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Month: February 2021

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Entrepreneurship Human Resources Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

“Beware – How To Avoid AI Chatbot Disaster In A Negotiation” – Negotiation Insight

“Sometimes, the only time you should waste time is when responding to negotiation chatbots. In so doing, you could discover that’s not a time-waster at all.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (click to Tweet)  Click here to get the book!

 

“Beware – How To Avoid AI Chatbot Disaster In A Negotiation”

People don’t realize they’re always negotiating.

An associate informed me of an ongoing negotiation she was having with a service provider. She suspected some parts of the interactions were with an AI (artificial intelligence) chatbot. But she wasn’t sure if it was a chatbot or a human.

After telling me of her interactions, she wanted to know if I thought her foray into the negotiation was with a chatbot. I told her, most likely, she’d been negotiating with one – if not wholly, then at points of the engagement – which meant she’d have to be aware of several factors as she advanced. The following are factors you might consider when negotiating in non-face-to-face negotiations.

Click here to continue!

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

Listen to Greg’s podcast at https://c-suitenetwork.com/radio/shows/greg-williams-the-master-negotiator-and-body-language-expert-podcast/

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

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Negotiation Insight,” click here https://themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

 

Categories
Growth Personal Development

The Secret to Being Successful? Don’t Follow Your Passion

 

Everyone wants to be successful. 

 

Our society is so success-driven, you can find someone happy to sell you a book, online course, or multi-day seminar dedicated to helping you find success just about everywhere. 

 

Recently, I had the pleasure of talking to the creator of The Secret Knock and my friend, Greg Reid, award-winning author of more than 100 books — thirty-two alone were best-sellers in 45 different languages. He also travels the world meeting some of the most powerful and influential people alive and writes about their success so the rest of us can implement their methods in our daily lives.  

“Not a bad gig (for a guy) with dyslexia,” Greg says.  

 

Not a bad gig at all, I have to say. Since Greg has talked to so many people across the success spectrum, I had to ask him what’s the one thing people need to achieve a high level of success.  

 

His answer: CPC. Clues, patterns, and choices. 

 

“Looking back in life, If I were to learn this one technique would have changed many things, Greg said. “It works like this: accountability and responsibility for every single thing that happens. Stop blaming other people. It’s your fault.” 

 

To illustrate his point, Greg used the example of a first date. 

 

“Let’s say I go on a first date, and the woman happens to be 20 minutes late. Anything could have happened, but there’s a little red flag. It’s a clue. But if I go on the fifth, sixth, and seventh date. Every time she’s 20 minutes late that forms the P, the pattern. And now it’s my C, choice whether I deal with it. Yell at her. Break up with (her), but it’s not her fault. She’s just late. Stop trying to change people to fit in your little own paradigm box,” Greg said. 

 

CPCs are applicable to business relationships as well. Often, we work with people who have bad reputations but you think you’ll be the one to break that pattern and things will be different with you. Inevitably, things go wrong, and you wonder why. 

 

“It’s like seeing a rattlesnake rattle. Bite your kid sister, you go to pet it, get bit, and you’re mad at the snake,” Greg said. “Looking back in life, we’re never angry at the relationships that didn’t go good or the business practices. We’re angry that we stayed in too long because we saw the clue. We saw the pattern, but we made our choices a little bit too late.” 

We also talked about wealth as it relates to success. Greg and I both agree that the age-old advice of following your passion and prosperity will follow is bad advice. I can’t think of one person who says they have a passion for garbage, yet people have made millions in waste management. Greg says he came to this revelation after asking a multi-billionaire a simple question: Why are you wealthy and I’m not?  

 

“Because you believe all the BS lie is that you’re spreading to the world,” the billionaire told him.  

“(The billionaire) pulled out his cell phone, and it had a meme that I put out there that said ‘follow your passion and not a paycheck,'” Greg recalled. “(The billionaire) said, ‘and you wonder why you’re broke, you idiot.’ The richest people that were millionaires and lost all their money 100% of them did that, following their passion. (The billionaire) said ‘no one that’s a wealthy billionaire ever lost their money because what they’re doing is constantly looking for opportunities, and they use that wealth and prosperity to finance their passions.'”  

 

This billionaire also told Greg, “We own the stadiums and the football teams that people following their passion are giving their brain matter on the field for just a few million bucks. It’s just a different perspective. You can be rich, or you can be wealthy. It’s up to you.” 

