Everyone always talks about goals. What they are, how you can reach them, better and faster ways to get there, and of course, exceeding them. Being a huge fan of streamlining, I’ve come up with sort of a “Master Goals List” (MGL), that if followed, should put all your goals, every day, into an easy to follow checklist that you can review at the end of each day, in your head. 1) Have I helped someone today? There’s no doubt that helping people benefits you, your karma, and possibly just as important, your bottom line. Being able to help people is hands down, one of the best ways of improving your own life in all facets. 2) Have I made [...]

According to various media outlets, on Wednesday, November 24th, a bunch of misguided idiots are attempting to get people who, on average, fly twice a year, to participate in something called “National Opt-Out Day,” wherein they’d like all of these twice-a-year travelers to refuse the Backscatter technology TSA scanners at the airports, and instead, ask for pat-downs. The flawed logic of these massively misguided protest organizers is that if everyone does it, it’ll slow down security lines across the country, resulting in massive flight delays, and “will show the government that we object.” Holy crap on a stick, the end of days is coming – I’m actually leaning towards siding with the TSA on this one. Sort of. First off, [...]

I got an email from someone two days ago from the shankman.com contact page – and true to what I preach, I responded – Me – no one else. (Took me a day, but I did.) This person simply asked, “How do you cultivate the seemingly endless energy you have to constantly meet new people and grow your network like you say you do?” I thought about it for a while – And it bothered me – Because I couldn’t come up with an answer immediately – I don’t think I’m full of energy – Quite the opposite – I see myself as constantly tired. As much business travel as I do, always up early for training for this stupid [...]

Last week I tweeted that I’d come up with the perfect challenge for myself for September. So here it is. I’m going to try and go the entire month without using Mass Transit, Taxicabs, or car services within the five boroughs AT ALL. In other words, I’m going to become a pure, 100% walker. I live all the way on one side of Manhattan. (The West side. The good side.) Anyway… There’s a bus that stops right in front of my apartment, and makes it incredibly easy to get to the middle of the city, where I can grab any subway I want. While this is easy, it also lets me leave at like, 7:40 for an 8am meeting downtown, [...]

Conference season is upon us! It’s been a fun, relaxing summer, but welcome back to hell! With more conferences than ever before from which to choose (don’t these guys know we’re supposedly in a recession?) here are eight easy tips to help navigate the ones you do choose to attend. 1) Networking starts LONG before you get there. The second you register, use the beauty of social media to let the world know, and find new people who are going as well. Ask them if there’s a hashtag, then use it. You want to have at least ten new people you plan to meet over the course of the conference before you go to the conference. The rest of the [...]