We’ve all got some big challenges to deal with these days: this wacky economy, maintaining cash flow, laying safety nets, building our companies, attracting more business, all while managing to stay sane and tenacious through these trying times.
That’s why we rolled up our sleeves and put ourselves to work on attacking this hairball of issues that literally can make or break your career…not to mention your spirits.

After months of all nighters and brutally long workdays, we’re finally ready to unveil a big new resource to help you find solutions to your biggest personal and professional challenges.

It’s called Fast Track to Success: 30 Days to Transform Your Life & Career.  Jam packed with perspective, inspiration and tips for leaping into action, this new tool is GUARANTEED to make a serious difference for you.  And you can take that to the bank!

How?  Fast Track is an online learning program that you can power through in as little as 30 days, 30 minutes a day.  Every lesson features online posts to read with full audio (read by me!) that you can download and listen to on the go if you’d prefer.  Then, once you’ve learned, it’s time to help you do.  Almost every lesson has a worksheet (or a few) designed to walk you though putting everything into action immediately.

Since this is all about getting to the next level, you’ll see not only your perspective, but outlook and opportunities evolve more and more every day!  We’ve even included a few videos to keep you fired up and opportunities every step of the way to share your thoughts or ask for help or advice from our team.  And again, we’re so confident this can help change your life for the better, we’re willing to guarantee it.  We’ll even send you a hard copy of our New York Times bestseller Secrets of the Young & Successful: How to Get Everything You Want Without Waiting a Lifetime as our gift.

To celebrate the launch of this new program, we’re going to spend the next 30 days sharing some of our best tips and tricks to take on this crazy economy on by storm, increase your opportunities, amp up your competitive advantage, and yes, make more money!

We want to share your best advice too, so keep your eyes peeled and we’ll offer plenty of opportunities on YoungandSuccessful.com, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to share your expertise and experience too!  So stay tuned and help us spread the word about anything you find particularly useful to your friends and colleagues.  We’ll all fare better and find the success we crave and deserve if we bond together and become a force to be reckoned with.

Here’s to all of our success!

Everywhere I go lately, small business owners, company execs and everyone in sales is preoccupied with closing deals.  The economy has certainly made business a lot more difficult to succeed in, and more than ever, we all need to constantly be analyzing how we’re doing things to keep getting smarter, better, more efficient and more effective.  And at the top of everyone’s list: making more money.

That all said, I want to share some hard earned insight that will hopefully save many of you a lot of time, money and aggravation.

When you’re courting a new company or client, the sales process can easily get dragged out over a matter of weeks, months, or worse, never really result in an answer at all – be it yes or no.  So, how do you cut to the chase and find out whether there’s really even a deal to be done in the first place?

A few simple questions can make all the difference.

1.  What exactly are you looking to have done?

2.  What does success look like for this project?

3.  Where does this fall on your overall priority list?

4.  Are you exploring solutions with other prospective consultants/contractors?

5.  What questions do you have about me/us/our work?

6.  What’s the time frame you’re looking to start and execute this in?

7.  What does your budget look like?

8.  Who is the ultimate decision maker? (Who controls the checkbook?)

9.  Do you have a specific process for closing deals like this?

10.  As for next steps, would you like me to send you a recap of our conversation and a proposal on how we might be able to help you/best serve you?

They say yes, and you have yourself a hot lead.

It may take a meeting or so to build rapport and get comfortable enough to ask these questions, but rest assured you’ll start closing deals a heck of a lot faster when you get answers to these questions early on.

Aside from the basic rules of engagement LinkedIn has established, here are a few other courtesies to remember while making the most of your LinkedIn experience.  Follow these points and you’ll be sure to get the most out of LinkedIn—and you’ll avoid aggravating other users in the process.  Here are four mistakes to avoid while using LinkedIn:

1. BLINDLY REQUESTING CONNECTIONS WITH NO MUTUAL BENEFIT
On Facebook you can request new friendships with anybody at all.  It’s a social network of friends, and if you want to be friends you simply make a request.  With LinkedIn you’re making a ‘connection’ that will hopefully create a mutually beneficial networking opportunity later on down the line.  Be strategic when deciding with whom you will connect, and explain to the person why you want to connect; what’s in it for them—and what’s it in for you?  Don’t request to connect with just anyone at all; understandably, people will want to know why you are requesting the opportunity to connect.  So provide a brief sentence or two explaining what you think a mutual connection can bring to both parties.

