No Tech Weekends – Unplugged And Off The Grid For Two Days
I’ve been experimenting with doing no tech weekends, instead of constantly checking Facebook and Twitter, looking at email and news, actually scaling down to nothing by avoiding using laptops, social networks, tech in general. Imagine doing social things and not having an eye on my iPhone during conversations, going on outdoor hikes instead of inside with my eyes fixed on a flat screen, just trimming it way down to almost nothing. I say almost, because it is tough to go cold turkey, but a dramatic reduction is not that hard. I’ve learned a few things along the way during this tech elimination.
As for news, not much happens over the weekend, so things that are posted online tend to be pretty fluffy. I find most critical things I may want to know happen on Mondays and Tuesdays. E-mail is also not critical typically. I recently read an article where a CEO never checked e-mails on the weekend. He reasoned that if he did, he would start answering them. And if he started answering them, clients and associates would be notified that they can and would reach him on the weekends and get a response. As for social networks, the more you interact the more reaction you get. So if you don’t post and comment, you typically don’t get much for responses, which trims things way down.
The one item I would suggest is to have everything ready for Monday, ready on Friday. Unless you have your task lists and items completely covered and scheduled, your mind will keep running about work all weekend, which defeats the whole purpose. Ever leave for vacation on a Friday? You work so hard all that day to have everything buttoned up that when you set off your mind is free and relaxed and ready to have some fun. Imagine having that feeling every weekend? What has happened to me is that I approach Monday and the work week with much more renewed energy and excitement. I am recharged and ready to roll. As opposed to working though the weekends and having a never ending cycle, which can cause burnout. This may not work for everyone, but I am guessing that it could. Give it a tumble, if you think you can’t not work weekends because of client commitments, start to rethink the efficiency of your actual work week. Try going tech free for a stretch and see how refreshing and recharged it can make you.
Do you go tech free now? Can you do it?
Media Artist Secrets TV #3 – 4 Creative Career Steps
On this episode of Media Artist Secrets TV we discuss the 4 Creative Career Steps. You can look at the original blog post this is based on right here.
The 4 steps are Hours, Talent, Ideas and Who.
You can also watch the show in HD on YouTube or in HD on Facebook (podcast version coming soon)
This show is all about the business of being creative, advancing your creative career and ramping up your empire. Each episode will feature creative career development advice and inspiration, cool guests, new thoughts and ideas. Join the conversation by leaving a comment, let me know what you think.
Thanks for checking it out. 
http://www.FranklinMcMahon.com / http://www.fmstudio.com
http://www.Facebook.com/FranklinMcMahon
http://www.Twitter.com/FranklinMcMahon
Which of the 4 steps are you at right now? What step do you want to be on?
Can You Specialize In The Nearly Impossible For Your Clients?
Your career success often hinges on what you are offering. Can the client do it themselves, but it is just easier to have you do it? Or is it a service that the client could (almost) never figure out on their own, unless they went through months of training and research?
The more you match up a service with a client correctly, the more successful you will be. Move from pawn to knight, specialize in the nearly impossible for your clients, not just the inconvenient.
Let’s take photography for an example. A client needs pictures of a building or an event. You offer photography services, you can do this job. The client could snap some pictures, it would be quick, but it’s just not convenient for them. Since it is just grabbing some shots, they could have someone in their office do it, in fact they could have any number of local photographers do it. You would do a great job, but it is hard to have any kind of leverage against others in this scenario. If you charge the going rate, they may come back and say, well we can just grab the shots this time, but we’ll keep you in mind.
Along the way you discover that what they really want is to create an on-line photo gallery for their company, that is constantly updated. They also would like the pictures to look professional and be updated with regular events. Oh and they want them to come up randomly, so a different one appears each time someone visits the website.
You discover all this as you talk more and more with them. You investigate and find out what the bigger picture (so to speak) is and how you can offer a solution. You have a friend who is a web guy, so he can do the back-end coding for the slideshow, you subcontract him to do it for you. You also work out a monthly agreement with the company to shoot a certain amount of images per month. You also promote to them your Photoshop skills, you will tweak and sharpen the images so they not only look fantastic and professional, but they are highly optimized for fast web delivery. You also work out a method where you upload the pictures via a server to the client, supplying them with web optimized versions as well as print versions, that they can use for their brochures and newsletters.
