Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Hope Hicks' Resignation - ABC's David Muir Shows, Doesn't Tell

The ultimate in professional cool, ABC's David Muir opened the 6:30 P.M. news with the Hope Hicks' resignation.

Through playing enough of the footage from the White House talking heads and ABC's own White House reporters, Muir did what your freshman composition instructor hammered: Show, Don't Tell. 

Viewers would have been brain-dead not to pick up the disconnect between the cover story the White House is putting out there and Hicks' testimony yesterday about telling "white lies" for the Trump Administration. 

On the other hand, at CNN, Chris Cillizza bluntly told readers how ridiculous the cover story was. Here you can read his almost adolescent glee at what probably would have caused a teenager and his bros a good belly laugh.

In this era of extreme reporting, it's refreshing for Muir to allow us to connect the dots. He came across as Walter Cronkite-like statesman. We were pleased we weren't underestimated. 

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Cover Letters - The First Impressions We Never Have a Chance to Make Again

We introduce ourselves to prospective employers and clients through what are known as "cover letters." Actually, they are sales pitches.

What we are pitching is our ability to get the whatever accomplished better, faster, and more affordably than others competing for the opportunity.

In this world of talent glut, cover letters represent the most important selling job we have.

The good news is that there are six proven ways to position and package ourselves in those pitches so that we make the right impression, from the get-go. This is especially important for professionals over-40.

As a communications and aging coach, here are those must-dos in cover letters:

Drop the attitude that it's a numbers game.  That means that each pitch will be customized. Sure, it's okay to have pattern letters. But we analyze the help-wanted or, if it's a "cold call," the organizational culture carefully to figure out how to create the me-to-you tone and content. Based on that, we derive a custom-made pitch from the pattern letter.

Well-thought-out cover letters are exactly what employers and clients demand. They are overwhelmed with canned pitches that have been copied and pasted. We stand out when we show we respect their time. Also, that sends the message that we are enthusiastic and energetic.

Start out with why you want to be part of its team. If the organization identifies itself, briefly mention its strengths and therefore why you are highly motivated to work with it.

If no identity is provided, then cite a characteristic of the industry - such as cryptocurrency - and how you know that is the future.

SHOW, Don't Tell, Accomplishments. They are not hiring skills. What they need is someone to achieve a particular goal. That means in the next paragraph you have to SHOW, not tell, that you can get that job done better than others competing for the job.

For instance, they have to increase social media traffic. Provide the numbers how you did that in other contexts and what was your "secret sauce."

Ask permission to demonstrate what you can do for them. The request for permission is necessary. That sends the signal you are not going to take over the place.

The form of the request could be to create a mini marketing plan or do a post on your own syndicated blog about their new product.

Get a little personal. In this era of social media, we are expected to let others in. In the next to the last paragraph we can disclose that, as a volunteer, we have leveraged our social media sites to raise $32,500 for a local animal shelter and help attract Forever Parents for four dogs and five cats. All in 18 months.

Assume the sale. Throughout the cover letter, we use the term "we," as if we are already part of the team.

Skillful salespeople navigate the pitching process creating the sense that the customer or client has already bought in. At the end of the letter, we explicitly indicate that we are looking forward to discussing in more detail how we can generate the results needed.

Coaching on all aspects of aging, from careers to managing finances. Complimentary consultation. Sliding scale fees. Please contact aging expert Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com. 

 

Paid Editorial Fellowships at Mother Jones, San Francisco, CA (help-wanted)

Here are details and how to apply.

Facebook - Now Platform for Global Blue-Collar Job Postings/Applications

Anyone associated with digital anything knows this: Job postings will increase traffic to your site - significantly. 

So, it's no surprise that Facebook, the tireless digital hustler, has launched a version of LinkedIn.

Only Facebook's approach is to bring employers and searchers for jobs/assignments together in the blue-collar sector. That starts today, in about 40 nations.

Last year, it had become functional in the U.S. and Canada. Testing of the feature began in 2016.

In TechCrunch, Josh Constine reports:

"Businesses will be able to post job openings to a Jobs tab on their Page, Jobs dashboard, Facebook Marketplace, and the News Feed that they can promote with ads. Meanwhile job seekers can discover openings, auto-fill applications with their Facebook profile information, edit and submit their application, and communicate via Messenger to schedule interviews."

