Many people I know tell me they wish they could write. I have begun to see that writing phobia is akin to my own math phobia — I see numbers and I instantly go brain dead. For others, it is the blank screen or a piece of clean paper.

And when I ask what it is they want to write they tell me “my life story” or “a memoir.” To which I can now say, Pilgrim, your search has ended………

The acclaimed memoirist Sue William Silverman has just come out with a book called Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir.” Full disclosure, Sue is on the faculty of Vermont College of Fine Arts where I am currently pursuing my MFA.One of the great beauties of this gem of a book is that it is aimed at beginning and more experienced writers alike. As Sue says:

Everyone has memories. Everyone has a story to tell. Too often those memories, those stories, remain silent, for lack of the right words to bring them to light. That’s why I wrote Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir, to help writers transform the fragments of memory into compelling stories. Writing can be lonely. Having a guide to lead you through the maze of memory and show you the power in being unafraid of revealing your secrets, can help you discover your true story. Fearless Confessions explores how to blend what actually happened, what I call the Voice of Innocence, with what those actions means, what I call the Voice of Experience. Combined with chapters on how to find the plot of your life, how to write with style and then market the final product, Fearless Confessions can help take your real life experiences form the scrapbook to the bookshelf.

Here’s Sue talking about the book:

Listen to Sue William Silverman talking about writing memoirs.

Memoir, whether short or long, just for you or for publication, has everything to do with one’s authentic, personal brand. And if there’s one book that can set you on this path, it’s this one.

Technorati Tags: memoir, sue william silverman, writing

The truth is, I thought long and hard about who I wanted to be on the screen. My ah-hah moment came when I realized that I could just be myself. Being myself — no longer trying to hug the corporate line, throwing away the blah-blah-blah of professional service selling lingo that I rip apart for other people. I rewrote everything — this time in my own voice. I encouraged the designer to play with fonts, colors, and images — we even hired an illustrator to draw me, my lap top and Jack the Dog.

My collateral is now the real deal, at least to the extent that I am the real deal. Take me or leave me, this is who you get when you hire me. I used to think that I wanted any and all clients — now I know I only want the ones who like what they see.

The law of attraction at work.

Technorati Tags: personal branding, professional service sales, professional services

I have been meaning to post it for awhile — okay, since forever — because so many people have been asking me for a quick thumbnail on what personal branding actually is. Dianna is a great interviewer, so I would highly recommend taking 19 minutes (that’s how long it is) out of your day if you are curious.

I used a client, CA Brandt & Associates, as an example of the transformative power of brand thinking. Cindy Brandt had participated at a workshop I gave. An accountant, she was the first to say that "accountants are boring." How, I challenged her, was she going to set herself and her services apart from the rest of the faceless CPA masses? The lightbulb for her was a bottle of aspirin (this in response to my now infamous question–if you were a thing what would you be?). Why aspirin? Because "it takes the pain away." Bingo!

So, unless you want to spend the money for a plane ticket on AA, click on this link. Happy reading!

How do I love self-promotion? Let me count the ways. A list of the most powerful women bloggers is making its way quickly around the blogsphere–and low and behold, there I am! Can it be that these little messages in a bottle are actually reaching foreign shores? Oh, bliss. I am unabashedly honored to be included, and all of these are well worth reading. As blogger Drew McClellen says, "Myself, I’d have called it the S list. S for smart, sexy and more than a dash of sass." You go, Drew!

My two additions to this list? The great blogarinas Diane Danielson and Lena West.

The WomensDISH, by Diane Danielson
Lip-Sticking, by Lena West

The W List as I found it:

45 Things Anita Bruzzese
A Girl Must Shop Megan Garnhum
advergirl Leigh Householder
Back in Skinny Jeans Stephanie Quilao
Biz Growth News Krishna De
BlogWrite for CEOs Debbie Weil
Brand Sizzle Anne Simons
Branding & Marketing Chris Brown
Brazen Careerist Penelope Trunk
Cheap Thrills Ryan Barrett
CK’s Blog CK (Christina Kerley)
Communication Overtones Kami Huyse
Conscious Business by Anne Libby
Conversation Agent Valeria Maltoni
Corporate PR Elizabeth Albrycht
Customers Rock! Becky Carroll
Deborah Schultz by Deborah Schultz
Diva Marketing Blog Toby Bloomberg
Dooce Heather Armstrong
Email Marketing Best Practices Tamara Gielen
Escape from Cubicle Nation Pamela Slim
eSoup Sharon Sarmiento
Flooring The Consumer CB Whittemore
Forrester’s Marketing Blog Shar, Charlene, Chloe, Christine Elana, Laura and Lisa
Get Fresh Minds Katie Konrath
Get Shouty Katie Chatfield

Giant Jeans Parlour Anjali
Hey Marci Marci Alboher
Inspired Business Growth Wendy Piersall

J.T. O’Donnell Career Insights J.T. O’Donnell
Kinetic Ideas Wendy Maynard
Learned on Women Andrea Learned

Little Red Suit Tiffany Monhollon
Liz Strauss at Successful Blog Liz Strauss
Lorelle on WordPress Lorelle VanFossen
Manage to Change Ann Michael
Management Craft Lisa Haneberg
Marketing Roadmaps Susan Getgood
Moda di Magno Lori Magno
Modite Rebecca Thorman
Narrative Assets Karen Hegman
Presto Vivace Blog Alice Marshall
Productivity Goal Carolyn Manning
Spare Change Nedra Kline Weinreich
Tech Kitten Trisha Miller
That’s What She Said by Julie Elgar
The Blog Angel aka Claire Raikes
The Brand Dame Lyn Chamberlin
The Copywriting Maven Roberta Rosenberg
The Engaging Brand Anna Farmery
The Origin of Brands Laura Ries
The Podcast Sisters Krishna De, Anna Farmery & Heather Gorringe

Water Cooler Wisdom Alexandra Levit
Wealth Strategy Secrets Money Gym author & Founder Nicola Cairncross
What’s Next Blog B L Ochman
Wiggly Wigglers by Podcast Sister Heather Gorringe
Ypulse Anastasia Goodstein

I used to think that the saying "do what you love" was a load of…well, you know.

