The Law of the Lid

 “No matter where you are in the leadership process, know this: the greater the number of laws you learn, the better leader you will become. Each law is like a tool, ready to be picked up and used to help you achieve our dreams and add value to other people.”

– John C Maxwell

John C . Maxwell has created 21 irrefutable laws of leadership. As we all know, leadership is an essential part of life, especially in the business world.  Among these 21 laws is the first law…

 The Law of the Lid

Essentially what the law of the lid says is that leadership acts as a lid to open up a person’s level of effectiveness or potential. The lower or higher the lid of this potential is determined by the individual’s ability to lead.  As John Maxwell states, “ Your leadership ability- for better or worse- always determines your effectiveness and the potential impact of your organization. The Law of the Lid encourages you to take a step back and determine exactly where your lid lies. Understand the effectiveness of your company, your team, and even yourself as an individual. In our world there is always room for improvement. What steps and sacrifices will you make to raise your lid?

5 Email Marketing Tips for You

 Whether you’re running a business or simply communicating with a friend or employer, marketing is just simply a part of life. We market our companies, products, and even ourselves on a daily basis. Even though there is a multitude of marketing platforms on the market these days, email marketing has still been proven to be one of the most successful methods.  However, as with all things in life, there are rules to email marketing. Here is a list of 5 email-marketing tips for you!

Tip #1: Creative and eye catching subject lines

-The subject line is the first thing a person will see when they receive that notification in their inbox. This is one of the top determining factors of whether or not a person will even open your email. You want your subject matter to be something catchy, funny, or attention grabbing.

Tip #2: Keep it short and to the point

-Lets be honest, no one really has time to read an email that is borderline novel length. Keep the body of your text short, sweet, and to the point. This way people are more likely to actually read the content rather than taking one look at the length and sending it straight to the trash.

Tip #3: Create a Template

-No one likes a boring text email. Create an email template that is eye catching and portrays the energy of your company! Not only with this draw in the attention of your recipient, it will also save you time and energy when sending emails out to multiple people.

Tip #4: Insert a Link

-There is no better way to drive traffic to your site than by including easy to click links! Rather than your email recipient having to go type your business into a search engine to find out information, it is simple one click away!

Tip #5: Include a call to action

-Tell your readers exactly what you expect them to do next! Instill the idea in their mind so that they are that much more likely to carry out your desired action.

Pinterest: Reaching the Top in The Social Media Empire

There are various forms of social media in our society today. However, one of the more prevalent forms of social media within online community is Pinterest. Pinterest is a web based and mobile application social media site that allows users of all genders, and ages to collect, share, and store various visual images to what they call pin boards. These visual images come from numerous resources such as stores, various brands, and even normal individuals striving to share their ideas. Users have the capability to organize their boards based on a specific category they would like their saved visual images to fall under. These categories typically fall under a central topic or theme. Some categories recommended by Pinterest itself are food and drink, sports, travel, tattoos, women’s fashion, quotes, home decor, etc. There are many other categories provided by Pinterest, yet users still have the ability to create their own. Pinterest also works together with several other social media sites, such as Facebook, in order to help users find friends that are also using Pinterest. This gives users the capability to follow these people and view the pin boards of their friends, as well as share the images that they have pinned to their board. All of these pins appear on a home page that displays the image itself, who repined the image, and the specific category board that the image was pinned to. Pinterest does not simply stop there. They also pick specific pins for individual users based on their previous views and images that they have repined. Pinterest users also have the ability to find the exact site the pin came from by simply clicking on the image twice. The image is then hyperlinked to the main source of the pin and will direct you to its page. This not only makes Pinterest a great source for users to find information easily, but also serves as a marketing tool for various companies and businesses. Pinterest is consistently generating more and more users, as well as becoming a household name. They appeal to the individual person as well as notable businesses through their creative and unique form of marketing. Pinterest has dramatically risen in the ranks of social media accounts, coming in right behind Facebook and Twitter. The site itself gets millions of views and increases its number of members daily. Their innovative and distinctive marketing strategies are something that hasn’t been brought to the table by an online community before. They have come a long way since their start up in 2010 with new marketing strategies and way of increasing customer loyalty. Due to the wild popularity of the site, I would say these strategies are definitely working in their best interest! With all of this being said, Pinterest is also a great way for individual businesses to marketing themselves in a unique a creative context! By posting pictures and pins hyperlinked to your webpage you can drive consumer interaction through the roof! So if you haven’t already, go check out Pinterest and give it a try for yourself! If nothing else you might just find browsing through the popular page a great way to spend your time!

How Is Your Workplace Productivity?

