Leave Your Mark by Aliza Licht
If you could switch ‘job’ places with anyone for a day, who would it be? 
There’s a few on my list. One is the lovely Aliza Licht, author of this fabulous new book Leave Your Mark, Ted Talkeree, and the brains behind the hugely popular DKNY twitter DKNY PR Girl.
Reasons for making the switch list?
- Based in New York (amazing!!)
- Would involve being the fashion publicist for DKNY
- Includes an amazing wardrobe (for dreaming purposes we are assuming the closet comes with the job)
- Did I mention New York?
Back to reality, and since the job swap is looking a little far-fetched I have to settle with following Aliza via twitter and reading (twice already!) her new advice / mentorship book.
While Aliza is obviously in the fashion industry the advice is hugely relevant to other industries – even those of us working in far-flung corners of the world, such as New Zealand 🙂
I loved the straight-talking advice, sass and smarts in this book – exactly what you’d want from your very own mentor.
Here’s some of my favourite advice from Aliza…
How to Leave Your Mark
(headings = mine, quotes = directly from the book)
1. Build your own brand – it’s important
“Because here’s the biggest secret truth: How you brand and market yourself can weigh just as heavily on your success as your actual skills do.”
2. Remember that how you do it sometimes matters more
“How you communicate and influence others often matters more than the idea you’re pitching.”
3. Forget climbing the ladder and build your own!
“If you have no one to show you the ropes, you have to build a ladder.”
4. Attitude is everything
“A great attitude is one of your most marketable skills, and if you can muster the energy and passion to have a good attitude about any task, large or small, then you will get very far.”
5. Realise that you need to major in people
“To really succeed, you also need to be a master of human nature. Bottom line: If you can’t learn how to work with all different types of people, it really doesn’t matter how GOOD you are at what you do.”
6. Take this test before you post anything to social media
“If you wouldn’t feel comfortable running a full-page ad of your tweet in the New York Times, don’t post it.”
7. Embrace failure
“Sharing a failure publicly was an odd yet liberating feeling. What I realized from that experience was that failing doesn’t always have to be negative.”
8. Learn to manage up
If you don’t like to be micromanaged, then shoot your supervisor a quick email to let her know that things have been taken care of. I love nothing more than when someone responds to an email with “done.”
9. Believe in yourself
“I’m saying that the key is to be comfortable in your own skin and believe that you have something to offer, because YOU DO.”
Confession time: I had a total of 209 kindle highlights in Leave Your Mark – yes that’s how good it is! Grab your own copy here so you can make your own notes 😉
Happy reading,
C x
The Marketer's Bookshelf 