7 Ultimate Skills For Cash Flow

 

1. High EQ

EQ stands for emotional intelligence quotient, and your emotional intelligence determines how well you relate to other people, your ability to put yourself in other’s shoes, and your ability to build rapport. It’s important when you’re managing or working with a team, in networking, in understanding workplace politics and really any time you need to interact with a co-worker or client. In other words: it’s invaluable to develop these skills. You can improve your EQ by mindfully practicing putting yourself in another’s shoes, for example, to practice empathy and understanding.

2. Communication Skills

You might have the most brilliant ideas in the room, but if you aren’t able to effectively communicate those ideas, you’ll never get anywhere. Being able to communicate clearly is vital to working with managers, teams, and clients. You can start improving your communications skills by studying the words and phrases you should never use, and paying more attention to what you say.

3. Decision Making

A decisive person is going to be desirable in any position, at any level, and the ability to make decisions is especially important the higher up you climb on the ladder. Taking forever to decide, procrastinating by doing unnecessary research, or avoiding making decisions altogether aren’t a good way to get ahead anywhere. Practice being decisive and demonstrating your decision making abilities to get ahead.

4. Integrity

Integrity at work means owning your mistakes, doing what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it, acknowledging when new information means you’re wrong, and being willing to say, “I don’t know.” People will respect and trust a person much more who has a reputation for integrity than someone who never admits he’s wrong or always puts the blame on others.

5. Drive

Having drive doesn’t have to mean working 80 hours per week or volunteering for every extra project. Instead, demonstrating that you have drive could mean consistently working hard while you’re at work. It could mean having the initiative to continue your education in your field or go the extra mile for a project. It demonstrates that you’re committed to your work, and that’s very attractive to employers and managers.

6. Focus

Maintaining focus is an extremely important skill, whether we’re talking about focusing on a single task at hand or on your long-term objectives. It also means not getting sidetracked by “shiny object syndrome” or by what seems easy or expedient.

7. Balance

Perhaps most importantly, the key to a successful career in any job is maintaining a healthy balance. Only you can determine what makes a healthy balance for you, but it’s vital to balance your career with those things that will make you truly happy.
These are my picks for the top seven skills that are essential to career success, but they’re certainly not the only ones. What soft skills would you add to the list?

Life-Changing, Money Making Books To Grab This Year

What's one of the best resolutions you can make for the new year? To read more. Yes... I know you're already busy enough as it is, but even adding in just *15 minutes of reading a day can help you:

• Reduce stress
• Slow progress of and possibly prevent Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia
• Expand your vocabulary and improve writing skills
• Boost your knowledge
• Improve your memory
• Strengthen analytical thinking skills
• Improve focus and concentration
• Foster creativity, imagination, and new ideas

To help you create a reading list for 2015 that's filled with the most motivating, educational, and worthy books out there, I talked to 12 entrepreneurs and business professionals to get their recommendations on what you absolutely must read in the new year.
And whether you hit all 12 (a damn-fine goal) or even just a couple, know that with every word you read, you're bettering yourself, your mind, and your business -- and that's a year-long resolution you can be incredibly proud of.
Check out the top 12 books to read in 2015 below:

1. The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz

Joey Wilhelm, vice president of technology at Scott's Marketplace, says, "The best way I can describe this book is that it contains four agreements to make with yourself about how to live your life in order to make it suck less. Keeping these four simple things in mind every day has improved every aspect of my life, both personally and professionally, and I find new ways to apply them daily. I can truly say that I would not be who I am today, and in the position that I am, without the guidance provided in this book."

2. How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie

Michael Maguire, principal of Michael Maguire Consulting, believes this book's teachings are timeless and beneficial to all small business owners. He says, "Old school I know, but no less valuable in terms of effectively and easily managing customers, vendors, and staff."

3. Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One's Looking), Christian Rudder

Daniel Leeman, entrepreneur, recommends this book, written by the founder of OkCupid, because it "shares fascinating insights about the human condition, drawn from the millions of users on the OkCupid dating website. Equally important is its focus on big data, and I believe it paints an exciting picture for the future for small businesses to transform aggregate data into meaningful stories."

