Men's LifeStyle Blog

Managing remote teams can be extremely difficult, especially for leaders without remote experience. However difficult it may be, it is becoming increasingly necessary.

Not only has COVID led to an increase in work-from-home jobs, but workers are becoming much more insistent that their jobs be done remotely when possible. To help you gain remote team management skills, we’ve talked with Koen Vanpraet.

Koen Vanpraet is a business leader and business management consultant and one of the most respected consultants in the industry, and he’s agreed to share some pro tips with you!

Tech is your Friend

Software like Slack and Trello make working with remote teams much easier. These are just two of the many software services available to remote businesses that Koen Vanpraet recommends.

He also believes that as the years roll by and as remote work becomes more prominent, we will see more remote tools pop up, so it is important to always be on the lookout for new tech that will make remote teams easier to manage and more productive.

You MUST Communicate Properly

Koen Vanpraet attributes his love for strong communication to Gary Vaynerchuk and Simon Sinek’s books. He believes that communication’s importance is only amplified remotely. 

There’s no way to come in and check on a team member like you’d be able to do in person. This means you have to master being able to communicate your expectations clearly so that your team members know what they are expected to do and in what time frame. 

It is also extremely important to be able to listen to your team members and their concerns. Koen Vanpraet says one of the biggest mistakes he sees remote managers make is that they do not give proper feedback and instead just pump out assignments one after another.

Remember you’re Managing People

Playing off the last point, it is important not to forget the person on the other side of the screen. Just like your in-person team, every remote worker has their own strengths and weaknesses and will respond to different types of managerial styles. 

Get to know your team members, and do not work them too hard just because you cannot see the stress that they are under. 

Flexibility is Appreciated

One of the main benefits of remote work is that it is much more flexible than in-person work. There is no office to come into, and depending on the work being done, team members may not even need to work at the same time. 

This is fantastic and an excellent opportunity to allow your team to be more productive, according to Koen Vanpraet, since some people work much better during the night while others work great during the day. Some people can work for 8 hours straight, while others work better in short bursts. 

If it is possible, Koen Vanpraet recommends allowing flexibility in schedules for your team members. Let them work when and how they are the most productive, as long as they still meet deadlines and get the work done. Of course, this isn’t possible in every business, and it’s up to you to decide whether you can make flexible hours work.

Remote Doesn’t mean Isolation

Finally, just because everyone is working from home doesn’t mean they have to be socially distant from each other. Promote discussion, host virtual pirates, etc. 

It can be as simple as posting a daily question in a group chat and letting your team members discuss and relate to each other’s interests.

They say that women become mothers the minute that they become pregnant. For dads, it can be a much different process. Many men may find themselves wondering if they’re ready to be a father at all. If you find yourself asking questions about how prepared you are for fatherhood, then here are some of the most telltale signs that you are, in fact, ready to take on the role.

You Understand Your Responsibility

Becoming a dad is not a temporary job. It’s something that you bear for the rest of your life, and your child’s life. It’s important that you understand that if you and the child’s mother are no longer together again, you’ll still be in charge of paying child support and ensuring that your child is well looked after. If you’re willing to take on this responsibility for the long haul, then it’s a good indication that you are mature enough.

You Are Good With Kids

Some people just don’t have the patience that it takes to deal with children. They cry, they wiggle, and they are known for breaking things on occasion. If you’re someone that has the patience to be able to put up with potentially frustrating moments, and you enjoy children’s company, then you may just make a great dad!

You and Your Partner Want the Same Things

While not all relationships end up working out forever, and you can’t always see the future, before you make a baby with someone you should make sure that your relationship is at a stable point.  You should have the same priorities in life, and ensure you’re both thinking about the future. If you don’t like thinking about what will happen beyond this afternoon, but your partner loves planning six months in advance, then this is not a good sign for becoming parents together.

Your Finances are in Order

Newsflash! Children are expensive.  Before you bring a child into the world you should make sure that you are financially stable and to be able to care for the child. So, if you have a steady job, and you feel like you can support a family other than just yourself, that’s a good indication that you’d make a good parent. Although it’s not impossible to raise a child successfully without a six-figure paycheck, it certainly helps.  It’s reassuring to know that you can put food on the table and be able to care for them without having to wonder where your next paycheck is coming from.Ultimately, only you know if you’re ready to have a child. Even if you tick all these boxes, and you still don’t feel like it’s something you’re ready for in your life, then listen to your instinct. Ultimately, when the time comes for being a dad, you’ll know!

