Being critical and judgmental of other businesses does nothing but get us a bad rep and (believe this!) make it harder to succeed. What we get back isn’t much different than the return on our investment for putting down other people. At some point, it all comes back to bite us in the butt!

When you feel a judgmental statement winding it’s way up your throat, suck it back down with a deep breath before it ever gets to your tongue. Use your teeth like gates in case it actually does get that far. Hold your tongue. Shut the gates. And mind your own business. (Oh, uh, it might hurt if you hold your tongue while you close your teeth.) If all of this is too hard to swallow, you should not be in business to start with.

Anyway, we all like to criticize. We all think we can do better. And, guess what? Maybe we can do better, but remember that no matter how great we think we might be at something we’re good at (like running a business?), it’s a no-brainer bet that someone else is even better.

It should be needless to say, but those few folks who’ve been holed up like hermits with no outside world awareness’s beyond their smartphones and tablets (is that like everyone under the age of 25?), this tidbit of caution goes –in spades–for Customers! They are the people who are NEVER wrong . . . even when they’re not right!

Real entrepreneurs exist for their customers.

Just because corporate muckity-mucks make a lot of “Love the customer” noise doesn’t mean they really care. But customers are literally the lifeblood of entrepreneurial enterprises.

I mean, just imagine:  If corporate employees were properly trained, and –no matter who called or answered whatever phone– everyone would know how to deal with every customer and no Customer Service Department would even be needed.

Companies could literally save fortunes that could be reinvested in their people . . . and their customers! Sadly, this bit of entrepreneurial thinking has not yet met with acceptance as the effective antidote it is for corporate career contamination.

So just because the corporate guys delegate Customer Service to others, entrepreneurs cannot. Entrepreneurs don’t have that luxury. Entrepreneurs, true entrepreneurs, are who they are because they–always and everywhere–tend to their customers and mind their own business.

Do you?

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Hal@Businessworks.US    931.854.0474

When it’s time to eat grass,

get out of the mud and weeds!

You’ve been bustin’ butt to get where you are, and you can’t even find the tunnel, never mind light at the end of it! That’s the nice way to say you’re feeling spent and discouraged. But the truth is — guess what?– you are CHOOSING to feel spent and discouraged! “Spent” and “discouraged” are behaviors, right? And since all humans are born with free will (although some undoubtedly approach dubiousness), humans (yes, even entrepreneurs) all CHOOSE their behaviors.

So now you think you’re going to get lectured? Don’t choose to think that. Choose instead to enlighten yourself. The choice is just as easy, and it’s light-years  more productive. We make choices every minute of every day — from when to wake up to when to go to sleep, and everything in between. HA! And you thought it was just a matter of eggs or cereal for breakfast . . . or whether to sneer, snort, scowl or smile at someone else who chose to be bitchy.

Nope. No lecture here. Just shared awareness based on being an entrepreneur, and working with 2020 entrepreneurs. The bottom line is that the vast majority of entrepreneurs I’ve experienced haven’t a clue about the right time to make their move out of the weeds and into the sunshine-filled pasture, where healthy grazing beats hanging around in mud and weeds infested with mosquitoes. And I won’t even mention the malaria word here. OMG! So many choices!

So, seriously, where does your business live? When will you choose to move it? Where? How?

Our choices are conscious or unconscious. Sometimes the consequences pop up years later. Goal-setting can spare us a lot of “choice” surprises! Are your goals legitimate? They meet all five essential criteria? They are specific, realistic, flexible, due-dated, and in writing? If they are not all five, you don’t have goals; you have a meaningless, nonproductive wishlist. Why would you choose fantasy when choosing (meaningful, productive) reality is just as easy?

Choosing when and how to get your business out of the mud and weeds is not a matter of betting the farm. Entrepreneurs take only reasonable risks. It is a matter of what I call “Opportunity Vigilance.” When you keep focused on making your idea work and on taking advantage of opportunities that represent growth, you are choosing to put yourself and your business in a position of readiness to head for the sunshine-filled pasture where work becomes fun again.