This could be a tremendous service to small businesses and entrepreneurs around the world. According to a Facebook official, 40% of them in the U.S. have had problems filling the jobs that were open. 

Meanwhile, those of us in the high-skill niche are balking at LinkedIn pricing for a similar service. That's LinkedIn ProFinder. Supposed good fits for our skills arrive in our in-box. The prospective employer or client provides the specs. We respond with a brief proposal and a bid. 

I participated in a one-month free trial. The filters were for my general geographical area. Although I submitted a ton of proposals, there was only one positive response. And that was to agree that I was a good fit but too far for an easy commute, so that prospect ruled me out.

After the free trial, the monthly cost is about $60.00. That's way more than my internet service and about $10 more than what I pony up to AT&T for my smartphone connection. 

If Facebook can configure a lower-cost approach for professionals like myself and then keep building an ecosystem, LinkedIn could be history. So, might that niche on Craigslist. 

Place your sponsored content and links on this syndicated site. High Google Rankings. Brandname inbound Links. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com for complimentary consultation.

                                                                                                                                                                                    

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD - Senior Speechwriter (help-wanted)

Here are details and how to apply.

Law360, Delaware - Reporter for Delaware Courts (help-wanted)

Here are details and how to apply.

Christopher Knight - Anti-Hero for Communications/Commercial/Career Overload

For 27 years, Christopher Knight was able to pursue a life of total solitude in the woods of Maine. Off the grid included no internet access. 

His true story is captured in the 2017 book "The Stranger in the Woods" by Deckle Edge. Here it can be ordered at Amazon.

Knight could have been the hero for this time of communications, commercial (as in non-stop selling), and career overload. Instead, he'll go down in history as an anti-hero.

His lifestyle required stealing food and other supplies from cabins and a camp for the disabled. Children had nightmares that this elusive creature would come take them. So, no, he wasn't a 100% good guy. 

But the model is good-enough to create a sustained fantasy among us who are, as USA Today put it, exhausted by the lives we are living. 

Even before Knight's story was out, there are those who didn't see an alternative to gregarious neighbors, upselling, and the rat race as a fantasy. I met them in the desert of southern Arizona and towns along the border of Mexico. 

Some were extreme, stockpiling supplies for when the nuclear blast happened. Usually they had had a trauma. One's wife had run off. Another couldn't shake flashbacks of an abusive father and a mother who didn't intervene.

Most others just had had it. They only conformed to must-dos in order to survive. Many had to hold low-level jobs. It was interesting that they didn't want to "move up" in the company.

A modified version of all that is happening in networks throughout the U.S. among the over-65. Entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security eliminate the wolf at the door.  Enlightened employers, ranging from Marc's to Home Depot, hire them for part-time or even full-time hours. Mostly, they can just be. 

But those days of paradise often become jolted when they find they are bored. Unlike Knight, total simplicity can't hold them. They know they could face 20 or more years of good health.

Their search is how to start over, but avoid the financial, emotional, spiritual, and professional mistakes of the past. Like the Stoneman Douglas generation, this one is becoming unique game-changers of values. 

Coaching on all aspects of aging, from careers to managing finances. Complimentary consultation. Sliding scale fees. Please contact aging expert Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com. Read her syndicated site https://over-50.typepad.com.

Paul Manafort's Not-Guilty Plea - What Courtroom Drama Set of 9/17/18 Trial Date

oday, the universe smiled on the media, legal experts, and those who have become addicted to courtroom drama.

Former Donald Trump campaign manager - Paul Manafort - has entered a not-guilty plea. His trial data has been scheduled for September 17, 2018. Here are more details from Kevin Johnson at USA Today.

The implications are huge.

BigLaw firm Skadden is already embedded in this legal and reputational crisis. The New York Times reported that lawyers at Skadden are "on edge." Here is the coverage on how deep Skadden's troubles might be.

In addition, the insiders in the Trump Administration have to wonder and worry what might come out about them in terms of the presentation of evidence and testimony.

In that loop is former BigLaw firm Jones Day partner - Don McGahn. While still a Jones Day partner he legally represented aspects of the Make America Great campaign. Currently he is the top White House lawyer.

Also. there are lower-profile legal, political, and media players who can be dragged into the proceedings of the trial. Depending on what their role had been, they can wind up finished or a hero. 

