It makes me glad that people are reading the gospel of John and when Edward and I come, we discuss a chapter specific chapter (we’re on chapter 2). So far, there’s not much visible change from their faith, but they are reading-studying. We also talked this time about the 10 commandments, and how Christ fulfilled them for us and gives us His righteousness and justification by faith. 

Tolik starts to learn to play some songs on the accordian, and I also gave them many Christian songs to listen to, some Christian films and radio programs. May God use the power of the Gospel for the salvation of their souls.

I’m glad that my mom regularly comes here, too, for the service, even though it’s 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) from her town.

One thing I am an expert at is getting jobs. I was so good at getting jobs that I have gotten a lot of jobs in my adult life. The hard part for me was not too get bored with the job and quit after a few months, or even weeks. I realized that weakness that I have finally understood that I personally don’t like to work for somebody else. I got jobs when I needed to have stable income, or when I thought it would teach about something I wanted to work in. I never saw a job as a permanent thing, it was just a stop on the way to the next best thing or a training for doing it on my own.  A lot of times I will admit that I had the wrong attitude.  I was a very restless employee always plotting my next move. This is heavily attributed to my A.D.D.

When I worked on my own, I only had myself to answer to. I worked for my clients but I scheduled my time, worked as hard or as easy as I wanted.  The only downfall to that, is if I didn’t work hard enough I would not get paid, and therefore not pay my bills or eat.  So in that situation you have to motivate yourself to work. You don’t have a boss standing over you saying “Get to work” Well maybe I did, if you count my wife saying to me “Hello, we haven’t closed anything this month so we can’t take the weekend off!” 

Anyways back to my point about getting a job.  I can help you get a job. I can help you to tell the employer what they want to hear without being a total liar.

Maybe the job you are applying for has nothing to do with the movie rental or restaurant business. In this situation you want to emphasize ability and attitude. Don’t lie that you know how to do something that you don’t. It will show. Do say that you have the ability to learn fast and the attitude that you are willing to try anything.

First of all there is the application or resume. If you are like me and move around a lot, you don’t want to put every job you have ever had on your application or resume. Instability is something that you don’t want to show. When I was 25, I applied for a job and my resume included about 6 jobs that I had in the last three years. A big no, no for employers. The manager basically told me “What are you doing?” “You have a lot of jumping around.” I was a little offended at first, but I walked out of the interview with my tail between my legs and I quickly modified my resume.  They know that you will not stick around for their job either. You want to put the most relevant job that is closest to the job you are applying for. If there are gaps in your employment, hopefully you can explain that because you were focused on your school or were traveling or whatever reason you had. Especially don’t list jobs that you were fired from. Most employers will check references. There are some things that are illegal for an employer to disclose about their ex-employees but you will be surprised how many people will bad mouth another person if they feel that nobody will hear them.

Your potential employer might ask you “Do you have experience in XYZ industry? You will say “I do have customer service experience because of my work in A company.”  “I do know how to work a register, count money, speak with people, resolve problems, answer the phones, adapt to challenges, and work with others. In other words what you have done in the past no matter how menial, will have some relevance to the job you are applying for.  You have to be creative and learn what they are looking for. They may not be looking for someone who has done the exact job before. Your employer wants someone who has the attitude and ability to learn their job well.  I always teach employers that you hire attitude and teach ability. If someone has the attitude and confidence and no experience, they are a far better candidate than someone who has experience and a bad attitude or lack of enthusiasm. This attitude will flow onto customers and co-workers.

Your attitude is everything. Look your potential employer in the eye. Ask questions about what you are not clear on. Repeat back what you understood. Smile and hold yourself upright with good posture. Don’t fidget while they are talking to you. Keep your head up. Act as if they cannot live without you.  Act as if they need you. Don’t be a cocky jerk, but be confident.  Believe in your attitude and your ability and your willingness to learn. Then project that to the person who is trying to hire you.  Be persistent on the follow up. Write them and call them and check in until they give you the job. If they don’t give you the job, tweak your approach and go onto the next candidate. Your persistence and attitude will pay off and you will get the job.

