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The 4 Cs of Writing a Book

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Few things are more daunting than staring at that blank computer screen after you've made the decision to write your first book. But it doesn't have to be so overwhelming.

I break the process down into the four Cs: Concept, Content, Construction, and Campaign.

Using these as a guide, you can go from committing to writing your book to becoming a bestselling author!

Let's look at the desired outcome(s) for each of these steps:

CONCEPT

The concept phase of creating your book is about defining who you are in the marketplace, who is your ideal reader, and what is the Big Problem you are going to solve for them. This becomes the foundation for every decision you will make as you work through your book.

The question you'll continue to ask yourself is, "Does this decision move the book closer to fulfilling the concept statement?" If it does, keep going. If it doesn't, there is no need to invest any resources in it.

CONTENT

The content phase results in three outcomes--the creation of the outline, making a content inventory, and completing a rough manuscript. These are covered in detail in my previous article, Building Your Book: How to Generate Content.

The goal is to produce a manuscript that is appropriately written for your intended audience. An attorney, for example, writing for other attorneys is going to pen a different book than an attorney writing for the general public.

CONSTRUCTION

When the rough draft manuscript is complete, the construction phase begins to take that manuscript and turn it into an actual book. Once you've read through the entire manuscript several times and you're satisfied it delivers its message for the target reader, it is time for editing, proofreading, and formatting.

The editor/proofreader can be a professional that you've hired from a site like Upwork.com, Freelancer.com, or someone you've found in your personal network.

During the construction phase, decisions about covers, photos, and graphics are made that will help align the book with any branding that needs to be considered. The final result is a collection of files ready to be sent for the production of the ebook, paperback, and hardcover editions.

CAMPAIGN

Finally, while the book is being produced it is time to craft the promotional campaign so readers can find your book. This is about creating a marketing plan for the book that might include a book launch event, bestseller campaign, book signing, and getting the media to start talking about you and your new book.

The marketing plan also includes designing the appropriate marketing materials for you as the author. When trying to attract media attention, it is just as important to sell the author as it is the book.

By following these 4 C's, it'll take most of the uncertainty and uneasiness out of the writing process.

*****


Chuck Boyce now offers the opportunity for professionals in any industry to write a bestselling book in just 2 days at his BESTSELLER BOOKCAMP™ workshop, to be held in several cities throughout the U.S.

Visit http://www.bestsellerbookcamp.com for more details.

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The Value of Listening to Your Audience

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You could consider me a mega fan of Gary Vaynerchuk, so imagine my absolute delight when I woke up to this a few days ago:

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Credit: WideNet


That right there is my number one business and marketing hero, a man who has made millions, built a massively successful media company, and has even been on TELEVISION (omg), and he's reaching out to me to say thanks. On Facebook.

It wasn't anything life changing. He didn't offer me a job. He didn't invite me to dinner. He didn't validate any of my writing or my work (as cool as any that would be). He simply said, "Thanks," and I'll never forget it.

Gary's little gesture should serve as a lesson to all of us.

Listening matters. It matters a lot.

Social media has been around for well over a decade now, and yet plenty of business owners and media personalities still don't understand the true value of sites like Facebook and Twitter. These platforms give you an option: you can choose to remain in your ivory tower, or you can come down and socialize with us common folk. You know, the ones who buy your product, watch your show, listen to your podcast, read your books, and share your ideas.

This is something we stress hard to our clients at WideNet. Taking two seconds to recognize your audience, to let them know their words are reaching your ears or to just show a little appreciation, goes a long way. Do that, and these people are going to shout your praises from the rooftops. Positive word of mouth is the most powerful marketing advantage at your disposal-- especially in the Digital Age. Word travels fast on the Internet, and the payoff can be massive.

I already talk a lot about Gary Vaynerchuk, because he produces phenomenal content and inspires me to do better at my job. Hell, he inspires me to do better at everything. I've been telling people about his comment to me since the moment I saw it, and I'm going to tell more.

It's all about adding value. Listen to your audience. Interact with them. Show them you're not just a corporate shill, but someone who cares. You don't have to be their best friend, but a little nudge every once in a while will go a lot further than you may think.

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Friday: Draghi Fever Has Traders Ignoring More Terrorism

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170 hostages were taken at the Radisson Hotel in Mali




I know - where's Mali?  Who cares?  Apparently, not too many of you do because the Futures have gained 0.5% since this happened early this morning, so let's just keep going and invest as if nothing bad is ever going to happen.  




Today's market cheerleader was former Goldman Sachs Director, Mario Draghi, who said the ECB is prepared to deploy its full range of stimulus measures to fight low inflation, indicating that the Central Bank will apply additional easy money policies at its next meeting in December.   




That sent the euro down half a point and, so far, the dollar is up 0.5% to match, which is pushing oil back down to $40 (the Dec contract, on it's last day) and giving us a nice buying opportunity into the weekend on both /CLF6 (the Jan contract, now $41.50) and /RBF6 (Jan Gasoline, now $1.275) into next week's holiday.  For the Futures impaired - the Gasoline ETF (UGA) should be at $28.75 and that should put the Dec $29 calls under $1 - a fun way to pay for a tank of gas for next week's visit to Grandma's.




Keep in mind that Draghi is a guy who thinks bankers should run the world, the quote in this picture comes from his actual interview in Der Spiegel in 2012 and, since then, he's simply moving his agenda forward, in a subtle(ish), diplomatic fashion:





 "It is not that we want to replace the national supervisory authorities; on the contrary, we want to work closely with them. However, they need to be independent of their governments in their assessment of the problems. In the past, problems in the banking sector have been hushed up time and again.




"I am not going to mention any names. However, I am certain that we will be able to act more independently and quickly if Frankfurt is at the heart of the decision-making."





On our side of the pond, the NY Fed's Bill Dudley (former Goldman Chief Economist) was heard saying, in his opening remarks at a regulation conference: "If we begin to raise interest rates, that’s a good thing. That’s not a bad thing."  Indeed GS has all their minions flying around the world saying anything and doing anything they can to get the S&P over 2,058.90, which is where we were at the market close on Dec 31st of 2014.  Since then, the markets have gone nowhere and it's hard to get prospective clients to give you trillions of dollars to collect fees on if they don't think the markets are going to make them rich.  




SPY 5 MINUTEThe volume yesterday was a joke and the markets went nowhere and the day before, on the rally, the volume was a joke as well.  We still worry that the joke will be on you if you load up on stocks into the holidays and we're staying cashy and aautious though, of course, we are doing a bit of bargain-hunting when we can.  




It's not that we don't have faith in a long-term recovery - how could we not with all these trillions of dollars being thrown around by the same central banksters who tell the governments they are borrowing too much money?  We just see a period of instability ahead as the Fed begins to tighten while the ECB continues to loosen and the super-strong dollar is NOT likely to improve our rapidly declining export numbers, which look much worse when you take into account actual end use exports, rather than just the traditional payment balance model.




This is the Fed's own chart illustrating how dire End Use Exports have become.  They are ALWAYS a leading indicator for the broader export numbers.  Now, when is the last time we've seen numbers this low?








The hardest thing to do as a trader is to stay on the sidelines while the market is rallying.  Other people are making quick money and yours is just sitting there and, if you are nimble - you can make some really good money at the top of a bubble but, if you get caught in the fall - the consequences can be dire. 




We just reviewed our Butterfly Portfolio yesterday afternoon and it's up $10,510 (10.5%) in the past month despite being mainly in cash and despite being very well-hedged.  When I say we're "Cashy and Cautious" - it doesn't mean we're afraid to trade - it's just that we are trading in such a way that we won't be caught by surprise when the market finally begins to pull back and, if it never pulls back - we have lots and lots of long-term plays that will do very well.  




SPX WEEKLYOur Long-Term Portfolio, in fact, is up almost 5% ($23,000) since our October 4th Portfolio Review despite the S&P having gone up just 1% while our Short-Term Portfolio has lost $24,000, because that's where all of our bearish positions are (we use the STP to hedge the much-larger LTP).  That's what I mean by staying on the sidelines - it's not that we don't have money in the market - it's just that we're very well-hedged and leaning bearish but, if they want to rally us further - our long-term positions don't mind at all!  




If we do break out to new highs, we'll be happy to cut back on our hedges and let our long-term plays run but, for now, we prefer to keep our main portfolios in neutral until we are sure this isn't yet another low-volume head-fake, designed to pull the retail suckers in off the sidelines while the professional traders cash in for the holidays.  




