Niall Doherty's Blog, page 196
September 19, 2018
Momentos: September 1st – September 15th, 2018
MOMENTOS
September 1st – September 15th, 2018
1
In today’s Facebook live I talked about the direction I’m trying to take my business in, which is away from freelancing and towards creating more of my own stuff, videos especially. I’d like to tackle topics like Maria Popova and Tim Urban, but on video. Similar to what Tom Scott’s doing on YouTube. The goal is to create content that helps people live more free and think more deep.
2
Ninety minutes today talking to an astrologer friend about astrology. My head was hurting by the end of it. Not because of the topic specifically, though I’m still very skeptical about that. It’s just that giving someone your full attention for that amount of time and trying to follow every explanation and also keep an ear out for fishy stuff… takes its toll I tells ya.
3
From Farnam Street:
Imagine sitting on a commuter train and your stop is near the end of the line. If you were certain that you were on the right track, you wouldn’t get off simply because the train stopped from time to time. You know that stops are part of the journey. You can learn a lot from them, and eventually the train will start moving again. Yet when it comes to the goals that are most important to us in life, we tend to jump tracks the second we stop perceiving forward momentum. We’re choosing the illusion of progress over what really matters.
Sunrise in Las Palmas
4
Before responding to someone who disagrees with you on social media, ask yourself:
Are they trying to understand where I’m coming from?
Am I trying to understand where they’re coming from?
If the answer is no to either of those questions, not much point in responding.
5
A skill I’m trying to develop is turning information into story, dry facts into entertaining narrative, and doing it quickly. Gave it a try today at a Toastmasters meeting. Talked about the Great Chinese Famine, which I’d only read about a few hours before. Also wove in some stuff about me in my underwear. Because, you know, entertainment.
6
Really didn’t feel like working this morning but set a goal to spend at least 3 hours on video. Once I got into it, I was hooked. Now it’s nine hours later and I’m just finishing up. I could keep going but best finish it off tomorrow with a fresh head. It’s a great feeling though, working away all day, lost in something creative.
Toastmasters
7
Video finished, will make it public on Monday. I believe in letting small bad things happen so you can get big things done, but may have gone a bit overboard this time. I’ve been so obsessed with the video stuff that the rest of my life is starting to fall apart. Diet, exercise, client work. Though each time that happens, a week later I look back and everything is fine.
8
Here’s a scary news article about the dangerous health impacts of alcohol, based on a recent study. And here’s a sober response from Annie Duke:
If the rates are already really low for these diseases, large percentage increases can look scary even when the overall risk remains incredibly low. If a disease occurs in 1 out of 100,000 people, a 100% increase in the occurrence of the disease means an increase to just 2 out of 100,000. How you frame the data really matters.
9
Trying to shake off a lazy weekend, walking the terrace as night falls, listening to Joe smoke a spliff with Elon and learning that 20,000 horses used to die each year in Manhattan. Looking up I can see four planets with my naked eye: Saturn, Venus, Jupiter, and that one Elon wants to live on.
Group lunch at The Roof. More photos on Facebook.
10
Sprinting steps at the stadium, up and down, up and down. Three teens in Hasidic dress are watching. They ask at the peak of one run if I’m Jewish. No, I reply. How about you guys? They miss the joke and ask how long I’m running for. Twelve up and twelve down, I tell them. They don’t seem to know what to do with that information. Next time up they’ve disappeared.
11
Do you remember what it’s like to be bored? Thanks to these computers in our pockets we never have the chance anymore. How often do we just sit there nowadays and let our minds wander, or close our eyes and daydream, or go for a walk with nothing in our ears? How are we supposed to figure out what we really think things when we’re constantly plugged into the noise?
12
So I published that video two days ago, the one I spent so much time on last week. And so far… crickets. Very few views, no comments. Seems I missed the mark. But that’s okay. I won’t dwell on it. Putting together another video this week, and another one next week. So long as I can keep taking shots, I’m happy enough.
Spanish TV crew at The Roof
13
Shouting into the abyss about remote work opportunities in Ireland. The workforce is perfectly positioned for it but nobody seems to realize. Or so I thought. Found out today that there’s a remote work conference happening in Tralee in two weeks, and a chap named John Kennedy has been writing on the topic for the past two years. There’s a movement happening and I had no idea.
14
I sit at a computer all day then take a meal break and what do I often do? Sit back down at the computer to watch or read something while eating. Not good. But the massive terrace we have here has me doing something new: walking while eating. Get a bowl of food, line up a good podcast, and before you know I’ve gone twenty minutes and a thousand steps.
15
One of the best things about Las Palmas is being so close to the beach. We don’t go all that often, but always have the option. This morning we went to Las Canteras, rented a couple of loungers and lay for a while. Went for a swim and saw fancy fish on a carpet of green. Dried off and listened to Coach Raveling talk about books and basketball and being your best self.
Una calle de Las Palmas
Previous Momentos
In the comments below, let me know which of the above Momentos is your favorite. Which can you relate to?
