Posted on

How Helpful are You to Others?

One major characteristic of successful people is their desire and willingness to help others. Everyone may be willing to help others to a point, but do you go the extra mile to be helpful to others? Think about this for a second.

In the world of business, how helpful you are to your customers can determine how high your business will rise. Being supportive to your customers is not just about recommending the right item to purchase. Rather, it is about being helpful to prospective clients. This may sound strange, but being supportive may sometimes mean directing clients to a competitor if your product or service is not exactly what they need to solve their problem. Offer support to others, not because of the benefit you may derive, but rather because of the benefit they will derive. Focus on helping people solve their problems, not on how you can benefit from them.  

Keeping in touch with your connections is also a way of being helpful as a business owner. You can keep in touch with your connections by sending out a monthly newsletter to your list of connections. The newsletter may contain local news as well as information on new products/services that may be beneficial to them.

Having a Facebook fan page is also another strategy to be helpful to your customers. This strategy is quite popular, and lots of companies use it. Having a Facebook page allows you to communicate with customers, receive authentic feedback, as well as give advice and recommendations to customers. Keeping in touch with your connections through social media may be time-consuming, but it is a great investment.

Always keep an eye out for opportunities to be helpful to individuals in your local area, and even local businesses. It would be a great idea if you could create a hangout area where you can get together with other business owners to support each other in promoting one another’s business.

Now, take a minute and ask yourself, “Am I really being helpful to people in my life?” Think about it. If you need to improve on how helpful you are to others, then start planning on small action steps to take to start being more helpful to others. One great way to be helpful and supportive to others is by always going to extra mile for your customers. Give them more than they expect, and they will love you for it! It is the little extras that make them see you as a great solution to their problem, and it is the little extras that will make them stay loyal to you.

Posted on

Honesty Counts

Of all the character traits and attitudes to develop, one of the most important is honesty. It is funny how most people think of themselves as honest, but tend to act differently when it comes to business affairs.

Telling white lies is becoming a trend, as most people are indulging in it. They say, “After all, if it helps me to make a sale to a customer, then it’s not a big deal.” Perhaps you overstated the quality of your product on sale, or you intentionally sold a defective product to a client because you weren’t ready to go through the stressful process of returning it to the manufacturer. Is it a big deal?

You may get away with being insincere to your customers for now, but it may one day come back to plague you. For example, you may have sold a defective product to a client, and saying that you trust the authenticity of the product completely. What happens then, if the client returns the product with an issue, and you have no idea how to fix the issue?

For your business to be successful, you must develop the habit of long-term thinking. In every decision you take, you must ask yourself, “How will this action affect me and my business in future?” You also have to think about your customers and place them first. You need to take time to study them and find out their desires, their challenges as well as how much they can afford to spend. Customers can sense that you care about them when you show an interest in them. They are smart, and can notice whether you are really interested in them. Whether through talk or body language, they can always tell.

Honesty is a very important attitude which, if practised, can produce success in your personal life and business. You will be surprised how customers will gladly recommend your business to their friends and contacts. People will also see you as a trustworthy person who will always give an honest opinion concerning any issue.

Posted on

Think Before You Speak

Have you ever been guilty of saying something out loud and suddenly regretting it and wishing you never said it? Almost everyone has been in such a situation before. Words have power, and they should be handled carefully since we can never take back what we say.

We need to learn the important habit of thinking before we speak, especially when it comes to using social media. Take a minute to think about what you want to post on Facebook or tweet on Twitter before you do it. It’s very easy to just vent out our emotions on social media, or reply harshly to a post that offends us.

We should, however, remember that as soon as we post something on social media, the entire world becomes our audience. There is the freedom of speech, but we need to be careful of what we say, especially when exchanging words on social media about a controversial issue. Whatever you say can come back one day to haunt you.

Many people have posted on social media without thinking, and have immediately regretted their actions. When you see something on social media that gets you annoyed, don’t rush to reply. Pause and take a minute to think about how you want to respond, and how that response could affect other people. What if your family sees your message? What will your employer think of you if he/she sees it? Will it get you a promotion or will it get you fired?

If you want to be a successful person, then you always need to think first before speaking out loud. This is one of the attitudes of people with a positive mindset. If you want to have a more positive attitude, then you need to practise this. Always remember that every action you take has an effect, whether positive or negative.

There will always be situations that get us annoyed and stressed out, but it is better to let these situations pass without responding to them angrily in public. However, thinking before speaking does not mean that you don’t have the chance to rant and express your opinions. You can rant and scream in your pillow at home where no one will hear you, or you can vent out to your spouse. This is much better than ranting out in the open for others to hear.

