The Banker Who Said No Awesome Read

The Banker Who Said No â€" Awesome Read I saw a link to this quick lunchtime read from Alex Rudloff, creator of Emurse.com.   Emurse is a website I recommend to any professional looking to beef up their online presence Alex just announced that AOL acquired Emurse huge congrats! Back to the article its about Andy Beal, the guy who practically shut down his bank for four years because he didnt like the lending that was happening.   He thought it was all bad, and he was going to wait it out until it got more reasonable. What he thought would take six months took four years, and now he is in a very healthy position to capitalize on all of the vast mistakes from other lending institutions. When I read this I thought this is the American Dream! Go Andy!   Not like he needs any encouragement from me hes a billionaire and Ill never become one. Heres a profound quote from the article (more than 1/2 down): He thinks the government is going to be disappointed by its various programs to revive lending. Banks are on a prayer mission that somehow prices will come back and they wont have to face reality, Beal says. And that reality, according to Beal, is going to get a lot worse. Unemployment is going over 10%, commercial real estate hasnt even begun collapsing and corporate credit defaults are just getting started, he says. His prediction: depression, without bread lines this time, thanks to the government safety net, but with equal cost to society. Wow.   Not that hes a prophet or anything but he did figure out that not diving into the free profit from yesterday would keep him healthy today. The outcome he predicts is bleak.   And we thought we were on the upswing. Heres a link to the article. The Banker Who Said No â€" Awesome Read I saw a link to this quick lunchtime read from Alex Rudloff, creator of Emurse.com.   Emurse is a website I recommend to any professional looking to beef up their online presence Alex just announced that AOL acquired Emurse huge congrats! Back to the article its about Andy Beal, the guy who practically shut down his bank for four years because he didnt like the lending that was happening.   He thought it was all bad, and he was going to wait it out until it got more reasonable. What he thought would take six months took four years, and now he is in a very healthy position to capitalize on all of the vast mistakes from other lending institutions. When I read this I thought this is the American Dream! Go Andy!   Not like he needs any encouragement from me hes a billionaire and Ill never become one. Heres a profound quote from the article (more than 1/2 down): He thinks the government is going to be disappointed by its various programs to revive lending. Banks are on a prayer mission that somehow prices will come back and they wont have to face reality, Beal says. And that reality, according to Beal, is going to get a lot worse. Unemployment is going over 10%, commercial real estate hasnt even begun collapsing and corporate credit defaults are just getting started, he says. His prediction: depression, without bread lines this time, thanks to the government safety net, but with equal cost to society. Wow.   Not that hes a prophet or anything but he did figure out that not diving into the free profit from yesterday would keep him healthy today. The outcome he predicts is bleak.   And we thought we were on the upswing. Heres a link to the article.

