News & Events - Page 3 of 4 - Adam Lendi Coaching

Aug

2020

It’s a crazy time to think about starting a business!

We find comfort in things which are familiar to us. We use terms like “financial security” and “stability” as characteristics of things in our careers and our lives, which make us feel comfortable. It makes sense… Predictable outcomes give us the peace of mind that our life is humming along as we have expected. When something doesn’t go as planned. When the outcome strays from our expectations, it causes different parts of our brain to react and causes a stress response, even if it’s not minor.

U.S. Air Force Colonel John Boyd coined a model known by many in military and civilian law enforcement as the OODA (ooh-duh) process or OODA loop. The acronym stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act. The first time our brain experiences a new stimulus, it must work through this process to observe the situation, recognize patterns and associate this new event with something it is familiar with, choose an appropriate response, and take action. We do this all day everyday, without even realizing we are doing it. At first the process causes stress and takes a great deal of brain power, however, over time, through a process known as myelination, the brain carves neural pathways connecting this loop, as a shortcut or template for dealing with this stimulus. Over time, it becomes an automated process and the stress response goes away.

All this to say, this year has certainly created new OODA loops in our lives. At first it was reacting to business closings and kids learning from home. Then it was orders to distance from one another and wear face masks. We’ve seen devastation to entire industries, our economy, our routines, and our way of life as we knew it. We started the year off with high hopes and a bullish stock market only to find ourselves in an induced recession, waiting for the other shoe to drop. I see it in people everywhere I go… short fuses, exhaustion, apathy, and dismay. Some people are stuck spinning, clinging to the world they knew. Meanwhile, others are taking control of their lives and effecting change. The question is: Will you be a change agent? or will you cross your fingers and hedge your bet on a return to normal?

Our thirst for comfort and predictability drives our workforce to “safe” industries when times are rocky. Anecdotal as it may be, the 2008 recession pushed me toward government work, as it seemed to be a stable environment as I watched businesses shutter. I wasn’t alone, as thousands (yes, thousands) applied for the same position I was vying for. Only one year earlier, they couldn’t get people to apply for my job; and the same thing happened again in 2015, after the economy fully stabilized from that recession. We’re on a different footing now as we enter another recession and the arm of government I was in, law enforcement, is contemporaneously under attack, with calls to de-fund and disband our police agencies. What does one do?

Our most primal responses to a stress event are known as Fight, Flight, and Freeze. Most people, when faced with a challenge resort to the last two. I’ve spoken with business owners who are afraid to make changes, even if their peril is imminent and clients who can’t think of making a move, because it would mean releasing their clutch on the security blanket of the world they knew. There is one thing I can say with certainty, if you choose not to take action, you choose to let others decide your outcome.

Those who will survive this recession and emerge stronger will be those who used their OODA loop as a means of observing their surroundings; orienting to the change of the week, month, day, etc; deciding upon an action which would propel them forward; and taking immediate action. Delaying another day would only force them to repeat the cycle again and place them into a perpetual OODA loop.

What if your business has been made obsolete? What if the direction you are headed no longer aligns with your mission or your values? Is now the right time to embark on a new venture? Perhaps so. You will never know, unless you open yourself to the opportunity, run it through your OODA loop and take action.

The economic condition of the world should not dissuade you from changing your path or pursuing that dream you’ve put off for years. What do Disney, General Electric, Microsoft, AirBnB, and Netflix all have in common? They emerged during economic downturns. AirBnB, founded in 2008, was created to fill a need of homeowners who could not afford to stay in their homes. The service seized the market of the moment and provided a platform to allow disadvantaged homeowners a way to rent extra rooms in their house, to make their mortgage payments. Perhaps your next opportunity is not in an established industry and will result from your finding a solution to a problem, in our new landscape.

It’s easy for a business to succeed in a strong economy. So easy that almost anyone can do it. It takes an economic shift to send those who weren’t prepared and who hadn’t laid a strong foundation chasing greener pastures. The spoils will go to the few who choose to take action in this cold winter battle. How will you emerge?

If you are stuck, make the choice to get the help you need, to move in the right direction. A business coach can help and my first consultation is always free.

Aug

2020

Can you spare 1%? (Hint: it’s for YOU)

“That’s the way we’ve always done it.” In my former life, working in government, often when someone would suggest a new method, system, or principle which a superior was denying, it would be followed with this line. This way of thinking is why many of our government entities are archaic in processes and not able to keep up with the demands of their constituents. This also shows up in private sector businesses as well, because the one thing business owners dislike more than the way things are, is change.

