Can you taste test your way through life? I believe you can…it’s called being a life connoisseur. Living life to it’s fullest, enjoying the moment and finding happiness in what you have are all principles of being a life connoisseur and you do not need to be rich, or jobless or perfect to do it. Here is how you can be a connoisseur of life:

1. Cultivate the things you find beautiful

I usually do not write such esoteric posts, but this is one area that, as I cultivate it, has increased my happiness tremendously. First, there is so much beauty in everyday life. Take a few moments and think about the areas of your life you find most beautiful, and by beautiful I mean appealing, attractive and happy-making. They can be both big and small. Here are some of mine:

-My best friend’s dogs

-Nicely shaped wine glasses

-Laughing at YouTube videos

-Driving down Ocean Blvd in Los Angeles

-Calling my friend Margo

-Sending nice text messages to my mom or grandma.

2. Be Aware of Experience

Once you identify those things that make you appreciate life, work on bringing them into your life with more awareness on a daily basis. Once I realized how much joy I get from my friend’s dogs—because I cannot have my own in my apartment. I started to make dates with them where we could bring the dogs with us. This was super easy, and my friends loved it so they did not have to leave their dog home alone. The awareness made me appreciate them more, live in the moment and not take for granted what I already had.

3. Savor Life Experience Like Fine Wine

Why can’t we taste life as we taste wine? Wine connoisseurs collect their favorite wine’s, taste test all around the world—or at their local wine bar and discuss and relish in their favorites. I think we can do the same with life experiences. My friends know that they can invite me to the most bizarre events, and I will probably go. I like to taste test them like wine. Last weekend’s hot dog eating contest isn’t my favorite bottle, but it was fun to try it and made me appreciate my favorite local restaurant even more afterwards.

This is the kind of lifestyle that can start with one hobby and grow into a lifestyle. What other life experiences do you cultivate?

For companies, entrepreneurs and small businesses, interns can be a huge asset. Additionally, providing internship opportunities can offer work experience to potential employees and individuals. I currently manage over 120 interns with the help of an intern manager. It was a long process to figure out how to attract wonderful intern applicants, vet them and make sure both you and your intern are feeling fulfilled with the work they are doing.

Here are my tips to find great interns and set them up in an intern program:

1) Pick one place to funnel all of your intern applicants. We use this page as our funnel:

http://www.radicalparenting.com/radical-teens/teen-programs/

We have links to this page from other career websites, other parts of the blog and partner sites, but they all come to this one page. On your funnel page give a very brief explanation of the programs and then let them click through to their desired track—whether you will offer more than one internship or if you want to have different pages for FAQ, Applications and About Us. This way the page isn’t too long and serves as a landing page for potential intern applicants.

2) I like to put a video on my pages. Even if you have a virtual internship, it helps people feel that you are real and will treat them well. Since most internships are unpaid, it is all relationship based. Videos can help convey this.

3) Be specific on what they will do for you. You can see how we described one of our internships here: http://www.radicalparenting.com/radical-teens/teen-writers/ Especially if it is unpaid, you want to give applicants an idea of what the work is, how long it will take and when they have to complete it. This will also help weed out people who will not work for you later.

4) Have lenient but poignant qualifications. Since internships are usually unpaid it is important that you are open to all kinds of people to get a variety of applicants, but if there are skills you need, ask for them! You do not want to spend more time and energy training an intern on something when you could have found someone who already had the skills (like being able to use powerpoint, website editing or social media fluency).

5) Make three hoops. Interns have to usually really want the placement to do the work. I have interns go through three ‘hoops’ to make sure they are really dedicated and can do follow through. Here are my ‘hoops:’

-Email application meets the application qualifications (List name, number, address, sample writing and resume—if they forget one of these things I think that is a bad sign).

-Read and review a non-disclosure basic contract, sign and scan or mail back.

-Fill out a small bio in a welcome package and answer a few questions on their goals for working with my company.

6) List your mission and make it exciting. Interns usually have hard work, you want them to feel some perks. This can be learning or a charitable goal. List this to entice passionate people.

Overall, hiring and managing interns can be a long process. As you get more applicants you can begin to weed out serious and not serious. Stay tuned for our post on how to create an internship program and manage great interns!

It is hard to make money selling books, but it CAN be done!

Here are a few tips for authors on actually making money on their books:

1) Approach other service providers

Go to doctors’ or veterinarians’ offices, truck stops, souvenir stands, restaurants and coffee shops, and ask them if they will sell your book on consignment.  Offer them a discount if they buy them from you in bulk.

2) Who are your mavens?

