VidMama

Who is Katie Yeakle?

The short answer to the question is that Katie Yeakle is the Executive Director of American Writers & Artists, Inc, or AWAI for short. Katie has been director of this unique institution for thirteen years. She and the team at AWAI work tirelessly to help people realize their dreams of starting a new career as a freelance graphic designer or writer.

The deeper story is that katie yeakle has spent more than twenty years of her life learning everything she can about direct response marketing and copywriting. She spent most of that time in the trenches as a copy editor and editorial coordinator. She also worked as a product manager and marketing manager. Eventually became a publisher and decided to share her hard-won knowledge of the industry so that others could abandon their jobs as corporate drones and free their inner artist.

Yeakle is an expert in copywriting and direct marketing . She also brings a wealth of knowledge about the nuts and bolts of business. AWAI offers courses on how to find and bid on freelance work and how to organize a freelance career — everything from the actual writing and design work to how to budget and how to find jobs.

Tags: direct marketing

Corporate Team Building Courses Builds Effective Leaders

It’s important for managers to have effective leadership skills. Especially if a company wants more from their employees other than just showing up to work on time and only doing their job specifications. An effective leader will not only manage the people under them, but will encourage each individual, inspire them to do better than what’s expected of them, and to outperform their job description.

This can only be achieved by sending managers to a Corporate Team Building course designed to turn managers into team leaders. It’s not a bad idea to send all employees to their own Corporate Team Building course structured specifically for employees. There, they will find their own potentials and will find that they too can become effective leaders not only in the work environment, but in their personal lives as well. In the meantime, it’s important for managers to learn how to build a productive relationship with their team, enough to where not only corporate goals are met or exceeded, but for employee’s goals, including personal goals are met or exceeded.

In a Corporate Team Building course, there will be leadership skills taught that are relevant in today’s fast-paced business environment. Here, managers will learn which leadership skills that have become obsolete and which that have not such as time management, charisma, effective strategy, and strong ethics. Managers will learn new skills including being able to ‘build communities’ and other skills related to a specific type of work culture .

Tags: work culture

Table Tents and Unity of Design

There are some elements to a restaurant that have to be simply a matter of course. Ordering enough dishwashing detergent, a supply of pens, window cleaner, and a number of other items, all add up to a smooth operation. These items really shouldn’t take up a lot of head space, or time, because they are the incidentals that people will rarely pay attention to.

Outside of this, however, simple objects do have the ability to reflect a general sense of what the restaurant is all about. Having the right linens, the right place settings, the perfect silverware, and the correct table tents all add up to a very unified picture of the restaurant’s identity. Some of these things, surely, won’t be noticed by everyone consciously, but they do register in the mind, and they can have a profound effect on the dining experience.

It all goes back to some of the basic principles of design. As if this were a stage production, which is kind of is, one needs to take some care to make sure the design is unified . There are several ways to do this. One of the easiest ways to unify the elements is through color . Having a particular palette in mind can in fact bring together everything more quickly than other elements, like line, shape, and texture. It depends on how complex one wants to get, but beginning with color is always a great starting point.

Tags: color

Great Trade Show Displays Offer Business Edge

One of the most important aspects of participating in a trade show is having a great display image and attractive information booth. Without these essential ingredients, your product and/or business is unlikely to get much notice or receive much interest. And this, of course, completely mitigates the benefit of participating in one. So, it makes great sense that you will want to put some thought and effort into having the best possible booth displays that you are able to. Or, the alternative is to hire a qualified professional trade show displays designer, which may cost you a little more but is also effective.

You can, however, create your own great displays or at least with a little assistance you can. The technology available for graphic design and pop up images is amazing and you can take an ordinary presentation and make it come to life with the right banners, fold out displays and graphic images.

With the amount of competition faced by businesses in today’s market it is essential to give your business any edge you possibly can. And while this always means offering a quality service or product in a professional manner, attracting customers to your business is just as important. And with all of the resources available, it can be inspiring and fun to create the best possible display booth you are able to, to show off your incredible product.

Tags: attracting customers to your business

Defining Success

Success can be defined in many different ways. In its broadest terms it can be defined as the completion of a goal . It can mean passing a class or achieving a level of monetary wealth or holding a certain position within a company. Whether the goal is set by you or by someone else, once it is complete it is often followed with great joy.

