The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘LinkedIn’

Career Coach Peggy McKee from Career Confidential presented at the webinar, “How to Find a Job in any Economy.” The following job search tips were gleaned from her presentation with some of my own thoughts added.

1. View your job search as a sales process where the hiring manager is the buyer, you are the product, and your resume is your marketing and sales material. You only have 15 seconds to capture their attention so use the AIDA formula in your resume. Grab their Attention with your resume or profile headline, capture their Interest by saying something captivating that’s important to them, create a Desire by showing how you can make their lives better, and finally, take Action.
2. Never go through HR, go directly to the hiring managers. HR uses Applicant Tracking Systems as a spam filter to weed out as many resumes as possible.
3. Be proactive and work on expanding your network! Use social media to find and build relationships with hiring managers. Make sure that you always complete your profile for social media networks.
4. If you are interested in working for particular companies, create Google Alerts for the companies so you can keep abreast of what’s happening and discover their pain.
5. Use SimplyHired.com and Indeed.com, which aggregate available jobs, and set up alerts for specific jobs you are interested in to be emailed to you.
6. Only spend 10 percent of your job search time using job boards, use them more as a research tool to identify trends, and which companies are hiring.

Please refer to the blog post, 6 Ways to Maximize Your LinkedIn Presence – Tips from Carol McManus, the LinkedIn Lady. How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Related articles

• 6 Best Practices Using LinkedIn For Your Job Search (messengerassociates.wordpress.com)
• How to Use Blogging as a Job Search Tool (problogger.net)
• 10 Ways To Beat The Job-Search Blues (choosework.typepad.com)

Image via CrunchBase

Recently, the Downtown Women’s Club hosted a teleseminar with Carol McManus, the LinkedIn Lady. McManus has made over six figures of her income from referrals she received on LinkedIn. She spends time building and nurturing the connections she has on LinkedIn and understands the importance of networking and the correct way in which to do it.

McManus shared a few tips on how to make LinkedIn work for you.

1. View your profile as your biography, and think about the way you would like to present yourself to the world. Take the time to complete your profile and make sure the information you include shows you in your totality. People want to know how you got to where you are today. As you are crafting and building your profile, include the things that make you distinctly you.
2. If you have held multiple positions in one company, choose the most memorable ones to write about, and solicit recommendations.
3. In the Summary section, give clues as to who you are and why others should connect with you. Build a rapport, and champion who you are and how you serve your clients. Think about your background, both personal and professional and highlight specific skills.
4. In the Specialties section, list your responsibilities with the accompanying accomplishments.
5. First thing in the morning, log into your LinkedIn account and quickly scan updates from your connections to see what’s going on and reach out to them. Bring people to the front of your consciousness. This is a quick and easy way to keep in touch with your contacts.
6. Join groups whether they are Alumni, Associations, Industry – you are allowed to join 50 groups. Think about who you want to hang out with, and why, and choose groups based on that. Each day choose one or two groups to visit and comment.

What are some other effective ways that you have used LinkedIn? Add your thoughts to the conversation in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Related articles

• 5 Tips for Managing LinkedIn Groups (hubspot.com)

Interviewee Name: Chris Kulbaba, Career and Employment Counsellor, Public Speaker

Company Name: London Employment Help Centre

Website: http://linkedinheavyweight.com  

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Chris Kulbaba:  I consider myself to be first and foremost a family man so that’s really my focus. I have six children between my partner and I so family is very important. The next thing is that I consider myself to be a helper and a collector. I was told very recently that I collect people and information, and I thought that was a very appropriate description of me. And the last thing is I consider myself to be a social media fanatic – I love that stuff.

Avil Beckford: What’s a typical day like for you?

Chris Kulbaba: A Monday to Friday typical day means getting up at six o’clock, taking my two dogs out to do their business, then having my breakfast while I’m updating and connecting with all my social media channels. I usually leave the house at 7:45 am, so it’s about an hour in the morning that I am doing social media. A day at work is never truly typical however because I do several things: I facilitate workshops, I do individual counselling, I also do group intakes, and I teach several different workshops.

So day-to-day I could be in a workshop, or doing personal counselling, or writing resumes, or doing resume practice, or discussing life skills with clients. So in that mix of items I see clients until about 4:30, from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm is my regular work hours, then of course I come home and I like to have dinner at home. I like to talk to my family and see what their day is like and somewhere between 9 and 10 pm usually for a half-an-hour to 45 minutes I am updating and connecting on social media.

