Expand your business with 5 creativity tactics

With so much PR and marketing advice floating around online, it’s important that you stick to an essential information.

Focusing on “the essential” can bring peace of mind—and can help you develop your business.

Business growth is not necessarily about getting more of everything. Instead, think of it as focusing your efforts to get more meaningful results.

Here are five ways to boost your business online:

1. Step up your social media game.

When marketers want to improve their brand’s presence online, they usually look to add a channel to their repertoire.

Although starting a Pinterest account seems productive, there’s little point in investing your time and energy into a channel that you don't enjoy using or don’t know enough about.

Instead, dedicate more time to the platforms you already use.

If you're actively sharing on Facebook but not using Facebook groups or ads, make those your next steps. If you're tweeting a lot, but aren’t using buffer to automate your tweets and reach users across multiple time zones, you're probably not maximizing your engagement.

If you're using Pinterest but aren’t seeing results, your next step could be taking a free Pinterest course or maybe a workshop at your local library or community college.

2. Repurpose your content.

This approach is beneficial if you’re overextended on a project or short on time.

When you write a series of blog posts, you can repurpose some of them as free opt-ins for white papers or parts of an e-newsletter.

If you’re creative, you probably don't want to use old content everywhere, but you should feel free to reuse your best work when you’re in a time crunch.

To start, ask yourself strategic questions such as, “Can I turn this series into something I can sell?” or, “How can I use this important piece of content in my welcome emails?”

The right questions can bring countless opportunities.

3. Package your services.

If you run a client-based business, you know the challenges of bringing in sustainable income. Luckily, there are ways to turn the famine into a feast.

I recently talked with a woman who runs a copywriting business. She's creative, but she struggles to get new business. I advised her to package her services, which means not to give clients an hourly rate of services but, instead, to offer "bundles.”

You shouldn't just put your services on your website and hope clients will find them. A better approach—as suggested in a recent webinar—is launching your services as you would launch a product. Try debuting a series of blog posts or emails as a way to introduce yourself to a new opportunity.

4. Streamline your processes.

So, what can you streamline? Start with your social media strategy, your sales channels or your list-building and networking.

Here’s how I streamlined my list-building process so it gets me a dozen new subscribers every day.

Most people find me on Twitter, where they can also find a link to my website. Once they're on my website, the home page sends them to any of three places:The Blueprint, my blog and the free guide. If they go to The Blueprint, they'll be directed to my coaching page. If they read my blog posts, there will be a link to my opt-in offer (free goodies for creative rebels), and if they go to the free guide, they'll see a sales page with a sign-up.

Every step of that process has a next step. You can achieve this by anticipating a potential client’s needs.

Many prospective clients will visit your “About me” before committing to an opinion. Make sure to introduce yourself in a way that makes them want to know more.

5. Invest in your business.

If you don't reinvest some of the money you make, your business probably won’t grow. The marketing and PR climate is very competitive, and it’s important to come up with ways to stand out.

I reinvest 50 percent of whatever I make on outsourcing tasks that I can't do alone, or on improving something in my business that lacks.

For example, you can budget for social media tools (buffer,Edgar, Tailwind), email marketing (Mailchimp or Convertkit), improving your website’s look (Squarespace), building your mailing list (LeadPages), and podcasting and webinars (microphone and webcam). You could also hire a virtual or physical assistant.

As online entrepreneurs, we can't just be creative and rebellious; we must also be savvy. It’s important to be strategic with your investments.

Source: http://bit.ly/22bUrvy

5 Big Changes Coming to Social Media in 2016

It’s been a memorable year in social media. 2015 saw the birth of live social streaming, with apps like Periscope and Meerkat winning over early adopters. Snapchat fully shed its reputation as a niche network and now counts more than 200 million active users. Meanwhile, video dominated social headlines, with Facebook users now logging an estimated 8 billion video views a day(even more than on YouTube, by some counts).

What does 2016 hold for social media users? Expect to see new technologies fundamentally change how we interact with social media, opening up new options like shopping and enabling us to share ever-more vivid, real-time experiences. But new functionality and the widening universe of social options also threaten to leave some users in the dust. Here’s a peek into the crystal ball at five trends that will change how we use social media in 2016:

Virtual reality comes to social media: “Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures.” That’s what Mark Zuckerberg wrote after Facebook acquired Oculus, the virtual reality company, for $2 billion back in March 2014. Well, we won’t have to imagine much longer. Facebook has already begun incorporating Oculus technology into its 360 Video. The unique videos, which have rolled out on News Feeds, allow users to experience scenes from different angles (looking right, left, up, down, etc.), on both web and mobile devices, creating a more immersive experience.

