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Month: June 2018

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Best Practices Growth Health and Wellness Human Resources Management

Increase Summer Focus by Embracing Intentional Distractions

Boost productivity by embracing distractions.

Have you ever considered having summer hours? In my small business, we have summer hours that start in June and go all the way to the end of August. Well, what does that mean? It simply means we finish early on a Friday afternoon.

Now, what I know to be true about where I live is everybody wants to escape and enjoy the beautiful summer weather. Some people have shore houses or lake houses or they want to go to the beach.

Can you create summer hours? What about giving your team flexibility to be able to work from home, outdoors or remotely on a Friday? Could they leave the office a little earlier so they can enjoy the beautiful sunshine and maybe avoid the crazy traffic that starts on a weekend? Does your business allow people to be more flexible in the summer?

You see, what I think is important is if you want to boost productivity, if you want to pay attention to what needs to get done, it means you also have to make time for play. So often, our team works so hard, working and answering emails at night, taking meetings after hours, attending conferences, and yet we don’t always give them the time to play.

Take the Summer Challenge

Can you make your more productive summer more fun? Can you have more play? Now, the easiest way to do is book it in. Create easy things. Like maybe people can go home early every other Friday or maybe you have people who alternate so that something is also covered in your office, but that they get the opportunity to work remotely. What are some ways you can implement summer hours or intentional play? Book it in.

Create systems allowing your team can work remotely. Provide employees with a flexible work schedule so they are off every Friday, or every other Friday. Maybe they could even extend the weekend. It could go to Monday. You just need to find what works for you.

Turn on your “Out of the office.” Make the message fun so others know you won’t be around but would be delighted to help them when you return.

If you decide on summer hours, can you make it fun, make it playful? Maybe with a few systems in place, you can have meetings outside.  Allow the team to understand the systems, make sure the team understands the protocols and policies. Let’s redirect phone lines. Let’s put “Out of office” messages together, and let’s make sure we make the most of our summer. Step away from your devices. Hang up the phone. Get out in the sun and enjoy your summer.

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Leadership Marketing Personal Development

Public Speaking for Executives: The Original Social Media

You’re blogging. You’re tweeting. You’re linked in. You’re creating videos and articles and e-zines.

All of that is great but let’s not forget that social media is—first and foremost—social! It’s personal. And that person is YOU.

The ultimate test of a thought-leader is the answer to one simple question: When you open your mouth, do people listen? Online, offline, in person, via email, via Skype, on Slideshare, on YouTube. The media doesn’t matter. The messenger (aka YOU) matters a whole lot more.

If Benjamin Franklin had social media, would he use it? You bet. Would it work for him? Absolutely. How can we be sure? Because when old Ben opened his mouth back in the 1770s and 1780s, people listened. The same could be said for Plato, Socrates, Shakespeare, Einstein, King, Jobs. and Obama.

Long before social media people rose to prominence using the influence of the spoken word. Articulation of powerful ideas, useful ideas, crazy ideas,revolutionary ideas is what made people remarkable. Whether you stood up to speak to an audience of Roman senators, a rowdy bunch of war protesters, a roomful of hostile reporters, or a boardroom filled with naysayers, the people who made a difference did so because of the power of public speaking to spread their ideas and change the course of events.

Public speaking—the original social media—is based on the same principles as today’s electronic social media. The key factors to your success are:

1. Have something worth saying
2. Say it in a powerful, simple, and intriguing way
3. Deliver your messages with consistency, clarity, and passion
4. Change the game—don’t blend in; very simply: stand out when you speak up

Let’s explore each of these in a bit more depth:

1. Have something worth saying. Craft your message by speaking to both the heart and the head. People are emotional creatures. Tap into emotion to back up your facts, opinions, and recommendations. As business author Harvey Mackay likes to point out, “There are no business relationships—all relationships are personal relationships.”

2. Say it in a powerful, simple, and intriguing way. Don’t mince words. Short sentences rule. People’s attention spans are shrinking daily. Keep it short, snappy, and memorable. For example, when I speak on marketing, I use the power of alliteration by sharing my philosophy that marketing needs to be easy, effortless, and enjoyable. I call it the “3 Es” and people remember it. Include hooks, tag lines, and memory devices when you speak, and you will increase your influence and impact.

3. Deliver your messages with consistency, clarity, and passion. Americans hate wafflers. Every political season, the worst you can call your opponent in a hotly contested election is a “waffler.” It’s considered even worse than lying! Don’t be wishy-washy. Have a clear, strong point of view and hammer it home over and over: boldly, passionately, and fearlessly.

