Recently, I met fabulous business travelers at Tory Johnson’s Spark & Hustle Small Business Media Mania event who all had interesting stories to tell. The participants came from all over the United States to meet with us. Which begs the question … why did some travel so far? In this day of emails, Skype, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and hundreds of other electronic tools designed to connect us, why would any of us take the time and make the effort to connect in the real world?

The answer is that face-to-face networking still matters. Shaking hands and exchanging cards may feel antiquated, but it is, in fact, part of the ritual that creates a connection. A connection that could lead you to new resources, new vendors, new friends or new business.

One of the challenges for many business travelers is knowing how to make the most of networking efforts. For suggestions, I turned to Women for Hire’s Tory Johnson, who offers lots of great advice for networkers, including these tips related to business cards:

1. Don’t pass out your business cards as if they’re flyers – they are only going to get thrown away. Instead, only exchange cards with those you’ve had a meaningful conversation with and only at the end of the exchange.
2. Don’t be afraid to ask for someone’s card, even if you perceive him or her to hold a higher status or position than your own. If you aren’t able to get the person’s card, write down his or her name and company when you have a moment so you can look up this person’s contact information the following day.
3. Your cards should be clean, kept in a nice case, easy to access and wrinkle-free. Contact information and title should be current – don’t use a pen to make corrections or changes!
4. Finally, don’t forget to refill your card case after each event. There’s nothing worse than missing an opportunity to connect because you were careless!

Looking for other networking tips? Visit WomenForHire.com! womenforhire.com/advice/professional_networking/formal_networking_events/

Between layovers, meetings and time zone changes, fitting in a workout while traveling for business can be challenging at best. But just because you can’t make it to the gym for a full-on sweat session, doesn’t mean you can’t be active while on the road. In fact, traveling can be a great way to make your day much more active than the usual nine-to-five sitting at your desk. From walking through that busy terminal to catch your flight to skipping the cab and walking to the convention center, you can rack up some serious mileage during your business trips. (Surely, your legs have told you this after a long day on the trade-show floor, right?)

But how do you measure your daily activity? With a pedometer! These small gadgets are easy to set up and clip onto your belt, recording your every step. While you can get a good pedometer for as cheap as $20 (fitbottomedgirls.com/2011/01/walk-it-out-not-your-grandmother%E2%80%99s-pedometer/), pricier models (fitbottomedgirls.com/2011/06/every-bit-adds-up-with-the-fitbit-but-theres-no-reason-to-get-overly-obsessed/) do offer more benefits such as access to online software, tracking and calories-burned estimates. No matter what type of pedometer you invest in, here are three tips to make your pedometer your best new fit travel buddy!

1. Set a step goal. Most health experts recommend getting 10,000 to 15,000 steps a day, although many of us don’t even get close to that. Wear your pedometer for a few days when you’re not traveling to see what your usual step count is. Then, when you’re on the road, try to top that number by 1,000. As you continue to use your pedometer, keep challenging yourself to hit that 10,000+ step number!

2. Keep a log. Whether it’s online software that came with your pedometer or a small book you record your steps in, be sure to keep a log with how many steps you’re taking each day. Not only does this help you to set step goals, but it also helps you to see your progress and pat yourself on the back as you get to steppin’ more and more!

3. Read the directions. Most pedometers these days are pretty easy to set up, but it pays to read the directions. Every pedometer is unique and may have slightly different features and requirements for calibration. In order to make sure you’re getting the most accurate step-count and the most out of your new fit travel buddy, it’s worth the ten minutes it takes to read about it. Have you used a pedometer while traveling? Will you? Tell us about it in the comments!

Choosing the right restaurant for a client dinner is important for the outcome of the meeting. A really bad meal will throw a pall over the most fruitful discussion. But the opposite can be true, too: A spectacularly wonderful meal may steal the show and have your client thinking more about the deliciousness of the bouillabaisse than the presentation you are making. Here are some tips for selecting just the right restaurant for a client dinner:

