Content

7 posts

By the age of 23, Iâd written articles for the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, and Los Angeles Times. By 25, I had signed my first book deal. My publisher told me I was the second person they ever contracted without an agent.

What was my secret? Connections? Noâmy most prestigious pieces were simply submitted to open editorial inboxes like [email protected]. My book manuscript was also picked up through cold emailsâ¦ and I got not one, but two publishers interested. Simply put, my writing spoke for itself.

I had the âitâ factor.

And I wasnât writing about rainbows and butterflies. Most of my pieces were either about Middle Eastern foreign policy dilemmas or mathematical statistics and probabilities found in Texas Hold âEm poker (ex. The 2-3% equity changes a hand like King-Ten suited has vs. King-Ten offsuit). For the general public, it wasnât fun stuff.

But thatâs where âitâ comes inâthe unique beauty of making dense content relatable.

Here are my tips and tricks on how you can do it too.

1. Raise Your Voice! First order of business, we have to know that article is distinctly coming from you. No one else couldâve ever written it. No one else couldâve possibly dreamed of using your same vocabulary, pacing, and tone! Generally speaking, confidence is key. Not sure what Iâm talking about here? Then donât start with writingâstart with reading. Find favorite authors and develop your taste. You donât even have to like their opinions. Just their way of communicating things. For me, those two journalists are Derek Thompson and Jennifer Rubin. I donât agree with half of what Jennifer says and Derekâs economic analysis is almost always beyond me, but I like their style. Iâll never forget how struck I was when Ms. Rubin started a Washington Post article with the word âbizarrely.â No matter what followed, I was already hooked. You want people to feel that same way about you too.

2. Itâs Not What You Say, Itâs How You Say It. Many people have heard that when youâre talking to someone, 70% of communication is non-verbal. What you say isnât nearly as important as how you say it. Believe it or not, this applies to writing as well. Style, flow, and finesse matter. You canât simply rest on the content of your message; you need to deliver it with ease. Writing is like a dance. When you read it out loud, it shouldnât have two left feet. Or two clunky syllables. Great writing is incredibly agile, nodding its head to literary grace.

3. Be Fearless. Say what needs to be said. Say what you mean. Donât fear a controversial conclusionâpeople are drawn to strength. It takes bravery to express our ideas clearly, but trust me, it gets rewarded.

4. Set Limits. Whenever I write, I limit my commas. I never let consecutive sentences contain three or more of those little squiggly marks. I also try not to stuff too many big words together. People get tripped up here because they confuse accuracy with greatness. Just because what youâre saying is valid and true doesnât make it readable. In order for your brilliance to reach wider audiences, you need to dial down the density. Information should be given as a slow dripânot a dam-breaking explosion.

5. Use Three Words. It is punchier.

6. Make âEm Laugh. It is funnier.

7. Encourage Critical Thinking. Weâve drilled down pretty hard on the delivery of your message. Now we need to address the substance. Obviously, hot takes generate buzz. But you donât always need a controversial opinion in order to make your work sell. People are struck by simplicity. The bolder you can state your claim, the better. It doesnât have to be original. You can move the masses just by being unapologetic. I donât care if your stance is saying something as mundane as, âWe need to stick to our diets!â or âKids need to read more!â If you can articulate your ideas clearly and powerfully, you are bound to reach people. Most of us âoverthinkâ thingsâby taking affirmative stands, your writing will inspire people to think more deeply.

Transforming dense content into something relatable requires practice, creativity, andâdare I say itâa touch of your own personal magic. You need to be able to charm your reader. This includes when discussing tough subjects. Yet I guarantee that if you can incorporate the above strategies into your writing, your dazzling prose will breathe new life into your most meaningful findings. Sometimes the best way to convince someone of an argument is to demonstrate conversational mastery.

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7 Ways To Make Dense Content Relatable

Creating and sharing online content is one of the best ways to generate sales for your business, big or small. Content is king in this digital world, and those who create online content will get their brand in front of more potential customers, establish credibility, and generate more sales.

