Jul 18 2017

Increase Your “Inside” Strength!

“That which does 

 not cause my death,

    increases my strength!”

— Samuel Johnson or Frederich Nietzsche in the mid-late 1800’s

     It really doesn’t matter who said it or when. What matters is that entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial thinkers need to take heed now. Why? Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial thinkers are often thought to be over-acting “drama queens” because they rarely worry about hiding their emotions. They tend to become excited about anything and everything that leads to forward movement of their “burning desire” idea.

     And, yes, these same enthusiasts will also over-react to negative news about anything that impedes the progress of making their idea work.

     If you fit this description, or if you work or live with someone who does— lo and behold!– you can actually make a difference in the equation!

     It’s called REALITY. A good strong does of reality will take away any pain, any upset, and tendency to engage in analysis paralysis. Being realistic is, after all, the key ingredient of five essential criteria that define effective goal-setting and successful goal-pursuit.

     REALITY is a slippery piece of soap for many even thought they may honor its value. Reality has a way of turning quickly to fantasy whenever things don’t seem to be going right.

     It is, after all, much easier to get “lost” in fantasyland than it is to “shape up” mentally or physically or emotionally to the point of being able to most effectively deal with what’s right in front of your face.

     But, alas, this was why breathing was invented, don’t you think? Every breath– like every heartbeat and pulse throb– has the ability to put us in touch with reality . . . with what’s going on this very split second . . . vs. past (more than a few seconds old, over which we have no control and cannot change even if we want to), and future (more than a few seconds ahead of the air and space and mindset we are in at this exact split second, and which, of course, may never happen anyway).

     So, bottom line: no need to fret. Just pay attention to your SELFWhen you begin to feel upset, choose to focus your attention on your heartbeat or pulse, pinch yourself, take a deep breath, then get back to dealing with the next incoming immediate split second of your life. Let go of what’s over and what hasn’t come. Stay with where you are this minute. It COULD make a difference for you between a headache or backache or an ulcer or or heart attack or stroke. And if it does, consider how much stronger it has made you, or makes you this very next breath and, hopefully, the many more to follow.

# # #

 

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!

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Oct 30 2016

UNTANGLING EMPLOYEE KNOTS

“Employee Stress” Blocks Productivity, Vision, Focus & Health, which Costs Employers Over $300 Billion!

 What’s YOUR share?

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

“UNTANGLING KNOTS”

 

When is a knot not a knot?  Stress is like that “eye of the beholder” thing. Twenty-five years, for instance, can be forever, or a blink, depend- ing on how we’ve chosen to experience it and how we choose to see it.

 

Sticking a thumb out to paint scenery isn’t the same as sticking it up to show approval, or down to show rejection, plugging it into a hole to stop a leak, or waving it to hitch a ride.

careers

Neither is twenty-five years of delivering mail the same as twenty- five years of raising a family, or hammering rocks OR tuning pianos, driving trucks, stuffing pickles into assembly-line jars, selling services to corporate muckity-mucks, doing heart transplants, being a techie, running a retail store… OR plucking escargot-bound snails off jagged rocks at low tide.

 

Yet, we humans do all of these things to earn a living and label them as stressful.

 

In fact, “most stressful” to you could well be “least stressful” to me, and vice versa. To you, twenty-five years could be an eternity of pain and anguish. To me, it might be a heartbeat of joy. Some may consider it a flash of fantasy.

 

stressed-cartoon

 

Or perhaps we’ve chosen to suffer what seems like a permanent backache, endless constipation, depression, addiction, or —the opposite— we’ve cultivated some ever-deepening smile wrinkles by choosing to foster a happy, healthy, productive work-and-home balance.

 

Every end result gives rise and a clue to the source and choices and choice reversals made or not made all along the way.

choice-cartoon

Where does CHOICE begin and end? Or does it? Maybe it’s an eternal blanket and functions only when we’re aware of its pervasiveness. Surely it doesn’t float innocuously to our shoulders from the heavens and plot to do us in, even as we sit stunned by its presence, and puzzled by its origin and intention.

 

But: VOILA! As truth will have it, stress doesn’t come from outside of us. It doesn’t come from other people or circumstances—or from our jobs!

