You are not the hero of your brand story. The customer is.They want to win, solve their problems, and transform. You’re just the guide. The mentor. The one who hands them the map and says: “Let’s go.”When you center the story on your customer’s desires, struggles, and victories, they start seeing your brand as a bridge—not a billboard.

The Customer is the Hero

People don’t just buy to solve an external problem. They want relief from how that problem makes them feel.
An overflowing email box isn’t about lost productivity—it’s about stress.
When your message targets internal struggles like frustration, shame, or fear, you connect on a deeper emotional level. That’s what makes people move.

Speak to the Internal Problem

You’re not the hero—you’re the Yoda, not Luke. Customers trust guides who show both empathy and authority. That means saying:
“I get it. I’ve helped others. I can help you too.”
No one’s looking for a brand to worship. They want one that sees them, understands them, and walks beside them. Be that brand.

Position Yourself as the Guide

Confusion kills conversion. People won’t take action if they don’t know what action to take. A plan makes the path feel safe, doable, and real.
Break the journey into simple, visual steps. When people know exactly what’s next, they’re far more likely to say yes.

Give Them a Clear Plan

People don’t act without a push. Your offer can be amazing, but without a clear call to action, they’ll keep scrolling.Be bold. Use strong, direct language like “Buy now,” “Get started,” “Book a call.” Don’t hint—invite. Don’t whisper—call out. Don't be shy!

Call Them to Action

Your customers are confused—and confused people don’t buy. Donald Miller lays out a simple framework to help you clarify your message and connect deeply. You’re not the hero of the story. They are. Your job is to guide them, remove the fog, and show them the path forward. It’s story, structure, and psychology—applied to your brand.

More than half-a-million business leaders have discovered the power of the StoryBrand Framework, created by New York Times best-selling author and marketing expert Donald Miller. And they are making millions.If you use the wrong words to talk about your product, nobody will buy it. Marketers and business owners struggle to effectively connect with their customers, costing them and their companies millions in lost revenue.In a world filled with constant, on-demand distractions, it has become near-impossible for business owners to effectively cut through the noise to reach their customers, something Donald Miller knows first-hand. In this book, he shares the proven system he has created to help you engage and truly influence customers.The StoryBrand process is a proven solution to the struggle business leaders face when talking about their companies. Without a clear, distinct message, customers will not understand what you can do for them and are unwilling to engage, causing you to lose potential sales, opportunities for customer engagement, and much more.In Building a StoryBrand, Donald Miller teaches marketers and business owners to use the seven universal elements of powerful stories to dramatically improve how they connect with customers and grow their businesses.His proven process has helped thousands of companies engage with their existing customers, giving them the ultimate competitive advantage. Building a StoryBrand does this by teaching you:<ul><li>The seven universal story points all humans respond to;</li><li>The real reason customers make purchases;</li><li>How to simplify a brand message so people understand it; and</li><li>How to create the most effective messaging for websites, brochures, and social media.</li></ul>Whether you are the marketing director of a multibillion-dollar company, the owner of a small business, a politician running for office, or the lead singer of a rock band, Building a StoryBrand will forever transform the way you talk about who you are, what you do, and the unique value you bring to your customers.

Donald "Don" Miller is an American author, public speaker, and business owner. He is the CEO of StoryBrand, a marketing company. He is also an author of personal essays and reflections about faith, God, and self-discovery.

Donald Miller

Building a StoryBrand

Out of the too-much-ness is birthed this unending sense of anxiety, this feeling of stress that people can’t ever seem to shake. We could blame social media, relational obligations, toxic workplaces, genetics, trauma, or the state of the world for these feelings of anxiety. However, pointing a finger at the cause of the noise isn’t enough. If we are bogged down by perpetual feelings of being, doing, or experiencing too much, then doesn’t it make sense to simply do less? But this simple concept is not so simple in practice.

Constant State Of Anxiety

Doing less is a practice and a mindset. It means that we actively choose to balance our schedules to give space to both our obligations and our rest. It means that we also tune into the mental chaos that surrounds our times of rest and work toward releasing the dialogue that perpetuates a sense of busyness.Doing Less means prioritizing our schedules and making space for rest, play, and rejuvenation.

