Heinlein Group

Yay, Teamwork! by Kris Harty, guest blogger #teamwork #living #attitude @KrisHarty

Jay Heinlein — Tue, 08 May 2012 01:31:12 +0000

Yay, Teamwork!
Guest Blog for Jay Heinlein
© Kris Harty 5-6-2012

demotivationalposters.org

I’m not a team player.

At least I never thought I was.

I’ve long despised being placed on teams and told what we need to collectively accomplish. I don’t use the word hate often or lightly, but I hated working on teams in the workplace. Before that, I hated it throughout my school years.

Why this longtime, intense dislike of being on a team?

Those who do, do.

Those who slack, slack.

Which of those two categories do teamwork-haters most often belong to? Hmmm??

Yep, I was and am a doer. Being lumped in with slackers and making up for their slackiness so that I’m not penalized, really frosts my buns, as they say. If my name is on a project, it’s going to be the best I can make it be.

It’s not in me to do something half, ummm, baked.

That’s a problem for a doer. We want it done well, even when we pay the bigger price to ensure its well-doneness. The problem comes in when we feel resentment toward the slackers. They get the same credit the doers get, at half the cost.

The slackers don’t care if they’re resented. They don’t care if the project is not done well. Nor are they concerned about contributing to its quality. They know for every group created, there will be a doer in it.

(Intentional groaner pun alert): It’s enough to make a doer die.

I understand that people who play sports have a different attitude toward teams. They like them.

I never experienced that kind of team; the kind that is together because they enjoy a common passion. My Walking Sticked body wasn’t capable of playing sports. Maybe I missed out on something more than I realized.

This year, I joined a choir. First time ever. I’ve really enjoyed it. Why is it that until our concert last night, I never realized a choir epitomized teamwork?

What makes 120 people stop talking and start producing intentional sound together, and agree to practice to make it sound good? I hate to say it,

but that sounds like teamwork.

And I liked it.

I remember only one workplace team (maybe two) that truly worked together

as a team, as individuals and as a group, and independently of management telling us what to do. It was a dream job for each of us. We loved it. We loved what we did. We loved who we did it for. We were a work family. We shared a common vision and mission, not because someone told us to, but because we intrinsically shared the same values and passion.

That was teamwork. It was good. I liked it.

If a work partnership of two can be considered a team, then yes, I’ve experienced the goodness in that, too. Again, we shared values and work ethics. And we liked each other.

It’s taken me a long time to hit the delete key on my negative view of teamwork.

That’s because I couldn’t differentiate the all-too-common forced teamwork from teamwork created out of shared passion and vision. That second kind can bring a team together to produce really great work.

In fact, our choir’s teamwork produced a creation that was decidedly glorious and joyful, not only for those of us in the choir, but for those listening and enjoying the fruits of our labors.

It was a Yay Us moment in a world of Yay Me. Go, Us!

There is power in working together for the good, when it truly is good.

The Short Chick with the Walking Stick is Stickability Specialist Kris Harty. Kris encourages those pursuing their passions to Stick To It – Step By Step. Kris speaks, coaches and regularly contributes to online publications. After talking for several years about her passion to write a book, she persevered and published her first book in 2011: A Shot in the Arm and a Strong Spirit – How Healthcare Professionals Help Patients Persevere (available on Amazon and in all bookstores, or more conveniently, on the left hand column of this page of Jay’s blog). Contact Kris to speak inspiring words of perseverance and hope at your upcoming conference. She can be reached through her Web site, ShortChick.com, email Info@ShortChick, or call 1.877.711.KRIS.

Accomplish Your Goals with Effective Branding & Publishing by Athena Dean, guest blogger #publishing #selfpublishing #christian

Jay Heinlein — Wed, 02 May 2012 03:01:25 +0000

This is so fun and exciting! I met Athena Dean way back in the early 90′s while attending a special publishing event – the Seattle Book Fair out on the pier. I was working as Director of Key Accounts for Word Publishing. It was the first time that I have ever been quoted in a book. The quote related to a discussion that Athena and I had about underserved writing talent and authors, whom the “big brand name publishers” weren’t picking up. Athena Dean and her company served them. She has been successfully helping independent writers become published authors since 1991. And, she was doing it when “self-publishing wasn’t cool.”

Accomplish Your Goals with Effective Branding & Publishing

When I ventured into the Christian publishing world, self-publishing was a cuss word, and equal to vanity publishing at best. There were only a couple other self-publishers around…one did work that left their authors looking self-published at best (and badly, at that), and the other did decent work but promoted themselves as a royalty publisher and then turned authors down and offered their author-funded option for 5,000 copies.

It really wasn’t that hard to look good next to those two options!

After my own positive self-publishing experience

in the ministry, selling 10,000 copies in less than two years and then having Multnomah Publishers buy the rights,

giving self-publishing credibility became my mission and I believe I accomplished that goal.

