In most instances, when you are looking for private lenders for real estate then you are going to run into a number of hard money mortgage brokers. In fact, this should be the first place that you go to when you are seeking this type of financing. Continue reading
How to Do an Elevator Pitch
When you are looking for private investors then you have probably come to realize that you must quickly showcase your business and what you intend to do very quickly. Continue reading
Things to Remember If You Have a Sales Coach
There is a science to the art of selling that sets some minimum skills for a person to become excellent at the job. Books may describe these minimum skills but mere textbooks may have a hard time getting these skills ingrained into your system. Only experience can really do that. It’s great if you have been selling stuff since you were five. By the time you reach 20, you’re likely to be selling some really juicy stuff that can keep your wallet plump and your ego satisfied. However, if you started selling rather late, the only way you can speed up the process of really learning all the tricks in the book is to vicariously absorb someone else’s experience or be goaded to near perfection by someone who knows the terrain.
That is where a good sales coach comes in. If you have been a salesperson for some time, chances are high that you already know how rewarding, fulfilling, and frustrating the world of sales can be. If you have achieved some measure of sales success, it is also likely that you have learned not a few techniques from someone who–knowingly or unknowingly–has been a sales coach or mentor to you. Whether it is about how to get your numbers in order or how to make a good first impression on clients, your sales coach have been pivotal to your growth and performance as a salesperson.
The most ideal scenario is quite familiar: a new recruit working his or her way up the ladder and eventually getting under the wings of a wise and sympathetic sales veteran. Count yourself lucky if you found yourself in this rare and fortunate turn of events. This situation is rare simply because there are a lot of sales neophytes who do find themselves partnering with sales veterans, who, unfortunately are not as sympathetic or wise as they would have hoped. There are also greenhorns who eventually partner with sympathetic coaches who, unfortunately, either lack the communicative skills to share their knowledge or are in serious need of some training themselves.
Regardless of whether you are under the wings of a veteran office peer or have acquired the services of a professional coach, there are fundamental attitudes that you need to adopt in order to make the learning process more productive and more meaningful. When you start on a coaching relationship and you are the one being coached, remember to establish goals and expectations at the onset in order for both you and your coach to draw up the appropriate engagement plans.
The adage that a good sales person is a good listener rings no less true when applied to a sales coaching relationship. If anything, listening skills are actually most needed in this particular relationship in order to turn the engagement into a transformative platform that will propel you to achieve success levels you have only dreamed about before. Remember that working harder is often inadequate to achieve the next level. Only learning new rope tricks from people who have been there can really bring you a notch higher.
Aside from attentive listening, you must force yourself towards meaningful improvement. This means admitting your weaknesses as a sales professional and being open to developing new positive work habits that your sales coach will ask you to learn. Simply put, this means that you should will yourself to change.
It’s your sales coach’s job to push and challenge you until it hurts and you have to commiserate by having the professional agility to roll with the punches. Otherwise, the relationship could develop into one of resentment, and nobody wins in the end. Argue and be honest about what you feel but remain anchored in the knowledge that being a pain in the neck is only incidental in performing the job of a sales coach. Your sales coach’s true mission is to goad you until you unlock a secret. And whatever this secret is, it will take you to the next level of your professional journey. At the very least, appreciate the fact that someone is goading you to perform beyond any of your previous successes and take every opportunity to leverage your coach’s energy to your advantage.
As a credit to yourself, develop the constant awareness that sales coaches generally work with people with considerable selling potential and that you happen to be one, yourself. That said, a sales coach is there to ensure that you consistently generate only outstanding results. There simply is no room for mediocrity. Think of your coach as an Olympic trainer, and yourself as an Olympic-grade sales professional. Nothing but world-class performance is acceptable; and that should be an all-pervading target.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6666058
Breast Cancer Risk Factors for Women
Overview
Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in American women, with the exception of skin cancer. While some risk factors can be eliminated through changes in lifestyle, others are not so easy to overcome. Understanding your risk for developing breast cancer is essential for early detection and diagnosis.
There is no known cause of breast cancer. However, we do know that there are certain risk factors that are linked to this disease. Simply having one or more of these factors does not mean that you will develop this type of cancer. Understanding your risks can empower you to make lifestyle changes and become vigilant about administering self breast exams and scheduling your routine mammogram.
Gender and age play a big role in determining your risk for breast cancer. Women are much more likely to develop this disease than men. In fact, only about 1% of all diagnosed cases involve men. Breast cancer is most commonly found in women ages 55 and over. Routine screening becomes even more important as we age.
If you have a mother, sister, or daughter who has been diagnosed with breast cancer, you are at a higher risk for developing this disease as well. However, it is important to keep in mind that a large percentage of women who are diagnosed, have no family history. Researchers have found that a familial mutation in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes can not only put you at a higher risk of developing breast cancer, but other cancers as well.
More often in female had no children
Breast cancer is found more often in women who have had no children or did not have their first child until after the age of 30, than those who birthed children at a younger age. If you began menstruation before the age of 12 or experienced menopause after the age of 55, you are at a higher risk for developing this type of cancer.