Have a great weekend, 




- Phil




 

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Don't Forget to Celebrate (11.5)

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"Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes shine to the stars. Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eyes, the swing in your gait. The grip of your hand, the irresistible surge of will and energy to execute your ideas." Henry Ford


Sorrow, fear, anger and guilt are painful emotions. Each of them "asks" you to take appropriate action (see here and here). With each emotion, you incur in an "emotional debt."

If you don't pay that debt you go bankrupt. As you dam your flow of feelings you sink into negative moods such as resignation, resentment and depression. These moods are frozen and pervasive emotional states that take a life of their own. You are sad about something, but you are just depressed. While you can address sadness through grieving, depression just lingers, like a heavy fog.

Joy, enthusiasm, gratitude and pride are pleasurable emotions. Each of them also "asks" you to take appropriate action. If you don't pay these emotional debts you run the risk of shunning these emotions from your life.

You honor joy by celebrating.

You honor enthusiasm by striving.

You honor gratitude by thanking.

You honor pride by recognizing.

In the following video, I discuss how each one of these emotionally intelligent actions is necessary to lead effectively.



Should you have any trouble viewing the video, please click here to view on Fred's slideshare page.

Readers: Is there any guilt that you need to heal through corrective actions? Is there any shame you need to dissolve through self-awareness?



Fred Kofman is Vice President at Linkedin. This post is part 11.5 of Linkedin's Conscious Business Program. To find the introduction and full structure of this program visit Conscious Business Academy. To stay connected and get updates please and join our Conscious Business Friends group. Follow Fred Kofman on LinkedIn here.

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3 Ways to Communicate Effectively With All Levels of Your Team

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2015-11-12-1447339496-4662506-ManickBhan.pngManick Bhan is the CEO and CTO at Rukkus. He was formerly a banker at Goldman Sachs.

When you're leading a team of people, communication is key. However, knowing what to say and when to say it is an undervalued tool in some entrepreneurs' arsenals. When it comes to how I interact with my company, the way I communicate and the tactics I use depend most on the environment that I find myself in.

When our company was smaller and I could turn to my left or right to speak to my entire team, communication was fairly simple. If I needed questions answered, I simply asked them. If I needed to deliver a new initiative or protocol, I stood up and wrote it on our whiteboard, hammering home important points with a couple extra exclamation points.

But as our company expanded into several distinct teams with their own needs, so has my need to tailor my communication to each setting. The way I speak, listen, respond and question employees in an organization-wide meeting is very different than when I speak to a specific department or in a one-on-one meeting. Below are some guiding principles I try to stick to when meeting with employees under different circumstances. 

Having One-on-One Interactions

Every individual you hire, manage and work with is unique, no matter how similar his or her role within your company may be. But keeping a specific set of guiding principles when meeting with your employees can help you maximize efficiency while still getting the most out of people. Set expectations in advance, and don't set up a meeting with an employee and ambush them. Give them adequate preparation time maximizes the potential for learning on both ends. Know when to listen, because sometimes a situation calls for you to do the talking. Other times you need to be the listener. Regardless of the scenario, you need to make sure to keep the meeting's agenda paramount, close up loops, ask specifics and get to the bottom of things.

Addressing a Team or Department

When you're working with an entire team, especially one that's outside of your specialty, be a fly on the wall, but one that is willing to speak up when necessary. There's a reason you hired these people, and there's a reason they've been placed on their respective teams. Have faith that they are (hopefully more than) capable of laying out whatever information needs to be conveyed without you forcing it out of them. The goal of any form of communication should be to gain quality information out of the interaction, making your employees feel comfortable, valued and capable. This will also reduce the likelihood of them saying what they think their boss wants to hear.

Speaking to the Entire Company

When I address our entire company, whether it's at an all-hands meeting or a work outing, I always try to frame the conversation with a macro mindset, no matter how granular the topic. You can't always get to every issue or respond to every query, but if you stay true to the overall focus, your employees should feel like the time was well spent.

However, you never want people to feel like you're simply delivering a speech. Keep the lines of communication open, and give your employees a chance to respond or ask questions. However, make sure that you stay laser-focused on the topic at hand. Simplify your speech, especially when speaking across channels. Coders, for example, aren't going to benefit from hearing about specific lead generation goals. Conversely, your sales team isn't going to understand dev talk.

Remember that every meeting with your people, no matter the size or scope, is incredibly important. As the executive, sometimes you have so many items on your plate that it's easy to forget the humanity of things, especially when an interaction or circle up is just a footnote in the epic novel that is your daily agenda. Realize that every interaction with your employees is a potential to further their buy-in to your organization, and help them be the best possible version of themselves.

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Why Is Peter Thiel NOT a Fan of the Lean Startup Movement?

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This question was recently discussed on Quora. I wrote an answer there, which I have expanded on for this post.

Most likely because of its short-term oriented view.

The weakest point of the methodology, in my opinion, is the excessive emphasis on quick validation and pivot. If you don't have internal conviction, you look for instant validation. But often, especially if you have strong vision and internal conviction about a market, a product, a direction in which you want to take your industry, you won't be able to score a quick validation. You would need to give yourself and the market some runway. The Lean Startup principle that Eric Ries espouses ignores this whole line of thought.

The natural question that comes out of the above discussion is: As a startup CEO, how do you decide whether to keep pushing on with a new startup or throw in the towel?

In this context, I want to point you to a case study: Crossing the Desert, Hitting the Jackpot: Taboola CEO Adam Singolda.

Adam went four years with no revenue, and somehow managed to stay afloat.

Year five, Taboola had $1M in revenue.

Year six, $100M in revenue.

Today, the company has over $200M in revenue, and is kicking ass in a new category called Content Marketing.

This being said, pure persistence won't do it. You need to be creative, experimental, AND persistent. What isn't working, and what is working - these two questions need to be your constant companions.

Photo credit: gerry/Flickr.com.

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Entrepreneurs Are Everywhere Show No. 11: Pat Sullivan and Sebastian Jackson

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Startup founders strive to turn their dreams into reality, and the mentors who guide them often learn as much as they teach.

How startup ideas are developed and nurtured was the focus of conversations with the latest guests on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere, my radio show on Sirius XM Channel 111.

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Joining me in the Stanford University studio were:


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Listen to the full interviews by downloading them from SoundCloud here and here. (And download any of the past shows here.)

Clips from their interviews are below, but first a word about the show:
Entrepreneurs are Everywhere airs Thursdays at 1 p.m. Pacific, 4 p.m. Eastern on Sirius XM Channel 111. It follows the entrepreneurial journeys of founders sharing their experiences of what it takes to build a startup - from restaurants to rocket scientists, to online gifts to online groceries to entrepreneurial education and more.

The program examines the DNA of entrepreneurs: what makes them tick, how they came up with their ideas; and explores the habits that make them successful, and the highs, lows and pivots that pushed them forward.

Pat Sullivan is a serial entrepreneur who has been building software for more than 30 years, starting with the ACT! contact software he created in 1985. Pat was named one of the "80 Most Influential People in Sales and Marketing History" and was twice named Ernst & Young "Entrepreneur of the Year" for both ACT! and SalesLogix software.

Having had terrific mentors over the years, Pat makes it a point to pay his what he's learned forward. He's learned that mentorship is a two-way street:

I ... meet with any entrepreneur who has a legitimate idea, or is in the process of starting something, for two reasons. One (is to) give back. The other is, I find that I always learn something. Younger people than I, they're into things that I've never thought of. (For example) I thought Twitter was a really stupid idea, until my kids explained that it really wasn't. I always learn something extraordinarily useful by meeting with others.

... There are many times where I don't fully understand what exactly it is that they're trying to do, and the domain expertise that they have ... but there are many things that are general in nature, that I have that they don't have, and that I can give to them.


To hear the clip, click here.

Here are some of the things his mentors taught him:
Once I was agonizing over the fact that it took me a really, really long time to recognize that an executive ... I hired just wasn't making it. ... It took me forever to decide to fire him. I ... talked to my mentor and I was complaining how long it took. He listened, and listened, listened, just quiet, and all of a sudden he said, "You know, I think it's great that everybody back at the office knows that you're not quick on the trigger." It totally ... changed my perspective.
Another ... mentor ... said ...: "You know, I may not be the smartest, I may not be the richest, but I can out-work you." ...
That has always stuck with me, that I'm not the smartest, I'm not the brightest, I may not have the most money, but I can out-work you.


