Why We Need to End Even A Good Thing

Welcome to Episode 101 and the final episode for The Daily Interaction show. Today’s topic is why and how we need to end even good things in life. You know that nagging voice in the back of your head that says you need to get out of something, or do something else with your time? Everything may be going great in your business, or your relationship, or even your job, and a part of you just stops being totally into it. That’s when the voice in your head starts talking louder and louder.

If you ignore the voice, it will keep harassing you until you listen. You cannot continue ignoring your inner voice without consequences. I ignored my inner voice for years when I was at corporate – and finally, I was able to get out of that job and into my business because the voice got louder and louder.

You have inner wisdom. You know best what’s right for you. In that example, my inner voice knew that I am not made for a corporate career, and I was meant to walk the entrepreneurship path – and it was right.

So how do you listen to your inner voice and gather enough information so you make the right decision? In this episode, I talk about the 3-step process that is very useful when you apply it overtime you hear that voice complaining about something you are doing – and this can be something very bad such as a toxic relationship or something very good such as a cushy lucrative easy job.

1. Get very curious. Curiosity quiets the self-judgement and heavens knows we have more than enough judgment to deal with, and curiosity opens the door to clarity.
2. Observe what is happening. Observe why you are feeling this way. Observe a lot and ask yourself questions.
3. Be gentle and kind to yourself. We are very fragile and vulnerable on the inside. So exercise plenty of kindness in your dialogue as you gather your information.

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Why I Am Ending the Daily Interaction Podcast

As you may have guessed, the nagging voice came to me a while ago about my beloved podcast, and I did the most natural thing of all: I completely ignored it.

Until I could not ignore it anymore.

This is a perfect example of when you hear the nagging voice about the good and even great things in your life.

Why would you want to end something good?

Why would you want to stop doing something that brings you and others usefulness and even joy?

So I went through my 3-step process, and when I got very curious and observed why I am feeling this way, I realized it is not because I don’t love podcasting and creating something that you enjoy. Of course I do. There are just other pressing projects, books, commitments and works that call my name and need my attention.

To all my listeners: THANK YOU for your love. Stay tuned for more! 

This marks the final podcast of The Daily Interaction Show. I am proud to say that the podcast was sponsor-free and ad-free and completely free for 2 years, and that I produced a show for you every week except 2 random weeks where life and circumstance simply overpowered me. We had a great run, and you can access the entire archives anytime.

Going forward, the focus will be on Prolific Living blog, as well as other surprise works I have in store for you.

Hop on the list below not to miss a beat, and stay confident, stay brilliant, and share your thoughts on how you end things in your life when the time is right and when that inner voice beckons you to do so.

Making Positive Change with Little-Known Communication Secrets

“As is a tale, so is life. Not how long it is but how good it is that matters.”
~Seneca

Welcome to Episode #100 of The Daily Interaction Show and to my conversation with a gracious grace, Leon “The Encourager” Bullard on how to make positive change first in your life and then in the life of others.

If you can communicate it well enough, you can have anything you want in life.
~The Daily Interaction Show

Leon is an author, a wellness and fitness professional, and a brilliant communicator and speaker, with a strength in clarity and persuasion.

As a personal development expert, Leon is focused on educating, coaching and encouraging others to live healthier and more productive. He has over 10 years work as a fitness trainer and 8 years work as a behavior modification coach and speaker. He is the author of Triumph At Last.

Also Leon has a great newsletter at chasevictory.com if you want nudges for staying healthy.

His focus is on healthy living and he is a supreme example of that so he lives and breathes his own advice. And he is a wonderful speaker from years of knowing him at Toastmasters.

For today’s talk I want to talk about the courage that it takes to help people make changes in their lives and Leon is doing that with his business and also with his powerful speaking so we’ll get his secrets on that.

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How to Make Positive Change One with Communicating Well

Here are the interview questions I posed Leon Bullard in our conversation:

1. Leon, it’s a luxury that I know you so I can base my questions on personal experience and I always noticed that you were a natural persuader. How do you do it? How can we learn the basics of persuading the people in our lives without coming across as pushy? (Feel free to give us examples)

2. I still remember in 2009, you gave an amazing speech at a Toastmasters contest. Are you still active in Toastmasters and how are you using your public speaking skills in your own business?

3. So I know your passion is about helping people become healthier in their lives, and we share that passion. What made you decide to pursue personal development and helping people get healthier?

4. Okay let’s talk about some of the challenges because I am sure you have had to work hard on your amazing communication skills. What are some of the difficulties you faced AND overcame along the way?

5. Let’s say I am really shy, terrified of interacting with people much less groups, but I am dying to get my story out there because I know it can help create positive change for some people. What is the first step I could take to overcome this debilitating shyness and get courageous?

6. Leon, was there anything that I didn’t ask you that you want to share on this topic of getting the courage to help people change.

7. If you could give my listeners one actionable takeaway today to help them inspire positive change in the people in their lives, what would you say?

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Welcome to Episode #99 of The Daily Interaction Show. Today’s solo show comes to you from a speech that I gave earlier this week. I just spoke at Women of Power Summit held this past Tuesday – teaser video here – and it was such an honor to speak to these amazing women who are finding their way from corporate to self-employment, which is one of my passions: How to go from a corporate employee to a successful entrepreneur.

The title of my talk was Lessons in Transition: Going from Corporate to Entrepreneur and the second half of my talk focused on the 5 secrets of creating massive success in your own business. These are secrets that I learned the hard way but I don’t want you to learn them that way. It was no fun! And that’s what I am going to share with you in today’s podcast.

And these are secrets that are going to take you some time to digest and to implement until you start to see the massive success and impact they can have in your business, so please do be patient, my dear. This is not a turn-key solution. This is a change that takes place in your heart first and your mind second before it even touches your business.

But when it does and when you put them to work, it’s more powerful and effective than anything else. It is the way to tap into your own creative genius and powerful inner wisdom. I have seen the results of these secrets to massive business success in my own company as well as for my students and clients.

Thinking about leaving that corporate job to start your own business? You need an exit plan first, darling. Hop over to Smart Exit Blueprint and grab the FREE gift I have to get you started..

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Top 5 Secrets to Creating Massive Business Success

1. Trust yourself and your decisions: You DO know best.

The problem starts with you not thinking big enough of yourself and that’s part corporate conditioning that happens after years of just being a follower of the rules and the systems laid before you. You second guess everything and have to run every simple thing by a whole team or by your boss. When you enter the entrepreneurial path, you are on your own, darling and you have GOT to trust yourself. Completely. Honestly. Totally.

And it starts with thinking bigger of yourself. You are not out to create a tiny itty biz with 3 clients and maybe a product down the road. Think bigger! Dream bigger. Create a massive vision and then you will work your way to it, and you will close the gap. But start with thinking big.

First, start to undo the conditioning of years of corporate and realize that your new business is not another job, there is no roadmap or blueprint if you want to leave your own unique footprint behind so allow your creative genius to come forth.

2. Get in the right frame of mind: The right mindset sets you up for success and the wrong one for failure. Simple as that.

Don’t make the colossal mistake of just going through the motions. You do not do everything from quitting your job to starting your business and offer products and services without first taking the time to adopt the right mindset. If you’ve been in corporate, you likely have a very limited mindset. You need to ADOPT and EMBRACE the NECESSARY mindset for success, which is that of abundance, possibilities, unlimited number of failures before you are met with success. And yes, you want to embrace it like your new best friend.

