When you are targeting companies to go work for, you are targeting from a vision, solution, and culture perspective, but when it comes down to it, you’re actually developing relationships with people. That’s the name of the game. Connecting with people is going to be something you learn how to do in this process if you’ve never done it before. But it’s not as hard as it sounds.

Sending letters, creating a resume, and all that stuff will be a breeze, but actually picking up the phone and calling somebody? You might or might not be thinking, “you have got to be joking?” If this is a first time thing for you, I can understand that intimidation, but you’ll be fine after the first round. You just need to understand some basic principles about connecting with people and shift your perspective a little bit.

Believe it or not, there are lots of people that tend to freeze up when it comes time to actually calling the prospect employer or go to the interview. Just a simple phone call can be nerve racking! Even if you’ve rehearsed it over and over, there is something paralyzing that comes over people when actually making the call.

A lot of times the main reason this happens with people, is because of the perspective that people are coming from of what an interview actually is. Most people see it as a one-sided coin. This is because they know that they need a job, so they feel that the ‘interviewer’ has the upper-hand and can take the interview in any direction.

Try to keep in mind that this is a two-sided coin. The interview really means that two people are coming together to see about each other. So look at it as more of a coming together and meeting of the minds. Not only must the person like you, but you must like this person and company as well.

Get out of the mindset that you ‘need’ a job. What you need to do is adopt the attitude of service.

Don’t expect anyone to just ‘give’ you a job. You are here to feel a need because you have something this company needs. So in reality, this company that you’re so called “applying” for ‘needs’ to hire you. They need to hire you because you have something of value that they need, and in your meeting you need to decide if that company is going to be a good fit for you to serve.

Remember, this is just a meeting or a get together. You are going to bring your best and you expect no less from the other side. Place the ball back in your court by shifting your focus on who has choices. You both do, and you both are here to discuss mutual benefits of you coming together to work together. Not only must you serve the interests of this company to make it work, but this company must serve the interests of your endeavors to make it work.

It’s a numbers game just as much as it is about providing value; though you can have one lean more over the other in a given ratio, I say to do both with high intensity. Definitely deliver high quality value about yourself, but also increase your odds by targeting multiple companies. The more you target, the more chances you have.

The average goal of the clients I’ve worked with was to get about 20% return on number interviews and about 20% to 50% of the interviews to land actual job offers. So if you’re going to put 40 companies on your list, then you’re shooting for about 8 full interviews and 2 to 4 offers. Sounds easy just laying out the numbers like that, but there’s some homework on your part for sure. I would say increase your chances and target 50 companies instead. Why not?

Now, for the companies, the bottom line is that you need to focus in on the companies that fit your vision. You want to understand their culture, and let it be a company that you chose to work for because you were in the driver’s seat, and not because there was an open position.

If all we did was apply for open positions without considering our strengths, then we lose near 70% to 80% of the time. To which explains the reason why most of nation’s workers hate their jobs, and thus do very mediocre work. We need to be intentional about what we want.

Be sure to use you city’s directory, the World Wide Web, Hoovers, the Chamber of Commerce directory, an industry guide such as http://referenceusa.com/ (You can get access through your local library. Most libraries will have both local and national search tools for selecting companies based on your search criteria.) But there are many ways to research a given company. It’s even better if you know someone who works there, someone who can given you insight or educate you about the opportunities present, or who can basically vouch for your expertise and get you to the right people.

Things to keep in mind when researching your company:

1. You are competing against nearly 70 to 100 people on average when you apply for that position, but you may only have 2 – 3 competitors, sometimes zero, when you’re using this new method.
2. Waiting for a position to be advertised or until someone tells you there is an opening is no longer necessary.
3. When you see an ad for a particular position, you’ve already lost your window of opportunity.
4. This method will help you close in on close to 90% of the jobs that are never advertised.

Rule of thumb; the ball is in your court, not the company. The company has their vision, and you have yours. Now, it’s about connecting with that company and deciding whether or not you both have mutual benefits in your visions.

The method I take my clients through on job hunts is an aggressive approach, that if applied with real focus, and intensity you can bring in some dramatic results. It revolves around the idea of making contact with people, real people, not machines, not automatic online résumé submissions, but real people, who are feeling real pain. The kind of pain that you are going to solve with the competencies that you bring, and services you can offer.

