Money Saving Tips. Maximize Savings on Everyday Items!

Frugal living is more than a lifestyle. It's a passion.

Call Me Crazy! I love It!

Why, who wouldn't love getting paid to buy products that they use everyday?

Here's how I do it.

I purchase an item that has a rebate offer (either a store or manufacturer rebate) while it is on sale and use a coupon during purchase. That's it!

Using this formula I almost always come out ahead. When all is done, I've gotten back more than I actually paid for the item.

Even when I do have to pay for the items like deodorant, shampoo, soap, toothpaste, and toothbrushes it's about 50 cents for a item that would cost up to $2 -$4 originally.

Am I the only one out there that gets excited about this?

I doubt it! At least I hope not. That would make me "Crazy", wouldn't it? But a lot of folks just don't know how to combine money saving measures to maximize savings.

My local drugstore (which by the way is a national chain) often advertises items free after rebate. Hey, that cuts down on a lot of work for me. Easy Money! I e an also lucky enough to have a grocery store in my area that offers rebates and offers double coupons (sometimes even doubling $1 coupons as a special promotion). Needless to say, with six mouths to feed (myself, my husband, and four kids) I'm lovin' that idea!

As the editor of http://www.simpledebtfreeliving.com, I'm always looking for new ways to save money. Visit us and follow one of the e-mail links to share your ideas or just let us know how excited you get about frugal living! Let me know I'm not the only one. Then we can put my family's worries to rest. They think I'm really crazy.

Here are a couple other ways that I save on items we use everyday:

1. Always use items that are reusable rather than throw away

For example: Reusable coffee filters, cups and plates, and my favorite pet peeve -

The great sandwich bag conspiracy

The major manufacturers of sandwich bags would lead us to believe that it takes rocket science to keep a sandwich fresh. Ask yourself this, How long do you need to keep that sandwich fresh anyway? It's not like it's going to the moon. It's just going to the office or school for a few hours.

The most practical way to approach this is to purchase reusable sandwich size containers. This is also very environmentally friendly reducing a great deal of waste. If however, these have trouble finding there way back home ( which is likely if you have children), you can save substantially if you purchase the plain old pleated sandwich bag that cost a mere fraction of the razzle dazzle zipper kind. Your mother used these for years and years with great success. I have used both methods for years and have never received a complaint of a stale sandwich!

You'll find that doing these little things like, using real cups and plates instead of paper or plastic throw away, and recycling containers for storage or even to use in craft projects, can save a lot of money. Each by itself may seem minor, but when put together amount to tremendous savings over time.

2. Don't buy it if you won't use it. Things like small kitchen appliances, repair tools, and gardening tools are good examples. We know they'll make our life easier if we just had the opportunity to use them.

There are 101+ small countertop kitchen appliances available to chop it, grind it, mix it, open it, bake it, grill it..well you get the message.

Simplify your life and narrow it down to a couple you just can't live without. For me it's my blender and my food processor. Although, I'm seriously considering a bread maker. Not quite sure if it's worth the money yet. Especially when I'm so close to a bread outlet. But, you can't beat the taste of fresh baked bread. I'm not counting the coffer maker it's kind of standard equipment these days. I wouldn?t dare ask you to give that up! What am I crazy? Well , maybe..

It's little things like the example above that identify frugal living.

3. Always get the best value for your money. Shop around. If this is a major purchase you will want to know what to look for. Research and compare products on the internet or in sale flyers. There's nothing more challenging to the retailer than an informed consumer. That's what you want to be. An informed consumer knows when it's a good value! Informed Consumer - More Savings

Cheryl Johnson mother of four helping myself and others become and stay debt free. Publisher of Simple Debt Free Living at http://www.simpledebtfreeliving.com - a self-help plan, ideas, and resources for personal budgeting, debt management, frugal living, and extra income opportunities. Money saving tips help balance your budget and maximize everyday savings

Likeonomics by Rohit Bhargava - Book review

Likeonomics

The Unexpected Truth Behind Earning Trust, Influencing Behavior, and Inspiring Action

By: Rohit Bhargava

Published: May 22, 2012
Format: Hardcover: 184 pages
ISBN-10: 1118137531
ISBN-13: 978-1118137536
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.









"The biggest crisis in our world today is one of believability. It makes it tougher to build a successful business, find and keep a job, or convince anyone to do or believe in anything", writes Marketing Professor at Georgetown University, Rohit Bhargava, in his refreshing and engaging book Likeonomics: The Unexpected Truth Behind Earning Trust, Influencing Behavior, and Inspiring Action. The author describes the paramount importance of likability and trust in today's marketplace, employment environment, and in society in general.

