exQUIZZme !

As a business, non-profit or association manager trying to get a bang for your PR buck, you could pretty much concentrate on simple print and broadcast mentions or, for that matter, the whole basket of tactical public relations weaponry including old favorites like high-visibility speech appearances and newsworthy special events.

But if you really want premium public relations results, you must use a broader, more comprehensive and workable public relations blueprint to alter your key, external audience perceptions – perceptions that lead to the changed behaviors you’ll need to reach your managerial goals.

In short, you had best take steps to persuade those key external stakeholders with the greatest impacts on your organization to your way of thinking, then move them to take actions that help your department, division or subsidiary succeed. Read the rest of A Great Way to Do PR »

Ever lost for ideas while working in a group? One of the most often-used technique for generating many ideas is Brainstorming. Alex Osborn, a partner in an advertising agency, developed brainstorming techniques years ago in 1941 to help his employees to come up with many, many ideas for their advertising business.

To enable Brainstorming to be effective, there are certain rules to follow. One of the most important is that no one should make any judgment about anyone’s ideas. There should be a FREE-FLOW of ideas (that’s why Brainstorm is put under the WATER Element category!) and everyone’s ideas are to be respected and taken into account.

Let’s go through the steps of setting up an effective Brainstorming session: Read the rest of Brainstorm »

It’s easy to waste time on things that seem urgent but are not important, and even easier to get slowed down by clutter and distractions. Here are 5 solutions.

1. Carefully examine what factors you are using to set project deadlines. Then set realistic deadlines. Start with the most important things first and rearrange projects that are within your control. Then set acceptable time limits for completion.

2. Be on the lookout for time sinkholes. Those little pesky tasks that steal valuable time from your day but that don’t really help you get much accomplished. Look at the activities you routinely perform each day and see which ones you can skip or limit to once or twice a week.

3. Get regular exercise at work- every day. Daily exercise even in short intervals can keep you alert, productive, and healthy. This regular exercise greatly contributes to mental and emotional fitness. Do stretches, biceps curls, and squats for 2 minutes 3 or 4 times each day.

4. Take control of your time, don’t let other people waste it. If someone calls or stops by to chat and you’re pressed for time, be polite, keep it short and schedule some time to get together outside of the office. Keep track of unnecessary or unproductive meetings. These can really waste time and sap your energy. Who ever is running the meeting should have an agenda they can stick to, helping the meeting be productive and concise.

5. Do you have the same deadline crunch every Friday or at the end of each month? Reexamine your work habits and identify all of the areas that are causing you to waste time or procrastinate. Start with a strategy of doing the most important things first and stick to the list. Keep yourself focused on these time management strategies and they will become a good habit, improving the quality of your work and giving you more time.

If you need to put on boots and grab a lap-top computer to relieve yourself at night, you might be a redneck workaholic.

It never crossed my mind that there could be such a thing as a redneck workaholic, until I read a column on “Are you a workaholic?”

“Did you read this?” I asked my wife. “Are you a workaholic? It looks just like those you-might-be-a-redneck jokes.”

My wife studied the page. “Maybe it was written by a redneck alcoholic.” She suggested.

“Workaholic, not alcoholic.”

“How do you know the writer is not an alcoholic?” she demanded.

“I don’t. But the column is about workaholics, and it reads just like a series of redneck jokes.”

“Well, maybe it was written by a redneck workaholic, then.” She suggested.

“No way. There is no such a thing.”

“Why not?” she wanted to know.

“Because workaholics sit late in front of computer screens and steroid-laced in-boxes, wearing $500 suits and $550 haircuts. Folks out here wear $19.95 jeans and occasionally wash their hair.”

“But many of them do spend late hours in front of their computers,” my wife pointed out.

“Like who?”

“Like you.”

“Oh, yeah…”

“Being a workaholic is not just about computers and offices and taking out a mortgage for a haircut,” she added. “Look at Buster.”

“Buster?”

