Please check out the article I wrote this week over at Free Money Finance.

This is part three in a series on developing a Personal Marketing Campaign.

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Master persuaders know that people are more likely to agree with them, like them, buy from them, and hire them if they feel they have more in common with them. To encourage this, master persuaders highlight their similarities to the customer or business associate. How can you do this?

Click Here to Read the Entire Post

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“Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.”

– William Shakespeare

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How often do you follow through on your commitments? If your answer isn’t “all the time”, you need to evaluate your lifestyle and make modifications so you never back out on an agreement.

Trust is a touchstone of success.

Click Here to Read the Entire Article

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Nothing is more fun than crushing the competition.  Rainmakers live to win at the expense of others in their industry. Here’s how to win more business while beating the crap out of your competitors:

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“Just go out there and do what you have to do.”

– Martina Navratilova

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During the past few years I have interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs.  Each of them has had interesting advice to offer to people who are just starting out.  There are three things that just about every entrepreneur has said, in one way or another.  I have included these three items for your review. 

Click Here to Read the Entire Post

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Unfortunately, lying has become a part of business negotiation.  During the negotiation process, this is often referred to as a “bluff”.  

Here are some tips on how to tell when someone is lying to you.

Click Here for the Entire Post

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“I like what is in work – the chance to find yourself.”

– Joseph Conrad

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I have cited Back in Skinny Jeans before for the excellent description of how to subscribe to a blog with RSS.  Stephanie has given me permission to share her information with all of my readers.

Here is a great post on how to subscribe to this blog using RSS.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Subscribing to RSS feeds

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

In order to subscribe to a website or blog’s RSS, all you have to do is click on an RSS symbol (that orange box on the right sidebar).You can also click to the text link of the words “ Click Here to Subscribe” on the website or blog. Typically, you can find these RSS symbols or text links in your browser window, on the sides of the website page, or on the bottom of the page. The publishers of the websites and blogs really want people to subscribe to their RSS, so they will make it very easy for you to find the subscription links.

RSS Readers

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

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

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

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

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

RSS as Live Bookmarks

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

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

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“Work is love made visible.”

– Kahlil Gibran

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Here are the terrific posts from this week’s Carnival of Career Intensity:

Post One – Make More Money - It’s All in the Attitude

John Peter presents All about attitude posted at OhCash.com.

When it comes to money, or to anything, it’s all about the attitude. It’s about how hard you want to succeed. If you talk to any famous athlete, may it be any sport, they will tell you they practiced it since they were kids. Since they were just a few years old, they had this passion and desire of success.

Click Here to Read the Entire Post

Post Two – American Idol: A Celebration of Delusion

Charles H. Green presents American Idol: Empowering Incompetents posted at Trust Matters.

We meet really nice people—who are seriously disconnected. Warped. Out to lunch. They cannot integrate their Big Belief with the Fact of Reality.

One form of disconnect is the diamond in the rough, the undiscovered talent. Undiscovered, most of all, to oneself. This is the premise of the show: that somewhere a gem toils mightily, unappreciated—until (s)he gets a Break. It’s the old American Dream, the meritocracy. Social mobility may be way down in this country, but it lives on in American Idol!

Click Here to Read the Entire Post

Post Three – The Seven Traits of Highly Effective Teams

David E. presents The 7 Traits of Highly Effective Teams posted at Worldwide Success.

As individuals, we can achieve many commendable goals.  However, significant, large accomplishments that have a major impact in a company, a community, or the entire world, can only be achieved with a group of people.  This article will explore success from a broader perspective, beyond the individual.  We will discuss the 7 traits of highly effective, successful teams.

Click Here to Read the Entire Post

Post Four – Make Your Job Your Hobby

Karl Staib presents I’ve Decided My Job is Now My Hobby posted at 10,000 Swimming Pools Inside Our Minds.

I’ve struggled with my job over the past couple of years and I know many of you probably struggle with your job as well. I came up with a plan to enjoy my job and tested it out for the past 30 days. The plan was simple – my job is now my hobby and my full time job is to enjoy my life.

In order to change my mindset and accept my job as my hobby, I was going to have to rewire some of my old thought patterns. I had to break down exactly what I thought my job was. Dictionary.com says it’s: a piece of work, esp. a specific task done as part of the routine of one’s occupation or for an agreed price.

Click Here to Read the Entire Post

Post Five – Quit Doubting Yourself

Katie presents Quit doubting yourself and tap into your assets already posted at Aridni.

Today I meet a young man who has $100,000 labor contracts to put siding on Hilton hotels. He hires staff, lines up insurance, establishes employee housing for out-of-town projects, and runs a successful LLC. He’s the cheapest, fastest, and most efficient sider around here.

Oh– this young man cannot read.

Click Here to Read the Entire Post

This was one of the best carnivals we have ever had.  Thanks to everyone who submitted a post.

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

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

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

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

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Carnival of Career Intensity – Post One

John Peter presents All about attitude posted at OhCash.com.

When it comes to money, or to anything, it’s all about the attitude. It’s about how hard you want to succeed. If you talk to any famous athlete, may it be any sport, they will tell you they practiced it since they were kids. Since they were just a few years old, they had this passion and desire of success. They weren’t good at it, and didn’t have any skills! After all, how much skills can a 5 year old have in tennis, golf, soccer, etc…? They didn’t have a clue about how to play that sport. But they loved it, and they just wanted to succeed. They worked all their life in it, practiced hours and hours every week, went to tournaments, abandoned other things they liked, and made lots of sacrifices. They sacrificed both time and pleasure in exchange of the glory and pleasure the sport they loved brought them. And at the end, it paid off, whether with the skill they have developed, whether because they became stars, made money or both, or other things they consider fulfilling. Is it the skill that gave them all that? At the root, it isn’t, but the heart to win, the desire, the attitude they had! This is what made and shaped what they are!

