Posts Tagged ‘Nbsp’
Change. Its not easy.
A proverb says that only stupid men learn from experience. Wise men learn from other people’s experience.
Learning is one thing, knowing is another. Neither means that you will actually change.
Change happens when you have a change of heart rather than a change of mind.
Change happens when you take action, moment by moment doing things differently.
Change happens when you take a leap of faith. If you want to see results before you commit you may as well stay in bed.
Will the changes you make give you what you want?
Who knows until you try. It might have worked for other people but the only way you’ll know if it will work for you is to try it.
Insist on certainty and you’re just using another excuse to stay put.
The problem with life is that it must be lived forward but can only be understood backwards. The benefits of change are often only obvious after the change. How many times have you heard: “If I knew then what I know now I would’ve done it years ago.”
So how desperate are you going to have to be before you start?
Ann Hawkins is a business mentor, founder of The Inspired Group and presenter of The Business Hub Radio Show and The Social Media Show. If you’d like to talk to Ann about how to take your business from OK to Excellent call her on 07711 705038
Posted in Mentoring | 
Tags: Ann Hawkins, Business Hub, Business Mentor, Change Of Heart, Excuse, Hub Radio, Leap Of Faith, Moment By Moment, Nbsp, Proverb, Radio Show, Stupid Men, Wise Men | 
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Can you use “Made in Britain”?
Have you noticed how “Made in Britain” is appearing more often on products?
A recent discussion with some good folk centred on why this happening. Reasons varied from the pragmatic: there are a lot of tourists arriving for the Olympics so people hope to make the most of it, to the philosophical: in hard times, it may be that manufacturers hope that people will be more inclined to help keep profits in our own economy.
With so much business being done on the internet, an increasingly sought after skill is writing for the web so I pricked up my ears when I heard Chris Thomas of Milton Contact Ltd and Carsten Garrett of Gower Associates mention that English is still the most used language in business and that style and tone is every bit as important as content.
Writing good English is a saleable skill
Brits are a minority amongst English speakers (the majority being Chinese) but speaking and writing English well is a saleable skill in most places in the world. An English accent is still highly prized too!
According to Chris and Carsten, the British, as opposed to American, style of communication is also prized because it is predictable, gentle and polite and makes people feel valued and safe.
We’re not talking about an archaic style of business writing but simply of good manners and most importantly, understanding how we make people feel with our style of communication.
Made in Britain doesn’t just apply to manufactured goods
I have been delighted and surprised at how many people from all around the world have asked to join The Inspired Group and have subscribed to our series “The A-Z of Business Success” each episode with an English speaking recorded interview.
Maybe the very thing that we think of as slightly anachronistic in a fast moving, Americanised world is the thing that we can take most advantage of and that “Made in Britain” can be applied to more than just commodities.
Does your business attract clients from outside the UK? Could it? Is this something you’d value? Tell us what you think.
Ann Hawkins and the amazing TIG can help you grow your business and achieve the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. To find out more, simply click here
Posted in Inspiration | Tags: American Style, Archaic Style, Brits, Business Success, Business Writing, Carsten, Carston, Chris Thomas, Commodities, Communication Skills, Ears, Economy, English Accent, English Speakers, Garrett, Good Folk, Good Manners, Gower, Gowers, Interesting Things, Internet Style, Love, Lts, Nbsp, Olympics, Places In The World, Presentation, Profits, Tourists, Writing English, Writing For The Web | No Comments »
Who is spending your time?
Photo by RL Hyde
Are other people spending your time?
Check by doing this after every meeting:
Did your meeting start/end on time?
If not what could you do to make sure this happens in future?
Who benefitted most from the meeting?
If it was you, is the benefit in the short or long term?
If it was others, why did you allow them to spend your time for you?
Were any of today’s activities less important than other things on your list?
If so, could you have postponed them?
You don’t want to be mean with your time but if other people are benefitting more than you, try changing lunch to coffee and coffee to a Skype call and a Skype call to an email.
Suggest other people do the prep for a meeting and send you the info beforehand. Don’t let anyone put a monkey on your back – make sure it stays where it belongs.
Spend more time on the important stuff and less on the urgent – especially if its more urgent for other people than it is for you.
Ann Hawkins and the amazing TIG folk can help you grow your business and achieve the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. To find out more, simply click here
Posted in 12 Steps to Success | Tags: Ann Hawkins, Benefit, Breakthrough, Coffee, Email, Hyde, Lunch, Monkey On Your Back, Nbsp, People, Photo, Rl, Tig, Time Check | No Comments »
The only time management tip you’ll ever need
Photo RL Hyde
What’s the only time management tip you’ll ever need?
