THE 10-STEPS TO HIGH PAYOFF SUCCESS

By Linda Feinholz, “Your High Payoff Catalyst”

It takes two things to become successful: Motivation and An Action Plan. You proved that you have the first crucial element: motivation. You showed it in the steps you’ve taken that got you this far.

Sometimes, motivation creates a momentum of it’s own… until one day we look up and realize we actually are stalled in place. Now I’m not a maniac about that phrase everyone trots out “Grow or Die!” I’ve found that phrase driving business leaders into actions that create all sorts of time, energy and resources just for the glory of appearing to be in motion. What a waste!

Is it purposeful action? I am a hard nose about making a clear distinction: Are you marking time, standing still, holding a constant place because this is the destination you were aiming for? Or, are you here because you hadn’t noticed you’re “here?” You may even be repeating yourself, doing the same old same old out of habit, with not an ounce of motivation driving it at all.

Over the past 20 years I’ve developed a guaranteed 10-step system anyone can use to create success that’s on purpose, sustainable, and repeatable. My business clients use these steps, whether they’re a solo-preneur in the financial services industry, a small business owner with a manufacturing operation, or a senior executive in a non-profit. (In fact, I used it myself to turn a set of skills and interests into a vibrant consulting and coaching career!)

Here it is:

Step 1: Find your Personal PURPOSE – Become an observer of what motivates you, what activities, industries, roles challenge you and interests you over and over again. It’s a pattern you can use with ease to drive your momentum throughout your life.

Step 2: Declare a VISION for your world – Write a compelling statement that describes what you want to see created in the larger world. What is the thing you dream could be different than it is now?

Step 3: Set an INTENTION for yourself – Decide what aspect of that larger Vision is the piece you’ll take on, put your heart and intelligence behind, and make your personal mission. It’s your slice of the world you’ll pave for others to thrive on.

Step 4: Imagine the STEPS you’d use to achieve it – It all starts in imagination! Grab a piece of paper (or your computer keyboard) and draft the key milestones you believe should be achieved and who could be invited to help reach them.

Step 5: SHARE the Dream - There is power in participation, even at the early design stage. So create a board of advisors for yourself to flush out your idea. Invite the time, intelligence and experience of others to design it well from the start.

Step 6: Find your TEAM – As your idea takes shape you need to develop a list of the skills it will take to achieve it. Make sure that list includes the experience, contacts, and personal styles of the people you want to recruit so that you can tell everyone you know exactly who you’re looking to bring onboard.

Step 7: Create the ROADMAP – View this as a team exercise. When you involve everyone who will participate your plan will be more comprehensive, potential obstacles may be identified before they occur, resources you’ll need can be spelled out, and solutions can be implemented with less resistance and with full participation.

Step 8: Install SYSTEMS – As your idea becomes reality and you develop a real, permanent organization, you need to put processes and structures in place. This makes it all easy to add each new person to your team, to make each effort an efficient one, and create a sustainable endeavor that actually requires less effort as you succeed, rather than more!

Step 9: Focus on MORE – Ask everyone on your team how it could be more… easy, effective, successful, enjoyable, productive, efficient, profitable, imaginative, innovative, collaborative, influential. Add your own adjectives and see how many marvelous and relevant ideas can enrich and accelerate your Vision coming to fruition.

Step 10: Test and ADJUST - Monitor how well your Actions are achieving the results you expected. Are you on track toward your targets? Then keep going. If not, you can learn from examining whether you need to shift what you’re aiming for, or how you’re approaching it.

Of course, this is just a brief overview. Any one of these powerful steps can create breakthrough results for you!

This 10-step system includes so many proven strategies you can use to create a High Payoff that I can’t even begin to list them all here.

But if you’re impatient for success, and feel yourself stalled, then take a fresh start with this list and get clear about the step-by-step action plans you’ll take to get fresh motivation and back into action.

November 30, 2007 | Filed Under Processes | Leave a Comment 

Change 1 Goal And You Can Change It All!

There is no single perfect formula for a High Payoff life. At different points of our life we each need to rebalance what we are giving our time, attention and energy to. One of the quickest ways to check where you’d like to shift your attention can be done using a “Life Wheel”.

