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Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality is a nuts and bolts book on completing projects by Scott Belsky, the founder of Behance and the related The 99% think tank and annual conference.

The name, The 99%, is based on Thomas Edison’s quote, “Genius is 1 percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration” and this book takes that idea and runs with it, with sections on Organization and Execution, The Forces of Community, and Leadership Capability.

In “Organization and Execution,” he provides his own project management system, The Action Method, and gives countless tips and techniques for “Always Moving the Ball Forward,” as the Execution chapter subhead indicates. “The Forces of Community” is about what types of people are best to surround yourself with in order to get the right things done the right way, depending upon your personality and execution abilities. It also covers such related topics as when to share ideas (all the time!), networking, and co-working. “Leadership Capability” covers assembling and motivating a creative team and self-leadership.

Real-life stories from the business trenches are scattered liberally throughout the book and, between that and Belsky’s inspired and vivid writing style, what could otherwise be dry material comes alive to instruct, involve, and, yes, inspire us. I felt energized and motivated every time I read part of “Making Ideas Happen” and I anticipate returning to this one often as I do with similar resources on my bookshelf. I think it’s a worthy read for anyone who has great ideas and wants help getting more of them to the real world.

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What’s Your Type? 

Do you like someone tall with a good sense of humor? Or perhaps you are more focused on finding a good dancer with curly hair? I know, it’s not deep, but just like people have certain preferences when it comes to the type of romantic partner they are looking for (and admit it, we all do), the same holds true for your job hunt.

Do you like an energetic start-up where everyone dresses casually and works in an open space? Or do you prefer a more buttoned-up environment with a deeply-ingrained reporting structure and big offices for the executives?

Think about the past jobs you’ve had and identify the ones where you felt most at home. And if you haven’t had many jobs – or haven’t had any jobs where you felt all that comfortable in the environment – think about other types of places you have visited- homes, stores, restaurants. When you walk into some of them, you want to stay. What are those like?

If nothing comes to mind, consider the work environments you have seen depicted on TV or in the movies. Just like identifying an actor or actress you are attracted to in determining your “type” in the dating world, you can get clues as to your perfect work environment by recalling your favorite workspaces on the small or big screen. You may have to adjust your expectations to fit into the “real world,” but you can still get some valuable clues.

And how do you translate this into resume content? In the profile at the top of your resume, and wherever possible throughout the resume, you use the language of the type of place you want to work. An energetic start up? Describe yourself as “entrepreneurial” or say you are passionate about “growing innovative new organizations.” And yes, using the word “energetic” would also be a good idea. Prefer the buttoned-up place? Maybe mention “hierarchy” in some way and being an “executive.” You might even be able to work in the word “traditional.” The bottom line is that there are ways to subtly clue the reader into your ideal work environment, thus establishing yourself as a match for positions at those type of places.

What Do You Like to Do?

Long walks on the beach? A stroll through a museum? Round-the-clock beer pong tournaments? When creating an online profile, it’s important to accurately represent your favorite activities in order to find someone who is a match. If you like nothing more than spending all day Sunday camped out in front of NFL games on TV, you don’t want to be dragged to flea markets from dawn until dusk. Right?

Same holds true for your work environment. You have certain things you like to do and certain things that drive you crazy or (yawn) bore you to tears. Solving complex problems? “IN!” Attending meetings all day? “OUT!” Working on teams? “IN!” Managing support staff? “OUT!” Creating awesome spreadsheets? “IN!” You get the idea…

These items are easier to plant in a resume. “Adept at solving complex problems and working in teams. Creates awesome spreadsheets.” (Yup, if that’s the wording you use in life, that might be the wording I would recommend you use on your resume, depending on the type of place where you want to work. The energetic start up would probably connect to that tone. The buttoned up place? Not so much.)

What Do You Hope To Get Out of the Relationship?

Do you want to get married, have kids, and celebrate your golden anniversary with the person who responds to your online dating profile? Or are you coming out of a relationship and simply looking for casual good times?

The same type of goal-setting can be applied to a job search. You want to find a place you can work your way up in and then get a gold watch at the end of 30 years. Or maybe you want to find a troubled company to fix for a couple of years and then move on to the next challenge. Maybe you just want to consult.

In the first case, you would work in “stable and growth-oriented” and in the second you would emphasize that “working with companies in transition” is where you shine.

If you write it correctly, you don’t have to use a lot of words to say a lot. You can cover the type of environment, what you like to do, and the length of your desired stay with a few choice phrases and some carefully-selected adjectives and verbs. 

Are you limiting yourself by tailoring the language this way? Yes, you are. But the idea is to find a position in a place where you are comfortable and doing things that you are really good at and enjoy, thus setting yourself up for personal satisfaction and professional success. And like those online looking for love, wouldn’t you rather end up with a good match than trying to make a bad match work?

