August 2006

Friends on the net

Eitan Pinsky, a good friend of mine from the University of Toronto, has started a new blog, and it’s worth checking out.  You can find him on the web at http://pinsky.wordpress.com. His innagural post discusses the notion that some cultures and practices are more barbaric than others, and that the admission of this is not = racism.  Check out the sample below:

Relative to the Western World and the great majority of our population I can show you why some opinions or views ARE better than other’s.

Take for example World War II Germany. We had a great many people who in that day would kill Jews, Gypsys, Gays, Blacks and anybody else who infected the percieved [sic] “perfect” Aryan bloodline. We can say, today, that this opinion and view is evil, immoral and disgusting. Unequivocally, this view is WRONG because it does not fit with what our society believes in.

The rest can be found here.

Also, I have to big up another one of my friend’s sites, the prolific rapper Shad K. His Myspace site has some great tracks up, as well as information about where he is performing next.  Check it out here!

Looking for something to read today?

Keith Ferrazzi sits down with Sandra Day O’Conner and talks ‘relationships.’

Want to learn about Word of Mouth? Check out this list of the top eleven Word of Mouth blogs around from Buzz Canuck, via the Brand Builder Blog.

Get a free chapter of Scott Ginsberg’s new book How to be That Guy. This week, Scott is giving a way chapter 13, ‘Don’t be selfish with your knowledge.’

Marketing Guru Seth Godin has a great post about whether or not we entrepreneurs ‘need a boss.’ As usual, Seth is right.

Is Apple censoring bloggers?

Recently, I’ve been using the DIY Planner. Check it out!

Phil has just unveiled a new template over at Make It Great, and has a great post up about learning to say ‘no’ once in a while.

Check out my pick for Estate of the Day.

Great Interview up at the PalPad Pre-Launch Blog

Josiah Mackenzie has his a home run with his latest interview, where he talks to yours truly about networking in the business world.

He is about to launch a new Web 2.0 networking tool, PalPad, ‘which will help you keep track of people you meet through a web-based control panel.’  I’m excited to see a beta of the program - I’ll defiantely share how it is with all of my readers.

In the interview we cover everything from building a referral based business, to tracking down and opening relationships with ‘celebrity’ businesspeople and authors.  There is tons of great info in it, and I reccomend you check out the rest of his blog as well.

Make It Great! - My interview with Phil Gerbyshak

Today I am joined by Phil Gerbyshak of Make It Great!, one of the web’s premier personal development bloggers.Benjamin: How did you get started in the field of Self Improvement?

Phil: About 5 years ago, I decided I wasn’t happy with the path I was on, so I decided to pick up a few good books to try to get motivated and change my life. I was reading about 20 books a year, and over the past 5 years, I’ve turned it up to read 40-50 a year on self-improvement, motivation, business, and the like.

B: Were you always this positive a person?

P: No, I sure haven’t been. I used to be an energy sucker. It pains me to admit it, but I was until about 7 years ago. Most of the people I knew then probably wouldn’t recognize me now, and not because my hair color is different. My attitude has changed that dramatically.

B: How has Self Improvement impacted your business and personal life?

P: The more I learn, the more I grow, and the more I am able to help others. In a personal and professional setting, this has helped me impact more people because I better understand them. Dr. Steven Covey has said that the most basic human need is to be understood, so understanding MYSELF has helped me to understand others.

B: How can we Make It Great every day?

P: Attitude is everything. If you believe you can or you can’t, you’re right. I think that was originally attributed to Walt Disney or Henry Ford, and it sounds a bit trite, but it’s true. Believe you can make it great, and you will. That’s the big picture way to greatness.

B: How have you attracted your success with your blog?

P: I visit as many blogs like Make It Great! as I can (I subscribe to 300+ RSS feeds) and try to continue their conversations on their blogs, and trackback with my own conversation. I’ve asked many more successful people than I what has made them successful, what tips they would share, and most importantly, how I can help them. I pay it forward as much as I can. I try to do an interview a month on Make It Great! featuring a blogger I’ve found interesting, and I offer suggestions for improvement when appropriate.

I also write almost every day on Make It Great!, or at least bookmark some sites for later and add them to my site. I link out as much as possible, as there’s no way I could know everything, so I point people to different places who can help complete the picture.

Last thing I do is I leave my comments wide open, I don’t hide my e-mail address, and I respond to EVERY comment I get on my blog, and EVERY e-mail, even if it’s just with a “thanks for your comment” or “thanks for your e-mail.” I use my blog to build relationships, not just traffic, and that helps out a lot.

