Current Affairs

What Is Your Social Media Currency?

March 29, 2018 By kwmccarthy

You’re sitting at the keyboard staring yet again at your Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn login. Yep, you set up your profiles on various social media sites, but as a business person you’re wondering:

Why am I doing this social media effort?
Does Facebook for business make sense?
How do I get the most followers on Twitter?
Are my LinkedIn connections too many or not enough?
What LinkedIn groups should I join?
Who wants to be friends with me?
What in the world am I doing on all these social networking sites?

In a prior On-Purpose Business Minute, I posed the question: What’s the Deal with Social Media? You were encouraged to make sure the purpose of your organization, business design, business strategy, and marketing strategies were in place and aligned. Now, let’s explore a simple, yet powerful traditional step you can make to bridge the relationship of your marketing and social media channels.

Develop your “Social Media Currency,” a term I’m coining (pun) to help my fellow business persons who are awkwardly pounding away with tweets, posts, discussions, chats, and IMs. A little direction can go a long way as you’re learning your way in the world of social networking.

Currency is a store of value; therefore, social media currency is your virtual store of value associated with your online (and real) personality, brand, and identity.

The more I learn about social media and social networks, the more I realize how little has changed in the world of business strategically. Sure, these online mediums shift the means of communication, but the very essence of it still rests on the fundamentals of solid marketing and execution.

Your social media currency is a place or channel-specific extension of your business brand personality.

If I say Apple Inc, you’re probably thinking about your iPod, Mac, or iPhone and attribute the brand qualities like “cool design, youthful, creative, and easy to use.” If I say IBM, your descriptors might be “corporate, smart, safe, mature, and powerful.” Or invest 18 minutes to watch the amazing brand development presentation by Coca-Cola found in this On-Purpose Business Minute to see a great example.

In short, your brand personality permeates your culture, customer service, hiring, product development, and so forth as an essential intangible currency of the relationship that builds consistency and trust. Veer too far from it and your brand value proposition is eroded as your customers are confused. Confusion and doubt damage your value.

How to Coin Your Social Media Currency

You’re probably not the CEO of a major corporation, but a SOHO, small-business person, salesperson, agent, or such. This is all the more reason why being smart online can pay for you and your business. You don’t have the big budget, ad agency, or marketing department defining core marketing strategies.

Early in my foray into social media, Mark Carbone, a business associate, encouraged me to articulate what he calls the “Five Pillars” for my online presence. Immediately, it made sense to me. After asking clients to give me five words to describe me, here is what I got back in rank order as my brand personality: Insightful, Authentic, Confident, Entrepreneurial, Spiritual.

My business partner, Mary Tomlinson, who used to head up Walt Disney World’s internal ad agency, and I often help our business advisory clients develop their brand personality. Same basic concept, just a corporate version.

Thanks to Mark and Mary’s training, my social media currency is defined with five words that describe me.

So, What is your Brand Personality?

Give it some thought for you. What five words best describe your brand personality? Engage the help of business peers, associates, clients, employees, etc., by asking them to give you a list of the five words that they think collectively best describe you.

When you’re finished with your words, use the comment section to post them. Then, you can tell me what five words best describe me. Thanks!

Now, go out and wisely invest your social media currency.

Be On-Purpose!
Kevin

Is Your Career In The Midst of A Tough Shift™?

February 8, 2018 By kwmccarthy

Job loss, underemployment, a part-time job instead of a full-time job, less pay for less rewarding work. Or perhaps you just don’t like the job you have. You are in the midst of or contemplating a Tough Shift™.

Don’t go through it alone! And, you’re not alone.

Stock market volatility, technology changes, and the gig economy might have you considering other career options.

When the U.S. economy catches a cold, the whole world sneezes! This unfortunate effect has many people spinning and caught in a round of chaos and confusion. Couple this with technology changes and the personal fallout from job loss and underemployment—it all amounts to a serious worldwide tough shift.

Change is never easy, but change under duress is even tougher.

Fear, worry, doubt, and anxiety creep into us. This affects us at some profound subconscious level and begins to be communicated. Our nervous vibe causes others to view us as desperate and risky. This perpetuates our greatest fears from the tough shift.

Is now the time to explore starting a business?

It can be an intimidating undertaking but there are many options to explore out there. For decades I’ve worked with business start-ups to design, advise, and guide the growth and development of the business plan and leader.

Don’t go it alone.

