Bragging Rights

When do you have the right to brag a bit about yourself? Peggy Klaus is the author of "Brag! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It" and according to her it might be more often than you think. The real question becomes can you brag about yourself in a graceful manner that puts your best foot forward, or are you more likely to do it in a grating way that ends up putting that foot in your mouth?

Peggy's newly defined manner of bragging can be an effective way to showcase your skills and accomplishments in order to win business and positively influence people. A good place to begin is the Brag! Take-12 Questionnaire. It will help you to focus on personal elements needed in the creation of "brag bites" that will be crystal clear and interesting to those who don't already know you.

Brag! Take-12 Questionnaire
Click the link above to review the Take-12 questions, or click the Amazon showcase box below to buy a copy of the book.

Additional info...
I guess great minds think alike... only a few hours after I posted this blog entry I received an email from my friend Robert Middleton (InfoGuru of Action Plan Marketing) telling me about a new episode in his TeleClass Expert Series. The $29 audio program just became available and it features Peggy Klaus! Click here for details.

TGIF: Thank God It's FreeDay

I'm starting a new BrainBlog feature this year -- links to something cool, creative, and free, ever Friday. It's like getting an early start on the weekend!

Fun free stuff to browse and download instead of actually doing any work.
Well... This is "kind of" like work. These freebies will definitely make you THINK.

I'm going to lead off this feature with one of my favorites sources of downloadable (free) inspiration -- the Tom Peters website.

Not only does Tom have one of the best collections of business materials you can BUY, he's also very generous in the kinds of things he gives away. He's got an entire archive of downloadable documents, booklets, and tip sheets. He provides so many items on such a regular basis that his page o' free stuff has its own RSS feed.

My top-3 favs in the collection?
1. Tomato, Toma[h]to!
2. This I Believe
3. A TIE: The PSF is Everything / Project05

Here's the link --
http://www.tompeters.com/freestuff/index.php

Get busy!
~DON

Creative Card Decks

Rather than pen-twirling, chewing on pencil erasers, drumming fingers on the desk, or madly clicking a ballpoint pen, creative card decks can provide relief for the fidgeting creative mind whose mental gears are spinning widly as they attempt to latch onto a concept with some creative teeth.

Whether it's Roger Von Oech's "Whack Pack", Idea Champion's "Free The Genie" deck, Michalko's "ThinkPak", Creativity Central's "Creativity a la Card", the International Future Forum's "Prompt Cards", IDEO's "Method Cards", the MetaMemes brainstorm card game, or the "Know Brainer" from Solution People -- the power these decks wield in their ability to blow apart mental blocks is incredible. There is no end to the ideas and concepts sparked by using these creativity decks.

Although the following two are not strictly "decks" -- Bonnie Neubauer's "Story Spinner" and Jim Canterucci's "100 Days of Brilliance" daily desktop wallpaper also provide effective lightning rods for powerful strikes of creative inspiration.

I am especially fond of the 100 Days of Brilliance. It is based on the creative catalysts in the book Personal Brilliance and basically provides a starting point for any creative efforts that day. As a matter of fact, when my initial 100 days was finished I began recycling the content. I'm bugging the heck out of its creator Canterucci to come up with a sequel.

My favorite?
ALL of them.
Do your brain a huge favor and begin collecting these today.