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  • ABOUT LINDA FEINHOLZ “Your High Payoff Catalyst”

Is Your Business Waiting For a Quake?

© 2008 Linda Feinholz

Does Your Business Need Shaking Up?

For many people it takes sudden shocking external events like the earth shaking under their feet to cause them to pause and refocus on what’s important in their lives. For others, the pending loss of a loved one can have the same effect. And sometimes, the right words at the right moment can trigger a shake up that reorganizes our thinking and the choices we make in our lives and our work.

I’m writing to you from a hotel room in San Diego as the sun slowly sets over the golf course outside my window. Everything looks nice and calm. It wasn’t so calm six hours ago.

Southern California was rocked by a trembler that registered 5.4 on the Richter Scale. Thankfully there were no significant injuries and very little damage. Now for those of you who live in other parts of the world that don’t have quakes, you might find it hard to imagine, but 20 seconds of the earth trembling beneath your feet can shake up your life in more than one way!

The 1994 quake affected millions of people – their homes collapsing, their businesses disrupted. In the Los Angeles, people were sleeping in parks for days, their families held close to their side as their fears over more quakes stopped them going back into their apartments and houses.

Business owners found their companies at risk. Some due to damage they suffered directly. Others, as a result of upheaval in customers’ lives and businesses.

We don’t have to wait for such extreme conditions to shake up our businesses. Refreshing our assumptions, our goals and our high payoff activities is a choice we have every day.

Here are a couple of approaches you can use while keeping your balance in your business. Read more

A Personal Note

wrote this week’s article to you from a hotel room in San Diego as the sun slowly set over the golf course outside my window. Everything looked nice and calm. It wasn’t so calm six hours before that.

Many of you know by now that Southern California had a trembler that registered 5.4 on the Richter Scale. Thankfully there were no significant injuries and very little damage. Nothing like the traumas faced by the Chinese families in cities that collapsed just a few months ago, but a ‘shake up’ just the same.

This quake was actually only the 3rd wake up call in 3 days in my world. This week a member of my family passed away, leaving our extended family shaken and thoughtful. His passing was expected, but not as quickly as it occurred.

And that third wake up call I mentioned? Randy Pausch passed away this week, very publicly and anticipated for a long time.

I worked with Randy at Walt Disney Imagineering – that’s him wearing his WDI T-shirt and name tag. I love the gift of his soul that he made to all of us by sharing his thoughts and insights as he walked the path to the end of his life with his beloved family and his work for the past year.

As I wrote my note and my article, the two kept blending. I realized I could spend hours trying to disentangle the two and decided not to. Life is short, even when we have decades ahead of us, as I sure hope I do.

I can’t arrange the earth shaking for you, and I know you’ll have your own losses of friends and family. Yet I can offer you the gift of Randy’s words. Even if you’ve seen Randy’s Last Lecture, go watch it again on YouTube or right here on his site. And, after you’ve watched it, watch it again with your loved ones. And watch it again with your team at work.

The earth moving wakes us up to one form of power. Words can wake us up to a power of our own. I look forward to hearing how you use your power in your life and business.

Does Your Business Represent Who You Are NOW?

© 2008 Linda Feinholz

What was once a ‘perfect fit’ has changed, several times in fact. I was reminded of that when I joined 250 colleagues at our annual get together this week. That’s 250 of over 1,000 members of the ProVisors organization of expert business advisors in Los Angeles. As I chatted with people I haven’t seen in months, or even a year, we caught up on all the ways we’ve each grown and changed our own businesses.

Time and again in those conversations we described the business model we’re now using, and who we are as professionals and business owners. And for many of us, those models have changed.

Here is some of my own learning. You might find it thought provoking as you consider your own.

When I moved into independent consulting in 1994, it thrilled me. Coming from many years of consulting with corporate giants like Avon, Disney, and clients of mega advisory firm Ernst & Young, I had a treasure chest of planning, management and problem solving tools to use with mid-sized business’s challenges.

I trimmed and simplified the systems and processes of those complex large-scale companies down so they’d be perfect for professional services firms, fast growing start-ups, and second-generation family owned businesses.