Unless, of course, you’re a FAKE Entrepreneur?

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Hal@Businessworks.US    931.854.0474

Business Owners and Managers . . .

     WISH YOU COULD BE . . .

?????????????????????

STOP WISHING that you knew what was being said when something goes wrong. Instead, start asking the right questions to find out what you really need to know.

But don’t ask “WHY?” – that only breeds excuses. WHY were you late again? My alarm clock broke. I got a flat tire. My dog was sick. I had to help a neighbor. My mother-in-law showed up for breakfast. I had a really late night last night, and . . . Well, ya’see, I belong to this carpool, and . . .

Instead, ask “HOW?” Find out the process that is or was involved. And don’t settle for a “WHY” answer that many people offer even when they are asked “HOW?”

Staying with the same “late for work” scenario, try asking the late person: HOW can you prevent being late again? Can you give me three steps you’ll take immediately that will keep you from being late again? Please write them on a piece of paper and drop it off here before you head home today.

You’ll be amazed at the results that come with handing in that piece of paper.

If necessary, explain that you want to understand the steps involved, not the reasons for taking them. You can never make something better unless you find out how it got that way to start with . . . you need to know exactly what the specific steps were. Problems aren’t solved by addressing blame or generalities. They’re solved by studying what took place.

WHY doesn’t matter. Knowing WHY won’t help you fix things. Are you wishing you were a fly on the wall so you could have someone or some circumstance to blame, OR being able to know enough to be able to fix the problem?

Can you see how the first of these two options is anchored and invested in fanning the fires of your own self-importance? The second prompts the violator to solve her or his own problem. Do you want to make things work better . . . or feel like a hot-shot?

Well, okay, some people thrive on being management firefighters who prefer to flex their problem-solving muscles by finding fault with others instead of helping others solve their own problems. So, if that’s the case, just keep asking WHY? Oh, and just keep wishing . . . you might win a trip to fantasyland!

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Hal@Businessworks.US    931.854.0474

OPEN MINDS OPEN DOORS

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

GOT A GENIUS MESSAGE?

GOT GUTS?

FEARLESS MARKETING is not about thumping your chest or flailing your fists wildly about before even stepping into the ring, the key, the batter’s box, or up to the tee, the net, or line of scrimmage.

Neither is it even about performing these kinds of antics after knocking down an opponent, making a slam-dunk, hitting an extra-base hit, sinking a putt, forcing a bad serve, or rushing for a first and goal. Sorry, truth is that you’re NOT Spiderman or Wonderwoman!

Being FEARLESS doesn’t mean being insane! It’s about stepping up and out as uniquely, as wisely yet brashly, and as customer-consciously as possible.

In the mid-late 60s, a creative marketing genius named Tony Isadore –then with the great Madison Avenue advertising agency, Young & Rubicam–came up with what was, at that time, unheard-of, earth-shattering language to headline an all-out media (TV, radio, print ads and transit signs) campaign to raise donations for The New York Urban Coalition, The message: “GIVE A DAMN.”

Risky business for those involved. Many thought the use of “DAMN” would be putting careers on the line. Yet the word happened. And because it was deemed by the public as appropriate for the purpose, it became a resounding success.

There is a time and place for everything, but the trick in FEARLESS MARKETING is to be that one step ahead, to anticipate what will work and how far to go in making it work. This is not to suggest ferreting through lists of prospective curse words to throw into your marketing and branding programs.

It is simply to make the point that when we look just far enough into the immediate future, with the right eyes (!), at the right market, we can almost predict an unusual word choice that will “click” with prospects. “GOT MILK?” and “DO IT!” and “IT’S IN YOU” and “LOVIN’ IT” and “THE REAL THING” all come to mind as two or three-word, double entendre messages that have made colossal sales.

