Does Your Time Management Suck? Try These Tips on for Size...
Does your time management suck? Try these tips on for size...
If your time management sucks draw closer boys and girls and read closely...
The best way to manage your time is to structure your tasks out day by day for the week in advance so you understand exactly what you have to do moment by moment.
To ensure you’re on track during the week, go to the local electronics store and purchase yourself a chef’s timer. Get into the habit of timing each of your tasks and start to observe all of the external distractions that occur. You may find that each day you will need to schedule thirty minutes to a full hour to deal with things that just come up during the day.
Only focus on one task at a time. Multi tasking is great, however there is nothing like concentrated time and effort on a particular task to get it done on budget and on time.
It takes sheer self discipline to do this and keep it up day after day. After one month of doing this regularly you will find that your productivity has gone through the roof and you’ve increased your output dramatically.
Now get back to work and stop reading blogs!!!! Ok, mine is fine!
Storytelling is a highly effective way to drawing customers into your organisation, but how do you apply it in your business?
Spend a day reading a variety of newspapers. Check out a few online social communities. Listen to the radio. Watch some Reality TV. What do you find? Probably that everything you’re immersed in is geared around the idea that people are drawn to stories.
Billion dollar industries such as music, print and the web rely on storytelling to keep audiences engaged and the profits rolling in. Music is an especially powerful way of connecting people through the stories within the songs and the universal themes of love and loss explored. Even that crazy-arse frog song by Axel F breathed enough personal branding into that damn frog to get it to number one in the music charts and on ringtones the world over! Even his little penis flapping in the breeze on his imaginary motorcycle didn’t stop him from breaking into the charts. See guy’s, size really doesn’t matter!
Popular STORIES that can be leveraged in the world of BUSINESS include;
Human interest: in which the founder of a business (potentially YOU) shares how they overcame seemingly impossible challenges and trauma in order to reach the very pinnacle of success
Innovation: the tale of an exciting and original new product that addresses specific customer concerns and solves their problems to improve the quality of their lives like never before (like the wider introduction of the washing machine in the 1900’s)
Love Affair: a product, service or concept that delivers such emotional impact that the people who adopt it fall head over heels and shout how much they love it from the rooftops! Think about the common cry from ex-PC users the world over who have migrated to Apple: “Once you go Mac you never go back!”
If you’re English or Australian, what I’m about to suggest here might feel particularly confronting to you. This is because the way you have been raised to do business may well place more value on cultivating a convincing ‘poker face’ rather than embracing a ‘warts and all’ approach.
Rather than give in to the fear that most business people experience when it comes to sharing snippets of their personal life with an audience, I suggest you consider being far more open about your failures as well as your success. It might feel scary to be so honest about your fallibility but I believe it’s far more likely to draw your audience in on a deep emotional level. By contrast, the ‘poker face’ business approach keeps your audience at arm’s length, making it harder for them to see themselves in you, relate to you or engage with you and your business.
As we’ve already seen, modern generations are seeking the reassurance of connection. They want to know all about their social and professional role models (the good, the bad and the ugly) because by accepting the light and shade in others they are able to forgive and accept it in themselves. It normalises not only the emotions and secret desires that your clients are experiencing, but also demonstrates quite powerfully to them that anyone can be successful…not just the ‘perfect’ human beings who have never put a foot wrong or made a mistake.
If YOU (with all your talents, strengths, weaknesses, successes and failure) are willing to become the poster child for your chosen industry, you attract a huge influx of new and loyal customers who connect with you on a deeper emotional level. This is because YOU are the catalyst that helps them feel normal and acceptable, both to themselves and society at large. Be willing to integrate your personal story into the history of your business and you will have a very powerful formula for seducing and converting new target markets.
Oh yeah, the whole thing about size not mattering – are you kidding me! Of course it matters!
Lady Gaga SELLS the kind of PORN that turns her clients ON
Lady Gaga knows how to sell the porn that her fans love, do you?
Attracting new clients to your business can be as simple as finding out what turns them on.