2. NOT BEING TRUTHFUL ABOUT WHY YOU WANT TO CONNECT
If it’s being brought up, it’s because people have done it.  Others have complained about it.  It’s hard sometimes to establish a connection with someone when LinkedIn only allows you certain ways to request connections.  That being said, you should still be truthful in why you want to connect.  If the purpose of networking is to create mutual connections that may help either party in the future, do you really want to start that connection with mistrust or deceit?  The most frequent use of this is presenting yourself as a ‘friend’ of someone or ‘colleague at XYZ organization’ when you really are not.   It’s not going to get you the connection, and in the end you’re going to be perceived as being dishonest—and who wants to connect or potentially help someone who isn’t honest?

3. PROFILE CONTENT IS NOT A REPRODUCTION OF YOUR RESUME
This mistake is so well ingrained in users that you’re now probably experiencing some disbelief.  Don’t just copy and paste your resume into your LinkedIn profile.  Here’s why: When you network with someone in person do you give them a word-for-word rundown from your resume of what you’ve done?  No, you personalize the conversation and speak in the first person.  It is a more casual conversation—not as formal as your resume.  Your profile should be keyword-rich so that recruiters can find you if they’re performing a search, but it should also be authentic and sincere, as though you’re talking to the person about what you’ve accomplished.

4. KEYWORDS ARE NOT JUST FOR RESUMES
Recruiters and hiring managers are performing searches on LinkedIn for qualified candidates, and you want to be found.  Why else would you be there?  Seriously, make sure your LinkedIn profile is peppered with industry-specific keywords relevant to the target position you want.  It should be called LISO (LinkedIn Search Optimization)—like SEO—but for LinkedIn.  Keywords = Being Discovered = Interview = New Job.  Get keywords now.

To recap: Be sure you are honest, strategic, and explanatory in your LinkedIn connection requests; your profile isn’t just a copy of your resume; and that your profile is keyword-rich so people can find you!  These four key tips will make the most of your LinkedIn experience and keep you ahead of the game.

Article written by, Jessica Holbrook the CEO of Great Resumes Fast, an expert resume writer, career and personal branding strategist, author and presenter. She has written more than 100 articles that are featured on some of the best career advice websites today. Her passion is helping professionals and executives uncover what makes them stand out in the crowd.

For more great resources on resume writing, LinkedIn, or to view resume samples visit Great Resumes Fast. You can also receive a free resume analysis by sending your resume to info@greatresumesfast.com.

We’ve been getting so many requests lately for content on how to gain media attention that we decided to bring back a recent article with plenty of tips for those of you who are still learning how to get noticed and for those who want to gain even MORE coverage!!

A few [months] ago, I had the chance to revisit one of my favorite yearly events – The National Publicity Summit.  Hosted by my old friends, Steve and Bill Harrison, and their stellar team of PR pros. The Summit brings together a wide range of experts and authors with over 100 journalists from top tv, radio and internet programs.

The most exciting (and valuable) activity by far is the one-on-one speed networking sessions with journalists where you get 2-3 minutes to pitch yourself, your business, your products or whatever else you’re looking to promote.  Imagine producers from The View, 20/20, editors from USA Today, Newsweek, Wired, Rolling Stone, syndicated columnists and radio hosts…all looking to book new talent and uncover hot topics and new sources.  I’ve honestly never seen anything like it.

Whether you’re just venturing out to get your first press clippings, have already secured your fair share of media recognition, or are a seasoned pro, the event always propels you further up the learning curve.   It’s not all “trial by fire” though.  There’s a ton of educational programming and training spattered throughout the schedule as well.

For me, the best insight comes from the massive Q&A panel featuring the members of the media.  That’s when Steve asks them all to introduce themselves and talk about what catches their attention, turns them off, turns them on, and even drives them crazy.  Most in the room are like sprinters getting antsy to jump out of their starting blocks into the one on one event that follows.  But this is where some of the best gems of insight come from, and where I take my most copious notes.

As usual, on top of learning myself, I’m always thinking about what juicy little nuggets I can share with all of you. So, here are the top 10 takeaways for all you busy people, eager to increase your own exposure in the press:

1. Be targeted. Don’t mass email journalists or address correspondences “to whom this may concern”.  Those go right into the trash.  Take the time to identify the right department or column and send your pitches to specific people with a personal note.

