Personal Branding Interview: Dave Ramsey | Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel

Today, I spoke to Dave Ramsey, who is a personal money management expert, is an extremely popular national radio personality, author of the New York Times best-seller The Total Money Makeover, and host of the“The Dave Ramsey Show” on Fox Business Network. In this interview, Dave talks about how he became very rich, lost it all, and recovered. He also talks about how he started his show, and built his personal brand.

When your net worth was a million dollars, how did that affect the way you perceived the world, and lived your life?

By the time I was 26 years old, I had a little over $4 million worth of real estate; a little over a million net worth, and I was making about $250,000 a year. Now, that’s fun! We were having a blast. I mean, we went to Hawaii, and we liked it, so we went back. I went and got me a Jaguar, and man, within 90 days, I was a Jaguar. I bought my wife some of those sparkly things, and they weren’t big enough, so we got her some more. It was fun! I had lots of stuff and I thought stuff meant I was successful.

When you lost everything, how did your lifestyle and way of thinking change?

I remember standing in a scolding hot shower and crying because I was so scared. Finally, with a brand new baby and a toddler and a marriage hanging on by a thread, we hit bottom, and we were bankrupt. For a minute, I laid around at the bottom of that mess and cried and whined and moaned and blamed everybody else. But then I decided I was going to learn how money really works. My wife, Sharon and I were able to turn around and start walking together again. We decided that we would never go back into debt again. I drove an old car that would barely make it from point A to point B. Our children wore consignment clothes. Although our lifestyle changed, we had a sense of control, a sense of destiny.

How did you start your show, and what steps did you take to build your audience in the beginning?

Almost 20 years ago, a local bankrupt radio station asked me to come on the air and answer a few financial questions and the phones began to ring! Since the station was bankrupt, they couldn’t afford to pay me. But, I enjoyed doing the show and would come back weekly. I took my first few years doing the radio show to learn about the radio business. We slowly added new radio stations. Now, the ‘The Dave Ramsey Show’ can be heard on over 450 radio stations across the country.

Your bestselling books are everywhere. How important was the book to extend your personal brand?

I’ve had 3 New York Times best-sellers, but that is only a portion of my brand. In 1992, I began selling my first book, Financial Peace¸ out of the trunk of my car. It wasn’t until 1997 that Viking published the book and it became a New York Times best-seller. A personal brand doesn’t develop overnight. It takes years and years of extremely hard work. Now we use many different avenues to spread our message: radio, television, books, magazines, social media and the web.

What do you think people most know you for and why?

Early on, I was probably most known for encouraging people to cut up their credit cards and helping people get out of debt. Since I have lived the debt free life now for over two decades, I have an understanding of how freeing that can be. I want to share my passion with everyone. Now that millions of people have become debt free following the plan, I find myself teaching wealth building more and more. Fun!

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Dave Ramsey, a personal money management expert, is an extremely popular national radio personality, and author of the New York Times best-sellers The Total Money Makeover, Financial Peace and More Than Enough. Ramsey offers life-changing financial advice as host of a nationally syndicated radio program, “The Dave Ramsey Show,” which is heard by 4.5 million listeners each week, on more than 450 radio stations throughout the United States. On Oct. 15, 2007, Ramsey added television host to his title when “The Dave Ramsey Show” on Fox Business Network debuted nationally. More than 1,000,000 families have completed his Financial Peace University program. A frequent speaker around the country at large-scale live events, Ramsey is a passionate and inspiring presenter who is at ease on both sides of the mike. More than 750,000 people have attended Ramsey’s LIVE events.

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Keys to a Great Email in Your Job Search! | Career Rocketeer - Career Search and Personal Branding Blog

Most opportunities you have to present yourself to a hiring decision maker will involve sending an email.

The form and substance of that email will have a great deal to do with whether you get a response or not.

As a recruiter, I receive a lot of emails from job seekers looking for leads, looking for help in their search, or pursuing specific job opportunities I’m working on. On average, I receive between 1000 and 1500 emails per month. In those emails, I’ve seen the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

What gets my attention? What gets a response? And what really gets my interest? Three different questions, with three different answers. Here are some observations, opinions, and ideas about how you can improve your chances of getting a response to your emails.