Rohit Bhargava understands the timeless wisdom that people do business with those who they know, like, and trust. The author points out that somehow this critical knowledge of human nature was left neglected by too many business people. In a world where marketing messages, wall to wall advertising, and fast talking sales representatives have stretched believability beyond the breaking point, that vital trust was lost. As a result, trust and believability are at all time lows in modern society, despite the evidence that likeability has more value than logic or price to the customer. Rohit Bhargava presents important ideas for restoring trust, rebuilding that likeability factor, and returning basic human values of honesty and trust to organizations.



Rohit Bhargava (photo left) recognizes that likeability is the real currency of the modern global economy. With likeability as the currency, and honesty as the unexpected force, trust can be built to develop long term relationships. The author offers evidence that the current economic instability is really a crisis of believability and a loss of trust. Through honesty and believability, customers will prefer the companies and people who they know, like, and trust. For the author, this simple truth creates an unbeatable competitive advantage, as well as developing more engaged employees, and enthusiastic customers.

To build this new likeability culture that resonates with customers and employees, Rohit Bhargava provides his five principles of likeability, that he calls TRUST. The five TRUST values are as follows:

* Truth
* Relevance
* Unselfishness
* Simplicity
* Timing

For me, the power of the book is how Rohit Bhargava combines timeless wisdom, with modern behavioral economics and psychology, to present a series of transformational business principles. The author provides solid evidence that traditional values of honesty, truth, and being liked by others are the foundation blocks of a successful organization. With the current crisis in the economy demonstrating how a lack of trust completely destroyed some companies, this book is an important wake up call for business leaders everywhere.

To support his concepts, Rohit Bhargava shares real life case studies of the TRUST principles creating some hugely successful companies. Likeonomics is destined to replace the greed principle as the underlying focus for business in the next decade. In many ways, this book represents a return to the path that worked for businesses for generations. The return of this age old wisdom is due, and this book encapsulates that renewed approach, to the benefit of firms, employees, customers, society, and the overall economy.

I highly recommend the destined to become classic book Likeonomics: The Unexpected Truth Behind Earning Trust, Influencing Behavior, and Inspiring Action by Rohit Bhargava, to any business leaders, entrepreneurs, organizational executives, and customers of any company who are seeking a clear and concise description of why being liked and trusted forms the basis of any lasting relationship. This book will change your thinking of how a business should be operated, and you will rethink the failed ethos of dishonesty that has penetrated the culture of so many companies.

Tags: Likeonomics: The Unexpected Truth Behind Earning Trust, Influencing Behavior, and Inspiring Action, Rohit Bhargava, organizational culture change, business book reviews

Mobilizing The Green Imagination by Anthony Weston - Book review

Mobilizing the Green Imagination

An Exuberant Manifesto

By: Anthony Weston

Published: May 1, 2012
Format: Paperback: 192 pages
ISBN-10: 0865717095
ISBN-13: 978-0865717091
Publisher: New Society Publishers











"Imagine a world so thoroughly and appealingly re-localized that it has no need for cleaner cars or mass transit, or indeed any large-scale transportation infrastructure at all", rites Professor of Philosophy and Environmental Studies at Elon University, North Carolina, Anthony Weston, in his visionary and inspirational book Mobilizing the Green Imagination: An Exuberant Manifesto. The author describes a completely revolutionary approach to environmental thinking that dispenses with the doom and gloom, and offers a future that is not only liveable but enjoyable as well.

Anthony Weston understands that current environmentalist thought has reached some dead ends, and is searching for fresh ideas and reinvention. The author recognizes that the environment faces some very daunting challenges, both now and in the immediate future. This fear and disaster based environmentalism is not only limiting, but also creates a sense of hopelessness. Anthony Weston proposes a complete rethinking of the entire concept of green and the environment.

Instead of roadblocks, the author suggests that people awaken themselves to possibilities rather than barriers. The author rejects the uninspiring premise of mitigation, and simple reduction of human impact on the ecosystem. In its place, Anthony Weston considers a more positive and appealing idea, in the form of the purpose driven Green Imagination.



Anthony Weston (photo left) takes the more inspiring and creative position of not aiming for making less of a difference; but instead to make a different form of difference on the world. Instead of mobilizing the technocrats, as advocated by the usual environmental concept, the author proposes that people mobilize their imaginations. In place of the limited and often counter-productive approaches of mainstream environmentalists, Anthony Weston places more confidence in human creativity and imagination.

The author suggests some profound concepts that push the very boundaries of conventional thought, and offer a true visionary approach. Some of the revolutionary concepts include:

* Welcoming rising sea levels to cities
* Creating a fresh vision of life after conventional transportation
* Moving beyond exploiting the natural world
* Creating a green space program that considers the ecology of the cosmos

For me, the power of the book is how Anthony Weston shares bold and enthusiastic vision of an entirely alternative yet hope filled future. The author dispenses with the usual doom and gloom that surrounds the environmental movement, revealing it as a very limited worldview. Anthony Weston takes a giant step forward, in both his thinking about the environment as a whole, but also of the role of humans within that refreshing vision.

