Beloit College recently published their eleventh annual Mindset List about this year’s crop of incoming freshmen. Check it out to understand the perspective of the Class of 2012. For example, Jay Leno has always been the host of The Tonight Show for this group. Bring up Johnny Carson only if you’re prepared to explain who he was! —— —— Putting it into con-text We have a friend who thinks they lack social skills. He believes they’re so busy texting that they’ve never developed the ability to communication personally. We disagree – we think they’re very social. A generation before, we e-mailed or called someone on their cell phone instead of texting. In our mind, the only difference is the medium used. We wanted to dig a little deeper to fully understand the perceptions of young people in their late teens and early twenties. After all, they’re the ones who will be coming to us for employment in the near future. The Media Center at the American Press Institute calls this group of people the “Content Generation” – they use text, videos, and photos (often generated from their cell phones) to connect and inform. Understanding the paradigm They have witnessed September 11, corporate scandals, mass layoffs, sweat shops, the burst of the dot.com bubble, and now the subprime mortgage crisis. When they think of the future, they realize that they will have to fund their own retirement while they start and raise a family. Since their parents are older than previous generations, they will also likely have to care for them at some point in their lives. The workplace for the next generation All of these things impact the jobs they will choose. They don’t expect to stay at the same company for their entire career. They won’t necessarily take the job that pays the most either – they’re looking for more than money. This generation grew up with Tom Peters and the idea of Me, Inc. They understand personal branding and seek lifelong employability. So two of the most important components of a good job are: Personal and professional growth – They want a job that helps them develop skills that will be valuable in their career and at home. Work – life balance – They want a job that allows them to enjoy their lives now. They’re not willing to wait until they retire to “live”. They want to work for people in a company that truly values its employees. These people live the values they talk about. They follow through on what they say. They’re authentic. For example, if you say you’re “green”, you better be green. You recycle. You use energy-efficient light bulbs. You work to reduce paper use. And that’s just the start! We admire them because they’ve figured out some important things already that we didn’t have worked out at their age. They have a lot of potential. Time will tell if they live up to it. Get the tips and tools you need to be a BIGG success. Subscribe to the Bigg Success Weekly – it’s FREE! Next time, with the Democratic Convention wrapping up, we’ll talk about donkeys. Until then, here’s to your bigg success! Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes.  Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed. Related posts Age Matters: Bridging The Generation Gap Are Twenty Somethings Getting A Bad Rap? (Image by sintex, CC 2.0) Less

When you meet someone for the first time, the hardest part is usually just getting the conversation started. But sometimes it’s also hard to keep it going. We did some research and found a lot of articles on the internet about starting a conversation, but few about keeping it going. We also found that many suggestions for conversation starters would probably be better conversation “continuers”. So we thought we’d focus on that part of the conversation today.  With some people, it’s tough to keep the conversation going. They may be extremely shy or you might just not “click” with them. In those cases, you may just have to resign yourself that it’s not going to happen and move on. 6 ways to keep the conversation going One simple way to keep a conversation going is to ask questions. Don’t get too personal. Keep it light-hearted. Also, don’t fire them off so rapidly that the other person starts to feel like they’re being interrogated. We use this one a lot, particularly early in a conversation. But here are six of our favorites ways to keep it going: #1 – “What’s the best book you’ve read recently?” Variations could be best movie, TV show, or music they’ve heard. #2 – Offer up some interesting trivia. Just don’t go Cliff Claven on them! If you’ve heard something that intrigued you, and it’s germane to the conversation, share it! For example, we heard not long ago that 80% of all men said they would marry the same woman all over again. However, only 50% of all women said they would marry the same man. Can you see an interesting conversation coming out of that tidbit? #3 – “If you could trade places with one celebrity, who would it be?” Variations could be favorite actor, or you could limit it to favorite living actor, etc. #4 – “If you could do college all over again, what would you get your degree in?” This question also has many interesting variations. For example, you could ask them what’s the one class they would like to take now. #5 – “What are you working on that’s fun?” We heard this one from our friend Chris Brogan. It makes “What do you do?” seem boring, doesn’t it. We loved this question the first time we heard it. #6 - Create a game. We like to come up with a word of the night or phrase of the day. It’s an interesting word that naturally came up in the conversation. Ideally, it’s a word or phrase with a double meaning of some sort. Then see how many times it can be worked into the discussion. What’s your favorite way to keep a conversation going? Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes.  Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.   Related posts Mingle Bells: Networking tips for your next party Don’t Shy Away From Networking (Image by whitebeard) Less