4. Rework, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Since long books can often feel overwhelming to business owners with packed schedules, Matt Simpson, a sales and marketing consultant, is recommending Rework, which he says is more of a daily meditation book for entrepreneurs. "It provokes enough thought to push buttons without overwhelming the already-taxed mind. Read one passage every morning and spend five minutes reflecting. Perhaps, like me, you’ll be inspired too."

5. Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, Herminia Ibarra

Cindy Boynton, vice president of operations at Scott's Marketplace, notes, "The saying goes 'Think first, then act' but this book challenges you to do the opposite: act first, then think. Learning from your experiences and your environment is a great way to learn about yourself and your business. As a small business owner, you are more inclined to think first because there is so much to take into consideration before doing. Take a chance by reading this book and challenging your leadership style while building your small business."

6. Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits, Greg Crabtree

As entrepreneur and CEO of web design company, Crosshatch Creative, John Durso strongly recommends Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits to new entrepreneurs. He says, "The author is a CPA and business owner, and the book makes business finance and the effect of your decisions on your business very, very clear. I'd give anything to have read this two years ago starting out."

7. The Four Steps to the Epiphany, Steve Blank

"This is probably the most influential book I’ve read as far as relevancy to starting a tech company," says Scott Curry, founder of Scott's Marketplace. "The customer development process is something that I completely endorse and strongly recommend. You have to build a company on what your customers need, not what you think they want."

What is Big Data and What is Ontology?

Much of this can be found on the Web. I have tried to consolidate the most important points and of course added my two cents. I would suggest anyone that believes the Big Data trends needs to understand the role Ontology will play going forward.

In computer science and information science, an ontology formally represents knowledge as a hierarchy of concepts within a domain, using a shared vocabulary to denote the types, properties and interrelationships of those concepts.
Ontologies are the structural frameworks for organizing information and are used in artificial intelligence, the Semantic Web, systems engineering, software engineering, biomedical informatics, library science, enterprise bookmarking, and information architecture as a form of knowledge representation about the world or some part of it. The creation of domain ontologies is also fundamental to the definition and use of an enterprise architecture framework.

As it relates to the Big Data trend:

Ontology claims to be to applications what Google was to the web. Instead of integrating the many different enterprise applications within an organization to obtain, for example, a 360 degrees view of customers, Ontology enables users to search a schematic model of all data within the applications. They extract relevant data from a source application, such as a CRM system, big data applications, files, warranty documents etc. These extracted semantics are linked into a search graph instead of a schema to give users the results needed.







Ontology gives users a different approach in using enterprise applications, removing the need to integrate the different applications. It allows users to search and link applications, databases, files, spreadsheets, etc. anywhere. The product of Ontology is very interesting because in the past years a vast amount of enterprise applications for various needs and with various requirements have been developed and used by organizations. Integrating these applications to obtain a company-wide integrated view is difficult, expensive and often not without risks.

Why is it important?
It eliminates the need to integrate systems and applications when looking for critical data or trends.

How is it applied and what are the important elements that make it all work?

Ontology uses a unique combination of an inherently agile, graph-based semantic model and semantic search to reduce the timescale and cost of complex data integration challenges. Ontology is rethinking data acquisition, data correlation and data migration projects in a post-Google world.

10 Digital Marketing Trends For 2015

Here’s what the experts had to say when I asked them which digital marketing trends they see dying in 2015 and which trends they see catching more steam.

1. Get Ready For Paid Social

2015 will see both the death of unreasonable expectations from organic social media and the corresponding further growth of paid social.
Countless business owners have come up to me and said that they’re doing everything they should be doing on social media but achieving little, if any, results.
This is happening because every business owner is competing for your attention against other people as well as bigger brands with more resources to spend on both organic and paid social.
If social media was made for people and not for businesses, businesses will always be at a disadvantage. This disadvantage is clear today and the only way to both beat your competition and compensate for those disadvantages is to establish a budget for paid social to supplement your organic storytelling.

Neal Schaffer

Founder, Maximize Social Business

http://maximizesocialbusiness.com/

@nealschaffer

2. Content Libraries Are The New Attraction

I see the act of list building via the single bait piece such as an eBook going away and being replaced with the use of content libraries that attract community members.
In other words, instead of signing up to get blog posts or a generic email newsletter, list builders will offer access to a growing library of useful information that someone will join and consume based on the content that interests them most.