When it comes to making money, it is exactly the same. It doesn’t require any skills to make money, neither does it require intelligence. The saying “The smarter you are, the richer you are” does not apply. I know a lot of people who are rich and are complete idiots. No offense to these people. You might say that these are exceptions, as people who have degrees are simply richer than those who don’t. But the fact is that people who have degrees have JOBS! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not condemning jobs, but most people who are reading this already have jobs, and want something else to make money.

It is true, that if you want to have more money with jobs, then you should go and get a degree. But if you want another way to make money, a degree is not the way to go. And being good at math or having academic skills won’t really help you. At this point, people come with Bill Gates example, how he was a nerd, a genius with computers, and invented operating systems, bla bla bla. This argument can be contradictory, as now, you can apply the same logic here used against it. For example, one can say, isn’t HE the exception? How many people who are good at computers are billionaires? Not much, most people who have the skills of Bill Gates at programming, are simply employees at bigger companies.

Of course, if you are smarter, it can help you make money, but it is by no means a requirements. The main idea and the core in making money, is about your attitude! It’s about how hard you want to make it! Not necessary to being a math wiz, or whatever. There are tons of entrepreneurs who just dropped school and went doing what they like, opening a business and making money, and Bill Gates is also included in this category.

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Carnival of Career Intensity – Post Two

Charles H. Green presents American Idol: Empowering Incompetents posted at Trust Matters.

I hate reality TV shows.

So I don’t know why I’m following the umpteenth season of American Idol.

We meet really nice people—who are seriously disconnected. Warped. Out to lunch. They cannot integrate their Big Belief with the Fact of Reality.

One form of disconnect is the diamond in the rough, the undiscovered talent. Undiscovered, most of all, to oneself. This is the premise of the show: that somewhere a gem toils mightily, unappreciated—until (s)he gets a Break. It’s the old American Dream, the meritocracy. Social mobility may be way down in this country, but it lives on in American Idol!

This year, she was hiding in Memphis. She’s a backup singer—the perfect metaphor. And—she has a marvelous voice.

Can she move to the front of the stage? Claim the spotlight? The judges rushed her on to Hollywood, because—that’s what the show is about. Major raw, hard-working talent that doesn’t yet believe in itself, but that will be rewarded.

But—we all know the dream by heart now. In fact, we know it too well. By far the more common disconnect is people who do believe in themselves—but have no talent. Their biggest belief is that Belief Itself is enough.

Millions of poor fools have made a basic error of logic: mistaking a necessary condition for a sufficient one. They try out for Idol, believing that belief is enough. Try jumping off a cliff, believing you’ll defy the laws of gravity. The splat is different, but the odds about the same.

One contestant, asked why he believed his (miserable) performance rated a “yes,” replied, “because I love it [the song].” If I believe, it will happen.

It’s the same in business. Empowerment is great—to unleash organizational talent. But empowering incompetents is absurd—an attempt to defy reality. (The same can be said of other management panaceas-which-aren’t; somewhere, somebody has to have business-relevant excellence and expertise for them to work).

The “just believe” message is ubiquitous: in self-help books, sports (“I guess the other guys wanted it more than we did”), movies (”if you build it, they will come”), fuzzy-think gurus (”start believing and acting like you’re already a millionaire, and you will get there!”).

Axed Idol contestants blame the judges, anyone but themselves. The reality-distortion field is huge.

So pick your disconnect: belief unhinged from reality, or hard-working talent that doesn’t believe in itself.

American Idol claims to choose sides. It cruelly mocks those no-talents who have belief only, and crowns those who have been graced with talent and have worked to hone it. It’s the old American Dream—the meritocracy.

But the show suborns as well. The judges ask, “Do you believe you can win?” knowing the Pavlovian response will be, “oh yeah, I believe!” They (and we) are set up to believe it’s a contest of wills. Until Simon et al lower the boom, and the poor schlub is yanked back to reality—it’s still a talent show. “Oops, sorry about that, just kidding.”

The winners play their roles in the farce too. They don’t say, “well, dude, I’m simply the best singer in the country, that’s all it comes down to!” No, we want our winners to play the Game; ” it’s like my momma always told me, you just gotta believe in yourself…”  (See also Donald Trump in today’s Guy Kawasaki blog).

This lets us, the viewers, have our cake and eat it too. “Yeah, that’s me, my boss doesn’t recognize my talent either!” The lesson we draw is not practice, practice, practice, but—believe in yourself! It’s the New American Dream, the Cinderella story. The problem is not talent or hard work, it’s that damned evil stepmother!

And so, one Dream feeds the other—”he won because he wanted it”—and so the show creates next year’s contestants. What a business model.

Which disconnect error does your firm encourage? Bloodless competence with no soul or enthusiasm? Or empowering incompetents?

Which disconnect do you suffer from?

Or—let’s dare to go positive here—have you actually integrated them? Please do tell how.

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Carnival of Career Intensity – Post Three

David E. presents The 7 Traits of Highly Effective Teams posted at Worldwide Success.

As individuals, we can achieve many commendable goals.  However, significant, large accomplishments that have a major impact in a company, a community, or the entire world, can only be achieved with a group of people.  This article will explore success from a broader perspective, beyond the individual.  We will discuss the 7 traits of highly effective, successful teams.

1. Strong Leadership

Every team has a leader or a group of leaders.  Leaders are fundamental to highly effective teams because they set the vision and they bring the team together.  The most effective leaders are the ones that are sought after by the team.  They are in the leadership position not just because of some artificial authority, but because the team recognizes that without their leadership, the team would not be the same, and might not even exist.

The way the leader deals with each individual team member is paramount to the effectiveness of the team.  Recognition and praises are given publicly to each and every individual that is performing.  Team members that are not performing are coached or reprimanded privately.  Reprimanding usually only happens in the early stages of team formation.  A team member that is constantly being reprimanded will not make the rigorous selection process that a strong leader puts in place when forming a highly effective team.  Once a highly effective team is formed, each team member will know where he stands and self-correction will usually happen without the need for reprimanding.  (For the sake of simplicity and easier writing, I will use the masculine form to refer to both genders as leaders and as team members.)