We recently asked our leading executives how they use online content to generate sales.

Here are their responses...

Percy Leon, Digital Media Content Executive

As a YouTube content creator, there are several ways to use your online content to generate sales.

You can monetize your content as a YouTube content creator, focus on providing value to your audience, and build a loyal community.

You can use this as influential marketing. According to Influential Marketing Hub, the influencer marketing industry is set to reach a value of $16.4 billion in 2022, representing an 18.8% increase from the $13.8 billion valuation in 2021.

Brands are increasingly turning to smaller creators, such as nano and micro-influencers with strong subscriber engagement and trust, as it can be more effective and cost-efficient than paying larger influencers.

Also, high-quality, informative, and engaging content can attract and retain viewers and lead to revenue streams through:

Sponsorships
Advertising
Affiliate marketing
Merchandise sales
Coaching

Percy Leon is a digital media content producer specializing in educational technology and entertainment. He is interested in web3, metaverse, and the use of virtual reality for storytelling.

Lynn Holland, VP Sales & Business Development

In March 2020, I was selling enterprise technology when a final demo to secure my last endorsements and purchase approval for a large sale was canceled. Corporate travel was banned, fear converged, and modern buyers emerged with new expectations for finding, evaluating, and making tech buying decisions.

They now resisted mercilessly being spammed and chased with a phone, email, hollow marketing materials, and time-consuming sales journeys, and were no longer accessible with in-person meetings and tradeshows to prospect and further sales.

Instead, they expected vendors to generously publish surprisingly insightful content on social networks where they natively hang out to:

Source information
Get recommendations and validation from trusted peers
Anonymously self-educate, evaluate, compare, and gain confidence in the credibility of vendors/solutions

THEN

Visit a strategically designed vendor website to binge on a full library of UNGATED content.

THEN

Submit a web form or make a call, WELL into their buyer journey to VOLUNTARILY self-identify where they found you, became a high-intent buyer, and were led to:

Recognize they had a problem
See you as a potential solution to their problem
Prepare internally to engage you in a buying initiative

So how can you use content to build high-intent buyers who WANT what you have to offer?

Build deep insights that serve your audience with value - non-obvious solutions to obvious problems or obvious solutions to non-obvious problems that you provide to save money, make money, or reduce risk in days or weeks vs. months or years
Perpetually embed them into a variety of content pieces and publish them on social networks where your ICP hangs out
Make networking a priority and serve them by sharing your insights and value without asking for anything
Offer a quality free resource with your insights and value in your content and website/landing page with no strings attached
Make sure your site is clear, concise, full of ungated content, and guides high-intent followers into a low-friction process to demo, try, or buy your offering

Lynn Holland is a business development executive with 18+ years of experience taking operational, IoT & retail technologies, products, & consumer engagement to market with a focus in petroleum & convenience retail.

Ana Smith, Talent Architect & Global Learning Strategist

From my perspective, online content is such a powerful tool that can be used to generate sales. By creating and sharing high-quality content, you can attract attention, build relationships, and drive traffic to your website or online store.

Based on my experience, these are some ideas on how to use online content to generate sales:

Creating valuable content that solves problems. The best way to generate sales with online content is to create content that solves problems for your target audience. This could be in the form of blog posts, articles, videos, or infographics. When you create content that is helpful and informative, people will be more likely to trust you and buy from you.
Sharing your content on social media. Social media is a great way to share your content with a large audience. Make sure to share your content on the social media platforms that your target audience is active on. You can also use social media to run contests and giveaways, which can help to generate excitement and buzz around your brand.
Promoting your content through email marketing. Email marketing is a great way to stay in touch with your customers and promote your latest content. You can send out email newsletters, or you can send targeted emails to people who have shown an interest in your products or services.
Using paid advertising to promote your content. Paid advertising can be a great way to reach a larger audience with your content. You can use paid advertising on social media, search engines, or other websites.
Tracking your results and making adjustments as needed. It's important to track the results of your online content marketing efforts so that you can see what's working and what's not. You can use Google Analytics to track website traffic, and you can use social media analytics tools to track social media engagement. Once you know what's working, you can make adjustments to your strategy to improve your results.

