Squeeze Pack Solutions

While eating out of a nut butter squeeze pack a few weeks ago, I reached the point where I could not squeeze out any more—but I knew there was still plenty of almond butter stuck to the inside walls of the package. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I could cut the package open to extract the remaining goo. It was messy, but it worked.

Shortly thereafter, I reached the end of a toothpaste tube and thought, “I wonder if there’s toothpaste stuck to the insides of this packaging too?” I cut open the tube and retrieved three brushings worth of paste. It took me what… 40 years? to even notice this problem. The solution was easy.

Blinding Flashes of the Obvious

We all have moments where something happens, or someone makes a suggestion to us, and a light bulb goes off. Wow! That makes total sense! How did I not think of that? It was right in front of my face. How have I not done that already?

My ActionCOACH coaches call these sudden revelations “Blinding Flashes of the Obvious.”

When one of these ideas arises, I am surprised by it because I probably knew somewhere deep inside that I needed to do this thing, but it hadn’t risen to the surface as a priority. After an initial, “What have I been thinking?!” I get into action.

This past week, I attended The National Resume Writers’ Association annual conference, where I garnered several “blinding flashes of the obvious” from conversations I had with my colleagues. Here are my top two:

1. Create more than one LinkedIn profile Experience entry for my “job” at The Essay Expert.

You’d think that as a LinkedIn expert I would have maximized my LinkedIn SEO already. I tell other people all the time that if they held more than one position at a company, they should create more than one entry in order to include more keywords. But was I following this advice myself?

Nope. I was like the proverbial overweight, cigarette-smoking doctor. Yikes.

At The NRWA conference, a fellow resume writer showed me her LinkedIn profile to ask my opinion. She had eight (eight!!) entries for her current business, and she had stuffed keywords into every one. While I did not recommend that she use this tactic, and while I believe that “keyword stuffing” can backfire, I realized that with only one entry for my role in my business, I was missing out on a big opportunity to put more keywords into my own LinkedIn profile.

As of Sunday night, I have created separate sections in my profile for my position as an Executive Resume Writer, Executive LinkedIn Profile Writer, and College Admissions Essay Consultant. I am in disbelief that for the past eight years, I had been cramming all these roles into one LinkedIn Experience entry.

I am curious to see what happens with my profile views and inquiries for business now that I have followed my own advice!

2. Get texting capabilities to and from my business phone line.

For at least two years, texting has been the most popular form of communication used in this country. It would seem obvious that people would want to send texts to my business number. In fact, I’m sure many people have sent texts to my business number, thinking they were reaching me.

Until yesterday, those texts were going directly to nowhere.

Not only that, but when I wanted to send a text to a client, I had to do it through my personal cell phone. I did not like texting clients because then they would call me on my personal cell phone number, and I much prefer to keep that number, well, personal. I was avoiding texting because of this issue, despite the fact that my clients probably would have loved to text me.

Was I thinking of the most obvious solution to this problem? No. I was not prioritizing the issue, despite the fact that 95% of texts are read within 3 minutes, while only 12% of emails are opened. Enabling text was a no-brainer, and I apparently had no brain.

It took me until last week’s conference, at the suggestion of my brilliant colleague Robin Schlinger, to bite the bullet and enable texting capabilities on my business line. She mentioned that several executive clients had texted her with inquiries for her services, and that was enough to convince me to get on the texting bandwagon!

Now clients will be able to reach out to me via their preferred mode of communication, whether that is phone, email, or … text!! And I can easily send texts without revealing my personal number.

On a related note, I needed a better way to make calls from my cell phone that appeared to be coming from my business number. Purchasing texting capabilities led me to download the eVoice app, which solved that problem too. I had been wanting that kind of solution for years—getting the app was another blinding flash of the obvious!

In order to have the types of revelations I’ve been describing, we have to be paying attention, listening for good ideas (they could appear at any moment), and willing to take new action. Are you ready? Are there nagging problems in your life that you have been ignoring, not even giving them the time of day? Maybe they are more important than you think, and easier to fix than you think.

I challenge you to have a “blinding flash of the obvious” this week, and share below what it is!