Gosh the first week of November already, I just realized it’s been awhile since I dropped you a note, so many things are happening here at Impression Engineers,  we’ve been working hard to create new and exciting stuff for all of you.

Just a little rant first:

Can we just get rid of just….

"Just" is just one of those words that just annoys me.  It is just so misused these days. It’s just used way to often. I was just writing a quick email to someone today—as I was re-reading before sending I noticed I had unconsciously just added the word “just,” and it just hit me!  How demeaning, no, just demeaning doesn’t quite describe it, condescending, well maybe not just condescending, patronizing maybe, well, really it is just so limiting. 

The actual word "JUST" doesn’t mean any of those ways I just used it. As an adjective it means to be guided by truth, reason, justice, and fairness and as an adverb it can mean within a brief preceding time, by a narrow margin or exactly.  So exactly why do we just misuse the word so often?  As a communicator it is incumbent on us to speak what we mean, without qualifiers. Wouldn’t life just be so much simpler if we just vanquished about 90% of the times we use the word “just?”

Okay – whew – glad that is off my chest.

Some of what we have been up to since my last note…we have a great Get More Clients through Social Media MasterMind group *f*r*ee to all of you every Monday at 10 to 11am Pacific. Come join us, share with us what is working for you and learn from others. To join in register at: http://sharonsayler.com/zyv. You only have to register one time, it’s good through the end of the year.

And this "just" in…exciting news! My new book was picked up by the publisher John Wiley and Sons. Due out in June 2010, What Your Body Says (And How to Change the Message) Inspire, Influence, Build Trust, and Create Lasting Business Relationships, is about we can communicate are message with congruence, confidence and clarity.

Popular today is the phrase "leading from influence," this leading from influence primarily assumes influence from verbal communication. As we all know communication is about more than words. You can say one thing with your mouth, yet your body may contradict you— so let’s have our body match what our mouth says… To get to the next level in your career, you must communicate with your entire self.

It has the straight-up "how-to" on unifying what you say with what you do with your body, allowing you to connect with others on a whole new level and reach your full leadership potential. Watch here for more about new book and workshops (and the process of writing a book under a tight deadline!)

Have a great day whatever your adventure

To Success! To Life!

Sharon

Our Radio Show Beyond Lip Service welcomes Pamela Harper this Tuesday November 10th.  Pamela Harper is founder and president of Business Advancement Inc., a professional speaker, and author of the critically acclaimed book Preventing Strategic Gridlock®. We will discuss “The Keys to Credible Communication.” For over 20 years, Pam has helped companies going through gut wrenching change to accelerate progress toward their objectives. She has been featured in a variety of popular media outlets, including Business Week, Entrepreneur, and Investor’s Business Daily, and her articles have been published in a wide range of trade and professional journals—it’s going to be a great interview. 

Join me this Tuesday 1:00 PM Eastern/10AM Pacific for Beyond Lip Service at

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/beyondlipservice

Isn’t it time to make the right impression online too?

Twitter, Facebook, Google, HTML, SEO… confused yet? With so much technology available today it can be overwhelming for you and your customers. We focus on website makeovers that make your website more profitable and simple to use. Let us show you how easy it can be by signing up for our free website makeover introduction. Your success is, our success.

Contact us today at support@impressionengineers.com to learn how quick, inexpensive and easy it is to get an impressive website and blog to market and monetize your passion.

So… let me replay a recent snip of a conversation…

Have you seen the marketing of ‘X’ company?” (That concept) looks like it could be adaptable and transferable to your market…”

“But, I don’t do what he does…”

“Yes, I know, it’s about ‘the how’ of the delivery not the ‘what,’ let’s look at the structure; it could be a way to speak with your market that is new and relevant.”

“I’m not resisting you, but as I said I don’t do what he does….”  

Here’s the thing:

Let’s be honest, we all have “blind spots” – things that we do day in and day out without really thinking about how it could be done smarter, quicker, faster, better….

As the label “blind spots” suggests these are actions, behaviors and beliefs that are not working to get us what we say we want and yet we can’t (or won’t) see for our selves they are not working. Most of the time our blind spots are all to obvious to others – isn’t that the old saying – can’t see the forest for all the trees….

Do friends, family or co-workers mention or tease you about the same thing over and over… Example…. I have a dear friend, no matter how many latest loves she introduces me to, it’s the same man, different body (syndrome)…. I ask myself “So why is she expecting different results?”

Come on folks, let’s get over ourselves. What are those things we continue to do — day in and day out — because that is “how it is done.” Or what about the ones we refuse to see or don’t see?  I think back to a couple of my own that I refused to see… my reply was “You just don’t understand.” Funny thing was friends understood all too well, if I had only entertained the notion that there was another way to look at it.

If you’re having the same problems and frustrations over and over in your business (or your love life) then what’s important is NOT the beliefs about the messed up economy or the competition, or there are no good men or women left….

What’s important is you getting to the bottom of YOUR PART in these situations that are keeping you from creating what you want!  (hint: YOUR BLIND SPOTS.)   STOP and really take a look at what isn’t working, than try something else.

Share your comments please

Have a great day whatever your adventure

To Success! To Life!

