Category: career coach

Video Marketing 101 w/ Sunny Lenarduzzi

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sunny

Today’s interview in our Personal Branding Series is with Digital Marketing Guru Sunny Lenarduzzi. I stumbled upon Sunny’s work via Twitter and love her work and personality. She’s mastered the You Tube Tutorial so if you’re trying to figure out technology on your own, stop! I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting her in person yet, but I’m sure we’ll eventually cross paths once she’s dominated Canada and moves her way down south. Hope you enjoy her brief, but powerfully clear words of wisdom.

1) How did you get into video marketing as a career?

My career started in broadcasting and after years of reporting and hosting on television and radio, I fell in love with the digital space. Now, I feel like I’ve combined those two passions into my dream career. I love creating video content and working with brands and individuals to help them grow their influence and create tangible results through a visual medium.

2) What do you consider your biggest strength as a communicator?

Perhaps it’s a strength and a weakness, but I’m very straightforward. I like getting right to the point and I do my best to deliver messages as clearly and concisely as possible.

3) What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

It’s funny, I can’t think anything that I would consider a big challenge. Have there been hurdles? Yes. But I love what I do so much that I see every challenge as an opportunity for growth. I would say one of the most difficult aspects of my job is to stay ahead of the trends and keep up with the fast pace and information overload.

4) How would you describe your style/personal brand?

Simplistic. Joyful. Informative.

5) What advice would you give other entrepreneurs trying to build their audience/brand?

Know your audience and what their needs are. You have to start with researching your target audience extensively to ensure that every aspect of your marketing initiatives matches what they want and need to hear.

Scott Asai is a speaker/coach that has been developing leaders for 20+ years – athletes, companies and individuals. His focus is helping people develop leadership skills to advance in their careers. Scott tends to attract a large audience of Millennials and Introverts to his programs/events. His professional background consists of: B.A. in Psychology, M.A. in Organizational Leadership, Certified Professional Coach and Certified Strengths Coach.

A Speaker’s #1 Weapon

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public-speaking

Public speaking is the #1 fear of adults, but why? Up until a few years ago I dreaded speaking in front of an audience myself. Most people aren’t born with the gift of public presentation and as an introvert it can cause a lot of anxiety just thinking about it. Practice doesn’t make perfect, but it does make better so every opportunity to get up in front of people and speak, you should take advantage of. Confidence builds over repetition, but the one technique that elevated my speaking ability literally overnight is called The Memory Palace.

Essentially it’s a visualization routine to help you memorize your speech. Think about it. If there’s one aspect that stands out about great speaker, it’s their ability to not use notes. I always believed speakers who could orate without referring to an outline were superhuman. But with this technique not only do you give your audience the illusion that you have a fantastic memory, but your body language exudes confidence that is memorable.

Not only has it helped me become a better speaker, but it also cuts down on prep time because you’re remembering stories associated with images rather than reciting words written down on paper. When speaking only you know if something was omitted. You can always play off the fact a point was forgotten because no one else knows what you intended to say. There are many ways to plot your talk, but here’s what works for me:

1) Storyboard your ideas on paper in 4 equal quadrants

2) Organize your thoughts so the story flows

3) Add visuals (screen images and/or props) to enhance your message

4) Rehearse at least 3 times before you present

5) Smile and have fun speaking!

The formula of 70% presentation and 30% content has worked for me. Once I jot down my ideas, I shift my focus towards what clearly communicates my point to the audience. Your message is directed towards the crowd, not you. Stop preaching and start sharing. Body language plays such a huge role in the absorption of a presentation, so smile, make eye contact and slow down. Public speaking is becoming a lost art with the rise of technology, so if you want to stand out professionally learn how to become a great speaker.

If you want to improve your speaking skills, here’s the video that transformed me!

Follow Up Like A Boss

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Follow-Up

A friend of mine owns a very successful business called Westside Rentals. He built it from the ground up over 10 years ago and now it’s a multi-million dollar company. Mark is a very generous and friendly guy and being an extrovert he gets asked to speak frequently and accepts more times than not. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with him on occasion and hear him present. No matter where he speaks, he always concludes with the following:

Here’s my email address (usually it flashes on the screen), feel free to contact me, I’d love to hear from you.

