25 Simple Tips to Boost Workplace Engagement

25 Simple Tips to Boost Workplace Engagement To create a productive work environment, employers must first concentrate on their employees. Ensuring your workforce are happy, healthy and motivated means the overall quality of work will improve, as well as your company remaining a fun, innovative and exciting place to work. Creativity is an important aspect of this. If employees dont feel stimulated in the workplace, they will inevitably become bored and lacklustre in their role. So what are some easy, cheap and fun ways to ensure your workforce lets their creative juices flow? Weve put together a list of simple tips that any workforce can consider: 1.  Collaborate with someone youve never collaborated with before https://twitter.com/Antzro/status/698269571745058816 2. Introduce a weekly/monthly meeting thats all about ideas. Even if it lasts 10 minutes, its a good way to encourage fresh thinking  in the workplace 3. Go for a walk to clear your head and brainstorm Sometimes the best therapy to clear your head is a long walk and good music. ???? #justbreathe Nicole aka “Mamakat” during cheer season (@Just_NicoleS) February 16, 2016 4.Arrange a business meeting in an unusual place. ie. the zoo 5. Play music in the office Busy day. Now listening to some calming musicin the office. It works! Try it! 2020â„¢ (@PCH888) February 1, 2016 6.  Visualise your goals in a poster or infographic 7. Take an hour to read a book You have zero excuses why you cant read a book now to broaden your mind! Andrea Latrice Style (@ALatriceStyles) February 9, 2016 8.Draw a cartoon of your ideas 9. Crack open a beer and relax with your colleagues Always say yes to after work drinks ?? Bryony Dale (@BryonySara) February 6, 2016 10. Invest in better lighting for your office 11. Invite thought leaders into your office for a talk Grateful to have Brett @lifeforxlns in the office today to share his tips on Tapping into Your Inner Excellence ?? pic.twitter.com/MFHsdtyXDQ batyr (@batyrAus) February 18, 2016 12. Invite colleagues (of any level) to present a talk to the entire workforce 13. Dont read any emails until 11am Rule #1 in life, dont read emails first thing in the morning. Daniel Leon-Davis (@LeonXDavis) July 15, 2015 14. Create a wall  of images that inspire you and invite everyone to add to it 15.Be more experimental We are loving the new layout of the office! What do you think? pic.twitter.com/F7dpFHzlfV Oxford Adams (@OxfordAdams) February 12, 2016 16. Invite customers and clients for a drink personally 17. Cook a meal for your team My reindeer cookies I made for work yesterday, need something to get through Mondays. pic.twitter.com/6pFtuc3wXT just shelby (@eekitscharliexD) December 8, 2015 18. If you can complete something in 2 minutes. Dont put it off do it now 19. Allow flexibility How to keep talented employees: 1 flexible work hours2 training, empowerment3 meaningful work4 mentor, career path5 strong compensation Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) February 11, 2016 20. Ask questions 21. Take part in an annual job swap day where colleagues can experience working in someone elses role for a day Our bosses have scared all the customers off #JobSwapDay #CRWeek @Briony2609 @NBSemployees @YorkshireNBS pic.twitter.com/3Sj0Xjzbj0 Keeley Cleary (@Keeley_Rathbone) June 23, 2015 22. Set yourself personal deadlines 23. Hold fun contests every week internally Im running a competition at work to see who could get the most new @twitter followers. I may have inadvertently started a war. Charlie Hinderliter (@cmhinderliter) February 12, 2016 24. Be as open and honest with your colleagues as you can 25.  Never use the words but weve always done it that way I like this. The most dangerous phrase in the language is weve always done it that way. #innovation #leadership pic.twitter.com/SdfJdmTSM5 Cameron Dearlove (@camdearlove) March 28, 2014

