Planning for 2015

"Commitment is different. It's different than a goal or a dream or a wish or even a plan. Commitment is done. Complete, already, in your soul. Finished. It's something that you can count on and the world can count on. You are committed. As far as human power goes, it's unlike anything else in the world.

 It's what we can count on from you. Not what we're hoping for."

 - Steve Chandler

Over the last few weeks I have been meeting and working with clients on their Strategic Planning Process Documents for 2015 and Q1. We have been reviewing Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Trends/Threats. The Strengths don't change that much, but it feels great to see some of the Weaknesses come off the list. That is why I do what I do - to hear them say "no" when I ask if it is still a weakness, and they take it off their list. Progress and results - that is the payoff for committing to executing the plan.

I then always ask them what one or two Big Things they committed to and accomplished in 2014 that had the biggest impact on their business. Again reinforcing the results that have been attained by focusing on some big issues, committing and working on their business versus working in it.

Now we come to planning for the New Year. Prior to meeting, I have them complete their Destination Postcard for 2016. This concept is simple but powerful. Imagine you are sitting down on January 1, 2016 and writing a postcard to yourself about how 2015 went. The goals you achieved, the 2-3 Big Things you accomplished that made the business better. How do you feel about it? What does your day, your week look/feel like?  This is then kept on their desk for the whole year to remind them of the commitment they have made to make that postcard become reality.  

Next we review the goals for 2014 and the actual results, and set new goals for 2015 from the postcard they did last year.

Remember - commitment to these goals, actions and plans means they are done, you will do whatever it takes to make it happen.

Here is to your 2015 - commit to some planning of your own and complete your destination postcard. If you want to review it with someone, please send it along to me and I'll call you back and provide my thoughts and questions. A gift and a commitment from me to you.

All the best, 

Rick Wallace 

2014 Awards- Making the Biggest Impact for My Clients

"You will be the same person 5 years from now except for the people you have met and the books you have read."

- John Wooden, Basketball Coach

"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young."  

-- Henry Ford, Industrialist

We usually have some down time over the holidays - what better time to take an hour here or there and "keep your mind young"? Question some long held, false beliefs about how things are supposed to be done and learn better, proven ways to do things. Here are my 2014 recommendations that have had the biggest impact on my clients this year.

Here is a start -

1. The book Simple Numbers by Greg Crabtree is the best and easiest to follow guide to growing your profits by looking at, tracking and leveraging two key numbers.
2. Watch this presentation on "Always be recruiting" . Learn the power of having A Players in every position and having a virtual bench to go to when you need a replacement for the team.
3. Watch this presentation on the difference in Coaching vs. Managing, and the impact it will have on you and your team.
   
4. Watch this presentation on pay for performance and getting all of your employees thinking like an owner.
5. Watch this video on the power of content/information marketing, by an attorney of all people, who has experienced tremendous growth by sharing relevant information with customers and prospects.
6. Watch this presentation on managing your priorities, your actions, because you can't manage time.
7. Lastly, read the book Essentialism. It is all about focusing on the essentials in your life and career (the rocks) and letting the pebbles fill in the gaps.

I hope you learn a lot and keep learning, and yes, stay young.

All the best, 
Rick Wallace 

Tired of Being "Let Down" By Others

"Don't try to manage and manipulate people. Inventories can be managed, but people must be lead (coached)."

- Observation from Ross Perot

Of all the concepts I have worked with clients on, this one has the biggest effect on their lives and businesses. All it takes is a small shift in your thinking, and taking a minute to sit down with someone and discuss what it is you want done, get an agreement of what you will do, and what they will do. You cannot manage people, but you can manage agreements. Read on and listen at the end to a short audio to further explain.  

From Steve Chandler:

You have two choices in your relationships with others. You can have relationships based on expectations, or relationships based on agreements.

Expectations are cowardly and self-defeating. They are cowardly because by expecting things of others I place all responsibility outside of myself. I expect my co-worker to do his job right, I expect my family member to behave a certain way, and the list goes on. When I am unhappy it's because of them. Expectations lead to disappointments. It's a miserable life expecting so much of others and suffering so much disappointment and betrayal.

