This week we continue our series on S.T.O.R.M. - a method of building your own personal Storm of Success by doing the following:

Stop
Take Inventory
Organize
Reflect
Move It

In last week’s post I wrote about the second step of S.T.O.R.M. which is to TAKE INVENTORY.  Today I will address the next step which is to…

ORGANIZE!

First, I’d like to share one of my favorite poems on the subject:

If I Could Get Organized by Baidurya Mukherjee

The morning goes, noon is here,
Before I know the night is near,
and all around me, I regret,
are things I haven’t finished yet.

If I could just get organized!
I often times have realized,
not all that matters is the man,
The man must also have a plan.

I do this, I do that,
But never finish what I’m at,
I work as hard as anyone,
And yet, I get so little done,

I’d do so much you’d be surprised,
If I could just get organized!

Being Organized is critical.  An organized environment is the number one catalyst to enhance productivity and creativity, two key components to being personally effective and successful.

Allow me to recommend my favorite book on the topic.  It addresses both Physical, as well as Procedural Organization.  It’s called, “To Do, Doing, Done!” by G. Lynne Snead.  If you’re like our friend in the picture above you may want to jump straight to Chapter 5.  The title of that chapter?  “It’s Hard to Manage Your Project If You Can’t Find Your Desk.”

Once again, check in with us next week for the next step of S.T.O.R.M - REFLECT!

To Your Success!

-Kip Kint, Success Coach & President, Mission Ignition

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Crunch Lunch is a fast paced lunch and learn event that is highly entertaining and very informative. Presenters are successful experts in their fields and highly respected among the business community. Keep an eye on http://www.crunchlunch.com for information about upcoming events and participation.

Presenters at the December 4th event included the following professionals. Click the title to view their presentations:

• Accounting Strategies (Kent Thomas, Utah CFO)
• Wellness in the Workplace (Rich Hart, Elevate)
• Women in Business (Kelly Anderson, Startup Princess)
• Brand and Messaging Strategies (Jack Hadley, ClarityWorx)
• Business Banking (Fred Bernhardt, Zions)
• Public Relations Strategies (John Pilmer, PilmerPR)
• Search Engine Optimization (Bryan Phelps, Orange Soda)
• Social Media Marketing (Cary Snowden, Social Hat)
• Preparing for Investors (Brock Blake, Funding Universe)
• Personal Success (Kip Kint, Mission Ignition)

Crunch Lunch™ is a production of Social Hat. Presentations are distributed by Crunch Lunch with permission from the authors. All materials are copyright of the author and all rights are reserved.

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As I said last week, few things in this world have the raw power & energy of a storm.  You can create your own personal S.T.O.R.M. of Success by doing the following:

Stop
Take Inventory
Organize
Reflect
Move It

In last week’s post I wrote about the first step of S.T.O.R.M. which is to STOP.  Today I will address the next step which is to…

TAKE INVENTORY!

Take Inventory of where you have been, where you are, and where you want to be - Take Inventory of your resources, talents, abilities, relationships, and all that you have to help you reach your goals.  Know that your ultimate Success Story starts with a Personal Inventory.

You must know yourself and what matters most to you, and it is crucial to Take Inventory of all your resources that can help you get what you want.

I suggest you make it a somewhat formal Inventory, meaning don’t just think about your Inventory, but rather WRITE your Inventory down.  It’s makes the process far more powerful.  If you want to be even more creative with the way you Take Inventory try creating a Mind Map instead of just writing it down in a linear fashion (although this works fine, too).  Mind Maps look kind of like this:

This particular Mind Map was created using Mind Manager 8 from mindjet.com.  They happen to offer a 30-day free trial if you want to give it a go.

So, remember, to build your S.T.O.R.M. of Success, first STOP, then TAKE INVENTORY.  Be sure to tune in next week when I will be writing about the next step of  S.T.O.R.M. - Organize!

To Your Success!

-Kip Kint, Success Coach & President, Mission Ignition

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Through the power of social media Dr. Chérie’s inspirational guidance on how to live a fulfilling life and corporate consulting and training will now be available via a unique online community. Author of New York Times Best Sellers like Negaholics: How to Overcome negativity and Turn Your Life Around and If Life is a Game, These are the Rules, master coach trainer, consultant, lecturer, and talk-show host, Dr. Chérie has reached millions of people worldwide and recognizes the need to engage people utilizing technology in conjunction with her MMS coaching method. To do this she has chosen LearnSocial by local Utah Valley business Wi5Connect.

