The Life of the Unemployed Professional: The Friend and Family Connection

You are more than just bullet points on a resume. You are color and life. You are the summary of your previous life experiences. All of this makes you.... you. 

This has been the first time that I have been on the "market" for a new position. I have always been fortunate to have been recruited away from a current role to the next step. As I am approaching my sixth month as an independent free agent after the downsizing of a start up, I find that the "full time job" of looking for my next consulting gig or my next leadership role, is not that different than how I spent my time as a sales and marketing executive... only a lot less time on conference calls. 

When you break the job search down, I am my product. My job is to get my product in front of as many potential "customers",  (hiring managers) as possible. As I have honed the process of marketing myself, I have collected the top 5 ways that I have found to market the product of John Constantine the most effective way possible. 

Over the next few weeks, we will take a deep dive into the following areas: 

1. Talking to Family and Friends

2. Developing Your Elevator Pitch 

3. Networking in Your City

4. The Importance of the Face to Face Meetings 

5. Look Out for Others More Than You Look for Yourself

Today, let's jump right into number one. 

I recently ran into a close friend at Starbucks while we were back in Indianapolis for the holidays. First an awkward man-hug/handshake (because that tends to happen to me... I'm a hugger...) and then the question "Hey man!! How are things?" ....

I let my pride do the talking. "Great! We are loving Atlanta! We have great neighbors, have found an amazing church, kids have adjusted well, We have a new unicorn that provides us with rainbows and butterfly toots anytime we want, its an AMAZING life...."

I didn't actually say the unicorn part but it would have fit with how well I stated things were at the moment.

I also exaggerated how well the consulting firm I'm working on was going at that point. We walked away from the conversation with a less awkward man-hug this time and he said he was happy for how well things were going for us. And there it was... A lost opportunity. In his mind, things were going so well, I didn't need anything from him. 

So.... I'm a bone head... While we have found an amazing church, our neighbors and neighborhood are fantastic, and our kids act as though they have always lived in Georgia, the part I overstated; the consulting firm was not actually a business yet. In fact, I had a couple proposals out, but I didn't, yet, have one paying client. And I needed more leads. 

Now here is the rub. This buddy of mine is very well connected and I missed an opportunity to tell him about how I could use his network. I let my ego take over. Now, I was going to need to back track, swallow my pride, and go back to him for help, which I imagined being more awkward than that hug-shake thing. When I called, he was more than happy to help! In fact, he connected me with two people right away. The moral of the story is this; I almost let a great opportunity pass me by because I didn't want to let him know I could use his help. 

Haven't you found that you do the same thing? Especially with those that we are close to? We sugar coat everything. We hide our concern. We are too prideful sometimes to ask for help. It is as if we feel as though we need to wear a mask and not allow those that are close, come behind our wall, join our team, and walk along side us to help.

These situations happen to us all the time. We have an opportunity to tell someone what we are looking for; an opportunity to allow them to serve us, and we let it pass us (and them) by. In the sales world, it is called "asking for the sale". As long as sales peeps have been selling stuff, it has been a best practice; once a prospect has reached a certain point in the sale's cycle you say something along the lines of,  "So you know what we are capable of. You know that we are a good fit. Are you ready to sign up?" It seems crazy to be this forward to those that are not in this type of role, but the secret is that it works in the sales process and it works in these situations as well. 

Ok, Now, let me be clear. I am not suggesting that you become Debbie-Downer. Don't turn into Eeyore from Pooh and talk about the sky falling. (I think I'm mixing up my childhood stories but you get the idea) There is a simple way that you can talk to friends and not make them feel sorry for you. Instead they can align with you on your goal of getting back to work. And then you have the opportunity to ask for help.

Here are a couple things you can keep in mind before you find yourself in these situations.

Number one: Know what you are going to say in advance. Don't allow yourself to get surprised in these interactions. Come up with your conversation piece you will use when you randomly run into someone at the grocery, in the gym, or at church.  Make sure that it is authentic and honest, but positive at the same time. This is called the elevator pitch and....

Don't use the same one that you will use in your professional life... they might not have any idea what you are talking about if you use key MBA buzz words and industry acronyms. 

"I have over 13 years of executive experience building companies as a sales and marketing leader.  I have led the charge from $4-65M in a national sales leadership role building a sale team as well as the systems that support that team. I'm also an experienced executive marketer building brands, creating products and then releasing them to the world. I'm looking for a few small to mid-sized companies that might need corporate experience but can't afford a full time Chief Sales or Marketing Officer.  I come into companies and make the current process of growing better as a part time consultant and an extension of the leadership team." 

That is mine. Develop yours! More to come on developing your perfect elevator pitch in future blogs.

