Visualized.Feel.Abundance

Hey Folks,

Today I’ll be heading back to Singapore so you should start getting regular post again from tomorrow onwards

Before I go off, I would like to share with you this comment I got from an obviously unsatisfied customer of the event. Here is what he/she has to say:

I Am Unhappy
“Hi. I am also attending the UYMG here in Kuala Lumpur. We bought the package in Singapore at the World Internet Summit last May. I’ve been expecting to have a lot of hands on during the workshop but I’m very disappointed because instead of doing hands on, we’re here to just listen to a lot of presenters.Too bad! My expectations are high and some presenters under delivered. I did not buy another package anymore; instead I’m gonna start doing the real stuff. Did you buy any of the speaker’s offer?”

What is your opinion?
- Was it an expectation mismatch?
- Was there really no content worth learning or taking away from?
- Did the presenters really under delivered?
- Was selling at this type of event wrong?
- Or was it just the mind set of the participant?

We invite you to share with us your opinion, views, experiences you may have on this issue.

Cheers
James

Popularity: 7% [?]

Hey Folks,

As you may know, I am currently in Kuala Lumpur attending Stephen Pierce’s Leadership course and helping out with his Internet Marketing Seminar subsequently.

What Am I Doing In KL
He has been my mentor in Internet Marketing for the past 6 months (if you had read my “About Us” page, you will know ) and I have much to thank him for my success at getting this blog up, running and progressed as it had.

So one of my objective to travel here at my own expense is to reciprocate what I have gotten from him and to help other marketers succeed in their online endeavor. My way of saying “Thank You”.

What I Learned
Now, back to my topic today. What I am going to share here is a small part of what I learn from Stephen yesterday but it got me thinking the whole night. Although the context he was referring the topic to was more about leadership, I can’t help but link it back to blogging. The subject that I would like you to think about today is “Caring”.

Ask Yourself These Questions:

“Do You Care About Your Readers?”

“Have Your Actions Shown That You Care About Your Readers?”

“Have You Been Replying Your Readers Comments? Paying Them A Visit?”

“Have You Been Posting Articles Of Value To Them?”

“Have You Been Engaging In Too Much Marketing Activities At The Expense Of Your Readers?”

Why Is It Important
So why am I asking all these question? Because if you don’t care about your readers, no one would be hanging around long enough to care for you, trust you and become your reader.

Think about it. Share with me if you Care or Not. And Why?

Cheers
James

Popularity: 9% [?]

Hey Folks,

I’m back with part 2 of this post. I encourage you to read part 1 first before reading this post to get a full picture.

How Do You Achieve It
To achieve your long-term goal in your career, you need to plan far ahead. For example, if your desire is to be a CEO in 15 years time, You need to plan your career path to learn the necessary experience and skill set that enables you to fill such a solution 15 years later.

You can start by defining the skill set and strength of a typical CEO (by check recruitment sources on the internet) and plan what other pre-requisite positions (again by checking similar sources) you need to fill before that. Soon, you will have a road map that is your planned career path.

More often than not, employees get to where they are by chance. If midway through their current career, they suddenly decide some other job is what they really wanted, they find that they have a huge mismatch of skills or lack of certain criteria to change job. It is still possible to get there but it will take a lot of extra effort to retool their skills and gain the necessary experience to fill in the new job.

Where Can You Achieve It
With your career plan in hand, you will next need to find a company that have a position that requires your current skill set and has the opportunity to learn and progress to the next pre-requisite position on your career plan. Once you achieve that position, reevaluate if you can learn the related skills and experience for the next higher pre-requisite position in your current company, if you can stay on. If you can’t, it is time to move on to another company to further your career.

Remember, your dream is to be a CEO, not whatever position you are holding at that moment, so it is important to learn, gain experience and move on. In this phase, you will always find yourself learning more then you contribute. But whenever you can contribute, you contribute massively. That is how you learn and reciprocate at the same time.

