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E48: Open The Door To Happiness And Szen With Gary Szenderski

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Gary Szenderski is an author, speaker, teacher, and branding specialist. He specializes in helping people and organizations to navigate change, and frequently speaks and writes on the topic of emerging brands, personal branding, and companies in transition. Gary is an award-winning writer, author of the Book of Szen, often quoted marketing expert, and recipient of the Distinguished Instructor Award from the University of California in Irvine where he teaches branding.

 

Quotes To Remember:

“We should always start our songs on a positive note.”

“If you can’t change it, embrace it.”

“We have to deal with [past issues] head on.”

 

What You’ll Learn:

—How to discover what you want

—How to live in the moment and become more aware of what’s going on

—How to stay positive

—How to avoid hinging your happiness on expectations 

—How to avoid distractions

—How to open the intake valve to your happiness

 

Key Links From The Show:

Gary’s Site

Gary’s email address: gary@bookofszen.com

 

Recommended Books:

The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Anchor

Start With Why by Simon Sinek

Beauty: The Invisible Embrace by John O’Donohue

E47: Creating A Positive Impact On The World Through Our Businesses With Hamilton Perkins

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Hamilton Perkins is the founder and CEO of Hamilton Perkins Collection, a brand that focuses on creating affordable designer bags that look good, perform well, and make a difference. With a sea of options, HPC sets itself apart with the level of care it puts into each product. Hamilton sees philanthropy and giving as an essential part of running a business today.

 

Quotes To Remember:

“We started because we couldn’t find what we were looking for from other brands, so we decided to do it ourselves.”

“It’s taking a personal need or a pain point and turning that into a solution.”

“A lot of the time it comes down to just getting started earlier.”

 

What You’ll Learn:

—How to attract employees that share your vision

—How to leverage crowdfunding

—How to get your products to spread through word of mouth

 

Key Links from The Show:

Hamilton’s website

 

Recommended Books from The Show:

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk

Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard

E46: Penniless Immigrant Now Living The American Dream With Nitin Chhoda

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Nitin Chhoda is an immigrant who arrived in the U.S. penniless in 2002. He started by delivering pizza, sleeping in his car, and not having enough money to afford winter clothing. However, his hustling mentality allowed him to transcend the grip of poverty to become a licensed physical therapist, entrepreneur, author, and public speaker. Now he owns and runs several multi-million dollar companies with over 30 employees worldwide.

 

Quotes To Remember:

“Going for zero to $100,000 is all about hustle”

“As an entrepreneur, be prepared to deal with crazy stuff”

“I view money as a vehicle”

“Resilience is a direct function of how much struggle you have been through”

“The right people, hiring the right people is crucial for going from point A to point B….Find and hire the right people, and your professional stature, your emotional capability and your long-term potential as an entrepreneur will significantly increase if you’re around the right people”

 

 

What You’ll Learn

—How to develop resilience

—How to get the right people on your team

—Creating proper systems that will help your business grow massively

—The habits of successful entrepreneurs

 

 

Key Links from The Show:

 

Total Activation –– Nitin’s Site.

 

Recommended Books from the Show:

Total Activation by Nitin Chhoda

Influence by Robert Cialdini

No Man’s Land by Doug Tatum

Outrageous Advertising by Bill Glazer

5 Hacks For Writing Blog Posts Faster

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blog posts

Writing blog posts takes time, effort and commitment.

You need to think up an engaging topic and headline, write an outline and the actual post, proofread and edit, then publish and promote your post before starting the entire process again.

But there are unconventional ways to hack the writing process and speed things up. Here are five ways to write your blog posts faster:

 

#1: Write On Your Smartphone

Just to clarify, I always prefer to write blog posts using a computer, but that isn’t always an option.

In fact, I’m writing this post in TJ Maxx. Why? Well, it’s not because I enjoy shopping (I find what I need and get out as quickly as possible), but today I am in the company of people who like to browse.

 

So instead of idly slouching against a wall, I decided to slouch against a wall and write the post you’re reading now. This way, the time I spend inside the store is actually productive.

 

Now I’m not saying to go shopping just so you can write blog posts. However, you can use moments of waiting as opportunities to begin, add to, or edit a post.

 

Certainly I could write much faster on my computer, but if I finish the post here in the store I won’t have to write again later today.

 

I could go on and on about this method because it’s the one I’m using now, and use often when I’m waiting, but let’s move on to the next hack.

 

#2: Get Your Videos Transcribed

Some people may be natural talkers but not natural writers. It takes more brain power for them to write than to talk. Just talking about your topic will help it flow out quicker and easier.

 

Not only that, but you can spend a few minutes dictating content that would take 30 minutes or more to write.

 

Talk about a time saver! And you’ve also got a YouTube video to boot. You can even turn it into a podcast episode using the MP3 file.

 

#3: Hire A Ghostwriter

Sometimes the fastest way to get your blog posts written is by not writing them at all! You can have one writer, or a team of ghostwriters, write your content for you.

I still haven’t hired ghostwriters for content creation, but I learned a lot about how it works after hosting the Content Marketing Success Summit.

