And I’m off…
After months of considering starting a podcast and a few more months thinking about the format, the topics, and the technical aspects involved…I’ve launched.
While I'm very excited about this new media venture, I’m also scared to death. Not so much about the technical stuff, I have an aptitude for that, but more for the stuff, I don’t know about. Stuff like how do I get guests for interviews, how do I book my guests and how much time will this going to take.
Despite these concerns, I believe that others will benefit from this show and it would be a disservice for me to not proceed. So with that in mind…Here we go!
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As a listener of podcasts myself, I know the questions swirling around your head right now. Questions like:
Who is Ryan Rhoten
Why should I listen to him
What can I expect to get from this podcast? So lets' start with the easy one first. My name is Ryan Rhoten. But can you guess which one?
Who is Ryan Rhoten
Sounds like a trick question right? Well, it's not. In fact, I've made it my mission to make sure that if you were to search for me you will find the right Ryan Rhoten.
Let me explain, but first let me ask a question. If you didn't know me, how would find out about me? What if, you and I were going to meet in a 1/2 hour…What would you do?
In this show, you can find out what I would do and, in fact, did, only to discover somewhat that changed my viewpoints forever.
My results: There are 4 Ryan Rhoten's in the US.
In the show, you can discover my reaction to this news as well as what I did afterwards. The name Ryan Rhoten is obviously not very common. Could you imagine what my results would have been if I had a more common name such as Michael Smith or James Smith?
Michael and James hold the “unscientific distinction” of having the most common names in the US; with 30.9M and 31.3M respectively. Find out what name is shared with an estimated 19M people. The answer might make you “Feel GOOD”.
Here’s a link to an article on the most common names in the U.S. in case you’re interested.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/whats-the-most-common-name-in-america/
Sharing your name with someone is quite common but it’s not so great when one of your name sharers is up to no good. I wrote a post about this at:
ryanrhoten.com/protect your brand
But what I want you to image is what if instead of me searching for myself, the person searching had been an employer or a recruiter?
Did you know that 93% of recruiters review your social and online profile before you ever get a call?
You see if we don't control our online profiles, Google will.
That profile is making an impression about you, a first impression in many cases, even while you sleep.
We are more than a Google result. But for people to know that, we need to actively manage our online profiles.
Do you doubt that you have an online profile? Let me ask, do you use twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google +, Instagram or Youtube just to name a few?
Ever Like, tweeted or uploaded a picture or video?
If you have, then you do have an online profile. and that profile is making an impression on you 24/7/365.
And we all know how the old saying goes; You never get a second chance to make a first impression.
All of this especially true for my generation, GenXers (those of born between 1960 – 1980) I see too many of us really messing social media or worse ignoring it all together.
Actionable tip for some:
“Stop using Facebook as a substitute for a good psychologist.”
And when I see this misuse of technology I also ask, how many opportunities are we missing out on because we are not aligned online?
In my quest to became more aware of the potential ramifications of a negative online profile I came across this thing called personal branding and started to realize the importance it plays in our lives.
Now there are many definitions of personal branding but for me personal branding *is actively managing the way people feel, think and speak about you when you are not around.*
Let’s put that definition into the context of your career. How many decisions about you, that directly impact your livelihood get made right in front of you? None right?
I mean, after all, decisions about who stays, who goes, who gets promoted and who doesn’t are literally made when you are not around.
So when those types of decisions are being made; Don’t you want people to feel, think and say great things about you?
Of course you do, we all do but in order to get there, we need to be actively managing what people think and feel about us when we’re not around.
If we take the time to actively manage our BRANDS, WE might just be the first person that comes to mind when that next big promotion comes up.
Why should I listen?
The reasons to listen to his podcast will be different for each of you, but I’m guessing that you and I share a similar story.
You see it wasn’t until I did that Google search that I began to consider actively managing how people think and feel about me.
Perhaps, like many of you, I was just going through the motions of life.
Taking the kids to their basketball games, their cross country events, and just generally being a chauffeur for my children.
And because I just going through the motions, and not really paying attention to the evolving world of work and how technology is impacting it, not long ago I found myself in the middle of a career crisis.
I had no idea how I got there or worse how I was going to get out. As a GenXer, I had 20 years of great and diverse experiences. I had loads of industry knowledge.
I was confident that I was next in line for the BIG promotion. You know the one you’ve been working on for the last several years? Then it happened.
I got passed over.
To say I was devastated would be an understatement. I was at a loss for words and no one could tell me why I didn't get the promotion. No one offered to help. I was left alone with my thoughts. I felt totally dejected.
Now I’m not one to sit ideally by and hope the answer lands in my lap. So during my hour long commute to work, I started to ask myself a lot of questions. Questions, I had never asked before like:
• What’s wrong with me?
• What am I good at?
• What do others think about me?
• Am I making a difference?
• Is this it? Is this what I'm supposed to do for the rest of my life?
Have you ever asked yourself any of those questions before? If so, you’re not alone.
For me, as I asked myself these questions I kept coming up with no good answers. I began searching for answers elsewhere. I Googled, chatted, and read all of the normal resources and found nothing helpful.
Nothing resonated or helped me answer those questions. Until one day during a podcast, I was listening to the subject of personal branding came up.
It was a light bulb moment for me.