1. Go to a place you’ve been to before. Culinary exploration is fun on one’s own time, but when you pick the setting for a business meal, it’s extremely useful to know what to expect. Even better than going to a restaurant you know, is going to a restaurant that knows you. Getting a warm greeting from the staff is a great way to suggest that you are a take-charge person and have everything under control.
2. If you are in a strange city and don’t know any of its restaurants first-hand, do some homework. Consult guidebooks, websites and your hotel’s concierge if it has one; talk to trusted associates who know the city’s restaurant scene; call a potential restaurant, and quiz them to make sure it’s the sort of place you want to be.
3. One obvious but often over-looked consideration: Casually ask the client in advance if he or she has any particular food allergy, favorite type of restaurant, or strong like or dislike for any kind of food. You don’t want to walk into a steak house and then find out your dining partner is a vegan.
4. How casual or fancy do you want to be? If you know the person is a serious gourmet, a high-end setting might be just right. On the other hand, maybe your suggestion of a humble, little-known cafe would set the warm, fuzzy tone that helps a certain type of client relax. Ask yourself a question: Is this a situation in which it would be better to impress the client or to put the client at ease? If you know little or nothing about the person with whom you’re eating, take the middle road: A polite restaurant with decent food and a menu with something for everyone.
5. What is your goal at dinner? How important is it that you talk business and make the deal? If it is your one and only meeting and you need to get things done, choose a quiet place conducive to serious conversation. You don’t want singing waiters or a floor show intruding on important talking points! But if dinner is an evening warm-up for more focused business meetings, you might be better off selecting a non-businesslike environment so you can bond with your client. Here, too, the most important considerations are to respect what kind of person your client is and to clearly know what you want to happen at dinner.

As someone who blogs regularly about balancing business travel with life, I read a lot of relevant self-help books. Every now and again, I find a book that I want to tell everyone about. Stop Saying You’re Fine: Discover a More Powerful You by Mel Robbins is one of those books (http://stopsayingyouarefine.com/books).

I was lucky enough to meet Mel this past spring when she spoke at the Spark & Hustle conference in Boston. Mel is a life coach, syndicated radio host and relationship expert who makes a living helping people get what they want in life. As a busy working parent, I often feel pulled in so many different directions that it can sometimes be hard to get out of my own way! There are goals I want to achieve on a professional level, and hobbies I’d like to pursue in my spare time. But what often happens is I put the needs of my clients or my family before my own. Then I convince myself inertia is perfectly fine.

According to Mel, if you’re feeling bored or dissatisfied with your life, you’re not alone. “The pace and uncertainty of modern life has left us all spinning,” she says. “How do you change your life, when you can barely survive your day?”

Mel uses several concrete examples to illustrate how we get in our own way. Take exercise for example. You want to start a new workout program, but on the first day of your proposed new routine, you hit the snooze button. You decide to start over the next day. The next day comes, and you’re too tired. Maybe you’ll try again next week…

Mel suggests that we all stop hitting the snooze button of life. In fact, she says, we parents can follow the lead of our children on this: “Kids don’t over think anything. They lean in.” She explains, “If we were to take that philosophy on as adults, and just pay attention to what interests us…that alone would change our lives.”

On your next business trip, instead of sleeping in, get up early and read this book. Or better yet, download the audio version and listen to it while you run on the treadmill. Maybe you’ll discover a more powerful you.

]]> http://www.businessbalance.com/2011/11/book-review-stop-saying-you%e2%80%99re-fine/feed/ http://www.businessbalance.com/2011/11/overcoming-jet-lag-3-tips-to-feeling-refreshed-when-traveling-for-business/ http://www.businessbalance.com/2011/11/overcoming-jet-lag-3-tips-to-feeling-refreshed-when-traveling-for-business/#comments Tue, 08 Nov 2011 21:36:52 +0000 Erin From Fit Bottomed Girls http://www.businessbalance.com/?p=704

If you are a seasoned business traveler, you’re probably used to the flight delays, lost luggage and long lines at airport security. But one thing you probably never grow accustomed to? Jet lag. Whether you frequently head from one coast to another or occasionally jump across oceans to a different continent, jet lag sneaks up and bites you when you change time zones.

Jet lag results from the slow adjustment of the body’s clock to the new destination’s time, so daily rhythms and the internal drive for sleep and wakefulness are out of synch with the new environment, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But, you don’t have to be miserable and weary when fighting jet lag! Read on for tips on beating it like a champ.

1. Keep good nutrition on track. If you’re feeling sluggish because of a major time change, don’t add to the slug factor with heavy, high-calorie foods that will just make you want to curl up in your hotel bed until the sun rises the next day. Keep your meals light and healthy, with plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and protein. Include easy-to-pack snacks – such as apples, bananas, oranges and nuts – so that you’ll have healthy food available on the airplane and at your destination. While you’re at it, monitor your caffeine consumption. Coffee is most people’s go-to pick-me-up when they need a quick boost, but don’t overdo it. Nothing feels worse than adding coffee jitters and a post-caffeine crash to jet-lag exhaustion. So hit up the local coffee shop in moderation, and make sure to drink plenty of water as well!

