9 Lies Holding Your Business Back

"I never, ever thought of myself as a businessman. I was interested in creating things I would be proud of."

- Richard Branson

6 years ago I decided to become a business coach. I thought I needed to go somewhere and get trained on how to be a coach. I had 35 years of business experience with 2 Fortune 1000 companies and a small $40 million dollar business which we took public, sold to our largest customer and then as part of the Executive Management Team we bought it back.  

Over that career I was a salesperson, sales manager, corporate sales trainer, product manager, Director of Marketing, VP of Marketing and New business Development and GM of a division.

I still needed a coach to help me become a coach. Steve Chandler fit that bill for me. It all started with his book "9 Lies That Are Holding Your Business Back". I was hooked and attended his 2 week coaching school and have followed him and learned from him ever since.

I thought a business coach was 80% the "how-to" of business: the numbers, the marketing, the selling, and the HR stuff. Boy was I wrong. Success as a business owner is 20% the how and 80% about how we think and act.  

You see, self-limiting beliefs hold us back. Lies hold us back. Listen to this 43 minute audio and see for yourself - here is the truth that will set you free.

• I just need to know how to do this.....
• All I need to do is get my name out there.....
• Experience is a benefit.....
• I Am a Victim of Circumstance....
• You have to have money to make money ...
• You Have to Be Tightfisted....
• Customers Are Hard to Figure....
• Lowering Prices Boosts Business.
• Can Do This on My Own....

It is 43 minutes that will make a difference for you.

All the best, 

Rick Wallace

Practice Makes Perfect

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

-- Elbert Hubbard

The following is from Steve Chandler:

One of the things people always tell you growing up is, "practice makes perfect."  Well, practice doesn't make perfect if you're practicing the wrong thing; it just reinforces the wrong way to do it.  

To succeed in business, you need to WAKE UP! Wake up to what works. What works is not a secret! It's not some intangible quality some people have and some people don't. You can learn to be successful in your business. It is teachable and learnable, and there's nothing mysterious about it at all.

That's a vital factor in your deciding to succeed. You must realize that if there are literally millions of millionaires, then the way to do it can't be all that mysterious.

But here's what stops most people: they personalize their failures. The minute their business gets frustrating, they wonder about their personal worth: do I have what it takes? People are soon making up all kinds of wild, untrue things about successful people. They think they have strange, unusual willpower and drive. They think they are lucky and connected. They think things that drive them deeper into low energy and low self-esteem.

Do not make up negative things about yourself if your business is struggling. It is not about you and your qualities. It is about your choices and level of understanding. Once you reach a new level of understanding about how businesses succeed, your business will also succeed. No matter who you are and what your genetics are and how your parents treated you. You can do this. But, you must choose to do it. You must decide to commit to it, and raise your level of consciousness and understanding, or it won't happen.

From Me:

I see it a lot with clients. Too many people have self-limiting beliefs that are not true, expectations that are based on their little world and thus lack the courage to choose the right actions. They spend too much energy and focus on blaming others. You cannot solve problems unless you take ownership of them. There are better ways to do things, but you first have to take action. Choose to not only seek those better ways, but the courage to implement the changes to better your company and your life.  

All the best, 

Rick Wallace

Turn This Ship Around

"Focus your messages on the results you expect, not on the methods for doing the job."

-- Marty Brounstein, communications trainer

I have been searching for a way to communicate the message and story of the book I just finished "Turn this Ship Around" by David Marquet Captain - Retired, of the USS Santa Fe nuclear submarine.

This 10 minute video does the trick. If you want to know how to coach your team to think like owners, be creative, love their jobs, be accountable for results, then watch and listen to how he did it with a ship full of sailors with low morale, terrible ratings and terrible attitudes. He turned it into the best nuclear sub in the Navy with the highest re-enlist rates (sailors and officers signing up for another hitch) of any ship.

How: He stopped giving orders/stopped answering questions. He told them the results he wanted and had the crew say out loud, "I intend to...", before they took action. It works for my clients too.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqmdLcyES_Q&feature=youtu.be 

Inno-Versity Presents: "Greatness" by David Marquet

All the best, 

Rick Wallace

Coach Your Team - Don't Manage It

"People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds. It is something one creates."

 

-- Thomas Szasz, Psychiatrist

That's right - we all need to wake up to the fact that the old beliefs about managing people in business are just not very effective. We need to learn to coach them. Coach and lead the business like a great professional sports team. No more, annual reviews, no more focus only on the numbers and push and cajole the team to achieve them. Instead focusing on having the best talent in every position and focus on making each individual the best they can be. Focus on coaching in practice, not managing i.e. showing people how to do things in the heat of the game.  

Listen to this 5 minute audio, which is Part 2 of how to build a team of people who are accountable for results - not just for being busy.  

(If you missed it last week, Part One is Stop Answering Questions. Check it out here.) 

All the best, 

Rick Wallace

Stop Answering Questions - Build the Team you want

"Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results."

-- George S. Patton, US Army General

Do you feel like the place couldn't run without you? Too many interruptions and questions and fires to put out? Does it seem like there is no time to focus on the business and making it better?

What you need is a team that is accountable for results, not for being busy. People that don't need to be managed and babysat all day.

Did you know that you have created this situation and every day you continue to feed the beast and reinforce behavior that is just the opposite of what you want to see? It is not your team's fault, it is all about you.

I see this with clients all the time. Too busy, business depends on me to work, or they can't get everything done because of the interruptions and questions.

Solution --- stop answering questions. Yes - stop answering everyone's questions. Listen to this 5 minute audio that will change the way you lead and create the behavior in your team that will solve the issues above.

The next 2 weeks I'll share 2 more parts of the puzzle in short audios. 

All the best, 
Rick Wallace

Why You Should Be Defenseless

"I absolutely believe that people, unless coached, never reach their maximum capabilities."

- Bob Nardelli, CEO Home Depot

"The most expensive thing a person can own is a closed mind." - Don Hutton

From Seth Godin:

The opposite of 'defenseless'  

It might be defended, or defensive.

If you're asking for feedback or coaching or an education, neither of the above are going to help you very much.

The person who has ideas that are well defended isn't going to be able to listen carefully for the lessons that can help him change those ideas.

And the person who is defensive not only won't hear the ideas, but he'll push away anyone generous enough to share them.

Defenseless is the best choice for those seeking to grow.

All the best, 

Rick Wallace

On Making Money

"What we fear (hate) doing the most is usually the thing we should most be doing."

- Anonymous  

From Steve Chandler: 

One day I was down and out. I was low. I decided to book a session with my coach. I told him I wasn't making enough money.  

 

He said, "You want to know a surefire formula for making money that always works?"

What was I going to say, "No"? Of course!

"Find someone with a problem," he said, "and solve that problem for them." 

I have lived by that formula ever since. I have found that it is not hard to find someone with a problem. That would be anyone you'd run into, wouldn't it?

The simple things are the hardest to learn and incorporate, because our minds are
conditioned to take simple things and add drama and emotion and self-doubt and false beliefs and deep confusion and fear to every challenge. 

All the best, 

Rick Wallace