#(davide this is also why i followed your blog so hard for like 500 years but got very afraid of ever acknowledging you might know who i am)

[mineofilms]

2020… My Life… Everything Else Is Just Blurry…

Where to begin… I have been a type 2 diabetic since 2013. I got diabetes from excessive partying/drinking, originally. I continued to behave like this till June 2020. Granted, I wasn’t going as hard, in general, over the years, but each year and hardship I found myself going back to those old vices more frequently.

When the pandemic struck SWFL my drinking went up about 400%. No joke. I trained 4 days on and drank the other 3 days, hard. I did that from March to late June.

I caught Covid-19 around June 26th. By July 11th I needed to be hospitalized for Diabetic Ketoacidosis (where the body produces excess blood acids; ketones. This occurs when there isn't enough insulin in the body. It can be triggered by infection or other illness.) & Pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas. It happens when digestive enzymes start digesting the pancreas itself.) I was in ICU for 36 hours and in the hospital for 5 days. I lost 21 lbs over that time.

3 days after I got home from the hospital, Macular Edema (blood vessels in the retina burst and bleed into the eyes), set in. That took about a month to heal only for Diabetic Retinopathy (those same blood vessels that burst heal and are inflamed).

Usually requires anti-inflammatory shots into the eye ball and laser surgery to burn away some of the excess scar tissue. These cost thousands of dollars without insurance, which I do not have. I have read that they can heal on their own, but it takes about 8-12 months. I am in month 4.

However, I actually cannot confirm if that statement about them healing on their own is actually true or not. Some notes in journals say yes while other, more creditable sites, say no. One must get treatment.

Now let me be clear that Covid-19 did not cause my Diabetic Ketoacidosis & Pancreatitis. My lack of proper care for my diabetes caused these. I was already in the yellow and when I got Covid-19 it just put me in the RED. I now, at this point, required medical care or I would die. Those are the facts about me getting Covid-19, my Diabetic Ketoacidosis & Pancreatitis…

Flash-Forward to now… I got my blood sugars down to near normal (high) levels. This means my blood sugar is still high, but for me, I used to walk around at 400. 500-600 is diabetic coma. 80-120 is considered normal. I walk around between 130-230, currently, fasted.

I have not had a drink since June 26th. I will never drink again. I can’t.

1) Alcohol has thoroughly ruined my adult life in all sorts of areas besides this. It got me sick to begin with among, other, things.

2) If I drink I could be back in the hospital with Diabetic Ketoacidosis & Pancreatitis, again.

3) I made a deal with GOD. If I have to live through this (I prayed to die that night) that I would never drink again.

What kind of dick lies to GOD lol? A decade ago I would have… I hated everything about the concept of GOD. Now, I have come to terms that if there is or there isn’t; it doesn’t matter. I value me, my beliefs. Why not carry myself with that respect. I do not need to tell or share my beliefs with others. I care not for such things.

I am solely worried about my mental, physical, emotional, sexual and spiritual health.

I did not quit drinking because of addiction issues or any of that business. I made the choice because if I didn’t my pancreas would fail and I would be dead in a few months. That is how bad my pancreas was… I do not see myself as someone that is doing all this for attention. I have barely even made mention of this whole story on my social media. I have told people in direct messages, but I do not post everything that is happening in my life on social media.

Granted this Tumblr account is considered social media, but I do not use it for that purpose. It is strictly for my BLOG entries. I do not follow people on Tumblr. I post, get my URL and share it that way. Its not in your face on Facebook or anything, but one can click the link and go read about the crazy things in my head.

Taking care of my mental, physical, emotional, sexual and spiritual health is a full time job in and of itself. Now, currently I cannot work. I can only drive during the day. I cannot see well enough to drive at night.

I have other medical issues stemming from this and it is quite the laundry list. However, I think I gave you all enough to think about.

I am back in great shape now. Since I quit drinking and got back from the hospital I went from 119 to 163 lbs. I have not been this big since 2012. Right before I believe my Diabetic State started. My strength is coming back with a vengeance too. I am putting up more weight than I have in nearly a decade.

I have had to make serious and big changes to EVERYTHING in my life.

My computer is now changed from dual 22 inch monitors to one 46 inch monitor. I have to make changes like this just to see well enough to do some things on the computer.

I am still very blind. My vision has decent days and some days I cannot see much of anything. I cannot see my phone without a magnifying glass. I just got my eyes looked at several times cause my power keeps shifting and now my current glasses setup does not exactly help much. My computer glasses are ok for this, but my normal bifocals are pretty useless.

However; I do feel like I can write a little bit more now. I have a few blogs I want to write and then go right back into the novel. This might be the only realistic possibility of me being able to work to earn my keep. Normal 9-5, Monday-Friday are out of the question, indefinitely.

Not only am I not well enough for the grind, physically. My mental health is very questionable. I have had issues for years now. I have had about 20 jobs in 15 years. I have done a real number on my mental health over the years. Always trying to do more, work harder than the next person so I can make that “good money” that some always throw in my face. I did the work. I put in the time, but only to be messed with. Yes, I have that sort of mental issue.

One tries to mess with me. Mess with the positive shit I am doing. I lose my head pretty quick. I have repeatedly demonstrated over the course of my life that I have no restraint at all when it comes to that feeling of being seriously fucked with and have them look at you like; “What are you gonna do about it?”

Well that is it… I always do something about it. Even when I know I shouldn’t. It is my worst impulsive trait that I cannot get a handle on. Ever since I was a kid. I wanna say. It started when I was 11 or so.

I have made huge strides in changing my life, my thinking and how I fit into the scheme of things. I have become more an introvert than an extrovert. Even before the pandemic I was going out less and less. Doing things less and less. It got to a point to where I only went out when I could drink and/or the band was playing. I was already becoming less social. So this is nothing overly drastic about that UNLESS you count Facebook activity.

I have not advertised much on my Facebook and for good reasons… I posted about my 6 months of sobriety and the responses I got were all about, pressing on and “the struggle.”

I pulled it down. There was no struggle here. I am not a keep on keepin’ on mannnnnn… Type of Personality… No… I quit drinking so I can live another 10-15, hopefully more, years.  I just went through a friend dying from literally drinking himself to death. I know what people go through with their addiction struggles. I have my own reservations about how I feel about said subject matter.

Needless to say I did not appreciate how people view me on Facebook. I no longer post blogs their either. I post here on tumblr and put a link on my Facebook if anyone wants to read. That is about it.

I know people do not read more than a handful of sentences that ends with a weird hashtag or snapchat handle. I get it. It is also my fault because I have not told the Facebook wall/timeline of my mental and medical conditions and struggles. I reserve those conversations to be personal.

So if you want to know stuff, then let us get personal. Pretty much that simple. I do not do FAKE FRIENDS…

I try to be transparent. In the past it was easy, but now everyone has an opinion that they call facts. I do not know how many people I blocked on Facebook for being so damn ignorant or attention seeking.

I know I do not do attention seeking things. When I write it is with intention to say something. I would say 1600+ words on these subjects merits a little more than “attention seeking” behavior…

Things are looking up. I have done soooooooooo much. With so very little and make it look like I have a lot and that everything is fine. No. God Damnit… Everything is not fine. I am kicking ass trying to make something fine but not everything. Everything will never be FINE… Not ever. However, I can strive for it. I can continue to put in that work and just ignore the dumb shit. Which I am becoming pretty good at. I am still me. I am still blunt. If I rough feathers that is just my way of getting those people away from me.

Goodbye 2020… You will never be forgotten and your mark has definitely been left…

2020… My Life… Everything Else Is Just Blurry… By David-Angelo Mineo Words 1,738  12/30/2020

[anuragganguly-blog1]

5 free ways To make money online

So you want to make money online. Or did you witness someone make good cash online? You might have seen people talking about how filthy money they are making online. Facebook groups, YouTube videos, blogs, books. Keep counting. Everyone is showing off their get rich schemes how to make money online. The idea of how they made a living online that pays for their luxuries drools you up. Why wouldn't it in the first place. We all know earning money is hard. It is very hard. But no one in this world who knows how to make a good living and good earning says it is impossible. No one. Disclaimer: This is not going to be a "get rich quick" blog article where the author lets you dream and visualize how a huge amount of cash feels and smells like. I am here to tell you how you can make a decent living online instead. I don't sell dreams. I sell ideas to create reality. Note that.
 But first, let me tell you one thing. Making money online might be tough, but not impossible. I am not a person who rides a Maserati to work, chills at the islands, and who owns a huge mansion. I am a person who knows how to enter the world of making a living online. I have done it. Hell, a lot of times. And so can you!
 It takes a couple of skills, and a bit of knowledge to make money online. Again, nothing comes overnight. It takes time.
 I believe in one rule. One very subtle rule of life. Always, and always, make plans about the future that at least allow you to move to and fro for 1-2 years. Do not forget, that is why a college degree is at least 2 years if your life. Now you know why! Alright, so let us get into the ten ways how you will be making a decent amount of money online. Note: These are in random orders. Again, this is not a "top 5 ways to make money online" blog article, I am serious. We will only talk about the measures that work for real to decently make money online. 1- Step into copywriting If you have read till this point, that is because of copywriting.
 Wait, I am not talking about the '©' copyright thing. I am talking about copy-writing.
 What is copywriting? In simpler words, copywriting is a piece of text that helps brands/companies/people sell their products or services or ideas. You have seen, read, watched, or heard any advertisement since your childhood. That is copywriting. Did you buy that facewash after reading how it takes off the oil from your face once in for all? Then that's a successful copywriting. Many famous philanthropists have made a decent amount of living by simply writing converting copies for brands and businesses.
 But how would you start? Consider the great American verdict- "Everything has its first time". The same way. Every brand and business needs someone to write copies for them that might convert. You just need to get upskilled in the same genre. Come on! You seriously want to make money online, don't do? Learn how the advertising industry works. Intern for free at a company for 3-6 months. Or simply check out a free course online. Or read some books, study advertisements, webpages, etc. If you would like to read a book, I suggest Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy 2- Make Helpful Videos on YouTube You might have heard from someone about making money on YouTube earlier. Many might have even told you how they made a million of money.
 At the same time, some YouTubers are just making a GREAT living out of YouTube. One fine example is Chase Namic. I discovered his profile on Instagram while hunting for people who nicely make money online, huge money! He has hired a team that makes videos for his 20 "cash cow channels" (as he calls it) that make a sum of $100,000 a month on an average. Does he appear on these videos? No. Are these videos just something random? No. Do these videos help someone? Yes. That is the golden rule. You cannot just go out, wiggle your leg, and earn huge $$$ out of it. Unless you are PewDiePie though.
 Anyway, out of what I came to learn about Chase is that he always says if the channels are in the right direction and niche, or the content is covered under a trending format and solves what the user is looking out for. It is bound to take off sooner or later. You can't just sit and copy someone's work and expect getting monetized. Even YouTube takes its monetization terms seriously. At the time of writing this article, YouTube wants your channel to have 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours to be eligible for getting monetized for Google Ads. That translates into your content being interesting and/or solving some problems or queries. Another way is to include affiliate links. Create a channel that is targeted on a very segregated niche. Let's say home decor. Create videos about how you would decorate your home under $500 or so, and insert affiliate links for the product you used.
 It just needs to be genuine and influential. Why won't it achieve success?
 Again. Making money online is not impossible. It can be a little tougher, but that's where the fun lies. 3- Sell stock photos and stock videos Do you think every scene you see in a film, show, or a YouTube channel is shot by the same creator?
 Not always.
 Let me give you some examples.
 The character talks about how cats can be funny or lazy or cute. And then the frame changes from his face being in-camera to a cat playing or acting lazy. Most of the times, that is a stock video footage.
 There might be a guy who filmed his cat in a great lit condition using a good camera, doing "cat stuff", maybe?
 And also the creator thought that might be a great shot to use in his video or film. He will have to pay some amount of money to the guy who filmed, or the site where that cat-guy(forgive me) uploaded the video at. Whichever way, the guy gets paid every time a creator downloads and buys the right to use a video of a cat doing "cat stuff" in their videos.
 And we were saying making money is hard. Damn.
 The same applies to photos.
 Sites that I recommend (not sponsored) ShutterstockAlarmyAdobe StockiStock Photo123RFVideo HiveFootage.net 4- Write a blog This is one irony for me. At the time of writing this article, Evolve Theory (the blog you are reading this article in) is not into any monetized space. As of now, I have other business in digital marketing agency, information, and YouTube arena that are paying me well. Maybe later this blog will be into the same. No one can guarantee the future. Whichever way, you will be the first one to know. Plus, the user experience will not be hurt. At any cost.
 So, how to make money online by blogging? To say, is the easiest.
 ▪ Buy a good domain and hosting ▪ Install some blogging software or consider Wordpress, Blogger, etc. ▪ Write content that is keyword specific ▪ Do SEO ▪ Wait and watch But. Wait. I have a different approach. I suggest you to start working on good content. Something that helps your visitors. That's going to help them stay hooked, and in return, helps you make money online easily. Everything else will follow.
 Just start it off. If you are into food, home, and living, START IT OFF! At any time, you can change your game. It's your blog. Your space.
 Know your audience. See what they want. And shape it accordingly. 5- Flip products online People are here about getting rich with dropshipping in 2020. But flipping is another thing that has made many, I repeat many people play it cool. GaryVee still does it. Come on. You're never too old or poor to do that. Money is money until it doesn't hurt anyone or kills your happiness. You know a friend who has an iPhone that he wants to sell for $200?
 Good. Advertise on free sites like Olx, Craigslist. But up your game first. Get it from him for a day, click good clean pictures of the iPhone. Make sure every piece is in place. The bill, accessories, the box. Everything Pack it the way you might want to open the box when you buy it.
 Add your extra $ in the amount. Write the ad in good grammar, again, copywriting!
 Once you sell it, ask your customer to write a review and rate you. That's how you build trust and this extra cash you earned is not for your leisure. Put that money and buy another phone and sell it. Not everyone would be your friend.
 Coming to the end of this article, I'd want you to know one thing.
 Whatever you do online. Be it freelancing, selling gigs, photos, flipping. Anything.
 Always remember to provide value to your client/customer/user before creating the urge to make money online. If that takes place, your success in making money online is a sure shot. -- If you liked the article or if it helped you in any way, please consider sharing it with the ones who might want to read it. To read more articles on business, lifestyle, or mental health, keep following Evolve Theory. Until next time, Take care. Want to Learn More About Building Online Business And Making Money Online? If you liked this article, then I have lot of content coming up on this blog about building successful online businesses, staying productive, digital marketing, and more. Get notified first handed once any new content brews up here :) Read the full article

[frenchkisst]

‘It’s been life-changing for me — to say the least’

When Joseph’s weight hit an all-time high of 385 pounds (or 175 kilos), he decided enough was enough. To turn his health around, he started following a keto diet and intermittent fasting.

In just eight months, Joseph lost 137 pounds (or 62 kilos). Not only did he lose the weight, but he also noticed the pain he formerly experienced in his joints had largely disappeared.

Here, Joseph shares the inspiring results he’s gotten since starting keto and fasting. He describes his low-carb journey as “life-changing.”

Joseph’s story

Hello Diet Doctor!

My name is Joseph, I’m 41, and I’m from Indiana, USA.

As of October 22, 2019, I weighed a whopping 385 pounds (or 175 kilos). At that point, I had trouble just moving around and putting my shoes on was a chore in itself.

Growing up, I was always fit. I played sports and was also in the marines. Years later, I found myself never watching what I ate or drank — and the weight just piled on.

Before I knew it, I was at 385 pounds (or 175 kilos). I saw that 400-pound (or 181-kilo) mark coming soon. I just couldn’t believe it and finally refused to live like that anymore.

I read and listened to podcasts with keto and fitness experts. For example, I listened to “FoundMyFitness” by Dr. Rhonda Patrick, as well as, those featuring Dr. Dominic D’Agostino, one of the leading researchers in the field of ketosis.

From October 22, 2019, to June 22, 2020, I lost 137 pounds (or 62 kilos) with keto and intermittent fasting. I’ll keep going to my goal of reaching 200 pounds (or 91 kilos). It’s been life-changing for me — to say the least.

Eating keto has helped me to feel so much better! I used to have inflammation in all of my joints, especially in my shoulders, and I could hardly raise my arms above my head without experiencing pain. Now, my lower back pain, knee pain, and feet all feel tremendously better.

What Joseph ate before and what he eats now

What I ate before keto was, well … everything. I couldn’t count how many Mountain Dews I drank a day. Had I attempted to keep track, I’m sure the intake of sugar from soda alone would have scared me. For food, I ate pretty much all fast food and pizza — and everything I ate was full of carbs.

These days, with fasting, I start eating around noon and stop around 8 pm. Surprisingly, with fasting, my hunger and cravings have gone down a lot. My go-to is usually eggs, steak, ground beef, or slow cooking chicken in a crockpot. Usually, I prepare batches of food that will last me for a few days.

I drink about half a gallon (or two liters) of water a day as well.

Comment

Congrats on your amazing progress, Joseph! Thank you for sharing your story with us and I am glad we can help you on your journey. Keep up the great work! Best, / Dr. Bret Scher

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[meraenthusiast]

The Richest Man In Babylon Summary – 7 Wealth Lessons

The Richest Man In Babylon Summary

If you’re reading this post, then it’s safe to say you want to improve your financial life. There’s also a good chance that you’ like to read.

People that don’t read much (but want to) usually blame their busy lifestyle yet the smartest and wealthiest people have linked much of their success with their reading habits.

In fact, Jordan Peterson’s best advice he gave to college students was to read good books.

  Tom Corley of Rich Habits, performed a five-year study of the daily habits of the rich and poor. He found that your daily habits are responsible for your financial circumstances in life.

Here’s a few stats that he uncovered:

86% of the wealthy loved reading vs. 26% for the poor

63% of the wealthy listened to audio books during their commute to work vs. 5% for the poor

85% of the wealthy read two or more self-improvement books every month vs. 15% for the poor

88% of the wealthy read 30 minutes or more each day vs. 2% for the poor

94% of the wealthy, on a daily basis, read newspapers, newsletters, magazines, blogs and other digital media vs. 11% of the poor

Billionaire Reading Habits

As you can imagine, the world’s wealthiest people are avid readers as well.

Here’s a handful to learn from:

Bill Gates

Bill Gates reads 50 books a year or one a week.

Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg read a book every two weeks in 2015, and even started a book club called “A Year of Books”.

Warren Buffett

The Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, reportedly spends five to six hours a day reading.

