Even with my Psych degree in hand, even I forgot what is probably the easiest way to realign yourself and channel your passion for business – take care of your basic needs! As women especially, we are so good at taking care of everyone else and ensuring that their needs are met. But, what about us? If you’re having trouble connecting with your enthusiastic, passionate self, ask yourself “am I taking care of my basic needs?” It may be a simple concept, but, don’t ignore it’s importance. It’s impossible for you to be passionate when you’re tired, or haven’t fueled your body with nutritious food, or are trying to buy the farm when you haven’t paid the heat bill in the house. Take a trip down memory lane and revisit Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to make sure you’re giving yourself the best chance to be passionate and if you’re not, do yourself a favour and get back to basics.

All the best,

Heather White, CEO, 2020 Communications Inc.

It’s not that the passion that lives within us is ever that far away, but it is true that it can become dormant if we don’t activate it. Sometimes that activation comes from a profound idea or thought, a stimulating conversation, a book or article that your read….or…a Flash Mob:

Watch the video here: Vancouver 2010 Dancing in the Streets Flashmob

How’s that for inspiring your passion??

All the best,

Heather White, CEO, 2020 Communications Inc

I think passion is another one of those words we toss around, assuming the meaning, but often not digging deep enough to understand the essence. Passion to me is alignment. Alignment of your natural gifts and talents with an arena of expression. Passion is the skater with a sheet of ice, the skiier with snow covered mountain peak, the golfer with a plush green fairway, the teacher on stage with an audience watching.

I think the biggest barrier between you and your passion is your knowledge and acceptance of yourself. Our whole life we are conditioned to believe that we are not good enough. That we have to learn more, earn more, say more, do more in order to reach some holy grail of accomplishment. This paradigm no longer serves us.

In the silence and stillness of your life is where you will hear your inner voice of wisdom talk to you about your true passions. From there, your job is to be open, to be honest and to be willing to take the necessary inspired action steps that will lead you on a path of alignment.

Passion is not something external that you need to go out and get. It’s internal and you simply need to allow it to come to the surface of your life.

Be brave!!

All the best,

Heather White, CEO 2020 Communications Inc.

There is one definite inevitability in life and that is, of course, death. Not usually a topic that most people want to talk about or frankly think about, but, nevertheless something that we cannot escape. Personally, my consideration of the concept is something that has given me an incredible amount of strength thus far. Whenever I have a desire to do something there is the almost immediate reaction from my mind. Sometimes it tells me why I can’t do it, sometime why I shouldn’t, sometimes it just laughs at my plans. I’ve heard many theories about why this happens, why do we get in our own way, why would we stop ourselves from giving something a try? We shouldn’t! We have to go for it!

When I watched the below video I was further convinced. The man on the video has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and given only months to live. In this, his last lecture, he gives a moving, practical, matter of fact speech about how and why to live a life in pursuit of your dreams. There is no time to put things off – we have to pursue those things that we have a desire to!

A version of Randy Pausch’s last lecture as seen on Oprah

All the best,

Heather White, CEO, 2020 Communications Inc.

If you were like billions of people around the world, you kicked off the New Year with a resolution to do more. Make more. Network more. Call more. More, more, more…

But instead of always seeking to do more, wouldn’t most of us benefit by actually doing less? Did you feel frazzled, always rushing, never quite getting everything on your list done? For many of us, a New Year is the time to de-clutter your mind and your life (See Work Life Balance).

When we resolve to do more activities for our business or outside of our professional lives, we can run into the classic problem of biting off more than we can chew. And when you promise to do something and fail for lack of time, you’ll be in worse shape than before, because now you’ll be dealing with the guilt of failure and procrastination.

I know from personal experience and from helping my clients that good things happen when we organize our activities to focus on a few things – and for everything else, have someone else do it.