Ana Smith helps people & organizations achieve their full talent potential by developing and co-creating people strategies and customized solutions, and turning them into impactful outcomes and collaborative relationships, using coaching as the "red thread."

Kathryn Marshburn, Music Program Manager

The data is undeniable that large amounts of quality social media posting and increased posting frequency is the key to successful sales. Some of those strategies are free and some are not. Here are three top thoughts to increase online sales with content:

1. Awareness campaigns

Most online sales strategies can be distributed for free through social media, where you can create content for awareness campaigns without having to pay for it. Having music artists post on their Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook accounts would be a great place to start advertising your music product with consistency and frequency for new music drops as well as merchandise.

My advice is a very practical approach.

Nobody here today, in 2023, is confused that peopleâs attention sits on social mediaâ¦at scale. It just does and will continue to do so in the future. Sometimes, businesses confuse a business strategy on social media with a human perspective and opinion of social media.

The consumer you are trying to reach is not super concerned with your personal take on how you feel about what 13-year-old is trending on TikTok. Consumers donât care how much you like or dislike Facebook. Your consumers are surfing around on socials, living their life, seeing things, and spending their money. Most successful online sales stories do have a connection to social media and embracing the concept is important for music teams so that the messaging aligns with specific awareness posts for future music initiatives as a baseline.

2. Placing social media ads

Let's strategize against what the consumer is actually seeing and the reality of the sales process. Sales today does connect to social media in every way and ads that come across your feed allow you to reach more eyes. Yes, placing ads, within a reasonable budget, will be effective in increasing sales. Research should prevail before ads are placed to make sure the target audience is receiving the ads and the correct buyer is being targeted. The reality is that the consumer is online, therefore leveraging ads in front of those customers is essential.

For music artists, aiming for Gen Z and millennials has proven successful as research supports that a large percentage of time spent by this demo is searching for new music artists. Where are they searching? Blogs, articles, banners, and festivals. Placing ads in these specific verticals will be effective in driving music sales.

3. Increasing the frequency of your social media posts

The data is undeniable: more frequent posting is guaranteed to increase sales. Recommended volume for posting should circulate around 12 creative posts per day, per platform. Posting on LinkedIn, YouTube Shorts, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Those companies that do not enjoy the grind of posting at a large volume may not survive. Hire a social media team if you must...but posting now is the baseline for successful sales. People that are outflanking in posting cadence are winning exponentially. People that are out-posting others are picking up market share by the simple fact that there is just too much attention on these 5-7 platforms.

Find your cadence and post quality, and aim for 8-12 posts per day.

Kathryn Marshburn has spent 12+ years in the music and gaming industries guiding teams on identifying targeted goals with an agile approach resulting in driving revenue and reducing risk.

How do you use online content to generate sales? Join the conversation inside Work It Daily's Executive Program.

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Executive Spotlight: How To Use Online Content …

Marketers today are constantly trying to stay ahead of the curve with their brands in this fast-paced world, maintaining a sense of relevance with their audience. As a result, itâs critical to build competitive marketing strategies.

Here are five brand marketing trends that marketing leaders must incorporate into their strategies to drive results.

Focus On Video & Live Stream Content

Short-form video is a popular and highly effective marketing tool that is here to stay due to its virality. Of all the video formats, short-form has the highest ROI and is also #1 for lead generation and engagement. Source. With constrained budgets, short-form videos can be produced quickly, easily repurposed into other content, and cost-effective. This format is a great way to grab peopleâs short attention spans and communicate your message quickly. Social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, Snapchat Spotlight, and Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram Stories prioritize short-form content in their algorithms, making it easier for brands to reach a wider audience.

