I'll be performing my acoustic folk/pop music at:

Uno's Chicago Grill
7601 Mineral Point RoadLake Mills, WI
Sat. Aug. 2, 2014
Start 7:30pm 
http://4202.unotogo.com/zgrid/proc/site/sitep.jsp

If you're in the Madison, WI area Saturday, come on out.  I'll be performing original songs, Motown, Classic rock and '90s to early '00s favorites.

Thanks,
-Nick

There's an on-going debate today (in the wake of Google algorithm changes like, Panda and Penguin) for and against website SEO practices.

SEO alone is not a good strategy and totally ignoring SEO is not necessarily a good strategy either.

Understanding some key phrases that are relevant to those searching your type of solution and working those into your website content and site visitor experience is a great approach.

Here's an article that speaks to this a bit further.

I often get asked how to approach SEO.  My advice is, go out and find your target audience, or ask your current customers, what they search online when they're trying to find solutions like those you offer.  Also, ask them what challenges they face.

Use the answers you receive to choose key words and the kind of content you should develop to attract and resonate with your target audience/current customers.

My advice is to keep it simple.

Posted by: Nick Venturella

I've more recently discovered Greg McKeown for myself.  McKeown writes about the disciplined pursuit of less.

Huh?

Yeah, that's a fairly normal reaction.

McKeown's writes about being successful in one's career by stripping away other non-essential parts of one's career pursuits.

Furthering my research on my Tiny Career idea is how I came across McKeown.

McKeown speaks about this cultural and economic drive for "more." Being "it" all and having "it" all, and mentally and physically killing ourselves with stress and bad habits to get there.

...And often, it's simply more for the sake of more.  It isn't necessarily purposeful to the balance and purpose within our lives that will truly enrich us and help us gain the kind of success we're really after.

Here are a couple of McKeown's articles to read:

The Three-Word Problem that Can Destroy Your Life

The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Posted by Nick Venturella

As many of you know, part of my Tiny Career, includes my musical endeavors.

There is value in this for anyone who enjoys live original folk/pop acoustic music, and certainly anyone who also enjoys creative crowds at local independent coffee shops like, The Froth House.

I, Nick Venturella, will be performing...

• at The Froth House
  
• beginning at 7pm
• Thursday July 17, 2014
• no cover charge (though tips are always welcome)

It's pretty easy to get caught up in expectations. Expectations for yourself, for others, and for your business.

Have expectations on the things you absolutely can control like: I expect to be less hungry when I eat something.

Where you run into trouble is when expectations are so fixated on a particular outcome that you cannot envision any opportunities coming from some other outcome.

These kinds of expectations can really set you up for disappointment if they're not met. Such disappointment allows negative thoughts and a lack of confidence to creep into your mental space.

It's good to have goals and even a theory on what the desired outcome should reasonably be and why.

Although, if you approach those outcomes with open mindedness vs. more narrowly (specific expectations that if not met risk frustrating you, angering you and/or simply deflating you) then you can remain unattached to the outcome, which allows you to see the hidden opportunities in just about any outcome, whether it was the one you theorized would happen or not.

We always have something to learn and gain from each experience, even if the outcome was not what was expected.

The bottom line is:

• Always give your best in what you do
• Have goals related to where you want to go
• Know that you've given all of your best efforts toward reaching your goal
• Then be unattached to the outcome, rather, be open to the outcome, embrace it, adapt and move forward as needed. Regardless if the outcome is preceived as good or bad, by remaining unattached to the expectation of the outcome you can always find the positive opportunity the experience has presented to you...what did you learn? Perhaps, a different outcome sparked a new thought or inspired a new approach that you would not have otherwise embraced.

Posted by: Nick Venturella

I just came across some information that identified money, relationships and health as the top mega categories of niches for coaches and consultants to specialize in and offer various products and services.

That makes some sense as you can likely tie most coaching and consulting niches back to one of those three categories in one way, shape or form.

Even a niche like education or private tutoring, more specifically, ties back to money, relationships and/or health.

For example, improving one's knowledge and skills via education from a private tutor definitely provides interpersonal skills, which could relate to the relationships category.

Certainly skills one learns in school or from a tutor can contribute to the development of disciplined study and application of knowledge, which can translate to earning potential in one's job or business. That's a connection to the money category.

Or maybe you're a dating/romantic relationship coach and your client clearly lacks confidence in him/her self, and you discover that the main reason is because they don't feel good about themself. Suggesting they workout a little to help them get those endorphins flowing may help, or having them express their thoughts and feelings in a journal could do the trick. In either case, the activities mentioned could benefit someone's physical and/or mental health -- the health category.

I'm simply trying to illustrate examples of why money, relationships and health are such big business categories for coaches and consultants.

I encourage you to think about the fact that since those niche categories are very profitable, and sought after, how might you might tap into them with your own product, services and approach.

Posted by: Nick Venturella

On the CNN Parents section of the CNN website, I came across this article about the issue of being a working parent and raising a family and the struggle for a reasonable balance between the two, from a man's point of view.

I've been personally exploring my own work/life balance lately with my idea of a Tiny Career.  I shared the first 4 Tiny Career elements, of 7, in my eNewsletter to those on my email list.  I received many positive responses encouraging me to continue exploring my Tiny Career idea.  

What was interesting about the Tiny Career responses I received was that several of them were surprised by, and commended me on sharing, my perspective -- my male perspective on work/life balance.

At the time of writing that eNewsletter, It hadn't really occurred to me that there may not be many men sharing their thoughts and feelings about work/life balance.  I was simply writing from my own experience related to something that is important to me and my family, to me that's not gender specific.

Any who, when I found this CNN article it resonated with me in light of those eNewsletter responses, so I thought I would share it.

Warning:  If you read the comments on the CNN article you may take offense to them.  In my opinion, the article comments quickly become a distracted rant that gets off-topic from the actual content of the article...really it becomes a pissing match between lovers and haters.

Posted by:  Nick Venturella