5 Tips for Landing More Sales Through Cold Calling - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

5 Tips for Landing More Sales Through Cold Calling - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Cold calling can seem overwhelming and scary. When you’re just picking up the phone and calling someone out of the blue, it can be a challenge to make a connection and land a sale. With the high chance of rejection, it can feel like there is no point to even trying. If you don’t have any experience cold calling, it can seem even more difficult. However, cold calling doesn’t need to be scary, and it can be incredibly efficient for growing your business. With the right tips and practice, you can convince just about anyone to make a purchase â€" even without a warm introduction. If you’re looking for ways to improve your cold calling strategy, here are a few tips you should try out. Do Your Research If you’re simply going through a list of names and phone numbers and making calls, the person on the other end is going to notice. Delivering the same message to each potential customer is lazy and inefficient. If you’re unable to make a genuine connection, you have no hope of convincing your potential customer to buy. Before you get on the phone, do your research about the person you’re contacting. Know who they are, why they may be interested in your products or services and what problems they may be dealing with on a daily basis that you can help solve. While research may take a bit more time to complete, it can help you close more sales by making each call more personal. Mentally Prepare When the other person picks up the phone, you need to be ready to sell. If you’re not mentally prepared to persuade them into buying, you’re likely to waste time trying to build momentum. The more time you waste on the phone, the more frustrated your prospect is going to become. If they hang up before you can end your pitch, you’re not going to get new customers. Take time to focus and go through your checklist before you dial your next customer’s number. Think about what you’re going to say, the points you want to cover and how you’re going to deliver your pitch. When you’re ready to be charming, persuasive and helpful, you can improve your chances of getting a “yes.” Prepare to Sell Yourself If you’ve made cold calls in the past, you know many people can be skeptical about making a purchase. There are a lot of scams out there, and potential clients are understandably wary about whether or not someone is legit. To increase your number of customers from cold calls, you need to be prepared to answer questions about yourself and prove your worth. Study all your materials before you pick up the phone. Make a list of potential questions a customer may ask, and come up with bullet points you’d like to cover if you need to answer that question. Having the right tools in front of you during your call can ensure you’re prepared and confident. Maintain Positive Body Language When making cold calls, the person on the other end won’t be able to see you. However, if you maintain positive body language, your self-assurance will come through in your voice. Conversely, if you’re stressed or on edge, that will create an audible tension as well. If you’re relaxed, smiling and comfortable, you’ll seem more confident on the phone. Though the person on the other end won’t be able to see your body language, speak naturally, as if they’re sitting across from you. Maintain a smile throughout the entire conversation. If you feel more confident speaking while standing up, do your cold calls while standing at your desk or walking around. Prepare for Rejection Cold calls can be nerve-wracking due to the fear of rejection. Unfortunately, rejection is a normal part of making cold calls. When you can get over the fear of hearing a “no” and accept that some people aren’t going to be interested in your products or services, you can become more comfortable with making phone calls. Keep a log of all your calls and the outcomes of each. This will give you a better understanding of how many “nos” and “yeses” you’re getting. Once you better understand the ratio of how your calls are working, you’ll know how many calls you need to make to see real results. You can also see that life goes on, even if a few potential customers turn you down. It’s natural to feel a bit intimidated from cold calling. However, the more cold calls you make, the more used to the process you’ll become. When you properly prepare and rehearse your pitch, you can feel more confident to pick up the phone and make your cold calls. With these five tips, you’ll become a cold-calling pro in no time!

Claiming Your Career Happiness and Getting Out Of Your Own Way - Classy Career Girl