He also goes through 500 pages of financial documents and recommends prospective investors do the same.

He once told a Columbia University investment class, “That’s how knowledge works, it builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will.”

Mark Cuban

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban constantly looks for the competitive edge however he can with his multiple businesses.

Often, that means reading for three hours every day, just to learn more about the industries he works in. Cuban has said this worked wonders at the start of his career.

Now that we know one of the key habits that many of the successful people have, let’s take a look at a great story that can help change your financial future.

The Richest Man In Babylon Summary

Here’s a brief, five minute video summarizing The Richest Man In Babylon:

  In 1926, George Clason published a series of pamphlets written in parables that took place in the ancient city of Babylon. These stories eventually turned into a financial classic known as The Richest Man in Babylon. Even though it was written almost a century ago, the book is still well known because of its timeless principles on wealth creation.

Background

Babylon was once the richest city in the world, known for its lavish houses and palaces all protected behind massive walls. It was founded around 2300 B.C. and located along the Euphrates River in present-day Iraq..

It created fertile farmland where once there had been a desert through the use of irrigation. All forms of lending and borrowing within the city were highly developed thus making it extremely prosperous. Most people living there, including slaves, were allowed to freely make money.

The success of Babylon inspired George Clason to write several stories including what’s become known as The Richest Man In Babylon. Many of his stories discussed principles of finance and wealth-building and were distributed by banks, insurance companies and other employers to teach the benefits of saving and hard work.

The story is about two friends, Bansir, a chariot builder and Kobbi, a musician. They both were good at their trade but had no money. (Sound like anyone you know?) One day Kobbi had an idea to visit their childhood friend, Arkad, who was the richest man in Babylon.

The two set out on a journey and eventually met with Arkad. During their time together, they asked him why he thought they had no money to show for all of the hard labor they’ve performed all of their lives.

The lessons that Arkad provided, which he calls the seven cures to a lean purse, are wealth building habits that anyone can follow to build a solid financial foundation.

7 Wealth Building Lessons From The Richest Man In Babylon

1) Pay Yourself First (“Start thy purse to fattening.”)

The greatest lesson in the book is this first lesson. Arkad was faced with a similar situation as Bansir and Kobbi. He told them a story of how he once was a scribe with no money and sought out advice from a wealthy man. This man gave him the secret to wealth in exchange for his work on a clay inscription.

His secret was that he found the road to wealth when he decided that a part of all he earned was his to keep. And that anyone can do that by simply paying themselves first before spending any money.

The IRS REALLY gets this concept as they pay themselves first with our money during each pay period. Are you doing everything you can to lower your taxes?

Paying yourself first is also one of the key lessons David Bach teaches in his books, The Automatic Millionaire and The Latte Factor.

Clason recommends that we pay ourselves at least 10% of all that we earn. I suggest 20% or more. If you’re not diligent enough to do this yourself, have someone else set it up for you so that it’s automated each month.

The difference between wealthy and poor people is knowing this first rule. Wealthy people pay themselves first while poor people don’t.

2) Live below your means (“Control thy expenditures”)

This is one of the concepts that young docs and high-income professionals that I coach can’t seem to grasp; live on less than you earn. When I recommend this, the excuses start flying such as, “It’s hard because I have so many expenses” or “My spouse pays the bills so it’s hard to know what’s happening with the money each month“.

It’s hard to reach financial freedom if both spouses aren’t on board. If I can just get to someone coming out of residency to encourage them to live on their resident’s salary 3-5 years, then they’d see success much sooner in life. It would also help them to ingrain this habit – live on less than they make.

According to Becker’s Hospital Review, the overall physician salary is $300,000. If you follow Rule #1 and save at least 10% ($30,000), then you’d have $270,000 to live on. If you can’t live on $270K a year, you have bigger problems that need addressing.

Most millionaires state that finance is 80% behavior and 20% knowledge. Meaning, you don’t have to be a doctor to become rich, simply adopt and apply good money habits.

3) Make your money work for you.  (“Make thy gold multiply”)

This lesson reminds me of two verses about investing in the Bible:

Proverbs 21:20 – “The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down.”

1 Corinthians 16:2 – “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.”

In the The Richest Man In Babylon, Arkad recommended invested only in things that you’re knowledgeable about. I see too many doctors lose money in risky investments that they don’t have a clue about even though the broker says it’s the next BIG THING.

If you want to invest in index funds, then learn about them first. If you’re interested in real estate, then meet with others that can teach you about it first. You don’t have to become a professional, but at least learn enough to ask smart questions before investing.

Put your money to work by making smart investments and taking advantage of time and compounding interest.

4) Insurance protects our wealth. (“Guard thy treasures from loss.”)

In the book, Arkad encourages the protection of one’s wealth from loss. This is fantastic advice that, unfortunately, many younger docs don’t consider when starting out. I remember the early days of practicing when all I could do was make ends meet and pay off loads of student loan debt.

Getting all of the adequate insurance policies needed wasn’t on my radar.

Learn from my mistake and make sure that you have all of the insurance coverage in place as soon as you being practicing. Insurance helps safeguard our wealth by absorbing potential loss and mitigating our financial situation.

There are many types of polices that you should consider. Make sure you research those that you need or find an agent that can guide you.

Another thing you should do is re-evaluate your policies on an annual basis. For instance, we noticed two years ago that our health insurance premiums were going to triple. I began researching online and with others and ended up dropping it and going with a much more affordable option, MediShare.

You can read about it in more detail here.

5) Our home is our biggest expense. (“Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment”)

Of all of the lessons mentioned in the book, this one could be the most debatable. I understand the principle behind it; rather than pay a landlord rent each month, it’s better to pay a mortgage to eventually own a home.

Our homes are potentially the biggest expense we have to tackle and there’s nothing wrong with following this lesson as long as we approach it correctly.

If you follow Dave Ramsey’s real estate principle, then you know:

When you buy a home, put at least 20% down on a 15 year, fixed mortgage. The monthly payment should be no more than 25% of your take home monthly income.

Many people got burned in 2008 when they decided to take on a huge mortgage. Once the real estate market tanked, they were left with homes that lost their value and many had to go into foreclosure.

If you follow Lesson #2 and live below your means, you’ll be in much better financial shape when it comes to making larger purchases in the future.

6) Have a retirement plan. (“Insure a future income.”)

  A 25 year old earning an annual salary of $40,000 with an annual raise of say 3% will have earned an estimated $3 million if they retire by age 65. That’s about 40 years of working and earning. We should have a retirement plan if we want to retire comfortably. We can do that by setting aside money to be invested for our retirement. There are many retirement investment plans out there such as 401K, Traditional IRA, Roth, etc. The younger we can start putting money away for our retirement the better. When we start putting money away for retirement early we take advantage of a magical thing called ‘compounding interest‘.

Our net-worth does not equal our self-worth. We need to keep them separated. Compounding interest is known as the eight wonder of the world. Benjamin Franklin knew of this knowledge. Did you know that Benjamin Franklin left 1,000 pounds (about $5,000 in today’s money) when he died to a trust. He bequeathed that trust and left it to his favorite cities Philadelphia and Boston with the provision that the money was to remain untouched for as long as 200 years. What was left in the trust after it grew was the amount of $2 million given to Philadelphia and a whooping $5 million for Boston. The lesson we can learn from this is to make time work for us when we plan for retirement by starting early. Time can be our retirement’s greatest friend.

“Remember that money is of a prolific generating nature. Money can beget money, and its offspring can beget more.” – Benjamin Franklin

7) Invest in ourselves. (“Increase thy ability to earn.”)

  The best way we can increase our earning is by investing in ourselves. We can do that by continually learning and striving to develop ourselves. We are now in a very exciting time: the Information Age where knowledge is literally within our fingertips thanks to the Internet. I really love the OpenCourseware idea where many schools including Ivy Leagues post their whole class courses for free. It’s a great way to learn on our own. Another one is Coursera which has many online courses for free from Finance to Philosophy, check it out.

“Those eager to grasp opportunities for their betterment, do attract the interest of the goddess of fortune. She is ever anxious to help those who please her. And who is she pleased with? She is pleased with those who do – rather than those who merely talk and engage in wishful thinking. Action will lead you forth to the successes you desire.”

There are many things we can learn on our own and should strive to make ourselves well-rounded. Whether we learn to eat more healthy, enhance our current work skills, or learn to make more money, we must take the initiative to invest in ourselves. When we become smarter and wiser our ability to earn more also increases.

The 5 Rules of Gold from the “Richest Man in Babylon”

Gold comes gladly and in increasing quantity to any man who will put by not less than one-tenth of his earnings to create an estate for his future and that of his family

Gold labours diligently and contentedly for the wiser owner who finds fir it profitable employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field

Gold clings to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the advice of men wise in its handling

Gold slips away from the man who invests it in business or purposes with which he is not familiar or which are not approved by those skilled in its keep

Gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who follows the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers or who trusts it to his own inexperience and romantic desires in investment

8) Track Our Wealth. (Know where you are and where you are going.)

  In order for us to know where we stand financially we need to face the whole truth of our current situation. We can do that by tracking our current wealth or lack thereof. This is a tough exercise but we must face the truth of how we earn and spend our money in order for us to know where we are going. There is a big difference between wealthy people and those who are not, wealthy people know their net worth while the poor do not pay particular attention nor care at all about tracking their assets and liabilities.

“You cannot manage what you do not measure.” – Bill Hewitt (co-founder of Hewlett Packard)

We can track our wealth by creating a spreadsheet of all our months earnings and expenses and tallying the difference between the money we earn and how much we spend. When we do this work we are able to gauge how we are doing financially. We can also track our net worth by calculating our assets versus our liabilities (our debt). If you have not done this work yourself it is an eye-opening experience. In order for us to fully develop a plan to be wealthy we need to learn how to track our wealth so that we may know where we want to go and create a plan to get there.

    drbreatheeasyfinance.com/the-richest-man-in-babylon-summary/

https://ift.tt/2hFyrJw

enlight8.com/8-lessons-from-the-richest-man-in-babylon/

readingraphics.com/book-summary-the-richest-man-in-babylon/

willyoulaugh.com/the-richest-man-in-babylon-book-summary-review/

fourminutebooks.com/the-richest-man-in-babylon-summary/

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What To Do When Someone Hates You

You Can Overcome

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

“There is one way to avoid criticism: Do nothing. Say nothing. Be nothing.” says Aristotle. Criticism comes with breaking new ground. Criticism comes with putting yourself out there. But how do you respond when that criticism turns to hatred?

Listen to This Blog Post

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

Sponsored by Advancement Courses. Advancement Courses has more than 200 graduate level online professional development courses for K-12 teachers. You can take these courses for continuing education, salary advancement, or recertification. They are practical courses that have teachers developing tangible resources to use in their classrooms immediately. Go to advancementcourses.com/coolcat and use the code COOL20 at checkout to get 20% off any course. With this coupon, a 3 grad credit course is only $359.

Hatred is a hard thing to handle, particularly when you feel it is unjust. But I’m writing this for you today: DON’T LET IT STOP YOU.

Spread more love than hate

Theodore Roosevelt’s Man in the Arena

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt, Excerpt from the Speech “Citizenship in the Republic” given at the Sorbonne in Paris, France April 1910

We are all people of the arena. Every human has to cope with this question:

What to Do When Someone Hates You

Be you. But being you will often cause undeserved hate from others.

Hatred is a hard thing to handle. Humans usually possess a “me-centric” view of the world. We’ve all seen how two good people can have a vastly different opinions. It happens. No matter what you do, how kind you are, or anything else, I promise you this: In your human-ness, you will attract haters. No way around it.

Haters are an inevitable part of life if you’re accomplishing anything of worth. You can decide what to do about that.

It will also shock and surprise you just how long some people will nurse hatred. It can be years later and they’re still hanging onto something that you barely remember.

Don’t confuse criticism with hate.  People who care will give advice help you improve.

Tip 1: Not Every Criticism Is Motivated by Hate

A person giving you constructive criticism wants to help you improve and become better.

A hater wants to hurt you and wants you to die.

Determine if love or hate is the basis of the criticism by recognizing who criticized you and how they gave it. What was the intent? Help or harm?

Why Do We Notice the Negative?

You can be in a crowd of ten thousand and give an incredible speech. One critic blasts you on their blog or on Twitter, and what do you notice? You don’t see those hundred positive tweets — you see the one negative.

You can captivate your whole classroom except for one student who has decided to dislike you.  You don’t relish 29 joyful, happy, learning kids — you languish because one student (and usually their parents) doesn’t like you.  (I’ve been there — and goodness –, it’s hard when this happens!)

Tip 2: Reject Critics Math

Jon Acuff talks about this phenomenon in his book Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters calls this “critics math.” Jon says:

1 insult + 1,000 compliments = 1 insult

He goes on to tell the story of Larry David, creator of the hit TV show Seinfeld. Larry went to New York and attended a ballgame. When the organizers spotted him in the crowd, they showed his picture on the big screen and played the Seinfeld theme song as the entire stadium stood and applauded.

After the game as Larry walked to his car, a stranger drove by, rolled down his window, and yelled,

“Larry, you suck!”

Which did Larry remember later? The one stranger who said that he sucked.

Are you kidding? One rude person can erase 49,999 giving you a standing ovation?

This math doesn’t make sense.

The first step in overcoming critics math is to realize that you’re doing it and refuse to go there.

Tip 3: Keep Perspective

I deal with the haters by admitting that there’s room enough in this big wide world for both of us.- Good people can dislike me. I can even dislike good people. Good and evil aren’t determined by whether people like you or me. This perspective helps.

I recall a professor in college who drew a little x at the corner of the board. Across the board he drew a cloud.

He points at the cloud and says, “This is the universe.” He walks across the front of the room to the tiny x and tells the class, “This is you.” Then, he says something profound. “Notice that you” (pointing at the x) “are not at the center of the universe” (pointing at the cloud.)

Love is a powerful response to hate.

Tip 4: Center Your Thoughts in Healthy Ways

Nope. I’m not the center of the universe, and neither are you. But we can choose to center our thoughts daily. When hate rears its ugly head — it hurts us. –  And yet centering our thoughts gets easier with time. Focus on your goals. We’ve got things to get done!

Tip 5: Focus on the Likers,  Not the Haters

Stop focusing on the futile: You probably can’t make the haters like you.

Instead, focus on the people who actually do like you. Spend time cultivating those relationships and perhaps they’ll come to love you (and you them).

Focus on helping and serving others and being kind. Choose to ignore those who may be speaking negatively about you — that can quickly become paranoia. Usually, it turns out that people aren’t even talking about you at all. I hate to tell you what I tell myself: You’re not that important. Keep perspective and keep to your task.

So, decide. We’ve already heard Theodore Roosevelt tell us clearly, “It is not the critic who counts” but why do we give such things power over us? Why should we let haters distract us from living an epic life?

Tip 6: Celebrate Good Times and Progress

My first boss sent a memo to his manager praising my performance. He brought the copy to my desk and I was so excited. I couldn’t believe it.  Then, he told me something I’ll never forget.

“Create an ‘atta girl’ folder for those hard days. They’ll come and you’ll need to remember who you are and who you can be. This is your first ‘atta girl.’ Keep it.”

I still have the folder and made one in Evernote so that I can always get to it. “Atta girl” has pulled me through dark days when I failed at something.

We all fall. I fail. You fail. It’s part of life.

Tip 7: Keep Moving Forward

Failure becomes permanent only if we stop trying.  It becomes success when we learn from it. It also helps to remember the good days when the bad days come.

But let’s be clear about the difference between failure and criticism. Criticism is not failure. Having a hater is not a failure. Being criticized and having a hater is part of being human.

Sweet Revenge.

Dr. Phil Adler, my favorite professor, always talked about racism and sexism and how to overcome the. He’d tell us that there were people who would not want us to be included in conversations because of our gender or race.

“Be so good that they can’t ignore you,” he said. The best revenge is success and proving them wrong.”

Ever since that moment in class, I’ve repeated this thought when faced with a hater targeting me or my gender.

Tip 8: Be Excellent in Your Work.

Your best revenge against haters is proving them wrong. Succeed and work your best to do a fantastic job at whatever you’re called to do.

Some people want swift justice because their me-centered world demands it. Well, life is a marathon not a sprint. Be a turtle (as I share in Chapter 13 of Reinventing Writing).

Who Hating Really Hurts

Hating hurts the hater most of all.  I read a story of the freed slave Frederick Douglass riding a train through Pennsylvania. He was told to ride with the luggage,  and several white passengers came back to the luggage car to express how upset they were. Douglass responded by telling them that he was not degraded but that those who did this to him were degrading themselves for treating a fellow human being with disrespect. (Paraphrased from a story included in Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington.)

Tip 9: Commit Not To Hate

Hating is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

Hating is like tying a dead body to your back — the body doesn’t care that it’s lashed to you, but you bear the burden.

Hating hurts the hater most of all.

When you are bothered by a person’s hate, it gives them power over you. They can rejoice because they ruined your day. Their purpose is wounding you and causing you pain, and they’d probably be happy only if you were dead. Since there’s nothing you can do to make them happy you have to learn to live with it!

Tip 10: Live Life!

And live with it you do! But do more than just live — thrive and succeed and enjoy your life. Fulfill your mission and spend time your loving the 99.9% of people who don’t have a problem with the fact you’re breathing air at this moment.

Life is too short to make a big deal about a small person. And hate does exactly that — it has a way of making the person on the receiving end feel smaller and less incapable of success.

So, my friends — forgive and move on. Do whatever it takes, but let go of hate. If someone hates you, sing the song from Frozen and  “let it go.”

Haters are gonna hate. The question is: what will you do about it?

The post What To Do When Someone Hates You appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

What To Do When Someone Hates You published first on https://getnewcourse.tumblr.com/

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What To Do When Someone Hates You

You Can Overcome

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

“There is one way to avoid criticism: Do nothing. Say nothing. Be nothing.” says Aristotle. Criticism comes with breaking new ground. Criticism comes with putting yourself out there. But how do you respond when that criticism turns to hatred?

Listen to This Blog Post

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

Sponsored by Advancement Courses. Advancement Courses has more than 200 graduate level online professional development courses for K-12 teachers. You can take these courses for continuing education, salary advancement, or recertification. They are practical courses that have teachers developing tangible resources to use in their classrooms immediately. Go to advancementcourses.com/coolcat and use the code COOL20 at checkout to get 20% off any course. With this coupon, a 3 grad credit course is only $359.

