10 steps for achieving success in the Hidden Job Market

10 steps for achieving success in the Hidden Job Market

Step 1: Give Up the Job Seeker Label
Declare yourself to no longer be a job seeker and stop telling people you are looking for a job. This is perhaps the most difficult step, but it is the most important.

There may be a temporary vacuum caused by not knowing how to think and speak of yourself but not to worry, this gap will be replaced very quickly with a new, refreshing and empowering sense of professional identity, one that restores a sense of clarity, dignity and sense of personal power to your professional life.

Step 2: Adopt a New Empowering Identity
Declare yourself to be a problem solver, solution provider, fulfiller of unmet needs, consultant, adviser or mentor, whichever name appeals most to you. Choose a name you really like and one that you can identify with easily. 

If you cannot think of a good name, brainstorm with your friends or coach if you have one but most importantly stop talking about getting a job and being hired unless you like having doors slammed in your face. 

Labels are a form of branding or positioning which either open doors or close them. The employee label is a diminishing, self limiting label that often results in giving your power away. This is ultimately damaging to your self esteem and self respect. 

Step 3: Get to Know the New You
You will need to spend some time getting to know the new you, the person associated with the Real Me Hat. With support, you will find this to be a fun, exhilarating and immensely validating adventure. 

Your challenge is primarily in letting go of old outdated notions and beliefs that no longer serve you and which are simply no longer effective in the marketplace. The world has changed. It is time to wake up.

Acknowledging the truth about this to yourself may be difficult in light of the fact that so many advisors continue to tell you to revise your resume yet again and to do more networking.

Note: Networking is meaningless term unless you understand precisely what it means and have the tools and skills to bring about the end result. Without having all the tools, you are likely to get yourself more frustrated. The chain is only as strong as the weakest link.

Step 4: Translate Your Accomplishments into Solutions and Value
Most people are aware of their accomplishments but are often unclear on how their skills, talents and experiences translate into solutions and value to organizations. Since it is critical for you become clear and articulate about your unique value, it will be important to extract your special problem solving abilities from your accomplishments. 

The easiest way to do this is to start with one recent and important accomplishment. Go back in time to just before your accomplishment happened and take a visual snapshot in your mind of the state of affairs in the organization or environment in which you were working. Then ask yourself this key question: what were the chief problems or needs that existed? Write them down. 

Now fast forward to right after you completed your accomplishment and once again, take a snapshot of the situation and environment. Ask yourself these questions and write down your answers.

• What changed from one picture to the next?
• How did the change occur? 
• Utilizing a problem-solution framework, what were the solutions that made the critical difference? 
• What previously unmet needs got fulfilled?
• How did you personally create and implement these solutions? 

Instead of focusing on your talents and skills that you usually take for granted, focus instead on the value that you brought to the situation. Now continue this process with your remaining accomplishments. When you have done this exercise with all of them, take a step back and look for the dominant pattern of solutions and value that you repeatedly bring to each situation. If you look closely, you will find this pattern. This will then become the focal point in your letter of introduction in step 6 below.

Step 5: Stop Using a Resume
A resume is a fundamentally limiting tool because it promotes the label of you as a job seeker. The resume is also an ineffective marketing tool because the intrinsic expectations and formal rules of resumes prevent you from selling yourself on paper in a compelling and effective manner. Professional resume writers may disagree but their "improvements" are still limited to a defined context. 

If you decide to actively pursue the 30% of advertised positions, use a functional resume only and keep a chronological work history separate from this document. Only provide your chronological work history if requested in an interview but otherwise do not even speak about it. Why? 

Chronological resumes are NOT effective marketing tools no matter how well they are written. They will also tend to pigeon-hole you into a stifling corporate mindset. A good example is the familiar gap in your resume, used by interviewers all the time to disqualify you.

Do you really want to play this game? Do you insist on punishing yourself in this manner? Here is a good response to the question "what were you doing between job A and Job B?"; "I was living my life, how about you?"

Step 6: Develop and Use a Letter of Introduction
In the place of a resume you will learn to use an amazingly powerful document called The Letter of Introduction. The advantages and uses of this tool are vast. The longer you use it, the more you will marvel at its many applications and level of effectiveness. 

Even the act of writing this letter is transformational because it opens the door to a freely expressive channel in you which allows you to convey who you are, the greatest value you have to offer and what you are seeking. 

The letter of introduction works equally well as an prelude to a serious business conversation and a networking interaction which can put you in touch with key people very quickly. You may want to have a few versions of your letter for different purposes. Learning to write and utilize a letter of introduction begins to awaken you to the world of effective marketing, something significantly absent in most job seekers.