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[Note: For the first time ever, I am putting the same post on both MoveYouForward.com and YourIndustryInsider.com. Everyone can benefit from this post. Read on!]

Not long ago, I did a post on why everyone needs a resume, even YOU. It’s the single most valuable bit of career advice I give to clients, friends, and associates. Bottom line there: A resume is a priceless marketing tool one should have at the ready at all times, whether one is a job-seeker, an entrenched employee, a freelancer, or even a business owner. Read the whole post here for details.

The other top piece of career advice I give to anyone who will listen is to get your LinkedIn ducks in a row. In short, be on LinkedIn and using it in the best way to achieve maximum results.

“What is LinkedIn?”

LinkedIn is an online networking site similar in functionality to Facebook, in terms of allowing users to create profiles and interact with others online. LinkedIn is widely accepted by professionals at all levels as the place to maintain a presence and interact with others for business purposes.

“But I’m not looking for a job. Why do I need to be on it?”

LinkedIn is not just helpful for job seekers. Yes, LinkedIn is a job-search tool, but it’s also a reputation-builder, a marketing tool, and the ultimate online business networking tool.

I have personally gotten press opportunities, business partnership possibilities, and many clients through people finding me on LinkedIn. I also used LinkedIn to find and contact sources when I was doing research for the “Entertainment Career Kickstart Kit” I released through Your Industry Insider. And I have connected with people all over the world who contacted me through LinkedIn to ask a question or get help with a professional project. You never know where those friendships could lead, but for now I have a broad reputation related to what I do. If I ever need a job, I’m in good shape.

“Okay, I get it. What do I do?”

There are three elements to maximizing your use of LinkedIn:

1. Your Profile: That is your professional identity. It’s your cover letter, resume, business card, elevator pitch, and interview suit all rolled up into one. Your profile MUST have an accurate and descriptive title, a compelling summary, well-written descriptions of your current and previous positions, and an appropriate picture.

Accurate and descriptive title- This doesn’t necessarily have to be your current job title, though it can be. If you have a prestigious title at a recognizable company or if you are just representing your corporate identity, use that.

If you want to promote yourself in a broader way, you can use “Marketing Executive” or “Entertainment Industry Professional” or even “Public Relations Expert.” But only use expert if you are an expert. Billing yourself as a “PR Expert” five years out of college makes you look silly and is just plain annoying to those who are PR experts who might be in a position to hire you or refer you to someone else. (That’s where the “accurate” part comes into play.)

A Compelling Summary- If you have a well-written, targeted resume (like all of my former clients do!), you can probably copy the headline section off of the top of that and paste it into the summary section on LinkedIn. If you don’t have a well-written, targeted resume, your summary should be a few sentences on your core skills and career trajectory, with an eye toward what you want to get out of your LinkedIn profile.

For instance, if you are a Marketing Executive starting to look for your next corporate position or a former marketing executive looking for more consulting work, you might put some version of, “Innovative, forward-thinking marketing professional with experience in the hospitality and tourism industry working with top-tier boutique brands, as well as large corporations, such as Marriott and Hilton. Core strengths include branding, special promotions, and strategy.”

As you write your summary, think about who might be reading it and what you want from them. Enticing recruiters and hiring executives requires a different tone and different content then if you want to attract consulting clients, press opportunities, or VC funding.

Well-written descriptions of your current and previous positions- Again, if you have a well-written, targeted resume, the work has basically already been done and you are largely cutting and pasting, only editing due to length and formatting constraints. If not, think about your overall role in each position and what you did, emphasizing accomplishments over duties and really honing in on where you made money or saved money for yourself (as a business owner) or someone else (as an employee or contractor).

An appropriate picture- Focused, close enough to see your eyes, which should be looking at the camera, smiling (or pleasant-looking if smiling isn’t your thing), and professional. No blurry vacation photos with festive hats. No pictures of your cute kids. (Save those for Facebook.) Think about how someone might meet you at a professional networking event. Look like that.

2. Connections: A great profile without a decent number of connections (200+ minimum) is as useful as having a great collection of connections and a lame profile. Which is to say, not very useful at all.

So, if you are a rookie, you want to let LinkedIn search your Outlook or Yahoo (or whatever email system you use) to help you find people you know who are already on LinkedIn. And then LinkedIn will suggest other people you might know based on the connections of your existing connection (called 2^nd and 3^rd tier connections on LinkedIn). (Awesome, right?)

Also, get out the business cards you’ve been collecting at actual in-person networking events the last year or so and find and connect with those people. Soon you will be blowing by that 200-connection minimum I set for you on your way to being a LinkedIn pro.

I myself go to LinkedIn whenever I meet someone new and look them up. Not only do I usually get a better idea of what they do/have done, LinkedIn will also tell me if we have connections in common.  (Awesome, #2!) I almost always send my new contacts an invitation to connect, along with a note about our meeting. It’s a great way to follow up and also to get them into my permanent “Rolodex.”

