Karen Post

It sure can. Research shows that people who are happy are healthier and wealthier. Think about how much more energy you have when you feel great, you got a big new client, you are in love, you accomplished something difficult, it’s better than two shots of B12. And happy people experience less stress and attract other happy people which create a domino effect of momentum.

Identity small things that make you happy and do them  often. You will see a difference in your business, your support team and your life.

Here are a few things that make me happy.

• Going to an awesome movie.
• Hearing one of my favorite songs.
• Feeling the sun.
• Endorphins from exercise.
• Winning a tennis match.
• Smelling garlic cooking.
• Completing a tough project.
• Getting a massage.

The cool thing is, I can make all of these happen.

What are some small things that make you happy?
Now go make them happen.

Also, be sure to check out: Celebrate love being an entrepreneur everyday.

This week, our team has produced 7 articles for your success. For those of you who might have missed them – some of us are busy as hell during the week! – here is your weekly OWW-UP:

1 – In Liar Liar is your brand on fire, Joe Melle digs into the evolution of advertising over the past 50 years, focusing on infomercials. Joe wonders how marketing professionals look at their peers’ work. He also questions the extent to which Ethic impacts infomercials messages and he challenges every one of us to think twice about the way we communicate about our products? See Joe’s post here.

2 – In Leadership: the quality of your presence, Thomson Dawson highlights how leadership is an effect of a quality presence. He tells us why determined people are time-oriented and how they get to the next step. See Thomson’s post here.

3 – In Business Requirements Doc & Website Dev RFP Example, Karen Post follows up her last week article How Two Websites Almost Killed a Baby. Our CEO tells us what Oddpodz has learnt in IT adding some insights from Allen Clary and Brian Burridge

See Karen’s post here and download Business Requirements and Oddpodz Request for Proposal as examples.

4 – In Why you should master the art of “downloading people”?, Kenji Crosland develops the concept of “downloading people” – or how to get as many pieces of information from anyone as you can. Among the tips Kenji gives us: don’t focus on narrow objectives and remember that everyone has valuable information. See Kenji’s post here.

5 – In If it ain’t broke, break it…, Jocelyn Rings gives us 7 lessons she implements while brainstorming. Through the story of the successful startup SeamlessWeb, Jocelyn’s advices make a lot of sense for those of us who live through a continuous brainstorming mode! See Jocelyn’s post here.

6 – In How QR barcodes make it easy to attract & keep new online friends, Lauren Angrick shows us a Japanese way to communicate through mobile devices which is going worldwide at the speed of light! See Lauren’s post here

7 – Lauren brings it back in A little known way to spruce up your Facebook page for free. In this post, she adds up a great tool to the Oddpodz FREE biz findz blog with Facebook TabSite. A website that allows you to create for free a tab within your Facebook pages. See Lauren’s second post of the week here

Seven days, seven posts! The O-team has given its best for your success. Which insight has been the most helpful for you this week?

OK, now that I have your attention, let me clarify my message. I’m not suggesting anyone break the law, take what is not yours or do drugs. I am though highly recommending that you start embracing these 3 moves to accelerate your business achievement.

1) Cheat time.

We all have 86,400 seconds or 24 hours in day, so how come some people get so much more done?

People that work from a plan, instead of on the fly, overwhelmingly accomplish more. If you are not a big planner, just start by setting small goals for the week a head of you. Write down your three top goals by Sunday, before your week starts. Or at least start using lists to become more productive. I’m a list junkie and share some of my best lists in our learning estore.

Don’t check your email every 2 minutes. This is a monumental, modern-day time sucker. Turn off the auto send and receive too. You will be amazed by how this one simple action can add 2 more hours to your day, every day.

Eliminate time-wasting people from your life. Don’t kill them off, just learn to say no and don’t hang out with them. If they are not adding value to your world, adios amigos! If these folks are clients, work on better qualifying them before start sharing your time and energy.

2) Steal from history.