 

All physical, mental, and emotional stress is inevitably the result of a choice we make or have once made (perhaps within this very minute… or a week, month, year, decade or lifetime ago!). So it’s fair to say we can stop blaming others and circumstances for having put us under stress. We have only ourselves to blame.

blame

But blame doesn’t get rid of stress and may even make it worse.

 

As we have championed ourselves to “bring it on,” we are equally well-equipped to “let it go.” We need only to:

A)  RECOGNIZE AND ACCEPT that it’s the result of a choice we just (or once) made,

 AND

B)  FOCUS OR REFOCUS OURSELVES on the most immediate split-second here-and-now minutes of our lives… our heartbeats, our pulses, our breathing.

 

When we pay attention to our breathing, our pulses, our heartbeats, we are returning our minds to this very minute, and every passing minute.

 

this-very-moment

 

Why does this matter? Because stress only exists in dwelling on a past moment (older than a minute, or even a few ticks)… or worrying about a future moment (more than seconds or minutes away) that hasn’t yet come—and may never come!

 

Simply being aware of this thinking is often enough to make the difference. If you’ve read this far and are not interested in more, at least be interested enough in helping your SELF by trying and practicing these “Are You Breathing?” steps. They work and they’re free!

 

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Start 2017 SMART. 

 Start with THE 2017-2020 management and staff training and development program:

“MY BUSINESS WORKS” is a 3-part, hands-on, on-location engagement that is Money-Back Guaranteed to make a difference in individual participant commitment and achievement levels, in propelling your business mission forward, and in increasing your sales revenues.

Because these How-To sessions are customized to fit the specific needs of your business, your people, your customers/ clients/ patients, and your sales, scheduling is extremely limited, so act now!

Email Hal today: Hal@BusinessWorks.US or simply call Hal direct at 1.931.854.0474 for a prompt assessment discussion, or to schedule a callback at your convenience. 

[NOTE: Participant ages, educational levels, and physical conditions have no bearing on program content or expected results]

# # #

 

   Hal Alpiar is a 35-year-experienced professional coach and trainer. A business and career development mentor, Hal actively consults in marketing/PR/sales and stress management. Twice voted “Professor-of-the-Year,” he is also a national award-winning book author and national award-winning branding creator.

Serving clients nationwide since 1981, Hal has helped over 25,000 business and healthcare professional participants in his training programs, classes and workshops, and many more through his published books, articles, and over 1600 blogposts.

 [NOTE: For more details, click on About Hal tab at the top of this page]

# # #

 

hal@businessworks.US

STRATEGY / CONTENT / CONNECTION

931.854.0474 Coaching for Higher Branding Impact

Business Development/ National-Awards/ Record Client Sales

Personal & Professional Growth/ Creative Entrepreneurial Thinking

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Apr 14 2016

Small Business Breakthrough

Don’t trip over your own face!

Finish Line Runner

7 Thoughts to Stimulate Your

Small Business Breakthrough Now

 

Sometimes in our hurry to the finish line, we become obsessively focused on our destination and crumble into a helpless heap that competitors simply hop or step over as they race past. How can we best avoid this common catastrophe? Here’s some of what I’ve learned:

1. Even if you’re on the one-yard line, STOP seeing yourself dancing around the goalpost. Pay attention instead to your feet. Zone your brain into the immediate breath you are taking, right now, right this very moment of high expectation. Expectations, let us remember, breed disappointment. SOLUTION: Paying attention to your inhale and exhale forces you to concentrate on and make the most of every passing moment AS IT HAPPENS!

2. When your mind is in the “here and now,” there’s no room for dwelling on past attempts that failed or for worrying about future events.There is only the present moment. And that present moment is where you excel! Isn’t it? Of course it is. Think about it.

 BREATHE DEEP T-SHIRT

 

3. Excuses don’t cut it! Trying to explain your way out of failure that occurred because you lost contact with your present-moment breathing? That simply wastes more present precious-life moments.

4. It doesn’t hurt to constructively review and assess how you went wrong, but it hurts deeply when you choose to let your mind wander off into a place of dwelling on what happened and what you should have done. SOLUTION: Instead, take some deep breaths. Reconnect with the here and now . . . what you are actually doing. And move forward.

