I have had the pleasure of working with Bill Cowan on a series of live workshops where we discuss how to build a winning career and I believe you will find the insights he shared as revolutionary and useful as I have.

Below you will find the recordings for each of the three sessions in this series: 

1. Interview – we discussed Bill's new book How To Build a Winning Career and he shared some fantastic insights from his extensive experience
2. Discussion – we focused on how to market ourselves, something many of us find difficult
3. Working example – we put Bill's insights into action and helped Brendan craft his personal ‘So What' statement. We have included downloadable notes for this session under the video.

 1. Interview – How to Build a Winning Career

Well, Bill certainly did not disappoint in this morning's interview!

Bill shared career insights that are hugely relevant to all of us, no matter where we are in our careers.

He gave me a new idea for addressing a current challenge and judging by the chat messaging others found the same.

I encourage you to take the time to watch the recording below and to consider working with him further. There are two ways to do this:

#1 – Grab a copy of his new book Building a Winning Career, which launched today. He is offering the Kindle version for about $10 for the coming two weeks to make it affordable to everyone, as well as physical copies which Australians can order directly from him, or those overseas can access via online book stores.

#2 – Learn more from him in the following two Clarity First sessions included below. The first will be a book discussion and the second a working session to help those present.

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2. Discussion – How to Build a Winning Career

Bill Cowan rightly pointed out in this week's workshop that most of us are good at our jobs, but not necessarily​ good at marketing ourselves.

I put myself in that category. Marketing is so very much harder and yet Bill's strategy for building a winning career seems highly achievable.​

That might be because at its core, it's a relationship strategy.

To continue the discussion I have here my top three takeaways as well as some next steps for you all.​​​​

First to my top three takeaways from this week's discussion.

#1 – Build a large network of friends and colleagues whom you can call on for advice. Never ask any of them to help you find a job: it is awful for both of you when they say ‘no'. They most likely won't know how to help you find a job and then the conversation gets awkward very quickly.

#2 – Know that connection matters as much, if not more than competence when hunting for a new role. We talked about how a ‘dad joke' bot helped my son get his first grad role in NYC … this was a lovely example of how this played out quite naturally and accidentally. Bill had quite a bit to say on this topic too.

#3 – Have courage to be ambitious about the sort of role you look for and, equally, to leave a bad one. Leave when three things are in play:

1. ​your boss isn't helping you,
2. ​you don't feel you are making a difference and
3. ​the organisation itself is struggling.

​Bill believes courage is more important than confidence too, no matter what level you are at.

There were loads more, and I'd encourage you to go to the recording to listen. I have posted it as video, but you may find it a good one to listen to instead as it's more discussion than presentation.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.​

And to another opportunity to work on your own career
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Here are two things you can do to prepare for the next session:

#1 – Get hold of Bill's book Building a Winning Career if you can

#2 – Brainstorm out a list of things that you think make you distinctive in your career.

​Thanks again for being such active participants in this journey with Bill. He's been very generous with his time and I think well worth listening to.
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Please excuse the camera wobbles at the start … it gets better a few minutes in.

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3. Working Example – How to Build a Winning Career

This week we wrapped up the Winning Career series with a working session to help one of our members craft their personal ‘so what' statement.

In Bill's language, this is describing ‘what makes you special', which as we know is a really hard thing to do but central to any job hunting process.

It might also feel a little outside the scope of the usual storylining situation.

However, to quote Ravi who was part of that session, his takeaway was that we should ‘trust the process'.

Even though it felt at times as though we were wallowing, our collaborative and structured process led to a clear statement for Brendon's Microsoft application.

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