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Grow & Scale A Business That Will Set You Free

Yes You: An Olympic Champion

by Walt | Feb 20, 2014 | Success | 0 Comments

The gym is nearly empty again. And the runners with their new gear have mostly disappeared.

It’s the middle of February. How are you doing on your 2014 goals and resolutions?

Statistically, only a small percentage of the population bothers to make New Year’s resolutions anymore. And of those who do, most abandon the effort by right about now.

You see, life is just way too crazy busy… and even with the best of intentions, it’s easy to slide back into the ‘old ways.’ That book that you had so wanted to write, that new product you were going to drive to market, that new business that you planned to launch, the new job you were going to apply for, your sales calls that you had planned to boost, the weight you said you were going to lose, that fitness program… all back on the shelf again.

“Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans,” John Lennon once said.

And it sure is easy to get distracted.

Frankly, that’s one of the reasons that I so appreciate our coaches (we have 2)… not even considering their perspective, their mentorship, and the resources they provide, the accountability piece is HUGE… staying on track… staying the course… even in times of turbulence and change.

Someone to hold our feet to the fire!

And watching the impact that coaching has in the lives of our own coaching clients – seeing the things that can be accomplished – is nothing short of amazing: businesses, books, health & wellness, new relationships, exciting new careers. It is powerfully transformative and deeply satisfying work.

Peak performers all have coaches… in the arts, in business and in finance… Every Olympic athlete… If you truly want to up your game, if you truly want to accomplish your most cherished goals and dreams, then dial in a coach. It will make all the difference. It certainly has in our lives.

And by the way, if you have fallen off course, no worries. Did you know that a plane flying from San Francisco to Honolulu is off course MOST of the time… but it still gets there because of constant course correction? You can do that too!

Every day is a new day. Every day the chance to begin again.

And the opportunity to grab the gold.

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Email me if you’d like to explore how coaching might transform your life!

[email protected]

Road Blocks & Hula Hoops

by Walt | Feb 13, 2014 | Success | 0 Comments

“I need to do some research on the market.”

“I need another certification.”

“I need to build a website.”

“I’m not sure of my target audience.”

“I think there’s a seminar I should take first.”

“I’m still a bit unclear about my message.”

“I don’t really know what to start writing about.”

“I’ve never spoken to a group before.”

“I’m too young.”

“I don’t have enough experience.”

“I think I might be too old.”

And on and on and on…

In the course of my coaching, I hear them all. Every single one of them.

The excuses we all create for not beginning, for not starting out, for not taking action. The obstacles we set up; the hurdles we drag out; the hoops we think we need to jump through .

We do this because we are afraid.

We fear that we are not enough. We fear ridicule and condescension. We fear failure. We fear success.

It’s easier to stay put, stay safe.

It’s easier to pretend. It’s easier to be ‘busy’ doing things that we tell ourselves are ‘conditions’ for taking action… rather than really taking action.

Rather than risking.

If it looks important and sounds important it surely must be important.

Maybe we can fool the world. But not ourselves.

In staying safe, we’re playing small.

And the world so desperately needs those gifts that are yours alone to give: your writing, your speaking, your coaching, your art, your service, your teaching, your product, your ideas.

By taking action, you will find your direction, discover your voice, clarify your vision, define your mission.

By taking action, you will draw to you opportunities and resources and people who will support you.

By taking action, you will discern what you really need to sustain you on your journey.

By taking action, you will learn what works well and what needs to be tweaked.

By taking action, even when you fail from time to time, you will move closer to your goals.

You could stay put (safe) for the next six months… and be nowhere in the direction of your dreams in six month’s time. Or you could start out on your desired path, fully fail for half the time… and be well along toward what you truly want.

There are enough real obstacles that will rise up along the way.

You need not create any of your own.

Build it, discover it, create it, refine it… Do it on the go.

Don’t wait. There’s nothing else you need to do.

And there is no time to waste.

Start. Today.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

by Walt | Feb 6, 2014 | Success | 0 Comments

Most people quit just shy of their goals.

They give up when they are tired or discouraged or demoralized.

They give up when they don’t to see the results of their efforts; when they can’t see the finish line.

The story about Florence Chadwick, the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions, is particularly illustrative. Florence wanted to be the first woman to swim from Catalina Island to the coast of California.

On July 4th, 1951, she made her attempt.

The distance was challenging. But more than that, the waters of the Pacific were icy cold; and shark infested. And, as if that weren’t enough, there was a dense fog that made it impossible for her to see the land.

After almost 15 hours of swimming, Florence gave up. She quit. Just half a mile short of her goal.

When interviewed later, Florence said, “If I just could have seen the land, I might have made it.”

Well, Florence gave it another shot.

But as luck would have it, there was the same icy cold water; and, of course, there were sharks. And yup, a thick fog too.

She couldn’t see.

