The world is full of high-achieving, interesting individuals, and one of our goals at Job Brander is to highlight just a few of them. This month’s profile features Molly Mahoney Matthews, a DC based entrepreneur and author who’s new book, ”Unsinkable: Find a Job, Create a Career, Build a Business” was recently released for digital download on Amazon.com.

After selling her healthcare company in 2006, Molly looked back on what she had learned so far, and decided it was time to pass some of that knowledge on to the public…

…Well, not exactly.

“I never thought of myself as an author,” Molly told me, “I started writing the book as a memoir for my daughter,” but after attending some writing workshops, she decided that she could transform her thoughts into a business book, and Unsinkable was born.

Like many entrepreneurs, Molly Matthews has had her hand in a number of projects over the years and not all of them have been as great as she would have liked.  After working as a camp counselor in high school and college, she found herself employed as a research assistant one summer. “It was a disaster,” Molly told me, “I wasn’t interested in the work. I was honestly just doing it for the paycheck,” but the experience taught her a valuable lesson anyway. “Don’t do anything just for the money,” she told me. While it’s a reality that sometimes you have to take a job you don’t care about just to make ends meet, Molly’s advice was to keep looking for the next opportunity to do what you truly love.

And continuing to look for new opportunities is something that Molly is almost always doing. After leaving the hospital she worked at, she looked back at her career and realized that if she continued to follow the corporate path she was on, she was going to keep bumping up against the “glass ceiling.” Like many people who won’t settle, Molly went out on her own. “I started out just thinking, I can get enough clients to just make my salary back,” she told me, and within a few months, she had done just that. Her healthcare company brought in recruits for medical studies, which Molly really enjoyed because she felt that she was helping people with especially difficult diseases and conditions.

As her company grew, she finally realized that it was time to take her business to the next level. “There were six of us working out of a basement,” she laughed, “it was definitely tight.” She saw that other companies in her field were pursuing big government contracts, and realized that those huge multi-year commitments were to key to her company’s success. Soon, she was winning a few of them, and Matthews Media Group was on it’s way to bringing in its 100th employee.

Still, Molly wasn’t sure that the industry was going to remain a good fit for much longer. “I liked hiring people and giving them an opportunity where they didn’t seem to be a perfect fit,” she told me, “but things were changing.” As regulations started to increase and Molly got further removed from the part of her work that she loved, she decided to sell her company to a larger organization, and move on.

Throughout her career, Molly has been involved in numerous non-profit organizations, and has always had a passion for helping others. She told me that’s been one of her most important life lessons, “Volunteering is a great way to make connections and get out there in the community.” She currently sits on the boards of several local organizations including St. Mary’s College of Maryland, where she said she’s gotten a great chance to see the quickly changing world of higher education. “The price tag on education is the most critical issue in this generation,” she told me.

While writing, editing, and self-publishing her book, Molly has found a new way to express her passion for helping others. Unsinkable is out now, but Molly hopes to do even more with the book soon – possibly even creating a college course around its content. Meanwhile, she’s also co-founded a new project called Lucky Planet Food that aims to create and market vegan and other health-conscious meals to consumers who may want to eat well, but be unaware of how it’s done. With all of her experience and passion, I feel sure that Unsinkable won’t be the last thing we hear from Molly Mahoney Matthews.

Feel free to connect with Molly on Twitter and check out her book on Amazon.com.

The post Monthly Profile: Molly Mahoney Matthews, Author of “Unsinkable” appeared first on Job Brander.

Initially, I don’t suspect that smart watches will be seen as their own unique channel for marketers. The models currently being released are really just extensions of smart phones, but if the technology improves a bit, we might see independent smart watches that are linked to the internet via their own wireless signals. This will mean new opportunities for app-makers, advertisers, and marketers who want to spread their message in real time to consumers. Here are some of the biggest ways smart watches will change the marketing landscape:

1. Directly tied to users

The biggest difference between a smart watch and a smart phone is the constant proximity to the user. While most people probably keep their smart phones close at hand, they may not feel it buzz in their pocket or they might leave it at the office when they’re on their lunch break. Smart watches are an “always on” experience, and it would be much harder to ignore a buzzing on your wrist than one deeply hidden in a puffy jacket.

2. Location, motion, and time awareness

Like smart phones, smart watches are location and motion aware. On the smart phone, this opened up opportunities for companies like Foursquare, Instagram, and Google to try innovative location-based advertising opportunities. I suspect this trend will only continue as smart watches could potentially determine what activities you’re engaged in (typing at a keyboard sends different motion signatures than walking or running), where you are, and what time you normally eat lunch, buy clothes, or get coffee. All of these factors will make for a more personal experience on smart watches.

