These six apps are guaranteed to help improve your communications, no matter who you connect with or what kind of relationship you want to build:

1. Rapportive

This tool allows you to learn everything about a person without ever leaving your Gmail inbox. Forget about searching Google; simply hover over an email and the contact’s photo, latest tweets, Facebook profile, LinkedIn profile and more will show up in your sidebar. This is incredibly useful for vetting someone, learning more and finding those serendipitous moments (“Oh, you’re going to that conference, too?!”).

Rapportive is a free add-on available for Chrome, FIrefox and Safari. At its most basic, the tool lets you put a face to a name, but it can also act as a lightweight CRM if you take advantage of all the integrated features.

2. Speek

Do you find yourself constantly fumbling for a phone number and PIN, only to join a conference call at the most awkward moment? Try Speek. The super-simple and free conference call platform lets users choose a unique and personal link (i.e., speek.com/rebecca) rather than a traditional phone number and PIN to connect conference calls.

Once you’re on the call, Speek provides a visual experience that lets you see who’s joined the call, see who’s talking, share files and mute participants. Plus, it’s integrated with your social media accounts, so you can connect with callers on LinkedIn or Twitter.

3. Contactually

Relationships are the basis of any good career, and Contactually helps you manage timely interactions with your most important relationships. Follow up with potential clients, keep warm leads from getting cold and remember to email that mentor who will find you your next job.

Particularly good for sales professionals, freelancers and true go-getters, this system automates your contact management (i.e., the crucial networking you have to do to be successful). Every day, you get a list of people you need to reach out to, and you can track all your progress and communication patterns in your personalized dashboard.

4. Ecquire

Another browser extension, Ecquire integrates with all your existing Web services, like Salesforce, Highrise, MailChimp, LinkedIn, Twitter, HootSuite and more, to help you easily and automatically add and import information about your contacts no matter what site you’re on.

No need to remember multiple usernames and passwords or enter information multiple times. And if you’re used to having to remember to “bcc” or forward important emails to your CRM system, forget about it. Ecquire has a great interface that is completely unobtrusive until you need it and delivers all your notes and details to multiple apps simultaneously.

5. Highrise

An oldie, but goodie, Highrise is a cheaper, more intuitive and simpler version of Salesforce. But it’s not just good for managing sales and business development; you can also manage people and processes like your job search, clients, blogger outreach, customers and more through the use of tags, custom fields and cases (like folders).

You can keep notes about how many daughters your newest partner has and if they prefer to receive an email over a phone call. Integrate Highrise with some of the other extensions and apps on this list to make the simple database truly powerful and intuitive.

6. WorkFlowy

As both an outlining and note-taking tool, Workflowy is the closest thing to pen and paper I’ve found, while also featuring the powerful features we’ve come to expect in today’s productivity apps.

Take notes during a call or create an outline before a meeting with WorkFlowy’s deceivingly simple interface. When you’re ready to do more, Workflowy has you covered with search, collaboration tools, tagging, the ability to zoom in and out of certain projects and more so you’re always prepared with the people you want to impress.

These apps will help you stay productive and manage the most important actions you can take for a successful career: networking and building relationships.

Share your networking tips and favorite apps with us in the comments!

Rebecca Thorman’s blog Kontrary offers tips to create the career, bank account and life you love and is a popular destination for young professionals. Her goal is to help you find meaningful work, enjoy the heck out of it and earn more money. Her day job is the VP of marketing at Speek.

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Gen Y came out of college exploring one job to another (to another). But when the recession hit, many said the days of job-hopping were over.

Yet there’s no reason to be scared into longevity at your current position. Here are 10 reasons to keep job-hopping:

1. Job-hopping allows you to widen your choice of jobs, not narrow it

When you have more experience in a wide range of positions, you’ll be able to increase your skill set. As long as you’re comfortable and adept at describing your transferable skills, you can easily act as a chameleon and morph from your current position to your dream job.

However, if you don’t know what transferable skills are, you may need to stay put.

2. No need to impress people you’ve never met

Many people, primarily HR managers, warn against job-hopping so you can theoretically impress another HR manager in the future—one you haven’t met yet. Besides the fact that you probably won’t be on the same career path a few years from now, let alone in the same industry, there’s no reason to build your career around what HR managers want.

Instead, impress yourself. Keep your own commitments and promises, and you’ll be fine.

3. Loyalty no longer exists

Your company is not loyal. Your boss is not loyal. Employees are never put first. More than ever, every job is unstable. It’s now more secure to build your own unique career from scratch.

So don’t show loyalty to a company that is not loyal to you. Now, that doesn’t mean ignoring your work or being disrespectful to the people who put money in your bank account, but it does mean being realistic in your career planning.