The author takes a holistic, and all encompassing approach that embraces the challenges, transforming them into wonderful possibilities. Instead of simply a technocratic methodology, the author calls for using our imagination. That concept may be the single most radical vision, that of using the imagination, to its fullest extent to create a wonderful future for all living things.

I highly recommend the purposeful and thought provoking book Mobilizing the Green Imagination: An Exuberant Manifesto by Anthony Weston, to anyone seeking a unique and inspirational vision for rebuilding environmentalism into an entirely new future. This book will change forever the way you think about the usual approaches to environmentalism, and ignite your imagination to create a completely new world that works for everyone and everything on the planet.

Tags: Mobilizing the Green Imagination: An Exuberant Manifestos, Anthony Weston, visionary environmentalism, science book reviews

Market Your Web Site Effectively

Those enterprising professionals who took to the Internet early implemented a variety of formats for adapting a real-world, largely paper-based industry to the new structures offered online. Some succeeded with their initial business plans, while others were less fortunate. No business anywhere succeeds without effective marketing tactics, and a business based in cyberspace stands even less of a chance if it doesn't follow the rules for effective Internet marketing.

Benefits of E-mail Marketing

E-mail marketing is by far the most cost-effective and rapid method for marketing your Web site online. Unfortunately, it also introduces the most potential danger. [see note below...]

Best practices indicate that it is unwise to send a large number of e-mail messages en masse unless the recipients specifically give you permission to do so. Permission-based e-mail marketing is called "opt-in e-mail."

The "subject line" is the most important element of an e-mail announcing your Web site and business services. It's equivalent to the headline in a print advertisement. The subject line should be compelling and entice the reader to open the e-mail in addition to conveying your message. At the same time, for many SPAM identification software applications, the subject line plays an important role in deciding whether the email will be delivered to the recipient's mailbox. Careful attention should be paid to the composition of the subject line. Avoiding words such as 'FREE' and 'GUARANTEED' and not over-using the exclamation mark can make a big difference.

Another key component of any e-mail advertisement is the signature, which comprises about four lines at the end of your message and should include your Web site address. Including this address dramatically increases the visibility and accessibility to your site when it is added automatically to every e-mail you send. Additionally, you should put your company name, phone number and physical mailing address for further communications.

E-mail marketing also provides speedy results. It enables you to alter your approach - and even try another campaign - in a fraction of the time it takes to complete conventional marketing pieces like print ads or direct mail. If you intend to use e-mail extensively, it's a good idea to use a software tool like Goldmine, PointofMail, or Active Campaign to track and manage your results.

It is also beneficial to use different e-mail addresses on each of your marketing materials, as well as on your Web site. For example, use yourname@ yoursite.com exclusively on your Web site, use info@ yoursite.com on your letterhead, and use realestate@ yoursite.com on your business cards. That way, when you receive an e-mail at one of those addresses, you can track where the sender, or lead, got your e-mail address.

Please note: E-mail marketing is subject to a new federal law called the CAN_SPAM ACT OF 2003 (15 U.S.C.S. @ 7701, et seq.), which took effect January 1, 2004. Before you use e-mail as part of your marketing program, please make sure you read and comply with this law.

Using Banner Advertising and Link Exchanges

Banners and link exchanges are cooperative efforts between two or more Web sites that are promoting each other. Keep in mind, there are several different types of banner programs:

Reciprocal links are swapped between your site and another so that you can share traffic. A reciprocal link exchange is a great way to get visitors to your site from non-competing professionals such as bankers, attorneys, real estate brokers, and financial planners. Contact a few businesses and suggest to them that you place your link on their site and offer to place their link on your site. As an added benefit, the call provides an excellent opportunity to make contact with these professionals initially. Later, you can initiate conversations in which referrals for your companies services are exchanged.

Affiliate banners can be placed on your site, and the affiliate will pay you a commission if a visitor clicks through and makes a purchase at the affiliate's site. There are many options at fastclick, tribalfusion or clickbank

Achieving Rank on Search Engines

Each area of Internet marketing is unique. Because each business is different, you must be creative and use your Web site to market to areas you feel will make your business flourish. Even the method you use to submit your site to search engines will differ depending on your goals.

Modern search engines have acquired the ability to "read" Web sites, just like people searching the Internet. The obvious difference is that these "readers" are computer robots that roam online, cataloging Web sites into specific categories.

In addition to reading Web sites, these robots can read words - or "metatags" - that people cannot see on most Web sites. Metatags are the words that are important in locating your Web site when searching the Internet and are the title and description that you find in the search results on Google, Yahoo!, MSN and other search engines for a particular search query.

Metatags were originally created to help search engines find important information about your page that might otherwise have been difficult to determine quickly, such as related keywords or a description of the page itself.

Many people believe that accurate metatags will guarantee a good listing in the search engines, but that is not entirely correct. While metatags usually are part of a well-optimized page, they are not the end-all, be-all. Early in the Internet's evolution, Web sites were able to get great list placement from optimizing only their metatags, but the increasing competition for search engine listings eventually prompted many people to "spam" the search engines with keyword-stuffed metatags. The result is that the engines have changed what they look at when they rank a Web page.