Yes, you need to be able to get the attention of a hiring manager, who wants what you have to offer.

So how do we do this? Well, if we think in turns of being in business for ourselves, and that we are offering a service for others as my own personal company then we can think from the perspective of using basic marketing principles. Remember, everyone is in business, whether we’re serving one company as an employee, or multiple companies as a Sole Proprietor, you are still in business providing and filling a need. So no matter if you’re entering a job setting, you need to start acting as though you are your own business.

Now, being in your own business, you have to develop a model. A basic business model that’s going to help you attract ideal customers, or in your case ideal companies to work for, who are your customers. The model that I walk my clients through revolves around getting the attention of your hiring managers multiple times, with the intentions of ending up with multiple offers.

We don’t want to be applying for jobs online. You are literally batting one out of a thousand; literally. True story, I knew a gentleman who did all his job hunting applying on sites such as Monster and CareerBuilder, and after months he ended up landing a position; success? Well, yeah, because he got the job, but I bet he could have done a lot better. I asked him about that length of time spent as we were talking about his process. He said he believes he did submit over one thousand résumés over that course.

I’m thinking, well of course it took that long. You are competing with thousands of other candidates, and not to mention some imaginary job boards, and already filled job ads.

I used to be a recruiter, and I won’t mention where I worked, but it seemed to be a common practice to post bogus jobs up on job boards just to get the attention of qualified candidates. Call it “Bait”, if you would.

Not to mention, those recruiters are sorting through stacks of résumés everyday, and it’s really hard to get noticed in the middle of all those shuffling papers.

Also, anything job board related, or newspaper ads, you can be sure that by the time a posting makes to the paper, nine times out of ten, that position is already filled.

Keep in mind also, that many companies are also hiring from within. Bersin & Associates report released in 2011 says that “talent mobility” is on the rise along with many huge changes when it comes to filling positions. Alternative ways to laying people off or moving them up the chain have been put into place.

Meaning, instead of just focused on cutting costs, leaders are now looking for ways to invest in what they currently have.

For the employee, this can be great news. For the job hunter or the employee that doesn’t want to work for that company anymore, a more systematic and creative approach is going to have to be put in place.

It’s time to get creative, it’s time to get systematic, and it’s time to fire up the engines and get intentional about what you want. 

Job hunting is more of an art than it is technique, though both are needed. You need to be able to lay out a strategic process that increases the odds of getting hired; that is technique. The art is your creative approach to this technique. You might naturally say, well, “I’m not creative”. I’ll disagree with that, but technically you don’t have to be.

There are many coaches and résumé writing professionals out there that will help you get from point A to B, helping you to draw out creative approaches to career campaigning. There are many resources out there as well to help you develop your resumes, cover letters, and all things campaign worthy. Here are a few examples:

http://www.britetab.com/ – Britetab has a very creative online approach to helping you develop your résumés with personality.

http://www.effective-resume-writing.com/ -“ Effective-Résumé-Writing can help you make your résumé pop, and grab the hiring manager’s attention.

http://www.eresumes.com/ – Erésumés and Résumé Writing Services is another creative solution to helping you write and distribute your campaign.

http://www.jobweb.com/ – About to graduate? Job Web gets you resume and interview tips in different job markets and will help you get cutting edge information.

http://www.theresumebuilder.com/ Are you time crunched and need a resume now? The Résumé Builder can help you crank one out in 10 minutes!

You don’t have to do any of this alone. There are tons of resources, and yes you should be laying out a technique that’s effective, creative, and nails a meeting between you and an employer. You just need to know specific things, such as your skills or what competencies you bring. You need to be able to know who or what companies need those skills, and creatively get the attention of someone who will hire you. Lastly, it’s all about presentation, and helping you land the interview, where you can finally present the one thing your selling; you.

That’s it, though it’s tougher than it sounds, laying out the right approach and being aggressive about it, and you can increase your chances of getting hired dramatically. The only thing that’s tough is getting out there and doing it.

“The major difference between successful and unsuccessful job hunters is not skill, education, age, or ability but the way they go about their job hunt.” ~Dan Miller

So, what is Attitude?

