Career Goddess

The Changing Face of Careers and Work

 Change happens constantly in the world of work, it seems ever more rapidly. Remember when the Internet and email began to surface in your job function or job search about 10-15 years ago. After that came social networking via Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. It seemed like we all needed to make quantum leaps in our thinking and actions to adjust.

Well, hang on to your laptops because the changes that are coming are going to require forethought in career planning and in job search management. Better to get some advance notice, is my motto. So, here is a list of 10 key new-world-of-work factors, along with some interesting stats, as described in the Time magazine article The Future of Work:

1. High Tech, High Touch, High Growth
   According to McKinsey & Co. (mega-consulting firm), 85% of jobs created between 1998 and 2006 involved knowledge work, like problem-solving and strategizing. For the next 7 years, the US Department of Labor predicts that IT jobs will grow 24% - twice the normal job-growth rate.
   
2. Training Manager to Behave
   Were business management schools the breeding ground for unethical management practices that led to the downfall of the economy? Or was it simply personal greed and bad debt on the part of a few? The debate rages on in this section of the article.
   
3. The Search for the Next Perk
   Be prepared - companies are cutting benefits left and right. While companies' healthcare spending rose 29% over the last 5 years, employees have seen their financial responsibility for healthcare increase 40% over that same period.
   
4. We're Getting Off the Ladder
   The bottom line for the company is saving money. So if telecommuting can cut payroll costs by 10% and real estate costs by 20% as some studies suggest, then companies may just sign on for this style of workplace management. Certainly reducing hours and unpaid furloughs are already the norm. Similarly, moving employees laterally to fill gaps in the workforce can improve many companies' need for gazelle-like flexibility and responsiveness. The career ladder may become an antique!
   
5. Why Boomers Can't Quit
   Again, it is all about the money. The boomers retirement plans have hit a snag in the road with the economic downturn. T. Rowe Price predicts that the oldest of the boomers will have to work nearly 9 more years before they can retire.
   
6. Women Will Rule Business
   Research think tank Catalyst found that of the 353 Fortune 500 companies they studied, those with the most women in the senior management team had more than a 30% higher return on equities (ROE). With their collaborative management style, emotional intelligence, higher education levels, and purchasing power, women are positioned to play a major role in management.
   
   
7. It Will Pay to Save the Planet
   The US Conference of Mayors reports there are more than 750,000 green jobs currently in the US, and that green-jobs growth could account for up to 10% of all job growth over the next 30 years.
   
8. When Gen X Runs the Show
   A managing partner at Global Lead (consulting firm to companies like PepsiCo) anticipates that by 2019 the Gen Xers will be in charge in the workplace and "big changes" will come. One of the essential elements for managers and leaders will be cultural sensitivity and know-how in managing and motivating multi-cultural, and often virtual, teams.
   
9. Yes, We'll Make Stuff
   While the US remains the world's largest manufacturer (according to UN statistics), manufacturing employment has plummeted. Technology has boosted efficiency and workers responded with higher productivity, which resulted in unemployment for many. But jobs involving the absolute need for quality, product safety, or keeping trade secrets will continue to make the US their home.
   
10. The Last Days of Cubicle Life
    Here's some good news: commuting to a cubicle 5 days a week to do mundane processing of words or numbers will become a thing of the past, according to author and blogger Seth Godin. He says "most of the best jobs will be for people who manage customers, who organize fans, who do digital community management." "Brilliant designers, energetic brainstormers, and rigorous lab technicians" will also be doing essential work.

Read the full article and consider the implications of this new world of work for both your career and your future job searches. Will this influence your next career move?

Adapting to change is a critical skill and one that needs to constantly be nurtured. Part of that ability is knowledge for sound decision-making. Mull over the changing nature of work and "mine" for the golden nuggets of information that can serve as guides for your career planning.

Partnerships and Sponsors: Entrepreneur Keys for Growth

What do William Penn, Benjamin Franklin, Bill Gates, and Oprah have in common? Well, besides being famous entrepreneurs, they built their professional careers and enterprises with partnerships and/or sponsorships as integral components.

Bill Gates: "Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning."

