Running in circles

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By Josh Rice, Public Relations Specialist with Federal Financial Group LLC

Have you ever noticed that if you don’t have a goal in life it is almost always certain that you will be going in circles? This happens to everyone at least once in there lives. For many it happens often.

Jan L. Souman, a German psychologist, wanted to determine scientifically if this was true. He took participants of an experiment to a large forest area and to the Sahara desert and used a global positioning system to track where they went. They had no compass or any other device. Instructions to them were simple: walk in a straight line in the direction indicated.

Dr. Souman later described what happened. “[Some] of them walked on a cloudy day, with the sun hidden behind the clouds [and with no reference points in view]. … [They] all walked in circles, with [several] of them repeatedly crossing their own path without noticing it.” Other participants walked while the sun was shining, with faraway reference points in view. “These … followed an almost perfectly straight course.”

This study has been repeated by others with different methodologies. All returned similar results.

Without visible landmarks, human beings tend to walk in circles.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Well in life and in our careers we can set landmarks that will send us in the right direction. If you look at anyone that has been successful, they have done this. Look at where you want to go and set goals or landmarks to reach that point. It’s hard to say what those landmarks will be. Careers differ from each other so much and there are so many different things we can achieve here in this life. If you’re already on that path, awesome! There is always more you can achieve or get better at.

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What you’re not saying is what you are really saying

By Josh Rice, Public Relations Specialist with Federal Financial Group LLC

Have you ever thought about what you look like when you are communicating with people? Has something you said not come across the right way? This is common for a lot of people. Nonverbal communication is 70 to 90 percent of all communication. You don’t even have to be saying anything and you’re already saying something to the world. You might even be able to keep doing and saying the same things, but by just changing your body language you will get a completely different result. Here are a couple things that might change everything for you.

Smile– A smile can change the whole mood of a conversation. The way to seem excited and happy is a smile. Smiles are contagious!
Follow His Feet– The body points to where it wants to go. If it’s pointed at the door then mentally he’s already gone. But if the feet are pointed at you then you have his attention.
The Mirrored Effect– Keep yourself relaxed and opened. Simply mirror the person you are with actions and they will think you are in sync with them. If you are at dinner with them, then pick up a glass and drink at the same time as them. This will make them feel at more ease when you are with them.
Stay Still– When you are with someone and you are communicating with them, try to move as little as possible. When you move and it doesn’t have anything to do with the conversation it shows that you don’t have their full attention. The less you move the more it shows you are engaged with them and listening to them.

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For any reviews or complaints about Federal Financial Group LLC please email us at Socialmedia@ffg2.com. We appreciate your feedback!

Make Yourself Stand Out in the Crowd

By Josh Rice, Public Relations Specialist with Federal Financial Group LLC

I have seen the corporate rat race go on for a little bit of time now. When you go to college they teach you the basics. If you work hard and have some good skills, then you will do alright. I kept hearing that for the whole time I was in school and came to believe that when I left school. I don’t know if what they taught me in school is going to cut it anymore. I’m sure if you do those two things then you will do alright and make a paycheck every week. But what if you want to move up in a company or stand out? I found a really cool article on one of my hero’s, Ken Block. You guys might not know him yet but there are some lessons that we can learn from this man.

Little bit of a background because not everyone will know who I am talking about. Ken Block was one of the founders of DC shoes (skate company and is now currently one of the top brands in skateboarding, thanks to Ken). He decided to sell it and get into rally car racing in 2005.

Now for those that don’t know a whole lot about this sport: Rally car racing is done in the great outdoors. It usually consists of dirt trails and a combination of street roads.  This is a highly competitive sport and tons of money is invested in it. Ken Block was good when he entered in 2005, but he wasn’t winning every race. He did however earn “Rookie of the Year” and had a couple huge sponsors that came on board.  To paint the picture even more, he really just became a good driver fast in the rally car circuit. Ken was good but there was nothing really setting him apart from everyone else in his industry that would warrant any huge attention. Well, that was all about to change.

