Month: December 2012

Categories
Success Attitude

3 Tips to Get You Out of Overwhelm

One of the biggest issues I hear from entrepreneurs is how much they struggle with overwhelm. Unfortunately there’s no easy answer to get you out of overwhelm completely, but if you start making a habit of the below 3 tips, chances are your life is going to get a lot easier.

 

1.  Get very clear on exactly what you personally should be doing. Look I get it. For years I had a very busy feast-or-famine freelance copywriting business. I know what it’s like to go at your business alone and just how many tasks you’re trying to squeeze into your days.

 

But the reality is there are only so many hours a day. And there are so many things you can do in one day. And if you’re not clear on the top activities you should be doing, you can quickly find yourself spending hours on tasks that other people should really be doing (or maybe even things that don’t need to get done at all).

 

Now once you’re clear on what you should and shouldn’t be doing, what do you do with the tasks you shouldn’t be doing but still need to be done? Well that’s where tip #2 comes in.

 

2. Surround yourself with a team that supports you because they do the tasks you shouldn’t be doing. It’s not just enough to build a team if that team isn’t actually taking things off your plate. The entire point is to have a team that frees you up to focus on your highest-payoff activities.

 

Now what do you do when you can’t afford a team? Well, what I always say is start small. Maybe 10 hours a month for bookkeeping or to start scheduling appointments. And then you make sure you take those 10 hours and do something that brings you income.

 

However, for this to work, you need to really make sure you do devote 10 hours to revenue-generating activities, which leads me to my third tip.

 

3. Set and maintain boundaries. This is probably the biggest tip of all. From my experience, entrepreneurs who are suffer the least from overwhelm are also the best at setting boundaries.

 

So what do I mean by setting and maintaining boundaries? Here’s a partial list:

 

* If you’ve committed to 10 hours a month of revenue-generating activities to pay for your monthly bookkeeper, then you spend that time doing revenue-generating activities.

* You allow your team to do their work and support you — YOU don’t start doing their work because it’s “easier” than delegating

* You work during those times you designated as working time, and you don’t work during those times you have other plans. Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t get up early in the morning or stay up late to finish a project — what this means is you discipline yourself to work when you’re supposed to (and don’t allow distractions to keep you from getting your work done) and don’t work when you should be doing something else — for instance skipping your workout class or cancelling girl’s night out or not showing up for your child’s soccer game.

 

This one is probably the hardest to do but if you can master it, it will do wonders to helping you get out of overwhelm.

 

 

 

Categories
Success Attitude

3 Keys to Work Positive at Your Office Party

Announcements of office parties are met with either go-for-it’s or groans.

The go-for-it’s are the ones who enjoyed last year’s party or just look forward to any social experience.

The groans are the persons who remember last year’s with disdain or generally avoid socializing with their work mates.

Whichever you are, here are your 3 Keys to Work Positive at Your Office Party:

Relax

Groaners often sense a need to be more extroverted, or jovial, or ________ than usual. They feel a game of square pegs and round holes coming.

Relax and be yourself. If you prefer to talk with just a few people in a deep conversation, do that.  If you’re a social butterfly, then have at it.

Avoid the extra stress of acting outside of your “normal.” This stress often drives excess alcohol consumption which leads to all kinds of behavior once your inhibitions are released.

Relax. Enjoy being you.

Remind Yourself about What You Can Control

If you’re simply being you, then you have a pretty good sense about what you can and cannot control. Work within what you can control, not without it.

Avoid attempts at “perfect,” i.e., telling the perfect joke or, laughing unduly long at someone else’s. There are some things you can control about the office party, but there are more that you can’t.  Do the best you can at controlling those things you can.

For example, if the party has no ending time established, and your daughter’s dance recital or son’s band concert is the same evening, be present until the appropriate time for the commute to your child’s event. Provide a courteous “thank you” to your leader— teammates if you’re the leader—and planners and excuse yourself with the explanation.

You are the only mom or dad your child has. Control what you can.

Resolve to Enjoy

As with all things Work Positive, focusing on the positive and filtering out the negative sets your mental attitude for an enjoyable evening. Of course you may choose to spend the rest of the year socializing with a different group of people. Of course some of the people present get on your last nerve on a regular basis.

