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May 2019
7462 Old Hickory Drive, Mechanicsville, VA 23111 • www.sklartechnology.com • 804-730-2628
Reach Your Goals with the Toughest Man On Earth Lessons I Used to Beat My Personal Best Marathon Time
book by literally stating, “Motivation is crap.” In order to lose 110 pounds in three months, complete the Navy SEAL Hell Week three times , and run the 135- mile Badwater Ultramarathon, Goggins developed something more powerful than motivation: mental discipline, or what Goggins calls a “calloused mind.” In order to overcome your next great challenge, you must be willing to put yourself in situations that make you struggle.Victory is great, but it doesn’t force you to improve.Take the path of most resistance. It’ll beat you up, but each time you force yourself to take another step, your mind becomes stronger. Like how hard work creates calluses on your hands, mental discipline demands you go through struggle to callous your mind. Business owners are the biggest quitters. A lot of people looking to improve themselves physically are drawn to “Can’t Hurt Me” because it focuses on endurance athletics, but Goggins’ book is really about what happens when we don’t let ourselves quit early.This is why I think every business owner needs to pick it up. Business owners and entrepreneurs are praised for not giving up when the going gets tough. However, once we get the business started, I’ve seen how business owners are tempted to play it safe and call it quits. If they launch a new product or try some new marketing that isn’t an instant success, a lot of business owners retreat back to safety.They trust the familiar and fear failure. But there’s no growth in your comfort zone.And when we let fear guide us, we fall into a cycle that can make what we fear come true.
This past winter, I spent months training for a marathon in March. My goal was to beat my previous personal best of 3 hours and 57 minutes. Based on my past races, I knew the last 5 miles were the hardest, so I increased my training to reach 25 miles in order to prepare. During one run, I came really close. I was 23 1/2 miles into my 25-mile run, but I was in bad shape.When you’ve been running for that long and you get a muscle cramp in your leg, it feels like a snake bite. It’s an insane sort of pain that feels like you’re dying.At that point, I kind of started hallucinating.As I passed a car someone had left running so it could heat up in the cold morning, I seriously considered jumping in and driving myself home. When I reached the end of that road, I could’ve turned left and gone home or turned right and finished the last mile and a half. I turned left and went home early. Not long after, I successfully ran the full 25 miles, but the memory of quitting early that day still haunts me. ‘Motivation is crap.’ David Goggins is the Navy SEAL behind the 40 Percent Rule — the idea that when you feel like you’ve given it your all, you’ve really only given about 40 percent of your energy. Your body still has a lot left in the tank; it’s your mind that’s holding you back. Recently, I read his book “Can’t Hurt Me” which explores his incredible life story and how he became the man he is today. There’s a lot I loved about Goggins’ book, but one thing that really stuck out was how quickly he bashes the idea of motivation. In fact, he introduced the
Call me a honey badger. I have learned that fear is the greatest enemy in life. Fear is part of a cycle that only leads to anger, guilt, regret, and pain. My friends call me “The Honey Badger” because I’ve worked hard to become a fearless person.There are things I’m afraid of, don’t get me wrong, but when I feel fear, I remind myself that it’s an inward feeling. The fear itself isn’t real, and acting on it doesn’t lead anywhere good. Fear is a good thing to be aware of, but it’s not something you should focus on.Your perception becomes your reality. If you focus on what you’re afraid of happening in life or business, that’s exactly what will come to pass. Learn to recognize when fear is telling you to quit at 40 percent when you still have 60 percent left in you. It’s hard, but pushing past your self-imposed limitations is the only way to improve. Never give up; never surrender. You can’t strengthen your mind if you let yourself quit early. I didn’t do myself any favors by turning left and going home that day.The next time I ran, it still hurt, and I still thought about giving up at 23 1/2 miles — it was only by forcing myself to endure the pain and getting to 25 that I proved I could do it.When the pain came back in the next run, I knew without a doubt I could overcome it and keep going.
That’s what it means to have a calloused mind.That’s what it means to be fearless and to never give up.
–Randy Sklar
A REFERRAL IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF FLATTERY. WHEN A CLIENT REFERS FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES TO US, IT REPRESENTS AN APPRECIATION OF A JOB WELL-DONE. IF YOUR FRIENDS OR ASSOCIATES COULD BENEFIT FROM OUR SERVICES, I’D BE HONORED TO HAVE YOUR REFERRAL!