Revisit your resolution from last week. If you really do have the time to commit to this promise, that’s great. Stay with it. But if you don’t really have the time to do it, then you’re better off canceling that resolution sooner than later (Think of it as a 10-day resolution return policy).

Have a look at your calendar and note all of the hours you’re putting into various activities. Now, think about the time you put into each activity and what you’ve gotten out of it. Make sure you’ve got a red marker handy to start crossing off those activities that aren’t really doing much for you and aren’t likely to produce in future. When you’re done, make a new resolution to stop those activities and focus on the ones that are really getting results. As Chris says, do more of what works and less on the stress.

Linda Chu
CEO – Out of Chaos, Professional Organizing Solutions
www.outofchaos.ca

A lot of the web tools we use for marketing purposes or just for fun can also be used to help us collaborate better in our work.

For instance, if you’ve ever tried drafting a document with two or more people, you’ll understand the frustrations of using email to send drafts back and forth. Is this the latest draft? Who made these changes? How do I get rid of all of this markup?

One alternative is Google Docs, which allows all invited users access to the same document, which they can look at and edit all at the same time.

Cell phones are also rapidly becoming mobile computing devices with tons of capabilities. If you’ve got an iPhone or a device with recording capabilities, consider recording a voice memo and sending the recording off to your teammates with just two more clicks.

Apps like Tweetdeck can also act as mobile group messaging devices on the fly. Take five minutes to create Twitter accounts (if you don’t already have them), create a work group on Tweetdeck and download the application to your phone. Now you’ve got a quick messaging platform that can also be used to share links and pictures.

With more teams working remotely than ever before, technology is awfully useful for helping people collaborate in new and practical ways. Experiment a little and you’ll find even more tools and tricks to keep your group in sync.

Linda Chu
CEO – Out of Chaos, Professional Organizing Solutions
www.outofchaos.ca

We don’t always appreciate what we have, whether at home or at work. That angst that fights against complacency is actually a good thing – the sense that the grass is always greener on the other side is what makes us jump into new opportunities. That said, making a team work together with real synergy is not an everyday feat. Learn to spot the successes in your collaborations, so you can replicate that synergy elsewhere.

Does your team actually seem to enjoy working with each other? Happy people are productive people. If you find yourself actually looking forward to seeing the people at your office every day – well, that’s no small thing.

Then there’s the skill set. With an optimal balance where everyone is assigned tasks and workload according to their talents rather than which person has the smallest stack of projects on their desk, you’ll get real productivity.

Next, look at how your group talks to each other. If discussions are fluid, with plenty of back and forth, engaging ideas, and everybody listening to what other team members are saying, you’ve got something special. Far too many groups are dominated by someone with a forceful personality rather than expertise in all areas that the team has to work in. Freedom of speech and thought are not just good for civil society – they make businesses work better.

If you do recognize your team is functioning very well, analyze what it is about this group that works well. Often, it is based on good habits rather than some innate ability to work well with others. Try to transfer these habits to your other collaborative activities and watch your successes add up.

Linda Chu
CEO – Out of Chaos, Professional Organizing Solutions
www.outofchaos.ca

I bitch and moan about technology sometimes because it seems the phone is always ringing and the Blackberry always has a new email or message. That being said, thank GOD for the Blackberry. It might be a leash, but at least you can go outside with it. I have travelled around the world and the blackberry has allowed me to manage the various companies I’m involved in. I spent 6 weeks in Barbados last year and my blackberry was my connection to the world. I was religious in the fact that I only checked it twice a day, but I could enjoy going to the beach or pool side all day and still feel like I was at the helm of the boat. The connectivity on the island is shitty so there would be days where I wouldn’t get any messages. I didn’t obsess about it. I just accepted it and went about my day. If not getting connection is ruining your time off, you need to get yourself in check. It’s just work people. It will be there when the signal comes back (shit, am I starting to sound like Heather White?!?)

