Interview with author & entrepreneur Jason Womack

I'm thrilled to feature an interview today with Jason Womack today! Jason is an author and entrepreneur who provides practical methods to maximize tools, systems, and processes to achieve quality work/life balance. He has worked with leaders and executives for more than sixteen years in the business and education sectors. His focus is on creating ideas that matter and implementing solutions that are valuable to organizations and the individuals in those organizations. Author of Your Best Just Got Better: Work Smarter, Think Bigger, Make More, Jason shows that working longer hours doesn’t make up for a flawed approach to productivity and performance. 

Tell us about your book Your Best Just Got Better. What was your inspiration behind this book? 

About ten years ago, I started collecting stories. I continue to ask people these three questions:

1. Has life ever been hard for you? 
2. Has it ever been worse? 
3. Did it eventually get better? 

Now, if the answer to those three questions was YES, I changed my line of questioning to be much, much more open-ended. And, that’s when people started opening up. I learned that there are three basic paths that people take to making their life, their our, their community and their fails better. So, I guess that I was inspired to share those strategies, and the tactics that I experimented with that work, with readers around the world.

How do you balance writing with all the other things going on in your life, like your work, family, health?

Well, the book has been published in three different languages. I run a consultancy full-time, traveling up to 200 days a year, presenting eighty lectures and working one-on-one with up to ten clients at a time. I’m married, and with my wife, Jodi, I co-run another company called www.Momentum.GS -- this is an online coaching program for individuals who are on a path to professional development success. How do I balance it all? I do one thing at a time. I stopped multitasking a long time ago; also, I say no to things. I say no to anything that pulls me (or us) off course to our overall mission. I’ll tell you about that next.

What is your biggest advice for other writers, particularly young writers just starting out? 

Sixty months from now, you’ll have what you have, go where you go, do what you do, and be who you are based on the five people you meet next. Make sure that you curate your network; much like a museum has much, MUCH more than they put on display, you can "know" a lot of people, but you want to make sure the people who influence you are pushing you in a direction you want to go in for the long term. Staring as a writer means you’ve heard the voices that talk to you, and you’ve decided to allow yourself the "gift of your own attention." By putting pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, you’re telling the universe you’re willing. Once you do that, you WILL be tested. There will be easy "pop-quizzes" such as friends calling asking you to go out for drinks on a Tuesday night. There will also be "final-exams" when someone close to you becomes ill or falls on hard times. The one factor -- above all else -- that continues to play a significant part in/of my success is who I choose to spend time with; who I let influence me; both my thoughts, and my actions.

What's next for you?

I invite every single reader to join a community, to seek out a group of like-minded learners AND producers, that will want for your success. About two years ago, just as we were coming out of the worst recession I’ve ever lived through, we started an online-coaching program with semi-annual "in-person" leadership retreat events. If you know that change is coming, and in one year or less you’re going to already be well on the path to success, join our community. Visit www.TimeToGetMomentum.com. Not sure if it’s for you? Email me, and I’ll send you a "Free Pass" for a 7-day membership. I’m so sure you’ll gain value in those seven days, I offer a money-back guarantee on http://www.GetMomentum.com membership. Ready?

Is there anything else you would like to add? 

Creativity comes in all shapes and sizes. Whether you’re a writer, a painter, a poet, or a craftsman, you’re put on this planet to share of the abundance, to give of the overflow that you see when you look out and KNOW in your heart of hearts that things can be better. And, as a result of you doing YOUR work, things will be better.

You can learn more about Jason at the following links:

• Just Three Things That Cause Stress: http://womackcompany.com/blog/2012/10/24/causestress
• How to Prepare For Your Future Success: http://getmomentum.co/2014/11/05/how-great-a-connector-can-you-be 
• Time Blocking and Prioritizing: https://vimeo.com/album/1502198/video/18379925 
• About Your Coach: https://vimeo.com/101470994 
• How To Turn Ideas Into Actions: http://www.inc.com/jason-womack/productivity-turn-ideas-into-actions.html 
• Your Best Just Got Better: Work Smarter, Think Bigger, Make More: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/your-best-just-got-better/id427693120 
• Stitcher Radio: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/your-best-just-got-better 
• Entrepreneur.com: http://www.entrepreneur.com/author/jason-womack

