How Hiring This Company for IT Services Would be an Absolute Disaster!

A viral WhatsApp and LinkedIn sales post I wrote for an IT services company, 247 Labs. The CEO and Director of Sales both loved the post and gave positive feedback. Customers liked it too, and it directly lead to several warm leads as a result. 

WARNING: Listen, friend, if you value your sanity, do not contact 247 Labs to build your app or website. Seriously, avoid them at all costs, otherwise you'll face dire consequences!

If you foolishly decide to engage with 247 Labs, brace yourself for the following unbearable outcomes:

· Prepare for endless praise from your customers about how seamless and user-friendly your digital presence has become.

· Get ready to watch your business skyrocket in ways that will make your competitors green with envy.

· Say goodbye to sleepless nights, because when your site inevitably needs updates or repairs (all sites do, it’s normal), 247 Labs will have it sorted faster than you can say "peace of mind".

But that’s not all—247 Labs is infamous for their disdain of quick cash grabs. They’re obsessed with forming long-term relationships with their customers and win-win agreements that are worthy of your dollars.

Yes, you heard that right — long-term relationships, not just a one-time fling.

How outrageous!

Even worse, the folks at 247 Labs can do almost any kind of IT development for any kind of company, including:

· Websites

· Apps

· IT integration

· Back-end integration

· Security

Canadian-based and crushing it. 13 years. 70+ experts. 500+ projects—truly a well-oiled machine.

If you’re one of those rare souls who’s looking to suffer from success, go ahead—email me, and let's have a chat about what 247 Labs can do for you and your business.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you! 😉

📧 Info@247Labs.com

💻 Https://247Labs.com

A Day Like No Other: Muharram 10

 

LinkedIn post published on Tuesday, July 16, 2024. Received 160+ reactions within 48 hours. Original post here. 

This is no ordinary day. But how come?

Today marks Muharram 10 in the Islamic calendar, also known as Ashura. It is literally one of a handful of times in history when the best and worst of humanity squared off. On this day, Imam Hussain and a handful of his closest friends and family were brutally killed by an army of over 30,000 for refusing to pay allegiance to the corrupt and ruthless ruler of the time, Yazeed bin Muawiya. As the grandson of the Prophet Muhammed and known for his charisma, kindness and wisdom, and as a widely respected leader of the day in his own right, Imam Hussain's allegiance was priceless to Yazeed, yet Hussain preferred to give his head in defiance rather than his hand in subservience.

You may wonder why I'm posting about this sorrowful event 1,300+ years after it happened on LinkedIn. Since my childhood, I have heard of Imam Hussain's epic stand for truth, justice, honour and sacrifice, and it is one that will always be very near and dear to my heart. Imam Hussain stood on the battlefield alone today and called out, "is there anyone who will help me?" Anyone cynical and disenchanted need only hear what Hussain and his close ones did to be inspired. Today, hundreds of millions of his lovers from numerous faith communities around the world answer his call to say, "Yes Hussain, I will support you."

To learn more about what happened to Imam Hussain, click this link:

https://lnkd.in/evghx9Wp

Photo is a close up of a minaret with Arabic and Persian calligraphy and the gold dome over the grave of Imam Hussain with a red flag flying his name.

One Amazing Technique to Memorize Anything and Take Control of Your Work

One Amazing Technique to Memorize Anything and Take Control of Your Work!

Corporate communications professionals have to juggle unbelievable amounts of information and relationships. 

Come to think of it, EVERYONE needs to do that.

How can this be done? By building a strong memory. A strong memory makes all the difference for your getting work done efficiently and enjoying your life.

Unfortunately, many people are intimidated by the idea of relying upon their minds, rather than committing their thoughts to paper. They don’t know how to do it, aside from the usual tips to break down items into abbreviated lists and so on.

Abbreviations work. But you can do much, MUCH better.

Build a castle

If you’re like me, memorizing things can be tricky. That is, until I heard of the Memory Palace technique. People use this simple trick to quickly memorize unbelievable amounts of information. An eight-time world memory champion, Dominic O’Brien, was able to memorize 54 decks of cards in sequence looking at each card only once using this tip.