There’s a great post by Roger Ehrenberg on his Information Arbitrage site. Roger was an investor, board member and leader in Monitor110, a company that planned to become the internet version of Bloomberg. The team had impressive credentials, but ultimately the business didn’t make it. Roger spells out the reasons why. We admire him for sharing these lessons because most of us don’t like to talk about our failures. These are mistakes that any of us could make, so he provides a great opportunity to learn from others. But even more than that, it’s the way he wrote about it that impressed us – he doesn’t cast blame; he just discusses the lessons he learned in the hopes that we may benefit. And we did! That’s why we highly recommend that you read the whole post. We’ll hit his highlights here.   . . 7 mistakes that led to the demise of this business #1 – No single leader Monitor110 had two leaders – a technology person who was one of the founders and Roger, who was a business person. Roger said this structure just didn’t work. This reminded us of the number of times we’ve seen two people start a business. It’s pretty common to split everything 50/50. But it’s a recipe for disaster. In almost all cases, there has to be someone who has the final say for a business to succeed. #2 – The technology-side drove the business This made us think of the number of entrepreneurs who start a business in their craft. They’re technically oriented. They love their product or service, but they ignore what the customer wants and needs. #3 – Too much PR too early Roger’s company was featured on the cover of the Financial Times. You wouldn’t think that would be a problem, would you? But Roger says this raised the bar with everyone – customers, themselves, and financiers … which led to the next problem. #4 – Too much money Too much PR. Which led to too much money. Sounds like a company that’s been blessed. But Roger says the blessing turned into a curse. Because of the great PR, expectations went up significantly. Within the financial community, so money flowed in With their customers And most importantly – with the people of Monitor110. With all these high expectations, they didn’t push a product to market because it needed to be just right. And that didn’t matter because they had a cushion of cash. #5 – Not enough customer feedback By now, you see how all of these mistakes were interrelated. Because of the great publicity, they were afraid to show the customers what they had. They didn’t want to disappoint them and be disappointed. But it wasn’t a problem at the time because they had plenty of money. One mistake was feeding another which was feeding yet another. #6 – Slow to adapt to the market On a post not long ago, we talked about a military concept called OODA loops. OODA is an acronym for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. The idea behind the concept is that by getting into the loop, you gain information. Then, by adapting to what you’ve learned, you gain a competitive advantage. #7 – Disagreements about strategy This stemmed from the technology side and the business side not being able to come to terms. It’s also an outflow of Mistake #1 – without a single leader, it’s hard to have a clear vision. Just get started! All of this made us think of the saying, “You don’t have to get it perfect; you just have to get it going. That’s one of the things that we did with Bigg Success. We talked to a lot of people who had all kinds of great ideas. Some diametrically opposed to each other! We could have easily just got caught in the quagmire. Ultimately, we just launched. It wasn’t perfect – we knew that. We’ve learned a lot. There are things we would do differently if we had it all to do over again. But by launching, we were able to learn from the most important people of all – our community. We learned from you. We’re happy to let you know that you’ll be seeing some bigg additions in the near future. So keep checking in and let us know what you think! We’re listening! Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes.  Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.   Related posts Lessons Learned from a Bankrupt Business Owner    10 Warning Signs of Trouble Ahead for Your Business   (Image by Avolore) Less

La consultora especializada en estrategias de comunicación le dio un retoque a su presencia marcaria con un nuevo logo, brochure y la página web apuestan a una imagen simple, moderna, efectiva e innovadora, reflejando los valores de la compañía. La renovación de la imagen también comunica los nuevos servicios, tales como: ePR (donde a las estrategias [...] Less

We visited with Ron Holohan today on The Bigg Success Show . Ron is a Certified Project Management Professional and is currently the Director of Program Management at Shure in Chicago. Ron also hosts a weekly project management internet radio show called The pm411.org Project Management Podcast, which has consistently been one of the top four project management shows on iTunes. . . We all know that project management can be a stickler. So we asked Ron to share two tips with us to create more effective project status reports. . The first tip is to focus only on the exceptions. What I mean by that is that you don’t want to throw everything in the kitchen sink into your status reports. No one wants to read all that. They want to be able to look at your status report and pull out just the information they need. So focus on the exceptions – those issues that have changed since your previous report. Your audience only gets the information they need so your status report is short and concise. . I think that’s a bigg one. It seems that you often see status reports that look like a “mind dump.” You see all the activity that’s happened since the last report. You get bored with it so you’re not able to help them. might call it stubborn. . That’s right. If someone wants to go back, they can always look at one of your previous reports for more information. . Cut the fat … get to the meat. What’s another tip? . . Another tip is to make your report as easy as possible to read. This is the same kind of ideas as Tip #1. You want to allow your audience to easily scan for details that interest them the most. One way to do that is by using something called “Stoplight Reporting” – you communicate progress by using different colors. A bullet point in green may mean this item is going according to plan. Yellow means that particular item needs to be watched. Red means action is required because that item is starting to go off track. You can actually use blue as well to indicate that particular item has been resolved or completed. . Can you put a “Don’t Walk” in there? . . That would be nice! Use short bullet points. You don’t want to write a paragraph; this isn’t going to win you a Pulitzer Prize. You’re just trying to convey simple facts to your audience. Also, use tables where you can. They’re great for listing things like milestones, budget information, or product material cost. . What’s interesting about this to me is that some people are good with words or numbers, but other people are very visual. So you’re giving your report in a way that allows your audience to consume it the way they prefer. . I prefer stick figures! . . It’s a great system that you’ve outlined with the different colors. You instantly can see what’s going on. Now I assume what you talk about are the “yellows” and the “reds”. . That’s right. So if I was reading the report, my eyes would naturally look for those yellow and red bullets that need my attention the most. . Ron’s freebie! Ron has a free status report template available for you, complete with a Stoplight along with other great templates. Thanks Ron for sharing your fantastic tips with us! Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes.  Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.   ShareThis Less

