Yesterday was a very strange day. It was a day of unusual experiences that for me showed the disconnect between small Irish businesses and the principles of success. Two main experiences summed it up for me;
1. A credit note at a hardware store
2. A protest by subcontractors
The hardware experience. I had to return an ash can, bought the day before, that was unsuitable for our requirements to a local family run hardware store. They did not have the size that I required and the owners first reaction on presenting the item back to him was – “You know I can only give you a credit note on that!”. I was a little taken aback at his abruptness and asked “why is that?”. Amazingly (as the store owner) he said “company policy”. As if the ‘the company’ was some faceless bureaucratic management structure far removed from the store! I said that I was a good customer and was prepared to take my business to the big national hardware stores where I could get a refund on an unused item bought the day before. His reaction was “well make sure you spend your credit note before you do!”. I left feeling like I had been swindled. It was only €50.00 but the principles of the man left me sick. Was my €50.00 worth more than the previous hundreds and possibly thousands that I could leave his store in the future? Obviously not. This is a classic case of small business myopia (short sightedness) that is rampant in Ireland.
Subcontractor Protest
The second moment of truth for me was watching a Prime Time TV report on small building sub-contractors protesting outside the gates of building firms that have gone bust. Their fear and myopia was pouring all their energy into protesting and pleading for money they were owed. What good can that possibly do their business? They have little or no chance of getting their money. All they are really doing is venting their anger. While I can sympathise with how they are feeling surely pouring their energy into new business ideas and development would better serve their cause? This would ensure their future to be positive and uplifting, rather than living in the past, which will acheive nothing for their cause.
What these two stories illustrate is how short sightedness and fear based attitudes can prevent us from creating meaningful success. You can overcome fear or myopia for you or your business by asking;
What do you need to let go of today that will allow you to move forward?
What can you put your energy into that will yield a great return?
What do you need to stand back from to see the big picture?
Around this time of year it is very common for people to set objectives, goals and targets that they would like to achieve. Businesses are doing the same as well. By the time we reach next December most of those goals will remain unachieved or achieved in varying degrees of limited success. So what separates the few that will attain their goals? Luck, preparation, perspiration or inspiration? While all these factors help they won’t alone let you achieve your goal.
What is needed is 100% focus and concentration on what you want and that starts now. Most people go 80% of the way in identifying what they want. That puts you on the road but does not get you to your destination. Imagine if you will that you are coming to visit me in my office in Blackrock in Dublin, Ireland. Perhaps you leave from Cork and travel to Blackrock, which will see you complete 80% of your goal to meet me. What happens though if you don’t know where I am located in Blackrock? You will fail to meet me and our meeting will not happen. You will have fallen at the last hurdle, the last 20%. This is where most people fail because they do not identify in minute detail what it is they want to achieve. Being on the road and not knowing your final destination is called wandering!
When an athlete visualizes winning a race they do so in minute detail bringing sounds, colours and feelings to life in a vivid description of themselves winning the race. Do you do this when loosing weight, setting a sales target or identifying a goal? If not, you should and in doing so you go from being an 80%er to a 100%er and then you have a massive chance of achieving your goal and creating meaningful success. Happy goal setting!
If you like this post share it! – Thanks Brendan.
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An industry colleague asked me this question the other day when researching for an MBA he is doing; “How do you generate business as a trainer/coach/consultant?”.
Having a degree in Marketing and Post Grad in Advertising and 7 years working in those industries I was about to respond and rattle off the usual marketing and communications mix of how to get business. But instead I actually asked ‘what do I actually do to get business?’. The following are my top 10 of how to generate business and at least a few of these will apply to what you do…
Make every project you do exceptional – exceed your clients expectations. This makes them think ‘how can I use their services more?’
Ask for referrals from existing clients after completing step 1.
Use social media not to sell but to be ‘top of mind’ and visible so that when a requirement arises you are contactable.
Have an email newsletter, mine is quarterly and focuses not on what we do but on helpful tips, techniques and tools.
Invest in the best design – books are judged by their covers. You wouldn’t buy a Tiffany diamond and get it in a plastic bag…
Be the best example of your own work – share your stories, your insights and knowledge for FREE, this creates traction and interest.
ONLY go after business you will love doing (helps point 1.) I don’t do tenders or easy money workshops. I am only interested if the clients commitment matches my own.
Know your clients businesses intimately and make yourself indispensable to them.
