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DIS Veteran
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: near Boston
Posts: 12,312
Does anyone know yet if the French Bakery is open during Epcot early EMH? Anyone have a recent times guide??? Also, it sounds like the rope drop info I have listed may no longer be accurate. Should I just get rid of that? How do I get to EPCOT? Guests of the EPCOT resorts enter EPCOT through the International Gateway. This entrance takes you to the World Showcase, on a path that is in between France and UK. Thanks for the pictures missyrose and pixeldust and pixarmom! How do I enter EPCOT at rope drop/park opening? Guests who enter EPCOT through the International Gateway prior to the park opening time should proceed on the walkway outside of UK and Canada. Cast members are stationed along the way (bridge to France being #1) to guide you through UK and Canada. After you pass the last little cart coming out of Canada you are directed onto the small pathway that leads toward the Fountain of Nations. There you will experience a real rope with CMs and characters milling around. Across from you, maybe forty yards away, are the guests that arrived from the front entrance. After the countdown, the rope is removed and CMs will escort you to Soarin in an orderly fashion. Usually, you will arrive at Soarin' either at the same time or just a moment or so after those who enter through the main gates. If you have a pre-opening breakfast scheduled at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall, you will provide your name and/or reservation to a CM at the International Gateway. You proceed through UK and Canada as described above, then continue past Mexico to Norway. Note: Starting in 2013, the French bakery is now open at 9 am when EPCOT opens, so you also have the opportunity to stop there in the morning for a treat. However, guests of the BC/YC/BCV who need to be at the front of the park BEFORE park opening (for example, marathon runners or for special tours) will probably need to take a taxi from the resort to the front entrance of EPCOT. Quote:
Like, next week will be a busy week (but perhaps cool weather wise). I would be curious what time the pool actually closes. Thanks in advance everyone for the help in getting correct info out there. Can you tell me the hours for Stormalong Bay pool? Yes, I can!!! Until recently, the closing time at night definitely varied throughout the year and was based on things like crowd level, weather, etc. Beginning on February 12, 2012 the official operating hours of Stormalong Bay are 10 am to 10 pm daily. These hours will be in effect until further notice. The pool may remain open longer during the summer or other busy times of the year subject to the discretion of the lifeguards on duty. OK- edit to add- it appears that the official operating hours are not year round. Others have reported that the pool has been closing around 8 pm in the winter (has anyone seen SAB close earlier than that). I also think that the pool stayed open later in the summer. So we may be back to the "old system" Quote:
The movie/campfire was a good idea. There should be lots of families around for that. I don't know the spa hours, but I wonder if there is something like a mani/pedi that would interest her. Can anyone think of something special to do while in the room? One thing I may suggest is that she uses main stairways instead of the elevator if needed when she is alone. I would be uncomfortable being in an enclosed space while alone.
2014 Beach & Yacht Club FAQ What Happens at the Beach Club...One Month to the Darkside 1/19 p. 37 A Tale of Two Trips: Disneyland and Hawaii, July 2014 Is That Your Final Answer? 1/16, page 29 Hijinks and Shenanigans (but not much Mayhem) at The Dark Side and Disney,July 2013 Lily Goes Live: A Princess' First Visit to her Kingdom The Amazing Adventures of Flat Ben 145 Middle Schoolers Wicked Awesome or Epic Fail??? Welcome, Foolish Muggles! IoA/US/MK/SW July 2011 Anniversary Getaway- Puerto Rico, p. 47 Atlantis, April 2012, p. 56 Mexico, Feb 2013, p. 74, July 2013 Trip Report Link 3rd Annual We are "NEVER" going to Disney in the summer again TR, Dee DH ::DS(16) DS(13) Oreo Monster Energy Cat Last edited by natebenma; 02-27-2013 at 07:05 AM. |
Earning My Ears
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 51
Joining in -- Thanks Dee for keeping this thread going
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DIS Veteran
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: near Boston
Posts: 12,312
One more thing, before I take a break and move on to other things this morning...
I have been adding a few new pictures to the first page posts (mostly to the SAB section, but a few other places too) and I am working on resizing some of the ginormous pictures. I wanted to let you know that I added a bunch of pictures provided by Missyrose/Pixeldust to Pixarmom's SAB thread. Here is the link to that thread and a direct link to the new photos if you want to check them out: Many more excellent pictures may be found on the following thread, posted by pixarmom with photos from her August 2011 and January 2013 visit to Stormalong Bay: SAB Photos, Pixarmom August 2011 and January 2013 More SAB pictures, by Pixeldust October 2012 ************************************************** **** Speaking of photos, you guys may all have to talk me off the ledge in a couple of weeks. Changes are coming to Photobucket and me-no-likey! I have heard warnings of limited storage on the new site, which stinks because I had to upgrade to a Pro account, which offered unlimited storage, when I started managing this FAQ. Plus I have a gazillion photos stored for my trip reports. Please get those Sunken Treasures ready for me!
2014 Beach & Yacht Club FAQ What Happens at the Beach Club...One Month to the Darkside 1/19 p. 37 A Tale of Two Trips: Disneyland and Hawaii, July 2014 Is That Your Final Answer? 1/16, page 29 Hijinks and Shenanigans (but not much Mayhem) at The Dark Side and Disney,July 2013 Lily Goes Live: A Princess' First Visit to her Kingdom The Amazing Adventures of Flat Ben 145 Middle Schoolers Wicked Awesome or Epic Fail??? Welcome, Foolish Muggles! IoA/US/MK/SW July 2011 Anniversary Getaway- Puerto Rico, p. 47 Atlantis, April 2012, p. 56 Mexico, Feb 2013, p. 74, July 2013 Trip Report Link 3rd Annual We are "NEVER" going to Disney in the summer again TR, Dee DH ::DS(16) DS(13) Oreo Monster Energy Cat |
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Southern California (30 mins east of DL)
Posts: 163
Once again, great info with photos. Thank you. I will be happy to send you a Sunken treasure, but I never give anyone something I haven't tried myself....so you will need to wait until May.
DLR AP holder for 30 years.
10 day stay May 2013 (BC) |
DIS Veteran
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: outside Chicago
Posts: 1,415
This gal takes ONE day off from her YC/BC peeps and this is what she finds......a whole new thread! Are you trying to tell me something?!?
Hahaha. Now that I've finally found you...since you weren't in my subscribed folder on the wonderful DISboards app on my iPad (LOVE it!), I'm off to read the first six pages....... Will someone please hand me my Sunken Treasure? It's right next to my PinaCoolava......
Me : DH DD 15 DS 13 DD 11
2/02 Holiday Inn (now Nick Hotel) 2/08 POR 9/08 POR 6/09 Regal Sun/Windsor Hills 7/10 Windsor Hills 7/11 Windsor Hills/AKL/BLT 7/12 Beach Club/AKL 7/13 BC CL 2/14 POP/SSR for PHM weekend 6/14 POR/BC CL/AoA split stay currently planning 2/15 ASMu and 7/15 POR/Poly CL split stay |
Nothing left for me to do but dance
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Ithaca, NY
Posts: 614
Pencil away! It will help keep me motivated to save the money I'll need to stay here and use as a bargaining chip when my sister starts advocating to stay at the Grand Floridian instead. I can say "but we must stay at the Beach/Yacht Clubs, I'm on the Be Our Guest List and Dee is way too busy to take me off!" I think that'll work
Last Trips
March 2007, October 2007, June 2008, October 2009, March 2010, October 2012, January 2014, October 2014 |
DIS Veteran
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Syracuse, NY
Posts: 2,033
I love what you've done once again to the thread
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January 1979 Offsite; January 1992 POR; March 1999Honeymoon ; May 2002 CBR; May 2008 Offsite; November 2008 CBR March 2009 DVC SSR, BCV; August 2009 DVC AKV,BCV; December 2009 DVC SSR; February 2010 DVC BCV; November 2010 DVC BWV; May 2011 POP; March 2012 DCL Dream and POP; May 2012 POP; April 2013 DVC BCV; November 2013 CSR; Yacht Club, DCL Dream and BWV May 2014, SSR and AKV-Jambo September 2014 |
Earning My Ears
Join Date: Feb 2013
Posts: 12
Hi All - These threads have been a wealth of information. Thank you all for the time and detail you put into it!!! Now on to my questions!!!
I am planning my first trip ever to disney with my family this summer. We are staying at the YC (booked a GV) and I have searched out several maps of the resort and can't seem to find any stairwells marked but I have to believe they exist due to fire codes. Are they located near the elevators? Second, my only real room request is that we have two queens and a day bed. We are a party of 4 and it won't ruin my trip if we didn't get it (otherwise I would have booked the Poly), but it would be nice. Does anyone know if most of the rooms at YC are this configuration or is it a more even mix of 2Q only and 2Q and a daybed. One website indicated that most of the rooms were 2Q and a daybed with a few kings here and there. Thanks for all your help!!! |
DIS Veteran
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Chicago suburbs
Posts: 5,309
We have stayed at BC and have participated in the 5K fun run that they hold on marathon weekend. We were allowed to walk through Epcot to the starting area that was located in an Epcot parking lot. I think the race numbers that we had were the ticket to getting through the gates. I know that Disney provides buses to the race starting place for the marathon and half marathon from the resorts. The runners get picked up in the wee hours of the morning, like 3 am.