A strong leader is demanding, and yet personable.  Controlling and yet flexible.  A strong leader understands that his strength is in his team and not in his individual abilities.  Therefore, a strong leader is never afraid of having team members whose skills and abilities are stronger than his own. 

A strong leader does not play favoritism and does not have a hidden agenda.  Communication is open and direct.  All team members know exactly what is expected of them.  In a highly effective team, formal performance reviews are simply a formality.  The team members know how well they are doing long before a performance review is conducted.  There are no surprises.

Strong leaders protect their teams.  They provide high level coverage when needed, and never, ever, allow anything under their control happen to the demise of a team member.  Strong leaders reward their team members abundantly and allow them to grow as far as their abilities will take them, even if it means that eventually the team member will leave.   In reality, the team member will always be part of the family, even after choosing to follow other paths that will allow him to grow.  This is analogous to a child leaving the parent’s home.  Parents may be sad to see their children leave, but they know they need to move on in order to grow.

The success of a team member is of utmost importance to the leader, even when attention is taken away from the leader.  Jealousy and envy is never part of the equation.  In a highly effective team, the leader is proud of each team member’s accomplishments, just like a parent would be.

2. Trust

Highly effective teams are built on trust.  Trust exists among team members and with the leader.  There should never be a reason to doubt the motives of a team member.  Highly effective teams understand that at times some members of the team will be on the spotlight, but eventually everyone gets their chance to shine.

When a team operates at optimum effectiveness, there is little or no politics involved.  No one criticizes anyone behind their backs.  Criticisms are good natured, constructive and open.  Many times they take the form of light, well intended jokes.  Each team member understands his strengths and weaknesses and is not bothered by a good natured comment from a colleague about a weak spot.  Team members support each other and never let outside forces break the trust that exists within the team.  Outsiders that try to break up the team get frustrated because they can’t get through the trust shield that isolates the team members from destructive forces.

3. Respect

In a highly effective team, team members respect each other and their leader.  The respect is based on the team members’ ability to contribute.  Each team member knows and values the others’ capabilities, and as long as they keep on contributing, the respect stays strong.

Respect comes naturally because each team member was carefully selected by the leader and they had to prove themselves to be on par with other team members.  If you are not respected, you will not survive in a highly effective team.  A natural selection process occurs here.

4. Unity

Highly effective teams are unbreakable.  Companies come and go.  Projects come and go.  Victories and defeats are shared.  Through it all the team stays together.  In a highly effective team there is a sense of family, a sense of connectedness, a sense of belonging.

The team’s unity will be challenged.  Outsiders will try to break it.  Unexpected events will put it to the test.  A few team members may leave.  Some leave temporarily, but eventually come back.  Others leave permanently due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control.  But the greater team sticks together through the ups and downs of life.

One of the characteristics of highly effective teams is loyalty.  Team members are loyal to themselves and to their leader.  This loyalty transcends the boundaries of projects, companies or other organizational forms.

5. Complementary Skills

In a highly effective team, skills are complementary.  Everyone brings something to the table that makes the whole bigger than the sum of the parts.  Bursts of synergistic energy abound.

When you are in a meeting with a highly effective team, you can feel the energy.  In a brainstorming session, a person’s comment sparks an idea, which feeds someone else’s idea, which turns into more comments and yet more ideas.  It’s like a feeding frenzy of thoughts and creative outbursts.  In a problem solving session, a solution is suggested by one member, refined by another, challenged by a third, until the perfect solution is crafted in a challenging and yet respectful session of solution refinements.

Team members are not afraid of admitting what they don’t know.  They don’t need to prove anything to anyone.  They know exactly how they contribute, and they are respected for it.  They are not afraid of making mistakes.  No one is expected to be perfect.  When one team member drops the ball, another picks it up without a moment’s hesitation and the whole team performs in unison.

6. Open Communication

Highly effective teams communicate openly and often.  Communication is direct.  Words do not need to be carefully chosen.  People are not afraid to speak their minds.  There is no need to worry about someone being overly sensitive to how things are said and getting offended.  Even when someone goes a bit over the top, he is forgiven and the team just moves on.  No one holds a grudge for long.

Everyone understands what everyone else’s roles and capabilities are.  Mutual respect and trust allow the team to communicate openly and bring their best ideas forth.  This does not mean that everyone is always in agreement.  In fact, disagreement and respectful debates are a healthy part of a team’s communication.  But these discussions tend not to be tense.  They are good natured, relaxed, and with lots of laughs.  If tension builds up inadvertently, someone intervenes and brings the discussion back to a healthy state.

In highly effective teams, some team members can communicate without saying a word.  A look, a nod, or a smile can say as much as a carefully crafted sentence.  Sometimes they can predict what the others are going to say, as if they could read each others minds.  It is not uncommon to have one team member deliver a message that the other was just about to say.

7. Lack of Selfishness

Last, but not least, in highly effective teams there is no selfishness.  The cliché that there is no “i” in “team” is absolutely applicable to these teams.  Team members are not out seeking credit.  They know that credit will be given where credit is due.

Members of highly effective teams do not need to outdo each other in order to be noticed and praised by their leader.  In fact, they will gladly step out of the spotlight and let others shine and take credit.

The leader plays a big role in this behavior.  If the leader creates an unhealthy competitive environment, where he is always asking “what have you done for me lately?” team members will always seek the spotlight.  They will always want to get the credit.  But if they know that even when they are not in the spotlight they are still highly regarded as a valuable member of the team, they will gladly step back when appropriate.

Highly effective teams are hard to find.  If you have never been part of one, you may think this article is idealistic, and that such teams do not exist.  If you are one of the lucky few that have experienced being part of a highly effective team, this article will resonate with you.