  

Before you eventually earn your wealth, Greg says you should prepare for your success. He admits it sounds weird, but it can pay off.  

 

“When (success) comes, it’s going to come so fast and furious. You better be prepared for it. It’s like a slingshot. It’s been pulled back, pulled back, pulled back. Well, when that lets go and goes forward, I’m telling you, I want to be sitting on that train ready to rock and roll,” Greg says. “All I’ve been doing is setting myself and positioning myself for success. I did not over pivot like everyone saying, what I did is I hunker down and I stayed true to my core values.” 

 

Staying true to your core, or what I call walk away values, is essential. You should draw that line in the sand early. Then you’ll be better prepared for what’s next. 

 

Greg and I spoke during a private C-Suite Network event. We turned part of our conversation into an episode of my podcast, All Business with Jeffrey Hayzlett. When you become part of the C-Suite Network, you immediately gain access to unique content, like this networking event, with some of the brightest minds in business. For half the cost of a business lunch, we can help you become the most strategic person in the room. Click here to learn more.  

 

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Health and Wellness Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Mergers & Acquisition Negotiations News and Politics Sales Skills Women In Business

Women Leaders: Break Through Your Upper Limits!

Why are some women in business more successful than others? Is it their skills, education, genetics, good looks, hard work, luck, or one of a thousand other reasons? Nope, while these can be contributing factors, beliefs about yourself and what is possible are the fundamental determinants of your success. Your beliefs are your continuous thought processes that dictate your attitudes, actions, and ultimately your outcomes.

If you believe that you can create a successful global business or career, have a happy, fulfilling family life and ideal health you will marshal the resources and opportunities to fulfill those beliefs.

In contrast, if you believe that it is impossible or unrealistic that you could ever write a bestselling book, run a 26.2-mile marathon, make a successful career change or do anything audacious and important to you, you will probably not achieve these grand desires.

However, positive achievements will only happen if you commit and act on those empowering beliefs; even without seeing immediate results. Acting with courage and confidence, you will move beyond the upper limits of what you think is possible and probable into the zone of the unknown and uncomfortable.

Are Your Beliefs Really Serving You?

Some of your beliefs have served you well; however, if there is an area of your life that is not working as you desire, examine what you REALLY believe about it. You may have conscious or unconscious beliefs such as “I’m not good with money”, “If I pursue my interests, I’m being selfish”, “I’m not smart enough, disciplined, connected, or you, the reader can fill in the blanks” that are sabotaging your success.

Break Through Your Upper Limits!

Your “Upper Limits Success Strategy ™” goes beyond “positive thinking” to a new dimension of generating consistent and positive results. As it’s often said, “Success leaves clues.” Model the patterns of what works and what doesn’t work – if you are willing to look carefully. Everyone has their own scotomas or ‘blind spots’; areas where we cannot see all of the opportunities, options, and choices due to rigid, preconceived ways of thinking and viewing the world. Ask yourself, “If there wasn’t an upper limit to my success and happiness, what would I be thinking and doing?” Then think those thoughts and take those actions. Repeat. Get a coach or mentor to help you construct a constellation of empowering beliefs with new habits and an upward spiral of positive momentum will begin to form.

Mastery and Courage Strengthen Your Resolve.

Practice and reinforce your new beliefs and strengthened courage that you can handle anything that comes your way. Learn from your past failures (yes, everyone has them). Do not let them hinder or define you. You now have knowledge about what has not worked for you. New levels of success can change the dynamics in your career, relationships, and your old, preconceived notions of what you can achieve. Yes, there will be unintended consequences and often there is a downside when you get what you want. There may be a loss of privacy if you would like to pursue a political career or extensive travel to build a global business. It is common to avoid being on the world stage for fear of being criticized or risk failing in a public way.

Put yourself on the upward path to success. Be bold and confidently develop strategies and plans to overcome the roadblocks and limits in the way. The world needs for you to succeed, pay it forward and model the way for greatness!

Kathleen Caldwell is the CEO of Caldwell Consulting Group, a business strategist, success hypnotherapist, and founder of the C-Suite Network Women’s Leadership Council ™. Kathleen can be reached at 773.562.1061,  https://c-suitenetwork.com/councils/womens-leadership-council/

https://tinyurl.com/KathleenCaldwellLinkedIn

Copyright 2021. Caldwell Consulting Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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Growth Personal Development

The Power of ‘We’ – Transforming Leadership Through Co-Elevation

 

Reinvention is becoming the overriding theme of COVID-19. Everyone has figured out a way to re-invent their business model — from small businesses to schools, pivoting has become a necessity.  