Through constant communication and talks with the client, you have gotten a grasp of the bigger project and taken a lot of the burden off the client to make the process happen. You moved from a pawn, who is utilized but not very valuable and quickly sacrificed, to a rook or a knight, who is pivotal to the bigger strategy, and who must be held on to longer for on-going success.
I love chess metaphors.
Start to think about expanding your scope, offering products and services that branch off in directions you enjoy. Move from being a small circular bush, with just a few services, to a large expanding tree, with a combination of client solutions.
Instead of focusing on a small group of services that can be found anywhere, with little to differentiate you, start to package up solutions that do more and more of what the client needs. You begin doing what is a huge task for them, instead of just saving them a bit of inconvenience.
It’s one thing to hope a client calls you, as they survey a sea of other candidates doing the same thing. It’s another matter entirely where they have to call you, you are the person who can make it happen, solve their problems and offer a range of services and solutions that the others cannot.
Can you offer services others cannot? Can you expand what you offer?
How valuable now are you to your clients and potential clients?
4 Expert Tips From 4 Career Development Gurus
How do I sum up the wisdom of four talented career development gurus in one blog post? Impossible! But I will certainly try. This past week here on the blog I mentioned these four individuals, Anthony Robbins, Stephen Covey, Tim Ferriss and David Allen, so I thought it was time for a recap on these people who made a huge impact, and still do, on my career. Below are four of the bigger concepts these guys cover:
Anthony Robbins: Consistent Focus, Repetition and Immediate Actions
Tony always says that “repetition is the mother of skill”, which means the more and more you do something, the better you get at it. Doing is the key, the more you actually put something into practice, the better and better you become. He will be the first person to tell you that all the self development in the world will do nothing until you actually start putting the methods to use. Focus is important as well, whatever you focus on consistently, starts to come to fruition. A lot of people spread their focus too wide or it’s constantly changing. He also talks about immediate actions. Once you set a plan in place, you must take a step or two immediately towards the goal. No delay. You cannot plan to work on it next week, the first steps must happen right away to create momentum.
Stephen Covey: Find Your Voice and Inspire Others To Find Theirs
He wrote the 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, and the quote above is actually the 8th Habit, from the book of the same name. Find what you truly love to do, find what your career path should be. This takes lots of soul-searching and exploring, and it often takes making a move, but it must be done. The next step is to inspire others, help them find out what they want to do. Help can be in many forms. The more you help others with their dreams, the more you will see your own dreams come to fruition. He also talks about sharpening the saw, keeping your skills top notch as well as focusing on what matter most to you, not urgent items pushed on you by others.
Tim Ferriss: Get Rid of the Clutter, Get Help and Focus on the Important
Tim says in his book the 4-Hour Work Week that when you work 9 to 5 for years (or decades) and then branch off on your own, you still retain all the same methods, even if they don’t work. You still get up and work at 9am (even though nighttime may be your most productive) and you still work within the 8 hour (and more) grid. Conform your new business to you, not to dated office methods. Use virtual assistants and delegate your workflow of mundane items. Stop taking in info from the web all day, go on an info-fast, most of that info is quickly dated and not relevant to your empire. Most importantly, don’t work 8 hours just doing busy work if you don’t have work, scale back and focus on what matters.
David Allen: Get Things Done by Collecting All Your Info, Sorting, Reviewing and Doing
David Allen created GTD (Getting Things Done) and it’s a great system that actually can be explained fairly briefly. Find a system, electronic or paper, to collect all your thoughts, ideas, tasks, goals and projects. All of them must be captured/collected or else your mind will keep thinking about them. Next is to process them, stuff that can be done in 2 minutes, just do them, things that need to be scheduled for a certain time or location, track them. Work through these 5 steps: Collect, Process, Organize, Review and Do. Put items into these 6 areas of focus: Current Actions, Current Projects, Areas of Responsibility, Yearly Goals, 5 Year Vision and Life Goals.