5. The pervasive problem with academia thought patterns that all of us are taught from grade school through PhD studies is the enormous resistance to truth and reality — the pursuit of what I’ve often called “analysis paralysis” that so embodies and emboldens the ranting and raving of so many unrealistic faculty ranks that blanket our campuses, and unfortunately tend even to infiltrate elementary school innocence.

Analysis Paralysis

6. More time and energy is wasted trying to figure out approaches to problem situations (based on history, available data, Past performances, new analytics, etc.) instead of simply approaching problem situations, recognizing them as opportunities, taking action, and making adjustments. What difference does it make “who did what when” if you’re confronted with the need to survive. Many don’t realize it and many dismiss the reality, but my educated best guess is that most small business enterprises are in a constant state of needing to survive. SOLUTION: Even if you’re not one, think like an entrepreneur!

7. The face of your business is what the world sees. It’s what you show others all day every day. How can you expect to be in touch with the impressions you make on others when you are consumed with what you did or didn’t do yesterday or immobilized by worrying over what tomorrow will bring? SOLUTION: Look in the mirror and talk to yourself more. Remind yourself of the real you — what’s in your gut. Then work harder, not smarter!

 racing the clock

Concentrate on what you are doing each moment as much as you possibly can, and work at returning your mind there as often as you can. Deep breathing helps. Being committed to exhilarating customers instead of just “satisfying” them helps. When you pay attention to where your feet are and not the finish line, you’ll achieve more, more often, and avoid tripping over your own face.

# # #

hal@businessworks.US

STRATEGY/ CONTENT/ CONNECTION

Higher impact. Lower costs.

——————-

Business Development/ National-Awards/ Record Client Sales

Entrepreneurship & Expansion Coaching    931.854.0474

Go for your goals, thanks for your visit, God Bless You!

OPEN  MINDS  OPEN  DOORS

Make Today A Great Day For Someone!

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Mar 01 2016

The 5 Best Leadership Tools

YOUR MEMORY CAN KILL YOU!

memory

No, huh? Memory can kill? Of course it can!  STOP reading for a minute and recall your biggest life upset… go ahead, but just for a minute. That’s all you need to get the idea.

The more we dwell on past events and behaviors and thoughts, the deeper we dig into the world of neurosis, and the sicker emotionally and physically that we make ourselves.

Memories serve a couple of valuable purposes when they are used productively in the present moment.

  • Recalling something pleasant can actually soothe the neurological system.
  • Recalling a mistake can help us make a corrective adjustment to a current course of behavior or activity and help ensure greater odds for success going forward.

But when we get ourselves lost in our memory banks, even in the process of engaging positive past experiences, it’s as easy to slip out of the reality of the present moment as it is to take off a glove. The difference is that removing a glove has some conscious awareness attached. Focusing on a memory can easily suck us into a tunnel of no return.

You think this is not about you? Think again. All of us have an inherent instinct to recall past events, thoughts, actions, experiences a few times a day. Some of us are actually paid to do this and build careers around it: archaeologists, CPA s, historians, history teachers, researchers, scientists, therapists, and detectives all come to mind.

And doesn’t everyone fantasize about something that was once great and, conversely, about something that was once terrible?

So what do we do with all this awareness and how does it relate to entrepreneurial leadership?

What we need to do –to be maximally productive at work and in life– is to consciously use past memories as tools for enhancing present moments and for planning future events. And then STOP! When a memory goes beyond present-moment consciousness, it can cause accidents and illness. It’s just like worrying about the future! Both cause stress, actually: DIStress!

Okay, so now that we have that sitting on the table, what do we do to make our memories work for us instead of against us? And how can we help those we are responsible to for servicing with “leadership”?

  • Work harder at staying focused and more tuned in to the present moment as much as possible.
  • Keep our sights set on what is happening right now in front of us.

And your 5 best “Make Memories Work FOR You” Tools

1) Breathing Deeply (it need not be conspicuous!)

2) Exercising regularly (it need not be strenuous!)

3) Eating foods and food portions with genuine (vs. advertised) nutritional value

4) Sleeping enough to wake up feeling rested and alert

5) Anchoring your soul in a faith-based harbor!

 

Is that so hard? Well, if we choose for it to be hard, it certainly will be. But since all behavior is a choice, we can instead choose for it to be easy. Think like an entrepreneur about your SELF as well as about your ideas. Be innovative. Challenge. Rise to the occasion. These aren’t just guidelines for building businesses and professional practices. They’re guidelines for life!

