Photographs are clearer when they are in focus. When they are out of focus, they are blurry. How many times have you been disappointed by the result when the focus was off? Faces or objects are blurred, maybe even unrecognizable. Toss that one away a poor quality picture that does not meet the ideal you had in mind when you took it. Scratch it up to experience. Maybe blame it on the camera.
The quality of the reality pictures that show up in your life are also largely due to proper focus.
In the first place, the ideal must be clearly held in mind. The result you desire to out-picture or manifest in your life must first be clearly and distinctly created in your imagination. It must be ‘in focus’; that is, the components must be defined, clearly seen, envisioned.
In the second place, as you go about the ‘doing’ necessary to effectuate the picture, you must remain focused on your goal and not allow yourself to get distracted by what is going on around you.
Simple really, but it always amazes me how unfocused people are. Ask someone to describe their heart’s desire and 90% of the time, you cannot get a clear description from them. It is blurry and indistinct. Generalities but no specifics. Or a description of the picture by what’s not in it.
“I want health, wealth and happiness”
“So what does health mean to you?”
“Well, you know, to not be sick.”
“So what does wealth mean to you?”
“Well, you know, to not be lacking.”
“So what does happiness mean to you?”
“To not be sad, dissatisfied.”
“I want peace.”
“What’s that?”
“Well, you know no more war.”
Not this, not that; defining the picture, the ideal by what is not in it, instead of what is in it. The trouble with focusing on ‘no more war’ is that you are still focusing on war. The trouble with focusing on not being unwell is that you are still focusing on un-wellness, not wellness. The focus is on lack and limitation and not on abundance and potentiality.
As Mark Twain once said, “I can teach anybody how to get what they want out of life. The problem is that I can’t find anybody who can tell me what they want.”
Most people seem to know is what they do NOT want. Focus your attentions and intentions on those ideals that you want, desire, long for, lust after. Make that focus clear and distinct.
You get the picture you have focused on. “Prosperity is the abundance of all things held ideal in mind and dear in heart.” How clear and exact are your ideals? How much desire, longing, passion is attached to them? How focused is the image in your mind? How focused is your desire to have that ideal be out-pictured in your life?
The complex thing about life is that it is wonderfully full of distractions. Here you are, focused on some purpose or goal and then this incredibly intrusive thing occurs.
Perhaps, you are in medical school, totally focused on becoming a doctor. Then this great guy shows up, beds you and before you know it, you are at home practicing motherhood instead of medicine and taking your child to the pediatrician you could have been had you not allowed yourself to be distracted, to lose focus.
Or perhaps, you are busy going about the business of creating a business and some seemingly major obstacle presents itself, so you change your mind, change your plan, change your focus to the next great business idea and the next one after that.
Life is full of distractions making it easy to lose focus. Winners stay focused. Sometimes they are so focused that you cannot even get their attention.
Funny how that is.
How does Serena win Wimbledon? Focus.
How does Lance win the Tour de France? Focus.
How does Michelson win so many tournaments? Focus.
Do you want to win the game of life? Get focused. Stay focused.
After spending four days in beautiful Anaheim, California with over 18,000 real estate professionals you can only imagine that my brain is a little like mush. However, as mushy as it is I realized that I have a boat load of cards and memories of conversations that I had with some great people. As a business coach, I am always asking myself the question how can I help my clients? How can I add more value and give them real world tangible things that they can use in their business?
This post is for you if you find that you attend networking events, conventions or seminars and you have a lot of cards, good intentions but no real strategy for following up and taking the conversation deeper.
Since I just attended the National Association of Realtors Convention I am going to used them as an example but believe me when I say it works for any industry.