Now, I know what you’re saying. You think I’m about to dive into this long drawn out process about loving your work, or finding your passion and calling in life, and so forth. Well, not so much… yet.

So then why are we talking about attitude?

To put this in simple terms and a definition that hopefully you can understand; attitude is the optical lens of your mind to the outside world. It magnifies your mood, your emotions, your feelings, your beliefs, and your thoughts. Your attitude is picked up by receptors all around, especially people. We give off certain attitudes unconsciously because we are normally in a state of reacting to other circumstances. That circumstance is usually the result of someone else’s attitude through one form or another.

We react and our attitude shows.

Now, since it’s possible when we’re reacting that our attitudes become victim to other circumstances caused by other attitudes isn’t it possible that the attitudes of other’s are reacting to your attitude as well? Most definitely, and the attitude you see in other’s towards you, is usually a reaction of the attitude you dispense. Now think about that really carefully….  The attitude you see in others towards you, is usually a reaction of the attitude you dispense.

Seems like an endless cycle doesn’t it? It’s just an endless cycle of reacting thoughts and attitudes. So how on earth do we stop this train!?!?

Quite simple; we stop reacting, and we learn how to take charge of our thoughts and emotions, and become pro-active.

How do we become pro-active?

Well, by paying attention to what we feed our mind. If you want a positive attitude, you need to feed your mind with positive things. Especially, if there are negative situations all around you. You can learn to separate yourself from those dark clouds, and focus on feeding and nourishing your mind with the kind of things that you want your world to be filled with.

What you feed your mind with, is what you will feed your world through your attitude, and what you feed your world with, is the exact same response that your world will give you.

Again, if you want a great attitude in life, you need to feed your mind with great things, and if you truly want to have great successes, then you better feed yourself with a great attitude. Because what you think about, is what you will put out, and what you will put out, is what you will get back. So make everything you put in, great!

Before you do anything else, make sure your attitude is in check.

William James, Founder of Psychology in Americasaid, “Human Beings can alter their lives, by altering their attitude of mind”.

Holocaust survivor and author Victor Frankl said, “The last of human freedoms – is the ability to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.” He also said, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

Earl Nightingale, author of The Strangest Secret said, “We become what we think about”

What is one of the biggest obstacles that tend to stop us dead in our tracks from taking on any endeavor? What keeps us from taking action?  The answer we’re looking for is fear of unknown.

Now, there are two major unknowns to think about here; the outcome of every action and not knowing how to get there.

Kent Julian of http://www.liveitforward.com/ always uses the equation E + R = O when it comes to how we make sense of our outcomes. The E stands for the events in our lives, or the circumstances; the R stands for our response to every event, and the O stands for the outcome as a result of our responses. The only thing that we have control over is the R, our response to every given situation, which in turn gives us the thing that we tend to naturally fear; the unknown.

The other side of the unknown fear is, not knowing how to get somewhere. How do we get from point A to point B? That’s always a great question, and if a vision or goal seems too large we will put off and put off until it’s too late.

I’m here to put this problem to rest for you. When I used to work in implementations as a project manager, the one mantra that I would always say to myself is, “always work backwards from the end to know what you’re going to do now”.

Every thing you do has a systematic break down component to it. Meaning, you can take something very large and break it down into smaller chunks. The chunks become something else that you can break down into even smaller chunks, and thus you can break down the smaller chunks into tiny chunks, and so forth.

If I wanted some firewood using my own trees, I wouldn’t just go out and cut a few logs out of my large hardwoods. I would probably cut the tree down into large chunks starting from the top. Then I would take those several large chunks, and chainsaw them down into smaller sections. Following that, I would use each section to begin cutting smaller block out of it for wood splitting, and in the end have exactly what I was intending to get out of it; firewood.

The same goes for our destinations in life. Our visions or the 180 Degree Islands™ that we intend to build or the jobs and careers that we seek to attain. The process for achieving what seems impossible can be broken down into the very action steps that we can take now, and are very possible.

The vision of our perfect island sits way in the clouds at 30,000 feet. Though the success of our vision can be measured, it still seems just of our reach, to where it would take a miracle for it to happen.

So what do we do with this?

Well, we bring the island sitting at 30,000 feet down to 10,000 feet, and call them Tree Trunk Objectives™. Objectives are the things we know need to happen in order for that island to come to life. We simply break down the potential of that island into what seems a little more realistic. Now, it doesn’t seem so far out of our reach.