Management & Sales Training Newsletter

www.summmitgroupint.com

“Importance of Follow Up”

When does the sale begin in your customer or client’s mind? When they pay the money or sign the agreement, right? In contrast, for most salespeople the sale ends at this point, doesn’t it? Keep in mind that your customer or client is simply buying your promises before they actually use your product or service. Afterwards, your customer steps back to see if your promises hold true.

What type of verbiage do most salespeople use when following up with their sold and un-sold customers? Many salespeople say things like, “Remember me…(which they don’t by the way)…I’m calling to follow up with you regarding…” Instead of using this uninspiring script, you should look to offer something new and/or better than you did last time. You should also cite a specific reason for the follow up call. For instance, you can talk about new terms or pricing that you have or you can mention a referral you have for them or a new marketing idea for their business. The overall theme here is to look for ways to create value instead of simply continually asking for the sale.

Another critical aspect of good follow up is to ask good questions. The following are some key follow up questions to bring value to your customer and to help you find new problems you can solve. Your customers are rarely happy with getting the same benefits or results week after week, month after month, year after year. So ask them, “What are your future expectations of us?” You can also gauge how things are working by asking, “On a scale from one to ten, how is it going or how is it working for you?”

Studies tell us that 94% of the problems your customers have they don’t tell you about. What do they do? They tell ten other people on average how much they dislike you and they will leave you and go directly to your competition. You must seek out problems with quality or service without putting their comments in a negative light. How? You might ask, “How can we serve you better?” In contrast, you must stay away from asking questions like, “What’s wrong or what problems are you having?” Why? It’s a negative way of framing and gets the customer focused on the problems you’ve created rather than how you can help. Don’t focus on how bad things are. Focus on how you can make things better!

Follow up can also help your customer focus on new ways you can help. Keep the conversation focused on solutions, not problems. Ask, “What can we do to improve things in the future or how can we make things better for you?”

Another good reason to follow up is that your current customers and clients are the best source to find new prospects. Show your prospects what you can do for them based on what you’ve proven you can do for your current customers or clients that they know. In order to be credible you should ask your current customers or clients, “Could you quantify how you’re getting better results in dollar terms?” This will give you powerful information to share with prospects, as well as, helping that customer or client define the great results you’re giving to them. For instance, if your client tells you that the new windows you’ve installed have saved them $25 a month on their heating bill, it’s easy to justify doing the same for their friends or family, right?

Remember that the sale begins for your customer or client once they buy.
You must exceed their expectations. Why is it so important? Well, it’s sixteen times easier to make a re-sale than an original sale! Why? One of the major hesitations to buying is risk and you’re lowering the perception of risk because they feel they know what they’ll get. In addition to it being easier to get a re-sale, it costs much less. It costs six times as much to get new customers as to keep old ones.

Another great follow up tip with customers is to get something tangible to them immediately after they buy. Why? Because they just exchanged real money for intangible promises. The gift can be something small, but try to make it personal. A gift card to their favorite local store or restaurant or even a small sample of your product can be just the thing to smooth over some initial buyer anxiety. As a general rule, the longer you delay getting something to your customer once they’ve made a decision to buy, the more uncertainty they will have about their purchase.

This post is actually a little power-tagged because, regret to inform, I actually didn’t get up going out with the guy I met on the T after The Slutcracker. Bummer, right? I was really psyched!

We were supposed to go out on Wednesday, but the snag was that we couldn’t meet until 10pm (which, considering we met on public transportation, raised the sketch to perilous new levels), because I had class ’til 9:30, and Wednesday was the only night I didn’t have jam-packed.

We’d texted a bit on the night that we met — just, like, “nice to meet you!” stuff — and on Wednesday I waited with, I hate to admit, embarrassing earnestness for a follow-up text. Nothing. Finally, around 6pm, I texted him: “We still on?” and twenty minutes later he texted to say he had an early meeting the next day and going out starting at 10pm was just way too late, but “wanna go out tomorrow?” But my Thursday was already overloaded, so I texted him: “Totally booked tomorrow.”