Having my corporate background has been a tremendous door opener for speaking engagements as well as with clients. (Quite honestly, I loved that professional identity!) It’s also been a quick credential with colleagues who provide different services to the same clients. It’s enabled me to build a Rolodex of experts to solve my clients’ challenges in financing, insurance and legal matters.

That ‘credential’ has enabled me to build the independent consulting business that brings in a healthy six figures with no additional staff or infrastructure for nearly fourteen years.

However, just as my clients’ businesses have changed over the past few years, my business has changed. I’ve changed.

With each passing year, as my personal expertise grew, my interests and focus shifted – sometimes very naturally and incrementally. And sometimes I could see that I wanted to make huge shifts that required deliberate redesign.

For instance, during the first four years of my independent consulting work, clients asked me to develop business plans for them. I did many plans, and then realized that I was the most expert person about their strategy… and that was not the vision I hold for my clients.

I‘m passionate about people being more expert and more capable at their business. So I shifted from ‘doing’ their plans, to guiding them through the thinking and decision making and planning so that they are continually more expert in their business.

Did that change whom I work with? You bet! Today I work with people who want to become more skilled than they are now, and not those who want to outsource key decision-making to others.

Those big business credentials? They’re an interesting talking point, but nowadays prospective clients want to know other things: Can I help them get clear on their business vision and goals? How quickly can I help them build more effective teams? And what should they do about work-arounds they’ve used to avoid fixing obstacles?

The result? I have clients who realized they had by-passed a profitable niche by doing scattershot marketing. Others saw an unprofitable product could be a powerhouse door opener that always leads to up-sells that are 30-50% profitable. And some clients realize they’re devoting resources to a product line that isn’t part of their core offering, and holds a higher value if they sell it off.

Each time I think I’ve got my own business model set, the external world changes my own opportunities dramatically - new technology, changing business models across industries, new customer expectations for response time and so on.

Just as my clients have to stay ‘fresh and relevant’ for their customers, so do I. So, just as I challenge my clients’ thinking about their business, I repeatedly challenge my own.

Here are some questions I ponder:

• How long have I been delivering my products or services ‘this’ way?
• What circumstances brought me to this business model?
• Have those circumstances changed significantly?
• Does my model reflect what the market is seeking now?
• Does my message reflect who my clients are now?

What about you? When did you last check whether your own business model is a fit today for your opportunities and the way YOU want to work?

If you are in a growing stage of your business (or want to be), the strongest advice I can give you is: Go for Something That Reflects Your Future, Not Your Past.

Shake it OFF!

Don’t you just hate it when someone appears to have their act together, just when you feel ‘snowed in’ – by papers, to do’s and things you really dream of getting done?

I know I feel like fleas are nipping at me as my inner critic starts listing all the comparisons with the fantasy I’m holding about other people. I’m certain they’ve got a better handle on their ‘stuff’ as I stare at my loaded desktop.

Helping my client, Brenda through her overwhelm was a great wakeup call for me, too! Every once in a while all we need is a physical image to shift the mental state we’re in.

So as my inner voice started to feel like lots of itching powder, I ‘changed’ my mind just like I’d shampooed and shaken them off. Sent the chatterers off in the backyard to play for a while, and took a fresh look at what I wanted to get done.

So grab your own itchy thoughts, shake them out and sort out what you’ll give your attention to for the rest of your day.

BRING YOUR PASS*I*ON TO WORK

© 2008 Linda Feinholz

What do you do with your passion?

Ralph passed his on through his art and through the skills he taught his students.

Ralph Bacerra passed away at age 70 this past month.

His death has had me thinking about passion and dedication.

As an artist, Ralph was passionate about clay, glaze, form and design. He was renowned for several philosophies in ceramics: simplifying the complex by

• making something difficult to accomplish done easily,
• taking out what is extra rather than adding, and
• recognizing that at times something cannot be ‘repaired’, and one should just start over fresh.

His work demonstrated his mastery of ‘layering the elements.’ He combined as many as 7, 8, 9 firings to create his desired effects.

Those elements may sound simple, but each of us so often become immersed in what we are trying to accomplish that we make it more and more complex, and push relentlessly to make situations conform to our vision. And many times, that’s exactly when we need to step back and simplify or take a completely fresh start to a situation. Read more

Use ALL Your Brain In Business

TIME TO BOOST BUSINESS WITH A FRESH CONVERSATION

Have you ever noticed how often your conversations are … “reruns?” And have you given any thought to how that pattern is helping or stifling your business growth?

