Month: June 2021

The Complete Guide to Project Management Resumes – 2021

Creating a resume can be a pain. How can you possibly highlight your entire career and all your skills, experience, qualifications, credentials, and potential on a sheet or two of paper?

According to Glassdoor, the average hiring manager or recruiter spends just six seconds reviewing a resume. That’s right—six seconds!

That’s why learning how to craft the perfect project management resume is an invaluable skill. If you’re having trouble getting interviews or callbacks based on your resume alone, you’ve come to the right place. Whether you’re a project management beginner or have decades of experience, I’ll teach you how to write a resume that fast-tracks you through the hiring process.

Why You Need a Strong Project Management Resume

The average corporate job listing attracts 250 resumes. But just four to six of those applicants will be called in for an interview, and only one person will land the job.

Your project management resume needs to stand out from the crowd to increase your chances of being within the 2% of applicants who get an interview.

Even if your skills and experience are unmatched and you’re the best possible candidate for the position, it won’t matter if you can’t convey that information properly on a resume. On the flip side, you might be underqualified for certain project management roles. But with the right resume, you’ll stand out against other project managers with more experience than you.

5 Ways to Improve Your Project Management Resume

Whether you’re starting from scratch or just want to touch up your existing resume, these are some of the best ways to stand out to hiring managers and recruiters. These five strategies will take your project management resume to the next level.

#1 — Add Relevant Keywords

In the modern business environment, most…

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Stop Asking Boring Questions – 3 Ways to Ask Questions People Love to Hear

Stop Asking Boring Questions – 3 Ways to Ask Questions People Love to Hear

You don’t need to be Einstein to ask questions that lift flagging spirits and ignite vitality.

Lousy questions are tyrants. Good questions invite interesting answers. But great questions disturb the domestic tranquility.

Great questions build relationships, open windows of insight, and enhance self-knowledge.

Dog's head out the window A question is a window.

3 ways to ask questions people love to hear:

#1. Ask about something in their office.

  1. Where was that picture taken?
  2. What did you do to earn that trophy?

Always ask follow-up questions that tell people you’re listening and interested in learning more.

#2. Ask about something they mention.

Someone might say, “I watched a movie with my daughter last night.” That’s your cue to ask about their daughter. “Oh, how old is your daughter?”

Set the stage for a personal question by revealing something about yourself.

“Oh, I have a 10-year-old son. How old is your daughter?”

#3. Ask questions that highlight strengths.

After pleasantries, raise your eyebrows a little and say, “So tell me, what are you good at?” The follow-up to this question salutes people, especially new acquaintances and builds instant raport.

“I bet you are good at that. I’d love to know how you got so good at that?” If you’re uncomfortable using “love” just say, “So tell me, how did you get good at that?”

When you know someone, try a personalized approach to highlighting strengths.

“I notice you’re really good at leading meetings. What advice do you have for leading great meetings?” (Replace ‘meetings’ with any skill you notice about someone.)

Be interested in others if you hope to be a leader of impact and influence.

What questions do you love to hear?

What questions do you love to ask?

Bonus material:

12 Leadership Development Questions Any Leader Can Use Today | Leadership Freak

12 Questions that Expose the Real Problem | Leadership Freak



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Creatine: A Dietary Supplement That Boosts Your IQ

The dietary supplement creatine can improve both your memory and intelligence.

Creatine — a popular dietary supplement — boosts IQ and working memory, research finds.

Creatine is generally known as a supplement used by athletes for gaining muscle mass.

But that is not its only effect.

For the research vegetarians and vegans were given creatine supplementation.

Dr Caroline Rae, who led the study, explained the choice:

“Vegetarians or vegans were chosen for the study as carnivores and omnivores obtain a variable level of creatine depending on the amount and type of meat they eat – although to reach the level of supplementation in this experiment would involve eating around 2 kg of meat a day!”

Dr Rae said that creatine was a natural choice to test:

“We know that creatine plays a pivotal role in maintaining energy levels in the brain.

So it was a reasonable hypothesis that supplementing a diet with creatine could assist brain function.”

The creatine supplementation was tested over six weeks with participants taking 5g each day.

Dr Rae explained the results of the cognitive tests:

“Both of these tests require fast brain power and the Raven’s task was conducted under time pressure.

The results were clear with both our experimental groups and in both test scenarios: creatine supplementation gave a significant measurable boost to brain power.

