This is a simple mantra that is going to change the way you attend every meeting and every conference for the rest of your life.

You probably don’t have to be there. No gun held to your head, after all. So, why are you spending the time?

A simple but powerful question. Use your time wisely and if you go, make the best and most of your time there.

If there isn’t a good reason, go home. If there is, then do something. Loud, now and memorable. Productive too, please.

A side note.
I like Seth Godin’s blog and his style with fairly short posts, 200-300 words.

I hate your job has an interesting post about Personal Mission Statements: Way Cool where it says something well worth to remember and consider:

Do you realize that the average person spends more time planning a vacation than they spend planning their life?

In another post, An Explosion of Purpose and Fulfillment, comes good advice:

Avoid putting in fluff and buzzwords unless you’re a corporation–try to create a document that really focuses on actions that you can perform each day and that are meaningful to you.

I work as a coach and am working on some pitches for that:
• I make the world a better place, one person at a time.
• I help people change their life for the better.
• I help people find and attain their goals.

Here are some interesting openings from The Life Coaching Handbook
• Call me only if you are serious abut making the changes you have always wanted to make.
• I am a magician. I reawaken dreams and make them come true.
• I am in show business – I show you how to achieve the life you want.

I avoid using the word coach because then people already have a label for me and stop listening. My intention is to make them interested enough to ask more.

See also:
Elevator pitch – Networking pitch
Hook, line and sinker
Mission Statement Builder

The authors post about the e-book at their blog, ChangeThis Manifesto “I Am The Walrus” Released!.

The possibility of finding and spreading remarkable ideas, creating great things, and sharing them with others represents a wealth of opportunity (largely untapped). We hope that reading our manifesto helps you figure out your brand; that it encourages you to take some risks and be extraordinary. It’s easy to stay put and avoid change, but when you look back will you wish you’d said yes to do something different? We chose to say yes and we are doing something different…with a little help from our friends.

There is a series of “I Me Mine” that continue the process from the e-book.

JibberJobber One Thing is a Yahoo Group that you can join to receive ONE email a day. The email will have ONE suggestion of something you can do for your career that day. It will be very, very short (one or two sentences) and actionable (something you can do that day).

I like the concept of one actionable idea a day and I have signed up. So can you, just go to JibberJobber One Thing.

The first post is Changing Your Mind and I love the post intro:

How to have the freedom and flexibility to live the life you want.

This first post covers ‘Deconstructing six figures’ and ‘Why a six figure target?’ creating a foundation for the goal and the other posts.

The second post is Reboot Your Career and deals with switching career:

If you’re not overly attached to your current job and would be willing to switch it for something better, this route is for you. Some of the things that prevent us from pursuing new and better jobs really don’t matter as much as you think.

The third post is Re-inventing What You Have, published June 30. This post is about how you can earn six figures by supplementing your current work, or by replacing it with a non-freelance alternative.

For me earning six figures is not an important goal in itself. I am following my passion, Key Coaching, money comes second. I use the concept from the third post, employee part time and then working on my coaching business on the side. Long term goal is that I shall grow my coaching business big enough to be able to drop my current work.

Additonal reading.
Over at Freelance Folders is a related post, At what point is it acceptable to say, “I’m an expert in my field”? At what point can you confidently charge $100 an hour?

Note: Photo by jenn_jenn.

Over at TheChangeBlog is a great post about How to Sharpen Your Networking Skills.

Jonathan Mead has 10 Tips for Effective Networking.

wakeuplater writes about 5 Mindsets to Reshape Your Networking. I like this part:

Instead of fitting people into your goals, find out what their big dreams are, and try helping them out.

JibberJobber has Thom Singer’s 66 Tips for Better Networking (the complete list!).

Chris Garret posts Thoughts on Reciprocation, where should the line be drawn?

In Make Your Network Links Strong Like Bull is a really good point:

How often do you follow up from a networking event, or a Social Networking connection by asking someone what you can do … FOR THEM? How often do you offer to give first, without asking for anything in return?

For more on networking, see my Networking Tips.

Through midnight, May 19th you can upgrade for $99 and get 24 months of premium features. This means that each month will cost just $4.13, instead of $9.95.

Congratulations to Jason and JibberJobber!

For decades, the only way to spread our ideas was to buy expensive advertising or beg the media to write (or broadcast) about our products and services. But now our organizations have a tremendous opportunity to publish great content online—content that people want to consume and that they are eager to share with their friends, family, and colleagues.

It is a great read about viral marketing or word-of-mouse, how it can help you promote yourself or your company for free. There are examples of viral marketing such as eBooks and videos at YouTube. There is also a word of warning:

The power of the Internet makes it easier for people to fall in love with you faster. But beware—it also makes it easier for them to fall out of love with you faster.

The story of Website Grader by HubSpot and HubSpot’s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog is one of the examples, an interesting concept.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.
Warren Buffett (Investment Entrepreneur)

What will YOU do differently?

Your elevator pitch is your 30-second marketing strategy. You need it to tell people on the fly at any given moment who you are, what you do, and help win them over – or at the very least, gets them to remember you so they can refer you to their friends. A good elevator pitch lands new clients, gets referrals, or makes you memorable.

I am working on my own elevator pitch, need one for my coaching business. The post above is a good start, so is my own post Elevator pitch – Networking pitch.

Note: Photo by ToastyKen.