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This week’s podcast features tips on simple ways to get through the holidays and an interview with theatrical artistic director Karen Brelsford.

Karen has been working in theatre for years and WorkAwesome editor Mike Vardy discusses with her how she is able to balance her work as well as handle the rigors of working in such a demanding field. Karen shares her insights on how she manages her time in order to deal with multiple productions and how she went from studying tree rings for a living to the world of theatre.

Mike also shares with WorkAwesome listeners some information on what could be in store for followers of this site could be in store for this week as we head towards Christmas.


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This week’s podcast features tips on simple ways to get through the holidays and an interview with theatrical artistic director Karen Brelsford.

Karen has been working in theatre for years and WorkAwesome editor Mike Vardy discusses with her how she is able to balance her work as well as handle the rigors of working in such a demanding field. Karen shares her insights on how she manages her time in order to deal with multiple productions and how she went from studying tree rings for a living to the world of theatre.

Mike also shares with WorkAwesome listeners some information on what could be in store for followers of this site could be in store for this week as we head towards Christmas.


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Fight Club

In a world of “free”, where many businesses want to race to the bottom in hopes of grabbing each and every customer that looks in the window, it’s far too common to see an overabundance of appeasement. The positive side of this is that you never ruffle any feathers or hurt any feelings. But the negative side is that in trying to appeal to everyone, you appeal to no one.

And in this same manner, many companies try to skate by without ever having to take bold or daring action. They don’t want any enemies, and they’re afraid of negative publicity. It’s a confidence issue.

But you know what they say…if you want to make an omelet, you’ve got to break a few eggs.

“Welcome to Fight Club.”

This is the life of Fight Club narrator, masterfully played by Edward Norton, who lives a life so unremarkable that he’s not even given a name. It’s the role your company might play right now — which is great if you’re looking to stay safe, but completely absurd if you want to actually get in the black.

Unfortunately, you don’t have a schizophrenic alter ego to come in and save the day. But for the sake of entertainment, lets pretend that you did.

What do you think he’d say to you? How do you think he’d bringing you out of the land of the forgotten and into the territory of the memorable, the defined and the amazing?

Let’s take a look…

“It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.”

If your processes aren’t getting you anywhere then maybe it’s time to blow up the apartment, Ikea furniture and all. If your landing page isn’t converting, then make it better. If your message is getting lost, then fix it.

Tyler Durden appeared out of nowhere to wipe the slate clean, which included a return to the basics of existence. Who are you and what do you stand for?

Unless you know this, then you can’t know who your market is or how you could possibly consider attracting them. It’s time to examine every single process and blow it to pieces. It’s time to reconstruct those that are worth salvaging, and create new processes for those that aren’t.

Don’t get tied to broken systems.

“I want you to hit me as hard as you can.”

This is what your best customers are saying to you and they’re saying to you right now. They’re waiting for you to help them escape a problem they didn’t know they had.

The appeal of fight club is not in the exchange of blows, but in the way it makes you feel. When you’re in a fight, you’re in the moment. You’re alive. You simply can’t stop thinking about it…even after the fight is over.

This is what you can do for your customers. You want to be so memorable that they can’t stop thinking about you — even after the sale. You want to be on their mind 24/7.

So how do you do it?

“I am Jack’s wasted life.”

With the help of Tyler our hero learns to stand — not just for anything — but for something very special and very real. As a result, he becomes a cult-like hero to his people. In standing for something, he created a cause worth dying for.

At the same time, they created enemies of everyone that wasn’t a member. Employers, business owners, cops, you name it, they alienated it. This is the problem you are facing. You want to build an audience of loyal fans, but you don’t want the baggage that comes with it. You don’t want to make enemies.

But I’ll ask you this – what’s wrong with enemies?

You can’t roll out the red carpet for everyone, you’ve got to make it special. Unfortunately, in your attempts to please everyone…you’re doing just that. What’s worse is that people just don’t care. In order to be loved, you must be willing to be hated. And if you aren’t being hated, then you probably aren’t taking a strong enough stance.

People hate Steve Jobs because of his undying devotion to his design principles, but if you look at his balance sheet I’d say he’s doing just fine. People hate Donald Trump for everything from his hair to his attitude, but look at his numbers and you’ll see a great looking balance sheet.

Your business was built on something, now is your chance to share it. What are your core philosophies? What are your principles? What do you stand for? What do you stand against?

