This post is part of a paid campaign.

When I was working full-time, it was not uncommon for my coworkers and I to fall into phases of “not caring.” Those phases where you’re constantly wondering why you work with who you work, why it matters if the document is turned in by 5 pm as opposed to the next morning, and how in the world you’ll make it past lunch that day. Employee morale at its lowest.

Often times, our director would try to improve employee morale and bring back a sense of community amongst our team. Exercises such as “Share what you learned” and “Tell us what worked” were an attempt at doing this, but anyone who’s sat in on such exercises knows that they rarely truly work.

My coworkers and I would often joke about adding a trip to the beach into the budget, since that would really help bring community back into our workplace. “Can we have our staff meeting at a local resort?” we’d say. Of course, no such luck.

But, some lucky team will definitely get to experience a fabulous office retreat courtesy of HP. The HP Reboot with ROI retreat giveaway is providing a five-day trip to Napa for six people on your team plus a technology makeover for the office! To enter to win this prize worth $30,000, all you have to do is share a story with HP about surprising returns on something you bought. How you pick the lucky six staff members that get to go, is up to you. I don’t envy the poor soul who has to make that decision.

So, if you’re the owner of a small business or a team member that wants to retreat from the office, head on over and share your ROI story. Good luck!

Disclosure: As part of a paid promotion via Clever Girls Collective, I was asked to share this contest information with you on behalf of HP.

Guest post by Kim Dority – part 1 of a 2-part series on Professional Brands [Editor’s Note: Though this article focuses on your brand for traditional employment/career success, it can be applied to your online/blogging career.]

What’s a professional brand? In the marketing world, a brand is the collective characteristics that the market attributes to a given product or service.

Think about these companies and products: Target, Estée Lauder, and Haägen Daz. You probably associate very specific ideas with each of those brands. For Target, you might think “inexpensive but good quality, family-friendly, a shopping experience that’s fun and upbeat.” For Estée Lauder, perhaps beauty, glamour, a high-quality and expensive luxury. And for Haägen Daz, you may be thinking chocolate, indulgence, high quality, an affordable luxury… okay, and also a gazillion calories, but who cares??!!

Professional Brands… for People

Okay, so those are brands for products. Now think of these people: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, actress and singer Jennifer Lopez, anti-apartheid activist and former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela, songwriter and singer Lady Gaga, and media entrepreneur Oprah Winfrey.

Each of these people has a very specific brand. That is, they are known to the world for very specific values, passions, skills, and professional competencies. When you thought of them, you probably also had a set of expectations regarding how they might (or do) behave in their various roles and circumstances.

So it is with your own professional brand. A professional brand isn’t about creating a phony “persona” or pretending to be someone you’re not. Instead, it’s about showcasing the best of who you are and the value you provide. Your professional brand highlights the strengths that you want to be known for, and takes the initiative to shape others’ assumptions about your ability to contribute.

What Are the Key Characteristics of a Brand?

There are many different definitions of what constitutes a professional brand, but one way to think about brand characteristics is laid out by authors David McNally and Karl D. Speak in Be Your Own Brand (Berrett-Koehler, 2002). They identified the big three characteristics as competencies, standards, and style.

• Competencies. Not only what you’re good at, but what you want to be known for being good at. What work are you passionate about doing? (If you’re a decent manager, but you hate managing people, you don’t want to build your brand around management competencies.)
• Standards. How do you perform your competencies? Are you known for always beating deadlines, bringing creative thinking to a project, paying attention to all the details, or ensuring the smooth running of team projects? Are you a perfectionist? What level of performance should others expect of you?
• Style. How do you communicate and interact with others? Think about your relations with classmates, co-workers, bosses, customers, etc. Are you generally more casual in your interactions or more formal? A high-visibility contributor or a more reflective, quiet participant? Do you gravitate toward leadership roles, or prefer to be more of a team player? Are you someone who uses humor (when appropriate) to lighten the mood? These are the attributes you would showcase as part of your professional brand.

How Do You Demonstrate Your Professional Brand?

