Caught with Your Pants down? 7 Ways to Regain Your Dignity
Have you ever been sitting on the toilet in a public bathroom, when a stranger suddenly comes bursting through the door? You stare at each other for a moment. It dawns on you that you forgot to lock the door. It dawns on them that they forgot to check. Then they back out of the stall, stuttering their apologies, while you desperately try to pretend that you weren’t caught with your pants around your ankles. It’s mortifying, but it happens all the time, in all sorts of ways, especially in business. Maybe you’re in the boardroom, pitching a room full of executives on a new strategy that will save the company, and your three-year-old wanders through the door, saying she has to "Tee-tee." Or maybe a zit pops on your forehead in the middle of a sales call. Or maybe you get drunk at the company’s Christmas party and start singing, "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells" at the top of your lungs. All are honest, 100% genuine mistakes, and there’s nothing wrong with them. But they’re still embarrassing as hell. You feel like you’ve lost a little clout, and everything you do around the "witnesses" is suddenly very awkward. Somehow, you have to regain your composure, or you can end up doing something that really is damaging. Well, just for you, here are 7 tips for regaining your dignity.
Seth Godin’s Top 7 Tips for Becoming a Master Networker
Okay, I lied.
Seth has never written a book or detailed blog post about how to become a master networker. He’s written volumes on marketing though, and in my opinion, the two aren’t really that different. Networking is about finding people that can help you (the customers), figuring out a way to get their attention (the interruption), and then offering to form a relationship (the product) that’s beneficial to you both. Yes, it’s a mechanical way to look at relationships, and no, I don’t envision my loved ones as customers. I do believe that the line between business and relationships is fuzzier than most of us would want to admit. And I would guess Seth agrees. He continually blurs that line with his ideas. So, despite having no delectable quotes to base this post on, nor any sort of permission, I’m going to apply seven of his marketing principles to networking. Follow them, and you’ll be on your way to becoming both a master networker and a master marketer.
Networking for Introverts: 5 Logical Processes for Calming Your Fears
“Go introduce yourself. You’ve got nothing to be afraid of.”
It’s innocent advice, but you grimace inside. Yes, there is something to be afraid of. You’ll look stupid. Worse, you’ll know you look stupid, and you’ll spend the next four hours thinking about what you’ve should’ve said and how you should’ve acted.
You know because you’re an introvert. You also know that the smiling, well-meaning person telling you to “Go introduce yourself” is an extrovert. They couldn’t possibly understand.
Or so you think.
How do I know? Because that’s exactly what I used to think. Seven years ago, I was a pimple-faced game designer with a laundry list of reasons for why I didn’t need other people. Then I tried to start a company. Facing $20,000 a month in expenses and no revenue, I realized I was never going to make a sale without getting to know someone first.
So I burned my list of reasons. Unfortunately for my company, I didn’t do it in time and everything fell apart. Fortunately for me though, it set me on a seven-year quest to become a master networker. I’ll not lie and say I’ve never been afraid again, but I have developed a collection of techniques for calming myself.
Let me share them with you.
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Who Is the Guy in Your Apple Commercial?
Customer profiling.
Those are two words you’ll never hear in everyday conversation. They belong on the chalkboard at business school, in a dense textbook about marketing, or maybe in one of those “strategy sessions” where the boss wants to know why the hell no one is buying your company’s latest product.
It’s a boring term, one that, as a writer, I’m almost ashamed to know and understand, but it also represents one of the most powerful marketing weapons in existence. Like a rusty gun that never runs out of bullets, it’ll help you kill 95% of business problems before they ever rear their ugly heads.
So I’m going to write a post on it.
Just to make it a little more interesting though, I thought I’d ditch the term and add a little bit more of a contemporary spin to the idea that it describes. Chase away any worry of being asked a question like, “Who are customers and how do we target them?”
Instead, I’ll posit a different, hopefully more insightful one: Who is the guy in your Apple commercial?
10 Lessons in Innovation from Amazon’s Kindle
Innovation. It’s a tricky thing.