John Jantsch

Founder, Duct Tape Marketing

http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/

@ducttape

3. Communities Will Overtake Pages

As social networks like Facebook gear more and more towards “pay to play”, more people are gravitating towards platforms, groups and communities that allow for one-on-one conversations with others and a feed that is minimally “filtered”.
Awesome organic reach on Facebook is still possible and you can get great results with paid ads but the hey-day of businesses solely relying on a profile or page has passed.
Across social networks there is a shift towards Facebook and LinkedIn Groups, Google+ communities, Twitter chats, Pinterest boards and hashtag conversations. It’s a shift back to conversations that we control vs. newsfeeds that are out of our control.
It’s in our DNA to tell stories, connect, debate and discuss. It makes sense to me that we will see marketers get creative to find more “human” ways of interacting with fans and pay more attention to platforms that allow more direct communication. It’s a more enjoyable interaction, builds trust and ultimately results in sales and revenue.

Donna Moritz

Founder, Socially Sorted

http://sociallysorted.com.au/

@sociallysorted

4. The Death of Silo Marketing

Silo marketing will die by necessity in 2015 and rightfully so. Silo marketing in social media began early on as businesses gravitated to one social network and focused solely on that platform for their marketing. This was the restaurant that only had a Facebook Page or the business that had a great YouTube channel but nothing else.
In 2015, that doesn’t work…it’s about integration.
Content on your blog is critical. It must be amplified and engaged with on social media to drive visitors back to your site where lead capture moves them into your email nurture process! Content, social media and email will all work in tandem to deliver results.

Mike Gingerich

Founder, Tabsite

https://www.tabsite.com/

@mike_gingerich

5. Pinterest Is Out, Instagram Is In

I have noticed a distinct drop in the interest and discussions around Pinterest recently and a sharp rise in folks interested in Instagram. As a caveat, I have never been very good at Pinterest as I’m a B2B company servicing B2B clients.
I find this rather fascinating, as they are both similar and absolutely reliant on visuals. From what I can see in my very focused world, for some reason, Instagram is pulling ahead of the game and that’s where I’ll be investing more of my time in 2015.

Viveka Von Rosen

Author, LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour A Day

http://linkedintobusiness.com/

@LinkedInExpert

6. Social Media-Specific Campaigns Are No More

One digital marketing trend that I think is dying is social-media specific campaigns. In 2014 we started to see a small shift in businesses no longer using Facebook to host their apps (campaigns) but a majority of businesses were still relying on the single social network as their “hub.”
In 2015, I believe we’ll see a big shift towards businesses being “platform-agnostic” and using campaigns that work everywhere with differing levels of engagement.
Zipcar UK is an example of a business who stopped hosting their campaigns on Facebook and embedded them on their website instead. As a result, their participation has increased 717% and campaign page visits have increased 203%.
Building a marketing campaign for multiple channels is expensive and with audiences expanding their presence, businesses will shift their offerings to be “everywhere” so their messages can be seen.

Jim Belosic

CEO, ShortStack

http://www.shortstack.com/

@shortstacklab

7. No More Algorithm Chasing

The trend I hope that is dying in 2015 is lazy marketers chasing the Facebook algorithm. You should be aware of it and pay attention to changes, but chasing the algorithm is like a dog chasing its tail. It leads to nothing but heartache and pain.
In 2015, I think we’re seeing businesses move back to posting more original content (videos, graphics and blog posts) and posting less memes and fluff on social media. We’ve lost the human touch on social media and it’s time we got it back!

Scott Ayres

Author, Facebook All-In-One For Dummies

http://postplanner.com

@scottayres

8. The Content Marketing Revolution

I see a lot of social media marketers shifting towards re-branding themselves as content marketers in 2015.
This is part of a bigger trend among all kinds of marketers, especially search optimizers and PR professionals.
A year from now, when everyone calls themselves a content strategist, clients and employers will need to dig deeper to learn what the preferred channels are for that professional.
2015 will also be the year that people learn the difference between marketing automation and content marketing. Too many companies have signed up (and pay big money) for marketing automation tools but they’re really only using these tools as glorified email marketing systems.
This will be the year that businesses get smart about this. Many will cancel their marketing automation contracts and others will learn that they need to actually be active in marketing before it makes sense to automate it.
People who drank the kool aid are putting down their cups and realizing that they don’t need an expensive marketing automation platform to do content marketing. This will be a revelation for many businesses in the New Year.

