Successful Blog

Podcasts to check out right now

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It’s the end of Summer, a perfect time to add some fresh subscriptions to your podcast queue.

After all, once the kids go back to school, you’ll be able to wear headphones without interruption for popsicle breaks or bicycle tire repair. (Bittersweet, I know…)

Today I’d like to share my latest podcast recommendations for busy entrepreneurs/business builders.

Scott Monty’s The Full Monty

The Full Monty Podcast
I’ve been a subscriber to Scott Monty’s excellent marketing/digital newsletter for a long time. This podcast is the audio version of the newsletter, and I love that it’s only 15 minutes. You can squeeze this in, even on a short commute, and be instantly up to date on what’s going on in the industry.

Patrick O’Keefe’s Community Signal

Community Signal Podcast
Patrick is one of the leading experts in online community, and Community Signal is a deep dive into how to do it right. If you want to really know how to engage with your customers, fans, and partners in an authentic way, give this great podcast a listen. (And I’m not saying that just because I’ve been a guest on the show.)

Julia Roy’s How We Work Now

How we work now podcast
Julia is a bundle of energy who has been known as “the digital girl,” with a highly successful entrepreneurial, blogging and speaking career. Her new podcast is an interview series that will focus on one area of creative professionals each season. This season focuses on writers, and started off with an excellent discussion with Dorie Clark. Seriously, you need to add this one to your list.

Stewart Rodgers & Travis “Teedubya” Wright’s VB Engage

VB Engage podcast
Even though this podcast comes from Venture Beat, it’s not about venture capital. Don’t be intimidated away. If you listen, you will get smart discussion about marketing technology, user-centered design, mobile marketing, and more. Warning: there will be snark.

Andy Crestodina & Barry Feldman’s Content Matters

Content Matters podcast
If you want to know how to do content marketing right, these are your guys. Andy and Barry explore the ins and outs of headlines, analytics, SEO, and everything else you need to know if you want to use content marketing in your arsenal. Need I mention the excellent banter? The fact that you can access both of these guys’ brains for free is simply amazing.

What are your favorite new podcasts?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

What Is the True Story about You?

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My father has his story. I have mine. You have yours.
My father has his story. I have mine. You have yours.

My father was a storyteller. It seemed that if he wasn’t telling a story, he hardly had anything to say. It was on his lap, by his side, sitting across from him at the table, listening to his stories that I learned how the world worked and how to understand people.

Stories not only help us make sense of the world; they help us define who we are. When we share our past with others, we link events together in a narrative — a story. My father had his story. I have mine. You have yours.

We all can experience an event, but our retellings of the same facts will differ. The story will change based on what we brought to the event and how we interpret what occurred. Though I might retell my father’s stories, my voice changes those stories making them my stories now, not his. The same is so about the stories we tell about ourselves. Everyone experiences us differently. So how do we know the true story about ourselves?

In telling our life story, we have to draw our own conclusions about what is true.

Refuse to decide and we give our future to people who don’t have to live our lives. We let others choose who we are and what we can be. The fact is that we can, should, and have to decide for ourselves.

Be irresistible,

Liz

Put Your Mind to It

It’s never too late to edit your life story. You’re the only one who can write the true story about yourself. Take the time to decide what are the best true stories about you. Send the out-of-date stories about you back to the past.

More from Liz . . .

about Your True Story:

What Is the Best True Story You Could Tell about You?

Are You Using History Strategically . . . to Claim Your Business and Life Future?

Trusting myself enough to decide to take the first step

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Make the decision to take the first step toward claiming your voice.
For more on decisions, trust and claiming your voice — signup for our weekly newsletter.

It started with a decision. And it was a simple decision at that. To park my car and get out. To get out of my car and go in. To go in and meet people. To meet people and share my voice. Yes — to share my voice – with people I didn’t know, at a conference I had never been to before.

Looking back on that day, I realize I learned something very important. Getting to the next place in life always begins with a decision. In my case, I had been quietly hesitant about sharing my voice for a long time. I lacked trust in myself and in what it was that my voice could lend to the world. And because of that I had chosen to circle the block — literally and figuratively — in a great many areas of my life.

Parking the car and getting out was all I needed to do. Get out of the car without stopping or stepping back. Sure — it was easy enough — but in reality it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

From that moment on, I was on a journey. I came to understand that in order to truly share my voice I have to claim it first. And claiming my voice always begins with trusting myself. Trusting myself enough to decide to take the first step.

