This is the Moment I've Been Training For

I haven't blogged in SO LONG, and getting back into the swing of blogging daily or multiple times per day has been a difficult process for me. Just several years ago, I was writing 1800, 2400 words a day with no problem. I was writing blog posts for clients, blog posts for my own blog, blog posts for free for different organizations and much more. Nowadays, I can't find the motivation to do a single blog post, whether it's for myself or for work. I'm not sure what the problem is, but the only way to fix it is to sit down and write a 600-word blog post like I am doing now. Then do it again tomorrow, probably for work this time. And the do it again the next day, maybe two blog posts (one for work and one personally). I ought to get into the habit of creating great content anyway, as I need to do a lot of it over the coming months to deliver value to our users and creating opportunities for people to get to know our brand and, ultimately, download one or more of our apps.

I Need to Grow the Brand

I have about six months to get as many people as possible using Inside and its various apps. As long as it's not illegal or a method that's just acquiring bots or something, I can use just about any marketing method that works to get the job done. It's quite scary in fact. There's a lot at stake. My boss is putting a lot of faith in me to accomplish something great. I don't want to fail or to be perceived as someone who is bad at this job. I've done similar work previously, but not at this scale or this pace. Working with various apps also poses new challenges that I've never overcome before, although I am equipped with tools that I didn't have when I blogged and did social media marketing in the past.

Eventually, I Want to Revolutionize App Marketing

Small tangent, but there's an inbound marketing concept called The Buyer's Journey. It's the journey that every buyer goes through as they make their decision regarding their purchase. I think app marketing is completely focused on the decision stage and just getting the person the app. There's nothing really in the app industry on moving someone through a buyer's journey and working with a potential user to become an actual user. There's not a whole lot on ensuring actual users are happy users and doing things to turn them into fans and promoters of the app. The emphasis is so much on just increasing users and getting new users. I want to change app marketing by demonstrating that focusing on the awareness and consideration stages of the journey, you can still increase users while also having happier users who use your product more often and will do the work to get others involved. I suspect that by rushing potential users to the decision, or only presenting the decision, that folks who are still in the awareness and consideration states will ultimately delete or stop using the app because the app didn't meet their needs or solve their problems after all.

To Do That, I Need to Make This Moment Count First

I can talk about changing app marketing and what I don't like about it and what I could possibly do working at an app to provide a better experience to users when they consider, download and use apps. However, I need to accomplish a few things at work over the next few months. If I do that, while I talk about app marketing, inbound marketing, and whatever else comes to mind, then incredible things will happen.

I've spend several years blogging, several years learning how to do inbound marketing and content marketing, and I even started my own business to provide those exact services. All of that, I think was the training and the practice for this year and these next six months. I need to step up to the plate, take a few swings and hit a few home runs in the process.

15 Things I Am Horrible at Doing, and Why

This exercise is another snippet from Hacking Your Education: Ditch the Lectures, Save Tens of Thousands, and Learn More than Your Peers Ever . The point is to find things that we may be horrible at doing because we never really made the effort to be good, or we decided in our heads that we were horrible at those things before making any effort to change that or to show ourselves that we could be good at those things. It's interesting to think about our failures and shortcomings in a new light, especially since it's very easy to focus on what we are good at and to work on those. Here are 15 things I am horrible at doing, and why I'm not any good at them:

