Surround yourself with the right people
05 August 2010There's been a recurring message in my conversations in the last two days: surround yourself with those people who you want to be like. It's come from people both much more experienced than me in business and also a young guy who's just finishing college. They're all successful and are heading in the direction that shows their ability to create real businesses that make profits even in these economic times. These are the people who I want to be about. One trait that they all have is being extremely positive in their mindset. There isn't anything that they can't do. If they set their mind to accomplish a goal they will achieve it and most likely with a little panache. My mindset wavers from being insanely driven and focused when I'm angry or inspired to needing all kinds of proof when I have doubt regarding a situation. It's becoming clear to me that these folks have the same doubts I have but decide to try anyway. It's the equivalent of making the ask. (I always enjoy it when my own bits of wisdom can be used against me.) Another consistent thread is that these successful people all have networks of other ...
Find how to create your flow zone
01 August 2010A funny thing has happened over the last 8 months. I've starting walking more. A lot more. It started with the FitBit. It is now a constant companion and will be for the foreseeable future. I stopped driving to my job that was a 12 minute walk away. In May, when I was really at a loss for what to do about work, I would go for walks and successively longer and longer walks. Now I've had walks that have come in at almost 8 miles and most weeks I'm putting down more than 30 miles. Why am I telling you this and how will it help you? There's been a very funny result of my even minimal exercise: after about 2.5 miles I get an idea flow that is amazing. I don't know exactly why it takes 2.5 miles (typically about 45-50 minutes) to get there but it's consistently there. It's where some of my best ideas for clients and potential clients have come from. Also, it's begun to give me some clarity on my own personal situation. I've always believed that the so called "flow zone" is a very thin elliptical area on the chart that is where the level ...
Observe, Contemplate and Execute
21 February 2010Over the course of the last week I've found myself having to stretch to reach goals that I've put out in front of me. In return though I've found that I follow a pretty normal process to acquire new skills and the more that I think about this process the more I see it other people's behavioral patterns as well. Observe This is the first step after initial discovery. People take time to observe the landscape of a situation or how the results of an action look. This first section can also include reading a lot of books, articles and blogs. This is where most folks try to gain the knowledge so they can replicate the success that they have seen others have on platforms. Unfortunately so many people get stuck in the observation stage because that's what they're taught in school to do: acquire information and regurgitate it. Contemplate The next stage that people get to is the point where they either want to replicate the actions or an opportunity to do so simply presents itself. This is where people allow themselves to think about the possible consequences of their proposed action and it's in this place that a lack of self confidence ...
Grateful for these folks in the start of my 2010
11 February 2010So if you've been following my twitter account (@kadedworkin) you've seen a series of tweets over the last 10 days basically lamenting the fact that I've been sick. It's been a long while since I've felt less than 95% for this long. That stated I've continued to be blown away by how amazing people are. The first person I'd like to call out is Annie Sorensen (@anniesorensen, anniesorensen.com). She's so elevated herself from being a work contact that I'm hesitant to even tell folks that I met her because of my job. Incredibly intelligent and she has the ability to do anything that she sets her mind to. Top that off with the fact that her husband Nate is one of the few people who I'm desperate to spend more time with. He possesses such a cool confidence that I wish I had more of. I suspect that I'll have to make a trip out to Kansas City to see them both before too long. The next group of folks that I have to thank for making me feel appreciated are the entire Polcyn family. I knew that Grady (@gradypolcyn) was a stand up guy but I had ...
Now that it’s done…
01 February 201030 posts, 544 unique visitors, 1742 page views. Barring the last three days which have been absolutely crazy (and will require me to go back and write more substantive posts) I am going to call the 30 in 30 for January a huge success and the numbers show that. This more than anything proves that the idea of hustle and creating any content on a regular basis can grow an audience. Are there some things I would do differently if I were to do it again? You bet. Has this experiment changed the way I think about blogging? No doubt. Will it affect my future behavior on this blog? Without question. Should be fun to move this one in a direction that hopefully will help both you guys get value and get to know me a bit better.