Pre-event Strategy
a) Social Networking - What I love about technology and specifically social media is you can find out who will be attending the event prior to going. Let’s say that you are attending a national convention and you want to connect with individuals in your local market you can reach out to those individuals via Facebook event page, Linkedin page or Twitter HashTag. Most people who put on events create a social media page to promote and create a buzz. This is a great way to find out who will be attending before they even show up and guess what you can schedule time to meet with them while you are at the conference…more to come about this.
b) Set Your Intentions – Most people who attend events don’t really have a strategy. As a business strategy coach, this is like nails on a chalkboard to me and it is also a waste of time if you don’t really know what your outcome, goal or objectives are. So get clear…decide how many people you wish to connect with? Are you looking for strategic partners or other vendors who can support your clients? The clearer you are the more likely you are in reaching your objective.
c) Set Up Autoresponder Campaign and Call To Action - You must start with then end in mind. So if we go back to setting your intention. Let’s say that your intention is to connect with a couple of potential clients. I would recommend that you have a call to action that you provide them. An example could be a postcard for a free strategy session or free marketing tips or free webinar. The goal is to know where you want to take them before you ever leave the house. If the objective is to meet a strategic partner maybe the call to action is to give them a postcard for them to schedule an appointment with you for a free cup of java. Make sure you can automate the process by using a service such as www.tungle.me
During the Event
a) Do Talk to Strangers – I remember growing up and what I heard my mother say on a regular basis as I left the house to walk to school was “don’t talk to strangers.” Isn’t it amazing how those words show up many years later when talking to strangers is not only essential but a must if you are looking to grow your business. What I would suggest is to target someone who may be attending the event by themselves and strike up a conversation. Believe me when I say that many people will remember you just because you included them into the conversation or lunch. No one really wants to be on the outside. The other thing is you can practice your elevator pitch and be detached to the outcome. It may sound crazy but many of these people are from other parts of the country and you may never have any other contacts with them ever again. By the way…this is really a great strategy when you are walking through the EXPO. You have a captive audience who can’t get away.
b) Social Media Meet-Ups – Remember those people that you connected with online. What I like to do with large events is let the person know that I would love to connect and invite them to have lunch or connect for coffee during the breaks. It is a great way to deepen the relationship and I cannot tell you how people really do feel connected with you when they had a chance to converse with you on Facebook or LinkedIn.
c) Organizing Business Cards/Contacts – If you are attending a multi-day event, organization is a must. I would recommend that you purchase a expandable file folder (I like to use the accordion-style). Everyday before you go to bed you want to review your cards and separate them in categories…prospects, hot leads, strategic partners, etc. If you use a service like www.instantcustomer.com you can actually snap a picture of their business card with your iPhone and they will updated into your database. You can also automatically include them in your autoresponder or drip campaign. The key is to get them organized before you go home and feel overwhelm.
After the Event
The fun part begins. All of your time, energy and effort has lead you to this point…THE FOLLOW UP. I cannot tell you how many people attend events, seminars, and conventions only to collect 100′s or 1000′s of cards and then nothing. Like seriously people, if you are not going to take the time to follow up then don’t even bother going. I know I might sound harsh but the truth is the truth. Why would you spend your money going to networking events or seminars and you don’t do anything thing afterwards. Ok I am off of the soap box for now. There are a lot of things that you can do to follow up but I am going to share with you my best two golden nuggets…are your ready?
1) Video Message – Do you want to know how to set yourself apart from the competition while leaving a lasting impression? The key is to create mini video messages that share with the person how much you enjoy connecting with them along with a call to action. The call to action could be sign up for my newsletter or it could be let’s schedule a time to have coffee. I would recommend that prior to making the follow up that you block time in your schedule to follow up with the leads. If you use a service like www.tungle.me or www.timetrade.com you will be able to have the prospective client or strategic partner schedule with you automatically and you avoid the dreaded email and phone tag.
You might be wondering how to create the video. I will share that on an upcoming video post. I just want you to know that I have closed a lot of business because I used this one powerful business strategy.
2) Phone Call – I know you may be thinking I am crazy but I have found that no one picks up the phone and if you go through the organized contacts and just do a phone blitz where you call them and mention that you really enjoyed speaking with them you will be surprised by the response that you will received. I would encouraged you to wait at least 2-3 days from the big conference to start following up…it gives people time to get their bearings.