1. Sales - I have an excellent grasp of marketing, but what to do with a lead once I got one (the beginning of the sales process) was where I got stuck. What do I talk to these people about? What if they don't want to talk, or don't give me much to talk about? Perhaps I just need to work on my elevator pitch.
2. Riding a bike - I've tried, more than once, to learn how to ride a bike. Never quite got it. Now I'm just scared the neighbor kids will laugh at white girl trying to learn how to ride a bike.
3. Singing - I think I'm getting better, at least I think I'm getting better. But, no one ever considered me a good singer, or someone capable of winning American Idol, or anything like that.
4. Driving in Severe Weather - I think I only suck because I don't have much practice. Also, they don't cover driving in snow, hail, or icy roads in the Hawaii state driver's manual. Those things don't happen where I'm from.
5. Cooking - Now that I think about it, I don't think I'm horrible at cooking. When I follow a recipe it comes out fine. I think I just dislike cooking that much. My mother can attest to this. I never took an interest, although, I do think I could find a niche as a soup chef. I've been making my own soups lately and they are delicious while being so simple to make!
6. Accounting - I know there are programs like Mint.com and Wave Accounting that can do this for you, but when I set up my business account, I set it up with a very small bank. Therefore, these programs couldn't upload my account information and do everything by hand. However, I couldn't get my number to match what was actually in my account. That made things harder than they needed to be, and I never could figure out why my numbers didn't match.
7. Roller Blading - If you've never tried it before, then you would be horrible at it, right?
8. Folding Bed Sheets - There's a trick to this that I have yet to understand fully. I try to fold bed sheets and I just can't have the edges line up and have a neat pile of bed sheets. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. By the way, bed sheets is two words and not one.
9. Sewing - I think I know how to sew. The needle scares me.
10. Pumpkin Carving - I have no idea how some people manage to carve such amazing pictures into their pumpkins! I can barely get the knife to cut, let alone execute one of these jack 'o lantern ideas.
11. Drawing - Falls into the same category as pumpkin carving. Much of the visual arts are beyond me.
12. Focusing on One Thing at a Time - I'm always full of ideas. I still have this problem even as my business coach worked with me on this and forced me to pick one thing on which to focus. It's hard to pick one, or to pick one and see it to the end.
13. Putting Things Away After I'm Done - I think this one has a lot to do with the previous thing I'm horrible at doing. See, I'm never done with something. I'm more, distracted, or in need of a break as I do something else and come back to this other thing later.
14. Swimming - I know how to swim, and I've been swimming since I was a little kid, but my technique is all over the place. You'd think I'd be good at this since I grew up next to an ocean, but growing up next to one and spending time in it are two different things. Also, swimming in a pool and swimming in the ocean are also two different things. You don't have much visibility in the ocean. It's not fun.
15. Speaking Russian - Well, I'm horrible now, that's for sure. I never as awesome Russian speaker during college, either. I was okay, although my host mother in St. Petersburg did say my Russian was terrible. It certainly wasn't as good as my roommate's skills.

Pick 3 and Give Them Another Try

Here are the three I'm going to pick and to give another try:

• Singing
• Driving in severe weather
• Speaking Russian

Well, I don't really need more things to do. I still need to learn history, and to learn how to drive stick (which should lead to learning how to drive in severe weather). Now, I need to figure out how to give these three things another try to get better at them, and how to measure that progress. I feel like, in another week or two, I need to review my life up to this point and sort through the loose ends. I'm going to have a lot of loose ends.

Why You Should Hire Me to Write Your Content

Blogging for others is my bread and butter. It's how I've made a living and have built my professional reputation over the past few years. If you need content, whether it's web content, blog posts, eBooks, or white papers, then consider Allison Reilly as an option in getting those things done. Here's why you should hire me over anyone else to write your content:

I've Covered a Wide Variety of Industries

If you look at my portfolio, you'll see that my five years of writing and editing experience includes everything from identity theft to social media, from business answering services to small business technology. Even if I haven't covered your industry, or have only covered something similar, don't let that stop you from hiring a great writer. Industry experience is just one indicator of talent and success, and it's by no means an honest indicator of talent and success. My variety shows that I can be successful in any industry and that I can bring a fresh perspective to your content needs and content marketing strategy. Also note that most articles in my portfolio are at least 500 words, showing that I don't write short, fluffy articles that don't say anything at all. With every piece of content, I strive to provide something of value to the reader.

I Can Do Many Types of Content Marketing

Business blogging may be my bread and butter, but I'm not a one-trick pony. I can write things besides blog posts, such as press releases, white papers, case studies, web content, and email marketing campaigns. Although you may only need one type of content, it's best to have one versatile writer you can rely to do any type of content you may need in the future. It's better than hiring someone to do the blog, only to hire someone else to do press releases, and someone else to do SEO and web content. After all, content marketing is about all of the above, as you need multiple types of content across multiple platforms to maximize the strategy. You can get more out of your content if you do a series of blog posts, then turn that series into a white paper, then turn that white paper into a webinar.