We were recently invited by Jon Gatrell to be guest posters on his Spatially Relevant blog. We wrote about networking – both online and offline. What sparked our post is a friend of ours who says she thinks social media is a waste of time. We can see her point – she has a stable job in a city she’ll probably never leave. She’s active in her community so she does do plenty of networking. She also cares for a young family at home. . . She’s not alone in her opinion. There’s no doubt that online networking benefits some more than others. But we think everybody should at least dip their toes into the water. Online networking makes it easy to find people that you may not have talked with in some time. Like that colleague at your first job who’s now the President of a company. You can catch up, keep up, and meet up. We have another friend who said that if he hadn’t talked to someone in twenty years or so, he didn’t need to talk to them now!  . I disagree. A prime example – I’m catching up with some of my old high school classmates. It’s interesting to see what businesses they’re in now. Some of them are in similar businesses to what we’re doing here at Bigg Success. So we can talk and help each other with some of the ins and outs of the business. . . It’s easier for me to keep up with people using social media. I know me – I’m not going to write a letter. I’ve probably lost their phone number years ago. Their e-mail address may have changed and I forgot to note it. Social media is just a great way to stay in touch. . It’s also important to build relationships offline as well. We’ve learned this – Bigg Success is, of course, an online business – but we found that it’s vital to meet people offline as well. In fact, we met Jon, and his wife Emily, at a conference. We liked them instantly! Since we met them offline, we got to know their full personalities in a way that wouldn’t have been possible online. However, we’ve been able to keep in touch with them because of the online world. The power comes from merging the two When we hear about a merger in the corporate world, the word “synergy” usually comes up – the whole is greater than the parts. We think the same thing happens when you merge your networking worlds. To take this one step further, think about marketing principles. You don’t just use one form of marketing in a campaign; you use a combination to create better results. And networking is marketing – at least that’s part of the reason we all network. By putting the two together, the results will be better than if you just use one forum. You have two hands … why wouldn’t you use them both? The bottom line – online or off – it’s all about people and building relationships.  Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes.  Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.    Related posts  Relationship Building Blocks 5 Laws of Stratospheric Success 3 Keys to Effective Networking (Image by bjearwicke) ShareThis Less

story links: evolution vs. peanut butter, evolution vs. banana, laraque vs ivanans, bush vs. all people, bush standing vs bush standing, don imus vs. black people, geraldo vs. oreilly, mother vs. son, rumsfield vs. evidence, newt vs. spanish people, list of logical fallacies from the art of reason, post hoc, appeal to majority, appeal to force, appeal to authority, appeal to emotion, begging the question, diversion, non sequiter, subjectivism, straw man, false alternative, ad hominem, tu quoque, poisoning the well, appeal to ignorance, complex question Less

Today on The Bigg Success Show , we welcomed Melissa Giovagnoli. Melissa is an author, speaker, coach and entrepreneur. Of her 11 books, four have been on the best seller’s list and one was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show. She is one of the world’s leading experts on networking and has appeared on The Today Show, CNN, CNBC, and Fox. She was recently named the “best networker in Chicago” by Crain’s. Networking vs. Networlding We asked Melissa for her best networking tip. She says not to think of it as networking, but think of it as networlding, which is the title of one of her books. Networlding expands opportunities rather than limiting them. As a networker, you might set a goal of meeting two people. If you’re a networlder, you would set a goal of meeting two people who you can form a long-term relationship with and build opportunities for you, for them, and for the greater good. The “overstuffed Rolodex syndrome” Many people confuse activity with accomplishment. You leverage your network by thinking about who would be good connections for you. Start with people who have complementary values. With the online world, you can have quality and quantity by being specific about what you ask for to create a vibrant exchange. 7 levels of support Networking isn’t about taking. It’s also not about just giving. You can support people:   Emotionally By providing information By providing knowledge (information plus experiences) By promoting them Through wisdom sharing (the 20 percent that will yield 80 percent) By creating transformational opportunities Community (creating the greatest good for the greatest number) Links to Melissa’s sites networlding2.org This is Melissa’s most interactive community. The goal is for members to support each other in achieving their respective goals. You can create your own profile and build your own private circle around your special interest. Networlding E-Learning Here you’ll get six FREE lessons on networking for business and sales or networking for jobs. Melissa will also help you with writing a book. If you’re really serious about it, contact her. Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes.  Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed. Related posts Relationship Building Blocks 5 Laws of Stratospheric Success 3 Keys to Effective Networking The Two Most Powerful Words You Can Use The Other Pause that Refreshes  ShareThis Less