Marketing analytics have come a long way in the last few years. Thanks to machine learning and web frameworks with built-in analytic widgets, any business can get detailed analytics on who is using their product and consuming their ads. 

However, just because you have the analytics, doesn’t mean you know how to use them. There is a lot of work that goes into reading, understanding, and presenting analytics in a way that you know how to take advantage of them. 

Analytic and marketing experts are still working tirelessly every day to optimize marketing analytics for businesses. Experts like Christopher de Diego, who has been leading the industry in marketing strategy and analysis. 

I actually had a chance to talk with Christopher de Diego, and I asked him what businesses and entrepreneurs can learn from analytics and to explain just how worthy of investment they are. 

Your Target Audience

One of the main reasons that businesses use marketing analytics is because they are a great way to figure out who your target audience is. Christopher de Diego told me just how specific these analytics can be. 

You can figure out the gender, ethnicity, location, and just about anything else about your target audience. While it was viable to target everyone under the sun in the past, nowadays, businesses strongly prefer to target specific groups of people. This has been proven to be much more profitable and net a much higher ROI. 

Your Non-Audience

Christopher de Diego actually emphasized the importance of knowing who you shouldn’t market towards. The reason is that you can save a lot of money by dropping your marketing towards these people entirely.

If your lifetime profit from a specific customer will return less money than you invested in getting them, then you will lose a lot of money. Analytics help show who you’re not going to convert, no matter how much money you invest in trying to convince them to come in. 

Conversions

According to Christopher de Diego, analytics can tell you a lot more than who’s checking out your product. They can actually tell you who sees your marketing and actually convert it to a sale. 

Conversions, of course, can be more than just sales. Analytics can tell you whether your ads are leading to people subscribing to your newsletter/website and whether those subscriptions are leading to sales down the line. 

This will give you a roadmap of how you should structure your business and marketing strategy. 

A/B Testing Results

Christopher de Diego went into detail about A/B testing and its benefits. A/B testing is the practice of creating two versions of something and deploying them both, whether you’re making two homepages, two Calls to Action, or two product descriptions. 

Next, analytics will help you understand which page had more conversions to sales or subscriptions whenever a customer goes to the page. There are many services for obtaining and analyzing A/B testing results. 

Many of them require some computer knowledge, but if you have web development skills or someone on your team who does, it will just take some effort. According to Christopher de Diego, the effort and time are well worth it. 

You Might Also Like: Level Up: Chris de Diego Shares Why Customer Success Is Crucial To SaaS Businesses | Hawaii Weekly

In the past, it was quite common for men to simply allow their body hair to grow out of control, however, that is no longer considered acceptable. Men today find that it is more important than ever to keep up with regular grooming. Men are expected to groom their body and facial hair. We live in an age, where men are expected to fully understand “manscaping”. This is done for a number of reasons. Most of their partners not only want it, but they expect it. If you are planning to start the process, it is going to be essential to have the right tools for the job. You do not want to use the wrong tools for hair removal for men’s privates or you may end up with some dire consequences. Let’s take a look at some of the more essential tools you will want to have in your arsenal if you plan to groom your personal region.

What You Should Never Do

Waxing

This is one of the most essential things you never want to do “down there”. This can not be said with enough emphasis, never, ever place wax on your balls. While it may seem like this would be the best way for hair removal for men’s privates, it is the worst idea that ever crossed your mind. Not only is this going to hurt like yesterday’s bananas, it is literally going to strip the skin off your balls. You have to understand that the skin on your scrotum is very thin. Because of this, ripping the hair off your balls is going to hurt in a very severe manner. While it will be quite effective at ripping all of the hair off, it is going to take some skin along for the ride. With that in mind, it is a much better idea to choose a body hair trimmer for men. This is not only going to be the easiest but safest way to remove unwanted hair without the fear of harming your precious guys.