In addition, the global live stream market will reach more than $247 billion by 2027. Source. Live streaming is gaining significant traction and gives brands unique opportunities to engage with their audiences in real time. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and TikTok have integrated live streaming into their platforms, allowing brands to reach their followers easily. Additionally, live streams can be recorded and shared after the fact, allowing brands to continue to reach new audiences even after the live stream has ended.

Here are several short-form videos and live-stream options to grow your business:

User-Generated Content Videos: Created by customers or fans of a brand and are more likely to be trusted than other forms of marketing.
Behind the Scenes Videos/Livestream: Provide a glimpse into the inner workings of your brand or company by showing off your culture, highlighting your employees, giving a day in the life, providing insights into your process, and fun bloopers.
Explainer, Informational, or Education Videos: Great for explaining complex concepts or ideas and encouraging customers to learn more about your brand.
FAQs Videos: Answering commonly asked questions makes the customer buying journey easier.
Testimonial Videos: Powerful marketing tools where customers share how much they love your brand.
How-to Videos: These are booming with the rise of âTikTok Taught Meâ videos and are simple step-by-step guides for âhow-toâ to accomplish a specific task.
Expert Interview Videos: Interviewing subject matter experts.
Series Videos: A series of videos that have a particular theme, topic, or story and are released sequentially.
Q&A Livestream: Allows viewers to ask questions in real time, bringing a sense of closeness. As you provide answers, you show that you value their input.
Webinar Livestream: This live conference or presentation typically consists of one or more speakers who provide valuable information, insights, and knowledge while taking questions from viewers to drive interactivity.
Influencer Takeover Livestream: Partner with an influencer who discusses your brand, showcases your products/services, and engages with their followers.
Product Launch Livestream: Showcase your product in action, demonstrate key features, benefits, and functionality in real time, explain the problems it solves, answer questions, and build hype for new product launches.

Focus On Social Media Marketing

Over four billion people are using social media, which is expected to increase to six billion by 2027. People spend more than 2 Â½ hours per day on social media. This should be a key part of your marketing strategy as it allows you to connect with your audience on a personal level authentically. Many people, especially Gen Z, use social media for everything from connecting with family and friends, filling their spare time, learning something, getting advice, seeing whatâs trending, searching for jobs, finding what to buy, and answering lifeâs big questions. Source. Social media platforms allow brands to reach consumers in the medium of their choice. Here are three ways to use social media:

Social Commerce Expanding: Virtual shopping has boomed and is expected to reach $1.6 trillion by 2024. Eighty percent of Gen Z and millennial shoppers have bought a product theyâve seen on social media feeds. Consumers have many options today: Instagram Shopping, Facebook Shops, and TikTok have been testing their âShops.â Brands today can provide customers with a direct way to purchase without leaving the app, providing a virtual storefront.
Social Media for Customer Service: Social media has evolved into a customer service platform. Twenty percent of Gen Z and nearly 25% of millennials have contacted a brand on social media for customer service. Source. People increasingly expect brands to offer social media customer service support. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
1. Set up a dedicated handle for social media customer support
2. Create social media guidelines
3. Monitor brand and business conversations
4. Be proactive and manage customer expectations
5. Respond timely and always respond
6. Go the extra mile
7. Take public conversations private
8. Try a chatbot for common customer service requests
9. Use a social media management tool for efficiency
Social Media Influencers Will Continue to Influence: We are seeing a shift in brands building longer-term, authentic partnerships with creators who can develop and maintain trust with their audience, promoting the same brand over time, leaving behind influencers who will partner with any brand that pays. For constrained budgets, micro- and nano-influencers (creators with fewer than 10K followers) are an excellent option for driving awareness and engagement. While influencers require more personalized management and relationship building, they can target niche audiences with a greater ROI. Sixty percent of marketers say influencer marketing has a higher ROI than traditional advertising. Sixty-one percent of consumers trust influencersâ recommendations, and more than 38% trust branded social media content. Here are the top influencer trends to watch:
1. Live Shopping With Influencer Campaigns
2. Marketers Spending More on TikTok
3. Emphasis on Creators Across Multiple Platforms
4. Performance-Based Deals
5. Influencers & Professionals Will Become More Specialized
6. Increased Influencer Collaborations
7. Influencers Changing Affiliate Marketing
8. Employee-Driven Content Will Increase