It’s likely that you’ll struggle with this at first. But once you get the hang of it I suspect you’ll wind up like Tyler, chanting your core mantra to anyone within arm’s reach. OK, so you might not take up the practice of dealing out “near life experiences,” but you just might create them anyway.

“Fight Club was the beginning. Now it’s moved out of the basement. It’s called Project Mayhem.”

What do you say to those that wanted more than a weekly fight in the basement of a neighborhood bar? Well, you bring them in a little closer. You give them exactly what they want.

Tyler’s approach was to create Project Mayhem, ultimately leading with the destruction of important buildings and artifacts. But you don’t have to take it that far.

Use your initial “stance” as a way to weed out the customers that aren’t a fit, and then use your marketing funnel to develop those that are. At the tip of that funnel could be a more expensive or premium product, an upgrade, or a limited edition or exclusive service.

Airlines do this with frequent flyer miles. Grocery stores do it with frequent shopper cards. Others do it with loyalty incentives, kickbacks and rewards cards.

The trick is finding out what your best people want — and then delivering it.

“I am Jack’s inflamed sense of rejection.”

What would you do if you had legions of recruits (customers) waiting on your porch to join your group? Would you welcome them with open arms and invite them in?

Of course not, you’d have your people stand on the porch and yell at them until they either left or liked you more. Some call it hazing, others call it initiation. Your company can call it filtering.

We talked about sharing your message, but this goes beyond that. This is where you extend that message onto your sales pages, packaging, and messaging. This is where you make an appeal to the people you want as customers, making sure to reject everyone else in the process.

We talked earlier about Apple and how Steve Jobs makes a habit of annoying people, but would you see him marketing to Windows users?

One could argue that his “I’m a Mac” commercials were aimed at Windows users, but as a Windows user at the time, I found them annoying. Instead, I believe that he used those ads to appeal to current Mac users as a way to solidify the base and further entrench them as devotees. After watching that commercial there’s no way you’d trade your Mac in for a PC, right?

He was leading his people.

Cartoons (especially those of the Disney variety) do this extremely well too, by sneaking in subtle references that are only picked up by 1% of the audience. Software makers build in “Easter eggs” for the 1% that enjoy that sort of thing.

In standing on the porch to abuse his faithful, Tyler Durden makes getting accepted actually mean something.

What are you doing to make your products mean something?

What are you doing to entrench your audience and create your own language?

“Welcome to Fight Club. The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club.”

This is rule #1, but for Fight Club, it’s a badge of honor…a way for them to protect the project while using exclusion to build a bond with each other.

For your business, as the khaki-wearing sweater vest of the industry, no one talks about you because they don’t care about you. Your task now is to figure out how to change that.

You’ve got the guide, and the path is fairly simple. The question is, do you have the guts to pull it off or do you need to hire your own Tyler Durden to help make it happen?

Even if people are talking poorly about your company, at least you’re creating some chatter. You know who you don’t appeal to, which makes the rest easy. You can choose to try and appeal to everyone…and wind up appealing to no one. Or you can identify your target customer, ignore the rest and show them how to get to the promised land.

Fight Club isn’t just a pitch — it’s a way of life.

(Image courtesy of boltron- under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 generic license.)

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As we head into the holiday season, this edition of Awesome Links focuses on fundamental themes that are of particular importance at this time of year: sharing, time management and focus. While we need to work at improving on all these fronts throughout they ear, the end of the year tends to make it that much more difficult to do.

A Guide to Centralizing Your Social Sharing With Amplify

If you like sharing with your online friends what you come across on the web, then you know it consumes time –  often a lot of time. So centralizing your social sharing could add a huge boost to your productivity. The guide on Guiding Tech talks about a tool called Amplify that can help you with that.

Use Your Teapot as a Productivity-Boosting Timer

Sometimes, a few minutes of focus is all you need to get a job done. Adam Dachis from Lifehacker knows that and suggests that you use a teapot (or a coffee maker) as the timer. The idea is to get that work done before you hear the whistle signaling that tea is ready. A cup of tea is your reward — but only if you have completed the task. A simple productivity booster.

Focus on what you’re good at, and nothing else!

Neil Patel on his QuickSprout blog has a great post that talks about the essential ingredient of a successful business — or any successful individual for that matter. If you start focusing at what you are really good at, you will see that the results come sooner. Worth a read.

