ifyouaskbetty

Habit Seven – Sharpen the Saw

Betty — Sat, 27 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Click for Franklin Covey’s Sharpen the Saw

This habit is always a struggle for me. The habit of renewal – which means you have to slow your roll and be intentional.

How about you? What part of habit seven is the most difficult?

This habit is all about taking care of YOU!

If you don’t stop and take care of yourself, you will not be able to take care of anything or anyone else.

Care for yourself physically, mentally, spiritually and socially/emotionally.

Physically – This is about renewal, not personal records. Focus on:
– good nutrition to fuel your body
– activity and exercise to keep your body healthy and feeling well
– quality sleep and rest from work and play
– managing stress is the way that works for you

Mentally – This is about keeping the mind sharp by reading, writing, learning and teaching others. You must act intentionally in order to sharpen your saw mentally.

Spiritually – This is not really about religion, though worship practice is a part of spiritual renewal, but rather it is about your values, where you serve the community around you, consuming inspirational literature and meditating.

Socially/Emotionally – This is all about consistent deposits into your emotional bank account. We are social and communal creatures. Community is a basic need for all of us. You will fill others buckets in this area often, but you need someone to fill your bucket also. Find those friendships and communities that you can contribute to but that also fill you.

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ask betty – get that job!

Betty — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

HEY HEY! Thanks for the question. First – KUDOS to you that you know what your dream job looks like. Hold on to that! And believe in your heart that you can totally have that job! Now, for the approach to acquaintances you know – it’s time to tap into that network! STEP 1: Search your LinkedIn connections for folks that work for your dream job organization. Once you locate them, recall if you have actually spoken to them before. If you have not, put them to the bottom of the list. Start with the folks you are connected to that you actually remember speaking to previously. STEP 2: Send them a message on LinkedIn, or an email. WAIT! DON’T STOP READING! You can do this! It might feel a bit scary or feel funny, but a nicely worded message can go a long way. Maybe something like this: “Hi there! How are you? Hope you and your family are doing well! I noticed there are some new and interesting openings at [org name]. Would you have a few minutes to catch up and chat about how you like working for [org name]?” STEP 3: When they respond, be ready to set up time to chat with them. Have a few questions prepared so that you can keep the conversation moving. Maybe something like this: “Hi! Thanks for taking a few minutes to chat. Wow, I don’t think we have connected since [insert last time you connected]. How are you? How have things been going? Tell me about [org name}. How do you like working there?” The conversation will naturally move towards the job you have interest in. Don’t be afraid to ask them what they know about the job and what their suggestions would be for you, given your interest. STEP 4: Thank them. Let them know you appreciate their time and perspective and that you plan on applying soon! Why should you do this? Why is this a good idea? By having this conversation, you will get the information you need in order to apply in the most effective way. The person you chat with will get the chance to share their experiences and insight with a potential new employee. And the connection and relationship that you have with that person will grow. It’s a win/win/win. So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead. Get started. Send that message. You will be so glad you took that step. Hope that helps! Oh! and let me know how it goes!

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ask betty – i wanna start a podcast

Betty — Thu, 21 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Getting started in podcasting is a great idea!! Podcasting is a great way to communicate content to folks – whether you are explaining a process or interviewing someone to get their take on a topic. And podcasts are very popular!

I felt the same way you do before I got started. I would go online to search for “how to start a podcast” and there was an overwhelming amount of information – I just wanted someone to tell me what to do. Here are my suggestions for you-

Seek out and listen to podcasts to get a feel for what you want to talk about on yours. Podcasting comes in many different formats and you may find you are drawn to one more than another. You may also find that you want to create your own blend – which is great!

Find someone you know that does a podcast and schedule 30 minutes to interview them on how they got started. If someone has a podcast, there is a pretty good chance they want to talk about it – so don’t be afraid to ask for that meeting. Ask great questions, listen well and take notes.

You could also sign up for a course that walks you through the steps you need to take to get started with a podcast. There are dozens available at all different price points so you want to use that interview with the podcaster to help you assess what else you really need to know. I would shamelessly recommend the Training Live and Online “Podcasting for Trainers Certificate – Design to Delivery“ that starts in August to give you the detailed info you need and the time and space to actually create and launch your first episode.

Whatever you decide, remember you are building your skill set just by going through the discover phase of podcasts! Enjoy the learning experience of it!

Hope that helps!