The good news is that you can learn the necessary mindset for success. Listen to seriously inspirational people and learn from their stories. Byron Katie. Tony Robbins. Robin Sharma, to name a few. Read books. And get away from negative toxic people who are so disgustingly pessimistic that you get depressed just walking within a mile of them.

3. Create a business or a company that completes your vision, not another job.

We get so busy, so ridiculously busy to get our company going that we lose sight of why we started it in the first place. You are not here to give yourself a job. You are here to create wealth. You are here to create an asset and a value that goes on long after you. You are here to make a difference and to fulfill a vision. But the job mindset is a condition from your employee experience and you need to ditch it when you come into this space.

Begin by recognizing this one in everything you do and identify what could be just a task that could deb handed off versus real effort toward fulfilling your vision. And as the brilliant saying goes, spend less time IN your business and more time ON your business.

4. Build massive wealth instead of chasing every dollar and cent.

You are not here to have a job, we covered that but you are also not here to chase every penny. Sure it’s exciting to make your first dollar but beyond that, think very careful what income streams you chase and whether that’s worth your time. Starting your own business is not easy but chasing the dollars is one of the most common mistakes of the new entrepreneur.

So in order to avoid this one and to be more in the wealth-building mindset – get over any money stigma issues first, make sure you have some runway with your savings so you are not paying every month’s bills and living paycheck to paycheck, and this helps you relax and think more long term about your business and hence your actions to fulfill those goals for the business.

5. Ask for help early on and invest in your support system instead of being a hero.

Listen, it’s heroic enough to start your own business, and I want to congratulate you on that, especially since it’s not likely that your friends and family exactly cheered you on as you made the decision. Let them go! This is your deal, honey! Your life, your path, your thing! But the secret is to stop being a hero and to start asking for help as soon as you need it. It takes courage to do this but it’s better than going to it solo and trying to figure everything out on your own.

You are not here to impress anyone. You are here to fulfill a vision and there are so many others who are more than happy to help you because figuring it out on your own will cost you time, money and more mistakes. Get in the right forums and support groups. Check out my online business survival kit. Find a mentor. Get into a mastermind group. Hire yourself a business coach. Understand the power of coaches. I adore my coaches and my own regret is that I did not invest in them sooner. And go on this journey with the right support group.

How to Get A Job Fast in Today’s Social Market

Welcome to Episode #98 of The Daily Interaction Show and to my conversation with a talented and wonderful guest, Joshua Waldman, on little-known facts about getting a job today.

If you can’t communicate it with skill and savvy in the online world as well as in person, you will be hard-pressed to find the right job, but if you know these little-known facts on job finding that Joshua shares with us on the show, you can increase your chances of getting noticed and picked up by the right employer significantly.

Joshua is an author and a social media expert at helping job seekers undertand how to position themselves at an advantage in today’s social world. He presents keynotes, trainings and breakout sessions around the country for students, career advisors, consortiums and professional organizations and he is a super nice guy to boot.

He gives you a ton of information on getting a job fast at Career Enlightenment. We talk about how you should present yourself to the world, how you should manage your online reputation and what to do when things go wrong so you can quickly fix the damage. So take a listen and I’ll talk to you on the show.

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Questions on Getting a Job Fast in a Social World

Whether you are college age or in your 60s and returning to the job market, you have got to understand these tips before you can secure a great job:

1. Joshua, the job market is so different with the advent of social media but not just for the new graduates. Anyone that is getting back into the job market will experience these shifts too. So can you share with us your top 3 tips for how a candidate can use social media effectively to get a job?

2. I am very curious to know what you think about the value of a college education today for job seekers. I suppose it depends to some extent on the degree. You need a medical degree to become a doctor or a law degree for lawyer but beyond the traditional job types, what are some ways college may be over-rated?

3. I read your book, A Student’s Guide to Surviving Facebook after College, and wanted to ask you to comment on the importance of keeping personal and professional life separate (if so) and what are some practical tips in that area?

4. Joshua, of all the social media platforms, if a job seeker had to pick one, what would it be and why?

5. So when it comes to presenting yourself, your resume and profile, do you think it’s best to be traditional or is it okay to get creative, such as videos and blogs and portfolios of your work if you have such a thing or any other ways beyond traditional resume?

6. How important are job interviews really? They say most of the decision is made before companies even you on-board for the official interview. Is that true?

7. Interview tips: I know this is a nerve-wracking thing for all of us. What are your best tips for more the job seekers who really need the job and yet don’t want to appear desperate?

8. There is so much more I’d love to ask you! Is there anything else that you wish I had asked or that we had shared with our listeners today? Any parting messages for my listeners?

IF YOU LOVE US, and want to show your appreciation for this free podcast, won’t you give us a shout on iTUNES! Thank you for showing your LOVE!

This podcast is part of Prolific Living Media and it is produced weekly and released every Friday. For questions and comments, please email the podcast: tdi@prolificliving.com.

Welcome to Episode 97 of The Daily Interaction Show. Do you want to hire a coach or have a mentor but can’t afford it or can’t seem to find the right one? Today I answer Silvia’s question and show you how to be a coach and mentor to yourself.

From Silvia, a listener request:

What can a person who is in a stage of life where there are no mentors available do?
We all know the importance of a mentor (or mentors) in one’s life, but there are times when a person might be flying solo (work wise), in strange waters and with not many people who would serve as mentors around. Like living abroad, in a place where you don’t speak the language, the society is very different from your own culture and you work by yourself, not in a company with a formal structure.

I would think about hiring a coach, but say there are financial impediments at the moment. Listening to podcasts and reading is one way I found. What else would you suggest? How can you take the best out of the means you have? What are these means?

Thank you Silvia for asking the question. There IS a lot you can do without hiring a coach.

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I admit I have been very resistant in hiring coaches for myself. I had several mentors at work but investing in myself was not a concept I truly embraced but then I decided to put my money where my mouth is last year and I’ve now spent several thousand dollars in my business and my own improvement.

Results? I can say the skepticism has fallen and I’ve seen the progress that I can make with a one on one coach. So I’m starting the answer with sharing personal experience and letting you know that it’s okay to have resistance, doubts to hiring coaches. Sometimes the resistance is purely financial but sometimes it’s emotional too. And you need to respect it.

But to your question, when you are not in a position to work 1:1 with a coach, what do you do? Let’s dive into the conversations to have with yourself.

Remove the bad influencers immediately:

First, let’s take stock of what is the current input into your system, before we modify it.

Who are your current influencers?
Who do you hang out with?
What programs do you listen to?
What material – reading, listening, watching – do you consume?

As you think about these people, ask yourself questions:

Are they negatively affecting your enthusiasm for work?
Are they giving you bad or good advice?
Do they have your fulfillment and happiness and best interest at heart?

Sometimes, even the people closest to you may not be your best advisors. Click to Tweet.

So after you have pruned the current influencers in your life, take stock of where you are. And take a deep breath. Look around and ask “What do I need now?”

Check out In-person events and meet-ups in your area

Start small but find a group of people in your local area that you can connect with. Start small and look at all the options available to you. Start with some of the free ones.