While there are two metatags that can help your search engine listings - meta keywords and meta description - search engines now usually look at a combination of elements to determine listings. And some search engines don't look at metatags at all! For example, search engine robots also look at the number of outside sites that link to your site - a figure commonly known as the popularity ranking. What this means is that you should have a combination of elements implemented on your page. Search Engines are constantly evolving and never disclose exactly what these elements might be, but a well built site with lots of very relevant content is always a good start.

Google, widely acknowledged as the top search engine, has been stepping up enforcement of its "rules" for appearing on its result lists since 2001, according to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal. It warned Webmasters that using trickery could get their sites kicked out of the Google index and provided a list of forbidden activities. Matt Cutts, a Google software engineer, says that the rules are clear and that it's better to follow them than to try to get a problem fixed after a site has been penalized. "We want to return the most relevant pages we can," Cutts said. "The best way for a site owner to do that is follow our guidelines." A listing of these guidelines along with some frequently asked questions can be found at: http://www.google.com/intl/en/webmasters/.

Online Articles Can Help You Improve Your Ranking

Most hosting companies offer easy ways to add and change their Web sites' metatags. In your site there are two distinct areas that house metatags. Your description tag and keyvords should be added; then they can be changed periodically, depending on your results. Additonally, on each of your pages, you can specify a title tag, description, and meta keywords specific to that page.

Title tag words appear in the upper left of a Web browser program (the title bar), outside of the page and above the function buttons and file menus. These words are critical because most engines and directories place a high level of importance on keywords that are found in your title tag. The title tag is also what the search engines usually use for the title of your listing in the search results. We recommend that your title tag be between 25-75 characters, including spaces. The length that different search engines accept varies, but as long as you keep within this limit you should be fine. Include prominent key words and your company name in your title tag.

The description tag is hidden within your site but is equally important. Some search engines display the description tag below your site address when your site is a match for a search. Make sure you accurately describe the content of your page while trying to entice visitors to click on your listing. Include three to four of your most important keyword phrases, especially those used in your title tag and page copy. Try to have your most important keywords appear at the beginning of your description; that way search engines won't cut off your keywords. This technique often brings better results.

Keywords should be words or phrases that a client might use to search for your site. The more specific they are the better. Keywords also are crucial because they are compared with the readable copy in your Web site, and they can be revised as often as you like. Static sites that sit for years without changes typically don't rank very well in search listings.

The Wait for a Listing 

Mike Richardson: Wheel$spin - Blog Business Success Radio

Listen to Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio



Keynote speaker, engineer, former CEO, and author of the insightful and comprehensive book Wheel$pin: The Agile Executive's Manifesto - Accelerate Your Growth, Leverage Your Value, Beat Your Competition, Mike Richardson, describes why it is easy for a company to lose traction, spin its wheels, and often face the challenge of its very survival. Mike Richardson provides an alternative to what he calls Wheel$pin, in the form of organizational agility. Mike offers ideas for executives, leaders, teams, and organizations on how to become agile, and able to meet any challenge. For Mike Richardson, agility is the real deciding factor in a company's ability to overcome obstacles, utilize opportunities, and move ahead of their competitors. Mike shares case studies of seemingly very different companies, and how a lack of agility caused real harm to their organization. Learn how to become and remain an agile organization, an agile team, and an agile executive, Discover how to diagnose and recognize wheel$pin, and how to overcome its damaging forces.

Mike Richardson is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on BlogTalkRadio.

The show airs live on Thursday, June 28, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Keynote speaker, engineer, former CEO, and author of the insightful and comprehensive book Wheel$pin: The Agile Executive's Manifesto - Accelerate Your Growth, Leverage Your Value, Beat Your Competition, Mike Richardson, describes why it is easy for a company to lose traction, spin its wheels, and often face the challenge of its very survival. You will learn:

* What wheel$spin is for a company

* How to spot and diagnose wheel$spin in a company

* What is means to be an agile organization

* How to become an agile organization



Mike Richardson (photo left) used to be part of the corporate management team of a British public corporation (Spirent PLC) which made it into the top 100 list of public companies, with Mike running the Aerospace Division. He is an experienced CEO of businesses ranging from electronics to enterprise-software, involving turnarounds, acquisitions and disposals. Mike is British, turned American with diverse international, now residing in San Diego, California.

Mike’s leadership learning journey started on oil and gas drilling rigs with Shell International as a Petroleum Engineer. Working in a high pressure environment, with individuals of diverse nationalities and types, this is where Mike says he got his “apprenticeship in people”. From there, via an MBA at London Business School, Mike moved into the Aerospace Industry and rapidly gained experience in multiple line-management and executive roles. He quickly progressed to Profit & Loss responsibility at a business unit level and then at a Divisional level.

