For the last 48 hours I’ve been bombarded with the same question from seasoned journalists, “What the heck is SOBCon?” With a mischievous squint of my eyes I answer, “If I tell ya, I’ll have to kill ya.” But after contemplative thought I came up with this:

“SOBCon is a gathering of social media avatars infused with a passionate purpose to change the landscape of human interaction on the web while building community.”

For three days I engaged in conversation with some of the most expansive minds in social media. Somewhat of a neophyte, I felt intimidated, but I was determined to be open to this new experience. To be quiet and be the student. A difficult role for a broadcast journalist who has reinvented herself in a brave new world where journalism is morphing rapidly into a business model that has yet to find its footing.

The Prescient Human Factor

SOBCon was an intense experience in the self preservation of the ego.  I felt like I was heading into the first day of junior high school with a really bad haircut and the wrong jeans. But here’s the difference. These experts in social media didn’t want to see me fail. Instead, they embodied what I consider to be my personal vision and mission here at WorkLifeNation.com  – the exaltation of the human experience in work and in business.

Right out of the gate, I reached out to Shelly Kramer of V3 Integrated Marketing (@ShellyKramer) on Twitter and she took me under her wing (along with HER wing woman the “snarky” Erika Napoletano (@RedHeadWriting). It was the first of many such fun and dynamic encounters.

Over dinner Shelly told me to get over the fear of being the beginner, to instead drink it all in, and realize that success in this playground was not about knowledge base per se, or about tossing around my personal brand in this crowd; it was about relationship building.

Her words were the harbinger of things to come over the weekend as a predominant theme was getting past fear – toward success. One of the solutions: don’t be attached to doing it alone.

It takes a freakin’ village when you hit the fork in the road

Co-founder of the conference, Terry Starbucker (@Starbucker) struck a pose and a note when he belted out, You’ll Never Walk Alone. His tone massaged by words of wisdom from Liz Strauss (@LizStrauss) who is also a co-founder.

“If you build it  – it’s not “they will come” it’s “they will bring their friends.”

Once again echoing the power of relationship. That’s why they call it social media. It’s supposed to be social. The deeper message here: understanding the core value of human relationships, interacting in an authentic way and staving off fear-based thinking.

The power of critical mass in tackling fear of success

The speakers reflected that message in their own original voice. This critical mass of minds weaved a tapestry of outside-of-the-box thinking that had my friend Cali Yost of WorkLifeFit.com (@CaliYost)and me in a perpetually frozen “ah-ha moment.”

Humor from the likes of Chris Brogan (@ChrisBrogan) and Jonathan Fields (@JonathanFields) lightened the load while we were injected with an intravenous sound portal, through which ran many other voices. That village I mentioned earlier. People like Hank Wasiak (@HankWasiak) whose Asset-based thinking forced us to reflect on our own inner demons with conviction: “Make desire more important than fear,” he told us.

And it wasn’t just those social media moguls who dished. I made new friends as we brain stormed together in between sessions at our tables.  People like Ann Michael of Delta Think (@AnnMichael) who said:

“Fear is one thing being paralyzed by it is another thing.”

And Susan Radojevic of the Peregrine Agency (@SusanRadojevic) who offered:

“Step out on the edge and figure it out while your falling.”

And finally, on the third day, the mingling of minds and metaphors as this critical mass tackled marketing strategies for three non-profits hoping for that silver bullet idea that would boost their on-line presence. In that sharing of ideas, we all benefited and were touched.

All of us elevating one another, challenging one another to take, as Steve Farber (@SteveFarber) suggested, that “Radical Leap.”  That fork in the road.

To read the never-ending stream of wisdom that is coming out of this gathering,  check out the #SOBCon Daily on-line.

The Wall Street Journal ran an article this week offering a blueprint for those who are thinking of heading into business on their own, even in rough economic waters. Writer Richard Greenwald’s feature: How to Succeed in the Age of Going Solo, offers real time guidance and doesn’t pull any punches with regard to the challenges that might come your way.

