Creating a Rich, Imbalanced Life

Here's a great worksheet that we've developed in our company to help our team get great with priority management. The philosphy is simple: balance of time is the worst idea ever. The idea is to have complete imbalance with the majority of your time spent on things that matter most and a limited amount of time on the things that aren't core priorities. There are only a few questions and each question should take several minutes of thought before writing.

What are your top 4 priorities?

1. ______________________________________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________________________________

4. ______________________________________________________________________

Do you plug these into your weekly calendar? If no, why not?

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Where do you currently waste time? Can you eliminate that?

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Is there anything else you can do that will earn more time for your top priorities?

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What can you do today that will start the habit of being better with priority management?

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Competitive Austin: The Waves of Success

Competitive Austin: The Waves of Success: "Success is a lot like surfing. Learning can be painful with moments of thinking you have it figured out, only to be quickly reminded that yo..."

The Waves of Success

Success is a lot like surfing. Learning can be painful with moments of thinking you have it figured out, only to be quickly reminded that you don’t. Once you’re good, you still have to work hard to paddle out and put yourself in position to ride a big wave. Most of the waves won’t amount to much and a few of the good ones you’ll still screw up. But as long as you’re willing to keep learning, do the work and paddle back out, you’ll eventually catch a big wave and take it all the way to shore.

- Joe Nolan

Be Careful What You Wish For, Growth is Painful

             When I switched from covering professional sports as a newspaper reporter to sales and marketing, I owned one suit and hadn’t yet mastered the art of matching a shirt and tie well. I was a nervous public speaker, where my notes would literally shake from nerves. My love of procrastination wouldn’t allow me to develop a system for preparation.

            This morning, I was giving tips on professional attire to one of our guys. I ran a workshop on preparation and ran a smooth morning meeting in front of our entire company. It was somewhere in the neighborhood of the 1300^th time I’ve spoken in front of a large audience in the past five years.

            The growth has been amazing. The growth has been painful. The growth has been worth it.

            I know I am not the only person who left one career to start another. I also know my desire for new challenges, mental stimulation, career advancement and the satisfaction of achievement weren’t unique. Wanting those things wasn’t the tough part. The challenge, as I found out, was staying committed to the growth plan and fighting off the urges to return to what was comfortable.

            To borrow from a wonderful author, Jack Canfield, in a fantastic book, “The Success Principles,” you have to build your success team. I did just that. I studied the most successful people I knew. (Note: my standard of success is pretty high. I looked for people who had no money concerns, wonderful families, critical transferable skills that made them economy proof, control of their time and constant challenge and stimulation in the workplace.) I also started reading lots of books.

            Then, I did something crazy. I did whatever it was that my success team did to be successful. It just seemed stupid to tell everyone who would listen that I wanted growth, study what successful people did to grow and then lie to myself that I had a better way to do it simply because the way people grow is tough.

            Over the next few years, I pushed myself out of my comfort zone to develop the skills, habits and mentalities of the successful. This meant I had to become organized. I had to develop unconditional faith in myself. I had to learn to sell and communicate at high level. I needed to read more and become okay with how much I didn’t really know. I needed discipline with setting goals. I had to train myself to think big even in the midst of the smallest functions. I had to genuinely put others first to lead.

            Not a single thing was easy or pain free. I wanted to quit all of it several times. I failed repeatedly. I had to. That’s what all the successful people have done. That’s the path to growth.

             - Joe Nolan

Getting a Reality Check on Work Ethic

Work Ethic Perspective Needed 

           

            Quick, rate your work ethic on a scale of 1-10?

            Got it? OK, now I’m not Nostradamus but I’m about to make a dead-on prediction. I guarantee your answer was in the 7-10 range. How did I do that, you might be wondering? Simple. I’ve been asking that question for years and I’ve never once heard an answer under 7. I know what you’re thinking; I must keep some amazing company. How is that I only associate with the top tier of hard-workers in the world?

            Everyone overrates their work ethic. It’s one of those rare traits that everyone respects. And because there’s little way to measure it, most people inflate theirs way above reality.

            For a long time, I did too. Especially when I was a new business owner in my mid-20s, I compared myself to other 27- and 28-year-old professionals who were working 40-50 hours a week without the pressures of running a business and assumed my work ethic must be a 9+. Then I got a reality check hanging out with a group of other business owners. Turns out there are people working much harder than me.

            So I decided a scale was required, which should force most of us to re-evaluate our personal work ethic rating:

            10 – The Bill Gates legend. I say legend because who knows exactly how many days off he took when he was building Microsoft, but the most common story I’ve heard is he took just six days off in a 10-year span. That’s a 10 in work ethic.

            9 – Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison and the historically-renowned workers. Reading through biographies, most of America’s greatest contributors have legendary work ethic and made tons of mistakes. So it wasn’t pure brilliance or talent but a commitment to attack their work.

            8 – I know a couple amazing businessmen who have remarkable motors, but I couldn’t in good conscious rate them with the 9s and 10s of work ethic. My grandfather comes to mind. It took nearly seven years of six- and seven-day work weeks, early mornings and late nights to get his business off the ground. He was relentless until it became a great company still thriving today.