Mike is now the President of Sherpa Alliance Incorporated, a firm devoted to changing the world of support for managers, executives and CEOs of small-to-medium sized and fast-moving businesses, business units and corporations. Sherpa’s do heavy lifting, providing load-carrying support for mountainous journeys – BREAKTHROUGH! journeys.

Mike now devotes his time to working with members, clients and Boards from a wide diversity of industries and businesses, from start-ups to public companies, young and old, large and small, for-profits and not-for-profits, of all types, shapes and sizes (see Testimonials). Mike is an award winning Chair with Vistage International, chairing 4 groups and more than 60 members (CEOs, Executives and Professional Service Providers) and is also a Vistage Resource Speaker to other Vistage groups, nationally and internationally.

My book review of Wheel$pin: The Agile Executive's Manifesto - Accelerate Your Growth, Leverage Your Value, Beat Your Competition by Mike Richardson.

Listen live on Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.



If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.



To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with keynote speaker, engineer, former CEO, and author of the insightful and comprehensive book Wheel$pin: The Agile Executive's Manifesto - Accelerate Your Growth, Leverage Your Value, Beat Your Competition, Mike Richardson, as he describes why it is easy for a company to lose traction, spin its wheels, and often face the challenge of its very survival. Mike Richardson provides an alternative to what he calls Wheel$pin, in the form of organizational agility. Mike offers ideas for executives, leaders, teams, and organizations on how to become agile, and able to meet any challenge. For Mike Richardson, agility is the real deciding factor in a company's ability to overcome obstacles, utilize opportunities, and move ahead of their competitors. Mike shares case studies of seemingly very different companies, and how a lack of agility caused real harm to their organization. Learn how to become and remain an agile organization, an agile team, and an agile executive, Discover how to diagnose and recognize wheel$pin, and how to overcome its damaging forces on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Wheel$pin: The Agile Executive's Manifesto - Accelerate Your Growth, Leverage Your Value, Beat Your Competition, Mike Richardson, advanced strategic thinking, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

Neil Smith: How Excellent Companies Avoid Dumb Things - Blog Business Success Radio

Listen to Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio



Consultant, CEO of Promontory Growth and Innovation (PGI), and author of the insightful and transformational book How Excellent Companies Avoid Dumb Things: Breaking the 8 Hidden Barriers that Plague Even the Best Businesses, Neil Smith, describes how organizations must avoid doing the really dumb things that mystify their employees and customers. Neil Smith offers the advice that every firm has two things in the form of great employees with innovative ideas; and hidden barriers that prevent those changes from taking place. Neil Smith provides insights into those eight hidden barriers and shares proven techniques for overcoming them successfully. Neil shows leaders how to improve performance, while simplifying operations to transform a company culture into one that welcomes new ideas, and avoids doing dumb things. Neil Smith offers his fast, proven, and internally driven process to crash through those barriers, and unleash the multitude of great ideas waiting to be put into action in every company.

Neil Smith is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on BlogTalkRadio.

The show airs live on Tuesday, June 26, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Consultant, CEO of Promontory Growth and Innovation (PGI), and author of the insightful and transformational book How Excellent Companies Avoid Dumb Things: Breaking the 8 Hidden Barriers that Plague Even the Best Businesses, Neil Smith, describes how organizations must avoid doing the really dumb things that mystify their employees and customers. You will learn:

* Why otherwise astute companies make really head scratching mistakes

* How every organization has great people with tremendous new ideas

* Why eight hidden barriers within organizations prevent that change

* How to create a company culture that overcomes those eight unseen barriers



Neil Smith (photo left) has more than 15 years experience leading large-scale performance improvements and, before that, spent 6 years serving as the CEO of a manufacturing company.

His manufacturing experience helped Neil to develop the PGI approach to dramatic profit improvement for Fortune 750 companies. The PGI Promise process had its origins in the financial services industry in the early 1990’s. Neil was able to demonstrate that techniques learned in banking could be applied even more effectively to other industries, when he led a ground-breaking project in the transportation industry in 1998. Other successes followed.

In 2000, Neil first showed that the techniques could be applied to large companies when he led a hugely successful project at a 23,000 person company. In 2001, the same techniques were used for the first time with a company which was not only large and global, but could be considered a true industry leader. Working with the CEO and his team, and his Promontory colleague Gene Ludwig, Neil demonstrated that there are huge opportunities in even the best of companies.

Over the last few years, a number of the companies Neil has worked with are rated among the best in their industries including healthcare, banking, food manufacturing, distribution and insurance. He has a flair for making the best companies even better.

Before buying the food manufacturing company in a leveraged buyout, Neil spent five years with McKinsey & Company, working in New York and London, and helped to build McKinsey's early work in Brazil and Indonesia. As a senior member of the change practice, he pioneered client growth initiatives and led innovative restructurings. His clients include television, healthcare, hotels, steel manufacturing, banking and insurance companies.

