In This Issue

News from Joan (right)

(below) Getting Buy-In

Quotes for the Month

Job Seeking Tips:Two Powerful Search Engines

Quick Links

News from Joan!

If you are feeling frustrated by the public media's focus on everything happening that is bad locally, nationally and internationally there is a wonderful alternative. Start listening to and watching TED. It consists of short presentations by world-renowned scientists, artists, entertainers, designers, and entrepreneurs who are actually creating the tools and inventive solutions for a better world now. I think you will find it uplifting and inspiring.

Please visit my Facebook page

For those of you who know and/or have worked with me, I would love for you to add some comments about your experience to my wall. I am still new at the Facebook concept, but I am trying to learn as fast as I can.
Thanks for your support.

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Olympic champions have coaches.
So do many successful executives.
How about you?
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Need a Breakout Speaker for Your Local, Regional, or National Professional Association or Business Networking Group?
As a professional speaker and former trainer, Joan will give your organization great ideas and practical tips they can implement immediately. View a list of topics and in-depth descriptions

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR REFERRALS. They are the greatest compliment you could give me. Schedule a FREE, no-obligation consultation TODAY! Call 832-458-0455 or email me: joan@bolmer.com
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A spam-free newsletter written and published by Joan Bolmer, Executive, Business, Career and Personal Coach. For more helpful ideas, visit my web site

*Notice: If you want to make sure I read your email please put “coaching request” in the subject line, so I will not accidentally discard it as spam. Thanks.

Schedule a FREE no-obligation consultation TODAY! Call 281 293-8864 or email me.

Click here to learn more about Joan’s services!

1. Getting Buy-In

Everyone is selling all the time. Your kids want to sell you on using the car. Your spouse wants to sell you on getting a new (whatever). You want to sell your boss on a new idea, a raise or promotion and your boss wants to sell his boss on the budget.

The key to any successful sales proposition is to understand your customer's wants and needs first. Then address those wants and needs with your solution in their words.

In working with a client recently, he was disappointed when two of his managers took his plan for an improvement strategy with cool reserve and not much interest. I suggested that he do a Needs Analysis with these managers to see what they thought was working and what was not working. And the most important question of all is: how will you know objectively and subjectively if the change is getting the desired result?

By getting his bosses’ perception of what needed to be improved and their ideas on how they thought it could be achieved, he got them engaged in thinking about the problem, admitting there was a problem and looking for possible solutions. Then he could address the issue with his ideas using their words as part of his solution. The next time he brought the subject up, he got a positive reception to his ideas.

Some years ago, a colleague and I were doing a workshop for a large client. I suddenly realized that what we were planning to present was not what they needed. He said to me, "Joan, you have to give the client what he wants before he will let you give him what he needs." Wow, that really got my attention. In the years since, I have learned that to be true. You have to take people from where they are and lead them to where they want to be. That may mean taking many small steps to reach the desired goal.

Without your team/client/boss or kids buy-in on problems, risks, possible consequences, alternatives, ideas and benefits to them, your chances of moving forward successfully are slim.

Bob Poole's free PDF Book, Listen First Sell Later, is a great quick read that will remind you of the times you have been successful in selling your ideas and why it worked, so you can do more of what works and get the results you want.

To download the FREE pdf Book: Listen First Sell Later by Bob Poole

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What Clients Say About Joan

“Joan’s coaching has helped me expand my business, gain new clients and accomplish a number of ambitious professional and personal goals.

My main goal when I began working with Joan was to keep my business thriving while I took on a volunteer leadership role for a professional association. I had seen colleagues lose clients—and a lot of sleep—when they served in a similar capacity. I couldn’t afford to have that happen.

Joan asks great “what-if” questions. She helps me set priorities, delegate as needed, and stay accountable to my goals. She has also provided a number of valuable contacts from her own extensive network, some of whom have now become clients. Joan offers uncommon wisdom and insight about the business world and working with people. In the three years Joan has been my coach, I have seen a measurable increase in my business income, my volunteer group landed a top award, and I have gained more time to spend with family and friends.
I heartily recommend Joan Bolmer as a career and business strategist for anyone seeking to overcome challenges and accomplish greater professional success and satisfying life balance.”

Susan H. Burnell, APR
President, Imagination Ink - Business Writing & Public Relations

Quotes for the Month

"The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it
deliberately with faulty arguments."
- - Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, section 191, German philosopher (1844 - 1900)

"Bore, n.: A person who talks when you wish him to listen."
-- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, US author & satirist (1842 - 1914)


"The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves."
-- Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist (1875 - 1961)


"If computers get too powerful, we can organize them into a committee -- that will do them in."
-- Bradley's Bromide

Job Seeking Tips: Two Powerful Search Engines

As recommended by a geek friend.

Two powerful search engines that I have found mighty useful are metacrawler and dogpile.
Both are meta-search programs that use other "ordinary" search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask to do the basic work. Then they compile the results and present them to you. Despite the ugly name, Dogpile is the more powerful (it uses more engines), but Metacrawler is faster and often just as useful. Unless you are already familiar with meta-search engines, I predict that after you have used these a few times, you probably won't go back to the old single-search utilities.

If you want to power up your resume, job search, and interview skills, give me a call at 832-458-0455 or email me at joan@bolmer.com for a free consultation.

Quick Links

Training Builds Employee Productivity Fast


How to Write A Desktop Procedure and Training Manual


Inspired Leadership


Favorite Resource Links

Check out Joan's paintings
and notecards.

Happy Summer

Bird Bath