~ Sue
Next up: WL - Jan 24 to 29, 2015; OKW - Feb 26-Mar 1, 2015; BC - April 15 - 21, 2015; BC - Oct 21 - 26, 2015 WL - Oct 22-27, 2014, YC - Sept 24-28, 2014; BC - March 19th to 25th, 2014, WL - Jan 23 - 27, 2014; WL - Nov 30 - Dec 5, 2013; WL - Feb 5 -11, 2013; BC - April 2011, BW - January 2009, BCV - 2007, 2005, 2003, Poly - 2002; BC - 2001, 1998, 1994, 1992; YC - 1997; GF - 1989, 1988; Poly - 1987, 1986, 1985; CR - 1981, 1980; offsite - 1982, 1976, 1973 Last edited by Wood Nymph; 02-27-2013 at 11:01 AM. |
DIS Veteran
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: outside Chicago
Posts: 1,415
Our kids participate in the YES program (Youth Education Series) at WDW and last year, our class was at Epcot at 8am. We were admitted thru IG without any problems at all. Rope Drop was at 9am. You are definitely able to enter before Rope Drop at IG. Hope this helps!
Me : DH DD 15 DS 13 DD 11
2/02 Holiday Inn (now Nick Hotel) 2/08 POR 9/08 POR 6/09 Regal Sun/Windsor Hills 7/10 Windsor Hills 7/11 Windsor Hills/AKL/BLT 7/12 Beach Club/AKL 7/13 BC CL 2/14 POP/SSR for PHM weekend 6/14 POR/BC CL/AoA split stay currently planning 2/15 ASMu and 7/15 POR/Poly CL split stay |
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Annual Passholder an hour from WDW
Posts: 5,367
As promised - GF CL versus YC CL
Although I really didn't want to, we stayed at the GF in the Sugar Loaf CL building last week (2/18 - 23). DW has always wanted to stay there, so we gave it a try. I know, I know... 20 lashes with a wet noodle for even thinking about not staying YC CL.
No one greeted us when we arrived and we had to ask one of the CMs standing curbside how we went about checking in. Once she realized were staying CL, she was very nice and walked with us over to the SL building, pointing out different things as we went. When we arrived in the building, the CM at the desk handed her our check in packet (we did not do online check in) and she escorted us up to our room. Once she made sure everything was ok, she left and we headed back downstairs to the desk to set up the PIN code for charging to our KTTW cards. So far, so good, but no WOW factor here. Every time weve stayed CL at the YC, we were greeted by name and escorted up to check in. So, the score is YC 1, GF 0. Our room was on a short hallway (4 rooms) on the top floor with a dormer balcony, a cathedral ceiling, two queen beds, desk, dresser and a chair with an ottoman. As the week progressed, we enjoyed a very quiet room (no connecting door probably helped). Maybe it was me, but the room didn't seem as big as the YC rooms we've stayed in, and I'm sure it would have seemed even smaller without the cathedral ceiling. However, Ill be fair and say that it was a comfortable room, so the score is YC 1, GF 1. When we went to put water in the refrigerator, we discovered that it was full of open drinks in cups, bottles and cans along with left over food. Not good... We emptied the drinks in the sink and took out all the food. Next we attempted to put some things in the safe, only to discover that it was locked (key code electronic lock). So, we called housekeeping and, finally, 30 minutes later they sent someone up to take away the food and unlock the safe. We've only had one time where we had any room issues at the YC, but certainly not as bad as a refrigerator full of old food and drinks. Whoever the housekeeper was, prior to our check in, they did a really poor job. We did have one other housekeeping issue one day, when we went back to the room about 4:30 and found the beds stripped and all the dirty linens and towels in a bag in the bathroom. A call to housekeeping had a manager in our room within 5 minutes and two housekeepers a couple of minutes later. Our regular housekeeper (a different one than the day above, according to the manager) every other day, was excellent and probably the best one we've had at any WDW resort. Score... YC 2, GF 1. Ok... lounge is next. The lounge at GF SL is much larger than the one at the YC. There are 12 tables with seating for four at each one, plus a couple of sofas. There is a kids area in the large hallway going out the back door towards the marina (small tables, chairs and a TV). The layout is kind of awkward because the door to the service area is right beside the drink station and the guests and CMs were constantly playing "dodge 'em". The breakfast food offerings were about the same as YC (pastries, fruit, oatmeal, etc.) but no hard-boiled eggs. However, the afternoon snacks were seriously lacking just cookies, with scones and tartlets at 2:30. No chips, pretzels or gummi treats like at the YC. They do have a small refrigerator full of sodas, like the YC. We weren't there many evenings, but I did see some items different from YC. Unfortunately, I don't recall exactly what they were, and didn't think to write them down, but I think they're listed on the GF FAQ thread here on the DIS. The desserts and cordials were about the same as YC. All in all, I have to give this one to the YC, especially because of the lack of afternoon snacks. Score... YC 3, GF 1. Two more points about the lounge offerings, that I considered very poor... absolutely no bottled water, large or small, glass or plastic. When we asked, we were told that they don't do that there. And for the icing on the cake they completely take away all coffee and tea service at 10:00PM. DW loves a cup of decaf tea before bed, but its not going to happen at the SL lounge after 10:00. I didn't think to check if the soda refrigerator was locked as well. Score... YC 5, GF 1. The CMs all over the resort were friendly, but we've found that to be true at the YC as well. No points for either one. Overall, I have to say that our stay was just ok. I really expected GF CL to have more WOW, since it is supposed to be Disney's flagship resort. I have no way of knowing anything about RPC CL in the main building, but for almost $1000 a night for a standard room (regular price) I have no intentions of finding out. Now that we've stayed there we can say "been there, done that", but we wont be going back. The next time we stay CL, it will definitely be back at the YC! Ed
Disney Magic - April, 2004 / EB Panama Canal crossing - August, 2005 / Thanksgiving, 2006 / April, 2009 / February, 2011 / March, 2014 Disney Wonder - September, 2002 / April, 2007 / April, 2008 / Thanksgiving, 2009 / April, 2010 Disney Dream - April, 2011 / August, 2012 / February, 2014 Polynesian CL - August, 2004 / April, 2010 / August, 2010 / October, 2013 Yacht Club CL - August, 2011 / April, 2012 / August, 2012 / August, 2013 / April, 2014 / June, 2014 Grand Floridian Sugar Loaf CL - February, 2013 Wilderness Lodge CL - December, 2013 / November, 2014 / December, 2014 OKW - February, 2012 / June, 2013 VWL - August, 2006 WDW - offsite, more times than I can count since 1978 S/S Norway - 1984, 1985, 1991 Norwegian Pearl - Alaska - August, 2007 Last edited by outahere; 02-27-2013 at 12:02 PM. |
Been there, Done that, Going back!
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Franklin, TN
Posts: 3,968
Hopefully she will be tired and happy to watch a movie/surf the web for a few hours. If not, she could always come with us, but that isn't much of a date.
MeDH,DD15,DS6 DS5
offsite in 1988,AKL 5/04,POP 6/05,ASMu 12/05 with MVMCP, ASMo 9/06 w/ MNSSHP,4/09 AKL, 9/09 MNSSHP & 7nt E.Carib DCL w/ Tortola, 10/10 Poly w/ MNSSHP, 10/11 POFQ w/ MNSSHP, 5/12 DCL Fantasy W. Carib and AKL/MK, 05/13 BC, 11/14 YC |
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Rochester, New York
Posts: 168
Dee , Thanks again for the wonderful job you do , have a magical day and wish you all the pixey dust in the Kingdom on your next vacation you deserve it
DIS Veteran
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: The Hague, Netherlands
Posts: 1,705
I'm new to YC/BC, but is there no gaming arcade for a teen to hang out in?
I looked on the DisneyWorld site at the Beach Club's Recreation section, and I don't see one listed there. But interestingly, I did notice that they list a children's playground "near the kiddie pool." Didn't I read here that they removed that playground equipment?