Next to two-factor authentication, password managers are the most vital piece of everyday cybersecurity that most people aren’t using. Fortunately, as cybersecurity threats become more publicized, more users have turned to password managers. Some of the most popular password managers, 1Password, Dashlane, KeePass, and LastPass, are used by 60 million individuals and 93,000 businesses worldwide. Unfortunately, in certain situations, researchers have found security flaws in these password managers that render them “no more secure than saving passwords in a text file.” Not long ago, a team of ethical hackers with Independent Security Evaluators published a study identifying major security flaws in popular password managers. Password managers rely on a master password in order to access login credentials saved in the program. In the simplest terms, researchers were able to recover the master password from a PC’s memory. In some cases, the entire database of the password manager was saved in plaintext. This is alarming, but don’t start deleting your password manager just yet. Believe it or not, this study is actually good news for password managers and those who use them. It offers ways to boost our defenses when it comes to protecting login credentials. After the study came out, LastPass and RoboForm say they would issue updates within the week; Dashlane said it had previously documented the issue and was working on a fix but had higher-priority security concerns; KeePass and 1Password claimed it was a known limitation and accepted the risk. Password Managers Aren’t Perfect (This Doesn’t Mean You Should Throw Yours Out!) • Subscribe to your password manager so you can turn on two-factor authentication. The free versions don’t include this. • Use a passphrase for your password manager master password that has uppercase/lowercase letters, numbers, symbols, and is at least eight characters (i.e., Lov3$ecurity). • Disable your browsers from saving your passwords in your browser “free” vault. • Turn on two-factor authentication whenever possible. We recommend Google Authenticator. There is no silver bullet when it comes to cybersecurity. Password managers aren’t perfect, but they are far better than relying on weak passwords or, even worse, reusing the same passwords again and again. Looking to better protect your passwords and data? We launched our Online Identity Security Service to help you. Check out the free demo at Demo.SklarTech.com and learn about the resources available to help you feel more secure online. There are some other strategies you should employ in addition to your password manager to keep your data safe.
The Good Kind of Gossip
How to Cultivate Valuable Customer Reviews
When you’re thinking about buying a new product or service, what’s the first step you take? If you turn to theWorldWideWeb in search of reviews, then you’re in good company.According to a survey conducted by BrightLocal, 85 percent of consumers regard the customer review to be the single most credible and trustworthy sources of advertising.That same survey found that 68 percent of customers surveyed were willing to provide feedback for the company. So, how do you get your customers to write the glowing reviews that help close deals? 1. Diversify Your Platforms Don’t rely on customers to go to your website to leave reviews.There are numerous websites you can utilize that make leaving feedback more convenient for your clients.What’s more is that these other platforms are highly trafficked. BrightLocal found that Facebook and Yelp were consumers’ most trusted sources of user reviews in the U.S., but you can also use Google My Business or the Better Business Bureau. Most importantly, be sure you are active on all the platforms you use. 2. Offer Incentives Give your clients a reason to write reviews. Consider offering incentives like a discount or coupon code, coffee gift card, or an entry to win a contest for an even bigger prize. 3. Ask the Right Questions Think of the review process as a conversation rather than a request to be met, and use open-ended questions to start. Before you even request a review, you can ask customers questions like “How was your recent experience with us?” or “How are you liking your product?”That way, you can gauge their satisfaction before they leave any feedback. 4. Respond, Respond, Respond The last thing you want to see is a scathing one-star review. But no matter how hard you work, they are still bound to happen. When you receive one, take the time to respond thoughtfully —without being defensive — and try to come up with a possible solution to the complaint.And be sure to respond to your positive reviews as well.When you show that you engage with all of your customers, prospective ones will be more likely to give you a shot.
Time and Money When a bad email or a careless link click leaves you locked out of your company’s most precious files, there one question you need to be ready to answer: What do you do when faced with a ransomware attack? A lot of ransomware victims experience the same outcome, struggling to clean up the mess after the attack. Unfortunately, not paying the demands creates a different set of problems. On Dec. 24, 2018, the cloud data hosting firm Dataresolution. net experienced a ransomware attack. Rather than pay up, Dataresolution.net restored everything from backups.Their systems were down for two weeks.
Is There a Right Way to Deal with Ransomware?
4. Have a risk assessment performed and make sure a ransom simulation is run on the top 10 ransomware programs currently in the wild. Learn more at RiskAssessment. SklarTechnology.com . The best way to deal with a ransomware attack is by doing all you can to prevent one. Test and train all employees to know how to detect a fraudulent email. Employees should verify the sender by looking at the entire email address and hover over all links before clicking on them. Find a live training demonstration at LiveTraining. SklarTechnology.com .