Like these Momentos? Wanna buy me a coffee?
If you'd like to support my work and read my next batch of Momentos before anyone else, become a patron and send me the price of a coffee each month.
Want me to email you next time I publish a batch of Momentos?
Sign up below and I'll do just that.
Let's Do This!
I’ll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
September 4, 2018
Momentos: August 16th – August 31st, 2018
MOMENTOS
August 16th – August 31st, 2018
16
Usually not a fan of travel days. Getting to the airport, getting through the airport, getting from the airport. But Amsterdam to Copenhagen today was a breeze. Had energy to burn in the evening so went for a run around our new neighborhood, found a park in the middle of an apartment complex with loads of gardens and balconies and the hum of contented living.
17
Several insights today during a coaching intensive. One of them relating to why I’ve been resisting requests from friends and acquaintances to meet up for coffee or whatever. It’s because those requests feel too much like, “let’s just hang out and see what happens.” Hanging out can be fun, sure, but I’m trying to stay focused on my purpose right now. Which necessitates that I be much more protective of my time and space and say no to more things.
18
Sneaking a look at a book during a coffee and cheesecake break as we roll around Copenhagen. Simple idea hits me as profound: create short, casual content regularly. See what topics hit the mark. Dive deeper into those that do. Like a comedian, working out material night after night in the local clubs, checking what works and what doesn’t, picking out and polishing up the best stuff for the special.
Visiting the famous Nyhavn in Copenhagen
19
A few things you might not know about Denmark:
Free health care.
Well, kind of. Denmark apparently has the world’s highest taxes. 1
The government pays students about $900/month while attending university. 2
First country to grant legal recognition to same-sex partnerships (1989).
First country to legalize pornography (1969).
In recent years it has been voted as the safest, happiest and least corrupt country in the world.
20
Had a student on a call today and got to that place of pure presence and curiosity, eager to hear what she had to say next and feeling a deep appreciation for her being. Sounds fairly woo-woo, I know, but that’s how it hit me. And she seemed to get great value from our conversation. I reckon one of the big keys to coaching is to listen long and deep. Most people aren’t used to that. feels profound.
21
He’s standing at his front door in a dressing gown as I come down the stairs with the suitcase. I say good morning as I pass, and he nods back, but something’s not right. I’m down a half flight and realizing we probably woke him up, when he shouts after me, “Why don’t you stay at a hotel? These are private apartments!” I turn and go back up to him.
Sunset in the Faroe Islands. Lots more photos on Facebook.
22
Was going to call today’s live video, Why astrology is (probably) bullshit, but ended up dropping the probably. Trying to put forth stronger opinions. I know I’ll be wrong about some things, but that’s no reason to be timid. Actually, it’s a good reason not to be. A stronger opinion gets more attention, which means I find out much quicker when I’m mistaken.
23
On the westernmost island of the Faroes, a place called Mykines, accessible only by boat and helicopter. Not more than a dozen people live here year round. A plane once crashed on this rock, a Dutch ship wrecked against it a few hundred years ago. We’re here to see the puffins, nesting on some of the world’s richest bird cliffs.
24
Another day, another remote part of the Faroes. The “cafe” in this seaside village is an old man’s kitchen, where he serves coffee and waffles. He’s lived here pretty much his whole life, in this very house. There’s a black and white photo on the wall, his younger self with his eight children. He remembers when the road to the village was built (1966) and when they first got electricity (1957).
Took a while to get this right
September 3, 2018
The Digital Sandwich Shop
The Digital Sandwich Shop
Have you ever wanted a sandwich but been too lazy to make one?
Of course you have.
We’ve all been there.
This cat's there right now
What do we often do when we find ourselves in that situation?
Well, if I’m home visiting family in Ireland like I was recently, I ask my mother to make one, because I have an Irish Mammy and they’re only too happy to make you a nice sandwich.
(Shout out to Mammy Doherty there in Slieverue!)
But let’s say you don’t have an Irish Mammy, or she’s not available to make you a sandwich because you’re off in Amsterdam or Thailand or some mad place… what do you do then if you want a sandwich but you couldn’t be bothered making one?
Well, quite often, you just go down the road to your favorite sandwich shop and you pay another person real money to make you a nice sandwich…
Next time you’re standing in the sandwich shop waiting on your six-inch roast beef sub to get all toasty, ask yourself this:
“How long did it take the person behind the counter to learn their trade? How long did it take them to learn how to make a decent sandwich?”
Probably not very long, right?
They probably got only an hour or two of training, a day at the most.
And yet, these people behind the counter in the sandwich shop frequently have customers lining up to give them real money in exchange for their sandwich-making skills.
And here’s the really interesting part:
Every one of those paying customers is probably capable of making an equally delicious sandwich themselves, from the comfort of their own kitchen.
Actually, they can probably make an even MORE delicious sandwich at home themselves, for a much CHEAPER PRICE.
So with that in mind, here’s what you have to wonder:
What kind of world are we living in, when people pay other people good money, to do things they could easily do — or quickly learn to do — themselves?