 

One could argue many of these changes have been boiling under the surface for years; in fact, COVID has become an accelerator. While others are finding themselves in foreign lands, basically trying to learn a new language and customs on the fly. 

 

One thing is for sure. We need to retire the phrase ‘business as normal.’ If we’ve learned anything over the past year, business was never normal, and it won’t be normal ever again. 

Keith Ferrazzi and I see eye-to-eye on that.  If you don’t know Keith, at the age of 32, he became the youngest CMO of a Fortune 500. He’s authored two best-selling business books and recently released his third, Leading Without Authority,  where he introduces us all to the idea of co-elevation in business.  

 

“(Leading Without Authority) is to me the culmination of 20 years of coaching,” Keith said during a recent C-Suite Network event. “To really understand, what does it take for you as a leader to be transformative in your industries? Not just come up with the strategies, but how do you truly do what I call ‘teaming out?’ How do you redefine even who your team is? To reinvent who you are.” 

 

He continued, “This is an inflection point, to leap forward, and we’ve been given a great gift, a blessing, to push a remote reboot to the world, and you know this is a guidebook for you to do that.” 

 

Simply put, co-elevation is the group’s shared mission and the commitment of the people in that group to each other.  

 

Co-elevation isn’t the “top-down” leadership style most people are used to. Keith says we need to break out of our respective silos and embrace each other’s success. Instead of your team going to you with all their problems, you have to empower everyone to give direction and feedback. This not only helps your team, but it frees up your bandwidth for more important tasks – what I refer to as working ON the business, rather than IN the business. 

 

Keith also cautions leaders not to fall into a common trap. “Please don’t ever use the word I,” he said. “You are not going to do anything. The creation of the future of your vision is a co-creation with a set of individuals.” 

Keith admits this can be hard for some business leaders to grasp and wrap their heads around. However, with all the turbulence of the past year, things may be changing.  

 

“I tend to find the smaller organizations; the leaders take on way too much responsibility and sense of self to get stuff done,” Keith said. “Stop thinking that way in a remote world.” 

 

Change can be overwhelming for anyone, whether in business or life. Thankfully, Keith has some ideas on how to overcome that paralysis that can affect us all from time to time. He says to start with redesigning your business and workforce models. To accomplish that, you need to embrace something he calls inclusion. 

 

“Inclusion means you need to have a team creating your future,” he said.  

 

He also advises to not limit your team to those who work for you. The team becomes anyone who can help you achieve your goals – or what Keith calls, “loose partners or tight partners, that’s up for us to figure out.”  

 

“If you’re really trying to transform your organization remotely, virtual has some really unique assets,” Keith said. “You can invite anybody you want into your team for 10 minutes, five minutes, a half-hour.” 

 

One of the ways Keith believes your team can be successful is through openness and candor.  

 

“Only 20% of teams claim that they can speak and challenge each other openly in a room. Which means 80% of your teams are conflict avoidant, and they talk behind each other’s backs and think that’s acceptable. It’s not acceptable,” Keith emphasized. 

 

That’s good advice. I always encourage the team to be honest with me, and everyone else. We believe in radical transparency and that is one of the values we live by. I know honesty sometimes means you step on someone’s toes, but overall, we’re better for it.

 

I’d like to thank Keith for his time and insights. We covered a lot during our informal chat on leadership, coaching, and the story of a young doctor who saw the ER’s inefficacies and tried to do something about it.  

 

It’s worth a listen. 

 

If you’d like to attend our next event, become part of the C-Suite Network community. For less than half the price of a business lunch, you get access to one-of-a-kind content and insights from c-level executives and other great business leaders. All this makes you the most strategic person in the room. Click here to learn more.  

 

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Entrepreneurship Human Resources Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

“Artificial Intelligence – How To Avoid Disappointment In A Negotiation” – Negotiation Tip of the Week

“To prevent succumbing to disappointment, never lose sight of knowledge and hope.” –Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (click to Tweet)  Click here to get the book!

 

“Artificial Intelligence – How To Avoid Disappointment In A Negotiation”

 

People don’t realize they’re always negotiating.