As I began sharing our success story at Christian writers’ conferences across the country, the mood began to change. Aspiring authors were getting fed up with the royalty houses and their demands,

and realized that self-publishing in a professional manner was a viable option for getting into print.

Some authors I worked with wanted to use self-publishing to develop a platform and audience for their message.

Others utilized this publishing model to prove to a publisher that they were worth investing in and there was an actual readership for their work. Still others were in ministry or speakers who needed resources to be available for their constituents at workshops, conferences, retreats, or other event venues.

And finally, there were those whose topic was time-sensitive or they needed books for a big event and couldn’t wait the two plus years it would take to publish with a royalty publisher.

No matter the reason, having a book in print and available can accomplish many things for the author,

not the least of which is a door opener to media, both local/regional and in many cases national as well. But a book, written and edited well, and designed in a way that does not scream “self-published” can also help an author establish themselves and/or their ministry as a resource to others.

You become the go-to person on your topic, the content-provider for blogs, e-zines, websites and newsletters targeting the same market as your demographic.

The most important strategy is for you, as the author, to brand yourself in a way

that sets you apart from others with a similar message.

How are you different, relevant, unique?

What problems or challenges do you help your readers solve?

What’s in it for them?

How will they benefit by reading your book and looking to you for solutions?

Once you’ve answered these questions, begin the process of developing your brand,

your logo and colors or “look”, your tagline, and your sales copy. Keep in mind, you can’t just name yourself “America’s Financial Counselor” unless it’s a true statement , so be careful not to get too grandiose with your tagline.

Part of this process should be to clearly identify your market;

who needs to read your book and come to you for answers?

What gender, age, income bracket, and spiritual outlook (i.e. believer or unbeliever)?

Do they share a specific need or past challenge?

The more specific you can be with describing your reader, the better.

Fact is, if you think “everyone” needs to read your book, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.

It’s just simply an unrealistic expectation.

So I encourage you to narrow it down to a much more clearly defined group of people who have something in common.

As you develop the presentation of your brand,

make sure your website, blog, and marketing materials all match—fonts, colors, graphics and design.

You need brand consistency and a professional presentation whether it’s online or offline, one color or four.

There are many more concepts to consider during your process of branding and publishing the message God has given you.

Be sure to cover the entire process in prayer and ask those who love and support you to hold you up in prayer for an extra dose of God’s wisdom on how to best glorify Him in the entire process.

It’s an exciting journey to engage in and I trust that the Lord will help you every step of the way!

As a three-time self-published author and co-founder/former owner of what became the biggest and most well-known Christian self-publishing company, Athena Dean has coached hundreds of authors through the daunting task of book production and promotion. Since 1991 she has helped bring the degree of credibility for self-published works to the high level of acceptance in the industry it enjoys today. She now coaches authors through the publishing process under her Your Publishing Coach banner. www.yourpublishingcoach.net

Investing the Heart Wisely by Sherry Cothran, guest blogger #spirit #yoga #healing #artist #inspiration #divine

Jay Heinlein — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 12:00:06 +0000

Investing the Heart Wisely

It seems each morning, I awake with an inspiration in my mind, as if it has been churning all night in my sleep and the urgency of it seems to bubble over (unintentionally?) into recognition. However, it only lasts a few moments and then

I have to coax the idea into the daylight, so hesitant these ideas are to come out of the dream state, it must be incredibly comfortable in there.

Anyway, this morning, as I awoke, I thought of the urgent demands that seem to occur on multiple levels in my life, how I am responding to these demands and what that is doing to me over time. In other words, there are questions deep within as to how I am investing my heart. Certainly, there are just normal demands that come from the job that I do, I am a minister in a local parish, demands for which I am paid. But the deeper question is

at what level is my heart engaged in these demands in ways that are counterproductive for me and for the community that I serve?

There is a saying from the sacred text of my tradition,

“What does it profit a person to gain the world and lose your soul?”

In what ways are these “demands” simply my own projections of the need to be acceptable and accepted?

Are these demands that are really there or am I creating them to fulfill a need for acceptance? Am I investing my heart in projections?

I know I am not alone in this, the deep human need to feel accepted is what drives us to find it and we are anxious until we do.

Paul Tillich said, “we are anxious unto our death.”

We are unable to accept ourselves and so unable to receive acceptance by God and others. Or, we are unable to accept God within ourselves.

My self is beginning to question me in these early waking moments.

Exactly what am I investing in? Is it all a projection? The inspiration that bubbled over into my waking moments was that perhaps I am investing my heart in ways that are harmful for it, or my heart was invested in these ways of being before I had the ability to understand or choose them for myself.

Awakening or enlightenment is the ability to choose how you invest your heart and the alignment with honesty.