To hear the clip, click here.

Sebastian Jackson got his start cutting hair and dreaming of the day he might have is own barbershop. He said his early life had a profound impact on the way he thinks:
Sebastian: My mother, she suffers from schizophrenia. She was diagnosed when I was 1 (or) 2 years old. She's always had this imagination as a part of that illness. It's kind of helped me imagine things, right? .... Also I have to work, to execute on that imagination, just so that I know I'm not suffering from the same illness, that if I execute then it's real.

Steve: There is a fine line between insanity and genius.

Sebastian: There is. In America, I think it's money; if you can make money from your illness, then you are deemed a genius.

Steve: I mean, that is kind of ... it's interesting you say that. I don't mean to diminish what you went through with your mom but founders with big visions are treated as insane by most people who kind of go, "What do you mean you're going to create a rocket company?" Or, "What do you mean you're going to put the auto industry out of business?

Sebastian: Delusions of grandeur.

Steve: ... I think you said the magic word, the distinction between entrepreneurs and just people with ideas are they figure out how to get the resources to actually execute. ...

Sebastian: Absolutely. ...Oftentimes thought I was crazy but then ... another opportunity will present itself or I will create another opportunity and be able to execute on it and that ... validated my thinking. ...

To hear the clip, click here.
--
Both men are self-motivated and driven.

Pat explained that when he was a computer salesman, he created programs that eased his work problems and challenges. They became the foundation for ACT!
Being in sales, it struck me that, here I was selling computers but couldn't find a really good reason to actually use one.

... You could some word-processing, a little spreadsheet-type stuff but there wasn't really anything useful to me as a salesperson. For whatever reason, I began to teach myself programming and built what ultimately became the prototype for the product ACT!

I did it (on the side) for about three years while I was selling computers. I was building applications that I use day in and day out. Anything that was routine, I hated routine so I would figure out how to program that. The last thing that I built was a contact manager, the ability to track all the information about my prospects, about my customers, so that I could remember them. ...I solved a problem that I had.

... I really wish I could say that it was an overnight success. But April of 1987, we shipped the first version of ACT! My partner and I (had finally) decided to do a startup.

Steve: That was pretty scary, wasn't it?

Pat: I was a risk-taker. My wife and I discussed it with my partner and his wife over a weekend. I had put a couple of years into building this application. My wife said, "What's the worst that could happen?"

Well, in Texas, which is where we were at the time, they couldn't take your house. They couldn't take one of your cars and they couldn't take your kids. She said, "If that's the worst that can happen, then you ought to try it because if you don't, you'll never know."

To hear the clip, click here.

Sebastian also took a hands-on route:
... Before I started cutting hair for other people, I cut my own hair. ... It was a pretty good haircut. ... I just used a Schick razor and lined up the edges of my hair. Didn't cut any off the top. I gave myself kind of a little taper or fade on the side and the back, and it was decent. Used my dad's clippers. ...

It was spring break. I saw other people doing it. My barber did it and I said, "If he can do it, I can do it." ...

Now, that first time kind of validated that I had the ability. The second time, I was so confident that I had actually tried to cut the top down. I left patches and everything everywhere. ... It was terrible. ...

I went to the barber, and he fixed it.

That first time stuck with me, though. I had the confidence that I could do this and I continued to do it.

... From my sophomore year, when I was 15 years old, I started making five bucks a haircut, three bucks a shape-up, and started to travel to different clients in their homes, in their parent's homes. I made a little bit of pocket change in high school, out of my parent's garage, and out of other friends' basements and garages.


To hear the clip, click here.

Sebastian has a founder's signature tenaciousness. He had to write four business plans to get the OK to open his barbershop.
Wayne State saw that the previous business had failed, so they said, "No, no, no. No non-profit. We've got to make money here. How are you going to pay us?"

I wrote a second business plan and it showed how I would pay them. (It showed) the support I had to raise money to pay them and they still didn't like that.

The third business plan was a for-profit showing an actual business model. It was very simple. We're going to cut hair, people are going to pay us money, and then we're going to pay you a portion of that.

... They said, "You're onto something here."

The fourth one was the social club, which explained how we would create impact within this space ...

... Wayne State wanted to create a campus where student life was abundant, where they can really have students live on campus and have a great time. We showed how we could add value there ...how we could use a barbershop to create a place where students could come and have a good time, and get a service that actually make money. A service that ... they're willing to pay for. ...


To hear the clip, click here.

The Social Club Grooming Company has become a community hub, in part because of its Shop Talk monthly panel discussions.
... We bring people of interest in; they tell their story while getting a haircut.

...As you're getting your hair cut, you're on the panel with maybe one other person and it's a traditional barbershop talk. It's an audience of people sitting around these 2 barber chairs. We take our other six barber chairs out of the way and we have two barber chairs that are front and center. People sit around and you tell your story. I moderate and then there's a Q&A between you and the audience. It's a TED talk in a barbershop.

... The real stickiness here is we're able to have these unfiltered conversations ... where you can tell us some secrets that you may not be willing to talk about in a traditional panel discussion setting.

The barbershop breaks (down social) barriers. If Reggie Bush comes in and does a Shop Talk, or if whomever comes in to a barbershop and there's a line (to get a hair cut), they have to wait. You're no longer this celebrity. You're no longer this influencer.

...It's a leveler and I think people really appreciate that about the barbershop heritage. ... I think ... my team ... can ... execute this and I think it's because of my ... being an entrepreneur and a highly technically skilled barber.

I understand the barbers and I understand a bit about business and I'm asking a lot of questions and I'm getting opportunities like this when I can ask you more questions. ... Also, in interacting with our customers every day, I can learn quite a bit. I can ask them questions and really figure out what they want, what they want to pay for, so on and so forth. ...


To hear the clip, click here.

Pat discussed the characteristics of world-class founders and told me why he can't imagine doing anything else.
Tenacity.... persistence ... perseverance. I like the word perseverance because the word severe is in it, and you often face things that are severe. An entrepreneur who is formidable typically finds a way to get through it. I love the book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things (by Ben Horowitz) that there's always a way ...

Steve: So why do you still do it, after 30 years?

Pat: Well, first of all, it's the only thing I get paid for, so it makes me a professional. I would be totally unemployable, there's no one who would hire me, because they always know I'm going to do another startup. (And) doing something with particularly young, really, really bright people, doing something that's hard, is just a lot of fun. ...


To hear the clip, click here.

Listen to my full interviews with Pat and Sebastian by downloading them from SoundCloud here and here. (And download any of the past shows here.)

Next on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere: Andrew Breen, Vice President of Product Delivery for American Express's World Service division; and David Binetti, founder of Dinadesa, from the Lean Startup Conference.

Tune in Thursday at 1 p.m. PT, 4 p.m. ET on Sirius XM Channel 111.


Steve Blank's blog: www.steveblank.com

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A Meeting Of The Minds

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When four people meet once a week for the purpose of sharing their life goals, the power of intention takes them to places they previously only imagined.

Welcome to the Masterminds Club.

A meeting of the minds for those interested in personal and professional improvement, goal setting, and accountability. The dues? Energy, respect, commitment and honesty.

Many have laid claim to the origin of this personal style think tank. Perhaps the most famous was one of our founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin. In 1727, born of his love of lively conversation, politics and personal growth Franklin started "The Junto". The members of the Junto were drawn from diverse occupations and backgrounds , most often tradesman which earned them the nickname "The Leather-Apron Club".What they all shared was a spirit of inquiry and a desire to improve themselves, and their community.

Many other like-minded groups followed over the years.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to a small intimate group of women who had decided the time was right for such a club locally. Each of us was loosely connected to one or the other, but not all.

What we did have in common was an interest in growth and change in our lives, and believed that our collective power could help manifest those very things.

Meet Anna.

A former Masterminder in Los Angeles, she knew firsthand what could be accomplished when a group comes together to help one another implement their goals.

Anna was a celebrity New York City hairstylist who met and married a local Rochesterian in upstate New York over ten years ago. Anna happily commuted weekly to NYC from Rochester in an effort to balance time for her marriage and to continue seeing her clients. About a year ago, she contemplated putting down some permanent roots in Rochester, and starting her own business. Since Anna's life was almost equally divided between NY and Rochester, her network of local friends was a little light. How would she initiate this transition?