Malcolm Gladwell wrote about Mavens or trendsetters in certain groups.  Figure out who the mavens are in your specialty.  Hair salon owners? PTA presidents? Approach them and give them your book.

3) Get into catalogs

Many catalogues will offer your book if it has to do with their specialty.  It cannot hurt to ask and this is a great way to make money selling books!

4) Write articles

Good articles do sell books.  When you write an article that gives away great information and lets readers know your writing style, people will buy your books.

5) Do radio interviews

Radio interviews are a great way to get your book onto the airwaves.  It also gets people talking and increase your book sales so you can make more money.  They also lead to bigger media interviews.

6) Get others to sell books for you

Many speakers make money selling books in the “back of the room” (BOR).   If you cannot or will not do speaking events many other speakers can sell your books for a cut…and will talk about your book.

Be sure to check out our other free tips on marketing and selling your book: How to Make Money Selling Books and Build Your Online Author Platform.  We offer packages for authors to get started on building their online and offline platforms.  Learn how to make money selling books in our unique author packages!

Other Articles and Videos to Help Authors Sell Books:

How Authors Can Sell More Books

How to Promote and Market a Book Online

How Authors Can Use Twitter to Sell Books

Author Marketing Tips to Sell Books

How Authors Can Use Facebook to Sell Books

How Authors Can Use Social Media to Sell Books and Build Their Author Platform

How to Sell Books with an Author Platform

Online Book Marketing 101 For Authors

Social media is a free way for authors to promote their platform and their books.

Here are a few ways Authors can use social media to sell books:

1. Offer your book as a fundraiser to schools, charities or other organizations. Or offer them to the organization in bulk at a discount. Many publishers will give you an authors discount to do that.

2. Use Twitter

Check out our article on how authors can use Twitter.

3. Make a list of target people

It is always good to have a goal in mind.  Find 10 people you wish you could read your book and find them in social media, then connect with them!

4. Do podcasts

Talkshoe and podcasters network are great types of social media authors sometimes forget.  Start pitching some smaller podcasts to be a guest to talk about your book and your specialty.

5. Give away something

Announce on social media that you will give a portion of the profits from your book sales to your favorite charity.  Then work with the charity to tell their followers as well.

6. Use Facebook

Check out our article on how authors can use Facebook.

Most of all do not get overwhelmed.  Start wit hone social network and deliver quality content instead of spreading yourself too thin over many.

Be sure to check out our other free tips on marketing and selling your book: How to Make Money Selling Books and Build Your Online Author Platform.  We offer packages for authors to get started on building their online and offline platforms.  Learn how to make money selling books in our unique author packages!

Other Articles and Videos to Help Authors Sell Books:

How Authors Can Sell More Books

How to Promote and Market a Book Online

How Authors Can Use Twitter to Sell Books

Author Marketing Tips to Sell Books

How Authors Can Use Facebook to Sell Books

Facebook can be a great avenue for authors to build their author platforms and sell more books!

Here is how authors can start using Facebook:

1. Create a separate page

Facebook should be used for only one outlet.  I would absolutely create a separate page for your book and perhaps even for you as an author.  Be careful to keep your private pictures and friends in another space.

2. Contests

Facebook users love contests and back and forth conversations! Hold a contest that you will give away your book to people who share your page with the most people.  Give your followers incentives to talk about your page and recommend it to friends!

3. Link to others

Make sure to favorite other author’s and users pages.  Link to them, talk about their articles and be a collaborative Facebook user.  There is enough to go around.

4. Ask questions

A lot of experts get on Facebook and feel like they have to always be giving answers.  You can also ask questions and start a dialogue.  If your page is exciting and interesting, people will come back, buy your book and recommend it to others.

Start small, put up your page with the cover image and a small synopsis…you will be surprised the feedback you will get just with that.

Be sure to check out our other free tips on marketing and selling your book: How to Make Money Selling Books and Build Your Online Author Platform.  We offer packages for authors to get started on building their online and offline platforms.  Learn how to make money selling books in our unique author packages!

We specialize in helping parenting authors sell more books.  There are a few tips we give especially to authors with parenting books that have worked wonderfully for us trying to sell our parenting book.

Here are tips for Authors who write parenting books:

1) Get in Camp fliers

Many summer camps send out recommended reading to parents.  Write some articles for them or ask to be in their materials for their pre or post-summer package sent home.

2) Speak at PTA meetings

PTA meetings are a great way to get new readers and meet parents in your area.

3) Girl/scout boy scout meetings

I have spoken at a few Cub Scout meetings to the parents while the kids are in an activity. Many are grateful to have something to do and have come back to me for my second and third books.