In yoga, we practice vulnerability through poses that open the heart.

“Heart openers,” we call them. The idea is to open areas that have become sealed off to movement, stuck, as it were, in a perpetual state of shock or immobility.

This comes from burying pain, resentment, hurt, memories and other unpleasant things deep within the body, stored there for an indefinite period, so that one can mutter through life.

It can also come from severe overextension of oneself, over investment of the heart.

Over time, (this is my particular belief) as these things are buried in the body or the body has written checks on the spirit and mind that it can no longer cash, the body becomes weary of carrying the burdens around and has a tendency to send messages as physical or emotional pain or just the plain sensation of becoming “stuck.” As a friend of mine once put it, “my body just gets all stove up, ” slang for “mashed, broke, destroyed or otherwise damaged.”

An expression of becoming mired in the constant doing that our 21^st Century lives seem to require.

As one practices the poses (they all have names I can’t pronounce or remember)

one begins to pay attention to these messages, to the ways in which the body has become “stove up” and becomes more open to communicating with the body. The layers are peeled back and one is able to identify the areas of pain and begin the path to healing. At least, this has been my experience. I have often had to stop my practice for a couple of weeks so that the healing of my body can catch up.

I have found that this is a common reaction.

As one begins to heal physically, the spirit comes along and we begin to seek out ways to heal the spirit as well through spiritual paths.

We see this pattern over and over again in Jesus’ actions and teachings. First, he would heal the body, then provide a pathway of healing for the spirit.

His work is about identifying suffering, providing healing and offering a pathway to the resurrection of the spirit, this is one of the reasons we refer to it as salvific, it saves, restores, preserves the soul.

Always pointing us to the work and presence of God in the world (and in ourselves) and getting us to invest our hearts in it …in benevolence, compassion, kindness, peace…these kinds of things.

On the path to healing, you may seek to go deeper into your own religious tradition (as the Dalai Lama told Thomas Merton) or locate a new tradition to become a part of.

Ideally, healing is found in a healthy community that practices compassion, love of God, self and others. In my particular location, I practice Christianity, it is a tradition that I know deeply and I belong to it, I follow the teachings of Jesus and my yoga practice seems to be a good companion for the journey. Yoga enables me to identify those practices that are healthy for me. Just like any religious tradition, Christianity is susceptible to unhealthy leadership and inauthentic community practices, it is important to be able to identify these and feel a sense of freedom or ownership of your choice.

Yoga teaches you that you are in charge of your practice, it gives you a sense of responsibility for your choices.

This is a tenet of sound spiritual teaching.

As one trains the body, mind and spirit to cooperate together in a practice of doing and being,

tension and release, action and meditation, one comes to know oneself in deeper and more meaningful ways, trusting your choices of how you invest your heart, a courageous vulnerability to the world rather than a life of enslavement to demands.

I am working on this.

This poem, by one of the Sufi poets, Hafiz,

was particularly meaningful for me about ten years ago when I was going through a life transition and I have recalled it lately. I was on a spiritual retreat at Gethsemane, a Trappist monastery in Bardstown, KY, and the home of Thomas Merton. I was staying at an inn that was provided by local nuns and one of them was offering daily consultation.

She shared this poem with me for my journey, I copied it in my journal and I share it with you:

We have not come here to take prisoners

But to surrender ever more deeply

To freedom and joy.

We have not come into this exquisite world

To hold ourselves hostage from love.

Run, my dear,

From anything

That may not strengthen

Your precious wings

Run like hell, my dear

From anyone likely

To put a sharp knife

Into the sacred, tender vision

Of your beautiful heart.

We have a duty to befriend

Those aspects of obedience

That stand outside of our house

And shout to our reason

O please, o please come out and play.

For we have not come here to take prisoners

Or to confine our wondrous spirits

But to experience ever and ever more deeply

Our divine courage, freedom and

Light!

-Hafiz

Sherry Cothran is a singer-songwriter and musician whose artist discography includes releases on Mercury/DAS Records (NY), Flying Sparks, (London) as the lead singer for the highly acclaimed rock/alternative band, The Evinrudes, and as a solo artist on Rain Records (Nashville.) Her songs have appeared in radio, movies and t.v., including the independent movie Novem and the t.v. series, “Men in Trees,” and “Medical Investigator.”

Sherry’s latest artist endeavor, a CD entitled, “Sunland,” focuses on modern interpretations of women’s stories from the Hebrew Bible. Sunland has been adapted into a four week spiritual enrichment course. The course includes biblical study, contemporary interpretation, and the use of song and songwriting workshops: “An immersion into the World of Ancient Women through song, story and creative interpretation.”

My Philosophy of Healing by Valerie Montgomery, guest blogger #health #healing #emotions #living #potential

Jay Heinlein — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 01:30:01 +0000

What does it take to get closer to your goals of healthier living?

