How Your Leadership Skills Will Determine Your Company Culture

Build a culture of teamwork.

In 2012, chef Niki Nakayama was living her dream, preparing traditional Japanese kaiseki feasts at her Los Angeles restaurant, n/naka. Then her sous chef quit without notice. “I had been accustomed to splitting tasks with him,” she says, but now everything fell on her shoulders. She dove in, preparing exquisite, labor-intensive meals of nine or 13 courses -- but with less leadership available, her minimal staff suffered. 

What was going on? The problem may have been culture. In traditional Japanese kitchens -- not unlike some traditional American offices -- subordinates are expected to watch and learn, rarely ask questions and never debate the head chef’s ideas. “I am not a great teacher,” Nakayama admits. That’s why the loss of her sous chef was so acute: The staff had lost a certain kind of leader, someone who could “speak Niki,” bringing order to her creative chaos and translating her instructions for everyone else. Nakayama couldn’t fill the hole herself.

She came to a realization: Everyone should be aware of their weaknesses and overcome them as a team. Nakayama fixed her own problem by hiring Carole Iida, a fellow chef whom she was dating at the time. Where Nakayama was messy and spontaneous, working off the top of her head, Iida was organized and reliable, and could guide the staff. “She brought in her organizational abilities, and we were able to put everything together for other people to understand,” Nakayama says.

As a result, the 2016 Zagat guide has awarded n/naka the top spot for food among L.A. restaurants, a dramatic rise from eighth place the year before. Now Nakayama encourages all her workers to focus on their strengths -- “to pull out that best part of ourselves and just contribute that all the time, without spending too much time trying to fix the weaknesses that we have,” she says. “It’s far more productive in a team environment. It’s knowing and respecting each other’s strengths and weaknesses that makes a great team.”

Build a culture of rigor.

The Santa Fe Institute, an extremely well-regarded nonprofit research center, sets a high bar for scientific inquiry. The more than 250 researchers affiliated with SFI are investigating the fundamentals behind the world’s biggest problems -- cancer, fast-spreading viruses, global economies, you name it. And its president, accomplished scientist David Krakauer, knows one thing for sure: When working with all these great minds, he cannot always be the smartest one in the room. He sometimes thinks of himself “as a colonel leading an army of generals.”

So how does he lead them? “The authority of my position is not worth shit,” he says. “When I’m talking to someone who is more accomplished than I am, my opinion is not the most compelling argument. The most compelling argument is rigor. You have to speak the language of rigor.”

Speak the language of rigor. That means supporting every idea with observation, evidence and analysis -- and maybe even conducting experiments to determine the best course of action. It means trusting a clear, quantitative approach that everyone can understand. And it means not using language that’s limiting. Here’s a phrase Krakauer hates: “That’s not how we do things around here.” No. He is adamant on this point: Anyone caught uttering that phrase, he says, “should be put down.”

Like scientists, business leaders should wield evidence as a tool of persuasion, Krakauer believes. He quotes physicist Richard Feynman: “Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.” It’s a hard lesson to learn, but a necessary one: Your gut instinct is not sufficient. If you want to persuade top talent to follow your lead, you’d better be able to back up your arguments with more than your job title.

Build a culture of inquiry.

Contently, a tech startup that helps Fortune 500 companies and other brands do content marketing, was founded by three guys in New York in 2010. That trio has since grown to a staff of about 100. And along the way, cofounder and chief creative officer Shane Snow feared a disturbing change: The energy driving that growth -- that scrappy, do-anything attitude -- could easily cool. Employees might become timid in large groups, afraid of earning the ire of the majority. “Most people and most companies reach a plateau at a certain point, and at many points,” says Snow. “It’s crazy how quickly even a disruptive, rebellious startup can get to the point where they say, ‘That’s not the way things are done here.’” (There it is, that phrase again.)

So Contently made sure not to let that happen.

For example, Snow limits meetings that involve problem solving -- where employees really need to speak up -- to three or four people. And challenges keep Contently’s big team feeling scrappy. For example, Snow often asks for “10X ideas” -- say, “How can we improve customer happiness by 10 times?” Employees are game, he says: They do want to keep things fresh. A leader’s role is to create the right opportunities.

Time for another forbidden phrase: “Don’t bring me problems; bring me solutions.” Leaders use that phrase because they think it inspires employees to take initiative, says Adam Grant, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and author of Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World. But instead, it teaches employees not to speak up about a need unless they have a proposal for fixing it. “When you ask for solutions, you create a culture of advocacy rather than a culture of inquiry,” Grant says. “Most creativity, most innovation happens when somebody points out a problem that’s not yet been solved.”

Snow wants to hear it all. He and his cofounders set aside a few free hours every week so any employee who wants to chat (in or, preferably, outside the office) can do so. It’s an invitation to hear about those problems that are in search of solutions. “When someone brings in a perspective that hasn’t been heard yet,” Grant says, “it often forces you to reconsider your decision criteria, to bring in new information -- and that ultimately is good for your process.”