“Sure, every time he’s set to retire, he goes and buys another machine,” she pointed out. “One year it was a backhoe. Another it was a dump truck.”

“Wow, he must be desperate this year.”

“Why?” my wife asked.

“Because this year he bought a whole combine…”

“Ooh, that does sound desperate.”

“…plus a farm to use it on!”

“See?” my wife smiled. “You don’t have to live in the city to be a workaholic. There can be such a thing as a workaholic redneck.

“That’s a pity. Being a workaholic means missing out on a lot of life.”

“That’s true, but it’s not just city folk who miss their kids growing up or are too busy working to help their wives clean the dishes.”

I took the hint and picked up a drying cloth. “You mean that anyone can get caught up in work, and lose sight of what’s really important? Even farmers, moat diggers and the guy who sorts through the trash at the dump looking for the tastiest morsels to throw to the gulls?”

“I suppose so,” she answered with that what-have-you-been-smoking look on her face. “Why not try to see if workaholic redneck jokes work?”

“Well, if you look forward to Christmas this year, because you might take the afternoon off from tilling the land, you might be a workaholic redneck.”

“That’s the spirit,” she encouraged.

I tried another, “If you’re drinking your morning coffee from a dirty mason jar from yesterday, you might be a workaholic redneck.”

“Very good,” she praised.

“If you stick family pictures to your backhoe window to remind you what they look like, you might be a workaholic redneck.”

“Why not try one more, just to make sure?” my wife suggested.

“OK, if you bring your work with you to your son’s baseball game, you might be a workaholic redneck.”

“Uh, OK…” she began.

“And if nobody complains about the smell, you might live in a town full of workaholic rednecks!”

“You got it!” she shouted.

I realized that I had spent way too much time talking about workaholic redneck jokes. There was only one thing I could do to compensate.

I tossed aside the drying cloth, grabbed my lap-top computer and rushed to the outhouse to catch up on a few hundred urgent emails.

Internet marketing is a wonderful business, but if you are like me, there are days when you get really down and just can’t seem to get going. This is compounded for some people with the Winter Blues. Sometimes sitting in your lonely corner of the bedroom or living room, it seems like you are the only person on earth. You sometimes feel like you are in a cage and there is no way out! This can also be compounded by a slump in your business sales or successes.

When you feel like this, it is hard to get any work done and can be very counterproductive for you. You must step back, take a break and clear your head.

I have found a few things that can help alleviate these problems and would like to share them with you.

1. Get up and get away from the computer for awhile. Even if it is only for 10-15 minutes. Walk around the house, stretch your muscles, do a few neck and back stretches. These can do wonders!

2. Take a walk. Get dressed, go outside, breathe in the fresh, cool air of winter and take a 30 minute walk. This is one of the most invigorating things you can do to clear your head and get the cobwebs out. Walking is the one activity I would recommend most.

3. Call a friend or family member and talk for awhile. This can also be a great way to lift your spirits and confirm your suspicions that there are other people on this planet! Chat for awhile and laugh a little. Laughter is a great medicine!

4. Have some fun! Put on some of your favorite music and dance around the house for awhile. Let loose and have some fun. Act goofy, crazy or waltz yourself to China. This helps get out some of the frustrations and pent up emotions that can cause the blues.

5. Just relax! Turn everything off, make yourself a cup of coffee, cocoa, or just plain water. Just sit in complete silence and watch the birds outside or put a cool cloth over your eyes. Let your mind go blank for awhile. Forget everything and just relax!

6. Exercise your mind! Show your mind that there is more than just the computer. Do a crossword puzzle, play a few games of solitaire, or read a book. These are all great ways of getting your mind of business and clearing out all the old to make way for the new.

7. Do some housework! This might not be the most fun thing to do, but it helps take your mind of business for awhile and believe me, after about an hour of housework, you will be more than ready to get back to business!

8. Take a TV break! Watch a program that allows you to escape to another world. After you are finished you just might be glad to get back to your world!

