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Grow & Scale A Business That Will Set You Free

Are Your Naughy or Nice?

by Walt | Dec 10, 2015 | Success | 0 Comments

Make your list; and check it twice.

Decide what’s naughty… and what’s nice.

I’m not talking about your Christmas list or your holiday card list or your To-Do list.

No, I’m talking about your most important list of all: your Stop Doing List.

We get caught up in the myriad tasks we have; we lose ourselves in the vortex. We forget that, as Mark Devine, author of The Way of the Seal, says, there are really only a few “high value” targets.

Think Pareto. Old Vilfredo was an economist. He was also a gardener. One day, Pareto looked out at his peas and made a stunning discovery: 20% of his peapods had 80% of the peas. Well Pareto, being the intellectual that he was, decided to explore whether this ratio could be found in areas other than his garden. And lo, the Pareto Principle, also know as the 80/20 rule, was born.

Here’s what’s true: 20% of your clients lead to 80% of your profits; 20% of your products are responsible for 80% of your revenues; 20% of your team is responsible for 80% of sales; 20% of your efforts yield 80% of your outcomes. (And, oh, by the way: 20% of your customers cause 80% of your headaches!)

So why not focus on that significant 20%… and chuck the rest?

Think back over the last year. There are certain efforts that didn’t yield any measurable results. Stop doing them. There were certain networking functions that didn’t yield any real viable leads. Stop going to them. There were certain customers that were way too high maintenance (or dangerous) to work with. Stop working with them.

Now think back to the last holiday season: There were certain gatherings you went to that left you wondering why you ever went. Don’t go back this year. There were certain functions that left you feeling drained and down. Don’t do them again. There were certain toxic, soul-sucking people that were just unpleasant to be around. Stay away from them!

Just because you’ve done something before doesn’t mean that you should keep on doing it.

Stop running around giving everything the same level of import.

Focus on what matters most. Focus on what’s high value.

Apply Pareto. Ruthlessly.

Make your Stop Doing List. Today.

I’d hate to have to send you coal.

Why A BJ Might Be Good For Your Biz

by Walt | Dec 3, 2015 | Success | 1 Comment

Occasionally entrepreneurs and professionals will seek me out for coaching after a year or two of struggle. They’re down, depressed, and despondent. Despairing even. And often broke.

They’ve quit their previous jobs believing the e-myth, as Michael Gerber calls it: that,just because they were great at their professions, (coaching, lawyering, accounting, consulting) they would be wildly successful business owners. Or believing Kevin Costner: that just because they built it, clients and customers would magically appear. Or believing Martha Sinetar: that if they did what they loved, the money would follow. Or believing John Burroughs: that if they jumped, the net would appear.

Well, guess what? They jumped; the net didn’t appear.

And the law of gravity is always unforgiving.

In situations such as this, I often recommend a BJ.

A bridge job.

Something to tide them over; something to pay the bills.

Not something complicated like rocket surgery; not something that requires a lot of emotional fortitude or intellectual heavy lifting. Something simple. Like loading boxes for UPS; parking cars; waiting tables; or driving for Uber. Something that gets the money flowing while allowing the head space – and the time – to push forward with the new biz.

(Often a BJ can be fashioned from the day job you want to leave.)

You see, a new business is like a small plant… let’s say a tomato plant. You start it off in the spring in a little container, watering it, fertilizing it, and giving it lots of light. When the weather gets warm (and all danger frost has passed!), you take it outside and plant it in the garden… nurturing it through the summer months. And in the early fall, voila, beautiful, ripe tomatoes!

But, if you were to move the tiny seedling outside too early, you put way too much strain on it. And the frost kills it.

In the same way, when you quit your day job, and suddenly put all of the responsibility on your new business to support and sustain you, all too often it strains the system. You begin to operate out of fear (and desperation). You panic. You make poor decisions. You don’t seek out the mentorship and support you need. And you end up killing they very thing you wanted most of all.

A good BJ is the answer.

A good BJ will give you and your new business the protection you deserve; the ability to think creatively, the freedom to make better choices, and the resources to seek our wise counsel. It will allow the business to become hardy.

In time, with care, it will stands on its own. Strong. Secure. Yielding abundant fruit.

And, then, from that place of strength, you will never look back.

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Is it time for you to create the business and the life you really want? I can show you how. I coach the fastest, easiest & most reliable system for getting more clients and customers than you can handle… even if you hate marketing and selling. Let’s talk. Email me today: [email protected]

An Attitude

by Walt | Nov 26, 2015 | Success | 0 Comments

What you focus on expands.

When you focus on what is working well in your life, more of what’s working shows up. When you focus on opportunities, you see more opportunities. (When you focus on what’s problematic… you’ll definitely find a lot more of that!)

Focus sets your frame.

You know this to true: Think of the last time you shopped for a car. You had your eye on a particular make and model. Maybe you even took if for a test drive. And then… you saw that car EVERYWHERE! Almost as if everyone on the planet had decided to own the very car you’d been thinking about. But, of course, the only thing that had changed was your focus.

When you set your focus on something, you are much more likely to see it.