Build a culture of accountability.

Bridgewater Associates is the world’s largest hedge fund, managing $154 billion in assets for sovereign wealth funds, corporate and public pensions, foundations and university endowments. Its founder, Ray Dalio, is widely seen as a financial genius. And yet, after a meeting with a potential client one day, an employee several levels down on the org chart fired off a blistering email to Dalio. He accused the boss of being unprepared and disorganized, and gave him a grade -- D-minus! -- for his behavior. 

“I don’t know many organizations where you can send an email like that to the billionaire founder and keep your job,” says Grant, the Wharton professor who shared the incident in his book, Originals. But instead of lashing out, Grant says that Dalio asked others who had participated in the meeting to assess his performance. The email exchange was then forwarded to the entire staff, effectively turning Dalio’s misstep into a case study.

This is how Bridgewater’s culture works, according to Grant: Everyone is accountable to everyone. The staff is expected to routinely rate coworkers on a range of 77 qualities, including some -- like the willingness to touch a nerve -- that might not be prized at other companies. The firm’s 1,500 employees can even assess their bosses, and the more incisive the critique, the better. And all this data, including the name of each person who left feedback, is available to any employee.

It’s extreme. It wouldn’t work for most companies. Thirty-five percent of new hires don’t make it past 18 months. But consider what Bridgewater is going for: It wants employees to feel that hard work is recognized, and that the company values transparency. Find ways to bring those traits into your workplace -- because when an employee feels comfortable enough to challenge you, and you’re able to turn that into a lesson in leadership, then you’ve created a culture in which everyone can do their best work.  

Brian Patrick Eha

No Successful Salesperson Is Too Proud to Use Any of These 12 Shameless Tactics

You’re trying to get ahold of that prospect but he’s not returning your calls or your emails. Maybe you’re reaching out to a cold lead. Or maybe all you want is an update. Is he interested or not? Is he buying or not? Is he moving forward on that quote you sent him, or not? Should you write him off your list so you (and he) don't waste any more time? You’re not selling snake oil. You believe that your product or service will help him. If he’s not interested that’s fine -- all you want is the courtesy of a reply!

I’ve been there. You’ve been there. So, what can you do? After 20+ years of selling I’m going to tell you what: you grow a thick skin and resort to a few shameless sales tactics. These are real-life things that I have done, and still do,  shamelessly. Because they work, not all the time but enough of the time. Sure, I may risk going to hell for doing any one of these, but for now I’m still sleeping like a baby.

1. For starters, ignore his office number and call his cell phone.

You got the number from his signature on one of his emails, so it’s not exactly private. You call that phone early in the morning or as late as PM. When he picks it up you act surprised and say “Oh Dave, I’m so sorry, I thought this was your office line and I was just leaving you a message….you know…about that open quote?”

2. Refer by first name.

When you do call his office, ask for him by first name only. “Hi, I’m looking for Dave please?” Oftentimes, the gatekeeper/receptionist will just put your call through without questioning your familiarity.

3. Say you’re “returning” his call.

OK, this may be shameless lying. But on the scale of lying it’s pretty far down the list. You're just "returning'' the call he owes you by saving him the trouble of making it. Telling the receptionist that you’re “returning” a call will get you right through almost all the time. If the prospect confronts you (which is unlikely, because he doesn’t remember who he called or didn’t call), at worst it will be “Hey, I never called you.” Blame it on a mistake with something like “Someone here said you did, I’m sorry.” Then move on as if he reached out to you with “I was under the impression that you needed help with…..”

4. Send him the same email twice, about five minutes apart.

Then apologize in the second email saying the first one “bounced back” and you’ve been having email issues. Did he receive?

5. Send him six duplicate emails all at the same time.

Then you wait two minutes and send him a 7^th email that profusely apologizes for the other six. Say there was a glitch with your email software and, oh by the way, how about that open quote?

6. Email him with the subject line “Are You OK???” (include the multiple question marks too).

You ask if he’s been ill or if there’s been another problem. You emote sympathy and concern. Of course, you’re not concerned -- or sympathetic -- but there's a fair chance he’ll reply when he thinks you are. Then you emote great relief and ask him about the status of your open quote.

7. Find his boss.

Troll online until you find out who’s the VP for his division or someone else in a superior role. Email the VP with the same concerned subject line. “I just want to make sure Dave’s OK,” you write. “We were talking and then he went silent so I’m concerned. Can you please let me know?” Chances are the boss will forward that to Dave.  Remember, you’re not harassing. You’re just a concerned colleague, right? Right.

8. Change your domain.

Setup email addresses from other domains, like Google, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. Then send him an email from those domains. It’s possible his spam filter is stopping stuff from your domain.

