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Tender Tan Hill Boots

2012-02-23T08:17:00.000-08:00

You know when a product is carried exclusively in Japan that it has to be good. That's the case with the very limited Tan Hill Boot ($675) from Tender which fortunately for you, will find its way to Unionmade SF and their online storefront. The boot is made in England on a 100 year old last with unstained vegetable tanned leather uppers, chainstitch construction, copper rivets, and a steel horseshoe heel. Link

Top Two Taxies in Prague

2012-02-23T08:15:00.000-08:00

Top Two Taxies in Prague:

The historic city of Prague has many sights to take in, for example the Prague Castle, the picturesque Charles Bridge or the Astronomical Clock. During the Iron Curtain era, it was one of the most visited cities of Europe. Although reliant on a tram and metro system, one of the best modes for transport is the taxi. Based on this observation was a recent event called the Prague Taxi Design and two really outstanding entries are listed after the jump….

Taxi Visitor by Diego Garcia

Taxi Visitor is based on the premise that tourists driving into the city from the airport, like to enjoy a ride where they can take in the sights and sounds on the first go. The abundant spacing and height of the cab allow for a full view and cast and everlasting impression. The color schemes for the cab are inspired by the beige plaster of the Lesser Town houses and their darker retaining wall.

Call Taxi-e by Louis Joseph Böhm

The adaptable Call Taxi-e accommodates up to six passengers and can be used for cargo services as well. The design features sliding doors and a ramp for wheelchair. Expanded windows and an airy cabin ensure a pleasant ride. The wheel driven motors are powered by batteries that are fueled by solar cells hidden on the roof.

Hat Tip to Radek Laube!

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8 Tips to Leave Your Day Job and Start Your Business

2012-02-21T07:12:00.000-08:00

8 Tips to Leave Your Day Job and Start Your Business:

One of the scariest things to do is drop your day to day nine to five. The paycheck is steady and it comes with a nice health-care package. Lunch with co-workers provides time to unwind and talk about what’s going on in the world. The hours are steady and while it may be demanding, there isn’t much mystery to what you can expect from work.

Venturing out of the workplace leaves a fear of uncertainty. Working for yourself day in and day out is nothing like being in the steady work force. The paychecks are scarcer and health benefits will be coming directly out of your pocket. Lunch consists of only you. And the hours, let’s just say, are not set in stone and work is way more demanding. Starting your own business/career comes with a lot of mystery.

The common misconception is that once you work for yourself, things become “easier”. On the contrary, working for yourself is actually more involved than working for someone else. And truthfully when you are the commander of the ship you call income, you must work for others in order to establish yourself in the niche in which you are diving into.

Do not fret. Below are some tips if you’re ready to take that step out of the office.

Come up with a plan.

You can’t start ANY new venture without a plan. Take time to make a detailed plan of action, which includes ways to achieve your goals. You should map out time frames and any other relevant information to know exactly where you want to go. Keep in mind that a house can’t be built without floor plans.

Build a routine.

If you want to seriously get where you would like to be you must plan your day. Yes, this is another planning exercise. You have to have the day in order so that you remain organized. Also, work in the chores and other duties that consist with your day that are not a part of your work. Maintaining a routine will allow you to be more focused on the tasks at hand.

Only leave if you can.

If you cannot manage to leave the workplace, DON’T. Use the employment that you have to save up so that you can remove yourself from your job without putting extra hardship on you or your family. There are discounts and coupons all over the web to help you save more. Remember, you can begin your dreams while still working. You just have to split your time productively.

Be productive with all your time.

Use all of your time wisely. Even if you do have a routine, it doesn’t mean you are confined to it. Take a pen and pad where ever you go. You never know when an idea will hit you. The worse things you can do are run your errands or do other chores and an idea comes to you, but your computer or planners are no where around. All your time is precious and important to being successful.

Never fold to failure.

No business jumps off the ground as soon as you start. If you get rejected just chalk it as a learning experience and move on. Don’t dwell on the things you cannot change. Focus on what comes next and use your knowledge to lessen the failure and aim to succeed.

Never give up.

Keep pushing no matter what. No matter how hard or discouraged you get, keep moving. It will get easier with time. If you are consistent things will get better. Just think, what would life be like if the makers of companies like Apple or networks like FaceBook gave up?

Don’t judge yourself through others.

Do not judge your capabilities by what others are doing. So what if a person is doing better or at a level that you would like to be? Don’t be discouraged by their work ethic. Just work your way to a status that is comfortable for you. Also, keep in mind that what works for someone else may not work for you.

Read and Research.

Stay on top of what is going on in the industry you are heading into. Research ways to reach your goals and apply what you learn to your work. Read about trends in your niche as well as best practices of those at the top in your niche. You never can know everything about a business because industries are constantly changing.

If you have the gumption to leave the norm of the workplace and start your career/business, you get kudos from me. It takes a daring and driven individual to do such a thing. I commend each and every person who does it. That’s not to say anything against those who are okay with the workplace. Everyone is different.

Please remember it’s not for everyone to walk out on their nine to five. Only the most determined ones succeed in the long run.

Trina Lynne is a freelance writer whom writes for blogs with promotional codes and coupons such as ~~Sierra Trading Post Coupon~~ and ~~Rock Creek Coupon~~. These Sierra Trading Post and Rock Creek coupon codes can help you save on outdoor gear and clothing.

Maserati GranTurismo Sport

2012-02-20T19:47:00.000-08:00

Maserati GranTurismo Sport:

Its been five years since the Maserati GranTurismo was introduced and unlike the previous coupe, the car's styling remains as beautiful today as the day it was launched. The latest iteration of the car gets a meaner front end and a slightly more output from its 4.7 liter V8 which now delivers 460 horsepower. Link

What’s In Your Trash? [infographic]

2012-02-16T06:32:00.000-08:00

What’s In Your Trash? [infographic]:

Today, I am going to admit one of my faults. I have a tendency to leave unfinished food on my plate and I allow some food to spoil before I finish it. While I work to minimize this fault, there’s no doubt I do it and the little scraps of food add up to several meals over the years. My U.S. culture never quite emphasized the importance of conserving food and minimizing waste, but at the school dining halls I read facts about waste, and it definitely opens my perspective. Food waste takes up the most space in the landfills, and the majority of it is once delicious food that could have been enjoyed by someone. I have increased my awareness in my kitchen, cooking only a realistic amount of food that I am sure I will consume. It’s hard to be perfect, but little changes can make large differences in the food waste industry.

Recycling is another great way to help with minimal effort. If you live in a large apartment complex, most areas have laws that require the complex to have a recycling option. So if your building does not have it, talk to someone in charge about recycling. Recycling and finishing your dinner are two simple tasks that take hardly any extra time, so do them.

© spencerpsands for Daily Infographic, 2012. |
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Two Simple Ways to Know Exactly What Your Audience Wants

2012-02-14T07:10:00.000-08:00

Two Simple Ways to Know Exactly What Your Audience Wants:

What does your audience want?

As someone who produces content, you have to do the impossible.

You have to see inside the minds of your audience members.

As you sit in front of a blank screen, you have to know what your audience craves so you can produce truly epic content.

You have to be intimate with their hopes, fears, insecurities, needs and desires.

When you give your audience exactly what it wants and needs, magical things happen. Your content goes viral. Your email list grows. Your profile is raised. You make a difference in people’s lives.

When you miss the mark and produce content no one really wants or needs, your site becomes stale. People stop coming by. Your influence wanes.

This is one of the greatest challenges you face.

If producing your best content has to start with understanding your audience, how do you get to know your audience so well?

How can you see inside the minds of your audience and know what they REALLY want from you? How can you know what kind of content will make them tweet, comment, share and engage like crazy?

You might just guess, but you probably already know that doesn’t work very well.

We’re more interested in sure things. Luckily there are a couple of simple techniques that will outperform guessing and your Magic Eight Ball any day of the week.

Here are the two easiest ways to know exactly what your audience wants:

1) Let your audience write your headline for you.

What could be better than having your audience write the headline of your next post for you?

In a way you can have them do just that.

If you listen carefully to people who read your blog, you’ll notice certain patterns in the language they use and the topics they bring up.

You can create powerful content by starting with the exact language you’ve heard your audience use.

For example, I used this technique to write the recent post: Kicked, Beaten Down, Back Up Against the Wall, Now You Have Nothing to Lose

This post was a departure from typical content here at Think Traffic, but it elicited a deep response from many of you who don’t normally leave comments here.

This post helped connect with new audience members on a deeper level than normal because I tapped into some significant challenges many of you are facing.

How can you develop post ideas like this?

In this case, I was reading responses to a survey we send out to new members of our How to Start a Blog that Matters course.

In the responses I found several people who revealed they started blogging because they thought it would be “a sure and easy way to make lots of money.” I found several more people who felt like they’d fallen down so many times trying to create an online business that now they had nothing to lose.

When your audience tells you things like this, you should explore them as blog topics. Take the exact language and use it within your blog posts.

It might just touch a nerve.

Where can you find responses like these?

I gather these hopes, dreams, desires and emotional hot buttons from all of you through blog comments, surveys and in one-on-one sessions.

The key is to ask the right questions.

For example, I collected dozens of incredibly useful insights by asking you What Are You Struggling With on Your Website or Blog Right Now?

You can survey your audience or customers by asking things like “Why do you want to start a successful ______?” Fill in the blank with whatever you’re helping your audience achieve.

Of course, the bigger your audience, the more opportunities you’ll have to gather responses. BUT, realize that over a certain size the responses start to resemble one another. You won’t learn much from 200 responses that you couldn’t learn from 20. The 80/20 rule is at work here.

No matter how big your audience is, try paying special attention to the pain points and deep desires people reveal to you.

Ask people outright what they’re struggling with, and what you can do to make their situation better.

2) Use past behavior to predict future results.

Once you’ve produced a decent amount of content (say 20 or more articles/videos/podcasts, etc.), you have a great opportunity to learn from how people reacted to that content.

Think about the actions you would like your audience to take after reading your content. You probably want them to leave comments, share your content, open your email and refer back to your content over and over again.

Each of these actions leaves evidence.

You can use this evidence to help you create more great content.

Here are several indicators you can use to find past content that performed especially well:

Mailing list open rates

Retweets/shares

Comments

Page views

Go back over your old content and take note of which pieces attracted the highest open rates, the most shares, the most comments and the most page views.

You’ll find little gems in there.

The content that garnered the greatest reaction can provide wonderful clues about what you should produce in the future.

Examine the structure of this subset of content, the headlines, the topics and how you framed each discussion.

What can you borrow from these tried-and-true pieces of content? Which well can you draw on again and again?

You might be surprised at how often you can repeat yourself or rehash an old topic.

Sometimes your audience just can’t get enough.

Now: Put This Technique to Work

Here’s what I’d love you to do.

Choose one of the approaches above.

Either gather responses from your audience OR look over your most successful older content.

Use one of these approaches to come up with your next blog post idea.

Then, come back here and let me know how it worked for you.

If you’ve already done this before, please share your results below as well.

And as always, I’m happy to answer any questions you have.

Have you signed up for updates from us yet? Get more tips just like this for building a thriving online audience twice a week.

Thanks for reading!

photo: tochis

Proper Flower Etiquette for Valentine’s Day [infographic]

2012-02-14T06:37:00.000-08:00

Proper Flower Etiquette for Valentine’s Day [infographic]:

Happy Valentine’s Day, Infographers! Although many criticize this day as a hallmark holiday, I have always viewed it as a day to celebrate the friends, family and loved ones in your life. While one shouldn’t need a holiday to express love, it sometimes helps remind you to slow it down and recognize all of the love in our busy lives. Lets get to loving!

Flowers are such a sweet gift for both lovers and friends. Flowers smell beautifully, look fresh and natural and don’t add a layer of valentines day fat to your hips. This infographic sheds some light on proper floral etiquette. So guys, bring some daises for your office, give your girlfriend dahlias, your boyfriend orchids (for virility HA HA). And remember, red roses are for love, yellow are for friendship and BLACK are for hate, so don’t show up with the wrong color or you could be going home alone. [Via]

© chelseykilzer for Daily Infographic, 2012. |
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the whole life sabbatical (part 2 of 3)

2012-02-13T07:12:00.000-08:00

the whole life sabbatical (part 2 of 3):

photo credit: ribena_wrath

In part 1 of this three-part series I talked about walking away from various responsibilities in your life. How easy would it be to leave them?

Work: If you stop to think about it, you have almost nothing stopping you from quitting your work. If you own a business, you can sell it. If you are an employee, trust me – if you quit you will be a distant dusty memory to your former coworkers in a week. If you are a freelancer, refer your clients to your freelancing network. I am sometimes stunned in a corporate environment by the loyalty and responsibility people imagine they must demonstrate before quitting, when the same company might lay that person off and tell them to clear their desk in 15 minutes. I don’t advocate just walking out, but if you stopped your job today, the world would continue. You would find new work tomorrow.

Family: You have to take care of your children and parents. But consider this: you have a responsibility to provide your children with food, shelter, education, love, trust and hope for the future. Do you have a responsibility to provide them with a Wii? An iPhone? An Ivy League education? A home? There is a line there that everyone must draw for himself, and I’ve seen it done in both extremes: parents who sacrifice everything for their children or brothers who care for unmarried sisters or children who go to great extremes for their in-laws…as well as people who walk away from even the responsibility to put food on the table. With family, your responsibilities are easy to walk away from, but for many of them you cannot walk away and look at yourself in a mirror. However, you can say to yourself “I have no obligation to buy my child a car.” It will not destroy your family.

Finances: You can walk away from your financial responsibilities to the extent that you’re prepared to lose things. The biggest obligation you have is taxes. Fail to pay those and you’ll go to jail. But if you make less and less money, eventually your obligation to pay taxes will drop away. Other obligations, at the end of the day, are optional, although some are easier to downgrade than eliminate completely. If you have a huge mortgage, you could sell the house and live on the streets (extreme) or live in a smaller house with a smaller mortgage (less extreme) or rent. If you spend $300 per month on entertainment, you can eliminate it completely – but at some point even “free” entertainment costs money (you need shoes to walk in the park, for example). You can’t walk away from finances as easily as you might think. You can walk away from some of them, but leaving them all behind is almost impossible.

Life: Obviously, you can let a LOT go in this area. You can start eating crap, quit exercising, and in various ways neglect your life. It might be a nice change for a while, but there will be consequences down the road. I often wonder how far you could push this “life sabbatical,” though. Could I get by on raw vegetables, fruits, bread, cheese, tea and water for food (i.e. forget about cooking)? Could I exercise by just walking or biking everywhere (i.e. selling my car)? Could the lack of stress be the biggest health improvement I could make?

In part 3 I’ll look at whether you should walk away from your life and take a “sabbatical”.

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Digitalized Evergreen Home

2012-02-13T07:10:00.000-08:00

Digitalized Evergreen Home:

E Home concept is a two part series by designers Jeiyong Chun & Hyunjune Yang where they bring forth their ideas of maintaining a well balanced home environment with sufficient greenery to keep the atmosphere cheery and fresh.

Home, Green Home by Jeiyong Chun consists of a family of five modular units (two green towers, one green wall, one green floor and one green stand) that are sustained by SDPCS. In other words a Smart Digital Plant Care System nurtures the plants with the help of a digitally empowered environment.

Hyunjune Yang’s D’Nature is more about a digital walk in the park; I suppose this simulated greenery is more suitable to Google’s office than a house. The good thing about both the concepts is the inclusion of a green space, which is slowly diluting due to rapid urbanization.

Designers: Jeiyong Chun & Hyunjune Yang of SADI

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Hustlin': How to Apply for Food Stamps

2012-02-13T07:06:00.000-08:00

Hustlin': How to Apply for Food Stamps:

In our weekly Hustlin' series, we go beyond the pitying articles about recession-era youth and illuminate ways our generation is coping. The last few years may have been a rude awakening, but we're surviving. In this edition of Hustlin', Mercedes Kraus guides us through the dizzying, eye-opening world of food stamps.

I watch the fallout of the recession from afar until one day I find myself in the middle of the storm. I must be brave. I am jobless, hoping to build my work into something that will give me career opportunities without dragging me back into the grueling, overworked lifestyle I’m used to. Everyone knows it’s hard out there—one in seven Americans are on food stamps. Am I about to join their ranks?

At first, I tell everyone I’m “trying out freelancing.” What that really means, of course, is that I’m taking odd jobs while endlessly applying to more “formal” full-time jobs. After a few months, I deplete my savings, and I’m buying almost everything on my credit card. I’ve been working at a restaurant that is quickly losing business (tips are scarce), though I pick up a long-term freelance job that has helped sustain me. I’ve already cut out “extras” (i.e. $5 beer-shot combos) from my budget, and I start biking everywhere once it dawns on me that a subway round trip costs a hefty $4.50.

Realize you're down, but not out

Christmas comes and goes, and thankfully there’s no pressure to buy any gifts. But the restaurant income is suddenly gone, and my situation is grim. I know more and more Americans are having a tough time– I read about it almost daily – and I’m one of the struggling. But just for right now, I tell myself, it’s not forever. A friend reminds me that she has been on food stamps for a year. Because she’s a young choreographer, it will be a while before she will be paid properly for her work; in the meantime, she needs help with the bills. She tells me that I only have to live under the poverty line to qualify; in 2010, an individual had to make less than $11,139 annually to qualify, which is about $930 each month. It hits me that I’m not even making that much. I’ve been living in poverty, I think. It’s a revelation.

Consider food stamps; apply

Through this new lens, food stamps looks like a real option. I’m down to basics already, and if I could get just a little help, I might be able to make it work. From my trips to the farmer’s market together, I remember that my choreographer friend gets double her money for the fresh vegetables from the community garden a few blocks away. She’s given tokens to use as market currency, thanks to a city program called Health Bucks; in fact, these types of programs exist in many cities.

Navigate a frustrating, inefficient process

Food stamps it is. I find out that I can apply online through NYC’s Human Resources Administration, so I go for it. I’ll need to go in to a center and meet with someone. I make it in at 9 a.m., stand in a long line to get a numbered ticket, and am told to go to the 4th floor, which is packed with people. Most of the chairs are taken, and lots of people are standing around the perimeter of the waiting room. No one looks happy. No one looks like me. It feels like I’m expected to know what the hell I’m doing even though no one has told me. I decide to come back earlier another day to beat the rush.

Two days later, I roll out of bed, my hair oily and stuck to my head on one side, and get to the center at 7:15 in the morning. I’m sent back to the 4th floor again; my name is called after an hour or so. Naturally, the woman helping me is incredibly slow. She keeps rearranging the papers on her desk and telling me about the going-away party she’s arranging for the office and how people still owe her money for the expenses. Really, lady? But she’s processing my paperwork, so I give a sympathetic sigh. Turns out, I’m missing documents, although I never had a clear idea of what to bring with me in the first place. She says I can fax the missing papers, but first I must get my fingerprints scanned and my picture taken. I’m a mess, but it feels appropriate – today, I look like I’m living in poverty.

I call for a week trying to confirm my fax. No answer. I go into the center again. This time, I do it like a pro: I run errands for two hours and go home to eat lunch after I get my ticket number. When I return, my number still hasn’t been called, so I read a magazine for a while and strike up conversations with the women next to me.

Get real about it

The woman on my right is wearing a sari and has an Indian accent; she’s just trying to get food stamps for her baby, she tells me, they’re not even for her. And it’s not just this center that’s so bad, she explains: she’s been to multiple centers, and they’re all like this. I look around and realize most of the people here are women of color. I feel bad. I try to remember that I am in a needy place right now, too; I am no better and no worse than they are. But the light color of my skin and my middle-class background are still assets that they don’t and never will have.

My name is called. The manager can’t confirm the receipt of my fax. Thankfully, I brought a copy of my documents.

Start using your ~~food stamps~~ EBT card

The largest word on my new card is BENEFIT, reminding me that not only am I benefiting from the government—I still feel weird about that—but I should now be looking out for the words "Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT)." The fabled, somewhat more dramatic phrase “food stamps” is just colloquial for the rebranded federal program called SNAP. I make my first purchase with my card at Trader Joe’s. (Whole Foods takes food stamps, too, by the way.) I’m not sure if I can buy soap or toilet paper (I can’t), so I just get some fruit and canola oil. At checkout, I swipe my card. It doesn’t go through. Shit! I’m asked to swipe again, and when the cashier sees that it’s EBT, he explains to the person he’s training that sometimes the magnets aren’t good and you have to enter these manually. Neither employee does anything to make me feel uncomfortable, but I do anyway. The next time I use the card, it’s easier. Easier still, I log into my EBT account online to check my balance.

This is good, I think, this helps so much already.Then more good things start happening: I pick up a meaningful (though unpaid) internship and through it a paid freelance gig, I work for free to get an article published (don't worry, not this one!) on a website I respect, and I make a couple significant professional connections that could lead to future work. I say yes to everything, although I know by now that it won't all come through. I even find out about a call for proposals that might fit that project I’ve been thinking about. The deadline is soon, and I’m going to apply. It’s going to be ok.

A Retailer’s Heart-On for Valentine’s Day [infographic]

2012-02-13T07:02:00.000-08:00

A Retailer’s Heart-On for Valentine’s Day [infographic]:

With Valentine’s Day around the corner I thought I would go ahead and share this infographic I found. I’m not sure if I believe this, but according to today’s infographic Retailer’s Get Their Heart-On For Valentine’s Day people are expected to spend $17 billion. Simply because of the nature of the “holiday” it is not surprising to see that men are projected to spend twice as much as women come this Tuesday. Although the popularity of shopping at discount stores for gifts is decreasing it still remains the number one source for gifts for your significant other.

