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We’re living in some wild times right now.  Wild in the sense that life is changing rapidly around us, so fast in fact it can be challenging to keep up with it all. This is certainly the way of the world and what we can expect for the foreseeable future. 

While change is inevitable, some change isn’t always for the best.  Enter LinkedIn.

If you’re unfamiliar with the story of LinkedIn you may be surprised to know it actually went live in May of 2003.  You read that right, LinkedIn got started even before YouTube and Facebook.  In the beginning LinkedIn’s mission statement was ‘connect the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful’.

This is the foundation, the bedrock, of what LinkedIn was supposed to be.
Fast forward to today, LinkedIn now owned by Microsoft since 2016, still has this same mission yet the actual user experience of the platform is anything but business focused.  A quick scroll down LinkedIn’s running content feed reveals content posted by people and companies covering literally every spectrum imaginable from business, politics, religion, personal pictures and even cat memes.  Lots of memes.

This, in my most humble of opinions, is an unfortunate perversion of the platform.

Today there are literally dozens of social media platforms offering us the opportunity to connect, speak our minds, share content while being paper tigers and internet trolls. So why is it LinkedIn keeps going the way of everyone else and allowing content that isn’t business related?  It’s lost its competitive advantage.  Why also are we as users adulterating this platform making it like all the others?

As a daily user of LinkedIn my soul purpose for using this platform is for business purposes, so naturally this is my bias. 

I don’t use LinkedIn for anything else except business and on a daily basis wish that was the case for everyone else on the platform.  I’m aware this is a big wish, perhaps colossal. There are dozens of other social communication platforms available for non-business purposes including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, YouTube, Tumblr, QQ, etc.  If you want to post something non-business related you have a never-ending list of options at your disposal outside of LinkedIn.

About a year ago I made a personal decision to remove myself permanently from all other social media platforms as I felt like the time I was spending on them, along with the negativity, wasn’t providing good value in my life.  Fast forward to today, it’s hard to discern the difference between LinkedIn and other platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc.  This, again in my most humble of opinions, is a sad statement as the idea and original intention of what LinkedIn was supposed to be is a great thing.  One which I believe is greatly needed in the world of business.

So here is my ask – please stop using LinkedIn for non-business purposes. 

Take your cat memes, politics, religious statements and personal content to Facebook where it belongs.

That being said, in the nicest way I know possible, here’s what I’m not saying in the above statement:

• I’m not saying people should be censored
• I’m not saying people can’t have an opinion
• I’m not saying one persons’ voice or idea is more important than another

I believe free speech (1st amendment) is one of the best gifts our country offers, when it’s actually being honored and enforced.  My wish and ask for people to use other platforms isn’t a demand to silence, it’s a request for all of us to use better judgement when it comes to posting content. Another colossal request, I know.  This also shouldn’t be construed as opinions don’t matter and or business people’s opinions are more or less valuable than opinions or content which isn’t business related.

I’m also well aware of the fact that one can simply pass by unwanted content on LinkedIn they don’t like and or remove the connection or hide the content for future purposes.  While yes, that is a possible solution it doesn’t necessarily solve the problem.  Hiding or just passing by unwanted content is a form of indifference.  E.W. Howe is quoted as saying “The most destructive criticism is indifference”.  I agree.

I remain convinced, even more so today, LinkedIn should and must remain focused solely on business.  No exceptions.
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If you feel the same way about removing non-business content on LinkedIn I ask you to join me in using this hash tag any time you see content that isn’t business related. 

​#keepLIbusinessonly

Perhaps over time we can turn the tides and get this platform back to the way it was intended to be – for business purposes only.

Be well & live wisely.

Co-Authored by Trisha Aure & Travis Smith

Many of us have been confronted as of recent with a reality which isn’t the status quo from before.  As we continue to evolve and adjust our business and professional lives around COVID-19 inevitably many things will change for us in the short term. 

How we adapt to those changes makes or breaks our ability to grow personally while continuing to excel professionally.  As social distancing continues to be a requirement in order to deal with COVID-19 companies and their employees are finding themselves in one of the biggest predicaments of arguably the last 40 years – the way we’ve done things in the past won’t work in the future.  One of the biggest changes companies are having to adapt to is their employees not being able to come into the office, resulting in hundreds of thousands of people working from home – and doing so for their first time.

We’ll be the first to tell you it can be a rather jarring experience if you don’t go about ‘working from home’ in a methodical fashion.  With the freedom which comes from working at home also comes great responsibility – a responsibility that can be downright tough for many of us as distractions are a plenty. 

