TCOBaG - kNow ThiNkIng AllOwEd

Here’s a little poke for those of you who are struggling with continuing to build, grow, invest in your small business. It’s written by a friend of mine, Jim Kukral (yes, of the birthday song fame). Here’s an excerpt, and a link to the rest:
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It’s rough out there right now, I know. You
’re losing your cool in this tough economic market. You’re trying to make ends meet, while at the same time, you’re trying to push ahead and be successful as an entrepreneur. You’re working your a#* off and it’s getting you by, but not getting you ahead …

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Okay, so I’m not always on time, but hey, this time (at least) it’s not (entirely) my fault!

Jim Kukral, a friend, and a good guy, sings Happy Birthday to anyone who asks, records it even in video, very nice thing to do, so I wanted to do that for him as he’s now approaching middle age kicking and screaming.

So, I set things up real quick, knock off a video, throw in a little something aimed just at him, drag it into my computer, open up YouTube and get hit with a “we’re doing maintenance” (at least I’m not a YouTube Junkie going nuts, but still…)

So, video is done, and is loading to my site now, but still can’t display it just yet.

It’s coming though, and may well be worth the wait, or not, hehheh.

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Jim!

For now, maybe this link will work… edit, here’s the YouTube version.

This is on the deck right outside my home office. Yes, that’s my ‘good’ clothes for looking like the professional I am.

This was shot using my digital camera (Sony Cybershot). Just set it on my mini tripod, aimed it, and did it. There’s a slight glare from the sun off to my left, but hopefully the rest of the video is clear enough.

I’ll switch to a lighter/faster loading version asap, but for now YT is still doing maintenance and I don’t have the time to rework/edit this to make it smaller.

Yahoo! extends its idiot streak by blocking some 20,000+ subscribers of one of the oldest, and best run email newsletters on the net. Why? Because instead of hitting the unsubscribe button like any self-respecting web user would do, they hit the ‘this is spam’ button. This affects publishers and subscribers, so don’t think it’s not about you.

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We are going to talk about some of those people you may envy, those ‘I can do it by myself and for myself’ types. But, are they really all they seem to be?

I think not.

“Self-starters, a myth?”

People who know me, know me well even, are often surprised to hear me say that I am lazy.

Yes, lazy. Me.

Lazy is my potential, and at times, it comes out more than others.

They always say I am being modest, that I work hard all the time, writing, speaking, teaching, and that they do not know anyone with more drive and that they wish they were a natural ’self-starter’ like me.

I laugh. Lightly

No one is truly a ’self-starter.’

Yep. It is completely true.

Don’t knock yourself for ‘not having the drive’ or not having the willpower (we talked about that, right?) to stay on track, get everything done, and keep at it.

We are all, including myself, subject to pressures.

These pressures motivate us, for lack of a better term, to go on, to do, to complete tasks, work, goals.

The difference is in where the pressure comes from.

We see people who we think are truly self-starters, taking the initiative, not needing to be coaxed, goaded, or pushed, to get their work or their lives going.

What we don’t see, is how they think.

For me, I know, I can be lazy. Really lazy, and a professional procrastinator.

I rely on certain pressures to keep me from falling into that trap. They are not always obvious to others but they nonetheless still exist and it is not ‘just me’ doing the pushing.

There are always pressures.

It might only be a deadline.

The day a bill is due. Or simply knowing that you must work, and usually work well, to get paid, in order to pay those bills.

Maybe it is only thinking about what others might say if you fail, or don’t deliver where you should.

Or what they might think, or even what they expect.

Maybe it is remembering the poor condition your life was in before, remembering those pep talks you gave yourself about how you were not going to live that way forever.

So, you see the pressure is often internalized and not easily seen.

But I assure you the pressure exists, and no one is really just naturally doing all that they can.

Everyone is reacting to these pressures, external and internal, in order to fulfill their own promise.

So, what can you do?

Find the right pressure.

Maybe you need someone to stay after you. Remind you of your goals, your promises.

Maybe you need to reflect a bit on why you really want to succeed, why you really must succeed. What will the pain be like if you don’t?

Maybe you are like me, and you need a little of both

That’s okay, too.

Just find the right button to push, keep pushing it when it is needed, and you will continue on the path to achieving your goals.

I promise.

I am also available for ’seat-of-the-pants-dusting’ on occasion

Drinking and riding your bicycle is a fairly serious offense in Japan.

It seems odd to me, that in Japan, there are some fairly stiff penalties for riding your bike after drinking.

At the same time, bicycle theft, while illegal, borders on socially acceptable. Umbrellas tend to fall into the same category. That is, fair game when left unguarded and there’s a downpour on.

Maybe you don’t find that interesting.

What does this have to do with marketing? With anything? . . .