No response.

My female friends did the right thing and tried to convince me that it was impossible he would have lost interest a few days after seeing me, and that he made an earnest attempt to reschedule, etc, etc, etc, but I mean, dudes, he’s just not that into me. It’s cool. Really, there’s nothing lost here: I picked him up in a T station, like a crazy person, and we didn’t even know anything about each other, so, y’know, no big deal.

Man, though, I had been really psyched! I’m usually cool-to-lukewarm on people when I first meet them, and can’t abide touching, so it was pretty thrilling to meet someone whom I immediately wanted to, like, rub my face on. Whatever, though. There will be other guys, not on other trains, whom I’m sure I can rub my face on in future.

—

Leaving for Vegas in a few hours, to spend Christmas with the fam! So, dude, if you’re a Vegas person I know irl and want to go out and have an adventure, let me know! Otherwise, see you cats on Monday with some uncharacteristic Vegas craziness.

Illustration Chair Steven Guarnaccia attended the First Annual Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival and was interviewed Katie Geha of therumpus.net Here’s an excerpt of Katie’s article:

Steven Guarnaccia, Chair of the Illustration Department at Parsons, is generous in talking with me about the contemporary comics scene. He explains that while illustrators once created images to respond to a text given by a client, say a magazine or a newspaper, now more and more artists are creating their own texts. “When I came to the program around six years ago,” Guarnaccia says. “It was very clear that the most exciting stories were being generated by the artists themselves.” These visual narratives have since translated to a larger cultural realm as artists move beyond the comic book, creating toys and t-shirts, and often exhibiting prints in art galleries.

The article also mentions Illustration Alum Leah Hayes, so make sure to check out the rest of the write-up here.

I’m really thankful to you for all your prayers. Again, I want to request your prayers about tomorrow.

Aside from the Bible study in Fenevichi, with will gather about five of my relatives and other neighbors, I will also be talking to my older brother, Ruslan. I see that God is preparing his heart now. He is tired of sins and wants to stop drinking and he asked himself for me to speak with him.

Pray also for his wife Sveta. She also has spiritual difficulties in her life. Pray that God will help her understand that only in Him is her salvation and comfort.

This Wednesday will be the second Bible study with my relatives. I’m requesting that you especially pray that God would open their hearts to His Word and would work changes in them for His glory.

On October 19th, Caty Bartholomew’s Toy Concepts Development and Design class was invited to participate in a workshop at Gallery Hanahou, run by “guerilla” crafting club Ossu! Shugeibu from Japan. (Ossu! was in town for a week to attend their show’s opening at the gallery.)

They made “robodogs” in a very quick hour and a quarter, then proudly took them out for a stroll on Broadway. They even caught some interest from passersby and, all in all, had a pile of fun.

In Minnesota and All Over the Country

Recently, a friend of mine has spent some time in a skilled rehab facility after knee replacement surgery.  Unfortunately, her time there has not been the best.  She’s had long waiting times for ice for her knee (more than 1 1/2 hours,) she was left in the hallway when the aide who was walking with her took a personal call on her cell phone, she was having hallucinations from pain medication, and was scared in the middle of the night when a nurse wearing a black hoodie approached her.  A friend of mine who is a care coordinator wrote the following on facilities and expectations:

‘As a Care Coordinator assisting families find appropriate care and            housing for their loved ones I am frequently in the position of recommending a great variety of resources. When clients ask “What is the ‘best’ facility in my community?”, I have a conversation that I like to call “The Myth of the Perfect Facility.” I tell families seeking housing that there are no perfect facilities. I will go so far as to say that there are no “best” facilities. There is the facility, whether that is assisted living, residential care home, nursing home or continuing care retirement community that will meet your loved ones needs, that is affordable and that is in an appropriate location for the family. Some are certainly “better” than others; but, is there a “best”? No, surprisingly, there is not a best. I like to have this conversation again after family tours facilities and gets back to me waxing euphoric about the one place they loved. I remind them that problematic, difficult, unfortunate things, bad things, can happen at the “best” facilities. What differentiates facilities is how they react to those problematic situations. A good facility will listen without becoming defensive. A good facility will respond to family and resident concerns, big or small, with compassion and an action plan. A good facility will follow up with the resident and family and make sure they are satisfied. A good facility grows and changes as they learn from and with their care partners: the families of their Residents.’

