She said the presenter gave her a boatload of new ideas and energy for her to expand her current business campaign using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. From her energy, I got the feeling the presenter not only hit a home run, but he also brought in the other three players (he really knows his stuff)!

So what did I do after we spoke? I immediately went to LinkedIn and tried to link with the presenter. Guess what happens?

I get this response: “Rich, Great to connect. So you know, based on a session you once did at the local library, you inspired me to start a company, build a website, promote myself on social media which resulted, among new business, in being asked to join an MBA program. I would enjoy the chance to let you know what you did if you would like to know. But thank you very much for all you did.”

We then had a roundtable tweet-fest on Twitter to let everyone know what happened!

What did this teach me?

1. You never know who’s listening when you present.
2. You never know how your words can impact another person.
3. The world is getting smaller every day.
4. I need to get out even more and present.
5. Always reach out to people whenever you hear their name.

Like my blog, it focuses on the trials and tribulations we all face in the business world. My goal is to help you live with more passion, work with greater focus, and lead with extraordinary influence.

My co-host is Margo Meeker, one of the best psychotherapists and life coaches out there. I’ve known Margo for years and have collaborated on many successful workshops with her throughout the U.S..

Why Psycho Career & Career Psycho? First, we wanted to catch people’s attention and imagination with the title. We didn’t want to do “Biz Talk” or “On The Road” or “Marketplace with Mabel” — we wanted a title that caught your imagination and honestly conveyed what’s happening out there in the world right now. It’s crazy! There are psychos out there!

Also, we wanted to cover what Margo is — a psychotherapist/life coach — and me — a business and executive career coach. So it fits!

We hope to make this a fairly regular podcast (hopefully weekly!). But for now, we are testing the waters and seeing where the rapids take us.

Our first podcast topic is ‘Bulletproof Your Career’ – how to keep your job and succeed in these tumultuous times. Margo and I cover the four areas critical for every person out there to keep their wits about them while making their way up the ladder of success.

We would LOVE your feedback – tell us what you think!

So without further ado . . . here’s our podcast (see top of post)!

I’ve never had more fun speaking to such a professional, focused and responsive group in all my years of public speaking.

My sincere thanks goes out to Karen Senteio and all the people who work with her — she is one dynamite person! I first met Karen at an ICF meeting where I presented and she kept me in her back pocket for the right time to unleash at The Hartford. Thank you Karen!

You made me feel like a rockstar with the attendance figures (771 attendees at last count!), the photographer (thanks Jay!), and the AV crew (thank you AV Solutions!).

Finally, I had an enormous outpouring of support based on my own evaluation forms – all top scores. Now I have the incredible job of wading through the stack of evaluation sheets and emails for the lucky 30 complimentary coaching sessions – wish me luck!

Again — thanks for the support and praise — you’ve made my birthday an unbelievable event!

Wake up in the morning and say this to yourself:

Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I will accomplish what others can’t.

Successful people get ahead during the time that other people waste.

I don’t waste time, for time is what life is comprised of.

To live is the rarest thing in the world, and I’m gonna live fully until I die.

At Noon, say this to yourself when things get hard and you get discouraged:

Don’t quit.

Put up with adversity now to set the stage of my future life as a champion.

I have to increase my will, my fortitude, my enthusiasm, and my energy to move forward.

Welcome the fight, for the struggle itself will not only teach me new things, it will push me to do better.

Right before you go to bed, say this to yourself to fuel your body and mind for the day ahead:

I moved my life, my career and my relationships forward today.

I did this, and this, and this, and this . . .

I am one step closer to my goals (even though we sometimes have to do the ’2 steps forward, 1 step back’ dance).

I have a roof over my head, I am not hungry, I am healthy. And I have myself and the wonderful people around me to thank for this.

Feel free to use my ‘mantra’ or come up with your own for 2012. Trust me — you will MOVE MOUNTAINS.

Today, I promised you HOW they do it.

In the movie Fight Club (a male perennial favorite like ‘The Godfather’), the lead character works for an auto company and spouts out a formula they use for deciding whether to recall a model of their car or just let it go on killing people:

“Take the number of vehicles in the field, (A), and multiply it by the probable rate of failure, (B), then multiply the result by the average out-of-court settlement, (C). A times B times C equals X . . . If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don’t do one.”