Seriously, what kind of crazy world is that??
Oh wait, I know what kind of world that is: it’s the real world!
BECAUSE IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME!
You and I pay people every day to do things we could easily do or learn to do ourselves.
Every time you:
Buy a sandwich
Buy a coffee
Take a taxi
Get groceries delivered
Pay someone to clean your apartment
Pay someone do your laundry
Or a whole host of other things…
…you’re paying another person to do something you could easily do yourself!
And this phenomenon of the real world is something I like to remind my students of whenever they tell me they don’t have enough skills to start earning online, or when they tell me that it takes too long to develop skills other people are willing to pay for.
Let me make it very clear:
You don’t have to be an expert at something to deliver real value and start earning good money online.
And that’s because: expertise is relative.
I’ll say that again.
Expertise. Is. Relative.
What that means is this:
You DON’T need to be the best
You DON’T need to be some kind of super-expert at whatever work you choose to do
You just need to be better than the people paying you.
And sometimes you don’t even need to be better than them. You just need to be willing and able to do things they’d rather not do themselves.
Like making sandwiches…
But, you know, we’re talking working online here, so they’d be digital sandwiches.
No, wait. There’s no such thing.
The equivalent of making sandwiches online would be things like:
Writing basic articles
Editing and proofreading
Creating subtitles
Doing research
Social media management
And lots of other stuff like that.
All skills that you can probably already do, or at least learn to do very quickly.
Now obviously:
The more you develop your skills –> the more value you can provide –> the more in-demand you’ll be –> and the more money you can make.
BUT, the point I’m making here is that you likely already HAVE several skills that you can use online that clients will happily pay you for.
So don’t go thinking you need to spend months learning how to program or something like that to start earning online because you absolutely don’t!
Just like someone who gets hired at a sandwich shop doesn’t require months of training before customers start paying them to make sandwiches.
No, they can start doing that almost immediately.
So again, don’t make this working online thing more complicated than it needs to be.
You probably already have skills you can use to get started earning online.
If not, check out my Hedgehog article and I’ll guide you through a process to select a good skill.
You can also check out this article I wrote about rapid skill building.
And if you already have some skills, check out my article about how to earn your first $100 online this weekend, and I’ll show you a 3-step process there for finding your first clients.
All those resources are part of my Start Earning Online series. Sign up below and I’ll send them to you via email.
Let's Do This!
I’ll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
August 27, 2018
How We Win The Race – The Slow Loping Pace Of An Australian Potato Farmer
How We Win The Race
The Slow Loping Pace Of An Australian Potato Farmer
There was once a 61-year-old Australian potato farmer named Cliff Young.
But this Cliff Young fella wasn’t just any old ordinary Australian potato farmer.
You see, Cliff Young liked to run.
He ran with a strange shuffle technique and he wasn’t very fast – which was understandable, given that he was 61 years of age – but he liked to run anyway.
In fact, he liked to run so much, that he decided to go ahead and sign up for the Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon.
Now, an ultramarathon is no joke.
To put it into context, I ran a regular 26-mile marathon fifteen years ago, back when I was a fresh-faced 21 year old, and along the way I literally felt like I was going to DIE.
I kinda looked like this.
And that was only 26 miles.
The Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon, the one 61-year-old potato farmer Cliff Young signed up for, is 544 miles.
Five Hundred and Forty Four MILES!!!
That’s 875 kilometres, the equivalent of 21 regular marathons back-to-back!
Or certain death for my 21-year-old self.
But that’s what Cliff Young, the 61-year-old potato farmer, signed up for.
And when he showed up at the start line for that race, he was laughed at by everyone.
There he was, probably twice the age of any other competitor, sporting his regular farmer outfit of overalls and gumboots.
And everyone laughed at the man.
Everyone.
But they weren’t laughing for long.
Because not only did Cliff finish the race… he finished it in 5 days, 15 hours and 4 minutes, which was 2 FULL DAYS faster than any previous run between Sydney and Melbourne, and TEN HOURS faster than anyone else in the race.
Yes, Cliff actually went and won the feckin thing.
By a massive margin.
I mean, talk about an underdog story. I’m amazed someone hasn’t made a big cheesy Hollywood movie about this yet.
Closest thing.
But what I like most about the Cliff Young story is that it’s classic tortoise vs. hare. And with that in mind, here are a few words from his Wikipedia page:
He ran at a slow loping pace and trailed the leaders for most of the first day, but by running while the others slept, he took the lead the first night and maintained it for the remainder of the race.
Whenever I feel like I’m falling behind with work stuff, or whenever other people seem to be much further ahead with their online businesses, I find it helpful to remember Cliff the potato farmer.
His story reminds me that it’s not one big push that will get me where I want to go. Instead it’s a “slow loping pace,” practiced consistently, day after day, week after week, making steady progress while others “sleep.”
That’s how we get ahead.
That’s how we win the race.
Not any one big push. But steady, consistent effort.