What gets attention? – Often an extraordinarily bad email gets as much attention as a great one. It often amazes me how poorly or cryptic people write. Generally, it’s not a good idea to send a cover letter as an attachment since it rarely will get opened at all. The greatest cover letter in the world has no impact if it doesn’t get read. The body of your email is effectively your cover letter. Considering how important it can be, I’m stunned how casually people treat it. I’ve received emails that have only said: “I am sending u my resume” and have their resume attached. I’ve had worse ones that are full of texting abbreviations. In my opinion, it would be better to not write anything at all, and only attach a resume than to write overly casual, overly cryptic, or non-sensical notes. First impressions DO matter.

What gets a response? – If someone sends a professionally written, clearly customized introduction for help or in response to a position I’m recruiting for, I will invariably respond to them even if they are not a fit for the role or the profiles I generally seek. If they made the effort to present themselves in the best way they can to me, I believe they deserve a respectable response. If they send what is clearly a standard form letter that does not necessarily apply to me directly, or if they carelessly sent something with no effort at professionalism, I will often not bother responding to them.

What gains real interest? – Brevity is a virtue, and connecting dots is key. When I’m processing the many emails I receive each day, I only have a very brief time to decide what to do with each one. If I open an email that has several long paragraphs, I will rarely read past the first line. If there’s a resume attached, I will open it and quickly decide if this is someone I want to examine further, but because the email message was too long, the note has no impact on my decision to go further or not.

If someone writes a couple very brief paragraphs and has written something that very quickly and easily helps me see why I may be interested in pursuing this person further based on specifics related to the position I’m trying to fill, or generally as the types of people I target, it has a tremendous impact on my decision.

Whether you send an email to a recruiter, an HR representative, or to a hiring manager, connecting the dots for them as quickly as possible has everything to do with gaining their interest. Help them see the connections by directly linking their requirements with your specific experience. Some people make it even visually easier on me by creating a short table with my requirements on one side, and their related experience on the other.

Secondly, give one brief reason you stand out from everyone else. Give an accomplishment, brief success story, or a unique qualification that emphasizes why you should be considered.

Clearly showing your related experience and what makes you stand out from the crowd will cause me to follow up with you every time.

Relevance and Impact!

A good email can make a tremendous difference in your response rate. Take the time and put in the effort to make it work for you!

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Author:

Harry Urschel has over 20 years experience as a technology recruiter in Minnesota. He currently operates as e-Executives, writes a blog for Job Seekers called The Wise Job Search, and can be found on Twitter as @eExecutives.

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Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom: How to Collect Feedback on Your Performance

Everyone – even the most accomplished leaders – has strengths and areas for improvement.  When I talked to organizational consultant Ed Poole about professionals who rise quickly, he warned me of the danger of being “unconsciously incompetent,” meaning you don’t know what you don’t know.  You can avoid this by putting yourself in a position to objectively evaluate your performance.

This is easier said than done.  In fact, getting honest, helpful feedback from people with whom you have personal relationships can be extremely difficult.  This is because individuals who like us want to be supportive and are also afraid of hurting our feelings.

The only way you will get feedback you can use is to be very strategic in asking the right questions in the right forums, and to develop a reputation as someone who takes constructive criticism well.  Following are some suggestions for approaching superiors, subordinates, and clients/mentors

Asking Your Superiors: The annual or bi-annual performance review is a great place to begin.  Print out your last review and look at the goals and/or action steps outlined.  Then, set up a meeting with your boss and anyone else who supervises your work on a regular basis.  The goal of these meetings should be soliciting concrete feedback on your progress, and while they’re occurring, try to maintain a good balance between listening to what your superior has to say and playing an active role in the conversation.

Don’t be afraid to ask specific questions about any feedback you receive so that you know how to proceed.  Once the cycle is complete, your managers might be perfectly happy to forget about your performance until the next official review period. Don’t let them. Be proactive about setting up follow up meetings to review your progress, address potential problems, and incorporate new responsibilities and priorities.

When it comes time for your next official review, make sure your boss gives it to you. This may sound silly, but you’d be surprised how many organizations de-emphasize the importance of the official review. Remember, though, that it’s your right to request a timely appraisal. Think of the official review as an opportunity to sell your manager on your value to the company as well as collect up-to-date feedback on your performance.  To prepare, think about successful projects that demonstrate how you’ve improved in previously identified weak areas.  Also, brainstorm concrete examples that illustrate outstanding work, and practice communicating them so they’re on the tip of your tongue.

Beware of asking for superior feedback too often, for if you are in your boss’ office every ten minutes asking for reassurance on the most mundane task, he may begin to perceive you as needy and irritating.   It’s a fine line between appearing eager to learn and be guided and becoming the person your manager dreads seeing in the hall.

