Hope for your financial life and beyond

Building Trust With Your Audience: Should a Blogger Care?

word trust spelled in blocksShould a blogger care about building trust with their audience?

I’ll admit to not thinking about this much when I first started Luke1428. The only care of my infancy involved getting my ideas into print. That was stressful enough. Who had time to think about whether or not my audience would trust me.

The deeper I go into this journey though, the more I’m realizing the importance of this issue. Trust is the basis of all relationships. Without it, relationships disintegrate.

Don’t believe me? Then think about the last time someone you trusted and believed in took a misstep.

Your teen who broke curfew.

Your significant other who cheated on you.

The pastor who became involved in an indiscretion.

A co-worker who threw you under the bus to save their own skin.

How did that make you feel? Betrayed? Cheated? Disappointed? Wary going forward?

Whether we like it or not, we are developing a relationship with our audience, whether that is in a business setting, in a non-profit organization, in our families and yes, right here in a blog. And I would suggest that the more trust we engender from others the more potential for success we will have.

Trust Is Built Over Time

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7 Unfortunate Reasons People Spew Hatred at Dave Ramsey

Dave RamseyIt could be argued that Dave Ramsey has become the most influential financial voice of this generation. His radio program draws nearly 8 million listeners every week, placing him third in the talk radio genre behind Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity respectively. Clearly he has developed an enormous following and has helped millions of people develop restraint, follow a plan and get their financial lives back.

Count me among those people.

Despite his influence and popularity, I continually read of people skewering Dave Ramsey for the message of hope that he brings. I’ve tried for the life of me to figure out why someone who has been so helpful would be the target of such outrage. In some cases, I’m sure it’s simply people taking a contrarian opinion to draw some attention to themselves. However, I think the main issue is much bigger than that and it’s something everyone says when it comes to the area of personal finance.

The Reasons People Hate Dave Ramsey

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“HELP WANTED!” This Company Really Understands the Hiring Process

Help Wanted

Is your business hiring the right kind of people?

The hiring of new employees can be one of the most frustrating and stressful facets of running your own business. Every hire is an unknown and a potential risk as one can learn only so much about an applicant through the interview process. Companies routinely foul up the hiring of employees by failing to cast vision, by conducting shoddy interviews, and neglecting to check references or do background checks.

This lack of due diligence leaves them with employees who are mismatched to the company’s goals and objectives. Once these individuals are hired, the company will be forced to manage the poor behavior and deal with the inefficient production that comes from an employee who is not 100% sold out on the job.

I ran across this Help Wanted ad the other day on Facebook. It’s from C and C Fence Company located in McDonough, GA, a suburb of Atlanta. It’s clear they know who they are, what the job entails and what type of employee would be a fit. Based on it’s content, I can’t help but think their hiring process runs smoother than many other companies.

Check out their ad below, with special attention to Parts 2 and 3.

Part 1: The Job Details

This is where they express the urgency of the need, list the specific position and share the major particulars about the job:

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What Good Is Freedom When You’re Told What To Do With It?

U.S. Constitution - We the PeopleIn the fall of 1620, a group of 102 passengers sailed from the coasts of Western Europe across the Atlantic. Their journey was filled with danger as they traveled in a craft none of us would dare think of sailing today. Much like the courageous astronauts of the 1960s, they faced considerable danger and extreme conditions as they pioneered into an unknown and mysterious world.

Colonies had been established before in the New World but none for such a reason as this. The purpose of those earlier establishments in the Caribbean, and more recently in 1607 at Jamestown, had simply been about wealth creation – find the riches of the new land and return them home for the glory of the mother country.

Simple. Materialistic. Focused.

While some on the Mayflower sought economic prosperity, there was a group aboard interested in something much deeper and profound than the accumulation of wealth. These were known as the Separatists who were fleeing religious persecution inflicted on them by the Church of England. The church in that time controlled religion, dictating to the people how, when and where they were to worship. Choose to worship in a way the church forbid, and you would face severe punishment.

So faced with bigotry and religious intolerance, they fled to a new world with the hopes of fulfilling the one deep desire burning in their hearts…the freedom to choose.

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When Passion Meets Weakness

ID-100206697In yesterday’s post, I made the assertion we should focus on areas of personal strengths, not areas of weakness, when we are looking to better ourselves. That goes against our natural tendency. We usually see areas of weakness as a barrier to excellence. I suggested pouring more time and effort into our strengths, so as to push us past a threshold we’ve been bumping up against, into an elite status of functioning.

I’m sure you are thinking of exceptions to this or asking the question “Is there ever a time when it’s OK to focus on improving a skill you simply don’t have?”

I believe so, if this is the case – when you discover a new passion. Then I could see the logic in starting from the ground up and pursuing that passion with full intensity. This would be all the more appropriate if the newfound passion connected in some way with another segment of your life – like what has happened to me with Luke1428.

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The Futility of Being a Well Rounded Person

a well rounded personI used to think the best way to achieve big-time personal success was to be a well rounded person, with knowledge and skill spanning many different areas. I’d become the Cliff Clavin know-it-all type, the person who could be plugged into any situation to give advice or help facilitate a positive outcome.

By being a well rounded person, jack-of-all-trades type, I would become indispensable and people would flock to me for advice and counsel.

Isn’t this philosophy what our school systems promote through the curriculum track? A student with exceptional talent and designs on a career in science must still take general education classes in English and social studies, perhaps even a foreign language. Those classes serve some but not much purpose in relation to the students desired outcome, which is to meet the requirements for graduation.

This post isn’t about the challenges in the educational system. I’ve been involved in education for 15+ years, so I understand the value of having students touch the various fields of study. We would be doing them a disservice if they didn’t have some basic math or grammar skills by the time they finish school. But how much math does the average graduate really need to be functional in society, especially when it comes to managing their financial life?

They basically need to know how to add and subtract so they can balance a checkbook.

What I’m suggesting here is the notion of being a well rounded person only serves to generate mediocrity. Being a jack-of-all-trades means I’m a master at none. Who wants that? I’d rather work to become awesome in a few things instead of average at many, wouldn’t you?

A Well Rounded Person or Awesome Person?

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Want to Influence Others? Lead by Example

lead by example I mentioned in a recent post “Health, Wealth and Moments of Clarity” how I was inspired to begin my running program after meeting someone my age on a cruise that was an aspiring triathlete. At the time I was overweight, out of shape and low on energy.

Talking with him throughout the week ignited my mental toughness and helped me see crazy dreams could still be achieved even at my age.

But it was someone much closer to me that truly provided the inspiration for me to get in shape. That person was Mrs. Luke1428. No, she wasn’t going all drill sergeant on me, screaming through a megaphone for me to roll out of bed each morning. Instead, without goading or guilting me into doing the same, she had been religiously going to a health club each week for months, getting herself in shape.

And boy, could I see the results! “Surely” I thought, “if my wife can change her physique post-four children, then so can I.”  I wanted her to be as proud of me as I was of her.

I don’t think her efforts were premeditated – like some devious reverse-psychology attempt to give me a wake-up call. She really wanted to exercise for herself. But the fallout did affect me.

Lead By Example

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Don’t Go It Alone – Effective Leaders Get Help

Have you ever tried to do it all? In my years of serving in various leadership capacities, I have found this to be one of my greatest challenges…the tendency to take on more responsibility than I can manage. It is a basic and constant battle every leader must face and overcome if they are to maximize their effectiveness.

There are many reasons why leaders try to do it all.

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