The Holiday Season Slow-Down: The Importance of “Making a List”

Our sister site Freelance Switch has some suggestions on the holiday slow-down for freelancers, and how to make the best use of this time of the year. Freelancers (and others) who experience a slow down in their work during this period could utilize this period to organize, deal with taxes, look for loose ends in their work and step up on their marketing efforts. All good advice.

Lessons from Less

And finally, we’ve got a post on Zen Habits where guest author Courtney Carver talks about her experiences from doing less in life. We know that Leo, the man behind the blog, is a huge fan of doing less, using less and adding more simplicity to life. The author of this post led a super busy life — and was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Then she decided to do less, stay fit and be happy.

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I Am The Walrus

There are many pitfalls in business. This article isn’t about the weak financials, poor sales or lack of marketing. It’s more about finding yourself and where you are leading your company.

The other night, I was watching a segment on the mighty Walrus broadcasting on the Discovery channel.  I watched as groups of walrus floated along the shore flopping all over each other. Tusks stabbing at their neighbors as they pushed and shoved around trying to find a place to rest. Huge fat bodies just lying all over one another – none of them really getting to a comfortable spot.

The narrator spoke of the dangers from their hunters the Polar Bear on land and the Great White in the sea. So that’s it? Just lie there on the shore all their lives? Can’t go in the water because of sharks. Can’t go on land because of polar bears.

Sound like your business? Don’t be a walrus.

Get Out Of The Middle

Growing up in a family that owned a Chevrolet and Cadillac dealership was a great experience. When we eventually sold them to a larger Boston dealer he said this to us – “The  only difference between you and me – I’m in Boston.”

He was right. We had everything going for us. Our family name. Great employees. Great location. Most of all, great customer retention. We were stuck in the middle. About 45 minutes south of Boston and 20 minutes from Providence.

Stuck in the middle of buyers demographic and running a medium sized operation. Best way to deal with this? Downsize or expand.

Look around you.

Are you stuffed in between too much competition? Offering too much to a small audience? Feel like everyone is hitting you with their tusks?

Get out of the middle. Start to think about operating more efficiently. Fewer products, cutting overhead, and refocusing your goals. Start to think off of that shoreline with the rest of uncomfortable walrus.

Go Ahead, Jump In

The poor walrus can’t go in the water because of the Great White. You can’t go up against the “big guys” because you’re afraid. Afraid of getting beat on cost or brand name.

Time to throw that fear out and jump in.

There is no better time than now to compete against the reigning champions. Social media gives you access to user reviews and customer interaction. High Definition video allows you to showcase yourself better than ever. Mobile technology is putting the purchasing decision right in the hands of your customers.

Get out there and compete. Start to think like a Great White.

Conclusion

While starting up our business, we were trolling in the middle grounds of product and service offering. Saying we could offer anything you wanted. The problem is, we were spreading ourselves too thin. Each project was too variable from the next and efficient workflows couldn’t be achieved.

One year later, we are a lot sharper on what we are offering and how we can deliver it. Customers are getting a better understanding of who we are – most importantly – so are we.

We are running away from the walrus pack – are you?

(Image courtesy of Gattou/Lucie/so far behind.. Sorry under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 generic license.)

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Technology in today’s corporate world has opened up new doors to telecommuters everywhere. The ability to interact instantly and submit quality work via the internet has fueled a trend where more and more employees are taking their work from the corporate office to a home office environment. It is important to know the possible downfalls of working from home when making the decision to leave the corporate workplace and join the ranks of home office employees.  Here are five tips to successfully work from a home office.

Start your workday every day at the same time

It is important to shower and dress as if you were leaving the house. It is important to keep up with your personal hygiene even though you are working at home. It is drastic that you eat breakfast. One of the worst offenders to productive home office work is failing to treat your job as if it was an occupation. You still have to go to work daily. You may no longer have a 30-minute commute. However, you still need to get to work on time. It is important to get up at a reasonable hour and make your way to your home office just as if you were heading to another location for work.

Make a schedule for the day and follow it

Creating a work schedule to follow will help you alleviate a few of the distractions many tend to find in a home office environment. This step is pivotal when trying to separate your work life from your home life. When you choose to work from home, it is important to use your workday for work. In addition, include a few breaks in the day to give your mind a chance to rest. These breaks should be scheduled as if you were still working in a corporate environment. Do not forget to take a 15-minute break in the morning and another in the afternoon. Get up and stretch. Lunch should be somewhere around midday. Take an hour.

