The Pivotal Point: Not Giving Up Too Soon

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. — Thomas Edison

There comes a point when being a business owner gets really hard (and I mean really hard). You’ve come up with your big idea, you’ve done all the initial legwork to set it up, and now comes the hard part: Getting the word out about your business and, more importantly, hanging in there while you get the word out about your business. The hard part now becomes not giving up too soon.

The Real Work

When you start a business, when you start a new product or service, when you launch anything really, that’s when you feel like you’re working really hard. That’s when you’re willing to stay up late and get up early to get all the groundwork completed so that you can start making money. As hard as it can seem during this time, you generally know what to do, or you can at least figure out what to do, and you just plow through getting the work done. Then you finish the work. (Cue sound of crickets.) Now what?

All right, now you figure out that you need a marketing plan. Great, that gives you something else to do! You finish the marketing plan and begin implementing it. (You believe in this plan. You’ve given it a lot of thought. You feel really confident about it. It’s going to generate the business you need.) You run through your plan for several days, maybe even several weeks, and then … nothing. Nothing happens, and in our instant-gratification-seeking world, this is where things start getting testy:

• When you’re over the rush of your big idea,
• When you’ve completed the work of creating it,
• When you need to pay the bills, and
• When it feels like you’re sitting on your laurels.

When you’re doing all that initial setup (building your website, creating the product, etc.), it feels like real work. Marketing doesn’t feel like real work, and it gets harder to justify and explain to those around us, particularly those who don’t have businesses. Marketing? What’s marketing? Building a website people get; that sounds like real work. Marketing? Marketing on Facebook and Twitter? All right, now you’re just playing around. Those are the conversations you have, both with yourself and with others, for justifying what you’re doing.

Writing posts for your blog, replying and posting on social networks, doing interviews, commenting on other sites and forums, searching for opportunities to guest post — all these things don’t feel like work, but they’re very necessary for building a successful business, and sticking with these activities for the bulk of your time each day for the six months or year it’s going to take you to gain some traction seems impossible.

Not Giving Up

So, how do you do it? How do you avoid giving up too soon?

1. You make a commitment. Do you want to do this? Are you willing to bet the next 6-12 months of your life on it? You have to be willing to say, “This is my commitment. These are the milestones I intend to reach. This is my intention.”
2. You maintain discipline. Each and every day, you have to say, “This is what I’m committed to doing. These are my top priorities.” You have to focus on what you believe to be the “highest and best use” tasks that will get the word out about your business and start generating income for you. You stay focused, not only on what you’re going to do, but also on what you’re not going to do (compulsively checking email, surfing the Internet, taking a dozen breaks each day, etc.).
3. You trust your plan. You’ve given a lot of thought to the best way for promoting your business, and now you just have to believe in it. Don’t keep switching plans and changing things up. It’s going to take time to see results. Give yourself at least a 90-day test with your current plan before doing any tweaking.
4. Be willing to stay up late and get up early. Although it’s not easy to think about, success isn’t just going to be handed to you. You’re going to have to roll up your sleeves and do the hard work to get things going. No one’s going to do it for you. As you start to get more successful, you still have to continue getting the word out, and juggling priorities can be a challenge. Know that handling incoming work and generating opportunities for future work are equally important.
5. Find support. Get an accountability partner to help you stay the course. It’s a lot easier to waiver when you don’t have someone else holding you responsible and accountable for your original plans and intentions.

Finding a way to hang in there and not give up on your vision can be the hardest thing you ever do to see your business to success, but you have to figure out how you’re going to stick with it for the time it will take to gain some momentum and start seeing results.

In the past, how did you find ways to hang in there until your idea took hold?

Photo by Flickr user ground.zero, licensed under CC 2.0

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Let’s Stop Praying to the Credit Score - Credit Slips

posted by Nathalie Martin

Mortgage brokers, and those hoping to buy homes, are disgusted by the preeminence of the credit score in “scoring” a home loan today. According to an article, in Friday’s New York Times, this overemphasis on credit scoring in the home mortgage market is not helping the economic recovery either, because people just cannot qualify for a home. Some people’s scores have decreased even though they have done nothing differently. The author’s interesting article recounts many mistakes in his own credit report, a common phenomenon as it turns out.  The author is so disgusted he thinks the CFPB ought to take up credit reporting and scoring as a high priority once it is up and running.

I agree that this is a shame, all this focus on credit scoring in lending, but I also think consumers can whip themselves into a frenzy over these scores, even when they do not want, need, or plan to use future credit. Always remember what the score is for, to qualify for more credit. Staying out of debt is as good a strategy as any for keeping the score high. Students acquire more credit cards than they need in order to get three open items.  Before they know it, their scores are lower because they cannot pay. I know a terminally ill woman, with no job and no intention to take on any more credit.  She wants to keep paying dribs and drabs on her enormous medical debts to protect her score until the end. Why?  I hate to give these scores, and the agencies that create them, more power over us than they deserve.