Of course, there are some situations where it is recommended for you to speak up. If you have a powerful reputation, speaking up concerning certain issues can help. This applies to speaking up to raise money for a social cause or raise awareness of a specific issue.  

Always remember that people will judge your personality and intelligence based on what you say. Therefore, learn to be selective in the words you speak, and think twice about your actions when responding to something online. Be slow to speak, but if your words will help to improve a situation, then going ahead to speak may be the right thing to do.

Posted on

How Fearless Are You?

Everyone has something that they fear. No matter how brave someone may seem, there may be one thing that the person fears. Everyone has different fears. Your fear may be about performing poorly at work, while another person’s fear may be the fear of developing a fatal disease. These are all legitimate fears, and there is nothing wrong about being afraid. What is important is how you respond to them.

It is never easy to confront your fears, but you can resolve to work on them little by little. For example, if your fear is about mediocre performance at work, you can start thinking of ways to boost your performance. Perhaps you may need to upgrade your skill set or develop some more self-confidence. Self-confidence is very important, as it can determine how others see you and respond to you. When you feel and act confident, others will begin to see you as such and respond to you more positively. One way of boosting your level of confidence is by repeating positive affirmations to yourself every day. Keep repeating positive statements about yourself until you believe them and see them manifest in your life.

Being fearless does not mean that you will never feel fear. Rather, it means that you will not allow fear to control you, or influence your actions and decisions. Being fearless means identifying your fear, and devising strategies to overcome them. Sharing your fears with someone you trust is a big step in overcoming your fears. It may surprise you that they may be facing fears like yours.

Being fearless is a trait that most people admire and wish to have, but there are times when being fearless has some disadvantages. In trying to be fearless, you may take rash and irresponsible actions that may hurt you and others close to you. There is a clear difference between being afraid to take an action, and taking an action that is foolish and reckless.

You may want to overcome your fear instantly, but the best way is to work on it slowly, over time. Engage in activities that you usually wouldn’t, so that you can stretch yourself out of your comfort zone. Whenever you successfully take an action towards overcoming your fear, you have to reward and motivate yourself for a great job done! As you keep doing this, you will realise that your fears are no longer as scary as they used to be, and your self-concept has become more positive, helping you become more focused and successful.

Fear is never a sign of weakness. It is okay to fear, but it is not okay to let fear rule your life. Rather, set challenging goals for yourself, which will help you tackle your fears and enable you to enjoy the life you desire!

Posted on

Developing a Positive Attitude

Are you truly satisfied and fulfilled with your life as it is now? Are you achieving the goals you set for yourself, and are you creating for yourself the life you’ve always desired? If that is not the case, then perhaps you should check your attitude.

Do you have a positive attitude? If you want to get much more out of life, then you need to develop a positive attitude. With a positive attitude, you can be optimistic in every situation and know that things will be fine at the end. You will be full of joy and excitement, and not let little issues cause you to worry.

Do you want to have an excited outlook towards life? All you need to do, then, is to develop a positive attitude. This attitude is quite scarce in society since it is easy for everyone to just be pessimistic and blame people for the situations they find themselves in. Being optimistic in difficult circumstances is difficult, but necessary to build a successful life. You need to take responsibility for your life, become more optimistic, and start pursuing your dreams.

Whenever you walk into a room full of people, remember that there are two main groups. The first is the energetic and upbeat individuals who have achieved lots of things. The second is the pessimistic and bleak individuals who are always complaining and blaming other people. For which of the two groups would you prefer to have a membership card? Success breeds success, they say. It is the same with optimism. If you engage with optimistic individuals, their positive outlook on life will infect you as well.

If you want to see things transform in your life, then you first have to decide on which aspect of your life that you want to improve. It is important to have dreams and goals for your life, and you should put in all you’ve got to see them come true.  

After this, start developing strategies to make your dreams a reality. Perhaps you want to lose weight. As an optimistic person, you will not think that you’re starving or depriving yourself. Instead, you will be excited that you are taking steps to improve your health and lifestyle.

Frequently reading quotes and repeating affirmations is an effective way to psych your mind to think positively. Get some quotes that appeal to you, and say them aloud every morning. You can also write them down on a sticky note and paste them at a place you’ll see every day. As you repeat these quotes, your mind will begin to believe them, and you will start acting more positively. As you do this regularly, it will surprise you how your attitude will transform over time!

 

Posted on

Being a Responsible Person in Business and Life

  • Being responsible means being the person who causes things to happen. However, this could be a good or a bad thing based on the situation. My question to you is, have you ever caused something to happen without accepting that you are responsible for it?