Clients Love Me

My oldest client has been with me for almost three years! In that time I've written blog posts, press releases, and white papers with plans for additional content as well as no plans of stopping to write content anytime soon. Most of my clients have been with me for over a year, although I do have a few that have only become my client in the past two months. My clients wouldn't be my clients for this long if they didn't think I did good work and if they didn't think I could be trusted to deliver content on a weekly basis and to contribute to the business. To show you how much my clients love me, I have a testimonials from Nathan Strum, president of TelAssistant - Allied Offices:

I have been working with Allison for close to a year now and am extremely happy with her work. I was seeking a writer for our company blog about a year ago when I first contacted Allison. In the past when hiring a blog writer I have spent almost as much time helping the writer come up with ideas for the blog articles as it would take to write the article myself. Allison took charge very quickly and learned about our industry. She has been creating interesting articles for a year without the hand holding that most writers need. Our readership has increased and the arrangement is an overall success. We have doubled her work and will be adding more work to her plate soon. Her articles can be read at http://www.alliedoffices.com/blog and http://www.telassistant.com/blog.

The sooner the words are written, the better. Contact me today if you have a writing project for me!

Why Blogging is Crucial to Your Personal Online Reputation

There's this notion that blogging is something that only crazy people do, people who want to post pictures of their cat or who have too much time on their hands. Businesses, or very important people, may do it, but its not something that normal people do. This notion needs to change.Everyone, at this point, has an online presence and reputation. Even if you avoid social media all together, there are always articles, documents, and your friend's content that can show up online under your name. Don't forget the possibility of someone having the same name, and a less-than-clean record, that could show up instead of you. You need something that can present what you want to present online and on search engines, and blogging is a great way to do that. Here's why blogging is crucial to your personal online reputation:

Show that You're an Expert

It's that whole conundrum with finding a job: you need experience to get a job, but you need a job to get experience. Showing experience and expertise is tough without a job, but not impossible, and a blog is a great way to demonstrate both those things. For example, Ted Juch has a great blog on using Google Docs, and that's all that blog is about. Spreadsheets, documents, how to create them, and what you can do with them. Yes, it's geeky and niche, but no one else is doing it while many people have used Google Docs to do something at some point in time. Also, commitment to this topic means that Juch will be the go-to guy on anything Google Docs. It's too bad the blog hasn't been updated in a while, because a blog like that one is a great one to position yourself as an expert.

Work on Your Writing Skills

Nearly all companies, and all positions within those companies, seek people with great writing skills. It's a skill that's no longer reserved for English majors, copywriters, and marketing positions, but a skill that's hard to demonstrate unless you bring a portfolio to the interview (which isn't a bad idea). However, put the blog on the resume with the link, and the hiring manager can have a chance to see the blog and read a few posts. The blog will say a lot about your level of commitment and project management as well as your writing skills. Not only does practice make perfect, but there are tons of great resources out there (like this writer's blog) that specifically talk about how to be a better writer.

It's One Thing You Can Control

If you're applying for jobs, then you have to realize that hiring managers are looking at social media profiles and search results for additional information. A recent CareerBuilder survey found that 43% of hiring managers who research applicants on social media sites say they have found something that has cost a candidate a job. You can't always control what shows up under your name, but a blog is one thing you can control. Blogs also connect with social media sites, so if your Facebook feed regularly features your newly published posts, then that's what hiring managers are going to see (versus those partying pics and status updates about hangovers).

Don't forget that the more you write, and the better your writing, the higher it will rank on search engines. The more posts you create equals more pages to find online and more positive ways for others to find you online. Also, your name is one of the easiest things for you to rank for you, so if you don't like what you see today when you type your name into the Google search bar, then that can change if you decide to blog and to blog often.

Why Am I Here?