Intrigued? So was I. Practicing this technique has forever changed how I approach memorization.

I’ll explain how it works.

Your brain is an amazingly powerful organ. And it can remember things far beyond what you might think is the expiration date. How often have you tasted a dish and been transported back to your childhood, or seen a beautiful sight that stays for years? Clearly, it is possible to store info for long periods, without apparently trying very hard and this is all the more true if those thoughts are highly emotional.

The other thing that matters a lot to your remembering information is that your Hippocampus, a visual center in the brain, is intimately tied to your memorizing abilities.

Activate your Hippocampus and chances are that you will be more likely to remember once fleeting thoughts. Make your thoughts highly emotional and you can bank on not forgetting as easily as you once might have.

How can we take advantage of our neurological wiring? We build a palace. 

How the Memory Palace technique works

The Memory Palace is highly effective as a memorization tool largely because it activates the Hippocampus. 

Here’s how to do it. In your mind, visualize a place that you already know intimately. The place you visualize might be a home you lived in for years, or a path you walk every day through your workplace. The place really doesn’t matter so much as your knowledge of it. If it is a place that you feel stronglu about, all the better.

Now, create relationships between different areas in your palace with the items you want to memorize. For example, if you want to remember a pencil, you might consider visualizing a pencil as you enter your palace. As you walk through your palace in your mind’s eye, you see other objects you need – a tomato, a crocodile, tickets to an NBA game.

You know what? Let’s keep these items in mind as we go to the next step – a pencil, a tomato, a crocodile, and tickets to an NBA game.

Make your thoughts as emotional and strange as possible (a practical example)

We have already nailed an important part of memory by building memory palaces. Now lets really make those thoughts stick.

An example of the technique at work 

The Romans, who came up with the Memory Palace technique, suggested we make the thoughts we memorize as gory as possible. They said that the more weird and emotional the image, the better. And they were absolutely correct.

Here is how I would do it.

As I walk into my childhood home through the garage, I see the pencil. It is a HUGE pencil, with the circumference of a log. Better escape into the next room, the pencil is rolling after me and might crush my toes! RUN!

Whew, made it. … Uh, the floor is covered in squashed tomatoes … who is going to have to clean up this mess? Ugh!

(Luckily there is a cartoon crocodile in the living room, his teeth dripping with blood and guts. I say luckily, because he has begun sweeping up the tomatoes.)

Better go in the kitchen, this is a little weird. And I don’t like the way the tomatoes are squelching underfoot.

Woah! … It’s Derrick Rose, my favorite player who ever played for the Chicago Bulls, and he’s sitting at the kitchen table. Why is he here? … He’s handing over those NBA tickets for my family that I wanted! What a great day.

See what I mean? You might be able to memorize my list more easily than before I made it so bizarre. The more bizarre, emotional and disgusting, the better.

Memories of childhood shows and experiences can be a powerful way of helping others remember our content. Of course, such content has to be memorable for the right reasons; negative thoughts can easily remain in the mind too.

Now it's time to practice 

Now it’s time to practice this technique yourself. While you’re at home, write down a grocery list and commit the items to memory by building a crazy Memory Palace. Leave the list at home; do not look at the list while shopping.

After you get back, check how many items you remembered. If you forgot any items, really think about why that might be. Was your association between the items and the place you constructed strong enough? Were the razor blades you needed not scary enough?

Don’t get discouraged if you were not 100% successful the first time. The more you practice the Memory Palace technique, the easier it will be to remember items. On the other hand, you might find yourself getting perfect scores from the beginning. The key to success is really activating your brain’s emotional and visual center.

Once you have become good at memorizing lists of up to 30 items, you can graduate to relying on this technique at work. And once you can do this reliably with memorizing physical objects, you might try using Memory Palaces to recall abstract concepts linked strongly to physical objects in your mind’s eye. 

