Episode #140 – Marc’s client, Alexander Buschek, talks with Marc about his own rebranding to a digital transformation thought leader in this encore episode with an update interview.
Description:
Alexander Buschek has been an IT professional for many years. He is passionate about digital transformation and the opportunities it will give businesses — especially SMBs. He is convinced that every business has to embrace digital transformation in one way or another, in order to survive. The sooner a business starts its digital transformation, the better. To support this process, spread awareness, and share experiences, he started The Digital Transformation Blog.
Alexander was, at the time of this interview, the CIO of Cherry GmbH, well known for their excellent keyboards and MX switches, who hired him because of his profound knowledge of digital transformation and digitalization. Alexander has since moved on to Gartner Group, where he is Senior Director, Analyst of Midsize Enterprises.
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[3:30] This week will be an encore episode from Episode #72, when he interviewed Alexander Buschek. Marc finishes the episode with a short update discussion that he recorded last week with Alexander. Marc shares Alexander’s biography.
[4:51] Marc introduces Alexander. Alexander talks about being desperate, looking for a job before working with Marc. He sent applications everywhere and didn’t get answers. He also had a difficult bio, being self-employed for more than 24 years, then became the CIO of one of his customers. He decided he needed help and he found Marc.
[5:58] Marc started Alexander through the rebranding process. Alexander shares the roadmap he followed.
[6:06] The first step for Alexander was the Birkman assessment to find out who he was; what were his strengths and weaknesses. He learned new things about himself. Marc encouraged him to have a blog, videos, and write a book. He’s still working on the book.
[7:00] The roadmap was about getting to know himself and writing a white paper, as a preliminary for the blog. Then he started writing the blog and became the thought leader in digital transformation. Then his visibility started. People asked him to speak at conferences, which was a great experience for him.
[7:34] Marc frequently told Alexander to be bold. At first, Alexander didn’t see himself as bold. Then he found out that he was bold. He was not reluctant to speak up and do the things he thought were necessary.
[8:24] Marc was blown away by Alexander’s resume. Alexander didn’t see himself as a hot commodity, however. He had to learn to understand his achievements and tell people about his experience.
[9:38] Alexander’s white paper was about cloud technology. He had been working with InFor ERP systems and they wanted to access the Cloud. In Germany, many were reluctant to even look into it. So he thought, at least he needed to look into it. He figured out that cloud technology is the future.
[11:05] Alexander used Dragon Naturally Speaking (Now Nuance Dragon) to write. You just talk and you see it written in Word. It was very helpful. This is an easy way to write a blog post if you write the way you speak.
[12:22] While Alexander was networking as the CIO of Protego he approached Autodesk to ask if CAD systems could be based in the cloud. Autodesk invited him to the Hannover Fair to look at how it was being used at the time, including Fusion 360.
[13:18] After a conversation with one of the managers there, they invited Alexander to be part of a panel discussion by the Financial Times in Berlin in cooperation with Autodesk.
[13:36] The panel was on digital transformation, in English. Alexander used it for his blog with great success. He found that personal branding is making sure people get the impression of you that you want them to have.
[14:40] After being on the Financial Times panel, Alexander started writing his blog posts. He spoke at another event for Autodesk. His speaking career snowballed.
[15:53] Alexander spent the Christmas holidays in 2016, shooting videos about digital transformation, based on his conference presentations. Headhunters started to approach him. He expanded his LinkedIn network significantly.
[17:32] Doing videos helped Alexander’s presentation skills a lot.
[19:20] Making a video requires one hour or more of effort for every minute of the finished video. Alexander explains his process for making a video.
[20:46] Alexander is proudest of getting his new job. It is a challenging job. He is proud that he was asked, rather than sending in his application. He branded himself doing what he loved to do and showing his expertise, with the goal of getting a new job.
[21:41] Alexander was passionate about digital transformation. His previous job had given him no opportunity in that area. It is present or will be present in every company. Alexander became an expert on it, after a lot of work. If you want to rebrand your life, there is no way around a lot of hard work with a lot of discipline.
[24:21] Alexander credits Marc with inspiring him to push forward, in steps. Marc gave Alexander small steps, such as a whitepaper, a blog, and videos, to do one at a time that really kept him going. The next step is to write a book.
[25:54] Alexander’s advice to anyone who wants to rebrand themselves: You can do it! However, you need to be patient and put a lot of effort into it. With the effort comes success. Be bold. Be patient. Get some advice and get a job coach. Reading a book alone does not usually provide motivation.
[28:25] Alexander looked off into the future and positioned himself in a niche of digital transformation for SMBs. Alexander can be reached at DigitalTransformationBlog.com. Alexander answers comments. Or email Alexander at Alex@Buschek.info.
[29:37] Marc hopes Alexander has inspired listeners to be bold!
[30:12] Alexander first contacted Marc by LinkedIn after reading Marc’s book, Personal Branding for Baby Boomers: What It Is, How to Manage It, and Why It’s No Longer Optional. When Alexander contacted Marc, he had 70 LinkedIn contacts; today he has 1,200 or so.
[30:57] Marc brings Alexander back on the podcast for an update interview. Alexander started as the CIO at Cherry at the beginning of 2018. He had previously been interviewed four times to be an IT Analyst at Gartner. Recently, the Gartner recruiter sent Alexander a LinkedIn message asking if he was still interested in a position.
[32:57] Alexander had wanted to work for Gartner in the first place, so he was happy to meet with them. After a series of interviews and a two-hour writing exercise, on his way back to the airport, he got an email (he was in a limousine, not driving) from Gartner congratulating him on getting the position.
[34:32] Since March 1st, Alexander is a Senior Director Analyst for Mid-Sized Enterprises. Alexander helps MSE CIOs make the right decisions when it comes to digital business transformation and cloud strategy. He feels very comfortable in this job. He also writes research notes on leadership.