Claiming Your Career Happiness and Getting Out Of Your Own Way The life and career of your dreams is possible for you.  You just have to do this one thing. Do what you can, with what you have from where you are right now. Don’t worry about your 5 year goal and making it happen. Just master the next step in front of you, and then the next step. Get busy right now doing your best work possible in whatever field you are in and start becoming a better person by using more of your gifts and talents at work or in your spare time. If you have a lot of options and interests, that’s ok. Just start down one direction to see what you do or don’t like. Finding what you don’t like is just as important as what you do like! The key is that it isn’t about choosing the right dream career for you, it’s about starting down the path towards your dream career which will be revealed to you in time. Clarity and confidence can’t find you if you are sitting home on your couch vegging out from you day and trying to forget about your terrible boss. Clarity and confidence and your dream career will find you once you start taking baby steps and imperfect action. Do something, anything! If you don’t know what to do next and are frustrated and stuck, I have a really, really exciting solution for you. Today is one of the most exciting days I have had in a long time. Today is the day that I get to invite you to join me in Love Your Career Formula 2.0, a program that has already changed hundreds of lives. My team and I have been working so hard to bring you this. Over the past 2 months, we have updated every lesson, every video, every worksheet and we overhauled the entire course membership site. We even hired an apprentice to do an outside independent improvement review surveying our LYCF clients over the past 3 years and asking them how we can do better. Well I am happy to say that the time has arrived and it’s time to invite you to see. I will tell you one thing. I have never been more proud of anything I have ever created. In these Fall in Love With Your Work and Life  Challenge videos we have talked a lot about finding your passion and purpose, making time for yourself and your career goals, pushing fear to the side and making a commitment with yourself that you can and will be a success. This is just a taste of what I have in store for you in Love Your Career Formula 2.0. If you enjoyed my blog posts and videos so far and they helped push you forward, you will love joining me in the next step. Click here  to find out more about this life changing program. Love Your Career Formula 2.0 is for you if you have made the commitment and are now ready to get the support you need and you want the easier path laid out in front of you. You want the shortcut. Whether you’re unemployed right now or currently employed at a job you are stuck at or you are just simply want to continue growing your career for the future, THANK YOU for watching this free challenge video training.  As you continue on and consider joining us in the Love Your Career Formula 2.0 vibrant and international community, there are a few women that you’re going to want to hear about to stay inspired. I am so proud of these women!! First there’s Cristina, who was afraid to leave what she was good at. She was comfortable and doubting her choice to keep growing. Within months of enrolling in the Love Your Career Formula she had clarified her goals, mission and values, had new job opportunities to grow, designed and implemented a networking action plan and landed an exciting and challenging job that was everything she was looking for! Then there’s Vivian, who used what she learned working with me to get 3 job offers in 1 week quickly figuring out what her ideal career fit was, improving her happiness and confidence, creating a networking action plan and a LinkedIn job lead strategy. After LYCF, she now easily gets contacted by recruiters with job opportunities and she sets her own rules on her career success and dreams. And fellow San Diegan, Danielle, who joined my Love Your Career Formula  in desperation since she was about to be laid off. Danielle began implementing her 90-day Love Your Career Plan and had already accepted a fabulous job offer in just a month and a half (a lot faster than even her 60-day goal!) I’m so pleased with these women’s success and they’re just a few I picked out of the hundreds who have followed my Love Your Career Formula teachings to create dream careers and lives of their dreams serving greatly and being greatly supported financially and emotionally by what they do. **For more Love Your Career Formula success stories, click here. This How-To course will cover a range of subjects aimed to help you launch your dream career one that fits your personality and interests, challenges and excites you, and is what you were born to do.  So what exactly is your dream career?  Well, that’s up to you. Our Love Your Career Formula alumni network is home to ambitious women working in dream careers in everything from florists to consultants. Senior Pharmaceutical Managers to second grade teachers. Content developers to executive recruiters. And so much more. Our alumni have been taken the course and landed dream jobs in Hong Kong, Australia, London, the Phillippines, Chile, Canada and of course all over the United States too.  Our content is accessible anywhere and, anytime of day or night so while you are watching the videos in Nashville someone else may be watching the same video from Argentina, cool huh? Bottom line: If you can dream it, it’s possible. When you join us in Love Your Career Formula 2.0, we will introduce some key elements of making your dream life and career happen.  We’ll detail the process that you’ll go through to discover what you were born to do, from start to finish, sharing some super useful resources along the way.  And, finally, we’ll pass along some pro tips related to social media, resumes, interview preparation that will help position yourself for success in getting hired. This course is your one-stop shop with everything you need to launch your dream career from day one. We can’t wait to see what impact you will make in the world once you are in your dream career! I’ll see you in Love Your Career Formula 2.0.