BE EARLY!
Why?
Being Early Saves Time AND Money
The bulk of the time we waste is spent trying to catch up on things that could have been done earlier, in less time.
By doing things before they need to be done we really SAVE time.
That old proverb “A stitch in time saves nine” is true.
Getting your car serviced before it breaks down, getting a new computer before it slows you down, getting a health check before you become ill, nurturing your relationships before they collapse, paying off bills before you get charged interest, getting more business before you run out of money. They all save both time and money.
Being early Pays Off
First come, first served is another true saying. Research shows that people respond more positively to the first person to respond to their request, whether this is to send in a quote, a tender for a job, information or recommendations. In other words, being early has a clear advantage.
Being Early Makes a Statement
If you want people to think you’re not in control of your life, unreliable, can’t be trusted, and don’t respect others, be consistently late for meetings, for deadlines, and for appointments. (See related post “Always” )
If you want people to think you’re committed, confident, and competent, show up early, and use the extra time to relax and prepare so you’ll be on top of your game.
Being in place when others arrive means you get to choose your chair, comb your hair, go to the loo, be the one to welcome others. It gives you control.
Try it …
…………………………………………………
Do you get irritated when people are late? Are you consistently late yourself? Tell us how this makes you feel in the comments below.
Are you getting your FREE copy of The A-Z of Business Success?
Posted in 12 Steps to Success | Tags: Appointments, Attitude, Bizarre Death, Business Success, Comb Your Hair, Control, Cue, Don Aslett, Extra Time, First Person, Game, Health Check, Hyde, Job, Laughter, Loo, Management Book, Manifesto, Nbsp, New Computer, Oil Filter, Oil Filters, Peers, Penny Worth, People, Post Office, Productivity, Protestant Work Ethic, Proverb, Relationships, Respect Others, Sales Person, Several Thousand, Simplicity, Spokesman, Spooky Voice, Stitch In Time, Stitch In Time Saves Nine, Thousand Pounds, Time And Money, Time Management Tip, Waiting In Line | 1 Comment »
Are you a Dreamer or an Achiever?
In the 1920′s and 30′s, a young journalist called Napoleon Hill, interviewed 500 of the most successful people in America. He found that people who create success have many things in common. These are some of them as described in his best-selling book, “Think and Grow Rich”
- Decide what you want. Desire is the starting point of all achievement. Desire is a crazy mad emotion that you absolutely have to satisfy, not a rational reasoned argument for doing something.
- Believe in yourself. Self doubt will prevent you from taking action. No-one is born with a sense of what they can’t do. Limiting beliefs are learned and they can and must be unlearned. It is usually easier to overcome other people’s judgements than our own.
- You don’t have to do it all yourself. As Mother Teresa famously told Bob Geldof, “I can’t do what you do and you can’t do what I do but together we can change the world.” Surround yourself with people who can do what you can’t and who respect you for what you can do. Start or join a MasterMind Group with like minded people.
- Make practical use your imagination. Work out how to turn your dreams into reality. Everything, everything, starts out as an idea. Ideas are the beginning point of all achievement but they need to be harnessed into practical action.
- Create a plan, organise your ideas and take continuous action. Most people put more effort into planning a holiday than planning their life. Successful people don’t just react to things that happen to them, they question whether something will take them closer to their goal before acting on it or rejecting it.
- Avoid procrastination and make decisions. The ability to make decisions comes back to understanding exactly what it is that you want, to the burning desire and definite purpose that underpins all achievement. Successful people in all walks of life decide quickly and firmly and the world has a habit of making room for the person who knows where they are going and why.
- Persist. Things will go wrong, people will let you down. If your desire is strong enough you will find a way through all difficulties to achieve your desire. Don’t keep doing the same things and expecting different results. Find different ways to achieve your goals. Paulo Coelho was committed to a mental asylum by his parents three times and subjected to electro-convulsive therapy because they thought he must be mad to want to become a writer instead of a lawyer. He persisted and his book, The Alchemist, sold over 40 million copies.
- Aquire power and learn how to use it. The ability to lead others in a spirit of harmony to achieve a definite objective is a major source of success but successful people say that personal power and self mastery are most important.
- Understand that sex is the most powerful of human desires. When this desire is harnessed into a creative process it can be the source of genius. It can also be a huge temptation and has destroyed many great people. Successful people say that they are able to transmute its power into a creative force that helps them to produce and action ideas that in many instances makes their fortunes.
- Learn to use the power of the subconscious mind. Everything we have ever experienced is kept in the vast storehouse of our sub-conscious. It can work for or against us but when we learn how to harness this power it makes us unstoppable. What we think of the world and ourselves makes us not only who we are but who we can be.