Focus On The Customer Experience

Every year, $1.6 trillion is lost in the U.S. due to consumers switching brands after receiving lousy customer service. Over a third of customers say they will leave a brand they love after one unpleasant encounter, while 92% will walk away after two to three negative interactions. And 76% of customers expect consistent interactions across departments they interact with; however, 54% say it feels like sales, service, and marketing teams donât share information. The great news is that increasing customer retention by 5% can boost profits by 25% to 95%.

Here are several trends to consider for your customer experience strategy:

Understand the Customerâs Perspective: Create a customer journey map, a visual representation of the customerâs experience with your company. This can provide valuable insights into every stage of the customer journey, the factors that directly or indirectly motivate them, and whatâs needed to create a cohesive experience. Youâll need to connect with all the departments interacting with your customers, gathering data such as customer touchpoints, needs, barriers to customer service, attitudes, motivations, perspectives, emotions, pain points, and problems your products/services need to solve for your customers.
Hyper-Personalized Experience: Customers want hyper-personalized, tailored experiences that speak directly to them. Ninety-one percent of consumers are likelier to shop with brands that recognize them, remember past transactions, and provide relevant offerings and recommendations. Personalization now means that customers want us to know them, anticipate their needs, remind them of what to purchase next, consider their best interests, and create a branded experience that feels special. This can be achieved by using data analytics to provide behavioral insights that help you make that personalized experience that keeps customers returning for more.
Chatbots to Aid Customer Service: Chatbots have a greater impact on the consumer experience, with 90% of businesses reporting larger improvements in the speed of complaint resolution. Seventy-four percent of consumers prefer using chatbots when looking for answers to simple questions. Incorporating a chatbot feature can help you take your customer service to the next level. Here are five chatbot trends to consider:
- Voice Assistant Chatbots Gaining Momentum
- AI-Powered Chatbots
- Conversational Commerce
- Chatbots Will Automate Payments

Focus On AI Technologies

Artificial Intelligence means a machine to accomplish any task that requires âintelligence.â Today, AIs are just statistical models that make good predictions using probabilities and math. ChatGPT and Bing AI are the latest in the line of AI technology blowing up in the news lately.

ChatGPT, an AI chatbot developed by OpenAI, was thrust into the news recently with Microsoftâs announcement of its multibillion-dollar investment in the company. Microsoft then unveiled a new version, Bing AI, that ChatGPT powers. It works by typing in a question, and it will respond, laying out the answer and providing context. It is simple to use and provides results in an instant that look like a human produced them. It has its shortcomings. Itâs still learning, which means it can give wrong answers, is not a human expert, and has its bias, to name a few. You need to understand the limitations and use it as a co-editing tool, helping to train it while fact-checking your work. Here are seven ways you can incorporate ChatGPT and Bing AI into your business:

Blogs/Podcasts
Social Media Posts
Video Scripts
Research
Content Creation
Ad Copy
Keyword Targeting Suggestions

Focus On Social Responsibility

Consumers today are loyal to brands that practice social responsibility. As a result, 90% of shoppers worldwide will likely switch to brands supporting a good cause. Social responsibility is no longer an option but a commitment, and thatâs why businesses are shifting the way they think about marketing (89% of marketers in 2023 plan to invest in social responsibility content vs. 45% in 2022). Itâs not about generating leads; itâs about building trust with consumers so that they feel comfortable supporting your brand. Here are key trends that have emerged:

