Tag Archives: How To

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Platform Conference Recap: Part 1/10 – Michael Hyatt

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Wednesday was the last day of Platform Conference. I decided to attend, forgoing my annual trip to the American Rental Association trade show as these both overlapped. I am so glad that I made that decision.  I have been so inspired by the speakers. I know also that the decision was the right one for my fledgling blog, and my businesses. The content delivered by the speakers was priceless, as were the connections made over those two days in Franklin, TN. I initially thought that I would do a full recap post to pass the information on to my readers. This would also serve as a personal record for future reference of the key points that moved me. However, with around 50 pages of notes that idea has had to be revised.  I am going out on a limb here, bravely stepping out. This post will only be on the conference opening session by Michael Hyatt.  I will then publish follow on posts covering each speaker in the order that they spoke, providing the weblinks that they gave where appropriate. I plan to turn back to these posts often for the guidance I know they will give me and I urge you to do the same.  Keep in mind, though, that these notes are in no way a replacement for actually attending this conference. So much content is delivered and you simply cannot replicate the relationships you establish while chatting and breaking bread with fellow attendees and presenters. Enjoy my recap of Platform Conference Session #1 with Michael Hyatt.

Platform Conference

Michael Hyatt produced the conference along with his longtime business partner, Ken Davis. His presentation was: Platform: Developing a Framework for Success. The presentation was quick a walk-through the key areas of the Michael’s book ‘Platform: Get Noticed In A Noisy World’.

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Can You Hear Me Now?

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Communication is something many of us struggle with. We are born with no real ability to communicate. Over time we learn the skills. Unfortunately, while we learn how to communicate we then rapidly learn to keep things inside, to keep things bottled up. We learn this for many reasons.  None of us really want to embarrass someone by what we say, we may hold back to position ourselves to gain from information we have, or we may not want to lose someone close to us which may be the result if we say what we really want to.  While having a filter on our conversation is good, it can lead to unintended challenges. Can you hear me now?

Kids Talking on Tin Phone

We really over complicate things for ourselves by not being more of a student of our own behaviour. I probably went at least the first 10 years in my marriage before I realized that my wife, when we had an issue that was elevated to a serious (read heated) discussion was not looking for what I was giving back verbally.  To expand on this, I came to realize that listening to the issue, then outlining my solutions to make the situation better or prevent it from happening again in the future, was actually not what she was really looking for, at least not at that moment in time. Sure, this information will be useful at some later point in the conversation, but the typical “type A personality – leader – guy – husband – dad” five point outline of how to fix the situation was actually, and quite counterintuitively for a guy, not what she wanted or needed right at that moment. She wanted to be heard. She wanted to be listened to and understood. She wanted to know that I really ‘got it‘.

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4 Easy Steps To Setup Gmail

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I would like to think that I am asked by friends to aid with computer and gadget issues because they see me as competent with technology. The reality is probably closer to what my wife would say…I’m a nerd. She’s right of course. I’m a card-carrying member of that tribe and proud of it. Pulling together all my geek nerd talent I offer a short tutorial on the four easy steps to set up a ‘Gmail’ email account.

How did this tutorial come about? Well, I was asked the other day to explain to someone why they should use Twitter and then, as a follow on, how to set up a twitter account. I started writing on that and realized that email is a basic first step to setting up a Twitter account and I parked my basic Twitter tutorial post and instead have done this one, setting up a Gmail account. It’s basic stuff to be sure. But you know, we so often look at the world from our context and think everyone knows how to do things that we may think are basic. Well, that is often not the case. What is basic to some is really confounding to others. So, this simple four step tutorial is for anyone, including my mom, who has never set up an email account.

Step 1: In a browser search bar type in www.gmail.com (or click the link). The screen you will see is shown below. If you are following this you are wanting to set up a new Gmail account so click on the CREATE AND ACCOUNT button.

Step one of four steps to setting up a Gmail account