For example, if you want to memorize “honour”, you might find remembering a knight in shining armor useful to memorizing that concept. The more you learn how your mind works, the more you can fine tune this process. Eventually you would always want to use the same objects to recall specific concepts.

Well, what do you think? Have you ever used the Memory Palace, and what sort of results have you gotten? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Happy memorizing!

Nine Questions Overwhelmed Facility Managers Should Ask Service Providers

Black & McDonald blog article 

It can be argued that the job of a facility manager is one of the most demanding roles for an organization, whether they are supporting the front lines within healthcare or safeguarding commercial or major manufacturing plants and facilities. 

As we move towards COVID-19 recovery, the demands on facility managers will continue to accelerate. No matter the setting, the skillset required to innovate, adapt and overcome challenges will be paramount.  

To ensure facility managers are adequately prepared to master the new normal, here are nine key questions that every facility manager should ask their organization for the second half of 2021.

1. How do I protect our workplace as COVID-19 restrictions ease?  

Once the impacts of COVID-19 are ease more, you may need to stage your staff’s return. Even with growing immunization, returning will require safe planning, spacing for distancing, doubling down on hand hygiene and personal protective equipment, and confirming adequate ventilation. Make sure your facility services providers are offering advice, options, tools and all that is needed to comply with public health authorities’ guidance and smooth the transition.

2. How can I maximize interoperability to better operate our systems?

A new generation of facility managers well versed and reliant on smart phone technology is now entering the industry. Your systems must be interoperable and interconnected. Your platform must be user-friendly, with the ability to access data and mesh with multiple devices. If your provider is behind, find one that can offer you the kind of flexibility, project management tools and options that promote innovation and support Internet of Things technology.

3. How do I continue to make improvements to decrease energy use?

Your service partner should conduct an energy audit and offer a plan to economize lighting, improve temperature control, suggest chiller and fan-unit upgrades, implement HVAC system gains, and lead building insulation improvements. These will save money, time and lower energy usage. Service partners that are proactive and knowledgeable can create opportunities to improve efficiency while reducing existing costs.  

4. Can I improve the sustainability of our operations to meet carbon reduction targets?

The transition to a cleaner future is already underway and the groundswell for change has shifted perspectives of existing infrastructure assets and operations worldwide. Beyond setting reduction targets, more than 40 governments around the world have adopted a price on carbon, through direct taxes or cap-and-trade programs. Green buildings will now play an important role in the equation to post-pandemic recovery.

There are many first steps you can take to decarbonize your facility for long-term sustainability, most importantly by taking a holistic view of your operations. Make sure your service partner can provide you with opportunities to leverage new technologies that can monitor and curtail GHG emissions. Regardless of the maturity of your current sustainability program, revisiting the plan will ensure your organization can meet its aspiration and goals.

5. How can I use a proactive maintenance strategy to save?

Facility managers generally pursue either reactive or proactive maintenance strategies. The issue with a reactive maintenance strategy is it waits for equipment to fail unexpectedly, which can lead to costly downtime and lost productivity.

Advocating for your organization to use a proactive maintenance strategy will ensure parts, components and equipment issues are addressed more efficiently prior to failure. Such a strategy will in turn reduce and control the operational costs of your facilities, improve your awareness of equipment condition, and employ a solution that focuses on eliminating downtime. A proactive services partner can save you money, reducing stressful and often costly critical failures. Your services partner should be continually providing you with opportunities to improve your facilities and equipment reliability.

6. How do I stay on top of my asset management?

The first thing facility managers should revisit is their equipment inventory, to ensure it is current and accurate. If this inventory has become outdated, you will need to conduct detailed asset evaluations and populate a comprehensive inventory management database.

Once you can properly track all your assets and their associated activities, you will be able to better plan for maintenance, disposal, and replacement. Ensure your service partner is able to leverage technologies that enable better decision-making on assets. Your service partners must support a strategic approach and long-term view of asset management.