For example in the digit span test subjects ability to remember long numbers, like telephone numbers, improved from a number length of about 7 to an average of 8.5 digits.

These findings underline a dynamic and significant role of brain energy capacity in influencing brain performance.

Increasing the energy available for computation increases the power of the brain and this is reflected directly in improved general ability.”

Olfactory disadvantage

Be aware, though, that long-term creatine supplementation has not been fully tested.

There are also certain olfactory disadvantages:

“To be frank taking the supplement can make you a considerably less ‘fragrant’ person.

However creatine supplementation may be of use to those requiring boosted mental performance in the short term – for example university students.”

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences (Rae et al., 2013).

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The Modern Approach To Account Based Marketing

Account-based marketing plays a critical role in the growth of many businesses across a variety of industries. However, many marketers often rely on ABM when it may not be the best fit. In addition, what worked for account-based marketing even just a few months ago, may not be the most optimal strategy for marketing today. 

In this article, we’ll explore how account-based marketing has changed over the years and whether or not it should be your focus. We’ll also explore in detail the many factors you need to consider to do ABM right. 

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) isn’t new

While reading a book called “No Forms, No Cold Calls & No Spam” by Latané Conant, I came to the realization that many vendors try to position ABM as a $40,000 technology stack problem. 

The book dedicates quite a few pages to the ‘customer-centric stack’ and argues that because you’re now able to know when someone is in the market for a solution like yours [via IP lookup or 1st or 3rd party intent data], you don’t need to “spam” them. 

Here’s the irony though— even though potential customers may be in the market for a solution like yours, you still need to deploy the traditional sales/marketing strategies to convince them to make a purchase. 

While it is true that technology has enabled us to create more personalized & relevant experiences for prospects & allowed us to target people in very specific ways, it can also quickly approach the point of diminishing returns.

The marketing industry, like most industries, like to invent new terms to recycle old concepts. And in the case ABM, that’s exactly what has happened. Account-Based Marketing has in fact been around since the 1940s. When sales made a list of logos they wanted to sell, or the list of ‘dream customers’ to close. In those days we just called it sales. 

The concept remains the same today with modern ABM—we want to sell to a list of ‘dream customers’ more commonly referred to as target accounts. 

So what’s the difference between sales and account-based marketing? Technology has both enabled us and added needless complexity to the process.

Dave says it best (who ran ABM at Marketo & Bizible)

ABM is outbound with marketing support

What is account based marketing? 

At the core—ABM is smart outbound. 

Marketers use different ‘signals’ to determine which prospect is in-market for a solution. ABM is the process of trying to determine which accounts fit your ICP & are currently in the market based on a variety of factors, such as visiting certain websites or heavily involved in researching for solutions.

The book, “No Forms, No Cold Calls & No Spam” does not explicitly say it but, the signals you capture during AMB feed into an outbound email sequence or ads to get someone to your website and fill out a form.  

The fact that a prospect is in-market for a solution like yours does not by any means imply or guarantee they…

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WordPress Errors Beginner’s Guide – 2021 Update

In a perfect world, your WordPress site will always run smoothly and never have any problems. But like every webmaster, you’ll quickly discover that the world we live in is far from perfect—WordPress errors are inevitable.

Fortunately, these issues don’t need to be a significant setback or area of concern. There are plenty of WordPress debugging tools and solutions to help with WordPress errors.

As someone who has been operating multiple WordPress sites for years, I’ve had my fair share of experiences with bugs and errors. I created this guide to help you address those issues and solve common WordPress problems as quickly as possible.

What are WordPress Errors?

There are countless potential WordPress errors that any website might experience at one point or another. Generally speaking, these errors can be segmented into three main categories—notices, warnings, and fatal errors.

Notices typically indicate an area for improvement but don’t necessarily mean that something is wrong. Warnings are a bit more serious, and fatal errors indicate that something much more significant and harmful is happening.

Themes, plugins, custom codes, and updates are just a few of the potentially dozens of causes associated with WordPress errors.

5 Tools to Improve WordPress Errors

WordPress has some built-in debugging tools and ways to identify errors. But beyond that, it’s helpful to use other tools and resources to fix WordPress errors. These are the five that I recommend:

#1 — Liquid Web

Liquid Web is an industry leader in the managed web hosting category. They provide VPS hosting, dedicated servers, and cloud servers for websites seeking premium services. With Liquid Web, you’ll get enterprise-grade managed WordPress hosting that’s been modified to accommodate small and mid-sized businesses.