GAAP or Generally Accepted Accounting Principles have taught us that the flow of money through a company starts with revenue, subtracts expenses, and ends with profit. There is a lot more to GAAP accounting and it has undoubtedly created a standard for business accounting and accountability, however, it has also contributed to many businesses being unprofitable.

Profit First, the book by author Mike Michalowicz, describes a fresh perspective for business accounting, wherein you take your profit first and then each of your expenses, in the order of priority. If this sounds outlandish and if you are skeptical, realize, Mike’s method encourages you to be more profitable. That’s it! His motive is for you to pay yourself and then tighten your businesses expenses to live within the remaining revenue stream. We should all be celebrating this, yet I imagine there are still some furrowed brows at the mere suggestion of such a thing. Stick with me… Your light-bulb moment is coming!

Open your profit account

The first step in implementing Profit First is to create a “Profit” account at your bank and immediately fund it with 1% of the balance of your business’ operating account. Surely, if you are like most business owners, you run from one bank account (I had two and though I was savvy). In the full implementation of Profit First, your business will have five bank accounts. Today, we’re starting with just a second account, for profit.

The point to this is that 1% is such a small amount, such a low bar, that you will not notice it gone. Now that you’ve started your profit account, don’t touch it! This is your money and transferring it back to your business is stealing from yourself. You wouldn’t transfer back from your tax account, because that is stealing from the government, so why would you steal from yourself?

Time Block

You’ve heard me preach time blocking before. Your new time blocks will be twice per month to settle your books and pay yourself a profit. Ideally, for simplicity’s sake, these will be the same dates each month, so you’ll know how far back to go. The 10th and the 25th are Mike’s suggested dates. Block these in your calendar on permanent repeat, reminding you to settle your profit account, and then honor that time block. As your profit account grows, this activity will become more exciting!

Grow your profit margin!

In the beginning, you’ll just transfer 1% of your revenues to your profit account. When I say revenue, I do not mean your account balance. That was just a starting point to prime your account. As you move into your new routine, you will take 1% of the total revenues received between your last time block and the current one and transfer it to your profit account.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and a high profit margin can’t be forced in the first month. Industries vary, however, in many serviced based industries, a 40-50% profit margin is considered the gold standard and in manufacturing, 25-35% is considered good. You’ll find your ideal profit margin and I’ll help you set a goal and achieve it, however, you’ll get there through incremental growth. If you transferred 40% of your revenue today, it’s highly likely you’d bankrupt your business.

As time goes, your target should be to increase your profit margin month-over-month. If you did 1% this month, do 2% next month. If you start feeling a pinch from your new profit draws, you have one of two options: raise revenue or cut expenses. Visit your P&L (profit and loss) statement and identify which needs to be addressed. Once you’ve streamlined your business, you can continue to grow your profit margins.

Benchmark and grow!

Profit First uses an Instant Assessment to measure where you are in your business and to set goals for which accounts must grow and which must be reigned in. Take this assessment regularly (at least quarterly) to know where you stand. I’ll post a link to download this tool at the bottom of the post.

This is just an introduction and I hope it has you salivating for more. Profit First is a full business accounting ecosystem to ensure your priorities lie in paying yourself first and increasing your pay as time goes on. If this has piqued your interest, I encourage you to pick up a copy of Profit First, by Mike Michalowicz.

If you need help implementing Profit First or in creating an understandable P&L statement, please reach out. Keep your business lean and your profits fat!

Download the Instant Assessment

Aug

2020

3 Things YOU Can Do Today to Free up More of YOUR Time!

Are you working on your business or in it? All too often, I hear business owners tell me that the buck stops with them. I hear that no one is better suited to lead the charge, make big decisions, or to even pick a new shipping supplies vendor than them. You may have begun your business as a visionary and there is no doubt that it is and has remained your baby. The question is: Has your baby grown up to be Frankenstein’s monster?

When you started out, it was big dreams, no clients, and your biggest challenge was where your next sale would come from. You didn’t need any employees… it was just you. You certainly couldn’t afford office staff, because when your revenue is $0, you don’t have a lot to work with. Maybe you’ve done well and turned that revenue into a five, six, or even seven figure number. Perhaps you still haven’t found your first sale. If you’re really lucky, you’re just starting out and you fortuitously stumbled upon this post and it will give you years of experience over your competition.

