Saturday, November 12, 2016

Villa 20Situated on a rocky shoreline on the island of Koh...





















Villa 20

Situated on a rocky shoreline on the island of Koh Samui, Villa 20 is a fabulous 5-bedroom oceanfront retreat, complete with all the pleasures of luxury island living.

Featuring a sleek, contemporary design, the property makes the most of its gorgeous setting with floor-to-ceiling windows and private terraces in all rooms. All spacious, light filled accommodations have a stylish, minimalist look and come with iPod docks, rain showers, and sexy, oversized bathtubs.

Villa 20′s open-plan kitchen and dining room are quite impressive, but the real highlight is the fabulous sunken living room, which seems to melt into the lustrous infinity-edge pool.

Why Unexpected Friendships Can Be The Best Ones

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Friends are important parts of our lives. They laugh with us, share their joy, make us feel better when we are down, brighten up our days, and offer genuine support and advice. When we are mature enough to become well-acquainted with our interests, we seek out to find friends who are alike, so that we could spend hours and hours talking about the same books, music or movies we like. We believe that those are the people that we would get along with since we have so much in common. But have you ever tried to step out of your comfort zone and get to know people that are different than you? There is something good in the unexpected – we can learn something new about ourselves and become a better person.

When fate brought together an illiterate prisoner and an encyclopedia editor

For some prisoners, being incarcerated brings about retrospection of their lives and a desire to change for the better. This is what happened to Robin Woods during his time in Maryland Correctional Institution. His desire to change led to quite unusual friendship with Mark Stevens.

Woods, growing up in a housing project in Cumberland, Maryland, never really learned how to read as a result of resentment towards authority figures. He decided to learn how to read during his time in prison, which brought Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia in his hands. During one of his reading sessions, he spotted a mistake, and he felt the need to inform the editor, Mark Stevens, even though he wasn’t sure his message will reach him.

To his surprise, Stevens responded, and thus this unbelievable friendship started with exchanging many letters and later phone calls. They finally met in person after almost a decade since the first letter. At their first meeting, Woods honestly said to Stevens “I never met you until today, but I love you very much. You’re a good man.” These two people have nothing in common at first sight, yet they found something good in each other – inspiration, support to stay on the right path, and a whole new perspective on life.

When the number one tech guy met the big-shot investor

When Bill Gates first met Warren Buffett in 1991, at the request of his mother, he hardly thought they would get along as he believed they have nothing in common, since Gates considered himself “a technology nerd” and Buffett as “a big-shot investor.” However, on their first encounter, they started talking and as the hours went by, Gates realized he was wrong: “We were suddenly lost in conversation and hours and hours slipped by. He didn’t come across as a big-shot investor. He had this modest way of talking about what he does.” This friendship still lasts to this day, as they constantly learn something new from each other, challenge each other and grow together.

The key is to step out of your comfort zone

You may think some relationships seem improbable, but that doesn’t mean that they cannot be great and full of love and respect. Meeting people who are nothing like you will open completely new horizons to you, and bring new perspectives to life, and many new benefits.  Break the pattern and step out of your comfort zone if you want to achieve personal growth. Be open-minded and try to experience new views. Although these kinds of friendships might not look as they will last for a long time, they are the ones that last for a life time since there is so much you can learn from each other. This can bring benefits not only to you, but to community as well, as we can see from the example of Emily Farmer (25) and McEwan Voorhees (100) who became friends as Emily decided to play the piano to elderly people at Heritage Place in Bountiful. They’ve become close friends and learned so much from each other.

Challenge yourself to do something new every day – travel to some new place alone, and try to make friends by walking up to complete strangers and starting random conversations. Or, make use of so many meeting apps out there. You would be surprised at how many great friendships you could start once you open yourself to the possibility of meeting people who seem to not share any of your interests. Try out activities you’ve never dared trying before and by pushing yourself further, you will meet new people that will challenge and push you even more to reach your full potential.

Featured photo credit: https://unsplash.com/ via images.unsplash.com

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Planning A Meeting? Check Out Webinar Platform Solutions For Your Business Needs

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First, let’s start with the question, what is a webinar?