However you feel about Valentine’s Day today’s infographic has some pretty interesting facts and figures. I’m sure soon enough online shopping will gain some ground on discount stores, but then that would require some planning on the buyer’s part. [via]

Click to enlarge

© Diegomartinez for Daily Infographic, 2012. |
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Look ‘Em in the Eye: Part I -The Importance of Eye Contact

2012-02-12T13:24:00.000-08:00

Look ‘Em in the Eye: Part I -The Importance of Eye Contact:

How often have you talked with another guy who never looked you in the eye during the entire length of the conversation? Or perhaps he did meet your gaze a few times, but then his eyes shifted back to his shoes or to some point off in the distance.

I’d like to say that the ability to make good eye contact is one of the social skills a lot of young men seem to be struggling with these days, which would be true, but I’ve encountered enough gaze-averting middle-aged men to know that it’s a multi-generational problem. And actually, it’s probably something men have always struggled with—females are on average better at making and holding eye contact than males, and in fact, it’s been found that the higher the levels of testosterone a fetus is exposed to in utero, the less eye contact they make as infants—across genders. Interestingly, the exception to this rule are male babies who have the very highest levels of T; they end up being as adept at eye contact as their female counterparts—alpha babies aren’t afraid to look you in the eye!

But just because making eye contact doesn’t come naturally to us men, doesn’t mean you should just shrug your shoulders and accept this predisposition. The ability to make high-level eye contact is a skill every man should work on, as it has been shown to create some incredible benefits for the gazer. Numerous studies have shown that people who make higher-levels of eye contact with others are perceived as being:

More dominant and powerful

More warm and personable

More attractive and likeable

More qualified, skilled, competent, and valuable

More trustworthy, honest, and sincere

More confident and emotionally stable

And not only does increased eye contact make you seem more appealing in pretty much every way to those you interact with, it also improves the quality of that interaction. Eye contact imparts a sense of intimacy to your exchanges, and leaves the receiver of your gaze feeling more positive about your interaction and connected to you.

In short, making greater eye contact with others can increase the quality of all of your face-to-face interactions; there’s no area of your life where being seen as more attractive, confident, and trustworthy wouldn’t be a boon. Being able to look people in the eye and hold their gaze can help you better network with others, land a job, pitch an idea, make a moving speech, woo the ladies, and intimidate your enemies. It can help a lawyer win over a jury, a boxer psych out his opponent, and a minister connect with his congregants. It can even aid a musician in winning over new fans; studies have shown that the more eye contact a musician makes with his audience, the more they enjoy his music—take note ye members of struggling bands!

And the best part of all this is that improving your eye contact is something you can do relatively quickly and easily. Next week in the second article of this two-part series, we’ll cover all the practical nuts and bolts on how to do that, and offer some really helpful eye contact tips for both general conversational situations as well as specific scenarios.

But today we’d like to begin with an exploration of why making eye contact is so important in forming relationships with other people, and why it can be so hard to do.

Why Eye Contact Is Vitally Important for Creating Positive Connections with Others

Why does making eye contact with people have such a dramatic effect in improving their perception of you? There are four main reasons:

1. Our eyes were made to connect. It’s easy to see why the eyes of others capture our gaze: they’re free-moving orbs lodged in an otherwise stationary face; eyeballs are really kind of weird when you think about them, aren’t they? But they also grab our attention for a reason that is distinctly human. While our irises and pupils float on a bright white canvas, none of the other 220 species of primates have white in their eyes at all, or at least whites that can readily be seen.

Image source

The whites of our eyes make it very easy for others to see exactly what we’re looking at and notice when our focus changes direction. While primates will typically turn their gaze in the direction a person points his whole head towards, a human infant is more likely to follow the person’s eyes, regardless of which way the person’s head is tilted. Anthropologists think our uniquely human eyes evolved to help us achieve a greater level of cooperation with others, which is helpful in survival and building a civilization. All of which is to say: your eyes were made to communicate with the eyes of other people.

2. Our eyes reveal our thoughts and feelings. You’ve probably heard the old expression: “The eyes are the window to the soul.” While that may not be literally true, they do reveal a great deal about what we’re really thinking and feeling from moment to moment.

Think of all the eye-related expressions we have in our language. We’re seduced by “bedroom eyes,” wary of “shifty eyes,” and afraid of getting the “evil eye.” We’re attracted to people who have “kind eyes” and eyes that “sparkle,” “glow,” or “twinkle,” while we’re repelled by those who are “dead behind the eyes.” When someone is eager and peppy we say they’re “bright-eyed;” when they’re bored we describe their eyes as “glazed over.” Love stories in both fiction and real life very often begin with two pairs of eyes meeting across a room. And Bryan Adams says you can gauge your love for a woman from your ability to see your unborn children in her eyes! Kind of romantic, kind of creepy.

That we give so much credence to the idea that we can read someone from what’s in their eyes is due to the fact that even when we hide what we’re really thinking and feeling in our body language and facial expressions, it’s often still revealed in our eyes. “The eyes don’t lie” as people say (although good liars can, in reality, get their eyes to fib for them). This is why poker players often wear sunglasses in order to disguise their reactions to the hands they’re dealt.

The human propensity to look to someone’s eyes in order to decipher what they’re thinking starts very early in life. Around 9-18 months, infants will begin to look to their parents’ eyes to figure out what they’re trying to convey when their face is otherwise ambiguous. And we continue to do this for the rest of our lives.

Finally, we lend a lot of weight to eye contact in our interactions because it’s a form of simultaneous communication. You don’t have to take turns expressing yourselves as you do with talking. If you’ve ever had a whole mini conversation across the room with your spouse, using only your eyes, you know how this works.

3. Eye contact shows attention. Sociologists tell us that people are starved for attention these days. Despite the fact that we’re more “connected” than ever, folks are hungry for face-to-face interactions and someone to really, sincerely listen to them. This hunger for attention can manifest itself in things like “conversational narcissism.” And if you read our discussion about that social malady from awhile back, you’ll remember that we talked about how you show your attention to someone with whom you are talking by using “support-responses,” such as nodding your head and offering “background acknowledgments” like “mmm’s” and “yeah’s.” Well, eye contact is another form of background acknowledgement—and a very important one at that. It shows the speaker that you’re tuned in to what he’s saying. Think of how crappy you feel when you’re talking with someone and he’s looking all around the room for someone else to ditch you for.

The ability to give eye contact to someone as they speak is an especially powerful tool these days; it has become so common for people to break their gaze to check their phone during a conversation, that giving someone your complete and undivided attention can truly win them over.

4. Eye contact creates an intimate bond. When I am performing a task or feeling an emotion, and you are observing me do so, the same neurons that are being lit up in my brain by actually having the experience, are the ones that light up in your brain just from watching me. This is made possible by the presence of “mirror neurons” in our craniums. And the activation of these mirror neurons is especially sensitive to facial expressions, and, you guessed it, eye contact. Have you ever been hit hard with an emotion after looking into the eyes of someone who was experiencing it? Eye contact creates moments where you are able to really feel what someone else is feeling. It links together your emotional states and creates empathy and an intimate bond.

This is why when we’re interacting as disembodied selves on the internet, it can be very easy to be angry and hateful to people, but when you see someone face-to-face, and look into their eyes, you often can get a sense of their humanity and your anger greatly dissipates.

Getting in-sync with others, sharing our feelings, showing attention, creating a bond: eye contact is truly a powerful tool for connecting with others.

Why Is It So Hard to Make Eye Contact?

But on the other hand…getting in-sync with others, sharing our feelings, showing attention, creating a bond…these things aren’t easy—especially for men!

While people like to see our eyes so they can get a handle on what we’re really thinking and feeling, from our side of things, revealing what’s going on inside our heads can make us feel very vulnerable. We avoid eye contact when we don’t want people to take a closer look at us and see more of who we are. This reticence can be rooted in several causes:

Hiding deceit. If you’re purposefully hiding the truth from someone, you may hesitate to look them in the eye because you’re worried that your eyes will give away the truth, and because creating the kind of intimate bond described above when you’re knowingly duping someone makes you feel especially ashamed. This is why people will sometimes, although not always, avoid your gaze when they’re lying to you, why people say things like: “Look me in the eye when you tell me that!” and why people who do make solid eye contact are considered more trustworthy.

Masking emotions. There are times when you’re not trying to disguise a lie outright, but simply wish to conceal your true feelings from others, such as when you do not think your reaction to something will be received favorably by them. Anger, fear, and surprise are the emotions that register most through our eyes, and are hardest to hide. And they’re also the emotions we most often want to keep from others.

Insecurity. Finally, one of the most common reasons that people avoid eye contact is from simple insecurity. Eye contact invites more interaction, and you might not want people to take a closer look at you because of how you feel about yourself.

People with higher-status make more eye contact when they’re speaking to others, while those who feel they are of lower-status will make less eye contact and be the first to avert their gaze. When a guy can’t look anyone in the eye when he’s speaking to them, it’s often because he doesn’t feel like he comes up to anyone’s level; he doesn’t believe he can hold his own with other people.

This lack of confidence can be rooted in insecurity over one’s physical appearance, or the state of one’s mind. A study was done where college students were shown faces which looked at the participants with different kinds of gazes—averted or direct. The students then ranked the faces on whether they seemed approachable or avoidable. Then a survey was given to the participants that evaluated their mental health. The students who ranked the faces that had a direct gaze as approachable were found to be more emotionally stable than those who found the direct gaze faces avoidable. Another study specifically showed that people who suffer from depression—which can do a number on a person’s self-confidence–are less likely to make eye contact with people.

People will also avoid eye contact when saying a sarcastic, as opposed to a sincere, comment, as sarcasm is often used by those who are too insecure to show aggression or state their opinion directly.

The Best Way to Improve the Quality of Your Eye Contact

The common denominator in all three of the above reasons for avoiding eye contact is the fear of rejection. If eyes are the portals to our feelings and thoughts, eye contact acts as an intimacy regulator. The more eye contact you make, the more you put yourself out there. Thus the more confidence you have in what people will find once they get a closer look at you and peer into the chamber of your heart, the more comfortable you feel with looking them in the eye. And conversely, the more shame you feel about what others will discover when you open up to them, the more likely you are to avert your gaze.

As I mentioned, next week we’ll get into the practical nuts and bolts of how to make eye contact in the right way. But it should be obvious from this introduction that no amount of external fine tuning of your gaze can compensate for unresolved internal issues that need fixing. You can force yourself to make eye contact with people even when you don’t feel like it, but good eye contact is not just about quantity, it’s about quality. While it may not be true that the eyes are the window of the soul, in my opinion there really is something almost metaphysical about the way in which our character becomes etched upon them. People with kind eyes are almost invariably kind people. People with a twinkle in their eyes are almost always possessed with an enviable vitality. And those with dead eyes on the outside, tend to be dead on the inside, too.

Thus the foundation of good eye contact truly comes from within (changing your outer appearance by doing things like losing weight and dressing your best helps too, but even these things typically require a change of inner attitude). The more you live a life of integrity, the easier it will be to look everyone you meet in the eye, and do it with confidence and a real smile.

Note: The principles in this series are written for men who live in Western countries. The importance of eye contact and how to make it can vary from culture to culture.

Sources:

The Power of Eye Contact: Your Secret for Success in Business, Love, and Life by Michael Ellsberg

The Persuasion Handbook: Developments in Theory and Practice by James Price Dillard, Michael Pfau

Applied Organizational Communication: Theory and Practice by Thomas E. Harris, Thomas E. Harris, and Mark D. Nelson

Nonverbal Communication by Albert Mehrabian

Status and Groups by Melissa Thomas-Hunt

Related Photos

Phobia Aka The Don

2012-02-12T13:22:00.000-08:00

Phobia Aka The Don:

Kenya celebrities.com managed to get an exclusive interview with one of the upcoming rap artist in Kenya.Robert Wesley Ocholi Aka Phobia The Don from Eastlands Nairobi

KenyaCelebrities.Com: Where did you grow up and how was your childhood?

Phobia The Don: I was born in the year 1988, 6th October in Eastland’s BuruBuru to be specific phase four. That’s where I have been born and raised. I can’t complain about my childhood, everything was good though I had strict parents.

KenyaCelebrities.Com: What’s your stage name? Have you changed your name before?

Phobia The Don: My stage name is Phobia aka The Don aka Robah. And yes I had many names before I came up with Phobia but I can’t disclose them hehe!!! Phobia means fear of something so my main reason of calling myself phobia, is because I had stage fright.

KenyaCelebrities.Com: How old are you?

Phobia The Don: Am 23 years

KenyaCelebrities.Com: When and how did you discover that you have a gift for singing?

Phobia The Don: I started writing lyrics back in high school form one during evening preps for preparations of each Fridays (Freestyle Friday) which was held in one class and anyone was allowed to drop verses.

KenyaCelebrities.com: Who else in your family sings?

Phobia The Don: Am the only musician in my family but my father is a part time music promoter, my brother is a deejay and my small sister is a pianist.

KenyaCelebrities.Com: What made you choose to get into music?

Phobia The Don:. I really don’t know how I got into music. Its just magic. What I can say is that I wanted to do music that can bring people together.

KenyaCelebrities.Com: What genre of music do you consider your work to be? Who are your major influences?

Phobia The Don: I mostly do rap/hiphop but I can rap on any beat so in short I can do any genre. Naji trust.!!!!!! Am diverse.

KenyaCelebrities.com: What embarrassing songs might I find on your MP3 player?

Phobia The Don: No embarrassing songs can be found in my MP3 player, maybe Lingala. But catch me dead listening to rock music.

KenyaCelebrities.com: If you could dabble in another genre of music, what would it be?

Phobia The Don: Dancehall Music

KenyaCelebrities.com: What genre of music can’t you stand to listen to?

Phobia The Don: Rock music

KenyaCelebrities: Are you pleased with the progression of your career? Mainly are you glad to be working in the industry as of now or do you ever see yourself wanting to do something totally different ?

Phobia The Don: As for now am pleased with the progression of my music career and am glad to be working in the industry.

KenyaCelebrities.Com: Are you a member of any music organizations? Where do you Record?

Phobia The Don:. Am in a rap group called K-KLAN. I work with many studios like Ulopa Ngoma, Digilive but currently am working with producer Kaktus of Audio Kusini

KenyaCelebrities.Com: Where have you performed? What are your favorite and least favorite venues? Do you have any upcoming shows?

Phobia The Don: .I have performed all over Kenya like Namanga, Florida 2000, Carnivore, Embu, Nakuru, Thika, just to name a few and in Arusha Tanzania. Performing in Arusha (Tz) was my best because of their reception and ofcourse they pay better off than Kenya. Right now I have no upcoming shows but my videos are getting enough airplay on the Television stations.

KenyaCelebrities.Com: Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs? Do you think these topics will change over time?

Phobia The Don: I write my own lyrics and they talk about what is happening in our day to day lives.

Kenya Celebrities.com: who would you like to collabo with in Kenya?

Phobia The Don: Just to name a few like Juliani, Bobby Mapesa, Nonini and many more others.

KenyaCelebrities.Com: What are your rehearsals generally like? Do you have a set time each week in which you practice or are rehearsals more spontaneous?

Phobia The Don: I don’t really rehearse that much because I have been busy of late but am in studio at least once a week.

KenyaCelebrities.Com: What has been your biggest challenge as an artist? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so, how?

Phobia The Don: The biggest challenge is raising enough money to do a quality video and the most challenging is pushing your own music all over because people want to be bribed so that they play your music. I overcome all this by pushing more harder till I get my airplays.

KenyaCelebrities.Com: What’s your ultimate direction for your music career? Are you seeking fame and fortune?

Phobia The DonIf you do music, fame will follow up, am just doing music because I was born for it but at the end I still want fortune from music. Am a graphic designer that’s where I get my money.

KenyaCelebrities.Com: What advice do you have for guys who want to become artist like you ?

Phobia The Don: Follow your hearts desires, Prayer and patience is the key to success. Focus.

KenyaCelebrities.Com: How can fans-to-be gain access to your music? Do you have a website with sample songs or a demo CD?

Phobia The Don: They can follow me on (twitter.com/phobiaDON_kklan)

Facebook: Phobia The Don k klan, or

Download my music on (www.Reverbnation.com/kklan)

KenyaCelebrities.com: If you had the opportunity to change something in the music industry,what would it be?

Phobia The Don: Its only in Kenya where artists hate other artists music genre yet they are in the same music industry like Hip Hop vs Kapuka. It doesn’t make sense at all. And stupid beefs.

KenyaCelebrities.com: Have you ever had any strange or stalker type fans that you are aware of?how does it affect the closeness you have with your fans,media,e.t.c now?

Phobia The Don: If you keep on avoiding stalkers they will disturb you more so I just be friendly to them and yes it affects everything because media can make an artist or break an artist.

KenyaCelebrities.Com: Beside Music, what else do you do?

Phobia The Don: Am a graphic Designer and a Business man.

KenyaCelebrities.Com: Is there anyone you’d like to acknowledge for offering financial or emotional support?

Phobia The Don:. My parents are behind everything so I do thank God for them.

KenyaCelebrities.Com: Parting shot?

Phobia The Don: Am just a simple nigga , down to earth and I put God first.

KENYA CELEBRITIES.COM WISH YOU ALL THE BEST IN EVERYTHING YOU DO.

Don’t forget if you’ve not heard it fom us then be assured you’ve not heard it.

Loewe Soundvision

2012-02-12T13:10:00.000-08:00

Loewe Soundvision:
Do you remember a time when a proper home audio system cost thousands of dollars and required separate cabinets just to house a bunch of different pieces of audio equipment that we would consider ugly [...]

Visit Cool Material for the full post.

Jay-Z and Kanye West N**as in Paris

2012-02-12T13:09:00.000-08:00

Jay-Z and Kanye West N**as in Paris:

This needs no introduction. Turn it up. Enjoy.

7 Days of Boss Moves, Day Four: Put Your Elevator Pitch Into Action

2012-02-12T13:07:00.000-08:00

7 Days of Boss Moves, Day Four: Put Your Elevator Pitch Into Action: 7 Days of Boss Moves, Day Four: Put Your Elevator Pitch Into Action:

For seven days at BlackEnterprise.com, we offer seven steps to refreshing and recharging your network — weather you’re an introvert or extrovert — so you’ll attract the right people and start building long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationships. Building a community of people who support you does takes time, but there are strategic ways you can get started expanding your professional network today!

BOSS MOVE, DAY Four: Put your 60-second elevator pitch into action.

Have you ever tried to tell someone what you do for a living or about your business, but when you did they looked at you like you were crazy? The truth is, you have about 60 seconds to gain someone’s attention and with all of the information we are inundated with on a daily basis, our attention span is decreasing. Here is a way to talk about what you do in a commanding, yet simple way.

ACTION: Start by saying, “You know how some people have a problem with _________?” (Fill in the blank with the problem or challenge that you solve.) Then continue with, “Well, I offer _________.” (Fill in the blank with how the problem is solved.) It’s not a good idea to describe your business or the process of what your product or service does. You can elaborate on that later.

You want to get their attention in as few words as possible, keeping your dialogue simple, concise and to the point. Use those industry buzz words that make what you do or offer engaging, interesting and in demand.

BOSS MOVE, DAY ONE: Develop a Networking Database

BOSS MOVE, DAY TWO: Cultivate Your Current Relationships

BOSS MOVE, DAY THREE: Maximize Your Social Networks

Cameka Smith is a speaker, educator, social entrepreneur and founder of The BOSS Network, a community of career and entrepreneurial women who support each other through conversation, online and via event-based networking. In addition, Smith provides resources for women entrepreneurs and professionals through workshops and speaking engagements. She is also a mentor and program facilitator for Project BOSS, which matches professionals with youth.

Stealth Barn by Carl Turner Architects

2012-02-12T09:51:00.000-08:00

Stealth Barn by Carl Turner Architects:

Oriented strand board lines every wall, floor and ceiling inside this residential barn extension in Norfolk, England, by London studio Carl Turner Architects. (more…)

13 Strange Highs from Around the World [infographic]

2012-02-12T09:47:00.000-08:00

13 Strange Highs from Around the World [infographic]:

Maybe it’s pessimistic, but when it comes to what people will do to exit their sober minds, I’m rarely surprised. Getting high is an ancient practice for humans, and it will always have a presence in society.

At the height of desperation, there simply are no boundaries to the pursuit of inebriation. All thirteen points in this infographic are glaring examples of this.

It seems fundamentally human to not want to have one’s face in/around/ or near one’s own excrement. This aversion seems to disappear at some level of human deprivation. “Jenkem” is perhaps the most disturbing proof of this. It is human feces kept long enough to ferment, for the purpose of inhaling the fumes and enjoying the subsequent psychological effects.

Yea, people do that.

Though certainly the most repulsive example, this buzz is listed among stranger methods of exiting sobriety.