9. Spam him.

Yes, that’s right: I said spam. But it’s a light spamming. You create a list of people in your database who will be sent a template email maybe 3-4 times a year. This is not a newsletter or a packaged marketing thing that would normally need someone to opt-in. It’s just some type of check-in, no different than if you were sending them an email check-in individually, but in bulk. When you get a response that you don’t like (“remove me from your list”) you take action accordingly. But hey…at least you finally got something! And you’ll be surprised, too.  By doing this you’ll get others who will reply with something like “this kind of fell of the radar, but we’re ready to talk again.”

10. Text him.

Yes, go ahead and text him. A quick message of concern - “Hey Dave, sorry to have to send you a text but my emails aren’t getting through to you. Are you OK?”

11. Message him on LinkedIn or Facebook.

For some reason, people seem to reply to these more so than a typical email. They also seem to get caught less frequently in spam filters. Speaking of spam filters, you cite this as the reason why you’re emailing him on LinkedIn/Facebook. “Not sure if my other emails were getting caught in your spam filter so….”

12. Tweet at him.

If he’s a Twitter person, then tweet him. Make it informational, like “Hey Dave…here’s a great article you might enjoy. Are you available to speak?” Follow him on Twitter and if he follows you back (ding!) then send him a direct message. Sometimes people pay more attention to their Twitter feed then their email.

Shameless? Yes. Effective? You betcha.

Gene Marks

Why Positivity Matters -- and 3 Ways to Achieve It

We’ve all received the well-meaning advice to "stay positive." The greater the challenge, the more this glass-half-full wisdom can come across as Pollyannaish and unrealistic. It’s hard to find the motivation to focus on the positive when positivity seems like nothing more than wishful thinking.

The real obstacle to positivity is that our brains are hard-wired to look for and focus on threats. This survival mechanism served humankind well back when we were hunters and gatherers, living each day with the very real threat of being killed by someone or something in our immediate surroundings.

That was eons ago. Today, this mechanism breeds pessimism and negativity through the mind’s tendency to wander until it finds a threat. These “threats” magnify the perceived likelihood that things are going -- and/or are going to go -- poorly. When the threat is real and lurking in the bushes down the path, this mechanism serves you well. When the threat is imagined and you spend two months convinced the project you’re working on is going to flop, this mechanism leaves you with a soured view of reality that wreaks havoc in your life.

Maintaining positivity is a daily challenge that requires focus and attention. You must be intentional about staying positive if you’re going to overcome the brain’s tendency to focus on threats. It won’t happen by accident. That’s why positivity is the skill that I’ll be giving extra attention in 2016.

Positivity and Your Health

Pessimism is trouble because it’s bad for your health. Numerous studies have shown that optimists are physically and psychologically healthier than pessimists.

Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania has conducted extensive research on the topic. Seligman worked with researchers from Dartmouth and the University of Michigan on a study that followed people from age 25 to 65 to see how their levels of pessimism or optimism influenced their overall health. The researchers found that pessimists’ health deteriorated far more rapidly as they aged.

Seligman’s findings are similar to research conducted by the Mayo Clinic that found optimists have lower levels of cardiovascular disease and longer life-spans. Although the exact mechanism through which pessimism affects health hasn’t been identified, researchers at Yale and the University of Colorado found that pessimism is associated with a weakened immune response to tumors and infection.

Researchers from the University of Kentucky went so far as to inject optimists and pessimists with a virus to measure their immune response. The researchers found optimists had a much stronger immune response than pessimists.

Positivity and Performance

Keeping a positive attitude isn’t just good for your health. Martin Seligman has also studied the connection between positivity and performance. In one study in particular, he measured the degree to which insurance salespeople were optimistic or pessimistic in their work. Optimistic salespeople sold 37 percent more policies than pessimists, who were twice as likely to leave the company during their first year of employment.

Seligman has studied positivity more than anyone, and he believes in the ability to turn pessimistic thoughts and tendencies around with simple effort and know-how. But Seligman doesn’t just believe this. His research shows that people can transform a tendency toward pessimistic thinking into positive thinking through simple techniques that create lasting changes in behavior long after they are discovered.

Here are three things that I’ll be doing this year to stay positive.

1. Separate Fact from Fiction

The first step in learning to focus on the positive requires knowing how to stop negative self-talk in its tracks. The more you ruminate on negative thoughts, the more power you give them. Most of our negative thoughts are just that -- thoughts, not facts.

When you find yourself believing the negative and pessimistic things your inner voice says, it’s time to stop and write them down. Literally stop what you’re doing and write down what you’re thinking. Once you’ve taken a moment to slow down the negative momentum of your thoughts, you will be more rational and clear-headed in evaluating their veracity. Evaluate these statements to see if they’re factual. You can bet the statements aren’t true any time you see words like never, always, worst, ever, etc.