A Resume Writing Course Can Help You Landing Your Dream Job

A Resume Writing Course Can Help You Landing Your Dream JobIf you have been in business for a while, then you know how important a resume writing course Australia can be. It is crucial to your success in this field. Before you can get the job you want, you need to show that you are fully qualified.You may feel that you are overqualified for a job, but you do not know that you may be offered a position that has a much lower salary than you deserve. It is all about competition, and if you know nothing about what is being offered, you are going to have a tough time getting ahead. Instead of laying around hoping that you will get the job, it would be better to move on to another employer.You may not have an opportunity to take a test to see how qualified you are, but when you get an interview you want to make sure that you are going to be able to answer all of the questions asked by the interviewer. Sometimes the answer to something that seems to confuse may not be enough to convince the employer that you are worth hiring. The purpose of taking a resume writing course is to help you keep up with the latest trends in the world of resume writing.Before you even start looking for a school, you need to do a little research. This is to ensure that you are finding the one that best fits your needs. There are several websites that are devoted to helping potential students find the right training.These sites allow you to be able to find schools and colleges that are based in your area and allow you to do all of your research at your own pace. Many of these sites will help you with finding the best deal on your classes as well. You may not even have to go out of your way to get the best education for yourself.You may find that taking a test in order to get into the program may cost you more than you expect. Many people spend thousands of dollars on schooling in order to become professionals. Even if you are already a professional, it is wise to give yourself a break on the cost of your education.If you do get the chance to take the test, the ability to pass it will have a direct impact on your chances of landing a new job. After all, there are thousands of people applying for the same job as you. This is why it is imperative that you take the time to take the right test for the job you are applying for.Although you may need to spend some of your own money on your education, you should not let this discourage you from going for the education. When you become an expert at writing resumes, you are going to be so much more successful that you can afford to hire yourself to write a few resumes every day. This is one way to make sure that you never take a job that you are not qualified for.

How to get good ideas for startups

How to get good ideas for startups The majority of people in the US would like to be self-employed, according to Dartmouth economist, David Blanchflower. This makes sense because people who work for themselves are happier than people who work at someone elses company, according to research from Estaban Calvo at the Harvard School of Public Health. However the majority are not self-employed, and one of the most important reasons for this is that people do not know how to come up with an idea for a business. 1. Read all the time, among broad sources and materials. In a study spanning sixty years of economically underprivileged Harvard graduates, psychiatrist George Valliant concluded (in a great article in the Atlantic) that the only consistent indicator of who will be happy later in life is who did chores as a child. This information should make almost everyone happy, since obviously just graduating from Harvard isnt enough to guarantee happiness. It also gave me a burst of hope for our new life on the farm. The type of farm we live on has big cash flow and little incomes. Im not sure if this qualifies us for the Harvard study demographic, but just in case, my kids do a lot of chores. They take care of farm animals and get rewarded with computer time. Not quite American Gothic. But still, maybe a path to happiness. 2. Ask a lot of questions about a lot of businesses. You know youre an entrepreneur if you cant stop thinking of business ideas. I started thinking of farm business ideas from the day I discovered the farm. I asked about margins on pigs, cost of goods for eggs, cash flow during a bad harvest. At first the farmer was jarred by my distinctly non-girlfriend date-chat. But once he realized I was thinking of business ideas, he said to me: I will never go into business with you. Ever. You would be a pain, and Im already doing enough with you now. Thats when we were only seeing each other once a week so you can imagine how much he doesnt want to go into business with me now that Im living with him. Still, I run all my ideas by him, which is another sign of a good entrepreneur. You cant tell if you have a good idea until you tell people. Let others poke holes in your ideas. All ideas have holes in them. The trick with starting a business is telling enough people the idea so you have gain enough knowledge about the holes in the idea so you can see if these are the types of holes you want to figure out how to plug. 3. Identify an emotional need in the marketplace. So I tell the farmer that Im thinking of starting a business for kids to learn how to farm. Chores for the summer, happiness for a lifetime! Thats my pitch. I tell him it leverages my marketing strengths because I will play to the parents being sick of parenting: They know they should make their kids do chores, but they dont want to fight about it. I take the fight out of chores. The farmer says that while marketing is my strength, spending day after day with twenty kids (the number Id need for profitability) is probably not a strength. 4. No idea is precious. If its bad, just move to the next one. So I keep thinking. Then I meet a guy who wants to invest in a company where I sell cheese online. There are lots of small-town cheese makers who dont market nationally. Im thinking about that. The farmer likes that idea more than the chores one because he doesnt know about cheese so I dont bug him about it. He also likes the cheese model because he sees how Brazen Careerist takes investor money and spends it without making the money back. Well exit on traffic, I tell him. And he gets scared that hes living with a member of a financial cult. Another idea I had is to buy a herd of Waygu cattle. The farmer laughs when I tell him, and he says. Youre going to be a rancher? No, I say. Its marketing. I think theres a consumer market for Kobi beef thats not being addressed. And an investor will buy a herd for me to get started. But you know sales and marketing. You dont know cattle. How will you run the company? I say, I have a core competency in hooking up with good cattle farmers. 5. Surround yourself with curious, engaged people Then the investor sends me an article about Chianina cattle and writes that maybe we should buy these instead. I send the article to the farmer for a second opinion. Saras Sarasvathy, professor at Darden School of Business, once told me that the key to being a good entrepreneur is not a certain skill set, but the ability to get people to fill in where your skills are weak. Which gives me the temerity to bug the farmer: Did you read the article? Oh. Yeah. Did you see the pictures? Look at the Angus. The best cuts of meat are at the back, and the Angus has much more meat on them than the Chianina. I look. 6. Mix and match ideas two old ideas together equal a new idea. I say, But the Chianina has more meat in the front. The brisket part. All the cheap meat the Jews eat from years of living in shtetle poverty is bountiful on the Chianina. The Chianina is the cow for the Jews! No, its not like that, he says. You need fat and marbling to make good meat and the Angus brisket has that. Look, I say, If I show these pictures on my website and say I have the best brisket, it makes intuitive sense. The farmer shakes his head and laughs. Then he says this type of cattle is very tall and really hard to manage. They jump fences and crash into short, unsuspecting bystanders. The farmer has bred his herd of Angus cattle to be very calm and easy-going. He says thats important so he can handle them well. When he says this it always scares me: I hope hes bored with calm breeding and thats why he picked me. 7. Stay on the right side of honest, but recognize that theres big money on the very edge. The farmer says that in cattle shows (or whatever theyre called I forget), the farmers often drug their Chianina so they dont get too wild in the ring. How can people tell? I ask. They cant really. But sometimes one is drugged too much and he lies down in the ring. Is that bad? Yes. Of course its bad. People dont want drugs in their meat. Wait. I have an idea. You could do custom meat. Like, if someone wants Xanax, you give the Chianina Xanax. Or Valium. We could take special orders. Then we have a calm herd with premium brisket and a market niche that caters to the Jewish fascination with psychiatry. The farmer says nothing. He is fascinated by the Jewish penchant to do commentary on the Jews. That was what he noticed most at his first Jewish Holiday, Rosh Hashanah. The Jews at the table make Jewish jokes and talk about the politics of Israel like American talk about the politics of abortion: Everyone disagrees with everyone. Its the disagreement that fascinates me, though. Paul Graham, founder of the venture firm, Y Combinator, says there are no amazing ideas, there is only amazing commitment to exploring ideas. I agree. So I dont care if my business ideas are good or not, because entrepreneurship is taking joy in the process of the banter of ideas until you land on a business model. And I think the farmer likes that, too. I was throwing out some Percocet and he smiled and said, Hey, wait. Maybe we should give that to the chickens.

