Being Ready

A great thing happened over the weekend - my oldest daughter, Emma, who is five, just learned how to ride her bicycle without the use of training wheels.

For what seemed to be the longest time, she would only ride her bike with the training wheels attached. On Saturday, she decided she was ready.

We started off with me holding her seat and running behind her steadying her as she peddled. As you can imagine, that got tiring pretty quickly.

She wasn’t getting it, but was determined to ride the bike on her own. So we determined that her biggest obstacle was her balance - she had no sense of balance on the bike. I did a short exercise with her on her bike to help establish a sense of balance. This worked great. We started off and before I knew it, Emma was peddling away on her own.

This was a great moment of pride for me - something I’ll always remember - a real “daddy/daughter” moment.

I tell you this story because I think there is a great wisdom that we can all learn from my five year old. Before this weekend, any time we had urged Emma to attempt to ride her bike without training wheels, she’d find a way to get out of trying. Or if we did try - it didn’t go so well.

Yet, when we didn’t bug her to try and she determined she was ready - we experienced a great success.

See, you can’t force someone to try something new. If you get them to do what you want them to do - it will be half-hearted at best.

I had always heard that the biggest challenge that any entrepreneur and/or sales person has is getting someone to volunteer to change. That is so true.

When someone is ready to ride a bike, buy a product, or use a service, they are ready. That’s when they will give it their all, go all-out, etc. Forcing the issue before someone is ready is a recipe for disaster and a lot of wasted emotion and energy.

Does that mean you shouldn’t attempt to bring change to the status quo - not at all. Just realize that you probably won’t get many volunteers the first several times you try. But also realize that once someone gets on board with what you want to change - look out - the possibilities are endless.

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Saying "No"

This past week I got really good at saying “No.” I said no to many requests of my time, my money and my energy. We say no for many different reasons. Why is saying no important and why should we say no?

Saying no is important because if we all said yes, we’d be in big trouble. This isn’t about attempting to knock you down with negativity - on the contrary - saying no can be quite positive. There is only one of you and only 24 hours in a day. You can’t possibly do everything, let along everything you’d like to do in a day. It’s just not possible.

Saying no is a form of decision making. Saying no is about being decisive. Saying no is about knowing where you are heading.

By saying no, we save time, money and energy from actions and commitments that would otherwise distract us or drain us or otherwise send heading in a million different directions.

Many times people have difficulty telling someone else no. We fear offending someone or fear the “set in stone” nature of the term - it’s very conclusive.

Telling someone no is actually showing them a sign of respect in many cases. If some asks you to do something for them and you really don’t have the time to do it - which is better, saying yes and doing a terrible job (or worse, not completing the task) or saying no with an explanation? I’ll bet that the other person would rather hear you tell them no up front. Saying no in this circumstance saves everyone time and frustration.

When are the appropriate times to say no in your business and life? What will you save by saying no? Will these times help you to know when to say yes?

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Criticism

How often do you receive criticism for something you have done or said? How does it make you feel? How do you respond? What should you respond to?

From my experience, there are two types of criticism - criticism you ignore and criticism that you respond to.

What is criticism you ignore - typically it’s from people you don’t know. Maybe someone out of the blue saw something you wrote and felt the need to make themselves known and give their opinion, unsolicited, about your ideas. You don’t know them, they aren’t on your mailing list, and their criticism is just a rant. My best advice of how to handle it is to either ignore it completely or send a quick response thanking them for their opinion. By quick, I mean one or two lines of text. Don’t waste your time with these people - responding with anything more will only encourage someone like this and you may end up spending time and energy on a relationship that is going no where.

What is criticism you should respond to - when a client has a criticism, especially a client you care about, you have an obligation to respond. People you have some sort of relationship with are worth the effort and deserve a response. Generally, these people are letting you know that they care about what you are saying or doing. They may disagree or they may not understand. Either way, they are looking to engage in conversation, not just ranting. They understand that criticism can be helpful and turn into a win-win situation. You don’t have to agree with someone, but you do have an obligation to listen to them and to let them know that you’ve heard them. Even if you don’t go with what they want, explain your decision to this person, because they will be glad you listened to them.

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31 Days

As you well know, December has 31 days. It's one of the longer months of the year in terms of total number of days on the calendar. But in reality, it's actually one of the shorter months for accomplishing your goals.

First, take all the weekend days out of the mix - that's eight days - you are now down to 23 days. Take out Christmas and the day before and after, along with New Year's Eve - that's four more. Now you are down to 19 days. As far as sales days go for most businesses, the days between Christmas and New Year's are a bust - so there are two of those left. Now we are down to 17 days.

Counting today, you only have 17 working days to accomplish your goals if they have anything to do with other people. Even that may be a bit of a stretch. Good luck attempting to reach someone that you absolutely have to talk with on the 22nd and 23rd. That leaves you 15 days.

You've got 15 days to be productive - slightly less than half the month. What do you need to do to ensure this is a productive month? What do you need to do today? How about right now? Get going!

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Changes

Change is one of the few things that is a constant is an old saying. It’s true in business and in life.

Speaking for my business, I’m excited about several of the changes that are coming together at the end of this year. From mastermind groups, teleseminar schedules, events I’ll be facilitating and presenting for, etc. there’s many things to look forward to.

These things don’t happen in a vacuum though - they take planning.

When’s the last time you updated your strategic plan? How about the last time you looked at it? 2008 is coming to a close - now is the time to prepare for 2009. Schedule time now in your calendar to work on your strategic plan.

Need help, not sure what should go in your strategic plan? Not sure how much time you need? Feeling lost? Give me a call 717-557-5001. I’m more than happy to help.

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Lessons from The Godfather

Over the last week I watched the entire Godfather trilogy. There's so much I could write based on these movies, but I'm going to limit my article to three points.

First, "keep you friends close, and your enemies closer," is one of the lessons that Michael Corleone learned from his father. In the business world, you could alter that to keep you friends close and your competitors closer. It's always good to know what the competition is doing. It's good to know what their strengths and weaknesses are compared to yours. It's also good to know the differences between your business and theirs because ultimately, you should be a resource for your prospects - meaning that you might just refer business to a competitor sometime because they can do a better job for a contact than you can. Your contact will thank you.