Right now, there’s 360 Video available from the likes of Vice and The Disney Channel and a really cool clip from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Expect to see more immersive videos in 2016 as publishers and even brands catch up with the technology and begin creating more content. As for true, fully immersive VR, the consumer version of the Oculus Rift headset is slated for release in early 2016, opening up even more interesting possibilities for our News Feeds. Meanwhile, Oculus VR has already released a new “social” appcalled Oculus Social Alpha, for use with the Samsung Gear VR headset. The virtual movie-watching app allows you to “sit” in a theater and watch a video in real-time with other users — perhaps the first truly social application of Facebook’s new technology.

Social shopping takes off: Over the last year, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest all unveiled or upgraded in-line buy buttons, which allow users to purchase clothes, crafts, gadgets and more without ever leaving their feeds. In many respects, this development is long overdue. We’re already discovering and talking about products on social media, and four out of five people say that posts from friends directly influence buying decisions. Plus, overseas in China, Korea and elsewhere, social channels have long incorporated ecommerce functionality.

So far, the primary stumbling block in North America has been ease of use. To buy on social media, we’ve had to click out to other sites (always problematic on smartphones) or we’ve been offered limited selection (a lathe now defunct Facebook Gifts). But innovations like Pinterest’s Buyable Pins now let users browse color and style options and pay, all without leaving the platform. In 2016, expect to see networks’ role shift from being channels whose primary function in ecommerce is providing referral traffic to being platforms where users make purchases directly.

Facebook Live takes live streaming mainstream: 2015 started off with lots of excitement about the new crop of live streaming apps, which allow users to broadcast live video to their followings. By late summer, Twitter-owned Periscope already boasted 10 million active users, and just this month it was named by Apple the best iOS app of 2015.

Expect to see live streaming reach a whole new, mainstream audience in the year ahead as Facebook rolls out its own mobile streaming functionality, generally referred to as Facebook Live. Already being beta-tested among a small number of U.S. iOS users, the feature allows for instantly sharing live video using the Facebook platform. What’s key here is that you don’t have to download a special app or leave Facebook to use the new video functionality. If Facebook Live rolls out as expected, it’s likely to not only dominate other live streaming options but also to fundamentally change the way Facebook’s 1.5 billion users engage with the platform.

The social media skills gap at work widens: With the explosion of workplace social networks like Slack (which recently saw more than 1 million users logged in at the same time) and the imminent launch of Facebook at Work, using social media in the office has gone from taboo to requirement. Businesses are incorporating social tools to streamline internal communications, to help sales staff reach customers, and, of course, for marketing and advertising. The problem is that front-line employees aren’t up to the challenge. Among 2,100 companies surveyed by Harvard Business Review, just 12 percent of those using social media feel they use it effectively. Even millennials brought up on social media are falling short: “Because somebody grows up being a social media native, it doesn’t make them an expert in using social media at work,”explains William Ward, professor of social media at Syracuse University.

The consequence of this social media skills gap can be seen in mounting corporate social media gaffes, from misused hashtags (see #WhyIStayed) to scheduled posts gone awry, not to mention trillions of dollars (yes, trillions) in lost productivity and business value. In 2016, expect to see social media training finally begin to make its way into the workplace in an effort to close this gap — similar to initiatives launched when office software suites and later email and the Internet itself emerged as critical business tools. A number of online offerings now provide self-paced lessons and video modules designed for the workplace. (Hootsuite is giving our course away free.)

Social media customer service gets a lot better: Customer service on social media has always seemed like a great idea. Why wait on the phone when you can Tweet and get an answer immediately? But the reality has been quite different. A new study of 500 top retailers shows that only 20 percent answer questions sent via Twitter and 54 percent respond via Facebook. And the average response time ranges from 27–31 hours! Not to mention that not all customer service problems lend themselves to being handled out in the open in a public forum.

