You Ain’t Gettin’ No Co-signer

July 8, 2014 by Leave a Comment
You Ain't Gettin' No Co-signerWhen I was looking to buy my first car (lease actually), I learned a valuable lesson about figuring things out on my own. After putting down $750 and setting a date to take delivery on a new Sentra with the salesman, the owner of the dealership called me and told me I didn’t have enough credit and that I would either need to give them more money up front or get a co-signer.
I told my dad about the situation. He said to me, “You ain’t gettin’ no co-signer.” He asked if I had any extra money. I told him I didn’t. He said it didn’t sound like I was getting that car and that I had better look at other options.
I wasn’t sure what I was going to do at that point. After going through the hassle of getting a canceled check to get my money back from the dealer, I was back at square one.
I was likely to run into the same thing at other dealerships. I had to figure things out for myself. How was I going to get a car with my credit history at an affordable monthly payment? I looked over the scenarios I had to work with: 1) I could buy a used car with the $750 I had. This made me feel uneasy since I had seen other people buy used cars that didn’t last long. 2) I could save up for a larger down payment. That would take months and I only had a few weeks time before the car I was borrowing from my mom would be traded-in. 3) Find an alternate way to get to work. This wouldn’t work. I didn’t live on a bus line and none of my co-workers lived near me.
I remembered that Ford had sent me a postcard about buying a car and getting a discount for being a recent college graduate. I wasn’t sure what recent meant since I had graduated a year and a half earlier, but it was worth a shot. I wondered how they’d sell me a car when the other dealer wouldn’t let me lease one.
I went to Ford and was able to buy a new Ford Escort without having to get a co-signer and without having to put anything more than $750 into my initial payment.
Had my dad handed over the additional money, or co-signed for my car, I wouldn’t have had to figure things out on my own. It also wouldn’t have given me the same sense of accomplishment. It wouldn’t have taught me the lesson of doing things for myself. I wasn’t looking to buy a car, but buying a car instead of leasing it, got me the transportation I needed.
I’ve learned not to rely on others to help me. Not that they won’t help, but I don’t expect it. If you want something, put the effort in to accomplish it yourself. It’ll feel that much more satisfying when you get it on your own.
Is there anything you’re working on, or a situation that you’ve run into, that seems impossible to overcome? How will you respond when you have to figure things out for yourself? How creative can you get? The impossible might just be possible. It’s up to you.
Filed Under: Inspiration, Life Lessons Tagged With: ,

How to Keep Your Self-Talk Positive

July 1, 2014 by 4 Comments
How to Keep Your Self-Talk PositiveScience has shown that we have anywhere from 30,000 to 70,000 thoughts a day, which means we are bombarded with self-talk every minute we’re awake. How do we allow ourselves to remain positive when there’s so much coming at us?
It isn’t easy, but in order for us to give our best we need to remain positive.
Here are four tips I use to keep my self-talk positive:
1) Look at your strengths. You need to know what your strengths are. If you don’t know what they are, write them down. Be honest. What have you accomplished successfully in the past? What made you successful? You still posses the talent to be able to do it again. When you know your strengths it also builds confidence, and confidence is a powerful attribute to have.
2) Look at your “secret sauce.” What makes you unique? What makes you stand out? Do you have a skill or talent that not many people have? Look at your intangibles. More often than not, those are the things that will set you apart from the rest of the crowd. When you know what your “secret sauce” is, flaunt it every opportunity you have.
3) Look at the long-term goals. Thomas Edison found 1,000 ways not to make the incandescent light bulb. How many times do we give up when things don’t go our way immediately? Last year, Nicki Minaj gave a contestant great advice after they got rejected during an audition on American Idol. Minaj told the discouraged contestant, “Do you know how many times we’ve been told no? (referring to the judges}. We heard 1,000 no’s before we got a yes. You leave here and hold your head up. If you want it bad enough you keep working until you get to yes.”
4) Focus on pleasing yourself. This isn’t being selfish. It’s beneficial for everyone who comes in contact with you. Look at what makes you happy. If I’m trying to please someone else, or live up to their expectation of who I am, I can’t be the best version of myself I can be. It doesn’t matter if no one else gets you, if you get you, others eventually will. Then they’ll wonder how you do it.
Make sure the conversation with yourself is positive and reinforcing. We can’t completely avoid negative self-talk. It’s bound to creep in, but we can keep it to a minimum if we try. What you say to yourself (and think about yourself) determines how you will succeed. What is your self-talk?