7. How can I provide clear and consistent communication on site?

“The rule of seven” states that a person needs to hear a message at least seven times before it makes an impression. Any communication strategy to shape your users’ needs must maximize exposure through many channels, using clear and consistent key messages. You need to engage your workplace in creative and proactive ways through feedback loops. Maybe your office has video screens in the elevators, an intranet, SMS text messaging or a staff bulletin board. Make sure you capitalize on these resources to influence and shape behaviour to achieve your goals.

8. Can human factors improve health, safety and security?

Facility managers need to assess the overall effects of facilities on the operations within. Your vendors must understand your workplace environment, occupant services, occupant health, safety and security needs, and ensure your users are protected from danger and are confident to perform their best. Your partners must anticipate how human factors can lead to harm and avoid it while continually reviewing the process for efficiency and effectiveness.

9. Is there a seamless way to cut risk?

Lowering risk requires a plan for risk identification, analysis and evaluation. Your facilities must undergo emergency preparedness, response and recovery, and practise these processes regularly. Your service partners are vital for confirming facility resilience and business continuity.

Black & McDonald is an integrated, multi-trade facility services provider, with insight into directing a diverse portfolio of public and private facilities. Our clients partner with us to ensure facilities are safe and efficient for all users, and that service excellence and best value are delivered throughout the life of our agreements. Our experts help identify opportunities to improve facilities and to develop tailored solutions for your operations.

Four approaches for facility managers to adopt so they keep virtual workplaces viable

Black & McDonald blog article

Even before COVID-19 struck in the first quarter of 2020, there was a lively debate about the role of virtual offices in facility management. Virtual work was defined by tasks conducted outside the traditional physical work space. That definition has broadened to encompass allowing home-based teleworkers, after-hours workers, on-the-road technicians, offsite service partners, and even outsourced workers.

As we begin the recovery from the pandemic, this trend has accelerated and will continue. Facility management and operations will have evolving needs—so to remain productive and profitable, clients and their facility service companies must find the best way to accommodate them. Thus, what is the best way to create an efficient facility operation through a virtual workplace?

The answer lies in ensuring your facility service leadership keeps four key concepts at the forefront of design and practice. The concepts to remember are strategy, communication, productivity and balance.

Focus on strategic priorities

During the once-in-a-lifetime crisis we all are going through, many organizations became distracted from their strategic priorities to address the health, safety and ongoing productivity issues that the pandemic created. Now is the time to refocus on the corporate priorities established, or adjust them to reflect the new circumstances. A teleworking or hybrid model with a virtual workplace will likely be part of the path forward. Leaders will need to act now to help their employees and organizations make the transition, or risk a loss of momentum and a loss of talented people. Be it a health care clinic, a transportation hub or a power generation plant, you need to build a work environment that ensures your professionals stay engaged with your vision and mission, whether they are onsite, offsite or working remotely from home.

Keep Communication Frequent, Transparent and Consistent

Virtual working can leave members of your team isolated. To overcome this, successful leaders and organizations communicate frequently, transparently and consistently. When you have a widely distributed team, you need the digital tools and infrastructure that best enable daily or weekly interactions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations heard from leaders often and they spent extra time explaining the business impacts, decision making, board feedback, and leadership mindset. A recent report in the MIT Sloan Management Review cited the use of webinars and video updates as more effective than simple emails. The same survey also found the greatest obstacle to effective communication was mixed messages coming from the organization. Your facility needs to be consistent, regardless of the function or level in the organization. It could be from Human Resources, Finance, Technology, Legal or Operations, or from the CEO to a front-line lead—in all cases, the messages must be consistent.

Stay productive and engaged

To keep teams productive and engaged, enterprises must use technology to improve physical infrastructure and deliver optimal solutions and services for use across the new work environment. The pandemic proved some of the benefits from task productivity gains, but it also saw six in ten workers feel isolation, decreases in collaborative productivity, and disconnection that led to fewer perceived rewards and career promotions. Keeping productive and engaged involves a rethink. Everything from ergonomic workstations to collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams or Zoom, along with other services and amenities for employees, must create the optimal work environments that serve onsite, offsite and remote workers. To keep facility operations seamless, it is important to integrate the physical and the digital workplaces, and to actively signal staff and facility service companies that they are part of the success of the organization.