Let me explain what I mean.

We each tend to spend time with the same people in the same environments, read the same type of books, watch the same genre of movies or television programs, follow the same sporting events… Year after year. Meeting after meeting. Conversation after conversation. There’s nothing wrong with that … unless you never create the space for ‘new’ conversations.

Many of my clients (financial advisors and business owners) comment that they’re overworked and overwhelmed and don’t have time to think about their business from a new perspective. And they believe they’d uncover new perspective if they could just carve out time on their workday calendar to think.

But they seldom create that time. AND when they do, they discover that thinking time is not a guaranteed source of new ideas.

What about leisure time? Well most of us repeat the same behaviors and same conversations each evening, each weekend, each vacation. We gather with friends and family for repeat events and catch up on the same topics we spoke of the last time we were together.

If you want new ideas, you need new information, new experiences, and new conversations that change your thoughts.

I learned this first hand when I moved to New York to work for Avon Products and needed to find a place to live. My new ‘landlord’ was a guy who’d been living in the apartment the longest – a law school student who had turned down Harvard in order to join the first law class of Queens College. The new program emphasized public service law.

One of my other roommates was an opera student, working evenings as an usher at the Metropolitan Opera House, while being taught by one of the luminaries of the opera world. And the third was an independent filmmaker.

And who was I in this mix? An MBA graduate doing strategic planning for Avon’s eight Pacific Rim markets.

We had very little in common in terms of background or work experiences. So 80 percent of our conversations over many evenings and weekends were new, fresh, and unexpected. That time together shaped each of our lives, our choices and the opportunities we uncovered.

Now I DON’T want you to think that the goal is to have new conversations 80 percent of your time. It would be wonderful if  it could happen even 20 percent of your day, but that’s probably unrealistic too.

So let me share 3 DO’s that create ‘moments’ when 80 percent of the conversation is ‘new.’

DO Mix up the people you’re spending time with.

This past week, for example, I shared wine and fine food with an eclectic group of people – a bankruptcy attorney, a music producer, a landscape architect, a technology expert, a CEO of a symphony orchestra. Over the past years, a small group of us has been the catalysts for these gatherings.

Each of us in is different professions and have completely different groups of colleagues and friends. We started with four or five people and invite others who enjoy wine and conversation and set dates to get together.

Bringing changing mixes of people together has ensured we’ve had unexpected conversations. Our discussion this time lasted for nearly six hours. And less than 20 percent of our talk was on topics we usually spend time on.

DO Change the locations where you gather.

We’ve invited people to join us anywhere wine and food could easily and comfortably be enjoyed. So sometimes we meet at restaurants, with the clatter of people coming and going. Other times we meet in conference rooms of office buildings, using their long table to spread out more than 20 bottles of wine in paper wrappers for an evening of wine tasting. We’ve even gathered in homes, standing around the kitchen and chatting while making the meal.

DO Hold on to your curiosity.

It’s all about attitude. Everyone who sat around the table this week enjoyed the mystery of being with new people and the possibilities that creates. Wine tasting is our excuse for coming together and less than 20 percent of our conversation.

Whether you meet over wine, or at a non-profit activity, or hiking, or playing golf, use these DO’s to meet people you don’t yet know, to rejoice in the fresh conversations and stir up new possibilities in your business and life.

PERK UP YOUR BUSINESS WITH A ‘PERSISTENCE REVIEW’

© 2008 Linda Feinholz

The common element everywhere in life and in business seems to be Persistence.

My clients are using their new management skills to create different results. My new MasterMind buddy Maritza Parra is getting her book published. And I’ve been holding the focus on getting three separate web sites designed and launched for different purposes.

Each of those endeavors requires deliberate attention in order to achieve the tasks of the goals we’ve set. And that attention leads to taking specific actions that achieve the overall Vision itself.

With the topic of persistence showing up in conversations daily I thought you’d appreciate my Top 5 Tips for Using High Payoff Persistence.

Each of them has been instrumental in creating results to cheer about.