I must also add, I am by no means condoning these practices. So if, for whatever twisted reason you feel yourself itching with curiosity…Don’t try this at home, kids. (via)

© Julie Tabouli for Daily Infographic, 2012. |
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Post tags: intoxication, strange drugs from around the worlld, strange ways to get high, weird buzzes from around the world, weird methods of intoxication

Samuel L. Jackson Says He Only Voted for Obama 'Cause He's Black

2012-02-12T05:41:00.000-08:00

Samuel L. Jackson Says He Only Voted for Obama 'Cause He's Black:

In an interview in the March issue of Ebony, Samuel L. Jackson revealed the reason he voted for President Obama:

"I voted for Barack because he was black. 'Cuz that's why other folks vote for other people — because they look like them ... That's American politics, pure and simple. [Obama's] message didn't mean [bleep] to me."

Jackson continued...in...um...Jackson fashion muthafucka:

"When it comes down to it, they wouldn't have elected a n*gga. Because, what's a n*gga? A n*gga is scary. Obama ain't scary at all. N*ggas don't have beers at the White House. N*ggas don't let some white dude, while you in the middle of a speech, call [him] a liar. A n*gga would have stopped the meeting right there and said, ‘Who the f*ck said that?' I hope Obama gets scary in the next four years, 'cuz he ain't gotta worry about getting re-elected."

Why no one should be offended by this is because it's Samuel L. Jackson...anyone else saying this I could see it causing an uproar.

Spotted: TMZ

5 Mistakes Small Businesses Make When Leasing Office Space

2012-02-12T05:39:00.000-08:00

5 Mistakes Small Businesses Make When Leasing Office Space:

It’s quite common for small business and entrepreneurs looking for office space for the first time to go about things in a backwards, and often foolish way. Owners and decision makers often make several key mistakes that can end up costing them significantly down the line and can even cripple their growth rate. Because office rent is the second highest expense that the vast majority of companies incur, doing things the wrong way leading up to signing on the dotted line can be devastating, especially for a young company or start up.

Here are some of the key mistakes that are made:

1. Impulse Decisions

Renting space for a business is a huge decision, not only financially but emotionally as well. We spend over one half of our waking lives at our work place, so it’s paramount to pick the most suitable space, building, and location. This is not something that should be decided on over the course of an hour or even a day, so prospective tenants must leave emotion at the door when they tour spaces and avoid being “wooed” by landlord agents’ attempts to close you on the spot.

2. Solely Relying On Listings

It’s very easy to simply Google “office space in city X” and view several sites, which contain nothing more than available space listings. While listings are a decent teaser and a good way to gauge the market on a high level, the information provided with each listing is not only inadequate, it’s also frequently widely inaccurate. Landlords want nothing more than for a business owner to view a listing, go directly to the property, and give the leasing agent the opportunity do everything they can to convince him/her that they need to sign a lease TODAY in their building, to get locked into a fantastic deal.

3. Flying Solo

Lease term flexibility and lease complexity can vary depending on the size and type of space, but it’s typically never a good idea to attempt to sign a lease for anything greater than 2000 square feet without using a good tenant broker. There are usually thousands of available space options, tons of lease clauses, and many other variables to consider that there’s no way someone without a commercial real estate background will be able to make the most informed decision possible for their business space needs. Tenant brokers represent YOU (the tenant) and only you. The good brokers are market experts who not only do all the heavy lifting, but are also trained in negotiating the most favorable lease terms for their clients. The landlord, not the tenant, pays their fees! With all of the other somewhat hidden costs that are present within a commercial real estate lease, having a tenant broker can typically save the tenant up to 25% of the total value of the lease.

4. Procrastinating

It’s typically advisable to begin searching for space no later than 6 months prior to estimated move in date, if possible. It’s important to get a good lay of the land, see different spaces, and gauge where the market is. Like anything else in life, preparation always pays off in the end, and in this case, it can end up saving the business owner/operator thousands of dollars.

5. Going At It Cold

Do some research. Business owners need to get a good idea on the fundamentals of leasing commercial space before they start looking around so they can be somewhat dangerous. Prospective tenants need to understand who the players are, what the pitfalls can be, and how the process works before they start honing in on signing a lease. Small business owners make uninformed decisions about leasing space every day, and it can literally crush their company.

Renting office, retail, or warehouse space is a big decision for any small business owner or operator. Understanding all of your options and how the process works will make the prospective tenant an informed consumer. More often than not having representation is a good idea too. Prospects need to make sure they take the right first steps in the process so that they won’t get burned later on.

Justin Lee is a licensed commercial real estate broker with experience in commercial property leasing and development. He along with 2 other co founders launched TheSquareFoot.com with the goal of making the space leasing process more digestible for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Follow them on twitter @TheSqFtHouston.

And still I wonder whether it is possible to go any farther...

2012-02-12T05:31:00.000-08:00

And still I wonder whether it is possible to go any farther...: Paintings by Jens Lausen
Title: Frigyes Karinthy

via Panther Club and Freaky Fauna

"Here I am, at the Thirteenth Latitude of Desolation,
the Hundredth Longitude of Shame,
the utmost Altitude of teeth-gnashing Defiance,
somewhere far out, at the point of the Ultimate,
and still I wonder whether it is possible
to go any farther..."
—The message found in the bottle in Karinthy's poem "The Message in the Bottle"
Will 50 Watts

10 Ways to Forgive The Person You Want to Kill

2012-02-10T19:56:00.000-08:00

10 Ways to Forgive The Person You Want to Kill:

I know exactly what I’m going to do. Don’t tell anyone. I’m going to put on a ski mask, find where they live in Brooklyn, show up at their door when they leave for work about six in the morning, and hit them with a baseball bat. I might not even wear a ski mask. I want the person to know it’s me.

And what did this person do to me? In this particular case, something small. Not even worth talking about. He blocked an opportunity for me that I no longer care about. But still, he did it. He did it to hurt me. And now I’m angry.

It’s not like other people in Brooklyn. People who maybe aborted my baby. Or people who fired me from a job. Or people who wrote articles slandering me. I barely think of them. It was nothing like that.

What a waste of time, this anger thing is. It inserts itself into the oddest moments. It turns daydreams into nightmares. It turns nightmares into waking up in the middle of the night, heavy breathing, sweating, an erection.

And that’s this one person. What about the other people. “I did this, this, and this for him, and now he won’t even do X, Y, or Z for me.” I can sit here all day long with that. What a waste that would be. I can make a big list. I can be angry all the time if I want.

There’s my favorite Zen story: two monks by the river. A prostitute trying to cross. One of the monks carries her across, sets her down, then the two monks keep on going. The monk who didn’t carry her gets more and more agitated. Finally, “why did you do that? You know we are not supposed to even touch women like that!”

And the monk who carried her said, “I left her by the river. Why are you still carrying her?”

That’s the secret of productivity and forgiveness. To always think, why am I still carrying her?

But to elaborate further (like I do), I’m a strong believer in several methods of forgiveness.

(maybe she needs to be carried across that swimming pool)

A) Taking a break. I’m upset RIGHT NOW. So take a timeout. “I’m going to think about this later when I’m maybe more rational.” i.e. not three in the morning, waking up from a dream about a baseball bat. Blood all over my midnight hands.

Always think of the exact moment you schedule for yourself. 3PM today I will think about it. Then see what happens then.

B) Understanding. In the incident I’m thinking of this morning I know why the person is upset at me and did the things he did. I went on two dates with his wife long before he even knew her. So even though I’ve never done anything to him, he has some anger towards me. There’s nothing I can do about it. He feels he is the victim. But I don’t have to be a victim.

C) The Alien Technique. I like to wake up pretending I’m an alien. My mission from the mother galaxy is to land in random bodies across the Universe and figure out where I am and solve their problems. Today I woke up in this body. Odd, I feel anger about something.

I explore it in my body. Oh, it’s nothing. Better to focus on getting this body in shape, happy, productive. I have 24 hours in this body. Who is this beautiful woman lying next to me. What food can I eat today? What’s the best things I can do with it. Clearly the wrongs I suffered in the past are not worth spending time on. I’m an alien only here for 24 hours after all.

The Alien Technique is surprisingly powerful. I have modifications on it. But that’s for another post.

D) Forget. Someone wrongs me. I say , “ok, I’m going to forget about this eventually”. And I always do. Some people say “forgetting is not the same as forgiving”. Who cares? I just want to think about other things today. The method is not so important.

E) Accept. They might be angry for things that have nothing to do with me. If someone is beaten or unloved as a kid, they are going to beat or punish in some way the people around them later. Doesn’t mean I have to be around them. But accepting who they are and their lot in life allows me to move past the small trivialities of how they treated me. They are the real victims, sadly, as I get to move forward in my life.

F) Relate. People might actually be justified in what they do to me. Maybe I really did wrong them in the distant past and now they want to punish me back. It doesn’t really justify what they are doing but I can relate. Heck, maybe I would’ve done the same thing. Relating makes the anger subside.

G) Expectations. Sometimes my expectations of people are too high. Most people are crappy people. They can’t help it. We have a big challenge in our lives.

Well then, what should I expect from people? Nothing. Every day I try to focus on having high expectations for myself. An easy way to do that is to lower the expectations I have for everyone else and not be so quick to judge their actions.

H) Kindness. Often I can forgive people by doing an act of kindness to them. You don’t always want to do this. It sounds like you’re kissing the ass of people who whip your ass. But often, if someone has made you angry, a simple “hello” or “good job!” will diffuse the situation. Kindness is the most powerful weapon created for humans when used correctly. And honestly.

I) Selfish. If someone has wronged me I can be completely selfish about it. It gives me the perfect opportunity to practice the principles behind “dealing with crappy people” (see above link). Every time I get to practice those principles, I get better at it.

The better I am at dealing with bad people, the more productive I eventually am (less daydreams about murder, for instance), the happier I am, the better I am able to move on and enjoy other things in my life. The less crappy I become. People can change. I’ve changed. This is how.

J) Pick Yourself. I hate situations when one person has decision-making authority over something important to me. Whether a company I have will get bought. or a TV show I pitch gets picked up. Or a book I write will get published. Or a girl I like doesn’t like me back. Or whatever. These situations sometimes make me angry.

The best way is to reduce the situations where one person has this power. If you want to write a book, then self publish. If you want to do a TV show or a radio show, just record yourself and put it on youtube. If you want your company to get sold, talk to 30 people, not just one (or keep improving your business). If you want a promotion, apply for another job. You’ll either get your promotion or you’ll get a better job.

In every situation you are in today, try to pick yourself where you can. Or figure out how you can make it a situation where you are picking yourself.

Right now I’m specifically thinking about four things I’m angry about. Maybe five. Ranging from tiny things to big things. But that’s great. I have ten ways above to deal with them. It might take a few minutes to figure out which technique i’ll use for each situation. Maybe I’ll use more than one technique for some of the situations.

But it’s early in the day. And I’ll have work, Claudia, kids, food, writing, reading, laughing, to occupy the rest of the 24 hours I’m allowed to stay on this planet. And then I’m gone.

Then when the mothership lands I’ll prepare for my next alien mission.

–

The 4.0 That Really Matters In Life

2012-02-10T19:48:00.000-08:00

The 4.0 That Really Matters In Life:

Today, even a 4.0 GPA isn’t enough to guarantee you success personally or professionally. Though important, the world’s most successful people didn’t have the best GPAs. There are other measurements that correlate with your long-term success better than the GPA alone. The real 4.0 that matters after college and in your career is your personal capital, intellectual capital, social capital and financial capital.

Personal capital is how well you know yourself. This includes your awareness of your strengths, weaknesses, purpose, passions, and interests. It also has to do with knowing what type of environments, motivators, and people you work well with and which ones you don’t. There aren’t many classes on college campuses that help you understand who you are and your employer simply may not care. So oftentimes, you have to explore these things outside of class and work on your own through personal development classes, coaching, and readings.

Intellectual capital is what you know. This includes your expertise in one or two subjects or skills. For some people this stems from their college major, but for most people it’s not. When you walk into any room, what subject would you feel comfortable speaking on in front of anyone for an hour? Or, what skill can you do well and replicate success more than the average person? So many college graduates graduate with majors and minors, but still lack intellectual capital. As professionals we start to develop skills related to our jobs, but the risk is getting great at what you hate. When you get great at something you hate, you attract more of it. Instead, you might as well focus on getting great at what you want to be great at. Whether you are a student or a professional, you have be intentional about the skills you want to develop and the subjects you want to master.

Social capital is who you know and who knows you. This includes your networks up, down, across, and out. How many people are listed in your cell phone who aren’t family, and who are older than you? Who can you call on when you need professional or personal advice? How many friends can you call on if you need helping moving? How many people are you connected with at different colleges, corporations, and organizations across the country? Your social capital can consist of mentors, alumni, seasoned professionals, parents’ friends, professors, counselors, coaches, and advisors, and peers committed to your personal greatness. It has very little to do with how many friends you have on Facebook. It’s all about who is committed to your personal and professional growth and development and vice versa.

Financial capital is who knows that you know what you know. Reread that—it’s a tricky one. When the right people know that you know a lot about a subject or can execute a skill that they need, that’s when financial opportunities flow. Financial capital grows at the intersection of your intellectual and social capital. Imagine that you are looking for a new job opportunity—which is also a financial opportunity—the interview process is all about building a relationship with the hiring manager, interviewers, and the company, and then convincing them that you are the most knowledgeable and skillful at solving the problem they are hiring for. Anyone who has strong social capital and knows people in their target company has an advantage because referrals are one of the top ways people get jobs. Also, those who can show through past performance that they are the best at what they do will have an advantage in the hiring process as well. While a salary is a great source of financial capital, its growth is oftentimes dictated by a corporate ladder that you must wait to advance up. When you think about your financial capital as the intersection of your intellectual and social capital, it empowers you because you are in full control of how your intellectual and social capitals grow. Financial capital comes in the form of job opportunities, investment opportunities, entrepreneurial opportunities, and access to capital.

While a 4.0 GPA may measure your book smarts, the 4.0 that really matters in life is about street smarts. How will you navigate this uncertain world ahead of us? Your life is your vehicle to design, drive, and maintain, and growing your 4 capitals will keep you in the driver’s seat so that you have the power and control to direct your life exactly where you want it to go.

Jullien “Purpose Finder” Gordon is a 4 time author, and career expert that has been featured in Forbes and Black Enterprise. Currently the founder and CEO of the Department of Motivated Vehicles, Jullien has spoken at 60+ colleges and universities nationwide, TEDx 3 times, and is a career coach/consultant to several corporate organizations, small businesses and entrepreneurs.

7 Days of Boss Moves, Day Five: Put Your Networking Skills to the Test

2012-02-10T19:39:00.000-08:00

7 Days of Boss Moves, Day Five: Put Your Networking Skills to the Test:

BOSS MOVE, DAY FIVE: Put your networking skills to the test by attending a networking event.

Yes, networking online is important, but traditional face-to-face networking is still vital. So, don’t be afraid to get out there and meet people. If you don’t know where to start, try events hosted by professional groups, social clubs or trade organizations. Utilize resources such as social media, coworkers or fellow church members to find out what’s going on in your city.

Any event can be a networking opportunity, but you must keep in mind your objectives so you aren’t wasting valuable time. It’s not where you network, but it is more about what you do while networking. Be strategic and conscious of your goal when networking in any arena, whether it’s a conference, a birthday celebration, a work-related function or a leisure activity.

ACTION: Take these five steps when in a networking environment:

Be beautiful: When you look good, you feel good. It’s always great to have a polished look that suits you. Also, your outward appearance can speak volumes even before you utter a word.

Be confident: Always give a firm handshake and good eye contact. Shake the jitters off and come in with a positive, open mind. Speak up and get involved with interacting with people.

Be yourself: Whether you’re shy or outspoken, be authentic. People can tell when you are not, and it can be a major turn-off.

Be prepared: Bring plenty of business cards and if you can, know what key players will be in the room before attending an event.

Be present: Give whomever you are talking to your undivided attention. Listen to details and insights of interest to them, and find ways to remember who you connected with and why.

BOSS MOVE, DAY ONE: Develop a Networking Database

BOSS MOVE, DAY TWO: Cultivate Your Current Relationships

BOSS MOVE, DAY THREE: Maximize Your Social Networks

BOSS MOVE, DAY FOUR: Put Your Elevator Pitch Into Action

13 Tips to Naming Your Startup

2012-02-10T19:37:00.000-08:00

13 Tips to Naming Your Startup:

Q. What one tip do you have for entrepreneurs in the “naming” stage of launching a startup?

Kenneth N., Detroit, MIThe following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. The YEC promotes entrepreneurship as a solution to unemployment and underemployment and provides entrepreneurs with access to tools, mentorship, and resources that support each stage of their business’s development and growth.

A. Make It Phonetic

Crazy startup names and quirky misspellings have become quite a trend, but it’s frustrating for consumers. No one wants to have to spell out the name of a business every time they talk about it. Make your business name phonetic so that people will be able to Google it from hearing it out loud.

Laura Roeder, LKR

A. Focus on the Product First

Focus on building the best product you can; you can always choose its company name at the end. Don’t waste too much time or get stuck because of the name. Keep building and improving.

Ben Lang, EpicLaunch

A. Read the 22 Immutable Laws of Branding

Read the 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al Ries and Laura Ries to get help naming your new company. Remember, with most businesses, generic names are doomed to fail. You want to be as different from your competitors as possible, so as to avoid possible confusion. Finally, before you pull the trigger, ask ten people to spell out your company name and see if they get it right!

Matt Mickiewicz, 99designs

A. Stay Away from Wit

Although you’ll see lots of stores and brands with cheeky, punny names, it is important to stay away from that. This is like getting a tattoo that seems good at the time, but you’ll later regret. Think about some of the leading brands; some of these are simply names or just one bold word. Keep it simple by boiling it down to its essence. Brevity is appealing, profound and confident.

Steven Le Vine, grapevine pr

A. What Do You Do?

Find a name that describes what you do. This way, there’s no question what your company is about. The company name will resonate with people more; they’ll have a much easier time finding you. Keep it simple and be able to express your services in two or three words maximum.

Louis Lautman, Young Entrepreneur Society

A. Get the .com Domain

In the case that you are struggling to come up with a memorable branding identifier, work backwards and start researching domains that may or may not be available. Use a domain suggestion tool like nameboy.com to come up with ideas. From there, pick a strong .com that makes the most sense. Then, brand accordingly.

Logan Lenz, Endagon

A. Can They Remember It?

Tell ten people the name you are considering. A week later, connect with them again and ask them to recall that name. How many people were able to accurately remember it? If it was less than seven, you may want to consider other more memorable alternatives that truly grab people’s attention.

Justin Beck, PerBlue

A. Evaluate the Search Competition

Before you file the paperwork, make sure you’re choosing a name that’s unique enough to come up on top of search results when someone Googles you. You don’t want to fight for the top as “Creative Industries LLC.” And an added bonus, a unique company name will make it easier to monitor for mentions of your company in social media and engage with your community.

Allie Siarto, Loudpixel

A. Don’t Get Sued over Sloppy Seconds

In the naming stage, you do not want to select a name that you may have to change later or, even worse, get sued for, because someone else has a registered trademark on the word or phrase. This can be easily be avoided by visiting the federal patent and trademark office’s site, USPTO.gov, and doing a search on any potential names.

Nick Cronin, ExpertBids.com

A. Crowdsource Your Ideas

Come up with some ideas on your own, but also enlist friends, family and other folks in the industry to come up with something unique and memorable. You could also turn to social networks to get other people’s opinions and ideas. Don’t forget to check if the domain name is available, too!

Heather Huhman, Come Recommended

A. Say It Out Loud!

Sometimes you come up with a name that looks great when written down, inspires a visual brand and makes for a snappy domain where the .com is still available. But how does it sound when you say it out loud? Do you feel proud and cool saying it or do you feel slightly embarrassed? You’re going to be using it a lot when you launch, so make sure it’s something that works well verbally.

Lea Woodward, Inspiring Ventures

A. It Doesn’t Matter!

The name of your company doesn’t matter. Yahoo? Google? Woot? Amazon? Zappos? Gatorade? Nike? These names don’t typically mean anything and the majority of them are made up. The key is to market your company well, reinforce your branding everywhere and try to do something unique and memorable. The more people see your name, the easier it is to remember it.

Jason Sadler, IWearYourShirt.com

A. Pick Something Versatile and Memorable

Choosing a startup name can be tricky, because chances are that the business you start today is not the business you’ll have three years from now. Think of companies like Yahoo and Google, who have evolved their products and offerings. Their company names still apply, and are both memorable enough to stick.

Nathalie Lussier, Nathalie Lussier Media

7 Days of Boss Moves, Day Four: Put Your Elevator Pitch Into Action

2012-02-09T19:42:00.000-08:00

7 Days of Boss Moves, Day Four: Put Your Elevator Pitch Into Action:

BOSS MOVE, DAY Four: Put your 60-second elevator pitch into action.

BOSS MOVE, DAY ONE: Develop a Networking Database

BOSS MOVE, DAY TWO: Cultivate Your Current Relationships

BOSS MOVE, DAY THREE: Maximize Your Social Networks

How Advertising and Marketing Use Technology – #infographic

2012-02-08T19:10:00.000-08:00

How Advertising and Marketing Use Technology – #infographic:

This infographic lists a series of technological marketing tools such as augmented reality, that have changed the face of marketing:

(via BuySellAds)

High Flying F-Light Lamps Made From Recycled Airbus A300 Jets

2012-02-08T07:31:00.000-08:00

High Flying F-Light Lamps Made From Recycled Airbus A300 Jets:

We’ve seen old airplanes recycled into hotels, homes, and restaurants, but Paul Coudamy is taking things piece by piece with his incredible F-light. The designer has transformed the walls of an old Airbus A300 into a luminous hanging lamp that is sure to take command of any office.