5 Kick-Ass Reasons to Turbo Charge Your Personal Brand

5 Kick-Ass Reasons to Turbo Charge Your Personal Brand Personal branding keeps growing in importance, you can barely go online without reading about it. We are now at a stage where most professionals and business owners really need to dedicate time and effort to strengthen their own brands as a part of their daily routine. With business being ever more competitive, your best way of staying ahead of the pack is to stand out and have a unique brand amongst peers. In the end, it’s all about what you are known for. Others should be able to say what your unique promise of value is once they see you or your name. Here are 5 great reasons for creating and building your personal brand: 1. Grow your network (expand your business horizons) Expanding your network is hugely important to business success, it opens up avenues you never thought of. When you have a strong brand you will notice that people want to know you and help out any way they can. Your personal brand works like a magnet and it attracts like minded people which can be very useful for your business or career, just like you can be useful to them. Networking is all about karma, help others and they will help you. 2. Attract opportunities (inbound marketing) As a result of your expanded network and you having a strong presence online, not only will people help you but some will actually have relevant opportunities for you. This could be a customer referral, a joint venture, co-writing a book, a new job or an investment in your business. Your personal brand demonstrates success and that is what others will be looking to tap in to. 3. Establish credibility (be the expert) Your personal brand is your unique promise of value and as long as you add this value to others on a consistent basis, you are gaining trust and credibility. This trust will be your best and cheapest promotional activity, as word travels fast when you do great work. Let your customers be your fans and become your brand ambassadors. 4. Increase your online clout (yes, its spelt that way) As you build your personal brand, you will notice that you get a loyal following online. This following will put you in a position of influence, as others listen to what you have to say. You can turn your clout into business as long as you do it in an authentic and trustworthy manner. 5. Securing work (gigs, projects, assignments, jobs) A magnetic brand will ensure that you keep busy. You and your services will always be in demand, as long as you live up to your personal brand. This is a good comfort in case your workplace is facing downsizing, or one of your biggest clients are in financial distress. There is little you can do about external factors but you can rest assured that your strong brand will help you attract other opportunities instead. Bottom line Your name is your greatest asset and will stay with you for the rest of your life. Transforming it into a personal brand that others will recognize and appreciate is your best strategy for long-term success in business. By standing out from the crowd and showing the world how unique you are, you will be equipped to tell your customers why they should choose you instead of the competition. Remember, the stronger your personal brand, the more likely you will be to have a great demand for your services and you will be in a position to charge a premium for it. Related: How To Brand Yourself on Social Media (Infographic).