2. Get that heart rate up. It can be hard to get up the energy to work out on the road when well rested, never mind when you’re coping with jet lag! But trust us, sometimes getting that heart rate up and breaking a mild sweat can be the best bet for waking a body up. You don’t have to go crazy—a brisk walk in the sunshine or a few quick stretches can be enough to reinvigorate yourself when all you want is to crash for the night at noon.

3. Shower up. There’s a reason most people start their days with a shower—it’s a great wake-up call. If you’re getting sleepy just sitting in your hotel room waiting for a big meeting, jump in the shower so you won’t fall asleep. Want something even more effective? Try a colder shower. Nothing will stimulate the senses more!

Time is the only true cure for jet lag, but these tips will help you cope until your body adjusts. What tips and tricks do you have for beating jet lag?

When on the road for business, it’s a treat to bring home edible souvenirs for friends, family or yourself. Sadly, many of the best regional specialties do not travel well (like the slab of Chicago barbecued ribs we packed in our carry-on bag, horrifying the TSA screener who looked at the X-ray and thought she saw a torso). However, candy is dandy and easy to transport. Below are our top local sweets that are delicious mementoes to bring home:

Nashville’s Goo Goo Clusters were named 99 years ago for a baby’s first words, because someone suggested to their inventor, Howard Campbell, that the candy blobs (not bars) are so good that people ask for them from birth. They’re now available through much of the Mid-South, but they remain a signature of the Music City. Each Goo Goo is a mighty mound of caramel, marshmallow and roasted peanuts enveloped in milk chocolate.

No one makes pralines like the confectioners of New Orleans. Our favorite place to buy a few dozen of the magical meld of creamy caramelized sugar and pecans is a corner store called Loretta’s, where the motto is “Fleur de Licious.” Optional additions to the standard praline formula are chocolate, peanut butter, rum and coconut.

Buffalo, New York, is the home of fantastic chocolate shops where everything is made fresh from scratch. Simply walking into Alethea’s and inhaling the perfume of molten chocolate is dizzying; and while the repertoire includes first-rate versions of familiar barks, truffles and toffees, two items are unique to Buffalo: sponge candy (known elsewhere as “fairy food” or “seafoam”), which is bite-size blocks of sugar spun to near weightlessness and enrobed with chocolate, and Charlie Chaplins, which are chocolate-covered logs of coconut, marshmallow and cashews.

The best way to eat CaramelCrispÒ is directly from the hot tray in which it has been made at Garrett Popcorn Shop on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. The second best way is to bring it back from your business trip in a portable takeaway tin. It will elevate popcorn-eating to a spiritual experience.

Bissinger’s candy shop opened in St. Louis in 1927, but the Bissinger family was already known for their confections in the 17th century, when King Louis XIV named them “Confiseur Imperial”. Subsequent fans of their work included Napoleon Bonaparte and just about every chocoholic lucky enough to stop into one of the two Bissinger’s shops in St. Louis (plus one in Minneapolis) to sample the family’s peerless chocolate-dipped raspberries, apricots, oranges, cherries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries or cranberries.

You can’t take home the most famous thing made at Shields Date Garden – a date milkshake – but if you happen to be driving between Los Angeles and Las Vegas and want a luxurious snack to remember your trip by, Shields also offers blonde and brunette dates, as well as ultra-creamy, unspeakably rich Jumbo Royal Medjools.

Although the candies known as turtles are popular everywhere, we know only one place that makes cherry apricot almond turtles, chipotle cashew turtles, and aloha turtles with macadamia nuts and coconut. That’s the sensational Turtle Alley, located north of Boston, where even the most traditional turtles are shockingly good. The shop’s full chocolate repertoire includes peanut butter cups, barks, fudge, toffee and an out-of-this-world invention known as the Umba: coconut, caramel and roasted almonds enveloped in milk chocolate.

Alethea’s: 8301 Main St., Buffalo, NY. 716-633-8620 www.aletheas.com

Bissinger’s: 4742 McPherson Ave., St. Louis, MO. 314-367-9750 www.bissingers.com

Garrett Popcorn Shop: 625 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL. 888-476-7267 www.garrettpopcorn.com

Goo Goo Clusters: www.googoo.com

Loretta’s: 2101 N. Rampart, New Orleans, LA. 504-944-7068 www.lorettaspralines.com

Shields Date Gardens: 80-225 Hwy 111, Indio, CA. 760-347-0996 www.shieldsdategarden.com

Turtle Alley: 91a Washington St., Gloucester, MA. 978-281-4000; and 1 E. India Square Mall, #110, Salem, MA. 978-740-0660 www.turtlealley.com

Long business trips can make sitting on an airplane very uncomfortable. From the small, cramped leg space and the poor air quality to the passenger sitting next to you who keeps taking your armrest, it can be less than pleasurable. This is why you need to learn how to find your “happy place” while in the air through airplane yoga!