Don’t use business plans, only action plans. Plan less and prototype and test new material more.
Above all else use passion as your compass, do what you love, don’t do what you don’t love. The acid test is always to ask ‘would I do this for free?’ Passion is infectious and everyone want’s a bit of a great thing. Great things come with great price tags!
Do you have some great ideas on generating business? Why not post them as comments so others can learn. Have a great day! Brendan.
A guaranteed way to access our own positivity is to look for the positivity in others and help them to bring that outward. The more we as a group, team or community focus on our own and others positivity the more we create the climate for positive change and action. In this climate of uncertainty it is fear that is driving the actions of most people, politicians and businesses. Fear is debilitating and creates reactionary change rather than positive and forward thinking change. Be part of the change today by helping to spread positivity. Think of it like creating the right environment for people and teams to blossom in. Enjoy this the last in our series of 10 video clips. Have a really positive day! Brendan.
Words have huge power. Every word you use has an emotional connotation or connection for you. For example the word ‘Love’ brings up very different feelings to the word ‘Hate’. When we use negative words we tend to become more negative and disconnected. When we use words that we feel are positive we become positive and open minded. Given the times we live in, it is more important, now than ever to feed our positivity. Affirmations are sentences, mantras or phrases that we can use to lift ourselves. Using positive mantras or affirmations we bring out positive emotions and these allow us to access the well of positivity that is inside us all. Have a look at this short video to understand more and then why not try to create your own affirmation. Enjoy and have a great day! Brendan (P.S. please share!)
‘What do you want?’ It seems like a simple and easy question to answer, but when it comes to our lives we are very slow to articulate the answer. When we look at our thinking we find that most of us will spend most of our time thinking about what we don’t want. I don’t want to; get fired, get sick, be lonely, be poor, be fat, be unhappy… When we do this we are using our mental capacities to attract those very things into our lives! What would happen in your life if you put all the energy that you spend worrying into getting what you want? Learn more and please share this if you feel it worthwhile…
Meditation has been around for thousands of years because it works. Harvard Medical School and many other notable research institutions have also endorsed the medical, emotional, physical, spiritual and mental benefits of meditation. It a great way to create ‘inner bliss’. A feeling inside that is peaceful and uplifting and that acts a reservoir of positive energy. There is no right or wrong way to meditate and each and every meditation you do will be unique. Try this short 5 minute Inner Bliss meditation and if you like it you can build it into a daily routine to create happiness and positivity in you life.
It’s the simplest tool and techniques that I know for positivity – be in the now. Learn how and why from this, the third part in our 10 part series about creating positivity in your life. As always if it works for you it will work for somebody else please share – have a great day! Brendan.
You are not a slave to your emotions! Amazing research is showing us that our emotional states are and can be controlled by us. This provides us with an amazing ability to choose the emotional state that will help us to create meaningful success in our lives. Did you know that an emotion lasts for about 90 seconds in the body as in the chemicals and hormones associated with that emotion dissipate after 90 seconds? The research of Dr Paul Ekmans also have proven that by changing our physiological state (body language, posture) we can dramatically affect the emotional state we experience.
Enjoy this short video clip and please share it as there is someone that needs to hear this today. Have a positive and uplifting day! Brendan
The American motivational speaker Tony Robbins talks about WAGs and BAGs in terms of goals setting, namely being Wildly Audacious Goals or Big Audacious Goals. In my experience people have no problem in setting WAGs or BAGs rather most people struggle on how to chunk, phase or break down their goal into a path that can lead to the BAG or WAG being successfully achieved.
Recently I coached a well-known TV celebrity that on the surface looked very successful and certainly had no shortage of work. He was happy, good at what he does but for all that he was not earning or bringing home enough to stop himself regularly ending up in his over-draft and yet was not a big spender.
My client is a great goal setter, in fact he is too good as he has too many goals and therefore is distracted from the most important goals! The first challenge for him is to priortise his goals. I use a simple 3 step formula to do this;
1. Do I/will I enjoy reaching this goal?
2. Do I/will I get a reward (money, love, health…) from this goal?
3. What cost if any will pursuing this goals have on my life?
The next challenge for him is that he does not chunk his goals into manageable pieces. To use the well worn cliche “how do you eat an elephant?”, “with a spoon”! Which is a nice way of saying you have to start by turning your goal into small pieces. I like to ‘chunk’ goals by what I can achieve in 1 day and then make a list of these chunks. In this manner it becomes easy as your daily goal becomes very achievable and effortlessly moves you closer and closer to your BAG or WAG.
