Answer this question:

Are you working in a shrinking or growing industry?

If it’s shrinking, get out. That’s right. Leave.

The longer that you hang on hoping the human resources death angel doesn’t come around the corner, the more you will deplete your energy and spirit. Here’s an example:

We just came from the mall in Santa Monica. How depressing! At the Cheesecake Factory, about 20 members of the wait staff were taking care of fewer than 10 tables. It was the middle of the day. While sectors of hospitality are exploding, others shrink every single day.

Creative and adaptive workers have always been the first to leave when the workplace is no longer fulfilling. Creativity, adaptability, the ability to change or reinvent oneself? It is all learnable.

Creativity without adaptability isn’t enough. In the mid-90s, Disney Feature Animation started laying off large numbers of animators. Many had sat for years laboriously painting one cell at a time. Many responded to learning a new form of art on computers with sheer contempt. I remember two of them. One threw herself into learning the new technology so well that she could forget about it. Her artistry expanded. Her teams began winning Academy Awards. The other refers to himself as an animator unable to find work in decades.

Another critical question:

What would happen to your world if you become a devoted, voracious, world-class, passionate, and capable ACTIVE LEARNER?

It has been said, “the truth will set us free. But first, it will piss us off.”

Active learners are finding freedom in finding the truth about everything that interests them.

Last week a number of syndicators published a new article. In it, I wrote the middle-class isn’t gone. The middle-class is in debt. In fact, the middle-class so does not want to be the middle class they keep trying to finance their way into upper-middle-class bliss. Middle-class income, adjusted for inflation, has increased by about 20% since 1960. Where did that money go? Debt. We are well over 10 times in debt than we were in 1960. Banking is in the business of selling financing. So, blaming them is a bit like blaming the baker for gaining weight.

Today, degrees and certifications are obsolete by the time we throw that graduation cap into the air. Higher education, well, any form of education used to be an endgame marking the completion of education. Today, the world is changing and accelerating so quickly that if we go online to learn what’s happening, we will find pathways into work that are far more interesting than the clocking-in-and-clocking-out routine that so many of us settled for.

Today, the need for constant active learning is critical for success and especially for one’s happiness.

Let’s play this out like a bit of a jazz riff. If you are devouring information about the future, emerging work, and growing industries, we will learn that it is a bad idea to work for a car company in America. Why? Because CEOs in our country feel this enormous burden to act as if they know what they are doing. So, while German automakers use more robotic technology than we can imagine, they don’t lay workers off. They constantly teach their talent to grow into new roles, problem solvers, creative and more interesting roles.

Today, active learning is leading enlightened outmoded assembly line workers into becoming manufacturers. How’s that? They learn that 3-D printing is no longer science fiction. In fact, we build human organs and fighter jets using 3-D technology. But, the printers have become so easy to use and progressively more affordable that an entire category of entrepreneurs are growing. We find them if we look. You doubt that? Read Boldby Peter Diamandis and you will find you are reading a case study of how 3-D printing grew from being an exotic technology to one that is changing the world as well as the livelihoods of everyday people.

Surfers know how to catch new waves and have fun with the ride. Active learners are finding where to take what they love, what they find to be meaningful and surf.

The others? One of my friends on Facebook made a post of a clerical worker at one of the big financial service companies “teaching” the CEOs what it is like to work on her salary, in a role and an industry that is shrinking. What an absolute waste of her brain power and creativity. This righteousness emerging about our poverty is killing the future of many otherwise talented and intelligent workers. Who taught us poverty?

Our educational system didn’t teach wealth. They taught us how to fit into jobs with little more aspiration than finding predictability and survival. They didn’t teach us how to change. They taught us how to show up and do monotonous stuff. Most teachers are so terrified of the life skills that make us successful they respond with contempt at the idea of teaching sales, how to build support systems, how to influence others, how to draw healthy attention to oneself. Recently, one told me proudly, “Oh, we teach life skills. We have a class now that shows students how to balance a checkbook.” For a second, politeness failed me and I asked, “What are you teaching in terms of putting money into that banking account?” He looked at me as if I asked that question in some awful form of Pig Latin.

Right now, about half of our country’s workers characterize themselves as underemployed. The ranks of the underemployed are growing every day. Associate attorneys from large firms are being shown the door as Legal Zoom offers all of that task work for a pittance. Mid-level search executives who avoided having to sell anything have been jettisoned at all of the big search firms because of LinkedIn. My question is if you are that smart, why didn’t you find a way to make yourself more valued and needed? When did you stop growing? When did you lose your curiosity? Did you ever have that?

For most of us, the greater questions are:

Did you get that degree to gain access to a secure and stable job?

Did you pursue an education because of your love of learning?

Cathy Sandeen, University of Alaska’s new Chancellor has studied the impact of change on education. She became a bit of a tipping point for me when she said today’s average college graduate will change careers, not jobs, “4-6 times.”

Cathy told me that 5 years ago.

The bridge between letting go of task work and finding our ideal next role centers on thinking, feeling, and following our gut. Often, the trance produced by long-term task work absolutely must be broken.

Many of us have laughed as Lucy and Ethal turned assembly line work into a gut laughing spectacle. But, the woman behind that role was far more impressive. Lucille Ball didn’t pay much attention to housewives. She studied the likes of Louis B. Mayer and other studio chiefs. She devoured information and used every bit that she learned to become a clever powerhouse. Lucille Ball ended up owning the content, dumped her drunk and philandering husband, and died an icon unlike anyone that came before or after her remarkable run.

