It’s not often I use this blog to recommend a book or service.  However, as I come across resources that make a great impact on my daily work life I want to take the time to share them in hopes these resources will be useful to you as well.

First, a fantastic book that is changing the way I look at, not only by branding, but my company as well (the Business Insight Group www.BusinessInsightGroup.net).

The book is called Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port.

Book Yourself Solid is an amazing step by step guide to building your business foundation; building trust and credibility; and walking through the 7 core self-promotion strategies.  Once you receive the book you can go online and download the companion workbook for free.

I strongly recommend this book (and the follow-up books) for anyone who is in need of growing their client base.

Secondly, I have met a wonderful lady, Christine Peiffer, who owns a virtual assistant company.  Christine is an international woman – from France, spent lots of time in Spain and now lives in the US.  Because she is multilingual she can meet the needs of many people.

From her company’s website: My International Assistant is a full Virtual Assistant service provider, operated in North Carolina, USA. We offer high quality administrative, operation, marketing and translation solutions for businesses and entrepreneurs. We work with demanding customers all over the world, who require the highest level of services. Our goal is to support the organizational aspect of your business and allow you to focus on your customers, giving your business the opportunity to grow faster.

I highly recommend Christine and My International Assistant to anyone, regardless of location, looking for administrative, operations and translation assistance.  Christine’s contact information follows:

Christine Peiffer

My International Assistant

Christine.Peiffer@MyInternationalAssistant.com

www.MyInternationalAssistant.com

Feel free to tell her you heard about My International Assistant on my website.

Finally, be on the lookout for my husband’s new book, Linking In to Pay it Forward: Changing the Value Proposition in Social Media.  It is scheduled to be released in eBook form in mid-November after which time it will be published in hardcopy. 

You can read more about the book on his blog http://thepayitforwardchronicles.blogspot.com

Choose a Better Life by continuing to grow yourself through the abundant amount of resources available whether for business or personal use.

My husband and I were having dinner with a few friends, who also happen to be business associates, the other night.  As we were eating we were sharing ideas and stories.

One gentleman who owns his own business said that he dislikes talking to his father on the phone because no matter how well business is going his father always has something negative to say.  He also said that whenever he shares his ideas for new business with his father, his father always focuses on the potential problems and declares, “That will never work.”

Everyone around the table could relate.  Not all of us have parents who shoot us down, but we all knew someone who was ready to squash our ideas and dreams the moment we shared our vision.

But, what was interesting was that those of us who were parents ourselves (our kids ranged in age from 13-21) all agreed that when we share our ideas and dreams with our children not one of them shoots us down.  Quite the contrary.  Most of the time our kids are our biggest supporters and they often come up with additional ideas to incorporate into our vision.

As my friends and I discussed this we agreed that as we grow into adulthood we tend to become jaded and less free-thinking.  We filter information through our life’s experiences and what we have witnessed in others.  Unfortunately, this filtering can make us negative and much less willing to take risks.

What we need to realize is that taking risks is what often leads to great successes.  And if in taking a risk we fail, we need to embrace that failure as a learning and growth opportunity by which we refine our efforts for the next attempt.

We also need to encourage those around us when they take us into their confidence by sharing their visions and ideas.  Unless we are specifically asked to do so, it is not our job to look for the potential setbacks or problems and deflate someone’s dream.  We are much more valuable when we cheer others on and root for their success.

Choose a Better Life by choosing to be child-like.  Take risks and be supportive to others who do the same.

This week I have attended two major networking events.  The first, Tuesday evening, was hosted by my husband and me.  This is our LinkedIn Live event held every other month.  At the moment we are averaging 250 attendees.  The second, Thursday evening, was a slightly bigger event hosted by a local tech journal.

As I was talking with people both evenings it struck me that many people don’t like networking because they don’t know how to do it … I used to be one of those people.  I used to think networking was all about forcing someone to listen to your message while acting nice by bringing up small talk.  Oh how I hated these events.

However, now I understand that networking is really all about building relationships, or at least it should be.  No longer do I set out to deplete my business card stack as quickly as possible.  Instead, I look to meet people who I can help in some way.  Many times that is as simple as introducing two people who I think would make a good connection.

