We have format issues with our stuff – usually audio and video.
I asked a friend from my neighborhood what he uses to convert video and he said to use Convert Files. I’m guessing we’ll be using this a lot, between our Lumix camera and the Olympus voice recorder.
When I got laid off (six years ago this week) I sat down with some trusted advisors and went over my expenses to see what we could cut. When they saw my insurance costs (with a company I had been with for probably two decades) they said “oh! That seems really high! Shop around and get something lower.”
I wasn’t really interested in shopping around, but one day I was with a guy who happened to be an insurance salesman, and before you knew it we switched.
And then we switched again, when we found a “better” deal.
I really liked who we went with the first time (trusted friend). The second time we moved to cheaper insurance because we could get better coverage at a lower monthly cost.
Then, we had to USE our insurance. There was a little oopsie here, and a little oopsie there. We were told they’d be happy to replace our windshield, and that was one of the benefits. Not to worry, they said.
Then, they keys got locked in the car in our driveway, and they came and took care of it. Not to worry, they said. It happened about two weeks later. No problem, with a smile. That was INCLUDED.
Then, my wife had a significant accident (thank goodness everyone is okay). Our van was totalled. We were told they paid about $30,000 in damages.
And then we got The Letter. The breakup letter. It said as of July 1, 2011, we were going to be discontinued.
There must be some mistake, we thought. One accident and they discontinue us? We didn’t understand.
Our salesman, who was awesome at selling us policies, said he’d go to bat for us. He said he made a bunch of phone calls, but ultimately someone at the corporate office said that no, we were high risk, and we had “6 incidents.”
Let me list them (in no order):
That’s it. 6 incidents of completely different values. But they said “6.” So, we were too expensive, and high risk.
What I learned is that you don’t switch insurance just to save $100 or $200 per 6 months. You don’t switch just because someone says they have better this, or better that.
I also learned that you NEVER claim simple things, like locksmith, windshield, etc. Even though they tout it as a part of their services, they keep track of the times you use it and then you are penalized for using it.
Since then, we’ve moved back to the original insurance company we had been with forever (and our parents had been with forever).
Since then, there have been no claims, no charges, no expense.
Since then, I have heard my old insurance company’s commercials on radio, online, TV, etc. and it makes me want to puke. They say they are awesome, but they put their money into marketing… as soon as you use them they DUMP YOU. I’ve found this documented online from other people.
My wife described them as the paper plate insurance company. Once you use them once you can’t use them again. They are garbage.
What a shame.
Makes me made to just write this post. So much for cheap auto insurance.
Scarcity is what keeps us from giving, sharing, risking, being, achieving, doing, thinking.
How we think about “things,” like time or money or _____, affects how we act, and what we get.
I’ve been intrigued by the concept of the scarcity mentality for a while… here’s an amazing snippet of something I was reading on James’ personal website (scroll down to “HOW TO BREAK FREE FROM THE SECURE JOB“… It’s in the paragraph that starts with “Third answer:”
“I like security too. I’ve had a lot of insecurity in my past which built up a lot of fear, which has built up a scarcity complex inside of me.”
Wow.
Security makes you fear insecurity. Insecurity = fear. Fear leads to scarircity complex.
Can security really give you the scarcity complex? The seem to be at odds with one another. If you are secure you should have peace… and not fear…
I’ve seen it, though. People who are “secure” are scared to death of losing their security, even if it isn’t worth much.
Amazing.
I have a new favorite blogger. I’ve ready James’ stuff before, and always liked it. Now he’s a must read for me. Here’s the latest I found from him, thanks to the LinkedIn email telling me what the most popular shares are this last week:
Secrets of the Accidental Entrepreneur
Cleo Parker shot me a note about After the Deadline… looks like an awesome tool for writing better. You can use it for free, and if you have a web service you can incorporate it there, for free. I think we’ll need to add this into JibberJobber 🙂
Here’s what Cleo wrote:
While I was writing the summary, I used a cool tool I learned about in my local WordPress Meetup, After the Deadline. You may be familiar with it as it’s a grammar checker plugin available for WordPress and I see you’ve got a WP blog. But outside of a blog, you can use their online demo to check grammar and spelling in anything you cut and paste into the space. It’s called After the Deadline, great resource for anyone who wants their writing to look as good as possible. http://www.afterthedeadline.
com/
Thanks for the tip, Cleo!