Read the rest of High Flying F-Light Lamps Made From Recycled Airbus A300 Jets

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Post tags: Airbus A300, airplane lamp, eco design, F-Light, FLOWN Mobilier Airline, green design, green lighting, Paul Coudamy, recycled airplane, sustainable design

Freelancers, Alone No More: Coworking Is Going Big Business

2012-02-08T07:23:00.000-08:00

Freelancers, Alone No More: Coworking Is Going Big Business:

When it came time for Warecorp to finally have a physical headquarters, CEO Chris Dykstra decided against the traditional office space route. Instead, the software and web services company bought a group membership at a downtown Minneapolis coworking space for its 10 U.S. employees to use when they aren’t visiting clients.

"I just thought, you know, there's really no reason why you couldn't just embed all of your infrastructure in existing coworking spaces," says Dykstra, whose office is now a “campsite,” a hexagon-shaped pod partitioned from others like it with semi-transparent screens.

Coworking spaces were initially conceived to give independent workers an alternative to the coffee shop, providing reliable Internet connections, printers, meeting space and other office amenities. Today, there's growing interest in coworking spaces from larger companies as an alternative to the cube farm, as a way to lower real estate overhead, boost sustainability and stimulate workers who thrive on the spaces’ entrepreneurial energy.

Dykstra's workspace sits inside a three-story-high, gymnasium-sized room shared with dozens of freelancers and entrepreneurs, giving the space a pulse that would be hard to replicate in a standalone office for ten people. It was once the trading floor of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange; today, people call it the "brain exchange." Officially, it's the CoCo Coworking and Collaborative Space, which has fast become a social and networking hub for Twin Cities entrepreneurs and freelancers (including this writer).

Last week CoCo and five other U.S. coworking spaces announced they've formed the League of Extraordinary Coworking Spaces (LEXC), which means they will honor each other's memberships and let users reserve spaces online. The move is aimed in part at making it easier and more appealing for larger companies to get into the game.

The concept has existed informally in coworking culture from the beginning. If you're traveling and drop by another city's coworking hub, they're likely to welcome you for the day. LEXC is an attempt to make that process more simple and transparent, while also adding a layer of formality expected by many larger companies.

Kyle Coolbroth, one of CoCo's co-founders, says they've been approached locally by most of the Twin Cities' Fortune 500 companies, including US Bank, which has purchased memberships and rented meeting space at CoCo, a short walk from the bank's headquarters. "They understand that there is a fundamental shift of culture, and they understand they need to create and provide a collaborative environment for their work teams," says Coolbroth. "The problem with coworking, prior to LEXC, was that it lacked a central organization for corporations to engage in."

That culture shift is the growing expectation among employees that they be able to work when and where they want to. More than four out of five companies on Fortune's "Best Places to Work" list offer some type of alternative workplace program. For some workers, this means telecommuting on days when it is more convenient. Others simply feel happier (and more productive) working outside the traditional cube-farm.

Nine percent of regular users at U.S. coworking spaces already work for companies with more than 100 employees, according to Emergent Research. But there are more than a billion mobile workers worldwide, and one study by Telework Research Network estimates that 45 percent of U.S. jobs could be done with at least part-time telework.

As the economy improves, some of the independent workers who have populated coworking spaces are likely to be snapped up as larger companies begin to hire again. Co-working organizers are looking to corporate customers to provide a longer-term revenue stream.

"I think the potential there is extraordinarily large," says Mark Gilbreath, founder and CEO of LiquidSpace, whose technology serves as the online reservation platform for LEXC. "There's a seismic shift underway in large companies with respect to how they are envisioning their own internal real estate. That shift is toward mobility."

That new thinking is being driven by everything from real estate uncertainty to sustainability goals—shared workspaces often mean smaller environmental footprints. But above all it's being viewed as a recruiting and retention strategy.

"It's easier to recruit top talent, because they're already there," says Dykstra, referring to the freelance developers, engineers and other skilled entrepreneurs working in these spaces. Warecorp's coworking experiment in the Twin Cities was so successful that Dykstra decided to convert the company's 60-employee office in Minsk, Belarus, into a coworking space, too.

LEXC's founding members include NextSpace in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area; BLANKSPACES in Los Angeles; Link Coworking in Austin; WorkBar in Boston; CoCo in Minneapolis and St. Paul; and 654 Croswell in Grand Rapids, Mich. The league is looking to expand and is already recruiting and vetting new members in the top 25 metro areas in North America.

Coworking is a "radically fast growing" niche, but so is telework, says Gilbreath. A the mobile workforce outgrows home offices, coffee shops and airport lounges, LEXC and LiquidSpace hope to be part of the new infrastructure that will support our desire for the necessary parts of an office—without, you know, the office itself.

Photo by Anders Holine courtesy CoCo Minneapolis

How to Use Microsites to Your Advantage

2012-02-08T07:21:00.001-08:00

How to Use Microsites to Your Advantage:

What’s a Microsite?

I just love Wikipedia, they have the best descriptions:

“Microsite is an internet web design term referring to an individual web page or a small cluster (around 1 to 7) of pages which are meant to function as a discreet entity within an existing website or to complement an offline activity. The microsite’s main landing page most likely has its own domain name or sub domain. They are typically used to add a specialized group of information either editorial or commercial. Such sites may be linked in to a main site or not or taken completely off a site’s server when the site is used for a temporary purpose. The main distinction of a microsite versus its parent site is its purpose and specific cohesiveness as compared to the microsite’s broader overall parent website.”

A website should be a major point of focus in an online presence. These primary sites are our brand representatives, our corporate brochures, and an entry point into engaging with our companies, and our foothold in the digital landscape. Our websites are the ‘who we are and what we do’ and maybe even the how we do it story that should be compelling visitors to sign up now, buy our product or services, and fulfill what ever it is we are looking for to grow our companies. Websites should be our lead funnel, customer service center, and even our storefront. But this is a topic that requires its own series of posts, or a book.

But let’s get back on topic regarding microsites and what they can do for you.

©iStockphoto.com/imagedepotpro

There are several advantages to a microsite. Just to name a few:

1. It can provide high value back links to our primary website

2. It allows an organization to feature or highlight key individuals, topics or trends without diluting the rest of a company’s online efforts

3. It can improve search results for both sites with high value relevant keyword rich content

4. It’s a platform to test an idea or niche direction before totally investing

5. It creates and builds a community around a single idea or single aspect of your business

Some ideas for microsites:

1. To promote a book or an event

2. If your CEO is an active speaker on a topic or within an industry, creating a website that showcases their expertise and experience can help generate activity and develop or establish prominence in the field

3. If getting invitations to industry expert panels and speaking engagements is not your core business than a ‘speaker,’ or if they wrote a book, ‘author’ site would make sense. As an example (and a little shameless self-promotion), my own speaking website, mardysitzer.com. feeds links to and receives traffic from our main company site bumblebeellc.com

4. Focusing on emerging trends is a great idea for a microsite

5. It’s the perfect way to attract traffic on that topic and separate yourself from your competitors with a dedicated site on that topic alone

6. A campaign or cause that is supported by your company but not a part of what your organization does. This helps your visitors to understand the heart and soul of your company without distracting from the business at hand.

How about other ideas for microsites—care to share your ideas or experience?

7 Days of Boss Moves, Day Three: Maximize Your Social Networks

2012-02-08T07:21:00.000-08:00

7 Days of Boss Moves, Day Three: Maximize Your Social Networks:

BOSS MOVE, DAY THREE: Maximize your social networks.

In 2012, I still hear people say, “I don’t want to use social media.” Well, get prepared to be left behind. In today’s technology-driven society, social networks—with more than 900 million users—are the perfect platform to promote what you do to an active audience. Also, if you are an introvert, it’s the ideal place to get the networking ball rolling by starting a conversation online and then talk offline later when you feel comfortable. So get in the game and activate accounts that will help enhance and market your brand.

If you’re already on social media, evaluate your friends and followers lists and make adjustments if needed. Do you have 800 friends on Facebook or 600 followers on Twitter? How many of them do you actually know? How many of them know what you do?

ACTION: Using social networks are about reciprocation. Start by following some key people in your industry and retweet an article, comment on a post, or feature them on your blog. This gets the communication rolling and you find a shared interest in which to base a new relationship. Also, utilize list features on Twitter and Facebook so you can better organize how you’ll connect with people via social media.

BOSS MOVE, DAY ONE: Develop a Networking Database

BOSS MOVE, DAY TWO: Cultivate Your Current Relationships

5 Critical Steps to Getting Your Creative Project Funded on Kickstarter

2012-02-07T20:10:00.000-08:00

5 Critical Steps to Getting Your Creative Project Funded on Kickstarter:

Note from Caleb: A trend we’ve been seeing lately is how bloggers have been using Kickstarter to fund major projects. A couple months back we featured the story of how Kristin and Shannon used their blog to reach more than triple their fundraising goal on Kickstarter. Also, our good friend Adam Baker from Man vs. Debt is launching his own Kickstarter campaign soon for a documentary called ‘I’m Fine, Thanks’.

To go along with this rising trend we have a special post today for you from Brian Kwong. He is going to lay out some of the findings from research he has been doing for his very own project for helping other people successfully fund their Kickstarter campaigns.

Take it away Brian!

***

It has been a heck of a year for Kickstarter in 2011, a crowd-funding platform based in the US, where creative projects are launched and funded by everyday folks like you and me.

Since the birth of Kickstarter in April 2009, they had reached 10,000 successfully funded projects in July 2011, helped projects raise more than $100 million dollars and had their one millionth backer in October 2011.

These are some mind-blowing numbers in just two and half years, especially in a weak US economy.

So I thought, Kickstarter could be a real opportunity for me to raise funds and start a creative project that I am passionate about, no matter if it’s a non-fiction book or any other awesome project that I could dream up.

How Kickstarter Works

Kickstarter uses an “All or Nothing” model, meaning if you don’t get enough pledges by the time the deadline is reached for your project, the deal is void and no money changes hands.

This creates a bond between the project creator and backers because everybody wins if the project gets funded.

If the project is funded, Kickstarter gets 5%, Amazon (as the escrow service who hold the money until the project is complete) gets 3-5%, the project creator gets the rest of the funding for a project he/she loves and the backers get awesome rewards that they chose.

This creates an opportunity to build a thriving community by allowing the backers to be a part of something while reaching for the same goal with the project creator.

This all sounds gravy but this is when reality sinks in.

The success rate on Kickstarter has consistently hovered between 40-45%, which means out of every 100 project being launched, 55-60 of them will fail.

This led me to the creation of Kickstarter Rockstar and the goal is to find out…

What does it really take to be successful on Kickstarter?

I went out there and conducted interviews with some of the most successful Kickstarter project owners and asked them exactly how they did it, from start to finish.

So far, 6 interviews are completed. 3 out of the 6 projects are in the Top 20 Most Funded projects in their category, the All-Stars of Kickstarter:

The Versalette, by {r}evolution apparel, Kristin and Shannon, #1 most funded project in the Fashion Category, raised $64,246 (Note from Caleb: See our interview with Kristin and Shannon here.)

Becoming Visible, by Josh Lehrer, #3 most funded project in the Photography Category, raised $35,348

Home Bar Basics, by Dave Stolte, #13 most funded project in the Publishing, Non-Fiction Category, raised $16,934

Hello, Skater Girl, by Julian Bleecker, Photography, raised $13,923

The EscapeCapsule, by Josh and June, Design, Product Design, raised $54,943

1000 Pugs, by Amanda, Photography, raised $14,701 as the writing of this post

Below are the five critical things that I found successful projects on Kickstarter have in common.

1. An EPIC Project Idea

Epic doesn’t mean way over the top, although there are successful funded projects like finding an undeveloped island on Craigslist and turn it into a residency for artists, setting a giant guitar on fire or turning a skate ramp into an instrument and so forth.

On Kickstarter, the sky is the limit.

But if you are interested in a project that has the potential to build a profitable and thriving audience like I do, here are some things that I found in common with successful projects.

Creative in their own way

May have never been done before

No satisfactory solution in the market, you are offering something that is unique and from a different value adding angle.

It all comes back to: What is your unique selling proposition?

If you haven’t read The Ultimate Guide to Finding Your Unique Selling Proposition by Corbett Barr, it is a must read. Especially the section titled “How to Find Your Unique Selling Proposition”.

Clear and Narrow Target Audience and Topic

All of the successful project owners I interviewed have a very clear target audience with a narrow topic.

“The Versalette’s” target audience is females who like fashion and are highly conscious about sustainability.

“The EscapeCapsule”, a waterproof iPhone 4 case, has a target of iPhone users who are into an adventurous lifestyle, especially outdoor activities like going to the beach.

“1000 Pugs” are die-hard pug dog lovers.

For your project to be funded, your target audience has to get behind the project, strike a chord with them and provide value for them.

Remember this is not a charity, backers are pledging and backing a project in exchange for something in value.

If you are offering a product or anything for sale, backers are essentially putting their trust in you and are pre-ordering your product before you put it together.

So an EPIC project idea that offers value to a particular group of audience, in a particular topic is the #1 critical thing successful projects have in common.

Without this, nothing else matters. Period.

2. A Story and a Message Bigger Than You

Once you got the project idea down, your story and message has to be bigger than you.

For example, “Becoming Visible” is about giving the fastest growing population of homeless transgender teens a voice in New York.

“The Versalette’s” story and message is about transforming and revolutionizing the fashion industry by creating a sustainable fashion line for women.

“Hello, Skater Girl’s” message is about documenting women in a sport that is often overlooked but still carries the rebelliousness in a skater’s DNA.

The common thread in these examples is, they all have a story and message that their target audience view as something worth fighting for.

The project creator is also important. The story usually includes a short mention of how the project creator came up with the project idea and they act as a messenger who fulfills the message of the project in the world.

The more a project speaks to the audience, the more willing backers will participate and spread the word.

3. Personal and Engaging Video

A video is a must on Kickstarter.

There are a million and one ways to communicate a story through videos and they don’t have to perfect, funny, or exciting. It just has to be “you”.

It could be you simply speaking in the camera, it could be voice over or it could be just moving text so your audiences’ voice acts as the narrator of the video.

Length of the Video

Out of the 6 interviews, the lengths of the videos were between 2 minutes and 8 seconds (The Versalette) to 5 minutes 46 seconds (Home Bar Basic).

Successful projects’ videos length on Kickstarter is about 2 minutes. And people are most likely to bail after the first 20-30 seconds, so make sure you say what your project is and why someone should back your project within that time frame.

Personally after I click the play button, the first thing I do is to check how long the video is and the longer the video is, the less likely I will finish watching the video.

With all that said, “Home Bar Basic’s” video is 5 minutes and 45 seconds long and it is still in the Top 20 Most Funded projects in the publishing, non-fiction category. So, there is always an exception.

Creating Your Video

The objective of the video is to clearly communicate your story, your message and what you are trying to accomplish with the project in an engaging and personal way in 2 – 4 minutes.

If that sounds like a tall order, just watch as many successful Kickstarter projects as you can, it happens all the time. Remember to write down what you like about the videos and bookmark it.

When I asked Josh and June from the EscapeCapsule “What is it that you want to communicate through your video?” They said one word, “FUN”. You can see Fun completely shines through in their video.

Most videos have the following components (Not limited to and not necessary in this order):

Introduction

Problem

Vision of the project

Solution + Feature and Benefits

What you need the money for

Ask for support + Rewards

You don’t have to include everything above or in that order. This can serve as just a basic guideline when you are creating your own video.

One thing I heard repeatedly from these successful project owners is, “The video took longer than we thought to make.” “I thought we could get it down in a week but it took 3 months.”

So make sure you start creating your video as soon as you can.

Lastly, there is no such thing as a “right” way to create a perfect video.

Just share your story, message, and your project proudly and you will do fine.

4. Sizable network

Kickstarter is a crowd funding platform. Your project is funded by your family, friends, colleagues, and customers so the strength of your network plays a big part in any project.

If you have a decent network in terms of quantity and you have a great relationship with your network then it may be enough to carry you through to your funding goal.

If you are starting from scratch and can only start with friends and family, your success will most likely determine by how often you reach out to your target audience to share about your project once you finished telling all your friends.

The best way to demonstrate this is through some graphs and statistics.

In the lower right corner of every Kickstarter project video, you will see a shortened link.

Once you copy and paste that link in your browser, add a “+” at the end and hit enter.

The link will turn into a bit.ly link and you can see all the statistics of the project, including the total amount of clicks (Traffic), the traffic source of the clicks, what countries they came from and how many social media conversations were generated.

Let’s compare the statistics of two projects, “1000 pugs” and “Hello, Skater Girl”, as they raised a similar amount of funds and they are in the same category of photography.

Kickstarter Project – “1000 pugs”

As of the writing of this post, “1000 pugs” still has 14 days to go, Amanda’s funding goal was $9,636, but she had raised $14,701.

How many days and how many clicks did it take?

It took Amanda 36 hours and 370 clicks to reach her funding goal of $9,636.

And a total of 12 days and 595 clicks to reach $14,701.

As you can see, Amanda stopped actively promoting her project once she reached her funding goal.

This result is created by a combination of a narrow niche of pug lovers who are strongly and emotionally attached to her project of shooting 1000 pugs in one year and the power of her network she built through being a professional pet photographer over the years.

Kickstarter Project – “Hello Skater Girl”

Julian’s photography book project raised $13,923.

How many days and how many clicks did it take?

Julian’s project was launched on Nov 2nd, 2011 and his project ended on Jan 1st, 2012.

That is a total of 58 days and it took less than 1500 clicks (This number includes the clicks after the funding period ended) to reach his funding goal.

Once Julian finished telling everybody in his network, he had to reach out to more people in order for him to meet his goal.

Let’s compare the statistics:

1000 pugs raised $14,701 in 12 days with 595 clicks. Hello Skater Girl raised $13,923 in 58 days with less than 1500 clicks.

The truth is neither of the project owners knew what’s going to happen until they took action and launched their project.

It is still possible to reach your funding goal without a big network like Julian, but a good sized audience and great quality of relationship with your network plays an important part of the success of your project.

5. Willingness to Put In the Work

“Dreams Don’t Work Unless You Do” – Unknown

As most “over-night” success stories there is usually a side of the story that is untold.

Every successful project owner that I spoke with busted their chops, no matter if they started building their network years ago before their project launched like Amanda from “1000 Pugs” or they worked furiously to get the word out after the project went live.

Dave from the “Home Bar Basic” failed to meet his goal the first time he launched his project. He then took the lessons he learned and busted his butt the second time around and made it to the Top 20 most funded projects in his category.

Josh and June “Worked in shifts and didn’t really sleep for 30 days” when their project The EscapeCapsule was live because they were emailing and messaging every technology blog they could find.

Why are they so motivated?

I asked Josh and June how does it feel to be able to fund your project and have the opportunity to create something that you love and do it for a living?

Josh said “Although there is a ton of work, a steep learning curve but I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else in the world right now, no matter what happens to our company.”

Not everyone can say that about what they do for a living.

Each and every project has a unique inspirational story and they are willing to do whatever it takes to transform their idea into a reality.

Do you have a project idea that has been in the back burner for years and are you ready to do what it takes to turn your dream project into reality? Kickstarter might be the best place for you to turn.

***

What has your experience with Kickstarter been like? Let us know in the comments below if you have funded a project or launched one yourself.

If you would like to hear more about the above inspirational stories, lessons learned, tips and tricks and what it takes to be successful on Kickstarter, check out Kickstarter Rockstar by Brian Kwong on Kickstarter.com.

7 Days of Boss Moves, Day Two: Cultivate Your Current Relationships

2012-02-07T20:05:00.000-08:00

7 Days of Boss Moves, Day Two: Cultivate Your Current Relationships:

BOSS MOVE, DAY TWO: Cultivate Your Current Relationships

Start with what you have. Throughout your life, you can meet hundreds, maybe even thousands of people. Many know you very well and can vouch for your character but may not know you’re looking for a job, trying to advance your career, or that you’ve started a business. If you’ve already built a vast network, sometimes it’s easy to lose touch or be overwhelmed by numbers.

In order for your business relationships to bear fruit, you must cultivate and grow those existing relationships. This is a great time to review and edit your contact list, and update them on all on the things happening in your life. You may find you are the perfect person to fill a position at their office, collaborate with them on a project, or offer a service.

ACTION: Create an e-mail that outlines where you are in your life right now, what amazing things you are doing and how you can be an asset. Take notice of who’s who in your network and tailor the e-mail to the appropriate people. Remember, the best relationships are cultivated, and with time and effort, you may be able to develop the connection and turn the contact into a long-term client or job referral.

BOSS MOVE, DAY ONE: Develop a Networking Database

Sleek Daybed Design by Suite NY

2012-02-07T05:06:00.000-08:00

Sleek Daybed Design by Suite NY:

Daydreaming about a sleek daybed design for your living room or home office? The CB-41 Daybed by Suite NY boasts the perfect combination of small-scale style, sophistication, and quality. This sleek design by Craig Bassam and Scott Fellows features a solid-teak frame with a rich oiled finish that highlights the wood's warm, natural beauty. The removable seat and headrest are upholstered in luxurious leather with a tufted down topping, adding comfort to aesthetics - a great addition to any interior. Or, take it outside with optional outdoor upholstery, made to weather any weather. Also available in Santos Rosewood, Walnut and Ash wood. Sweet dreams indeed! More info is available by visiting Suite NY.