4) Talk to Librarians

Librarians recommend books to parents all the time.  They often have their own newsletters and blogs.  They can also connect you with PTA presidents in your area for speaking events!

5) Talk to teachers

Teachers can often get you to speak at the schools and can recommend or keep your book on their shelves for other parent teacher conferences.

Be sure to check out our other free tips on marketing and selling your book: How to Make Money Selling Books and Build Your Online Author Platform.  We offer packages for authors to get started on building their online and offline platforms.  Learn how to make money selling books in our unique author packages!

Other Articles and Videos to Help Authors Sell Books:

How Authors Can Sell More Books

How to Promote and Market a Book Online

How Authors Can Use Twitter to Sell Books

Author Marketing Tips to Sell Books

How Authors Can Use Facebook to Sell Books

How Authors Can Use Social Media to Sell Books and Build Their Author Platform

How to Sell Books with an Author Platform

We have written a ton of posts about online marketing using social media.  There are a couple of other principles authors should know about when marketing their books online…especially if authors want to sell more books online.

1) Do podcasts

Podcasts are a great way to get your book out into the online world.

2) Exchange links

If you have a website or are just using Facebook and Twitter, always post about other people and exchange links with them.  In the online world there IS enough to go around.

3) Online forums

Go into online forums in your specialty and offer free advice, mention your website or social media page (do not over mention your book though).  This is a great way to get a grassroots following.

4) Join Online groups

Give answers on yahoo answers and join social networks and online groups in your area like Café Mom.

Be sure to check out our other free tips on marketing and selling your book: How to Make Money Selling Books and Build Your Online Author Platform.  We offer packages for authors to get started on building their online and offline platforms.  Learn how to make money selling books in our unique author packages!

Other Articles and Videos to Help Authors Sell Books:

How Authors Can Sell More Books

How to Promote and Market a Book Online

How Authors Can Use Twitter to Sell Books

Author Marketing Tips to Sell Books

How Authors Can Use Facebook to Sell Books

How Authors Can Use Social Media to Sell Books and Build Their Author Platform

How to Sell Books with an Author Platform

UPDATE: We’ve compiled a list of the top 10 things you should see at the Shanghai World Expo 2010.

If you are planning on going to the Shanghai World Expo 2010, you are in for a treat! It is a spectacular event that is making international history with the sheer size, money and effort put into the fair. There are a few things you should know before going:

1) Get tickets early

It can be hard to find tickets, so make sure to secure them early.  I recommend the main branch right outside the subway line near XinTianDi.

2) Get there at 8:30am

Expo opens at 9 and official reports say to wait until 10 to beat the traffic.  But the lines are the shortest from 9-10 and you can knock off some big  pavilions that will have 2-3 hour lines later in the day.

3) You might want to consider a night ticket

Trying to stay from 8:30am to 12am might kill you and your feet.  We stay most of the day until about 7pm and then are getting a separate night ticket to see all of the expos at night by just walking through the park and not going inside any pavilions at that time.

4) Do not bring water

They do not allow you to bring liquids inside the park.  You can buy when you get in, but do not spend more than 5 kuai on a bottle of water (the Coke stands offer water for 3 kuai).

5) Eat inside the pavilions

Many of the pavilions offer great snacks and meals for not too high a price.  You really get some great local flavors and get to experience the pavilions in whole new ways if you eat in their cafes.

*We love the The Czechoslovakian Pavilion’s restaurant.

*The Cambodia Pavilion also has nice mango smoothies inside.

6) Eat small and frequently

There are two reasons for this: One, it is so hot and exhausting you want to stop every 2 hours for a refreshment break.  Two, it helps you sample a few different countries.

7) Bring a hat and umbrella and sunscreen

It is hot and you are in direct sun a lot.

8) Cherry pick

You really cannot see all of them, although we have seen about 80% of the pavilions and we still have another night and day to go.  We did this by going to the most popular pavilions in the morning and the less popular ones in the afternoon (avoiding long lines and being outside in the sweltering heat).

It is an amazing place! Go with patience and an open mind and you will see wonders of the world.

Last week I had an early morning call, answered 76 emails, ran to the gym, cooked quick lunch, had a business meeting, wrote a blog post, saw a client, called my sister, grabbed a goodbye dinner with a friend and cleaned-out my Tivo with Scott.  I brushed my teeth and thought, “What a successful day.”

Yet, when I laid my head on the pillow I realized I was exhausted—mentally and physically.  My back was sore and I hadn’t even registered it.  I thought through my meetings, the call with my sister and ruminated on all of the things that had happened to me that day…for the first time.  45 minutes later, no closer to sleep than I was when I laid down, I couldn’t help, but wonder why this was the first time all day I was actually thinking

Sure, I had been thinking all day.  But I had not had a second to ponder, question or feel. I was too busy to feel.  I was just doing.  This led me back to the thought I had while brushing my teeth, “What a successful day.”