Do Less, Not More

However, doing less can also exist in the moments when we aren’t doing anything.If we make the conscious effort to eliminate things from our schedule and create a day where the intention is to rest, we also have to pay attention to our mindset during those times of rest. If we are doing “nothing” and internalize judgments about doing nothing, then the nothingness is no longer restful.Doing less helps because it is the antidote for what we already do but doesn’t seem to work.

Doing Nothing While Doing Nothing

If we are doing something enjoyable but our mind is fixed on the following day’s stressful meeting or presentation, then that enjoyable thing is no longer enjoyable. We must be mindful of the present and actively edit our internal dialogue so that it promotes the benefits of restfulness.Research shows that mindfulness, rest, sleep, and engaging in hobbies improve our mood and, in turn, our quality of life. It is easy to be caught up in the chaos of life.

Being Mindful

Success doesn’t only mean the number of followers gained or the number of dollars earned. Success as a writer — or whatever profession you are pursuing — also must include the quality of your work and the inspiration gained from the topic.Doing less helps because it starts to give our minds and bodies permission to exist, to relax, to take a breath. Making space in our lives to unplug and rejuvenate. Doing less gives room in your life to do things that inspire you and make you feel at peace.

The Calculation Of Success

The average person spends between 7–9 hours on screens every day. Also, the average person only completes about 40% of the tasks on their to-do list. We are operating in this space of nothing and everything. We consume all this content and yet complete little on our list.We are filling our days in ways that leave us feeling perpetually behind. We always have things that must be done, and we never have the time to do those things. Doing less forces us to pause and gain perspective. It attends to the emotional centres of our lived experience neglected by to-do lists and screen time.

Watching Screens All Day

Think about how this foolish-sounding idea might help reduce your stress levels and force you into a state of mindfulness. Notice how the simplest of shifts could — if you open your mind to it — have the most significant impact on your overall wellbeing.<ul><li>Schedule your hobbies</li><li>Go to bed a half hour earlier</li><li>Turn off your music in your car and just drive</li><li>Take your lunch break by yourself</li><li>Go outside</li><li>Set a reminder to breathe</li></ul>

Implementing "Doing Less"

The inconvenient solution to stress and anxiety.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

mentalhealth

Mental Health

Building Contentment in a Busy World

With cloud computing, organizations essentially buy a range of services offered by cloud service providers (CSPs). The CSP’s servers host all the client’s applications. Organizations can enhance their computing power more quickly and cheaply via the cloud than by purchasing, installing, and maintaining their own servers.The cloud-computing model is helping organizations to scale new digital solutions with greater speed and agility—and to create value more quickly.

Cloud Computing

Developers use cloud services to build and run custom applications and to maintain infrastructure and networks for companies of virtually all sizes—especially large global ones. CSPs offer services, such as analytics, to handle and manipulate vast amounts of data. Time to market accelerates, speeding innovation to deliver better products and services across the world.

Benefits For Developers

<ul><li>A fast-casual restaurant chain’s online orders multiplied exponentially during the 2020 pandemic lockdowns, climbing to 400,000 a day, from 50,000. One pleasant surprise? The company’s online-ordering system could handle the volume—because it had already migrated to the cloud. </li><li>A biotech company harnessed cloud computing to deliver the first clinical batch of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate for Phase I trials in just 42 days—thanks in part to breakthrough innovations using scalable cloud data storage and computing to facilitate processes ensuring the drug’s safety and efficacy.</li></ul>

Examples Of Cloud Computing Uses

The cloud revolution has actually been going on for more than 15 years. Today, the next generation of cloud, including capabilities such as serverless computing, makes it easier for software developers to tweak software functions independently, accelerating the pace of release, and doing so more efficiently. Businesses can therefore serve customers and launch products in a more agile fashion.  Cost savings are commonly seen as the primary reason for moving to the cloud but managing those costs requires a different and more dynamic approach focused on OpEx rather than CapEx

Evolution Of Cloud Computing

In 2020, the top-three CSPs(cloud service providers) reached <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/the-cloud-transformation-engine">$100 billion</a> in combined revenues—a minor share of the global $2.4 trillion market for enterprise IT services—leaving huge value to be captured. To go beyond merely realizing cost savings, companies must activate three symbiotic rings of <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/the-cloud-transformation-engine">cloud value creation</a>: strategy and management, business domain adoption, and foundational capabilities.