Tip 1 – Notice ‘The Way’ You’re Persistent

Persistence shows up in many ways in our lives. That relative who insists on making a request over and over until you say ‘Yes’ is living in one state of persistence we might call nagging.

While that trait can be annoying in interpersonal relations, that’s exactly the trait you want in a staff member responsible for collections or new product design.

It’s important that you know if your style is to be persistent towards an agreed-upon goal, or as an obstacle to an effort others are trying to accomplish.

Once you recognize your style you’ll be better able to describe the actions that are needed to accomplish your goals. Read more

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

USE A HIGH PAYOFF ‘GMS’ TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS?

© 2008 Linda Feinholz

“Linda, what do you think I should do with this client’s request I got?”

My client, Susan knew I wouldn’t just hand her an answer. Yes, I’m famous for having answers for nearly every type of question my clients pose. That’s what a rich full life of diverse work, travel and many interests will do for you!

But I’m also famous for posing questions… really simple, direct, to-the-point questions that shift paradigms and points of view. This was one of those days.

“What’s the Value of the work for you?” I asked her.

Susan sighed before she answered. That was a tell-tale sign that she knew the work wouldn’t be using her team’s highest and best talent, or would be diverting them off their most productive work.

“Well, Mike’s someone I’ve known for years, and he’s known the work we do, and I don’t want to say ‘No!’

“And what’s the value of the work for your business?” I probed.

Our conversation went back and forth several times, as Susan talked her way through the value of pleasing Mike: so that he’d speak well of her in the community, so that he’d come back when he had more substantial work that needed doing, and so on.

“So it sounds to me like he’s a gnat.” I proposed. “He’s nice, but the work he’s asking you to do is going to use more time and more resources and you’ll deliver it at barely break even. You’re rationalizing doing the work as if it might produce good marketing for you. At the same time it’s diverting your staff’s attention from much larger and profitable clients’ work.”

Susan got wide-eyed, startled. Not ready to label anyone that way. And then she broke out laughing and admitted it’s the perfect description of the situation.

“So, what would an ideal High Payoff result be from doing the work with Mike?” I pondered out loud.

“Having him request profitable work that makes it worth our time, and leaves him feeling satisfied with the product we create for him.”

“And what is the ideal minimum work effort, in dollars, you’d want to take on? “

“Well, $5,000 but he doesn’t have that kind of money to spend.”

So Susan trapped herself trying to please Mike and mind reading what he would or wouldn’t invest in for his business’s success.

“In an ideal world, how might you describe the type of clients you’d want to be doing your work with? What specific packages of services, OR what monthly retainer fees for what level of hours, would you say your best clients fall in today?

She had never thought of it this way, yet with very little effort, Susan was able to describe 3 levels in her current clients.

The top tier has her company on $50,000 per year retainer agreements. Her second tier clients are a group who typically budget $15,000 to $35,000 for her services.

From several Tier 1 customers, Susan’s company makes as much as $25,000 more each with special projects during the year. The retainer relationship lets her project how much work there will be, and how many employees she needs throughout the year.

Susan’s third tier clients want 20 hours of her services per month. The work is typically interspersed with the larger clients’ work and keeps the workflow steady each month. And it’s as profitable as the rest of the work her team delivers.

We drew it all out on her conference room white board and invited her staff in to take a look at it. They loved it! They even recommended a couple of modifications to what services would best be offered to which tier of clients. They even gave each tier a name.

And then they listed six more examples of gnats they took on and now spend too much time hand holding, sighing when the clients call. They knew they shouldn’t have taken as clients in the first place and won’t in the future.

As a result of drawing it all out where she could see it, Susan had a new perspective on how to speak of her firm’s services when she’s at conferences and out networking, how to respond to inquiries and how to word her proposals.

We’re calling it her “Gnat Management System.”

Moreover, her GMS is so clear that she was able to craft a reply for Mike that isn’t saying “No.”

She’ll use it for year’s to come.

“Mike, I’d love to help you. Let me tell you about how we do business. We have 3 packages that we offer and I’d be delighted to talk with you about which package would work best for you.”

With the Gnat Management System we’ve put in place in her business, Susan and the rest of her team can focus on the work and the clients that really build their success.

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