Fortunately, change is on the horizon. In the latter part of 2015, both Twitter and Facebook significantly upped their customer service functionality. Twitter ditched the “mutual follow” requirement for its DM (Direct Messages) feature, meaning companies and customers can now contact each other directly and privately. At the same time, it lifted the standard 140-character limit for Direct Messages, so DM now makes a great one-on-one channel for tackling customer issues. Facebook, not to be outdone, has launched a beta version of Messenger Business, offering a new chat-based avenue for companies to have real-time, personal conversations with customers. Considering that Messenger has more than 800 million users, it’s not hard to see it evolving into a ubiquitous, mobile-friendly channel for customer service in the years ahead.

Perhaps the biggest change in social media is the accelerated evolution of networks into “everything platforms.” Twitter isn’t just for blasting out 140-character updates anymore: It’s for one-on-one messaging, video-sharing, customer service and more. Facebook isn’t just about connecting with friends: It’s now (or soon to be) a workplace productivity tool, a video sharing and streaming platform, a place to shop, etc. Similar transformations can be seen across LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat, among other networks. Social media has become less a discrete thing that people do than a natural component of everything they do. And that trend shows no signs of slowing.

Source : http://bit.ly/1PkKSKb

What Can I Learn By Using Marketing Automation Software?

Ideally, marketing automation software allows companies to track, analyze, and nurture prospects with highly personalized, useful content that helps convert prospects to customers and turn customers into brand advocates. Marketing automation software introduces precision and process to both lead generation and lead nurturing campaigns through its ability to track, score, and assign leads efficiently.

To further illustrate these concepts, I’ve taken the liberty of breaking down the knowledge that can be gained from marketing automation software into three major areas of emphasis.

1. Lead Quality

Most prospects visiting your company’s website and consuming your content have not yet entered a purchase-ready mentality. As such, sending and assigning leads near the top of the sales funnel to the sales team annoys prospects and wastes sales representatives’ valuable time. Instead, marketers should offer educational content to advance the prospect down the sales funnel before assigning them to a sales rep. Marketing automation software makes this process easy by utilizing lead scoring.

Lead scoring is a practice of attributing point values to certain attributes or actions taken by leads to measure their fit for your products/services and readiness to make a purchase. Examples include:

• The company they work for
• The industry they work in
• Demographic information
• Volume of website visits
• Specific forms submitted (downloads and/or requests)
• Specific pages visited

When leads reach a certain score, they are automatically shared with a sales rep, and the rep can immediately see the contact’s history of interactions with your brand. In essence, the higher the score, the higher the priority for a sales touchpoint. This allows sales reps to use their time wisely, concentrating their efforts on highly qualified sales leads rather than wasting time on low-quality leads unlikely to convert. Oh, and it’s worth mentioning again this entire process is completely automated.

2. Buyer Journey

Another area of emphasis is the buyer journey. Marketing automation software also gives marketers the ability to understand a buyer’s journey from the very first encounter with the brand to the purchase (and beyond). This knowledge is critical to decreasing the sales cycle by presenting prospects with relevant content that will hasten the path to the purchase.

For example, ABC Company notices, through marketing automation, that 90% of their customers visit the company website at least three times, visit the pricing page, and request a consultation before making a purchase. Wouldn’t it be wise, then, for ABC Company to make it a goal to have every lead go through this journey? I know I would if I were them. Specifically, I would use lead nurturing emails to make sure they make it back to my website at least three times, obviously using the pricing page and consultation landing page as my featured email links. I may even redesign my website with this information in mind; if not my entire website, at least the homepage.

Tip: I would also encourage ABC Company to assign a significant point value to each of the proven high-conversion actions—i.e. three web visits, a visit to the pricing page, and a consultation request—when setting up their lead scoring.

The goal here is to use marketing automation software and tactics to discover trends that will shorten the sales cycle and convert more customers by using information relevant to the purchasing process identified through analytics. Say that five times fast…

3. ROI

Return. On. Investment. Every marketer and business executive seeks a clearer understanding of ROI, and it is not difficult to understand why. In its simplest form, the ROI metric is asking the question “Is it working?” With marketing automation software, that question is easy to answer. You can analyze a particular campaign as a whole and/or by each sub-element (ebook, blog post, social post, ad, etc.) to understand how many leads generated or nurtured by the campaign became customers. You can also determine whether the aggregate customer purchases stemming from the campaign outweighed the price of the campaign’s execution. Easy as pie.

There you have it! I hope this gives you a clearer understanding of the various things you can learn by using marketing automation software.

Source : http://bit.ly/1IcQdQA

11 of the Best Infographic Designs of 2015

Infographics that really stand out are far more than just a smattering of pictures and charts. They might tell an engaging story -- one built around compelling data, graphics, or illustrations. Or perhaps they serve as a really helpful visual resource.

