This is a recent blog that I wrote for Marketing Executives Network Group or MENG.
Remember playing hopscotch? It was easy to play. All you needed was some chalk. Maybe you stole it from school.
Life in the New Normal is very much the same game.
Just like hopscotch it all depends when tile you land on.
Just like in hopscotch in the New Normal many people have one foot tied behind their backs. A balancing act of intention and resolve but precariousness.
Some companies are hiring and some companies are still firing.
It all depends on what tile you step on.
Stepping on the getting hired tile can be very difficult especially if you are over 50. Some are younger than Baby Boomers yet many people think they are out of the game. I am glad that I stopped looking for work in the Old Normal way a decade ago. I learned new games.
I always thought that getting through the eye of the needle was a tough parable.
Getting hired if you are a long term person in transition is even harder.
The irony is that the companies that fire people hire people slowly but they want you to like them on Facebook instantly. Please like me they say. Here is a contest. Here is a game you can play to win a gift certificate. Here is how you connect with us.
Many companies are sitting on piles of cash because you buy their products.
Companies don’t look too often into the firing mirror. Some wouldn’t see a reflection.
In the New Normal I hear from people that are killer on social media. They teach on how to harness its power.
However they send out emails saying they need work. They aren’t landing on the right tiles.
In the depth of the melting of the world in the fall of 2008 as the financial markets crumbled I would be travelling to speak on Networking Your Way to New Business. I could have been in Des Moines, Duluth, or Oklahoma City. The world melted on the coasts first and not in those parts of the world. Business was tough. I came home and told my personal witch I felt like a fraud. “We teach what we need to know,” she said. That is why she is my personal witch. I have lent her from time to time to other people who need a little brain alignment.
I spoke recently at a local college about how on why people shouldn’t find a job. I had a follow up coffee in my hood with a young chap who was born on the other side of the globe. My sister was born in Beirut. He had some friends in Dubai and was heading there. He was younger than my kids. He asked me to connect him with somebody in my LinkedIn network from that part of the world. I never met her but she reads my blogs from time to time. She connected him with another contact in her LinkedIn game and he got a job with a Multinational Agency in her part of the world. He is probably 23.That is how Hopscotch is played today in the New Normal. Some people have one hand tied behind their backs and some people are free and growing.
It’s your turn to hop in the New Normal.
You can connect with Hank Blank on Linkedin.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/hankblankcom
Follow his updates on twitter: @hankblank
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Don’t Let Your Business Cards Weaken Your Personal Brand
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Hank Blank: Thoughts on Networking, New Business & Agency Searches 
“We teach what we need to know”
^ This!
I have been reading and writing a lot on personal branding lately. I have been, for most of my life, a content consumer. My new goal in life is to be a ‘content producer’ regardless of how low the quality is. Thank you so much for providing that quote. It is now forever in my quote list of innovative ideas.
What are your thoughts on the conflation of business and personal networks? Initially I tried to keep all of mine separate, however that idea fell of the cliff quite quickly. There are many people in my circles both personal and professional that add value to my life. It seems to be a poor idea to bucket them away from each other.
Great tips that I’ve forwarded to several friends. Keep up the good work.