Leave Your Mark

Leave Your Mark by Aliza Licht is part memoir, part advice book, and part much needed kick in the rear end. Aliza, formerly known as DKNYPRGIRL across social media, was the Senior Vice President of Global Communications for Donna Karan International. After rising to success on Twitter and inspiring other brands to place Public Relations on the front lines, Aliza answered the many inquiries for advice from young Fashion and PR professionals and students with this book, which she terms a sort of written mentorship.Throughout its pages are sprinkled stories from her life, ranging from early career woes to the challenges of anonymous stardom. Her advice is great, and the flow of the book is mostly fantastic, but the formatting could use some work. By the end I was growing increasingly annoyed by the interruption of a perfectly good paragraph by an "insider tip" that was usually pretty common sense, yet made to feel so secret that it might as well be the identity of Gossip Girl.Occasionally, Licht would go on a rant (something that, IMO, should be saved for opinion columns and reviews, not used in memoirs or advice books, although I can understand the urge.) and it would feel like she was yelling at the reader for something they hadn't done, but that there was a small chance they might do in the future. I found myself feeling slightly upset and bewildered after these parts and having to put the book down in order to remind myself that I hadn't done whatever it was before I was able to pick the book back up and try to get back into it.Although I know Licht was just trying to be thorough and professional and when she announced in the beginning that she would be altering names and even genders of people she would refer to so that their identities would say secret and the reader, whether they be a man or a woman, would feel equally represented, the whole concept rang through my head like a song on replay whenever I was reading the book and ended up making it feel somewhat contrived and slightly less than genuine.However, the overall tone of the book was pretty good, and it carried a lot of solid advice for only 288 pages. I think it was a bit of a cautious beginning for Licht in the literary world, but I get the feeling that she will probably publish more, and that she will improve with each publication. I definitely enjoy her social media presence, sass and all, and look forward to reading anything else she decides to print. I would recommend the book in its entirety to anyone looking for advice on a career in social media, fashion, or PR specifically, and the resume section to every person I have ever met or will meet in the future.Curio Street Reads Rating: 3.5 Stars[...]

Aliza Licht, SVP of Communications for Donna Karan writes this book in a friendly, witty style and it has a fair amount of useful information. I liked her "insider tip" recommendations and her chapter summaries. She, under the secret guise of twitter handle @DKNYPRGIRL, was one of the first fashion brands to leverage twitter to drive awareness and ultimately revenue for her brand. She also created a following of over 500,000 from scratch before the "how to build your twitter brand" books existed. Which is rather impressive.This worth reading if you enjoy either a glimpse of behind the scenes fashion information, or need to brush up on your career "soft skills" of networking and managing your personal brand, with a healthy dose of navigating office politics.Her advice regarding strategic networking at cocktail parties (business or personal) and other functions was a particularly good refresher course. The biggest networking take away was a to reminder to google images of the key players at any event so you know who you are seeking out in the room and have something short and relevant prepared to say to them. Be it a senior level business contact, or the chair of a social event.Another great reminder was to follow up with both senior people, peers, and those just starting out. Never forget many people helped you along the way, and the gracious thing to do is help others out when they are trying to break into the industry of their dreams (providing they are smart enough to realize you are willing to help them)!This a quick read and worth the time. If you have read other career/leadership books there will not be any shockingly new ideas here, but she presents all the basics in an engaging way. If you have not read any career/leadership books this is well worth the time investment and will leave you filled with confidence and new ideas.

This book is nothing short of fantastic.I accidentally stumbled upon it on a very low time of my soul searching process, career wise.This book gave me a completely different perspective on everything. It was also an eye opener for what it really means to be a go getter and work for your success without any excuses. I had never heard of the author before, and my career has nothing to do with fashion, but I am so thankful that she took the time to share all this valuable information with people through this book.I read it in one day. It didn't even feel like a self improvement book. It felt like a conversation with an amazing friend who pumps so much confidence in you, that you may end up spending the day creating an entire mood board and list of the things you need to do and change in order to go after your goals and succed.I am incredibly aware of building my personal brand now, and also being a strong asset and give my 100% best at everything I do.This book is a must read. It was extremely worth it, and I will probably re-read at some point.

Although Leave Your Mark charts Aliza Licht's route into working at a fashion magazine, it provides excellent advice for starting careers in the media and in general. I read it just as I was starting to apply for publishing jobs and found all the advice very helpful. As that's the stage I was at, I was mostly interested in the early sections, which focus on getting your CV into shape, and how to get work experience. I read through the whole book once, then made particular notes based on those sections. Later, as I was invited to interviews, and got a longer work experience placement, I read on to the bits dealing with those. I found the section on making the most of a placement particularly helpful.The book charts Aliza Licht’s career so far, so there are definitely sections which I’ll revisit as they become relevant - such as the etiquette for looking for internal and external jobs, or requesting a pay rise. Even though these sections weren’t stuff I needed to hear, it’s still an interesting account of Aliza’s life and I enjoyed hearing about the trials and triumphs she experienced as she started out in the world of media. She became the voice of ‘DKNY PR girl’ when the account was started and shares the story of how the account was planned and how it became her running it.That lead in to the other section which I really enjoyed, something you can appreciate and learn from even if you’re not looking for careers advice: using social media as a marketing tool. I think a lot of bloggers would find some interesting things in this section as Licht writes about figuring out the defining features of your personal brand and how to harness social media to tie in to it.Overall, I give Leave Your Mark by Aliza Licht 8 out of 10. It has excellent careers advice, particularly for anyone looking to work in media. I’m really glad I found the book when I did as it gave me some very helpful tips.

Aliza's style of writing is engaging and friendly. She writes about her own experiences of starting in the business of journalism and PR, and it is extremely helpful for those who want to get started without the pitfalls. Having followed Aliza for a while, this book matches her style and you'll like it.

A good read... Lots to takeaway from this

This book is very inspirational filled with reminders on how to take take life as it comes and working for what you want. More importantly always believer there's light at the end of the tunnel. It reminds me to stay true to myself and my convictions.

An amazing book, really helpful and funny. An honest insight into landing your dream career!!