What makes Liquid Web so great compared to…

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Crush Hyperbole and Promise Real Value

Advertising and marketing have been infected with a serious virus: hyperbole.

I get messages everyday from people who promise they can help me crush it, make massive gains, offer an epic product, achieve awesome impact, etc. 

Whatever happened to the philosophy of “underpromise and overdeliver”? Seems to me this hyperbolic marketing is the exact opposite.

There are many problems with this kind of marketing jargon, but here are some of the biggest:

  1. They are difficult if not impossible to define. What is the difference between being competitive, highly competitive, and crushing it? Next time someone says they can help you have massive impact if you retain their services, ask them exactly what they mean.
  2. Many making these grandiose claims don’t have any evidence that they are crushing it. How can they help you do something they likely haven’t accomplished?
  3. There is no way to quantify success (see #1). If you can’t measure it, you can’t prove you’ve achieved it. “Better” is not “massive” and “improvement” isn’t “crushing it.”
  4. Most offer no guarantee. Saying you can do something for a client and actually doing it are two different things.

So why do so many marketers and solopreneurs resort to this silliness? I’m guessing, and am pretty confident, that they are trying to set themselves apart. What they are doing is identifying themselves as copycats who have read the descriptions of others and think they must make similar claims or be left behind. In essence, they are joining an undifferentiated group of exaggerators.

What is the alternative? Consider the following:

  1. Find a way to capture attention that is different but believable.
  2. Quantify results. Instead of “massive results” offer a measurable percentage increase.
  3. Offer social proof: clients who are willing to give testimonials with specific results attained.
  4. What makes your process different instead of what makes your results similar.
  5. Skin in the game, whether that is a guarantee or a percentage of increase or improvement.
  6. Use a thesaurus and master the use of different words to communicate your message accurately.
  7. Offer something free before your client has to buy. Prove your worth with a small, easily-delivered sample.
  8. Relate specifically to your client or at least your client’s marketplace. Nobody can help everybody get better. Pursue a niche where you have the best results.

Hyperbole, exaggeration and cliches put off readers and prospects. Be believable, create value that is valued, and you won’t need to exaggerate to win business.

 

Mark Sanborn is an award winning speaker and Leadership Expert in Residence at High Point University, the Premier Life Skills University. For more information about his work, visit www.marksanborn.com. 

For  a free assessment and information about The Classic Fred Factor online training and a unique opportunity to license the training, go to www.FredFactor.com.

 

Author: Mark Sanborn

Mark holds the Certified Speaking Professional designation from the National Speakers Association (NSA) and is a member of the Speaker Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Cavett Award, the…

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Episode 1392 Scott Adams: Study Says Young Liberal Women Have Mental Problems, Translating CNN, and Experts Get Stuff Wrong

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A Marketers Guide to TF-IDF Optimization for SEO

As digital marketers, content is a critical part of everything we do. And while analyzing and refreshing content may take a lot of time and effort, the results for generating more traffic and improving SEO are clear. 

With the many things that go into creating content, such as competitor research, outreach and technical aspects of content, improving older content frequently takes a back seat—which in most cases, is a costly mistake. 

In this article, I’ll share how to use TF-IDF optimization to help you streamline your content process and make your old content better so you can rank higher and attract more leads.  

What is TF-IDF? 

While using the TF-IDF technique isn’t exclusive to the world of SEO, Moz defines it best:

TF-IDF stands for term frequency-inverse document frequency. It’s a text analysis technique that Google uses as a ranking factor — it signifies how important a word or phrase is to a document in a corpus (i.e. a blog on the internet). When used for SEO-purposes, it helps you look beyond keywords and into relevant content that can reach your audience.

On the surface, the formula may appear quite complex. So, let’s take a look at how to break things down in relation to content. 

TF = (Number of times a term appears in a document) / (Total number of terms in the document)

For example, let’s assume that the term “log cabin” in a document of 100 words shows 12 times. 

Your TF = 12/100=  0.12

With TF, we have solved the first part to count how many times the term “log cabin” is showing on our document.  The score of 0.12 represents the density of this term.