Seldom can we run a business and do well at it alone. If you’ve been in business for any amount of time, you can surely recall the late nights, the sleepless nights, the Saturdays you skipped out on family plans, because your business was calling and without you, it was bound to fail. This is all too often a “necessary evil” and a “means to an end” for those entrepreneurs who eventually plan to leverage themselves and bring on more help. Whether you have hired more help or you haven’t, if you find yourself and your free time consumed by your business, you need to take action to solidify your own success and prevent burnout.

1. Do what matters most!

A common myth I encounter when working with business owners and leaders is that all things matter equally. They start their day with clarity, a schedule, and a to-do list, only to end it with little completed, a longer list, and more stress. It’s easy to mistake all of the things on your to-do list as a should-do list.

Start off by identifying the top priorities on your list which will move your business forward and those which are you highest priorities. Everything else belongs on your could-do list. Practice the 4 D’s: Delete, Delegate, Defer, and Do:

As you review this list of your lowest priority items, I challenge you to find one item that is of such little importance you can Delete it. Imagine the time you will free up and the feeling of liberation!
Your next sweep of the list is to identify those things you can Delegate to someone better suited to serve this purpose than you. For now, if it’s just you, this may just be back to you. Is there outside support you can enlist? Third party vendors who can lighten your load?
Next pass, find those things which don’t require attention today, which you can push forward in your schedule and Defer. The goal over time is to turn these tasks into Deletes or Delegates, once you have identified they are not integral to your success.
Finally, if these items have passed the first three tests, you must eventually Do them, however, you should have a strategy in place convert these Dos to one of the other D’s.

2. Work from a written job description and organizational chart

What are your job requirements? Before you answer “everything” consider why you got into business? If it was to run around with your hair on fire, tending to things you don’t enjoy, and spending your nights and weekends putting out fires, then never mind… proceed. If you’re like the rest of us, you probably began with a vision.

You imagined yourself being the visionary and either doing something you really enjoy or enjoying the opportunity your business gave you to live your life and to pursue your dreams. How then did you end up in your office on a Friday at 7:00 pm, shipping products and making collection calls?

Even if you’re just getting started, give your role in your business boundaries and know where your next opportunity to leverage your time will come. Your job description comes first, even if it’s a dream at this point. Then, identify the team you will need to support your goals and give them job descriptions as well. Finally, place all of these positions, even those which aren’t yet filled, on an organizational chart. This is your roadmap to leveraging your time and expertise to put the best people in the best positions to ensure your success.

If you have an established business with employees and even if you have an org chart, it never hurts to revisit it. Your business has undoubtedly evolved and new tasks and responsibilities have cropped up. I bet your employees have a keen eye for those things which are “above their pay grade” and “not in their job description” and which have likely fallen on you, the leader. It’s important to continually audit your role and those of your team.

3. Time Block

I love Google Calendar. I just want to throw that out before I tell you how much I despise what Google Calendar does to our lives. There is no doubt that fewer appointments are missed, varying time zones aren’t misinterpreted, and schedule changes are clearly and efficiently conveyed, because of digital calendars. They are great for collaboration, yet terrible for success. The trouble is that other people, with their own agendas and priorities can steal time from your calendar, almost without you even knowing. If you don’t claim your time, someone else will.

Time blocking, as it sounds, means blocking other things from interfering with your time and your top priorities. Once you have determined your success habits (see step 1), you need to get clear on how much time you will allot for them and the best time of day to accomplish them (typically first thing). Then, you will block that time out and protect it as though your biggest dreams depend on them… because they do!

Time blocks are virtually immovable. The only reason I say “virtually” is that if your significant other is in the hospital getting emergency surgery and you are at your office lead generating, you are soon to have a lot more time to lead generate, as you may soon be single. In the event that a time block conflicts with one of your top values, you must re-assign it. If you erase, you must replace! If your time, which you’ve committed to your success is not satisfied today, it must be done tomorrow. If not then, you’ll have to face yourself and explain why your goals are left unfulfilled.

If you are ready to take a role in growing your business and living a life in alignment with your goals, I am ready to help you get there. Tell me in the comments below your takeaway and how you will better leverage your time, to ensure your success.

Aug

2020

Hunter or Farmer? You Need to Be Both!

