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The endless summer
Work Your Way Around the World, $6 It’s many a graduate’s dream — pay your way as you travel around the world. I lived the dream myself when I was younger, so I know it is possible. Since then I’ve been tracking this subject faithfully, and have read through scores of books and websites offering how-to advice on the dream. They won’t hurt, but this fantastic book — now in its 14th edition! — is really the only one that will give you much help before you leave.
Most of these kind of books are a bunch of hand-waving generalities, or out of date particulars; this one is very specific and very current. It is massively researched, with tons of incoming gossip on where the easily-gotten jobs are this year, and what to do about paperwork and visas in that particular place, and how to land the job, and what you should expect, and letters from those who just did it. It’s all very helpful, practical and inspiring. But don’t get your hopes too high. There are really only two kinds of dependable quick jobs to be found “around the world”: 1) In the service industry in Europe — working at hotels, resorts, bars, camps for other tourists; and 2) teaching English in Asia. For most kids, that’ll be enough. There are hundreds of exceptions to these two, and this book will do its best to point you to them, but they are far fewer, and more dependent on chance. But even that skill — cultivating chance — is tackled with great intelligence in this meaty book, which I can’t recommend too much.
The author Susan Griffith is very prolific and at the center of a number of other related ongoing books, also recommended: Teaching English Abroad, Your Gap Year, and Summer Jobs Worldwide. – KK
How to sell your crafts
The Handmade Marketplace, $13 The giant crafts website Etsy makes it easy to list homemade stuff to a potential audience of millions. But the hard part is getting anyone to pay attention and actually buy it. That requires some basic business and online marketing skills, which are reviewed here, with the home crafter in mind. – KK
What best advice would you offer a crafter who is looking to gain national attention for their work? Invest in great product photography. Great work sells itself, so you need to do everything possible to make sure the beauty of your work comes through in a way that’s apparent to people reading about you online or in print because most people won’t see your work in person.
Are you getting some really great feedback about something in particular that you’ve made? Consider posting these compliments in the description of your item.
Keep these customer service practices in mind at all times: The customers may not always be right, but they do deserve your full attention and respect regarding the matter at hand. Apologize first. What if you didn’t do anything wrong? you may ask. Well, while that may be the case, that’s not really the point. You can, in fact, regret that your customer is upset in any regard. Simply recognizing that your buyer has a problem and has had to take the time out of a busy day to alert you to it is reason enough to apologize. Ask what will make the situation right. If what the customer wants is reasonable and you can do it, you should consider it. Taking a hit on a sale is a small price to pay when it comes to your overall reputation and the trust you are trying to build with your market.
Everyone is in sales
To Sell is Human, $16 Dan Pink argues that hard selling no longer works as it once did; what we need in this new information economy is soft selling. Soft sales are not just for sales people; everyone now is in the business of selling. Soft persuasion techniques are useful to anyone sending an email, writing a resume, doing a kickstart project, even twittering. A seller – either professional or citizen – can no longer rely on the old tactics such as “overcoming objections” and “closing an offer” but must shift to new skills such as improvisation, attunement, and service. Pink arrives at the radical idea that selling well makes us better humans, and better humans sell better. This book accomplished two things: it persuaded me that I am in sales, and it gave me some new tools for gently selling what I have to offer. – KK
Successful negotiators recommend that you should mimic the mannerisms of your negotiation partner to get a better deal. For example, when the other person rubs his/her face, you should, too. If he/she leans back or leans forward in the chair, you should, too. However, they say it is very important that you mimic subtly enough that the other person does not notice what you are doing, otherwise this technique completely backfires. Also, do not direct too much of your attention to the mimicking so you don’t lose focus on the outcome of the negotiation. Thus, you should find a happy medium of consistent but subtle mimicking that does not disrupt your focus.
After someone hears your pitch … 1. What do you want them to know? 2. What do you want them to feel? 3. What do you want them to do? If you’ve got strong answers to these three questions, the pitch will come together more easily.
One way to do better is with what I call “emotionally intelligent signage.” Most signs typically have two functions: They provide information to help people find their way or they announce rules. But emotionally intelligent signage goes deeper. It achieves those same ends by enlisting the principles of “make it personal” and “make it purposeful.” It tries to move others by expressing empathy with the person viewing the sign (that’s the personal part) or by triggering empathy in that person so she’ll understand the rationale behind the posted rule (that’s the purposeful part).
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Cool tools really work.
A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. All reviews on this site are written by readers who have actually used the tool and others like it. Items can be either old or new as long as they are wonderful. We post things we like and ignore the rest. Suggestions for tools much better than what is recommended here are always wanted.