It’s a scary formula — but an apt example of how one should look critically at a decision. When I coach my clients, it comes down to three choices:

1. Do nothing.
2. Do something slightly different.
3. Change radically (move or something totally new).

You need to stay ahead of the curve. So if you do nothing, eventually the marketplace is going to catch up to you and pass you pretty quickly. If you do something slightly different, you’re just staving off the inevitable, it’s catching up soon.

If you move or change your model radically, you stay ahead of the curve. Although you might be at the burning edge of the marketplace or your career path, you still are 100% in control of your destiny.

Your career or business needs to follow a Sigmoid Curve (see image above). The secret to constant growth is to start a new sigmoid curve before the first one peters out. The right place to start that second curve is at a point (A) where there is time, as well as the resources and energy, to get the new curve through its initial explorations and floundering before the first curve begins to dip downward (B).

And that’s what it’s all about. Maintaining complete control over what you do, where you go, and what happens to you.

It’s your choice: If you let things happen to you, you are at the whim of management or the marketplace. If you take control and make decisions about your future, you have a little bit more say in the direction of your journey.

“Stop waiting for life to happen to you and begin to direct your life and explore your limits.” – Rich Gee

Extra Credit: Here’s a real-life example:
Years ago, I worked with one of the most energetic, positive, and professional executives I’ve ever met. He was a pleasure to interact with, always moving forward, always getting things done. In fact, both he and I won the organization’s highest award that year. We were going places — and in less than a few months, he was gone, off to another position at another company. In fact, he’s done it successfully throughout his career. Today, he’s the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Fancy that.

Me? I do what I love too. Every single day.

As my holiday gift to you, here are my TEN most read & requested posts from 2010:

Set Your 2011 Goals In Two Steps.

It’s December 2011. Many people are scrambling to get their end of the year targets complete. Many are trying to reach out to prospects and recalcitrant clients to make that sale. Some are lining up their teams for that final push. A select few are slowly winding down their work for the eventual hibernation during the last two weeks of the month. How do you guarantee a great 2011?

5 Tips On How To Treat New Employees.

Whew! After a phlanx of interviewees and resumes, late nights, early mornings and lost lunches, you’ve just hired that new team member. Now you can sit back and focus back on work. Not so fast. It’s important as they’re new boss to make this transition period in their life bump- and trouble-free. It will not only behoove you, but will also ensure that your new hire is happy, engaged, enthusiastic, and motivated.

RUN OUT and Get This Book Today.

I LOVE Michael Port. Okay, I’ve never met the guy, but I do love his book. When I run into a good business book (and there are a lot of stinkers out there), I promote it. The man is a genius. He not only develops and publishes the bible on “Book Yourself Solid”, in it, he links to a workbook which is a very powerful way for one to really LEARN his techniques. I use this book everyday.

How You Sabotage Your Success.

I had to FedEx a letter to a prominent executive the other day. Easy? You have to be kidding. I used the same process I coach with my clients everyday. Same template (modified), same process, same delivery. The funny thing is, you wouldn’t believe the myriad of ways the fear, uncertainty, and doubt took over in my mind to stop me from doing this. Just watch my pain.

10 Ways To Have Fun At Work.

You work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 250 days a year, for approximately 40 years. You can either have fun or turn it into a clock-watching, tedious, and painful nightmare. Your choice.

Is Your Career A Rollercoaster Or Are You Driving It?

This week was chock full of incredible conversations with clients, colleagues, partners and prospects! All had wonderful ideas and goals. Kudos! One of the topics that I discussed with many of them was my theory that our world is changing. Are you driving your career?

What’s Killing Your Career? The Laws of Nature.

Newton’s First Law of Motion: An object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by a sum of physical forces. This is the typical employee at work today. As long as they have a job, they won’t take any risks, butt any heads, or raise their hand at a meeting. In essence, they are an “object at rest”. And this employee/object will remain at rest (no movement – no raises, no promotions, no new projects, no GROWTH) until “a sum of physical forces” are acted upon it.

I Just Saw An Accident This Morning.

I commute every day on I-95, the most travelled highway in Connecticut. I was in the middle lane, trundling along at 60-65 mph, and the traffic ahead reduced their speed due to congestion. And then it happened.

Stupid Things People Do At The Office – Take Work Home Over The Weekend.