Ample Growth In Cloud Computing

The pandemic demonstrated that the digital transformation can no longer be delayed—and can happen much more quickly than previously imagined. Nothing is more critical to a corporate digital transformation than becoming a cloud-first business. The benefits are faster time to market, simplified innovation and scalability, and reduced risk when effectively managed. The cloud lets companies provide customers with novel digital experiences—in days, not months—and delivers analytics absent on legacy platforms.  Organizations must make a collective effort that starts at the top.

Reasons To Move To The Cloud

Three actions CEOs can take to increase the value their companies get from cloud computing:<ul><li>Establish a sustainable funding model.</li><li>Develop a new business technology operating model.</li><li>Set up policies to attract and retain the right engineering talent.</li></ul>

What A CEO Needs To Do

Fortune 500 companies adopting the cloud could <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/clouds-trillion-dollar-prize-is-up-for-grabs">realize more than $1 trillion in value</a> by 2030, and not from IT cost reductions alone, according to McKinsey’s analysis of 700 use cases.The cloud’s global infrastructure lets companies scale products almost instantly to reach new customers, geographies, and channels. Finally, digital-first companies use the cloud to adopt emerging technologies and innovate aggressively, using digital capabilities as a competitive differentiator to <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/how-to-launch-a-new-business-three-approaches-that-work">launch and build businesses</a>.

The Value Created By Cloud Computing

Some cloud services, such as server space, are leased. Leasing requires much less capital upfront than buying, offers greater flexibility to switch and expand the use of services, cuts the basic cost of buying hardware and software up front, and reduces the difficulties of upkeep and ownership. Organizations pay only for the infrastructure and computing services that meet their evolving needs.

The Costing And Procurement

An <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/how-cios-can-work-with-outsourcing-providers-to-navigate-the-coronavirus">outsourcing model</a> is more apt than other analogies: the computing business issues of cloud customers are addressed by third-party providers that deliver innovative computing services on demand to a wide variety of customers, adapt those services to fit specific needs, and work to constantly improve the offering.

The Outsourcing Model

When companies migrate to the cloud, the simple lift-and-shift approach doesn’t reduce costs, so companies must remediate their existing applications to take advantage of cloud services.Legacy cybersecurity architectures and operating models can also pose problems when companies shift to the cloud. The resulting problems, however, involve misconfigurations rather than inherent cloud security vulnerabilities.  <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/security-as-code-the-best-and-maybe-only-path-to-securing-cloud-applications-and-systems">Securing cloud workloads for speed and agility</a>: automated security architectures and processes enable workloads to be processed at a much faster tempo.

Risks Of Cloud Computing

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

business

Business

computerscience

Computer Science

artificialintelligence

Artificial Intelligence

What is cloud computing?

<ul><li>People respond to two types of motivation: reward and fear.</li><li>Perfectionism keeps people from finishing their goals.</li><li>Most people quit as soon as life interferes or things get too tough.</li><li>Starting toward your goal on Day 1 isn’t the most important step. It’s getting past Day 2, “the day after perfect.”</li><li>To improve your chances of finishing, cut your goal in half or double your timeline for completion.</li><li>Choose where to fail. Failing at lesser things frees you to succeed at what’s important.</li><li>“Make it fun if you want it done.”</li><li>Don’t let “noble obstacles” hinder your goals.</li></ul>

Finish! Key Takeaways And Highlights

Getting started is hard, but it’s easier than finishing. You may have a bunch of half-finished projects and other half-done stuff. Many people make New Year’s resolutions, but research says that 92% of these intentions falter and fail. More than likely, you’ve spent most of your life choosing to do more than is possible and beating yourself up for not being able to keep up.The less that people aimed for perfect, the more productive they became. Perfectionism kills momentum and keeps people from completing their goals.

Perfectionism Kills

Perfectionism will do its best to knock you down when you work on a goal.Excuses are camouflage for perfectionism. You weren’t perfect, so you threw in the towel. You’re not alone. Everyone wants to get straight As. Nobody aims for Bs and Cs. But getting straight As is challenging and intimidating. That’s why many people don’t even bother trying. To finish your goals, simply start and keep going. Even if you make mistakes, keep going. Starting toward your goal on Day 1 isn’t the most crucial step. That’s putting in Day 2, the day after perfect.