Remember my original vision was to make firewood out of the large hardwood. The Objective was to break the tree down into several large chunks, to make firewood a little more realistic.

Okay, so now we’re sitting at 10,000 feet. We need to bring those Objectives down to 300 feet, and call them Hardwood Goals™.Goals are the things that we can see in our scope, pull the trigger, and actually hit the target in a certain time frame.

When I had several large chunks cut down from the tree, I cut them into sections, which became my goals. Now with each section, I was able to place them into my scope, pull the trigger; or start cutting, and hit the target; or get firewood out of it.

But how do we make this absolutely achievable, right now?

We take those goals sitting at 300 feet, and bring them down to ground level to where we see what is possible at each given moment. We will call these ground level moments Firewood Splitters™.

In order for me to cut up the wood out of each section, I had to cut them into sizable blocks that I could begin splitting wood with. When I had sizable blocks, every wood to split was very achievable at each given moment.

When you’re seeking a new career, a new job, a new business, a new anything, then everything is very possible through the breaking down process, from what use to seem gigantic to what is achievable right now. Your financials economic outlook, your personal budget, how you campaign or job search, how you start a business, all of this, is taken through the same exact funnel, everything. You break it down, and you make sense of it.

There is hope and everything can be attained at every moment. How you use that moment is up to you. Wait until your fear subsides, or step into the unknown, and make it happen.

Slit that wood!

“I have far more respect for the person with a single idea who gets there than for the person with a thousand ideas who does nothing” ~Thomas Edison

Every good business has a vision. “But wait a minute” you say, “I’m not in business!” Well, sure you are. If you’re reading this, you’re in business. You’re looking for a way to market yourself so that you can provide a specific service to someone and make money doing it. Whether it’s working for one company, or multiple people and organizations, you are in fact, in business.

You just have to decide what’s more conducive to your growth and freedom, and how do you want to position yourself. But first it begins with, “what does freedom look like to me?”

There is an over-arching them about your life and career. A needle, if you would, that points north. That says, no matter what happens, this is how you are always going to serve others.

But then you have to take even further, and say to yourself, “what is the specific way that I am going to serve others now? What is it that I want to see happen?” All while referencing the needle of your life’s compass, you need to ask yourself the first “island” you are going to develop for your life, and you need to be able to describe that “island” in a simple statement, that gives the due course you’re heading towards right now. From now on, we are going to reference the vision as our 180 Degree Islands™.

What dream island do you want to build for your life? For one, this island is not at all about self indulging, but a place you’ve created for others to enjoy. It’s what you do to serve others, whether it’s through a specific product, entertaining, educating, or providing information, what is the island designed to do, and who is on it?

I don’t want to you to focus so much on the economic model of this just yet. Don’t think about how you’re going to make this happen. Don’t think about where you’re going to get the resources to fund this. All of that comes in its proper sequential order when it’s ready. Right now, you need to define what island you would like to build.

Again, all of this starts reflecting the desired life; which is why we understand YOU before anything. We need to know your strengths, your personality tendencies and what all that entails with the people, things, places, and ideas around you; we need know what you value, what your dreams are, and what your passions are. We need to know what your intellectual ambitions are, or what do you want to learn about. We need to know the people you feel most drawn to and want to serve and we need to know your entire life’s meaning; the thing about you that is unchanging. The 180 Degree Islands™ can change, but not the life’s needle, meaning, and purpose.

Look deep into the caverns of your life, and what you’ve discovered thus far, and envision the most ideal life as it relates to the service of other people. Remember, these islands can change, but they give us a due course that we can actually measure.

Once we know the specific thing that we are going to do at its most raw description then we can start describing everything else that we want to see unfold on this new island. But first we need the raw description.

What’s going to happen, who is it serving, and how will we know when it’s successful?

Remember, you need to be able measure it.

Ever asked yourself ‘why’? Why am I here, what have I been called to do, who am I called to help? What does all this really mean? Does it mean anything, or is everything just a random event?

If you’re reading this, you probably already feel a deep sense that there is more. Maybe you feel there is something beyond you guiding the path of your life, and that you’re just along for the ride. Maybe you feel you’re not just along for the ride, and that you have a choice to participate in the ride. Either way, you probably feel there is something more.

