Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

There is an interesting post up over at the Sales Intensity Blog today.  It is about building relationships through trust and frequency of contact.  I have pasted the beginning part of this post and a link below. 

Please give it a look.

People do business with people they trust. 

The more often someone interacts with you the more familiar they become with you.  If you are a good person and you provide others with value, you can develop a relationship based upon trust by increasing the frequency of your interaction with the other party.

Keeping in frequent contact with clients and prospective clients is the best way to set a solid foundation for a relationship. At first, you may need to contact the other party frequently to make sure they remember you.  After a while you will want to work on making the relationship productive (for both parties).

I have found seven specific points of contact that are particularly effective at helping establish and ultimately deepen a relationship.  

Click here to read the entire post.

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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

Please visit Sales Intensity and check out Sales Strategy for Entrepreneurs.

Also take a look at how to overcome the Fear of Success at The Business Advisor Blog.

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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

Last week we discussed The Fear of Failure and its effect on business performance.  Over the past four days we have examined the Five Irrational Fears that many Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners face.

Today week we are going to examine The Fear of Success.

As much as you want to be the best, you’re afraid that if you actually achieve more, others will dislike you, shun you, and think you’re arrogant. You may also feel that the pressure of being successful may be too great a load to bear or that you will never live up to the expectations of others.

It is true that it is easier to get to the top than it is to stay on top. This is partially due to increased competition and increased expectations that come along with success. However, the rewards of business success far outweigh the burden of the duty and responsibility associated with staying there.

The fear of success is often rooted deep in the subconscious mind of an entrepreneur or small business owner. Often there is a psychological barrier that many people don’t even realize exists.  Meeting regularly with someone who knows you and your business can often be helpful in working through these issues. 

This is where a business coach can make a dramatic difference in your business and your life.  A coach is not a physiologist and should never be considered a substitute for that type of care.  A trained coach can help a business owner/manager by identifying blind spots – opportunities in the business that a person who is close to the business might not see.  It is often the fear of success that creates these blind spots.

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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

Each week I cite Back in Skinny Jeans for the excellent description of how to subscribe to a blog with RSS. 

Stephanie has given me permission to share her information with all of my readers.

Once again here is her great post on how to subscribe to this blog using RSS.

How to Subscribe to this Blog with RSS

We all have busy lives with very little time. Web surfing is fun but can take hours going to visit every single website and blog you enjoy. Wouldn’t it be fabulous if you could just get all the headlines of the most current stories from all your favorite websites and blogs in one place?

Well now you can, and it is called RSS feed.

The technical acronym for RSS is “Really Simple Syndication”, an XML format that was created to syndicate news, and be a means to share content on the web. Now, to geeks and techies that means something special, but to everyday folks like you and me, what comes to mind is, “Uh, I don’t get it?”

So, to make RSS much easier to understand, you can think of RSS as an acronym for “Really Simple Syndication” or I’m “Ready for Some Stories”. It is a way online for you to get a quick list of the latest story headlines from all your favorite websites and blogs all in one place.

Suppose you have 50 sites and blogs that you like to visit regularly. Going to visit each website and blog everyday could take you hours. With RSS, you can “subscribe” to a website or blog, and get “fed” all the new headlines from all of these 50 sites and blogs in one list, and see what’s going on in minutes instead of hours. What a time saver!

That one place where your RSS list is created is called an RSS Reader, and it gathers all the headlines from all the websites and blogs you have subscribed to. In a moment, I will describe how to get an RSS Reader.

Subscribing to RSS feeds

But first, to “subscribe” to a website or blog’s RSS feed simply means that you are telling that website or blog, “Yes please. Send me your story headlines.” It’s like subscribing to a magazine or newsletter. Instead of getting a magazine or email, you will just get a list of headlines sent to your RSS reader. If the headline looks interesting to you, all you have to do is click on the headline and you’ll be sent to the whole story.