Because without a solid foundation of being focused on the here-and-now present moment as much as possible, we will –like an abandoned enterprise– quickly become then-and-there.

# # #

hal@businessworks.US

STRATEGY/ CONTENT/ CONNECTION

Higher impact. Lower costs.

——————-

Business Development/ National-Awards/ Record Client Sales

Entrepreneurship & Expansion Coaching    931.854.0474

Go for your goals, thanks for your visit, God Bless You!

OPEN  MINDS  OPEN  DOORS

Make Today A Great Day For Someone!

 

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Aug 20 2015

Now is “your time!” NOW. This minute!

YOUR CLOCK IS TICKING.

                                              

ARE YOU?

 

Get your eyes off this blog post for just ten (10) seconds and look around you! Serious. Turn around! Scope it out! Look at what’s behind you! Go ahead! I’ll wait.

What do you see? And do you all of a sudden hear or smell or taste something you didn’t notice when you had your face buried in your screen? Odds are you hate, or are afraid of, looking behind you. Why? Because doing that puts you in touch with the awful or distant or useless or sad or irrelevant past.

Perhaps your unconscious mind is simply trying to get you to be so busy racing for the finish line, you have a “no-time-for-that” excuse for avoiding intimacy with others, or situations, or your self? So you may be acutely aware (or–the other extreme–) completely unaware of your clock ticking.

                             upsidedown clock

But the bigger question is: are YOU ticking? Are you so absorbed in making the most of every minute that you lose track of what you’re actually doing, where you are, what you’re looking at, hearing, tasting, smelling, feeling?

Do you spend so much time looking so far ahead of yourself so often, that you forget about eating, or sleeping, or using the bathroom? Do you push yourself to achieve so much that you lose track of appreciating what you have already made happen?

It’s one thing to be independent and self-sufficient and yet quite another to barricade yourself into a brain-numbing tunnel of private pursuits. Some scientists may be . . . but great entrepreneurs are not and have very rarely been . . . hermits. Working in a vacuum makes it hard to breathe.

Besides instinct and all the “hustle” traits we hear about, the cornerstone for successful entrepreneuring is successful networking. Referrals come from networking. Ideas come from networking. Strategic partnerships come from networking. Marketable product and service enhancements come from networking. Investors come from networking. Sales come from networking. The contacts we truly need in our lives come from networking. Hermits don’t network.

No, social butterflying is not the answer. Engaging with and helping others with their pursuits is a great thing but if you don’t make a point of learning from such experiences, you are essentially helping others from a position of weakness, and that’s not much help to you or to those who win your good intentions.

No one can function as effectively by her or him self with running a business, a family, even a career, as he or she can with the support of a network.

Business and professional practice people exchange business and professional practice ideas by email and text messages and on sites like LinkedIn and Referral Key and Merchant Circle to help one another start, grow, expand, downsize, revitalize and re-invent, but nothing replaces face-to-face and telephone-voice-to-telephone-voice for effective networking.

So the solution is simple: Stay grounded in the “here-and-now” as much as possible. (Deep-breathing helps.) Telephone and in-person network whenever humanly possible. The challenge is in disciplining your SELF to build these practices into every day. Three weeks of consistent effort can turn your life around.

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Hal@Businessworks.US    931.854.0474

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

God Bless You and Thank You for Your Visit!

No responses yet

Jul 04 2015

HAVE YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES?

Every career success requires

 

this entrepreneur discipline:

 

success poster    

No matter your career, you need this. Whether you’re a corporate muckity-muck, teacher, politician, healthcare specialist, secretary, retail clerk, telemarketer, athlete, stylist, cowboy, sales rep, business owner, logistics manager, IT guru, pilot, media mogul, entertainer, writer, lawyer, pastor, government administrator, student, or a stay-at-home Mom (or Mr. Mom) . . . or add your own description: ________________.

No matter your career, you need this entrepreneur discipline.

Well, sure. You’re reading this, so you already have a commitment to learn and grow. You’re already motivated to achieve. Odds are you have some degree of integrity—doing the right thing even when no one else is watching! And you likely have some entrepreneurially-embedded sense of urgency.