Keep repeating and learning until you have gained all the necessary skills and experience required for your dream job. At this point, you will need to stop moving and work to deliver the massive value appropriate of your dream job. This is the time you make the big push to show case your value, skills and knowledge to make a name for yourself and land the job you dream of.

Why Do You Need To Achieve It
The last question that you need to ask yourself is why you need to achieve this dream job? Here are some typical reasons and the associated job that allows them to meet their needs:

- Wanted a job that pays me to travel the world and meet people (Regional Sales Director)
- Wanted a job that pays me to make policy and help people achieve better life (Civil Servant, Social Development)
- Wanted a job that allows decent pay that allows me to work from home so I can raise my kids while working (Telemarketer)
- Wanted a job that allows me to meet the rich and famous (TV Reporter)

Everyone has his or her own reason but this reason must be a strong pull factor that you are willing to work towards. Focus on the benefits of achieving it, the type of lifestyle that you want to achieve at the end of that road. You will need to keep reminding yourself of what is at stake because along the way, there will be some transitional job position that you won’t like but is necessary. So if that push factor is stronger then the pull factor from your dream, you will most likely give up.

So remember, a reason such as “it’s cool to be a CEO” will never get you there. Find a reason for yourself and make it a good one.

Tomorrow I will share with you a goal setting tool. Stay Tuned!

Cheers,
James

Popularity: 9% [?]

Hey Folks,

Welcome back to our new series - Build Your Career Like A Business. If you have decided to build your career like a business, most important thing to do first is to set some goals and get a business plan (or should I say career plan). There are 5 questions that you can ask yourself to help your planning.

Decide Who You Want To Be
You have to decide who you want to be in 5, 10, 15, 20 years time in the future.

Most employees I have met, including myself when I was younger, hate it whenever they were asked this questions. Some even dread the question. During appraisals and goal setting exercises, most employees would happily fill in the 1-year goal but often left the 3 year goal and 5 year goal blank. And their 1-year goal is often “To do my best and deliver my KPI or targets set”. Which tells me that they have no idea who they want to be!

The standard excuse given was “Why worry about what I want to be in 5 years time? I don’t even know what is going to happen tomorrow!” Or “It’s just a waste of time, do you think management cares about what we want to be? Just give me my pay increment and I’ll be happy”. The thing is, if you know who you want to be, you will never have to worry about what to do tomorrow.

Oh, just in case you are still thinking that working hard will get you a good pay increment, you might want to check out this post - “Misconceptions of Key Performance Indicators, Promotions and Pay Increments“.

What Do You Want To Be Known For
If you are just starting out, you may not have any idea of what you want to be known for. So the best course of action in the earlier years in your career is stick to being an asset. Check out this article to learn more about it - “How To Be An Asset And Not A Liability To Your Company“.

When you have established yourself as an asset in your company, you would have some solid work experience and already getting constant feedback about your work performances, strength and weaknesses. It is now that you should look into developing your strength and uniqueness. Here are some categories of strengths, just to name a few:

The Operator - People with this strength have the ability to micro-manage all sorts of day-to-day issues that happens in the company. They can multi-task with ease and thrive on details. Any well-run operations need one such talent.

The Planner - People with this strength are blessed with foresight and creativity. They have the ability to draw out strategic plans and directions that will help a company achieve its goals set far into the future. This strength is common to senior managements.

The Executor - People with this strength can take any plan or idea and make things happen. Companies love such traits when considering hiring someone to launch a campaign, product or services.

The Troubleshooter - People with this strength thrives on solving problems. Any and all problems can be solved and will be solved. The only worry they have is running out of problems to solve. A CEO hired to restructure a company typically has this strength.

Some of us have strength in more then one category, you could create your own unique strength by develop and combining them together.

To Be Continued
To keep this post short and sweet (500 - 750 words), we will talk about the other 3 questions in the next post. But before I sign off, I want you to understand something important here:

“Building a successful career does not mean staying in one job for 30 years.
Many successful careers were build over 20 years
by moving from company to company and delivering the massive values you create
when and where it is needed.”

Think about it.

Stay Positive,
James

Popularity: 8% [?]