Second, "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse," is probably the most famous line from the movie. From the standpoint of your business, what could you offer that a prospect couldn't refuse? What kind of value could you possibly provide that would make it crazy for a prospect to pass on?

Lastly, the end of the movie shows an old Michael Corleone sitting in a chair, alone, then slumping over and dying. In the end, it's not all the money that you generated, or the toys you had, or anything material that matters, you still die. What kind of legacy do you want to leave? How about your business - what do you want people to say about your business when you finally close shop, sell, or pass the business on?

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Election Lessons

Being someone who has an extensive background in politics, I would be remiss if I didn't write an article on the lessons learned from this past Tuesday's election.

Here's a few lessons/reminders that apply to politics, and certainly apply to business.

First, for professionals, election night signifies the beginning of the next election cycle. There is little time to rest because there is another election right around the corner. Isn't that the same in your business? When you make a sale, you don't sit around and celebrate and stop working. A sale signifies that it's time to move on to fulfillment with your new client and time to get back out and start selling again (and actually you should be prospecting continuously). The point is, celebrate your sale, but get back to work.

Second, emotion. It's always interesting to watch the emotional roller coaster that staff, volunteers and supporters go through leading up to and through the actual election. The more emotionally attached to a candidate someone is, the more they will do for that candidate. People don't buy because something makes sense, they buy because of emotion - in the case of this election, something historic, feeling comfortable with a candidate, fear of losing something, etc. It's no different for any other business. People buy based on emotion. How can you tap into that?

Third, expectations. Politics is a huge expectations game. It is dangerous for a candidate to raise their own expectations too high because the likelihood is that they will fail. Our governmental system is designed to resist change, promote gridlock, and be inefficient. When it comes to government, that's a good thing - as I always say, the most efficient form of government is a dictatorship - and who wants that? Is this any different for your business? What are you expectations? Are they realistic? What expectations are you promoting to your clients and prospects? Are you raising expectations too high or lowering expectations too low?

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Two Months Left

It’s now November. There are two months left in 2008. I’m going to take this opportunity to ask you a series of questions. The point is to make the most of the rest of 2008.

Are you one track to meet your strategic goals for 2008?

When’s the last time you looked at your strategic plan?

If you could only accomplish one more goal in 2008, what would it be? What’s holding you back from completing it? How will you overcome those obstacles?

What’s your sales goal for these last two month?

What training/development do your people or you need?

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Reading in Kindergarten

This past week I got to read a story to my oldest daughter’s kindergarten class as part of the class’ secret reader program. I went all out for this - dressing up as a pirate. I read “Roger, the Jolly Pirate” to the class. I even brought a treasure chest and handed out chocolate gold coins for the kids. The kids genuinely loved it and I had a great time as well.

I’m sharing this because I think there are some great customer service lessons that I learned from this experience.

First, the kids fed off my enthusiasm. Don’t your customers feed off your enthusiasm as well? When you are passionate about what you do, people can see it. Zig Ziglar defined a sale as the transference of energy. Who would you rather buy from, or even pay attention to for that matter - someone with passion or a dull person?

Second, you have to earn the right to be heard. While the First Amendment of the Constitution gives everyone the right to free speech, it doesn’t guarantee that anyone has to listen. That’s true in politics, sales, customer service and reading to kindergartners. I earned the class’ attention because I understood what they would value - creativity, interaction, and dressing up.

Third, don’t overstay your welcome. Know when to leave on a high note. I was in the class for approximately 30 minutes, maybe less. If I had stayed much longer, I would have started to blend in with everything else that was going on, the kids would have lost interest, and I would have lost my effectiveness. How often do we overstay our welcome with our customers? Do what you have to do with your customers, understand their attention span, and then let them be until next time. Trying to provide more value beyond this may actually do more harm than good.

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Travel

Over the last couple of weekends I've had the opportunity to do some traveling. As you know, two weekends ago I was in Hartford, CT. This past weekend, the family came with me out to Grove City, PA for my wife and my ten year college reunion. Here's what I've learned from my recent travels:

Always provide yourself a cushion. Whether I was traveling by myself or with my family, when we give ourselves an extra cushion of time to arrive, we can stay more relaxed. When you are planning out your business goals, are you cutting it close, or are you giving yourself enough time to actually complete the goal?

Traveling is a process, not just a result. Yeah, you are looking to arrive at a certain location at a specific time, but when you let go of the result, you can actually enjoy the ride. In my case, I enjoyed the turning leaves of New England and Central PA. We got where we were going with enough time. When you are working on your goal, are you so focused on the result that you miss other opportunities?

Lastly, take a break. I took time off and did no work while we traveled this past weekend. I didn't even check my e-mail. It was a great sense of relief. When you are working on your goals, how often do you give yourself a break? Breaks are important - they give our minds an opportunity to stop focusing on your goal. When we get back to our goal work, we are more refreshed and ready to go - usually making us more effective.

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All Roads Lead to Follow Up

A classic study of sales calls made by Dartnell and McGraw Hill produced the following fascinating statistics:

80% of all sales are made only after 5 or more contacts
48% of all salespeople give up after the first contact
25% give up after the 2nd contact
17% give up after the 3rd or 4th contact

These statistics show that 90% of the salespeople give up before 80% of the sales will ever be made!

Hartford Marathon

The marathon is over. As usual, I learned a few lessons from the race that I'd like to share with you.

First lesson - keep going. I ran 21 miles before taking a walk break. This felt great. It kept me on target to do a personal best.

Second lesson - relax. Several times during the race, I reminded myself to relax my body. This allowed me ease up my body and run easier.

Third lesson - Make your goals big. I set a goal of finishing the marathon in three hours and fifty-nine minutes. I didn't make it in that time, but I still was pleased, because it wasn't ever about reaching that goal. It was about pushing myself farther than I had been before. As a result, I did finish with a personal best - topping my old personal best by 20 minutes.

What are the lessons you are learning in your business and your life? Care to share them with anyone? You never know what you or others could learn.