Before business school Neil was a journalist in London, working with the BBC and the London Sunday Times.

Neil has an M.B.A. with honors from the Harvard Business School, where he was a Knox Fellow. He also has a B.A. with honors in Physics and Economics from the University of Keele in England.

Neil enjoys rugby, soccer, cricket, and baseball, and collects ancient British coins.

Neil is British and serves on the International Advisory Board of British American Business, Inc. (the British American Chamber of Commerce). He is a member of a Harvard Business School alumni committee and is Chairman of the U.S. Alumni of the University of Keele.

My book review of How Excellent Companies Avoid Dumb Things: Breaking the 8 Hidden Barriers that Plague Even the Best Businesses by Neil Smith.

Listen live on Tuesday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.



If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.



To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with consultant, CEO of Promontory Growth and Innovation (PGI), and author of the insightful and transformational book How Excellent Companies Avoid Dumb Things: Breaking the 8 Hidden Barriers that Plague Even the Best Businesses, Neil Smith, as he describes how organizations must avoid doing the really dumb things that mystify their employees and customers. Neil Smith offers the advice that every firm has two things in the form of great employees with innovative ideas; and hidden barriers that prevent those changes from taking place. Neil Smith provides insights into those eight hidden barriers and shares proven techniques for overcoming them successfully. Neil shows leaders how to improve performance, while simplifying operations to transform a company culture into one that welcomes new ideas, and avoids doing dumb things. Neil Smith offers his fast, proven, and internally driven process to crash through those barriers, and unleash the multitude of great ideas waiting to be put into action in every company on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: How Excellent Companies Avoid Dumb Things: Breaking the 8 Hidden Barriers that Plague Even the Best Businesses, Neil Smith, organizational change management, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

How Excellent Companies Avoid Dumb Things by Neil Smith - Book review

How Excellent Companies Avoid Dumb Things

Breaking the 8 Hidden Barriers that Plague Even the Best Businesses

By: Neil Smith

Published: June 5, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 240 pages
ISBN-10: 1137003065
ISBN-13: 978-1137003065
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan










"How do I know your company is like all the others? Because there are two things that every single company has: hidden barriers that prevent great ideas from surfacing...and employees with great ideas for how the company can do things differently", writes CEO of Promotory Growth and Innovation (PGI), Neil Smith, in his insightful and transformational book How Excellent Companies Avoid Dumb Things: Breaking the 8 Hidden Barriers that Plague Even the Best Businesses. The author describes the eight barriers within organizations that prevent meaningful change, and shares his twelve principles for breaking through those barriers and doing the smart things that build success.

Neil Smith understands that many companies take actions that baffle their shareholders and customers. While this phenomenon can happen in any organization, the author points out that many firms avoid that mystifying problem. Neil Smith shares the often overlooked concept that every company has talented employees who have many valuable ideas for doing things better and more effectively than the current process. At the same time, however, the author also demonstrates that even within great companies, there are unseen barriers to uncovering and implementing their employee suggestions and ideas. To counter this barricade problem, Neil Smith offers twelve proven principles for tearing down the barriers, and making real and lasting change within the company.



Neil Smith (photo left) recognizes the similarities between companies, and as a result, provides a complete analysis of why companies do things that are so counterproductive for them, their employees, and their customers. The author presents evidence that the problem is a series of unseen barriers that prevent the discovery and implementation of even the most profitable employee ideas. For the author, the first step to breaking through these invisible barriers is to understand what they are, why they exist, and how to overcome them.

Neil Smith outlines eight frequently encountered hidden barriers describes by the author's acronym of A PROMISE. Those eight barriers are as follows:

* Avoiding controversy
* Poor use of time
* Reluctance to change
* Organizational silos
* Management blockers
* Incorrect information and bad assumptions
* Size matters
* Existing processes

For me, the power of the book is how Neil Smith provides a comprehensive analysis of why eight unseen barriers prevent great employee ideas from being utilized; and combines that analysis with a series of twelve principles to overcome those barriers. The author outlines his analysis in a point by point format, that is both easy to understand, but also provides for handy reference when needed. Neil Smith bolsters his case by including both case studies and anecdotal evidence of the concepts in action, in real world settings.

Unlike many books of this type, Neil Smith doesn't begin with his own theory, and then locate evidence that supports it, while denying data that disproves that hypothesis. Instead, Neil Smith follows the real world evidence and examples, and draws conclusions and makes recommendations, based on actual organizational behavior.

I highly recommend the idea filled and organizational culture changing book How Excellent Companies Avoid Dumb Things: Breaking the 8 Hidden Barriers that Plague Even the Best Businesses by Neil Smith, to anyone seeking a straight forward and real world tested guide to improving organizational performance, removing hidden obstacles to change, and boosting profits. This book will transform your company culture and prevent making the dumb mistakes that create major problems for so many other organizations.

