Personal development

Automate your life (I love Technology)

This will be an occasional topic as I try to share how adapted certain technologies to automate (and simplify) my life.

For years I sought technological answers to remembering things, and keeping important information safe, and especially not writing something down twice - I hate that.

Today I want to tout GSpace - one of the coolest ‘toys’ I found lately.

I have a GMail account - so do millions of people - which I only used for GTalk (IM) and as an alternative email address.

But at the bottom of my inbox it always said “You are using 5MB of your 6559MB available”.

Now don’t misunderstand - I have a wonderful account at Joyent where I have lots of storage. Buy why not take advantage of Google’s generosity?

I realize there are security issues with Google - so I don’t mean I’m going to store my important things but backup some photos and videos I shot with my digital camera.

So today I discover GSpace, a Firefox (or ick IE) extension that gives you a file explorer window in your browser that allows you to easily copy files to your GMail account.

It literally took about 10 seconds to download and install the ‘widget’ - and I am copying files as I type.

So take advantage of that free storage space - GSpace makes it easy!

Comment?

Using “Google Alerts” as a Sales Prospecting Tool

As some of you know, I’m the highly introverted (INFP) who is also a Sales and Marketing director for a company that sells both nationally and internationally.

So, this tells us that I really, really, really dislike sales prospecting — at least in the stereotypical ‘pick up the phone and cold call’ ‘sales hunter’ way. I’m always looking for ways to find prospects in unorthodox ways.

One of these is spelled out in my article Cold Calling for Introverts where I detail a means of using the phone that won’t cause an introvert to want to lie down and die.

I found another one yesterday — it’s called Google Alerts and, as with most Google tools, it’s simple to understand and use.

In a nutshell (“look, I’m in a nutshell!”), you add some relevant search terms, tell it how often you’d want to be alerted and enter your email address. Poof! A Google-formatted email appears in your inbox full of relevant goodness!

Now, you may be saying, “Thank God Almighty! I see the light!” and others may be saying “So?”.

Let’s give some examples. Let’s say you work in state and local government sales in water purification. You depend on RFPs (Requests for Proposals) so in the Google Alert box enter government, RFP, water, purification — from that moment you will receive everything Google finds that references those terms.

Or if you sell large equipment to transportation companies, create an alert with the words heavy, equipment, fortune 500 or whatever makes sense to you.

Be careful not to fill the alert with too many words or you may miss opportunities because you’ve been overly specific. Keep it general — it may be better to create more than one alert that covers different aspects of your field and customers.

Now you may get immediate gratification and you may not — but it’s a lot quicker and easier than hunting for these manually. Let me know how this works for you by commenting or email me.

Comment? [2]

Fear of Speaking

For many years I’ve worked with people who are afraid of public speaking. I firmly believe this fear arises from an overabundance of self-consciousness. Which leads us to tonight’s email call for help.

Mr. Warfield,

I am willing to give anything a shot right now to make my ability to speak in public better. This is my last semester in college and I have to take oral communications.

My first speech was horrible. My voice cracked, I skipped half of my information (not because I didn’t know it but because I just wanted to be done), I literally felt like I was going to pass out.

I am a very shy and quiet person beyond public speaking. I have tried practicing on other people and in the mirror and I still have the same symptoms when I do that.

I have so much stress and anxiety built up because I HAVE to do this to graduate and I just don’t feel like I can. I mean how many people actually stess out and get nervous talking to themselves in the mirror. Please Help!!!

And I answer:

This really, really brings back memories because years ago I taught speech in college and often got people like you who waited till their senior year to take this course. One of my worst memories is having to flunk a senior who never showed up for class.

First, this type of anxiety is very common but arises from being too self-conscious. This level of self-consciousness comes from an inner self-critical voice that says, “why would anyone listen to me; I am not worth listening to”. The solution to this is some serious self-examination that may be beyond the scope of passing your class.

So I will make some practical suggestions for speeches but I STRONGLY recommend that you get some help in re-examining and re-assessing your self image for the long term or people will take advantage of you all your life.

Okay – this may sound over-simplified but one thing you must do is learn your material so well through extreme repetition that you could do it even if you DID pass out. This level of familiarity will help you keep going even when anxious.

This type of stress is generated by an overabundance of stress hormones (fight or flight) that can most easily be dealt with through activity. Schedule your speech first if possible and spend the time before class walking up and down stairs till you are winded.

This may seem strange but you are dealing with the physical effects of the stress hormones; combined with over-preparation of your material SHOULD allow you to get through your presentation.

Also remember that the people listening to you are in the exact same boat as you and, while it may seem a cliché, misery loves company.

Best wishes,

Hal Warfield

Influence

Have you ever wished you could get others to agree with you? Do you ever find yourself agreeing with someone that you wish you hadn’t? Like maybe a telemarketer or other annoying individual?

I CAN’T find his email address! Simple methods of finding email addresses online

In this day and age, the old maxim is true – it’s not what you know, it’s whom you know. But often times you can use what you know to find someone you need to know. What does this mean?

The point of this article is to help you find a person’s email address simply by knowing a couple of pieces of information about them.

What Should I Do with My Life?

This is not exactly a review of Po Bronsen’s new book but more my notes and personal reactions to the book.

My notes are in italics. Enjoy!

Hal