Saying the above items are the tip of the iceberg is an understatement. Google them all, read what they have to say, get their books and products. Check out their blogs. Even if you just start with one, most anything by any of these four will be highly enlightening and will definitely help you ramp up your career to where you want it to be.
Google: Anthony Robbins, Stephen Covey, Tim Ferriss and David Allen
Websites: Anthony Robbins, Stephen Covey, Tim Ferriss and David Allen
Of course these are my interpretations of my favorites, do you have any favorite methods? Or favorite authors?
Media Artist Secrets TV #2 – Creative Career and Being Shameless
Franklin McMahon Show #2 – Creative Career And Being Shameless..this episode is about being OK with being shameless, not being humble and ramping up your creative career by being confident.
Are you shameless? Leave a comment!
You can also watch the show in HD on YouTube or on Facebook (podcast version coming soon)
This show is all about the business of being creative, advancing your creative career and ramping up your empire.
Each episode will feature creative career development advice and inspiration, cool guests, new thoughts and ideas. Join the conversation by leaving a comment, let me know what you think.
I will also be looking for guests to interview in the coming weeks, if you are interested, please leave a comment with your links. The show will be a work in progress, but I plan on making it informative and fun.
Thanks for checking it out.
http://www.FranklinMcMahon.com
http://www.fmstudio.com
http://www.Facebook.com/FranklinMcMahon
http://www.Twitter.com/FranklinMcMahon
Are You Promoting Your Worst Skills In Your Creative Career?
I’ve been talking to people about this a lot lately, it’s worth discussing here. I always recommend that if you have a lack of talent in a particular area, you should get help, either someone to help you or hire someone to do it for you. I’ll give you an example. You have a product or service you want to sell, you have worked hard to make it really compelling, because it is your specialty. Of course you need to have a website and make sure you come up in search results. But doing SEO and web design is not exactly your talent. You are not a designer. So rather than get someone who knows what they are doing, you design the website yourself. It’s OK, design is not good, it does not function too well, but hey at least it’s something up there.
You’ve just displayed your lack of talent in an area and displayed it for the world to see. You are using this to try to promote your real passion and real talent. You then try to figure out why the results are not what you expected.
Say you have great ideas, you want to star in your own show, it could be a video show on the web, a podcast, a weekly presentation. You have the talent, drive and ideas to really light up a program. But producing costs money, so you handle the production yourself. You get an old camcorder, so-so microphone, attempt to edit, etc. You are not too good at it, but it’s good enough. Once again you are promoting and displaying what you are not good at for the world to see, in an effort to get people interested in what you are really good at or passionate about.
You do this project after project. You rinse. You repeat.
Now I am all about learning, don’t get me wrong. Getting into new areas and developing new talents is great. This is not what this is about. It is about having a genuine talent and then completely surrounding it with a subpar presentation. The problem is most of the audience will stop at the presentation. If something is not well produced, not pleasing graphically, hard to get into or seems more amateur, people will immediately judge it as less then important. And this is the kiss of death as you launch anything. It could produce a path of project after project not going anywhere. You’ll get hearty thumbs up from your friends, but the real audience that matters may quickly turn away.
You are trying unbelievably hard at something you are not good at and getting little to no results.
What also happens is when you struggle with the presentation, you’ll get a bigger sense of accomplishment when you are done, because it will be quite an achievement for you. Because it is so tough and took so long. This however will not thrill the masses. Ironically what you have spent hours and sleepless nights over will seem amateurish to a savvy audience, they will think you whipped it up in a few minutes. Why? Because it is not what you are good at.
The solution is remarkably easy though, so have faith! Get others involved who have the talents you lack. It’s no secret to surround yourself with others who are more talented then you to make anything a success. A lot of people do the opposite though, surround themselves with people less talented. Volunteers with free time. Think of your career like a boat. A ton of people without skills you direct will make the boat heavy and likely to sink. A large crew of talented boaters will make your project, I mean your boat, go faster and run efficiently.
Vanity stops us from getting people on board more talented than us because we feel threatened. We want to be the top dog. Huge mistake.