Hatred is a hard thing to handle, particularly when you feel it is unjust. But I’m writing this for you today: DON’T LET IT STOP YOU.

Spread more love than hate

Theodore Roosevelt’s Man in the Arena

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt, Excerpt from the Speech “Citizenship in the Republic” given at the Sorbonne in Paris, France April 1910

We are all people of the arena. Every human has to cope with this question:

What to Do When Someone Hates You

Be you. But being you will often cause undeserved hate from others.

Hatred is a hard thing to handle. Humans usually possess a “me-centric” view of the world. We’ve all seen how two good people can have a vastly different opinions. It happens. No matter what you do, how kind you are, or anything else, I promise you this: In your human-ness, you will attract haters. No way around it.

Haters are an inevitable part of life if you’re accomplishing anything of worth. You can decide what to do about that.

It will also shock and surprise you just how long some people will nurse hatred. It can be years later and they’re still hanging onto something that you barely remember.

Don’t confuse criticism with hate.  People who care will give advice help you improve.

Tip 1: Not Every Criticism Is Motivated by Hate

A person giving you constructive criticism wants to help you improve and become better.

A hater wants to hurt you and wants you to die.

Determine if love or hate is the basis of the criticism by recognizing who criticized you and how they gave it. What was the intent? Help or harm?

Why Do We Notice the Negative?

You can be in a crowd of ten thousand and give an incredible speech. One critic blasts you on their blog or on Twitter, and what do you notice? You don’t see those hundred positive tweets — you see the one negative.

You can captivate your whole classroom except for one student who has decided to dislike you.  You don’t relish 29 joyful, happy, learning kids — you languish because one student (and usually their parents) doesn’t like you.  (I’ve been there — and goodness –, it’s hard when this happens!)

Tip 2: Reject Critics Math

Jon Acuff talks about this phenomenon in his book Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters calls this “critics math.” Jon says:

1 insult + 1,000 compliments = 1 insult

He goes on to tell the story of Larry David, creator of the hit TV show Seinfeld. Larry went to New York and attended a ballgame. When the organizers spotted him in the crowd, they showed his picture on the big screen and played the Seinfeld theme song as the entire stadium stood and applauded.

After the game as Larry walked to his car, a stranger drove by, rolled down his window, and yelled,

“Larry, you suck!”

Which did Larry remember later? The one stranger who said that he sucked.

Are you kidding? One rude person can erase 49,999 giving you a standing ovation?

This math doesn’t make sense.

The first step in overcoming critics math is to realize that you’re doing it and refuse to go there.

Tip 3: Keep Perspective

I deal with the haters by admitting that there’s room enough in this big wide world for both of us.- Good people can dislike me. I can even dislike good people. Good and evil aren’t determined by whether people like you or me. This perspective helps.

I recall a professor in college who drew a little x at the corner of the board. Across the board he drew a cloud.

He points at the cloud and says, “This is the universe.” He walks across the front of the room to the tiny x and tells the class, “This is you.” Then, he says something profound. “Notice that you” (pointing at the x) “are not at the center of the universe” (pointing at the cloud.)

Love is a powerful response to hate.

Tip 4: Center Your Thoughts in Healthy Ways

Nope. I’m not the center of the universe, and neither are you. But we can choose to center our thoughts daily. When hate rears its ugly head — it hurts us. –  And yet centering our thoughts gets easier with time. Focus on your goals. We’ve got things to get done!

Tip 5: Focus on the Likers,  Not the Haters

Stop focusing on the futile: You probably can’t make the haters like you.

Instead, focus on the people who actually do like you. Spend time cultivating those relationships and perhaps they’ll come to love you (and you them).

Focus on helping and serving others and being kind. Choose to ignore those who may be speaking negatively about you — that can quickly become paranoia. Usually, it turns out that people aren’t even talking about you at all. I hate to tell you what I tell myself: You’re not that important. Keep perspective and keep to your task.

So, decide. We’ve already heard Theodore Roosevelt tell us clearly, “It is not the critic who counts” but why do we give such things power over us? Why should we let haters distract us from living an epic life?

Tip 6: Celebrate Good Times and Progress

My first boss sent a memo to his manager praising my performance. He brought the copy to my desk and I was so excited. I couldn’t believe it.  Then, he told me something I’ll never forget.

“Create an ‘atta girl’ folder for those hard days. They’ll come and you’ll need to remember who you are and who you can be. This is your first ‘atta girl.’ Keep it.”

I still have the folder and made one in Evernote so that I can always get to it. “Atta girl” has pulled me through dark days when I failed at something.

We all fall. I fail. You fail. It’s part of life.

Tip 7: Keep Moving Forward

Failure becomes permanent only if we stop trying.  It becomes success when we learn from it. It also helps to remember the good days when the bad days come.

But let’s be clear about the difference between failure and criticism. Criticism is not failure. Having a hater is not a failure. Being criticized and having a hater is part of being human.

Sweet Revenge.

Dr. Phil Adler, my favorite professor, always talked about racism and sexism and how to overcome the. He’d tell us that there were people who would not want us to be included in conversations because of our gender or race.

“Be so good that they can’t ignore you,” he said. The best revenge is success and proving them wrong.”

Ever since that moment in class, I’ve repeated this thought when faced with a hater targeting me or my gender.

Tip 8: Be Excellent in Your Work.

Your best revenge against haters is proving them wrong. Succeed and work your best to do a fantastic job at whatever you’re called to do.

Some people want swift justice because their me-centered world demands it. Well, life is a marathon not a sprint. Be a turtle (as I share in Chapter 13 of Reinventing Writing).

Who Hating Really Hurts

Hating hurts the hater most of all.  I read a story of the freed slave Frederick Douglass riding a train through Pennsylvania. He was told to ride with the luggage,  and several white passengers came back to the luggage car to express how upset they were. Douglass responded by telling them that he was not degraded but that those who did this to him were degrading themselves for treating a fellow human being with disrespect. (Paraphrased from a story included in Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington.)

Tip 9: Commit Not To Hate

Hating is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

Hating is like tying a dead body to your back — the body doesn’t care that it’s lashed to you, but you bear the burden.

Hating hurts the hater most of all.

When you are bothered by a person’s hate, it gives them power over you. They can rejoice because they ruined your day. Their purpose is wounding you and causing you pain, and they’d probably be happy only if you were dead. Since there’s nothing you can do to make them happy you have to learn to live with it!

Tip 10: Live Life!

And live with it you do! But do more than just live — thrive and succeed and enjoy your life. Fulfill your mission and spend time your loving the 99.9% of people who don’t have a problem with the fact you’re breathing air at this moment.

Life is too short to make a big deal about a small person. And hate does exactly that — it has a way of making the person on the receiving end feel smaller and less incapable of success.

So, my friends — forgive and move on. Do whatever it takes, but let go of hate. If someone hates you, sing the song from Frozen and  “let it go.”

Haters are gonna hate. The question is: what will you do about it?

The post What To Do When Someone Hates You appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

What To Do When Someone Hates You published first on https://medium.com/@seminarsacademy

[growthvue]

What To Do When Someone Hates You

You Can Overcome

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

“There is one way to avoid criticism: Do nothing. Say nothing. Be nothing.” says Aristotle. Criticism comes with breaking new ground. Criticism comes with putting yourself out there. But how do you respond when that criticism turns to hatred?

Listen to This Blog Post

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

Sponsored by Advancement Courses. Advancement Courses has more than 200 graduate level online professional development courses for K-12 teachers. You can take these courses for continuing education, salary advancement, or recertification. They are practical courses that have teachers developing tangible resources to use in their classrooms immediately. Go to advancementcourses.com/coolcat and use the code COOL20 at checkout to get 20% off any course. With this coupon, a 3 grad credit course is only $359.

Hatred is a hard thing to handle, particularly when you feel it is unjust. But I’m writing this for you today: DON’T LET IT STOP YOU.

Spread more love than hate

Theodore Roosevelt’s Man in the Arena

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt, Excerpt from the Speech “Citizenship in the Republic” given at the Sorbonne in Paris, France April 1910

We are all people of the arena. Every human has to cope with this question:

What to Do When Someone Hates You

Be you. But being you will often cause undeserved hate from others.

Hatred is a hard thing to handle. Humans usually possess a “me-centric” view of the world. We’ve all seen how two good people can have a vastly different opinions. It happens. No matter what you do, how kind you are, or anything else, I promise you this: In your human-ness, you will attract haters. No way around it.

Haters are an inevitable part of life if you’re accomplishing anything of worth. You can decide what to do about that.

It will also shock and surprise you just how long some people will nurse hatred. It can be years later and they’re still hanging onto something that you barely remember.

Don’t confuse criticism with hate.  People who care will give advice help you improve.

Tip 1: Not Every Criticism Is Motivated by Hate

A person giving you constructive criticism wants to help you improve and become better.

A hater wants to hurt you and wants you to die.

Determine if love or hate is the basis of the criticism by recognizing who criticized you and how they gave it. What was the intent? Help or harm?

Why Do We Notice the Negative?

You can be in a crowd of ten thousand and give an incredible speech. One critic blasts you on their blog or on Twitter, and what do you notice? You don’t see those hundred positive tweets — you see the one negative.

You can captivate your whole classroom except for one student who has decided to dislike you.  You don’t relish 29 joyful, happy, learning kids — you languish because one student (and usually their parents) doesn’t like you.  (I’ve been there — and goodness –, it’s hard when this happens!)

Tip 2: Reject Critics Math

Jon Acuff talks about this phenomenon in his book Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters calls this “critics math.” Jon says:

1 insult + 1,000 compliments = 1 insult

He goes on to tell the story of Larry David, creator of the hit TV show Seinfeld. Larry went to New York and attended a ballgame. When the organizers spotted him in the crowd, they showed his picture on the big screen and played the Seinfeld theme song as the entire stadium stood and applauded.

After the game as Larry walked to his car, a stranger drove by, rolled down his window, and yelled,

“Larry, you suck!”

Which did Larry remember later? The one stranger who said that he sucked.

Are you kidding? One rude person can erase 49,999 giving you a standing ovation?

This math doesn’t make sense.

The first step in overcoming critics math is to realize that you’re doing it and refuse to go there.

Tip 3: Keep Perspective

I deal with the haters by admitting that there’s room enough in this big wide world for both of us.- Good people can dislike me. I can even dislike good people. Good and evil aren’t determined by whether people like you or me. This perspective helps.

I recall a professor in college who drew a little x at the corner of the board. Across the board he drew a cloud.

He points at the cloud and says, “This is the universe.” He walks across the front of the room to the tiny x and tells the class, “This is you.” Then, he says something profound. “Notice that you” (pointing at the x) “are not at the center of the universe” (pointing at the cloud.)

Love is a powerful response to hate.

Tip 4: Center Your Thoughts in Healthy Ways

Nope. I’m not the center of the universe, and neither are you. But we can choose to center our thoughts daily. When hate rears its ugly head — it hurts us. –  And yet centering our thoughts gets easier with time. Focus on your goals. We’ve got things to get done!

Tip 5: Focus on the Likers,  Not the Haters

Stop focusing on the futile: You probably can’t make the haters like you.

Instead, focus on the people who actually do like you. Spend time cultivating those relationships and perhaps they’ll come to love you (and you them).

Focus on helping and serving others and being kind. Choose to ignore those who may be speaking negatively about you — that can quickly become paranoia. Usually, it turns out that people aren’t even talking about you at all. I hate to tell you what I tell myself: You’re not that important. Keep perspective and keep to your task.

So, decide. We’ve already heard Theodore Roosevelt tell us clearly, “It is not the critic who counts” but why do we give such things power over us? Why should we let haters distract us from living an epic life?

Tip 6: Celebrate Good Times and Progress

My first boss sent a memo to his manager praising my performance. He brought the copy to my desk and I was so excited. I couldn’t believe it.  Then, he told me something I’ll never forget.

“Create an ‘atta girl’ folder for those hard days. They’ll come and you’ll need to remember who you are and who you can be. This is your first ‘atta girl.’ Keep it.”

I still have the folder and made one in Evernote so that I can always get to it. “Atta girl” has pulled me through dark days when I failed at something.

We all fall. I fail. You fail. It’s part of life.

Tip 7: Keep Moving Forward

Failure becomes permanent only if we stop trying.  It becomes success when we learn from it. It also helps to remember the good days when the bad days come.

But let’s be clear about the difference between failure and criticism. Criticism is not failure. Having a hater is not a failure. Being criticized and having a hater is part of being human.

Sweet Revenge.

Dr. Phil Adler, my favorite professor, always talked about racism and sexism and how to overcome the. He’d tell us that there were people who would not want us to be included in conversations because of our gender or race.

“Be so good that they can’t ignore you,” he said. The best revenge is success and proving them wrong.”

Ever since that moment in class, I’ve repeated this thought when faced with a hater targeting me or my gender.

Tip 8: Be Excellent in Your Work.

Your best revenge against haters is proving them wrong. Succeed and work your best to do a fantastic job at whatever you’re called to do.

Some people want swift justice because their me-centered world demands it. Well, life is a marathon not a sprint. Be a turtle (as I share in Chapter 13 of Reinventing Writing).

Who Hating Really Hurts

Hating hurts the hater most of all.  I read a story of the freed slave Frederick Douglass riding a train through Pennsylvania. He was told to ride with the luggage,  and several white passengers came back to the luggage car to express how upset they were. Douglass responded by telling them that he was not degraded but that those who did this to him were degrading themselves for treating a fellow human being with disrespect. (Paraphrased from a story included in Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington.)

Tip 9: Commit Not To Hate

Hating is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

Hating is like tying a dead body to your back — the body doesn’t care that it’s lashed to you, but you bear the burden.

Hating hurts the hater most of all.

When you are bothered by a person’s hate, it gives them power over you. They can rejoice because they ruined your day. Their purpose is wounding you and causing you pain, and they’d probably be happy only if you were dead. Since there’s nothing you can do to make them happy you have to learn to live with it!

Tip 10: Live Life!

And live with it you do! But do more than just live — thrive and succeed and enjoy your life. Fulfill your mission and spend time your loving the 99.9% of people who don’t have a problem with the fact you’re breathing air at this moment.

Life is too short to make a big deal about a small person. And hate does exactly that — it has a way of making the person on the receiving end feel smaller and less incapable of success.

So, my friends — forgive and move on. Do whatever it takes, but let go of hate. If someone hates you, sing the song from Frozen and  “let it go.”

Haters are gonna hate. The question is: what will you do about it?

The post What To Do When Someone Hates You appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

What To Do When Someone Hates You published first on https://getnewdlbusiness.tumblr.com/

[ralph31ortiz]

What To Do When Someone Hates You

You Can Overcome

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

“There is one way to avoid criticism: Do nothing. Say nothing. Be nothing.” says Aristotle. Criticism comes with breaking new ground. Criticism comes with putting yourself out there. But how do you respond when that criticism turns to hatred?

Listen to This Blog Post

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

Sponsored by Advancement Courses. Advancement Courses has more than 200 graduate level online professional development courses for K-12 teachers. You can take these courses for continuing education, salary advancement, or recertification. They are practical courses that have teachers developing tangible resources to use in their classrooms immediately. Go to advancementcourses.com/coolcat and use the code COOL20 at checkout to get 20% off any course. With this coupon, a 3 grad credit course is only $359.

Hatred is a hard thing to handle, particularly when you feel it is unjust. But I’m writing this for you today: DON’T LET IT STOP YOU.

Spread more love than hate

Theodore Roosevelt’s Man in the Arena

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt, Excerpt from the Speech “Citizenship in the Republic” given at the Sorbonne in Paris, France April 1910

We are all people of the arena. Every human has to cope with this question:

What to Do When Someone Hates You

Be you. But being you will often cause undeserved hate from others.

Hatred is a hard thing to handle. Humans usually possess a “me-centric” view of the world. We’ve all seen how two good people can have a vastly different opinions. It happens. No matter what you do, how kind you are, or anything else, I promise you this: In your human-ness, you will attract haters. No way around it.

Haters are an inevitable part of life if you’re accomplishing anything of worth. You can decide what to do about that.

It will also shock and surprise you just how long some people will nurse hatred. It can be years later and they’re still hanging onto something that you barely remember.

Don’t confuse criticism with hate.  People who care will give advice help you improve.

Tip 1: Not Every Criticism Is Motivated by Hate

A person giving you constructive criticism wants to help you improve and become better.

A hater wants to hurt you and wants you to die.

Determine if love or hate is the basis of the criticism by recognizing who criticized you and how they gave it. What was the intent? Help or harm?

Why Do We Notice the Negative?

You can be in a crowd of ten thousand and give an incredible speech. One critic blasts you on their blog or on Twitter, and what do you notice? You don’t see those hundred positive tweets — you see the one negative.

You can captivate your whole classroom except for one student who has decided to dislike you.  You don’t relish 29 joyful, happy, learning kids — you languish because one student (and usually their parents) doesn’t like you.  (I’ve been there — and goodness –, it’s hard when this happens!)

Tip 2: Reject Critics Math

Jon Acuff talks about this phenomenon in his book Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters calls this “critics math.” Jon says:

1 insult + 1,000 compliments = 1 insult

He goes on to tell the story of Larry David, creator of the hit TV show Seinfeld. Larry went to New York and attended a ballgame. When the organizers spotted him in the crowd, they showed his picture on the big screen and played the Seinfeld theme song as the entire stadium stood and applauded.

After the game as Larry walked to his car, a stranger drove by, rolled down his window, and yelled,

“Larry, you suck!”

Which did Larry remember later? The one stranger who said that he sucked.

Are you kidding? One rude person can erase 49,999 giving you a standing ovation?

This math doesn’t make sense.

The first step in overcoming critics math is to realize that you’re doing it and refuse to go there.

Tip 3: Keep Perspective

I deal with the haters by admitting that there’s room enough in this big wide world for both of us.- Good people can dislike me. I can even dislike good people. Good and evil aren’t determined by whether people like you or me. This perspective helps.

I recall a professor in college who drew a little x at the corner of the board. Across the board he drew a cloud.

He points at the cloud and says, “This is the universe.” He walks across the front of the room to the tiny x and tells the class, “This is you.” Then, he says something profound. “Notice that you” (pointing at the x) “are not at the center of the universe” (pointing at the cloud.)

Love is a powerful response to hate.

Tip 4: Center Your Thoughts in Healthy Ways

Nope. I’m not the center of the universe, and neither are you. But we can choose to center our thoughts daily. When hate rears its ugly head — it hurts us. –  And yet centering our thoughts gets easier with time. Focus on your goals. We’ve got things to get done!

