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Career Distinction Workbook

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Page 1: Career Distinction Workbook

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The Career Distinction Workbook

William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson

www.careerdistinction.com

www.reachcc.com

© 2007. Reach Communications Consulting, Inc (Reach). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from Reach. The Reach logo, “where branding gets personal,’ and 360˚Reach are trademarks of Reach. All other marks are owned by their respective companies.

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Table of Contents

page

Using the Career Distinction Workbook 5

Vision 6

Purpose 7

Goals 8

Values 11

Passions 15

Brand Attributes 16

Strengths 18

Motivated Skills 19

Describing Your Competitors or Peers 20

Putting it Together 22

Describing Your Target Audience 23

Building Your Brand Profile 25

Career Marketing Tools Checklist 27

Making On-Brand Career Decisions 28

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Communications Skills 29

Personal Brand Communications Planning 31

Online Identity 33

Observing Your Brand Environment 36

Defining Your Brand Identity System 38

Connecting Members of Your Network 40

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Using the Career Distinction Workbook

Congratulations on taking a major step towards ensuring a career

filled with success and personal fulfillment!

As you read Career Distinction: Stand Out by Building Your Brand

(Wiley, June 2007), you’ll find references to exercises that you can

explore in this companion workbook. This workbook has been

designed to help you put the learning from the book into action.

Remember to sign up for complimentary weekly Career

Distinction Tips at www.careerdistinction.com/tips. They enable you

to keep your career top of mind—putting Principle #3 of Career

Distinction into regular practice.

These exercises are by no means the only exercises that can

support you through the process. We have included in this workbook

those exercises that have proved most useful to our professional

clients. If you have recently taken some quantitative assessments

through a career coach or know of other exercises or activities that

work for you, by all means, incorporate them as well. If you are a

member of the Reach Branding Club, you will see that there are other

exercises from which you can select that will help you as you build a

career that few imagine and even fewer attain.

We wish you the highest level of Career Distinction. Enjoy!

-William and Kirsten

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STEP 1. EXTRACT—UNEARTH YOUR UNIQUE

PROMISE OF VALUE

Chapter 4: Know Yourself to Grow Yourself

Because the exercises in the Extract phase of our 1-2-3 Success!

personal branding process encourage you to dig deeply into some

personal themes, some of them may seem a little “touchy-feely.” We

urge you to keep an open mind and to complete the exercises over a

period of time (or repeat them a few times) to get comfortable with

the material. This is not a linear process. If you feel stuck while

completing one exercise, move on to another. You’ll want to finalize

your work in the Extract phase, however, before moving on to

Express or Exude. You’ll find a detailed explanation of each phase in

our personal branding process in Career Distinction.

Defining Your Vision

Think about one world problem you would like to see solved or one

area of life that you want to see transformed or improved. This is

your vision. Write it below.

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Defining Your Purpose

Now, imagine yourself at your own funeral. You are hovering above

the room and can hear what people are saying about you. What are

they saying about what you accomplished, how you touched their

lives, how you made a difference to them and to the world? Their

comments suggest your purpose. Write what you are hearing below.

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The Mother of all Goals Exercises

Step 1

Open up either a Microsoft Word or Excel document, and just go

crazy typing in every goal you have for your career or business (one

goal per line). You might type in items like “I will be the head of our

IT department,” or ”I will take an assignment in the New York

office.” Type every single goal that you can think of into your

document. And when you think you’ve got them all out of your head,

go back and add some more, because we guarantee you that there are

some more in there. When you are done, you will have a long list that

details everything you want to accomplish in your career.

Step 2

Go back to your list, and to the left of every goal, put a ‘1,’ ‘2’ or ‘3.’

Mark an item with a ‘1’ if it’s a goal you would like to accomplish in

the next year, a ‘2’ for those you would like to accomplish in two to

five years, and a ‘3’ next to every long-term goal (greater than 5

years).

Step 3

Sort the list (this why you do this exercise in Word or Excel). You’ll

end up with all the 1s together, all the 2s together, and all the 3s

together. Then within each of the three subgroups, ask yourself, “is

this one more important than this one,” “is this one more important

then this one,” and so on. Then for each of the three categories, put

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them in priority order with the most important goals first. What you

will end up with is a complete list in chronological and prioritized

order.