Around the turn of this century, advancing technology offered us access to information that literally changed our world. Filtering technology is giving us the power to find the information that we want and need with very little effort. In the end, I believe how we use our technology distinguishes whether we become masters of our own livelihood or enter a lifetime of underemployment.

As technology takes on tasks, our very success depends on how we collaborate with technology to learn what’s next in our field, to find the breakthroughs that can help us initiate a breakthrough in our own careers. Or, we can check out on Candy Crush, find out the new stinking gossip about someone wildly successful, and forget about the whole thing.

Can the difference between success and mediocrity be that simple?

I believe yes it can.

Find the work that matters to you.

Learn how to do that with so much success that you are no longer willing to compromise between the poisonous balance of loving your work or making a living.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

(C) Copyright, 2019, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

The post Were Tasks Ever That Much Fun? appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

After 28 years of helping people find their ideal purpose and helping them orchestrate their success, I will do my best to share what I believe can be helpful in a world that continues to change more rapidly every day.

My story begins on Saturday, September 15, 1990. George Bush Sr. is in office and many of the people we serve today were still a glimmer in God’s eye.

I stand in front of 36 participants to deliver the first Inspired Work Program. Candidly, I felt like a fraud. But, I was fortunate enough to know the back story from many of the world’s greatest success stories in human potential. Napoleon Hill, of the Think and Grow Rich fame offered up the secrets of success that industrialist Andrew Carnegie had personally shared with him and him alone. The truth is they never met. In fact, Hill regularly had to flee from towns when his newest scams caught up with him.

But, his work paved the way for science fiction writer, L. Ron Hubbard to invent Scientology. His volunteers led people to insights by asking questions while they interpreted the feedback from a 50s era electric meter, all at a price.

One of their students was the used-car salesman, John Rosenberg. He didn’t much like his life and one morning while driving across the Golden Gate Bridge, John had an epiphany. He decided to re-package the curriculum from Scientology into a group program called EST. He quickly abandoned his family and changed his name to Werner Erhard. Today, Mr. Erhard lives in Switzerland, the one country that outlaws Scientology.

What did I learn from these deeply imperfect individuals?

Far too many of us wait to get better, to become more educated before making a difference, to do whatever we can to change the ills within our society. But, this compulsion usually happens when someone actually connects with the truth in meaningful and cogent ways. Recently, I congratulated one of our graduates for having the courage to launch a business that is now on its way to becoming a category leader.

He responded, “Courage? I had no choice!”

When we define the truth of what we are here to do or born to do, the other options fall away. That is also the purpose that can successfully drive anyone through a world of accelerating change.

In 1990, human potential seemed like a good idea. But, the very words imply an experience that can be high on drama and low on deliverables. The coaching industry was just beginning. So, many people have referred to me as a coach and for a long time, I went with it kind of like a line item. But, the most accurate description of what my life is about is as an orchestrator. I help people define what they want and then help orchestrate their success. A spiritual master that I once met had been a violinist. He said, “I used to tune violins and now I tune people’s souls.” I prefer orchestration, which gives room for a person to play their music straight from their hearts.

28 years ago, I had no alternative.

As a young adult, I had become used to big disappointments. I grew up in a violently awful adoptive home. A year before I anxiously walked through that hotel lobby, a long and impactful relationship came to a surprising end. I had quit my day job as a staffing executive because I had finally been given a recording contract. Six weeks later, my producer dropped dead of a heart attack. He was 37 years old and a visionary.

Virtually every conversation we had was about changing the world. One morning, I was looking at the ocean from my home in Malibu and envisioning all we were accomplishing when the phone rang. It was his girlfriend, hysterical. He had walked to the bottom of the stairs leading into their living room and dropped dead. Gone. One moment. The biggest gift in his passing was in realizing I had devoted most of my early adult life towards being happy…in the future. How many of us sacrifice each precious moment on the notion it will all turn out in the end?

I realized I knew nothing of value about being happy in the present. Lyman and I had talked less than a day before. We were going to change the world. From a certain lens, Inspired Work began in a rather maudlin fashion. I had been engaged in Cherie Carter-Scott’s work, which was all about asking people the kind of questions that connected them with their truth. Every morning, I walked out to the beach with a notepad and asked questions under a heading, “My Miserable Life.” Really. In Malibu.

During days of journaling, I came to the truth that work, for most of us, is the biggest relationship that we have. But, the industrial revolution, which, just as a reminder, lasted 300 years, conditioned us to view work as simply a source for survival and predictability. So many of us, while growing up, reached that age when we thought about becoming adults and voiced what our soul suggested we could do with our lives. A parent, faithfully representing what they were told to do passed on the message: “Don’t be you.”

The journaling led to a curriculum and I asked some very brilliant people for their views on work. We created a model. It became clear that a great relationship towards our work would require a unique definition in terms of roles, gifts, values, morals, point-of-view, and interest. That led to insights that the reason so many people have remained stuck is they had not adopted the life skills that make any career successful. It is hard to motivate people without that purpose in place. So, the curriculum had to become a seduction of helping people define what they really wanted to do with their lives and used that enthusiasm to take on skills that would often produce a period of discomfort. It was a blend that would lead to a role which often resembles a midwife.

I was, however, a salesman. We managed to get 3-dozen people into that first room through sheer chutzpah and hubris. As I walked in the door of the hotel, time switched into slow motion and I greeted people coming in the door possibly a bit like a zombie with a perpetual smile. My greatest fear was that nothing would happen. However, my terror grew to a whole new level when it worked powerfully. Every program since has had the same elements of truth-telling that exponentially grows with each passing hour. After each question session, narratives emerged that moved all of us. People talked about their hidden aspirations, spiritual DNA, about taking what came from the heart and packaging it in practical and actionable ways. The experience was so profound that many of those first participants have been friends ever since.

