Adjust Your Sideview Mirrors

I was driving along the road earlier when I kept ducking down to check my sideview mirrors on my car to make sure I didn’t have anyone or anything I was going to “check” into the wall as I began to make my lane change. I remembered feeling frustrated with having to “scrunch down” in my seet in order to get the best possible views for safety. This is when it hit me: “Hey, ADJUST YOUR SIDEVIEW MIRRORS MIKE!”. As simple a thing as it seemed, it dawned on me that I had probably been putting up with this for a long period of time. I would just “suffer through” this inconvenience each time, because I was too pre-occupied with other things. I was willing to put up with this inconvenience because I simply didn’t take a few moments to analyze the situation and think it through carefully to see if there was a simple solution. I see this happen all too often in other areas of life and especially the business world. My brother-in-law played baseball for the majority of his life, eventually fulfilling his dream of playing at the Major League Level. He and I would talk about different thing and I remember a couple conversations about injuries to athletes and how they wouldn’t slow down enough to do the proper rehab. They felt that by slowing down to adequately deal with an injury or aggrivation, it would just take away too much time, only to find out that in the long run, their careers were actually shortened because they didn’t step back and think the situation through to see that the “simple solution” was to take time off to rehab/repair this injury or aggrivation and then go on to a longer and healthier career.

I am reminded of the illustration of a group of men hacking their way through thick jungle with machetes and one man finally climbs a tree and says he thinks they are going in the wrong direction. The response he gets from the men is that they can’t slow down, their making such good progress!” If only they had slowed down to assess the situation in front of them and realized they were headed in the wrong direction, they could have simply adjusted and saved themselves a lot of time and effort in the long run, however they got caught up in everything else.

So, remember to be attentive to what is going on around us, with us, near us, etc and adjust your sideview mirrors every now and then, the results can be exceptional.

Remember to be IN the moment, whether li

Remember to be IN the moment, whether life, business, etc…you’ll enjoy the end more and learn more along the way, more: http://ow.ly/20sqt

“Every Step of the Journey IS the Journey”

I constantly find myself working to “achieve goals” or some desired result and getting caught up in the moment. It’s the Old School Mantra: “Head down, charge ahead, keep working!”. While this mindset is one that has the best of intentions at heart, the BEST part is missed when doing this: The JOURNEY!

Do we go on a vacation and literally pay no attention to anything around us the whole time we’re out the beach, mountains, etc until the very last moment and stop to take it all in right then? What a waste that would be, not “present” at all for the vacation except at the end. The “Journey” IS the entire vacation, enjoy it, take it in.

Well, we can take the same approach to other parts/events of our lives: Business, Personal, Etc. I’m working with a good buddy of mine right now on gathering information and data on a potential new business for he and I to start. While it is so tempting to just keep saying: “I can’t wait until we’ve gotten through all this preliminary stuff and we’ve started the company and we’ve gained marketshare, etc” That would mean that I’d miss the lessons, experiences, and knowledge to be gained that occurs during this first phase of the business. If I’m not present in the Journey, then I won’t remember and learn and this could actually cheat myself and my partner out of opportunities in the future.

So remember, Goals are great to work towards, just make sure you are enjoying EVERY step of the Journey and when you reach those Goals, I assure you, you’ll be wiser and happier this way.

Network like a Champ, not a Chump

I’m always amazed at how many people invest their time and energy into getting into attending multiple networking events, yet they spend so little time on the other important facets of the networking ‘event’.  What about getting “ready” for an event?  Most people will spend more time selecting what shirt to wear out to have dinner with friends than they will getting prepared for an event that might open up the door for their “opportunity of a lifetime”.  What about after your event?  What do you do?

First, if you know any of the people that will be in attendance at an upcoming event, DO YOUR HOMEWORK.  The information that we all have at our disposal now is amazing and in just a matter of minutes you can find out a great wealth of information about someone you want to meet.  For Example, many of the Chamber events will have a list of “already confirmed attendance” and you can scan that list to see if anyone/any company looks like they could be a positive fit for you and your services/products.  If so, DO YOUR HOMEWORK: Go to their company website, see if they’re on Facebook, see if they’re on LinkedIN, “Google Them”, etc.  You might have both attended the same College, maybe you both grew up in the same town, maybe you both volunteer for the same Charity Organization, look for this information.  You do this and you will FEEL and BE more confident as you attend the event because you know your main purpose and goals with regards to who it is that you MUST make contact with in order to ensure that this was time well spent.  Do you ignore the “other people” at the event, NO, not at all.  I just want to stress the importance of doing your homework to ensure that you do have a top of mind list while you are there.

Now, the event is over, what to do?  Immediate notes on the back of business cards you have received from your contacts and if no card, then notes on ANY paper source will do.  I’m of the mindset that states you are much more likely to remember something when you WRITE IT DOWN and so I like writing down the info.  Yes, this info WILL be transposed later to my Blackberry, however I still like writing it down to begin with.  I try to be very descriptive of the person, including “unique items”, if during the conversation they stated they are a huge fan of a certain Bed and Breakfast or a Certain Sports Team or a Certain Cause, make sure you make notes of this.  These items are at the core of who this person is and remembering these items shows the person that you really were attentive during the conversation and you didn’t zone out once they said they weren’t going to be doing any spending for the next two (2) quarters.