In every negotiation, savvy negotiators plan the strategies and tactics they’ll use before entering into a negotiation. That allows them to be more adaptive to rebuttals, offers, and counteroffers posed by their counterpart. It can also give them an advantage in the negotiation by not thinking of what they’ll implement. Instead, they execute, having considered the responses that might come from their actions. But artificial intelligence (AI) changes the equation of how negotiators interact with one another. That can lead human negotiators into disappointment.

Unlike bots (short for robots), humans can’t think as fast or with the depth in which bots can think in AI environments.  As such, human negotiators may not accurately anticipate a bot’s reactions when negotiating in the realm of artificial intelligence. But a bot’s degree of functionality is within its programming. And they’re various degrees of latitude within those frameworks, based on the type of bot created. To avoid disappointment, consider the following before negotiating in environments containing artificial intelligence.

Click here to continue!

 

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

 

Listen to Greg’s podcast at https://c-suitenetwork.com/radio/shows/greg-williams-the-master-negotiator-and-body-language-expert-podcast/

 

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

 

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Negotiation Insight,” click here https://themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

 

 

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

Toxic Cultures: How to spot them and how to change them around

While Britney Spears made Toxic a major success in terms of the dance floor it has no place in our working lives. But just like Britney has proven, we are all capable of change.

However toxic work environments are unfortunately more common than most of would like but it doesn’t have to be this way. Toxic workplaces affect more than profits. They can affect mental & physical health, innovation, creativity & our home life with loved ones. Here are some thoughts from my experience both working in and with cultures that could be described as toxic and some ideas on how to change them.

One common element I typically find is that toxic environments can gather momentum quicker when numbers are not being met and the business starts to go into a tough patch. Everyone seems to be happy or at least prepared to put up with things when they are winning.

Examples and signs of factors that elevate or cause a toxic environment are the following;

  • The business is not making its short-term numbers
  • The business starts to compromise its values
  • Customer service is seen as not a priority versus profits
  • Leaders get confused between authority and bullying
  • Team communication comes to a standstill
  • Corporate affairs sanitize all leader communications
  • Passionate employees start to become quiet and non-collaborative
  • Leadership is absent or not seen as collaborative or lacking empathy

With a culture change things are not solved in an event but through a strategic process. This is because the issues are usually more complex than leaders often acknowledge and in my experience the majority of people are firstly at least invested in not changing. As Deepak Chopra pointed out 90% of our daily thoughts are the same ones we had the day before and most are negative. This is why organizational change is hard. Also, my experience with change initiatives has shown you will come across four types of audiences in these percentages.

 20% Change Warriors – they want to improve, they want to get better. They used to be called change agents in1990 but as will see the battle has gone up a notch and they are an integral component of your success.

20% Active Resistors – they will support the change publicly even, but behind closed doors will work the phones and emails to stop the change. These people are influential and heavily invested in the status quo.

20% Resistors – not invested in the past heavily, not as influential as the Active Resistors happy to consider change “as long as it’s not them changing”

40% Sceptics & Fence Sitters who believe it’s a good idea and logical to change but have been scarred before by leaders who “talked the talk” but never “walked the talk” so they are not active unless there is a genuine movement.

What are the key steps to change?

Leadership

The biggest stumbling block to any change is leadership. If the leadership is not prepared to listen actively (listen with the intent to understand with empathy), acknowledge and then participate in the solution by committing themselves to action such as a coaching program, monthly town halls, and communication that is public and measurable then you will get a blip but no traction and then the Active Resistors, Resistors will have won and the Sceptics will say “I told you so”.

So, leaders must be publicly onboard and active with relentless communication which is both listening & talking and taking action to challenge current processes and “ways things have always been done around here”.

A leadership 360 assessment is a good idea for leaders to take to check on their own leadership style. HR should drive these and it’s important all leaders participate and not just a few.

Psychological Safety

We must get everything out on the table. This is vital. This often does not happen as people don’t feel psychologically safe. Often the best way to do this is online and anonymously so people feel safe and can have their say. One organisation I worked with was struggling with poor customer satisfaction scores and low Net Promoter Scores from its largest customers. This went on for 18 months until they did an anonymous internal NPS and found the scores even lower internally. Now the evidence was in. Employees would not even recommend their own employer to friends and family. No wonder the external NPS was low but now we had a baseline to work from.

