We’ve talked a lot about taking full responsibility on this blog and in order to go all in, you must be able to first contemplate the end result you are looking to achieve. You have to be able to ’see’ yourself doing, or being, or having whatever it is that exemplifies your ‘all in’ position. Most people (admitting gross generalization here) contemplate all the things they don’t want, the things they are afraid might happen, they imagine results that deter them from going all in.  So, as a little exercise this week, try this:

1. Make a list of the things you want, to be, to do, to have.

2. Write out the excuses that you’ve made as to why the above list is not a reality in your life.

3. Ask yourself if your excuse is true?

4. Is it also possible for your excuse to not be true?

5. What would be the direct opposite of your excuse?

6. Is that true?

7. Is it possible for it not to be true?

*so if both your excuse, and the direct opposite of your excuse could both be true, why don’t we focus on the latter?  - Good question ehh?

Here’s one of my examples:

1. I want to write a best-selling book

2. One major excuse I’ve used is that ‘I don’t have time’

3. Yes, this is perceptually true.

4. Yes, it’s possible for it not to be true.

5. The opposite would be: I have more than enough time in the world to write a book.

6. Yes, this could also be true.

So, starting tomorrow, the new thought I will contemplate is the ‘completion of my manuscript’.  Then I will ask myself “how can I build time into my schedule to work on the book?”

Take the first action step in the achievement of your goals by focussing your thinking on what you do want, not, what you don’t.

All the best,

Heather White, CEO 2020 Communications Inc.

“The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.”

For many people, the thought of losing (a business deal, a client, or a key staff member) can lead them to making poor decisions. Our world is so focused on winning all of the time that it forgets that success is a shitty teacher. It is the times we lose where we learn the most. I worked in a casino for a while as a security guard on the high stakes tables. A friend of mine came in with $2,000.00 and told me that he had saved up the money to learn how the game of Texas Hold’em was played. I told him he was an idiot and that he should buy a game for his computer and practice at home. He reminded me that ‘in play’ experience is the best teacher. You won’t take it seriously if the money isn’t real.

He played that night and lost about $800.00 in chips. He came back the following night and walked away +$125.oo

For the following weeks he would be up and down, but never lost his entire $2,000.00 Some nights he’d be down to $200.00 and would leave. I thought the emotional roller coaster ride would have been enough to drive anyone crazy, but he stuck with it and now he seriously augments his income by playing in poker tournaments in B.C. and Vegas.

You have to be in it to win it. When you lose, don’t focus on the loss itself. Instead focus on the lesson. What did you learn this time that you can avoid next time. For me, most of my success comes from avoiding the pitfalls that others fall into. Almost everyone I know wants to write a book. They have it on their ‘to-do’ list, but get stuck in the details. I made almost every mistake you can in finding an agent, getting a book deal, and choosing how to promote the book. Every time I made a mistake, I’d look at what the lesson was and go again. I started focusing on Canadian agents and when that didn’t work, I focused on those in Manhattan. When I wasn’t getting anywhere with one press, I would look at working with another. I had a lot of bad radio interviews so I started decising which ones I would do and which ones I would pass on. The good ones got me excited for more good ones, the bad ones made me want to get out of the studio as quickly as possible.

I’m successful for one basic fact: I’m not afraid to lose. I’m not afraid to fall on my face….as long as I only do it once per area. I will take the hits, taunts, jibes, and self-abuse I do when I fail in order to learn. I seek out others that have failed and succeeded to get their take on how to avoid pitfalls and get in the winner’s circle. You have to walk the edge if you want the good stuff. Playing too safe will strangle opportunities for yourself. When life kicks you in the guts and tries to break you, get up, dust yourself off, and look for the lesson. It might be painful and it might be expensive, but it is necessary. If you do the same mistake over and over again..well, you might be a bonehead and need to take some time to figure out what you are doing wrong rather than doing the same thing over and over again hoping for a different outcome.

Best,

Chris.

p.s. If you find that when you are crapping out, you need to throw a pity party or engage in drama with the people around you, take a walk and think about where your focus is. You get what you focus on. Drama brings drama and pity parties are for losers. The only people that like coming to pity parties are other losers. Stay positive, look for the lesson, and drive forward.

And most of the time, the customer just moves onto the next item on the sheet.

I pointed out by not closing or asking for the business in every sales call, she is leaving money on the table and missing opportunities to help customers out.

