These days, there's an ever-growing list of addictions that can derail your sales career. There are the old standbys like alcohol and cocaine. There are the new ones like online pornography or opiates. Even the addiction to work that seemed like a boon in the past is now a clear path to wrecked health and relationships. But there's one addiction that has crept up on almost every single one of us, and it's especially destructive to sales careers. What makes it even worse: we don't even know we have the addiction, almost everyone around us has it too, and we don't even know when we're getting a bump to satisfy it. The Brain Chemicals that … [Read more...]
5 Ways to Stop Wasting Your Work Time On Social Media
Like most things in life, the rise of social media platforms has been both a blessing and a curse for professionals. There is a host of new opportunities to create meaningful engagement...and lose hours of productivity. Our approach to these platforms goes a long way to determining whether they really help us in our professional lives. For example, my wife surfs Facebook after a long day to connect with her friends and see what people have posted. I play video games. Both are totally valid forms of relaxation. But I don't play video games in the middle of the day. And you shouldn't mindlessly surf social media and pretend that … [Read more...]
The Secret Reason to Like Job Anniversaries on LinkedIn
updated January 2022 I've been showing people how to leverage LinkedIn for over a decade. And one of the most consistently maligned pieces of functionality has been the job anniversary notification. Over and over I hear some form of, "Why is LinkedIn gumming up my feed? Why should I care if Bill Jones has been at Company XYZ for 6 years? Does "liking" that really mean anything?" Well, yes it does. The Science of Online Small Talk To explain the value of liking job anniversaries, we have to look at something else that people don't really enjoy: small talk. It's easy to bash small talk. We think that it's an awkward and … [Read more...]
Why Now is the Time to Crush It! – Gary Vaynerchuk
This article originally ran at the RockStar Success Library a few years ago. Gary's gone on to become a major personality in the social media world. I'm still ambivalent about whether that's because of the validity of his ideas or the volume with which he shares them. Big Thought The ease of access to emerging social media platforms provides a vehicle that allows for individuals to create a personal brand that they can monetize. Ideas, Implications, and Questions Gary skirts the line between being descriptive and prescriptive. As a descriptive book, it’s an interesting story of what allowed him to be successful. When it tries to be … [Read more...]
The Engaged Leader – Charlene Li
At DellWorld 2015 I had a chance to participate in a panel discussion that was moderated by Charlene Li where we dove into the whys and hows of social selling. Afterwards, I got my hands on a signed copy of The Engaged Leader through a book swap with her (I think I got the better end of the deal). I finished it on the plane ride home and it's provided some fantastic illustrations and insights into social media in the C-suite. Big Thought I think Charlene says it as well as I could: "Engaged leadership means not chasing the latest apps and gadgets. Being an engaged leader in the digital era means knowing what your goals are and what tools … [Read more...]
How to Share Your Experience (and NOT your Resume) on LinkedIn
How do you talk about your past on LinkedIn? It's easy to look at the Experience and Education sections on your LinkedIn profile as the "resume" part of the profile. There's a slight problem, though. No one wants to read your resume. Even corporate recruiters and headhunters don't want to read a resume. But then how are you supposed to talk about your past work life? Your Profile Isn't Your Resume Much of this confusion stems from the fact that the LinkedIn Profile did start as a kind of online resume. In its early days, LinkedIn was a way for professionals in Silicon Valley to keep track of each other because it was an environment … [Read more...]
The Technology Yin and Yang of Millennial Networking
"Are different demographic groups better (or worse) than others at networking?" That was a question that was lobbed at me after a recent keynote on networking. OK, the actual question was, "Don't Millennials and other young professionals have an advantage in networking these days because they are so used to technology?" The person who asked it really wanted to validate her fears and concerns that because she wasn't young, and wasn't comfortable with technology, that her struggles with networking weren't her fault and she should just give up. It was a valid question, but there isn't a simple answer. I didn't let her off the hook, … [Read more...]
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