Find a business advisor or mentor who can see clearly into your blind spots. Yes, you’ll invest a few dollars, but you’ll gain time to market and create a more profitable and better working operation. There are no short-cuts to business creation, but why add unnecessary delays and detours out of your own inexperience?

So while you’re looking for a job you can be creating one, too … for yourself. Who knows, you may never have to go to work for someone else again!

This On-Purpose Business Minute offers some simple and calming insights.

Are you ready to tackle the underlying issues, so you’re tough shift proofed?

Will You Have A Happy, Healthy, & Prosperous New Year?

January 2, 2018 By kwmccarthy

(This video was originally recorded in 2011. While the year mentioned is not current, the message shared is timeless.)

To kick off the New Year, I’ve gathered a handful of On-Purpose Minutes and Business Minutes relevant to the popular New Year’s toast for a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year. Rather than it being a mere sentiment, why not make it a reality or at least invest your self in making your good life even better?

Put your good intentions into action!

For each aspect of this New Year gesture, dig deeper by clicking on the provided links to relevant Minutes.

Happy On-Purpose New Year!
Kevin

A Happy New Year

Happy is rightfully a great word to be associated with New Year’s Day. Much like time itself, happiness is fleeting, yet so desired. Who doesn’t want to be happy? The term “Happy New Year” embraces the chronological odometer as it turns and makes a fresh start for 2018. Relish the reminder.

Comparing Christmas Day to New Year’s Day reveals an interesting shift of words and implications. We will say Merry Christmas, but the word most reverently associated with this Christian holy day is joy, as in the song, Joy to the World.

Joy can be one’s reality regardless of whether circumstances are happy or unhappy. Trading in happiness is a far less stable currency of emotion. Joy is the gold standard.

Are You Happily Distracted?

How Do You Get The Job Of Your Life?

How Do I Find Peace In My Life?

A Healthy New Year

Several years ago, this over-50 former athlete turned business advisor, author, and speaker was resigned to wearing “my fat suit.” This is going to sound awful, but I was so accepting of my extra pounds that I used to say, “Unless I have a cancer, I probably won’t lose this weight.” Ugh!

Fortunately, that changed in March 2008, when I was booked by Dr. Wayne Andersen (sight unseen) to be the keynote speaker at the Take Shape For Life National Convention. I did the program, lost the weight, and haven’t really looked back at my old weight since. Admittedly, the holidays are the hardest part for me because I get so out of my normal routine; it is a festive time, and I’m addicted to sweets.

Are You Starting A Diet Monday?

Do You Want To Grow Into Maturity?

A Prosperous New Year

Prosperity is so overused, abused, and misunderstood. Let’s set the record straight.

Are You Prepared to Prosper?

Blessed Are The Profitmakers For They Shall Enrich The Earth

How’s Your Trust Account?

July 18, 2017 By kwmccarthy

In polite company, we’re told not to discuss religion, sex, or money. So today, I’m not discussing sex!

God is a very loaded term these days so please let me add an inclusive caveat to the Minute and my use of God.

God is being used in the broadest possible terms without affiliation to a particular denomination, faith, or point of view. I’m using God as inclusive of your worldview even if you’re an agnostic.

You may call God Nature, The Life Force, The Trinity, Jesus, Abba, Spirit, Jehovah, The Big Bang, or some other point of origin for the planet and our lives on it. In other words, unless you are a hard core atheist, don’t be offended.

Trust, not God, is the focus of the OP Minute. If you are searching for purpose, then you can’t avoid the spiritual nature of your quest and the need to trust that something bigger than you exists. Sure it raises important questions that profoundly affect our lives and color our worldview.

Do This: Grab a piece of paper and invest 60 seconds to jot down your answers to these questions:

Can you trust?
Where is your trust placed?
Where has your trust been violated? What did you learn?
Who do you trust … why?
How do you find trust in the midst of the swirl of current world events?
Without trust, can you ever find rest or peace?

God (broadly referenced remember) is bigger than we are. God is present today and around tomorrow. Long after we die, God exists. God is humbling and continuous. There’s something undeniably bigger than us, and God is a widely accepted term for that something.

When I go to the ocean, I often think of the sound of the waves crashing on the beach as the heartbeat of God. We can close our ears, minds, and hearts to the presence of God, but we can’t stop the waves from beating the shores. And we can’t stop those waves from pulsing on our hearts.

Trust, then, is a coming to terms with the world and your place in it.

Money, while nice to have, is a store of value but a counterfeit store of trust. If you’ll accept my premise about money, then where do you place your trust? Repeat this cycle of asking yourself where is the basis of your trust.

