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Career Advice: How Will You #LeaveYourMark?

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Reading is one of my greatest passions. Finding a book that changes my thinking and sparks ideas for me is life-changing. Leave Your Mark. Land Your Dream Job. Kill it in your career. Rock Social Media.ย by Aliza Licht is one of those books. I wish I had this when I was a twenty-something just starting out in my career. Although I've found plenty of success in my career, I did a total reboot to create my current work life which may be daunting or scary for some people. Was it worth it? ย Absolutely, I love what I do. Like Aliza, being passionate about what I do brings me joy.

I met Aliza in person at a conference 2012 in New York City where she was speaking and I was attending and live tweeting the conference. I interviewed her after her speech for an article calledย 12 Most Unfashionable Twitter Faux Pas from DKNYย and we've stayed connected on Twitter. I was dying for her book to come out because PR is a weak spot for me and her main focus. Her book did not disappoint and in fact delighted the heck of out me. I couldn't put it down! It's part behind-the-scenes in the fashion industry, part-advice from an amazing PR professional, but mostly you feel like you're getting personal advice from your best friend.

This isn't a boring, dry business book, it's a heart-felt story of one girl who worked hard and learned along the way. Aliza wrote Leave Your Mark as a mentorship guide to help others find their passion and path. Her story is proof that working hard can take you great places. You'll learn about how to create fantastic email pitches, PR tips, how to kill it in your career – all things that you can apply to a job search, your current job or even to find success on your own path like I did.

Here are some of Aliza's Insider Tips that she sprinkles throughout the book.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Good karma is actually good business.” #LeaveYourMark @AlizaLicht” quote=”Good karma is actually good business.”]

[clickToTweet tweet=”Forget the long-term goal. Nail what is in front of you and your next step will be crystal clear.” #LeaveYourMark” quote=”Forget the long-term goal. Nail what is in front of you and your next step will be crystal clear.”]

[clickToTweet tweet=”If you have no one to show you the ropes, build a ladder.” #LeaveYourMark @AlizaLicht” quote=”If you have no one to show you the ropes, build a ladder.”]

I was thrilled to have her as my guest on the relaunching of My Book Club in her first Google+ Hangout. I will be hosting monthly interview for My Book Club. Watch the video and enjoy the full transcript below.

If you're at a point in your career where you aren't sure what you can do to move forward in your career or just starting your journey, Leave Your Mark will help you create a path to success. It's the perfect read for someone just graduating or looking for a brand-new start.

Full transcript from the My Book Club Interview with Aliza Licht, author of Leave Your Mark.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Hi, everybody! It's Peg Fitzpatrick of My Book Club and I am super excited today to have my guest, who is on camera right now, Aliza Licht.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Hi, everyone!

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  She is joining me from New York City. I am Peg Fitzpatrick and I am here from New Hampshire, so we are across the country but not as far as you could be across the country. Aliza wrote a book that I have been dying to get and I got a pre-order copy of “Leave Your Mark.” Look at that cover! It's amazing! “Land Your Dream Job, Kill It In Your Career, And Rock Social Media.” She covers so much territory in this book. I'm super excited to get talking about it.

I just want to give you a little bio on Aliza if you don't know her. She is a social media superstar. She started with PR, but she's also moved over to social media which we'll talk about a little bit. She's a global fashions communication executive. She's the voice behind Donna Karan New York, but she's here today as herself, Aliza Licht, which is the great part that she is behind a brand, but she is also a brand herself. She's known for her chatty intimate tone and she's also become beloved for her top-notch career advice. She's live, doing all the things that we're going to talk about today. That's one of the things that means the most to me, when someone's actually doing all the things that they write about. This is Aliza's first book and it's a great story that she tells through the book, but there's also a ton of practical advice.

I don't want to read the whole bio, I just want to get into it so we can talk about “Leave Your Mark” and what we can pick up in the next half hour with Aliza. That was a quick intro. Do you want to tell us a little bit more about yourself?