We all know that being overweight is unhealthy. Those women with a Body Mass Index (BMI) higher than 25 are at a higher risk for breast cancer than those women who maintain a lower BMI, especially after menopause. Extra fat cells, especially those around the waist, mean more estrogen in the body, which may help cancer cells grow. Losing weight and exercising can be difficult but it is essential to maintain a healthy weight throughout your lifetime.
Eating a healthy diet
It will not only help you manage your weight, but may also boost your immune system and help to keep your risk of cancer as low as possible. Incorporate fresh fruits and vegetables into your diet. Try to limit your fat intake and make healthy choices when eating out. While more research is needed, studies suggest that what we eat and how much we eat may affect our chances of developing breast cancer.
If you are a smoker or drink more than one alcoholic beverage a day, you should stop. Smoking and drinking in excess are linked to many types of cancer. Consult your physician for valuable information and tips on quitting smoking.
If you are concerned about any of these risk factors, talk with your physician. He or she may make recommendations for early diagnostic screenings or assist you with implementing lifestyle changes. With new treatments and early diagnosis, we are better able to find and treat breast cancer so that women have an increased chance for a complete recovery.
Tripping Over Leadership
CEOs’ Tripping Over ‘Leadership’
There is a huge opportunity for success and for us to contribute back into society and business through developing our awareness of nominalisations.
Nominalisations are when we talk about a verb, process or an action as if it is a noun, as if it is an object or a ‘thing’. For example, ‘relationship’. In reality relationship is not something that you can hold, touch, see or a thing you have. Instead we relate as a process.
There are many nominalisations in society, business, and our individual lives that can and do trip us up! I refer to not knowing of the effects of nominalisations on our society, success and in ourselves as a ‘blind spot’. Blind spots are the parts of our ‘maps of the world’ and the ‘map of ourselves’ that we don’t know about yet!
Even at the lofty top of CEO and Leadership, people have blind spots and are still falling over the trip-wire of nominalisations. This time it is the term leadership.
To share some insight, I have gained permission from three of the leaders I am currently coaching, to share their ‘first’ definitions of leadership. Two of these CEOs’ are in Australia and one in the USA. To set the scene, these conversational extracts are from our first session meetings. All three of these leaders are leading over five thousand employees.
Client One – Bob
Coach: So, Bob thanks for giving me such an in-depth outline of the organisation and the people you lead. So I can identify a benchmark of where we are, would you mind sharing your definition or understanding of ‘leadership’?
Bob: Sure, leadership is being the light at the top of the hill, not the lantern… the light…
Coach: Okay, thanks, how does someone know when you are applying your leadership skills Bob?
Bob: It’s bright, very bright…
Client Two – Craig
Coach: Craig, so as I can identify a benchmark of where we are in the leadership coaching process, would you mind sharing your definition or understanding of leadership?
Craig:…(long pause) of course not, do you know how your nails grow?
Coach: Not consciously Craig, no!
Craig: That is how leadership is, if you are born with it, you just have it, if you are not, you don’t, and it’s that simple! Believe me I know!
Client Three – Matthew
Coach: Matthew, just so I can get a grip on your being and doing of leadership, would you mind sharing with me your definition of leadership?
Matthew: Leadership does not exist…
Coach: Great!
Matthew: Leadership is simply management with more POWER!
Coach: Oh… let’s start then shall we?
Talk about tripping over nominalisations! People have fallen so hard from what they held in their believing; that leadership was immeasurable, a thing, that they could happily give their questionable definitions and that would be enough.
During the continuing coaching, we explored what leading could also be. This was the catalyst for their ‘getting back up’ as they were starting to see through the nominalisations of leadership, and that as processes of leading, they are visible to their staff/ stakeholders! Now they were breaking through their blind spot.
From the perspective of any ability, there are governing principles and contextual rules that enable one to develop competency and mastery in a given area. Can you imagine trying to effectively lead thousands or even five people through accepting nominalisations as guides?
When people come for leadership coaching, they know that they are curious about leadership and leadership coaching, but are often unsure why! In reality, what they want is to get asked the questions and receive the feedback that they do not get from within their organisation because of their power position.
There is often mist surrounding their understanding and application of leadership. This most often turns out to be because of… you guessed it, nominalisations. In general though, they come to discover the being and doing of effective leadership. To actualise their fullest potentials, and at some level, they know that their own staff are feeding them many nominalisations, and they want to be able to effectively challenge these.
Blind spots are blind spots, we cannot know what we do not know, this is one of the most valuable contributions coaching can provide in coaching leaders; the opportunity to develop greater awareness. Of course, there are many perspectives on what leadership is. Some of the more useful distinctions floating about name it in single words, such as “leadership is relationship” or “leadership is vision”.
Although these may be useful, it is in experience, leaders and future leaders benefit from realising that leadership doesn’t exist as a thing. Leadership is many processes that can be witnessed and measured. Not unlike to the early scientists who were bamboozled by the opinion that ‘heat’ was a thing.