Friday just flew by. And now you packed up your briefcase with folders and ran out the door at 7 PM. You’re planning to do some work this weekend to catch up before Monday rolls around and you’re behind the eight ball. Your first mistake . . .

$14.27 Can Change Your Career. Guaranteed.

Every so often, a person comes along, writes a book, and changes the way people act. Napoleon Hill did it with”Think and Grow Rich”. Dale Carnegie — “How To Win Friends and Influence People”. Peters and Waterman — “In Search of Excellence”. Stephen Covey — “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. And Keith Ferrazzi — “Never Eat Alone”. Here’s the next business bible . . .

Get set for an unbelievable new year! – Rich

For all intents and purposes, many of us have held our collective breaths for the past 2 years for this moment. It’s now time to take stock of who we currently are, where we are in our career, and where we want to go.

When you take a trip, you have a destination and a general idea of how to get there. Over the past two years, many executives have been fighting a valiant battle just to hold on to territory — fighting in the trenches — and hoping that something will happen to end the madness.

TIP #1 – Are You Happy & Challenged or Frustrated & Bored?

It’s time to take stock of your current situation. Do you like your current position, responsibilities, boss, peers, and team? Do you see yourself moving upwards at a regular rate or have you been stuck doing the same old stuff? Do you yearn for new challenges? Do you want to do something completely different?

You need to analyze all of these criteria, and make a decision whether to stay where you are, move to another position, or move to another company. It’s that easy.

TIP #2 – Are You Positioned To Make A Move?

Do you have the connections within your organization and/or outside in the marketplace to make a successful move? Who do you know? Who knows you? Is your resume up to date? Your LinkedIn profile? If someone Google’s your name, what will they see? What options are their within your organization? A possible lateral move to a higher performing or higher profile department?

Start to make these moves right now — get out and start meeting people, get your papers and web presence in order and begin to keep up on what’s happening in your marketplace. People tend to get stale when hibernating for 24 months.

TIP #3 – Are You Mentally Ready To Make A Move?

It’s hard to get out of hibernation mode and into full ‘action figure’ mode. You have to want it. You can’t be wishy-washy about your decision. You either want to stay or go — so when you make the decision, it’s all systems “GO”. I teach my clients there is either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ — no ‘Maybe’. Living in limbo is not only a bad situation, it can be mortally wounding your career. Take action now.

Act now or forever hold your peace.

The past few posts have been a bit long, so this one will be concise and blunt.

I run into many people at my workshops who are unemployed. When I offer a FREE coaching session to help them, a few balk. Why? I think:

• They like unemployment (stay with me here).
• They want someone else to do the thinking and searching for them.
• They are afraid of doing it themselves.
• It’s easier to not make a decision/do something rather than making a decision or acting on an opportunity.

Why does this happen? Because they lived on the corporate teat for the last 20-25 years. What do I mean by that?

They got lazy at work. They did the same thing every day — hoping and praying (as the world changed around them) that no one would notice.

Unfortunately, someone did. And they were let go from their job. Now they are desperately looking for a new  job just like their old job. They are looking for a new job just like they worked for their old job — they’re telegraphing it in.

I’m not saying that they didn’t work hard. They probably did. But they didn’t work SMART. They didn’t push themselves into KEY initiatives or projects that would change the company. Or developed a process that saved the company a lot of money. Bottom line – did they affect the growth of the business, save a lot of money, or change the game? No. They sucked on the corporate teat.

Let me say that again — are you:

• Affecting the growth of your business? Talking to a new major client? Releasing a new product?
• Saving your company a lot of money? Cost cutting, streamlining, better allocation of resources?
• Changing the game? Orthogonal thinking, coming up with major ideas/solutions that no one has thought of?

What’s funny is that these unemployed people are now moving from the corporate to the federal/state/city teat. They can’t find a ‘safe’ job in corporate — so they hope to find a ‘safe’ job in a public position. Unfortunately, I see that cost-cutting will start to matriculate down into these areas too in the next 5-10 years. So guess what? These ‘safe’ jobs are not really safe.

So don’t sleep at work. Impact the growth of your business. Save your company a lot of money. Change the game. Start TODAY.

From

“Venus Williams just keeps letting this happen to her, and she throws up her hands as if there is nothing she can do about it.