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Masterminding

Masterminding seemed to be the theme of this past week. I was asked to participate in one mastermind group, facilitate another and I launch a new site of my own on masterminding.

Masterminds can be very valuable for entrepreneurs. They are opportunities to bounce their ideas off of other entrepreneurs. The feedback the participants receive can make a huge impact.

Who do you bounce your ideas off of? Who can give you honest feedback? Who pokes holes in your ideas?

These are the things that masterminds can offer. If you are interested in masterminding but are not sure how to get started, please give me a call at 717-557-5001 or drop me an e-mail and I'll share what I know or invite you to one of the mastermind groups I'm involved with.

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Getting Stuff Done

This was a good week when it comes to goals. I was pleased to accomplish several of my strategic goals this week. Of course, it's a great feeling to accomplish goals - however, I'd say it's more important to understand what allowed me to accomplish so much.

So what happened that allowed me to get so much done? First, I was focused. I knew exactly what I needed to accomplish. I allowed myself to be specific. When I'm specific, I know what the end result looks like.

Second - I faced and overcame obstacles. A big change that happened over the last few weeks was a change in thinking about the obstacle I faced. I was able to overcome my own challenge because my belief about the old way of doing things was no longer acceptable. When this thought changed, so did my behavior. I did the thing I had been dreading previously and I did it without effort.

So what do you need to do to get stuff done this week? What's the biggest goal that have for the week? What obstacles are you facing? Let me know if you need some help.

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Habit

Have you ever thought about the habits that you have and how they affect you, your business, and your clients? This past week, I've been taking extra special notice of the habits I have and how they impact others and myself. The information I've been collecting on myself has yielded a variety of responses to my own behavior - some good and some not-so-good.

This has allowed me to determine not only what I don't like, but also what upsets me enough to actually make a change.

This self-assessment has also been good from the standpoint of reminding me of my strengths. So often we take our strengths for granted.

Have you ever done your own self-assessment? What are you learning about yourself and your business? What changes would make a big impact on your business?

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Tip from a Member

10 Cooking Tips to Help Save $$

• Cook batches - If you have time over the weekend, make large quantities of your favorite dinners. Set aside enough to serve the next night, and freeze additional batches for days when dinner's a rush. (Freeze promptly so teenagers don't polish off the extras…) Florentine Brunch Casserole and Beef Tamale Bake are easy to make and freeze.

• Go meatless a few days a week - You'll save money and reap health benefits, too. Try Creamy One-Pot Pasta or Portobello, Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Pizza.

• If you do buy meat… buy the tougher cuts, which are less expensive, and stew, roast or marinate to tenderize and add more flavor. Try Balsamic-Glazed Strip Steaks or Chipotle-Rubbed Beef Filets.

• Use whole grains - Brown rice and quinoa are delicious and nutritious in their own right, but you can also use them in Quinoa Salad with Shiitake Mushrooms and Leeks and Harvest Brown Rice Salad.

• Buy beans - Dried or canned legumes like white beans, chickpeas, and lentils are an inexpensive way to add protein to your diet. You can use them to make a tasty pot of chili go farther, or you can make a salad topping by combining white beans with some extra-virgin olive oil, chopped garlic, and crushed red pepper. Try Hearty Oven Chili or the Hearty Six-Can Chili recipes.

• Make a pot of soup - Easy, nutritious, filling, and inexpensive soup is the ultimate money-stretcher. Throw in leftover veggies or protein, pasta or rice, and lentils or beans. Try Roasted Tomato & Barley Soup or Italian Meatball Soup. Add a side of crusty whole-wheat bread, and it's a meal.

• Boost salad - A simple salad dressed up with easy additions such as cold roast chicken, shrimp, ham, or chunks of tuna can be an entrée rather than a side. Try Deluxe Cheeseburger Salad or "The Works" Baked Potato Salad

• Experiment with herbs - Fresh herbs add a flavor boost to any dish. If you find you have extras, whip up a quick sauce or pesto for use later in the week. Sautéed Halibut with Citrus-Basil Sauce is a great way to use basil, and you can experiment with Basil-Walnut Pesto to brighten up pastas, soups, and even sandwiches.

• Make your own snacks - You can reduce your food bill by reducing your snacking. Packaged snacks are expensive, often loaded with sugar and fat, and full of chemicals you can't even pronounce. If you're a compulsive snacker, switch to homemade treats such as Game Day Party Mix Another good choice? Moroccan Hummus is a dip-with-a-kick for dunking baby carrots or pepper slices.

• Employ leftovers quickly - Don't push leftovers to the no-man's-land at the back of the fridge. Make sure you use them promptly, either for lunch or another dinner. Turn leftover 30-Minute Chicken into Barbecue Chicken & Onion Pizza and leftover turkey into Turkey Vegetable Cobbler.

Want to know where to find these recipes? You can find them in the following Pampered Chef cookbooks and product use and care cards:

• All the Best, It’s Good for You, Season’s Best Spring/Summer 2008, Grill It Quick! Recipe Collection, Spin on Salads, 29 Minutes to Dinner, More Stoneware Sensations, Smooth Edge Can Opener Use and Care Card, Colander & Bowl Set Use and Care Card, Hooked on Fish Recipe Cards, Moroccan Rub Use and Care Card

Ronnie Keels
The Pampered Chef
717-747-0883
www.pamperedchef.biz/Rkeels

Traveling With a 19 Month Old

As you are well aware by now, I drove up to Rochester, NY to run in the half-marathon this past weekend.

I decided to take our son Grant with me on this trip - he's 19 months old. The trip served two purposes. First was to run the race and second was an opportunity to visit my family.

I learned a great deal from this trip. First, 19 month olds have a lot of stuff. I had 2 bags for the trip, everything else was Grant's. Now understand, we have three children, so we are used to taking a lot of stuff for a trip. It just struck me about how much stuff we needed for this little person.

I also learned to take notice of things I would have never noticed as I drove. Grant is great at pointing out animals, big trucks, and anything that catches his eye. This gave me an opportunity to see the world through my son's eyes.