The Letter of Introduction has several main components which are as follows:

• Opening paragraph to establish rapport and your reason for writing
• A Second paragraph honing in quickly and powerfully on your major value to organizations
• A short bulleted list of examples where you implemented solutions validating your assertion
• A Third paragraph briefly summarizing the most ideal projects for you.
• Final paragraph expressing why a phone conversation would be beneficial to both of you. This is virtually always the intended outcome of the letter.
• Important: Never use the words job, employment, interview, getting hired or salary anywhere in your letter!

You will acquire in depth tools and support for writing and utilizing your letter of introduction.

Step 7: Use Social Media Strategies to Identify Matching Problems and Needs
Once you know your specialty as far as solving problems and satisfying needs, your next step is to use all online and offline resources to identify potential sources of these needs. A good way to start this process is by asking a series of marketing questions that will allow you to effectively hone in on your target market and speed up the process of locating key people that match your profile. Here are some sample questions to get you started:

• What is your major targeted industry?
• What is your ideal company or organization?
• What are the primary problems or needs you have identified to be your greatest strengths?
• What are the people within organizations most likely to have direct involvement with these needs or problems?

Once you have answered these questions you can then start your search and sorting process. You will want to concentrate on LinkedIn and Twitter to establish connections but another great resource will be industry specific networks and contacts.

Step 8: Begin Conversations With People Matching Your Profile
As soon as you locate people who appear to be connected to your target market or industry, it is important to be proactive, to reach out and make contact. If you have some inkling that a person has a need you can address, it is best to make contact right away but be sure to establish rapport and make a connection before diving into the specifics of the situation. 

The art of relationship building and relationship based selling is one of our most powerful courses at Growth Innovations.

You will also find that you can share your goal and directly ask people for referrals to people and organizations that match your profile. Sending them your letter of introduction is usually ideal at this juncture especially if they give any indication of interest or receptivity.

Be sure you have a clear plan on how you are going to present yourself and the best way to interact with new contacts. You can work out these details with your coach if you have one and if not, you can do some role plays with friends or family. The aim is to get comfortable and confident with your approach and get it refined to the point where you can carry the conversation forward to completing a deal if appropriate.

Step 9: Complete Profitable Agreements With Best Organization(s)
Once you have started a conversation and identified the need or problem which matches your area(s) of expertise, you are ready to move into negotiation and make something happen. 

This can be a very quick and straightforward process when you have really clicked and have what the person needs. In other situations it may take several meetings to complete the deal.

Either way, you will want to be clear on the entire conversation and sales process and also clear on how you will take the person through the important steps. This is a stage where having a buddy or a coach for brainstorming is important. Role playing is the perfect tool for gaining clarity, skill and confidence in presenting yourself. 

Step 10: Utilize an Effective Learning, Coaching System to Ensure and Accelerate Your Success
If you feel able and confident completing all these steps on your own, great. Go for it! On the other hand, if you would like some assistance, I'm available to help you. 

The ideal starting point is a phone consultation in which we will assess your personal situation and then devise a complete plan of action tailored to your personal needs.

Keep in mind that most significant growth and learning in life takes place in the context of supportive relationships. No matter what your circumstances may be, working in partnership with others will have profound impact and value.

MARRIAGE MATTERS

MARRIAGE MATTERS

Marriage, poverty rates are linked

Few social service agencies or even churches want to address the link between a rise in income inequality to falling marriage rates, for fear of alienating people or encouraging abortion, but it’s hard to ignore a growing body of research into the relationship. For the past three decades, the gap between the wealthiest and poorest Americans has grown quick

WHY SAYING ‘ I DO’ CAN PAY OFF

Family median income growth would be 44% higher if parents married at the same rate as 1980. Young men from intact families earn a premium of $6,500 a year, and young women $4,700, over peers from single-parent families. Married men earn $15,900 a year more than single peers and married women earn about the same as single peers.  For men with a high school degree or less, the marriage premium is at least $17,000.*
*Source: For Richer, For Poorer, study by W. Bradford Wilcox abd Robert Lerman

Marriage, poverty rates connected

This,  at the same time marriage rates for low-income, less-educated Americans have plunged.

A study released earlier this year quantifies some of the financial benefits of marriage. For Richer, For Poorer, conducted by W. Bradford Wilcox of the American Enterprise Institute and Robert Lerman of the Urban Institute, found that:

-        The growth in median income of families with children would be an estimated 44 percent higher if American parents had the same marriage levels today that they did in 1980.

-        Young men who grow up in an intact family earn an annual premium of $6,500 over peers from singleparent families; for young women the premium is $4,700 a year.

-        Married men make an additional $15,900 per year more than peers who are single. Married women earn about the same as their single peers. Married people who were raised in intact families enjoy even greater increases in their household income.

-        The advantages extend across races and educational levels. For instance, black men enjoy a marriage premium of at least $12,500 in income compared to their single peers. For men with a high school degree or less, the marriage premium is at least $17,000.