When the last person left, I walked to the parking garage, got into my little red BMW, tried to turn the key and realized I was in no position to drive. Up until that moment, I had felt, at best, conditional value as a human being. It was a legacy from an abusive childhood, one that included the additional message most adoptive children have and that is one of disloyalty. I invested much of my early life in trying to not only run away from that but to become a better person by helping others. Do you want to heal? Go help someone.

That, my friends, is the first truth I have to share from almost 3 decades of commitment to this work.

A few years ago, my ex-boss reached out for lunch at Hotel Avalon, by the pool. I hadn’t seen her in 25 years. She had sold her staffing company and become a celebrated artist. Her installations are in museums throughout the world. When she walked in the door of that restaurant, I was stunned at how youthful and beautiful she looked. We hugged and sat down. But, before I could say one word she asked, “What is it like for you to wake up in the morning?”

“What do you mean?” I responded.

“David, your work has touched thousands of lives. What is it like to wake up to that every morning?”

“It feels like redemption.”

Our eyes locked and at that moment we saw each other. Understanding. Grounded-ness. It happened.

So, if this was my last moment on earth, what would I want to share with you, my beloved readers?

1. Each and every one of us is born with a purpose. It is a form of spiritual DNA that isn’t duplicated in anyone else. Find it. Because, when you do, life comes together, life takes on meaning, and work becomes a source of tremendous joy.

2, Many people don’t take the initiative to define what they really want to do with their lives because they believe, on some level, that the right people will not help them. However, once we define what we want to do, our success is based purely on the quality of help that we get.

3. Work is our biggest relationship. Treat it with the same respect and give as much nourishment to our purpose as we give to our most precious relationships. In so doing, we become better role models to the people we love.

4. The rate of change has thrown almost half of working Americans into underemployment. There has never been a time that is more important than to learn how to change oneself, to learn the skills of reinvention and to learn how to master the kinds of personal change that make our lives vividly better.

5. Technology isn’t taking away work. It is eliminating tasks. From that vantage point consider the possibility that technology is offering us freedom. Now, what do you want to do with that freedom?

6. Everyone, no matter their politics, economic class, educational background or religion has a spirit, an entity that when given the opportunity, takes the high road. I have witnessed that progression thousands of times. It is a power that makes our differences superficial.

There have been many, many extraordinary humans that have supported us and helped me in good times as well as difficult periods. Today, I think of the late Dr. Howard House. I met Howard at the House Ear Institute, which he founded. It is the world’s most influential organization in the restoration of hearing. We periodically got together. He was fascinated with what I was doing and I was floored at his impact on people who wanted to hear. Our friendship included moments standing together in their learning center.

One day, there was a young woman being taught how to understand English. Her husband was standing next to us with tears streaming down his face. They had traveled from New Zealand for the surgery. where a young woman was being taught a language. Her husband was with us watching.

I turned to him and asked, “What were the first words you said?”

Of course, he responded, “I love you.”

Howard was approaching his 90th birthday and I asked, “Why do you keep showing up and devoting your life to this cause?”

He said, “Oh, I want to see their faces when they hear for the first time.”

“That magic has never worn off?”

“Never.”

“It is the same for me. I get to be there when their life purpose all comes together, whether it is new or forgotten, I get to be there.”

That is redemption.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

(C) Copyright, 2018, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

The post 28 Years Old – What Have I Learned? appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

Inspired Social Networking 

Begins on Wednesday, November 8 from 4-6 p.m.

Regardless of how skilled you are with social media, Inspired Social Networking will elevate how you experience the process and transform your results. The program blends the best of high-touch business development practices with straightforward online technology to build targeted relationships with the very people that you want in your circle. Inspired Social Networking is used by beginners and seasoned digital marketing professionals. In fact, a number of our clients use this methodology as their primary business development platform.

Inspired Social Networking takes place in four easy virtual sessions. To ensure the highest-quality attention, each program is limited to twenty participants.

What to expect:

Week One (11/8) – Inspired Online Branding

Prior to this session, Inspired Work will forward an evaluation of your existing profile on LinkedIn. This prepares for a deep dive with improving your online presentation and brand. We provide extensive course material and collectively design a profile that makes even you excited!

Week Two (11/15) – Inspired Community-Development

Once we define what we want out of lives, careers or businesses, our success is based on the quality of our support systems. You design the very communities that will bring you the perfect job, career, book deal, film deal, mentor, business intelligence, resources, and clients. So, rather than filling your community with clutter, you fill it with the people that will actively help you succeed. The payoff? By the end of this week, you will have several new connections that fit the promise.

Week Three (11/29) – Inspired Relationships

If there was a “secret sauce” to Inspired Social Networking, this is the week. Most of us have become used to the rather faceless and superficial quality that permeates a lot of online activity. We get a connection request and never hear from the person again. But, the promise of our program is to build vital and engaged relationships with the people you want in your circle. We introduce a new communications process that is high-touch, refined, inviting and definitely not “faceless.” Unlike many business development programs, there is nothing pushy about our methods. We teach you how to use a simple and progressive communications process that leads to face-to-face meetings and active relationships. Our process works equally well for newcomers as well as seasoned business development professionals.

Week Four (12/6) – The Advanced Level

Gaining traction in the social media world has several non-negotiable elements attached to it. For example, a business can no longer rely on SEO (search engine optimization) alone to drive traffic to their site. For an individual, getting online publishing can seem daunting. But, Inspired Social Networking offers a variety of right-sized approaches so that anyone can become an online publisher using methods that work for them. Quite frankly, we have yet to meet a participant who doesn’t come out of the program as a publisher with their own unique thumbprint.