Pay attention to patterns of other highly successful people and companies. What do they do? How do they think? What do they not do? This is one of the cheapest, most honest ways anyone can speed up their success. Read biographies about other super star entrepreneurs, listen to them being interviewed and observe their actions. Write the evidence down and apply what works to your situation. Don’t forget annual reports too. Publicly traded companies spill a lot of their beans of success, go pick them up!

3) Be an obsessive crack head.

Push one additional ounce, go the extra degree or ramp it up one tiny crack more. A hair, a second and crack is the difference between a Olympic gold metal winner and 2^nd place. Become an obsessed, addict to raising the bar by a sliver more. This small distinction between mediocre and masterful is huge. Practice this discipline on everything you do, from customer service, your product quality, to a kind gesture you deliver to an employee or business relationship and also amp up own personal standards too. Be a proud crack head.

Is there anything surprising or unexpected that you’ve done to score more success recently. If so, please share.

CBS’s 10Connect in Tampa filmed a segment on Oddpodz. Interns Sarah, Justin and Baptiste got walk on roles.

Check out the broadcast segment.

Trying to get publicity on your business can be a grueling effort. You are competing with every organization out there, the news professionals are many times extreme stress baskets and under huge deadlines, and then there’s the $2 million dollar question “what is really news worthy?”.

This past week I called one of the local news stations about doing a feature on Oddpodz. I reached the morning show producer, but unfortunately, she was putting out a fire and gave me about 15 seconds to tell her our story. At the end of my sprint pitch, she requested, why don’t you email me something. “Great” I replied, “it’s on its way”.

I sent her a brief, to -the-point note about our company and three angles that may light her fire. I knew her show was a mix of stay-at-home businesses and professionals on their way to work. I attempted to appeal to those audiences.

A couple days passed. No word from my contact at the station, should I call her, email her again or blow it off?

I rationalized, sure she’s busy, but they all need news and our company is newsworthy—so I picked up the phone and followed up.

Man, I’m glad I did. When I got her on the line, she recalled the company and me. She politely said, “I do remember seeing the information and I also remember accidentally throwing it out. Can you send it again?” Sure can.

I resent the info, waited another day and called her again. This time she was very attentive, had questions and said, “sounds like a perfect story for Monday’s morning news, we’ll send cameras today and can you be at the your office at 4:30 AM Monday for a live feed too?” Absolutely!

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For all the doubters and naysayers, social media can bring in the Benjamins. In fact, for my consulting practice, Brain Tattoo Branding, Twitter scored an exciting, new, six-figure assignment.

So how did it happen?
First, you’ve got to be signed up. It’s easy and painless. If you are clueless to the new world of Twitter, watch the video on the Twitter web site and also check out these excellent books on the subject.

All A Twitter by Tee Morris

Twitter for Dummies by Laura Fitton, Michael Gruen and Leslie Poston

Secondly, you need to understand what Twitter is and is not. In a bird shell, Twitter is a micro blog that enables you to post and read “tweets.” A tweet is a text message in a concise, less than 140-character format. A tweet post has no content boundaries other than length. You can tweet or twitter anything, from a question, a quote, an opinion; a status on what you are doing, feeling or about to do; share resources, or dish an experience.

Twitter is a real-time communication channel for personal and business purposes. It is intended to adhere to the new social media etiquette and be more about dialogue and helping rather than hard selling. But, like many things in life, there are always a few bird brains that don’t seem to get that part.

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No matter what your budget is you can launch this priceless campaign and start reaping the rewards right away.

Say thank you to your customers, your employees, your prospects and your vendors. And not just when you like what they dished out.

When they do business with you
When they compliment your company
When they offer suggestions
When they try something new
When they recommend a friend
When they are patient
When they help you serve them better
When they complain
When they make you smile

If you have a budget, say it with a note, a gift, a card, a phone call, a meal or with a personal visit. Emails count but, not as much.

Thank you for reading this blog.