 

Filed Under: Inspiration, Life Lessons Tagged With: , ,

Go Where Your Community Is To Find Your Audience

June 24, 2014 by Leave a Comment

 

Go Where Your Community Is To Find Your Audience

Door County Sunset

I’ve been in Door County the last few days enjoying a quiet getaway with my wife. Since I was four years old, Door County has been a family vacation destination and one of my favorite things to do is visit the different artists and their galleries. 

Over the years, artists have flocked here because of the beautiful scenery. (The sunsets are amazing!) Another reason they’re here is because other artists are here, and so is an audience of art lovers. Door County is an artists’ community. Everyone has a chance for their work to be seen here. That doesn’t mean that every artist who opens up a gallery will be successful, but it does provide more visibility that other cities don’t.

If you want to be discovered, sell your wares, skills, or talents, you need to know where your audience is. Make it easy for them to find you. Don’t give people a treasure map with a bunch of clues. Give them the map where “X” marks the spot. In case you didn’t know, you’re the “X”.
Where are other people doing what you want to do? Find a way to get into that community. Not only will that community help you, but you’ll also be helping them. It takes everyone with a similar mindset to keep a strong community going, whether that’s a physical location or an online community.
It’s easier than ever to find your community. If you aren’t sure where to start go to Meetup.com and find a group that you’re interested in and join them the next time they meet. If there isn’t one in your area, start one.
As much as we say we’re independent, we value belonging to a group that feels what we feel and thinks the way we do. That doesn’t mean they can do exactly what we can do, but it means they “get” what we do.
Because you are unique, it makes it easier for you to stand out in your community than it is to stand out on your own.
The artists in Door County found their community and their audience. You can do the same. Find your community and our audience won’t be far behind.
Let me know how it goes.
Filed Under: Inspiration, Life Lessons, Marketing Tagged With: ,

Showing Your True Self to Stand Out

June 17, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Showing Your True Self to Stand OutI’ve been working on my resume since losing my job. One issue I had with it, is that it didn’t seem to represent who I was. I’ve been thinking about injecting more personality into it, and in fact, started doing that with my cover letter. I am more than a list of job responsibilities.  

This past week I went to a session by Joe Konop of One Great Resume. He verified what I had been thinking and gave me other useful tips. If you’re looking for someone who knows how to present yourself in the best light, contact Joe.

Here are a three key ingredients to show your true self to help make you stand out: 
1) You need to market yourself. Joe’s had a 20 year career in marketing, so when he mentioned this it made a lot of sense to me, being a marketer myself. You need to show why you are the best product on the market. You need to show what you’ve done before, but more importantly, what you can do for a new employer. They need to feel like they’re making a good decision to bring you on board. You need to quickly and accurately tell people who you are and what you do. Think of it as a tagline. What would your tagline be?
2) Showcase your strengths. Tell the story and give context around what you are really good at. Don’t downplay or diminish your talents. Joe explained that if you just say, “I wrote the newsletter” that doesn’t say as much as “I wrote a weekly newsletter that was 14-15 pages of original content that talked about new initiatives, company news, and new products, that was distributed to 20,000 people.” See how different those two descriptions are? Think of yourself in larger terms.
3) Talk about your unique talents. Joe talked about a client who said they were fluent in Chinese but they didn’t list it anywhere on their resume. That’s a unique selling proposition. Use it, flaunt it, us it to tell the world you’re unique!
What seems odd or different to you could be exactly what somebody else thinks is special. It reminded me of a time after college when I submitted a job application and filled out the Hobbies section by writing that I liked “collecting Beatles records, and watching the Simpsons.” When I went in for an interview the manager said, “Right off the bat, I have to say you scored points because I love watching the Simpsons too.” You never know what will make you stand out from the crowd.
These three ingredients have made me see myself differently. It’s made me update my resume so I’m able to market myself more effectively. Do these tips make you think differently about yourself? How do you present your true self?
Filed Under: Inspiration, Marketing Tagged With: , ,