But here’s where it gets interesting. The more successful you are, the less available time you have. So the caveat is Mark check’s his email several time daily, but one tactic he uses is if he responds to you, he’ll ask that you send him an email 2 weeks later to follow up. 90% don’t. For the 10% who do follow up, he’ll usually stay in contact with you.

This story is unique, but the principle is not. I can’t stress enough as a coach how much people today don’t follow up. We live in a world where distractions are plentiful and focus is becoming a lost art. For example if you send an email to someone you’re trying to contact, the rule of thumb is try 3 times. That means if you don’t get a response within a week, try again. If you don’t hear back after that, try once more reminding the person you understand they are busy, but you’d love to hear back from them. Be specific. Be brief. Be courteous.

Since only 10% of people actually do follow-up, those are the ones who usually reach their goals. Not because they are pushy. Not because they are arrogant. But because they are persistent. Most people give up after contacting someone once because they take it personal. Someone not responding to you isn’t rejection, it’s usually them being too busy or intending to respond, but forgetting to.

Following up is similar to sales. Rarely do you get the sale the first time around, but if you keep at it (albeit you’re not sleazy or annoying) you usually get better results than not. When you follow up, you stay on that person’s radar. Just because they don’t respond initially doesn’t mean they’re not receiving your message. That’s why the “3 times” rule comes in handy. If after 3 tries you still don’t get a response, it probably means you’ll never hear back from them. Go back to what I said earlier: the more successful a person is, the less available time they have. So don’t take it personal, rather take it as a challenge.

If you want to stand out from the crowd, you have to do what everyone else isn’t doing. Follow up like a boss and be a part of the 10% that makes it happen.

OED: Obsessive Efficiency Disorder

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work smarter

I admit I’m obsessed with efficiency. To me it’s about working smarter, not harder. Planning my week out ahead of time means I can maximize my time the way I want. Since time is equal to all, I just want to make sure I’m optimizing mine.

For those of you who can’t relate because you feel disorganized, here’s some practical tips to control your schedule:

1) Use your Smartphone Calendar Daily. iPhone users have the luxury of syncing everything (as long as you have Apple products) so once you devices are connected, you have no excuse to forget dates, run errands and pay bills with alerts and reminders. There are three color coded categories preset: work, home and social/out. I encourage you to put everything you do in your phone. That includes meetings, when to exercise, follow-up emails, paying bills, projects, etc. Putting events in your phone means you don’t have to remember them. It’s like working on auto-pilot. Our brains aren’t meant to multitask (no matter what you’ve heard before), therefore make it easier on your brain by setting alerts.

2) Network Spreadsheet. Relationships are your greatest asset. Remember that. It doesn’t matter how career-driven or lazy you are, you need people. One thing that has helped me tremendously is tracking my contacts. I use Numbers (Apple’s version of Excel) to organize all the people I’ve met into different lists (similar to Twitter). In each category, I color code based on how I last contacted someone: black – email, blue – phone/Skype, green – in person, orange – text and red – need to get back to them. I also date it so I know how long ago since the last time we communicated. On top of that I use LinkedIn to write a note to myself about how we met and what we last talked about so I can pick up the conversation where we left off. Also take into consider prioritizing. I go from left to right. On the left side are people I need to keep in touch with so the frequency is more. Towards the right are people I just met so it’s not as frequent, but if our relationship grows they move “left” on the spreadsheet. You don’t have to use a system like this, but its just an example of how I organize my network.

