Social Entrepreneur : Speaker : Author : Triathlete

Dr. Jeffrey L. Reynolds

Social Entrepreneur, Speaker, Author, Triathlete

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The Five People You Spend The Most Time With

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Entrepreneur and author Jim Rohn often said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

Those five people probably include family, friends, co-workers, all of whom have their own traits, habits, beliefs, limits, and ambitions, which in turn influence yours.

Are you surrounded by people who support, encourage, inspire you and sometimes even push you to go beyond what you thought was possible? Do they challenge your limiting beliefs, help you open new doors, and constantly ask you, “why not”?

Should all those people be exactly like you? Probably not, but nor should they be exact opposites.

Take stock of who’s influencing you. Each one should help make you better at something – a better spouse, a better parent, better at your job, healthier, happier. Those five people, in tandem with your own efforts, should help to make you a better person, however you define that.

Some of those five people will come and go as you journey through life; others will remain constant, even if they aren’t physically present. Know who those five people are. Understand and appreciate their impact on you. Then think about how you impact them.

Those First Day of School Pictures

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Over the next few days, parents will take to Facebook, Instagram and other social media outlets to post cute pictures of their kids as they experience their first day back to school. While there are mixed opinions about whether or not posting personal pictures online is a great idea, more and more parents have gotten comfortable doing so.

What’s the risk? Predators, identity thieves, folks who will sell your pictures to stock photo services and even aggressive salespeople all troll social media sites.

If you’re going to post pictures of your kids online, here are a few ways to minimize the risks:

  • Review your social media privacy settings to ensure that you are properly controlling who can see what. Every social media site allows you to do this, yet many people just use the default settings, which may not meet your needs. Update those settings as your content and relationships change.
  • Keep your location private. Avoid geotagging or “checking-in” at your child’s school and make sure there’s nothing in the photo’s background – like a house number or street sign – that gives away your home address.
  • Mommy blogs dish up ideas for fun props and signs that include your child’s name, their teacher’s name, favorite color and other personal details. Avoid giving out too many personal details about your children.
  • Never tag other people’s children in the photos you post. Each parent has the right to make their own decisions.
  • Most of us have a decade’s worth of pictures on various social media sites. The more pictures you have online, the higher the risk. Routinely delete old pictures and close old accounts (when was the last time you looked at your MySpace page).

And most of all, remember that before the days of Facebook and Pinterest, most of us returned to school successfully year after year without it being documented on social media and for the most part, we turned out okay.

You’re In Control

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If you are dreading Monday morning, it’s because you’re not in the right job.

If you’re tired, it’s because you didn’t get enough sleep, or enough quality sleep.

If your energy is low, it’s because you’re not planning your meals and thinking about what you consume.

If your meeting is a waste of time, it’s because you didn’t come prepared with the right information or have the right people in the room.

If your exercise routines are not effective, it’s because you didn’t take the time to figure out what kind of activities and intensities would keep you motivated and help you achieve your goals.

If you’re not happy, content and fulfilled, it might be because you haven’t designed the kind of life you want to live and made the changes necessary to get there. You are living a life by default, rather than by design. Stop it and start planning.

How To Fail a Job Interview in Five Minutes

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We recently filled two key positions at Family and Children’s Association (FCA) and because they were in Human Resources, I took part in those interviews. After the usual small talk about traffic and the weather, the first question I ask all job applicants is, “What do you know about Family and Children’s Association?” A few candidates said, “not much really,” while others said they had looked at the website and mentioned some programs.

Wait. You took the time to respond to the job posting, participated in a phone screening, scheduled and came to a job interview because this is the place you want to work and you don’t know anything about us?

Sure, interviews are a way for prospective employees and employers to get to know each other, ask questions and see if there’s a fit, but researching a organization has never been easier that it is today. Your understanding of the organization’s history, their initiatives, their team and their values demonstrates your interest in the job, and weaving what you’ve learned into the questions you ask and the answers you provide makes for a higher level conversation that gets you past the ten basic interview questions we ask everyone.

With non-profits, you – as a candidate – have a distinct edge when it comes to information. You can look up any non-profit’s tax returns on Guidestar and find out how they’ve been doing financially for the past few years, who funds the organization, who sits on the board of directors and what they pay their top managers.  Most organizations include their annual reports on their websites, along with leadership bios and program summaries. A quick Google search will let you know whether there’s been recent news (good or bad) about the organization and both Indeed.com and Glassdoor feature reviews from existing employees. Finally, take a look at the organization’s social media profiles so you’re up-to-date on current events, priorities and get a feel for agency culture.

All of this takes twenty minutes – less time than it probably took you to get dressed for the interview. At the end of that 20 minutes, you can decide whether to walk into that interview room focused, knowledgable, and confident with a leveled playing field or whether your time and our time would be better spent doing something else.

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