Business Development, Social Selling, Online Video, Football Ref
Tag: Meeting Rodric Leerling
I’m reading more and more unfortunate reports of molested refs these days. Being hit by players or spectators who didn’t agree with their ruling. But behold, a new generation of refs is about to step in…. and has done so during the last couple of years. Continue reading “Boring new referees – Rodric Leerling”
Another rookie ref close to receiving his Dutch FA ref badge and the green light to ref games on his own. We bumped into each other at the sports complex – two guys who typically didn’t belong to either the club nor a team preparing to play. Continue reading “Did he really show a red card? Rodric Leerling”
The rookie ref confided to me during half time he’d rather not issue yellow cards. At least, he hadn’t done so in his last 20 or so (lower youth) games and he seemed convinced it didn’t fit his refereeing style. Continue reading “Meet the ‘no-yellow-referee’ – Rodric Leerling”
Four and a half months and I’m back to ‘knee one’. The physical situation is similar to when it started in May: a swollen, stiff knee. The latest injection with double dosis steroid worked exactly four weeks. Continue reading “Back to Knee One – Rodric Leerling”
This week, another much anticipated hospital appointment took place. It was to become a new discomforting medical talk.
It all started with good news. The rheumatologist told me no real abnormalities were found in either bloodtest or new x-ray photos. More importantly, no crystals whatsoever were found in the excessive knee fluids het extracted last time. Meaning, it is almost certainly not gout or ‘pseudo-gout’ (chondrocalcinosis). The bad news was slowly building up in my mind. And made written notes this time to remember the test results in more detail.
The specialist suggested one more fluid extraction from my swollen knee and wile the needle was still in, inject it with double the volume of corticosteroid in order to try once again kill the stubborn inflammation. I agreed as this seemed the last effort to cure the 15 weeks knee misery. In two weeks time, a 3rd extraction (if anything left) will take place for a final check on pseudo-gout. And another blood test.
I had to ask the question: so doc, what’s next if all this doesn’t work out? Well, if it’s definitely no gout (and that’s already for 99% certain), we are entering the early indication of the rheuma realm. A new therapy will need to be started and another medication to stop the inflammation. Probably back to a prednisolon course.
The injection was less comfortable than the previous extraction. The medication was added and I was instructed to keep calm for 2 days and then slowly try to exercise. In the meantime, I keep my fingers crossed.
My insurance company was one of the first to show compassion with my knee injury. “How long did you say you have had this knee injury? Wow, almost three months without a clear diagnosis. Let’s try a 2nd opinion before you see yet another specialist.”
I felt mentally supported after seeing 3 GP’s, the orthopedist (more of his assistant). Swallowing three different anti-inflammatory drugs, getting injected with cortisone and being X-rayed and MRI-ed.
The sport medical doctor was the one to give me the obvious word: you have stressed yourself too much as referee in futsal and field football. After such a hectic season the knee can’t cope any longer and blows up. Layman’s talk.
Well, none of that. He studied both the X-ray and MRI scan in my presence. Read the accompanying GP letter with their procedures so far. Checked my swollen knee and just nodded. His verdict was shockingly direct: this is clearly not a sports related injury. At least, it’s not the way a knee reacts to being overly stressed – even after a total inner-meniscus removal (40 years ago) and a heavy season where I pushed hard to get promoted. No mechanical cause to be found, just like the orthopedist told me.
He simply would have given the same advice: go and see the reumatologist. He will probably ask for a puncture and examine the excess fluid. Maybe he has a an idea what causes the knee (and possibly other body parts) to react so vehemently. He wished me luck and said to be sorry not to be able to help any further.
And just when I wanted to hit the ‘publish’ key, the reumatologist called me if I wanted to fill a last-minute opening in his agenda. Sure, let’s do it! Seeing him in 60 minutes. To be continued.
