Across The Desk With Elizabeth Plouffe

Return on investment. That's the key for most business people but when you are building a business, keeping the ROI in line with the PITA is key to success. Why? Well, sometimes social media can have a high PITA factor with low ROI. Before you think we're talking about sandwiches and dietary advice, I mean the pain in the ass factor. For some businesses, I recommend you lower the PITA factor by NOT using social media for your business. Yep. A consultant just said don't use my services please. Why? Because there are so many ways to negatively impact your business by screwing up your online presence that if you can't afford someone to help you or do it for you, then DON'T. That's not to say that you CAN'T. You absolutely can. But the time it will take to teach yourself the ins and outs of the social media platforms and tools, the creation of a content calendar and the way to engage contributes to the PITA factor exponentially and reduces your ROI more than businesses sometimes realize. Take a listen and fin

Has there ever been a time where you've made a decision to buy something or work with someone based on the opinion of others? Have you noticed that when someone does you a favor or provides a freebie you feel obligated to help them out next time? Maybe you've noticed that someone has a lot in common with you and when it's suggested you work on a project together, the decision is easy. All of these scenarios fall under the 6 Principles of Influence. But as we all know, influence can be used for good and for not so good intentions. Why is this important to know? Because being manipulated to our detriment can negatively impact our personal life and business while using the principles of influence in a positive way can open doors. Learn how to spot when social influence is being used to sell you that latest fad cream or how to use it to help you get a new client. Get wise to the give and take of reciprocity and how you might not be getting the best deal with that freebie. Does someone have an unusual amount of

I hope that all businesses try to keep their corporate social responsibility plan to of mind all year. For such a long title, I sometimes wonder if creating a CSR plan is more a tool to look good than actually do good. Cynical? Maybe. But once you chat with Monica Graves, you'll see what putting your money where your jewels are really means. Cancer is another cause where I think people can lose focus on how to actually support the families that are affected by this nefarious disease. In my case? My father had it. My grandfather, 2 uncles and grandmother in law died of it. My sister in law has battled and won. Even I've had 2 cancer scares that shows me I'm not immune. How did I cope? I was lucky and just dealt. I didn't have kids to feed or bills to pay that were going to be affected by my diagnosis. Today's podcast is about how to give back. Personally. Professionally. Entrepreneurially. Take that CSR and put it to work rather than paying it lip service. 3 Little Wishes is one of the many ways that Monica

How is it possible that one book can contain so many seemingly disparate items? Happiness + business + science + motivation + action items + inspiration It's insane. Yet that's exactly what Shawn Achor manages to do in his 2010 book The Happiness Advantage. For a research geek like me, who isn't a huge fan of talking about feelings, this book was like divine intervention. Science backed recommendations on how to be happier? Jackpot! Shawn Achor provides corporate and personal narratives that allow anyone to relate to the mind blowing idea that are brains are capable of change and that change can include being happier. Why is this important? Other than the obvious (really? You don't want to be happier?), the book clearly demonstrates the impact on productivity, creativity, relationship building, health and achieving success. That last one is the biggest myth busted of all. Success will not make you happier. Happier will make you successful. Let that sink in for a minute and then give a listen. I'm about

I think there is a very thin line between eccentric and eclectic. Both refer to the possibility of seemingly unrelated ideas coming together in ways people might not have considered before. Stepping over the line from eclectic to eccentric? Well that's when you try to put peanut butter and tuna fish together. Not a great idea. The benefits of being described as or acting like either eccentric or eclectic has its benefits and drawbacks. For me, the benefits are many. Having eclectic tastes allows me to talk to just about anybody at events and put together ideas that seem random to some. Until we talk about it further and they have the inevitable a-ha. Eccentric? That means I don't mind taking on weird challenges, fit right in with odd teams and seldom object to doing something out of the ordinary that most might run from. Interested in learning more about the benefits? Listen on, Macduff. Listen on ...

Do you hate wasting time? I do. I even go so far as to plan out my driving route for errands so that I minimize travel time wasted. If I have to backtrack? That drives me bananas. So believe me - I don't waste time on books that will be bad for my business or get in the way of me achieve my goals faster. Gary Vaynerchuk has written three books specifically geared at helping business owners at all levels succeed. Despite the occasional appearance of the Salty V, I believe through watching and learning from him that he truly wants to help others. So I gave Jab, Jab, Jab Right Hook a shot. For someone who peruses used book stores and avoids paying full price, shelling out the $40 was hard. But was it worth it? It turns out it was. This book has been designed to help you navigate the choppy waters of social media and specifically how not to screw it up for your business. If there is any time to invest your time and energy, it's when it has to do with your business. After all, any return on investment when lear

