Internet Marketing Strategist Narek Gabrielian

My Kolbe A™ Index Results | kolbe a index

Narek Gabrielian — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 05:19:55 +0000

Have you heard of the Kolbe A™ Index?

You take an assessment and they give you four numbers. However, those four numbers can dramatically improve the quality of your life… forever!

They call those four numbers, your Modes of Operation (MO), and my MO happens to be 6-7-5-2.

Only about 5% of people are as good as you are at what you naturally do best. Kolbe suggests that you don’t exhaust time and energy trying to change your MO; instead, discover how you can take charge of putting your natural strengths to good use.

It has nothing to do with whether you are an introvert or extrovert, or a math whiz. Kolbe Index results deal with a different part of the mind than your personality or intelligence.

Kolbe Index deals with the Conative (Action derived from instinct; purposeful mode of striving, volition. It’s a conscious effort to carry out self-determined acts.

Three Parts of the Mind

Cognitive (Thinking)

Skills

Reason

Knowledge

Experience

Education

Conative (Doing)

Drive

Instinct

Necessity

Mental Energy

Innate Force

Talents

Affective (Feeling)

Desires

Motivation

Attitudes

Preferences

Emotions

Values

Kolbe Action Modes are behaviors driven by your instinct – not your personality or IQ.

You have a natural strength in each Action Mode that helps you make better decisions.

Here are my results:

Fact Finder is how you gather and share information.

Follow Thru is how you arrange and design.

QuickStart is how you deal with risks and uncertainty.

Implementor is how you handle space and tangibles.

MO: 6-7-5-2

My best way of gathering/sharing information is by Explaining

My best way of arranging/designing is by Systematizing

My best way of dealing with risk/uncertainty is by Modifying

My best way of handling space/tangibles is by Imagining

That’s just small fraction of what is in the report that you get after taking the test. Each instinct is personalized and explained in detail with lists of the things that you need to do more of and the things that you need to avoid.

It literally says:

“You need to …”

and

“Avoid the stress of having to …”

More than an assessment tool, the results prescrive ways to build on conative strengths.

In addition, Kolbe test reveals when I’m likely to procrastinate and what I need to do in unfamiliar situations in order to be persuasive.

Methods of Communication, i.e. making your point is another area that Kolbe A Index shines light upon. Kobe suggests that you need to save your best methods of communication for the highest impact situations and provides the percentage of energy you have in each mode of communication.

I found out how to enhance my communication… Isn’t that dandy?

You may be acting against your grain without even knowing it. when we work against our grain, we are not only unhappy but also unproductive, waiting our time on things that require too much energy. Instead of robbing yourself of your valuable time and energy, modify the things you need to do so that you can accomplish them in your own way.

Lastly, your MO doesn’t limit what you do; it determines how you’ll do it. That’s what I really like about this assessment.

Have you taken the Kolbe A™ Index assessment? What are your Modes of Operation?

My Kolbe A™ Index Results | kolbe a index is a post from: Internet Marketing Strategist Narek Gabrielian

My Clifton StrengthsFinder 1.0 Assessment Results

Narek Gabrielian — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 02:55:30 +0000

Do you know what are your strengths? What are you great at doing?

If you already know, good for you… post a comment below and share with us a couple of your strengths and how did you discover them?

It is very important to know one’s strengths and weaknesses in order to make the most impact that one can make and enjoy doing so. A specific task can be a frustrating burden to one and be a ‘walk in the park’ to the other. It all depends on whether the person utilizes his/her strength or weakness when doing a particular task.

Utilize your strengths and you will feel in peace with yourself and the career/job/task that you are doing. It’s much easier and enjoyable when you are ‘swimming with the current’.

Ignore your strengths by unknowingly using your weaknesses and you will feel lack of motivation combined with uneasiness when performing a specific task, going through another energy-draining day at your job or evaluating you career. It takes some energy to force yourself to ‘swim against the current’.

That’s an important choice to make…

Back in 2008 I took the Kolbe A™ Index assessment after Jermaine Griggs‘ recommendation and it was very helpful in discovering my conative strengths.

Recently, I got interested in the StrengthFinder assessment test after being introduced to the book by Harris Fellman. “StrengthsFinder 2.0″ by Tom Rath

There is another great book, which Alex Mandossian recommended on his blog – “Now, Discover Your Strengths” by Marcus Buckingham, Donald Clifton.