You can create one right now on a blank piece of paper. Draw a large circle. Turn it into a pie by drawing 10 equal slices. Put each of these words in one of the slices: Health. Family. Friends. Finances. Career. Learning. Recreation. Community. Giving. Spiritual.
With your attention on one topic at a time, ask yourself:

“How satisfied am I with this aspect of my life?”

Beginning at the center of the pie, shade each slice to the degree that you are satisfied with it. This will give you a graphical reference of where you’d like to set a new goal. Share that goal with others in your live and you’ll have a whole new balance in no time!

November 27, 2007 | Filed Under Goal Setting, Vision | Leave a Comment 

THE 10-PERCENT KEY TO CREATING A HIGH PAYOFF LIFE

By Linda Feinholz, “Your High Payoff Catalyst”

It’s not at all unusual for my coaching club members to feel their life is a bit out of balance. Taking the time to get back in touch with their goals can completely re-orient how they use their time and efforts, and the success they create.

Working with new clients this week got me to thinking: why not give a “coach’s challenge” to my newsletter readers to get back in touch with their own Goals. This challenge can help you focus your personal and professional time for a month, a year, and beyond.

If you’ll set aside 10 minutes today to read through this list of 10 areas in life, and set a goal for yourself to increase your attention and energy by 10 percent in any or all of them, it will lead you on the golden road to a High Payoff Life!

Ready to get started? Here are 10 Key Areas that help you create that High Payoff path.
1. Health. What attention do you give to creating health in your life? Do you have an image of what you’d like your health to be? Setting aside all the exercise fads and diet programs, do you choose ‘health’ when you select your food? Do you move your body beyond the floors of your home or office? Do you spend even eight hours a week breathing air that hasn’t been re-circulated?
2. Family. Do you have your soul fed by ‘family’ time? For some of us that means parents and children, brothers and sisters and cousins. For others it’s the family we create with the people we share our lives with. How much of your life contains life’s celebrations and comfort with family?
3. Friends. How much time do you spend with others who share your interests? Do you actually have interests beyond your profession, your job, your career? The creativity and solutions we find in our work life are often found in through rest of our lives. The richer we make our relationships, the richer our ability to revitalize the rest of our life.
4. Finances. Do you look money straight in the eye? So many of us are taught to avoid looking at our finances as if it’s the luck of the draw what we earn, what we keep, how we use money. The clearer you set your money goals, the easier it is to lay out the systematic steps that will give you the power over money in your life..
5. Career. Were you aware you make most of your life a career? You spend your weekday daylight hours out in the world on a professional path. You may do it as an employee or employer. Whether you make your mark as an entrepreneur or professional, or as a business owner the goals you set are the goals you achieve
6. Learning. Do you gift yourself with life long learning? Learning comes in those moments when you ‘stretch’ yourself beyond the familiar. Learning may come to you through conversations with others, sports activities, books, magazines or even deliberately listening to talk show hosts you don’t agree with!
7. Recreation. How do you play? I mean do you ever let loose in ways that let exuberant energy flood you and burst out in laughter? At times it may be physical play through sports, or mental play through attending concerts, lectures, theater. Hike, bike, dance, picnic, rent a horse or paint a house.
8. Community. Do you have a connection with the people living around you? More than saying “Hi!” to the checker at the grocery store, have you let yourself become part of the web of connections at your local schools, library, or recreation center. The more people you connect with, the more avenues you create for yourself to build relationships in all the other areas of your life.
9. Giving. When do you turn your attention from acquiring for yourself to helping those in need? Donating your time, attention, energy and intelligence is often as valuable as your funds. Your community is filled with organizations designed to offer assistance. You can join as a board participant, an advisor, or even as an event volunteer. Every one of those activities can be gifts that reshape the world.
10. Spiritual. Do you feed your spirit? For some of us it’s found though joining people in organized religious participation. For others it’s in quiet moments in nature. There is even the opportunity for connection within our daily routine through meditation, singing, and other pursuits.

Set a goal to add just 10 percent more in any of these areas. Share this list with others in your life and create the shared goals that will build a rich life for years to come.

November 25, 2007 | Filed Under Goal Setting, Ideas, Inspiration, Vision | Leave a Comment 

Change 1 “Marketing Moment” And You Can Change It All!