Some might say a medical physical. Others would chime in with going to church, synagogue, or mosque more often. How about getting in better physical shape through exercise, nutrition, or better sleep?

And, I’d say all of these are great ideas.

But, there is one other method you may not have thought of: Cleaning up your emotional garbage dump.

What do I mean by emotional garbage?

Well, it’s that part of our lives that we seldom know how to work through. So, instead of processing and recycling the lessons, we sometimes stuff them, or dump them, or sweep them under the rug.

So, in effect, they don’t just go away…they accumulate.

Let’s look at an example of this.

Johnny is 13 years old. He got a poor grade in his science class in 8th grade. He also has his girlfriend dump him. Now he finds out his parents are getting separated. What does he do with these situations? Probably he does what his parents do with their life changes; they eat more, drive more recklessly, or yell at each other.

In effect, they do not address them. They do not process through the meaning of these events and the emotional effect they have on our experience.

These experiences do not just go away because the calendar or the clock has progressed in time.

Emotions do not follow the space-time continuum.

We cannot logic our way out of having them. The only way out of them is through them. Counselors call this “processing.” A metaphor might help with this concept. Let’s say you’re mining for diamonds. You think you might have found one, so you hold it up in the air, let the sunshine penetrate it, and examine it from all angles. This is what we do with those stored up emotions once we find them. We examine it for meaning, conclusions drawn from long ago that have built our decision-making process.

The question is, are these templates for life working for us anymore?

One way to identify emotional garbage is to notice the “steam vents.”

You know, the way you behave that you don’t admire too much. You look back at these incidents and try to justify your behavior. Friends or family may not call you as much as they used to. You are unhappy. Your mate is unhappy. You may have a “bad attitude.” Notice whether your life is as you expected.

Have you arrived at happy?

All of these represent an opportunity to look at other ways of functioning.

To the extent you can process through the pain you will be able to feel the joy of living.

Welcome to Emotional Health and an abundant life!

Valerie Montgomery, BSW, MA, NCC, LPC
Author, Speaker, Owner/Psychotherapist at Beyond Beautiful, LLC
“I enjoy helping women realize their potential!”
As a Licensed Professional Counselor, author Valerie Montgomery creatively supports each client as they pass through their life challenges, meeting women where they are and holding them as they become more aware of themselves and where they want to be.

Valerie’s book of verse, Beyond Beautiful – A Journey of Hope and Discovery, is an extension of Valerie’s support and presents an opportunity for the women in your life to be held as they journey through the pain with Valerie, and then be amazed as they find the beauty in themselves from the process. Join the author on her journey and find that you, too, are Beyond Beautiful.

“Connect Me to What I Love” by Sherry Cothran, guest blogger #spirituality #peace #love #yoga

Jay Heinlein — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 21:14:58 +0000

“Connect me to what I love,”

an inner dialogue spoken silently as a prayer during my yoga practice and all day long. It is sometimes difficult to connect to what we love because we are afraid to reveal ourselves in this manner. To love is to be vulnerable and with our awful, daily awareness of that terrible, powerful knowledge of the tree of life, we simply just find it easier to armor ourselves against the emotion, just as Adam and Eve clothed themselves in God’s presence.

We are embarrassed by our need for love, ashamed of the situation of vulnerability that it creates in us and so we desperately cling to whatever insulates or shields us against this reality.

Day after day

of covering, shielding, insulating what is beautiful about us, the ability to love and be loved in a genuine, authentic manner, causes us to lose our connection with love. To attempt to love, we know all too well, is to risk and find rejection. We are tired of risking, tired of rejection. We have thrown our love about to those who would not invest in it, to those who abused it, to those who just did not care and we are done with all that.

Carrying the loose armor around with me, hurt but still open, dragging around my heavy shield of pain.

Suspicious of love, this is how I entered my yoga practice so many months ago.

So, I learned

slowly, that I have to tell my body that it is safe to re-connect with what I love, it is still there, after all, the body does not forget such genuine, authentic states, it preserves them. I have had to learn to trust what is there, to work through the unnecessary layers of hurt and the deposited resentment, and trust the force of love in me, the image of God – which is dignity or inherent worth. Peeling away the layers, each day, this mantra,

“connect me to what I love” has opened a new world and the doorway is possibility.

How terribly quick we are closed off to new possibility by hurt, by the pain inflicted by others, the pain we have inflicted upon others and ourselves. However, if, in this pain, we begin to turn to that presence of God within us, realizing that this is a presence that does not desert us, that claims our genuine, authentic selves and renews us in this light as we turn toward it,

we will find healing, we will find what we truly love, what we have always loved and been afraid to find, and begin to understand our journey.

Finding freedom in disappointment is an enormous part of this healing.