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Peg, thank you, first of all, for hosting this. By the way, Peg just has a million followers on Google+. I have eleven, I think! Which is very [00:02:00] impressive!

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  It's a million everywhere, if you total up all my stuff, it's a million.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Amazing! Amazing! So impressive! Peg has her own book, “The Art of Social” which is is brilliant. It's “power tips for power users” which is think is a genius tagline. Peg and I became friends really through Twitter, right?

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Yes.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  We met at that conference, I forget which one, but we met at a conference.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  It was Dave Kerpen's Likable conference.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Oh, yes! It was Likable Media. Yes, it was Likable Media. We hit it off with your Twelve Most. I remember exactly!

Basically I've been with Donna Karan for seventeen years and my job is ninety-nine percent traditional public relations. Then in 2009, I started doing PR on Twitter and it's been quite a journey since then. Through Twitter, I love to mentor and I've been doing a lot of it virtually. I was lucky to have the opportunity to put it all in a book and hopefully share some good advice that I learned the hard way, people. It's not all roses and glamour, trust me.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  No, because you never know what's going to happen, right?

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  No, you don't.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I love the story of how we met because I think it's a perfect example of how social media and networking work.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  A hundred percent!

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Neither one of us, at that point, we were both just on social media. You were there speaking at the conference about your experience and I was a conference attendee actually covering social media for the conference from my Twitter account and stuff. But we're both good networkers and even though we didn't know that either one of us would write a book three years later, here we are. It was a great connection to have later which I think is something that people don't always think about that someone that you meet might not be someone that you … Not that you need something from, but would be a great connection for later. It turned out to be great for both of us.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Yeah, I believe, and I always say this, you need to build your [00:04:00] network before you need your network. I think it goes it's always a two way street. I think the best business is good karma and helping people share their stories and hopefully the favor will be returned.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I agree with that and Guy does, too. That's one of the things that we talk about a lot is networking because some people spend a lot of time asking for things, asking for people to share things and really the best way is for it to be organic. For example, my book club, I literally was dying for your book to come out because I look at everything from a marketing perspective and you look at things from a PR perspective and we meet in the social media [envelope 00:04:42]. To me, that's really interesting because even if we were trying to solve the same problem, we might have a different way to get there.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Absolutely! We're like two halves of the same coin.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  We need to work together.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Yeah and we are working together tonight.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Yeah, definitely! How did you get started using social media? We talked about it a little bit, you just kind of found Twitter. How was that evolution from your traditional PR things, which you still do, to using social media? Because I don't know if everybody knows your great back story.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Like every company, you sit around talking about stuff you're going to do. We were sitting around in a marketing meeting talking about starting on social. This was back in 2009, no fashions brands were really in the space at the time. You touch it, you own it, right? I came to the table with the idea that PR would be a great lens to tell the brand story through. At the time, I was obsessed with Gossip Girl. It was 2009, remember! It was really good back then. I thought, “Wow! What a great idea to say look at Gossip Girl. She's anonymous, people follow her, they don't really need to know who she is to get the juice of the story.[00:06:00] ” That was what I modeled it after. Of course I had no idea of what I was doing, Peg. Obviously, we know that!

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Right, right! Like, “What's a tweet?”

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  What's a tweet? You learn as you go. What really drove me was the engagement and the building of the community. That was the part that I got addicted to. I feel that it's an incredible way to connect with people.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I feel like you changed your whole industry, too because I know doing research back when I first met you, you really changed your whole industry and how things work in the industry. I remember at that conference we talked about I think it was Storify where you could save the tweets up and then add them. Then you went that night to an industry event and you used it. Just the fact that you can change the way traditional things are done because the worst thing say is, “That's how we've always done it.” If you had said, “Oh, no! PR should definitely just be press releases and emails to people or phone calls.” Imagine the brand outreach which you have from that.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I think you're being very generous with saying that I changed the industry, but …

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I do!