Now that you have met people and have recorded your notes while these notes were still fresh in your mind, FOLLOW-UP!  So FEW people do this it AMAZES me.   This is where BIG PICTURE thinking comes into play.  I don’t care if they aren’t a potential client of my product/services, what does their spouse do?  What does their best friend do?  Who else do they know?  What if they switch jobs in the near future? (there’s just a LITTLE bit of career switching going on right now)  Send this person a follow up email AND a Handwritten Note.  I call this the point where “Old School and New Age Collide”.  I am a big fan of emails and utilize this tool as often as possible, however in writing a letter, you must slow down, take your time and focus on JUST writing the letter or you’ll have mistakes everywhere and you’ll be writing this letter ten (10) different times.  This is also relayed to the recepient because they do NOT get that many hand-written letters (outside of Mom and the Aunt who remembers everyone’s birthday sending you a hand-written birthday card each year).  This act sets you apart.

By the way, I mentioned LinkedIN above as a great way to “do your homework” and I realize that LinkedIN is an application that is still relatively new or just one that many people don’t have a lot of experience with.  Well, my advice is to go to:  Www.RockTheWorldBook.com This website has a TREMENDOUS amount of Information including an awesome book on LinkedIN.  This book takes you through EVERY step of LinkedIN and how to get your profile up and running and how to utilize LinkedIN.  I personally know the authors (via Networking ofcourse, remember our theme in this post) and can tell you that they literally, eat, sleep and breathe LinkedIN and other Social Mediums.  Go order the book now.

Here is the BEST Book for LinkedIN!

As always, I hope this helps and look forward to hearing from you!

Act Like You’ve Been There Before…

“Act Like You’ve Been There Before” As I’ve been flipping through the channels at night a little bit and getting a little bit of my “morning sports center fix” I hear the phrase used repeatedly by atheletes talking about playing in the “Big Game” and how they try to tell themselves and their team members to relax and stay focused on the moment.  As dull as I often find some of the repeated cliches used in the media, this is one that I believe can be truly applicable to all of us.

You see, most of us Live FOR the moment, instead of Living IN the moment.  If you’re always living FOR the moment, then you in essence you are not valuing the time spent ‘achieving’ your end goal and remember the journey is fantastic and rewarding itself. 

Over the years, I’ve had the great opportunity to work with, collaborate with, speak with, basically observe and learn from many, many highly successful people.  I noticed traits that were similar to many of them and “Acting Like they had BEEN THERE before..ie already WERE THERE NOW” was a common trait to all of them.  As they started a new venture or made tough decisions, they made BETTER choices because they had already ENVISIONED and LIVED like they had already made the decision or started the company, etc and so they made decisions and choices from that mindset instead of one of: “Oh wow, this is all so new and I’ve never done this before and I’m just not sure” and the long list of excuses and self-doubt go on and on.

Instead of excuses and self-doubt, they all ACTED like they had been there before and made decisions and choices from that mindset.

Here is a link to a great video about someone who took action and didn’t leave room for self-doubt and kept moving forward: 

Thanks for your time and Stay Positive and Act Like You’re ALREADY there!

Be Aware of Your Appearance to Others

I was making a phone call today to touch base with a client that had recently completed our workshop and was shocked at what I heard when I called him:  the song on his phone while waiting for the call to connect.  It was a heavy metal song that made you feel like you had just drank five (5) Red Bull Energy Drinks and were preparing to go into battle.  Now I have an ecclectic music taste and so the song didn’t bother me, it is where the song was displayed that did:  EVERY incoming phone call to him hears this song.  You need to always be aware of all the details and information you present to others.  He is in a Professional Sales Position and this is what all clients and potential clients will hear.  He also works hard and relies heavily on referrals, you can’t always know that a referral will be JUST LIKE the client that referred them.  For example:  He performed spectacularly for Susan and earned her praise for a job well done and now Susan refers her parents to him.  Susan was closer to his age, she’s used to people putting their favorite songs on their phones, etc. and so she honestly never even gave a second thought to the music.  Susan’s parents are NOT the same as Susan in these areas.  This music instantly creates unwanted ideas of the professionalism (or perceived lack thereof) and they are instantly turned off.  Be Aware.

These same principles apply as well to sites that potential clients might be able to view “you”.  If you have a personal web page, Facebook Account, Myspace Account, etc, You need to watch what content you put on there and/or what privacy settings you have.  We all have “those pictures” from the past, and it is ok to post them, just make sure that if they don’t cast you in a 100% POSITIVE Light, make sure they can ONLY be seen by those you WANT to see them.  I do a search on “new contacts” all the time and I’m amazed at what I will see posted on their Facebook Account among others.  “Lovely” photos of an apparent all night drinking binge that usually end with a replay of their favorite scenes from the movie Animal House to their “Wall Postings” that are there for all to see and often loaded with profanity, extreme political overtones, etc.  Yes, this IS your “right” to be able to do this, however if you ARE a Professional and want to be TREATED as a Professional, then you have to make sure that ALL information available about you IS Professional in appearance.

Hope this of assistance and as always, I look forward to hearing from you.