If you are interested in starting a side hustle or changing jobs or advancing your career, there are groups/ meet-ups that happen in every place now. Look them up and attend a local event, and when you go there, introduce yourself at least to 3 people. Have a conversation. and give the meeting/event a chance.

Secret meet-ups not announced, you have to know someone – so hang out with people you want to get to know in your town…..

You also need to be conscious of everything that influences you – so the books you read, the podcasts or audio that you listen to …. and also it has to be in line with where you are going so if you don’t know where you are going in your career, then you are in exploration phase so inspirational stuff motivational stuff is helpful such as Tony Robbins,

If something makes you feel bad or small or insignificant STOP watching, listening & consuming it! Click to Tweet this.

So line up these audios, put them on your audio device, and listen to them. Watch the videos. Take notes or just watch.

Join a Mastermind Group

Another thing you can do is fine a small group of people to mastermind with. This takes a little thinking and planning and selection process is key. You need a very small group that keeps you motivated – this one pays off the most.

The right mastermind group can help you leapfrog from where you are to where you want to be, but don’t be shy about how you go about this mastermind, and if at first, you don’t pick the right people, learn how to part ways professionally and find the right people next.

What do you think about hiring a coach?

The real question you have to ask yourself is what do you want to accomplish from working with a coach? And how can you start moving in that direction so you begin to make it happen for yourself? The right coach with the right approach can help you make amazing progress but you can also be a great mentor and coach to yourself using some of these ideas.

So what do YOU think about hiring a coach? Have you ever done it and if so, how did it turn out? How about being your own coach and mentor? Share your thoughts in the comment below.

IF YOU LOVE US, and want to show your appreciation for this free podcast, won’t you give us a shout on iTUNES! Thank you for showing your LOVE!

This podcast is part of Prolific Living Media and it is produced weekly and released every Friday. For questions and comments, please email the podcast: tdi@prolificliving.com.

Welcome to Episode #96 of The Daily Interaction podcast and to my conversation with a brilliant communicator, a vibrant source of energy and delight, and also someone that I consider a good long-time friend, Sharon Hill.

The podcast motto is simple: You can have anything you want in life if you can communicate well enough!

A little about Sharon: Sharon A. Hill, author, speaker and MBA, spent more than 20 years as a development and marketing manager at Fortune 500 giant IBM. As a Toastmasters International award winner, Sharon displays mastery and confidence speaking for audiences ranging in size from 20 to more than 500.

Sharon Hill teaches, writes, speaks and coaches individuals and companies about the skills necessary to become grounded in all human interactions while leveraging the advantages of technology. She offers learning combined with a keen sense of humor to enhance and complement each experience.

The topic we explore is two-fold, first, her passion with Toastmasters and what you my listeners can expect to get from considering a toastmasters club in your area and communicating with poise, etiquette and grace whether you are on or off the stage. Ready?

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Interview Questions on The Secrets to Polished Speaking

1- Sharon, let’s start off by having you tell us how and when you came by Toastmasters, and what makes you still SO passionate about Toastmasters. I was active in Toastmasters between 2003-2010 and of all the people I met, you left the largest most indelible impression on me.

2- There is this “je ne sais quoi” about some people that just attracts us by being there. You talk about “becoming grounded in all human interactions” and I suspect this has a lot to do with their ‘elusive’ power if you will. I want to hear you talk to us more about that. How do we become grounded?

3- I’ve heard and seen you speak on numerous occasions, Sharon. You are always so polished, so resonant in your voice and so connected and yes very grounded. Is there a prep routine that you follow, anything from warming your voice or meditation or mind work that you could share with us?

4- As you know, Sharon, we get terrified when we think of public speaking. Even after years of doing it, I get nervous about it and I’ve just come to believe this is a human condition. But there are so many ways to deal with it. What are your recommendations? What are some techniques that work particularly well?

5- You know, I think of these processes as a journey, and in this case to becoming a great communicator. And in my experience, in these journeys, there is often a turning point where you experience a shift so great that it helps you leapfrog to the next stage. Sometimes it’s just a bolt of self-awareness, sometimes a particular event or something a friend/coach shares with us. Did anything similar happen to you and could you share it with us?

6- To what extent would you say that Toastmasters has been instrumental to your success as this fabulous polished communicator? I know that it helped me tremendously. And would you say that anyone can get these benefits from Toastmasters?

7- For those of my listeners that may still have doubts or other reasons not to consider joining a club, what other ways can they improve their communication skills? What do you recommend?

8- Sharon, there is so much more I’d love to ask you! Is there anything else that you wish I had asked or that we had shared with our listeners today? Any parting messages for my listeners?

So did you take one tip away from how to become grounded in your speaking? 

IF YOU LOVE US, and want to show your appreciation for this free podcast, won’t you give us a shout on iTUNES! Thank you for showing your LOVE!

This podcast is part of Prolific Living Media and it is produced weekly and released every Friday. For questions and comments, please email the podcast: tdi@prolificliving.com.

Welcome to Episode #95 of The Daily Interaction podcast. Today’s episode is all about your non-verbal communication with focus in the workplace.

How are you presenting yourself through your body language? Are you even aware of the message you are sending? Do you like the message? If not, how do you change it to fit your ideal of what you want to say to the world about who you are and what you are all about?

Quick Announcement: The Healthy Juicer’s Bible Book signing & Fresh Free Juice with Demo in Cary NC June 11th B&N at 7pm. Details for your invite.

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First, a self-examination. What do you think your body language is saying about you? In other words, if you don’t say a word with your mouth, what is the conclusion someone may draw about you? What words might they use?

Confident? Timid ? Smart? Knows what she is doing? Acts bossy? Ignores people around him? Feels like she is better than the rest of us? Really in charge?

Your homework: write down the top 3 things you think people might say about you – alright.

Then ask yourself: Do I like these descriptions of myself? Are these the words I want them to use to describe me?

If not, what do you want them to say about you? Let’s match up your body language to what they will say.

I am going to take a guess here. You want them to say you are confident, a leader, smart and in charge, on top of things, someone who delivers results, listens well, a kind helpful resourceful person.

And yes, they can say all of that about you just by watching and observing your body language.

How does your body say this? How can your body say this?

Posture first: Let’s start with your posture – how you carry yourself? Are you stooped? Do you hunch over? Or are you standing tall – shoulders back – head over shoulders – chin back – hands at your side?

Eye contact next: Focus on making eye contact. You don’t have to stare. If you have trouble with this, at the very least, avoid looking up or away or at the floor.

Your work is to observe, observe and observe. Never judge. Never grade. Never be harsh. Just watch what is happening!

The process: first you become very conscious and aware of yourself, then you pay attention and might get a little uncomfortable, then you begin to change and then it becomes comfortable and second nature.

So how did you do? How is your body language? And what changes do you now need to make to get that message precisely right?

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This podcast is part of Prolific Living Media and it is produced weekly and released every Friday. For questions and comments, please email the podcast: tdi@prolificliving.com.

Welcome to Episode 94 of The Daily Interaction Show. We are going where we have not gone before in this episode to explore love, loss and lunacy of us in romantic relationships. This is a conversation is with one of the best writers I’ve ever read and someone I am delighted to call my friend, Alan Stransman.

Alan Stransman is the author of two books: “Don’t Let Your Dream Business Turn Into a Nightmare: A Cautionary Tale for Would-Be Entrepreneurs” and “So, Why Have You Never Been Married?: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Lunacy”.