But, after over a decade of experience doing what I love (strategic technology consulting) and even more recently getting more specific about what I love (strategic social media consulting), I have to eat crow.

Doing what you love is so important.

Yes, its the passion. The soapbox factor. The enthusiasm.

But, it’s also the bare fact that when you love what you do, you’ll learn new things faster and more successfully.

And, I can say without a shadow of a doubt, you’ll be able to be of service to your clients in infinitely better ways.

The back-to-school Staples commercials have hit the air, and all the
beach toys have been replaced with day-glo backpacks at CVS. Fall is
bearing down, even though we sweat through long, lovely, ninety degree
days.

My daughter will be a senior in college this year, and the pressure to define herself
and her ‘career’ is ramping-up. I long to tell her to relax, to keep
her eyes and heart wide open, to resist the temptation "to work
therefore I am." I want to tell her about how, at my ripe old age, I have only just begun to figure it out, and that what I did in the years fresh out of college set me on a series of wrong paths–because I was doing what I thought I SHOULD DO, what I thought others (read: parents) wanted me to do, and what I deemed to be serious and legitimate career pursuits.

I will, at some point, find a way to say all this….but right now, doing so is like touching an electric fence. She bolts, leaping over the confines of the car that we are riding in or the conversation we are having at the dinner table.

In today’s Wall Street Journal, columnist Sue Shellenbarger writes about, "How to Teach Your Children to Find the Work They Love:"

The result is what Jaye Roseborough, executive
director, career services, for Middlebury College in Vermont, calls the
"doctor-lawyer-teacher-banker syndrome": Students try to fit themselves
into one of a series of career choices as defined by others, rather
than using their interests to guide them in exploring the outer world.

How to recoup? "Talk about what’s of interest to them,
and how important it is to be happy in what you do," Dr. Roseborough
advises. Ask how they envision spending their time. The activities
required by a job "must be a way you really like to behave," she adds.
What kind of problems do they like to solve? Explain that many people
change careers multiple times. And tell stories about how you fell in
love with your own work.

I know that she is seeking answers, clues, footprints in the sand. And I know that she wants help.Just not mine at the moment. My gift to her will be to lay-off,
to let her find her own way, to silently let her know that whatever she
decides and however many times she changes direction–it’s OK with me.
I will not add to the pressure she already feels.

What I will do is to love her unconditionally, trust that she will find her way in the world, embrace the inevitable trial and error, and remind her (if she will listen) to find what she loves, however long that takes.

In an article entitled, "The US Debates Hillary’s Cleavage,", the venerable Times of London defends their new Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, for showing some skin in her first terror update to the House of Commons.

"Too much Home front? " the headline asks. "Oh, do grow up."

"…only hours into her new job as Home
Secretary, came those horrifying terrorist attacks. Under enormous pressure,
Smith nevertheless managed to remain calm and statesmanlike. On Monday she
addressed the House of Commons: it was a solid performance from a serious
politician. Which is why, presumably, the blogosphere is alive with talk . .
. of her cleavage.

Yes, that’s right: her cleavage. This is a woman who is trying to cope with
one of the biggest terrorist threats that Britain has ever faced – and all
people care about is her bosom. There’s 40 years of feminism for you."

It really is pathetic that female politicians in this day and age should be
judged so much by their appearance. What you want in a politician is
intelligence and experience, and I’m afraid those things don’t tend to come
in pert, 22-year-old packages.

Besides, it’s rude. It’s bad enough judging one’s own appearance in the mirror
in the morning, let alone having to deal with the cruel jibes of every Tom,
Dick or Harry with access to a computer, many of whom may not be oil
paintings themselves. No wonder there are so few female politicians. In
fact, it’s amazing there are any at all.

Hail, Britannia!

Of the 85 applications (resumes + cover letters) received so far, 73 are immediate "no-s." There are none in the "maybe" pile. Yikes! What’s going on here? Am I being just a tad ruthless? You bet– as a Director of Communications aspirant, your submission better be Perfect, and that’s with a capital "P."

Take heed: here is my advice for how NOT to get the job you want, in any industry, much less make it into the first round of interviews…..

1. Misspell the person’s name that you are writing to.
2. Address them by their first name in your cover letter.
3. Address them by their title only (as in Dear President…..).
4. Send a resume as an attachment to an email with no corresponding cover letter.
5. Use your email as your cover letter.
6. Apply for a position for which you have zero experience.
7. Try to convince me in your cover letter that unrelated experience somehow qualifies you for the job.
8. Apply from out of state or out of the country if the position clearly requires a familiarity with a specific local. (My favorite so far came from Italy).
9. Email or call to "see if your materials have been received." Trust me, they have. Some companies will acknowledge receipt; some won’t. Move on.
10. Send a follow-up email asking for the salary range. If you need to ask before we’ve even met, I will automatically hit "delete."
11. Re-submit your materials for a position that has been re-opened. There’s a reason we didn’t call you the first time.

If all of this sounds harsh, that’s because it is. We are looking for reasons to eliminate you. You cannot afford even the smallest misstep (awkward language, weird formatting, bizarre self-revelations, etc. etc. etc). There’s plenty of time to shine later on–once you make it past all the hangers-on at the gate. That’s your opportunity to knock my socks off. But more about how to do that in a later post.

Hint: It’s all about your BRAND.