David Harder, the course designer and host of Inspired Social Networking developed these processes to build Inspired Work after the recession. Recently, he reentered the traditional publishing field with over six million online readers.

Quite simply, what we teach works and it is pleasurable for everyone involved.

Who Ought to Attend:

• Business owners who want to build a stronger community, client base, and other resources.
• Sales professionals who want to generate better leads in shorter periods of times.
• Professionals who want to build a career based on ideal mentors, business contacts and access to business intelligence.
• Digital marketing professionals. Because we don’t do what you do!

For more information or to enroll, call (310) 277-4850.

To enroll online, click here.

For more program information, click here.

The post A Whole New Form of Social Networking appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

The vast majority of employee engagement initiatives produce mediocre results or fail altogether.

In 2008, we began working with University of Southern California in a project to bring employee engagement to intact teams. Here is a little bit of what we discovered:

• Engagement initiatives must be led by the CEO or business owner. If that isn’t happening, we suggest saving your money and your face.
• We cannot expect engagement when we are just treating the managers and leaving everyone else behind.
• Surveys are good for evidence but without organizational transformation, they just make managers feel even more inadequate.
• The vast majority of our talent doesn’t engage because their capacity to change was outstripped long ago. Until we teach our talent how to change, to unlearn, to learn and to relearn, not much is going to happen with engagement. In fact, this one piece is core to organizations building engaged workers. We discovered this by providing our two-day Inspired Work Program to intact teams. People want to change, need to change but don’t know how or are too frightened to make it happen. With ever growing waves of change, how can we possibly expect our employees to engage when they can’t keep up with change?

The Workplace Engagement Solution was just sent to Career Press and will be published this summer. Yes, I’ve breathed a big sigh of relief. But the journey was phenomenal. We deliver one big and unique solution for engagement. But, how do we design an internally-driven and thoroughly sustainable solution to the problem? Designing the solution comes from the contributions of dozens of brilliant professionals. Writing this book was a serendipitous experience capped by several colleagues hand-delivering Adam Miller, the CEO of Cornerstone on Demand. Adam personifies every aspect of what we advocate in the solution. He leads the culture, he drives talent, “walks the talk,” hires and develops active learners and works with complete transparency.

I am excited to share this book with you!

If any of my readers are considering an engagement program or you are deeply involved in a solution, please feel free to reach out. You can access my schedule by clicking here.

Please limit any initial conversations to 15 or 30 minutes.

The post This Book is Cooked! appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

We began our journey together in the Inspired Work Program. He made a great impression on everyone in the room; gregarious, good-looking, funny and whip smart intelligent, Jackson spoke at length about his father, a successful entrepreneur who was his greatest role model, a man with impeccable ethics and morals, a man who persisted no matter what. That characteristic was about to be tested.

Together, Jackson and I decided that his family had moved around too much. Ironically, geographic stability required they move one more time. We selected a variety of large metropolitan areas that were attractive to the family. With the temporal nature of human resources, especially for change agents, it would be important to relocate to an area with a variety of options. Soon, he was hired by a private equity firm to lead human resources for a recent acquisition in Houston. I worked with his team last fall. He had quickly assembled a group of sharp, tightly-knit leaders. But, the first CEO was shown the door at eighteen months and the new CEO brought in his own team.

Some of my colleagues had already voiced the belief that Jackson had outgrown the job. This time, he went into self-inquiry without letting survival dominate the design. He wanted to do work that would use everything he has, every thing he’s learned; work that would be personally meaningful to him. Mergers and acquisitions represent perhaps the most challenging area for any talent professional. Organizations often suffer their biggest losses of critical talent during the transition. Crisis’s emerge around retention, liability, compensation and in particular, selecting the right CEO and team to transform the business and culture.

This past spring, we wrote his own business plan for 90consulting, a firm to help manage the chaos of the first 90 days after a transition in ownership or leadership. Jackson flew to Los Angeles to train around entrepreneurial needs such as sales, social networking and presentation skills. Despite the fact that he was still responsible for the family, he made a commitment to go for it. He was as anxious about making sales calls as anyone I’ve met, but he did it anyway. He was as uncomfortable as anyone I’ve met around issues of economic uncertainty. He kept moving forward. And then, just as he was launching 90consulting he was diagnosed with cancer. Through it all, I watched him take his girls to concerts and games. He got up early in the morning and plotted out his business for the day. We had many conversations about his options and I would hang up the phone and pray. I couldn’t imagine what it felt like. But, I kept witnessing Jackson practicing courage at ever turn. You see, many of us try to stuff our fears about change and act like risks don’t exist. In the act, we numb ourselves. Others succumb to the fear with paralysis. But, courage, that is the energy of getting up on that horse and suiting up for battle, even if we are scared witless.

Although he could have put off surgery for a few months, Jackson checked into the hospital and the cancer was removed. For a couple of months afterwards, I would talk to Jackson as he forced himself to walk a couple of miles a day to hurry up his recovery. He kept promoting the business. Lest this story sound like Jackson Lynch is sacrificial, he wrote portions of his business plan on a cruise ship – alone. He traveled to the Rio Olympics to support his cousin who was participating. It was painful to climb the stairs to his seat but Jackson was soon publicizing his excitement and joy throughout social media. He traveled to New York on business and always made it to shows. He is literally the most well versed straight man I’ve ever met who can sing show tunes revel in Hamilton and stand in line for the newest and best shows. So, his courage isn’t about martyrdom, it is about standing for the life he wants to have for himself and everyone around him. That takes the highest form of courage.