- Develop and learn to trust the ‘sixth sense’. Intuition can help us to avoid dangers and grasp opportunities. Intuition is part of our nature and many successful people admit that intuition is a big part of their success including Donald Trump, Oprah, Richard Branson and even Bill Gates. Einstein and Edison described their creative process as having original ideas that didn’t come from the rational foundation of the mind. Jonas Salk, the inventor of the polio vaccine, says, ‘The intuitive mind tells the logical mind where to look next.’
- Deal with fear, the major obstacle to achievement. Almost every feeling of fear we experience is as the result of an IMAGINED situation, not a real one. In almost every case, the imagined situation that we most fear never happens. When a situation that we had feared actually materialised, most of us deal with it without any real consequences. The only thing holding most people back is their own imagination!
Is it ever too late to do the things you once dreamed of doing?
Mary Wesley, best-selling author, took up writing at 70
Charles Darwin’s first book wasn’t published until he was in his 50’s
Colonel Sanders was in this 60’s when he franchised Kentucky Fried Chicken
Ray Kroc was in his 50’s when he launched McDonalds
Agatha Christie was 62 when she wrote The Mousetrap
Julia Child was 50 before she took up cooking professionally
Benjamin Franklin was 78 when he invented bifocals.
Life expectancy has doubled in the last 100 years. There is no longer an official retirement age. If you go to college at 40 and qualify at 45 you could still have half your life left to work at what you love. It’s never too late to become an achiever instead of a dreamer!
If you would like help to achieve your dreams, give me a call on 07711 705038, email me or Tweet me @AnnHawkins
You can see more about my mentoring services here: http://annhawkins.com/mentoring/
Posted in 12 Steps to Success, Inspiration | Tags: Best Selling Book, Bob Geldof, Burning Desire, Continuous Action, Decisions, Definite Purpose, Dreamer, Emotion, Habit, Journalist, Judgements, Like Minded People, Many Things, Mastermind Group, Mother Teresa, Napoleon, Napoleon Hill, Nbsp, Procrastination, Self Doubt, Use Your Imagination, Walks Of Life | No Comments »
B2B is Dead. Long live P2P.
I’ve been saying for some time that there is no such thing as B2B or B2C only P2P (Person to Person)
These are some extracts from a blog by Rick Segal in Forbes Magazine (original here: http://blogs.forbes.com/gyro/2011/06/16/b-to-b-has-ceased-to-be/) that say it much better:
B2B has ceased to be.
Death was inevitable when people began carrying their telecommunications and computing power with them. From that point “The Firm” lost its place as the organizing principle of business marketing.
If we really want to influence business decisions, from now on we have to reach and persuade the real seat of power, the individual. The customer is not a corporate entity, but an independently minded, highly connected, always-emotional human being. This individual is not only ascendant, but empowered and amplified.
Ninety percent of business decision making is emotional.
The new arena for business communications is now far bigger than the workplace. This is because work is no longer a place, but a state of mind. The connectedness of modern life sees no boundaries between work and home. It’s all part of the work-life continuum.
If we want to reach, persuade and engage business decision makers, we need to understand this “@ Work State of Mind” as completely and intimately as we can, so that we can ignite the emotions that cause decision-makers to shout, “Yes!”
Posted in 12 Steps to Success | Tags: B2b, Boundaries Between Work, Business Communications, Business Decision Makers, Business Decisions, Business Marketing, Computing Power, Connectedness, Corporate Entity, Decision Making, Emotions, Extracts, Forbes Magazine, Gyro, Life Continuum, Nbsp, No Boundaries, P2p, Person To Person, Real Seat, Rick Segal | 6 Comments »
New Users to Twitter for Business
This post was written by Mike Johansson in Social Media Today. You can sign up to this useful blog and read the original post here: http://socialmediatoday.com/
Here are Mike’s useful tips for getting a good start on using Twitter for Business:
1. Make your profile public: You want to connect with people so keep your account open.
2. Choose a Twitter name that is your entire name or at least your first name and last initial or a variation of your name. Be sure your real name is somewhere on your public profile.
3. Fill in your location with your real location: This will connect you with others in your area with whom you can network in real life.
4. Work on your bio so that it says something about your professional activities and aspirations but also displays a little of your personality. You’ve got 160 characters – choose them wisely.
5. Choose an avatar photo that is more face than anything else: Avoid the temptation to try to be too cute. Your genuine face shot is part of who you are.