Whether you are a small business owner or budding entrepreneur, eager to leave your 9-to-5 job behind, you may want to explore how corporate partnerships and sponsorships could be just the boost your business results. Join William Arruda, founder of Reach Personal Branding, on June 18 at noon EST for the 2009 Reach Personal Branding Interview Series as he interviews guest expert Brendan Burchard about partnering your business with major corporations and non-profits. As the Producer of the Interview Series, I will be welcoming you to the call and encouraging your questions.

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UPDATE: Due to an unexpected emergency, this interview has been posted.

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Brendan has an amazing entrepreneurial story. Ten years ago he survived a car accident in a third-world country and realized he could magically start his life anew…and that is just what he did. Today his partnerships and sponsors include Fortune 500 companies and global non-profits, such as Coca-Cola, Wal-mart, Sony Pictures, Kiwanis, and Junior Achievement.

There is no need to register for the interview, but do phone in early as there are limited seats for the call. If you want the recording of the interview, be sure to sign up for the Reach newsletter.

If exploring your options seems like a really good idea in these tight economic times with even great job-seeker and business competition than ever, you will not want to miss this call. Remember:

Bill Rancic, winner on Donald Trump's "The Apprentice":
"The cover-your-butt mentality of the workplace will get you only so far. The follow-your-gut mentality of the entrepreneur has the potential to take you anywhere you want to go or run you right out of business--but it's a whole lot more fun, don't you think?"

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UPDATE: Due to an unexpected emergency, this interview has been posted.

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Technology Tools for Job Seekers - Part 3

Get plugged into technology tools to boost the productivity and reach of your job search. Most are free and fairly easy to use. Even if you start with only one of two of these applications and websites, you may just find your job search yielding better results than it has in months!

This is Part 3 of a 3-segment series about readily available technology that job seekers can use. While these are some of my current favorites, we all know that technology grows, changes, and even disappears! So I will be updating this list periodically. If you have any favs to add to the list, please do so in the Comments area. Thanks!

23. Tweetlater.com – Branding itself as “Productivity tools for busy tweeple”, Tweetlater allows you to plan, set up, and even automate your Twitter social network and communications. Its free organization capabilities make it essential for keeping track of tweets (messages), followers, and those you would like to follow. For example, you can track keywords (really important in a job search) and save and re-use drafts of tweets. There’s a professional version that offers even more bells and whistles.

24. TweetMyJobs.com – The world’s largest Twitter job board with the built-in capability for you to apply for a job, post your resume, get instant alerts of openings via text messaging, and refer-a-friend feature among many others. With more than 4600 vertical Job Channels on Twitter, TweetMyJobs is likely to have the latest scoop about jobs in your field or industry.

25. USAJobs.com – The official job posting site for the US (Federal) government. This one-stop center for information about federal government jobs is a must see. From career exploration information, jobs in demand, resources for people with disabilities, veterans resource center, senior executive service, and student jobs, this site is a logical and easy starting point. With Federal hiring trends and top locations hiring, doesn’t it make sense to check out if government service could be a viable career path for you?

26. VisualCV.com – This platform allows you to build and display a “visual” resume that can include elements you might include in a portfolio, such as examples of your work and even charts and graphs. It goes further by enabling audio, video, and image elements as well AND features jobs you can apply for using your VisualCV. You can also integrate your resume with social media sites, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. The examples on this site are a feast for the eyes and ears!

27. WebCrawler.com – Using metasearch technology, this mega-search engine combines top-ranked results from several popular search engines, such as Google, Yahoo!, Windows Live, and Ask along with others. Best of all, it includes images, video, news, and local information to provide a broader spectrum of search-engine results.

28. WebMynd.com – With this search engine, an Firefox browser extension, you can personalize your search to include results from sources like Google, YouTube, Twitter, and Wikipedia. WebMynd provides the search results in a pleasing and easy-to-navigate display. Further benefits include being able to search a visual history of your web surfing, share links with friends, and keep track of what you find.

29. WhosTalkin.com – One of my favorite social media search tools, this browser search plugin works in both Firefox and Internet Explorer. After searching your name, for example, you get results in categories such as blogs, news, networks (like LinkedIn, Friendster, Facebook, and Ning), videos, images, forums, and tags (such as del.icio.us, blogmarks, and faves). Find out who’s talking about you!

30. Wink.com – This search plugin is promoted by Wink as “the world’s largest people search engine” where you can find phone numbers, email addresses, websites, photos and more. You must join (it is free) to see all the search results and to download the plugin.