3 Takeaways from Inbound Marketing Day

June 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment

3 Takeaways from Inbound Marketing DayLast Wednesday I attended Inbound Marketing Day at Potawatomi Bingo Casino in Milwaukee. What a great mix of local and national inbound marketing experts. I heard great presentations about content, landing page optimization, buyer personas, video strategy, and a lot more. 

Many of these ideas not only work in marketing but in daily interactions as well, whether business or personal.
Here are three key takeaways:
Dan Zarrella from HubSpot: How does your content help your fans build their reputation?
My two cents: The job of your content, or your company, is to help your customers look good to their customers. Content shouldn’t be designed to help you look good, although by helping them solve their problems you will.
What are your customers’ pain-points? What content can you provide that helps alleviate those pain-points?  If you can make your customers look like heroes, you’ll end up a winner.
Jeff Coon from Stream Creative: What makes you look like a rock star? Have signals in place to alert others. What are the symbols of trust in your industry? Add them to your content, your name, your brand, etc. If there are certifications, partnerships, or logos that show you know what you’re doing, you need to highlight them.
My two cents: What makes you stand out? There are certain things that give you instant credibility. For me, it’s having MBA behind my name. For your business, it could be “Best Places to Work” or a Better Business Bureau sticker on your front door. It could be words like Author, or Speaker. These words conjure up an image of you in the eyes of people that don’t know you. Use them to your advantage.
Ezra Fishman from Wistia: Think in terms of the Trust Bank. You are either building trust or spending trust. Using video is a great way to build trust. If you teach someone something in a video, it allows you to bring the human element in.
My two cents: We should always be giving to people without the thought of getting something in return. This builds trust. Then, when we truly need help from our customers, community, or our friends, we have enough trust in the bank to be fairly certain that they will help us when we ask.
Be yourself. Allow your personality to shine through. People like doing business with people, not brands. If they trust you, they’ll trust your brand.
Do you see yourself using any of the three ideas from Inbound Marketing Day? Let me know which ones you use. I’d love to know what success you have with them.
Filed Under: Customer Service, Life Lessons, Marketing Tagged With: , ,

How to Build Momentum

June 3, 2014 by Leave a Comment
How to Build MomentumI’ve been networking with at least one person for eight out of the last 11 days since my job was eliminated. It’s been good to connect with people who have offered their advice, support, and friendship. I’ve come back after each meeting with a burst of energy which carries me into the next day.
I feel I’m building on the previous days events. What I really need to do now is implement the things I’ve been talking about for the past 11 days. I sometimes think, “where do I start?” The answer is – anywhere. It doesn’t matter where you begin as long as you start something.
Start with something small. There’s a trick I use sometimes to write. I’ll say I’ll only spend the next 15 minutes writing. Then, once I’m writing, I’ll be so into it that I’ll cruise right passed the 15 minute mark easily. Surely, we can all find 15 minutes to spare. After all, 15 minutes is only 15 minutes.
Momentum is created little by little. The great thing about momentum is you don’t want to stop once you start. Jerry Seinfeld has a great method to keep the momentum going called Don’t Break the Chain. You mark an “X” each day on a calendar you finish your task. After a few days you’ll have a chain. The goal is to not break the chain. That’s how you get better, and getting better leads to success.
If we build momentum there’s no telling where that can take us. But one thing is for certain, we will be better tomorrow because of the actions we take today.
What tricks do you use to build momentum?
Filed Under: Life Lessons, Motivation Tagged With: ,

Five Lessons I Learned When My Job Was Eliminated

May 27, 2014 by 2 Comments

Lessons I Learned from Being BlindsidedLast Thursday was like any other; I got up, went to work, and started my day. Mid-morning, my boss asked to see me. I walked into his office and when I turned the corner I noticed our HR Manager was there and my eyes got wide. I took a seat and was told that because of the way the business was going and job consolidation, he had eliminated my job. HR walked me through some paperwork, I packed my belongings, and was escorted out the door. I got in my car and drove home. I was in shock. 