Taking the attitude of ‘if they like it, they will buy’ and thinking that asking for the business is being too pushy, is downright silly. Customers expect you to be the expert on your product and expect to be closed by you. Simply asking for the business does not force them to say yes if they don’t want it. But it does help them reach a buying decision faster, rather than retreating to the ‘Let me think about it” position.
So, as of yesterday, the new rule at her company is: Ask for the business on every sales call. No exceptions.

And she just emailed me to say doing this simple thing brought in new business today! Are you going for the close every time? And if you aren’t – stop making excuses and start doing it.

Fiona Walsh, CEO, FM Walsh & Associates Inc. www.fmwalsh.com

How many times have you found yourself distracted from your business responsibilities and goals? If it’s becoming a real problem, you’ll need to take drastic action to keep your mind – and your business – focused on what matters. Going all in doesn’t mean taking an unbalanced approach. Like a martial artist, you have to have perfect balance to strike exactly where and when you need to.

How to get rid of the distractions? Here are a few suggestions from myself and my colleagues that have worked very well:

1. Have lunch. Make sure you get that noon-time break every day at the same time, and let everyone know that you will not be distracted except for an absolute emergency. This is your time to reflect and relax.

2. Make rules for when you can access your online identity. Make sure you have at least a few hours of the day where you don’t check your email, LinkedIn profile or business website and you are free to focus on other things. Disconnecting from your Blackberry or laptop for that amount of time can really help provide a sanctuary from business-all-the-time.

3. Take a walk on the mild side. Get outside and take in your surroundings. Enjoy the fresh air, take a look at your neighborhood and appreciate the physical world out there. It’s a good way to get perspective on your life, and the exercise can’t hurt.

Follow these tips and you’ll find you have a more balanced mind and you’re better able to tackle your business challenges head on.

Linda Chu
CEO – Out of Chaos, Professional Organizing Solutions
www.outofchaos.ca

I sometimes have a different take on things than other people — why, some would say my view is slightly askew. For example, back in the days before mobile phones the old Air Supply lyric “I’m lying alone with my head on the phone, thinking of you till it hurts” always made me think,

“Well of course your head hurts, dude, you’re using a phone for a pillow!”

Anyway, I’ve always thought the “she who hesitates is lost” adage really means, when you’re not sure where you’re going, you hesitate. Like the guy in the car ahead of you who keeps slowing down at every intersection to read the street sign. Aggravating! But he’s probably just lost, which is why he’s hesitating. Make sense?

Going all in requires that you have a clear idea of where you want to end up. You can’t hesitate and go all in at the same time. The two concepts are opposed, completely incompatible. If you try to go all in and aren’t clear it’s not going to work. And then you’ll be even more discouraged and more hesitant to go all in next time.

So start with getting clear. Figure out what your end goal is and the rest of it gets much easier. In marketing, you know you don’t have a clear enough end in mind if you keep getting stuck on what to do next. Here are a few tips:

1. Choose a niche market
2. Learn about their needs and how you can resolve them
3. Set goals for your marketing results (level of awareness, increased client numbers, response rate to ads, etc.)
4. Focus your marketing efforts within a time-limited, coordinated campaign with metrics in place
5. Keep track of results and review how you did — how close did you get to your end goal?

Once you have a target, not only will you be able to track progress (something we often forget to do), you can tell how close you came to hitting it and adjust for better accuracy next time.

- Liz Gaige
Market Navigators Consulting

I’ve heard this story shared many times in my travels and yet I still see people making this mistake all the time.  The story goes like this:

There is this very pious Jew named Goldberg who always dreamed of winning the lottery. Every Sabbath, he’d go to synagogue and pray: “God, I have been such a pious Jew all my life. What would be so bad if I won the lottery?” But the lottery would come and Goldberg wouldn’t win. Week after week, Goldberg would pray to win the lottery, but the lottery would come and Goldberg wouldn’t win. Finally, one Sabbath, Goldberg wails to the heavens and says: “God, I have been so pious for so long, what do I have to do to win the lottery?” 

And the heavens parted and the voice of God came down: “Goldberg, give me a chance! Buy a ticket!” 

Human beings, in general, spend a lot of time making excuses about why they don’t have the things they want in their life. We’ve heard them all:

I’m too old, I’m too young, I can’t afford it, I don’t have time, I’m too tired, It’s too ‘risky’

Or they spend time worrying about what might happen if they ‘go all in’ on whatever their aspiration might be and scare themselves out of even trying. (If I quit my job and start my dream business, it might go bankrupt and I’ll lose everything and so therefore, I’m not going to bother trying.)

Call me Pollyanna, but, I truly believe that if you have an authentic, natural desire to be, do or have something in your life – you have within you the energy, the knowledge, the power, and whatever else you need to make it so. No more excuses, no more worrying – decide what you want and take action to make it a reality.