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Engaging Technical Writing Services - Who Needs Them Anyways?

From web pages to manuals to newsletters, technical writing involves precision and accuracy. Technical writers require good language skills alongside technical dexterity. Knowing your target audience is the first rule of technical writing. Unless you know your target audience well you cannot suggest or make any implication on how to attract or persuade them to the products and services you are offering.

Once you know your audience, a technical writer can persuade and offer solutions to the audience in ways that are unidentifiable otherwise. Technical writing serves as a link between the business and the audience. Your company has specialized knowledge regarding specific products and services that you need to sell to the layman, providing them various solutions to their problems but you might not know how to get the message across. This is where technical writing services come in. It's an intermediary between your audiences, which requires a solution regarding a problem, and your company, which has the solutions to those issues.

Technical Writing - Why the need?

Technical writing services helps identify and give expression to your message, which might otherwise have failed, if let to its own devices. Technical writers choose words that enable your business to suggest and implement the true meaning of your services. Technical writers are not just translators, but they are experts, giving meaning to your words and words to your expressions.

Technical writing services absorb brilliance and expertise at the same time. Involving the art of research and dynamics, practicality of language, offering an interface to your company's motto. Excelling in conceptual knowledge, technical writers have an eye for detail and the knack for perfection. Grammar plays a significant role in determining the value of the language and putting across your message more accurately.

The Growing Need for Technical Writers

Technical writing helps explaining the meaning of the technical subject to the specified audience. Technical writers need not be subject experts but having the basic knowledge is very essential. Corporate, educational, government and financial institutions tend to hire technical writers for their expertise in research and language, which helps put across their message powerfully. Technical writers main craft is to provide words to your expressions. Less is more, is the basic implication here. The basic idea of technical writing is to generate a powerful message in fewer words. Technical writers tend to have good communication skills along with grammar and organization, helping them to avoid any derivatives and creating influential works.

Engaging Technical Writing

Being a widely used mode of communication, technical writing mostly facilitates advertising agencies. One major aspect of technical writing includes generating content for general public. Extensively it is used in the media and various corporate sectors to communicate with employees, businesses, management and companies etc. Technical writing services aim at portraying a clear and concise message intended for the readers. Being very different from creative and other various writings, technical writing is often dull and tedious but nonetheless persuasive and engaging. Technical writers provide words that help the readers to understand your message in more clear terms and assimilate information likewise.

Technical writing is not just different from other writing styles but is also more clear and precise. Leaving no room for imagination, technical writing offers answers to all your questions and possible problems that may arise. Since it offers a good deal of potential, technical writing is more in demand, especially in the corporate sectors. More and more businesses and companies are going online and hence the rise in the demand for technical writers is inevitable.

The Self-Made Myth by Brian Miller & Mike Lapham - Book review

The Self-Made Myth

And the Truth about How Government Helps Individuals and Businesses Succeed

By: Brian Miller, Mike Lapham

Published: March 5, 2012
Format: Paperback, 192 pages
ISBN-10: 1609945069
ISBN-13: 978-1609945060
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers










"The self-made myth is the assertion that individual and business success is the result of the personal characteristics of exceptional individuals, such as hard work, creativity, and sacrifice, with little or no outside assistance. Those who subscribe to this myth do so only by ignoring the contributions of society, the supports made possible through government action, any head start a person may have received, and just plain old luck", write executive director of United for a Fair Economy, Brian Miller; and founding director of Responsible Wealth, a project of United for a Fair Economy, Mike Lapham, in their well researched and thought provoking book The Self-Made Myth: And the Truth about How Government Helps Individuals and Businesses Succeed. The authors describe how the idea that business success is solely the result of great individual effort is entirely false, and they deconstruct the usual claims of supposedly self-made individuals, and destroy this fabricated mythology entirely.



Brian Miller (photo left) and Mike Lapham recognize the importance of hard work, creativity, and personal sacrifice. The authors point out that these traits, no matter hoe admirable and noble, do not account for the entirety an individual's success. Instead, the authors provide clear evidence that the creation of wealth the result of many additional factors that seldom receive the recognition they deserve. The omission of the inputs of government support through public education, the legal system, infrastructure, and the safety net is more than simply an exercise in ego or self delusion on the part of the individuals. The authors present a compelling case that the real reason for the perpetuation of the self-mad myth, despite its demonstrable shortcomings, is to influence public policy and to reduce taxation levels.



Mike Lapham (photo left) and Brian Miller understand that the self-made myth is as much a political construct as it is a social and economic creation. By falsely claiming that personal success is entirely due to individual initiative and merit, the authors point out that this position is intended to steer public policy into a firmly anti-government narrative. To counter this tend, based the false premise of the self-made person, the authors provide an alternative in the form of the built together reality.