Gratitude has that power. When you focus on what you are grateful for… more wonderful things pour into your life… more to be grateful for shows up.

So, as we enter into this holiday season, even with all of its stresses and strains, experiment with keeping a “gratitude journal:” Every day, write down three things that you are grateful for… they can be ordinary or extraordinary; anything at all; they can be the same three things as yesterday; or new things: your health, your family, your friends, a new client, a new business opportunity.

You will be astounded by the power of an “attitude of gratitude” … and the power of focus.

I Have Cracked The Code

by Walt | Nov 19, 2015 | Success | 1 Comment

I finally figured it out. I cracked the code. I discovered – at long last – the secret to success.

God knows that I searched high and low. For years; decades even.

There was a time when I thought that it was a matter of luck; that success was reserved for those for whom the stars aligned; kinda like winning the lottery. I was pretty certain that birthright was important; that having a lineage of successful forebears really mattered.

I’m a big fan of higher education. Education had to matter, I thought. The right courses and seminars and workshops and trainings and certifications. Degrees; a lot of letters after your name. Those people with a lot of letters had a much higher probability of success… I was sure.

A good suit. A great logo. A flashy business card. A nice car. A jazzy website.

The right CRM and lead capture. Expensive hardware; cutting edge software. A really good VA.

Downloading the next free report; attending the next webinar; buying the next B school; discovering the right product; nailing the launch sequence; going to the next live event. The answer certainly had to be at the next live event… at that expensive, exotic destination with a lot of up-sell to that maxi-emerald-diamond-sassy-platimum-mastermind-secret handshake society. No doubt if I knew the secret handshake after having spent a lot of money at an expensive destination, I most certainly would find success.

Then… one morning I woke up; and even though I was tired and exhausted and depleted, I opened up my laptop to begin my day. My calendar was full of great clients; and my bank account was solidly in the black; and suddenly…in that moment… I realized that my business was… successful; that I had had the best month ever…. that I had found… at long last… success… .

I became curious. I looked back over the preceding years…. looking for the clues… and I found the one thing.

The code. The secret. That one ingredient that had eluded me.

Day after day over the preceding years, even though I was often tired and exhausted and depleted, I trudged to my laptop, opened it up… and… and… did the work.

It wasn’t sexy… in fact, on many days, it was downright painful.

But doing the work… day in and day out… that is the secret.

Aikido master George Leonard says that mastery comes from showing up on the mat every day… and staying 5 minutes longer than anyone else.

The Internet and various purveyors of “success” programs have done a huge disservice to entrepreneurs hawking solutions to business problems that promise instantaneous, overnight success.

The real overnight success has worked many overnights.

There is no question that having good mentors, coaches and guides make a huge difference in the rate of your business growth. And having a proven reliable system that you don’t need to re-invent really matters. (I learned and now have the privilege of coaching the Book Yourself Solid System®.) But I have built five businesses successfully from the ground up. And in the end, there is only one thing that matters.

One secret.

Showing up every single day. And doing the work.

Where Are You Right Now?

by Walt | Nov 12, 2015 | Leadership, Success | 0 Comments

Are you thinking about what just happened a moment ago… or yesterday? Are you pondering what’s next… the next call, the next email, the next meeting, the next…?

Doubtful you are here. Right here. Right now. In this present moment. Because it’s so hard to be right here.

Not because we don’t have enough in this present moment; but because we have too much: too much information; too much noise; too much stimulation; too much to do.

We’ve become addicted to the stimulation and outside input, checking and re-checking our smartphones and our tablets and our emails; responding incessantly to the phone calls and messages and notifications and alerts. Overwhelmed and inundated by the expectations and the deadlines and the demands, endeavoring to pay attention to everything and succeeding only at a continuous partial attention.

We’ve become addicted, as Jim Collins, author of that wonderful business book, Good to Great, says,… we’ve become addicted to “the undisciplined pursuit of more.”

Perpetually distracted.

Untethered, unfocused, unproductive.

And despite our hyper-connectivity… isolated and disconnected.

I love the power of still photography; and yet I am aware that every time I put my eye to the viewfinder, I pull myself away from the moment as it is right in front of me; from the intimacy of the experience as it is.

I love the power of social media; and yet I am aware that when I am thinking about how much fun or interesting it will be share my experience, in that instant I have left the experience itself.

I love the power of technology; and yet I am aware that the very technology that allows me the freedom to live and work anywhere in the world also can enslave me.

Our distractions dishonor; and disempower.

So here are some simple things that have worked for me that you might do to reclaim the power of the present moment:

Avoid your email inbox first thing in the morning.

Turn off all of those annoying alerts on your smartphone and desk top

Don’t multi-task; it can’t be done

Work in block time; do just one thing

Let your calls go to voicemail

Don’t flit in and out of social media

Have a smartphone free dinner (or evening)

Carve out some (dedicated) time to read, write and reflect

Make (real) dates with yourself; and your loved ones; and honor them

Go off the grid entirely from time to time

Life unfolds only in this moment. Our power to impact, to influence, to make a difference, to touch a life, to do an act of kindness, to smile, to hold, to love, to leave a mark, exists only in this moment.