That’s what I do Mondays to Fridays! Saturdays I try to set aside some time for my blogging, usually for an hour in the morning before anyone gets up.

Avil Beckford: How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

Chris Kulbaba:  When I looked at the questions, believe it or not this was the hardest one I found to answer. I try to empathize with all of my clients because I was also a job seeker several times and I remember the feelings that came with that position. So the most important thing for me is to sit myself in my client’s shoes when I’m dealing with a client, and I try to do that with many of my network contacts. I try to imagine what I can help them with, and who do I know that can help them.

Avil Beckford: If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

Chris Kulbaba: I have asked myself this question several times. And I don’t know if I would do too many things differently because the mistakes I’ve made have helped to shape my attitude, my beliefs, and my goals so knowing what I now know I would honestly say that I wouldn’t do much differently. I am who I am because of the struggles that I’ve had so I don’t know if I would do anything differently if I could still come out the other end knowing what I know and feeling what I feel and believing what I believe. I might have stayed in school a bit longer for more formal education, if I had to choose one thing that would be it.

Avil Beckford: What’s the most important business or other discovery you’ve made in the past year?

Chris Kulbaba: I discovered the true impact that social media can have. A quick story, in the past year I’ve helped people become Canadian citizens from India that had reached out to me through LinkedIn and that was pretty significant that I could do that for them for free. That was a very significant discovery I made about the true scope and reach of these tools. It’s a global tool.

Avil Beckford: What are the three threats to your business, your success, and how are you handling them?

Chris Kulbaba:

1. I work for a community service agency so one of the threats to that particular business is the impact of the economic crisis. We are having a very difficult time helping our clients find jobs. One of the strategies we are using is networking actively with employers to try to understand what they are looking for in a job seeker so that we can further help to coach our clients to be successful.
2. Another threat that is coming to my personal business – The LinkedIn Heavyweight, the things I’m doing with LinkedIn – is the challenge to show other people, how effective it is and unfortunately social media is not a silver bullet. So after actively using this tool for several years now and learning, changing and strategizing, I’m finally able to point to specific successes that I’ve made through network contacts through social media, then I’m further bringing other people in front of me explaining to them, “this is some of the impact that this communication tool can have.”
3. The final threat is having people challenge me when they do not get immediate results, they point that out. Again I have to come back to the fact that social media and communicating and networking in this way is an organic process and like anything organic, you need to nurture and feed it. So the first thing I now do with clients at the beginning is ask them a few quick questions such as: What is your end goal, what do you want to accomplish? How much time are you willing to commit to this? and How are you going to nurture and feed your network so that it grows into a vibrant organism.

Avil Beckford: So Chris, have you gotten any business through LinkedIn?

Chris Kulbaba: Absolutely, it hasn’t been business in the sense that I’m making a profit, so when I say that I’m having business through LinkedIn, I’ve been able to interact with several different people and give them very pointed feedback to increasing the effectiveness of their LinkedIn profile. So at this point as I’m strategizing my own business I’m doing some A, B, C testing so I’m trying Strategy A, Strategy B and so on to see which one is generating the results I want. So at this point, my definition of business and my definition of success are measured by the number of referrals that I’m getting from these first few clients. I’ve made some profit but it’s quite negligible at this point. My goal wasn’t to make a profit, it was to determine the saturation of what I can offer inside the market, to see if people want to buy. The answer so far is yes.

Avil Beckford: What’s unique about the service that you provide?

Chris Kulbaba: What’s unique is that I bring it forward to job seekers and I help them to envision themselves through a different lens. So utilizing social media as a broadcasting platform for your personal brand is one part of it, but it’s also determining your features and benefits. So what I do is use the analogy of a car. When you bought your last car did you buy it because it has four wheels, windows, doors and a trunk, you probably didn’t buy it for those features because they are on every car. Maybe you bought the car because the design was what you wanted, maybe you bought it because of the heated seats, there is a feature that attracted you to that car that’s unique, and then the benefits to those features. So maybe the car was a nice colour, and it was a nice design. Job seekers are the same, as a person you have a feature, so how does that benefit the employer? How can you tell people about the features that you have and the benefits to them. How can you engage them in conversation about your features and benefits?

Avil Beckford: Describe a major business or other challenge you had and how you resolved it. What kind of lessons did you learn in the process?

Chris Kulbaba: The major challenge I had in life was figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up. I worked in a factory for 16 years and I didn’t realize that I could do something different. I was making good money and I had full benefits and I thought that was as good as it was going to get, and then the factory closed and I was very lost and very hurt.