Late in the summer, Jackson Lynch was declared cancer free.

In the fall, Jackson secured his first big project. He spent two months helping an equity investment firm assess and plan for success with every aspect of their human capital. The CEO sent a note that the project exceeded all expectations with the final work: “Grateful.” The project was exciting, challenging and used everything that he had.

Last month, he called from his car. He introduced me to his oldest daughter, who shared her passions enthusiastically. She knew what she wanted to become and was focused on making it happen after high school graduation this spring. Her optimism was contagious. I could hear the spirit of her grandfather coming through her voice, because Jackson has that enthusiasm as well. Early this week, we talked about his journey. He said, “To get here required that I go through more discomfort than I ever experienced.” I responded, “Jackson, what is ‘here?’”

“For the first time, I am living the life I want to lead.”
Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

(C) Copyright, Inspired Work, Inc. – 2016 – (All rights reserved)

UPCOMING PROGRAMS

The Inspired Work Program (Los Angeles)

Saturday and Sunday, January 7 & 8 or February 11 & 12

Another year? How about getting the biggest relationship you have on the right track. It’s your work! If you are like many of us, you spend most of your waking hours getting ready for it, traveling to it, being at it and recovering from it.

When we redefine work as “a relationship” your best outcome is based on your unique gifts, the person that you have grown into and actionable answers in how to get there now and on your terms.

Over 42,000 people have used The Inspired Work Program, a sophisticated, immersive, two-day experience to transform their relationship towards work. For most, the journey represents solutions for everything in way of fulfillment, self-definition and renewed meaning & purpose. The outcome is practical and learnable.

The experience itself is meaningful, joyful and profound. You witness breakthroughs in everyone around you. It is so bonding and moving that we have alumni groups going back twenty-six years.

• What would life be like if you solve the biggest challenges you have about your work?
• How would you touch the lives of everyone around you if you are leading the life you want to have?

We can help you or someone you love step into that journey in early January with transformative results. Many times, loved ones jump into this experience together.

If the future seems to be arriving too quickly, if you are having challenges trying to make change work for you, don’t miss it. The experience offers support the rest of most anyone’s working life – for the better.

See You in the New Year!

For a program overview (click here).

About your Leader (click here).

We invite you to call and discuss your career and business needs. 

Call us at (310) 277-4850

The program is delivered at the beautiful Luxe Summit – Bel Air (Los Angeles).

Shuttles are available from LAX and the hotel provides special rates for out-of-town guests.

Inspired Social Networking

Begins on Monday,  January 9th, from 4-6 p.m. (PST).

with three additional virtual sessions.

When Inspired Work dug its way out of the “great recession” we looked at the potential of social media to build engaged and tailored communities that would grow our community and our revenue. So, we threw “the norm” out the window.

Was it successful? Inspired Work’s revenue transformed. The founder David Harder grew his participative connections to over 11,000 and his syndicated blogs reach over six million readers.

He shares,

“This is the single quickest way to build a new community around your mission, your business, your career and your success. Not only is it a wonderful resource for well-established business development professional, it works for those of us who develop shyness and anxiety around anything that involves selling.”

We offer a unique experience that elevates of your social networking efforts into a high-touch, creative, engaging and thoroughly effective experience. We promise the outcome for you or your team will exceed your expectations and every aspect of the work will feel better than before.

The people who can transform your career or your business are out there waiting for you. We show you how to reach them and draw them to the table.The program shows you how to reach them, bond with them and build an effective, perhaps even life-changing relationship.

Why would you want to attend?

Because you will step back into social networking with the kind of confidence that can only come from well-informed and very effective new skills. You will find a thread that reshapes each aspect of successful networking into a whole. Use what we teach and you will find a new community customized around your needs, your mission, your vision and purpose.

For more information, (Click Here).

To enroll, call (310) 277-4850.

The post Courage Set Him Free appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

THE INSPIRED WORK PROGRAM

Saturday & Sunday, January 7 & 8 (Los Angeles)

Clarity – Meaning – Purpose – Joy

Work is probably the biggest relationship that you have – right? If you are like many of us, you spend most of your waking hours getting ready for it, traveling to it, being at it and recovering from it.

When we redefine work as “a relationship” the best outcome not only requires that you are doing what you were born to do, you are doing it successfully on your terms and by your definition.

Over 42,000 people have used The Inspired Work Program, a sophisticated, immersive, two-day experience to transform their relationship towards work. For most, the journey represents solutions for everything in way of fulfillment, self-definition and renewed meaning & purpose. The outcome is practical and learnable.
The experience itself is meaningful, joyful and profound. You witness breakthroughs in everyone around you. It is so bonding and moving that we have alumni groups going back twenty-six years.

What would life be like if you solve the biggest challenges you have about your work?

How would you touch the lives of everyone around you if you are leading the life you are meant to have?

We can help you or someone you love step into that journey in early January with tangible, actionable and life-changing results. And, loved ones routinely jump into this exploration together.

If the future seems to be arriving too quickly, if you are having challenges trying to make change work for you, don’t miss it. The experience offers support the rest of most anyone’s working life – for the better.

Happy Holidays.

We Want to See You in The New Year!

For more information, call (310) 277-4850

For a program overview, click here.

To enroll, call our office or click here.

The post An Inspired New Year appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

Many people don’t pursue what they really want because, at the core, they believe they will never get the help that brings their vision to life. Once we define a mission, vision and purpose our success is purely based on the quality of help we get. The most successful people in the world either intuitively or consciously understand that if they are going to realize their dreams and ambitions they must get the right people to help them. Those of us who don’t get this basic fact of modern life are basically walled off from our best and highest use. In the modern world, those of us who believe we must do it ourselves are running in circles often chasing our tails.