Why Mindless Diversions Are Important

Why Mindless Diversions Are Important The old adage goes that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.  Needless to say, it also makes Jane a dull girl.  While its easy to condemn the many options our modern culture puts before us to waste time, its not always a waste.  Here are some thoughts on giving  yourself permission to zone out for a while. You Are Not Your Work You are a  human being, not a perpetual thought-bearing and task-completing being.   Youre  a complex creature that occasionally wants and needs to escape the reality of  here-and-now with the  allure of  being someone or somewhere else. Its okay to unplug.  Its okay to invent and indulge in your escape from the constant demands on your attention from multiple sources.  Allowing yourself a time-out helps to melt away the stresses of a world of over-stimulation. Be An Irresponsible Kid Again Remember when you were a child?  How you could grab a skip rope or your favorite video game and play for hours?  As adults we often forget some of the benefits of being young.  We tell ourselves that we need to be responsible and do what responsible adults do.  Unfortunately, in our culture that usually means anything other than being productive isnt okay. Newsflash: it is okay.  The benefits of living in the moment are huge.  Stress reduction alone is a major plus, with positive side effects that fill text books.  For a list of all the benefits of re-claiming your rights to act more like a child, check out All Womens Talk. Play Enhances Work Can you guess what Google, 3M, and Zappos have in common?  Unstructured, playful work environments.  Child-like diversions and simple play are encouraged.  Because they re-charge the creative juices that are used in work, and productivity increases. While you may not be able to get your boss to buy into the idea yet, you can do it on your own.  Instead of having coffee with your friend at break time, take a fun break.  Better yet, take a fun lunch instead of reading that journal or business report. Easy Options to Escape If youve divorced yourself from your inner child so far that you cant even think of good options, theres still hope.  With the internet, theres a virtual smorgasbord of sites that will take you on pleasant diversions for a few minutes or a few hours.  Heres a few: Kids Video Games:  Try Pogo for all the games you see your kids play. Creative:  Like to draw and color? You can do that on your computer or smartphone, too. As you can see, the options are only limited by your imagination.  And thats the very thing you want to have more of! Images: Main  ben britten

Why Executive Resume Writing Services Are Important

Why Executive Resume Writing Services Are ImportantThere are many people who are unsure about whether or not they should hire executive resume writing services for their resume or if they should hire a professional writer to do the job. The fact is that no matter which route you take, it is important to make sure that you hire a good writer.To avoid making a mistake, you should hire a professional resume writer to handle the task of writing your executive resume. However, you may be wondering why it is so important to hire a professional to handle this task.The first reason is because an untrained person cannot represent your business in the same way that a trained professional can. When you hire a resume writer, he or she will be able to deal with your style and writing voice in a way that is better than anyone else who works with resumes. They will also be able to edit your resume in a way that makes it unique from the rest of the pack.Hiring a professional to help you get your res ume written for you will give you the added benefit of having an experienced editor who knows how to handle each and every one of your requirements for your business. However, this does not mean that you are limited to hiring just one. You can often find resume writers who specialize in certain areas of the job. If you want someone to handle writing your executive resume for you, you should look for a writer who has experience with certain areas of the job you are looking for.Another reason to hire an executive resume writing service is because there is no time like the present to update your resume. It is important to make sure that your resume is current and relevant and that you keep your skills current as well. Resumes need to reflect what you are doing at this time.A good writer will also be familiar with the latest industry trends and who is popular now. He or she will also know how to write a catchy title. This is a very important part of any executive resume.It is important to remember that you will have to ask him or her to write your resume for you. Therefore, make sure that you know what is not acceptable before you agree to hire a writer. You will be taking on the responsibility of making sure that your resume reflects exactly what you are doing at this time.So, if you are hiring an executive resume writing service to handle your resume, you should also be prepared to hire an editor who is experienced and can help you keep your skills current. You will be extending your career potential by hiring such a professional to handle your resume.