Diane- a native Rochesterian and former corporate player had spent over 30 years in healthcare, marketing and not-for-profits. Although her resume was exhaustive, she was growing weary of the game and was looking for a new challenge. With the sudden death of her father in 2013, she decided to take a step back and reevaluate.

What was the next step career-wise?

Melinda- a correctional facility librarian came to Masterminds with the primary goal to cut her job commute of 60 miles each way. She loved her line of work but was ready for a change that would keep her closer to home. How could she make that happen without sacrificing the years she had spent building her career?

I am the fourth member of this club; a freelance writer with a growing interest in sharing both personal essays and using my writing to help give a voice to those without a platform. How could I expand my reader base and accomplish both goals?

And so it began. We met for our first official meeting,

We brought an antiquated kitchen timer and set it for five minutes and we were off. The first person used that time to speak of her goals for the week. What did she want to accomplish, both short and long term, personal and professional?

At the end of her five minutes, we allotted three more minutes for each of the other members to give feedback, suggestions and thoughts on how they might help.

After we each took a turn, we circled back around, and allowed five minutes each on what we hoped to accomplish in the week ahead.

One member took notes each week and emailed them to the others so we can keep each others goals in the forefront of our minds and gently hold the others accountable at our next meeting.

A simple formula, with incremental yet dramatic results.

We soon realized we were stronger together than we ever could have been alone.

Each meeting became a virtual vision board. We found that a dream once spoken takes on an energy, and with the steady drip of attention grows exponentially.

This synergy of energy and commitment created when we gathered with a common goal surpassed our expectations.

Anna, once struggling with how to build her clientele has developed a professional new website, and is quickly growing a roster of new clients. She returns to New York City every few months to see some of her most loyal clients who schedule their appointments around her quarterly visits.

She now has in essence, the best of both of her worlds.

Diane has switched gears and is now working with an exciting new startup, travels often, and is challenging herself professionally in ways she never dreamt of before.

Melinda, once dreading her daily hour commute has found a new position at a different correctional facility. She has transitioned from librarian to counselor, and has cut her commute almost in half.

As for me, I am happy to report I have realized my dream of becoming a blogger for the Huffington Post and am working on a book project to give formerly incarcerated women the voice they have long deserved.

We are genuinely excited to meet each week, and share what new developments have transpired and cheer on the growth of our teammates.

As a bonus, because we are all so invested in each others evolution, the transition to becoming close friends has been a seamless one.

Not surprisingly, the Masterminds philosophy has created healthy changes in other areas of each of our lives as well. Health and relationship matters seem much less daunting when broken down into bite size pieces.

If it is true that we what focus on expands, then this club has made it astonishingly clear that we are in much more control of our future that we previously believed.
Dorothy.Howe.Kelley@gmail.com

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.












6 Critical Ways Social Media Influencers Can Expand Your Brand

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Today's market is saturated with content. Unfortunately, this means there is more competition than ever for the eyes of a target audience. Relying on Facebook for visibility is less and less reliable with their changed algorithm that limits what appears in news feeds, and other traditional methods are costly and sometimes minimally effective.

Building relationships with social media influencers will help you stand out from the crowd. The authenticity and trust that influencers have built with followers gives them the credibility of a friend or family member, which in turn gives your brand credibility. Also, the reach and efficiency of influencer marketing is far greater than what a brand can do on its own, and can cost far less. I've met a lot of fakepreneurs in my life and when it comes to real credibility, they aren't even on the same level.

To get some in depth advice I interviewed Olga Kay, YouTube celebrity-turned-entrepreneur, about her sock company, MooshWalks. She has experience promoting other brands on YouTube, as well as using it to launch her own company. "Millennials don't want to be sold to," Kay explains. "They want to be entertained and feel as though they are the ones who made an action to follow through."

Take advantage of influencer visibility by collaborating with influencers. Influencer relationships can work in many different ways, each more effective than the last. Here are the best ways you can collaborate with influencers to give your brand the boost it needs:

1. Let them design content that users really want.

Social media influencers gained their followers because they know inherently what their audience wants. They are the experts on their follower's needs. Instead of imposing your content, give them creative license to place your brand in a way they know will land authentically. Kay gives her perspective: "In my experience, I found that the most beneficial collaboration between a brand and creator is when a brand has full trust and gives a creator full freedom to create the most effective call to action. You are hiring the talent because they are good at engaging with their audience, so give them the freedom to do so and they will make your brand shine in ways you could not have imagined."

2. Utilize their connections.

Building your own social media presence is just as important as building a relationship with influencers. Once you establish a trusted relationship with influencers, you can easily build relationships through their followers on other channels, like Vine and Snapchat.

3. Give a mutually beneficial relationship.

Just because an influencer already has a following doesn't mean that they have everything they want. Make the relationship mutually beneficial by giving them credibility, financial reward, or awareness, and they will work much harder to create something great for both of you.

4. Make them a reporter for your brand.

Use influencers to hype new product rollouts and events on their social media, acting like a news agency to grow anticipation for your brand. Through exciting contests and prize giveaways that your influencer can mediate, you're sure to garner more attention. This will also help you get significant press for your brand.

5. Make them the face of your brand.

Using a trusted influencer as the main face of your brand is a great way to authenticate your brand for unconvinced target audiences. Choose an influencer with a large following who is directly engaged with your audience or potential audience. At my personal company Due, we have a small online audience, but if we can leverage a few larger celebrities to become our face such as my personal brand... this will help our company gain 10x more traction online. Many larger celebrities are less likely to be seen as authentic, whereas stars who gained their celebrity from social media are more relatable and more connected to their audience.

6. Make them a trusted defender.

If your brand needs defending, influencers are great to have in your arsenal during a crisis. Instead of defending your brand in house, influencers are trusted "outside" personalities that can diffuse myths and rumors, and lend your brand credibility again.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











9 Time-Saving Tips That Will Make You Stand Out on Social Media

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Social media is a Catch-22. You want to grow your popularity, but you find it difficult to spend the enormous amount of time it requires.

Is there a way to enjoy rising popularity on social media while not sinking life and soul into the pursuit?

I've discovered a few methods. The key to growing in popularity doesn't have to be a time drain. All you need is a few proven strategies that will catch people's attention and cultivate a following.

You'll save tons of time and watch your social media clout rise.

1. Schedule your posts ahead of time.

This is my number one time-saving tactic. I'm all about social media spontaneity, but I can't engage in a tweet storm at any time of day or night.

Instead, I stay active on the social networks by scheduling my posts ahead of time. I'll dip in from time to time throughout the day, but my social media existence doesn't depend on it.

The method I prefer is to spend time on Monday queuing up Buffer with all my posts. I have a full week's worth of content that will be released at peak times.

I save time, and I sustain my output. Win. Win.

2. Congratulate people on LinkedIn.

I like to stay connected with people on LinkedIn. The platform's user interface makes it easy to do.

LinkedIn's homepage features a section announcing work anniversaries and new jobs. Click "Comment," and LinkedIn automatically populates the field with the word "Congrats!" Click "Comment" again, and you're on to congratulate your next connection in the list.

It takes two minutes to fly through and congratulate twenty or thirty connections. You've reached out and personally connected with someone, and the time it took was negligible.

3. Start a group on LinkedIn.

This technique takes a substantial amount of startup time, but it saves you an enormous amount of time in the long run. The impact on your popularity is exponential.

How do you start? Simply pick an attractive niche or topic, invite people in, and start discussions.

Eventually, the group will take on a life of its own. You don't have to spend a lot of time on it, but you will enjoy the popularity benefits that it accrues.

4. Endorse your connections on LinkedIn.

It feels good to get LinkedIn endorsements. It's also a valuable way to improve your professional status.

I make it a point to endorse people whose work and expertise I respect. This is another quick-and-easy way to increase your social media standing.

LinkedIn allows you to rapidly endorse many of your connections in a very short amount of time.

5. Favorite tweets.

Whenever you click that little star on a tweet, the user gets a notification. You're noticed, and they are rewarded.

How hard is it to favorite tweets? It's not hard at all. However, doing so gives you social media recognition, and makes the receiver feel good about herself

Not bad for a millisecond click.

6. Retweet frequently.

Retweeting content is a great way to show others that you value the content they posted. It is a positive digital affirmation that creates followers, generates respect, and doesn't take much time at all.