In order to subscribe to a website or blog’s RSS, all you have to do is click on an RSS symbol (that orange box on the right sidebar).You can also click to the text link of the words “ Click Here to Subscribe” on the website or blog.

Typically, you can find these RSS symbols or text links in your browser window, on the sides of the website page, or on the bottom of the page. The publishers of the websites and blogs really want people to subscribe to their RSS, so they will make it very easy for you to find the subscription links.

RSS Readers

Now, because nothing is ever standard on the web like dealing with different operating systems, Mac vs. PC, and different flavored browsers like Internet Explorer, AOL, Safari, and Firefox, the way to get an RSS reader will be dependent on what browser you like to use, and how accessible you’d like your RSS list(s) to be.

Just like there are flavors of web browsers, you may see and hear of different flavors of RSS XML feeders like RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, and Atom. Again, the flavors are only important if you want to get techie. If you stick to looking for an RSS symbol (again, it’s a bright orange square – it looks like a piece if Ckicklet Gum) you will be fine.

If you’d like your RSS list to be accessible from any computer or mobile device you may have like a PDA, laptop, or cell phone, some popular RSS readers include that option (and almost all are FREE):

MyYahoo
MyMSN
MyAOL
MyGoogle
Bloglines
FeedDemon (this one costs money)
NewsGator (there is a cost for mobile accessibility)
NetVibes
PageFlakes
Shrook (For Mac users. Free trial and then there’s a cost.)
Lektora
Attensa (more for enterprise, and there’s a cost)

As you can see, there are a plethora of choices for you. All are good RSS readers, so your choice will simply come down to the style that appeals most to you.

RSS as Live Bookmarks

Browsers like Safari and Firefox allow you to subscribe to RSS feeds through the browser, and it’s called “live bookmarking”. Currently, you can only do live bookmarking in Internet Explorer if you have IE7. 

Once again, thanks to Stephanie from Back In Skinny Jeans for help in describing the RSS subscription process.

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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

This week’s Carnival of Career Intensity is up with five terrific posts.  Here is a taste of what you can find at this week’s Carnival of Career Intensity.

It is Time to Take a Risk

Christine Kane presents It Might Be Time to Take a Risk if… posted at Christine Kane.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the Law of Attraction. I believe in it wholeheartedly. And you know what else I believe in? Taking action, and taking risks. At some point, you have to act. At some point you may have to get a little scared. Maybe even a lot scared. You may have to step forward and give some weight to your affirmations, visualizations and good vibrations. It’s the best way to let the universe (and yourself) know that you’re serious about this dream of yours and about this life of yours.

Click here to read the post.

 

How to Protect Yourself from a Layoff

Steve Faber presents 5 Important Ways to Protect Yourself Against Job Loss posted at Debt Free.

They’re coming in waves now. Large job cuts at some of the biggest companies, while the economy as a whole continues its growth. Alcatel–Lucent announced on the 9th they’d raise the number of job cuts in the next three years to 12,500. Diamler-Chrysler announced this morning they’d eliminate 13,000 positions. On the 8th, Eastman-Kodak revealed they’d get rid of between 28,000 and 30,000 jobs. What’s this mean for you?

Click here to read the post.

 

Measurement Equals Success in a Job Hunt

Clint James presents Quantify to Qualify posted at Static Cure.

Here is a little personal lesson I learned this week:

QUANTIFY YOURSELF ON YOUR RESUME’!!!

Why? Because the person sitting across from you is in business and he/she is a numbers person unless you are interviewing at a daycare and they don’t so much care about your ability to produce as your likelihood for stealing the children. Here is how I found out this one small truth.

Click here to read the post.

 

Why Should We Chose You?

Charles H. Green presents Trust Tip 32: Answering “Why Should We Choose You? posted at Trust Matters.

It happens most overtly in a sales presentation: “So tell us, Mr. Jones, why should we choose you?”

Words vary. You may recognize:

What makes you folks different, what sets you apart?

Click here to read the post.

 

Are You in a Career Rut?