Tip 5: Focus on the Likers,  Not the Haters

Stop focusing on the futile: You probably can’t make the haters like you.

Instead, focus on the people who actually do like you. Spend time cultivating those relationships and perhaps they’ll come to love you (and you them).

Focus on helping and serving others and being kind. Choose to ignore those who may be speaking negatively about you — that can quickly become paranoia. Usually, it turns out that people aren’t even talking about you at all. I hate to tell you what I tell myself: You’re not that important. Keep perspective and keep to your task.

So, decide. We’ve already heard Theodore Roosevelt tell us clearly, “It is not the critic who counts” but why do we give such things power over us? Why should we let haters distract us from living an epic life?

Tip 6: Celebrate Good Times and Progress

My first boss sent a memo to his manager praising my performance. He brought the copy to my desk and I was so excited. I couldn’t believe it.  Then, he told me something I’ll never forget.

“Create an ‘atta girl’ folder for those hard days. They’ll come and you’ll need to remember who you are and who you can be. This is your first ‘atta girl.’ Keep it.”

I still have the folder and made one in Evernote so that I can always get to it. “Atta girl” has pulled me through dark days when I failed at something.

We all fall. I fail. You fail. It’s part of life.

Tip 7: Keep Moving Forward

Failure becomes permanent only if we stop trying.  It becomes success when we learn from it. It also helps to remember the good days when the bad days come.

But let’s be clear about the difference between failure and criticism. Criticism is not failure. Having a hater is not a failure. Being criticized and having a hater is part of being human.

Sweet Revenge.

Dr. Phil Adler, my favorite professor, always talked about racism and sexism and how to overcome the. He’d tell us that there were people who would not want us to be included in conversations because of our gender or race.

“Be so good that they can’t ignore you,” he said. The best revenge is success and proving them wrong.”

Ever since that moment in class, I’ve repeated this thought when faced with a hater targeting me or my gender.

Tip 8: Be Excellent in Your Work.

Your best revenge against haters is proving them wrong. Succeed and work your best to do a fantastic job at whatever you’re called to do.

Some people want swift justice because their me-centered world demands it. Well, life is a marathon not a sprint. Be a turtle (as I share in Chapter 13 of Reinventing Writing).

Who Hating Really Hurts

Hating hurts the hater most of all.  I read a story of the freed slave Frederick Douglass riding a train through Pennsylvania. He was told to ride with the luggage,  and several white passengers came back to the luggage car to express how upset they were. Douglass responded by telling them that he was not degraded but that those who did this to him were degrading themselves for treating a fellow human being with disrespect. (Paraphrased from a story included in Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington.)

Tip 9: Commit Not To Hate

Hating is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

Hating is like tying a dead body to your back — the body doesn’t care that it’s lashed to you, but you bear the burden.

Hating hurts the hater most of all.

When you are bothered by a person’s hate, it gives them power over you. They can rejoice because they ruined your day. Their purpose is wounding you and causing you pain, and they’d probably be happy only if you were dead. Since there’s nothing you can do to make them happy you have to learn to live with it!

Tip 10: Live Life!

And live with it you do! But do more than just live — thrive and succeed and enjoy your life. Fulfill your mission and spend time your loving the 99.9% of people who don’t have a problem with the fact you’re breathing air at this moment.

Life is too short to make a big deal about a small person. And hate does exactly that — it has a way of making the person on the receiving end feel smaller and less incapable of success.

So, my friends — forgive and move on. Do whatever it takes, but let go of hate. If someone hates you, sing the song from Frozen and  “let it go.”

Haters are gonna hate. The question is: what will you do about it?

The post What To Do When Someone Hates You appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog http://www.coolcatteacher.com/what-to-do-when-someone-hates-you/

[patriciaanderson357-blog]

What To Do When Someone Hates You

You Can Overcome

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

“There is one way to avoid criticism: Do nothing. Say nothing. Be nothing.” says Aristotle. Criticism comes with breaking new ground. Criticism comes with putting yourself out there. But how do you respond when that criticism turns to hatred?

Listen to This Blog Post

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

Sponsored by Advancement Courses. Advancement Courses has more than 200 graduate level online professional development courses for K-12 teachers. You can take these courses for continuing education, salary advancement, or recertification. They are practical courses that have teachers developing tangible resources to use in their classrooms immediately. Go to advancementcourses.com/coolcat and use the code COOL20 at checkout to get 20% off any course. With this coupon, a 3 grad credit course is only $359.

Hatred is a hard thing to handle, particularly when you feel it is unjust. But I’m writing this for you today: DON’T LET IT STOP YOU.

Spread more love than hate

The Man in the Arena by Theodore Roosevelt

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt, Excerpt from the Speech “Citizenship in the Republic” given at the Sorbonne in Paris, France April 1910

We are all people of the arena. Every human has to cope with this question:

What to do when someone hates you

Be you. But being you will often cause undeserved hate from others.

Hatred is a hard thing to handle. Humans usually posses a me-centric view of the world. We’ve all seen two good people can have a vastly different opinion. It happens.

No matter what you do, how kind you are, or anything else, I promise you this: in your human-ness you will attract haters. No way around it.

Haters are are an inevitable part of life if you’re accomplishing anything of worth. You can decide what to do with it.

It will also shock and surprise you just how long some people will nurse hatred. It can be years later and they’re still hanging onto something you barely remember.

Don’t confuse criticism with hate.  People who care will give advice help you improve.

Tip 1: Not Every Criticism is Motivated by Hate

A person giving you constructive criticism wants to help you improve and become better.

A hater wants to hurt you and wants you to die.

Determine if love or hate is the basis by who gave you the criticism and how it is given. What was the intent? Help or harm?

Why Do We Notice the Negative?

You can be in a crowd of ten thousand and give an incredible speech. One critic blasts you on their blog or on Twitter and what do you notice? You don’t see 100 positive tweets – you see the one negative.

You can captivate your whole classroom but one student has decided to dislike you.  You don’t relish 29 joyful happy learning kids – you languish because one student (and their parents usually) don’t like you.  (I’ve been there and goodness – it is hard when it happens.)

Understand Critics Math

Jon Acuff talks about this phenomenon in his book Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters calls this “critics math.” Jon says

1 insult + 1,000 compliments = 1 insult

Jon goes on to tell the story of Larry David, the inventor of the hit show Seinfeld, he went to New York and went to a ballgame. When the organizers spotted Larry in the crowd, they showed his picture on the big screen and played the Seinfeld theme song as the entire stadium stood and applauded.

After the game as Larry walks to his car, a stranger drove by, rolled down his window, and yells

“Larry, you suck!”

Which did Larry remember later? The one stranger who said he sucked.

Are you kidding? One rude person can erase 49,999 giving you a standing ovation?

This math doesn’t make sense.

Tip 2: Reject Critics Math

The first step in overcoming critics math is to realize you’re doing it and refuse to go there.

Tip 3: Keep Perspective

For me, when I deal with the haters I admit  there’s room enough in this big wide world for both of us. Good people can dislike me. I can even dislike good people. Good and evil is not determined by whether people like you or me. This helps.

I recall a professor in college who drew a little x at the corner of the board. Across the board he drew a cloud.

He points at the cloud and says, “this is the universe.” He walks across the front of the room to the tiny x and says, “this is you” as he addresses the whole class. Then, he says something profound. “Notice that you (pointing at the x) are not at the center of the universe (pointing at the cloud.)”

Love is a powerful response to hate.

Tip 4: Center Your Thoughts in Healthy Ways

Nope. I’m not. But we can choose to center our thoughts daily. When hate rears its ugly head — it hurts.  And yet it gets easier with time. Focus on your goals. We’ve got things to get done!

Tip 5: Focus on the Likers  not the Haters

Stop focusing on the futile: making the haters like you.

Focus on people who like you. Spend time cultivating relationships with those who like you and perhaps they’ll come to love you (and you them.)

Focus on helping and serving others and being kind. Choose to ignore those who may be speaking negative about you – that can quickly become paranoia. Usually people aren’t even talking about you at all – I hate to tell you what I tell myself – you’re not that important.  Keep perspective and keep to your task.

So, decide. We’ve already heard Theodore Roosevelt tell us clearly, “It is not the critic who counts” but why do we give such things power over us? Why let haters distract us from living an epic life?

Tip 6: Celebrate Good Times and Progress

My first boss sent a memo to his manager praising my performance. He brought the copy to my desk and I was so excited. I couldn’t believe it.  Then, he told me something I’ll never forget.

‘Create an at-a-girl folder for those hard days. They’ll come and you’ll need to remember who you are and who you can be. This is your first at a girl. Keep it.”

I still have the folder and  made one in Evernote. It has pulled me through dark days when I failed at something.

We all fall. We all fail. It is part of life.

Tip 7: Keep Moving Forward

  Failure becomes permanent only if we stop trying.  It becomes success when we learn from it. It also helps to remember the good days when the bad days come.

But let’s be clear about the difference between failure and criticism. Criticism is not failure. Having a hater is not a failure. Being criticized and having a hater is part of being human.

Sweet Revenge.

Dr. Phil Adler, my favorite professor, always talked about racism and sexism and how to overcome it. He would tell us that there were people who would not want us to be included in conversations because of our gender or race.

“Be so good they can’t ignore you. The best revenge is success and proving them wrong.”

Ever since that moment in class, I’ve repeated this thought when faced with a hater of me or my gender.

Tip 8: Be Excellent In Your Work.

Your best revenge against haters is to prove them wrong. Succeed and work your best to do a fantastic job at whatever you’re called to do.

Some just want swift justice in their me-centered world that demands it. Well, life is a marathon not a sprint. Be a turtle. (As I share in Chapter 13 of Reinventing Writing.)

Who Hating Really Hurts

Hating hurts the hater most of all.  I read a story of the freed slave Frederick Douglas riding a train through Pennsylvania. Told to ride with the luggage,  and several white passengers came to the car to express how upset they were. Douglass responds by telling them that he is not degraded but that those who did this to him were degrading themselves for treating a fellow human being with disrespect. (Paraphrased from the story included in Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington.)

Tip 9: Commit Not To Hate

Hating is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

Hating is like tying a dead body to your back – the body doesn’t care they are lashed to you but you bear the burden.

Hating hurts the hater most of all.

When you are bothered by a person’s hate it gives them power over you. They can rejoice because they ruined your day. They purpose is to wound you and cause you pain and would probably only be happy if you were dead. Since there’s nothing you can do to make them happy you have to learn to live with it!

Tip 10: Live Life!

And live with it you do! Don’t just live – thrive and succeed and enjoy your life. Fulfill your mission and spend time loving the 99.9% of people who don’t have a problem with the fact you are breathing air at this moment.

Life is too short to make a big deal of a small person. And hate does that – it has a way of making a person smaller and more incapable of success.

So, my friends – forgive, move on. Do whatever it takes but let go of hate. If someone hates you -sing the song from Frozen and  “let it go.”

Haters are gonna hate. The question is: what will you do about it?

The post What To Do When Someone Hates You appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

[aira26soonas]

What To Do When Someone Hates You

You Can Overcome

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

“There is one way to avoid criticism: Do nothing. Say nothing. Be nothing.” says Aristotle. Criticism comes with breaking new ground. Criticism comes with putting yourself out there. But how do you respond when that criticism turns to hatred?

Listen to This Blog Post

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

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Hatred is a hard thing to handle, particularly when you feel it is unjust. But I’m writing this for you today: DON’T LET IT STOP YOU.

Spread more love than hate

The Man in the Arena by Theodore Roosevelt

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt, Excerpt from the Speech “Citizenship in the Republic” given at the Sorbonne in Paris, France April 1910

We are all people of the arena. Every human has to cope with this question:

What to do when someone hates you

Be you. But being you will often cause undeserved hate from others.

Hatred is a hard thing to handle. Humans usually posses a me-centric view of the world. We’ve all seen two good people can have a vastly different opinion. It happens.

No matter what you do, how kind you are, or anything else, I promise you this: in your human-ness you will attract haters. No way around it.

Haters are are an inevitable part of life if you’re accomplishing anything of worth. You can decide what to do with it.

It will also shock and surprise you just how long some people will nurse hatred. It can be years later and they’re still hanging onto something you barely remember.

Don’t confuse criticism with hate.  People who care will give advice help you improve.

Tip 1: Not Every Criticism is Motivated by Hate

A person giving you constructive criticism wants to help you improve and become better.

A hater wants to hurt you and wants you to die.

Determine if love or hate is the basis by who gave you the criticism and how it is given. What was the intent? Help or harm?

Why Do We Notice the Negative?

You can be in a crowd of ten thousand and give an incredible speech. One critic blasts you on their blog or on Twitter and what do you notice? You don’t see 100 positive tweets – you see the one negative.

You can captivate your whole classroom but one student has decided to dislike you.  You don’t relish 29 joyful happy learning kids – you languish because one student (and their parents usually) don’t like you.  (I’ve been there and goodness – it is hard when it happens.)

Understand Critics Math

Jon Acuff talks about this phenomenon in his book Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters calls this “critics math.” Jon says

1 insult + 1,000 compliments = 1 insult

Jon goes on to tell the story of Larry David, the inventor of the hit show Seinfeld, he went to New York and went to a ballgame. When the organizers spotted Larry in the crowd, they showed his picture on the big screen and played the Seinfeld theme song as the entire stadium stood and applauded.

After the game as Larry walks to his car, a stranger drove by, rolled down his window, and yells

“Larry, you suck!”

Which did Larry remember later? The one stranger who said he sucked.

Are you kidding? One rude person can erase 49,999 giving you a standing ovation?

This math doesn’t make sense.

Tip 2: Reject Critics Math

The first step in overcoming critics math is to realize you’re doing it and refuse to go there.

Tip 3: Keep Perspective

For me, when I deal with the haters I admit  there’s room enough in this big wide world for both of us. Good people can dislike me. I can even dislike good people. Good and evil is not determined by whether people like you or me. This helps.

I recall a professor in college who drew a little x at the corner of the board. Across the board he drew a cloud.

He points at the cloud and says, “this is the universe.” He walks across the front of the room to the tiny x and says, “this is you” as he addresses the whole class. Then, he says something profound. “Notice that you (pointing at the x) are not at the center of the universe (pointing at the cloud.)”

Love is a powerful response to hate.

Tip 4: Center Your Thoughts in Healthy Ways

Nope. I’m not. But we can choose to center our thoughts daily. When hate rears its ugly head — it hurts.  And yet it gets easier with time. Focus on your goals. We’ve got things to get done!

Tip 5: Focus on the Likers  not the Haters

Stop focusing on the futile: making the haters like you.

Focus on people who like you. Spend time cultivating relationships with those who like you and perhaps they’ll come to love you (and you them.)

Focus on helping and serving others and being kind. Choose to ignore those who may be speaking negative about you – that can quickly become paranoia. Usually people aren’t even talking about you at all – I hate to tell you what I tell myself – you’re not that important.  Keep perspective and keep to your task.

So, decide. We’ve already heard Theodore Roosevelt tell us clearly, “It is not the critic who counts” but why do we give such things power over us? Why let haters distract us from living an epic life?

Tip 6: Celebrate Good Times and Progress

My first boss sent a memo to his manager praising my performance. He brought the copy to my desk and I was so excited. I couldn’t believe it.  Then, he told me something I’ll never forget.

‘Create an at-a-girl folder for those hard days. They’ll come and you’ll need to remember who you are and who you can be. This is your first at a girl. Keep it.”

I still have the folder and  made one in Evernote. It has pulled me through dark days when I failed at something.

We all fall. We all fail. It is part of life.

Tip 7: Keep Moving Forward

  Failure becomes permanent only if we stop trying.  It becomes success when we learn from it. It also helps to remember the good days when the bad days come.

But let’s be clear about the difference between failure and criticism. Criticism is not failure. Having a hater is not a failure. Being criticized and having a hater is part of being human.

Sweet Revenge.

Dr. Phil Adler, my favorite professor, always talked about racism and sexism and how to overcome it. He would tell us that there were people who would not want us to be included in conversations because of our gender or race.

“Be so good they can’t ignore you. The best revenge is success and proving them wrong.”

Ever since that moment in class, I’ve repeated this thought when faced with a hater of me or my gender.

Tip 8: Be Excellent In Your Work.

Your best revenge against haters is to prove them wrong. Succeed and work your best to do a fantastic job at whatever you’re called to do.

Some just want swift justice in their me-centered world that demands it. Well, life is a marathon not a sprint. Be a turtle. (As I share in Chapter 13 of Reinventing Writing.)

Who Hating Really Hurts

Hating hurts the hater most of all.  I read a story of the freed slave Frederick Douglas riding a train through Pennsylvania. Told to ride with the luggage,  and several white passengers came to the car to express how upset they were. Douglass responds by telling them that he is not degraded but that those who did this to him were degrading themselves for treating a fellow human being with disrespect. (Paraphrased from the story included in Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington.)

Tip 9: Commit Not To Hate

Hating is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

Hating is like tying a dead body to your back – the body doesn’t care they are lashed to you but you bear the burden.

Hating hurts the hater most of all.

When you are bothered by a person’s hate it gives them power over you. They can rejoice because they ruined your day. They purpose is to wound you and cause you pain and would probably only be happy if you were dead. Since there’s nothing you can do to make them happy you have to learn to live with it!

Tip 10: Live Life!

And live with it you do! Don’t just live – thrive and succeed and enjoy your life. Fulfill your mission and spend time loving the 99.9% of people who don’t have a problem with the fact you are breathing air at this moment.

Life is too short to make a big deal of a small person. And hate does that – it has a way of making a person smaller and more incapable of success.

So, my friends – forgive, move on. Do whatever it takes but let go of hate. If someone hates you -sing the song from Frozen and  “let it go.”

Haters are gonna hate. The question is: what will you do about it?

The post What To Do When Someone Hates You appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog http://www.coolcatteacher.com/what-to-do-when-someone-hates-you/

[dorothydelgadillo]

"Linkedin Groups, User Experience, Live Video:" The IMPACT Show Ep. 37 [Show Notes]

Are you building a brand that customers love?

To successfully develop an engaging customer experience, you need to build real personal connections with real humans.

In this week's episode of The IMPACT Show, Bob and Nick discussed LinkedIn's renewed focus on Groups, maximizing the user experience, implementing live video, and much more.

Just in case you missed us live (or if you want to relive the magic), you’ll find the episode’s show notes below as well as the recording.

Enjoy and make sure to share with your peers! 