Everyone debates about whether they should only connect with people they have met or know personally or widen the circle to include people in their industry who they have not met — or even the professional world at large. Some people are even offended when people they do not know contact them to connect.

Personally, I accept connection invitations from people in my field and others who seem interesting and somehow relevant, especially if they personalize the invitation to connect. I pass on people who have no apparent relevance to me and don’t bother to tell me in their invitation note why they want to connect. I also pass on connecting with people who tell me in their invitation message that they want to use me as a job resource. (“Dude, I can’t recommend you for a job if I don’t know you.”)

3. Outreach: Now that you have your profile in shape and are fairly-well connected, it’s time to look around LinkedIn, see who else you might know, or want to know. That’s where GROUPS come in handy. The local branch of your college alumni association, your off-line professional organization, even just a loose organization of people in your field- all of these could be helpful groups to join.

You want groups which contain professionals who might be helpful to you, and who you might be able to help by answering their questions, thus building your reputation and potentially getting relevant opportunities you wouldn’t otherwise know about if you just built your profile and gathered connections and didn’t get out once in a while.

I’m going to close (but I could go on quite a bit longer and don’t you forget it!) by giving one more example of why LinkedIn is awesome: LinkedIn automatically sends out weekly updates of what everyone in your 1^st tier has been up to. If they’ve updated any part of their profile, joined a group, made a new connection, or updated their status, it’s there.

Scanning the update is a great way to find people you might know, too, or discover groups you might want to join. But it’s also a great marketing tool for you. For instance, if you are a freelancer, whenever you add new projects to your profile, the update indicates that you have updated your experience. Potential employers and former employers who are in your first tier get the update and can see what you’ve been up to lately. Maybe they have a similar project.

Now here you are, in a completely passive way, and top of mind when they need someone like you. Awesome, right?

So, are you ready to jump onto LinkedIn and experience the awesomeness for yourself? Or maybe you are already on LinkedIn and have a great story about getting a job, a freelance gig (or five), or some other great opportunity through LinkedIn. Please share in the comments.

And if we aren’t connected already, find me on LinkedIn and send me an invitation, introducing yourself in the note and telling me why you think we should connect. I’d love to meet you.

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In February, I met a woman who changed what I thought was possible. Here is the post I wrote about that evening. The woman in question, distance swimmer Diana Nyad, inspired me to dig deeper in goal setting, to consider my aging body in a different way, and to challenge conventional wisdom about what was possible. It shifted my thinking about certain aspects of my career, my personal life, and about the compass I was using to chart my course.

Wow, right? Aren’t I glad I went out that night?

As a result of this new spark, I wanted to do something more, physically, on a regular basis. But what? I’m not a runner. I don’t feel any compulsion to compete in athletic events of any sort. I don’t want to have to mess around with bikes or other equipment. I also don’t have a lot of time, being a working mother with multiple career pursuits.

What I’ve always done for exercise is three or four brisk morning walks in my Culver City neighborhood. Enjoyable but limited, as far as getting more out of it was concerned. As luck would have it, a new, bigger challenge was right outside my window in the form of a large hill with a beautiful overlook at the top. Baldwin Hills Overlook is the 511 ft high point of a 58 acre park. That was my mountain to climb.

Doesn’t sound like much, but during the early hikes February, I would be seriously winded by the time I reached the top. Head rush-level winded. It’s still a challenging, albeit quick, 40-minute loop which I have been doing five or six times a week for the last 10 weeks.

Here’s the thing, though: I have no “second step” bigger goal to this activity. Nor an ending, a point at which I am done doing it.

It’s just a commitment to a walk a certain amount of times a week for the foreseeable future. The only variations are that a couple of times a week, I will do some additional exercises on the concrete deck at the top, and that there are several ways up to the top and back down again. Other than that, it’s just me and the hill, me and the hill, me and the hill. Me and the freaking hill.

And isn’t that the case with so many things? Building a career or a business, raising a kid, doing a particular job, keeping house, even. I’ve written a novel and a few screenplays and writing pieces that long certainly were the same deal… Me and the page, me and the page, me and the page. Of course, at a certain time, those projects were done. But there was always something else. Now my work life includes feeding content to two blogs, writing resumes and bios, working with clients, doing the project at my corporate job…

In my late-20s, I studied Transcendental Meditation (which isn’t as complicated as it sounds- it involves just a few meetings to be taught) and for a long time, I practiced TM for 20 minutes twice each day. Though I no longer meditate regularly, I think learning how to do TM and then doing it in a disciplined way was one of the most valuable things I’ve ever done. Sitting there with your eyes closed not moving teaches you a surprising amount of things you can apply to the rest of your life.

