Beth Beutler's Blog, page 21

Christmas Greetings

A Brief Break

 

 

 

 

I’ll be back next Monday with a blog post with some helpful tips about professional and personal development, in time for the new year! Have a wonderful holiday!

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Unlock the Doors to a Peaceful Work Day

 

 

 

Click on the image to enroll in the free course.

The day I Messed Up

Thoughts on when the mistake is your own

 

It was meant to be a happy day–the first day a published piece on a client’s blog would go out to hundreds of subscribers.

This client offered space for contributing writers to share on topics that aligned with the client’s business.  My job was to take the pieces submitted and edit/format them to fit the blog, and run them on a regular schedule.

I worked to set up a system, arrange for Mail Chimp to be able to pick up the RSS feed, and started editing and scheduling posts to appear routinely every other Tuesday.

The first “send” came and I was delighted to see that the technology worked. I even emailed the client and the contributing writer to celebrate.

That’s when it happened.

In all my setting up of a process, I neglected to carefully proofread the piece. The first paragraph somehow showed up twice. Another small error appeared. And the joy of publication was marred by the obvious mistakes, and we had to put in place a plan to overcome the distractions–which we did, successfullly.

In the end, all worked out just fine.

But it was worth thinking about what happened in order to grow. As I reflected, the following came to mind:

My focus on developing a good system blinded me to catching an obvious error.
My focus on process kept me from asking for help from another proofreader.
My “years of experience” in this type of project led to focus on efficiency over collaboration

My speed overcame accuracy.


My responsibilities were nearing the state of overwhelm (this all happened in a season of increased opportunity and decision making.)

Are systems, processes, experience and speed wrong? No. Without them, we’d be far less productive. But it’s easy to sacrifice collaboration, attentiveness, and consideration on the altar of efficiency.  

Perhaps the most important thing I learned was to understand my limits–to think through what I can do well over the long term, and to extend grace to myself and others.

How about you? Are you getting overwhelmed and finding yourself making more mistakes? What are you going to do about it?

If having some assistance would help you feel less overwhelmed, check out HOPE’s collaborative virtual assistance services.

 

HOPE Hint: A word on planning

 

 

 

 

Ancient Wisdom about Hard Work

Are you working hard today?

 

We welcome Rich Howard from Bibleverses.com, a site dedicated to bringing a free version of the Bible created specifically for users with vision disabilities. Rich shares verses on the topic of hard work, which may be timely if you are feeling some distraction or lack of motivation right now.  I’ve also added a few thoughts. Thanks Rich!

Sometimes you may lack the motivation to work hard or you may simply get discouraged about giving your best at whatever it is that you are doing. Below are five verses to give you the motivation you need to keep moving forward, even if it is the last thing you want to do.

Ecclesiastes 9: 9 – 10 Work with all your might

This verse encourages you that whatever it is you lay your hands on, do it with all your might. Don’t do it for the sake of earning an income or pleasing the employer, but know that it is a God given opportunity and if you give it your best, the Lord shall surely bless the work of your hands and use you to bless others.

Colossians 3: 23 – 24 Work as if you are working for the Lord

From this verse, we learn that in whatever you do, you should do it as if you are doing it unto the Lord and not to men. This should help you remember that God is your ultimate boss, and Provider. You do not need to just focus on the monetary rewards from the employer.

Proverbs 12: 11 No quick way to riches

This verse teaches that those who work hard will have plenty of bread, but those who follow worthless pursuits lack sense. In essence, if you want to be rich (which can be defined in lots of ways), then you must work for it and if you waste your time, then you will have nothing to show for it.

Genesis 2:15 Work is a divine institution

At the beginning of it all, God created man and placed him in the Garden of Eden so that he can work it and keep it. From this verse we see that work is essentially a divine institution and wherever God places your or whichever job He gives you, you should strive to “work it and keep it.”  Do your best.

2 Thessalonians 3: 10 – 12 No work, no food.

This verse places a heavy emphasis on the concept of earning your keep with the abilities that you have, and is worded in a way to take in consideration a person’s willingness to work. It’s understood that not everyone may have the physical ability to work at the same level as someone else, and God cares about our helping the poor.  However, an attitude of willingness to be productive in whatever way reasonable is a key character trait.

Want more wisdom? See more Bible Verses and other posts like this at BibleVerses.com.

Client Spotlight: Jon Verbeck

Fractional CFO and Business Consultant

 

Jon provides CFO services to companies who don’t need or have the budget for a full-time onsite CFO.  He has worked with hundreds of companies over the years, helping start-ups, troubled companies, and hyper-growth companies all manage the minefields of business, profit, efficiency and cash flow.  He believes all businesses have challenges and can do better and he loves helping them make huge improvements and thrive.  He also enjoys encouraging business owners in their personal goals.