Put Your Mind to It

Is there anything holding you back from claiming your voice? Are you circling the block in certain parts of your life? The next time you realize you are having difficulty making a decision — challenge yourself to actually decide — especially if it relates to claiming and sharing your voice. Decide to trust yourself.

Related Posts on Decision Making & Trust

Trust is being who you are 

My experience with cliffs and decisions

Owning Your Voice

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Owing your voice isn’t about the ability to make sound.Owning your voice isn’t about the ability to make sound.

It happened so quickly. I could talk one day. Then I couldn’t. Radiation treatments to kill the tumor on my vocal cord had taken my voice. My ability to make sound was injured so severely that someone had to talk for me when friends (or insurance companies) called on the phone.

In private, I tried making noises or simply saying “hello.” All that came was weaker than a whisper. I felt caught in a horrible dream. If I screamed for help, no one would hear me. No one would know.

It was frightening.

Without a voice, sharing thoughts was grueling. So I stopped sharing them. Unable to share, I lost my desire to learn. My curiosity dissolved. Without a voice to share my thoughts, I lost my mind’s voice — the words in my head that helped me form them. So I stopped having thoughts. I got to know what it’s like think nothing at all.

By the time I started to get my voice back, I had lost the art of conversation. My world had become so small I had nothing to talk about. I had to find the purpose for my voice again. I started reading and listening to what others were saying. I started trying on points of view to find where my mind stood on topics people were talking about.

And as my own thoughts returned, I realized that this time I had learned the hard way what I had stumbled across my first time around. Owning your voice isn’t about owning the ability to make sound. It’s about owning your own thoughts.

Be Irresistible,

Liz

Put Your Mind to It

Ask yourself what you believe about who you are and where you’re going. Think about it daily, so that the next time someone asks you can answer with your clear, strong voice. Next time you’re asked what you think, be sure the voice you answer with is your own.

More from Liz . . .
about Owning Your Voice:

Do You Own What You Know?

How Often Do You Listen to Yourself?

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Seven Signs That You Need a Life Coach

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The idea of getting a life coach is, in some circles, may be unpopular. The whole concept of employing a professional to help you improve your life tends to get resigned to something only celebrities, the over-zealous and the deeply-troubled do. Simply admitting you’re considering seeking some ‘life-help’ is seen as admitting you can’t cope.

But the truth is, there is nothing shameful in trying to improve yourself. Whether it’s your mind-set, your self-belief or your approach to life in general – the gentle push of a life coach is something most of us could benefit from; whether or not we’d ever admit it.

Do you think you need a life coach? Read on for seven sure signs that you do!

You’re ‘Lost’

Perhaps you’ve just left school or university and don’t know where to turn next. Maybe you know you need a career change but don’t know what industry appeals. Perhaps you’re being pressured to settle down and aren’t sure if family life is for you.

A life coach can help you to establish what it is you really want from life and give you the push needed to go and get it.

You’re Living for Other People

Many of us stroll through life making the mistake of trying to make everyone around us happy, while forgetting to do what makes us happy. In fact, one of the number one life-regrets cited by those on their death beds is ‘not being true to themselves’.

It’s understandable why so many of us spend our lives pleasing others; we’re brought up in a world of social rules and restrictions that emphasise ‘thinking about others’, and of course, we should always try not to ‘do unto others as you would have them do to you’.

Yet at the same time, we have to, within reason, do what makes us truly happy. A life coach can help you figure out what this is and instill in you the confidence to stop shying behind social restraints and start living for yourself.

You’re Afraid

We all have our fears, whether it’s of spiders, clowns or even cotton wool (bambakophobia – in case you were wondering). However if ‘fear’ is affecting your day-to-day life or holding you back from living your dreams, it’s time you did something about it.

Scared to leave a relationship? Fearful of quitting a job? Maybe the thought of moving somewhere new fills you with anxiety? Life coaches can help you to face up to your fears and conquer them.

You Want to Change Yourself

Whether on the inside or the outside, a life coach can help give you the tools to change yourself for the better.

Regardless of if you want more confidence, to lose weight or to become a better role model for your children, a life coach can help.

You Want to Improve Your Relationships

Perhaps you struggle to see eye-to-eye with your parents or maybe you find it difficult to hold down friendships. Maybe you even find yourself having brief fling after fling and want to nurture a relationship that’s more meaningful.