Here is a poem I just wrote about disappointment and it is a new response to the same life:

Disappointment is not like fear

It is free from the spell of intention

Free from manipulation

it goes deeper

than ordinary human tricks

Questions trust

Questions friends

Questions love

But even when God is questioned

A presence lingers

Undeniable

There is still so much more to be said

By you.

There is freedom in disappointment

Letting go of those unsettled souls

And their fragile schemes.

Finding, at last, your core belief.

Selah.

Sherry Cothran is a singer-songwriter and musician whose artist discography includes releases on Mercury/DAS Records (NY), Flying Sparks, (London) as the lead singer for the highly acclaimed rock/alternative band, The Evinrudes, and as a solo artist on Rain Records (Nashville.) Her songs have appeared in radio, movies and t.v., including the independent movie Novem and the t.v. series, “Men in Trees,” and “Medical Investigator.”

Sherry’s latest artist endeavor, a CD entitled, “Sunland,” focuses on modern interpretations of women’s stories from the Hebrew Bible. Sunland has been adapted into a four week spiritual enrichment course. The course includes biblical study, contemporary interpretation, and the use of song and songwriting workshops: “An immersion into the World of Ancient Women through song, story and creative interpretation.”

Smoke and Mirrors by Kris Harty, guest blogger #realbeauty #innerbeauty #beauty #vanity #pride

Jay Heinlein — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 12:00:01 +0000

Smoke and Mirrors
Guest Blog for Jay Heinlein
©Kris Harty 4-7-2012

Mirror, mirror on the wall…

You’ve probably heard of Samantha Brick by now. She’s the British woman who wrote an article saying that women hate her because she’s beautiful. The outpouring of hatred toward her surprised me and got me thinking. Yea, watch out.

The issue Samantha brings up is important. Not because of the surface reason of why she wrote the article nor for the surface reactions she’s encountering.

The topic of beauty goes much deeper than that. Beauty really is more than skin deep.

We humans are a strange lot.

We obsess about our looks. We primp and preen and engage in botox, surgeries, hair color, makeup, clothes, shoes, jewelry, diets, exercise and any other activity or object that may improve our looks.

Yet when we hear one person declare herself attractive and say that she’s felt jealousy from others because of it, we vilify that person?

We justify our actions in all kinds of ways, from saying she’s not as beautiful as she thinks she is, to saying her personality is arrogant and that must be the reason why people don’t like her.

Perhaps both of those claims are true. Or perhaps not. I don’t know.

Attractiveness is objective.

Many of the photos that ran with Samantha’s article but which were not commonly shown in US media, show what most people would say is an attractive person.

Is she arrogant or confident? I can’t fairly say based on her article.

And if she were a man who stated he was handsome, would he be vilified for doing so?

Based on the alarming rates

of surgical procedures, injections and the burgeoning beauty industry as a whole, and witnessing such an adverse reaction to one person’s experiences,

my best guess is that ours is a country either full of itself or desperately lacking any kind of self-esteem.

We claim we want to raise our daughters with a healthy sense of acceptance of their looks and appreciation for their own physicality.

Yet when those girls grow into women, we apparently want to take them down a peg for expressing any such confidence?

The older I get, the more grateful I am to my parents.

They never mentioned looks to us kids when we were growing up. Nothing negative. Nothing positive. No nicknames based on appearance, not even cutie pie. It was a moot issue simply because looks were irrelevant to who a person chose to be.

Their thinking served me well as a child and as an adult.

Growing up with a visible handicap means you continually receive feedback from the world and how it sees you.

That’s an article for another day. But what it taught me early on was to learn how to dismiss those who judged others on appearance. I had to find my own value internally, not externally.

For most of my life, I focused on doing what I needed to do to get through each day. There weren’t enough resources of time, energy and money to cover the basic necessities, let alone superficial extras. When my adolescent peers were all about appearance, I was invisible.

It wasn’t until middle age that I began to physically feel good enough to devote extra energy and effort to my appearance. And still, it’s not my top priority.

Anyone who’s ever seen me on a routine, daily basis will attest to that.

For the first time in my life , when time and occasion allow for it, I enjoy making myself up and doing the girly-girl thing.

I’m amazed at what I can pull off when I put the effort toward it. Yes, I can even say at times I’ve looked beautiful.

Is that conceited? Maybe, maybe not. I can tell you, honey, I don’t look that good when I get up in the morning or when I go to bed at night. Smoke and mirrors.

Those tools are available to everyone, and with a little practice, most of us can look more amazing than we realize.

I can also tell you that when I do go for the glam, I’m treated differently by the outside world.

I’m treated amazingly better. I receive more attention and help than I do when I’m not so attractive. And dare I go so far as to say that on limited occasions, I’ve felt the sting of other women who seemed, incomprehensibly, jealous? I’m not sure. As someone who is 4’6”, and walks with a Walking Stick and pronounced limp,

I’m not had much experience with the concept of being envied.

