#LinkedIn Random And Unknown Facts

[canaryatlaw]

okay, it’s just past two so let’s go. today has been....a lot, and unfortunately I really have to be more vague than I was about last nights events....basically between 7 and 10 I received a bunch of phone calls from “no caller ID” which is a classic tactic of the dude I was talking about last night. When I tried to answer most of them immediately cut off, but we did speak once that definitely confirmed it was him. then there were a handful of other things. I emailed my boss again with the new info, and of course documented everything meticulously with screenshots and contemporaneous descriptions of events (because, you know, I have a little experience as to how to do that). I also took down pretty much all public details from social media accounts and put everything on private for the time being. there shouldn’t be any way to link to my twitter or instagram as they don’t come up when you’d type in my name, but I put them on private anyway and proactively blocked his instagram account, which I knew from the like 80 screenshots of him messaging my clients we have. I also removed my last name from my fb and temporarily deactivated my linkedin (not that I was using for anything) as it did come up when you google my name. so that was all fun. My boss got back to me and we’re going to speak with the head of our org tomorrow and come up with a plan. I know this might through a lot of people off, but I’m honestly not very upset about it because I was pretty sure this was going to happen for the last few weeks, and I’ve seen so many clients that have had to put up with this kind of harassment for months and months (and sometimes years) of their lives, so me not answering any unknown phone calls doesn’t seem like too much of a life-altering thing. Plus, it’s not like he’s in IL, so I don’t have to worry about him trying to track down my address and show up at my apartment or anything. sigh. so that woke me up earlier than I would’ve liked, but oh well. I tuned into the church service, as they’re back to doing full services with a small live congregation and of course being live-streamed from their website. they always have good stuff, so no surprise there. for a while afterwards I just chilled and watched tv while also on my computer. I watched the last episode of “the case against adnan syed” and god was that fucking depressing knowing the current state of the case, where they were SO CLOSE to getting things turned around, only to be dashed by the opinion of a court that I can’t help but think was a lot more concerned about protecting the reputation of their government lawyers and lower courts than whose freedom was actually at stake (this is very similar to Brendan Dassey’s case as well), but I know they’re not giving up and we will definitely hear more from them soon. I hung out for a bit doing random stuff, then about an hour before Batwoman came on I wanted some meaningless background noise I didn’t have to pay very much attention to while reading fic, so I put on batman the animated series which is now on hbo max and is so damn great. And then of course we had the second episode of season 2 of Batwoman. thoughts will be expounded upon on the podcast (so go listen to that for all the opinions! @batwomanpodcast twitter), but I thought it was a good episode, I enjoyed the interactions between characters who haven’t really had interactions with each other yet, and just how well that turned out. anyway. after that I watched WW84 because it was disappearing from hbo max at midnight tonight, so I figured i might as well give it another watch. Unfortunately on this watch the errors were much more apparent than they were the first time I viewed it, which is really just incredibly disappointing when I wanted so much better for this movie- like the first WW is legit my favorite movie, like ever, so maybe my expectations were too high, but this was way further behind whatever expectations I might have had. The whole villain plot with Maxwell Lord (ugh) and Barbara was honestly just very blah and not entertaining, and watching Diana and Steve together was about 1000 times better to watch. I really disliked the ending fight scene between WW and Barbara while she’s full become “Cheetah” for a couple reasons, one of them being that I really didn’t feel like it was necessary to the plot at all, and the scene itself is all sorts of cringe worthy in the way that made you just not want to look. There’s also the fact that she’s supposed to be one of WW’s biggest villains, and she was only there as actually herself for like, a 5 minute fight sequence she lost? Ugh, I could keep going but I’m way too tired at this point. after the movie I showered and got ready for bed and now I’m here and did I mention I was tired? Going to sleep now, thx. Goodnight dears. Hope your Monday doesn’t suck. 

[shirlleycoyle]

The Viral ‘Study’ About Runners Spreading Coronavirus Is Not Actually a Study

In the last 24 hours, a computer simulation by a team of Belgian engineers that tracks the “spread droplets” and “slipstream” of the exhalations, coughs, and sneezes of people who are running, walking, or cycling has gone viral. Perhaps you have seen this gif on Twitter, Facebook, or NextDoor. Or, as some people on our staff have seen, perhaps write-ups of it have been texted to you by concerned friends or family:

Though this was not the specific goal of the simulation, it is currently being used on neighborhood groups and social media as scientific evidence that people who are jogging and biking are putting others at risk. If you are getting “droplets” or “globules” on you, the thinking goes, you are at risk of contracting coronavirus.

“People should read and not misread my tweets and texts,” Bert Blocken of Eindhoven University of Technology, the lead researcher on the simulation, wrote in an email to Motherboard. ���I have never and nowhere discouraged people from walking, running, or cycling. Rather the opposite. Maybe people should read more, and react less.”

Blocken has yet to publish a peer-reviewed paper about the simulation. In fact, he hasn't even published a non-peer-reviewed study. Instead, he spoke to a reporter in Belgium about it, who wrote a news article, which has now been aggregated and shared widely by many publications. Given what Blocken has put into the world, taken at face value, some people are understandably concluding that it is impossible to run or cycle safely in many cities; he recommends a distance of 65 feet between bikers and other people, something that is impossible to do in cities. The issue with Blocken’s suggestion that we “read more, and react less” is that there is almost nothing to read, and there is no study to critique.

Blocken’s team took the extraordinary step of speaking to the media about his research before publishing anything about it. There is no written study to read or interpret. We do not know the specifics about how the study was done or how the simulation was run because the research team has not shared that information.

On Twitter, Blocken said the “crisis is urgent, so exceptionally we turned order upside down: (1) media, (2) today I submitted the proposal for funding (3) peer review article later. Public cannot wait months for peer review. I have a short text, I will post it on Linked In within the next hour.”

A day later, that LinkedIn post has not been published. What the team has published is something that it’s calling a “white paper,” but which is actually a Google-translated version of the Belgian newspaper article that was not written by Blocken or his team, but which quotes him. Ansys, the company that did the simulation in concert with Blocken, has also published a short but vague press release. In the meantime, this simulation has gone viral.

Studies like this are "not really useful. Not to epidemiologists anyway. The amount of transmission from this route even if it is possible will be dwarfed by that from others."

A Medium post written by Jurgen Thoelen, who describes himself as an “entrepreneur, building clouds in all forms and shapes and life-long athlete” has been shared thousands of times. On Facebook and Twitter, the article is being shared in neighborhood groups and is being used to spur a battle between pedestrians and runners and cyclists. A typical comment is something like this, shared in an Iowa City "Quarantine Survival" Facebook page: “Omg people keep doing this. Runners and bikers with zero regard for fellow pedestrians 🤬🤬” The simulation has also been written up by the Daily Mail, while gifs, stills, and memes of the simulation, shared with little or no context, have spread on their own.

This is all to say that we are unsure of the specifics of this study, what it actually shows, what its limitations might be, and how it was done. What it's suggesting could be accurate and useful, but we have no way of knowing that at the moment. And yet, this research is already being used to ask people to change their behavior and held up as definitive evidence that running and cycling are irresponsible during the pandemic.

Blocken said in an email that this was not his intention.

“Choice made in agreement with all the researchers involved and both university media agencies. The crisis is worldwide and the situation is urgent,” Blocken wrote. “We did not want to keep results behind closed doors until we have found the time to write down the full story. If I would have done the opposite, we would receive criticism about that. Never possible to do right for everybody. Given all the fuss I notice now, I will do an extra other late night effort and post the full story on Linked In tonight.”

“By the way this is aerodynamics work, not virology. Good luck with speeding up procedures in engineering journals," Blocken added. "COVID-19 will not wait months or until our paper is published."

Blocken is right: We face an urgent situation, and it’s important to get rigorous science out as quickly as possible. But hundreds of other scientists have managed to publish peer reviewed research about coronavirus in the last few weeks, on an expedited time scale. Thousands of others have published studies that are not peer reviewed, but that are at least studies in the way we usually think of them: Their methods and findings are explained in a rigorous way that can be critiqued. Even though this is a dire situation, scientific publishing safeguards exist for a reason, and we've already seen during this pandemic that a rushed process has led to bad, inaccurate science being published (that's not to suggest that Blocken's research is bad or inaccurate science, we simply have no way of knowing based on what's been published.)

Even if the simulations hold water and are accurate, virologists and experts should be the ones making public health recommendations, not random "entrepreneurs" on Medium, which is what has happened because these simulations were not published with the specifics of how they were done or what they mean. This type of research is of course important and should be done, but it should be released in a responsible way, with the caveats, limitations, and unknowns explained clearly. Then the research should be used by virologists and public health officials to make concrete recommendations to people.

I showed Blocken's research to William Hanage, an epidemiologist at Harvard's Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics. He said that the virality of Blocken's research is harmful, and that Blocken's suggestion in the white paper that this research is a "modest contribution" toward the fight against Covid-19 "makes my blood boil."

"Where the droplets are is much less relevant than the amount of transmission that occurs via this route"

Crucially, scientists are still unsure how well the coronavirus spreads in the air, and many have cautiously speculated that the overall risk of transmission appears to be less outdoors. Globules and droplets do likely carry the virus, but that doesn’t mean that anyone who gets a droplet on them from someone’s breath is going to be infected. Transmission depends on a host of factors; scientists believe an important one of these is “viral load,” which is a measure of how much of the virus is present.