I met some people form the community services and I fell into the world of career development, and not only that, I learned that I had a natural aptitude for the work and that it was just so rewarding and enriching to help people solve pain that I was experiencing and that I had experienced, and for me that was a huge challenge to figure out what I wanted to be and how I wanted to do it.

I started off with information interviews. I had never written a resume until my mid-thirties because every job I had had until then was through a family member. The major challenge was how to write a resume when I’m here trying to help people write resumes and I don’t know how to write one myself. So I had to figure out what I wanted to do. As Coordinator of the Action Centre, which the government funded under contract after the business closed, I was able to network and learn and I was also able to define myself slowly as a career development practitioner. I was also slowly able to create a niche for myself in this industry by listening, investigating and taking action through a strategic process. I’d say it took me two years of effort to fully immerse myself into this sector to feel comfortable in it.

Avil Beckford: Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

Chris Kulbaba: I would have to say my big break was Coordinator of the Action Centre. A mentor, the HR manager was advocating for me to get that position. That was a huge break and it really set me up for everything that has happened in the last four-and-a-half years.

Avil Beckford: Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?

Chris Kulbaba:  My biggest failure in my life was my marriage. It takes two to make it and it takes two to break it. So what I learned out of that was any relationship, whether it’s personal or professional is going to wither and die if you don’t feed it. If you do not use the F word once in a while, and that is feedback, you have to ask the other person are they getting what they need and then you have to decide if you can or can’t provide it. When I started to apply those lessons, and I still stumble and fall,  I learned that nurturing a relationship is a lot of effort and a lot of work but of course the more you put into it the more you are going to get out of it whether it’s personal or professional.

Avil Beckford: What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?

Chris Kulbaba: The toughest decision I had to make was to leave the Action Centre and start looking for other work. I was running the Action Centre helping people, some of them had high school, some of them were in their fifties and had a grade nine education. They were looking to me to help them and their families. As I looked around the Action Centre and tried to ask other people to take part of the role that I was doing nobody was willing to do it. I had a very difficult decision about stepping out of that role so that I could provide for myself and family while at the same time trying to train a successor and trying to ensure that everyone was still getting the quality service they needed. It was very, very difficult.

Avil Beckford: What are three events that helped to shape your life?

Chris Kulbaba:

1. The first event happened when I was just a young person. I was 15 years old and we were on vacation in the Cayman Islands and I learned of my thirst for travel and other cultures, how deep it was within me simply by experiencing a wonderful place that was so different from my own. So very early on I had a real desire to learn about cultures, different places and to visit other places.
2. Another event was failing university, and when I say failing, it’s not failing academically. I failed to choose education-wise a career path that was right for me. In university I had taken music education. At the age of fourteen I was playing with the London Youth Symphony, at aged 16, I was invited to play with the Western Symphony Orchestra, so I thought this makes sense and I didn’t really investigate it. When I got to university and started taking the schooling, in the middle of it I realized it was a really bad decision, this isn’t something I should have done.
3. The third moment that really impacted my entire life was when I insulted a friend of mine. We were at the factory working the night shift and he was doing day trading, real estate and he was working at the factory. So I said to him, “Why are you at the factory, you really do not belong here?” He was very angry and turned to me and said, “Who the hell are you to tell me that I do not belong? What are you doing to improve your life?” I thought about what he said and he was right, so for the next 11 years I took continuing education courses at college and university.

Avil Beckford: What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

Chris Kulbaba:  This may sound a bit hokey, but I’m really proud of my children. That’s a big accomplishment for me to listen when we’re discussing life decisions and hear how they rationalize their decisions, and to hear their values and to see their interactions with other people. They are polite, very intelligent, that’s a huge accomplishment to me to know that as a father and a parent I have helped them to make good decisions.

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

Chris Kulbaba: They are still mentoring and still influencing my life. It was a very difficult process because I was being mentored without knowing that I was being mentored by several people. And when I finally stopped pushing against the flow of information and I started to accept and embrace it that was when the true learning began. Since then I have tried to use my ear twice as much as my mouth, something I still struggle with. The return on that investment by my mentors has been enormous. One of the other influences of mentors is one of my mentors telling me that I can mentor other people.

Avil Beckford: What’s one core message you received from your mentors?

Chris Kulbaba: There are four people I would consider as mentors and the biggest message I received is to stop getting in my own way.