One of these introductions occurred this week as a result of our Tuesday networking event.  I met a woman who had been recently laid off from her technology job.  As it turns out, a friend of mine is a recruiter in the technology industry.  So, via email, I made a virtual introduction.  Whatever happens next is up to them, but I’m sure it will be a mutually beneficial connection.

Here are a few networking tips to make your next event a good one:

▪          Always be prepared with business cards, but don’t force them on people.  Let this exchange come naturally.

▪          Practice your introduction before you arrive.  You definitely want to be able to articulate what you do when you are asked.

▪          If someone seems uninterested in what you do, don’t take it personally.  It just may not be a good time for that connection.

▪          Always stay positive.  Regardless of your situation (you may be out of work), don’t let the conversation turn negative. No one wants to be around someone who is negative.

▪          Focus on the other individual.  A natural way to start a conversation is to ask about the other person.  Find out what he does for a living and/or what he is looking for.  Truly be interested in, and listen to, what he is saying.

And finally, and probably most importantly …

▪          Find out if there is some way you can be of assistance to the person you have just met.  Can you introduce him to another connection?  Do you have information that will benefit his career?  At our Tuesday event, a friend put “How may I help you?” under his name on his nametag.  Not only was that a great conversation starter, but it allowed him to focus on meeting others’ needs.  And in return he made some great connections.

By the way, these tips not only work for business networking events, but also for social events.

Choose a Better Life by choosing to get out and meet people.  Don’t be afraid of networking events.  After all, the others who are there are probably just as intimidated as you are.

In reading one of my favorite magazines, pink: a beautiful career.  a beautiful life., I cam across this quote.  It is from Cynthia Good, Founding Editor.

“At the end of the day, the belief that we can, and the courage to try, eventually bring results.”

Whether it is in your business or personal life, Choose a Better Life by choosing to believe and try.  Go for your dreams and don’t let skeptics hold you back.

This is an activity I do in some of my workshops…

As participants walk into the room they notice that each person’s space is set up with a number of items.  The one that always seems to grab their attention first is the lemon.

I ask each participant to take a few minutes to “get to know their lemon” … to look their lemon over and become familiar with it.  Then I collect the lemons and randomly arrange them on a table in the front of the room.  At this point I ask all the participants, usually between 25-40, to come to the front of the room and find their original lemon.

Surprisingly, most people are successful in finding their lemon.

My point in this simple activity is that at first glance all lemons look alike, but when you take a few minutes to really look at the lemon you see differences and nuances that are unique to the individual lemon.  AND, in addition to being unique, each lemon can be successful in its “job” … in my scenario making lemonade.

People are the similar to lemons. (No, we are not sour.)   At first glance we look alike, but when you get to know each of us we are unique individuals with our own style and ways of doing things.  However, we each have the same potential to be successful in whatever we set our minds to.

One of my favorite quotes is by St. Francis de Sales.  He said, “Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.”  In other words, don’t look at someone else and wish you were more like them.  You’ve been given a wonderful set of characteristics and qualities that make you unique.

Embrace your individuality and celebrate what makes you unique.  Then know that with determination you can achieve whatever you set your mind to.

Choose a Better Life by choosing to believe that your uniqueness sets you apart for success.

I don’t usually do this, but today I am going to use my post to highlight a friend of mine, Ryan Allis.  He is an amazing guy, who at age 23 has not only built a $10 million company, but has developed a heart for truly changing the world – a passion I also share.

Today his book, Zero to One Million published by McGraw-Hill, launches.  He is using this book not to make money, but to share knowledge and to raise funds to help end world poverty.  I will let him share in his own words …

While I am optimistic, I am distressed by the state our world is in today. I am distressed by two simple facts…

First, while we have prosperity and opulence in many parts of our world–49,000 humans, people just like you and me, die each and every day from starvation and preventable diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS, and diarrhea. Second, while we live in comfort, 2.7 billion humans live on under $2 per day.

These numbers are Purchase Power Parity (PPP) adjusted–meaning that 42% of the humans in our world must live a FULL day on the same $2 that you and I would use to buy half a latte at Starbucks. These facts come from the World Bank and the World Health Organization, respectively.

When I learned these facts in Economics class at Manatee High School at age 17 from an inspirational teacher Robert Fletcher, I couldn’t ever afterwards pretend as if “I didn’t know.”