Honest repetition of the cycle eventually peels back the layers of empty stores to reveal God. Yet God is more concept than concrete. It defies logic to trust a mere concept. Yet, the mystery of God’s presence for as long as you can remember becomes undeniable. Something is there that our minds alone can’t grasp. And now we’re being asked to trust it more than we do when driving through an intersection with a green light. Weird, huh? Wonderful, yes!

That source of it all is why “In God We Trust” is such an important reminder of what matters most even as we wisely earn, save, and invest money.

Be On-Purpose!
Kevin

The On-Purpose President

November 12, 2016 By kwmccarthy

Christian Chamber presentation.003 November 10, 2016, two days after the historic election of Donald J. Trump as the 45th President of the United States, I was the scheduled keynote speaker at the Central Florida Christian Chamber of Commerce. I also serve as the Board Chair for the Chamber.

Based on the nasty political rhetoric in the campaign waged between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the President of the Chamber and I anticipated the need to refocus Chamber members on the creator of the universe.

I took the opportunity to remind the Chamber members of three simple points of how to be:

Standing in Victory
Presiding in Victory
Clarifying Who You Are to Be In Victory

Below (click on the graphic) is a 27-minute keynote speech with both the audio and my slides used. Some minor editing of the audio has taken place, but otherwise the content is as it was presented that day.

On-Purpose Peace: Articulate Your Purpose, Vision, Mission, and Values

If you are a Chamber Member and want to take advantage of the special On-Purpose Peace online learning experience discussed at the end of the video, then please go to www.ChristianCoach.me to be taken to The On-Purpose Shop where you can learn more and enroll.

Non-members of the Chamber are welcome to participate at our regular price of $195 per person. Click here to enroll.

Are You Feeling Successful?

September 15, 2016 By kwmccarthy

You are more successful and, frankly, abundantly blessed than you realize! Success is measured in many ways, but what if the real measure of success is not in what you get but in what you give. Later on in this post, watch the video below and learn how $10 can give you a chance to transform your perspective and the life of another person on the planet.

There’s a mental snare that catches many of us. The thinking goes along the lines of, “When I have plenty, I’ll give from my excess.” Your willing spirit is being derailed by a misconception of abundance. It is the donor equivalent of seeing the glass half empty. You already have everything you need to be generous.

Years ago, a friend showed me a website called The Global Rich List. You enter an income and it shows you where you stack up in the world in terms of wealth given the 7.3+ billion people on the planet. For example:

If you make US$30,000 per year, you are in the top 1.23% of worldwide wage earners and rank as the 73,638,782th top wage earner.
If you make US$60,000 per year, you are in the top 0.19% of worldwide wage earners and rank as the 11,425,778th top wage earner.
If you make US$100,000 per year, you are in the top 0.08% of worldwide wage earners and rank as the 5,067,405th top wage earner.
If you make US$225,000 per year, you are in the top 0.04% of worldwide wage earners and rank as the 2,359,669th top wage earner.

Chances are that if you’re reading these words, you are in the top 2% of the world in terms of income. You have an abundance already. You’re just seeing a 100-ounce glass that’s missing 2 ounces as being 50% empty. In other words, by financial standards, you are successful on the scope of the planet.

Avoid getting caught up in what you don’t have. Appreciate what you do have and become a better steward. Give from your existing abundance.

The $10 Idea to Make A Difference

Ready to put your newfound nearly full glass of abundance to work? Here’s an idea for you. Find a meaningful way to give away $10 to any charity or person you meet today.

The only attached string is that I want you to feel the prompting of your spirit that this will be meaningful to the person receiving it. It can be a gift of charity, or of appreciation, or simply a love gift. It can be a stranger or someone close to you. There are no rules except you need to feel prompted to do it.

Repeat The $10 Idea again if you feel prompted.

Top 2%er in the World … Need an Idea? How about Clean Water?

Keri Kuffel, my friend, is running in the Orlando Utilities Commission half-marathon to raise money for charity:water. I’ve given $25. How about you? Please donate $10+ to her effort using this link.

The Bible tells us in Luke 12:48b (NIV), “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

You are successful. You have abundance. Practice stewardship and generosity for you have been entrusted with much, especially as a top 2%er.

Is Your Life Getting Better?

September 8, 2015 By kwmccarthy

Note: The video mentions an upcoming On-Purpose Leader Teleseminar. For this updated On-Purpose Minute, I instead want to refer you to the Power of Your 2-Word Purpose Statement webcast, linked below.