Long story short, I ended up buying all three books and took the StrengthsFinder Assessment:

“Strengths-Based Leadership” by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie

“Now, Discover Your Strengths” by Marcus Buckingham, Donald Clifton

“StrengthsFinder 2.0″ by Tom Rath

The first two books have a Unique Access Code to the Clifton StrengthsFinder Assessment And Website.

The last book has a Unique Access Code to the Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0 Assessment.

The results of the assessment are pretty amazing and I would recommend anybody serious about finding their strengths to take the assessment… well, you would buy the book to get the unique access code first.

This can easily save you from frustration and wasted time because when utilizing your strengths, you will invest your energy in the right place with the maximum appreciation (return on investment).

Here are my assessment results:

Executing: Restorative, Responsibility

Influencing: Activator

Relationship Building: Individualization, Connectedness

Below are the detailed descriptions if you want to know what those terms mean.

Show the Content

Restorative
By nature, you routinely acquire knowledge or skills when your aim is to deliver better outcomes. You have an abiding interest in fixing things that are broken. This probably inspires you to enroll in subjects that relate to your job or area of study. You usually are eager to apply your classroom experiences to real life situations. Because of your strengths, you usually share your ideas for making upgrades or improvements. You are likely to offer proposals to your colleagues, coworkers, classmates, team members, friends, neighbors, or family members. It’s very likely that you usually find better ways for people to cooperate. You normally identify the strengths, limitations, ideas, goals, or experiences each person brings to the group. You probably set up partnerships so these individuals can acquire the knowledge and skills they lack. Instinctively, you intentionally keep abreast of current events. You study areas of special interest to you either personally or professionally. You consistently acquire new information to make needed upgrades. You seek to understand things that most people do not comprehend. You want to make things better tomorrow than they were today. Chances are good that you are an individual performer. You usually are determined to conquer your limitations without the support and help of others. You probably are motivated to eliminate flaws that prevent you from accomplishing as much as you would
like.

Individualization
By nature, you take pains to uncover how and why things happen as they do. You share your discoveries with partners, teammates, and friends. You typically streamline your explanations. You cover only the essential facts. Most individuals can easily grasp what you say. Listeners probably appreciate you giving them less detail so they can understand the main points. It’s very likely that you adopt a much more favorable outlook on life when you can identify the conditions that produced various outcomes. You probably need to know why something did or did not happen. You are impelled to examine the details of many events, processes, programs, or mechanisms. Because of your strengths, you have the ability to tune in to each person’s unique situation. Instinctively, you can comprehend someone’s thoughts and feelings. As a result, you routinely help individuals feel optimistic about their current circumstances. Instinctively, you often marvel at your ability to sense the feelings and perspectives of other people. You feel very good about yourself and life in general when you put aside your opinions, biases, or preferences. Your satisfaction probably comes from figuring out why someone behaves, feels, or thinks differently than you do. Chances are good that you intuit — that is, know without conscious reasoning — how individuals with very different work styles or personalities can complement each other. Understandably, you reject
the idea of forcing everyone to rely on the same plans, methods, or resources to overcome obstacles. Often you search for ways people can use their talents to resolve issues. In the process, they are likely to move closer to worthwhile goals.

Connectedness
Chances are good that you continually seek wisdom from people with whom you have intelligent conversations. You not only listen but also share your thoughts. In the process, you are likely to move beyond concrete facts. Your curiosity draws you to speculate — that is, reflect or wonder — about theories, ideas, or concepts. To keep your mind fresh, you frequently quiz individuals who are equally fascinated with the intangible and abstract aspects of life. Driven by your talents, you routinely take time to listen to the philosophies of people. You prefer to associate with individuals who share your optimistic outlook on life. You undoubtedly avoid people who complain, gossip, or blame others for their endless misery. By nature, you choose to associate with people whose philosophical perspective gives them both balance and courage in the face of adversity. It’s very likely that you bring a much more optimistic perspective to life than many people do. Why? You feel closely linked to other members of the human family. Knowing you are not alone in your sufferings or joys fortifies you. Instinctively, you argue that hard work influences the course of your life more than anything else. You make your own good fortune by preparing yourself to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. Each time you are successful, you can outline exactly what you did to reach a goal. You link together facts, incidents, conversations, or available resources to understand your accomplishments. You resist the notion that life is nothing more than a game of chance.