There are a number of ways you demonstrate your value to the world (and potential employers); most important among these are:

• Your language – is it hesitant or confident, cold or friendly, arrogant or supportive, careless or professional?
• Your clothes – do they reinforce the way you want a potential employer, co-worker, customer, or client to think of you? Or do they tell them not to take you seriously as a professional?
• Your contributions – what projects or volunteer work have you done that demonstrate the professional characteristics you want to be known for? (These characteristics could be a commitment to community service, innovative thinking, leadership, artistic ability, etc.)
• Your public communications – on the job or in class, in print, and online.
• Your attitude – are you a positive person? Easy to work with? Comfortable working as part of a team?

What About Building Your Brand Online?

You have all sorts tof ways to boost – or bury – your professional brand online. The social networking sites – for example, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter – are a great way to promote your interests and expertise, or discuss what you’re learning about in school. Or consider writing a blog on a professional topic that interests you or creating a website that provides resources on a topic for which you’d like to be known.

Just keep in mind that you should assume all of your online communications will be visible to – and checked out by – a potential employer. You don’t have to be boring, just try not to do any major damage to your professional reputation!

Why Your Professional Brand is Really Important to Your Career

Having a strong professional brand can help you build the career you want in a number of ways.

• It provides stability in the midst of workplace and economic chaos.  You know the drill: pink slips are flying left and right, companies are changing direction (and staffing needs), entire industries are contracting (and job opportunities along with them.) You may have made a decision that your current job (or employer) is a dead-end deal, and that it’s time to head in a new direction. Having a strong professional brand lays the groundwork for you to land on your feet with a new employer if needed, because you’ve already built a reputation (which they can see online and/or hear about from others) that lets them know how valuable you are.
• It helps shape how people are willing to let you contribute.  If you’re new on the job, and no one really knows you, they won’t know what to expect of you. Should they trust your judgment? Should they give you the important assignments or new opportunities? If you’ve built a track record – a brand – that lets them know you’re smart, capable, and have high professional standards, you’ve gone a long way toward answering those questions for them.
• It positions you in the path of opportunity.  If you’ve done a good job of building a reputation as a strong contributor, you’re more likely to be mentioned by others when new opportunities arise. It’s impossible to tell where a new project may be developing, when a company may be taking a new direction that would be a perfect fit for your skills, or how a start-up is going to need your expertise to take advantage of an expanding market segment. But if you’ve got a great brand that’s visible to a lot of people, it’s a lot likelier that your name will cross paths with those opportunities through people who can connect the dots for you.

Have you thought about your personal brand?

Have you been thinking about what work-life balance means to you? Or even just balance in and of itself? Well, there are some people who think there is no such thing. The phrase work-life balance alone is contradictory in their eyes.

I recently came across The myth of work/life balance, in which the author proposes changing the term work-life balance to “work-life compro-balance.” Her thinking is that compromises always have to be made when you’re trying to achieve balance. So, by changing the name, you get more realistic expectations of your goals and it allows “…you the opportunity to forgive yourself if you don’t get everything done in the day.”

The second part of her post actually provides very practical advice. She suggests that you look at the big-picture and evaluate all aspects of your life, separating the things you have to do from those you want to do. Assign percentages to each item based on your available time, realizing of course that there are only a set number of hours available each week. This will allow you to see your time as a whole and as she says, you will “… have an understanding of why you aren’t able to fit certain things in your life, thus reducing guilt and the feeling of pressure.”

Do you agree with her opinion that work-life balance doesn’t exist?

I, personally, can understand her reasoning. But, I feel that if you define balance to fit your needs and lifestyle, then you will be able to have work-life balance in your life since you’ll be striving for your own personalized definition and goals. Whatever you feel provides you with a feeling of balance when juggling work, life, and family, then that is what you will work towards each day.

Weigh in with your opinion in the comments below. Work-life balance or work-life compro-balance?

Photo by Hans Splinter from Flickr

What does balance mean to you?

Is it about balancing you as a person? Does it involve the people around you? Or is it about the roles you play in life?

Let me elaborate a bit on what I mean.

Balancing You

Do you strive for your physical, mental, and spiritual health to be in-line? Does having balance mean you get to enjoy some “me time” every now and again?

I think for some people balance means they ensure they take care of themselves properly. For them, it may not matter if the house is not in order or if all their work got done. That’s not what stresses them out. In order to keep themselves from feeling stressed, they make sure to eat well, exercise, and get that time alone that many crave.

Do you see yourself in this group?

Balance through Others

Do you always take care of others? Is it important to you that your kids, spouse, family, parents, etc., are happy and have all they need from you?