She had been playing her best tennis in years, and had a shot at moving to No. 1 in the world rankings, where she has spent just 11 weeks in her long career. And then she had an off day Sunday. Now, she’s gone. Williams lost 6-4, 6-3 to Nadia Petrova in the fourth round at Roland Garros. It’s clear now why Williams has never won the French Open, and never will. It’s not about a lack of ability or comfort on clay.

It’s unbelievable that someone who has been so great for so long would allow herself to play for all these years without a safety net. She has no adjustments to make, no alterations.

On hot days, the red clay is fast and on cold days it’s slow. On wet days, even stickier. On Sunday, it was raining and windy, too. Nothing stays the same, and even on the best of days, you can’t just impose physical strength on your opponent, the way Williams plays. The ball slows down when it bounces in this dirt, and gives players a chance to catch up to the power.

Sometimes it happens? Then why not be ready for it? Don’t you have to make adjustments?”

Greg is spot on with Venus. Now here’s the kicker . . . he sounds like me when I first talk to my clients. Things have been going so well for so long, then all of a sudden, everything falls apart. It’s like their career or business just had a 4-6, 3-6 game and they don’t know what to do. They’ve been playing their power game all along and the whole world around them has changed.

And it hits you smack in the center of your face just like a tennis ball. You suddenly realize that you no longer are employed, you’re handling multiple positions that have been eliminated, or a majority of your clientele have disappeared. How do you fix this?

It’s called FLEXIBILITY. LIMBERNESS. AGILITY. React to external conditions as they change (and you can bet your bottom dollar they will) and take steps to be flexible, limber and agile.

Here are some tips:

• Keep your eyes open. Major career or business changing events usually don’t happen in an instant. There are predictors and subtle changes that should be alerting you. People just don’t listen or they obstinately keep their eyes closed to the problem(s). When you see something begin to happen, take some time out to look out on the horizon. What is changing? For the better? For the worse? Who’s leaving the company? What projects are being cut? Who is disappearing from certain projects?
• Set goals. It’s that easy. Most executives and business-owners don’t have goals. They just trundle along with no targets to hit. You’re asking for trouble.
  Businesses – look at your last 12 months gross revenue, pick your three best months, average them and that is your current target for each month. If you want to be agressive, raise it by 5%.
  Executives – How is your project/department progressing? Are you hitting your deadlines? Are you receiving increases when you hit something out of the park (great review)?
• Have a plan in case things change. If the environment is going south, have a backup plan.
  Businesses – What is another customer base you can tap into? Why aren’t you hitting them already?
  Executives – Is your resume up to date? Are you actively having lunch with colleagues outside of your company to survey the marketplace?

If you begin to attempt just one of these tips and MAKE ADJUSTMENTS, you’ll find that you’ll be winning the matches, rather than going home a loser.

Newton’s First Law of Motion (slightly edited*):
An object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by a sum of physical forces.

This is the typical employee at work today. As long as they have a job, they won’t take any risks, butt any heads, or raise their hand at a meeting. In essence, they are an “object at rest”. And this employee/object will remain at rest (meaning – no movement – no raises, no promotions, no new projects, no GROWTH) until “a sum of physical forces” are acted upon it.

What are those forces? The economy, your customers, your investors or YOUR BOSS. They will be the force that will make the decision “act upon you”. Most likely, if you have been “at rest” for a very long time and these forces are negative (lost customers, no profits, reduction in staff), they are probably going to look at the “objects” that aren’t doing anything substantial (like hiding in their cubicles).

How do you solve this dilemma? START MOVING. Don’t be that object at rest. Here are some suggestions:

• Start asking for more work. Any boss would love help and it would define you from the rest of the rabble.
• Start connecting with key players outside of work. Get out there and see if there is something better than what you currently have.
• Start brainstorming. This is the time to come up with game-changing strategies or ideas to help your company.
• Start thinking about your future. Where are you? Where do you want to go? How do you get there?

Bottom line: Based on the news today, we might be coming out of the current recession – so management will be looking at their troops who stayed with them during the ‘war’ and decide if they helped out or they hid behind a tree. Don’t be an object at rest – start MOVING!

*An object at rest tends to stay at rest, or if it is in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by a sum of physical forces.

Statistics show that 75-80% of the corporate workforce works late 1-3 nights a week. Don’t get me wrong here bucko — there are times during the year when you do need to work late — emergencies or a deadline deliverable to a client.