If you would like to find out more about beating the blues, you can visit these sites:
http://www.uhs.berkeley.edu/FacStaff/Ergonomics/stretch.html
http://www.divorcekit.com/blues.htm
http://www.smile-publishing.com/tips.html
http://www.lifetimetv.com/shows/strongmedicine/chatroom/1210/1210.html

I hope some of these pointers will help you relax and get back to business. I know that they have been a great help to me more than once. Sometimes when you are feeling unproductive or just plain tired, the idea is not to work harder, but to stop working and give your mind and/or body a well-deserved break!

Starting Your New Home Business The Right Way

Once you have made the initial preparations for starting up your home business, it is time to think about getting a little discipline. I don’t mean that in any salacious sort of way: we are not talking about chastisement involving pain and leather goods. If you are entertaining this kind of idea, you are not working hard enough. You will have plenty of time for that type of mind wandering when you have got your home business up and running on autopilot. So store away all thoughts of bamboo canes and studded collars and concentrate here for a short while.

We are not even dealing with the kind of punishment you might get at school or a correctional institution. We are talking about the toughest kind of discipline: regular, old-fashioned, grit-your-teeth self-discipline. I can hear the groans but I don’t know why Discipline has become so unpopular. You should treat it as a good friend, shake hands with Discipline and give him a clap on the back — invite him in to look around your home office and get his opinion of your plans.

Discipline will strengthen you and make it easier for you to get organised and stay organised; consider taking him in as a business partner. It is Discipline which will help you to keep going in the face of difficulties. It is Discipline which will help you fit in the million and one things which will be clamouring for your attention when you first start out as your own boss.

OK, you are the boss and you can take a day off when you like without asking permission from anybody else. Great! Fantastic! Wonderful! Yes, it is just as you wanted it to be — but who is going to cover for you during your absence? Who is going to sort out your schedule, arrange for your mail to be acknowledged, make sure your diary is up to date? Aha, now you see it. The answer is “you” because there is nobody else. You, that is, and your good buddy, Discipline, who will steadfastly see you through this potentially difficult situation.

If you have a vacation planned, you will have a date to work to and, even if you are lackadaisical in your running of your business and allow tasks to pile up, you will know how long you have in which to get things sufficiently ship-shape for you to be able to take off without leaving your business in a mess.

What if you decide to take a day off at short notice (like, just when you wake up one morning)? That is one of the great things about being the boss but wouldn’t it be easier if your work was right up to date, everything neat and organised? Wouldn’t you be more relaxed if the machine was running smoothly?

The work will only be up to date if you keep on top of it. Things will only be neat and organised if you make them that way. The machine will only keep running smoothly if you apply oil and spin the cogs regularly. Discipline can be a great help, give him a chance and he will be there helping you with the filing and the oil can; he is your true friend so he won’t mind getting his hands dirty on your behalf.

You know what you have to do, so be determined to get it done and done to the best of your ability. That way you can feel good about yourself and not have to deal with guilt and regret. “Yessss, I did it!” is a much better feeling than “Should’a, could’a, didn’t”. Give good old Discipline a big high five.

The work has to be done one way or another, so you might as well do it in a regular, orderly manner. You will find out that it is actually easier to do things this way. There will be nobody to stand over you and demand that you get things done and follow rules. It is up to you to make plans and stick to them; make your own rules and use them to help yourself. Keep the daily tasks up to date and there will be plenty of time for you and Discipline to share a beer and watch some TV.

We all have tasks to perform which we like less than other jobs and it is tempting to put off doing these things. The result of that, however, is that these tasks pile up and one day we find we have to face a mountain of nasty jobs and get through them before we can go on to something we like better. It is on days like this that we regret turning our back on Discipline and, if the nasty jobs are bad enough, we promise ourselves that we will be reformed characters in future and never again will we let things slide.

When we finally finish the nasty jobs and turn our minds to more pleasant things, it does not take long for our resolution to waver; we forget our faithful friend, Discipline, and start to slouch again, tucking those nasty jobs away for later while we hang out with those no-good characters Slovenliness and Procrastination. Before we know it, we are back facing the same mountain.