Just made me stop and think that there are many things that we often take for granted. We (yeah, I’m talking to you, and me) forget that in different places, the rules, the way of doing things, well, they’re just different.

The key here for me was the idea that you don’t really have to go to another country to find yourself facing these sorts of issues.

You need only walk out of your own abode.

The rules are different.

Are you using the same language, same tactics, layouts and colors even, to promote your sites or products to different markets?

You just stepped outside your abode, my friend.

You gotta know your market, the way they walk, the way they talk, what they think is the right, or wrong way for doing things.

The rules and even the game can be very different.

Ever watch an international basketball game? Different, isn’t it? What’s with those lanes anyway?

Football? Be careful there. Has a different meaning, especially here. In Japan, football is soccer.

It also means that terms, phrases and expressions that you might think are common knowledge and in regular use may have some differences. Those differences may range from slight to might.

Know the rules, and the way the game is played before you put up your hand and start jumping up and down yelling, “pick me! pick me!”

What’s the fastest way to get where you want to go? Save time? Save money? Make more money, more sales, get more leads for your business?

This is something I deal with on a daily basis. The shortcut. Marketers ask me, customers ask me, my wife asks me, my students ask me: Isn’t there a faster, ie shorter, way to get what I want?

Just what is a shortcut anyway? My quick definition: the fastest way I know to get to the destination I have in mind.

Now, the key here, is the ‘way I know.’

The way that is known is always the ’shortcut.’ Period. There’s no arguing this point. It’s a fact. Yes, I know that if I turn off two streets earlier there’s a street somewhere there that if I find it, if I turn the right way, it will get me home, or to work, or to my meeting a little faster.

But what if I’m wrong?

I don’t see the road, have to backtrack and end up doing what? Taking more time, spending more money to get to the destination.

So, Allen, are you saying, “Don’t look for or try shortcuts?”

No. I’m saying, that when you have time, or your current path to success isn’t getting you there as fast as you would like, then experiment.

Make time to try a different route, a different way to convert your prospects, to set up your linking campaigns or whatever it is that you are trying to do.

Then if it works. Congratulations! You just found a shortcut.

If it doesn’t, you still have your old path, the one that was working for you, that you can go back to until you’ve had time, asked a few more questions, learned a little more, and can try again.

I was just listening to Gary Halbert who was doing an interview with Michel Fortin. He was talking about something along this line. He defined it as the difference between being effective and being efficient.

My way works. It’s effective. Is it always the most efficient? Probably not.

But for me the way I know, the one that works, that is always the shortest, fastest, most effecient way to go to get where I want to go.

I used to play golf more regularly than now, not any better, but more often

One of my friends was always ‘cutting the dog-legs’ because he could hit a fairly high ball on his drive. He saved a stroke, sometimes 2, on every dog-leg on that golf course.

He knew the course, he knew his swing, and his ability.

It was his golf ’shortcut.’ It worked for him.

My drives tend to be a little flatter. I ‘knew’ the path, the way to get there was shorter over the trees and across the dog-leg, but I would more often than not just end up with a 2 stroke penalty for landing out of bounds.

My score was the same as before, the same as the times I took my safe drive toward the corner of the dog-leg and then on up the fairway.

Sure, I’d get lucky, yes, only lucky since I never worked on that part of my golf game, and save a stroke now and then.

But for me, the shortcut, the most efficient and effective way to get to the green, was to follow the path I knew, and that my skills allowed.

Now, stop looking for the easy way, the shortcut, and work on making the game you play more efficient, and effective.

Be well,

Allen

Marketing, babies, and a hearing lesson. Every notice how much better your hearing is and continues to get right after your children are born?

What is it? There’s this natural phenomenon that occurs when you become a new parent.

It doesn’t matter if you used to sleep like a stone, could have slept through the building falling down around you, or needed 2 alarm clocks set at two different times and different distances from the bed to rouse you in stages in the morning, but when you become a new parent, you start to hear everything.

Was that a cough? Bam, “I’m up, I’m coming . . ”

So, what does that have to do with marketing and marketers? . . . .

My take on it is as follows, your mileage may vary . . .

A couple of very natural factors are in play here, one is of course, it’s new. Not to be underestimated or overlooked.

1. When something is new, you pay more attention to it.

Simple human nature, nature is simple, don’t know about the human.

The danger is that after the newness, and I’m sure you’ve witnessed this sort of thing, you start to hear even less.

Ever been around someone who was with their kids, and the kids are going wild, but no one seems to notice? Yep, the newness wears off, and you start to relax, and not pay as much attention to what is going on around you.

Sure, when there’s an event, you notice. Same in marketing, a customer buys a big package, asks for a refund, or complains about your product or service, you start to notice again.