Asking Your Subordinates: 360 degree reviews that solicit feedback from subordinates are a terrific way to get a clearer picture of your leadership strengths and areas for improvement and ensure that your effectiveness increases over time.

A 360 degree assessment can typically be distributed to several raters of your choosing and includes a list of questions about standard leadership competencies.  If your organization has a 360 degree review process in place already, you should definitely participate.  If it doesn’t, however, it’s easy enough to purchase a commercial, web-based service that e-mails a survey directly to your raters.  Popular commercial assessments include the Leadership Practices Inventory and the Leadership Mirror.

There are a few important things to keep in mind regarding 360 degree reviews.  The first is confidentiality.  You must give direct reports the ability to provide comments anonymously or you will probably not get feedback that’s honest enough for improvement purposes.  If you only have a few direct reports (or even just one), then you might consider including peers so that individuals cannot be readily identified.

The second is follow up.  If you want your direct reports to continue to buy into the process and believe it to be credible, then you must create a specific action plan to address points of feedback that are consistent among several raters.

Asking Clients and Mentors: It’s also a good idea to periodically collect feedback from trusted individuals who work with you as clients or mentors.  For this, you might use a free online service like Rypple.  Rypple lets clients and mentors know you're looking for feedback or advice, and gives them a quick way to tell you what they really think on a particular question or issue.  Their identities are kept secret, it only takes them a minute to respond, and they don't need their own Rypple accounts.  You can then review the results and implement changes in real time.

This post was originally published on Intuit’s Quickbase blog.

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The 2010 Top LinkedIn Groups for Personal Branding | Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel

from Jacob Share

Where to go on LinkedIn to learn and discuss personal branding.

How I compiled this list

My goal was to find the groups that truly are the best destinations on LinkedIn for personal branding.

First, I ran a search in the Groups Directory on the keywords “personal branding.” Glancing at the results, you can immediately see that some of the groups mention personal branding but are really focused elsewhere, such as on job search in general. Yes, you can definitely get good personal branding information on some of those groups too, but I wanted a tighter focus for this list. Ignoring those, I joined the remaining ones where I wasn’t already a member, limiting myself to groups with over 200 members.

Before I started compiling this article, I thought that I’d have no problem making a Top 10. After a closer look, the sad reality is that many of the supposedly personal branding-oriented LinkedIn groups were either created mainly to build the personal brand of the group owner or they’re nothing more than spam exchanges with little-to-no substance for group members, trying to cash in on the hype about personal branding.

Avoiding these time-wasters, the list below contains the few groups that are truly worth joining specifically for your personal branding needs. Like any LinkedIn group, they each have their share of spam but whether it’s moderated or not, at this time their level of spam is not something that will bother you.

The Top LinkedIn groups for personal branding

Name: Personal Branding Network

Size: 4,059 members

Main language: English

Official description: The Personal Branding Network is a collective group of individuals, spread across the globe, who come together to build powerful brands. Whether it’s professional or personal development, the PB Network will connect you with experts who can answer your questions. The PB Network was established by leading expert and author, Dan Schawbel, and is open to anyone and everyone who wants to make a difference in the world.

My take: This is THE biggest and best LinkedIn group for personal branding, no surprise at all given that Dan created it and is active in it. The News section contains links to articles that teach (for the most part), the Discussions section has real people engaging in real conversations, and the Jobs section has (some) job listings. A good place to ask your personal branding questions.

Name: Authentic Personal Branding

Size: 962 members

Main language: English

Official description: In today’s online and virtual age, an authentic personal brand is becoming increasingly essential and is key to personal success. It’s important to build your authentic personal brand and be the CEO of your life. The Authentic Personal Branding Group has been created to share ideas in this field with others and to create business opportunities through networking. ENERGIZING YOUR AUTHENTIC PERSONAL BRAND IS OUR PASSION. By way of this group, we promise to help you to realize your dreams.

My take: although a decent-sized group, there isn’t too much discussion or participation going on here. However, there are some good links regularly being shared in the News and Discussion sections.

Name: Identité et réputation numériques

Size: 641 members

Main language: French

Official description: the description is in French and although it gives a good explanation of what personal branding is, it doesn’t actually mention the group itself.

My take: disappointing description aside, if you speak French, this group is a must. Olivier Zara, the Canadian group owner, has done such a great job building a vocal international community (read: active Discussions!) around personal branding that I had to include the group here even if it’s not in English.

Author:

Jacob Share, a job search expert, is the creator of JobMob, one of the biggest blogs in the world about finding jobs. Follow him on Twitter for job search tips and humor.

