everything to gain and nothing to lose.

PS the bank did, because they asked the question, I had an answer, they showed me a solution.

Beth Longnaker is a Site Selection and Contract Specialist with HPN Global, and past VP of Membership with the Arizona Sunbelt Chapter of MPI.  For more information and contact information on Beth visit our Who Who’s page.

Fairy Blog Mother

There is nothing more satisfying than when you’ve managed to solve a problem that has been bugging you.

Blogging never fails to captivate me, even when I encounter more challenging projects in designing and building blogs for my boss’s clients. Of course WordPress has a myriad of applications that enable all sort of wonderful things to happen to your blog, and whatever you want there is sure to be a ‘plugin’ for it. But one thing that has eluded me was how to get rid of the comment boxes on the pages – until now.

Any other WordPress expert will say “Didn’t you know how to do that?”, but my previous exploits had managed to eliminate comment boxes everywhere, including the ones after posts, which is not a good idea when you are trying to encourage interaction with your readers.

And now I’ve learned that all I have to do is to insert ‘//’ within a specific part of the code and voilá, all the page comment boxes disappear!  How wonderful!

But the Fairy Blog Mother is forever practical, and she set about to cure this problem in WordPress.com blogs where it is not possible to ‘go behind the scenes’ to look at and change the code. After a bit of searching I found a site that presented the solution, but in a method so confusing many minutes were spent looking blandly at the screen wondering what the instructions meant.

But once I had fathomed it out, made it work and finished dancing around the room, the next step was to write a blog post about it so I could tell more people how to remove the comment boxes in blog pages within WordPress.com. How gratifying it was to get a comment thanking me for posting this up, as the recipient had been looking for that solution for ages too! My main objective had been met, to make another blogger’s life better than it had been before, and it was a good feeling.

The Fairy Blog Mother was created to explain all aspects of blogging in the simplest of terms to bloggers of all capabilities. And she enjoys it very much when a new concept is learned and put to good use, so that blogs everywhere can be improved. Take a look to see if there is a visual e-course that answers your problems, and if there isn’t, email the Fairy Blog Mother so she can write one especially for you!

Win Your Job Interview

Here are the 10 commandments of job interviewing. Break these imperatives at your own peril and risk the wrath of the interviewer!

1. Though shalt approach the interview as a opportunity to sell your skills, experience, education, expertise to the hiring manager
2. Thou shalt know the company with which you are interviewing
3. Thou shalt know the critical job requirements (not the general ones like good communication skills)
4. Thou shalt know how your skills, experience and accomplishments  fit the critical job requirements and tell the interviewer about the fit
5. Thou shalt know why you are uniquely qualified to fill the position and be able to communicate your differentiating factors clearly
6. Thou shalt know why this firm has unique qualities, values or culture that make it a particularly good fit for you
7. Thou shalt not complain about anyone or anything
8. Thou shalt answers questions substantively and confidently as possible never speaking for more than 2 minutes and using examples
9. Though shalt prepare and use an interview presentation
10. Though shalt follow-through after the interview with each person you interviewed with
11. (Bonus Commandment) Though shalt develop a list of powerful questions to ask the interviewer. The questions shall reflect a knowledge of the company, industry and specific job.
12. (Bonus Commandment) Thou shalt focus on your benefits to the company which is how your background, skills and experiences will solve the problem for which you are being hired.

Follow these commandments to the promised land- a job offer.