Retweet generously, and you'll probably get the same back in the form of followers, favorites, and retweets.

7. Comment "Love it! Thanks for sharing!" on everything.

You may not have the time to compose an insightful response to everyone's Facebook status update, but you can create a copy/paste shortcut that adds value.

Here's what you can do. Type "Love It! Thanks for sharing!" Copy it. Then paste it whenever you see a valuable update on Instagram, Twitter, Google+, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

8. Create quotes.

Visual content gets shared far more frequently than any other form of content on social medial. But then you face the familiar problem. It takes a lot of time to create visual content.

That's where several powerful websites come into play. Pablo (by Buffer) Quozio, Recite, and BeHappy.me make it easy to create visually appealing quotes.

Find a quote you like. Simply search for [your topic] + "quotes" on Google. Paste the quote into a quotation creation app, and presto! You've got an engaging post that will attract lots of shares and likes.

9. Use hashtags.

Finally, use hashtags. You can double your engagement level by simply dropping a few appropriate hashtags in the right locations.

Here's a good rule of thumb:


It's a tested, research-backed, and proven fact that hashtags generate higher levels of engagement. For the extra time it takes to type #, I'd say that it's worth it.

Conclusion

Social media has a learning curve. It takes time to learn a platform, manage it effectively, and save time.

The more you use it, however, the faster you become. Face the fact that you'll have to spend some time on the front end, but it will get easier as time goes on.

What are your time-saving social media tricks?

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











5 Must-Have Elements to a Successful e-Newsletter

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2015-11-20-1447981987-6697488-email606166_640.jpg Are you sending out an e-Newsletter? If so, perhaps you're wondering how you can get the best possible results from it. Or maybe you're thinking about sending an e-Newsletter and would like to know what you can do to maximize its effectiveness.

If you can relate, this article is for you. I'll outline five elements to a successful e-Newsletter so you can achieve your marketing or communications objectives.

1. Offer value

You would think this goes without saying, but you'd be surprized how many e-Newsletters I come across with overly promotional content, or content that just doesn't resonate -- or even worse -- isn't relevant to subscribers.

First and foremost, you need to know your audience; what's important to them, what's not important, what makes them tick, and their reason for subscribing in the first place. Then you need to provide them with the content they're looking for. Remember that it's always a good idea to segment your subscriber list if you have different audiences with different content needs.

Content for your e-Newsletter can range from helpful tips and ideas, reminders, a discount, and/ or exclusive content subscribers wouldn't be able to get elsewhere.

And don't forget about having a call-to-action (CTA) at the end of each item/ story in your e-Newsletter. If you want to encourage subscribers to take action, such as call a number, fill out a form, or send an email, make that clear to them and let them know how or where they can do so.

2. Don't underestimate good design

The design of your e-Newsletter can't be overlooked. When it comes to design, the e-Newsletter should be aligned with your organization's look and feel and it should be aesthetically pleasing. Here are some tips:

  • You don't want the e-Newsletter to look cluttered. Each item should have its own home and there should be enough white space, or "breathing room."


  • Make sure the font isn't too small and is easy to read.


  • Add images where appropriate. Images can be powerful in helping you get your message across and enticing people to read a particular item/ story.


  • Be consistent. In particular, I'm referring to the size of your images, headlines, and social media buttons.


3. Make it mobile-friendly

The number of people who check email on their smartphone continues to increase. Earlier this year, email marketing firm Litmus found that 53% of email is opened on mobile. Most email marketing systems let you track how many people are opening your email from their smartphone. Most organizations will find that these days, optimizing their emails and website for mobile is a must. To optimize your e-Newsletters for mobile, follow these five simple tips for mobile-friendly emails.

4. Get to the point

Use plain, simple language so people will understand exactly what you're telling them right away. As well, it's important to provide just the right amount of information; too much can cause people to stop reading or get overwhelmed (an e-Newsletter is not called a white paper for a reason) whereas too little can prevent you from actually getting your point across effectively. If you have a lot to communicate, give people a summary with a link to read more. Here are some other tips:

  • If an item in the e-Newsletter is on the longer side, break it into multiple paragraphs (but try to keep the paragraphs short)


  • Use bulleted or numbered lists where appropriate


  • Bold or italicize words or phrases where appropriate (it's often beneficial to bold your CTA)


5. Pay attention to the subject line

Let's face it, we get a ton of emails on a daily basis. And when we're busy, an e-Newsletter usually isn't on the top of our priority list when it comes to which emails to read and which to delete. To increase the chances of subscribers opening and reading your e-Newsletter, you need a catchy subject line. The goals of your subject line should be to a) inform people as to what the content of the e-Newsletter is about and b) entice them to read it.

Avoid using exclamation marks or having words in all caps as these things can increase the chances the email will go in the recipient's spam folder. Also try to keep the subject line to 50 characters or less to prevent it from getting cut off when it reaches the recipient's inbox.

If you have the names of your subscribers, including the subscriber's first name in the subject can help increase opens. I recommend continually testing subject lines to see which ones work best in boosting your open rate. Below are some subject line testing ideas:

  • Personalizing the subject line


  • Including a date or deadline


  • Using humour


If your e-Newsletter contains the elements discussed above, you're on the right track. Effectively achieving your marketing or communications goals through an e-Newsletter can be hard if you're unaware of key email marketing and e-Newsletter best practices. The best marketing and communications professionals always have their audience in mind, continually test, and are on top of the latest industry trends. Good luck!

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











How Can I Move Forward When My School Won't Release My Transcript?

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Question:

Dear Steve,


I attended a private college one trimester in 1986 when I was 18. I transferred to a public university that year and completed my degree. 30 years later, today I am wanting to get a second degree but need my official transcript from the private college that I attended in 1986. They are withholding the official transcript due to an outstanding debt of $369 from December 1986. I am unable to pay it at this time and not even sure I remember owing them anything.

How in the world do I proceed. Do I get a loan to pay the debt to the school so I can continue my education?

Brian


Answer:

Dear Brian,

It has been a common practice for decades now for schools to withhold the benefit of attending - official transcript - until all money owed is paid. The transcript or diploma is the collateral they hold to make sure they don't get stiffed.

I applaud your desire to further your education and realize this issue is holding you back but you will have to resolve this with the school. There are a number of ways you can attempt to resolve the dispute to get your transcript.

The first and fastest way would be to pay the school the money and immediately get your transcript so you can move forward.

Outside of that possibility your choices are to dispute the debt and ask them to validate the debt and hope it will result in them being unable to do so and write off the balance the allege you owe. That's a long shot but requires minimal cost on your part to dispute but who knows how long it will take them to respond, if they even do. To validate the debt, read this, this, and this.

You could submit a complaint to your State Attorney General office if you feel the school has done something illegal. If your state has a Department of Education that regulates the school, you could file a complaint there. If the school is accredited, you could file a complaint with the accreditation organization and hope they could intervene and help you resolve this situation. All of those solutions will take time and potentially a lot of time or they may not be able to assist you or respond.

So I have to circle around to paying the claimed debt owed. You will need to evaluate if the inability to get your second degree will cost you more in time and lost potential wages than the value of $369. If so, paying the $369 would be the least expensive way out.

As a final effort, if you decide paying is the logical approach, you could always offer to settle the debt for less than you owe. Say, $185 to settle the balance. But I have doubts they would accept a settlement. They have all the leverage at this point and they've waited nearly 30 years for their $369.

And as an interesting aside, if the $369 was in 1986 dollars and you are repaying it with 2015 dollars then you are already getting a discount. If you factor in the cost of inflation, repaying a 1986 debt with 2015 dollars is already about a 50% discount.

Thankfully it does not appear they've tacked on late fees and interest to the amount claimed.

Steve
Get Out of Debt Guy - Twitter, G+, Facebook

If you have a credit or debt question you'd like to ask, just click here and ask away.

If you'd like to stay posted on all the latest get out of debt news and scam alerts, subscribe to my free newsletter.

This article by Steve Rhode first appeared on Get Out of Debt Guy and was distributed by the Personal Finance Syndication Network.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











How to Prepare Your Business for Seasonal Employees

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Tree farms gear up for only a short, swinging season at the end of each calendar year. For that sweet, pre-holiday time business booms. Like tree farmers, many other industries experience a similar seasonal flux -- including retail trade, agriculture and resort properties.