Using A Trimmer For Body That Was Designed For The Face

While it would seem to be a good idea to save a few dollars and use the same trimmer for hair removal for men’s privates that you use for your beard, it is not wise. There are a number of reasons that this is just bad news. First and foremost, it is designed for your face, not your balls. This means that it is not going to have the additional safeguards attached to it as products designed for balls. Secondly, it is not a generally good idea to mix products designed for the face and private parts. This is not going to be sanitary, but in all honesty, it is simply not good hygiene.

Essential Tips For Proper Manscaping

Using The Right Body Hair Trimmer For Men

One of the first things you will need is the proper body hair trimmer for men. You want to have a hair trimmer that is designed for those delicate parts of your body. One of the last things you will want to do is use a beard trimmer near and around your penis and testicles. Consider that a beard trimmer is designed to pass through thick beards. These are not designed to work on the sensitive skin on your balls and that general area. This is where skin is going to be the thinnest on your body. You need to ensure that you are using something that is specifically designed for hair removal for men’s privates. Additionally, you want a tool that is going to be used on that area alone to ensure you are not spreading bacteria to and around your face. You do not want to use the same trimmer for both areas as you run the risk of spreading something from one part of the body to the other.

Shower Gels

When you are shaving, you always want to use some form of shower gel. It does not matter if you are shaving your face, legs, or private areas. The shower gel is designed to offer you more hydration, where you will need it the most. This also helps to calm any inflammation that is caused by shaving and is going to leave you smelling better down there. Typically, if you are going through the trouble of grooming that specific area of your body, you are likely doing it to make things more enjoyable for your partner. By using a shower gel, you are ensuring that it is smelling fresh.

Moisturizing Is Key

One of the most important aspects to remember after shaving your balls is to fully moisturize the area. Likewise, you want to use the right shower gel prior to shaving them. However, moisturizer is a key element after the fact. Adding lotion to your balls is going to add much needed hydration to the skin. Your skin is going to become irritated after shaving. When you resupply that area with moisture, you manage to keep your balls from getting too dry.

As you can see, there are a number of ways to get rid of excess hair from your pelvic region. You will want to keep in mind some of these tips to ensure you get rid of it safely and effectively. The most important thing to remember is you use the right body hair trimmer for men that is made just for your balls, like those that are available at Ball.co This trimmer is designed to give your optimal shaves without the fear of snags, cuts, and pulls. In fact, they have some of the best trimmers on the market for that specific area of your body.

An ETF, otherwise known as an exchange-traded fund, is a type of stock that pretty much acts as a group of stocks. There are many benefits to buying ETFs over individual stocks, and many people will opt to have both in their portfolios.

There are a lot of things investors should know about ETFs, and only an expert could truly explain them all. Luckily, I happen to know an expert! I talked with Roger Scott, the head trader of WealthPress, and asked him to explain everything an investor should know about ETFs.

He agreed, so now I’m going to share exactly what Roger Scott had to say!

What is an ETF

Roger Scott dumbed down ETFs for me so that I can give you a quick summary. Pretty much an ETF is a stock that you can buy, but you’re not buying the stock of an individual company. Instead, you’re buying a stock that represents small stakes in many companies.

ETFs can hold various percentages of many companies. Most ETFs will have a specific industry or product that it is targeting. For example, there is an ETF for social media stocks; there’s one for tech in general, ai ETFs, etc. There’s an ETF for pretty much anything you can think of.

Much Safer than Stocks

One of the main benefits of an ETF is that it is a lot safer than regular stocks. If you buy a business’s stock and it performs poorly, your investment will lose money.

Now, if you buy an ETF that holds many different businesses, and one of them does poorly, your ETF will not necessarily go down. It may even go up if another stock in the ETF performs well. Roger Scott highly recommends ETFs to people that want to invest but do not have the time to research and do their due diligence for individual stocks.

Less Risk, Less Reward

Roger Scott emphasized that while ETFs are less risky than stocks, they will also yield fewer rewards when a stock does well. If you were to invest in Apple, for example, and Apple’s stock skyrocketed, you would see fantastic gains.

On the other hand, if you were to invest in an ETF that held Apple and another company that wasn’t performing so well, then your profits would not be as high because the other company would be holding your ETF down.

Long Term Holds

When it comes to ETFs, Roger Scott is a believer in the old phrase, “Time in the market beats timing the market.” ETFs are fantastic for long-term, low-maintenance portfolios, which is why so many people rely on them for their retirement accounts.

