If your workplace doesn’t have a culture of truly letting people leave their cares behind when they take vacation — or if it’s frowned upon to even take vacation — maybe you can tell your boss that you need some task-negative time in order to tap into your best problem-solving insights?
It breaks my heart every time I hear someone just biding time until retirement — not only because it’s a waste of the here and now, but also because stories of people who die just as retirement arrives seem a bit too common. What if you suffer for decades in a job you hate, waiting for deferred happiness, but never…
It’s nice to have a steady job that pays the bills, but many of us aspire to more. We want to do work that’s engaging, that feels worthwhile and rewarding. A recent Fast Company article included expert advice for a 28-year-old feeling bored by work. Leadership Coach Lolly Daskal and Psychologist Art Markman contributed to “ASK THE EXPERTS: HOW DO I STOP FEELING…
It’s not just what you do, but where you do it — and the people with whom you do it — that determines how you feel about your work. A recent column in the New York Times with the provocative headline Why You Hate Work is not surprisingly the Times’ most emailed article. In it, Tony Schwartz and Christine Porath of consulting firm The…
Which sounds more like your reality? That’s the way we’ve always done it Let’s think outside the box A recent Slate article headlined, “Inside the Box: People don’t actually like creativity,” rang true for me. One of the mantras I heard in business school, and again in management workshops, is that most people don’t like change. And creativity and change go…
It’s not ready for prime time — but we’re all friends here, so this is a sneak peek at my new consulting website: As I’ve worked with my website guru to develop this new way to present my consulting services, here are a few thoughts about the process: Most of the consulting work I’ve gotten so far has been from…
Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday … remember when it used to be just plain ol’ Thanksgiving? It seems there’s been more buzz this year around Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, making this a long weekend devoted to conversations of shopping and discounts. Should your business participate? Obviously too late to join in for this year,…
When technology companies use their own products, it’s commonly called eating your own dog food. Why dog food? I don’t know. But pour me a big bowl of Gravy Train. A few days ago, I posted to my Newvine Growing Facebook page looking for people to help me beta test a new service: I am testing a new service offering…
I don’t remember much about the commencement address at my college graduation. We were all crowded into a loud fieldhouse, which as I recall had lousy acoustics, and mainly we were waiting for those few seconds when we’d get to walk across the stage to prove we were graduates. I hope the graduates who heard Chris Sacca‘s commencement speech were able to…
Not long ago I had a hands-on social media training session with some of my favorite clients. We covered how to send an @reply and a direct message on Twitter, how to link to other businesses and people in a Facebook status update and how to use HootSuite and Facebook to schedule posts in advance. We even got them started…
Last week I wrote about some of my strategies for making the most of conferences. But once you’re done thinking big thoughts like “Which conferences are the best fit for me?” and “What message do I want to convey?” there’s practical matter of executing well. A few pointers I’ve picked up over the years: 1. Keep your business cards in…
I’ve just come back from a conference where I had more good conversations than I could count, got good ideas and business leads, and came away reinvigorated. That wasn’t an accident. I’ve been to enough conferences that I’ve developed some strategies about how to make them work for me: 1. Choose conferences carefully — I’m not a highly sought after…
On her Super Soul Sundays series on OWN, Oprah Winfrey recently talked with author Steven Pressfield about finding your calling. Pressfield suggests four questions to help you find your calling: What are you more afraid of than anything else in the world? What would you do if you knew you were going to die in three months? What would you…
I have a confession. In this marketing series, I write about integrated marketing and aligning all your marketing channels — your website, blog, social media, email newsletter and brochures, for example — to help tell your story. I believe in the importance of using all available methods to talk with your current and potential clients, and the data show consumers…
Today’s post is really more of an invitation, an urging, a fervent pointing elsewhere. Thanks to our friend Lou Rosenfeld for posting the link on Facebook, I read and loved Bill Watterson’s “How to Find Happiness.” It’s beautifully written, with charming Calvin & Hobbes style illustrations by Gavin Aung Than, and Watterson quickly and simply gets across his view of…
A friend recently asked a good question: Is there such a thing as too much marketing? You probably know if you’re doing too little. You haven’t updated your website in years, you never carry business cards, you don’t have an email marketing list. But too much? Isn’t that a matter of taste? I’m loathe to order anything from Victoria’s Secret,…
Wanting to change the world is a lofty goal, but according to a recent post by Public Words, it comes down to some basic principles. In an article headlined, “How to Change the World – 5 Lessons from People Who Have,” the communications strategists boil it down to five characteristics. My very streamlined summary: 1. Take the plunge. No one…
When I talk with people about living life intentionally, one of the common objections I hear is that they don’t know where they want to go. People might know they’re dissatisfied with where they are but can’t yet see a vision of another way. They don’t know what their dream job is or they don’t know what they want in…