Sure, you don’t have the space to do a full downward-facing dog or warrior II pose on a plane, but you can modify some basic moves and apply them during your next business travel flight. Here are three possible ways:

1. Gentle twists. Twists are fantastic in yoga because they help to detox the body, loosen the muscles and wake you up (perfect for that early morning flight!) They’re also super easy to do. When sitting on the plane, just slightly twist your upper body to one side, holding it for a few deep breaths. Repeat on the other side. If you have a really long flight and feel the need to stretch, try crossing the opposite leg of the side you’re twisting to for a deeper twist. Just remember to only twist to where it’s comfortable — you’re doing this to relax!

2. Reach for your toes. When we sit for long periods of time on a plane, the muscles in our legs and lower back tend to become tight. To help with this, extend your legs out as far as you can in front of you. Then, simply reach out and down towards your toes, stopping when you feel slight tension in your legs. Rest for a few breaths, and then repeat as many times during the flight as you need or want to!

3. Just breathe. Whether you’re into meditation or not, taking a few minutes on the plane to breathe deeply — instead of laboring over that stressful work project — can help you relax and focus. Sitting in your seat, simply inhale deeply through your nose and then exhale slowly through your mouth. Do this for ten breaths. I guarantee you’ll feel refreshed!

Try these three airplane yoga tricks during your next business trip flight to reap the zen-out benefits!

It is a good day for the business traveler when work ends at 5 p.m., leaving plenty of time to freshen up for a pleasant dinner on the town. But what if meetings last late into the evening, or what if your plane’s arrival into a city is delayed until past midnight and all you’ve had to eat is a few bags of airline peanuts? That’s when you need to know a good restaurant that is open all night. Not every city has them, but in those that do, some of the round-the-clock places are a choice destination during any time of the day or night.

New York, described by its theme song as the “city that never sleeps,” offers dozens of any-hour eating opportunities from Turkish kebabs at Bereket downtown to croque monsieur or steak au poivre at French Roast on the Upper West Side. For heaping portions of Greek-American lunch counter fare, check out the endless menu at City Diner on Broadway.

Washington D.C. mostly shuts down at night, but it does have its own always-open hash house, appropriately dubbed The Diner, known for such comfort food as grilled cheese sandwiches and milk shakes. In downtown Chicago, the place to go is Tempo for oversized omelets served in silver skillets. Thick toast comes with ramekins of house-made marmalade.

Not all 24/7 eateries are blue-collar hash houses. Yes, 13 Coins of Seattle has a counter where you can watch hash browns cook (and these are great hash browns), but its menu goes all the way from bacon and eggs to pan-fried trout, legendary onion soup and high-roller surf and turf. Opened over forty years ago, it has long been a favorite haunt of journalists from the nearby Seattle Times.

Du-par’s, located in the Los Angeles Farmer’s Market, is especially handy for people still on Eastern Time who wake up hungry for breakfast at 4 a.m. Its round-the-clock menu includes farm-good pancakes as well as freshly-roasted turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Fellow diners will include a motley cast of early risers and late-late party hearties.

For people-watching, few dining experiences beat a wee-hour expedition to New Orleans’ Cafe Du Monde in the French Market, where the menu is little more than cafe au lait and fresh beignets. But those beignets (pronounced ben-yays) are definitive: big, puffy pillows of hot fry bread that arrive so completely smothered with powdered sugar that it is dangerous to wear dark clothes if you have a business meeting afterwards.

Jo-Jo’s of Pittsburgh isn’t really open all night. Its hours are midnight to noon, established to suit the schedule of truck drivers who deliver produce to the nearby market. This night owl welcomes all comers - a cacophony of gear jammers, local early birds, visiting chowhounds and people who have nowhere else to go when the bars close. Its signature dish is the Jo-Jo omelet, a titanic affair that holds a rainbow of vegetables, sausage chunks and a heap of soft home-fried potatoes, all of which barely fit inside the half-circle formed by folding over the triple-egg challenge. The fried potatoes, blanketed by a mantle of dark brown gravy, are a fabulous companion for a Jo-Jo’s meat loaf sandwich.

13 Coins: 125 Boren Ave. North, Seattle, WA. 206-682-2513. www.13coins.com

Bereket Turkish Kebab House: 187 E. Houston St., New York, NY. 212-475-7700.