4. Job-hopping is a precursor to the future of careers

Careers are no longer linear. Instead, you will piece together positions and opportunities to fully form your career puzzle. You’ll have six to eight jobs before you’re 30, and you certainly won’t settle into the same company for the rest of your life after that.

As the idea of careers shift toward more contract work and portfolio careers, you can prepare by realizing results quickly and providing massive value.

5. Your network—not your resume—gets you jobs

When you job-hop, you expand your network tenfold. You meet more people: coworkers, managers, partners, influencers, leaders. And it’s your network, not your list of positions, that will get you in the door at the next job.

While you can and should apply with your cover letter and resume, when your network can recommend you for a position, it is much easier to advance your career.

6. Get a substantial raise and title upgrade

It’s better to find a new job that pays well and has a great title than to try and convince your existing company to give you a raise and a promotion. After all, you signed their contract. And it’s cheaper for them to keep you in your place.

When you ask for a raise, you’ll likely only receive a two to three percent increase. When you job-hop, the typical increase in income is 20 to 30 percent. Enough said.

7. You don’t know what you like until you do it

A slim minority of us fall right away into careers that are representative of our dream jobs. Everyone else gets stuck in jobs we hate.

While you can try to journal and vision-board your way into a soul-enriching career, it’s quicker and more effective to try several different positions until you discover what you truly enjoy. Action is quicker than thought—so don’t guess; go out and do.

8. Companies don’t move as fast as results

From startups to large corporations, every organization is fighting against some sort of barrier, whether it’s lack of money or lots of bureaucracy.

You may bring stellar results in the first three to six months, but by the time a year rolls around, your plate is likely devoid of challenge and meaningful work. Job-hopping means you always have relevant tasks to work on and can continually create positive impact.

9. The recession is a great excuse for high-performers

Naysayers warn Gen Y not to job-hop since it supposedly looks bad. But when Negative Nancies hunker down, it’s the perfect opportunity for high-performers to get out and fight. The recession is your excuse, as a high-performer in particular, to take risks and reap big rewards.

If it doesn’t work out, well, it’s been a bumpy ride for everyone. But the odds are in your favor.

10. Your talent is desperately needed

If you love your job, then for goodness sake, hold onto it with all your might.

But the truth is, the majority of Gen Y is disillusioned and dissatisfied with their careers. The longer you stay in a position that doesn’t fulfill you, the longer you cheat the world of your unique talents and gifts.

So whether you love picking out an accent pillow or get pleasure from financial projections, go on: get after it!

Rebecca Thorman’s blog Kontrary offers tips to create the career, bank account and life you love and is a popular destination for young professionals. Her goal is to help you find meaningful work, enjoy the heck out of it and earn more money.

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The post 10 Reasons Job-Hopping is Your Only Chance appeared first on Brazen Life.

In a practical sense, I prefer salty over sweet, and your interviewer may, too. She may enjoy a bag of chips over a bar of chocolate. Dropping off cupcakes assumes that you not only know your interviewer and what brings her pleasure, but also that such knowledge gives you carte blanche to bribe your way into her company.

Wrong.

Why home-baked treats are the wrong way to impress a hiring manager

Out of all the gimmicks you could leverage in your job search, cupcakes are particularly bad. They align you with the image of a homemaker, not a successful career woman. And while success follows how likeable you are, cupcakes are an empty attempt to win favor. You can’t play stunts and expect to win. You will gather attention, but none of it the right kind.

The incessant barrage of donuts, cakes, cookies and pies in the break rooms of the companies I’ve worked at were brought in by the wives of the men who worked there. Not once did I see a woman who worked in the office bring in home-baked goods. If anything, she bought a pie from the bakery on the way in, but then it was probably because she had been instructed to by the office’s social committee.

Dropping off cupcakes, or something equally drastic, is like dropping an incendiary device into your job search. All of a sudden, you feel entitled to a reply, a thank you or something—anything—in return from the interviewer. And when it doesn’t happen, boom! You begin to have the lofty idea that you should hear back from the interviewer, that you’re owed a note of thanks. You baked cupcakes, for goodness’ sake! Who would blow off such a nice gesture?

You become jaded, and for nothing. You weren’t being judged on your actual skills and expertise in the first place.

Can we agree that you baked cupcakes because you’re scared?

Baking cupcakes—or any stunt or gimmick, for that matter—is an act of fear. You’re worried that you’re not good enough, that you won’t stand out in the crowd, that you’ve been searching for six, nine, twelve months, and if you don’t do something, you will find nothing. You haven’t spent enough time on your cover letter and resume, and you don’t believe in yourself. Instead, you spend an hour mixing up a distraction, when you could spend less and get more by taking a new contact out for coffee. Or volunteering at a design meetup. Or learning a new skill.