Like what you saw? Make sure to subscribe to email reminders and give us a review on iTunes.

Have feedback or questions? We’d love to hear it. Comment on this blog or email us at show@impactbnd.com

What Marketers Be Talkin' 'Bout

Where we go over what you're saying in IMPACT Elite.

IMPACT Elite is a community of passionate marketers looking to help other marketers succeed. We’d love for you to join us! Go to impactbnd.com/elite or just search the IMPACT Elite Group on Facebook and request to join. 

Corbin Rugh asked: "I'm just diving into navigating SEO for my company. Does anyone have an example of a site that uses h1 tags well? Thanks a million!"

John McTigue: You can’t go wrong just pulling up the top inbound agencies by HubSpot tier or via blog posts that list the top agencies. If we don’t get it right, we lose business.

Bob: On-Page SEO basics, optimize your page by using your focus keyword (do some keyword research to pick the best keyword for you) in the title tag, H1 tag, URL, meta description, and image alt tags. To John McTigue's point, your page should have a compelling header, but it doesn't necessarily have to be the h1 tag that's used for the header. You're H1 can be optimized for the keyword, but even more importantly, your page needs to be optimized for the user's experience. 

Dan Moyle asked: "When did FB start allowing pages to promote in your notifications? I do not like this page, I do not follow it ... I have no connection to it as far as I know. Why do I care if they've posted a new video? Anyone else notice this new move? (This is the second time it's happened with different pages, actually.)"

Ali Parmalee: I haven't seen this rolled out yet, but I'm checking with a few people to see if they've heard if it's being tested. One thought is if you're being targeted as a friend of someone who likes a page. But this is specifically for "Watch" which is not an option right now for placements (again, unless it's in testing). Also, you may know this already, but if you see ads in your regular feed and want to know why you are being targeted for it, click the 3 dots and then "why am I seeing this?" On a side note, this is actually a great hack to help research targeting for our clients. We'll interact with a competitor's brand to get retargeted and then see who they are targeting.

Digital Marketing News

Where each week, Nick and Bob share one thing from the world of digital marketing that caught their eye.

HubSpot: CSS Speed Improvements to the HubSpot CMS

HubSpot now automatically combines all CSS files on HubSpot CMS hosted pages into a single combined and minified file at the time a page loads.

Why does speed matter?

Speed is crucial to your search ranking and user experience. In July 2018, Google will start to consider speed as a ranking factor for mobile search results and slow sites may not display as prominently.

Even after a visitor lands on your website, 53% of mobile viewers will abandon a site that takes longer than three seconds to load. A fast site is a good user experience, and a good user experience leads to higher conversions.

They're claiming this change:

Saw average page speed improvements of 210 milliseconds. Some customers have seen up to a 5-second improvement in page load times.

Tips:

Optimizing images

Prioritize above-the-fold content

Minimize requests... what does that mean?

If you're using Wordpress, minimize the number of plugins

Social Media Today: LinkedIn's Putting Renewed Focus on Groups, with New Tools and Options

Relevant to you all because we talked about a couple shows back how FB is limiting the reach of page posts and how Groups are a great way to maintain/create more reliable reach.

Heard about this story because I’m an admin on a number of groups, including the agency partner group on LinkedIn!  Always loved the groups feature.

The notice they sent:  “Groups is at the heart of what makes Linkedin a place for professionals to help and support one another and the changes we’re planning with make Groups a bigger part of the Linkedin Experience.

Sunsetting separate app this month.

IMPACT Updates 

IMPACT Live

Join over 500 members of the IMPACT Elite community in person for our very special 2-day event. Speakers include Dharmesh Shah, Ann Handley, David Meerman Scott, Marcus Sheridan, and more still to be announced.

Event Date: August 7th and 8th

Click here to register or learn more 

... let's move on to our next topic, but before we do...

Start thinking about how the things we’re talking apply to your company. If you have any challenges or questions that you want us to address, leave a comment or send us an email to show@impactbnd.com.

We’ll get to as many as we can either at the end of the show or during next week’s episode.

Creating an Amazing User-Experience Across the Entire Customer Journey

Attracting Visitors:

Do this: They Ask, You Answer

Create a remarkable user experience

Understand the questions that people are asking, and giving them the best answers

Not that: Cheap writers / inexperienced content managers

Don't create content, to just have content

Engaging:

Do this: Real Personal Connections

Not that: Spammy Email

Prospecting:

Do This: Focus the connection around the CONTENT/TOPIC of need they express interest in.  Set a goal to provide value without having to sell anything.

Not that: Sound desperate to get on the phone/into a demo   

Closing:

Do this: Get trust + buy-in at the highest level

Not that: putting all the work on your main champion to get everybody in the loop and on board

Customer Success:

Do this: Talk about this as a partnership and set regular (scalable) check-ins well before you need it.

Not that: Stay the same

95% of Brand Execs Say Live Video is Key to Their 2018 Strategies

Check out the article from Marketing Dive

Nick's overview

In 2017, companies were on target to 130 billion on video. Almost twice as much as what they were planning to spend on tv.

Live Video is blogging 15 years ago. Live video is where it's at.

How we do live video at IMPACT

We have several shows:

Video review live

Website throwdown

IMPACT Show

It's so real and human.

Not that hard to do

Ways to use live video:

Training purposes (internal)

Media influencer briefings

Broadcasting in-person events

Next Steps:

We would love your comments! Feel free to send us an email or comment on the Facebook thread. 

If you really liked it, please give us a 5-star review on iTunes. 

We're going to IMPACT Elite to ask what you want us to talk about, so jump in on the post there.

Join Us Next Week! 

We'll be back again next Thursday, February 8th at 1:00 PM ET. While Nick is out on paternity leave, we will have a special guest co-host, who will be announced early next week. 

Until next time... get out there and make it happen.

from Web Developers World https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/linkedin-groups-live-video-user-experience-impact-show

[fesahaawit]

10 New Fintech Companies To Watch Out For! (Plus Highlights From FinCon 2017)

What up, y’all! Just got back and sobered up from our financial blogging conference, and thought I’d share some of the highlights from it.

Namely, the handful of new financial companies that were part of our yearly fintech competition I helped judge! It’s always so interesting to see how people use technology to solve our problems out there, and just like last year’s competition this one did not disappoint.

But first, gotta give it up to PT Money for organizing this amazing event each and every year (it was my 7th one attending!), as well as to all the other bloggers who volunteered their time to make it happen. If you’re a $$$ blogger or podcaster or just plain obsessed with personal finance, you NEED to come out to it one year and experience what it’s all about! I promise you will leave incredibly motivated or I will shut down this blog forever ;) (Or at least buy you a beer to cry into – hah)

So what happened at FinCon 2017?

Here are a few of the more exciting highlights… Because good luck telling social media people that what happens at FinCon stays at FinCon! ;)

Rapper Dee-1 crowd surfed while rapping his hit song, Sally Mae Back (Crowd surfed! At a financial blogging conference!)

Best selling author David Bach (of Automatic Millionaire fame) popped in to share his wild story on getting on Oprah for the first time, and how the Latte Factor is “not about the damn lattes!” Haha… Rebuking the hate he so often gets when people say they will never give up their coffees no matter how sexy compound interest is ;) He may or may not have also dropped a few F bombs on stage showing that he is definitely not one of the more stuffier financial “experts” out there. Super cool to run into him around 1 am on the last night too to talk shop! (Interesting fact: he’s fairly short)

Darren Rowse shared his story of how he became one of the world’s first professional bloggers when one of his camera reviews went viral over night. He’d later go on to start two majorly successful blogs, including the one most bloggers are familiar with and learn from: ProBlogger.com

Chris Guillebeau of The $100 Startup and The Art of Non-Comformity talked about how it’s perfectly okay to let a side hustle be just that – a side hustle! There’s no rule that you need to turn it into a full-time job if you’re perfectly happy with your current one. Just let it be your creative outlet while you bring home some extra side money! (I agree with this 100%!! Not all of us are born to run companies!!)

Cait Flanders held a presentation on writing Rockstar content that was packed solid which we think/hope went over pretty well! Interweaving the back story of Rockstar Finance and how it’s evolved over the years as well. (Cait curates it with me, and is one of my favorite bloggers on the scene)

A bunch of people from our community created a parody of The Office called The Floor which was shown at our annual blogger award ceremony and was downright HILARIOUS. Then ended with a surprise live musical performance by American Idol contestant Dalton Rapattoni! (It was all about the music this year, haha… Thx for putting it together, Scott Alan Turner!)

And lastly – we had one pretty damn fun Halloween party to wrap up the conference! Erik from The Mastermind Within said it best: “it was hilarious to see people with $1 million+ net worth’s singing Sir Mix-a-lot’s “Baby Got Back”.” Haha… That’s how we roll! If you can’t live it up, what’s the point of all that money??

As for the best costume of the night? I gave it to this guy. Can you tell why? ;)

(full back story here – he totally shaved his head for this!!)

Other interesting gems pertaining to yours truly: I randomly got interviewed in the bathroom, and I was  presented with the International Blogger of The Year award from UK’s SHOMO awards. Where I then made an acceptance speech that included “Long live the queen!” which I thought was pretty clever? ;)

Now to the Fintech Competition, and the 10 new financial companies to watch out for!

As I mentioned, I was one of the two judges for it again this year, where our ratings made up for 50% of the votes with the audiences’ making up the other 50%. We awarded two prizes for the night – $1,000 for first and $500 for 2nd – and below are my honest opinions of each, along with what they do. I’m not getting compensated by anyone listed here, and there are no affiliate links included at all.

Follow along and see if you can guess who won! :) In no particular order:

Agreeable (AgreeableApp.com) — Agreeable was one of my favorite apps who presented, and was built to help solve the problem of no shows whenever you go to meet someone off Craigslist or Facebook. Whereas currently you’re just $hit out of both luck and time when the buyer/seller doesn’t show up, with this app you’d actually get *paid* an agreed upon amount if anyone bails, ensuring that it’s in both parties’ interests to make the scheduled time. There were some privacy concerns I first had with this as it tracks both of your locations to confirm that the two sides made it to the meet-up okay, but after talking w/ one of the founders at a party afterwards I was impressed with their patent-pending solution to this. We’ll see if this puppy takes off, but I’m personally rooting for it to! (Also can be used for soooo many other areas in life too – imagine if Comcast or other services were forced to pay you if they never show up when they’re supposed to?? We’d all be rich! ;))

Birch Finance (BirchFinance.com) — This app was another killer idea, which I SWORE already existed but I guess not (a good sign that they’re onto something!). Basically, you tell Birch what credit cards you have and use, and then it’ll analyze them as you’re out shopping and tell you which ones to use to reap the *best* rewards, as well as *how much* you’ll get back by them, rather than you having to guess all the time. It’ll then show you other cards out in the market, and compare what would have happened had you used *those* cards instead of the ones you currently have. And since it’s all based on your specific transactions and spending patterns, you can see first hand exactly what your cards – or future cards – are worth to you. A pretty epic tool for any card hackers/lovers. (I’ll never use it since I’m a minimalist with just my one USAA card, but I’d be allll on it if I were in the rewards game!)

Budgit (BudgitApp.com) — Budgit is an automated budgeting and savings service that organizes your bills and spending so you can save for your goals. I tried real hard to figure out how these guys were different from all the other budgeting apps out there – and even posed the question during Q&A time – but even after doing so I was honestly still just as confused. They actually have this question posed word for word at the bottom of their website (“How is Budgit different?”) but the 3 answers given were “No ads ever”, “Hassle-free”, and “Secure and private.” Which I’m pretty sure most apps are?? All that said, as a budget guy I don’t think you can have *too many* apps out there spreading the good word, so I very much wish them all the luck and success as they can get. (PS: This app is not the same one as BudgIT)

College Backer (CollegeBacker.com) — These guys were pretty cool as they help get people to gift their child 529 contributions instead of more toys and “stuff.” Something I very much try to do every year too and rarely succeed! ;) And while like Budgit I couldn’t pin point how exactly this service is different than the others out there on the scene (there’s quite a few who let families and friends jump in to make this happen), I did like the general purpose of it and hope they take me up on my recommendation to pair these gifts with some sort of physical item too so the kids don’t totally hate opening up the gift of 529 funding, haha…

Honeyfi (Honeyfi.com) — Honeyfi is a new app *for couples* that makes sharing your budget and managing your money much easier together. Which I absolutely love! Honeyfi allows you to collaborate, link accounts, and even message each other at any time through the app so everyone in the relationship can be on the exact same page. There’s not many apps I can think of that focuses mainly on couples (actually, I can’t think of one?), so I’m really hoping this one takes off as I think they’re onto something good here… Budgets are even sexier when TWO people are involved!! ;)

KINFO (GoKINFO.com) — KINFO is an app for DIY investors that brings together information from hedge funds, insiders, analysts, bloggers and other private investors so you can see what everyone else is doing along side you. Particularly bloggers which the founder seems most excited about as it helps put all of our personal recommendations into one spot for people. Though as many of you know mine would look pretty boring as it would only show one fund: VTSAX :) I’m not sure if looking at what others are doing adds more or less noise into the decision making process (probably more?), but then again I was influenced to go All In with Vanguard from my peers so it could prove to be a pretty helpful resource.

Squeeze (Squeeze.com) — Squeeze is an app that helps you save by finding the best deals, promo codes, and coupons directly related to your current spending. It sounded a lot like the others in the field so I had a hard time putting them into their own special bucket, but needless to say you can’t have too many coupons in this hyper consumer world of ours… And as for branding, they absolutely NAILED it. Some of the other fintech names were pretty random!

Take Command Health (TakeCommandHealth.com) — These guys won my personal award for the best presentation, if only for the inclusion of photoshopped Trump and Obama pics littered throughout :) But their app was def. no joke. In a nutshell, Take Command helps you easily find the best option for health coverage by using big data to help source the best, and cheapest, health care options for you both on and off the exchange. They also shared the release of their small business feature which helps companies offer better and cheaper plans to their employees as well – something that many places are struggling hard with right now. So while the topic of health insurance typically doesn’t turn heads (at least for good reasons!), these guys had our immediate attention and I wouldn’t be surprised a bit if they hit a home run with this.

Qoins (Qoins.io) — Do these guys look familiar?? They should! I featured them here last year the second I came across them because they’re the FIRST to finally apply “rounding up” technology to debt!!! Which is something severely lacking in our industry… And while I had to recuse myself from voting on this one since I was definitely biased (they donated $$$ to our Community Fund over at Rockstar Finance), I was beyond pleased to see them here and thought they gave a great presentation. You can find my review of them here (I was the first ever blogger to share them!) but in a nutshell they round up all your transactions to the nearest dollar, and then uses the spare change to help pay off your debt every month. It won’t clear all of it, but every $30 or $40/mo helps!

WizeFi (Wizefi.com) — WizeFi is a paid app ($8/mo) that helps organize your finances, analyzing everything from your assets and liabilities to your insurance and spending habits. Once hooked up it’ll then estimate your future net worth if you continue spending the way you’re currently spending, and then compare it to your future net worth if you follow your custom WizeFi wealth-building plan. It comes with a super slick interface and the focus on net worth of course turned me on, but at the end of the day not too sure that alone is worth the $8. Especially since it doesn’t physically *move* the money for you like Digit or Acorns does and still requires you to take action (which most people won’t). I was also turned off by the mentions of an affiliate program for customers to make more money, both in the presentation as well as on their website (it’s prominently listed as the #3 reason to sign up?!), even though I’m sure the founder meant well. Overall would have been better if you had the chance to test out a free version, with an option to upgrade later to “pro” or something similar if interested…

Alright… Ready to guess who won?? Any really stand out to you??

Here were the 1st and 2nd place winners after all the votes were tallied up:

Birch Finance

Take Command Health

Honestly though, ALL of these guys came out winning as they not only got to pitch in front of tons of $$$ influencers and enthusiasts, but also landed on this illustrious blog here!!! Haha… Surely that’s worth at *least* $10.00 right? ;)

So congrats to everyone who participated. I wish I were smart enough to come up with my own money app! If you want to take a look at last year’s competition and results, you can find that here: Fintech Competition 2016

Next Year’s FinCon Event…

If you can believe it, plans are already in the works for next year’s conference! If you’ve always wanted to visit Orlando, Florida – now’s your chance! We’ll be partying it up with Mickey next year :) Learn more and pick up tickets here: FinconExpo.com/2018

So there we are – another great conference on the books :) THANK YOU thank you THANK YOU to everyone who came out and put up with me over the weekend! It was a blast hanging out with my 2nd family in the flesh, and I wish you all a most successful next year.

Special shout out to the following who really made me smile throughout: Chelsea Norton, Cait Flanders, Steve Adcock, Jim $, Shin, Bobby Lee, Pete McPherson, Latoya Scott, Fritz, Hélène, Hannah Rounds, the Tiller Team, Miss Mazuma, Optimal Finance Daily, John and Sharon Duffy, Shannon Austin, The Dumpster Dog, Miss Thrifty, Maria Nedeva, FIREcracker, and Romeo Jeremiah.

See y’all in another 11 months!

10 New Fintech Companies To Watch Out For! (Plus Highlights From FinCon 2017) posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnwIdQ

[heliosfinance]

10 New Fintech Companies To Watch Out For! (Plus Highlights From FinCon 2017)

What up, y’all! Just got back and sobered up from our financial blogging conference, and thought I’d share some of the highlights from it.

Namely, the handful of new financial companies that were part of our yearly fintech competition I helped judge! It’s always so interesting to see how people use technology to solve our problems out there, and just like last year’s competition this one did not disappoint.

But first, gotta give it up to PT Money for organizing this amazing event each and every year (it was my 7th one attending!), as well as to all the other bloggers who volunteered their time to make it happen. If you’re a $$$ blogger or podcaster or just plain obsessed with personal finance, you NEED to come out to it one year and experience what it’s all about! I promise you will leave incredibly motivated or I will shut down this blog forever ;) (Or at least buy you a beer to cry into – hah)

So what happened at FinCon 2017?

Here are a few of the more exciting highlights… Because good luck telling social media people that what happens at FinCon stays at FinCon! ;)

Rapper Dee-1 crowd surfed while rapping his hit song, Sally Mae Back (Crowd surfed! At a financial blogging conference!)

