David V. Lorenzo's Blog is now: www.careerintensity.com/blog

Career Intensity

We Have Moved

Please visit Dave’s new blog:

http://www.careerintensity.com/blog

Career Intensity – Most Popular Articles

Below are links to the most popular posts from The Career Intensity Blog during the past ten days.

Love the Word No- Many times, the word “No” is the beginning of the path to success.

 

Stimulating Creativity-Four tips for getting the creative juices flowing.

 

Career Development and the People You Know-How to use your personal network to advance your career.

 

How to Handle Uncertainty at Work-Change takes its tool on everyone. Here’s four ways to deal with it.

 

Sex and Your Career-It happens everywhere and it’s almost always bad news.

 

The Google Dance-How to do research before you go on an interview or any meeting.

Somthing Cool is Happening at The Career Intensity Blog

We are really gaining some great momentum over at The Career Intensity Blog. 

The traffic has been going through the roof and I’ve picked up my blogging pace to give people more of what they want.  Please check it out if you have a chance. 

Win it Before You Can Buy It

Lisa Haneberg is hosting a contest over at Management Craft and the winners will each receive an advance review copy of Career Intensity. 

Click Here for all the details.

Get Your Daily Dose of Dave - The Career Intensity Blog

I’ve been on the road for a couple of weeks so I have not really been diligent in keeping up with The Power of Perception.  If you ever find yourself in need of a dose of Dave Lorenzo's opinion (tongue firmly planted in cheek) you can find multiple posts each day over at The Career Intensity Blog.   The focus of our conversation in that forum is individual success – for people in large companies as well as folks who are running their own businesses.

Career Intensity on the Web

The new Career Intensity website is up and running.  Wander on over when you have time.

The site contains book information and some Frequently Asked Questions.

In the weeks to come we will be posting book excerpts (February) Podcasts (March) and Videos (April) based on content in the book. 

At times our conversation will be on a specific topic.  At other times the conversation may begin in one area and then expand to another.  This is the reason for three focused blogs that can (and eventually will) interact.

In case you are confused:

The Power of Perception is a discussion on Integrated Marketing Communications and how you can market yourself

SoHo Savvy is dedicated to the needs of the Small Office | Home Office Businessperson – an entrepreneur

The Career Intensity Blog is an ongoing discussion about business strategy for workplace warriors and entrepreneurs

Thanks for joining the conversation.  Please bookmark these sites and join us each day as we make the work environment better for everyone.

Career Intensity Book Update

Advance review copies of my book Career Intensity:  Business Strategy for Workplace Warriors and Entrepreneurs are being printed. 

The hard cover book will be published on May 17 but you will be able to get a preview just by reading this blog and blogging about Career Intensity.

I’m trying to make arrangements with the publisher to print extra galleys so that bloggers get to read and discuss the book months before we release it at Book Expo America

We need to gauge demand from the blogosphere, so I’m going to try something a little crazy.

If you have a blog and you want to review Career Intensity please send an e-mail to:

davidvlorenzo at gmail.com 

Replace the word “at” with @. 

Please include the name of your blog (or blogs), your phone number and an address. 

We will not be asking bloggers to pay for the galleys.  We just want you to share your honest opinion of the book with the world.

The first step is to see just how many bloggers have an interest in reading the book and blogging about it.

Harness Your Imagination

From The Career Intensity Blog

Your imagination is a powerful tool that you should leverage in mapping out your future. As previously discussed, your mind does not differentiate between what is real and what is imagined. There are three ways you can use your imagination as you begin your program of continuous improvement.

• Consciously shaping your daily activities to move you closer toward your goals.
• Making changes in your environment that will influence you – on conscious and unconscious levels – to focus on your goals.
• Behaving as though you have already achieved your goals.

While fear embedded in the unconscious mind can sabotage our success, the reverse is also true. You can use your unconscious mind to influence your thinking in order to achieve your goals. This is an incredibly powerful process that all successful individuals have mastered. Many of these people were unaware that they had actually “programmed” themselves for success, but in reality they had shaped their destiny deep within their unconscious minds long before reaping their rewards.

The first step in changing your mindset and moving toward a new position, or a new career, is to understand what is involved in the new role. For example, if you want to start a business, you should interview people who have started businesses that are similar. You will gain an understanding of their thought processes and behaviors. Observe them in action. See what they do and how they do it. Spend as much time in that environment as possible. Think about what you would do differently.

For example, let’s say that you want to become the owner of a McDonald’s franchise. Stop in your local McDonald’s and talk with the manager. Ask her what she likes about working there. Ask her what she thinks could be improved. Ask if you can contact the owner and speak with him. Ask him to tell you his success story. More often than not, people are happy to share their stories with you. Not only are you gaining information to prepare for an ownership role in the future, but you are also programming your unconscious mind to believe that you are already in that position.

Next, you should surround yourself with items that symbolize what you hope to become. If you want to become a McDonald’s franchise owner, cut out some photos of a McDonald’s restaurant and tape them to your wall. Read books about McDonald’s. Imagine your success in this role. If owning several of these restaurants will make you rich enough to buy a boat, put some pictures of boats up on your wall, too.

Finally, before you go to sleep at night and immediately upon waking in the morning, think about what your day would be like if you achieved this new position. As you fall asleep, imagine yourself counting your money with the manager who works for you. Imagine, in vivid detail, taking the briefcase full of money to the marina and purchasing your boat. Then, when you wake up the next day, imagine how your day would start if you owned that restaurant. Imagine pulling into the parking lot and seeing it full of cars. Imagine a counter packed with a line of happy customers being served by employees who smile and nod as you walk into the building.

The more you practice this process of acting as if you are in the role you seek, the more natural your transition into that role will become. You should not limit yourself to small dreams. Successful people acted in ways appropriate to the roles they would assume years before they achieved their success. When they got there, they felt and behaved as if they had been doing it all their lives.

Building Buzz Beyond the Blog

Read more like this at The Career Intensity Blog

Management Craft has a post about using a blog to build your career.  Here’s what Lisa Haneberg has to say:

I have long been critical of the traditional way we go about finding the best talent. You can see some of my thoughts in this post called, Resumes are So Yesterday.

Here is an interesting example of how people can be creative and use blogs to build their career.

Check out Sebastian's approach on this blog:

He shared the types of projects or jobs that would interest him.

He offered a summary of his talents and experiences.

Shared his career goals.

Shared the work he is NOT interested in.

And Sebastian put himself out there - everything in the open. I think this is a great approach and a company can learn a lot about someone by reading their blog.

Recruiters should be reading bloggers with functional expertise they seek. It's like cheating because by the time you get to the interview, you already know a lot about the person. TONS more than the average and useless resume might offer.

Lisa is correct.  You need to “put yourself out there”.  However if you are waiting for recruiters to search blogs for the talent you have to offer you’ll be waiting for a long time. 

People with Career Intensity make their own opportunities.  Blogs are just one weapon in their personal buzz creation arsenal.  They also network like crazy by keeping their contacts fresh. They send random notes to people they admire and they work hard at giving to others without an expectation of anything in return.

These are some of the best ways to generate personal buzz.  How many have you done today?

Read more like this at The Career Intensity Blog