Really start to think about getting some great people to help you produce. Whatever you are doing, get a person who is an excellent delivery person. You have the talent and skills and message, but get great people to help you bring it to fruition, bring it to the masses.
And also get creative on how you collaborate with these people. It is not all about money, although I always recommend hiring people to help you grow your empire because it just helps it grow faster. It can be about someone volunteering or working out a trade or anything really, just getting that talented person on your team.
Look at your current projects. Look at the part you are least good at, the part you always struggle with and are least happy with. Or the part you have never started, because you lacked the talent. The part just sitting there for months and years. How can you get someone to work on that part while you focus on the areas you really excel at?
How can you grow your empire faster by working with others who have the skills you lack?
Who Is Your Inspiration?
When building your career, having inspiration is something that could not be more pivotal. Having momentum, goals and plans of course will keep us pushing forward. But having inspiration, keeps us pushing upwards.
The lack of inspiration on a weekly or daily basis has a domino effect, if we are not pushing upward, striving to hit that next level, we sometimes are sliding backward. We may be busy with work and projects, but we are staying stagnant on the same level.
Inspiration can come in many forms. Success often occurs through patterns, modeling and habits. If you look to someone for inspiration, you start to model some of what you do after them, you see clear patterns that have worked for these people and you pick up on their habits.
Some look to others for guidance and occasional inspiration and some become intensive students, almost obsessively, reading, watching and listening to everything a person produces, while taking lots and lots of notes.
In our work week we often are slammed with projects, pulled in numerous directions and can feel drained. After work we just want to relax, leaving little time or energy to actually look for some inspiring material. Or it could be the opposite, work has been slow, clients are few. But instead of learning new habits and gaining more and more inspiration, you may be just learning some new tools or doing some networking or looking for work.
Being immersed in inspiration is like working out. Except instead of exercising your body you are flexing and working out your mind. Charging it with possibilities. And like working out, you need to dive into inspiration weekly or daily. Make time for it, because it is vitally important.
Once you really start to become a student of others who have succeeded, you start to realize that you can accomplish a lot of these same goals as well.
As for me, my inspiration pool is pretty vast and deep. Off the top of my head I have followed, and continue to follow, Stephen R. Covey (8th Habit), Anthony Robbins, Timothy Ferriss (4-Hour Work Week) and David Allen (Getting Things Done). Pick up practically anything by these fab four and you will get mountains of inspiration, great tools and fantastic habits. Start with a Google and YouTube search.
A lot of people love the web and find they get a lot of inspiration from it. My advice is to unplug from the web, find a good author and read their current book or listen to their audiobook with pad in hand. Off the web and at a place you can relax and not get distracted, a place to absorb and learn.
I also have a lot of people in my personal and professional life who I gain a lot of inspiration from. Being around them is always a good thing.
Think of people in your life who you feel inspire you, and grab a coffee with them this week. Keep the inspiration in your life growing. Constantly look for books and materials that will keep you inspired and thinking about possibilities. The more you have, the higher you will reach. Make time daily or weekly for this inspiration, work out your mind and really start to flex it. If you have no time for inspiration then you may have no time to grow, personally and professionally.
So my question to you is…who is your inspiration?
Planting Creative Career Seeds – How Does Your Garden Grow?
Success does not happen overnight. Even people who seemingly have just come on the scene with a lot of fanfare have often been working for years, day after day, pushing towards their goals on the path to achievement. When I launch a new project for myself or for a client, I know that a lot of what I am doing is gardening, planting seeds for future abundance. I used to want things quickly, I would look for immediate results. Then I started to think long term. I saw that often when the project or goal was stretched into the future, I could put a lot more into it, hence the greater chance of success.
A good example of this is exercise, people want to be in shape in a week. They make a commitment on Monday, work out a day or two, struggle to eat right and then jump on the scale at the end of the week. Sometimes they have lost a little or actually gained weight. Oh my that has got to sting! But then they give up. Done.
It’s important to realize that a delay of your goal and outcome is not a denial, actually not doing it is a denial. A delay of the payoff is often needed. Once you add time you have much more chances for success.