John Lampard presents The signs of a career rut posted at The InterChange Desk.

Maybe the first sign, or symptom, that you are fed up with your job, or career, is the fact you are reading this article.

What time is it? Is this your lunch or coffee break? Or are you desperately trying to “fill-in” time until the close of business? Or until lunchtime? Or, worse still, is your work day only ten minutes old, and reading this article is the first of many “distractions” you have planned for the rest of the (long) day?

Click here to read the post.

 

Thanks to everyone who submitted a post.

The Carnival of Career Intensity appears every Saturday on The Career Intensity Blog. 

Send your posts in by 5PM Friday evening to be eligible. I select and print, in full, the five posts that I feel best exemplify Career Intensity.

To enter e-mail your best article to Carnival at CareerIntensity.com.  (Replace “at” with @). 

If you’re looking for an easier way to enter the carnival, just fill out the form at http://blogcarnival.com.

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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

Yesterday we discussed The Fear of Disapproval and its effect on business performance.  Over the course of the next couple of days we will examine the last two of the Five Irrational Fears that many Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners face.

Today we are going to examine The Fear of Failure.

Most people do not set out to fail.  Yet it happens all the time.  Although the vast majority of people hate failure some folks become petrified by the mere fact that they might not succeed.  This type of irrational Fear of Failure can often prevent entrepreneurs from taking action.

This fear can manifest itself in a lack of action.  If you are petrified by fear you will fail to take risks, fail to make decisions and fail to adjust to the changing needs of your customers.  This fear will be the death of your business.

A coach can help you deal with this fear in a swift and rational way.  Your coach will sit down with you and help you work through the consequences of inaction which will often fly in face of your fear of failure.  A coach can also help you learn from the misstep you might normally perceive as a failure.

In reality, a mistake is a learning experience and only becomes a failure if it stops you from moving forward.

Filed under: Attitude
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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

Yesterday we discussed The Fear of the Commitment and its effect on business performance.  Over the course of the next few days we will look specifically at the Five Irrational Fears that many Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners face.

Today we are going to examine The Fear of Disapproval.

When you make changes or take risks you expose yourself to criticism. Other people may not like the change you’ve made, even if that change improves your life. When it comes to making a change, gaining approval can be the wind in your sails. When people who are important to you are skeptical or disagree with you, you feel like you are running up hill.

When we were kids, we all craved the approval of our parents and the elders in our social environment. People who grow up never gaining the approval of their parents (or other influential individuals) can often have a fear of disapproval that will limit their ability to take risks or to make critical changes in their business.

Working with a coach can help you overcome the fear of disapproval.  You and your coach will discuss critical decisions before you make them.  Your coach will help you weigh the pros and cons of all major decisions.  The ultimate decision will rest with you because you are the expert in your business BUT you will have the confidence of knowing that you have looked at the decision from all angles in an impartial and detached way.

Filed under: Behavior
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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

Yesterday we discussed The Fear of the Unknown and its effect on business performance.  Over the course of the next four days we will look specifically at the Five Irrational Fears that many Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners face.

Today we are going to examine The Fear of Commitment.

Like each of us, you have a strong desire to do what you say you are going to do. The psychological need for your actions to match your words drives you to follow through on whatever commitments you make. That type of commitment implies hard work, and you’d rather not commit than compromise your integrity by failing to keep your word. This is especially true when you make a commitment to yourself.

The psychology of commitment is a mental Catch-22. Your impulse to keep your word – make your commitment come true - is so great that it causes you to avoid making commitments.
 
There are two ways to overcome this fear of commitment. The first is to contrast possibility with probability. If it is probable that you will accomplish the task at hand, then you should be able to make the commitment.

A quick conversation with your Business Coach can help you break through this barrier.  Your coach will help you see the difference between possibility and probability. 

The second way to tackle this fear is to view a large commitment as a series of smaller commitments. This is the one-day-at-a-time philosophy that has proved so successful in helping people break addictions. Your short-term concern is meeting your goal today. Before you know it, your days turn into months and your months turn into years. Each day of success becomes positive reinforcing behavior. In the process, the basis of your fear becomes familiar and is no longer a threat.