Are you or is someone dear to you the proverbial “victim of circumstances”? Don’t Be! A victim of circumstances is a person in an unfortunate position, but those circumstances need not dictate your future.

You may not be able to control your circumstances, but you can manage your responses. Resigning to your current set of circumstances can be negatively habit-forming and send you in a downward spiral. This response means that you’re on the fast track to becoming a victim, no longer of circumstances, but of self-inflicted circumstances.

Choose a better option. In this On-Purpose Minute, we’ll be looking at how you can order your life around a different, healthier perspective of managing your life.

Are you ready to finally know your purpose in life — in two words! Yes, your life will get a whole lot better by being on-purpose.

The Power of Your 2-Word Purpose Statement may be just the introduction for you to order your life, define what’s most important, and begin living as an on-purpose person in creation.

Are You Happily Distracted?

February 5, 2015 By kwmccarthy

Warning: This On-Purpose Minute blog post has a sting. Proceed with caution.

Click For My Special Offer To Help You

We live in the entertainment economy. We’re so immersed in it that we’re like fish who don’t realize they’re swimming in water.

For example, the February 1 NFL Super Bowl XLIX drew an estimated 114.4 million viewers. Admittedly, I was one of them taking in the game, commercials, and halftime. Pro football is my sports distraction of choice along with suspense thrilling movies and TV shows.

I know these next two paragraphs will be controversial, but here goes anyway. When halftime performer Katy Perry rode out on a giant golden lion, Moses came to my mind. Remember Moses (Exodus 32) coming down the mountain with the 10 Commandments and seeing the people with a golden calf. Despite being delivered from Egypt, led through the Red Sea, and fed with manna from heaven, the people were easily distracted with images of gold.

Now compare tens of thousands in a packed stadium cheering and the millions of us at homes and parties who were glued to the TV in utter fascination as this tiny singer decked in flames entered the arena strapped atop the golden king of the jungle. And we wonder why the Jihadists call us the Great Satan. Seen through their eyes and without context, we look like worshipers of false gods “deserving” of punishment. The difference of course was that God didn’t smite the Israelites, but thanks to Moses’ intervention they received mercy and grace, not murder and mayhem.

I share my disturbing vision to shock you out of the depth of the “entertainment immersion” to invite you to breathe the fresh air of a life lived more thoughtfully and fully alive. Think of this message as CPR for the soul.

Be sure to invest yourself in the matters of life that matter the most. Go more deeply into the discovery of knowing who you are, how you were designed, and the difference your life can make in the world of the “happily distracted” who are filled but unfulfilled.

Distractions abound in an ADHD-paced schedule and life. Distractions prevent us from getting to clarity and building lives of maturity, depth, and greater contribution. When distractions become our way of life, the way of our life is passing us by.

How many times have you said, “I just want to be happy”? Perhaps you’ve said it about your children, too. To be happy is certainly a worthy emotional state.

Image via Wikipedia

Dare I ask …

Is happiness the true gold standard for the ideal emotional state?

Can we always be happy?

Are we entitled to happiness?

Yes, I believe in the book title from the Minirth Meier New Life Clinic, Happiness is a Choice. I’m happy to be happy!

Perhaps my age is showing with my questions (and answer). Hopefully, I’m not a cynic, but a keen observer of the human condition. The “pursuit of happiness” as we understand and apply it in the 21st Century may actually not be in our long-term best interest. Too often the pursuit of happiness is the unhealthy avoidance of reality. Denial and distraction are a dangerous one-two combination that take us down an unhealthy path of avoidance.

Happiness, for all its good as it is in use today, is a fleeting, temporary, or surface emotion. Happiness is circumstantial and has the effect of drug tolerance. What it takes to makes us happy tends to get ramped up over time. We need more and bigger to satisfy our happiness quotient.

The more enduring emotions are love, joy, and peace because they are attitudes of choice, not circumstances. The matter becomes, not what can I do to be happy but can I be at peace regardless of my circumstances.

Viktor Frankl in his book Man’s Search For Meaning profoundly observed that those who survived in Nazi prison camps had a compelling reason and will to live. In essence, they made peace with their circumstances and captors. They lived until another day because they had a purpose, a reason for being.

Pursuing your purpose (instead of happiness) opens the back door to the prosperous and joyful life of being more at peace. Get off the “happy drug” of distractions. Stop paying the high price of avoiding being the true you.

Frankly, we need you to be more of you. You’re the only one who can be you.