ETFs are not something most people will buy and expect a huge boom within the year. They are something you buy when you believe in the industry or market you’re buying into and think it will increase over a few decades.

Not Full-Proof

Finally, like most professional traders and investors, Roger Scott believes a diverse portfolio is the way to go. ETFs can tank just like any other stock on the market.

Once its bubble pops, you can still lose money buying an over-inflated ETF. So it’s important to do research still and listen to professionals. A balanced portfolio will have both ETFs and stocks in it.

Have you ever thought about what makes you feel comfortable in your clothes? Talk to enough people about this and you will begin to see patterns that reveal unique likes and needs. And underneath their attraction to a certain type or style of clothing, people look for authenticity.

Identifying the right clothing qualities leads to a sense of fulfillment. If you’ve ever wondered whether there is psychology involved in style, this is it.

Finding Comfortable Clothes That Fit You

How do you define comfort? There is a good chance that it would be different than how your colleagues would define comfort. But your personal definition of comfort is one of the ways in which you seek out comfort in clothes. For instance, many prefer the comfort of loose-fitting clothing because they don’t want to feel confined.

Choosing the Right Undergarments

Undergarments are not always comfortable - and most of them only address our anatomy. Consider a client that never wore bras. She was a lesbian and not wearing bras made sense for her. She was not denying that she had breasts, the bra felt all wrong to her. The mere idea of bras can be confining and constricting to the very core of her being. So, instead, she wore a very fitted Hanro ribbed men’s tank t-shirt. It wasn’t confining, but comfortable for her body and spirit.

Comfortable clothes can translate into being comfortable in your own skin. For this particular client, this Hanro undergarment honored her very identity.

Modest Dressing

Another client is a married woman with children who felt as though she should dress modestly when around them. She wanted to portray a warm, supportive, parental figure while around her children. And this was especially true of her teenagers whom she didn’t want to notice things that weren’t their concern. As her personal stylist, I found clothes that revealed no cleavage, covered her upper arms, and flowed over her body. This made her comfortable in fulfilling her role.

In the past, others had objectified and sexualized her. In turn, this could have sensitized and weakened her. By dressing in modest clothing she no longer risks her teenaged kids sexualizing her as they discover their hormones. And she could focus on being their mother.

The causes and effects of feeling comfortable in clothing are very real.

Fashion: West Coast vs. East Coast

There is no denying that the vibe on the West Coast is much different than the East Coast. And, we aren’t only talking about the weather. The business climate is different, too. On the East Coast, New York many executives, attorneys, and financial professionals suit up for business meetings. When they travel to the West Coast to meet with clients and show up this way to a meeting, this causes unease. The body language of the West Coast clients says it all.

Anytime someone from one work culture visits a different one, fitting in is important. To the visitor, fitting in is an effect of looking like he or she fits in with the workplace culture. It equates to acceptance - and acceptance is comfort. In this case, it’s about making the onlooker more comfortable. This is especially important when meeting with the person who signs the front of the check.

The causes and effects of clothes matters to the service provider and the client. It’s important to see how your meeting partner sees you. Showing up in deference to the client can put you both at ease.

Choosing the Right Color Profile

When a client likes certain colors and refuses to open up to new ideas, it is important to meet her right where she is. A particular client had an attraction to colors that were too light in value and too soft in intensity for her appearance. With only this information, I knew that she is strong but in a protective manner. The very soft colors represent an energy she wishes she had.

It was important to resolve the disconnect between the colors that work best and the colors that made her feel safe and comfortable. So, here’s what I did. I suggested a side-by-side comparison between the color value she liked versus what would look best on her. I taught her about her visual strengths and the positivity that could come with being more open to color. Then, I suggested she use those soft colors for decorating instead of on her body. By honoring her eye and preconceived conclusions, she got more comfortable and confident.

This is one of many examples in which causes and effects of feeling comfortable in the right colored clothes make us feel safe. Clothing covers our bodies like a second skin. When we are comfortable in our clothes, it is because we want to feel comfortable in our own skin.

Ready to learn more about the psychology behind our clothing choices? Personal stylist Joseph Rosenfeld has a lot of expertise to share. Visit www.JosephRosenfeld.com.