And it’s hard to beat the great social media names (GOOGLE, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn) that are in themselves, sales messages, and have even gained acceptance as verbs!

But, ah, be aware that none of these (or I’d venture to guess that any great, short, FEARLESS MARKETING messages) EVER just popped out of someone’s back pocket. Marketing messages that step up and out, that make a difference, that work, typically require re-working, revising, re-thinking, re-writing hundreds if not dozens of attempts, over considerable periods of sleep-on-it time.

So if you’re paying someone to produce the winning combination of words, be patient. Great branding never happened overnight, and if you can think of exceptions . . . you’re going to be wrong 99% of the time! If you think you can produce the perfect words yourself, become a copywriter . . . but don’t give up your day job!

FEARLESS MARKETING is not just the creation of a message. It’s also having the savvy and guts that underscore the message of FEARLESS! (the stage musical), which, applied here, translates to: If the risk involved is reasonable, run the DAMN marketing. FEARLESS MARKETING ignites FEARLESS SALES!

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Hal@Businessworks.US               931.854.0474

OPEN  MINDS  OPEN  DOORS

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

SHARK TANK: Entertainment

(But NOT Entrepreneurship)

It’s entertaining. It’s helped popularize the word entrepreneur and expose the hind flanks of what entrepreneurial pursuits are all about.  But TV’s “Shark Tank” is an entertainment product of pure fantasy. It bares almost no resemblance to the day-to-day real-world inhabited by zillions of struggling ideologists trying to piece their brainstorm ideas together with some magical business glue, and create success.

There’s really nothing “wrong” with the show or its (rather engaging) celebrity sharks. And “Shark Tank” is often amusing, provocative, comical, and at times even heart-rendering, but real entrepreneurs need to dismiss the show’s odds for funding success as akin to winning the lottery. And the occasional investment “loser” who ends up a winner –just from being on the show and gaining favorable PR exposure– is highly unusual.

Yes, there are some big-time “winners” plucked from the many thousands of applicants and auditions. But for the vast majority of contenders, time and energy expenditures alone can cost a fortune in opportunity losses.

So take Shark Tank for what it is: A source of amusement at seeing SO many people work SO hard to get to the point of not having the answers to questions they knew they’d be asked before they ever even set foot on the stage. If anything, the show is a rude awakening for those who think they can simply stroll into a bank, finance company or venture capital firm, talk about how great their ideas are, and leave with bulging wallets.

First of all, it is with rare exception that a business startup (or even a successful ongoing venture) cannot be more successful by focusing on making the creator’s idea work, instead of on seeking funding support. Ask anyone you know who’s made it, and they are likely to tell you that when they made their idea work, money simply came to them from out of nowhere – customer sales and investment offers. If your idea is great, money will find you!

Remember, ANY one can have a creative idea. It’s the ability to be innovative and internally driven to take that idea and run with it–all the way through to completion–that makes entrepreneurs and entrepreneurially-minded product and service developers stand uniquely apart from all other business careers and lifestyles.

Entrepreneurs are not just saying, “Hey! Look at this!” They are saying: this is how this works, this is what it costs. This is the market. This is how we can sell it. This is the profit margin. This is the next step, etc. etc. Unlike the fake version, Entrepreneurs, REAL entrepreneurs, don’t sit on an idea, or analyze it to death, or form a month’s- or year-long study committee. They just do it! Then they adjust it. Then they do it again. Then they adjust it again. Then they do it again and adjust it again, and keep going . . . until it works!

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Hal@Businessworks.US               931.854.0474

OPEN  MINDS  OPEN  DOORS

Many thanks for your visit and make today a GREAT day for someone!

If you’re

IN business, get OUT of Facebook.

Like every other niche in life, undoubtedly, there are those dwelling in and passing through the halls of business who will be quick to dismiss this post (especially Facebook employees). But as Shakespeare once said: “The truth will out!”

