“Enthusiasm is contagious. Be a carrier.”-Susan Rabin
Great leaders live their lives and run their businesses with ENTHUSIASM!

Legendary Leaders have Enthusiasm

When people think of legendary football coaches, they nearly always mention Vince Lombardi. He said to his team, “You are to have confidence in me and enthusiasm for my system. Hereafter, I want you to think of only three things: your home, your religion, and the Green Bay Packers. Let enthusiasm take hold of you.” He drilled one message into his players before every game. “If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.”

Everyone Likes Excitement

When people bubble with personal energy, others like being around them. Henry Ford built a giant automotive empire, and he knew what it took to produce results. “Enthusiasm is at the bottom of all progress! With it, there is accomplishment,” said Ford. “Without it, there are only alibis.”

Mark Twain was once asked the reason for his success. He replied, “I was born excited.” Tom Watson, founder of IBM, said, “The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas and enthusiasm.” Zig Ziglar, author and a premier motivational speaker, says, “For every sale you miss because you’re too enthusiastic, you will miss a hundred because you’re not enthusiastic enough.”

Jim Valvano, the great basketball coach for the North Carolina State Wolfpack, who died after fighting a long, courageous battle against the cancer in his body, remained enthusiastic to the day of his death. Valvano said, “I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have. To spend each day with some laughter and some thought, to get your emotions going. To be enthusiastic every day.”

Choose to be Enthusiastic

When we choose to add enthusiasm to our lives, people immediately recognize it and often comment on it. When we’re enthusiastic, our attitude is affected. Enthusiasm is contagious. It’s difficult to remain neutral or indifferent in the presence of a positive thinker. Our goal should be to make enthusiasm a total and permanent part of everything we do!

 Our leadership and other strengths are not worth much if we are not able to achieve leverage and results through other people. Without question, our enthusiasm will help us achieve such leverage and results.

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Happy Thanksgiving

 Every year when Thanksgiving rolls around, we’re inspired to look within and consider the things we should be thankful for in life and in business. But it’s also important to take the time this season as a way to consider all your hard work this year and celebrate the strides you’ve made, both large and small – to look back and recognize the achievements you’ve made, especially over the last year. This year, as you celebrate Thanksgiving with your family and friends, remember to celebrate yourself as well and take a few days off!

Learn to work on your Business rather then always in it

If you can’t leave your business unattended or you don’t have someone who can fill in and you don’t want to close up shop, then it’s time to look at your systems and processes. Lets dedicate 2015 to putting strategies and plans in place to become the business owner you’re meant to be, one that works on their business rather then always in it.

In the meantime, if you can’t take a full-fledged break from the business, at least give yourself some small reprieves. Take 15 minutes each day for a strategic time out. Use this time to reflect and re-energize. Commit to planning time to spend with family and friends. Understand what you need to be happy and take breaks when you need them!

Don’t forget to celebrate your business, your family, and all the blessings in your life this holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving!

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Greater Freedom and Fortune in Your Business

After interacting with business owners over the years, I have learned with absolute clarity that our goal as business owners should be to design a company that is distinct from us and quite candidly, works in our absence. We should create a separate cash flow entity, not merely a job for ourselves. It should pay us a healthy salary plus a return on our investment of money, time and effort. We should build equity! We should build wealth! Bottom line, our role should be to shape, manage and grow this independent and enduring asset – our business.

Our enterprise should function without you, not because of you. I know this sounds bizarre, but hear me out. While you can be the brains behind the enterprise, you should not be like Hercules trying to hold up the entire weight of the company! You will be crushed!

 How to Gain Greater Fortune and Freedom in Your Business

Your business should work harder so you don’t have to. You should be able to make money everyday without having to work everyday. You should invest more brain equity and leadership equity and much less sweat equity into your company. Your business should be a product of your brain, not your brawn.

You should strive to build a business that does not enslave you and does not rely on your being present every minute of every day doing all the thinking, deciding, worrying, and working. You must adopt a new way of thinking and acting.