4. Change the game–don’t blend in–very simply. Stand out when you speak up. Boring doesn’t sell. Boring ideas die. Boring people lose. In short, you want to be the opposite of boring. You want to stand out from the crowd. As Steve Jobs encouraged us, “Think different.” Where can you zig where everyone else zags? Where can you break the mold—or create a new mold that you (and you alone) are perfectly designed to fit in?

Follow these four principles and you will have mastered the original social media—no computer required!

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Best Practices Growth Health and Wellness Leadership

Leaders Who Lunch Are Better Leaders.

I know what you are thinking.

You are thinking that leaders who lunch are better because they are out there networking.  But that’s not why.

For leaders, lunch matters.

Contrary to popular belief, a sit-down lunch away from your desk is NOT a luxury. Rather,  it is an essential to your performance at work.  When leaders don’t take a break in the middle of the day, or perhaps not even all day, we push ourselves into survival-mode instead of performance mode. We are not pausing to refuel when we need it most to provide the energy our mind and bodies need to do our best work. And if you don’t even eat breakfast, then you’re running on empty all day.

Sure, you can push yourself to function without fuel for a while, but then you’re not performing optimally. I see this all the time with  leaders. They are so focused on the goal that the can forget the importance of the process to get there. They make it through the day over and over again, but they also collapse at night with a meal that is too big or not very healthy, because they are hungry and exhausted. Then they compound the problem with poor or too little sleep,  only to get up and do the same thing the next day.

Lunch switches off survival-mode to make us perform better.

Working on survival-mode causes leadersto work on basic instinct,  reacting before reflecting, leaving us to put out fires rather than thinking through a solution that might be different (and better) than we have always done.

In survival-mode, leaders focus on what is safe, because  we don’t have capacity to think out of the box and  coach our teams to become better at what they do. We might not even have the capacity to behave the way we would like to behave, because we are feeling the urgency – and the impatience and anger — that comes with running on empty.

We all end up in that situation from time to time, spending more time repairing the damage than  a much needed break would have taken.

When leaders don’t take time for ourselves, we tend to not take time for others, and it affects the company culture. Too often, employees tell me they don’t eat lunch, because their leader does not eat lunch. As a result, they think they are not allowed to go to lunch, or it is not appropriate for them to take a break.

When the leader is working on survival-mode, the whole team is on survival-mode. And the company hurts.

People who eat together, solve problems together.

Good leaders understand how important sharing meals is for company culture. They also know that a successful leader doesn’t hover over the team. Rather, they are part of the team, and nothing brings people more together than sharing a meal. It fosters a sense of community that cannot be created in a work environment full of business meetings, with just snacks and ping-pong tables  offered as an attempt to bring people together around a common vision.

Sharing a meal reminds us of family, helping us communicate in a more open and friendly way. Over a meal, we share ideas more freely, ask for help with problems more openly feel like we are not alone, fighting against the machine. It helps us feel part of, instead of separate from.

Our human resource is still our best resource and we need to nourish it. The company teams that eat together do not just talk business, they talk life. It is not a productivity meeting over food. It is a people meeting to create community and shared goals.

Sharing lunch serves up trust and safety.

The number one reason people are more satisfied at work is that they feel safe. They trust their leader, they feel seen and heard, they feel they matter, and they feel like they belong. When we are working on survival-mode there is no trust, there is no safety. Everything is danger.

When we share meals, we can bring our humanity to work, access our soft-skills, solve problems, and thrive together. So go ahead, put lunch on the schedule! You won’t only nourish your body, you’ll nourish your company.

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Leadership Marketing Personal Development

3 Key Factors When Scaling Your Business

Is your business ready to scale? At some point, every business is faced with this decision. Things are going well – you have survived the first few years and now have decent repeat business with some profitability. So you wonder, is there more?

There are many factors to consider – here are three key ones:

1. Is your business really scalable? Can you grow your sales significantly without a large increase in costs? By expanding will your cost be unit decline allowing for greater profitability? Is automation a likely resource you can use? These are a few of the factors that really need to be examined closely. Take your time in this process. Deciding whether to scale is a make or break decision – the landscape is littered with failed companies who scaled too soon. Scaling too soon has the potential for alienating your existing customers by delivering a below par product or shoddy service.

2. Scaling your business involves more than expanding sales…you need to expand your reach without negatively impacting profitability. Typically this expansion will involve leveraging technology and expanding staff. As with any business inflection point, having a business plan will greatly increase the chances of success. If you used the lean startup method to launch your business, now would be a great time to revisit the Business Model Canvas. Special focus should be paid to Revenue Streams, Cost Structure and Channels – these are the areas where automation can play a big part. Testing assumptions is always important but critical if you are planning to scale by expanding sales into new areas.