Keep work and life in balance

Virtual workplaces have posed another paradox. Enabling remote work may have given time back to employees through less commuting and more flexible schedules for family. But for some people, it has also blurred the lines between the personal and the professional, and created a perception of 24/7 availability to their employer. Studies indicate that remote workers log more hours than their onsite counterparts. The remedy, here, for ensuring your people avoid burnout is a combination: time allowances for flexible scheduling to handle personal obligations, workload adjustments for family responsibilities, opportunities for team building and social interaction, and time blocking and personal days for rest and relaxation. These steps all sustain the goal of a healthy work/life balance for every member of your staff.

Many leaders emerging from the pandemic are keen to redesign facility workplaces to capture the benefits of what we have learned from virtual work models during the pandemic. We can help with the right solutions and create an efficient facility operation that reflects your strategy, encourages communication, promotes productivity and preserves the work/life balance that is right your people.

Black & McDonald is an integrated, multi-trade Facility Services provider, with experience operating and maintaining a diverse portfolio of facilities across both the public and private sectors. Our experience includes commercial offices, healthcare environments, major transportation hubs and airports, cultural facilities, life science laboratories, municipal government properties, educational institutions, data centres, utility infrastructure, and major manufacturing and distribution plants.

WhatsApp ad: Parfums De Marly Percival advertisement on FB

AN UNUSUALLY LUXURIOUS, BOLD AND VERSATILE MEN'S FRAGRANCE, suitable for any weather or situation, created by a legendary house that needs no introduction, Percival by Parfums De Marly is many levels above what usually passes for high fashion by the masses. This is a great deal that doesn't come along everyday.

Masculine, complex, sophisticated and classy, Percival is a blue fragrance that is as suitable at the office as it is for date night.

▶️ Starts with notes of orange, bergamot and lavender

▶️ Moves into jasmine, violet and cinnamon territory

▶️ Settles into a deep amberwood, musk, and cedar fragrance

Aromatic, woody and spicy, Percival leaves a last impression certain to make a mark and draw compliments when worn. This offer doesn't come along everyday and will not be up for long.

1️⃣ Comes in the original box

2️⃣ Is the larger 125 ml size offered by PDM

3️⃣ 100% authentic

If you're the successful man who is always on the go and wants to smell in control - or you have a special man like that - you need to get your hands on this fragrance. And if you're like most people your bottle of Percival by Parfums De Marly will be love at first smell.  

💰 PRICE: Pre-owned for a few days, the price is $340 and includes convenient and free personal delivery within 24 hours to lucky customers based in the greater Toronto area, will ship inside Camada for an additional fee.

Direct message me for serious inquiries only. First come, first served.

Percival by Parfums De Marly, ~120/125 ml, $340, free 24-hour delivery inside GTA, will ship anywhere in Canada for an additional fee. 

WhatsApp ad: Afnan Supremacy Not Only Intense for Man

Sample of WhatsApp perfume advertisement I wrote. The fragrance sold within 20 minutes of my posting it!

Afnan Supremacy Not Only Intense Extrait DP For Him (150 ml) 100% authentic

A beautiful, masculine, versatile fragrance, Afnan Supremacy Not Only Intense for Man brings to mind elements of Creed Aventus and Nishani Hacivat but proudly walks to its own beat. Easily worn formally or casually in any setting at any time of the year, this mossy, fresh, fruity fragrance says the gentleman who wears it is a modern success story, a man willing to stand out just enough from the crowd wearing the usual generic, cookie cutter scents.

Your bottle is factory sealed in the original box from near Dubai and never used. It comes in the harder-to-find jumbo size (150 ml / 5.07 fl. oz), carefully filled with Afnan's most potent and long-lasting concentration, extrait de parfum. Not to be confused with weaker concentrations in much smaller bottles.