Ah, the slog. How to keep motivated, keep it fresh?

On the hill, sometimes I listen to music, sometimes I listen to a podcast, sometimes I listen to nothing at all. Sometimes I focus on the distant view, sometimes on the foliage, sometimes (only an option in the morning) I study the many, many slugs and their spitty zig-zags across the trail. Sometimes it is hot and sunny, sometimes cool and overcast… You get the idea.

I guess during any slog, as with my daily trip up the hill, there are different seasons and different ways to get to the same place which will somehow make the inevitable repeat action seem new. It is never the same activity also because you are never the same person. Each day you are a little different. You are the accumulation of the day before and all the days that came before that. It is just you and your focus and your breath, living and breathing the inspiration that started you off in the first place.

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I have this conversation frequently these days. It’s usually with people who’ve called me to talk about my resume-writing service, so they know something is up. But this topic also comes up with friends and business associates. One of two things usually brings it up:

1)      I will mention an opportunity that would be just right for the other person. I say, “You should send them your resume.” They say, “Oh, I don’t have one.” I say, “You mean you don’t have an updated resume?” They say, “No, I don’t have a resume at all. I mean, I did at one point but…” They’re voice trails off into silence.

2)      I will say, “I went on your Linked In page and it’s almost blank. What’s the deal?” (I’ll just interject here that it’s not snooping if it’s on the internet.) “Why don’t you have your resume on there, along with a compelling summary of what you do?” “Oh, I don’t have a resume,” they say, either confidently or sheepishly depending upon their circumstances.

I want to say, “Why are you even on Linked In? You have 357 connections and no way that’s going to turn into work for you.” Sometimes I do actually say it (usually, in a gentler way), which leads to me explaining the whole point of Linked In and why having a resume is essential, even for them. (More on Linked In later.)

Yes, it’s true. In the past, lots of people got freelance work – or even permanent jobs – without having a resume. There was a time that when someone who needed a graphic designer or a copy writer or a marketing consultant or even a new VP, Business Affairs would call their trusted friends and associates and their trusted friends and associates would tell them names of potential people to hire. And then the person in need would call a bunch of the referrals and ask those referrals about their experience and accomplishments. Based on that, either finalists would be asked to bid a job or come in for an interview or one person would just be hired depending upon the size and nature of the project.

Here’s the thing: Word-of-mouth doesn’t work as the only strategy anymore. There are too many freelancers and potential employees and, due to the internet, people’s circles are too large.

And, for a big project at a big company – or a permanent position – you don’t just get hired by the person who you talked to on the phone. There are people from other departments who need to sign off on you, as well as upper management in the mix. So now, each time you are brought up as a candidate, the person trying to hire you has to regurgitate everything they know about your relevant work history. If there are follow up questions (“Where’d they get their training? Have they ever done work for our type of company?”), they have to go back to you, get the information and then report back. You could see how someone with a resume would have an advantage in this situation.

Here are other people who need resumes:

People who have had jobs for a long time who would be open to moving on. I’m not saying you have to be actively looking. These are people who want to be ready when opportunity knocks, because they know a good opportunity won’t be available long enough for them to get a great resume together after they hear about it.

Most business owners. Yes, you are your own boss but how do people know they want to use your service or invest in you or come to you with a great offer to collaborate on a project?

Stay-at-Home Moms who need to make some cash while junior is napping. We all know those work-from-home ads are a scam. Network marketing is almost always the fast track to… making next to nothing while pissing off all your friends. But if you have a successful blog or were a very effective PTA president for three years, you could parlay that into a paid social networking or community advocate position that works for your schedule. If people know about you and what you’d done.

YOU. Even if you are 100% happy with your current situation and you do not need nor want any additional income, you still need to be establishing and maintaining your professional reputation. There will come a time when you will need or want to make money some other way than you are now. Your job will end, your current freelance income stream will dry up, etc. You will not want to be starting from scratch.

Here’s where Linked In comes in:

Your resume no longer sits in a drawer or gets passed from fax machine to fax machine or even by email address to email address. It lives on the web! Linked In is the best professional tool to come out of the internet age. You create an identity from yourself simply by having your excellent resume copied onto Linked In, along with a compelling summary of who you are and what you do. You build your reputation by commenting in relevant Linked In groups you belong to. You connect with people in your field. You help them, they help you. 

If someone hears your name as a potential hire and Googles you, your Linked In profile will come up and they don’t even need your resume sent to them. And sometimes people just stumble upon your profile on Linked In and contact you for work. (It’s happened many times for me. It can happen for you.) Which is why…

A blank or incomplete or badly-written Linked In profile is almost worse than no Linked In profile at all.

So if you don’t have a resume – or if your resume is not a strong representation of your career in terms of where you want to go with it – it’s time to put some time into it. And then get it onto Linked In. It will pay-off. Trust me.

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