April 6, 2013 – Saturday’s Smile (A Final Four Tribute)
April 6, 2013 – Saturday’s Smile (A Final Four Tribute) Read More »
Get Real. Stay Real.
I don’t visit the gym. I go there and workout. I’m not angling for 6-pack abs or a 30″ waistline. And my pecs aren’t worthy of flexing.
But that’s not why I go to the gym. At 55 (almost 56) vanity left me long ago! 7 years ago I got real about my fitness. Driven mostly by being there for my family and reducing the risk of being a burden to my wife as grow older…I knew it was high time to take it more seriously.
When I started working out – after years of hardly doing any physical activity – it wasn’t congruent with who I was. I was in the process of changing. Getting real is the start of positive change (aka improvement). It’s important, but it’s just the start.
Daily I walked into the gym knowing I wasn’t faking it, but I knew it was filled with people who were more comfortable being there than I was. I didn’t know my way around the place. Those little illustrations on the machines puzzled me. I hadn’t used any of these machines before. Operating a simple treadmill felt like trying to fly a jet. I was out of my element. Dropped into surroundings that were completely unfamiliar. I felt like the new kid in school unsure where to go, or what to do.
It lasted a few months. Just walking into the gym felt uncomfortable. And I was even more uncomfortable during the workouts. I felt like I was an out-of-shape spectacle. Mentally, it felt like the entire joint was dark and big spot lights were shining on my bald head!
It was just part of the process of getting real with my commitment. I felt like a wannabe for the longest time. Surrounded by guys half my age and 75% less body fat, I felt and looked like a person who’d be more comfortable in a La-Z Boy. I was certain people glanced at me and thought, “Look at that poor fella. He won’t last.”
But I did.
My body had not yet caught up to my mind. I made a decision that my outward appearance hadn’t yet manifested. It would take some time. And a lot of hard work. But it would happen. I knew I’d have to stick with it.
My mind was made up.
That’s the critical part of getting real. Some punk teenager could have approached me and said, “Get real, old man” and I’d have put a choke hold on him before he knew what hit him and said, “I am getting real. This is real.”
Weeks turned to months. A month turned into a year. Then another. And another. Gym managers, trainers and other employees came and went. Customers who I had seen regularly when I started disappeared. Today, I can count on one hand the people I see working out who were there at my start. I’m the tortoise who won the race! All the hares have fallen by the wayside.
What has this taught me?
What we manifest in our lives must first exist in our mind. We’re unlikely to accomplish anything that we’ve yet to achieve in our mind. The longer we can hold it in our mind – fully embracing it in the form of true commitment and unwavering devotion – the more real it gets!
But it never ends.
My fitness began to improve. It kept improving. I dropped some body fat. I lost some inches. My lungs gained increased capacity. My heart got stronger. My energy increased. Mission accomplished. Done?
Nope. Entropy pushes us to stay real. Or regress. I wasn’t about to go back – ever again!
You have to maintain that devotion after you’ve paid the price to get real because it can fade over time. Fitness. Business success. Relationships. Everything in life will fade if you don’t put in the work. And keep putting in the work.
There are likely things in your life waiting for you to address. Fix. Repair. Start. Finish.
Get real.
Make up your mind. Commit. Follow through. Establish the habit.
Stay real.
Don’t give up. Don’t be afraid. Don’t worry about what others think or say.
Get Real. Stay Real. Read More »
Episode 170 – Communicating Appreciation
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:10 — 32.6MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | More
A grown man tells me, “My father never said, ‘I love you.'”
“Really? Never?” I reply.
“Never,” he says.
The pain in his eyes is real. And evident.
The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.
Williams James is credited with that quote. I don’t know who he was, but he was wise.
Recognition. Appreciation. Respect. We all want it. No, Mr. James was right – we crave it!
Why is it so difficult to incorporate into our communication? Why is it hard for a father to tell a son that he loves him?
I don’t know, but I do know it’s inexcusable.
Business people neglect many facets of effective of communication, but perhaps chief among them is the art of showing appreciation.
I know a business man – very successful financially – who believes it’s his job to “catch people making mistakes.” He’s very good at it, too. No, he won’t ever tell anybody they’re doing a good job. His success is the problem. His crude, deliberate berating of people works. Convincing him that even greater success might be his if he’d learn to behave differently is an impossible task.
I’m sad for him. And others like him.
As business people we have internal and external customers. It’s important to communicate our appreciation to all them. Simple, inexpensive and seemingly easy – but it remains one of the most neglected form of business communication.
I challenge you to set about changing that in your life – in business and in your personal life!
Thank you for listening. See, that wasn’t hard.
Subscribe to the podcast
To subscribe, please use the links below:
- Click Here to Subscribe via iTunes
- Click Here to Subscribe via RSS (non-iTunes feed)
- Click Here to Subscribe via Stitcher
If you have a chance, please leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes by clicking Review on iTunes. It’ll help the show rank better in iTunes.
Thank you!
Episode 170 – Communicating Appreciation Read More »
An Ideal Client: Service Professionals Who Serve Local Markets
Service professionals are among the highest touch business owners on the planet. They connect to one person at a time. They have transactions that are often face-to-face. They often deliver their services in person. Service pros tend to be people skillful in physical, in person communication. They also tend to be people with a very specialized, often high value knowledge.
Your dentist, doctor and CPA are all service professionals. So is your chiropractor, financial advisor, attorney or kitchen remodeler.
