Success Quotes

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”

Dale Carnegie

April 30, 2008 | Filed Under Quotes | Leave a Comment 

Change 1 Idea And You Can Change It All!

Do you have a marketing idea that’s been languishing? Sitting on the shelf waiting for a ‘better’ day?

You may have put it on the shelf for lack of time to give it attention, or for lack of certainty how to put it into action. If you’re stalled because of lack of time, let’s get it pulled back onto your front burner.

Take it out, dust it off and ask yourself:

“What is the next step to bring this idea into action?”

Block off 30 minutes per day for the next 5 days on your calendar specifically to work on this uninterrupted. Write it in right now, and a month from now it will be part of your ongoing marketing efforts. Let me know the results you create!

April 28, 2008 | Filed Under Catalyst Action Tip | Leave a Comment 

SWITCH ON YOUR MARKETING INNOVATION MACHINE

SWITCH ON YOUR MARKETING INNOVATION MACHINE

© 2008 Linda Feinholz

Marketing Innovation The question I posed to the room full of financial advisors was “What new ways have you used in your marketing in the past twelve months?” I was really eager to hear the answers, and for other people in the room to hear and learn from the suggestions as well.

As I took answers from the people around the room I saw that one of the participants, Michael, had a self-satisfied grin on his face. I thought to myself “Great! He must have a good example to share.”

You can imagine my surprise when he said, “I’ve been at this thirty years. Frankly I’ve tried everything without predictable results and there is nothing else worth trying.” He really meant it. When I asked for details, he listed approaches he’d used years ago and never tried again since.

Sitting across the table was a new financial planner, Dave, who proceeded to list four things he’s doing to market his business… and each is getting him results right now, building his business.

I could list those four approaches for you but that’s actually not the point. The point is the difference in attitude and the steps Dave is actively using are producing his results.

As I probed further, I unmasked the fact that Michael took a scatter shot approach to his marketing and didn’t stick with any approach long enough to get real results. Dave on the other hand was persistent in moving his new ideas systematically through the four steps of innovation that I teach my clients to use.
Read more

April 26, 2008 | Filed Under Marketing | Leave a Comment 

Success Quotes

“The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.”

Richard Bach

April 25, 2008 | Filed Under Quotes | Leave a Comment 

Change 1 Metric And You Can Change It All!

What are the 3 top things you measure in your business? Your time? Your income? Your phone calls? Your prospects? Your meetings every week?

Give your attention a jolt by adding the following metric to the list:

“What single activity brings in the largest portion of my results?”

Once you have the answer, grab your calendar and make sure you spend at least one hour a day for the next two weeks focused solely on expanding that activity. Put it ahead of every other activity and let’s see the new results you create! Let me know the results you create!

April 23, 2008 | Filed Under Managing | Leave a Comment 

BUILD YOUR BUSINESS BY THE NUMBERS

© 2008 Linda Feinholz

I’ve spent a lot of time in meetings during the past two weeks and I found myself noticing opportunities for productivity that my clients kept missing. Each time, I spotted the same missing element: no one was keeping their eye on the numbers.

A manufacturer was using two entire days for his monthly management meeting. That’s Days! Not hours!

A financial advisor insisted he’s “been at his work so long there are no new ideas for marketing my business

An executive coach was planning a retreat for her clients that was focused on strategy, without naming their goals.

In each instance I found myself pulling back the veil of the hidden element that really magnetizes results: Measuring.

As I think about it, there were actually 15 different times over the past two weeks where I spotted the metric that could be used to design and track high payoff business building activities. I used those metrics to sharpen the effort my clients planned to put into growing their business.

I mean measuring the value of the activity so that you’ll know if the investment of time, energy, resources, political capital and so on was worth it.

So I decided to pull together a quick summary of the metrics that might be boosting your results too – if you give them your attention. Read more

April 22, 2008 | Filed Under Managing | Leave a Comment 

SPECIAL OFFER - TODAY ONLY !!!

I will admit it - I’ve given myself a kick of a lot of fun for my birthday.

Many of you know my birthday is April 15th. Well that’s also Tax Day in the USA. AND it’s also when I write half my charity checks for the year. I don’t know about you but I think charities appreciate having money to use on their programs ALL year and not just the end of December! So….

I decided to make an event of it AND THAT ENDS TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT! So if you want to know more about it go HERE right now!

NOTE:
It’s been a very interesting week since my last newsletter. I no sooner sent it out than I had the suggestion made to turn my birthday this past Tuesday into a special event.

Maybe interesting is too mild a work? I thought about it for a couple of days and was hesitant to take it on since I hadn’t much time left. Then I heard a teleseminar by Jeff Walker about doing Quick Launches … and then I decided at the very last moment to turn my birthday into a special event… and include you in it.

So I spent Sunday writing like a maniac (hah!) and creating web pages, and drafting the emails I’d send out … all planning to send the first word out on Monday. Then I realized I hadn’t checked that the cart was working… and it wasn’t (yikes!) so there was no way to send a thing out to you.

I’m embarrassed to say I last paid attention to the cart last October… so it was only when I ran myself through a transaction that I realized set up for American Express wasn’t finished, and other tweaks were needed to.

