Rock Your Gig and Get Promoted

Rock Your Gig And Get Promoted offers readers the inspiration, perspectives and tools required to ignite career growth. Its intention is to serve as a guide to help uncover new approaches to career enhancement by providing an evolved, sustainable and highly effective path to greater success. Rock Your Gig has six main areas of focus:

1.The Spirit of Reinvention - It all begins with a desire to reimagine and grow. Individuals that sustain the highest levels of professional performance over time are those demonstrating the versatility, willingness and desire to reinvent. The Spirit of Reinvention applies the principal that continuous self-evaluation fuels a cycle of improvement that leads to higher levels of personal and professional maturity. High performing businesses face these challenges on a regular basis and they typically have something most of us don't--a strategic plan! Doesn't your career deserve a plan? It's time to ask yourself what is working, and what isn't. What's keeping you from reaching your true potential, and how can you change that dynamic today?

2.The Ecosystem of You - A powerful metaphor for the independend yet interconnected systems and functions of our lives. These include our physical, emotional and spiritual selves as well as the external world around us. A balanced, healthy personal ecosystem brings energy, clarity and focus to our interpersonal encounters. This is the quality and energy we bring to our career aspirations, personal goals and relationships.

3.Objective Self-Assessment - How we perceive ourselves is often not how others see us. To make it even more interesting, most of us believe we have a healthy sense of self, but research shows that only about ten percent of us actually do! Once again, R.Y.G. borrows a page from the corporate playbook with a modified SWOT analysis designed to expose new possibilities, build esteem and expand the field of opportunity. In order to elevate the awareness and effectiveness that drives inspired, productive and sustainable relationships, we need to start with an understanding of where we are today, what is working for us, and what isn't. The Objective Self-Assessment helps the reader to identify their own strengths and weaknesses and helps guide and clarify the process.

4.Understanding Others - Do your peers want to see you win? Understanding the unique needs and preferences of others--first, is the key to building a supportive audience. You don't need to be an interpersonal genius; you just need to care enough to take a few steps to close the gap. RYG offers a fresh take on personality design and hard-wired default behaviors providing a template for organizing our understanding of the needs of others.

5.Effective Communication - Conveying our thoughts and feelings accurately takes more than well crafted words. Nonverbal gestures, tone and situational context all play a role. To optimize communication we need a purposeful, customized approach that bypasses our automated processes and leverages active listening skills. By understanding what effective communication actually looks like, we can take a more deliberate approach to our interpersonal encounters.

6.Go Forth and Rock - Time to put it all together and take the stage. R.Y.G's final thoughts help readers visualize a new, more energized, intentional day. It offers readers a quick-start guide to help identify where the opportunities for positive differentiation, elevated relationships and collaboration exist, and how to make the most of them. Rehearsal is over, it's time to Rock Your Gig and Get Promoted.
About the Author: Rich McDonald's storied 25 year career as Fender's inspirational and charismatic product visionary is well documented. He has long been venerated as the modern-day Heart and Soul of one of America's most symbolic and iconic brands. His career accolades include induction into the Music and Sound Retailer's Hall Of Fame, member of the esteemed NAMM Board of Directors and recipient of the trade's Lifetime Achievement Award.
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His journey to the C-Suite of the legendary, multi-national company, however, would offer a host of challenges and require a versatile, energetic and purposeful approach.

After years working as a recording and touring musician Rich found himself at a crossroads. Should he continue to pursue his musical vision despite the fatigue of life on the road, or was it time to make a change? The question was answered by an entry level opportunity at Fender Musical Instruments, the maker of his life-long guitar of choice.

Although the position in the Small Parts Department represented a significant financial set back, Rich saw a unique opportunity. His intentional approach, creativity, interpersonal IQ and willingness to reinvent ignited and fueled his career progression.

His approach earned him ten leadership promotions in a twenty year period and inspired Rich to write and publish the inspirational career growth guide Rock Your Gig and Get Promoted.

Today Rich is a popular strategic advisor, career coach, author and speaker. His passion and expertise is helping individuals, teams and organizations to reinvent, evolve and grow.

Rich calls the Arizona desert home with wife Lisa and their two children. In his free time Rich pursues his passion for family, music and tennis.