3) Leave Gaps. As someone who’s goal-oriented, I like to achieve. The worst thing I can do is pack my schedule too tight where I get behind early and can’t finish what I intend to accomplish. Let’s say you have a coffee meeting that is supposed to last 30 minutes. Factor in the commute, extra time to talk, one of you being late, etc. and I’m sure the time slot allotted will be much higher. It takes some experimentation, but in the end you can estimate pretty accurately over time. We live in a world where everyone is in a rush, so why not go against the grain? I’m not saying be slow, but give yourself extra time to get stuff done. Back to the whole multitasking concept, give yourself a break between tasks to rest. Otherwise you’re setting yourself up to make mistakes. On a personal note when I planned the majority of my wedding, I put this idea of “leaving gaps” into action. As I worked in tandem with our wedding coordinator, I created a schedule for everyone involved (imagine getting separate timelines from the groom). The result: our family and friends said we were the most relaxed couple they’ve ever seen get married. That’s because the planning and preparation were done ahead so once it was showtime, we had nothing to be worried about.

You can tell by these examples that efficiency matters to me. It’s what I pride myself on and the standard I hold others to. I realize everyone doesn’t think the same as me and that’s fine. But if any of these tips can help you become more efficient, this post was worth writing. So have fun working smarter, not harder!

Scott Asai is a speaker/coach that has been developing leaders for 20+ years – athletes, companies and individuals. His focus is helping people develop leadership skills to advance in their careers. Scott tends to attract a large audience of Millennials and Introverts to his programs/events. His professional background consists of: B.A. in Psychology, M.A. in Organizational Leadership, Certified Professional Coach and Certified Strengths Coach.

3 Ways Leaders Are Willing, Not Ready

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LEADERSHIP

Are leaders born or made? That’s a debate this article can’t cover (in under a 1000 words) so I won’t go there. Everybody wants to be a leader, but if you knew what it really entails you might change your mind. In previous positions I’ve held, I learned over time that leadership isn’t as glamorous as advertised. In order to be an effective leader you have to be willing to absorb the following 3 things:

1) Willing to Take The Blame – If you want to lead, you have to accept being the goat. Not the “greatest of all time,” but pointing the finger at yourself when your team fails. It may not be your fault, but when something goes wrong people usually point “up.” I remember a time one of my staff members said something insensitive during a presentation and one of the audience members expressed their displeasure to me immediately. It wasn’t my mouth that this inappropriate comment came from, but after discussing it with my colleague, I decided to publicly apologize to the crowd. I wasn’t thrilled about it, because it wasn’t my “fault,” but it was under my watch so I took the fall for my team.

2) Willing To Deflect Praise – If you love getting credit for success, get out of leadership. Books, media and social networks paint a different picture, but rarely do leaders get praised when things go well. In fact, the better you get at leading and the longer you do it, it becomes an expectation (not appreciation). It’s like the obedient, older brother who gets overlooked by the prodigal son by his father. “Hey, I’ve been doing great all this time, but now this delinquent boy comes home and you give him a party?” Thanks for noticing. Not only do you have to take responsibility for your team’s blunders, but you also don’t get rewarded for achievements. Leadership isn’t all what it’s cracked up to be.

3) Willing To Follow – Maybe the hardest lesson to learn as a leader is managing your ego, not the egos of others. I learned this as a coach. Sometimes you’re right and they’re wrong, but you still go with their decision even when it turns our bad. Why? Because leadership is about developing people. If you make all the decisions, followers become dependent on the leader and never learn to soar on their own. When you delegate responsibility/let your team make decisions and live with the outcomes, they become leaders during the process. It’s not about telling people what to do and enforcing it. That’s called dictatorship. It’s why we hate micromanagers. The best way to illustrate this concept is an inverted triangle. The leader is at the bottom and his/her job is to support the people “above” them. Serve up and you’ll never fall down.

The better question to ask when it comes to leadership is: are you willing? Leadership is not for everyone and that’s okay. There can only be so many chefs in the kitchen, then it becomes too chaotic. Leaders are thrown into situations where they aren’t prepared all the time. It’s about knowing yourself, knowing your values and knowing your role. You don’t need an official position to lead, you just have to be willing to do the tough things and not get applauded for it.

What Work Life Balance Really Means

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work life balance

70% of people struggle with work-life balance, but what does that mean? Essentially it’s when either your personal or professional life is dominating the other. Here’s two examples, if you’re a career driven individual who finds yourself in your 30’s and out of the dating scene for a while because working overtime is the norm OR if you’re a stay home mom who manages a household of 5, but never has any time of your own that’s work-life imbalance.