2. Be short and to the point. Journalists are really busy people who are often inundated with pitches from strangers.  Get to your pitch quickly and don’t assume they’re going to read 4 or 5 paragraphs.

3. Clearly articulate your story hooks. What do you have to say that will really grab the readers or viewers attention (let alone the journalist’s!)? Say something powerful, revealing or life altering if you can.  If you only have a sentence or two to captivate, carefully consider what you’d say.

4.  Talk in sound bites. Imagine the people reading or listening to your pitch, as well as their audience, all have ADD.  All of your information needs to be bite sized.  If the editor or producer gathers a bunch of content from you, make sure it’s easy for them to pull out a few juicy pieces they can plug into their story or lead it off with.

5.  Timing is everything. Know whether you have a time sensitive story (Valentine’s day gifts for your X) vs. an evergreen story (5 tips to get in the best shape of your life).  Be aware of and sensitive to the news cycles of the media you’re pitching, be ahead of the curve (but no too far ahead), be relevant and be timely.  This is not always easy to ascertain, but it makes all the difference in whether their ears are peeled or glazed over when you pitch.

6.  Don’t forget online. A lot of people will focus on the big platform opportunity and pursue the big television or radio shows.  Most media has an online presence too and often they need fresh content to drive people there as well.  Be sure to mention anything that you can offer for their site as well.

7.  When they call, jump! If you’re serious about working with the media, you need to be extremely responsive to them when they come knocking.  Call them back or email (based on their instructions) as soon as humanly possible.  If they don’t hear from you, or get you on their first call, rest assured they’ll move right on to find some else.

8.  Follow through. If a member of the media asks you for something (a book, and article, tips, a photo, etc.) don’t leave them hanging. They’ll forget about you or write you off.  The more reliable you are as a source, the more likely they are to use you again too.

9.  Be dynamic. Boring people make boring experts and guest.  If you have a personality, show it, amp it up to match the tone of the show or publication.  If you don’t, force yourself out of your shell or consider having someone else represent you to the press.

10.  Know your own material. Some journalist said that when they question authors about their own books, some stagger or forget details or stories in their own work!  If you’re going to position yourself as an expert, you’d better have the facts to back it up and be fluent in the subject matter you’re pitching or representing.  It all goes back to that issue of substance,  credibility and expertise that we wrote about in a recent post.

A lot of people ask me why I keep going to these events.  “Continuous learning and networking”, I tell them.  Even though I’ve spent an entire career working with hundreds of journalists and have been featured in front of hundreds of millions, it’s not easy to stay fresh, relevant and connected…let alone for, urgh, 17 years, as I have.  (“Have”, “have tried”, “been hammering away” – whatever you want to call it!)

I’ll say it again, what ever stage in the game you’re at, keep challenging yourself to learn more, become more seasoned, and fine tune your packaging, delivery and messaging.  This holds true for just about all of us, in every situation, no matter what business or industry we’re in.

It’s just a fact of life that some people get past the velvet ropes of business and others don’t. The good news is that if you consistently find yourself on the outside looking in, the only thing preventing you from getting past the gate is your relevance to the gatekeeper. And by gatekeeper, I mean those people you want and/or need to know. Think about that for a second.

Odds are, the people on your list are in a position to help you get something you want. This is because, for the most part, we gravitate towards relationships that bring value to ourselves, i.e., we judge others based on their relevance to us.

Once you understand this, all you have to do is figure out a way to become relevant to the people you’d like to know better. Make them NEED YOU for something, be that an important project, task, or even just a sounding board on their favorite hobby.

Example: Say you’re an entry-level exec trying to make friends on a new job. You learn that Sara in Cubicle D is a travel buff who backpacks through Europe every summer. You spent a semester in Madrid. Ta-da.

Better example: Say you’re an entry-level exec trying to get noticed on a new job. You learn the president of your company is on the Board of the local YMCA. You volunteer for a steering committee. Now, every third Thursday of the month you and the bigwig are partnering on projects from soccer tourneys to scholarship programs.

If your not “getting” as much as you’d like from your career, think about how much you’re giving.

Emily Bennington is the author of Effective Immediately: How to Fit In, Stand Out, and Move Up at Your First Real Job. She hosts a popular blog for career newbies at www.professionalstudio365.com and can be found on Twitter @EmilyBennington or via email at ebennington@msn.com.