In the comments below…
Tell me what one small thing you can start doing consistently, every day, to get you where you want to go.
(And make sure it’s a small thing, nothing too big or intimidating, because it’s hard to keep that up.)
The post How We Win The Race – The Slow Loping Pace Of An Australian Potato Farmer appeared first on Disrupting the Rabblement.
August 21, 2018
Momentos: August 1st – August 15th, 2018
MOMENTOS
August 1st – August 15th, 2018
1
Focusing too much on negative things lately. How’s Amsterdam, someone will ask, and I’ll default to talking about the one or two things that aren’t quite right instead of the ten thousand things that are perfect. I like to believe positivity is a choice, a habit you can build, and that focusing on positive things brings a better mood and more opportunities.
2
Met up with a lady today who earned $100,000 selling courses on Udemy. Here’s a video she made about it. Always nice to meet someone who is the same in person as they seem online. And I came away inspired by her success on YouTube. She’s built her audience on there by posting a new video each week. Quality and consistency gets us where we want to go.
3
Mezrab. Storytelling night. Given the weekend that’s in it, the theme is love, and Sahand tells a story about his parents in jail and music in space. Marijn tells us about his flamboyant friend who was buried twice. And Kor tells us a story about his mom, a puppy, and a sex party. This place is beautiful… and dangerous. Stirs an urge in me.
Meeting Louise (aka Digital Nomad Girl) in Amsterdam.
4
Pride parade in Amsterdam. All along the Prinsengracht there are floats filled with feathers and confetti, fabulous women and dancing men. A massive rainbow flag hangs from a church steeple. In the crowd I see a tough biker dude wearing fishnet and another guy wearing a shirt that says “closet homosexual.” This city, on this weekend especially, is where you can be whoever you want to be.
5
Smoked my first two Fridays here but not the third. Feels nice this weekend to be up early both mornings, not drowsy, exercising and getting things done. A friend told me recently that he never does drugs randomly. He’ll always have a specific intention. He’ll smoke weed before going for a massage, for example, deepen the relaxation. That’s smart. Drugs are a tool. Gotta use them wisely.
6
If I had a week left to live, I’d have to come to Amsterdam for a day or two and cycle a bike around, listening to music. Did that today on the way to Toastmasters. Hadn’t been to a meeting for a couple of years. Made myself volunteer for table topics and somehow came away with a ribbon. Another urge stirred.
7
Rented a boat for the day, cruising the canals. This city is built on marshland. Four hundred years ago they were driving tall trunks of Scandinavian pine into the swampy ground, thousands upon thousands of them, all by manual labor, so they could build these fine buildings that glide past us now on either side. They say most people visit works of art, but the people of Amsterdam live in one.
8
I believe some people are naturally more proactive than others. They have a better engine, and so they can do more things, achieve more goals. That’s not to excuse laziness, but just to point out that we all have different capacities. That’s why the whole, “you have to want it bad enough” advice falls flat for me. I could want real bad to be a world class horse jockey, but at 6-2 I simply don’t have the capacity.
9
Been editing a video advising people on rest and recovery. Tomorrow morning I’m hosting a group call about handling overwhelm. And as I sit here and write this I’m exhausted, have been all day. Someone once said that you can’t live on this planet and not be a hypocrite to some extent. I think that’s true. So it’s okay to be a hypocrite. As long as you keep trying not to be.
Cruising the Groenburgwal
Posted by Niall Doherty on Tuesday, August 21, 2018
10
Instead of playing a game on your phone or browsing Facebook, install the Wikipedia app and use the random article function, see what you stumble across. For example, today I learned that Botswana is roughly the size of France, has a big river delta that doesn’t reach the sea, is the least corrupt country in Africa, and has way more elephants than any other country.
11
We met in Colombia, must have been back in 2014. And hung out again in Berlin a couple of years ago. We were single men then. Now we’re meeting at a cafe in Amsterdam with our long-term ladies, talking big plans. Two years. That’s all it took for everything to change for us. You never know what’s coming for you.
12
In the year 1670 Baruch Spinoza published a book called Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. Apparently that was the first time many people in Europe were exposed to the idea that the Bible was not the work of God, but a flawed and superstitious book written by humans. There’s a statue of Spinoza in the old Jewish quarter in Amsterdam, not far from the synagogue that excommunicated him.
Spinoza statue in Amsterdam.
13
Monday. Start of a hectic week. Got lots of client work on and trying to get ahead of schedule with my video stuff before we leave for Copenhagen on Thursday. Told my Mastermind buddy that I’d pay a $1000 penalty if I don’t upload a new video by midnight each Friday this month. And we’ll be on the road quite a bit the next couple of weeks. Pressure’s on.
14
Lots of people I haven’t caught up with while here in Amsterdam. A month in one place really isn’t enough. Not when you’re working. You’re just getting settled when you have to pack everything up and hit the road again. We’ll be slowing down a bit come September though. Ten countries the first eight months of the year. Three the final four.