Below are 15 tips for working at home you can implement to ensure your time is efficient while succeeding with a masters grace:

1. Workstation: If you don’t have a desk at home, create a workstation; this is where you do most of your work for the day.  That might be the dining table or a countertop.  Try and stay away from the areas that you normally relax in.  Meaning, don’t set up your workstation in front of the TV on the couch.  A quiet place is essential.
2. Internet: Make sure your internet can handle your type of work; most of us will be fine with a standard internet offering from your local provider however you’ll want to ensure you have plenty of bandwidth so that you can task away without the irritation of slow tech.
3. Technology: Do you have all the technology you need in order to get your work done?  Think about your day at the office, what do you use throughout the day and how can you replicate that at home?  Hate your mouse on your laptop?  Some companies will pay for their employees work from home tech so if you need a new mouse or one of those flashy desk waterfalls it might be worth asking your manager about. This also may be time to finally learn how to use your webcam!
4. Maintain a Schedule: Get up every morning the same way you would if you were driving into work that day.  If you workout at 5:30 every morning, workout at 5:30.  If you eat breakfast before leaving at 9 AM, eat breakfast at 9 AM. In our opinion, this is the most important component for good productivity in a new environment.  Also, since you don’t have a commute any longer perhaps you could put that time towards a new hobby or resurfacing an old one.  The options are endless!
5. Dress for Success: We’ve heard this a thousands times and lived it ourselves – the clothing you wear makes a difference.  If you’re used to going into the office wearing business casual attire make sure to wear those same threads at home.  Sitting around in your floral moo-moo and Berkenstocks or your fire breathing twin dragon robe from the 90’s will only lead to mental laziness.  Stay sharp, dress the part.
6. Consistent Communication: Create a communication loop with your manager and your team.  Communication is important in any business, but even more crucial when you don’t have face time.  Set up regular check in times to provide updates, to ask for support or to give support.  Try and make these specific so that there are no room for assumptions or wasted time.  For example, if you are responsible for reviewing redlines on an engineering drawing that is due at the end of the week, share where you’re at with your work and touch on what you plan on accomplishing that day.  Not only will this help keep everyone on the same page with work, but it will also help create rhythm within your day.  Knowing that there are times throughout the day for team communication will give you a path for that next task or milestone.
7. Take a Break: Seems rather simple however it’s amazing how easy it is not to do at home.  Schedule a couple 5 to 10 minute breaks – go hit the loo, bark at the neighbors dog, walk around outside or get a coffee.  It’s vital you keep moving and stay active, don’t just sit flopped in your chair for eight hours straight.  Your back will thank you.
8. Prioritize Chit Chat: The biggest change for most of us is not having the personal interaction with your coworkers.  At times it can feel isolating, ‘cabin fever’ can quickly.  This article talks about how to continue the interaction with people and the “water cooler” conversations.  Make time to have personal banter with your coworkers or call a friend.  Undoubtedly your coworkers are going through the same thing.
9. The Daily 3: pick three tasks you absolutely need to get done that day for work.  Focus on those first and get them out of the way.  Once you’ve accomplished that and move on to others you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment which will give you mental kudos to tackle more work.
10. Mental Gymnastics: Just because you aren’t at the office doesn’t mean you can’t still learn and continue to develop yourself professionally.  Check out podcasts, books on tape or virtual videos online to continue developing yourself  
11. Eliminate Distractions: when you’re working from home it’s insane how all of a sudden folding laundry sounds like an amazing and super productive thing to do.  Resist the urge!  Keep TVs, tablets, cell phones, social media and your pets at bay.  This may or may also include your spouse – just saying.
12. Days End: try ending each day with the same routine or action.  This can be a fun way to cut things up, try something new and close out a hard days work with a little something extra.  We like to pour a glass of wine at the end of the day when working from home.  It’s a nice treat that allows you to transition nicely into home life.  If wine isn’t your thing try a Capri Sun. 
13. Managing Family Members:  there’s a good chance many of you will have other family members with you in the same home, kids, spouses, external family, etc.  Do your best to separate yourself from the clan.  Go outside, build a teepee in the backyard, hold up in the oily boxes in your garage.  The more quiet time you have to focus on work and not simultaneously playing parent, spouse or what have you the better.  Fail the above, try to at least set ground rules with others in the house so you can focus at your work at hand.
14. Eating: Yes, you’ll even need to be mindful of how you eat.  When working from home it’s easy to fall into a ‘snack-fest’ where you wake up from your snack induced coma four days later to find out you’ve eaten everything in your pantry.  If you’re not careful this can happen day one.  If you can keep snacking to a minimum it gives you the opportunity to make a great lunch.  Get fancy.  Toss aside that Top Ramen and go for steak! 
15. Taxes: If you’re working from home for a period longer than a couple weeks you may want to talk with your accountant or whomever does your annual taxes.  You may be eligible for some additional write offs on your taxes as a result of working from home.  Seek guidance from a professional in this area, just because you worked from home doesn’t automatically guarantee you’ll be able to use that to your benefit when it comes to Uncle Sam time.

 
Take Away
Creating a new ‘work from home rhythm’ as close to our normal routine as possible will be the quickest way to staying on track with work and personal life.  Schedule your day everyday and communicate that with your team and manager.  You will find you’ll get more work done, often in a quicker timeframe.