To establish their case that refutes the self-made myth, the authors present the following outline:

* Overview of the self-made myth and its consequences
* The roots of the myth, its recent evolution, and its policy implications
* Contributions made by government and society that create conditions for success
* Foundations of the alternative built together reality of success
* Profiles of noted business leaders who embrace the built together reality
* How the built together reality changes our view of the government role
* Ways that people can get involved to change the dialogue to a more realistic one

For me, the power of the book is how Brian Miller and Mike Lapham completely demolish the self-made myth, and expose it for the empty shell it is in reality. The authors also provide a very strong alternative approach to understanding wealth creation for individuals and businesses in the form of the built together reality. This fresh approach acknowledges the role played by government, society, family, and even luck in the achievement of success.

Brian Miller and Mike Lapham present case histories of several allegedly self-made people including Donald Trump, Ross Perot, and the Koch Brothers, illustrating completely the false premise of them being self-made success stories. The authors also provide interviews with other successful individuals including Jerry Fiddler, Glynn Lloyd, Thelma Kidd, and Warren Buffett who acknowledge openly how much public and private assistance they received in achieving their success. The book concludes with an action plan for people to get involved in presenting the built together reality as a much more accurate assessment of how wealth is created in America.

I highly recommend the important and eye opening book The Self-Made Myth: And the Truth about How Government Helps Individuals and Businesses Succeed by Brian Miller and Mike Lapham, to anyone seeking a recognition of the essential role played by government and society in the success of individuals and businesses. This book will change the way you view government, and provide a new appreciation for how public and private support assist in the creation of wealth and a vibrant economy.

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Five Steps to Conquer 'Death by PowerPoint' by Eric Bergman

Five Steps to Conquer 'Death by PowerPoint'

Changing the world one conversation at a time

By: Eric Bergman

Published: May 2, 2012
Format: Paperback, 172 pages
ISBN-10: 1469926377
ISBN-13: 978-1469926377
Publisher: CreateSpace












No; PowerPoint is not the problem. The problem lies with assumptions underlying its use. Those assumptions are moving us further and further away from conversational exchanges when people get together", writes world-renowned presentation expert, author, and communications trainer Eric Bergman, in his concise and straight to the point book Five Steps to Conquer 'Death by PowerPoint' Changing the world one conversation at a time. The author describes how presenters can improve their communication effectiveness, and how audiences can insist that presenters incorporate the author's five steps into all communication deliveries.

Eric Bergman recognizes that what he calls "death by PowerPoint" isn't that the tools are flawed, but that the way presenters use the system that creates the problem For anyone presenting information through PowerPoint slides, a failure to communicate effectively with the audience, results in the message not being heard or understood correctly. Eric Bergman shares the concept that PowerPoint can be a very effective communications tool, but the assumptions that underlie its use are flawed. For the author, those flawed assumptions reduce the level of conversation between people, resulting in less understanding and sharing of ideas.



Eric Bergman (photo left) understands that people making presentations have the assumption that slides are an integral and essential part of the communication process. The author provides compelling evidence that both presenters and their audiences need to rethink the assumptions made about PowerPoint and its slides, and focus on creating genuine conversation instead.

Eric Bergman offers the wisdom that the vast majority of presentations are a waste of time as they fail to achieve their goals. The audiences are forced to work hard to find any value in these flawed presentations, and that a simple conversation would be create a more desirable outcome. The flawed assumptions that underpin the problem of "death by PowerPoint" syndrome are as follows:

* Everyone uses it
* It is expected
* People have different learning styles
* A picture is worth a thousand words
* My slides are my notes
* The audience can take notes
* They can share the presentation with others
* People will remember our key messages
* The focus is off me
* It saves time

To correct these problematic assumptions, Eric Bergman offers five simple rules for presenters to follow, and for audiences to insist that the presenters put into practice:

* Put the audience first
* Structure the conversation
* Minimize visual aids
* Convey your message and personality
* Answer questions throughout

For me, the power of the book is how Eric Bergman combines an insightful analysis of why the underlying assumptions that lead to so many ineffective PowerPoint presentations, with a series of recommendations for improving communication between speaker and audience. Going beyond the usual PowerPoint books, that simply suggest ways to create what are believed to be better PowerPoint slides, Eric Bergman suggests that the best course of action may be to not use the slides at all.

To counter the usual reasons given for the use and overuse of PowerPoint slides, the author provides a series of techniques for building a strong and effective conversation between the presenter and the listening audience. At the same time, he also makes a strong case for the listeners themselves to insist that the conversational approach be utilized by the speaker, and that the danger of "death by PowerPoint" be avoided entirely.

I highly recommend the iconoclastic and idea filled book Five Steps to Conquer 'Death by PowerPoint' Changing the world one conversation at a time by Eric Bergman, to anyone seeking a straight talking guide to both providing more effective PowerPoint presentations; or for even avoiding the ubiquitous slides altogether. This book will change the way both presenters and audiences think about and approach the use of PowerPoint slides, resulting in more personal conversations and more effective communication of ideas.

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