Service professionals are currently my ideal clients for a pilot program I’m launching. This isn’t an ongoing program. It’s a one-time offer exclusively for 6 people and it’s only for 3 months.
Why are service professionals my ideal clients for this?
1. They serve local markets.
Not every small business operates exclusively in a virtual or online world. Even though service professionals may primarily do business in a local market they may also do business online. Web technologies provide great utility for service professionals to communicate with their clients and prospects.
Attorneys are licensed to practice in specific states. Yes, a state is a local market. A local market is simply a geographic location that serves as a boundary for the service professional.
I’m in Texas. An attorney who is a member of the Texas State Bar is licensed to practice law in Texas. It’s an enormous state – a very big local market – but it does have a boundary. That makes it, by my definition, a local market.
2. They may have products, but we mostly rely on service professionals for their expertise.
A financial advisor may be commissioned by financial products providers to sell their products. Or, a financial advisor may be unencumbered by such a relationship and simply work on behalf of the client for a small fee.
A dentist may incorporate technologies or products that help patients improve their oral health. From teeth whitening to products used to fill cavities, the dentist likely incorporates products that others provide. As a patient, we don’t have the expertise in these things. We rely on our dentist to do the right things for us.
A funeral director walks us through one of the toughest times of our lives, arranging the final ceremony for a loved one. Do we purchase a casket or do we purchase cremation? Hard decisions only made easy if our loved one left behind what they wanted. And we rely on the funeral director to walk us through the maze of choices because we lack the expertise or experience in such things.
Service professionals have an extraordinary expertise that we often need. Many have endured years of formal education and training. Many are in industries that are regulated and formally organized with certifications and licensing. The barrier of entry into their professional is high.
3. They typically spend most of their time practicing their craft because they’ve spent years learning it.
Service professionals may lack the foundations necessary to operate a profitable business. The attorney has endured years of formal education, juggled student loans, done some summer internships and may have started his career as an associate with a mid to large sized firm. Some get the entrepreneurial itch and embark on starting their own practice. Unfortunately, they’re skillful at practicing the law, not building a business. It’s a hazard of the service professional.
Michael Gerber of E-Myth fame calls them “technicians.” They have the technical know how of their craft (law, dentistry, etc.), but they likely have no experience or training in marketing, management or operations. They’re far from stupid. In fact, they’re brilliant at many levels because they know what they’re doing in their respective industries. They simply lack the training to know the things vital to building a practice or business.
So, many of them fail. Or struggle.
Too many service professionals find out that when they build it, nobody comes! Others find out that cash flow doesn’t automatically flow…unless it’s OUT.
These are my ideal clients for this limited time project. I recorded a short video and wrote a longer than necessary amount of copy to explain every possible thing. Does this sound like YOU or somebody you know? Then I hope you’ll apply.
It’s limited to only six (6) people. I will personally contact everybody who applies.
An Ideal Client: Service Professionals Who Serve Local Markets Read More »
4 Things You Can Do When Things Go Wrong, As They Often Do
You want to scream.
Things have not gone well. In fact, they’ve gone very, very wrong.
You’re desperately trying to figure out so many things – all at the same time. You know it’s not how you should do it, but emotions are high and you’re not in control. Of anything. Including your thoughts.
“Why did I do that?”
“Where did I go wrong?”
“I”m so stupid.”
A head full of questions don’t seem to provide many answers.
Try these 4 things. Just try ’em.
1. Remember.
Think back to a previous failure that you endured. Didn’t it seem insurmountable? But here you are today. History has a way of putting things into perspective. Problems – in real time – seem larger than they may really be. Don’t blow your current problems up to be larger than they really are.
Gain confidence as you remember. You’ve been down and out before. You can get through this, too.
2. Inventory.
Look around at your resources. Your skills, your experience, your ability and anything else that might help you climb out of this pickle.
See these things in a new light. Maybe you’re missing the utility of some of your resources.
Have you ever seen those survival shows like Man vs. Wild? The first thing the person does is look around at what they’ve got to help them survive the situation. They get creative and repurpose all kinds of things. I once saw a guy remove the metal tray that held his truck battery so he could boil water in it. He cleaned it by rubbing dirt on it. He rinsed it off with water that was surely unsafe to drink. Then he built a fire and boiled small amounts of water in it to get rid of pathogens. What battery trays do you have in your life that you can use for something else?
Take a moment (or three) and be thankful for your inventory, no matter how large or small it might be.
3. Act.
First things first. Stop trying to do it all at once. Whatever went wrong won’t likely be fixed by jumping in a dozen different directions.
Get a plan and go to work.
What’s the first things you think you should do? Do that. To completion.
Taking another lesson from the survival shows – usually the first goal is to create safe shelter. They don’t start to build a shelter, then decide they’d better go hunting. If it’s shelter they need, first they build their shelter, then they go hunting.
Too frequently, we try to do everything simultaneously and end up failing to accomplish anything. Stay focused on the priority at hand.
4. Persist.
Persevere. Do not let anything stop you from moving forward.
Show the problem, your competitors or your naysayers that you won’t accept defeat. Be resilient.
You may have to alter your course, or strategy, but that’s just being smart. If one thing won’t work, try something else. Stay mentally engaged and be creative.
Go back to the earlier steps if you must, but never, ever quit.
4 Things You Can Do When Things Go Wrong, As They Often Do Read More »