"On the epidemiology side—where the droplets are is much less relevant than the amount of transmission that occurs via this route," Hanage said. "Advice on physical distancing is really about *reducing* the risk of transmission rather than eliminating it altogether."

He said studies like this are "not really useful. Not to epidemiologists anyway. The amount of transmission from this route even if it is possible will be dwarfed by that from others." He added "it's concerning" how fast the study has traveled … especially "when you consider I have had to write this email rather than putting the finishing touches to a model of nosocomial transmission [in hospitals]."

In a footnote on the white paper, Blocken admits “currently the subject of intensive debates between scientists world‐wide—is to what extent the residue of micro‐droplets with the virus, after evaporation, still carries an infection risk. Further virology research should shed more light on this issue.” Last week, the Atlantic's Ed Yong spoke to many virologists about this, and there currently is no consensus about how dangerous it is to exercise or be outside, but there is much research suggesting that the mental health benefits of exercising outdoors are important and should be taken seriously.

The issue of viral load and transmission is not addressed or mentioned in the Medium article nor in the Belgian newspaper Blocken spoke to.

When I asked if he was concerned about the fact his work had gone viral, especially in write-ups by non-experts, he said, “I am surprised by this question. You with your expertise should know that one can control the first line of media attention, and then people write stories of the stories, and it is impossible to control," Blocken wrote. "That would have happened equally if the full paper had already been published. This is not my first big media coverage, so I have been there, done that. There is free press."

Hanage said it's probably OK to exercise outside as long as you "apply common sense."

"I think there is a balance," he said, "other than in the situation where there are really really high rates of community transmission."

The Viral ‘Study’ About Runners Spreading Coronavirus Is Not Actually a Study syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[gofoundersreviews-us]

9 Team-Building Games and Exercises for Improved Productivity

Motivated employees, along with their talent, work productively more than unmotivated workers. People who are not inspired by the team or don’t share the same vision as the company can’t work efficiently and contribute to the team. Therefore, you’ll need to reinforce confidence and motivate them to contribute to the team more productively.

What’s the better way to build team bonding than games! People love games because they engage their mind and body and also create an opportunity to have fun. They’re a perfect solution to gel team members with each other and get along. Thus, here we list some excellent team-building games and exercises that are essential and recommended for improving productivity.

1. Truth and Lies

It is a simple game where the team should sit together, and each member should tell three facts and one lie about them – the lie shouldn’t be unbelievable though. The members can say these things in random order one by one. Later, the employees will have to tell which of the statements are lies. The activity can be best used as an icebreaker to introduce new employees to the team, and it can help understand the team members better.

2. Scavenger Hunt

You can group the members into two or three teams. Hand out a list of silly activities like taking a selfie with an unknown team member without their knowledge or with an animal or a bird. Collect a souvenir from your boss’s office or anything silly and fun. The activity will break any tension that exists inside the team.

3. Blind Drawing

Divide your employees into groups and make two employees against each other facing their backs. One person gets a picture, and the other person will have to draw based on the explanations. This improves communication within the team.

4. What’s My Name

Choose a team member randomly and stick a paper on her/his forehead with a celebrity name. The participant then has to go around, asking all the employees with a yes or no question until s/he guesses the right answer. It improves communication with the team members.

5. The Minefield

The activity has to be performed in an ample space – something like a parking lot or the roof. Choose a participant and blindfold her/him. Then ask other team members to litter the space with soda cans, bottles, or any other objects. Then another team member should guide the blindfolded participant to cross the area without stepping on any objects. The guide can give verbal cues for the other participant to follow. However, the blindfolded person can’t respond with words. This makes it more fun and engages team members to communicate with each other without inhibitions.

6. The Egg Drop

Have your team members collect office supplies to build a contraption to protect the egg from breaking when dropped. When the time is up, go to each team’s contraption and drop an egg on their building. Do it repetitively until one team is declared as a winner in the end. The activity helps in team coordination for problem-solving.

7.  Office Trivia

Create a group of 4-5 individuals and prepare a list of silly questions surrounding the office. The questions could be what color are the restroom tiles, or what colored cups are in the pantry, etc. This helps in team bonding and better coordination to perform the activity, and it’s fun too.

8. Plane Crash

Divide the staff into groups and create a scenario where their plane has crashed into an island and is deserted. Now they need to collect ten supplies from office for survival and prioritize them based on the urgent needs. The activity encourages communication and builds negotiation skills.

9. Tied Up

Group your staff into a team of 4-5 individuals and tie all their hands together with a rope. Then ask them to perform a task like making a sandwich or lemonade as fast as possible without sabotaging the operation. The activity improves team coordination when faced with challenges to perform their task.

Hence, these are the tasks you can try to improve team bonding with team building games and exercises. The employees will love them too, and you can see they will be more bonded with their team members and will coordinate better in the future team tasks.

In Conclusion, GoFounders is a leadership organization that has built strong, motivated teams. And through the GoFounders community, the team leaders share their positive ideas. The ideas shared improve the productivity of the team members and spread incredible positivity, team bonding, and motivation among the team members.

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[kadobeclothing]

How to Become an SEO Expert, According to HubSpot’s SEO Team

Braden Becker’s journey to becoming an SEO specialist at HubSpot is a slightly unconventional one. In college, he studied Writing & Rhetoric, which helped him land his first job as a copy editor at a B2B trade publication. As he progressed through his career, Braden pivoted to content marketing, where he worked as an editor at a SaaS company and then as a content manager at the world’s largest environmental services firm.

You might think someone like Braden would continue to climb the creative career ladder in content marketing. But today he actually spends more time in Ahrefs than he does in Google Docs. As the historical optimization lead on HubSpot’s Blog Team, Braden’s main responsibility is to identify blog posts that are falling in organic traffic and optimize them for search engines to rank higher on Google. He’s even sharpened his SEO chops enough to co-create the SEO strategy for all of HubSpot’s blogs.

Traits of an SEO Expert As a writer and editor for most of his career, SEO had always been in the periphery of Braden’s work — as it was a subject he had a solid grasp on but not necessarily a lot of expertise in. Today, though, SEO is his central focus. Braden, along with other SEO specialists at HubSpot, Aja Frost and Victor Pan, offered their advice about what it takes to become an SEO expert and the paths they took to get there.

How to Become an SEO Expert

Develop your skills. Research the field. Regularly test your SEO knowledge. Take a course and get certified. Find a method/tool that works for you. Grow your network.