On the next post I will share with you the technology that I use for both the videos and the phone calls. These are the same marketing strategies that I go more in detail during my weekend event, Skyrocket Your Sales Summit. If you want to learn more about this powerful and transformational event feel free to visit www.skyrocketyoursalessummit.com
Happy Follow Up!!!
I was sitting in the middle of an event and I had the biggest “AHA” that I’ve experienced in a long time. I heard the presenter, my friend Eiji Morishita say “What pisses you off about your industry or market?” I can hear bells going off in my head and I knew exactly what gets under my skin, simply put “Authenticity and Integrity.” They probably go hand-in-hand but what I know is there are so many speakers, coaches, trainers, service professionals who are not authentic. Hear me when I say, I am not acting as if I am Moses on the mountaintop declaring that I am better than anyone else. The reason for this post is because I care about those within my industry and those that I serve.
You see I figured out something during that event. It was a burning question that I had been wrestling with for the last couple years since I started my company. What is it you may ask? I glad I peeked your curiosity. The question I had was why are so many entrepreneurs struggling while others who seem less talented making millions? The answer I believe is AUTHENTICITY. I believe these entrepreneurs know who they are and they are comfortable in their skin. This level of authenticity is so refreshing especially when we are in a world with a lot of people trying to be someone else. This authenticity is not only refreshing it is seductive and it draws you in to a point that you want to buy from them.
Think about it…our buying decision is always one that starts with emotion. We buy emotionally and then we justify logically. So if I meet someone who is authentic and they seem very competent I have no problem being persuaded or a better word would be influenced to purchase from them. However, when I meet someone and everything looks absolutely perfect on the outside, their appearance is immaculate, they are an excellent communicator and may even appear to know their stuff but I don’t buy. Why? Because despite what I am looking at their is something that is incongruent and because non-verbal communication is more powerful than verbal communication I walk away scratching my head and saying I wanted to buy from them but something is not quite right with that individual.
That something was my intution letting me know that the person was not authentic or they were out of integrity with what they were communicating. Which brings up another point…INTEGRITY. Have you heard of the statement “Fake it to you make it.” I know so many people who are putting on airs and acting like they have it all handle and guess what that is doing for their business. Absolutely NOTHING!!! As a matter fact because they seem so polish, so put together they are not getting business because people think they are successful and don’t need any new clients. Crazy is it?
As a person who holds a degree in psychology I love Alfred Adler who theory was to live “as if”. To operate your life “as if” you have everything that you want. It is similar to visualization. If I see myself as a millionaire how would I act, speak, and be. I have no problem with a person doing that as a matter of fact it is by incorporating this new behavior, ritual and habit that will propel you faster than anything that I have ever experience. I’ll share my story about moving to San Diego on a future post and I used this principle to get me here. The distinction between “fake it to you make it” and live “as if” is the former your brain doesn’t believe it where as with the latter your brain absolutely does. The reason why fake it to you make it doesn’t work is because you haven’t place yourself in the actual state of being there and your brain said “Bull Shit”. This translates in your presentations, your conversations and ultimately your bottom line.
So what is the answer. Two powerful words “AUTHENTICITY and INTEGRITY“. This is the new marketing strategy. Actually it is not a strategy at all. It is you being yourself. This goes deeper than you can imagine, you see I believe that everyone has a tribe, a community that they are called to serve. It is their mission and calling to help these people. This is something that I go in more detail at my Get More Business Workshop where I help the participants identify who they are here to serve. If you are walking around trying to be an imitation of someone else than your tribe and community cannot find you and thus they are left suffering.
If you are not making the money that you want and you have a marketing strategy in place. If you have crafted your ideal client profile and have a kick-ass elevator pitch and you have your revenue plan and have identified your mission and know why you are in business. If all of these things are handled and you are not making money then I would have you consider that you may have lost yourself in your marketing. Are you modeling someone or imitating what someone else is doing? Are you becoming a mini me? Are you asking for help? Do you believe in yourself and your product/service?