Your coach can help you break through this barrier by helping you break your goals down into manageable pieces.  You’ll approach each goal one step at a time.  Before you know it you’ll have accomplished some major tasks by taking simple steps.

Filed under: Attitude
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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

Yesterday we discussed fear and its effect on business performance.  Over the course of the next five days we will look specifically at the Five Irrational Fears that many Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners face.

Today we are going to examine The Fear of the Unknown.

You don’t know what the future will bring. You may know that greater possibilities exist, but what you have now is familiar. It’s difficult to give up the certainty of the familiar for the uncertain rewards of the unfamiliar.

Many people who experience this fear will do endless research yet they never take action.  People who fear the unknown will also use the excuse that they are “waiting for the right time to get started” on their new venture.  The only problem with this theory is that the right time never comes. 

The way to break through this fear is easy to understand yet difficult to implement.

To break through the fear of the unknown you need to have the trust and confidence in your ability.  The best way to instill this confidence in yourself is to involve a third party in your efforts.  A detached individual, such as a coach, can help you reflect on the success you have experienced in the past.  This reflection, combined with enthusiastic encouragement, can help you break through the barrier that the Fear of the Unknown can present.

Filed under: Attitude
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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

As human beings, we all experience fear. Fear is an emotion that evolved as a form of protection from painful or possibly fatal situations. Rational fears protect us. Healthy fear keeps us from acting in ways that would put our lives in danger. It keeps us from walking into a lion’s den or placing our hands in a roaring fire. On the other hand, we develop irrational fears as the result of painful past experiences and conjure them up when we anticipate a similar negative experience. Irrational fears can hold us back and steal our dreams.

To help overcome irrational fear, many people use a great acronym that places it in the proper context. FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real.  This false evidence will often prevent us from making important decisions or taking critical steps to help shape our future.

Do you want to be proactive and shape your future? 
or
Do you want to react to whatever life has to throw at you?

Of course - you want to be - no, you need to be - proactive.

Sometimes we make excuses that help us cope with or mask our fear.  We let our minds play tricks on us.  We tell ourselves things that allow us to feel better while we do things that are truly not in our best interests.

What has FEAR prevented you from doing?

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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

Here are the cool tips from this week’s Carnival of Career Intensity:

Post One: – David Maister’s Perspective on Careers

Twelve truths from a man who knows what it takes to have a great career.

Click Here to Check it Out

 

Post Two: – Are You In Tune?

Get in tune with great career guidance from Charles H. Green.  This post will help you understand the importance of preparation.

Click Here to Read the Post

 

Post Three: – What is Your Leadership Worth?

Anna Farmery her thoughts on leadership with us.  You can find her at The Engaging Brand.

Read the Post by Clicking Here

 

Post Four: – Regain Your Balance

Jane May presents The Importance of Balance for Work and Home posted at Career Ramblings.  All aspects of your life benefit when you find balance. 

Read Jane’s Thoughts by Clicking Here

 

Post Five: – Time is Perishable - Say Thank You

Krishna De wonders if saying “Thank You” is bad for your brand.  Time is short.  Remember to thank the people who help you.

Read the Entire Post Here

 

The Carnival of Career Intensity appears every Saturday on The Career Intensity Blog. 

Send your posts in by 5PM Friday evening to be eligible. I select and print, in full, the five posts that I feel best exemplify Career Intensity.

To enter e-mail your best article to Carnival at CareerIntensity.com.  (Replace “at” with @). 

If you’re looking for an easier way to enter the carnival, just fill out the form at http://blogcarnival.com.

 

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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

All great people have coaches.  Every professional athlete has a coach.  All professional entertainers have coaches.  More and more corporate executives are hiring coaches to help them get through the rough patches in their career.  It seems as though entrepreneurs are the only folks who continue to be intent on going it on their own.

