The Ultimate Way to Say Thank You at Work

"Nice work on this one." That was the five word email that made not just the day, but the week of a friend of mine. He's a young patent attorney who writes patents for major tech companies in Silicon Valley. His client was not known for lavish praise or lengthy emails and he sent that five word email to him just after finishing up a patent application. That email alone would have probably been enough to put a smile on his face that day, but what really made the difference was that when he got that email his boss was also copied on it.

Not only did he feel the gratification knowing that his client was happy with his work, he looked good in front of his boss, the person who arguably has the most impact on his ability to grow and advance in his career at his firm.

In the United States we are about to celebrate Thanksgiving. This holiday creates many reminders to say thanks. In my family on Thanksgiving day, we all go around the table before we eat and say what we are grateful for. While I’ll admit that most of the things discussed at the table are on a personal level, this holiday can be an opportunity for you to express appreciation to those in your professional life as well.

In the professional world one of the most impactful and underrated ways you can say thank you at work is to not just direct it at the person to whom you are grateful, but to send it to their direct manager. Here are three tips on how to do this.

• Be specific. Don’t just say “thanks for a great year.” Highlight a specific project or a moment where you were particularly grateful for their help.
• Thank the boss as well. While you might be primarily grateful for the work or help from a specific employee their boss can take at least a little bit of credit. You can say something like. “I wanted to thank you for all the hard work your team put in on this project, I’d like to specifically call out the work on the part of the project that Sue did, she really knocked it out of the park.” 
• Say thanks for the little things too. Don’t wait for some massive milestone to be hit. At that point they’ll probably be getting thank you’s and praise from all over the organization. Look for the quiet, unsung tasks that can be so critical but often go unnoticed.

If you do this, these emails will be cherished by those that receive them. Don’t be surprised if they even end up in their performance evaluations as well.

While you're craving turkey and feeling the holiday spirit, take a few minutes, write an email and make someone’s day, week or even month by saying thank you.

This post originally appeared on LinkedIn. 

Meet My New Assistant, Calendly

I've always told myself that once I have a personal assistant, I'll know I've made it career wise. I despise scheduling meetings, it takes up way too much time. Since I started working, I've been looking forward to the day someone else schedules my meetings.

I'm happy to announce that I now have a personal assistant, it's Calendly. Ok, so it's not a human, but it's software that has taken the pain out of scheduling meetings.

I schedule a lot of meetings. To schedule a meeting with a co-worker is pretty straightforward and easy with our internal systems, but try to set up a meeting with someone not at your company and it's a lot more work. I'm meeting with people every week outside of my company, people in the industry, students or even catching up with different professional contacts. The time is takes to set up these meetings adds up.

Calendly makes this really easy and is saving me at least 30 minutes a week. This is how it works.

Step 1. Sign up for Calendly
Step 2. Sync it with your calendar
Step 3. Set up different types of meetings that you have, filling in each one with important details like, what time of day you prefer, call-in information and a ton more. See examples of all my meetings.

Step 4. When someone wants to meet with you send them a link and it will show them when you are available to meet by automatically checking your calendar and seamlessly creating an invite with all the right details you pre-populated like where meet or what number to call.

If you get a lot of people requesting to meet with you, this is a must have tool. It's not often a piece of software comes along and has such a quick impact on my work, but Calendly really has saved me time.

There is been so much talk of AI lately, that this is a good reminder that great software can be better than AI.

Key Skills for Successful Product Marketers

What are the key skills someone needs to be good a Product Marketer? I first asked that question when I was about 18 months into my first job out of college and was ready to figure out what my next role should be. I had started in a web analyst role, but figured out it was not for me. I was drawn to Product Marketing for a variety of reasons and started trying to figure out what it would take. I had the chance to sit down with a dozen or so Product Marketers I had worked with at my company and ask them that question. Fast forward a few years and I've now spent a number of years in Product Marketing and at a few different reputable tech companies. This is my personal take on....what it takes.

1. Strong communicator. This means you must be able to easily communicate in varied situations. You can easily switch your communication style to handle diverse groups like executives, engineers, marketers, designers etc. This includes the ability to be very diplomatic and very persuasive if the situation requires it.

2. Very collaborative. Product Marketers are often the liaison between product and the sales team, support team and maybe other groups. It's your job to make sure everyone is up to speed and the right people are involved. A collaborative mindset is a must!

