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I’ve neglected writing over the last month. And it’s hurt — I’ve felt different. Like I’m letting someone down. Like I’m not 100% of who I should be. Sometimes things happen 

that cause you to put other things on the back burner (that story for another blog) and 

well … writing got put on the back burner. I’ve managed to catch my footing enough to get back into a somewhat simliar grove, so I hope to drop some serious content this week.

My first attempt is this post. The Art of Finding a Job: 5 Musts.

Disclaimer: I don’t have it figured out…not even close.

But what I do have is the storyboard of what I’ve been doing since November, and I’ll share it with you so maybe it can help you in your search…or you help me in mine. Like I said, I don’t have it figured out. But I think I’ve highlighted 5 musts. =)

1. Reach out to your trust circle.
2. Utilize job boards and groups.
3. Swallow a whole hell of a lot of pride.
4. Meticulous dedication to hours spent looking.
5. Luck.

Now I’m sure you’re saying to yourself, and rightly so, “Ryan there are a bunch of other factors involved.” Yes, however I believe these are the 5 biggest contributors to finding a job, thus the “art” or “musts”. 

1. Reach out to your trust circle.

Reaching out to your trust circle means letting those fellow business professionals, friends, mentors, etc. know that you are in the market for a job. Be very specific to the industry and salary requirements. As a +1, giving them a list of 3-4 businesses you’d love to work at. These are the people that know your abilities best, and at the same time have an invested interest in you getting a job. This should not only be one of the first things you do in your quest, but I believe it is something that you should re-touch ever 2 weeks. Now by re-touch, I mean exactly that, re-touch. I don’t mean hound once a week with a sob story of why you need a job — By re-touching, I simply mean shooting a gentle reminder in an email, text, direct message (DM) etc. 

Utilize job boards and groups.

The amount of companies that are online right now actively looking for employees will surprise you. It sure as hell surprised me — and being online is my profession. But as a potential employee, you have to be able to go to where the companies are posting those active positions they need filled. I have found two resources, for my search, to be extremely helpful. The coupe de gras is LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn is the largest business-focused social network there is. Often considered the “digital resume,” LinkedIn offers you a place to be a part of the largest professional network. With LinkedIn Jobs, you can search for jobs and customize your search to place, type, salary, etc. It’s extremely well done and very easy to navigate. The second place, for MY job search that has proven beneficial, is a Facebook Group that I help manage called Social Media Jobs. It is by approval only to join, and is moderated very heavily by a small group of us. We average about 20 social media related job postings a week across the entire country. Currently there are over 1700 members. Even if you aren’t in the social media space and looking for a job, I venture to guess there are similar groups on Facebook for your industry.

3. Swallow a whole hell of a lot of pride.

I say this with much seriousness. You’re going to get a lot of email or verbal no’s. The most dreaded introduction to a job application response reads, “We wanted to first and foremost thank you for applying to _________.”  Your heart sinks and you immediately know its a “thanks but no thanks” email. With that being said, you need to just button down the hatches, and suck it up. I hate to go all cliche on you, but with every no you hear, you’re one step closer to a yes. That doesn’t make it hurt any less, but it’s the honest to God truth. Swallow your pride, and remind yourself that you are VERY qualified and someone is going to get a STEAL when they hire you.

4. Meticulous dedication to hours spent looking.

I speak from personal experience that “looking for a job” requires an awful lot of work. It’s not something you can send a few emails and then the job miraculously finds you — it takes a lot of blocking and tackling. You have to calendar it off just like anything else you need to dedicate yourself to doing. Give yourself a window: from 9-12 and 3-5 today I’m going to find and apply for jobs (as example). Here is a tidbit that will make the time you spend applying 110% more efficient too: SAVE A FILE OF YOUR ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS SO THAT YOU CAN COPY AND PASTE ON NEW WEBSITES/APPLICATIONS. In hindsight, I could have saved myself well over 30 hours (to date) if that is something I’d of figured out at the beginning (November) and not in the middle of (last week). Fact: It is a horrible pain in the ass to have to answer the same questions over and over. Fact: It sucks that all job applications are not created equal. Some of the UI’s are horribly clunky. Fact: Saving your answers to questions as you go, in a master document, can shave applying time down from 15-30 minutes to 5-10.

5. Luck.

I wish I had something profound to end with, but sometimes it requires just good ole luck. Not the kind of luck that just happens out of thin air though. You won’t get a job offer while playing golf on a Friday (although I did once, post to come later). The kind of luck I’m referring to is luck that you create. By notifying your trust circle, utilizing job boards and groups, swallowing pride and spending time ACTIVELY SEARCHING for a job — you put yourself in a vastly better position to receive good luck in your job search. By inserting yourself into where jobs are, the likelihood of something ‘falling into your lap’ increases exponentially. 