15
Last day here, made time to get out and cycle around the canals with some classic tunes in my ears. Absolute bliss. I really should have done that more the past few weeks. What about you? What simple pleasure have you been postponing or not making enough time for? What if you took an hour or two this weekend to go do that?
Maybe more.
Previous Momentos
In the comments below, let me know which of the above Momentos is your favorite. Which can you relate to?
Want me to email you next time I publish a batch of Momentos?
Sign up below and I’ll do just that.
Let's Do This!
I’ll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
August 13, 2018
Rest + Recover: Like Pro Tennis Players And LeBron James
Rest + Recover
Like Pro Tennis Players And LeBron James
In a book called The Power Of Full Engagement there’s mention of a study of world-class tennis players.
What they found in that study was that the very best players had precise routines that they’d perform in the 16-20 seconds between points.
Quoting from the book:
These [routines] included the way [the players] walked back to the baseline after a point; how they held their heads and shoulders; where they focused their eyes; the pattern of their breathing; and even the way they talked to themselves.
When they actually monitored the heart rates of those top tennis players they found that, between points, their heart rates would drop by as many as 20 beats per minute.
Meanwhile, the heart rates of players who DIDN’T perform any kind of between-point routines would usually stay high all the way through their matches, no matter how fit they were.
With that in mind, imagine two players of fairly equal talent and fitness playing a big long tennis match against each other.
Say one player has his routines and is recovering between points, but the other DOESN’T do that.
Who do you think will have more energy at the end?
Obviously it’ll be the guy taking all the little breaks throughout the match, right?
How LeBron James Rests While Playing
According to an article on ESPN, last season basketball superstar LeBron James was actually one of the SLOWEST players in the league.
Which sounds crazy, because… well, he’s a superstar.
But the explanation is that James rests quite a lot between plays.
Quoting from the article:
… during free throws, James will often walk to the other end of the floor. It saves him having to run when possession changes. He also at times will take himself out of an offensive play and stand on the wing, knowing he needs a breather.
And James himself is quoted in the article as saying:
“It’s just trying to save pockets of energy throughout, especially the second half, when I know it’s going to be a possession game. I try to save pockets of energy when I know I’m going to be needed [later].”
And that phrase right there is key: saving pockets of energy.
Even if you’re not a professional athlete, in the modern world it’s easy to feel like we have more things to do than we have time to do them, so you could also probably benefit from regularly saving pockets of energy.
And there are two ways to do that.
1. Through Short, Regular Routines
Like those used by the pro tennis players between points.
You could model that by:
Doing a few yoga stretches at regular times throughout the day
Doing some breathing exercises
Or maybe some meditation
That kind of thing.
You don’t have to spend much time on this either. Even 20 or 30 seconds can make a big difference.
You won’t just be saving energy, but recovering energy as well.
2. Be Very Selective About How You SPEND Your energy In The First Place
Like LeBron James.
A good starting point for this is to list out all the people and activities in your life that tend to drain your energy.
Then try weed out those that are REALLY costing you.
Even weeding out one or two big ones can make a huge difference.
Quick Summary
If you want to manage your energy better throughout the day:
First: set up some routines for yourself that will help you save and replenish your energy.
Second: figure out what people or activities are draining you of your energy, and eliminate those as best you can.
The post Rest + Recover: Like Pro Tennis Players And LeBron James appeared first on Disrupting the Rabblement.
August 8, 2018
How Starbucks Train Employees To Deal With Angry Customers
How Starbucks Train Employees To Deal With Angry Customers
There’s a great book by a chap named Charles Duhigg called The Power Of Habit.
In that book he writes about a study done back in 1992 in Scotland where they recruited 60 or so low income elderly people who had just undergone knee and hip surgeries.
Each of those patients was given a booklet detailing their rehab schedule, and in the back of the booklet they had a blank page for each week of their rehab, with this instruction at the top:
My goals for this week are:
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
Write down exactly what you are going to do. For example, if you are going to go for a walk this week, write down where and when you are going to walk.
The patients were asked to fill in each of those pages with specific plans.
Some did, some didn’t.
And here’s where it gets interesting.
Quoting from the book (emphasis mine):
The patients who had written plans in their booklets had started walking almost twice as fast as the ones who had not. They had started getting in and out of their chairs, unassisted, almost three times as fast.
They were putting on their shoes, doing the laundry, and making themselves meals quicker than the patients who hadn’t scribbled out goals ahead of time.
As the psychologist scrutinized the booklets, she saw that many of the plans had something in common: They focused on how patients would handle a specific moment of anticipated pain.
There’s an example of one patient who would walk to the bus stop every afternoon to meet his wife. That was always a long and painful walk for him after the surgery, BUT, in the booklet, ahead of time, he had detailed every obstacle he might encounter while walking to that bus stop, and written out how he would handle them.
Quoting from the book again:
Put another way, the patients’ plans were built around inflection points when they knew their pain—and thus the temptation to quit—would be strongest. The patients were telling themselves how they were going to make it over the hump.
