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8 Keys for Overcoming Extreme Personal and Professional Adversity

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‘Sur-thriver’ insights on how to conquer fear and devastating losses with confidence, courage and chutzpah
 
Soldier 1: “You’re hit, you’re bleeding man.”
Soldier 2: “I ain’t got time to bleed.”

This short, yet intense excerpt from the movie Predator provides an important insight into one’s character. While challenges are sure to present in life, the principle here is that you can’t allow tragedy to stop you from moving forward toward completing your mission. Few business leaders have had to deal with more life-altering tragedy than Linda Losey, including the horrific separate deaths of her two young sons, yet the bevy of heart-wrenching circumstances have not stopped her from aspiring toward and achieving both professional and personal life goals.

How do you overcome devastating events and other personal challenges? How do you survive life’s most tragic situations to emerge stronger, healthier and perhaps even happier in the wake of catastrophic circumstances? How do you exist through the long, endless nights of your seemingly endless anguish to rise to see a brighter day and actually enjoy life once again? When do the persistent internal inquisitions, “Why now? Why me?”

Such are the questions that Linda, now Founder and COO of Bloomery Plantation Distillery, has asked herself time and time again, which has resulted in the kind of wisdom that can only be gained by struggling through extreme adversity (multiple times in Linda’s case) and coming out on the other side with a healthy mindset, a fresh perspective, and an inner well of strength, resolve and tenacity needed to not just survive, but thrive.

Below, Linda provides a few practical, top-line insights to help individuals better deal with unexpected adversity and even tragedy, and find astonishing strength to overcome:

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About the Author

Merilee KernMerilee Kern, MBA, is Executive Editor of “The Luxe List” International News Syndicate, an accomplished entrepreneur, award-winning author and APP developer and influential media voice. She may be reached online at www.TheLuxeList.com. Follow her on Twitter here: www.Twitter.com/LuxeListEditor and Facebook here: www.Facebook.com/TheLuxeList.

Willpower Woes: How a Rotten Resolve Can Hurt You …and 3 ways to develop better self-discipline and control through practice, progression and patience

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Willpower. We all want it. We all need it. But far too many of us just don’t have what it takes to stay resolute and determined when the going gets tough. Indeed, maintaining self-control and self-discipline when facing challenges at work and at home, or when aspiring toward ambitious future goals and objectives, can be among the most difficult life skills to manage and master—but it’s also one of the most impactful.

The significance of having low willpower cannot be overstated, since a lack of mental strength and fortitude can adversely affect nearly every aspect of your life and how you are perceived by others. This includes levels of failure and success in the workplace; leadership capabilities relating to career and home/parenting life; maintaining good habits (reliability, promptness, health and otherwise); aptly managing compulsions, impulses, addictions and bad habits; and a myriad of other obstacles, trials and tribulations we’re presented with on a daily basis. Life without willpower paints an ominous picture.

However much desired or well-intended, the process to developing willpower to benefit your professional and personal life can seem impossible, especially when faced with difficult situations, coercion or pressure from others, toxic relationships and certainly addictions of any sort. However, taking the initial steps to develop and maintain a strong will and self-discipline can be life changing.

With this in mind, I connected with the author of “Life Rehab: Don’t Overdose on Pain, People and Power,” Kanika Tolver—a Certified Professional Coach and thought leader who helps individuals realize career, business, life and spiritual success. She offered this simple yet insightful 3-step exercise that can help individuals develop better willpower through practice, progression, and patience:

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About the Author

Merilee KernMerilee Kern, MBA, is Executive Editor of “The Luxe List” International News Syndicate, an accomplished entrepreneur, award-winning author and APP developer and influential media voice. She may be reached online at www.TheLuxeList.com. Follow her on Twitter here: www.Twitter.com/LuxeListEditor and Facebook here: www.Facebook.com/TheLuxeList.

Credibility Crisis: 4 Sure-Fire Strategies for Cultivating Consumer Trust

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While the retail industry crisis has been well-reported, particularly with respect to dwindling foot traffic to brick-and-mortar stores. However, even as consumers turn to shopping online and via mobile devices in droves, it’s shocking to learn that fully 97% of visitors to eCommerce and other sales-minded sites bail out without purchasing on their first visit. As concerning is that approximately 70% of shoppers who do add items to their online shopping cart do not complete the purchase. Amid improved consumer confidence, with the April 2015 confidence index of 95.2 well above April 2014’s 81.7 rating, clearly there’s a severe disconnect between vendors and the marketplaces they hope to serve—a situation resulting in some serious economic opportunity loss. These disparities are also among the biggest misperceptions that both online and offline marketers hold.

Far too many companies are churning out traditional sales lingo laced with fluff and vague, or entirely overinflated, claims, spending paltry little time and energy establishing credibility with prospective customers. And, the mission critical nature of credibility cannot be overstated, as it establishes a company or brand’s integrity, reliability, validity, soundness and a host of other image-including indicators of an entity’s moral and ethical code, and the standards by which it operates. At the most fundamental level, credibility translates into trust, and trust translates into sales.

“Today’s consumer is quite savvy, but are often overloaded, over-committed, overdue for a vacation and, thus, easily annoyed,” asserts Brian Greenberg, a multi-faceted, serial entrepreneur who has spearheaded and oversees a variety of successful businesses. “From telemarketer calls coming in at dinnertime or, worse, before the alarm sounds in the morning; an endless stream of SPAM e-mails jamming inboxes; and mailboxes overflowing with white mail that proceeds directly to the recycle trash bin, statistics show that consumers can be bombarded with more than 300,000 messages every day. This overwhelming demand for consumer attention and dollars has created a market filled with cynics, whose defenses are on full alert.”

This heightened emotional state is working against commonplace sales tactics that are hyper-focused on getting to the close, rather than getting to know the consumer—and vice versa. Often, brand marketers fail to realize the sale begins and ends with authentic connection on both sides.

“Consumers need an advocate,” Greenberg says. “Amid all of the marketplace ‘noise,’ there is an incredible opportunity right now for customer-centric brands to cut through the clutter. One way to do this is by establishing credibility with consumers. Companies that do this effectively will most certainly amass market share.”

“What I’ve learned over the years is that shoppers go through different phases, such as interest, awareness and action, before transitioning to the ‘buying’ stage,” he continues. “However, the successful marketer offers multiple ways to prove the company and/or the product’s credibility through meaningful and relevant engagements that will carry a consumer through the emotional continuum of interest to final sale…and referrals and recommendations to others beyond.”

Below, Greenberg offers four proven tactics he’s learned on the sales and marketing front line, which are critical to building a loyal client base and ultimately boosting revenue in kind:

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About the Author

Merilee KernMerilee Kern, MBA, is Executive Editor of “The Luxe List” International News Syndicate, an accomplished entrepreneur, award-winning author and APP developer and influential media voice. She may be reached online at www.TheLuxeList.com. Follow her on Twitter here: www.Twitter.com/LuxeListEditor and Facebook here: www.Facebook.com/TheLuxeList.

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