Episode 013 - Noise Reduction - Who Has Your Ear? is now available for your listening pleasure!
Blue Collar Business Podcast - 013 Noise Reduction - Who Has Your Ear?
August 31st, 2010
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Just Say No To Crap!
August 24th, 2010
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Here is a re-post of a story I wrote over 2 years ago on a personal blog. I had just discovered This American Life and this story came out of some online study I had done. I thought I would share it here as I think it will be useful to you. Just reading what I wrote two years ago I'm kind of laughing to myself.
Well, I love radio story telling so I went and did a youtube search for Ira Glass. Now, why I went to youtube to find out something about a radio guy is beyond me but I'm glad I did. I found this really good video of him talking about story telling and how they find good stories and how hard it is to find good stories. Let me share his video with you and then comment on it. Pay special attention for his commentary from the 1:45 point and on.
Ira talks about being able to kill something that is not going to live up to the standards they have set for their show. He says that all radio productions are trying to become crap and without failure there is no chance for success.
After hearing him say this I felt an instant connection with him. He's a small business guy too. If you own a business with less than 500 employees then you are considered small business.
I believe that everything wants to become crap. Without constant work and attention to everything my business wants to become crap. Without a daily walk with God my faith wants to become crap. Without care and upkeep my home wants to become crap. Without working on my marriage it wants to become crap.
It's human nature to want something for nothing. It's hard for us to not do nothing and hope for positive results. When we do nothing things become crap. If I ignore my marriage it will become crap. If I ignore my spiritual walk it will become crap. If I ignore any area of my business it will become crap.
Ira believes that by fighting against crap you will get lucky. This is the only thing he says that I'd have to disagree with. I don't believe in luck of any kind. Isn't there a quote that says luck is opportunity meets preparation? I don't believe that hard work produces luck or increases your chances to receive luck. I think luck is for the faithless. Luck is for those who spend $1 a week hoping the lottery will save them from financial doom. Luck is for those who believe life is the spin of the wheel of fortune. We don't do luck at my business, we do hard work and preparation and then look for opportunity.
I think we can learn something from Ira that is applicable in our personal and professional lives. Fight the crap! See it coming and kill it, even if it is your idea and you can tell it's crap. It's ok to admit to your failures. If you fail then it means you were willing to take a chance. It means you weren't willing to just stand on the sidelines and hope things would work out in your favor.
Kill the crap and learn from it!
Part 2 of "Business Is A Moral Activity"
August 23rd, 2010
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How To Price Your Work - Confident Pricing Class Screen Cast
August 18th, 2010
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I re-created my video on building a pricing structure you can actually structure a business around. This video is a 10 minute preview of my 4 hour Confident Pricing Model class.
SEO through Permalinks - WordPress Screen Cast
August 16th, 2010
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This video explains how to best optimize your posted stories utilizing the permalinks options inside of WordPress.
Here is the code I used.
/%postname%
This is a setting Justin at Coachradio.tv had me make so I need to give credit where it is due.
Business Is A Moral Activity-Part 1
August 15th, 2010
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What are you, some kind of idiot?
August 14th, 2010
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I know I have done it. I bet you have too. You've stood in front of the mirror and asked yourself why in the world you are doing this 'self employment' thing. Regardless of where you are in your business now, at one time, you were frustrated by it. Chances are a lot of the time it's a love/hate relationship even now.
Maybe you lost a big job that you were pretty sure would push you out of business if you didn't land it. Maybe you knew that you weren't going to get a paycheck for the next couple of weeks and when you did get a check it wasn't going to make up for the last two you missed. Maybe you're sick and tired of your family taking a back seat to that client you don't really even like but he just keeps calling at the worst times and you can't afford to tell him to just go away, forever.
So, what do I tell myself that keeps me going? I tell myself it's going to be a cool story. I guess it's supposed to be more philosophical than that. Sorry, for me, it's really quite simple. I want all of this to be a really cool story that people want to sit around and listen too.
I just started the book A Million Miles In A Thousand Years, by Donald Miller. I'm on page 19 and I can already tell I'm going to love it.
I'm realizing that for the last 20 years of my life I've tried to live in a way that will make a great story. I'm certain it's because I have a pretty strong imagination. I fantasize about the level of success I'm going to achieve by never giving up and staying the course. I imagine groups of people wanting to sit around and hear the story of how my wife and I couldn't have kids of our own so we became foster parents, a few left but two got to stay and we adopted them. How we got pregnant and had two more daughters immediately after adopting our first two. I'll tell the story of how my business should have gone bankrupt but I fought my way through to the other side. I'll tell of how God aways provided for us, no matter how bleak the future was looking.
Don't you want all the hard stuff you have to go through to end up being a great story that you can tell? One that will encourage and empower others to have victory over their challenges?
So, what do you tell yourself that keeps you going during the down times?
Install Plugin, Database Backup - WordPress Screen Cast
August 13th, 2010
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In this Screen Cast I show you how to install a plugin and to kill two birds with one stone I install a database backup plugin and explain that as well.
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Blue Collar Business Podcast Episode 10 - Independent Contractor vs Employee
August 10th, 2010
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Episode 10 is now in the books at http://bluecollarbusinesspodcast.com!
Don't forget to leave a review in iTunes!
http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/blue-collar-business-podcast/id376901646
Write Your First Story - WordPress Screen Cast
August 6th, 2010
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In this video you will learn how to write your first story as well as add a photo to your story.