Number two: Practice it at home.... Out Loud, not just in your head! The truth is, I say this to people all the time and rarely do people do it because it is weird. But it works. Practice it on your spouse. Practice it in front of the mirror. Practice it to the guy sitting next to you at the stop light in traffic who has his window down. Practice makes perfect, as they say.  You know this... the more your practice your interactions before they occur, the better off you will feel during the interactions. The more confident and nature you will become and the more that they will want to help you.

Number 3: While talking with friends and family, think about their network. I have made it a best practice, in almost every interaction with someone, to ask if there is someone they know that might be a great new connection for me. You know, just to grab coffee with. We will talk about this in later writings, but the more people you meet with, the broader your network. The broader your network, the more famous you are. And the more famous you are, the larger your pool of potential employers.

Finally, Number 4: Follow up. While your friends and family love you and want the best for you, connecting you is not their top priority. And between their own busy and full lives it has a tendency to slip their mind. If they offer, though, it means they want to help. Do not feel bad about following up with a reminder. And do it quickly. For example, if you are talking with your brother at a family birthday and he says he has a buddy to introduce you to, send a follow up text later that night: "Hey Bro! Great to see you today. I appreciate your willingness to hook me up with ______. talk soon!" You might be saving them from feeling bad later if they forget. 

Those that are closest are your biggest fans. They believe in you and they want to help you. In fact, they will feel amazing about themselves if they actually are able to help. The only thing stopping them might be your ego.

Don't let your ego rob those you love from feeling amazing about helping you!

Prepare in advance.

Don't hesitate to ask for the help.

Always be positive.

And follow up proactively. You never know where it might take you.

And as always, keep climbing.

John 

About me: 

My name is John Constantine and I am a sales and marketing executive living in suburban Atlanta. Throughout my career, I have been able to drive growth repeatedly in a variety of capacities. As a sales leader, I have built, expanded, and improved high performing teams to promote expansion and profitability. As a marketing executive, I have led teams in the creation and launching of new brands and products. I have managed inbound lead generation campaigns and created online and print branding standards that stand out from the pack and engage employees to take pride in their organization. As an executive of strategic initiatives and a field operations leader, I have implemented programs and processes that have differentiated my organizations and provided predictable revenue forecasting to the C-suite; all the while increasing productivity and accountability of the front-line team members in the organization. I now leverage these experiences to help other companies stand out and manage growth. 

To learn more, go to http://www.johnaconstantine.com/

Sign up to receive my Blog!

Lessons from the mountain #4: Problems can make you sore or make you soar.

Welcome to the final installment of my four part series, "Lessons from the Mountain". If this is your first time here, I welcome you to visit my previous posts. I have been highlighting the lessons that were learned through my mountaineering experience that seem to be applicable on the ground in the business world as well. Each week, I have highlighted a simple little truth that hopefully will allow you to maintain a positive perspective; regardless of what you are going through at work! 

Lesson #4: 

All struggles are only problems if you allow them to be. You can view struggles as reasons that you may not be successful or they can be opportunities for personal growth and the catalysts for developing the tools that will guarantee success. I cannot yet quantify all the different areas I developed and how much I grew during the year of training and throughout the actual climb, but I can tell you that I am a different man. I have grown mentally, emotionally, physically and intellectually through the process.

So it is with your struggle at work. All struggles are opportunities for growth. I don't know who said it first, and if you know, tell me so I can give credit where credit is due, but it has been said, "You never find the best version of yourself inside your comfort zone". I can personally attest that I have found the best version of myself, and it was somewhere up on that mountain during the hardest of struggles. 

I encourage each one of you to continue to push forward, embrace the awkwardness of personal growth, and look forward to the better version of yourself that you will find on the other side of whatever struggle you are working through today, this week, this month, and this year. You will like the results; I know I do. 

Keep climbing and check in again next week as I start a new series!

John

About the author:

My name is John Constantine and I am a sales and marketing executive living in suburban Atlanta. Throughout my career, I have been able to drive growth repeatedly in a variety of capacities. As a sales leader, I have built, expanded, and improved high performing teams to promote expansion and profitability. As a marketing executive, I have led teams in the creation and launching of new brands and products. I have managed inbound lead generation campaigns and created online and print branding standards that stand out from the pack and engage employees to take pride in their organization. As an executive of strategic initiatives and a field operations leader, I have implemented programs and processes that have differentiated my organizations and provided predictable revenue forecasting to the C-suite; all the while increasing productivity and accountability of the front-line team members in the organization. 

 To learn more, go to http://www.johnaconstantine.com/

Lessons From The Mountain #3: A Mountain Lesson on Work Life Balance

Over the last few weeks, I have been highlighting the lessons that have been learned through my mountaineering experience that are applicable on the ground in the business world. Each week, I have discussed a simple little truth that hopefully allows you to maintain a positive perspective; regardless of what you are going through at work. I hope you enjoy week three. Feel free to comment and share. 