15 Tips for a Better Work-Life Balance

2012-02-06T19:56:00.000-08:00

15 Tips for a Better Work-Life Balance:

Staying on top of your A-game and maintaining a healthy work-life balance can feel like an oxymoron. Most of us experience an uneven pull between our social lives and work commitments, which isn't surprising considering the current economy and fact that employees everywhere are working overtime to show they're an indispensable part of the team. Nevertheless, it's important to establish a healthy harmony between your job and personal life. This doesn't just mean working overtime to please your boss and boyfriend; it means creating a balance of time spent working, playing, and pleasing yourself.

Foster Healthy Weekday Habits

If we're not careful the weekdays can become one big work blur. Instigate healthy habits by taking a trip to the grocery store (save on groceries with these tricks) on Sunday and planning the meals you will make at home during the week, or challenge yourself to visit the gym four nights in one week. The time away from the computer and work worries will clear your mind, allow you to focus, and likely inspire you to be more productive when you are at the computer.

Learn the Value of Saying No

Most SavvySugar readers admit they have a hard time saying no to work and social invitations, which means many of you are getting roped into projects, parties, and events you'd rather say "no way, Jose!" to. Next time you are invited to something, weigh the benefit and cost before saying yes. If you think the event or project will have a positive impact on your productivity, career, and networking without disrupting your non-work schedule, go for it. If you think your personal life will suffer because of it, say no.

Remember, don't be too "nice" or you may not be able to get ahead at work.

Set Calendar Reminders

Set goals, appointments, lunch dates, or even eye breaks or gym appointments in your work calendar. The little office notification will pop up and force you to stop what you are doing and focus on your goal.

Put Family First When You're Home

Your family and loved ones will come to resent you if you keep your eyes on your laptop or phone every night. Make quality-time dates with your family or significant other after dinner to distract you from your workload. The work will always be there in the morning, or after Glee. Savor your at-home time while you can.

Get Your Zzzs

When you're running up against the clock and finishing a high priority project, it's easy to lose track of time and pull an all-nighter. But chances are you won't produce your best work at 4 a.m. after 20 hours in front of the computer. Don't compromise your sleeping schedule or ignore the power of your beauty rest. The pile will still be there in the morning, and chances are your co-workers won't respond to their email before 9 a.m. anyway.

Having trouble waking up? Use these tips to wake up and get out of bed fast.

Know When to Unplug

While most of us can't finish all our tasks while we are in the office, it's crucial to set boundaries. If you carry your laptop home with you at night and often work on it while watching TV or hanging out at home for more than an hour, stay at work for an extra 45 minutes instead to finish critical tasks and leave your computer at the office. If you carry your BlackBerry with you everywhere and check work email every five minutes, make a rule to only check it once or twice an hour. You'll be more productive and still be able to relax and focus on your non-work life.

Sign Up For a Class

If challenging yourself to cook or visit the gym isn't doing the trick, sign up for a class you can't miss. If you pre-pay for a yoga or French pastry class you will be more likely to show up and detach from work for those few hours.

Take Personal Breaks During the Day

Unless your employer asks you to clock in and out for breaks, you should assume responsibility for your time. Make sure you've scoped out your manager's take on personal breaks and then make a schedule to give yourself 15 or 20 minutes of break time during the day. Take a walk around the block and call your mom or BFF. Make a list of errands you need to accomplish during the week and then sit outside Starbucks for 15 minutes while you make your phone calls. Your fellow employees will appreciate you not making personal calls in the office and you will feel as though you've taken a work break and taken care of your personal items.

Leave Work at a Decent Time

Employers pay attention to the time you commit on the job, but that doesn't mean you need to stay until dark every night of the week. Stay late when you need to finish a project, but don't be afraid to make plans during the week that will force you to leave the office at a decent time. Getting outside at a healthy time will boost your mood and make you happier about resuming your work in the morning.

Schedule "Work Hours" at Home

If you must work at home, set some time limits. Make dinner with your family, wind down with a little TV or a chapter of a book, and then work for an hour or two and return to "me time." Better yet, work for an hour before dinner and then spend the rest of the night worry-free.

Keep Work (and Your Laptop) Out of the Bedroom

If you do work at home, make sure to establish "no-work zones" in the house. In my mind, work, laptops, and smartphones shouldn't be allowed in the bathroom or bedroom. Set up a definitive work area at the dining room table, your home office, or the coffee table.

Figure Out How to Be Happy at Work

Being happy with your work life is one of the keys to maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Make a friend at the office and invite her to lunch once a week, or grab your work BFF and the new gals from the department upstairs and indulge in an ice cream or happy hour. The better your relationships with colleagues the more likely you'll be to turn to them for project support or advice if you need it.

Challenge Your Partner or a Friend

If you have trouble detaching from work and unwinding from a stressful day at the office, challenge your partner or friend to get out of the house too! Plan weekly runs or walks through the neighborhood, a new dish you can make together, or simply commit to sitting and talking for two hours about anything but work. You'll quickly find you have a million things to talk about other than the annoying girl down the hall who keeps undermining you in meetings.

Drowning? Speak Up!

If the projects keep piling up and you're physically incapable of finishing all your assigned tasks during work hours (and all the overtime you put in!), sit down with your manager and explain the situation. Let her know how many hours you have been working overtime and discuss other team members who may be able to assist you or the possibility of hiring an intern. Chances are your manager is fully aware of how hard you have been working (or should be!) and can help you devise a better time management plan.

Reward Yourself

After challenging yourself to focus on your work-life balance, don't forget to reward yourself for making an effort to change. Send yourself flowers or treat yourself to a manicure. You'll feel proud every time you look over at the flowers or your fancy nails and be motivated to keep your new healthy habits.

Want to be happier at work AND at home? Follow these suggestions to keep yourself balanced, healthy, and joyful.

Guest Post Blurb:

This is a guest contribution from our friends at SavvySugar. Check out more useful articles from this partner:

4 Alternative Treatments to Uplift Your Work Self

Secrets to Beating Your Work Exhaustion

Make Every Morning More Productive

Written by SavvySugar and published on Wise Bread. Read more articles from Wise Bread.

7 Steps to Work-Life Balance When Working from Home

5 Office Habits to Keep When Working From Home

Finding Your Best Work Hours

Your Work or Your Life?

Keeping Your Head (when all around you are losing theirs)

M.I.A.'s Middle Finger GIF

2012-02-06T19:53:00.000-08:00

M.I.A.'s Middle Finger GIF:

It's the Super Bowl middle finger heard 'round the world.

Spotted: Miss Info

12 Business Trend Predictions for 2012

2012-02-06T19:47:00.000-08:00

12 Business Trend Predictions for 2012:

Are you reading this while wearing a bedazzled Ed Hardy t-shirt? Is your ensemble rounded out with an airbrushed trucker hat perched atop a majestic mullet? If so, you might suffer from Style Blindness (SB), a type of trend disorder. While you should definitely see a doctor about that, your problem with trends doesn’t have to affect your business decisions. Like the world of fashion, the business world has trends of its own – and staying ahead of those trends means the difference between looking like a business maverick and well, just looking like an outdated idiot. What changes can you expect to see in the business world this year? Use these 12 predictions to stay ahead of the curve.

Big business starts to socialize. Mitt Romney isn’t the only one who wants you to think of corporations as people. The corporations themselves want to get personal, and in 2012 they’ll be using social media networks to do it. Get ready for requests from corporate giants like Walmart on your Twitter and Facebook, and expect to see a change in the way these giants interact with their consumers online. With Occupy protestors calling attention to economic inequality and corporate greed, companies will create personal connections with consumers, partly in an attempt to manage their reputations. They’ll nix the business-speak and create conversations instead of sales pitches.

Younger entrepreneurs take the stage. Like the future of the Twilight saga, the future of the global economy is uncertain. Asking when and how the economy will improve is almost like asking what will become of the Cullen clan – no one knows. That uncertainty is causing young people to break out of traditional molds. They know the business world is changing, and they’ve not afraid to adapt. Instead of taking the reins at Dad’s auto shop or accounting firm, they’ll continue to go into business for themselves, forming cutting-edge start-ups and changing the face of small business in the process.

Social media works better. Business appraisers are starting to truly understand social media, and they’re now much better at determining which strategies will result in a profit and which will be a waste of time. As a result, social media practices are becoming more and more structured around actual ROI. Instead of constantly spamming consumers with emails and excessive tweets, businesses will slow down and focus on quality content that actually leads to sales instead of headaches.

Businesses go mobile. Which members of N*SYNC were originally part of the Mickey Mouse Club? When important questions like these come up in conversation, all you need to do is whip out your smartphone and do a quick search for the answer. When you need to find a pizza shop, tow truck or repair man you probably do the same thing. Smart phones make it easy for us to Google on the go, and brands are finding ways to adapt. Businesses who want to stop you from stumbling onto a competitor’s contact info are creating vanity numbers that customers can easily recall. These 1-800 numbers are a traditional business tool that will see a surge in popularity as mobile culture grows in 2012.

Green gets greener. Consumers are getting smarter. Brands that try to cash in on the green trend without truly upholding environmental standards aren’t going to get away with it anymore. In 2012, many new and existing companies will adopt green practices, but we’ll also see some companies get called out on their false claims and misleading marketing. Green will actually get greener, because these businesses will find they can no longer fake it.

Health insurance shrinks business size. New insurance regulations and systems will provide insurance for the self-employed that is more accessible than ever before. Workers who had previously relied on company benefits packages at jobs they didn’t enjoy will now be able to afford to go it alone, and you can expect a lot of people to seize the opportunity this year. Businesses that want to cut rising health care costs will keep their workforce as small as possible and employ independent contractors whenever they can.

It’s an app world. When’s the last time you checked your Words With Friends score? Five minutes ago? Ten? If you find yourself slightly obsessed with your mobile apps, you’re not alone. Think about Angry Birds – the mobile game is so wildly popular that you can now find Angry Birds toys, school supplies and even clothing. Businesses see our app obsession as a valuable marketing opportunity. That’s why you can expect to see an influx in corporate apps this year, from the useful to the downright silly.

Retirees reenter the workforce. A lot of baby boomers who thought they had it made are now finding that their savings alone can’t sustain them through retirement. Grandpa knows his job options don’t begin and end with “Walmart greeter,” and he’ll be looking to apply his skills and experience at a job he can enjoy. Watch for workplace dynamics and demographics to shift as retirees reenter the workforce and apply their traditional knowledge and insight to new business systems.

Daily deal sites cater to you. Sites like Groupon and LivingSocial experienced wild popularity last year, but consumers are growing tired of the flood of emails. More, they’re annoyed by all these deals that have nothing to do with them (laser liposuction, really?) The sites are evolving into something more customizable, like the system you’ll find on BigTip, the new deal site that allows customers to search through thousands of deals by category. This system will also pay off for business owners. They’re just not equipped to deal with a flood of customers who try to redeem their coupons all at once.

Target demographics shift. The largest population demographic is made up of people 85 and older. Though many brands pander to the young and hip, businesses will begin to shift their focus to this much larger age group instead. Pay close attention and you’ll see a change in marketing strategies everywhere. Does this mean advertisers will finally stop slapping the buzzword “extreme” on everything from deodorant to cheese puffs? That would be such a welcome change, wouldn’t it?

Businesses focus on the local. In a world where we’re constantly inundated with newsletters and pop-up ads, consumers yearn for that personal touch. They’re reaching out to find a real sense of community, and businesses are hoping to meet them halfway. From children’s sports team sponsorships to non-profit fundraisers, we’ll see more businesses getting involved on the local level.

Everyone gets an online shop. From bill paying to gift buying, consumers are more comfortable with online shopping than ever before. Smart business owners will get in on the action in an attempt to get their hands on all those digital dollars. While giants like eBay and Amazon will stay strong, you can expect surprising new players to enter the field. The boutique down the street will create an online catalog featuring their vintage dress collection, and your local grocery store could even start taking delivery orders online. Consumers will start making more of their formerly “in-store” transactions online instead.

Style blindness is the rarest of medical conditions: an illness that actually is a laughing matter. But while you might require a one-on-one consultation with Dr. Tim Gunn to talk you out of those Crocs, remember this: you have the power to prevent your horrible fashion sense fashion from affecting your business decisions. Keep these trends in mind and you’ll be sure to stay ahead of your competitors in 2012. Sure, they might look a little more GQ at the marketing conference, but your profits will say what a million tailored suits can’t – that when it comes to business, you’re a true trendsetter.

Perry Sheraw is the founder and executive vice president of eBusiness Appraisals. She is a dedicated business owner advocate with a mission to ensure all business owners have access to critical information in order to make the right choices and achieve the highest possible value from their life’s work.

7 Days of Boss Moves: Recharge Your Professional Network Today

2012-02-06T19:39:00.000-08:00

7 Days of Boss Moves: Recharge Your Professional Network Today:

“Your network determines your net-worth.”

How many times have you heard that saying?

Well, it’s true, and in these economic times, professionals can’t afford to lack access to a growing network. A strong professional network is vital to the growth of businesses or career advancement. For some, the art of networking is easy. For others, the mere thought brings on anxiety.

Here’s a challenge: Step outside of your comfort zone and realize that your attitude really does determine your altitude. In the next seven days, at BlackEnterprise.com, we offer seven steps to doing so — weather you’re an introvert or extrovert — so you’ll attract the right people and start building long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationships. Building a community of people who support you does takes time, but there are strategic ways you can get started expanding your professional network today!

BOSS MOVE, DAY ONE: Develop a networking database.

In today’s market, success lies in learning how to maximize your return on investment. Whether you’re attending a local networking event or an expensive business conference, managing your network is critical. Keeping track of all your contacts is the start to building a strong network. Contrary to popular belief, having a file full of business cards is not networking. Take the time to survey your database of contacts to make sure you know who each contact is and what prompted you to take their business card in the first place.

ACTION: Create a spreadsheet with all of the pertinent information from your business cards or e-mail contacts (such as their name, business, place of work, title, contact number and e-mail address). Make sure you include key information in your notes section that shows the connection between you and the contact (ie. The school they attended, where you met them, their favorite book, etc.)

For more information on how to maximize use of spreadsheets, visit MicrosoftOffice.com.

Check us out tomorrow for BOSS MOVE, DAY TWO: Cultivate Your Current Relationships

Halsuit by Nendo

2012-02-06T19:24:00.000-08:00

Halsuit by Nendo:

Japanese designers Nendo have a furnished a suit store in Okayama like an office, with conference tables, bookshelves and desk lamps. (more…)

Are You Running Your Business Like A Lemonade Stand?

2012-02-06T19:22:00.000-08:00

Are You Running Your Business Like A Lemonade Stand?:

On day one of your new business, you have a hundred job functions. Try to fit “CEO, President, CFO, Technical Director, Web Developer, Accountant, Sales Representative, Receptionist, Janitor” onto your business cards. To millions of experienced entrepreneurs, this feels like what a small business is always supposed to be.

Wrong. The problem is you. There is currently a 1:1 relationship between your work output and business operations. That’s your Growth Multiplier.

Think back to second grade, an age of lemonade stands and multiplication tables. That’s when we learned that you couldn’t change anything by multiplying by one, either in the classroom or selling sugar water by yourself on the corner.

An entrepreneur’s passion, drive, and intelligence can be a startup’s greatest asset, but for a company to grow, it must expand beyond its founders. The best leaders develop key systems and personnel and trust them to succeed, freeing up time for innovation and vision and multiplying their businesses’ growth potential.

So What Are The Key Multipliers?

1. Add a Super Assistant. Find someone you trust with your schedule, your customers, your money, and your life. Make them the hub between your business and the outside work and give them the power to tell you what to do, where to go, and when to be there.

2. Create a hierarchy of business functions in your job description, from lowest to highest impact on growth and profitability. Start at the bottom, and delegate like it’s your job. Because it is.

3. Forget the old corporate cliché of boring, slow HR departments. Hiring and developing A+ talent is a powerful engine for company growth. Hire and train well early, and you’ve built your future leadership team. Hire poorly or ignore training, and you’ll lose valuable time, customers, and profits.

4. Plan for explosive growth. The best businesses will grow too large for an entrepreneur to manage alone and linear growth brings exponential complexity. Mastering business growth requires an early focus on key operational systems. Consistently gather customer feedback for inputs into the product development process. Track key business metrics and attach them to an employee compensation plan.

5. Give away your corner office. Find someone you trust to run daily operations, and let them. Then go start your second business. Or sit on a beach. (Full Disclosure: I’m not here yet, but it does sound nice.)

It’s hard to scale a business using Growth Multipliers.

Only 21% of businesses in America will grow to 10+ employees and only 4% ever make $1 million in revenues. The average entrepreneur is most comfortable while manning their own little ‘lemonade stand’, living and dying with every sale. Fight this false sense of security, build your way out of daily operations, and become the leader and visionary your business needs. The payoff is immense, both for your life and the bottom line.

Neil Thanedar, 23, is Founder and President of Avomeen Analytical Services, a Scientific R&D Laboratory that uses advanced chemical and forensic tools develop new products and solve manufacturing challenges. Avomeen grew to over 10 employees and $1M/year revenues in its first year and earned Neil the title Generation Next Entrepreneur To Watch by CNNMoney.

Synapse Chair by Andrew Perkins

2012-02-06T19:09:00.000-08:00

Synapse Chair by Andrew Perkins:

American designer Andrew Perkins has created the Synapse chair.

Description from the designer:

Structural comfort and thoughtful use of materials are at the heart of this piece. All the necessary joints of a chair are distilled into one component. The stainless steel component allows the chair to stack and provides a measure of spring to the user.

Visit Andrew Perkins’ website – here.

Photography by Mark Serr

Unique Loft Interior Design in New York

2012-02-04T19:22:00.000-08:00

Unique Loft Interior Design in New York:

Designed by architect Michael Haverland this unique loft interior design in New York incorporates all the right ingredients for a modern, yet comfortable industrial style. Wood, concrete, glass, metal, massive factory style windows, tall ceilings, open plan, major space ... sublime, right? The staircase makes quite a statement and the colorful fixtures and furniture really brighten things up. That smooth white sink (or tub...?) which sits in the rough grey concrete is really stunning - the walnut shelves generate some warmth to create the perfect mood.
image credit: Evan Joseph, Eliot Kauffman, Carl Wooley.

Comfort Furniture by Stressless

2012-02-04T19:21:00.000-08:00

Comfort Furniture by Stressless:

As the name suggests, Stressless furniture makes comfort furniture - seating products to be exact. Just looking at the images reassures that this company puts ergonomics first and that their products don't only provide the perfect support, but they do so with design appeal. They incorporate their own Stressless Plus System into all their seating products, from recliner chairs to love seats and sofas. There is quite a variation in style among their creations, so you can be sure that in achieving the ultimate comfort, you will also find the ultimate design to suit your tastes. Visit Stressless to learn more and see the whole range.

Reflections at Keppel Bay by Daniel Libeskind

2012-02-04T19:20:00.000-08:00

Reflections at Keppel Bay by Daniel Libeskind:

Architect Daniel Libeskind has completed a family of curved towers beside a bay in Singapore. (more…)

What Really Helps Community College Students Succeed?

2012-02-04T13:46:00.000-08:00

What Really Helps Community College Students Succeed?:

In his State of the Union address, President Obama called for the nation’s community colleges to educate the workforce of the future. But with only 22 percent of community college students earning a degree within three years, Obama’s goal seems a long way off. A new three-year project by the Center of Community College Student Engagement proposes some solutions that will help schools boost their graduation rates.

The center surveyed students, professors, and college administrative staff at 336 campuses and came up with 13 strategies for schools. The strategies are all pretty common-sense. For example, not all community colleges require students to attend an orientation or meet with an advisor to plan out a course of study. Making those meetings mandatory can get students on the right track from the start of their educational experience. And, given that 59 percent of community college students are attending part-time, the report recommends that schools also ensure there is support for students to stay on track.

Sixty-six percent of community college students also require some form of remedial coursework. It’s common for students to have to take—and pay for—several classes before they even get to the ones that count for their degree. The report suggests that schools fast track this remediation process so that students don’t get discouraged and quit.

Of course, there’s no silver bullet for community colleges that are increasingly underfunded and serve a student population that is predominantly low income. But if schools are able to tweak what they're doing to implement some of the suggestions, they might see graduation rates soar.

Photo via (cc) Flickr user Parker Michael Knight

Camp Mulla - Fresh All Day ( Official Music Video )

2012-02-03T20:21:00.000-08:00

Mabarbie Wameamka!!! Hata Siamini hawa majunior wana sound poa niaje.

Artist Andre Woolery’s One-Of-A-Kind Thumbtack Portraits

2012-02-03T19:41:00.000-08:00

Artist Andre Woolery’s One-Of-A-Kind Thumbtack Portraits:

Plies Tweets - Entry #1

2012-02-03T05:46:00.000-08:00

Plies Tweets - Entry #1:

Welcome to your new favorite weekly feature. Not sure if you knew this bruh, but dat boy Plies has one of the most entertaining Twitter feeds of all-time...all-time.

brokencool has already brought you many life lessons from Plies, and now brokencool presents a weekly look into Plies tweets.

Hit the jump to read Plies Tweets - Entry #1.

I have a few questions coming out of this:

- What does the male Valentines winner get?