There is a happier, more creative way ... a way that is both effective and spiritual at the same time, and that's a life of NO EXPECTATIONS. If something isn't happening, I create an agreement.
  
Agreements are courageous and creative. They honor the other person. They are co-authored between two composers of the agreement. People give their word and keep it. People honor agreements to a far greater degree than they live up to expectations. They feel stressed when your head is full of expectations of them. They feel pressure and resentment. They rebel. (Ever notice? Do you have children? Do you have employees?)
  
But create a good agreement? Both sides win. It's like writing a song together, like Lennon and McCartney writing together...."and, in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."
  
Powerful way to coach and lead people.

For more details, listen to Steve's explanation here.

All the best, 

Rick Wallace 

Asking For Help

 "Bottom line: if you show a genuine interest in learning about how others became successful, you can open up a world of opportunities."

-- Armstrong Williams, Political Commentator

"The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: Be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge."

-- Elbert Hubbard

From Steve Chandler:
The paradoxical power of setting your ego aside and seeking help is that it suggests strength, not weakness. It means you are committed to an outcome. Most people are not fully committed to success, they are only committed to looking good in the eyes of others. They may be somewhat committed to making a living, but that's a completely different thing! If you are only committed to making a living, then that's the most your career will ever do for you. It will only give you a place inside of which you can TRY TO MAKE A LIVING.

But is that why you go to work? Wasn't there a bigger idea than that? Didn't you find your career or start your business because you saw the possibilities of having a great life, full of freedom and joy? When you finally commit to success (to building a life rather than making a living), you will get lots of help. It's as simple as that. (And the very fact that you are reading this message will tell you that you are already reaching out in that direction and therefore truly committed to success.)

In all walks of life, you can tell whether someone is committed to something by whether they are getting help. Whether they are reaching out, free of ego, free of pride (and the paranoia that comes with pride) and connecting with someone who can help.

Of course I couldn't have said it better, because I know how true it is. Seeking help, through books, webinars, workshops, mastermind groups or coaching is the only way to get unstuck, to stay young, and to really succeed. As the great basketball coach John Wooden said, "You will be the same person in five years except for the people you have met and books you have read."

Take action now and reach out for help, it is a strength.

All the best, 

Rick Wallace 

He Gets It - Do You?

 "Some people have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can."

-- Willis R. Whitney

Jacob Sapochnick, Attorney

Who the heck is he? Well, John Assaraf, Author of The Answer, introduced him to me via a video the other day. John uses Content/Information Marketing techniques with the best of them. I get a weekly TIP from him, like I do from Seth Godin, Vern Harnish, Steve Chandler and several others. They practice content marketing, giving away free information, slowly becoming authorities in their markets. I have been working diligently to convince clients that we all need to be serving vs. pleasing (selling). This sharing of information, creating a hub or platform for sending it out, and putting it on your website will create a great stream of leads and new customers, while serving the customers you have.

Marketing has changed and you have to change to get the return on the dollars you spend.

Watch this 16 minute video with Jacob on how he has built a large, growing law practice which has double and tripled in size each year as he has employed this strategy. Maybe not all of the tactics are something you want to do but the strategy - building a hub, sharing information everywhere you can and serving not selling - will work for you too. He talks about trust and giving everything he knows away for free and how that generates new business every day. It works -just listen to what Jacob has to say. 
 

What One Lawyer Did Differently To Get A Massive Amount of Leads & Sales

 
All the best,
Rick Wallace

Pleasure Vs. Happiness

"Don't mistake activity with achievement."

- John Wooden 

Have you ever noticed how we get such pleasure in doing the urgent all day and mixing in the pebbles (the small things) on our "to do" list? The pleasure we get from putting out that fire, answering employee questions, scratching through that small to do - sound familiar?

Notice I used the word pleasure. Too often people confuse that word with happiness. They are entirely two different things. Pleasure is all about the short term. We get pleasure from eating a nice warm donut. We get happiness from being active and eating right and staying in shape.