For many companies at this stage, additional funding might be needed to facilitate the expansion. As with any investor presentation, a solid business plan with financial is a must. Since investors will want a percentage of the company in return for capital, this has to be weighed against the expected sales and profit growth from scaling.

3. Scaling your business will most likely result in additional staff. It is essential to get the staffing right—be aware of work load and needed expertise….you will need some new thinking and skills from your existing staff as well as the new hires. It is a poor idea to rush the hiring decisions since hiring the wrong people can damage your company by derailing momentum and hurting the existing culture. Reassessing all roles in light of the planned expansion is important. Have the right people doing the right jobs and streamline and automate as much as possible. Scaling a business can be stressful for the existing employees – be sure to do enough internal marketing to keep all your team engaged.

Most companies (especially tech based) want to maximize their growth and dream of becoming unicorns. However, not all have a structure that supports scaling their business in the traditional way. As with most key business decisions, weighing the risks and returns correctly is the hallmark of a great entrepreneur. There is nothing wrong with growing organically and evolving into a successful and profitable small business – after all these companies form the backbone of the country.

Kevin FitzGerald is the founder and CEO of Kensington Global Consulting, LLC – a boutique advisory firm working with entrepreneurs and startups with a potential to grow internationally. He has 20 years of managerial/consulting experience across a wide range of industries

Categories
Growth Leadership Skills

Are Leaders Aware of Their Impact?

My wife and I attend Catholic Mass each Sunday.  At Mass is an altar server.  This is a lay assistant who attends to supporting tasks at the altar such as fetching and carrying, ringing the altar bell, among other things during the liturgy.

Altar servers in our church range in age from about 7 to 18.  At an early Mass the servers are often tired and fidgety.   During readings and hymns we can find them yawning, giggling, fidgeting, and/or preening.  They are likely bored, and they look it. Their behaviors are distracting and often amusing too.  Their actions and facial expressions often send clear messages they don’t know why they are there, they don’t yet appreciate the significance of the celebration, and they are unaware of the impact they are having on the congregation.  The congregation is distracted from their most important responsibility, worship.

As people mature they become more aware of how they are influencing others.  As adults, and as leaders, if we are to positively influence others, we must be aware of the impact of our behaviors, actions, decisions, our words, and our tone of voice.  This awareness is one of the key skills of emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence is a set of abilities that helps identify and manage emotions and influence others’ emotions and behaviors.  There are four skills that must be developed for a leader (or anyone) to be emotionally intelligent:

  • Being aware of our emotions
  • Expressing those emotions appropriately for the situation and/or to intentionally and consciously achieve an outcome
  • Recognizing emotions in others
  • Influencing others to express their emotions appropriately by using empathic understanding and appreciation

Daniel Goleman, the author of Emotional Intelligence and Primal Leadership explains how “Emotions may spread like viruses…”  The reason “lies in the design of the human brain.” (Daniel Goleman, 2002) What a leader does and how he/she does it automatically influences others around them because the limbic brain is an open-loop system.  Our limbic brain allows us to come to each other’s emotional rescue when necessary.  For example, a crying baby is comforted by its mother.  In hospitals, the comforting presence of another can lower the blood pressure of a patient.  “Scientists describe the open loop as…one person transmits signals that can alter hormone levels, cardiovascular function, sleep rhythms, and even immune function inside the body of another.” (Daniel Goleman, 2002)

The altar servers are unknowingly impacting the emotions of the congregation.  The servers are immature and a bit self-centered.  Leaders cannot afford to be immature and self-centered.  Ideally, maturity and situational awareness develop as we age, and this enables us to function more effectively by getting others to trust us and to cooperate.  Because of the open-loop system, any lack of maturity in a leader’s behaviors can damage employee attitudes. Poor attitude of a leader will transmit to others. Poor attitude leads to inferior performance and poor results

For example, this past week an employee at one of my clients shared how a comment from his CEO, during a 7-hour workshop, so disturbed him that he could not fully participate during the rest of the workshop.  Just as the altar servers were unaware, many leaders unconsciously do things and say things that create fear. Fear is created when “Managers and supervisors are…acting in threatening ways, though unconsciously…” (Kathleen D. Ryan, 1998)

As a leader, are you aware of the emotional impact your behaviors, actions, decisions, your words, and your tone of voice have on others?  Are you able to identify their emotions?  Do you have the emotional intelligent skills to be aware and influence?  Are people able to speak the truth around and to you?  Is there a high level of trust between you and your team members?  Are the relationships with managers and employees open and honest?