And How to Figure Out Why You're Here Too

I picked up a book from the library called, Hacking Your Education: Ditch the Lectures, Save Tens of Thousands, and Learn More than Your Peers Ever Will. It's kind of obvious from the title what it's about. I've read a few snippets here and there, and one of those snippets was the following exercise below. It's used at a non-profit to help kids who can't get beyond their current environment, and the author offers the exercise as a way to show if college is really necessary for someone's dream job. I think it's a worthwhile exercise to figure out what you really want to do with your life, what you want out of it, and what it might take to get there:

What are You Put on This Planet to Do?

This is to be a verb, always a verb, and just one verb. My verb is: to help.

What are Your 5 Greatest Gifts?

Your five greatest gifts are also verbs, and these verbs support your mission (the original verb above). These verbs help with your purpose, and they're not necessarily your biggest strengths or your strongest skills. My five greatest gifts are:

1. To write
2. To think
3. To represent
4. To ask
5. To organize

For Each Gift, Come Up with Two Ways that You Could Use it To Add Value to the World

Each way is supposed to be an occupation that uses this gift to add value to the world. Here are my 10 total ways that I can add value with each of my gifts:

To Write

• Columnist
• Publisher

To Think

• Researcher
• Consultant

To Represent

• Public Official i.e. State Senator, City Councillor etc.
• Non-Profit Director

To Ask

• Journalist
• Policy Analyst

To Organize

• Community Organizer
• Event Planner

Choose One Way, and Come Up with 5 Ways to Fortify the Gift in the Real World

Of the 10 occupations, pick one and come up with five ways to fortify the gift, or to be better at that occupation or that gift. I'm going to choose columnist for this, and here are five ways I can fortify my gift to write so that I could be a columnist (or a better columnist):

1. Start a blog
2. Pitch the idea to a publication
3. Go to an event to write about
4. Attend a writing or journalism seminar
5. Read a book by a career columnist

Now What?

From the book's perspective, the point of the exercise is to see if you really needed a college degree to be a columnist, in this case. The answer is no, for the most part, especially since it's so easily to start a blog or to pitch an idea to a publication. You might want to go to college to specialize in a subject i.e. biology, history etc. that would be helpful for the column, or to be able to work on the college newspaper or magazine to improve your writing skills, or even to go to college to start a column about college life. But, all of that's not necessarily going to college to be able to become a college because there isn't anything intrinsic about college that's needed to have a successful weekly column.

Overall, it's a good thing to do to get a sense of direction, and to come up with a few ideas for career choices and pursuing your career choices. It's also a great way to think about what you're good at , what you like to do, and what possibilities may exist that compliment those things. It's not always about going to school, which isn't all that bad because school is expensive and time-consuming.

I Think I Need to Work on My Niche Again

I feel like this blog lost a little something, that it's not what it used to be. I understand that part of it might be that the move to the domain name, where few followers transferred over from the Wordpress site to this one. The switch also prompted a swarm of spam comments, of which I have abated with an Akismet purchase, so that at least takes away the frustration and the time to clear these things away. But, I also think that it's more than that, and that primary something is the niche.

What About Identity Capital?

Although I love the idea of building identity capital, this site is meant to be more about building my own identity capital instead of helping others build it. The theme of chronicling my journey of building identity capital is just awkward unless I pick one or the other. I mean, we should be constantly building and thinking about our identity capital. Essentially, it's a fancy way of turning this into a diary, and this isn't Xanga so we don't need that sort of thing. I need a better theme, a smarter theme, a theme that does more than provide a good online presence and overload the search engine rankings with my random musings (there are worse things that could overload the search engine rankings). I need a theme that actually builds identity capital and positions myself as an expert in that theme/topic. Besides, the tagline for this website is awful.

So, Once Again, I Need a Topic

This part of the process is going to take a long time. I really shouldn't be having this glass of Almond Breeze Mocha Iced Coffee, but I am (and it's delicious) because this is going to take a while and it requires some serious thought. There are just so many topics to choose from, but the point here is to choose a topic that I want part of my personal brand. It also has to be a topic that isn't too competitive, or is something where there's an open niche. I could easily do a blog on content marketing or business blogging, but the competition is outrageous (and I don't really want those things part of my personal brand anymore). It also has to be something that I could reasonably position myself as an expert in. Sure, I could do a poker blog, but I don't play often enough to have anything to say about it or to have anything unique to contribute.