These are some thought-provoking questions and I know for some I may ruffle your feathers but it is because I am pissed off. I am pissed off with watching amazing people struggling to get their gifts out into the world. I am disturb that these amazing people are not making all the money their hearts desire. I am upset because their are tribes and communities that are suffering because YOU are not showing up as YOU. Yes I am pissed off but more importantly this realization started with me looking at my business and asking these same questions of myself and believe when I say I didn’t like my answers. However, what I love is that out the conversation emerge “rae” and a new desire and passion for my business and I am on a quest to find my tribe and my community. I am a beacon of light and I am standing in authenticity and integrity and because I am willing to be me I know they can find me.
Your tribe is waiting on you and wanting you to help them…will the real YOU stand up?
P.S. By the way…if you don’t have your marketing strategy, revenue plan, elevator pitch, and your mission flesh out I would like to invite you to come to my upcoming workshop “Get More Busines NOW!” on September 17. I am adding the authenticity marketing piece to it and I can’t wait…it is going to be JUICY!
Many of you know that my son Christopher normally spends the summers with his dad. This is a time that I as a mother of a teenager and solopreneur have grown to appreciate. It is not because I have problems with my son, far from it but rather it gives him an opportunity to have a different perspective. You see sometimes we can find ourselves falling into what I like to call the curse of familiarity. This is when we become so close or use to something that we begin to take it for granted. Rather that is our environment (i.e. house, city) or our relationships (friends, spouses, siblings). So, Christopher gets to go back to Detroit and see how our life has been transformed through the decisions that I have made.
However, this summer was a little different than the last six years. Why? Because now we have our little puppy, “Sushi Sashimi Ming”. My little Shih Tzu we got for my birthday. She has not been away from her brother since we got her and she had a hard time adjusting to his sudden disappearance. Every morning she would wake up and lay outside of his bedroom door wondering where he was. After a month, she would stop going to his door and she just adjusted to the fact that maybe “the little human” no longer was part of the family.
Six weeks later, we picked Christopher up from Los Angeles airport and we had a conversation about how Sushi would respond to him when he arrived home. Would she bark or growl? Would she be afraid (since he grew 3 inches over the summer)? Would she even remember who he was? Well… the moment of truth arrived and I decided I probably should take her outside to relieve herself before she saw Chris (puppies sometimes can’t control their bladder when excited).
We came back into the house I said “Sushi, where is your brother? Go find your brother.” That is when Chris said “Come here Sushi.” OMG…that puppy ran upstairs as if she had a rocket attached to her body.
She was so excited to see her brother. She wagged her tail, jumped up and down, trying to get him to pick him up. And Chris was even more adorable. He stood their with his arms wide open unsure what to do. It was an absolute magic moment! My only regret is I didn’t record it…truly priceless!!!
Several days later, I reflected how much I wanted to created that for the clients that I have the opportunity to serve. That excitement to their business. How can I help them to be even more excited about their business? It also made me think about as entrepreneurs we can sometimes find ourselves on this quest to attract new clients. Our objective is to get more customers and make more money and we forget about really serving our current clients in a greater way. Don’t get me wrong, client attraction is vitally important to growing a profitable business but even more important is client retention.
How do you make your client feel before, during and after they purchase from you? Are you excited when you see them on your calendar? Do you race to get to your appointment with them? Are you taking them for granted? These questions may be something that you haven’t thought about answering. However, I have coached many clients over the year who almost dreaded getting a new client or they may have been disenchanted with their current clients and then they scratch their head wondering where is the new business.
Our messages and lessons are presented to us in many ways and this was something for me as a business coach to really pay attention. You see I have been blessed to work with some of the most heart-centered, passionate and amazing entrepreneurs. They are individuals who truly want to make a difference and add massive value to others lives and they have entrusted me to help them to take their gift out into the world. This is something that I must remind myself on a daily basis so that I don’t fall into the trap of the “curse of familiarity.”