............... Walt Disney World ............ Disney Cruise Line .................... Disneyland Resort .............. Disneyland Paris
1979 .......... Golf Resort 1984 .......... Hotel Royal Plaza 1989 .......... Offsite? 2007 Jun .................................................. .................................................. ................. Newport Bay Club 2008 May-Jun .. Shades of Green ................. Wonder 4-night Bahamas Double-dip 2009 Jul ...... Shades of Green ................. Magic 7-night E. Caribbean Tortola 2010 Jun ........................................ Magic 12-night Northern Europe 2010 Dec ...... Saratoga Springs Resort ......... Magic 11-night S. Caribbean Holiday 2011 Jul ........................................ Wonder 7-night Alaska .................... Villas at Grand Californian 2011 Oct ...... Polynesian - AKV Kidani 2012 Jun ...... Bay Lake Tower .................. Fantasy 7-night W. Caribbean 2013 Mar ...... Beach Club Villas - BLT ......... Dream 4/3-night Bahamas Back-to-Back 2014 Jun ........................................ Magic 12-night Med. Barcelona-Venice 2015 Jan ...... Saratoga Springs Resort ......... Fantasy 7-night E. Caribbean San Juan Future Plans: 2015 Jun-Jul .................................... Magic 11-night Norwegian Fjords & Iceland |
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Annual Passholder an hour from WDW
Posts: 5,367
Disney Magic - April, 2004 / EB Panama Canal crossing - August, 2005 / Thanksgiving, 2006 / April, 2009 / February, 2011 / March, 2014 Disney Wonder - September, 2002 / April, 2007 / April, 2008 / Thanksgiving, 2009 / April, 2010 Disney Dream - April, 2011 / August, 2012 / February, 2014 Polynesian CL - August, 2004 / April, 2010 / August, 2010 / October, 2013 Yacht Club CL - August, 2011 / April, 2012 / August, 2012 / August, 2013 / April, 2014 / June, 2014 Grand Floridian Sugar Loaf CL - February, 2013 Wilderness Lodge CL - December, 2013 / November, 2014 / December, 2014 OKW - February, 2012 / June, 2013 VWL - August, 2006 WDW - offsite, more times than I can count since 1978 S/S Norway - 1984, 1985, 1991 Norwegian Pearl - Alaska - August, 2007 |
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Scholarship Programs for Macedonia
See the World Through a Different Lens
Diminutive Macedonia is sandwiched into the heart of Southeastern Europe — with Greece, Albania, and Serbia — at the doorway to the Mediterranean. This country could be considered new in some respects: It gained its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Despite its contemporary evolution culturally and politically, it is also known for its richness in ancient history from the eras of the Byzantine and the Holy Roman Empire. Greek and Roman myths sprang from this territory, as did philosophical scholars, such as Sophocles and Plato.
Students heading to Macedonia may be focused on traditional language and culture studies, but there are many reasons to consider this destination as an experiential classroom.
Government Scholarships
With one of the popular government-funded scholarships, you stand to make headlines around your campus before heading off the exotic lands beyond. Here are three of the major ones:
If you are a Pell Grant recipient, check into Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships, which provide the chance-in-a-lifetime to study abroad for students who may not otherwise have the means. Applicants must be in good academic standing with a commitment to studying in Macedonia for at least four weeks, or up to an academic year. The Gilman Scholarship Program supports students who have been traditionally under-represented in study abroad programs, such as community college students, students with disabilities or from diverse ethnic backgrounds, those with high financial need, and students in under-represented fields, such as the sciences and engineering. More than 2,300 scholarships of up to $5,000 annually are given for study programs around the globe, including Macedonia.
The Fulbright Program offers top-notch grants for American graduates and graduate students to study in Macedonia for a full academic year. Fulbright has different programs tailored for Macedonia. Awards vary, from amounts that cover all travel expenses, to those that cover the whole experience. Program proposals must be specifically targeted on issues facing Macedonia. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers 8,000 grants annually for graduating college seniors, graduate students, young professionals and artists to study, research, or teach English for up to a year. The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program sends about 800 American scholars and professionals abroad for two months to a year to lecture and conduct research in a wide variety of academic and professional fields each year.
Let's not forget the David L. Boren Scholarships — competitive scholarships open to both undergraduate and graduate students — offered through the National Security Education Program. Scholarships of up to $20,000 are awarded for up to a year of study abroad. Boren Fellowships of up to $30,000 allow American graduate students to study abroad for up to 24 months. This is a scholarship for service program — you get funding in return for paying it back by working for the federal government for a predetermined term. Applicants for Macedonia must study the language while abroad, and will be given preference if they are already studying it. (Macedonian and Albanian are both the official languages.) Students should also be interested in cultural studies, business, law, the sciences or agriculture, and be able to articulate how the study abroad program, and their career goals, will contribute to U.S. national security.
Private Scholarships
Macedonia is an alluring region for archaeologists because its history is ancient and vast. Students interested in pursuing fieldwork or research in Macedonia may be in luck. The Archaeological Institute of America provides competitive scholarships that are open to students from all backgrounds. Minority and disadvantaged students are encouraged to apply:
- Jane C. Waldbaum Archaeological Field School Scholarships provide $1,000 to more than a dozen students each year to help pay expenses associated with working in the field on an archaeological project for a minimum of one month. The scholarship is open to students junior and senior undergraduates and first-year graduate students.
- The AIA offers fellowships to Ph.D.s and professionals for travel, research, study and excavation who are members of the AIA.
- The Cotsen Excavation Grant Program provides two grants per year of up to $25,000 each. One grant goes to a first-time project director launching a new project, and the other is awarded to all professionals working in the field.

subset: commoncrawl


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Top Chef Masters wraps up its summer run tonight — more on that later — but for now, whet your appetite for the new season of Top Chef with the first clip from the 11th season of the show, set this time around in the Big Easy.
"I think this season we are trying to change it up," host Padma Lakshmi teases to EW. "We're making it more casual, trying to make it a little more personal. Kind of loosening up a little — and what better city to loosen up and let your hair down a little in than New Orleans?"
In the exclusive clip below, Top Chef Masters host Curtis Stone is on board the Swamp Queen, alongside Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio, and Emeril Lagasse as the new group of chefs from around the country face their first challenge of the season.


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Are you completely bored in your job? Is your job just one huge frustration for you right now? Do you feel you absolutely MUST change jobs or careers as soon as possible? Let master career coach, Unre Visagie show you to use your current job to find a job that will challenge you and make you feel good about going to work again.
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What can be done, and what he did, to get rid of this boredom in his job to where he now has a tremendous job in the same company, sometimes you have to change companies, in less than three months. He does expect to get a tremendous increase early next year, because the value of his job changed when he started working together and looking at the future in the way we will propose just now. He was waiting for someone to notice that he was bored and he needed a change, but no one noticed, they were very happy that he was doing a good job. They assumed his boredom was related to other problems.
Are you one of those lucky people that have too many job opportunities? For your career to thrive you need to make the right job choice. Let master career coach, Unre Visagie, show you how to make the right job choice.
Slide 1 (The solution to grab new exciting challenges of your choice)
We are looking at people that say, they have too many choices, and how do they choose? When we all work and invest together for the benefit of everybody, we will get more benefits. The key thing is to do first for others. When making these choices in your own best interest there is a solution where you can look at the exciting challenges and the great returns you can have from making your choices. You have to know what you currently do for whom. Why did you get into the position where you have all these choices?
You prepare and communicate to influencers. You engage and communicate the work that you enjoy doing and that is valued. Recently, with John, who had a fantastic position, it was very clear that if he keeps on doing the same he will have less than he can have. Referring back to Einstein's old saying that if you keep on doing the same thing expecting different results it may be close to insanity. It is something to keep in mind.
Slide 2 (Know what you currently do for whom)
Let's look at people who have too many choices and have the perception that it's difficult to exercise just one choice and lose the others. When you make the right choice it becomes clear that there's no doubt. You don't have any feeling of loss, you move from those perceptions, because they are just perceptions, to the great spaces where you know exactly why you've made the choice and what you expect back. You can communicate clarity to everyone around you.
You have to know what you currently do for whom. Why is it so valuable that you have all these choices? Let's look at simple ways to understand and discuss what you say no to and what you say yes to. That is where a man with a plan has all the benefits. 'No' is probably one of the more profitable words in the English language, as mentioned by Jack Welsh. When I sat with John and said, "Ok, let's look at what you say no to" it was great stress because he didn't want to say no to anything. What do you say yes to? What are the consequences when you say yes to certain things? Yes often means a three year commitment and where are you going to be in three years? You can never quite control it but at least you can make the best choice with your current insight.
Slide 3 (Prepare to communicate to the influencers)
Let's look at those choices. When moving from the perceived boxes to the great spaces you have to prepare to communicate to the influencers. How do you prepare? You discuss it with people around you. You can start right now. It's amazing what the people around you know. When John discussed it with people around him, including some of his clients in big mining companies and clients in big IT companies they collaborated with, he was amazed to find that his choices were even more than he was aware. However, they also helped him to understand the future of the industry, the future of the consequences of his choices with much greater clarity, factual and grounded in reality. When John practiced, he could approach the company he wanted, that didn't even have a job at that time. He should have the job shortly, in January or February.