Not all of the holiday cards I receive go in the bin.

Every once in a while the card is an exquisite photograph that is so beautiful I put in on my window ledge, call the sender and tell them how much I appreciate it, and keep it for months. It enlivens my life and reminds me of them every time I see it. Other people see it and we end up having wonderful conversations about the card, the image, the person who sent it.

That’s moment of marketing that builds a relationship.

So before you invest your resources to send out mass holiday mailings, ask yourself:

“What is this adding to the receiver’s life?”

And send something worth putting on a window ledge for a month or two.

November 19, 2007 | Filed Under Marketing | Leave a Comment 

HIGH PAYOFF MARKETING IN 1 MINUTE A DAY

By Linda Feinholz, “Your High Payoff Catalyst”

Is this you, too? I’m standing by my recycling bin doing the ‘rip, glance and toss’ with a flood of holiday cards from companies whose names I don’t recognize.

Now not all of them are just churned through from Mail Box to Blue Bin. Some of them have an ink scrawl on them that looks like a name I might recognize. I’m not sure whose hand actually wrote it though. I do take a look at the ones with family photos. They make me smile to watch everyone grow up over the years. But the rest have my attention for approximately 1.7632 seconds.

In this age of technology I’m sure the senders think this is being ‘personal’ in their marketing.

It’s making the US Postal Service happy to have the business I’m certain. I’m equally sure that as a marketing exercise it’s a complete waste of natural resources. Those cards are heading right for the recycling bin and the landfill.

For 13 years I’ve networked in the Los Angeles business community and I’m convinced there are staff in companies whose time is spent taking stacks of business cards and entering them into some contact management system. That information sits in a computer, with no connection created between me and that company, until someone at the firm decides “Let’s send a Holiday card to The List” and suddenly a flood of cheery cards go out.

As I stand there ripping, glancing and tossing I’m certain that many of the senders wouldn’t be able to pick my face out of a crowd and put a name to it.

And that’s not marketing. It’s not being in touch. And it’s certainly not building a relationship with me that will keep the sender in my mind in any productive way.

So those “marketing communication” Holiday greetings cards go from my “In” basket straight into the recycling bin, and the corporate identity goes from my eyes to my… well nowhere.

If you still had to pay a secretary to hand write addresses on all those cards would you be doing it? I sure wouldn’t. Businesses are sending them out because ‘technology is making it easy.’ Put some category in the system, input cards, and forget about the people those card represent. Then someone hits ‘send’ and has a mail house mass produce and address them and checks “Done” on a Marketing To Dos list.

If you want to make a marketing impact, make a memory. If you want to make a memory, take the time to match the message to your market. Then use technology to make it easier and appreciated by your market.

That means you need to be clear about whether each person is a referral relationship, a customer, or a prospective client. Then make your message relevant for each of them. Make each message important to THEM, and worth their time to pay attention to it.

And instead of sending anonymous cards to your entire database, build a relationship with your current clients and referral sources. Here are three ways to use technology in marketing that will take less than 5 minutes a week:

1 – Send a relevant piece of information monthly

Whether you send an entire newsletter or a quick tip is up to you. The key is to watch for information that is useful to the person you are sending it to. What is an unusual challenge that you solved? Will the person who receives your marketing piece find that information relevant? If so, include it in an email with a quick “you might be interested in this” note. Otherwise, leave them off the distribution list.

2 – Send a timely Thank You when you receive a referral

If someone has kept you in mind and taken the time and effort to try to match someone in need with the solutions you provide, let them know it’s appreciated. Take the 90-seconds to pick up the phone, or write an email, and say “Thanks!” If the referral is not a fit, say “Thanks!” and tell them the reason why it was not a match so they’ll be more expert at making the next referral.

3 – Send a holiday marketing moment that makes people smile

Create an electronic holiday card that is personal, and email it to your contacts. Don’t put any links in it, just a fabulous image and a wish for their continued success. How to make it personal? Upload an image that makes you smile or laugh and share it with them so they have the same moment and associate it with you!

Let’s make this year the one in which we say “I’m Glad To Know You!” and leave wood still growing as a tree and the recycling bins and landfills empty!