Step 4

There are two things that you do with this. First, look at the links

among various goals—milestones that together lead to achievement

of a major goal. And second, you will find that by prioritizing them,

you will see what is really important and will be able to focus your

energies instead of fracturing your efforts on too many disparate

goals.

Step 5

After looking at the list:

1. Delete any goals that are not really important.

2. Consider adding goals or refining ones that you’ve

documented.

Step 6

Look over your complete list of goals and identify the most logical

next step in your career that will help you along the path toward your

ultimate goal. Then, describe the position in great detail.

Use the following to get clarity on the position(s) you are considering.

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Fill in the blank or circle the items that describe your ideal position:

Company size (by number of employees or revenue):

Employees:

Revenue:

Circle One:

Small

Medium

Large

Type of role/ job titles:

Location(s)

________________ _______________ _______________

Can you list the companies you are targeting by name?

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Understanding Your Values

In the space below, document your top five values (the list on the

following pages will help). These are your guiding principles. Refer

to ‘Identifying Your Values and Passions on page 40 of Career

Distinction to learn more about the roles of values and passions in

your career.

1. ______________________________

2. ______________________________

3. ______________________________

4. ______________________________

5. ______________________________

Now that you have identified your top five values, take a look at your

current company’s values and see the connection and intersection of

those values. How can you become known for demonstrating these

values?

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As you determine your key values, here are some to consider; but

don’t limit yourself to just this list. As you go through the list,

eliminate those values that don’t really resonate with you. Then from

the remaining values select the five that are the most important to

you.

Abundance

Accessibility

Accomplishment

Accuracy

Achievement

Adaptability

Adventure

Affection

Affluence

Aggression

Agility

Alertness

Altruism

Ambition

Amusement

Assertiveness

Attractiveness

Awareness

Balance

Beauty

Being the best

Belonging

Bravery

Calmness

Camaraderie

Care

Carefulness

Celebrity

Challenge

Charity

Cheerfulness

Clarity

Cleanliness

Cleverness

Comfort

Commitment

Compassion

Completion

Concentration

Confidence

Conformity

Connection

Consistency

Contentment

Continuity

Control

Conviction

Cooperation

Courage

Creativity

Credibility

Curiosity

Daring

Decisiveness

Dependability

Depth

Desire

Determination

Devotion

Dignity

Diligence

Directness

Discipline

Discovery

Discretion

Diversity

Drive

Duty

Dynamism

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Education

Efficiency

Elegance

Empathy

Encouragement

Endurance

Energy

Entertainment

Enthusiasm

Excellence

Excitement

Experience

Expertise

Extravagance

Extroversion

Exuberance

Fairness

Faith

Fame

Family

Fascination

Fashion

Fearlessness

Fidelity

Financial-

independence

Fitness

Flexibility

Focus

Freedom

Friendliness

Frugality

Fun

Generosity

Grace

Gratitude

Growth

Happiness

Harmony

Health

Heroism

Honesty

Honor

Hopefulness

Humor

Imagination

Impact

Independence

Ingenuity

Inspiration

Integrity

Intelligence

Intensity

Intimacy

Introversion

Intuition

Inventiveness

Investing

Joy

Justice

Kindness

Knowledge

Leadership

Learning

Logic

Love

Loyalty

Making a -

difference

Mastery

Maturity

Mindfulness

Modesty

Motivation

Mystery

Obedience

Open-

mindedness

Optimism

Order

Organization

Originality

Passion

Peace

Perfection

Perseverance

Persistence

Persuasiveness

Philanthropy

Piety

Playfulness

Pleasure

Popularity

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Potency

Power

Practicality

Pragmatism

Precision

Preparedness

Privacy

Pro-activity

Professionalism

Prosperity

Punctuality

Purity

Realism

Recognition

Recreation

Relaxation

Reliability

Religion

Resilience

Resolution

Resourcefulness

Respect

Rest

Restraint

Sacrifice

Satisfaction

Security

Self-control

Sensitivity

Sensuality

Serenity

Sexuality

Sharing

Significance

Silence

Silliness

Simplicity

Sincerity

Solitude

Sophistication

Speed

Spirituality

Spontaneity

Stability

Strength

Structure

Success

Support

Surprise

Sympathy

Teamwork

Timeliness

Traditionalism

Tranquility

Truth

Understanding

Uniqueness

Usefulness

Variety

Vigor

Virtue

Vision

Vitality

Wealth

Winning

Wisdom

Wit

Youthfulness

Zeal

____________

____________

__________

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Unearthing Your Passions

In the space below, document your top five passions. These are

activities, interests or conversational topics that fascinate or excite

you and make you feel energized. Your passions make you get out of

bed at 6:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning or get you talking

enthusiastically with other people.

