Email Signature Make It Count!

Email Signature Make It Count! I am a HUGE fan of crafting an email signature that helps communicate your brand (or value prop, or whatever).  Help people understand who you are and what you do and how they can help you by crafting a sharp email signature! I recently mentioned this on a webinar and I had an attendee (Kim) email me asking for my advice on her signature and I gave it to her! I told her to take it with a grain of salt because I am responding based on my initial reaction, but I know I come across as cranky and my way or the highway.  Really, YOU know your situation best, so perhaps something I recommend might not be what you should do.  Kim was very kind, though, and said I could blog my response to her.  Heres her old email signature: What do you think?  Do you like it?  Here was my critique (my comments in yellow): Kim Bilawchuk, MBA, MEd your creds do nothing for me not sure if it adds value for others unless you have a scrutinizing clientele of business people who want to know you are business savvy but Id rather read about your wisdom and see your advice on your blog than see the MBA (I also have an MBA but I dont put it anywhere, I dont think my audience cares might be diff for you) Career Coach, MBTI Certified Practitioner (what is MBTI?? I think this just confuses people and distracts them from your value prop it is noise, imo) kim@ www.kimbilawchuk.com Cell: 781.696.0926 Feeling stuck? Not sure whats next? Contact me today for a free career coaching consultation. shouldnt the punctuation be INSIDE the quotes?? Otherwise, I like the invitation makes it clear what you do Exploration of career goals career assessment resume writing interview preparation networking negotiation skills very nice list to again, clarify what you do. One thing I didnt mention is that she signs off with her name (Kim) right above her email signature (with the first word being Kim) Anyway, thanks to Kim for letting me blog the critique now, how is YOUR email signature? Email Signature Make It Count! I am a HUGE fan of crafting an email signature that helps communicate your brand (or value prop, or whatever).  Help people understand who you are and what you do and how they can help you by crafting a sharp email signature! I recently mentioned this on a webinar and I had an attendee (Kim) email me asking for my advice on her signature and I gave it to her! I told her to take it with a grain of salt because I am responding based on my initial reaction, but I know I come across as cranky and my way or the highway.  Really, YOU know your situation best, so perhaps something I recommend might not be what you should do.  Kim was very kind, though, and said I could blog my response to her.  Heres her old email signature: What do you think?  Do you like it?  Here was my critique (my comments in yellow): Kim Bilawchuk, MBA, MEd your creds do nothing for me not sure if it adds value for others unless you have a scrutinizing clientele of business people who want to know you are business savvy but Id rather read about your wisdom and see your advice on your blog than see the MBA (I also have an MBA but I dont put it anywhere, I dont think my audience cares might be diff for you) Career Coach, MBTI Certified Practitioner (what is MBTI?? I think this just confuses people and distracts them from your value prop it is noise, imo) kim@ www.kimbilawchuk.com Cell: 781.696.0926 Feeling stuck? Not sure whats next? Contact me today for a free career coaching consultation. shouldnt the punctuation be INSIDE the quotes?? Otherwise, I like the invitation makes it clear what you do Exploration of career goals career assessment resume writing interview preparation networking negotiation skills very nice list to again, clarify what you do. One thing I didnt mention is that she signs off with her name (Kim) right above her email signature (with the first word being Kim) Anyway, thanks to Kim for letting me blog the critique now, how is YOUR email signature? Email Signature Make It Count! I am a HUGE fan of crafting an email signature that helps communicate your brand (or value prop, or whatever).  Help people understand who you are and what you do and how they can help you by crafting a sharp email signature! I recently mentioned this on a webinar and I had an attendee (Kim) email me asking for my advice on her signature and I gave it to her! I told her to take it with a grain of salt because I am responding based on my initial reaction, but I know I come across as cranky and my way or the highway.  Really, YOU know your situation best, so perhaps something I recommend might not be what you should do.  Kim was very kind, though, and said I could blog my response to her.  Heres her old email signature: What do you think?  Do you like it?  Here was my critique (my comments in yellow): Kim Bilawchuk, MBA, MEd your creds do nothing for me not sure if it adds value for others unless you have a scrutinizing clientele of business people who want to know you are business savvy but Id rather read about your wisdom and see your advice on your blog than see the MBA (I also have an MBA but I dont put it anywhere, I dont think my audience cares might be diff for you) Career Coach, MBTI Certified Practitioner (what is MBTI?? I think this just confuses people and distracts them from your value prop it is noise, imo) kim@ www.kimbilawchuk.com Cell: 781.696.0926 Feeling stuck? Not sure whats next? Contact me today for a free career coaching consultation. shouldnt the punctuation be INSIDE the quotes?? Otherwise, I like the invitation makes it clear what you do Exploration of career goals career assessment resume writing interview preparation networking negotiation skills very nice list to again, clarify what you do. One thing I didnt mention is that she signs off with her name (Kim) right above her email signature (with the first word being Kim) Anyway, thanks to Kim for letting me blog the critique now, how is YOUR email signature?