So, what should you do instead?

The way to be awesome in a sea of the same is to care about the company more than you care about what they think of you. Gimmicks shine the light on you. Focusing on the job puts that focus on the value you’ll bring to the company. You can tell the difference between these actions with this one test: do you want approval after doing it?

There’s nothing wrong with a bit of narcissism; it lends us confidence. But when it smacks of desperation, that’s when you’re in trouble.

Stand out, but do it in a way that shows your passion for using your skills and talents to bring exceptional results to a company. That’s what an interviewer would consider sweet.

Rebecca Thorman’s weekly blog, Kontrary, offers tips to create the career, bank account and life you love and is a popular destination for young professionals. Her goal is to help you find meaningful work, enjoy the heck out of it and earn more money.

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The post Why Baking Cupcakes for Your Interview Is Not the Best Strategy appeared first on Brazen Life.

Here are five ways to get in the game:

1. Acknowledge that you’re blessed

No, I don’t mean you’re supremely talented. But having multiple interests—and actually being able to choose one or more to pursue—is a luxury. Back in the day, people didn’t have a choice. Some people, especially in underdeveloped parts of the world, still don’t have a choice.

So take advantage of your situation and show some gratitude. Being multi-passionate isn’t a burden; it’s an opportunity. When someone asks you about your interests, instead of doing the humble brag (“Oh, I don’t know. I have so many things I’m good at, it’s so difficult to choose!”), proudly describe your latest project and revel in it.

2. Freely offer your time

The chances that you’ll discover a dream job encompassing all your desired interests and skills for the rest of your life are slim. Careers aren’t linear these days. Instead, you’ll design a career in bits and pieces that, when looked at as a whole, will create something wonderful.

So consider volunteering. Perhaps you can join a committee as part of your local social media club or help organize monthly events around design thinking. The point is to add another passion piece to your puzzle so that you can feel more fulfilled and harmonious about your career as a whole.

3. Choose to work in a “connector” field

Certain jobs, while only utilizing one set of your skills, do allow you to interact and engage with a wide range of other industries. If you enjoy constantly learning and are interested in being exposed to new ideas and people, choose one of these connector positions.

Fields like event planning or sales can expose you to a wide range of experiences. In fact, many jobs fit this bill if you have the right attitude. Find a job in one of these connector areas, or start thinking about how you can gain exposure to new ideas from your existing set of responsibilities.

4. Schedule your focus in waves

Don’t worry; I’m not asking you to choose between your passions. (We all know that’s impossible.) Instead, dedicate your focus to one particular passion for a period of time—say, two weeks or two months. Put the others aside for that period and really go deep with this one particular interest. You can return to the other passions when the time is up.

This will allow you to stop feeling manic as you bounce between all the ideas in your head and will also let you experience some satisfaction from fully exploring one idea.

5. Make sure you finish what you start

The problem with being multi-passionate isn’t the long list of interests, the bouncing between ideas or even wanting to “do it all.” The problem is when you don’t finish something. If you make a commitment to yourself and back down, you’re going to feel crappy about it.

Instead of trying to narrow your passions, just make sure you finish what you say you will. By completing whatever passion projects you start out on, you’ll get an extreme high that will continue to motivate you in pursuing your other interests.

Accepting who you are and being deliberate in your work will help you achieve fulfillment and success as a multi-passionate careerist. Go on, get out there, and put your hands in everything.

Rebecca Thorman’s weekly blog, Kontrary, offers tips to create the career, bank account and life you love and is a popular destination for young professionals. Her goal is to help you find meaningful work, enjoy the heck out of it and earn more money. She writes from Washington, D.C.

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The post How to Succeed as a Multi-Passionate Careerist appeared first on Brazen Life.

Then I went ahead and bought new clothes, paid for a two-week European vacation, maxed out my Roth IRA and topped off my emergency fund. You see, my side job pays me what some people make in an entire year.

Here’s the story of how I got my side job:

I met my side job boss at the dinner party of a mutual friend. I liked his company and started following it. A few months later, I saw that he put out a full-time job announcement, so I contacted him and said I could do everything he wanted as a consultant, and for only three-quarters of the salary he was offering. Oh, and I didn’t need benefits.

He signed my proposal.

You can and should take a few lessons from my story: network your butt off, provide massive value and ask for what you want and for what you’re worth…But you know that already, don’t you? You’ve probably heard that again and again.

I hope so. Because the lesson I want to share is one you probably haven’t heard already:

If you want to earn more, you need to change your money mindset.