Simply put, a webinar is a conference/ meeting/seminar carried out over the internet. A webinar is the very key when building a brand or business. It enables you engage with your audience and get feedbacks anywhere and anytime. Isn’t that cool?

ClickMeeting is an onsite platform to bridge the gap between you and your clients or prospects. You don’t have to worry about hosting a traditional meeting. It saves you a lot of time and money if you are running a small business or a large company, and you have everything you need. With ClickMeeting, your webinar can be done at the comfort of your home and it is not expensive as against the belief of most people.

There are various ways to run a webinar. For example, other webinar providers install a software on your system and this comes with a lot of problems and issues. But since Clickmeeting is an Onsite platform, this makes it very convenient for you to use and with its highly functional website which enables you to navigate, manage your audience and also access amazing features and flexibility.

The website is also integrated with quite a number of web apps ranging from Flickr, Slack, YouTube, SalesForce, Google Calendar, Office 365, and lots more which makes what you can do it with it endless whether you want to use it for sales, training, marketing, or education.

Getting Started

For a starter, using a webinar might be a little bit confusing. ClickMeeting is very easy to use and you get a tour, instructions and steps all the way.

From the main dashboard, you can access the navigation menu at the top where the schedule link is located and also get to access the green arrows that point areas of interests. You can schedule your events which make it a very good tool for organizing the meeting. You can also customize your interface whereby you can change the theme color of your webinar, skin and also add your company’s logo.

Inviting Your Audience

You can invite your audience by sending a branded and customized email, then ask them to fill a form to join the meeting or just send them a direct link. The former is preferable when you need the details of your audience while the latter is most preferred if you are engaging a large number of audience and you do not necessarily need their information.

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Starting the Webinar

During the event, set up your camera and microphone if necessary. Thereafter, it allows you to create a waiting room that can display information about your business, company or documentary, this is done, so as to prevent your audience from boredom.

They can also get the highlights or agenda of the meeting from a short clip you display. Make sure you provide the most value you can, give them case studies, your achievements and your expertise too.

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Moderating the Webinar

You can make use of a PowerPoint deck or just you in display talking. The interface is also powered for major browsers and also you have access to a live whiteboard where you can draw, type and write. Participants can raise their hands up in agreement or in disagreement to a discussion.

ClickMeeting is so unique, you can run surveys on your audience and also displaying the results at the same time for them. This creates a room for feedbacks and makes it effective communication tool. For the live videos you can enable or disable the voice and video, translation in various languages is possible and you can also have multiple presenters where you can create accounts for your other staffs and then they log in with their own credentials and then contribute.

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Feedbacks and Closing

After your meeting, it gets the stats and analytics and then gives you the access such as the response of the attendees, devices used, interesting sections, the recorded session, number of attendees, and so much more.

You can also rate the performance so as to improve the webinar. Sharing the session on the YouTube is also very possible, follow up emails can also be sent to them, to thank them for participating, this on its own creates a brand loyalty.

Choose any Plan that Suits your Requirement

ClickMeeting is very cost effective. They have different plans and pricing options. The basic plan allows access to 4 video streams and 4 hours’ worth of recording, allows 2 presenters, recommended for attendees between 25 and 100. The Pro Plan gives access to 4 video streams and 6 hours’ worth of recording, allows 4 presenters, recommended for attendees between 50 and 500.

There is also an Enterprise Plan for large events, it can allow between 500 to 5,000 attendees and access to a highly customizable interface with add-ons and support. You get free access for 30 days to try its features and all you require to do this is just your email address.

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7 Effortless Ways to Earning Money Online

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Are you looking for the easy ways to make money online? Then you’ve come to the right place! For a few years now, making money over the internet has been a hot topic. However, we all see the new ways of achieving those goals tend to pop up every day due to the ever-changing nature of the Web.

Here, I’ve compiled a list of easier and efficient ways that you can use to generate high incomes, and you won’t get caught off guard. Just have a look and choose from the list that best suits your taste.

1) Make Money With Affiliate/Referral Programs

As a matter of fact, the concept of affiliate marketing is becoming healthy for a few years now. When it comes to the affiliate or referral marketing program, it works on a concept of ‘you scratch my back, and I will scratch yours.’ It means that you can start selling someone else’s product or service or pass on traffic to that particular product or service.