Avil Beckford: An invisible mentor is a unique leader you can learn things from by observing them from afar, in the capacity of an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?

Chris Kulbaba:  Always walk you talk. If you are going to say that something is important then that’s the way you should behave.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Over centuries, mentors have been playing a significant role in the lives of successful people. Mentor first appeared in Homer’s Odyssey where he was left in charge of Telemachus, the young son of King Odysseus who went to fight in the Trojan War. The Goddess Athena disguised as Mentor advised Telemachus when he grew older, to go and search for his father who had now been gone for 20 years.

Image via Wikipedia

In more recent times, Freddie Laker mentored Sir Richard Branson, Roger Corman mentored Martin Scorcese and Ron Howard, and former Xerox CEO Anne M. Mulcahy mentored Ursula Burns to take over the reins.

Since Mentor first appeared, the mentoring role has evolved into what it is today. According to Dictionary.com, a mentor is a “Wise and trusted counselor or teacher, an influential senior sponsor or supporter.”

But mentors can be invisible.

That means that the mentor does not know that they are mentoring us. These invisible mentors are our role models. We choose them because we want to study their behaviours. We want to learn from them so we can possibly mimic their actions. Often they have done something that we would like to do, or are trying to do but with some difficulty.

Mentors who are invisible to their mentees have been around for a while.

The concept of the invisible mentor is not new. Napoleon Hill talks about them in his timeless classic Think and Grow which was first published in 1937, but he calls them “invisible counselors”.

According to Hill, “I followed the habit of reshaping my own character by trying to imitate the nine men whose lives and life works had been most impressive to me… Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Paine, Thomas Edison, Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln, Luther Burbank, Napoleon Bonaparte, Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie… I studied the records of their lives with painstaking care.”

He not only studied the lives of his nine invisible mentors, but he blended the information he learned with his knowledge, and he acted on the information by imaging their good qualities. This investment in time spent getting to know these nine men benefitted him tremendously because he knew them so well that he could anticipate how they would respond in various situations – and he responded that way.

More recently, in 2000, Washington State University professor Karen L. Peterson in her paper “Invisible Mentor: Communication Theory and Lilian Katz” wrote about invisible mentors and described the mentee as an absorbent learner. “Invisible mentors are not “super-human” persuaders or orators, nor are they icons with intractable wisdom. An invisible mentor has the capacity and capability (albeit a gift) to see just above the “tree top” and the ability and commitment to come “back down” and tell many below what can be seen… The invisible mentor has the instinctive capability to sort out the valuable from the superfluous,” said Peterson.

Invisible mentors are still relevant today.

After researching the idea of “invisible mentors,” I concluded that they are unique leaders you can learn things from, by observing them from a distance. It is not enough to have one traditional mentor, because no one person can fill all the roles we need them to. But invisible mentors can complement our traditional mentor. Napoleon Hill had his personal Board of Invisible Counselors. And we can have the same.

It is easier for us than it was for Napoleon Hill because of the unprecedented access we have to information. Today, most of us have access to the Internet, which opens us up to online databases, videos, podcasts, e-books, free courses, you name it. At the click of a mouse, we can learn about almost anyone, we can find and study our own invisible mentors.

And with social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, it easier to contact people who once appeared untouchable and unreachable to us. In addition, Skype allows us to talk to people in other countries without long distance charges that can be prohibitive.

Invisible mentors are relevant today because if we choose our invisible mentors carefully, they can help to accelerate our success trajectory, but we have to be willing to invest the time like Napoleon Hill did to research those who have travelled the path we are embarking on. Or who have done, or are doing what we most want to do. And most importantly, we have to blend that newfound knowledge with what we already know.

So, what’s next?

• What are you are trying to accomplish in life?
• Who are five people who have done what you are trying to do?
• Have they written books or developed videos and other material that explains what they did and how they did it?
• If the five people who you chose are still alive, would they be willing to speak to you for 15 minutes?
• What skills do you lack that are critical to your success?
• Who possess those skills set that you can study them?