Lesson #3: 

Save some for the return. While on the mountain, it is so easy to set your sights on the top and convince yourself that the summit is your goal. But what any seasoned mountaineer will tell you is that the summit is only halfway. Your goal is always making it back down and making it home. In every case of climbing, the return trip is the hardest and most demanding but the most overlooked. You have expelled your energy on the way to the top and now, with your energy depleted, you run the risk of a misstep, a simple error or a fall that could cause serious injury; possibly death. You need unbelievable focus despite what you have just achieved. This is often the part of the climb that is overlooked while driving forward, step after step towards the top.

It struck me as I was making my way down Mt Rainier this year that this is a great analogy for the balance between my home life, and my professional life. For way too many years, I focused almost exclusively on the "summit" of my career, be that a title, a project, or a dollar figure. And the return trip, my time at home, was neglected. I hadn't left enough in the tank for the ones that loved me. For those of us that are naturally prone to "workaholism", this can be easy to do and, if we are honest with ourselves, this is a common pitfall of all of us. 

All too often, we get tunnel vision around our careers, and we forget that we are to be just as focused on the return; our personal life. Emails creep into dinner. Conference calls interrupt our kids' soccer and baseball games and and our thoughts are filled with the dealings of our profession while they should be focused on the beautiful (or handsome) person we are walking through life with. We have distractions and those distractions erode into the focus that we should be giving to those that we love. As in mountaineering, this lack of focus and weariness is where the injuries can and do most often occur. 

This is not to say that our professional goals should be decreased and our drive should disappear. In fact, for those of you that are christian, it is written in Colossians 3: 23, "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men." It is a biblical principle that we are to be motivated, and driven, and that we should seek excellence in all that we do. We should still drive for the top, but we need to learn to train ourselves to achieve our own professional summit while leaving enough for the personal trip home. The return trip should not take away from our drive towards the summit. You just need to prepare adequately for the round trip; the full package.

Here are a couple quick ways that you can save some in the tank for those you love. 

1. Quiet your world for 5 minutes before walking through the door. Give yourself 5 minutes of time with no traffic, no calls, no email, no distractions to think about the things that you are most looking forward to as you walk through the front door, our out of your home office. Communicate what you are most looking forward to, to your family. "Tonight, I can't wait to....  .... with y'all!"

2. Invest and train in your personal health. If you are going to operate at your best in all you do, you can't do it without proper training. Exercise is not just about looking better in your suit. It will calm your mind, increase your stamina and allow more focus into your life. Summits can never be reached without proper training. 

3. Talk openly at home when you have a heads up that work will increase for a time and that times of stress will be coming. Explain why you need to take this extra work on and align personal goals through this season with professional ones. Often, we know in advance that a season of extra work is coming, but we fail to communicate that at home in advance. We see that budget season is upon us. Or that a new client will be coming on board, or that someone key is off work and we all need to step in to assist in the extra work created. Get your spouse involved in the process and communicate those times in advance and together as a team you can manage through the rough times. 

4. Practice your profession. Just as I was the weirdo jogging up and down the hills of my neighborhood with my pack on while training for the mountain, so you should be practicing your profession. Not great at reading a P&L, ask for help. Don't have the product knowledge you feel you should? Take someone out for coffee that knows. Don't know how to manage an Excel file properly? Take a class. The list of opportunities for training and improvement are everywhere and an increase in knowledge will decrease the emotional energy you expel on stress of the unknown leaving more for those that are at home. The longer you operate as if you are not living up to your true potential, both at home, and at the office, the more emotionally drained you will be. 

As you go through your day today, remember, the time you spend at your desk, on the phone, in the board room or with your customers, is just half the journey. You need to have balance in your life. If you use up all your energy during your day gig on your way to the summit, you will have nothing left in the tank for those that you share life with at home. What are some best practices you have learned to keep some energy in the tank for your return trip?

Keep climbing and check in next week as we end this series with the importance of a positive perspective. 

John

About the author:

My name is John Constantine and I am a sales and marketing executive living in suburban Atlanta. Throughout my career, I have been able to drive growth repeatedly in a variety of capacities. As a sales leader, I have built, expanded, and improved high performing teams to promote expansion and profitability. As a marketing executive, I have led teams in the creation and launching of new brands and products. I have managed inbound lead generation campaigns and created online and print branding standards that stand out from the pack and engage employees to take pride in their organization. As an executive of strategic initiatives and a field operations leader, I have implemented programs and processes that have differentiated my organizations and provided predictable revenue forecasting to the C-suite; all the while increasing productivity and accountability of the front-line team members in the organization. 