Let’s be honest. If you don’t change how you think about finances, you’ll never make drastically more money than you do right now. You’ll never pay off your student loans, you’ll never have an emergency fund, you’ll never have enough retirement savings and you’ll never get to eat spaghetti in Rome with your boyfriend until your lips meet.

Before your brain will allow your heart to take action, you need to change your paradigms about money. Whatever you think or believe you know about money, give yourself the permission to start over.

Here’s what I mean:

For most of us, passion and money are mutually exclusive. We don’t really believe that Wall Street execs love their jobs, nor do we accept that do-gooders actually want to get paid for their bleeding hearts. The stories we tell about money are, in general, abysmal. Money is emotional and messy when it comes to needs, wants and desires. Money is the root of all evil and yet necessary for survival. Its reputation, lacerated by these competing ideas, scares us from managing what money we do have, let alone starting to think about how to make the most of it.

To earn more, I had to realize I am no less deserving of wealth than the next person. I’ve had to let go of the ideas I heard growing up, like “the rich get richer.” And I’ve had to internalize that it’s actually realistic for me to make loads of money.

These lessons are particularly difficult for Gen Y to swallow.

We’re a do-gooder generation. We’ve seen wealth corrupt and businesses go bad, and we want no part of it. We rebel as artists, nonprofit fundraisers, bakers and freelancers. We protest in part as a response to corporate greed, and in part because we graduated into a recession with no other choice.

That’s a lot of baggage to carry around. It’s going to take time to get rid of it. But letting go means you’ll carry less shame around your finances and you’ll earn more money with confidence. Change your mindset around money, and you’ll change the direction of your bank account, permanently.

Do you have mental barriers that keep you from earning more? How can you change them?

Rebecca Thorman’s goal is to help you find meaningful work, enjoy the heck out of it and earn more money. Her blog Kontrary offers career, business and life advice that works. She writes from Washington, D.C.

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The post How To Pay Off Your Student Loans in Just 3 Months appeared first on Brazen Life.

So it is an unjust coincidence, let me tell you, that something I love would be named exactly, “Rich, Happy and Hot B-School.” Business coaches Marie Forleo and Laura Roeder run the online program, and I have a wee bit of a girl crush on them.

Once you watch one of their videos, you will understand. They’re smart, good-looking and uber-creative which would normally make me feel quite threatened (and a bit jealous, let’s be honest), but they only manage to make me feel all warm inside.

As a woman entrepreneur with multiple side projects and a full-time job to boot, I need guidance that can help my business and is entertaining, engaging and above all, effective. I need it to work. I don’t want it to take up too much time, and did I mention, I want it to work?

That’s my real problem with every other site that wants to teach you how to be rich and happy. I would never want to be like the people running it. I don’t want to emulate their lives; they’re sleazy! Not to mention, most have no freaking clue what they are talking about. They present abstract ideas that sound good in theory, but that’s where they stay, in theory, and never reach the tangible step of action and follow-through.

Marie and Laura, however, know what they are talking about. They speak from success and experience, and are focused on results. In an interview on Mixergy, Laura revealed that she made more than $300,000 from her business in 2010. Marie — who is a best-selling author, a “multi-passionate” entrepreneur and a master athlete — talked about how she has achieved so much during an appearance on The Rise to the Top. Besides all that, I would want to have drinks with them. Multiple times.

Let me stop gushing for a moment though, and let you know exactly why the Rich, Happy and Hot B-School gets me completely excited to rock my business:

• It is refreshing to see women speak directly, with a great amount of humor and confidence (none of that self-effacing nonsense).
• The duo are focused on helping women achieve, but anyone can get in on it. They skip the stereotypical and patronizing advice, and just dole out smart, effective and useful how-tos, tips, templates, stories and support that you can use today to increase the profitability of your business immediately.
• They dive right into the nitty-gritty of what you don’t know how to do, and tell you exactly how to do it.
• Their teaching style is amazingly fun; it is how learning is supposed to be. They’re exhilarating and give you all the right tools. They set you up to execute, over and over, and to do it well.

Shall I continue to count the ways I love Rich, Happy and Hot B-School? Probably not, I mean, you get the point, right? Now it’s time for you head on over and enroll.

It is single-handedly the best resource I’ve seen to start a new business or improve the one you have. I’m excited to see you there.

Rebecca Thorman writes exclusive content on entrepreneurship, media, gender and more through the screens of technology on her new blog Kontrary. She currently resides in Washington, DC and actively has many projects up her sleeve.

Brazen Careerist has partnered with Rich, Happy and Hot B-School, but this is the author’s personal opinion.

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