B: What “lifehacks” do you try to use to increase your productivity?

P: I am a huge believer in setting goals. I use the SMARTER method for goal setting.

• S - Goals must be Specific and the more specific the better. State your goal in as exact of terms as possible.
• M - Targets should be Measurable. That which you measure will be treasured, so think about what will be the measurement of your achievement of your goal.
• A - Goals should have Accountability. Who or what are you accountable to for the goal?
• R - Goals must be Realistic. Unrealistic goals will lead to discouragement.
• T - Targets should be Time based. Decide your time-table for completion, and stick to it.
• E - Goals should be Exciting. Exciting goals will be met far sooner than boring, bland goals.
• R - Goals should be Recorded, in a place where you can look at it every day.

Also, I use RSS as much as possible for my blog reading.

I use the 3D method for e-mail: Delete it right away if it’s junk (turn on the preview pane, and please don’t send me an e-mail without a subject line), Delegate it to someone else who can help, or Deal with it (I use chunking where I set aside 30-40 minutes where I am dedicated to e-mail, and I respond to e-mails during this time). I am not perfect at 3D, but when I use it, it works very well.

I blog with Performancing for Firefox, and this makes a HUGE difference for my blogging, as I can do categories, formatting, and copy and paste text right into my posts.

Lastly is I only have a cell phone, no home phone, and I carry it with me always and it’s always turned on. I don’t always answer it, but having it on me at all times means I can often get the call right away instead of having to return calls later.

B: How can I go about writing a book and becoming a Web 2.0 Superstar?

P: Writing a book is not as hard as you’d think. Start by picking a topic you’re interested in, and start a blog. Read as much as you can FIRST, link out to other experts, and write your own ideas. Do this for about 6 months or until you feel you’ve found your voice. Write for another 6 months in your voice, then put your favorite 15 or 20 articles on the topic together in 1 document. Print out the table of contents and see what can be put together, what can be deleted, what needs improvement, and try to have 10-12 chapters. Have friends review it, and refine it. Refine it again, hire a real editor (go to your local English department at a college for an inexpensive one), and keep refining. Give the final decision up to someone else so when they say it’s done, you’re done. Use a service like http://www.lulu.com, http://www.dogearpublishing.net or where I used http://www.booksurgepublishing.com and make it happen!

I don’t think of myself as a Web 2.0 superstar, but I appreciate the endorsement Benjamin. I can share with you the tools I use for my blog, and maybe they will help you. They are all FREE!

• Gmail - easy filtering and e-mail to track your conversations, and less spam than Hotmail or Yahoo.
• Feedburner - burn your RSS feed, and GREAT stats for your subscribers to know what RSS reader they use. Plus other tools that are helpful for promotion.
• Technorati - the mother ship of all blog sites. You must list yourself here to be taken seriously in blogging, and if you put Technorati tags on your blog posts, people can easily find you.
• Performancing.com/firefox - right click, write your blog. Includes automatic Technorati tags, bookmark your post at Del.Icio.Us
• Del.Icio.Us - social bookmarking, and I can automatically post my bookmarks to my blog.
• Performancing.com/metrics - metrics package you can subscribe to via RSS and has great reporting capabilities.
• Odeo.com - I put some of my podcasts up here.
• Not free: Typepad - I host my blog here. If you can use Microsoft Word or Excel, you can use TypePad.

B: Can you describe yourself in less than Five words?

P: I’m here to help! Ask!

B: Can you leave our readers with an Action Plan to Make it Great! ?

P: Sure thing.

• Think about what you REALLY want to be known for in your life, what you are known for right now, and take the steps needed in order to get to where you want to be.
• Serve first, and don’t worry about payback. It’ll come around.
• Find like-minded people who can help you, and don’t be afraid to ask them to help you.
• Use the 80/20 rule to determine what’s really important and what’s not.
• Finish what you start…or just get started! Whether you struggle with the beginning or the end of things you do, it’s important that you realize that you need to TAKE ACTION in order to really make it great! Life is not a passive sport, so ACTION is important.
• Last but not least: Attitude is EVERYTHING, so smile MORE often.

B: Thanks so much Phil!

P: My pleasure Benjamin. I hope your readers enjoy our talk, and I encourage them to stop by Make It Great! and let me know if there’s ever anything I can do for them.