I was speaking with a business owner today who relayed to me a situation which I hear all too often. He was having trouble meeting his goals and growing his business to the level he desired, yet he was successful in networking and in generating leads for his business. The trouble was certainly not getting leads, as he had thousands of those. The situation was that he was not converting these leads as efficiently as he could have been. Notice I am not referring to any of this as a problem. This guy is sitting on thousands of opportunities! Where’s the problem in that?

The two most common sales challenges I encounter are around lead generation and lead conversion. Lead generation can be quickly improved, most often just by doing the activity. There are means of improving your lead generation methods and if you are interested, I encourage you to check out my most recent webinar: Growth Mindset Lead Generation. Lead conversion on the other hand often suffers, because it can be an incredibly long play, in some industries, and requires you to be extremely organized and systematized.

Lead generation brings out our primal instincts as hunters and gatherers. We have our skills sharpened, our scripts studied, and we are prepared to chase down our prey, overcome their objections, and close the deal. If they buy from us right away, it’s a win! We return proudly to our village carrying the trophy of our hunt and bask in our own glory.

The trouble is that not all sales happen on the first contact. If we are astute enough to know that the lead we are working will be an eventual sale, we take good notes, file them away in our card box, enter them in our CRM, or scrawl them on a napkin. It’s not uncommon to feel a bit defeated if we don’t get the sale on our first attempt. This is often the most pivotal point where fortunes can be made or lost.

To only pursue leads who convert to closed sales on our first contact is an incredibly quick way to burn yourself out by doing a lot of activity with little return. I was speaking with a friend whose business generates and cultivates leads for the car sales industry. Their industry average conversion ratios are incredibly challenging. Only 13% of their leads who at one point expressed interest in buying a car actually complete the purchase. To compound that further, he found it takes, on average, 35 contacts with that lead before they make that purchase!!! If you stopped after the first contact with each lead, you’d never sell a car!

There are two main challenges which stand in the way of effective lead conversion. The first is mindset and the second is systems.

Mindset

We can be our own worst enemies when it comes to following up with our leads. We get in our heads and tell ourselves that we are bothering people and we are afraid to upset them. We also don’t see the same excitement in continuing to pursue the same lead, when we could be lucky enough to catch the unicorn who buys on the first contact. Like the patient farmer who turns their soil over in the fall, plants their seeds in the early spring, and waters bare dirt each day of summer until we see growth, we too must cultivate our business if we want a bountiful Fall harvest.

Systems

Systems are the next challenge in effective lead follow-up. How do you record your leads. One question I hear often from business owners is: What is the best CRM? My answer: The one you use! There’s no doubt using AI and automated processes will help you leverage your time and stay in front of your people, however, there is no replacement for the human touch. You should be interacting with your leads, current clients, past clients, referral sources, and strategic alliances on a regular basis and it should be personal. When Gary Keller, the CEO of Keller Williams Realty began, he used a recipe card box with tabs for the different months of the year inside. When it was August, he opened the tab to that month and pulled out each card, which contained one client and their information, who needed contact from him that month. Once he made contact and updated his card, he would stick the card in the tab for the next month that person needed to be contacted. Simple and effective.

Systems extend far beyond the vehicle which contains your leads. Remember the business owner I referenced earlier? The one with thousands of leads? He had a great way to store, file, and sort his leads, however, he lacked the systems to follow up with them. Your business will dictate the message you send to your clients, however, it is good practice to routinely contact your leads and clients to stay front of mind. Not every contact needs to be a personal phone call, however, if you systematize properly, you can easily mix in a minimum of four phone calls each year, per client.

Developing an effective means of following up with your leads can drastically increase your revenues, without increasing your lead generation activities and marketing expenses. If you are ready to review yours and find the opportunity which will grow your conversions, schedule a free business assessment with me so we can get you started cultivating your business.

Free Business Assessment

Jul

2020

Civil War, Inc.

Have you ever hired, managed, or worked with someone who was proficient at their job, a high performer, and maybe even a production leader, yet they just didn’t seem to be a cultural fit? While they may perform, they may lack core tenets and values of your organization. In the worst cases, they may lack integrity and may be actively undermining and sabotaging your business.

This virus is extremely dangerous and can infect an entire organization. Your other employees and team members will certainly be among the first to pick up on this infection. Just like an illness, they may start mirroring similar behavior and suddenly your top employees can become disengaged and your average employees become actively disengaged. Active disengagement is when your staff are actively working against your mission. This is the most sinister form of workplace theft, because your employees show up each day, oppose your vision, avoid doing the work they are paid to do, and undermine your organizational structure. Once the infection has taken hold of your employees, your clients and customers will undoubtedly notice. Commitments will be missed, the quality of care and service will diminish, and eventually they will leave.