Just spread the word by writing quality posts about it, adding a banner on your blog and highlighting it on social media platforms.

2) Make Money With On-Site SEO

Just know that if you aren’t ranking for the genuine reasons, link building won’t benefit you by any means. You have to invest time in keyword research because it’s significant to know what terms people use to search your product.

After that, go for internal link building and content (on-page) to match those keywords. It’s a fact that investing heavily in keyword research and optimization will pay the highest dividends ever along with the landing of quality traffic to your site.

3) Make Money With YouTube Videos

Making money on YouTube entirely depends on the level of people’s engagement with the advertisement. Here I refer to engagement as ‘ to click or watch a video for 30 seconds.’ As a matter of fact, the Adwords platform manages the YouTube advertising. For this, advertisers must have to select from a CPC (Cost Per Click) or CPV (Cost Per Video) model.

4) Make Money By Getting Links From Other Companies

A lot of businesses have a ‘retailers’  or ‘where to buy’ tab on their sites. You can ask them to add you to that list. But before that, just make sure that your site is up to the mark regarding design and quality. This way, you’ll have the option to get some testimonials on your site, which will ultimately increase the trust level of the company and show that you’re a reliable source of customers.

5) Make Money With Email Marketing

It’s somewhat easier to induce the existing prospect to buy your product rather than by selling it to the new one. If you’ve developed good relationships with the existing customers and the trust is already established then you can drive sales in a matter of days. Just take out the list of buyer addresses and there you go!

6) Make Money By Participating In Forums

Forums can be a good place to get engaged with your target audiences. Let’s say your niche has a lot of active forums. Just get involved in them and earn higher dividends in the short run. Always remember that ‘Nobody cares about your business except you.”

7) Make Money With Social Media

Nowadays, social media platforms are the greatest source of spreading a message and developing a fan base. However, if you want to drive more sales in shorter time span, it’s better to spend your time in long-term marketing techniques to enhance SEO rankings.

Modern-day businesses are using such tactics to make money online and are become more social media oriented to earn a lot. If you are a small business or a freelancer, make sure you adapt social media effectively and use any of the methods described above to generate extra income for yourself.

Featured photo credit: CultureIQ via cultureiq.com

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8 Simple Tips for a Beautiful and Healthy Hair

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Our hair is closely related to the nervous system and mainly composed of muscles, tissue, keratin, oils, proteins and silicon. Although, hair has biological functions that cause the body to “feel” and stabilize magnetically. However, to have a perfect hair you need to constantly provide different care because unfortunately our hair is exposed to many factors that can weaken and damage it.

There are many natural and easy ways to protect our hair to look beautiful, soft and with a spectacular shine.

Here are some simple tips on what you need to do to keep your hair super healthy.

1. Apply UV Protection

UV rays can damage not only the skin but can also ruin your hair if you do not protect them. Frequent exposure to UV rays and excessive heat will make our scalp dry and as a result, our hair loses shine and deteriorate in health with each passing day. Also, frequent exposure to the sun will make our hair to weaken and slow their growth.  Ideally, to prevent this type of damage is to reduce the exposure to heat by using UV protectors, scarf, and other hair covers.

2. Apply Hair Mask Once A Month

The monthly application of a good hair mask will give your hair nourishment and protection. For best results, choose a suitable mask for your hair type.

3. Never Use Hot Water

The use of hot water weakens our scalp, making it look dry and dull. But cold water or lukewarm water is very healthy for our hair because it seals the hair cuticles, which makes it shiny and silky. Obviously, we are not saying that you should rinse with cold water; but rinsing with moderately cold or lukewarm water will keep our hair healthy.

 4. Brush Your Hair Every Day

Brushing your hair every day and several times will stimulate blood circulation in the scalp, which makes our hair grow healthier. If you want a smooth and long hair, then it’s time to become an ally of combs and brush your hair two or three times a day.

5. Protect Your Hair While You Sleep

Pillowcases and cotton are great for the skin, but not for hair care, because they can dry the hair. Opt for a silk or satin sheath or wrap your head with a silk scarf before bed.