 Become a Strategic Business Owner

You must become a strategic business owner. Specifically, you must learn to adopt a CEO mindset; systematize and document your business processes; lead more and work less; create a simple business plan; utilize the leverage of marketing; effectively manage your greatest asset, your people; and learn to let go. In short, you must transform the way you see yourself and your business.

 Develop and Systems and Processes

As a strategic business owner, your primary aim should be to develop a self-managing and systems-oriented business that still runs consistently, predictably, smoothly, and profitably while you are not there. You should shape and own the business processes and systems and employ competent and caring employees to operate the system. You should document the work of your business so that you can effectively train others to execute the work. You must make yourself replaceable in the technical trenches of your business. To repeat, define and document the specific work to be done and then train and delegate. This is how you begin successfully to beat the blues, escape death by details, and gain greater freedom.

With a documented operating system, your employees should be able to carry on the work of the business while you focus on big picture priorities or God forbid, decide to take a break. You should be able to escape the daily drudgery. In fact, your company should run on autopilot status even while you’re on an extended, work-free, guilt-free vacation. If it does, you will have designed and built a business that truly works and is worth a fortune. More importantly, in the process, you will have gained back a personal life that is fulfilling.

To maintain freedom, independence and fulfillment, as your business grows, so must your leadership effectiveness and operating systems. You must stop micromanaging and start leading (macro managing). You must become more purposeful and proactive.

 Seven Steps to Improvement

Step One: learn to work on yourself by transitioning to a new way of thinking and behaving. Re-program yourself and your habits. Stop acting like an employee and start thinking like a CEO. Learn to work on your business, not in your business. Adopt the theory of optimization. Be strategic, not tactical; work less, lead more!

Step Two: systematize your company by creating, documenting and continually improving all your key processes, procedures and policies. Trust the business system and personnel you put in place and remove yourself from the company’s daily details. Be more hands-off and more brains-on. Replace yourself with other people. Define and document the work to be done. Train others and delegate the work. This operating system is your foundation for freedom.

Step Three: increase your leadership capabilities. Excel at leadership, not doer-ship. Your business needs a clear vision and strong leader to hold others accountable, not another employee doing technical work. Help build and direct your team.

Step Four: develop clarity of direction for your business and employees by creating a simple business plan and an effective implementation process.

Step Five: learn to effectively manage your people, your greatest asset.

Step Six: instead of incremental growth, engage the leverage of marketing to achieve substantial, profitable growth.

Step Seven: learn to let go, delegate, and truly enjoy business ownership, your relationships, and your life.

By working less in your business, you gain more time to work on your business and make those essential changes necessary to optimize your company and your life. You may well be skeptical. That’s normal. However, let me ask you “Are your current paths and strategies working”? If not, I invite you to acknowledge the problems in your business, take responsibility for them, and dare to try new approaches.

If you would like to achieve greater freedom, fulfillment and financial returns from your business, please contact me to make dramatic improvements in your individual and organization effectiveness.

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Alice in Wonderland

I remember, and I imagine most of us remember reading the story or watching the animated movie of Alice in Wonderland when we were kids. It is funny how even now I can still remember a lot of the story of Alice falling down the rabbit hole into a fantasy world and her adventure there. I remember the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, The White Rabbit, The Queen and King of hearts, and of course The Cheshire Cat.

Alice in Wonderland was written in 1865 by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll.

What you might ask does this have to do with a business blog? It has to do with vision and direction and a story I heard in regards to Alice and Wonderland.

You see, when Alice was trying to find a way out of Wonderland she came upon a crossroad and did not know which way to go. So she turned to the Cheshire cat that was sitting there and asked the cat which way ought she go? The Cheshire cat responded, that it would depend on where she wanted to be. Alice then responded to the cat that she really did not much care. Smiling the Cheshire cat said to her, then it really does not matter which road she took.

