Tyler Jorgenson

There exists in the world a marketing genius, he goes by the name of Seth Godin and his books always have a funny title. This photo is from an interview that was done about his latest book Meatball Sundae. One benefit of the availability of information is that people can see the deceitful more quickly. When somebody comes to me for a home loan, they can click anywhere on their browser and see if it’s a good deal (I can’t give somebody a 7% rate on a ‘normal’ loan when everywhere else on the web advertises 5.5%… nor would I!). For some it is a bane to live in a transparent world. For me, it is a blessing. Either way, Godin has his own action figure so that makes him quotable in my book.

I stumbled accross this interesting site and it made me think about how I am doing my marketing. It may be time to rework my marketing plan a bit and try some new branding tools. Now I don’t read too much Dutch, but it’s close to Afrikaans which I also don’t read much of so I don’t know entirely what the site is all about but from what I can see it’s a Dutch online shopping site. I think we’re in a time of the business cycle where we can’t just keep doing things the way we used to do them. The Realtors I know that are still in business have completely changed their business plan for 2008 compared to 2006. Those that are trying to do it the same are hurting, badly. It’s probably the same in other business sectors as well, I’m sure the successful stock investor is trading differently than in 2005. Anyways, just some food for thought.

So often in life we create our own limitations. Interestingly enough our limits are self imposed or conditioned by others who feel inadequate. When we are born we are nearly fearless (the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises are with us from birth) but we learn to fear failure through being teased or ridiculed. I got this little glimpse into my 1 year old daughters limitless perpective on life and loved it. She’s just doing what she sees her 3 year old sister do… so why couldn’t she be able to do the same? Look around you and see if there is somebody that has attained goals you would like to attain and ask yourself if you believe that you can achieve the same levels of success. Too often we don’t give ourselves enough credit, or have enough faith in our own ability to achieve greatness. Raise the bar.

-Posted From My Treo –

It seems as though I’m just copying other people’s posts these days. Although I think I have, on occasion, bits of information worth reading sometimes I come across a commentary that is well enough written to not need much additional input. Enjoy the following piece I pilfered from theladders.com:

Eliminate the F–Words
By William Arruda

If you want to get ahead in your career, you have to stop using four–letter words that begin with the letter ‘F’.

No, I’m not talking about cleaning your mouth out with soap. Of course, cursing your boss is probably not going to get you very far. But the F–words I share with you here are far more lethal, more destructive and more devastating to your career and professional fulfillment.

The ugliest four–letter words that begin with ‘F’ can hold you back if you don’t keep them in check. The words?

F _ _ R
F A _ _
F _ N _

Have you guessed them?

The key to career success is to get the F–words out of your vocabulary, mindset and actions. Here’s how.

Fear

“Look not mournfully into the past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the present. It is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future, without fear.”
–Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Sometimes fear is good. If you are walking alone down a dark alley at night, fear will keep you alert. However, in the workplace, fear is often less productive.

I work with lots of clients, many at the C–level, most of whom can become paralyzed or at least ‘slowed down’ by fear from time to time. And once they are able to look at the situation that prompted the fear from a different lens, they open up to new opportunities.

In your job search, fear can prevent you from making a networking connection or asking a high–profile colleague for help. It can impact an interview with a prospective hiring manager or stop you from applying for a position that you would really like to have. Fear impedes success; and fear breeds more fear. So the more you fear, the worse the fear becomes.

Replace the word ‘fear’ with ‘greet’. Greet challenges rather than being afraid of them. After all, a challenge is really an opportunity to shine and to grow and demonstrate your greatness. If you hope for the best rather than fear the worst as you search for your next job, you’ll be far more successful, and you’ll enjoy the process.

Fail

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
–Sir Winston Churchill

If you never fail, you aren’t taking enough risks. And without risk, you don’t grow or stretch yourself. Without growth, you stagnate, while those around you move ahead. Failing, if you look at it from a different perspective, is really a step in succeeding. So replace the word ‘fail’ with ‘grow’.

Often, it is fear of failure that prevents action.

In your job search, failing can be valuable. When you get down to the shortlist of candidates but are not selected, you can learn a lot that will be useful to your next hiring opportunity – perhaps for an even better position. If you chose not to risk failure, you risk growth.

Highlighting your failures during a job interview can be just as powerful. Let a prospective manager know that you are motivated to take calculated risks, and willing to fail if it means learning, growing professionally, and moving forward. Take inventory of events that you classified as failures and look for the growth that came from that. That growth is valuable content for your resume, cover letter, and personal web site.

Fine

“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.”
–Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I think fine is the ugliest of all four–letter words. No one gets excited about things that are fine.

“Hey Chris, how’s the new guy in sales doing?”

“Oh, he’s fine.”

Fine, adequate, average, OK. Do you want your work or candidature to be described with these words?

Yet, you were trained from a young age to become fine. In fact, your full–time job has probably involved resolving weaknesses instead of maximizing strengths. Sure, I think it’s great to improve your weaknesses – but not at the expense of maximizing your strengths, and only if those weaknesses will get in the way of your success. When you apply your strengths to everything you do, you raise yourself far above ‘fine.’ You become great, excellent, exceptional, extraordinary. And that’s how you want to be known. Isn’t it?

When you stop being fine and focus on your greatness, people will use superlatives to describe you. You start to build your personal brand around those things that make you differentiated and interesting.

Replace the word ‘fine’ with ‘great’ and strive for greatness by leveraging strengths rather than improving weaknesses. Never settle for adequate.

If your resume or online identity is fine, work with a career coach to make it great. And if you interviewing skills are ‘fine’ practice interviewing until they are stellar. After all, with so many candidates for each open position, it isn’t likely that the hiring manager will be satisfied with fine.

Eliminate the F–Words

To eliminate these words, practice makes perfect. And the key to eliminating them is to first recognize when they are part of your vocabulary and your actions. So it’s up to you. “Fear, fail, fine” or “greet, grow, great”. Decide which words will be a part of your vocabulary and approach to your job search, and then make decisions accordingly.

Be great!

And since I always like it when a post has pictures:

I hijacked todays post from a Trump email. I think it speaks for itself:

With the Right Mindset, You Can Overcome Any Problem

My wife and I just moved our family to a new (bigger) house. Along with trying to get everything unpacked, organized, decorated, etc there is also the issue of meeting new people. We have a couple of friends that moved here before us but there are a host of people that we are get to meet. In meeting new people I am always trying to remember everybody’s names. I know that I feel good, important even, when someone remembers my name after just one introduction and I want people to know that I think they are important by remembering their names too. I found a website with a few name remembering tips. Here’s a sample:

Commit
Begin by making a commitment — a conscious decision — to remember people’s names.

Don’t let yourself off easy, blaming a “bad memory.” Forgetting names is due less to a bad memory than to a lack of application. Tell yourself — because it’s true — that you can remember names if you want to and if you work at it.

Next time you’re in a business or social setting make it a point to remember names, it makes people feel special.