The concept of building success through building meaningful support systems is so elusive we routinely put down the process in front of our children. The Emmy, Academy, and Grammy awards represent an extraordinary opportunity for us to point out how the most successful people in media made it to that podium. However, we either wordlessly sit by or complain as the award winner goes on and on doing what? They are thanking all the people who helped them by generously giving their time, putting their necks on the line and investing blood, sweat and tears in the success at hand. Many of us assume they bought that support system once they became rich and famous rather than pointing out to our children they became rich and famous by building that support system. The absence of an awareness and skill set to build and develop a reliable support system is one of the fundamental reasons large swaths talent doesn’t engage, doesn’t change and gets paralyzed.

When I began the journey called Inspired Work doing everything myself was the norm. But, designing a solution for others brought the unexpected reward of ending my lifelong sense of pushing an egg up a hill with my nose. Typically, when we design a curriculum we look at the desired end result. The purpose of this first program is to, “Instill an awareness of the work we were born to do and recognize the skill sets that bring the vision to life. During this journey, we don’t abide by the standards of average, we stand with Irrevocable Happiness.”

I finished the first 2/3rds of the curriculum in less than a week. The questions and process that brings us to a personalized vision came naturally. Then, I ran into a brick wall. At the time, my natural inclination to bring a vision to life, to make it a practical reality was simply to work harder. Without a thought intervention, this was my natural pattern. My adoptive father was a Russian immigrant who had worked in a labor camp where the community’s had a favorite saying: “Work tastes better than food.” He was a medical doctor. As a concert pianist, I worked in practice studios for so many hours that I often had blood coming from the edges of my fingernails. In our programs, that magic moment arrives when someone announces a breakthrough, a new career, a new business, a commitment to new learning or new behavior. I ask the question, “What are you going to do now?” The response is usually some form of “working harder.” When we come from that place, at best, we are going to burn out but usually we will simply fail.

Two weeks before delivering our first program, I was climbing the wall looking for an answer towards completing the curriculum. The Academy Awards was on Television. Kevin Costner was making repeated visits to the podium as Dances with Wolves swept most of the categories. Jeremy Irons hit the stage to accept Best Actor for Reversal of Fortune when it hit me:

• Everything of value in this world is done through collaboration

• We can live in the delusion of adequacy for many years

• If we are going to succeed with any form of a unique career path, our success can only be derived from getting others to help us

This was a turning point that got passed on to thousands of participants. Not only do many of us have inadequate support in our careers, we can also extend that poverty to our healthcare, love lives, financial abundance, social standing, image, childcare and development and continuous education. From the lens of adequacy, we live with problems that seem to have no solution. We work harder to get past them. But usually, we don’t. Or, we get there while other vital aspects of our lives suffer.

In the learning and development field, we are providing our talent with support. But, how many of us spend time teaching our people how to get help? It seems a bit counterintuitive that to become self-sufficient we must learn how to identify, recruit and manage help from others, doesn’t it?

And yet, that is exactly how real and lasting success works.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule time with David via www.inspiredworkservices.com/calendar

(C) Copyright, Inspired Work, Inc. – 2016 – (All rights reserved)

UPCOMING PROGRAMS

The Inspired Work Program (Los Angeles)

Saturday and Sunday, January 7 & 8 or February 11 & 12

Launch the new year with a fully personalized and exciting new direction.

Over 42,000 professionals have used The Inspired Work Program to define their place in the vastly changing world of work. Our process elevates standards, produces unique vision and blends the spiritual with “rubber meets the road” practicality. Our participants form successful new and renewed careers. Our participants launch effective businesses, often for the first time. Our participants get hired more quickly, stay longer, contribute more and bring home the kind of energy that adds to the lives of everyone we touch. For two days you are engaged in immersive experience that offers a life-changing learning experience coupled to a form of self-definition that leads to clear, personalized outcomes.

Our participants learn how anticipate change and develop the life skills that are vital for the work of tomorrow. We offer a philosophy that shifts gears from being overwhelmed by change to becoming excited with growth – the new payoff that is available to all of us.

Join us and expect turning points in your career, your job or your business.

Friends and family are welcomed. Their presence only makes the outcome more profound.

To our CEOs, business owners, chief human resource officers and talent professionals:

The easiest way to qualify this program for use in your organization is to send one or two participants or deliver the program to an intact team. The results will speak for themselves.

For a program overview (click here).

About your Leader (click here).

We invite you to call and discuss your career and business needs. 

Call us at (310) 277-4850

The program is delivered at the beautiful Luxe Summit – Bel Air (Los Angeles).

Shuttles are available from LAX and the hotel provides special rates for out-of-town guests.

Inspired Social Networking

Begins on Tuesday, December 13 from 4-6 p.m. (PST) or Monday, January 9

with three additional virtual sessions.

The people who can transform your career or your business are out there waiting for you.

We bring business development skills to social networking and the outcome is unique, powerful, effective and enjoyable for both the users and the recipients.

Once you define what you want out of your life and your business, your successful is purely based on the quality of help that you get.

There isn’t a more powerful program for building the right support system than Inspired Social Networking.

For more information, (Click Here).

To enroll, call (310) 277-4850.

The post My Single Most Important Lesson About Success appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

One of the most famous quotes of all time is Franklin D. Roosevelt’s, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” We sent over seventeen million Americans into World War II. I have yet to find any of those soldier’s stories repeating the president’s missive. On the other hand, we find countless narratives where those in the frontlines characterized the experience as the single most terrifying event in their lives. In some cases they did hide. In others they shot first. In all cases they took action.