Emotional intelligence skills can be developed, and they are essential for consistent optimum performance.  Without these skills “the congregation” will be distracted from their most important responsibilities.

Check out the interview on C-Suite Best Seller TV to learn more about how to stop leadership malpractice and replace the typical performance review: https://www.c-suitetv.com/video/best-seller-tv-wally-hauck-stop-the-leadership-malpractice/

Wally Hauck, PhD has a cure for the “deadly disease” known as the typical performance appraisal.  Wally holds a doctorate in organizational leadership from Warren National University, a Master of Business Administration in finance from Iona College, and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania.   Wally is a Certified Speaking Professional or CSP.  Wally has a passion for helping leaders let go of the old and embrace new thinking to improve leadership skills, employee engagement, and performance.

Daniel Goleman, R. B. (2002). Primal Leadership: Realizing The Power of Emotional Intelligence. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Schools Press.

Kathleen D. Ryan, D. K. (1998). Driving Fear Out of the Workplace. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

For more, read on: https://c-suitenetwork.com/advisors/advisor/wally-hauck/

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Best Practices Body Language Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Negotiations News and Politics Sales Skills Women In Business

Your Mind Has Been Primed

“Like priming for paint, future actions are primed by the past.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

Consider this – for the next 20 seconds, think about a time when you were most happy in your life. Please, do it!

Okay, did you do it? Did you think about a time when you were most happy in your life? If you did, now I’d like you to think about someone that you had a recent dispute with, someone that angered you. Is the image of that occasion duller than it was prior to thinking of a happier time? If it wasn’t, you need to learn how to let go of things that cause you angst. You’re only hurting yourself by hanging on to hurtful thoughts. If the memory of the spat you had with someone recently subsided, even if it’s just a smidgen, you were primed by the happy thought you engaged in before recalling that negative situation.

So, what does this mean? It means, when you have pleasant thoughts about past occurrences, the thoughts that follow do not appear to be as harsh. Of course, with the passage of time, your mind will gravitate back to what’s normal for it, related to how you view things that occur in your life. But, that also means that you can control how you view such occurrences. Thus, if you choose to prime your mind with thoughts of happier times, you can choose how you react to everything that occurs to you.

Priming your mind is the door through which you can choose to move in a more positive direction in life. It can also be used to highlight the negative aspects of your life, if you choose not to be positive. The point is, the choice is always yours.

I don’t wish to oversimplify this concept, but it really is simple. You have the power to choose how you feel and how you’ll react to everything that happens to you. Realize that power, control that power, use that power in a positive manner … and everything will be right with the world.

What does this have to do with negotiations? 

In a negotiation, your mind is primed by what has occurred in prior negotiations that you’ve been a party to. Realize that as a fact and be mindful of the prejudices you possess going into the negotiation. Plus, if you wish the other negotiator to be in a more pleasant state of mind, prime him with positive thoughts about his past before entering into parts of the negotiation that might be fraught with potential peril.

Engaging in a negotiation with the thought of how you’ll prime yourself, and the other negotiator, will give you greater insight into how you can sidestep potential pitfalls. It will also allow you to be quicker in the avoidance of those pitfalls.

Quick, think about a lucky leprechaun. Did you see a little person in green? Now, think of a number between 1 and 10. Did you think of the number 7? If you did, you displayed to yourself the effects of priming. Most people associate a leprechaun with good luck and someone attired in green. If you didn’t think of a little person in green or the number 7, that’s okay. You think differently than most people. Be aware of that.

Priming works – use it and it will work for you in your negotiations.

Remember, you’re always negotiating! 

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free 5-minute video on reading body language or to sign up for the “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#NegotiatingWithABully #Priming #mindpriming #emotionalcontrol #relationships #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions #Psychology #Perception #ControlLife #Control #leadership #HowToImproveyourself #Achievement

 

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Investing Marketing Negotiations Sales

Seven Keys to Get Up, Get Speaking, and Get Paid

Economic cycles come and go. Even when the conventional wisdom seems to be that “no one’s hiring speakers,” you can be sure there’s always a bull market somewhere. When it’s time to reboot, recover, and reignite your speaking business, these seven key strategies and best practices are indispensable.

Key #1: Professional speaker is a skill set, not a job description.

What would the average speaker do if he could no longer speak? What if she were unable to travel? For someone self-defined purely as a “speaker,” that might be the end of the road.