So ask yourself today;
1. What would I like to achieve?
2. Ask the enjoy, reward, cost question of it?
3. Then break it out into daily chunks
Have a great day. PLEASE share this because every time you share one of these stories YOU could be helping someone to create “meaningful’ success in their life! So please FaceBook share and Twitter.
While we may see ourselves as a very advanced and intellectual species we are in fact fundamentally influenced by our ancient roots. You and I are living today because our ancestors stretching back from now to about 150,000 years ago all had an excellent sense of ‘fight and flight’. This instinct kept them alive and hence we are here today. In terms of evolution therefore this sense is very highly rated. It is however the Achilles heel of many and something I am called upon to coach on a regular basis.
Do you ever find yourself in a professional setting frightened to speak when the CEO asks you a question? Do you ever get angry and see red when challenged in business? Do you avoid situations of conflict? Do you go quite or freeze under pressure? If the answer is yes to any of these questions then you have experienced the ‘fight or flight’ response. The ‘fight or flight’ response is generated by the reptilian part of our brain which is the oldest part of the brain. When activated it bypasses the neo-coretex (thinking brain) and the limbic brain (emotional brain). As we know the result is we can’t think or feel clearly as our psychology thinks we are being attacked. In this state we are unable to make good decisions and are unable to communicate in a clear rational and empathetic manner.
To counter this try this process :-
1. Become aware of the feeling.
2. Realise that this response is being driven by fear of the future or unresolved emotion from the past.
3. Breath into your belly not your chest (this triggers a relaxation response)
4. Bring your awareness to the now (listen, ask a question, buy time)
5. Only now offer a comment, solution or approach
This method works whenever the ‘fight or flight’ response is triggered, it can be used in sport, business or relationships with equal effect.
Find this useful? Please share on FB or tweet – Have a cracking day! Brendan.
You might remember Jan Carlzon that I wrote about in the Bombay Smile – moment of truth article, the ex CEO of Scandinavian Airlines SAS and the man who coined the term “moments of truth” to describe how people interact with you and your brand. I experienced a great moment of truth with two brands recently that not only spoke of how good businesses are managed but also how attitude is so important to success.
The first store I visited was an art gallery. I was buying two prints by the same artist and as is my nature I asked “would there be a small discount on buying two prints?”. The gallery owner laughed sarcastically and said “maybe if you buy 12!”. I retorted “surely I could get these online with some discount but I would like to give my support to local businesses…” and the reply came “what ever would make you think that – they are the same price online and that is that”. I should probably have left the shop at that stage but I wanted the prints and went ahead with the purchase. While paying I asked “how is business?” the gallery owner replied “up and down” I added “but sure you’re doing something you love…”. She looked at me and said “I am too old to do anything else” in a dejected manner. This was my moment of truth. This lady even though she owned a successful gallery and was surrounded by beautiful art and was regularly meeting artists and art appreciators was not creating meaningful success. This was the root cause of her terrible customer manner and left me feeling flat after my purchase rather than lifted. Next time I’ll buy from someone who loves what they do. But reflect for a moment, do you sometimes act like the gallery owner? and if so are you doing what you love?
The second experience was in a very large supermarket. Feeling a bit flat after the gallery interaction I went to buy nappies for my newborn. The isles had been rearranged and I could not find the nappies I needed. A store shelf packer was busy talking on a 2 way radio and was laying out stock on the shelves. I approached him and asked where the nappies were. He was obviously very busy but stopped what he was doing and led me to the product I needed. I took the nappies and walked to the checkout. As I approached the checkout I heard someone calling out behind me. It was the man again with another packet of nappies, the same as the ones I had in my hand, but these were half price from another part of the store. He passed them to me and said “these will save you a bit”. I was amazed. This guy did not own the store but he was behaving as if he did. I was delighted with my second moment of truth and left the store lifted and delighted! While this man may not have loved his job you could see he loved helping people and therefore was creating meaningful success in his life and mine. I will be back to that store.
So again ask yourself what ‘moments of truth’ do people experience with you? The other interesting strand that weaves through this story is that while I did not get a discount on the pictures I did on the nappies so in that way what I set out to achieve happened!!!
Have a great day and please share on FB or tweet or email – Have a great day Brendan!
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