Suffering a setback. It happens to all of us. Bouncing back can become more difficult with age. We ponder our own mortality and we realize that today is important because it’s all we have. No matter our age…we’d do well to seize the day – every day. Our days are often considered with greater sobriety when we’re older.

Encounters with loved ones, friends and even strangers can teach us lessons best learned early…rather than too late. The fact is, we’re all in this together. And today, I’m made to consider more seriously the power of showing gratitude and thanks while making the most of today. Isn’t that the best preparation for tomorrow? I think so.

Thank you!

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MySpace was founded in 2003. In July 2005 it was acquired by News Corporation for $580 million. For about 3 years Myspace was the most visited social networking site in the world. It surpassed Google as the most visited site in America in June 2006. That’s when the decline began. By the end of last year, 2011, the site ranked about 138th in most visited (that’s still impressive, but not as impressive).

On June 29, 2011, Myspace was sold to Justin Timberlake and Specific Media for approximately $35 million…a mere 6.03% of what News Corporation had paid some six years earlier. In terms of sheer purchase price, MySpace had managed to lose a value of $545 million. That’s about a $91 million a year decline in value over 6 consecutive years.

All those resources lost. Oh, and in a 2 year period, between June 2009 and June 2011, MySpace jettisoned 1400 people. More lost resources. New Corporation likely would love a “do-over.” $545 million, 6 years, and who knows what else – gone!  Suddenly, I feel better about my $50,900 loss.

Every quarter there are tremendous losses and wasted resources. We read about them constantly in the business press. Even the mainstream press.

Well, we don’t have millions of dollars. We’re not Justin Timberlake. How does any of this apply to our life?

Click play and find out. It’s a sober message that everybody needs to more seriously consider. Life is short. Resources are limited. We all need to allocate more wisely.

The Freakonomics podcast is mentioned in today’s show. In particular, this episode about doctors washing their hands and people learning the basics of financial responsibility.

The headline? Leroy Jethro Gibbs said that. Yep, THAT Gibbs. The one we know and love on NCIS.

Teachers. Business people. Creatives. Leaders. We all need a degree of smartness. And patience.

The world is full of smart people. It seems to me there are far more smart people than patient people. Fewer still are those who are smart and patient.

It’s an interesting intersection of qualities.

Wisdom is typically defined as the application of knowledge and experience. I doubt wisdom is possible without the two components that Gibbs said made up the DNA of a sniper.

“For as he thinketh within himself, so is he,” says Proverbs 23:7. Some misconstrue the meaning. Most famous among them, Napoleon Hill who penned “Think And Grow Rich.” Yes, folks can become rich by first thinking about becoming rich, but don’t we know of many folks who think of little else – and they’re poor as can be? If we only had to sit around and think of being rich, then wouldn’t we all be rich?

That’s not to say the proverb is untrue. Generally speaking, a proverb is true. Yes, there may be exceptions. We see it in the person full of self-doubt, fear and reluctance – but still they achieve things others only dream of. Typically, people who become high achievers are people who have a strong belief in their own capacity to achieve.

Does it mean we can do anything we set our minds to? Hardly. Like it or not, we have limitations.

There are two things that help construct who we are, and what we are. In today’s show I discuss these two things.

Tom Brady is a celebrity quarterback and 3-time SuperBowl champion with the New England Patriots. Six quarterbacks were drafted ahead of him in the 2000 NFL draft. His story demonstrates how our own motivation can drive us to higher accomplishment.

In today’s show I play the audio from this YouTube video segment of ESPN’s The Year Of The Quarterback – Tom Brady.

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Millions of people enter each work day hopeful. Hopeful that today will be better than yesterday. Hopeful that yesterday’s problems will grow smaller.

You know the adage, “Hope is not a strategy.” It’s a great saying, but sadly, for too many people it’s not true. Hope is the only strategy some people employ.

And it’s not because they’re stupid or foolish.

Many people don’t how to do it any other way. Day after day they hope. Some days it works out. Many days, it doesn’t.

Today’s show has one goal – to help you learn how to get started. I’ll warn you there are no secrets and no super easy shortcuts. But everybody can improve. Everybody can start.

Think of your life as a resource. A limited resource. We’ll start with that truth and move onto a few practical tips anybody can implement today – right now – to start feeling better about their work because they’ll be more effective. It’s not just about feeling better. It’s about doing better, which makes us feel better.

Let me know if this helps. I’d love to hear your feedback.

When they zig, zag.

It’s often the advice of folks in the advertising game, but it can also pay off big in other areas of communication.

As with most areas of self-control, it can be easier said than done. It can also be among the most effective tools in your rapport-building toolkit.

Great Salespeople Are Like Great Detectives

Here are 3 things that great detectives and great salespeople have in common. Can you think of some others?

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Do you look like this in your business?

“Man, you’re like a kitten. You chase every ball of yarn that enters the room,” I told this business owner. He’s one of a long line of business owners who’ve heard me say that. I doubt he’ll be the last.

Does that describe how you live? Boy, I hope not. But in the past three plus decades I’ve encountered many business owners and leaders whose lives were characterized by pandemonium, chaos and constant movement. Commotion becomes a habit for some business owners.

Galatians 6:7 “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” It’s a biblical principle, but it has broad – secular – application. We build the life we want.

If your business is characterized by commotion, then you’ve behaved in ways to make it so. If you don’t want commotion to be the mantra of your business life, then change it. Behave differently.

But how?

There’s one thing you must do before any meaningful change can occur. Just one thing. I’ll warn you – it may not be easy for you. Many people find it tremendously difficult. Even so, dwell on this one thing. Embrace it. Most importantly, do it!

Hey, will you do me a favor? Leave me some feedback over at iTunes. I’d greatly appreciate it. In fact, it’d make my weekend!

Have a great weekend,
* Photo courtesy of MinkBlue

Here are four things to help you get up after you’ve been knocked down and dragged out:

1. Stop feeling sorry for yourself
2. Decide your first step (and your second)
3. Pay attention
4. Make resilience your personal trademark

Watch the video and I’ll explain. Let me know if these help you. Shoot me a message on Twitter.

Allow me to tell two stories of my own stupidity and foolishness. Both cost me a lot of money, but they may have cost me more in embarrassment and vulnerability. I certainly lost some pride over the deals. Thankfully, my wife stood by me – all without scolding me about how stupid or crazy I was.

As my kids were growing up I constantly preached to them about making mistakes. I knew they’d make mistakes, all kids do. My sermon to them was always the same, “Don’t make a mistake from which you can never recover.”

While these two stories had a high cost, thankfully…they were mistakes from which I could and did recover. I hope you can learn to be smarter by avoiding the mistakes I made.

Just about every business I’ve ever helped had a foundational problem associated with getting new customers. We all need and want more leads. More is always better.

Lead generation is a top of the sales funnel problem. There is almost always another problem at the bottom of the funnel, too. Maybe you’ve not considered this problem as seriously as you should.

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Success Isn't Binary

Be a millionaire. What? You’re not already a millionaire? Loser.

All the cool kids are millionaires. They’ve had a killer IPO or acquisition. Banking millions.

That’s true success, achievement and mastery. If you’ve not yet pulled that off, then you’ve got a lot of work to do. Catch up. Get with the program.

Or not.

Truth is, most of us can live the life of our dreams (not the wildest variety perhaps, but still dreams) for $150,000 a year or less. Few of us will achieve millionaire status defined by having a net worth of $1M. Fewer still among us will achieve millionaire status by having liquid assets in excess of $1M. But the world is full of stories that compel us to think everybody is more successful than we are. The world loves to help us all feel like losers.

Suddenly, gratitude, thanksgiving and simply feeling good about our life are out the window. All because we’re drawn to compare ourselves to those at the top of the success pyramid. They have the success we want. They have the good life. By comparison, we’re a failure. We’re poor.

Hog wash! People with a more crude vocabulary will use two different words to describe it.

Today is my 34th wedding anniversary. Perhaps that has caused sober reflection on my life and driven me to a state of higher than normal (for me) gratitude. I hope you can learn something from it. I’m still learning.

Minimalism, minimum viable product (Eric Ries, The Lean Startup), a WOW factor and the 37 Signals‘ approach to providing value…it’s all here in today’s show.

Quite frequently I find myself wanting less. But like you, I want what I want. Sometimes it’s hard to find. Case in point, Bible software for Mac. I’ve owned a variety of Bible software through the years and have been dissatisfied with everything built for the Mac. It’s overkill. I want simple, useful…valuable.

What about your career, or your business? Are you piling on features, all the while thinking you’re piling on the value?

Desperate businesses say YES when saying NO would be more profitable. It’s understandable though because cash is king.

Success demands that you learn to say NO to high-maintenance prospects (prospects are those people who haven’t yet bought anything from you, but you think they might).

The sooner you cut loose from the high-maintenance prospect the better. You’ll have more time and resources to focus on prospects who will be more ideally suited to you and your business.

Guys, what’s in your pocket right now?

Do you remember your dad, or your grandfather, emptying their pockets when they got home from work? Old times. Good times.

Somewhere along the way things changed.

I grew up listening to the voices, watching the characters and smiling…a lot!

Saturday mornings were terrific when I was a kid. I guess they still are.

Lead your own tribe. Build your own community. Form relationships. Create great content. Build a list.

Recently, I was looking (and laughing) at photos of myself and my friends back when we were teenagers. Wearing wide ties. Bell bottom pants. And white shoes and white belts!

Oh, and polyester leisure suits! We can’t forget those stylish outfits.

Boy, did we look ridiculous. We had no idea how stupid we really looked.

Decades from now how might we view social media and all the other online relationship stuff? I have some opinions (you knew I would).

Those old photographs coupled with being unfollowed by a guy who has graced our presence here at Bula Network prompted today’s video episode. Yes, I returned the favor by unfollowing him. And if you think I’ll ever promote him or his work again, you are sorely mistaken.

Providing value. Being memorable. Serving. Those are the things that trump a Twitter following, Facebook friends or Google + circles. Why? Because it’s people impacting other people in meaningful ways. Whether it’s a business that serves customers, or a health professional that serves patients…those moments – “relationships” – are moments in time that can have a lasting impact. That doesn’t mean we’re now friends – in the traditional sense – with the dental hygienist who cleans our teeth. She’s performed a great value to us though. Our relationship with her is bound by our need and her ability to serve that need.

Such relationships are far more honest than many online relationships that we currently think are important. When my “friend” unfollowed me on Twitter was he kicking me to the curb? No, not really. The fact is, he needed to promote his work. He reached out to me to help him do that. I obliged. We chatted a few times on the phone and Skype, but promoting him and his work was always the focus of the conversation. He never expressed interest in my work. I never pursued him about my life, or my work. It was, however, a two-way relationship because I happily helped promote him. It’s reasonable that, when he was finished with me, our time together was over. But, because of the current “white belt” way of thinking, it can seem harsh and unfriendly. Frankly, it’s practical and more genuine.

He unfollowed me. I unfollowed him back. We’re done, for now. Will he ever enter my life again? I don’t know. But I have the memory of having helped him, if only in some small ways. He has the memory of spending time with me, having me help promote him. That’s enough. It’s okay. It’s how the real world works and I don’t resent it.

The current fashion is to chase numbers and amass a following, a tribe. Years from now we’ll look back and see a bunch of white belts and wonder, “What were we thinking?”

Dr. Mike Evans is founder of the Health Design Lab at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, an Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of Toronto, and a staff physician at St. Michael’s Hospital. In this presentation he answers the old question “What is the single best thing we can do for our health?”

During this season of making new resolutions, why don’t you embrace this health tip?

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Does your business look like this?

These little Red Sox players lack understanding and maturity. They’re just having fun running around. Cluelessness is cute when you’re just a kid, but not when you’re older.

Does chaos, commotion, confusion and complexity rule the day in your business or career? Then you’re like these little kids. Childish.

Stop it. Grow up. Get a grip and stop ruining your success.

Have you seen this already? If so, watch it again. It’s so worthwhile.

You haven’t seen this before? Oh, man. Are you in for a terrific surprise.

Since seeing this for the first time around Labor Day I bet I’ve watched this a hundred times. I laugh every single time. It’s been viewed about 9 million times now.

When I first saw it I suspected it may have been staged. I was quite happy when I quickly found out it was innocent and real. The Huffmans got a new laptop and were trying to figure out the webcam. Their granddaughter got the video and posted it. The rest is history. YouTube fame happened quickly and for good reason. It’s the best 3 minutes of video I’ve seen all year. Hands down!

Read more here, here and here.

They also have a Facebook fan page.

Enjoy,

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Time, Your Most Valuable Resource

In 1991 I read Jeffrey Mayer’s book, “If You Haven’t Got the Time to Do It Right, When Will You Find the Time to Do It Over?” It was likely one of hundreds of books I’d read about time management. Since then, I’ve probably read 100 more. You’d think I’d be a time management expert by now, huh?

Time management tools and techniques are a bit like the best camera. “The best camera is the one you have with you.” The best time management techniques are the ones you’ll actually use.

GTD – Getting Things Done – by Robert Allen is clearly the market leader in time management. If not the market leader, it’s got to be the best known brand in the space.

I’m not a time management expert, but I do know how to get things done. I do what works for me. You likely do things differently than me. That’s fine.

But…

Sometimes I don’t do what I know I should. Sometimes I mess up. And I have to go back and do something again because I failed to take the time to do it right the first time ’round.

I’d like to hear what works for you, or what resources you’ve found valuable.

Tweet me @RandyCantrell

Thanks for listening,

This is a great primer for folks who just don’t get social media or today’s Internet-connected world. Enjoy!

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My Grandsons

“It’s all about building relationships,” says the expert. “Businesses must build community.”

People flock to this trough like hungry swine, devouring every word as though their business lives depended on it. Obviously many business owners believe it.

It sounds reasonable. Right, even.

Besides, we all want to be liked, loved and in good relationships.

And who doesn’t want to be part of a community? Better yet, who doesn’t want to be the Pied Piper?

Build your own tribe. Lead that tribe. How cool is that – to be the Chief of your own tribe leading the rest of us around like simps unable to decide for ourselves?

In a world where everybody is an expert about something (some among us are expert at everything), it’s about building relationships.

No, it’s not.

It’s about sitting in my car recording today’s episode before my second workout of the day. Today’s episode was recorded late yesterday outside The Yellow Studio. That’s why today’s show is another special episode. You might think it’s special in other ways after you give it a listen.

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Great Leaders Wear Pink Shirts

Great leaders have shaved heads. And big ears. And graying goatees.

Some do. I’m not saying I’m one of them, of course. I hope to be a good leader, but perhaps like you – I’m a work in progress. Greatness is likely far beyond the scope of my abilities.

The horrors of Penn State display how leadership can falter. People considered the university president and the head football coach as great men – great leaders. But now, these men (and others) appear as something different. They are seen by most as men who failed. They didn’t do the right thing when faced with the opportunity. Turns out, they’re hypocrites.

One word is fundamental to leadership, influence.

In that sense, we’re all leaders. You influence somebody. You have an impact on everybody who knows you, interacts with you and even those who observe your life without your knowledge. There are people you observe and they have no idea you’re looking at them, listening to them or paying attention to them.

People are watching. They’re listening. Paying attention.

Leadership’s power is displayed by our actions – our behaviors – when nobody is looking. Or when we don’t think anybody is looking.

How’s your leadership? If you want to know, just closely examine how you behave when nobody is watching.

Do the right thing. Help the rest of us do the right thing. Influence us for good. Be a good example for us. Be a leader.

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We have great respect for severe weather here in Tornado Alley.

Today is 11.11.11. Too bad I couldn’t have set it up so today’s episode would be number 111. I obviously should work on my long-term strategy better.

Let’s talk about coaching and providing meaningful help to others. Trusted advisor isn’t just some marketing malarky, it’s real-world relationship building.

I’m also going to share with you the first BulaNetwork production. Well, it’s the first real production of this new media company I’m now running.

I’ll end today’s show with two T’s – tornadoes and thanksgiving!

Some links to things mentioned in today’s show:

• The Dan Patrick Show
• David Meerman Scott’s post about coaching
• Steve Farber
• Tommy Spaulding
• Bar Code Radio, the first real Bula Network production
• Text Expander, a great keystroke short cut Mac program
• Google Analytics and other tracking resources
• What do you think of the new tagline, A New Media Company Operated By A Business Builder?
• Storm Chasers, the TV show
• Reed Timmer, an extreme meteorologist based in Norman, Oklahoma
• Reed’s Tweets are often very informative
• I hope whatever dark clouds exist in your life have a silver lining

I know I didn’t get around to discussing 2012 projections and planning. We’ll do that in an upcoming show. Many business people have inquired about what process might be most helpful. I decided that really needs to be a single episode fully devoted to those ideas. Look for that episode to come down the stream in the next few weeks! In the meantime, do you have a process you find especially useful? I’d love to hear about it.

Subscribe to the podcast.

Thanks for listening,

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I’m talking him off the ledge. He owns his own business. A business he started over 10 years ago. A business he now hates.

Well, he doesn’t hate the business, but he hates going to work. Every Sunday evening he begins dreading Monday morning.

“I don’t want to do this any more. I just want to pull the covers over my head and stay in bed.”

The toll is high. His family bickers constantly. His health isn’t terrific. He’s drinking a tad more than before. He can’t remember the last time he exercised. Or went to the doctor for a checkup.

He tells me this isn’t what he bargained for. I tell him, “This is exactly the life you bargained for.” Silence.

I thought he hung up on me, but he was just sitting quietly in stunned disbelief that life had gotten so out of control.

I sat quietly knowing he’s not alone. Saddened by the fact that I’m encountering too many small business owners who feel owned by their business instead of the other way around.

Jeffrey A. Landers wrote this book, “The Home Office From Hell Cure: Transform Your Underperforming, Time-Sucking Homebased Business Into A Runaway Success.”

Home offices can be from hell, but so can other offices. Small, medium and large businesses can be just as demon possessed as a homebased business. They need a cure. And like any other ailment, there’s not a single prescription because the illnesses are varied.

Don’t let your small business kill you. Or over-run your life. Today, I’d like to give you just a few simple, but powerful ideas to consider.

Hint: These powerful ideas have everything to do with YOU, not your business. It starts with YOU.

Would you do me a favor? Subscribe to the podcast. Thanks!

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Photo Courtesy of Indraneel Rakshit on Flickr

The proverb is true. The journey of 1000 miles does begin with a single step.

The first step is often tough though. You consider everything that can go wrong. You question yourself about every little detail of the journey.

“What if I screw up?”

“What if it doesn’t work out?”

“What if I blow it?”

I have another question, “What if you never start – even small?” You’ll never get any further along than where you are right now. Look around. Get comfortable…because you’re not going anywhere if you’re not willing to go small. Warning: getting too comfortable just looking at the current view will kill any chance you’ve got to get to that mountain peak in the distance!

Go! Move. Take some meaningful action right now!

I don’t know if you’ll ever get where you’re headed, but I know for a certainty that you’ll never get there by sitting still.

Go now. Go small. Figure it out as you go. Keep your eyes open and enjoy the scenery along the way, too.

As Spock would say, “Live long and prosper!”

P.S. My wallpaper photo isn’t the one used in this post, but I really like this one. Visit Indraneel’s Flickr page.

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The Reality Distortion Field Might Look Like This. Or Not.

Steve Jobs was accomplished in the art of practicing the reality distortion field. I’m guessing it was an art. It’s not a science. Come to think of it, it’s not even real, or is it?

Today’s show is about something that one listener suggested, but quite a few others had encouraged in the past. For some reason I kept stalling to tackle the subject because frankly – I thought there was quite a bit of talk about it out here on the interwebs.

MINDSET

The importance of the topic didn’t escape me. But neither did the volume of discussions about it, including podcasts, videos, books and blog posts. I figured there surely must be enough content about this to satisfy the interest of most people. Perhaps I was wrong though. Maybe my own cognitive bias was hampering my own content creation.

This is exactly what happens when you ask your audience what they want though. They sometimes tell you. Among the most suggested topics, this was among the top ones listed. Mindset, self-talk, paradigm…these were among the ways listeners defined the topic.

Today’s show is about 45 minutes long. I hope it provokes some thought and creativity. Hey, it might even rile you up a bit, but I doubt it.

I welcome your feedback. Send me a Tweet, or leave me some voicemail.

Mentioned in today’s show:

• Plato’s allegory of the cave
• False Evidence Appearing Real (F.E.A.R.)
• Mindset as defined by Wikipedia
• Cognitive distortion as defined by Wikipedia
• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
• The Secret (a load of crock)
• The Law of Attraction (another load of crock)

Thanks,

P.S. Congratulations to the St. Louis Cardinals. Good-bye, Tony La Russa!

St. Louis Cardinals - 2011 World Series Champions

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Let's Run Fast And Jump

In the last episode I told you about the re-booting of Bula Network. Here we are in the first show since the re-boot. I feel like I’m running down this long dock ready to launch myself off the end into the biggest cannonball I can muster! Launching is fun.

But today’s show is about my consumption of new media. It’s part of the story about the new direction here. It likely represents the long dock of my life here inside The Yellow Studio.

About 6 years ago I fell in love with podcasts. I don’t remember the first shows I listened to, but I remember in the early days of online audio (before I even knew what RSS meant, or what it could do) being excited at the medium. I’m an audio guy though. A lifelong love affair with music landed me into audiophileland when I was still a teenager. My love of audio persists today in music and online broadcasting.

Mentioned in today’s show:

• TotalFinder is an $18 program that every Mac owner should buy.
• Episode 105 was the show about my rebooting BulaNetwork
• TWIT is something I follow a little bit, but I’m not a rabid fan
• Marketing Over Coffee podcast
• Mixergy with Andrew Warner is one of my favorites
• Gary Vaynerchuk, the epitome of high energy
• DishyMix with Susan Bratton
• Freakonomics podcast
• Cliff Ravenscraft is the PodcastAnswerman.com

I’m looking forward to getting this party started. Thanks for joining me for the ride!

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Time To Reboot

Now that the About page has been rewritten – and I’m not saying I’m finished with it – it’s time to release this episode. It’s been coming for quite a long time. In fact, for over 2 weeks I’ve sat down to record this episode more times than I can count. Each time I simply decided against it. I don’t think it was fear as much as it was trying to figure out how to tell the story.

This past Saturday I went into The Yellow Studio, muted the sound of the college football game playing on the flat screen, and launched forth. One take (I almost never do multiple takes and I never, ever edit). No script. No notes. I just started to tell the story as briefly as I could – because I know you don’t really care about all the details. Shoot, I don’t even care about them much!

I do care about you. I care that you’ve given me your time and attention. I care about you, and I care about your business and your life. Not in some hokey sort of way, but in a way that’s right. At least it’s right for me. Part of my challenge with the Internet is all the talk of scope and scale. As a business person I fully understand those things, but as a person — I could care less!

For the better part of 6 months I’ve been doing some heavy thinking, which isn’t that easy for somebody whose brain is as small as mine. That explains the headaches.

I reached a conclusion some months ago as I reviewed how many things in my professional life had changed. I surveyed the variety of opportunities coming my way. I examined the people who have entered my life in the last few years. Mostly, I closely examined my contributions, or lack of them. Situations and circumstances where I felt I was doing good work. Others where I definitely was not.

Things change. Thanks to time, circumstances, opportunities and a host of other variables that life slings our way. Weeks, if not months ago, I knew it was time.

For something completely different.

It’s time to move on. It’s time to get going.

BulaNetwork.com ‘s first iteration dies and now is born a new identity, a new purpose -

BulaNetwork.com becomes a new media company.

Today’s show goes behind the scenes to tell you exactly what’s been happening and why. I’d love to hear what you think about it.

As with all effective re-boots, this one means the “finder” gets a fresh start. Whatever happened in the past is now over. Whatever work was in process is now permanently interrupted and gone. The future will now be determined by what happens starting today. This re-boot won’t involve me wiping out all the past though. The previous posts and podcasts episodes will remain. They’re here for archive purposes only though. The future shall not resemble the past!

That’s the point of a re-boot, right?

Thanks for listening, reading and watching!

“We appreciate the end result of our work. I appreciate just getting to do the work.”

Coach Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh Steelers

Who do you want to serve? That’s your ideal customer or your target market.

Is your pricing helping or hindering your ability to reach your target market? Your value proposition must befit the market you’re trying to conquer.

Every week I work on other peoples’ businesses. I regularly encounter both problems. Small business owners who haven’t properly defined their ideal customer struggle to find any market. Businesses sometimes fail to present the correct value proposition to reach their target market. That is, they price their offers too low and aren’t taken seriously, or they price their offers too high and are unable to justify it.

Small business owners desperate for revenue often choose to do business with anybody who will say, “Yes.” It can tear their business apart as they soon find out that they’re now tethered to a bad customer who drains their time, money and resources in the never ending quest to simply satisfy a customer not likely to ever be satisfied. “I wish I had never done business with this customer,” is a common refrain I hear.

Sometimes – in fact, more often than not – I find small businesses who under price their services. Again, desperate for revenue they think by lowering their price they’re giving the prospect a compelling reason to say, “Yes.” Instead, they’re diminishing their opportunities to serve their target market.

Every small business owner should find some quiet time to more seriously consider their target market and how their pricing strategy can be adapted to help them more effectively reach that market.

Thanks for watching.

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The Dawn Of A Hopeful Day

There’s no reason to give up hope. No reason to give up dreams. Meaningful contributions are within the reach of every man. Unfortunately, too many people gauge their success by what other people have, what others have done, or what others are doing.

I had a high school buddy who loved to drag race. He had a fast car. But I remember telling him, “There’s always somebody with a faster car.” So it is with accomplishment or success. Your success isn’t determined by besting somebody else. Your hope doesn’t rest with what somebody else will give you. It rests within your determination and ability to make wise choices…and to take action. Behaving in honorable ways, doing the right thing and working hard have intrinsic value.

The ingredients for success are within our reach – even if circumstances, environment and resources aren’t ideal. Sometimes, people have to overcome enormous adversity to simply survive. Is that you? Not likely. It’s more likely that you’re having to overcome your own destructive thoughts and behaviors. Be thankful you’re not fighting for sheer survival every day of your life. Millions are.

Is everybody built for greatness? What is greatness anyway? A man who responsibly supports a family, raises wise children and loves his wife is behaving with greatness. So is the woman struggling to raise children alone by taking on every menial job available. Millions of people get up every day committed to the hard work of doing what must be done.

There’s value in doing what we must do. In doing what must be done. It’s honorable. It’s right.

Today’s special episode was recorded outside The Yellow Studio thanks to the portable technology of a digital audio recorder and a field microphone. I recorded this episode to provide some small spark of hope.

I’d love to hear your feedback. You can use the contact form on the feedback page, the podcast feedback line or Twitter.

Thanks for listening,

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Are You Serious About Building Your Business? Click Play.

Let’s Start From The Beginning. Or The End.

Among the most important work of building any business are the following:

1. Getting what’s in your head documented so the gap between knowing and doing is closed. When principle players of a business don’t document what they know, the organization is unable to learn. Only learning organizations remain viable over time.

2. Getting systems built so products/services can be delivered with predictable success over and over. Some call it scale. Some call it sustainability. Whatever you call it, it’s urgent that every business build a work-flow that enables the delivery of the service to be excellent every single time. The exception, poor service, should be the exception – not the rule.

3. Once systems have become second nature, it’s time to consider automation – putting some activities on auto-pilot. This may involve lower cost labor executing activities previously done by more skilled people. It may involve using technology to perform functions previously done manually, giving the company more man hours for more profitable functions.

All of this boils down to a simple “easier-said-than-done” approach to business building:

If Then Systems

“IF” this happens, “THEN” here’s what our business does to respond.

Every business is nothing more than a series of requests. Daily our lives are driven by requests. Customers have requests. Prospects have requests. Partners have requests.

Businesses run into trouble when they aren’t able to effectively and efficiently handle all these requests. Every stress felt by a company stems from that company’s inability to properly handle all the requests put upon it. From cash flow, to lead generation, to making payroll – and every other challenge facing a business – they all can be fixed with an improvement to more consistently deliver superior value in answer to all the requests.

Among the big challenges facing most small businesses is this one, “How can we say YES to this request?” Unfortunately, too many small business owners don’t consider a more important question, “SHOULD we say YES to this request?”

It really starts with making decisions that put the business in the best possible position for success. Success is based on financial results, number of happy customers, how many customers will recommend our company, happy employees and ongoing innovation and creativity.

The Solution Is Also The Problem

The problem is TLC. The solution is also TLC.

Time • Logistics • Communication

Time is an obvious problem. We don’t have enough of it. Ever.

Logistics is a multi-faceted problem. It’s who and where, all at the same time. Who has it. Where are they at with it. Simply put, logistics is work-flow. It’s how we get things done. We do it with the help of other people.

Communication is internal and external. It’s how we talk, what we say, when we say it and it involves every aspect of our communication with people inside the company, or those directly involved in our work (suppliers, vendors, partners, anybody who is associated with our serving customers). It’s also how we communicate (in all forms) with our prospects and customers.

The elephant in the room is one word: EMOTION.

Every element of TLC evokes emotions, either positive (calming, excitement, intrigue, comfort, happiness) or negative (fear, dread, anxiety, depression, unhappiness).

It’s important that a business establish basic guidelines and expections to build a TLC model that is effective in building the most successful business possible.

An Obvious Truth: If the business suffers, everybody associated with that business suffers. If a business thrives, everybody associated with that business benefits.

That means every decision must be congruent with the purpose of the business. So we begin with the end in view, “What is the purpose of your business?”

Money. Well, of course. But that’s an outcome – a hopeful outcome – of what a business does. The purpose is something deeper, more important. “There’s something more important than money?” Sure.

Time is more important. You can earn more money, but you can’t create more time.

And this first component of TLC presses on us how the purpose of our business has to be focused on one big question, “How do you want to spend your days?”

That is, what do you want to do with your time? Specifically, what do you want to do with your working time?

Every successful person – in our case, business people – must determine how they’d like to spend their time. Every day people get up and DO something. It’s that something we DO that determines our daily purpose. It establishes who we are. It defines us.

We can fight against it. We can even deny it. But when all is said and done, it’s what’s done that defines who we are – and what kind of business we build.

If everything is important, nothing is important.

Be congruent.

Establishing priorities is one of the most important decisions facing every leader. It forms the foundation of the entire business. Openly and subtly it tells everybody what we value most.

Business owners often make the mistake of making everything important. They love the mantra, “Sweat the details.” Or, “the devil is in the details.” It’s a cowardly way of justifying their poor management style.

The autocrat – a person with absolute, singular authority – rules with an iron fist. Unmoved by input from anybody else, he’s the center of his own universe. Every good idea must be his own, otherwise, it’s a bad idea. Every job in the company is best performed by him, but he only suffers the foolishness of others because he’s too important to do every job. He’s not too important to be the backseat driver behind every decision and every action taken by others.

Over time – sooner than later – the business realizes that there really are no priorities because every single thing is important. The owner’s ire is provoked by everything. People are unable to get a read on what really matters because it all seems to matter.

The practical reality is we all know things have a value based on their relation to other things. Some things are more important than other things. It’s important that people in a company draw the proper conclusion. That is, they must quickly learn what matters most. Leadership provides that answer with the establishment of priorities.

Congruency. Have you ever seen somebody in a place where you didn’t expect them? Sure, we’ve all done that. Perhaps we’re accustomed to seeing a person who waits on us regularly at our favorite eating joint. One evening we go out to attend a concert. We see somebody who looks familiar, but we’re unable to place them. They approach us and all of sudden it dawns on us who they are. Why did it take us so long to recognize them? Because in this moment of time, our congruency meter is thrown off by the context of this concert. In the restaurant setting we have no problem recognizing them. That’s congruency. It’s how we all make sense of the world.

It’s also among the many components that explains why the abused wife stays with the abusive husband. He says he loves her…after he’s beaten the crap out of her. He says one thing and does something different. Incongruities confuse her. She must make sense of it somehow. So, over time, she convinces herself his words mean more than his actions. “He just loses control sometimes,” she might say. Or, “I shouldn’t provoke him.” She has to make sense of her world in any way she can. And she does.

Employees and other people associated with our business do the same thing. They must make sense of things. When ownership says one thing, but does something different…or when ownership does one thing, then contradicts that with an opposite action…people naturally seek to make sense of it.

Being congruent speaks to every aspect of TLC. Our ability to be congruent with who we really are, what we really want and what we think is really most important – those send strong signals inside and outside the business. They mean everything to our business.

In the next show I’ll dive into the T of TLC, time.

Thanks for listening,

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Not all confrontations are done in anger.

For a few weeks I’ve been thinking about the subject of helping, coaching, consulting, mentoring and advising. Many people hammer those of us in the “helping” businesses because they think we’re frauds and fakes. Some are, but that’s true of most professions.

I’ve postponed talking about it, but this morning serendipity kicked me in the butt and compelled me to record today’s episode. The serendipity arrived in the form of another podcast.

EndingTheGrind.com is a site and podcast done by Steve. He interviewed Penelope Trunk for his show and not too many minutes into the show, things took a turn that Steve wasn’t expecting. He got some career advice from Ms. Trunk that I relished hearing, even though others felt uncomfortable with the conversation.

It was profitable confrontation. I saw it for what I think it was – honest, blunt help!

My first thought was, “Steve’s lucky. She’s taking the time to really give him a dose of medicine that may change his life.”

Steve posts that he had reached out to Marcus Sheridan, TheSalesLion.com, for advice about the interview. After hearing the interview, I agreed with Marcus.

From the comments and Tweets it appears others may have felt Penelope was rude, hateful and angry. I didn’t see it or hear it that way, but I certainly could relate to the clear frustration she experienced. She saw things quite clearly. Steve didn’t. It made her crazy. I know that feeling.

We all need help. There are times in our lives when we all need a kick in the butt.

It’s ridiculous to claim that only people who have no challenges are capable of helping others. The doctor who gets sick needs the care (help) of another doctor. The barber has to get his hair cut (unless he shaves his head like all the cool kids do). The dentist must go to the dentist.

Helping people is an honorable thing to do, whether people get paid to do it or not. Penelope didn’t give Steve advice because he paid for it, even though he joked about her sending him a bill. No, she had an opportunity to pass on some wisdom, as she saw it, and she took it. Steve didn’t see it at the time, but I suspect he’s coming around by now.

It was great to hear, even if my audio snobbery lamented the audio quality of the podcast. It was compelling. It was powerful. All the while I was thinking, “Steve, this can change your life if you let it.” I hope he uses it to climb higher. And I don’t even know Steve, but I know enough to suspect he’ll embrace it. I hope so.

I hope you’ve got people in your life who are willing to confront you in order to help you. I do. And I’m thankful for all of them.

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To Love And To Be Loved - Do They Define You?

I know two guys who suffered major setbacks in their careers. Their lives were turned upside down financially.

Both men took different, but similar paths toward simplicity. The practical realities of their situations dictated monumental changes in their lifestyles.

The big houses. Gone. The imported fancy cars. Gone. High dollar toys and lake houses. Gone.

Their families. Intact. Their friends. Mostly intact.

I think of them often…and a few others like them. And I smile.

Listen and I’ll tell you why.

A late addition to this episode because it just seems fitting, and because I love his music.

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They're not all the same price.

Today’s show addresses one of my most recent urgent topics with clients, pricing.

Coupled with pricing have been ongoing conversations about budgets and discounting. Blame it on the economy, but whatever the reason I’m finding so many small business owners experiencing challenges to their pricing structure.

Prospects blame it on the constraints of the budget. “I don’t have the budget for that amount,” they claim. Quite often we’re stuck with a single priced offer.

Look at those crabs. You’re budget won’t allow you to spend $6. Well, that’s why that one $5 crab is sitting there. Notice there’s only one $5 crab. Brilliant marketing and sales strategy. Save a buck, but there’s only one of them! Buy him. He’s puny, but you can save a whopping dollar. He’s a budget crab!

Washington, D.C. is living proof that budgets were meant to be broken. I’ve never seen a budget yet that wasn’t flexible. It’s an easy scapegoat for buyers. Blame it on the budget. Don’t fall for that.

Mentioned in today’s show is SaltyDroid.info. It has to do with commenting on blogs. Listen to the show and let me know if this has ever happened to you. Call me an “idiot,” but I’m willing to own my words. I was very tempted in today’s show to riff about the curse of digital anonymity, but I’ll save that for another day. My comments at SD’s site do have application to today’s subject though. I did make an effective tie in.

Check out the “Hire Me” page. It’s brand new.

Plug in your email address over there to the right and I’ll make sure you get my Bula Business Builder Newsletter. Don’t worry. It comes out quite randomly.

Thanks,

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Egg eyes of dread

Success is hard. Failure is harder.

Two things motivate most people who embark on the road to self-employment:

1. A problem for which they’ve not found a suitable solution
2. Dread

This isn’t a hard fast rule. It’s what I’ve observed during my 39 years of business experience.

Pursuing passion is terrific, but in far more cases than not, I’ve seen people whose passion was to avoid some pain. Maybe it was the pain of going to a job they hated. Maybe it was the pain of dreading that they’d be downsized at any moment. Maybe it was the pain of having a problem for which they could find no solution. Or, they couldn’t find a solution that was as good as one they believed they could create.

“I don’t know what I want, but this ain’t it.”

We’re often more driven to avoid pain than we are to capture pleasure, or fulfillment. It makes sense. First things first and all that.

I’ve taken people to the emergency room before and the first course of action – after quickly assessing the problem – is to get the pain under control. Pain management is a primary driver behind health care. It’s also a big driver behind business building…or career building.

Does that seem shallow to you? It shouldn’t be. To live a life where you can limit the amount of dread…that’s a good thing. An honorable thing.

Mentioned in today’s show:

• Carol Roth‘s book, The Entrepreneur Equation
• Randy Pauch’s Last Lecture
• Chick-Fil-A
• We’ve got rich folks in Dallas. Big Rich Texas!
• 1 Tim. 6:10, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
• It’s money that matters, but not most. Ask Randy Newman. Or ask him again.
• Money doesn’t care, but people do.
• People. Love. Just 2 things that matter more than money.

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

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"Nothing fails like success." Arnold Toynbee, historian

Cliff Ravenscraft, aka the Podcast Answerman, talks about podcasters making it to episode 7. I think he means that if you can create 7 episodes of a podcast then it’s likely your interest level is high enough to keep going. I’m proof that it’s easy to talk about things that interest you.

In today’s show I’m going to pick back up with Stephen Covey’s book, The 8th Habit. That quote by Mr. Toynbee is worthy of a single show. I built today’s show around that quote and the context of it in the book.

I hope you enjoy this 100th episode (honestly, I passed the century mark a while back what with all the special episodes I’ve released). If it proves anything…it proves I won’t quit. Not today.

Mentioned in today’s show:

• Rush Limbaugh
• Kevin Kelly’s 1000 True Fans post (one of the most linked-to-things here at Bula Network)
• SEO Book is Aaron Wall’s website
• The Salty Droid blog (warning: he’s profane)
• Kindle technology completely changed the pricing of ebooks

Coming Soon!

A “thank you” show is in the works. There are plenty of people who have helped me directly and indirectly. Some of them don’t even know they’ve helped. Others, are very aware.

Have you ever sat down to think of ALL the people who have helped you? I should do that more often.

The world is full of people who contribute. Yes, there are the takers, but an awful lot of people willingly give. Surround yourself with them and it’ll foster that behavior in your life. Look for this “thank you” show coming soon!

Thanks for listening. I hope you’re subscribed to the podcast.

Have a safe, happy Labor Day weekend holiday!

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It’s hard to see yourself as others see you…as you really are.

Yes, that’s me in the mirror. I don’t think I look like that, but sometimes other people do.

The name of the game is awareness. Sometimes our awareness is hindered by our inability to see ourselves as others see us, or as we really are.

Let me give you three specific actions you can take to help you know yourself better. You can give yourself a better, more accurate picture of who you really are when you actively engage in all of them.

1. Use meaningful measurements
2. Seek wise counsel; ask others
3. Self-examination

Today’s show references these things:

• Fox News coverage of hurricane Irene, particularly Shepherd Smith
• Social Media Clubs, including the one in Dallas and the one in Ft. Worth
• Dallas is a pro sports town, particularly a Dallas Cowboys town
• Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback Tony Romo
• Wayne “The Great One” Gretzky
• Magic Johnson had great vision and awareness
• George DeJohn’s fitness radio show
• Episode 48 and others (I won’t take the time to list all the others, but you can search the term “strengths” here and find them)
• In episode 53 I talk about Dan Sullivan‘s concept, Unique Ability®
• One Person/Multiple Careers by Marci Alboher
• Career Renegade by Jonathan Fields
• A&E’s hit shows, Hoarders and Intervention
• The GEICO Abe Lincoln commercial

Subscribe to the podcast over at Apple iTunes.

Thanks for listening,

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First published in 2004, Stephen R. Covey‘s “The 8th Habit” was a highly acclaimed follow-up to “The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People.”

For weeks I’ve been staring at this book on my bookshelf. It’s now been almost 7 years since I read it. I’ve been tempted to re-read it a number of times, but for some reason I’ve been distracted with other reading. Juggling too many books at once is a lifelong habit, my 9th habit.

At long last, I’m now re-reading it and decided I’d share my thoughts along the way. No, it won’t occupy every podcast, but I’ll talk about it every now and then. I hope to share some insights and thoughts sparked by Mr. Covey. He’s pretty good at such things, but I confess I found this book a bit cumbersome to read the first time around. That’s why I wanted to re-read it. I suspect I missed some things the first time around.

I’ll discuss this 8th habit and riff on about a few things. Don’t worry, I don’t talk about how Mr. Covey and I share nicely shaped heads to house our big brains…but we do!

Mentioned in today’s show:

Stephen R. Covey

• Ryan Cantrell, my son; Joanna, his wife; Kinsley, their new daughter
• Chris Pearson, creator of the Thesis premium WordPress theme (aff link)
• Copyblogger, whose original killer design was provided by Chris Pearson
• Brian Gardner, StudioPress
• Aaron Wall, whose SEO Book website was my first introduction to Chris Pearson’s work
• James Dalman, a friend I reached out to about a WordPress design for a client (he’s an old school rock-solid design guy)
• Barron Cuadro, the one website design guy (not a friend) who was prompt and professional in returning an inquiry.
• Phil Simon of PhilSimonSystems.com, author/speaker/all-around-good-guy
• Marcus Sheridan, The Sales Lion, blogger/social media expert/friendly-supportive-online-buddy
• One Bible illustration (even the heretics among us will have to agree the illustration is worthwhile)
• Winning friends and influencing people references a book by the famous Mr. Carnegie
• I am NOT opposed to selling things. In fact, I need to sell something. I help solopreneurs and small business owners with management and marketing issues. I sometimes accept payment for such help.

Thank you very much for listening. I’d love to hear your feedback. You can call (214) 736-4406 any time, day or night and leave me a voice mail.

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My primary objective these days is to help small businesses find and grab bigger waves. Some of my clients are already remarkable, but they’re dissatisfied. They want to be more remarkable. Others are just now trying to fly and struggling to gain some traction. It’s a wide range of people, products, services, revenue levels and business models, but…

they all want something more.

Today’s special episode is centered around one fundamental belief that I hold to be true. It’s counter-intuitive, but I’ve seen it work well in far too many instances. Here it is.

Focus on a group that is small, that you love and that you’re good at serving.

This statement focuses on two ideas that are both very important to your success: WHO and WHAT.

Who will you serve? Who do you want to be? Who do you most love serving? Who do you feel you can serve best?

What small group do you find most attractive? What do you most love about them? What groups do you most want to avoid? What work do you love most? What work do you most dread? What is it you’re good at – good enough to serve this desired group?

“But I’m not world-class,” says the would-be entrepreneur. Forget that. You don’t have to be world-class. Don’t get hung up with all the non-sense you read and hear. And stop wanting to serve the entire world. The world is a poor target market for most of us.

Give me just a piece of your time and attention and let’s see if I can provoke some thoughts to help you move forward. Forward progress doesn’t always happen in quantum leaps. Sometimes it’s the proverbial inch-by-inch progress. Sometimes it is a big leap. Take it as it comes. Take action and keep taking action. Don’t quit.

Thank you for listening,

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No, I’ve not “gone” country (I do love Waylon though). Nor am I going to sing on today’s show. I am, however, going to ramble a bit about an important subject (or three).

“Create the life you want.”

Today’s show includes:

• Reference to my son, Ryan – Happy Birthday (August 17, 1980)
• Reference to the grand kids – Max, Jake and Kinsley
• Reference to Chase Jarvis’ show with Tim Ferris, which aired live earlier this week on UStream.
• Reference to “the butterfly effect”
• Reference to Rush Limbaugh, El Rushbo
• Reference to Bob Heil, inventor and maker of the Heil Sound products, including the PR40 microphone.
• Reference to my external hard drive creating an annoying rumble during my ramble.
• Reference to my firewire interfaces, produced by PreSonus.
• Finding the track, getting on the track and staying on track.
• Epiphanies require some searching.*
• HOV lanes in Dallas
• BMW cars, a Dallas favorite
• Lamborghini Diablo (last manufactured in 2001; I’ll take a Diablo Orange version)

* I didn’t refer to this book in today’s show, but wish I had – Why Epiphanies Never Occur To Couch Potatoes by  Mark Amtower. Buy it. Read it. He’s quite bright.

Thanks for listening!

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Finding the path to success is a common pursuit. Even successful people want more. We’re all given to discontentment and dissatisfaction. Distraction may be the deadliest “dis” of all.

“A” in the diagram represents the starting place. Sadly, for too many it also represents complacency or being stuck in the middle. It can be an exciting place from which our future success is born. Or it can be a place of paralysis.

The circle represents goals, targets, achievements, accomplishments. So many different directions. So many different choices. “B” could be 360 different choices represented by the degrees of a circle, but we know there are an infinite number of choices really. That makes it difficult to choose. It’s often easier to avoid making a choice and remain stuck in the middle.

Today’s special episode is intended to provide you with encouragement to develop the zeal and tenacity necessary to get on with it. Today, I want to help you lift your eyes from “A” and make a definite choice. Select “B.” Make it by anywhere you’d like, preferably a direction that suits you best. Choose wisely, but choose. Then, get on with it. Start the trek toward “B.” Do it today. Don’t take your eyes off of “B.” Be precise. Be targeted. Be persistent.

When you reach “B” everything changes. Momentum shifts in your favor. Opportunities present themselves. Learning happens that helps you in new adventures. There’s compelling evidence that merely making up your mind to pursue a precise goal changes everything. No doubt a sniper rifle has greater precision than a shotgun. Live like a sniper rifle.

As the Scottish mountaineer William Hutchinson Murray wrote in 1951 (no, it wasn’t Goethe, Germany’s version of Shakespeare):

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”

Yes, begin it now. And don’t stop until you’ve reached the outer circle. That’s where you’ll find success, momentum and greater opportunity.

• Grandsons Max and Jake who have now learned to swim. Here’s a video of Max. Here’s the video of little brother, Jake.

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Life is one big fuel problem. How long will it take to achieve success? How long will I live? Am I smart enough to reach the goal?

These problems indicate how fuel is tethered to time, energy, distance, momentum, tenacity, brain power, wisdom and a host of other variables.

Every successful endeavor contains time, distance and fuel.

A friend is completing law school. It’s taken him a few years of dedication and tenacity. He had an idea how long it would take (time). He had an idea, when he began, how much effort it would take (fuel). It’s likely demanded even more fuel than he suspected, but he predetermined that the burn rate would be worth it. Distance was a component that involved both time and fuel, but it also required some family and work sacrifices, too. Worth it? Sure. That’s why he went in that precise direction.

Many of us have no idea how long success will take. Nor do we know how far we’ll have to go. Or how much fuel it might take. We plan and engineer our course as best we can, but if success was a definite spot then everybody would likely achieve it. Because it’s not so easily seen, or mapped out – it’s hard. Doable, but hard.

Think about what you most want. Take a precise aim. Head in that direction and devote yourself fully to it. Burn your fuel wisely by going in a targeted direction. Keep going until you reach the goal because when you reach the outer circle of achievement everything changes! It’s called “momentum.”

I hope you reach your goal. I’d love to hear how it’s going for you.

P.S. I’ll update you on some things happening with me in the next episode. I ran out of time in today’s show. Sorry.

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The Yellow Studio went down about a week ago. The culprit? Mac OS Lion update! No, it wasn’t Apple’s fault, but I did learn my lesson. Don’t be among the first to upgrade your OS…especially when you have hardware that might be adversely affected. Live and learn.

I’ll explain my brief absence lately and we’ll get onto some more appetizing conversation.

Thanks for hanging with me. By the way, if we’re not connected (or encircled) at Google + let’s make it happen. You can find me here.

Mentioned in today’s show:
• My YouTube channel
• My BulaNetwork Facebook page
• Hibachi cast iron grille
• Thermador outdoor grille (don’t think they make them any more…and I probably know why)
• Weber outdoor grille
• Darien, Illinois Sportplex
• Swamp People, the TV show
• Swamp Loggers, the TV show

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Phil Simon describes his new book – due out in September, 2011 – The Age Of The Platform, as more of a management book than a technology book. The book launches forth in a study of The Gang of Four: Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook. But solopreneurs and small business owners should not think this is a book about BIG business. It’s a study of these big enterprises and small businesses who have found ways to create dynamic, high performing platforms.

Every endeavor that requires an audience, customers or attention needs an effective platform. Phil’s new book is intended to help us better think about crafting our own.

I caught up with Phil Simon on Friday afternoon, July 22nd. I hope you’ll visit his KickStarter campaign to raise money for publishing The Age Of The Platform. Go to the KickStarter campaign right now and contribute to the cause. The campaign ends August 21st.

You should also visit the website for his previous book, released just late last year, The New Small. We spoke with Phil in January about that book. You can listen to that episode here.

At his blog he’s taking a poll on the cover design – more crowd sourcing brilliance from Phil. Visit this link and cast your vote.

Enjoy my half hour conversation with Phil Simon.

Thanks,

Feedback in a public address system is annoying. It may be an indication that the mic is too close to the speakers. It may be that the volume is too high. Whatever the cause, it needs to be fixed. An adjustment needs to be made.

Luther experienced feedback from the PA. He also got some feedback on his speech. “Atta boy, Luther!” He’s a terrible public speaker who doesn’t need to be encouraged. The applause and shout outs might have caused him to think he was headed in the right direction though.

Feedback can let us know what our next step should be – what adjustments need to be made so we can improve. Or it can derail us, delude us and frustrate us by robbing us of clarity.

Daily we’re surrounded by feedback. Twitter, blog comments, Google +, Facebook, YouTube comments, Flickr comments and a thousand other services provide some way for people to communicate with each other. Feedback.

Does feedback change your course? Which feedback do you find most useful in helping you figure out your next step?

In “The Design of Future Things” author Donald A. Norman writes of technical design, but stretch your application of what he says.

Today, many automatic devices do provide minimal feedback, but much of the time it is through bleeps and burps, ring tones and flashing lights. This feedback is more annoying than informing, and even when it does inform, it provides partial information at best. In commercial settings, such as manufacturing plants, electric generating plants, hospital operating rooms, or inside the cockpits of aircraft, when problems arise, many different monitoring systems and pieces of equipment sound alarms. The resulting cacophony can be so disturbing that the people involved may waste precious time turning all the alarms off so that they can concentrate on fixing the problems.

In the design of smart cars and homes and other forms of automation, Norman argues that we “need to transition toward a more supportive form of two-way interaction.” The key may be that term, supportive. Feedback should have a benefit. That doesn’t mean it must always be, “Atta boy, Luther!” It shouldn’t just be noise. We need feedback to help us figure things out. Or do we?

Does feedback determine your direction? Do you alter your course based on feedback?

One of the major problems of selling is a person’s failure to qualify. That is, if the salesperson jumps right into a presentation without knowing anything about the needs of the prospect, then it’s highly likely the prospect will walk away without buying. For good reason. The salesperson failed to find out any meaningful information about the needs or desires of the prospect.

In other cases, the prospect may buy, but then problems erupt because the salesperson didn’t get enough information to make the purchase stick. As the old sales adage goes, “Anybody can sell somebody once!”

When it comes to qualifying a prospect, or failing to do so – maybe anybody can sell something once, but can you keep it sold? I’ve known too many salespeople who could sell something, but their return rate (the number of customers who would demand a refund) was sky-high. That’s not quality salesmanship. It’s poor service.

Quality questions solve some of these issues. By learning to ask better questions salespeople can accomplish three critical things:

a. You demonstrate how much you really care about solving the prospect’s problem.

b. You’re better able to tailor the best solution for their problem.

c. You build rapport and develop a relationship, not just a transaction.

Imagine going to a doctor because you suspect you’ve got a sinus infection. You’re ushered into the examination room. As you wait for a nurse, or the doctor, you’re anxious to get on with it. You want to tell somebody what’s wrong with you so you can get on the road to feeling better. The door opens, in walks a nurse with a syringe. She asks you to roll up your sleeve so she can give you a shot. Would you let her?

Of course not! You’ll look at her like she’d lost her mind, probably thinking to yourself, “She’s got the wrong patient!” Quickly, you’d let her know that you haven’t had the opportunity to tell anybody what’s wrong with you.

Every day sales calls take place just like that. A salesperson walks into a room armed with a syringe – their solution – before they even know what the problems are.

A young man asks a young lady out on a date. At dinner he holds forth telling her all about himself. He talks about his background, what he likes, what he doesn’t like, his favorite sports, music, books. On and on. He rambles incessantly about himself all evening long, never stopping once to ask the young lady about her life. All the while she’s thinking, “Boy, he sure is full of himself.”

Does she go out with him again? Not on your life. She’s happy to have that date behind her. She quickly tells her friends how he didn’t care to find out anything about her. Soon, word spreads throughout her circle that he’s not a guy any self-respecting girl would want to date.

Word will spread about you, too. Enter a prospect’s office and dive right into your sales pitch. No need to find out more about them, or their pain. Your solution is a one-size-fits-all so you’re convinced the prospect needs what you’ve got. Just like the young man is convinced that any young lady would be honored to have him ask her out on a date. Not so much!

Quality questions don’t just improve sales and a buyer’s experience – they can also improve our careers and our businesses. Pre-think good questions that can help you serve others. You’ll craft better questions beforehand then you’ll ever craft on the fly. Besides, not everybody is intuitively given to wise inquisition.

Some years ago I was running a retail operation that sold consumer electronics and high-end major home appliances. Delivery was part of what we did. The warehouse manager was reporting considerable delivery problems. It seems we’d arrive at a client’s home, prepared to make the delivery, only to find out that due to the difficulty of this particular delivery we needed additional men.

I visited with the sales team and asked them a question. “What are you guys asking the customers to find out about the difficulty of making a delivery to their home?”

“We’re asking them if there’s any abnormal about their delivery,” they replied. “Well, a customer might have 185 steps up a 45 degree incline in the front of their house. To them, that’s normal because it’s their house. Besides, who wants to admit that they’re abnormal?” I said.

“Can anybody think of some better question to ask?” I said.

They shrugged and thought for a moment. Nobody came up with a suggestion. And this was a very talented and veteran sales team.

“Do you think it might be more helpful if you asked the customer to describe how we’ll have to make the delivery from our truck to where the product is going to go inside their house?” I asked.

Sure. They all concurred that’d be a pretty good question. But I followed it up with another suggestion. “And as they describe it, listen carefully and ask them to fill in details so our delivery teams can be fully prepared when they arrive at the customer’s home. It’s an inefficiency for us, but worse yet – it’s bad service when we have to make the customer wait as we dispatch a second truck with two more guys who are needed to make the delivery happen.”

Don’t be so quick to think you know what the answer is going to be. Quality questions require an answer. Take the time to carefully hear the answer. Restate it if you must. Make sure you and the prospect clearly understand things alike. Many sales problems can be avoided simply by making sure things are clearly understood. Details do matter. Listen for the answers so you can refine and drill down as finely as you need to in order to solve the prospect’s problems.

If I’m attempting to sell you a piece of software and I ask you what type of computer hardware and operating system you have – I’d better pay attention to the details of your answer if my software has specific requirements. Perhaps my solution requires more disk space than you have. It may require more memory. It may require a more recent operating system than the one installed on your computer. I can’t assume that because Windows 7 is the current OS for PC’s and Snow Leopard is the current OS for Mac (soon to replaced by Lion) that my prospect has either of those. What if they’ve got Windows XP Pro and my solution won’t run very well on that? Problems can be easily avoided by simply finding out. An enormous part of finding out is listening and paying attention to the details of the answers.

Show you care enough to learn more about the person and the problem they’re experiencing. That doesn’t mean the interaction is like an NCIS interrogation room. It simply means like a good friend who is trying to help, or like a doctor who is trying to diagnose, we’re concerned enough to learn more so we can help. Service begins with caring enough to find out how the prospect feels, what they think and what they want or need. Every person respects being asked about their life, their business and their problems. We’re flattered when people take such an interest in us. While I don’t propose you do it as a flattery tactic, I encourage you to show genuine care and concern for your prospects so you can serve them better – so you can help them!

Do not presuppose that you have the answer to their problem. First, find out what their problems are. Never enter a prospect’s office with a syringe in your hand.

Social media is a great resource that offers high value. It does not, however, offer the highest value. 

Have you ever been in a retail store being helped by somebody behind a counter…when the phone rings? The person, perhaps in mid-sentence with you, stops, picks up the phone and all of a sudden you’re a mere afterthought.

Have you ever sat in a restaurant with friends or family, but not been in the moment because you can’t avoid checking and posting to Facebook, Twitter, Google + or playing Words With Friends (friends who aren’t sitting at the same table)? If you’ve not done this, have you ever sat at a table with somebody who does?

Perhaps you’ve looked back over a day, a week or a month and thought, “I could have written some chapters of that book I need to write.” Or, maybe you’ve peered into the rearview mirror of your life and thought, “That thing I need to finish could already be done if I’d been more focused and less distracted.”

I’m a customer service fanatic. That’s what over 3 decades of retailing leadership will do for you. Being in the moment, with the customer who stands directly in front of you, is the name of the game. A customer who has driven to your store, hopped out of the car, walked in the door and engaged you is vastly more important than a ringing phone (which should also be answered, but not by YOU).

Social media has become like the incessant ringing phone clamoring for somebody – anybody – to answer it. This week, I’m choosing to ignore it and pay attention to the people and endeavors before me.

Today’s show is about why I’m going to avoid social media this week.

NOTE: If you saw a Tweet about this post…I must confess, it was automated. Thank you for visiting this post. I sincerely appreciate  it.

Because I get some good questions via email I’ve decided to launch a new video-based Bula Network show answering questions each week. Every week I’ll select three questions to answer. You can submit your questions two different ways. I’ll release a new show each week. I’m not yet sure what day of the week I’ll release each episode, but I promise I’ll get on a schedule as quickly as I can. Watch this short – 3 minute – video, then send me your questions.

Thanks,

Every episode of Hoarders goes pretty much the same way. The hoarder knows they have a problem, but they resist help. Where loved ones and professionals see garbage and filth, the hoarder sees value. They have a hard time parting with worthless, nasty possessions. They just don’t see things as they are. As each episode progresses we witness the pain of the hoarder. The process of helping the hoarder overcome his problem demands learning. Learning is tough stuff. It demands a shift in thinking.

The team of concerned helpers could just descend on the hoarder’s house and clean it up, but the poor person with the disorder wouldn’t learn anything. They’d likely go right back to behaving as they did before. The hoarder won’t make better decisions unless they see the severity of the problem. When they’re able to shift their thinking we can almost see the lights come on for them. That shift helps them see the solution, but more importantly, it helps them embrace the solution instead of fighting against it.

Derek Sivers’ book, Anything You Want, has taken the world by storm much like his business did in the early 00′s. He started the business in 1997 after trying to make it as a musician. In 2008 he sold the company for a reported $22 million, but the arrangement was quite unique. Reportedly, Sivers made sure the purchase price went to a charitable trust to promote music education. The financial arrangements have been reported in various financial publications, but it’s commonly reported that Sivers arranged to earn his personal pay out at a rate of about $1 million annually for the rest of his life.

In late June his book was published. Since then he’s been appearing in various blogs and podcasts to promote the book, and his message. I confess that my first exposure to Sivers was his short TED presentation posted in April, 2010.

The man is clearly perceptive, intelligent, creative and wise. Personally, I’m quite fond of how he handled the transaction of selling his company, CD Baby. The insight and wisdom displayed in that transaction reveal quite a lot about him. There’s much to admire.

That’s why I bought the book to read it for myself. I was going to do a video review of the book, but decided to let Derek’s work speak for itself. The book is part of Seth Godin’s Domino Project, which is powered by Amazon. In Anything You Want: 40 Lessons For A New Kind Of Entrepreneur he says he started a company (CD Baby) and accidentally grew it into a big business. Well, I hardly think it was an accident, but I agree with him that it’s his story and what worked for him may not work for the rest of us. See, I told you he was wise. One sentence will tell you this is a book worth buying and reading.

“I’m a student, not a guru.” By the way, he put that sentence in parenthesis. You just have to like a guy like that, don’t you? I do.

Buy his book. Read it. Learn the lessons, but make sure you carve out your own path. Figure it out. Morph. Adapt. Change. Experiment. And keep after it until you find what you’re looking for.

You can also keep up with him by visiting his website.

P.S. Here’s an interview Andrew Warner of Mixergy did with Derek Sivers.

Podcast: Download

Let’s make sure this gate is secure. It sparks the idea that what we need isn’t a better lock, but we need more locks. We implement the system to keep the gate from being opened by strangers and presto! We’ve got ourselves a system.

The system doesn’t work particularly well, but we’ve got one.

This system accomplishes the desired goal. It prevents people from getting in. Of course, the collateral damage of the system is that it requires those of us who need to enter the gate to carry 57 different keys. Oh, and we’ve got to match those keys to their specific lock. A daunting task.

Sometimes we’ve got systems that look every bit as ridiculous. They’re just not this obvious perhaps, but if we’d look more closely at them we might see they look just as stupid as using more locks for security.

You know what’s going to happen with this system, don’t you?

We’re going to hop over the fence and ignore the system all together. All the effort, all the cost, all the time spent implementing and what do we get? Nothing.

Many small businesses launch a system to solve a problem. Time passes and the problem is no longer a problem. Not because the system worked so well to remove it, but because it’s just no longer an issue. The system remains though. Nobody knows why, but they work it. Every day.

Other businesses have systems that help them, but destroy the good will of prospects and customers. The system was crafted to make things easier on us and our business – not the customer. That’s bad system architecture. Don’t implement a system that helps you, but hinders or harms the prospects and customers.

The barometer of a good system is best figured out by asking good questions. Among them:

• What is the purpose of this system? What’s it supposed to accomplish?

• Does it accomplish that purpose in a way that helps or benefits the prospects and customers?

• Do the prospects and customers readily see the value of the system, or do they have to convinced it’s good for them?

• Is this system self-serving, but potentially frustrating for the prospects and customers?

• Is this system still serving the purpose for which it was first designed?

• Do we even need this system (any more)?

• Can we accomplish our desired outcome more effectively (more pleasing to the prospects and customers)?

• Is the system costing us the good will of the people we’re trying to serve?

Put all your systems on trial for their life. Embrace the death penalty for systems that no longer work, or ones that don’t work well.

Today’s special episode show is an unnumbered episode because I’m releasing it on a Tuesday, not the traditional new release day, Thursday.

Podcast: Download

These baby birds are like your business. They expect to be fed. They trust mom to bring them worms.

What does your business expect? As we wind down June, what are the expectations of your business for July?

Sustainability in business isn’t about being green. It’s about building performances that can be replicated. It’s about having a degree of predictable success.

Professionals are able to perform with predictable success. Here in Dallas we’ve got every professional sport represented. These teams have high paid professional athletes. Whether they’re on the roster of an NFL, NBA, NHL or MLB team – these athletes are major league players. Professionals. Their respective teams have an expectation of performance. Their coaches or managers know what to expect from them every time the team competes. Sometimes, they disappoint. Sometimes, they win the game. Consistently, though, they perform at a competitive level. When they fail to perform consistently, in some predictable way, they lose their job. The team will replace them with somebody else who can provide high performance game after game.

Your business must operate in the same way. Too many solopreneurs do not have a predictable performance. They enter a month clueless about what their revenues will be. Some are even clueless about what their costs will be.

Successful business building demands an accurate aim. It takes some hard work, but it’s the most profitable work you’ll do.

Solopreneurs are prone to get so busy doing what they do – they coach, they consult, they write, they speak, they DO – that they neglect the work of building their business. This results in months of agony as they strain to successfully chase cash, revenue. The machine – that is, the systems or processes – to help generate that revenue never gets built. This means the business never gets fully built out.

I’ve known some families who set about to build their house while living in it. They got the foundation laid, the walls and roof built, working electrical and plumbing – and they moved in, figuring they’d finish the house as their budget would allow. Months turned into years as the art of daily living overrode those initial goals of completing the construction. If they’re not careful, the unfinished rooms decay and create increasingly more work than if they’d finished the job sooner. Time is rarely kind to the construction process. The elements can destroy uncompleted work.

Don’t leave your business unfinished. Complete the job. Don’t let life get the way. Get the systems in place. Be a professional. Build sustainability – a predictable expectation – into your enterprise.

Simple easy answers for hard success – it’s what we all want.

I’m a Capitalist. I’m also a guy who loves free enterprise. That means, I’m fond of the competitive process. In business, I’m not offended that you’d like to kick my butt. I’d like to kick yours first.

Wild financial success is possible, but it’s not probable for most people. I don’t say that because I’m pessimistic, or because I’m a grumpy old man. Okay, maybe I’m a little grumpy, but that’s beside the point. The truth is, most people are average and live average lives. They earn average incomes. They experience an average degree of happiness, contentment and fulfillment. It’s among the many advantages of being average.

To rise above the average requires more than average ingredients. No, I didn’t say more than average skills or intelligence. The Situation proves that’s not true.

Success requires something above average though. In the case of Mr. Situation, it required above average arrogance, physique, brashness and shamelessness. Those ingredients worked to make him widely known and as we all know, celebrity brings wealth.

Deserved or not. We don’t care. We’ll reward you simply for being famous. And we don’t much care why you’re famous. The Situation reportedly earned in excess of $5 million last year. Yeah, that’s about right.

Does that make you feel like a stupid failure? Of course it does. Don’t lie.

Why are you still asking the same stupid question looking for the secret, or some missing ingredient?

Because you’re human, that’s why. Because like the rest of us mere mortals you’d like to find a short-cut, an easy answer. Because you don’t want to have to do it the hard way if you can help it. You’re smart like that. You and the rest of us.

But we’re not smart enough to realize The Situation doesn’t know anything you don’t. He’s just crazy enough to find a way to get famous – because he knows our society will pay money to fame. Skills? He don’t need no stinkin’ skills. Have you seen his rock hard abs? There’s your skills. Sure there are gyms all over the country with guys who have 6-pack abs, but they’re not as crazy arrogant as The Situation, are they? They are? Well, they didn’t get on MTV, did they? Nope. And there’s the rub. The Situation made it to TV, made the most of it and presto chango – he’s a Star.

Me? I’m no star. I’m sitting in The Yellow Studio listening to crickets chirp. I don’t care. If The Situation can earn over $5 million with those abs…I figure my love handles gotta be worth at least a mil. I’m just waitin’ for the phone to ring and then I’m gonna blow up like the blimp, yo!

Cya!

Podcast: Download

We’re all wired differently, but we share some common wires. Every wiring harness I’ve ever seen – in electronics, cars, light switches or anything else – has a red wire and a black wire. Red is power. Black is a ground. It’s universally true. I’m not terribly sophisticated so my wiring harness likely has fewer wires than yours, but I’ll bet you we’ve both got a red wire and a black wire.

Doubt, fear, procrastination. These are common wires shared by everybody.

There are switches in our brain connected by these wires. When these switches get flipped, BAM! On comes the RED LIGHT. The tires on our life and our business squeal and smoke as we come to a screeching halt.

There’s a signal light a few blocks from the church building where we worship. (Yeah, we always call them “stop lights,” don’t we? We never give people directions by telling them to go to the third green light or go light.) At any rate, a few weeks ago this light started staying RED a lot longer than it used to. I first thought it was hung. Traffic kept backing up behind me. We waited. We waited some more. No cars were coming from our left. No cars were coming from our right. Frustrated, I was ready to run through the intersection, but the green light appeared.

Sometimes in our lives – and in our businesses – we get stuck on a red light. We remain stopped until it turns green, growing more impatient. We seem to hit one red light after another. No sooner do we get a green light, accelerate up to full speed…until we hit another red light. One red light after another. It’s like all the lights have synchronized in a conspiracy to stall our momentum.

The majority of today’s show is a discussion of three “drop dead, stupid simple” things that I think can help me – and YOU – move forward by giving us a GREEN LIGHT. I’ll end the show addressing that last special episode about the future of this blog, podcast and the videos. Chime in and tell me what you think.

Thank you for listening. Won’t you drop by Apple iTunes and leave me a comment about the show? I wish you would. Or you can leave me some audio feedback at (214) 736-4406. I’d love to hear what you think.

Mentioned in today’s show:

• 2010/2011 NBA Champion – Dallas Mavericks
• 2010/2011 NHL Stanley Cup Champion – Boston Bruins
• Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner
• Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

We all do it. We look at our station in life and dream of being where the rich folks are. Look at their house, their cars and their lifestyle. Man, wouldn’t it be great if we could live like them?

Meanwhile, there are scores of people who look at our life and think similar things. We don’t pay much attention to them though. They’re not where we are and we don’t want to go backward. I mean, who wants to be poorer?

Falsely, we assume that by looking in one direction we can go in that direction. It seems right. Even logical.

What if we’re looking in the wrong direction? What if we’ve got it all wrong?

Podcast: Download

I’m approaching this crazy intersection.

My GPS is working fine, but it’s useless. Why? Because I’m not sure where I need to go. You can help me determine the direction because this endeavor is about helping YOU.

Oh, and by the way, today is my wife’s birthday. Her name is Rhonda and you’ll find her website at Doll Dresses By Rhonda or RhondaCantrell.com. She sews.

My work continues at Leaning Toward Wisdom where I’m aiming to serve public education, but here at BulaNetwork.com – I’m coming up on this crazy intersection. I’m asking you for directions. I hope you’ll help me out and not treat me like Clark Grisold lost in the hood.

Today’s special episode is a short birthday message to my wife, but mainly it’s a request for your feedback and help regarding which way to take this blog and podcast.

Here’s a collection of the four roads representing the directions I can take to better serve you. You may even have one not listed here. That’s okay.

1. Life/Personal Development coaching

2. Business coaching

3. New Media coaching

4. Communication coaching

I can take this in whatever direction best serves you guys. This blog and podcast has been a mixture of three things: business coaching, personal development and social commentary. How can I give you more value? How can I better serve your needs?

One idea I’ve been toying with is to set up my blog and podcasts with those four categories (or whatever categories you feel would be most helpful). That way I could limit each post or podcast or video to one of those categories. Otherwise, it would turn into a mash of different stuff and void the whole reason for setting up these categories. You could more easily focus only on the things that interest you. What do you think of that idea?

I’m not all things to all people. I may not be your cup of tea and I’m cool with that. But, if I am your cup of tea – I need your help.

Things mentioned in today’s show:

• Rhonda Cantrell, my wife, sews custom made doll dresses, primarily for Himstedt dolls
• Daddy bloggers and podcasters Daniel Clark and C.C. Chapman
• Heather Armstrong is Dooce.com, Queen of the mommy bloggers (but you knew that already)
• Tom Peters, king of the massive slide deck

Leave a comment below.

Send me an email.

Leave me a voice mail at (214) 736-4406.

Thank you for listening. Thank you for giving me your feedback. I’ll be back next Thursday, but first…it’s birthday party time!

Podcast: Download

Bigger is better. I know ’cause I’m in Texas.

You know it, too though. More Twitter followers. More Facebook likes. More blog subscribers. More podcast listeners. More is better. When it comes to numbers, higher is better. Right?

Well, it depends.

It depends on what those numbers represent. More often than not, they don’t have any significant meaning. That’s not to say they don’t represent a real person, but that real person may have no interest in you or what you do. Rather, it’s safe to assume that each number presents a real person interested in their own stuff, their own agenda.

We have to realize that the people we follow in social media are not the people most likely interested in what we do, or in buying our stuff. It’s likely that your social network consists of people who interest YOU. You follow them. If per chance they follow you back, we’ll that doesn’t mean they have any interest in YOU or in what you do. That’s not some cynical view. It’s just reality.

I follow Tom Peters because, since the publication of In Search of Excellence, Tom has been on my radar. I developed a fondness for him and his work. I’ve purchased every book he’s written. I’ve paid money to see him speak more times than I can count. I’ve even touched more than the hem of his garment, I’ve experienced a handshake with Tom on just about every occasion where I’m gone to hear him speak. Tom has no idea who I am, nor should he. His crowd is vast – the result of numerous books and speeches, and years in the making. He can’t possibly know everybody who is his customer.

Fact is, I rather like Tom Peters. I like what he says and how he says it. And you know what? He’s far more liberal in his leanings than me. But still, I find him a provoking character who fosters my thinking. I rather enjoy that. Most people aren’t indifferent about Tom. I suspect people are attracted to him or repelled by him. He’s likely okay with that.

The fact that I follow him means I’m interested in him. If he were to follow me back (and he hasn’t), it doesn’t mean he’s interested in me – other than reciprocating, which isn’t necessarily meaningful. It’s just polite, but totally unnecessary.

Almost everybody I know is chasing numbers. They want more subscribers and followers. Daily that’s their focus. They never stop to think, “Will these people ever buy anything from me? Are these people interested in ME?” In almost every case, the answer is, “NO!”

The numbers don’t necessarily represent opportunity. They may, but they may not.

Today’s show is about the numbers – specifically chasing the numbers. Make sure you’re reaching the people you need to reach – the people who need you!

Thanks for listening to me. My goal is to be true to my purpose here – to help you build a better life, a better business. Let me know if I’m hitting or missing the mark.

Success is hard. Failure, though, is far more difficult.

Sensation is often our problem. Well, a lack of sensation actually.

Where are we?

Hard to tell sometimes. Are we moving closer to success, or further away?

If only somebody could shout at us, “You’re getting warmer. Warmer. Warmer. Hot. Hot. Red Hot.”

Then, we’d know. But there are no such voices. There’s just the work. The process.

Get after it. Chase it down until you catch it. And whatever you do, don’t stop. Because if you do, others will run over you, leaving you to suffer defeat. And it will not be fun! Defeat is never as sweet as success.

Nothing happens until something is sold. I’ve heard that all my business life, and I believe it. However, today I find myself advising people to better prepare so they can sell. Some businesses are unprepared for prospects to say, “Yes.” They’ve neglected the foundational elements of building a business.

People start new businesses  and often find the struggle much harder than they imagined. It’s not necessarily because they’ve got a bad idea. Or because they’re inept. Or because they lack capital.

Increasingly I find people struggling to do the actual work of business building. Some people confess they don’t know where to start, or how to start. Excitement and passion soon give way to frustration. Depression sets in and many entrepreneurs feel as though they’ve put on concrete boots. They’re stuck. Unable to move.

Marketing is vital to any enterprise because without customers…we have no business. Today’s show isn’t about marketing though. Let’s back up just a bit and discuss three things you must incorporate into your business so you can successfully market and deliver. These three things seem to elude many start-up entrepreneurs. Admittedly, all three of these things demand hard work. You’ll have to set aside significant time to develop these things. And you’ll have to make up your mind that you’ll devote yourself to the effort and energy required to make your business fly. Successful business building requires tenacity.

Today, start building your business by preparing to serve customers with predictable success. Get ready to dazzle customers. Prepare for the “yes” – for a customer to buy from you – and then put your business in motion to deliver extraordinary service to the customer. That’s how word will spread that you’re the go to person for your niche.

Fail to prepare and when you hear a customer say “yes,” you’ll embarrass yourself. Too many small businesses – especially solopreneurs – behave like that barking dog chasing a car. Barking is marketing. Don’t get all wound up, fully devoted to marketing. You have to prepare for the positive results you hope to get from your marketing. If the car stops, the barking dog is now clueless how to respond. Don’t be that dog!

I first read the term “lifestyle design” in 2007 while reading Tim Ferris‘ book, The 4-Hour Work Week. Tim Ferris introduced me to at least two powerful things I hadn’t known before: lifestyle design and virtual assistants. Both are powerful. Ferris, on many levels, is quite brilliant.

Don Miller‘s book, A Million Miles In A Thousand Years, is another book that intrigued me. It made quite an impact last year as people embraced the metaphor Miller put forth. Life is a story. If you’re unsatisfied with your life, craft a better story. Live a better story.

Saturday I was doing some work in The Yellow Studio. I turned on the TV to serve as background noise while I worked. I’m fond of Discovery, The History Channel and The National Geographic Channel. It happens that my set was tuned to The National Geographic Channel. The show? Locked Up Abroad. I’d never seen this show, but it was a marathon for this series on Saturday. As I worked, the channel remained on this show. Ten or more episodes, each an hour-long, appeared as I was in and out of the studio working.

Ferris proposed – and I agree with him even though I never had a label for it – that we construct our lives with intention. That we design the life we want. I began to consider Miller’s premise that our lives are a story and it’s up to us to write one that is more interesting. I thought of each episode of this TV show – a compelling show. Interesting stories. Riveting.

As a man in search of an epiphany, I was blessed with one. Okay, I admit it wasn’t really new to me. I admit that I’ve felt this way for quite some time. You may not agree with me, but that’s okay. Maybe that makes things more interesting.