Slide 4 (Engage and communicate)
Lastly, John engaged with his clear, prepared stories. A man with a plan is welcome everywhere, a man without a plan people usually leave alone to figure himself out, they're just kind to you, it's not as rude as some people think. He approached companies with his clear, practised plan and showed respect and acknowledgement to the people he recognized as leaders in the broad industry, whom he could see was on the fast track. Why are they on the fast track? Learn from them. They guided him and introduced him to the right people that can give him the job. It's a very straightforward process but people need that clarity.
Slide 5 (Start with the purpose, the why)
You need clarity of purpose, with objectives and tasks, dynamically calibrated with your own long-term career vision and mission. This helps you to align with the company's long-term vision and you're seen as a strategic contributor, which further puts you up the ladder. We find this is a very important process, like in John's case, he really couldn't answer this three months ago, now he can tell you in one minute.
Slide 6 (The right change thinking discussion)
This is the second tool amongst the list of templates we use that you can re-use with your friends, because they are free on the web. There are rules in every company, every industry, every client environment; every team has its subculture of rules. Understand those rules, influence them perhaps slowly, but don't waste your time fighting and being angry. John was very unhappy with his current company because he could see he contributed more, but their compensation structure didn't allow for him to earn more, so their rules made John earn less.
It turns out that he can influence the rules, we prepared him to influence the rules in the meantime, to say that I am experiencing stress, but show that I care, show that I respect, how do we go forward? He then proceeded anyway, without the rules being changed, he didn't waste time, he played where he can make decisions. He played where he has influence and it's known, he started contributing more and communicating better. He's moving his line to where more becomes known to him, so his space for production grows and he's now very much a strategic player. That is the other alternative, where his current company may treat him in a way where it will not be practical for him to leave. At least he has all these choices.
Slide 7 (The approach to engage people should be)
Let's look at a simple way that you can use right now. John identified the people that he admired and why he admired them, he went to them with clear respect, recognition and acceptance. All of us love respect, recognition and acceptance. One of my favourite professors always said: "Applause, applause, anything for applause!" Everybody is a sucker for that. Use it, but be genuine, if you go with false thank yous you will have problems. When you have a plan, you've done your homework, you've talked to people around you, you've prepared, then you approach the people with open and closed questions. All of this detail is available free on the website; use it. The reason we made it free is that you need these tools to talk to people around you, it's critical that you can freely engage the people around you. They can also watch the videos and do it free. We come into the game when we can accelerate you and add extra value. Let's look at the website quickly. There are specific, measurable, accountable resources, time and rewards.
Slide 8 (careerdevelopmentplan.net)
When you look at the website, you will see the tools and the resources. We have organized each block of tools on the website to focus on a specific area of a stress or growth opportunity. When you look at your career choices, we go to Career Planning and Performance. To demonstrate the free tools that is available which John also used in his coaching. We've bundled them into big, logical groups where you can look at various career level changes, resumes and the smart goal setting, which I want to point out specifically. You must have specific, measurable, accountable resources time and monitor, planning, performance etc. Every aspect is organized into groups like this. When we look at approaching people with open and closed questions, it is part of that group of tools.
Slide 9 (I have too many choices, how do I choose?)
Having too many choices, how do I choose? Let us summarize the whole process. People normally have perceptions of difficulty of choice and the solution is: get more information, talk to more people, get clarity and get rid of any fears and uncertainties. Fear just stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. Fail just stands for First Attempt in Learning. Everything that we have learnt we learnt through trial and sometimes losing some skin in trying to ride a bicycle. It never stops, but as we go higher, we get more concerned about what people will think. We get more worried about coming across as someone who doesn't know what he's doing. The process is simple and clear and it avoids most of those risks.
The process is: know what you do, prepare to communicate what you do, engage influencers and communicate to them. I find very few people can tell you their store of assets and their expertise. In John's case, his top skill is probably that he has a very good interface, people enjoy being around him, that is a core skill for him. He was very uncomfortable to put that in his CV, so we got nice examples, now it's in his CV. The other thing that he had difficulty with was his golden thread.
The golden thread leading to your key to success is simply where John made decisions in the same direction from a very young age. A service to people, a great curiosity to understand things, that's what's been driving him since school days. He never realized that he could put in his CV that he's been consistent in how he made decisions. He had quite a few job changes, that is why we had to show consistency with the golden thread, this is built into the stories on the site. He had an awesome asset list that only became clear when he talked to clients, colleagues and friends. This caused him some discomfort, but he now has a very powerful story to tell around his CV.
He realized his external resources, the number of people who were prepared to help him and introduce him, introduce him to people who can introduce him, all of that and learning some skills that he now requires knowing where he wants to go. It's all available, he just had to have a plan and engage. He's building his own staircase and climbing it, which could be scary, but we explained that fear and risk could be managed.
Start with exploring, preparing, engaging and in the process you will grow like John did. Your job, company and industry must align while growing your asset list. Secondly, you must align your job, work and career. You are continuously in charge of your future; you keep on doing preparation, exploration and engagement. You will always be secure and safe, and a desired employee. You will get huge increases, like John, in a time when nobody around you will get increases. John ended up with insight, knowledge and confidence because he had a plan and a clear story. John moved from the perceived boxes and too many choices and uncertainty to absolute certainty about where he's going next, how he's going to use and grow his asset list.
Slide 10 (Business toolset, personal toolset)
Having too many choices and choosing comes to down the business toolset and the personal toolset that I've shown you on the website. Please watch out for the next Career Maker System email. I hope you've enjoyed it and I hope you will realize the privilege of having too many choices deserve that you go and explore, prepare and engage these choices to get absolute clarity about the one that will work best for you. Thank you for listening.
Do you like your job, but it has become a bit boring? Feel like you need more challenges? Let master career coach, Unre Visagie show how to use your current job and get access to greater opportunities.
Slide 1 (My job is great – I am ready for more challenges)
We are talking today about 'I'm ready for more challenges', that very privileged position where I have choices; I can choose which challenges I say yes to, and which challenges I say no to. It is interesting that people always have perceived limitations, and if that is removed through information and a certain process, they get to a space of unlimited opportunity. This is all about choosing the challenges, that wonderful thing 'choice' that is the spice and the wealth of life. So few people ever feel they have choices in life.
If we break free from those perceptions, you can see these perceptions as cages or prisons, situations where they don't have the key to move forward and nobody else is going to come and open the door. It's always you that has the key, you only need to know that you have it and how to use it. If you move to opportunity experiences people see that with this system they get 15 – 30 percent increases within six to eighteen months by communicating differently to different people. Saying yes to the right things, and no to the things they should. There is a quote: "No is the most profitable word in the English language." I find there is a lot of truth in that. This is the secure, safe and certain way to get to the ideal challenges for you. Get hold of them, make them yours, it will grow your career like a rocket, and never again will you feel in a perceived box.
Slide 2 (What can be done to get rid of the trapped feelings?)
Now we have established that you are ready for more challenges. Remember that when we work together, we invest and benefit together. If you take to other people what they want you will definitely get more of what you want. It always works; it's also called delayed gratification. When you work hard in a direction; the better you plan it, the better your insight and clarity, the better chance you have of collecting in the end. How do you move forward? Waiting for others is never an option; they are busy with their own stuff as each of you know.
How do I communicate what I already do, understand and value? Which challenges I'm keen on, why am I keen on them, what am I prepared to do to get the challenges I want? From these I will gain hugely, apart from the fun, you will also earn money. It is simply a matter of communicating correctly to be paid right for what you do; the decision makers must understand what you do. If we can manage to look around the molehills that are in front of us and appear very big, we can see the blue mountains beyond which we can go and climb. The problem is the molehill is right in front of our nose.
Slide 3 (The solution to break the traps and get rid of the frustrations)
Working together, investing and benefiting together there is a solution to break out of those perceived limitations, perceived meaning they don't give it to me, I go and take it. You have to know what you currently do for whom and what you want to do next. You have to prepare and communicate what you do and what you want to do appropriately to influencers and decision makers, giving them what they want, it's often as cheap as a thank you. Then engage and communicate the work and the value as you see it going forward. That will engage you in further input to make the right choices, that you choose the challenges with higher value and more certain arrival. It's very important to know that if you keep on doing the same thing you will probably end up with less, because the effort goes in, the days goes by, and you don't make the gain you deserve. Einstein made the statement that to expect different results doing the same thing borders on insanity.
Slide 4 (How does the system work for all of us?)
A brief review of business; you are a cogwheel, either driving or taking energy. The new challenges must enable you to drive harder, to fit better, to choose different places to fit in the engine, giving the executives what they need, aligned with strategy, giving the shareholders more return, which gives you more capital and more opportunity. Working with a team from week to week at agreed tasks, making sure you say yes to the right things and no to the things that won't work for you. Delivering great value to a client when he comes shopping, remembering that the client brings the value that keeps the whole engine going, including getting you growing in your job and choosing the right challenges.