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  … I don't think I can take credit for that, but I think that I'm very open to technology and I love technology. I always love to jump on what excites me and I think PR absolutely needed a makeover. I think social media was the way to go.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  You're being really modest though because you have won a lot of awards in your industry. You guys can Google it later. She's done a lot of really awesome stuff. Which, honestly, was not that your goal was to go win awards, either, right?

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  No.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I mean it's just you doing what you love, so that's the best part, right?

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Actually doing what you love with the support of management because you cannot do it alone. It would have never taken off if I didn't have that support.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Some brands are afraid. They don't even want it. [00:08:00] Usually it's the PR people. Maybe it's because you're a forward thinker.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I think they were all forward thinkers, actually, because you may be a forward thinker but you could have legal block or you could have somebody in the infrastructure block you. I think that's the hardest part for brands is getting that management trust to say, “You know what? You can't approve every tweet, but you can look at them after and read them and see if you like them.” You know that's the only way to do it. If you want to have that nimble ability. I've never had a content calendar. Ever! It's completely off the cuff. That's how I am. I shake, I move, I go! I can't be held to a schedule!

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I'm actually surprised you're not tweeting right now or maybe you are tweeting right now.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I could tweet if you let me, but you said that would ruin our video so I'm not going to do it.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  You can if you want. One of the things I love is you said, “Forget the long term career goal, nail what's in front of you and your next step will be crystal clear.” How did you get your foot in the door and create your path?

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  First of all, I want to really clarify the statement because I feel like we get told year after year like, “Make sure you plan it out and you have a five year plan.” Certainly, in certain areas, businesses, you have to project, you have to see the future as best you can. What I mean when I say that is we're not psychic. You can think, “Okay, in five years I might want to do X,” but the path will change so much between now and then. I've always been someone who said, “Okay, what's my job right this second? What's the thing I see right in front of me? What's my next move?” I've always given two hundred percent to what I'm doing right this second and then have my eye just a little bit ahead. You're not in a fog and you're not in a bubble, but you're not scaring yourself into thinking, “I [00:10:00] better map this whole thing out for five years or it's going to be a failure.”

[clickToTweet tweet=”I've always given 200% to what I'm doing right this second and have my eye just a little bit ahead. @AlizaLicht” quote=”I've always given two hundred percent to what I'm doing right this second and then have my eye just a little bit ahead.”]

I think, that at the end of the day, we're faced with decisions daily and you can't know. My five year plan, I was supposed to be a doctor. I graduated with neurobiology and physiology. How did my five year plan work out? Not very well, right? Although it wouldn't hurt to be a plastic surgeon right now as I get older. It didn't work out. I had to foil that plan and I had to make a new plan. When you decide your junior year that you're not going to do what you set out to do, you can't change your major. You're left to finish it. Back then, I was at LinkedIn this morning, speaking there … I didn't have LinkedIn. I didn't have Google. There was nothing!

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I know, I know! Actually, back then, our five year path was more … There weren't as many choices or as many avenues.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  No! Not at all!

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  You really had to make a better connection. I don't know, in some ways it's harder now when you look at you can only make a digital connection. If your online stuff is not fantastic, I don't know how people do it. You really have to know people because you don't even get the opportunity to meet people face-to-face like we would.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  No, it's true but, conversely, back then, I wanted to work at a magazine. That's what I decided to do. I bought magazines and I went through the mastheads and I tried to find names of people because I knew that sending it to HR, the black hole of HR where they get a million applications, was probably not going to do it. I did it just the real old-fashioned way.

Now, I don't think that every single person needs to have this big social media profile and all these followers. I feel like LinkedIn is such a resource, first of all, and I also think that if you do have a presence, that's where you can trip yourself up professionally. If it's not right for what you do or you're posting stuff [00:12:00] that's on there that's questionable, that's where it can get it very tricky.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Yeah, it can be a slippery slope if you're not managing things the right way. I've seen some really cool online resumes, though. There was this guy who wanted to get a job at Snapchat so he made a snapchat resume, a snapchat story …

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Perfect!

