Photo by Carolina Doug (Doug Johnson)

2010 is a year of changes, doing things different for me.

When I decided to resign from Wausau Whitewater as the Operations Manager, I had many reasons. But one was primary.

My friend and the President of Wausau Whitewater at the time, Michael Schroeder, understood completely when I told him this: “With the history of Alzheimer’s and heart disease in my family, I don’t want to spend life thinking, what if?” Or end this life without doing anything I really wanted to. You hear about bucket lists, it’s a little like that for me.

I started this post in the middle of the night before I knew but Danny Brown’s announcement to take off some time for his health brought my decisions and goals home once again for me.

I don’t have a real list but I have goals and dreams that I want to accomplish and I am working on them hard this year. One of them is that I have wanted to travel forever. More importantly, I have wanted to go to the career conferences that my colleagues have gone to for years. Before we had children, my husband and I did get away. Seattle, Orlando, and Dallas at different points. And one year after the boys were born, Grampa thought it was time they got to see Disney World so we were gifted an early Christmas present in 1995 and the boys, 8 and 9 at the time, together with us and Grampa went to Disney World in October.

That was my last vacation or business travel – 1995. With my business, husband’s remodeling business, and the needs of the non-profits I subcontracted for, I had no time to take off.

Sunday, I leave for Baltimore for Career Thought Leaders conference. A new experience and one that will teach me much, prepare me for helping job seekers, and give me some time away. I know it will be well-run because Wendy Enelow and Louise Kursmark are planning it. Leaders in the career industry and authors of multiple career-related books, they are known for quality. I’m so looking forward to meeting the 130+ career industry colleagues at this conference. I know I will be blessed with new relationships and getting to know people I only know online.

This is actually the first of 3 career-related trips. In April, I go to New Orleans for Career Management Alliance’s conference where my friend, Dawn Bugni, and I will meet for the first time even though I hired her as the copy writer to help write and edit Wausau Whitewater 2009. It was the best issue I ever created! Dawn and I will be roommates. I’ll also meet Jason Alba for the first time in person. I get to hear Richard Bolles, author of What Color is Your Parachute, who is one of the Key Note speakers.

In October, I finish my travels with Career Directors International conference. Held in San Diego, CA another place I always wanted to go, I will network with more colleagues and get to learn more great career strategies that I can bring back to my clients. Laura DeCarlo is known for quality in everything she does and when I tweeted the 2009 Orlando conference from here, I decided I really wanted to go to CDI’s 2010 Career Empowerment Summit.

Am I going overboard? I don’t plan to make all three conferences an annual affair but there is such great value at all of them, I just decided this is my investment in me this year to help my clients.

I have other goals for 2010. I’ll share those another time. I just didn’t want life to pass me by without doing some of the things I always wanted to do. What about you? Is it time to assess your goals, develop a plan, and take action?

Photo by Nic Price

The post, Value of Social Media? YOU Tell Me created quite a bit of dialog in the comment section. It also generated new questions about the use of social media and the time involved.

My post was in my head when I posted the original Wall Street Journal link to Facebook. My friend, Michael Schroeder, and I have had this ongoing discussion for quite awhile. Me with my enthusiasm for all things social media and him with his not so positive experience as a musician with MySpace.

The resume writer in me comes out in my relationships with others and I tend to find keywords that fit their personality. Whether he likes it or not, I often told Mike he was “highly analytical.” Here’s his comment about social media recently:

You know I was echoing this article’s point in general a good while back,…..I think it comes down to a case-by-case basis of product verses demographic you can or can’t reach with Social media. The article also only touches lightly on the value and cost of time into the equation verses the productivity you may gain using other strategies. I tend to think there is a tipping point of time value that is different for each business of time spent using social media, and for most I think for real value that tipping point of time spent verses the gain is small… For what it’s worth.

The only way to know for each business is tally up the hours each day, week and year and divide that into dollars that were “Only gained through social media” and you’ll have your answer of what you worked for per hour though that marketing. Case by case for each model, but the model is still in the state of change and while I believe it is over-hyped currently for the actual value received to most, I think it has a good chance of having more substance as technology continues to evolve on the delivery end.

You can see that we definitely see things differently but I do often hear others echoing his concerns about time used in social media. I think part of the problem is the word “media.” We expect social media to work like other media, print, radio, and television.

If social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more) are used properly, you are in a very different environment. Think about it this way, if television worked the way Twitter does, when you said something on television, the viewers would be able to instantaneously talk back to it. It would be pretty noisy with everyone responding to your ad or program.

And Twitter can be pretty noisy. You do have to put strategies in place to cut the noise. As I said in the comments several times on the Value of Social Media post, Twitter can be like being in a noisy, crowded room. You are trying to get your message across but it feels like no one is listening. You need strategies. You need to move your following numbers down so you can hear people talking and you need to give back.

From the job seeker perspective, you need to realize that you need to build a network, relationships matter. Jason Alba’s post, “WRONG QUESTION, Do you need a recruiter that specializes in…” echoes the same thoughts. He has a good dialog going on over there. People think if they can only be connected with a recruiter that matches their industry the problem will be solved. Wrong… As Jason says, recruiters work for companies not job seekers. But networking can happen anywhere with anyone.

The hardest lesson that I teach my Design Resumes clients is that networking takes time and it is a give and take. But it can reap huge benefits. For example, yesterday a client who has worked with me using my Re-entry Package, e-mailed me this:

I wanted to share some good news….  X Company just called and requested a phone interview with their HR department. The person’s name was John from Winter Park, FL. I’m studying up on X Company right now and will contact them back tomorrow morning.  I’ll keep you posted! Thanks again for all your help!  Cheers!

I love success stories and this client “gets” networking, we’ve been strategizing networking and relationship building options in each of our sessions.

It’s tough out there… tough for job seekers, tough for business owners, tough for musicians like Michael, launching new projects, even tough for resume writers… but if we all work together… connect the dots, be friendly, care about others, and we will get through this.

Continue the dialog with your comments…

Yesterday, Mike finally gave in and set up his page. He was coming here anyway to work on a grant for Wausau Whitewater so I couldn’t resist giving him my tips and tricks with Facebook. Before he got here, I sent an invite to many of my friends to his Michael Schroeder Facebook page and then being somewhat competitive, asked more of my friends to my Design Resumes Facebook page. Mike’s page grew from 0 to 44 and mine from 62 to 100 yesterday.  I’m guessing it won’t be long before he passes me up. He has fans all over the nation and world. If you haven’t been there yet, you can listen and buy songs. I am very excited about the new Praise and Worship project he is working on here at Dark Horse Recording, the same studio where Neil Diamond, Amy Grant, and Michael W. Smith and many others have recorded. Though Mike has his own studio, producing this project in Nashville with the talented musicians he is working with will change the final project. You’ll hear more from me about this project in the future.

I’ve said I’m Not a Numbers person… but no one can survive in a vacuum. You need community, conversation, and connections to be able to reach new people. As much as I love writing, I love being read too… and more than that, I love conversation. I love talking back… see my signature line at the bottom of every post, “Talk to me… I talk back!” We need each other. I need you to get to know me and if you need my help with your career, so much the better. I view whatever we call this – social media – as an adventure that will open new doors. My clients have been benefiting from my exploration and I just find it fun. If you have not been to the Design Resumes Facebook page, come visit. I’ll keep you informed with career strategies, tips, favorite bloggers, and much more.

But come back here often too… because this is where you will hear me talk to you.

Talk to me… I talk back!

Photo by Laughlin

Do you have a team of trusted advisors? Yesterday’s post, talked about being Random or Deliberate as we start this new year, new decade in 2010.

I mentioned that I as I made the various decisions recently I spoke with members of my team of trusted advisors.

Whenever I make a major decision - that would be different than deciding which shoes to put on or what to put in my coffee – a major decision, like quitting something or starting something new, contracting with something, hiring someone, a major purchase, or travel plans, I generally talk it over with members of my team.

My team members never met together for a meeting and in many cases, they don’t even know each other. My team members include real life / same city friends, real life / across the country friends, online only friends, and some are both. My team of trusted advisors is constantly changing as I meet new people or realize they have experiences and expertise that would help with my decision.

• The qualities they have in common is I value their opinion, see them as intelligent, caring people who genuinely want the best for me, and most importantly, know they will tell me the truth.
• I weigh the opinions of my team, evaluate their concerns, decide if I can live with the consequences of possible negative results if I go in a direction one or more team members feel is not the best choice.
• I ask enough people to see if there is general consensus.
• I investigate the issues that my advisors point out as potential pitfalls.

Throughout this process, I pray. Not everyone would agree, but for me, prayer brings me close to my most trusted advisor, my heavenly Father. It often feels as though I am directed as to who to ask about a certain decision. And when I finally make that decision, the sense of peace that comes over me assures me that it is the right one.

Do you have a team of trusted advisors? If you don’t. as you move forward in your career or life decisions, maybe it is time to make some changes and find your team. To live life deliberately means that your will be making decisions, perhaps many of them. Having your team on board makes that much easier.