Shera R. Sever: Igniting the Spark™

Building communities through social networking and social PR is the new marketing.  It’s no longer about WIFM, but rather, what’s in it for WE.

In addition to being a powerful social networking tool for B2B partnerships and even B2C, Linked In is rapidly becoming the recruiters tool of choice.  Now, you can search and follow companies, and apply for positions directly on LinkedIn using your profile in place of your CV/Resume.

Would you like to expand your sphere of influence by building genuine, sustainable relationships with your LinkedIn communities?

Here are some tips for optimizing your LinkedIn account with your professional communities:

1. Defining Your Brand with Your LinkedIn Profile

Who do you want to connect with? Why?  What’s your “title”. Choose  keywords for your title that will speak to companies and colleagues you want to connect with.  What are you offering? What problems do you solve?

Take some time thinking about these questions, and create a solid summary profile. Much like a  CV , the first third of your profile is what get’s read. Be sure to have a complete profile that includes your photo, website,  endorsements, blog posts, industry related reading, and possible slide shares. And be sure to include your contact information (phone, Skype, and e-mail).

Tip: You can see how many times your profile has come up in search and how many times it has been viewed daily.  This is a great barometer for determining if your LInked-In brand is attracting the intended audience.

2. Cultivate your network

Tony Robbins often says, “Your network is your net worth.” When looking for people to connect with start with your first degree of influence.  Who do you know? Who have you worked with?   Then reach out to others in your industry and to those  that compliment or even supplement what you do.

In my case, I find connecting with other Talent Management Leaders, Sales and Marketing Directors and start-up CEO’s  mutually beneficial.  I may have the solution to a initiative the company is launching, and conversely, they may have referrals to other companies seeking my areas of expertise.

If you are a job seeker, introduce yourself to recruiters in your industry and then stay in touch. If you are a consultant or a small business owner, look for other businesses that could serve as potential partners, where you both could benefit by offering more value to your clients if you were a team.  Using LinkedIn’s advanced search you can search by geographical area, group affiliations, job title, company, industries and even education (school’s attended).

Tip: When inviting people to join your network, avoid the generic default message:  I’d like to add you to my Linked In network. Rather personalize your message with a introduction and perhaps a statement like: How can I know if someone I’m connected with is a good prospect for you?

A word on Endorsements

I love when colleagues, employees, and clients I have worked with ask me for endorsements. If someone asks you, take the time and write a thoughtful endorsement that creates a visual in the reader’s mind.  Be honest and generous with your endorsements, and be sure to ask for them.

3. Giving Back

Linked In has hundreds of discussion groups that you can join or even create. (the current limit is 50). Join these groups and engage in intelligent dialogs, by proposing thought-provoking industry questions, as well as answering questions at least several times a week. 

Approach groups with the attitude of “What can I give”, rather than “What can I get”. Offer resources as often as you can, and connect others in your network when you see a good fit.  

Again, for job seekers, recruiters will often look at how active you are in groups to determine your level of expertise, your  collaborative competencies, and your communication style. Be sure to update your status a few times a week. Often times, I update my status by  sharing a  link to a recent article from an trade magazine journal, a new trend I recently came across, or simply a motivational message of my own.
Tip: Avoid selling your services to your groups, sending brief messages with a link to your website.  Again approach all your connections as relationships that you value and want to cultivate. “What can I do for you”, while sharing what you are looking for.

4. Create Trust with consistency and accountability

Live relationships , like social community networking, requires trust to flourish, and that means showing up 100%.

Keep fresh content on your profile via your status or project updates.  Check your Linked In messages frequently.  Stay in touch with members of your group- ideally once a week. 

Share your ideas, projects, a  resource, your blog post, ask how you can help them.  I have had many telephone conversations emerge, and relationships develop as a result of my Linked In Connections.

Does this seem like a lot of work?  It isn’t, once you get into the habit. By following the tips above, you will begin to build relationships of trust in  your social networking.

How alive is your LinkedIn network?

Do you have a potent summary profile, and accurate, catchy title  that describes what problems you solve?

How many groups are you active in?

How many viewers open your profile?

How many phone or in-person conversations have resulted from  Linked-In connection?

Does your Linked In profile needs a lift? I invite you to contact me today to discuss how I can help you!

It’s graduation time throughout the USA.