Some SEO specialists don’t start out with the intention to dedicate their careers to SEO. Some start completely by accident. Let’s go over how HubSpot experts started theirs, and what you can do to start yours. 1. Develop your skills. “Getting a job in SEO ideally requires two things: content creation skill and analytical skill. Most SEO professionals today have one of those and develop the other,” Becker says. SEO experts are skilled writers with creative instincts. It’s helpful for those in the SEO profession to have a strong writing background because it takes creativity to optimize content in a way both Google and audiences will comprehend. In fact, Becker has noted that his writing background helped him get his start in the SEO industry. “My background in writing and editing helped me get my foot in the door, but a willingness to focus on the structure, mechanics, and intent behind my writing is what I think secured my role as an SEO specialist for HubSpot.” Braden’s story of pivoting from a creative career in content marketing to an analytical one isn’t as rare as you might think. Before Aja Frost became a senior SEO strategist at HubSpot, she was the editor of HubSpot’s Sales Blog. “I taught myself how to do keyword research and competitive analysis as the Editor for HubSpot’s Sales Blog,” Aja says. “The Sales Blog’s traffic had been flat for a year and a half — I noticed that the only posts that consistently generated views for us were getting all of those views from search. So I began looking for sales-related keywords we could rank for that would help boost organic traffic.” So, how do you start developing your skills to be SEO-ready? Here’s what Aja had to say about her strategy for keeping her SEO skills sharp. “To refine my SEO expertise, I constantly read. I’m really interested in technical SEO, so I look for blog posts, white papers, and research about site architecture and navigation, website speed, and everything that goes into that, including structured data,” she says. “SEO by the Sea, Sistrix, and Blind Five Year Old are all great technical SEO resources, along with (unsurprisingly) the Google Webmaster Blog. I’m a member of a few SEO subreddits (/seo and /bigseo are the most active). And I follow a ton of SEOs on Twitter — they drop random factoids or insights all the time.” Like Braden mentioned, a lot of SEOs start with one skill and start developing others. So, whether you’ve got an analytical mind and want to start a blog to practice writing, or you’re a seasoned writer looking to train your technical mind, having a balance in both will help you in your SEO career. 2. Research the field. In addition to initial research about SEO, it’s essential to keep up-to-date on the latest industry changes, so you aren’t using outdated optimization techniques Google doesn’t understand. For example, when Aja noticed the Sales Blog traffic was flat, starting SEO research helped her uncover why: she wasn’t delivering content audiences searched for. Aja doing research about SEO led her to discovering ways to improve the blog’s performance. SEO is always changing, so it’s crucial to keep updating your knowledge on the topic. To build his fundamental knowledge of SEO, Victor Pan, the head of technical SEO at HubSpot, cites reading as one of the best habits he’s gotten into. “I used to be a voracious reader on all publicly available information on SEO. I had an RSS feed of search-related blogs and news websites I would go through for a whole hour every day,” he says. “Mere exposure to ideas makes unknown problems in SEO easier to tackle when you have other people’s experiences or frameworks to build from.” For Victor, reading was one of the best ways to develop his SEO fundamentals. Alternatively, Aja took courses to broaden her knowledge. How will you use your time to research SEO? 3. Regularly test your SEO knowledge. Putting theory into practice gives you the practical knowledge and experience needed to level up as an SEO. In this way, SEO is kind of like playing a sport. You can read all about hitting a baseball or throwing a football, but if you never practice, you’ll never reach your full potential. To stay ahead of the curve in any industry, reading the latest news and research is hugely beneficial. But as an SEO, when everything is constantly changing, reading isn’t enough. To gain the practical experience that’ll truly take your SEO skills to the next level, you need to constantly test industry assumptions and your new ideas. “I test a lot of things to refine my SEO expertise. Should your brand be in your title tags? Is internal anchor text worthwhile to still do in 2020 to move rankings? What happens when you purchase fake social “signals” — do you see an increase in organic traffic?” says Pan. “Failed experiments taught me just as much as successful ones, and it made me a much more confident SEO whenever I would make any improvements to content. Just because, in one instance, making a change resulted in an improvement, doesn’t mean that change in another place will also result in an improvement— which is why we have to test and grasp causation over just correlation.” 4. Take a course and get certified. Earning a certification ensures that you have the proper knowledge in a certain area to successfully practice on your own. It also gives you credibility when you network on professional sites such as LinkedIn. When doing initial SEO research, Aja found courses she could take in order to get a certification for SEO, which opened up more doors. “This led me to experiment with SEMrush, AnswerThePublic, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and of course, HubSpot’s own SEO tools. I read a ton of blog posts and eventually got my Google Analytics certification.” If you decide to take a course, discover which one will provide you with the skills you need to advance in your SEO career. For instance, if you find that a certain course doesn’t go in-depth about subjects you need help in, it’s probably not the course for you. To get a head start on courses you can take, here is a list of three, two of which are part of a certification track for content marketing and inbound marketing. 5. Find a method/tool that works for you. Similar to finding resources that work for you and your skill set, it’s imperative to find an SEO routine or tool that will become your foundation. For keyword research, SEOs like to reference their personal arsenal of tools. For example, in addition to HubSpot’s SEO tools, some of HubSpot’s SEO experts also use tools, such as SEMrush, for additional research. You don’t have to use every single tool that exists to conduct your SEO tasks, you just have to make sure the tools are helping you accomplish your goals and giving you accurate practice with the subject. If you don’t know where or how to start searching for tools, here’s eight you can check out. Remember, you don’t have to commit to eight, just to the one(s) that’ll get your job done. Use what will keep your research well-rounded, accurate, and easy to comprehend. 6. Grow your network. Becoming an expert in SEO also means growing your network of fellow SEO professionals. There’s SEO groups on LinkedIn you can join, subreddits Aja mentioned, like SEO, and conferences you can attend. Broadening your circle of SEO experts grows your knowledge and credibility in the field. If you become enough of an expert, you can also speak at conferences in the industry. For example, Braden and Victor led a session at INBOUND — their presentation, “How to Grow (Your Organic Traffic) Better” introduces SEO changes, how to adapt to them, and how to use some basic SEO methods to optimize content. To get started building your network, look at the resources you have available. If you have a LinkedIn account, you can start making those industry connections. You can also watch YouTube videos for quick SEO tips and engage with other learners in the comments to pick up tips from peers. Based on Braden’s, Aja’s, and Victor’s stories, becoming an SEO expert doesn’t mean you have to start and finish your career as an SEO. Pivoting from one role to an SEO role and developing your expertise from then on is entirely possible — you just need to be willing to learn and adapt.

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[williamlwolf89]

How to Find Your Strengths, Pursue Your Passion, and Rule the World in 2020

Our boss cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, but I have some bad news.”

She paused, looking down at the stack of papers she was shuffling in her hands. She looked back up at us. She started to say something and then stopped, looking back down at the papers.

That’s when we knew we had lost our jobs.

Newly married and with bills to pay, I was scared.

“What am I going to do? How am I going to tell my wife?”

Hands shaking, I picked up the phone.

“Hi sweetie!” my wife answered, excited but surprised to hear from me. “Is everything okay?”

“Tell her there’s nothing to worry about,” I said to myself.

“Tell her we’ll be fine. Tell her I’ve got this. Tell her…”

“No,” I finally answered after a long pause.

“But it will be.”

Success Stories are Often Preceded by Tales of Woe

Before he became the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan was a high school sophomore licking his wounds after getting cut from the varsity team.

Before he became a millionaire CEO, Jon Morrow was recovering from a horrible automobile accident and wondering what he was going to do with his life.

And before I became the Editor-in-Chief at Smart Blogger, fulfilling my dream of writing full-time so I could work from home and spend more time with my family, I was just a boy…

…standing in front of a girl…

…asking her for directions to the unemployment office.

Life rarely takes the path we think it will take. All too often, it sends us on detours filled with potholes, road construction, and pedestrians who refuse to use crosswalks.

But here’s the thing:

Some of life's greatest opportunities are in the detours.Click To Tweet

Getting cut from the varsity team made Michael Jordan work harder. Jon’s accident afforded him time to learn everything there was to know about blogging. My unemployment led me here.

If I hadn’t lost my full-time job, I wouldn’t have leaned on freelance writing to make ends meet.

Knowing random baseball trivia wasn’t a payable skill. Neither was earning an income as a male model, no matter how devilishly handsome my wife says I am.

I turned to writing, a hobby I dabbled in from time to time on the side, out of desperation. And, to my surprise, I discovered — not just my passion, but — the thing God put me on this earth to do.

Of course, my story isn’t unusual. The paths people take to discover their strengths tend to have unique twists and turns.

The good news?

If you’ve yet to find your strengths, knowing the journeys taken by others can help you find your own way.

How 13 Influencers Discovered Their Personal Strengths (+ Lessons Learned)

Over the last several years, I’ve reached out to successful people I admire and asked them one simple question:

How did you discover your strengths?

Some (I’m looking at you, Weird Al) never got back to me. But many did.

Here’s how they responded (and how you can use their experiences to find your own strengths):

Make Yourself Uncomfortable

I’ve discovered all my strengths by making myself uncomfortable. What I mean by that is that all my life — on a pretty regular basis — I’ve put myself into these situations that made me deeply uncomfortable.

It meant living in a country where I didn’t speak the language; jumping out of a plane (with a parachute!); speaking in front of hundreds of people, and more.

Every time I do something that expands my personal comfort boundaries, I discover some strength I didn’t know I had.

It turns out I am more than capable of learning a new language. And facing my fear by jumping out of a plane was fun! And people enjoy my presentations when I speak.

If I’d never made myself try those things, I wouldn’t have discovered those strengths.

[On pursuing your passion]

It’s funny, more than using my strengths to pursue my passions, I think I’ve used that sense of “just go for it!” to pursue my passions.

The “nothing ventured, nothing gained” approach has served me well both in my personal life and in my business life.

That’s why I’m continually pointing people toward taking action. At some point, you have to take everything you’ve learned and step out and apply it.

Go ahead — jump out of that plane. There’s a beautiful view on the way down. 🙂

— Pamela Wilson Founder of Big Brand System

The Lesson

No one likes to be uncomfortable.

But, if you force yourself to be uncomfortable from time to time, you’ll find you’re capable of more than you could’ve ever imagined.

Takeaway Quote to Share

Every time I do something that expands my personal comfort boundaries, I discover some strength I didn’t know I had.Click To Tweet

Just Do It

I discovered my strengths from the simple yet powerful quote: ‘If you want to be…do.’ – Unknown.

I wanted to be a Podcaster, so I just had to Podcast. As I podcasted my way to the now over 1000+ episodes of EOFire, I uncovered strengths I didn’t even know I possessed, and it all stemmed from DOING.

— John Lee Dumas Host of Entrepreneurs on Fire

The Lesson

Want to know a surefire way to never find your strengths?

Do a whole lot of jack and squat.

Takeaway Quote to Share

I discovered my strengths from the simple yet powerful quote: ‘If you want to be…do.’Click To Tweet

Know Your Limits

You discover your strengths by trying new things. Eventually you will find out what you are good at and what you aren’t.

It’s almost like experimentation…

[On pursuing your passion]

Whatever you are passionate about, you want to use your strengths to move you forward. No one is a jack of all trades, so focus on using your strengths to help you accomplish your goals. As for what you aren’t good at, find other people to help you out in those areas.

— Neil Patel Co-founder of Neil Patel Digital

The Lesson

Knowing your strengths is great, but knowing your weaknesses is equally important.

Those things you suck at (whatever they might be)? It’s okay to ask a friend (or find someone on Google or LinkedIn) to handle them.

Takeaway Quote to Share

No one is a jack of all trades, so focus on using your strengths to help you accomplish your goals.Click To Tweet

Be Willing to Look Stupid

I discovered most of my strengths as a child. I was always a curious little fellow, trying out different things, making messes, never afraid of looking stupid or making a mistake. To me, it was always part of the fun.

I think that’s the biggest part of discovering what you do best: the willingness to look stupid. If you try 100 different things, you’ll suck at 95 of them, and you have to be willing to put up with the failures until you find the areas where you are genuinely gifted.

