I Wish I’d Learned More About …

I recently read an interesting post on Lifehack by Brian Armstrong entitled “8 Essential Skills They Didn’t Teach You in School.”  Brian made several great points in his blog post. For example, he wishes there’d been a class on how to read a financial statement, how to save and invest, and how to speed read (Which should be mandatory for college freshman!). It’s a great blog post ~ and you can read it here.

This pretty interesting post got me thinking about the number of times I’ve sat through a required class and wondered “Why is this mandatory?” And, “Why aren’t we being taught more”practical” skills?”

For example, I wish undergraduate mandatory classes had a more concentrated focus on relationship marketing, business basics, public speaking or even basic negotiations. These are certainly all skills that we all need to be successful in our careers, business and life!

I also wish Web design 101 was a mandatory class for college graduation! Having a basic understanding of web design has certainly become more important that I could have even imagined and while my FABULOUS wordpress guru handles most of my blog and website design work, having a basic understanding of what I need done is certainly important to my ultimate success.

I would have also loved a seminar that featured “mavericks”. People like Richard Branson, Maya Lin, Steve Jobs, Jody Williams, Sean Combs, Meg Whitman, Jeff Bezos and a whole variety of people who have slashed stereotypes and are freethinkers! So often we cover presidents, politicians and other historical figures and do not pay nearly enough attention to present day folks who are actively shaping education, culture and business.

Social media is a field that was not yet mature when I was in college or law school; however, it should certainly have a primary place in current college and law school curriculum! Until this happens, we at UpwardAction are certainly committed to teaching you the basic via our blogs and private coaching programs.

I’d love to hear what you wish was covered in school AND how you’re making up for this “deficiency!”

Feel free to leave a message in the comment section.

Until next time ~ Expect the BEST!

Coach T.C. Coleman

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Growing Your Social Networks Organically

Jonathon Fields has written a great post for social media “newbies” and one of the unwritten rules he lists is “Grow Organically”. This provoked a great deal of thought for me and I wondered what you all thought. We’ve all been on Twitter or Facebook and seen people who appear to be collectors of “friends”. They follow or add people for what seems like the sole purpose of increasing their numbers. They generally have far fewer followers than they are following…thus not increasing their exposure or business at all. Facebook will actually cut you off if they feel like you are adding people willy-nilly!

Jonathon recommends taking your time to build your online social network and I couldn’t agree more. To be authentic, you need to be following or adding people who’s values, business, writing or ideas really inspire you! Take some time to see who your friends (the ones you genuinely respect and follow for that reason) are reading and following. If you want to add to your network, get to know some of those folks first. Read their blogs and/or their books.

Once you add new people, for social networking to be effective, you need to interact with them! Comment on their blogs, respond directly to their Tweets, post questions on their Facebook wall, and email them directly if you want to start a real conversation. Pam Slim recently “tweeted” that she hates when people contact her the first time simply to promote their business! This isn’t effective networking and can cause the exact opposite effect of what you are seeking.

First build relationships, then allow the process of building relationships to strengthen your brand.

If you are trying to grow your practice, seek new clients or attorneys, build your knowledge base or are considering a new venture, we all know that online social networking is important. But just because you are enthusiastic about getting involved, be careful that you don’t take on more than you can actually manage.

Again, build relationships, then allow the process of building relationships to strengthen your brand.

Social media has become so enormous and complex that there are actually people you can hire to manage your networks for you! Joining sites and then being inactive doesn’t serve you or your potential clients. Pick key sites first, like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and really build a reputation and network on those first.

Once again … the most powerful aspect of social media is the ability to begin to develop relationships.   Relationships are the key to the door of accelerated business success.   If you are not focused on relationship building strategies in addition to building brand awareness, you are pretty much wasting your time.

If you need help developing a social media strategy, let me know!

I’d also love to know how you manage your networks and which ones you are most active on.

Take GREAT Care!

Coach T.C.

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Martindale Goes Social

Social Media and Social Networking has finally penetrated the core of the legal profession. A brand new social networking site, backed by the muscle of Martindale-Hubbell/Lexis Nexis, promises to be THE place to network with other attorneys.

Following the LinkedIn model, this new community allows lawyers to contact other lawyers you already know and get introduced to their connections.

Open to lawyers only, this on-line community will provide both networking and educational opportunities. The interface is extremely easy to navigate and lets you watch the activity of your connections, get legal news and updates, make offers to add other attorneys you might know to your personal network of connections and allows you to post questions to your groups.

The legal community can certainly use a thoughtful niche community for lawyers like this community is poised to be.  I’m checking it out and will certainly let you know what I think.

Expect the Best!

Coach T.C.

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