Choose a designated area for your work place

If you intend to stay focused on the tasks at hand you need to set specific space aside that is solely designated for your work. It is tempting to set the laptop on the sofa armrest and progress to typing out that overdue report. However, you will find yourself losing focus more often than not.  Your chosen work environment should be one that is quiet and free of distractions. Most people who work at home find it easier to have an office or designated area for this. Also, do not choose a location in your home with a television set. That is just bad for business. Your work environment should be clean and clutter free, at least to the best of your ability. Maintaining a designated home office space will help you be much more productive in your dealings.

Get organized

Do not be afraid to bring a little order to your home office. Start a “To Do” list and cross out the assignments you complete as you do them. Try scheduling your employer’s task’s on a calendar to ensure there finished timely.  This will bring you a great sense of accomplishment and gives you something to look back on in order to motivate you through the times you feel your home office just isn’t working for you. Lack of organization in a home office environment will eventually lead to an attitude of nonchalance and unprofessionalism. It will cause work to go undone and assignments to be misplaced. Your desk should look no different from if it was your desk back at the corporate office.

Keep you work and home life separate and balanced

Avoid combining your work and home life more than you already have by relocating your work to a home office. A lot of people end up working too many hours and others end up not working enough. It is best to split your time down the middle. That is why it is important to follow the advice in the first four tips that were presented to you.

In order to be a successful home office worker you will need treat your home office like a workplace. That is why you maintain a daily pre-work routine. That is why you create a daily schedule to bring even more separation and balance to your work and home life. That is why it is imperative that you keep a clean and orderly area of your home as a designated work environment. If you cannot keep the work aspect of your life separated from your home life then maybe working from a home office is not for you. It is not for everybody. However, it can be a rewarding experience for those willing to put the work in when it comes to getting the work done. If you follow these five tips you will find yourself well on your way to being a successful home office worker.

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Different people have different ways to spend their lives. As a result, simplifying life would carry a different meaning for each one of us.

I wouldn’t be wrong if I assume that most of us want to spend time with their loved ones, do work that they really like to do, have time for hobbies, spend less time finding important stuff and just be happy. And if we are not able to accomplish most of the above, we need to look at and simplify a few things in our lives.

1. Figure Out What’s Really Important

Figuring out what’s really important to you, what makes you happy and what are the goals for your life is the first step towards the simplification you aim to achieve.

It’s only when you know what’s really important, you can prioritize your tasks accordingly and get things done without being stressed.

2. Analyze Your Current Routine

Spend a day analyzing how you have been spending your days. What is your daily routine like? Has it helped with your work? Has it helped your health? Are you able to take time out for family and friends? Have you been prioritizing tasks according to what’s really important? Is the routine designed accordingly?

If any of these are out of whack, it’s time to change the routine.

3. Overcome Information Overload

Although most of the information we consume every day may appear to be “life-saving” at first glance, it’s actually avoidable. I’ve talked about tips for managing information overload and managing your RSS feeds before here at WorkAwesome.

Susan offered tips on managing email overload. Did you read and implement the steps suggested? If you haven’t yet, it’s time you get started with them.

4. Simplify Household Tasks

Most people don’t realize that household chores, if not done productively, could easily take up a significant chunk of your time. It’s important to simplify them.

What are the chores you do every day? Which of them have to be done every day? How do you organize your household in a way that it eliminates many chores? These are some questions you need to answer.

5. Get Rid of Things You Don’t Use

Take a look at that old bookshelf that has piles of books gathering dust. You never read any of them twice. Heck, you didn’t even read some of them once! Don’t you think you are better off distributing them to someone who could benefit from reading them?

The same can be applied to your DVDs, CDs, gadgets et al. Either sell them or give them away. Simplify.

6. Don’t Buy Things You Might Not Use

The reason you had that enormous collection of books or DVDs in the first place was because you bought them thinking they’d be of great help. Turns out you were wrong.

So, from now on, only buy things you are likely to use — and use often. When it comes to books and movies (unless you are a voracious reader or a movie buff) you can borrow or rent them instead of buying each new thing that comes out.