     Whether it is country, pop, or even rock and roll, we all have that one genre that really gets our blood pumping and brings a smile to our faces. Of course we jam out to our music in the car or during a visit to the gym. But do you listen to your favorite music at the office? That is simply unheard of, right? Actually, recent studies show that listening to your favorite music while completing a task is actually proven to increase productivity and creativity while simultaneously decreasing stress. Of course there is no magic song that will miraculously increase your productivity.
The magic behind the music is simple. Music makes us happy. Music encourages a release of dopamine in the pleasure center of the brain. This has a similar effect to eating a food you find pleasant. It is no surprise that the release of dopamine helps to counteract feelings of stress. We have all found ourselves stuck in a stressful situation that may cause us to make hasty decisions or possibly cause us to stray away from the decision making process as a whole. When we eliminate these negative feelings and replace them with positive feelings we allow ourselves to open ourselves up to multiple creative thoughts and actually analyze the tasks at hand. As with all things, listening to music in the work place has its limits. It can be very easy to slip in a pair of headphones all day and retreat into your own little world. This can be an obvious no-no when dealing with client or coworker interaction. However, a short 15-minute break to listen to your favorite songs and refocus attention has the ability to drastically change your mood and mindset for the day. After all, a happy mind is a healthy mind. So why not give it a try? Next time you are feeling stressed or mediocre in the workplace slip in a pair of headphones and put on a song you enjoy. Besides lifting your mood, you might just find yourself more productive than ever.

Rise and Shine! Take on the Morning Feeling Well Rested and Ready to Go.

We all know those select few people who hit the ground running as soon as that alarm clock makes its first morning wail. These people seem to have all the energy in the world before their first sip of coffee. Then, there are the rest of us. We are the incessant snooze button worshipers. The people who have the daily, morning battle between looking presentable for work or just 15 more minutes of sleep. We look to those chipper morning people like they surely can't be human. But, what if we could all become “morning people”? What if we could constantly wake up feeling well rested and ready to take on the day? Thanks to a new application called Sleep Cycle this distant dream can now become a reality. How can a phone application make me feel more rested you may ask? This app works by tracking your sleep cycles throughout the night. Each sleep cycle can last about 90 minutes, varying from light sleep to the deepest sleep (REM). The application allows you to set a wake up phase between 10 and 90 minutes long. This is the range of acceptable times you would be willing to wake up. By simply choosing your preferred settings and placing your smart phone under your body while you sleep the application can track your body’s movement and determine exactly which sleep phase you are in. When the phone detects movement that indicates you are in a light sleep cycle during your desired wake up phase it will sound an alarm. Waking up in a lighter sleep cycle allows you to feel more rested and rise easier than if you were to have your typical alarms go off during a deep sleep cycle.  The application even generates graphs showing exactly which sleep cycle you were in at a specific time of night. Thanks to our constant innovations in technology, becoming a “morning person” may no longer be such a far-fetched dream. Download the Sleep Cycle app and give it a try. You may just wake energized and ready to take on the world!

Don’t Waste Your Summer

You can feel it in the air, quite literally, that summer is here. The weather is heating up and the humidity is rising like it’s nobody’s business. Even though it technically begins on June 21^st, also known as the Summer Solstice (you’ll thank me later when you get that trivia correct), society has begun summer after Memorial Day. The “Summer Sales” ads have been airing for a few weeks so we’ll take some liberties in announcing that summer is here…now what?

Whether it is for you or your kids, make sure that you don’t waste your summer! It can be so easy to blink and it be Labor Day. I know what you’re thinking “my job won’t give me 3 months off for summer, how can I take advantage of summer?” The best ways that I’ve found to work in summer fun with actual work is do the little things. Take your lunch break outside underneath some shade, go for an early morning run in the cool air, do family activities at night and on the weekends.

The last one in that list is the most important. Make time for family time. Your kids are out of school and want to find fun things to do! Go to a baseball game, head to the lake for a day, take a mini 3 day vacation over the weekend. Or, if you are looking to stay at home, have a picnic in your backyard for dinner, grill out with friends, go to a park in the evening and play some sports. The possibilities are endless and the weather (other than the dreaded 2:00-5:00 pm 100 degree weather) usually is very pleasant and allows for great fun.

Your kids are also a huge part of your summer plans. If you work in the day, make sure that they aren’t sleeping away their summers. If they are old enough, try to get them to go apply for a summer job, put them in camps for a few weeks to get active, and something that my mom would do during the summers would be give us a chores list. **Gasps** Yes, chores lists are a great way to get your kids to learn responsibility in the summer. If they are going to be home for the day make them a list before you leave and give them an incentive to get it done before you get back. They will learn responsibility and ownership of their things and it will help them serve you when you are not home.

Above all, make sure you and your family are using their time efficiently during the summer and not wasting days. Don’t get into a “lazy summer” mindset because it is very hard to break out of. Grow closer to one another in your family and make time for lasting memories. Don’t forget a camera and the sunscreen!!   

Don't forget to share this article with your favorite friends and family.  They may need some help this summer!  Have a super summer!