If you are currently part of a highly effective team, cherish it.  Highly effective teams are treasures that should be guarded for life.  Once you become part of one, you will never want to let go of it.

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Carnival of Career Intensity – Post Four

Karl Staib presents I’ve Decided My Job is Now My Hobby posted at 10,000 Swimming Pools Inside Our Minds

I’ve struggled with my job over the past couple of years and I know many of you probably struggle with your job as well. I came up with a plan to enjoy my job and tested it out for the past 30 days. The plan was simple – my job is now my hobby and my full time job is to enjoy my life.

In order to change my mindset and accept my job as my hobby, I was going to have to rewire some of my old thought patterns. I had to break down exactly what I thought my job was. Dictionary.com says it’s: a piece of work, esp. a specific task done as part of the routine of one’s occupation or for an agreed price.

I put in 8 hours a day at my job and they give me an hourly amount in return. This gives me the stability to be able to pay my mortgage, expenses and a night out with my wife. I also get the added benefit of having health care. I give 40 hours a week to get these compensations in return. My work time equates to a stable existence with a reasonable standard of living. This old model wasn’t making me happy, so I knew that I either had to find a new job or a new perspective. I’ve never been happy at any of my jobs (retail, telemarketing, mushroom monger [this was my best one to date, but it was too exhausting climbing up and down hills all day long hunting for mushrooms], marketing coordinator for a valve and pump company, teacher, Cyber Café manager, Photoshop designer, Yoga studio receptionist, handyman, electrician, and now my present job of marketing assistant), so I knew changing jobs probably wasn’t going to solve my problem.

As all these thoughts were swirling around my brain, a co-worker told me that he was sick and tired of being angry and decided he was going to be happy. He was the typical moody guy with a chip on his shoulder. There would be some days that you couldn’t even approach him for fear of getting sucked into his dark complaining cloud. As I have watched him go through his mental experiment he seems to be doing a lot better. He laughs more, complains less and I actually enjoy talking to him now. He made the conscious choice to find the good stuff in his day instead of falling into his old habits of complaining and fussing about what aggravated him. The sour puss turned into a delightful human being.

Andy Kaufman, a well-known comedian from the seventies, had a sweet job as an actor on the show “Taxi.” It was paying the bills; way more than he ever thought was possible, but his conscience was feeling awful. So he got a job as a dishwasher at a local diner to help him relax and do something normal. Many people do what they do, not because of the money, but because they want to, almost like a leisure pursuit.

How was I going to create this job outlook? A challenge worthy of all my skills.

I knew that I had to put less importance on what reward I was getting from my employer and more importance on what made me happy. Now that I had my solution I had to figure out how to apply it. What if I looked at my time as something more than just a way to get money back in return? I could look at my time as a chance to become a smarter, healthier, and wiser person. I could learn to value the opportunity to study what the situation was putting me through, instead of wanting more money or making myself feel like I was stuck doing something I didn’t want to do. Highly developed people such as Jesus, Buddha, and Gandhi knew that happiness came from within. If Jesus could be happy in prison, the Buddha underneath a tree with no material possessions, and Gandhi fasting to the brink of death, trying to save his nation from civil war – I could be happy working at a corporate job if I found the right viewpoint.

I had to break down my job to its simplest form – energy. When I am at home practicing yoga or meditation I am happy because it’s my choice. My energy is being used the way I want it to be. When I am at work it’s harder to make it feel like it’s my choice to call a contact or write a report. I sometimes feel like my energy is being wasted on other people’s goals.

What usually brings my mood down is that I am not making enough money. Of course most of us, including the rich, always want to make more money. I asked Nikki, who is a middle school theater teacher, for some advice and she told me that if she broke down how much money the middle school paid her to put on a musical she would make around $2.00 an hour. Only $2.00 an hour! I would be outraged and try to work the system so I didn’t have to do something for such little money. But it is part of her job and she loves to do it. She doesn’t complain and she actually feels lucky. “I get paid for a hobby that I love,” were her exact words. That’s exactly when the light inside my head blasted me. A hobby. That’s the key – think of my job as a hobby.

First I had to look for the improvements that I wanted to see in myself. Then work from those points. I wanted to improve my speaking skills because I knew it would help me be a better communicator. One of my goals is to become a professional speaker in the near future. I tried to volunteer for any dialogue-based opportunities that my company would allow – meetings, company outings, and anything that would force me to be in front of people. It’s a whole different atmosphere speaking in front of your co-workers or a group of teenagers than at a Toastmaster meeting, because it challenges you to be effective in a real life situation.

My phone skills were also seriously lacking. I usually stumbled on the phone, making it harder for people to understand what I was trying to say. My biggest mistake was starting in the middle of a thought instead of at the beginning. I wasn’t organized and the person on the other end would get all confused and frustrated with my attempt at communication. I’ve learned not to fly by the seat of my pants. Now when I make a phone call I write a short list of what I want to say to the person on the other end of the line. I prepare myself in order to improve my phone skills, making my life easier as well as the people I contact.

Tedious tasks were my own worst enemy. I thought myself too important and too smart to do such work, so I rebelled against how they made me feel. My own negative viewpoint of work was the problem. It was up to me to decide how I could approach the mundane jobs; instead of worrying about how long they would take – I needed a fresh perspective.

I did a little research and found an article about Roger Goodall, the new NFL Commissioner. An old boss told the reporter that he never cared how big or small the task was because he always did an excellent job. It made me think of the quote, “There are no small parts. Only small actors.” Goodall understood that each job was important and necessary, so you may as well do it the best you can. I liked my job, but it wasn’t my passion. I needed to create a new passion. I had to look at each task as a way to learn, so I decided to make each tedious assignment a meditation – a chance to train myself to stay in the moment. Instead of writing a report because my boss told me to, I decided that I was going to write the report to make it sing. I was going to let myself dive into the work for all it was. The reports were a pain in the butt, but I tried my best to stay focused on feeling the thoughts and sensations that were created by the task, and staying aware of how a negative or positive thought felt. After stuffing 2,000 marketing bags with 3,000 more to go, I would lose interest, but that is when the true learning began. I constantly reminded myself to focus on the simple joy of the task and not to revert back to my old negative self. This fresh outlook helped me to transform my mental suffering into an opportunity to make myself more like the wise people that I admire.

