Finding the Secret

I love the people at Under 30 CEO. They find really insightful people to share their secrets on any number of topics. Entrepreneur Chuck Wall, no longer an Under-30, but a sage none the less, has offered up The Secret to Your Business Success. Here are some he has considered. Can you guess the one he believes today?

• Listen to Customers
• Learn to Sell
• Mitigate Risk

His answer? Listen to your customers instead of yourself. (Did I fool you putting it first?)

When you think about it, doesn’t that really cover the other two? Good selling is about learning what it is your customers need and then giving it to them. By understanding what they really want you will cut your exposure, too. Chuck offers four tips to help you listen to your customers:

1. Get a clue
2. Listen to customers’ ideas about everything
3. Quit expecting to find the answers in Big Data alone
4. Discover the why in Big Insight

The Secret to Your Business Success at Under 30 CEO

 

 

Poison Phrases for Business

Over on the Inc. blogs, Peter Gasca recently wrote a great article, 5 Most Destructive Phrases in Business. I know from personal experience coming up in the business world that these are poison phases that lead to lost opportunity. Further, they are poison in just about any relationship, after all they are all about unbelief, fear, and doubt:

1. “I can’t (fill in the blank).”
2. “That’s not the way it’s done.”
3. “That’s impossible.”
4. “If we only had money.”
5. “The problem is (fill in the blank).”

Sure, you might not personally be able to do something, but that means that the job is bigger than you…you need a team. Why not go find it and take on the challenge? Why not choose to grow into the leader who can get it done?

Now let me be clear, I am not talking about violating your values. But when confronted with a problem/challenge, look carefully and see if there really is a values issue involved. Sometimes people cloak their personal fears in terms of their values to avoid confronting them. So live your values, but challenge your beliefs.

If you want to grow your business, eradicate these phrases from your lexicon. If you want to succeed in your family, eradicate these phrases from your lexicon. Create new ones like these:

• “Working together, we can (fill in the blank).”
• “How can we do this better?”
• “Who will help us get the money?”
• “Let’s figure out a solution to this challenge.”

5 Most Destructive Phrases in Business at Inc.

Fixing your fix on Fear

Over in the Inc.com blogs recently, Eric V. Holtzclaws, CEO and founder of Laddering Works, talks about four major fears facing entrepreneurs. Not an entrepreneur? These may be keeping you held back in your work or calling. He also offers great prescriptions for each:

• Fear of Failure. The obvious one. who wants to suck? Holtzclaws says pay attention to what works and doesn’t, and deal with it. This translates to regularly review your operation so you can act.
• Fear of Success. If it works, you must perform. Can your operation meet the demand? Plan ahead and find someone in your industry you can partner with. My buddy Phil Leonhardt of CSL Media in Fredericksburg found another printer to handle specialty jobs he doesn’t have the equipment to service so that he can still meet customer needs.
• Fear of Starting. Things seem too large? Not sure what to do? Just start! I teach clients, when setting goals to think of something, however small to do today when getting started. Even a small step will give you confidence to take more action. After all, you will have started!
• Fear of Loss. Risk and loss can freeze us. As Holtzclaws points out, the status quo doesn’t really stay static. If you don’t control change it leads to risk — and loss.

My tip for facing fear: gratitude. Faith is the slayer of fear. Gratitude is faith in active. Don’t just be thankful to yourself. Let others know you appreciate them and you will discover it is hard to be afraid when focused on others.

Fear is a 4-Letter Word

Related Posts

• A New Year of Evaluated Action
• How to Set and Achieve Your Goals
• Gratitude

Are you looking for success?

My friend and mentor Ed DeCosta has a great blog about success. (If you don’t like to read, he publishes it as a v-blog, too, just scroll to the bottom of the page.) In his latest installment, Seeing What You’re Looking For, Ed explains the science of success and our “Reticular Activating System” (RAS), that part of our subconscious that sees things that are important to us. RAS is the reason you see your new car’s model everywhere you drive. Your subconscious has alerted your conscious to be on the lookout.

As Ed points out, success works the same way. When we write out our goals, we let our subconscious know they are important to us, and it alerts the conscious mind to be on the lookout and tell it when things related to our goal appear. When you do, you begin to see what you are looking for.

Are you looking for success? Then read what Ed has to say. It is truly “Ed-ifying!”

Seeing What You’re Looking For

 

Keeping fit

The Daily Mail Online has an article about an exercise technique that even the busiest of us could make time to do. Have you ever heard of an approach like this?

Can you really get fit on four minutes a day?

The Magic of Leadership – Converting

John Mertz posted at thindifference.com about the transformative power of leadership–what he calls “Converting.” He believes leaders need to convert in four areas:

* Converting information into actionable steps
* Converting thoughts into actions
* Converting plans into actions
* Converting action into results

Notice that converting has to do with Action. What action will you take today? What will you convert?

The Magic of Leadership – Converting