Use technology to run your business AND have a great summer (or vacation). I’m a bit of a hypocrite in the fact that I really do love my work and so checking email isn’t as much of a chore as it might be for someone who hates what they do. One day my ‘office’ was at the horse track. One day on my parent’s deck. Most days on one of the various beaches. Below are some pictures of my ‘offices in Barbados’, courtesy of Blackberry being my tool of choice:

The beach where I did the most….ummm….work

Rum shack where I had a couple of…Banks Beers.

Crane Beach

Poolside at the Crane Hotel (isn’t this better than your stuffy old office?)

Where I worked on the next book and had frequent naps.

Life is short! Get in your bathing suit, grab your Blackberry (or iPHONE) and note pad, sunscreen, something cold, and revel of your empire in the making!

Cheers,

C/

www.GhostCEO.com

I regularly hold events where I talk to entrepreneurs about marketing and, without exception, they are overwhelmed to some degree with the pressure to get 101 million things done every day. (Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration.) The addition of social media has only added to the pressure, at least in part due to inane advice like, “you have to Tweet 24 times a day to be effective.”

Yikes, no wonder you feel behind before you even start!

The ads I see for web access on our handhelds so we don’t “waste” a second of our day, including those precious minutes waiting in line for our morning coffee, indicate we are not alone in feeling we need to do more, more, more in less time. The cool thing about technology is all the ways it is constantly being reinvented to make our lives easier.

A lot of those technology tools can be used to automate marketing and ensure you are visible on a regular basis. We can schedule our blog posts, schedule Twitter posts, and automatically Tweet when we blog or update Facebook.  We can Tweet from our phone when we come across something interesting in our daily travels. There are even tools to notify you when you and/or your business are mentioned online, so you don’t have to do regular searches.

Having said all that, how the heck to do you figure out what the tools are, which ones work better than others, and last but not least, how to use them?!

Here’s my secret: I ask someone who knows. I don’t like researching technology and I’m even less interested in spending hours figuring out how each tools works. Instead, I ask someone knowledgeable for the inside track. In the case of some new technologies, that means asking someone younger (much younger) than me.

When I got my iPod for example, I collared my niece and “made” her show me how to use it, how to navigate iTunes, and quickly download music. It’s not that I couldn’t have figured it out. I just didn’t want to spend the time. The benefit was greater than just the info I gained, too. My 16 year old niece was pretty pleased to be giving me how-to advice, and I saved time fast tracking my learning curve.

Don’t let the fact that you don’t know stop you from finding ways to automate your business. Trust me, it makes for a fabulous work/life balance. Just ask me. When this post goes live, I’ll be sitting at the beach in the sunshine…

- Liz Gaige
Market Navigators Consulting

At a time when cutting costs makes more sense, outsourcing some activities may seem counter-intuitive. After all, outsourcing means money going out, not going in. But it’s essential for businesses that want to put their operations on autopilot and create conditions for success when the overall economy starts moving again.

Taking an example from my own business, I’m passionate about helping my clients get out of chaos by providing them with strategies for things like organizing their workplaces and homes, time management and work-life balance.

This is the work that I love to do. I’m excited every day when I start work, knowing I’m doing exactly what I want to do, helping people achieve better balance and reach their goals.

Bookkeeping, on the other hand, is not my passion. Neither is spending long hours undertaking a rigorous hiring process targeting candidates from across BC who might be a good fit for my company. Same goes for making sure my website is patched every month and the code shows up like it should on every web browser. Cold-calling, administrative support… there’s an outsourcing solution for just about anything.

These are all tasks that must be done for my business to operate, but they’re not what I’m passionate about. It makes way more sense for me to hire people who are passionate about these things to do them for me. There is a cost attached to this. But compared with your bill-out rate and where you might better make use of your own expertise, it just makes sense to outsource. Find the right people, put the process in place, and you’ll find that you have more time to get down to the business you love to do.

Linda Chu
CEO – Out of Chaos, Professional Organizing Solutions
www.outofchaos.ca