The curse of the “Best”

Once you are the “best” at something you are giving up control or responsibility of your outcome. Your way is then defined by others. By a pure definition you can never control what others think of you or how they define you. So in fact you transform from victor into victim. To be “best” means you are compared to someone else. Your very nature is incomparable. Business is a game that can only be played and never won. It is your design that matters only. I am not saying not to compete but true competition only occurs with the self. The only thing that matters is the design. If competition helps call forth the design than compete whole heartedly but if you are just competing to win to be the “best” you will suffer greatly for greatness and glory are fleeting and most dangerously those traits are in the eyes of others.

“What do you think now of me Roark?” said Toomey.

“I don’t think of you.” Howard Roark

Wisdom for a Capitalist

Some wisdom shared with me from a capitalist who owns multiple businesses:

In a nut shell it comes down to a few things.

1. All business’ is the same on a basic level. Decent cash flow, manage debt, great staff, great service. Find things you can do to increase the future value so there is something to sell down the road. The devil is in the details.

2. Care about the results not the process. Let the staff figure out the best way FOR THEM to get the job done unless there is compelling reason to do it Your way.

3. Everything is my fault when it does not go as you planned. Find things that work and repeat – find things that don’t and don’t repeat.

4. Never eat off the business till it has so much net income that you can afford too. So – that means your core business has to be able to pay for your life and be able to devote some dough to the new business if needed. The Arkansas business is 5 years old and no one has taken out a dime yet. The owners get no salary, we pay nothing but our expenses and use our income to drive more business and pay down debt.

5. And clearly a lesson you already know, when walking through a mine field —follow someone.

OK now to find a way to ring the cash register around here today.

Does Your Mindset Serve You?

We all have a filter in which we color the events of the world as they unfold. Do you know what color your filter is? In a previous post I waxed about the distinction of the eagle and the chicken.  Today I will add another character: Eeyore the donkey.

Events will always be unfolding and how we color that event will continue to enhance the theme we have for our business and or life. With my clients I enforce a principle: “You are the sun and whatever you shall shine upon shall grow.”

An Eagle mindset will use the filter that the world is unfolding exactly as it should and whatever unfolds will serve me. For example a client leaves: the Eagle will interpret this event as a good thing that will create the space for profitable clients to appear.

A chicken mindset uses the filter of fear that what is unfolding is scary and we must always exercise caution and fear because the hawk is always circling. For example a client leaves:  the Chicken will interpret this  as the beginning of a mass exodus and panic with a massive explosion of desperate sales activity.

An Eeyore mindset is everything that unfolds as a continuation of his sentence: “this always happens to me”  For example a client leaves: Eeyore will see this as proof that he is not very good at what he does and question why he is in the business in the first place and go into a depression.

Now the funny thing about mindset is that it’s made up but does it serve you? Think about it if you believe that everything that unfolds serves you it will! If you believe that things unfold to suppress you,the suppression will continue! Mindset is made up ultimately by you and no your mother did not permanently scar you by making you wear your sweater.

How do you change Mindset? Attention. Ask yourself what are you making the event unfolding mean? And does that meaning serve you? Are you thinking like an eagle? A chicken? Or Eeyore?

The choice is always yours.

Getting Results suspended for CoachAcrossAmerica.com

Hello,

And may this post find you wonderful! I am temporarily suspending Getting Results Blog to focus on updating www.coachacrossamerica.com which is our nation wide tour promoting revenueblitz.com. We are having a great time and we hope you follow along. Go to www.coachacrossamerica.com for the latest updates.

be well

ken

The Business Coaching Revolution

The Business Coaching Revolution

A Revolution is about to be unleashed on the business coaching world: RevenueBlitz. Business coaching is expensive and utilized by the elite in the corporate world. RevenuBlitz will turn that model on its head and allow everyone access to the secrets that the highly compensated exploit.

The impact that this will have on the Global Business Community will be game changing. Enroll now for the Revolution.