Those challenges that you choose must be aligned with the company strategy, the internal system, the client and there must be a clear line of sight to the shareholders, so they get more and you get more toys to play with. That will definitely make a big difference in moving you from the perceived boxes to the great spaces of choice and almost limitless growth.
Slide 5 (Know what you currently do for whom)
Let's look at moving from the box to the great spaces. There are three steps. One is: know what you currently do for whom. On the website careerdevelopmentplan.net, you will see there's a whole range of tools available to help you along and give you an idea of the value of what you do. In my coaching and the many companies I've built I've never found anybody that could articulate the value of what they do. Yesterday I was with executives from a company that has a three billion dollar turnover and the executives couldn't articulate the value of what they do in that simple model. Understand it and discuss it, know what you do more of, know what you are going to do less of, and communicate clearly how that is in the interest of all the stakeholders.
Slide 6 (Prepare to communicate to influencers)
This you can do in groups around you and selected people, change them often, don't get stuck with the same people. That gets back to more of the same equals less, you have to keep on moving. It's a lot of fun, you make a lot of new friends. This preparation you can do in your groups, all the information is on the web for you, we can also make a contribution where necessary to accelerate you. You discuss, you prepare, you identify and you practice. Practice by yourself, even in a mirror, it is much cheaper that practising where it counts.
When people start playing golf they don't go directly to an eighteen-hole golf course, since that would become a very long day and a very long walk. You want to practice first on the driving range, maybe get yourself a teaching pro. We recommend that you use the people around you, that you use identified people, those are your teaching pros; they can observe and give you feedback. They will make very sure that you stay on track.
Slide 7 (Engage & communicate your work list to the decision makers)
Let's look at the third step. You have now identified the people who can influence and assist you to gain access to the challenges that you want. The challenges you've chosen, why you've chosen them, the benefits of those challenges are clear and you've practised them. People love a man with a plan. I've never seen companies turn away a man with a plan. At North-West University in South Africa where we do a lot of pro bono work with Prof Japie Kroon we found that when students approach companies that they've chosen with a plan they always get the job they want. It's extremely exciting to participate and see the excitement in their faces.
We recently had a very senior person earning $200 000 having the same experience, when he did the steps and he went back to his own environment he had a bit of a problem. He got six job offers and he's having a very hard time deciding which one to say no to. What a nice problem to have! He sometimes gets frustrated with the choices, but I insist that's it's a super problem to have. You ask and you share, you use sharing and questioning skills, you respect, acknowledge, and say thank you. With a clear plan, nobody will refuse you if you have this approach. The supporting information is on the website for free.
Slide 8 (Fear and Fail and Risk)
To summarize the process; people often have fear, fear of failure and perceived risks. Fear stands for False Evidence Appearing Real and fail stands for First Attempt in Learning. All our lives we have learnt that way, why stop now? It seems to me the higher up we go, the more scared we become. We learn a lot quicker when we are young; we learn impossible things and sometimes break an arm. Know what you want to do, prepare, engage and know your store of goodies. You have a long list of assets.
We find that people find it very hard to articulate their own assets. Relationships are one of the most valuable ones, just talk to the people around you, they will tell you things that you won't believe. There are also a lot of free tools on the website to help you articulate the value you have already accumulated and earned. The resources outside are almost limitless, if you use this process to engage those resources they will never say no to you. You will be amazed at what is available if you engage in an organized and planned way.
It's like making your own staircase and climbing it. I know that's a bit scary when you are in a safe place and you want to move. To make and climb the staircase at the same time may appear scary but if it's a clear system it's secure and safe. You explore, you prepare, you engage. In the process of going external and bringing it internal you already accelerate and grow your store, as people doing the process have found. The executives agreed that if they do this process they will grow their own careers and their company.
In the process you align your job with your chosen company, which you can change, and your chosen industry, you can change even that. The more you change, it just takes a bit longer, but you use your current store, current position to make sure you make that transition safe and secure. Then you align the work you do with the job and the career you want long term. I find very few people have a long term career aim or beacon; they just do the job and hope to get paid more. Now you know you're going to get paid more. You end up being in charge of your future and your career aims, they are aligned, you have a plan. This gives you clear insight, knowledge and an absolute confidence which people just love. You will see that it attracts people. You will move towards the great spaces from the perceived limitations, boxes, where it's like a glass plate, you can see it but you can't touch it. The glass plate simply disappears. The examples around us are very heartening and it is part of my passion to see people take wing and fly. It's such a joy to see their eyes light up, that's what makes my life today.
Slide 9 (Start with the purpose, the Why)
We build in that you have a clear career purpose, job purpose that is aligned with the company's vision and mission. Your objectives and short term goals, the tasks that you do daily, should dynamically be kept in line with changes in the vision and mission. It is very important to us that people realize that any career is almost the same as a business plan or project plan. It has similar elements. It is worthwhile to use the tools.
Slide 10 (The right job thinking discussion)
Let's look at the rules. Many people spend their time resisting, fighting and querying the rules. Accept the rules, you can always influence them later. Know the rules. Align your decisions to thrive in the rules, whether the rules are good or bad don't really matter that much. Also move along by asking other people, by engaging other people, you will open up the space of the possible. This is where you'll probably find your new challenges. You will move the line along to increase your productivity space and move.
Slide 11 (The approach to engage people should be)
How do you approach these people? The key thing is to ask questions and you have to understand how to ask open questions, exploratory questions, and closed questions. All this information is available free on the website. If you practise this information with your friends while aiming in your own direction, discovering and exploring, by the time you come to the influencers you are ready and confident. Remember a man with confidence is always welcome.
Let's take a brief look at the website. Specific, measurable, accountable goals are critical. If you look at planning your performance you can see there's a whole lot of business and career tools available here. We've bundled them in groups to address specific situations, not like a library, although they are also available as a library. You can look at a whole lot of issues under Performance Management on the site. There is also Career Success and Career Mentorship. Let's look at Career Planning and Performance as an example, we have bundled a whole group of tools that are applicable to that specific career performance. This will support you in choosing your next challenges, communicate your value, and become a strong driving cogwheel in the business model.
Slide 12 (Business toolset, Personal toolset)
For those who are ready for more challenges, that very privileged position, moving from the perception of limitations to the great space there's the business toolset that I've just touched on, there is also the personal toolset that is aligned. I want to invite you to look out for the next Career Maker System email and we hope you will enjoy it. Congratulations if you are in this position where you have a great job and all you now have to do is to know which challenges to say yes to and which to say no to.
Feel like you are not getting paid enough for the work you do? Let master career coach Unre Visagie show you what to do to change that as soon as possible!
Slide 1 (Getting paid right for what you do)
I'm not getting paid enough for what I do. This is something we hear often in our coaching and big businesses. At all levels of employment people sometimes feel that they are not paid enough. There's a simple solution to get paid right where you are for what you do. Let's look at the getting paid right process correctly.
What happened to Andre in one of the companies, he was really working hard and he felt cheated when he didn't receive an increase. He made it known that he was looking, got a very good job offer and in the process he got a 40% increase in his existing company. Very uncomfortable situation, nice choice though. How could Andre have avoided this?
He could've turned this into a super opportunity and a fun experience. Today this process is packaged in the Career Maker System to always get paid for what you really do and getting paid right. We call it the secure, safe and certain way to get paid right, with the right solution and the right approach.
Slide 2 (Why should I be paid more now or soon?)
The question is always "What should you be paid for more?" I've had many people in my companies come to me and say "I need more money", "I need to be paid more". The question is always what do you do, and what is it worth to whom? You can earn and be paid according to your production, provided you can communicate your production. You will rarely get paid more if you wait, so waiting is not an option. You've got to do something about it.
How do you do it? Firstly, look at how you currently communicate the work you do. How you say yes to work and how you say no to work. Yes, you do have a choice if you know how to say yes and no. Each one of us does. Let's look at the decision makers. If I ask you "Do they understand what it is you do and the value of what you do?" In Andre's case, he worked so hard that they never noticed him. He felt it was very visible, but other people have their work and don't notice. All that's needed is they must become aware of what you do and how valuable it is.
Slide 3 (The solution to be paid right for what you do)
If that is true, what is then the solution to always be paid right for what you do? And even be paid forward a little bit because you stretch towards higher targets. There are three steps we will look at. You have to know what you currently do. Choose the people to communicate to, who are the real influence decision makers? If I look at Andre's situation, he didn't even consider his decision makers and the people that must make this decision, how much of the production is his. They just didn't notice.
Slide 4 (How does the system work for all of us?)
To recap how Andre was working in the company, he was working very hard, but he didn't make sure that his gears fit, that while driving the system he fits the system's needs. A little bit of awareness, a little bit of appropriate communication and I can assure you his increase would have been even bigger than 40%. The executive management must know what he's doing, why he's doing it and agree on the value. Yes, you can manage your own success factors, your own tasks that are always aligned with the expectations of the shareholders.
