 I moved from working in my business to working on my business!
Jim White, Founder Savor Dallas http://www.savordallas.com |
 I found a community of business leaders who make being in business a lot more fun and less lonely.
Jeannine Sandstrom, CEO CoachWorks International, Inc. http://www.coachworks.com |
 I now have a place to be open about my business success and future challenges.
Debbie Mrazek, CEO The Sales Company Author The Field Guide to Sales http://www.the-sales-company.com |
Posts Tagged ‘speaker’
Are you a professional athlete? Or a performing artist? Chances are good that you don’t fit into either of these categories so why, in the normal course of your life, would you need a coach? Well, not all coaches go to work in a jogging suit or leotards. There is a whole new category of coaches out there ready to motivate and guide you down the path to success. Today, you can hire a coach to help you achieve your personal, family and business goals. Coaching provides the support and structural mechanisms that are needed to help you focus on your priorities, remove barriers and learn from your own experience. The ideal coach will listen to you and challenge you. They will also encourage you to take control of both your professional and personal life so that you can strike a healthy work/life balance.
What can you accomplish while working with a coach? If your goals are personal, coaching can help you:
- Clarify priorities
- Deal with personal problems that are interfering with productivity
- Determine career direction, strategy and income goals
- Establish and achieve personal goals including ones relating to relationships, health and spirituality
- Help you create daily habits to support your goals
If it is professional assistance you seek, a coach can help you:
- Clarify your business mission, goals and strategy
- Communicate effectively in the workplace
- Cope with difficult co-workers and employees
- Develop leadership skills
- Increase productivity
- Make better decisions
- Tap into hidden strengths
Why hire a coach? Well, coaching is different from seeking advice from a consultant, a therapist or a friend. Consultants usually offer answers to specific problems. Therapists help you understand and deal with the anguish of past problems. Friends typically lend a sympathetic ear. Some describe a coach as part consultant, part motivational speaker, part therapist, and part rent-a-friend.
How does coaching work? Coaching is normally done privately though not always. Professional coaches typically conduct an initial face-to-face meeting. Then, most of their work is handled over the phone. Following the first meeting, a coach can begin to develop a plan for you to accomplish your goals as well as set up a structure for working together. You can expect coaching fees to range somewhere between $500 and $2000 per month if you average one session per week. Highly specialized coaching can approach $5,000 per month and may include several face-to-face sessions and 24/7 on call availability.
What to Look for and Where. Coaches typically have a specialty – career, relationship, business, etc. It is best if they have had some coursework in their area of expertise as well as some training in psychology and counseling. Though coaching has been recognized as a profession since the late 1980s, coaches are not licensed by any state or national agency. They do, however, typically belong to organizations such as the International Coach Federation (ICF). This organization offers a free coach referral service so you can select one that will mesh with your specific needs.
A Business Coaching Success Story. Dr. Fred Grosse, a clinical psychologist and renowned business coach, has dramatically improved the life of many realtors and insurance agents around the world. Dr. Grosse uses a sports analogy to explain the importance of business coaching. “No one at the Olympics got there without a coach.” He continues on to say that you need a coach to be a superstar in the business world as well. Dr. Grosse coaches in a group-setting and covers topics including: reframing thought patterns, focusing, establishing a morning ritual, and establishing systems within our businesses. A single realtor from one of his group sessions claims to have increased the number of transactions made from 43 to 95 during the course of a single year. Not bad!
To hire a coach and be successful, you must have at least one goal that requires you to grow and improve as a person. You must also be committed to achieving your goal and willing to try new things in the process. Regarding your coach, it is imperative to select one that not only has the appropriate experience, but with whom you feel mutual respect and trust. Your coach must be equally committed to your success. And remember, you are hiring someone to motivate you, so enthusiasm is a must as well. No matter what type of coach you select, you can bet that you will reap benefits in many facets of your life.
We have coached many businesses to increased performance, if this is one of your goals for 2008, it’s not too late. Give us a call today!
If you’ve emailed a Microsoft Word (or Corel WordPerfect, for that matter) document to anyone, you may have unwittingly sent confidential information to a friend, colleague, or even competitor. You see, when you create and edit a document in these programs, the software creates bits and pieces of information and hides it within your document.
If one chooses to reveal these bits and pieces, or metadata, they’ll discover who created, opened, read, printed, deleted information, added information, and where the document was stored as well as how long it took to perform the task on any particular date and time.
What is metadata?
Metadata, as defined in Beware the Dangers of Metadata, is “simply described as ‘data about data’. Think of it as a hidden level of extra information that is automatically created and embedded in a computer file.”
Some metadata is easily viewed (steps shown below). Other metadata is hidden and can be revealed by accident or by using a binary file editor. Both of which are quite possible in any office.
Microsoft indicates that the following metadata is stored in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files:
· User name and computer name
· Comments and tracked changes
· Hidden text, worksheets, data columns, and data rows
· Embedded objects such as Excel worksheets, drawing objects, and pictures
· PivotTable® cache
· Speaker notes
Why does it matter to me?