A life coach can help you uncover why you’re having issues building and maintaining strong connections, while altering your mind-set and attitude so that you can finally enjoy the human bond so many take for granted.

You’re Unhappy

This is perhaps the number one sign, since it covers so many of the above points and so many more.

If you’re simply not happy, whether or not you know why, a life coach can help you to take the steps needed to turn your life around and start seeing the joy in living again.

One of the reasons a life coach can be so valuable in this instance is that we often think we understand the root of our sadness, yet we’re often wrong. A life coach can help establish the real cause of your unhappiness, which is undeniably the first step on the road to happiness.

You’re Happy!

Yes, you heard me right – even if you just love your life and wouldn’t change it for the world you can still benefit from the help and support of a life coach.

When you’re happy, you’re far more open to growth and will absorb advice much more easily. Happy people are the perfect candidates for life coaching! If you’re happy now, why not aim for ecstatic?!

Elise Carr, MA of StellaMuse Life Coaching puts it very well:

…your MIRACLE, which comes from living your highest potential, emerges through life circumstances and events. These events demand more of you than you think possible at the time. These life events do not make you what you are; they are an invitation calling you, asking your to journey and reveal what you truly are to yourself. And it is in these deeply challenging  times that you need to merge the power of the Divine with the power of your spirit and your character. This is the alchemy that awakens and unleashes your highest potential, and this is what I guide Stella Souls just like you to awaken to.

Image Credits: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

How Much Education Do Your Employees Need?

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Business Woman Executive ManagementYour employees are the engine that helps run your business.

With that being the case, do you feel your employees have the right amount of education at the time of hire and while they are doing their jobs?

As more and more companies are discovering, paying in full or in part to send employees back to school to further their educations can be a very beneficial move.

With technology ever-changing, many employers see a need to give their employees additional educational opportunities, allowing them to stay abreast of what is needed in contributing to businesses in today’s technological world.

So, how much education do your employees need?

Encouraging Workers to Grow

As an employer, you have myriad of responsibilities sitting on your plate day and night.

One of those responsibilities is making sure that you not only hired the best possible workforce, but that you make sure they remain on top of their work responsibilities each and every day.

But what if they’re falling behind as far as education? What happens when competitors have employees who are more advanced, especially in the area of technology? Do you run the risk as a business owner of letting the competition get the better of you?

One means whereby employers can stay on top of the latest in technology, accounting and other areas is by offering their employees the ability to continue their educations while working.

Although there can be issues with employees having enough time to work and go to school at the same time, letting workers study and gain more education online can be just the answer.

Through online accounting degree programs, employees can not only master skills necessary in the accounting field, but they can do so while not having to let their workplace responsibilities take a backseat.

If your business is open to such possibilities, there are several factors to keep in mind.

These include:

  • Support – First and foremost, make sure your employees know you fully support their efforts to further educate themselves while under your employ (whether you encourage the workers to gain more knowledge or they want to do it on their own). Some employees may feel like you will worry about them being able to juggle both work and school at the same time; this is where your support for their initiatives becomes so important.
  • Initiative – Face it; some employees need a little push from time to time. With that being the case, encourage those requiring such support to want to further their skills and knowledge. Some companies will put in place incentives for workers to increase their educations. Whether it is the ability to move up the corporate ladder or to get additional education which is essentially free, the possibilities can be endless. When you have a motivated team of employees, your business tends to do better than those just seemingly going through the motions day after day.
  • Finances – Finally, who will pay for each and every employee who wants more education to receive it? Some companies will foot the entire bill, while others will cover a portion of the expenses. In some cases, employers won’t pay for added education, but will instead offer other amenities (opportunities for additional salary and job responsibilities etc.). No matter which option your business chooses, be sure to figure out the financial end of things before signing off on online or in-person educational opportunities for your staff.

In looking at the big picture as an employer, always remember that the work world is literally changing each and every day.

As a result of this, it is important that your business stays abreast of what is necessary to outshine the competition. If you don’t stay on top of what is needed to successfully run your operation, you could find yourself and your employees watching the competition pass you by.

Lastly, always be supportive of those employees looking to learn more.

It is easy for many workers to fall into a rut and just show up on a daily basis for work.

The key is finding those employees who want to learn everything possible and more about their specific jobs.

When they do that, everyone benefits.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business topics on the web.