A lot of people have done exactly that. They haven’t taken responsibility for their actions. It takes someone with a winner’s mindset to come out and say “Hey, It was my fault and I’m sorry”. We are humans, and it is within our nature to cause things to happen. Not all acts are intentional and some of them could make us feel bad about how things turn out.

Owning up, regardless of the outcome of a situation, is a sign of taking up responsibility. If the outcome isn’t a very favourable one, taking responsibility becomes difficult.

You might be the cause of a situation or circumstance but being responsible for it also puts you in the position to make things better. Knowing this makes confessing and owning up to situations much easier.

Acting in a responsible manner should come naturally to you. You owe your family that. Your children will learn all the good habits they see and this is not an exception. They will also learn to accept responsibility for their actions.

Another factor that is connected to being responsible is the ability to make decisions. We are sometimes afraid or worried about the outcome of a matter and hence do not want to make a major decision. The thing is that other people might be affected positively by the decision that you are reluctant to make and that will not benefit them.

You need to be responsible for yourself and others by making those hard decisions. Your choice may not please everyone but a decision has to be made anyway.

Taking action and doing something makes you responsible. You must be able to stick to the decisions that you make. That requires a lot of strength. You will surely meet some resistance and roadblocks along the way but you still need to persist. Stay strong to your original decision and never look back.

Around the world, politicians exhibit responsibility in every decision that they make. Whether it is a good or bad decision, they stay true to their word they see results. Following these steps will see you become a much more responsible person.

 

Posted on

Finding and Grabbing Motivation by the Throat

Guest Post --Michael L. McCrimmon - http://www.m2li.com/

Having worked with top executives, and now a coach / motivator of executives for top C-Level positions, I pretty much know a good one when I see one. I also have learned to trust my intuition when it flashes red about someone that claims to be a good executive, but really isn't one. You see, most of the times in life, if you have to tell someone you're good at a thing, you probably aren't that good (different than self-promotion).

In today's USA Today, there is a list of the top 5 CEOs based on what they will get paid to leave if their companies get involved in some type of merger / acquisition activity and they are no longer needed.

#4 on the list is Marissa Mayer, Yahoo CEO. You remember Yahoo right? Barely? I know but still, if Ms. Mayer's services are no longer needed, she will receive the lump sum of $158 million to go away, also known as a "golden parachute".

<rolling eyes>

I won't go into how little I think of her, as Yahoo has almost become a trivia answer on Jeopardy, but remember don't hate the player, hate the game.

Shift gears for a second back to the idea of motivation. Now since this is my story, I can spin it anyway I want to, but most people who know me, would probably agree that I could put a suit on, go to Yahoo, and do better than her, without breaking a sweat. Yet, she is the one who has millions in the bank, and has a golden parachute.

So, I drop my tent on that fact, this morning. Tough love for us today, me included. If you don't have $100,000 liquid in the bank today, you are barely toiling above the poverty line, actually. If you are over 50 and don't have close to 1 or 2 million in your 401K, you aren't that well prepared for a "decent" retirement.

Harsh isn't it. Truth hurts. While we clown around arguing about racism, Trump, disrespect of President O, and who got into a fight on Housewives of Atlanta, others are taking money to the bank in a wheelbarrow and don't care if some blows off the top as they push the wheelbarrow.

Flash back to me now. Writing a book is hard. Extremely hard if you want a good book, not just "a book" so you can claim to be an author. I did one of those already. It was pretty good, but this one I'm working on, is going to be my signature piece and something I want to be of value for generations to come.

Writing takes concentration. It takes discipline. It's not fun. And so in the few hours of each day that I have to write, it's easy to get distracted by friends calling wanting advice, whatever happens on FB or in the news, and before I know it, it's time for me to pickup the Deuce from school and then the rest of my day becomes domestic.

Marissa is worth millions... I"m not. How can I fix that? I submit for your consideration, that each of us has more in the tank to dedicate to that thing that we are trying to accomplish... I want to add a zero to my net worth and my bank accounts in one year.
Each of you has a goal that just looms out there on the horizon that sounds good, would drastically change your quality of life.

With three weeks, left in December, let's get focused on what change in our daily activity, our direction and motivation would need to occur, for us to be shot out of a cannon, and this time next year, be patting each other on the back for having had a blowout 2016, and actually done something we can be proud of.

Think it can't be done? Look at Marissa Mayer... she's killing the game. Next year, I plan on being the example that you can point to about someone who killed the game.

Maybe that can be you standing next to me in that picture. To get different results, you have to do different things. Lastly, sometimes no matter how much you like things like they are, you may have to break that mold and think and do things differently.