Best selling author David Bach (of Automatic Millionaire fame) popped in to share his wild story on getting on Oprah for the first time, and how the Latte Factor is “not about the damn lattes!” Haha… Rebuking the hate he so often gets when people say they will never give up their coffees no matter how sexy compound interest is ;) He may or may not have also dropped a few F bombs on stage showing that he is definitely not one of the more stuffier financial “experts” out there. Super cool to run into him around 1 am on the last night too to talk shop! (Interesting fact: he’s fairly short)

Darren Rowse shared his story of how he became one of the world’s first professional bloggers when one of his camera reviews went viral over night. He’d later go on to start two majorly successful blogs, including the one most bloggers are familiar with and learn from: ProBlogger.com

Chris Guillebeau of The $100 Startup and The Art of Non-Comformity talked about how it’s perfectly okay to let a side hustle be just that – a side hustle! There’s no rule that you need to turn it into a full-time job if you’re perfectly happy with your current one. Just let it be your creative outlet while you bring home some extra side money! (I agree with this 100%!! Not all of us are born to run companies!!)

Cait Flanders held a presentation on writing Rockstar content that was packed solid which we think/hope went over pretty well! Interweaving the back story of Rockstar Finance and how it’s evolved over the years as well. (Cait curates it with me, and is one of my favorite bloggers on the scene)

A bunch of people from our community created a parody of “The Office” which was shown at our annual blogger award ceremony and was downright HILARIOUS. Then ended with a surprise performance from American Idol contestant Dalton Rapattoni! (It was all about the music this year, haha… Thx for putting it together, Scott Alan Turner!)

And lastly – we had one pretty damn fun Halloween party to wrap up the conference! Erik from The Mastermind Within said it best: “it was hilarious to see people with $1 million+ net worth’s singing Sir Mix-a-lot’s “Baby Got Back”.” Haha… That’s how we roll! If you can’t live it up, what’s the point of all that money??

As for the best costume of the night? I gave it to this guy. Can you tell why? ;)

(full back story here – he totally shaved his head for this!!)

Other interesting gems pertaining to yours truly: I randomly got interviewed in the bathroom, and I was  presented with the International Blogger of The Year award from UK’s SHOMO awards. Where I then made an acceptance speech that included “Long live the queen!” which I thought was pretty clever? ;)

Now to the Fintech Competition, and the 10 new financial companies to watch out for!

As I mentioned, I was one of the two judges for it again this year, where our ratings made up for 50% of the votes with the audiences’ making up the other 50%. We awarded two prizes for the night – $1,000 for first and $500 for 2nd – and below are my honest opinions of each, along with what they do. I’m not getting compensated by anyone listed here, and there are no affiliate links included at all.

Follow along and see if you can guess who won! :) In no particular order:

Agreeable (AgreeableApp.com) — Agreeable was one of my favorite apps who presented, and was built to help solve the problem of no shows whenever you go to meet someone off Craigslist or Facebook. Whereas currently you’re just $hit out of both luck and time when the buyer/seller doesn’t show up, with this app you’d actually get *paid* an agreed upon amount if anyone bails, ensuring that it’s in both parties’ interests to make the scheduled time. There were some privacy concerns I first had with this as it tracks both of your locations to confirm that the two sides made it to the meet-up okay, but after talking w/ one of the founders at a party afterwards I was impressed with their patent-pending solution to this. We’ll see if this puppy takes off, but I’m personally rooting for it to! (Also can be used for soooo many other areas in life too – imagine if Comcast or other services were forced to pay you if they never show up when they’re supposed to?? We’d all be rich! ;))

Birch Finance (BirchFinance.com) — This app was another killer idea, which I SWORE already existed but I guess not (a good sign that they’re onto something!). Basically, you tell Birch what credit cards you have and use, and then it’ll analyze them as you’re out shopping and tell you which ones to use to reap the *best* rewards, as well as *how much* you’ll get back by them, rather than you having to guess all the time. It’ll then show you other cards out in the market, and compare what would have happened had you used *those* cards instead of the ones you currently have. And since it’s all based on your specific transactions and spending patterns, you can see first hand exactly what your cards – or future cards – are worth to you. A pretty epic tool for any card hackers/lovers. (I’ll never use it since I’m a minimalist with just my one USAA card, but I’d be allll on it if I were in the rewards game!)

Budgit (BudgitApp.com) — Budgit is an automated budgeting and savings service that organizes your bills and spending so you can save for your goals. I tried real hard to figure out how these guys were different from all the other budgeting apps out there – and even posed the question during Q&A time – but even after doing so I was honestly still just as confused. They actually have this question posed word for word at the bottom of their website (“How is Budgit different?”) but the 3 answers given were “No ads ever”, “Hassle-free”, and “Secure and private.” Which I’m pretty sure most apps are?? All that said, as a budget guy I don’t think you can have *too many* apps out there spreading the good word, so I very much wish them all the luck and success as they can get. (PS: This app is not the same one as BudgIT)

College Backer (CollegeBacker.com) — These guys were pretty cool as they help get people to gift their child 529 contributions instead of more toys and “stuff.” Something I very much try to do every year too and rarely succeed! ;) And while like Budgit I couldn’t pin point how exactly this service is different than the others out there on the scene (there’s quite a few who let families and friends jump in to make this happen), I did like the general purpose of it and hope they take me up on my recommendation to pair these gifts with some sort of physical item too so the kids don’t totally hate opening up the gift of 529 funding, haha…

Honeyfi (Honeyfi.com) — Honeyfi is a new app *for couples* that makes sharing your budget and managing your money much easier together. Which I absolutely love! Honeyfi allows you to collaborate, link accounts, and even message each other at any time through the app so everyone in the relationship can be on the exact same page. There’s not many apps I can think of that focuses mainly on couples (actually, I can’t think of one?), so I’m really hoping this one takes off as I think they’re onto something good here… Budgets are even sexier with TWO people are involved!! ;)

KINFO (GoKINFO.com) — KINFO is an app for DIY investors that brings together information from hedge funds, insiders, analysts, bloggers and other private investors so you can see what everyone else is doing along side you. Particularly bloggers which the founder seems most excited about as it helps put all of our personal recommendations into one spot for people. Though as many of you know mine would look pretty boring as it would only show one fund: VTSAX :) I’m not sure if looking at what others is doing adds more or less noise into the decision making process (probably more?), but then again I was influenced to go All In with Vanguard from my peers so it could prove to be a pretty helpful resource.

Squeeze (Squeeze.com) — Squeeze is an app that helps you save by finding the best deals, promo codes, and coupons directly related to your current spending. It sounded a lot like the others in the field so I had a hard time putting them into their own special bucket, but needless to say you can’t have too many coupons in this hyper consumer world of ours… And as for branding, they absolutely NAILED it. Some of the other fintech names were pretty random!

Take Command Health (TakeCommandHealth.com) — These guys won my personal award for the best presentation, if only for the inclusion of photoshopped Trump and Obama pics littered throughout :) But their app was def. no joke. In a nutshell, Take Command helps you easily find the best option for health coverage by using big data to help source the best, and cheapest, health care options for you both on and off the exchange. They also shared the release of their small business feature which helps companies offer better and cheaper plans to their employees as well – something that many places are struggling hard with right now. So while the topic of health insurance typically doesn’t turn heads (at least for good reasons!), these guys had our immediate attention and I wouldn’t be surprised a bit if they hit a home run with this.

Qoins (Qoins.io) — Do these guys look familiar?? They should! I featured them here last year the second I came across them because they’re the FIRST to finally apply “rounding up” technology to debt!!! Which is something severely lacking in our industry… And while I had to recuse myself from voting on this one since I was definitely biased (they donated $$$ to our Community Fund over at Rockstar Finance), I was beyond pleased to see them here and thought they gave a great presentation. You can find my review of them here (I was the first ever blogger to share them!) but in a nutshell they round up all your transactions to the nearest dollar, and then uses the spare change to help pay off your debt every month. It won’t clear all of it, but every $30 or $40/mo helps!

WizeFi (Wizefi.com) — WizeFi is a paid app ($8/mo) that helps organize your finances, analyzing everything from your assets and liabilities to your insurance and spending habits. Once hooked up it’ll then estimate your future net worth if you continue spending the way you’re currently spending, and then compare it to your future net worth if you follow your custom WizeFi wealth-building plan. It comes with a super slick interface and the focus on net worth of course turned me on, but at the end of the day not too sure that alone is worth the $8. Especially since it doesn’t physically *move* the money for you like Digit or Acorns does and still requires you to take action (which most people won’t). I was also turned off by the mentions of an affiliate program for customers to make more money, both in the presentation as well as on their website (it’s prominently listed as the #3 reason to sign up?!), even though I’m sure the founder meant well. Overall would have been better if you had the chance to test out a free version, with an option to upgrade later to “pro” or something similar if interested…

Alright… Ready to guess who won?? Any really stand out to you??

Here were the 1st and 2nd place winners after all the votes were tallied up:

Birch Finance

Take Command Health

Honestly though, ALL of these guys came out winning as they not only got to pitch in front of tons of $$$ influencers and enthusiasts, but also landed on this illustrious blog here!!! Haha… Surely that’s worth at *least* $10.00 right? ;)

So congrats to everyone who participated. I wish I were smart enough to come up with my own money app! If you want to take a look at last year’s competition and results, you can find that here: Fintech Competition 2016

Next Year’s FinCon Event…

If you can believe it, plans are already in the works for next year’s conference! If you’ve always wanted to visit Orlando, Florida – now’s your chance! We’ll be partying it up with Mickey next year :) More details to come…

So there we are – another great conference on the books :) THANK YOU thank you THANK YOU to everyone who came out and put up with me over the weekend! It was a blast hanging out with my 2nd family in the flesh, and I wish you all a most successful next year.

Special shout out to the following who really made me smile throughout: Chelsea Norton, Cait Flanders, Steve Adcock, Jim $, Shin, Bobby Lee, Pete McPherson, Latoya Scott, Fritz, Hélène, Hannah Rounds, the Tiller Team, Miss Mazuma, Optimal Finance Daily, John and Sharon Duffy, Shannon Austin, The Dumpster Dog, Miss Thrifty, Maria Nedeva, FIREcracker, and Romeo Jeremiah.

See y’all in another 11 months!

10 New Fintech Companies To Watch Out For! (Plus Highlights From FinCon 2017) published first on http://ift.tt/2ljLF4B

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Interview: Michael Goldberg, Director, Global Content Marketing at Dun & Bradstreet

We talked to Michael Goldberg to find out how he ensures content quality on a global scale and its impact on ROI

We still often hear marketers say the truism "content is king". We know it is important to marketing and communications for many businesses, but there is the question of how it can be managed strategically, particularly in a large global business.

In this interview, we're fortunate to be able to learn from Michael Goldberg, a marcomms professional who is responsible for content marketing strategy at Dun & Bradstreet, a global B2B Brand.

We're featuring this interview from Michael, since he is a keynote speaker alongside other global managers implementing Digital Transformation at the Marketing Leadership Forum. 

Content marketing can be one of the most powerful marketing techniques for online digital brands (organically or paid) if done properly and evaluated correctly. By producing high quality and engaging content, you can harness the power of SEO and conversion in the same post and other inbound marketing techniques such as:

PPC (paid search marketing)

Social Media marketing

Email marketing

Writing content that informs your target audience of your product, services or the areas of marketing that your company are experts in, increases shareability and provides content for your email newsletters, and social media platforms, ultimately creating a multichannel lifecycle engagement strategy.

This will bring together all your digital communications and help conversions, retention and growth goals, whilst reducing the need for separate individual plans for each digital technique.

In this recent study, it was found that content that includes research reports produce the highest customer conversion rates (46%) followed by content that displays video and motion graphics produce leads (44%). With different types of content marketing important for different personas at different points in the customer lifecycle, you can see the importance of a strategic approach to content marketing.

But where do you start? We asked Michael Goldberg his thoughts on content marketing, and what the future holds for content.

Ensuring quality content

As the Director, Global Content Marketing at Dun & Bradstreet, how do you ensure the quality and effectiveness of different types of content at a business with your global scale?

First, it’s important to ensure that everyone understands what the purpose of each piece of content we are creating is all about. Making sure everyone on the team understands what the story is, who the audience we’re writing for is, and what we want the reader to walk away from, really helps everyone work collaboratively to ensure its success.

That collaboration is key; great content is not created in silos. From the creative team designing and building the asset to the inbound and outbound team responsible for driving engagement for the content, we all need to be on the same page to make it work. As they say, it takes a village.

Second, once everyone understands the plan we have for content and how we will be using it and why, it is shared and saved internally within our content management platform.  Here each piece of content is tagged and labeled so other teams know how it’s being used and for what purpose.  This makes it easy for other teams to find it and use it as it is intended down the road.

Strategy and planning for content marketing

What is your view on the value of having a content marketing or audience engagement strategy and plan for each business area/market? Should this be defined as a separate document to achieve focus, or integrated into other communications plans?

Not to get overly philosophical on you, but, if a piece of content is written, and no one is around to read it, does it make an impact? Without a carefully planned audience engagement strategy, content cannot be effective no matter how good it is.

Making sure it is reaching the right audience is paramount, for which you need a distribution or campaign plan.  What’s more, it’s crucial to understand that audience – their goals and challenges – and write content that resonated with them.  That said, this has to be an integrated strategy that is part of the foundation for every piece of content that is being written.

Content marketing ROI

As the focus on Content Marketing has increased there has been more discussion on how to achieve ROI from content Marketing. What guidance do you give your teams at D&B as to how to assess Content Marketing ROI?

It’s hard to come up with a clear-cut ROI calculator for content marketing. It’s not always so black and white. Good content is not designed to drive an immediate purchase, it is designed to give the reader something of value and open a dialogue for future conversations.

There are some attribution metrics that could be used to gauge the ROI of some content, but it’s not a perfect science. Instead, you can look at basic engagement and social metrics to ensure the content is resonating with the intended audience. It also helps to do some internal metrics and see how the sales team uses content to help their pipeline.

Member resource – Evaluating Content Marketing ROI

Learn an ROI measurement framework and how to review content effectiveness in Google Analytics.

Access the Evaluating Content Marketing ROI Guide

Disruptive technologies for content marketing?

Which disruptive technologies are you evaluating which you are most excited about applying to content marketing across D&B in the future?

Everyone seems to be talking about Artificial Intelligence (AI). There certainly are some interesting possibilities here, though I don’t think a computer will ever be writing any content – at least any really good content that is wrought with emotional language. Instead, I think AI will help us better understand what our audience wants quicker.  It should also help us automate content distribution.

I’m more interested in creative technologies like augmented reality. New ways of telling stories where the reader can be fully immersed in the experience beyond words is a very exciting notion.

Learn more

If you want to know more about content marketing strategy from Michael, he is one of many keynote speakers at the Marketing Leadership Forum on Ocrober 5-6.

Registration has just opened for the events, the highest level marketing event taking place this year at the Four Seasons Westlake Village, Malibu, CA on October 5-6.

Features a remarkable line-up of 45+ Marketing Gurus and Experts including:

• David Jaye, Chief Marketing Officer/Chief Digital Officer, IBM • Christine Nashick, Chief Marketing Officer, DHL Express • Shonodeep Modak, Chief Marketing Officer, GE Industrial Solutions • Mark Zarthar, Global Head of Sports Marketing, Anheuser-Busch InBev  • Ted Hutcheson, Vice President, Global Creative and Content, Ashley Furniture Industries • Rick Wion, Senior Director, Consumer Engagement, Kellogg Company • Josslyn Mikow, Senior Content Strategist, eBay, Inc • Ryan Lauder, Director, Customer Engagement, Taylor-Made Adidas Golf

To better understand the event, please click here: http://events.marcusevans-events.com/marketing-leadership-forumna17/

Connect with 80+ CMOs, Heads of Digital, Customer Engagement and Content Strategy Specialists and tailor your personal agenda based on the 4 streamed program.

To apply for a place contact leyanad@marcusevanscy.com

Contact us at leyanad@marcusevanscy.com by September 25 to find out how you can receive a $500 discount off the standard price

  from Blog – Smart Insights http://www.smartinsights.com/content-management/content-marketing-strategy/managing-content-globally/

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EOFire’s May 2017 Income Report

May 2017 Income At-A-Glance

Gross Income for May: $196,304

Total Expenses for May: $81,185

Total Net Profit for May: $115,119

Difference b/t May & April: -$15,126

Why We Publish An Income Report

This monthly income report is created for you, Fire Nation!

By documenting the struggles we encounter and the successes we celebrate as entrepreneurs every single month, we’re able to provide you with support – and a single resource – where we share what’s working, what’s not, and what’s possible.

There’s a lot of hard work that goes into learning and growing as an entrepreneur, especially when you’re just starting out. The most important part of the equation is that you’re able to pass on what you learn to others through teaching, which is what we aim to do here at EOFire.

Let’s IGNITE!

CPA On Fire’s Monthly Tax Tip

What’s up Fire Nation, my name is Josh Bauerle. I’m a CPA and the Founder of CPA On Fire, where we specialize in working with entrepreneurs to minimize their tax liability while keeping them in line with the ever-changing tax laws.

I’ve been working with EOFire for years now, and John and Kate have included me in these monthly income reports with unlimited access to all their accounts so I can verify that what they report here is complete and accurate.

And because they believe in delivering an insane amount of value to you, my job doesn’t stop at the verification level; I’ll also be providing tax and accounting tips to you along the way!

Josh’s May Tax Tip: Charitable Donations

Charitable donations are an item I get a ton of questions on, and it’s top of mind for me right now, as this past weekend I was in Texas representing a client in an audit that mainly centered around a large amount of charitable donations claimed on their 2015 tax return.

Luckily, the client had done everything by the book, and we came out of the audit without a scratch.

So this month, I’m going to tell you how you can do the same.

First, let’s talk about what a charitable donation is…

To qualify as a tax deductible donation, the money and/or property must have been donated to an IRS-approved nonprofit organization. That would include most churches, schools and places like Goodwill and Salvation Army.

What it does not include is donations to friends in need, donations at fundraisers that go directly to individuals, and even most of the Go Fund Me campaigns for people in need. If it’s not an IRS-approved nonprofit, it’s off the table for a tax deduction.

Next, let’s talk about what records you need to keep to protect yourself.

In the event you are like my client and the IRS comes calling, they classify donations in two categories: cash and non-cash.

Here’s a run down on both.

Cash Donations

This is the easiest one to show proof of.

First, make sure you record exact dates, amounts and who they went to for each donation. If you can make the donation via check, even better.

Second, make sure the organization you donate to issues you a tax receipt. Do these things and you’re fire-proof against the IRS.

Non-Cash Donations

This is where things can get tricky; non-cash donations consist of any type of property donated to a nonprofit.