For businesses that experience a particularly high season and have little need for a full staff year-round, hiring temporary staff (or "temps") is an ideal way to supplement personnel. However, employers are often left uncertain about what is and is not required to manage and protect their seasonal employees.

To help provide some clarity, below is an outline of risk management best practices for operations with temporary employees -- just remember the acronym TEMPS:

  • Trained


  • Eligible


  • Managed


  • Protected


  • Secure


Trained:

Create a solid training program specifically tailored to the needs of short-term workers. Temporary employees will have a weaker grasp on your business practices and policies, so they are at a higher risk of making mistakes or having an accident.

Make sure all temporary employees receive the following:

  • Formal orientation with documented materials on company policies and procedures. These should clearly outline the expectations of employees and safety practices.


  • Training on all equipment used in your operation (i.e. registers, cooking equipment, lifts, tractors, sharp tools, etc.).


  • Emergency drill to simulate crisis situations, including evacuation and emergency exit routes.


Eligible:

Outsource your temporary hiring needs to a reliable staffing agency where sufficient employee screening is a quality standard, or offer temporary opportunities independently and pre-screen employees on your own.

Employee screening measures should include:

  • Identity and social security number verification.


  • Past employment references.


  • Verification for necessary credentials, such as education or professional licenses.


  • Sex offender registry check, drug testing and vehicle history.


  • Testing and thorough interviewing to confirm character and skills.


Managed:

Make sure a manager or more experienced full-time employee is present at all times to enforce safety protocols and to guide temporary workers. Maintain a zero-tolerance policy for disregard of uniform safety requirements, such as protective gloves or steel-toed shoes.

Most importantly, encourage regular breaks to ensure your employees remain focused, nimble and energized throughout the day.

Protected:

Your business is legally required to carry workers' compensation insurance coverage as seasonal employees are still covered by most fair-employment laws. To pinpoint the details of your state's specific workers' compensation regulations, visit the Department of Labor's Division of Federal Employees' Compensation page.

Furthermore, updates introduced by the Affordable Care Act can be confusing for business owners not familiar with new employer requirements, especially for seasonal employees. I debunked some of the most common uncertainties in my blog post, Fact or Fiction: The Benefits Required for Seasonal Employees.

Employers who retain an average of 50 full-time employees per year are required to offer affordable health insurance to employees who work more than 30 hours per week. If your business doesn't fit the definition of a "large employer," as defined by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, you do not need to provide coverage. However, to ensure the safety and health of your seasonal employees, you should encourage them to visit HealthCare.gov to enroll in an insurance plan.

Secure:

Risk levels for temporary employees vary from job to job. A retail clerk versus a position chopping down Christmas trees will, of course, pose different risks and liabilities for your operation.

  • Keep Records: Maintain a detailed account of where each employee works, the tasks they are assigned to, amount of hours completed and their rate of pay. This information will be important for setting rates for workers' compensation insurance.


  • Track Claims: Keep a record of on the job injuries and workers' compensation claims made. Monitor the frequency of these claims and be sure to note when unusual patterns occur. This will help in consideration for future employment eligibility during seasonal hiring needs.


It should be noted that, while you cannot discriminate or deny someone employment based on an injury, you can review their file for following company protocols and procedures. For example, did the employee file the claim while still onsite and within a timely manner? Did their injury result from disregard for company safety procedures? Use this information to protect your business from fraudulent and expensive workers' compensation costs.

Business owners with seasonal highs and lows need to think through methods of how to protect against liabilities created by the necessity of hiring temporary employees. The legal and financial implications are unique to that of full-time employees, and taking preventative measures as described in TEMPS will protect your business' bottom line.

For more information on business insurance, visit the INGUARD blog.

Note: A version of this article originally appeared on www.INGUARD.com.

Image Credit: jill111 via Pixabay

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











How to Get Maximum Results From Your Client Base

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If you want to get the most from your clients, you have to stay in touch with them regularly. You have to find effective ways to engage them and keep them interested in your latest activities. This includes letting them know about your latest products and offers. It's also important, however, to send them helpful and even entertaining content, so that they have a reason to open your emails, read your text messages and visit your website and social media pages. Let's look at some of the best ways to communicate with your clients as well as prospects.

SMS Marketing

Mobile phones are now overtaking computers as the most popular devices. This makes text messaging one of the easiest ways to stay connected with your audience. Text or SMS (short message service) messages give you a way to reach people wherever they are. There are a number of platforms and services that make it easy to automate SMS marketing.

One of the largest and most experienced SMS services is Protexting.com. This is a useful platform to use within your own business as well as to connect with clients and prospects. You can send out either singles messages or group texts.

Another useful feature of Protexting is that you can take advantage of mobile keywords and shortcodes. You simply register your chosen keywords and then get people to sign up for your messages using this keyword. This could be the name of your business or a word related to your industry. You can then promote this keyword in emails, socil media sites and on printed materials such as business cards and brochures. You can send messages for many purposes, such as:

• Coupons and promo codes.

• Invitations to live events.

• Publicize a sale in your store or on your website.

• Send customers brief surveys to gain insights into their needs.

Email Campaigns

Email marketing is another of the most popular ways to stay in touch with your audience. It's the original internet communication tool, predating social media and text messaging. Even as platforms and devices evolve, everyone still uses email. The main challenge you have with email campaigns today is competition and the fact that many people don't read most of their emails.

Using email marketing services such as AWeber, MailChimp or Constant Contact makes it possible to automate many aspects of managing your email list. You can do things like send out a welcome message whenever someone joins your list, and send follow up messages on any schedule you set up.

You need a few basic tools to set up an email marketing campaign. The first challenge is to get email addresses in the first place. When you sell a product or service, you should have a box for people to check that signs them up for your list or newsletter. You can also use opt-in pages on your website. A good way to motivate people to provide you with their email is to send them a free sample, gift or coupon in exchange for filling out the opt-in form.

What you actually put in your emails is very important as well. Give plenty of thought to the subject line. Try to make it as interesting and provocative as possible. Questions can be a good way to make people curious enough to open an email. A question such as "What's the number one reason that causes businesses to fail?" "What food should you never eat after 8 PM?" or "How do savvy travellers save up to 40% on flights?" Topics should be targeted to the particular interests and problems of your audience, of course.

Some strategies to keep in mind with email campaigns include:

• Use short emails as teasers to get people to visit your blog, website or Facebook page to get the full story.

• Send coupons or promo codes in your emails.

• Create a short e-course, with lessons coming every week. This can be a way to pre-sell a more expensive course or get people to buy your book, product or service.

• Send out a weekly newsletter. This can have helpful information for your clients. You can send them to your website or social media sites for more information. If you use a newsletter format, you should place some helpful information in every message. If you use an email marketing service such as Constant Contact, you will be able to use one of their templates to create a professional looking newsletter.

Social Media

People are spending more and more time on social media sites, which means your business should have a strong presence there as well. There are many different social media platforms, so you have to decide which ones are worth focusing on for your business.

Almost every business can benefit from a Facebook page and Twitter account. LinkedIn is essential if your audience is other businesses. If you sell physical products where people want to see what they're buying, Pinterest is very useful. Here are some examples of how to engage your audience with social media.

• Remember to include links to your website in some of your social media posts.

• Engage people with a variety of media. Images, slideshows, infographics and videos, mixed with text based articles, help keep your pages interesting.

• Monitor your pages daily and always respond to questions and comments promptly.

• Use a service such as Hootsuite to automate social media marketing and to connect your various social media accounts, so you don't have to post separately on each site.

• Keep track of social media analytics, so you know your audience and what kind of content they respond to. You should, for example, keep track of data such as retweets, likes, followers and shares.

These are some of the ways to stay in contact with your clients. It's best to use these strategies together. Emails, text messages and social media posts can all promote the same campaigns in different ways. This allows you to reach people on multiple fronts.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











Unconscious Gender Bias in Workplace Feedback

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She is "helpful" but "too assertive." He "shows initiative" and "solves problems."

At least two research studies have found that men and women are given very different feedback at work. A review of the research, titled "Managers Watch Your Language," appeared in the WSJ collection of articles this September on Women in the Workplace. According to this review, the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University is analyzing the language of hundreds of written performance reviews from technology and professional service firms. Dr. Kieren Snyder has also done a linguistics analysis of nearly 250 performance reviews in the technology industry. Both studies show big differences in what is said to men and women. And both studies find that these differences show up regardless of whether the manager delivering the feedback is male or female.

