At this time in the New Year many portfolio workers will be hoping that they will be given opportunities for saying ‘yes’! However, as your career develops it does become an increasing problem and so we are delighted to welcome another guest poster. Jennifer Holloway is  one of the best consultants that I know who can help you develop your personal brand. Over a pre -Xmas drink I persuaded her ( I know what techniques to use) to let us use her thoughts on this topic – and of course she did not say no to me! So – over to Jennifer.

“How can you say “No” (because let’s be honest, we’re British and the direct approach isn’t exactly in our DNA)?

It’s something I often struggle with (although my ex-boss might disagree) but one day I came across a little gem of a blog by Celestine Chua on Zen Habits that offered exactly the practical advice I needed.  So to help you keep your personal brand on the straight and narrow, here’s her seven different ways to say No/Nein/Niet/Non/Bugger Off:

1. “I can’t commit to this as I have other priorities at the moment.”
This lets the person know your plate is full so they should hold off on this as well as future requests. You may also share what you’re working on so the person can understand better.

2. “Now’s not a good time as I’m in the middle of something. How about we reconnect at X time?”
This method is a great way to (temporarily) hold off the request, though by suggesting another time the person doesn’t feel completely blown off.

3. “I’d love to do this, but …”
It’s a gentle way of breaking no to the other party. It’s encouraging as it lets the person know you like the idea (of course, only say this if you do like it).

4. “Let me think about it first and I’ll get back to you.”
This is more like a “Maybe” than a straight out “No” – though if you’re not interested don’t lead them on.  If the person is sincere about the request, they will be more than happy to wait.

5. “This doesn’t meet my needs now but I’ll be sure to keep you in mind.”
This helps the person knows there’s nothing wrong with what they’re offering, but at the same time, by saying you’ll keep them in mind, it signals you are open to future opportunities.

6. “I’m not the best person to help on this. Why don’t you try X?”
If you are being asked for help in something which you (i) can’t contribute much to (ii) don’t have resources to help, let them know they’re looking at the wrong person. If possible, refer them to a lead they can follow-up on so they don’t end up in a dead end.

7. “No, I can’t.”
The simplest and most direct way to say no. We build up too many barriers in our mind to saying no. Don’t think so much about saying no and just say it outright. You’ll be surprised when the reception isn’t half as bad as what you imagined it to be.

My advice: if all else fails, you can always feign illness and do a runner instead!”

As our book is based all around answering this question and I talk about this to groups rather a lot I was intrigued to come across Marianne Cantwell’s advice on this in a stimulating and fun video on her Free Range Humans website. It has also led to an interesting discussion on our portfolio careers linkedin group. Marianne – who by the way also contributed to our book – talks about deciding which of your portfolio career elements to emphasize as talking about them all might be overwhelming. You pick and choose according to your audience. I can see the wisdom of this but it also links to the brand that you are developing. For example, I always disclose my full portfolio including my voluntary roles. But then I am reinforcing my brand as an expert on portfolio careers so this is appropriate. If I was a web designer plus 3 other roles then I would emphasize the former if that was where I was pitching for work.

The linkedin group also gets into whether or not you should have more than one linkedin profile. I’m not even sure that is possible but even if it is probably you will need to disclose your entire portfolio on their site. You may want to reconfigure what pops up first depending on meetings that you are having.

Whatever, it is good to really think hard about this and especially to get you to focus on your audience. Katie likes to use a powerpoint slide which makes the point:

Hugh started talking about it way back – well it seems like at least 8 years ago with his Global Microbrand. I was asked by HP recently to talk to a select audience of small business owners about some things to think about in branding their businesses. Here are the slides. Lots of reasonably obvious stuff including how to create your “story”. I was reminded again yesterday by Mike Pegg that when talking about our businesses we should essentially be talking about how we can HELP THE CUSTOMER. We all love to talk about how well we have done and how many widgets we have sold to XYZ co but our customers really want to know what we can do for THEM. Apologies if this is soooooooo obvious but I think I certainly need reminding and I hope it helps you too.