For most people, it will be clothing, furniture, toys and other household items given to places like Goodwill and Salvation Army.

If your total non-cash donations are under $500, there’s not much you need to do. Simply ask the organization to give you a receipt and you’re clear.

But if it’s more than $500, the level of proof you’ll need to provide is higher.

First, you’ll want to record exactly what you donated, the estimated date you purchased it, the estimated price you paid for it and the current value of it.

So if you donate a couch to Goodwill, you’ll record you bought it on April 3, 2012 for $2,000 and the current value is $600.

Second, you’ll want to be even more sure the organization gives you a receipt with the donation value on it. This will be huge.

Finally, if your non-cash donations are unusually high that year – say over $10,000 – I would even go so far as taking a picture of each item you donate. Example: for your couch, take a quick pic of it and store with your records.

And one more note here: if you have a non-cash item you donated worth more than $5,000 that you’ve owned for more than one year, the IRS requires you get a third party appraisal to determine the exact value. This typically comes into play for people who donate vehicles.

Charitable donations are an awesome way to lower your tax liability and help those less fortunate – a true win/win.

But it’s also an area that is frequently abused on tax returns, and the IRS watches carefully. Follow the rules above and you’ll be in the clear in the unlikely event they do decide to take a closer look.

As always, please feel free to contact me if you’d like to discuss what would be best for YOUR business. I LOVE chatting with Fire Nation!

*Bonus* If you haven’t checked out Josh’s FREE course on business entities yet, you can get it here!

David’s May Legal Tip: Copyright & Trademark

What Can I Do When Someone Takes My Logo or Image?

This question came from EOFire listener Lori Eisenstadt: What can you do when someone takes your logo or image and uses it online?

First let’s separate logos and images.

Images

If you create an image, you own the copyright. This doesn’t apply to online memes where you just add some words – I’m talking about an image you created yourself or that an employee created for your company.

If you find that someone has taken your image and used it online, there are a few things you can do.

1. Of course, you can contact the person who’s using your content and nicely ask them to take it down.

They may or may not comply. If not, you can hire a lawyer and sue them, but that’s a bit of an extreme – and very costly – step.

2. Fortunately, there’s a simpler option: if the website, app, or service is located in the U.S. or does business in the U.S., they’re required to comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”).

The DMCA has what’s called a “safe harbor” provision for online service providers.

Websites that host user-created content – for example, every social media site – can’t be sued when infringing material appears on the site, as long as they comply with “takedown notices.”

These are notices provided by copyright holders that a piece of infringing content has appeared on the site.

If you go to any website or app that has user-generated content and search around a bit, you’ll find a section called “Copyright” or “DMCA” or “legal” – something like that.

They will have either a form you can fill out or an email address to which you can send the notice. In most cases, the content will be taken down quickly at that point.

Often the site will then initiate a process to ensure that the notice was valid.

Be sure to keep good records of images and other content that you create, so if you ever have to prove that you actually created it, you’ll be able to show that you’re the rightful owner.

Use caution, because some people abuse the DMCA takedown process – see this blog post for some examples.

Logos

The same info that applies to images also applies to logos (since a logo is a type of image), but logos are also trademarks.

A trademark is anything that identifies your company as the source of goods or services.

If someone is using your logo without permission – and they’re using it to market competing goods or services – they may be liable for trademark infringement and unfair competition. This is the type of situation where you’re definitely going to want to bring a trademark lawyer in to advise you.

Trademark law is complex, and there may be valid reasons for someone else to use your logo – for example, if they’re doing a “taste test” to see if consumers prefer your goods or theirs, or if they’re reporting factual information about your product or service.

If you’re not ready to hire a lawyer, and your trademark is being used online in a manner that you think is violating your rights, you may be able to take advantage of a takedown procedure similar to the one described above in the “Images” section.

Again, search the website or app for instructions on how to do so.

Wrapping It Up

It’s important to make sure that your valuable intellectual property is not being used against your wishes. Be sure to search for your brand name regularly on Google and your preferred social media networks. And, of course, always contact a legal professional if you run into a potentially serious issue.

Thanks, Lori, for submitting this question!

If you have a legal question that you’d like me to cover on a future EOFire Income Report, click here to email me and I’ll be sure to give you a shout-out when I join John and Kate to talk about your legal questions!

Want to stay on top of how intellectual property issues like trademarks and copyrights affect your business? Download my free Intellectual Property for Entrepreneurs Checklist!

What Went Down In May

The Mastery Journal 1-day

Following suit with The Freedom Journal Kickstarter campaign, The Mastery Journal Kickstarter campaign offered a pretty special pledge level: a full day with JLD in Puerto Rico.

The investment was not insignificant: $10,000, not including travel.

Because we know pricing is a tough thing to wrap your head around, we want to breakdown how we came up with this number, and why it’s worth every penny.

How’d we come up with 10k?

Charging what you’re worth is a known struggle for most entrepreneurs, especially when you’re first starting out.

Has John always charged $10k for his time?

Not even close. There was a definite progression up to this number, which developed in line with the following factors:

John’s desire to do one-on-one coaching;

Other revenue streams; and

Our bigger vision.

When you’re first starting out, you likely don’t have multiple income streams. While this should be your goal, you have to build up to it one step at a time.

So when coaching was the only income stream we had, and EOFire and JLD were still proving themselves as a great brand and a credible leader, the investment matched that.

As the brand and JLD became more widely known and trusted, so did our diversification. With other income streams coming into play like Fire Nation Elite and Podcasters’ Paradise, we were able to start weighing our time investments in different areas.

The scales started to tip, and one-on-one coaching was no longer the only way we were generating revenue.

Because of this, John was able to increase the investment for one-on-one time with him.

And when we talk about the bigger vision, this is for the business as a whole. If John were to spend all of his time doing one-on-one coaching, we never would have been able to do things like create Podcasters’ Paradise, or launch The Freedom and Mastery Journals.

If your goal is to grow a coaching business, then that’s one thing; however, if your goal is to create products and other types of services, then there has to be a point where you start doing less coaching and more implementation.

How do we know it’s worth it?

Investing $10k is a big deal, and with it comes pressure and expectations. But as we’ve grown EOFire and JLD has proven his expertise and knowledge time and time again, we have proof that the one-on-one investment is worth it.

Plus, John now has the confidence of nearly 1,700 conversations with today’s most inspiring entrepreneurs, and real relationships with master minds like David Siteman Garland, Pat Flynn, Amy Porterfield, Russell Brunson, and Tim Ferriss – just to name a few.

YOU believing that you’re worth every penny and that you will deliver on the expectations you’ve set is key to not only knowing that you’ve priced your product or service correctly, but also knowing that whoever makes that investment will also walk away knowing it was worth every penny.

Saul, welcome to Puerto Rico!

Now that we’ve given some background, let’s have a peek at John’s first 10k Day for 2017!

From JLD:

In 2016, I hosted two $10k days, and in 2017 I’ll be doing the same :-)

The first person to rock the $10k day this year was Saul Marquez.

It started out with Saul and I jumping on a 30-minute strategy call the week before he came down to Puerto Rico so I could get a solid sense of where he was at with his business, where he wanted to go, and what he wanted most out of his ‘Day with JLD‘.

After our chat, I was FIRED up because I knew Saul was in the perfect place in his life and business to spend a day under The JLD Microscope.

Saul rolled into Puerto Rico Friday evening and I took him out on the town to meet a few friends and have a fun first night. We limited ourselves to one drink each, as we wanted to be 100% for Saturday’s 12-hour strategy session.

Early Saturday morning, we both awoke bright eyed and bushy tailed, prepared to IGNITE the day.

Without going into too much detail of what Saul and I accomplished, I’ll share that by the end of the first hour I had identified a MAJOR hole in Saul’s business model:

He had no FUNNEL.

In my words, a FUNNEL is the journey you take your Avatar on from the moment they are introduced to your brand to the moment you make a high-level offer.

There needs to be a LOT of value and know/like/trust at each level in your funnel, which in my opinion needs to be a minimum of six levels. I call this The JLD Method.

We built Saul’s ENTIRE funnel, and now Saul has EXACTLY what he needs to pour IGNITER fluid on the top of his funnel, and watch revenue drip (and eventually pour) out the bottom.

Saul (like my other 1 day peeps) has become a friend, and I know our paths will cross many times and that I will take pride in the success that awaits him.

And thanks to Saul, I now drink Matcha Tea!

Puerto Palooza

Saul’s 1-day in PR wasn’t the only deep-dive we did during the month of May…

Right before we launched The Mastery Journal on Kickstarter we had an idea: what if one of the pledge levels for the campaign included a 3-day mastermind here in Puerto Rico?

We’ve certainly gotten the request for an in-person mastermind or an event more than a few times from Fire Nation, so we figured this would be the perfect opportunity to give it a go.

Not knowing what to expect, we added a $6,500 pledge level to our campaign, which included a 3-day mastermind here in Puerto Rico, a signed Mastery Journal, and a spot on EOFire.

Five weeks later we had five attendees locked in and the planning was in full swing.

Even though we’d never hosted an intimate mastermind like this before we knew our experience with participating in masterminds and leading what we like to call a “hot seat” would play a huge role.

With a lot of logistical planning around travel and accommodations and a few strategy sessions between the two of us, we came up with a solid plan for the weekend.

We decided to host the mastermind at our home here in Palmas Del Mar; we knew this would add a personal and intimate touch that we’d never be able to create at a hotel or event center.

The first two days (Friday and Saturday) were the business-focused days.

Throughout these two days we crushed all five hot seats, which ran two hours each; we made sure all questions were answered with a shorter, wrap up hot seat; and we even had time to spare for some roundtable discussions.

All-in-all, the business-focused days were a perfect 10!

Then, the third day was reserved as our “Palooza Day”: a day to kick back and enjoy Puerto Rico, which we took full advantage of aboard a 40 person catamaran!

Island hopping, snorkeling and relaxing were all on the agenda, and we finished the day back at our home in Palmas with a BBQ pool party.

Image credit: Travis Chappell

While we don’t have Puerto Palooza II planned just yet, there’s a good chance it’ll be coming up soon, so stay tuned!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

May 2017 Income Breakdown*

Product/Service Income: $131,158

TOTAL Journal sales: 963 Journals for a total of $37,750

The Freedom Journal: Accomplish your #1 goal in 100 days!

TheFreedomJournal.com: $5,646 (103 Hardcovers & 32 Digital Packs sold!)

Amazon: $14,070 (402 Freedom Journals sold!)

Total: $19,716

The Mastery Journal: Master Productivity, Discipline and Focus in 100 days!

TheMasteryJournal.com: $5,889 (111 Hardcovers & 36 Digital Packs sold!)

Amazon: $12,145 (347 Mastery Journals sold!)

Total: $18,034

Podcasters’ Paradise: The #1 Podcasting community in the world!

Recurring: $20,327 (4 annual, 203 monthly)

New members: $5,325 (26 new members)

Total: $25,652

Podcast Sponsorship Income: $62,500

Podcast Websites: $5,000 Your all-in-one podcast website peace of mind

Free Podcast Course: A free 15-day course on Podcasting

Free Webinar Course: A free 10-day course on Webinars

Free Goals Course: A free 8-day course on Setting & Accomplishing Goals

Funnel On Fire: A free 8-day course on Creating a Funnel that Converts!

Podcast Launch: Audiobook: $164 | eBook: $92

Affiliate Income: $65,146

*Affiliate links below

Resources for Entrepreneurs: $56,039

Audible: $660

BlueHost: $900 (Step-by-step guide and 23 WordPress tutorials)

Click Funnels: $49,863

Coaching referrals: $2,560 (email me for an introduction to a mentor for overall online business or a Podcast focused mentor!)

ConvertKit: $93

Disclaimer Template: $50 (legal disclaimers for your website)

Fizzle: $453

Infusionsoft: $500

LeadPages: $960

Courses for Entrepreneurs: $7,359

DSG’s Create Awesome Online Courses: $4,233

Eben Pagan: $158

Ramit Sethi: $2,396

Self-publishing School: $250

Bryan Harris’ 10k Subscribers: $322

Resources for Podcasters: $914

Pat Flynn’s Smart Podcast Player: $30

Podcasting Press: $354

Libsyn: $467 (Use promo code FIRE for the rest of this month & next free!)

UDemy Podcasting Course: $63

Other Resources: $834

Amazon Associates: $741

Other: $93

Total Gross Income in May: $196,304

Business Expenses: $78,613

Advertising: $7,727

Affiliate Commissions (Paradise): $1,970

Accounting: $350

Cost of goods sold: $6,607

Design & Branding: $1,980

Education: $144

Legal & Professional: $740

Meals & Entertainment: $1,517

Merchant / bank fees: $1,061

Amazon fees: $12,676

Shopify fees: $208

Stripe fees: $5

PayPal fees: $336

Office expenses: $1,284

Payroll Tax Expenses / Fees: $1,422

Promotional / events: $1,323

Property Tax: $807

Paradise Refunds: $2,000

Sponsorships: $13,750

Show notes: $215

Travel: $2,296

The Freedom & Mastery Journal: $15,079

Virtual Assistant Fees: $3,295

Website Fees: $1,821

Recurring, Subscription-based Expenses: $2,572

Adobe Creative Cloud: $100

Boomerang: $70 (team package)

Brandisty: $24

Authorize.net: $91

Cell Phone: $216

Internet: $300

eVoice: $9.95

Infusionsoft CRM: $396

Insurance: $551

Libsyn: $203

Manychat: $10

Chatroll: $49

PureChat: $20

ScheduleOnce: $9

Skype: $2.99

Shopify: $147

TaxJar: $19

Workflowy: $4.99

MeetEdgar: $49

Taxes & Licenses: $300

Total Expenses in May: $81,185

Payroll to John & Kate: $15,900

In our May 2014 Income Report and our June 2016 Income Report, Josh focuses on how to pay yourself as an entrepreneur. Check them out!

Wondering what we do with all of our net revenue? We share all in our April 2017 Income Report :)

Total Net Profit for May 2017: $115,119

Biggest Lesson Learned

Engaging with your audience

May was the start of Season 6 on my podcast Kate’s Take, and throughout this season I focused on a single topic: project management.

I learned a lot through creating the posts and episodes for this season, especially when it came to hearing straight from my listeners about the specific struggles they’re currently facing in their business.

Which got me thinking…

I wonder if others are leveraging tools like Google Forms and SpeakPipe to engage with their audience?

These are probably two of the simplest tools when it comes to collecting information, which is why I love them so much.  Plus, this engagement one-on-one with your audience is GOLD when it comes to understanding their biggest pain points and coming up with new ideas for what you can create for them that will be of value (i.e. what they’ll actually pay for!)

So I thought I’d go through a specific example of exactly how I’ve used these tools to gain feedback from my listeners.

Step 1: Set up the page

Once I have my goal in mind (in this case, to collect input for my next season on the podcast directly from my listeners) I’m going to set up the page I’ll be directing listeners to.

For this, I simply login to our site and add a new page.

Once I give the page a title and write a line or two about the purpose of the page, I’m ready to move on to step 2.

Step 2: Create the Google Form & SpeakPipe box

Because I’ll be asking my listeners to visit the page I created and either fill out a Google Form or leave me a SpeakPipe message, my next step is to create those two things.

The Google Form will simply ask which topic they’d like to hear about most (with an option for ‘other’ so they can write anything in that space), plus some other general info about how long they’ve been listening, how they found out about the podcast, etc.

You can check out my Google Form for Season 7 here.

Then, creating my SpeakPipe message box is just a matter of logging in to create the widget, and then pasting the code on the page like I’ve done here: EOFire.com/season7

Step 3: Create the call to action

Now that I have my page set up and my form and message box ready for input, I need to figure out what I’m going to say to actually get people to the page.

My call to action is typically in the intro and outro of at least 3 – 4 episodes: 1 of those episodes being the final episode of the previous season, and then 2-3 of them in the episodes I publish in between seasons.

Step 4: Encourage engagement

Don’t think that just asking for input one time is enough; you have to really encourage engagement, especially if your call to action is reaching people via a podcast.

If you think about it, podcast listeners are typically doing some other type of activity when they’re listening to your podcast, so the chances of them remembering something you only say 1 time is very unlikely.

There you have it. Now that you know how simple it is to request engagement and feedback from your audience, it’s time to put it to action!

Bonus step: if you want to take your engagement to a whole new level, also add a scheduler link on the page where people can sign up for a one-on-one chat with you via Skype or Zoom. Any time you can spend with your ideal audience one-on-one will equal massive results, because when you listen to the questions, struggles and pain points revealed, each one is a potential product, service or resource you can offer your audience.

Alright Fire Nation, that’s a wrap!

Until next month, keep your FIRE burning!

~ Kate & John

Note: we report our income figures as accurately as possible, but in using reports from a combo of Infusionsoft & Xero to track our product and total income / expenses, they suggest the possibility of a 3 – 5% margin of error. 

Click here for all of EOFire’s Income Reports

This post was written by Kate Erickson, Content Creator and Implementer at EOFire. Follow Kate on Social:

The post EOFire’s May 2017 Income Report appeared first on EOFire Business Podcasts.

          via EntrepreneurOnFire.com | Inspiring interviews w/ today's most successful Entrepreneurs http://ift.tt/2sgf7vf

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EOFire’s May 2017 Income Report

May 2017 Income At-A-Glance

Gross Income for May: $196,304

Total Expenses for May: $81,185

Total Net Profit for May: $115,119

Difference b/t May & April: -$15,126

Why We Publish An Income Report

This monthly income report is created for you, Fire Nation!

By documenting the struggles we encounter and the successes we celebrate as entrepreneurs every single month, we’re able to provide you with support – and a single resource – where we share what’s working, what’s not, and what’s possible.

There’s a lot of hard work that goes into learning and growing as an entrepreneur, especially when you’re just starting out. The most important part of the equation is that you’re able to pass on what you learn to others through teaching, which is what we aim to do here at EOFire.

Let’s IGNITE!

CPA On Fire’s Monthly Tax Tip

What’s up Fire Nation, my name is Josh Bauerle. I’m a CPA and the Founder of CPA On Fire, where we specialize in working with entrepreneurs to minimize their tax liability while keeping them in line with the ever-changing tax laws.

I’ve been working with EOFire for years now, and John and Kate have included me in these monthly income reports with unlimited access to all their accounts so I can verify that what they report here is complete and accurate.

And because they believe in delivering an insane amount of value to you, my job doesn’t stop at the verification level; I’ll also be providing tax and accounting tips to you along the way!