Cafe Du Monde: 800 Decatur St., New Orleans, LA. 504-525-4544. www.cafedumonde.com

City Diner: 2441 Broadway, New York, NY. 347-901-5831.

The Diner: 2453 18th St. NW, Washington, DC. 202-232-8800. www.dinerdc.com

Du-par’s: 6333 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles, CA. 323-933-8446. www.du-pars.com

French Roast: 2340 Broadway, New York, NY. 212-799-1533. www.frenchroastny.com

Jo-Jo’s: 100 24^th St., Pittsburgh, PA. 412-261-0280.

Tempo: 6 E. Chestnut St., Chicago, IL. 312-943-4373. www.tempocafechicago.com

Every year, I greet summer with mixed emotions. After being cooped up all winter and spring, there is nothing I love more than opening the windows, dining on the deck, cooking dinner on the grill, and watching my boys play baseball.

And yet, with summer comes a whole new host of scheduling challenges for working parents-especially when it comes to business travel. The predictable routine of the school year is replaced by weeks of day camps, math tutoring and overnight trips. How do you balance business travel with your family’s summer schedule and make the most of your summer?

Laura Vanderkam, author of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think, says you have to plan for it. Vanderkam estimates that even after factoring in full-time work (including business trips) and sleep, we still have more than 1,000 hours of summer to enjoy between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

“I don’t believe in planning life to the minute,” Vanderkam says. “But we live in a distracted world. If you don’t plan enjoyable activities for your leisure time, you will lose those hours to email, chores, television, puttering around the house, etc. All of those activities can fill available space. Then you’ll wonder where your summer went.”

“Don’t go overboard,” she adds. “Just choose a few fun activities a week, or maybe three on weekends, and schedule them in. Everything else can fit around the edges.”

One idea? Make good use of the added hours of daylight. Commit to putting away your handheld devices and get outside after work. Cook and eat outdoors. Take the kids to the park before bedtime. Break out the fire pit and roast marshmallows. Make a lemonade stand.

“We waste a lot of time by having high standards on things that don’t matter,” Vanderkam says. “In the course of writing about time, I’ve heard from people who prep for an hour for every conference call, people with elaborate make-up routines that seem more appropriate for television news anchors than a regular office job, people who spend two hours on chores every morning, as if someone is going to walk into her empty house during the day and inspect for dust. This is one reason I encourage people to keep time logs. We can start to see what is universal, and what are our own weird little time wasters that we can change if we desire.”

That’s why I am leaving the bed unmade in the morning and taking my new puppy for a walk outside instead.

If you’ve done your share of traveling for business, you likely have an embarrassing story or two under your belt. There’s simply no way to get in and out of airports, rental cars or lengthy business dinners year after year unscathed. True road warriors have the battle scars to prove it!

Falling in the airport, spilling red wine on a fellow passenger, getting sick on the red eye… My list of truly embarrassing moments is short, but not insignificant. In fact, it’s because of these moments that I’ve created my own personal list of dos and don’ts for business travel.

1.     Don’t wear heels in the airport. Do pack them in your carry-on bag.

2.     Don’t order red wine on an airplane. Ditto for colas. Do order water.

3.     Don’t assume nausea is a sign of nerves or pre-flight jitters. Do assume it could be a stomach bug and sip black peppermint tea before take-off.

4.     Don’t count on having time to grab money at the airport. Do have cash on hand at all times.

5.     Do keep a stocked, clear zipper bag of toiletries in your carry-on bag. Be sure it always has tissues, antacids and a sewing kit.

Even when we do our best to plan ahead, there are some situations that we simply can’t anticipate. When a truly embarrassing or humiliating event occurs on the road, what can you do?

Try to blend in. Or pretend it wasn’t you.

Sage advice from several working moms I surveyed recently. When I asked women to share their most embarrassing business travel stories I was overwhelmed by responses: Amy flew to her business meeting with two different colored shoes on. Elizabeth drove the wrong way in a parking garage with her boss in the passenger seat. Sheri’s bag got ripped to shreds on the baggage carousel, spilling out her dirty laundry and lingerie. Angela had to get off of a conference shuttle bus to get sick in the bushes. Kit’s waiter spilled a tray of drinks in her lap during a job interview over lunch.

Whatever the situation, it’s always best to try to smile through it and keep calm.  Maintain a professional demeanor at all cost. Sure, you’d prefer to run and hide, but if you can just disappear into your surroundings, that’s probably the best approach. As a wise businessman once told me (after I knocked a glass of red wine into his lap), “These things happen all the time.” Yes, they really do.