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Career Transition Skills and Career Advice by Career Expert Tai Goodwin : CAREEREALISM

By CAREEREALISM-Approved Expert, Tai Goodwin

When you have what most people consider a “good” job, it is easy to feel obligated to stay where you are. After all, you have what most people want, right? It may be true most people settle for a “good” job, but then there are some of us who aren’t satisfied with that. We want work that feeds our passion. Work that has meaning that extends beyond a paycheck. And we need work that lends itself to the lifestyle we want instead of a job that forces us into survival mode: just hanging on, tolerating Monday through Friday and spending the weekend to detoxifying emotionally and mentally.

For anyone whose ambition is nudging you on to make your next best career move, here are a few thoughts on breaking free from the bad trap of a good job:

• The first way to break free from the trap is to acknowledge it is just not working. Regardless of how anyone else feels or what anyone else likes, the live you life can only be experienced by you. If you are listening to other people, more than likely folk who are afraid to take their own journey, you are selling your self short. Isn’t it time you stopped living someone else’s dream and started focusing on yours.
• Accept a good job is something you do – not who you are. In many cases a good job requires you compartmentalize, becoming two different people. You have the 9-5 full time job person who is just a shell of who you are. Then you have the after-work and weekend persona where you come alive. I’ve never been good at managing that kind of split. This isn’t about working all the time; it’s about being able to be 100% of you 100% of the time.
• Realize making good money does not equal having a great lifestyle. Good jobs, especially good jobs that pay well can keep us leashed to a life that is less than we dream for ourselves. We tolerate assignments, conversations, and mediocrity on a full-time basis and still expect to have enough life left over for living. That’s tough. Money allows us to take care of ourselves and our family, but money alone won’t get us to lifestyle we need to feel fulfilled.

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Getting out of the trap of bad job requires creating success on your own terms instead of settling. It’s living out the experience of finding work that meets the requirements of your financial needs and aligns with your purposed passion. Even when it seems like having both a career you love and one that allows you to earn what you need, refuse to believe that you have to choose one over the other. The good news is you can escape the bad trap. The greater news is you are the key to your own freedom.

Did you enjoy this article? Read more articles by this expert here.

CAREEREALISM Expert, Tai Goodwin, ‘The Career Makeover Coach’, has over 12 years of experience in learning and development. With a B.S. and M.S. in education, she is currently a columnist for Drexel University’s Alumni Career Center, HybridMom.com, the Professional Development Examiner for Wilmington. She also hosts the online radio show: Career Makeover Strategies on the DivaToolbox network. Her blog, www.careermakeovercoach.com, has been listed by Career Rocketeer on 100+ Must Read Blogs for Career Professionals. Connect with Tai on LinkedIn or follower her on Twitter.

The photo for this article is provided by Shutterstock.

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Taking “Fail Fast” to a whole… ‘nutha… level

The definition for Human that you provide sounds like it’s basing it off of a Christian point of view, more specifically that man was perfect until Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit and were kicked out of the garden. The only reason I bring that up is that among the adjectives describing Human are mortal, flesh and blood, fallible, weak, imperfect. — All adjectives and ideas that are brought about based on the fall of man from the presence of God who was immortal, perfect, and unable to err.

I imagine if the dictionary was re-written today from a business point of view, you’d get a few different adjectives in there, like determined, opinionated, resourceful, etc.

I’m just saying, that when it comes down to it, definitions are a matter of perspective. When I used to participate in debate both parties would have to agree on a specific definition, otherwise you’d both be arguing against your own thoughts on the matter.

Well, that’s my 2 cents anyway. I enjoyed your post.
.-= Chris Mower’s latest blog post: How to Brainstorm for Success: Part 1 – An Introduction to Brainstorming =-.

Reply

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Simple Often Wins

If you run a hotel, the business is this: fill beds with happy guests. Everything is geared around that. We can add “at a reasonable operating margin” to pretty much every business, including the hotel business. Restaurants: serve as many meals as possible per hour. TV: get as many viewers per show, and charge ad rates accordingly.
Business is simple. We make it complicated for some unknown reason.
At a speech today, a really smart question came from a man named Tim with an amazing beard (this has nothing to do with the question). He asked me about how we benchmark all this social media stuff, in a world of marketers who need to show their leadership benchmarking. If Julien and I are preaching standing out from everyone in Trust Agents, then how will one benchmark?
My first answer: “No one ever won a race looking sideways.” My second answer, “Experiment and show new results. You can’t benchmark for new stuff, because it hasn’t been done before. That’s the point.”
But it’s moments like those, when I think about how big companies run, when I think about how complex people seem to want to make their jobs (or that bosses seem to be asking for), that I wonder where it will end.
Most business can be done simply. There may or may not be grace and complexity to the execution, but the business is simple.
I was talking to Julien about my almost-ready-to-announce business, and he said, “Oh, so like membership sites?” And it was a lot easier to say “yes” than to try and go into the details. It’s media and education, but sure, it’s also easy to say membership sites.
How simple is your business? Do you view it simply? Can you see the benefit?
Photo credit Pink Polka
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What’s With The Mini Business Cards?