Stress is Inevitable- How to Work Around It

Stress is Inevitable- How to Work Around It In todays fast-moving world, our lifestyle has become so chaotic that to suggest people to not be stressed makes no sense.   Stress in inevitable.   The smart way of living a healthy life while in stress is to work your way around the stress and grow through it. Purposely Engage in Stress: The worst thing humans do is to try to avoid stress. Yes, if you live a life of a saint in the mountains, you may avoid stress but in reality, you just cannot. Every day you will face situations which will stress you. Most people just tune their minds that they will not be stressed with whatever the outcome is but then when they find themselves in unpleasant situations, they automatically are under stress. Let us approach the same situation differently, flip the situation and purposely engage in stress. Make up your mind that you will be facing a stressful situation. So when you really are in a stressful situation, you will not be stressed as much as you thought because you were already prepared for it. Acknowledge the Cause of Stress: Since we know that stress in inevitable, maintain a journal of the stress stimulants to identify the specific activities which repeatedly causes stress. Avoid stimulants such as sugar, caffeine, and nicotine to reduce the stress hormone cortisol. Maintain a healthy lifestyle, eat a balanced diet and sleep well. Introduce some physical activity three times a week to steam off the stress. Share Your Experience with Trusted Confidants: Sharing your daily experiences with a confidant will help you manage the stress better. Bottling up stress will not really help you as keeping things inside you is a sure way of exploding emotionally someday. Instead, sharing your stress will help you deal with it in a better way and you will find it easier to move on. Practice Self-Love: Yes, stress cannot be avoided, so instead of running away from it, why not spend time on imparting self-love? Sit peacefully, meditate, follow your hobby or do whatever makes you feel good about yourself. Taking out time for yourself cannot eliminate stress but it will definitely help in refreshing your mind which will help you deal with stress in a better way. Focus on Your Goal, Not the Stress it is Causing: Stress is caused when you engage in a certain activity. Instead of blaming the situation for your stress why not focus on the reason why you are doing the activity in the first place? Most stress is related to either work or relationships. When you are stressed at work, it is because you are working hard to achieve a position in your career so instead of focusing on the current situation, think of the outcome you are expecting, your stress will automatically seem like nothing. Stress due to relationships may need to be handled differently as breakups may cause breakdowns and a professional can help you get past the hurt. As the experts from Suboxone Treatment Clinic   have pointed out,   people who face emotional stress have the highest tendency to abuse substances hence they should be treated for their symptoms without any delay. Stress in Inevitable Learn to Live With It Do not make and attempt to avoid stress as that is never going to happen. Stress and happiness are not mutually exclusive. By making these small changes in the way you think, you will learn to work your way around everyday stress and still lead a fulfilling life.

Win Three InStyleEssentials #PerfectWhiteShirts!