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  … of why they should hire him.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  It's perfect!

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  It made it on Buzzfeed. It was all over the place. I don't know if he got an interview, but what a great idea, right?

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Clever but the most important thing is it's tailored to the company you're pitching. That's what you have to do.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  It was perfect!

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I think it's great.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Yeah, I thought it was …

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I hope he got that job!

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I hope he at least got an interview because I thought that was a great idea.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Really smart.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I loved every chapter, so I had to pick and choose because we only have a half hour, but I loved, “Being Your Own Publicist” because you're a professional publicist, but it's a little bit harder to be a publicist for yourself, which you're probably seeing a little more now that you're working on your book launch.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Yes.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Can you explain the publicist strategy for brand awareness, for building brand awareness?

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I think it starts with what is your best asset? What you are good at? What do you consider yourself an expert in? Even if you're not an expert, what could you carve out to be someone who is able to speak on something? When you're building, if you have a small business or you want to build your own personal brand or even you just want to enhance your own reputation, I think it's about thinking about what you're great at and what value you can add and really playing up those parts.

When we show a collection, maybe there's forty looks and maybe only four of them are quote/unquote on trend with what the industry's doing. We look at our collection and we think, “Okay, well you know what? Red is a trend. We're going to really push the hell out of those four red looks.” You have to hone in on [00:14:00] that and I think that's the first step.

Beyond that, it's thinking about how you're messaging, where you're messaging and what areas you really need to work on. Sometimes it's not about face-to-face, sometimes it's about social. Not everything deserves a press release, right? Sometimes it's about sharing your own message. There's a lot of considerations that I actually walk through in the book, as you know, then detail how to tailor a pitch, depending on what you're pitching.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Pitches are tough! We'll segue into that one then because in your job you give a lot of pitches, but you also receive a lot of pitches. Can you give some tips for a good email pitch? What would make it, for you, to actually read to the end and respond?

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I think, first of all, people don't spend enough time thinking about their subject lines. Think about how many emails you get a day. If it has the little words that say, “Forward” how many people … Why am I going to open a forward that's from a stranger? I'm not. You have to really make the person feel special. This is not a new concept. You're emailing me because I'm special and you want my attention.

Then beyond that, I think no one has time to read. You get these long emails … No. Visual helps, having catchy words, having interesting things to say. I actually got a pitch recently from an e-commerce site as like they were my representative for sales. It was like a home site. She made this really personal pitch and she's out of Boston. She's like, “Can you believe we've gotten a hundred and one inches of snow? Here's my backyard!” I was like, “I don't even know this person but I'm checking out her backyard right now!” I was like, “Wow! Your backyard is covered in snow!” But, you know what? We made a connection that way. It was personal and she let me into her [00:16:00] world. I have now bought a bunch of stuff from her. I think it just goes to show you, it was like a cold pitch.

The other thing is mass emails. How many times are you [inaudible 00:16:14] to the BCC where you know everyone's getting it? Or worse, it's a thousand people in the To: section. You're like, “Thank you for giving me this contact list!” Which is, you know …

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Yeah, I know.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  … really bad.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Those are so bad, so bad. You really do have to send an individual email for each pitch.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  You really do.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  There's no way to get around it and customize it.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Even for jobs. I was speaking to someone yesterday and I asked her about her cover letter and her resume. I said, “Who did you make it out to?” She said, “Dear Hiring Manager.” Exactly! Your face says it all! That is not going to get anyone's attention. The hiring manager does not care because it's not special, it's not personalized. You have to think about the competition, how many resumes they're getting.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Gosh! There's no excuse for not finding out who the person is with the internet these days.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  No excuse.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I mean you could probably find the right people on LinkedIn and connect and send an Inbox.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  You could find their social security numbers and how much they paid for their house, of course you can find that! I mean you can find anything!

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Don't bring that up in the interview if you get an interview. “Wow! You got a great deal on that house, sir!” They'll be like, “Too much information!” Just a little bit too much information.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Or, “You overpaid for that house, sir.”