Do you really always lose your keys? Of course not. Perhaps you forget them frequently, but most days you do remember them. Are you never going to find a solution to your problem? If you really are that stuck, maybe you’ve been resisting asking for help. Or if it really is an intractable problem, then why are you wasting your time beating your head against the wall? If your statements still look like facts once they’re on paper, take them to a friend or colleague you can trust, and see if he or she agrees with you. Then the truth will surely come out.

When it feels like something always or never happens, this is just your brain’s natural threat tendency inflating the perceived frequency or severity of an event. Identifying and labeling your thoughts asthoughts by separating them from the facts will help you escape the cycle of negativity and move toward a positive new outlook.

2. Identify a Positive

Once you snap yourself out of self-defeating, negative thoughts, it’s time to help your brain learn what you want it to focus on -- the positive.

This will come naturally after some practice, but first you have to give your wandering brain a little help by consciously selecting something positive to think about. Any positive thought will do to refocus your brain’s attention. When things are going well, and your mood is good, this is relatively easy. When things are going poorly, and your mind is flooded with negative thoughts, this can be a challenge. In these moments, think about your day and identify one positive thing that happened, no matter how small. If you can’t think of something from the current day, reflect on the previous day or even the previous week. Or perhaps there is an exciting event you are looking forward to that you can focus your attention on.

The point here is you must have something positive that you’re ready to shift your attention to when your thoughts turn negative. Step one stripped the power from negative thoughts by separating fact from fiction. Step two is to replace the negative with a positive. Once you have identified a positive thought, draw your attention to that thought each time you find yourself dwelling on the negative. If that proves difficult, you can repeat the process of writing down the negative thoughts to discredit their validity, and then allow yourself to freely enjoy positive thoughts.

3. Cultivate an Attitude of Gratitude

Taking time to contemplate what you’re grateful for isn’t merely the “right” thing to do; it reduces the stress hormone cortisol by 23 percent. Research conducted at the University of California, Davis, found that people who worked daily to cultivate an attitude of gratitude experienced improved mood, energy and substantially less anxiety due to lower cortisol levels.

You cultivate an attitude of gratitude by taking time out every day to focus on the positive. Any time you experience negative or pessimistic thoughts, use this as a cue to shift gears and think about something positive. In time, a positive attitude will become a way of life.  

Bringing It All Together

I realize these three tips sound incredibly basic, but they have tremendous power because they train your brain to have a positive focus. They break old habits, if you force yourself to use them. Given the mind’s natural tendency to wander toward negative thoughts, we can all use a little help with staying positive. Join me in putting these steps to use this year, and you’ll reap the physical, mental, and performance benefits that come with a positive frame of mind.

Travis Bradberry

8 Week Whole Body Makeover!

If you are reading this then you are seeking a new way of living, moving, eating, being and experiencing life in a body you love--one that cultivates your finest expression of who you can be in this life time. This 8 week course will help you to pull away all the masks of shame, guilt, failure and all the bad habits and negative crap that manifests in our lives and bodies, so you may emerge with a new shape, new mind, new resilience and a renewed connection to your true, most radiant self. 

Hello beautiful, I'm Jannine Murray

I believe that if the women of the world become healthy and empowered, we can heal our children, our relationships and our land. I believe it is the women of this world who have the power to do so, and it all starts with loving ourselves. I myself, overcame grief and trauma after losing my million dollar business, my health, my sanity, and severe health issues like IBS, adrenal failure and having a body that bared all the shame of "not enough-ness, being unlovable, and self hatred.

I had to redefine who I was, how I trained, how I ate, from a place of deep radical self love and then put that into practice in my training, my thinking, my eating and way of being. It was these techniques that allowed me to heal from a lifetime of self-hatred and the self-destructive patterns I was stuck in, to be able to feel body empowered and have a lifestyle that expressed my most empowered self. It is with my life long body wisdom, my 12 years experience working with hundreds of women, and my soul's desire that I share this 8 week body empowerment program with you!

I created this course to give women the step by step daily practices of:

Deliciously energizing, easy to follow meal plans that transform your body to shed bellyfat and never diet again

Empowering and inspiring follow along workout videos you can do anywhere, anytime, and tone up beautifully without hours of exercise

Mindset tools needed to transform your body, mind, and heart into your most healthy, empowered, radiant self

Over the course of the 8 week program, I will be providing you comprehensive meal plans for detoxing, tummy slimming, hormone balancing and energy boosting results. I will also be providing with you 12 follow along workout videos that you can do anywhere, and throughout you will have 7 weeks of mindset focus journeys: inspiration everyday to break old patterns and create your most radiant self!

Take 8 weeks to transformation with:

A beginners guide to ensuring success

A 14 Day Slim And Sexy Detox Meal Plan

5 weeks of clean eating, tummy slimming, hormone balancing, energy boosting meal plans

12 follow along workout videos that you can do anywhere, anytime, no equipment, no excuses!

7 weeks of mindset focus journeys: inspiration everyday to break old patterns and create your most radiant self!