Do it right, and you can make billions. Do it wrong, and you’ll end up in bankruptcy court. Either way, you’ll be called both a fool and a genius, and no one will know which is true, least of all you.
Amazon’s new Kindle is a classic example. Everyone is talking about it, and I did my best to avoid chiming in, but it’s just too good of a topic for me to resist.
Rather than telling you whether I like it or hate it though, why don’t we talk about what it can teach us about innovation? Because I think there’s a lot to learn.
Here are my top 10 lessons that we can learn from the Kindle. Feel free to chime in with your own in the comments.
The Forrest Gump Guide to Becoming a Gazillionaire
Who taught Elvis how to dance, received the Congressional Medal of Honor, got Nixon impeached, became the world ping-pong champion, built a national shrimping empire, and fathered Haley Joel Osment?
One man: Forrest Gump.
If I could choose one mentor in business, or in life in general, it would be Gump. I don’t care that he’s not real. The wisdom that he conveys is real, and I think we could all learn something from it.
Let’s listen to what he has to say, and I’ll translate his Gumpisms into advice that, if followed, will make you a much more successful moneymaker:
If a Blog Isn’t a Blog, Then What Is It?
Yesterday, I ended with a question: so what do we call someone who runs a profitable blog?
Well, I have to fess up. It was a trick question.
I don’t think we need to coin a new buzzword to describe successful bloggers. You could argue that Darren Rowse did that years ago by coining “problogger.”
What we need is a different way of looking at blogs.
We need a distinction that allows us to better understand what it takes to be successful. We need to realize that, while blogs are certainly new, they operate by the same old rules. We need to take blogging out from under the “Web” category and shift it into another, more useful one.
Because, for some of us, a blog isn’t a blog at all. It’s just business.
11 Meanings for “Blogger” You May Have Never Noticed
Main Entry: blogger
Pronunciation: blog - ger
Function: noun
Definitions:
- A nobody that always wanted to write and thinks people will finally notice their talent online
- A lonely geek looking for attention
- A marketer that publishes promotional fluff as an attraction strategy for a product
- A depressed 9-to-5er that desperately wants to quit and work from home
- A Darren Rowse or Steve Pavlina wannabe
- A get-rich-quick schemer that thinks blogging is the key to making millions online
- A lazy homebody looking for a source of passive income so they never have to work again
- An author that can’t get published
- A CEO that wants the board to think he’s on the cutting edge
- A techy tag along that starts a blog because everyone else has one
- A tiny voice amongst millions that doesn’t have a prayer of getting noticed or making any money
But… but… but…
Doesn’t the word “blogger” just refer to someone that “keeps a web log (blog)?” After all, that’s what the dictionary says.
Not anymore.
Over time, the connotation of a word changes, and its meaning expands. In the case of blogging, it’s taking on an air of failure, almost like being called a musician or actor.
In those fields though, we’ve developed separate terms. We call successful musicians rock stars or pop stars. We call successful actors movie stars.
So what do we call someone who runs a profitable blog? And more importantly, how do you become one?
Post a comment, telling me what you think. I’ll give you my take tomorrow.
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10 Ways to Get Flooded with Job Offers after You Graduate
The first few months after you graduate college can be the most exciting and nerve-racking time of your life. You’re thrilled to be done with school, but you’re also wondering, “Will anyone hire me?”
College is no longer a straight ticket to a great career. We’re handing out more bachelor’s degrees than ever, and there’s a lot of competition over the best jobs. The last thing you want to do is end up working at Wal-Mart, trying in vain to find something better.
But what can you do? Isn’t it out of your control?
No. In fact, there’s a lot you can do. Only four short years ago, I was going through this process myself and ended up graduating with 14 written offers. It’s all about being proactive while you’re still in school and taking advantage of your opportunities.
Follow these 10 strategies, and you won’t be worried about getting job offers. You’ll be flooded with them.
How Much Money Have You Made Your Company Today?
Would you like a foolproof, guaranteed strategy to get a raise? Well, here it is:
Make your company more money.
The people that get raises aren’t the ones that work the hardest. They’re not necessarily the smartest, either.
They simply become a better investment. What do I mean?