I’ve read a lot over the past six years about the topic of human poverty, global politics, and economics–inspirational books like The End of Poverty, The White Man’s Burden, How to Change the World, The Bottom Billion, Globalization and Its Discontents, The Lexus & The Olive Tree, The Road to Serfdom, Atlas Shrugged, Confessions of an Economic Hitman, The Secret History of The American Empire, The Fortune at The Bottom of the Pyramid, and The Mystery of Capital.

I’ve come to one singular conclusion…

I am going to dedicate the rest of my life to reduce poverty and hunger and increase access to education, healthcare, technology, and entrepreneurial opportunity here at home in North Carolina and the U.S. as well as in developing countries. This is not charity–this is humanity. We will never have a secure world when half of our brothers and sisters do not have access to basic human needs like shelter, food, primary education, and preventative medicine.

Personally, I believe entrepreneurship is an essential part of the solution–commercial entrepreneurship, public sector entrepreneurship, and social entrepreneurship.

But being an entrepreneur is NOT easy. The knowledge of how to build a successful organization isn’t easily learned.

Building a new ’start-up’ of any type whether a non-profit or for-profit is definitely not simple. I’m only 23 and I feel sometimes like I have developed the scar tissue of a 45 year-old building iContact to $10 million in annual sales.

It’s truly been an absolute bliss to come in every morning and know that I’ve played a big role in creating 85 jobs. I get so much energy from being around our team. Being an entrepreneur is truly my passion. I love it, but the experience is what I can only imagine raising a real child would be like. What one has to sacrifice, to give, to devote to the effort is immense. I never thought it would be THIS hard when I started six years ago.

What I can say is that I’ve learned so much more than I could have ever imagined.

I want to share everything I’ve learned about business, about opportunity evaluation, about raising venture capital, about product development, about marketing, about sales, about finance, about managing people, about creating systems with as many entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs as I possibly can–and not just commercial entrepreneurs, but social entrepreneurs, corporate entrepreneurs, and public service entrepreneurs in every part of our world.

Writing this book for me is part of spreading a message of entrepreneurial possibility and social change.

I believe that every person in this world should have access to the knowledge of how to be an entrepreneur.

I believe that anyone in this world should be able to become a successful business, social, or public service entrepreneur–if they set their mind to it and have the right tools.

I also believe that IF the knowledge was spread far enough and the financial structures existed in our global society for anyone regardless of location or class to become a successful entrepreneur–our world would have the entrepreneurial talent at the grassroots level to address the biggest challenges of our generation–how to eliminate extreme poverty, get food to the hungry, medicines to the sick, and microcredit financial resources to the ambitious youth of our generation–so that they can productively solve the needs of humanity with their talents, not fight in political or religious wars driven by a lack of hope.

This is why I wrote Zero to One Million: How I Built A Company to One Million Dollars in Sales… And How You Can Too.

It’s not to make money–all the proceeds from the book are being donated to my non-profit organization, The Humanity Campaign, which works to reduce poverty and hunger by increasing access to education, healthcare, technology, and entrepreneurial opportunity.

This Tuesday, February 5th, is the big push day that we are trying to become #1 on Amazon. If we can sell 2,500 copies of the book on Tuesday we should make it to #1. If by chance you have an opportunity to spread the word about the book after Tuesday, please do. We are also working to sell 12,000 copies during the first full week so that we can make it on the New York Times Bestseller list for the week.

For everyone, would you mark your calendar and buy a copy or multiple copies of the book yourself this Tuesday morning as well as spread the word? The book costs just $11.53 on Amazon and I’ll email you $750 worth of gifts if you email your receipt to bonus@zeromillion.com.

When you buy Zero to One Million on Amazon on Tuesday I’ll send you six bonus gifts including a video from me on how to raise $5 million in venture capital at age 22 and valuable DVD and PDF report bonuses from Buck Rizvi, Derek Gehl, Carlos Garcia, Shawn Casey, and Tom Bell. Just email the Amazon receipt to bonus@zeromillion.com to receive the bonuses.

If you want to buy multiple copies for your friends, company, or local libraries–I am providing additional bonuses. If you buy five copies you’ll receive a video from me on how to access the world of institutional capital. If you buy 25 copies you’ll receive a signed copy of the original version of the book. If you buy 50 copies you’ll get a 15 minute strategy phone call with me. If you buy 250 copies I’ll invite you to visit me on-site in Durham for a day-long mastermind strategy session with the other large buyers. If you buy 500 copies, I’ll invite you to join my mastermind group of millionaire entrepreneurs for a quarterly meeting.