Interview with Paul Gruber, Achievement Coach to the Stars

It is my honour to present the latest interview in my series of chats with business visionaries and experts. Today I am joined with my business coach, Paul Gruber, who is an achievement coach with RRi, one of the fastest growing achievement coaching firms in the world. Paul is dedicated to personal growth, and to helping others achieve their dreams. How did I get started in business?

Believe it or not, that is a challenging question. I’m not your typical business person; I consider myself to be a perpetual entrepreneur. What got me started in business though, was a book that I read over twenty years ago, “In Search of Excellence”, by Tom Peters.

What do you see as the future trends in the business world?

Imagination and creativity will rule in the future. If you think about it, all left brain processes will be digitized and will be easily exported to the lowest bidder, where ever that might be. It’s the imagination that can not be digitized. It’s imagination that will take all the information and create something out of it. Imagination is the thought process that is most adoptable to changes.

What do you do to improve yourself?
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point, he writes about three types of people; the Connector, the Salesperson, and the Maven.

I’m the Maven; I’m constantly scourging the internet, magazines, and books looking to find new thoughts to expand my mind. I read 4 to 5 books a month; I look at 100’s of websites on a regular basis. I’m also very active in various networking functions. This puts me around people that motivate me.

Does personal growth really lead to growth in business?

There are three levels of knowledge in life. That which we know; that which we know that we don’t know, and that which we don’t know that we don’t know. This can be compared to your growth in business. As you grow your business there will be your three levels of business knowledge. That which we know; that which we don’t know, and that which we don’t know what we don’t know.

Personal growth will expand your mind in all these areas.

How is technology changing the way we do business? How is it changing personal growth?

This is one of my favorite topics:

1. Thomas Freidman stated in his book, “The World is Flat”, that there is going to be more and more business shifts. That business will relocate to other parts of the world.
2. Tom Peters quoted in his book, “Re-imagine”, that you can’t compete against China in manufacturing, and your ca not compete against Wal-Mart in pricing.
3. Daniel Pink wrote in his new book, “A Whole New Mind” that if the action is routine, that technology will recreate it. Think of it this way, if what you do is repeated, it can be reproduced through technology, and hence human interaction will be eliminated. Just think of the opportunities?

Technology is changing personal growth in many different ways, i.e. Blogs, Vlogs (video blogs), see www.youtube.com, Pod casting, video streaming, etc. Information will become more accessibly and segmented. Think of it this way: It wasn’t that long ago, if we wanted to see a motivational speaker, it would cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, not to mention the time spent traveling to the show. Now, just today, I listened to Daniel Pink on the internet, as I watched his Power Point, it was awesome.

Let me put this in perspective; I can go to Google and search just the topics I need to watch, or read, and store it for later.

What is the quickest way to “make it” in business?

There is no magic pill, no quickest way to make it in business.

There is a right way though, that will help you avoid the pit falls, and speed up the process. First develop a good business plan, a clear and precise plan. Set goals, than take massive and consistent action to achieve your goals. Finally hire a business coach, to hold you accountable to your plan.

Do you Blog?

I started blogging around a year ago, when I first discovered what blogging was. I spent hours studying the blogging phenomenon, reading and looking at thousands of them from all over the world. I spent more hours commenting on them than actually writing myself. This question has made me rethink of writing again though.

What one piece of advice would you leave with our readers?

I would encourage all readers to take time for these four things:

1) Learn to manage time. We all have the same amount of time, the difference between the successful people and the no-successful, is what they do with the time they have. Remember this about time, once it’s spent, unlike money, we can never make anymore.

2) Find your Enduring Purpose, or Personal Mission. Answer the question, “why am I here?” This will serve as your internal compass, directing you through the hard times.

3) Build a dream list. Take a pad of paper and write no less than 50 dreams. Write the things you would love to do if time, money, and failures not part of the equation. This will expand and strengthen your imagination, along with programming your subconscious.

4) Finally take time out every day to review and reflect on your life. The majority of people just live their life with out taking time to improve or correct problems that keep reoccurring. This needs to be practiced early in the morning, before you get the day started. It should be a half hour of no distraction. You should also keep a journal of your thoughts for periodical reviewing. This is what we call working ON your life and not IN your life.

Paul Gruber is a Florida based achievement coach whose enduring purpose is: “To help people grow, by carefully hearing them, before being heard. Help others to dream, by teaching that the only difference between dreams and knowledge, is knowledge has limitation. Give to those who want to receive, using the principal that the teacher will appear when the student is ready, and continually be searching for the student.” To get in touch with Paul, call (941) 234-3553, or send an email to paulgruber@hotmail.com.