31. Xing.com – Xing is a global social network for professionals and business people with more than 7 million members in 200 countries. It has often been compared to LinkedIn as it has similar features, such as groups, networking events, contact management, people search, and job postings. Much more international in flavor, however.

32. Ziggs.com – The Ziggs community also contains people from around the world and allows you to build an online profile, track visits to your profile, find people and jobs, list yourself in professional directories, join groups, and connect with contacts. If you are proactively marketing yourself and your personal brand, you will want to be sure to have a profile on Ziggs as it is a commonly searched site by employers and recruiters.

33. Zoominfo.com – Build a profile here for free for great online visibility and search for people (there are currently 45 million registered users) and companies (5 million). Another easy way to boost your online identity with a strong, keyword-rich profile or add to your job-search research toolbox.

For the previous entries in the list, go to:

Technology Tools for Job Seekers - Part 1

Technology Tools for Job Seekers - Part 2

Stress Busters: Steps to Reduce Stress and Boost Success

Are you anxious about your job search? Are you stressed every day in your job? In either case, stress can lead to debilitating symptoms, such as loss of sleep, irritability, fatigue, headaches, stomach aches, overeating, drinking too much, loss of interest in sex, poor productivity, and relationships in a downward spiral. Not surprising then that according to a study by the British Medical Journal, chronic job stress is linked to both heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Whether you have experienced the loss of a job, or are now doing more in your job as a result of job positions which have gone unfilled, a root cause of your stress may be a sense of powerlessness, as reported by Drs. Miller and Smith in their article Stress: Stress in the Workplace for the American Psychological Association.

Want to regain your power and learn professional success strategies that relate to stress management? Plan on attending the May 21, 2009 Reach Personal Branding Interview Series program “Bust Your Stress to Boost Your Success” with expert guest speaker Jordan Friedman at 12 noon Eastern. Reducing or managing excessive stress is paramount for career success, and Mr. Friedman will present effective tips to do just that, along with:

* Three most important things to do to manage stress
* The connections between stress reduction and personal branding
* The difference between good stress and bad stress
* How to maintain stress management over the long haul.

Jordan Friedman, The Stress Coach, holds an MPH and is the former Director of Columbia University’s health education program. He has given public presentations on stress management to vastly different  audiences, including college students, police officers, bankers, and prison inmates. Mr. Friedman is author of The Stress Manager’s Manual.

Additional methods for dealing with stress can be found at Stress at Work: How to Reduce and Manage Workplace Stress.

Color and Personal Branding: Jump-start the Emotional Connection

Your personal brand has both logical and emotional components: what people THINK about you and what they FEEL about you. Of the two, emotion often trumps feeling in the final “buying” decision. In fact, in the sales world, it is commonly known that people buy based on feelings, and then justify their decision with logic. So, while you may be a job seeker with prime credentials, if you do not evoke a strong positive connection or feeling from interviewers, you may not be the candidate chosen.

How does this relate to colors? Well, colors are aligned with emotions. Cited in Why Color Matters, the Institute of Color Research reports that a subconscious judgment about a person, environment, or product is made within 90 seconds with 62-90% of that judgment based on color alone. In the Psychology Today Blogs, Maureen Healy (MBA and Masters in Clinical Psychology) writes in The Color of Emotion that “the connection between colors and feelings is probably the most simple and profound.” She goes on to add that “color connections are greatly influenced by culture” and explains that the color white can have very different meanings depending on whether viewed by someone from America or Taipei.

In addition, colors can have differences depending on shade, tone, and intensity. Explore Color Meaning further to discover some of those subtleties. For example, my personal brand color is a pure green. It denotes nature, growth, harmony, and safety – all themes that resonate with me, my personal brand attributes of caring, genuine, and connected, and my preferred work environment (the beautiful Northwoods of Wisconsin). However, dark green may be associated with greed and jealousy!

The following resources relay even more on how color relates to your personal brand and marketing yourself:

Using Color to Express Your Brand – video by William Arruda, founder of Reach Personal Branding
The Exact Science of Personal Branding – blog post by Dave Saunders, celebrated speaker, radio show host and business start-up strategist.