Third, I learned to appreciate more frequent stops on our trip. Grant can only sit in the car seat for so long before he needs to stretch out a bit. Well, that stretching helped me as well.

So why do I share all this with you? Well, I don't have employees, but I do have clients. What Grant taught me was to take a look at the world through his eyes for a bit. It made the trip more enjoyable. I wonder what would happen if I looked at the world through my client's eyes? What would happen if you looked at the world through your clients' or employees' eyes?

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Vision 2.0

Over the last few weeks as I've been working on implementing my strategic plan, something has been bothering me - my vision statement. I wasn't sure what exactly it was that bothered me though. I just knew that something about it wasn't right - which means that it was time to re-examine the vision statement.

I scheduled time over the last week to rework my vision statement, worked diligently on the statement and now have a new vision statement that keeps the theme the same as the previous statement, but is more focused and more compelling. Most importantly, my new vision statement brings the strategic plan together nicely.

In case you were wondering, my new vision statement is "To be the invaluable resource that assists EADD entrepreneurs to turn their own "Someday Island" into paradise on earth."

I tell you all this to ask you a few questions. What's your company's vision? What does it mean to you? Is it compelling or just a bunch of buzz words strung together? When's the last time you looked at it? What do you do with your vision statement?

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Wow

Every once in awhile you have one of those weeks that just wow you. That's happened this week. So many good things happened this week that it can only be summed up with "wow."

Meetings with suspects and prospects, a great teleclass, excellent meetings with clients, great networking events, moving forward with my own strategic plan, meeting my financial goal for the month, a great training run, my oldest daughter starting kindergarten, and some political news that I was excited about. I'm sure there's more, but the list is big enough to make the point.

Each time I was wowed it built on the last wow - building momentum. And that momentum didn't just affect me, it had an effect on everyone I touched this week. Isn't that what it's all about?

So what is it that wows you? What about your business wows other people? What would it mean to your business to be able to wow someone else, a co-worker, or a client?

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22 Miles

This past Saturday morning, I woke up at 4:45am so that I could be out the door by 5:30am for my latest training run - 22 miles.

I can't think of a training run, especially a distance training run, where I haven't learned something. What I learned Saturday was the notion of breaking large things down to manageable parts.

Now, I've always known that it's easier to break down a long run into smaller runs - ie - making a 22 mile run the equivalent of two 11 mile runs or two eight mile runs with a seven mile run. What I learned this Saturday is to break the 22 mile run into even smaller parts. I broke the run down into a series of one, two and three mile runs. I would run the distance I was shooting for, maybe a two mile run, and reward myself with a drink of fluid and a short walk of a block to allow my body to rest for a moment.

These short runs are great training for when I am in the "wall-" the time in a marathon when everything hurts and you question why you are doing the marathon at all. If I can train my body and mind to only worry about doing a one, two, or three mile run at a time, then if I do hit the wall, I only need to worry about going a short distance before I get a break.

See, breaking down a 22 mile training run into a 3, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1 and 1 mile runs is alot easier from a mental perspective. 22 miles is a long distance. Two or three miles is a nice warm up run. The perspective is different. I also come away with more mental energy because I only ran two or three miles at a time as opposed to the accumulated mileage.

Is all of this a slick attempt at fooling myself. Maybe, but it's working. I completed the full run doing a 10 minute pace, which includes rest times. I know it would have been a slower pace had I focused on the full 22 all at once.

Exit questions: What big project do you have - what's your 22 mile project? How can you break it down to manageable parts?

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Thinking Differently

So often in life, what we know to be true can only take us so far. Many times, if we are to go to that next level we are seeking, we have to start thinking differently.

The old saying that sums this up goes something like - What got you to where you are won't get you to where you are looking to go.

I bring this up this week because over the past week, I've observed something interesting - I've noticed a huge strain on relationships - personal, professional, etc. Over the past week I've listened to people tell their story of the ending of a marriage, several business partnerships, a strategic partnership, etc.

I know this much, ending a relationship can be difficult, regardless of whether it is personal or professional. That's because the people involved have invested time, energy, emotion, and effort into one another.

So often though, people stay in relationships that they have either outgrown or are worse, harmful to them.

My question to you this week is this - examine your relationships - both personal and professional. What's working and what's not? Which relationships need time and attention and which relationships need to be ended. What's your plan of action to move forward?

In business, look at your sales relationships, client relationships, relationships with people you network with, relationships with your co-workers/employees.

In your personal life, look at your relationships with all the people who make an impact on your life - family, spouse, children, parents, etc. And all the people who you make an impact on - friends, etc.

Strong relationships are important not only because of what they bring, but also because of what they prevent. Poor relationships cause many forms of stress. How productive are you at work when you are dealing with a stressful relationship? I'll guess that the answer is not very productive.

Confront and resolve those stressful relationships as soon as possible. In a difficult business environment you need all your focus on being productive, not fretting over a relationship.

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Bus Orientation

Our oldest daughter, Emma, will be entering Kindergarten this year. This past Friday, I took her over to school for bus orientation. This is the time when all the new Kindergartners have an opportunity to practice getting on and off the bus, how to sit on the bus, learn about bus safety, etc. The parents even had the opportunity to take a short bus ride with the new students. In all, it's a very nice program a few weeks before school starts.

Couple this with Kindergarten registration last month and a couple of other events and it makes the transition to school much smoother for the children so that by the time school is in full swing, they already have some level of comfort.

I tell you this because how often do we throw our coworkers, employees, our customers and clients, or even ourselves right into the mix of what's going on. You wouldn't go out for a 10 mile run without warming up would you? You wouldn't just drop your children off at school the first day without even knowing their teacher's name would you? Yet how often do we skip the "warm up" for work? Maybe it's a project or something for a client. If we don't provide some kind of guidance for the people who will do the work, why should we expect that person to do what we want perfectly? Guidance doesn't mean micromanagement, it could be as simple as taking 5 minutes to show someone what you are really looking for, or assisting them for a few minutes until they get the hang of it, or even taking the time to lay out a standard operating procedure that someone can follow.