But they’d still have a professional speaker skill set; it would simply need to be deployed in other ways. With that in mind, it makes sense to get comfortable with those other ways right now. Multiple revenue streams provide business model resilience—when one part of the business is down, another might be up. It’s insurance at the very simplest level. Building that insurance into the speaker’s business plan today ensures getting paid for expertise regardless of industry trends, personal challenges, or unexpected family issues.

Best Practice #1: Diversify methods and media.

Consider:

  • Books
  • E-books
  • Workbooks
  • Field guides
  • Meeting starters
  • Audio programs (CD, mp3, podcast)
  • Video programs (DVD, streaming, mini-lessons)
  • E-learning modules (using simple tools like Articulate Presenter)
  • Consulting packages
  • Coaching programs
  • Teleseminars
  • Webinars
  • Action packs
  • Implementation kits
  • E-mail courses
  • Membership websites
  • Online forums and communities
  • Assessments
  • Mobile apps
  • Certification programs
  • Licensing programs
  • Affiliate programs
  • Joint ventures

Choose the most suitable methods, get them on the calendar within the next year, and execute!

Key #2: Every speaking business needs a CEO.

The primary trait that separates successful speakers from their struggling counterparts? Successful speakers don’t consider themselves speakers. They consider themselves the CEO of their speaking business. CEOs demand a relentless focus on MMA—Money-Making Activity. CEOs know when their company is profitable and when it is not. CEOs have the rare skill of being able to panic early—and then taking massive, decisive action to correct the course before it’s too late.

Most important, CEOs are never OK with not making money. They put all their weight, all their creativity, and all their commitment behind making payroll. Speakers who think they don’t have employees are dead wrong—they’re Employee #1. Are they paying themselves enough? Do they give themselves enough time off? A CEO would give priority to the employee responsible for 100% of her company’s profitability. A solo entrepreneur speaker needs to do the same.

Best Practice #2: Schedule paydays.

Speakers who have employees already have a payroll. But a company of one needs to do the same, just without payroll software or vendor—even if it’s a simple as marking the calendar for the second and fourth Friday of each month as “payday.” The quickest way to earn $50,000 as a speaker is to divide that number by 24 ($2,083.33) and every payday, transfer that amount from a business account to a personal one. (That’s also the quickest route to $100,000, $200,000, or more!) To start, it’s easiest to ignore marketing, taxes, operations, and so on, but that’s rarely the biggest challenge. The idea is to establish an early warning system that’s focused on MMAs when the coffers are running low. The self-paycheck practice provides that, while establishing a much-needed sense of urgency with regard to cash flow.

Key #3: Establish a “Now More than Ever” mind-set.

Too many speakers complain that the economy has damaged their businesses. Buyers are no longer buying. Meetings are no longer meeting. There’s a laundry list of aches, pains, symptoms, and woe-is-me declarations of how life suddenly got very unfair for professional speakers.

Three words of wisdom: Figure it out.

That means figuring out what buyers are deeply concerned about, what problems they are eager to solve, and what priorities they’re already spending money on. It requires determining the strategies and goals for which they are accountable. And it demands ferreting out what solutions they’re actively seeking right now.

The speaker who does that is like a doctor during a time of epidemic disease, equipped with the medicine and ready with the cure. In tough times, the services of a doctor are in greater demand, not less. A resource primed to cure a buyer’s exact woes will experience limited resistance. So, too, speakers who believe that
their ideas are needed now more than ever and are in demand now more than ever will be valued by their clients now more than ever.

Best Practice #3: Live in the prospects’ world.

Business-minded speakers think about their clients’ problems, bosses, obstacles, and customers—not just their own. What are the first steps? Research. Preparation. Homework. Industry, regional, and company news is now at everyone’s fingertips online. Direct quotes, video clips, and audio interviews make excellent firsthand intelligence—and don’t forget real, live customers. Without intelligently researching a prospect’s issues, challenges, and pressures, it’s impossible to come up with credible, high-perceived-value solutions. The most
convincing way to approach prospects is being armed with:

  • Interviews
  • Surveys
  • Research
  • Data gathering

Expertise plus valuable data is a killer combination.

Key #4: Get serious, get help, or get out.

The top professionals in any field realize that they cannot achieve success alone. They ask for help. They invest in the resources, tools, technology, and people who can accelerate both their learning curve and their doing curve.