The article had me thinking and asking questions of fellow colleagues who have contemplated heading into the uncertain waters of being a free agent. While fear of financial insecurity came into play, surprisingly many were a little gun shy when it came to the concept of self promotion. Diving into the info-overloaded marketplace might be intimidating, especially for those whose social media experience is limited to Facebook.

In this WorkLife Nation webisode,  Marketing and Leadership strategist David Meerman Scott – author of World Wide Rave – weighs in on the importance of embracing Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as a good start toward going solo.

Oprah, Madonna, Hillary Clinton. These female icons carry immeasurable marketing weight. The voices of these women are written in stone, as their personal brands have permeated the Internet and beyond. Even as they have evolved, these brands have been concretized in the consciousness of society in general, let alone their contributions to the historic implications of the feminine brand – and the power of the female voice.

The web is the vehicle, but the portals and organizations working toward boosting the feminine brand and voice are exponentially growing. For example, The Women’s Media Center which is working toward making women more visible and powerful in the media. It’s backed by Gloria Steinem, Jane Fonda and Carol Jenkins – solid brands. Certainly the Huffington Post, while offering up a mixture of male and female voices has put some heavy hitting female brands on the map. BlogHer.com was one of the first out of the gate making such contributions. Now look to Slate’s new venture The XX Factor: What Women Really Think to do the same.

The theme of personal branding has been a consistent thread of discussion here at WorkLife Nation. In a time when many are struggling to keep their jobs, are looking for one, or are starting their own businesses, some career experts are touting the benefit of boosting one’s personal brand to stay competitive. 

Personal branding is not a new concept, but the Internet has changed the landscape. For women in particular, perhaps the web and social media in general have leveled the playing field.  That’s why I was happy to write the following article for Personal Branding Magazine. You can learn more about the on-line magazine by clicking here.

The Evolution of the Feminine Brand

Legendary gossip columnist Liz Smith fell victim to the budgetary ax at The New York Post in February. The 86-year old continues to write her nationally syndicated column and has a substantial web presence.  Smith has lent her name or “personal brand”  to  Women on the Web  (WoW) as one of its founders. The popular site tackles everything from fashion to politics through the female lens.

Smith is practically an institution. At WoW, she is joined by the likes (and brands) of Lesley Stahl, Whoopi Goldberg (also of ABC’s The View) and Miss Manners – Judith Martin. Their voices are respected and ideals transparent. There’s a page on the site entitled, Change the World. And that, says branding expert Elsie Maio, is just one illustration of how the power of the feminine brand has evolved through the Internet.

“The feminization of business is upon us. I don’t mean womanization, but the ascendance of values that our culture has associated with the Feminine,” says the Founder and President of Maio & Company, a business strategy and branding company which coined the term, “soulbranding.” “The Feminine’s natural impulse is to nurture, care for and include the collective,” says Maio, adding that women are no longer afraid to publically embrace those values, talk about them and associate them with their brand.  “Compartmentalizing our humanity is what got us into trouble, integration is the key and you see it in women’s branding trends.”

Eileen Tanne of WomensEducationCenter.com agrees that the strategic branding of women is evolving. Tanne has marketed to women for more than 16 years and has worked with Ms. Magazine and Gloria Steinem. “Generations ago, professional women had a very tough time branding themselves partly because they were uncomfortable with self-promotion,” Tanne says, adding that the male dominated media venues made it difficult to have a strong voice; not so any longer. “The internet offers women the opportunity  to control how we want to be perceived and how our voices are heard.”    

The female brand in particular, is getting a jolt from the increase in women owned businesses, says Barbara Litrell, former publisher of Working Mother magazine. “Women have been running businesses in great numbers since the 1970’s,  but they are branding themselves more confidently now, as they support one another in partnerships,  thus enhancing their own brands.”

Ultimately, branding is now about presence, platform and personality, says Kim Weiss, the Communications Director for book publisher Health Communications Inc. “Women tend to be personality driven and appeal to the personal part of their audience,” says Weiss who says women are taking their personal stories to the internet generating  more interaction. 