Starting today, what can you do to make your clients know how valuable their are to them? Can you implement a client appreciation program? Can you create a client retention program? One of my clients, implemented the Current Client TouchPoint strategy from my Biz Blueprint in a Box System and they were amazed by the referrals that they received from their existing clients. It truly is the law of reciprocity at its best. And hear me when I say it is not about manipulation it is about serving and when you come from a place of making a difference and adding massive value the rewards are great!
As a new coach, speaker or trainer you may be wondering what is the best solution for accepting payments from your clients. This video highlights to solutions that I have used:
1) Paypal
2) PracticePaySolutions.com
I used PayPal when I was first getting started and there are several benefits and it is great if you are new but if you want the capability to do recurring billing, have a virtual terminal and a shopping cart I would recommend Practice Pay Solution. In either case, you need to get clear if the merchant account of preference will capped you with a limit or reserve. The last thing you want is to have your account frozen and you are unable to get your money because they decided to limit the amount that you can process on a monthly basis. Read the fine print carefully and afterward decide which will support your long-term business vision.
I just returned from eWomenNetwork National Conference and I will say it was electrifying. The energy along with the brilliant and powerful women just blew my mind. However, I would suspect that many of those who attended will not follow up and will lose many amazing opportunities.
What about you? How many networking events, seminars, lunches and coffees have you attended and afterwards you found yourself with a bunch of business cards that you politely place inside your top desk drawer?
Here is the thing..if you do not follow up you will not grow your business the way you wish. I too struggle with the same challenges as you and what I learned is one simple truth…if it is left up to me solely I will FAIL. I know you are probably thinking…how motivating? But I am a truth teller and I am reminded of a quote by W. Edward Deming that states “95% of all failure has nothing to do with the people but rather the systems.” Let me just add to the quote by saying or lack of a system.
What is your plan when you attend a networking event? Do you have a systematic and automated way of following up? If the answer is no then I will sadly predict that you will fail. It is because I am committed to your success that I am willing to have this big girl conversation with you and challenge you to look at what you are doing in regards to follow-up.
Here are the some things to consider:
1) Prior to attending a networking event, clearly determine your outcome or objective. How many people would you like to meet? Or is there a certain person you are targeting?
2) Make sure you have time blocked out to follow up. If you are attending a breakfast or lunch…schedule (1) hour in the afternoon on the same day to send personal notes, emails, or follow-up calls to schedule those all important lunches or coffees. If it is an evening event…schedule time the following morning before you begin your day.
3) Place them into you autoresponder systems…with permission so that you can systematically drip on them. I would highly recommend you checkout a service such as Monster Follow-Up.
4) Make the appointment and keep the appointment. I cannot tell you how many people who have called me to have coffee and then flake because something came up which was deemed more important than a new client. Unbelievable but true. Be a person of integrity and honor your commitments. Another great tool for scheduling appointments is TimeTrade which helps with the automation process.
5) Determine how you can serve them while you are at the meeting. If it is a connection….make the introduction. If it is a book…send them a copy. ADD value first and then work at nurturing the relationship.
These are just some business strategy tips that you can do to really impact, improve and skyrocket your sales.
Happy networking…or better yet “To the Follow-Up!”
I woke up on a Saturday morning and my assistant a.k.a. Christopher stepped into my office to inform me that he couldn’t get onto my blog to do the maintenance and clean up that I had commissioned him to do. After several failed attempts, it became crystal clear that we had a problem. Support ticket and 25 minutes wait time lead to the word that literally de-stablized me…”Your website has been compromised by a malicious force.” I kid you not…that was the language to inform me that someone had “hacked” my account. All (7) of my websites were compromised.
Here are the lessons I learned that I figured what a great coaching opportunity to share with my community.
There are three things that you must do on a regular basis if you are using WordPress as a platform for your blog, membership site or company’s website.
1) BACK-UP, BACK-UP, BACK-UP - Did you hear me say backup? Yes…this was the one thing that I didn’t think about or even know that you should do. Backup your wordpress files. The easiest way to do it is to log in to your wp-admin and over to the left you will see a tab named “Tools.” If you click on tools you will see export tab…this allow you to export all of your posts, pages, pictures, media and comments to a file on your hard-drive and obvious you should be backing up your hard-drive…right? By doing this one thing it will save you a lot of pain and anquish if someone decides they don’t like you or that they are bored or whatever god-forsaken reason someone would choose to hack someone’s blog.