My stress level has been significantly reduced because I see every task as a way to find some little element that I’ve never noticed before. Sometimes it’s something internal, such as improving my breath; sometimes it’s as external as noticing the beauty in a shadow from a desk light, or relaxing in a moment that might have made the old me mad. This has allowed me to relax without rebelling against how I think life should really be.

I also feel a lot lighter, not physically, but emotionally. I walk into a room full of people and say hello, trying to express my happiness. When I take my afternoon walk I’m much more calm and serene, which makes it easier to prevent my thoughts of work from dragging me into worrying. When I’m able to see a larger picture, the little things don’t worry me as much.

I’ve talked enough about how I have improved my life. The most important question is – How can you enjoy your job for what it is?

The first thing you can do is figure out what makes you tick, and gear your goals toward those desires. Do you want to lose weight? Walk up and down flights of stairs whenever you have the opportunity, or instead of sending an email, walk to your co-worker’s office or cubicle. By steering your internal desires into your job you will improve your emotional balance as well as the quality of your work. Do you want to work on your people skills? Then put yourself in situations that require more interaction with people and I know that you’ll see improvement.

The next step is to reinforce your new positive behavior. Try sending yourself a “Thank You” email to your personal address. Maybe you can thank yourself for being compassionate toward a co-worker who grinds on your nerves, or for a well-written letter that you didn’t feel like writing. Then when you are at home, read your “Thank You” email. It will reinforce the positive that you saw in the situation that was difficult to enjoy. You can also reward yourself for enjoying a menial task by taking a break and talking to a co-worker. An emotional payment for your hard work is a great way to stay motivated.

I usually reward myself by telling my wife about what I accomplished. She usually gets a kick out of my stories because she has never had such difficulty enjoying every day work.

Figuring out what makes you who you are is a part of the benefit that comes from this practice. I never realized that I hated to do work for others; I just figured that was how most people felt. I thought that my life would be easier if I kept an emotional distance from my job. If I didn’t like my job, it wouldn’t matter if I lost it because there was always going to be something better out there. I was creating this negative cycle of pain that only made my days more torturous. I also thought that by hating my job, I was assuring myself that I would eventually branch off and create my own business. I didn’t want to like my job because then I might be tied to working for the “Man” for the rest of my life. This was a false perspective that kept me from relaxing and enjoying myself. I am more motivated now than ever to branch off and create my own business; I’m working toward that goal. So be aware of any mental traps you create for yourself and make sure that you do not believe in something that’s making your life miserable.

By engaging your energy in the task at hand you’ll find many ways to learn from the experience. When you are learning from every moment and striving to make your life better, your job becomes so much more than just money. It becomes an enjoyable way to pass the time, just like a hobby.

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Carnival of Career Intensity – Post Five

Katie presents Quit doubting yourself and tap into your assets already posted at Aridni.

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“Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will be judged by only one thing - the result.”

– Vince Lombardi

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Thanks to Rich for pointing us to this Union Sentinel article:

Every day thousands of people are looking to get out of the “rat race” to work at home.

Most of those people want to get started on a home based business so badly that they do not always make wise decisions in choosing a home based business opportunity.

As a result, many fail miserably and are left worse off then before they started. This, of course, does not need to be the case.

1 - Most new opportunities do not help you make money. They will give you some ideas for making money, but then leave you out in the cold by having you do everything on your own.

2 - Unfortunately, some home business opportunity owners will take your money and run. There are too many fly-by-night operations out there that will not hesitate to scam you.

3 - Some home based business opportunities will have you working long hours for little pay. This is a good way to get burned out, tired, frustrated, and eventually quit.

4 - Many home business opportunities offer products nobody really wants. You should never try to market any product that people couldn’t care less about.

5 - Many home based business opportunities force you to become a salesperson. There should already be an established market for the product or service and a system in place to eliminate as much of the “selling” as possible.

6 - Some home based business opportunities pay small sums of money and no residual income. Stay far away from these! If you market products or services that don’t sell for very much money and don’t offer any residual income, it’s going to be almost impossible for you to make any real money or obtain financial freedom.

Filed under: Entrepreneurship - General
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The world moves fast. We often rely on technology to help us keep up. When making a connection with another person is critical, nothing tops an in-person meeting. Sitting in a room with someone face-to-face allows the other party to completely experience your personal brand. This experience takes place on many levels. The expression on your face, the tone of your voice, the look in your eyes all helps represent who you are and the nature of your visit.

Many people take this idea lightly. I often hear people say that in-person meetings are a waste of time and money. While it is true that you can save money by having conference calls and video conferences, the in-person meeting still has a place in business.

Whenever people question the value of a face-to-face meeting I tell them the story of a young hotel manager from Northern New Jersey. This young man was wide-eyed and aggressive. He was tasked with marketing a new hotel that was opening in an industrial area. The young manager spent a significant amount of time researching the market and putting together a marketing plan. He believed that he had thought of every detail.

Click Here to Read the Entire Article

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“Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.”

– English Proverb

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Have you ever given any thought to how you make decisions on a day-to-day basis?  Most people don’t think about the process they go through when they make decisions.  Big decisions, small decisions, they all seem to just happen almost automatically.  

Think about the last big decision you made.  What process did you follow before you settled on a final answer?  Was it logical?  Did you make lists of “Pros” and “Cons”?  Did you check with a friend or a trusted advisor on the topic?

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Asking smart questions is a good way to establish rapport with a potential client.  It is also a good way to uncover objections.  The questions you ask will make an impression on your potential client.