I first saw them circulating about a year ago…

Those mini-business cards, about the size of a tear-off on a flyer at the supermarket. Sure, they’re cute. They’re different. But, here’s the problem.

They’re built to lose.

Just like the millions of flyer tear-offs that people take, then promptly lose or throw out, because there’s not logical place to keep them.

So, somebody explain to me, why would you go and take a business card that’s designed to fit into a spot where other business cards are found, where people remember to look for it, and transform it into something that’s virtually guaranteed to be lost, buried at the bottom of a bag or thrown out because there’s no logical place to put it.

It’s important to be different, to show your individuality, but not in a way that makes people have to work harder to stay in touch.

The core purpose of a business card is to help establish your brand, but, more importantly, to provide an easy way to find your contact information. Even if only until it’s entered into something electronic. Mini business cards scream, “I dare you find me two seconds later!”

It’ s kind of like what happened a few years back when the brassy, oversized Sacagawea dollar pieces hit the market in the U.S..  At first, people thought they were cool, then merchants started to revolt, because they had nowhere to put them. Cash registers were set up with standardized slots for bills, coins and credit card receipts. Merchants filled every slot and set up the drawers that way they worked best. Then, along comes the Sacagawea dollar and there’s no easy place to put then, so they end up getting left on the counter, misplaced or mixed into the quarter slot, then often miscounted. Even though it was illegal, some smaller merchants flat out refused to take them.

Don’t turn your business cards in Sacagawea dollars.

Be unique, stand for something, shine.

But remember, a cool design that’s more easily lost and makes people have to work to find you may well be unique…

But not in the way you want to be remembered.

Different is only worth it when it’s better.

via jonathanfields.com

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Seth's Blog: iPad killer app #2: fixing meetings

Here's an app that pays for 12 iPads the very first time you use it. Buy one iPad for every single chair in your meeting room... like the projector and the table, it's part of the room.

I recently sat through a 17 hour meeting with 40 people in it (there were actually 40 people, but it only felt like 17 hours.). That's a huge waste of attention and resources.

Here's what the app does (I hope someone will build it): (I know some of these features require a lot of work, and some might require preparation before the meeting. Great! Perhaps then the only meetings we have will be meetings worth having, meetings with an intent to produce an outcome). I can dream...

1. There's an agenda, distributed by the host, visible to everyone, with time of start and stop, and it updates as the meeting progresses.

2. There's a timer, keeping things moving because it sits next to the agenda.

3. The host or presenter can push an image or spreadsheet to each device whenever she chooses.

4. There's an internal back channel that the host can turn on, permitting people in the room to chat privately with each other. (And the whole thing works on internal wifi, so no internet surfing to distract!)

5. There's a big red 'bored' button that each attendee can push anonymously. The presenter can see how many red lights are lighting up at any give time.

6. There's a bigger green 'GO!' button that each attendee can push anonymously. It lets the host or presenter see areas where more depth is wanted.

7. There's a queue for asking questions, so they just don't go to the loudest, bravest or most powerful.

8. There's a voting mechanism.

9. There's a whiteboard so anyone can draw an idea and push it to the group.

10. There's a written record of all activity created, so at the end, everyone who attended can get an email digest of what just occurred. Hey, it could even include who participated the most, who asked questions that others thought were useful, who got the most 'boring' button presses while speaking...

11. There's even a way the host can see who isn't using it actively.

Can you imagine how an hour flies by when everyone has one of these in a meeting? How focused and exhausting it would all be?

$500 each, you'll sell 50,000...

PS no one built the first one yet. Sigh.

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A visual study guide to 105 types of cognitive biases - Boing Boing

The Royal Society of Account Planning created this visual study guide to cognitive biases (defined as "psychological tendencies that cause the human brain to draw incorrect conclusions). It includes descriptions of 19 social biases, 8 memory biases, 42 decision-making biases, and 36 probability / belief biases.

A visual study guide to 105 types of cognitive biases (Via The Quantified Self)

via boingboing.net

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Curated hypocrisy: How Google camouflages its attacks on Apple « counternotions

Curated computing: Who needs complexity?