The concept is brilliant: have one phone number you keep forever, and have all other phones in your life, as you upgrade, or move on, pass through your One Number. You give only that one number out for any cell phones, landlines, or internet phones you have. When someone calls it, you direct which of your phones it rings, and how. Oh, yeah and it is free. I’ve had a Google Voice number since the days when it was called Grand Central (before Google bought it), and it can do so much more than just funnel your numbers. Readers list the benefits. — KK
Things I love:
One number for everything. No more worrying about porting or losing numbers, or having to inform anyone of a change.
Managing contacts and phone numbers via Gmail. Easy and intuitive.
Being able to record different greetings for different contacts, and different contact groups. All my “work” calls get an official voicemail, and myfriends each have their own individualized voicemail that I can change when I want.
Texting through Chrome and the Chrome Voice extension is awesome.
Archiving text messages and voicemails, and having that history searchable by Google’s powerful search engine means never getting rid of a message ever. I like having a record of things from years past.
Making calls right from my desktop without ever having to pick up a phone. Also one-click calling from my Contacts list.
Free video-chatting with multiple parties (upcoming feature when Hangouts merges with Voice). — Logan LaVail
Sending and receiving text messages from Chrome. I text with my employees in the field all day long, and GV is invaluable for that.
Voicemail transcription. It’s only 80-90% accurate, but that’s enough to tell if a message is urgent.
Call screening. People I know and work with ring through, the rest have to identify themselves.
Carrier independence. I can drop my cell phone provider tomorrow and point Google Voice to a new number or numbers at any point. No porting necessary.
2 numbers at once. I moved to a new area but kept my old Google Voice number. No need to worry if people haven’t gotten my new number. — Aaron Weiss
I haven’t even bothered to memorize the numbers attached to my last several phones. At my last job I was given an iPhone, minutes after being handed the phone I was able to route calls going to the same old phone number that I had already been using for years.
Sending text messages from the browser and managing your texts,
Managing calls and voicemails just like email is hugely valuable.
I actually wish that Google would start charging for this service because I would be absolutely devastated if they discontinued it. — Steven Hudosh
Long live this neck saver! Hail to the hand-freer! I’ve been using a headset on my phone for a decade now, and I continue to be puzzled why everyone else doesn’t. A headset lets me make two-hour teleconferences without a bit of discomfort. Having to grip a phone for any length now feels unhealthy. Mine is a pretty typical set with one ear piece and a tiny boom microphone, that altogether weights a few ounces, if that. It takes no extra effort to slip it on when the phone beeps. My hands are completely liberated. With a comfy headset I can take notes, search for a paper, look up a number on my computer, or just stretch, without neck crinks, sore elbows, or squashed ears. You can choose from dozens of models including cordless sets, ear buds, ultralights, or cheapies. Radio Shack has a low end for cost $20 while Hello Direct has a complete selection of the fancy goods, and a line of headset accessories. I’ve seen some go for $6. A lot of people used to refuse them because they thought it made them look dorky, but I see more and more executives sporting them now, and with cellphones it’s become fashionable to have a set in your ear.
But because a headset is so much better for your health I wouldn’t be surprised if companies began to mandate headsets strictly for health reasons. Do your body a favor and use one. — KK
For the last seven years, I’ve used the Mini Recorder Control to document every ‘phoner’ I’ve done as a freelance writer. Like the Recorder Control from Radio Shack, it acts as the go-between for a land line headset and any recorder with a 1/8″ mic jack. However, this one’s about about half the price. Since it’s light and compact, mine is always with me in a little pouch stuffed with a notebook, pens and a Griffin iTalk Pro that allows me to record direct to my iPod. Over time, I’ve upgraded from a desktop dictation machine to a handheld mini-cassette recorder to two different versions of the Griffin. The only item in my “bag of tricks” that hasn’t become obsolete or pooped out is the Mini Recorder Control. Interestingly, I found many of my colleagues in journalism school had independently discovered this exact gadget. — Steven Leckart
No more hold music
Lucy Phone
Lucy Phone is a tool that has helped me deal with one of the annoyances of modern life: waiting on hold. From LucyPhone’s website you can look up the company or toll-free number you want to dial. LucyPhone acts like a conference call: it calls your phone and connects you to the company you wanted to dial.
At any point in the call when you’re placed on hold, you tap ** (star star) and LucyPhone takes over. You can hang up, and LucyPhone will call you back once an operator has picked up on the other end.
From the call operator’s perspective, once they take your call, they are played a brief message from LucyPhone while your number is being called. As soon as you pick up, you are connected to the operator.
The recommended help site GetHuman. com (p. 9) now integrates LucyPhone into their site so that the process is truly seamless, and you don’t even have to initiate the call.
The service is free for consumers. The only drawback I’ve noticed is that it only works for toll-free numbers, so you still have to do things the old fashioned way with companies with local only numbers.
I find LucyPhone much less stressful and annoying than my previous technique of putting the held call on speakerphone and hoping I didn’t leave the room at just the moment I came out of the hold queue. — Nicholas Hanna
Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.