Below are some good questions you can use to accomplish all three purposes.

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“That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.”  
— William J. H. Boetcker 

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A couple of days ago I posted a request for authors and experts to call me if they wanted to be interviewed.

Since then I have been overwhelmed with phone calls.

Thank you all very much for your interest and participation!

Please forgive me if it takes me a couple of days to call everyone back.  I am in the process of setting up a schedule and a system to handle all of the fantastic responses and topic suggestions I have received.

Please keep the requests coming.  Below is my original post with information on the program.

This March I will begin a series of Podcasts called The Experts and Authors Interview series. 

These Podcasts will be made available on my website for clients to use to help grow their business and balance their life. 

All experts will be able to promote their products and services during the interview and they will receive a copy of the interview to use as they please.

I am currently looking for Experts and Authors to be interviewed for this series.  If you have published a book or are an expert in a certain area, please give me a call and we can chat about how you can take part in this exciting new opportunity.

You can reach me at:  1–888–D-Lorenzo  ext. 81

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I often get questions from clients about overcoming objections during the sales process.  There are eight objections that are most common during a business deal.  I have listed them below along with my thoughts on each. I have also included some questions that you can ask yourself during the sales process to help avoid falling prey to these objections in the first place.

Click Here to Read How to Defeat the Eight Most Common Objections

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“When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”

– Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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Ritchie CC from Sydney, Australia sent me the following comment in response to my post: Cialis for Your Career:

“I spent many years as a recruiter and have interviewed hundreds of people for a variety of roles and the question that would always result in my eyes rolling would be “So, tell me your weaknesses”…to the point that, for a while I stopped bothering.  Why? Because of the clearly contrived and patently made up “strength disguised as weakness” answer you describe here.  The advice you are trying to give looks good on paper (or on the screen), but in practice, the interviewee ends up looking a little silly:  “I tend to work too hard”? Please, who doesn’t?
And by who’s standards? And that’s supposed to be a weakness?

What I found more effective, and quite frankly, more believable, was to pick something you knew was a genuine weakness and then tell them what you had done to improve it, negate it, or otherwise get around it.
Personally, attention to detail is my worst suite, so with any sensitive piece of work, I make sure I check it after taking a break, then give it to a peer or immediate boss for proof reading before it is finalized.
This way, not only are you showing clear self awareness, you are showing how you have improved and developed your skills over time.  Most of us in the workforce know enough about ourselves to recognize our weaknesses and we have done something to overcome them or at least reduce their impact.

The trick here, however, is to pick a weakness that is NOT a key selection criteria.”

My thoughts on Ritchie’s comment:

Thanks for the comment.  I appreciate your point of view and I am grateful for your readership.

With that said,  I must respectfully and adamantly disagree with your approach.

An interview should be the best possible impression you can ever make on someone. Offering up a response that could be considered detrimental to your candidacy is always a bad move.  Here’s why:

An interview is as much about how you handle yourself as it is about your qualifications.  All jobs require some response to adversity.  The question: “What are your weaknesses” is an injection of adversity into the interview process.  Good interviewers will rate your ability to answer this question as much as they will evaluate the answer.  A skilled interviewer will project you into a customer-facing role and will envision how you would answer the “weakness question” when the customer asks it about the company.  In that case, if you say something like; “My company struggles with detail-orientation,” there is a good chance that you will lose the business. 

This is not the kind of impression you want to give to an interviewer. Just as you need to (in an honest way) give your company every opportunity to win the business, you need to give yourself every opportunity to land a job. 

In addition, if you provide a damaging answer you risk having the interviewer think; “If this person is admitting to this weakness, there must be a lot of other weaknesses he is not admitting to”.   This is a common assumption we find when we study damaging admissions by salespeople who are trying to sell products.  Often people who are selling (or trying to win jobs) will admit to some flaw in their product or service in an attempt to gain credibility with a client (or the interviewer).  In many cases this has the exact opposite effect.  It comes off as a lack of belief in oneself or in the product that is the subject of the discussion.

Finally, we must always remember that an interview is the beginning of a negotiation process.  If you make a harmful declaration, it could very well come back to hurt you when you attempt to close the deal.  I have seen many people receive low-ball salary offers along with a statement that says; “We will revisit your salary after you address the weakness you brought up earlier”.   The hiring manager will then sometimes offer to include training in the area of perceived deficiency as a perk and this will be in lieu of additional pay. 

Again, I appreciate the comment Ritchie.  It has given us all an opportunity to gain some clarity on this important issue.

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Nobody is born to be your client.

Clients are created.  It takes work to turn strangers into clients.

In order to understand how to develop clients, we need to understand how they evolve.  I call this process the marketing ladder.

Click Here to Read the Entire Article

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Making mistakes comes along with being a business owner.  They key is to minimize the exposure your business faces when you make mistakes.  Exposure means the negative financial implications associated with mistakes.

Too often business owners – smart people – fall into a trap that hurts their ability to succeed.  This trap is primarily one of arrogance or over-confidence.  What happens is that these people get “full of themselves”.  This over-confidence comes in three forms.  I have outlined them below. 

Click Here to Read the Entire Article

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“We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.”

– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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Calling all Experts and Authors

This March I will begin a series of Podcasts called The Experts and Authors Interview series. 

These Podcasts will be made available on my website for clients to use to help grow their business and balance their life. 

All experts will be able to promote their products and services during the interview and they will receive a copy of the interview to use as they please.

I am currently looking for Experts and Authors to be interviewed for this series.  If you have published a book or are an expert in a certain area, please give me a call and we can chat about how you can take part in this exciting new opportunity.

You can reach me at:  1–888–D-Lorenzo  ext. 81

Filed under: Personal Productivity
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A few years ago pharmaceutical companies began doing something interesting and highly effective.  They began targeting the advertising for their products directly to consumers.  The interesting thing is that a doctor must prescribe their product.  You can just go to a store to purchase it.  The idea is that you will see the advertisement for the product and you will ask your doctor about it.