In this compelling, heart warming Stanford commencement address, Steve Jobs shares three stories about love, loss, and trust. . . from being a public failure , to starting over and following his heart.

You can’t connect the dots looking forward.

You can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that somehow the dots will connect in the future.You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever, believing the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path and that will make all the difference.

You’ve got to find what you LOVE!

The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. The only way to do great work is to LOVE what you do.
If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.

Keep looking..don’t settle!  Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Steve Jobs Commencement

I’m sure many of you are familiar with  Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone, and his most recent book, Who’s Got Your Back.

Ferazzi believes leadership, at its essence, is a spiritual journey- it takes courage, motivation, discipline, and commitment. Strongly grounded in many years of Vipassana practice, Ferazzi’s weaves his spiritual practice into his leadership style, sharing life-changing strategies for anyone committed to building a lifeline team.

In order to continue to be the best we can, I believe it’s vitally important, especially in these times, to create our own Personal Board of Directors- a small committed group who are not going to let each other fail, ever!

REBUILDING TRUST in A WORLD of GREED & FEAR

According to Ferrazzi, successful networking (our abilities to “connect”) is not about the size of our “rolodex”. Rather success is more readily available to those who can pick up the phone and say, ” I need help”.

Particularly in these times, Ferazzi encourages us to focus on *Relationship Capital* by building a Personal Board of Directors or what he calls *Lifeline Relationships*- the ones that help us rebuild TRUST in a world of fear and greed.

BUILDING Your PERSONAL BOARD of DIRECTORS:

* Identify at 3 people you know who can change your life.

* Call them and share this idea about LifeLine Relationships. Ask them if they will be on board with you.

* Lifeline Relationships lead with generosity. Who bends over backwards for you?  Who do you bend over backwards for?

* Lifeline Relationships are transparent: Who can you let your guard down with and have it be okay?

* Lifeline Relationships hold each other accountable. Who can kick you in the butt when necessary? Which of your peers can you depend upon to TELL the TRUTH and help you face the brutal facts

* Lifeline relationships agree to forgive in advance when we slip up. Sparring is okay (even encouraged!).

* Lifeline relationships have a RELATIONSHIP ACTION PLAN. (R.A.P.) which is rigorous, routine, strategic, and systematic.

Your Personal Board of Directors can come in many forms: Mastermind Groups, Learning or Coaching Communities, Wisdom Councils, Women’s or Men’s circles, or Spiritual Communities.

Rather than changing who we are, enlist others to help us become the best we can be. This is where the true strength of any team, organization or initiative lies. For more information on Ferrazi’s model, check out  Greenlight Community.

How many of you have this lifeline team in place? I’ve had several “lifeline” teams over the years (work groups, learning communities, friends, spiritual sanghas, performance groups) that were extremely beneficial for their duration.

And now, I am looking at creating the strongest, most sustainable  one yet!  Will you help me?

I am eager to partner with an organizational leadership team that needs a powerful provocateur, collaborator, and communications maven/ director to weave it all together: vision, strategy, marketing, communications, engagement, and human capital. Let’s start the conversation!

Earlier this year, I declared that I was not participating in this recession, particularly since I had experienced my own 5- year “karmic cleanse” starting in  2003 ( post 9-11). It’s a much longer story to be shared, so let’s BE HERE NOW.

There’s a lot I love about this recession.

In many ways, I see it bringing us all closer as we begin to recognize our interconnectedness (and how similar) we all are when it comes to  needs, purpose, wanting to make a difference and be happy!  There’s a collective global consciousness that continues to emerge as a result of the recession. We are learning to use our own “human technologies” and adapt to the changes.

1. FEAR only has as much power as we allow it.  In other words, it’s simply an illusion.  One of my beloved buddhist teachers from Spirit Rock Meditation Center, during a 10-day Vipassana Retreat, told us a story about  how he helped  his 3- year old “embrace” his fear of the dark.  He simply instructed his son to say “Hello” to the Fear, every evening when it arose. Within a week of applying this seemingly very simple advice, his son was able to recognize (name), befriend, and then move beyond the fear. This 3-year old began greeting the fear of darkness peacefully.

2. Living with uncertainty- births creativity, improvisation, flexibility, innovation- all essential qualities of a great leader and awakened entrepreneur.