Andy Crestodina

Author, Content Chemistry

http://orbitmedia.com

@crestodina

9. Paid Fans & Followers Services Will Die

The number one digital marketing trend I see dying in 2015 is the “get more fans & followers” trend. As crazy as it may sound, it’s still a goal too many businesses are pursuing. Don’t believe me? Go in Google Keyword Planner and check the volume of searches for “get more fans”, “get more followers” or even “buy followers”. You’ll be shocked.
This is not sustainable. Businesses will soon all realize that this was useless and that they need to take a different approach.
The trend I see growing in 2015 is that businesses will start to be much more selective with their social media efforts and reducing (or even stopping) them when no evidence of benefit can be demonstrated.
On the other hand, they’ll become smarter at figuring out what works and then focusing their energy there. The market is maturing and that’s a good thing!

Emeric Ernoult

Founder, AgoraPulse

http://www.agorapulse.com/

@eernoult

10. The Year of Social Advertising

2015 is the year of social advertising. Now that many of the social sites have some type of ad platform, and Facebook is basically requiring businesses to have some ad budget for anything promotional, it is time for business owners to understand social ads.
The targeting that you can do on social sites is amazing and businesses should be taking advantage of it. Plus, there is a great capability to track your conversions and understand which targeting and platform works best for you.
Understand how to do split testing, optimize your ads and track your conversions on each platform and you will be effective.

Andrea Vahl

Author, Facebook Marketing For Dummies

http://www.andreavahl.com

@andreavahl

Digital Marketing Trends For 2015: Key Takeaways

Telling Tales Poeple Can Never Forget

By telling this story from my point of view, my intention is to show you - rather than tell you - how memory works.

If you don't know how to tell a memorable story, you can't be an effective leader, can't raise money for a startup, can't be the number one sales professional, and can't even get your kids to listen.
My client didn't die; he slid 300 yards, regained his composure, and hiked back up the slope. After climbing a bit higher, we skied down without incident.
Dr. Carmen Simon is an expert in the science of memorable presentations. She and I just pooled our efforts to create a visual catalog of ten techniques that make communication memorable, five of which I used in this story:

• Evoke emotion
• Spark mental images
• Be shocking and visual
• Tell a story
• Exaggerate (mostly with the implication my client may have died)

We are not just talking about PowerPoint decks. These principles apply to the way you present ideas to colleagues, friends, relatives and casual acquaintances. Whether you are trying to sell a new idea to your boss or raise money for a charity, your first challenge is always to have the other person remember what you said.
Carmen reminds her clients that people remember just ten percent of what you tell them... you can't change this retention rate significantly, but you can influence what other people remember. The way you do this is to use one or more of these techniques in association with the 10% you most want others to remember.

Does Height Matter In Career ?

The average American man is 5’ 9”. Women are closer to 5’4".
The average 20th-century American president, on the other hand, is 6 foot. Nineteenth-century presidents were still taller, at 5' 10". In fact, in more than half of presidential elections, the taller candidate has gotten more popular votes.
It's no surprise that height is strongly correlated to success in professional sports like basketball, where how high one can reach is an explicit part of winning the game. But it's bothersome to think that we would vote for someone based on a physical attribute that has nothing to do with the job.
Are we heightist?


It sure seems like it. Statistics show that an extra inch of height translates to an average of $1,000 more annual income—the six foot man makes five grand more than his 5' 7" colleague.
On the other hand, it's well-known that Hollywood actors skew short—especially leading males. Robert Downey Jr., America's highest-paid actor at the time of this writing, is below average at 5' 8". Other high earners like Mark Wahlberg, Tom Cruise, and Zac Efron are below average. (One of my personal favorites, Kit Harrington aka Jon Snow, is 5' 8" as well.)
Film producer Brian Hennessey sums up a common explanation:

"The dynamic of 'shorter' actors is mostly a result of practicality. There is more of an abundance of actors and actresses of average height so they are easier to cast. They are also by and large easier to shoot. It is somewhat challenging to frame an actor who is 6 foot 3 inches when the rest of the cast averages 5 foot 9. This is especially true when a male actor is significantly taller than a female actor in a romantic themed story. There is also a number of stars who are uncomfortable working with actors who are significantly taller for fear of appearing too short. They can have a significant influence on the casting choices of a film. Then there is the aspect of taller men by and large choosing to participate sports over performing arts early on in school, thus leaving a smaller pool of skilled taller actors for films."