Exactly, who needs complexity? Who does need complexity other than those who profit from mediating its ill effects on consumers? Who, for example, needs Byzantine complexity purposely injected into our legal, tax or health care systems? Who profits from the shameful complexity of our IT universe? Who benefits from the anti-virus industry? Who profits from the complexity of Facebook’s privacy settings, Oracle’s pricing structure or Microsoft’s SharePoint hairball? Who needs the complexity of users being forced to navigate through six different Android OS versions against a permutation of dozens and dozens of carriers, handset manufacturers and devices? Google would like you to believe users are craving for this complexity, just as Microsoft tried to convince you for the last two decades.

via counternotions.com

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Google TV Ads: upload and run commercials on national TV shows from your laptop :Direct Creative Blog

It is possible to make a TV ad for your job search. WOW!

I ran across a report by Seth Stevenson at Slate about how he ran a TV ad on FOX from his home computer using Google TV Ads.

Here’s the video showing how he did it.

Google TV Ads aren’t new to me. I’ve had a few clients try this, though I can’t report that any of them has hit the jackpot with this inexpensive service.

However, the concept is interesting. While you still have to create your own TV commercial, this nifty service makes the media buy convenient, quick, and cheap.

This is simply part of what we’re seeing all over the Internet, with more tools to lower the barrier of entry for marketing, publishing, and communication.

Is this a good strategy for your business? Why not? If you know how to write and produce a good commercial, and you know how to schedule and test wisely, there’s no reason not to try it. Though don’t expect overnight success.

via directcreative.com

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Who is Your Buyer

I know this sounds a bit crazy, but do you spend a lot of time thinking of your buyer, of your ideal customer? Do you spend your time thinking about how to satisfy her business needs? Do you think about solving her problems in new and helpful ways? Are you so totally into your clients and your new prospects that you spend sleepless nights thinking about them?

Every time I walk through an airport, I think of GoToMeeting, one of our clients at New Marketing Labs. I think of new ways to help them with Workshifting and the like. I think of SAS and their social media analytics tool, and wonder what else we can do to promote it. I think about how to help promote Edison Research and their Twitter Usage in America report.

Those people (and several more) are my clients at New Marketing Labs.

I also think about you, the professional in smaller and midsized businesses. I think about the people that John Jantsch and Becky McCray serve.

I think about my buyers and clients all the time. I think about my would-be customers all the time.

Do I Think About My Competitors?

Not very often, no. Know why? Because what will that get me? Yes, I can see if any of their offerings are better than my offerings, but then, I create my offerings for my buyers, so why would I try to copy their offerings, which are for their buyers?

I think of ways to get people to say yes. I think of ways to get the people who’ve said yes to be happier. I sometimes actually even ask the people who say yes to me what they think (crazy, I know).

Which Do You Think Gets You More Business?

That’s the question.

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If You Won 4 Million Dollars, Would You Still Work? | paulacaligiuri.com

If you won 4 million dollars in a lottery would you continue working? Research of Drs. Richard Arvey, Itzak Harpaz, and Hui Liao found that the majority of big-money lottery winners with a high work centrality do continue earning income in some form. This provides compelling evidence that people gain intrinsic rewards from their careers.

Given the staggering number of people who report that their jobs are a source of negative stress, you may be surprised by this research finding. I was not. The source of work-related stress is not the income-generating activity; it is doing this activity without control. While many lottery winners continue earning an income, a very small percent of them continue doing exactly what they were doing prior to winning. The lottery winners’ new financial freedom affords them opportunity to craft the careers they really want. They are fully in control of their career destiny.

You do not need to win the lottery to take control of your career destiny and have the career you really want.

Since Get a Life, Not a Job first became available online almost 4 weeks ago (and in bookstores soon), I have been in touch with more people with truly amazing and inspiring careers -- people who are not lottery winners but are leveraging their talents to do what they love.

Adam Schell is one of those highly motivating people.

I was inspired by Adam’s ability to stay true to himself, his talents and his core values. Through the pursuit of experiences and self-awareness, he is crafting (and continues to craft) a career that brings him work-life harmony. Let me share some of the highlights of Adam's career acts:

When Adam was younger he wanted to be a professional football player and, in fact, was a linebacker for Northwestern University when he was in college.

Tomato Rhapsody by Adam Schell

While a professional future in football wasn’t in the cards, Adam decided to explore his other passions. After college (and to explore his love of great food) Adam picked grapes and olives in Tuscany and coffee beans in Guatemala, and apprenticed under a master French Chef. He was a chef himself -- and then a food critic.

Leveraging yet another skill set, Adam produced award-winning short films and commercials. In a beautiful example of how great careers are a process and not an outcome, Adam returned to school for a master's degree in creative writing.