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ask betty – anything but COVID

Betty — Wed, 06 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Friend, I am right there with you! Desperately seeking some good content that has nothing to do with COVID. Let’s talk about YOU!
This is a great time to evaluate what you are doing to improve your SELF. You have time (that you didn’t before) to do some self-reflection and increase your overall self-awareness. Here are a couple of things you can be doing over the next few weeks:

1. Take a Quiz. Not that Facebook quiz about what kind of fruit you would be, rather a behavior quiz that can help you learn more about yourself.
For professional development, I would suggest a quiz on your emotional intelligence (https://www.talentsmart.com/test/). While very few of these tools are scientific, learning more about your EQ will help you evaluate areas that you could stand to give a little more attention to – like self management or social awareness. Use those results to make a plan for your development in this space. You may begin to see how your emotional intelligence affects so many other parts of your life.
For personal development, take the enneagram test (https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/). Enneagram is a recent discovery for me and the more I learn about it, the more I like it. Learning your enneagram type just might help you discover why you do the things you do. As you learn more about yourself, you can make a plan on how to capitalize on your strengths and have better understanding and control over your behavior.

2. Write down your goals. The greatest way to reconnect with who you are and what you really want is to write down your goals. Not just once though, write them every day. Rachel Hollis is a popular inspirational speaker with a great process for writing down your goals. She says to imagine the best version of yourself in 10 years – write it down (this one you only write down once). Then, write down 10 dreams that would need to come true in order for you to be that person you want to be in 10 years. Write these 10 goals down everyday, changing them only when one is accomplished. And then, choose one that you are going to work on TODAY! Doing this will give you a clear focus for the day and keep your goals fresh in your mind as you move through life and make decisions. Read more about this process here: https://www.success.com/rachel-hollis-10-10-1-plan/

3. Meditate. Be still. Meditation is an amazing way to clear your mind. Start with 5 minutes – set a timer on your phone. Silence all devices. Sit comfortably in a quiet place where you can be alone. Close your eyes. Focus on your regular breath. Clear your mind. As thoughts enter just let them pass by without engaging with them. You will notice your other senses, like hearing amplify. Complete your 5 minutes. Once you can meditate for 5 minutes without heavy thought distraction or monkey brain, up your time. You may see a difference in how your day continues on and the stress you feel. For more information on meditation, watch this video from the Wholistic Revolution: https://youtu.be/6RYrcdvIUCs
And if none of these are up your alley, perhaps you can just take a few minutes out of your day to pull up YouTube videos of puppies and kittens or other baby animals. If those can’t distract you from COVID-19 for a few minutes, I’m truly out of ideas🤷🏼‍♀️

Hope that helps!

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ask betty – meal planning

Betty — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I can SOO relate to this question! Meal planning and grocery budgets were hard for me BEFORE we all went into quarantine. The struggle is real!

My suggestion to you is simple – call out for help! Whether you are just not able to figure out the best way to meal plan for your family, or if you just feel too overwhelmed to focus on it right now – ask for help. Do you know someone who is especially good at meal planning? Or someone who never goes over their grocery budget? Start with your direct resources and send them a HELP ME plea!

Don’t know anyone who fits those descriptions? Don’t despair!! I have a great resource for you!

My friend Alesha Berning is an organization consultant. What a job right? I need her and her fabulous services in 👏🏻my 👏🏻 life. She consults on how to organize your stuff, your family’s everyday life and yes even meals! She recently wrote a book titled, “Calm the Fork Down – Taking the Chaos out of Meal Planning“.

Uh…YES PLEASE! You can visit her site to pre-order this book and get ready to get your meal planning self together! https://www.chaostocalm.club

Hope that helps!

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ask betty – bad dreams

Betty — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Hey Hey! It’s Ask Betty Thursday! Thanks for the question! This one hit me in the feels – I have been having intense, kinda bad dreams lately too!!
Response is in video form this week (see comments)!
Plus! a bonus link about interpreting dreams:
http://www.dreambible.com/search.php?q=Rescue
Hope this helps!

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Ask Betty Thursday: Personal Brand

Betty — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

So there’s a few things that I’ve learned about personal brand through the years.

First, it should be genuine and authentic. Brand is really what you’re known for and how people recognize you. Your brand already exists. Take a look at who you are and what you are known for right now. Your brand consists of the type of work that you do, how you treat people, and could also include style and even catch phrases. For example, if you’re quick to be someone who says a certain phrase all the time – maybe something like “no biggie” or “it’s all good” or “you’re not wrong”- those are part of your personal brand.

Something else I learned about brand is that visibility is very important. If people can’t see your brand, they won’t know that it is your brand and they wont know that it is YOU. If it isn’t visible, it doesn’t really make an impact. Making your brand visible happens in person, on the phone, through text and in social media. Do not shy away from making your brand visible to others. The more they see of you, the more they will remember you.

