Compound Effect and Habits

"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going."  

- Jim Rohn



Have you ever noticed how little actions stack up and build on each other?  

A couple of weeks ago, I started taking a fish oil pill every day.

...Then I started just eating ONE extra piece of fruit and one extra vegetable a day.

...The week after, I started doing some simple exercises to stretch and firm.

...Then I started the day with Chinese Feng Chu

(Don't get me wrong - these are all TINY steps - but steps in the right direction.)

AND YESTERDAY, I DID THE UNTHINKABLE:

I started walking a mile everyday with the dog.

But it just seemed like the logical next step. Easy, and kinda fun. Next thing I know I'm "booked in everyday this week on my calendar." I made a commitment to him, I'm accountable to him!

IT'S CALLED THE LAW OF PROGRESSIVE COMMITMENT.

I tell you all this because I know the next 6 months can be BIG for you. Deep down, you know it's possible, too.  

So right now, I've got a simple invitation for you: What new business habit do you want to master? Managing your time? Building a process to execute your ideas? Developing a better Marketing Plan? Getting more referrals? Recruiting a virtual bench of 'A' Players? Increasing your profitability?

What's the next big project, a Rock for you? Perfect. Now - What's a TINY step you can take every day this week? Something small and barely perceptible. Easy to do, and if you followed it might stack & take you in the right direction.

What's the first baby step you could implement this week? It is all about Habits, you can't break your bad ones easily but you can develop new ones that will get you where you want to go!  

All the best,

Rick Wallace 

Testimony: The Death of Fear

"If we did all the things we are capable of doing,
we would literally ASTONISH ourselves."  

- Thomas A. Edison



Last week I posted a piece on Fear and it's devastating effect on our lives and careers. (If you missed it, read it here). Kathy Smith the Marketing Manager of a company in Alberta, Canada who I have worked with for the last couple of years, stunned me with a testimonial about her life and how she "did the thing she feared and how it killed the fear" and turned her life around:

"Rick, I can certainly attest to the liberation of conquering fear. As a single mother of 4 boys and an insane ex-husband who was threatening to kill me (I went through 3 criminal trials with him), I had to figure out a way to earn an income from home so I could protect my children. I decided to launch my own publication but was absolutely terrified of failure. I remember like it was yesterday: writing my script and making the first sales call with sweaty palms and a racing heart. But I pushed myself past the fear and made the first call and the second and the 300 after that. Long story short, I produced my publication for 5 years and then sold it for 5-figures. My "Message from the Publisher" blurb became inadvertently responsible for launching my writing career where I became a published author and wrote my own newspaper column for a year. That spun off to me being the media spokesperson for an association assisting women in domestic abuse situations where I shared my story with many people.

All that because I conquered fear!!"

Kathy Smith

Marketing Manager 

Fear can be a big thing or something as small as making a cold call on a prospect, but by doing it, the fear melts away.

All the best,

Rick Wallace

The Death of Fear

"Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain."  

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poet

  
Michael Neill a former coaching classmate of mine wrote this recently:  

"Whatever it is you're trying to achieve, ask yourself what you would do if you weren't afraid. Don't worry about whether or not you actually are or aren't afraid - just notice your answers, and notice which ones you want to act on."

As I have written elsewhere, there is a tremendous difference between feeling the fear and doing it anyway, and the freedom which comes from finding that space in yourself which is beyond fear. And the more time you spend living beyond fear, the sooner the answer to 'What would I do if I wasn't afraid?' will become 'Exactly what I'm doing now.'"

Thank you Michael. 

All the best,

Rick Wallace

Crash Diets and Good Habits

"Successful people (and businesses) are simply those with successful habits."

- Brian Tracy

 

From Seth Godin's Blog:

Crash diets don't work.

They don't work for losing weight, they don't work for making sales quota and they don't work for getting and keeping a job.

 

The reason they don't work has nothing to do with what's on the list of things to be done (or consumed). No, the reason they don't work is that they don't change habits, and habits are where our lives and careers and bodies are made.

If you want to get in shape, don't sign up for fancy diet this or that the other thing. No, the way to get in shape is to go to the gym every single day, change your clothes and take a shower. If you can do that every single day for a month, pretty soon you'll start doing something while you're there...