Increased Transparency: Consumers are no longer satisfied with shady business dealings and are demanding to know more. As a result, companies are more transparent with their social responsibility. Marketers are highlighting the following social responsibility efforts in their marketing campaigns:
- Recyclable packaging
- Societal issue awareness through promotions/campaigns
- Advocating for social justice
- Directing portions of purchases or profits to charity
- Running one-for-one campaigns to donate products to those in need
- Company-sponsored community services or activities
- Promoting fair trade
Focus on Sustainability: Corporate sustainability is more important today than ever. Although 90% of business leaders think sustainability is necessary, only 60% of companies have a sustainability strategy. The good news is that 67% of companies have started using more sustainable materials, such as recycled materials and lower-emitting products. Here is some example of approaches you can take in your marketing initiatives to be more sustainable:
- Donating profits to sustainable causes
- Sourcing sustainable materials and packaging
- Creating a product/service that focuses on sustainability

Think Global, Act Local: Acting locally involves making an impact within local communities where a companyâs footprint resides and where employees live, work, and play, elevating the wellness of everyone. How does this impact your marketing initiatives? Consider the global implications of your product launches to your marketing campaigns while also considering the needs of your local target market. Think about how your product/service or marketing campaign will be received by people in different cultures around the world and the impact on the environment.

The key is staying on top of these trends, being flexible, and being open to change so your business doesnât become a dinosaur. Start building your brand leadership today. Youâve got this.

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Top Brand Marketing Trends Leaders Must Incorporate

Do you have a LinkedIn account just for the sake of having a LinkedIn account? If so, you're not alone. Many people create a LinkedIn profile, fill out the basic information, and never touch their profile again. That's a BAD strategy!

The problem with this approach is that you don't take the time to learn how to navigate or leverage LinkedIn to your advantage.

LinkedIn can be a valuable resource for those looking for new career opportunities. There's an option in the platform's security settings that allows the user to let recruiters know they are open to new opportunities.

Even if you're happy in your career, you never want to close yourself off to new and exciting possibilities. In addition to career opportunities, LinkedIn is beneficial for networking and meeting new contacts to exchange ideas, which will help you build your personal brand and stay relevant in your industry.

Here are a few ways to make better use of your LinkedIn profile:

Use Content To Your Advantage

It's hard to get noticed on LinkedIn if you don't stand out, and one easy way to stand out is by using content to your advantage. Content is king!

Remain active on LinkedIn by consistently posting content about your industry and company. You can do this by creating your own content (if you're an authority on a subject) or by sharing relevant and engaging articles. Posting relevant information about your profession helps to reinforce who you are as a professional and shows that you are engaged in your career.

To get better organized with posting content, create a content calendar for your page that reminds you to post so you don't fall behind.

Another way to stand out is by creating graphics for your content to make it more visual. Free online tools like Canva can assist you with graphics and images for your posts.

Update Your Profile Regularly

As your career goes on, your job responsibilities will change, and you may even get promoted. It's important to put these changes on your LinkedIn profile because it shows a pattern of career growth. In addition, as your job responsibilities change, it may impact the skill sets and keywords that you want to feature in your headline and "About" section.

It's also important to highlight accomplishments when the opportunity presents itself. If you or your company win an award or recognition for work in the field, that information should be shared on your LinkedIn profile for personal branding purposes.

Build Your Professional Network

LinkedIn is a good way to stay in touch with former colleagues, mentors, and other significant professionals in your industry. Having a large network that you're in contact with is important because these connections could potentially vouch for you when you're looking for a new career opportunity, or even refer you for a job.

Networking via LinkedIn is also a good way to get past the applicant tracking system (ATS). You can track down and potentially connect with a recruiter on LinkedIn to get your information directly into their hands.

Recruiters use platforms like LinkedIn to find top talent. It's not uncommon for those who are successful in their careers to get job offers before even knowing that a job is available. That's why it's important to put your LinkedIn profile to use.

By remaining active, you can easily make your LinkedIn profile work to your advantage. It shouldn't sit idly by wasting away!

Need more help with your LinkedIn profile?