Students in particular often have many goals they have set to achieve success; completing assignments, getting good grades, and eventually graduating. When students take on an internship with Southwestern Company they have many goals to reach before they are successful and can earn the Southwestern Company success coin. A coin may not seem like much, but for Southwestern interns it is a physical representation of their dedication and hard work.

In order to earn the coin students must work 75 hours a week for the first two weeks. This means they will work 12 ½ hours a day, 6 days a week, for 2 weeks. For many, working this many hours is by itself a great accomplishment. Engraved on the coin are several important reminders to help students continue on the path to success. On the front side in a small box are the words “30 Demos a Day”. This is the number of demos that company recommends each student attempt to make every day. This will help them to reach their monetary goals as well as teaching them perseverance. To the left is the letter B, which stands for belief in organization, sales manager, company, product, service, and self. You can not be successful if you do not believe in yourself and what you are doing. To the right is the year 1868, which is the year the student programs began. The backside is very simple, it contains only four words, but it says everything; integrity, goals, competitor, and teachable. The Southwestern philosophy maintains that embracing these characteristics not only will you achieve success as a student dealer but in all that you set your mind to.

Tags: believe in yourself

TransGlobe and Moving into the Future

Living in a web-based world presents its own unique challenges, and there are certainly some that we could never have anticipated before.  There are generations growing up right now that have more information available to them in seconds that we had in years.  Even the most devout and caffeinated graduate student could not research any faster than a savvy user of search engines.  We can find all sorts of fantastic information immediately, things like movie showtimes, driving directions, or even the text version of an important speech that was delivered just a few moments ago.  We can also find thousands of listings for rental properties, with companies like TransGlobe Property Management, who have the foresight to move into the computer age with all the engines running.

This certainly does change our reality, and in ways that we can’t really even philosophize yet.  We’re living in the middle of the change, and it will take a few years to develop the hindsight to determine what exactly has happened to our conception of things.  It is certain, however, that these changes have affected our memories.  We simply don’t need to have the same kinds of information in our brains any longer.  Very few people remember more than one or two phone numbers, because of the way our cell phones are programmed, when just twenty years ago most of us could remember dozens.  There are those who claim that this only results in lazier thinking, and this is why the new generations have such short attention spans.

At the same time, it also seems possible, and even likely, that our memory banks are being used in different ways.  We may not live long enough to reap the benefits of the sudden increase in our own memory vaults, but we can see that we think about things differently now.  Even every day occurrences, like moving from one place to another, have a different series of actions involved.  Where before, we would probably make a few preliminary trips to a potential neighborhood, or gather our resources to find out facts about the places we’re considering, we can now log on to the database at TransGlobe Property Management, and browse their properties with the help of twitter and youtube, in order to find out more information than was ever available to us before.  These have to be very splendid changes, because we’re living with more knowledge about where we live, and where we’re going.

Tags: memories, memory, Transglobe Property Management

Customer Service in Restaurants

It may seem to be old fashioned but great costumer service in the restaurant business is as important as ever to the success of the restaurant and even the industry itself. In today’s economy, dining out can be a luxury experience for many couples and families. If they arrive at a restaurant and are greeted with an annoyed or unfriendly host or hostess, they will automatically be put in an aggravated mood, which is likely to last throughout the meal. Steven Barbarich knows that customer service begins with the consumer’s first experience with the company and never actually ends. The most immediate encounter will likely conclude with the recognized satisfaction of the consumer with the product, however, any wise business person will realize that any customer may be a repeat customer, and ensuring this is essential to building a solid costumer base.

This is particularly important in the restaurant business when repeat patronage often forms the bulk of an establishment’s business. In addition, the rate of repeat customer purchase is probably the highest with restaurants than with any other field. Customer service in a restaurant takes on many aspects, and oftentimes includes making it as personal and friendly as possible. It is true that people will return to a place where they feel recognized and respected. Hosts and hostesses should always greet customers with a friendly disposition, and when possible attempt to remember and verbally recognize regulars. It is also important to give accurate wait times for a table. One of the positive dynamics in most restaurants is the systematic aspects of service. Bus persons will often take on the immediate needs of a table when they notice that the server is tied up with another table. The host or hostess is also able to and often does offer to bring initial drinks to the table. One of the most important things for a server to remember is that regardless of how busy they are, when they are at a specific table they should give them their undivided attention and be respectful of their questions and needs.

