Really deep career advice

July 6, 2011 ryan kovach

The Most Interesting Man in the World cannot be wrong about anything. So as you can imagine, when he comes out with career advice, it’s spot on.

Most Interesting Man in the World on Careers

Most Interesting Man Careers

All joking aside, there is great wisdom in this piece.  Take American Idol for instance.  We’ve all seen the kid who has been lied to by everyone in his/her life.  Family members and friends tell them what a great singer they are, when in reality, they’d make a deaf dog squeal.

Please understand your abilities well.  Get non-partial advice from mentors who will be honest with you regarding your true strengths.  Its ok to want to play guitar for Van Halen, but if you can’t play a G chord, you might want to give up that dream.

I know going in the opposite direction of the Most Interesting Man in the World can be dangerous but I’ll take my chances:  “Find that one thing that you do really well, and do that one thing.”

Stay thirsty my friends…

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Business, Careers, Inspiration Leave a comment

Pay unto others, as you’d have them pay unto you.

June 30, 2011 ryan kovach

Why is it that we want a premium price for our expertise, you want a premium price for your expertise but you don’t want to pay me mine and I don’t want to pay you yours?

Here are 3 short reasons why beating someone up over price is bad, not only for them, but for you, the buyer:

1. The supplier, from the start, will already feel taken advantage of and will be much less likely to do his/her best for you.

2. Services will take longer to render because the supplier has put their “better paying” customers before you, thus pushing out the benefits of what it is you are buying the product or service for.

3. If you are buying lumber, and you beat the lumber yard up on price, you can expect to get the lumber at the bottom of the pile, thus making whatever it is you build a lesser quality than your competitors.

Consider this the next time you are in negotiations. Do you want to be the customers that commands a good name to suppliers and who suppliers truly want to help and provide their best to, or do you want to be the grinch that the supplier pushes out longer, provides cheaper or less involved products and services to?

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5,2,1

June 28, 2011 ryan kovach

Here is a simple rule for any business development professional looking to truly grow their business and professional network.

5: Call or meet with at least 5 new people a day. If possible make it face to face and not behind a computer. If you are national and don’t have that luxury then fine. But make it a point to set 5 face to face appointments a day. You won’t always meet that criteria, but the energy created trying will be unstoppable.

2: Make 2 new connections per day on social media and truly make the connection. Don’t simply connect and move on, but connect, ask questions, get to know the person you are connecting with and ask them if you can be of any help.

1: Help someone every day. It doesn’t matter if it’s simply handing a dollar out of your car window to a homeless person. Or it could be sharing your knowledge as a mentor to a young up-n-comer… Either way, choose one person a day to help. The positive energy that is created by this simple step will pay you back 10-fold.

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Inspiration Leave a comment

Inspiring others

June 23, 2011 ryan kovach

OK so I spent the last decade trying to dig out creativity from my clients and have them see creative, early adoption opportunities, only to be met, mostly, with glazed-over eyes. “Why weren’t they inspired by all this cool stuff?” I would wonder. Well, the reality is, what inspires you will only inspire a select group of people. Not everyone is going to see your path and hop on in to your inspiration station.

Rather than spend countless hours agonizing over the fact that 80% of your audience will reject your vision, look to the 20% who embrace it and nurture that segment. That 20% will travel with you on your journey, recommend you to others and eventually, that 20% will become your 100% capacity. Only then will you spend every waking hour truly inspiring others.

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Get off of Facebook and Twitter and Start doing business

June 22, 2011 ryan kovach

A year, two years, and even 3 years ago I never would have thought I would be saying this: Get off of Facebook, Twitter and the rest of the fads and start doing business again. For years I’ve been a social media evangelist. Well this week, I killed most, if not all of my social media outlets and began reaching out to human beings via the old telephone, email, and in-house meetings. The results? In two weeks I’ve created more new business than I’ve created in 2 years through social media. Unplug, stop posting online and meet with humans. We are dying for that personal connection again.

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I’ve started over

June 22, 2011 ryan kovach

I’ve had this blog site for myself for a very long time. I just recently deleted a ton of content, posts and comments on it so that I can start over with a more deliberate approach to what I want this blog to be, how I want it to help people and what information I want it to communicate.

You can expect the content to be shorter and more to the point. Rather than trying to gobble up lots of information at one time, you can receive short tidbits of quality information to help your company make better sales and marketing decisions.

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