6. Choose your link URL wisely: If you have a website or blog link to that or to you Linkedin or Facebook Business Page.
7. Start following others slowly: Find relevant people in your business or with related interests and follow just a very few at a time. There is no science to this but try not to follow lots more people than those who follow you.
8. Don’t just follow anyone: Following people just because they follow you is not a requirement in Twitter. Following back should be reserved for people you are genuinely interested in learning from and about.
9. Pay attention to others’ tweets: You will learn a lot by just “listening.” When the time is right (you see something you want to comment on or you want to thank someone for sharing something send them an “@” message. These tweets are the beginnings of real conversations with people who may one day become part of your professional network.
10. Retweet judiciously: When you read something that really means something to you or you think some of your followers might appreciate retweet (RT) it. If there is room add a comment to explain why you like it. (My addition – you can’t add comments if you RT from from the twitter webpage).
My additional tip: Start using Hootsuite or Tweetdeck asap as they make using Twitter much easier.
Have a comment? We’d love to hear them below:
Posted in Social Media | Tags: 160 Characters, Aspirations, Blog, Business Page, Business Post, Conversations With People, Face Shot, Followers, Nbsp, New Business, Pay Attention, People, Personality, Photo, Professional Activities, Professional Network, Profile Public, Public Profile, Science, Sha, Start Business, Talents, Temptation, Twitter, Variation | No Comments »
40 Tried and Tested Twitter Tips
There are many, many Twitter Guides out there, some are just one person’s preferences based on nothing much but this is one of the best I’ve seen, based on three years extensive use.
Its written by Shea Bennett @sheamus who writes for All Twitter which is part of mediabistro.com. The original article is here: http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/40-twitter-tips_b8973 and contains lots of links to other articles which explain some of these tips in more detail so if you want more, go there. If you want a quick synopsis of the tips, with my edits, see below:
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Answer these questions: Why are you using Twitter? What are you hoping to accomplish? What could you accomplish?
YOUR PROFILE
Use a photo of YOU as your avatar. You. That’s who we came to see.
A tailored background is nice, but not vital.
Fill out your bio. It’s OK to be witty, but not at the expense of clarity.
Link to your website. Don’t link back to your Twitter profile – that’s several shades of pointless.
The rest of your profile settings are personal preference, but I strongly recommend you don’t protect your tweets unless you really, really have somebody out there you don’t want seeing your stuff. And if you do, maybe a public network isn’t the best place to hang out.
Use a photo of YOU as your avatar
YOU
Be polite.
Be useful.
Be interesting.
Be unique.
Be yourself.
YOUR TWEETS
You only have 140 characters, so make them count.
Manual good, automatic bad. It’s OK to schedule tweets, but don’t automate anything.
Spelling, grammar and punctuation count. Take a moment to write the perfect tweet. It’s always worth the effort.
There’s an important difference between crediting others for their work (courtesy) and thanking for retweets (noise/egotism).
Likewise, don’t be a metweeter.
Never automate ANYTHING
FINDING FOLLOWERS
Engage, engage, engage. Repeat.
Want to know how not to get somebody to follow you? Ask them to.
If you tweet it, they will come. Behave in the manner with which you wish to be noticed, and write about the subjects you wish to discuss.
All the ‘get more followers’ systems are complete garbage. Don’t waste your time or (in some cases) money. Mass following and autofollowing gives you a large but empty network of eternal strangers, none of whom are paying the slightest bit of attention to you.
Strive for 100 true fans, and be remarkable. The rest will take care of itself.
TWITTER ETIQUETTE
Avoid text speak – if you can’t squeeze a proper sentence into 140 characters (or, ideally, less), try, try again.
Find the balance between being overly negative and happy clappy trappy. Neither camp is enormously popular except with others like them. Don’t be somebody you’re not, but if the real you is a jerk, a sap or a fraud, you should probably work on it.
Act as if. (As if you already have the things you want)
Don’t send people automated ‘welcome!’ direct messages when they start following you (especially not with a link to your website!). We hate that stuff. Again, never automate anything.
Don’t be a MEtweeter
YOUR TWEETS (PART 2)
Become an authority in your niche. Everybody is an expert on something. (And if you’re not, read more.)
People look for and value consistency. It’s OK to go crazy once in a while, but find out where your middle is. Middle doesn’t mean boring. It means balance.
The same applies to how often you tweet. After a period of time (usually a few months) you’ll find a natural place where both you and your audience are comfortable with your daily number of tweets.
You always have a choice in how you behave and react to others.
Don’t shoot the messenger.
Again, never automate
LINKS
Always, always, always use bit.ly to shorten your links. It comes with built-in stats which are great, but that’s not as important as the fact that bit.ly is trusted by the Twitter community.