Combining and leveraging his multiple skills and passions (food, writing, travel, and the creative process), Adam recently authored his highly-successful first novel Tomato Rhapsody: A Novel of Love, Lust, and Forbidden Fruit. (If you enjoy novels, this book is pure pleasure, a delightful mix of history, humor, romance, and drama wrapped in a rich and colorful fable about the tomato’s start in Italy.)

While not playing professional football, Adam also stayed true to his personal value of physical fitness; he is a popular yoga instructor.

When asked how all of his pursuits influenced his writing, Adam responded “I think football taught me how to prepare, being a chef taught me how to wing it, and being a yoga teacher taught me to trust – all skills intrinsic to writing a good novel.”

With his wife and child, Adam has true work-life harmony. When not traveling to Spain to research his next novel, Food of the Gods: An Epic Tale of Love, Chocolate and Bittersweet Revenge, Adam lives in Bend, Oregon where he and his family enjoy the “small town charms.”

I asked Adam if he won 4 million dollars, would he keep doing what he continue doing what he is doing? His reply: “yes, I would certainly keep writing and teaching yoga. The yoga teaching, however, would be public and by donation, with all monies going to support some local cause.”

You see, my friends, you do not need to win a lottery to have financial freedom and work-life harmony. Many thanks to Adam for sharing his career story. I look forward to hearing about the next chapter of Adam's career -- and reading his next novel.

via paulacaligiuri.com

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The State of Wireless Satisfaction in the US

via billshrink.com

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Seth's Blog: Where do you find good ideas?

Do you often find ideas that change everything in a windowless conference room, with bottled water on the side table and a circle of critics and skeptics wearing suits looking at you as the clock ticks down to the 60 minutes allocated for this meeting?

If not, then why do you keep looking for them there?

The best ideas come out of the corner of our eye, the edge of our consciousness, in a flash. They are the result of misdirection and random collisions, not a grinding corporate onslaught. And yet we waste billions of dollars in time looking for them where they're not.

A practical tip: buy a big box of real wooden blocks. Write a key factor/asset/strategy on each block in big letters. Play with the blocks. Build concrete things out of non-concrete concepts. Uninvite the devil's advocate, since the devil doesn't need one, he's doing fine.

Have fun. Why not? It works.

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Showcasing Volunteer Experience on Your Resume » Blog | Great Resumes Fast

At a recent training summit for a large nonprofit organization, I heard several directors lamenting the lack of respect their significant volunteer positions received in the working world.  I was flabbergasted to realize that these women did not feel valued for their contributions to others, which included managing hundreds of thousands of dollars and writing lengthy manuals on subjects from communication skills to regional operations.

Every day, millions of people do important work for which they are not compensated.  This work can be as complex as medical missions to undeveloped countries or as simple as tutoring the child down the street.  If you are one of the many people who give of their time without financial reward, it is important that you include your accomplishments on your resume.

Perhaps you publish your weekly church bulletin with everyone’s announcements.  This means you have some writing and layout abilities, as well as numerous work samples.  Maybe you’re the treasurer of your neighborhood home owners’ association.  If you collect $300 in yearly dues from each of your 300 neighbors, then you manage a budget of $90,000—something many people in the corporate world will never do.

As a class mother at your child’s school, it may be your job to coordinate an out-of-state field trip for three classrooms of students and 10 chaperones.  On your resume, this task would translate to event planning and travel coordination.  Many alumni associations offer graduates the opportunity to share their expertise with current students who need assistance with career planning.  These types of mentoring activities involve public speaking and interviewing—so-called “soft skills” that are valued by many employers, particularly in sales.

In addition to volunteer activities, many people’s hobbies demand skills that are sought by employers.  Organizing a group on meetup.com requires knowledge of social networking and event planning.  A personal blog can demonstrate your writing abilities, (provided the content is appropriate for the eyes of a potential employer).  Maintaining the facebook page for your local running club exhibits your ability to connect people through social media.  Given that less than a quarter of facebook users are over 35, an older hiring manager may be looking for someone who understands the “foreign world” of Internet communications.

Most people who volunteer do so by using abilities that come naturally to them.  Almost all volunteer responsibilities require some kind of skill that an employer could use.  Don’t be afraid to incorporate unpaid experience into your work history.  College interns do it all the time!  A close friend familiar with your activities can often help you reflect on your contributions to the community.  If you’re feeling particularly uncertain about how to showcase volunteer experience on your resume, a professional resume writer can assist you with marketing your skills—all of them!

via greatresumesfast.com

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How Apple should display iPhone apps on iPad on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

See the icons for Tweetie, Birdbrain, Flight Control, Compression.

Those apps are all iPhone apps, and when run on an iPad they run small in the center of the screen with black surrounds (or at an ugly 2x scaled).