Major security firms like Norton, as well as the FBI, advise against paying up when dealing with a ransomware attack.There’s no guarantee you’ll be able to regain access to encrypted files. However, companies that find themselves in the middle of a ransomware attack may get very different advice. In February 2019, payroll software provider Apex Human Capital Management was hit by a huge ransomware attack that shut down payroll services for hundreds of Apex’s clients for three days. Everything in the company’s computers and in their off-site disaster recovery systems had been encrypted.Apex hired two outside security firms to consult on the problem. Both firms agreed that paying the ransom was the fastest way to get systems back online.Apex paid the ransom, but that didn’t fix all their problems. Rather than return all the disrupted files to the pre-encrypted state, the decryption key broke file directories and rendered many files inoperable.
There’s no “best solution” when dealing with a ransomware attack. It’s more valuable to have a plan in place so you can quickly get things up and running again. Here are the strategies we recommend: 1. Make sure you are getting complete backups. Additionally, make sure you can restore all systems within the required amount of time. Over 90 percent of local companies we have worked with are not getting good backups or any back at all. 2. Limit access to folders to minimize the spread of the ransom attack for each employee. Business owners almost never need administrative access to the servers. 3. Make sure you are comfortable with your ability to detect the attack early and take action.This is the missing link to most security strategies.
Inspired by Food and Wine Magazine
Healthy Strawberry Mango Paletas
Ingredients
• 1/2 teaspoon pink Himalayan salt • 2 medium ripe mangoes, peeled, pitted and chopped
• 1 1/4 cups strawberries, chopped • 1/2 cup Xylitol • 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Directions 1. In a small saucepan, toss strawberries with 1/4 cup of the Xylitol and let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes. 2. Add 1/4 cup water and bring to a simmer
6. In the blender, purée strawberry mixture until smooth. 7. Into eight 3-ounce ice pop molds, spoon 2 tablespoons mango purée. Add 2 tablespoons strawberry purée to each mold, then top with remaining mango purée, leaving 1/2 inch between filling and top of mold. 8. Using a small knife, gently swirl mango and strawberry layers together. 9. Insert wooden ice pop sticks and freeze until solid, at least 4 hours and preferably overnight. 10. Dip molds in hot water for a few seconds, then unmold paletas and serve immediately.
over moderate heat. Cook strawberries until mixture thickens slightly, about 5 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and stir in 1
tablespoon of the lime juice and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
4. Let cool completely, about 45 minutes. 5. Meanwhile, in a blender, purée mangoes with remaining 1/4 cup Xylitol, 2 tablespoons lime juice, and 1/4 teaspoon salt until smooth. Scrape into a medium bowl and clean the blender.
7462 Old Hickory Drive Mechanicsville, VA 23111 www.sklartechnology.com 804-730-2628
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Inside This Issue Train Insane or Remain the Same The Value of User Reviews and How to Cultivate Them Another Security Breach —This Time with Good News! Should I Pay Ransomware Demands? Healthy Strawberry Mango Paletas Beginning a Barre Routine
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Barre-ing It All Burn Fat With This Ballet Workout
the world of fitness. The injury risk with barre is low, and those who struggle with balance will see an improvement. Additionally, most moves within a barre routine involve progressions, so if a position becomes too strenuous, students can scale back to a lower progression.
If you’ve ever dreamed of becoming a ballerina, barre might be the perfect workout for you. With classes and studios popping up across the country, barre is trending. You don’t need the grace of a dancer to get the most out of this ballet-inspired workout.
What Is It?
Derived from ballet, barre focuses on flexibility, strength, and toning. Students learn common ballet poses and do low-impact movements that burn fat and strengthen the smaller muscles that are often missed in strength training and cardio routines. Routines can range from using weights to relying solely on the body, while adaptations in barre can be more complex. For example, barre high-intensity interval training (HIIT) combines the muscle-sculpting capabilities of barre with the calorie-torching efforts of HIIT.
What’s the Downside?
Despite barre’s ability to tone and shape with precision, there are some limits. Those looking to lose weight will not find the results they crave from barre. Likewise, if you are living with diabetes or other chronic conditions where cardiovascular workouts are ideal, barre isn’t the best choice. However, like most fitness routines, barre is a great workout to weave into your regimen. For example, rather than relying on it for weight loss, use it to boost your stability and strength for other workouts. The beauty of a barre workout is that it’s flexible. Find a routine and style that is best for you and be prepared for how amazing your muscles will feel. (Once the burn fades away, of course.)
Who Should Do It?
Anyone can incorporate a barre routine into their fitness regimen. However, there are some demographics that can benefit most from a barre-style workout. Because barre involves low-impact moves, it’s great for women who are pregnant, people with arthritis, and those just dipping their toes into
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