Here are three benefits to working with coach if you are an entrepreneur:

Vision

As an entrepreneur you have a burning need to be self-reliant.  This is fantastic when you are just starting out.  You need the “me against the world” attitude in order to stay motivated.  However once you have developed a client base and you need to begin delivering your products and services you can get mired in complexity.  All of a sudden you wake up and you realize that you are focused on the tactical aspects of your business and you have lost the vision you had when you began. 

A coach will ask you the kind of questions that you bring your vision back into focus.  A coach has the benefit of viewing you business from a 30,000 foot perspective.  He/she can see things that you are too close to see. 

Stress Release

As an entrepreneur, you are the boss.  There’s really nobody with whom you can share your thoughts or issues.  A coach can listen to you and he/she can offer realistic feedback on your thoughts and ideas. Now, the coach is not the expert in your business.  They are there to listen and ask tough questions.  They are there to make you think.  They are there to force you to take the time to focus on the big picture.

Talent Identification

Your coach will become an expert on what you do well and where you need support.  Most business owners have a knack for hiring people who are just like them. This can be a disaster.  A coach can help you identify your talent and identify your weaknesses.  You can then look to hire people to support you in the areas where you are weak.  This is one of the invaluable “side benefits” of working with a coach.

Ultimately a relationship with a coach should deliver ten times (or more) the value you pay to have one.  I am biased because I coach entrepreneurs and I have watched the people I worked with double and triple their income.

Filed under: Coaching
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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

Aviva has a top 25 Web 2.0 Tools for Entrepreneurs guide.  This is a good list of tools that can help you get things done better and faster.

Which one will help you become more successful?

Thanks to Buzzoodle for the link.

Filed under: Productivity
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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

We are in the process of reloading all of the blogs on the server. 

That virus that went around last week really killed all three of our blogs.

We should be back on line with new stuff in the next day or so.

Thanks for hanging in there with us.

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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

Great stuff from Yehuda via Seth:

There are many incorrect ways to formulate an apology, but only a few correct ones.

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is best:

• “You can always take your business elsewhere.” (1): Thank you, I will, and so will all of my friends.
• “It’s not our fault.” (2): This is a non-apology, where you are not seeking to redress the issue, nor evincing any sort of sympathy for the injured.
• “We’re sorry that you feel that way.” (3): This is also a non-apology, which roughly translates into “It pisses us off that you feel that way. If you didn’t feel that way, we would be happy.” It also doesn’t take any responsibility for the problem, and places all of it onto the injured party. Be careful of any apology that starts “I’m sorry that you…”
• “We’re sorry if we did something wrong.” (6): This is getting there, but doesn’t really accept responsibility either. You are not acknowledging that you did anything wrong; you’re still hoping that you haven’t. You are offering an apology for appearances sake.
• “We’re sorry that this occurred.” (7): You are sorry, but as a matter of principle you’re still trying to insist that it wasn’t really your fault.
• “We’re sorry that we caused this problem.” or “We’re sorry that we have let this happen.” (9): This is a full apology, and is what the customer needs to hear. Frankly, it doesn’t matter that it was really the post office’s fault, and not yours; the customer doesn’t care. Most people hearing this cannot help but respond with some sort of graciousness, such as “Well, all right then, these things happen. What are you going to do to fix it?” This is the target level that you want to hit for your customer service. But for the record, there is still one level to go. The complete apology is:
• “We’re so sorry that we caused this problem; we are really distressed over this. Please know that we take this very seriously. This is a huge oversight on our part. I will immediately notify my supervisor, and we will review our procedures to ensure that this cannot happen again. In the meantime, that is no consolation to you for our lack of service! What can we do to regain your trust? We will be sending you a little surprise as a token of our appreciation of having you as a customer.” (10) In truth, this little speech goes on until the customer interrupts. And it is followed by a few more apologies as the conversation closes, as well.