But this time, Florence made it. She achieved her goal, breaking the men’s record by nearly two hours. Because she kept reminding herself that the land was there. Somewhere, off in the distance, a finish line.

Even though Florence couldn’t actually see it, she knew.

What if Edison had given up on try number 9,999? What if Jonas Salk had said ‘I just can’t stand the lab for one more day?’ What if Michelangelo had said, ‘Great ceiling, a lot of promise, but my back is sore?’

Their missions were too important. They didn’t give up. They knew with confidence that they would cross their finish lines.

So don’t quit!

Hold fast to your vision.

Lather, rinse, repeat… and keep on going!

Danger. Danger.

by Walt | Jan 30, 2014 | Success | 0 Comments

This is the end of the line for most folks. This is where the cart goes off the track.

Despite the most heartfelt resolutions, despite whatever the best intentions might have been, most folks give up on their New Year’s promises to themselves… right about now.

Not because they didn’t mean what they said.

Not because they didn’t want to change… because they did.

Not because they don’t have dreams for a better life… because they do.

But because life gets in the way.

I know. I was a single dad for a dozen years raising three young boys. I would get up (too late) in the morning, run around getting dressed, getting the kids up, finding the lost socks, and the lost homework, making the lunches, packing the lunches, unpacking and re-packing the back-packs, running the kids to school, tearing off to my office, arriving (too) late to gather up my files, speeding off to court, tying my tie in the rearview mirror and balancing the coffee in my lap (and spilling it), getting the call from daycare to come back because the kid had a 103º fever or head lice or both, scheduling parent-teacher meetings in between client calls, rushing off to soccer practice, making dinner, mitigating the fights, helping with the homework, returning emails and phone calls, and falling into bed exhausted and depleted… only to wake up the next day and do it all over again.

I know.

But change can happen. (I know this too.) What you really, really want in your heart matters. Your hopes and dreams and aspirations matter. They are the call of your Spirit, the Divine within you, to live your best life; to share those gifts that are yours and yours alone to share with the world in the most perfect way possible.

And it’s not too late. (It’s never too late.) Yes, January may be over. But the canvas of this New Year still awaits you.

Here’s what’s true: All you need to do is apply a very basic success principle, one of the easiest of all success principles. Take tiny, tiny steps.

At just 1 pound a week, you’ll still lose more than 40 pounds this year

At just 1 page a day, you’ll have well over 300 pages for your book

At just 1 watercolor a week, you could mount an entire show

One job application a day is 30 in a month

One extra sales conversation every single day might double your sales

Take that tiny step today. Just for today. And then do it again. And again the next day. Small steps magnified by time leading to magnificent results.

But today, just think about this day. And take just one tiny step forward.

Remember, races are run one stride at a time; businesses built one product at a time, one customer at a time, one sale at a time; mountains are climbed one step at a time; novels written one sentence at a time; symphonies written one measure at a time; and cathedrals built over generations one stone at a time.

Go back to the beginning of the year, and remember why it was that you wanted to set out on your path. Reclaim that grand vision of that perfect life that is yours.

In every moment of danger, there is also opportunity.

Opportunity still waits for you.

It’s Your Job

by Walt | Jan 23, 2014 | Success | 1 Comment

Sweet to look at. But sullen and churlish.

“Theeese is not my jhob. Does theeese look like my jhob?” she snarled with her thick Russian accent.

I had been two days in the Hermitage, that grandest of all museums in St. Petersburg. Now nearly blind and disoriented, I had made the mistake of (politely) asking the woman behind the concession stand for directions.

She turned her attention back to ‘concession stand work;’ giving directions to tourists was clearly not her jhob.

I recalled that moment from Russia, with love, the other day when I called my ophthalmologist’s office to ask whether a particular test was going to be covered by my medical insurance.

Confronted with the question, the receptionist/nurse at first feigned confusion; then frustration; then disdain.

“You’ll have to call your insurance company,” she sniped. That is not my job!

As if she had never, ever been asked an insurance question before in her entire life.

When I probed just a little bit further, she abruptly stated that she would ‘remove me from the schedule.’ And hung up.

(Of course, it has crossed my mind to send my ophthalmologist a copy of this blog.)

If we are going to survive… and thrive in business (and in life), that approach is unsustainable.

Everything must be our job.

Southwest Airlines seeks to delight its customers.

As does Zappos.

Did you know that the #1 core value of Tony Hsieh, founder of that billion-dollar shoe and clothing empire, and best-selling author of Delivering Happiness, is to deliver WOW to his customers through service? Its 10 hour 29 minute customer service call is legend. The company’s history is replete with examples of its employees going far beyond the call of ‘duty.’

Standing on a rainy street in Talkeetna, Alaska, with 350 pounds of dirty climbing gear, we could find no taxi. My wife ran across the road to use the phone to call. The woman behind the register at the diner handed my wife the keys to her own car to use to shuttle our gear from the curb to the train station a mile down the road.