The good news is that this can all be prevented with proper systems and processes. The most important first step, before even posting your next job vacancy, is to review your values with your executive leadership. Ensure they align with your vision for your business and with the spirit of your organization. Review your mission statement and ensure it clearly states who you serve, how you’ll serve them, and what you wish to accomplish. Then proudly display your mission and values to ensure they are known by everyone on your team.

Again, before you login to Indeed.com to post that job listing, lets ensure your house is clean. The next step is to audit the team you currently have in place. Using a tool like the People Analyzer™ will give you a quick means of assessing the cultural and job fitment of your team. In his book, Traction (2012), Gino Wickman describes using the People Analyzer™ to determine the fitment of each member of your team within your culture and their job.

In the People Analyzer™, you first list all of your people in the column to the left. Next, you fill in the headers of the next columns with your company core values. Once your values are identified, you label the final three columns with “Get it,” “Want it,” and “Capacity.” These final three measure job fitness.

Using a system of +, -, and +/-, identify which values are embodied by each person representing you and your company each day, when they show up. If they are strong proponents of a value, give them a plus, if they don’t embody or oppose a value, give them a minus, and if you can’t tell, give them a neutral marking. You determine the bar for fitment by values. It may be a percentage of values which may be met and there may be some that are deal-breakers. If one of your core values is honesty, it may be hard to keep employed someone who is dishonest, even if they embody every other value.

The final three columns will determine job fitment for each member of your team. This will require a clear job description and an organizational chart which defines the job’s impact within the organization. Each member should be evaluated against their job description to ensure they Get it, Want it, and have the Capacity (GWC) to do it. Evaluate fitment against each of the three metrics and give a Yes or a No for each employee and their job. The GWC is non-negotiable. Even if the employee embodies all of the company’s highest values, they may still not be the right fit for their job. It’s time to either place them in a role where they will excel or let them go if such a role does not exist.

Don’t wait for justification or an incident to make terminations of employees who are not the right fit for your team and your business. It may already be too late by the time an excuse to let them go arises and your remaining employees may have already lost faith. Once you do the right thing, your supporters and best-aligned team members will respect you more and return to performing highly, since you showed them the respect of protecting their culture.

If you want to know more about the People Analyzer™, read Traction. If you want to download a copy of this tool to use yourself, click the button below. If you need help determining your core values and mission or in creating your organizational chart, request a free business assessment at the button below and I will get on a one-to-one call with you to help you gain clarity.

Download the People Analyzer™

Request a Business Assessment

Jul

2020

Give Yourself a Raise

Whether you realized it, or not, you are in sales. How dare I say that? Isn’t sales a grimy and nasty word? I shared that same feeling, not that long ago. I’d hear advertisements for “salary based sales staff” and “non-commissioned consultants” and think that this was a benefit. To me, I took it to mean I was getting someone who wouldn’t be pushy and who wouldn’t use tricks to swindle me out of my hard-earned money and sell me more than I wanted. Little did I realize, I was the problem.

That hard-earned money was truly hard-earned! At that point in my life, I was an employee, trading my time for money. It didn’t matter how hard I worked, my pay was based not upon my abilities, nor was it my performance. My pay was based solely on the amount of my precious time I gave, in exchange for a predetermined number of dollars per hour. If you recall my last post, Win Your Day, Win Your Life, you’ll recall that I value my finite days on this planet… and the hours! What my government job didn’t offer me was performance based pay and passive income. I had no clue what I was missing out on.

Lured by the promise of a pension, a benefits package, and modest pay, I entered a career in public service, like many others, because it seemed safe and it earned the respect of my parents and grandparents. I was taught at a young age that salaries and pensions were safe. Before I lose you and you blow up my comment feed, I am not condoning we all work for commission and contracts. Some have different priorities and to be honest, there are still jobs I would accept a salary to do.

Remember back at the beginning when I said we were all in sales? What was that all about? Yes, you, are in sales. Even if you’re not, you are. You sold yourself to a human resources panel to get your job and you’ve sold yourself to your manager at every raise you’ve received and at each time you’ve reconciled a disciplinary complaint. If you are dating or married, you’ve sold yourself to your mate and every person you’ve dated. If you have a friend, you sold them too!