Filed under: Customer Service
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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

Each week I cite Back in Skinny Jeans for the excellent description of how to subscribe to a blog with RSS. 

Stephanie has given me permission to share her information with all of my readers.

Once again here is her great post on how to subscribe to this blog using RSS.

How to Subscribe to this Blog with RSS

We all have busy lives with very little time. Web surfing is fun but can take hours going to visit every single website and blog you enjoy. Wouldn’t it be fabulous if you could just get all the headlines of the most current stories from all your favorite websites and blogs in one place?

Well now you can, and it is called RSS feed.

The technical acronym for RSS is “Really Simple Syndication”, an XML format that was created to syndicate news, and be a means to share content on the web. Now, to geeks and techies that means something special, but to everyday folks like you and me, what comes to mind is, “Uh, I don’t get it?”

So, to make RSS much easier to understand, you can think of RSS as an acronym for “Really Simple Syndication” or I’m “Ready for Some Stories”. It is a way online for you to get a quick list of the latest story headlines from all your favorite websites and blogs all in one place.

Suppose you have 50 sites and blogs that you like to visit regularly. Going to visit each website and blog everyday could take you hours. With RSS, you can “subscribe” to a website or blog, and get “fed” all the new headlines from all of these 50 sites and blogs in one list, and see what’s going on in minutes instead of hours. What a time saver!

That one place where your RSS list is created is called an RSS Reader, and it gathers all the headlines from all the websites and blogs you have subscribed to. In a moment, I will describe how to get an RSS Reader.

Subscribing to RSS feeds

But first, to “subscribe” to a website or blog’s RSS feed simply means that you are telling that website or blog, “Yes please. Send me your story headlines.” It’s like subscribing to a magazine or newsletter. Instead of getting a magazine or email, you will just get a list of headlines sent to your RSS reader. If the headline looks interesting to you, all you have to do is click on the headline and you’ll be sent to the whole story.

In order to subscribe to a website or blog’s RSS, all you have to do is click on an RSS symbol (that orange box on the right sidebar).You can also click to the text link of the words “ Click Here to Subscribe” on the website or blog.

Typically, you can find these RSS symbols or text links in your browser window, on the sides of the website page, or on the bottom of the page. The publishers of the websites and blogs really want people to subscribe to their RSS, so they will make it very easy for you to find the subscription links.

RSS Readers

Now, because nothing is ever standard on the web like dealing with different operating systems, Mac vs. PC, and different flavored browsers like Internet Explorer, AOL, Safari, and Firefox, the way to get an RSS reader will be dependent on what browser you like to use, and how accessible you’d like your RSS list(s) to be.

Just like there are flavors of web browsers, you may see and hear of different flavors of RSS XML feeders like RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, and Atom. Again, the flavors are only important if you want to get techie. If you stick to looking for an RSS symbol (again, it’s a bright orange square – it looks like a piece if Ckicklet Gum) you will be fine.

If you’d like your RSS list to be accessible from any computer or mobile device you may have like a PDA, laptop, or cell phone, some popular RSS readers include that option (and almost all are FREE):

MyYahoo
MyMSN
MyAOL
MyGoogle
Bloglines
FeedDemon (this one costs money)
NewsGator (there is a cost for mobile accessibility)
NetVibes
PageFlakes
Shrook (For Mac users. Free trial and then there’s a cost.)
Lektora
Attensa (more for enterprise, and there’s a cost)

As you can see, there are a plethora of choices for you. All are good RSS readers, so your choice will simply come down to the style that appeals most to you.

RSS as Live Bookmarks

Browsers like Safari and Firefox allow you to subscribe to RSS feeds through the browser, and it’s called “live bookmarking”. Currently, you can only do live bookmarking in Internet Explorer if you have IE7. 

Once again, thanks to Stephanie from Back In Skinny Jeans for help in describing the RSS subscription process.

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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

Here are the hot, fresh posts from this week’s Carnival of Career Intensity:

Post One – How to Make Decisions with Less Stress

Victor presents Making Decisions with Less Stress posted at Personal Development Articles.