You would ask what the shareholders have to do with my job. Understanding the purpose and the returns the shareholders expect and communicating that with management and your team, you become a more strategic contributor in your company, you become visible; you discuss higher end things with your managers. It makes all the difference. Fitting into your team and keeping the customer in mind. The customer is the one that comes shopping, that must pay us. When the customer pays us and my value to the team and the team's value to the client is clear, how can you not be paid right when you inform the people upwards? We find that when you inform up, you use the management to do your work for you. That's a different discussion.
Slide 5 (Know what you currently do for whom)
When you move from the box across to the great spaces, this is where you get paid enough, you get paid right, then things are right, therefore the great space. Know what you currently do for whom, why you do it, what is the value, when is it complete, those are simply things to clarify. I found in coaching and in all my companies that people can't really answer this question. So step one is to figure out the answer to that question. In the process you will engage other people.
You will know the value, you will know what to do more of, and you will know what to do less of. When you engage other people it becomes very clear. We found that almost nobody can do it by themselves. We recently did this process with a few professors and they couldn't answer it either. Their life changed when they communicated and they started saying no to some things and yes to others that were beneficial. When Andre saw this model and realized that he actually has a choice thing started changing.
Slide 6 (Prepare to communicate to influencers)
Let's look at moving from the perceived boxes, because they are perceived, they are not real, moving from there to the great space, what is the process? The second one then, prepare to communicate to influencers. You want to identify them and understand who the decision makers are. What are their priorities, when do they deliver, and play the game. Inform them, choose the right tasks, and prepare with people around you, friends, family, you can even get professional people to help you prepare, but you want to be prepared.
You want to practice the communication. Discuss with selected people, prepare and seek more information, identify and go forward into practice, repeat this process a few times, the more you repeat it the clearer it will become. Now you are prepared and you know who the influencers are.
Slide 7 (Engage & Communicate)
You are now ready to engage. You engage these people with their priorities first, you engage them saying thank you to them. When you engage people with a little bit of respect and acknowledgement they never say no, they always enjoy it, a little bit of recognition, a little bit of saying thank you, say "Wow, it's great what you do!" You can always find something, I know in some cases it's very hard to find something to say thank you for, because there are many things that bug you. Andre never did that; therefore people never knew what he was doing, He never informed them, that is where the problem came from.
Slide 8 (Fear and Fail and Risk)
Let's look at the process in summary. The perceived boxes are about fear and failure. It's also about risks, how do I know they will treat me right? Will I do damage to my career if I risk this? Each of us are concerned about that. Remember that fear stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. Fail stands for First Attempt in Learning. Sometimes you do make mistakes, but you go back through the process, figure out what is right, and do it again. You cannot but succeed if you focus and the fear goes away. The process is: know what you do, prepare and engage.
Another thing we find in our companies, and with coaching etc. people rarely know exactly what their transferrable skills are. What is my experiences worth in the company? What are their natural aptitudes? Which relationships do they maintain bring to bear and how valuable are those relationships? In the process of knowing, preparing and engaging that becomes a lot clearer, because other people can see what is very difficult for us to know by ourselves.
In the process of exploring, preparing and engaging, you realize that all the resources are available, provided you engage them, engaging them with respect, showing people respect, having respect for what they do well. You can engage any knowledge or resource that you may need on the road forward. It's like climbing your own staircase. I know making and climbing a staircase at the same time is the origin of a lot of fears and perceived risks. If you have a clear process, a clear system, this becomes a lot of fun, very exhilarating.
So you start by exploring, you prepare, you engage, and in the process your store is growing. In the process it also guides you to align your job with your company and your industry. Your skills, your expertise applied in the switch pot, makes you grow personally, you add more value and you are aligned in your job, industry and company. The same alignment applies to your work, job and career, where it is aligned with industry and company. The end result of the process is you get in charge of where you go, what you say yes to, what you say no to, how fast you grow, how big your increases are, where you work, with whom you work.
This gives you a whole lot of insight, knowledge and confidence. A man with a plan is never refused when you look for resources. People don't know how to engage a man without a plan, so you just won't get the resources from outside to bring it inside. You end up in a great space, having moved from the perceived boxes to no more fears, just great energy forward.
Slide 9 (Start with the purpose)
Inside the Career Maker System we have a whole lot of models we like to use to keep it simple, so people can visualize it and make it theirs very quickly. One of them is the clear career purpose, the clear job purpose with your short term objectives and tasks you are executing you keep them aligned with your vision and mission. If Andre did that and this was clear to his manager's communicator he would never have had that stressful period of not getting paid right or not getting paid enough.
Slide 10 (Influence direct synergy)
Let's look at one more example. A lot of people fight the rules instead of understanding them. The rules tend to be known and you don't have an influence on their reality, slowly maybe, but not quickly. Spend no time fighting the rules; spend a lot of time understanding the game, playing the game where you can make decisions, where you can make a contribution, where you have influence, where it's also known. You make your space bigger in this process of engaging people and preparing, you grow your options, you get to know more. The more you know, the more options you have, the more you can do and the quicker you grow. It's such an obvious process. Interesting enough so few people do it.
Slide 11 (The approach to engage people)
We attempted to put a system together that came out of our multi-million dollar companies, we've built big incubators, we've done lots of coaching and a whole lot of pro bono work at universities, schools and communities. The approach to engage people is I respect and I say thank you. This gets the attention of the other person. What does the other person want? What the other person wants and needs must be first. If you give others more of what they want, I guarantee you get more of what you want. It works every time to say thank you.
There are two styles of questions we use extensively in this process, open exploratory and closed questions. On the website there are models for questioning, communication and interaction. To assist people with quick models that they can grasp and remember, they must share with people around them, which enable them to get a lot more information a lot faster. At the time, Andre didn't have this tool, he used this but he never thought of using these tools for his own career growth. He used it in his family, in sales, but never in his own career, now of course, he does.
What should you do more of? What should you do less of? Which projects can you expand? In the model it all comes down to career project management. To that end there are a whole lot of models on the website. I want to demonstrate the website to you quickly (careerdevelopmentplan.net). There is a whole list of items related to career planning and performance management. We have grouped the tools around specific focus areas to make it easy for you to use the group of tools to address this one issue. There is a whole range of specific topics.
We would like your feedback at the bottom of the pages to improve these clusters. These clusters have been developed in a very large incubator that went from zero to $120000000 at the time in less than six years. We're fairly proud of it, and we didn't do all these things so well so the incubator didn't keep growing at that speed. That story is on my personal site. You can see that the clusters of tools should make it easier to address each issue, as you may need it.
Slide 12 (Business toolset)
In conclusion, looking at 'I am not paid enough for what I do'. This happens often, many people don't even know that they are not paid enough for what they do. If they do this process, nine times out of ten they are paid more. Remember, you can come on the site and get our direct coaching, but more often than not, working with family, friends and work colleagues you can do it all absolutely free. We believe if we help a little it does accelerate. There's a business and a personal toolset. Please watch out for the next email. Hopefully we can walk this journey with you, as we have done with many, to keep on increasing your salary in a practical, logical way every year.
We are often frustrated by stupid politics in the workplace. Do you feel like people are backstabbing you and making up all kinds of stories to hurt your reputation? Are the people you work with frustrating the hell out of you? Let master career coach, Unre Visagie guide you through dealing with this unpleasant situation in this coaching video…
Slide 1 (People around here frustrate me)
Careerdevelopmentplan.net offers the foolproof Career Maker System. Today we specifically talk about how people in my workplace and other places could frustrate me from time to time. In our businesses over the years, coaching, pro bono work at schools and universities, we have found that sometimes people do grind against each other and frustrate each other. How do you use this frustration to your benefit and influence your career decisions positively?
We believe turning frustration into career growth can be an exciting experience. People making career changes using the Career Maker System often got 30% and more increases within 18 months. They took the energy that's gone into nurturing the frustration and they turned it around to work for them with less effort and a lot more fun. It creates a secure, safe and certain way to change towards your ideal career, and ensure that you earn what you want and what you deserve in the company, the job, the industry of your choice in midlife or after. We hope you enjoy the process and the details we offer you on the website.
Slide 2 (We all work, invest and benefit together)
People often have the awareness that people have is of they, others, that frustrate me. It creates a feeling that the others must change before I can be ok. In this model we turn it around; we let you use the opportunities where you work with others, even in frustration. So you can communicate what you do what you understand, your value, and you then move towards more valuable work for the company and for you. You will see how you grow, by getting rid of the frustrations and turning it into your benefit.
The solution for turning frustration into benefit: know what you currently do for whom, what you are committed to do, what's part of your job to do and what you can expand to do, there's a whole lot of opportunities. Prepare this communication with people around you, people you can trust and with whom you are comfortable. With your prepared communication engage anybody where you can deliver value, and especially those that in the past used to frustrate you in your interactions.