Great advice from Audie Cornish

Browsing through the June 2012 issue of Glamour magazine, I came across an article filled with advice for "how to master an entry-level job (or, well, any job) in a crazy-tough economy" by Lilit Marcus. All of the advice was useful:

• "Don't just learn your job, learn what others do too" from news anchor Erin Burnett
• "Realize that you have to earn people's respect" from Mandana Dayani, vice president of Rachel Zoe Inc.
• "Find balance now, not later" from Sue Naegle, president of HBO Entertainment

I think the advice I found most useful came from Audie Cornish, cohost of the National Public Radio show All Things Considered. She said, "A lot of people I am in touch with now in my career are people I'd asked for help when I was in my first job as an assistant news-writer at a public radio station in Boston. It's easy to be intimidated by big voices, but when you're just starting out, you have the unique license to open any door in the company and ask, 'How do I get to do what you do?' People love being asked for advice. It shows you respect what they do." 

No matter where you are in your career, it's never too late to ask for advice. Why not pick up a pen or open an email window and write to someone in your field who you admire?

Whenever I finish a book I love, I always take a few minutes to Google their name, find their website, and zip them an email. I tell them what I loved about the book and also ask if they have any advice for me as I work to build my own writing career. Not only have I received wonderful words of wisdom and encouragement, I have even been able to forge friendships with writers from all around the world -- novelists, playwrights, memoirists, poets. These are people who I admire greatly, who enrich my life, who make me feel like I'm not alone when I spend my days pounding out words on the computer.

Now I've even started receiving the occasional email from young writers asking me for advice, and they make my day! I am always so delighted and excited to strike up conversations with new writer friends.

Guest Post by Carol Roth

7 Ways to Mentor a Future Businesswoman

by Carol Roth

Adapted from her new book The Entrepreneur Equation

For girls, Barbie has been a good role model, showing them that attractive females can be astronauts, diplomats, and doctors. But when Ken launched his aggressive social media campaign to get Barbie to take him back by Valentine's Day (she did) after their 7-year breakup, Barbie's work-life balance seems to have gone out of kilter.

Message to Barbie: Ken's great, but don't let him distract you from your serious career goals. Like many young professional gals, Barbie has been successful working for others. But she's also occasionally worked for herself and been entrepreneurial, as an aerobics instructor, veterinarian, wedding stylist, photographer, pediatrician, and makeup artist, to name a few.

If, like Barbie, your girl has a nose for business and dreams of owning her own company one day, here are some ways you can help her grow into the role. If a girl can learn these skills while she's still playing with dolls, she'll be well on her way to success in any future profession.

Tell her she's good enough. Even the young businesswomen I coach hit a brick wall of fear. Can I do it? Can I learn it? Will I succeed? Yes, yes, and yes. Remind your girl often that she's got what it takes.

Stop her when she's self-critical. There's a difference between having high standards and beating yourself up. Women and girls tend to be hard on themselves. Teach your girl to do the opposite.

Don't discourage her inner Barbie. These days, I see lots of beautiful, successful women in business who have embraced their femininity. It's okay to be a girlie-girl. In fact, I've found it has some real business advantages.

Help her be honest, not nice. Our mothers taught us to be nice all the time, which was not always to our advantage. In business and in life, your girl needs to learn how to be polite, but honest. She'll garner more respect that way.

Tell her not to wait to be called on. Girls raise their hands and then wait for their cue to talk. Successful businesswomen speak up and contribute their ideas before they're asked to.

Help her think big. No goal is too big for a young girl to believe. When girls create an ambitious vision for their future, it will shape everything they do -- in school, extracurricular activities, and socially.

Encourage her to fear not. The fear of going after something and being rejected is often stronger in girls and women because they are taught to be safe, while males are taught to be risk takers.

* * *

Carol Roth (www.carolroth.com) has been helping businesses grow for over 15 years, ranging from solopreneurs to multinational corporations. A popular media personality on Fox News, MSNBC, and WGN-TV Chicago, among others, she is author of a new book, The Entrepreneur Equation: Evaluating the Realities, Risks, and Rewards of Having Your Own Business (BenBella, March 22, 2011). Because she aims to be a role model for girls and young women, she created the Carol Roth special edition doll -- sporting a smart black dress, leather computer bag, and hot-pink heels -- to show girls it's okay to be beautiful, successful, and powerful when they grow up. Carol Roth is on the cover of February's Doll's Magazine (http://www.dollsmagazine.com/)