The Day After Perfect

If you want to achieve your goal, aim for 50% completion. That is, cut your goal in half. This will work for goals like losing weight, or running in the morning.Some goals are difficult to cut in half. For those, don’t cut them in half; give yourself more time.So you can apply two tactics – cutting the goal in half or doubling the timeline – to many goals. Slicing your goals in half or extending your timeline may feel like “cheating,” but either step will make you much more likely to reach your targets. Starting small may feel unnatural at first, but you will achieve big results.

Fifty-Percent Complete

Research says that setting realistic goals leads to much better performance than setting overly aggressive targets, but what happens in the workplace where you don’t control the timeline? You may want to have a conversation with your boss about the utility of setting achievable goals.Make sure your workplace goals are the right size from the beginning.

Workplace Goals

Perfectionism has no sense of gray, things are only black or white. You do it perfectly or you don’t do it at all.

Time is your most valuable resource. To achieve your goals, pour that resource into your efforts. That means prioritizing where and how you spend your time. When you grant some of your time to one goal, of necessity you take that time from another goal. You can’t have it all no matter what you try to do. Yes, you can squeeze in a few extra things if you structure your days differently. Even so, you’re going to miss out on something. Instead of biting off more than you can chew and failing, choose what you’re going to fail at and succeed at something that counts.

Choosing Your Failures

If you’re like most people, you spend your life aiming too high. You don’t have to lower your standards, just stay realistic about your time frames and what you can accomplish.You have only two options right now. 1. Attempt more than is humanly possible and fail. 2. Choose what to bomb and succeed at a goal that matters.

Let Go Of Trying To Be Perfect In Everything

Many people fail to achieve their goals because they think goals must be difficult. One huge lie perfectionism tells you is that goals don’t count if they’re fun. Scientists and others who study goal setting look at various factors, including satisfaction and performance success, measurements that capture “how you felt about the process” and “what you actually got done.For example, losing weight is a worthy goal, but it’s hard. Motivating yourself to run on a treadmill every day is hard. The trick is to make it fun. Figure out how to add joy to your efforts. Fun is personal.

Have Fun and Get It Done

Be careful how you package your fun. People respond, in general, to two types of motivation: reward and fear. Some people live for the reward. When they know what they want, their instinct drives them to achieve. For example, paying off their debt gives them the freedom to go shopping without stress, or wanting to fit into their old jeans motivates them to work out. Fear also motivates people: They fear the consequences of not acting.

Reward and Fear

Sometimes your hiding places – where you go to avoid work – are easy to find, such as watching your favorite show on Netflix when it’s time to clean the house. Some hiding places are sneaky; you think you’re being productive by emptying your inbox, but you’re actually avoiding writing your blog. Identify your hiding places by asking if you engage in “obvious time wasters.” Ask your friends if you spend too much time, effort or money on tasks or hobbies that don’t help you reach your goals.

Your Hiding Places

Noble obstacles are chores you must finish before you can attack your real goals.Noble obstacles often rely on the word “until” – as in, “I can’t do my taxes until I know what kind of business I’m really trying to build” or “Karen won’t start her blog until she’s checked in with a copyright lawyer first.” Using “until” as an excuse seems respectable. It seems as if you’re getting all your ducks in a row before taking action, but in reality, it’s just another form of perfectionism. It can lead you to throw your hands up and say meeting your goal is too hard, so you won’t try.

Your Noble Obstacles

An alternative to saying “until” is saying “if…then.” It sets up a different form of procrastination. You procrastinate or don’t start working because you’ve set an imaginary clock or pre-goal for yourself and waiting for that to happen, you come to feel as if it’s too late to start toward your goal. It’s never too late to try. You always have time to begin.

A New Way To Procrastinate

Unlike emotions, data don’t lie. Use data to measure your progress. Data clarify where you are, but you may find them hard to use. Ignorance is bliss. It’s so much easier to avoid checking your bank account, stepping on a scale, making doctor appointments, and so forth. Data will tell you, for example, that you spend too much at coffee shops. If you buy into the lie of perfectionism, you may avoid the objectivity of data.

Data Don't Lie!

This goes against every sappy motivational statement…but if you dream too big at the start, you curse your finish.