I don't know why I'm forcing myself to pick one right now, or even in the next few days. I might have to take the time to sort out my ideas, and save the ones that have the most money-making potential for the business and ultimately choose one that has little in the way of revenue but lots when it comes to audience value and current need.

Part of My Personal Brand

I need to recognize that this website is part of my personal brand, much like Stirring Media and Gateway Grounds are going to be, although I hope that those entities will become bigger than myself and will eventually not need me to survive. The same can't be said for this site, and even though it's not going to be the same as those other two, I think the perspective ended up constricting me. Because I didn't want this site to turn into another business venture, I was a bit more willy-nilly about the whole thing, when this site should have been given the same rigor and attention when it came to choosing a niche and to choosing a topic. That's all changing now.

I am Getting SuperBetter at Eating Healthier

As I was working on my summer reading list and making my way through Citizenville, the author discussed the idea of making government more fun by turning civic duty into some sort of game. The city of Manor, Texas did it by awarding residents a fake currency for submitting an idea on how to fix the idea. If your idea is chosen to be implemented, you got even more of this fake currency, called innobucks. These innobucks could then be redeemed for real life goods, such as being mayor for a day or free appetizers at a local eatery. I'd do more for St. Louis if it meant more Ted Drewes and Kaldi's coffee.

Anyway, while reading about this great stuff, the author mentioned the name Jane McGonigal, who had started this really awesome website/online game called SuperBetter. I remembered her from a TED talk I watched a few years ago (it's below if you want to watch it), and I didn't realize that she had started this gaming website "designed to help you build personal resistance." I had to see what it was all about and give it a whirl.

I Haven't Even Started Yet and It's Amazing

SuperBetter is SO FREAKIN' COOL. Once you sign up (which is free), it starts you off with four different exercises about the four different types of resilience: physical, mental, emotional, and social. The exercises are incredibly easy, ranging from taking three steps to looking out a window for a few moments, from thanking someone on social media to snapping your fingers 50 times. Each exercise comes with a short one-minute video about that resilience and some of the science. After you do these four things, called quests, you then move on to choosing your secret identity, choosing your challenge, and choosing a power pack to overcome your challenge (you can even create your own power pack if you want). My business coach should totally incorporate this into her coaching.

I went through this, and chose eating healthier as my challenge. I went vegan after Thanksgiving, and after a few months of keeping that up, it's slipped away. I'm no longer vegan. I'm not even vegetarian. Since I have two things on my life goals list about eating healthier (one is to avoid eating out for an entire month, and another is to be vegan for one year), I decided that this would be a perfect place to start. I've been thinking about eating healthier ever since my diet slipped, but haven't made any movement in the right direction. Now, with the help of power ups, allies, and fighting bad guys, I'm hopeful and excited to have concrete steps to move in the right direction.

I do have to admit, I LOVE the branding. The more colors something has, the better it must be. The rainbow is just phenomenal.

I Will Start Today/Tomorrow

I have downloaded my Power Pack, the Full Plate Diet, and I will start my first quest today/tomorrow. I already know that what I need to do is watch a video, sign up for a free membership, and subscribe to a newsletter. Sounds easy enough! But, of course, when you are just starting, the first step is always the easiest. It's the next 972 steps that are difficult.

In the meantime, if you want to know a little more about this concept of gamification, and whether it really works, then here it from the founder herself. Part of the reason why this TED talk is so cool is that she's a female gamer who's using games to help others better the lives of others as well as their own lives.

[ted id=1501]

OMG bonus talk! I didn't realize that she had TWO TED talks! I just watched the one above for the first time as I was putting this post together, when she referenced her first talk in this second talk. I was really trying to find and to share the one below, which is her first talk. Anyway, they are both long, but both incredibly compelling. After all, she is essentially encouraging us to play more games and to turn more of life into a game. Rock on, right?