Take a moment and think about some of the recent projects in your business. Did you do any "warm-ups" with the people who were doing the work? What could you have done? What would have made the project gone better? How about for yourself - what warm-ups are you doing? Are you planning out what exactly you will be doing, or are you flying by the seat of your pants? Which way do you think you'll get better results with?

- Like what you are reading? Want more? Be sure to sign up for my free weekly newsletter - Passport for Success. It is delivered to your e-mail box every Monday morning. Sign-up at somdayisland.com

What are you Selling?

In a weak economy, businesses need to ask themselves some tough questions - like what are we selling? And no, you don’t get credit for the simple answer of naming your product or service. Those are just means to an end. So the question is really, what are you really selling? Are you a widget, or are you selling something that will save people time or money that will allow them to spend more time being profitable, more time with family, etc. Here’s a couple of paragraphs from the full article I did on this topic:

One of the differences between a business that is thriving in hard economic times versus one that is struggling is this - the thriving company has made themselves recession-proof by focusing on value.

In other words, companies that see their product or service as just a commodity will continue to suffer. Companies that see their product or service as adding value to their customers businesses and lives are thriving. In a weak economy people are spending money on products and services that help them solve a problem, relieve a pain, or add value to their businesses or lives.

So what are you selling?

- Like what you are reading? Want more? Be sure to sign up for my free weekly newsletter - Passport for Success. It is delivered to your e-mail box every Monday morning. Sign-up at somdayisland.com.

Goal Setting

We are well in to the second half of the year. Most people are looking at their bottom line and asking themselves "why am I not where I thought I would be?" I was recently listening to Bob Proctor on goal setting and he had some insight into that. See my post for the information:

Goal Setting

Adjustments

It’s been said that change is the only constant. I wholeheartedly agree. If you know me, you know I not only embrace change, but thrive on change. The key to successful change, I’ve found is being willing and open to making adjustments when the circumstances change. In otherwords, if you have a goal you’re most likely going to have to change either your goal or the actions leading to the goal if you are going to be successful.

I’m in training for my sixth marathon in Hartford, CT this fall. During the last week, we’ve had some significant heat and some cooling. We’ve also had a short round of sick children in our home, which causes sleeping issues for my wife and me.

Regardless of the temperature and humidity and sick children, the training for the marathon must go on - without training, I just wouldn’t be able to do the marathon.

So what am I to do? Adjust my training schedule. Maybe after one night of being up with the children time after time I decide to skip my core exercises for the next day - I need sleep instead. Doing the core exercises would actually be worse for me since my body would be worn down and there would be a greater risk for injury.

(Read the full article here)

What adjustments must you make to be successful today?

- Like what you are reading? Want more? Be sure to sign up for my free weekly newsletter - Passport for Success. It is delivered to your e-mail box every Monday morning. Sign-up at somdayisland.com

Education

It’s been said that knowledge is power. That’s not exactly true. Applied knowledge is power. Over the past week, it’s easy to compile the list of things that you’ve actually learned. The next step is to ask yourself some important questions:

So what did you learn today? What will you do with this new knowledge? How will you apply this knowledge to your business and life?

When you can answer these questions, you are taking your learning and education to the level of power. When you have power, you can make stuff happen.

- Like what you are reading? Want more? Be sure to sign up for my free weekly newsletter - Passport for Success. It is delivered to your e-mail box every Monday morning. Sign-up at somdayisland.com

Be Yourself

Some of the best advice I’ve heard in my life can be boiled down to simple phrases. So often we get caught up in the technical details that we forget about what’s really important. I wrote an article about one of the golden nuggets of life - being yourself.

This past week I had the opportunity to be on a teleseminar about being a well-paid speaker. The speaker has done over 2200 speaking engagements, so he had a wealth of knowledge to share.

I took some notes from the call, but stared and underlined one particular note. The speaker was talking about speaking technique. Now, most people would probably expect him to talk about standing posture, tone, what to do with your hands, walking, etc. Instead, he gave the best advice I’ve heard in a long time - don’t worry about all that stuff - just be yourself.

- Like what you are reading? Want more? Be sure to sign up for my free weekly newsletter - Passport for Success. It is delivered to your e-mail box every Monday morning. Sign-up at somdayisland.com

How to fill out a referral slip

In PRE, we use 3 ply carbon-copy sheets to track our referrals within the chapter. In order to ensure all referrals are tracked correctly, please make sure you fill out the referral slip in it's entirety. These steps will help you ensure you do not miss anything.

1. at the top, check whether it is a 1st or 2nd generation referral. EXAMPLE: if I have a referral for Jason Eve to have my car's oil changed, it is a 1st generation referral. If i have a referral for my grandparents to have their oil changed, it is a 2nd generation referral.

2. Next, fill in who the referral is going to and the date. In my example from above, it would be to Jason Eve/Brooks Huff. (you can list the company name or person's name, either is fine)

3. List who the referral is from and your phone number in case there are questions- this referral is from me, Marie Cartwright/Net-Aid and i would list my office number

4. Next list the person who they are to contact and their phone number - in this case, it would either be my name and number if it's my car, or I would list my Grandparents name and number if it was for their car.

5. Specifics concerning this referral - list what the referral is for - in this case, an oil change.

6. Check whether this is new or repeat business.

Now you are ready to give the referral. In my example, i would give the White copy to Jason as the receiving member, the Yellow copy goes in the bucket, and i keep the Pink copy for my records.

When the sale is finished.........
1. If you are the holder of the white slip, when the sale is completed, fill out the date and how much the transaction was for. The dollar figure should be the Gross Sale total, NOT profit/commission.

2. Turn the white slip back into the bucket at the meeting

3. If for privacy reasons you cannot turn in sales with client information, or if it's just easier for you to tally everything at once, please feel free to email me your monthly sales total mcartwright@net-aid.net.

One last note - please hang on to your pink referral slips and reference the to make sure you are not giving the same referral twice. It's easy to forget, and this will ensure you know what referrals you have already given.

Running in the Rain

I love to use running as an analogy for life. It’s about discipline, endurance, focus, pain, joy, etc. I wrote a post about running in the rain and my thoughts about the experience. You’ll want to go to the full article to read Mark Victor Hanson’s quote, which applies to so many areas of life.