Personally, I realized I was a gifted writer really early. I was reading books and writing stories before I even got to kindergarten. For me, it was as natural as breathing. I can’t imagine struggling with it.

I think everyone has something like that. You just have to keep trying new things until you find it.

— Jon Morrow CEO of Smart Blogger

The Lesson

A byproduct of discovering the areas where you excel is discovering, through sometimes embarrassing mishaps, the things you’re bad at.

If you can power through the stumbles, you’ll eventually get to enjoy the successes.

Takeaway Quote to Share

I think that’s the biggest part of discovering what you do best: the willingness to look stupid.Click To Tweet

Do What You Love

By trial and error. I think we are notoriously bad at knowing what we are good at. I realized my strengths were a combination of what I loved doing, but also what I was good at and what was useful to people.

When I think of strengths, I think of things that give me energy, don’t take it. So I am constantly looking at what I’m doing and asking, “Is this fun? Does it energize me?” If not, how can I turn this into something that is fun and energizing or move on to something else.

We only have so much time on earth, so we might as well spend it doing things that are worth our time. For me, doing what I love (even on days when it’s difficult) is something I have to make room for.

— Jeff Goins Best-selling author of Real Artists Don’t Starve

The Lesson

Oftentimes, the quickest way to find your strengths is to ask yourself a simple question:

“What do I enjoy?”

True, there are no guarantees you’ll have a natural talent related to your passion. I’ve met many a baseball fanatic who couldn’t hit their way out of a wet paper sack.

But if you love something, if it energizes you, there’s a reason. And, sometimes, that reason is you’re good at it — even if you’re blissfully unaware of this fact.

Takeaway Quote to Share

When I think of strengths, I think of things that give me energy, don’t take it. So I am constantly looking at what I’m doing and asking: Is this fun? Does it energize me?Click To Tweet

Listen and Learn

Often people focus on their weakness and spend most of their time trying to get better. In my case, I do the opposite. I try to focus on my strengths and see how I can get even better.

I have discovered my strengths through variety of means. Sometimes it was just a gentle nudge from someone else telling me that I was good at something. At other times, it was from my quarterly reviews of what went well and what didn’t.

— Syed Balkhi CEO of Awesome Motive

The Lesson

If someone pays you a compliment, don’t assume it’s empty flattery. They might see a strength in you that you’ve to discover about yourself.

Takeaway Quote to Share

I have discovered my strengths through variety of means. Sometimes it was just a gentle nudge from someone else telling me that I was good at something.Click To Tweet

Try New Things

I discovered my strengths by trying new things, thinking about what I’m passionate about, considering what things I do that really make me feel energized, asking friends for their input, and challenging myself to keep stepping outside my comfort zone.

[On pursuing your passion]

Honestly, my strengths and my passions are mostly intertwined. For instance, I love writing. I can’t not write. I always say that if you were to leave me on a desert island with nothing, I’d find a stick and writing my thoughts in the dirt. I just can’t help myself.

I also love encouraging and cheerleading other people. So one of the ways I use my writing is to challenge and champion women to be the best versions of themselves that they can be. It’s the perfect mesh of both my strengths and passions.

— Crystal Paine Founder of Money Saving Mom

The Lesson

Want to find your strengths? Want to land your perfect job someday? You have to be willing to try new things.

Your comfort zone may be nice and cozy, but if you never branch out, you’re never going to grow.

Takeaway Quote to Share

I discovered my strengths by trying new things (and) stepping outside my comfort zone.Click To Tweet

Wear Many Hats

Honestly, it took me a little while to understand what my strengths were.

When I created StudioPress, I was wearing many hats, so I had to run all facets of the business. Through that experience I was able to determine the areas I enjoyed, and areas that I think I was strong in.

— Brian Gardner Founder of StudioPress and Minimologie

The Lesson

Finding your strengths can be a numbers game. The more things you take ownership of, the quicker you’ll discover the things you enjoy and — even better — the areas where you excel.

Takeaway Quote to Share

When I created StudioPress, I was wearing many hats, so I had to run all facets of the business. Through that experience I was able to determine the areas I enjoyed, and areas that I think I was strong in.Click To Tweet

Remember That it Isn’t a Quest

Like anyone, really — I stumbled upon my strengths by sheer accident.

I think discovering strengths isn’t really so much a specific quest we undertake: “Today, I’ve decided to discover whether I’m excellent or terrible at playing billiards.”

I think people find their strength more by undertaking an activity out of fun, interest, curiosity, need or obligation, and then realizing after the fact that, hey, they have a knack for it.

For example, I didn’t realize writing was one of my strengths until I’d written several pieces. I didn’t realize determination was one of my strengths until years of perseverance proved it so. I didn’t realize quick wit was a strength until… you get the picture!

[On how to follow your passion]

It’s more than just using your strengths, really. You can know your strengths, and apply them to your pursuits, but you also need to be aware of your capabilities and interest levels of said strengths.

It’s like this: I’m strong in math skills, but I don’t like math much, and it doesn’t really interest me — so naturally, it makes more sense to delegate number-crunching to my accountant.

That sort of self-awareness is a crucial element of successful entrepreneurship, and that’s why with every project I undertake, I don’t ask whether it falls within my strengths; I ask whether I’m the right person, or whether someone else would be better suited to the task.

— James Chartrand Owner of Men With Pens

The Lesson

People rarely find their strengths on purpose. Usually, it’s a happy accident.

Live your life, choose a career path, and reflect on your journey from time to time. Inevitably, you’ll discover you picked up a strength or two along the way.

Takeaway Quote to Share

I think people find their strength more by undertaking an activity out of fun, interest, curiosity, need or obligation, and then realizing after the fact that, hey, they have a knack for it.Click To Tweet

Challenge Yourself

From an early age I’ve had a knack for figuring out how things work and using that understanding to build scalable processes. Even with little to no subject matter experience.

It seems obvious to me now, but I only discovered this about myself in my mid-20s.

Although, looking back, I can see the signs – I dismantled my Dad’s VCR when I was 3-4 years old to try and figure out how it worked.

I taught myself to build websites using Dreamweaver when I was 12 and launched an online record label when I was in college.

When did I discover my strength exactly?

In 2012, I landed a job at a marketing agency based on my experience of building niche websites.

For reasons I didn’t understand at the time, I was put in charge of developing processes & systems for a new service offering.

I was the guinea pig. The canary in the coal mine.

I had to figure out whether the service could provide an ROI for the client, whether it was profitable, how our team would implement it, and the tech stack that would power it.

Feeling like I was in over my head? That would be an understatement.

But I persevered and got the job done. So well, that I became the go-to person for solving marketing-related challenges.

And eventually it hit me. Jason, my boss, figured out what my strength was back when he first interviewed me.

Here’s the thing:

Progress isn’t easy and personal development doesn’t magically happen. The pressure was real and there were moments when I did feel like pulling my hair out when dealing with nightmare clients.

Sure, there were moments where I felt like throwing in the towel but I pushed through and I’m glad I did. After all, we don’t know what we’re capable of until we’re challenged.

— Adam Connell Founder of Blogging Wizard

The Lesson

One of the best ways to discover what you’re made of is to apply a little pressure.

Will you sink?

Or will you discover a strength you never knew was inside of you?

Takeaway Quote to Share

We don’t know what we’re capable of until we’re challenged.Click To Tweet

Face the Roadblocks Head On

Discovering my strengths comes in two steps:

1) Knowing what goal I want to achieve; 2) Then accepting every roadblock as a personal challenge & opportunity to gain experience.

No true growth comes without opposition.

Sadly, humans desperately try to avoid what’s uncomfortable.

But what would you do if you knew you could not fail?

That’s where my own perspective differs from most:

What others call ‘failure’, I call “success in motion.”

[On pursuing your passion]

I find it a little ironic (and also humorous) that every skill developed during my hardest challenges in life became critical to achieving my successes today.

Being forced to learn podcasting & editing skills to create Wanted Hero shows for readers allowed me to earn $12K a day for a corporation disgruntled with their current media company.

Having to learn various web skills to build my Wanted Hero sites helped me secure dozens of jobs, including a high-paying annual contract requiring only 90 minutes of my time per month.

The best result of all?

Welcoming opposition in my life has provided the skill set to write, publish and promote my fantasy creations to the world.

— Jaime Buckley Author, father of 13, and creator of Wanted Hero World

The Lesson

Not every roadblock should be avoided. Some offer valuable life experiences that’ll help you grow and, yes, discover your strengths.

Also:

When you hustle, when you put in the hard work, new job opportunities have a way of presenting themselves to you.

Takeaway Quote to Share

No true growth comes without opposition. Sadly, humans desperately try to avoid what’s uncomfortable. But what would you do if you knew you could not fail?Click To Tweet

Take Advantage of Opportunities

Luck played a big role in finding out my strengths, and I learned that my strengths were quite different from what I’d always thought about myself.

I used to think I wasn’t creative, and I definitely didn’t have a talent for writing, but years ago I was working in corporate marketing and good content became key to my job. No one else wanted to write blog posts, so somehow I ended up writing our company blog. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it.

After taking Jon Morrow’s guest blogging course in 2011, I got published on Copyblogger and KISSmetrics and I had to admit to myself that I wasn’t so bad at writing. I became braver at trying out new things, and learned I had a knack for teaching and coaching. Who would have thought that I’d create a business to teach people how to write better!