Key here is to tune back in at least every once in a while (Kind of the baby-monitor that isn’t on all the time, just now and again).

Honestly, you can’t keep that same level of interest in your customers, or baby for that matter, and I’m not sure it’s really that healthy anyway.

Remembering to tune back in every now and then, or just ask what’s going on is a healthy thing, for both parties.

2. Is you usually make a conscious effort to hear more.

While also very simple, it’s also very powerful.

Telling yourself you ‘will’ do something, even if it is ‘hear the slightest sound in the middle of the night’ has a very powerful effect on you and will increase the likelihood of you accomplishing that algebraically.

Remind yourself to listen in to what your customers and prospects are doing and saying.

Tell yourself you will hear them.

You will.

And you will both benefit, much like the new parent.

I think I just heard the house caving in . . . gotta go

Just trying to do too much? Don’t know what to do or when to do it?

Seems like this is something that bugs a lot of folks, me, too at times. But I also know that for me, sometimes, it’s just an

EXCUSE!

“Ouch!” you say?

Me, too

But often enough, it’s the truth.

We bury ourselves behind the ‘I’m just too busy to get it all done’ factor instead of taking charge of our day, our time, our lives, and getting on with the doing.

Here’s a couple of things that work for me, should/could work for you, too . . .

The “Success 6″ system works for that, too. (For more on Success 6 see “TCOBaG: Not enough time in my day”)

Where to start:

List ‘em.

Prioritize them.

Start at number one, work your way down.

Look at your list and see if there’s some stuff that’s just in there, in your way, that maybe just needs to get shelved for now, or even canned.

Also, it sometimes helps to just build a bigger fire!

Flamable fuel could include:

1. Listen to motivational/inspirational speakers and music, cds, mp3s while you work, while you exercise

2. Build up your “Why”. ie focus on the rewards the tasks bring, and not on the tasks

3. Outsource what others can do so you can focus on what you do best. This also improves productivity in even the laziest most unmotivated person, like I can be too often. You need it done, you know it should be done, you’re dragging your feet, checking email, stats, the forums, but if you’ve hired someone reliable to do it, it is still getting done and your business is still growing.

Be well, live well, die last.

Allen

I hear this, I read this, I have this problem myself at times.

There’s just not enough time in the day to get it all done.

Suffering from the ‘not enough time in the day’ syndrome?

Bullpucky!

Yep, one of the things that is eating up your time is just that sort of thinking.

Okay, Allen, so what can I do about it?

Glad you asked . . .

This is one of the biggies, even for the biggies. When you whip this, you’ll be absolutely smoking.

My take on Mike Litman’s “Success 6″ method. That’s a great resource btw, Mike Litman.

Nutshell:
At night, list the 6 most important things you need to do tomorrow. (may not do this justice on the fly, but hope you get the idea. He also recommends choosing the ones that you know will better your life, business, etc, and that you find you don’t want to do.)

Put them in order of importance. (I like to put them in order of reward if done.)

Next day, take out your list, start at number 1. Finish it. Move on.

That night, take what’s left of your list, oh yeah, you’ll have days you don’t get all of them done, and make it 6 again.

One thing that works for me especially well, is instead of using the ‘today I’ll do this, this and this’ method, I use the list, and put “I’ll do this before 11:00, this by noon, this by 3:30, this by . . . ”

Rinse repeat.

Be well, live well, die last.

Allen

Who is the winner when your Willpower goes head-to-head with your Imagination?

Willpower, without it, you are left wafting in the breeze, victim of any and every whim that takes you.

Ahhhhh, where did that ‘whim’ come from?

Just popped out of thin air?

That ‘whim’ usually comes from your imagination, and your mind is a powerful projector, a personal ‘movie maker.’

What makes you want to bite into that donut even though you’ve vowed to lose those extra 10 pounds? Is it really a lack of willpower?

I think not.

I think that your imagination is to blame

The key here is to focus on using your imagination to support your willpower, instead of undermining it.

When the urges strike you, don’t just grit your teeth, clamp down on something nearby and refuse to let go. This method will end in failure more often than not.

Instead, focus on your image, the one you created of the new, better, healthier, wealthier (whichever is closest to your specific goal) and let that feed your willpower.

Tell yourself, “I see myself feeling, looking better, and this donut isn’t part of that plan.” Imagine what it will feel like to obtain that goal, what you will look like, what others will say about you, think about you, or what you will think about yourself when your new goal has been reached and you’ve scratched it off your list.

Ask yourself, after I give in to this urge, how will I feel? Is that how I want to feel? Will it truly be worth it?

Then, willpower and imagination will be working together to help you instead of being locked in a cage match, winner-take-all brawl that willpower is bound to lose.