It’s been said that the difference between successful people and failures are that successful people do the things that failures are unwilling to do.

I think this is true is every area of life - business, sports, health, family, etc.

Take a look at the different areas of your life that you deem successful. I can guarantee that you’ve done some things in that area of your life that others are unwilling to do. If it’s business, maybe that means cold calling, or networking, or some other activity.

A personal example for me was this past Thursday. As you know, I started my training for the Hartford marathon three weeks ago. On Thursday, I was scheduled to run six 800 meter fast paced runs. During the course of these runs, it started to rain and then turn into a pouring rain. I was soaked. I could have easily called it quits since I was running down the street from our house, but I didn’t.

- Like what you are reading? Want more? Be sure to sign up for my free weekly newsletter - Passport for Success. It is delivered to you e-mail box every Monday morning. Sign-up at somdayisland.com

Success

Success is a topic that everyone loves to talk about, but few will do what is necessary to achieve success. When it comes to success, it’s about shutting up and getting down to the business of success:

I can’t stress how important it is to actually define success. Without a clear definition of what success means to you, you’ll never know if you are successful.

So what is your definition of success? What does success look like? What does it feel like?

Dashboard

When you look at most successful businesses and organizations, a key characteristic is that the leaders of these organizations know how the organization or business is doing at any given time. They know because they measure, not just results, but more importantly activity and key indicators. I wrote a short article about this idea. Here’s a couple of the paragraphs:

One of the most important parts of any strategic plan is the implementation of that plan. Without implementing what you’ve laid out, all you’ve really done is a nice exercise in philosophy.

A key to implementation is measuring results. A common question I hear is “but what do I measure?”

The big question of course comes down to what to measure. Each business and organization is different. When in doubt, measure something, anything - you’ll learn over the course of a short time span if what you are measuring is what you need to measure - is it a key indicator for how well your business is doing or is what you are measuring a lagging measurement that tells you something after the fact. If what you are measuring is not assisting you to make future adjustments, then change what you are measuring. Just like most things in life - the hardest part is getting started.

Goal Getting

I wrote a short article for my weekly newsletter on goal getting - that is, accomplishing goals. So often in our society and especially in the development field we focus on the first part - goal setting.

The key to a great strategic plan, that most people forget, is not the goal setting part. I work with many clients on goal clarification. Without the clarification, nothing else can happen, so don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here.

To make a strategic plan truly “great” or effective, the focus needs to shift to goal getting once the plan is in place.

The simple version of what success is can be summarized into two parts - set the goal and be clear about what it is and do actions necessary to accomplish the goal. So simple! And here’s the thing - most entrepreneurs struggle with this because it is so easy. Entrepreneurs aren’t into doing things the easy way - they exist to figure their own way of doing things. That’s a great trait to have and at the same time it can be a huge detriment. The key is knowing when to use this strength and when to lay it aside. When we master that, simple is acceptable - the switch flips in our minds that says that what we are doing is easy, so long as we allow it to be easy. And that’s where the goal getting starts to happen.

Being Organized

I wrote an article on being organized - my definition of being organized is probably not what you would expect.

For me, organization has nothing to do with perfection. Let’s be serious for a moment - my wife and I have three children aged 5, 3, and 1 - perfect organization just doesn’t happen in our house. There is no expectation that everything will be in its own place and tidy.

To me being organized is not about spending a great deal of time cleaning, buying organizational supplies, sorting, etc. My definition of being organized has everything to do with effectiveness.

The questions you want to ask yourself when it comes to being organized are:

What’s your definition of being organized? Are you looking for perfection? Do you need to alter your definition and expectations based on your circumstances and your personality? What small changes to your physical space could you make that would make you feel 10% more organized? How about mentally? When’s the last time you looked at your strategic plan?

The Unexpected

I wrote a post about dealing with unexpected events - those things that are out of our control. Unexpected things are like wrenches in our plans, however they are also the things that let us know that we are alive. Only people who are alive have to deal with unexpected things, or challenges, or problems - so in that sense, we should celebrate the unexpected.

Here’s one way to handle unexpected things:

We can never fully expect everything that will happen over the course of the week, or each day. That’s why it’s important to allow yourself some cushion. You need not only a financial cushion to pay for necessary unexpecteds, but also a time cushion, and a stress cushion. Never pack your day so tight with activities that a small unexpected could throw the whole day into chaos.

You can read the whole post here.

Washing the Phone

I wrote an article about washing my cell phone. Yes, it’s true - I wasn’t careful, didn’t check the pockets of my shorts and ended up with a clean, but unworkable phone. In times like these, there are plenty of lessons to be learned from such mistakes. In fact, events like this give us a moment to ask some questions of ourselves. Here’s a sample of the questions this event caused me to ask:

I tell you this story for a couple of reasons - first when you go through an unpleasant experience, what’s the silver lining? What are you learning from the experience? What do you have control over?

Second - make an assessment - ie. ask yourself questions - How bad do I need a phone? Can things wait until a later time without chaos happening?

Being Flexible

I wrote a post about being flexible. Being flexible is so very important to so many parts of life - not just business. Being stiff, or rigid, is the equivalent to death. Dead things have no flexibility - they snap. Things that are full of life bend - the palm tree is a great example. Here’s some more questions from the posting:

What do you do with this extra time that you now have? Do you travel back to the office? Do you pull out a laptop and answer some e-mails? Do you pull out a book to do some reading? Do you networking with someone nearby? Do you work on something you have been procrastinating?

All of these are great options. However, unless you plan ahead of time, you’ll never know what the best use of that extra time will be. Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about planning what to do with extra time ahead of time.

Take Time Off...If You Dare

I wrote a post on my EADD blog about taking time off from work - whether you are the owner or not. Here’s a small sample of questions people should be asking themselves:

If you have your own business, take a moment and answer this question - why did you start your business? Was it because you got tired of being told what to do? You wanted more freedom? I’m sure for many of you, those reasons were a part of the equation.

If you work for someone else, you can ask yourself a similar question - why did I go to work for the company I work for? I’ll bet that one of the reasons has to do with having more freedom in some form.