And the truth is: If you own and/or manage any** business, and you’re actively involved with Facebook:  you are wasting your time and energy. And lost opportunities are probably costing you more money than you would want to believe. [**any except perhaps retail]

Facebook does appear to serve as a meaningful distraction for government, corporate and academic employees. And given the boredom of that typically committee-cluttered, no-sense-of-urgency career existence, the attraction/diversion is understandable. But for entrepreneurs, Facebook is an unproductive addiction. It is simply not worthy of your attention, or even your interest, never mind your active indulgence. It literally eats up your clock!

“Yes, but,” I hear some say, “it’s the only way I can find out what my kids/grandkids are up to!” Then settle for it being a weekend addiction. Going to Facebook ANYtime between rise-and-shine Monday and nighty-night Friday is like a visit to the dentist for business owner/ manager Facebook fanatics. They too often end up holding their numb jaws while the Novocaine wears off when the reality comes home that time and energy and money has gone a-wasting.

“Okay, so Twitter is better, right?” Is there any difference in being obsessed with Twitter for any reason other than to promote your business interests (which is likely to be far better accomplished, btw, on LinkedIn) . . . or with being obsessed with the news (unless you’re in the news business)?

Bottom line: If you’re a genuine entrepreneur, you’re not spending spare time with anything other than your health and spiritual well-being–whatever that may be for you–and loving and growing your family and a few select friendships–whatever that takes.

Slice your pie the way you see fit. It’s your pie. It can be big, small, flat, mountainous, firm, gloppy, round, square, multilevel, whatever works for you . . . but don’t pretend it’s not a pie! We choose our pie. We choose our behavior. We choose our stress by choosing to set ourselves up for it. Think hard about the last time you didn’t feel 100%. What were you doing/thinking/saying shortly before you lost sleep/felt edgy/got sick?

When the stress becomes DIStress–with never enough time in the day for your pie, your family, your health–don’t react. Respond. Ask yourself HOW you choose or chose your stress? Then make a different choice. Maybe it’s time to change the way you see or slice your pie . . . or the way you breathe?

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Hal@Businessworks.US               931.854.0474

OPEN  MINDS  OPEN  DOORS

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

HOW TO SELL TO ZOMBIES

A recent study purports that: people are now spending more hours per day with
electronic devices than they spend sleeping!

Draw your own conclusions. Regardless of the details, it’s true that we ARE rapidly becoming a planet of ear-budded Zombies… not the Stephen King kind, thank heaven, but the daily, impersonal- and-unable-to-know-how-to-relate-to-others, heads-down, technologically-addicted, kind.

So, how do we sell through preoccupied minds? And regardless of titles, we’re all in sales. (Don’t we all “sell” ourselves to others all day? Every day?) And how hard is it to get cash, a date, acceptance, when our prospect’s mind is mid-game, mid-text, mid-music, mid-call?

Okay, so how do we sell to Zombies?

Today’s sales professionals have to work much harder at gaining undivided attention. But some of the most hard-charging salespeople turn to jellyfish at the thought of having to insist on having undivided attention before pitching their wares. Fear of being too intrusive? Fear of losing receptivity?

Bottom Line: You must eliminate more distractions than you think you’re capable of. In order to do that, you must take the risk of being pleasantly assertive before you start your spiel/pitch/presentation.

This translates to being like church, the movies, and pilots on takeoffs and landings — request your prospects to turn off their cellphones, tablets, laptops, intercoms and Dick Tracy wristwatches before you get going. Oh, and (unless you’re doing an online/on-screen presentation) make sure you do too!

External sounds and sights
distract internal reasoning

When did you last purchase something from the person in front of you while reading or sending a text message, making or taking a call, watching TV, or when others around you were doing that? It’s close to impossible to make a sale in an audio/visual-cluttered environment.