1. ______________________________

2. ______________________________

3. ______________________________

4. ______________________________

5. ______________________________

Your top values and passions will also become important later, when

you work on your personal brand communications plan in Step 2

Express (page 79).

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Chapter 5: Remember, It’s What They Think That

Counts

Brand Attributes

Use the 360°Reach™ Personal Brand Assessment that comes with

your purchased copy of Career Distinction to determine your brand

attributes. You can find it at:

http://www.careerdistinction.com/360Reach

Remember, you have 15 days of unlimited use of the assessment, so

take advantage of this opportunity to poll those around you to

understand their perceptions. Print our your summary before your

15-day subscription expires. You will not have access to the

data after 15 days.

Because this is a complimentary subscription, there is limited

customer support. Get answers to your questions at

http://www.careerdistinction.com/360Reach/faq.html

Once you have completed the assessment, you can refer to your

printed summary. To perform an analysis of the data and glean the

greatest insights from the feedback you received, refer to the ebook:

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The Complete 360°View – Making the Most of Your 360°Reach Results

available for $14.95 at:

http://www.careerdistinction.com/360Reach/360view.html

(If you are a Reach Branding Club Job Search Edition member, this

PDF file is downloadable from your member area when you login to

http://ww.reachbrandingclub.com.)

If you need more than 15 days to complete your 360°Reach

assessment, you may purchase a 30-day extension.

After completing the assessment, document what you learned below:

My top five personal brand attributes are:

1. ______________________________

2. ______________________________

3. ______________________________

4. ______________________________

5. ______________________________

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My Strengths

Analyze your 360°Reach results to determine your strengths.

Document them here.

1. ______________________________

2. ______________________________

3. ______________________________

4. ______________________________

5. ______________________________

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Motivated Skills Exercise

This exercise also gives you great content for your resume and other career

marketing materials.

Make a list of the greatest personal successes of your career—it

doesn’t matter whether or not you were compensated for these

endeavors. Think about the times when you were outstanding and

truly enjoying your work (hint: it didn’t feel like work). Choose your

three to five favorites, and write challenge/action/results stories in

terms of the results or benefits you delivered. Document what made

you so successful—these are your motivated skills.

Example:

Pizza Hut

Challenge: Make cinema commercial for less than $5,000 to improve

sales in restaurants near movie theaters.

Actions: Reviewed all existing footage from several countries, and

edited together with "mock" Action Movie soundtrack and witty

credits.

Results: Budget and sales goals achieved.

Motivated Skills Used: experimenting, creative thinking, taking

calculated risks, collaborating

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Chapter 6. Define Your Brand Community

Refer to Figure 6.1 on page 59 of Career Distinction.

Describing Your Competitors or Peers - Commonality

Think about your competitors or peers—actual and potential. Can

you identify them by name? By category? What do they all have in

common? What makes you different from your competitors?

Consistency with Peers

To know what makes you different, it is often valuable to identify

what you have in common with your peers. List below the items that

you share with your peers or those who seek the same career

objective. These items can include credentials, attributes, skills, etc.

For example, you might list items like: B.S. Marketing, solid

communications skills, and creativity.

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Describing Your Competitors or Peers - Differentiation

Now, list below the items that make you stand out from others who

are seeking the same position as you. These items can include

credentials, attributes, skills, etc. For example, you might list items

like: Chair the Committee at my local Boys and Girls Club, sarcastic

wit, certificate in international business.

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Putting it Together

Now think about your ideal job and determine which of the items

you identified in the exercises above (attributes, skills, and

differentiation) will be helpful in reaching your goal. Take a look at

the lists above and complete the following:

• Identify those items that are absolutely essential for achieving

your ultimate career goal.

• Think about how you can use these differentiating attributes

to achieve your goals (the job you seek and your longer-term

goals).