De ‘waarom vraag’ leidt vaak tot nieuwe inzichten in het leven en ontkracht tegelijk fabels en hypes. In dit geval draait het eigenlijk maar om een woord (en werkwoord): Google. Deze zoekmachine bepaalt tegenwoordig wat mensen van je vinden. Of je dat nu wilt of niet. Het gebeurt gewoon. Geen hype en geen fabel.
Grappig is dat we dagelijks (off-line) tijd besteden aan ons uiterlijk voordat we naar kantoor, meetings of congressen gaan. Maar we accepteren eigenlijk heel makkelijk dat we online als sjofel en onopgemaakt door het leven gaan. Je off-line en on-line imago moeten in evenwicht zijn. Zorg dat je zakenrelaties en prospects een gebalanceerd beeld van je vinden als ze op je googelen. Want dat doen ze. Regelmatig, en zonder dat je het zelf beseft.
Je digitale image is wat we online reputatie zijn gaan noemen. Wat heb je drie jaar geleden gezegd of gepost? Vaak vergeet je dat snel weer, maar Google niet. Haal die negatieve reacties en impulsieve opmerkingen op LinkedIn gewoon weg. Check wat je op Facebook hebt gezegd over anderen. En haal die foto’s weg die je kort na een event nog leuk vond, maar nu inmiddels niet meer. En ga dan eens op jezelf googelen. Wat komt er boven? Herken je jezelf in de digitale spiegel?
Dan is het tijd om zelf het heft in handen te nemen. Je begint met een content platform in je eigen naam (WordPress is ideaal) en start met tweewekelijkse blogs. Zet die uit op social media zoals LinkedIn en Twitter en laat je netwerk hierop linken. Denk aan onderwerpen die spelen in jouw sector. Doe maar gewoon en schrijf over zaken die prospects en je huidige zakenrelaties interessant vinden en bereid zijn om te gaan delen. Topics die typisch voor jou zijn en waar relaties je op herkennen. Gebruik de juiste tags en spel je naam eventueel ook opzettelijk foutief.
Zodra het linken frequenter wordt gaat Google verwijzingen naar jouw naam oppikken als relevant en kennelijk interessant om te lezen. Je indexering gaat omhoog en je verschijnt op pagina 1-3 van Google zoals jij dat wilt in plaats van dat Google dat ongevraagd voor jou doet. Je digitale spiegel wordt nu snel scherper en je online reputatie krijgt vorm. Herken je jezelf al een beetje?
Succes ermee. We helpen graag als je hulp nodig hebt.
It’s been a full month since I wrote my last blog. I really surprised myself. As if I had nothing to share. The opposite is true.
To my shagrin, I had to cancel all play-off games and football tournaments I wanted to help referee. Not just for the extra cash, but mostly for the comradery among colleague refs. Nothing this year. My knee didn’t allow me to do anything. It blew up suddenly and filled up with moisture. hindering me from any sort of exercise.
The doctor tried several roads to get the knee back in shape so he could examine it carefully. He at first thought it was jout, especially after my complaint of severe pain during the night. Then, after first swallowing the wrong meds and by accident ending the others too soon, I finally had my knee back in shape and pain-free after five weeks. Then, while laying on his treatment table, after twisting it left and right, we both heard the crack-crack sound. Maybe a jout combined with a meniscus break-off?
So, today it was X-ray time at the local hospital. Two pictures that should tell if there is indeed cartilage floating around, making the tissue around it swell as result of inflammation. And if it’s there, how can it be taken out?
Is this the result of forcing my knee to perform to the max? It would be extra dire with my recent promotions in the pocket for both futsal (indoor) and field football. We will know by Wednesday. Still time to get in shape for a new football season. I’m still hopeful and optimistic, as always.
I started listening to one of my recently subscribed podcasts The Fizzle Show (FS211). For starters I learned I should start labeling myself as Indie Entrepreneur: people who are “creating businesses to live life on their own terms”. The confirm that “yes, it’s amazing, it’s difficult, but it’s also possible”.