You see unless we know where we are going, where we want to be, it doesn’t matter which road or path we take, because we aren’t going to get there anyway. Here is where a vision for your business and your life is so critically important. We have to know where we are going. A vision is a picture of our desired future. What do we want it to look like? Where do we want our business and our personal life to be a year from today? Creating a vision is the first step toward achieving our desired future. Without it, it doesn’t matter which direction we go.

A vision is an expression of optimism. Its purpose is to clarify the kind of organization or personal life we wish to create.

What do you want your personal life and your business to look like a year from today? What kind of success do you want to have in 2015? If you do not plan for it, it is most likely not going to happen.

The best time to have a map is before we enter the woodland if we can get off to a good start, we are more likely to have a good finish.

We can help you to clarify your current reality and assist you in creating your desired future. Do you want to dramatically improve your results in 2015? Do you want greater success, to make more money, to have more free time? Do you want to learn to work on your business rather then always in it? Don’t settle for a mediocre 2015. Take time to create a vision of what it will look like.

We can help you achieve amazing results in the year to come. Contact us.

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]I remember when I decided to Climb Mt. Rainier (14,411’) in Washington State. I knew that it would be very difficult having read that only 50% of those who attempt to summit actually make it to the summit. In preparation I upped my exercise program to twice daily. I knew that in order to be successful in my attempt at summiting I would have to have a very clear vision of what I wanted to achieve and I would need to set goals in order to achieve this vision.

Day of the Climb

On the day of the climb we started at Paradise Inn located at the 5,400 ft. level. We carried 65 lbs. on our backs and headed to the 10,000’ level where base camp would be. But before we left Paradise Inn, we looked at the map and decided where we would stop and take breaks along the trail. These became our goals to reach on our trek to 10’000’. We had a vision of reaching base camp by a certain time in the day.

Base Camp

After setting up our base camp we began preparations for our climb to the summit and achieving my vision of summiting. We again looked at the map and determined our goals to help us reach the summit and measure our progress. Our group of seven, left base camp at 2:30 am. When we reached 12,000’ half the group that had left an hour before us was coming back down the trail. They had given up. When we arrived at 13,000’ the other half of this earlier group was sitting along the side of the trail, also having given up. We never saw them summit.

The last 14,411’ was the hardest thing I have ever done. It was incredibly steep and visibility was limited. I still had my vision of reaching the summit and this kept me going in the face of this difficulty. My measurement of success to achieve my vision of summiting became smaller as I climbed. I would put my head down and count 200 steps, then, I would look up, put my head down and count another 200 steps. This continued until I summited at 8:30 am. I had created the vision of what I wanted to achieve, set the goals necessary to be prepared, and then set intermediary goals to reach the summit.

What does this have to do with business? It is what happens every day with successful business owners. Great leaders create a vision of their desired future and what they want it to look like. Creating a vision is the first step toward achieving our desired future. We create a vision of our desired future so that we have a target to aim at. It is an expression of optimism on our part. This doesn’t mean that it won’t be hard work, but knowing where we are going and what the future will look like when we get there can be incredibly motivating. It will motivate us to do the hard work necessary to hit the target and our sub-conscious minds will also go to work to help us achieve our vision.

As we begin 2015, it’s an excellent time to sit down and decide what we want our businesses to look like at the end of this year. What is it that we want to achieve? What does our desired future look like? Once we know where we are going we can set goals to guide us along the way and help us measure our progress.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Dream Big to Grow Your Business in 2015

Time is quickly flying by

It’s hard to believe that we are already into the second week of February. Time is quickly flying by. Recently I conducted a workshop on jump-starting your business in 2015 in which we discussed the need for clarity of direction in our business and personal lives. If we want greater success in 2015, we must clarify where we want our business to go. The need for clarity of direction is critical to our success. Success in business starts with clarity of direction or a clear vision. Without that clear vision, like Alice in Wonderland, of which I wrote in a previous blog post, any road will do. Without clarity of direction we won’t arrive where we want our business to be at the end of this year.