Most of the time — working late is due to one of three reasons:

1. Poor Planning - On your part or your bosses. Remember the phrase: “Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine?”
2. Time Management and/or Procrastination – You spend work time on unimportant activities and push the more important stuff to later in the day.
3. Showoff - The need to portray to management, the board, your clients, your peers, your staff, or even your family that you are a “hard worker”.

Which one are you? Are you a composite of two or even three of these? I was. And it took me YEARS to realize this.

If you can’t fit your position into a 40-50 hour window (that’s working from 7 AM to 5 PM each day), you need to change a few things. So here goes (in no special order):

• You need to SDR – Streamline, Delegate, or Retire – You probably do too much. Leverage your staff and others to pick up the simple stuff. (check out my post)
• You go to too many meetings (see this post from last week on meetings).
• You haven’t set specific boundaries with your boss. You need to train them just like a dog. I’m not kidding – if they try to catch you at 5:30 for an ‘important talk’ every night, you need to let them know that they can talk to you in the morning.
• Stop goofing around at work. No surfing, no personal phone calls, no wandering the office for casual conversation. Do your work! Check this out.
• Stop procrastinating. Work on the hard stuff first. Break it up into manageable chunks and get it done. Check this out.
• Leave at a reasonable hour. 5 or 6 PM is fine. I know people will notice. But at the end of the day, leaving work to get home for more important activities is critical to your long-term happiness. Work is important — but life springs eternal!

Friday just flew by. And now you packed up your briefcase with folders and ran out the door at 7 PM. You’re planning to do some work this weekend to catch up before Monday rolls around and you’re behind the eight ball.

First — Do you really need to bring the work home?
Or do you need to be ‘superhumanly’ productive to succeed at work? Do you find that you ALWAYS bring work home? Make the hard choice – what would happen if you left those folders at work? Try it – you’ll like it. Bottom line – you don’t HAVE to bring them home EVERY weekend.

Second — Can you attack the work first thing Saturday morning?
Get up at 6 AM and work until 9 AM – a three full hours. Then you have the rest of the weekend to relax and enjoy yourself. If you are like most people, you bring the work home and let it sit until Sunday evening and worry about it all weekend. Don’t do that – attack it first thing and then have fun.

Third — Can you streamline your work down to a manageable hour?
Instead of just diving into your work and watching the hours tick by – what is the most important thing that needs to be done and can it be finished within one hour? When we have an unspecified amount of time to work, we tend to meander and waste a lot of time. Give yourself a set amount of time (1-2 hours) and see how much you really can get done under a strict deadline.

Every so often, a person comes along, writes a book, and changes the way people act.

Napoleon Hill did it with”Think and Grow Rich”. Dale Carnegie — “How To Win Friends and Influence People”. Peters and Waterman — “In Search of Excellence”. Stephen Covey — “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. And Keith Ferrazzi — “Never Eat Alone”.

Seth Godin has been writing books, speaking, and blogging for over 10 years. I first was introduced to him with his first book, “Permission Marketing”. I then drifted off from Seth after reading a few of his other books but have been following him lately with his blog.

Michael Hyatt turned me onto his latest read, “Linchpin — Are You Indispensable?“. I bought it yesterday on my Amazon Kindle and proceeded to stay up most of the night finishing it. This book is going to change the way people think, act, and work.

Everyone knows there is something wrong with business today. Seth crystalizes what the REAL problem is and delivers to the reader clear instructions on how to find their way on how to succeed in the new business world.

Bottom line: Seth espouses what I do every day with my clients.

A short summary from Amazon: “Linchpin is a most unusual, well-organized, concise book about what it takes to become indispensable in the workplace – whether you work for someone else (at any level) or are self-employed. It’s about how business has rapidly changed and how treating employees like factory workers (or doing your job like one) doesn’t work any longer. We must make choices and take action to “chart our own paths” and add value that others do not. We cannot wait for a boss or a job description to tell us what to do, rather we must just take the initiative ourselves. Only then can we become indispensable “linchpins,” rather than replaceable “cogs.” ”You don’t become indispensable merely because you are different. But the only way to become indispensable is to be different. That’s because if you’re the same, so are plenty of other people.”

Stop what you’re doing right now and go out and buy this book. It will change your life.