Are You Ready?

The only time you can actually get anything done is 'right now'? Therefore, if you are stuck in the 'getting ready' stage, you'll find it pretty hard to actually get anything done!

So why not take this time to decide that You Are Ready!

If you're stuck and really can't get out of your own way, I can help. Email me at Bruce@QuantumResultsCoaching.com or go to our web site at http://www.quantumresultscoaching.com.

Welcome to Thursday! - Are you loving your work?

Thursday's a high productivity day, so get out there and have a wonderful day.

If, however, you find that by Thursday you're dragging most weeks, or every week, I suggest you take a look at that.

Are you really doing what you love to do? Are you working in alignment with your passions? If you're not, you won't bring full power and joy to your work and not only won't you be as successful as possible, you'll run out of steam and you won't be having the great time you could have when you are working in alignment with your passions.

Here's a blatant plug for our services:
With our Passions Lead to Profit program, we help business people discover their Passions, utilize their full personal energy and Power, and use that combination to bring the best value to and receive the most from business relationships - and ALL businesses are about People.

When you put these together, the formula looks like this:

(Power + Passions) x People = Profit

I'd love to discuss this more with you. Feel free to comment on this blog or email me at Bruce@QuantumResultsCoaching.com.

Welcome to Wednesday - Personal Energy Strategy - Power Tip

In the middle of the work week it's important to keep your energy reserves up so you can keep going and perform at your best levels. If you know about your personal power profile you can use that information on Wednesdays to recharge and keep running strong for the rest of the week.

WITI at buenaspace in Downtown Wilmington

This month's Wilmington IT Infusion networking meeting was held at 27 N. Front Street in downtown Wilmington, NC. The meeting was at Buenaspace, a new collaborative workspace for entrepreneurs, telecommuters, freelancers, and anyone else who can use a low commitment, environmentally minimal footprint shared wordspace with a high tech flavor. Check it out at www.BuenaSpace.com.

We met several new people, caught up with friends, and learned a lot about buenaspace and the workspace concept. There are two companies with private offices in buenaspace: digieffects, a video after effects company; and Wide Open Technologies, a business technologies service firm. In addition to the private offices (the walls are glass so they're not exactly hidden), there are 15 divided desktop spaces, a conference room, video editing room, break out/lounge/kitchen area, locker room, and two rest rooms. 

The guy below is Robert Sharp, President  of  difieffects. Robert's also one of  the partners in buenaspace.

Looking back toward the conference room.



Black and white copying and printing services are part of the deal for people who use buenaspace.



Workspaces.



Lounge/break out, kitchen area.



Workspaces.



Lockers. (San Dimas High rules!)



Video editing room (the PC setup is on it's way). 



A view of the two front offices. One thing to note is how light and bright the space was. Those windows face east and the event didn't start until 5:30PM. There was certainly plenty of light - to the point that it was hard for me not to overexpose a lot of my photos with my limited speed digital camera. All that light may not be great for digital images, I suppose, but it's great for a workspace.



We met Art Thingulstad, a systems engineer who attended the WITI event.



Marge liked the zebra graphics on the wall so she asked me to pose in front of one.



There I am trying to be clever pointing out the conference room.



Rebecca Powell of BecAndCall and Marge Brown of Fat City Cards.



Robert Sharp and Bruce Brown, up to no good and posing to no purpose but silliness - which I suppose is as good a purpose as many.



Designer Kelly Cain Smith, Andrew Gray of TayloeGray (they're the ones who designed, created, and try to help Marge and I color between the lines at QuantumResultsCoaching.com), and Sarah Barbee of FussBudgetPromotions.



David Merrill of Hertz Local, and the creator of WilmingtonNetworkingEvents.com networking event calendar arrived at the same time as Lauren Formalarie of Carolina Coastal  Concepts, a social media training, consulting, and maintenance firm.




(Moderate) crowd scene.




More folks arrived and dug in to conversations.



And then I noticed this screw in the middle of the space between the floor and a pretty hefty steel beam at  the ceiling. My first thought was it was decorative.



But on closer inspection and with more thought I realized it's likely functional. I suppose if some engineer, designer, or coder gets extremely frustrated, she or he could come out to the middle of  the space and literally raise the roof. I do suspect you'd need a strong bar and a stronger back to turn it, however.



Century 21 Sweyer REALTOR Kha Nguyen with Shelly DeAntonio, C21's Operations Manager, and Brooke Foreman, owner of RightLeftStudio design firm.



The guy on the left is Matt Magne, a senior IT guy with IBM and founder of Wilmington IT Infusion. The guy on the right is me and I have no clue what I was looking at.