Morning and evening meditation

Allowing the true you to shine

All you are looking for is already inside of you! I am just here to remind you of your potential and your greatness. I will give you my proven effective tools, strategies, clean eating plans, follow along workout videos, and the necessary mindset shift you need that allows the true YOU to come forward. You don't need to be perfect in any way, you don't even need to feel ready. All you have to do is be willing, vulnerable and open to a new way of being...one that is calling to you deep down and reminds you that YOU DESERVE MORE and you won't be happy until you allow the true You to shine!

YES: you can tighten your tush and tone your thighs

YES: you can take inches of fat off your belly, hips and thighs

YES: you can tone up your arms and sculpt a sexy back

YES: you can enjoy the feeling and radiance of a clean lifestyle

YES: you can develop the habits, commitments and wisdom you need to have lasting results

And, best of all you can

Love your body just the way it is

Feel confident and connected to your most powerful self

Know that even on your fat days you love yourself anyways

Have the tools you need to bounce back after any diet screwup

Be your greatest teacher, motivator, coach

Eating and moving to love your body into beauty

Its time to learn a new way of being. One that is in alignment with your body and it's needs, along with your vision and your heart. We are able to shine so beautiful and bright once we uncover our true form, and begin using our body-wisdom.

Principles for eating, moving and living mindfully:

Every body is different, we are all different, a lot of great diets out there, almost all of them work, but for specific people with certain bodies. No diets or bodies are created equal. Also our bodies are always changing, so what worked for us in the past may not necessarily be good or effective for us now. How do we work around this? By tuning into our own body's wisdom and understanding its language, it has all the answers we are looking for.

Having the right macros: Macros are the essentials of our diets: the main ones are proteins, carbs, and fats. Remember different types of bodies and blood types do best with higher protein/high fat diets, or higher carb/lower fat and protein diets.

Use super foods and antioxidants to restore and protect cells: Antioxidants and super foods are important as they help combat signs of aging, cellular deterioration, disease and free radicals. Today less than 10% of nutrients left in our topsoil from 100 years ago. Our foods are hydroponically grown, genetically modified, sprayed with pesticides, herbicides and fungicides then picked before they are ripened, then displayed in our stores. All of these extras end up in our systems, and when our systems become compromised over our lifetimes, our bodies begin to shut down and become toxic with these accumulating chemicals.

Acid alkaline balancing foods: Our bodies do best when we are sitting at a PH level of 7.2. It is easy to stay slim and healthy with lots of energy as muscle maintains is supple form in a highly alkaline environment.

Focusing on will building foods: there are certain foods that increase our life force, our chi, our creativity, clear our mind, make us feel empowered, and build our will and self esteem. We feel good about ourselves and firmly rooted in who we are and what we are doing with our lives.

Cleaning and detoxing the GI tract, liver, blood and lymphatic system: Your health is a pure reflection of how good your digestion is. It all starts with your digestive system (stomach, small and large intestine). Your gut consisting of your small and large intestine, harbours 75% of your immunity, makes critical vitamins, controls hormones including most serotonin production which is needed for being happy. If our gut is happy, we will be happy. We will feel well rested after a good night's sleep, be able to wear the clothes we like as our tummies will feel slim and healthy, have energy all day, and enjoy the way we feel inside our bodies.

Practicing the art of self-love, mindfulness and self-reflection: move from love, instead of self-loathing. Move with mindfulness, instead of haste. Take time to reflect so you can drink in your experiences and become more aware. To have more love, to feel more love, you need to embody love, and move from that space. Connect to your heart, breathe, appreciate the task at hand, and open your mind to find new ways to appreciate what you are doing. Do this when shopping, prepping your food, cooking, brushing your teeth, sitting on the toilet, shaving your legs. Pour love into everything you do, as every single moment of your life is a moment to expand into your true state: love. It is one of the most healing things you can do for yourself.

Transforming your physical, mental and emotional bodies

As the Buddha said "our body is our vehicle for awakening, treat it with great care." This is why we have to take care of all our bodies: emotional, mental, physical--so that our spiritual and psychic bodies can flourish. Our physical body must be properly nourished and exercised to channel a strong spirit to manifest our hearts desires and touch thousands of lives. Our mental body has to be clear and at peace with itself. Our emotional body has to be elevated with emotions like joy, gratitude, and authentic self love.

When all of these bodies are in alignment with our true self, our passion and spirit can shine and transform not just our lives, but everyone else we touch. When we are empowered in all our bodies, we are empowered in our lives and can then focus on our true purpose, passions and success.