Information helps you measure any number of things related to your goals: time, products sold, pounds lost, miles run, how much money you saved, and the like. Pick one to three aspects of your life to measure. You may be tempted to measure more, but start small and win big. See how simple it is to track your progress. When you’re successful, you can add in measuring more factors. If you’re not happy with your progress, adjust your goal, timeline or actions.

Measure Your Goals And Progress

Setting new goals is easy, but finishing them is hard. In this blockbuster bestseller, blogger and popular speaker Jon Acuff shares his plans to help you actually achieve your goals.

#1 Wall Street Journal bestseller! Jon Acuff, New York Times best-selling author of Do Over, Quitter, and Start, offers strategies for anyone who's ever wondered, "Why can't I finish what I started?" According to studies, 92 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail. You’ve practically got a better shot at getting into Juilliard to become a ballerina than you do at finishing your goals. For years, I thought my problem was that I didn’t try hard enough. So I started getting up earlier. I drank enough energy drinks to kill a horse. I hired a life coach and ate more superfoods. Nothing worked, although I did develop a pretty nice eyelid tremor from all the caffeine. It was like my eye was waving at you, very, very quickly. Then, while leading a thirty-day online course to help people work on their goals, I learned something surprising: The most effective exercises were not those that pushed people to work harder. The ones that got people to the finish line did just the opposite— they took the pressure off. Why? Because the sneakiest obstacle to meeting your goals is not laziness, but perfectionism. We’re our own worst critics, and if it looks like we’re not going to do something right, we prefer not to do it at all. That’s why we’re most likely to quit on day two, “the day after perfect”—when our results almost always underper­form our aspirations. The strategies in this book are counterintuitive and might feel like cheating. But they’re based on studies conducted by a university researcher with hundreds of participants. You might not guess that having more fun, eliminating your secret rules, and choosing something to bomb intentionally works. But the data says otherwise. People who have fun are 43 percent more successful! Imagine if your diet, guitar playing, or small business was 43 percent more suc­cessful just by following a few simple principles. If you’re tired of being a chronic starter and want to become a consistent finisher, you have two options: You can continue to beat yourself up and try harder, since this time that will work. Or you can give yourself the gift of done.

productivity

Productivity

books

Books

#1 Wall Street Journal bestseller! Jon Acuff, New York Times best-selling author of Do Over, Quitter, and Start, offers strategies for anyone who's ever wondered, "Why can't I finish what I started?" According to studies, 92 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail. You’ve practically got a better shot at getting into Juilliard to become a ballerina than you do at finishing your goals. For years, I thought my problem was that I didn’t try hard enough. So I started getting up earlier. I drank enough energy drinks to kill a horse. I hired a life coach and ate more superfoods. Nothing worked, although I did develop a pretty nice eyelid tremor from all the caffeine. It was like my eye was waving at you, very, very quickly. Then, while leading a thirty-day online course to help people work on their goals, I learned something surprising: The most effective exercises were not those that pushed people to work harder. The ones that got people to the finish line did just the opposite— they took the pressure off. Why? Because the sneakiest obstacle to meeting your goals is not laziness, but perfectionism. We’re our own worst critics, and if it looks like we’re not going to do something right, we prefer not to do it at all. That’s why we’re most likely to quit on day two, “the day after perfect”—when our results almost always underper­form our aspirations. The strategies in this book are counterintuitive and might feel like cheating. But they’re based on studies conducted by a university researcher with hundreds of participants. You might not guess that having more fun, eliminating your secret rules, and choosing something to bomb intentionally works. But the data says otherwise. People who have fun are 43 percent more successful! Imagine if your diet, guitar playing, or small business was 43 percent more suc­cessful just by following a few simple principles. If you’re tired of being a chronic starter and want to become a consistent finisher, you have two options: You can continue to beat yourself up and try harder, since this time that will work. Or you can give yourself the gift of done.

Jon Acuff is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Jon Acuff has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Jon Acuff's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Jon Acuff

Finish

Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done

Becoming data-driven is about the ability of people and organizations to adapt to change. Long-established companies, which have been successful over generations or centuries, are unlikely to change overnight — the adoption of the internet through digital transformation efforts has played out over the course of the past quarter-century. Similarly, the effort by companies to become data-driven represents a business transformation that is playing out over the course of a generation.