Slide 3 (Why would your employer want you to earn more)
Why would your employer be very keen for you to do this and pay you more? Yes, they do want to pay you more, but only if you do much more. That's the way we've all earned more in our lives. In any business there's shareholders that wants more returns, and if they get more, we get more capital to play with, it's very simple. It's easier for the board and the executive management to manage if we make an input strategically, if we add value, they can do more, and we all grow faster.
You personally grow faster, if you have an interest in the business and the industry, an interest in your teams, an interest to contribute, you will really make a big difference and be a cogwheel in the big engine of business that drives the whole thing. When one is frustrated, you so often slow down the whole machine, and then they are obviously going to pay you less. If you speed up the whole machine they are going to pay you more. How do you do that? Understand your role, understand where you fit, find the best fit for you and always keep the client in mind. At the end of the day, the people we deliver the service to finally must come shopping. They pay for what they buy from us. If we can produce better at a lower cost, it works for management, it works for the shareholders, and it obviously then works for us. It's very important to understand your role as a cogwheel in the big business so we can all grow. There's much more on this on the website.
We find that many people just look for a job and in a job you get easily frustrated, whereas if you go to work for the company, you go to produce, you go to add value to clients, stakeholders, everywhere around you, everybody loves you and the frustration often just vanish and you will get that fantastic increase, as I hope you will get. The challenge then is to move from the perceived boxes where they frustrate me, where the company decides etc. It's like a glass plate, you can see on the other side but you can't touch it. We want to break that glass plate, to think outside the box and move to the great space, where your earnings grow and you get the job you really want and build the career you really want.
Slide 4 (Know what you currently do for whom)
When we all work, invest and benefit together we don't need permission to do that. We can simply go and do it following these techniques: know what you currently do for whom. On the website I give you a note to show you the value of what you do, the understanding, the insight, you discuss it with people close to you and you ask what more can I do, what else can I do? What must I delegate, what must I do less of? Jack Welsh from GE said NO is the most profitable word in business. NO is also the most profitable word in your career and your job, provided you know what you do, people around you know what you do, you can easily say no and choose what else to do to grow yourself.
Slide 5 (Prepare to communicate to influencers)
From thinking outside the box to the great space, the second step is to prepare to communicate with the people you want to work with, that you need to work with. People must know what you do so they can pay you properly, they can't pay you properly if they don't know, so you must prepare so you can communicate. You can't go and ask them, you have to go to them with solutions, you must have already tested it and be prepared, have your story prepared. You will see elsewhere on the website there's much more on stories. Your story must be clear.
Here are some selected notes to get you going. Discuss with selected friends, family and colleagues. Prepare and get more information, do some research; ask people who do a similar job in another company, etc. Join associations; join magazines en ezines etc. In this way you become part of the company and part of the industry. Practice those communications so you are prepared for the third step.
Slide 6 (Engage and communicate your work list)
Now you engage the people that can make a difference around you, people that you can delegate to, people that you can get work from and people that need to know to pay you properly. In this process frustrations just go away because you are a task-driven person, you are clear, and when somebody frustrates you, you can simply ask them: "What are we achieving here?" "Let's rather go for the results so we can earn more money." You ask and you share, you need good questioning skills that you can find on the website. Respect and acknowledgement will get you a long way. If you go to people around you, below, next to you or above you, you find something you can say to: "Wow, this is great!" They immediately feel bigger. They will immediately want to be with you and frustrations just disappear.
Slide 7 (FEAR & FAIL & RISK)
Let's look at moving from where people frustrate you to turning that energy into great production, instead of turning it into a negative situation. We all fear, and fear just stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. Fail stands for First Attempt in Learning. If you look back at your life, you learnt to walk and talk, you learnt to tie your shoes, you learnt to ride a bicycle; anything included some failure and some skin. But we got back on the bicycle, it wasn't a big deal, but when it gets to people, we are scared what they will think. This process will let you practice so you recognize the false evidence and it goes away, the fear of failure goes away, and you start moving forward. The process, to remind you: know what you do, prepare and engage.
You have a fantastic store of assets, everybody has. People have experiences, expertise, interests, aptitudes and relationships that they never articulate, they never unpack it. Talk to people around you, they can see what you can't see yourself. During my life when I was building businesses, recruiting people, coaching people and doing pro bono work in schools, I haven't even found a professor that can do his own list. Talk to others around you, if you experience difficulties, come to the website and ask us questions, we can help you. You will see that the resources, whatever resources you may need, are already out there. Your challenge is to bring those resources inside as you climb up the staircase and make your own staircase. Climbing and making a staircase at the same time could be challenging, that is why we have created this safe process from our experience over the years with our friends and professors.
To start: explore and identify. Prepare, engage, and in the process you grow and clarify your store, and you are clearer on what you say yes and no to. Remember no is the most profitable word ever. In this process you are guided to align the job, company and industry that you want to work in. You want to play in the middle, growing your job and growing your company as part of a growth industry. Secondly, you want to make sure that your job aligns with the work you want to do and the work with the job and both of those helps you grow your career long term. You focus in the middle with your asset list and grow. You end up being completely in charge of your future. You don't have to ask, because you already know what others think and value. Your career aims are aligned with your work, job, company and industry. This insight and knowledge gives you confidence and it puts you in absolute charge.
Slide 8 (Start with the purpose)
We follow a process that let you clarify your purpose in your career. From purpose you can go to objectives and tasks, and dynamically align with your mission and vision. This is a very dynamic change, industry change, company change, your needs change, especially in midlife when you get impatient quicker, you don't suffer fools so easily anymore. In that process, the more clarity you have, the more people want to be around you. It's a lot of fun when there is clarity in communication around you.
Slide 9 (Earn more now thinking discussion)
Another model you will learn about in the process is to clearly understand the company's rules, every way, strategy, focus, clients, what excites them etc. The rules are known and they can't be changed easily, obey the rules while you work to change them. This is the space you want to spend more time in, provided you don't waste time on being frustrated about the rules, because often that causes the frustration. Understand and accept the rules, then you can play in understanding and testing for outcomes: the best outcomes for you, the best outcomes for all the stakeholders as we have mentioned in the business model and especially the best outcome for the client.
When you focus on the client nobody can differ from you, because he's the client, he comes shopping, he's the only one that pays. You are also going to move in an area where it's unknown to you but you have influence, then you go and explore. That is why you get more information, talk to more people. This is what all these models help you grow in inter and intra, with clear aims for the next phase of your career after midlife. It is so easy to not do this and get stuck in midlife with growing frustrations. Remember we want to turn frustrations into benefits.
Slide 10 (Approach people for input and advice. You gain awareness)
Approach people for input and advice and you will gain awareness. A brief review, how would you do this? Your approach should be: I admire something about you. There's always something you can find, just look past the very frustrating interface, you will find something nice, even if you just thank him for frustrating you in the extreme. We had cases like that, where Nadine was very angry at some people, she thanked them for the opportunity to grow with them, they then turned around and gave her such valuable stuff that her salary increased over 20% in six months. They pointed out what she does that is valuable that she didn't even know. Communicating that to the right people resulted in her getting a tremendous increase six months later. Recently, during a time when the company gave no increases, they realized they had to compete for her in the industry and she still got her increase.
Turning frustrations into benefits work, if you want to see Nadine's story, it is on our sister website: ebio. You can just click on Nadine. You have to have serious questioning skills where you ask what else? What more? So you can explore. Your questions can be specific or your questions can be what do you think? There are closed questions and open questions. It's all on the website and it's all easy to use. Who else can you recommend I talk to? It's amazing who people will introduce you to if you just ask. That is an easy way to turn your frustrations into benefits. Closed questions have to be specific. Exploratory questions consist of what else, who else, where else and so forth. There is much more about that on the website. Some of the processes on the web fit exactly what we have given you here. Look at the model SMARTM: Specific, Measurable, Accountable, Reward and Resource, Timing, Monitor, how do you do this? In any work environment all this can be obtained by giving other people benefit or opting them to help you. The processes are on the website.
Careerdevelopmentplan.net website
Let's look at Planning and Performance. All of the resources are listed here that help you with goal setting, planning and communicating. It is grouped into an easy source for you to navigate.
Resource website
The resource website has a whole lot more resources. There are career success processes, understanding, business processes, career change, development plan; all of these are applicable to midlife career growth and change. A whole number of them, like the interpersonal skills, can turn frustrations into big benefits.
Slide 11 (Supporting the foolproof Career Maker System)
We have the business tool-set and the personal tool set that you've just seen on the website. Watch out for your next Career Maker System email!
Link with me on Google Plus:


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Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) has intervened in the debate over the Canadian government's crime bill. The group, composed of current and former members of law enforcement and other criminal justice professionals, sent a letter Wednesday to Canadian parliamentarians, warning them of the consequences of adopting a harsh approach and urging them to instead regulate and tax marijuana.
The pending crime bill, C-10, has already passed the lower chamber of the parliament and is currently before the Senate. The bill would impose mandatory minimum sentences for a number of offenses, including growing as few as six marijuana plants.