Entrepreneurs are also willing to take reasonable risks and adapt readily to change. But risk-taking and adaptability are not always reliable measures of career success. You work hard at making the most of your communication skills by listening and observing carefully and tenaciously. Well, that’s a good thing, and may even be worth a few points toward achieving the magical level of success you crave.

But all of these assets—and many more you undoubtedly possess aren’t worth a hill of beans without a highly developed sense of vigilance. Huh? You thought that was a discipline relegated to the military or research scientists.

Well, here are a couple of not-too-shabby practitioner/advocates:

  • Henry David Thoreau, the noted American author, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and environmentalist who urged followers to “be forever on the alert.”
  • And how about Thomas Jefferson: “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!”

So how does vigilance fit here? What makes it so special? Why should those who aspire to some measure of success really care? What’s the deal? What’s in it for me?

 

The answer: Vigilance is as Thoreau described, being forever on the alert. Alert to what? Alert to opportunities, market changes, society changes, world changes, job changes, personal and family changes . . . and assessing the impact of each, based on HOW (not why) you do what you do, HOW (not why) you use what you have, HOW (not why) you make the most of the skills you’ve developed.

It is all about being continually focused as much of the time as possible on the realistic present “here and now,” instead of the fantasy-filled past and future. Vigilance occurs in the present. How much of your life and success pursuits are in the present? The more they are, the closer you get to where you’re going.

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Hal@Businessworks.US    931.854.0474

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Thank You for Your Visit!

One response so far

Jan 28 2015

CREATIVITY WAKE-UP CALL!

Are you taking your music to the grave?!

            image002                                                            

    STOP HIDING YOUR ACORNS!

 

You are not a squirrel. Stop saving up your best-effort production, creation, plan or idea for “the right moment!” With a deader-than-doornail economy that some ignorantly pretend is historically great because of low gas prices (which are only low because of record unemployment!) . . . but that’s politics we have to live with. We don’t need to live with missed opportunity, and there’s no time like the present to get that great creative genius product of yours out of the closet (or the back of a drawer), dust it off, and make it work!

Ahhh, but to make it work, first means freeing it from the imaginary chains you’ve wrapped around it, and the hiding place you’ve confined it to in your home, office, truck, notebook, recording, hard drive, smart phone, tablet . . . or your mind?

Your best will never achieve what you

hoped for it if it’s locked away.

 

Put it into your daily work schedule. Treat it as if it was a key client or customer project.

TRUST YOURSELF. Give yourself a chance. What’s the worst thing could happen? It gets rejected? You think maybe there’s only one person or audience for your special creation? The odds for fame and appreciation will be better after you’re dead? Regardless of your skills and calling, that’s not likely. And it’s a choice.

Try to look at it this way: Posthumous success is failure to achieve what’s been rightfully earned in life during that lifetime. Most of us agree that of course the dead are to be honored in some fashion. Military courage and sacrifice certainly count the most. I’m not attempting to strip that love, respect, gratitude and reverence away.

The point is that posthumous recognition doesn’t accomplish anything. It fails to provide you the incentive and opportunity to do even greater work because it affords you a springboard for awakening other talents of yours and for inspiring others who will enjoy and benefit by your creation, and emulate your efforts.

Oh, and perhaps it’s blatantly obvious, but I believe it’s still worth mentioning just to raise consciousness: we only go around once in this life. We get only one “here and now” every passing minuteDo you truly want to take your music to your grave?

It’s a choice to never make a choice.

An action step you take today can pay you back tomorrow. Action you never take hasn’t even a chance of being worthy of your talents and authenticity. And action you keep making excuses not to take is actually a step backwards. If you’re not a squirrel, stop hiding your treasures. If you have “yes, buts” — contact me. If you think you’re losing your mind, try this! And if you still have doubts, think on this — one of my favorite quotes to pin on your wall:

 

Remember time waits for no one.

Yesterday is history.

Tomorrow is mystery.

Today is a gift.

That’s why it’s called the present.”

– B. OLATUNJI  

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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!

No responses yet

Dec 17 2014

70+ YEARS OLD AND STILL WORKING?

YOU’RE 70+ YEARS OLD?