The Ability To Handle Change

The pandemic — and the disruptions it caused — raised awareness of the importance of data, science, and facts. While companies may have paid lip service to the importance of data before, the case that good data is essential to making informed, prudent, and judicious business decisions have been made crystal clear over the past two years.

The Three Cultural Dynamics: The Pandemic

Self-service is on the rise, and individuals now consume information and data when they want and how they want it. We live during a time of increasingly decentralized information, which means that consumers can select the news they follow, the social media they engage with, and the data that they choose to trust, with the consequence that consumers of information can be subjected to the selective presentation of data to support a wide range of often diverging viewpoints.

The Three Cultural Dynamics: Individual Freedom

The amount of data that is created each day continues to proliferate at exponential rates. With greater computing power, companies can now process massive quantities of data to generate a precise answer, rather than rely on representative data samples.

The Three Cultural Dynamics: Structural Fact

Achieving data-driven leadership remains an aspiration for most organizations — just 26.5% of organizations report having established a data-driven organization. Becoming data-driven requires an organizational focus on cultural change. In this year’s survey, 91.9% of executives cite cultural obstacles as the greatest barrier to becoming data-driven. This is not a technology issue. It is a people challenge. Organizations are establishing the leadership function — in the role of the Chief Data and Analytics Officer — which will provide the foundation for becoming data-driven.

Barriers To Becoming Data-Driven: The Three Indicators Of Progress

Becoming a data-driven organization is a journey, which unfolds over time, measured in years, and sometimes decades. Experience tells us that data-driven organizations consistently demonstrate qualities that distinguish them from their contemporaries. Data-driven companies consistently execute on these three driving principles:<ul><li>Think different. </li><li>Fail fast, learn faster.</li><li>Focus on the long-term.</li></ul>

Steps Companies Can Take

Company culture is often a bigger hurdle than any technical problem.

Why Becoming a Data-Driven Organization Is So Hard

The average initial screening time for a candidate’s resume clocks in at just 7.4 seconds.  With such little time to make an impression, it’s imperative your work achievements leap off the page. Using weak or passive verbs (think: assisted, utilized, contributed, held) can undermine the strength and effectiveness of your resume and cause an HR manager to toss your resume.

Why you shouldn’t say you “helped”

Verbs to use on your resume instead of ‘helped’ or ‘assisted’: Executed, overhauled, identified, produced, instituted, incorporated, achieved, delivered, partnered, spearheaded, analyzed, incorporated, completed, advocated, resolved, developed, launched, boosted, leveraged, chaired, enacted, established, outperformed, supervised, and pioneered.

Why you should use powerful action verbs

It’s also important to maintain a consistent verb tense throughout your resume. Past tense is acceptable for all verbs, though you can describe your experience in a current job using present tense. Be sure not to mix and match verb tenses within a single set of bullet points—all verb tenses should agree for any given role.

A note on verb tense

You should use much stronger words than "helped" and "assisted."

career

Career

Stop Saying You 'Helped' on Your Resume (and Use These Verbs Instead)

What do employers want most from job candidates today? Interpersonal soft skills, like strong communication and collaboration, top the list. 
As digital transformation and automation sweep virtually every industry, employers have filled many entry-level technical tasks with software. Now, they’re prioritizing employees who can work well on a team, problem-solve creatively, and multitask.

The Skills Employers Want

With the current labor shortage, employers are also thinking more about longevity and seeking employees who will grow with the company and possibly move into leadership positions to lead and mentor others—responsibilities that require a high level of interpersonal expertise. 
Some of these skills are more like personality traits, and others come from experience in different situations. The point is, they can’t be easily taught, and not everyone has them. The candidates who do are in high demand.

Soft Skills Are The New Hot Currency

You might not be able to demonstrate soft skills on a résumé, but you can list a certificate or accreditation that shows your commitment to keeping those skills sharp. 
If employers are looking for candidates who can grow and evolve with the company, they’ll also appreciate seeing your appetite for learning and improving.

Show That You Are Committed To Learning and Improvement

User story-mapping is another skill you can learn online that demonstrates high interpersonal expertise. 
Managers and staff use this process to study, understand, define, and ultimately amplify the user experience for their products and services. It’s about understanding the customer, which requires a collaborative, communicative, and empathetic approach.

