As an employee of many start-ups I get asked by friends, family and acquaintances, “What exactly do you do?”  I have my standard elevator speech answer, so I don’t bore them after the first 30 seconds.  However, I found my new answer! My new answer will be, “Whatever the ’10 Foot Rule’ requires me to do.”

The “10 Foot Rule” is a practiced by many companies to simply have employees responsible for anything that can be executed within 10 feet of where that person is standing.  As an entrepreneur and business development professional, I don’t know if I could come up with a simpler way to describe what I do on a daily basis…whatever needs to be done.

Props: I’d never heard of this rule; but this morning I heard about it on The Herd.  He mentioned that Longo Toyota in Los Angeles (the country’s leading Toyota dealer) requests this from its employees.  When I Googled it, I saw that this is a staple of Wal-Mart too.

The sales professional is the one on the front lines.  They’re a lot like quarterbacks in football usually receiving too much credit and too much blame.

When credit is being dished out, you better make sure you’re taking care of the team that helped you close the deal.  Don’t ever lose sight of how you got to where you are, or else you’ll be receiving more blame than credit soon enough.

Be a strong leader and recognize the team that’s putting in work to make you look like an all-star.

Shiny new toys come out all the time. Our human ADD kicks in…we blush…we buy.

The shiniest toy of late is Google+.  Yes, it’s cool but calm down.  It’s even got smart people like David Armano fooled.

1) I get it.

2) Great they have degrees!!  This is LinkedIn circa 2004!  Do you really think Facebook can’t pull this off tomorrow? Of course they can! They don’t want to until they have to or Zuck decides it so.  If this Google+’s biggest differentiator, then let’s say goodbye right now!

3) 90% of users are men.  We like big boy toys that make big boy noise.  It’s why we’re typically the largest early adopters of tech and do things like buy Harleys.

4) My dad doesn’t give a rat’s a$5!  I have over 100 people in my Google+ already.  Guess what?  The only people I see posting in my feed are the same people creating inside of Twitter, which means the rest are just passer-bys.

5) Success? Yes. I think Google+ has great potential, and I love what it can do.  But I’ve met too many talented people and products in my young life that never cashed in on their potential.

Bonus: Did you see The Social Network? Zuck had the insight to let it grow, to get its own identity…to grow organically.  The majority of posts in my Facebook newsfeed are not from brands or the social media nerds like me.  They’re from my real friends.  When Google+ gets that, then I’ll make crazy statements like, “EXTRA! EXTRA! Google+ Defeats Twitter!” or “Read All About It…Facebook Slain by David!”

Easy to sleep another hour.  Hard to stay up an extra hour.

Easy to stop running.  Hard to finish strong.

Easy to copy that deck.  Hard to create one.

How will you differentiate yourself today?

People (myself included) make the mistake of staying busy because they put too much on their plate.  We will confuse being busy with actually making progress; and because they both require energy, we feel tired from both equally.  When we overextend ourselves, we wind up exhausted and feel little personal gratification.   At other times, we go the extra mile to to dig deep to complete a single task or project; but our mental state is one of elation because we have tangible evidence of completion.

It’s been my experience that people are capable of phenomenal feats when they reach down for that little bit of lagniappe (a little extra).  They’re typically displayed in physical feats such as…wrestling terrorists from control of an airplane (Flight 93 on 9/11) or hitting a home run with a bum leg in the World Series (Kirk Gibson).  But, there are mental examples all around us as well.  A small business owner that turns his dream into a fully functioning business (Jeff Hilimire at Engauge) or a writer that starts at zero to end up at “1000 Million” books sold (Monica O’Brien).  It’s natural for us to talk ourselves out of work, but the ones that can overexert themselves that with that little bit extra will find personal success and gratification.

Do these 3 things when embarking on a new project…

1) Don’t Overextend Yourself...say “yes” only to what’s realistic.  You can always take on more later if needed.

2) Do Focus on what on the key items of the project first.  Don’t try to do everything at once.

3) Always Overexert Yourself…Workout call for 10 reps?  Shoot for 12.  Boss wants a 1st draft in a week? Shoot for 3 days.

Playing soccer, football and basketball through college required lots of strength, agility & conditioning.  The former 2 I didn’t mind; however, I hated the latter.  Ask anyone from my MBA class and they’d tell you I’m Type-A with a borderline case of ADHD, so running for 5 miles used to bore the hell out of me.  I used to have to talk myself into starting the run because I wasn’t looking forward to it until I learned about runner’s stride.  (For those of you who don’t know, runner’s stride is when you reach a point mid-run where you feel like you can’t be stopped and you find a nice groove.  It’s the same feeling as being in the zone or getting pumped while lifting.) Once I learned about runner’s stride, I put myself in the habit of just starting my run and not talking myself out of the run before even starting it.