Joyce M. Konczyk, LSW

Life Care Coordinator Maser & Amundson, P.A. 952-925-4147 jkonczyk@maserlaw.com

Disclaimer: This has been prepared for general information purposes only. This is information not legal advice. Legal advice is dependent upon the specific circumstances of each situation. The information contained in this presentation should not replace the advice of competent legal counsel licensed in your state.

]]> http://rothrim.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/christmascards/ Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:55:39 +0000 Roth Rim http://rothrim.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/christmascards/

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We are a new greeting card company and we’d love to do your custom Christmas cards. Do you have a family photo you’d like to include inside the card? We can print the photo inside the card for you. Maybe you’d prefer to customize the whole thing including the front cover? We can do that too!

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Act now and we will also show you a unique way to remember every birthday, anniversary, and important event.

I read one of Chris Brogans posts last week titled If you have and extra half hour. Chris is a social media guru and his post centered around useful things you could do with thirty extra minutes say waiting for an appointment or the result of a canceled appointment.   I thought I would take this same idea and apply it to the job search.

With an extra 30 minutes you could:

1. Go to Jigsaw and research some new target companies
2. Update your LinkedIn profile
3. Sign up for a Visual CV account
4. Tweak your networking profile (marketing plan)
5. Visit The Candidates Chair for some useful job search and interview tips
6. Meet with someone who could use YOUR help
7. Organize your work area – dust, file paperwork make sure you have all the supplies you need
8. Follow up on any promises you made
9. Call someone, personal or professional you have not spoken to in a while – reconnect
10. Take a walk to clear your mind – many times my best ideas come to me when I do this
11. Update your contact database – don’t have one?  Start building one.
12. What did I miss?

Until next week…

It was so joyful and happy for me to see how God is opening the hearts of my relatives to hear the gospel. Before, they had completely different relationship to Him, and today they are ready to listen to His Word. My sister, with whom I talked a week ago, showed the desire to turn to God, as did her husband Tolya.

They live in the village of Fenevichi. Today we had our first Bible study meeting at their house. There were also in attendance my mom (Galina Ivanovna) and Tolya’s mom (also named Galina Ivanovna) and Victor.

We prayed that this house would become a Prayer House and that that Tolya, saved and baptized, could be able to preach there the gospel to many people. I think we will come there once a week, seeing that they are open and want to hear about God.

Ah, the infamous Cosby sweater. We’re all aware of the jokes that defined much of the 80’s.  Fast forward a few decades and it seems like the creative folks at American Apparel,  Calvin Klein and Oxbow for Colette are tapping this fun-house style for their latest lines. While the mismatched textures are somewhat overwhelming, the cuts are modern and the themes coherent, allowing customers of all ages to take part in this pattern bazar.  It’s also interesting to note MC Esher and Dali’s influences continuing on into winter. We wonder if Patricia Field will be the next visionaire to jump on board, as these textures seem like a seamless fit for her eclectic style.

Well, it’s time for December graduation for universities all around the country. While graduation is such an exciting time, this economy has definitely put a damper on the dreams and goals of many graduates.

I can still remember my gruesome job search like it was yesterday, so I’ve compiled my top 5 tips for those soon-to-be grads!

#1 – Have Confidence: I know this sounds cliché but you have to believe in yourself and in your personal brand. Hopefully you have spent your time in college wisely by working and utilizing social media. If so, believe in yourself and have confidence in your accomplishments. This will show during your interview – you cannot deny confidence.
I went almost six months before finding a legitimate job – I was also living by myself at the time, so there were days I had little to no confidence. I eventually surrounded myself with people who believed in me and knew that I was a hard-worker – a month later, I found my current job!