We all have the ability to earn performance based pay. It may require ingenuity and outside of the box thinking, however, you too can earn more for your effort and retain more of your time. If you don’t believe me, I don’t expect you to. I would, however, encourage you to read The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris. He provides a great roadmap to maximize your time by reducing the wasted hours and to get your required work completed quickly, thus liberating you from 40+ hour workweeks.

If you are already in sales (I know… everyone is) and you are earning commissions or contracts, you too can increase the fruits of your labor. It requires purposeful attention to the sources of your business. How do you earn money? From where does your business come? The answers to these questions will present you with your lead sources. Leads are the life blood of your business. You must always cultivate new leads if you are to build your business. This will require intentional focus on the most fruitful lead generation activities, time blocking, and the removal of all distractions standing between you and your next paycheck.

If you’re not certain where your next sale is coming from or if it has been too long since your last raise (cost of living increases do not count), it may be time to sharpen your sales skills. Salesman, saleswoman, and salesperson are not bad names. I’m proud to be a salesman and you should be too! It’s time to sell our next client or boss on the value we bring. You are worth top dollar and you deserve to retain as much of your time as you choose, all-the-while achieving your goals!

Let’s commit never to settle for mediocre pay or unfavorable hours! If you’re ready to take command of your day and your pay, reach out to me and also pick up TIm Ferris’ book. Finally, keep an eye out for an upcoming lead generation class I’m teaching, in August! Until then, go make a sale!

Jul

2020

Win Your Day, Win Your Life!

The best time to plant a tree was ten years ago. The next best time is today! It’s not hard for us to daydream about the life we’d like to live and the people we want to be. If you caught my goal setting class last week (if you didn’t, you can watch the recording and download your own one page business plan, HERE), you know we can reverse-engineer your life’s goals and lay a roadmap to make each year a measurable step toward your ideal life. Why then do we procrastinate? Do we not value our precious and finite time on this world enough?

Let’s start off by quantifying how much life you’ve lived and how much you expect you have left. According to website, Macrotrends (https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/life-expectancy), life expectancy in 2020 is 78.93 years. That’s 28,809 days. Now that is the average. I don’t know about you, however, I am dedicated to living to triple digits, meaning that if I reached my 100th birthday, it would be a win, at 36,525 days. I am currently 34 years old and on the day I am writing this post I have been on this earth for 12,478 days. By subtracting my current days from my anticipated days, I know I have 24,047 days remaining. Imagine that countdown clock on your wall. Would you change your behavior if each day you saw that number counting down? 24,046… 24,045… 24,044. Imagine if you weren’t as optimistic as me and you only expected to live the average and that countdown was about to fall below 10,000. How would you behave tomorrow to ensure you don’t squander another day and to ensure your success?

In The ONE Thing (Gary Keller, Jay Papasan), the authors symbolize accomplishments in life like a series of dominoes. Studies have shown that a single domino standing can knock down another domino, fifty-percent larger than itself. If you start with a two-inch domino, the second would be three-inches, and the third four-and-a-half. As the dominoes get exponentially larger, so does the energy exerted by the last domino. The twenty-third domino would be the height of the Eiffel Tower, the thirty-first would be three-thousand feet taller than Mt. Everest, and the fifty-seventh would reach the moon from the earth’s surface.

Imagine how little effort it took this man to knock down his 5mm domino that toppled the one-hundred pound monolith at the end.

What doesn’t change is the energy required to knock down that simple two-inch domino, starting the chain reaction which inevitably knocks down your moonshot domino. Sometimes in life, you’re staring down that domino that casts shade on Mt. Everest, wondering how you’ll ever topple it. Now that you know your objective, we need to go small.

Once you’re clear on where you want to be, we can reverse-engineer your goals and break them down to the year, month, week, and even the day. If you knew that adherence to your schedule today would build the life of your dreams, would you squander another day? Would you let other people’s priorities and “emergencies” distract you from the playbook of your dreams? Your clock is counting down. You don’t have until next year… Not even next quarter. You could live to be 100, like I intend. You could make it to 78. You might develop a rare form of cancer and be given a prognosis of one year from today. What is the legacy you will leave? What will your obituary say about how you lived?

If you are stuck finding your big domino, check out my goal setting class, HERE. Once you have your big domino, join me at my next class, Get the 4-1-1 on Your Schedule. We’ll reverse engineer your goals and I’ll give you the tools you need to fill your calendar with the activities which will ensure your inevitable success.