Case in point, the use of strategic social media fueled by a dynamic heart wrenching story lead to the successful branding of  HCI author Laurie Perri, who blogs at the highly popular CrazyAuntPurl.com. “Everyone is hanging their shingle out, but no ones going to click on you unless you give them a good reason to,” says Weiss.

When the camera turns toward Madonna, Oprah or Arianna Huffington there’s no mistaking who they are. These female icons are walking talking brands. While generally associated with the  ”Type A” personality, personal branding is less about “Type A” and more about “Type It”. It’s about your unique voice, purpose, and skills as a professional – and creating a persona that can be found across the vast field of recruiting sites permeating the web.

Branding yourself through the use of social media is becoming widely acceptable because instead of throwing resumes to the wind, you’re establishing your camp and network on-line so your next boss or career opportunity can find you. 

That’s the running theme in Dan Schawbel’s new book, Me 2.0 : Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success. The Gen-Yer wrote the book for the millennial generation, but the material is simple to follow and well suited for Gen X and Boomers looking to make a career transition.

Me 2.0 breaks the mold on the personal branding “Type A” myth. No matter the position you hold in your current job, or the career you are heading into, there’s that “something special” that you’re good at. It might be crunching the numbers, being the person who handles clients with that extraordinary tone which catches their ear – or the calming soul in the office who keeps thing together when crisis occurs. Your brand exists, it’s inside of you just waiting to be birthed, and then beamed to the rest of the planet.

Me 2.0 suggests an entirely different approach to pounding the pavement – surfing the web and taking up enough space, making enough noise, and establishing your skill set in public to stand out above the rest. Schawbel, who also heads-up social media at global technology firm, EMC, says his book explores social media tools to help boost “personal empowerment, confidence building and professional networking” capabilities.

Schawbel uses current research and taps the minds of some of the best branding thought leaders of our time to illustrate his four step process: 

1. Discover your brand
2. Create your brand
3. Communicate your brand
4. Maintain your brand

You’ll have to read the book for the details. Keep a yellow marker handy as there’s some great information that you’ll go back to – over and over again. 

As I wrote recently in my post Personal Branding in a Tough Job Market,  personal branding will help to differentiate yourself in a tightening job market even if you’re only a superstar in your mother’s eyes.  Finally, finding your unique voice is key to articulating your personal brand. You’ll find more on that in my post: Personal Branding: Aligning Your Talking Points with Your Passion.

“You need to be top of mind, cause there’s so much noise out there,” said Successfool.com blogger Alejandro Reyes on his Successfool TV live streamed program Wednesday night. But how one accomplishes that feat is a matter of great debate.

This brought to mind the conundrum of balancing the work/life scenario with maintaining a solid career path in a sensory overloaded environment; one which exalts the Tweet. It came up during a lunch meeting today with a colleague.

” Judy Martin, seriously, how important is it for me to tweet?” she asked with a little tone of synicism. 

“If you don’t Tweet, you’ll be left behind at the station, ” I said, to which I received a look of puzzlement with a little touch of shock. Actually, I think she thought I was a little intense in my opinion. But I truly believe that social media is the single most important way to market yourself whether you work for yourself or someone else.

I think about it as expanding the viewer base of those looking to do business with you – or those keeping track of your influence in a given career or niche – in an unobtrusive fashion. Through the portals of social media, people, companies, and business  - will find you. That is, if you have a unique voice that differentiates you from the rest of the pack. 

Bowing to the altar of the personal brand is all abuzz in the blogosphere right now, but you have to define your skills, voice, and value in laser-sharp talking points to be heard above the rest. That doesn’t happen overnight and can eat into your personal life.

Just tossing random thoughts on Twitter  without a consistent and concrete message, will have you drowning in a mushy sea of sycophants.  If you’re burning the midnight oil just to stay on top of Twitter, you can crash, which is what my colleague was concerned about.

So in the interest of better balancing the great work-life merge in our WorkLife Nation, with forging ahead into the social media landscape on Twitter to further your career, here are a few suggestions. I call them suggestions because some believe Twittering should be a more spontaneous organic process. 