This brings us to the brilliant advertising tactic employed by Lilly ICOS for the erectile dysfunction product Cialis. 

Erectile dysfunction is something that all men fear.  We all want our private parts to work when they should.  According to reports, Cialis can help with that. 

Lilly launched this product after Viagra  had already become the gold standard in the erectile dysfunction arena.  Since Cialis is the second erectile dysfunction product brought to market, Lillly lost the powerful “first mover advantage”.  Their advertising would need to be truly memorable to unseat Viagra from its leadership position in the erectile dysfunction arena.

Lilly did something brilliant with the Cialis advertising.  They took a negative and made it an effective component of their advertising.  You see, in the United States, drug manufacturers are required to list out the potential side effects of their products in advertising.  In most cases, this can hurt the persuasive powers of the advertising message.  

The advertisements for Cialis highlight the potential “side effect” of having an erection that could last four hours or more.  In fact, most of the advertisements for Cialis state “If you experience an erection that lasts for more than four hours, you should see your doctor immediately.” This implies that four-hour erections are possible, even potentially common, with Cialis 

This is a brilliant advertising move.  It takes a potential negative - a four-hour erection – and turns it into a positive.

How does this effect you and your career? 

All of our careers have negative attributes.  Turning those negative items into positives is a great way to win a new job.  This is Cialis for your career.

Here are some examples:

“I tend to work too hard.  I throw myself into my work - almost to the exclusion of everything else.”

“I am often too clear in my communication.  I tend to be direct and up front.”

“I pay too much attention to detail.  I am often focused on the task at hand and I dive deeply into important issues.”

The key component to this tactic is to take a positive attribute, one that is critical to success in the job you seek, and to position it as a negative when the interviewer asks you for a “weakness”.  This allows you to answer a sensitive question with potentially positive results.

The next time you go on a job interview, reflect back upon the Cialis commercials that have become so common during sporting events.  Take a negative and turn it into a positive. 

This is the Cialis for your career.  It should help you last in your position for far more than four hours.

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Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”

-Vince Lombardi

That’s a great quote.  It is also slightly inaccurate. Winning and losing are the end products of your habits – they are not habits themselves.  Each of us go through phases when we behave like winners.  We also go through phases when we behave like losers.

This blog is about teaching you the things winners do regularly.  It is also about teaching you the patterns that losers fall into.  Why?  So that you can recognize when you fall into those patterns.

Try this:

Click Here to Read the Entire Post

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We all fall into a slump from time to time. The key is not to let your bad mood affect your performance at work.  As a business owner/leader you really can’t afford to have a bad day.  You have to bring your “A-Game’ to work every morning.

Here are five tips to help you break out of the bad mood funk:

Click Here to Read the Entire Post

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“Let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present.”  
— Roger Babson 

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Back in Skinny Jeans has an excellent description of how to subscribe to a blog with RSS.  Stephanie has given me permission to use her information here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Subscribing to RSS feeds

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

In order to subscribe to a website or blog’s RSS, all you have to do is click on an RSS symbol (that orange box on the right sidebar).You can also click to the text link of the words “ Click Here to Subscribe” on the website or blog. Typically, you can find these RSS symbols or text links in your browser window, on the sides of the website page, or on the bottom of the page. The publishers of the websites and blogs really want people to subscribe to their RSS, so they will make it very easy for you to find the subscription links.

RSS Readers

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

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

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

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

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

RSS as Live Bookmarks

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

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

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“Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds.”

– Theodore Roosevelt

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Christine Kane presents Business Advice for Artists and Sensitive People

This terrific post contains Christine’s Fifteen pieces of business advice for artists and sensitive types alike.

Click Here to Read the Entire Post

Eric Boehme presents How Badly Do You Want Change?

A lot of people mumble and grumble about the way their career and finances are playing out. Human nature often has us walking around in circles instead of breaking free and trying a new road. Being miserable or even generally dissatisfied with our career is easy. We don’t have to do anything other than complain. No risks.

Do you want to change?  Click below to read on.

Click Here to Read the Entire Post

Charles H. Green presents I’m OK, You’re an Idiot 

In 1967, Thomas Harris wrote “I’m OK, You’re OK,” arguably the most famous use of a 2×2 matrix (with cash cows/dogs/stars and question marks a close second).

Today’s Big Western Wisdom is Positive Psychology; see the NYTimes’ Happiness 101. I think I’m OK, You’re OK is a terrific book; and the wisdom in positive psychology is timeless, universal, and very valuable. But I also think they both leave something on the table.

Do you, like me, advise or influence others for a living? Then you may suspect that Harris pulled punches. My inner voice says:

“I’m OK, you’re an idiot,”

and

“You’re OK, I’m an undetected fraud

Click below to find out where Charlie is going with this line of thinking.

Click Here to Read the Entire Post

Karen Lynch presents Playing to Win

When a team plays “not to lose” they rarely win.

It is the same with our lives, with jobs, careers, businesses, goals and aspirations, relationships.  When we play the game with fear, angst, trepidation, apprehension we are playing “not to lose”; we are not tapping into that magic that comes when we play to win.

Learn how to play to win.  Click below.

Click Here to Read the Entire Post

Steve Faber presents How Can I Be a Successful Entrepreneur?

Are you mired in debt, barely scraping by every month, and looking with envy at those whizzing by in a sparkling, new BMW or Lexus? Why are they able to enjoy such a lifestyle and you aren’t? Do they know some special secret? Are they incredibly hard workers? Do they ever see their families? Maybe they won the lottery or they’re from “old money”. 

Well, there are a few possibilities. Many of those who are living the so called “good life” are incredibly hard workers.

Is there more out there?  Click below to find out. 

Click Here to Read the Entire Post

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

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

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

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

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Carnival of Career Intensity – Post One

Christine Kane presents Business Advice for Artists and Sensitive People posted at Christine Kane - Blog.