If you have a persuasive message to deliver, avoid noisy or TV-mounted restaurant settings, concerts, parades, movie theaters, shooting galleries, oil rig sites, airport runways, football games, school playgrounds, fire stations, the stock market floor. Staticky phone line or hectic office? Call back.

If the products or services you’re selling involve or produce sounds and/or moving images, demonstrate what you’ve got, then shut it/them down to talk. If you’re outdoors, suggest strolling to a quiet area.

High tech/electronic Zombies are not a lost cause

unless you allow them to be. Sales are your lifeline.

Don’t choose for interferences to beat you. Ask

prospects to step into the hall, or if you (or they)

can find a quiet room or area for long enough to

make your sales points.

Remember the age-old “AIDAS” marketing formula: Attract Attention; Create Interest; Stimulate Desire; Prompt Action; Deliver Satisfaction. It’s hard to do any of these with electronic verbal and visual interferences on the surface (or under the table), or in people’s pockets.

All common sense?   Perhaps . . . IF you’re riding the electronics tide, fully conscious of your day-to-day environments, firmly embedded in here-and-now thinking, and recognize a Zombie when you see one!

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Hal@Businessworks.US               931.854.0474

OPEN  MINDS  OPEN  DOORS

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Thank You to FEARLESS, the musical [www.fearlessthemusical.com] for the last three words and some of the clout of this post!

While some political leaders may doubt that FEARLESS Strategic Planning (FSP) is what the U.S. Government needs to be doing more of right now, it is certainly what every professional salesperson needs to be focused on at least once a week—and more likely, every morning!

FSP is partly back to that old adage for success that we can only ever get to where we’re going when we have a map or, as present day technology dictates, a GPS or mobile map app. But the difference is in the name. It must be a FEARLESS map and we must follow it fearlessly.

Sales professionals have a tendency toward squeamishness, avoidance, nay-saying, and self-doubt when they head off into what constitutes new or uncultivated territory . . . or when they need to circle around and come back to the doorstep they once left feeling inadequate, defeated or threatened.

The solution to these mental roadblocks is to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, take a deep breath, smile like you mean it, and get back on the horse that threw you (or whose clomping, stomping, snorting, glaring, and big teeth have kept you jittering at a cautious distance).

First off, no customer or prospect knows more about you, or your product or service or concept . . . than you! Secondly, anyone (or group) putting out defensive arm-folding or “I think I know more than you” pyramiding of fingers, is simply afraid of making a bad buying decision, so take these as signals that your job is to help them feel more secure about where you’re leading them. Back out of your pitch long enough to break down some of these resistant postures. Tasteful humor helps.

Thirdly, and most important: you got to where you are because you have a gift for knowing the right things to say in any sales situation. Rely on that. Trust yourself. Reach inside and appreciate what the real you is all about. Then, put it to work. Being FEARLESS means being authentic.

When you plan your weekly and daily strategies, plan them with a positive attitude and an air of authenticity. When you dig into your areas of strength and build energy and genuineness (vs. boredom and phoniness) into your words and actions, you are being authentic . . . FEARLESS!

How to get to that point? Work at it. Stop giving up on yourself. Cultivate everything you can think of that builds and rebuilds your sense of determination, gumption, fire. Never stop learning. Every problem is an opportunity. Strategize from your mind, but act and speak fearlessly from your heart!

Every day you begin with FEARLESS Strategic Planning will bring you increased health and happiness and success. Your words and behaviors are always your choice. Choose to be FEARLESS. Choose to make it easy!

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Hal@Businessworks.US          931.854.0474

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and make today a GREAT day for someone!

“Pretty good job… for a woman!“

“Thanks for nothing” types of “mixed” messages pervade today’s society– in meetings, phone calls, emails, texting, even music! “Don’t smoke, don’t drink, and don’t curse,” he warns his new employee. Then the boss frantically pats down his pockets and exclaims with frustration: “Sh*t! I must have left my pipe at the bar!”

