Dan Schawbel is the leading personal branding expert for Gen-Y. He is the bestselling author of Me 2.0, as well as the publisher of both the award winning Personal Branding Blog and Personal Branding Magazine.

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Today, I spoke to Nancy Colasurdo, who is a writer, a practicing life coach, a facilitator of goal-setting and creativity workshops, and a columnist for FoxBusiness.com. In this interview, Nancy talks about how she’s built her personal brand as a life coach and journalist, what issues she typically helps people with, how people can confront this economy, and more.

Nancy, how did you build your own personal brand and get to where you are today?

My career has been built on hard work and setting goals, but being open to opportunities along the way. I have always had a fire in my belly. My pattern seems to be nose to the grindstone, someone else noticing my work and suggesting a path, me resisting a bit but then pondering the possibility. It was a college professor who noticed my articles in the campus newspaper and suggested I major in journalism. It was a former editor at the newspaper I worked for (10 years) in Central Jersey who first left print for the Web and talked me into joining him at FoxSports.com in New York in the late 1990s.
It was a life coach in a volunteer training program I was doing who said I had talent in this area, that I seemed “a natural.” As an independent contractor, my brand has been built through authenticity and incrementally adding components that help increase my exposure (i.e., teaching workshops, attending networking events, blogging, writing a column for

FoxBusiness.com and engaging social media). And I feel like I’ve only just begun.

You’ve been involved in print, web and television. Where do you see these in relation to the web?

When I entered the world of Web journalism via FoxSports.com in 1998, it was brand new to me and I was, frankly, nervous about leaving print. Fortunately, what I brought to the table in terms of journalism chops was perfectly complemented by the bright, computer-savvy 20-somethings on staff. We learned from each other and I quickly figured out how to bring my deadline experience to the Web. Getting up to speed enough on HTML to edit within its parameters was perhaps my biggest challenge. What came naturally was being the liaison with on-air talent (i.e., Keith Olbermann) to get breaking stories on the site.
Later, at Oxygen Media in 2000, marrying television content to Web content was my primary responsibility, so again I learned by diving in head first. A decade later, television and Web content are becoming more seamless, interchangable. I’d hardly want to hazard a guess as to what’s next. Still a bit of a technology dinosaur, I keep marveling.

What is life coaching? What typical issues do you help people with?

For me, life coaching is about helping people get clear about what they want and often that it’s OK to go after it. I’m a can-do coach. So many people get caught up in the societally dictated norm or get pigeonholed into one line of work when they’re young and never go outside of that world they’ve constructed. They get into their late 30s to late 40s and realize they’re not living the life they want. Sometimes even loved ones aren’t supportive of the changes they want to make because they’re afraid of what it will mean to them.
My tagline, “Connecting you to your creative core” came about because part of what inspired me to coach was the book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I specialize in unblocking creatives, helping clients push through inertia and guiding them to build out what I call their “non-work” life. The idea is that often your day job feels more satisfying if the rest of your life is spent doing things you love. Of course, ideally we strive to merge their passion and their work life.

What advice would you give to someone who is depressed because of the current economic situation?

Well, if it’s clinical depression I’d say go to a qualified physician and get some help. Life coaching is not designed to replace that.

However, if it’s not depression in the clinical sense, I would offer words that even I had a hard time hearing when I lost my job in 2002. Keep going. This is a test of your mettle.                                     If it is at all possible and/or feasible to use a period of unemployment to pursue something you’ve long wanted to, do it. I strongly believe if we link our desires with appropriate action, doors will open. For example, I decided I wanted to be a columnist for a major Web site, so I began writing columns as if I had a writing gig. When I was at a social function for a beloved professor from college, I ran into a former colleague who had recently been hired to head up FoxBusiness.com; he was familiar with my work as a columnist and knew my ability to build a following. When he suggested a column about “how to live life” I already had samples to send him. This isn’t magic. The desire, or wish, must be in lockstep with action.