7. De-clutter and Organize Your Home Workplace

Yes, de-clutter. De-clutter your desk, de-clutter your desktop, de-clutter your workspace. Just get started on cleaning up the mess that’s surrounding you.

Make things look clean and simple around you. This is an important step in simplifying your life.

8. Go Paperless

If you look around you, most of the clutter is constituted by paper in one or form or another. So going paperless not only makes your work easier and saves you time, it also significantly reduces workspace clutter.

I understand that a few tasks need paper. But try to use latest tools and software as much as possible to get things done.

9. Delegate and Get Help

No matter how organized you are — and how easily you can get things done — if your work grows, you are bound to get overwhelmed if you are doing it all alone. And that’s not just for your work, but for everything else in your life.

Delegating tasks to others who can do it better than you, collaborating with friends in various aspects of life, seeking help from someone who knows it better…all this helps to keep you sane and carry on with life without getting stressed and frustrated.

10. Disconnect Often

Last, and probably the most important step in simplifying your life – disconnect often. Disconnect from what? From anything that has you connected all day. It could be the internet for one, a cellphone for another. For someone, it might be a musical instrument which he just can’t stop playing for hours.

Take a few hours off every week, and a day or two off every month from what you do every day. Stay disconnected…stay abandoned. Spend time with yourself, with something you like to do but can’t find time for, with someone you love but don’t have time for, with nature. Take time out and thank the universe for the life and the opportunities you’ve got.

(Image  courtesy of Beny Shlevich under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 generic license.)

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A couple weeks ago we released our first Free PowerPoint Template: Wooden here on WorkAwesome, and today we have another! This one is called Wrap and is a simple template that uses Helvetica Neue Ultralight, a very clean font to give a very professional feel to your next presentation.

As always if you want super high quality templates and don’t mind paying a bit, you’ll find some great stuff on GraphicRiver’s Powerpoint Templates category.

Without further ado, here is today’s freebie!

Download Free Wrap Powerpoint Template

The Download (150Kb) includes a Powerpoint PPT file and a Photoshop PSD file of the background. The font is Helvetica Neue which is a paid font, however in a pinch you could get away with Arial/Helvetica.

If you decide to redistribute this file for some reason, we’d appreciate a link back to WorkAwesome so we can build some awesome SEO rankings! And finally here are some preview images of what the template looks like, enjoy!

Powerpoint Slide

Powerpoint Slide

Powerpoint Slide

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On this week’s podcast, we have someone who many consider to be the preeminent productivity expert on the planet, David Allen. He’s the author of Getting Things Done (and creator of the methodology with the same name — or GTD for short) and is the “go to guy” for all things productivity related. We talk about New Year’s resolutions and the real secret behind GTD. A must listen.

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This week we had a lot of links to sift through — but we’ve come up with some awesome ones regarding some of the news Google announced recently, how to get up in the morning without stimulants (although we do like our coffee) and the recently discussed Wunderlist taking its show to the mobile platform.

Chrome Web Store
Google gave a headstart to its much-awaited and ambitious Chrome OS project by unveiling the Chrome web store. Currently, except for some apps, most of the other apps are nothing but bookmarks of their official sites. But that shouldn’t stop you from trying them out. The Chrome web store is a sign of things to come.

How to Wake Up in the Morning Without Stimulants
If you are one of the lucky few who enjoy a hassle-free and consistent sleep and wake-up schedule then congrats, you are more productive than 95% of those who follow this site, and hence you can skip this point. For the rest of us, this article at Lifehacker offers a no nonsense guide to blast out of bed each morning. Check it out.

10 Awesome Safe For Work Websites To Overcome Lunchtime Boredom
The MakeUseof blog has a nice list of sites that can help office goers avoid getting bored during lunchtime (and avoid feeling sleepy after a heavy lunch). Those who work from home could also use some of these fun and interesting sites for the same purpose.

Wunderlist iPhone App
Remember we talked about Wunderlist, the uber cool task management tool for Windows and Mac? Well, if you loved the tool, you’d love its iPhone app too. Launched just 2 days ago, this app which works on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, has a neat design and user interface. And like the main tool, this is free too.

8 iPad Apps for Brilliant Writing
Finally, we’ve got Copyblogger listing 8 apps for the iPad to help you become a better writer. Considering the recent rise of iPad and its inevitable ubiquity like the iPhone, you might as well train yourself to get your writing done on it, like you do on your computer.

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