Win Three InStyleEssentials #PerfectWhiteShirts! Today’s post includes the opportunity to win one of our favorite giveaways, yet! One lucky winner will get THREE InStyle Essentials shirts with TrioFit technology, a $200 gift card to help accessorize your new white shirts, a feature on the InStyle Essentials Tumblr and a one-year subscription to InStyle Magazine!   We’ll also be giving readers a 20% off coupon code to shop at ShopInStyleEssentials.com. Read on for more details.   Like many of you, I’ve spent hours pinning outfits trying to figure out the work-style formula that style savvy women like Jenna Lyons live by.   There’s no doubt that the women whose #WorkStyle we admire most (Jennifer Anniston and Coco Channel, for example) have one thing in common: they build their style around classic pieces that fit them perfectly. So when InStyle Essentials contacted me about their new #PerfectWhiteShirts (yes, I write in #Hashtags) that use TrioFit technology, I was all ears. Crisp white shirts are one of my favorite things to wear, but it’s rare that I find one that actually fits without spending more on tailoring than I did on the shirt. Let me play it out for you.   A few weeks ago I wore a new white collared shirt to work, which seemed like the perfect look for the big client presentation I was giving. Unfortunately, my bust was in no mood to be constricted. The front of my shirt was physically pulling and I was fearful that with one wrong movement the front button would, A) pop off mid-presentation (and possibly hit someone in the eye like in the cartoons) or B) create a big side-gap my colleagues could see in. When I had to attend a going away party for a co-worker after work that night, I wasn’t any more comfortable in that damn shirt. Note to self: make sure your collared shirts actually fit right before you commit to wearing one on a LONG day. Enter the TrioFit shirt. It’s the first women’s shirt I’ve ever seen that is fit by your bust size. I mean let’s get real: how could you boil down a women’s shirt size to small, medium and large and expect that it’s really going to work for everyone?   InStyle Essentials’ TrioFit white shirts go from Size 32A to 40H and are fit proportionally to your figure. The shirts are currently available in three styles (Classic Button Front, Weekend Tunic and Bow Blouse all $59.99), with a fourth style  (Tuxedo Shirt for $69.99)  available for purchase in December. Ms. Career Girl readers can shop ShopInStyleEssentials.com at 20% off with coupon code 20MCG through December 31st. Now, it get’s better.   You also can have the chance to win a TrioPack â€" a set of THREE TrioFit shirts from #InStyleEssentials, along with $200 gift card to accessorize your shirts, a feature on InStyle Essentials’ Tumblr and a 1-year subscription to InStyle Magazine. [cincopa AQPAoW7Apxm3] To enter, visit ShopInStyleEssentials.com and then leave a comment here telling me which shirt was your favorite, and how you would style it. It’s that simple.  The winner will be announced Monday 11/25 in our comments section, and on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Bonus points for pinning the your favorite images with the hashtag #InStyleEssentials! Leave me a comment below for the chance to win!  

About Our Fight To Be Free of Fear - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

About Our Fight To Be Free of Fear - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Be relentless. Be resilient. Be able to repair. Be ready to play hurt. Play tired. Play even with despair. Everything can change in one moment. Every thing passes. Every thing that is good and every thing that is bad does not last. What have we learned from the latest terror campaign acted out on Paris and Nigeria? What have we learned from Boko Haram and other followers of religious or political texts that preach the elimination of anyone who does not follow those “teachings?” What have we learned from Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba, Russia, the US and every other territory on the planet? What have we learned that is so valuable that it should inform the way you live and work, and the way you express your personal brand? We have learned not to be afraid. Being afraid makes you a resident of a permanent state of instability and some would say its neighbor: insanity. Afraid is not a place where you can reside if you believe that your freedom to make decisions for yourself is the best way to live. If you are among my tribe of intentional personal branders, you believe that freedom opens all doors and all possibilities. Of course that includes the best and the worst of times. Although you may be in a heightened state of grief right now, in fact no place is absolutely safe nor has it been at any time. We have learned there is no safety if you shelter in place. If you try to remain quiet with the door shut. We have learned if you are armed with a pencil, with the talent of a cartoonist and the intellectual capacity of a pundit, you are not safe. That if you shop in a market, you are not safe. We have even learned that a young girl may come into a town square, probably unknowingly carrying a bomb that kills and injures as many people as possible. The actions of states or individuals can result in such tragedy. You cannot actually hold all the possibilities in your brain and stay calm. That does not mean you should look away from the truth, or act in spite of, or in any way fail to acknowledge it. You should just take in what you can, when you can. Then do your best to live the best life you can. Remember to kiss the ones you love good-bye or tell them that you love them before you get off the phone or text. Support strangers in times of grief and in times of celebration, and do not be surprised that those occur quite close to each other. We are mourning and celebrating. We are in despair and yet our faith in humanity has deepened. Je vous suis. Nous sommes une.