3. Quick learner. One quarter you may be doing a in-depth research study, the next you might be training the sales team. Few product marketers do the same thing each quarter you must evolve as the business evolves. It's impossible to be a deep expert on all you will be asked to do, so you must learn fast.

4. See what others don't see. This could apply to seeing a feature that needs to be built, that others will need some convincing to make it happen. It might be a gap in the industry you can get your product to fill. It could be an emerging trend that you can use in your marketing. No matter what it is, you must always be looking and willing to make some bets. This includes having decent analytical chops for a marketer.

5. Presentation skills. When I first tried to get into Product Marketing through an internal transfer, I got rejected. The feedback I got was to boost my presentation skills. Product Marketers needs to be able to present in a compelling way. They are master storytellers that can get their ideas across to an executive, on stage in a keynote or to the sales team. If you dread or are a terrible presenter, it might no be the job for you.

I hope this helps, this is very slanted towards B2B software companies in the bay area, but hopefully you've found this helpful.

How to Get a Entry Level Marketing Job

In 2009, I got my first job out of college in marketing for a great tech company in the bay area. Up until the day I started, I thought it could all be some cruel joke. That's how lucky I felt to get a job in a field I was interested in, in that economy. I remember my future manager saying to me, "You'll have to do some menial excel work for the first six months, but I'll teach you a lot." That sounded great to me.

In hindsight, there was some luck involved that got me there, but I also was prepared. Now that I'm further along in the marketing profession, I've seen some patterns in the kinds of candidates who get entry level marketing jobs.

How To Get a Marketing Job from Derek Pando

1. They brand yourself for success. If you want to be a marketer, but you are not representing yourself well online, no one is going to trust you to do it for their company. That means a great LinkedIn profile (of course), privacy settings locked down on your social media accounts and when someone googles your name there is relevant professional content ready.

2. They are more than entry level. Do you know what's better than training someone from scratch....training someone with a head start. Get Google adwords certified, read some books on marketing, learn how to use key marketing software or manage a friend's small business social media account for free. If you're still in school, get a marketing internship. Any relevant experience will make you a more attractive entry level marketing candidate. Make it sure it's on your resume.

3. They focus on specific types of marketing jobs. Can you answer the question, "What kind of marketing jobs are you interested in?". If not, get to work. Research the kind of entry level marketing jobs that are out there. Tailor your resume to the jobs you like the best.

4. They are willing to start from the bottom. Your first marketing job may not be your dream job, but if it's a step in the right direction, that's progress. Lower you expectations and be willing to do a job even if some of it may seem menial, as long as it's pointing you in the right direction.

Best of luck in your job search! If you have any other questions about how to get an entry level marketing job, please feel free to reach out, or comment below!

The Impact of an Emergency Fund on Your Career

A month or so ago I woke up at 6:30am to make my son a bottle when my phone started blowing up with text messages. One said "no way!" another just said "Microsoft". I read between the lines and quickly opened my work email to read about how Microsoft had just bought LinkedIn. As I sped read the email, my first thought was about whether or not I would lose my job.

I paused after this thought to gauge my feelings and surprisingly enough I felt very calm. A big part of why I felt that was because after I finished my MBA, my wife and I made it a priority to have an emergency fund of 6 months of our expenses.

Now, I have not had this emergency fund for that long, but already it has impacted my career in a positive way by giving me peace of mind as my company goes through big changes. I had enough going through my mind that day without having to worry about feeding my family if the worst case scenario would have happened, which it did not, thankfully.

Here are a few more ways having an emergency fund could impact your career.

1. It can make you more willing to take risks. I believe you'll take more intelligent risks within your company if you're not constantly worried about getting fired and not being able to pay the bills. It can also give you the confidence to take on a new role or maybe quit to try a different company that's more risky.

2. It can prevent you from getting into an ethical mess. Fear of losing your job for financial reasons is stronger motivation than you might think to turn a blind eye to an illegal or unethical situation at work. If you feel financially confident to walk away, you'll be less likely to compromise your values if that unfortunate situation arises.

3. It can relieve stress, which makes you more productive. For the majority of Americans money is a significant source or stress. If you can take that out of the equation you can be a better, happier and more productive employee.

Just a few thoughts, if you have other ideas on how an emergency fund could impact your career, please share in the comments.