Yet, you can resolve to enjoy yourself before you arrive. Think about previous pleasant office party experiences. See those happening again. Focus on someone you know will be present and what personality qualities you enjoy of theirs.

You really do see what you’re looking for.

Regardless of whether your attitude is “Let’s go for it!” or “Groan,” employ these 3 keys to Work Positive at your office party and enjoy the experience!

About the Author:

Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Negative World (Entrepreneur Press), coach, and speaker who helps business professionals increase sales with greater productivity so they can leave the office earlier to do what they love with those they love. Discover more at www.WorkPositiveBook.com

Categories
Operations

Make The Final 45 Days Your Most Productive Yet

It’s that time of year when we start to hear about setting goals for 2013; make 2013 your best year ever; up level your business in 2013; and all that other stuff. However, what’s being overlooked is that there are still 45 days left of this year … and you can achieve a lot in just 45 days!

I know we have a Thanksgiving Holiday (for those of us in the US) and Christmas/New Year’s too, but that’s really no excuse to slow down and not take action.

You just need to plan around these holidays.

So, let’s take out 2 days for Thanksgiving, and say 5 days for Christmas/New Year … that still leaves 38 days, and a LOT can happen in 38 days.

Here’s how you can take action and finish the year on a high!

Step 1: Take Out Your Calendar

For me that’s taking a look at my Google Marketing & Action Plan calendar; use whichever planner is right for you.  Where are your gaps?  Can you run a quick 3- or 4- session program over the next 38 days? Or, can you follow-up with past clients and prospects?  Whatever you decide to do over the next 38 days, be really clear on how that activity will impact your bottom line.  If it doesn’t make a difference, then don’t do it.

Step 2:  Create a “Project of the Week”

To keep you focused and highly productive (especially during December when we’re distracted by Christmas parties and all other fun, social events) create a “project of the week”.  What will you do each week, for the next five or so weeks that will keep you focused on building and growing your business?

Some of these projects may not directly impact your business for the last part of this year, but will give you a kick start for 2013.  Again, be clear on how your project is the week is going to impact your business.

Step 3: Take It One Step at a Time

Now that you have your next 38 days all planned out, just take everything one step, or one task, at a time.  Stay focused, keep implementing, and you’ll find your baby steps will grow into giant leaps.

And here’s a quick glimpse of what I’ll be working on over the next 38 days:  creating and opening registrations for my 1-day, live virtual workshop; adding a second module to the Business Planning Success program; speaking at a virtual telesummit; and hosting a workshop.  And I have all this planned out with a “Project of the Week”.

Categories
Sales & Marketing

3 Tips to Creating a Free Gift Your Ideal Clients Actually Want

If you’re like many entrepreneurs, concern (or even distress) about the size of your email list is a major issue. And for good reason. 

Your email list — which is a list of folks that have given you permission to email or otherwise contact them — is the foundation of business success. Those are the people who are interested in building a relationship with you and eventually may turn into a customer of yours. The more people on that list, the easier it is to build a profitable, sustainable business. 

So how DO you grow that list? Well, one tried-and-true strategy is to come up with a free gift or “taste” of your offer in exchange for getting your ideal client’s contact information. (An example of this is a special report or a video or audio recording and you set up an opt-in page to collect the name and email address in exchange for giving them access to that content.) 

The problem is, how do you figure out what the best gift should be? Below are 3 tips to help you do exactly that: 

1. Create your gift around what’s keeping your ideal client’s up at night. No matter what it is you sell, there’s one major problem keeping your ideal client’s up at night that your products or services would solve. That’s what you want to focus on — what I call the “gateway” problem. 

This is important to remember — while I know some of you reading this offer very complicated and thorough coaching or healing programs that end solving lots of issues your ideal clients have, they didn’t actually buy the your program because of ALL those results. They bought it because of ONE major issue they were having, and now that your program solved other problems, they’re really excited about it but that’s not what caused them to buy your program in the first place. 

If you try and get too cute or complicated in your initial gift, your ideal clients aren’t going to be that interested in giving you their name and email for the gift (much less actually going through what you put together). 

2. Spend some time crafting a hooky title for your gift. The title is what is going to catch their eye and encourage them to read more about what you’re offering for free. 

So how do you create a hooky title? Go back to what’s keeping your ideal clients up at night. For instance, you’re a weight-loss coach, you could focus on 5 foods that make you fat. Or if you’re a business coach you could focus on 5 mindset traps keeping you from building a successful business. 