6. Alternate Hairstyles

Combing hair too tight can cause the fibers to break. Alternating between different hairstyles, high and low could really make the difference in keeping your hair healthy.

7. Dry Your Hair Carefully With a Towel

Avoid rubbing your hair when dry, It is preferable to wrap it with a towel while the towel soaks out the water from your hair. This method will simply save your hair from been rough handled during scrubbing with a towel which can result in breakage.

Afterwards, comb your hair easily, begin at the tip not by the roots, while using a wide-tooth comb. Then apply conditioner after each wash.

8. Maintain A Healthy Diet

Diet plays a very important role in the health of our hair, because the nutrient that gives us food, are also vital for the good health of our hair. The basic thing is to increase the consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts, dairy products, fish, and drink a lot of water a day. This will keep your hair strong and shiny.

Keeping a healthy hair is not limited to using chemicals and other elements. No wonder, blow dry bar and hair professionals  always emphasize that the more disciplined you are about looking after your hair the healthier, shining and good looking your hair will reward you while also responding well to more extreme styling when you need it for those formal occasions.

Featured photo credit: Pixabay via pixabay.com

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How to Set Goals Like Katie Ledecky

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This past summer Katie Ledecky showed the world that she is better at swimming than the rest of us are at pretty much anything.

She thoroughly cleaned up in Rio, winning four gold medals—three of them individual—and a silver. Her 400 and 800m freestyle wins were devastating, with her margin of victory in the latter a staggering 11-plus seconds. She swept the 200-400-800m freestyles, something that hadn’t been done since 1968, displaying a once-in-a-generation range of speed and ability.

She’s now a two time Olympian, kicked an American Ninja Warrior’s butt at a made-up game on Ellen, and tossed a heater when she threw the first pitch at a Washington Nationals game.

And did we also mention that she’s only nineteen years old?

Here are some goal setting tips us mortals can pick up from the greatest active swimmer on the planet:

Keep them visible.

Thinking and dreaming about our goals is easy. Everyone does that. If you are even mildly serious about crushing your goal, jotting it down and having it in sight is almost mandatory.

After all, something changes when you take literally five seconds to write down your goal. It becomes a little more real.

When Ledecky and her coach Bruce Gemmell sat down after the 2013 FINA World Championships, where she rocked the world records in the 800m and 1500m freestyles, they discussed what was possible over the next three years leading into Rio. They decided on two goal times: 3:56 for the 400m freestyle, and 8:05 for the 800m freestyle.

Even though they kept the goals to themselves as they prepared for the Olympics, the goals she had set were never far—she had written “565” to signify her two goal times on her pull buoy. Every day during her swimming workouts, during the long 8,000-9,000-yard training sessions with a nearly endless number of flip turns, those three little numbers were there waiting for her, motivating her, reminding her of the purpose of all the work.

And how did she do in Rio? She pretty much nailed her goals right over the head, swimming a 3:56.46 in the 400m freestyle, and 8:04.79 in the 800m freestyle.

Be willing and ready to fail.

The word failure carries with it so much negative baggage that the moment we slip up, fail, or otherwise disappoint ourselves we quit. We tell ourselves, “Ah, we didn’t really want it that bad” and move on to the next thing, never giving our goals a fair and consistent effort.

Which is too bad, because without the ability to brave the initial hurdles and resistance we can never truly improve or advance towards the hard and rewarding things we want from life.

One of Ledecky’s strengths is her willingness to fail in practice, to see past the initial struggle and keep at it. In Angela Duckworth’s book Grit, her coach related just how serious Ledecky was when it came to being willing to fail:

“There are days she fails catastrophically,” he said. “She fails in practice more than anybody in her [training] group, because she’ll start out like, ‘This is the pace I need to swim in the race, so I need to replicate it in practice.’ And she’ll go six repeats like that, and the tank goes empty and she just falls off. But you know what? She’ll come back the next day and try it again. And on the third day, she’ll nail it. And she’s been doing this since the first day I walked on the deck with her.”