- Do women really want Plies dirty ass boxers?

- Why is sending your boxers to a woman "g-shit?"

Internet Usage Predictions [infographic]

2012-02-02T19:16:00.000-08:00

Internet Usage Predictions [infographic]:

I could probably make a generalized statement about this infographic before reading it: internet usage is going up this year. It’s pretty clear that more people have access to computers and the internet is becoming a vital tool to every industry. But exactly how much more the internet is going to blow up is unknown. This infographic states overall internet usage will go up 3% this year, which is a considerable amount considering the massive size of the internet. Who knows, maybe Al Gore will make a breakthrough addition to the internet that boosts usage by 10%?

I personally use the internet almost every hour, checking e-mail and facebook messages to stay on top of school. All of my class documents are located on the internet, and most teachers no longer bring any printouts to class. This is already a significant change from 5 years ago, so it’s not hard to argue the internet is expanding its empire. The internet is so far integrated into our lives, I almost run into people walking on the street who are sucked into the internet on their smart phones. There is now internet on airplanes…the one place I thought was a getaway from the cyber world. Did you know that online bingo is a 1.3 billion dollar industry? I didn’t. [Via]

© spencerpsands for Daily Infographic, 2012. |
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Infographic: Facebook Failures and Missteps on the Road to IPO

2012-02-02T19:15:00.000-08:00

Infographic: Facebook Failures and Missteps on the Road to IPO:

You’ve probably heard that Facebook filed for its $5 billion IPO yesterday. While it may seem that Facebook has done nothing but sky-rocket to success we often forget about all the controversy and failed initiatives by the company. Mark Zuckerberg and his team have rolled out many versions and features since the sites launch in 2004. We found this great infographic from wordstream that highlights some of the biggest missteps the young ceo and his company have made.

How many of these do you remember?

Guy Who Created Paintings for First Facebook Headquarters To Receive $200 Million from IPO

2012-02-02T19:05:00.000-08:00

Guy Who Created Paintings for First Facebook Headquarters To Receive $200 Million from IPO:

Now don't you wish you had done some "free" work for Facebook in the beginning?

According to the New York Times, David Choe, a graffiti artist and quite possibly the smartest person on earth, stands to be worth around $200 million once the Facebook IPO hits the market.

In exchange for creating paintings at Facebook's original headquarters, Choe received stock in the company. Those shares owned by Choe are expected to be worth around $200 million once the Facebook IPO hits.

Choe was reportedly offered a few thousand dollars pay or stock in the company. Choe took the stock...wow.

Son...of...a...bitch.

Noriyuki Otsuka Creates Le Ciel Bleu, Japan

2012-02-02T07:22:00.000-08:00

Noriyuki Otsuka Creates Le Ciel Bleu, Japan:

Japanese based designer Noriyuki Otsuka recently completed the design of a all white shop with a mesh portal in the upcoming neighborhood of Umeda in Osaka, Japan. The design of LE CIEL BLEU is based on his design philosophy “Nothing is everything,” then Otsuka brought the design to life with his other philosophy “Mixtures of transparency.”

With these two concepts in mind, Otsuka and his team built a 2992 sq.ft. space using an array of white and cream hues with a large architectural element with in the space. We caught up with the architect who explained that the “interior space was a cylinder made with a structurally self-supporting mesh.” He noted that “because of the size of the feature I wanted to avoid integrating it too much with the surrounding space, so deliberately aligned it off center from the axis of the building.” By using this layout, the architectural portal became a strong design feature in the shop.

The floor was hand painted with original gold paint, while the walls and ceiling were finished in an acrylic emulsion paint.

The clients wanted to introduce the work of the late musical composer, Toru Takemitsu, to complement the design of the shop with sound. The architect listened closely to Takemitsus music. Otsuka understood that Takemitsus wanted to express music with colors, in the same way that he wanted to express a white space using brilliant colors. “That is to say, I wanted to use the density of the design to fill the space in the same way as music notes fill a space.” He went on to explain that “this density is not expressed through an elaborate or gimmicky design; rather it is expressed as a fine balance of musical notes.”

A visually stimulating display wall was created with custom shelves made out of mirror and transparent acrylic. The wall is back lit with white lighting and has the name of the store in neon lighting shining above it.

Otsuka said it was great to have clients that had a “very good understanding of design,” and it was their understanding of design that made it “possible to design a space to such a high degree of perfection.”

(Photographer: Hiroyuki Hirai)

2012-02-02T07:17:00.000-08:00

Yandy Smith on How to be (or Not to be) a Successful Entrepreneur

2012-02-02T06:44:00.000-08:00

Yandy Smith on How to be (or Not to be) a Successful Entrepreneur:

Yandy Smith

The dictionary describes an entrepreneur as ‘A person who engages in business enterprise, usually with some personal financial risk.’

Under this definition, anyone who runs and owns his or her own business can be classified as an entrepreneur because they are taking a risk with their finances every day. But what are the qualities of a successful entrepreneur? Simply owning a business and having risks doesn’t mean that you have successfully accomplished your goal. The dictionary only scratches the surface of what it takes to be an entrepreneur in today’s competitive business world. One must also take into account an individual’s personality, actions and behavioral patterns—which all contribute to a person’s ability to earn the title of a ‘successful entrepreneur.’

Although it may seem easy enough, becoming a successful entrepreneur is not rudimentary. You have to have a product or service that consumers really want, an organized form of sales and service, and quality marketing advertising. For many of us, the journey to earning the title begins with a burst of excitement about turning our passion into a business (followed by flashing lights of the word “success”). The experience of getting a new idea is wonderful, what follows can be the most exciting and emotional journey you will ever experience. But there is a long, hard road you must travel to take your idea from conception to reality.

I’ve been there. I traveled this road many times, I have had my share of light bulb moments, and I have learned some key points along the way that make the difference between a dreamer and a successful entrepreneur. I learned the old-fashioned way—trial and failure. But, for all my failures came a triumph that made every misstep more than worth it. Here are some helpful tips on how to avoid some of those mistakes I made, and that you take with you on your entrepreneurial adventure.

Dream big (Image: Thinkstock)

Dream big: To achieve the kind of success that you want, you need to dream big. Every success story starts with big dreams. Have a clear and concise vision of what you want and where you want your idea to go. Actively visualize success in your mind so that it actually starts to become reality. Speak it into existence! Be the person now that you imagine yourself being when you reach your goal. Dress the part now, speak the language now, talk about the places your business will allow you to travel to, research them, tell your friends and family what’s going to happen. The more you speak, the more you’ll believe and the more inclined you’ll be to make things happen. People may look at you like you’re crazy, but imagine how they looked at the Wright brother’s when they thought of creating the first successful aircraft.

Be a leader. Leadership is one of the areas that many entrepreneurs tend to overlook, according to leadership coach John C. Maxwell, whose books include The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (Thomas Nelson, 1998) and Developing the Leader Within You (Thomas Nelson, 1993). Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader, a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.” Becoming a great leader isn’t easy, it requires successfully maneuvering a team through the ups and downs and the major challenges that a new business faces.

To groom yourself to be a quality business leader:

Envision yourself as a leader. You have to believe for others to believe.

Recognize your best and worst qualities and evaluate them honestly.

Create a plan that allows you to capitalize on your strengths.

Build a team that assists you in areas that may be weaknesses, which will help you have a more well-balanced business.

Be straightforward and keep it simple. The clearer your mission and direction, the stronger your team.

Hire shrewdly. Nothing is more important. Do extensive research and check references. You can’t rely solely on what’s said in résumés and cover letters. It’s best to ask everyone you respect for solid candidates. Then have a trial period for the new employee before you hire.

Fire fast. If quick efforts to remediate an inadequate employee do not work, fire the person quickly and respectfully. One bad employee can infect the success of the team.

Yandy Smith: Dressed for success

Look good. Unfortunately, we live in a shallow, beauty-obsessed society. Although leaders are not expected to have Hollywood looks necessarily, it’s worth a bit of primping to look your best at all times. You can show off your own personal style while still having a polished look.

Prioritize decisiveness over inclusiveness. The best leaders know when to encourage team involvement in decision-making and when to act unilaterally. It’s not about making friends, it’s about making the best decisions for your business.

Work long hours. I’d rather disappoint you with the truth than anesthetize you with lies.

Motivation rises and falls upon success and setbacks. Being motivated despite the challenges of business is a skill that’s required in order to sail through the storms. Tough times do not last, but tough people do. Stay motivated at the highest level.

Last but not least, when it comes to entrepreneurs, failure is an option! Every entrepreneur faces times when winds do not blow in his or her direction. Stick to your boat and keep floating. Winds always change direction. Optimism is an essential requirement for being an entrepreneur. That new direction might land you on a beautiful island you had no idea existed. Embrace setbacks and look for the opportunity to expand and grow your business.

GOOD Citizenship Task 1: Learn the History of Your Neighborhood #30DaysofGOOD

2012-02-02T06:43:00.000-08:00

GOOD Citizenship Task 1: Learn the History of Your Neighborhood #30DaysofGOOD:

Things are easier said than done, or so the old adage goes, and we couldn't agree more. That's why we do The GOOD 30-Day Challenge (#30DaysofGOOD), a monthly attempt to live better. Our challenge for February? GOOD citizenship.

Learn about the history of your neighborhood.

It can be fascinating to learn how history has played out on your very own streets. Get to know how and why things got to be the way they are. If you have a clearer picture of the people and places that shaped your community's past, you'll feel more connected to its present, and hopefully be inspired to get involved in creating its future.

Do some research: See what you can find online, in your neighborhood blog, your community paper or your neighborhood council. Public records can reveal interesting tidbits on past building projects, political campaigns, property sales and more. Who knows what you'll find, and who you can share it with!

Take a walk. You can go to Walkscore.com to quickly see the boundaries of your neighborhood, and then set out on an urban hike. Talk to neighbors and shop owners, ask them how long their families have lived in the area and if they have a story to tell. If you're into it, take a few photos and post them on our Facebook page.

Come back tomorrow for the next task in our GOOD citizenship challenge.

Learn how to live like a citizen at The Guiding Lights Weekend conference on creative citizenship, March 8-10 in Seattle.

STL’s Dad Killed in a Hit-And-Run Incident in Norway

2012-02-01T21:18:00.000-08:00

STL’s Dad Killed in a Hit-And-Run Incident in Norway:

The father of popular Norwegian-Kenyan singer Stella Mwangi has died after a hit-and-run accident in the village of Dal, south-eastern Norway, on Tuesday.

Stella Mwangi’s record label, EMI, confirmed the identity of the victim in a statement on Wednesday.

The 54-year-old Jeff Mwangi Kwirikia died from his injuries after he was run over on county road 454. The driver fled the scene and has not been apprehended.

Police described the vehicle as a black or dark-coloured car, likely a Citroen Berlingo or a Peugeot Partner.

The car was last seen headed in a northbound direction on the stretch of the Trondheim road between Dal and Råholt shortly after the accident at 2pm on Tuesday.

Police said the car’s windscreen was seriously damaged in the crash, while there was also visible damage to the right-hand side of the car.

Police officer Morten Huse said the car had most likely been taken off the road and hidden from sight after the accident.

“That’s why we’re asking the public to monitor whether anyone they know with a car like this suddenly doesn’t have it or has stopped using it,” he told news agency NTB.

Police also appealed for the driver of the car to get in touch with them.

Stella Mwangi, 25, represented Norway at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2011.

http://www.thelocal.no/page/view/singing-star-dad-killed-in-norway-hit-and-run

Rainy Day Fund [infographic]

2012-02-01T20:22:00.001-08:00

Rainy Day Fund [infographic]:

If you thought this title said “Rainy Day Fun [infographic],” and clicked over here expecting to view an infographic about puddle hopping, I’m sorry to inform you that you were wrong. We are about to talk money, so get uncomfortable. The following question was posed to a survey group: If you needed to come up with $2,000 for an unexpected expense, could you do it?

I’m sure there are plenty of future financial planners out there who say, “Why, yes, yes I could. Couldn’t YOU?” No, I couldn’t. So stop hassling me. Money and I have a very unfulfilling relationship wherein I always manage to feel that I have more than I actually do.

But, today’s infographic will reform me yet. My favorite part is the worksheet at the bottom, a guide for setting up a savings plan. It’s a very basic but helpful reminder (one I obviously needed) to carefully plan and take action, little by little. [via]

© LindseySavino for Daily Infographic, 2012. |
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Building an Effective Growth Strategy for Your Small Business

2012-02-01T20:22:00.000-08:00

Building an Effective Growth Strategy for Your Small Business:

Alright. So you’ve got your business off the ground and now you want to implement a growth strategy that grows your small business, captures more market share, and improves your bottom line.

What’s the best approach?

Of course, the answer to this question will vary depending on your business and its unique circumstances.

However, here are a few thoughts to keep in mind while building your company’s growth strategy.

Business models are important

Researching and weighing the pros and cons of different business models is an excellent first step in building your company’s growth strategy.

While your company should certainly consider consider various business models, in most cases, it’s almost always a good idea to narrow in on the business models that incorporate recurring revenue.

Your first priority should be to establish an appropriate recurring revenue base to build from.

Expanding on business models that incorporate recurring revenue

Once you’ve established an appropriate amount of recurring revenue you can start to consider a growth strategy that adds more profit to the bottom line.

I personally prefer a growth strategy that increases market share by improving the bottom line, while sustaining an appropriate amount of recurring revenue.

For example, consider the first business I ever launched, a Tallahassee landscaping company.

Our growth strategy was, essentially, a two-pronged approach; we used the profits from landscaping projects to acquire new recurring maintenance accounts.

The more stable your revenue streams are, the more you can leverage your competition.

Increase your bottom line by vertically integrating

One of the easiest ways to increase your bottom line is to sell additional products or services to customers that you already have.

A few questions to keep in mind:

Can I use the equipment and resources I already have to offer additional products or services?

Can the additional services generate recurring revenue themselves?

What type of margin will the additional services generate?

Do the additional services provide any type of strategic advantage?

Capture market share through acquisition

If possible, you need to try to maintain a certain percentage of recurring revenue.

For example, let’s say you have a real estate business that generates revenue by selling homes and managing rental properties.

To give your company some stability you might want to shoot for a revenue goal of 60% property management and 40% home sells. This way, if home sells drop off, you can survive the drought.

Of course, if you’re trying to increase your recurring revenue you may realize that there’s not a lot of potential for new customers.

If that’s the case, you’ll need to capture more market share by acquiring existing businesses who already have the recurring revenue you’re after.

Quick thoughts on buying out your competition:

It’s all about timing - if you wait for the right time, you can typically get a better deal. For example, if you had available cash during the recession, you could have acquired businesses at a fraction of the cost.

Understand customer acquisition costs - just because you have the cash to buy out your competition, doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the best move. You’ll need to compare the costs against your tradition ways of acquiring customers.

Understand what you’re buying - before you sign on the dotted line, be sure that you’ve considered all the pros and cons of the purchase. Often times, buying someone’s business comes with baggage.

Implement an organic growth strategy

Another way to grow your business is to implement an organic growth strategy.

Organic growth is generated by more customers, adding new product offerings, and streamlining business operations.

Quick thoughts on implementing an organic growth strategy:

Start by building an incredible marketing and sales process.

Consider the different channels available and start with a simple marketing strategy.

As data becomes available, consider shifting funds to tactics that are generating the best ROI.

Likewise, use your data to help determine potential future products or services.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, your company’s growth strategy will vary depending on its unique circumstances.

It’s important, however, to remember to reference your growth plan once you’ve started gaining momentum. Don’t be afraid to tweak and refine your strategy, if need be.

What are some ways that you plan to grow your company this year?

Thom Holland is the co-founder and CEO of Beckon. Connect with him on Twitter at @ThomHolland.

Light in a Manhole

2012-02-01T05:28:00.000-08:00

Light in a Manhole:

Ever wished there was a hole in the floor that would open up and swallow you in? Wishing for a similar safe haven, we have designer Chuang Chihong’s version; The Gully Cover Light. In his words, “the design suggests an imaginary space beneath the floor. It gives the impression that there is a refuge underfoot – a place to which we could escape.” The light turns on when we lift the manhole cover, and switches off when we replace it. I think it’s a clever way to bring the outdoors in!

Gully Cover Light is a 2011 reddot design concept entry.

Designer: Chuang Chihong

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(Light in a Manhole was originally posted on Yanko Design)

Sprung Chair by Jason Klenner

2012-02-01T05:27:00.000-08:00

Description from the designer:

This investigation challenges the way that people view, participate with and value everyday objects through creating interactions that can be described as surprising, memorable, enjoyable, light-hearted and even exhilarating when compared with mass market equivalents.

Sprung, in addition, challenges the conventions associated with a seat’s appearance, structure and use by integrating two materials in the seat pan that are not generally combined in the field of furniture design – elastic cord with a flat plastic sheet.

When sat in Sprung provides unexpected and enjoyable sensations for both the user and observers. The 2-dimesional plastic sheet seat flexes into a 3-dimensional springy form, offering a dynamic ongoing bouncing motion.

Designed as a limited edition object, Sprung incorporates 65 metres of hand-stitched elastic shock cord. Currently Computer Numeric Control (CNC) stitching processes are being explored as an automated alternative to the limited edition original for commercialisation.

Visit Jason Klenner’s website – here.

8 Steps to Keep Your Small Business on the Road to Success

2012-02-01T05:18:00.000-08:00

8 Steps to Keep Your Small Business on the Road to Success:

In it for the long haul (Image: Thinkstock)

Dorian Boyland started Boyland Auto Group in 1987 (No. 4 on the BE Auto Dealers list) with less than $100,000. Over the years, he’s built up an automotive empire that now consists of nine dealerships in five states that collectively generated nearly $400 million in 2011. Based in Orlando, Boyland Auto Group’s brands include Dodge, Ford, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Honda and Hyundai

Here, the former first baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates turned automotive mogul shares some of the lessons he’s learned on the road to becoming a successful entrepreneur:

Understand that projections are only as good as they are realistic. “Don’t forecast or make projections based on guess work or anything that you haven’t seen yet,” recommends Boyland. “All of your projections and forecasts should be based on prior history, of prior performance.”

Maintain a solid debt-to-equity ratio. This is a measure of a company’s financial leverage. Boyland recommends a 1:1 ratio. “If you’ve got a dollar in cash of your own then only go borrow a dollar in cash. Never let your debt, exceed your equity.”

Remember that cash is king. Boyland advises small business owners keep one-and-a half months to two months of expenses available in cash to avoid a cash flow crunch. “Because 50 to 75 percent of your sales might be in receivables that might not be paid for 45 days or so.”

Don’t guarantee salaries. Boyland suggests tying salaries for managers and key personnel who generate sales to performance and productivity. “Their pay should be based on percent of the profit of gross that they generate that they control,” he says. “Everyone that’s in any type of sales environment or position needs to have an incentive for what they want to do other than just coming to work.”

Negotiate with vendors for the best rates. “All small business owners should negotiate with all of their vendors and all payables should be negotiated prices so that they know they’re getting the best deal,” he asserts. “Every vendor has a different price for people that they work with. You got to find out what your price is.”

Don’t just be an owner – take ownership. Don’t let the failure and success of your company be dependent on other people. “Those things, as an owner and operator of a business, should be 100 percent solely dependent on you,” advises Boyland. “You can always change the players but you cannot change your goals and operations, and controls, and the things you want to accomplish.”

Really understand how your business works. “It’s very critical for the owner/operator of a business to be an expert in the knowledge of that business and how to operate that business. You have to be educated on a business and not get into a business as a hobby,” he recommends. “Learn, understand, the business so that the people work for you know that you understand everything that they do. You need to understand what every person within your organization does – not necessarily how they do it, but what it is they do.”

Oversee all expenses. “If you own and operate a business, you need to approve 100 percent of every expense that goes out that door. You should have the people in your operation know that they cannot, and doesn’t have the ability, to approve and sign any expense,” he says. “At the end of the day it is your responsibility to control the checkbook. Every check that goes out that door, before it’s even cut or written, should be approved and understood what it is by the owner and operator of a business.”

F-Light by Paul Coudamy

2012-01-31T19:23:00.000-08:00

F-Light by Paul Coudamy:

French designer Paul Coudamy has sent us images of his F-Light project, a ceiling/light made of discarded Airbus windows.

Description from the designer:

After having spent 20 years flying at 1000 km/h 10 km high above the ground, liners at the end of their life-cycle are left rusting at the far end of airport runways. These marvels of engineering with their ultra functional curves resulting from uncompromising technical research, are diverted from their original function in order to be integrated in our daily lives, thus offering them a second life.

The F-Light project is a diversion of the inner walls and windows of an Airbus 300. Its curves, windows and silvery isolation recycle the vocabulary of aeronautics to transform it into an unusual and functional light structure.

These walls are fitted together to create a « luminous ceiling » forming a shell in levitation. This dome delineates the space and offers a special intimacy beneath it. The system can be adjusted and offers unlimited variations : the panels can be put together in a row to suit the desired dimension.

The windows lighting offers circles of light which stand out against the panels and diffuse the light on the whole surface. A second indirect lighting set on the structure is reflected by the original isolating silvery material and enhances the feeling of levitation of F-Light.

Visit Paul Coudamy’s website – here.