Ok, so here’s the deal - we entrepreneurs need to take time off in order to be refreshed, renewed, and re-charged. Without taking time away, even the most creative entrepreneur becomes stale. Without time off and away from the business, even the hardest working person becomes prone to accidents and mistakes.

Take time right now to determine when you will take some time off, even if it’s only a day. Spend time with your family, take a small trip, or just take a day and go to the park and read.

Great Quote to Ponder

I just read this quote and it spoke to my business soul:

"I would rather be ashes than dust. I would rather that my spark would burn out in a brilliant blaze than be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet."

Jack London

Optimist vs. Pessimist

I wrote a post on the idea of an optimist vs. a pessimist. Here's the beginning:

Oscar Wilde once defined a pessimist as “one who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both.”

I suppose, based on that definition, you could define an optimist as one who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses neither.

What does this have to do with your business or job? Everything. Every day we are confronted with options - do we delegate or just do the job ourselves? Do we organize our space or invest time in marketing? Do we do what is urgent or what is important?

How do you make your decisions? Are you the type of person who looks at a glass with water filled to the halfway mark and says that the glass is half-empty or half-full. Or are you someone who says that both of those answers are wrong - the glass is always full, it's just a matter of what it's full of.

Freedom vs. Security

I wrote a post on the subject of freedom vs. security. This subject goes way beyond politics. Every day we make decisions that are towards freedom or security, or atleast what we think is security.

Here's a different way of thinking about freedom and security:

It’s easy to choose security - it’s familiar, it’s stable, and it’s predictable - i.e. we gain a sense of control.

The choice of freedom on the other hand is unpredictable. It may come out as assisting an employee towards their dream job or career - knowing full well that you’ll “lose” a great employee if you do that. But imagine how happy that employee will be for the duration they remain under your employ. What’s the ripple effect of that on your customers?

4th week referrals

We're at 287 referrals for the month of April and 887 for the year. We're at 29% of our goal! So far in April 37% of the referrals have been second generation. Let's keep up the good work of giving qualified referrals!

Managing Conflict

I wrote a post on managing conflict. When it comes down to it, regardless of the obstacle, what matters is how we look at the situation. Do we respond with an emotional reaction, or do we see the experience as a learning opportunity?

This past week, I was presented with a conflict. My initial reaction was one of anger - a very normal response. I was not happy about the situation. I wanted to publicly confront an individual about a situation.

Then I decided that being angry wasn’t going to solve anything (and would probably make the situation worse), so I decided I would determine what I could learn from the situation.

What I learned first was a reminder that I cannot control other people - either in what they do or how they think.

Read the rest here.

Change vs. Status Quo

Recently, I wrote a post on the idea of change and status quo. The deeper issue is control - what is control? What do we have control over? How do we use this? How does control affect entrepreneurs? All great questions.

Here’s a short part of the post:

It’s been said that the only thing that stays the same is change. Yet how often do we attempt to hold on to something? Why is it that we attempt to keep things the same?

The simple answer is control. As human beings, most of us are obsessed with control - especially us entrepreneurs. We will do whatever we can to prevent change and hold onto the status quo in order to have control of a situation or our lives.

Read the rest here.

Power of PRE

“No two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind.”

Napoleon Hill , Author of Think And Grow Rich

Welcome New Members

I’d like to welcome our 2 new members -Mike Davis with IsXperia and William Seiler who is now with SourcePoint. Please take the time to meet these new members and learn about their businesses!

April week 2 referrals

Today we had 54 referrals. That takes us to 140 for the month. We are at 26% of our yearly goal. 39% this month are 2nd generation. This week was a little light on referrals - let's make it up next week by working hard to refer our clients to a fellow PRE member. Also talk to the first 10 people you see today about Jodie and Wendy's businesses! Let's help our fellow members get referrals.

Josh mentioned giving a specific example of who is a good referral for you so that it paints a picture in people's minds of someone they might know who needs your business. Example a Florist might say "A good referral for me would be a decision maker at a church since they need flowers for Sunday morning and they also have weddings". Rather than saying "anyone who wants flowers".

On a last note, Thank You to Mark for filling in for Matt today. Great job!

Control

Today I wrote a post about control. Here’s an excerpt:

What do you have control over? Be honest, and I mean really honest, with yourself - what do you really have control over?

The answer is - not much. You really don’t have control over much of what happens. About the only control that you have, to some degree, is how your react to things. Even then, our subconscious habits control most of how we react.

Regional Website

Our Region of PRE now has its own website! http://www.pre-sepa-md.com There are testimonials from PRE members, member listings, online Forums to share ideas and many other great resources for all members. This also is a great resource to show anyone who is considering becoming a member of PRE.

April Referrals

We're off to a great start in April with 86 referrals. 46% were 2nd generation. We are at 740 referrals for 2008, which is 24% of our yearly goal.

Some referral housekeeping items:

1. Make sure your referral is qualified - this means your friend/family/client is expecting a fellow member to call and is truly interested in their product or service.
2. Fill in the referral slip in it's entirety - make sure you mark whether it is a 1st or 2nd generation and fill in who the referral it is to and from. If it is a cross chapter referral, mark as such across the top
3. Which Copy? The Yellow copy goes in the bucket when you give a referral. The While copy goes to the PRE member for whom you have a referral for. The Pink Copy is for your records. Upon completion of a referral sale, please fill in the dollars generated on the white copy and return to the bucket (even if it is zero/not interested). If you cannot return white slips due to client privacy, simply email me a monthly total of the dollars generated.
4. Follow Up - When you receive a referral, follow up in a timely manner

If you ever have questions about what is or is not a referral, how to fill out the slip, or any other information about referral, please ask me and I'll be happy to help you out!

212 Degrees - The Extra Degree

If you haven't heard of the book, it's not surprising. It is actually out of print. It is written by Sam Parker and filled with brilliance. The concept is that at 211 degrees, water is just hot. But at 212, it is boiling give off steam which can power a train. One degree can turn water into power. Now take this concept on to referrals. If you just give one more referral than you usually do, what a difference that will make in someone's business. Don't hold back, go the extra mile and give just one more referral. You could change someone's life and business.