"Through our years of service enforcing anti-marijuana laws, we have seen the devastating consequences of these laws. Among the greatest concerns is the growth in organized crime and gang violence. Just as with alcohol prohibition, gang violence, corruption and social decay have marched in lockstep with marijuana prohibition," the LEAP letter said.
LEAP is not alone in opposing the Tories' crime bill. It is also opposed by the New Democrats and the Liberals. Earlier this month, four former British Columbia attorneys general called for marijuana legalization, and days later, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations criticized the bill. Chief Shawn Atleo said aboriginal peoples with drug problems needed intervention and rehabilitation, not incarceration.
But the Tories aren't listening to LEAP or anyone else. Responding to the LEAP letter, Canadian Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said he was unswayed.
"We develop our criminal law legislation looking at the experiences from around the world, from Britain and other countries," Nicholson said at a news conference Wednesday in Regina. "But again, ours is a Canadian solution to Canadian issues and we make no apology for that."
Nicholson also defended mandatory minimums and said the crime bill sends the right message.
"Over the years there has been introduced mandatory penalties by different governments. I think there's about 40 of them in the criminal code, so they're nothing new to this government," he said. "But I believe they send out the right message to individuals that if you start bringing, for instance, drugs into this country, if you're into the business of trafficking, there will be a price to pay and you'll be going to jail."
Although the Conservatives control the Senate, the bill isn't passed until the bill is passed. Organizing against it continues.


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Joost de Valk (JV) is an authority in the blogging world. He is famous for his plugins that have been downloaded millions of times and are daily used by thousands of authors. Especially his search engine optimization plugin is popular.
Gretchen Rubin (GR), the author of The Happiness Project, a site where you find her experiences, thoughts, theories and studies about how to be happier (her book, The Happiness Project, has been on the New York Times bestseller list for a year).
Jacob Gube (JB) decided to share his expertise in web design through Six Revisions. His site is a multi-author site very much and widely appreciated because of valuable content, emphasis on quality and comprehensiveness of its articles.
How and why did you start your site?
JV: I was doing a lot of coding and wanted to share that with people. In the beginning that coding was mostly CSS and HTML stuff, I did a lot of CSS3 previews which I later split off into its own site.
GR: I started it in March 2006, as one of the experiments in happiness that I undertook as part of my research for my book, The Happiness Project. I wanted to see if the experts were right, that "novelty and challenge bring happiness." I started a blog as something new and (very!) challenging for me.
JG: I started our first site, Six Revisions, almost (it seems like) on a whim. I'd been an avid reader of several sites which inspired me to start my own. One day, I just had the sudden desire to start a website. So I made a short list of site names, picked one and registered it. Then I got a hosting account, installed WordPress, wrote my first post, and published it even before the domain name fully resolved to the hosting server (it can take up to 72 hours for DNS records to propagate). One of the reasons I started Six Revisions was I wanted to catalog the things I learned while working as a web developer and web designer. The other reason was out of a desire to share useful and practical information that would help professionals in their jobs.
How much time do you spend working on it and what are the usual tasks?
JV: A LOT of time. From writing posts to doing link building to coding on my plugins, it takes up hours and hours of work.
GR: You know, I can never figure out how much time I spend on it. That work is so intertwined in my writing day. I post six or seven times a week, answer emails, shoot a weekly video, read and reply to comments, take notes, research, and write.
JG: I spend quite a lot of time running both of our sites. I'd say at least 10 hours a day, including weekends. Oftentimes, it'll be 12-15-hour days. Some of my usual day-to-day tasks are:
- working with our authors (we have over 250 people that have contributed to one of our sites)
- communicating with readers (through comments and via email)
- writing articles
- editing articles
- reading industry news
That's on top of projects like our first set eBooks, web development work (such as site upgrades) and so forth.
What is the best lesson learned that you'd like to share with people who want to start?
JV: Just do it. Find something you love to write about, start writing and never stop, but make sure to keep on improving yourself.
GR: Write every day, or just about every day. Weirdly, it's easier to write every day than just once in a while. Also, constant engagement feeds creative thinking.
JG: The best lesson I've learned is that you should focus on content quality over anything else. I'd much rather post infrequently rather than post articles that I feel do not meet the quality standards we've established.
What is your best advice on how to grow your traffic?
JV: First of all, don't focus on the numbers but focus on the quality of your readers. In your particular niche there just might not be 10s of thousands of readers available. Second: guest post on other, related, sites, be active in the comments on other pages, write stuff that people will want to read, build stuff that people will want to use. In other words: do something cool and tell people about it.
GR: Get to know the other people working in your area. Write frequently. Link to others. Have something to say.
JG: Create great content. If you do this, Internet users will eventually find your site, share it on their social networks, and you'll be more likely to build a strong community of supporters.
What is your biggest achievement and the biggest mistake as a blogger?
JV: As a coder, they're my WordPress plugins. My biggest mistake… I've made a few I think, especially in the beginning. I did some undisclosed paid posts back then and some other stupid things, like selling links, I now wouldn't ever do again.
GR: My biggest success was just jumping in and starting. I felt so unprepared to do it, but I pushed myself, and now my blog is a giant engine of happiness for me. My biggest mistake? Waiting too long between re-designs.
JG: I'm humbled that we've been able to grow our sites consistently since we first started them, though I can't take credit for this since it's our hardworking, talented authors and our supportive readership that's really helped our sites become what they are now. My biggest mistake? Delaying the redesign of the site for this long! The design and structure of your site is important, and should support the content of your site. I have been working on the redesign and hopefully launch it soon.


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- The only real piece of news to come out of morning shootaround today was that Jerryd Bayless (sprained knee) will not play tonight against the Timberwolves. Leandro Barbosa will be a game-time decision (hamstring). Jay Triano said that Barbosa didn't respond as well as they had hoped after practicing with the team yesterday, so we'll see tonight if he can go and how long he can play.
- Triano was asked about facing Kevin Love on the day after he found out he was not selected to be an All-Star reserve. With a little extra motivation tonight, Love could have one of those historical kind of nights. Here's Triano on Love:
"Knowing him, yeah, I think he's going to feel like he has something to prove. It's unfortunate that we have them on this date. He's a competitor and he's probably worthy of being on the all-star team, but for whatever reason, didn't get voted in. He'll probably want to prove people wrong."
- DeMar DeRozan was talking about dunks, after spending yesterday afternoon working with Darryl Dawkins, preparing for his trip back home to L.A. during the All-Star break. He sounds fairly confident, a few weeks removed from the event:
"When I get some more time to go in the gym, outside of practice and everything, I'll practise my dunks. I think I have something."
- DeRozan said the biggest thing Dawkins stressed to him was bringing his personality into the contest. While DeRozan's got dunking down pat, his coach will be working to help him become more vocal despite his laidback demeanor.
"Showmanship after the dunk, or getting the crowd involved after the dunk. Last year, he said I didn't have any problems with my dunks. It was just making it more exciting, having fun with your fans and your teammates."
- What was Triano's recipe for success against Love? Limiting the amount of times his team has to worry about guarding him:
When a ball goes up, get two players on him, box him out, try to keep him away from easy put backs, easy rebounds, and saving us from more possessions that we have to guard Kevin Love."
- After watching Love this season, I wish anyone well who thinks they'll be able to contain him on the glass.


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The rules regarding overtime and exemption from overtime are complicated. Basically, you have to pay overtime whenever an employee works more than 40 hours in one week. Even if you didn't authorize the extra time, you have to pay overtime. To figure the hourly wage to compute overtime, include all payment for employment, including regular bonuses, commissions, piece rates and shift differentials. Divide that by 40 hours, then multiply by 1.5 to compute the rate of pay for any hours more than 40.
You don't have to pay overtime for employees classified as exempt because of the nature of their jobs, such as professionals, outside sales reps, computer specialists, administrators and managers. But beware of assuming that someone paid on a salary basis is automatically exempt. Exempt employees exercise independent judgment or creativity. Exempt employees need not be paid when they're gone for a full day. However, if you dock pay for a partial-day absence, such as a doctor's appointment, you're treating the employee as nonexempt and could be held liable for any failure to pay overtime. The only case when it's OK to dock an exempt employee's pay for a partial-day absence is when you have a sick- or personal-leave policy. In that case, you can reduce the allotted sick days by the half-day. But if the employee has used up the allotted sick days and takes another half-day off work, you can't deduct that.
Note that state wage and hour laws-especially in California-may set different standards. You're required to abide by whichever is more favorable to the employee. Complying with wage and hour laws can be difficult. Remember that their goal is to make sure American workers are paid fairly for the time they work-and that's a worthy goal.
For more information on Fair Labor Standards Act compliance-including child-labor laws-visit www.dol.gov. | |||||
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This article was originally published in the February 2001 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Crime And A Half.