© 2007 Linda Feinholz

November 16, 2007 | Filed Under Marketing | Leave a Comment 

Change 1 “Whisper” And You Can Change It All!

We all get stuck. The trick is to learn to limit how long we’re stuck!

There is a question I use regularly to take control over how long I spend stalled out that you may find gets you moving again too.

Ask yourself:

“What topic has my mind been whispering about over and over again today?”

No matter the answer you get, take it as a topic that needs your attention for 15-minutes. If you test it against those 4 reasons for stall-outs you’ll likely find you can solve it and be done with it for good!

November 12, 2007 | Filed Under Productivity Tools | 1 Comment 

4 WAYS TO SHIFT OUT OF STALL-OUT AND GET YOUR BUSINESS BACK ON TRACK

By Linda Feinholz, “Your High Payoff Catalyst”

Have you ever had the experience of putting a great plan together and then realizing you’re not making the progress you assumed you would?

I’ve been coaching my entrepreneurial and small business clients through that very stall out point for years. I’ve worked in businesses large and small, managed them, and consulted to the entrepreneurs and business owners who are passionate about creating results and yet find themselves struggling in quicksand.

And one of the reasons I’m so good at getting people un-stuck is that I’ve lived there myself! I’ve had great practice getting stalled and getting going again. I’ve mastered it just like you master any sport you want to get great at.

Does this seem familiar? There are times where I start out clear sighted about my goal, I’ve mapped out the steps I’m going to use to get there, and set my targets so I’ll know I’m getting it all done.

For days, even weeks, I’m zooming along on all jets. I’m making progress worth bragging about. I believe it’s all smooth sailing.

And then one day I notice my anxiety level has been running high for days. I’ve been constantly feeling like “I’m not getting anything done.” And I hear my inner voice justifying and rationalizing how I’m spending time when I’m actually mentally or literally walking around in circles.

Not only don’t I feel like bragging about my progress – I’m inventing stories that excuse why I’m not hitting the deadlines that seemed to simple only days ago.

I’ve found that there are usually just a few reasons for the stall out happening and once I know which it is this time, I can rapidly get back on track.

When I finally recognize that I’m creating a whirlpool in my office carpet, I sit myself down and checkout the reasons.

Here are 4 reasons you may be stuck, and simple High Payoff solutions to get back on track:

1 - Identify if there is a problem with the Form, Content, or Timing of this effort
It’s a very common stumbling block to have our attention on one facet of a project when another actually needs our attention. Are you trying to get agreement by holding a discussion through emails? It may be that this item needs a single conversation by phone or in person so it can be sorted out and actions agreed to. If you’re sitting in meetings discussing the same thing multiple times, the content wasn’t set with a clear agenda. Or you may be holding the discussion before people have done their prep work and need more time to show up productively.

The Solution: Use the “Form, Content, Timing” Triad to identify what may need to be sorted out and changed.

2 - Notice when the hang up is caused by ‘over-working’
Your attention may become absorbed in one issue that’s very interesting to you, when another actually needs to be solved first. I’ll let you in on a secret: Sometimes I’m like a laser and cut through all the distractions and get stuff done like a rocket. And at other times, I get lost in the ‘doing’ and dive in so deep I make it more detailed or complicated. I’m enjoying swimming in the material I’m absorbed with and 3 hours can just fly by. Only I budgeted 20 minutes to get it done!

The Solution: Create a written plan, even using your daily calendar, and refer to it every hour to see if you’re staying on track.

3 - Test out whether the hang up is due to an inner messenger
Sometimes we commit to taking action on something when we aren’t actually standing behind it. We don’t believe in it. Or, we don’t believe it’s achievable. Or we have an instinct that something is being missed and it’s premature to take action on it. In every one of those circumstances, I find myself inventing interruptions and delays so that I don’t have to actually take action.

The Solution: Notice when you’re feeling tight and anxious and to probe what inner information may be trying to get your attention.

4 - Recognize if the stall out is due to external activities someone else controls
Very often our own progress depends on other people providing information or even a finished product in order for us to do our own part. We’ve set out own plans and we’re ready to do our part but don’t have anything to work on. Sometimes we’ve mis-estimated how long it really will take for the other person to complete their part and hand it off to us.

The Solution: Offer to help them along. And in the mean time have a High Payoff back up plan for what you’ll do with your time while you’re in the ‘wait’ mode.