If you want to make sales quota, get in the habit of making more sales calls, learning more about your market and generally showing up. If you show up, with right intent, you'll start making sales. The secret isn't a great new pitch or a new pair of shoes. The secret is showing up. (and Serving others)

Your audacious life goals are fabulous. We're proud of you for having them. But it's possible that those goals are designed to distract you from the thing that's really frightening you--the shift in daily habits that would mean a re-invention of how you see yourself.

 

Organizations can always benefit from better habits. Every day. Do that first.

Rick Editorial: It is all about Habits, you cannot break bad habits you can only replace them with new and better ones.

Do You Have A People Strategy?

"Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers."

- Tony Robbins  

 

From Seth Godin:

Hard to imagine a consultant or investor asking the CMO, "So, what's your telephone strategy?"

We don't have a telephone strategy. The telephone is a tool, a simple medium, and it's only purpose is to connect us to interested human beings.

And then the internet comes along and it's mysterious and suddenly we need an email strategy and a social media strategy and a web strategy and a mobile strategy.

No, we don't.

It's still people. We still have one and only one thing that matters, and it's people.

All of these media are conduits, they are tools that human beings use to waste time or communicate or calculate or engage or learn. Behind each of the tools is a person. Do you have a story to tell that person? An engagement or a benefit to offer them?

(Rick Editorial: I would add, do you know your Ideal Customer? Their pains and fears? Are you offering unique solutions to these pains and fears? Are you talking about them and not you?)

Figure out the people part and the technology gets a whole lot simpler.

All the best,

Rick Wallace 

The Power of Serving In Your Marketing

"It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed." 

- Napoleon Hill, author

The power of information marketing is growing every day. I constantly suggest to my clients that Serving is better than selling. Understand your Ideal Customer/Prospect and build a message or Value Proposition that first speaks about them and their pain, then about what you do and why you are different or the best at doing it.

The power of this approach was demonstrated to me yesterday while listening to the radio on the way to a client meeting. There is a company called Buffalo Hardwood which sells and installs wood flooring here in town. The owner came on and said (I paraphrase here):

"It seems like every day I talk to someone who says they can't have wood floors in their home because they have a dog. They fear the dogs nails will scratch and ruin the flooring so they put tile or some other floor covering in their homes. With the new hardwoods and new finishes we have now you can absolutely have wood floors and own a dog. American cherry and several other woods are too soft to work but we have a wide selection of other woods and finishes that will never scratch, etc. Then he talked about his company and why they were the best solution and different from the rest."

 

If he would have done the usual commercial "telling me all about him and his company, how long they have been in business, how great they are, that they are the best, etc." I would not have heard a word of it. But he talked about a pain I have, something I could relate to, so I tuned in.  

My wife and I have talked about replacing our foyer with wood flooring but had always ruled it out because of our dog. When I got home I went straight to my wife and told her we could have wood floors with our dog. Now we plan to go to the store and see what they have.  

Find the pain and then create TIPS like the one above that solves your Ideal Customer's pain and fears. Serve them by sharing information and then get it in front of them with email, Facebook, radio, direct mail, however you get your messaging out. Serve don't sell.  

All the best,

Rick Wallace 

Serve and Your Success Will Come

"Go out and mow a lawn."

- Michael McNeil 
(What? Listen to the 4 minute audio below)

A few years ago I traveled to the west coast to attend coaching school with Steve Chandler. He remains my coach and mentor, and in the class was a guy named Michael McNeil who was a well-known coach in his own right. Steve always talked about the fact you cannot "sell" coaching. People have to want it and be fully committed to it for it to pay dividends and work.

Of course as an old marketing/sales guy that threw me for a loop. Then how was I going to get any clients?

He said be a coach and serve people. In fact, he convinced me that that is the way every business should operate. Don't sell, don't please, simply serve and you will become successful. You know, it works. It has worked for me and it works for my clients.

Every time I have proposed to a client that they have to find a way to serve their prospects I get push back like, "I can't afford to do that" or "I can't give my ideas and solutions out to everyone, then they won't need me", etc.

You will be much more successful serving (i.e. demonstrating what you can do for them) than spending all your time and money trying to sell them on what you do. Think of it as a cost of marketing. That time you spend serving can then be weighed against the return in sales and leads. It will be the best ROI you have ever had.

What could you offer prospects for FREE that would demonstrate the value your product or service and how it solves the pains of your Ideal Customers?

Listen to this  4 minute audio from Michael on this - mowing lawns.

All the best,

Rick Wallace