Float You: How to Capitalize on Your Talent [Paperback]

 People invest in you all the time, but how do you make sure you’re getting the best return you can? Treat yourself like a company and release your personal capital - this is the book that shows you how to prepare for your personal flotation. Are you getting the most out of your personal capital? Maybe you want more recognition in your current job, or are about to launch yourself as a freelance or consultant? Or it could be time for a new career. Whatever situation you are in, you are asking people to invest in You. To get the most from what you’ve got, you need to have a strong brand, understand your market, have the right network in place and know how to make it all happen. These are critical steps that lead up to your personal flotation. This is the book that leads you through those steps, giving you the tools you need to check your brand worth at every stage, and making you challenge yourself: am I ready to float? This way, when you finally go to market, your personal share price will reach an all time high - and stay there. This Book Will:  

• Help you release and realise your personal capital

• Be a "how to" practical guide to provide you with a personal change action plan to release your personal capital

• Clearly illustrate the concept of brand worth in the marketplace and how this applies to you as an individual

   

Carmel McConnell is a business consultant, author and coach. In her corporate career, Carmel has consulted to investment banks, worked on media convergence projects and advised on film studio business processes. Previously, Carmel spent several years as a full-time anti-nuclear campaigner. She is author of Change Activist, also published under the momentum imprint. Mick Cope is an experienced and inspirational business consultant and author, who has managed a wide range of development programmes. Mick is the author of a number of books, the most recent of which are Know Your Value (Financial Times/Prentice Hall) and Lead Yourself (momentum).

Why this book?

'I have not got a clue what my personal capital is, or what it is worth.' Is that true for you? If so, you are not alone. This is a collective Achilles' heel, inherited from the pre-knowledge era, when we were all herded together under the category 'hired hands'. We were not meant to know our value or that we had marketable personal capital. That's changing. But there is a lot of catching up to do.

Let me give you an example: we spoke recently to a successful media industry manager, very socially skilled, with an impressive corporate track record and degrees aplenty. He phoned to talk about a potential career move. After half an hour on the phone we got onto the importance of knowing your own value. He asked, 'do you know anywhere I can find something to read on that?' And I didn't.

What are you worth? Look at your career right now, and ask that question. It is like gazing into a mirror that allows no reflection. But the mirror image is growing clearer. And a main reason is the era of global market deregulation, which has stimulated the deregulation of human capital. The age of the individualized economy is coming closer.

What is driving this? Factors include:

- Access to money. If you have access to a good idea or solid asset, financial investment is becoming less of a barrier to entry into the world market.

- Growing social emphasis on self-provision. For example, previously paternalistic governments are withdrawing pyschological comfort blankets such as state support for education and pensions.

- It's not what life hands you, it's what you do with what life hands you. The knowledge economy values results not ancestry, giving rise to greater global work opportunities for those equipped to navigate the wired marketplace.

- Global mindset. We live and work in a global electronic village.

- Increased career expectations. Each generation has accelerated the rate of gain in living standards. One extension of that has been changing attitudes to work. This generation is increasingly concerned about how to find work with meaning, how to be happy, as well as pay the bills. What has this got to do with you? Plenty. Although most people in salaried employment will still find the concept difficult to personalize.

But to achieve this you will need to invest in your biggest asset, you. We want to help. We believe you will be happier and more in control of your life when you realize your own personal capital and that is why we have devised the Float

You concept.

Where from?

Many of the ideas have evolved from our earlier work. This book offers an integrated approach to genuine, sustainable life change. We hope that where something really grabs your attention and causes you to reach for more information you can go to our other books for more detailed information on the float levels. The other books are:

- Lead Yourself, (Mick)

- Know Your Value. Value what you know, (Mick)

- Change Activist, (Carmel).

What we aim to achieve

To help you optimize personal value in the market. This is an achievement manual authentic to our experiences. We'll help you figure out how to make it happen in the real world. We won't guru you. We won't use bull. We'll hopefully befriend you. We won't enthuse then lose you. If, like us, your life is still not a total success story, learn from our experience. We've screwed up, worked it out, made it happen. We will show you how to take one aspect of your life and change it consistently. You will surface.