What others have experienced with this program

"Jannine is so amazing, she helped me lose over 60lbs, regain so much body confidence and figure out how to eat for energy and staying young. I didn't have any confidence in the gym, and she supported me and allowed me to find what I was really missing...loving my self!" - Sherry

"I consider myself a pretty healthy person in general. This program took me to that next level I was searching for. I was always struggling with losing the last 10 pounds I needed and stubborn belly fat. This program did that and made me more aware of my body." - Suzanne

"I've never felt more alive than I do now. I find that those food cravings I was having aren't showing up anymore and much of the pain in my body is slowly disappearing." - Brittany

"I just finished my 8 week makeover and I am more confident now and feel totally empowered to follow a true passion of mine, which I discovered I was certain about after I started this program." - Christine

"I can't tell you how fabulous the guided meditations are for stress. These meditations have been a lifesaver for me." - Patrice

"This is my mind body makeover and its f-bomb awesome! The mind body connection is the game changer. Gratitude walks and meditation ARE life changing." - Jacqueline

"I am enjoying this experience. I like the format, have been doing the meditations, changing my eating habits, and doing my gratitude walk. I am finding myself more at peace with myself and feeling very enthusiastic." - Ann

"Today marks the end of week two for me. I started the program for health and self love issues. I can honestly say that I am already feeling better than I ever thought possible. I am waking earlier, more energetic, eating healthy (and so my family is, too), practicing daily yoga and meditation, making positive self talk a habit, and I've lost 8 lbs!" - Leanne

About Jannine Murray

Jannine Murray is the top Health And Fitness Specialist and Personal Trainer in Victoria BC. Her journey started when she was 16 years old when she stayed and studied at a retreat centre in the mountain of Lytton B.C. called Sointual Greens.

It was here she studied with Amandah Jensan, a Medical Intuitive and Spiritual healer for two years learning about food as medicine, working with the earth and plant energies, and powerful mind/body meditative techniques like the Silva Method. This spurred her onto a path to learn and grow in service of healing herself and others.

Jannine has over 12 years experience teaching fitness classes and personal training, holistic nutrition, diverse forms of movement therapy including the Alexander Technique, Fendenkraise, and dance therapy.

She has an extensive background in martial arts, aerobics, weight training, ballet, modern and jazz dance, as well as specialty courses like abdominal training, metabolic conditioning, sports specific training, body building, and holistic nutrition.

"I have experienced many gifts of pain, addiction and imbalance, all of which have deepened my skill-sets beyond theory and into practical application of knowledge.

I have discovered that you can Be, Do, and Have anything you want in life. You are the conscious creator of your body, mind and your life. If you are here then you are ready to create miracles within your body, mind, spirit and ultimately your life.

Join me on my journey to discover your most radiant self, this world needs your light and you need to shine!"

 Jannine Murray

5 Things Every Entrepreneur Should Know About Risk-Taking

Taking risks is scary, whether you’re going all-in during a friendly game of poker or quitting your long-time career to pursue one of your promising business ideas. Most people tend to avoid risks when possible, because inaction is often safer than action, but most successful people will tell you they got to where they are because they were willing to take risks no one else was -- whether that was developing a product nobody else thought would work or investing a sum of money everyone else thought was crazy.

Still, taking risks is intimidating, especially for new entrepreneurs. But it’s more complicated than just “doing something that might turn out bad.” To feel more comfortable taking risks and make more informed risk-based decisions, keep these five considerations in mind.

1. Risk-taking is inherent in entrepreneurship.

If you aren’t prepared to take risks, you have no business being an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is fundamentally linked to risk-taking. You’ll need to invest some of your personal capital into a growing business -- in most cases. You’ll stake your reputation on an unproven idea. You’ll sacrifice a steady paycheck for the first several months to a year -- again, in most cases.

And from there, every decision you make carries some small risk -- your new hire might leave in a month, your lead generation strategy might fail, your new approach might anger one of your best clients, and so on. Accepting risk as a part of the deal, and you need to be ready for that as you enter the entrepreneurial world.

2. There are different types of risks.

I’m not just referring to “big risks” and “small risks” here -- though those exist, too. There are calculable risks, which involve a series of knowns that allow you to reasonably predict the odds of success. For example, you might be able to infer from historical data that there’s a 30 percent chance a tradeshow’s attendance will dip to a point that makes your attendance unprofitable.

There are ambiguous risks, which involve some knowns and some unknowns, which complicate your decision making process. Most business risks fall into this category, because so many factors, like consumer behavior and economic shifts, are difficult to quantify or predict. Then there are complete unknown risks, which arrive when you bring something truly unique to the market. Knowing the differences between these risks can help you better understand how “risky” your decisions at certain points actually are.

3. Some of your risks won’t pay off.

The optimistic risk-taker will always see things as half-full, a 50-percent rate of success is “pretty good odds” and a 75 percent rate of success is a “sure thing.” This is compounded by the cultural idea that risk taking is generally a rewarding strategy. However, don’t be fooled into thinking that all risks are good risks or that always taking the risky option will pay off.

Some risks -- even carefully calculated ones -- will fail. Instead of ignoring this fact to overcome your apprehension toward risk, embrace it. Let yourself accept the possibility of failure, and when you do fail, don’t take it personally -- learn from the experience and move on.