8 Affordable Topcoats for Power Meetings in the Winter

2012-01-31T19:22:00.000-08:00

8 Affordable Topcoats for Power Meetings in the Winter:

Viral Sensation: How To Trick People Into Thinking You're Rich

2012-01-31T19:21:00.000-08:00

Viral Sensation: How To Trick People Into Thinking You're Rich:

Spotted: Life Files

6 More Priceless Lessons You Can Learn From My First Year of Blogging

2012-01-31T07:40:00.000-08:00

6 More Priceless Lessons You Can Learn From My First Year of Blogging:

As we rolled into 2012, my main blog Pocket Changed turned one year old. (No, there wasn’t a party or even a solitary candle on a cupcake.)

In honor of the first year, I looked back at 14 Lessons I Learned From Blogging, but a few weeks later I’ve realized there are even more lessons that I didn’t cover in that post that shouldn’t go unshared.

This post will add six more key lessons and delve deeper into the what you can learn from the last 13 months I’ve spent blogging.

Let’s jump right in.

1. If you genuinely help others, they will help you.

This lesson was brought up by Jeffrey Trull in the comments of the previous post and it is definitely true. When you are just getting started with your blog it is easy to publish something that you think is sliced bread reincarnate, hop up on your social media soapbox, and pray that people will start to listen.

Instead what you should be doing is reaching out to other bloggers and creating connections based on things you do for them, while expecting nothing in return. Feature them in your content like this. Write guest posts for them that are extremely targeted to their audience. Interview them on your site and get their name in front of more people.

Help others BEFORE you ask for something from them. They will be more likely to return the favor.

2. Don’t wait for the right moment to start.

If you are waiting for the right time to start a blog, that day is today. Almost every blogger that I’ve talked to has mentioned that they wish they had started sooner. Yes, you need a proper launch plan, a specific unique selling proposition (see #4), and energy to dedicate to it, but don’t waste too much time waiting and “learning” (i.e. just reading blog posts all day).

Benny Hsu pointed this out in the comments of my first 14 lessons post. He said, “Unless you’ve blogged for a long time before, your new blog isn’t going to be perfect at the beginning. Just start posting and improve along the way.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

3. Participate in mastermind or social media peer groups.

The power of mastermind groups is not just in connections you make with your fellow peers. Accountability is the biggest reason you should find a mastermind group. Get on a Skype call a few times a month with 2 or 3 likeminded people that you get along with and push each other to accomplish more than you could on your own. (If you need more help with accountability, check out action #21 in this post.)

Another option is a closed social media peer group. This is a group of people (could be up to 50+) that are all sharing ideas and asking opinions of each other on a platform such as a private Facebook group or a closed LinkedIn group. This is one way for you to more passively have a closed network to bounce ideas off of if you don’t have a mastermind group and can also be used as a test ground to find the right 2 or 3 people to create a mastermind group with.

4. Laser focus your USP and keep repeating it.

People should know exactly why your site exists and they should be able to find that answer all over the place. They shouldn’t need to go find the first post in your archives or wade through page after page until they find a manifesto post. Link to content that directly explains your unique selling proposition all the time.

Even if you think your USP is clear from the name of your brand or in the tagline, spell it out in:

the sidebar

the about page

the start here page

a welcome video

the footer

your content

You might think that you are overdoing it, but your USP needs to be clear and concise to the people that are visiting your blog for the first time. Those are the people that you are creating all those bulleted items above for anyway.

If you are a regular reader of Think Traffic, when was the last time you looked at our about page? (Maybe the first time you visited?) Target those landing pages towards non-regular readers. Completely explain what your site is about on those pages (and don’t just talk about yourself).

5. Don’t waste too much time trying to get big wins.

It is fun to read about people’s content getting syndicated by Gizmodo and their site getting flooded by 42,000 visits, but luck isn’t the main contributor to “going viral” like Steve Kamb did in that situation. He had a breakthrough because he had been working his ass off for years on his blog, wrote an amazingly informative and entertaining post, and his audience did the rest.

If you do get a big break or something you make goes viral, most of the time it will happen without much help from you (after creating it of course). I’m not saying that you shouldn’t share what you put up online, but you shouldn’t keep looking for a huge site to pick up your content or for someone popular in your niche to tweet your work.

Focus instead on continual forward progress. Just focus on making today better than yesterday and tomorrow better than today. Then perhaps someday you’ll get a “big break” when you weren’t even trying to anymore.

6. Make everything you post insanely useful & purposeful

While this goes a bit contrary to a theory Joel Runyon wrote about on here last month, making each and every piece of content you publish insanely useful goes a long way. Instead of publishing just to publish (which can lead people to unsubscribe if what you create is lackluster), slow down the frequency at which you put out content.

“Won’t that mean less chances for people to come to my site, share my content, and subscribe?” Perhaps, but the key to publishing less often is to put in as much, if not more, time as you were before into creating content. This will lead to you spending two to three times more effort on a single piece that you publish. This almost guarantees that it is going to be better, more in-depth, and worth sharing.

Try it for a week or two and see what kind of difference it makes.

***

If you’ve been blogging for over a year, what are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned so far?

I’d love to hear some of them in the comments below.

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10 Tips for Keeping Your Products Lean

2012-01-31T07:39:00.000-08:00

10 Tips for Keeping Your Products Lean:

You have the next great innovation of the 21^st century to unseat Google. Problem is, you don’t have all the cash reserves Google does. Hmm, what to do? Here are some tips for launching what the lean evangelists of the world refer to as a Minimum Viable Product, or “MVP”.

Homework

1. Define yourself: Not a 20-page business plan. Who is going to read that? Will it even apply two weeks into development? Debatable. Instead, define your business in the existing landscape. Are you disrupting the industry with a new and better approach? (Hint: you should be.) Who exactly can benefit from your solution? If it’s a new product or service, make sure there is demand. A great product that no one wants is a waste of your time and money. Mixergy just offered a compelling piece on this very topic.

2. Existing solutions: Everyone thinks they’re inventing something that doesn’t exist. Possible, but not likely. Do some analysis. See what’s out there, even if remotely in the same vein. Sign up for their services. Learn what works and what doesn’t. The more you can bring to the table, the less time you’ll spend refining during design and development, which will be more costly at that stage to rethink.

3. Research existing tech: Chances are, whatever your idea is, there are pieces of supporting software floating around the interwebs that you can leverage and integrate, at least for now (a fully custom re-arch in 2 years is another story, but you’re not there yet). And some of them are likely to be open source, aka free! This research will, hopefully, give the digital vendor you partner with, a running start.

Budgeting and Vendor Selection

4. Use your cash: Your bank account is not likely to be bottomless. If it is, stop reading this, go buy a surfboard and relax. For the rest of us, the first piece of the puzzle is determining what you can afford. Angels and VCs should not be a consideration at this stage, nor should substantial bank loans. Budget for what you (and your partners) have at your disposal.

5. Selecting the right digital partner – step 1: Find an agency that specializes in working with startups (they exist). Ask them about their typical project costs. If their average client’s budget is 10 times yours, they’re probably not the right size agency for you.

6. Selecting the right digital partner – step 2: Make sure agency you select is accustomed to helping clients vet out the technology vision to support their business plans without charging you consulting fees for planning and exploration. Most firms will blindly offer a ballpark estimate. The gems will spend time analyzing your needs, helping you craft the solution that fits and then offering a proposal.

Perfect Schmerfect

7. Start simple: The lure of scope creep is tough to escape. It’s like when you go car shopping. You start out modest, looking at the base model Toyota Carolla. One week later you’re in the Audi dealership trying to figure out if their fully-loaded A8 will do the job. Included features that are absolutely core to your offering and focus on launching only those. An alpha, beta, v1.0, whatever, should be “just enough”. But whatever you do launch, make sure it’s complete. You want 3 features that work, not 10 features that are half-assed.

8. Soft launch: Do not make the mistake of shouting to the world about your newly minted product with press releases and Facebook fan page announcements. It’s in beta because it’s not ready for hundreds or thousands to begin using it. Hold off on the article in TechCrunch until you can handle that spotlight. Once your audience gives you a thumbs down it will be difficult to recover. Tip-toe for now. Form a line and make people sign up for an invite, which may even help to build the sense of anticipation.

9. Listening & trying: If you followed tip #8, you told only a select few about your product. Hopefully you were humble enough to give this version away for free and ask for feedback, in exchange. This is the hard part. You have to listen to the commentary with one, good ear. Steve Jobs listened with neither, but you’re not Steve Jobs, right? You built your product with a vision and certain demographic in mind. Stay true to this. Make it irreplaceable for that group. Don’t try to cater to everyone or no one will love it. Then once you have an idea of changes you need to make, test out variations and see which works better and run with it.

10. Just ship already: The theme here is to disregard your fears about being perfect. The most successful innovators are exceptional about putting their ego aside and having the balls to ship something to market. They listen and tweak and change course until they find their sweet spot. If you wait until it’s “perfect” it’ll either never happen or someone else will beat you to it.

Jay Melone is the CEO of DigitalXBridge (aka DXB). DXB is a digital agency offering web & mobile design and development, branding and strategy/consulting for all things web.

An Ordinary Parking Garage Turned Extraordinary

2012-01-31T06:11:00.000-08:00

An Ordinary Parking Garage Turned Extraordinary:

Who knew parking could be so fun? Or so “kaleidoscopy.” (Okay, we made that word up, but it seemed fitting). If we’d only known what the future of parking would hold we may not have endured such white-knuckled parallel parking snafus during Drivers Ed. The spectacular rainbow hued parking garage that you’re feasting your eyes on is the product of Craig Redman and Karl Maier, titled 72DP Mural Project. The dynamic duo is the brains behind Craig & Karl, a creative firm specializing in a genius array of colorful illustrations, installation, typography, editorial and pattern design. Craig & Karl’s most recent project is this shockingly colorful mural-turned-underground-parking-garage in Sydney. Their trademark eye-popping color occupies and award-winning residence and results in a dynamic mix of overlapping geometric forms that mirror and respond to the angularity of the architecture. We think they achieved their objective of breathing life into the space. How ‘bout you?

(Photography credit: Katherine Lu)

Great Ways to Invest in Yourself

2012-01-31T06:08:00.000-08:00

Great Ways to Invest in Yourself:

Most people are scared of investing because it involves risk. No matter how sure you are about a stock, mutual fund, or business opportunity, there’s always the chance that you could lose all your money.

And that’s scary.

So what if I told you there’s a way to invest with absolutely no risk? I can’t promise an exact return on the investment, but I guarantee it will always be positive.

It’s called investing in yourself.

I know it sounds cheesy, but when was the last time you learned something new made you a better employee or job candidate? Instead of trying to get rich by putting huge piles of your hard-earned money into a stock you think is going to go up, why not invest time and money into improving your skills and boosting your earning power? (See also: Best Investment: Yourself)

More skills can lead to a higher pay, more job opportunities, and added job security. Bonus — more skills also make you more interesting.

That sounds great, but how do you invest in yourself without going back to school and paying thousands of dollars for a degree?

Here are some ways you can invest in yourself to boost your skills.

Read a Book

Books are my favorite way of learning new things. Everything I learned about investing and personal finance I learned from reading books. I read everything I could get my hands on and became knowledgeable enough that I started my own site, The Writer’s Coin. I recommend I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi to start.

Start a Blog/Site

When I started my site I did it because I felt I had something to say about personal finance. I had no idea it was going to teach me about networking, social media, SEO, entrepreneurship, CSS, and PHP, or that it would start to make real money for me. Bonus — blogging regularly will make you a better writer, and that’s an essential skill in the world today. Go to Wordpress.com and start your own blog today — it’s free!

Subscribe to a New Site

Learn what an RSS fee is. Then start adding new sites to your reader, and you’ll stay up to date on whatever topic you’re curious about. This is how I injected myself into the personal finance blogosphere.

Take a Course

There's a course for anything you can imagine out there. Whether it’s a local class to learn how to cook or an online course about computer programming, if you can think it, I guarantee someone out there is teaching it. You’ll meet new people, learn new skills, and broaden your horizons. Thanks to the Internet you can learn pretty much anything you can think of. iTunes U has tons of cool courses for free!

Teach Something

The best way to become an expert on something is to have deep knowledge of it and then try to teach it to others. It works your brain in a totally different (and good) way. Plus you’ll meet some interesting people. Pick a sport/instrument/topic you know a lot about and teach your niece/nephew/child a basic concept about it — you gotta start somewhere!

Learn a Language

This is easier said than done, but if your job requires a lot of travel or will be investing in another country soon, then another language might be essential. Tip — Duolingo is gonna be awesome.

Freelance

Freelancing is a great way to get a taste of another job without leaving your current one. It’ll also teach you about handling clients, running a business, and marketing. Check out Craigslist or ask your friends if they need help with something.

Be Smart About the Skills You Learn

Don't expect your boss to give you a raise simply because you can say "hello" in French. Be smart about which skills you tackle and how they fit into your career plan. If your company just signed a major client from France, then go ahead. If you're doing it because you like Paris, it probably won't have an effect on your value to the company.

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Written by Carlos Portocarrero and published on Wise Bread. Read more articles from Wise Bread.

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Hustlin': The Rise of the Privileged Poor

2012-01-30T19:50:00.000-08:00

Hustlin': The Rise of the Privileged Poor:

Down to my last sweet potato and tofu slices, I prepare the ingredients in a casserole dish. Maybe it’s my haste to finally eat something that day or the dish towel I have to use in lieu of potholders, which are currently too expensive for me, but I drop it, all over the inside of the oven, twice. Here's where I realize how poor I am: I cry. And not just because I’m frustrated. I cry because I need this food, this tofu and these miniature sweet potatoes, to last me through the week.

So what do I do? I do what will later become the basis of my favorite "I'm so poor" joke: I scrape food off the bottom of my oven, put it into a casserole dish, add paprika and cumin, cook it for ten more minutes, and then I call it “dinner.”

I haven’t been talking about how poor I am in a serious way or how terrifying it is to be on the cusp of my 30th birthday, wondering when I'll have enough quarters to do laundry again. I’ve distanced myself from the small, artistic circle of people I hung out with when I had enough money for a whiskey at a dive bar. Instead of confessing my financial problems, I've removed myself from my lifeline of friends who respond to my suggestions of free activities like going for walks by saying they’d rather hit a club I can’t afford. This isn't the place I thought I would be after getting a master's degree, though to be honest, I didn’t really bank on finding a lucrative full-time job with an MFA in creative writing. But I also didn’t foresee the possibility that my fifteen years’ experience of restaurant, publicity, design, administrative, and editorial work would ever not provide me with some possibility of income. And here I am, worried on a daily basis that someone may ask me to do a perfectly fun activity that requires money.

The last time I publicly stated that I was poor, I was met with two main responses from friends and family: Remarkably generous people sent dry groceries and anonymous Trader Joe’s gift cards in the mail and told me I made them sad, and some others asked me why I couldn’t just get something “flipping burgers,” as though this would of course be the easiest task. My grandmother went outside the norm and called to remind me that I should never sell my body. While I appreciated the groceries, I’ve since been dodging these responses by living in a “fake it ‘til I make it” mentality, because our culture—whether you’re rich or poor yourself—is better equipped to deal with middle-class individuals than with those in poverty, and the last thing I want to do to a friend, or a potential employer, is make them feel sad. But “making it” isn't the same as it used to be, so what exactly does “faking it” accomplish? What am I gaining by not talking about my poverty?

I grew up poor. I also grew up privileged, depending on how you look at it. I had a very poor teenage mother, and my sister and I spent a great deal of time being raised by our grandparents, who were once very poor as well—like, orphans-abandoned-by-their-families poor—but had come into some money with hard work and a decades-long investment in what became our family bar. When I was with my mother, we had potato chips for dinner. When I was with my grandparents, we had potato chips and prime rib, only we still had to eat them on the floor. To this day, none of us knows what money is for different reasons. But now that I am coming to understand, it’s important to ask: Does it seem strange when I say I’m poor, yet eating tofu? Or when I self-reflexively use the phrase “dive bar”? Was my MFA degree the poor life decision that led me to this desperate state, or was it my family history?

The fact is, we can no longer tell someone’s financial reality by what they eat, how they dress, and where they grew up. While I’ve technically surpassed my parents in terms of education and advantage, I am still dependent on a restaurant job, and my peers are now considered the first generation of youths to do worse than their parents. Suddenly, we’re all on a level playing field shaking cocktails side-by-side, and my own burdens of privilege-jealousy have come to a dizzying halt, because even the middle class, of whom I had been previously so resentful, are my coworkers and low-income housing neighbors. At this point, I wish I had never attempted to transcend my class with education; it would make life that much neater. For those of us who have taken the leap to maintain or jump our classes—the interns, graduate students, and college-bound—and who’ve come out disappointed, we’re not alone. The permanent poor are right there with us, and this is a good thing.

My first instinct: There’s no way anyone can compare the harshness of the life of an undocumented migrant worker to that of a former graduate student. But this implies both that I should pity migrant workers and that I’m too good to be associated with their class. I have learned something about pity in my most recent year of poverty: Very few people on all rungs of our society are equipped to assist others who need it without thinking lesser of them, and in some cases, vilifying them.

Recently, New York passed a bill that gave restaurant workers the power to ask for the money they’ve earned and to fight for fair wages and working conditions. Restaurant owners retaliated by insinuating that all restaurant workers involved in class-action lawsuits against the owners were lazy and selfish. Because they must ask for things—in this case, even things that are owed to them—they are lesser. The idea that certain jobs are inherently less valuable or undesirable is so ingrained in our society that in my home state of Michigan, talk of raising the minimum wage of tipped restaurant employees from $2.65 to the standard wage of all workers has sparked an outrageous debate.

The more fortunate tell workers in 2012 to find their “extra”—the thing that makes them stand out—but that implies they have not been doing this all along. Their poverty is a direct result of their own poor choices or mishandled finances, with some people (undocumented migrant workers, for one) possibly getting the pity pass, because they arguably have it harder than a gainfully employed service worker. Maybe it’s time we refuse to give into this divisive reasoning. Maybe it’s time for the “fake it ‘til you make it” class to understand that the goals they’ve had may be misguided, or that the life their parents had may never be attainable. And this is OK, because we’re surrounded by allies, all bound by the same basic goals.

Here’s an experiment for the interns, service workers, graduate students, freelancers, and temps: Think deeply about your privilege, your advantages, your family history, that some may have it better or worse off than you do. Then, forget all of it. The success of our economy will come in the form of indignance, not pity; awareness, not tacit acceptance. Resist the urge to feel sad or pass blame, and we’ll all share our favorite “I’m so poor” jokes at the end. Here’s mine: I’m so poor that I ate some oven crumbs, and two months later, I told the world that I’m poor and felt absolutely no shame.

Photo via (cc) Flickr user avlxyz.

It’s All Your Fault! So Start Working Harder

2012-01-30T19:43:00.000-08:00

It’s All Your Fault! So Start Working Harder:

I don’t know why so many people blame others for their failures or mishaps in their lives… Maybe it’s their ego, maybe in society failure is seen as weakness, maybe people will make fun of them…Or maybe it’s just easier to blame others for their problems? “It’s not that I’m doing anything wrong, he’s preventing me, or he’s the reason for so and so” I’m not sure why that is though…I don’t understand it. I find it SO easy, after letting go of my ego, to say “I failed because I did this, or didn’t do this.” And the process of learning from it is instantaneous.

I recently started getting into day game, which in the shortest way to describe it, is pick up. But there’s more to it than just meeting hot girls. Day game is about how to “pick up” some one you like whether you’re at the supermarket, the mall, or on the street. (among other places). Who doesn’t want to be able to strike up a conversation with someone they see and like? In my two month start of this, I’ve drawn an incredible number of parallels between what may seem like completely opposite things. Now, before you turn away and wonder why the heck I’m talking about pick-up on an Entrepreneur website, hear me out!

“She won’t like me because I’m ugly”, ”I’m not ripped like the Jersey Shore guys” , “She’s out of my league”..

“I’m not apart of the Startup cliques, they’re a close circle of friends”, “I don’t have any connections”, “I can’t compete against Company X”, “My product is great, people are just dumb and don’t like it.”

There are plenty of parallels in the excuses people come up with. Most of which they think they have no control over. But here’s the thing, they’re wrong. The only thing preventing a startup from going out there, from competing, or from getting the super hot girl, is the guy or girl in charge not going out there, not making moves and not listening to customer feedback. Now, you may be wondering, well if you’re born Ugly, you really can’t do anything about that… But what gets the attention of woman is confidence. That doesn’t mean you should go out looking like a slob. If 90% of the equation in getting the girl is confidence, knowing how to lead a conversation, knowing how to build attraction, and most importantly, going out there and approaching, then the 10% of Ugly means NOTHING. But then you must admit something to yourself. If you don’t get girls, which is seen as being manly, you’re half a man…And if you can’t succeed in business, you can’t provide for your family, and that means you’re half a man…So what, not everyone is born the most successful entrepreneur, or the best with woman…So youre half a man… Work on it and become a full man! But look, there’s no reason you should fail. While many failures bring you closer to success in starting companies, that doesn’t mean you will eventually become the next Steve Jobs, but you’ll definitely get luckier, the harder you work. It’s a numbers game. The more approaches, the more rejections, the more you reflect on what YOU did wrong in the previous hundred conversations and learn from them, the closer you are to getting a date.

If you:

If you approach a girl, and you forget about things to say, you could fail.

If you start a company, and aren’t good at writing emails, you could fail.

If you approach a girl and only talk about yourself, you could fail.