Ken did a couple things which brought him from just being another guy in the racing crowd to a mega super star that transcended his sport and him worldwide. This would make him a superstar in his own right and creating a mega empire on the way.  When you think of Rally Racing you can’t help but think of a couple of names and Ken Block is on the top of that list, and it’s not because he wins a lot of races or championships. It’s because he decided to think outside the box and do a couple things differently.

Ken decided to focus on four things that really changed how people viewed him and the sport: Social Media, YouTube, Gymkhana, and GoPro.

Gymkhana is defined as “an automotive sport that takes place on an open field or parking lot and requires drivers to skillfully maneuver their car around a series of cones, slaloms, 180 degree turns, 360 degree turns, figure 8 turns, or other obstacles using extreme acceleration, braking, and drifting,” explained Rob McGrorty, a writer for sporttechie.com.

Ken started to do things in his industry that no one was doing at that time. His sponsors backed him and he created a number of videos to show off his talent. This showed the world that he was different than his competitors and opened new markets in his sport. He is currently traveling the world racing in the WRC (World Rally Championship) and doing Gymkhana events.

YouTube/GoPro  – The only people that were using these two things were fans taking homemade videos and throwing them up on YouTube. They didn’t look good and really didn’t show what the drivers were doing. So Ken had the prefect way of showing off his skills to the world. He threw up his Gymkhana videos on YouTube and used GoPro cameras on all his videos. The Camera angles alone make you feel like you are an extension of the car. He also used professionals to film him doing his driving. The quality was top notch and really showed how much skill he had at driving. On YouTube alone he has over 170 million combined views on his five Gymkhana videos. It really feels like you are in the car with him and there is an amazing storyline to each video that makes you wondering what’s going to happen next.

Ken is extremely active on social media. This was different than any other driver at that time. He uses a wide variety of social media platforms to connect with his fans. He has almost 4 million followers combined on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Whether he is in the office or creating new videos, he is sharing what he is up to. The fans feel like they have a connection with him and want to know what he is up to because he shares a little bit of his life.

Ken Block saw an opportunity in four different categories that no one was doing well in his industry. That’s something to think about in whatever industry you are in now. Something that is so awesome already was improved upon. To me that gives everyone else a huge opportunity in whatever field of work they are in. We might not have a cool race car to work with, but we have an opportunity to think outside the box and identify a couple key areas to go after like Ken did and run with it. In the business world it’s about standing out, whether you are trying to make it on your own or get a promotion at your job, there are always a couple things that can change to make you stand out in the crowd.

 

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Talking Points of Great Leaders

By Josh Rice, Public Relations Specialist with Federal Financial Group LLC

Communication in business can make or break your career. There are a couple things that all good leaders have in common when interacting with colleagues, employees and even friends. I have taken some ideas from an article from Inc., many communications classes in college, and watching some great leaders here at Federal Financial Group LLC.  Here are a couple things you should say continually to keep you standing out and being a trusted leader:

“Here’s what I’m thinking”

Whenever a boss says this first, I get pretty excited. It’s a really friendly way of telling someone your opinion or what you need them to do. But the key difference is that they are open for improvement and value your opinion. So when you use this phrase it makes people feel like they are on a team and working with you rather than being told what to do.

Transparency

In everything you do be as transparent as you can be. If you do this people are more likely to trust you and be more willing to work harder for you because they know what you stand for. Even if you think it’s bad and you don’t want to share it with people, you will be better off telling the truth so that people know that you’re human and where you intentions are going. Time and time again I see this in our leaders here. They love to keep us updated on everything that is going on and be as transparent as possible. This makes me want to work harder for them and motivated to do the same thing for them.

Apologizing

We are all human, so that means we will make mistakes. If you don’t, that raises more eyebrows to me. Whenever I have had a boss apologize to me for something, it has really meant a lot and I come out of it really respecting the person more. You are more likely to remember a boss down the road for his character that has apologized to you than one that was always right.

“Can you show me?”

“When you ask to be taught or shown, several things happen: You implicitly show you respect the person giving the advice; you show you trust his or her experience, skill, and insight; and you get to better assess the value of the advice”, said Jeff Haden, a writer for Inc.com.

I really like that last comment. If we could apply all four tactics when we are leading people or communicating with people, we will become those leaders that we have looked up to for so long.

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