7 Reasons Smart, Hardworking People Struggle To Find Success | Lifehack

May 25, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Think back to when you were in high school, when things were simpler. Do you remember that person who stood out amongst the class? That person everyone thought would change the world one day? They got straight A’s on their report card and were praised all the time. People would talk about the things that person would go on to do one day.

Fast forward a decade or two to the present day. You haven’t seen anything spectacular the person has done. In fact, you haven’t heard anything at all.

What happened?

Maybe you know someone like this. Or…maybe you are that person.

I used to think that intelligence and a strong work ethic were all you needed to be successful. But it turns out that’s not always true. Both are important, but they aren’t a guarantee for success in life. A number of other factors come into play.

Here are seven reasons smart, hardworking people can’t find success:

It’s all in a name… | The Startup Magazine

May 25, 2016May 25, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Your domain name is your identity on the web. It is the starting point of your journey online, but more importantly it is the go-to destination for all your traffic – and therefore it needs to be the right one to showcase your business. Choosing your domain name is a decision not to be taken lightly. You want to make sure you choose one that reflects your business or venture, so people instantly know they have found the right website. But you also need to ask yourself how easy it is to find and to promote.

To make the decision process just that little bit easier, we’ve put together a few key points for you to consider when choosing your domain name:

Wake Up And Smell The Coffee: Employment Is Over | Forbes

May 24, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Alan was a clever guy who came to a job-search workshop we presented. He told jokes and cracked everyone up.

He said “Working at my former employer was like being a prairie dog living in a prairie dog village where life was happy and gay. The only problem for the prairie dogs was that right next door to the prairie dog village lived an erratic and violent farmer with a shotgun who every so often would lean over the fence, take some shots and pick off a bunch of prairie dogs. You never knew when it was going to happen.”

Alan stayed at his ex-employer for six years and survived eight layoffs. He finally got whacked in the ninth round.

“It was only when I got laid off that I realized how much stress I had been experiencing, but ignoring,” said Alan.

“Because of the crazed-farmer-with-a-shotgun dynamic in my old company, everybody was under huge stress. It didn’t matter what your job title was or how well you hit your targets. If they decided to change the strategic plan one day, you were still toast.”

Alan put his finger on the most significant change that has occurred in the working world since I started working in 1979.

Teamhacking 102: Best Management Tips for New Leaders | Page 19

May 24, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

This week, we’ll show you how to empower your employees to promote constructive workplace debate, how to organize your team to play to each worker’s strengths, and much more. Let’s get to it!

1. Create safe conversations by showing people that you respect them and their interests.

From Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler: We’ve all seen how an otherwise rational conversation can quickly go off the rails when people feel threatened. So what steps can we take to keep the atmosphere in a conversation safe?

A safe atmosphere hinges on two key conditions: a feeling of mutual respect, and a common purpose.

Google Maps Will Feature Local Search Ads for Businesses | Adweek

May 24, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Expect to see more digital strangers along your physical routes: Local ads are coming to Google Maps.

Now that nearly one third of all mobile searches are related to location, Google is looking for more ways to connect marketers with users walking, biking, driving and otherwise commuting around any given city.

In a blog post published today, Google said it’s investing more in “branded, customized experiences” for businesses to help increase store visits.

Users will be able to tell the difference between a promoted location and an organic location by the color of the pin on the map and the word “ad” in the text at the bottom of the screen.

Beyond Meat’s burger drips canola oil not blood | Money CNN

May 23, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A new burger is about to hit the market. It looks and cooks like it’s made of beef. But there’s one key difference — it’s entirely plant based.

Beyond Meat, which makes meatless products, claims its latest burger is “the closest thing to meat” that it’s ever created.

The Beyond Burger will be available at one Whole Foods in Boulder, Colorado on Monday and at other stores on the East Coast soon.

It’s the result of over seven years of research that the company undertook to “understand meat” and then “rebuild” the burger in a plant-based form.

Deloitte report on peer-to-peer lending |Business Insider

May 23, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Deloitte just trashed the hype around the online lending industry.

The accountancy and consultancy practice has done a deep dive on the online lending industry, and its conclusions should make for devastating reading for anyone connected to the sector.

Deloitte concludes that marketplace lenders, more commonly called peer-to-peer lenders in the UK, “are unlikely to pose a threat to banks in the mass market,” according to Neil Tomlinson, Deloitte’s head of UK banking. The report concludes that the platforms “will not be significant players in terms of overall volume or share.”

Converting Leads Into Customers: Create a Sales Funnel for Your Business | Getentrepreneurial.com

May 20, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The sales process is a long road dotted with pitfalls and junctions that can lead potential customers astray. Sales representatives cannot cover every step of the way, but they can pull together a map, and put visible signs to direct people. Namely, sales funnel prevents the sale pipelines from becoming clogged, which is why many online businesses take advantage of this model. In fact, internet marketing has embraced these techniques as they show great promise in terms of establishing sale relationships with buyers in the long term.

A Sofa That Never Gets Bored | Design Milk

May 20, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The internet of things is no longer limited to well, just the internet. It now includes furniture. In fact, the Lift-Bit (not to confused with Fitbit or other bits), is the “world’s first Internet-of-Things sofa.” First unveiled at this year’s Milan Design Week, the sofa was created by international design and innovation firm Carlo Ratti Associati with help from Vitra.

The Lift-Bit is a modular furniture system that transform from sofa, to chair, to bed, to chaise lounge… to whatever else your creativity dreams up. It consists of a cluster of bright green, upholstered stools which are motorized using a linear actuator. This means that the cushions on the stool can be raised or lowered. Furthermore, it can be controlled through gestures, or of course, a mobile app.