[ted id=799]

This is Who I Am

I came across a really cool Tumblr called, ... And That's Who I Am. It's essentially a microblog of pictures with fun phrases and sentences to describe who you are. Well, most of them are fun, but some of them are not positive or awesome at all, so I don't know why anyone would want to pin those or download them or use them to proclaim who they are. Unfortunately, I can't find anything about who runs this blog, or why s/he started it, because some of these "that's who I ams" aren't things you should be proud of at all and that you should hope or try to change, such as this one:

See, this is not awesome (and for the record, I do not have a people comparison problem). This is not something anyone should be saying as if it's "who they are" and that it's unchangeable. There shouldn't be any pride in a habit or statement like this. It's a practice that should be stopped and changed because it can stop. I don't know if the person who runs this blog wants to use the proclamation as the first step toward changing it, like finally admitting it's a problem and a part of you. I wonder this also because there are a few that could go either way, such as this one:

This one can be seen as either a positive or a negative, as it would depend on who you are today and who you thought you would be today 10 years ago (for me it's positive because I certainly didn't see myself in St. Louis, or engaged, or as a business owner, or even all that involved in human rights and activism. I thought I would be writing poetry and fiction all day.) It's statements like these among the first two that really make me wonder how this popular blog got started, why was it started, and what the founder wanted to achieve. However, some of the statements on here are just plain silly and fun:

I am TOTALLY a unicorn. As the saying goes, "You should always be yourself. Unless you can be a unicorn. Then, be a unicorn." I mean, who wouldn't want to be a unicorn? Unicorns are very powerful creatures with blood that can give you life.

Of course, there are also those statements that are factual, but are very much a part of who you are and how you perceive the world, like these two:

There's no denying that I am really short, and that I am an Aquarius (well, maybe you could because there was the whole thing several years ago, where all the star alignments were wrong and that your astrological sign wasn't really what you thought it was. However, I am definitely an Aquarius). Sometimes, it's the things that you can't change about yourself that you learn to embrace the most. I can't change when I was born or my height (well, to some extent. There's always heels!)

Okay, part of the reason why I did this is because I am super tired today taking an hour-long road trip to way-out-yonder Missouri to pick up a desk I bought. It's a great desk, but that's two hours in the car and all the time it took to move everything else around in the apartment, get the desk where I want it, and then put everything back on top of my new desk. It's been an exhausting day. I didn't want to write anything, but I didn't want to skip a day of blogging either. Besides, this works out because for this post, it's about the pictures, not the words. Here's the rest of who I am:

Progress on My Summer Reading List

I previously committed to reading five books this summer. Not just any five books, but five specific books, although I would like to read more than five books this summer. As of today, I have read two of those five books already: The Business of Baby and the Road to Lost Innocence. I've already made it clear how I feel about The Business of Baby and the status of maternal health in this country.

Road to Lost Innocence

I enjoyed Road to Lost Innocence, as it provided additional details about the sex trafficking industry in Cambodia and how the industry has changed since Somaly was a prostitute. What struck me the most is the lifelong psychological consequences these girls have, as even women like Somaly don't come out completely unscathed. In the book, she says the smells give her nightmares and haunt her the most. She readily admits that the smells are probably in her head at this point, but that doesn't stop her from using perfumes and air fresheners to do what she can to block them. Even though I already has a strong understanding of Somaly's story and of the sex trafficking industry in Cambodia and other developing countries, I do enjoy reading more books about this topics (and other topics that I am already familiar with) because I think that each book adds additional details and an additional perspective. From this book, I learned more about the men who frequent the brothels, how the foreigners perpetuate the trade (and how they helped Somaly) and some of the attitudes that Somaly is up against in her country.