Respect

We must acknowledge and respect each other’s views, the positive and the negative.  I have found DISC communication styles very useful in this situation. We are all simply wired a little differently and you need to remember we all see the world as we are, not as it is. This is what makes life interesting albeit a little frustrating to each other sometimes. While DISC assessments can be broken into some 64 different styles if I just take the basic four for this exercise you will no doubt acknowledge the following. A leader says to his team: “There are going to be some changes ahead for the business”

D Style           “Great, it’s about time, when do we start”

I Style            “Sounds fun, how can I help, I have some great ideas and I know some people who can help”

S Style             “Interesting, what effect will it have on my team. Have you considered this? What happens if the economy does this”

C Style             “Ok, but what are you really saying. I get the public message but tell me honestly what’s really going on and I need a lot more detail with projected outcomes before I will commit”.

These are just examples of one piece of communication taken four different ways. This is seasoned leaders with significant change experience will tell you it takes relentless communication to effect a change across an organisation and especially one that has been subject to a toxic culture.

Invest in the Leaders

So many leaders are put in leadership positions and given zero leadership training. There are types of leadership. Leading a business, leading a team, and leading yourself. And they go in the reverse order. That is the hardest leadership is leading yourself. Once you can do this you can lead a team and then you can lead a business. So often these steps are overlooked. I see many organizations focus on leader coaching. Leader coaching is vital but coaching is only one form of leadership communication. It is not leadership. A great program I run from John C Maxwell is Developing the Leader Within which teaches the key principles of leadership. My program Habits of High Performance Teams is another for leaders where we stress the need for Team Work. That is looking for opportunities for teams to do work together as opposed to tasks as individuals or coupling. The reality is sometimes we have not equipped our leaders to lead so as a consequence we are surprised. This is an area your HR team might need to look at. Remember leadership is a skill.

Remove Bad Apples…Fast

Steve Jobs and his HR Manager were asked after they had done a re-organisation at Apple why they had a number of holes in the senior executive leadership team org chart. They apparently replied along the lines of “We would rather have a hole than work with an a-hole”. The point being that a toxic bad apple can do way more damage than not having anyone at all and he would rather work a little harder until the right person is found. Reed Hastings the founder of Netflix also remarked “do not tolerate brilliant jerks. The cost to teamwork is too high”. Toxic people are the last people you need when you are trying to remove this very element from your team.

Communicating the Vision

We need to ensure the Why is big enough, realistic, well understood as a business. Not just the values but the goals and the actions needed should all connect. Think Purpose-Strategy-Action as The Why, The What & The How.

All people in leadership positions must know how to communicate. Therefore, they need to be trained in presentation skills, one on one skills, and coaching skills. These skills are too important to be left to chance or the hope you hired a good communicator.

One way to prevent a toxic environment in the first place is to ensure that leaders create an inspired vision with their people that is relatable to their roles. When it connects to what they do every day it is so much more powerful. Another program I have had success with leaders is Everyone Communicates But Few Connect which focuses on communication strategies for leaders and works brilliantly with DISC communication styles.

Metrics

We need to design measures and metrics that can be used to hold people accountable and we need public commitments to the change needed. If you are genuinely serious about changing a toxic culture to one of harmony, empathy and success then you must set metrics that people can be measure the change against. This could be internal satisfaction, internal NPS, number of coaching sessions, number of town halls, numbers of new initiatives suggested or implemented in a quarter.

 Accountability

Accountability used to mean “who do I blame”. Today this is no longer the case. Accountability means taking ownership, being responsible, and accountable for a commitment that was made. Accountability does not only mean leaders and leaders of leaders it means everyone needs to be held accountable for their part in the change journey. Your Change Warriors are a good place to start when looking to appoint accountability leaders and coaches. Remember leadership is situational. It’s a verb, not a noun.

Toxic cultures have no right to be in the work environment. They have never been successful and never will be. If you are working in one see if some of the suggestions above can help you change things around.

Rob Hartnett – Rob is the CEO Founder of Bayside Advisory and a Consulting Principal of DSG Team in Australia  https://www.robhartnett.com

 

rob@robhartnett.com Ph 1300 926 540

Categories
Body Language Entrepreneurship Human Resources Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

“Artificial Intelligence – This Is How It Can Destroy Negotiations” – Negotiation Insight

“If you think artificial intelligence is the savior to your negotiation challenges, remember the artificial part. It can be a blessing or a curse.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (click to Tweet)

Click here to get the book!

 

“Artificial Intelligence – This Is How It Can Destroy Negotiations”

People don’t realize they’re always negotiating.