So now the question is how do we tap into that? How do we gain a better understanding of what this life’s ride is moving us into, or what it’s all about?

Let me give you an analogy.

The Universe is messy. It explodes into a continuous fractal display. Without the inference of people, everything is orchestrated in a seemingly chaotic fashion. There is no logic to hold down the flow of creation, everything just moves outward, creating a dancing array of beauty in all its messiness.

From the trees, weeds, flowers, and everything that bursts forth, by its nature it was meant to unfold beauty and infinite perfection.

So then why us; why are we here?

Well, take this for example; if you give a child a barrel full of play-doe, sand, wood, blocks, sticks, ribbons, buttons, pots, pans, and all things that do not make sense as belonging in the same category, a child will look at that barrel of junk, and see a sculpture of art in the making. Even if none of this came in a barrel, and sporadically just grew out of the ground, the child would still yet see an opportunity to carve something magnificent.

You see, just as a beaver’s natural tendency is to dam the creek, so is a human being whose natural tendency is to create beauty out of beauty, or what we perceive as messy.

We are all part of the orchestrated fractal essence of life. What looks chaotic to something or someone else is not chaotic to the being designed for that purpose.

A cloud was designed to explode in a wonderful bellow of folding shapes which are being shaped by the wind. It looks messy to us, but to the cloud, it is living its own beauty by its creative nature.

We were all meant to expand our own creative bellows. Without us, without our chaotic shaping of what’s around us, the dance is missing a major component designed to serve the lives of people.

Why are you here? How have you been called to participate in the dance?

This is why the understanding of you is so important; from your values, your dreams, your passions, your talents, and your personality. All of these together give us a sense of what we should be doing, how we should be living, and why we are here.

It’s all about expression of the heart. As human beings, we are all called to serve this world in one way or another, but how are you called to serve? Look back into your life understanding about what you bring, and put that together in a simple statement that says, “I am here to __________________________________.” And you have to do fill in the blank.

It’s not as complicated as it seems. This is the over-arching theme of your life, and it sums up all three characteristics that Dan Miller talks about in 48 Days to the Work You Love. He says that there are there major components that one must understand to know their purpose. They must understand their skills and abilities, their personality tendencies, and their values, dreams, and passions. You must have all three working together to be living on purpose.

As always, before beginning down the path of knowing what you bring, remember that you can always discover your purpose in the service of other people. At least begin by looking into a crowd of people, and say how can I help the people and world around me become better? How can I live so that everything is a little bit better after I’m gone? What can I do to increase, and make something better?

It’s out of questions like these, where our natural tendencies of serving others rise to the surface, and thus our life’s mission.

When I speak of stewardship, I don’t just speak of money. I believe that everything is in our midst for a reason, and that we are called to leverage it for a higher purpose. Increase should be the natural mantra of our constant questions to ourselves such as, “How can I increase or make better the world around me?”

It’s in service to others where our purpose is born, and our natural gifts and talents rise to the surface. Everything we say or do, should be about serving the greater good. Not just for my own benefit, but for the benefit of all.

The outer circle references everything outside of our home. It’s our extended community. It’s the reflection of who we are. It’s the rewards that we reap, from what we’ve sown. It’s our careers and jobs, or the work we do on a regular basis, and the fulfillment or non-fulfillment we get from that. It’s the money that we earn, the tools that we’ve acquired, and the people that we work with… It is everything and everyone that we serve.

All these things are portraying a level of success to you as the individual, who knows deep down how successful you really are, and it portrays that same image to the world around you. By watching your example, we can come to the conclusion how together you really are on the inside and in the home. It reflects the core and your inner circle.

Knowing this and you can come to the conclusion for yourself of how together you really are on the inside and at home. If you don’t like what’s around you, chances are there is something you don’t like about yourself.

We are more connected to our world than most people care to believe. When we think about being successful, and attracting the things into our life that make us successful, we’re getting the cart before the horse. “We want heat before we add the wood”, as Earl Nightingale would say.

It’s not about being successful through material things, and then letting that choose our happiness. That is completely backwards! You can only be happy and successful first, and the materials and possessions begin to reflect that attitude. By serving unconditionally, we are choosing a level of happiness that cannot be attained by going there, but by being.