While great infographics come in a variety of forms, the common thread is that they're visually pleasing and designed in a way that makes complex topics easy to understand whether you're a novice in the subject or an expert.

Here are 11 brands from all different industries -- from education to insurance -- that totally nailed their infographics this year. Check 'em out and get inspired.

11 Great Infographic Examples of 2015 

1) Music Timeline, by Google

The best infographics communicate information in an intuitive and beautiful way. Google nailed it with their "Music Timeline" microsite, which visualizes music trends from 1950 to present, by popularity. The best part? The version on their site is interactive: When you click on one of the genres, you'll get a more detailed visualization of that genre's popularity along with a list of the most popular albums of the time in that genre.

2) The Daily Routines of Famous Creative People, by Podio

In this infographic, the folks at Podio took a simple concept and executed it fantastically. Using information from the book Daily Rituals by Mason Currey, it shows the daily schedules of famous creatives broken down by time and activity. Not only is this an example of engaging data, it's also a fantastic editorial piece for a brand.

3) Men's Dress Codes Made Simple, by Samuel Windsor

The visual elements of an infographic are the most important part -- that's why you made the content into an infographic in the first place, after all. When you have a topic that's inherently visual, an infographic is a great way to go. The graphic below decoding men's formalwear reads like a cheat sheet. The design is simple and intuitive -- and the paisley design behind the title is a fun nod to the menswear industry. We also love how there's no more copy on here than there needs to be -- just a few simple titles and a handful of bullet points. 

4) 10 Dinner Table Customs From Around the World, by Wimdu

Any time you're writing about the "do" vs. "don't do" dichotomy, you might consider making an infographic out of it. You can easily put each "do" and "don't" beside one another in two columns for a great visual -- just look at the example below of dinner table customers from around the world. Each section is a different country, inside of which is one important dinner table custom that readers may not know about if they've never been to that country. Capping the number of tips per country to one keeps the content from feeling overwhelming.

5) A Guide to Who's Fighting Whom in Syria, by Slate

Mapping out the relationships between two or even three entities can be pretty simple. But what about when you have a lot of things to compare to one another? That's where putting that information into infographic form can really help you educate your readers in a way they'll understand. In Slate's case, they wanted to show the relationships among groups of people in the Middle East who are involved in the Syrian Civil War. By using a table format and familiar visuals and colors, the folks at Slate did a great job simplifying this data into a digestible format -- and the version on their website is beautifully interactive.

6) How Music Affects Your Driving, by No Nonsense Insurance

Work in a "boring" industry? Believe it or not, you can still create interesting and exciting content -- even if you're not working with a "sexy" topic such as food, travel, or culture. Want proof? An insurance company created the infographic below on how music affects your driving. Not only are the graphics fun, but there's a lot of helpful content in there, including facts and statistics paired with great visuals. Read this blog post for more tips on creating interesting content in a "boring" industry.

7) Our Dwindling Food Variety, by National Geographic

Infographics don't have to be long to be great -- it's all about how well the data is conveyed visually. The infographic below from National Geographic is short but sweet: It shows how many varieties of different kinds of fruit and vegetable seeds we had a century ago in comparison to today. Instead of using a traditional bar chart, they chose to hit the point home by designing a chart that looks like a plant.

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8) #GivingTuesday By the Numbers, by Classy

The look and feel of each infographic has a lot to do with brand personality. Here's a great example of an infographic with a design that stays true to brand. It pairs fun fonts with cute, block-color graphics. For example, check out the first set of bar charts: They use tree graphics in place of classic bars to make it more visually interesting without sacrificing clarity.

9) Cost of Living Around the World, by MoveHub

Here's another example of an infographic on an interesting topic that isn't riddled with numbers -- but this one's even simpler. There are no bells and whistles here: no introduction, simple colors, and not a lot of copy. The only thing missing is a short explanation of where the data comes from. Although they include a link to the source at the end and also offer more details about the data in their own blog post's introduction, it would have been helpful for others hoping to share the image or embed it on their site to have that information somewhere on the graphic. Still, we love the simplicity and straightforwardness of both the topic and design.

10) The Anatomy of a Perfect Checkout Page, by VWO

Here at HubSpot, we find that infographics on the "anatomy" of something typically do quite well. Here's a great example of one from VWO. It takes the reader through an example of what the "perfect" version of a checkout page would look like. The graphic breaks the page down into manageable chunks that are easy to follow. At the same time, the design is fun and attractive, combining colorful graphics with screenshots of real checkout pages for reference.

