Week 3 Has Come To A Close

PBandJterm class has finally come to a close. I had absolutely no idea that a Personal Branding class could have such an effect on me, personally. (No pun intended.) Our professor, Jill Falk did an amazing job at making everyone in the class feel comfortable falling into their “brand.” I have never felt like I could show all my colors to a class like I did in her class before.

This class made me realize that it’s okay to be yourself, in fact that’s the only way to land a job. We’re living in a generation that’s rebelling from the formal ways when it comes to resumes, interviews, etc. The technology is rapidly advancing and as communication students we are expected to be experts in social media.

I was touched by the fact that our class became so close. Every single class mate was unforgettable in their own way and I hope I was able to leave a positive impression on them as they did with me. One of my favorite elements of the class was the field trip we took this past Wednesday to Switch Marketing where we met with Jessica Leitch who interns there currently. She is a former Lindenwood communications student and she has her own blog, City In a Jar that speaks to my soul!

We got to listen to the work that Switch Marketing does as well as what it takes to be such an avid blogger like Jessica. I loved her carefree and fun attitude that she contributed to her site because it inspired me to run with my blog.

I can honestly say…this class taught me to get in touch with what I really want. I had no idea that blogging was something I could be interested in. The idea of putting my thoughts in to words and making something possibly worth reading is exciting to me.

Another exciting thought is keeping up with my Linked In account and gradually improving it more and more and see where it takes me.

This class exceeded all my expectations and I have decided to call it a life skills class because I will use each and everything I learned for the rest of my life. I know that someday, when I get “the” job that I have always hoped and prayed for…I will be able to attribute my wealth of knowledge to this very class.

Lastly, I learned from Jessica that sometimes if you can something in fewer words, you should. I learned all about brevity. And with that I have decided that I have concluded my thoughts on this class and illustrated my point in 444 words as opposed to the expected 500. 🙂

Niche Presentation Woo

Check out my most recent Prezi about my niche in life 🙂 Hopeless Romantic

A Hopeless Romantic Gives Hope?

Ever since I was a little tike I was passionate about communicating with all sorts of people. I was shy in the beginning, but man if you asked me my name and smiled, I quickly transformed into the real chatter box I was.  As the story goes, our family trip to the Grand Canyon went very well because I was two years old and peaking in my communication skills. Supposedly, every single person we passed I chose to great with a big cheesy smile and a “Hi man, hi boy, hi girl, hi woman, hello miss, hi sir, etc.” That is just one prime example of how I was desperately trying to socialize constantly even at such a young age. Nothing changed as I grew up, except I started developing crushes by the time I hit preschool. I could still tell you the name of each and every boy I was “sweet on.” That being said, when I reached high school you could say I was peaking with my boy crazy stage.

My dating life in high school was pretty average, not much heartbreak or heartache. Once I got to college, things got serious. I feel like dating in college is a whole different game and I was hesitant to play. I identify myself as a hopeless romantic for a few reasons. The idea of being in love and experiencing “sweep you off your feet romance” is something I see as beautiful and worth waiting for.

I am a true believer that when it comes to love and romance, it’s all in the chemistry. If you cannot honestly feel a deep connection to someone just sitting in a room conversing with them, than why would you spend the rest of your life with this person? This is where my “hopeless” title comes into play. Obviously I’m not going to have chemistry with every guy, in fact I could meet the most attractive and perfect man, but if I don’t feel those incredible sparks coming from chemistry…he’s not the one.

I think everyone has experienced this so-called “spark.” If you haven’t, wait for it. I promise it’s so worth it. Past loves will feel like just friends after that. This leads me to explaining what I find to be my niche in life; relationship advice. Even though I am single at the moment, I am completely content with it especially when I feel like I have a purpose. Isn’t that what life is about? Finding that purpose in life and running with it because it will make you happy?

Anyways, considering I have a passion for communicating and such good knowledge on the subject of dating, I have become the relationship advice hotline for all my friends. I would not label myself as “Cupid,” but I have set up a few friends that have ended up in long and happy relationships.

My best piece of advice for anyone out there in the dating game; you must first be content and completely happy with you and only you. You must be passionate about being independent and being in control of your life. Once you reach that “high on life” feeling, then you are ready to consider being happy with another.