So there you have it folks. My 5 musts when trying to find a job. Does it mean that if you follow these 5 musts you’ll get a job immediately? No. LOL. I wish it did, because I’d have been placed in my next job by now. But I can promise you this: … you’ll be closer to finding a job than if you didn’t.

I’m currently looking for job placement on a national level (willing to relocate) in regards to a social media, community manager and/or digital marketing. I have a strong passion for communications, and the processes of those communications. I also have a strong skill-set and desire around building communities and consulting with brands on how best to serve those communities. My resume can be found here, and my LinkedIn profile here. If you know of any open positions or would like to contact me you can email me at: ryan@theryancox.com

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Image credit: Business Insider, http://cambriairene.blogspot.com/, 123 Greetings 

Jeans should fit. Gloves should fit. #Love should fit. What your job is and your passion, in a perfect world, should fit. Shit in life should fit. We leave something behind when we are fitting into everything though. Friends.

Wait.

I’m not talking about your soccer friends you grew up with since you were six.

I’m not talking about your crew from college.

I’m talking about the people you meet, that motivate and energize the HECK out of you. Like stupid-crazy energize you. The people that you come across and you’re just like %&# &*!% #^%^ #LOUDNOISES #$^& %#&@ !%$&.

I’m all about timing. Damn, so much in life is defined by it. Here’s the rad thing about timing though: not all of it is out of your control. I’m not even going to argue what the percentage split is on uncontrolled vs. controlled — that isn’t the point. So relax, no need to get puffy-chest syndrome. 

Well I met one of my #LOUDNOISES friends early last week. And by “met” I obviously mean came across online and immediately became enamored with. Her name is Jen Friel aka @JenFriel. She’s the founder of a blog called Talk Nerdy To Me Lover. 

Let’s digest that for a second.

Seriously? How flippin’ rad is that URL? I thought my buddy Joel’s website MakingLoveToYourEarVagina.com was a badass URL. Then I found Jen’s. 

I read the first post that brought me to her site, a story about 103 #OkCupid dates in 9 months. It wasn’t a new post or anything, someone I followed on the Twitter reposted it for some reason. I clicked to read it because I was fascinated by the title of said post. 

Fast forward an hour, and I haven’t stopped reading. Post after post I was consuming stories and was more entertained than my favorite episode of my favorite show. This chic was beyond cool. The why? Because she plain and simply didn’t give a flip. She went after everything her heart told her to. Fear wasn’t a word she allowed herself to hear, emotion she let her body feel, or thought she let her mind have.

I instantly became angry.

(Angry you say Ryan?)

Yea angry.

I had always considered myself a fearless go-getter. And my new “friend” had just proven to me over the last hour, that beyond a shadow of a doubt, I wasn’t.

So I immediately felt challenged and accepted the challenge. (We still have yet to even tweet communicate and Jen had energized me to the point that I went and ran a quick mile just to get my thoughts in order)

And damn did I feel good. There was some kind of new motivation I was feeling inside that wasn’t there hours prior. 

How can that be? Someone I didn’t even know of a couple hours ago, who I’ve still yet to actually communicate with, and who WAS NOT Steve Jobs — had literally woken up a side of me that I didn’t know had been laying dormant. 

And then it hit me: Jen was a friend fit for me. Whether she ever felt the same or not, it was #Fact. She was someone that motivated, energized and otherwise challenged me to be a better me. And there wasn’t anything that was ever going to change that. The damage had been done.

Had I mentioned yet that she was gorgeous?

(No you hadn’t)

Okay well, she is. And I’m sure that had something to do with my attraction to her as a person, but it was one of those scenarios where that was just an added bonus — because her killer instinct to life was one of those awesome feelings you never want to lose. 

Whether its business or pleasure, people that make you feel like this are worth their weight in diamonds. If it was something we could bottle and sell, it’d cost more than your Macbook per ounce. It can’t be manufactured, wished or stolen — it can just be felt.

So operation #befriendjen went into motion, and to my surprise, she only impressed me more. We quickly hit it off, and even made public pledges to visit each other in 2012. And play Duck Hunt. Why you ask? Because #nerdsunite … that’s why. #done

Everything in life should fit. From your jeans, to your friends. People that make you want to totally kick ass and be a better you — those are the people to get close to. Your life is going to be so much better when you do. And when those people show you that they really care? Like, the “why is this person so nice for no other reason than to be nice” care … it makes you want to be the exact same way. There are a kagillion different types of #Love. And they all win.