Psychology: a key to getting what you want
26 January 2010Psychology was one of my passions in my undergraduate program at Arizona State for several reasons but Dr Marek Wosinski definitely helped fuel that fire. It was an astonishing arena where studying people and the way they interpreted situations you could understand how to change and present information in a manner that made it highly likely to get what you want. Some people may view this as manipulative but I simply see it as playing to the human OS. There are a number of books in this space that I could have (and may subsequently do) written reviews of. Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely and Influence by Robert Cialdini were key to my studies outside the classroom. That stated I look time and again at the content I regularly consume and except for football (yes, the European version) psychology plays a huge role in what I watch. I mean seriously how many times can I watch episodes of Dragon's Den (or Shark Tank) or The Dog Whisperer and not see the changes being made. Here's the interesting part: even though I know the game it doesn't mean I'm not susceptible to it. And now for the shocking part, neither are you. The ...
What I Do When I’m Down
25 January 2010This was a response I received to a tweet I sent out asking for content ideas because I want to make this more about helping others rather than simply reflecting on my own thoughts over my final week of 30 in 30. First off, Kelly, thank you for your input. The quick answer is yes, I get down and you'd be shocked how often it happens. A single thing in a day can go wrong and that can be it for me, I'm off the rails. I guess that's part of what makes me so interested in entrepreneurs because they constantly seem to be hitting walls and coming back for more. There are four primary things I do when I get down though to get back on track: 1) Eat an great meal. I normally eat pretty poorly and getting an awesome meal at a restaurant I love can make me feel 10x better in an hour. I won't go out and grab a 1500 calorie monster meal either. If you see me racing down to Chompie's for a hot pastrami sandwich, Saigon Nites for some Broccoli Beef or the Penne with Chicken and Broccoli ...
Compete
24 January 2010One of the few folks who I look back on as really having a profound impact on my life was my high school baseball coach Rob Stewart. From the first time he told me to get lost at Irvine High when he was talking to a junior who would soon be drafted into the minor leagues to the time that I became his right fielder and even when everything fell apart for me in the form of competitive baseball he always seemed willing to give life lessons when I was ready to hear them. Over the course of the last few weeks I've been watching Leeds United (a third division English soccer club) play against some of the top clubs in the world in the FA Cup. They've beat quite possibly the best team in the world (Manchester United) and forced a replay against Tottenham. The heart of this team reminds me of something Coach Stewart taught me many years ago: Compete. Nothing else matters when you go out, try your hardest and find someway to play up to those who you have no right to be competitive with. Even when those games come around when you simply don't have the ...
Podcast hell: 48 back and no hope
22 January 201048 podcasts. 1:23:23:46 worth of content. Basically I'm screwed. How did I end up with so much content? Well to be honest I love the people who's content I consume. Leo Laporte, basically anything from Revision3, Andrew Warner and his Mixergy project, Carpool with Robert Llewellyn and so many more are packed with great information. These folks are who I aspire to be some day way down the line. But why not just delete back episodes? Simply put there's good information there and it seems incredibly wasteful not to at least give it a listen. My problem is that I can't have two different word tracks running simultaneously. Yes, me the dude who reads books at 350% normal speed can't have more than one word track going at once. So if I'm listening to a podcast I can't be writing an email or even talking via IM. It's just too much information for me. I normally get out of this mess by sitting down and making a content Saturday a content weekend where I consume as much of it as I possibly can until it hurts and then some. Sure it's not the most elegant solution but it's the one that makes ...
Tungle continues to amaze…as does personal branding
19 January 2010So this entire deal with me and getting random amounts of publicity is kinda freaking me out. Earlier today I received a tweet (thanks @tgruber) that tipped me off that I had a quote in the Tungle Blog's stream. They took an off the cuff and honest comment that I honestly thought was a funny joke me and two people would get a giggle from and posted it on their blog: I'm not writing about this to simply toot my own horn but rather to show those of you out there who are students and just starting out building your brand online that it can take literally 1 article to launch you along an awesome growth path. The article in question (5 internet tools you should be using (but probably aren't)) is now responsible for almost 35% of my total unique visitors this month and has doubled my number of page views. Those are massive numbers from an article that took me less than 15 minutes to write. The words of Gary V come back to me time and time again "content is king but marketing is ...
Loading Twitter