Now, we want to know how this term compares with rivals. We can calculate the IDF to obtain the comparison result, by dividing the number of documents the term appears in by the total number of documents in search results:

IDF = log_e(Total number of documents / Number of documents with term in it) 

Let’s put the second part of this formula to use. Say that from 1,000,000 results, some are mentioning “log cabin” and the number count is 409,000 times.

Now let’s solve the logarithm:

IDF(log cabin) = log_e(1,000,000/ 409,000 with term log cabin in it)= 0.38

With that, we now have the density and the importance. 

TF*IDF = Term Frequency times Inverse Document Frequency= 0.12 * 0.38= 0.046

Then you have also a result of your own TF*IDF. For the word “log cabin”, you have 0.017 while your rivals average is 0.046, which is higher than you.

The data gives you an indication that the term ‘log cabin’ is a common denominator in content that is ranking highly. 

Is TF-IDF just keyword stuffing?

If you’ve been involved with SEO for some time, you’re likely aware of the concept of keyword stuffing, that is, the process of adding keywords as much as possible to help your chances of ranking higher. 

This thing is, keywords density was…

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The 9 Best Customer Service Software Solutions – 2021 Review

Want to jump straight to the answer? The best customer service software for most people is Hubspot and LiveAgent. 

Customer service software makes sure your customers are happy and satisfied with your business.

And customers make or break your success.

Happy customers keep coming back and spending more money, while unsatisfied customers will cause significant damage to your reputation.

That’s why customer service must be a priority for every business.

Fortunately, the right customer service software can make this possible. Customer service solutions help ensure fast response times, positive interactions, and happy customers.

The 9 Best Customer Service Software of 2021

  1. HubSpot — Best free customer service software and product bundles
  2. LiveAgent — Best customer service software for live chat support
  3. Monday.com — Best for continually supporting accounts
  4. Freshdesk — Best customer service software if you’re switching from another platform
  5. Gorgias — Best integration with ecommerce platforms
  6. Zoho Desk — Best customer service software for ticketing
  7. Zendesk — Best customer service software with support suite options available
  8. Groove — Best customer service software for small teams and startups
  9. Help Scout — Best customer service software for nonprofits

It’s tough to find a good customer service software. There’s many options available on the market. But some of these tools are significantly better than others.

After researching and testing dozens of customer service solutions, I’ve narrowed down the top eight for you to consider.

As we continue you through this guide, I’ll give you an in-depth review of each one below. You’ll learn about the top features, benefits, use cases, pricing, and more.

Best Customer Service Software Reviews

#1 – HubSpot – The Best Free Customer…

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A Team Activity that Takes Managers to the Next Level

A Team Activity that Takes Managers to the Next Level

Lousy mangers are like a rash that keeps coming back. Harter and Clifton report that spending time with their manager is the worst part of the day for employees. (Wellbeing at Work)

Great managers succeed because they know how to succeed. Results are a by-product.

Ostrich mouth Any fool can pressure people to meet goals.

Stumbling managers are so busy doing the work that they don’t work on how they do the work. Eventually they lose their legs; results dwindle, frustration increases, and negative practices take hold.

The Manager of the Year team activity:

Preparation:

Before they come to the meeting, ask your team to reflect on the best manager they know.

  1. What makes them standout?
  2. What are their top strengths?
  3. What patterns and daily practices do you observe?
  4. How do they interact with employees?
  5. How do they solve problems, delegate responsibilities, inspire team members, and practice accountability?
  6. How do they balance challenge and support?
  7. How did they practice accountability and giving feedback?

Write at least three paragraphs that explain why your manager deserves the Manager of the Year award.

You cannot include the obvious. You can’t say, they worked harder than anyone else.

Meeting open:

Imagine advocating for someone to receive the Manager of the Year award. The pursuit of results is necessary but knowing the core skills and behaviors that produce remarkable results is genius.

Any fool can pressure people to meet goals.

Have each participant read their endorsement. (Names aren’t necessary.)

Discuss. Clarify.

Make a list of top management skills and behaviors based on your team’s conversation.

Application:

With the Top Manager Award in mind, what’s one way you might emulate their skills or behaviors? Be specific and actionable. Working harder isn’t an answer.

What might you adapt or add to the above activity to make it more effective?

What are the skills and behaviors of the top manager in your organization?

How might you emulate one of their behaviors today?



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