So thank you Jen. Thank you for being so damn you and so damn invigorating that it made me want to tackle impossible, and give it a noogie.  

In the end…everything in life should fit. #nerding 

Hey Jen…Psst: 

Men usually aren’t a fan of shopping. Stereotypes are what they are for a reason, because it speaks to the majority. With that being said, stereotypically men are the most adversed to clothes shopping. It was easy when we were younger, if it didn’t have a swoosh on it, then it was a jersey of one of our favorite players. 

And when it came to the bare essentials: underwear, socks, t-shirts, socks and toiletries — if Mom didn’t put it in our bathroom drawer or on our bed, we didn’t have it.

So what are we supposed to do when we move out? Is Mom supposed to visit every couple months with a significant bare essentials package? Quickly find a wife so she can fill in the void? (That’s just silly Ryan. No, duh.)

Enter Manpacks. Manpacks is a web service that delivers manly goods on a schedule. Items can include men’s underwear, socks, razors and more. It’s that simple. By design, it sets up your recurring service to send your necessities every 3 months. Need something rushed? Need to change (+/-) the scheduling? It’s dead simple to do on Manpacks easy-to-use dashboard. Returns are at the cost of Manpacks, not you the consumer. 

Full disclosure: I was showed this website by a friend, and immediately fell in love with it. I’ve put in my first order, to be scheduled for delivery every 2 months. #BOOM One less thing I have to worry about. One less thing I have to build into my weekly and/or monthly to-do list. One less thing that can cause one of those, “Darnit I’m out of this, I really wish I had new that” situations.

Mother tested, girlfriend approved. Manpacks is a no-brainer for any guy. The pricing is competitive and has name brands like Hanes, Calvin Klein, and Nivea while promising to continue adding more brands in the future. And the cherry on top…any order over $30 is free shipping. 

I highly recommend checking out Manpacks. I’m one of the more organized guys out of all of my friends, and even I could use a service like this. I imagine you could too.

I can say with unwavering certainty that I am able to find a lesson in anything I hear or see. So when I was watching ESPN’s First Take this morning, a great lesson slapped me right in the face. The topic was: will a second Super Bowl ring make Eli Manning more popular and translate into more endorsement deals?

The long and the short of it can be summed up with one word: No.

• Eli Manning is an excellent role model for children. 
• Eli Manning is an even-kiel sportsman.
• Eli Manning is, by all accounts, a good person that stays out of trouble.

But one thing Eli Manning isn’t, is marketable. Nice guys actually do finish last in some things, and end up going to the prom alone. With that being said, in the marketing and promotions world — they’re never going to get the girl. I can hear you right now too, you’re screaming WHAT ABOUT TIM TEBOW RYAN!?!? Well the #Tebowing phenomenon isn’t comparable. He’s a very vocal Christian, and we are all well aware that sex, politics, and religion sell. Does Tebow want to make money off of his Christianity? No, I truly believe he doesn’t — nor do I think his faith is based on its ability to make him more money. But Tebow ruffles feathers because of who he IS not who he is NOT. Consequently, marketers have no problem exploiting him and that fact to get impressions and make money.

Eli is not his brother Peyton. All of their father Archie’s charisma wen to Peyton, and none was left for Eli. Peyton can sell more pizzas. Eli can’t. Unfortunately for Eli, this isn’t one of those scenarios where can’t should be a word in your vocabulary.

And what about Tim Duncan you ask? 

Well when was the last time you saw Tim Duncan in a commercial? His most recent Bridgestone Super Bowl commercial with Steve Nash is the first time I remember seeing him in any kind of promotional material in four to five years…AT LEAST! Duncan is a go-about-his-business, no non-sense, unassuming guy. And that’s about as appealing to marketing departments as this —————————>

As a business owner don’t be Eli Manning or Tim Duncan. We don’t remember the Eli’s and Tim’s of the world. Here’s two examples, national and local:

• Mike Arrington founder of Tech Crunch and now Crunch Fund 
• Scott Wise founder of Scotty’s Brewhouse & Thr3ewisemen  

Say what you want about them, one being more polarizing (Mike) than the other (Scott) … but if you’ve ever met either of them I bet you remember them. That’s the point. Be memorable.

Here is what I am not saying: you need to be brash, polarizing, and loud. 

Here is what I am saying: you need to be confident, approachable, and vocal.

You don’t have to be the Chad Ochocinco (formerly Chad Johnson) of local restaurants or Meta World Peace (formerly Ron Artest) of Internet software. At the end of the day, even the greatest business owner personalities can fail. If a business has an unsatisfactory product/service (and/or) it becomes known from having more talk than late night television and it cannot back it up — well, they’ll weed themselves out. It’s been that way in business cycles since humankinds first trade. 

