The Bitch Ditch

Here’s a fresh take on a traditional New Orleans dish that will be an instant classic with everyone you serve it to.

Ingredients

Imperial	Metric	Ingredient
3 tbsp	45 mL	melted butter, divided
1	1	large sweet onion, thinly sliced
2	2	cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp	5 mL	dried thyme leaves
1 tsp	5 mL	each salt and pepper
1 tsp	5 mL	granulated sugar
1 1/2 lb	750 g	baking potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch (1 cm) cubes, about 4 cups (1 L)
1/4 cup	50 mL	chicken broth
1/2 tsp	2 mL	Worcestershire sauce
1 cup	250 mL	5% light cream or half and half
1/4 tsp	1 mL	ground nutmeg
2 cans	85 g each	CLOVER LEAF SMOKED OYSTERS
2 cups	500 mL	packed baby spinach leaves or chopped
1/2 cup	125 mL	each fresh bread crumbs and shredded
2 tbsp	30 mL	chopped fresh parsley

Nutrition Details

Amount	Nutrition
300	Calories
15 g	Fat
11 g	Protein
31 g	Carbohydrates
3 g	Fibre
720 mg	Sodium

Nutrition Features

• * Excellent source of vitamin D (100 %DV) and iron (30 %DV).
• * Good source of vitamin A (20 %DV), vitamin B6 (15 %DV), vitamin B12 (15 %DV), calcium (15 %DV) and magnesium (15 %DV).
• * Source of fibre.

Heat 2 tbsp (30 mL) of the butter in a large, oven-safe skillet set

over medium heat.Add the onion, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper. Partially cover and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden. Sprinkle sugar into the pan. Increase heat to medium-high. Stir in the potatoes, chicken broth and Worcestershire sauce; cook until liquid evaporates, about 1 minute.

Preheat the oven to 375 F (190 C).

Stir in the cream and nutmeg and bring to a boil. Drain the oysters and reserve 1 tbsp (15 mL) of the juices. Stir the smoked oysters, reserved juices and spinach into the potato mixture.Toss the breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, parsley and remaining butter until well combined. Sprinkle evenly over top.Bake for 30 to 40 minutes.

Makes 4 servings.

Tip: If you dont own an ovenproof skillet, transfer the potato-clam mixture to a shallow gratin dish before adding crumb topping.

Kenny Werner, in his book Effortless Mastery, describes a test
that illustrates priorities in life.

Go to the kitchen and get a plastic bag. Place it over your
head, tying the opening snugly around your neck so that no air
can get through. Now, let’s count to one hundred. By the count
of 50, let me ask you: How important is that bonus you’ve been
working overtime to earn. By the count of 60 would you be
fretting about the state of your investments? By 80 no doubt
you’d be worried about your boss asking for those reports you
hadn’t finished yet.

I’m not trying to make light of anyone’s problems, but sometimes
we make more out of a situation than we should. Life’s
day-to-day difficulties can often overwhelm us to the extent
that we can’t see what is really important. If you were to be
kidnapped today, I would guess that the company you work for
would not go under. In fact, you may be surprised at how little
you’d be missed.

There’s a reason why eating healthy meals, exercising, and
leading a balanced social/work life leads to a less stressful
life and improved sleep habits. It’s because you are taking care
of the things that are really important in life: Health and
happiness.

If you can get your priorities more in line with what you really
want from life, there is a good chance that peace and serenity
will follow.

Out of the many different ways that we can sabotage our own
success, these twelve are the most common. All of us are guilty
of these behaviors at various times, but knowledge of them gives
us the power to start to banish them from our lives.

1. Ignore your own strengths and weaknesses.

We all have many individual attributes, but it is pointless
trying to be someone or something that we are not. As Peter
Thompson, the great motivational speaker says, “People will only
do who they are.”

Don’t ignore reality. Learn who you are and build your business
or career accordingly.

2. Stop learning.

For many people, the very idea of learning is something that
they left behind at school or college. They don’t read. In their
jobs they only know one way. Their way.

Successful people are universally sponges for information. They
read, listen to tapes, scour the Internet and spend their whole
lives learning.

The best investment anyone can make in their business, career or
life is in their own ongoing education. If you are spending less
than $200 a year on learning new things, you are short-changing
yourself.

3. Believe that you can make it for free.

‘Make $1000 a week with no outlay!’

We’ve all seen the ads. By all means study them and analyze
their sales and copywriting techniques. But don’t believe them.

No person or business can succeed without intelligent and
consistent investment. Some online endeavors may be able to
manage on less capital than many traditional businesses, but
they still need something.

Sure you can operate an affiliate mini site on a free web host,
with free email accounts and do all the writing and coding
yourself. Trouble is, the result is guaranteed to look
amateurish and your chances of making sales virtually zero.