So, on the silver screen, being tall does not provide an advantage like it does in basketball—primarily because height can be made relative by the camera. And being smaller may make things easier on the cameraman. When you roll in social pressure from established short actors to not appear with tall actors, and the assumption that short people opt for high school drama club instead of volleyball, 6 foot up-and-comers may be at a casting disadvantage.
But all of that appears to be bollocks when you look deeper at the earning statistics. Seven of the top 10 highest paid actors last year are above average, and the majority over 6' 0".
Yikes.

The discussion of heightism and success in America mostly revolves around speculation like Hennessey's. We vote for the tall guy "because height conveys power." The short guy gets the leading role "because he's easier to work with"... except he makes less money and gets worse gigs than the tall guy. What a bunch of discriminating bastards, we are.


Fortunately, that's not true either. A few years ago, three economists, Nicola Persico, Andrew Postlewaite, and Dan Silverman, tackled heightism from a clever statistical angle. Controlling for family background, they looked at workers' heights and earnings—which were correlated as highly as race and gender earning disparities—and then investigated how tall those workers were as teenagers.
That data yielded something remarkable:
"Controlling for teen height essentially eliminates the effect of adult height on wages," they wrote. "The teen height premium is not explained by differences in resources or endowments."


In other words, how tall you are now actually has nothing to do with how much money you will earn; it's how tall you were in high school that matters.
Notably, the economists found that height as a pre-teen or child did not correlate to future success. Only during those crucial, awful, self-conscious pubescent years where we struggle to "find ourselves" does height play a pivotal role in our future earnings.
The crucial difference between more and less successful people, it appears, is not height, but what height bestows at age 15: confidence. And just like getting started in sports early correlates to higher chances of professional success, a confident teenager will do more, get more, and be more confident at age 40 than an anxious one.

How To Explore God's Secrets To Success

God is widely believe in by the vast majority of people, but for all intents and purposes we live as if the divine is irrelevant to the duties and challenges of everyday life. I felt that a change of attitude was urgently needed, which led me to write a book, The Future of God, where this new conception can be fully laid out. What would make God useful isn't found "out there" in the rituals, dogmas, and orthodox beliefs that most people focus on when they approach religion. "In here" are aspects of consciousness that connect us to our source, and that source is God.

Therefore God is human insofar as we are connected through our own sense of self; God is divine insofar as he (or she) has infinite scope--cosmic consciousness pervades everything, whereas individual consciousness doesn't. But rather than getting into any abstractions, the essence of the connection between human and divine is pragmatic. If God can't help with life's daily challenges, he is unlikely to have a future in our increasingly secular world.

One attribute of God or cosmic consciousness, is non-judgment. If consciousness is everywhere, then there is only one consciousness. As it expresses itself through each human being, there is an appearance of separation. What you think about politics, for example, or about family, religion, your career, etc., isn't the same as what I may be thinking. But we both draw upon the infinite reservoir of consciousness, with its unlimited creative potential. If you can see that this is true, there is no need to judge other people. Non-judgment is a divine attribute, not because God is a nice person, but because consciousness is a level playing field from which all of us draw purpose, meaning, values, desires, etc.

Here are some behaviors that allow you to test if non-judgment leads to a better life.

• Accept others as equals, not superiors or inferiors.
• Hold off criticizing others.
• Entertain ideas that aren't identical to our own.
• Don't try to improve other people, imposing your own notions of morality or correct behavior.
• Stop making others feel wrong.
• Offer encouragement and approval, which are the positive results of non-judgment.
• Tend to your own shortcomings instead of focusing on the shortcomings of others.
• Avoid using tags of race, gender, politics, and religion.
• Drop wholesale judgments against 'those kind of people" and look instead on each person as unique.