 To learn more, go to http://www.johnaconstantine.com/

Lessons From the Mountain #2: The Person With the Heavy Pack

Over the next several weeks, I will be highlighting the lessons that I have learned through my mountaineering experience that are applicable on the ground in the business world. Each week, I will highlight a simple little truth that will hopefully help you maintain a positive perspective, regardless of what you are going through at work! 

As I have developed and grown in my career over the years, I have learned that problems come and go, but a positive perspective can always stay consistent. Whether you are developing and building a new sales team, managing a sales team through seasons of decreased spending, building a marketing team, a re-brand or working to improve efficiencies with new processes and initiatives, the struggles change; but the thought processes and perspective used to work through any issues stay the same. 

As many of you know, I recently summited Mt Rainier Washington state with a team of amazing guys, and through that experience, I have come up with suggestions to overcoming problems in the corporate world. 

Lesson #2

It is never too early to prepare. Climbing Mt Rainier was not a two day journey. It was a journey that started over a year in advance. Gear was purchased, physical training plans were developed and implemented, and mental preparedness was enhanced. Each month, we saw ourselves get stronger and more confident. We grew as a team through the training process and we learned how to use the tools that were needed. When I say training, I don't just mean running a few miles or doing some lifting. It was our goal to go above and beyond what we knew we would face. Knowing that we would be carrying up to 50 lbs. of gear up the mountain, Despite the looks from my neighbors, I would hike through my neighborhood for hours with 75 lbs. of rice in my backpack, so as to make the 50 lb. bag feel light. We were going to have two days of intense climbing for close to 14 miles. So over the weekend, I would jog up and down hills for a total of 20+ miles over the two days. It wasn't going to be enough to just train and prepare for the exact weight and distance that we knew was coming; it was essential to be well prepared for even heavier and longer trials.

For you in your pursuits, you can be sure that some obstacles are going to come; a team member that is playing a critical role will leave, a budget item will not be approved that you believe is a necessary component.

There are several ways and circumstances that can and will derail a project. In each of these situations, with proper planning, the most painful part, the unexpected, can be avoided. If it can't be avoided, you will be prepared to work through it. Cross train your team. Hold meetings where staff can talk about their projects amongst each other. Perform activities that gel your group into a team with a common goal. Finally, work with others (staff, peers, mentors) to brainstorm and map out a "Plan B" for all budget items and potential hurdles. By thinking through as many potential outcomes as possible, and training "above and beyond" you will meet trials with more than enough stamina, and be glad that you invested the time to prepare for the unknown.

Keep climbing and check back in next week as we discuss saving some for the way down. 

John

Lessons From the Mountain #1 : Problems Can Make You Sore or Make You Soar

Over the next several weeks, I will be drawing from my mountaineering experience to share lessons that I've found to transcend altitude and environment, offering wisdom we can apply to any endeavor.  It is my hope that these simple truths will speak to you and encourage you as clearly in your professional context as they did to me on that snowy mountain trail. 

Let me start by stating the obvious: problems, issues, and struggles are a way of corporate life. In fact, the more success you achieve, the more problems you are sure to encounter.  And not only does the volume of these problems increase with success, the magnitude of each problem swells with every step up the ladder as well.

As I have developed and grown in my career over the years, I have learned that problems come and go, but a positive perspective can always stay consistent. Whether you are developing and building a new team to capitalize on a wave of success, leading a team through seasons of decreased spending, managing a team during a downsizing, working through a complex project plan or working to turn around a team with new processes and initiatives, the struggles change; but the thought processes and perspective you can leverage to work through any issue stay the same. 

As many of you know, I recently summited Mt Rainier in Washington with a team of amazing men, and through that experience, I have come up with suggestions to overcoming problems in the corporate world through a positive perspective. This week I share lesson number one. 

Lesson number 1: You have to truly believe that the solution is never too far away. On Rainier, we climbed for almost 36 hours straight. Uphill. With very little rest and even less sleep. However, with each step, we could see that our goal of the summit was just up ahead. For most of the climb, we could physically see it. At times it even seemed like it was just out of reach. This visual motivator was very helpful in pushing us forward to our goal of the top.

Sometimes all you need is just a perspective on the goal that allows you to see it just beyond your reach. In the corporate world, this illustration can serve you well. You will have struggles and sometimes the path towards success can seem overwhelming; too far away to believe that you will ever get to the goal. However, if you can visualize the summit, plot your milestones, and trust that the solution is just around the next bend, you can find the motivation you need to stay on track.

Also, as on the mountain, don't forget to stop and look around from time to time. Sometimes we get so caught up on the goal that we forget that our current view is pretty amazing as well. 

Keep climbing and check in again next week!

John Constantine

To learn more about John and his professional career, click here. 

Enjoying the view above the clouds on our way up to the summit. Take a moment, and enjoy the little milestones you have accomplished with your team on the way towards your ultimate goal.