On the home screen, these iPhone apps are currently represented much the same as iPad apps, except their 57x57 pixel icons are blown up to be an ugly blurry 72x72 next to the higher res iPad icons.

In this mockup, with the black borders they could keep their sharp 57x57 pixel size, and have the added benefit of being easily recognizable as iPhone apps to the user.

via flickr.com

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Personal Branding Interview: Michael Hyatt | Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel

Today, I spoke to Michael Hyatt, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Thomas Nelson Publishers, the largest Christian publishing company in the world and the seventh largest trade book publishing company in the U.S. In this interview, Michael talks about how and when he started using social media tools, the impact blogging has had on his life, what types of authors get book deals, his thoughts on the future of publishing, and more.

What got you started blogging and using Twitter in the first place?

I began blogging in 1998, before it was even called blogging. I blogged in fits and starts, usually around the launch of various projects. However, I began again in April 2004 because I wanted to be able to better engage with our employees, authors, and customers. In April 2008, I began twittering at the recommendation of a close friend. I just was going to try it out for 30 days, and it stuck.

How has using these tools impacted your life personally and professionally?

• Blogging helps me clarify my own thinking. This is probably the primary benefit of blogging for me. Sometimes I am not sure what I think about a topic until I have written on it. Writing helps me untangle my thoughts.
• Blogging has given me first-hand experience with emerging technologies. I have listened to many CEOs pontificate on this or that technology. But they are not speaking form personal experience—and it shows. When you actually use a technology, your learning and insights go to a higher level.
• Blogging has provided me with a mechanism for instant feedback. I love the fact that people can comment on what I have written.
• Blogging has helped me bypass traditional media when necessary. I didn’t really understand this at the outset, but it has proven very helpful. When the media fail to get the story right, I can quickly address it and provide my side of the story. This has been particularly helpful when we make big decisions that cause people to speculate. A blog post can stop a rumor dead in its tracks. Blogging has made our company more visible. I currently have more than 100,000 readers a month. I have received scores of emails from people who had never heard of Thomas Nelson before stumbling onto my blog. Also, my blog has given me a way to “put a face on the company” and, I think, make it more personal.
• Twitter allows family, friends, and others to follow my activity throughout the day and keep up with my life. Twitter enables me to meet new friends. I am following several people that I would have never met otherwise. These are relationships have proven very fruitful.
• Twitter encourages me to think consciously about my life. What am I doing now? What kind of story is my life telling? Is this really what I want to be doing? Could I—should I—be choosing something different?

  

When you, and your company, look to bring on authors, how important is their personal brand and marketing platform? Is it more important today than it was ten years ago?

As a publisher, I would love to have a great book from an author with a giant platform but you rarely get both. I still believe in the power of a great concept and great writing. Authors should focus on the aspects of the publishing process they can control beginning with writing the best manuscript possible. That being said, it is important for an inspiring author to do what they can to build their audience.

What do you think about these new publishing platforms, including the iPad, Kindle, and Nook? Are they the future?

Yes, I believe that over time the bulk of publishing will be done digitally. New devices are being designed everyday that make it easier for consumers to digest words and ideas. This is definitely an exciting time to work in publishing.

How important is it for you to be out in the public as the human face of Thomas Nelson? How do you and your company benefit by this?

As CEO, I feel that one of my main responsibilities is to get visibility for Thomas Nelson. Networking and communicating are two of the most important parts of my job. In today’s marketplace, companies need to have personality. Customers don’t want to champion a corporation, they want to champion people. As my team and I get more involved in social media, we commonly hear that customers seek out Thomas Nelson products because of their interaction online with our people.

Looking back, what business decisions did you make early in your career that have helped you be successful today?

I decided that even though I had completed my formal education that I would be a life-long learner. I seek out experts who can broaden my knowledge base through executive coaching, mentoring, and reading. These resources have helped me take my leadership to the next level.

——
Michael Hyatt is the Chief Executive Officer of Thomas Nelson Publishers, the largest Christian publishing company in the world and the seventh largest trade book publishing company in the U.S. His company is privately-held and he has worked at the company for a total of fourteen years. He began my publishing career at Word Publishing while a student at Baylor University. He worked at Word for a total of six years. In addition to serving as Vice President of Marketing at Thomas Nelson in the mid-80s, He also started his own publishing company, Wolgemuth & Hyatt, with his partner Robert Wolgemuth in 1986. Word eventually acquired his  company in 1992. He was a successful literary agent from 1992 until early 1998. He has also written four books, one of which landed on the New York Times bestseller list where it stayed for seven months. He is currently working on two new books, which he plans to announce closer to publication. He is also the former Chairman of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA).

via personalbrandingblog.com

Posted via web from AndyWergedal

Sell Your Used Car for More by Getting It Detailed - Selling - Lifehacker

Dealers take real time to polish up a used car so it looks as showroom-fresh as possible. Take a cue from them and increase your chances of getting the asking price on your used car.

