Category: Motivation

How to Turn AI, Competitors, and Alternatives into Your Professional Advantage

Travis L. Scottby Travis L. Scott

If you begin to think about what you offer to an employer or client, depending on the career path you’ve chosen, there are always alternatives and competition. There will always be alternatives. One alternative is that your client could do the work themselves instead of paying you to do it. For some apps or software platforms, a free Google spreadsheet is an alternative. If you make money providing a product or service to your clients, there will always be competition. For some, the threat of artificial intelligence, or AI, is already here and impacting how you work. What does this …

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Is Your Commitment Phobia Preventing You From Being a Successful Solopreneur?

Travis L. Scottby Travis L. Scott

“Look at that stack of books by the bed and tell me that you’re the kind of person who can be happy focusing on just one niche?,” said my wife as we were talking about my career when I told her I need to narrow my focus when it comes to marketing. I’ve never been a niche guy with anything. My music taste is eclectic as hell. Take last Friday evening for example. We started listening to 40’s music (one of my favorite genres), then moved to the ’80s, then the band America, then the band ELO. It ended with …

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Want to Build a Personal Brand? First, Slow Your Roll

Travis L. Scottby Travis L. Scott

Everybody seems to be talking about building their personal brand these days. It’s becoming such an overused term that it’s bordering on cringe-worthy when someone mentions it. Personal brands aren’t new. They’ve been around since humans have. In pre-hypermarketing times, about 20 years ago, it was known as your reputation. The only difference is now we can influence, at scale, others’ perception of our reputation through a nauseating choice of social media platforms and other chest-thumping forms of communication. We live in a time of scale and reach unlike any other. The barriers to getting your message out to hundreds …

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Three Easy Things You Can Do Today to Balance Your Career, Learning, and Life

Travis L. Scottby Travis L. Scott

I say ‘easy,’ because the things I’m proposing are decisions we can make. We can either decide to do them or not. However, I realize that it may be an easy decision, executing may take some effort. But, what I’m proposing is not difficult. It’s really not difficult at all. It just takes focus and planning. For some of us, the COVID pandemic provides ample time to learn and practice getting better at things like writing, creating videos, or anything else you want to work on. For others, the opposite is true now. You now have a second job – …

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The Most Liberating and Brave Thing You Can Say to Your Content’s Critics

Travis L. Scottby Travis L. Scott

The world is a noisy place, and that extends to the professional world. People keep telling you, “you have to create content,” “you should start a blog,” “become active on LinkedIn and share your content there.” Whether you’ve been in an industry and profession for 15 years or 2, it’s still scary to write a blog post and share it out on LinkedIn or Twitter. Creating a short video of your thoughts, perspective, or experience you’d like to share is scary. Imaginary Critics We always hear this imaginary critic in our minds who tells us we’re a fraud. “They” tell …

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5 Things You Can Do Today to Make Time for Your Career Pivot

Travis L. Scottby Travis L. Scott

This past year (2020) has been a doozy. Our worlds have been completely shaken up, our values solidified, and some things we once thought were important no longer are. You may be entering the new year contemplating a career pivot or making the leap toward starting a business. However, unless you have a sizeable amount of cash stashed aside that you don’t mind losing early on, it’s not a good idea to quit your day job and jump into your new endeavor with both feet. That means adding more time and work on top of what you’re already doing. For …

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Want to Build Your Personal Brand? Focus on These 3 Things First

Travis L. Scottby Travis L. Scott

The topic of building your personal brand isn’t a new one, and I’m sure it’s something you hear a lot about. You may be asking yourself, “Do I really need to develop my personal brand?” and my answer would be, “not really.” It’s up to you and what your professional goals are. I think the thought of building a personal brand conjures up thoughts of becoming an ‘expert’ in some area and includes writing and public speaking. Those things can be scary to people, but they’re also not all-inclusive to having a personal brand. You can do many things, but …

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Being an Introvert is Seen as a Weakness- Why That is Complete Bullshit

Travis L. Scottby Travis L. Scott

I’m an introvert. Occasionally, with enough alcohol or a topic I am passionate about, I can be coaxed out of my shell. But, for the most part, I actively avoid direct engagement- especially in person. I’ve often been envious of my friends and colleagues who can strike up a conversation with anyone. I feel like everyone loves them and wants to be around them. Meanwhile, here I am on Travis Island. I often ask myself, “why can’t I be more extroverted?” Which is usually followed by, “why do I even care?” I don’t know if it stems from the childhood …

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