Sounds hard, doesn't it... Just look around you.. people are doing it every day. Isn't today a good day to get serious and decide you will "have some of what they are having"...

Catch you later. Three Greens!

P.S. I'm serious, and people who know me, know when I start talking like this, big things usually happen... but you have to get serious, and I don't know about you, but I'm serious. It's my season... make it yours too...

Posted on

Set Your School-Year Goals

Want to make the varsity football squad, get an “A” in biology, or finally date the head cheerleader? Nothing is going to happen until you set a goal and work at it. And while January may be the prime season for goal- and resolution-setting, no time is better than right now to take stock of where you're at and figure out where you want to be a year come next June.

When setting goals for your business, go back to section 8 when you took your placement test, and figure out a good stretch goal (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, inspiring) for each of the following categories:

Traffic. Online, everything begins with quality traffic, and just about every business could use more of it. Think about ways you can double your traffic over the course of the next academic year (nine months), by paid sources (advertising), guest blogging, podcasting, social media, and search engine optimization. Then rank those efforts according to how difficult it would be to implement, and how much of an impact it would have on your business. Then pick the top two or three ideas and get moving!

Sales. If you're not making the sales you want, you either don't have the traffic, aren't converting, or don't have products and services for your target audience. We took care of traffic above, so let's talk about conversion and products. Take a look at what you're offering your audience. If you believe in the value of the products, then you need to convey that value to the audience in a way that resonates with them. Think about hiring a copywriter to make over your web page, or try adding a video or audio sales letter.

Are your testimonials strong enough? Are you offering enough products? Again, pick one or two things you can do over the next few months and start them now.

Lifestyle. If you're working too many hours, the number one thing you can do is to start outsourcing some of your less-critical tasks. Start with something you don't enjoy, like bookkeeping or customer service emails, and find someone to help you out. Even a few hours a week will give you a taste of the freedom to be had when you offload all your unsavory tasks! Think about how much more energetic and inspired you'll feel when everything on your to-do list is something you actually want to do.

Setting year-long goals each January is a great exercise, but there's no reason to wait another three or four months to take stock of your business. Start now, and by January, you'll be well on your way to achieving your aspirations

Posted on

Processing Your Daily Routine

School has been in session for the last three weeks. So today's a good day to redo my workflow routine schedules. It is important as things change in your life, to constantly go back to your schedule and fine-tune it in a way that works for you. I use an app called the daily routine on the iPhone.
This allows me to see my schedule in a visual format. I have found that this is a much better process for me. Now what do you do to process your day to put in the comments below.

Posted on

Check Your Back-to- School Clothes

Who doesn't recall that annual excursion to the department or shoe store, searching for the perfect outfit or pair of kicks to start off the school year? And then, on the first day of school, wearing that outfit or shoes put you in the mindset of opening a new chapter in your life. Anything was possible with a new pair of Keds or a brand-spanking-new Le Tigre polo shirt!

When you work from home, you can think that your wardrobe no longer matters. After all, who sees you, sitting behind your keyboard? It might be true that the only person who sees you is your cat and the UPS man, but there are still a number of reasons to upgrade your wardrobe – or at least make sure your shirt is Spaghettio-free:

Clothes Make the Man (or Woman). Tom Gunn knows the truth: If you look better, you feel better. It's kind of like taking the time to set a nice table, even if you're dining solo. Putting in the effort to wear clean, flattering clothes, even if you're the only one who will see them, will make you feel better about yourself. And when you feel more confident, you act more confident. That feeling will come across in your emails, your voice, and your decisions.
You Never Know... You might think that you won't run into anyone worth meeting at Starbucks or while out picking up a bag of dog food. But potential contacts, clients, and referrers are everywhere – even behind you in line at Petco. It's better to be prepared than to be sorry. You'll be a tad hesitant to approach someone, or respond to their overtures, if you're dressed in a stained 49rs t-shirt and a pair of too-tight jeans.

Put Yourself Out There. If you aren't on YouTube, you should be! And while you don't need movie star good looks, you should at least get out of your pajamas before filming a video to put forth for the world to view.
There Are Times... Every once in a while, you will need to enter the public eye – at an industry event, a networking get-together, or a trade show. The time to find yourself a few attractive, comfortable outfits is not the day before you get on a plane. There's an unwritten law that the more desperately you need a new pair of pants, the less likely you are to find them.

This isn't to say you need to go out and spend thousands on a closetful of clothes. But you can head to a reasonably priced department store and find a few separates that you can deem your new work wardrobe. You'll feel the impact immediately on your productivity and your self-confidence.