Women are 2.5 times as likely to get feedback about an aggressive communication style - "coming on too strong." Have women just become too outspoken? Or is the double bind at play? Are women judged negatively for speaking in ways that are acceptable, even rewarded, in men? Is there a double standard for "aggressiveness" based on deeply held thoughts about how women are "supposed to be" (e.g., "supportive")?

Women's performance reviews have 2.4 times as many references to team accomplishments rather than individual results. One can generalize that women are less comfortable claiming credit - and more comfortable attributing an achievement to team effort and other external factors. And managers hold stereotypes about women's being "supportive," "collaborative" and "helpful." Do these factors divert focus from a woman's individual contributions?

Women receive about one-third as much feedback about business outcomes. Their reviews have half as many words about their technical expertise, "assertiveness, independence and self-confidence," and having "vision."

Words make a difference. When it comes to promotions, research shows, there is a strong preference for individuals rated high on individual initiative.

The WSJ article notes initiatives by one company to "use the same language to describe the performance of men and women." Textio, Inc., Dr. Snyder's company, has developed a software product that "analyzes language in job ads" and is developing a product that prompts managers "if language in a review appears to have gender biases."

So what is the issue here? Is it to "watch our language" in performance reviews or feedback? Surely it is underlying actual gender bias that just comes out in words. Otherwise, this is just another push for political correctness. And we know that political correctness has lately lost some popularity!

The words we use can be a window into our conscious and unconscious thoughts. They can be indicators of bias. I am curious about whether changing our language can create change in our thinking. Can making managers more aware of their language actually uproot and change gender biases? Or are we attacking symptoms rather than the root cause?

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.












5 Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before Quitting Your Art Business

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I don't know about you, but the last few days have been quite hard for me. With everything wrong that is going on right now on earth, I feel it's normal and ok to stop and wonder if it's really all worth it.

I spent most of the last week speaking to people around me, artists and entrepreneurs alike who were asking themselves the same question: Is it really worth all the trouble?

Unfortunately, when you start thinking like this, it's not too long before feelings of discouragement, resentfulness and failure start settling in.

That's why, when artists come to me with this question, I invite them to take a sincere look at the actions they have taken to move forward with their business.

Whether they are artists or entrepreneurs (although you should know that I consider artists as entrepreneurs) I ask them to honestly answer this question: "Have I, (insert name here), been doing everything in my power to take my business where I want it to go?"

Most of the time, the answers I get are vague and apologetic. When it comes to artists, the most common reason I hear is that they aren't getting recognition and sales for their work because they can't get a gallery to represent them.

This could not be farther from the truth. In fact, the art market has changed so much in the last few years that it is now up to you, artists, (not galleries, not agents) to make thing happen for your career. In today's ultra-connected world, you don't have to (and shouldn't) wait for a gallery or agent to take you in so that you can have a healthy collector base and a thriving career. You can do it all yourself!

But where to start? It can feel overwhelming to get out of your comfort zone and into a business mindset when you are an artist, especially if you have never done it before.

That's why today I'm sharing with you 5 questions you should consider answering as you start (or continue) making your way into a bigger and brighter art business + career.

Question #1. Have you set clear goals for your art business and career?
No, "quitting my day job to do art full time" or "sell my art" are not clear career goals. What type of career do you want? How much do you want to earn? Who are you going to sell to? Those are the types of questions you need to ask yourself and you have to respond by being ULTRA specific. You basically need a very detailed plan. Clarity makes it so much easier to achieve whatever it is that you want.

Question #2. Do you have a professional body of work to present?
You don't become a professional visual artist overnight, you need to work to get there. What is your artistic process? Are you looking at what other successful artists are doing? Is your art up to par or do you still need to work on your skills? Do you know what the art market landscape is like? You need to take an objective look at your work so you can see where you fit in. Seek feedback from art professionals who will be happy to give you an objective view point.

Question #3. Are you investing in your business?
If you want to make a great living with your art, you have to treat it like a business and invest time and/or money to give it a chance to grow. Did you know that entrepreneurs invest on average 10% of their income and 20% of their time on marketing their business? If you want others to invest in your business, you need to start doing it yourself.

Question #4. Do you show up?
Whether you have your own website or use an existing online platform for artists to sell your work doesn't really matter because what you really need are leads. You need to find those people who will buy your art and chances are, they are not in your immediate circle of friends and family. You need to figure out who these people are and where they hang out (online and offline), engage, and find ways to get your art in front of them. You can't leave it up to a website or gallery to sell for you, you need to be there and show up every step of the way.

Question #5. Are you going that extra mile for your clients and fans?
The people who are investing in your art are in fact, investing in you. Are you offering them an experience leaving them wanting more? Word of mouth is very important for your art career. You want your clients and fans to talk about you and your work often and in the most positive light possible. You have to consistently give them something great (good is not enough!), to talk about.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: artists make for great entrepreneurs. But you have to give yourself a chance to succeed and for that, you need to be willing to get out of your comfort zone and get into the habit of promoting yourself and your work.

I look forward to seeing you succeed!

Are you an artist who would like to develop your entrepreneurial skills? Then join me and over 3,500 artists from around the globe at The Artist Entrepreneur Network.

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Supreme Court Case Pits Working People Against Wealthy Elite

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The Supreme Court will hear arguments soon in a case that could undermine the rights of working people to negotiate collectively for better wages, benefits and working conditions.

Every working person should care about this case, even if it doesn't personally affect you. This legal battle is just the latest in a series of attempts by wealthy conservative groups to dismantle every program, service, or law that benefits working people. A win for the Koch Brothers here will make it that much harder to fight the next battle.

The case at issue is called Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. It's an attempt by anti-worker groups to overturn a nearly 40-year-old Supreme Court decision that affirmed the constitutional right of public sector unions to collect fees from employees who choose not to join the union but nonetheless benefit from all of the protections that the union negotiates.

Here's why that matters. We are living in a time where America's economy has swung out of balance. Everyday Americans are working more than ever, but the only ones benefitting are those at the top of the economic ladder. It's getting harder for working people to get by, let alone get ahead.

Unions are one of the few groups advocating for the interest of working people. If we make it harder for unions to do their job, working people will lose a major ally in the fight to build an economy that works for everyone, not just the richest 1 percent.

Teachers, firefighters, nurses and other public sector workers deserve to have advocates fighting on their behalf for better working conditions. Improving their jobs makes it easier for them to deliver quality services to the public.

If we silence the voice of working people at the job site, our public services will suffer and our communities will suffer as a result.

The Supreme Court must reject this attempt by wealthy special interests to make it even harder for working people to come together, speak up for one another, and get ahead.

J. David Cox Sr. is national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 670,000 federal and D.C. government employees nationwide

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











Supporting Your Most Valuable Asset

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Finding balance and keeping your health and overall wellness a priority. This is a topic that is being talked about often.

There is an increase in dual income households which has working parents looking for ways to balance being a great employee and being a great parent, all while taking care of themselves so that they can give work and family their best selves.

In the meantime, organizations continue to look for various ways to attract and retain top talent.

Many people have suggested that working 60, 70 or even 80 hours a week has become expected and even the norm, especially if you hold an executive position. I would agree with the fact that most of us typically work well over the 40-hour work week, regardless of the level or position we hold, to ensure that the job we were hired to do is getting done. And don't forget how advanced technology enables us to be available and working anytime anywhere, whether we like it or not.

So how, as an employer, can you help your workforce stay engaged, productive, happy, and well? There are many things you can, and should, do to create an unbeatable culture - but first you should look at fairly simple and straight forward ways you can help employees find balance.

First, I think it's important to take a look at what responsibilities are gobbling up 60 to 80 hours of your teams' time each week to see if these hours are even necessary. The first thing that comes to my mind are meetings... lots and lots of meetings. I don't know about you, but most meetings I have attended have been completely unproductive yet gathered everyone into a room for an hour, sometimes two, which could have been used for something more pressing or valuable to the organization. Some organizations are so meeting heavy that they cause their teams to run from meeting to meeting day in and day out often missing meals and sneaking out for bathroom breaks. At the end of an insanely busy day they have accomplished absolutely nothing vital to the organization or their specific responsibilities and goals and are further behind than when they started their day. Now they have to extend their work day in order to meet their objectives.