Photo by area57.

MSN Money put together a list of six ways you can get more money for your used car. Key among them is thinking like a dealer—as shower-inducing as that sounds—and getting your car as clean and shiny as possible:

Dealers have a few tricks up their sleeves. They know that even a clunker can look like a cream puff when it's cleaned up.

A detailing that includes vacuuming the interior, cleaning the seats, and washing and waxing the exterior will run about $50. Shining up older tires is cheap — $5 to $10 — and helps increase curb appeal. Dealers also steam clean the engine, polish chrome surfaces and even use Armor All on the plastic tubing, says Phil Reed of Edmunds.com. That can give buyers a sense of confidence in the care of your car when they look under the hood.

Besides the spit and polish, make sure your vehicle is clear of all your stuff. Look in the compact-disc player, seat-back pockets, under seats and in the trunk. Verify that the spare tire is there (if it comes with one) and that all jacks and tools are accounted for.

It seems like having a spotless maintenance record would be more important than a spotless driver seat, but purchasers like to feel like their getting a "new" car, even when they're shopping for a used one. Check out the full article for more tips. What put your own used car over the top for a buyer? Share your trade secret in the comments.

6 Ways to Get Top Dollar for Your Car [MSN Money via Free Money Finance]

Send an email to Jason Fitzpatrick, the author of this post, at jason@lifehacker.com.

via lifehacker.com

Posted via web from AndyWergedal

A Career Renegade Story: Howard Karp Rides Again!

This week, Howard Karp, the owner of Jersey Defensive Driving,  reached out to me on Facebook and shared his renegade journey. It captured so much of what people have been dealing with over the last year and it was a great example of what happens when you rise above the victim mentality, take control and go renegade. So, I asked him if  could share it with you guys and he agreed.

What follows are Howard’s words…

Around January of 2009, I was working as an IT Project Leader for UPS in Northern New Jersey. My plan was to retire from UPS around age 55 (that was 3.5 years from then), but I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. My wife forwarded a copy of the Firefly Manifesto, which led to me to purchase your Career Renegade book and get enrolled in Flight School. I’m not sure if you remember the flight school teleconference session where you were talking about meta tags and had the young person who was involved in BMX riding. During that teleconference session we were exploring how key words worked and how they affected search results.

I am a motorcyclist by hobby and during that session I started to type in motorcycle related keywords. Well, up pops the website for Fairleigh Dickinson University, and it just so happened that they were looking for people who were interested in becoming riding instructors. So I submitted an application and was accepted into the trainer, training program which was a very grueling 9 day program over 3 consecutive weekends. I passed the program and in May of 2009 began teaching Beginner Rider Classes on the weekends.

Move forward to August of 2009, and the economy is tanking and after 18 years with UPS I get laid off.

Not the first time in my life that I have had a career bump but certainly never expected it 3 years away from retirement age and from such a large and respected company. Just to give you the full flavor, my wife, who is a marketing specialist in the newspaper industry got let go a month earlier, so now we are flying without a net.

She starts a marketing business that specializes in social media in addition to traditional marketing and it takes off pretty quickly, and it is still the summer time and I am teaching classes at FDU so we are keeping the wolf away from the door. My dilemma is what to do next? Meanwhile all the time I am following your web site and listening to podcasts of your guests who have had successful career transitions.

Now the other thing you need to know is that I am somewhat of a history buff. I enjoy the history channel and going to battlefields and even took a multiday motorcycle ride to Gettysburg to see the battle re-enactment. So I decide that I am going to open a motorcycle touring business that specializes in tours to historical areas in the Hudson River Valley and NY/NJ area. Combining motorcycle touring with history, what could be better?

So I create Patriot Motorcycle Tours and start to figure out how to market it. I develop a 5 part tour series for new riders called the Practical Skills Riding Tour Series and try to market it to the university, I create various routes and rides over the winter of 2009/2010, I come up with a bunch of ride concepts, three cities baseball tour and Cooperstown, a Fort Ticondaroga tour, and Washington’s Crossing Tour, I create waivers and launch a website, and I work the motorcycle show at Javits where I meet up with a guy who runs a touring company in the Georgia area who is looking to expand up north to New England.

Things are progressing slowly. All the while I am still reading your blogs and listening to your podcasts. I get the book Escape from Cubicle Nation and start going to some of the networking events and meet Pam.

Then in around March of 09 I meet up with a guy who runs a defensive driving classroom course. Now this guy is based in NY and is looking to move into NJ. The course is a 6 hour multi-media presentation that gets you a discount on your car insurance and 2 points off your license. You can take it in an instructor led group session or as an Online course.