So to summarize all that, you basically had two groups of patients recovering from serious surgeries:
Those who had thought about and written out, ahead of time, the challenges and obstacles they were likely to face, as well as a plan for dealing with those challenges and obstacles.
Those who didn’t think about the challenges and obstacles ahead or make any plan for dealing with them.
The first group recovered two and sometimes three times as fast as the second.
First Group
Second group
Now, you might be thinking, Jesus that’s all very fascinating Niall…
But what has this got to do with Starbucks?
Glad you asked.
See, Starbucks actually train their employees to respond to challenges much like those Scottish patients who were able to recover quickly from surgery.
For example, one of the things they train employees on at Starbucks is how to handle unhappy customers.
Imagine for a second that you’re a young man or woman working at Starbucks, and some customer starts shouting at you.
How would you handle that?
Maybe you’d handle it really well.
But maybe you’d just freeze up and stand there not knowing what to do.
Or maybe you’d respond by shouting back at the customer and telling them they’ve got a face like a melted welly. 1
Different people, different responses.
Starbucks realized that if they wanted their staff to handle unhappy customers really well consistently, they needed to train them how to do that.
They needed to give them a simple plan to follow.
And that simple plan was this: LATTE.
That’s an acronym that Starbucks employees are trained to turn to whenever they encounter an unhappy customer.
LISTEN to the customer
ACKNOWLEDGE their complaint
TAKE ACTION to solve the problem
THANK the customer for bringing the problem to their attention
EXPLAIN why that problem occurred in the first place
You can imagine how helpful that is for Starbucks staff.
Instead of getting all flustered when a customer starts screaming at them, all they have to remember is LATTE, and with that they have a series of simple steps they can follow to resolve the situation.
Of course, you don’t have to work at Starbucks to use LATTE. You can use that in your own work or business whenever you have an unhappy customer.
But the overarching principle is the important thing I want to leave you with here.
And the overarching principle is that it’s really valuable to have a plan in place for handling challenges and obstacles you’re likely to face.
So if you have a job interview coming up, for example, don’t just hope that you’ll perform well on the day.
As they say in the Navy SEALS:
Under pressure, you don’t rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your training.
So if you want to perform at your best in that job interview, you should be thinking ahead about how you’ll answer difficult questions, how you’ll respond to criticism, and, ideally, you’ll even have someone role play the interview with you ahead of time.
Then, when you’re at the actual interview, instead of getting tripped up by any challenges or obstacles that come your way, you’ll breeze right past them.
You can use this approach for pretty much anything
A job interview, asking someone out on a date, or even getting chased by an alpaca…
Whatever the situation is, you’ll handle it better if you’ve thought about it ahead of time and planned out a series of steps you’ll take should that situation occur.
Try this…
Think of a difficult situation you’re likely to face in the next few days or weeks, and come up with a simple plan for how you’ll handle it.
Feel free to share your plan in the comments below.
The post How Starbucks Train Employees To Deal With Angry Customers appeared first on Disrupting the Rabblement.
August 5, 2018
Momentos: July 16th – July 31st, 2018
MOMENTOS
July 16th – July 31st, 2018
16
We’re doing laps of a field in a beat up Nissan Micra. The passenger side window is missing and there’s steam coming from the engine and the smell of something burning. This is how we learn to drive in my family. My lady’s picking it up quick. And before too long we have an audience. Sounds of engines and laughs and chat as the evening winds down.
17
24 hours on and we’re at the other end of the automobile spectrum, cruising perfectly paved roads from Schiphol airport in a Tesla Model S. There’s no handbrake or gear stick between the seats, no jerky acceleration or hot steam or strange sounds. Just a smooth futuristic ride through this historic city that I love.
18
Wasn’t sure last night, after a frustrating travel day and the expenses mounting, wasn’t sure it was worth it to spend a few weeks in this town. But this evening we got some bargain bikes sorted and spent a couple of hours cycling along the canals, over the bridges, under the Rijks, through the Vondel. Absolute bliss. Glad to be here.
Back in Amsterdam
19
Realized yesterday that I’m pretty good at suffering inconvenience. Might be an Irish thing. If the Airbnb or the bicycle or the service isn’t perfect, often I’d rather suffer the inconvenience than speak up and ask that it be made right. Sometimes this serves me well. Sometimes it doesn’t. Trying to get better at spotting the difference.
20
First time. I flow between hyper states of awareness, presence, and getting lost deep in thought. There’s a slowness to the world. And a softness. I can feel the wind in my ears as we float around the park. Dream-like. Easy laughter. Realizations and understanding. Senses heightened, memory dulled. My favorite city, my favorite lady, the perfect time.
21
Probably the biggest thing I got from that experience last night was respect. It’s a light drug, but I can see how people get caught up in it. Such an easy escape. I could do more today but respect holds me back. Similar that way to video games and alcohol. I liked them too much back in the day, had to be all or nothing. I’m older now though. And stronger. I hope.