You are your brand. Bad brands can bounce back with continued great service/product coupled with the fact that with so much information flowing through the web on a daily basis, we are a society that forgives and forgets rather quickly. (Sans obvious exceptions to that rule) Boring brands, however, can’t bounce back. We simply decided to talk about the Peyton’s of the world, and thus we forgot to invite the Eli’s to the party.

Momentum is a very interesting word. It is a word that describes more about what you can expect in the future, as opposed to what you should expect right now. Momentum, in fact, is one of the better forecasters of all-time. (His track record proves it) So as the momentum builds for Super Bowl 46, it’s a pretty exciting feeling being a part of the host city.

More importantly, Indianapolis is going to silence some of the cold weather host city critics. Dr. Patrick Rishe of Forbes.com, explained Why Indianapolis Is A Highly Desirable Super Bowl Host City. Here are some highlights from that piece: 

EXPERIENCED AT ACCOMMODATING MASSIVE CROWDS – INDY 500, FINAL FOURS

As far as live one-day spectator sports go, you can’t get much bigger than the Indianapolis 500. With over 257,000 seats at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and an estimated annual attendance of roughly 300,000, this is easily twice as large and perhaps closer to three times larger than the attendance for Super Bowl XLVI…

WALKABLE DOWNTOWN WITH NUMEROUS ENTERTAINMENT AMENITIES

Having attended numerous professional and amateur sporting events across America, I can tell you that fans appreciate convenience.  And one big aspect of convenience is transportation from point A to point B.  Most notably, the typical visiting sports spectator loves scenarios where they can walk from their hotel to most of the cool visitation amenities in the area.  The less driving, the better.

A wise man once said: This isn’t my first rodeo cowboy. Indianapolis has proven time and time again that it can host, and exceptionally well, large weekend or week-long events. Not only does Indianapolis have a history of well hosted events, we’re proving to be extremely innovative too. The first ever Social Media Command Center for a Super Bowl is being launched at Super Bowl 46. A team of strategists, analysts and techies will monitor the digital fan conversation via Facebook, Twitter and other platforms from a 2,800-square-foot space downtown.

Tom Spalding was one of the people chosen for Social 46 and he’s doing something pretty cool. Tom is chronicling the entire Super Bowl 46 experience pushing social information to the Interwebs through his Storify collection. Social 46 is a gathering of Indiana’s top social media influencers according to the Indianapolis Super Bowl Host Committee. In short, it is a list that was put together to help build buzz and spread information about the Super Bowl. Invitations were limited to, <drumroll please> 46. They aren’t being paid, and minus a few freebies these are Hoosiers that have been tasked with, and accepted, helping make Super Bowl 46 the most socially connected Super Bowl ever!

The list of people blogging and tweeting about the Super Bowl reaches FAARR beyond just those deemed one of the ‘Social 46’. Excitement is contagious, and by no means are only those 46 individuals allowed to share information! It’s ENCOURAGED that everyone in Indianapolis contributes to building the buzz of the Super Bowl, AND takes time to enjoy all of the festivities we’re hosting too!

Conversations around the Super Bowl, Social 46, and how SB46 can help the Indianpolis economy are everywhere!

There is this post from Jay Baer, this post from Lorraine Ball, and this post from Chris Theisen — just to highlight a few. Additionally, there is the slew of #hashtags you can follow on Twitter:

• #social46
• #superindy
• #superbowl
• #superbowl46
• #sb46
• #indy
• #zipline
• #XLVI
• superbowl2012
• sb2012
• sbvillage
• super46

The reach of Super Bowl 46 is going to be far beyond any previous Super Bowl. It will be the first truly social media supported SB. Even the mobile app is kick-ass.

On a personal note, I just have one request for all of my Indianapolis friends — get out of your own way. Ego’s and inflated opinions on who should of gotten this, why you should of been on that, etc.etc.etc. is a lot of wasted hot air. Let’s just agree to disagree on all of that small nonsense. And in turn, come together to show everyone that Indianpolis throws one hell of a party.

image credits: AroundIndy.com, Athima Chansanchai of Tima Media & msnbc.com, Meggie Dials, and Jeff Robinson, Director of Marketing, Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association.