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I don't know, maybe people would know that that were applying for a job. I don't know! I think that's funny! Let's segue a little bit over to networking because networking is so important. There's a lot of different ways to network now with email, with social events, and online. Can you talk about how you've networked and used networking because I think, obviously,[00:18:00] that's one of your amazing skills as a PR person is the connections that you've made. How could people do that? If someone is really unsure, they don't even really know … They're just starting out. It's your ideal reader for your book and they don't have a career yet but they need to start building like you did.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I think that you have to get comfortable going to events and making three new contacts at that event. The best way to do it is to go by yourself because when you go by yourself, you are forced to talk to people. When you make those connections and you speak to people that night, follow up the next day. Make sure that you either get a business card or you know how to contact them.

[clickToTweet tweet=”PRO tip: Go to networking events alone. Step out of your comfort zone. #LeaveYourMark” quote=”PRO tip: Go to networking events alone. Step out of your comfort zone. #LeaveYourMark”]

LinkedIn I think is really interesting here. Just because you met someone doesn't mean that they want to be LinkedIn with you, right? I think the best way is to reach out via email. Just say, “It was great meeting you last night. I hope we can stay in touch. Here's my info.” Whatever. Then stay in touch. I think the key, especially in PR for certain, but I think in any business, is to maintain the relationships. Don't just contact people when you need them because people hate that. Keep in touch with people, stay on it, build those relationships. Then when people do nice things for you, thank them.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  [crosstalk 00:19:21]

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  People forget to say, “Thank you.”

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I know! I agree. Thank you is important. I do something that I think you also do because you actually saw my book launch, I just watch what people do, too and find ways that I can help them.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Oh, Peg! I mean you taught me Thunderclap. It's the best platform ever and I can't wait for it to come out next week. I think that when you're willing to help other people and you're willing to learn from other people, you're just that much better off. No one can do anything alone. No one can.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Exactly! Definitely! I love learning, too. I'm always looking for new ways to learn things so seeing [00:20:00] what other people do is the best way to learn.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Absolutely! Absolutely!

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I was going to talk a little bit about online brand voice and personality. Since you have created such a great persona for yourself and now you're working on your book launch and your own personal social media, can you talk about how people could be themselves and create that kind of brand that connects with other people? Because I think that people, one of the reasons, not that it's a brand, but people love talking to you online, on your own social. How do you feel like you've connected well with people?

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I think, first and foremost, you have to be a human. I know that sounds silly, but I think one of the reasons why DKNY PR promo was so successful is because it was a way to humanize a brand in a way that's different than the designer voice. I think at the end of the day my goal was simply to be everyone's girlfriend. I'm your friend and that was a very sincere want. I really care about the relationships that I build and that's why I've always said it's not follow words, it's friends because I do feel that way. When people tweet at me now for career advice, I want to know what happens. Someone will say like, “Oh, I wrote my thesis on DK [inaudible 00:21:20]” or whatever and I'm like, “I want to see it! Send it to me!” I'll get it and I'll read it and I'll learn from it myself.

I really do care about the engagement, that's my number one thing. I want it to be an open dialog. I want it to be friendly and approachable. I want people to know that I appreciate when they contact me.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Yeah. I have a problem because whenever I go to your Twitter feed then I end up shopping. I always see something I'm like, “Oh!” I click on it. I'm always clicking on something.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Sorry I'm not sorry! I think is appropriate there!