You don’t live this life to get or attract what you want. People have that all wrong. You live this life to get and attract what You Are. There is no other way around it.

To be successful, you have to BE successful. It’s not a place, it’s a way of life, and it reflects everything about you.

You have what you are. If you don’t like what have, change what you are.

But most importantly start serving, and seeking the increase of everything in your life.

The questions are about, “how can I make this better, how can I increase this place, what can I give so that everything is in a much better condition, how can leave this world a little bit better than I found it?”

It’s out of service to others, where your purpose is unveiled, and the visions become vivid and real.

So start asking yourself. “How can I serve today, and how can I always serve anyway?”

When I am at my best personally, I am at my best for those closest to me. I love my family dearly, and definitely want the best for them. My relationships are very important, so the closer that individual is, of course the more important that person is to me. I believe relationships are everything, and we need them. We are at our finest nature as very social beings, and whether we think so or not sometimes, we do need each other.

This life, and even recent years have been quite a ride for many of us. Many are worried about what the future holds and feel the need to keep chugging away at the tasks at hand and hold on to what sameness or reality we can. Tenacity is strong word these days. When we’re under pressure, it’s hard to look deep except for what’s obviously practical or logical right now. The questions are about covering expenses, or what this is costing us.
But there are some who are inspired by something bigger, and can’t let go of the vision no matter how tough things get. One might say, “It’s very hard to break an individual that’s inspired.”

They seem to recognize life events for what they are, and know that all they have is right now and the possibilities of what right now can bring. Not in the sense of just putting out fires right now, but more along the lines of investing in the lives of others and what that can do. They are seeking bigger visions for their families, loved ones, or anyone close to them. They want the best for those they love. The questions are not about costs, they are about investing, and tenacity takes a back seat, because if it doesn’t fall in line with the vision, it doesn’t make sense to keep digging the meaningless ditches. Ideas and taking action on ideas become the focus.

If people begin focusing on their blessings, their graces, and what they have right now, then they will see the potential to plunge their lives for them and for their loved ones forward for the better.

We need to be thankful about our possibilities; be thankful for the people and all the relationships that are molding in our lives right now. Be thankful for the possibilities of what those relationships may bring. It’s all a mystery, but it’s all very wonderful!

No matter what, as we face our own struggles and challenges throughout life, we can be sure of one thing. The attacks that we have on our lives from circumstances are all targeted at destroying relationships. No matter what, everything that goes wrong has a ripple effect towards the demise of someone’s relationship in one way or in other. Whether it’s a family member, a friend, God, or ourselves, the attack is always seeking to crumble that bond.

Remember that when you hold your loved ones, when you are with them, when you are with whoever it is that gives you that sense of belonging, and be thankful. Be truly thankful, because no matter what you face, you know who it is in your heart that belongs there, and nothing can take that away except our own wills. Be thankful that you have and always will stand the test of time and challenge, and will continue marching forward together in the greatness that life brings.

Start thinking about the possibilities and what a wonderful life with your loved ones would look like. While being thankful for what you have, it’s a good idea to have a vision, and a mission of values that your family can stand behind; something that helps to solidify the roots of your family and bring a solid presence to this world.

When you are witnessing a person’s character, or public persona, you are always getting a reflection of who that person really is at home. How they serve their world is a reflection of how they serve their home.

If you want to be of great service to this world, start strong by serving your home first. Everything you do, all the seeds you sow in the ones who are close to you, will create a rippled chain reaction across the ocean of our society, through our stewardship in the community, or through our vocations in our jobs and careers.

People go to functions, clubs, parties, churches, and community gatherings expecting to get something out of it all of the time. Some go to church because they are seeking God, when if they would have just looked inward first they would have seen and brought God to life in the home, first. Somebody has to bring God to the church, let that be your family. The more families who do this, the more life we bring to the church.

The same goes for parties. Somebody has to bring life to the party, let it be you. If you go there expecting someone to make you happy or you won’t be happy, then you’re taking big chances of getting disappointed. Don’t wait for anything, Just Be, first…

Be the life, invest in your family, and let them be the life, and bring an example for many to follow. Soon there will be many who bring God, not… wait for God…