What about it was so successful?  I had some OK meetings, and responded to normal emails, but nothing was particularly out of the ordinary.  In fact, the day had been stressful.  I had wolfed dinner and lunch, almost gotten a parking ticket, talked on the phone from place to place in the car to squeeze everything in and had not done a single thing that I just enjoyed for the sake of enjoyment.  Everything was work or obligatory.  Even cleaning out the Tivo had become a task, not a time for relaxation.

I think the reason I felt it was so successful was because I was busy.  And somewhere along the line I have been trained to think that busy equals successful.  I thought about some of my Truths.  When I say truths with a little ‘t’ I mean surface beliefs and truths with a big ‘T’ are some of my core values and beliefs.   I realized I was trained to think:

The more busy you are, the more successful you are.

Yet, when you are busy, you do not take breaks, you do not feel how your day is going you just do it and most importantly, you lose sight of what you enjoy because all you want to do is get things done.  I call this the busy paradox.  This also tied in with some other outrageous, seemingly nonsensical beliefs I was carrying around with me and acting upon:

The more stuff you have, the more successful you are.

Successful people do spend 45 minutes in bed thinking about their day.

These are not beliefs I want to have.  I have taken a few steps to stop the busy paradox in my life, and hope these will help you:

1) Take more moments

I am trying now to take more moments during the day instead of saving my ‘rumination’ time for right before bed.

2) Distinguish enjoyment vs. obligation

This is one I am still working on.  I often times have to remind myself that what I am doing is for pleasure, not just to get it off my list (example: clearing the Tivo, finishing a book on my side table, etc).

3) Realize busy is not always good

Being busy does not always mean you are more successful.  Being busy can distract us from what we really want and need.

4) Do not fear boredom

I used to get to the end of my list and have a momentary panic of ‘what am I going to do now?’ or ‘what do I even do to take breaks??’  I am slowly conquering my fear of an empty list by thinking of things I love to do that have nothing to do with my business, efficiency or getting things done.

I hope that you were able to relate to some of the issues I have dealt with in this post.  Do not let busy trick you!

To get ready for our stints as Urban Nomads, Vanessa and I have been selling as much stuff from our apartment as possible. When you’re getting ready to travel around the world without a home base to deposit all this stuff, you suddenly realize the few items you actually need versus those you once thought you might need.  Now that we’re well into the process, I can tell you we were both completely unaware of the astronomical amount of stuff we had hidden around our home. Seriously, after two day-long garage sales here in LA and several weeks of aggressive listing on Craigslist, I can’t actually tell anything is gone!

Image by Calevans

How can that be? I know for a fact we’ve sold plenty of items to happy buyers, enough in fact the proceeds will probably pay for most of our travel that summer. Add on top of that we donated literally boxes worth of smaller items we didn’t unload during our garage sales. Yet still since we started this process I haven’t yet missed a single thing I’ve parted with.

What does that tell me? That there were oodles of unused items laying around our apartment, just collecting dust and taking up space. It made me painfully aware of a tendency I think a lot of us have: the need to fill vacant space in our lives with things just for sake of having that space filled. I really didn’t think I was an offender in that category, but clearly I was wrong.

After going through this experience I think the “stuff” we have in our lives is no exception to the 80/20 rule. In fact for me I’d go so far as to say I use about 5% of my stuff more than 90% of my time (my laptop, iPhone, bed, desk, a few kitchen items, and projector). Another epiphany happened when I realized just how many trips, dinners and excursions were represented in the funds spent on stuff I’ve never used, or used once. I’ve now resolved not to replace all this “stuff” if and when I end up in an apartment long term again.

There is just no need for most of the things we buy. We need a certain number of items every day, everything else is just filler so we don’t have an empty drawer or closet. That was the person I used to be, now I intend to live the way I travel, to erase the difference in the amount of stuff I have when mobile and when stationary. I see this as a positive in two ways. One, I’ll save a ton of money by not buying a lot of useless garbage. Two, I’ll never be able to tell the difference between when I’m traveling and when I’m staying in one place for long.

You may think you need way more things when you live in one place than you can possibly take with you on a trip, but I challenge you to question that assumption. I have and found it to be almost totally false. Time will tell if I’m right in jettisoning the filler from my once full apartment, but I sure hope it is! If you have experiences with stuff, either having too much of it or wishing for more, leave a comment below.