 

Bascially, you can give a ghostwriter an outline of your blog post’s topic and he or she will write it up (you can also ask that they make suggestions for topic ideas).

 

Keep in mind it’s important that ghostwriters are familiar with your blog and writing style so they can write in a similar voice.

 

This ensures your content is consistent (without having to write it yourself). Why not focus more of your time on other areas of your business?

 

#4: Accept Guest Contributions To Your Blog

When you are first starting out, you may not have a budget for ghostwriters. To remedy this problem, you can invite people to contribute your blog.

You basically get free content. All you have to do is give credit and let the contributor link to his/her site and other essentials at the beginning or end of the blog post (whichever you prefer).

 

The best way to find contributors for your blog is by looking at blogs in your niche that accept contributors. Then ask the same contributors to contribute to your blog.

 

The people who contribute to your blog will naturally share their posts, so you’ll get more exposure for your blog.

 

Also, as more people contribute to your blog, other contributors will contact you and ask if they can contribute content for your blog.

 

In the beginning, getting contributors to your blog will involve sending many emails to bloggers. But as you get more contributors, the snowball effect will eventually kick in and new contributors will contact you with their ideas.

 

#5: Memorize The Keyboard

Do you know where the “q” key is on your keyboard. Did you have to look down to find it?

 

Looking down at the keyboard takes time. Although it may only take a second to look down and look up, that action makes you type slower and temporarily removes your focus from writing the blog post.

 

The seconds you spend looking down at the keyboard as you write each sentence and each blog post quickly add up to minutes and hours.

 

To make up that time, you must memorize the keyboard. Your WPM (words per minute) will skyrocket and you will be less susceptible to distraction.

 

Any moment that your fingers aren’t moving quickly on the keyboard, you are susceptible to distraction.
So now that I’ve sold you on the benefits (or, at least, I’m hoping), here’s how you master the skill.

 

Start by memorizing all of the key placements for a single 4-5 letter word. If you can type the word “blog” with your eyes closed, you have memorized the locations of 4 of the 26 letters on the keyboard.

 

If you then memorize the word “each,” you have memorized 8 of the 26 letters on the keyboard.

 

Now typing a word like “beach” comes second nature as you’ve memorized the placements of those letters.

 

This is a simple exercise that will allow you to write blog posts faster. This one method has saved me countless hours of time.

 

In Conclusion

I’m wrapping up this blog post in yet another store. I didn’t bother looking for a table or taking out my computer. I simply wrote all of it on my iPhone.

 

Since the keys are located in the same places, I had no problem effortlessly typing words by memory.

 

Think about how many blog posts you can write while waiting for something or someone.

 

Think about how much time you can save with ghostwriters and contributors.

 

Think of how cool it is to not write them at all!

 

What are your thoughts on these hacks to writing blog posts faster?

Have any hacks for us? Sound off in the comments section below.

Until next time,
-Marc

E45: Are You Winning The Brand VS Wild Battle With Jonathan David Lewis

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Jonathan David Lewis is an engaging and authoritative speaker who shares how to survive and thrive in today’s uncertain world. He is the author of several books including Brand VS Wild which will be the focus of this episode. In addition to writing books, Jonathan has also written several articles on places like Forbes, DigiDay, and Advertising Age where he explores that factors that lead to stalled growth and the principles proven to help companies navigate the ambiguities and dangers of the brand wilderness.

 

Quotes To Remember:

“The task in front of us as business people is…get comfortable…with an uncomfortable amount of risk in every decision.”

“Who are you going to disappoint?” (you can’t please everyone)

“Always enter the danger.”

 

What You’ll Learn

—How to anticipate and deal with disruption

—How to stay focused on your goals

—How to move forward in your business

—The pathway to resilience

 

Key Links from The Show:

Jonathan’s site

Brand VS Wild — Jonathan’s Book

 

 

Recommended Books from The Show:

Getting Naked by Patrick Lencioni

 

The Connected Company by Dave Gray

 

Power Branding by Steve Mckee

The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

E44: How To Prevent Procrastination From Ruining Your Life With Timothy Pychyl

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Timothy Pychyl is a passionate teacher at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. He has researched and written about procrastination for over 20 years which he has published on procrastination.ca. Timothy has culminated this research into his book Solving The Procrastination Puzzle: A Concise Guide To Strategies For Change which is available on Amazon.

 

Quotes To Remember:

“Procrastination is a negative form of delay.”

“The moment we look too far down the road, we can have a panic attack.”

“We all like to self deceive, we like to lie to ourselves, it makes us feel good.”

 

What You’ll Learn

—Timothy explains why we procrastinate to avoid negative emotions, and gives us “mood repair”

—How to take purposeful, useful breaks

—How to catch yourself procrastinating and avoid spiraling out of control.

—How to use our willpower more effectively and create an “environment of avoidance”

 

Key Links from The Show

Timothy’s site where he has done over 20 years of research on procrastination

I Procrastinate — Timothy’s podcast

 

 

3 Recommended Books:

The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown

The Courage to Teach by Parker J. Palmer

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

Solving The Procrastination Puzzle by Timothy Pychyl