January 14, 2010
Girls loved stroking and pull my hair, I used to love it. I first noticed the first revealing signs of hair loss, one morning while I was brushing my teeth: hair was in the sink and the top of my head was noticeably less full than the crown and sides of my head. I’d never before considered what hair loss would be like: Most of the men in my family have a full head of hair. .
I felt that I lost my self-confidence, once I noticed the thinning strands. I no longer wanted to comb my hair, wore caps as much as possible, and felt self conscious. My girlfriend and I weren’t as intimate as we were because I was troubled about her finding the thinning patch on top of my head. I was suffering from anxiety and my performance at work worsened due to the inability to concentrate.
Gratefully, I found Advanced Hair Studio. One of my friends told me about it in passing. As far as I remembered, he has been bald ever since I knew him. However, one day at the gym, I observed his hair looked full and fresh. He told me that Advanced Hair Studio was to thank.
That very night, I went on-line and ordered my first product and had them delivered overnight. The results were immediate: my hair felt stronger and thicker in just a few days. A month later and the thinning patch that caused me to worry myself sick was full of hair. I’d never before believed anti-balding products worked. However, after my experience with Advanced Hair Studio, I now know that there are products out there that can save men a lot of stress, grief, and worrying.
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January 5, 2010
A modern job search campaign is by nature very complex. While the net has offered a variety of new channels, it also creates increased competition for choice jobs and potential challenges for job hunters.
Job hunting needs to be thought of as a highly personal, extremely aimed marketing operation where you are the product. Your resume is an advertisement. Your extended network is your source for information.
So where does the net fit in? At AA-Careers, we recently posted a job on a popular job site and got more than 650 responses in a week. For a single opening. That’s increased competition.
Had a strong person gotten ahold of us before we ran the ad, they could have landed the job prior to running in to all that competition. How? By knowing someone at our company who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone knew about of the job for at least 11 days before it was posted. Who in your network might know of a job that’s coming available soon?
Be careful how you submit your application as well. When we did an analysis of the 650 resumes, we found a large number of errors. 63% of the applicants were easily removed with a fast-paced triage process. How? The same way any HR professional would. By passing over resumes where the objective didn’t match our job description. By passing over candidates whose cover letters gave us grounds not to hire them, like "I know I’m overqualified but I really need a job". By eliminating candidates whose documents that didn’t open properly. And by passing over prospects who didn’t bother to spell check their cover letter and/or resume.
So the good news is that job sites give you a sense of what companies are hiring, and for what kinds of jobs. But once those positions are posted, the competition is intense. You can still try, if you have a well honed resume, designed to appeal directly and clearly to the recruiter. And if you have practiced interviewing – so you don’t stumble at a critical point.
Another potential problem to be aware of is how quickly you can be checked out on the internet. As we Googled several candidates, we ran into some Facebook comments that were in questionable taste. Nothing illegal, but enough to tilt our thinking about who to employ.
AA-Careers provides a comprehensive set of services for Bay Area job seekers, providing our clients a personal career consultant, a managed job hunting campaign, modern tools like a personal website, video, highly targeted resume, and much more. Let us know if we can help you.
Be careful out there, and good hunting!
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November 5, 2009
Although my dad had a receding hairline, I never thought hair loss would affect me. My hairline started receding shortly before my 30th birthday. I couldn’t believe I was losing my hair. I even started losing hair on the rear of my head.
It was the first time in my life I felt that age has eventually caught up. I felt like the best years of my life were behind me. I even stopped seeing other people. My love life was almost non-existent. There was one girl I had been dating casually and even though I liked her, I just stopped returning her calls. I realized that I hadn’t found the woman of my dreams with a full head of hair so there was no way I was going to find someone with my growing bald spot. I was too discouraged to even try having a romantic kinship.
Hair loss turned me into a depressed loner, I used to be a confident and extroverted person. I was very assured to address the issue and get the problem fixed. I started trying various hair loss treatments that are obtainable in the counter. Nothing that I bought from the pharmacy worked and believe me, I tried them all. After many failures, I decided to stop trying for a while. It was a real low point in my life. I even stopped going out with my friends, I was so demoralized.
Fortunately, one night a good friend of mine took me out for a few beverages. The first thing he noticed about me was my mood, he knew that the hair loss has affected how I felt. He told me about the hair loss studio in the city. My friend had gone there for hair loss treatments and had been impressed with the results. I was even more impressed. I wouldn’t have thought that he had endured from hair loss, he had a full head of hair. He made me promise to give them a go and I agreed.
I could not have been happier with the hair loss studio recommended to me. After just a few treatments, I had a full head of hair again. Hair Loss Studio did not just give me my hair back. They gave me my self-confidence back.
