Blog Author Mellissah Smith - Page 57

There is one thing that employees can learn from a Navy Seal that will be life changing - and that is to make your bed every morning to perfection. By completing this task, according to Navy Admiral William H. McRaven, who gave a talk to 8000 graduating students from the University of Texas last month, you would have completed the first task of the day.

I watched the video of his speech that clocked up 1.7 million views in 2 weeks on YouTube a few weeks ago and was inspired.

Of his 10 Life Lessons From A Navy Seal, here are 4 that resonated most with me:

1. If you want to change the world, start off by making your own bed. This makes perfect sense to me as once you have completed this task, it is easier to complete others. It also signifies that its the little things that we all have to do in our lives that at times we may see as pointless, that are instrumental in helping us achieve our goals.

2. If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle. You cannot do it by yourself no matter how good you think you are. Working as a team can help you accomplish things more quickly and effectively, keeping employees accountable to each other and increasing motivation to achieve the end goal.

3. If you want to change the world, don't be afraid of circuses. This means that you should not be afraid of failing and the repercussion of that. There will be times where you fail and as McRaven says, it will be painful, discouraging and will test you to your core. The ability to get through this and know that not only have you come through to the other end, but there will be more circuses in the future, will make you stronger and more determined to succeed.

4. If you want to change the world, don't ever, ever ring the bell. Giving up means you won't have to have any more circuses and it will give you immediate relief from the pain or challenges you may be facing, but if you do this, you will have the same situation pop up over and over again in life and you will do the same thing - ring the bell. It is impossible to succeed if you keep ringing the bell.

Who would have thought that a blog titled "Why married women are more successful" would receive 47,284 views in less than 24 hours, 525 likes, 550 comments, 467 Facebook likes, 2,371 shares on LinkedIn and 74 retweets on Twitter? I did. And that's exactly why I wrote it.

I am a new author on LinkedIn and I know a thing or two about blogging and going viral. If I just write about marketing, at most, I will get between 1,000 and 10,000 views over a week. If I write about something personal - more. But if I write about something that people have strong opinions on or that hits a raw nerve - the sky is literally the limit.

There are many advantages of being single; you can do what you want when you want, you will never wake to snoring, and you never need to get out of your pajama's if you don't feel like it.

You can kiss as many boys as you wish, decide on the spare of the moment to fly abroad, and eat baked beans on toast without having to consider another.

If you are married; you need to consider your other half, compromise often, and ensure that a hearty meal is on the table each night. And your holidays, well, it's a joint decision and more often than not, it really is one person pushing to go to a particular destination.

There may be socks and towels left on the floor, the disgusting smell of someone passing gas, but hey, you will have a diamond ring on your left finger and be entertained endlessly by your single girlfriends who secretly envy your married status.

But in business it's a clean cut story. Our married counterparts have the upperhand.

Midwest Medical is a leading provider of facility programs that provide ASC or Outpatient Surgical Centres with Sequential Compression Devices and sleeves.

As the company has continued to grow and prosper, they launched into the US market the revolutionary Venowave Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) device DVTlite. With this addition to their range of products and services, Midwest Medical realized that their business was going through an evolution and during the tranformational phase required a rethink of how their brand would look and feel going forward.

Yesterday, I spoke at Cebit 2014 on sales process automation.

It was an interesting topic because so many Australian companies have yet to realise just how much more efficient their sales process can be through sales automation and the ROI in terms of revenue acquired because of having an effective sales process automation system in place.

Collaborating CRM, marketing automation, workflow automation and email marketing, sales process automation is one of the most important areas for businesses to focus on in 2014. 

I’ve got a not-so-secret weapon to reel clients in.  It’s called marketing automation.

You walk in to your favourite shop and immediately, something beautiful captures your attention.  You need it, you want it, it would be just right for you.

Summoning all of your courage, you walk over to that breathtaking prospect and begin your introduction.  And no, I’m not talking about a man, or a pair of Jimmy Choos -  I’m describing something else that makes my heart beat; engaging with a potential new client; that instantaneous allure of a new connection.  And I’m not going to lie; you must approach business like you would a date.

Yes, I’m encouraging you to flirt with your customers.

Sure, this is not a top-tier newspaper gig or a glamorous television job, but we do have Timtams and laugh alot. Our deadlines are not as dramatic, but we do have a magazine to get out. You will meet lots of interesting people from all walks of life, namely entrepreneurs that may one day be 'the next big thing' and some big businesses that choose us as their marketing arm.

It's true, we are looking for a journalist, because we like journalists. They seem to be smarter, more diverse and faster than having a PR chick (or bloke) in-house, and let's face it, communications people suck at writing real stories for quality magazines - but you seem to have that one sorted.

And... we aren't a bad place to work. Our people are nice, all with interesting and diverse backgrounds. We work hard and as much as I would like to say that we play hard, its possibly not the case other than for a few Gen-y'ers that work for the company.

We have a dog, but she is stuck in the US at the moment. Hopefully one day she will join us back on these sunny shores.

Chase Performance has created successful business solutions through an award-winning combination of consulting and services. They work across a wide range of industries, developing the expertise required to deliver the most premium consulting services available.

When writing my business plan 9 years ago, I took many things into account like how the business would look in 10 years time, employees, what services we would provide, and how we would expand into new markets.

But what I didn't take into account is how I would actually make it happen. You see, like many entrepreneurs, I have struggled with working in the business and trying to at the same time work "on" the business - never quite getting the mix right.

At long last, since I made some smart strategic business moves last year, including changing management, I have become the entrepreneur I always wanted to be. I am implementing our business plan that was written so long ago, and it feels really good. There is a sense of satisfaction that is growing deep inside me and I believe in every single thing that we are doing.