It’s OK to share your own stuff. In fact, I recommend you do it twice per day so you cover the major timezones. For example, I share my content mid-morning in the UK and also mid-morning (late afternoon UK) in the USA (ET).
If you want to get retweeted, leave enough space.
If you’re retweeting somebody else, always credit them. And by them I mean the original tweeter – don’t go mad trying to squeeze everybody and their uncle in.
Even for the Twitter elite, the level of engagement measured by click-throughs and retweets is incredibly low. So relax, and remember it’s all about your long game.
Act as if
FIVE (FREE) BONUSES
There is no perfect Twitter client – whatever works for you works. (That said, I recommend HootSuite for your desktop and iPad and the official Twitter clients for everything else. I’m not an affiliate – these are, in my opinion, the best products.)
Regularly monitor and clear out any dubious applications authorised in your Twitter profile. Don’t be that guy.
Become a Twitter search kung fu master.
Don’t be afraid to block people, doing so for the right reasons. But be aware that Twitter’s block is junk. Don’t rely on it to protect you.
Make Twitter a part of your life, but don’t make your life a part of Twitter. You often do your best thinking offline.
Twitter is a work in progress, and that includes the platform itself and the way that we all use it. Everything is constantly changing.
If you want to get better at using Twitter I recommend you subscribe to All Twitter at www.mediabistro.com and follow @sheamus.
Related posts: How to get more twitter followers
Posted in Social Media | Tags: Avatar, Clarity, Egotism, Followers, Grammar And Punctuation, Nbsp, Original Article, Personal Preference, Photo, Profile Settings, Shades, Shea, Spelling, Stuff, Tweet, Tweets, Twitter | No Comments »
Hope and optimism
One of the highlights of my week used to be a video blog called “Optimistic Monday” by my friend Phil Begnett . Phil had a loyal following of people like me who loved the random upbeat messages that he posted on the theme of “every Monday is a fresh start”.
He even entitles one post “CTRL+ALT+DEL” as a way to show that we can escape and start again!
Phil, like many other folk had been badly affected by terrible news of a devastating tsunami in Japan and thought it was inappropriate to goof around on his video blog so he just acknowledged how he was feeling and signed off.
Full marks to Phil for being true to his feelings but it left me feeling slightly let down and pondering the way we deal with terrible news and the role that hope, optimism and especially laughter play in helping us to deal with them.
Hope is THE most important emotion for human beings to have.
Without hope we can’t live for long. Optimism is closely related to hope and I believe that is why Phil’s Optimistic Monday video was so popular.
I don’t want to diminish the awful situation that survivors of tragedies have to cope with but the truth is that many people do more than just cope. It is only because they have hope and optimism that they can move forward and, in many cases, rebuild lives that are even more meaningful than the ones they had before.
Laughter is the currency of hope
Laughter is one of the most powerful healing experiences. It is contagious and relieves isolation and loneliness. It is impossible to laugh and feel afraid at the same time which is why I value people like Phil Begnett who have a natural ability to make people feel good.
We need to feel pity and sympathy for the survivors of tragedies and do everything in our power to help but it is even more important to bring hope, optimism and laughter.
What lifts your spirits and helps you to cope when things look bad?
Posted in Inspiration | Tags: Currency Of Hope, Devastating Tsunami, Emotion, Experiences, Feelings, Fresh Start, Friend Phil, Human Beings, Isolation, Japan, Laughter, Loneliness, Natural Ability, Nbsp, Optimism, Spirits, Survivors, Sympathy, Tragedies, Truth, Tsunami, Tsunami In Japan, Upbeat Messages, Wtv | 4 Comments »
Get your self a nag!
To whom are you accountable?
If you work on your own, who is to know if nothing on your ‘to do’ list gets done? You can procrastinate for as long as you like and no-one but you will be any the wiser.
Most business owners who talk about time management don’t really need help in managing their time. They need someone to hold them to account for the results (or lack of) that they say they want to achieve in a certain time.
The thing that makes the biggest impact in our Inspired MasterMind Groups is that members are accountable to
each other for their actions.
If you are not a member of an Inspired MasterMind Group, appoint yourself an official ‘nag’. Make it someone who has no axe to grind, no hidden agenda and just wants to see you succeed. Ask them to accept no excuses and make sure you keep on track with what you say you will do.
Posted in Inspiration | Tags: Achieving Success, Axe, Business Owners, Hidden Agenda, Inspirational Speakers, Mastermind Group, Mastermind Groups, Minded Folk, Nbsp, Time Management | 1 Comment »