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Yeah, I know. It works, it works! I'm like a clicker, too. [00:22:00] “Oh, wait! A purse!” Click. That's all I need to see is a purse to get me going. I loved when you talked about casting yourself in a new leading role. Can you talk a little bit about how people could create their own leading role? Because I think that one of the things is a lot of people wait for life to happen to them and they don't realize that they are the star of the show and that they can do that. I thought it was great. I loved the way you just pulled out all those pieces and your pro tips are amazing.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Thank you. Thank you. First of all, I think it goes back to the idea of personal branding. Personal branding, I mean you have a million followers, that's fantastic but that's not the goal. To me, personal branding is not about being famous or having huge presence, it's about how people perceive you in your personal life. If you're a working mom, if you go to school, how are people perceiving you? If you go to the office, do your colleagues like you? What would people say about you? Really what would you say about yourself? Aligning those two things. How you think about yourself versus how others perceive you and getting those to match. A lot of times we see ourselves one way and other people don't. That's really the art of personal branding.

I think that at the end of the day we all get so caught up in chasing after things, the to do list, the email inbox, running errands, calling the plumber when something breaks. There's a million things. We are probably the last people on the list. For sure I'm always sacrificing myself at the end of the day to make sure that everything gets done, but I think everyone needs to take the time to really care about themselves and think about what can I do to learn more? What can I do to challenge [00:24:00] myself?

Writing this book was a challenge because when the publisher contacted me, I didn't really want to do it. I was intimidated to do it. I thought, “What am I going to do? How am I going to do it?” That's really the reason I made myself do it because I felt like, “You know what? You're being lazy and you're being scared.” I have these talks with myself every once in awhile. That's really why I made myself do it because I said, “You know what? No, you have to stretch beyond where you're comfortable.” I think that's really important.

[clickToTweet tweet=”You have to stretch beyond where you're comfortable. #LeaveYourMark @LeaveYourMarkxoxo” quote=”You have to stretch beyond where you're comfortable.” #LeaveYourMark”]

Creating the brand of you is thinking about how you speak to people, how you treat people. Nothing makes me cringe more than when I hear someone being really rude to a waiter or a taxi driver. How you interact, these things all come together and make you the person you are. I just think social media, if you have a presence, you should view yourself almost in third person and think about, “What do you look like to the world?”

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I look at my own self all the time. I go back and look at my Twitter feed like, “Did I tweet too much of this? Not enough of that?”

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Absolutely! Listen, I mean the best leaders are always self-assessing, right? I think that's a great way for people to be. Sometimes I look back at my feed and I'm like, “Oh my god! Why did I say all that?” That's fine. You're not going to always be perfect, but having the wherewithal to look outside of yourself and then look back.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Yeah, that's a very good point. I think we can get through one more. We'll try really fast! I loved when you said you're a hundred percent being judged. Can you explain how what you do with your online life … We kind of just covered it a little bit, but being judged, it's not the harshness of it, but just the perception of it.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I think everyone says, “Oh, don't judge a book by its cover.” Okay.[00:26:00] Everyone judges a book by its cover! Right? When you are …

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Thankfully it's super cute!

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Thank you! Take it out of social, for a second. Take it into you're presenting to a roomful of people, you have a big meeting. You're going to walk in that room and before you open your mouth, the people around that table are going to immediately make a judgement. Your image matters. Did you look like you rolled out of bed? Did you looked like you hadn't showered in a week? All these things come together to inform people's opinions. You don't have to be perfect all the time, but when you are going to meet new people, when you are going to network, when you are going to pitch something, certainly when you are going on an interview, pull it together.

Think about the company that you're going to meet with. Are you going to fit into that brand culture? I think people applying for jobs really need to think about doing that research about that company, about those people before they go in so that when you walk in, when you open your mouth, they're like, “Hey! I can totally picture this person working here!” It's not about being harsh and judging people, it's about people themselves actually doing the judging and really critiquing their own self.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Yep, I totally agree! We are just wrapping up. In our last little bit, I wanted to know if you wanted to give one last “Leave Your Mark” little tip, advice, for somebody who is going to definitely want to buy your book when they can next week?

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I think my biggest advice is to not ignore opportunities. Sometimes I feel like people don't understand that when someone graciously makes a connection for them or an introduction, it's something that needs to be [00:28:00] followed up A: well, but B: in a timely fashion. Realize that when someone who went out on a limb to connect you with another person in business or even in their personal life, really cherish that because a lot times people think like, “Well, yeah. Why wouldn't she connect me? She knows that person.” But, it's a gift. It's a gift for someone to make a connection for you and you should thank that person and be very gracious about it.