A lot of people ask me, where do I come up with the ideas for this blog and my show? Most of the time it involves note taking during reading and listening. Also when thoughts pop into my head. As I learn, I jot stuff down, all the time. Now the idea may not be immediately applied. But it plants a seed. A technique that I can think about, save to reflect on, share with others down the road or implement when it is more appropriate. As such I have amassed a large collection of ideas and career development advice, a pretty fertile garden of thoughts that I can pick from. Quite different from zoning out at a blank page and wracking my brain trying to come up with an idea, concept or method that I want to share with my audience or help out a friend or client with.
Delaying the payoff is not bad, as long as you are working toward it. A truly abundant garden of prosperity comes from careful planting, care, weeding out what is not needed, attention and focus. If everything was quickly and easily achieved, everyone would be super successful, have a huge audience, be amazingly wealthy and swimming in abundance.
We talked about Starting Monday, the problem there was delaying the start. This concept here is to delay the end, don’t rush toward it, nurture and build. Think big but think long term. Like anything that grows, the more you put into it, the bigger it will get.
I mentioned blogging earlier, I have to say I have had several blogs over the years. I would get all fired up and blog several days in a row, then get busy and not blog for a week or two. Lose my audience, blog again, work to get them back. See interest, see it drop, lather, rinse, repeat. I realized that making a commitment to blog weekly, several days a week, was consistently steady and kept things building and growing just as I wanted it.
I also realized that in the past if I was not planting, growing and harvesting I was letting myself down, starting from scratch all the time and most importantly letting my audience down. If you are in tune with these concepts I am talking about weekly, you know that building an audience is one of our key concepts, bringing our craft to the masses.
Also remember that when it is cloudy and rainy, that is when lots of things you have planted in the past can begin to really grow. You may be seeing some green ($$) more often than you anticipated if lots of things are growing over time.
OK I think I have overdone the gardening references…
This is a process that takes refinement and one I have learned over the years. I will tell you it does take practice. Planting seeds for future success. Now if I could just get good at actual gardening (like the real kind, with leaves and plants) that would be nice as well.
Are you looking for quick results? Or are you working (planting) systematically towards your goals and plans, putting the time into it that will give you the results you want to get out of it?
Do you have a creative career green thumb?
Get Nervous
It’s totally OK to be a little on edge. You may go through phases where you are very stressed and worried about every aspect of your creative career. On the other side, you may have times where everything is going just perfect. Completely calm and flowing excellent. These two ends of the spectrum do have their long term drawbacks however.
If you are completely stressed and worried all the time it can signal a few things. The main item is there needs to be changes that perhaps you are not making. Maybe you want more clients, but rather than focus on marketing, you loose yourself in busy work. Checking the web, chatting online, working on projects that are not on the path to your goals, anything you can do to take your mind off the real issues.
Or perhaps you have too much work, you are taking on an enormous amount yourself and not getting help. You are focused on deadlines and being overwhelmed, rather than the quality of the projects.
On the other side, things could be going great. Everything is in place, all systems are working fine. Your empire is sailing along, clients are happy, work is being produced. It sounds all well and good until boredom sets in.
You start to become apathetic because the challenges are not as great, the momentum you had is just not there anymore. You are doing the same thing as you did last year and feel like you will be doing the same thing next year.
Stressed out and overworked is not good. And often things going fine with no changes, challenges or momentum is not good either.
The middle ground is getting a little nervous. Just a touch of things not being completely perfect, an edge of uncertainty that keeps things spicy. It’s a delicate balance to be in the middle, but it’s often not a bad place to be. You are succeeding and confidently enjoying your success, but you have an eye towards what happens next, what will be the next big challenge, little slices of unknown that are mixed in to keep things interesting.
You will strive to have your empire working perfect but there will always be things that crop up, some of these items will be in your control and some will not be. But it’s OK to be in the middle ground, it’s a mix of accomplishment and challenge. That friction has launched many successful creative enterprises. Losing that friction could be running on an empty tank in either direction, stressed or serene.