If you build a startup and only talk about the produce but don’t listen to feedback, you could fail.

If you approach a girl, and have a great conversation, but then she flakes for a date, you did fail.

If you startup a company, and launch it, get good press, but no one buys your product, you fail.

If you approach 1000000 girls, and you get 1 date, you win.

If you startup 1000000 companies that fail, and get the 1 success, you win…And then everyone can tell you how lucky you are. (Mark Cuban)

And now, think of this… When a guy gets with a girl, they call it “Getting lucky.” Which is odd, because it wasn’t luck. He tried with 10000 girls before, and finally developed the right skills, with the right girl, and won. Or maybe he is naturally good with woman. No one in the startup community thinks it’s luck that they start a great company. Sure there’s a little bit of luck in that equation, in the same way that it’s luck that the girl will like you, because most might not. I know I’ve been on the side that says other guys are lucky because they are gorgeous, and I may be average looking. But when I look at my business and see the success I have had, people tell me I’m lucky. I’m not lucky, I worked hard to get where I am.

So that brings me to my original idea for this post…I realized, the reason I may not be getting girls, isn’t because I am “needy” or don’t like going to clubs, it’s because I haven’t put in the work to get the girl, to figure out how to build attraction, and how to get over approach anxiety. I said to myself “The only reason is because I have not worked hard enough at it… And if I work hard enough at it, I can succeed.” And you know what, I had been putting in the time (temporarily stopped to focus on my last stretch of game development) and I had been making progress. The minute you realize the reason you fail is no fault other than yours, and truly look in at yourself and say ‘I need to take responsibility for every single thing’ you will not only feel great, but you’ll be on the road to success. Just like in business, no one will like your startup if you don’t have the confidence in yourself. How can you pitch and convey confidence and energy if you aren’t happy? You need to love your idea and yourself, before anyone else does, in the same way a girl won’t like you unless you like yourself first. You need to get your validation from within.

When you go to networking events, maybe you’re afraid to say hi and introduce yourself. Well, I think if you introduce yourself to enough people, you’ll eventually find your business partner. The more times you try, the closer you are to succeeding. The more skills you develop through failure, the better prepared you are to continue. And the most important parallel, never be afraid to fail. Because you will and one day you can look back and see how much you grew.

Best,

Stephen M. Levinson

@InkkyGames

*I’d like to point out, I’m a very friendly, confident, happy and talkative guy, so getting into day game came somewhat easy for me. But not everyone will be so great at something. And the only reason is practice. The more you practice at something, the easier it is. As with anything. Don’t let yourself blame your environment, or how you were raised, or natural selection from preventing you from achieving anything. You can do anything, and I think this is an extreme example of that. Conquer your fears, forget about failure, and go build your startup!

Laziness is the Key to Success

2012-01-30T06:42:00.000-08:00

Laziness is the Key to Success:

Yes, I know what you’re thinking: “Whoa! That’s a provocative title,” but it’s true. Being lazy can be an awesome character trait.

I would hazard a guess and say that laziness has helped keep my budget sane, and also has helped keep me relatively healthy even with a stressful, time-consuming job. Although venerating laziness is definitely contrarian, there’s actually a whole magazine devoted to being lazy.

There’s a great exchange in Office Space which illustrates the power of doing nothing:

Peter: What would you do if you had a million dollars?

Lawrence: I’ll tell you what I’d do, man: two chicks at the same time, man.

Peter: That’s it? If you had a million dollars, you’d do two chicks at the same time?

Lawrence: Damn straight. I always wanted to do that, man. And I think if I were a millionaire I could hook that up, too; ’cause chicks dig dudes with money.

Peter: Well, not all chicks.

Lawrence: Well, the type of chicks that’d double up on a dude like me do.

Peter: Good point.

Lawrence: Well, what about you now? What would you do?

Peter: Besides two chicks at the same time?

Lawrence: Well, yeah.

Peter: Nothing.

Lawrence: Nothing, huh?

Peter: I would relax… I would sit on my ass all day… I would do nothing.

Lawrence: Well, you don’t need a million dollars to do nothing, man. Take a look at my cousin: he’s broke, don’t do shit.

When it comes to personal finance, I’m just too lazy to want to spend money. It’s funny, but it’s true. When I have to visit a mall, I just want to go to sleep. The same goes for a big department store. It’s just exhausting for me to go out and spend money. I’d rather relax at home or do something that interests me.

If your lifestyle doesn’t revolve around going to the movie theater, shopping in the mall, and buying expensive experiences, it’s a lot easier to be on firm financial footing. If you don’t have friends who are profligate spenders and prefer something a little quieter, you will save money compared to having friends that just want to drink, play cards, or go to expensive concerts.

The same goes for food. I do everything I can to abstain from buying junk food when I’m shopping. Many weekends I’ll only eat a little bit because I’m too lazy to want to do dishes and prepare food! These are the times that I’m thankful I’m so lazy.

You might be surprised to find out that there’s even a diet based on laziness! It’s call the Warrior Diet, and the idea is that you just eat a single meal each day. Supposedly this is scientifically determined to be good for you. I don’t really trust any nutritional science at this point. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with just eating once a day.

When I eat at work, I’ll usually just prepare oatmeal. I can pick up a canister at the supermarket on the way to work, and it will last me about 2 weeks. Preparing breakfast and lunch is as easy as going to the coffee machine and pressing the hot water button. That might sound extreme, but the past few weeks, I’ve gotten even lazier than that – and sometimes I won’t even eat lunch at work. It’s great: I get to be lazy, don’t need to prepare as much, and I actually have *more* energy than when I have a big lunch.

Isn’t laziness wonderful?

Locking Yourself In

2012-01-29T08:11:00.000-08:00

Locking Yourself In:

Most people fantasize about mastering certain skills, or changing their life; most take halting steps towards bettering themselves. But for each decision to change, very little action is taking: people give up for a variety of reasons – poorly defined goals, life circumstances, being overly ambitious, or simply laziness or lack of motivation. I’m certainly guilty of this.

One way I’ve found to prevent reneging on my promises is to lock myself into a commitment. There are two ways to do this, a right way and a wrong way.

Photo by Stebulus

The wrong way is this: You decide you want to work out. So you sign up for a gym membership and show up a few times. And then you stop going, and then you feel guilty and have a monthly expense that you don’t want to give up, because it means you’ve given up on your dreams. Furthermore, the expense not only represents your goals, but it also represents the daily toil necessary to accomplish them. Toil that exhausts you and keeps you from frivolous entertainments. Going to the gym becomes your goal, and you begin to forget why.

The right way is to set the goal and make a definite commitment that other people can see, and then to work towards that goal. The commitment is not drudgery or something you can’t do: it’s an exciting reward that stretches your capabilities.

For instance, I’d talked about traveling outside the country for literally years. Then, I promised a relative that I would visit her in Germany within 12 months. I wanted to weasel out of it – after all, planning the trip would be a lot of work. But I couldn’t take back my promise. A month or two later, I bought a plane ticket – then I was definitely locked in. Anyway, it wasn’t a sentence, it was an opportunity to see some cool museums and experience a new culture.

I’ve done the same thing this year. I wasn’t sure whether I would travel, or if I’d keep dallying on the dates. So I bought the ticket, and now I have no choice – my past self decided and I’m simply carried along for the ride. Furthermore, because I know that my German is good enough to communicate but bad enough that I’ll feel embarrassed, I have a reason to continue studying each day. My reward will be some awesome times traveling, and a feeling of comfort while communicating in a foreign language, in a foreign country.

You can apply this anywhere. If you’re a competent musician, sign up for an Open Mic – now you have a reason to practice, and the reward is showing off on stage. If you want to get in shape, don’t think about flat abs or checking off each gym day on a calendar – sign up for a Tough Mudder or a triathlon and picture what a badass you’ll be. Be creative.

20 Ways To Restore Faith When Everything Goes Wrong

2012-01-29T08:09:00.000-08:00

20 Ways To Restore Faith When Everything Goes Wrong:

Sometimes I wish the mother ship would land and take me home. I look in the sky. Where is the ship, with the beautiful aliens. The ones I belong with. Why did they leave me here on this pathetic planet. Did they really want me to grow old and die here?

In the past 15 years I was probably suicidal on at least three different occasions. How would I kill myself? Who knows. I googled it. It’s hard to actually find a technique that works. Try googling “I want to die”. You’ll just end up back on this blog. Which won’t tell you how to die. Because there is no good technique. Trust me.

But all of those moments had several things in common.

I couldn’t take the pain. I didn’t want to die. I wanted the pain to die. I had gone from a high to a low (being constantly at a low doesn’t do it. You have to go from a high to a low to experience the sense of loss) and when I thought the only way my kids would be happy is if they were able to cash in my life insurance policy. That’s how screwed up I was.

And, the irony is, it’s at exactly these moments that its hardest to have “faith”.

(that must've hurt)

We all have moments when it seems like everything is going wrong. It’s unavoidable. A relationship turns sour. A job is lost. A business goes down in flames. You are robbed. You feel lonely. And so on. The list of possible calamities that are in store for us simply because we are human is awesome and overwhelming.

When I had my first kid I was very sad about this. I looked at this tiny baby and all I could think about was, “how will I protect her when she’s feeling alone”. “how will I protect her when she’s rejected”. “How will I protect her when the things she thinks she’s most in control of go horribly astray.”

There’s no answer. I can’t protect her.

No matter what you do right now, things might totally suck. Its that enormous leap between your lowest moments and the moments that you think will make you happy that faith is required.

When things are already at the best, that leap is tiny or non-existent. So you don’t need any faith at those moments. Or faith is too easy.

It’s precisely when things are at their worst that you need “faith” the most. I put it in quotes because we still haven’t defined it.

Here are some kinds of faith.

Faith in God. In other words, a higher power that if you pay attention to in some way (prayer, gratitude, humility, ethical behavior, etc) then rewards are waiting for you.

Faith in a creative power within you. Your subconscious. The idea being that you put in the work, you do whatever you can in the time you have, and then you say, “Ok, I’ve done it all. Now you have to do something.” In other words, you give up. To yourself, to God, to the universe, whatever.

Faith in destiny. For instance, if you’ve always succeeded before doing a certain formula (for instance, for me, “the daily practice” I recommend) and things are down now, knowing that if I just apply that formula then once again things will go well.

Other kinds of faith. Faith in Jesus, faith in Buddha, or the Tao, or Yoga, or a spiritual guide, or a higher power, all fit into the above faiths.

The benefits of all of these faiths is that they relieve stress. Hard work and anxiety suffers from the law of diminishing returns. Being anxious about something 20 hours a day probably won’t do much more for you than being anxious about it for 1 hour a day. Working for 10 straight hours probably won’t accomplish more than working for 3 super-productive hours.

(when I was studying last year in India (next to the above woman), the teacher, Sharath, said: rich, poor, happy, sad - do your practice)

One time I was seeing a therapist. He said, “what can I do to help you. What can relieve your stress.”

I said, “the only thing that will relieve my stress right now is if you immediately give me a million dollars.”

That, of course, didn’t happen. I had to develop other methods for relieving stress. In fact, I became an expert at having faith at the critical moments only because I had so many of them.

So here’s what you should try to do regardless of whatever faith you subscribe to. The key is to work hard but to also cultivate a feeling of surrender. You need to give the universe space to do its thing for you. There’s evidence that working hard for 90 minutes is about all we can do if we want to be at peak productivity. Then taking a break.

(trust me: this doesn't solve your problems. but it does solve your money problems)

Faith is in the breaks.

When things are bad do this:

A) Work hard for 90 minute stretches. Avoid any distractions.

B) Take breaks

C) In the breaks do one or more of the following:

D) Exercise until you sweat. This has been shown to relieve stress and anxiety and act as an anti-depressant.

E) Write down ideas for how you can solve your issues. If you need to generate income, start brainstorming. You might have very bad ideas at first. But eventually the ideas will be good. It took me about a month of writing down ideas every day before I started coming up with decent ideas. Within six months of writing down ideas every day and following the other ideas in the daily practice my life was changed completely. In fact, my life now is completely different every six months.

F) Send three emails to people you are grateful for. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t spoken to them in ten years

G) Go to your inbox, find an email from 2007, reply to it. That works wonders at reestablishing contact with people.

H) Go swimming. Just get up and go swimming somewhere. Exercise and keeping yourself from drowning will distract you.

I) Go to a museum. During the financial crisis of 2008 I was really feeling bad. I was long stocks, I was going through a divorce, things were at their worst for me. I spent lunchtime without my computer or phone. I would go to a museum and hang out in the bookstore/café and read books about artists. This had my brain going in a completely different direction than the anxieties of staring at the market.

J) Draw. Similar to above. .Sometimes in 2009 when I was going through a deal that wasn’t working out, Claudia and I would take out water colors and paint. It was fun and again had my brain going in a different direction.

K) Pretend. In 2008, I described another situation where I reached out of myself and made contact with people by pretending to be a psychic. I don’t recommend this. But sometimes pretending to be something you aren’t can bring up to the surface a part of yourself you didn’t know existed. That person might be a fun person to get to know. You don’t know everything about yourself. Give other parts a chance to come out and play.

L) Meditate. I don’t always recommend this. It’s really hard to meditate when things are at their worst. Meditation involves 30 minutesof sitting still and watching your thoughts. But your thoughts could be too overwhelming. Instead of doing 30 minutes every day how about trying 60 seconds here and there throughout the day. Try “The Power of Negative Thinking” to train your mind.

M) Reread, “I Surrender”. Surrendering is the key. Is there a higher power? Who knows? But I do know that you can’t control everything. There’s a saying, “infinite patience produces immediate results”. Slipping into patience mode, even when your neck is right there on the guilliotine, can provide you with some respite despite the axe that is bearing down on you.

N) Help someone else. For instance, if someone else needs work, introduce him to someone who can hire him. If someone needs some information, find the info and give it to him. This sort of activity compounds in value. Until you’ve helped so many people that there is a world of people waiting to help you when you are down. Trust me, having that net waiting for you when you jump out of the burning building will be a lifesaver. I’ve used that net many times. I’m surprised there’s not a hole in it at this point accept for the fact that I keep strengthening it by helping people every day.

O) Be a superhero. This goes along with the above. But do it anonymously. Help someone where you completely expect nothing back, like a superhero does – strong, anonymous, and with mysterious powers. I don’t know why it works, but the returns on this are ten to one.

P) Think of your heroes. It’s amazing when you read the biographies of the greats. They all had their trials they had to survive. I regularly post about people I admire and what they’ve been through and how they’ve survived it. Here are a few: Louis Armstrong. Dorothea Lange. Buddha. Bukowski. And so on.

Q) Watch something funny. Watching a movie like “Superbad” won’t necessarily bring you faith but will snap you out of the thoughts that are clogging your head. Laughter has a cleansing effect and is also known to cure many toxic illnesses, mental and physical (and emotional and spiritual).

R) Finally, doing some form, even miniscule, of what I call “The Daily Practice”, has always helped me to restore my faith, my life, my money, my happiness (or at least, my contentment). If that post I link is too harsh I provide many modifications and ideas of how to moderate the practice in my book, “I Was Blind But Now I See”.

S) Promise. I said “finally” above but I have two more things. You can spend fifteen minutes promising yourself over and over again, “I will put one foot in front of the other”. Tell yourself who needs you to do that (children, friends, family, etc). Promise it again. And again. And then call someone else and promise them. Build your support group with these promises.

T) Most important: When you have money, love, contentment, this is not when you have succeeded. These are the results. The trumpets are not blowing now. You’re sleeping and you don’t care. MOST IMPORTANT: the trumpets are blowing when you are at your lows and you take that next step forward. That is success. That is love of life. That is creativity and spirit and God.

When you are at the lowest, you are closest to God, to your faith, to a higher power, to an inner you. To whatever you want to call it. Nobody cares what you call it. This is your moment to shine, to show how much you’ve learned, to show how much you are able to succeed. There are no other moments as powerful. Please don’t waste them.

—

Note, this topic came from the following question asked during my Twitter Q&A this past Thursday. I do a Q&A ever Thursday from 3:30 – 4:30 EST. You can follow me on Twitter here.

lclemensonclemenson lionel asked:

@jaltucher How do you keep faith when everything goes wrong ?

2012-01-28T21:55:00.000-08:00

Preparing for a Marathon the Right Way [infographic]

2012-01-28T09:54:00.000-08:00

Preparing for a Marathon the Right Way [infographic]:

When the ball dropped and the glorious year that is 2012 began, I had one goal in mind. Getting more exercise. 28 days in and I have yet to spend more than 5 minutes of my time on cardio. But with the help of this infographic, being a healthy and sexy marathon runner is looking a little more attainable.

Included in this infographic is a marathon training calendar. This twelve week program could get you in healthier shape and even marathon form. The internet is full of training videos as well, like this one. I was using this infographic primarily as a week to get back into shape, but if you’re more of a competitor, there’s also a calendar of upcoming marathons this year.

To all of you wishing for a healthier lifestyle, I’m there with you. Get off that couch, draw up a workout schedule, and lace em up! [Via]

© Delano Taylor for Daily Infographic, 2012. |
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Man Loses Whopper For Bonking Married Woman

2012-01-27T05:56:00.000-08:00

Man Loses Whopper For Bonking Married Woman:

A sexpest’s lust has been permanently tamed after his whopper was chopped by a man who nabbed him bonking his wife.

Reliable sources identified the victim as Joseph Edongot, a 34-year-old father of three and resident of Kajamaka village, Kapolin parish in Ongino Sub County, Kumi District; while his ruthless tormentor is John Robert Emuron, a resident of Akuoro village, Kapasak Parish in Ongino Sub County, and husband to the cheating woman, who was only identified as Grace.

While speaking from sick bed at Kumi Hospital, where he is undergoing intensive treatment, Edongot narrated his unfortunate ordeal as thus:

“My woes began in October last year, when I went to Ongino Market to buy fish and saw Grace selling ‘Ajono’ (local brew) next to the fish stall. I instantly fell for her because she looked so beautiful, so I went over to her and expressed my interest in her. Luckily, she accepted my advances and even told me her Kandahar territory was vacant because there was no whopper docking at it. Since then I have been visiting her, only that I hadn’t got the chance to bonk her because of her busy schedule. This chance however presented itself last Friday, when she invited me to her home that evening for a special yoyo treat.”

Edongot adds that that evening he retired with Grace at about 7:30pm, and carried her to her home on his bicycle.

He says they went into bed and started bonking at 8:30pm.

He however says that after the first round, he was shocked beyond belief, when Emuron flung the door open and charged at him as though he was a wounded Rhino.

He says that Grace fled the house, leaving him to be nabbed by Emuron, who together with two unidentified friends of his tied Edongot’s hands and legs.

Emuron is then said to have reached for a knife, which he used to sever the cheat’s whopper.

Edongot said that his tormentors immediately fled, and he was only saved by Peter Omeri, the councillor, as well as LC2 chairperson of Kapasak parish, who took him to police, before later forwarding him to hospital.

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2012-01-27T05:52:00.000-08:00

Ngara. Jan 2012:

Ngara. Jan 2012

The Local Web [infographic]

2012-01-26T19:29:00.000-08:00

The Local Web [infographic]:

I can barely remember my life without the Internet or a time when the yellow pages had a use. The World Wide Web has become a mirror image of real life as establishments and individuals take advantage of the endless online marketing opportunities and develop a presence online. Heck, it seems like every business has a Facebook page for you to “like,” every restaurant has a Yelp.com profile that allows word of mouth to go viral, and every activity has had at least one clever Groupon offer.

Today’s infographic emphasizes how a localized online presence affects a business’s growth, suggesting that utilizing social media, businesses are able to cultivate greater customer loyalty. [The Local Web]

© LindseySavino for Daily Infographic, 2012. |
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Use Up, Wear Out, Make Do: Buy Less in 2012

2012-01-26T19:23:00.000-08:00

Use Up, Wear Out, Make Do: Buy Less in 2012:

Internet entrepreneur Meg Hourihan says she has "more stuff than I could ever possibly use or need." So this year, she's resolved to wear out her resources—she will not buy anything new until she uses up, wears out, and makes do with the stuff she already owns.

The concept—buy what you really need—seems obvious. But in the United States, "society constantly encourages us all to keep buying," Hourihan writes on Make It Do, the website she's started about curbing her conspicuous consumption. "I could cook from every cookbook on my shelves and feed my family until the end of time, yet I still feel I 'need' new cookbooks. I have 26 (?) pairs of shoes, don’t wear most of them, and somehow think I need more shoes." For the next 12 months, she's pledged to use up the last reaches of her pantry before she invests in more "dried fruits" or "exotic grains," never "wander around Sephora and get three new lipsticks," and borrow and barter when times get tough.

To hold herself accountable, Hourihan is tracking every purchase she makes in 2012, sharing it on a public spreadsheet and asking herself to justify every investment with the world. She's already made a few exceptions—like back-country camping supplies to feed her favorite hobby—but mostly, she's finding creative solutions for scaling down and using up. Since starting the project this month, she's had to stop walking through stores, unsubscribe from Martha Stewart Living, and get into sock darning.

Hourihan's project is less about saving money or saving the world than it is about saving her own mind: "There’s a yearning for 'better' or 'perfect' in my life, and often it seems the next purchase could be just the thing to 'finish' the living room and make it perfect," she writes. "I’m curious to see what happens when the solution to these gaps isn’t buying something.'"