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11 Practical Ways To Stop Procrastination - Stepcase Lifehack

You have a deadline looming. However, instead of doing your work, you are fiddling with miscellaneous things like checking email, social media, watching videos, surfing blogs and forums. You know you should be working, but you just don’t feel like doing anything.

We are all familiar with the procrastination phenomenon. When we procrastinate, we squander away our free time and put off important tasks we should be doing them till it’s too late.  And when it is indeed too late, we panic and wish we got started earlier. The chronic procrastinators I know have spent years of their life looped in this cycle. Delaying, putting off things, slacking, hiding from work, facing work only when it’s unavoidable, then repeating this loop all over again. It’s a bad habit that eats us away and prevents us from achieving greater results in life.

Don’t let procrastination take over your life. Here, I will share my personal steps which I use to overcome procrastination with great success. These 11 steps will definitely apply to you too:

1. Break your work into little steps. Part of the reason why we procrastinate is because subconsciously, we find the work too overwhelming for us. Break it down into little parts, then focus on one part at the time. If you still procrastinate on the task after breaking it down, then break it down even further. Soon, your task will be so simple that you will be thinking “gee, this is so simple that I might as well just do it now!”.For example, I’m currently writing a new book (on How to achieve anything in life). Book writing at its full scale is an enormous project and can be overwhelming. However, when I break it down into phases such as – (1) Research (2) Deciding the topic (3) Creating the outline (4) Drafting the content (5) Writing Chapters #1 to #10, (6) Revision (7) etc, suddenly it seems very manageable. What I do then is to focus on the immediate phase and get it done to my best ability, without thinking about the other phases. When it’s done, I move on to the next.
2. Change your environment. Different environments have different impact on our productivity. Look at your work desk and your room. Do they make you want to work or do they make you want to snuggle and sleep? If it’s the latter, you should look into changing your workspace. One thing to note is that an environment that makes us feel inspired before may lose its effect after a period of time. If that’s the case, then it’s time to change things around. Refer to Steps #2 and #3 of 13 Strategies To Jumpstart Your Productivity, which talks about revamping your environment and workspace.
3. Create a detailed timeline with specific deadlines. Having just 1 deadline for your work is like an invitation to procrastinate. That’s because we get the impression that we have time and keep pushing everything back, until it’s too late. Break down your project (see tip #1), then create an overall timeline with specific deadlines for each small task. This way, you know you have to finish each task by a certain date. Your timelines must be robust, too – i.e. if you don’t finish this by today, it’s going to jeopardize everything else you have planned after that. This way it creates the urgency to act. My goals are broken down into monthly, weekly, right down to the daily task lists, and the list is a call to action that I must accomplish this by the specified date, else my goals will be put off.
4. Eliminate your procrastination pit-stops. If you are procrastinating a little too much, maybe that’s because you make it easy to procrastinate. Identify your browser bookmarks that take up a lot of your time and shift them into a separate folder that is less accessible. Disable the automatic notification option in your email client. Get rid of the distractions around you. I know some people will out of the way and delete/deactivate their facebook accounts. I think it’s a little drastic/extreme as addressing procrastination is more about being conscious of our actions than counteracting via self-binding methods, but if you feel that’s what’s needed, go for it.
5. Hang out with people who inspire you to take action.  I’m pretty sure if you spend just 10 minutes talking to Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, you’ll be more inspired to act than if you spent the 10 minutes doing nothing. The people we are with influence our behaviors. Of course spending time with Steve Jobs/Bill Gates every day is probably not a feasible method, but the principle applies. Identify the people/friends/colleagues who trigger you – most likely the go-getters and hard workers – and hang out with them more often. Soon you will inculcate their drive and spirit too. As a personal development blogger, I “hang out” with inspiring personal development experts by reading their blogs and corresponding with them regularly via email/social media. It’s communication via new media and it works all the same.
6. Get a buddy. Having a companion makes the whole process much more fun. Ideally, your buddy should be someone who has his/her own set of goals. Both of you will hold each other accountable to your goals and plans. While it’s not necessary for both of you to have the same goals, it’ll be even better if that’s the case, so you can learn from each other. I have a good friend whom I talk to regularly, and we always ask each other about our goals and progress in achieving those goals. Needless to say, it spurs us to keep taking action.
7. Tell others about your goals. This serves the same function as #6, on a larger scale. Tell all your friends, colleagues, acquaintances and family about your projects. Now whenever you see them, they are bound to ask you about your status on those projects. For example, sometimes I announce my projects on The Personal Excellence Blog, Twitter and Facebook, and my readers will ask me about them on an ongoing basis. It’s a great way to keep myself accountable to my plans.
8. Seek out someone who has already achieved the outcome. What is it you want to accomplish here, and who are the people who have accomplished this already? Go seek them out and connect with them. Seeing living proof that your goals are very well achievable if you take action is one of the best triggers for action.
9. Re-clarify your goals. If you have been procrastinating for an extended period of time, it might reflect a misalignment between what you want and what you are currently doing. Often times, we outgrow our goals as we discover more about ourselves, but we don’t change our goals to reflect that. Get away from your work (a short vacation will be good, else just a weekend break will do too) and take some time to regroup yourself. What exactly do you want to achieve? What should you do to get there? What are the steps to take? Does your current work align with that? If not,what can you do about it?
10. Stop over-complicating things. Are you waiting for a perfect time to do this? That maybe now is not the best time because of X, Y, Z reasons? Ditch that thought because there’s never a perfect time. If you keep waiting for one, you are never going to accomplish anything. Perfectionism is one of the biggest reasons for procrastination. Read more about why perfectionist tendencies can be a bane than a boon: Why Being A Perfectionist May Not Be So Perfect.
11. Get a grip and just do it. At the end, it boils down to taking action. You can do all the strategizing, planning and hypothesizing, but if you don’t take action, nothing’s going to happen. Occasionally, I get readers and clients who keep complaining about their situations but they still refuse to take action at the end of the day. Reality check: I have never heard anyone procrastinate their way to success before and I doubt it’s going to change in the near future.  Whatever it is you are procrastinating on, if you want to get it done, you need to get a grip on yourself and do it.