I’ve run the business side of my music for many years now. It didn’t actually become a functioning business until I got clear that I wanted to get more orderly and business-savvy. That’s when I hired someone to help me. On his second day, he sat in my office while I tried to figure out what he could do. It was complete chaos. I burst into tears and sobbed about what a mess I was, and how I had no idea how to begin. At first he looked like a deer in headlights. Then slowly he began to help his hysterical new boss find a starting point.

I’ve come a long way since then. A long way. And yet, the biggest obstacle I still face in having a business is the emotional side of me.

I’ve read countless blogs of writers, artists, self-employed women, and healers. Many of them rant about clients, or agents, or about how hard it all is, and on and on. This isn’t helping.

I would never encourage anyone (especially artists and healers) to lose their sensitive side because that side is what makes them fantastic at their work. But I do know that this side can wreak havoc on the business end of things. The good news is that there are opportunities aplenty for all kinds of people, and there are ways to work through that emotional side so that we can function well as business owners.

Here are Christine’s Fifteen pieces of business advice for artists and sensitive types alike. May we all prosper.

1 - Learn how to say no.

This is the first one because it’s the biggest one. If it’s not an absolute yes, it’s a no. So many people are fueled by the desire for money or the need to please everyone that they say yes to everything. If this is you, and you are tired, take the biggest risk you can ever take. Start saying no. Say no to clients who drain you. Say no to employees who drain you. Pay more for better service. Ask more for your services. Start saying no. Even when it’s scary. Especially when it’s scary!

2 - People don’t need to know how you feel about everything.

Lots of times, emotional types think that they have to let everyone around them know how they feel because otherwise they’re being inauthentic. “I’m insecure today.” “I’m frightened today.” “I’m nervous about this new employee.” This kind of stuff is fine for your best friend. But not for someone who’s working for you, redesigning your site, or hiring you. Stop talking about your emotional-self constantly.

3 - Most people assume you know what you’re doing. Let them.

Many young performers will get on stage and start apologizing for their mistakes or for their next song or for the fact that they messed up in the last song. Here’s a secret: The audience wants you to succeed, and they want you to be confident because they don’t want to feel sorry for you. That’s just plain uncomfortable. If you’re walking onto a stage, the audience assumes that you know what the hell you’re doing. Play along with them. I don’t care if your audience is a new client or if it’s the biggest gallery owner in the city. Go with it. The whole world doesn’t need to know that you feel like you’re out of your league. Fake it til you make it.

4 - Find your values and live by them.

A lot of people ask themselves what they want before they even get clear about what they value. This can compel people to do things they never really wanted to do. For instance, I value time, silence, and space. I absolutely must work that into my schedule. I used to perform about 200 dates a year. Then I became an unhappy person who, in spite of good shows and sales, wasn’t doing well emotionally. I kept pushing myself because “that’s what musicians are supposed to do.” Now, I’m doing what I love to do without being on the road constantly. This is a different approach than just letting my schedule get filled with travel. It can be a challenge to order your life by your own values, but it will lead you to a clearer picture of what you want, and what to say no to.

5 - Segment intend.

This technique is from Ask and It is Given. I’ve been practicing “segment intending” for months now, and I’m amazed at the results. If you’re an artist and you’re about to do your art, then intend that the next 3 hours (or whatever) is dedicated solely to that. And that it’s fun and creative and productive and you love it. Then, if you’re about to head to the office to deal with clients, get really clear about that next segment. In other words, don’t start any activity without intending how you want it to go and what you want to do during that time. This is a miracle process. I’ve worked through much dread of business just by doing this one thing.

6 - Bathe in Seth Godin. Then rinse. And repeat.

If you feel like “there’s no use” or “I’ll never be huge” or “Wal-Mart rules everything so why bother,” you need Seth Godin. If you ridicule yourself because your success is only tiny, and your sister-in-law has made millions as a consultant for BigExpensiveThings-R-Us, then you need Seth Godin. If you conjure up the same lame ideas over and over again, you need Seth Godin. I recommend that you listen to him because he’s a GREAT reader. And I recommend that you get over to audible.com PRONTO (see link below) and start listening to samples of his books.  Start with The Purple Cow. Then get them all. Take what applies to your work, and leave the rest. Something about his writing opens little doors in your brain so that you say, “Hey! I never thought of it that way! I can do this!”

7 - Create a business alter ego.

Make up a name. Then make up an identity for that name. (Pamela R. Stinson. MBA from Wharton. Valedictorian at Columbia, 1993. Great business mind, sexual preference undetermined, doesn’t take no for an answer.) Then, become that person when you’re working on the business side of your art or your product. You don’t have to use her name in your business dealings, but you might find that the energy of that person can shift your own body language when you’re in your office facing issues that scare sensitive-artist-you. Either way, it’s a fun game to play.

8 - Grok good customer service.

Go to Nordstrom. Buy something. Watch how you’re treated. Then, go to Macy’s. Do the same thing. Witness the difference. Apply that lesson in whatever way you can to your own customer service. It’s all service, no matter what you’re doing. Find a way to take the Nordstrom route. From now on, pay attention in all of your business transactions. Listen to language. Feel what inspires you, delights you, or makes you want to never go back to that establishment. And learn.

9 - Learn how to think.

Emotional people believe that their feelings are the facts. This will always get you in trouble. Learn how to think about your career. Take two hours every Sunday to drive and think. Or just to sit in the office and think. At first, you might feel totally stupid, but you’ll start to get it soon enough. Experiment, analyze and don’t go into massive drama when something doesn’t work. Just think again.

10 - Never send an email when you are emotional.

Email is a volatile communication form. I have received (and probably sent) some of the most damaging messages from people who had gotten my intentions all wrong, and then fired off a response filled with venom and vitriol. The danger (and the advantage) of email is that it’s immediate. If someone emails you something that triggers you, wait AT LEAST 24 HOURS before responding. S