The divide threatens to become self-perpetuating, as children of wealthier, intact families go on to marry other children from stable families, while prospects for children of the poor grow ever dimmer.

While unmarried births have stabilized a bit in the last few years, nearly 41 percent of births in 2012 – the last year for which statistics are available – were to unmarried women, up from 5 percent in 1960 and 28 percent in 1990.

No one yet knows what the relationship between growing income inequality and falling marriage rates is, and it’s probably a chicken-and-egg argument: Does poverty make people reluctant to marry? Or do falling marriage rates – and especially a rise in unmarried parenting – make people poorer?

The solutions are equally complex. No one wants to coerce people into marriage, and the shotgun weddings of generations ago often turned out badly for all involved. Some abortion opponents are also reluctant to make too big a deal about births outside of wedlock because they want to encourage women to give birth regardless of their circumstances.

But there are policy changes to consider that would help give people the financial stability to consider marriage and reward people who raise children within marriage. According to Lerman, Wilcox and others who study the financial impact of marriage, these include:

-        Eliminating or reducing marriage penalties in the tax code. Marriage penalties are especially high for lower-income Americans; for example, generally two single people making $18,000 a year each would pay fewer taxes than a married couple making the same amount.

-        Increasing the child credit to $3,000 and extending it to income and payroll taxes would help more working- class families cover the costs of raising children. Additionally, expanding the maximum earned income tax credit for single, childless adults to $1,000 could increase their marriageability by contributing to their financial stability.

-        Improving vocational education and apprenticeship programs to help make less-educated young people more employable.

-        Counseling first-time single mothers on the benefits of waiting until marriage to have a second child. School and work options that are possible with one child become much more complicated with two or more.

-        Continuing benefits such as food stamps for three years after marriage instead of cutting them off right away would give couples a chance to improve their financial situation before losing benefits. Additionally, federal and state agencies could reserve a portion of benefits for married couples, such as setting aside 15 percent of housing vouchers for them, to encourage and reward marriage.

-        Launching a public-awareness campaign around what’s known as the “success sequence” that encourages young adults to finish school, get a job, get married and have children, in that order. Such a campaign could be modeled on successful efforts to reduce drunk driving, smoking and teen pregnancy.

Marriage was never a priority for Janelle Odom, not even when she became pregnant at age 20. But as her son got older, she wanted a stability for him that she couldn’t seem to provide on her own.

“I think the first couple years of life kids cling to their mothers, so it doesn’t matter what dad is doing,” says Odom, a hair stylist who lives in Elmwood Place. “But when they start to formulate who they are, around 7, 8, 9, he started to ask, ‘Where’s my dad? Why doesn’t my dad live here? Why didn’t my dad go to daddy donut morning at school?’ I started feeling like maybe if I was married he would feel more stable.

“There was no grand quest to go out and get married,” she continues, “but I definitely made a decision around that time that I’m not doing this again unless I’m married, because I don’t want to take another child through that feeling. I started feeling like I need to change how I date for marriage to be the goal. I didn’t run out and marry the first person, but I changed my dating requirements. I wasn’t just hanging out any more.”

Janelle and Shawn Odom had stayed in close contact with each other, united by their concern for their son. Over many complicated years, their shared responsibility grew into a love and respect for each other, leading to their July wedding.

It’s a heartwarming story, but it’s also a smart financial move for the Odoms. As they receive financial counseling and Shawn Odom pursues his GED, their marriage, bolstered by their two incomes, will make their economic future more stable.

For the Odoms, marrying has meant adjustments – Janelle Odom had never lived with a man before, and finding clothes on the floor came as a surprise – as well as benefits that have extended across their lives. Premarital counseling prompted them to clean up their finances, and both have resolved to make changes – like Shawn Odom pursuing his GED – to stabilize their future together.

“When we did start dating I was like, if we’re going to date, we’re going to get married, we’re going to go to counseling, you’re going to clean up your credit, I’m going to clean up my credit,” Odom says. “Our finances definitely have improved. They’re not perfect, but at least with somebody with you, if you have a plan in mind you realize you’re not going down this road by yourself.”

Words of wisdom for you.....

Here are six tips to avoid being a startup casualty

Here are six tips to avoid being a casualty:

1. Declare how big you want to be in 24 months and use this revenue goal to develop your game plan. Why 24 months? Because if you are to survive for two years while others die, you need to keep your eye on execution and the short-term results of your efforts. It makes no sense to waste your time on a five-year plan, for example, since the latter years may not matter if your short-term efforts fail.

2. Choose who you intend to serve. Where will you generate your revenue? Choose customers who have the potential to deliver the growth you want and be specific in your selection. Look for discrete groups of people who you believe want the value you provide. I always guide people to go after the ‘fast and easy’ customers since survival depends on how fast you ramp up sales. You can’t afford a six-month selling cycle in a 24-month game plan.