— Henneke Duistermaat Founder of Enchanting Marketing

The Lesson

When job opportunities present themselves, take them. You never know when life is putting you on a path of self-discovery.

Takeaway Quote to Share

Luck played a big role in finding out my strengths, and I learned that my strengths were quite different from what I’d always thought about myself.Click To Tweet

Keep it Simple (Just Take a Test)

I rely on the Strengths Finder test to find my strengths.

We recently had everyone in the company take the test and then placed them on a grid so we understood everyone’s core strengths. It was very insightful.

— Michael A. Stelzner Founder of Social Media Examiner

The Lesson

Short on time or like to keep things simple?

StrengthsFinder 2.0 from Gallup is a strengths test that’ll help your discover your unique talents and greatest strengths.

Or, if you’re a reader, check out Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton’s Now, Discover Your Strengths (affiliate link).

Takeaway Quote to Share

I rely on the Strengths Finder test to find my strengths.Click To Tweet

Ready to Find Your Strengths and Pursue Your Passion?

We all have strengths.

That’s why it’s disheartening to see so many who are struggling.

It’s often not for lack of talent. And it’s (usually) not for lack of desire. It’s because they aren’t leveraging their strengths to their full potential.

Or, worse: they’ve yet to discover them.

But how do you find your strengths? And how can you cultivate them so you can pursue your passions?

After all, that’s the dream, right?

A career change…

Quitting your day job and landing your dream job…

Getting the right job offer from the right company that’ll allow you to strike the perfect work-life balance…

Doing what you love…

It can happen. All of it.

You just need to look for opportunities in the detours. Try new things. Challenge yourself. Be willing to make mistakes.

The insights shared above are meant to inspire you and help you discover your own path.

So go find your strengths. Use them to pursue your passions.

Rule the freakin’ world.

Are you ready?

Then let’s do this thing.

About the Author: When he’s not busy telling waitresses, baristas, and anyone else who crosses his path that Jon Morrow once said he was in the top 1% of bloggers, Kevin J. Duncan is Smart Blogger’s Editor in Chief.

The post How to Find Your Strengths, Pursue Your Passion, and Rule the World in 2020 appeared first on Smart Blogger.

from SEO and SM Tips https://smartblogger.com/find-your-strengths/

[accuhunt]

8 Secrets I Haven’t Told Anyone About My Travel Blogging Journey.

A few days ago, I sat in the balcony of our abode in Bhutan, watching the mist roll into the mountains. Below, in the neighbour’s house, stood two trees laden with juicy red apples. On a nearby hill stood an ancient monastery, its meditative chants wafting through the air. Purple and blue butterflies flittered about. Sipping hypericum tea, made from a local flower, I wondered how this came to be my life.

How did I end up becoming a digital nomad, financially sustaining myself through travel blogging, advocating for sustainable travel and veganism, and publishing a book?

Sliding down memory lane, some unforgettable moments stood out. Apart from the usual suspects like quitting my job and moving back to India, I reminisced about the unexpected ones. A weird mix of silliness, luck, stubbornness and downright irrationality. In retrospect, these unexpected episodes were equally important in shaping my journey as a travel writer:

I took a talking camera on my first travel blogging assignment in India!

I remember quitting my full time job in Singapore in 2011 and moving back to India with secret dreams of making it as a travel writer – though I never expected to make a living out of it. I blogged and tweeted about my travels with zest, and my excitement knew no bounds when a few months in, India’s veteran travel blogger, Lakshmi Sharath, invited me to my first ever travel blogging assignment – to cover Club Mahindra in Jim Corbett National Park in India.

It was the first time that a company sponsored my travels, and at short notice, the only gadget I had with me was my pink, talking Sanyo camera (a gift from my brother)! Among professional photographers with their fancy DSLRs and tripods, mine emitted a high-pitched noise asking the subject to “smile” before taking a photo. It became the butt of many jokes, and I got rid of it as soon as I accumulated enough money to buy a “serious��� looking camera

Also read: So You Want to Start a Travel Blog?

I stalked a marketing manager on Linkedin and got invited to my first international FAM trip

As a newbie travel blogger working day and night to create unique content, grow my engagement and reach, and build an active audience, I felt utterly disappointed (jealous?) every time there was an international press trip and all the same Indian bloggers were invited. Why wasn’t I getting invited? So in a rage of fit one evening, I began to stalk the marketing team of a tourism board on Linkedin, hoping to figure out who these decision-makers were.

What happened next blew my mind. Linkedin lets you see who’s viewed your profile recently, so later that night, I received a message from one of the people I’d stalked, asking if I’d be interested in joining a press trip (my first international one) to Spain! Hell yes. WHAT CRAZY LUCK.

Also read: Confessions of an Indian Travel Blogger

Someone called my writing “average and boring”

I vividly remember that warm afternoon in 2011, when I forwarded a travel blog post to a friend. Back in those days, this blog was merely a place for me to vent and share random life musings. I was toying with the idea of rejigging it into a travel blog, and sharing my travel pieces with anyone who showed the slightest interest in reading them (if you’re a blogger, you know how hard the early days of finding readers are!).

Never in a thousand years did I expect the feedback I received: that my writing was average, boring and unexciting. I shed a tear or three, then went back to the piece with my most critical eye and admitted to myself that the “I went there, I did this” style of writing is boring indeed. In retrospect, that one critique changed everything. It pushed me to read more, experiment with my words and try to find my own unique voice – something I continue to do to this day.

It’s not easy to find someone who will tell us to our face that our work sucks. But that person is a keeper. It’s the only way to push forward and get better at what we do.

Also read: If the World Was a Library, These Books Would be the Destinations I’d Pick

At my first international conference, I was shocked to discover that travel bloggers get paid for everything I was doing for free

I landed up at TBEX Canada, my first international travel blogging conference, thinking that with the many international press trips in my kitty, I had already made it. Imagine my shock when I learnt that many international travel bloggers were getting paid for everything I was doing for free – going on press trips, creating content for travel brands and promoting them on social media. It all made sense, considering that we were generating real revenue for these tourism boards and brands. I left in awe, ready to believe that my beloved blog could become a potential source of income.

When I got back to India and started asking PR companies and tourism boards for a blogging fee, everyone thought I had lost my mind. Many bloggers said it would never work in India. Some even considered it unethical. Tired of working for free, especially knowing how the industry had evolved abroad, I sent out some pretty harsh emails and got blacklisted by some agencies.

After many rejections, I felt vindicated when one forward-thinking brand agreed to pay me. Trembling with joy, I asked for a mere 500$ for an international press trip despite promising many deliverables – but hey, it was a start. The travel blogging industry in India evolved gradually, and most professional travel bloggers now expect to be paid for such work.

Also read: Learning to Walk Away

When I over-promised, couldn’t deliver and got into a sticky situation

Back in the day, it was common for bloggers to be coerced into writing about a press trip for publications  – and the naive blogger that I was, I agreed to the demand of a resort in Mauritius to feature them in a story in India’s biggest newspaper. Unfortunately, upon my return, I realised that no prominent media publications were interested in carrying yet another story about sea, sun and sand in Mauritius. I had many sleepless nights trying to figure out how to meet this promise, cursing myself for over-promising.

In the meantime, I was running a contest for my readers to win a stay at this resort, but just as I was about to announce the winner, they told me they wouldn’t honor my contest until the publication carried the story! I was livid and helpless, too broke to repay them for the trip and felt stupid for not thinking through my decisions. Ultimately we reached a compromise and I decided never again to promise coverage on a platform I don’t control.

Also read: Practical Tips to Break Into Freelance Travel Writing

At a farm in India, forced to learn about sustainbility for the first time!

Back in 2012, we started India Untravelled to connect rural tourism initiatives with travellers seeking authentic experiences in India. “Sustainable living” was mostly an unknown idea to me then. Scouting for potential destinations, we landed up at an organic farm in rural Rajasthan, hoping to catch some rest after a long, tiring journey. Instead, our host, a burly, firm man, made us sit in his open balcony and aggressively quizzed us about organic farming, sustainable travel and zero waste. It was like being back in school, without having done your homework! We sneakily googled some answers and faltered through others – relieved when he finally stopped the grilling and gave us a long lecture instead. Phew.

In retrospect though, that chastening encounter set me on a journey to explore more conscious and eco-friendly choices and eventually become an advocate for sustainable tourism.

Also read: How Croatia Compelled Me to Rethink Travel Blogging

A café brochure that changed everything

While waiting for a table to become available at Peace Food Cafe in New York City, a brochure in the waiting space caught my eye. Among other things, it had gruesome photos and facts about dairy farming and eggs. I had turned vegetarian a decade ago in protest against animal cruelty, but never saw anything wrong with consuming milk, eggs and honey, or lifestyle products like leather, silk and wool. Hell, I didn’t even know I was waiting at an all-vegan cafe!

That was the first time I learnt about the concept of veganism – though it would be nearly a year later, after a shocking incident in Nicaragua, that I would actually make the transition towards veganism. Who knew a random brochure in a cafe could literally change my life?