Thank you very, very much for your help and assistance. I sincerely appreciate your help and look forward to working with you for many decades to change the world together. Please let me know if you have any questions or if I can be of any assistance whatsoever to you now or in the future.

You can buy the book starting 12:01am on Tuesday at http://www.amazon.com/Zero-One-Million-Built-Company/dp/0071496661/. I will post a reminder here on Tuesday morning.

Love, hope, peace, prosperity…

Cheers,
/RPMA
Ryan P. Allis

Recently I’ve talked to several people who are, for one reason or another, unhappy with their work situation. A few are unemployed, but most have a job. They are just unhappy in their current position.

As people have shared their frustrations, I come back to the same question, “What are you doing to change the situation?” Sometimes this question angers people because most of us want to live under the illusion that we are victims of our circumstances. That is not the case. We always have a choice in how we respond to our situation.

In the case of employment, there are always avenues we can take to seek change, the least of which is looking for another position. The new position can be in the same company or another company. It can be in the same field or a completely different field of work. It can be a lateral move or a horizontal one. There are lots of options.

As I have counseled many people through career transition and have gone through career transition myself, there are a few basic steps that should be taken when a career change is sought. (These are in addition to those stated in the post A Decision to Decide.)

Tell people you are looking - One of the hardest things for a job seeker is to let people know you are looking for work. For some reason, we often feel that if we are looking for work there is something wrong with us. This is definitely not the case. At some point everyone who is working was looking for a job and most will again be looking for work at some point in their careers. Granted, this can be tricky if you are currently employed and you don’t want to “rock the boat.” My advice is that you find a handful of people you trust with whom to share your search.

Network – Along with telling people you are looking, you need to network. Most jobs are not advertised in the papers or online. Most positions are filled through people knowing people.

Networking is a great way to meet people who know people who know people who are hiring. A referral from an associate carries much more weight than a blind answer to an ad.

And with online social networking sites like www.LinkedIn.com (my personal favorite) you can literally network around the world from the comfort of your own home. However, a caution, don’t rely solely on online networking sites; there is still great value in the face-to-face meeting.

Informational interviews – If you are interested in a specific field of work, find an expert in that field (or several), buy him a cup of coffee and “pick his brain.” Find out how he broke into that line of work and what skills are important for success. Make connections between what you are currently doing and how you can be successful in the expert’s line of work.

Informational interviews are also great for learning new skills. For example, I have never been one to love sales. However, because there is a sales component to my career (I need to “sell” my training and workshops) I am meeting with several sales experts to get direction and gain a better understanding of sales techniques. By doing so, I am enhancing what I already do.

Seek mentorship – Just as informational interviews can provide you with great information, a mentor in your desired field can give you specific direction. This is especially important if you are new to the field. A mentor often provides tips on best practices based on his own success and/or failures. This type of direct training is invaluable.

Take a class – Once you start your informational interviews you may find that you need to take a class of some sort to learn or refresh your skills. For some, this could be a computer course or a technical course. For others, this can be something fun. For example, I recently started an improv class at a local comedy club. The class is wonderful because it gets me out of my comfort zone and is training my mind to stay in the moment and to approach issues from a completely different perspective.

Find a support group – I am not necessarily recommending an employment support group, although those have great value. What I am referring to is a group of 3-5 individuals whom you trust and admire. Individuals from different disciplines, but who are all doing what they do well. What this group does is encourages its members to take the next step towards success while holding each other accountable to do so. The group also becomes a “think tank” for creative ideas and solutions.

Whether you are changing your career out of necessity or desire to follow your passions, having a plan and enlisting the help of others is invaluable.

Choose a Better Life by stepping out of your comfort zone and taking action.

Thanks to email, I have recently been introduced to a woman I admire.  We have only had a few exchanges, but I already know she is an inspiration.  I know this because she is pursuing her passion.

Barb has identified her heart’s desire – developing and empowering employees - and laid out a plan of action.  She has researched her interests, begun her education, and recruited the help of a mentor who currently works in the field. 

While Barb works toward completing her education she is absorbing as much information as possible.  She is working with her mentor and enlisting the help of other trainers along the way.  She is aligning her work life with her passion and is going for it with gusto.