What color are you drawn to? Explore the variations of that color and the feelings associated with it. Which color will attract your target audience and still reflect the unique you? Keep in mind cultural differences and industry niches to avoid a major faux pas. Then test-drive your color in all of your self-marketing efforts and pay attention to responses you get. Learn from the feedback, refine, and boldly express and exude your color with confidence knowing that the emotional connections you make will advance your job search from anonymity to A-list.

Job Search Short To-Do List

Resting to revive the body, mind, and spirit is essential for a job seeker. Incorporating periods of rest during the week and weekend needs to be part of your job search plan. While you are winding down into that “restful” state, here are a couple of productive, easy-to-accomplish items for your job search to-do list:

1. CareerXRoads 8th Annual Source of Hire Study by Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler. For the recent trends in hiring and more in-depth information about the methods employers are using, read the results of this 2008 annual survey. You should be able to pick up some tips about how to more effectively use your job search time. For example, if print ads account for about 3% of external hires, you would likely not want to dedicate any more than 3% of your job search time to that method.

2. All Keepers, No Fluff: 241 Ways to Become a Living Brochure of Your Own Awesomeness by Scott Ginsberg (The Nametag Guy). A practical and reflective list of to-do items for your job search, your career, and your life. Pick one (or more) that resonates with you and determine how you can integrate it into your job search. Then, do it!

3. Google Profiles. You can create a no-fee Google profile to optimize your online identity and personal brand with links to other profiles, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Ning. You can even include photos (keep them clean and professional looking please). The best part is that your Google-hosted profile will likely get on page 1 of an online search for your name. So even if you do not belong to any other social networking sites, you can still maintain a profile on Google for employers and recruiters to find and review. In that way you can establish a positive, online identity and be found as employers do direct sourcing of candidates. Be sure to include keywords and links relevant to your job target and industry in your profile.

Follow the Green Jobs Road

In the spirit of Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, following the green jobs road to the Emerald City (gosh, green again!) may be a strategy for re-inventing your career. Jobs in renewable energy, hydropower, fuel cells, and biofuels are just a few of the industries involved in the continuing creation of green-collar jobs. An array of industries, such as pollution control and waste reduction, organic farming, clean manufacturing, alternative fuels, and the smart grid and energy efficiency all will impact the green revolution.

While many of these jobs require technical or professional training, there will be openings at all levels and job functions. Every burgeoning or established green company or organization needs staff in finance, sales and marketing, and human resources, for example, to be viable. Think about how your career could transfer to the industries involved in the green sector. Here are some useful resources:

1. April 2009 Reach Personal Branding Interview Series “How to Green Your Career” with Frank Marquardt, author of A Guide to Green Careers. This complimentary teleseminar on April 23, 2009 at 12 noon EST is open to 150 attendees. There is no registration required, but do plan on calling in early to grab your spot. The interview with Frank and interviewer William Arruda will be recorded.
   
2. Career Voyages Renewable Energy careers offers links to important industry sectors to explore, such as the U.S. Department of Energy and Green Energy Jobs.
   
3. GreenCareerCentral, created and run by Carol McLelland (a career counselor) is a favorite of mine with tons of green-economy information and resources, including links to jobs.
   
4. Job-Hunt Green Jobs is another fav compendium of links to job boards, company career pages, industry associations, and articles all dealing with green industries.
   
5. GreenCollarBlog focuses on news and resources related to green collar jobs (including non-profit jobs), training and education, associations, job fairs and events, and more. This blog should be on your bookmark list if you are interested in green job openings and events.
   
6. GreenForAll is a national non-profit that advocates for green sector job creation, training, and new-business growth as a socially responsible avenue to fight poverty and pollution. With links to service jobs and political activism both locally and nationally, for example, it also maintains an online community of thought leaders and evangelists who share their perspectives and insights.
   
7. Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conference in early February 2009, hosted by the Blue-Green Alliance (a partnership between the Sierra Club and the United Steelworkers), has archived presentations and links to featured speakers.
   
8. GoingGreenEast Conference, held in March 2009 in Boston, brought greentech CEOs, investors, and entrepreneurs together from more than 100 countries via webcast and the live forum for two and one-half days to discuss and debate proven and promising greentech technologies. The GoingGreenEast Archives include recordings from that event.