Some people are touting artificial intelligence (AI) as a new tool to streamline the negotiation process. Through that implication, the suggestion is, the negotiation process will become enhanced. And that’s true in some situations. In other circumstances, based on its usage, artificial intelligence will destroy some negotiators’ negotiation abilities.

So, what are the potential pitfalls that negotiators may find themselves in should they become confronted by artificial intelligence in their negotiations? Continue, and you’ll discover that answer. You’ll also uncover a few tactics you might employ to thwart AI’s attempts to undermind your negotiation abilities.

Click here to learn more!

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

 

Listen to Greg’s podcast at https://c-suitenetwork.com/radio/shows/greg-williams-the-master-negotiator-and-body-language-expert-podcast/

 

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

 

 

 

Categories
Best Practices Culture Entrepreneurship Industries Personal Development

A Nightlife Industry’s Guide to Battling the Pandemic Depression

It’s been a year since live events shuttered its doors to the public. Like an eclipse engulfs the sun, our industry was stripped from us in an instant. For many, this absolute darkness created no change; their lives continued, their work-life maintained. Those outside of the music and entertainment industry might not realize how significant of an impact the pandemic has had on our lives. We are heavily misunderstood and the public has trouble empathizing with our pain and loss. Careers in the nightlife industry are often paralleled with assumptions of superficiality, escapism, endless partying, and substance-fueled nights. But for us that have dedicated our lives to the industry, we know that it’s more meaningful than these stereotypes. It’s our passion, livelihood, and a salient part of our identity. We thrive in an environment and lifestyle that fit our personality and inherent skills. This extension of ourselves is an element that we are yearning to realign.

The magnitude of the challenges that this year presented took a heavy toll on my mental health. Before the pandemic, I was working in the industry full-time, juggling multiple jobs and projects. This has been my lifestyle for the past 11 years, starting as a 15-year-old mobile DJ business owner. Depression was a foreign topic for me since I commonly carry an optimistic mindset. This past year I started noticing negative changes in my mood and behavior, consisting of perpetual waves of sadness and feeling like I lost my purpose in life. I realized that this different version of me wasn’t who I am, and I have decided to take action. I chose to turn my life around and made a list of the essentials I keep in my depression toolbox. It will help you, just like it did for me.

1. Allow Yourself to be Vulnerable

Having a career in the entertainment industry can be quite lonely at times because we always have to show our best face to the public and often work odd hours. Discussing topics of mental health and wellness isn’t usually in sync with the fun and excitement expected in nightlife. We learn to face our problems on our own because we live in an individualistic and competitive culture. It’s dangerous to let ourselves carry all this weight on our own. It’s human nature to seek connections and share experiences. Letting your darkest feelings out is truly a liberating and comforting experience. Reach out to your friends and family and find the courage to open up about your mental state. Additionally, you can look for a community of like-minded individuals or seek professional help. You’d be surprised to see how many people are willing to help and listen to you. Be ready to listen to them too, they might be going through a similar experience.

2. Watch Constructive Content

Social networking sites are great tools to stay in touch with friends and stay up to date with the world. But they’re also full of toxic and useless content. Choose how you spend your time online wisely and be picky about what you consume. It’s tempting to spend countless hours on social media to numb your brain and forget about your problems. Realistically, this isn’t bringing anything positive into your life. Find content that is beneficial for your mental health and it will direct you on the road to self-improvement. Read self-help books, take online classes, watch motivational videos, and apply what you learn into your life. Create constructive habits that will lead you to be the best version of yourself.

3. Don’t Suppress Your Emotions

Sometimes episodes of anguish come when you least expect. Should you curl up in a ball and cry or just completely shut down? No! The best thing you can do is allow yourself to feel everything. It doesn’t serve you to ignore the negative feelings and bottle them up until they snowball into something bigger than you can handle. Let them run through you, acknowledge them, and simply be an observer. Emotions last approximately 90 secs in the body and brain. The key is to not extend them by attaching thought into them, simply let them flow and move on to the next. Pain and sadness are part of being human and without them, we wouldn’t be able to grow and learn from our experiences. They will give you a deeper appreciation of happiness and strengthen your resilience.