PPD IT Manager Paul Mazzola.



More folks in the breakout area.



Matt Magne with Staci Dubenko, a video after effects specialist and videographer.



So we had a good time, met some new  folks, and got to check out a new type of workspace in the heart of Wilmington's historic district. Thanks to all involved for hosting the event.

If you'd like more info about buenaspace, of course the best source is www.buenaspace.com. Here's what the floorplan looks like (click on the image to see it better):

www.buenaspace.com

You ARE Perfect!

As a being you are perfect, we all are. But don't let that hold you back.

Many of us fall into the trap of not doing something because we "Can't do it perfectly" or "It's not perfect yet". Don't let that be an excuse.

You may never, probably will never do something 100% perfectly, likely none of us do. But that's OK, because we already are perfect as beings.

So don't be afraid of your success and don't hold back - get active and do things, whatever your actions or expressions of yourself may be.

The world can use, it very likely needs, what you have to offer, so bring it on! And don't worry about being perfect, you already are!

It's June 4th, Be Busy, Help Someone.

It's a wonderful day in southeastern North Carolina and we're all busy as usual. Even though you're busy and focused and have a lot to do, look for ways to help people.

The Starfish Story

Loren Eisley's "The Starfish Story" is meaningful to me because it's about making a difference, one act at a time. This video is my retelling of "The Starfish Story".

Good morning!

This is going to be another activity-packed day.

Good morning on May 27th!

It's another great day in Southeastern North Carolina as we head into Memorial Weekend. Consider that the only time you can ever get anything done, whether it's work or play, for yourself or others, is RIGHT NOW!

Good morning and good day, May 26th

What a great day today is, already! With lots more to come.

Are You Living Your Passions?

Living in alignment with your passions is the most honest life you can ever live.

Are You Allowing Your Full Power?

Personal power is a key component of the Passions Lead to Profit system.

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Relax, It's Good for You! - Hands and Shoulders.

Premonition and Vision Boards

Yesterday I had two wonderful experiences late in the day, on top of an already full, fun, and fulfilling daytime.

Brunswick County Resort Maps Ribbon Cutting

One of the newest members of the North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce had a ribbon cutting in May. Brunswick County Resort Maps is the company and owners Peter and Mary Kurki are in the center of the photo below.

Scott and Board Member Connie Reeves.

Connie Reeves with newly elected board member Ken Schiess, Executive Director Dana Fisher, and new board member Alice Razzano.

Newly elected board members Peggy O'Leary and Terry Grillo.

Ken Schiess with new board member Jamie Shoemaker.

Mary and Peter Kurki talk with Scott Schmidt of Carolina Creations Landscaping.

Alice with Susan Rivenbark and Dana.


NBCC volunteer Anne Donovan.

East Carolina Bank's Susan Cruse and Miriam Lee.

Peter with NBCC Board Member Jeff Harvell.


Mary and Peter Kurki.

Mary Kurki.

(Photos by Marge Brown)

Good morning!

Big day today. Weekly newsletter, Bruce Brown at the Edge goes out in the AM and then I leave for a K and M Networking event in North Myrtle Beach to talk about Networking Mastery.

Click here to subscribe to Bruce Brown at the Edge.

Video on Video - Clip 0

So, you wanna be in pictures, huh?

Oh wait. You don't? You just want to market your company, your products or services, or yourself?

And that's why you're checking out this blog post?

Okay, I get it. You don't have a burning desire to be a video star, but you do want to at least check out what it takes to use video in your business marketing.

Well, that's fair enough.

I mean, if you had your heart set on being in video you'd have gone to acting school, right? And if you really wanted to make movies you'd go to film school.

What you're interested in is finding out if you can easily and hopefully inexpensively create videos that will help market you, your company, or your products. And the videos have to be good enough to do the job; they don't have to be film award nominees.

Got it.

And actually you've got it, too, because if the above profile is yours, or similar to yours, then you're exactly who we are, too, and why we developed our video course celled Video on Video.

Here's a short clip I made that took about 5 minutes including shooting and editing. I'm sure that shows, but the point is, it makes the point and demonstrates how easy it can be. Watch it and then read on to see how you can get our Video on Video absolutely free.




So that was a short video clip. As I said in the clip, the way to get the video series as we product them, is to sign up for my weekly newsletter, Bruce Brown at the Edge. The newsletter is free and the video clip series will be free as well, but only to people who get our newsletter. By the way, of course you can always unsubscribe to the newsletter and you will automatically be removed from the mailing list.

