Archives For Career

I can’t begin to tell you how fast YOLO (You Only Live Once) got old. From pop song to posters to TV references. YOLO became an anthem for taking risks and living it up. An example would be, “Buy some new shoes, or pay rent? Shoes! YOLO!”. If you only live once, you might as well do it big. I saw one comedian on Twitter refer to YOLO as the poor man’s Carpe Diem.

Take risks because you only live once? Shouldn’t the fact that you only live once mean you should take LESS risk? Yeah, I’m officially old. In fact, let’s turn YOLO on it’s head. I am here to tell you that you should never take risks BECAUSE you only live once. Life is dangerous. The world is scary. Why put yourself in harm’s way?

Your life will be better if: Continue Reading…

The Benefits of Reading

December 17, 2012 — Leave a comment

How many books did you read this year? If the number is low, you don’t have a lot of time to catch up, especially with the hectic schedule most of us keep from Thanksgiving through the end of the year. But you can start planning how you will read more in the upcoming year. Why read more? Below I’ve compiled a quick list of reasons everyone should make time for reading.

Image by KellBailey on Flickr

Image by KellBailey on Flickr

Reduce Stress and Relax

I didn’t read a book cover to cover until after I was married. Like you, I have a million things to do in my day. Aside from my day job that occasionally requires travel and/or overtime, I do some freelance consulting work, serve on the board of a local non-profit, and manage to wedge writing in there somewhere. I also actively work to spend as much time with my wonderful wife as possible. So I get it, life is busy and busy often equates to stress.

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Good service is expected these days. With the arrival of Web 2.0 and services likes Google reviews, Yelp, InsiderPages, etc, bad service can do a lot more damage than ever before.

In decades past, the mantra was if you give someone good service they will tell a friend, but give them bad service and they will tell at least ten others. With the proliferation of review sites, bad service means they will tell ten other people AND post their story of how you screwed up on the web for all potential customers to see.

Anytime I am looking for service (and sometimes restaurants) I check Yelp and Google Reviews. I don’t let bad feedback scare me off if its only one or two posts mixed among 50 glowing reviews. Some people are jerks and will never be happy with you no matter how much you go out of your way to help them. At the same time, I try to leave good feedback when I get outstanding (or at least above average) service.

Today is one of those times. I have already left my review for the muffler and brake company I went to this morning. But it got me thinking about customer service and how to increase your revenue long term.

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