Doing drugs in Amsterdam
July 29, 2018
Most Of Your Competition Sucks
Most Of Your Competition Sucks
Here’s Proof
When you’re just getting started working online, there’s a tendency to think:
That your competition has it all figured out.
That they’re submitting perfect, polished proposals.
That it’s really hard for you to stand out because your competitors are all so brilliant and fantastic.
But here’s the truth:
Most of your competition SUCKS!
Seriously.
Most of them are absolutely terrible.
And you’ll start to notice this more and more as you strive to become an A-player and do excellent work online: incompetence is everywhere.
Here’s how it roughly breaks down:
20% of your competition simply doesn’t give a shit
They just want to do the least amount of work possible so they can get paid.
They aren’t interested in doing good work. They aren’t interested in building relationships.
Another 20% of your competition simply doesn’t know any better
They don’t have any training, they don’t invest in learning new skills, and they have no clue how to write good proposals.
They’re just flying blind and taking shots in the dark, hoping to get lucky.
That’s the bottom 40% of your competition right there
Since you’re reading this article, I’m going to assume that these 3 things are true about you:
You care about doing good work
You’d like to build ongoing relationships with your clients
You’re constantly looking to develop yourself and improve your business
Now if those 3 things ARE true about you, then already, by default, you’ve got that bottom 40% of your competition beat. You’re already way ahead of them.
And being better than that 40% is enough to start earning decent money online, because there’s no shortage of work out there.
But what I really want to get across to you here is that it’s not all that hard to compete with the top 60% of the competition either.
Many of them really aren’t all that great.
Let me show you what I mean.
A few weeks ago I posted a web developer job on Upwork.com and received 50+ proposals:
Let’s go through a few of them.
(Note: the fact that this was a web developer job doesn’t really matter; I would have received the same kind of responses no matter what kind of job I posted.)
Vladyslav from the Ukraine – $30/hr – more than $10,000 earned
I invited Vladyslav to apply for the job, and he wrote back:
Hello, thank you for invitation!
Yes, that’s all he wrote!
He obviously didn’t care very much, so no way I was going to hire him.
Mihaela from Romania – $50/hr – more than $90,000 earned
Pretty much the same lazy response from her:
Thank you for your invitation, I look forward for more details about your project.
No thanks.
Bohdan from the Ukraine – $45/hr – more than $100,000 earned
This guy took the initiative to address me by name:
Hi Niall.
Thank you for invitation to interview.
But that’s all he wrote.
Pass.
John from London – $25/hr, – more than $40,000 earned
At first glance John’s not so lazy because he actually wrote quite a bit in his cover letter:
Hi, I’m a front end coder with WordPress experience, my name is Mike. I work with individual clients and also provide ongoing services to a number of UK and USA based agencies. Your project description sounds interesting to me and I do have skills & experience that are required to complete this project.
My coding skills:
− HTML5 + CSS3
− JavaScript + JQuery + AJAX + JSON + XML
− ReactJS, AngularJS
− Bootstrap
− BEM
− LESS, SASS, SCSS
− Grunt, Gulp, Webpack
− Git, SVN
Some recent projects that are already live:
[he included six links here]
On further inspection, that’s obviously just a copy and paste job. He mentions NOTHING specific about my job posting and just writes all about himself and why he’s so great.
No way I’d hire him.
Hassan from Pakistan – $10/hr – more than $1,000 earned
Here’s what he wrote in his proposal:
Hi sir,
I’m a top-rated frontend developer with 100% job success score.
I have experience with following
– HTML and CSS
– WordPress
– Sass
– Coding responsive layouts
– UI/UX design
Including the bonus Photoshop, jQuery, Git, WooCommerce.
I’m a reliable person who writes Envato standard code.
Sir, I’m unable to understand the relevant point but still sending you mine most recent project. [link to recent project was here]
Sir the button has a transparent background along with a black border of 2px solid black #000 and same font color.it turns to #2CD892 on hover.
Thanks
It’s clear that Hassan actually read the job posting and is making an effort to reply with specifics, BUT:
His grammar isn’t good.
He wrote that he was “unable to understand the relevant point.”
Those two things tell me that communication would be difficult with him. 2
For those of you reading who are native English speakers, this is really where you have a massive advantage over cheaper freelancers from places like Pakistan, India and the Philippines. Clients like me are happy to pay more for ease of communication. And it’s way easier to communicate with freelancers who are fluent in English.
To wrap this up, let me show you quickly who I actually hired for this job.
Ivan from Bosnia and Herzegovina – $25/hour – more than $10,000 earned
Here’s what Ivan wrote in his (winning) proposal:
Hello,
Relevant example: [he included a link here]
This example demonstrates my command over HTML, Javascript (ES6, React), CSS (Bootstrap 4, SCSS), Responsive Design, and AJAX request.
In regards to the buttons, you shared. First of, since I have no experience with the library being used I inspected the code of the button website. I checked out the documentation and there are clear instructions for usage
(https://tympanus.net/codrops/2016/05/... ).