Also read: What I Learnt Volunteering on a Remote Island in Cuba

A cover story that gradually led to my book

I remember staying up all night to work on a story on my digital nomad life for The Hindu. As often happens with deadlines, I procrastinated all week, only to lose precious sleep at the eleventh hour. I cursed everything under the sun as I banged away at my keyboard, drinking iced tea to keep my brain from getting foggy. I thought many times about giving up, making a lame excuse to the editor and tucking in for the night. But somehow I kept going, and as the sun rose, finally turned in the story, convinced that this writing thing wasn’t working for me.

When it got published a few days later, I was surprised to hear from the editor of a prominent literary publishing house, asking if I’d be interested in writing a book about my journey! Although flattered by his email, I dismissed the idea of ever penning a book. I mean, I could barely pen that article.

A few years later, I feverishly started working on a travel memoir, determined to publish it before I hit thirty. It turns out, convincing a good publisher in India to even look at your work (unless you’re a well known celeb), is even harder than writing a book. Luckily, the person who had written to me all that time ago, made some generous introductions that ultimately led me to a book deal with Penguin – and my first book, The Shooting Star, got published in 2018!

Also read: Reflections on Life, Travel and Turning 29

As a tiny, bright rainbow appeared in the valley across my balcony in Bhutan, I couldn’t help but think it’s not always the big decisions that shape our lives. It’s often the stupid, tiny, laughable ones.

Your turn, what’s a secret about travel blogging or travelling you haven’t told anyone yet?

Join my adventures around the world on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Order a copy of my bestselling book, The Shooting Star.

8 Secrets I Haven’t Told Anyone About My Travel Blogging Journey. published first on https://airriflelab.tumblr.com

[dorishull]

Time-tested LinkedIn Prospecting Techniques to Land Clients

Have you ever considered LinkedIn as a lead generation tool, to find and attract more prospects and clients?

Or perhaps you have little problem in connecting with new prospects, but you struggle with moving your connection to a sales conversation?

To generate more leads and prospects on LinkedIn, you need to move a person from being an unknown connection to someone who trusts you and is prepared to have an offline conversation with you.

Over the years I have developed a LinkedIn lead generation (social selling) framework called The LINK Method, which helps business owners, professionals service providers, marketers and sales reps to move from merely collecting connections online, to building relationships and moving them offline.

In this method, which I share in my #1 international bestselling book, LinkedIn Unlocked, in my online course and during my live  LinkedIn Implementation Labs, I employ many of the fundamental concepts shared by Dr. Robert Cialdini from his proven system, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. The six steps he shares in his book include:

Reciprocity

Authority

Scarcity

Liking

Consistency

Social Proof

Because these six steps to persuasion are so vital for LinkedIn prospecting, I am going to break each one down for you in detail.

Use LinkedIn for Prospecting to Land More Clients

Before we dive into my breakdown of how to use LinkedIn for prospecting, you might find it helpful to listen to Dr. Robert Cialdini explain these techniques in his own words:

1. Scarcity

Scarcity provides that same satisfaction that you get after you’ve acquired something that had not otherwise been acquirable. It’s similar to the prestige that makes the title “Limited Edition” such an attractive statement when attached to a product.

Many online deals, including online courses or trainings, are notorious for getting the impulse buy through showing you the short amount of time you have left to purchase the “deal” (think the countdown clocks). I catch myself still falling for that old trick, even with deals that I have seen go up multiple times, solely for fear of missing out (FOMO).

Implement these LinkedIn Prospecting Tips

You can implement this LinkedIn prospecting technique by incorporating any exclusive or limited time resources or content that you are offering, such as free checklists, quizzes, reports, webinars, white papers, demos or other helpful content, in your LinkedIn lead generation messages.

Additionally, while I have shared many reasons why being a LION (LinkedIn Open Networker) is NOT in your best interest, this is just one more. People like the idea of being part of your hand-picked, exclusive network, rather than someone who will connect with just anyone.

2. Reciprocity

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a firm believer in the Law of Reciprocity. Nothing makes a stronger and more genuine impression on someone than when you give selflessly, generously and (most importantly) without the expectation of receiving anything in return. However what you give more often than not comes back to you.

It’s not just about helping people but also giving them a reason to feel good about helping you.

Implement these LinkedIn Prospecting Tips

People will feel more obliged to accept your connection request, reply to your message, refer you, or move the conversation offline if you have first shared valuable information with them.

Here are a couple of ways to strengthen the Law of Reciprocity in your favor on LinkedIn:

Send helpful content (that you have no personal gain in), to a LinkedIn connection or hot prospect, just because you are sure it would be of value to them. Make sure anything you share will be of specific benefit to them personally and take the time to write why you thought they might find that particular piece of content of interest. They will appreciate the gesture, even more, knowing that you are not acting selfishly.

Connect your LinkedIn connections who would benefit from an introduction with each other, if you feel that they would both benefit from it. In doing so many will think of you when they come across someone who needs what you offer.

3. Consistency

People don’t just invest their money into quality products/services, they also look for people who have demonstrated a consistent reputation for quality.

You can take advantage of this LinkedIn prospecting practice by consistently and reliably showing people that you are knowledgeable, credible and care about their them and their success.

Understand that random, occasional actions will not have the same impact as those which are planned out in advance, carried out on a consistent basis and that people can trust will continue.

People can sense when you are being insincere and dishonest. Remember, once trust is broken, it’s almost impossible to earn back. The biggest payoff for being consistent and for sticking to ethical marketing, or as I like to call it, trust-based marketing, is that people do business with those they know, like and trust.

Implement these LinkedIn Prospecting Tips

Help your connections and prospects to get to know, like and trust you by:

Posting a status update daily, with content that is valuable to your prospects (created or curated).

Publish articles (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly) on LinkedIn Publisher, to establish your authority on your topic.

Reach out to your hot prospects regularly to share content that will be of value to them (created or curated).

Reply to LinkedIn messages and InMails every day.

Respond to the comments people leave on your posts (don’t forget to be social on social media).

It’s also important to be consistent with engaging with those that have previously liked, commented on, or shared your articles or status updates, they are generally more open to accepting a request from you, especially if you remind them of that previous interaction.

4. Authority

Being consistent about posting high-quality content on LinkedIn is great, but how does one establish true authority on their topic in a way that attracts business?

Without question, the best way to build your authority on your topic is by creating and sharing quality content that provides high value on issues that are of interest to your ideal clients.

Remember, people are more likely to comply to requests from those that they perceive as an expert or authority.

The most common reason businesses fail with their content marketing efforts is because they make the mistake of thinking that they need to focus on promoting themselves and their products or services in their content.

It is precisely the opposite with content marketing.

In fact, your content will perform much more successfully if you put the focus on helping your ideal clients solve their challenges, rather than trying to showcase your expertise through the promoting of your products or services.

My team and I spend hours each week providing quality free content on how to generate more leads using LinkedIn, social selling best practices and how to use content marketing to increase engagement and build relationships.

Now a large percentage of the people that read my content will never spend a dollar on the books, courses, live workshops or other services that I offer.

And that is perfectly okay because the do-it-yourself types either lack the funds to pay for my services or like the challenge of doing it themselves and would never have purchased anyway. But these people know I am an authority on my topic, are very appreciative of the resources I have provided, and are happy to share that knowledge with their network. A network which might include my ideal clients – those who either lack the time or the desire to do what I do and will gladly pay me for my expert services.

Implement these LinkedIn Prospecting Tips

By sharing your best, up-to-date knowledge with your readers, you gain the benefits of:

Undeniable authority and positioning as an expert in your industry

Credibility through the people who share and engage with your content

A steady stream of leads of people who know you are an authority and are happy to pay for your products or services.

5. Social Proof

The desire to find social proof is an automatic psychological reflex that we all have. People tend to base their decisions on the reviews and decisions of their peers. Nobody wants to be the guinea pig.

For example, how often do you look for reviews before buying a book on Amazon or going to watch the latest movie?

So, when a person doesn’t know what the proper behavior for a particular situation is, they will look to others to imitate what others are doing to guide their actions. In simpler terms, social proof helps us make decisions when we are uncertain, based on the experiences and choices others make or have made in the past.

It’s nice to be able to gain wisdom through the second-hand experiences of those we trust. That’s why reviews, testimonials, and endorsements have been so influential for businesses.

Implement these LinkedIn Prospecting Tips

Social proof becomes even more effective on LinkedIn when people can relate professionally or are in a similar situation to the people who took action before them.

For example, social proof can be a significant factor when a potential connection is considering whether or not to accept your connection request.

If they see that you have many connections which are similar to them, this level of proof can make them more inclined to accept your connection request.

Additionally, if your profile has many LinkedIn Recommendations and Endorsements on it and regular activity visible (again, particularly if a potential connection can relate), this can make that prospect much more likely to want to accept your invitation.

6. Liking

Have you ever not bought something just because you didn’t like the company (or their politics)?

It is a well-known phenomenon that people buy from people they know, LIKE and trust.

Unless you have become a monopoly in your industry, people need to like you before they consider doing business with you.

Implement these LinkedIn Prospecting Tips

One of the best ways to become more likable to your ideal clients on LinkedIn is also one of the simplest: transparency and authenticity. You can’t build relationships and get more clients without letting people know a little bit about who you are what and what you stand for. What’s even more important is how you make people feel.