These questions are not exhaustive, they are meant to get you thinking. Do you see the relevance of invisible mentors? You could research Napoleon Hill’s nine “invisible counselors”, or you could look at some of the interviews on this blog to get ideas. Many of the people who interviewees choose who they would most like to meet would make incredible invisible mentors as well.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Related articles

• Adventures in Learning: DIY Mentoring Program (theinvisiblementor.com)
• 2011 Interviews for Mentoring (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Adventures in Learning: DIY Mentoring Program, Episode Three (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Create Your Board of Mentors – January is National Mentoring Month (theinvisiblementor.com)

Interviewee Name: Janice McDonald

Company Name: iStyle Originals

Website: http://www.istyleoriginals.com

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Janice McDonald: On twitter, I describe myself as a serial entrepreneur with mild superpowers. On LinkedIn, I also include that I am a volunteer, as I am involved in several different organizations, including Canadian Women in Communications (CWC), as a volunteer.

Avil Beckford: How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

Janice McDonald: My personal and professional life have always been integrated. My business partner is also my spouse. We have always worked together. It works very well for us!

Avil Beckford: What’s a major regret that you’ve had in life?

Janice McDonald: Don’t have any regrets…is not how I approach life.  Always want to learn from my mistakes and then, move on, let it go.

Avil Beckford: What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

Janice McDonald: Lessons I have learned so far… Enjoy the journey! Take time to both re-group and recharge as well as stop and celebrate the successes. Reflect and think about what you could do differently.  Always have goals you are working toward. Help others.

Avil Beckford: When you have some down time, how do you spend it?

Janice McDonald: I love to walk my dogs in my neighbourhood. I have two cute bichon frise dogs and wandering through my neighbourhood with them, is always a pleasure. I am an avid reader so I always have a bunch of books on the go. Also, I love to listen to music and see live music.

Avil Beckford: What process do you use to generate great ideas?

Janice McDonald: I don’t have a specific process that I use. I love to talk to people and share ideas and as I mentioned, I read widely and I find that that also generates great ideas. I research all kinds of topics too and see where it leads me.

Avil Beckford: What’s your favourite quotation and why?

Janice McDonald: From The LIttle Engine That Could…”I think I can, I think I can…”

You have to believe in yourself.  We all face challenges everyday and belief in yourself is critical.

Avil Beckford: How do you define success?

Janice McDonald: For me, it’s living the life that I want to, with enough time for my different pursuits and with passion and energy for it all.

Avil Beckford: In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Janice McDonald: The formula for success is to follow your own unique path.  Stay open to opportunities and welcome challenges to grow and change.  Do things that excite you.

Avil Beckford: What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

Janice McDonald: Steps that I have taken to succeed include getting out of my comfort zone by accepting new challenges and welcoming them even when it is scary.

Avil Beckford: What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

Janice McDonald: Volunteer and get involved…in your industry or in something that you are passionate about.  It offers wonderful opportunities to expand your network, increase your skills and for me personally, I have found it to be very rewarding.

Avil Beckford: If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

Janice McDonald: Would love to meet my now deceased grandparents again because I would like the chance to get to know them from an adult perspective and hear their advice, lessons learned and unique perspectives.  I think that Steve Jobs would be very interesting to talk to. Bill and Melinda Gates for their foundation work which is transforming the world and Belinda Stronach who I think is a very dynamic Canadian.

Avil Beckford: Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

Janice McDonald: Right now I am reading a very interesting book called: The Next 100 Years…A Forecast for the 21St Century and it has me captivated.  The author is a well-regarded futurist and I find his predictions fascinating and eye-opening. What he is saying about what lies ahead for the USA and the rest of the world are ideas that I am not seeing anywhere else.

Avil Beckford: If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why? Summarize the book in two sentences.

Janice McDonald: Since I always have a ton of books on the go at any given time, I would likely have 5 different books with me: a biography of a historical figure, a great fiction, Rumi love poems, a book on current affairs and The Magic of Believing.

Avil Beckford: What one music CD and movie would you like to have with you (on the deserted island) and why?

Janice McDonald: Having been in the music industry for 20 years, am not sure I could pick just one CD to have with me… but if I had to, I would probably pick 3Eb’s (Third Eye Blind) first album for nostalgic reasons. Instead of a movie, think I would like to have a limitless amount of paper and pens so I could write and write and write!

If you cannot view the YouTube video of Third Eye Blind click here.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Janice McDonald: Everything about life excites me! The future, new possibilities, change, new ideas!

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Janice McDonald: I love yoga, time alone, time with friends and family, nature, meditation, reading, exercise, live music and good stand-up comedy.

Avil Beckford: If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for? Or, if I gave you a magic wand, what would you use it for?

Janice McDonald: I would wish for summer vacation with my family to last longer and for time to slow down so we could savour it even more.

Avil Beckford: Complete the following, I am happy when…..

Janice McDonald: I am spending time with my family.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

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