“All the world’s a stage…” proclaimed Shakespeare. At one time or another, we all play roles and mask ourselves in some way. If we become aware of ourselves when we are putting on a performance, that awareness gives us the freedom to reject unproductive (unless you’re “on stage”) playacting in favor of authenticity.

And (yes, apples are great, but) certainly, A is for AUTHENTICITY too! It is Authenticity, after all, that is the overriding human quality which serves us best in both life and work

. . . yet, short of hiring someone to monitor or videotape our daily words and actions, it can be difficult at best to be aware of when we are “putting on airs” or undermining someone else or sabotaging current circumstances. Why? Because playacting is often an unconscious knee- jerk reaction to another person or situation.

So what are we to do to begin eliminating or at least minimizing phoney images and communications?

Awareness of life/career damages from disingenuous behavior is the beginning. So, you’ve already started. Next comes making a conscious effort to strengthen your resistance to assume or take on these self-destruct roles. You need to “catch yourself” by keeping your mind and body in better balance with the real you:  the deep-inside you.

Accept from the outset that–unless you’re another Mother Theresa–you may be unlikely to ever achieve 100% authenticity. But know that even slight improvements will enhance your personal respectability and community standing, and will dramatically increase others’ acceptance of your ideas and trust.

Once you are aware of this thinking and accept that “being more genuine” will rocket-boost your life, work, and play pursuits, begin to take more deep breaths. That alone will help you ground yourself in times of trouble and, ultimately, clarify your here-and-now focus in ways that win you more intrinsic happiness and more extrinsic rewards.

Being more aware paves your path to greater control and spotlights that everything you say and do is a choice that you make or the result of some choice you have made at some point in life. Simply by being more “Choice-Conscious,” you will find yourself better able to illuminate your strengths and free up your uniqueness . . . bring your real self, your authenticity, to the surface in more of what you think and say and do.

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Hal@Businessworks.US          931.854.0474

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

What I’ve Learned About

FEARLESS Selling!

Speak up for what you want. If you don’t spell it out, no one will ever know where you want to go. Solicit feedback.

When you state a feeling, opinion or belief, SAY that it’s your feeling, opinion, or belief…instead of implying that you’re stating “facts.” Imagine standing in your listener’s shoes.

STOP saying “all” and “every” and “ever” and “never” because you’ll start to believe yourself…and others will start to doubt you..

When others tell you your idea won’t work, don’t believe them. Instead, give it a goal and a strategy. It’s easier to move forward with a map.

STOP, LOOK, and LISTEN isn’t just for railroad crossings. Ask questions, observe and listen hard. But as Einstein said, “all we ever have is limited knowledge”…so when it’s time to move on, go with what you know!

Turn off the news. Bombardments of negative, tragic events will invade, disrupt, corrode and corrupt positive attitudes. INSTEAD: Sing. Dance. Read. Laugh. Play. Walk. Take pictures.

Positive attitudes are preserved when you respond instead of react. If you don’t react, you can’t over-react. Learn to blame less and forgive more.

Stop worrying about how you look and pay attention to how you behave. Entrepreneurial leaders instill confidence and inspire action no matter what they wear. Contrary to popular myth: Clothes do not “make the man.”

Look everyone and every thing in the eye. Good contact, not staring. Looking at your feet or over someone’s shoulder broadcasts ambivalence and fear…feelings that fail to: sell, instill confidence, inspire trust, communicate authenticity, show interest.

When the competition gets tough, get tougher by being better informed, by delighting (not just “servicing”) your customers, and by being honest.

Keep your eyes and ears alert, and your mind open. Take more deep breaths to keep your SELF in the “here-and-now” as much as possible . . . because success is the journey, and expectations breed disappointment.

Remember your family, your friends and how to laugh. Above all: Trust your SELF!

Live. Love. Make it easy.

 Some concepts inspired by www.FEARLESStheMusical.com

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Hal@Businessworks.US          931.854.0474

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and Make today a GREAT day for someone!