Friday when I woke up the shock was gone and I could look at things objectively. I started to game plan my immediate future.
Here are five lessons I learned when when my job was eliminated:
1) Look at the Positive – Find what you’re grateful for and focus on that. What can you take from the experience? How does that affect you?
I was given a great opportunity while working there. I learned so many things and met so many valuable people. Being in such environment inspired me to chase a life long dream and get an MBA in Marketing along the way. It made me grow personally and professionally.  I am a different person today (I would even say a better person) than I was the day I started. I can move into my next adventure with the utmost confidence.
2) Close the Door – Don’t dwell on what happened. Stop the internal conversations with yourself. They won’t change anything. Realize, it is what it is.
The day after, my mind continued to follow tasks that were in progress and I was responsible for at work.  I realized I needed to let it go.  I was not working for them anymore, although I was excited about so many of the projects I was involved in.  I needed to close the door and move on. I had to break off my relationship with that job and put it in the past. I couldn’t start a new chapter of my life if I didn’t let go of the previous one.
3) Friends and Family Make Things Better – Don’t try to handle things by yourself. Reach out and be open to help. It’s there if you ask for it. You may be surprised how many people are there for you. Who can you rely on when things get rough?
My wife is incredibly supportive. She was able to help me see that this was the start of something even better.
My mom and sister made me feel better, reminding me of all my strengths and skills. They assured me that new opportunities were awaiting. Dad said my MBA was reason enough to grow and move on.
Calls and texts from my friends made me feel supported and cared for. I could feel the love and it helped me get through quite a difficult day. 
4) You Create Your Future – You are the architect of your life. Don’t let anyone or anything stand in your way.
Friday when I woke up I felt better. In fact, I felt free. I thought about what I would put on business cards for networking – anything I wanted! I could create the kind of future I wanted. If there was ever a time to do it, now was it!
5) Structure Your Day – Devote a certain amount of time each day to things that help you grow. For me it will be time dedicated to my job search, improving my resume, and bolstering skills that employers are looking for. I need to take advantage of my time.
Yes, I was blindsided by having my job eliminated, but that doesn’t mean I can’t get back up and move on. Getting knocked down is a part of life. It’s how you get back up that determines whether you’re in charge. It also determines what happens next. Here’s to bigger and better things ahead!
Have you ever been blindsided? How did you deal with it? What did you learn?
Filed Under: Inspiration, Life Lessons Tagged With: , ,

Starting from Scratch

May 20, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Starting from ScratchThis past weekend I went golfing with my good friend Andy. Before hitting the course we hit the driving range. He wanted to work on my iron shots and chipping, which have been all over the place lately. So, we did what needed to be done, we started from scratch. He showed me how to swing my irons as if I’ve never golfed before. He had me start with the basics. 

The first thing he did was pull out his phone and show me photos of Ernie Els, who has a similar build to me, and showed me how he stands. That’s how I should look, he said.