If organizations put rules or guidelines in place to eliminate unnecessary meetings (see the book, Death by Meeting by Patrick Lencioni) it could begin to minimize unproductive hours that employees are being forced to participate in leaving room for them to get their actual job done during a normal business day.
Let's say that you have the ability to cut their meeting burden in half. That could potentially bring an 80-hour week down to a 60-hour work week. Still not ideal, but we're making progress.

Now I ask the question (which tends to cause the most debate), does it really matter when and where the hours over typical 40 are being worked so long as the job is getting done? Does a company gain more from an employee who is onsite overtime, or can they benefit just as much (if not more) from an employee who is onsite for 40 of those hours and offsite the rest in order to find that elusive thing we call balance?

If you have two individuals who have the same position; one of them decides to leave at a decent hour to have family dinner, read bedtime stories with their children, and picks right back up after their children go to bed, and the other decides to stay at the office well into the evening to work, why is one individual valued more than the other? If the tasks are completed and goals are met or exceeded by both does it really matter where or what time the work is getting done?

What if you flipped the traditional model of "working only if you're seen working" on its head and supported and helped your employees simply do the job you hired them to do, however they need to do it. What if you utilized technology to its fullest capabilities and allowed your most valuable asset, your people, to find balance. I'm not saying that your workforce can never be visible, I'm saying they should be at work for a reasonable amount of time but the rest of the time, they can choose to be with their families, take care of themselves, and finish their work as they see fit. With adequate performance evaluations in place and managing your people appropriately, you will know if the work is not getting done and can address as needed. Again, not being at work and work not getting done or goals not being met are two very different things.

Organizations have an incredible opportunity to recruit and retain unmatched talent by helping eliminate what unproductive time they can, loosening up the reigns, treating people with respect and trust and allowing them to do the job they were hired to do however they need to get it done.

Can you imagine how hard working, loyal and dedicated your workforce would be if you truly helped and supported them find balance between their family and career and valued them based on the quality of their work versus hours seen in the office? I guarantee you would see a decrease in absenteeism, greater productivity, less turnover, and the ability to attract the best of the best.

Now can you imagine what this can do for your business? Countless theories have suggested that treating your workforce (not talking about it, but doing it) as your most valuable asset is what will allow your business to grow. I can't think of a better way to start letting your teams know you value and respect them than helping them find balance and be well.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











World's First 24 Hour Small Business Channel

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On the 1st of September, 2015 Dale Beaumont and Business Blueprint launched an innovative new resource for the small business community, and it is already generating buzz. The world's first 24 hour small business channel is an ambitious, fresh and exciting idea, and could be just what SMEs need to help them keep up with cutting edge advice from some of the world's leading experts.

I caught up with Dale and asked him a bit about the project, his person business journey and his best advice for entrepreneurs.

What is the small business channel?

The channel is dedicated to equipping viewers all over the world with the tools for business success, through content specifically structured to help entrepreneurs.

Subscribers get access to insights from professional trainers into key business areas including sales, marketing, finance, social media and people management.

What's the purpose of the small business channel?

Successful businesses create employment, stabilise families and benefit the local economy. The small business channel is empowering people, even in the most remote corners of the globe, to do great things for themselves and their community.

Now, anyone with access to the internet has instant and free access to high quality training videos that will empower them to achieve their business goals.

How does it work?

We have made it as simple as possible to access small business education from anywhere in the world. If you have a smartphone, a laptop or a tablet with internet connectivity, all you have to do is create an account and start watching.

There are new videos each day, running 24/7, making it convenient to tune in no matter where you are.

The best thing is that right now new members can access Business Blueprint for three months - free.

Behind the scenes we have an elite team of producers, studio managers and program managers who work tirelessly to recruit new presenters and schedule informative programs.

How did it come about?

As a business coaching service, we have enabled thousands of small businesses in Australia to ramp up their profits and efficiency through seminars, workshops and one-on-one training. We have seen these businesses double and triple their operations, resulting in more leads, higher conversions and the creation of more jobs for their local community.

In recent years we started receiving enquiries from business owners as far away as Europe wanting access to our programs. We decided to go global by launching the world's first 24 hour small business channel.

How do you think small businesses can benefit from it?

Importantly, we are not about top level concepts that tell business owners what to do. The sessions we run include practical, actionable steps that business owners can apply as soon as they've finished watching.

The best thing about the small business channel is that businesses can pick and choose sessions that best meet their current needs. If they want to find out how to recruit and retain staff, we have a session covering the basics. If they need guidance on driving more leads through online marketing, there's a specific one hour session that they can log on for. If they are looking for help on using popular software or tools, we have educational content for that too.

What has the response been like since launching?

We have had an overwhelming response since we started broadcasting and the feedback has been so encouraging!

Our channel now has over 10,000 subscribers who tune in regularly. What's even more exciting is that our users are logging in from over 95 countries around the world, including Czech Republic, Lebanon, Estonia, Zimbabwe, Israel, Cambodia, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Japan and Poland.

Give me a little background on your professional journey...

I have always had a passion for entrepreneurship, having started my first business in my early twenties.

I started Business Blueprint ten years ago, hosting seminars to introduce people to what I called the 'New Rules of Business'. I've presented to 10,000 business owners since then, helping them to achieve their business goals and setting them on a path to real business success.

It has been very rewarding but 2015 has marked the turning point where I decided to exponentially increase the number of entrepreneurs I'm coming into contact with by going global.

On a personal note, how does this rate on your achievement list? Was it a dream of yours for a while?

A couple of years ago I set and achieved a goal to publish 11 books in one year. The World's First 24 Hour Small Business Channel is even more ambitious!

My goal is to produce over 1000 video presentations in a 12 month period. We're also aiming to reach 1 million subscribers in just 2 years.

This is a big challenge but I'm determined to make it happen. I'm honoured and excited to be able to take on this personal challenge as a way of helping entrepreneurs around the world.

Click here for the second part of this interview, and find out Dales solutions to the three most common challenges that small businesses face.

For more tips on starting and promoting a business, especially in the online marketing and SEO space, check out our website, we are a Sydney Web Design Company.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











Account Management and Telemarketing ...Hello, What's the difference?

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Okay, I'll admit it. I have done them all. I've generated detailed leads for Client A. I have managed accounts for Client B. I've made thousands of cold calls throughout my career. I have presented, responded, replied and emailed.

While pondering the number of times I have introduced myself to a massive amount of small business owners, executives, CEO's, CIO's, managers and receptionists, I began to wonder - what is the big deal? Could I just very well work at 1-800-DONOTCALLME in a loud call center with people yelling in the background or am I actually a professional? To some it is all the same, but here's how I look at.

Account Management

This is the crème de la crème of business development. This is when you are given a set amount of accounts that generally already have done business with the company you work for. The people that you contact are usually clients that are pretty familiar with the brand and well fitted for a regular "check in" just to make sure that they are still the happy campers that they were last year.

Don't get it twisted - account management is still an art. Just like a business owner, you must still balance your efforts with finding new opportunities. You may be required to make cold calls or ask for referrals. If you're lucky then you can just wait for the phone to ring, but undoubtedly account management requires the utmost product knowledge and level of professionalism. Account Managers or Executives are the real key players in sales in the event that it is a real title that coincides with the activities expected.

Lead Generation

You're almost there if you have an opportunity to generate leads. To me, this means that you make countless cold or warm calls and locate potential customers who have a well-defined desire to learn more about the product or service you are offering. If they don't have that desire then your goal is to create it. In a successful engagement someone answered the phone at last and they have agreed to receive information, they were friendly and they would remember talking to you if your manager asked.

The difference between lead generation and account management is the fact that you are most likely forwarding these leads to someone else with full faith that they will close the deal. After you have mastered the process and established a solid flow, this is a great position to be in while you learn more about the product that you are offering. Lead generation (also known as lead gen) can be very rewarding as well.

Telemarketing

In my opinion, telemarketing is entry level sales. It is just what it is called telephone - marketing. During each call, no matter how mundane it seems, you are still increasing brand awareness. This most often involves a shorter sales cycle and a lower priced items. It also may involve a one call close or a script. You are a vital revenue building machine, reliant on your own loquaciousness to succeed. It is here that you learn how to present a product or service and how to move beyond rejection and keep "smiling & dialing".

I believe that all three roles are significant. There are similarities (including lots of coffee required), but they are definitely different. Although I often wonder what my life would have been if I hadn't had a sales career, I can never deny the opportunities that it has afforded me to enhance my communication skills, overcome my fears, live with rejection and focus on that one YES.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











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