3. Doing more with less- we are all adopting”green”  practices- or more accurately put-learning to live sustainably (living in a way that meets the needs of future generations)

4. Social entrepreneurship has become mainstream. See March, 2009 Ode Magazine.

5. Transparent Communication- Social Media has changed the way we do marketing. Now more than ever- authenticity , not hype , is what people are needing and seeking  The underlying message is to Be  Yourself- Everyone Else is Taken.

6. Real Dialogs- Van Jones calls this the need for human technologies- There’s an unprecedented grass roots global movement taking place- a caravan of world citizens.  Paul Hawkin, founder of Wiser Earth, first cited this movement in a keynote he gave at  Bioneers several years ago.  People are returning to their need to connect, gathering together to dialog:  in circles, in community gatherings, in living rooms, around fires, and town hall meetings-to share concerns, solutions, compassion, and their human connection- actually an anthisesis to all the wonderful social media marketing tools that keep us tied to a mobile gadget or computer.

7. Letting Go-We are learning to let go of STUFF , consumption (become citizens, rather than consumers), an illusory future, and simply be with the miracle of each moment.

I think Alan Watts says it best: “No use clinging to the rocks that are falling.”

What opportunities are you creating and what are you learning

as a result of the recession?

In the past few weeks, probably like you,  I have received hundreds of messages inviting  me to participate in workshops, teleseminars, meetings and groups for setting intentions this new year.

THE AWAKENED ENTREPRENEUR™

These invitations inspired me to create an overarching  theme for the year by declaring this to be “The Year of the Awakened Entrepreneur™.  An Awakened Entrepreneur understands that it’s not just about YOU OR ME any longer. We have entered a whole new game of interdependence and collaboration.  Vision is the Soul of our Business, and Committed Action, the fuel.

Read more. 

Last week, along with approximately 20 others,  I started my vision board for 2009- with images of actions I commit to this year. I’m sharing just a few of these commitments here:

FOSTER a CULTURE of TRUE COLLABORATION

In December, I attended the year end San Francisco Women in Consulting meeting. Of the 70 or 80 women business owners in attendance, I discovered that many were offering similar or complimentary services and targeting similar audiences.

Many attendees was asking for leads or referrals to clients, yet I wanted to hear more about what their clients wanted and needed. I was looking for introductions that answered these key questions:

What do I do best? Who am I serving?  

What do they need?  How can my business fulfill that need?

I thought, “Wouldn ‘t it be wonderful if we could combine our expertise and offerings with  authentic and transparent collaborative models?”  

Successful non-profits have been doing this for years, building coalitions and networks that share resources, expertise, and human capital. Peter Senge teaches very sophisticated decentralized, collaborative models with his systems approach in the private sector. And LOHAS just published their 2009 business trends. Coalitions and affiliations are in the Top 10.

How much more could our clients benefit if WE-small businesses and consultants- created more collaborative “One-Stop Shops”, that serve our clients’ needs in all areas: Strategic Planning, Marketing & Social Media, Human Capital & Leadership Development, Technology, Legal, and Financial?

GET THE RIGHT PEOPLE on THE BUS

We have a new leader. He can’t do it alone. With the right people on the bus, small steps lead to big change and transformative results. This year I am personally committed to staying very awake and alert with each step, and thereby expanding “OUR” fields of influence.

As collaborators, having the “right” people as “power partners ” is crucial. One of my mentors, Jim Collins, author of Good to Great,  makes some interesting distinctions between “Effective” and “Great” Leadership. Great leaders, he claims, first hold a vision and attract the right executive team , BEFORE executing a strategic plan. “Effective” Leaders  create their strategic plan and then search for the implementers, which, according to Collins, can result in a lot of silo structures and organizational fragmentation.  

Stephen Covey, in his newest publication,  The Leader In Me, has taken leadership even further, by introducing personal and collaborative leadership models and practices to youth and future generations.

INCREASE value-based SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

with Relationships, Learning, and Resource Sharing

In some of my free time in past 11 months, I’ve been immersed in studying WEB 2.0 business, marketing, and collaborative learning trends, teaching myself new skills, testing collaborative technology tools, and asking for help, which I still need a lot of!  It’s been a very motivating learning curve, and I am loving it!