11 How to live without regret

Lessons with 9/11 How to live without regret I was at the World Trade Center when it fell.  Every year I say to myself that this will be the last post I write about 9/11. And then every year I write another post. So, now I have a whole archive of posts about my story:  I was so close to death, from suffocation, that I went through the acceptance process. Then I lived. Now I write about it. For a while I thought the most remarkable part of my story is not that I lived, but that I walked toward the building. I had time to get away, but I wanted to see people jumping. I couldnt believe it. So I stood, right there at the bottom, looking up to see what was going on. I talked to people next to me. I did many things that I could have regretted. Later, though, after lots of counseling, I realized that my behavior was normal human behavior for the situation I was in. No one knew buildings would fall. And there are not many people who could look away if you were told someone was jumping from the World Trade Center. Once I understood that my behavior was normal, it was easier to not have regrets about what I did. 1. If you like your life, you dont regret what came before. I would not be on a farm if I had not lived through 9/11. When I thought I was going to die, I had the privilege of understanding, at the most fundamental level, what mattered to me: And all I cared about was people in my immediate family. I did not think of anything else. Having that experience makes it much easier for me to say no to launching my fourth startup and choosing instead to homeschool my kids. I still have nightmares about 9/11, I still have never watched the towers fall on TV. I just cant do it. But I also know that the good things about my life today came from living through 9/11. Its a way for me to not regret having been there. 2. Overcome new obstacles all the time. The big regrets we have often come from big moments in our life. If you only have one big moment, and it didnt turn out how you wanted, then you are more likely to regret it than if you have lots of big moments. Its why people tell you that once you finish writing a novel, put it in a drawer and start writing another: that way when the first novel gets rejected, it wont matter that much because you have another to send. People just want more chances to get it right, really. And if you put big challenges in front of yourself  youll get more chances throughout your life. People ask me how I can possibly homeschool and do my job. I wonder the same thing. The photo up top encapsulates the problem: The kids are so cozy but they obstruct my view nearly completely. Its scary to commit to that. And its scary not to. But the best way to not regret what has happened in the past is to create more challenges for myself, and surprise myself with how well you make them turn out; the antidote for regret is gratitude. 3. Know what leads to regret for most people. Im a big fan of assuming that we are normal. Because the odds are that we are normal. And, also, we dont gain anything in life from assuming we are not normal because it just undermines our ability to use the information other people have learned about life. So, for those of you who can make that leap of faith that you are normal, Bonnie Ware, a hospice worker, wrote a book about the five most common regrets of people who are dying. The list rings true to me: I  wish I had had the courage to live a life true to myself rather than the life others expected of me. I wish I didnt work so hard. I wish Id had the courage to express my feelings. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. I wish I had let myself be happier. I am not a person who has a lot of regret. But Im also not a person who has a lot of stability. Im becoming convinced that regret and stability go hand in hand. Because most of the regrets come from complacencystaying on one, proscribed path and not veering from it. For example, focusing less on work and more on friends actually feels really risky when you have kids and a job and a spouse. Revealing your feelings to other people is risky because then you have to know your feelings yourself, and once you know your feelings, you will be compelled to take action toward them, which will invariably shake things up. So staving off regret requires creating a sense of uneasiness. 4. Take control over your life. One thing that strikes me about that list is that the regrets are about things we can control. Which means that if we take responsibility for our lives, instead of just letting them happen how they happen, we are less likely to live with regret. Its not like someone regrets that they didnt win the lottery. The lottery actually would not have helped with any of those areas of regret. So a lot of regret is about time management. If you are tied to a daily to-do list, you lose the big-picture. Then time management becomes about menial tasks and you open yourself up to large regrets. If you do it right, time management is about values, so good time managers are able to accomplish what they believe in over the long haul. 5. Make a choice to like your life. The last item on the list really resonates with me because its about happiness, and I think I write so much about that topic  because I dont want to have regrets. I see that happiness is more of a point of view than a series of events that leads to something great. I also think its why I write about 9/11 every year. Because I want to make sure that for me, the event is one that triggers gratitude rather than regret. This list of regrets makes me realize that we spend most of our lives chasing something that will make us happy and then we get to the end of our life and we realize that happiness was there all along. For some of us the happiness will be from contentment and stability. For others, happiness will be from being interested and engaged. Recognizing that its what we picked because its what makes us happy is a good step to being able to say Im happy right now.