1. Create your Twitterfield of expertise: You can tweet about anything you want, but if you’re trying to establish your voice or brand, stick with twittering useful information that others in your niche would consider valuable. This will enhance your reputation and give others a look inside your brain and business acumen. 
2. Limit your Twittertime, within reason: I post at certain times of the day, generally on material that I have bookmarked. But if I am inspired in any given moment by something I have read or heard, I might be compelled to Tweet. In a seriously compelling moment of Twitteritis – I limit myself to one post and one Re-tweet. Set your own rules of discipline.
3. Drink water and take deep breaths during Twittersessions: Heading into the Tweetisphere can easily suck the life out of us due to info-overload. Drinking water slows things down a bit as the rapid fire of Twitter pummels your brain and body. It’s a stimulator and provides an adrenalin rush. Promise yourself a tall drink of water during a session and a deep breath every time you Re-Tweet.
4. Beware of following –  everyone who follows you. Tweeting is not all about you, but it is about your interests or niche. While Twitter is a relationship building community, if you follow everyone,  it takes a heck of a lot longer to sift through all the tweets for the ones useful to you. Some might argue – the more followers – the more exposure. My feeling is that having solid followers who you can identify with is more productive. I feel this allows a for deeper experience, more twitter face-time to get to know your niche community.
5. Think before you Tweet : If you’re having a rough day – think twice before tweeting. You might want to vent elsewhere. The 140 characters that you divulge might do you harm and create more angst. If you can’t tweet something nice- don’t tweet at all. Emotional tweeting can hurt your credibility. 

This past weekend I spoke at The Women in Transition Conference at Hofstra University on Personal Branding in a Challenging Job Market. About half the audience indicated they were interested in transitioning into another career, but many of them were still pondering what that new work would look like.

Conventional wisdom would advise that if you don’t know exactly what you want to do, it’s hard to brand yourself. I understand that as a concrete idea, but what if we look at branding as an organic process of self discovery? 

Branding ones self conjures thoughts of identifying your passion, skills, experience, intention and a visual association with that blueprint. The next step would be to articulate that. You can read more about these ideas in two recent posts:

Successfully aligning your passion with your personal brand

Personal Branding in a tough job market

Meantime, here are some pointers and anecdotes on the organic flow of discovering your niche. Some are  from my keynote, along with a personal story which demonstrates the winding course of discovery:

1. Home in on what gives you the greatest joy or ignites your passion through past experiences. From creative hobbies to childhood experiences, go back a few years even before you began your current career to examine what ignited a fire of creativity or satisfaction for you. A friend who is a television director loved to style his mother’s hair as a child. He plugged back into that experience and is now going to school to get a beauticians license. 
2. Take on a new project either at work or on your own that allows you to use creative skills you don’t normally make use of on a daily basis at work. A girlfriend from work loved to do yoga to battle the burnout from working as a TV anchor. She took  yoga classes on a consistent basis for two years before deciding to open a yoga studio.  
3. Work part-time or freelance in an area that interests you. In this tumultuous economy in some cases it might be easier to work a few hours a week at a company that has scaled down – rather than dive into a full time job. A colleague who was pregnant with her first child worked in a busy newsroom. It was time for a change. She was able to find freelance work in public relations. Her move subsequently lead to a full time job with better hours and allowed her a more creative outlet for her writing.
4. Take a continuing education course. A client of mine had always been interested in Feng Shui. She decided to take a course and found herself immersed in a new passion. Now she has a growing practice in addition to her marketing business.
5. Try volunteering in a new setting using skills you already have. About 15 years ago I joined an organization which provided food and clothing to the homeless. I began doing PR and media, but it lead to volunteer work in hospitals and at an orphanage with children who were living with HIV/AIDS. I learned about terminal illness and eventually went on to be certified as a Hospice volunteer. During my volunteer experiences over the last two decades I studied meditation  - one of my passions which lead to teaching.