Rolling Stone interviewed Barack Obama recently. He revealed his iPod play list, which included songs by: Earth, Wind & Fire Elton John The Rolling Stones Sheryl Crow Yo-Yo Ma Jay-Z Bob Dylan Stevie Wonder He said Stevie Wonder is his musical hero. We learn more about him because he shared his musical taste. He’s in touch with the classics and brilliant musicians. He shows his age, yet he’s still in touch with artists of today.  Mary-Lynn says … When I think of Bob Dylan, I think of music with a message … that sense of activism. When I think of Yo-Yo Ma or Stevie Wonder, I think of great musicianship. And I think of the song, I Wish. How when I was working in radio, I was always excited when that song was coming up. I’d crank it when it was on and do my own boogie! George replies …  When I think of Stevie Wonder, I think about the Saturday Night Live skit where he was playing tennis! He got hit by a lot of balls! Seriously, I think of Ebony and Ivory. I’m a lyrics guy. I can picture the keyboard with its ebony and ivory keys. And Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder singing it. It’s powerful! Sharing opens up the conversation So you see what’s happening here. Barack Obama revealed things about himself. Now we’re revealing things about ourselves. When you share, you open up the conversation because the other person finds things to be interested in. So they find you more interesting and get to know you better. And you connect with them. So let’s take a page from the politician’s playbook – they look for every single way they can to connect with people. George’s example: I’m a husband, a business owner, a professor, a blogger, a podcaster, an alum of the best university in the world … the University of Illinois. And the list goes on. Kind of like Sonny & Cher’s beat! It’s how people can relate to you, by finding things in common with you. The more you share, the more you connect That’s why one of our friends says that you should fill out your profile completely on social networking sites, when you join an organization, and at every opportunity. Share as much about yourself and your interests as you feel comfortable sharing. We can learn a lesson from politicians on this – the more you share, the more you connect! Mary-Lynn says … As we prepared for this show, one of the things we talked about is how neither one of us has been listening to much music lately. This really surprises me about myself because I was a musician and a music disc jockey for many years. So music has been an integral part of my life. George replied … That begs the question, Mary-Lynn. Why aren’t you listening to more music now? And I think I know the answer – you get to hear me sing in the shower! What more could you possibly need? Mary-Lynn’s retort … That’s not music to my ears, George! I work at my computer a lot and whenever I am in the car they’re always playing the same songs on the radio. So I just flip to talk.  Connect with yourself Music is an opportunity to connect with others, but more importantly, it lets you connect with yourself. So make time for things that touch you deeply – in your mind, your heart, and your soul.Whether that be music or something else. What do you do to connect to others and yourself? Is there something you used to do that you need to reconnect with? Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes.  Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed. Related posts 7 Ways to Tap into Your Creative Side Does Your Hobby Work For You? Stretch Yourself Anew The Home Stretch Make Your Daily Commute Productive (Image by rollingstone.com) ShareThis Less

Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed When you want to update your friends as to what you’re doing, how do you contact them? Do you call them or email them? Or do you maybe send out a Twitter or MySpace bulletin? Any of these things could take you a lot more time than necessary, having to log into all these different places. How do you know you’re getting your information to everyone, in all places? These sites keep getting more and more plentiful. It’s good… and bad. It’s good because it’s nice to see innovation. It’s bad because people leave one place and become active in another, and then they aren’t staying up-to-date with you! It’s hard to stay updated with all of these places. Luckily, there is a new service that is in private beta that will help. Ping FM is a new service that will make your social networking life much easier. You simply update what you’re doing through their service, and it will shoot it out everywhere you have memberships. At first, there were only a couple of sites listed to shoot them to. Now, they are up to seventeen different places! There are several ways to update, as well. Use your AIM or GTalk accounts, an iPhone or iTouch, shoot off a text message, or an email! You can configure which sites and accounts you want messages to go to. If you’re interested in downloading and trying this out, use the code: letmeping. So check it out for yourself! How much easier can it be to keep everyone clued in on what’s going on with you, at any given time? This is getting a huge thumbs up from me. Hopefully even more services and sites will be added as time goes on! Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video: <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ib4Hd-9dWJs"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ib4Hd-9dWJs" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/">Chris</a> | <a href="http://live.pirillo.com/">Live Tech Support</a> | <a href="http://media.pirillo.com/">Video Help</a> | <a href="http://feeds.pirillo.com/ChrisPirilloShow">Add to iTunes</a> How do you Keep up with all Your Comments? Web Communities and Social Networks Need Transparency How do you Choose to use Twitter? Presence Social Network - Twitter, Pownce, and Jaiku Links from my Twitter Followers The Most Awesome Social Network Ever Who Owns your Comments? A Twittering Teddy Bear for Kid-Hearted People World’s Best MySpace Profile Page Are Personal Home Pages and Blogs Dying? Chris How do You Update your Friends with what’s Happening Now? Less

