Ever been in the situation where you’ve called a sales prospect over and over with little or no response? We’ve all been there and we’ve impatiently written off the prospect as dead because we didn’t want to face another non responsive call.

Next time you are prospecting and this happens, think of this: its a well known fact that sales people give up on sales prospecting calls far too early. A few more calls and the sale is likely to be yours. Also consider the fact that being diligent in following up will prove your commitment to the sales process and gain respect from your prospective buyer.

With a little patience and perseverance that opportunity you are about to write off as dead could turn into a sale. Go dial that number, smile and think of the closing the deal. Here are some pointers that will help: 7 tips for turning cold calls into hot leads.

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

Whenever you’re hunting for new business opportunities it’s vitally important to stay curious. When you get attached or desperate, you lose all of your creative and intuitive powers. It’s like putting on a pair of blinders and heading out in to a forrest. You’ll never see anything but what’s right in front of you and therefore will miss over 270 degrees of view. Often times the most exciting opportunities are already in your life, it’s just that you haven’t noticed them in that way. When you turn on your right brain, get creative and innovative, and are curious about what opportunities are all around you – you start to notice things in a new way.

Take notice over the next week of your ability to remain curious and see what opportunities you can spot and furthermore hunt up.

All the best,

Heather White, CEO, 2020 Communications Inc

When you’re hunting for new business, and especially when you’re a single shingle entrepreneur, it’s important for you to stretch your resources. One of the easiest ways to do that is to find the watering holes where your niche markets hang out together. If you can have an opportunity to speak to your target audience in a group, you’ll get far greater results than if you tried to find them and speak to each of them individually. Start today by profiling who is your niche market? What are their commonalities? What kinds of books/mags/websites etc. do they read? Where do they hang out? What do they watch on TV?

Once you’re clear on who they are and where they can be found (aka the watering hole), hunting becomes a walk in the park.

Happy Hunting!

All the best,

Heather White

CEO, 2020 Communications Inc.

It’s not that the passion that lives within us is ever that far away, but it is true that it can become dormant if we don’t activate it. Sometimes that activation comes from a profound idea or thought, a stimulating conversation, a book or article that your read….or…a Flash Mob:

Watch the video here: Vancouver 2010 Dancing in the Streets Flashmob

How’s that for inspiring your passion??

All the best,

Heather White, CEO, 2020 Communications Inc

I think passion is another one of those words we toss around, assuming the meaning, but often not digging deep enough to understand the essence. Passion to me is alignment. Alignment of your natural gifts and talents with an arena of expression. Passion is the skater with a sheet of ice, the skiier with snow covered mountain peak, the golfer with a plush green fairway, the teacher on stage with an audience watching.

I think the biggest barrier between you and your passion is your knowledge and acceptance of yourself. Our whole life we are conditioned to believe that we are not good enough. That we have to learn more, earn more, say more, do more in order to reach some holy grail of accomplishment. This paradigm no longer serves us.

In the silence and stillness of your life is where you will hear your inner voice of wisdom talk to you about your true passions. From there, your job is to be open, to be honest and to be willing to take the necessary inspired action steps that will lead you on a path of alignment.

Passion is not something external that you need to go out and get. It’s internal and you simply need to allow it to come to the surface of your life.

Be brave!!

All the best,

Heather White, CEO 2020 Communications Inc.

There is one definite inevitability in life and that is, of course, death. Not usually a topic that most people want to talk about or frankly think about, but, nevertheless something that we cannot escape. Personally, my consideration of the concept is something that has given me an incredible amount of strength thus far. Whenever I have a desire to do something there is the almost immediate reaction from my mind. Sometimes it tells me why I can’t do it, sometime why I shouldn’t, sometimes it just laughs at my plans. I’ve heard many theories about why this happens, why do we get in our own way, why would we stop ourselves from giving something a try? We shouldn’t! We have to go for it!

When I watched the below video I was further convinced. The man on the video has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and given only months to live. In this, his last lecture, he gives a moving, practical, matter of fact speech about how and why to live a life in pursuit of your dreams. There is no time to put things off – we have to pursue those things that we have a desire to!

A version of Randy Pausch’s last lecture as seen on Oprah

All the best,

Heather White, CEO, 2020 Communications Inc.

Last week we talked about being selfishly selfless as a rule to live by. If you did your homework, you should have a long list of things that you need to take care of in order for you to be operating at optimal capacity. Today, we’re talking about the next step in this process, which is: communicating your new rules.

In my experience, in my own life, one of the reasons I struggled to put this selfishly selfless concept in to place was because of how it was going to affect the other people in my life. For example, in the early days of my relationship we were on totally opposite schedules. I worked all day, he worked all night (well, almost). I’d often stay up and/or wake up when he got home in order to hang out and spend time together and hear about one another’s days. BUT, when my alarm went off at 6am the next morning – I was tired! And, as you know by now, I don’t do tired well. Something had to change, but, at the same time, I didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to hang out with my boyfriend….what to do??