There goes your past. Here comes your future. But
it’s only this very minute —this very split second
as you read this sentence— that counts!
Popular observations about your age:

YOU’RE 70+ YEARS OLD

God Bless You! You’re still alive and pretending to be younger . . . probably 50-60. Occasionally, you might even make believe that you’re in the 30-40 age bracket (though, depending on activity levels involved, that can readily get you in trouble, like cut, bumped, bruised, or thrown out of a bar, an airplane or someone’s bedroom!).

Bottom line is that you have at long last arrived at the point where no one can tell you much of anything that you don’t already know from experience.

Well, okay, you may be a little slow on the uptake when it comes to storing your pdf files on the cloud or testing the new contact lens that takes photos when you blink (something like 1 blink for yes and 2 blinks for no and 3 blinks to snap a picture of what you’re looking at that you’re not supposed to be looking at. Hmmm, and that could spell trouble with a capital “T”!). Anyway, who knows what’s next in tech? You can bet the farm that the answer to that is: No one older than fifty years younger than you, right?

So here you are: 70+ and you have no doubts about what you don’t know. You’re still working at something or you wouldn’t be around. Life is not a breeze, but waking up every day is certainly a gift you want to make the most of — especially after all that work just to get from the bed to the bathroom!

And you are, after all, happy and productive, yes?

Interesting isn’t it, that being at the happiest and most productive place in the world—here and now”—is most often shared by people under 7 and over 70? Most everyone in between spends all those other years worrying about the future which hasn’t come yet (and may never!) or dwelling on the past which is over (and can’t be changed). But then, you already know that, right?

Here’s how I figure it: AGE only matters when you choose for it to matter. We made a lot of choices to get here. And whether it’s been easy, hard, or in between, it all comes back to choices we make and have made—conscious or unconscious, but always our choices lead the way.

So, just choose to make it easy! Choose to make whatever work you still do work for you, to be happy and healthy and rewarding for you and all those who surround you. Is that too hard? Well, it’s simple if you choose for it to be simple. Besides, what’s the alternative? You stop working and then you die of retirement? Not a great choice.

REALITY IN LIFE AND BUSINESS:
Now is the only time!
How thankful are you to be who you are,
headed where you’re headed?