Jul

2020

Tragedy or Triumph… YOU Choose

It’s rare that things ever go as planned and whether we recognize it or not, we make several decisions each day to compensate for these changes and unforeseen hurdles. Why then do we, the resilient, the nimble and adaptive taskmasters, the can-doers, why did we get de-railed THIS time? Why does it seem that for so many around us there is a sense of hopelessness and defeat?

For millennia, people have had their lifestyles changed and their businesses affected, however, it doesn’t typically happen to many industries at the same time. When Henry Ford brought the modern automobile to market, no doubt this upended the buggy-whip operators, however, it likely did not affect the financial industry. When the internet and dotcom boom of the 1990’s began digging the grave for many brick-and-mortars, the automobile industry was not negatively impacted. The point being, businesses and industries often experience significant shifts and sometimes even obsolescence. What’s different this year is that many people and businesses are experiencing this all at the same time.

An important consideration is that not all businesses are being affected by COVID-19, the riots, or even the murder hornets. Many businesses were already positioned to thrive in the changing environment from in-person to remote and virtual environments. These businesses may have had foresight or they may have simply lucked their way into success. Any business which was already tech-enabled and ready to operate remotely, may have survived this year, thus far, without any losses, or even significant gains.

Where does this leave the rest of us? I’ve talked to a number of business owners who tell me they can’t change and that they will not be able to recover until things “go back to normal.” The reality we may be faced with is that things will never completely return to any sense of normalcy. We may have entire industries made obsolete if they don’t pivot and find a new opportunity.

Even now, these owners would be wise to explore other options and find a need they can fulfill. One outcome may be that your business does return to its prior operation. Another may be that you don’t ever return to the way things were and you’ve now forged the next phase of your business; until the next pivot. What we cannot do is nothing. Eventually, the buggy-whip operator needed to become a chauffeur, to avoid being out of business.

If you’re stuck and not sure where to go next, it’s time to revisit your business plan and your goals. Schedule a free business assessment with me to determine the one thing you can do right now to ensure your year is successful. The call is free and I only ask that you set aside time you won’t be driving or otherwise distracted and that you bring a pen and paper. You will likely have an a-ha moment that you’ll want to write down.

Schedule your FREE Business Assessment

Jun

2020

Goal Setting Like a Billionaire

When was the last time you looked at your goals? Was it in December? …December five years ago? It’s too easy to live day-to-day, putting out fires and just surviving. How often do you daydream? Remember when you were a kid and you could look ahead to the things you wanted to have and what you wanted to be when you grew up? I’m not sure who to fault for the majority of us abandoning those childhood dreams and goals we had to be “more reasonable.”

The point is, many of us have throttled our goals and imposed limiting-beliefs on ourselves. We’ve created dialogs around success as being our current salary plus a two-percent cost of living increase, a reasonable pension (should we live long enough), and another year of job security. Why does the child in us who wanted to be an astronaut, have a castle for a house, and drive a flying car allow us to settle on such mediocrity?

I challenge you today, right now, to dream big again. Go ahead… do it right now… I’ll wait. It’s harder than you remember. Isn’t it? When we were kids, we read fiction, watched cartoons, and daydreamed big things. Yet as we age, it seems we forget how to dream big, or worse, we program ourselves to dream small.

I want to take you on an adventure. Get in a comfortable place… not at the office… not in the car. Find a place in your house or a park; someplace you can totally relax and feel comfortable closing your eyes. Close your eyes and focus on your breathing. Take a deep breath in through your nose, slowly to the count of four, and fill your lungs, until it gets uncomfortable. Hold your breath to the count of four. Now slowly release your breath through your mouth to the count of four. Totally exhale all of the air from your lungs and rest to the count of four. Repeat this breathing exercise until you are totally relaxed.

Once you have found calm in your breath, take note of the sensations around you. Is it hot? Is it cold? Is there a breeze tickling the hairs on the back of your neck? Focus on only your immediate surroundings. Remember what it was like to be a kid again; when all that mattered was what was happening right in that moment. Settle in and let your mind wander. Daydream! Undoubtedly, you will find yourself thinking of something, someone, or someplace that makes you happy. Perhaps its been a while since you’ve done this and you are out of practice. It’s okay… You’ll find your way back.