The User Story

A challenging yet common occurrence in many interviews is going into autopilot and answering each question like you’re reading it off a script. People get nervous, want to make sure they say the right things, and don’t want to seem unprofessional. It’s a natural behavior, but interviewers won’t want to see it.
Responding to questions on autopilot mode might make you seem stiffer and more forced than how you’d usually respond to questions and interact with people in the job environment.

Rehearse Your Interviews

Recording yourself answering interview questions is also a great way to practice getting out of autopilot mode for interviews.
Many things you might not notice in the moment, like facial expressions and hand gestures, you can catch on video and even out to ensure that you make a lively and active connection with an employer during an interview.

Record Your Answers

<ul>
<li>Situation: Set the stage for the story by sharing context around the situation or challenge you faced.</li>
<li>Task: Describe your responsibility or role in the situation or challenge. In other words, discuss the goal or task set out for you. </li>
<li>Action: Explain the specific actions you took to handle the situation or overcome the challenge.</li>
<li>Result: What was the outcome you reached through your actions? This is also an important part of your response to focus on.</li>
</ul>

How STAR Methodology Works

Your next boss will look for you to demonstrate these attributes during your interview.


education

Learning & Education

How to show off those coveted soft skills when applying for jobs

Human focus is fickle. Our willpower waffles and wanes. We don’t do what we know we should do (e.g., go for a jog, write a blog post) and we end up doing what we know we shouldn’t do (e.g., scroll Facebook, eat another Reeses, play with cats). In this piece, I’d like to give you 12 micro-productive tips — little things you can do — to boost your serotonin levels, get in a creative zone, and stay focused for long periods of time.

12 Micro-Productive Tips That Will Help You Get in the Creative Zone and Stay Focused

Eat 32 grams of protein within the first 30 minutes after waking up so that you won’t have mid-day, unhealthy snack cravings. Then, a light lunch (e.g., salad, soup, or peanut butter, raisins and celery — 😄) will prevent that languid food coma from romping through your fertile garden of focus and crushing your creativity flowers. Keep lunch light to prevent your stomach from taking control over your mind.

Eat a protein-heavy breakfast and a light lunch. 

Irritated and not sure why? Drink water. It might seem simplistic, but consider these two facts from a study published in <a class="idea-content-link" href="http://jn.nutrition.org/">The Journal of Nutrition</a>: 1) Even mild dehydration — 1.5% loss in normal water volume in the body — can degrade how we are feeling, and 2) Our thirst sensation doesn’t really appear until we are 1 or 2% dehydrated. In other words, Klein is on to something: if you feel irritated and don’t know why, you’re probably dehydrated.

Drink some Water

To break up my writing sessions, I change into running shorts, throw AirPods into my ears, and turn on the latest episode of my favorite podcast How I Built This with <a class="idea-content-link" href="https://medium.com/u/f489f29fffbb?source=post_page-----ce67909a1fbb--------------------------------">Guy Raz</a>. As I run around a nearby lake, this duo combination of increased blood-flow and entrepreneurial inspiration resets my creativity and rejuvenates my brain like a chia pet. It’s amazing what happens when you do something that gets your heart rate up while listening to someone you admire.

Go for a jog while listening to a podcast. 

Immersing yourself in water or taking a shower often leads to fresh ideas and a positive mood afterwards.

Get inside Water

There’s a difference between talking to someone you want to be like versus someone you don’t want to be like. If you like the person, you’re receptive, open, and sponge-like. As a result, you learn. You advance. This “mentor” is like a model of the future you. Call them, keep it short, and ask just one question. In a few minutes, you’ll get a vision of yourself that motivates you for the rest of the day.

Call Someone You Like

I’m not sure what activity you do to free your mind and let it wander on its own, but for me, it’s doing the dishes. I love washing the dishes. When I dry my hands afterwards, my head is full of exciting new ideas, similar to a shower. What little thing can you do that’s both freeing and productive?