3. Determine how you intend to compete and win by answering the killer question: “Why should I buy from you and not your competitor?” This is where most businesses choke. You need to be clear and specific on how you are different than your competition. If you can’t answer the question, you will be judged as essentially the same as everyone else and will be invisible to the customers you’re targeting. The only statement is the claim that will distinguish your business from the herd: “We’re the only ones who...”

4. Focus on the critical few, not the possible many. You don’t have unlimited bandwidth and resources to do it all. Pick three things that you believe will help you drive your game plan forward and do them quickly. Many entrepreneurs fail because they are mesmerized by possibilities and try to achieve too much. Keep your to-do list short and get stuff done.

5. Cut the crap. Your game plan is as much about stopping things as it is about starting things. You can’t afford to continue activities that are not directly related to executing your game plan. Take an inventory of all the tasks you have on the go. Create a cut list of all the things you are now doing that should be stopped, and a keep list of the things you should continue to do as strong game plan contributors.

6. Plan on the run. Stay loose on your game plan – it’s not carved in stone. Be open to tweaking it based on what you discover and learn through execution. No plan ever turns out the way you intended; there are too many unforeseen variables at play. Plan, execute, learn, adjust, execute, learn, adjust is the planning model that works in a volatile world.

Final word: don’t get mesmerized by your long-term potential. Focus on the next 24 months; earn the right to stay in business longer.

Nine Reasons Startups Fail

Nine Reasons Startups Fail

“I’ll never forget my first startup. The story is as old as the hills of Silicon Valley: It was a great ride … until it flopped. Our primary business was crushed by an 800-pound gorilla and we didn’t have the wherewithal to pick up the pieces and make a go of it. C’est la vie.”

I’ve always been a big fan of learning from failure, so while most of my peers like to talk up their successes, I try to help startups avoid catastrophic failure and get to the next stage. I say “try” because, while some make it, most don’t. That’s the nature of the beast.

In any case, I have a pretty unique perspective on what tends to trip up founders. Here are nine ways I’ve seen startups fail time and again.

Their entrepreneurs live in a vacuum. It’s easy for entrepreneurs to become so focused, so wrapped up in their own vision, that they lose perspective. That’s actually one of the key benefits to seeking input from those old grey haired people that know your target market: they give you feedback and validate your strategy.

Their idea doesn’t uniquely solve a big problem. Contrary to the old line, “Everything that can be invented has been invented,” the more complex the world becomes, the more problems there are to solve. That said, it’s got to be a big problem and a way better solution than what’s already out there. Even better your “idea” must be a game changer!

They run out of cash. For every founder that manages to bootstrap a startup, there are dozens, maybe hundreds that run out of cash for any number of reasons before the business reaches financial equilibrium: they don’t want to give up a piece of the pie, they don’t budget properly, they don’t plan for how long it will take to hit breakeven much less profitability, their burn rate is too high, or some combination thereof.

They invent concepts, not complete products. Ideas and inventions are fascinating, but consumers and businesses generally buy products they can actually use. There is a world of difference.

There are big gaps in the strategy. There’s an old cartoon of two scientists at a blackboard filled with equations. Right smack in the middle it says, “Then a miracle occurs …” Some gaps are to be expected, but oftentimes, what startups leave to be fleshed out later – little things like low-cost materials, availability of components and infrastructure – end up becoming showstoppers.

The person/team does not have what it takes. Some founders just can’t get along. Others fall apart when the initial strategy fails, as it often does. Still others are out to make a quick buck and aren’t committed to working day and night over the long haul. Any VC will tell you, a big part of what they invest in is the management team.

Competitors with existing solutions don’t give up so easily. From disk drives and CMOS chip technology to pencils and paper, there are barriers to topple the status quo and, sometimes, old-school solutions that are tried and true and the powerful companies that market them hang in there far longer than anyone would expect. They simply wait you out until you run out of money! Do not underestimate the competitive landscape.

The market moves on them, or moves in an unexpected way. Markets are a complex phenomenon with lots of moving parts that are difficult to predict. Moreover, some entrepreneurs simply don’t think ahead. As the great Wayne Gretsky once opined, “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” Or better said for business, your plan puts you where the puck was!

They listen to bad advice from the wrong people. With all the hype over entrepreneurship, the quantity of information has gone way up while the quality has gone way down. That means entrepreneurs are getting lots of bad advice from unqualified sources. The worst thing about it is, when they actually get good advice that conflicts with what they’ve been told, they don’t recognize it for what it is. Sad but true.

Perhaps the most important advice I can give you is this: If your startup fails, it’s worth spending time to understand what went wrong. That’s the only way you’re going to improve the odds of making it next time. And, yes, there will be a next time if entrepreneurship is in your blood.  Hopefully this list will help you avoid a different pitfall.