Creative artists sometimes tend to hit the extremes. You may be overworked and totally slammed with clients and productions, stuff is being accomplished but the process is scattered, somewhat disorganized and not very satisfying. Or you may be smoothly coasting, not a lot of pressure but also pretty much flatlining without preparation or planning for the future. No ramping up.
Get nervous. Get more in the middle. Strike a balance between solid productive work with an eye towards advancing in the future. Media artists who are in the zone love what they do, embrace their market and the people they work with. They get a lot of satisfaction and look forward to new challenges. And they are growing. They are not stressed with work they don’t enjoy and they are not overly worried about scarcity or what may happen next. They have balance.
Where are you? Stressed? Flatlining? Nervous? Balanced?
Get Obsessed And Move Into The Creative Zone
Have you ever wanted something really bad, like really fixated on it and did everything in your power to get it? I am not talking about thinking about something and wondering that it would be nice to have. I am talking about obsessing and really focusing, having drive and a laser focus on the end goal. The term “peak performance” is a term used a lot with athletes, but it can also apply to media artists. Having a very strong drive towards something in your career or in your life is very compelling. It could be a new client you want to get, a new piece of equipment, a new workspace, a new service you want to ramp up. It could even be starting a business, leaving the process of working for others behind.
Let’s call this being in the zone. You have no doubt experienced it. Your drive is so strong and your focus so tuned that you accomplish what you set out to. For some creative artists, being in the zone happens periodically. In the day to day and week to week process there are these spikes where the drive is very high. It could be due to excitement, too much coffee, a deadline pressure, lots of factors. Athletes always work to be in the zone whenever they perform. Each and every time. But for some media artists, it happens here and there, usually looked at as a “good day”.
What if every day was a good day? What if you were in the zone on a consistent basis? The people who succeed and ramp up their career dramatically over time share a lot of qualities. They are driven, passionate, focused and obsessed. They pick a path and rapidly follow it with a clear end goal.
This has nothing to do with talent or abilities. It is only about producing consistent forward momentum in the directions they want to go.
Every step of the way there are opportunities to take you out of the zone. Your clients are not that exciting, you are in a rut, you are not exercising, your diet could be better, you see others making more progress. A lot of this occurs because your work day is focused on others, clients, phone calls, emails. The switch that needs to happen is focus on your own goals that will make your creative business grow. This may mean having a client wait just a bit longer while you block out some time to explore a new opportunity or move on a plan you have been thinking about.
You’ll know when you are in the zone. You will feel it. Media artists need to be in the zone more and on a consistent basis. However there needs to be time and room for this to happen. Take a project or idea that has been on your list for months and suddenly put a large amount of focus on it. It will suddenly go from a nagging thought never realized to an exciting option with a lot of momentum. Pick something new to focus on today.
Get obsessed, get focused, get rolling on the things you want to be doing in addition to the things you need to be doing. Move yourself, and those important items, into the zone.
Anticipating Change On The Road To Success
We have all heard that when you are in a creative career, or any career for that matter, an important consideration is to be ready for change. Always be alert to changes in the market, in what your competitors are doing and things that come up you do not expect. While it is a good goal to have, there is an even higher level to consider. Looking at what will change in the future.
Think of your creative career as sailing in the ocean. You can be sailing along and brace for rough seas, you can be alert and ready for sudden changes and adjust accordingly. But your scope of vision is somewhat limited. Now imagine a live satellite image of the ocean from a mile above. Suddenly everything is much more clear and you can adjust accordingly.
Say you are driving. You are heading down roads, making turns, making progress while exploring. Now imagine you have a map or GPS system. Suddenly you can plan, you can strategically chart your direction and look for various landmarks. Now you can see the big picture.
Many creative artists are busy with clients, hitting deadlines, somewhat braced for change, but often not looking at the larger view. They know how the week will end up but not how things six months from now will turn out.
Ever decide you want a certain car and then you suddenly see that model all the time on the road? Trends are the same, you won’t see them until you start looking for them.
Take some time and really examine some trends in your industry and in your career. What will change? Will anything be different six months or a year from now? Anything winding down or ramping up? Where does your focus need to move to?
