As a coach my role is to encourage my clients. I encourage them to believe in my philosophy that hard work is lit (legitimate)! Hard work wins. It might not take you all the way to the top by itself but it will get you close.
Read morePivot
In business a pivot means fundamentally changing the direction of a business when you realize the current products or services aren’t meeting the needs of the market. Winston Churchill said, “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”
Individuals can pivot, too. We all know people who have left one job for another, or someone who went back to school to pursue a new career. When we are dissatisfied with a situation, we make a change.
Read moreDon't Run Away
Some people run to risk. Some people run away from risk. Only if you run to risk can you hope to some day gain its rewards. Running from risk saves you from feeling the sting of disappointment but it teaches you nothing and it rarely results in rewards.
Read moreCapture Your Favorite Memories
Our life story and memories are among the greatest gifts we can share with our loved ones. Learn how you can easily tell your story, with a little help from our latest product!
Read moreAn Alliance to Help Court Reporters Find Jobs in a Covid-19 Environment
The new community will provide an effective way for court reporters to connect with hiring firms. Court reporters will join for free and take the pre-screening survey, which will be loaded to the AWS cloud. Hiring agencies will pay a subscription fee for access. Identimap will provide the SaaS platform for the new national community that will be owned, marketed and managed by Outfluence.
Read moreTIC, TIC or BOOM!
Are you going to blow up or are you going to blow through when you get back to working full-time after the virus?
You’ll blow right through if you practice TIC, TIC. Tenacity, Integrity and Creativity. Everything I read is telling me that the workplace is going to thin out for a while. To keep yourself employed you’ll want to put a lot of TIC into your work.
Read more12 Ways to Vet Information
If you attended the Outfluence LLC webinar in early April 2020 you heard us speaking about how to manage misinformation and disinformation campaigns that are rampant on social media. There are actions we can take to determine the validity of information we read and hear on social media. First of all, look at the name of the author and the name of the publication printing the information.
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Visionaries for a Better Tomorrow
People who see the world as it will be tomorrow and who understand its needs are visionaries. They possess education, expertise, imagination and experience. As we get ready to enter a work-world filled with uncertainties that were unthinkable just a couple of months ago, we NEED visionaries.
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The Human Connection: When We Lost It and How We Can Get It Back
1969. DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a branch of the Defense Department, formed the first computer network. It was formed in response to the 1957 Sputnik launch by the Russians. A computer scientist named Leonard Kleinrock led a group of scientists in that year to develop what later became known as the Internet.
Read moreTech Skills + Soft Skills = Long-Term Success
Studies reveal something surprising: Soft skills based in writing, listening and communicating are actually greater predictors of long-term success – even in tech jobs and skilled labor markets.
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Influence in the Workplace
How do we gain influence in the workplace? Generally speaking, people with exceptional skills, people who work in powerful jobs, people who possess a significant title, or people of wealth are thought to have influence. But that's only half the story.
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What's Next After Hugging, Kissing and Touching?
What's Next After Hugging, Kissing and Touching? Spread of the Coronavirus, and frankly flu season, are causing us to re-think how we greet people. No more hugging, no more kissing, no more touching. So, what are our options?
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The Outfluence Vision
Meet our new look and logo. Inspired by the four pillars of our programs, the rings represent bringing understanding to the scattered state of communications in life and business.
Read moreVisit Outfluence at the 2020 NAIS Conference at Booth 806
Recognized throughout the Baltimore-Washington region for its training programs, Outfluence, LLC, is bringing You Are Here…Now What? to the 2020 National Association of Independent Schools annual conference in Philadelphia February 26-28.
Read moreUS-Japan Baseball
Through our sponsorship of US-Japan Baseball (www.usjapanbaseball.com) we support an organization that shares the Outfluence passion for helping teenagers prepare for life and work. On August 17 we attended our first baseball game which took place at the Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy in our nation’s capital. We had the honor of meeting Japanese and American leaders of US-Japan Baseball including Takehiro Shimada, Minister | Public Affairs of the Embassy of Japan in the USA. We are excited about our connection to US-Japan Baseball and we thank our friend John Flood, the President and Founder of the organization, for opening the door to our participation.
The Disintegration of Humanity is in View
Like them or dislike them, our nation’s leaders and role models are destroying the way that humanity communicates. Politicians fight with insults and slurs rather than with facts and ideas. Celebrities have made verbal abuse normal (Keeping Up with the Kardashians, anyone?) and negative self image popular (#thinspo or #revengebody for example.)
These people aren’t taking down communication singlehandedly, however. Chances are, a breakdown in communication is happening in your own home. Your own classroom. Around your own dinner table. As families, as friends, we don’t fully relate anymore. The explosion in digital communication has coarsened face-to-face communication and emboldened disrespectful behind-the-screen communication.
These influences are removing the human connection to our relationships and interactions.
Even now, you are sitting behind a screen of some sort to read my blog post. And that could be okay. How do we reintroduce humanity into our daily interactions, while also maintaining a balanced consumption of technology — since it is unavoidable that the world will advance in tech?
DeskAlerts observes that “Poor communications in the workplace can result in friction, frustration, confusion and an extremely tense environment wherein people are not motivated to be productive and are not inspired to collaborate. This lack of motivation can then spill over to how staff members relate to clients and potential customers.”
In the classroom students use negative communication to acquire attention, to fill their desire for power, to gain revenge, to avoid participating in any activity that might lead to failure, as a response to distraction or out of boredom.
There are no quick solutions to our communication dilemma. After much research and experience both in the classroom and in the workplace, we believe the place to begin teaching people how to connect with humanity is the 9th grade of high school. By this point students have experienced enough of life to be able to grasp concepts and implement life skills such as communication.
With our uniquely designed activities and projects, students and teachers discover communication styles and interpretation, and in lively discussions develop stronger communication skills. They put their newly discovered communication skills to work in further training –
· in personal development
· life-planning skills for career planning
· time and financial management
· and much more.
Check out how You Are Here… Now What? our signature program for students can bring humanity out of the communication dark ages, and into the new ever changing world.
Outfluence Named Business Partner of the Year in Anne Arundel County School
The 21st Century Education Foundation of Anne Arundel County, Maryland named Outfluence, LLC as a Business Partner of the Year at South River High School for 2017. Kay Betz, Co-Founder and President of Outfluence, received the award during the annual Superintendent's Breakfast.
Harvard Recognizes AACPS Signature Program
Outfluence, LLC received the some exciting news from Signature Coordinator Linda Lamon at South River High School in Edgewater, Maryland this week:
"An exciting example of how our Signature Programs impact students' futures: Megan Rutkai, a Global Communications & Public Affairs Signature Certificate bound student, just received record breaking news that she was granted early admission to Harvard University!!! Megan attributes her success in school, and her acceptance to Harvard University, to the opportunities offered through the GCPA Signature Program.
"Megan called me yesterday, besides her family she wanted me to be the first to know. She said Harvard chose her due to the Signature experiences on her resume and she wanted to thank me. The reality is she is an incredibly deserving young woman, and it has been an honor to work with her."
The Outfluence Team, which has been an active part of the Signature Program since its inception five years ago, applauds Megan's great achievement, and wishes her the very best in her bright academic future! Ms. Lamon, the administrators, and others in the business community involved in AACPS have been remarkably committed to the development of the Signature Program. It is exciting for us to see their dedication so beautifully rewarded.
Congratulations again to Megan, and to the Signature Team family!