On my mind and the minds of a lot of my clients recently is marketing. Whether you run a small business, are self-employed, work for someone else or are on the job hunt, MARKETING IS KEY.

Ultimately, your ability to thrive, to survive no matter what the circumstances, to succeed where others fail, to make bold changes in your life will be in great part due to your ability to market YOU.

If you are in the job market, you are marketing yourself, what you can do for a prospective employer and how you fit into their organization.

If you are employed and you have career development goals, you better be engaging in effective marketing activities to build your personal brand and expand your network.

If you are self-employed, your first product is you. The quality of the service you provide is as important, but without the consistent ability to market yourself, you will fail.

If you run a small business, there is certainly more emphasis tied to the brand and the product / service, but again, there is a fine line, and in some cases, that small business is all about you and your attractiveness to the market.

I love marketing. There are so many ways to go about it, and I think it is important for you to pick the right mix of activities to complement you and what you are selling. Networking, of course, is a key part of the marketing puzzle, and again, there are different ways to network.