Have you ever lost your wallet? Or had it stolen? That sucks right?! This weekend I got the chance to make it suck less for someone. How? Social media. In this day and age of mobile phones and mobile people, it can be hard to track someone down the traditional way. But thanks to social media, all we need to do is follow the breadcrumbs that get left online. My husband found the wallet in downtown Toronto while working but the address on the ID was in Burlington. It made sense for him to bring it home as we could return it quickly. With knowledge of the panic associated with losing your wallet, I wanted to get in touch with him sooner. So I went online. All it took was googling his full name to find the beginning of the trail. LinkedIn proved to be a bit of a bust but his Facebook profile provided some ideas. He'd listed his work as being at a pub close to where my husband found the wallet so I gave them a call. Sure enough, he works there. After explaining the situation, the staff agreed to contact him wit

So what do women talk about when they meet up? Kids? Work? Husbands? Expectations? Trust? Sounds like a typical meeting meeting right? Turns out it can be all of that and so much more. Tuesday night was the joint Ballsy / Women in Tech meetup that featured speaker Norine Jones. Norine was asked to speak to the group based on a conversation that we had during another meeting. Specifically, it was to discuss the role of women in business and what exactly that means. How much sacrifice should we be making for our business vs our families and how do we make those choices. What started out as a speaking gig turned in to a terrific discussion that I think generated far more helpful perspectives than a regular format would have done. I'd already had the conversation and still ended up with six pages of notes. If you're a woman in business, or a man still trying to learn about women, then this podcast might shed some light on the mental games we play with ourselves and how men factor in to all of that.

The Huffington Post ran an article last year on "11 Things We Fake in Our Social Media Lives" and I love it. As part of my business (and my inherently nosy personality) I love the peeking in on other people's lives aspect of social media. I love the stories they tell. I love connecting with people over similar interests. But what I don't love is the fakery and insincerity of some accounts on behalf of businesses. I just want to shake them and say, "Really? Are you sure about that?". I thought it was just me. Then I read Unmarketing by Scott Stratten and felt a huge sense of relief. I was not alone in my frustration on the fake factor. I've had Unmarketing on my shelf for a bit. I'm not sure why I held out but am so glad I got over whatever was holding me back. This book confirmed that the fake route, autotweeting, push marketing and all the other things that drive me crazy were in fact dumb. And bad for your business. And annoying. Thanks to reading this book I now have a deeper confidence in the slow but s

If you have ever been to a restaurant or event, you might be guilty of this: can you even remember the face of the server at the last restaurant you went to? At the last event you were at (wedding, gala, networking, did you thank the staff that cleared your plates and picked up after you all night? Chances are the answer is no. Sadly that seems to be more common these days. The ME generation has returned and the manners have left the building. We are so distracted by phones and noise and our problems and just US in general that we forget one important thing: there is a them behind the tidy table you are now sitting at. There is a them behind the beautifully arranged room you are enjoying. And them? They like to hear thank you. Quite frankly so do I. Why the rant? I've over rude people. I'm over staff at events feeling unappreciated and borderline maligned. I've coordinated enough events, been to enough events and worked at enough events that when I hear stories of rudeness - well quite frankly, I get a litt

Are you either currently working with a service provider or about to hire one? Do you think you're the only one who should be prepared for meetings? Think again. If you want to maximize the time you have with a service pro and minimize the budget, then do your homework on your pain. Points that is. Take the time to understand what you want to accomplish, what you can take on and the best way you can support the service provider so that they give you the best bang for your painfully earned buck.

Women in leadership roles has been a bit of a tricky development over the last 100 years. No, I'm not crying the poor me blues. No, I don't want to wear power suits and be like a man. But what I do want is for women to stop limiting themselves because they think they should. Because society is slowly coming on board with losing the judgement of women in leadership roles. And best of all? Women are slowly stopping the judgement of themselves. Why is this important? Because even the strongest women leaders, who appear to show no fear, are still battling inner demons. This is especially true for women entrepreneurs. We still believe we have to prove we're capable and fit for our role. And when strong women leaders don't admit to feeling this way, the rest of us believe something is wrong with us because we do. So today, you can meet Norine Jones, CEO/President/Leader of PowerVac Services Hamilton who successfully runs a successful business in a traditionally male dominated industry. She is also a devoted wife,

Why are you happy at work? Good boss? Good team? Free coffee? Is it enough to make you get up in the morning and bounce out of bed with that "Yes! I get to go to work today!" feeling? That is awesome! Now, if you are in Canada, think about the 9.5 million people who are unhappy at their jobs. No bounce in their step. No fabulous boss. No team to rely on. In the US, that unhappiness amounts to .... Wait for it. $450 BILLION dollars per year. Yup. Billion. In general, asshat bosses who can't lead a team, don't know how to foster communication and team work and wouldn't know how to lead without fear are costing the economy billions of dollars every year. We can fix that. I'm joined by Jason Little, author of Lean Change Management and globe trotting coach, who has dedicated his working passion to helping employees become one thing: happy. How? You'll have to listen to find out!