And since it is our business and our personal life, why not dream big? What would our business look like if time, energy and money were no object? We didn’t start our business by thinking small, so lets not let our small business make us small minded. Dream it, visualize it, picture it and then write it down.

As we begin 2015 we are the one holding the pen to write a new future for our business and personal life. It’s our future; why not describe it, as we want it to be? If we don’t take the time to clarify where we want our business to go, nothing will change. We have an opportunity as we have begun a New Year to do things differently. Lets commit to improving our business and our personal lives this year by making this our best year ever. Someone has to be the best, why not you? Be bold and be you in 2015

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    Small Business Owners Face some Big Challenges

 “If we want something done right, we have to do it ourselves.” We’ve all heard that statement – especially from people who are micromanaging a situation or trying to do everything all alone. That might have worked in college when we were assigned a group project and we ended up doing it all by ourselves, but it’s not how we should run our business!

Many business owners are great technicians. They know how to paint a house, they can make awesome chicken parmesan, they understand how to prepare perfect taxes… and that makes it extremely difficult to let go and let the staff take care of those parts of the business. We are business owners because we wanted to own a business – not because we wanted to work seven days a week and run every aspect of the business. If we’re spending every day in the field running our businesses, how can we be focused on building our business?

As we head into this new year, we might want to consider challenging ourselves to hang up that tool belt or take off the apron and spend the next few months trusting our staff to run the day to day aspects of the business. We don’t need to step in and make every pan of lasagna and, if we don’t think our staff can handle it, then we need to train them to do the job at the level we expect. We can be available for guidance, but we can’t step in to make every decision and run every job.

Once we’re able to step back from the daily technical needs of our business, we can turn our attention to training our company leaders, building and implementing systems so the business can run without us, marketing and promoting the great products or services we provide, etc.

Take time to clarify where your business and you want to be at the end of this year, then set goals to make it happen. One of those goals could be to spend more time working on our business rather then in the business. . If we spend the amount of time we would normally spend in the business working toward that goal, we will be amazed at what we can accomplish.

Every business owner understands how difficult it can be to delegate the daily operations of our businesses and take on the role of a CEO, but that’s the only way to grow a successful business without burning the candle at both ends. If you find that your business can’t run without you or you can’t seem to delegate as needed, then give me a call. I can help you to develop systems and processes so that you can learn to work on your business rather than always in it.

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In my last blog post I discussed a problem I had while flying back from eastern Oregon in bad weather and how we need to be willing to call a problem what it is, a problem, and not an opportunity.

In that instance I made an emergency landing at Cascade Locks. Many of you probably didn’t even know there was a landing strip at Cascade Locks along the Columbia River. A good friend of mine, and fellow consultant commented: “Go into situations with a strong foundation to assess the situation and react effectively when problems arise”. This is excellent advice.

I had another incident similar to this one, again coming back from eastern Oregon in sub-par weather. I had passed Cascade Locks this time and again the weather had deteriorated to below minimums. I was monitoring the Troutdale Tower on my radio listening for other aircraft that might be in the area. The ceiling was at 400’ well below legal limits. I looked back and could see that there was no tuning back to land at Cascade Locks this time.

Suddenly the radio came to life, and it was the Troutdale Tower asking me what my intentions were. They had been monitoring my transponder signal on their radar and knew that I had to make a decision. Turn back or land, there was nowhere else to go. I had a big problem. I requested a special VFR clearance in order to land in weather conditions that are below legal limits. This is a necessary requirement and not looked on favorably by the FAA

I decided that day, that I would no longer fly in marginal conditions. It was just too dangerous and I was not just risking my life, but those of the passengers that I was carrying. It was time to make a change. From that point on, I became a fair weather pilot, only flying when the conditions were excellent.

