Personal Branding 101 – Present Your Personal Brand Through Your Personal Profile

Whether you are in an organisation and developing your career or you are the leader of your own professional services practice, one thing you can be sure about….

…. at some stage in the next 12 months you are likely to be asked to present yourself on paper.

That could be for a proposal you are submitting, a job you are applying for or a profile you have to present as a speaker at a conference.

But when was the last time you reviewed your personal profile or CV? And does it accurately reflect your expertise and experience?

I was recently working with a professional association to support them building their brand on-line. They had developed a new web site which gave the members of the association the opportunity to add their details to the data base, providing them with increased visibility.

However, the quality of the personal profiles was so poor, they certainly were not likely to attract interest from potential clients or strategic joint venture partners.

I was also recently working with an executive who was looking for their next career move and we were working on developing their personal brand. However when we looked at their personal marketing materials – their CV – it certainly did not enhance their reputation.

I am frequently asked for a copy of my personal profile and what I have some to learn is that we need to have a core profile available at a moments notice so that we can adapt it to the needs of the audience requesting our profile.

You see it is much easier keeping your profile up to date and relevant than having to create it the first time.

So if your personal profile or CV is out of date, here are four personal branding action steps to ensure that your profile projects your personal brand.

1. Print out a copy of your current personal profile and identify which elements are no longer current.

2. Update your profile – whether it is a CV or professional profile make sure that it does not exceed 2 pages.

3. If you are not sure if your profile accurately reflects your personal brand and expertise, ask a colleague or friend to review it and provide feedback.

4. If you need additional assistance consider the support of a resume writer or personal branding coach to help you create

Do you want to learn more about this and similar strategies? Then join me for my no-cost branding and business development teleseminars.

Why Making a Joke to Open Your Presentation May Not Be the Best Idea

So, there you are, ready to step out and make your carefully prepared presentation. You step on stage you welcome your audience and then you bring out the big opening, you tell them your best joke. The one you always tell to get a laugh. Well you better be sure it’s a good one or you are about to blow your credibility out of the water.

Are you sure your joke isn’t offensive to anybody in the audience? Will everybody understand the punchline? Will most people laugh? Have you got the delivery right? If you aren’t one hundred percent certain of the answer to any of these questions (and please double check even if you are sure) then ditch the joke.

Telling jokes is risky business in a presentation. Although people definitely want to be entertained and informed by your presentation, telling jokes may not always be the way. The problem with jokes is that they can polarise an audience. While one section of your audience may find your joke hilarious, others will think both you and the joke are dumb and another section may find both you and the joke offensive. With your first sentence the whole audience will have formed an opinion about you and your subject based on a joke that may not even be related to your subject.

When you open your presentation you are looking to make an impression that engages your audience in your subject and arouses their interest. So even if you are blessed with the ability to tell jokes and can choose appropriate humour, save it for the body of the presentation, use the opening lines to make an impact that is key to your subject.

Your opening line should challenge, surprise, intrigue or shock your audience. Make a bold statement about what they will get from your presentation (as long as you can back it up) and grab their attention. Tell part of a relevant story (even if the relevance is not immediately obvious) and leave them on a cliffhanger with the promise of the rest later.

Whatever strategy you use, your opening line needs to grip your audience and make them want to pay attention to see if your presentation lives up to the opening. Don’t let the dangerous business of telling jokes spoil the impact of your whole presentation.

Live Trading – Volatility Presents Big Opportunity in Yen and Euro

We looked at the B Pound recently and gave you areas to sell if you did you made a huge profit with low risk and we have done separate report on the BP – here we want to look at the Yen and Euro and low risk /high reward trading scenario.

Lets look at these currencies and what the week ahead holds.

Japanese Yen

The trend against the dollar is down and has been for years – the recent rally is simply un-winding of carry trades.

This means the JY should resume its down trend and the recent volatility is presenting a low risk high reward opportunity. Take a look at a good free chart service such as futuresource.com and you will see for yourself.

Prices have spiked and are outside the top Bollinger band and resistance lies at 0.85.50 and 86.00. The key to looking at the short side is a change in price momentum.

Pull up the Relative Strength Index which has peaked at just above 70.00 and is losing momentum and also check the Stochastic which is set to cross with bearish divergence.

Look for a reversal day and momentum to turn bearish target on both indicators – target is the mid Bollinger band.

Euro

The euro is in a long term uptrend against the dollar and the recent correction (like the one we looked at in the British Pound) is simply the huge speculative long position being washed out and this looks to be almost done.

The key near term support is 1.36 (bottom of Bollinger band and July Lows)

Again you need to look at the RSI and stochastic and watch for a change in price momentum.

At present there is NO signal to buy RSI continues to fall and the stochastics are deeply oversold.

In Both Currencies

Do not try and predict WAIT for the confirmation on the charts backed up by price momentum.

Trade the reality of price – NOT your opinion (or the opinions of others) stay focused on the charts and stay disciplined.

There are of course conflicting news stories about what happens next – by focusing on the charts and trading the reality of a shift in price momentum, you will be trading the odds and that’s what any currency trader needs to do.

The long term trend is down in the Yen and up in the euro and while we could see a major trend change, this looks like a correction in both currencies and the longer term trends up in Euro and down in Yen will re assert themselves.