What’s the best place to start? The good news is that it doesn’t cost a dime—it’s an internal commitment to take this business of speaking seriously. It’s not a part-time thing for fun, it’s not volunteer work, and it’s not something to “try” between jobs. Do military fighter pilots “try” flying combat missions? Do doctors go into neurosurgery “part-time”? Do symphony orchestra conductors “give it a shot”? No! True professionals make serious commitments to their professional training, years-long preparation and study, thousands of hours of practice, and a relentless pursuit of excellence.

Upon ruthless, objective examination, the areas where a speaker needs help will become quite clear. And that’s OK: Successful professionals reach out for help more often than average people—not less.

The third option is to get out. This doesn’t mean quitting the speaking business—far from it. Rather, it’s about taking a professional break and coming back into this business through a different door, which is precisely what I did in 2007. My speaking and consulting business had become a grind. I wasn’t having fun. I needed a break. I took a job at a training company, booking speakers for events, webinars, and live conferences.

Within two weeks of wearing my conference producer/meeting planner hat, I immediately realized what I had been doing wrong as a speaker. In 2008, I jumped back into my own business, and the lessons from my time “on the other side of the desk” gave me everything I needed to reinvent my speaking business and share these same lessons with my professional speaker clients on what it takes to get booked from the buyer’s perspective.

Best Practice #4: Recommit.

Getting serious means recommitting to the speaking business: upgrading collateral materials; losing the dated aol.com email address; dumping the homemade inkjet business cards; and revamping that 10-year-old website.

Getting help might include: free help (NSA buddies, colleagues, friends, mastermind groups); low-cost help (NSA chapter meetings, webinars, PEGs, hiring an assistant or intern); premium help (attending an NSA convention, working with a speech coach, hiring a speaker marketing firm).

Finally, getting out can vary from the moderate to the extreme. Consider a part-time consulting or on-demand position with a favorite client, association, or company to see what makes them tick. Do some subcontracting or get a job with a training company, consulting firm, or executive education program. Speaker’s bureaus and conference-producing organizations are also terrific options. Don’t consider this as exile; it’s a paid learning experience. Keeping one’s identity as a professional speaker helps, too: While I was working on the inside, my business card proudly displayed the NSA Member logo right next to my title.

Key #5: Build a Thought Leadership Platform.

A speaker’s collected body of wisdom, expertise, tools, tactics, strategies, sound bites, and philosophies compose a thought leadership platform. New technologies and new media come and go. Consider the evolution from print newsletters and glossy magalogs through websites, e-zines, blogging, audio, video, and social media—but the one thing that does not change is professional speakers’ need to be thought leaders.

Writing is writing. Ideas are ideas. It may sound like heresy, but if Ben Franklin were alive today, he would be a blogger, thanks to the technology’s ability to reach a great number of people quickly with ideas that positively impact their lives.

Best Practice #5: Repurpose.

The sound bite is “Create content daily.” Meeting planners want to see a speaker’s thinking process, showcased in meaty articles with lots of specifics and do-it-now tactics. The key isn’t just telling people what to think but, rather, what to do and how to do it. Actionable information is a powerful tool.

Here’s a one-word shortcut to great articles: repurpose. Keynotes become articles; articles become special reports; special reports can become audio programs; audio programs can become the rough draft for a book. With a solid thought leadership platform, the different ways to package and profit from ideas
are limitless.

Key #6: Become an NSA Certified Speaking Professional.

Ordinarily, I couldn’t care less about industry acronyms. But consider it from the perspective of association executives, meeting planners, and corporate decision makers: If only 8 percent of speakers have a CSP designation and 92 percent don’t, who are they going to feel more confident about hiring? It is a risk-reduction strategy for your buyers, an instant recognition of a speaker’s professional qualifications.

Yes, there are plenty of exceptional speakers who are not CSPs. But from a buyer’s perspective, how many CSPs are likely to be awful speakers whom they will regret hiring? Extremely few. The safer bet gets booked more often.

Best Practice #6: Get certified.

Start an application at www.nsaspeaker.org. The CSP tracking spreadsheet and application packet make it simple to record stats rather than trying to reconstruct the who, what, where, and when five years down the road.

Key #7: Focus marketing on the mighty few.

The era of “better, faster, more” productivity is over. Multitasking is a myth, and good luck “getting things done.” The sad truth is that most professional speakers catch the disease of tacticitis. They believe they have to listen to the guru of the moment and belong to the coach-of-the-month club, while simultaneously working on their presentation skills, marketing, branding, website, video, book writing, sponsorships, social media, list building, article publishing, and networking. (And that’s before they try to regrow a full head of hair and lose
those unwanted pounds.)

Best Practice #7: Focus on business-building strategies.