Also, you’ve got to be consistent. Once you establish a cadence with your brand, you have to keep going in that same direction. If you don’t, people lose interest. When they are interacting with you, they are watching for those brand markers – those pieces that make up who you are and how you are recognized.

Authenticity. Visibility. Consistency.

Remember this: When you live out your personal brand, it’s not about marketing or selling yourself. It’s about making yourself recognizable. And by being recognizable, you’re accessible, making a way for people to tap into you and in turn a way for you to tap into them.

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Ask Betty Thursday: Shiny Objects

Betty — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

AR and VR are DEFINITELY shiny and cool tech! But I see big potential in the learning space. For example, we adopted AR at the insurance company I work for and have had great success with it. AR is a great way to bridge the gap between how we learn at home and how we learn at work. By building this bridge we are opening up the learners interest in learning and we are forced to think differently and THAT is where new creativity comes from.

The AR cost answer really depends on how you are using it. There are more practical applications and some that are more advanced. I personally am a Zappar fan. If you use the Designer or Widget functions of Zappar, your cost is low – less than $500 a year for the software and unlimited zapcodes. If you want to build more complex AR and use their Studio software, the price is around $1100 a year. So it depends on what you plan to do with it.

I have also spent a lot of time researching VR and there are tremendous use cases out there. VR is a great way to create connected learning across distanced locations. Some of the more practical ways are 360 video turned into a VR experience to acclimate collegiate long distance learners to the home base campus. Using VR to create engagement and boost the feeling of connectedness while increasing learning is win-win all around.

Other more complex use cases for VR include safety training for high powered construction machines or other dangerous professions. Using VR dramatically lowers risk and cost of this type of critical training.

With the exception of 360 video VR, this gets significantly more expensive. And that is largely because the skill set needed to build is more expensive. But I see a solution on the horizon. Companies are seeing the need for VR in learning and they want to get into that space, but cost is prohibitive. Learning doesn’t make money for MOST businesses. So VR creation companies are beginning to create easily customizable libraries of content. This way the cost is lower as people look to purchase the content. Base price plus small fee if you want to do slight customizations, making
it more affordable. Talespin is a company out of SoCal that is making strides in this area especially around insurance claims management training. Fast forward 5 years and this could be the way we acquire VR for our business.

Hope that helps!

If you would like to hear more about AR and VR, check out my recent conversation with Train Like You Listen.

Train Like You Listen Podcast: AR & VR

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Best of Ask Betty! vol.1

Betty — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

As close out 2019, here’s a look back at the best of Ask Betty from the last couple months. Check it out below and stay tuned for more Ask Betty in 2020!

Thanks for the question! While we could prepare an entire conference session in this topic (kinda like the ones I will be doing in 2020🙃), the quickest answer is to remind them that learning through AR at work strongly mirrors how they learn outside of work.

Think of the last time you needed to know how to do something – cook a turkey, fix your refrigerator, or even connect your wireless router. How did you learn how to do those things? Did you sign up for a class at the local community center? Login to a webinar? Nope. You pulled out your phone and GTS.

We learn outside of work on our mobile devices more than anything else. Using them to learn at work will be a natural transition. Does it feel like we are breaking the rules? Maybe at first. But by the 3rd or 4th scan – we feel right at home.

I would start with that conversation. #hopethathelps

Thanks for the question Millennial Dude! 😁
Switching jobs often is common these days for sure – but I think assigning a label of “right or wrong” to it isn’t necessary. You are the only one who knows what you need, when you need it. If you find yourself ready for a new challenge at 2, 3 or even 5 years – you should move towards that new challenge. ⁣
⁣
Sometimes discontentment is not really about our job, but about personal fulfillment. Stop and reflect on what you really enjoy about your job and why you took it to begin with. Then assess if you are still doing those things. This will help you to figure out if you have changed, or your work has changed. If your work has changed, time for a chat with your manager about where to go from here. If you find that it is YOU that has changed, it may very well be time to move towards something that lights up your board. Hope that helps!⁣

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Hemingway Deck

Betty — Tue, 03 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The Hemingway Deck is produced by Best Self Co. I am a huge fan of their products and this deck of prompts is high on my list of things to conquer. This deck holds 100 prompt cards. All the prompts are meant to fuel thoughts and feelings that you can then turn into great writing. The deck promises to help you overcome writers block and the fear of the blank page. Challenge accepted!

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