• Ask yourself how you can inject more of your strengths, skills

and differentiating attributes into what you do now.

• Ask yourself what’s missing. Are there brand attributes or

skills that are critical to success that you need to have? If so,

list them below:

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Describing Your Target Audience

Take a few minutes to think about your target audience. If your

career goal is to make it to CEO of your current company, your

target audience will include many people that you know by name. If

you are looking for a new job right now in a new company, industry

or location, you should be able to describe your target audience by

demographics and psychographics. You want to be crystal clear about

the people who need to know about you!

Fill in as much information as you can about your target audience in

the space provided below.

Demographics:

• Age range

• Gender

• Career/job position/title(s)

• Income

• Location/geography

• Education

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Psychographics:

• What do they do in their spare time?

• What magazines or newsletters do they read?

• What movies or TV shows do they watch?

• What websites or portals do they visit for information?

• What do they do for vacation?

• What are their professional activities outside of work?

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Chapter 7: Tell Your Brand Story

Building Your Brand Profile

Write your personal brand statement (a brief description of your

promise of value) in the space provided below. This should be a well-

worded description of what you do, for whom, how, and what makes

you unique. Try to keep it to one sentence. Refer to examples on

page 71 of Career Distinction.

You can elaborate on your brand statement by completing your

brand profile below. But it is invaluable to be able to communicate

your essence in a sentence. Now, review your brand statement against

the PBS Checklist on page 76 of Career Distinction.

My PBS:

Concisely summarize your vision, purpose, values, etc. in the spaces

provided below.

Vision:

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Purpose:

Values:

Passions:

Personal Attributes:

Finally, to find another way of expressing what you strongly believe,

think of your favorite quotation (not created by you) and write it

below:

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STEP 2: EXPRESS—COMMUNICATE YOUR BRAND TO

YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

Chapter 8: Create Your Career Marketing Tools

Completing Your Career Marketing Tools Checklist

Here’s a checklist that will help you as you develop your career-

marketing tools.

□ Bio written and up-to-date (See bio advice on page 83 of Career

Distinction).

□ Resume up-to-date date (See resume advice on page 87 of Career

Distinction).

□ Resume starts with Summary of Qualifications (See resume

advice on page 87 of Career Distinction).

□ Customized Cover letter “template” ready to go (See cover

advice on page 94 of Career Distinction).

□ All documents communicate my personal brand and

differentiation.

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Making On-Brand Career Decisions

After interviewing for several positions, you will need to determine

which job is going to meet your criteria and move you toward your

ultimate career goal.

Complete this checklist for each opportunity you are considering:

□ The company is the kind of organization in which I can be

successful.

□ The position fits all/most of the ideal characteristics I described

above as the ideal.

□ I will have an opportunity to use what I am passionate about in

this new role.

□ This position will allow me to fulfill my purpose in support of

my vision.

□ The company’s values are consistent with my mine.

□ This role is a logical next step toward my ultimate career goal.

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Chapter 9: Express Yourself

Communications Skills Self-Evaluation

One thing all strong brands have in common is that they are great

communicators. Assess your communications skills in the following

areas with “5” being the strongest and “1” needing most

improvement. Although branding is about using your strengths to

stand out, all strong brands are excellent at communicating. 62% of

CEOs say it was their communications skills that got them to the top

spot.

Writing 1 2 3 4 5

Email 1 2 3 4 5

Presentation 1 2 3 4 5

Telephone 1 2 3 4 5

In-person 1 2 3 4 5

Now, looking at the communications skills in which you excel, think

about creative ways you can increase your visibility. Refer to the story

on page 108 of Career Distinction.

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Refining Your Communications Skills

Review your responses to the above. Below, list three ways you’re

going to improve your communications skills in the areas that you

identified need improvement. For instance, you may want to take a

writing class, join Toastmasters (the international public-speaking

training organization), or take advantage of some other resource to

hone your skills. Record your ideas:

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Personal Brand Communications Planning

List the communications vehicles on the communications wheel

above that are right for you and that would be effective for reaching

your target audience. Then, document the overarching content theme

that you will communicate through these vehicles. Content themes are

the key messages you want to get across. They sit at the center of

your communications wheel and can be applied to all of the

communications vehicles you have identified.