Here's the form to sign up for "Bruce Brown at the Edge"

Enter your email address in the form below and click "Go"

Sign up for our Email Newsletter

I'm Still Knocked Out by this Fabulous Review

Wow! A triple-scoop serving of gratitude for Clif Bridger's review of my 31 Days5/4/10 book series. When I forwarded the review to our publisher, Alfred Poor of Desktop Wings, Alfred shot back, "Wow! And WOW! That’s great! That’s an amazing review by someone who clearly “gets” the books and what you’re trying to do with them."

So, all humility aside and with the upfront disclaimers that Clif is a friend and that he owns a local bookstore, RBR Books in Leland, NC, where my books are on sale (he also sells them via Amazon), here's the review, reprinted in full:

31 Days To.....
In the great range of self-improvement, professional development, career coaching advice that is available on the market today, there are only a few that stand out from the teeming hordes. Trump, Iacocca, Thiagi, Kiyosaki, are but a few of the luminaries who, over the years, have offered career advice based on real-life experiences. On the whole, their efforts are genuine and aimed at making your a better person, and perhaps a better business person.

There is a new player making inroads in the career coaching market who is distinctive from so many others. Bruce Brown has unleashed his boundless energy on a new endeavor; to help you make a 'quantum leap' in your personal and professional life. His first entre´ into developing a practical set of tools that can be used by anyone in any business, was 31 Days to Networking Event Mastery, first released in 2009. That was quickly followed by 31 Days to Relationship Marketing Mastery, and then, 31 Days to Greeting Card Marketing Mastery in early 2010.


Networking Event Mastery is now in its second, expanded edition. The 2nd edition offers a much richer guidebook to understanding how an individual can optimize business networking events without feeling pushy or out-of-place. Laid out in an easy-to-follow, thirty one day format, Bruce introduces the reader to the concept of how networking isn't really about handing out business cards to everyone at an event. It is really more about establishing and building personal relationships with clients, business partners, and friends.

The approach is very practical. Each chapter is very short. They follow the 31 days of a month (any month). Each day of the month presents simple advice followed by work pages. The readers can take inventory of resources they might leverage in their own efforts to build an effective network. Some might argue that the 31 day format is too didactic, too shallow. It is, however, the right format for Bruce's highly concentrated, fast-moving method. Readers who are moving at the 'speed of Bruce' don't need more than the essential elements being offered and the chance to reflect and write down what they can do to take the next step toward improving their networking skills.

This is not a book based on years of scientific research and endless studies. This is a book based on years of practical experience and drive to engage others in finding mutually beneficial business relationships. Bruce distills his years in marketing, real estate and a wide variety of other relationship-dependent jobs into the 31 Days... series. Bruce's skills as a seasoned writer make the the entire 31 Days... series enjoyable and easy to read.

To add the essential touch for readers in the Wilmington, NC area, Bruce also offers associated seminars and talks on relationship and networking marketing around the area. He can be found every morning (early morning) on Twitter (www.twitter.com/BruceBrownNC) checking in with pointers to daily events in the region and motivational quotations.

The entire 31 Days To... series by Bruce Brown (DesktopWings, $17.95) is available at RBR Books. RBR Books at the Waterford Village Shoppes, Leland's Only Bookstore.

So thanks, Clif, your review of the series and your continued support are much appreciated. Beyond the individual volumes, more of which are in progress, you also really do, as Alfred said, "get" the books and what we’re trying to do with them. - Bruce

My Adventure with Dancing with the Brunswick Stars - Journal Entry 5 - Second Practice

Friday morning Kimberly Boggs and I had our second practice. I had a great time and even though I didn't have all the steps down from the first practice, Kimberly was gentle with me, and patient. And she showed me again how to do the basic steps. I have a distinct feeling that if I don't improve quickly, though, the obvious steel that is Kimberly Boggs will figuratively sit me down and we'll have a talk. So I don't want to experience that.

Here's a confession. I'm actually taking great advantage of this whole Dancing with the Brunswick Stars thing. I'm using it to get in shape! Ya see, in the past three years, since April 2007, I packed on about 45 pounds! Youch! I'd actually gotten to my ideal weight for my 5'9" height, which is 143 pounds, on April 20th, 2007 after working at it for a good while. Unfortunately, in my zeal to make that weight, I injured myself by overdoing one exercise.

It's no secret that when I like something I REALLY like it and if I enjoy something I want to supersize. Well when I was on my previous getting in shape/losing weight regimen back in early 2007 one of the exercises I enjoyed was pushups. I mean, who doesn't like cut triceps, right? You can have a sloppy belly and a sagging butt and people may not (and hopefully won't) see them. But if you have cut triceps you can find lots of opportunities for people to notice, including yourself. And I don't mean by wearing a muscle shirt, but just ordinary golf shirts and such.