Nobody likes failing at something or not being good at something the first time out. Being willing to fail is not about getting comfortable losing or sucking—it’s using the rage and frustration from not nailing it the first time to get the hang of it in future attempts.

Surround yourself with people who will bring out the best in you.

If you looked at the people you keep in your circle, would you say that they are inspiring bigger and better things out of you, or are they encouraging mediocrity and the status quo?

When you hang out with people who are doing the things you want to do it’s inevitable that their influence will help push and propel you upwards.

Ledecky, having outpaced the female swimmers on her team, trained predominantly with male swimmers in the lead up to Rio. During altitude camps at the United States Olympic Training Center, she would go head to head with male swimmers on the national team and routinely “break” them.

One of the male swimmers that Ledecky “broke” included Conor Dwyer, who is no slouch himself in the middle distance swimming events—he placed 4th in the 400m freestyle in Rio and won a bronze in the 200m freestyle.

By surrounding herself with swimmers who were faster than her she rode their wake towards faster swimming, elevating her to times and records that are so far and above the competition it’s ridiculous.

Meet and Exceed Your Goals

Whatever your goals are—whether it be learning how to swim faster freestyle, or get that promotion at work, or get in better shape—there are lessons that the top swimmer on the planet can teach you.

Write out your goals and keep them in sight. Be ready to fight back against those first few moments of difficulty. And surround yourself with people who will push you upwards.

Featured photo credit: Flickr via flickr.com

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6 Traits to Become a Respected Leader

leadership

Leadership is a quality that many employers want and many applicants lack. It is not something that can be easily learned, studied, or memorized. Rather, it is an attitude and a way of looking at life. To learn to become a leader involves changing the way you think, not just the way you act. There are also some people that are born with certain traits, both physical and mental, that make them more natural leaders.

While some people do have a much easier go of it, however, anyone can become a good leader. The best time to start, as with anything, is while still young. Here are seven traits that leaders tend to have.

1. Communication

Leaders tend to communicate extremely well. Whether they are communicating on a one-on-one basis or with a large groups or crowds, they do it well. Part of this is being able to connect with people on an emotional level. Convincing someone to follow you is much easier if they feel some sort of emotional connection to you. Additionally a leader should learn to speak clearly and with confidence. They should know how to present their thought process in a logical way that makes sense to others. There are lots of ways to improve your communication skills that can be found online.

2. Caring

Many people do not think of this attribute when thinking of a great leader, but it is extremely important. People follow leaders willingly because they think they will improve their life in some way. If others can tell that you care, they are often willing to look past shortcomings and follow you. If you really do not care, it is extremely hard to fake for long periods of time, and people will eventually figure you out.

3. Knowledge

Nothing will erode a leader’s ability to lead more effectively than a lack of knowledge. If those in your group or organization can sense that they know more than you, they will quickly lose their trust in you. This can be one of the hardest traits to develop because there is an infinite amount of things to know. However, whether it is fair or not, people often expect their leaders to have all the answers. There are lots of great ways to build up your knowledge throughout your life. Because this will take time though, it is something that should always be happening.

4. Height

This one is simply not fair, but it is a fact. People that are taller tend to be given leadership responsibilities more often. They also tend to be paid higher and trusted more with important issues. While you will not be able to make major changes to your height, there are actually ways to grow taller. Even if none of those ways work you can improve your physique and still fare well. People also tend to look up to those that are well built and have a healthy body.

5. Confidence

For some people this will be the easiest thing to develop, and others would rather try to grow a foot taller. Confidence is a fickle thing that can, and often is, faked. The phrase is often said “fake it till you make it”, and that can easily apply to confidence. Many of the most confident and successful people have come out and talked about a lack of confidence in their childhood. If you struggle with confidence, there are definitely ways to boost that confidence. You will also find that as some of the other traits mentioned grow, your confidence will naturally grow with them.

6. Honesty

Few things will ruin a leader as fast as a lie. A great leader can fall by telling one simple lie, even if they thought they were doing it for the right reasons. It is always hard to gain someone’s trust after being caught in a lie, but it is especially hard for leaders. Make the decision now that you will always be honest with those you lead. This is one that can and should be done starting on day one.

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