First – I had to get clear on what I really wanted – #1 to hang out w/ my boyfriend + #2 a good night sleep. So how could I be selfish in this case and get both? I needed to COMMUNICATE my new rules. So that’s what I did.

We came up with a new plan that included a special ‘date day’ every week, when we could coordinate our schedules in order to hang out and catch up with one another and meanwhile, there was no more getting up in the middle of the night. In retrospect, I realize that I was nervous to ask for what I really wanted out of some fear that I had made up in my own mind. (i.e. Would he commit to this new plan, would I miss out on something if I didn’t get up in the middle of the night, would my relationship last if I didn’t spend every chance I had to work on it?)

As you can imagine – none of this was true, but, I needed to experience enough pain (feeling exhausted all day) to realize that this wasn’t working for me. Then I needed to get clear on how things would work for me. And lastly, I needed to communicate what I wanted/needed to change in order for me to operate at optimal capacity. This is the same for you. After last week, you now know what you need – this week – communicate those needs/wants to those in your life who will support you in honouring you.

Let me know how it goes!!

All the best,

Heather White, CEO, 2020 Communications Inc.

Don’t spend so much time multi-tasking. It is the path to insanity. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen clients worry about their kids while at work and worry about their business while with their kids. What’s the point? You can only focus on and control what you have right in front of you at that particular moment.

The most successful people I know are always in that moment. They are not reading email while having a phone conversation. They are paying attention to accomplishing their top priority at that very moment; only when they are finished that item, do they then move onto the next one.

This was a tough rule for me to master personally. I was often trying to get multiple things done at the same time and not doing many of them well or thoroughly. My so-called ‘efficiency’ was definitely not that efficient.

How did I break the habit? Using the Pomodoro Technique. This simple method has greatly increased my efficiency – I get way more done in an average day. Plus, by being in the moment I am less stressed. And at the end of day when work is done, my mind shuts off and I enjoy my free hours a lot more.

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

This year is going to be fantastic – as long as you’re ready to take 100% responsibility for that to be the reality you create. So often it is us, ourselves, that are the biggest road blocks getting in our way and often times it’s because we have a bunch of rules that govern our life, that are not serving us. It’s time to take stock of the rules you use to govern yourself and decide which rules are serving the advancement of your goals and aspirations for the year and which ones are no longer serving that purpose.

Let me give you an example. The first ‘working’ day after leaving my corporate job, looked almost identical to the kind of day that I had when I worked for the corporation. I got up at 6am, got on my computer, checked email, answered voicemail, tidied up some administrative stuff and then prepared to hit the road. I did this for at least a year without ever giving it one second of thought. Then one morning I woke up and for some reason I had a thought float through my head – I’m tired, I want to stay in bed longer. To which I quickly replied to myself – if you think you’re going to make something of yourself lying in this bed – you are sadly mistaken. Get your ass out of  bed and get to work! Aha – embedded right here in this mental dialogue was a major rule, a huge barrier to living my life the way I wanted  - and the road block was me!

The first step to changing and adjusting some of your rules to better serve you is to first, observe and learn what rules you already have for yourself. This might sound like an easy task, but, trust me, raising your conscious awareness to a place where you can observe your subconscious activity can actually be quite challenging. You must carefully listen to your inner dialogue to pick out when you are being governed outside your free will. That’s the easy part. Then you must be willing to make changes in your actions in order to adopt new rules that serve you in moving forward with your life. Furthermore, your subconscious is so powerful, that it will wait for just the right moment of weakness to squeak back in to your mind and before you know it – you’ll be acting in your old ways. Be gentle on yourself during this process – it’s not easy and you will slip back from time to time. This is normal. Stick with it.

Rules are just rules – they can be broken and they can be adjusted. I don’t get up at 6am anymore and yet I’m more successful, more profitable, more happy and more fulfilled than I’ve ever been.

It’s a new year – adjust your rules to make it a new you!!

All the best,

Heather White, CEO, 2020 Communications Inc.

I was so inspired last week as I walked out of what was one of the most productive meetings this year. We’re constantly being bombarded with messages of FEAR, whether it’s the report on the economic climate, the political parties of the Province cutting each other down or as I was told a few weeks back by a small thinker – “it’s the worst time to start a business”.  And yet, four of us sat together last week for an hour, hashed out a collaborative business arrangement in which all parties benefit, everyone sees the value, and we are all excited at the opportunity to work together. How refreshing!

There are SO many opportunities for companies to grow and prosper under the current market conditions. Like a forest fire burning off old growth, this market is burning off old mindsets. As a business coach I’m advising clients to:

1. Streamline their offering

2. Explore strategic partnerships

3. Get clear on their niche markets

4. Put systems in place rather than hire staff

5. Be clear on their cash position on a daily basis

This correction of mindset would have never happened without the market getting in to trouble. Companies are now forced to systemize and streamline AND COLLABORATE or they won’t survive. This market, in many ways, is just what business needed. If you’re open to working together – the results will be exponential!

All the best,

Heather White, CEO, 2020 Communications Inc.