When I get stuck or can’t get the proper focus on a problem, I just start it.  It always leads me somewhere good.

Have something to write?  Start typing.  Trying innovate on a project? Just begin.  Need a better beach body?  Do anything besides sitting.

The first time I heard the phrase, “Today is Opposite Day” was in first grade.  This kid Richard broke out the choice phrase during a game of Freeze Tag.  Richard was a slow poke, so he would simply yell, “Today is Opposite Day!” each time he was tagged.  Chris, the fastest kid on the field, would simply blow off Richard each time Richard may his declaration.  But, every time he got close to winning, Richard would unfreeze someone making it impossible for Chris to win.  By the time recess had ended, a winner had yet to be chosen; but Richard never lost.  In lieu of Richard’s boldness, we made a new rule, “No more Freeze Tag on opposite day.”  I always wondered why we didn’t make a rule that was simply, “No more Opposite Day…ever.”

This story recently crossed my mind on a long drive.  I realized how vital it is has been for me to do the opposite of what people expected.  Nothing great or exceptional ever seems to come from coloring inside the lines.  Richard never lost a single game of Freeze Tag.  He just kept figuring out how to survive.

What will you do to make today Opposite Day?

Rory McIlroy won the 2011 US Open in record breaking fashion.  His ability to focus and stayed consistent under pressure is wonderful to watch.  I’ve never swung a golf club, but I know swinging a golf club is a lot like kicking a football.  Every kicking coach I had would parallel my practice sessions to golf.  ”Keep your head down, don’t look up, follow through…then adapt…enjoy,” they would say. I repeated these steps each time I practiced.

Many people would ask me how I was able to maintain my composure on the field during a kick with so much pressure.  The truth is that the hardest part for me was the hours and days I spent preparing in the off-season or practices leading up to game-day.  Before each kick, I checked which upright I wanted to hit; and then I’d take my steps back…2.5 back, 1.5 left. Once the ball was snapped, my internal clock told me that I had exactly 1.3 seconds or less to get the ball into the air or risk having it blocked.  The crazy thing is that in less than 1 second so much can happen.  The snap can be high.  The holder could mess up his handle; or the grass could be soaked and my plant foot could shift mid-stride.  And in that one second (that most people never see), I had to adapt to the game.

Successful people know how to adapt to their surroundings quickly.  Their core set of principles help guide them down a path; but as that path adjusts they need the survival skills to adapt.  Years of hard work and dedication can be deemed a success or failure with one split-second decision; and it happens every day.

“Keep your head down, don’t look up, follow through…then adapt…enjoy,”

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Browser Support: Chrome // Firefox // Safari

Problem Solved: Quick Access to Social Media Profiles

Situation: I used to use Google to search for the social media profiles of my contacts, colleagues and friends.  Now, I simply use Rapportive.

Why?: Once I receive an email from a contact in my Gmail (business and personal), Rapportive displays a column on the right that provides me with an overview of that person’s social media profiles.  From there, I can request to connect without ever having to leave Gmail.   It’s just that easy!

3rd Party: It also integrates with several outside CRM systems including MailChimp and TechCrunch’s Crunchbase.

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Product: Boomerang for Gmail

Cost: Free (Beta)

Browser Support: Chrome // Firefox

Problem Solved: Effective Emailing to Decision Makers

Situation: Sending out cold sales emails is a daunting task.  As someone that takes pride in his relationships, I find the cold email to be the least satisfying part of my job.  I always keep them short n sweet like an elevator pitch; but no matter how good it is, I fight with timing.  Blasting off cold emails to decision makers at an organization during the middle of the day is not likely to garner a response.  The best time to grab the attention of a decision maker is usually first thing in the morning or late in the evening, but I can’t plan my day around when I should be in front of my computer.  Enter Boomerang for Gmail.

Timing: With Boomerang, I can create several emails from my bed at 11PM and schedule them to go out the next morning at anytime I choose.  Boomerang has been especially effective for sending out international emails.  The program has cool presets too like send in “2 hours, 4 hours, etc.”

Reminders: It also has an email reminder feature that will send out a reminder if an email has yet to receive a response.

Download Boomerrang for Gmail.