4. Express Gratitude

It is a difficult time to be grateful with all the misfortunes happening in the world. But, instead of focusing on all the things we lack, why not appreciate everything we still have? Expressing gratitude brings you joy and helps you think about all the basic elements of life that we often take for granted. For example, you likely have a roof over your head, access to clean water, and are able to fill your belly. Be grateful to yourself and others for making sure these needs are met. Whenever you feel like everything seems to be falling apart, take a moment to write down a list of all the things, big and small, that you’re grateful for and say them out loud. The more you practice, the more you’ll start noticing additional things that should make the list. Feelings of contentment will naturally start flowing.

5. Engage in Physical Activity

Working in nightclubs and events can make one accustomed to physically demanding jobs and fast-paced environments. Maybe you were a bartender making 200 drinks a night at the local bar or an AV technician setting up heavy equipment for big concerts. Now that all of that is gone and most gyms are closed, it’s easy to stay unmotivated to work out on your own. But lack of physical activity is only going to make you feel lethargic and stagnant. Make it a habit to incorporate some type of physical activity into your day. Don’t pressure yourself to go too hard too fast. Start small and slowly increase the time and intensity of your workouts. Get that boost of confidence and energy your mind and body need. You’ll notice how you will carry that positive energy in other areas of your life.

6. Find New Hobbies

Now that you are most likely working in different industries (or not working) and waking up earlier, do you have plenty of time on your hands? Take advantage of it by tapping into your different interests and discovering new hobbies. Do all the things that you have been wanting to do, but your busy nightlife schedule wouldn’t allow you to try. Look for new adventures to stimulate your mind. Go hike at the nearest national park, learn how to paint, go skydiving, learn a new skill in an online class; you can do them all! There is still so much of this world we haven’t explored. You might end up discovering a new passion or favorite activity. Get out there and try something new.

7. Enhance Your Environment

Something that is missed about working in nightlife is the constant sensory stimulation, from epic stage designs to meeting different people every night. Bright lights, vivid colors, loud music, and the warmth of being surrounded by people might be absent from pandemic life. But, since we have to spend more time at home, why not make it fun? Do whatever it takes to create the perfect aesthetic and get your creative juices going. Switch to color-changing light bulbs, get or make some eye-catching art, place some speakers in your living room, install a disco ball… the possibilities are endless. Your environment influences your mood and impacts your behavior. Recreate the atmosphere that makes you happy.

This pandemic brought immense new challenges for everyone, and those who work in the nightlife industry face no exception. The time when we can go back to our beloved lifestyle is still uncertain. But when everything else fails, there’s nothing better than self-love. Taking care of your mental and physical health is the key to get through this successfully. Don’t be hard on yourself and remember the spark that makes you unique. You are stronger and more capable than you realize. Remember that this is only temporary. Treat yourself as you would treat a friend: gently pushing yourself to make the best choices that you can under the circumstances, with kindness, compassion, and patience no matter what that journey looks like for you.

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Culture Economics Entrepreneurship Management Marketing Personal Development Sales Women In Business

In order to achieve your best, you must put a human on Mars

That is what Elon Musk is doing.

What about you?

Setting seemingly unattainable goals is the best way to succeed, stay focused, and execute in business living happily and fulfilled. Jim Collins, in his book co-authored with Jerry I. Porras, Built to Last, posed the idea of a BHAG. Establishing a Big Hairy Audacious Goal that visionary companies used to inspire bold missions as powerful ways to stimulate progress. The thinking behind such an approach is that to generate exceptional focused growth, a “moon shot” goal is needed. The manned lunar mission led to countless innovations in manufacturing, technology, computing, and human physiological support and nutrition resulted from this endeavor.

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars”

– Norman Vincent Peal

The NASA space program and the Kennedy mission demonstrated that great feats can come of extraordinary dreams. But of course, most businesses don’t have the entire financial might of the US government behind them when they start out.

 

What about other businesses?

In 2001, Elon Musk had the idea to colonize Mars and by 2007 he was stating it publicly. Within a few years, SpaceX was created, and the path was set. Today, Musk believes this will be a reality in 2026. Innovation and evolution have occurred along the way. With one of the most important being a reusable rocket which enables huge financial and technical advantages to allow multiple launches and easier commercialization of space travel. This created a funding mechanism to keep the program moving forward. Other advancements in solar energy, battery storage, tunnel boring technology, and electric vehicles across all his companies were either borne out of the big vision or supported it. Along the way, the impact of Musk’s big thinking has inspired competition, innovation, and cultural change.