He had me address the ball. When I lined up to take my shot he put a club behind my heels and asked me to step away and take a look where I was aiming. When I stepped back and looked down, my alignment was way off. There’s no way I could have hit the ball where I thought I was going to hit it.
We often think about our goals and the road ahead and we think we have a good idea of what we’re doing, but we don’t take a step back to see where we’re really aiming. That’s why when someone says something we deem as negative we get upset. They may be stating the obvious. But, it isn’t to us because they have a different perspective.
We worked on hitting the ball next. He had me take a baseball swing with the club. That’s natural for me. The club just comes around. Same thing with it when it comes in contact with the ball. It’s natural. It’s like a pendulum. If it goes up, it’ll come down and you don’t need to reinvent anything.
He asked me to toss a ball out into the range. He asked how I could do that so well. Why didn’t I drop the ball or mess up? It’s because I didn’t think about it, I just did it. When we over-think things we’re not loose, we’re tight and constricted. He gave me advice that Ernie Els uses before hit strikes the ball; he does a little wiggle of his shoulders to make sure he’s loose.
We went to practice my chipping. Again, we just let the pendulum do it’s thing. I don’t have to use my wrists to strike the ball. I form a triangle with my arms and swing the club back and forth. Further back to hit the ball farther, not so much to hit it shorter. The physics of the club will make the ball go in the air. I don’t have to worry about anything but the triangle and how far back I take the club.
When we went to the golf course, he gave me reminders before every iron shot or chipping scenario. The lesson earlier helped me put together my first complete round of golf in a while. It was the most satisfying round of golf I’ve had in a year.
If you’re stuck and you don’t know what to do and nothing seems familiar, starting from scratch might be the answer. The more you get involved in a project that doesn’t seem to be moving, start over. Re-learning what you already know might make you see things in a different way, and lead to more personal fulfillment and success.
Have you ever tried to start from scratch? What was the result?
Filed Under: Inspiration, Life Lessons Tagged With: ,

The Freedom to Experiment

May 13, 2014 by 2 Comments

The Freedom to ExperimentWe’re told early on in life that we need to stay in the lines, don’t be sloppy, be neat. We can’t do things differently than others; that we need to blend in. But, if we aren’t given the chance to experiment, we’ll never know what we are capable of achieving. How do you learn to take leaps into the unknown when so much emphasis today is placed on being perfect? 

While at college, my poetry professor, Doug Flaherty, talked about how he gathered all his poems once and burned them all. This way he wasn’t attached to the work he had done. He could re-invent himself. Plus, he knew he’d write more poems so he’d soon have another portfolio.

I did this, or something like that at the time; I threw out some of my poems. I cheated a bit and kept the ones I thought were good. But, it was a symbolic gesture and I felt like I was getting rid of a part of me I didn’t need. I felt like something new was going to happen after I did that. And something did happen, I started to write good poetry. I was getting better through practice anyway, but I didn’t have to judge myself against the inferior work of my amateur self.
Another way to break free is to pretend to be someone else for a bit. When the Beatles stopped touring in 1966 they didn’t want to be Beatles anymore, so for their next album they pretended to be a different band. They could record anything they wanted without having to sound like The Beatles. It gave them the freedom to experiment and in the process they ended up creating Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Who could you pretend to be? What pseudonym would you give yourself? What would you work on?
People are going to judge you whether you try something new or not, so don’t worry about what others think. Give yourself the creative license to live life how you want.
Who knows what you’ll create when you give yourself the freedom to experiment. Life isn’t about perfection. We can try new ways of doing things, new hobbies, or new careers. We won’t be great at anything immediately but we’ll learn along the way. The journey to self-discovery is the greatest freedom we can give ourselves.

 

Filed Under: Inspiration, Life Lessons Tagged With: ,

Staying Focused

May 6, 2014 by 2 Comments

Staying FocusedThis past weekend I went on a golf outing with some friends. Golf is a challenging game. There are the physical components to it; you have to be lined up to the ball properly, take the proper swing, etc, but the main part of the game is mental.

Golf forces you to concentrate on the moment; the shot at hand. When I think about hitting a good shot and focus on that I can often do it. But, when I think about the previous shot or the next shot, it affects my score – negatively.

The thing about golf is, you can’t look ahead and you can’t dwell on what happened earlier. The moment before you is the only moment that exists and it’s the only moment that dictates what happens next.
Focus is also critical to have a rewarding life. If we get too hung up on the past or we think about the future too much we drift through the present, then we wonder how we ended up where we did.
In golf, the scorecard is there to remind you how well you played. For me it shows how well you focused. It shows you what you did right and what needs improvement.
I think it would be helpful to have a daily living scorecard. Each day we could see where are successes and missteps are. It could remind us to stay focused, to not get distracted. It could help us to live the moment in front of us as the most important moment there is; because in the end, it’s all we have.
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