Barb desires to make a difference in peoples’ lives and she understands that one person can impact many.  In her email signature she has the following quote:

“I am only one - but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.”

~ Helen Keller

Are you doing the something you can do?  Choose a Better Life by choosing, not to do everything, but to do something.

As a family we try to live a “pay-it-forward” lifestyle.  That is, we look for ways in which we can be a blessing to others. The blessings we give may be small - a ride to the grocery store for my neighbor who doesn’t have a car, or big – inviting a family of 4 to stay with us for 3 months while they were in the States on sabbatical.  But, regardless of what it is we do, we try to do it with the sole intention of blessing someone else.

This philosophy isn’t one we only try to foster in our private lives, but we live it in our business lives as well.  In fact, my husband, Chuck, recently blogged about the “pay-it-forward” lifestyle and gave tips on how you can begin doing it yourself.

His blog is called Forward 10 and the complete post can be found here http://www.forward-moving.com/blog/author/Chuck.  But, just to give you a taste, his 10 points were as follows:

1. Enter new business relationships without an agenda.
2. Remember where other people are coming from first.
3. Keep an eye out for ways you can help others.
4. Empower and encourage the Pay-it-Forward philosophy.
5. Stop cursing, start blessing.
6. Return all calls, emails and attempts to reach you.
7. Never be “too busy” to listen.
8. Network with the idea that you can connect others.
9. Realize that not all networking connections are going to be beneficial – yet.
10. Keep you motives straight and your attitude up.

Yes, his themes are very similar to mine (makes sense, since we are married), but he has given practical tips on how to pay-it-forward in business.

Regardless of whether you are paying-it-forward in your personal life or business, you will be surprised at how many blessings you receive just by being a blessing to others.  My neighbor without the car – despite our different backgrounds, she’s from Syria, I’m from the States, we have become great friends and spent hours sharing life stories.  The family who stayed with us – again, we have become lifelong friends.  Our families look forward to sharing time together whether here in Raleigh, North Carolina or there in Milan, Italy.  We are blessed.

Choose a Better Life by choosing to pay-it-forward.

In the October 2007 issue of Pink magazine (www.pinkmagazine.com) an article titled “a poet’s life” highlights three women who are living their passions.  All three have different stories, but all three are doing what they love and enjoying a better quality of life as a direct result.

Kim Addonizo worked several odd jobs to get to where she is today, a full-time writer and mentor.  She says, “Do what you love and the money will follow.  It might not be a lot of money, and it might take a while, but it can happen.”

In discussing the very issue of money, Addonizo says, “Focusing on art makes the quality of my life better than, say, buying a new sofa…. We don’t need as much as we think we need.”

Nikki Giovanni, another woman highlighted in the article, teaches at Virginia Tech University in addition to focusing on her writing.  Giovanni says she took a pay cut when she accepted the job at Virginia Tech, but “was more than compensated by the wonderful students and the colleagues.”  She goes on to say, “I’m happy with what I do and when I’m not I’ll send in my resignation.”

Cecilia Woloch, the final poet on which the spotlight lands, says that in addition to writing, travel and a sense of adventure are in her blood.  As a result she makes choices that allow her to do both.  Referring to conversations with friends Woloch says they ask, “’How can you be going off to Paris again?’  But you know what?  I live in a rent-controlled apartment, I drive a 20-year old car, my shoes cost 30 bucks.  These are the choices I make.”

One of the things all three women have in common is realizing that life is a series of choices.  We are blessed with opportunities to choose what we do in life not only with our careers, but also with our time, our finances, our minds, and most importantly our attitudes.

Start Choosing a Better Life by becoming aware of the choices you make each and every day.  Then, take the time to assess your choices and discern whether or not you are choosing to live with passion. If you are, celebrate and encourage others as they seek to do the same.  If not, what can you change in order to make living and working your passion a reality?

Enlist the help of others; Mentors, Champions and Encouragers (see my post “Mentors, Champions and Encouragers vs. Toxic People” from 05.03.07) are a great place to start.  If those are unavailable to you or you would like more focused encouragement seek out a life coach or counselor.

Regardless of the path you take, give yourself, and those around you, the gift of living your passion.  In doing so, you will be Choosing a Better Life.