I don’t take myself too seriously. I also think we are a collection of our experiences and we bring that collection to each job we get. The process by which those experiences are packaged and how new experiences are added to the collection seems very interesting. We are beyond the world of resumes and job postings. There is a way for people to assemble their collection in a way that it aligns with opportunities even before an opportunity presents itself.

Last week I had the chance to speak at the UMSL Digital Conference as part of the pre-conference career fair. The conference itself drew 700+ people (I heard records were set!), but the pre-conference was a bit smaller. Regardless of the number of participants, the audience was comprised of people hungry to learn about new career opportunities in the digital marketing industry.

I didn’t really talk about that.

I developed a new presentation about the importance of career insulation. It’s a concept I’ve been exploring along side my buddy, Chris Reimer (he wrote a great book, btw). As part of this exploration process, and because I know people at career fairs are sponges looking for ways to market their talents better, I decided to create a 45-min talk on the subject.

I believe your UMSL talk yesterday was one of the most important sessions I’ve attended in the last 3 years. — Katie S.

While I don’t normally share my presentation decks, I have decided to do so this time. The five tools I suggest have personally helped me in my career and I’ve seen them successfully put into practice by others. If you want to insulate your career, focus on these five things:

  1. Smartagious
  2. Connect
  3. Give
  4. Complete
  5. Inspire

Docs for Download: Presentation Deck & Single Page Handout

Perry Drake and the team at #UMSLdigital put on a fantastic conference and I was stoked to participate. I was also excited about being able to add a new topic to my speaking page (not-so-subtle way of saying, Hey, if you are looking for a speaker, check out these topics.)