I Finished "The Defining Decade"

Even though it wasn't on my summer reading list, I borrowed The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter- and How to Make the Most of Them Now yesterday since the main idea behind this blog is building identity capital. The idea came from this book, so I had to read it. I ended up finishing it yesterday as well, as I found it to be an engaging and phenomenal read, something that all twentysomethings should read. Although I do think the first half of my 20s have been well spent building identity capital, as I am heavily involved in activism and have spent much of that time building a business and learning all sorts of skills, I like how the book is much more than maximizing your professional life. It's also about thinking about marriage before you have one, making wise decisions about your relationships and what you want out of a life partner. It's simply about not treating your 20s as simply a time to have fun, to have no responsibilities, and to do what you want until 30. Starting a family, a marriage, and a career all at once is difficult, especially if you didn't spend your 20s thinking about those things and taking steps in the right direction.

What am I Reading Now?

Currently, I'm tackling Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government. I've only gotten through the introduction, so I can't say too much about it. It seems interesting so far, and I do hope that the book offers a few concrete ways to use the Internet and social media to participate in government and to improve civic engagement. It would be helpful for my activism work, since part of that work is finding support for legislation or lobbying politicians to do this or that.

I did find out something interesting when I watched a documentary on Netflix the other night (it might have been We're Not Broke, but I'm not sure). One of the things the documentary said is that the politicians and the staffers actually don't write the bills, even though that's what the Schoolhouse Rock video says. Bill writing is something that's outsourced to the lobbyists, who can then come back with the exact legislation we want. It got me thinking that with activism and with non-profits, it might be a good idea if we take the time to write the bills, and then when we lobby, we just drop off a bill instead of just saying, "We are concerned about X, Y, and Z." We would have done most of the hard work, and it could be much more powerful if a lot of people lobby at the same time and drop off the same bill to numerous politicians.

I am Building Identity Capital

Identity capital is defined as, "our collection of personal assets. It is the repertoire of individual resources that we assemble over time. These are the investments we make in ourselves, the things we do well enough, or long enough, that they become a part of who we are.... Identity capital is how we build ourselves – bit by bit, over time. Most important, identity capital is what we bring to the adult marketplace. It is the currency we use to metaphorically purchase jobs and relationships and other things we want." (Thank you, Ask a Young Professional for this. I haven't read the book yet, although I have now just put a hold on it at the library) This is what my blog is going to be about. This is what I will do every single day: build a bit of identity capital. I am 25, so it's something that I should be spending more time thinking about. In case you were wondering where this idea came from, watch the amazing TED talk below:

[ted id=1741]

Blogging is Great for Identity Capital

It really is, especially if you take the time to use your blogging to develop new skills and/or to showcase your expertise. If you do it regularly enough, like at least once a week, then it's great for online reputation management as well. If you're worried about what comes up when people search your name online, or if your social media profiles might get in the way of you getting a job, then blogging regularly means that you are creating something that can trump what you don't want to show up in search engine rankings. How cool would it be if all that shows up under your name is all of your awesome blog posts? Even if you blog about something that might not  have anything to do with where you want to go professional, great blogs posts indicate a hell of a lot about you that you want a hiring manager or recruiter to take note of. These include:

• Dedication toward a project - You can stick with something and get it done, or have the discipline to take the time to accomplish something. This is especially true with blogging, where it takes a while to see results.
• Great communication skills - The fact that you can write well, or even market your work well (or all in my industries and professions), is a huge plus.
• Web Development - Being able to use Wordpress, or Blogger, or Typepad, or your web building/blogging platform of choice is also huge. It's also a skill that not a lot of people have, and might be a boost simply because a lot of people can't do this well.
• Expertise in Something - If you do choose to blog about something that is related to your career or desired profession, then how cool is it to be able to show this expertise through a blog? It's not quite the same as "three to five years of experience", but you're also spending time to develop your expertise, to communicate it, and to learn new things about it. This could help you because you can show that your knowledge is fresh, that you are aware of what's trending, and that you do take the time to get better instead of just do your job and show up everyday.
• Passion - People like other people who have things going for them, who actually like something in life other than sleeping, or hanging out, or just messing around. Even if you're blogging about something that isn't related to what you want to work in, a blog demonstrates passion and something outside of your job position that defines you.

So, what are you doing to build identity capital?