Perhaps a healthier alternative statement would be, “The only thing have we to fear is to forget courage.” True courage isn’t about walking into difficult situations as a robot devoid of feelings. As famous male icon of that era, the brutish John Wayne once said,

“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.”

Truly successful people are quite accustomed to the experience of fear. When we listen to high performers as they describe their breakthroughs, overcoming fear is invariably woven into the narrative. When Ellen DeGeneres got her first TV show, a journalist asked how she felt about it. She responded, “This elevates my terror to a whole new level.”

Cher has experienced lifelong crippling bouts of stage fright. She tells journalists that it is as bad today as it was in her twenties. But, she deals with it by hiring stage managers whose primary responsibility is to drag her to the stage door no matter how threatening the words, volume of tears, or the expletives. The manager pushes her out the door and that previously terrified woman, in an instant, becomes Cher.

I mentioned previously how some groups that I worked with in the early days would get into debates about whether our discussion concerned a vision, a mission or a purpose. This discourse would detour us from defining a new game that would put everyone into action and hence risk. So, I told them to use all three. Similarly, rather than debating whether we should overcome fear, include fear or avoid fear, let’s move the organizational culture forward by making it OK to be frightened or not but always upholding and rewarding others for courage. Promote courage. Make courage a vital part of the organizational ethos.

Our dysfunctional responses to fear erode change and engagement. If someone is afraid to look your customers in the eye, how can they connect? If a leader is afraid to look at the truth, how will employees trust they can live out their personal ambitions? If a CEO is afraid to stand for value versus short term gain, how can we build value? If we continually pine for a simpler past, how can we possibly learn how to build our future?

There are thousands of human potential leaders, motivational speakers and spiritual figures who promise we can stamp out fear. A few have been close to me and what I have observed is they are often more frightened than everyone else. Or, they are just plain obtuse.

“Don’t be frightened” is a phrase that has worn out its welcome. The debate about whether fear is good or bad distracts us from action. However, we can always rely on courage. Courage won’t tell us we are inadequate because we are frightened. Courage won’t tell us to wait until we are more comfortable.

When we applaud our children for taking action even if the process scares them, we are giving them permission to do what it takes to succeed regardless of our feelings.

Organizational culture will get more out of talent if courage is applauded over being slick, being calm or “being cool.”

This past year we lost one of our cultural greats. Muhammad Ali was an iconic fighter but it is his words that live on and on:

“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplishing nothing in life.”

The practice of courage elevates every aspect of our lives. The practice moves us out of simply seeking comfort to becoming all that we are meant to be. Why would we want to sacrifice that for a little more comfort?

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

(C) Copyright, Inspired Work, Inc. – 2017 – (All rights reserved)

UPCOMING PROGRAMS

The Inspired Work Program (Los Angeles)

Saturday and Sunday, January 7 & 8 or February 11 & 12

Launch the new year with a fully personalized and exciting new direction.

Over 42,000 professionals have used The Inspired Work Program to define their place in the vastly changing world of work. Our process elevates standards, produces unique vision and blends the spiritual with “rubber meets the road” practicality. Our participants form successful new and renewed careers. Our participants launch effective businesses, often for the first time. Our participants get hired more quickly, stay longer, contribute more and bring home the kind of energy that adds to the lives of everyone we touch. For two days you are engaged in immersive experience that offers a life-changing learning experience coupled to a form of self-definition that leads to clear, personalized outcomes.

Our participants learn how anticipate change and develop the life skills that are vital for the work of tomorrow. We offer a philosophy that shifts gears from being overwhelmed by change to becoming excited with growth – the new payoff that is available to all of us.

Join us and expect turning points in your career, your job or your business.

Friends and family are welcomed. Their presence only makes the outcome more profound.

To our CEOs, business owners, chief human resource officers and talent professionals:

The easiest way to qualify this program for use in your organization is to send one or two participants or deliver the program to an intact team. The results will speak for themselves.

For a program overview (click here).

About your Leader (click here).

We invite you to call and discuss your career and business needs. 

Call us at (310) 277-4850

The program is delivered at the beautiful Luxe Summit – Bel Air (Los Angeles).

Shuttles are available from LAX and the hotel provides special rates for out-of-town guests.

Inspired Social Networking

Begins on Tuesday, December 13 from 4-6 p.m. (PST) or Monday, January 9

with three additional virtual sessions.

The people who can transform your career or your business are out there waiting for you.

We bring business development skills to social networking and the outcome is unique, powerful, effective and enjoyable for both the users and the recipients.

Once you define what you want out of your life and your business, your successful is purely based on the quality of help that you get.

There isn’t a more powerful program for building the right support system than Inspired Social Networking.

For more information, (Click Here).

To enroll, call (310) 277-4850.

The post Will You Ever Overcome Fear? appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

Begins again on Tuesday, December 13 from 4-6 p.m. (PST) or Monday, January 9

with three additional virtual sessions.

When Inspired Work dug its way out of the “great recession” we looked at the potential of social media to build engaged and tailored communities that would grow our community and our revenue. So, we threw “the norm” out the window.

Was it successful? Our business grew dramatically. More revenue comes in today from social networking and we have a fiercely engaged graduate base. Today, I have over 11,000 participative connections and my articles reach over six million readers.

We offer a unique experience that elevates of your social networking efforts into a high-touch, creative, engaging and thoroughly effective experience. We promise the outcome for you or your team will exceed your expectations and every aspect of the work will feel better than before.