We get pleasure from being busy, knocking off those must do's. How often do you look back on your day, your crossed off lists and unhappily say to yourself, "Did I really accomplish anything today"? You might be thinking, "I never got to the Rock, the big thing I needed to do". We get happiness from working on the big things (the Rocks), the essential things that will keep us energized, passionate, and fulfilled.

We put off the big things until we don't feel like doing them or try to fit them in and procrastinate.

So think about it for tomorrow morning. Do the big things first (the Rocks) while you are the most energized and in a good mood.

Steve Chandler:

"Know ahead of time what the Big Thing is.  Set it up to be TAKEN OUT WITH MASSIVE UNSTOPPABLE ACTION while you are at your most resourceful and energetic.  That is the ultimate source of a person's professional happiness...the feeling of accomplishment you get when you take out the big thing!

 The look on your face alone will motivate others to follow you."

I might add, it will also give you a tremendous amount of energy to take on the rest of the day, and at the end of the day you will be happy with what you got done. Put the Rocks in the bowl first, the pebbles will all fit in.
 

All the best,

Rick Wallace

The Rabbit Is Not Real

"If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's. And guess what they might have planned for you? Not much."

-- Jim Rohn, Motivational Speaker

My guest blogger this week is Michael Neill whom I met at a coaching school with Steve Chandler in 2007.

Over the years, each one of these stories has helped me to step back, slow down, and enjoy my days more than ever before...

1. On Best-selling authors and Billionaires

True story, Word of Honor:

Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer
now dead, and I were at a party given by a billionaire
on Shelter Island.

I said, "Joe, how does it make you feel  to know that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel 'Catch-22'
has earned in its entire history?"

And Joe said, "I've got something he can never have."

And I said, "What on earth could that be, Joe?"

And Joe said, "The knowledge that I've got enough."

Not bad! Rest in Peace!

2. The Reverend and the Greyhound

I suspect it didn't happen quite like this, but I'll let Dr. Fred Craddock share a surprising encounter he had with an old greyhound dog his niece had recently adopted...

I said to the dog "Are you still racing?"

"No," he replied

"Well, what was the matter? Did you get too old to race?"

"No, I still had some race in me."

"Well, what then? Did you not win?"

"I won over a million dollars for my owner."

"Well, what was it? Bad treatment?"

"Oh, no," the dog said.  "They treated us royally when we were racing."

"Did you get crippled?"

"No."

"Then why?" I pressed.  "Why?"

The dog answered, "I quit."

"You quit?"

"Yes," he said.  "I quit."

"Why did you quit?"

"I just quit because after all that running and running and running, I found out that the rabbit I was chasing wasn't even real."  

3. The Rich Man and the Beggar

Many years ago, a man was sitting in quiet contemplation by a riverbank when he was disturbed by a beggar from the local village.


"Where is the stone?" the beggar demanded. "I must have the precious stone!"

The man smiled up at him. "What stone do you seek?"

"I had a dream," the beggar continued, barely able to slow his words to speak, "and in that dream a voice told me that if I went to the riverbank I would find a man who would give me a precious stone that would end my poverty forever!"

The man looked thoughtful, then reached into his bag and pulled out a large diamond.

"I wonder if this was the stone?" the man said kindly. "I found it on the path. If you'd like it, you may certainly have it."

The beggar couldn't believe his luck, and he snatched the stone from the man's hand and ran back to the village before he could change his mind.

One year later, the beggar, now dressed in the clothes of a wealthy man, came back to the riverbank in search of his anonymous benefactor.

"You have returned, my friend!" said the man, who was again sitting in his favorite spot enjoying the peaceful flow of the water before him.  "What has happened?"

The beggar humbled himself before the man.

"Many wonderful things have happened to me because of the diamond you gave me so graciously. I have become wealthy, found a wife and bought a home. I am now able to give employment to others and to do what I want, when I want with whomever I want."

"For what have you returned?" asked the man.

"Please," the rich beggar said. "Teach me whatever it is inside you that allowed you to give me that stone so freely." 

This week, do your best to enjoy your life and everyone in it. You have enough. The "rabbits" you've been chasing aren't real. And there is something alive inside you which will make your life richer than the wealthiest beggar in all the world.

Have fun, learn heaps, and happy exploring!

- Michael