Easy to identify, difficult to resolve. At the core of work-life balance is feeling a lack of control. Autonomy is one of our primary motivators in life, according to Dan Pink, so when our professional or personal life is overwhelming the other we feel like the victims of our consequences. The same reason why entrepreneurs start their own business is what the average person striving for work-life balance wants: freedom.

There’s a big movement in the entrepreneurial world that doesn’t involve making more money. It’s a little thing called lifestyle design. It means you want to spend your time doing what you want, where you want, when you want. Sounds like a glorified vacation, but it’s much more than that. Fast forward your life until you’re in your 80’s. If you looked back at your life at that point, what decisions would you wish you made differently? Probably anything that deals with spending more time WITH others or ON yourself. That’s why time, not money, is the most valuable currency.

If you’re still confused, let’s talk about the exact opposite of work-life balance: living with regret. People who struggle with work-life balance experience this “inner-tension” of feeling guilty for not taking action. As a Career Coach, most of the clients I’ve worked with over the past 8 years pay me to help them make a career transition, but you know what they really need help with? Confidence.

I can’t force anyone to do anything. That may not sound very marketable, but it’s the truth. I can make suggestions, but ultimately it’s up to the client how much effort, openness and passion they put into accomplishing the goals they set to achieve. But this is where work-life balance fits in. You know what your desired goals are, but you may not know how to get there. That’s where I come in. Work-life balance is about prioritizing. Goals aren’t the same. Some are more important than others. You are a specialist. If you were good at everything, you wouldn’t need anyone’s help. Therefore identifying your strengths, then maximizing them is crucial to achieving work-life balance because your strengths are a “means” to an end (your goals). Work-life balance is a constant challenge. In fact, it’s not a destination, it’s a journey. You need accountability, milestones and motivation to get there. I want to help.

I Want You…

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Uncle Sam

 

Time is money. We hire financial advisors to help us manage our money, but who helps us manage our time?

When you look back on your life, the last thing you’ll say is, “I wish I had more money.” But one of the first things you’ll say is: “I wish I had more time to do…”

Freedom isn’t just about liberty, it’s about power of choice. For example, you have the choice to continue down the current path you’re on or create a new one.

That’s why I created this 8-week online bootcamp to help you achieve work life balance. Time isn’t something you can rewind and get back. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. We all have the same amount of time in a day, but there’s extreme variance on how we use it. Let me be your freedom advisor and let’s get your freedom back America!

Ready. Set. Jump!

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goldfish jumping out of the water

Are you tired of the daily grind holding you back from pursuing your dreams? Sure, you have bills to pay and responsibilities to fulfill, but what if there was a better way to do it? How much would that solution be worth to you?

You’ll never know what could happen unless you’re willing to make the jump. Break out of the monotony and take the risk. Better to try than to live with regret. I coach people through career transitions all the time, but what my clients really want is much deeper than a new job. They want confidence, control and freedom.

That’s why during this 8-week online bootcamp geared towards achieving work life balance, we’ll discuss personal and professional challenges to ultimately get your freedom back. The investment is minimal when the outcome is optimal. I’ve already made the jump and I want to help you make the jump too!

How Much Is Your Free Time Worth?

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Braveheart Freedom

If you’re working, you know how much you make per hour, but do you know how much your free time is worth?

Since time is the most important currency, you need to factor this into your decision making. If you know how much your free time is worth: it will help you decide to skip an activity, pay someone else to help or complete it yourself. Find out the value of your free time here.

Based on that number, how does that influence your decision making moving forward? Controlling my free time is immensely important to me, that’s why I want to help you get your freedom back during this 8-week online bootcamp geared towards achieving work life balance. Join us because can you really put a price time on the investment in your personal freedom? Yes.