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July 4, 2009
Anyone will say I’m a uniter not a divider, for the obvious reason that matchmaking is my second nature. I fully suggest singles try having Great Expectations. No escaping it, matchmaking just follows me around as an unconscious behavior. The most reputable relationship experts, like this
Milwaukee dating service with a long-history of dating expertise, empathize with their members individually. Matchmakers build promising introductions as any good friend does, just like I do. Matchmaking is a little niche of dating services, providing powerful payoffs by producing happy lives for years to come.
I’ve offered more than my share of tips in my facebook group and without regret. What you’re reading won’t be old hat. You know all that. Take an interest in your date, be cool, don’t be afraid to use charm, be frank and (an often-overlooked one) avoid grading the people you date in your thoughts. Get to know someone like you ordinarly would! Encourage spontanaity in any situation. If you hadn’t learned from movies, don’t attempt to pass as anything is not you. Consider ramifications if the relation gets significant, then you have no choice but to come to terms. Of course I’ve always recommended Great Expectations Milwaukee. Indeed, dating advice is a gift I have practiced, striving for perfection. Couples I matched from friends and family developed that reputation. My coupled-up friends can’t go unnoticed.
First of all take Rebecca and Jeff plus their flock of kiddos. Guess who pegged the couple together at the Kentucky dreby once upon a time, and their success can’t be denied. Frank and Caroline also fell head over heels when I introduced them at a barbecue a few summers back. And of course my sister Amanda and her soul mate. They will be married in Manhattan the first weekend of October. My favorite couple, they discovered their companionship through Great Expectations, at my recommendation.
Wow, I stay busy and very resourceful too! But all this time, while I devote myself to graciously helping Milwaukee’s singles discover the spirit that fosters companionship, I neglected my own dating life. Is this what anxieties present when the dating expert searches for a matchmaker? I will enjoy Great Expectations Milwaukee Wisconsin, because being you’re a pro makes you a perfectionist. Perhaps that’s what has kept me from really getting serious about dating. Just like many singles, I realize it’s not good to walk life by yourself. So that’s where I’m at, setting out on a dating adventure by expert matchmaking.
Vanessa Hetrick
Expert Cupid
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July 2, 2009
Our group of friends never thought the incredible Chandra Dreskell, my youthful partner in crime, might someday own and wear lace front wigs. Her terrific hair styles was synonymous with her attitude. But surprise surprise. The one and only will always be the center of attention because of her trademark toss ‘n turn. Very few even care that she compensates for medical hair loss with lace front wigs. Keep it on the DL.
As youths finding our way in Scottsdale high school, we regularly took turns winning Miss “SHS” four years running. Five years later, her women’s hair loss kicked in and her hair wouldn’t be the same. I mentioned some invisible lace wigs to her. Even so she shrugged it off. Undeterred by her hair loss, she fearlessly and quite fully owned her bald head with an attitude.
Once, ppearing at her fiance’s homecoming, we ate nuts till her beau clumsily slapped the puck (or whatever you call it) at us. With quick reflexes she dove for the ball when her head scarf landed in a beer, unveiling her hair (or lack thereof). No big deal, she hurled the thing with a tremendous heave to the game official. What’d I tell ya about her spunk?
But, who can be invincible at all times? The same summer she invited me over for a stroll to the art gallery. She very sincerely revealed that she opts to do without hair, out of bitterness! She could never become dependent on well crafted lace front wigs, though she wanted one. At that disclosure, miss invincible stopped talking and begged that I not concern myself with it. I thought “oh, well.”
I thought about it all night. The next morning, I talked about getting her a new wig. Finally we both ended up with the obvious conclusion: we were going wig shopping! We have a knack for making online wig shopping fun.
We had a great time, stunned by the options. I never imagined that synthetic wigs are so prevalent for so many women. These lace wigs made her so lovely. Personally, I put together a comprehensively fresh set of outfits to go with our wigs. Its become an inside joke, but you knew that already. Not long ago she thanked me for reuniting, and disclosed that it rekindles a fresh spirit in her life. It’s delightful to witness her strut her stuff like never before. She’s a better person, with the same confidence.
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May 28, 2009
For one, Nobody can say I’m downright satisfied as an “independent” (aka: naturally single) person and not crack a smile. Even then, I’m not unsatisfied in that way, either. I just mention it here as an appetizing personal tidbit introducing what I am about to explain in grand style.
A week ago today yours truly was walking the dog, Corey, considering buying a membership to a dating service for Phoenix singles. As of this minute, I write to each of you as a surprisingly pleased member of the singles network. Totally, I am. It’s full of fun, attractive people! If you know me at all, you’re probably thinking, “You totally owe me an explanation.”