I took my website down about five months ago, and replaced it with this WordPress site. The template still needs  more visual customization and a banner (any wordpress geeks reading this?);   I love the collaboration inherent in WordPress.  Now, my readers (You!) can respond transparently, with added information, insights, resources, and links.  I sincerely welcome your participation.  I invite and encourage you to subscribe to my blYou can leave a comment on any post, and share them with others.  

COMMIT to EXPANSION

with new publications, course offerings, and media

With conversations birthing and potential collaborations brewing, stayed tuned for an upcoming “Awakened Entrepreneur™” course series delivered in multi-formats, aiong with on-going group coaching. To join the development conversations, and participation, I invite you stay connected via this site, Facebook and Twitter. 

Let’s invest in our “inner economies”. Take a break from the news,  and come play with me.

It’s a new world, and We are creating it!

Last night I felt it, and I am sure you did, too!

As Michael Moore writes in his post today, “we have experienced a stunning, whopping, landslide of HOPE in a time of deep despair.”

One my mentors, James Kouzes, laid out a seemingly simple, yet powerful leadership model and evaluation tool for personal and organizational leadership in his 2002 best-seller, The Leadership Challenge.

After eight (8) long, painful years, America (the USA), has finally elected a leader that:

• Models the Way
• Inspires a Shared Vision
• Challenges the Process
• Enables Others to Act
• Encourages the Heart

We have seen that anything is possible with focused intention, commitment, and ACTION. The world has been longing for a leader like Obama.

In Hebrew, “Obama” means Lightening. May he electrify and purify the past by co-creating and helping us all rebuild a better future. Let’s support this transition by awakening our own personal leadership practices.

We are all the messengers of change!

“We have the ability to go within our hearts and give what we discover (there) a voice”, said internationally acclaimed author, Gay Hendricks , keynote speaker at the San Francisco Writers for Change Conference.

Gay Hendricks announced at the conference that Five Wishes will be his last book. He will now committ his knowledge, expertise, and experience to mentoring the next generation of writers. In alignment with his passion for technology, writing, and helping others awaken to their power, authenticity, and expanded relationship potential, Hendricks continues to be on the forefront of conscious relationships and new media publishing.

When working with editors, Hendricks reminded attendees that “It’s a rare person who hears what she/he doesn’t want to hear.”

Hendricks encouraged conference attendees to:

Take the time to write one good page a day. ( He has been doing so for 30 years)

Ask yourself:

• How can I serve?
• Is this true? Is this the truest way I can say this in the written word?
• How am I getting in my own way? or How is my brain getting in my way?
• As a writer, what does my audience need? What will awaken my audience to the voice and truth in their own hearts?

Many thanks to Elizabeth Pomada and Michael Larsen, Co-founders and Directors of this 2nd annual conference, for creating such an inspirational platform for change!

In May, I attended the Book Expo of America in Los Angeles, where along with many authors and publishers, I met Tyson Miller, Director of the Green Press Initiative, and Julie Salisbury, world traveler and self-published author now happily settled in British Columbia.   

 Julie Salisbury, founder of InspireABook  and I  will be presenting “Transform Yourself from Writer to Author” at the WRITING for CHANGE Conference on Aug. 17 at 10:00 AM at the Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco.

 Julie has enthusiastically followed my marketing consultations offering her 8-week program in a NEW! teleseminar series starting in October. Adding to Julie’s curriculum, I will be leading the From Writer to Expert teleseminar series starting in November. 

Click here for more information and to register.

In an earlier post this week, I cited the Oprah/Tolle webcast “dialogs”.

There’s a wonderful exercise that came out of last night’s webcast- about complaining.

Make a running list of all of your complaints or complaining thoughts for a week, and observe where that voice is coming from. It’s not you, just your egoic conditioning – according to Eckert Tolle, the true You is the one observing what your mind is doing.

Now, isn’t that interesting?

Another exercise that I have applied in the past to help me break negative thought patterns is to wear a rubber band around my wrist- everytime I have a complaining thought, I snap it- hard!

Seeing and feeling the sting helps bring me back to the present moment, and away from these negative thought patterns quickly. It feels so good to be present.

Finding stillness within is about being grateful

What is truer than truth? The Story. . .says Nobel Prize novelist Isabelle Allende.

She is a maverick, human rights activist, a raging feminist, historian, and a leader of the human heart and spirit. I have read all that this remarkable woman , story-teller, true magician of words has produced.