Alan began his professional career as a teacher of English and Film at the high school level, and then transitioned into broadcast TV production. In 1999, Alan Stransman created the television series “Spectacular Spas” and then founded one of the first day spas in the world for men, called The Men’s PowerSpa, in downtown Toronto. That entrepreneurial venture was the basis of his first book “Don’t Let Your Dream Business Turn Into a Nightmare”, which The Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario has been teaching as a case study in entrepreneurship programs.

Alan’s second book “So, Why Have You Never Been Married?” is a funny, poignant and intimate account of his lifelong pursuit of love and tenderness, and is an homage to the writers that helped shape his sensibility: D.H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, Philip Roth and William Wordsworth. Alan is also a ghost writer that helps you write your own memoirs and one day I hope to hire him to write mine!

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Questions on Memoirs and the Lunacy of Romantic Relationships with Alan Stransman

1. My first question for you is why you wrote your memoirs? I interviewed the author of Funny in Farsi, Firoozeh Dumas, and she told me that in her experience, everyone wants to write their memoirs but each of us for our own reasons. Yours?

2. One unexpected reaction I had from reading your memoirs was how much it reminded me of the way I used to handle disagreements with my ex-boyfriends or even with my husband. Full of blame, self-righteous, hurt, screaming, defensive and feeling like the worst victim in the world over STUPID STUFF. It was pure lunacy. This is hardly ever the way a man acts (in my experience). What would you say is the reason behind this crazy outrage in us women in your experience, Alan?

3. One of the most common reactions was when the women in your memoirs had some hidden expectations and the man – you in this case – had no clue about these and therefore could not fulfill them. The women would just get mad without showing much interest in SOLVING the problem. Now, you dated women from all walks of life but this seemed to be a common thread: Getting MAD. They may have shown their anger differently but they still all got mad at these secret expectations. Can you help us understand that and perhaps avoid that in our own relationships?

4. So we talked a little about lunacy. Let’s move on to love and loss. I felt sad when each of your 3 most significant relationships came to closure, each on their own bitter terms. Sad not just for your loss but also the loss of what could have been and what came so close and yet slipped away. I know I am not alone in saying that sometimes we ruin a good thing and look back with regret. How do you look back at the loss you experienced? What does it represent to you now?

5. The real gist of your book is in the epilogue and the Wallace Stevens poem, The Emperor of Ice Cream. And the fact that people do not love what is, they love what seems. “Let be be the finale of seem”, says Stevens. If we really loved each other for who we really are, how would love end? But where is that distinction? Do we make up stuff in our head and project it to the person we supposedly love?

6. Alan, in these conversations on The Daily Interaction show, I like to include my listeners and what we do is we end every conversation with an immediate action for the listener. What would you give as that action to our listeners today to help them navigate the waters of their romance more effortlessly and smoothly?

This book is not about relationship advice and yet I took away more from it more than the best books on dating and relationships because it was real, and went into gross detail about the intricacies of what makes and breaks relationships!

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This podcast is part of Prolific Living Media and it is produced weekly and released every Friday. For questions and comments, please email the podcast: tdi@prolificliving.com.

Welcome to Episode #93 of The Daily Interaction podcast. The other day, my voice coach told me to be less careful. LESS careful! It’s not an advice you hear every day. What does she mean, I wonder? But I liked the sound of it and later, I got exactly what she said which inspired this podcast Let’s get less careful and more creative together.

In this solo show, I want to tap into the source of all your success and unique contribution to the world: your creativity or your creative genius as The Artist’s Way at Work calls it.

The artist’s way is NOT a book intended for only the traditional artist. It is called as such because if you LIVE your creative genius, you are an artist. As am I. As is everyone else.

Creativity does not just mean you are drunk and in the clouds, holding a paintbrush and drawing on a canvas. Sure, that can be creativity but it’s not all there is. Creativity is also creating your own business plan, writing your book, pulling together a session with a client, taking care of your pet and parenting your children . It is a matter of owning up to your own internal creative genius and then APPLYING it, bringing it to life.

The 4 stages to unleash your creative genius:
1. Perception – Bust the myths: Creativity does not mean you are not serious or responsible – the opposite.
2. Acceptance – End the denial – creativity exists within all of us.
3. Permission – Give yourself permission to be creative. Write down the vow. Sign the paper. Carry it everywhere.
4. Awakening - Have fun as you awaken. This is the best part where you learn to tap into that creative genius.

Let’s go deeper into each of the stages and remember to listen to the podcast for the full reveal:

1. Perception

“It is one of the paradoxes of creative emergences that by taking ourselves more lightly, we take ourselves and our work more seriously.”

Creativity creates an outlet, a way for you to be more of yourself.

2. Acceptance

Creativity does not belong to a select few.

Our society associates big extremes with creative types. The negative extremes: crazy, broke, drunk, irresponsible and positive extremes are brilliant, genius, special, visionary and unique…. both are so hard to live up and so no wonder we go into our shell and leave creativity to the business of others.

The Artist’s Way at Work tells us creative types can also be realistic, responsible, solvent, cheerful, interactive, sane (my favorite) and optimistic!

3. Permission

Who needs to give you permission today to brush your teeth or go to your friend’s house or attend an event? If you are over 18 years old, most likely it’s YOU! Okay then!

Now why then do we steal away the permission – the RIGHT – to be creative? Maybe in the past, teachers and parents stole it away. Maybe they mocked or ridiculed or sneered or gave you the look. That was then. Leave it where it belongs: in the past.

Starting now, give yourself full and utter permission to be creative. It is NOT silly. It is your human nature yearning to find a home so please stop suppressing it.

4. Awakening

Awakening happens after the first 3 stages and it is the most remarkable part. The question is HOW do you let it flow and awaken?

Listen to the full episode to really understand the 4 stages and how to apply them in your life.

If you want to put together a plan to tap into your creative genius – which could be holding the key to a lot of seemingly unrelated struggles in your work or profession, schedule a free consult with me!

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Listen to the show:

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This podcast is part of Prolific Living Media and it is produced weekly and released every Friday. For questions and comments, please email the podcast: tdi@prolificliving.com.

Byron Katie Shares the Method of Self-Inquiry

My guest today on the Daily Interaction Show is Byron Katie. Katie created The Work, which is a self-inquiry method that teaches you how to free yourself from your thoughts, the cause of your suffering, and how to find and embrace the truth. She has changed the lives of millions since the day that she woke up from her own dark depression and followed the voice of truth.

You can see the video of this interview on Byron Katie’s website.

One gorgeous day in the fall of 2012, I tuned into Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday and hear a voice that instantly hooked me. It was Byron Katie talking about her method of self-inquiry and it was fascinating to me. I had learned about affirmations from Louise Haye and studying my own personal development journey for a while and NEVER had I come across anything – a method, a system, a tool – that unraveled the powerful hold that thoughts exerted over my mind… until I learned about The Work.

That day, I was hooked on Byron Katie, and have since watched dozens of her videos, read Loving What Is: Four Questions that Can Change Your Life and listened to it on audio. And today I invite you to do the same with my conversation with Byron Katie.

Check out thework.com for Byron Katie’s FREE repository of resources, 9-day workshops, and schedule of events.