CHECK BACK TO THE LAST 5 POSTS BEFORE THIS FOR THE
COMPLETE “AGE SERIES” [20-30, 30-40, 40-50, 50-60, and 60-70]
~~~ NEXT WEEK: A SPECIAL CHRISTMAS MESSAGE!
# # #
Hal@BusinessWorks.US or 931.854.0474 or comment below

OPEN MINDS OPEN DOORS

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You!

Make today a GREAT Day for someone!

No responses yet

Nov 25 2014

In Business, Your Age Matters (40-50?)

YOU’RE 40-50 YEARS OLD?

There goes your past. Here comes your future. But
it’s only this minute—this very split second as you
read this sentence—that counts!

Popular observations about your age:

Over The Hill

YOU’RE 40-50 YEARS’ OLD

Now you’re getting serious about life. You cut your hair and consider the economies of a wig vs. hair transplants vs. shaving your head. You buy your first wrinkle cream and think about Botox. It doesn’t take more than a backache or two to realize you’re no longer the superwoman / superman you thought you were, but you will no doubt continue trying to prove otherwise—switching perhaps to “softer athletics” like pinball, slot machine pulls, darts, bathtub backstroke, and computer solitaire.

You’re still haunted by being covered with lettuce, smothered in mayonnaise and stuck like a pickle in the middle of the parents/kids sandwich . . . trying to break through the crust and please the whole world as you get chewed first on one side and then on the other. You probably thought you were over the hill when you were thirty, but now, well, “It’s the real thing!” . . . You worry more.

When you lose a close friend or family member, it gives you cause to pause. You rethink your job, church, life, love, yourself as well as where the hell you’re going, and how long it’s taking to get there. Retirement planning? Nah! That’s a long way off.

Earning a decent living has turned out to be harder than you ever imagined. Maybe you should do that year-with-a-yogi-mountaintop-meditation deal? Marriage or roommate relations get rocky. Your own or parent health issues command the stage center spotlight.  Healthcare insurance options suck! You sleep less. You start eating more yogurt and granola, but struggle with the booze, coffee, anything chocolate, bread and butter. Sometimes you feel like you’re playing football on a chess board. Try answering this:What Sport Is Your Business?

Having your own small business is looking more attractive. You decide to test the waters with a weekend garage-based product business or bedroom-based consulting service. The startup costs are staggering. You consider seeking investors or a rich partner. Somewhere you learn that when two partners agree on everything, one is not needed. Two investors you speak with want 65% of your business. No way! Way! No way! Way! No way! You go it alone and sweat it out. Welcome to entrepreneurship! Are you spontaneous enough?

REALITY IN LIFE AND BUSINESS:
Now is the only time!
How thankful are you to be who you are,
headed where you’re headed?

WATCH THIS BLOG  FOR THE NEXT 3 WEEKS
FOR YOUR AGE COMMENTARY~~~ NEXT WEEK: 50-60
# # #

Hal@BusinessWorks.US   or 931.854.0474 or comment below

OPEN MINDS OPEN DOORS

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You!

Make today a GREAT Day for someone!

 

No responses yet

Aug 18 2014

CAN YOU BE TOO PREPARED?

You’re on the threshold

 

of a presentation.

 

Are you “overkill” ready?

 

 

I once worked for an “overkill” boss. It took me awhile to figure this out because he constantly gave me the impression he thought I wasn’t up to snuff with reality, until I discovered that he was simply an OCD  poster boy . . .

“Did you key up the audio so it’s loud enough for those with hearing disorders? Is it timed to come on just as I say ‘New campaign’? Is there a crisp, clean unused legal pad and new pen with keyboard access in front of every chair at the meeting table? Who’s escorting them into the room?

“You’re wearing pinstripes, right? And plain dark suit? No crazy neckties. And kill that erring! Did you check the thermostat? You’re sure the agenda board is 100% perfect and visible from every seat? Their limo is ordered? What time’s their flight? Lunch arrangements? What about lunch arrangements? “

Of course that was just the beginning of his diatribe checklist. He would go on to the exact type and amount and freshness of the tuna salad and bread and veggies and dip and chips and cheese and crackers and fruit, and juice and soda to be served. “What’s the dessert? Who’s making it? Have you tried it?” and on and on. You’d have thought our ad agency sales pitch was a White House attempt at negotiating a global war peace treaty. “WHO,” he would always ask, “is in your pocket?”

BUT WAS HE WRONG?

I’d be interested in your thoughts, but I can tell you this much: While I never became the fanatic he was, I learned to respect the value of being fully prepared ahead of every client and potential client interface — in person, on the phone, and on the computer screen. While I agree that his cage-rattling directives were often excessive, over-the-top, I have come to realize that –in fact– he had a point: You can never be TOO prepared!

And perhaps most important: being fully prepared –including having some contingency plans– helps build self-confidence as well. Why? Because it leaves your mind clear to deal with the person(s) in front of you and adapt to he/her/them and/or the circumstances. If you’re not fully prepared, you may be too preoccupied with fumbling to notice nonverbal responses or room temperature or your own agenda . Sales, remember, are made in “the here and now“!

What is business (and professional practice) all about after all? The customer/client/patient/prospect . . . RIGHT? What else could it possibly be about? So if you think on this a minute or two –or a lifetime’s worth– you will undoubtedly come to the conclusion that your entire career existence is dependent on your’s and your organization’s abilities to attract and keep, and grow your customer base. What else is there?

Even if you work for a nonprofit, and think you exist to make the world a better place, you’ll never succeed without developing a base of supporters. So how does one maximize the odds of attracting and keeping and growing a support base of any kind? With as accurate and perfect and communicative a presentation as possible at every opportunity you get to make a point. You need not become an OCD basket case or a pushy salesperson to make this happen.

You must quite simply put yourself in your audience’s (of one or one million) proverbial shoes and present information at his/her/their level wrapped around expressed needs and interests. Oh, and that can ONLY happen if you listen carefully (at least 80% of the time) to what each and all of them have to say. If you’re unsure or can’t feasibly do this, hire a firm that will do it for you with surveys or focus groups or whatever methods work for your industry or profession.

Otherwise, you’re you’ll find yourself

working inside a box 

that you’ll never learn to think out of!

 

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Hal@BusinessWorks.US or comment below

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