4. We’re inherently biased toward predicting disaster.

There are two inherent biases in the human mind that skew our perceptions of risk. The first is that we tend to exaggerate the possibility for failure. In raw estimates (with limited numerical data), people tend to pessimistically predict failure more than real situations would warrant. The second is that we greatly exaggerate the consequences of those failures -- we envision the worst-case scenario, when the reality is far more manageable.

Keep this in mind when imagining the negative possibilities associated with your risks.

5. Risk is a differentiator.

Some risks offer the promise of higher value. Some risks offer smaller potential consequences than others. Some risks could make or break your business. But there’s one key element all risks have in common: They’re differentiators. Because most people are unwilling to take risks, the risk-takers of the world naturally stand out in the crowd, and as we all know, entrepreneurs and businesses that stand out are the only ones with a shot at breakout success.

Even if you end up failing, you’ll end up “failing in style,” so to speak -- and you might reveal more opportunities for yourself just because you were willing to stand out and break away from the norm.

Hopefully, these facts have transformed your perceptions of “risk” as a general concept, even if only slightly. It takes time to get to know the complexities and nature of risk, and even more time to get comfortable taking them, but eventually it will become second-nature to you. Focus on the known factors when you can, accept ambiguities -- and understand that failure is never the end of the road.

Larry Alton

The Quick Guide to Using Snapchat for Business in 2016

If you’re not already familiar with Snapchat, you should get acquainted. Snapchat is a mobile photo-messaging app that allows users to take photos and short videos that remain viewable to recipients for approximately 10 seconds; after that, the “Snap” disappears into the dark tubes of the interwebs, never to be seen again.

To expand its services, Snapchat has added live text, chat and video calls between contacts, which has helped increase use of the application among younger audiences. Just check out these stats:

• Snapchat has roughly 26 million users in the United States
• 77 percent of college students use Snapchat daily
• 58 percent of college students would be likely to purchase a brand's product or service if they received a coupon on Snapchat

That’s a huge audience of potential customers. If you’re not already using the app as part of your own marketing strategy in 2016, you should be. Check out this guide to help you get started:

Highlight special events.

If you’re hosting or taking part in live events (grand openings, anniversaries, trade shows, charity events, etc.), then Snapchat is a great tool to leverage. It gives your audience members direct access to your live event, no matter where they are.

The NBA used snapchat in this manner during draft picks, All-Star games and finals. During the 2014 All-Star Game, the Association launched its brand on Snapchat, where fans were able to get up close and personal with players during the game. They also got tight Snaps of the game’s Slam Dunk Contest.

Tease new products to your fans.

Some brands still worry that social use can be self-destructive and lead to a host of problems with managing user engagement. But others are jumping in, because marketers can make a serious impact with product launches using apps like Snapchat.

Snapchat is an ideal opportunity to start teasing out videos and pictures of new products. Because these images last a few seconds, you can expect a fair amount of buzz and chatter to surge around your new offering.

Pull back the curtain.

Snapchat can also be used to take your followers beyond raw products and services so you can engage the community more. Take them behind the scenes to show off your company. Have fun, and use the caption and drawing tools within Snapchat to show off your personality and corporate culture. This is a great opportunity to show your fans how different your brand is from your competitors’.

If you want to mix it up behind the scenes, rotate control of your Snapchat account among trusted employees. Give them each control of it for a day or so. This adds a great deal of variety and flavor that your fans will enjoy. Just be sure to set some guidelines to keep “bad stuff” from popping up.

Keep it Disney

Snapchat is about as casual as social media platforms can get. Your followers aren’t interested in corporate stuffiness -- they’re looking for color, action and fun. Give it to them.

At the same time, you still need to maintain some professionalism due to the nature of the audience. Snapchat followers are younger: according to Snapchat, the average user age group is 12-34. That means “keeping it Disney” with content that is clearly for a general audience.

Tell a story

Videos in any medium should be kept short and snappy, and that’s certainly true with Snapchat. Regardless of the medium, your audience is out there looking for brief content to digest while in line, sitting in class or on a short break at work. Feed them brief content and they’ll gobble it up.

Snapchat works because the videos you take are limited to 10 seconds. Take that and run with it, because you can make multiple video clips and string them together to tell a story that your followers can go through all at once when they have the time.

Push the incentives

Here’s where Snapchat can get you real foot traffic if you own a physical business: incentives. Incentives are a classic marketing strategy, and have become an expected staple within social media. Businesses often host giveaways and sweepstakes asking fans to like, retweet, share and comment for a chance to win something big.

Snapchat can be used the same way. In fact, an impressive 58% of college students stated they were more likely to buy from a company if they received a coupon via Snapchat.

So can Snapchat actually drive customers to your business or to your website? The answer is absolutely “yes.” If you haven’t started using Snapchat as part of your marketing strategy, you’re definitely missing out on the opportunity to connect with relevant members of your target audience.