So I was rockin' along doing well with pushups, and doing them right, not ripping them off as fast as possible, but taking them nice and slow (try that sometime, the slower you go the more work it is and the more benefit you get). Anyway, I gradually worked my way up to 50 pushups. I thought that was way cool.

So two days later I did 100.

It hurt a LOT the next day but then everything seemed to be okay - although I for sure didn't do any more pushups because they still really hurt. And then about a month later I rolled over in bed one night and something that attaches one of my right tricep muscles to the bone let go with an audible pop. The next noticeable noise was me screaming. You've heard the expresson, "Ridden hard, put away wet.", right? Well apparently what's unhealthy for horses wasn't too healthy for me either, and I'm still recovering.

Been to a selection of helpful folks, notably Dr. Matt Bradshaw at Leland Health Center who finally got me some relief through a combination of cold laser treatments and Active Relief Therapy. Anyway, to keep this short (HA!), I can cope now and seldom have pain in that arm but have been very very gradually starting to build strength again (which you can imagine has dwindled significantly in four years).

So right around that same time in 2007 I decided it would be okay for me to eat a little more freely than in the past because I'd just proved to myself I could get down to my ideal weight. Uh-huh! Within a year I was in the mid to high 180s. Last year when I went for my annual physical my physician, the ever jolly Dr. Matt Williams of Wilmington Health Center, said, "Next year I'd like to see a lot less of you." That hurt, but he was right - my reading that day was 186 (and I wish it were IQ but it was pounds). Since 161 pounds is my official "you weigh too much" level, another 25 put me in a not so happy place health wise.

My high weight, BTW, since I'm getting into all this, was 193.5 pounds in November 2009. I managed mostly to keep it under 190, with a couple meager efforts to control my weight and diet getting me down to the mid 180s, but then I went back up again. So finally, this March, I decided I was done being such a dork about this whole thing. I speak in public a lot and was already developing a consistent physical self-image I didn't like. I tell ya one thing, I sure wore sport jackets a lot and usually wore black shirts as well - I saw a few photos others took of me when I was speaking wearing a white dress shirt with no jacket and resolved not to let that happen again (I didn't lose weight, I just stopped wearing white shirts unless I had on a jacket).

So yeah, now I'm working out daily, eating correctly (for me), and getting stronger AND losing weight. The last two days my weight was 168.5 pounds. That's a bit extreme I know for two months, but I also know those were the easy pounds to lose - the next 25 will be much tougher as I work my way back down to 143.

But check it out. I've got a great incentive. A whole buncha folks are gonna be watching Dancing With the Brunswick Stars in early August. I want to do my best for the event, I want to be a good partner for Kimberly Boggs since she's so generously donating her teaching time, and for sure I want to look my best.

It would be marvelous for me to think I'm doing this just for my health. Hey, I know it's more healthy to be at (or even a bit below) your ideal weight, and I know I feel better when I'm in shape and stronger. But I also know I'm motivated by how I look. Call it vanity (because that's what it is), but it's still a motivator. And when I get where I want to be (again), this time I hope I find ways to continue to motivate to stay there - and not rip any more muscles off bones.

So I'm eating smarter, working out more (and being gradual in my increases in duration and intensity), and using an accountability partner in the process by sending daily practice reports to Kimberly (I just started doing it yesterday and I told her she could ignore them, but it will help me stay on track if I write when I practice). And yeah, by outting myself about this whole weight thing here I'll also be putting another check on my eating.

And now, back to the real subject of this journal, DWTBS. I can reveal the type of dance Kimberly and I will be doing.

But I think I won't. I'll just let this photo be a clue.



- Brown, Out

Passions Lead to Profit in Southport

These four swings on a brick walkway are opposite Waterfront Park in Southport, North Carolina. Marge and I drove to Southport for a Passions Lead to Profit breakfast seminar yesterday and were a bit early so we drove to the waterfront.

Marge at Waterfront Park. Notice the bird sitting on top of the light and the two crossing ferries on the water in the back right.

Me in the same park. Same bird, same ferries.


Our breakfast group gathered at Surfer's Restaurant. Marge on the left, Betty Nash, Lauren Formalarie, Debbie, Dan Boone, and Norman Formalarie.

Marge, Betty, Lauren and I had our photo taken with Dolly (the mannequin) before we left.

We had a good time and enjoyed talking with Betty, Debbie, Lauren, Dan, and Nolan about the four P's of our Passions Lead to Profit system.