Josh’s May Tax Tip: Charitable Donations

Charitable donations are an item I get a ton of questions on, and it’s top of mind for me right now, as this past weekend I was in Texas representing a client in an audit that mainly centered around a large amount of charitable donations claimed on their 2015 tax return.

Luckily, the client had done everything by the book, and we came out of the audit without a scratch.

So this month, I’m going to tell you how you can do the same.

First, let’s talk about what a charitable donation is…

To qualify as a tax deductible donation, the money and/or property must have been donated to an IRS-approved nonprofit organization. That would include most churches, schools and places like Goodwill and Salvation Army.

What it does not include is donations to friends in need, donations at fundraisers that go directly to individuals, and even most of the Go Fund Me campaigns for people in need. If it’s not an IRS-approved nonprofit, it’s off the table for a tax deduction.

Next, let’s talk about what records you need to keep to protect yourself.

In the event you are like my client and the IRS comes calling, they classify donations in two categories: cash and non-cash.

Here’s a run down on both.

Cash Donations

This is the easiest one to show proof of.

First, make sure you record exact dates, amounts and who they went to for each donation. If you can make the donation via check, even better.

Second, make sure the organization you donate to issues you a tax receipt. Do these things and you’re fire-proof against the IRS.

Non-Cash Donations

This is where things can get tricky; non-cash donations consist of any type of property donated to a nonprofit.

For most people, it will be clothing, furniture, toys and other household items given to places like Goodwill and Salvation Army.

If your total non-cash donations are under $500, there’s not much you need to do. Simply ask the organization to give you a receipt and you’re clear.

But if it’s more than $500, the level of proof you’ll need to provide is higher.

First, you’ll want to record exactly what you donated, the estimated date you purchased it, the estimated price you paid for it and the current value of it.

So if you donate a couch to Goodwill, you’ll record you bought it on April 3, 2012 for $2,000 and the current value is $600.

Second, you’ll want to be even more sure the organization gives you a receipt with the donation value on it. This will be huge.

Finally, if your non-cash donations are unusually high that year – say over $10,000 – I would even go so far as taking a picture of each item you donate. Example: for your couch, take a quick pic of it and store with your records.

And one more note here: if you have a non-cash item you donated worth more than $5,000 that you’ve owned for more than one year, the IRS requires you get a third party appraisal to determine the exact value. This typically comes into play for people who donate vehicles.

Charitable donations are an awesome way to lower your tax liability and help those less fortunate – a true win/win.

But it’s also an area that is frequently abused on tax returns, and the IRS watches carefully. Follow the rules above and you’ll be in the clear in the unlikely event they do decide to take a closer look.

As always, please feel free to contact me if you’d like to discuss what would be best for YOUR business. I LOVE chatting with Fire Nation!

*Bonus* If you haven’t checked out Josh’s FREE course on business entities yet, you can get it here!

David’s May Legal Tip: Copyright & Trademark

What Can I Do When Someone Takes My Logo or Image?

This question came from EOFire listener Lori Eisenstadt: What can you do when someone takes your logo or image and uses it online?

First let’s separate logos and images.

Images

If you create an image, you own the copyright. This doesn’t apply to online memes where you just add some words – I’m talking about an image you created yourself or that an employee created for your company.

If you find that someone has taken your image and used it online, there are a few things you can do.

1. Of course, you can contact the person who’s using your content and nicely ask them to take it down.

They may or may not comply. If not, you can hire a lawyer and sue them, but that’s a bit of an extreme – and very costly – step.

2. Fortunately, there’s a simpler option: if the website, app, or service is located in the U.S. or does business in the U.S., they’re required to comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”).

The DMCA has what’s called a “safe harbor” provision for online service providers.

Websites that host user-created content – for example, every social media site – can’t be sued when infringing material appears on the site, as long as they comply with “takedown notices.”

These are notices provided by copyright holders that a piece of infringing content has appeared on the site.

If you go to any website or app that has user-generated content and search around a bit, you’ll find a section called “Copyright” or “DMCA” or “legal” – something like that.

They will have either a form you can fill out or an email address to which you can send the notice. In most cases, the content will be taken down quickly at that point.

Often the site will then initiate a process to ensure that the notice was valid.

Be sure to keep good records of images and other content that you create, so if you ever have to prove that you actually created it, you’ll be able to show that you’re the rightful owner.

Use caution, because some people abuse the DMCA takedown process – see this blog post for some examples.

Logos

The same info that applies to images also applies to logos (since a logo is a type of image), but logos are also trademarks.

A trademark is anything that identifies your company as the source of goods or services.

If someone is using your logo without permission – and they’re using it to market competing goods or services – they may be liable for trademark infringement and unfair competition. This is the type of situation where you’re definitely going to want to bring a trademark lawyer in to advise you.

Trademark law is complex, and there may be valid reasons for someone else to use your logo – for example, if they’re doing a “taste test” to see if consumers prefer your goods or theirs, or if they’re reporting factual information about your product or service.

If you’re not ready to hire a lawyer, and your trademark is being used online in a manner that you think is violating your rights, you may be able to take advantage of a takedown procedure similar to the one described above in the “Images” section.

Again, search the website or app for instructions on how to do so.

Wrapping It Up

It’s important to make sure that your valuable intellectual property is not being used against your wishes. Be sure to search for your brand name regularly on Google and your preferred social media networks. And, of course, always contact a legal professional if you run into a potentially serious issue.

Thanks, Lori, for submitting this question!

If you have a legal question that you’d like me to cover on a future EOFire Income Report, click here to email me and I’ll be sure to give you a shout-out when I join John and Kate to talk about your legal questions!

Want to stay on top of how intellectual property issues like trademarks and copyrights affect your business? Download my free Intellectual Property for Entrepreneurs Checklist!

What Went Down In May

The Mastery Journal 1-day

Following suit with The Freedom Journal Kickstarter campaign, The Mastery Journal Kickstarter campaign offered a pretty special pledge level: a full day with JLD in Puerto Rico.

The investment was not insignificant: $10,000, not including travel.

Because we know pricing is a tough thing to wrap your head around, we want to breakdown how we came up with this number, and why it’s worth every penny.

How’d we come up with 10k?

Charging what you’re worth is a known struggle for most entrepreneurs, especially when you’re first starting out.

Has John always charged $10k for his time?

Not even close. There was a definite progression up to this number, which developed in line with the following factors:

John’s desire to do one-on-one coaching;

Other revenue streams; and

Our bigger vision.

When you’re first starting out, you likely don’t have multiple income streams. While this should be your goal, you have to build up to it one step at a time.

So when coaching was the only income stream we had, and EOFire and JLD were still proving themselves as a great brand and a credible leader, the investment matched that.

As the brand and JLD became more widely known and trusted, so did our diversification. With other income streams coming into play like Fire Nation Elite and Podcasters’ Paradise, we were able to start weighing our time investments in different areas.

The scales started to tip, and one-on-one coaching was no longer the only way we were generating revenue.

Because of this, John was able to increase the investment for one-on-one time with him.

And when we talk about the bigger vision, this is for the business as a whole. If John were to spend all of his time doing one-on-one coaching, we never would have been able to do things like create Podcasters’ Paradise, or launch The Freedom and Mastery Journals.

If your goal is to grow a coaching business, then that’s one thing; however, if your goal is to create products and other types of services, then there has to be a point where you start doing less coaching and more implementation.

How do we know it’s worth it?

Investing $10k is a big deal, and with it comes pressure and expectations. But as we’ve grown EOFire and JLD has proven his expertise and knowledge time and time again, we have proof that the one-on-one investment is worth it.

Plus, John now has the confidence of nearly 1,700 conversations with today’s most inspiring entrepreneurs, and real relationships with master minds like David Siteman Garland, Pat Flynn, Amy Porterfield, Russell Brunson, and Tim Ferriss – just to name a few.

YOU believing that you’re worth every penny and that you will deliver on the expectations you’ve set is key to not only knowing that you’ve priced your product or service correctly, but also knowing that whoever makes that investment will also walk away knowing it was worth every penny.

Saul, welcome to Puerto Rico!

Now that we’ve given some background, let’s have a peek at John’s first 10k Day for 2017!

From JLD:

In 2016, I hosted two $10k days, and in 2017 I’ll be doing the same :-)

The first person to rock the $10k day this year was Saul Marquez.

It started out with Saul and I jumping on a 30-minute strategy call the week before he came down to Puerto Rico so I could get a solid sense of where he was at with his business, where he wanted to go, and what he wanted most out of his ‘Day with JLD‘.

After our chat, I was FIRED up because I knew Saul was in the perfect place in his life and business to spend a day under The JLD Microscope.

Saul rolled into Puerto Rico Friday evening and I took him out on the town to meet a few friends and have a fun first night. We limited ourselves to one drink each, as we wanted to be 100% for Saturday’s 12-hour strategy session.

Early Saturday morning, we both awoke bright eyed and bushy tailed, prepared to IGNITE the day.

Without going into too much detail of what Saul and I accomplished, I’ll share that by the end of the first hour I had identified a MAJOR hole in Saul’s business model:

He had no FUNNEL.

In my words, a FUNNEL is the journey you take your Avatar on from the moment they are introduced to your brand to the moment you make a high-level offer.

There needs to be a LOT of value and know/like/trust at each level in your funnel, which in my opinion needs to be a minimum of six levels. I call this The JLD Method.

We built Saul’s ENTIRE funnel, and now Saul has EXACTLY what he needs to pour IGNITER fluid on the top of his funnel, and watch revenue drip (and eventually pour) out the bottom.

Saul (like my other 1 day peeps) has become a friend, and I know our paths will cross many times and that I will take pride in the success that awaits him.

And thanks to Saul, I now drink Matcha Tea!

Puerto Palooza

Saul’s 1-day in PR wasn’t the only deep-dive we did during the month of May…

Right before we launched The Mastery Journal on Kickstarter we had an idea: what if one of the pledge levels for the campaign included a 3-day mastermind here in Puerto Rico?

We’ve certainly gotten the request for an in-person mastermind or an event more than a few times from Fire Nation, so we figured this would be the perfect opportunity to give it a go.

Not knowing what to expect, we added a $6,500 pledge level to our campaign, which included a 3-day mastermind here in Puerto Rico, a signed Mastery Journal, and a spot on EOFire.

Five weeks later we had five attendees locked in and the planning was in full swing.

Even though we’d never hosted an intimate mastermind like this before we knew our experience with participating in masterminds and leading what we like to call a “hot seat” would play a huge role.

With a lot of logistical planning around travel and accommodations and a few strategy sessions between the two of us, we came up with a solid plan for the weekend.

We decided to host the mastermind at our home here in Palmas Del Mar; we knew this would add a personal and intimate touch that we’d never be able to create at a hotel or event center.

The first two days (Friday and Saturday) were the business-focused days.

Throughout these two days we crushed all five hot seats, which ran two hours each; we made sure all questions were answered with a shorter, wrap up hot seat; and we even had time to spare for some roundtable discussions.

All-in-all, the business-focused days were a perfect 10!

Then, the third day was reserved as our “Palooza Day”: a day to kick back and enjoy Puerto Rico, which we took full advantage of aboard a 40 person catamaran!

Island hopping, snorkeling and relaxing were all on the agenda, and we finished the day back at our home in Palmas with a BBQ pool party.

Image credit: Travis Chappell

While we don’t have Puerto Palooza II planned just yet, there’s a good chance it’ll be coming up soon, so stay tuned!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

May 2017 Income Breakdown*

Product/Service Income: $131,158

TOTAL Journal sales: 963 Journals for a total of $37,750

The Freedom Journal: Accomplish your #1 goal in 100 days!

TheFreedomJournal.com: $5,646 (103 Hardcovers & 32 Digital Packs sold!)

Amazon: $14,070 (402 Freedom Journals sold!)

Total: $19,716

The Mastery Journal: Master Productivity, Discipline and Focus in 100 days!

TheMasteryJournal.com: $5,889 (111 Hardcovers & 36 Digital Packs sold!)

Amazon: $12,145 (347 Mastery Journals sold!)

Total: $18,034

Podcasters’ Paradise: The #1 Podcasting community in the world!

Recurring: $20,327 (4 annual, 203 monthly)

New members: $5,325 (26 new members)

Total: $25,652

Podcast Sponsorship Income: $62,500

Podcast Websites: $5,000 Your all-in-one podcast website peace of mind

Free Podcast Course: A free 15-day course on Podcasting

Free Webinar Course: A free 10-day course on Webinars

Free Goals Course: A free 8-day course on Setting & Accomplishing Goals

Funnel On Fire: A free 8-day course on Creating a Funnel that Converts!

Podcast Launch: Audiobook: $164 | eBook: $92

Affiliate Income: $65,146

*Affiliate links below

Resources for Entrepreneurs: $56,039

Audible: $660

BlueHost: $900 (Step-by-step guide and 23 WordPress tutorials)

Click Funnels: $49,863

Coaching referrals: $2,560 (email me for an introduction to a mentor for overall online business or a Podcast focused mentor!)

ConvertKit: $93

Disclaimer Template: $50 (legal disclaimers for your website)

Fizzle: $453

Infusionsoft: $500

LeadPages: $960

Courses for Entrepreneurs: $7,359

DSG’s Create Awesome Online Courses: $4,233

Eben Pagan: $158

Ramit Sethi: $2,396

Self-publishing School: $250

Bryan Harris’ 10k Subscribers: $322

Resources for Podcasters: $914

Pat Flynn’s Smart Podcast Player: $30

Podcasting Press: $354

Libsyn: $467 (Use promo code FIRE for the rest of this month & next free!)

UDemy Podcasting Course: $63

Other Resources: $834

Amazon Associates: $741

Other: $93

Total Gross Income in May: $196,304

Business Expenses: $78,613

Advertising: $7,727

Affiliate Commissions (Paradise): $1,970

Accounting: $350

Cost of goods sold: $6,607

Design & Branding: $1,980

Education: $144

Legal & Professional: $740

Meals & Entertainment: $1,517

Merchant / bank fees: $1,061

Amazon fees: $12,676

Shopify fees: $208

Stripe fees: $5

PayPal fees: $336

Office expenses: $1,284

Payroll Tax Expenses / Fees: $1,422

Promotional / events: $1,323

Property Tax: $807

Paradise Refunds: $2,000

Sponsorships: $13,750

Show notes: $215

Travel: $2,296

The Freedom & Mastery Journal: $15,079

Virtual Assistant Fees: $3,295

Website Fees: $1,821

Recurring, Subscription-based Expenses: $2,572

Adobe Creative Cloud: $100

Boomerang: $70 (team package)

Brandisty: $24

Authorize.net: $91

Cell Phone: $216

Internet: $300

eVoice: $9.95

Infusionsoft CRM: $396

Insurance: $551

Libsyn: $203

Manychat: $10

Chatroll: $49

PureChat: $20

ScheduleOnce: $9

Skype: $2.99

Shopify: $147

TaxJar: $19

Workflowy: $4.99

MeetEdgar: $49

Taxes & Licenses: $300

Total Expenses in May: $81,185

Payroll to John & Kate: $15,900

In our May 2014 Income Report and our June 2016 Income Report, Josh focuses on how to pay yourself as an entrepreneur. Check them out!

Wondering what we do with all of our net revenue? We share all in our April 2017 Income Report :)

Total Net Profit for May 2017: $115,119

Biggest Lesson Learned

Engaging with your audience

May was the start of Season 6 on my podcast Kate’s Take, and throughout this season I focused on a single topic: project management.

I learned a lot through creating the posts and episodes for this season, especially when it came to hearing straight from my listeners about the specific struggles they’re currently facing in their business.

Which got me thinking…

I wonder if others are leveraging tools like Google Forms and SpeakPipe to engage with their audience?

These are probably two of the simplest tools when it comes to collecting information, which is why I love them so much.  Plus, this engagement one-on-one with your audience is GOLD when it comes to understanding their biggest pain points and coming up with new ideas for what you can create for them that will be of value (i.e. what they’ll actually pay for!)

So I thought I’d go through a specific example of exactly how I’ve used these tools to gain feedback from my listeners.

Step 1: Set up the page

Once I have my goal in mind (in this case, to collect input for my next season on the podcast directly from my listeners) I’m going to set up the page I’ll be directing listeners to.

For this, I simply login to our site and add a new page.

Once I give the page a title and write a line or two about the purpose of the page, I’m ready to move on to step 2.

Step 2: Create the Google Form & SpeakPipe box

Because I’ll be asking my listeners to visit the page I created and either fill out a Google Form or leave me a SpeakPipe message, my next step is to create those two things.

The Google Form will simply ask which topic they’d like to hear about most (with an option for ‘other’ so they can write anything in that space), plus some other general info about how long they’ve been listening, how they found out about the podcast, etc.

You can check out my Google Form for Season 7 here.

Then, creating my SpeakPipe message box is just a matter of logging in to create the widget, and then pasting the code on the page like I’ve done here: EOFire.com/season7

Step 3: Create the call to action

Now that I have my page set up and my form and message box ready for input, I need to figure out what I’m going to say to actually get people to the page.

My call to action is typically in the intro and outro of at least 3 – 4 episodes: 1 of those episodes being the final episode of the previous season, and then 2-3 of them in the episodes I publish in between seasons.

Step 4: Encourage engagement

Don’t think that just asking for input one time is enough; you have to really encourage engagement, especially if your call to action is reaching people via a podcast.

If you think about it, podcast listeners are typically doing some other type of activity when they’re listening to your podcast, so the chances of them remembering something you only say 1 time is very unlikely.

There you have it. Now that you know how simple it is to request engagement and feedback from your audience, it’s time to put it to action!

Bonus step: if you want to take your engagement to a whole new level, also add a scheduler link on the page where people can sign up for a one-on-one chat with you via Skype or Zoom. Any time you can spend with your ideal audience one-on-one will equal massive results, because when you listen to the questions, struggles and pain points revealed, each one is a potential product, service or resource you can offer your audience.

Alright Fire Nation, that’s a wrap!

Until next month, keep your FIRE burning!

~ Kate & John

Note: we report our income figures as accurately as possible, but in using reports from a combo of Infusionsoft & Xero to track our product and total income / expenses, they suggest the possibility of a 3 – 5% margin of error. 

Click here for all of EOFire’s Income Reports

This post was written by Kate Erickson, Content Creator and Implementer at EOFire. Follow Kate on Social:

The post EOFire’s May 2017 Income Report appeared first on EOFire Business Podcasts.

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