Creativity safety video from Air New Zealand.

How do you get your resume in front of the right person? Well if you use the old traditional ways, you can be sure that it may be a great feat. The right person by my definition is the hiring manager and short of a person introduction, you have work to do on many levels to ensure that they see your resume.
First thing I recommend is that you have a well written resume and cover letter that is targeted for the position that you are interested in. The next thing that will help you in this market is networking. I …read more

How do you jump-start your marketing creativity? We get in our daily routines: get up, shower, get dressed, go to work, get some coffee, answer email, take a break, do some work, go to a meeting, come back, return calls, answer email… on and on. It gets monotonous. No wonder you’re not generating new marketing ideas!
We all need to shake up our routine a little in order to find our creative side. Go for a walk. Stop and look at the sky. Or trees. Or grass. Go to a park and let your mind wander. Sit and people watch at …read more

To be successful as a freelancer—or as an entrepreneur of any kind—you have to stand out from the pack. It takes ingenuity, creativity, dedication, and perseverance to turn the run-of-the-mill into a stand-out-in-a-crowd business.

Over the years, businesses along the “Mother Road,” also known as the old Route 66, have learned about flourishing in the good times and persevering through the bad.

Pops
Arcadia, Oklahoma
Whether they call it pop or soda or “coke,” the 66-foot-tall neon bottle makes Route 66 travelers call time out for a pit stop just northeast of Oklahoma City. Technically, Pops is a gas station with a restaurant in …read more

From the comfort of your home you can search for jobs online. I could actually stop writing this post and publish it, however it would be of little value for you if you are a job seeker. That is my point – if all you do from the comfort of your home is search for jobs online, or hang out on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, there would be very few results from your job search.
From the comfort of your home, you can relax, develop your job search strategy, research organizations and update your resume and cover letter. Once that fun …read more

“If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always gotten – the same result.” That is the definition of insanity and in this insane economy, you better have some relative sanity to combat the foolishness. Whether you are employed or unemployed, creativity and out of box thinking should become your favorite companions.
For those of you who are employed, you must be focused on preparation and planning. What will you do, if your job was gone tomorrow? Everything looks great today. No layoffs or very few in your organization. Everyone seems relatively happy despite the economy. …read more

by Michael Michalko
The way we think determines our thoughts, and our thoughts determine the language we use. Pay attention to how your friends and colleagues talk. You will find that many speak a language of exclusion, a language about “what is not,” instead of “what is,” or “what can be.”
This is because we have been educated to speak in deficit by describing what is missing, what is excluded, what’s wrong, what is not there. We often describe things, good or bad, in terms of what the experiences are not. For example, this morning I ran into an old friend and …read more

So yesterday – I think it was yesterday – I ran into Men With Pens. Today I went back because I had a bit of time to really poke around.
I found this: Getting Creative With Your Content It’s a decent rant about creativity, the lack of it, the way it stalls, along with a challenge to read Copyblogger’s The Content Crossroads: Supernatural Success at the Intersection of Ideas.
Take a break. Read both posts… then, well, I don’t know what then. I’ve got some writing to do for clients and I’m feeling inspired. How about you?
Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance …read more

I don’t know about you, but when I tell someone I’m a freelance writer I seem to get one of two basic responses:

Total lack of interest, or,
Fascination of one sort or another, usually with me ending up feeling like they don’t realize I’m human.
The people who are fascinated seem to view freelance writing much the way I did before I actually became one. As I recall, I pictured fame, fortune, and, I don’t know, a life of ease and glamor. I knew I’d never struggle for a word, phrase, or to hone an idea so it made sense on …read more

One of the things I do in addition to writing is pottery. I find hand building taps something primal within me. Part of it is just about playing in the mud, but there’s something else.
Usually I get to play this week once a week for about two hours in a lovely studio in San Diego’s wonderful Balboa Park. Spanish Village is an artists coop and to become a full-fledged member you have to jury in. I’m getting ready to try again this summer, and I have to submit five pieces. I’ve been working on a series of sculptures.
Yesterday, …read more