Tags: repeat customer, Steven Barbarich

Hot Tubs Will Rinse Away Stress from Busy Days

The days are long and can be filled with stress, either a stressful day at the office, or a day of driving children to sports events and dance classes, one may come home and be filled with tension, as well as exhaustion. Nothing really beats what it feels like to step into a bubbling hot tub. There is a wide variety of choices available at choosehottubsdirect.com.

The physical tension floats away as the body and the muscles begin to relax. And the tension and the stress of one of those long days will just simply disappear. People have been reviving themselves in this way, the way of the water, for centuries. Ancient civilizations were aware of the benefits, long before the medical community supported those positive effects of the hot soak. So why is it that something so simple can ease the mind and take one’s worries away? The steam from the hot water, as well as the water itself, is one of the aspects that will ease stress.

The buoyancy that is created by the bubbles eases the aches and pains caused by walking around all day. Gravity makes the body kind of pound down on itself. Each step one takes throughout their day will gradually put pressure on the joints and the spinal column. This is one of the main causes of back problems. When one floats in a hot tub, the body is able to put itself back together.

The muscles relax and bones will separate and release and the pressure will go away as more than thirty percent of that pressure will be relieved simply by a few minutes a night relaxing in this manner. The blood will begin to circulate again as the capillaries open up, and the heart will begin to work pumping that blood throughout the body easing the aches of a long day. Sleep will come easier and one will be refreshed and ready for the next day.

Tags: choosehottubsdirect.com, physical tension, Sleep

Your small business and charity work

Could your small business use a little pick me up? No not a monetary pick me up, more like morale pick me up for your employees? With the economy not doing so well, it could be difficult to mobilize your employees to work hard and do well. This is especially true if you have experienced any lay offs in your company or business recently. Now, there really is not much you can do to turn around how a person feels, but if you can make them forget about their worries for awhile and do something positive together.

Think about taking your team of employees to go and volunteer for an organization. Another option is to think of how you could give back to your community. For example, do like choosehottubsdirect.com did and donate a part of your profit to a charity. Their CEO decided to give back by donating to a relief fund that was set up after Hurricane Ike made landfall a few years ago.

You don’t have to donate a portion of your profits to help out your local community. Contact your local Humane Society if you find that you and your employees enjoy helping animals. Another great team building event that could build morale is doing a team walk. Try doing a walk to combat cancer like the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.

Another thing you could consider is that you could gather up things that you and your employees no longer need and have a garage sale. You could then donate the proceeds from your sale to your favorite local charity.

No matter what you decide to do, it’s just important to try and give back to your community. And it’s a great team building activity. In times like these, the more you do for others, the better you can do in this world, the better you will feel.

Tags: charity work, choosehottubsdirect.com, small business

Using Youtube as a training tool and how it can be beneficial to job seekers

Videos have been a cornerstone of customer service training. Everything from retail to corporate America chooses to use the video format for things like sales training and customer service training.

These videos used to only be available to those individuals for those who worked for the respective company. But now more than ever any person can find business training videos for many companies right on the internet.

The internet video sensation YouTube changed the way people communicate with each other. And it is now doing that in business. Using YouTube as more than a platform for copy cat music videos is a great way to reach a wide range of customers and prospective or current employees.

All it takes to load a video to YouTube is an account. So businesses are making one video, posting it on YouTube and then distributing it to those who need to watch it within their company. This takes away the need to make multiple copies of one video, in turn, costing the company less money to distribute business training videos.

Checking YouTube is a good way to learn about a company too. There may be information videos on YouTube for a company you may be interviewing with. This gives a person going in for a job interview a better understanding with how that prospective employer does business and their overall mission statement.

Another way a job seeker can use YouTube as a tool is to gain access to corporate training videos to learn a business more thoroughly or to gain free training from the videos posted on the website. YouTube may help you gain knowledge about industries you may be thinking about entering in the future. Or it may steer you away and towards something else.

Tags: business training, customer service training, sales training