The Story of Byron Katie

In 1986, at the bottom of a ten-year spiral into depression, rage, and self-loathing, Katie woke up one morning to a state of constant joy that has never left her. She realized that when she believed her stressful thoughts, she suffered, but that when she questioned them, she didn’t suffer, and that this is true for every human being. Her simple yet powerful process of inquiry is called The Work.

The Work consists of four questions and the turnarounds, which are a way of experiencing the opposite of what you believe. When you question a thought, you see around it to the choices beyond suffering.

Byron Katie’s six books include the bestselling Loving What Is, I Need Your Love—Is That True?, and A Thousand Names for Joy, which is next on my audio book list!

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Listen to the conversation now:

Questions for the Byron Katie Conversation about The Work

1. In your book, “Loving What Is” you talk to us about how our stressful thoughts are the root cause of our suffering. Before we talk about how we can change this, can you explain the relationship between stressful thoughts and suffering and give us an example?

2. I love what you said about The Work: “It is a way to contact wisdom because all the answers are inside of us.” But if you are the type of person that is constantly looking for answers outside of yourself, how do you begin to prepare yourself to do The Work, which teaches us that all answers are within us?

3. Would you give us an explanation of The Work? Who can benefit the most from doing The Work? How do we begin to apply The Work? Can they do The Work on your own or do you need guidance first?

4. You once said that when a thought enters our mind, it becomes our God, we worship it and there’s no more room for anything else. In order to get ready to do The Work, how do we know which thoughts to work on? Do we put all our stressful thoughts to the Inquiry or would doing The Work on a few of them cause an avalanche effect and take care of the rest?

5. Does The Work inspire us to take action? For instance, we apply the work to a stressful thought such as “I am miserable at my job.” If we do The Work successfully, would we just feel better about our job or also be empowered to take action and to change our situation for the better?

6. I love the focus of The Work on ourselves but what if anything do you recommend doing for a beloved person in our life who is suffering from his or her thoughts? I like to add that especially when you know this person would rather be right than free and in peace.

7. How does The Work help us move away from a scarcity mindset and move towards an abundance mindset?

8. My favorite part of “Loving What Is” are the 3 types of business: My business, your business, God’s business. Can you help me and my listeners better grasp this one with an example?

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Love to hear your thoughts about this conversation and most of all, your experience if you decided to do The Work and the Turnaround with the 4 Questions.

Welcome to Episode #91 of The Daily Interaction podcast. How do you take new budding relationships to a deeper, stronger and more meaningful stage. What comes after the initial meet-and-greet and how can you stay top of mind with those whom you meet and want to build a relationship with?

Send questions or suggestions for future topics with your audio recording attached to tdi@prolificliving.com or call the show number at: 240-347-3693.

I am dedicating this episode to listener Trevor Torres who sent me this message, and asked some excellent questions, please take a listen. Thank you so much for those questions, Trevor and here we go:

1. How important is it to do a lot of research on a person before you try to connect with them?
Not that important. You want to do a lot of research if you are going to interview them. But if you want to just connect with someone, then just connect with them.

I would say ask yourself: WHY do you want to connect in the first place? What intrigues you about them? What inspires you? What do you see in them that you like to see in yourself someday? Answer those questions for yourself. Verbalize them and USE them as a way to start that initial dialogue.

Example: You want to connect with Chris Brogan. He has hundreds and thousands of fans. He creates content several times a day. He is very well known. How do you connect? Well, start small. What is one thing that he has said or done that has made a difference in your life to the point that you want to tell him that?

Maybe you dig his radical approach to creating content. He creates a LOT of it, and he is constantly on social media. He has no balance ! He is an over-achiever, much like Gary Vaynerchuck. Well, the general advice is to balance things out etc. Yet you like his intensity. So tell him that. Let that be the start of your conversation.

Now how do you tell him that? That’s a little tricky. To be MOST effective, watch the place where they are most active and START there. For Brogan, it’s a toss-up between Google+ and Twitter. Then as a general rule, I would say move to email. I find email to be the most intimate form of communication but don’t use it too soon.

Now let’s move on to your next question: Once you make a connection with someone online, what do you do to advance the relationship BEYOND the initial connection?

What do you want that connection to be? What is YOUR vision for it? Do you want this person to become your mentor? Or do you want them to be a teacher in an area for you? Or do you want to share the stage with them one day? Or do you want to collaborate on a project?

Set yourself apart. You need to first believe in yourself and have confidence in what you are doing and what you are creating. That is the most attractive feature. In fact, develop your personal mission. What is your personal mission with your blog, Trevor? Think about it, formulate it in your mind, and then, when you know that, you have just as much to offer as the most popular blogger. That’s the place you approach people from and build relationships.

Here are some tips for what to do and what to avoid in taking your new relationships to the next level

• Do not put them on a pedestal.
• Do be respectful.
• Do not just say “how can I help you with what you are doing?” it’s a blanket statement.
• Do be aware of what they have going on and offer help in that particular project, say a book campaign or a project launch.
• Do support their work (comment on their blog, rate their books/podcasts etc.)
• Do be creative (as you were with me, send a YouTube video with gratitude and your question).
• Do connect and follow them on their most preferred social platform.
• Do share their stuff with a personal touch.
• Do treat them like a normal person.

In short: Be real. Be SINCERE. Be the BEST version of YOURSELF but only yourself and nobody else. And you are going to win big every time and in every connection that’s meant to come into your business and your life.

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Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Healthy Juicer’s Bible

by Farnoosh Brock

Giveaway ends May 31, 2013.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

This podcast is part of Prolific Living Media and it is produced weekly and released every Friday. For questions and comments, please email the podcast: tdi@prolificliving.com.

Welcome back to Episode #90. This Interactive Interview Series brings you a second expert on using your vocal instrument, your voice, and your best asset in all the communication in your life. Our guest is Marlena Reigh.

We visited an excellent topic in the communication power “toolbox” a few weeks ago – using our instrument, our voice with Sally Morgan and today, I want to revisit that with another fresh perspective with another expert on the topic, Marlena Reigh. I watched a talk Marlena had given on video where she used a powerful and creative approach to bring my attention immediately to my voice. I was instantly intrigued me to invite her to the show to learn more about becoming aware and better using our voice.

Marlena Reigh is a voice image specialist with over twenty years of coaching, speaking and seminar-leading experience. She has worked one-on-one with over 1,000 voices and is a published author of books and tapes on voice image and presentation skills.

Marlena coaches professionals in various fields and offers corporate seminars to teach unique approaches to personal communications, voice and presentation effectiveness. These approaches promote action that yields positive and lasting results and has significant impact on their success.

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Becoming Aware of Your Voice Interview Questions with Marlena

1. My first question for you is about awareness. I imagine it’s an easy sell to tell someone that their voice is important to their success. But most of us are not even aware of our voice, its impact, etc. How do we bring about a sense of awareness around our voice so we can begin to improve it?

2. Let’s start with something fun and easy because our voice is such an intimate part of who we are. What would you say is the easiest place to start improving our voice? Do you have a fun exercise for us to do here on the air?

3. On one of your YouTube videos, I love the way you say: “The voice is a physical experience.” And you went on to show us that for each experience, we have a physical association that reflects in our voices. Would you talk to us about that some more, Marlena?