Also, make sure that you're not wasting people's time, that you're appreciative of their time. I think that as we talk about mentoring and I hope this book is a mentor to people, one of the most important things you can do if you do find your mentor is to make sure that you're using their time properly and that you're thanking them for their time. It's not their job to mentor, right? It's a gift.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Right. Awesome. I love that! I'm just listening and I'm like, “Yes!” I wish I was twenty-two so this book would be my guide for the world, but …

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  So do I on many levels! But, hopefully better late than never! Peggy, you've done amazing things. You don't need a guide.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  I still like guides.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  You wrote the guide, girl!

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  We're going to wrap it up because we're are just about at the thirty minute mark. I just want to show Aliza's book one more time, “Leave Your Mark.” It comes out next week. If you pre-order right now, you can still get it now and it will be shipped to you on the day when it's live which is the best because you can have it right in your hand, right away. I personally feel like this is going to be the book for people who graduate because it really helps you know what the next steps are, the things that you don't learn in school that you need to get a job are going to be in this book. Or if you're just a career person just getting started or if you want to make a change, this book is amazing. I would love to thank my guest, Aliza Licht. It was great connecting with you and I wish you so much luck with your book.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Thank you. I just want to say one last thing besides thank you [00:30:00] very much for hosting me. The book, the advice is given through my career story so it's not just this dry, “Do this! Don't do that!” It's all my trials and tribulations, and there were many, and then pulling out the advice. It is really for any industry, not just fashion.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Right. Any, any career. It really translates to everything. It's really funny, too which I forgot to mention that because I'm so focused on the power tips that it's hilarious, though.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Thank you.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  It's a really, really good book.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Actually, until May fifth, if you upload your receipt on my website, you'll get a signed bookplate to put in front.

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Yeah! That's awesome! Okay, well thank you so much. I'm going to sign off.

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Thank you!

Peg:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Okay!

Aliza:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  See you on Twitter!

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2 Comments

  1. Hi Peg!

    I absolutely loved your interview with Aliza Licht. And I’m so excited about your book club interview series on Google Plus!

    I too am an avid reader so this is the kind of thing that makes me giddy!

    And what an inspirational conversation you two had! I love that you’re both all about practicing what you preach, being genuine and wanting to help other people. Aliza’s story about the person who reached out to her on Twitter to say they wrote their thesis on DKNY is one I will always remember because I think it’s FANTASTIC that Aliza asked for the thesis so she could read it and learn from it! I always say, tell just one great story and people will remember you. And that’s a GREAT story!

    I love that Aliza’s personal brand is all about genuinely wanting to be friends with the connections she makes. That shines through so much in everything she says and makes ME want to connect with her — that’s the power of great branding — I feel excited to tweet to her and have a conversation with her because she comes across as so likable and warm.

    I’m so impressed that Aliza used her smarts to evolve her PR background into social media marketing because there are so many PR companies that still don’t “get” social media or how essential it is to the success of every company’s brand in the digital age. You and Aliza both understand the importance of incorporating both worlds — social media and traditional PR — into brand storytelling and I send a big KUDOS to you both!

    Excellent interview! You both made me smile!

  2. Hi, I just love your site. It has been extremely informational and resourceful, and makes me actually excited to venture into the world of digital and social media. There is a brand that has reached a certain level in the field of fashion and jewellery on the local and national platform in India. It has a small social media presence. We are trying to take the brand to the next level and our final goal is to make it synonymous with international luxury brands. Currently, we are putting together a digital strategy for it and tools and tactics in place to increase it’s social media presence, build brand awareness, increase customer base/followers, convert leads to sales, etc. Could you please advice on how to go about doing all of this? I would greatly appreciate any advice I can get on this matter, especially with respect to the overall digital strategy itself. Thank you.

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