Explore that feeling and even allow yourself to live out a short story. Be intentional about using this daydream to picture what it is that brings a smile to your face. Who do you need to be to experience that joy? What are the things you need to do to live that life? How will you achieve this picturesque life?

I highly recommend having a journal or something to write on as you come out of this experience. Once you have ended your daydream, get intentional about the feeling you’ve experienced and the joy you felt. Jot down the feelings you experienced. If you are more visual, jot down what you saw around you. Unleash your childhood creativity and write a narrative for the person who feels that great and leads that life. Where do they live? What do they like? Who surrounds them? What do they do for fun? What is their purpose?

If you can paint this picture for yourself, you are close to identifying your “someday” goals. It’s okay if you don’t know how long it will take you to get there. It’s better if you don’t know. If you are only thinking out to the next year or two of possibility, you have not challenged yourself enough. Once you identify your someday goals, you are ready to focus these goals and determine the steps you need to take to make them your reality.

Your next step is to check out my Halftime Goal Setting class, being taught live on Zoom, for Free! If you cannot make it or if you are reading this after July 14, 2020, please contact me. I will offer you more support in identifying and accomplishing your goals. Click the button below to enroll in my goal setting class.

RSVP for Halftime Goal Setting
July 14, 2020 @ 12:00 MDT

Jun

2020

Pressing Reset

Not often in life do things go perfectly as planned. Overcoming adversity and challenge is routine in all parts of life and business. No doubt, 2020 has thrown its share of challenges at us which have challenged and stressed our systems. Though some are looking forward to quarters three and four with high optimism, assuming it will only be smooth sailing, there is no guarantee and we can not afford to throw caution to the wind.

Remember December of 2019. It wasn’t that long ago. We were brimming with excitement as we set our goals for 2020, wrote our business plans, and made New Year’s resolutions. I saw many jubilant posts reading “20/20 in 2020” and the like. How many of us planned for a global-health event which would pause our economy for three months, legislation and regulations challenging the operations of our businesses, riots, and maybe even murder hornets! Truth is, there is no way we could have planned for any of these things.

In the military, when special units plan their operations, they don’t simply write one script. Their experience has taught them that things, often outside of their control, can and will go wrong. Many top tier special forces teams don’t even create just one backup plan… they create three! They use the acronym PACE, which stands for:

Primary
Alternate
Contingency
Emergency

In the 2011 raid of Osama Bin Laden’s compound, special forces units had rehearsed the operation for weeks, on their primary objective. They built a replicate model of his compound and rehearsed the assault until it was perfected. The only flaw in the rehearsal was that they used chain-link fence to replicate the outer walls of the compound. When the mission was executed, the solid and impermeable walls of the compound did not allow the first Black Hawk helicopter’s rotor wash to disperse and it deflected it back at the helicopter causing a controlled crash landing.

Fortunately, an alternate plan had already been devised and the second Black Hawk landed outside of the compound’s walls and the raid went according to one of its alternate plans, leading to a successful outcome and the removal of one of the world’s worst terrorist leaders.

The primary plan is where most of us stop. When life throws us a curve ball, we are forced to react in real time, more than likely when we aren’t prepared to do so. Having even just one alternate plan would allow us to pivot quickly, should our circumstances change. The reality is that many businesses are regularly affected, in big ways, and have been for as long as we have been building and operating businesses. The difference now is only that it is happening to many industries all at once.

Regardless of whether you made a contingency plan, or even a business plan at all, you do not and should not wait until December to review your progress toward your goals and plan ahead for next year. We all need a halftime to assess our performance from the first half, re-orient, and determine what we’ll need to do in the second half to achieve our goals this year.

If you are behind on your goals, stuck on where to go next, or unsure about what you should be doing, we need to talk. I’m offering free business assessments to help you identify the next move which will propel your business forward.

It’s a crazy time to think about starting a business!

Can you spare 1%? (Hint: it’s for YOU)

Open your profit account

Time Block

Grow your profit margin!

Benchmark and grow!

3 Things YOU Can Do Today to Free up More of YOUR Time!

1. Do what matters most!

2. Work from a written job description and organizational chart

3. Time Block

Hunter or Farmer? You Need to Be Both!

Mindset

Systems

Civil War, Inc.

Give Yourself a Raise

Win Your Day, Win Your Life!

Tragedy or Triumph… YOU Choose

Goal Setting Like a Billionaire

Pressing Reset

Subscribe to this Blog

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Adam Lendi. MAPS Business Coach on Facebook