Recently I had someone comment very aggressively on one of my posts, he very much disagreed with what I posted. Several hundred people engaged with that post, he was the only one that disagreed. Several people privately mentioned me to tell me how rude they thought he was and how well they feel that I responded. What he doesn’t realize is that it’s not only the people engaging with that post that could see his comments, it was his entire network. That is going to work against him in the “liking” department.

When your ideal clients can relate to you, they are more likely to trust that you understand their problems well enough to help them solve it.

This means you need to be clear on who you are, what you stand for, and why you do what you do so that you can share this in a clear and concise way with your ideal clients.

The Value of Proximity

There is an additional strategy that you can make use of, which is proximity.

Sharing similar proximity to people can play a helpful role with your LinkedIn prospecting as they are more likely to connect, respond or comply with your request if you are either physically close to them or close to their network.

You can make use of this strategy by mentioning that you are located in the same location or connected to the same people, in any connection requests or messages.

The Internet and social media have made it a lot easier to do business globally, my clients are located all around the world BUT don’t ever forget to focus on your local region. There’s nothing better than getting the opportunity to meet people face to face. And unless you live in a tiny region, there’s plenty of business for you right in your own backyard.

Power Up Your LinkedIn Prospecting

Regardless of whether your ultimate goal is to increase visibility, generate more leads, or get more sales, these highly effective factors in the psychology of persuasion can help you achieve greater success with your LinkedIn prospecting.

And if LinkedIn prospecting is top-of-mind for you, I invite you to get my free guide LinkedIn Lead Generation Machine. If you’re not generating 30 – 50 new high-quality leads each month using LinkedIn, you’ll want to get your hands on it. Click here to download it now.

The post Time-tested LinkedIn Prospecting Techniques to Land Clients appeared first on Top Dog Social Media.

Time-tested LinkedIn Prospecting Techniques to Land Clients syndicated from https://likesandfollowersclub.wordpress.com/

[ronnykblair]

10 Years of Running This Business: My Top 10 Red-Pill Truths

Ten years ago this week, I officially launched M&I.

If you do a quick survey of your friends, acquaintances, and co-workers, you probably can’t find anyone else who has held the same job for 10 years.

Which makes me lucky, insane, or a bit of both.

To put the time in perspective, I started out when Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns still existed, and when Donald Trump was best known for The Apprentice.

The first iPhone had been released months ago, everyone was incredulous at Facebook’s $15 billion valuation (it’s now worth $500+ billion), and people were certain that Hillary Clinton would be the next President.

And I was young, naïve, and eager to quit my job and live the dream running an online business from a beach in Thailand.

Since then, I’ve taken the red pill.

I’ve launched products and services, hired and fired people, survived crazy relationships in both New York and Korea, and traveled and lived around the world.

And I’ve I learned some uncomfortable truths in the process.

I came up with dozens, but here are my top 10:

1) If You’re an International Student, Watch Out! Universities Are Exploiting You

There has been a massive increase in the number of international students at universities in the U.S., U.K., and other Western countries over the past decade.

Universities might claim they’re doing this to “embrace diversity” or “go global,” but don’t be fooled: It’s mostly about the money.

International students in the U.S. are not eligible for most government aid, so students must pay close to the list price – which means they either come from wealthy families or borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Many universities, especially in the lower tiers, are in dire straits financially, so they need the money. It’s a match made in heaven.

Just one small problem: It is very difficult to get a work visa after graduation, especially if you majored in a non-STEM subject. And even if you do get a work visa, there’s no guarantee that you’ll get to stay in the country indefinitely.

So, you apply, accept admission, pay a small fortune… and then get sent back after graduation.

To get around this, you need to start early and major in a STEM subject, attend a Master’s program and do the same, or give up and return to your home country.

2) The Fundamentals of Recruiting Don’t Change, But the Details Do

The truth is, not that much about finance recruiting has changed, despite what random 18-year-olds say online.

I just glanced at my emails from 2007-2008, and there were a lot of questions about networking, winning interviews from an unknown state school, overcoming low grades, and moving into banking as a career changer.

And today… the questions and comments are virtually identical.

Even in the reader interviews I conduct, the accounts of networking and interviewing at banks have stayed consistent over the years.

The top three points that have changed are:

Candidate Pool – Banks can no longer get “the best and the brightest” because finance jobs have become less appealing. Smart and accomplished people from top schools still go into the field, but the average quality is lower.

Timing – Summer-internship recruiting and buy-side recruiting now start so early that it is almost comical; these early start dates partially explain why banks no longer get the best candidates. If this trend continues, banks will soon be recruiting summer interns from elementary school, 15 years in advance of internships.

Required Technical Knowledge – You need to know significantly more about accounting, valuation, and financial modeling to win offers these days, particularly at the elite boutiques.

These points may seem significant, but think about how much has not changed:

Your story is still critical, and you still tell it in a similar way.

Technical questions still cover the same topics.

You still use emails, LinkedIn, and informational interviews to network in the same way.

I have been revising and updating articles on this site, but that’s mostly because I didn’t capture everything correctly the first time around – not because there have been massive changes.

3) Your University Friends & Network Are Incredibly Valuable… But Only Up to a Certain Age

I’ve lived and worked around the world in the past decade: South Korea, Australia, Argentina, Finland (kind of), Spain, and more.

But I’ve made almost no long-term friends in these places.

Almost everyone in my current social circle is from university or is connected to it in some way (friend of a friend, referral, etc.).

In school, you don’t need a specific reason to become friends with someone, which makes it easier to develop friendships “just because.”

Once you graduate, friendships tend to become more situational and transient.

You might become friends with someone at your new job, but once the person leaves, that’s it.

But the network you develop in school tends to withstand work and geographical changes more readily.

On the other hand, it also gets weaker over time as people settle down, have families, and drift into new fields.

So, you need to replace lost connections and develop a non-university network as you get older.

I’ve done a poor job of this, so I’m not sure I have any specific tactical advice.

But I have observed that “work friends” tend to disappear more quickly than others, so a starting point might be to depend more on activities/hobbies and less on co-workers.

4) Don’t Build a $5,000 Product for a $500 Market

One of my biggest mistakes, detailed in Part 5 of my Life Story, was taking the financial modeling courses and guides I created in 2009-2011 and revamping them to make them 10x more detailed.

Each new case study was based on a real company or deal, and there were SEC filings, press releases, industry research, channel checks, and more.

There were 32-page stock pitches, 50-slide pitch books, Excel models with thousands of rows, and 100+ hours of video.

And… no one cared.

Crickets.

I made the mistake of listening to a vocal minority who wanted “more advanced material” rather than the vast majority who simply wanted efficient training.

Also, I ignored the ugly truth that most people who buy educational products – even expensive ones – do not use them.

We get customers who pay $1,000 or $2,000 and then don’t even open the files or submit their resume/CV for editing.

And if someone does use the product extensively, he/she still tends to value brevity more than 543,123 hours of training.

More comprehensive products don’t necessarily sell better; people are willing to pay a certain amount for certain products/services, and “quality” is tough to define and use as a selling point.

I’m now reversing this mistake by replacing the courses with shorter, simpler versions, but I should never have gone down this path in the first place.

5) Don’t Hire Friends, Family, or Acquaintances

Almost all my hiring mistakes have happened because I hired a friend, a friend-of-a-friend, or an acquaintance rather than a professional.

If you run a business, you may be tempted to hire someone you know because “He/she would be great, and you already know him/her!”

But as Admiral Ackbar might say, it’s a trap!

People you already know personally tend not to respect you as an authority figure, and they often drag personal issues into the job.

One time, I hired a friend to do some design work in the early days of M&I, and he was 6 months late finishing the project because he was busy with his new band.

Another time, a friend I had hired in a customer support role couldn’t answer questions because his roommate locked him out, and he had to use an ax to force open the door.

No joke – he sent me the photos of the broken door.

You get the idea.

You could make a case for co-founding a company with a friend, family member, or acquaintance, but stay away from hiring them as subordinates.

6) If Customer Service is Killing You, You’re Doing Something Wrong

You read a lot of stories about “customer-centric” companies like Zappos killing it because they are responsive and willing to chat with you on the phone 24/7 to resolve problems.

I followed a similar philosophy a long time ago.

I used to kill myself staying up until 3 AM fixing customers’ Excel files, answering every incoming pre-sales question, and even offering phone consultations.

If someone wasn’t happy with even one small part of the product, I went out of my way to please them with free bonuses, services, and my own time.

But eventually, I realized it was all pointless:

80%+ of Customers Don’t Even Ask Questions: There are about 34,000 active BIWS accounts and ~13,000 submitted questions right now. Even if you assume that each question is from one unique customer, 62% of our users have never even asked a question. And the real percentage is much higher – probably 80-85% – because the same 5-10 users tend to ask questions repeatedly.

Fewer Than 5% Ask Questions Before Buying: Yes, even with products priced at $197, $497, $997, and $1,497, we get relatively few questions. Be skeptical of people who claim you “need” to do phone or in-person sales above a certain price point.

The problem with the “Zappos approach” is that someone with complex or demanding requests is unlikely to be satisfied by any response.

You can go out of your way and spend hours attending to the problem, and the person will still not be satisfied because he/she is inherently a difficult person.

So, why bother?

“Customer service” might be a differentiating factor in a commoditized business (online shoe sales), but if you’re selling highly specialized or luxury products/services, don’t kill yourself.

Get the offer, the pricing, and the marketing right, and provide competent-but-not-Zappos-like service afterward.