Sign up for our FREE Resume & LinkedIn Bootcamp today to learn how to update your resume and LinkedIn profile the way recruiters want!

This article was originally published at an earlier date.

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How To Make Better Use Of Your …

How To Successfully Manage Your Career Goals

When it comes to having career goals, it's important to aim high. But sometimes the challenge we all face in aiming high is putting too much pressure on ourselves and then becoming overwhelmed. Achieving your career goals is all about balance.

The best way to achieve your career goals without putting too much pressure on yourself is to understand that it's very unlikely that you'll achieve your goals overnight. You have to build a career plan, be flexible about it, and work to chip away at the goals that you set.

Here are three ways that you can successfully manage your career goals:

Set Mini Goals

A business woman celebrates a small win after accomplishing a mini goal

Setting mini goals is a way to help accomplish your overall goals, but in a way that is manageable and less overwhelming. For example, say your goal is, "I want to be promoted in a few years." This is a solid and ambitious goal, but for some, it can be difficult to know where to start in making this goal a reality.

This is where mini goals come into play. In order to put yourself in a position to get promoted, you can start with the mini goal of, "I want to do something every month to help grow my career."

Accomplishing this mini goal could include taking a month to focus on courses or certifications that will help you upskill, using another month to put greater emphasis on your networking efforts, and using yet another month to learn a new skill entirely. All these mini goals help make you a more well-rounded employee, and that type of effort adds up over time.

There's no guarantee that you'll get promoted in a few years. There are so many factors at play, but focusing on career growth will at least put you in a position to be considered.

Build Better Career Habits

This is similar to setting mini career goals in the fact that you're taking small steps to achieve a larger benefit. Changing the smallest habits can make a huge difference in your career.

One habit that many job seekers can improve on is how often they update their resumes. A lot of people don't update their resumes until they're applying for a job, but a better habit would be updating your resume every six months.

Updating your resume every six months helps you keep track of things you've done to learn and grow your skills. It's much easier to remember recent events than to try to go back three years ago to assess what you've learned. It can also be motivating, as it can serve as a good reminder of the skill gaps that you still need to fill.

Other career habits to change could include cutting out 20 minutes of daily social media time to focus on your career instead or making it a point to reconnect with one LinkedIn connection a week.

Creating better habits can go a long way toward helping you accomplish your career goals.

Incorporate The 3 Cs Into Your Career Goals

Young professional on laptop takes online courses to help advance her career goals

At Work It Daily, we're big proponents of the 3 Cs because they can help professionals at all levels of their career journey, including those looking for a job, aiming for a promotion, or exploring other ways to grow their careers.

Here's a refresher on the 3 Cs:

Content: There's a lot of great information on the internet, including at Work It Daily, that can help professionals plan their career goals, including video tutorials, online quizzes, blogs, etc.

Coaching: Whether it's an online coaching platform like Work It Daily, or consulting with a trusted colleague or friend who has had career success, take advantage of the knowledge of others.

Community: Whether it's a coaching community, or someone you know also trying to get their career in order, it's always best to not address career challenges alone. In addition, it never hurts to have positive reinforcement.

All of these small steps can make a big difference in helping you accomplish your career goals, and the best part is that it's all manageable. As long as you have these small goals in mind, and stay organized, you can grow your career without feeling overwhelmed.

Need more help with your career?

We'd love it if you signed up for Work It Daily's Event Subscription! Get your career questions answered in our next live event!

This article was originally published at an earlier date.

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How To Successfully Manage Your Career Goals

Want To Move Up The Ladder At Work? Focus On The 3 Cs Of Career Growth

Have you heard of the three Cs of career growth? They are the three things you need to focus on in your career if you want to move up the ladder at work and find long-term professional success.

As a career coach for the last 20 years, I've learned that people cannot move their careers forward in a vacuum. You can't grow your career alone. And that's where the three Cs come in...