Why Graphic Design Contests Are Great For Startups

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For a very long time, most companies have hired design agencies or freelance designers in order to source custom designs for their business. While it works well for multinationals such as Facebook, Microsoft and Apple that have exorbitant budgets, it proves to be a rather costly proposition for small businesses and startups as they mostly lack resources and bank balance to settle the bills of design agencies or freelance designers.But does that mean startups and small businesses don’t deserve to professional and creative logos, business cards, websites etc. for their entity? Do they necessarily dig a hole in their pockets for a professional identity? Of course not!If you’re at the helm of a startup in need of everything from a logo to a business cards, simply turn your attention to crowdsourcing design sites such as Designhill and launch a design contest. No matter how much people despise of crowdsourcing contests, it still rules the roost, especially for small businesses and startups with limited funds and resources.

Crowdsourcing design contests allow you to procure designs that share your passion, drive, and vision for your startup without spending an arm and a leg. But it’s not just that you get to save some fortune and a lot of hassle, there are numerous other benefits of holding a design contest. Let’s explore 5 of the most significant reasons why crowdsourcing design contests make for a great proposition for startups and small businesses.

1. Tap Creative Extremes:

Inc.com reveals that most design agencies are in fact marketing agencies with a heavy focus on visual media. Resultantly, when you work with such agencies, you end up getting graphic designs out of complacency. This is because design agencies are not faced with any competition when working for a client. On the contrary, crowdsourcing contests thrive on competition and ingenuity.

Competition gives birth to ingenuity. So, when you launch a crowdsourcing design contest, hundreds of designers compete against each other and come up with different unique concepts to win the competition making it easy for you to tap the creative extremes and get unique and superior quality designs for your startup or small business.

2. Get Much More than What You Pay for:

Let’s face it; graphic design firms remain the first choice for most multinationals and large corporations. Quite expectedly, design agencies often treat multinationals and large corporations with huge budgets as premium clients and offer them better service as against startups and small businesses. After all, you’re just another low-budget client in their long roster of clients. Resultantly, most startups end up getting ‘just what they pay for’.

But with crowdsourcing design contests, listed designers treat every design project as an opportunity to earn prize money and in a bid to outshine their competition; they come up with dozens of unique and professional concepts. Therefore, with crowdsourcing design contests, you get ‘much more than what you pay for’.

3. Get Innumerable Choices:

Chances are that you may a design agency that would agree to work on your budget, but you would not get more than 3-5 design options to choose from limiting your choices. With limited concepts, at times, you’ll find the ideas stalled and will have no option but to compromise on your business identity.

But, for crowdsourcing design contests, diversity is the name of the game. Startups can get many design ideas, inspirations and styles. With an average of 100+ design options to choose from, you’ll be able to find more than just a few concepts to match your project needs.

4. Get Affordable Designs:

Forbes reveals in one of its articles that for most startups and small businesses, the real challenge remains getting things done in a nickel-and-dime. Well, with the price of graphic design services sky-rocketing these days, it becomes almost impossible for startups tobuild a brand around users with graphic elements that they can relate to and connect with.

This is where crowdsourcing design contests help startups and small businesses reach beyond boundaries and get quality custom designs without burning a deep hole in their pockets. But affordable price doesn’t mean that you need to compromise on quality. So with crowdsourcing design contests, you get the finest of fine graphic designs for the price that you’ll set for your design contest.

5. Save Money & Time:

Quick sprout mentions in one its insider stories that establishing a startup takes an awful lot: a lot of effort, time and money! Working with a design agency usually takes up a lot of time due to the long list of people involved in the entire process. And due to the involvement of many people, it takes a seemingly long time, a lot of energy and quite a fortune to meet people, exchange emails, arrange teleconference and personally visit the agency.

However, crowdsourcing design contest doesn’t require you to spend too much time, money and resources. And all you need to do is just fill in the design brief, name a price and relax while the ideas start to pour in from graphic artists, logo designers, illustrators and an entire community of graphic artists from across the globe, ready and willing to work for you under the tightest of deadlines. It saves you money, time and efforts that you would otherwise incur on transportation, teleconference and physical visit when working with a design firms.

So, Go For Crowdsourcing Contests And Give Wings to Your Startup:

So, if you have a big graphic design project on your plate, launch a crowdsourcing design contests and explore the endless possibilities of getting affordable logos, business cards or web designs to establish your brand identity, garner media mileage and build a loyal customer base.