7) The Facts Don’t Matter – Only the Story Does

When I started this site, I had a serious problem: I knew the industry, and I was confident I could coach clients and teach the technical side, but I had zero credibility.

I was very young, and in real life, I didn’t come across like the stereotypical banker at all.

I seemed more like a tech/startup person, and people sometimes didn’t believe I was in finance.

So, I did what any good storyteller would do: I invented a new identity (“The Inquisitor”) that was better aligned with the market.

If I could demonstrate my competence with content and client results, my actual credentials and qualifications – or lack thereof – wouldn’t matter.

Early articles made it sound like I was Patrick Bateman crossed with Jordan Belfort from The Wolf of Wall Street.

I never gave detailed information about myself because I wanted you to come up with your own story about me.

Any story that you create and tell yourself is far more powerful than any story that I could tell you.

It worked!

Back in 2008-2009, many visitors assumed that I was an anonymous Director or Managing Director at a large investment bank.

Anyone who read between the lines and beyond the lines was skeptical, but this is the Internet: Critical thinking is an endangered species.

The usual reaction was: “He has a ton of helpful, in-depth content. Judging by this content and my interactions, he must be an experienced banker who knows this stuff really well.”

To get around my lack of formal credentials and qualifications, I relied on the story.

And if you want to get ahead, so should you.

8) Raise Prices

When Tim Ferriss interviewed Marc Andreessen on his podcast, he asked him the famous “billboard” question:

Tim Ferriss: “If you could have one billboard, anywhere with anything on it, what would you put on it? If you wanted to convey a short message to as many people as possible.”

Marc Andreessen: “I’ve got one, I’ve actually thought about hiring a skywriter to do this one. Right in the heart of San Francisco would be a billboard with just two words on it: Raise Prices.”

Pricing is the #1 mistake that startups make.

It’s certainly one of the top 2-3 mistakes I’ve made.

And it’s almost always the same mistake: Entrepreneurs price their products and services too low, which sets the perception that their products and services can’t be any good.

Then, they can’t afford the sales & marketing required to sell them… and when nothing sells, they cut prices again, making their products look even worse and even harder to sell.

Here are my top pricing mistakes:

Industry-Specific Courses: Initially priced at $97, even though competitors’ courses were in the $497 – $997 range. I should have started at $247 or $347 at the very least; when I finally increased prices to $247, units sold increased!

Interview Guide: Started at $47, went to $97 after a year, and stayed at $97 for almost a decade, even as the content and services multiplied. When we raised the price to $197 in June this year, the dollar volume of sales increased by 2.5x.

Releasing New Versions for Free: When Microsoft releases a new version of Office, do you get it for free? No! You pay for an upgrade, or you get it as part of an annual or monthly subscription.

If I could go back in time, I would fix everything above and gradually increase prices over the years.

9) Make Your Money Early – But Not Too Early

As I’ve written about before, money affects you in unexpected ways.

Coming from a lower-middle-class family and graduating from university with over $100K in student loans, I’ve become more isolated as I’ve gained wealth.

It’s difficult to relate to friends and family members who are struggling to earn more when I have the opposite problem (money, but almost no free time).

But… I’m much happier to be in this position than the “I’m in my mid-to-late 30s, don’t have a stable career, and don’t have enough money” position.

Once you reach that age, it becomes difficult to amass significant wealth with conventional methods.

Careers like investment banking, consulting, and private equity are shut off, so your main options are to start your own business, join a VC-backed startup and win the lottery, or start a side hustle such as real estate.

Those sound nice in theory, but your free time and motivation drop as you get older.

Having kids will annihilate your free time, but even without them, you’ll get sucked into more family/legal/other issues, you may develop health problems, and your day job will get busier with age.

So, if your goal is wealth, act on it when you’re young.

But there is one corollary: Don’t make too much money when you’re too young.

Most of my friends and acquaintances who hit the jackpot by working at companies like Facebook or Google in their early 20s haven’t done much since then.

Making millions or tens of millions at that age is like entering a cheat code in a video game: You win the game, but the boss battles are boring.

It’s good to struggle, fail, pivot, and change because it makes the journey more interesting and the final boss battle more rewarding.

As a rough guideline, I’d say that 20 years after university graduation is a good time frame to target for “financial security.”

I won’t define that term precisely because it means different things to different people.

At that point, you could downshift and focus on family or double down and feel secure enough to start another venture.

10) Don’t Stay in the Finance Industry for the Long Term

You could still make a strong case for starting out in investment banking and spending a few years there.

You gain a well-defined skill set, a solid network, and client/transaction experience that will be valuable everywhere.

But the long-term industry prospects have become much worse – everything from compensation to automation to the increasingly-under-pressure hedge fund/asset management/private equity industries.

Plus, you do nothing useful for the world.

Most of your work involves making rich people even richer, so you arguably make the world worse.

There are occasional exceptions, but they are few and far between.

The only good reasons to stay in finance for the long term are:

You Care About Money and Nothing Else – For example, $1 million is not enough; you need at least $10-20 million, or you’ll be a failure.

You Find the Work Legitimately Interesting – If you enjoy the process of digging into financial statements, wining/dining clients, or advising on deals, then sure, knock yourself out.

Another 10 Years?

As you can tell from the tone of this article, my enthusiasm has declined quite a bit.

I could explain that in many ways: Worsening market conditions, sillier and sillier questions, less rewarding interactions, and increased time spent on minutiae.

But the simplest explanation is often the best one: Ten years is a really long time to spend on one job, especially when that job barely changes.

I don’t necessarily want to quit, but I do expect to change the format of this site in the future.

For example, I may delete the less-popular articles, focus on keeping the top 100-200 updated, and occasionally write something new.

The good news is that I’m more interested in expanding/improving the BIWS courses, so you’ll see updates there far into the future.

I could see that lasting for another decade – even if M&I, in its curren from ronnykblair digest https://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/10-years-top-10-red-pill-truths/

[lostdrifters]

Travels of the Lost Drifter: London, England

Funny and interesting fact that I learned about that clock. It is actually called “Elizabeth Tower,” and the bell is called “Big Ben.”

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Arriving just days after the terrorist attack on Tower Bridge, the mood was quite gloomy in London. The city had flowers and photos all over Westminister Bridge from the recent attack. While there were hundreds of flowers by the area where the second attack happened on Tower Bridge. To add more fuel to the fire, the locals had to deal with politics during a crucial time in their country’s history.

Despite all of that. The chaos. The deaths. The unknown. The people of England had hope. They don’t just believe that they will recover, they know. I asked a local to describe London if he could and he said “Perseverance.” I asked he could elaborate and I loved his response “London has been through many highs and lows but what has always remained the same, our biggest strength, we survive.” Just a quick story that I wanted to share before I dive into my visit in England.

  Stonehenge Tour

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  With any country, checking the weather is extremely vital before visiting. Knowing what the weather will be like will give you answers on how and what to pack. This piece of advice is something that goes for most countries but for England, it’s slightly true. If you are coming to England during the summer, I did, make sure you bring an umbrella, I did not. I know a few people will have a chuckle reading that but hear me out, I assumed that like most storms that it would just pass. Oh. I was so wrong. No matter what, always bring an umbrella. Regardless of what the forecast shows or how sunny the day starts. I promise you will have at least one random rain shower that will just pop up.

My trip to Stonehenge had two stops along the way. Our first stop was in a small town called “Bath,” to visit the famous hot springs. The hot springs are famous for its healing powers but what will captivate you more is the small city’s architecture. If you take a tour there and the guide offers the choice between exploring the city or visiting the hot springs, visit the city!

Our second stop was at a small city called Lacock(a million people laughed because of the name). Our tour guide arranged to have our dinner at the George Inn to give us all a break from the long drive. Once again, it’s the architecture that stands out. Most of the buildings pictured above, are from the 18th century or earlier. Hence, it’s a very popular town for filmmakers and movie studios.

Once I finally arrived at Stonehenge, my adrenaline kicked in hyper drive. If you want to see the Stonehenge without the crowds, and I highly suggest it for photographers, sign up for a private viewing with a tour company. The area was completely empty with only security guards but the best part was being able to walk right up to the glorious monument. There were two interesting facts about the prehistoric monument that I think most people don’t know about. The first fact was that this isn’t even the largest Stonehenge! There is a larger one that is about twenty miles away. The second fact was about their original color which was a dark gray-blue color.

London

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When you are traveling,  a few cities will remind you of other cities that you have visited. London definitely reminded me of New York with its tall buildings and concrete jungle feel. However, the people will make you forget about that so quickly.

After walking around most of London, I caved in and bought an oyster card to take the underground train to see other parts of the area. I made a pit stop at the famous Platform 9¾ and continued to the Camden markets. If you visit, don’t bring your wallet. Don’t bring your credit cards. I don’t recommend bringing any money. Why do you ask? You will spend every penny there. Seriously. There is something for everyone here and the scenery makes it so much fun to walk around. It’s just a few minutes from central London but I promise you will have so much fun visiting.

This has turned into a long blog and I decided to break it up with another blog for later. I’ll highlight some high points and easy ways to enjoy London without breaking the bank.

Which photo is your favorite?

England Travels of the Lost Drifter: London, England Arriving just days after the terrorist attack on Tower Bridge, the mood was quite gloomy in London.