#2 – Ask for Help: When searching for a job, most people get very used to seeing their resume everyday; this usually means that mistakes are overlooked. Asking a professional for help can do wonders for your resume.
I asked Heather Huhman (@heatherhuhman) for help with mine and she was great. We spent a Sunday afternoon together (virtually) and I think I paid her $15. We completely re-did my cover letter and re-formatted my resume. The cost and the time was well worth it.

#3 – Use Social Media: Social media is such a great tool when searching for jobs. Whether you are trying to promote your skills or searching for a job, social media can be wonderful! If you are looking in the comms/pr/marketing industry follow agencies, leaders and job boards on Twitter.

#4 – Join Associations: One of the most popular questions I was asked during my job search was “Which professional organizations are you involved in?” At the time I was so broke that I couldn’t even afford a membership fee to join an organization! When I finally got a job the first thing I did was ask my employer to sponsor me in a local communications organization. The networking opportunities that are associated with professional organizations are endless – so find one that you like and join!

#5 – Follow-Up: Above everything else you take away from this post – you must follow-up! If there is one thing I wish I would have known, it’s how to properly follow-up after an interview. A traditional thank you note will do. You can simply state why you enjoyed meeting the professional and what you took away from talking with them. You’d be surprised how this can make you stand out from your competition.

It’s highly unlikely that any recent graduate will land their dream job right out of college so stay positive and stay focused – it will all work out.

I was working with a client and they shared with me how frustrated they were that some of their prospects weren’t calling them back. First, I asked “when was the last time you made contact with the business?” And then my second question was going to be “what value did you give them when you called?” One can’t expect people to want to do business with you if you don’t follow-up with them and let them know that you want to EARN their business. Earning the business is a process of rapport and relationship building. Building a business relationship is like dating. A person meets another and you speak and exchange business cards. One agrees to follow-up with the other. By the way, you must be the one to always follow-up. Never assume or wait for anyone to have a positive or negative impact on the potential of a new client. You control your destiny when you do the work that is needed to earn the business. I recommend, follow-up with a card in three days. The card should mention when you would like to get together or connect face to face. You must follow-up on the day that you mention in the card. When you meet, allow them to share their goals, roles and responsibilities with you. If they are a good business person, the conversation when be reciprocated and you’ll have the opportunity to share the same. Now you both must think about the potential of a business relationship. A business relationship isn’t always about earning the business financially. It could mean that you may have a client that could use their services and vice versa. It could also mean “not now” but there may be opportunities in the future. Following up isn’t always about asking if they are ready to do business with you. But, follow up with them and give them something that they will appreciate and use. That’s how people remember you and want to do business with you if they see that you sincerely care about their propositional value statement and mission. What do you think are some reasons that prospects are not returning your calls? What value are you giving them? Do you care about their business? I’d love to hear back from you.

Thank all of you who prayed about today. It was  a blessed day. It’s so happy seeing how God is working His work of salvation in the hearts of people.

Five people came to the evagelistic meeting, almost all of them my relatives. It’s so happy to see how God is growing their faith and strengthening them. Last time I asked them to read the first chapter of John. My mom read more than 10 chapters, and Tolya’s mom read the whole book of John. (I had printed it out in large print for the elderly folks.)

Tolya, my sister’s husband, asked them about what they’d read and what they understood and remembered. . . . . I am seeing that God is raising up new preachers (like Tolya) and building His church.

They also all are slowly starting to pray out loud. But most importantly for me now is that they grow in their understanding of God, that with all their hearts they would hope only in Jesus Christ for their salvation.

How easy it is for a person to hope on himself or on some feeling of deserving, especially after starting to attend church or doing something good. But all these false hopes just hold a person away from from God’s mercy. Not their prayers, deeds, nothing brings them closer to God like simply understanding this simple truth–Christ died for you.

This is what every believer must focus their attention on, at the begining of their life with God and all the way through the rest of his time. Each person must personally know God like his Savior, Friend, Father, King. . . .

I also talked with my brother Ruslan who lives in Ivankov, and with his wife Sveta. God is now seriously alarming his heart and his is making serious tries to come to God. Pray that God helps htem know His mercy.