I spent a lot of time in my undergrad and MBA program in team projects… because the real world really valued teamwork and wanted us students to learn how to work in a team. Check this out:
I’m not as skeptical as “trust no one” might imply, but I am reminded of a team project in my senior year were two of the team threw everyone under the bus with lies and almost made me and one other person fail the class, which would have meant we would not have graduated. Stressful, and a big lesson in ethics…
I’m busy working on my 101 Alternatives to a Real Job book. Two days ago I was on the phone with someone and I said something like this:
“We are so busy chasing our career dreams (meaning: the traditional job) that we are giving up the American Dream.”
I thought that was profound, especially as the elements of the career dream has changed so much in the last decade. Before, it meant steady, secure, pension, benefits, safety. Today it doesn’t have much more meaning than what you might get as an unattached contractor.
The American Dream, though… ah, the images that conjures up! Hope, freedom, prosperity, reward for ideas or work… have we lost sight of this American Dream?
Before all the American Dream haters come out, I’m not saying that big corporate greed, or small corporate greed, is part of the American Dream. I’m saying that a chance to earn a reward, whether it’s on your one acre farm, or on your family’s 20k acre property, is yours for the taking.
The American Dream is not about “what I was born with, so I’m limited,” it’s about opportunity for everyone, if they only want it and work for it.
I started my business about 5.5 years ago. I envied any company that got ink on a magazine, newspaper, radio, TV show, etc.
Envied might be too light of a word. I was full-on jealous. I wanted it. I wanted the media to notice the amazingness that was JibberJobber. Life-changing. Made the old invention of sliced-bread stale and moldy. My new thing was so very awesome.
I was perplexed that media wouldn’t talk about. Local media, national, etc. No one would talk about JibberJobber. Even when unemployment went up, no one would talk about it.
Well, traditional media wouldn’t talk about it. I had many blog interviews, podcasts, blogtalkradio, etc. But I had people say “until I read about it in the Wall Street Journal or New York Times, I don’t care.”
I just didn’t understand.
And then I started to piece the puzzle together.
Traditional media has an agenda. They write what the *think* you want to read. They sensationalize. They dramatize. It’s not about NEWS, or what’s newsworthy. It’s about rankings, revenue, ads and your eyeballs.
Why write about a job website they can write about serious issues, like Lindsey Lohan?
After all, that’s what we want to consume, isn’t it? That’s what sells papers and magazines. Michael Jackson’s death. Princess Diana’s death. That is what we buy.
There’s another part of the equation, though. What gets printed has a lot to do with the PR firm. I knew PR firms would charge from a few thousand to ten+ thousand PER MONTH to get stuff in print, or on the TV. I didn’t have that type of money.
Here’s a MUST read article for any entrepreneur to better understand PR a bit: What some PR firms aren’t telling their clients
I’d like to focus on the last point: PR rarely drives sales.
After my LinkedIn book came out I had a choice experience. US News and World Report wrote a FULL PAGE article on me (that was in their print magazine). They had a photographer drive out to meet me at a conference I was speaking at. I was an almost-celebrity. I felt that finally, media was recognizing what I was doing. It was flattering, fun, awesome.
I did not see an increase in book sales or JibberJobber signups. I saw no measurable increase in anything in my business (I got one speaking gig out of it, which is great….). For a full-page article I expected much, much more.
And I got nothing.
Except the chance to say I was in that magazine.
My point? Be careful where you spend your money. You can spend A LOT on PR. And that PR might not result in anything more than bragging rights.
Someone tell me I’m wrong.
I have convinced myself that the job search is 99% communication.
Owning a business, or managing a team, is also all about communication.
Here’s an article that will help you communicate much, much better:
The 5 Words That Kill Potential Sales
Whether you are in sales or not, the impact of this article is profound. The author presents a word, and then says what to use instead. The meaning changes significantly…
Do you realize how powerful your words are? They are not “just words.” They have a meaning… whether you intend that meaning or not.
Aside: my wife was talking to me about something Will Smith said… I googled it and haven’t verified, but think this is it… something about “your thoughts and words have physical power…”