4. You have some great looking programs and one of them is “7 Exercises for a More Dynamic Speaking Voice” and the one that jumped at me was learning to be objective about our voice. Would you mind giving us examples of how we can do that?

5. I talk a lot about managing various forms of self-sabotage that we seem to master as adults and I love using positive affirmations because they work! Would you share with us any relevant mental/emotional reinforcements that we can do to benefit our voice?

6. Our final question – which is the same question I ask all my interviewees: I want to leave our listeners with actions! What are one (or two) things that we can all do RIGHT AWAY to improve our voices?

If you want to take advantage of Marlena’s generous gift, send her an email here: Marlena Reigh.

IF YOU LOVE US, and want to show your appreciation for this free podcast, won’t you give us a shout on iTUNES! Thank you for showing your LOVE!

This podcast is part of Prolific Living Media and it is produced weekly and released every Friday. For questions and comments, call the show at 240-347-3693 or email the podcast: tdi@prolificliving.com.

Welcome to Episode #89 of The Daily Interaction podcast. You’ve read my posts on affirmations, such as the only 100 affirmations that you will ever need and my take on “You Can Heal Your Life” by Louise Haye, who initially inspired me to work with affirmations.

When I first learned about this, I was fascinated by the concept that simple phrases, affirmations to be specific, can shift your thinking and change your reality.

And I was shocked when they actually did!

But the problem is that no matter how hard you work, you have an inner critic with a fat ego that makes fun of all the affirmations you create, and sometimes the voice of that inner critic is much louder than the sound soothing logic of any affirmation. This episode, you and I are going to put that inner critic to rest, so that we can allow our affirmations to serve us.

This is a new and practical element that helps you to hear and see that inner critic. The new element is called “blurts”! Blurts and affirmations, when used together, are powerful in helping you break out of bad habits and create new paradigm shifts in your life. That is, if you are interested in making these shifts in your life and in moving to an empowering direction. If yes, come along!

In this episode, we go through the process of defining affirmations, defining blurts, and turning the blurts around to make a most positive affirmation and using this tool to win over that inner critic.

Quick definitions for Affirmations and Blurts

Affirmations: Positive present-tense statements that you repeat to yourself in a mantra form.
Blurts: Nasty clever responses that your inner critic comes up with in response to your affirmations.

The exercise that I share with you is from “The Artist’s Way at Work: The Way of the Dragon”. You write down your affirmation of choice 10 times and then you come up with the natural blurt in response to each time you wrote your affirmation. You need to listen for the blurt and hear the exact words that your inner critic uses and then write that down next to your affirmation.

When you have finished the exercise, you will be turning each blurt around to a positive statement and you need to do so not just by making a generic positive statement but in creating an exact and true response to that blurt.

The takeaway in this exercise is that you create a safe inner fortress and protecting yourself, and your dreams and your desires safe from this inner critic and that you are able to use affirmations effectively in your life.

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This podcast is part of Prolific Living Media and it is produced weekly and released every Friday. For questions and comments, please email the podcast: tdi@prolificliving.com.

So what are your thoughts on affirmations? Do you even believe in their power to make a difference at all? Do you ever hear your inner critic interrupt the process? Share away in the comments below!

Welcome back to Episode #88. This Interactive Interview Series brings you a truly inspiring guest: Lou Mongello. If you have ever had a childhood love, obsession, desire, that you fantasize about doing for a living, this story is for you. Lou Mongello is one of the most amazing people I met at NMX in Jan. 2013 and his story is going to inspire you to make even the most drastic turns in your career and your life.

Lou Mongello used to be a successful lawyer. Today, though, he is a widely recognized Walt Disney World author, expert, host, speaker and historian. He is the host and producer of the WDW Radio show, which has been named Best Travel Podcast for 7 years in a row. WDW Radio offers audio podcasts, live video broadcasts, plus an active blog, newsletter, discussion forums, and live events.

Lou is author of the Walt Disney World Trivia Books, and author and narrator of The Audio Tours of Walt Disney World. He is also the Founder of the Dream Team Project, which has raised more than $250,000 to send children with life-threatening illnesses to Walt Disney World.

So why did Lou go from being a successful lawyer and owner of his own IT consulting company to the Disney business? Simple (although far from easy): To pursue his passion and share it with others and that’s what we explore together in this interview because if you are waiting to start your dream, or afraid that it won’t work, or any other dozen obstacles in between, Lou is going to put all those excuses to rest so you GET STARTED already, darling! Take a listen!

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Interview Questions: Lessons from an Ex-Lawyer Disney Power Host

1. I am sure you have noticed that Disney has made its way into all cultures. I was at a high-level business meeting in Tokyo once and the lady running the round-table introduction asked everyone to say their name, role in the project AND (I kid you not) their favorite Disney character.

My question for you: What would you say it is about the Disney brand that is so universal? Can Disney teach us anything about interacting with people?

2. Podcasting is a huge part of your life today and has enabled you to spread your message far and wide. How did the idea of a Disney podcast come about? What were your thoughts (and fears) and goals with creating a show around Disney?

3. As an ex lawyer and IT consultant, being a phenomenal radio show host is so far from the realm of that work but how did you make the career transition? How did you communicate your message in such a way that others relate to it so well?

4. You are on audio and on video and on social media & blogs AND in person. So you are using ALL forms of communication to interact with your fans and followers. What would you say is a common theme to your effective and compelling communication?

5. Our final question – which is the same question I ask all my interviewees: I want to leave our listeners with actionable steps in their own lives. What are one (or two) things that the listeners can do RIGHT AWAY after this show to infuse better communication, better messaging and maybe even a booming business around their dreams?

IF YOU LOVE US, and want to show your appreciation for this free podcast especially on our anniversary, won’t you give us a shout on iTUNES. Click on “View in iTunes” and rate us from inside iTunes! Thank you for showing your LOVE!

If confidence is the single biggest barrier between you and a savvy person who gets whatever he or she wants, then hurry and grab your FREE 21-Step Confidence Building Series or sign up below for this FREE confidence course:

Welcome to Episode #87 of The Daily Interaction Show where we learn how to create an information diet that inspires action.

Think about it. The information that you consume, in passive or active ways, is more powerful than you realize. It influences your thoughts, decisions and actions. So take a proactive approach and create an information diet that inspires action.

I LOVE living in this incredible digital age.

When I try to imagine the way the world would be without it all, I just remind myself that I have LIVED in the age where we did not have any digital information! I have seen this phenomena emerge and have participated in its growth from the very start, and perhaps that is why I love it all the more. Between living in an information age and living in the old world, I choose this one time and time again. What about you?

In this show, I talk about how you can observe and decide what to do about the massive information shoved in your face all day and night long. Then we explore ways to consciously choose whether you want to consume that information, and finally we tap into how you can create a system and a deliberate way of seeking the information that actually interests and inspires you. Are you ready?

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Show Notes for How to Create an Information Diet that Inspires Action

1. Observing all the channels of information that you consume with – or sometimes, without! – your knowledge by becoming acutely aware of everything that comes to you.

2. Remembering that you have a choice and making a conscious decision on what you want to consume and what you need to discard.

3. Understanding the correct source of the information, is it yourself enabling it or someone else?

4. Putting the right filters and elimination process in place after you have observed all the channels of information.

5. Learning how to break the bad habit of automatically consuming whatever comes your way and becoming aware of the process of changing habits.

