Sunday, March 25, 2012
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
First Impressions are Lasting Impressions
Someone once said, “First impressions are lasting impressions”.
An impression is an effect produced on the senses, mind or emotions. Something that denotes an engraved mark or figure. No matter who you are, you have at some point in time purchased products based on their brand; items such as clothing, sneakers, electronics and even food to name a few. In other words you have made decisions among competing brands while ultimately choosing some brands over others because of an impression even before an actual experience.
What does this all mean? As an individual, you must acknowledge that you are a brand. And who better to market your personal brand than you. This means that at the end of the day, the success of your personal brand lies in your hands.
Even though your appearance is a part of your impression it’s not the only thing, which matters. Your impression means your overall personality and it consists of the following:
- The way you carry yourself
- The way your dress
- The way you express yourself
- Your mannerism
- Your behavior
- Your communication
- The way you treat others
These all are the traits which consist of impression and are all relative to each other.
Why is this important:
- You only get one chance to make a first impression. On average, people tend to make a judgment about you in less than five seconds! That’s how long you have to WOW them; or not! Every time you interact with someone or say something in public, you’re establishing your brand.
- Your impression becomes your personal brand. With every personal and professional interaction, you’re subconsciously branding yourself. There’s an old saying, “If you’re not selling fish take down the sign”. This means you must always be strategic and conscientious of how you dress, carry yourself and what you say. Don’t advertise what you don’t want memorized
- Your brand evolves into your reputation. Be authentic! Reputations can be fleeting; they can be built up for years and destroyed in a moment. Authenticity cannot be taken away from you by anyone and will always endure even when your reputation is challenged. Life is too short to live it trying to be anything other than your true, original self. Be who you are and be it the best way you know how. Celebrate your individuality and uniqueness. Dare to be an original!
You have the opportunity to stand out and make a name for yourself, through your brand. Internet makes it easy to develop and market a personal brand that shows the world who you are and what you’re capable of. For instance, on the Web, you have the opportunity to promote YOU by joining a social network and using your page as a billboard to advertise your talents and goals.
Thanks to technology, you have the opportunity to reap the same rewards as the “rich” brand names, from Trump to Sean “Diddy” Combs, through the right marketing.
Have you ever helped someone? You just established yourself as a helpful person and that adds to your brand. If you complain a lot, you’ll become branded as a whiner. Are you the “professional” in your field of work? That adds to your brand too. Everyone has a brand. Especially, if you are involved in social media at any level, whether personal or professional, you have a brand.
Social media is now considered one of the most important outlets of establishing a brand. It’s also the most treacherous way to establish your brand. One wrong step and you could ruin your reputation and damage your brand. But do it right and you’ll be reaping the rewards. If you aren’t utilizing the power of social media, you’re doing your business and or yourself a disservice. Social media has the power to cement your brand in your audience’s mind.
Creating a brand isn’t just about technology. By focusing on delivering results, being extra ordinary, and learning new skills to adapt to our ever-changing world, you can make your brand memorable, and opportunities for success will follow.
The same rules that apply to corporate brands apply to personal brands. The successful brand called YOU marketing model needs the proper mix of confidence, passion, likeability, determination, and focus.
The same rules that apply to corporate brands apply to personal brands. The successful brand called YOU marketing model needs the proper mix of confidence, passion, likeability, determination, and focus.
Remain confident in who you are along with the gifts and talents you possess while at the same time continuing in the essential activities that build a great life and legacy.
See ya at the top!
Cherese
© 2011 – 2013, Cherese L. Jackson. All rights reserved.
The Power Of Pollination
Pollination: the transfer of pollen (stimuli) from one stem to another that is critical for reproduction.
One of the greatest failures of all times for success will be the failure to connect properly to the right people. You are literally only 6 degrees of separation from the greatest doors being open. Six degrees of separation is the theory that anyone on the planet can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries.
If you do not develop adequate networking skills you are destined to stay unfulfilled in the current state you are in!
Here are a few questions to ask yourself concerning your current connections as well as the ones you want to attract:
1) Can you be trusted with new connections based on how you are cultivating your current ones?
2) Have you prepared yourself for the types of people in which you want to meet?
3) How will you infect/affect the people who come around you?
2) Have you prepared yourself for the types of people in which you want to meet?
3) How will you infect/affect the people who come around you?
When you think about how you market yourself, are you a grappling hook or a magnet?
A grapnel is a clawed, anchor-like hook used in seizing, holding or dragging. One of its original uses was during sea battles to hold an enemy ship for boarding. The thought of this evokes a feeling of being controlled in order to achieve a hostile objective.
On the other hand, a magnet only works with objects that are naturally drawn to it. It cannot hold on to anything that does not have the proper make-up to be attracted to its magnetic field. It cannot ‘seize and hold’ an object that is not the right match for its purpose.
If you’re being a grappling hook, you feel the need to grab and drag people into your purpose; you’re desperate to hold on to prospects or clients.
If you’re being a magnet, you’re attracting the people who are naturally drawn to you. You’re being authentic and making the choice to connect with people who are the best fit for you. You’re able to let go of those who are not the right match for you.
Networking is something that we all have to do, many hate to do and others just don’t know how to do it! People tend to be intimidated when they walk into a room of strangers with a hand full of business cards; they don’t know who to talk to first, don’t have any idea of what they want out of the experience and most importantly, don’t know what the other person is after. It boils down to knowing your audience and knowing how you can deliver what they REALLY want. Realistically, everybody has a need that they want filled. Here are a few points to remember as you go to your next ‘Networking Event’.
- The real purpose of networking is not to make you best friends with someone. It is to provide an introduction to another level of service and resources. So take it slow and respectful and utilize boundaries. Don’t approach the other person like you grew up together.
- You must be able to communicate your own business: When you’re asked the question, “What do you do?” they are really asking “Why should I care?” People could care less about your mission statement or projections; they only care about what you can do for their business. Since you know this is coming practice your answer before you get there.
- Do not become cannibalistic: The ‘man eater’ has a pocket full of everyone’s cards and stalks them until they refuse their phone calls. Do not enter the event drooling at the mouth. People avoid people who seem too hyped. So relax and enjoy meeting new business people.
- People are usually in business for profit. It’s called (WIIFM) or “What’s in it for me?” When you connect with a person, show them the true value or benefit of connecting with you before asking for a referral. Then you can with bold confidence ask them to refer you to their friends and family. You have to develop credibility FIRST!
- Do not always be the friend in need and never in deed: This is the ultimate turn-off! Instead of calling to ask for things, try calling with an offer, a gift or even to let them know you got a hot tip from an email they may be able to benefit from. Your reputation will grow as a ‘barter’ and then your phone will start to ring.
I’m sure you’ve heard the statement, “It’s not what you know, but who you know”. Why? Because Networking = Cross Pollination! You can do bad all by yourself or you can connect to a dream team and create wealth; the choice is yours.
See ya at the top!
Cherese
© 2012 – 2013, Cherese L. Jackson. All rights reserved.
Vision is a team sport; not a solo endeavor!
Leading in an organization, group, or even amongst peers, requires a collaborative discussion about vision, reality and strategy. The leader starts by orchestrating a team dialogue about what the future might look like; how the organization or group can flourish in the future; where we are going and what are ways in which new life must be breathed into what we are doing.
Beyond just supervisor or overseer level, these discussions need to move out into the areas or members that are comprised to make up the team.
These discussions in and of themselves have the potential to release the energy inside people. Dreaming creates it and the invitation to the conversation releases it. Good leaders know that an entire culture can be ignited by the discussion about what’s next.
Many leaders are afraid of opening up this type of dialogue. They don’t understand that collaboration is not abdication. Collaboration releases energy and passion and unique contributions from those that have actual hands on. It is a dynamic force that most leaders often vastly undervalue and therefore underutilized.
Collaboration is not a promise; it’s an invitation. Hearing people does not mandate that you will always follow what they say or suggest, but it is a significant way for you to value and engage people. It brings issues to the surface that need to be tackled but more importantly it creates a shared vision that ignites the imagination and efforts of the entire team.
Vision is a team sport; not a solo endeavor!
Teamwork is defined in Webster’s New World Dictionary as “a joint action by a group of people, in which each person subordinates his or her individual interests and opinions to the unity and efficiency of the group.” This does not mean that the individual is no longer important; however, it does mean that effective and efficient teamwork goes beyond individual accomplishments. The most effective teamwork is produced when all the individuals involved harmonize their contributions and work towards a common goal.
Teamwork is all about delegation, trust and being goal oriented. When asked, top CEO’s sited teamwork as both a hiring non negotiable and an area of needed improvement. Someone once said “Individually we are just a single drop, but together we are an ocean”.
Your Dream Team Needs:
- A team needs a clearly defined purpose to excite them to action; never under-estimate the force of morale.
- A team needs an opportunity to shine for you; a cause is the fuel for a revolution. People want to fight!
- A team needs a coach to empower them not a commander to rule them; leaders are not just ‘tellers’ they are inspirers too.
- A team needs camaraderie and accountability to be a balanced power; you can’t have one without the other!
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said “Super stars win games but a team wins championships”.
As with other issues that seem to keep us locked into a comfort zone, teamwork is sometimes be viewed as a ‘necessary evil’. But in reality, teamwork is far more than a means to an end; it is the foundation to accomplish all causes. We have seen what a group of insects can do to a farmer’s crop, or the strategic actions of a flock of geese traveling hundreds of miles without a modern GPS. All these things are accomplished by harnessing the force of teamwork.
The bottom line is that we are not islands, and we don’t have to build our dreams by ourselves. With the right plan, a good amount of patience, and some persistence, it’s possible to build your dream team and achieve more than you ever imagined together. In other words, a group of like-minded people working together towards a common goal are more likely to be successful than an individual effort. Your vision will only be as realistic as the dream team you build around you!
© 2012 – 2013, Cherese L. Jackson. All rights reserved.
Becoming Part of the Bigger Picture
Life is like a puzzle. When you buy a puzzle you generally look at the picture on the top of the box to see what the final project will look like. Then you open the box and dump the pieces out and it looks nothing like the picture.
Well we are all pieces in this puzzle called life and we need to stop living like a piece with no value. We must break out of our segregated comfort zones and join the bigger picture called life.
I believe we are still very segregated in many ways. I am not just speaking of a black/white type of segregation but of what segregation really is. Segregation is the separation of one group, race, institution, church or any other organization from another because of some type of difference of skin color, opinion, choice or reason.
We tend to pull away from what is different from what we are or what we believe or know to be true. If someone thinks differently or acts in a different way or wears different clothing or even eats different food than us we separate and draw closer to the ones who do what we do most often.
Here are a few ways in which we practice “accepted” segregation:
We want to believe that segregation is a simple white/black issue, but segregation is an attitude and a way of thinking. Segregation is how we sort ourselves out usually losing something in the sorting. By segregating things in life we miss the wonderful aspects of life that we need such as having your best friend be an Indian, Asian or Caucasian instead of you being black and your best friend is black and your church is all black and your school is mostly black and you live in a neighborhood with maybe one or two white families. If you are guilty of a segregated attitude all you know is your culture and unless you interact with another ethnic group you never get the best of what the world has to offer. Somehow you are slighted in your experience and your thinking and ultimately your life.
Integration has to be authentic. It’s simply a moral choice we make each day whether we’ll be integrated or be segregated. We make the choice everyday by the way we treat others who may talk, look, act or live differently than we do. Segregation is a heart issue and will be solved when we learn to treat others the way we would expect to be treated, fairly and not judgmental, looking at others through clear and not cloudy and muddied glasses, leaving our personal ideologies or parent and family thought perspectives, especially the wrong ones, out of the equation.
Stop looking at your piece of this life puzzle as if you’re a solo act. Instead, take another look at the lid and see where you fit in the whole picture – because without you, there is a missing piece to the bigger picture.
See you at the TOP!
Cherese Jackson
Well we are all pieces in this puzzle called life and we need to stop living like a piece with no value. We must break out of our segregated comfort zones and join the bigger picture called life.
I believe we are still very segregated in many ways. I am not just speaking of a black/white type of segregation but of what segregation really is. Segregation is the separation of one group, race, institution, church or any other organization from another because of some type of difference of skin color, opinion, choice or reason.
We tend to pull away from what is different from what we are or what we believe or know to be true. If someone thinks differently or acts in a different way or wears different clothing or even eats different food than us we separate and draw closer to the ones who do what we do most often.
Here are a few ways in which we practice “accepted” segregation:
- Opinion – If someone doesn’t possess the same opinions that we do we cut them right off. How many people have you deleted from your Facebook page because they expressed a differing opinion on your status
- Religion – It’s practically an abomination to hang with or consider anyone that has a different expression of religion than you do
- Cultures – If someone has different behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group
- Relationship Status – Whether you’re single or married or even your sexual preference
We want to believe that segregation is a simple white/black issue, but segregation is an attitude and a way of thinking. Segregation is how we sort ourselves out usually losing something in the sorting. By segregating things in life we miss the wonderful aspects of life that we need such as having your best friend be an Indian, Asian or Caucasian instead of you being black and your best friend is black and your church is all black and your school is mostly black and you live in a neighborhood with maybe one or two white families. If you are guilty of a segregated attitude all you know is your culture and unless you interact with another ethnic group you never get the best of what the world has to offer. Somehow you are slighted in your experience and your thinking and ultimately your life.
Integration has to be authentic. It’s simply a moral choice we make each day whether we’ll be integrated or be segregated. We make the choice everyday by the way we treat others who may talk, look, act or live differently than we do. Segregation is a heart issue and will be solved when we learn to treat others the way we would expect to be treated, fairly and not judgmental, looking at others through clear and not cloudy and muddied glasses, leaving our personal ideologies or parent and family thought perspectives, especially the wrong ones, out of the equation.
Stop looking at your piece of this life puzzle as if you’re a solo act. Instead, take another look at the lid and see where you fit in the whole picture – because without you, there is a missing piece to the bigger picture.
See you at the TOP!
Cherese Jackson
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