There were plenty of wonderful lectures and workshops at Hofstra’s Women in Transition Conference. Here are some links to some programs and career coaches who I connected with at the conference:

The Transition Network

The Career Changer Company

Sense-Able Strategies

Something Within Life Coaching

Ace The Race

The Long Island Coaching Alliance

Branching Out Life Coaching

Ellia Communications Inc.

In 2007  Fast Company Magazine  published a pioneering article by marketing guru Tom Peters who asked, “What’s the future of you?” He is a business visionary who was right on target for the progressive career of today which screams for personal branding. Here’s an excerpt:

It’s over. No more vertical. No more ladder. That’s not the way careers work anymore. Linearity is out. A career is now a checkerboard. Or even a maze. It’s full of moves that go sideways, forward, slide on the diagonal, even go backward when that makes sense. (It often does.) A career is a portfolio of projects that teach you new skills, gain you new expertise, develop new capabilities, grow your colleague set, and constantly reinvent you as a brand.

In a time of economic uncertainty, personal branding has become a catch phrase which is bound to stick around for a long time. Due to technological advances, high unemployment, and the rewiring of careers, developing a personal brand is not just a trend. “In the digital age, our name is our only currency,” according to branding expert Dan Schawbel, author of the upcoming book, Me 2.0. Bottom line is that branding will give you a competitive edge and voice in an exponentially growing landscape of business noise. If you haven’t bought your domain name – do it now and stop reading.

Step One

The identification or reinvention of the “Brand Called You,” first requires the introspection of the “self” with regard to what drives your passion about your working and living experience,  in what I call our WorkLife Nation. It’s not just what makes you tick, but what you love about your work,  and what feeds your soul outside of the workplace or business. It’s the tangibles that motivate you toward success, helping others and/or  and making your mark.

The great Indian mystic poet Tagore wrote:

 ”We gain our freedom when we attain our truest nature.”

Tagore goes on to explain that by getting to the truth of who we are, the greatest amount of creativity emerges not from imitation – but from your own source of innovation that drives you. We are all unique,  and in a time of such radical upheaval in our careers, and transition in the way we do business due to technology, there is a great opportunity to go a little deeper embracing our personal human values in business. Many are thirsting to work with more meaning and purpose, as we reinvent our personal definition of success.

Step Two

Making your passion a tangible expression is a crucial step toward developing your brand for one significant reason: your passion, while it might be shared by many people is individualized because you are expressing it through your lens, your voice, your talking points.

Ask yourself three questions,

1. ‘What am I passionate about, what do I really love?’ 
2. ‘What are my greatest strengths?’ 
3. ‘How can I use my strengths to fuel my passion?’

Contemplate the answers to those questions and you’ll be surprised what is revealed to you. The answers are your hallmarks which make the foundation for your personal brand. Regardless of whether you work for a large company or run your own business, your “brand” is a presence and that presence is fueled by your personality, character traits, past experiences, wisdom, and real life work experience or skill base.

Step Three

Shakespeare wrote, “In dreams we begin our possibilities.” I would add to that, in self contemplative exercises we can begin to contact the root, nature and elixir that feeds our personal brand.

I’ve often heard those words of Shakespeare  spoken by one of my mentors, Rick Jarow, a professor of theology at Vassar College. Here’s a passage from his book, Creating the Work You Love: Courage, Commitment and Career, which best illustrates the emerging vision of your personal brand:

“Creative vision is as natural as breathing and it will emerge naturally and powerfully to the degree that one is aligned in body, mind and heart. If our imaging is not genuine, if we have to go against our grain to create a form, we are at cross-purposes with ourselves and are again setting ourselves up for sabotage.”

To entertain the visioning process you have to get quiet. The silence of the breath, light inspirational reading, and downtime of any sort will aid in calming the mind so you can tap your reservoir of creativity. As you build your personal brand by embracing your strengths and putting voice and visual components to it, notice the evolution that takes place. It’s an organic process. Journaling can help you identify the words that you association with your personal brand, and literally draw pictures and doodle a bit on what your passion or brand looks like.