I read a book called “How To Find Your Soulmate Without Losing Your Soul” that really helped me look at love from a whole new perspective, it includes some religious references however there is so much philosophy and information packed in there, anyone can relate.

Goodbye to Professional Resume, Hello New Ideas

With 2 out of the 3 weeks of Jterm class coming to a close, in retrospect I have accumulated an overwhelming amount of information to help me further my Public Relations knowledge as well as personal branding methods. This week I researched as well as presented the up and coming Andrea Valeria. Her story inspired me because she achieved a level of success that we’re all capable of achieving as college graduates. I learned a few lessons from her, one being that if you want to make something happen you have go to do it for yourself without expecting help from anyone else. That way, if someone is to help you out along the way you will be that much further along because you’re not expecting that “extra push.”

Researching Andrea Valeria also taught me the importance of staying up to date with news and my social media. She answers her tweets personally as well as all emails. The fact that she answered my questions so quickly showed her true interest in her fans as well as her personal brand. Part of a personal brand is how you treat the people around you…all the people.

We were lucky enough to have many guest speakers this week including Nick Gilham and Josh Turner who gave us pointers on how to make our LinkedIn account more professional and appealing to potential employers. I never realized how important it was to have a picture uploaded, but they explained being able to see who you’re reviewing is a big part of evaluating process. They also explained how paper resumes are going to be close to non-existent, especially for communications and marketing majors. The real resume is the brand you present online, on your LinkedIn accounts and other social media accounts geared towards business.

A lot went through my mind this week in terms of my opinion of resumes and professional accounts. If I could add anything more to the conversation it would have to be that creativity is the key to landing the job. In order to be a step above the rest, you have to add a creative element to stand out. It does not matter if you have lists of experience if that experience is not illustrated through your ability to present your brand. I realized that a technically “more qualified” candidate may have a job snatched from them by someone who knows how to brand themselves better and tailor that brand to the job description.

I like that the job searching game is changing in terms of getting outside the box. Society gas branched out of the phase of formality and moving to something with a little more color to it. I found this website while surfing the internet, this article in particular is helpful in furthering the personal branding and reputation process.

Andrea Valeria: Video Blogger

Andrea Valeria is rapidly gaining popularity as a YouTube video blogger check out this Prezi!

I Am a Content Creator

On a daily basis the amount of content I consume is mind blowing when I really sit down and think about it critically. In the morning, instead of reading the paper I browse through my Twitter feed to check up and see how everyone’s morning is going. Throughout the day I may log on to Facebook and get a good laugh because most people post the most immature things onto Facebook. The rest of the day is filled up with learning new material in class from what the professor says as well as what the professor presents to our class. I realized a lot of the content that I consume is not exactly solid material that affects me in a positive way. Part of being a content consumer means making the conscious decision to consume things that stretch your imagination as well as impact you to have an opinion about an issue. I rarely watch television, but when I do I enjoy watching the news because it’s so informative and then I can decide which information I believe and which information I want to research closer.
The only time I am not consuming is when I’m sleeping. I thought about it and even while I work out there is television on and I still have access to check my social media in between. While I eat a meal I’m usually on Twitter and now recently I’m slowly becoming addicted to my new Tumblr account.
Besides being a consumer I am also primarily a content creator, especially in today’s Web 2.0 world. I create quite a lot of content on my Twitter account. I have 2 separate accounts now, one for my own personal tweets and one I use on a more professional level. This allows me to use Twitter for social purposes and business purposes. On my personal account, my tweets vary from very sarcastic and dry humor to a vast majority of song lyrics that describe my every emotion. My other account I use to express what I’m doing to gain experience in the field of communications and public relations. I share stories and tips to keep my motivation going and to show that I am knowledgeable. I post pictures and videos on Facebook . I post pictures on Instagram. I would say I have a very creative niche for anything that inspires imagination. Many of the photos I instagram I try to include a creative element, and by doing this I’m teaching others just by example.
I can use my social media to portray my personal brand. That’s something I need to think about consciously at all times when I am creating content. Once it’s out there, it can never go away. The brand that I want to convey while creating content is an intelligent and driven communications major that has a passion to address flaws in modern society using media expertise. I want to be a social media butterfly. My personal branding goal is that someday when I Google my name, an accurate description comes up of a successful person who made a difference.
Some of my favorite websites that are helpful are: personal branding.tv and ted.com

“Google Me Baby”

I googled my full name tonight and was surprised that I could not find a trace of the real “me” for pages and pages. I can honestly say that I am relieved because in today’s technology-based world, everything we put on the internet gets out there and I would like to think that I’ve guarded my privacy pretty responsibly over the years. However, I looked under the image results and found one photo of me. The photo was linked to my pinterest page, something I do not feel the need to hide, but in fact show off! In the future, I would like to see my name pop on Google linked to something truly meaningful, but this will take hard work which I am prepared to do.