Book Summary: Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout (Through a technology marketing perspective)

One of my favorite books is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. In the book, the main character goes on a journey and multiple times along the journey he stops and gets pretty comfortable in a certain location or job, but each time he gets comfortable he eventually proactively abandons the comfort and continues on his journey to achieve bigger and better things.

I really enjoy Product Marketing a lot. I think it’s great fit for my skill set, but I just changed roles to the LinkedIn Sales Solutions Marketing Communications team. I’m following the principles from the Alchemist, abandoning what’s comfortable in an effort to grow and challenge myself. As part of that process, I asked my new manager if she recommend any books to help me in my new role. She recommended the marketing classic Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout. 

Here is a summary, notes and thoughts reading the book. My thoughts from a tech marketing perspective are in italics.

The authors make the point the society is over communicated. It’s harder than ever to change people’s mind, especially through a weak medium like advertising. The book was clearly written before the internet age, so it struck me that if it was a big problem when it was written, it’s a HUGE problem now.

Often, we look to the product for positioning, but in reality we should be thinking about what is already inside the prospect's mind. To succeed in positioning it’s got to be simple and related to what’s already in the customer’s mind or what they believe.

In positioning, there is huge first-mover advantage. In my opinion in technology, it’s not who is first, but the first to critical mass. Apple did not create the smartphone, but were the first to get critical mass. Facebook was not the first social network. Though, you might argue that MySpace had critical mass…..

It’s really hard to displace the leader who holds the number one position in the mind of the consumer. I think this is just as true in technology, it takes a long time or massively disruptive tech. Look at Microsoft. It is still the leader in so many categories, even with often inferior products.

If you’re going to do it, you must relate to the leader. The famous example is from Avis.

Typically, it’s a mistake to challenge the leader head on. Even Google with its almost infinite amount of money and brainpower could not take on Facebook head on with Google+.

Advice for market leaders
-Market leaders should not boast. This makes me think all of the chest pounding that happens after a Gartner Magic Quadrant or Forrester Wave comes out.

-Use a multi-brand strategy for new products. This is easier in a CPG company where the products are not related. At LinkedIn for example, we have products for recruiters, marketers and salespeople all built off the same social network, so it’s much harder to have a completely separate brand because they are all part of the same foundational network.
-Embrace new technologies. Duh.

Advice for followers
-Narrow your appeal. The first company that came to mind was Instagram, they only did pictures and that enabled them to not only compete, but eventually get bought by Facebook.

-Find a hole where you can be first. (Volkswagen “Think small” campaign”

Repositioning the competition
-Make people see the competitor in a different light. Salesforce did this effectively with the no-software campaign. It helped position Oracle as old and slow.

Naming
-Descriptive name is best. Zendesk is an interesting example. Alluding to a happy helpdesk.

-Names that will not limit expansion. The challenges of this I experienced first hand at Salesforce when I was marketing the Service Cloud. Company would say, I don’t need a sales product because of the name Salesforce. In hindsight we should have leaned exclusively on the product name instead of trying to leverage the company’s name.

-For non-product, names hard to oppose. “Clean Air Act”

-Don’t use initials for a name.

-Better to make a new name, then get a free ride on another brand. A brand can only occupy one position. This is challenge for us at LinkedIn.

Lastly, here are a few questions you should think about long and hard if you’re thinking of creating some new positioning.

What to our prospects already believe?

Am I a leader or follower? Be honest…

Where are the positioning gaps in our industry, what could we own?

Enjoy!

Here are two other summaries I found very helpful. One from QuickMBA and the other from Professor Mathur on Slideshare.

Two for One, Fast Food Deal or Key to Productivity?

Lately my time has become a bit more constrained. I'm not trying to point the finger, but our 10 month old son might have something to do with it. I've found that I've been deploying one specific productivity tactic to try to get everything done that I want to. It's all about the two for one.

Here are a few examples of how it works for me.

Surfing. It's fun, it's exercise and sometimes when he's in town, it's bonding with my brother.

Commuting. It gets me to work and I listen to podcasts to learn or be entertained, as well as use that time to call family/friends to catch up.

There is even a three for one or more. Here is my favorite example.

Night time reading. Steph and I read a book together before we go to bed. It's not just any book it's a book that helps our spiritual development, it's in Spanish which helps our languages skills and we do it together which is a great bonding time.

Not every activity in your life needs to accomplish multiple objectives, but if you look at everything you do, there are probably some chances to fit in more if you look for the two for one.

Have an awesome two for one? Please share in the comments.