11) How to Keep Fruits & Vegetables Fresh Longer, by Full Plate Living

Who knew that some fruits and vegetables "get along" better with others in storage? I certainly didn't, and I found this infographic to be a wonderfully simple, yet comprehensive visual guide. The timelines are clear and readable, and each of the visuals is easy to skim so readers don't even have to read the names under each piece of food (unless they aren't sure what a plum look like).

Source : http://bit.ly/1O7s00l

Socializing Your Brand is Not an Option but a Must.

With the increasing popularity of Facebook and Twitter, almost every single company that has a website is on social media. For some people, social media marketing is just a fad that can provide advantage while it lasts. And then there are others who think it’s a lot of hype around something that holds no advantage. However, socializing your brand has become more important than ever before. 

Is Social Really Important?

Almost a decade ago, marketers were pondering over the same question, thinking that it’s just a fad and will fade away in a few months or a couple of years. It didn’t. Social media is here to stay and has become even more powerful as more and more people network on it.

If you’re looking for one good reason to get social media services for your website, we have a reference list for you.

1. Two-way Immediate Communication

If your customers are upset over something, they don’t want to wait for 30 minutes while their call is put on hold. And they don’t want a 24 hour waiting period for your email. They want a quick response. Your social media service should be active on the network and reply to complaints as soon as possible. This lets other people see how helpful you are, and thus it increases your sales.

2. Transparent Communication

When a customer brings up a complaint regarding your products or services, others can read that. And when your team replies to their concerns, your fans can see how you replied to the comment. This builds a positive brand image. When communication is transparent, it helps both sides. While you build a positive image, customers get their complaints resolved quickly – so it’s a win-win situation.

3. More Conversions

You can’t make new customers with each new post, but when you solve a customer’s complaint, other people will start liking your brand. Also, your posts and replies will reflect your brand essence. Make sure that no matter what the customers say, you have to reply with a positive tone. This will build a positive aura around your brand that will encourage conversions.

4. More Followers 

When a fan experiences positive communication with your brand, they will share this experience with their friends on social media. This is the main reason this platform is called social – people discuss their good and bad experiences. If a person had a bad experience with your company, they will discuss it with their friends, and this will not be good for your brand image. When you get social media marketing services from a good company, you can turn all customer communications into positive experiences and gain more followers.

Remember, being on social media isn’t just about posting content, but also about resolving customer issues. As you answer their questions and resolve their issues, your business will be a bit more vulnerable, but if you have the right social media services, this risk is certainly worth taking.

Source : http://bit.ly/1KFfL33

10 Mistakes Intelligent People Never Make Twice

Everybody makes mistakes—that’s a given—but not everyone learns from them. Some people make the same mistakes over and over again, fail to make any real progress, and can’t figure out why.

“Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.” – Bruce Lee

When we make mistakes, it can be hard to admit them because doing so feels like an attack on our self-worth. This tendency poses a huge problem because new research proves something that commonsense has told us for a very long time—fully acknowledging and embracing errors is the only way to avoid repeating them.

Yet, many of us still struggle with this.

Researchers from the Clinical Psychophysiology Lab at Michigan State University found that people fall into one of two camps when it comes to mistakes: those who have a fixed mind-set (“Forget this; I’ll never be good at it”) and those who have a growth mind-set (“What a wake-up call! Let’s see what I did wrong so I won’t do it again”).

“By paying attention to mistakes, we invest more time and effort to correct them,” says study author Jason Moser. “The result is that you make the mistake work for you.”

Those with a growth mind-set land on their feet because they acknowledge their mistakes and use them to get better. Those with a fixed mind-set are bound to repeat their mistakes because they try their best to ignore them.

Smart, successful people are by no means immune to making mistakes; they simply have the tools in place to learn from their errors. In other words, they recognize the roots of their mix-ups quickly and never make the same mistake twice.

“When you repeat a mistake it is not a mistake anymore: it is a decision.” – Paulo Coelho

Some mistakes are so tempting that we all make them at one point or another. Smart people learn from these mistakes and never make them twice.