2) Update to New Version – Whenever I would log into my blog to make an update I would notice at the top of the page it would say new update available. In the past, I would ignore and continue working but what I’ve learned is that is how they are able to get in. They are able to write a “malicious script” from the older version and when you fail to update to the newer version you are leaving yourself wide open to get hacked. It really takes less than a minute…you just click on the update and click automatically update and voila (30 seconds later) you are done.
3) Change Your Passwords Frequently – What does frequently look like? For everyone it is going to be different but I would recommend at least quarterly if you are the only one in charge of the site. If you are outsourcing I would recommend that you do it on a monthly basis. I have hired and sadly fired over 8 virtual assistants which means there were 8 people who had access to my site. Not to mention when you hire someone to install it on your hosting account. Protect yourself…I am not suggesting that a virtual assistant would stoop so low as to sabotage your work. But this is your life’s work and your livelihood…not to mention your brand and reputation. Yes… it will take additional time which you may not have but at the end of the day it is well worth it.
Learn from my mistakes and take heed. As you grow your business and become more and more successful, you will make enemies. Everyone will not like you that sadly is the world we live in. Set-up your firewall, protect your computers, and do what you are good at which I hope is transforming and changing lives. To your success!
Do you know as a coach, as a consultant, as a speaker and trainer one of the major struggles that we face is how to generate more business. This article is to share one of the business strategies that I have used to increase my business over the last 12 months. Believe or not…it is speaking or workshop. It is you going in to create your seminar or being invited in as a speaker. What I know is when you are in front of someone it positions you as from someone who is just in the audience to an expert and people want to buy from experts.
Not only that, it instantly gives you credibility. Anytime, you have a microphone in your hand and you are in front of the audience, they automatically buy default say, “This person must be credible.” What I would encourage you to do first and foremost, is look at networking events that you attend, rather that’s a chamber of commerce, BNI, International Coach Federation, National Assn of Realtors, any trade association have an opportunity for you to speak.
I would get in touch with the event planner or program manager and say that I would love to share my message with your audience. For you to introduce this one strategy in your business, it goes from the one to one approach which may be draining to the one to many (which by far is a great leverage model). Instead of having one qualify prospects you position yourself to 20 to 100 qualify prospects.
So one of the things that I know that people struggle with when they are looking to generate more business is networking. I have really generated some amazing clients through my networking efforts. How about you? If you haven’t, then 9 times out of 10 I know where the gap is. For instance, what I’ve learned is that many people when they go to the networking event they are going cold. What I would recommend that you do is I would recommend that you set an intention. For me it is 3 to 5 people that I am committed to meeting and while I am there is not about me just taking or receiving. It is about me going there wanting to help them. And so normally I ask them (3) questions: Who are you? What do you do? And what do you need next? What I mean by that is what do you need next to grow your business to the next level? And once I have that information I’m thinking in my mental rolodex who do I know that I can introduce them to. The next important piece is the follow-up. Because I know there are a lot of people that do a lot of networking but their follow up is lousy. So what I would encourage you to do is to create a systematic follow-up system so that the next day for instance, what I do is I send an email or sometimes even a video email where I let the person know how great it was to meet them and I make the introduction. So if I have that person that they need in order to take their business to the next level. I send them an introduction email and then I also say oh by the way it would be amazing if we had an opportunity to connect for coffee. And that way I can see if they are a fit. If you just do these two things…just these two things. It’s going to the event with a plan, right, set the intention and two have the follow-up. Then you will find not only your business grow but you will have more of your ideal client.
There are 5 keys that you need to unlock the doors to unlimited sales. Watch video 1 of 5 part series and learn why having a clearly defined mission is the #1 critical business strategy you must have for business growth and expansion.