For those feeling particularly desperate about money, I highly encourage you to work through denial and anger and get to a place of acceptance that your lifestyle must be simplified. I know that’s hard to hear — if foreclosure is on the table, for example — but it will benefit you and ripple to everyone around you. Also, take care of yourself. I must say a saving grace for me was holding on to my gym membership for dear life even when health insurance was not an option.

What career obstacles have you endured and how did you conquer them?

I don’t know that I’ve had obstacles as much as challenges. My traditional Italian-American family didn’t see education for girls as a priority, so I worked my way through college with only one very small loan to worry about upon graduation. I am very proud of that. I thoroughly enjoyed my years as a sports reporter/columnist and was part of a talented and dedicated team, but certainly heard my share of “because you’re a woman” when I received an accolade. Again, I don’t think it held me back, but I struggled to handle it gracefully sometimes. Perhaps my biggest challenge of all has been bouncing back from a layoff in 2002 that I was ill-prepared for financially. It was jarring to be turned away from temp agencies and even cashier jobs because I was over-qualified. Eventually, I realized it was an opportunity to build my life coaching practice and pick up freelance writing and editing projects along the way. I pounded a lot of pavement and still do.

Nancy Colasurdo is a writer, a practicing life coach and a facilitator of goal-setting and creativity workshops. She currently writes a twice-weekly life coaching column called Game Plan for FOXBusiness.com and has been published in, among others, Ladies Home Journal, Parents and on Beliefnet.com. Nancy has 20-plus years of experience in three forms of media – print, web and television. Her journey in the communications field began at The Trenton Times, where she was a sports writer/columnist for 10 years. Nancy spent the ensuing three years working as a web producer for FOX Sports and the National Hockey League and as a television producer at Oxygen Media. Nancy is a member of Conversation Among Masters, the International Positive Psychology Association and mediabistro.com’s AvantGuild.

 

 

 

Blogging

• Register your own name as a domain name. If not available, use your personal brand name or some variation that won’t confuse people and will still reinforce your brand.
• Syndicate your blog in brand-related sites and networks.
• List your blog in pertinent website, blog and RSS directories.
• Exchange blogroll placements with industry bloggers.

Places to put your personal brand information

• Email signature
• Forum signature
• Website personal profiles (like Ning’s) that allow you to fill in a short bio and list your website or blog.
• Software-based personal profiles, like Skype’s.
• The name field in blog comments forms should mention your personal brand name.
• The website field in blog comments forms should point at the website that best brands you, whether your blog, social media resume, LinkedIn profile, or anything else.

Social media

• Considering the time investment involved, be selective in choosing the right social media for you, and then complete your personal profiles with your branding messages.
• Use Twitter or other micro-blogging services to network, ask and answer questions, share and learn.
• Create a social bookmarking account (e.g. on del.icio.us) specifically for articles related to your profession or interest, and then encourage people to help you find related arti cles.
• Arrange to have bios posted about yourself on Wikipedia, Knol, Squidoo and other user-generated media.
• Launch a Facebook Page about your industry niche.
• Tie together everything in a dedicated FriendFeed profile that allows people to follow your online activities from one source.

Personal brand-reinforcing content

• Produce your own podcasts (audio or video).
• Dedicated video channels for you on sites like YouTube.
• Launch an online initiative related to your profession.
• Participate in other online initiatives to get noticed.
• Put out press releases when you have a newsworthy accomplishment to share.
• Write op-ed articles for mainstream media.
• Start a newsletter about your field of expertise.
• Conduct (free?) webinars about up and coming topics.
• Create your own products.
• Grow an affiliate network to promote your products, which means they’re also promoting you.
• Likewise, promote products that you can recommend honestly and whose buyers will appreciate you bringing it to their attention.
• Leave insightful comments on related blogs.
• Have online chats or Q&A sessions about brand-related topics.1635284948_d230029508
• Guest post on pertinent blogs.
• Interview industry celebrities, trendsetters and other people of interest.
• Be one of those people of interest and get interviewed on related topics.
• Post presentations you’ve given on topic, such as by publishing them on your LinkedIn profile and blog.
• Write an eBook.
• Release free reports about latest events in your industry and your predictions for the future.