When I first started bothering with putting myself together,

a friend had to correct my distorted viewpoint on why more people were staring at me. I’ve always only known stares for negative reasons, not positive. “Kris, you’re beautiful. That’s why people are staring at you today.” It took me a long time to accept that.

Now I find it to be an interesting study in humankind to see the correlation between how I look on a particular day to how I’m treated that particular day.

If Samantha Brick experiences the positive and negative side of humanity and realizes why she’s treated as she is, isn’t she a step ahead of those who condemn her out of the ugliness they carry inside?

Maybe we’d all do well
to look in that inner
mirror more often.

The Short Chick with the Walking Stick is Kris Harty, Stickability Specialist. As an avid entrepreneur herself, Kris encourages small business entrepreneurs, especially healthcare entrepreneurs and professionals, as well as anyone pushing themselves toward a better life, to persevere, Step By Step, and Stick To It – No Matter What! Kris speaks, coaches and regularly contributes to online publications. After talking about writing a book for several years, she finally persevered and published her first book in 2011: A Shot in the Arm and a Strong Spirit – How Healthcare Professionals Help Patients Persevere (available on Amazon and in all bookstores, or more conveniently, on the left hand column of this page of Jay’s blog). Contact Kris to speak inspiring words of perseverance and hope – or networking – at your conference. She can be reached through her Web site, ShortChick.com, email Info@ShortChick, or call 1.877.711.KRIS.

Why Should You Consider Delegating to a Virtual Assistant? by Suzie Kummins-Poirier, guest blogger #efficiency #productivity #timemanagement

Jay Heinlein — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:52:17 +0000

Many of the daily business tasks that consume your time can be effectively outsourced, enabling you to focus on what is important, rather than on what needs to be done.

Think about what you would do with an additional 4 hours per week, or 16 hours per month?

How would you invest that time in your organization?

What administrative details do you really need to be doing, or not doing?

Are you caught up in back-end details that should be delegated?

A simple exercise to discover what you can delegate to your virtual assistant

is to keep a daily log of your tasks and projects’, noting how much time was spent on each, even being mindful of the interruptions.

Each of these facets helps you to see how your time is spent.

Looking back to the log, do you see items that should have taken you 15 – 30 minutes but may have take longer due to unforeseen distractions, or because you had to “figure out” how to complete the task?

Keeping track for a few days or a week will help you to see where and how your time is being spent.

Upon review of your time sheet, think about what you should have delegated.

Did you spend unnecessary hours performing more admin tasks?

Were there other more vital business details that were overlooked or passed over because you were doing busy work, or trying to figure out how to complete the task?

How do you want or need to invest your time in your company?

Delegating is a proven tool to increase your productivity, time management and effectiveness. Many important administrative tasks can be outsourcing to a professional Virtual Assistant who already has the knowledge or skill to be able to complete your tasks efficiently, without interruption and in a much timelier manner than you may be able to.

With your projects being successfully executed and completed, you will gain valuable hours in your day to work ON your business rather than IN it.

Delegation Tips for Control Freaks

Don’t Do it All Yourself! Margo’s Easy Delegation Tips!

Why not start today?

“Don’t be a bottleneck.

If a matter is not a decision for the President or you, delegate it.

Force responsibility down and out.

Find problem areas, add structure and delegate.

The pressure is to do the reverse. Resist it.”
-Donald Rumsfeld

Ace Concierge is your professional resource, your partner for delegation and outsourcing.
We will keep you on time, on task, and being productive with our virtual administrative solutions, while you focus on your income generating business details.
603-485-2237
|SKYPE: aceconcierge
Twitter: @aceconcierge
info@nhvirtualassistant.com

The 3 Keys To Becoming a Best-Selling Author (part 1) by Alane Pearce, guest blogger #author #bestseller #books #publishing

Jay Heinlein — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 03:08:03 +0000

What are the 3 Keys To Becoming a Best-Selling Author? That is, beyond ‘Promote! Promote! Promote!’?

If you want to reach the goal of being a promoted and purchased author (leading you to becoming a best-selling author), there are three things you must do to propel your success.

Make a Plan To Get The Word Out About Your Book

Be Persistent, Consistent and Glued

Analyze, Adjust and Repeat

This three part blog series will help you learn about and implement those three steps.

First, you must repeat this mantra with me:
I will make a plan and stick with it
I will make a plan and stick with it

Good! One more time: I will make a plan and stick with it!

Part 1: The Plan

Most authors fail miserably at book promotion, not just because it is hard for a creative person to put on a promotion hat, but also because most authors don’t know how or where to start.

Many successful writers will tell you that if you want to be a successful writer then you need to dedicate time to write every day. You should set a word or page goal and then sit down daily and meet that goal. That’s a good plan for a writer.