On the show, George recalled a teacher who made him write a report on what he wanted to be when he grew up. This was junior high; George didn’t know what he wanted to be. Maybe a major league baseball player? So he did his report on being a bricklayer. His dad was a bricklayer, with his own business. When his teacher saw the title of his report, she said, “You mean with your brain, you’re going to be a bricklayer?” George could have taken that comment as an insult about his dad. But his dad was good with his hands and his head. He said he did initially think that he wouldn’t get a good grade. But over time, her comment resonated with him. It helped him, as a young person, be more confident in his mental ability. 4 ways to get a message across The statement and the delivery are both important parts of communicating a message. You can’t necessarily control what your message is, but you can control how you deliver it. #1 – Negative statement, negative delivery Without question, this is the worst way to communicate a message. If someone says something negative to you, in a negative way, they lose a lot. You’re not going to feel better. The relationship won’t be enhanced. You may get defensive or even angry. "Speak when you are angry - and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret.” Dr. Laurence Peter #2 – Negative statement, positive delivery Sometimes the message isn’t positive, but we still need to get the message across. How you say it becomes incredibly important. A good example might be Donald Trump on The Apprentice. He’s said things like, “I love you; I think you’re a great guy, but you’re fired.” Negative messages have to be delivered. However, you can choose to frame them in a positive way. #3 – Positive statement, negative delivery You risk diminishing the real message you’re trying to get across when you have negative overtures. George took away a positive from his teacher’s comment, but he could have just been insulted.  #4 – Positive statement, positive delivery Obviously, this is how you want to frame as much of your communication as you possibly can. This draws people to you. How you respond to messages You also can control how you respond to other people’s messages, no matter how they deliver it. Let’s take the worst one. Someone may hit you with a negative statement and deliver it in a negative way. Pause before you respond. The conversation can go into a tailspin and be completely unproductive or you may be able to turn it around with the right response. And we can be inspired, no matter what the message is or how it’s delivered. We have a friend who remembers being told that he was too small to make the high school football team. That “negative, negative” inspired him to go for it. Not only did he make the team, but he was a starter! Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes.  Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed. Related posts How to Offer Criticism Without Being Critical Are You Smart Enough to Say It Simply?  (Image by danzo08) ShareThis Less

Esta entrevista fue realizada el 18 de junio de 2008 por Oscar Volonterio en el programa radial Todo Pasa que se emite de lunes a viernes, entre las 14 y las 15 horas, por Radio El Mundo, AM 1070. Produccion de Pablo Di Trapani. Tema: Una nueva edición del festival iberoamericano de publicidad y comunicación dedicada [...] Less