 Sharon

p.s. I have a favor to ask, if you enjoy the ramblings and rants of Best Impressions would you encourage others to join?  I am trying to grow our community and the best way is to ask those that know and like you to ask their friends… hopefully they hang out with like-minded people right?  Ways to join the community are right there on the right hand side of my blog —– that’s right see the twitter, facebook and Book Yourself Solid e course???

p.s. Our Radio Show Beyond Lip Service welcomes Pat Mussieux.  Pat is Founder of the company “Steps2Happiness”, and Creator of the “Steps2Happiness Home Study System”. She specializes in helping female baby-boomers add more happiness into their daily lives by way of teaching mindset and goal-setting techniques. (www.steps2happiness.com) ARE YOU ATTRACTING ENOUGH HAPPINESS INTO YOUR LIFE?

Join me this Tuesday 1:00 PM Eastern/10AM Pacific for Beyond Lip Service at

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/beyondlipservice

Isn’t it time to make the right impression online too?

Twitter, Facebook, Google, HTML, SEO… confused yet? With so much technology available today it can be overwhelming for you and your customers. We focus on website makeovers that make your website more profitable and simple to use. Let us show you how easy it can be by signing up for our free website makeover introduction. Your success is, our success.

Join in Sharon’s Social Media Mastermind Call every Monday at 10am Pacific. run over to my contact me page if you would like to join us and l’ll send you all the great details!

My friend Lorrie recently had this great article on writing good copy in her ezine and I wanted to share it with you.

To find out more about Lorrie and Red Hot Copy go to www.redhotcopy.com and her newest project "The She Factor."

Use Google Alert

The Google Alert service helps you to retrieve information based on your chosen keywords.

You can set up alerts for news about your favorite topics, target market, even you own company name. (You can also set up Video alerts directly from within Google Video search.) Google alerts save you time because your results are automatically delivered to your inbox. If you have a Google Account go to: www.google.com/alerts  If you don’t yet have an account, visit the Google Accounts home page to create one. http://www.google.com/accounts

Simply visit the Google Alerts home page, enter your search, the type of alert you’d like (News, Web, Video etc.), how often you’d like Google to check for results, and your email address. When you’re done, click the ‘Create Alert’ button. They’ll send you a confirmation email; clicking the link in the email will activate your Alert. You can create and confirm your Alert in one visit on your "Manage Yours Alerts" page. To access this page, you’ll need to sign in to your Google Account.

Step 1 Go to the Google Alerts page. Enter the keyword(s) for the alert that you want to setup. Use words that are of interest to your target market, your area of expertise and even your company and your name (so you can follow what people are saying about you…;-))

Step 2 Select the type of Alert you want to receive. The comprehensive Alert retrieves news from blogs, news sources, Google Groups messages and websites.

Step 3 Choose how often Google will send the Alerts to you. Google can send your alerts as soon as it finds a match to your keyword, once daily or only once a week.

Step 4 Enter the email address that you will use for your Alerts. If you don’t have a Google email account, you will need to register for one.

Step 5 Click "Create Alert" when you are finished entering your keywords, choices of sources and frequency for messages.

Step 6 Review and revise your Alerts if you receive too much or too little information. Log in on the Google Accounts page. Choose "Manage Alerts" to see your saved Alerts. Delete alerts that you no longer need.

Course correction may be required…

Have you ever noticed there is really little one can control except how we choose to react…. I wrote this while winging my way back from Philly the other day. It really was an uneventful flight, yet after watching 100+ people board the plane; I can only assume that "control" is not something everybody understands, yet. 

I don’t think they even realize they are behaving from a place of overwhelm, thus the reason I titled this "Autopilot." To be fair, overwhelm isn’t just an emotional response, it’s a physical response. You can just see it in their faces and the way they move…. The feeling of overwhelm is part of the physical response stress, together these two are commonly called the fight or flight response (no pun intended.)

Fight or flight is the rapid surge of high levels of the hormones adrenaline and cortisol released in our body. These hormones affect reasoning and thinking. They are not bad guys though, at low levels, cortisol actually facilitates our mental functions.

Since I’m on a plane, I’ll steal a flying analogy– Did you know when you fly, if you start out just one degree off course you end up in a totally different part of the world? It’s the law of exponential growth. You start at Airport X, you fly one degree off course, soon it becomes two degrees, than four, than eight off course…. Same idea holds true for emotions, they can infect an entire group.  A study by Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis titled Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership states that "destructive emotions infects an entire group and inhibits its performance. Leaders are themselves not immune to the contagion of stress. All the more reason they should take the time to understand the biology of their emotions."

Train yourself to control your emotions instead of being controlled by them, notice when you begin to feel overwhelmed and take action to calm yourself so you can maintain clear thinking when it is needed most. Being able to think clearly under stress will increase your effectiveness as a leader. Awareness is key, many notice the physical sensation first, some call it a gut response, a knot in the stomach… my favorite "turtleing," that sensation of shoulders so high that your ears disappear.

Under stress the typical first response is to revert back to old habits, no matter how unsuitable they are for addressing the new challenge. As they just told me, "put your mask on first, then help others…." To be a true leader one must have an awareness of and control over the autopilot button. 

To Success! To Life!

Sharon