Comfort Zone Shakeup

“Being creatures of habit, we tend to stay within our comfort zones. Our comfort zones create barriers to our growth. As we attempt to make progress in our lives, this tendency can inhibit the realization of our visions.” – Dale Carnegie

Is it time for a shake up? Consistent patterns produce consistent results. If we want new results we need to do something different. Sometimes we get so comfortable that we no longer seek change events. Our bodies and minds will adapt to our present circumstances. In fact, we are so good at adaptation that within 6 weeks of a change event, the event becomes normal to us. For example, think about the last time you moved in to a new house. It likely lost it’s ‘newness’ within about 6 weeks. It became your home, making it seem as though you had always lived there. Or perhaps you bought your dream Mercedes, and before you knew it, it was no longer a “Mercedes” its just your car.

Change pushes us out of our comfort zone which causes growth. Why does going out of our comfort zone cause growth? It forces us to pay attention. It is only when we pay attention that we see new opportunities for growth and fulfillment. When we experience change our brain actually creates new neural connections. The more neural connections we have, the smarter we become, or more accurately, our ability to associate increases which therefore increases the probability of us accessing innovative solutions to our challenges.

Get out of your comfort zone by doing something different. Different promotes attention; attention creates new neural connections; increased neural connections increases intelligence. You do not have to think much if you do the same things day in and day out. If you are not embracing new ideas and experiences your brain is decaying. There is no such thing as the status quo in nature, systems are either growing or decomposing. Nothing stays the same. If you stay in your comfort zone you are rotting.

Comfort Zone Shakeup tips:

• - Commute to work a different way (you may discover something new )
• - Take a class unrelated to your profession (acting, drawing, cooking, Spanish)
• - Read a book outside your normal genre
• - Work only 4 days a week but don’t allow productivity to suffer (re-discover effectiveness)
• - Start work 90 minutes earlier
• - Leave the office at 3pm for a week
• - Travel abroad
• - Move to a new part of the country
• - Do something Artsy
• - Work a new sales process like The Champion Path
• - Take your top clients surfing, horseback riding, skeet shooting, cooking (uniqueness guarantees mental shelf space)
• - Start a new company (your mind will grow immensely)
• - Go on a country wide promotional tour in a rolling RV billboard (Our comfort zone shakeup along with our new company RevenueBlitz.com )

Do something different your brain and business are begging you!

Be wonderful,

Ken

Your Business Model Matters

In sales, our model is usually to produce more: Production cures all ills. Production is important but the first question I asked is the key: What do you want? And does your business have the capability to produce your want? What if more production was actually detrimental to your business because your model would not support additional sales or allow you the space to create the systems, hire the right people and manage those people effective to get you what you want?

Some business models have income ceilings naturally built into them. Take a barber for example. If a barber’s model is “the friendly neighborhood barber who gives all his clients great service” a natural income governor takes over: time. No matter how good the barber is, he is limited by the hours he can work. More than likely when the barber started his business what he really wanted was a job. He was not thinking about taking summers off, or producing 500k dollars per year, let alone having a national chain of barbershops. When he started he built his business to produce what he wanted which was a job to pay his bills. Unconsciously, he created a model to fulfill upon that want. That model was to trade time for money.

Our barber went to work and produced exactly what he needed but then he got stuck because he ran out of time in the day. So what is your model for your business? What income do you want to make and how much time do you want for family and extra curricular activities? A fun inquiry about income is to answer the: For What question. If you want to make a million dollars, what exactly would you do with the money? A teacher of mine years ago posed the same question to me. He asked me, “Why do you want to make a million dollars? For what?”

If you want to achieve something it needs to be anchored in reality. Figure out exactly what you want the money for. You may find that what you need to have the lifestyle you choose is less than the original amount you put forth.

You can’t achieve something if it is not real. If you anchor your want in reality, lets say a BMW, a house on the water, 10k in the kids college fund, meet your expenses and save 10% per year you may find that you only need to earn 450k and believe me it’s a lot easier to hit 450k than a million. The hard truth is you have to get to the 450k first anyway! Once you conquer 450k, reset you aim to whatever your next level is. But most importantly set yourself up to succeed, as success begets success.