There are those that thrive on helping others. They make sure everyone around them has all they need and do so before taking care of themselves. For them, making sure that others are happy, makes them happy. It’s what keeps them going every day and they may even feel stressed if they’re unable to help.

Are you someone that feels balanced when others are taken care of?

Balancing Our Roles

Do you often feel like you’re pulled in many directions? Do you feel that if you had a handle on it all you would feel better?

We play many roles in our daily lives: employees, wives, husbands, parents, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters – the list goes on. Each role requires different levels of work and some are more demanding than others. For some people, being able to balance all the roles and be in control of each is what helps them feel balanced.

Is this you?

I feel I fit into this last category. It does overlap with balancing yourself and taking care of others, of course. But, the key is that if every aspect is “in control” you feel better about things. You don’t really want to sacrifice one for the other and it’s important to you that the house, work, family, others, and yourself are all taken care of. Self normally being last on the list.

Obviously, it’s impossible for all aspects of your life and all the roles you play to be in perfect harmony. I realize this. For me, it’s more about each being stable. I don’t need the house to be perfect (I let go of that a while back), but I like it to be manageable. I know I can’t take care of everyone, but if I can help, I feel better. And, work doesn’t have to be absolutely done at the end of the day, but I need to make progress.

Like I mentioned when I broke down my daily work and home routine, if I can dip a little into each of my roles every day, I feel like I get “…things done and…there was a good balance of things in my day.”

So, again I’ll ask you…what does balance mean to you? What helps you feel like you’ve got a pretty good handle on things? Is it taking care of yourself, others, or a little of everything?

***More resources on work-life balance

I just quit my job.

Seriously. I just handed in my resignation letter.

It feels good. And a tiny bit scary. But, I think that’s normal. It’s a big change for me. I’ve never quit a job without first having another.

So, here I am. Well not quite yet.

I still have some time at work before I am officially done.

But, soon. Soon, I’ll be done with my outside the home job.

I may be broke and eating Ramen noodles soon, but at least I’ll be working towards something. And, like my husband said last night, “There’s no one I’d rather be broke with.”

No more rats! Yay!

If you’ve been following along on Twitter, you’ll know that there have been a couple of rat incidents at my job.

Well nooooo more!

We’re moving.

Our office is moving locations, which means no more rats.

But, it also means I now have to buy a parking pass for $400. ugh

I always wonder why employees have to pay for parking with certain jobs.

In my case it’s because I work at a university, where everyone has to pay for parking…”to maintain the lots, sidewalks, etc.”

Or something really official like that.

Do you pay for parking at your job? Would that deter you from working there?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments.

It’s as if she read my mind…

I would never have been able to put it in such great words, though.

So go read!

Oh, The Joys – Things Fall Apart

for print. for web. for business!  

Hello folks!

My husband and I have opened up our web and graphic design freelance business.

Here’s a snippet of what we’re about….

Based in Orlando, Florida, edwards design is a professional, full-service design and consulting group, dedicated to providing your business with the tools and knowledge needed for success in this new media economy.

We offer graphic design, web design, and consulting services to businesses throughout the US, Puerto Rico and Canada.

From logos and brochures to web banners and web sites, we are here to provide you with cutting edge design and the professional services needed to help your business grow.

You can contact us for any web / graphic design services you may need at http://www.energdesign.com/.

We also have a blog up with articles on various consulting services provided and web / graphic design topics.

Moms United in Business has a good post up today about writing to make money online.

As told by Jenn, MUIB founder:

I make money by writing articles. I write what I know. I get paid. It is as simple as that.

Read the entire post

AOL’s consumer advisor provides six ways you can make money online in the article titled, “Delete your commute with new internet jobs.”

The article lists the following six online jobs and links:

1. Become a virtual juror – www.ejury.com
2. Become a virtual assistant – www.virtualassistantjobs.com
3. Become a virtual concierge – www.vipdesk.com
4. Blog for money – payperpost.com
5. Help others search the web – www.chacha.com
6. Get paid for your videos – www.revver.com

Read full article on MSNBC 

The only one I’ve had experience with is PayPerPost. I’ve been experimenting a bit on my other blog, Modern Mami Reviews, and have had a good outcome so far.

Have you had success with any of these sites? Let me know in the comments.