Never forget that Discipline is your true friend. He will forgive you if you forget to invite him around for a while and he will help you sort out any mess you made in his absence. No fair weather friend he: no matter how often you shun him or just plain forget him, Discipline will always be there for you, ready to help you make a fresh start.

With the beginning of a new year, are you happy with your life the way it is now? You just set new goals and resolutions for 2009 but are you satisfied with where you are now?

This is a serious question that you need to ask yourself. You can’t get to where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been. You need to appreciate what you have now in order to be able to receive more.

You want more money to flow into your life but are you grateful for what you have now? True it may not be as much as you would like to have but doesn’t it pay the bills now? And if not all of the bills, doesn’t that money help in some way? Read the rest of Just Try to Ask Yourself! »

We have just begun another new year in our lives. It is time to regroup and rethink our goals and desires. Our goals may be partially dictated by outer circumstances. These are cases where we need more money for food, repairs to the home or automobile, medication, winter clothing, heat and so forth. These goals are established by necessity.

Other goals are those established by desire or want. We may desire a more attractive appearance, an automobile which will be the envy of all who see it, a mansion instead of a home, a summer home in the mountains and a winter home in the tropics. These desires can be turned into goals.

When the desire is strong enough, the goals can be readily achieved. There are those who will not believe this statement. For those, I say to look back over your life and think about those times when you wanted something so badly you just knew you would die if you did not get it. Read the rest of Goals Are Unique »

The other day I was having a interesting conversation with an acquaintance, but it soon turned out to be surprising and unpleasant. The other person blurted out an unwelcome comment, in a tactful manner by pin pointing a personal issue within the conversation.

What did I do? I immediately gave her an answer back within the conversation as well. It was subtle unlike my husband who would stop her dead in her tracks without sugar coating. What I think is wrong with his tactic? Not much, only that I would prefer it for someone who can’t keep their mouth shut all the time. Sometimes people speak without thinking, so I like to give them the benefit of the doubt.

What do we have in common? Even though we have different tactics, we both make an effort to defend ourselves. I’m sure some are wondering what ever happened with turning the other cheek theory? Is just not that healthy, when ever someone tries to make you feel inferior by making sarcastic remarks, name calling, joking at your expense, disregarding your opinion etc. it is verbal abuse, and believe it or not it can affect your self esteem a great deal. Next time someone intents to maliciously tear down your confidence, in a firm voice say/do one of the followings

stop taking out your problems on me,

ask the person to repeat the comment again this usually *gets bullies to back down,

ask if he is having some problems,

and my all time favorite ridiculing their opinion and laughing at them

say what I do is none of your own business

do leave if you perceive any physical danger

don’t hang or stay around people with abusive personalities

There are many other tactics that can help you stop this behavior. You can choose the method that best fits your personality or situation, but what ever you do make sure you let him/her know that their behavior is unacceptable.

Think about how good it feels when you stand up for yourself versus staying quiet in resentment. I understand that some of us are more incline to avoiding conflict and keeping harmony and that is fine. In fact I used to be like that, its just that some times you have to take a stand and set your boundaries or else people will walk all over you. Believe me I learned this the hard way; you can be calm and peaceful as long as you speak your mind and set your foot down. Besides who says you have to accept anyone’s definition of who you are.

The responsibility of working hard, planning and living a successful and fulfilled life falls largely on you. This simply means that from this point forward, the burden of shaping your adult life, is on your shoulders. The sooner you realize this, the better!

The most important question to ask yourself is, “what can I do today, this week, this month, this year, to get my life going in the direction I desire?”

If you truly believe that there is more to you than meets the eye, stop making excuses, and start living your best life today!

If you are either on the verge of giving up, or are sick and tired of being mediocre, you can make a decision to start winning, by casting a YES vote in your favor today! Read the rest of Your Life Is A Do It Yourself Project! »