3 Steps to a Successful Career Change

3 Steps to a Successful Career Change Originally posted herePhoto Credit -VirginiaFrancoResumes.comCareer changes are challenging in today’s market where hiring managers expect to understand immediately how you are a perfect fit for the role at hand.Strong documents alone, however, will not cut it when it comes to making a 180-degree career shift. Changing careers means going up against competition with experience in the new industry you are targeting.evalWithout relevant position or industry experience, your application will rank well below those who have worked in the field. This is in part because Applicant Tracking System You stand a stronger chance of convincing a person than a machine you are worth the risk and that your particular expertise is relevant to the role and industry you target.This is where networking comes into play. If you want to successfully transition to a career or job, it is critical your network include decision makers that can hear your case and advocate from the inside on your behalf.2. Indu stry LingoEvery industry has its own acronyms and terminology. Being able to “talk the talk” shows decision makers you understand the industry and can hit the ground running with a minimal learning curve.To get a handle on the correct lingo, you must speak with those who work in your target field, and launch a studious review of company websites, industry publications and job postings. This effort will also help you determine which transferrable skills are more prized than others.Be sure to pepper your language with this lingo when stating your case, and remember to weave it throughout your resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile.3. Targeted Career DocumentsevalYour career aspirations must be front and center in each and every single document you present.This means your resume’s branding section Although admittedly tougher than a lateral or even next-level job search, a career change is achievableâ€"provided you are willing to put in the hard work.Taking the extra time to le arn the industry, make connections with those with the power to advocate, and create powerful documents closely aligned with your career aspirations â€" are the ingredients for career change success.

Book review Change - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Book review Change - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog When and how do people change? And when do they get stuck in situations and problems that seem hopeless? This is the focus of this book, Change: Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution. The book is based on the authors experiences with brief therapy. Unlike traditional psychotherapy, which tries to uncover the deeper causes of problems, brief therapy focuses on solving peoples current problems. Why spend years of therapy going back to the hypothetical root cause of some problem, when what you really need to do, is get rid of the issue now. And even IF you find the cause of the problem, you still havent solved it. The authors claim to have helped 80% of their clients in 4 sessions or less! The book starts with a chapter on group theory, which is used as a theoretical framework to classify groups interactions and different types of change. This is in my opinion the only weak point in the book I would have preferred to see systems thinking used as a basis. The book then goes on to describe Problem Formation (identifyind the problem) and Problem Resolution (solving the problem). There are lots of case stories throughout which demonstrate their approach. The authors principal tool for resolving their clients problems is, strangely enough, paradox. Since many problems seem unsolvable by rational means, somehting non-rational is often needed. One example is a man who has a phobia of going out. Even going to the local supermarket triggered severe panic attacks. The authors instructed him to go to the supermarket, identify the point at which he dared go no further, and stop one step before that. That point never came, of course, and he was able to complete the trip without a panic attack. In this way, using paradox, they are often able to induce large change in a short time, with relativley little effort. This sounds familiar, right? This is complexity theory. Unfortunately the book is from 1974, from before complexity science really took off, so that angle isnt covered. I was intrigued by the role that paradox plays in solving the problems. It helps convince me that paradox is an important tool, that our thinking today does not utilize sufficiently. Quite often we want solid, unambiguous answers and cant bear fuzziness and paradox and that may limit our thinking. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in how humans change. The book is written with a therapeutic background, but it has applications far beyond that, since you cant really change anything without changing people! Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

Resume Writing for Live Careers

Resume Writing for Live CareersResume writing is a very important part of getting a job, but sometimes people find it hard to get started. This can make it difficult to get an interview with your dream company. Because of this it is a good idea to learn about some of the live careers that are available to you.In order to make sure that you get an interview with the company, you will want to write a resume that is creative and informative at the same time. When you put yourself in a position where a company can actually see you and hire you, it shows them that you are willing to take the time to prepare for this opportunity.In order to make your resume stand out from the rest, you will want to use a template. A template is exactly what it sounds like. It will save you time because you do not have to learn about the details of the job. This means that you will be able to focus on other things such as your skills and experience.You can use a template for resume writing to put yourself i n the best position to get a job. You want to make sure that you have all of the skills that the company is looking for. The last thing that you want to do is send out a resume with information that they do not need.Also when you use a template for resume writing, you can take your own resume and add a few extra things to it. You may have skills that you do not think of right now, but the company may want to include them. If they do not, you can add them to your resume and make sure that they are there. This will make it easier for you to get the job and that the company knows about your skill set.Resume writing can be a very time consuming task. You have to spend hours composing and rewriting. If you are going to start learning about the live careers that are available to you, you will want to make sure that you take the time to do so. This will help you prepare and make sure that you are prepared for this job interview.When you are looking for a job, it is important to keep in min d the resume that you are going to send out. You will want to make sure that you are always making the most of what you have learned by using the resume writing skills that you have learned. By doing this, you will be able to come out on top of your resume.Resume writing is very important, but if you are taking the time to learn about it, you will be better prepared to face the interview. Make sure that you are well prepared by starting out learning about the live careers that are available to you. Then you will be ready to go for that interview!