How HOPE Unlimited supports Jon:

WordPress blog posting support including editing and finding photos
Linked In blogging
MailChimp email marketing
Creation of social media images and a social media library
Social media implementation
Platform building projects such as white papers and information pieces
Workflow suggestions

What Jon says about HOPE:

HOPE has been incredible resource for me.  Beth and her team has helped me take my business up a notch and allowed me to concentrate at what I’m best at.  She helps keep me on track with my goals and helps me get better, plus I’ve learned tips for improving my work flow (like how to keep my email in-box under control!)

What HOPE says about Jon:

Jon is a great client. He’s very collaborative and treats us like teammates. He’s  willing to listen to our suggestions. He cares about providing practical, helpful resources in a field that can often be confusing to small business owners, and has a desire to keep growing, learning, and serving others in unique ways. We’re thankful to be on his team!

Learn more at JonVerbeck.com

Five Ways to Make Your Email Signatures Work!

Use that valuable space wisely

When you sit down to a full-course meal, you start with an appetizer. This small plate awakens the taste buds and is an enjoyable opening to an entire dining experience. In fact, you can find restaurants that specialize in “tapas,” or small plate appetizers.

You have an opportunity to provide a professional “appetizer” nearly every day, in the form of your email signature and auto-responder messages.

Email signatures and auto responders are a great way to communicate to colleagues, clients, and those in your network–if they are done well.  Even these pieces of automatic communication reflect on your professionalism. Are you using them effectively?

Here are a few tips:

Make them complete but uncluttered.  Include your name, title, phone number if you feel it would be wise, and company URL. A copy of your company logo is also a nice touch. Add other links (i.e. to your social media profiles) carefully because it’s easy to make a signature too cluttered.  You might want to just simply direct people to your website and have all other connection points listed there.


Promote with grace. Your signature is an opportunity to gently point out a product or service that may be of value to others, or share links to your latest blog posts. Keep it streamlined though…don’t add a half page of sales copy. Sometimes signatures end up being longer than emails!

Recently, I’ve been on a quest to try a dynamic signature that automatically provides a link to my latest blog post. Since I use the desktop version of Outlook (via my Office 365 subscription) I was unable to use a cloud-based service such as Wisestamp. (But I recommend it if you use Gmail or other cloud-based email.)

Right now, Live Signatures is working for me. It gives me a quick prompt when opening a new email to download my latest RSS feed so my business signature can look like this, and include links to the most recent three blog posts.

Be warm. Some auto responders (i.e. for vacation) are clipped and cold. I once saw one that didn’t even spell out the message but used acronyms like “I’m OOTO.” (“out of the office.”) That type of response doesn’t communicate a desire to serve customers upon one’s return and is too casual for professional use.


Connect without cliches. One of my colleagues offers an easy link on his signature to set up a brief phone/video appointment with him if the person feels the need to take the conversation further. I don’t see that often, but it’s a unique reminder of his willingness to serve, and stands out from the typical list of links and social media profiles.


Be creative.  Sign your emails professionally but with sincere warmth. Avoid using a standard closing line like “Sincerely” on every email, and instead, add one unique to that particular email. Here are some other possibilities, depending on your industry:


Take care,
Blessings,
Warmly,
All the best,
Let’s talk again soon,
Regards,
Best wishes,
Enjoy your day,
Sincerely (can be cliche),
Gratefully,

Use your email signature as a valuable communication appetizer to showcase your personal brand and the ways you can help people. Just remember…it’s an appetizer…not the main course, and share it tastefully.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Grateful to my clients, readers, and social media followers

Happy Thanksgiving Week

Take Time to Refresh

Just a simple message as we launch into a holiday week. I hope you take some time to refresh, reflect and renew yourself. Take time to breathe and be grateful and I’ll be back again next week with more to help overwhelmed professionals excel!

 

Introducing HOPE Academy

HOPE Academy, an online school to help overwhelmed professionals excel, has launched a soft opening with its first course–and it’s free! More courses are planned on topics such as digging out from an overflowing email box, making your calendar work for you, and more.  Courses will be designed to be easy to enjoy in small segments–our free course should only take you about 30 minutes.

We’re using this season between now and the end of 2016 to get your feedback and grow excitement for this community. So, during the soft launch, anyone who enrolls and completes the first free course (including adding feedback in the discussion forum) will receive a free downloadable from our Conquer Your Calendar course–information normally available for a fee.

Click here and let us know what you think!

 

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