Thank you so very, very much for taking time out of your day to look in, or listen in, on us. We can’t fully find the words to express how grateful we are that you give us a little bit of your most precious resource – your time. We promise that we will always try to give you something worthwhile in the five minutes or so you spend with us each day. Why we started Bigg Success We started Bigg Success to build a community of like-minded people. People who want to succeed bigg. Bigg goal-getters we call you. Fun-loving, positive thinking people who are usually happy, but never content. Looking to live your life your way and get to the next level of success. We’re building a community that helps each other. We’re happy to volunteer our time to moderate – to be thought-starters – but we need your help. You see … We don’t know you as well as we want to. And we don’t hear from you as much as we’d like to. Now people in our business tell us that this is normal. But the Bigg Success community isn’t a group of normal people. It’s full of extraordinary people. Over-achievers. People who know they were born to do something bigg and are determined to do it. People like you. The most important thing we know. We know a little about a lot of things and a lot about a few things. But here’s the most important thing we know … All of us know more than any of us. We also know that you’re a quiet group. We know you’re busy. That’s why we keep our content as short as possible while still delivering something to take away every day. But here’s the thing … We can’t make bigg success better without you. Without your participation. We’re happy to bring you our content for free – we’re not asking for money. We’re asking you to give something more valuable – just a little bit more of your time. Because bigg success can’t be a bigger success without you. Without your input. Without your wisdom. Because as the Chinese proverb says … “A single conversation … with a wise person is worth a month's study of books”. And you’re that wise person we want to have a conversation with! So here’s how you can help … Tell us how we can help you. Tell us what you want and need from us. Tell us the answers to these questions: What do you like about Bigg Success? What do you think we could improve upon? What would you like to learn more about? What would you like to see us do differently? How can we help you get to the next level of success? Here’s how to do it now … Share your thoughts by leaving a comment. We know a lot of you have never left a comment anywhere before, but it’s as easy as typing up an e-mail once you’ve done it. The easiest way to find our comment box is to click on the title of the article at the top of the page and then scroll down to the bottom where you’ll see “Leave a Reply”. You’ll notice that a name and e-mail are required. You can just use your first name or even a fake name. You can use your real e-mail address or even a fake one.  Either way, your e-mail address is NOT made public. Nor do we use it in any way or share it with anybody. This requirement just protects us from those dreaded spammers. … and in the future. And then, keep sharing your comments on future posts … Tell us you agree or disagree … we like to hear both. Just tell us why. Tell us what we missed … you’ve had experiences we haven’t had. We want to learn from you too and so does the rest of the Bigg Success community. If you don’t know something, or we didn’t make it clear … ask a question. If you have an answer to someone else’s question … share it with all of us. Everyone wins. Let’s all learn from each other so we all reach our potential. There’s no scarcity of bigg success at Bigg Success. Everyone can benefit. Everyone can win. And yes … RSS subscribers, iTunes subscribers, and Zune subscribers … … we work hard to deliver our content where you want it, but we’re talking to you, too! We want to hear from all of you! Here’s what’s in it for you … By getting involved in the conversation, we can choose future topics and design future posts that help you with what you need help with. Content that fits your wants and needs so you get to the next level of success in your life. We thank you so much for reading, or listening, to this post. We look forward to getting to know you better. Until next time, here’s to your bigg success! Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes.  Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.   (Image by gundolf) ShareThis Less

Studies show that we spend about 15 percent of our work week in meetings. If you’re lucky, right? Many of these meetings are a huge waste of time … and money. We thought we’d list some ways to make sure the next meeting you run is a bad one: #1 – Call a meeting even if you don’t have anything to discuss. Better yet, just call a meeting on the fly because an important issue has come up for you, and you need answers now! It’s important to you so it must be the most important thing for everyone else. #2 – If in doubt about whether someone should attend the meeting, invite them. Or just call an all staff meeting, even if it only affects a small percentage of the group. It may be peripheral to their jobs, but they should hear it anyway! #3 – Make your agenda so vague that no one knows what the meeting is about. Don’t distribute it in advance so people can come to the meeting prepared. Keep them in the dark about what’s going to be discussed. The best way to do this – don’t have an agenda at all. #4 – Don’t start the meeting on time. Or up the ante … don’t be on time for your own meeting. It doesn’t matter if everyone is waiting for you. Your time is more valuable than theirs. #5 – Kick off the meeting on a negative note. Tell everyone how bad things are. Look for scapegoats – call them out in front of their peers. People just love that. #6 – Don’t stick to the schedule. Or don’t have a schedule at all. Who really cares when this meeting will be over? Nothing is more important than your meeting. Nobody else has anything to do. #7 – Don’t ever defer a conversation to a later date. Even if a point of discussion starts eating into precious time, keep it on the table. It was on your agenda, so it must be dealt with today. The meeting can either go long or you can just give the other points less attention. #8 – Do most of the talking. Don’t plan for participation. People love to hear you talk. Dominate the conversation. There’s no need for you to listen during a meeting. That’s certainly won’t help solve any problems. #9 – When someone presents an idea, be quick to shoot them down. There will be no free flow of ideas in your meeting! You’re in control. Who do they think they are anyway? #10 – No matter how long your meeting runs, don’t take any breaks. People love to just sit and sit and sit. It’s best to introduce new ideas to your staff or try to find the solution to an ongoing problem after they feel lethargic from a lack of activity. And of course, no one needs to use the restroom. #11 – Let that guy (or gal), who loves to hear himself (or herself) talk, go on and on. Don’t cut them off. Don’t bring the meeting back to its focus. #12 – Make sure nothing gets accomplished. When the meeting is finally over, there should be no plans for action, no decisions should have been made, no issues should get resolved, and no follow up should be scheduled. People love sitting around in meetings that don’t accomplish anything. Our bigg quote today is by Steve Kaye: “An employee who needs permission to buy a box of paperclips can spend tens of thousands of dollars worth of employee time on bad meetings.” Waste is waste … whether it’s paper clips or time. What are your pet peeves about meetings? Leave a Comment and let us know. Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes.  Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed. Related posts Are You Smart Enough to Say It Simply? Effective Communication Across Department Lines 9 Presentation Tips to Make You a Star How To Be A Terrible Boss  (Image by wagg66) ShareThis Less

Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed Any book that Ponzi has ever given me on the subject of relationships makes me shudder. I’m a dude. Dudes don’t read those books! However, when she handed me this one, I couldn’t help but reading it after I saw the title: “How to Improve Your Marriage Without Talking About It“. The review of this book on Amazon says it all: “If you’ve ever told your spouse, ’I talk until I’m blue in the face,’ or ’It’s in one ear and out the other,’ stop whatever you’re doing and read this book immediately! You’re about to discover why talking things out isn’t always the best way to get through to your spouse or achieve more closeness and connection. More important, you’ll learn exactly what you need to do today to truly transform your relationship forever.” It’s a short, easy read, which is important to guys. It was really interesting to read, from a Geek standpoint, and from the ‘guy’ mentality. You know what I mean: a guy doesn’t TALK about his relationships. *gasp* Are you kidding me? That can’t happen. I was afraid to read the book, truth be told. Most of these books are either written by women, for women… or by a guy who wants me to think like a woman. However, the introduction of the book made me sit up and take notice. It validated the way I tend to approach things. It helped me understand why I do the things that I’m doing inside my marriage. The book didn’t want to try and change me, which is important to me. Ponzi and I are very different with our communication styles. We co-exist somewhat peacefully when we remember that we are two different people. This book is wonderful for helping us to keep that special connection we have, without over-complicating things by talking in the wrong way. It helped me understand how I was doing things and saying things, and see how they impacted Ponzi. Marriage is a learning process, and it takes a lifetime to master. When you learn more about yourself, any relationship you’re in is going to become stronger. If you’re a Geek (or even not one!) and in a relationship of any kind, I highly recommend reading this book. Transform Your Marriage Virtual Workshop. Break Free From The Affair. Save My Marriage Today! Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video: <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VsHNEpco8To"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VsHNEpco8To" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/">Chris</a> | <a href="http://live.pirillo.com/">Live Tech Support</a> | <a href="http://media.pirillo.com/">Video Help</a> | <a href="http://feeds.pirillo.com/ChrisPirilloShow">Add to iTunes</a> Do you have Tips for Presentation Style? Are Social Networks Destroying Offline Relationships? Relationship Humor Internet Dating Tips for Geeks Free Communication Tools Talk about Talking Talk about Talking My Wedding Vows Our Wedding Ceremony Wedding Plans and Notes Less

Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed I received the following email the other day from Doug: I’m still surprised at times when I get an e-mail forwarded to me that claims something is true without anyone having checked the validity of the contents. I recently got an e-mail regarding a Dr Dobson petition, and there were almost 3000 names on it already when it came to me. To me it should be common practice to people to do a quick & simple internet search to find out more information before blindly forwarding stuff to everyone on your contacts list. Even if the e-mail already has a link attempting to validate the information, I’m going to want more than one source reporting the same thing. One person forwarding an e-mail with 0-1 sources does not validate the contents. I will usually copy/paste some main part of the text into Google and I’ll typically quickly find several resources that discuss the origin and validity of the information in the e-mail. Then I will reply to all on the e-mail I got and post a few of those links letting them know where to find more information and encouraging them to do likewise in the future when they get e-mails like this and are tempted to forward them to people. I would like to think that the audience that watch your videos are internet savvy enough to already know this but even if they are, perhaps they would encourage their circle of contacts (friends, relatives, community, etc) to squash useless e-mail chains instead of fueling them. What the world needs now is more useful information and less useless information to fill up our in-boxes, bog down the mail servers, and waste our time reading the garbage. So I wanted to see how you felt about doing a video to your audience on this topic. One of the first things you should do when receiving an email claiming “You’ll save this little girl’s life by forwarding this!”, or “Send me to ten friends right now!”… is to check with Snopes. The Snopes website is a huge ‘database’ full of urban legends and truths. I’ll bet 99% of the time that the email chains you receive are useless junk. As Doug stated in his email, you can also paste a small part of the text of the email into Google, and research it. Don’t blindly forward an email like these. Know what it is you’re sending out. Know whether it’s even legitimate or not. Also, stop sending emails to people with videos embedded in them. It’s horrible to do! There are SO many places online you can host the video for free. Then, just send out the link to the video. It’s smaller, and faster to send a simple link to someone. It’s just not cool to send entire videos in an email. Rocket Spanish! *New* Higher Payout! The Muscleheads Guide To A Godlike Physique. Rocket French- New Product! Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video: <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/HaQ0LpaG8xU"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/HaQ0LpaG8xU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/">Chris</a> | <a href="http://live.pirillo.com/">Live Tech Support</a> | <a href="http://media.pirillo.com/">Video Help</a> | <a href="http://feeds.pirillo.com/ChrisPirilloShow">Add to iTunes</a> Less