When Steve Jobs rejoined Apple in 1997, he put the focus squarely on an ideal. That was “to build an enduring company that prioritized people”. Given the excess of the late nineties and rising stock market bubble, the focus on people-not-profit was aspirational. In the following decades, Apple would make user enjoyment and design the focus while they delivered some of the biggest evolutions in modern consumer electronic history. They literally changed industries from computer chip improvements by suppliers and operating systems, to hardware design and industry disruptions including music and cameras. Bill Gates and Paul Allen had the vision to “put a personal computer on every desk and in every home”, well it worked. Had they really understood the acceleration of their goal, they might have said: “to put a computer in every pocket”. Microsoft along with its competitors and suppliers ensured it. By creating the simple software that interfaced with average human and business users, computers quickly became ubiquitous. In time, size was reduced, and capability was vastly improved. The computational power of technology that once occupied entire floors in buildings now rests in the palm of our hand.

Be SMART

Putting a human on Mars seems like a goal for Elon Musk, but not everyone. Maybe your big goal isn’t quite that size, but it must stretch you beyond today. Of course, you might have been taught that goals should be “SMART” (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely). In fact, the principle seems to imply that goals should always be within reach. Inherently that approach wilts in the face of such audacious goals as described above. Maybe it is semantics and we’re really discussing dreams versus goals. Every dream or massive goal can be smashed into hundreds, thousands, or even millions of small “smart” goals that when achieved incrementally, produce an exponential impact. These pieces become the road map – or business plan – to reach that dream.

With what I call a “BFG” (Big F’n Goal) you can see the future through your future self’s eyes, and you are not constrained by the financial, geographic, or technical realities of today. What is needed to accomplish the goal, but doesn’t exist today can be invented or created in time. All dreams can be deconstructed and built step by step.

 

A cosmic ripple

Now, I am looking to make a cosmic ripple effect. I once set a goal to help direct $1 million to charity every year. Creating a business platform, assembling the right people and processes to deliver just that we exceeded $12.5 million in just six years! That Big F’n Goal changed my life and legacy. Today, we look beyond that to a new one-for-two-billion challenge by creating a billion dollars of wealth and a billion dollars of charitable impact. We know there is a multiplier, and it will just take a spark to ignite the imagination and vision releasing the energy of one hundred special, impact-minded entrepreneurs, and business owners to commit to their own Grow Get Give process to make that a reality.

We might not be going to Mars, but our impact will be inter-stellar.

LEGACY

Big goals can be accomplished one step at a time or all at once. When contemplating my legacy, I realized I didn’t want to wait. I had to ask myself the question, “What will give me the greatest possible reach to be that spark to energize others?” It is going to take an engaged community of a thousand, impact-minded, thought leaders and business owners, and we need just one hundred of the right entrepreneurs in our Grow Get Give Coaching family to light this match.

 

I asked, “How will they find me?” I could continue growing one or a few at a time years, trying to rise above the digital noise, but if I could reach millions of people at once, we could accelerate this. That is when I decided to join the biggest platform available today. In January I agreed to join creator Christopher Lavoie and The Social Movement TV Series as a producer.

We are assembling innovators, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders to share their genius, giving them just “4 days to save the world”. If you think you have what it takes to tackle the world’s greatest problems and want to learn how this will elevate your personal, professional, and brand currency, just watch this trailer and schedule a time to speak with me.

https://socialmovement.tv/schedule-producer4/

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Body Language Entrepreneurship Human Resources Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

“How To Overcome Negative Emotions In A Negotiation” – Negotiation Tip of the Week

“Never decry someone’s negative emotions too vigorously. To do so could position you as the source of that negativity.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (click to Tweet)  

Click here to get the book!

 

“How To Overcome Negative Emotions In A Negotiation”

People don’t realize they’re always negotiating.

How do you deal with a negotiator displaying negative emotions in a negotiation? Do you become intimidated, reserved about exerting your negotiation position? The way someone comports themselves speaks voluminously about their respect, or lack of, for the process they’re engaging.

Negotiating with someone expressing negative emotions can be daunting. For one, you may not know the degree that their feelings are real versus contrived. For another, you may become daunted by the wonderment of assessing how long such behavior might last. During that time, you may be unsure how to continue the negotiation, which could work against you. The following are ways to address such situations.

Click here to discover how to better overcome negative emotions!

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

Listen to Greg’s podcast at https://c-suitenetwork.com/radio/shows/greg-williams-the-master-negotiator-and-body-language-expert-podcast/

 

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

 

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Negotiation Insight,” click here https://themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

 

 

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