If you want to be a best-selling author, you need a similar plan. A plan that dedicates time each week or every day for you to get the word out about your book. A plan that takes the work, “salesy language” and stress out of your promotion

so it is just second nature for you to send out a press release or update a social media page.

A good plan consists of these things

Daily tasks organized in a way that help you reach your sales goal

A good mix of promotional activities (that don’t sound or feel promotional) that you can do on social media or in person

A good idea of your target market and how to reach them

Ideas about what you can do to get higher rankings with online search engines

A pre-planned editorial calendar and posting plan for your social media

Time set aside each day or each week to write blogs, interact on social media, follow up on press releases, get booked to speak, etc.

Short-term (2 months to 1 year) and long-term (1-3 years) goals for the success of your book

I have found that when I take a few days to break the big picture down into small daily tasks, it doesn’t seem as overwhelming.

When I’m finished creating the daily or monthly tasks to get me to my long-term goal, it’s easy to implement (and I have no more excuses to procrastinate).

One of my clients told me when she first hired me to help her with her book, “There is no way I’m promoting this book. I just don’t want to do it.” After working with me for a few months, and seeing her book become a reality, she decided that people really did need to know about her amazing book. Together we developed a plan, created some marketing materials and she went to town. As a result of following her plan, my client/author has been:

Invited to speak or display her book at many key events

Covered by her local media

Promoted on different blogs and websites

Interviewed by a major national magazine

Noticed by many key people in her niche market

In her first three weeks publicizing her book, she sold over 100 copies which is not bad for a first-time very newbie author. I believe she’ll soon sell 10,000 copies if she sticks with her promotion plan.

So now its your turn.

Think about the goals you want to make that will help you become a best-selling author. Then plan out the tasks you think you need to do to meet those goals. Remember to consider your target audience and create a good mix of online and personal interaction.

Once you have your plan, work on it every day.

Publicizing your book is just as important as writing it.

Maybe even more important.

Write On!

Alane

About Alane Pearce
Author Coach |Publishing and Promotion Consultant Professional Writing Services

With a degree in journalism and marketing, and experience publishing her own books, Alane Pearce has the skills to successfully help new writers create, publish and promote their books. She has helped many writers realize their dreams of becoming published and promoted authors.

Alane has been published in Today’s Christian Woman, The Busy Woman’s Guide to a Balanced Life, Faith and Family Magazine, Military Spouse Magazine online, 365 LifeVerse Devotional, and Faith Deployed…Again. She also appears as a guest blogger on FaithDeployed.com, Wives in Bloom online Magazine, ChristianMilitaryWives.com and MilitaryMoves.com.

Alane is a natural encourager and loves writing, teaching and author coaching so she can help the people she meets become the best that they can be.

For more information please visit AlanePearce.com.

Too New to Make a Difference? by Kris Harty, guest blogger #value #impact #purpose #nursing

Jay Heinlein — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 03:55:27 +0000

This is an account of a rare opportunity, which included my getting to be a witness to a miracle… that is the miracle of discovery and wisdom…
mutually imparted. The student asking in sincerity, and the teacher responding from the resulting epiphany… pure beauty… thankful for that
jh

“How wonderful it is that nobody
need wait a single moment before
starting to improve the world.”
-Anne Frank

“The purpose of life
is not to be happy
- but to matter,
to be productive,
to be useful,
to have it make some difference
that you have lived at all. ”
-Leo Rosten

A single, simple question from my audience member sticks with me.

Her question during a recent state conference stirred something in me that wouldn’t let go.
“As a student nurse and a soon-to-be-new nurse, am I really able to effectively help my patients?”

Wow. Her sincerity and doubt caught me off-guard.

Holy cow – if professionals with advanced technical and scientific training doubt their effectiveness, how do the rest of us ever make it past the beginning stages of our chosen fields?

Here’s what I think.

I think that no matter who we are or what our background is, if we’re being honest with ourselves, we never feel like we quite measure up. We wait to be found out and for the gig to be over.

Granted, we may have more doubts at the beginning of a career than further on, but nonetheless, to some degree, those doubts linger with most of us for the duration. And frankly, if someone doesn’t experience them along the journey, I’m not sure I could or would place a great deal of trust in that person.

Too little doubt seems to equal too much false bravado.

Truth is, most of us don’t recognize the huge impact we have on others, professionally or otherwise.

Going back to the young woman about to graduate from nursing school, her patients do and will see her as an authority on their condition. Her knowledge already far surpasses theirs. Her bedside manner will go a long way in calming their own questions and anxieties.

Will she make mistakes? Will most situations remain a teaching experience for some time to come? Will she ever feel comfortable taking the lead in the nurse-patient relationship?

Yes, three times over.

For this same conference in addition to my keynote, I was asked a handful of days prior to the event, if I could possibly also facilitate a breakout session on networking for nurses.