6. As a result of all this, freeing up the time you thought you never had!!!

IF YOU LOVE US, and want to show your appreciation for this free podcast especially on our anniversary, won’t you give us a shout on iTUNES! Thank you thank you for showing your LOVE!

This podcast is part of Prolific Living Media and it is produced weekly and released every Friday. For questions and comments, please email the podcast: tdi@prolificliving.com.

Welcome back to Episode #86. This Interactive Interview Series is back with a fantastic and fun guest, Michael Brown. We are going to talk about handling conflict effectively. How do you handle conflict in your life? Do you run away from it? Do you deny it even exists? Does it stress you out? Do you know exactly what to do? Conflict can affect all of us at some point in our lives and knowing how to handle it is one of the best tools in your interactions power box, and Michael is the ultimate expert on helping us resolve conflict while making a serious topic entertaining and fun!

In the interview, Michael puts a real spin on the word interactive plus there is a fun segment where I take some risks but letting my guest run the show for a few minutes!.

Michael is a true expert at communicating effectively. Today we want to focus on one element: conflict resolution – in other words, how to win those inevitable battles and arguments instead of avoiding them or caving in all the time? But Michael’s real strength is that he can make these serious topics FUN and give us “real learning for a change”. In fact, he lives up to that phrase because you can find him at Real Learning For A Change, his fantastic repository of information and blogs.

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Interview Questions: Handling Conflict Effectively

1. Let’s start with the thing we all want to avoid: Conflict! It happens to all of us. I mean if conflict never happens in your life, you are not living. So what I really want to know about conflict is this: Tell us please all the (potential) GOOD POSITIVE things that can come out of conflict. Can you help us shift our perspective (of fear and resistance and avoidance) around conflict, Michael?

2. It’s too bad we don’t learn this stuff in school. We just don’t know what we don’t know.

In all your years of experience and teaching Conflict Resolution, Michael, what’s the most common weakness (or area of critical improvement) across your students that if only they were aware of it, it would really improve their abilities to go through times of conflict far more effectively?

3. Now that we are warmed up, Michael, I will let you lead the charge where you wanted to engage me and our fabulous listeners here to the conflict resolution exercises.

4. So I was reading one of your blog posts, “How to compensate for being an accommodator“, and was kinda surprised to find out that you are an accommodator. So your strategy was to partner with someone “LESS accommodating” in order to get a better result in the negotiation, which s brilliant but maybe not always practical.

What are 3 things an accommodator can do in the face of conflict to make sure he/she is not taken advantage of and yet still operate somewhat within their own comfort zone (if possible!)? Give us the real secrets here, Michael. We can handle it!

5. Our final question – which is the same question I ask all my interviewees and that is this: I want to leave our listeners with actionable steps so they can get a sense of applying what we discussed in their own lives. What is one (or two) things that the listeners can do RIGHT AWAY after this show to become BETTER and less scared of CONFLICT in their lives?

If you can communicate well enough, you can have everything you want in life! Click to Tweet this!

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Welcome back to Episode #85 of The Daily Interaction podcast. Today’s topic is about achieving that successful career and 4 actions you can take right now to jumpstart your corporate career in the right direction now.

Everything I shared with you here in this podcast episode, I messed up in the first half of my corporate career. I don’t want you to do that. Be smart. Be savvy and your career will reward you.

Right now, I am working on a program that is focused entirely on helping you get promoted at your corporate job and one that gives you no-fluff guidance on moving up the corporate ladder if that’s what you want.

In my 11-year corporate career, I only did a million things wrong before I figured them out and created a massively successful career and I don’t want you to go through those bad career mistakes that I made and lose years of good fabulous opportunities to build an amazing career for yourself.

Creating a great career is not simple or straightforward or an overnight story. You know this. You are smart and savvy so I know you know this. But listen, it’s not as complex as you may think and there are certain things you can do, if only you knew what they were.

What then are the 4 actions you can take today to jumpstart your corporate career. This is not the only steps it takes to get you promoted. This is to get you recognized and noticed by your management, and to get you positioned for the best opportunities in your company.

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Four Actions to Jumpstart Your Corporate Career in the Right Direction Now:

1. Do Your Career Master Plan mind map: Mind mapping is a brilliant way to see how your brain works by expressing it in a visual map. On March 15th, I wrote a blog post that shows you how to do this for yourself. If you’ve been at corporate a while, things get stale, and you get into the day-to-day stuff that takes you far away from planning mode and into reactive mode. Beware of this. Step back and make sure you are on the right path. The years WILL go by, and you want to stay on top of your career at every stage of the game. Go here to create your career master plan mind map now.

2. Give Your Boss the Support He May Not Expect: Your boss expects you to do your job and you expect him to reward you. It’s a give and take. This usually works fine but sometimes, it takes more to get the attention of the boss. There is a clear line between kissing up – which I don’t recommend – and going above and beyond where it counts. Your task here is to go to your boss and find out one headache that you could take away from him. Don’t ask for anything in return. Don’t expect it. Just ask if there is something you could take off his plate.

3. Get a Coach or Mentor Outside your Chain of Command: You need an impartial view point. Les Brown, a brilliant motivational speaker, tells us that we cannot see the picture when we are in the frame. So get someone to help you see it. I had several mentors, at senior leadership level, so several grades above me and none in my organization but all with special knowledge of the culture so they could advise me about it. Leadership loves to mentor and you should pick someone you love. Now one potential client this week was telling me she was hiring me as a coach because she wanted someone who could be impartial to the company. If you are thinking of switching companies, hire an outside coach.

4. Change the Dimension that You Fully control: What do I mean? Change your attitude, your mindset, and the way you behave. Think more like a company owner, not like an employee, and be confident that you have what it takes to perform not just your job but the job above you. And be careful to not be arrogant, just confident, there is a difference. When you believe in your own ability and see yourself as one with your employer, your perspective and your energy changes and this is the true secret to your success.

If you want to learn how to improve your job, how to get that overdue promotion and raise, grab your FREE course by clicking here.

Welcome back to Episode #84. This Interactive Interview Series is back with another amazing guest today: Leslie Samuel. Leslie Samuel is a blogger whose sole mission is to create content that inspires others and changes the world.

He blogs at Become A Blogger where he teaches you to do just that, and also at Interactive Biology, a video blog where he teaches biology to thousands of people all around the world. This biology blog ended up landing him a job as a university professor and is a perfect example of how video can have a tremendous impact on your life and the lives of so many others.

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Interview Questions: How to Get More Comfortable on Video

1. Leslie, you and I were at New Media Expo recently where they talked about 3 hot trends: Google+, podcasting and VIDEO! Video has been big for a while but it’s just exploding right now. And you don’t have to own a business to get in front of the video. You could be in a toastmasters or any other club. You could be speaking at a PTA meeting where they want to record it. You could be doing a demo of something you know for someone else. You may find yourself in front of camera. But there may still be doubts about how video can be important – can you tell me why video is important in your personal and professional life?

2. How does video communicate our message better/more clearly/more strongly than other mediums – audio and/or the written word? Or does this depend on the specific subject matter in question?

3. You in front of video, Leslie: You are brilliant. You engage. You make amazing eye contact. You are comfortable in your own skin. You are humble and sincere. You are crystal clear about your message and you are convincing. But more than anything, you make me trust you.

