Today we welcome to the BRAND New You show Marc Miller founder of career pivot.com.
Career Pivot was selected as one of the top 100 career websites and has been featured on Forbes.com, CBS money watch, and US News and World report.
Marc is a career design specialist who helps baby boomers design a strategy of manageable pivots in order to help them move towards a career they can grow with and be fulfilled with for decades.
No stranger to career pivots himself, Marc has personally made 6 of them including stints at IBM, two successful start-ups in Austin TX, teaching math in an inner-city high school and even working for a local non-profit.
He is the author of Repurpose your career – A practical guide for Baby boomers. In the book, Marc provides a roadmap for boomers who are looking to find a career they can grow into and that meets their needs.
In His latest book which is called Personal Branding for baby boomers – Marc answers personal branding questions such as What is it, how to manage it and why it’s no longer an option.
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MARC MILLER CAREER PROGRESSION
Today Marc is a career design specialist, but this wasn’t always the case. He started his career out like many other baby boomers by becoming an employee and working for a corporation.
Using what was then the formula for career success Marc spent the first twenty plus years of his career working at IBM.
In Marc’s words he “wandered around” IBM for those years holding progressively successful roles with the company.
Marc's career trajectory was on the rise until it was impacted by a major event which we discuss during the show.
After this event, Marc started to ask a lot of questions his position in life. These questions led him into his own career pivots and ultimately to founding Career Pivot.com.
Since founding Career Pivot Marc has written two books:
Repurpose your Career – A practical guide for baby boomers (affiliate link)
Personal Branding for Baby Boomers – What it is, How to manage it and Why it's no longer optional (affiliate link)
CAREER PIVOT AND PERSONAL BRANDING FOR BABY BOOMERS
Marc looks at personal branding as being able to tell your story in an authentic way. Not so long ago your personal brand was limited to your reputation within the “four walls” of the corporate office.
Today however with the internet and social media we compete with people from all over the world for the same positions. In these cases getting the next position or promotion comes down to your ability to help people answer this question:
“How do I know that you know your stuff?”
Some people see personal branding or telling your own story as self-promotion. These folks were not raised to be self-promoters. Marc and I talk about a very simple philosophy he uses with his clients to get past this mental barrier.
Key Elements to building your Brand Story
When building your brand story Marc describes three key elements that make up every brand story. Each designed to help us tell our story in a compelling way.
Marc also discusses who should write our brand story and why it’s not who you think. We talk through the exact exercise Marc uses with his clients to help build their story.
We also discuss where to use your story once it’s written. Besides the obvious I think you’ll be surprised at some of the creative places Marc tells us where we can use our brand story.
1 – Strong Opening
Marc compares the strong opening to reading the headline or opening paragraph in a newspaper or magazine article. It’s something that makes you want to read the rest.
What is your opening? How do you grab someone’s attention?
2 – Memorable label
It might help to think of a memorable label as a tagline or phrase that makes it easier for others to remember you. This usually comes from brainstorming and self-reflection.
Knowing your common career thread will help you develop your memorable label.
3 – Brand theme
Your brand theme is the over-arching premise that ties your brand together. Marc offers three potential brand themes for us to consider.
> Major Event: Is a single “thing” or event that shapes you and your career. This major event is easily recognized by us and others.
> Common Theme: The common theme is something that “weaves” its way through our careers and is not typically something we can see on our own. We usually need help from others to see it.
> Proof Points: Specific “points” that can be highlighted to quickly tell your brand story and show others who you are.
These are usually things that you have done repeatedly throughout your career.
The role of Blogging and Social Media in Personal Branding
Marc and I spend time discussing blogging and social media as well. The benefits of blogging is something I’ve discussed many times both here on the blog and in other podcasts as well.
Marc talks about how blogging helps you demonstrate what you do and what you know. He gives some great examples of this from his clients.
Blogging also helps put our names “out there” which gets back to our earlier comments about self-promotion. This is where social media and blogging can work together in concert to help you get found.
Marc and I discuss how social media has completely changed the job search process. The way you find and get a job today is dramatically different than it was even five years ago.
Candidates should use social to be social and help others understand that they know their stuff. Use social to build real relationships like we discussed with David Fisher during our discussion on networking.
MARC MILLER WRAP
Below are the best ways to get in touch with Marc and pick up a copy of his books.
Website: Career Pivot
eMail: marc@careerpivot.com
Repurpose your Career – A practical guide for baby boomers (affiliate link)
Personal Branding for Baby Boomers – What it is, How to manage it and Why it's no longer optional (affiliate link)
Marc leaves us with these final thoughts:
“Career reinvention is all about being introspective. It’s about knowing thyself.”
