Author/Branding Expert Tamara Jacobs is All About YOUR Success and Helps You Achieve It In New Book

Tamara Jacobs is the Founder and President of Tamara Jacobs Communications, Inc. and the branding expert you need to know to take your business and career to the next level. With a background in writing, producing, reporting and even anchoring in media markets spanning the West Coast, Midwest and Southeast, Jacobs has built her career and her brand on helping others discover and develop their unique voice.

Today, Jacobs has a Rolodex of clients in a variety of fields including well-known brands like: BlackRock, Totes, Coty, Bausch +Lomb, JP Morgan Chase, Johnson & Johnson, and more, but they have one major thing in common. They all received business changing consulting from the woman I like to think of as the voice of reason and that close friend who’s not going to sugar coat the truth and tells you what you need to hear to get off your butt and take your future and success in YOUR hands.

To follow-up Jacobs’ Be the Brand book all about how to package and promote yourself, Your Ultimate Success Plan is the appropriate sequel helping readers get recognized, rewarded and promoted in their desired industry. Her new book talks about being fearless and flexible in your field of choice and illuminates the idea that you are constantly re-assessing in your career climb if you have your ladder against the right wall. “It’s not about finding the right career necessarily, it’s about getting the climbing muscles going. If you can’t get your dream job, get a job. Flex your people skills, see how innovative you can be, how can you make a boring job better,” she said. I have the book and it is a must have for your library.

I caught up with Tamara Jacobs and we talked about her second book, social media tips, how to make the most out of any job, and more. 

On the idea for Your Ultimate Success Plan: “I don’t like the books that are out there. Either they are completely self promoting, I don’t want to name names but, it’s the ‘all about me.’ I’m happy for you, I’m glad you’re successful but what does that do for me, so now I can envy your success? So it’s either the ‘all about me’ book or the ‘poor me’ book, you know ‘I had all this adversity in my life,’ life is a soap opera, you know, I’m sorry, I don’t care. Somewhere between this self-indulgence, self-pity, and self promotion there is a space. There is a space for somebody to offer useful information to other people who are either trying to start their career, I say that the book is appropriate for three people. Three types of people are either the folks who are trying to get in, the folks trying to go up, or the folks trying to get out.”

Photo: Career Press

On establishing yourself on social media: “I think you have to be prolific, but you also have to have something that benefits others. I’m really tired of the selfie. How many pictures [selfies] can you look at. So to me if you want to send out a selfie it has to have some kind of message for others. Instead of ‘just attending gala, saw some celebrity,’ really that means nothing. ‘Just attended gala, white seems to be the new right, be sure you have a white dress,’ something like that. In other words, every time you are taking a picture, and it’s fine to show yourself with all of these high-profile folks, but then there has to be some kind of message to me, that there is some type of fashion trend that I should be aware of, or there is a certain message that everyone is jumping on board with, or there’s a certain attitude that they are having in political arena; in other words, its got to be a selfie with some kind of, tell me more. We’re so saturated it has to be more than the look at me.”

On importance of being “recognized, rewarded, and promoted”: “If you’re anonymous you’re never going to get a job, right. That’s why you have to be recognized. How do you attract someone’s attention. How do you get in. That’s why I talk about not relying on hope, having a plan, being persistent, and doing what others don’t do. For instance, if you can’t get an interview, and I’ve done this before, send some flowers, ‘your business will be blooming if you grant me an interview.’ Be creative. Don’t just write the resume, do something that gets you noticed. Often times go to the place of business, make friends with the receptionist, they’re the gatekeeper ultimately and I don’t know what happened to the power of in person. We’ve lost that and that is so important. Now you’re recognized, you want to be rewarded. After you get recognized, now you have to start learning the art of declaration. Getting the right people, for the right reasons, to know the right work that you are doing. First you are recognized, then you are rewarded, and then you start talking about the benefits. What have you done that makes other people happy, smarter, or richer. What glory have you brought to the company, what profits have you been able to deliver. You create what I call a “Victory List” and then you start asking for the next opportunity. What you see in my book, is that you never get more than you ask for.”

On message of Your Ultimate Success Plan: “Try yes first and you have to be ok with no. No isn’t the end of the world. No doesn’t mean that someone doesn’t like you. No means that whatever is going on right now isn’t working and then you learn from no. Is it the never no, the maybe no, the not right now no, and that’s why I talk a lot about dissecting no, know your no’s because you’re going to get a lot of no’s and if you can not accept rejection then you will not be successful. Then it’s how you interpret rejection. Do you take it personally, maybe it’s a point. Maybe you do need to change something. Analyze the rejection, analyze the no. Accept it, if it has merit learn from it, reject it if you think their motives were not pure. A lot of it is your ability to go for it and be fearless. Be ready for a yes or a no.”

Closing thoughts: “I think that people need to connect with their passion and what I’m advocating sounds a little bit schizophrenic. I want you to start working. Everybody needs to be active, it helps you organize your life. So yeah, you might not start with your dream job, but once you are active and you get those connection muscles going then you can simultaneously start going where your passion takes you but then not mutually exclusive that’s my point. Inertia is probably what I worry about most because it’s just too easy for us to sit at our computer screen and think we’re doing something and you’re not. That’s the advice I would give to people. And never stop networking. Starbucks strike up conversation, in a movie ticket line strike up a conversation. You never know what’s going to happen based on who you’re connecting with. The in person is frankly a forgotten era right now and it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t connect virtually you definitely should, but don’t rely on that as the only way to be known.”

Get everything you need to know about Tamara Jacobs and her amazing brand at www.tamarajacobs.com. Be sure to order a copy of Your Ultimate Success Plan available on Amazon.

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Photo: Tamara Jacobs Communications