Don’t be cheap. If it is worth doing, it is worth doing properly.

4. Try to get before you give.

We live in a gimme-gimme world. It is so easy to have a
take-take attitude. Well, why not? There is so much available,
why shouldn’t we get our share first?

Successful people don’t think that way. They see the value of
the long term. Anyone can get a short-term benefit, but at what
cost? Trust and respect are built by giving, not by taking.
These two little words are the foundation stone of any
successful business or person.

Whether you are offering free advice or help to a fellow
entrepreneur, or delivering far more than your customers expect,
think of the long term.

Build your business on a firm foundation. After all, there is a
lot of truth in the axiom, ‘what goes around, comes around.’

5. Don’t set goals.

What do you need goals for when you can play it by ear? Isn’t
all that goal stuff just new-age mumbo-jumbo?

No it isn’t. Without a clear objective you can never reach your
target. How many times have you heard a soldier being commanded
‘Ready … Fire.’ There are always two little words in the
middle: ‘Take Aim’. Imagine the consequences otherwise!

Every successful person has mastered the art of setting goals.

As Martha Lupton put it, ‘To get anywhere, strike out for
somewhere, or you’ll get nowhere.’

6. Don’t focus.

In any given day we have thousands of thoughts, hundreds of
memories, scores of outside influences, dozens of helpful ideas,
tens of items on out to-do lists. But of all these things, only
one is important enough to take our full attention, right at
this moment.

High achievers have mastered this art. They have the ability to
focus 100% of their mind, creativity, intuition and experience
into a single laser beam that burns to the heart of the problem.
Then they move on to the next.

But which problem to start with? Two books that are very helpful
in teaching you to identify what is important, and what is
merely a time waster, are ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People’ by Stephen Covey, and, ‘The 80-20 Principle’, by Richard
Koch.

7. Hate change.

Put simply, it is far easier to sit back and do what you know,
than to innovate.

Yet business or business person who is content to let things
carry on as they always did will quickly find to their cost that
the world doesn’t wait with them.

‘Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past
or to the present are certain to miss the future.’ John F.
Kennedy.

8. Try once, then stop.

We are all guilty of this at some time. If at first you don’t
succeed, give up.

Success doesn’t see it that way at all. The road to success is
almost never paved. It is full of potholes, littered with the
blown down trunks of deserted dreams and blocked by obstacles.
But there is gold at the end, and unless you keep on trekking,
you will never find it.

Edison made 10,000 useless light bulbs before he found the one
that worked.

J. K. Rowling sent Harry Potter to 20 publishers before one took
her on.

They never gave up. Successful people don’t.

‘Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how
close they were to success when they gave up.’ Thomas Edison.

9. Think that you are more important than the customer.

Let’s be arrogant. We can tell our customers what they want, and
they’ll thank us for it. Yeah right. And Ford still make only
black cars!

I had lunch with the editor of a major British women’s magazine
a few years ago and asked her how she responded to feedback from
her readers.

‘My dear,’ she said, ‘I’m the editor. It is my job to tell them
what they want, not the other way round.’

It came as no surprise that 6 months later she was fired, and a
few months after that the magazine folded.

Don’t ever be guilty of corporate arrogance. Even the might Coca
Cola company can be brought to heel by angry consumers (over the
introduction in 1985 of New Coke). Just think what negative PR
could do to you.

10. Sit back and wait for it to happen.

Whoever said ‘Build a better mousetrap and they’ll beat a path
to your door’, had no idea of how business works.

You can have the best web site, the best book, the best store in
the mall, but if you don’t tell anyone, so what?

The very word business means the state of being busy.

Marketing and innovation are the locks on the door of successful
businesses. Action is the key that opens that door so that you
can see, as Howard Carter put it when he opened the tomb of
Tutankhamen, ‘Wonderful things.’

‘The individual activity of one man with backbone will do more
than a thousand men with a mere wishbone.’ William J. H.
Boetcker.

11. Listen to your peers.

Surely it is a good idea to listen to what your Dad has to say
about your business? Or your sister, or doctor, or cab driver?

Everyone has an opinion. Unfortunately, most people are
programmed to fail, and can’t see the positive aspect of
anything.

If you allow other people’s negativity to infect your thinking,
all of your endeavors are doomed. Most will probably never even
get started.

It is vital that you have faith in what you are doing. If you
have that faith, and you have seriously thought through all the
issues, surround yourself with positive people and go for it.

12. Don’t belive you can succeed.

What has self-belief got to do with it? Either you have a
successful business, or you don’t.

Trust me on this. If you have a cast-iron, unshakeable belief in
your future success, then every action you take will be a
positive one. It may take time, but you will be on the right
path.