This is a beautiful video that expresses concisely the power of words. So many portfolio workers rely on communication to get us work, to deliver work and to review our work. Networking in particular though crucial we argue to every worker is especially vital to us. Enjoy! And be creative.

Marie Claire dress for success top tips…..

I am spending  more time with people in ” the digital space” as the groovy cats like to call it. Working with individuals and brands who want to understand and interact with their customers and potential customers. Regardless of the type of media; broadcast, digital, print or outdoor, I believe it all comes down to how you w/rap your message.

I loved the Happiness Rap so much I bought it for my phone to remind me of the important things in life. I may also buy the book and check out Sonja if she speaks in London. Cleverly w/rapping the product – in this case a book and speaker services.

Radisson Hotels in London wanted diners to really understand about the care and passion in their food. They print QR codes on the menus which link to short videos of their chefs preparing the dish you are interested in – an innovative way to help you make that all important decision and a reinforcement of the “we are here to help you” message.

Big companies like Microsoft are also wrapping by encouraging “story tellers”. Steve Clayton is a/THE ( imho) Microsoft story teller. He gets paid to explain to us (in English) what technology is just around the corner and how its going to improve our lives.

Got me thinking about my “theory of the bongs”. Yes that strange drawing above does mean something. In a previous life I was a TV News Journalist. I worked for the BBC and also ITN who produced News at Ten – a flagship news programme that used a Big Ben “BONG” just before each headline. A Bong is a 3 – 5 sec headline written so you need to know more. “Bomb explodes in tube station” for example leaves you wanting more info. This is represented by the top thick line. The lead in is the 3 sentences or 15 secs the news presenter reads to get you to watch the report – for example; ” A bomb exploded at XYZ station today. Emergency services were at the scene within minutes.  25 people have been taken to hospital and there are reports one person may have died. Joe Bloggs reports”. this is represented by the 3 thick lines. If this is written well, it will entice us to watch the 90 sec report, represented by the 5 lines. And finally ( as they say in all good news programmes), if the viewer is really interested in the detail, they will watch Panorama ( a 30 min, one topic in-depth news programme) represented by the mass of long lines at the bottom.

SO what? you say. Well, in my experience, most businesses (and quite a few individuals) are great at Panorama but not so great at the BONGS. With limited attention spans – the customer/audience wants to know very quickly whether its worth spending any more time listening to your message. They are not going to do the Panorama to Bong translation – that’s YOUR job. That’s why this model only works top down and not bottom up.

So there you have it. In one of the longest posts I have done in a while – I have attempted to explain my theory of brevity….

Having written a piece on digital identity recently ( will post in next few days) got me thinking about how most of us don’t worry too much about what people know about us via the web. The thinking goes – if you don’t have anything to hide then its not a problem. But I came across this post on white walling and it seems to make sense particularly if you use Facebook a lot and mix work and social together. Thoughts?

This is the title of an article by Mary van de Wiel to be found on Dan Schawbel’s website.  Dan is one of the leading personal branding writers and communicators. I was especially attracted to this as it refers particularly to students and what they can do to develop a personal brand and indeed to recognise business possibilities. Last week I talked to around 100 researchers from UK Universities, all of whom were on short term and/or fixed contracts. It was organised by Vitae who are taking a lead in setting up staff associations to help researchers in their own career development. You will not be surprised to learn that I was talking about portfolio careers as a real alternative to the traditional career paths promoted by our parents, society in general and especially by Universities who have a tradition of life long job security. That is all changing rapidly now of course – as you know.

Having a drink and nibbles (another name for networking)  afterwards it became very clear that there is a huge anxiety about self promotion, networking and the idea of developing a personal brand. I had tried to explain that they will have a brand anyway so they had better start to control what it looks like. The slide that I showed them here gave them the challenge of deciding whether or not they wanted to be a penguin or a penguin that stood out. What is your answer for yourself? Our book of course has a whole chapter on this question.

More Personal Brand thoughts – (also follow the pop up that comes into the bottom right hand of the hyperlinked Brand page.)….and another wonderful cartoon from Hugh. As my good friend and mentor Mike Pegg says, ” take the best – leave the rest”. I will return to this topic, just warming up….