Very successful people can look at an industry and try to anticipate the next big thing as well as visualize where the market is going. Try looking at the big picture of your creative career as well. Often you may be right and have the enormous leverage of being in the right place at the right time.
Are You Dressed For Success?
We all like to think that it’s really about our talent and not how we look. But the fact of the matter is you will often be judged on your appearance as you work your way through your career. Sure it’s not fair but the important thing is to be aware of it. Now I am not necessarily saying you need to dress up in a suit everywhere you go, but certainly take some time to think about how you are perceived to the general public. You may spend a lot of your time in a studio or working for yourself or with a small team. Comfort is one of the luxuries we have when building our own empire. The difference is when we walk out into the world, when we network, attend functions, interact with people.
One of the best things you can do is convey a sense of confidence and success. A lot of this is attitude. Talent with a dash of ego, in moderation, is not a bad thing. But keep in mind as you ramp up your career you will be ramping up the quality of your contacts. It may be inevitable that you will be in scenarios where the attire is getting better and more official.
Stop to think about some of the most successful people you know. What are they wearing?
I discussed this topic quite a while back on my Media Artist Secrets podcast (iTunes) and got a huge response. Half were agreeing with me and the other half were very against, saying that being successful is based on skill and not about certain clothes worn. And again I am not saying wear a suit everywhere, but really start to think about what you are conveying with your attire. A lot of times you will go to functions and feel overdressed or underdressed. In fact before you even go you may be wondering if you should dress up or dress down. I suggest going for the dressing up part. You’ll never offend anyone by dressing up and you may get some new respect just from some presentable threads.
You have to remember that most of the time when you are networking, a lot of people don’t know you. And as your career ramps up you may be in situations that are basically more dressy. Ramp up your attire to coincide with your ramping up career. Dress “up” when your career is going “up”. It may be cool to dress down and be hip, but what is hip to you may not be hip to others. If you want to close the deal, connect with better clients and ramp up your career, start to really think about how your dress code is in sync with your new business paths.
How do you dress for your industry? How does your industry dress? Do you have a clothing budget as part of your empire?
Are potential clients you are connecting with dressing better than you?
How important are your clothes as a marketing element?
http://www.franklinmcmahon.com/
Franklin McMahon – Media Artist Secrets Now Available On Kindle
Now you can take the blog portable on your Kindle. Check out the new version designed for the Kindle reading device over at Amazon.com. You’ll get all the daily content updated wirelessly and get career development advice on the go! You can also get a free 14-day trial, so how can you beat that? Enjoy!
Franklin McMahon – Media Artist Secrets for Kindle on Amazon.com
Media Artist Secrets Episode #75 – To-Do List Overload vs. Golden Tasks
This episode: To do list overload, golden tasks, 3 story house mode, idea bin, trim and set creative project priorities and much more – franklinmcmahon.com – The Podcast for the Creative Professional
Media Artist Secrets (iTunes link) is an audio podcast I do that is focused on career building, getting things done and ramping up your empire. This new episode is focused mainly on to-do lists and how quickly they can completely overwhelm us.
The main problem with a task list is every time you add a new task, you take a little priority away from all the others. If you have 3 tasks that are all pretty important and then you add another, and another, soon you have 10 or more tasks that are trying to share the spotlight. 7 tasks that are pulling you away from the 3 major ones.
We’ll call these top 3 tasks “Golden Tasks”. These are the cream of the crop. In any given day, these are the top 3 that are going to give you the most payback, the most traction and the most impact. The key is to trim down your task list to the most important. It’s OK to have ideas and things that pop into your mind, but those should be stored separately. Not jumbled in with your Golden Tasks.
At the end of the day, if you complete the 3 major tasks, you’ll really feel like you have accomplished a lot, as opposed to having a list of 10 or 20, and only working through half. If your list is 12 and you only do 9, you’ll feel like you did not complete it. If your list is 3, and you did those 3 plus had extra time to complete 2 more, you’ll feel tremendously better.
So focus on your Golden Tasks first above all. Let me know how you work your own To-do list.
Is it focused on a small number of goals or is it lengthy with minimal priorities? Do you have any tips or ideas on organizing your own task list?