People and businesses are the same in many regards. We don’t change until the pain to remain the same is greater than the pain to change. Often it takes crises in someone’s life or in their business before they will make a change. And many times, it’s too late to recover from these crises.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We don’t have to wait for a personal crises or a business disaster to make the necessary changes for a better future. We can be monitoring the weather and continually evaluating our path and direction, making constant adjustments to a better future. This is called continuous improvement.

Don’t wait for crises in your business to change. We can help you navigate to a prosperous and better future.

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Recently I was interviewing a successful businessman for a book I am writing and we were discussing his path to success. As we were talking I realized that he had been amazingly resilient throughout this entire process and the struggles he encountered along the way.

Then while attending the Summit Consulting Groups Million Dollar Convention in Atlanta in March, where I was surrounded by some incredible individuals, I had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Martin Seligman discuss The Practice of Positive Psychology. Dr. Seligman discussed a number of things such as:

-One of the most profound ways to increase your happiness is to at the end of your day to write down three positive things about your day and why they were positive.

-Research has shown that Twitter is predicting heart attacks better than the ten   standard indicators of heart attacks as tweets are posted immediately and analyzed in real time.

-He also discussed PERMA, which I will discuss in future post.

One of the things that struck me the most that Dr. Seligman said was:

“Resilience is twice as important as talent and IQ.”

After interviewing the successful businessman and realizing that he had been incredibly resilient, this was a profound statement. I recently picked up a book at Powell’s Books entitled: Resilience by Eric Greitens a former Navy Seal. The title obviously caught me attention.

In his book he says: Resilience is a virtue that enables us to move through our hardships and become better. None of us can escape pain, fear or suffering. Yet from pain can come wisdom, from fear can come courage, and from suffering can come strength, if we have the virtue of resilience.

Pain can break us or make us wiser. Suffering can destroy us or make us stronger. Fear can cripple us or make us more courageous. It is resilience that makes the difference.

Resilience is the key to a well-lived life. If we want to be happy, we need resilience. If we want to be successful in business we need resilience. Just like the successful businessman that I interviewed recently.

If you want to be more resilient in your business and achieve greater success, we can help you to dramatically improve your individual and organizational success.

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In my last post I discussed my experience at the Summit Consulting Group’s Million Dollar Convention in Atlanta where I had the opportunity to hear Dr. Martin Seligman author of Authentic Happiness and Learned Optimism discuss The Practice of Positive Psychology. I mentioned in that post that one of the things that struck me the most was when he said: “Resilience is twice as important as talent and IQ.” I’ve become fascinated with this topic of resilience.

In Eric Greitens book Resilience we learned that resilience is a virtue that enables us to move through our hardships and become better. None of us can escape pain, fear or suffering. Yet from pain can come wisdom, from fear can come courage, and from suffering can come strength, if we have the virtue of resilience.

In my good friend Sandra Suran’s recent book The DNA of the Resilient Organization she describes how resilience and sustainable growth within an organization are built from the core. With each problem that we solve or new opportunity that is seized and accomplished, the organization’s core will become stronger.

In Dr. Seligman’s words, Sandra Suran’s book and in Eric Greitens book on resilience, the message is unanimous: The problems and struggles we encounter if dealt with correctly make us not only stronger individuals but stronger organizations. We must learn to honor the struggle because it is part of our journey as individuals and organizations that are necessary for real growth. We have all struggled at times both individuals and organizations. When we look at our struggles as opportunities to learn and grow and not fight it but embrace it, then we can get the most out of the journey. Resilience is the key to our success. It is not that which happens to us that has the greatest impact on us, and those around us, but our response to what happens.

Resilience seems to be the key to having a well-lived life and a successful business. The more resilient we are the stronger we become. The stronger we become the greater our ability to weather the storms that come our way. We weren’t born with resilience. Resilience is something we build over time. After enough practice, resilience becomes a part of who we are.

Would you like to develop resilience in your organization? We can help you become stronger and more resilient on a daily basis. Give us a call. We are here to help.

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