The latest guru, offer, product, program, and technology that lands in your inbox has less to do with succeeding than does having a solid business model, speaking model, and revenue model—and they’re usually a lot more expensive. It’s far better to select two or three main strategies that can be used consistently. Writers should write. Techies should use technology. People persons should network.

The truth is, the “flavor of the month” rarely lasts a full year. In contrast, working harder on fewer things, and focusing exclusively on easy, effortless, and enjoyable business-building activities, is what will yield results—this month, next month, next year, and for the foreseeable future. The marketing geniuses at Nike have had it right for a long time: Just do it!

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Best Practices Culture Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Taxes Women In Business

In Negotiations With A Bully Watch Your Hidden Thoughts

“A hidden thought can lead your thinking into a dead-end. Avoid dead-end thinking. Be alert when engaging your mind in its thought process.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

In negotiations with a bully, you have to watch your hidden thoughts, or those thoughts will have you thinking wrong.

“You have to beat them like they’ve done something really bad. Whip them until their insides are mashed. Can you do that? Will you do that?”

After reading the above, what are your initial thoughts? What images came to mind? Were they the images of a tough guy giving an edict to his underlings, that they dare not disobey? Or, did you consider that something other then the questions posed was occurring?

The thoughts you had about the opening statements, and the images that came to your mind, where determined by what you’ve experienced in life and the outcomes of those experiences. That means, to a degree, your thoughts began to formulate as soon as you read the first few words of the statement. Then, your mind jumped ahead of what you were reading to assume where the unread words would take you. That’s good, and it’s dangerous. The good part stems from the way you assimilate information. The bad part stems from not monitoring your expectations before jumping to judgment.

The words at the opening of this article were spoken by a chef to one of the cooks in an establishment that both were employed. The chef was referring to the correct way to make an omelet. Thus, he was talking about beating and whipping eggs to obtain a certain degree of consistency to make omelets more palatable.

When negotiating with a bully, you must be more cognizant of the way you think. Your thought process will be altered, in the prefrontal cortex area of your brain, the brain region in which complex behavior – decision making – and the moderation of social behavior occurs. This part of your brain will become more active due to the bully’s demeanor. You may experience a higher degree of emotions stemming from the perception of a threat, be it implicit or explicit. Such an emotional state may cause you to disengage from your normal thought process, which could lead you into that dead-end mentioned at the top of this article.

To combat your hidden thoughts, take into consideration what the bully is saying versus what he’s doing. If there’s a disconnect between his words and his actions, pay more attention to his actions (e.g. he says he’s going to run you into the ground in this negotiation while backing away from you and/or smiling nervously). Having this insight and using it to calculate your next action will allow you to think more clearly. That will also allow you to uncover any hidden thoughts that might create a sense of being overly fearful of a negative occurrence being projected on to you.

Negotiating with a bully is always a challenging proposition, but that proposition can be lessened by thinking about the way you think. Heighten your sense of awareness when negotiating with a bully, by being aware of where your thought processes are leading your thoughts … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating! 

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free 5-minute video on reading body language or to sign up for the “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

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Categories
Entrepreneurship Investing Marketing Negotiations Sales

Marketing Speaker: 21 Killer Sales Questions to Close Any Deal Faster

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, my clients often ask me for advice on sales.

Naturally, this makes a ton of sense because the MORE and BETTER marketing you do, the FASTER and EASIER your sales process becomes.

BUT…

Nothing frustrates me more than when my clients DO a lot of the great marketing we work on together ONLY TO BLOW IT during the sales process!

So… don’t let this happen to YOU.

Let’s talk about what you need to close the deal: the steps you need to get from the first solid marketing conversation to the final signed contract.

Depending on your particular business, this could take anywhere from 10 days from first contact all the way up to a year or more. The sales process can be a long and winding road.

BUT there are several factors totally within your control that make it go faster and easier.

The most important one – by far – is asking smart questions early and often.

Think about it: delays in your sales process come from one main source…

Surprises.

You don’t want surprises on their end – and they don’t like surprises on your end.

Each surprise or question or unexpected element can add anywhere from a week to a month to your sales process – and you don’t want that.

Understanding this, you’ll want to ask them some key selling questions early on in your conversations and throughout at every major step and milestone.

Let’s cover them together now so you can begin using these 21 killer sales questions to close more deals – more easily and more often.