“I have been working with individuals and organizations through various means for over three decades,” said Dr. Chérie. “This new community is a way for people who want support in these times of change to receive coaching from an MMS certified coach. The community will also include inspirational quotes, opportunities to connect with others who are looking for positive reinforcement, and extended training to better translate coaching into tangible positive results in daily life.”

In addition to Dr. Chérie’s clients like IBM, American Express, MGM/Mirage, Air National Guard, State Farm, AMI, FMC, and Blue Cross, this new social learning community opens the door to smaller companies and individuals who could not ordinarily afford her live coaching services, providing them the opportunity to benefit from her expertise. More than a collection of instructional videos, the Dr. Chérie community gives each user an individual experience similar to what they would receive from a live coach complete with online workshops, goals, and accountability.

The community is designed to help give company leaders increased return on their investment by providing an affordable ongoing support mechanism for their employees. “This unique environment helps users gain a better understanding of my techniques through a meaningful, rich online experience,” said Dr. Chérie. “Members have time to increase their understanding and skill mastery by sharing personal experiences and observations in an ongoing community setting. They can do this at their convenience, in their timeframe, in the comfort of their own home…what could be better. We come to you.

Dr. Chérie is launching her community with the help of LearnSocial by Wi5Connect, an Enterprise 2.0 company pioneering the next generation of private social networks called “social learning communities”. The unique architecture of LearnSocial offers readers a more rich and purpose-filled experience than merely a forum in which to share comments. Community users are able to view online video tutorials of Dr. Chérie providing insights and tips to the challenges and questions posed by the user

“This partnership with Dr. Chérie is evidence of the growing demand for Enterprise 2.0 technologies to deliver more quantifiable business value and tangible outcomes,” said Matthew Bowman, President and CEO of Wi5Connect. “We expect the unique architecture and pedagogy of our community to be able to help Dr. Cherie’s users transition from skill acquisition to skill mastery. Our platform helps transform social technologies into reliable business tools for enterprises in all industries, thus allowing everyone to tap into the ROI that social learning has to offer.

Look for the launch of the Dr. Chérie Coaching Community January 2009. For more information regarding Wi5Connect or its products and services, visit www.wi5connect.com.

About Wi5Connect:
Wi5Connect s dedicated to making the power of Web 2.0 available to every business by making its results predicable, its use easy, its data actionable and its implementation affordable. With a rapidly growing client base of Fortune and Inc 500 clients, Wi5 Connect is emerging as the leader in Web 2.0 technologies by pioneering the ability for companies to harness the power of social networks to create definitive, predictable and meaningful business outcomes. Wi5 solutions help companies achieve mission critical objectives such as generating and cultivating leads into qualified prospects, broadening customer use of their products, educating employees, connecting with the market and clients in ways never before possible and better competing in a Web 2.0 world. To learn more, visit www.wi5connect.com.

Contact:
Matt Stubbs and Josh Berndt
Snapp Conner PR
801 994-9625
matt@snappconner.com; josh@snappconner.com

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There has been a lot of really good advice from Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester and others about building a successful enterprise community. Yet we still run into a lot of people who are either paying the price for jumping into social media too quickly or who are scratching their heads trying to figure out what to make of it all.  Since the proper knowledge, appropriate strategy, and right technology can make the difference between a raging success or a miserable failure, we wanted to reiterate a few of the lessons we have learned while “getting our hands dirty” by helping corporate enterprises build successful communities.

NOTE: This post focuses on forming your own corporate community - a different strategy than joining Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.  Although both strategies have value, this is the first of a three-part series in which we will discuss the key issues of forming your own successful online corporate community.  This first blog focuses on “purpose.”

Purpose:  Ask yourself why you want to form an online community and if your audience already has the propensity to gather online.  A good exercise is to see if the would-be participants of your community already assemble together in the real world to chat.  If they do, then you stand a better chance of having a successful online community.  If they don’t, then you need to come up with a really compelling reason for those people to gather.  For those of you who are new to this, the “built it and they will come” idea is not working out so well.  Your community needs to offer its participants not only compelling reasons to come to your site but incentive to come back with regularity and loiter for a while.

