Friday, May 29, 2009

Whats your elevator speech?

I have always been interested in the way people connect (or don't connect) with other people...particularly in the first few minutes. Recently I jumped into an our elevator leaving the office on a Friday afternoon and one of our interns jumped in as well. Just he and I all the way down from our 19th floor office to the lobby. I said, "hey, how you doing?" He said, "awesome...I am so pumped it is Friday." I asked, "why?" He said, "just ready for chill this weekend." Oops I thought to myself. Not a great thing to say as an intern at a place you are trying to get a job.

Better might have been to say he was doing great, maybe reference something positive he knows that happened in our world at the agency that week and indicate his eagerness to get to work on some things for the following week. And maybe some specific questions about my clients would have shown me that he is "in our world."

People want to be around positive, engaging people who might make you laugh, have the guts to ask questions and the guts to demonstrate that they are aware of your world. And, most certainly, people want to hire people who are eager to work hard, embrace each and every opportunity and moment and are smart enough to know their "elevator speech." What is your elevator speech?

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Advice

I always stress to people the importance of asking others for advice...I think you can learn so much by simply asking great questions and listening. I ask our CEO for advice, I ask the people who work for me for advice and, yes, I still ask my parents for advice. So, now I want to ask you for advice as it relates to my website and my blogs.

What are the on-line career based websites and blogs you source to look for jobs?

What are some ideas or tactical questions that you believe people would find beneficial for me to write about in my blogs? The more ideas and thoughts the better as I am looking for over a hundred blog ideas as I expand my editorial calendar for my future blogs.

Please submit your thoughts on the "contact" section of my site and I'll get them directly.

Have a great day!

Friday, May 22, 2009

Chicago

Big Ten...Midwestern people are so wonderful..so grounded...so refreshing. I think our event Thursday night proved beneficial for people. We had a nice crowd of MSU, Ohio State and Northwestern grads. I talked about passion, style, fearlessness, gameplan, execution and more....I think the Mark DeRosa stories helped hit home for Chicago people. I shared the story of how we signed Mark which people found interesting.

I enjoyed lunch with Christie Hefner on Friday. She is a woman to admire...a classy professional brilliant woman. She cares about others...not just at a local but a national and international level...she has and will continue to leave a legacy for woman like me to respect and work to mirror.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Chcago Bound

I am heading to Chicago Thursday to speak to Big Ten alumni Thursday evening (location noted on the events section of my site)....I am excited to be in the windy city. I plan to share a little more beyond my tools in the book and discuss some of the areas I have shared in my Atlanta Journal Constitution columns. Also I am very happy that my Mom, who lives in Lansing Michigan, is driving to Chicago so we can spend a little bit of time together before I head back to Atlanta Friday. See Big Ten peps tomorrow....