For the moment, we’re going to leave the anal probing for E.T. to phone home about… Today I’m talking about how to uncover the secret desires of your audience in order to really tickle their fancy and best excite and seduce them into becoming your clients.
Take singer-songwriter Lady GaGa who has carved out a successful career writing hits for the likes of Britney Spears and the Pussy Cat Dolls before exploding onto the music scene with her own debut album, The Fame (2007).
Lady G’s most impressive talent isn’t actually in her acclaimed songwriting ability, her deep throat (I’m talking about the singing, people!) or even her alleged pole-dancing abilities…but rather in her acute understanding of the secret desires of her target market. The Fame tapped into this perfectly by being an album all about (in her own words), “how anyone can feel famous”.
The bold, uncompromising lyrics of tracks such as Beautiful Dirty Rich created an instant sensation and got the media all excited, touting her as the new “material girl” taking over the mantle from Madonna.
What has this got to do with your business?
Take a look at your existing client base. Can you imagine the myriad of secret insatiable desires in their lives? You may say there’s no way you can know, but let me ask your subconscious this question: If you did know what they were, what would they be?
Take yourself on a mental flight of fancy and see what you can discover… Are there any secret desires seething along under the surface that you could use as themes in your marketing and communications campaigns?
What do you imagine your customers want to achieve?
What do their patterns of behaviour and buying habits reveal to you about the things that turn them on?
There are more of us harbouring secret desires like these underneath conservative corporate suits than you may have ever realised before…aspirations such as:
· Being rich
· Being famous
· Being acknowledged
· Being thanked
· Being accepted
· Being happy
· Being sexy
· Being thin
· Being buff
· Being conversed
Take some time out to really think up a whole host of creative ways to transform your business offerings into the porn of your key clients. What can you do to make your goods and services so addictive that they just can’t get enough? Offer them rare diamond insights and gold nuggets of information that your competitors aren’t communicating effectively enough. Zoom in on that quality content which can substantially impact their lives.
What you’re selling doesn’t have to be new (objects of desire have been around for as long as the people who create and covet them have) but it does need to take a fresh approach, be a new spin or a new angle…something shinier and more exciting than the way what you’re selling has ever been presented before.
Create new and exciting ways to present fresh themes and perspectives your clients can’t get from anybody else. Once you nail this, it’s like you’re serving up a platter of their favourite porn on a regular basis and they will know exactly who to come to every time they feel the urge (YOU!).
Graduation Speech Controversy - You Decide What all the Fuss Was About!
December 2009 I spoke in front of over 500 students, parents and teachers at Balaklava's Year 12 Graduation presentation and it seems my speech has caused more than just a little bit of controversy.
Press play on the video above to view the full presentation and you too can decide what all of the fuss was about.
In my address I spoke about everything, including; sexuality, depression, suicide and my career to date of which has been more than colourful.
I was honest and purposefully provocative to gain the respect from the Year 12's of whom I was speaking with directly. It wasn't my intention to impress the parents or teachers, although it has been described as the "most memorable made by a guest speaker," and "smutty" by others.
Controversy is a powerful tool when utilised correctly. I utilised it in this presentation because I had a chance to make a real impact towards the year 12's lives. I grew up not liking who I was. My message was clear to them, "It's none of their business what others think of you."
If you plan to use controversy to get your point across, always and I mean always put it into context. If there is no context then there is no real reason for you to say what you're going to say.
Inject humour to diffuse prejudices and be willing to take the mickey out of yourself for the sake of getting your point across. It works, but be weary there is an art to building up credibility in your presentation at the beginning of it before you tackle the tough issues, without it you're going to run into dangerous territory.
Author: Ben Angel is the author of the new controversial book, Sleeping Your Way to The Top in Business – The Ultimate Guide to Attracting & Seducing More Customers. Click here to grab your copy today!
How Far Would You Go to Market Your Business? Author Admits to Dressing Up as Cowboy!
Are you willing to be the Marlboro man to promote your business?
“I dressed up as a cowboy and entered a room with over 400 businessmen dressed in suits to promote a speed dating business.” Ben Angel the author of the new controversial book, Sleeping Your Way to The Top in Business – The Ultimate Guide to Attracting & Seducing More Customers, confesses.