            7 – The proven horses of work ethic. The men and women who demonstrated an ability to sustain high-performance work ethic. My dad comes to mind for this group, working from 5:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m. for more than 30 years to run a successful business.

            With this scale in mind, most of us are probably in the 4-6 range. And that’s perfectly fine if average results are the goal. If you want a lot more, moving up this scale might be something to consider. Because there are a lot of myths out there about business and being successful but none greater than the idea that you can give mediocre, satisfactory, good or even great effort and expect that that will be what it takes to be highly successful. In all types of business, exceptional work ethic is required. The good news is it rarely takes much more than that.

             - Joe Nolan

Creating a Goal-Setting Habit

            Seems like the hardest question to ask someone is, “What are your long-term goals?” Why is this a difficult question when the answers can be awesome and incredibly motivating?

           

For some, the question about long-term goals forces them to examine if their current behavior/path are actually helping them go anywhere. If the focus is solely on the short-term and to worry about the future later, asking about long-term goals is a reality they don’t want to face. This mentality is why a lot of people in their 50s or even 60s are trying to plan for retirement now and finding out they are going to need their kids, other family members or the government for help.

           

For others, the big, long-term goals are exciting and motivating. It’s the details and the “how to” that is tough to get their head around. They’ve got amazing dreams but haven’t had much help flushing those plans out and getting specific action items behind how they’ll hit those big goals.

           

Still, there are others who have a hard time defining the big goals. They know how they want to feel (successful, accomplished, secure, growing …). They just don’t know what will get them to that feeling.

           

The reality is dreaming big and defining big goals is hard. But so what? If it didn’t take time, and effort, and re-evaluation, and obstacles, the big goals probably wouldn’t be so cool.

           

While goal-setting might be more important and interesting than a habit like preparation or organization, it is still just a habit. So practice and consistency are critical. Becoming a strong goal-setter is something to work on, something to get coaching on and something to develop.

           

A great way to start the habit is with a simple 1-2-3 approach to weekly goal-setting.

           

The first step is reflection. Carve out time to get out of the go-go-go, pause and think. Ask yourself how your past week went and if it was productive? Whether the answer is yes or no, ask why? This will get your mind in the right place.

           

The second step is to plot out the three most important things you can do the next week. Most people either don’t have a weekly plan or they have some have laundry list where they lump the important and not-so-important altogether in a task list format. The key is to develop a tight focus that you can build your week around.

           

The third step is to plan your schedule for the week. Take the key areas of focus and make sure you have time allotted to attack these priorities.

           

Effective goal-setting can get much, much deeper, but everyone needs to start somewhere. And creating the habit is the most likely way to make goal-setting a cornerstone of career success.

The Most Important Career Choice You Haven't Made Yet

 Wherever you are on the long path that is your career, it’s a wise move to pause for a minute and ask an important question: What are you chasing? Is it security or freedom? The key word is “or.” It’s not “and.”
 It’s “or” because people who seek security are saying that they want someone else to take care of them. Those who seek freedom are saying that they are comfortable taking care of themselves. Yet, people confuse these opposites because of the desire to have both. They want to be taken care of and to have full decision-making authority over their career.
 Here are a couple examples that further illustrate the difference:

1. The most secure human being is a prisoner. He gets three meals a day, clothes, shelter and even a doctor is provided if he’s ill. What is forfeited for all this security is his freedom.
2. A car seat is designed to secure a child. It protects the child in case of an accident and restricts movement during a car ride. Mom and dad feel happy to know their child is secure. The child has no freedom.

 While there is certainly appeal to both, the goal of freedom more often nets the larger return.
 Our recent economic plummet has revealed that many “safe, secure jobs” were not quite that. A lot of honest, hard-working people in the home industry, car industry or many other businesses have found themselves looking for work. After 15, 25 or 40 years doing one thing, they aren’t terribly marketable and finding a new career is difficult.
 When seeking the freedom of being an entrepreneur, you are no more or less safe from economic downturns than your employee counterpart. However, as an entrepreneur, you understand you have more flexibility in decision-making. You have choices.
 First, you know you aren’t going to lay yourself off. Second, you know that when critical decisions are being made about the future of the company, you’re the final say. So as long as you’re confident, the freedom makes you powerful, especially during the tough times. The person relying on others for security has no voice.