1. Believing in someone or something that’s too good to be true

Some people are so charismatic and so confident that it can be tempting to follow anything they say. They speak endlessly of how successful their businesses are, how well liked they are, who they know, and how many opportunities they can offer you. While it’s, of course, true that some people really are successful and really want to help you, smart people only need to be tricked once before they start to think twice about a deal that sounds too good to be true. The results of naivety and a lack of due diligence can be catastrophic. Smart people ask serious questions before getting involved because they realize that no one, themselves included, are as good as they look.

2. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result

Albert Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Despite his popularity and cutting insight, there are a lot of people who seem determined that two plus two will eventually equal five. Smart people, on the other hand, need only experience this frustration once. The fact is simple: if you keep the same approach, you’ll keep getting the same results, no matter how much you hope for the opposite. Smart people know that if they want a different result, they need to change their approach, even when it’s painful to do so.

3. Failing to delay gratification

We live in a world where books instantly appear on our e-readers, news travels far and wide, and just about anything can show up at our doorsteps in as little as a day. Smart people know that gratification doesn’t come quickly and hard work comes long before the reward. They also know how to use this as motivation through every step of the arduous process that amounts to success because they’ve felt the pain and disappointment that come with selling themselves short.

4. Operating without a budget

You can’t experience financial freedom until you operate under the constraint of a budget. Sticking to a budget, personally and professionally, forces us to make thoughtful choices about what we want and need. Smart people only have to face that insurmountable pile of bills once before getting their act together, starting with a thorough reckoning as to where their money is going. They realize that once you understand how much you’re spending and what you’re spending it on, the right choices become clear. A morning latte is a lot less tempting when you’re aware of the cost: $1,000 on average per year. Having a budget isn’t only about making sure that you have enough to pay the bills; smart people know that making and sticking to a strict budget means never having to pass up an opportunity because they’ve blown their precious capital on discretionary expenditures. Budgets establish discipline, and discipline is the foundation of quality work.

5. Losing sight of the big picture

It’s so easy to become head-down busy, working so hard on what’s right in front of you that you lose sight of the big picture. But smart people learn how to keep this in check by weighing their daily priorities against a carefully calculated goal. It’s not that they don’t care about small-scale work, they just have the discipline and perspective to adjust their course as necessary. Life is all about the big picture, and when you lose sight of it, everything suffers.

6. Not doing your homework

Everybody’s taken a shortcut at some point, whether it was copying a friend’s biology assignment or strolling into an important meeting unprepared. Smart people realize that while they may occasionally get lucky, that approach will hold them back from achieving their full potential. They don’t take chances, and they understand that there’s no substitute for hard work and due diligence. They know that if they don’t do their homework, they’ll never learn anything?and that’s a surefire way to bring your career to a screeching halt.

7. Trying to be someone you’re not

It’s tempting to try to please people by being whom they want you to be, but no one likes a fake, and trying to be someone you’re not never ends well. Smart people figure that out the first time they get called out for being a phony, forget their lines, or drop out of character. Other people never seem to realize that everyone else can see right through their act. They don’t recognize the relationships they’ve damaged, the jobs they’ve lost, and the opportunities they’ve missed as a result of trying to be someone they’re not. Smart people, on the other hand, make that connection right away and realize that happiness and success demand authenticity.

8. Trying to please everyone

Almost everyone makes this mistake at some point, but smart people realize quickly that it’s simply impossible to please everybody and trying to please everyone pleases no one. Smart people know that in order to be effective, you have to develop the courage to call the shots and to make the choices that you feel are right (not the choices that everyone will like).

9. Playing the victim

News reports and our social media feeds are filled with stories of people who seem to get ahead by playing the victim. Smart people may try it once, but they realize quickly that it’s a form of manipulation and that any benefits will come to a screeching halt as soon as people see that it’s a game. But there’s a more subtle aspect of this strategy that only truly smart people grasp: to play the victim, you have to give up your power, and you can’t put a price on that.

10. Trying to change someone

The only way that people change is through the desire and wherewithal to change themselves. Still, it’s tempting to try to change someone who doesn’t want to change, as if your sheer will and desire for them to improve will change them (as it has you). Some even actively choose people with problems, thinking that they can “fix” them. Smart people may make that mistake once, but then they realize that they’ll never be able to change anyone but themselves. Instead, they build their lives around genuine, positive people and work to avoid problematic people that bring them down.

Bringing it all together

Emotionally intelligent people are successful because they never stop learning. They learn from their mistakes, they learn from their successes, and they’re always changing themselves for the better.

Source : http://entm.ag/1kdrlwN