The challenge is to be able to set aside enough time to follow the trial in real time. Life has a tendency to intervene.

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The Rankings Effect - Academic Brands Put in Play March 20th

On March 20th, the world will shift.

Deans, especially in the distressed law-school niche, and holders of various advanced degrees, including the JD, can find themselves in branding hell. 

That's because U.S. News Graduate School Compass, which is subscription-based, will publish its 2019 rankings of degree programs ranging from law to social work. Here is the organization's own announcement.

Education is a big business. For years, experts have been analyzing its alleged bubble aspect. But, so far, if there is bubble, it hasn't burst.

There is still enormous faith in the power of advanced degrees to provide access to professional upward mobility.

For some, that has proved out.

Although head of Abovethelaw.com - Elie Mystal - derides his Harvard Law School JD - it has served him well. Without that credential his role of an evangelist against degrees beyond the BA/BS would likely lack cool - and reach.

Being admitted to Harvard Law School and then rejecting all that as a 1L also has been a brand-enhancer for me.

For others, investing in formal education beyond undergraduate has generated trauma. The new kind of regret is leaving a lucrative career path to opt for law or business school. Within a few years the marketplace they are building their new career in changes. That's, of course, no fault of the academic institution. Or, so the current assumption is. 

Among those I coached had been a senior associate who didn't make partner. He had left a job selling cars for law school. Because of that sacrifice and his investment his twisted gut told him to stick with chasing assignments in law. Eventually he was able exit that false consciousness. 

As long as success is associated with advanced degrees, there will be the Ranking Effect.

On March 20th, some deans will find themselves in the catbird seat. So will alumni of those academic institutions.

Others will find their branding - and future - in play.

Place your sponsored content and links on this syndicated site. High Google Rankings. Brandname inbound Links. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com for complimentary consultation.

"The Past" - This Existential Issue Being Reduced to Google Links

Since the beginning of civilization, artists, healers, and justice-seekers have wrestled with the impact of the past on the present and the future. 

In William Faulkner's novel "Requiem for a Nun," there's the iconic observation that "The past is never dead. It's not even past."

Tribal shamans helped rid troubled minds of trauma residue.

And, those appointed to determine degree of guilt, like Jack McCoy in "Law & Order," have factored in a Dickensian childhood.

But in this digital era, the past is losing its existential elegance.

In Europe, thanks to the "right to be forgotten" privacy law, the past is now being defined in terms of links on search engine Google. That's specific to European law.

But, aspects of it could be exported to the U.S.

The past of so many Americans could be erased through collective action by Congress, lawyers, and public relations firms specializing in reputation management. For those who can afford high-powered "digital scrubbing," that's already happening. 

In Fortune, David Meyer reports:

"The right to be forgotten ... was established by Europe's top court in 2014. The ruling held that Google ... must remove links to material about a person, if that individual asks it to do so, and if the information is 'inaccurate, inadequate, irrelevant or excessive." 

So far in Europe, there have been 655,000 requests. Google has given the okay to disappearing almost 44% of them. About a third deal with personal information.

If this option becomes open to those in the U.S. it could mean a second chance for so many aging professionals. Those negative aspects of their past which employers and clients bump into in the present would no longer exist. Except maybe in their trauma-filled brain, which can be an even more serious obstacle.

In my coaching over the years - currently, it's focused on those over-50 - I have observed how much the past keeps displaced professionals stuck.

After I delivered a talk to unemployed older lawyers at the New York State Bar Association, several lawyers confided to me this: The one piece of their past which they assumed caused the current reversal of fortune - that is, being jobless. That assumption, I was convinced, was the problem. Not the reality. 

The coaching focused on changing the perception of the past. The past may never be past. But it, even the most negative, can be re-interpreted as a key building block in a life. 

The classic examples of a dark past as the platform for extraordinary accomplishment range from Paul in the New Testament to Watergate villain Chuck Colson. 

On the other hand, in Shakespeare's drama, the tragic heroes such as Hamlet and King Lear can't find their way out of force field of the past.

Mental torment seems to be their comfort zone.

The reality is that, even until digital links are disappeared in the U.S., aging professionals can re-engineer their past. 

Coaching on all aspects of aging, from careers to managing finances. Complimentary consultation. Sliding scale fees. Please contact aging expert Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com. Read her syndicated site https://over-50.typepad.com.