So, I looked at this Great Expectations Dating site and can really get behind their approach. They’re for the honest singles who care enough to know dating should mean something.
Because I’d never enjoyed or even tolerated the ridiculous nightlife ritual a lot of singles have named “The Dating Game.” I faced it more than anyone should. Every night people pester, “You’re still single? ” and “Just get out there and date him!”
“Ugh, and double ugh.” I reply, and playfully so. “There’s nothing to date!”
“Not true,” they say. “How would you know, you haven’t seen Friday Night Magic in a year!”
That’s just my best friend (she’s the best) hah! Stacey Wilson. She offers reality to my brain 99% of the time. Caring souls are always there for fresh advice. She made a good point, and I joined.
Back to the message of this essay. As I picked from hundreds of combinations of outfits for my first singles event with Great Expectations, I realized something real. For years, I hadn’t held too many actual great expectations for dating in the fun-filled journey of life. Being single isn’t so bad, specifically with healthy optimism. Embracing your own great expectations works terrifically in dating.
~Denise Davis
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July 10, 2008
Is Having a Professional Coach a Solution to Optimizing your Practice’s Performance?
“What do you do?”
The proverbial question we get asked day in and day out by strangers, acquaintances, family, and friends. We are conditioned to answer with our current job or career.
Thanks to an anticipated, planned for and welcomed career change, my new answer is some version of “I am a professional coach.”
And the standard response back is, “Really, for what sport?”
“The game of life,”
I say and then the conversation either stops in its tracks, or takes off to some very interesting place.
And in the ensuing conversation, I tell them about this relatively new profession called “coaching” which most often has an adjective in front of coaching such as life, professional, executive, business or other such phrases that identify the coach’s niche.
I appreciate the opportunity to have this conversation with you via this newsletter, and hope the information shared will tell what a coach is, and how enhancing your coaching skills or engaging a coach might help improve the performance of your medical practice, and might even be a solution for helping your disgruntled, irritable, difficult to get along with physician, or perhaps the “newbie” physician who is awestruck with the transition from residency.
“What is a coach?”
A coach is your champion; partner; advisor; guide; counselor; consoler; touchstone; personal listener; confidante; teacher or as one coach puts it, “the gardener of your mind.” A coach helps you enhance the quality of your professional and personal lives, and reach peak performance and your ultimate potential.
So as you can surmise, coaching is a dynamic process of discovery, growth and development. Coaching creates an environment where there is freedom from judgment and from expectation, yet one of accountability and growth. In a coaching relationship, it is safe to question, appear vulnerable, observe, explore, experiment, learn and change. The process is designed to ensure lasting change and promote continuous growth.
In the hectic, demanding world of health care, professionals and leaders must find a way of staying on top of the surf, so that they are not sucked down and out by the riptide. A coach helps his client ride the wave, navigate through the rough waters, and enjoy the ride. There are so many reasons for physicians to feel disenchanted with their chosen profession, their calling. Having a coach helps them get back in touch with their passion for being a healer.
“So, a coach is like a therapist?”
Therapists typically work with people who need help becoming emotionally healthy. They deal with past issues and how to overcome them. So therapists tend to work with dysfunctional people to get them back to functional. Coaching is action oriented. It is about achieving growth through identifying and reaching goals, rather than by working through past issues. So a coach helps people go from functional to exceptional.
Another interesting distinction is that a coach is not a mentor although a coaching relationship has some characteristics of mentoring. Most often, a mentor is someone in your company who is higher up in the organizational structure, and is bestowing knowledge upon you to prepare you for greater responsibility and upward movement. In contrast, a coaching relationship is a partnership which draws on the wisdom and the knowledge of both parties. The coach does not have an agenda other than what his client wants.
“OK, I understand, but what application does it have to my business world?”
Executive coach
is the term most frequently used to refer to coaches who work with businesses, professionals or in your case, medical practices. In essence, instead of two parties, there are three—the company, the client and the coach. The leaders of the most successful companies recognize that the attraction, development, motivation and retention of highly talented people are the biggest contributors to maximizing the company’s success. They see the engagement of a coach as a proactive, positive way to help an employee, most often a manager or a professional, reach certain goals, change some behaviors, or develop specific management competencies. The employee agrees to these expectations and to working with a coach; and the employer engages the coach for the employee. The confidentiality of the coaching conversation remains sacrosanct; the employer is notified only if the employee is not participating.