Key Consideration
This is not a time to panic, this is the time to adjust and keep moving forward.  A positive mindset and an openness to change are the keys to success here.  Remember, things will resume like usual at some point soon.  Keep your head up, smile, wash your hands and remember to be kind to others.  We got this! 

As a child I dreamt of being a business owner. While the other kids in the neighborhood were talking about being pro athletes I always imaged myself starting a business.  At the spry age of 10 I opened my first business in the early 90's in my parents basement in rural New York selling used skateboard parts.  It was exciting!  I had a business sign which proclaimed ‘Sk8 Parts’, a rack to display my shoddy products for sale and even a chair to sit on while waiting for the sales to come rolling in.  After a summer being in business I had only made one sale a set of dirty and worn out skateboard wheels for a measly fifty cents to a kid down the street.  That sale bought me a pink panther ice cream from the neighborhood ice man.  While the business didn’t rocket me to instant success like I had envisioned I was hooked on the idea of being a business owner in the future so I could buy the whole ice cream factory, not just one pink panther.

As I got older I tried my hand at inventing all sorts of things, products that I thought would get me rich, if I could only figure out a way to sell a few million of them.  First it was a gaming chair, then workout towels and even a handheld flashlight projector.  My entrepreneurial dreams ended at the time with a website I tried to start in 2006 that would allow people to ask questions and get advice based off real life business situations they were dealing with.  That was a $2k boondoggle which went nowhere. 
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It wasn’t until the summer of 2015 that I would find my way, diving head first into entrepreneurship by starting Square-1 Engineering.  Thankfully I had a lot of help from many close people around me (wife, parents, friends) who all were incredibly supportive.  Four years into my current entrepreneurial journey I’ve learned and experienced firsthand many things which have helped me navigate my way to present day.  Of all these experiences, learning lessons and awareness gained there are eight which have brought about the biggest positive impact in helping me weather the entrepreneur start up storm:  

1.Get A Mentor
This is the single second best decision you’ll ever make in business.  The first best decision is to become an entrepreneur.  Mentors have experience which you can learn from helping you avoid mistakes along the way. 

2.Support Gets You Over The Hump
Make sure those close to you understand your vision and support it.  They don’t have to buy in 100% but if it’s you against the world there are going to be some very long nights in store.  If you are married it’s vital your spouse understands the opportunity and supports it, even in the down times.

3.Some Things CAN Wait
Some people will tell you it’s important to write a business plan, vision, mission, blah blah blah, right away.  Unless you’re in a situation where you need to ask for capital to start the business the best thing to do is put those things aside and focus all your efforts on how to make money.  Ultimately being an entrepreneur means you’re selling something to someone so the more time you spend on how you’re going to get paid for the product or service you’re providing the better off you’ll be.  

4.You Can’t Be Everything to Everyone
I failed miserably here.  When I did start to get customers I tried to offer them everything under the sun in order to get their business.  Some times it worked, often times it created a nightmare for me as now I had to deliver the goods.  Never over promise, you’ll most likely end up under delivering.  Find one or two areas you can become an expert in, one or two problems you can solve for your customers.  Do that and only that before you start getting into other areas of opportunity.

5.Having a Plan-B is Dangerous
I’ve read countless articles about “the power of having a ‘plan-B’ ” or an alternative course of direction.  I hate that advice.  As an entrepreneur if you don’t believe in what you’re doing and have a plan-B set up in case you fail you’re almost destined to set yourself up for disappointment.  I’m not saying it’s not important to plan ahead for bumps in the road but if you’re going to start a business that should be your one and only focus.  Anything other than a mentality of success has no place for you.  Visualize to materialize.

6.Outsource Work
The first several months I attempted to handle all the accounting and finance portions of the business only to realize two things: 1 – I’m not good at it nor do I like it; 2 – I created more problems than I remedied.  Best advice I got was to pay the money to get a reliable CPA that understood my business and could help scale it up by making good decisions.  Best money I’ve ever spent was a CPA.

​7.The Power Of Saying ‘No’
Crucial to your success as an entrepreneur is the ability to politely and professionally say ‘no’.  Similar to ‘you can’t be everything to everyone’ saying ‘no’ is harder than it sounds.  Naturally you want to say yes to everyone, making everyone around you happy, especially if it’s a customer.  Unfortunately, when we do this we get pulled in a hundred directions which causes us to deviate from our destined course.  If you are asked to do something and it doesn’t align with your top 2 or 3 priorities politely decline and thank the person for the opportunity to be considered, even if it is a customer.

8.Breathe, It’ll Be Okay
Very few things in life actually have the ability to stop you from moving forward in your new business.  When bumps in the road momentarily derail you (you will experience plenty of bumps along the way) take a deep breath and be thankful for the opportunity to learn and grow as a professional.  Stephen Covey put it best when he gave us the 90/10 principle:
 
“10% of life is made up of what happens to you, 90% of life is decided by how you react.” – Stephen Covey

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