Nothing else is more important than this self-belief.

But, the moment you allow any doubt to creep in, you will
instantly be on the road to failure.

Let’s give the last word to Abraham Lincoln who said, ‘Let no
feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end, you are
sure to succeed.’

There is an old saying that goes “You never get a second chance
to make a first impression”. Nowhere is that saying more true
than in your own online business.

The Internet is an incredibly rich and vibrant marketplace.
Over 600,000,000 consumers online (that’s six hundred Million!)
all of which have equal access to your website! While you might
never see all six hundred million, the fact remains they could
visit your website.

Now here’s the real question you must ask yourself. What first
impression is your site making right now?

If you are like most online merchants, you built your web
business as you did business. Few of us have the luxury of
spending months planning our site, consulting with graphic
designers, working with copywriters, choosing products that
appeal to our audience, and the thousand other things necessary
to launch a successful site.

No, if you’re like most merchants you put your site up in a
hurry, still don’t have a great follow-up selling system and
would (if you had time) change about a dozen things having to do
with your site.

If that sounds like you, I have some very good news today.

Now, you can have a merchant makeover that will literally
revolutionize the look, feel, and usefulness of your site while
boosting your sales to record highs at the same time. This is
going to be as if your online business had a spa day and comes
back to you rejuvenated and ready to go to work!

In a moment, I’m going to share with you the four ways to
create a Merchant Makeover. First, you need to know one very
important piece of truth. Understanding this one truth could
change your online life from one of hard work with little reward
to one of having things go your way with smooth sailing ahead.
Give a listen. This is important.

While it is true that the Internet is the largest marketplace
known to humankind, it’s also true that the sheer size of the
market has spawned one of the most damaging lies ever told in
the history of business. That lie?

“If you build it, they will come.”I’m here to tell you right
now that this is a lie. No one on the Internet succeeds by
putting up a website and then sitting back to enjoy their
riches. It takes effort. Serious effort.

The good news for you is that Coach Ron Tunick is ready to
stand shoulder to shoulder with you! We’ve been ‘around the
block’ a time or two and have built some very successful Web
properties. We know that there are two paths to success on the
Internet: the hard way (where you learn by trial and error) and
the Easy way, where you learn from others’ experience. In a few
minutes, we’re going to offer you the chance to learn from our
experience and take the shortcut to online success.

First, the four key elements of a Merchant Makeover.

The Written Word

Your success on the Internet depends on the written word. Just
as you are reading these words now, your visitors read the words
on your website. They make their buying decisions based upon
those words. Your financial future depends upon those words.

Perhaps you are one of the lucky ones who could afford a top
copywriter. If not, the chances are you wrote the words on your
site yourself, or perhaps with the help of a friend or loved
one.

If that is the case, and I mean this in no way to be offensive
at all, you are leaving money on the table! It’s a simple fact
of business life that we were never trained to be writers. It’s
not our fault; it’s the systems’ fault. I don’t know how it is
possible to go through 12 years of grade school, followed by
four, six, or eight years of college, and never be taught what
may be the single most important skill we need! I don’t know why
it’s this way, but I know that it is this way.

For a website to be effective the words on that site must
persuade.

They must charm. They must hold the readers’ interest. If your
site doesn’t do these things now, don’t worry … we are here to
help! In fact, professional, persuasive copywriting is one of
the cornerstones of the Merchant Makeover.

The Look of Your Site

The next area of focus is the look of your site. Please
understand, I’m not talking about dancing bunnies or anything
tricky or super high-tech. What I am saying is that your site
must have a certain look and feel to be successful.

People buy from those they trust. Does your site look create
trust now? If not, the Makeover will help.

Site look and feel is about more than just colors, although the
right colors are important. Another factor that will heavily
influence your success is how fast your site loads in a
visitors’ browser. This is a critical element overlooked by most
sites. Part of the Merchant Makeover is to consider both the
obvious things (like colors and graphics) as well as the
not-so-obvious considerations that can only be learned from
hard-won experience. We’ll go to work to make sure your site is
the very best it can be.

E Commerce

Did you know that more sales are lost to poor payment
processing than to any other factor? How many times have you
gone to a site, been interested in the product, started to order
and then backed out? If you are like most people, it’s more than
just a few times.

Some of the most common, and most deadly, mistakes include
sites that hide their price until the visitor gets to the order
form. This desperate attempt to trick a customer into buying is
so thinly veiled that today’s savvy consumers see right through
it. Other problems include asking for credit card numbers on a
non-secure page, forgetting the critical CVV information,
address matching that doesn’t work properly and more.

How many sales did you lose today to these common mistakes?
Stop losing even one by getting your Merchant Makeover today.