While jobs such as green building managers and eco-consultants may seem exotic right now, they will become mainstream as the transition to sustainability and green industries takes hold. The impetus for this is driven not only by global warming, increased energy consumption worldwide, and rampant pollution issues (just to name a few), but also by profitability. As Reza Kazerounian, President of the Americas subsidiary of STMicroelectronics, a global leader in microchip technology, said in the February 2009 issue of Chief Executive magazine, “Every dollar we invested in ‘green’ initiatives has resulted in a better than 300 percent net return-on-investment – usually in two-and-a-half years (or less)”.

Technology Tools for Job Seekers - Part 2

Using technology to boost your job search just makes good common sense. But which technology tools to use? With millions of websites and applications online to choose from, I have assembled some of my favorites (by no means a comprehensive list). In fact, I invite you to add your favs as well!

In Part 1 of the Technology Tools for Job Seekers series, I cited the first 11 in my non-prioritized, alphabetical list. Here are another 11 to add to the list. Part 3 (upcoming post) will have the final 11.

Check out the list and click on the links; you may find one or more exceedingly helpful tools for your job search. Hey, if any of these save you a bit of time, improve your visibility with your target employers and recruiters, extend your networking reach, or connect you with employee referrals and references, the technology will have served you well.

12. JibberJobber.com – Promoting itself as Career Management 2.0, JibberJobber has come a long way since its beginnings as a job search management spreadsheet. Founded by Jason Alba (a friend, but I would love this app anyway!), JibberJobber goes beyond tracking and organizing information and contacts you collect in your job search. It is a networking and relationship management tool par excellance.

13. Job-hunt.org – Touted as the “Best of the Web/Best Site for Finding Work” by US News and World Report, Forbes, and PC Magazine, Job-hunt lives up to that reputation with more than 12,000 links to employers and resources, including tons of articles from subject-matter-experts.

14. LinkedIn.com – The premier and best-known social networking site for professionals (whether employed or unemployed), where you can grow your network exponentially in very short time. With job postings (some only listed on LinkedIn), groups to join and network with, and a popular Q&A feature, LinkedIn is constantly adding features to enhance its members voracious appetites for more and more benefits.

15. Naymz.com – Another social networking tool for professionals where you can not only grow your network, but verify your reputation with a RepScore. Unique approach and valuable for search engine ranking.

16. Ning.com – You can create your own social network on Ning, or discover existing networks by doing a search for keywords describing professional associations, colleges, companies, industries, and hobbies…and then join those groups.

17. Ping.fm – Online application that eliminates logging into multiple accounts to send the same message to your friends and professional contacts by providing the short-cut: just one update sends to all your social networking and social media profiles! This time-saving app supports 30 services including microblogging, social networks, instant messaging, and blogging platforms.

18. Popurls.com – Aggregates multiple RSS feeds from sites like Digg, Stumbleupon, Google News, Reddit, del.icio.us, and Flickr on a compact, one-page “dashboard”. You can custom the color scheme, type of feeds, quantity of articles per feed, and order of feeds to suit your preferences. Pop over to Popurls in the morning with your cup of coffee, and see the breaking online news.

19. Reverse Email Lookup – Find email addresses, addresses, and names for free based on reverse lookup technology. Now that could prove to be the most useful app of all!

20. SimplyHired.com – Job search aggregator of online job postings (nearly 3 million jobs in late March 2009); added feature of More Tools option that lets you find connections in your LinkedIn network to the company in the posting as well as research salary, job summary, map of the job location, and people at the company.

21. Technorati.com – Massive search engine for the blogosphere, including blogs, audios, photos, and videos! Explore the Channels feature to read the latest news on a topic or use the “search the blogosphere” feature to explore in-depth via keywords. Either way you will come away with lots of meaty and relevant information.

22. Trackur.com – Online reputation tracking app which can alert you to both positive and negative online “buzz” for your name, brand, and products. Searches blogs, news sites, social networking sites, images, and videos for any mention of your search terms.

Technology Tools for Job Seekers - Part 1

Technology has changed the landscape of job search forever. It has enabled employers and recruiters to harvest what they consider to be best-pick candidates from custom searches of applicant databases and business, professional, and social media websites on the many-tentacled web. The big upside for them with technology is increased efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

You, as the job seeker, need to be similarly equipped to conduct a time-efficient, cost-effective job search. Whether you view technology as your friend or foe, it’s potential to speed your job-search activities can work to your benefit…but only if you use it.