Two days later, I hired an executive coach to help me start to answer all of those questions. For 3 months she walked me through the process of beginning to define my personal brand.
I say beginning to because what's great about personal branding is that once you perceive that you have a BRAND you can start to actively begin to manage it.
Managing your brand gives you the opportunity to reboot, if you will, your career and maybe even your life.
I’m not gonna lie, it takes a lot of work to understand your BRAND. But it’s important that you do. George Bernhard Shaw once said
“ Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
And, you can’t create yourself if you don’t know who you are today.
Take me for example, I now understand my strengths and my skills as well as those areas where other people might just be better suited for a certain role than I would be.
This knowledge doesn’t come accidentally. You can’t just decide to re-create yourself if you don’t know who you are to begin with.
It takes and effort but now that I know my brand, I can begin to align who I am with what I do so I can achieve my goals both professionally and personally.
As Tom Peters once said –
“A personal brand is your promise to the marketplace and the world”.
What’s your promise?
What can I expect to get from this podcast?
This podcast is dedicated to helping you understand how personal branding and social media, when used correctly, can help you discover and create a BRAND new You.
Once a week we’ll meet here to learn and share the best practices and the latest trends through a combination of solo shows and interviews with recruiters, career coaches, personal branding and social media experts.
Sounds cool, doesn't it. I’m excited to bring their knowledge to your ears every week. Some of you may be asking why I am doing this podcast?
Because frankly, Life is too short to do work we don't enjoy.
How many of you listening to this right now; have a long commute to job you don't enjoy, where you sit in a cube starting a computer screen even though you have a laptop and a cell phone?
How many of you were told by your parents growing up that the formula to success was to get good grades, go to college, get a good job and then you would live happily ever after?
And you did all that but…You’re not happy.
You may even feel guilty about it but really it’s not your fault. A lot has changed in the career landscape since our baby boomer parents implemented their formula.
Because of those changes, a different approach is needed. One that acknowledges the times in which we live and embraces our skills and our strengths.
I don't have all of the answers. I'm not an expert. But I'm on a journey to discover how we merge our offline and online BRANDS to stretch and challenge us in ways we never imagined.
In closing, I know there are many other shows to choose from and I will be humbled and grateful if chose to invest a little bit of your time with me.
As we begin our journey together let’s close where we started with the quote from Les Brown –
“You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to become great”
So Are you ready? The Let’s go!
Call to Action
If you never did it or it's been awhile, go google yourself and see how google is defining you today. You may be surprised by what you find.
If you would like share what you find, send me an email to rlrhoten@gmail.com with the subject line ‘googled myself' and let me know what you found.
Easter Egg
I have a confession to make. I'm a gamer. That's right. I'm a middle-aged guy who plays video games. Whewww. That does feel good to say out loud. In fact, now that it's out there my gamer tag is Hubris 1 if anyone what to connect on Xbox.
But gaining Xbox friends is not why I'm telling you this.
Earlier I told you that I listen to podcasts during my commute to work. One the podcasts I listen to is Chris Brogan's
From time to time on his podcast Chris includes what gamers affectionally call an Easter eggs. These are are secret hidden messages or other fun ways to keep the gamer motivated.
The first time I heard this on his podcast, I knew when I released my podcast I was going to do the same. So, Chris, I'm stealing this segment directly from you. I hope you’ll forgive me.
If you don't know who Chris Brogan is I highly recommend you check out his podcast, and head over to his website and get on his newsletter.
website: Chrisbrogan.com
The newsletter comes out every Sunday morning. Reading it with my first cup of coffee has become a Sunday morning ritual for me and I know it will for you too.
Onward.
I’m not going to have an Easter egg on every show but if you get to the end and there’s still time left, keep listening.
In this first show, I want to give a shout out to a few people who have been an integral part of making this podcast happen.
So I'm extending special thanks to Dustin Hartzler from yourwebsiteengineer.com Dustin is a walking wealth of knowledge on WordPress. If you have a question about WordPress he’s your man. Checkout his podcast your website engineer.
Steve Stewart, from stevestewart.me Steve is your personal finance architect who will teach you how to pay attention and not interest. Steve’s podcast is called moneyplansos.
Joseph Michael, from josephmichael.net. Joseph is a serial entrepreneur who Helps People Work More Efficiently & Create Awesome Things Online. His latest online course can be found at learnscrivenerfast.com.
And, Jared Easley from starvethedoubts.com. Jared is one of the co-founders of the podcast movement conference, a prolific networker, and probably one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. Check out his podcast Starve the doubts.
All of you guys have been instrumental in my personal growth and development. You all motivate, inspire and challenge me in ways I could have never imagined. Thank you all for being a part of my life.
I also need to give a big shout out to my wife, Kate, who blogs at katerhoten.com. She puts up with all of my craziness and curiosities.
She keeps me grounded and reminds me that it's ok to be a Freak but that I also need to be realistic. If she wasn't in my life I'd probably be living in a garage over a basement.
Lastly, I want to give a shout out to my boys, Noah, and Seth. I hope This podcast will serve as a reminder to you guys that it's ok to pursue what you want in life despite what others may think.
I’ll close out show one by borrowing a quote from Stephen Pressfield –
“Our job in this life is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be but to find out who we already are and become it.”