In the business arena, a coach is sometimes referred to as a consultant. While there are some similarities, as importantly, there are some key differences. A consultant brings expertise, and thus answers to the proposed question or challenge. Typically, he then leaves the company with a report and recommendations to implement. A coach has expertise and answers; however, he works with you to identify the answers that will work best for the company and then stays through the implementation steps to ensure the changes materialize and the results are realized.
“So an executive coach can help me improve the performance of my people and thus, my bottom line?”
Yes, executive coaching is an investment in human capital just like traditional training and education programs. In fact, coaching and training frequently go hand in hand and studies have shown that doing so improves productivity 88% versus 22% with training alone. (Public Personnel Management, Winter 1997 v26 n4 p4610) The coaching assists his client in overcoming the obstacles that otherwise would prevent him from inculcating the imparted knowledge. Humans are creatures of habit, and we all know that breaking habits and embracing new ones is a great challenge. A coach helps us get out of our own way, so that we can reach for and accomplish greater things.
“You know in my practice, our focus is on teamwork. How does an executive coach help with that?”
Actually the principles applied to coaching individuals also apply to coaching groups or teams of people. A coach can assist a team in optimizing the communication amongst the members and maximizing the synergy of the group. As a result, performance and outcomes are maximizedwhich is critical in today’s world of declining reimbursements and increasing malpractice premiums. Especially with teams, coaching helps shorten the learning and the doing curves, so minimizing the investment of time and expenses while optimizing results.
“Gosh, I am now thinking that I would really enjoy working with a coach.”
Actually, many executives/CEOs work with coaches for they are frequently the “lone man on the totem pole”. Being a practice manager means you are the “lone man,” with many unofficial “bosses” -that is a huge challenge to navigate alone. Some of your physicians may feel the same way. A coach gives you someone to bounce ideas off of; express concerns and fears; brainstorm ways of handling difficult issues; role play difficult conversations; etc. Using a coach actually helps reduce your stress. Of course you have colleagues and others that assist you, but the differentiating factor for a coach is that he does not have an agenda, or a “stake in the game”, and thus, is all about you.
“How do I learn more or find a coach?”
The International Coaching Federation, www.coachfederation.org, is the recognized organization that most professional coaches belong to. The site has more information about coaching as well as a list of coaches by area. The nice thing about coaching is that the most common medium of delivery is the phone. Majority of coaches offer a free
introductory session, and are truly interested in educating others about coaching. You can also download a handbook on executive coaching at www.executivecoachingforum.com.
Janet Crawford MBA, MHA is CEO of Tiberius Enterprises, Inc. and an Executive Coach. She has a heartfelt connection to the medical profession, having worked as a healthcare administrator and practice manager in her previous life. She can be reached at 540-342-2844 or jc@tiberiusenterprises.com, and the company’s website is www.tiberiusenterprises.com.
Originally published in Virginia Medical Group Management Association newsletter, Vol. 6, No.1 Winter 2005
Janet Crawford holds a BA, Baylor University (1982) & MBA/MHA, University of Missouri (1984).As an Executive Coach, Professional Speaker & author, her mission is to help individuals & organizations maximize their return on human capitalmanaging human behaviors for optimal outcomes.
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July 3, 2008
People ask me how could I handle the pressures of putting myself through college and then through graduate schools, while working full-time in responsible positions.
My stock reply: “It was easier than it would have been merely working or going to school.”
I’ve always found that it is a better thing to be doing two tasks, and perhaps more, than simply one at a time. While this flies in the face of conventional wisdom, I’m sure a lot of people who have done the same thing would agree.
Here’s why:
(1) When one activity is thriving, it is much easier to handle a disappointment with the other. You may not get that promotion at work, but you’re racking up credits toward that degree, and that you’ll be able to cash in, later.
(2) You’ll respect yourself for doing it the hard way. It’s great to feel that you’re the hero in your own life, that you’re braving challenges and handling adversity. Managing two or more challenges at a time make you quite a person!
(3) You’re like a diversified investor in the stock market. Instead of loading up on one stock, on one activity, you’re covering yourself if one crashes. The other activity might still be a big winner for you.
(4) You’ll save a lot of time by doing two or more things at once. Why do things sequentially when they can be done simultaneously?
(5) You’ll learn more than the average bears because you’ll have more inputs.
(6) You’ll learn to discipline yourself and to say no to temptations and distractions.
(7) You’ll rehearse the ability to handle pressure and multi-tasking, which will be inevitable as your career proceeds.
So, if you hear that a fresh high school grad needs to support himself, at least partly through working, congratulate him, and assure him, “You’re going to love it!”
Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com & The Goodman Organization is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com
For information about coaching, consulting, training, books, videos and audios, please go to http://www.customersatisfaction.com
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