  1. If you were to decide this is a good idea, how do you buy things like this?
  2. How do you implement?
  3. What should I know about your timing? Signoffs?
  4. When do you budget for things like this?
  5. Do you think this deal is going to work?
  6. What’s missing or what should we add?
  7. Are you going to pitch it?
  8. What else do you need to see from me?
  9. Can I help you put together some numbers?
  10. Do you have some numbers I could include?
  11. Who else besides you will be making this decision?
  12. Are “they” going to like it?
  13. WHAT are they going to like?
  14. WHAT are they going to push back on?
  15. What else is going to be in our way?
  16. How would YOU respond to that?
  17. What answers do you need from me to so you’re prepared to answer their questions?
  18. How much detail do YOU want?
  19. How much detail will THEY want?
  20. Are there any surprises we should be prepared for?
  21. If this were just you and me, how excited would you be to move ahead on a scale of 0-10?

Hint: If they answer 9 or 10 – you’re good; If they answer 7 or 8 – ask, “What would need to change to get us closer to 10?” If they answer 6 or less, you have a problem. Go for no with “I don’t think we can make this work. Do you?”

Be relentless and follow up like a friendly bulldog.

Never let an active prospect get more than 10 days away from you.

Always show up in their world like a happy squeaky wheel: Circle back. Send more value. Ask more questions. Offer more engagement. Invite further dialogue. Come back with more ideas to genuinely help them.

More and better and faster sales will follow.

I guarantee it.

For more help with your marketing, grab your FREE copy of the Do It! Marketing Manifesto <<< Click here!

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

Executive Leadership Lessons to Learn from Cajuns

What in the world could a senior-level executive leader learn from the down-home bayou-living Cajun people of South Louisiana?

Well, we have certainly endured our share of tough times. We’ve gone through numerous hurricanes, a damaging oil spill, and economic downturns, but now we’re back – better than ever.

First, let us start with a review of an old Cajun adage that is often quoted but maybe less often understood.

Lache Pas La Patate! (Don’t Drop the Potato!)

A modern-day translation might read something like, “Hang in there!” or “Finish strong!”

Successful leaders are resilient and enduring, like the spirit of the Cajun people. In order to be more like the Cajuns,

Apply these lessons to your leadership:

 

Commitment. Through the bad and the good, your team needs a leader who won’t quit, give up, or throw in the towel. Obviously. But your team also needs a leader who won’t waver, doubt, or question your mission and purpose. Are you having second thoughts, or are you holding firm to your mission?

Integrity. Integrity and trust are the foundation of great leadership. If your employees feel that they can’t trust you in one area, then they can’t – and won’t – trust you at all. Are you doing what you say you’ll do and fulfilling your commitments?

Values. Cajuns are known for their strong values regarding community and family. During difficult times everyone comes together and helps each other out. In the storms of adversity in your business, organization, or industry, hold firmly to the values and beliefs that got you where you are. Refuse to compromise your values. Remember, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”

Joie de vivre. (Love of life). Cajuns and the residents of New Orleans need no excuse for a party, and it’s this spirit of fun and lightheartedness that often helps us get through the tough times with our sanity intact. Are you creating an enjoyable work environment of camaraderie and celebration or one of serious melancholy and misery? Remember, you set the tone for your work environment – for better or worse.

Courage. Someone has got to make the tough decisions. Facing the inconvenient, uncomfortable, and unpopular decisions are why they pay you the big bucks! Leadership is not a popularity contest. Do you bury your head in the sand or grab the bull by the horns? And don’t forget, by making no decision, you are, in effect, making a decision.

Hope. Like the Cajuns, effective leaders are dealers in hope. Your outlook has a tremendous impact on those around you. People figure that if you’re spouting gloom and doom, or if you’re projecting optimism about the future, you must be right because you’re in the know. What kind of outlook are you presenting?

As you meet with your team members, as you build and strengthen your business relationships, as you tackle new business challenges, try taking a page from the Cajun’s playbook.

Comment here! What will you:

  • start doing,
  • stop doing, or
  • continue doing or do differently

to be more like the Cajuns? Chime in to share your leadership tips.

To receive solutions to your people problems in your inbox every month, and to receive our report: “7 of Your Biggest People Problems…Solved,” click here.

You might also like:

Leadership Team Accelerated Results Program

12 Powerful Questions to Stash in Your Leadership Toolbox

Leadership Lessons to Push Past Homeostasis

Jennifer Ledet, CSP, is a leadership consultant and professional speaker (with a hint of Cajun flavor) who equips leaders from the boardroom to the mailroom to improve employee engagement, teamwork, and communication.  In her customized programs, leadership retreats, keynote presentations, and breakout sessions, she cuts through the BS and talks through the tough stuff to solve your people problems.

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