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Write your comprehensive annual communications plan (organized

by month) and gauge its effectiveness with the checklist on page 112

of Career Distinction. To ensure that you implement your plan,

schedule daily activities in your to-do list.

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Chapter 10: Assess Your Online Identity

Google yourself and take the Online Identity Quiz at:

www.careerdistinction.com/onlineid/

Look at the online identity matrix on page 121 (Figure 10.1) of Career

Distinction and read the descriptions on page 124. Then circle where

you currently are on the scale:

Digitally Disguised

Digitally Dissed

Digitally Disastrous

Digitally Dabbling

Digitally Distinct

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Chapter 11: Build Your Brand in Bits and Bytes

Online Brand Building Checklist

□ I’ve performed a baseline Google assessment to determine my

online identity.

□ I’ve registered my domain name – e.g., www.williamarruda.com.

□ I have an up-to-date profile on zoominfo.com, linkedin.com,

ecademy.com, and other online profile and social networking

sites.

□ I have my own niche blog and/or website.

□ I have the volume of Google results that is appropriate for my

level (Refer to Table 10.1 on page 123 of Career Distinction).

□ My online search results are relevant for what I want to be

(Refer to Table 10.2 on page 123).

□ My online communications plan is in place.

□ I’ve sourced the appropriate professionals (Find tips for this on

page 137).

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□ I’ve found relevant places to post comments/advice and publish

articles.

□ I’m committed to one online identity-building activity at least

every other week.

□ I Google myself every Monday morning.

Three things that I will do to improve my online identity in the next

two weeks:

1.

2.

3.

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STEP THREE: EXUDE—MANAGE YOUR BRAND

ENVIRONMENT

Chapter 12: Be On-Brand in All That You Do

Observing Your Brand Environment

For the next two weeks, observe everything you do, every tool you

use, every article of clothing you wear. For example, do you use a

Palm Pilot or other PDA, a printed calendar, a handwritten to-do list?

Do you carry a briefcase? Your actions, tools, clothing, and office

space all constitute your brand environment. In the space below, list all

the items that make up your brand environment.

Now, for each item in your list, identify whether that item is on-

brand or off-brand, and explain why.

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Finally, in the space below, write the changes you need to make to

your brand environment so that you can be more consistently on-

brand.

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Chapter 13: Get a Visual Identity

Defining Your Brand Identity System

Work with a designer to develop the visual vocabulary for your

brand. This vocabulary is used to describe your brand attributes and

differentiation. For some communications, you will be required to

follow your corporate identity guidelines. But for other activities,

such as presentations to professional associations, your blog, articles

you publish, etc. you will want to have your own identity system that

reflects your unique promise of value. When used consistently, it will

help those around you recognize you. Document below the items

that make up your unique brand identity system.

Color(s):

Based on the table on page 161 , circle the color that best

represents your brand

Font(s):

Refer to the Figure 13.1 on page 162 to select the font(s) that

best represents your brand. Also, search for fonts in

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Microsoft Word and printed publications, and share your

preferences with your designer.

Now think about the other elements that are appropriate for

your brand identity system. Refer to the examples on pages

163–170 of Career Distinction.

Images:

Logo:

Textures:

Audio/music:

Tagline:

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Chapter 14: Increase Your Career Karma

Connecting Members of Your Network

Connecting members of your network with each other is also

important. Often, a meeting of two powerful brands can create

tremendous value. Review the names of your inner-circle network

members and think about the value that might emerge if you were to

connect certain members with other members. Draw lines among

these network members. Design a plan to connect them with each

other. Write your ideas below, including dates by which you intend to

implement your plan.

Also check out www.jibberjobber.com—a cool online tool for

organizing your network and your career-management efforts.

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Additional Resources and Special Offers

Reach Branding Club – Job Search Edition

When you’ve purchased Career Distinction, you can join the club for

half price. This innovative brand development and social networking

site will help you accelerate your career success. The benefits of this

annual membership include:

• Networking with other like-minded club members

• Connecting with career coaches, executive recruiters, and

hiring managers

• Keeping the branding process top-of-mind with fun, inspiring

on-demand presentations, exercises, and quizzes

• A free copy of the 360View ebook and an interactive

presentation that will help you analyze your 360°Reach results

• Access to the recordings of our monthly teleseminars with

top experts and authors