Career Development

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Connections

While it is a little more challenging to build relationships that will turn into referrals and new clients today due to social distancing, it is not impossible by any means. It just requires us to pivot what we were doing before the pandemic (taking clients and prospects to lunch or events, going to in-person networking events and conferences) and conducting most of our networking and brand building online or by phone. It involves shifting to doing more thought leadership and relying on social media and webinars.

When done correctly, these tools can help you cast an even wider net on your marketing and business development efforts than before due to the vast reach of the social platforms. Your goal is to stay top of mind and to be helpful. That’s it. Here are some ideas on how to incorporate these tools into your marketing and business development strategy and turn your connections into new business.

New LinkedIn Headshot

There will come a point in your career when you will get fired, let go, downsized or furloughed. No matter the circumstances surrounding you losing your job, it sucks. I’ve been through almost all of them myself.

But the bright side is that you can emerge from these situations as a stronger, better version of your professional self and use these failures to propel you to work situations that are a better fit for you – just like I did.

Every dark situation has a silver lining, and I want you to know that you aren’t alone in experiencing speed bumps along your career path. You can fail (multiple times in fact) but still have a successful career. Remember – just because it didn’t work out for you in one position doesn’t mean that you are doomed for your entire career. What will define you is how you dust yourself off after a setback and forge ahead. Resiliency, resourcefulness and determination will set you apart from others and help you get back on track. Here are some tips to help you.

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Everyone is nervous about everything right now, including the economy and how that may affect their employment status. Some companies are doing mass layoffs and salary reductions. You don’t want to be unemployed right now because businesses aren’t going to be as quick to hire – they want to see how the coronavirus pandemic will affect their bottom line – and new projects will likely be put on hold for the foreseeable future.

It’s never been more important to be the model employee and to go above and beyond. Don’t give your company a reason to doubt your commitment or work product.

Here are a few tips to bulletproof your job now that you can carry into the future.

25 Ways to Boost Your Business and Brand During Summer Downtime

This is not the year to take a break from social media during the summer. Instead this is the time to focus on your business development and branding efforts.

I don’t know anyone right now especially (or ever) who would say they have enough clients or work. I think everyone is nervous about the economy, the ability to maintain their current volume of work, bring in future clients and support their people.

That being said, it’s incredibly important to ensure your current clients are happy and that you are consistently generating new sources of leads and referrals.

Here are 25 ideas on how to do that, which now involves shifting your strategy from in-person networking and client entertaining to having a strong online presence and thought leadership platform. If you have never used LinkedIn, written an article or blog post or spoken at a webinar, now is the time to pivot to doing all of these. It is never too early or late to start marketing yourself or your firm.

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My guess is that many of you have more free time now due to the pandemic, which had slowed down deal flow and litigation activity.

Plus working from home eliminates…