Back To School, Never Stop Learning

Labor day has come and gone and schools are back in session. It’s a time when children are still excited about what to learn. What about you? What have you planned to learn?

Too often adults see back to school time as something exclusive for their kids. In reality learning never stops. Your kids can probably cite a few things they learned while on summer vacation, yet can you tell them something you learned recently?

Educational opportunities are limitless and what better time then now for you to rediscover the joys of learning. Take 5 minutes and collect your thoughts on what you would like to learn in the next 30 days. Once you have done that, figure out how you can find out more about it. Can you learn more online via webinars or courses? Maybe it can be discovered in a book or by attending a workshop or seminar?

It doesn’t really matter what you learn or how you learn, the true point is that you make an effort to learn something new or become better at whatever you choose. Learning is choice. I hope you choose to never stop learning.

Communicating Your Brand

Lots of people and organizations have been talking about branding in the past 2 years, yet it truly is more important and easier than ever. Thanks to Social Media a greater audience can be reached and reached faster!


If Branding is all about our company’s message and who that message reaches and what it means to them, of course Social media is a perfect paring. Social media allows you and others to send you message too many effectively. This is done cheap and easily.

Social media also brings up another aspect of communication, which is “what are others saying about your brand?” It’s true, since social media such as facebook, youtube and twitter are place people express themselves and their opinions; it is a place their opinions about you may show up.

The good news is tools exist that will allow you to tune in and see what is being said. Among our favorites are tweetdeck and google alerts. Both of these FREE tools allow you to search for mentions about you or your brand and bring that info back to you. Tweetdeck is an amazing tool which besides for searching twitter.com for you it will also increase your productivity. Google Alerts can search the rest of the web and alert you to what happens or is communicated about you in real time. (Although I prefer a daily update which is possible, just set your alert that way.)

Even if you have not jumped on the social media bandwagon just yet (and that’s another issue) make sure you do a bit of research as your brand may already be out there. Just assume that it is! So the question is not if it is on social media, instead it’s “who is controlling it?” You or others?

Don’t Grow, Change!

Do you really want to grow, or would you rather change? Does a caterpillar grow, or does it change?
A caterpillar goes about its life as a young insect; it wanders about on the ground. Its day is spent crawling across the earth or climbing over obstacles using its many legs. Eventually it will climb to a point where it can create a cocoon. Once inside it undergoes a transformation and eventually emerges as a butterfly.
As a butterfly, it no longer resembles its former self of a caterpillar. Besides looking very different it now lives a different life, flying through the air on its wings. It has changed its looks and how it travels.
Maybe there is a lesson in that story for us! Too often I see people invest their time and resources in an effort to “grow better”. No don’t get me wrong; I love to see people seeking to better themselves. Yet if they continue to grow won’t they end up with more of the same? If the caterpillar grew, wouldn’t it just be a bigger caterpillar?
The biggest detriment I see people make with their progress is when they grow comfortable with where they are currently. To truly become better and change our results, we must change! Don’t grow your habits change them.
Get out of your comfort zone and change yourself and your capabilities. Stop focusing on how to do more of the same and instead develop new skills. As you do, your results will do more then grow, they will change.

I welcome your comments and hope that you with share with us ways in which you are changing and improving your results.