To that end, I have listed (alphabetically and with no priority) 11 diverse technology tools and websites for career / job search to get you started. I will add 11 more in my next post (Part 2), and 11 after that in my final post (Part 3). You do not necessarily have to use all of these, but do review them and see what meshes well with your Job Search Action Plan to rev up your productivity and results.

1. Addictomatic.com – Create a custom search by topic for the latest news, blog posts, videos, and images; allows you to bookmark your personalized results dashboard for future reference.
   
2. Alltop.com – Search by topic for most recent top news on news sites and blogs; functions as “online magazine rack” for all the news all the time (24x7).
   
3. Beyond.com – Self-described as the “world’s largest network of niche career communities” covering employment in specific locations (such as cities) and industries (such as HR or insurance).
   
4. BlogPulse.com – Search the blogosphere (news, blogs, videos) for the latest buzz on topics; contains interesting analytics tools, stats, and BlogPulse Newswire.
   
5. CommonCraft.com – One of the best places to go for easy-to-understand explanations via videos of wikis, rss feeds, Twitter, social media, and Google web search.
   
6. Craigslist.org – Community-moderated website for local classified ads and forums for 570 cities in 50 countries worldwide; contains job boards and a blog.
   
7. Digsby.com – Application that alerts you to your new emails and social media contacts via a live newsfeed, and allows you to chat via a multi-protocol instant messaging client on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, ICQ, and Jabber.
   
8. Facebook.com - Largest online social media site with 175 million active users and 25 million active user groups. Great place for networking!
   
9. Google: More Products and Options – For every type of custom search tools, such as Web Search, Maps, Book Search, Archive Search, Video search, Blog Search, Finance (and business), and Images, as well as communication tools, such as Blogger and Gmail.
   
10. Idealist.org – Find non-profit jobs, volunteer opportunities, internships, organizations, events such as career fairs, programs and more.
    
11. Indeed.com – Job posting aggregator with jobs from major job boards, newspapers, associations, and company career pages; you can set up email alerts and RSS feeds.

What additional tools and sites would YOU add to the A through I alphabetical list?

The Great Work Journey

Finding and keeping a good job is a constant concern of job seekers’ these days. With tough economic times, desperation and fear thrive. Now, more than ever, the concept of finding a terrific job, maybe even a “perfect job”, seems remote.

So why bother trying? Michael Bungay Stanier, 2006 Canadian Coach of the Year, suggests that we are all hungry to achieve bigger and better things while enjoying work/life balance in the process. In his book, Find Your Great Work, Michael provides 12 Maps that serve as tools to aid in clarifying your current situation, revealing choices you must make, exploring possibilities with courage, and taking action to attain your great work.

Join Michael and William Arruda, personal branding guru and founder of Reach, in the March 2009 Reach Personal Branding Interview Series comp~li~mentary teleseminar “Finding Your Great Work: Strategies to Do More of the Work that Matters” on March 19 (12 noon to 1:00 PM EST).

Learn more about:

• What constitutes Great Work
• How Great Work is different than regular work
• Strategies to find your Great Work
• How to balance Great Work with life’s demands
• Fundamental truths about Great Work
• What may get in your way on the road to Great Work

Michael Bungay Stanier is the founder of Box of Crayons, an organizational consulting company that helps individuals and companies on the journey to discovering and doing more Great Work. His Great Work Movie is an entertaining and motivating short video that encapsulates a selection of his Great Work truths.

Plan on attending the March 2009 Reach Personal Branding Interview "Finding Your Great Work" on Thursday, March 19. There are 150 spots available for the live call; just dial in early to secure your place. If you cannot attend the live call, the recording will be emailed to all subscribers of the Reach Personal Branding newsletter. Subscribe now at www.reachpersonalbranding.com.

As the Executive Producer of the Reach Personal Branding Interview Series, I can personally attest to Michael’s motivational and empowering strategies, creative charisma, and outrageous sense of fun. In fact, it was his irreverent and fun-filled approach that led me to Michael’s coaching, consulting, and public speaking work. His short Internet movies Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun and The 5 ¾ Questions You Have Been Avoiding have gained a global audience (175 countries) and a million-plus viewers!