I don’t want to oversimplify this but the real world is a great testing ground to guide you for success online.  For example, if you held a brainstorming meeting with your engineering staff focused on solving a specific problem, you would likely have a productive meeting with tangible outcomes.  Conversely, if you took that same group of people and threw them into a conference room to “talk amongst themselves” with no guidance or reason for gathering – not much of business value would likely take place.  Why should it be any different online?

Web 2.0 purists rightfully say that social media is transparent, inclusive, authentic, vibrant and consumer-driven and warn against any attempts to control or organize the conversation.  We agree.  Yet, you need to remember that your audience in large part, dictates these rules.  For example, you should avoid product-driven conversations in your marketing communities – but your partner or customer communities will likely WANT to talk about your products.

This leads us to the second issue related to purpose – does your audience have a reason to develop a long-term relationship with you and each other? In general, retail customers do not tend to want or need that long-term relationship.  The retail world has found much better success with customer-written product ratings rather than a traditional online community.  On the other hand, B2B customers tend to naturally have a more compelling reason to develop a long-term relationship with you and each other.  After all, if you have paid $100,000+ for a product, you are more likely to invest the time to learn everything about it and how others are using it strategically in business (which coincidentally is a great use of a community).  Although there are examples of successful B2C communities, the B2B world seems to have an easier time of it.

A lot of people focus their attention solely on marketing and how to create a community of their prospective customers.  As a result, often-overlooked audiences that are seeing tremendous success in corporate communities include employees, vendors, partners and customers.  Regardless if you already have a community or want to launch one, it’s a good idea to keep your various audiences in mind and why each of them would want to congregate online in your community.

Third, a somewhat obvious but neglected element of successful corporate communities is that their participants share common interests, beliefs or philosophies, and receive multiple ongoing positive interactions while in the community.  I recommend you identify what those common interests are and add content that fosters conversation around the common interests, beliefs, etc.  We have seen that you can actually encourage the “multiple positive interactions” with both the right purpose and with the appropriate technology.  A very positive and successful purpose for audiences like employees, vendors, partners and customers is learning.   But this is where most “private label” communities tend to falter.  A growing number of companies are seeing tangible success with a new bread of community called a social learning community that is the combination of a social community, an online learning environment, and a database backend with analytics and reporting services.

We are seeing failing community initiatives salvaged by redirecting (or narrowing) the purpose of the community and by reexamining both the audience and technology.

—Submitted to UVBB by Matthew Bowman, President and CEO, Wi5 Connect

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CoWork Utah is a coworking space in Orem where professionals can share a well-equipped office space including individual private office space, open ‘community’ spaces, a full-featured conference room and a well-appointed kitchen. There’s even a small studio where participants can record interviews, podcasts, etc.

If you are working from home and need a place to get away for a few hours a week, or need a professional conference room to meet in, give Jack Hadley at CoWork Utah a call. You will find CoWork Utah at 383 N. State Street, directly north of Super Sonic Car Wash.

Here’s the KSL feature by Keith McCord…

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

OK, I’ll admit it: I may have been personally motivated to feature the video…

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Few things in this world have the raw power & energy of a storm.  You can take the world by storm if you will focus your power and energy in the direction of your goals and dreams.  For you to take the world, and your goals, by S.T.O.R.M. may I suggest you follow these five simple steps…

• Stop
• Take Inventory
• Organize
• Reflect
• Move It

In today’s post I will address the first step of S.T.O.R.M., which is to STOP.  I will write about the remaining four steps over the course of the next few weeks.

STOP!

We are in such a hurry.  It’s easy to miss things; easy to get stuck in the rut of reactivity, repeating the same old ineffective behaviors over and over again.  So often we confuse activity with accomplishment.  So, the first thing we need to do in creating our own personal and powerful S.T.O.R.M. is to STOP!

Stop what you’re doing.  Stop where you are.

In fact, stop right now (well, not until you finish reading this blog of course).  Stop and be silent for a few moments.  Stop and think.

Listen to your thoughts, without the noise and the clutter created by the world around you.  They say it is quiet and calm in the eye of the storm.  You need to stop and create you own personal “eye of the storm” long enough that you can gain some focus and clarity.

Once you have made this initial STOP, I suggest you schedule other “stops” in the near future.  What are you going to do during these “stops“?  Well, continue to build your S.T.O.R.M., of course.  Tune in next week to learn more about the next step of S.T.O.R.M. - Take Inventory!

To Your Success!

-Kip Kint, Success Coach & President, Mission Ignition

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