Responsibility
Chances are good that you often argue that people should be held to the highest moral standards. You insist that those who break the law be required to accept the consequences of their deeds. You have little sympathy for people who are caught in the act of taking things that do not belong to them. By nature, you consistently work at assignments and chores to their conclusion. People have confidence that you will see whatever you do through to the very end. Instinctively, you conduct yourself in an exceptionally mature and orderly fashion even when your teammates, classmates, friends, coworkers, and colleagues are acting childish. It’s very likely that you automatically set out to do things right. As a result, you usually invent better ways to tackle assignments, studies, or chores. You are apt to make small yet necessary upgrades to enhance the efficiency and overall performance of various processes or individuals. Because of your strengths, you are happier with your own life when acquaintances or friends acknowledge your constructive behavior. They probably count on you to handle important as well as mundane tasks. Some automatically trust you. Why? They realize you are serious about meeting deadlines, keeping promises, and paying attention to details.

Activator
It’s very likely that you want to be in charge. As soon as you have made up your mind, you are eager to get started. People who interfere with your progress probably irritate you. By nature, you rarely avoid telling people about yourself, your experiences, or even your shortcomings. You reflect on what you should do better, more completely, or more perfectly. You are comfortable admitting all sorts of things about yourself. Driven by your talents, you probably feel jubilant about life when you can lead the charge, design the project, roll out the program, or rally people to work on a worthy cause. Instinctively, you like to make your own choices. Once you have settled on a goal, you are eager to reach it. By taking charge, you probably notice that various parts of your life become more interesting or satisfying. Chances are good that you typically take the lead. You seldom wait for orders or directions from people in positions of authority. You probably operate on the premise that it is better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission. Using this approach, you have delivered impressive results and reached important goals.

I will also post my results of the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment when I digest the results of the 1.0 version and take the 2.0 version.

Have you taken any strength finding assessment? Did it help you in anyway?

My Clifton StrengthsFinder 1.0 Assessment Results is a post from: Internet Marketing Strategist Narek Gabrielian

Cool Fade-In Popup For A WordPress Blog

Narek Gabrielian — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 06:46:22 +0000

Here’s a cool fade popup wordpress plugin you can use to put any message in front of your website visitors as soon as they land. It’s very simple to use and easy to setup. Most importantly, the popup is unblockable, which is really nice. I think it uses AJAX, that’s why it’s unblockable.

Once you install the plugin to your wordpress site, you just need to configure it really fast and off you go.

The plugin will ask you to put an answer of either YES or NO to determine which pages of your website to show this popup.

Here is what it looks like:

On Homepage: (YES/NO)

On Posts: (YES/NO)

On Pages: (YES/NO)

On Search: (YES/NO)

On Archives: (YES/NO)

Here is how Armand Morin uses it on his site:

You'll need to know some CSS to make it look nice like this.

You could even put an opt-in box with a message and build a list. But will probably need to know some HTML or CSS to make the opt-in box and possibly some bullets look nice and aligned. Well, if you cannot afford to get Popup Domination, then you could use this as a DIY version and figure it out. Even though it may sounds interesting for some to figure out on their own how to edit HTML and CSS to finally after hours of torture get it looking nice and working well, I would recommend getting a ready-made solution for a popup.

Use this free wordpress plugin simply for promotional messages and updates you want to convey to your website visitors.

It’s very precise too. You can specify which page or post to show the fade popup by placing this code: [PopUpFad=popup.html]

popup.html is the file you will find in the “wp-content/plugins/cool-fade-popup” folder and need to edit it. That’s going to be the content of your popup.

Get The FREE Plugin Here »

By the way, what’s the popup script of your choice? Any recommendations?

Cool Fade-In Popup For A WordPress Blog is a post from: Internet Marketing Strategist Narek Gabrielian

31 Secrets To Writing The Most Horrible Blog Post

You Are Just Practicing If…

Narek Gabrielian — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 05:56:26 +0000

… you are not keeping score.

That’s what Vince Lombardi said…

One more time:

If you’re not keeping score, you’re just practicing.

Vince Lombardi

This is not only true in basketball, but in almost anything we do.

Internet Marketing Casualty

ESPECIALLY… in business.

A wise person once told me this:

If you do business casually, you will become a casualty

… and he was referring to a specific business.

However, I would even put it this way:

If you do anything casually, you might become a casualty

Are you on your way to becoming an Internet marketing casualty?

One way you can prevent this is by tracking your marketing campaigns and everything you do in your business.

