Red Zone Marketing - Blog

Maribeth has the best marketing ideas, many are very innovative.

Red Zone Marketing - Blog

The Toxic Behavior of Judging

I have been facilitating a lot of corporate wellness programs lately and am pleased to see there are companies who see the value in giving their employees new information and tools to use to manage their stress and work/life balance.  The ROI is quite eye opening. Not only does this proactive approach cut down on health care costs companies incur but it also helps alleviate employee turnover. People will get disengaged in their job performance if they feel they don't matter, are not appreciated or don't see any opportunities in their employment. People are working longer hours, are required to handle more responsibility with less pay and in many cases working the jobs of two people as companies cut back on expenses and have become lean.

It's no wonder stress shows up, work/life balance has jumped out of the window. As human beings, we only have control over how we react to outside triggers. We can choose to handle and manage our stress through making time for habits such as deep breathing, physical activity, listening to quiet music, being outdoors in nature, etc. Or, we can choose to just be frantic, worried, anxious all the time. One helps us stay young, keeps us healthy - mind, body and spirit and calm or one will age us quickly, cause health issues and relationship issues. It's a personal choice we have to make.

I like to educate people on the factors of what causes stress and how it impacts the mind and body; help people discover their triggers and where it shows up and then guide them to figure out how to manage it, the most important part of our discussions. Sometimes we have to get an accountability partner to help us implement a change in behavior or we see the value in hiring a coach who will help guide us to long-lasting change.

If you are reading this and you don't handle stress or work/life balance very well. Step back and ask yourself: How is this impacting me and those around me? What would I like to change or add to my life that is nurturing and calming? What needs to change? Why is this important? It's never too late to grab a hold of our lives and decide that some things aren't working anymore and needed changes have to occur. As Nike says - "Just Do It".

Innovators and Entrepreneurship

Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending the open house and ribbon cutting ceremony of the new FAU Research Park incubator center located in Boca Raton next to the campus of FAU.  Walking around and seeing/meeting the young innovators located throughout the space was so much fun. I love hearing people's passion about new ideas and new concepts they are creating with excitement. One company, an IT consulting company has only been in business four months and have already gone from a staff of six to a staff of twelve and have plans to continue expanding. All Generation Y folks with an eagerness to take their concepts and ideas to their market and transform their client's ideas into realty.

In attendance at this event was the city mayor, a councilwoman, a county commissioner, members of the Business Development Board, Chamber of Commerce, staff and faculty of FAU and business owners, investors, etc. I met some very interesting people from this group, many I know. One new person I engaged in conversation was  a college professor of engineering who is also a beautiful artist - Thomas Fernandez. His artwork adorned  the walls of the building and it is simply exquisite. He created some pieces to depict math formulas in art form. Truly intriguing coming from a traditional left-brain thinker who is also very much a right brain creator of beauty.

Innovators and Entrepreneurship are buzz words for this decade. The more open we can be with accepting of new ideas and concepts to make processes easier, the less stressed we can become. If you live near a college campus, check out what's going on around it in the business community. When they join forces, fertile ground of new ideas being created by a whole new generation. These are exciting times.

We Can Never Forget

"No matter how much time passes, no matter what takes place in the interim, there are some things we can never assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away. They remain with us forever, like a touchstone."

—  Haruki Murakami

Eleven years ago today, actually this morning - the United States was attacked to the core of our being. From September 12,2001 forward, our lives have been changed dramatically. Just like the holocaust during WWII, mankind continues to be plagued by unrest, hate, personal agendas and suffering. These wake up calls give us opportunities to not only be alert to not allowing these atrocities to happen, but to stand in the power of Love, compassion, forgiveness, gratitude and maybe just maybe make a difference in someone's life to see the value in others and in being alive in this world. We have the ability to speak, to make a difference, to be aware of what's going on around us and alerting officials if something doesn't seem right. Yes, there is tremendous bureaucracy in our government and dysfunction in how some governments around the world are led. But again, we have the ability to take a step forward in the direction of helping someone else be a better person. Own this power or get help to be better at owning your power. There is tremendous good in our world as well and events such as these mentioned brings out the best in people who come together to help.

We must never forget and we must never not get involved. We can change things, one step at a time.

Difficult Conversations

I am reading "Difficult Conversations" by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton and Sheila Heen.  Most of us struggle with conversations that need to be said whether it's on difficult performance feedback, addressing dysfunctional behavior, taking teams to their greatness, etc.  The biggest lesson I gleaned from the book is that our assumptions about other people's intentions can also have a significant impact on our conversations. The other person can judge our intentions, feel falsely accused and have to be defend themselves.

The lessons around disentangling the impact and your intention is to ask yourself three questions:
        1. What did the other person actually say or do?
        2.  What was the impact of this on me?
        3.  Based on this impact, what assumption am I making about what the other person intended?

From these thoughts, practice sharing the impact on you with the other person and ask them what their intention was the comment or action. If you can create a way to take a moment to think about your reactions and respond in a different way, you may find these difficult conversations become easier.  Please remember that you only have control over yourself - your reactions, your actions and your thoughts. The same is true for all of us as each of us is wired as individuals with our own histories, our own life experiences, education , life lessons and culture exposure.

Read the book, hire a coach, practice and be mindful of where these conversations show up and try to handle them a little differently.

Creative Lifestyle Through Mind Mapping | CraigDesmarais.com

The article on this link is well written and shows how we humans think which can cause of stress, worry or harmony.

Creative Lifestyle Through Mind Mapping | CraigDesmarais.com