I am a change management neophyte. Enthusiastic and firmly converted but a neophyte none the less. With Happy Melly Exploration Day coming up on October 19th, I thought it best to bring someone on Across the Desk who has more experience than me. Meet Hazel van der Werken. Since being involved with lean practices in Scotland in 1995 and adding change management in 2009 in the Netherlands, Hazel arrived in Canada in 2013 and found Silicon Halton. Thank goodness because it was through Silicon Halton that Hazel found Spark the Change Toronto where we met in 2015. While Hazel is unable to be at the Happy Melly event next week due to a work trip, she's a staunch advocate for all levels of an organization regardless of industry taking advantage of the Happy Melly Exploration Day. Why? Because Hazel is all about the right tools for the job and Happy Melly has a toolbox that will blow your mind. www.happymellyexplorationday.com

If, like me, you've worked for organizations for years and thought it was all in your head, I'm here to tell you that you're wrong. That vague feeling that something is off all the way down to full mental breakdowns because the boss is batshit crazy. That feeling that it's always going to be this way and nothing will ever change. The feeling that you can never be happy at work and just have to accept it. WRONG! It took me over 20 years and a chance meeting to discover how wrong I was and how many people are working to change it. Three years ago I was introduced to the world of agile and change management. I'm still learning what all that entails but what I did learn in a big way is that there are tools, experts, coaches and more to help organizations not suck. To help employees learn how to make things better. To help bosses, managers and supervisors find the way to the light that shows them communicating with their employees doesn't have to include condescension, fear and ego. How? One way is Happy Mell

Some "experts" out there are all about the sale, the pitch, the bottom line. Yuck. When that's the place they're sharing their expertise from, you want to send them right back. At least I do. But I kept looking and I found Marie Forleo. Phew. What a relief. Marie Forleo has become my go to background "noise" when I'm working on projects. But I mean noise in the best sense. Because she is funny, authentic, intelligent and engaging, it's a pleasure to have her on in the background. I learn and get entertained at the same time which for my ADD brain is awesome! If, like me, you are building your mentor list and are struggling to find someone that inspires and educates, then I recommend giving www.marieforleo.com a visit and getting your Marie on.

There may or may not be the use of the word bullshit in this podcast. Just sayin. Sometimes in business, people can be loathe to partner with others. Why? I'm not sure. I'm a huge fan of partnering with others, combining forces and sharing resources. Not tooting my own horn but stating a fact. The fact is, your business is better off when you keep yourself open to opportunities. This week on an interim Ballsy in Review, we officially launched the partnership of Ballsy and Women in Tech. WIT is a group through Silicon Halton, a local organization that brings together entrepreneurs and small businesses to learn, train and support growth and development. The goal of partnering? To increase the value to the members. That's it. So what better way to add value than to embrace my love of partnering and kick off with an awesome mini-workshop with Carol Shulte? I can't think of a better way to set yourself up for success!

People talk about change all the time. Talk. When you actually delve in to how difficult personal change can be, imagine trying to change an entire organization. Some days I have challenges picking out which funky socks to wear. Being a change agent for a whole organization? Yikes! Well now at least I've got some tools to get the conversation going. About change I mean. Not my socks. 2 years ago I met a guy. This guy had a big, audacious plan to have a conference in Toronto called Spark the Change. This was my first introduction to what agile, lean change management and the tools to make it happen. The guy? That's Jason Little. And as I've told him before, he changed my life. Lean Change Management is the book Jason has written based on his experience as an agile coach, researcher, change expert and disturber of the status quo. He doesn't want you to make change happen just for the sake of it. He wants to give you the tools so the change will have minimum blast radius, maximum insights and turn even the mos

When you are a woman in business, you'd think that men would be the challenge. I've learned that this is not always the case. In fact, most of the issues I've had throughout my various careers have been with women not men. Why? Well - I think we've been trained to see other women as competition and not as comrades. That sucks. On top of that, women have also been trained to make everybody else the priority and they take the back seat. Not all women, granted, but I can honestly say that for a while I was one of those women. This is particularly challenging if you run your own business. You can't afford to take the back seat otherwise your business has no one driving. This also sucks. This week at Ballsy, our focus was on education and how women HAVE to make it a priority. Is this advice just for business owners? No. This is for anyone looking to get ahead in the business world. Feel like you've been sent to the principles office?

I realize that for some of us, high school was a long time ago. I mean loooonggggg ago. But I for one still love learning. I love taking new courses and got quite excited when I signed up for my 3rd online course to learn how to teach online. Yep - I'm stepping back up to the front of the class! But if I didn't make education a priority, I wouldn't be in a position to improve my business, my knowledge base and my ability to earn a better living. Who doesn't want to do that? Sometimes stuff gets in the way of learning. Could be family. Could be an asshat boss. Or it could be the one person we rely on to make sure we're not only moving towards the glass ceiling but are ready to bust through it - ourselves. And that, my friend, is where you need to evaluate the priority you place on education as a means of getting ahead. So put your big kids pants on. We're going back to school!