There's one whole category of soft skills, we put under the category of professionalism. Now, this can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, it is arguably subjective. But I want to tell you what I think are some of the most important things. Part of it is our do you make it easy for people to get hold of you and communicate with you. So these days, most people use their private cell phone as a part of their business. That's how their boss gets a hold of them.

That's how their colleagues get ahold of them. Several things you need to be aware of number one, and you're going to say, well, TJ, you're just some old fart, but there are a lot of people who do work in companies, some of them bosses, CEOs, who do look more like me than a lot of 25 year olds. So here's my recommendation. Have a voicemail. Don't have one of these phones. Your boss is trying to get ahold of you.

There's something urgent you're out to lunch. And it just says you have reached 917. But it could because whoever's calling you now has to think, gosh, did I get this person is this an old cell phone, maybe that was their cell phone from six months ago, they have a new number. Leave your message, make it professional doesn't have to be funny. just state your name so that people know they actually call the right number. Very important and less everyone you work with is under 30.

And no one ever leaves voicemail. Again, every culture is a little different. Every industry is a little different. But there are very few industries where nobody have influence. Nobody who has the ability to help your career is under 30. There are exceptions.

So that's why I would say make it easy for people to know they got the right person when they call you. Next with your voicemail. Make sure there's space in your voicemail message nothing is more annoying than calling someone it rang seven times. Now you get the voicemail and it says long voicemail, you have rage nine ones, blah, blah, blah, blah, the sound that you go through all of this, you're ready to leave a message Hey, TJ coming back at at the person's voicemail is full and cannot take it. It just wasted a tremendous amount. It's not professional, someone's trying to get ahold of you.

And maybe they don't want to text. Not everyone loves to text. And now they can't leave you a message. When it comes to texting, phone calls, if you want to be a professional, and you want to have the soft skills that will help your career the most. You're going to have to learn to communicate the way other people want to communicate. Now again, I realized I sound like an old bogey here but if someone calls You want to phone, call them back, someone emails, you email the back.

If someone texts you text them back. A lot of people absolutely cannot stand texting. A lot of people can't stand phone calls either. I get it. If you want to have the most successful career you have, you have to forget about what you want what you like. And you have to focus on how do your colleagues, your bosses, your clients, and customers want to communicate.

I would much prefer that prospects of mine who are interested in hiring me for public speaking training and media training, call me. But I have to be flexible too. So my ads on Google Now give myself phone so that people can just text me for a request for proposal for a price list and I had to deal with that. So everyone's got to be a little more flexible. You can't simply take the attitude of Oh, you know what voicemails dead or phone calls or dead emails for old losers. You have to use every single communication tool that other people want to.

It's not about you, it's about your clients, customers, colleagues, bosses, you got to communicate on their terms. You need to think about how to be professional and every level. Also, return calls when you answer the phone. Stay true name don't just allow what you want to sound like a professional you don't have to sound Hi, this is Jim from bla bla bla bla bla bla. You don't have to sound phony or fake. But just stay true name.

Someone calls my cell phone I say, TJ Walker media training worldwide, just short, simple. That way. I know they got the right number. They know where they're calling. And it's simple and easy. When you're truly professional You're thinking about how do you appear to others?

Are you saving their time? Are you making life easy for them? Are you coming across as someone they would want to deal with? Now we'll touch on this subject in the next lesson. are you dressed professionally? That means something different in every industry, we'll talk about that in more detail.

If you have your own company and you're out networking, you're at a networking event. Do you have a business card? I realized in some industries, that would be the kiss of death, oh my gosh, this person must be 18 years old. There's certain high tech industries where if you don't just trade information on a cell phone, that's the only way to do it. But for many, many industries, the easiest way meet someone at any kind of networking event, business, event, social event. Give them a business card.

It shows you're a serious person and a professional person. So all of these elements fit under the category of professionalism. every industry is different, but you need people that you respect to respect you as a real professional. So here's your homework assignment. It could be updating your LinkedIn page, it could be getting a business card. It could be creating a business page on Facebook.

That just lets people know about your professional life do something today, that really upgrades your professional is your your professional image, your business card, updating your LinkedIn profile, or creating a Facebook business page.