Talk to me more about how you pull all this off and also how do you prepare? Is it just practice? Can anyone learn to present a message in front of the camera well? (You can give tips or advice here or just talk about your own experience).

4. One of the major fears and reservations people have on video – from my years of filming speeches at our toastmasters club – is that they think they will look silly or foolish and be a laughing stock. It is so far from the truth that it’s not even funny. Audiences – virtual or real – are so kind and so forgiving. What do you think about the biggest obstacle to people doing video? What holds them back? How can they overcome it?

5. I love giving my listeners homework so this last question is always about something they can do RIGHT NOW – an action they can take after listening to this interview – what would you say to them? What’s the one piece of advice that they can put into practice to get more comfortable in front of video?

Hope you enjoyed the interview. I definitely did my homework and created this fun video. Did you?

And if you want to take advantage of Leslie’s course, hop on Become A Blogger – which I fully endorse – and change the course of your business and career forever with blogging the right way!

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Welcome to Episode #83 of The Daily Interaction Show. Whether you are a full-time business owner, entrepreneur, planning to become one or are a hobbyist, you have something to offer the world, it could be an idea, a product, a service, a program, a course, a package, your whatever, in exchange for money. Today, I talk to you about how to do just that without apology and shame and without feeling awkward and weird about saying your prices to prospective clients. Ready?

Did you guys miss me? This girl is back from her African Safari and ready to get back into the game. Much fun as it was, I must say that I missed my work!! Now that has got to be the most twisted logic you have ever heard but alas, it can happen when you are in love with your work.

I want to thank my amazing superstar corporate-turned-rockstar-entrepreneur client, Bruce Rodgers at Studio139 Software, for the topic today. Bruce was telling me about his inner conflicts and struggles with pricing his services. Specifically about communicating those prices to his potential clients. And Bruce is not the only person to struggle with this one by a long shot. So thanks to his wonderful suggestion, I want to dedicate this whole episode to sharing steps in communicating your offers and prices without apology, without guilt, without insecurity.

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Show Notes: 4 Bold Steps to Communicating Your Prices and Offers without Apology:

First let’s talk about WHY on earth we freeze up and feel so insecure when we have to utter those words, those dollars, those prices. Why do we feel we need to immediately give them a discount or prove that it’s worth it?

Because we tell ourselves these stories that are not true. We tell ourselves that the person cannot afford it, that we are not worth this monetary sum in exchange for our services or that they will laugh at our price. The stories are generally a perpetual lie. Stop telling yourself these stories.

Here are the 4 major steps to help you communicate your offers and prices without apology and with true confidence:

1. Set your prices high enough to where you are glad to over-deliver without being resentful. Examples of when calls go over, clients email too much and take up more of your time. Generally, you are pricing yourself too low especially if you are new to business.

2. Share your prices on your website. This has a three-fold benefit. First, you don’t have to say it on the phone if you don’t want to or write it out on email. You simply refer them to the site and recommend a certain package. Second, you filter those who totally cannot afford it. Talk about Kane vs. Port suggestions on displaying $. Third, you are being totally transparent and customers/clients appreciate this. They don’t want to ask how much either. Not anymore than you want to say how much.

3. Say your offer without apology. The worst thing you can do is price yourself what you deem to be too high and then apologize or try to convince the customer you are worth it. Never convince. Clearly outline what they get but don’t convince they should. There is a difference between persuading them to buy your stuff or focusing on why this is something good for them – results for them etc. Apology kills the spirit of transaction.

4. Have a system for collecting payment without feeling awkward about it. Sometimes you will get clients or customers that just make the whole process painful. Your job is to filter those out from the very start. Payment should be a non-issue. Do you ever go to Nordstrom and ask if they can make you a special offer? No! You’d look like a fool. Well, then don’t entertain customers or clients who do that. Respect yourself enough and take yourself and your business seriously enough to treat it as an objective matter-of-fact logistical matter to handle.

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Welcome back to Episode 82 of our Daily Interaction Show! Today’s guest is a pretty special person to me. In 2006, I was lost & confused in my corporate career and during one of my many business trips to California, a director friend gave me a copy of this book “Funny in Farsi”. I loved reading and writing about Funny in Farsi. Everyone was handing me business books to find my career path but this guy gave me a Persian memoir, a book that made me laugh as hard as it made me cry… and reading it was the seed of inspiration for the future of my own career.

Our guest is Firoozeh Dumas, the author of “Funny in Farsi” as well as “Laughing without an Accent”. Firoozeh is from Iran, we share the same “vat-an” or home country. She immigrated to America with her family when she was just 7 years old. Two years in America then they moved back to Iran and then 2 years later, they moved back to California. Lots of adjustments no doubt. She came to the US during a hard time for Iranian immigrants in the 1970s and yet I love the way she tells of her adventures, her parents’ take on the American culture and America’s take on the Iranian culture.

She’s an incredible author, and has received well-deserved attention for her work including best seller status on SF Chronicle & LA times as well as being the 2005 Finalist of Thurber Prize for American Humor.

My deep connection to Firoozeh is her powerful use of both humor and irony to illustrate the experiences of being an immigrant, one to which I so dearly relate, and the encouragement that we are better off accepting each other despite our differences.

Why she is on our show today? First, because writing is a powerful medium of communication and we tap into that briefly. Second, being an immigrant and interacting effectively in a new culture can be useful to you, whether you are in that situation now or may find yourself in it later.

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You can find Firoozeh on her website and check out her future appearances on NPR’s “Wait, wait, don’t tell me!” on her Events page.

Interview Questions to Firoozeh about Writing Your Memoirs and Protecting Your Dreams:

1. Firoozeh, we immigrated to America at 15, you immigrated at 7. I didn’t find anything positive about “not fitting in”. You were able to transform your awkward experience into an amazing & funny memoir with a powerful message. For those of us who feel disconnected from the culture where we live, can you give us your thoughts and advice on better adjusting & accepting it?

2. I want to talk to you about your reasons to turn to writing. To me, writing is therapeutic and healing and sharing the written word is of course powerful but everyone writes for different reasons. Why did you start writing? What has writing done for you?

3. I remember contacting you after reading Funny in Farsi. It touched me deeply. Unfortunately, I can’t get anyone in my family to cooperate so I can write my own memoirs but that’s a different story – How did your parents react to your sharing those intimate stories with the world?

4. Living here in America for 20 odd years, I have been on both sides, both as an immigrant and as a welcoming American to new immigrants and I still feel so much compassion for the newly arrived immigrant. What would you want to say to an American (or a citizen of any country) on meeting immigrants into their land? How should they interact with them?

5. Your story telling is powerful, Firoozeh, would you like to share a recent story that shows both the contrast and yet the similarities of Persians to Americans? You and I have no issues laughing at our own funny culture, that’s for sure!

6. Our final question – which is the same question I ask all my interviewees: I want to leave our listeners with actions! What are one (or two) things that they can do RIGHT AWAY after this show to be more aware of their interactions in a new culture?

IF YOU LOVE US, and want to show your appreciation for this free podcast especially on our anniversary, won’t you give us a shout on iTUNES! Thank you thank you for showing your LOVE!

If confidence is the single biggest barrier between you and a great communicator, let’s crush it, shall we? Grab your FREE 21-Step Confidence Building Series or sign up below for this FREE confidence course: