How Clarity is a Powerful Way to Get Your Goal
So, you are ready to make some goals. In order to discuss goals are going to use the analogy of a vacation that you are traveling to by car (picturing the station wagon from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is perfectly acceptable). The goals that you set are like the ultimate destination, the place that you’re going. The vehicle that you’re going to use to get there are the short-term goals that you’ll be achieving along the way but without an ultimate destination, a very specific ultimate destination, you aren’t going to get anywhere. That’s like trying to drive to Florida on your vacation and saying that it is somewhere “over there” east of you. What Are Specific Goals? What exactly are specific goals? Let’s take one of the goals that you probably have, because everyone trying to achieve success as an entrepreneur has this goal; to make more money. You can’t just use the goal of making more money, becoming rich or financial independence either, because those things mean nothing specifically. How are you going to know when you get there? How will you know if you’re on the path to get there? Unless you make your goals specific you’ll have no direction; no specific place on the map that you can arrive at and know that you’re in the right place. So, let’s take our example of wanting to make money. Instead of having a goal that is this general, try creating a goal with something like: increase income by $10,000 per year by the end of the year, or by month 12 if you happen to be in the middle of the year. So, you’ll know if you’ve actually achieved that goal, because you can look in your bank account, or at your financial information, and see that you earned an extra $10,000 in the past 12 months. Also, when you get to month six you’ll be able to look and see just how on track you are. If you are around halfway there, you know that you’re on track. If you haven’t made anything, you really need to step up during the next six months. Aim High, like the Air Force Do you know what you’re capable of? You might think you do, but for most people what they can actually achieve is quite different than what they think they can achieve. You have probably heard the axiom: whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right. People have set world records in athletic events, and experts have deemed some of them the fastest or best the human body is capable of, and then someone from a remote part of the world didn’t get the memo that there was a limit as to what the human body was capable of until after they’d already broken the record. Set your goals higher than you think you can achieve. Of course, don’t set them outrageously high to the point where they’re unrealistic, but set them higher than you think you’re probably capable of. For example, our previous goal of earning an extra $10,000 in 12 months is pretty reasonable and probably achievable depending on what you do to make it happen. If your goal is to make $100,000 over the next 12 months, that’s pretty unrealistic. But what if your goal was to make an extra $15,000 in 12 months? You might think that you’re only capable of making an extra $10,000 but by setting the go higher you have something to aim for, and suppose you only make $12,000; that’s still $2000 more than your original goal. Putting Goals into Action You want to make a list of around five goals to start with. The number is not important; it is arbitrary. What is important is that you create enough goals that will allow you to accomplish something substantial in the next 12 months, or five years, or whatever your time frame is, and not so many goals that you have no chance of achieving them all. Then, for each goal, you’re going to make a plan of action. Earlier we used the analogy of driving a car to a vacation destination. Your plan of action is that car; it is the vehicle that is going to take you all the way to the end where your success waits. Your plan of action is going to take you from where you are now all the way to the end result, which is your goal. It is going to include milestones, or places that you stop along the way to check your progress as well as specific small goals that you’ll need to achieve to get to the big goal. It is sort of like playing a video game – you have to beat all of the easy monsters before you get to the big boss at the end of the level. If your goal is to make an extra $10,000 in the next 12 months then you need to know what specific things you need to do to make that happen. Are you planning to start an online store? Are you making investments? Whatever your method is, you’ll have specific things that you need to accomplish, and that makes up the framework for your plan of action. What If You Don’t Know How to Get There? Sure, you might be saying, this is all well and good, but what you do if you don’t know how to get to your destination – or achieve your ultimate goal. There are several ways that you can figure it out. You can do research online, you could write to some of the people that you admire and that you know of had success and asked them how they were able to achieve their goals. You can read a few books or get advice from family or friends. There are many things that you can do to learn how to get from point A to point B.
How One-on-One Executive Coaching Can Work For You
Does your company need a jumpstart? Is revenue low, morale declining, and your leadership tactics no longer making an impact? This may be the perfect time to look into leadership coaching. A good executive coaching program should do more than just set you up with a speaker reading over a PowerPoint presentation. Team up your senior leaders with a good corporate coaching program, and you could be discussing fostering relationships, building strategy, and improving revenue and communications all while hitting the slopes, climbing a mountain or rafting some white water. It’s easy to connect in an environment where you can be creative, and think outside the box. A good leadership system can make all the difference in your organization. It effects; communication, human performance, accountability, delivery and measurement. A one-on-one approach, and a program that is tailored to suit your organization’s specific needs, is the best choice in executive coaching. There are a few important things to consider if you want to engage in an executive coaching program. Look for a company that will provide you with someone who is more than just a speaker. You want to be paired up with someone who will be a trusted advisor to you as your organization grows and changes. Also, a good coaching program will include industry consultants to provide expert advice in some technical areas. Talk to your consultant about the specific goals you want your leadership program to meet. Every business or organization needs direction in a different area or department. This is what makes a one-on-one coaching program so unique; you work on meeting goals where your company needs it the most.
Fast Tips for Saving Money Each Week
Pretty much everyone wants to save money these days, especially as prices are rising and the economy is becoming more shaky. To do this, however, takes some conscious effort, as it’s easy to get into the habit of living beyond your means. Here are some quick and easy methods that you can use to save money. If you would like to save some dollars it is easy to do but you need to develop a few new habits. For the most part people buy things without stopping to think if they actually need them or not. The more conscientious you can be about what you buy and how much you spend, the easier a time you will have to get them under control. Vacations are fun and so is traveling but taking a stay vacation is a great way to save money during your vacation time. This doesn’t have to be a sacrifice, as no matter where you live there are probably enjoyable activities that you don’t usually have time for. If you have kids, check out theme parks and other attractions within driving distance. Play tourist and take in the major sights and sounds of your city. Aside from gaining a better appreciation of your own region, you’ll be avoiding the stresses of travel, such as packing, making flights on time, airport lines and security, etc. Travel can be enjoyable if you can easily afford it, but if you’re trying to save money you can have a great time at a fraction of the cost by staying close to home. But if 10%, or even 5%, of your income goes into a separate account before you even see it, you’ll stop thinking of that as money you have available to spend. After just a couple of weeks or months, you’ll discover that you do not even miss this money because you will simply adjust to not having it. This will naturally cut back on your spending and help you save money. Learn to shop methodically and not on a whim. The worst time, to use one example, to buy holiday presents is right before the holidays. The best time is just after the holidays are over when the items you want to on sale. Another big expense most don’t think about is your phone bill. Many of us nowadays don’t have just one phone but up to three or more including cells, home phones and maybe ever Skype phones. We don’t often realize how much we can save just by getting down to one line. Perhaps a pay as you go cell phone is the most convenient consideration you should make. This way you won’t be paying for any extra minutes you don’t use. You should also avoid, or cut back on text messaging, which can really add to your cell phone bill. Use online texting rather than with your phone since it’s cheaper to do this. If you pay for cable TV think about canceling it and finding other forms of entertainment. Many people pay upwards of hundreds of dollars for cable channels that they do not use. If you like to watch movies there are lots of cheaper ways to do so like renting DVDs and internet streaming television. The internet can be a great place for television as well. It is easy to watch videos online for free too. There are also other things that you can do that are not watching television. Cutting out cable TV is a simple way to save hundreds of dollars every year. Many people will spend a lot of money during their leisure time because they do not bother to look into all of the free or cheap things to do in their local areas. Rather than going to the movies or the mall when you have some free time why not look for things that don’t cost any money? If the weather is good, go for a hike or a walk. Most places will have a few different free things that will be listed in the newspapers and in free weekly publications and on bulletin boards. Local concerts and art exhibits are often free for at least part of the time. If you make the time to look for it, you’ll find plenty of entertainment that is affordable or free of cost. If you think outside of the box, you’ll save money in lots of ways that can really add up. Most of the time, people spend more than they have to on food, entertainment, shopping and other expenses simply because they don’t research all the alternatives. The tips contained in this article will help you train your mind to think more frugally and save money in new ways.
Effective Public Speaking: Audience Contact
Although speaking in public is really a monologue of sorts, this monologue is addressed to a ready, able and receptive audience who wants to learn from you as much as you want to learn from them. Speaking in public would be more effective if it is listened to. The following are effective tips to maintain that necessary contact with the audience. Greet them Minutes before your actual speaking engagement, you could walk around the venue and familiarize yourself with the people who will be listening to you. As the people and the attendees arrive, give them a warm greeting. It is so much easier to deliver a speech to a group of people whom you consider as friends than to a bunch of anonymous faces. Be positive Honestly, people expect and want you to succeed. Audiences want to be as informed, stimulated and entertained as they could be. If you fail, they cringe with you. Succeed and your audience benefits just as well from your great speaking performance. There is nothing to be sorry about If you mention to the audience that you are nervous or if you express your apologies to any problems you think may exist about your speech or your speech delivery, you may be setting them up to focus on that thing you are apologizing for. You do not have to mention this to them, chances are they haven’t noticed this until you brought it up. Relax and be silent. Your audience will relax with you. Establish eye contact Connect with your audience, appear natural. Or better yet, be as natural as you can be, without overdoing it of course. You should be able to get the audience to nod their heads as an acknowledgement of what you are trying to convey. Do not breeze through your speech. Pause for a while or for a brief moment, especially at those points you want to emphasize. This is also a good time to establish eye contact with your attendees as well as to catch that much needed breath. Do not debate If during the question and answer part of your speaking engagement an audience expresses disagreement with any part of your message, you need not aggressively prove your point to him or her. A debate is not just a futile means to get your point across but it could just as well never be resolved. Get that attendee to talk with you after your speaking engagement, never during.
Entrepreneurial Success: Serve Your Audience
The most successful people in the world do not have people in service to them; they are in service to other people. Think about Domino’s Pizza. A few years ago, this pizza chain had reduced profits with low sales all over the United States. So they changed their tactic. Instead of making pizzas according to their recipes, because that is the way it had always been, they asked their customers what they would prefer. It turned out, their customers wanted a better tasting pizza and so Domino’s went to work creating one. Now, profits are back up and the company is doing fine. Another contemporary example: the fast food chain McDonald’s just announced that they are going to provide breakfast all day long. For decades, people have been held hostage to McDonald’s breakfast hours and other restaurants have taken advantage of this and enticed those customers by having a breakfast menu that was available longer or even all day. McDonald’s finally decided that they were here to serve their customers and not dictate the times that they should be eating breakfast, and expanded their breakfast menu hours to the entire day. Needless to say, the move was quite popular. Who is your audience? Who are the people that are going to be responsible for your success? Your customers, of course; they are the people who buy your products and services. Some people look at this audience like it is here to serve them and their needs and in fact, the opposite is true. You need to be here to serve your audience. You need to find out what they want and what they need and then provide it to them. No matter if you are providing a product or service, if you want to be successful then get ready to serve your audience. Take Time off for Mentoring Your customers aren’t the only people that you should be serving. Helping people after you have already become successful is important but you don’t have to wait until you’ve reached your goals to start helping other people. There are many advantages that come with helping people with some of the areas that they’re struggling with, that you’re able to assist in. First, you’re going to feel great because you’re helping someone change their life and that is one of the biggest rewards and the most fulfilling things that we can do is human beings. Also, you’re going to be teaching yourself at the same time you are teaching others. They say that that is the best way that you can learn something – by teaching it to someone else. You’ll be helping someone and you’ll both be learning something valuable as you strive for success. You’re also going to get some major motivation from helping others and especially if you can help them succeed. Your own enthusiasm is going to go up, your motivation is going to increase, your excitement will be high and your successes can be greater than they have been before. You might not have thought about it, but those same people you’re helping now could end up being more successful than you and some areas and that could be a valuable relationship down the road. Most people are going to remember that you helped them for many years to come and not only would they be willing to do a favor if they’re in a position to do so they might even seek you out and offer. Seek out Ways That You Can Help Others Whether you are helping mentor other people trying to be successful in the same industry that you’re in or you’re helping your customers find exactly what they’re looking for and making sure that you provide them with the best service possible, you’re going to actually have to go out and seek ways to help people; they may not come to you. So, what are some of the ways that you can find people that you are able to help? How do you know that they need help? Most importantly, what do you have to offer that is valuable enough to teach others? This last question is important, not because there’s something that qualifies you to be a great teacher above all other things, but because you’re going to want to know the answer to that question so that you have the confidence to teach. As for finding people to help, your customers will probably come to you but make it clear that if they’re looking for something specific, even if you don’t necessarily deal with it in your own store or business, that they should ask you about it anyway because you might be able help. Make sure that you post this on your website somewhere and go to social media to offer help as well. As far as mentoring goes, there are forums all over the Internet with people that are seeking advice, some of them better than others. Try to find people who are actually serious about being successful, like-minded with your own values and goals and willing to accept your help. There’s no sense in helping someone who isn’t going to put in the work because this will not give you any of the benefits that comes from helping people. Become Known As Someone Who Will Go above and beyond for Your Customers You want your customers to be happy. This means good customer service but if you really want to shine, go above and beyond with every single customer that you get. Do absolutely everything you can do to solve the problem and make them happy and you will reap the rewards. They will talk about you to their friends, their colleagues and their family members and when they need a product or service that you sell they’ll be back to buy from you again and again. This is how Amazon has become so successful, by cultivating a reputation for customer service that is matched by no one
Effective Listening
All too often we are far more enthusiastic about talking than we are listening. Yet it is so vital if we are to communicate effectively. Most break downs in relationships are caused because people talk at each other without really making contact. Unless someone hears what has been said including the subtext the words have little value. When we are actively listened to we feel valued and are far more likely to engage in negotiation and compromise. Listening is about far more than words. Watching facial expression and body language is often a far more accurate barometer than the words that are being used. Nice things being said where the smile doesn’t reach the eyes is an obvious example. To be an effective listener it is vital that you listen actively. 10 tips to becoming a more effective listener Make eye contact. Read the body language of the talker. Are they relaxed, anxious, angry? Extremes are easy to recognise but often the message is much more subtle Mirror the talker’s body language- subtly, a gentle dance rather than a caricature. Show that you are listening, nod, make appropriate responses Ask relevant questions, ask them to clarify if you are not clear about their meaning Summarise: so what you are saying is………. Use open ended questions, the who, what, where, when, Be careful of the tone of your voice when you respond or ask questions. It is all to easy to come across as judgemental or as an interrogator from the Spanish Inquisition Use empathy. Acknowledge difficulties, but be careful not to fall into the trap of going into anecdotes from your experience. “ I sense that you are finding this rather difficult” rather than “Oh I know, it happened to me but mine was bigger, more difficult etc” Take a real interest, if you are simply going through the motions the lack of sincerity will be obvious to others. Leave your ego behind, concentrate on the other person.
Entrepreneurial Success Mindset: Be Grateful
There is nothing like achieving the success you want to make you grateful, but eventually the newness wears off and you forget to be grateful. There are so many opportunities to be grateful each and every day and so many reasons to do so. For one thing, people around you will be happier and much more willing to spend time with you. You’ll also be happier yourself and have a more positive attitude. You’ll also find that everyone is more willing to help you when they know that you’re grateful for everything that you have and everything that you receive. People Who Feel Entitled You have probably encountered people who feel entitled. They somehow believe that they deserve to have success without working for it, even though all of the other successful people in the world have had to work their butts off to get where they are. These people are always negative, they whine and complain about any work that they have to do and believe that the world should be handed to them on a silver platter. If you are one of these people, stop! If you just know people like that make sure you avoid ever falling into that trap because it is a pit of negativity that is very difficult to crawl out of. Be Grateful for Your Opportunities Be thankful for the opportunities that you have. If you live in a developed country, think of all the people around the world who don’t have the opportunities that you have. Think of people who not only don’t have access to the Internet and the ability to start their own business online, but they don’t even have access to clean water or electricity. The opportunity to build a business and achieve that much success is nothing to be scoffed at. If you have that opportunity, you are a very lucky person and you should be grateful for it. Also, you should be grateful for the teachers that you have in the information that you’re able to acquire, from the Internet or whatever sources you are using. You should be grateful for the teachers that you have, that they have the knowledge to teach and that they are willing to teach you. There actually are successful people out there who don’t subscribe to this particular thought model, instead taking the approach that the more people they shared the secret of their success with, the more competition there will be, which will apparently somehow devalue their own success, even if it’s not the same industry. However, most successful people are really grateful for those who help them get where they are today. You’ve probably heard of Tony Robbins. Tony is a motivational speaker, author and very successful individual. Even with as much success as he’s had, and all the things that he has done to create this environment for himself, he is still immensely grateful to the people who helped him get where he is today. In a recent interview with success.com Robbins said that he is still grateful to his earliest mentor, a man named Jim Rohn, who motivated Tony Robbins when he was very young. Follow Tony’s example and be grateful because there are benefits; not only the ones mentioned in the first paragraph of this chapter, but also some pretty amazing benefits for your business itself. Science can’t seem to find a metric to measure, but people that are grateful for all the opportunities that they had and all of the people who have helped them, are more likely to be successful than those who are not, and are usually several times more successful. Practice Being Grateful until You Get it Perfect It’s okay if you don’t feel that you’re at the point where you can be very grateful. Like anything else, being grateful takes practice. You might actually have to think hard about what you have to be grateful for when it comes to your online business, or you may have to wait until you actually do have something to be grateful for. The point is, start changing the way that you think. This grateful attitude goes along with everything else in this book. You are just being grateful because you should, you’re being grateful because it changes you as a person; it makes you a better person and it magnifies your success. Start a Gratitude Journal One of the things that you can do to become better at being grateful is to start a gratitude journal. A gratitude journal is when you sit down at the end of the day and write down some of the things that you’re grateful for. You can use your computer, you can use a piece of paper and a pen or even a smart phone app if you prefer. Just as long as you spend a little time each day thinking about what you have to be thankful for, writing it down and using it to further your success. Ways That You Can Show Your Gratitude One of the things that you can do to give back is use whatever assets that you have gained from being successful to help someone else. If you’re an Amazon affiliate, and you’re getting your first check from Amazon for just over $100, if you can afford it donated to charity, or take it down to your local soup kitchen to help buy groceries or even outsource some of the<br />things that you need for your business so that other people can make money too. If you can show the world that you’re grateful, the world will keep giving you opportunities and information to help you be successful. It sounds hokey, like some sort of new age philosophy, but it truly is the way this thing works and if you talk to anyone who has achieved a decent level of success they will tell you that positive attitude, gratefulness and a willingness to learn are all keys to success.
Delivering A Speech? Maintain Eye Contact
Body language is very important when delivering a speech. Have you ever seen our great leaders fidget or make unnecessary movements while addressing the nation? Since you are the center of attention while making the presentation, you should mind every move that you make so as not to bore or distract the people listening to your speech. So you already have a speech prepared, you know the topic well and you are now standing in front of the audience. They are in for a treat because you have prepared a great presentation, yet you also know that they have a very short attention span. How would you keep them interested with what you are saying? The answer is to maintain eye contact.This is one public speaking technique that great speakers use when addressing a large group of people. Here are some tips on how you can use this “trick” to keep your audience interested while delivering a speech: Once you have already started speaking and have delivered your introduction, take a look at your audience. Do not be nervous if you see one or two people frowning as you are not sure of exactly what they are thinking. Instead of looking out for unfriendly or blank faces, search for the people who are smiling and nodding their heads. Try to focus on this person for a couple of minutes and look him or her in the eye. This way, you would have an immediate “friend” in the audience to whom you can look at and gain confidence from. This will not just increase your confidence but also relax you in the course of your speech. Gaze steadily at your audience, moving from one part of the room to another. This way, you would immediately grasp their attention. Never read your speech. Just make an outline of the important points that you can expand on. If you have visuals, do not read the bullet points word for word as this might imply that your audience cannot read that themselves. With this, you are instantly creating a “bond” with your audience as a speaker since you do not have to keep on looking at your notes through the course of your speech. The key to delivering a great speech is to just breathe, relax and make eye to eye contact with your audience. Thus, you are not just making a physical connection with them but you are also ensured that you come out as a sincere speaker who wants to inform and interact with the audience through your speech.
Choosing a Niche
Alright, the first thing you need to do is choose a niche to focus on. This method is so much easier than the micro niche method, because it doesn’t involve hours upon hours of researching products, affiliate networks, and keyword tools. You just pick a niche and go. Okay, so it does involve some research, but the research is faster and easier using this method, and using a few free tools you can complete this in an hour or less in most cases. The first thing to do is figure out a niche that has voracious buyers but NOT a ton of competition. This is the toughest part, because most markets with voracious buyers are insanely competitive. (Some competition is good, but too much competition makes your job much harder.) Golf, for example, is a popular niche for internet marketers to get into. This is especially true for beginners. Yes, golfers do tend to have excess income to spend. Yes, they do tend to spend a good chunk of that excess income on their on their hobby. But because pretty much everyone knows this, competition is ridiculous. There are just too many established golf websites for the average marketer to compete. Is it possible to compete? Absolutely. But unless you are extremely good at marketing and/or have a huge budget for advertising and content creation, you’re not likely to make a whole lot of headway in this niche. It’s just far too over-saturated. A great idea is focusing on a broad interest group rather than a more competitive niche. Take a look at DIYReady.com (http://www.diyready.com), for example They have a niche—DIY—but it’s broad enough that they have a huge number of topics they can focus on within the DIY spectrum, which also gives them a broader range of products they can promote. Because there are so many individual topics under the DIY umbrella, virtually anyone can compete in this particular niche. People who enjoy this type of content typically frequent multiple DIY websites, and those users are easy to access because they are prevalent on Pinterest and other social websites. This is the type of niche you should try to locate. You want something broad—but not too broad—with voracious buyers and fans that are easy to locate. Some examples include: DIY, crafts, home improvement, gardening, etc. Prepping, survival, outdoor skills Model building (cars, ships, airplanes, etc.) Various careers Pets (specific breeds, or types) The great thing about this method is that if you discover one aspect of a particular niche isn’t working for you, it’s easy to switch to another one as long as you get a domain that covers the whole, broad niche. For example, if you decided to market to model builders and want to focus on model cars, you might want to register a domain like modelbuilders.com instead of modelcarbuilders.com so you can branch out into planes and ships later. (I’m sure those domains are taken, I’m just using them as a basic example.) Worst case scenario, if you create a large amount of custom content in a niche and it doesn’t pan out the way you hope, you could sell the website or articles to someone else in the niche to recoup some of the costs you incurred, and probably make a good profit. Once you’ve chosen a niche and bought a fairly broad domain, it’s time to move on.
Blueprint for Leadership – How to Be a Better Leader
If you were to build a house, you would begin with a blueprint. This blueprint proves useful because it contains more than directions on how to build a house. It also describes the finished house. So, what does this have to do with leadership? Last month I asked an audience of leaders to tell me the characteristics of an ideal leader. Their answers were (in the order collected): A good listener, enthusiasm, passion, shows appreciation, a visionary, role model, trusting, integrity, organized, knowledgeable, credibility, persuasive, charisma, team building, clarity of purpose, problem solver, attitude of service, leads by example, patience, willing to act without complete knowledge, understands followers, consistent, empowers other people, and adapts to change. I’ll add that this is essentially the same list that I receive from other audiences when I ask this question. From this comes some useful insights. 1) Notice what the list contains. All of these characteristics relate to the human side of leadership. That’s interesting because I often hear people minimize this side of leadership with terms like “soft” or “touchy feely.” Actually, applying these characteristics requires more strength than not. 2) Notice what the list excludes. Absent from this list (and all lists from other programs) are characteristics such as stern, mean, serious, short tempered, vindictive, tough, angry, harsh, punitive, controlling, violent, or ruthless. And that’s interesting because many popular representations of leadership emphasize at least one of these “hard” characteristics. In fact, these characteristics are the refuge of those who lack the strength (or the skills) to apply the human side of leadership. 3) How about you? How would you rate yourself as a leader compared to the list of positive characteristics? If you were to survey the people who report to you, how would they describe your leadership? Would they list characteristics from the “soft” list or from the “hard” list? Could you become more effective by improving upon any of the “soft” characteristics? And how about the other leaders in your organization? Do they truly maximize human potential? People want leaders who treat them with genuine compassion, courtesy, and respect. They want leaders who help them become more successful. They want leaders who inspire them with a vision for a better world and show them how to go there.