Real Money

Today on my EADDblog, I posted an article on saving money and how it relates to life and business. Here’s an excerpt:

This past week, I cut out about six different monthly services that my wife
and I haven’t been using all that much. These were for both business and
personal use - including the landline phone at home. It’s been months
since I picked up the landline to make a call - so why did we keep paying the
phone company $35 each month?

In total, we’ll be saving just under $200 each month by canceling the
services that we did. So why didn’t we do this months ago? Why did
we keep sending our hard earned money to other people for things we didn’t
use?

and…

The lesson is simple - small things, when combined, can make big impacts.
It’s true when in comes to money. It’s also true when it comes to
time.

Putting Out Fires

I posted an article on my EADDblog about urgency and putting out fires. I based it off of a blog post from Seth Godin on the subject. It’s really an excellent piece and worth the read. Here’s a piece:

You can have grand visions for remodeling your house or getting in shape, but if
there’s a fire in the kitchen, you drop everything and put it out. What choice
do you have? The problem, of course, is that most organizations are on fire,
most of the time.

Hartford Marathon

Over on my EADDblog, I posted an article about signing up for the Hartford Marathon, why I decided to run another marathon and how it relates to business. Here’s an excerpt:

The marathon signifies so many things to me - perseverence, dedication,
development, pushing yourself to your limits and beyond, attitude, focus, and
more. People ask me how I can do it, year after year. How can I do
all the training that is required, especially with a young family. How can
I run 4 hours straight. How can I be excited about getting out an running
in the rain in the early morning. How can I…

The simple answer is that I can’t do any of that - what I can do is be
someone who takes one step and then another and then another. It’s not
about running 26.2 miles - it’s about running up to the next corner, or taking
the next step - pushing myself to do just one more because I know I can.
Small and simple is the way you do a marathon. As the old Chinese proverb
goes - the journey of a thousand miles begins with one first step. The
same is true with a marathon.

The key for you, my dear reader, is to relate the marathon to
yourself. What is your marathon? Is it your
business?

Enjoy.

PRE Regional Training Call - March

Betty Diller hosted a wrap-up phone call from our two regional training sessions. On the call was Bill Higbee of Reading, Holly Radcliffe of Ephrata, and myself.

You can listen to the call here. What you'll learn will be what was covered during the trainings. A great recap for those that attended and a good half-hour call to listen to for ways to get more out of PRE.

Enjoy

Thinking

Today, I posted an article about thinking on my EADD blog. Here’s a quote from the article:

A Stanford Institute study showed that 79% of people do not think. When I
first heard that, it shocked me. But upon further thought, that pretty
much fits into the 80/20 rule.

Enjoy the full article.

Excellence in Action

On my EADDblog, I posted an article on a Seth Godin piece. Seth is a master marketer. He wrote about why excellent people should not use a resume. Makes sense to me. Apply it to other parts of your life - what areas of your life and your business can you be extra-ordinary?

Changes

Now that it's the middle of March, here in Pennsylvania we experience weather changes almost daily - one day warm, the next day cold.

With the flu making the rounds, changes in hours and working schedules are happening all over.

So many times we react to change. That's fine most of the time.

How often are you creating change though? What changes can you proactively make to your life and your business? What would the effect be?

Regional Rankings

The regional rankings have come out. York finished 4th in the region. We've been holding steady around 3rd place for several months now.


READING "725" - Winner of Award and Trophy for Jan 2008
Ephrata 719
Hanover 555 First Year Chapter
York 525
Lebanon 436
Carlisle 434
Lancaster 410
Lehigh Valley 375
Great Valley 371
Bel Air , Md 338
East Shore 337
East Penn Valley 333
Chambersburg 318
Pagoda 306
Brandywine Valley 279
Aberdeen, Md 261
Central Berks 205
Bear Creek 188

75 Plus Club

Congratulations go out to the following nine York PRE members for earning their place in the 2007 75+ club for giving more than 75 referrals during 2007. Great job everyone.


Robert Stone: " 189" of York
Nina Kottcamp: "154" of York
Marie Cartwright: " 150 " of York
Laura Elmore: "107" of York
Wendy Landis: "106" of York
Vickie Everhart: "95" of York
Josh Forsythe: "87" of York
Sue Houser: "80" of York
Scott Williams: "76" of York

January Referrals

Great job group.

264 referrals is a record for January and is the third highest number of referrals our chapter has done since the start of our chapter. Keep up the good work.

That's What We're Talking About

Thank you Marie for the update. Look below to see how great it is to be part of a group that works hard to build not only their own business but also strives to help other!!

What a great start to the new year! We generated 264 qualified referrals for the month with 27 members giving 4 or more referrals.

Our top giver was Renee Kubic with 53 referrals!

The following people gave 10 or more referrals

Jason Eve – 14
Vickie Everhart – 13
Wendy Landis – 17
Dave Maday - 12
Rob Stone - 13

The Results Are In

The scores for each chapter for the month of December:

Ephrata - 886
Reading - 618
York - 350
Hanover - 326
Aberdeen - 305
Pagoda - 304
Bel Air - 300
Central Penn - 298
Bear Creek - 279
Lancaster - 263
Lebanon - 240
Brandywine Valley - 233
Carlisle - 197
Great Valley - 136
West Shore - not reported
East Shore - not reported
Central Berks - not reported
Chambersburg - not reported


Good work, and let's kick it up a notch. Afterall, we can do more to help each other be successful!!

Making Time for Marketing

CJ Hayden wrote another great article about Making Time for Marketing. She points out how many people think there is no time for marketing. She puts a new spin on the concept of making time for marketing. Follow the link to the article and enjoy it. You will be happy to know that every Tuesday at lunch you are all making time for marketing.

Welcome

Welcome to York PRE's Blog. For those who might not be familiar with a blog, it is a place to share relevant comments, thoughts and ideas for individuals to read. This blog is dedicated to our members to share thoughts of inspiration and business news we can use. Take a look around and get to know the blog. Stop by often and look for updates. Pour yourself a cup of coffee and enjoy a good read.