November 9, 2007 | Filed Under Managing, Processes | Leave a Comment 

7 STEPS TO HIGH PAYOFF FAILURE

By Linda Feinholz, “Your High Payoff Catalyst”

It’s not only at Halloween that we show up in costume rather than our authentic selves. From a very early age we’ve been trained to hang on to the masks we wear. We got messages to put a smile on our face, don’t cry, say ‘please,’ ‘thank you’ and ‘sorry’ when we don’t mean it.

So we put on labels like ‘professional’, ‘boss’ and ‘successful’ and then construct a mask we think presents that to the world. And as business owners and entrepreneurs, those masks don’t serve us well in the long run.

We loose track of who we are what we really want for ourselves as we posture our successes whether or not we feel we’ve achieved them.
We miss learning how to cope with disappointments and take action to build on unexpected results of our efforts.
We miss out on new relationships and information that could rapidly shift us from failure to success.

We miss learning how to “Fail Up.”

So here are 7 tips for creating High Payoff Failure and using it to accelerate your Success!

1 – Set Your Vision
In order to experience Success you have to know what it looks like. No one else can set your Vision for you. That means taking the time to create a rich Vision of what you want, in a project, in business, in life. So set aside 10 minutes, grab a piece of paper and something to write with and in 15 sentences describe the success you want 20 years from now.

2 – Unleash It
You’ve written it down. Now announce it. Stand in a comfortable place and read it out loud. Then let it go. Get your attention on the actions you’ll take to do your part to achieve it. Even 1-hour a day will do. Make that hour fully focused on developing your skills, your idea, and moving your plan forward and by the end of a year you’ll have mastered a new skill, moved your idea into the real world, and put hundreds of hours into making it come true.

3 – Consider Each Failure Market Research
The best-kept secret of Success is that it’s built on Failures – lots of them! The faster you fail, the quicker you are finding out what ideas, plans and actions you should spend less time on. The quicker you recognize what won’t get you to your Vision, the faster you can adjust your efforts to focus them on what will succeed.

4 – Compete For Failure
If your attention is on ‘what others are doing’ or ‘someone else has done it’ as an excuse for waiting to take action – you’ve missed the point. They’re failing and picking themselves up and continuing on toward success. They’re laying the groundwork for your own path on their budget instead or yours. Watch them so you can leverage their hours of effort and dollars spent by learning from their failures so your energy can be spent on different failures on the path to success.

5 – Ease Your Way Forward
People who became ‘overnight successes’ will tell you – They spent hundreds of hours a year for many years creating that success. And they often did it while holding down another job. If your Vision is in a new path, dedicate relaxed, decisive time to it. Put uninterrupted time on your calendar daily and weekly to focus on it and you’ll be able to announce your own instant success as well.

6 – Success Calls For Celebration ~ And So Does Failure!
Make sure you don’t get so buried in the tasks that are building each step from failure to success that you don’t appreciate the learning along the way. Each of those ‘Lessons Learned’ hold valuable information and deserve to be recognized promptly so that you and everyone else on your team recognizes their value. Then you’ll all climb back into action with the attitude that says “Bring it on!” and keeps you headed towards Success.

7 – Surprise Yourself
Remember how you unleashed your Vision? One of the most important reasons is so that you don’t micro-manage it. Failure will make you pause and step back. When you shift your attention, you’ll be able to see that the universe is constantly providing you with encounters that lead to your Vision – often in unexpected opportunities and new people crossing your path. Keep your attention out in the world where those amazing encounters can offer you new ideas and even quicker routes to your Vision.

Now take off your mask and go Fail your way to Success!

Let me know how you do with it, and the results you create.

November 2, 2007 | Filed Under Ideas, Processes, Vision | Leave a Comment 

Change 1 “Failure” And You Can Change It All!

Practice making each and every one of your ‘failures’ High Payoff!

Grab a piece of paper and something to write with and list all your ‘failures’ of the past 12 months.
Now ask yourself:

“What was the information and learning I gained from each of those failures?”

Now figure out how you’ll use each one of those answers to build towards your Success.

November 1, 2007 | Filed Under Ideas, Productivity Tools | Leave a Comment