My dream career is always changing, but if I could do anything I would chose to be a leading member of a PR department for a large corporation, particularly one that has a truly great cause and mission. I want to make a difference through my ability and love of communicating with people. That is about as specific as it gets for now. There are a lot of young women who inspire me, but they are not the obvious ones or the people that even have a similar job description to what I want. In the music department, Taylor Swift is truly an inspiration for me because of her incredible humility throughout her journey as becoming one of the most popular young women in pop and country music. I look to her when I need to feel grounded. I am truly inspired by the hopeless romantic roles in romantic comedies because these young women (even though they are acting) are enjoying the job they are portraying in the movie. Their excitement (whether it be real or not) motivates me to find a job that I want to focus all my time on.

When I blog on this website or Facebook I feel all the thoughts that I normally keep to myself are put into something solid. It is a redeeming feeling to see my opinion posted on something that might actually get views. That is one more view than it would have gotten if I would have just kept it to myself. I like feeling like I have something to say and that someone will want to read it and even agree with me. I would say I have a fairly high level of confidence when it comes to talking about things I know about. I think the reason my confidence is that high is that the fact remains, if you speak with confidence you are more apt to be considered a valid source of information. That’s half the battle.

My area of expertise ranges from certain creative things like painting, writing, and drawing to fitness questions. The big area of expertise however lies in relationship advice. I swear my phone is like the relationship hotline for every one of my friends, boys and girls. It’s ironic because I can never seem to put my own advice into action, but I sure give the best. I like when people come to me because it gives me purpose and I feel like I’m a credible and trustworthy person.

At this point in my life, I feel like I have never been more undecided on what I want to do with the rest of my life and at the same time I have never felt so happy as well as independent. My level of freedom is at a whole new level and I am extremely content with it. I mean hey, I’m a single 21 year old broke college student. It is completely “miserable and magical” at the same time. I’m not desperately searching for a man now, I’m patiently waiting for the RIGHT one. I’m using my time right now to pave the way for an exciting life for myself and the rest will work out itself!

Netflix Outrage

Recently, the new law regarding video viewing privacy on Netflix accounts has caused some controversy. Netflix users are given the option once to opt out of the agreement, but if they do not they are stuck to this law for 2 full years. According to a recent article I read, this gives Netflix the power to share viewer information as well as viewing history with Facebook friends as well as other users. Some people may say that because Netflix does not provide pornography that this privacy issue should not be a problem. Personally, when I first read over the article I did not see why it was such a big deal. However after thinking about this from the perspective of others, I quickly changed my mind. Later in this article, it points out a situation where a leader of some kind who is looked up top, could possibly click on a link of a friend to see what fits about without knowing how risqué the video content is. If this person’s friends were to see that he viewed it, this could lead to assumptions and judgements that are not valid. This could be the case for anyone with an account, but that is just an example of how good people could get framed into looking untrustworthy. The reason this law is so unsettling to me is the fact that I cannot find a valid enough reason for it. What could possibly be so beneficial that it’s worth risking the account member’s privacy. Another question is, who is it beneficial too and who is it detrimental too? One could argue this is infringing on our rights as citizens and I would gladly agree. The reason it’s so scary is this could be the first step to long list of privacy infringing laws and before you know it were left with none at all. It can start out slow, one at a time and gradually turn into something greater and more scary. I think the American people need to put their foot down in the beginning before its the end. This article reminded me of how smart phone and iPhone users always have location on to where the government always knows where you’re at. To me this is way worse than the recent law passed, but there has not been much controversy displayed in the media about it. I would venture to say that paves the way for more privacy issues along the way. Lookout America.