Observations on a Day with 5 Self-Made Millionaires

Our annual Top Gun event in L.A. was a big hit as some of the brightest up-and-comers gathered to learn from some the biggest players in our industry. After spending time with five brilliant men and women – all of whom reached self-made millionaire status before turning 40 years old – a few big commonalities jumped out:
 1. They chase different rewards than the masses.
First, they never use words like “stability” or “security” when talking about goals or a happy life. They talk about how good it feels to overcome obstacles and how you have to be bold and aggressive. They like risk, as long as it’s well-calculated. They like adventure and pushing themselves. They want influence and to leave a legacy, not just to survive life and get by.
 2. In the matchup vs. Fear, they win.
It all starts with what people are fearful of. For most, fear is making yourself vulnerable and possibly feeling embarrassed if you go for something and fail. For these five, doing what’s comfortable and plugging away is the scariest thought in their minds.
So all five strive to be in situations where they will be tested. Winning is rarely a certainty, even though each is confident that they’ll find a way to win.
  3. What everybody else is doing is irrelevant … and usually wrong.
Instead of chasing status or envy and hoping it leads to success, they went the other way. They worked long hours when others wouldn’t. While others worked to make other people money, they faced ridiculously stressful challenges making their own money building a business. They wanted independence and control. They all tell stories of friends and family members who advised them to do easier things, but who now, are very proud of what they’ve accomplished.
  4. They’re aggressive learners.
We’re certainly not talking about school here. As one of them says, “school won’t make you successful, your hard work and your determination will make you successful.”
We’re talking about mentors and books. Only two of the five turned an original idea into their success. All of them cite great mentors who helped shape their thoughts and goals. All of them talk frequently about how little they know and how much better they need to get. They’re all hungry to improve.

Why are "talented" people afraid of sales?

There are a ton of really smart, personable, strong communicators who are unemployed.
There are a lot of potentially great companies who need but can't find good salespeople.
The problem is a lot of people who could do tremendously well are flat-out frightened to sell.
Talented people should be really attracted to sales but they rarely enter the profession on purpose. And it's a shame. The upside in sales is tremendous:

• you can make more money
• it is the only truly stable profession (our ever-expanding government notwithstanding)
• you're most likely to have the most freedom of time
• you are also very likely to end up in a fun, highly social work environment.

 So who's to blame for the fear of sales? Our lovely school system takes the lion's share. The same system that still thinks teaching calculus is more important than teaching the perils of credit card debt does a miserable job preparing soon-to-be grads of what they'll actually be doing in the "real world." More college graduates start their first professional career in some form of sales, yet most graduates take 0-1 classes about sales. It is rarely communicated to naive graduates which positions are expendable in a weak economy and which positions are not. For the record, people who drive revenue are always in need.
 There are other factors for the fear. In sales, there are no trophies for 7th place so the offspring of over coddling baby-boomers find themselves in unfamiliar water when they're told performance matters. And there's still the misconception that sales is about being pushy when that is rarely an adjective used to describe a great salesperson.
But as companies are learning to survive and thrive without fluff positions, the reality is soon enough, the smartest and most motivated of the unemployed are going to notice that their friends in sales are making more career progress, making more money and enjoying a more social work environment. And contrary to where our school system guided them, they'll wind up joining their employed friends and they’ll be selling.

To Build a Better Team, Build a Better You

            A very common question is, “How do I coach a better team?” Depending on who’s asking, the answer can be long. However, the starting point and the finish line are the same … a long look in the mirror.
             For many leaders and managers, oftentimes the effort is misplaced. Team leaders focus on trying to get someone else to do something, such as making someone else see the big picture. Or getting someone else to be more organized or have a better student-mentality. Most often, this approach nets frustration and limited improvement. It’s a control issue. We cannot control the behaviors of others. We can only influence it.
            So focusing effort inward will always net a larger result.
            For example, if a team leader repeatedly runs into working with team members who aren’t organized, start with the mirror and ask the following types of questions:

• Is organization a major strength of mine?
• Am I role modeling a systematic approach to keeping things organized?
• Do I communicate consistently how important organization is to my success?
• Do I communicate to my team members a clear picture of what “being organized” looks like?

After answering these questions, only two scenarios can exist. One, you’re doing things perfectly and you simply need better team members. More likely though is the second scenario: You will find areas for personal improvement. As you begin to attack these areas and role model aggressive commitment to improvement, as long as you have at least a mild level of influence, your team will gravitate toward improvement too. That’s a fairly immediate return.
The greatest win, though, comes later. As you develop stronger skills and habits, your future team members will be stronger in these areas from Day 1.
First, new team members with an already high level of competence will recognize your strength in an area such as organization and be attracted to your team. And with team members who still need development, because you’ve labored through the effort of self-improvement, it will be easier to recognize and fix the weakness in new team members.
This process works for most of the topics that team builders struggle with. Having a problem with attitude, time management, work ethic, professionalism …, begin with yourself. As you improve, so will your team.

Teaching Trainees to Build Great Relationships

A few key ways a sales trainer can help trainees become experts at relationship building:

• Teach people how to shake hands and make confident eye contact.
• Instruct a trainee to use the customer’s name three times in the first five minutes of the conversation.
• Recommend trainees scan their environment and take a genuine interest in anything around the customer that is likely to be important to them (pictures, books, awards …).
• After sales calls, inspect that the salesperson knows at least two pieces of personal information about the customer and recommend that they get this information before talking business.

 Shifting focus from spilling all your information to gathering personal information will create an immediate shift in having people interested in speaking with you. As you practice and develop relationship selling, it will also lead to repeat business and larger orders for you and your team.