Ideas To Help You Power Your Vision From Passion To Profit

I follow over 231 blogs on leadership, business, marketing and personal development using Google Reader.  As I browse the stream of ideas, there are some that catch my eye for one reason or another, which I post to my “shared” list. This creates an interesting blog available to you at http://www.google.com/reader/shared/davenderg .

Here are some recent articles I recommend:  [Read more →]

Do you have a task that you’ve been procrastinating on, one that gets bigger every day even though you’re trying to ignore it? I usually have a couple of those on my list. These are tasks that I’m dreading for one reason or another: tediousness, refusal to face the truth, fear, shame…

The more I try to push these tasks to the future, the bigger they get, to the point that just resisting them is sapping my energy and blocking my ability to spot and respond to other opportunities.

So it’s time to do something about it.   [Read more →]

No, no – it’s not what you think! This is a real question, and an important one to consider!

Cory Doctorow (blog), in his novel “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom“, imagines a world where money is obsolete, replaced by a personal reputation-based currency called the “Whuffie“.

Tara Hunt translates this idea into real life in her book “The Whuffie Factor“: we are already entering an age where our “relationship capital” is just as important (or maybe more important?) than our financial capital. The more people respect you, trust you, and like you, the more they want to interact with you.

Tara suggests five principles to increase your Whuffie:   [Read more →]

If you say “yes”, is it a lifelong contract?

The situation you’re in when you said “yes” may change.  The commitment may not turn out to be what was promised. Things may not be happening as expected.

The key is to check your “happiness meter”.  Are you enjoying yourself in the commitment? You may be working hard, even struggling, but you still find meaning in the commitment, something worthwhile for you. Then by all means, stay committed. But if the commitment has lost its meaning, give yourself permission to rethink the situation. [Read more →]

I had a great interview this morning with Denis-François Gravel, an authority on how to use presentation technologies to improve your ability to communicate.

In preparing for this conversation, recorded for my French-language podcast “Radio Passion au Profit“, we had a whole list of topics. But we ended up going deep into one issue: Does PowerPoint kill or enhance our ability to communicate? [Read more →]

Are you overwhelmed by everything that screams for your attention?

Join me and my guest, office productivity coach Athenee Mastrangelo, as we discuss how some simple steps can organize your workspace, get you out of the “Crazy-Busy” mindset, and help you get more done.

This is the inaugural episode of “From Passion To Profit Radio”!

Show time: Monday, January 11, 2010, 6PM-6:30PM (Eastern)
Location: Listen live or download the podcast at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/frompassiontoprofit

“From Passion To Profit Radio” presents people with interesting stories, ideas, tools and techniques to help you power your Vision from Passion to Profit. Each episode is hosted by Coach Davender Gupta.

For more information about Athenee, visit her website at
http://www.actionchaos.com

For more information about Coach Davender, check out his blog at http://www.frompassiontoprofit.com and his main site
http://www.coachdavender.com

To access this and other episodes of “From Passion To Profit Radio”, visit
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/frompassiontoprofit

So it’s a New Year, but how are you going to make this different then the old one? Here are three ideas to help you make this year your best ever!

For more information:

Link to this video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBAMjY2vHto

My YouTube channel (includes my videos and other “favorites”):
http://www.youtube.com/coachdavender

I received an interesting blog post by Michael Port about the incident during a retreat led by James Ray last October in Sedona that resulted in three deaths and several injuries. Today (January 8) is the 90-day anniversary of this tragedy.

Michael decries the silence of the personal development profession about this tragic incident. He starts his article:

“The tragic death of three people attending a “spiritual retreat” with James Arthur Ray has made me so angry that I’m having trouble finding words to express myself. But I’m going to try because, to me, silence is acceptance—and there has been a deafening level of silence from other “teachers” in the spiritual-help “community.” Though, I am not in the “spiritual-help” business, I do write business-help books, and am close enough to, and sometimes, much to my annoyance, associated with James Ray’s corner of the self-help market, that I’m embarrassed and ashamed that I haven’t spoken up earlier about these teachers and their tactics. What happened in Sedona on Oct 8, 2009 was unacceptable. This is not the first time a narcissistic sociopath with a god-complex has lead people to their deaths and unfortunately it won’t be the last time.”

The post continues with a condemnation of James Ray’s tactics:

“From all accounts, James Arthur Ray’s tactics at this retreat and elsewhere, are coercive and manipulative, designed to strip followers of their power, and might I add, money. (…) Not only was Ray presenting himself as a spiritual guru promising spiritual enlightenment, but also as a business advisor offering profound economic improvement in business. According to an article on cbsnews.com, “The self-stylized success guru says people are ready for his wisdom if “You simply (and deeply) want to make more money and become more successful” and “want to double, triple, and even multiply by ten the size of your business.” “

I notice, especially among coaches, that we try to promise bold transformations in material wealth, by using “spiritual” words.  Obviously, if this kind of marketing talk works for the big guns in the industry, it should work for us, right? [Read more →]

Recently I ordered a new keyboard for my computer from an internet site. The price was great, it was exactly what I wanted. The site provided free shipping, but I would have to wait to receive the order: the confirmation page said two days for the processing and another 7-10 days for delivery. Since it was not a high priority, I was satisfied with this promise, and put a note in my calendar to expect the package two weeks from the order date.

To my great surprise, two days later I found a package at my door. It was my keyboard!  Of course I was delighted. The combination of great price and fast shipping turned me into an enthusiastic fan of this web store and I will do business with them again!

We want our clients come back and refer us to other people, too. Building this loyalty means building trust and credibility, which takes time and patience – two elements in very short supply especially when we need our business to grow fast.

Unfortunately, in a quest to speed up the process, it is very tempting to promise more, in the hopes that it will convince the prospect to sign up right now – and push me to actually deliver more. But does raising the commitment from me to my client translate into more loyalty from the client to me? [Read more →]

Lately I’ve been accused of being a pessimist. In project meetings and with clients, I’m becoming the “what if” guy, pointing out obstacles and difficulties, bringing up the need for all kinds of expenses, pouring cold water on dreams of how big the profits will be and expectations of how potential customers will respond to the offer. Which doesn’t always make me the most popular guy in the discussion.

Entrepreneurs are necessarily optimistic. We need to be, it allows us to see the possibilities around us and act on them.

But the trap appears when we “fall in love” with the idea. Optimism then gives way to an emotional attachment to the idea, a state of “irrational exuberance” which can blind you to dangers that are otherwise obvious to someone who is not as emotionally invested in the project.

This is why I like Edward DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats approach to thinking. The six hats are a creativity tool to help look at a situation from different perspectives. When you wear a specific colour hat, it gives you permission to think in a certain style: [Read more →]