7 Things That Make a Personal Brand Better - CareerMetis.com

7 Things That Make a Personal Brand Better Source- Pexels.comThis year, personal bending is not a choice anymore, but a necessity. After all, it’s the best way to prove and present your skills and expertise to the global audience, while collecting an army of brand supporters along the way.And the more alluring your brand is, the higher the chances of exploiting new market opportunities, building a successful business, and gaining worldwide recognition for your efforts.However, becoming a powerful entrepreneurial force on the market won’t happen overnight. It requires a lot of time, strategic moves, and the constant optimization of the brand for keeping up new trends and staying ahead of the competition.evalIn fact, ignoring these core obligations arethe biggest branding mistakes. But even if your branding is running smoothly, you can still make some improvements.With that in mind, here are a few tips to use as a reminder and implement as a smart tactic in order to turn your brand from good to great. 1.Self-ResearchSource : Pexels.comAs the name implies, personal branding is all about you, your message, your vision, and your mission.Hence, it’s about originality and personality through which the brand achieves its goals. But though you might think the brand is working just fine, others may feel like there is something missing.In other words, start Googling how the public perceives your brand. Do some research to see the brand’s “rating” online â€" carefully examine what kind of information about your brand is out there, what you need to update, and what is lacking.Why? Because any damaging content can harm your reputation.2.Content Quality and ConsistencyevalWhen creating suitable content for representing your online persona, remember that: “The keys to brand success are self-definition, transparency, authenticity and accountability.”Once you do the number one step of branding, which is to think of yourself as a brand, you need to consider what type of the content you want to be linked wi th your brand, as well as the message you are trying to convey to the audience.It’s very important for a brand to be relatable and humanized, so the published content has to follow the tone you arranged early on. It can be professional or personal This means every time you have something of value to share, update and share it across multiple channels to better engage your loyal patrons.3.Networking with InfluencersPerhaps the best marketing approach to building relationships with people is by leveraging the social media influencers. They are the go-to audience for promotion, since these are the people who have established an online presence and credibility in a specific area of expertise.Which means that they have numerous connections and can help you raise your brand awareness.According to Forbes, you can “invest in micro-influencers in your niche or big-budget large-scale influencers.”put it simply, if you want to catch the “big fish” in the industry to advertise your br and, you will probably have to go through their managers or agencies first.While the influencers who are still building their brand are easily reachable via email or a direct message on social media platforms. 4.Get Good at One Marketing Channel FirstSource:Pexels.comBefore you get ahead of yourself with influencers, you need to first establish at least one good marketing channel.Otherwise, writing and publishing the content you only hope people will accidentally discover and recommend is nothing more than wishful thinking. The good news is you have a lot of options to get your brand noticed online.evalApart from the relevant content you can share on your website and other blogs, you can expand your brand’s presence by:Using the Facebook live streaming to get people involved in your projects.Tweeting and publishing the content on LinkedIn. Sharing the brand’s story on Instagram, along with captivating images.Utilizing Facebook and Google paid ads. Entering the social media conte sts and local partnerships.5.Identify and Leverage Your StrengthsSource : Pexels.comWhat makes your brand different from all the others out there? Sure, you have a purpose, but what is it? Are you focused and truthful? Do you listen and interact with the audience through feedback? Or do you offer services no one else on the market has?Either way, it’s time to identify and utilize your strengths to enhance the branding.Think hard about what makes your brand unique by examining your actions, successful projects, and clients you’ve worked with. Then review your objectives and plans for the future to determine where the brand is heading.After you’ve taken some time to reevaluate things, redraft your strategy to highlight the areas that require a change to leverage the opportunities you came across during this process.eval6.Focus on Helping PeoplePeople who support your brand are actually the backbone of your personal branding. You can’t become a brand without a large group of fo llowers and you can’t make people share positive recommendation without giving them something in return.Whatever your brand represents, it should always be focused on improving the lifestyle of the target audience in some way. When you perform the brand analysis and pinpoint your strengths, you will also discover both your and your competitors’ weaknesses. Use this to uncover what people want and need, and be the first to deliver.Moreover, don’t shy away from from communicating and try to be present and open in social communities. Not only do people trust and feel drawn to a transparent brand, but it’s also best to find out how you can contribute firsthand. Instead of sharing links, share genuine helpful replies and concentrate more on quality engagement then quantity. 7.Website, Logo and Other Branding ElementsSource : Pexels.comWe are all familiar with the importance of visuals, as visual content gets94% more views over purely textual content.Therefore, what you are offeri ng should be well-composed and displayed on a user-friendly website and sealed with a memorable brand symbol.When building a website, the attention should be on the potent branding details that are often overlooked, such as:? The Colorâ€" Colors are subconsciously related with emotions and each of them playsa big role in marketing. For example, the color blue signifies strength, while purple shows imagination and wisdom. When selecting your own, research the potential associations to see if it’s the appropriate fit for your brand.?Logo â€" The brand needs to have a unique logo that people will remember it by. It can be simple (remember Apple) or more complicated, because it’s the visual impact and brand/logo alignment that truly counts. If you don’t have any ideas or don’t know how to connect the two,you can create logo design contestsand have professional logo designers offer unique ideas, so that you can find a winning brand design.?Language â€" The language you use must r einforce the brand’s personality. If you switch and experiment with different tones, you will break out of character and potentially lose the audience.?Website Design Navigationâ€" First-time site’s visitors should be able to easily locate important information and navigate the pages. Also, size and overallweb design should follow accepted normsand be optimized for mobile users. ConclusionNowadays, being a boss means being a brand. So when working on personal branding, remember that your brand should be innovative, dynamic, and interactive.Once you develop a concept and have a clear vision of what your brand stands for, it’s important to continue to work on improvements and social awareness. Network, network, network!Furthermore, offer quality that will help and engage the audience. And don’t forget that visual branding elements matter just as much as your reputation, goals for the future, and overall brand mission.