Future Pacing

Give them what they want so they can get what they need! How to figure out how to satisfy a client quickly: Future Pacing.

We all know of the golden rule in business and in life: Do unto others as you would want done unto you. With future placing we can execute the platinum rule: Do unto others the way that they want to be done unto. The best way to do business with someone is not the way you think the best way to do business is but it is in the way that they think to do business. So how do we figure this out? FUTURE PACING

Many times a salesperson will inherit a new client and they wonder how they can turn them into a Champion. Here is the secret formula for eliciting what they want. Most people do not know what they want off the top of their heads but when you ask them questions it forces the formlessness of thought into the form of words.

“Mr. client if we were to have a great relationship and you were unbelievably satisfied with our relationship that you gave me glowing introductions and it was a year from today what would have had to have happened?”

Notice the beauty of this question. It is in the realm of imagination. The power of the question lies in the “if”. I am not saying that we will have a great relationship but “if” we did what would it be like? Once the “if” is answered than you have the knowledge to fulfill upon the request. Now you know how to turn them into a Champions! You may have to use your Surgeon of Words skills but you are on the proper path.

be apart of the coaching revolution: www.revenueblitz.com

Kill 80% of ‘em

A tad bit startling, but did you know that one of the fastest ways to grow your business is to apply the sword to most of it? Many people spend the majority of their days being busy instead of being effective. In the 1600’s a famous Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi wrote in The Book of Five Rings, “When one is in a sword fight one must focus on only one thing: killing.” I know there are a lot of references to violence, yet I am a business coach, but I promise this quote does apply to your business. It started when I got an email from my old sensei (martial arts teacher) and it brought back many memories from the dojo. If you are curious go to www.freedmansmethod.com and check it out.

One of the reasons Musashi wrote that statement was that many sword schools started to pop up emphasizing many fancy techniques or moves. All this fanciness was taking away from the true purpose of learning how to use a sword. Back in the day a sword was only meant for one thing, you guessed it- killing. If you forget the true purpose of what you are doing it quite literally could get you killed.

Back to business… what is truly important in your business? What is the one thing that you can never forget each day? What is that thing that your business is really about? What is the purpose of your business day? What are you doing that should be put to the sword? Do you have so many projects going on that you are forgetting what your business is really about? Are you a salesperson who is being an administrator? Are you a leader who is focusing more on minutia then your people? If this resonates with you, then its time to figure out what needs to be put to the sword.

I have my clients focus on cutting almost everything away except their champions because that is where the 80% of their business originates.

Cut through the distractions to focus on what the purpose of your business is. If you don’t, it may be you who is put to the sword by your competition.

You and Me – The Power of Us

If you want to accelerate your results in any area of your life: Do Not Do it Alone! When we do things alone no one else knows what we are doing or not doing. No stakeholders are present. We only have accountability to ourselves. To increase the probabilities of success add a person or persons to the endeavor.

 

An example: What is the fastest way to get in great shape?

 

Answer: Hire a trainer.

Why does it work?

Because the power of us is present or the principle of community is being utilized. An individual is less likely to blow off a gym appointment if they know someone is waiting for them (a stakeholder) and they have made a monetary investment. Another great thing about trainers is that they want you to succeed and no matter what your mood you will have a great work out. The reason I love my trainer is that when I am at the gym I do not have to think about my work out, I just do it. My day is spent coaching and it is a welcome relief just to follow my trainer and do what I am told and get amazing results. One more great aspect of having someone in your world to push you: the more results that you get the more motivated you are to push yourself even further! Success begets success. Now imagine applying that philosophy to your business and when you have that mental picture now you know exactly what our coaches do for our clients.

 

Look for ways to apply the power of “you and me.” Please do not limit the conversation to simply physical fitness the principle applies to all goals.

 

Be wonderful,

Ken