3. More selective, full-screen experiences

Screen real estate is scarce enough on smart phones, but it’s scarcer still on smart watches. This will mean that banner ads will have to be crammed down to microscopic sizes or removed completely in favor of full-screen interruptions. Neither one of those options are ideal, but hopefully the relevance of the messages will make up for the lack of space.

4. New, smarter funnels for users

As with other forms of mobile marketing, bringing in new customers will mean creating and testing new funnels. A user who wants to download and use an app on his smart watch will have a dramatically different experience than one who does so on his desktop computer. Inputs will need to be simplified, choices stripped down, and simplicity increased. It’s likely that more will be handled through universal logins, and that might mean more limited access to customer data. Either way, capitalizing on these new customers will be a challenge in the industry.

What do you think about smart watches? Can you think of any innovative ways they might be used in marketing someday? Let me hear your thoughts in the comments below.

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1. Priorities

When you don’t take the time to shave, your hair is a mess, and your socks don’t match, most people will assume that you haven’t made your presentation a top priority. Hey, it’s no big deal, we all have our off days, just make sure this isn’t how you look when you walk in on your first day at a new job. If people know that you make your personal appearance a priority, they’re more likely to think that you pay the same attention to detail in your work.

2. Trendiness

While your job may not demand that you keep up with the absolute latest fashions, any job that involves real time marketing will demand that you know what’s going on in the world. If your wardrobe is too far out of date, people will assume that you’re out of touch with current events and pop culture. Maybe this isn’t a big deal in some industries, but if you’re in entertainment or news, you bet it is.

3. Confidence

I’ve worked with a lot of engineers over the years. It’s funny when they get dressed up for a special occasion because you can tell which ones feel comfortable and confident in a suit and which ones clearly wear jeans to work most days. Whatever you wear, make sure that it makes you feel confident, even if that means being a little under-dressed sometimes. Some jobs might require a suit and tie every day, so if you aren’t comfortable in that kind of attire, either get used to it or get out.

4. Social Rank

There are always exceptions to this, but for the most part, we expect people in a certain social class to dress a certain way. I wish that this kind of classism didn’t exist, but it’s not something you’re going to change overnight. If you want people to think that you’re cut out for that high-level executive position, your wardrobe should show it.

How has your personal brand been effected by your wardrobe? Do you make a conscious effort to show yourself in a positive light? Let me hear about it in the comments below.

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1. Ask about the interviewer’s experience with the company

People like to talk about themselves. Once you realize this and consciously apply it to job interviews – especially phone interviews – you can quickly make up for any missed cues in non-verbal communication. Ask the interviewer what he likes about his job and the company, how he got started working with them, and what kind of things he and his coworkers do outside of work. This will also give you some valuable insight into the company’s culture.

2. Ask about the department or company’s vision

The best companies sell their vision to their employees, so you need to make sure you can buy into it. If the phone interviewer is able to quickly and convincingly summarize the company’s vision, and it sounds like something you could get into, that’s a good sign. This also shows the interviewer that you’re interested in the position for more than just a paycheck, and that you want to help the company’s overarching goals.

3. Ask about your direct supervisor and his/her experience

At a large company, your phone interviewer probably won’t be your direct supervisor, but an HR rep tasked with filtering through the large pool of applicants. You might not get to meet your direct supervisor until later in the process, but the more you can find out about him now, the better. See if you can get on your direct supervisor’s radar through social media, and figure out what kind of boss you think he’ll be. Asking this also shows the job interviewer again that you’re interested in more than just the paycheck.

4. Ask about day-to-day specifics of the job

Job descriptions have a tendency to skip a lot of details, so a phone interview is a great time to figure out what the day-to-day aspects of the job are like. If your interviewer doesn’t know, this would also be a great time to get contact information for someone who might. You don’t want to waste time on further interviews if you’re going to hate the job, so it’s best to get a good feel for the ins and outs of the position before you proceed.

5. Ask about the potential for travel and training

Good companies want their employees to get better. If you feel that your phone interview is going well, and you’ve developed a good rapport with the interviewer, let him know that you’re interested in advanced training and open to travel. This will show him that you’re flexible and eager to learn, both excellent traits to have as a potential new hire.

6. Ask about next steps, mention that you’re willing to do an in-person interview

Finally, if you feel that this job is something you really want, let the interviewer know, and ask them what’s next. It’s likely that the interviewer was going to close with this information anyway, so you’ve just made his job a little easier. Since this is just a phone interview, mention that you’d like to come in for an in-person conversation if possible. If you don’t think this position is right for you, don’t do this though. Genuine interest is easy to spot, and you don’t want to waste your interviewer’s or your own time.

What tips do you have for phone interviews? Have you ever had an especially good or bad one? Let me hear your story in the comments below.

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