Ten calls later and I’d made great friends of the AMEX merchant account folks and the Cart technicians and the gateway managing the transactions, not to mention my bank!

So all that to set the foundation and I scooted back to the email system to get the word out… all for my Birthday Tax Day Double Day Surprise offer. WHICH EXPIRES TONIGHT!

So if you’re interested in getting the downloadable version of the 7 Quick & Simple Steps audios, guidebook and all the forms – download them straight to your computer, upload the audios on your iPod AND you’ll get weekly reminder tips ALL for a price never seen before.

BUT you need to do it today as the link disappears at midnight!

April 17, 2008 | Filed Under Productivity Tools | Leave a Comment 

SUCCESS QUOTES


“I advise you to say your dream is possible and then overcome all inconveniences, ignore all the hassles and take a running leap through the hoop, even if it is in flames.”

 

Les Brown

April 15, 2008 | Filed Under Quotes | Leave a Comment 

Change 1 ASSUMPTION And You Can Change It All!

Here’s a quick trick for shifting an assumption that’s been steering how you do business.

Take one process you use to accomplish your work. List the reasons that you approach it that way – all the assumptions you’ve made over time, beliefs about why this way is effective or it’s the way things are done here, and so on. Write until you run out of ideas.

Now set that paper to the side.

On a fresh piece of paper answer the question:

“How would I do this differently if I had only 1/3 the time to accomplish it?”

Let yourself think outside of every one of the assumptions you put on that list. You may find even more are popping up to add to the list as you work with this question.

And after you finish your own first sweep through, pull together a team and ask them for additional ideas.

April 13, 2008 | Filed Under Catalyst Action Tip | Leave a Comment 

CUT THROUGH HABITS AND TRANSFORM YOUR BUSINESS

© 2008 Linda Feinholz

Take a look at your clock. Mark 10 minutes from now and let me show you how to grab the gold from High Payoff sources available to fuel your efforts.

We live in a world full of ideas and information. Some of it’s flung at us by the media, through ads and newscasters. Other is sitting politely waiting for us to come calling at its door.

Unless you set aside time every week to get your thinking stirred up, you’re just having the same conversations with yourself and your team over and over. There’s seldom innovation in that habit.

Many of my clients are so immersed in their business, it’s industry and current practices that they don’t realize how myopic they’ve become. So I bring them articles that provide ideas that break through their habitual thinking. I include the really great ones in the programs I run as well.

They’re brainstorming starters and full of information that spins thinking into new patterns – that’s where innovation and improvements are born!

Here are 3 ways you can use 5, 10 and 15-minute increments to release the sparks to boost your results.

On the 5-minute list is Reading Material that NOTHING to do with your businesss.

If you’re scratching your head wondering how so little time can really offer solutions, I’ll tell you – it’s all in the sources you use. I myself deliberately set aside time to read weekly, bi-weekly and monthly periodicals.

Take magazines like Fortune, Entrepreneur and Inc. They carry such a wealth of examples of business techniques and opportunities that others can borrow or even steal that they amaze me.

To top off my reading I immerse myself in Discover Magazine. It has ideas from as many as thirty other disciplines that help me break through my habitual way of seeing things.

The key here is that you’ll find articles that run from one-quarter page to four pages. That’s a simple commitment to make, very different than a book that might take you hours over weeks to read through.

On the 10-minute list is Laser Brainstorming, leveraging the out-of-the-box thinking of yourself and your team.

Take one result you’ve been getting in your business. List the first 10 assumptions you hold about how it ‘must’ get done, and ‘why’ that way particularly. Now pick just one of those assumptions and pose the question: “How could we do this differently if this assumption were off the table?”

Your goal is to make this a speedy process, not an exhaustive discussion. List as many changes that could be put on the table as a result of that single change. You’ll know when you have a gem – it’ll leap right off the page.

From there you can set aside solo time or team time to work on the details. Several of my clients have unveiled ideas that transformed their businesses with this focused exercise.

Then there’s grabbing High Payoff gold from the Video Sources that talk to you by your invitation in 15-minutes or less.

The internet’s a source I’ve started using recently. One of my favorite ‘teachers’ right now is Eban Pagon. He’s built several million-dollar business in the past ten years. He regularly records videos that are mini-webinars chock full of ideas.

Recently Eban shared his morning routine. He commented that he uses the 19 floors where he lives as his stairmaster machine every day, and he’s discovered that his great ideas come to him when he’s exercising. Somehow information gels into new arrangements and “Ah Ha!”s come leaping out with complete clarity.

That works for me as well! There I am on the gym treadmill … trotting along and then hopping onto the sides so I can scribble notes in the margins.

The fact is his video and webinars run from 15 to 120 minutes. The key to these recordings is that you can turn them off and on, watch them in chunks and grab one idea at a time to implement.

You may ask why I haven’t mentioned listening to books or tapes while I drive.

I’ve found I have to listen more than once to remember ideas while driving. I’d rather read something once, or watch a video in focused spans of time, find an idea, decide how to use it, and then move forward to get value from it.

So there you have it –reading, talking, watching. Ten minutes. Three ways for you to break the through habits in your thinking about how to create your success

April 11, 2008 | Filed Under Ideas | Leave a Comment 

Next Page »