Now, what’s keeping your ideal clients up at night is only the first step. As you can see by my examples there are a couple of other tips to help you craft a hooky title: 

* Putting a number in there. It helps to have X tips or steps or secrets or strategies. Adding that detail makes it more specific for your ideal clients plus it implies you’ve laid out the information in a way that makes sense for them to consume. 

* The smaller the slice, the better. Notice I focus on 5 foods that make you fat or 5 mindset traps. Not EVERYTHING that is making you fat or EVERYTHING that is keeping you from growing a business. One piece of the puzzle. Again, that specificity makes it very clear exactly what your ideal clients are getting, and the more clear they are, the more likely it is they’ll want it (if it appeals to them). 

3. Don’t be afraid to make it content-rich — but don’t give away the store. Okay, so how on earth can you do that? 

The best way to do this is to completely answer whatever you promised them you would answer, but your answer should open up another question. So, for the mindset traps, you tell them exactly what the mindset traps are, but if they want more personalized help to avoid them, they’ll need your product. Or you share what the 5 foods are, but then you may need something to replace those foods (or maybe eliminating those foods isn’t enough and they’ll need more help) and that’s where your program comes in. 

The problem I’ve seen with content sharing is either people clearly hold back information so it’s obviously incomplete (which irritates your ideal clients) or they share too much information and their ideal clients end up feeling satisfied and have no need to take the next step (EVEN if it’s a false sense of satisfaction). 

Again, this can be helped if you narrow down what your gift is covering to a very small piece of the puzzle. If you do that, you (hopefully) won’t share so much your ideal clients feel complete, and if you answer that small piece completely, they’ll feel like you gave them a great deal of content.

Categories
Success Attitude

3 Ways to Cure Holiday Overwhelm at Work

Has your to-do list grown overnight?

Yes, it’s “the most wonderful time of the year”…and yet many of us miss the wonder of it all due to the overwhelm at work that accompanies the holidays.

Here are 3 ways to cure your holiday overwhelm at work starting today:

Focus on Positive Strengths

From Madison Avenue to Your Street, you are shoved toward an impending sense of lack during the holidays. This scarcity mentality afflicts you at work as well, shifting your focus to the negative.

Today, make a list of what’s going well with your business right now. Jot some notes about the strengths of 2012. Include percentage growth of revenue, significant product developments, additional team members, customer problems solved, and new referral relationships.

Begin your work day by reading over this list. This single strategy pivots your mindset from negative—what I don’t have—to positive—what we’re doing well. Since you see what you’re looking for, you will add to your list daily as you discover more positive strengths.

Focus on Positive Situations

Overwhelm produces anxiety which shuts down our strategic ability to focus on positive situations. We see Mt. Everest in its entirety instead of the first step that leads to the second step which gets you to the summit. Rather than focusing on what you can do, you shut down because you can’t do it all at once.

Today, make a list of what you can do. Think of these as positive situations from which you leverage the kind of forward motion your business wants to reach your goals. Focus on this list and prioritize it. Pick one activity and do something to check it off. Keep building on the positive momentum you gain from this activity and move forward some more.

As you achieve more, your focus on these positive situations sharpens like a laser. You discover more positive situations and your attitude shifts from overwhelm to accomplishment.

Focus on Positive Signals

Overwhelm emerges during the holidays more as a reaction to the realization that the year is about to end than anything else. You reflect on what wasn’t done, how little time you have left to do it, and the impending sense that it’ll be undone as you begin 2013.

Honestly evaluate what you accomplished toward your 2012 goals now. Strategically act on the positive situations you can now using your positive strengths accrued through the year. Determine what barriers prevented further growth.

Then assess the positive signals emerging as 2012 nears completion that will serve as your springboard to positive growth in 2013. What are the positive strengths? What are the positive situations? How do these project positive signals in 2013?

Focusing on these positive signals gives you excited anticipation for the upcoming new year, curing the holiday overwhelm, and helping you truly enjoy this most wonderful time of the year!

About the Author:

Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Negative World (Entrepreneur Press), coach, and speaker who helps business professionals increase sales with greater productivity so they can leave the office earlier to do what they love with those they love. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org/speaking.