I would enqueue the necessary scripts in WordPress in the functions file. Then work on integrating the SVG snippets needed for the buttons. That could be done by modifying the template files of the theme through a child theme or by replacing the theme buttons using Javascript if no other editing interface is available. For something more portable I would consider developing a plugin that automates this process and puts out shortcodes for the buttons.
I hope this covers your questions. I am free today to discuss details if you are interested.
Best regards,
Ivan
Note that he didn’t tell me ANYTHING about himself.
Instead, he went straight into addressing the problem I needed help with, and demonstrating his expertise that way.
He provided the relevant example that I asked for, and laid out a clear plan for how he would do the job if I hired him.
At one point he writes:
“I have no experience with the library being used…”
You might think that would have put me off hiring Ivan, but it didn’t bother me since he sounded confident and realistic overall. So don’t be afraid to admit your shortcomings or be honest about what you have or haven’t done before. That honesty will often be a mark in your favor.
And his last line in the proposal is great as well:
“I hope this covers your questions. I am free today to discuss details if you are interested.”
He’s not making any assumptions there. Not pushy at all. He strikes just the right tone.
So I ended up hiring Ivan.
I received over 50 proposals for the job, and he definitely wasn’t the cheapest, but he wasn’t the most expensive either. I hired him because he seemed capable of providing the most value, the greatest return on investment.
Now having shown you all of that, what I hope you’ll take away from this is that the competition out there for online work really isn’t that tough.
Out of those 50+ proposals I received for that job on Upwork, literally only 5 of them were worth considering. The rest were terrible.
So, as I mentioned, by default you’re probably ahead of 40% of your competition already, and so long as you develop some decent skills and put some thought and care into your proposals, it’s not that hard to get ahead of 50% more and be in the top 10% of people looking for work online.
And that means:
Better jobs
Better pay
More freedom to live life on your own terms
Now, a question for you:
What could Ivan have done better in his proposal?
There’s one very simple thing he could have included at the beginning of his proposal but didn’t.
Can you guess what it is?
Let me know via the comments at the bottom of the page. 3
Oh, and if you’d like a free crash course in starting an online business you can sign up for my free Start Earning Online series below (or read more about it here).
Let's Do This!
I’ll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
July 26, 2018
How To Compete With Cheap Freelancers Online
How To Compete With Cheap Freelancers Online
From India And The Philippines
Seems a lot of people hesitate to look for online work because they feel there’s just too much competition out there, especially from countries like India and the Philippines where folks are willing to work for much less money than you.
First off, let’s acknowledge that yes, there is a lot of competition out there.
More and more freelancers and remote workers are coming online every day, and many of them are indeed willing to work for less money than you.
But what’s easy to forget is that it’s not just more and more people LOOKING for work that are coming online every day.
There are also more and more people OFFERING work coming online every day.
Every single day you have new clients signing up to sites like Upwork.com, eager to pay someone to do some work for them.
At this point you might be thinking:
Yeah, sure, there are loads of clients online, but why would they hire me when they can hire someone from India or the Philippines who charges only $1.50/hour?
And my response to that is: Whole Foods.
Whole Foods is an expensive grocery store chain in the United States, but plenty of people still shop there, despite having the option to shop at much cheaper places nearby.
Like Walmart.
You can surely think of an example in your own life where you happily spend more to buy a product or service from a certain store, or a certain website, or a certain person, even though you could get something similar for cheaper elsewhere.
For example:
When you go shopping for jeans, do you always buy the cheapest pair?
When you go to a restaurant, do you always order the cheapest thing on the menu?
When you’re traveling, do you always stay at the cheapest hotel?
No, of course not!
Price isn’t the only thing you take into consideration.
Well, actually… I don’t know, maybe you are a massive cheapskate and you DO always opt for the cheapest of everything.
But thankfully, most people aren’t like that.
In fact, for many people, a cheap price suggests poor quality, and they instinctively back away. Whereas they automatically associate a higher price with better service.
And there are plenty of people online like that, people looking to pay someone like you a fair price to do some work for them online.
They’re not looking for CHEAP. They’re looking for VALUE.
And those are two very different things.
So don’t worry about your competition charging $1.50 an hour. Let them be Walmart, and you be Whole Foods.
You compete by offering a better class of service, to a higher class of client.
In the comments below…
Tell me:
What is an example of a more expensive product or service that spent money on in the past?
Why did you choose that over a cheaper alternative?
Here’s my own example:
Earlier this year I was looking to hire a business coach. I had multiple trial sessions with several different coaches. Some charged a few hundred dollars per month, while the most expensive was $15,000 for six months.
I ended up hiring the latter.
Why?
Numerous reasons, but what’s interesting is that the high price added a weight to his service that was hard to match. I was looking to make a big investment in myself and in my business, and a small price didn’t align with that.
Go ahead and share you own example in the comments below.
Oh, and if you’d like a free crash course in starting an online business you can sign up for my free Start Earning Online series below (or read more about it here).
Let's Do This!
I’ll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