Stress is not necessarily a bad thing. It is a requisite part of growth, stimulation and any compromising situation. Too much of it, it however, can short circuit your system and drive you haywire. If you are constantly under stress, without giving your body time for respite, your body will certainly break down.

Decision making is one of the primary stressors in life. However, you can’t really live a life without decisions, can’t you? Every day you make choices, and these choices translate into stresses that cannot be avoided. They can only be mitigated or handled appropriately.

Click Here to Read the Entire Post

 

Post Two – What’s Your Hourly Wage

Matthew Paulson presents Does Your Hourly Wage Really Matter? posted at Getting Green.

When I was in college, I had five different jobs; it was really an interesting experience. Since three of them were campus jobs where you would work maybe five or six hours a week, it really wasn’t anything more than a full time job. It’s really quite amazing the difference in salary I received in each job. At the highest paid one, I made $16.35 an hour doing computer support, and at the lowest one, I was paid a mere $6.30 an hour for basic tutoring.

One day I decided that I was going to calculate how valuable my time was based on my average hourly wage, and it turned out to be about $10.00 an hour. Does this mean I should have quit my $6.30 an hour job, because it was not worth my time? Of course not. If I were not tutoring, then I probably would have just been sitting in my rented house watching DVDs of Scrubs. Instead I had some time to help other people and do homework when there was no one to get help; there’s not much easier than that for work!

There are a lot of suggestions and ideas about evaluating whether what you are doing is worth your effort.

Click Here to Read the Entire Post

 

Post Three – How to Stand Out

Clint James presents How to Stand Out in a Crowd posted at Static Cure.

My big focus and what I hope to be a point of emphasis for this blog is how to stand out in the mind of a recruiter. You can always wear a loud tie and floppy clown shoes or you can do something creative and constructive and show the recruiter that you’ve put some thought and resources into getting their attention, and that it is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to your potential.

Click Here to Read the Entire Post

 

Post Four – There is a Science to Success

Craig Harper presents The Science of Success posted at Renovate your life with Craig.

If, like me, you have a propensity to spend inordinate amounts of time navigating your way around some of the squillions of personal development / motivational / inspirational / be-your-very-best-in-next-to-no-time sites, then you’ve probably found a massive amount of repetition, fluff, feel-good, mumbo-jumbo crap and the occasional valuable article.

I am of the opinion (and yes, I know it’s not a popular one) that success isn’t as hard, or as complex as some people make it. And before you write to disagree with me, yes, I acknowledge that the above statement is dependant on your definition of success… but I am speaking generally (as I often need to, when speaking to an audience of more than one).

Click Here to Read the Entire Post

 

Post Five – Forget Stuff, Get Rich

John Wesley presents Why the Unmaterialistic Should Have the Greatest Drive to Get Rich posted at Pick the Brain - Wit and Wisdom for Your Inspiration.

Imagine a greedy old miser, nearing the end of his life. For years he shunned friends and family to amass a fortune, but now, in old age, he sits alone in an empty mansion, cursing himself for missing out on the truly important things in life. No one wants to end up like him. We want to enjoy the love of our family and friends. Only materialistic people with skewed priorities care about being rich. Right?

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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

Just about everyone has trouble sleeping from time to time.  It does not matter if you can’t sleep because you have too much on your mind or if there’s a noise outside the door to your hotel room, being up in the middle of the night is just not fun.  Below are my five favorite things to do when I can’t sleep.  Some are productive and some just take your mind off your troubles – and that may be enough to get you back to bed and off to dreamland.

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Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

How would you like some great recommendations on LinkedIn?

Start by giving recommendations to others.

Be honest and promote people who have done good work with/for you.

I gave out a couple of recommendations last week and I received a couple right back.

If you like the information you receive from this blog, I would love a recommendation from you!

Join LinkedIn today, give out some recommendations and I’m sure you’ll get some back.

Click on the logo below for my LinkedIn Page.

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