5 Ways Talent Acquisition Specialists Can Leverage E-Learning Technologies

5 Ways Talent Acquisition Specialists Can Leverage E-Learning Technologies 68 Flares 68 Flares E-learning technologies are taking off and talent acquisition specialists should be jumping on the wagon.   The benefit of a learning management system (LMS) is that they allow organizations to not only distribute online training materials and courses, but they offer real time tracking. While HR Professionals will greatly benefit from a more organized and cost effective on-boarding process that e-learning technologies provide, there are some awesome strategies for recruiters and talent acquisition specialists. 5 Ways Talent Acquisition Specialists Can Leverage E-Learning Technologies: 1.  Offer an Online Course or Program for Candidates Simply upload content to the e-learning portal and allow candidates to go through the course.   Maybe you haven’t hired them, but this is their way to stay close to your organization and learn more about your company or a topic area.   Set up multiple courses to offer a certificate at the end and/or test them on what they’ve learned. 2.  Advertise Online Training as a Perk to Get Ahead of the Competition Every company out there claims to have the best training for their employees.   With an e-learning technology, you’re now able to showcase all of your available courses and trainings.   While it won’t be the sole reason why candidates decide to take you up on your offer, it will certainly be a factor. 3.  Advertise Online Trainings and Courses on Company Website to Attract Candidates No matter your company size, you can never have enough great candidates.   You can offer on going informal learning and instructor-led training and keep track of who takes your courses.   You can reach out to those who perform well once they complete the course and are tested. 4.  Easily Explain Company Benefits and Perks Great candidates will want the company benefits package and other perks to be explained thoroughly.   They don’t always want to wait until the offer stage to learn why your organization is top notch.   You can upload your content on your e-learning technology and allow them to run through the content on their own.  Track their progress and you’ll know when they’ve walked through your company information, which would be a good time to send a follow up email. 5.  Add Assignments for Candidates Some learning management system (LMS) allow the option for candidates to be assigned different tasks.   For instance, you can ask those taking your course to upload videos to provide answers for questions or to showcase any work they’ve done in the past.   This may make sense for graphic designers and those with a portfolio.

Job Action Day-Opportunities Knock Harder When You Use Social Media

Job Action Day-Opportunities Knock Harder When You Use Social Media In honor of Job Action Day, I am banding together with other career professionals to support job seekers and encourage them to take some time on November 1 to reflect on their careers and/or job search and make a commitment to do something different that will help them achieve more in the months to come.This year I landed over a dozen long and short-term projects that I never would have had a shot at if it werent for social media. By spending less than 15 minutes a day on an easy and fun strategy for building relationships, I was found by the people who needed someone with the type of expertise I possess. Through my profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, I became top of mind and relevant to people all over the world without ever leaving my desk.Whether you own your own business or you are looking for your next job, being known in your professional niche is important. Too many job seekers expect to gain recognition and secure opportunities just by plastering their resume on umpt een job boards. But employers want to interview candidates where there is some previous connection; through another employee of the company, an affinity group, or now more than ever, through social media. Many job seekers will spend hours posting their resume on line but claim they have no time for social media. We all make time to brush our teeth, bathe, and eat. These are necessities we do everyday and social media is no different. In less than 15 minutes a day, you can take some steps towards creating a more robust and effective social media strategy that can in turn help you better manage your career or land your next gig. Here are a few suggestions.Brand or be branded. Its easy to create a profile on LinkedIn or a bio on Google Profiles or ZoomInfo. If you dont take control of your online presence, any information about you online will be aggregated by the search engines and that information may or may not truly represent your professional self. Why leave this important task to chance? Create profiles on multiple business and social networking and identity sites to manage your online identity and protect your professional brand.Say less to achieve more. Twitter is perhaps the most powerful example of this concept. Saying more doesnt make what you say better. We are no longer in high school where we are required to write a 500-word essay. Todays reader wants a quick and compelling message (generally in 140 characters or less). Use sites like Twitter to give people bite sized pieces of important information that demonstrate your expertise and commitment to your profession. Consistency, not verbosity is the key.Be nice. Social media may be bringing back manners one post at a time. Its the perfect forum for letting people know you are listening to them and appreciate what they have to say. By retweeting information on Twitter or liking a post on Facebook, you are letting people know you value what they write about while remaining on their radar.Find evangelis ts. Spreading your message of value is a great strategy for building up your social media capital, but think about the implications of having multiple people spreading that message every day through blog posts, tweets, Facebook shares, and LinkedIn updates.Be lazy. If you have something to say there is nothing wroing with spreading that message across multiple online platforms that attract multiple audiences. A blog post you write can quickly be turned into an article, a presentation, a tweet, or a LinkedIn status update. Repurposing doesnt diminish the value of your message; it simply solidifies it.