Ultimately your personal brand will reflect to some degree your path or journey of right livelihood. Rebel Christian Theologian Matthew Fox wrote about this concept in his groundbreaking book, The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood for Our Time. 

“The task needed in every profession, and indeed by every citizen today, is to return wisdom to our work.”

Your inherent wisdom, experience, and voice are the threads that make you unique. We’re living in extraordinary times, your profound nature as an individual on this planet at this time is a gift. When you own your personal brand, its a lighthouse beaming your message to colleagues and the universe saying:

“I have arrived, this is who I am, this is the value I bring to the table, this is how I can serve.”

Please join me at Hofstra University Saturday, March 7th for the Women in Transition Conference. I’ll be the keynote speaking on Personal Branding: Standing Out in a Challenging Job Market. You can also get more information at my website, JudyMartinSpeaks.com.

Four  year-old  Max Frank is battling cancer on Long Island. His mom, Sandi, is a former social worker turned stay-at-home mom. The divorced single mother of two can’t work due to the healthcare demands of taking care of Max and his six year-old brother.  But social media put a real human face to the story and generated an emotional reaction from the public which spread rapidly.

Community newspapers used to be the venue to share such a local story, but because of the social media tools of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, the little boy’s story also triggered an uptick in the fundraising capabilities of those who are trying to help the family. And it happened at the speed of light. The merging of our working and living experience is happening in every moment and this is a perfect example of the successful integration of the two worlds.

“Facebook alone has made the fundraising process more efficient and more economical,” says Kristine Marrale who for the last two years has been raising money for Max’s care. “If worded properly with pictures to back up your event, you can touch more people.”

Such widespread vertical tools enhance the e-mail process. Along with the human element which includes the little boy’s story and pictures, came the backing of a social network of trusted people. Marrale was able to cook up her latest fundraising effort within three weeks – as opposed to two months. A particular benefit to using her social networks was how colleagues and local businesses stepped up to the plate to help the cause.

Vista Hill lead singer, Sherman Arnowitz, said due to Facebook alone “we expect to get twice as many people at the concert due to that vertical range of social media.”

Here the rundown of the “trickle-up” impact of social media in this case:   

1. A local band called Vista Hill found out about Max and his needs through a friend.
2. Vista Hill contacted Marrale to offer a fundraising event.
3. The venue, The Metropolitan Lounge  (details for event here as well) was donated.
4. An event page was set up on Facebook for the evening concert.
5. Within days the event was tapped by 600 people who started responding to the invite.
6. Whoever hooked into the event site, sent out the event invite to their lists – now we’re probably talking more than a thousand people being informed.
7. Local businesses found out or were solicited for raffle prizes which range from custom made jewelry to a ski weekend at a resort.

Now this. You have just become part of the process. The concert starts at 8pm Saturday night at the Metropolitan Lounge in Glen Cove. Hope to see you there!

When you think Wall Street Journal, you think business. You probably know who Madonna is. These brands rake in cash, recognition, and imagery with a mere mention. 

Articulating your entire career experience in a 17-second sound bite is a nearly impossible feat, unless you are CNN's chief medical reporter Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon and arguably America's favorite Tv Doc. All he has to do is appear on the screen and almost through osmosis, his authentic presence  imbues confidence and trust.

Most published reports indicate Gupta was tapped by President-elect Barack Obama back in November for the post of U-S Surgeon General. Click here for the scoop from CNN which in all fairness had reporter John King do the story. For more details check out the Media Notes column penned by Washington Post Media Pundit Howard Kurtz.  

But let's get back to Gupta's personal brand. It's as if the heavens opened up before he came to the planet and laid out the perfect personal branding blueprint. Sources told CNN the folowing:

    "The transition team is impressed with the combination of Gupta's past government experience, as a White House fellow and a special adviser to then-first lady Hillary Clinton, along with his medical career as a neurosurgeon and his communication skills, the transition source said."

Prior Surgeon General's have had the Washington experience and of course the required medical background but he's got that special something.