You Are Just Practicing If… is a post from: Internet Marketing Strategist Narek Gabrielian

6 Leadership Styles

Narek Gabrielian — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:22:28 +0000

I took “Foundations For Teams” class taught by Professor Kristin Behfar at the Paul Merage School of Business and while reviewing what I’ve learned so far, I want to share it with you on this blog.

By the way, I absolutely loved the class and think that Professor Behfar is such an amazing expert on organizational team management.

Go read more about Dr. Behfar and what she does here: The Secrets of High Performing Teams

Most of the concepts and information I’m going to talk about are from Professor Behfar’s material distributed in class, so she needs to get the credit. I’m just elaborating on what she has taught me.

Alright, let’s jump right into it…

Let’s first define what a leadership style is…

Leadership style is a pattern of behavior a leader adopts to plan, organize, motivate, and control.

Listening

Setting goals and standards

Developing action plans (short and long range)

Directing others

Giving feedback

Providing incentives

Style is a function of:

Personality characteristics (motives and values)

Observational learning (what other people have used)

The organizational value/culture system

The 6 Leadership Styles

1. Coercive

Demands immediate compliance.

2. Authoriatative

Mobilizes people toward a vision

3. Affiliative

Creates harmony & builds bonds

4. Democratic

Forges consensus through participation

5. Pace-Setting

Sets high standards for performance

6. Coaching

Develops people for the future

The most effective leaders have mastered multiple styles (at least 4), depending upon the situation:

Characteristics of the task
People involved
Situation to be managed
Correct use of power (leadership, culture, power, management tools)

These leaders have the best “climates” and best business results

(styles that positively affect “climate” have better financial results)

6 Leadership Styles is a post from: Internet Marketing Strategist Narek Gabrielian

Former IRS Attorney and Missing Children

Narek Gabrielian — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 04:32:32 +0000

It’s good when your business makes profit, but it’s even better if most of that profit stays in your pocket.

Have you heard that saying?

It’s not about how much you make, it’s about how much you keep.

Don’t know who said it, but I heard it from a very successful business man from whom I learned a lot about personal finance.

Sorry to disappoint you, but this post is not about him and what he taught me. Maybe some other time.

Lower Your Taxes – Big Time!

There is a book that you got to read if you want to reduce you taxes. Hopefully, you don’t want to be an average business owner with average knowledge about taxes.

The book is titled, “Lower Your Taxes – Big Time!” (Wealth-Building Tax Reduction Secrets from an IRS Insider)

The author of the book is a former IRS Attorney and Senior Tax Law Specialist, so you are going to learn from a credible source.

Remember to get the Completely Updated 2009-2010 Edition (or whichever year it is when you are reading this).

Internet Revenue Service

IRS Publications and Forms

Apart from reading the book, I was also told by a colleague to call IRS and request several of their publications.

These IRS Publications are free and tell you everything about different tax-related areas. By reading these publication you can learn and stay up to date.

You can access the below mentioned publications and forms by going to the IRS webiste, but I would recommend getting physical because it’s easier on your eyes.

Don’t worry, the publications are printed on recycled paper and on the back of each one there are photos of missing children.

Call 1-800-829-3676 and ask them to send you the following publications:

Publication 334: Tax Guide for Small Business
Publication 583: Starting a Business and Keeping Records
Publication 525: Taxable and Nontaxable Income
Publication 535: Business Expenses
Publication 587: Business Use of Your Home
Publication 463: Travel, Entertainment, Gift, and Car Expenses
Publication 970: Tax Benefits for Education (If you in college)

You can also request different forms.

For example, the 1099-MISC Form (Miscellaneous Income) used for reporting taxes if you are doing some kind of work as an independent contractor (not employee).

If you have never filled out any of these forms, for example, the 1099 Form, then ask the to also include “Instructions for Form 1099-MISC.” I suppose every from has it’s instructional material.

IRS and Affiliate Programs

Some affiliate programs such as Commission Junction (cj.com) and Share A Sale (shareasale.com) require you to send them a 1099 Form so that they can report the amount of your commissions to IRS.

By the way, if you have an affiliate program of your own, you can do the same thing by using a free service here: Pay People Online. They will collect all the necessary paperwork from your affiliates so that you can properly report to IRS how much you paid your affiliates.

Do Your Own Due Diligence

I am not an attorney or CPA (Certified Public Accountant, not Cost Per Action ), so whatever I just shared with you is just from my own experience. Therefore, you need to consult a lawyer or an accountant for a professional advice.

Former IRS Attorney and Missing Children is a post from: Internet Marketing Strategist Narek Gabrielian