All the information indicated above is great for productivity and is an important part of a technical communicator’s life. In fact, we embrace the ability to collaborate! Document management systems rely extensively on metadata, allowing users to find a relevant document based on who edited it, how it was distributed, keywords, and subject or matter information.
Metadata makes life easy, right? Well, MOSTLY.
As I was researching this article, I found multiple references to blunders made by individuals, governments, and even the United Nations, in which bank account numbers, assassin names, original authors not attributed in a document, smoking guns in memos, and more were revealed. Here is an article in the Washington Post that has some good examples. I was particularly intrigued by the story of Tony Blair providing Colin Powell a document that had large portions plagiarized—grammar mistakes and all!
I’ve spoken with colleagues who had several months worth of documentation seized simply because a team member, who was involved in litigation, had simply opened a file once upon a time. The team lost hours of work and had some tense times making their deadlines.
What can your document’s metadata reveal?
Your document can reveal quite a bit about your work. When I was working on a presentation about metadata, I went fishing in my archives for an older document that would reveal sloppy document management. I opened a file that was used in a collaborative project when working on my Master’s degree eight years ago. I believe the original document was created in Word 2000, but can’t be sure with a cursory review.
Just by a simple selection, I revealed the following information about the document (Figure 1) I created earlier this year.
Figure 1: Metadata information in Word 2007 (top) and Word 2003 (bottom).
So, what’s interesting about this? I created this document on February 27, 2008, but my metadata says it was created on August 1, 2007. While this was a brand new document, I had opened up an older folder that had my styles already set. Instead of reflecting revision one, it showed that this was the third time I had revised the document. Though I had actually worked on the document for about 10 minutes, I apparently had it open for 50 minutes at the time of the screen capture. The title of the document was even wrong!
For me, the scariest thing I found was on the Summary tab. It says that the company that created the document was Company X. I haven’t a clue about that company. To my knowledge/recollection, I’ve never worked for or collaborated with anyone in that company. When I did a Google search, I couldn’t find anything that seemed to fit Company X, nor did any representative with that company have any connection whatsoever to this document. But there it is…. Somehow this document descended from a document (from a document from a document) that was created by a classmate who probably worked for Company X EIGHT years ago!
Not only would this information be embarrassing if a client saw it, I could be opened up to some intellectual property issues if somebody chose to be litigious. Now fortunately, a forensic review of the document’s metadata would reveal the truth. But it could be expensive.
It pays to be aware of what your document says about you and to make sure it reveals what you want it to reveal.
How do I reveal my document’s metadata?
It’s easy, with one click you can reveal your properties.
· Word 2003 or earlier: select File > Properties
· Word 2007: select Office Button > Prepare > Properties
How can you protect your document’s metadata?
Many ways are available for ensuring that your personal or company data stays with you:
· Turn off Fast Save. This feature speeds up saving a document by saving only changes made to a document. However, text that you delete from a document may still remain.
· Remove personal information from a document when you save it.
In Word 2002 and 2003
In Word 2007
1. Click Tools > Options.
2. On the Security tab, under Privacy options, select Remove personal information from file properties on save.
3. Click OK.
1. Click Office Button > Prepare > Inspect Document.
2. Select Options for inspection.
3. Click Inspect.
4. Select Remove All.
· Turn off the Track Changes tool.
· Use a third-party software to remove the information.
· Use a clean template/document each time.
· Save the document as an .rtf, .txt, or .pdf file.
This article by Louellen S. Coker of Content Solutions appeared in the May 2008 issue of Technically Write, the STC Lone Star Community’s newsletter. Louellen’s brand new blog offers great tips and tools for making content (and technology) work for you.
One of my newest friends is Kim Sarrasin. She is an amazing dating and relationship coach based in Vancouver Canada. Recently, she wrote about her mother. I thought what better way to introduce you to her than to introduce her and her mother to you! Here’s an excerpt from Kim’s recent newsletter…
Most of my graduates know the story of my mother (that’s me and Mama on the right) and her company. 
At an age when most people are retiring, my dear mama was busy creating Margaret’s Artisan Bakery. In only a few short years she moved from her kitchen to a 50,000 square foot facility. I wanted to give you an update and let you know she has officially opened up her European market! She just got back from London and they all fell in love with her products.
I’ve been sitting here bursting with pride at what she has accomplished and just could not wait another minute to give her ‘honorary mention’ in my newsletter. She remains a constant source of inspiration in my business and every aspect of my life. You GO GIRL!
These are her new Crisps that are taking the European market by storm! You can buy them and all her other products anywhere in Canada or the US. They’re meant to be consumed with something on top, however, I rarely get a chance to do this because I wolf them down the minute I open the box! If the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach then buying these would be the best course of action! If you want to find out more about her fabulous line of products, just go to www.mjsfinefoods.com.
“Would you like to learn more about simple ways to relate with the opposite sex, have more fun dating and discover how you can get all your needs met? Check out my website, www.DatingandRelating.ca, to find out more about my Dating & Relating Weekend Workshop and to sign up for my FREE audio mini-workshop “5 Essential Steps For Dating Success.”
Kim Sarrasin is a relationship expert, mentor and speaker who helps single men and women “Solve the mystery of the opposite sex.”
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