Let me encourage you to take full advantage of the 21st Century
technology at your disposal. There is no need to ‘reinvent the
wheel’ or do everything yourself when tools like the Makeover
can improve your business in the least amount of time and make
the biggest impact. Let the pros do what they do best so you can
focus on what you do best.

Innovation

We truly live in the age of technology. It’s no longer enough
to have a website and take credit cards online. Today, we have
to innovate to stand out from the crowd. But innovation is much
more than some slick software product that George Guru wants to
sell you for only $49.99.

Real innovation touches people. After all, people aren’t only
on the Internet … they are the Internet!

Here are two ways you can innovate today while making it easier
for your customer to buy from you. Now that’s a win-win!

First, you can now accept credit cards right over your cell
phone! A new technology called Charge by Cell means you can
accept a sale by credit card anytime, anywhere. Gone are the
days of checking your email only to find that four people who
wanted to buy couldn’t buy because your charge-card processor
dropped the ball. We both know you don’t get those sales back.
Now you can confirm every sale no matter where you are.

This is freedom and true innovation. Not only will you impress
customers, you’ll close more sales in less time. That’s a
winning combination!

The second piece of innovation is a very simple to use piece of
code that allows your customers to request you to call them. Do
you know the main reason people don’t buy from you on the first
visit to your website? It’s because they don’t have enough
information!

While building a great Frequently Asked Questions page and
answering email fast are good efforts, nothing can replace the
impression you will make on customers (and buyers!) when they
can enter their phone number and receive your phone call in only
minutes.

Of course, you control when you are available to make such
calls. After all, no one expects you to work 24 hours a day!

With coach’s proven business tools, your Merchant Makeover will
have revolutionized not only the way you do business, but also
the way customers perceive you. When you change that, you change
everything.

We began our talk today with an old saying. There’s another old
saying that goes “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a
single step”. In the time we’ve spent together, I’ve asked you
several questions. Now I’m going to ask you one more. Get ready
because this is the important one.

What step are you going to take right now to begin your
merchant makeover? Saying you want it is not good enough.
Knowing you need it won’t get you to first base. The one thing
that separates those who succeed wildly online and those who
bump along wishing for more is one word. One little word that
means the whole world. That word is action.

I ask again. What action will you take right now to begin your
merchant makeover? If you will take one step toward me, I’ll
step toward you right now.

As the manager of two aviation web sites, I have learned that one of the best ways to promote people who are looking for work is to allow for them to list their resume right online. Unlike a traditional resume, there are some things best left off an online resume. Let’s take a look at some of things you need to do as your craft your online copy.

1. Omit certain personal information. You must include your name, the area in which you live [for example, Chicagoland], a contact phone number, and an email address. Please be aware that your telephone number can reveal more to people about you than what you want them to know. Showing an unlisted phone number is preferable; only give out your cell number if you can reasonably see an advantage in sharing that information openly. Identity theft and stalking are persistent problems; be careful that your resume invites neither practice.

2. Your photograph. This is optional and not nearly as commonplace in the U.S. as it is in Europe. Still, in some fields it has become mandatory. Make sure you are photographed wearing suitable business garb. Your picture should be cropped and in the majority of cases be a headshot only. A *jpg or *png extension file looks much nicer than a *gif.

3. State your objective. A one sentence statement outlining what sort of position you want is best.

4. Work experience. Okay, now for a quandary. Do you really want to list information about a company online? Instead of mentioning companies by name and listing specific service dates, why not consider substituting that information with common details such as: “Five Year Position as an Accountant for a Prestigious Big Four Accounting Firm in Chicago.” You can then follow that declaration with the usual “duties and accomplishments.”

5. Education. List all relevant information with or without dates. Any schooling that is related to the position you are seeking should elicit a mention.

6. References. Only list “furnished upon request.” Better yet: leave that statement out as it is a “given.”

7. Layout and Display. Your online copy should also feature: a border, an attractive background, an attractive font [Arial or Verdana], font size should be 12 pt., your name should be listed in bold, and hyperlinks must be active [especially for your email address].

Just as with a hard copy of a resume, your online adaptation will get a quick look over by a hiring specialist. What they see and read in the first ten to fifteen seconds will go far in deciding whether you are contacted or not. Upon contact, offer to send a complete copy of your resume to them which you can forward as an email attachment or within the body of an email message.

The key to a successful online resume is to list as much information about yourself without giving away intimate details. Things like your home address, phone number, and references should never be listed online; instead give interested parties enough information about what you can do for them to pique their interest to the point where they will want to contact you for additional details.

Copyright 2005 — Matthew Keegan is the owner of a successful article writing, web design, and marketing business based in North Carolina, USA. He manages several sites including the Corporate Flight Attendant Community and the Aviation Employment Board. Please visit The Article Writer to review selections from his portfolio.