Have you used Snapchat in your marketing? What kind of results have you seen from this increasingly popular social app? 

Sujan Patel 

15 Body Language Secrets of Successful People

Our bodies have a language of their own, and their words aren’t always kind. Your body language has likely become an integral part of who you are, to the point where you might not even think about it.

If that’s the case, it’s time to start, because you could be sabotaging your career.

TalentSmart has tested more than a million people and found that the upper echelons of top performance are filled with people who are high in emotional intelligence (90% of top performers, to be exact). These people know the power that unspoken signals have in communication and they monitor their own body language accordingly.

What follows are the 15 most common body language blunders that people make, and emotionally intelligent people are careful to avoid.

1. Slouching is a sign of disrespect. It communicates that you’re bored and have no desire to be where you are. You would never tell your boss, “I don’t understand why I have to listen to you,” but if you slouch, you don’t have to—your body says it for you, loud and clear.

The brain is hardwired to equate power with the amount of space people take up. Standing up straight with your shoulders back is a power position. It maximizes the amount of space you fill. Slouching, on the other hand, is the result of collapsing your form—it takes up less space and projects less power.

Maintaining good posture commands respect and promotes engagement from both ends of the conversation.

2. Exaggerated gestures can imply that you’re stretching the truth. Aim for small, controlled gestures to indicate leadership and confidence, and open gestures—like spreading your arms apart or showing the palms of your hands—to communicate that you have nothing to hide.

3. Watching the clock while talking to someone is a clear sign of disrespect, impatience, and inflated ego. It sends the message that you have better things to do than talk to the person you’re with, and that you’re anxious to leave them.

4. Turning yourself away from others, or not leaning into your conversation, portrays that you are unengaged, uninterested, uncomfortable, and perhaps even distrustful of the person speaking.

Try leaning in towards the person who is speaking and tilt your head slightly as you listen to them speak. This shows the person speaking that they have your complete focus and attention.

5. Crossed arms—and crossed legs, to some degree—are physical barriers that suggest you’re not open to what the other person is saying. Even if you’re smiling or engaged in a pleasant conversation, the other person may get a nagging sense that you’re shutting him or her out.

Even if folding your arms feels comfortable, resist the urge to do so if you want people to see you as open-minded and interested in what they have to say.

6. Inconsistency between your words and your facial expression causes people to sense that something isn’t right and they begin to suspect that you’re trying to deceive them, even if they don’t know exactly why or how.

For example, a nervous smile while rejecting an offer during a negotiation won’t help you get what you want; it will just make the other person feel uneasy about working with you because they’ll assume that you’re up to something.

7. Exaggerated nodding signals anxiety about approval. People may perceive your heavy nods as an attempt to show you agree with or understand something that you actually don’t.

8. Fidgeting with or fixing your hair signals that you’re anxious, over-energized, self-conscious, and distracted. People will perceive you as overly concerned with your physical appearance and not concerned enough with your career.

9. Avoiding eye contact makes it look like you have something to hide, and that arouses suspicion. Lack of eye contact can also indicate a lack of confidence and interest, which you never want to communicate in a business setting.

Looking down as you talk makes it seem like you lack confidence or are self-conscious, causing your words to lose their effect. It’s especially important to keep your eyes level if you’re making complicated or important points.

Sustained eye contact, on the other hand, communicates confidence, leadership, strength, and intelligence. While it is possible to be engaged without direct, constant eye contact, complete negligence will clearly have negative effects on your professional relationships.

10. Eye contact that’s too intense may be perceived as aggressive, or an attempt to dominate. On average, Americans hold eye contact for seven to ten seconds, longer when we’re listening than when we’re talking. The way we break contact sends a message, too. Glancing down communicates submission, while looking to the side projects confidence.

11. Rolling your eyes is a fail-proof way to communicate lack of respect. Fortunately, while it may be a habit, it’s voluntary. You can control it, and it’s worth the effort.

12. Scowling or having a generally unhappy expression sends the message that you’re upset by those around you, even if they have nothing to do with your mood. Scowls turn people away, as they feel judged.

Smiling, however, suggests that you’re open, trustworthy, confident, and friendly. MRI studies have shown that the human brain responds favorably to a person who’s smiling, and this leaves a lasting positive impression.

13. Weak handshakes signal that you lack authority and confidence, while a handshake that is too strong could be perceived as an aggressive attempt at domination, which is just as bad. Adapt your handshake to each person and situation, but make sure it’s always firm.

14. Clenched fists, much like crossed arms and legs, can signal that you’re not open to other people’s points. It can also make you look argumentative and defensive, which will make people nervous about interacting with you.

15. Getting too close. If you stand too close to someone (nearer than one and a half feet), it signals that you have no respect for or understanding of personal space. This will make people very uncomfortable when they’re around you.

Bringing It All Together

Avoiding these body language blunders will help you form stronger relationships, both professionally and personally.

A version of this article first appeared on TalentSmart.com.