[See post to watch Flash video] iPod | Phone | Audio MP3 | Embed Beach Walks Copy and paste the html code below into your site. Beach Walk 633 - Reception or Deflectionlt;/a Monday seems like a good time to discuss one of the ways energy gets moved around between/among people, since Monday's tend to have a lot of "incomings" - messages, requests, complaints, etc. I use a little phrase (when I remember!), to slow things down and help me regain my footings. Please welcome and check out our show sponsor, Primo Water. Primo Water is a new, environmentally-friendly water bottled in a natural plastic made from plants, a renewable resource grown on American soil. Meet us on The Reef to discuss this cool new technology. Hawaiian word: Loaʻa mai: receive Join us at The Reef and Listen to Reef Radio Add this to your Technorati Favorites Support us by buying your own copy of our Beach Walks Theme music. Please check out our Blogroll page with many more links to our friends' web sites. Less

We send out a Bigg Salute to Chris Brogan for coining this phrase and letting us run with it. He was describing a situation with an overly aggressive salesperson he had just met. This person was trying to win Chris’s business. As Chris said, “This guy wouldn’t quit jumping on me like a dog … and my tail wasn’t wagging!” So if you don’t want to “jump on people like dogs”, here are four tips to keep in mind. #1 – Don’t get too revved up. It’s understandable that you’re excited about what you do. But they may not be as excited as you. At least not at this point. Look for cues. If they’re responsive to what you’re saying, then keep going. But if not, back off. #2 – Don’t just pitch, pitch, pitch. When you meet someone for the first time, get to know them. Start building a relationship. What are their interests? If you start the conversation by talking about them, you will almost certainly be invited to tell them what you do. When you are, keep it short. What’s your elevator speech? #3 – Don’t go for an immediate sale. Know what you want to accomplish, but keep it reasonable. It’s a step-by-step process. If you exchange business cards, and have a brief conversation, that may be a great start. Now you can follow-up and try to get to the next step. #4 – Assume that now is a great time for them to talk to you in depth. You don’t know what’s on their mind. What kind of day they’ve had. What kind of mood they’re in. Wouldn’t you rather talk to them about what your offer when they can give it the attention it deserves? Talk to them when they can give you 100% of their attention! What internet marketers know about building relationships Internet marketers ask us to “opt-in” … they get our permission to market to us by asking for our e-mail. You can do the same thing in person. Tease what you can do and then ask for permission to follow-up. If they say “No” … don’t sweat it. Someone else will say “Yes!”  You can opt-in to our newsletter so you’re the first to see what’s new and notable on Bigg Success. Plus you’ll get our goal-setting workbook. It’s all FREE! Our bigg quote today is by Bob Burg: "The successful networkers I know, the ones receiving tons of referrals and feeling truly happy about themselves, continually put the other person's needs ahead of their own." So don’t jump on people like dogs because that dog won’t hunt! Next time, we’ll discuss how to get in the loop to gain a competitive advantage. Until then, here’s to your bigg success! Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. Related posts  The Other Pause that Refreshes The Best Way to Build Your Personal Brand Take the Work Out of Networking Relationship Building Blocks The Two Most Powerful Words You Can Use 3 Keys to Effective Networking  (Image by clix) ShareThis Less

This is the second in a two-part Business English Podcast lesson on resolving conflict, in which we’ve been focusing on solving everyday disagreements in the office. Ben, a new training specialist at a manufacturing company, feels that he is doing an unfair share (that is, too much) of the work in his department. Gerry, Ben’s manager, talks with him to solve the problem. In the first episode, we studied how Gerry opened the discussion in an informal, non-threatening way, and we looked at how he listened actively to Ben to win his trust. In this episode, we’ll pay attention to how Gerry and Ben work together to come up with a solution. In particular, we’ll focus on how they state common goals, raise concerns, and agree action. Where we left off last time, Gerry had just asked a question to resolve the conflict: Gerry wants to know what Ben would suggest doing to fix the situation. Listening Questions: 1) What solution does Ben propose? 2) In which area does Ben feel he could make a real contribution? 3) What action do Ben and Gerry agree on? Premium Members: Study Notes | Online Exercises | PhraseCast Less

This is the second in a two-part Business English Podcast lesson on resolving conflict, in which we’ve been focusing on solving everyday disagreements in the office. Ben, a new training specialist at a manufacturing company, feels that he is doing an unfair share (that is, too much) of the work in his department. Gerry, Ben’s manager, talks with him to solve the problem. In the first episode, we studied how Gerry opened the discussion in an informal, non-threatening way, and we looked at how he listened actively to Ben to win his trust. In this episode, we’ll pay attention to how Gerry and Ben work together to come up with a solution. In particular, we’ll focus on how they state common goals, raise concerns, and agree action. Where we left off last time, Gerry had just asked a question to resolve the conflict: Gerry wants to know what Ben would suggest doing to fix the situation. Listening Questions: 1) What solution does Ben propose? 2) In which area does Ben feel he could make a real contribution? 3) What action do Ben and Gerry agree on? Premium Members: Study Notes | Online Exercises | PhraseCast Less