Which tips work best for you? Do you have your own personal tip to overcome procrastination? Please share with everyone in the comments section :)

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Fine art "pie-packed" - Boing Boing

Mike sez, "Mario Klingemann is analyzing colors within famous artwork, and then recreating the artwork with the data from the original image."

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Job Search Help & Career Advice from Career Expert Joshua Waldman : CAREEREALISM

By CAREEREALISM-Approved Expert, Joshua Waldman

Sometimes, there is nothing wrong with defining who you are based on NOT being someone else.

Let me explain.

When I was in high school, I didn’t really stand out. Despite how hard I tried. Grew my hair long, dyed it green. Whatever it was I tried, it didn’t really work. I was still the quiet, unremarkable kid in the back of the class.

Then, one day the loud speaker announced, “Will Joshua Waldron please come to the principle’s office immediately.”

I turned bright red. The whole class started to chuckle, “this quiet kid got into trouble?”

“But wait”, I futilely tried to explain, “She said ‘Waldron’, I’m Waldman!”

“Never mind that, go to the principals office.”

And so I got my first badge of honor. Which I didn’t really deserve. So I thought.

But I kept explaining it wasn’t me. There was indeed a Joshua Waldron who got himself into quite a bit of trouble on a weekly basis, and it was NOT me.

Looking back, it was that one silly mix-up and then my defining myself as “not-Waldron” that turned things around for me.

I Am Not This, I Am That

I believe this same principle can be applied in almost any situation based on a principle found in a book called, “Made to Stick“.

It describes the idea of a Meme, an idea-object that is easily grasped by others. The example of, “a pomelo is like a large grapefruit” can be better understood than a lengthy description of the exotic fruit.

By relating to something that others already know about, you can define yourself.

In high school, Waldron was notorious. By defining myself as not-Waldron, I became memorable to many people who I ordinarily wouldn’t have known.

Enjoying this article? You could get the best career advice daily by subscribing to us via e-mail.

Who are You NOT

Just for fun, as part of your personal branding experiments, think of something you would never do, or someone you would never be.

A Meme is an idea-object that is easily grasped by others.

When you are introducing yourself at a networking event, and you are finding it hard to describe what makes you unique, or what it is that you do, try using this negative analogy. Try to describe it in terms of what you are not.

One client of mine is named Tom Cruise. He introduces himself as, “Hi, I’m Tom Cruise, but not THE Tom Cruise.”

I am not a career coach. I am a social media strategist who can really help job seekers stand out from the crowd.

Who are you not?

Did you enjoy this article? Read more articles by this expert here.

Joshua Waldman is the owner of Career Enlightenment where he helps motivated job seekers get better jobs faster using social media. He received his MBA from Boston University and has 5 years of corporate experience and consulting. You can find him at www.CareerEnlightenment.net or follow him on Twitter at @JoshuaWaldman.

The photo for this article is provided by Shutterstock.

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