How to Stay Competitive in Today’s Economy

It takes an effort (a Herculean effort sometimes) to stay on top of the changing trends, breakthroughs, and happenings within your industry. This is a must-do, however, if you are to stay relevant as a ‘professional’ and continue to gain responsibilities, promotions, new assignments, and confidence.

One tip that I recommend is the ‘weekend brain dump’. As each week progresses, I run across 10, 15, sometimes 20 articles that I must read. I subscribe to ‘way too many’ Internet newsletters just for this reason. These articles could be interesting news stories, breakthrough trends in marketing, good press for our business, or just something that catches my eye.

I’ve created a folder in Outlook titled ‘PRINT’. When I find an article I like, I place it in the folder for ‘later reading’ rather than get distracted and dedicate 5-10 minutes to read the entire article. By the end of the week, I’ve placed a good number of relevant, timely, inspiring, and educational articles into the folder.

Before I leave for the weekend, I print off each article (Printer-friendly format and double-sided to save paper) for further investigation. When I can grab 5 or 10 minutes on the weekend, I’ll quickly grab an article and dive into the contents.

This technique helps me:

• Stay focused at work


• Stay up-to-date on my industry


• Get fired up for the challenges of the new week
  
  Try it – you just might like it.
  
  Do you have a productivity tip that you'd like to share? Leave me a comment.

Until next time,

Dan Naden
Naden's Corner

The Greatest Sport You'll Never Know

They are some of the most finely conditioned athletes in the world. They glide, stop, sprint, hit, punch, lunge while trying to guide a small black disc past a heavily-padded goaltender.

This is not soccer or lacrosse, but hockey. Hockey's season, which stretches from October to June (isn't a 9-month season a little excessive?) just ended with Detroit snaring Lord Stanley's Cup.

Unless you live in the Northeast or Midwest, you'll hardly grow up following hockey. The NHL, however, has nearly 30 teams in such hockey strongholds (yeah, right) as Columbus, OH, Nashville, TN, and Tampa, FL. I watched most of the Stanley Cup final between Detroit and Pittsburgh yet the regular season did not register. I live in Austin, Texas (not exactly hockeytown, USA), but it is a city with a large number of northern transplants. Hockey's marketing push, however, is silent in this Central Texas town.

I think some regular season games are on NBC and Versus, although the days, times, and teams involved as a mystery to me.

My point is this: Hockey is an exciting, fast-paced and compelling sport, yet no one knows about it. There are a large number of hockey fans in Austin, Texas, but this audience gets ignored when it comes to marketing of the sport. How's hockey going to stay relevant in the next 10-15 years with this silent marketing push?

Until next time,

Dan Naden

Naden's Corner

David Brooks - Make a point; tell a story

I had the fortunate opportunity to the 1990 World Champion of Speaking, David Brooks speak last week and was impressed with his ease with humor, believability, and sincerity. He just has that special something that says, 'listen to me'.

David said that we should move away from giving speeches and gravitate towards telling stories. Many people believe 'nothing happens to them' that's worth a story. That is entirely false. Listen intently, keep a story journal, and you'll find a wealth of 'stories' to choose from when it's time to shine before an audience.

Kudos to David Brooks for giving this Toastmaster some fine ideas and encouragement. Great job.

Dan Naden

Naden's Corner