The 3 Cs Of Career Growth

@j.t.odonnell How to grow your career FAST! @j.t.odonnell #careertiktok #careeradvice #careertips #learnontiktok #ScreamItOut ♬ original sound - J.T. O'Donnell

The first "C" of career growth is courses/content. You need resources in your career that will teach you something new and give you a new perspective.

The second "C" is coaching. In order to truly grow your career, you need a trained expert or a mentor, somebody who can help you interpret what you're learning, especially if you hit roadblocks. A career coach, for example, can tailor their answers to support you and your needs, providing you with the right advice that will help you succeed.

The third "C" of career growth, and the most important, is community. You have to surround yourself with like-minded individuals who are working on the same problem or chasing the same goal. This not only motivates you, but it gives you more information and perspective in order to speed up the success of your learning.

Where To Find The 3 Cs

Woman smiles while talking to someone virtually on laptop

Now, where do you find the three Cs of career growth? Well, I actually founded Work It Daily on the principles of the three 3 Cs. When you join our FREE community, you get access to courses, coaches, and community—all in one place!

Work It Daily is one of the largest online career coaching platforms, and all you have to do is sign up to get FREE access to the 3 Cs of career growth. Sign up, check out our free resources section, and pick courses to learn from. You can post your questions inside the community for the coaches and you can meet other members who are part of the community.

So, if you want to grow your career and move up the ladder at work, you know where to find me.

Sign up for Work It Daily's FREE community today! My team and I are looking forward to working with you soon.

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Cultural Execution: A Brainstorming Tool For Exceptional Social Media Content

As the demand for more content on a daily basis becomes the norm, the topic around the brainstorming process and what tool is best for brainstorming quality ideas for creative content becomes essential. I can tell you—from the many years that I have worked with exceptional gaming and music creative teams—I would be focusing on one area when working with creatives & influencers: culture.

Creative Teams

Creative team brainstorms content for social media

The only way you get great ideas is if people feel safe to say them out loud. The tools needed to achieve great narratives and to get great campaign content are rooted in a culture where people feel safe to express ideas out loud and not get judged. When a team feels safe to speak up and share ideas that are relevant to pop culture at the time, the creative content is unstoppable and this creates successful new content. The reason most organizations and companies struggle with good ideas is that there is usually someone in the room that is the killer of ideas imposing his/her political will against the rest of the crew, leadership styles that create fear and narrow viewpoints.

I have been fortunate to have worked with some of the best teams in the tech industry and the common thread, in my opinion, has always been a crew that supports humility, kindness, and curiosity as those are the elements to unlock the creative process and unless you have a culture like that, you're dead. If your boss makes people feel scared to throw things out for creative discussion the future of the team is in jeopardy.

This is called cultural execution.

Focusing on planting seeds with your entire team to create an inclusive environment will achieve more. If allowing everyone to contribute to the success of the team is a priority, the campaign will align with new creative ideas. Your team should feel safe, where if they have a new idea and can throw it against the wall out loud to see if it will stick and is respected for contributing, this act alone creates trust which equates to results.

Try to avoid this scenario: for example, a Sr. creative with tons of experience comes into the meeting and makes the entire team feel little. This is not effective and creates fear and is counter-culture to great creative campaigns and, by the way, Gen Z can smell it a mile away. Collaboration is the key here to creating creative authentic relevant content.

Influencers

Particularly when working with influencers directly, allow them to create without interference and encourage them to lead the narrative. They know their fanbases the best and know how to engage them. Fans, consumers are more sophisticated and smarter today than ever. I have found myself many times kindly educating brands on how the optimization of dollars spent for an authentic content campaign is reliant on reach and no one can unlock that better than the influencer. The opportunity lies in constraint and not to judge, but to support.

So, if you want to obtain creative content at a better, faster pace than you are now, creating a culturally creative environment is important, not to mention a great way to build your team for long-term success. This will help you to create an atmosphere for your team where they feel safe to share new relevant ideas. Making this change will increase the volume of content as more ideas more frequently start executing.

Try this strategy out today and let me know how it works for you!

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