No longer running that business, Ben says, “It was the scariest thing I’ve ever had to do but sometimes you’ve got to go to great lengths to get a business to work. A glass brimming to the top of red wine also helps!”
That little publicity stunt resulted in the speed dating business receiving television and radio exposure, plus a regular column in a national street press magazine that Ben still writes for today 5 years later.
“Although that business didn’t survive its competitors it was an amazing lesson and experience in marketing acumen at the time that I’ll never forget. I pushed my own personal boundaries to the limit and trust me, nothing is as bad in business as dressing up as a cowboy in public to market yourself!” He says with a cheeky smile on his face.
Ben believes that a lot of business failures are due to the owners not truly understanding what is required to make a great business work.“They’re not willing to give it everything they’ve got in the early days. I grew up on a farm and observed my dad working all day and night to sow the seeds in time for next season’s harvest. If that didn’t happen, the income the following year would simply equal zero.” Angel says.
Sleeping Your Way to The Top is a slap in the face for many business owners who have yet to give it their all. Ben refreshingly exposes the reader to the great lengths he’s gone to in attracting the required attention to make his endeavours work.
“Business isn’t always easy, especially in this competitive marketplace but it’s those that are willing to go to great lengths to market themselves that will receive the payoffs. If what is required means making one hundred telephone calls a day to build your business then come high or hell water you do it or suffer the consequences of your inaction.” Ben Says.
With a world obsessed with body image and looking good, a controversial business author has released a book identifying tips on how to be fat but look thin. Have we gone mad? Is it ok to encourage individuals to sport an unhealthy physique that could lead to their untimely demise or is it simply the new way of life?
Ben Angel, author of ‘Sleeping Your Way to The Top in Business – The Ultimate Guide to Attracting & Seducing More Customers’ shares with his reader’s tips on hiding the extra poundage to present a more professional and tailored image for career progression.
Angel says,“I’m not suggesting that you obsess over your weight or get sucked into fad diets - unless of course you haven’t seen your penis for a good twenty years or you’ve got more rolls under your shirt than the local bakery! I don’t believe in diets: I believe in loving life and being healthy…healthy eating combined with regular mental and physical exercise to keep fit.”
His top tips for instant ‘visual’ weight loss include; wearing semi-fitted clothes that skim the body, avoiding ‘round’ design elements and cuts, i.e. round collars and avoiding colour blocking (the art of wearing two distinctly different colours on your top and bottom halves), i.e. a white top with black pants. This Angel says, “Has the unfortunate result of creating two very large horizontal blocks, which is an even more exaggerated version of the fattening horizontal lines. Instead utilise toning colours, less extreme in contrast. This will make your body appear longer and leaner, balancing out your body shape.”
Ben’s tips are timely as we come out of the holiday season and thousands the world over head back to the gym to work off the extra calories they’ve indulged in over the holidays.
Angel says,“There is no doubt that getting to a place where you are entirely comfortable with yourself, your body and your shape (whatever that looks and feels like to you) will guarantee that you portray a far more positive presence than if you are hauling old body issue concerns around with you. If you do find yourself carrying a bit of extra weight, don’t panic: there are many tips that you can employ to ensure you find clothes that are flattering to your body shape to help you feel sexy and more confident.”
So, is being over-weight now too acceptable? I’ll let you answer that one but one thing I know for sure, next time I get stuck into a box of Krispy Creme donuts I’ll be turning to Ben for advice. Even if he is a bit blunt with his styling advice, he knows how to drop kilos in a matter of seconds. Call me lazy but that’s certainly quicker than slogging it out in the gym for hours.
Ben’s book “Sleeping Your Way to The Top in Business” is available exclusively through his website www.benangel.com.au For media enquiries contact Ben directly at ben@benangel.com.au
Not only write one, but get it accepted into the media!
We'll, to help, this week I've created a basic free press release template you can download straight away to assist. This press release template has assisted me in appearing in the following media;
The Herald Sun
The Leader Newspapers
The Age
A Current Affair
The Producer
The Sydney Daily Telegraph
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