The podcast show is designed to help Indie entrepreneurs growing their small and solo businesses. Those people like me who are running their independent living, not looking to eventually become internet millionaire, but enjoy the business freedom and be free to change or add different projects. Using and improving their talents in another way.
The second learning was by listening to their show guest Vanessa Van Edwards teaching about the Science of Personality. Use your unique voice to positively influence the world. To put it simply: you can’t appeal to everyone. By behaving that way, you in fact won’t appeal to anyone and waste tremendous amount of energy faking things while saying ‘yes’ to everything. Where is your energy to say ‘yes’ to only the good things?
It taught me there are more personal types than just intraverts and extraverts – how about an ‘ambivert’? Very interesting to realize you can even be both, switching between these personality traits, depending on the situation, depending on who you meet and deal with. In fact, the majority of us have both introverted and extroverted tendencies. The direction ambiverts lean toward varies greatly, depending on the situation. The way you deal with different situations and how social you are is largely driven by dopamine, the brain’s feel-good hormone.
People with a natural high level of brain stimulation tend to be introverts—people who try to avoid any extra social stimulation that might make them feel anxious or overwhelmed. On the opposite, there are people with low levels of this brain stimulation and who tend to be extroverts. You will notice in social interaction like with networking events – the under-stimulation leaves extroverts feeling bored, so they seek social stimulation to feel good.
I realize I might be an ambivert too. What to do? It seems that the trick is knowing when to force yourself to lean toward one side of the spectrum (extra or intra) when it isn’t happening naturally. Will keep that in mind at the next networking event!
It was an important futsal night last Friday. On the roster a real futsal champions game. I checked the tables and realized the home team being nr.1 could become champion with just a draw, whereas for their opponent, nr.2 of the table, only a win would suffice. And on top of that my 3rd assessor’s report would be drafted based on this game.
I had ordered two chairs for penalty times and moved both sub benches five meters from the middle line and told both teams that they were facing the player sub area so don’t mess around! The indoor futsal hall was slowly filling with spectators.
I even requested a linesman to help me out. This is only required at next level games, but I didn’t want to take chances. The guy who was planned to be my secretary offered to take on this role while a former player was told to handle the scoreboard and clock. When I saw his sullen face, I suddenly realized I knew him as I had cautioned him in the past for dissent. A bad omen. OK, so this is how you start and stop the clock. And give me the last minute ok?
The game was tense from both sides but I hardly made any errors and was in full control. No cautions needed, so the chairs stayed empty. The shit hit the fan at the end of 1st half when the secretary forgot to give me ‘my last minute’. And shortly after, at the start of the 2nd half, he now forgot to start the clock and only after me shouting across the hall he did with 10 secs delay. Everything went fine and the home team was hitting home fast to become champion and get promoted to 1st class.
But my lousy secretary wasn’t paying attention again and he forgot to stop the clock at the last minute. Being fully concentrated, I noticed this immediately and started shouting across the hall to stop ‘the bloody thing’. And just when I looked up and then to my secretary, a home player took revenge (at least that I was told later) and tackled a guest player exactly at the same time. I only saw him drop and scream of pain, but didn’t see what caused it. I was still yelling at my lousy secretary, running across the hall and suddenly realized I missed a massive foul.
Spectators and players were yelling and screaming for justice. Why no cards ref? Come on, at least yellow? I quickly decided a free kick which seemed the minimum to everyone around me, but I didn’t know what else to do. I just ran the last 50 secs of the game with a deep feeling of frustration. The home team had won fairly easy and were celebrating their earned promotion. The away team realized they had just lost against a much better team.
Handshakes from both teams but I was still dazed and confused. I told the linesman that I was very upset about the stand-in secretary letting me down so badly. But he didn’t seem to care as the champagne bottles were popping and he just thanked me for a good game and walked away. Would the assessor have recorded what happened (from my perspective)? If not, I’m toast and can forget the hard worked promotion. All for nothing.
Rodric Leerling - Sales Power Provider 