Job Hunting In The Digital Age Reputation, Resume Video Interviews (Infographic) - CareerEnlightenment.com

ResumesVideo resumes are a wonderful tool, but you’ll want to leverage the benefits to get the most out one. Make sure you practice your script, dress appropriately for the job in question, and record without background noise or other visual distractions in your camera’s view. Edit your resume and solicit second and third opinions before making the video available to recruiters.Video InterviewsGeographic constraints are largely becoming a challenge of the past. With quality video streaming services readily available, more companies are adding a video interview into the hiring process. Treat video interviews with the same emphasis you would and in-person interview. These come in two varieties â€" conversation and one-way videos. In both cases, make sure to practice with a friend. Sit with proper posture. Pay attention to proper grooming. Finally, make sure you have the necessary equipment and connections prior to the interview to ensure a smooth and professional experience.Check o ut the infographic below to know how you can maximize your online visibility to get the job youve always wanted. Want to Read More Articles Like This One?Sign up here to receive weekly updates from Career Enlightenment, and never miss another powerful job searching tip! SUBSCRIBE! You have Successfully Subscribed!We hate spam too. Unsubscribe any time.

How Focusing On Your Strengths Can Lead to Your Purpose (aka The Surfing Dog)

How Focusing On Your Strengths Can Lead to Your Purpose (aka The Surfing Dog) One of my amazeballs Facebook fans (I still feel so silly saying I have fans!), Kimberly, posted this on my page a while ago with this description: A dog rescue friend of mine shared this and what the person in the video did for the dog reminds me of what you are doing for all us creative types! Thanks Michelle! We all need to be what we are instead of what we think everyone wants us to be. Of course, when I saw it, I clicked on the link right away, and was met with this: Right?! I mean, RIGHT?! OK, the music was cheesy (Im not the biggest country fan, but its good to know that Taylor Hicks has a gig), but honestlyisnt this what its about? Amen hallelujah to the woman who let the dog go from what he was born into doing, and have him focus instead on his talents, his skills, his strengths. Look what happens! Raising tens of thousands of dollars for a paraplegic surfer! And seriously, can we focus on that for a hot second? A paraplegic surfer. And whats your excuse for not doing what you love?* *Yes, that was tough love right there. Im not above laying the smackdown.