The Insider's View
For much of 2008 we were on an adventure in hiring. Heart of Business had, sadly and wonderfully, outgrown our amazing virtual assistants and needed to hire someone as a real employee. It was an expensive, painful, enlightening, and incredibly educational journey. My wife and I learned tons about ourselves, about the true needs of […]
More about Easy and Hard in Business
We’ve been having an inspiring, international conversation about the Obama presidency in The Business Oasis. There’s a snippet that Tenter Jocelyn Kahn wrote that I think is worth sharing with you all. I saw a quote on Oprah’s website from a show she did today: Quote: The 2008 presidential campaign wasn’t just a political movement—U.S. […]
What the Heart of Your Business Needs in a Down Economy
A friend and colleague recently told me this: “I know I am not spending money right now, and it appears that others aren’t either.” Other clients have seen contracts cut in half or accounts lost, others report a decrease in sales. And yet, still others report having their best month ever. What gives? Is it […]
The How and Why of Wrestling Your Inbox to Zero
Have you ever ended up TWO weeks behind in answering emails? An inbox full of missed opportunities, deadlines, and people you care about left with the sour taste that maybe you don’t like them. Not good for business. Very good for encouraging an unhealthy sense of guilt, shame and pressure. The high tide in my […]
No Thank You
Our company has expanded, and we were happily forced to upgrade computers. I had been using an iMac, my wife Holly a iBook, and not only did we a need a third computer for our new employee Kate, but we all needed to be on Intel Macs. In all, we spent about $10K, between the […]
Can Branding Ever Be Heart-Centered?
Sometimes the world delivers up vocabulary words that are just plain wrong. Painfully wrong. Words like “branding,” which the world of marketing seems to love, but regular folks and cows just seem to hate. And it’s because of how branding has often been used. Companies have done psychological studies on how to craft an environment […]
Where Discipline Counts the Most
Monday was the start of Ramadan, which means that for anyone who observes this Islamic month of fasting, there’s no food, water, gossip or sex between sunup and sundown. Most spiritual paths have something similar, whether it’s a month, a week, a day, or some other ascetic practice. Have you fasted before? If you haven’t, […]
The Blog versus The Newsletter
A friend and colleague, Havi Brooks of The Fluent Self just dumped her “noozletter” in favor of her blog. She was, as she admitted, a-scared and a-tremblin’ about the decision, because every big marketing guru tells you that you have to have a newsletter. But she dumped it, and now it’s history. You may be […]
Almost Took On Too Many Projects
Last week I wrote about why you should never have more than three projects. And then, yesterday morning, in our Heart of Business Team Meeting (I love writing that, just cause after years of doing this nearly solo, we now have a team!), we nearly did it to ourselves. So, half-way through the meeting, we […]
Too Many Projects (Does Your Project Have A Soul?)
This past Monday my wife Holly, myself, and our assistant Kate had a long meeting. And why? So we can put a bunch of absolutely amazing and wonderful ideas on the back burner, and do nothing about them. It’s probably not such a surprising idea for you, that you’re supposed to prioritize your projects, and […]