“You Get It” winner of the month – Kent Blumberg!

Congrats, cyber-high-five, 3 additional months of free Premium and a link on the left in the winners circle all go out to Kent Blumberg for being the winner of the month for November 2006! I came across Kent a few weeks ago from a post by Louise Fletcher on her Blue Sky Resume blog and was uber-impressed! We’ve exchanged e-mails a bit over the last few weeks and I’m even more impressed – this guy is very cool. But that’s not why he’s the monthly winner.

This prize is based on “getting it“… that is, using the Internet to develop, enhance, reinforce a personal brand – which is one component of taking your career into your own hands. It is only one component, but it is increasingly significant. If you want to read more on personal branding go check out the new links to bloggers that I put up this week that are personal branding (or general branding) experts… and I guarantee you’ll regret not studying harder in your Spanish class because the dude from Spain does have a lot of quality input on the subject. Back to Kent…

I know that Kent is an “expert” in leadership, strategy and performance. How? Because it says so right under his name! Get it? First he brands his name, then he tells us what his expertise is. How hard is that? Right off the bat I would be interested in reading what he writes because (a) all this business stuff is interesting to me, and (b) he will have a different approach, style and perspective than what I’m used to because his life experiences are different. Sure his opinion is only his own but by reading some of the posts I can see that I want to read more, and in my eyes he is an “expert”… or at least another really good source of information.

Kent’s blog is full of high-quality, short-read posts. His categories include execution, financials, leading change… all topics that can be tricky – but those plus the others show the breadth and depth of Kent’s professional capabilities. He has a section called “Favorite Posts” which quickly shows you as the reader what he really likes, getting a chance to peak into his brain in just a few posts.

A quick look-up on Technorati shows that he has 15 (now 16 with this) blogs that link back to him… which is not too shabby for a regular person. But I was very impressed that three of those blogs are quite popular (they had 79, 189 and 213 blogs linking to them… ) which shows that Kent has quality posts that have impressed some pretty big bloggers – not easy to do.

Here’s his post I read yesterday on “LEAN”… I’ve heard of lean and think I get it but in just 3 lines I learned more than I picked up on before. If I am looking for a manager that gets lean I’ll surely want to talk to him because he wrote this article on it!
Ok, enough of the technical and analysis stuff. Here are some things that I found interesting, from the e-mail exchanges:

First, Kent is indeed looking for a job! You won’t see that anywhere on his blog, which I think is brilliant (especially for him, at his level). Why brilliance? Because what he is doing is developing his long-term personal brand, which is not as a job seeker but as an expert in leadership, strategy and performance. Once he gets his job he should continue to blog and further increase the perception of his expertise! Here is what Kent isn’t saying on his blog:

Looking for a role as executive GM (VP and above) over a division with revenues between $300 million and $700 million. Target industries are bio-energy, specialty chemicals, and pulp and paper. I’m looking worldwide, but with a focus on the continental US.

Second, when I asked him about his blogging experience, why he got started, etc. here was his reply (I’m not going to comment on this but I find this summary to be right-on with my personal experiences):

It’s fun.

It gets me involved with a community of folks I would not otherwise meet. You, for example. And Bob Sutton (https://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/), professor and author.

It helps me learn web 2.0.

It gives me the opportunity to document what I know (or think I know) and what I believe about leadership, strategy and performance.

It gives others the opportunity to learn a bit more about me before face-to-face meetings.

It stretches my mind (I want it to be good, so I work hard at it).

Kent, good job and congratulations! You are an excellent example of how executives can take control of their personal branding and run with it.

Want to know more about Kent? Go check out his blog, where you can find contact information.

So is this really a big deal? Veteran career coach Barbara Safani, who has an ear-to-the-ground on this type of technology, says “I’m a big fan of blogging and frequently recommend leveraging blog posts as a networking and general career management strategy” (read more here) … general career management strategy?? I love it – stop asking the old questions of “what’s your sign,” “where’s the beef,” and start asking “what is your career management strategy!”

And stay tuned for the Nov 6th blog carnival – I promise you won’t be let down! Better yet, sign up to get daily e-mails of this blog sent right to you… see the little subscribe box at the very top right of your screen?