How to Make Any Business Trip Less Boring
This article was originally published in the Harvard Business Review. London. Barcelona. Beijing. The world’s business hubs are also desirable travel destinations. And yet, when we’re sent there for a conference or client meeting, many of us act like it’s a slog. Unfortunately, most business travel advice goes something like this: Hunt for Wi-Fi like it’s water, stick to your itinerary, stay in a safe (read: sterile) hotel, and take care of yourself as best […]
How to Overcome Excellence and Set Yourself on the Path to Genius
This article was originally published under Read Write. Let’s assume that you are very good at what you do. You have a lot of clients, you’re in demand, and your skill set allows you to make a good living. In fact, you might be so good that attracting clients and making money isn’t even that much of a big deal. When someone comes to you with a question, you have the answer. When a client […]
Clearing the Clutter—How Busy People Can Get Things Done
This article was originally published under Marketing Profs. Marketers, by the very nature of their job function, must juggle numerous campaigns, a range of portfolios, multiple channels, and various corporate, political, and personnel issues—all simultaneously. Do you have multiple action lists running concurrently in your brain? Or great ideas buried within files, folders, emails, Post-It notes, and to-do lists? If that sounds like you, join the club! But I have to warn you: This is […]
OK, Google: How Do I Optimize My Content for Featured Snippets?
This article was originally published by the Content Marketing Institute. More people are making their voices heard when they need to search for something. They’re ditching their keyboards for the convenience of “OK, Google.” For brands, this raises an important question: How do you become the default answer for a voice search query? You know the recent buzz around “featured snippets” – the boxes that appear at the top of some Google search result pages, […]
The very thing that terrifies you is where your treasure lies
This article was originally published under Huff Post. In 2009 I had “tinnitus,” i.e. ringing in my ear. I went through a battery of tests — hearing tests, even an MRI scan. The doctors couldn’t help me. Thank God it eventually went away on its own, but it took months. It scared the hell out of me in the meantime. That same year I took a class in mindfulness-based stress reduction. I learned how to […]
An eLearning Revolution, and It’s Starting in Rural Africa
This article was originally published under Huff Post. Meet Elizabeth, a twelve-year-old who walked over 10 kilometers to school and back every day. Despite her class being crowded — sometimes with 75 children for each teacher — and her teachers often being from outside the community, regularly overwhelmed and sometimes missing their teaching obligations — she was lucky to receive an education at all. This is the reality of a child growing up in rural […]
Voluntouring: A More Conscious Way to Travel
This article was originally published under Huff Post. Vacation means palm trees, tropical weather, and filling recycle bottles with compostable trash to build a children’s school? That doesn’t sound like the classic vaca by the beach we’re used to, but for an increasing amount of people, volunteering has become a way to see the world while gaining perspective. Often referred to as “voluntourism”, the word refers to the tourist who combines their vacation and sightseeing with […]
This School Used to Be a Plastic Bottle
This article was originally published under Huff Post. This school used to be a plastic bottle. This school also used to be an empty chip bag, a coffee cup and a candy wrapper. In fact, it used to be a whole village full of inorganic trash that littered the streets and clogged the rivers. This is a bottle school: a building comprised of thousands of discarded water and soda bottles that have been packed hard […]
The Only Stupid Question Is the One You Keep Asking Yourself
This article was originally published under Huff Post. You’re talking to yourself again. Yes, you are and you don’t even realize it. Don’t worry, it’s not out loud, so no one else can hear you. And it doesn’t mean you’re crazy; we all do it. We usually say the same things over and over, like a tape on continuous loop. One of the things in that continuous loop is a question — your “primary question.” […]
Un-Limit Yourself: A Powerful Process for Shedding Those Pesky Limiting Beliefs
This article was originally published under Huff Post. What do Ebenezer Scrooge and Anthony Robbins have in common? That may sound like the beginning of a bad joke, but I do have a point and it’s a good one. Let me ask you another question first. Have you ever felt that there was something holding you back from reaching your true potential? If you said yes, you are not alone. In fact, you are in […]
