Following Up, The To Do List, and Other Scary Thoughts

Once again, it's been a very long week since my last post. Just another curse from managing to keep my 4 part-time jobs alive. While the job search To Do list doesn't seem to get any smaller, it's now joined by a pair of new To Do lists from a couple of the part-time positions.

I wonder what you think...how best do you chip away at your To Do lists? Carry them with you? Create a new one each day? Keep them electronically? On paper? Post it on your mirror, your fridge, your pc's screen? Reward yourself?

Please: comment on this post, share your thoughts, I'm curious what works best for you all. This blog has leaned a bit too one sided, let's share our thoughts and start some discussions...

Had my second conversation this week about following up (job leads, networking contacts made, returning calls, deciphering the notes made on business cards, promises made...). Both of the people I discussed this with were roughly my age (the wrong side of 40+), and we shared our observations about the piling up of follow ups - seems almost inevitable. We also noticed how many younger folks (generation x, or y, or whatever you want to call them - i.e., the ages we wish we were again now that we have all this wisdom!) seem to have a strong aversion to following up, especially when it comes to the job search ("I don't want to be a nuisance"..."they promised to call me in a week").

Again...what do you think? Are they, or you - depending on age, so different from some of us older workers? Comment, criticize, agree, yell, debate...let me (and all of us) know your thoughts please.

A final thought - it's summer! Time to be outside, especially in Chicago (the suffering is over, for a few months at least), we need to go pick up our Blackhawk Stanley Cup Championship gear - we have so much to do, but now's not the time to let your "networking" guard down. Two of my part time jobs were found due to networking. Simply put: we can't ever stop networking. So, find a great place outside to meet with these people, but try really hard to resist "taking the summer off". It's indoors, but on Tuesday June 22, 6:00pm - 9:30pm, a great monthly networking event to attend is the BNC's After Hours - learn more, register at: http://june2010afterhours.eventbrite.com/

and now, your turn!

larry

"Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today." - Herman Wouk

Dear Readers,

The Herman Wouk quote in the title above tickled me. He's long been one of my favorite writers. If you've never read any of his Pulitzer Prize winning work, you're missing out (a huge understatement). There's a really nice piece on him in the April 19 issue of Newsweek. (at right, in Jerusalem, 1955)

Why not have a look if you're not familiar with this American treasure:http://www.newsweek.com/id/236028

Ok, marketing folks in Chicago: both those in transition and you that are blessed with full time employment and regular paychecks. Perhaps you've recently been to networking events that were crowded, had a speaker or two, sometimes interesting and fruitful, sometimes not. Sometimes costly.

Here's one that is very low key, very inexpensive, includes free appetizers, and hosted by...your favorite blogger. The next AMA (American Marketing Association) Downtown Meetup will be this Friday, April 16, 5:30pm at Pazzo's, 311 S. Wacker, in Chicago (across the street of the Sears Tower http://www.pazzoscucina.com/ ). I'll be hosting three more after this week's Meetup - May 17, June 21 & September 20. Besides the very relaxed, friendly, and easy networking, we'll run the "Hot Seat" format.

What's the Hot Seat format? Hot Seat allows you to leverage the room full of marketing experts to get some free consulting on your current marketing challenges. Or, if you're in the audience it's an opportunity to flex your brain and show off your skills. The marketing challenges can be related to a specific campaign, job search or even a new idea you'd like to evaluate. You can fudge the names to protect the guilty, but please keep these to real-life situations, not theoretical scenarios.

Hot Seat volunteers have two minutes to lay out the case, followed by one minute of clarification questions (if needed). Then you have a fast and furious three minutes where the audience offers their best tips to solve your challenge.

Interested? Want more information? Send me a comment to today's blog post, I'll be happy to tell you more. Or you can go to: http://www.meetup.com/ChiAMA/ to learn more, and you can join this Meetup group (free). Currently the group has over 1,000 marketing professionals. But don't worry, the restaurant's room only holds about 30 people.

As always, I anxiously welcome your comments, thoughts, alternate views, ideas for blog discussion, and questions. I continue to hope that you find these posts worthy of forwarding to your network, retweeting, facebooking, and that you become a follower of this blog.

Readers: I will moderate all comments posted in order to prevent what most of us consider to be very inappropriate, offensive language, as well as block unwanted spams.

Meanwhile, it's 75 degrees in Chicago, in April, and if I'm not mistaken, my running shoes are whining for me to take them out for a quick run. I hope your tax season ends nicely, wasn't too painful, and that your tax returns are all nonfiction!

larry