You can’t ‘win’ if you don’t buy a ticket, so get in the game, give yourself a chance and let the rest unfold!

All the best,

Heather White, CEO, 2020 Communications Inc.

Competitors in the market can be a great resource for your business development plans. You should spend as much time watching them as you do your market. Competitors are like weather vanes for your market and their actions can lead you to either avoid pitfalls or take advantage of their missteps. Here are some of the things you should be tracking on a monthly basis:

1. Who are their main clients? Have they lost any clients? Have they acquired any new clients?
   
2. What are they saying in their press releases?
3. Are they acquiring or laying off staff?
4. Are certain people getting promoted or moving to jobs outside the company?
5. Are they changing office addresses?
6. Are they adjusting their offering?
7. Are they changing their focus?
8. Have they formed any new alliances?
9. Does it look like they are on a healthy profit model or are they struggling?
10. How are they marketing/promoting their services?
11. How are the y positioned compared to you? Cheaper or more affordable? More accessible, less accessible?

When ever I play poker, I look to play the other players as much as I play my cards. Same in business. Your job is to never let the competition know what is in your hand, but to spend part of your time guessing what they are up to. Are they in a strong position? Are they bluffing? Are they almost out of money? Watch what the people in your game are doing and you can have everyone’s money.

Best,

Chris.

www.GhostCEO.com

Here are some basic rules to follow when going after a new deal:
• Research the company you are pitching. Know what they do, their challenges and the market they target.
• Prepare your presentation. What solution are you offering? Get real clear on the benefits to the buyer. Have your sales materials organized, your price range decided on and practice it until you are 100% confident.
• Figure out ahead of time what types of objections they may have and work out your answers, so you sound confident and like a person they want to do business with.
• Make sure you provide your contact information. Nothing turns me off faster than having to track down your contact information. I am amazed at the number of emails and phone calls I get from people with no contact information provided. Every email should include your full name, company name, phone number, email and website. And make sure you leave your phone number with every voicemail message you leave.

Pay attention to the details and make it easy for people to do business with you. Do all your homework before you go after that new deal. Sound confident and credible. If you can’t find the time to get your act together, it is probably best to not go after the deal because chances are high that you really don’t want it.

Fiona Walsh, CEO, FM Walsh & Associates Inc. www.fmwalsh.com

In business, there are times when business owners have to go all in just to survive. In an economic downturn, this can happen even to those who have made all the right moves. At the same time, these moments can be times to steal a march on your competitors and get an edge that will serve you well when the overall business climate picks up.

In a memorable quote from an awful 1990s movie about poker, one character asks, “Why do you think the same five guys make it to the final table of the World Series of Poker EVERY YEAR? What, are they the luckiest guys in Las Vegas?” The answer is that these people use a system and it works for them reliably.

Systems that will help your business in a crunch time can come in many forms. Maybe it’s a simple system of organizing your day to maximize your productivity. Or a process for consulting with clients that results in signed contracts on a regular basis. Perhaps you’ve got a system for keeping your workspace energy flowing through feng shui design principles.

Businesses that are successful typically operate with a combination of many systems that make them successful. When the time comes to go all in, business owners that use systems can have the confidence that their next move will have the odds stacked in their favor.

Linda Chu
CEO – Out of Chaos, Professional Organizing Solutions
www.outofchaos.ca

When I met with client “Donald” he wanted help marketing a new product in a mature industry, but as senior partner with one foot out the door of the business, he wasn’t willing to embrace much change. He wanted big results, but resisted recommendations on how to achieve those results when they entailed too much deviation from how the company had done business in the past.

Donald wanted to cherry pick what he would and wouldn’t do, rather than embrace the full process. In the end we didn’t work together because I knew my ability to get results would be limited by the lack of commitment to the game plan. (I’m a big fan of getting results.)

Client “Myla” came to me with a clear, long term vision of what she wanted her company to become. She’d made quite a lot of progress already, but was stuck on how to get to the next level in a few key areas. In our initial session together, we identified how she could prioritize her initiatives to make them each a reality by building one on the other.

Myla epitomizes the concept of “all in” in every venture she engages in. As we’ve continued to work together and tackle objective after objective, she’s done her homework, come to our discussions with questions and ideas, and followed through on the action plans we develop.

Not only has her company become an award winner, she is reaching the goals she originally set out in a 5 year plan, in less than 2 years!

Commitment and going all in are absolutely delicious when you reach your big, audacious goals.

- Liz Gaige
Market Navigators Consulting