The people who can transform your career or your business are out there waiting for you. We show you how to reach them and draw them to the table.The program shows you how to reach them, bond with them and build an effective, perhaps even life-changing relationship.

Why would you want to attend?

Because you will step back into social networking with the kind of confidence that can only come from well-informed and very effective new skills. You will find a thread that reshapes each aspect of successful networking into a whole. Use what we teach and you will find a new community customized around your needs, your mission, your vision and purpose.

A word from one client:

“I came into Inspired Social Networking as a recognized leader in digital marketing and advertising. I felt that if I learned one of two things it would be valuable. The program is unique and offers a surprising take on using social media to build an actively engaged community. Today, most of my new business comes by using the techniques I learned in Inspired Social Networking.:

Dave Roth – President – Emergent Digital

For a program overview, (Click Here).

To enroll, call (310) 277-4850 or to enroll online by (Click Here)

The post Transform Your Social Media Output! appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

We are emerging from a three hundred year cycle called the Industrial Revolution. During this cycle, we were conditioned to view change as threatening, dangerous and unsettling. Yet, thriving today requires more than just coping with change. The wisest of us are not only developing the skills for self-change, they are establishing an enthusiasm for growth. Because growth is the new game and it offers far greater payoffs than the era of survival and predictability.

How many of us are conscious enough to be excited about trading in a sense of security for perpetual growth? Most of us need to be educated to even realize what the opportunity implies on a personal level. For the vast majority, real change is a frightening prospect. For example, when we began our programs in 1990, most of our participants were pursuing one big professional change. After making that transition, many would tell me, “I’m glad that is over.” But, it wasn’t over. The world just became faster until now, many people are too confused to even define what it is that they want. Imagine that if we develop a thirst for learning and growth within ourselves and throughout our organizations just how much the national workplace will improve. How much will our personal lives and households improve?

Everyone who works regardless of how they work ought to read Kevin Kelly’s The Inevitable (Viking Press). Why? This famed technology writer introduces a series of trends that will change how we live, how we work, how we communicate and how we define ourselves. The technology driving these trends is already here and in place. Kevin is a realist and points out that people who avoid change will have great difficulty in the years ahead. But, he is unabashedly enthused about the innovations that have recently been launched and how they will impact the world around us.

Artificial intelligence, robotics, sophisticated filters, virtual reality and other breakthroughs will transform education, medicine, training, productivity, life extension, banking, communications and more.

Here are a few questions and if any apply to you, it might be valuable to write out answer(s):

• If we are going to live another fifty years, what do we want to do with the time?
• If my existing work is taken over by a robot and/or artificial intelligence, how can I do more interesting, creative or empathetic work?
• If I won’t have to spend half my life flying to deliver training programs, what do I want to do with that extra bandwidth?

All of us have the capacity to choose to look towards aspects of change that are bad or embrace progress as good news. For example:

• 3D printing will unleash new forms of entrepreneurial and artisan manufacturing.
• Higher education will be available without charge.
• Many will be able to work wherever and whenever they want.

Cancer will be cured.

If there is any doubt, during dinner with the famed physician and author Susan Love, I asked her what it is like to hear messages within the medical community, for the first time, that we are headed towards a cure. Her eyes teared up and she said, “I am so grateful that I am alive to see this. This is what I have wanted my entire adult life.”

So, if you are in an environment that is still debating about embracing social networking or updating the culture or shifting to a digital platform, a tidal wave is coming that offers good to those who change and difficulties to those who don’t. It is time to not only to learn how to swim in the waves, it is even better to surf on top of them.

Candidly, I believe that organizations have more power in creating positive change than government. If you are especially fortunate, you work in an organization that supports you in looking towards the future and pursuing the growth that is in front of us. If you work in an organization that looks towards the past, this is a good time to step outside the circle and get help in opening up to what is happening right here and right now. Because change can be ruthless and change can also set us free. No one will make the choice for us.

Today’s security is derived from pursuing growth.

Insecurity keeps things the same.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

(C) Copyright, Inspired Work, Inc. – 2017 – (All rights reserved)

Coming Next Summer:

UPCOMING PROGRAMS

The Inspired Work Program (Los Angeles)

Saturday and Sunday, January 7 & 8 or February 11 & 12

Over 42,000 professionals have used The Inspired Work Program to define their place in the vastly changing world of work. Our process elevates standards, produces unique vision and blends the spiritual with “rubber meets the road” practicality.

Join us and expect turning points in your career, your business as you elevate the role work plays in your happiness.

If you have a friend or loved one and their work isn’t all it can be, take a moment and let them know about this life changing experience.

The program fee is $800 and seats are limited to 20 participants.

For a program overview (click here).

About your Leader (click here).

We invite you to call and discuss your career and business needs. There’s no pressure, we are committed to everyone making an informed decision about this life-changing experience.

Call us at (310) 277-4850

The program is delivered at the beautiful Luxe Summit – Bel Air (Los Angeles).

Shuttles are available from LAX and the hotel provides special rates for out-of-town guests.

Inspired Social Networking

Begins on Tuesday, December 13 from 4-6 p.m. (PST) or Monday, January 9

with three additional virtual sessions.

The people who can transform your career or your business are out there waiting for you.

We bring business development skills to social networking and the outcome is unique, powerful, effective and enjoyable for both the users and the recipients.

Once you define what you want out of your life and your business, your successful is purely based on the quality of help that you get.

There isn’t a more powerful program for building the right support system than Inspired Social Networking.

For more information, (Click Here).

To enroll, call (310) 277-4850.

The post Perhaps it is time to make change work for you: appeared first on Inspired Work Services.