Do the dishes

I gain energy around people. To channel this social-based energy into my work, I get up early to go to a coffeeshop. I watch people flow in and out of the shop throughout the morning and afternoon rushes. I overhear tidbits of conversation. Each person has a unique story and interesting quirks. Musing on this through speculation generates mini-waves of creativity for me, especially when <a class="idea-content-link" href="https://www.amazon.com/Runaway-Millionaire-Dave-Schools/dp/069287769X/">writing fiction</a>

Go Out

Taking out my minimalist leather journal, I wrote about my purpose in life. This broadening of perspective lifted me out of my seat on the plane and helped me see how the conference fit in with the bigger trajectory of my life. Rather than putting in my earphones and watching a movie, this moment of personal reflection anchored me and produced a stronger sense of confidence by the time I landed.

Meditate On The Big Picture

Whether it’s for outlandish fun or crushing a last-minute project, a special occasion requires extra energy. One founder friend of mine said he regularly pulls all-nighters once a week to work on his startup. It helps that his startup is a coffee brand, but still, for him, he accesses a huge block of untapped time to be productive that he normally wouldn’t have if he slept. For the rest of us who enjoy a heavy eight hours, we can still crack open a Red Bull or make a pot of joe to find focus gaps from time to time (instead of napping or watching TV) and not die.

Have some extra Caffeine

My friend told me that she likes to pour herself a glass of red wine and keep it around her while she works at home. She doesn’t drink it, but the thought of it—its availability, ease of access, and promise of reward—motivates her to earn it. I’m not sure if it’s positive or negative reinforcement (honestly, it seems like an odd mix of both), but this tactic of self-discipline and reward helps keep my friend in the zone while strengthening her willpower

Have Wine With You

I had an ambitious college roommate. In the mornings, whenever he needed to gear up his mind for a test or presentation, he would get out his guitar and strum wildly. It wasn’t erratic chaos, but rather a quick rhythm with a high BPM count. For example, he wouldn’t fingerpick What A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong, rather he would shred <a class="idea-content-link" href="https://youtu.be/rId6PKlDXeU?t=1m40s">something active</a> by Mumford and Sons. From under the warm covers of the top bunk, I cried out to him why he does this. He told me it helps speed his brain up and think at a faster rate. He had top grades.

Strum A Guitar

I opened a new tab to retrieve an article I had saved on Facebook, and as soon as the newsfeed loaded, I saw a memory of my dear cats, a recent engagement, and someone’s kale-ridden lunch. In…

creativity

Creativity

Being busy and being successful are not one in the same. But, sooner or later, all of us have to ask ourselves what our mission is — is it to be the busiest or is it to make the most impact?We’ve grown to subconsciously measure a person’s worth based off how many hours they work, how much is on their plate and put simply — whether or not they are running around like a chicken with their head cut off.

All of us have a problem with busyness

Making time in your life to do nothing can be challenging — especially during the workweek where we are constantly pummeled and bombarded with meetings, notifications, and an ever-growing list of tasks.Give your brain space to think by stepping away from the daily grind and doing nothing. Your mind will have time to stumble upon new ideas and further process old ones.

The power of doing nothing at all

Awoken from a nice long afternoon nap, the old crocodile glanced at the young crocodile with one of his reptilian eyes, said nothing and then fell back asleep atop the water. Feeling frustrated and…

Software engineering interviews often involve some kind of coding test or programming exercise. But it is not really useful.<ul><li>Writing an algorithm to generate factorials or to sort a linked list can be easily memorised beforehand. It offers no insight into a candidate's skill.&nbsp;</li><li>The same reasoning goes for coding an algorithm in a specific programming language. Software engineers don't write sections of code without some kind of syntax checking aid, nor without referring to technical documentation.</li></ul>

Why You Should Never Consent to a Coding Test in an Interview

A good software engineer often doesn't know the answer to a specific question but knows where to find the answer. There is only so much knowledge anyone can hold in their head ready to recall. If a task has been automated in a pre-written library, there's no need in reinventing the wheel. Perhaps a better interview question would be to ask the best place to find such information.

Common Tasks

Many companies still fall back to outdated and utterly predictable hiring practices. Being interviewed by someone with a list of precise technical questions is pretty much always red flag.&nbsp; More rewarding subjects to discuss would be the coding paradigms used in modern software engineering, whether a particular language would be a good choice for a specific implementation, or whether a specific software engineering methodology is relevant.

Discussion Discussion Discussion

Software engineering interviews nowadays often involve some kind of coding test or programming exercise and I think that’s a very Bad Thing. Here’s why.

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