Kansas City Freelance Writer Liz Craig

Guy Kawasaki in the flesh is somewhat smaller than his reputation.

Although he was a main brain at Apple in the early days and today is not only a venture capitalist but a Web guru, he looks like anybody you might see anywhere. Well, any Hawaiian guy you might see. I guess I thought he would radiate visible genius rays. So it surprised me how human and casual he was when I saw him speak at a MAMTC (Mid-America Manufacturing Technology Center) conference last spring. He’s funny, full of vital info delivered in an off-the-cuff, irreverent and always entertaining manner. Not that he’s a showman, he just has a quirky personality he’s not afraid to share with you.

It’s hard to follow Guy on Twitter, ’cause he tweets incessantly. Maybe he’s ADHD. But also, he is one guy who knows whereof he speaks in regard to Web 2.0. So it’s in total humility that I offer a couple of his tips on productive ways you can use LinkedIn here.

1. Increase your visibility

Makes perfect sense. The more connections you have, the more likely people searching for someone to hire or do business with will see your name at the top of their search results. Guy says there are 67,000 product managers on Linkedin, so if you can connect with some of them, and you need a job they might hire or recommend you for (“Recommend” is another great feature of LinkedIn.), that’s good.

2. Increase your connectability.

If you put only your current employer in your LinkedIn profile, you limit your ability to connect with more people. Guy recommends filling out your profile “like it’s an executive bio… include past companies, education, affiliations, and activities.”

Connect!

Think of each place you worked and each activity you’ve done or club you’ve joined as a storehouse full of connections, each of whom is connected to at least 10 other people you’d like to know. Look up your connections’ connections. If you find someone you want to link with, ask your connection for an introduction to that person. Maybe the new person you link with will go wild over your new idea, hire you for a project or job, or introduce you to someone else who needs what you have to offer. You never know.

3. Improve your Google PageRank.

Getting to the top of a Google search page isn’t everything, but it sure gives you a leg up on the competition. How many pages do you search looking for an answer or a professional to handle a job? Bet you only look at the first one, and maybe only the top half of the first one. So Google PageRank is quite important in getting you seen.

LinkedIn makes your profile info available for search engines to index. LinkedIn profiles receive a pretty high PageRank in Google, especially if you select “Full View” as the option for your public profile. Guy also recommends customizing your public profile URL by making it your actual name. And to get more attention from search engines, use your customized URL in various places on the Web. Finally, he recommends that when you comment in a blog, you include a link to your profile in your signature.

Right now, I’m going to make sure I’m doing these three things myself. More later. And if you have a LinkedIn tip that’s worked for you, please comment below.

Here’s another one of Guy Kawasaki’s five tips for personal branding success (again quoting from that BNET blog post I linked to in my last post):

Make Meaning, Not Money. If you’re into personal branding with the goal of making money, stop now. You will attract the wrong kind of people into your life. Instead, start with the goal of making meaning. What better way to align all your actions with your long-term goals. What kind of meaning will you make? Kawasaki suggests two ideas for inspiration: 1) right a wrong, or 2) prevent the end of something good. What will you do to make the world a better place?

“Life is empty and meaningless, and it doesn’t mean anything that life is empty and meaningless.”

Guy Kawasaki didn’t say that. The leader of my Forum weekend did. That’s the first cosmic two-by-four that hit me in the head at The Forum, an introduction to the Landmark Education curriculum. It sounds pretty bleak, doesn’t it? But all it’s really saying is that life has no inherent meaning — it’s a fresh, new canvas you can paint any way you want. Whatever the meaning in your life is, you choose it. You create it. You live it.

Early in my career, my life was all about getting together a great portfolio and winning creative awards so I could get more money at the next agency where I worked. These days, of course, I still need money, but winning awards is no longer what gives my life meaning. What does, though, is being in integrity with my own values and helping people create their own successes.

There’s more to meaning than what you do for a living. There’s the spiritual thrill that comes from seeing a great work of art or hearing a Mozart concerto played by splendid musicians. The warm feeling that bubbles up when you’re giggling with a toddler. The expansive feeling when you’re admiring the beauty of mountains or the ocean. The satisfaction you feel savoring a superbly prepared meal. Or the tender love you feel for your parent, your child, your mate, or your best friend. All of this has meaning on a personal scale.

On a broader scale, working for a cause in which you believe can imbue your life with tremendous meaning and the feeling that you’re making the world a better place. You might teach someone to read, coach a kids’ softball team, join an organization that champions the rights of the disabled, work for candidates whose views you share, join the choir at church, or serve on the City Council.

To me, the greatest exemplar of meaning-making is Mohandas Gandhi. His long-term goal was “to become a complete zero.” That meant reducing his ego desires to zero and acting as a purely selfless human being. He held no elected office and sought no fame, yet world leaders sought his counsel, and he commanded tremendous power — through nonviolent civil disobedience — to lead the Indian people in a symbolically important strike against the salt tax imposed by Great Britain. See the 1982 movie, if you haven’t before. Wow. Did he ever give his life — and the lives of his countrymen — meaning! Gandhi died in 1948, having lived to see India achieve independence the previous year.

Gandhi righted a wrong — the exploitation of the Indian people by Great Britain — and made the world a better place by peaceful means. Probably none of us will become the meaning-maker Gandhi was, but all of us, in our own ways, create meaning in our lives.

What gives your life meaning? I’d love to hear from you.

If there’s anyone in the world who knows a thing or two about personal branding, it’s Guy Kawasaki. He’s written a book called “The Art of the Start,” in which he suggests five principles of successful personal branding.

One of them, quoted in a BNET blog post, particularly intrigued me:

Make a Mantra. In three words or less, what are you all about? Kawasaki believes that mission statements are useless. He says, make a mantra instead. FedEx stands for “peace of mind.” What do you stand for, in the simplest terms?

At networking events, people are asked to give their “elevator speeches” or 30-second commercials. Most people describe what they do for a living. But a mantra is not about what you DO; it’s about what you’re ABOUT.

Okay, what you do is sell life insurance. But maybe what you’re about is “helping families be financially secure.” Or maybe your mantra is about an even higher level of consciousness, like, “to embody the peace I wish to see in the world.” That mantra, if it’s truly what you’re about, will infuse your every action and thought with an intention to create peace. The more meaningful your mantra is to you, the more you will internalize and reflect it.

When I was working in community theater, which I loved, my mantra was “creating community.” The community theater experience brought together everyday people, some with acting training, some without, some with family and social connections, some without, to put on a show. And as they worked together, they made fast friends. And they found that their contribution, as small or large as it might be, was valued. By working together, they could complete a puzzle with real meaning. That truly inspired me.

Now, what is my mantra? Well, right now, it’s “creating a lovely home” — for someone else, a potential buyer. I’ll keep mulling over my essential mantra during the process.

Can you get your life’s mission down to a mantra of three or fewer words? Try it. You’ll deepen your understanding of yourself and strengthen your presence in the world.