I let the planner know that the topic wasn’t in my main knowledge base or comfort zone, and that I’d be glad to recommend other speakers who would do a great job for them. They said no, they really wanted me to be the one to do it – and would I?

I was out of my comfort zone.

Even though I’ve learned scads on the topic by my own need as an entrepreneur, I hadn’t formalized any thinking on it.

I certainly hadn’t packaged it nicely to transfer any knowledge I might share.

Did that mean I couldn’t – or that I wouldn’t?

“Ok, I’m glad to help you out, but understand that this is entirely new material and it’ll be a first delivery of it. It’ll lack any fine-tuned polish.” They were ok with that.

Quickly researching and pulling together an hour’s program of material and activities, I began to see a pattern. It struck me that the topic I do know – perseverance – is absolutely required if one is to network well. My comfort level shot up again.

My audience listened intently and actively participated as I delivered the program. The evaluation sheets helped me move forward with new ideas to implement and encouragement that I’d already imparted new, usable, relevant information in their upcoming searches. By saying yes to what was outside my comfort zone of expertise, I now had a new program offering and new product and service ideas. I knew more than I realized I knew.

I had more to offer than what my doubts would have me believe.

I reflected on the umpteen times in my 20 years in Corporate America and how, when starting a new job, I felt completely useless and uncomfortable.

I like to be the expert, the go-to person. As much as I enjoy learning, I prefer to ‘have’ learned than to ‘be’ learning.

The uncomfortableness of not knowing always spurred me on to learn as much as I could, as quickly as I could. I wanted to make the ‘new kid on the block’ feeling go away as soon as possible.

It seems that no matter our age or place or position, if we’re growing and learning, we’ll constantly be ‘the kid.’

That doesn’t mean we have nothing to offer.

As I told the young nurse in my audience, that from my perspective as a formerly chronic patient, I wouldn’t have questioned how long she’d been at her job. I would have only seen her as one whose training equipped her to know far more than me. She would be someone who could allay my anxieties and answer my mostly basic questions.

And if she couldn’t, she’d know who could or she would find the answer.

We’re never too new, too young, too inexperienced to share something of value
–even when we’re unsure of what exactly that is.

The Short Chick with the Walking Stick is Kris Harty, Stickability Specialist. As an avid entrepreneur herself, Kris encourages small business entrepreneurs, especially healthcare entrepreneurs and professionals, to persevere, Step By Step, and Stick To It – No Matter What! Kris consults, coaches, speaks, facilitates and regularly contributes to online publications. After talking about writing a book for several years, she finally persevered and published her first book in 2011: A Shot in the Arm and a Strong Spirit – How Healthcare Professionals Help Patients Persevere (available on Amazon and in all bookstores, or more conveniently, on the left hand column of this page of Jay’s blog).
Contact Kris to speak inspiring words of perseverance and hope – or networking – at your conference. She can be reached through her Web site, ShortChick.com, email Info@ShortChick, or call 1.877.711.KRIS.

Mixed feelings… Sports History – QB Great, Peyton Manning Becomes Denver Bronco #NFL #Tebow

Jay Heinlein — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 04:32:22 +0000

Ancient Olympics - Greece

Sports has and will continue to occupy our attention…

For those of us living in Colorado, there has been a complete domination of our attention for the past few weeks, in regard to the possibility, and now the reality of Peyton Manning becoming the Denver Broncos Quarterback. Manning is possibly the greatest American Football – NFL quarterback of all time. He is certainly one of them.

And the subplot

The Bronco’s current young quarterback, Tim Tebow is very popular in Denver, around the country, and even around the world. Last season he inspired a turnaround from a losing, dismal season into an exciting series of “Mile High Miracles”, a march to a division championship and a playoff win against the heavily favored Pittsburgh Steelers. It was the Bronco’s first playoff win in 5 years. Tebow will likely be traded now.

Peyton Manning, Tim Tebow

Peyton Manning - Denver Broncos

Tim Tebow

I have mixed feelings…

Happy for the Bronco’s and fans!

And, although Manning will receive compensation that sounds obscene – some $96 million dollars – he is worth every penny and likely more. -from a business standpoint: ticket draw, net commerce to the city and state, and even the draw of more premier talent to the Bronco’s football team… this can’t be disputed. It will be an exciting future for the Denver Bronco’s franchise going forward.

But, it’s also the likely end of something quite special… at least here in Denver, Colorado. Something that has been very unique and special in sports and in life. That is the spotlighting of a talented “good guy” winning with character and spirit.

This was bigger than sports, football, and just winning in the higher score and ranking sense.

This is about someone living what they say they are about

and not being afraid to be that person in front of the world.

And, the world loves him for it.

Thank you for that Tim Tebow.

We will miss you in Denver.

Best to you Sir!