Am I the only one that finds motivation in the strangest of places? Seriously, random-acts-of-DUHness. Last night I was eyes-deep (if thats not a word I just made it up) in what ended up being my favorite Criminal Minds off all-time…when I saw it. It was a commercial, so of course I’m surfing Twitter on my iPhone. (insert audience laughter) And I see my friend Heather Meeker RT our mutual friend Marsha Collier…

Wow. Staring me in the face was something that summed up how I felt about the last three years. What you are “going to do” in 2012 isn’t how you build a reputation Ryan. Ideas are nothing but ideas if they aren’t created. Words are just that, words, unless they are past-tense, describing something that’s already happened. In my best Marsha voice, “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.”

Well I’ll be damned. I’ve made no bones about it, 2012 for me is all about follow-through. The frustrating thing about follow-through you ask? Well, even though I’m only 20 days in 2012 I have one very big pain point with follow-through: time. Time isn’t something you can fast-forward in real life. The fact of the matter is simple: follow-through involves an AWFUL lot of it. And that’s tough. Patience isn’t a virtue I was born with. I’m a perfect definition of the counter, impatient. 

Couple my impatient tendencies with my very Type-A ‘shiny new thing’ entrepreneurship personality, I’ve managed to develop one hell of a bark. Unfortunately, with all that barking I literally forgot to bite. Blindly, I got so good at barking that I ended up trying to build a reputation of what I was going to do…not what I’d already done. Talk about backwards. I was a mess, and I didn’t know it.

Lucky for me, life, both personal and business, is nothing more than a giant learning experience. If you’ve stopped learning, well, you’ve pretty much given up. I don’t recommend doing that. It’s not a good look. It was time for me to Shut Up And Do It Already. I’m a mission to turn accomplishments into past-tense not future-tense. But hey, I’m wandering into over-talking a reputation I don’t even have yet.

Here’s to a year of nothing but follow-through on building a reputation that can only be described with past-tense verbs, not future-tense. (cheers)

Work. Family. Self.

Imagine if you were asked by your boss to decide to choose two of the three in order to be really successful. Which two would you choose? Amy Jo Martin chose all three. She then proceeded to turn in her two-week notice and left her job deciding to be fearless and conquer all three. Let me ask a serious question: Are you automating your life? 

Think about the online+offline version of you. Using programs like Buffer are not the the only forms of automation. Routines become automation. How many of us check our Facebook on our phone before rolling out of bed? How many of us take a picture of our food and post it to Instagram or Oink before actually taking a bite? How many of us check-in on Foursquare before we actually look up to see if our friends are at the bar? We are beginning to automate our offline lives and we may not eve realize it. And the more automation grows, the more innovation dies.

As I was watching Amy’s TEDx Talk - Innovate your life, I couldn’t help but feel like she was talking to me. You know that time you feel like a song is being sung for you? When the episode of your favorite show is a dramatization of your yesterday? I had one of those moments. I’d lost my passion and purpose — and Amy was calling me out. I had stopped innovating my life and I was clearly automating it. Our parents will call it “going through the motions” — but they’d be wrong. We aren’t even going through the motions, we’re simply automating them.

After watching the video, I emailed Amy. I told her how awesome it was and how I’d long appreciated her since the ‘Random Acts of Shaqness’ days. Amidst all of the learning, don’t be short-sighted or afraid to tell those who you’ve learned from that you did. You’d be surprised the feedback you get. And after the email was sent (right before my U-8 basketball team practice, you can call me #CoachKnight), I made a decision. And you know who is holding me accountable for that decision (besides the Internet now)? My team, the Hornets. I am Innovating my life.

No more automation for me. I don’t care if I have to call you 100 times before you answer, I’m texting less. I don’t care how frugal I have to be, I’m getting out of student loan debt. And I don’t care how hard someone else thinks something is, I am going after what I want to do professionally, and I’ll be damn successful at it too. 

I’m only bound by the speed of my own actions. 

I’m going to inject more purpose into my business.

Amy said it best, “You CAN have it all, you just have to define what your all is.” I’ve defined my ALL. I’ve chosen I want to innovate my life — and innovate the hell out of it I will. Thanks for the push Amy.

I’m on a health kick. You most likely know that already. Follow-Through is my defining word of 2012. In conjunction with my new found health kick, I have finally acknowledged one very key fact: Accountability is one heck of a tool for follow-through. So Chris Theisen and I decided that we were going to hold each other accountable for our daily water intake. 

Thus, the #h2o12 hashtag was born.

My awesome accountant, and fitness+health nut Michelle Boyden aka Meeeeeechelle helped me land on the goal of trying to drink about a gallon of water a day. That’s roughly 11 refills of my favorite #IUBB cup.

I’m on Day 7 of the Ryan+Chris Challenge. And you’ll be happy to know, I’m allllllll over the follow-through.

Question is: Are you drinking enough water everyday? [Vote in the poll below]