Turns out that a portion of the content is similar to what I teach in the classroom portion of the beginner motorcycle classes, and I have already passed the background check because I had to be fingerprinted and investigated for the university as part of getting the instructor job.

So, I make a deal to become the exclusive provider of this course in New Jersey, and anyone else who comes in does so under my umbrella. So I go back to some of your concepts in the Career Renegade book and I get onto Go Daddy and find out that Jersey Defensive Driving is available. So I register the URL, license the curriculum from the sponsoring agency that created it and got it approved by the NY and NJ DMV, have a JerseyDefensiveDriving.com web site hosted for taking the course online and start a Jersey Defensive Driving Face Book Fan Page.

I revamp the content and put it in a PowerPoint format a la the kind of presentations we would give at UPS, I create a marketing kit, get a fellow instructor who works for a gym oriented throw away magazine to get me some press, and start leveraging the career transition network groups I have been attending to get the word out on the business.

I started marketing it April and as of today I have 3 classes scheduled, one partnering with a local insurance agency and the others with a local YMCA. I also pitched the course to both Bergen Community College and FDU, and got a bite from BCC to be in their Fall Catalog.

So now, I am getting some momentum up, and am transitioning from career transition networking venues to start up and entrepreneurial networking events. I joined a bunch of linked in groups and hooked up with an attorney in South Jersey who specializes in DWI/DUI cases. Just had a conversation with a small start up radio station in the Newark area who via linked in is offering a deep discount on a radio marketing package for their station.

To top off the whole life is a circle thing, my wife just landed a full time senior position with a newspaper in South Jersey so we will be relocating down to the shore, but the good thing is Jersey Defensive Driving can be run from anywhere.

So to wrap up this letter, I have to thank you for giving me inspiration and a road map of sorts to think about what the possibilities could be rather than getting into a depression about why me and what did I do wrong (nothing), and all the other negative blah, blah, blah that you can get into with a job loss.

I hope to eventually get back to the historical motorcycle thing, but for now the Defensive Driving Course and the Motorcycle Instructor work have a good synergy and I think the earning potential is better with this venture.

I was down in Washington DC visiting my daughter who at the time was an undergraduate at American University. She had gotten a job at the National Archives and I went to see where she worked and get a behind the scenes tour of some of the cool documents.

On the steps of the archive carved into the cornerstone of the building is the saying….

What is Past is Prologue.”

I have adopted that as my personal theme!

via jonathanfields.com

Posted via web from AndyWergedal

Why You Must be Specific When Talking to a Hiring Manager | CareerEnlightenment.net

Ever buy a car? Wanted it to be unique? How come as soon as you put your money down you start to notice the very car you just bought, down to color and rims, is all over town?

RAS! The Reticular Activating System is located in your brain stem in the back of your head. Among its many functions, it helps filter information that is coming toward you at a rapid clip.

So, the RAS dampens stimulus and it filters what we want to see or not see. Basically, we program ourselves to filter something in and something out!

The RAS filter looks at your past experiences as well as the current problems you may be facing. After a quick evaluation, the RAS helps you to determine what important info is and what can be ignored.

For example, a cave man might prime their RAS by intending to find strawberries for dinner.

A hiring manager might be priming his or her RAS by worrying about how to solve a particular business challenge today.

Your RAS is primed to learn everything you can about job seeking which is why you are more likely to pay attention to blogs posts like this!

See where I’m going with this concept?

We’re All Wandering Around Worried About Our Problems

Our challenge, as job seekers, is to understand there are many other job seekers going for the same jobs. Right now it is particularly hard to stand out from the crowd.

You want to get noticed and be the one to get the job? Show up in the hiring managers RAS!

If a hiring manager is looking for a network engineer who can solve a particular problem, then any network engineer, who says, “I Do That,” will be seen. That network engineer could be you!

So you really need to be specific when you are talking with hiring managers.

Knowing what their RAS is primed to be paying attention to will give you special notice.

When researching companies make sure you answer these questions:

• The name of the hiring manager
• What business problems this person is facing at this moment
• How you might be able to help him or her solve this problem

How Am I Supposed to Know What Your Problem Is?

Easy. LinkedIn has a very nifty thing called “companies” where you can actually research an organization and its employees. There is plenty of info about a person’s role and responsibility:

• Follow the same groups they belong to
• Look for similarities on the profile
• See what status updates this person is publishing

Remember— know very clearly what someone is primed to pay attention to before reaching out. When you do your research, you’ll find your interview interactions will be WAY more meaningful.

So the next time a career counselor asks you to be more specific about your skill set, you know they are coming from a place of science. They are matching your skills with a future employers RAS.

via careerenlightenment.net

Posted via web from AndyWergedal