Coughlin’s Law – Your Passion is the Fuel that Powers your Life.  Find Your Passion Early in Life.

What gets you out of bed in the morning?  Money, happiness, fame or glory?  Why does it matter?  Knowing your primary motivation is a keystone in getting the most out of your life and maximizing your potential.

All jobs, careers and callings can be broken down to the pure need that you are trying to fill with the activity.  Knowing this need in your life will help point you in the right direction for the correct career path for you or open your eyes to how you are fulfilling that need now.  Can you meet your need in different ways?  Sure you can.  Can you be happy and feed your family at the same time?  Of course you can.  Could your fame also bring you happiness?  Absolutely.  Angelina Jolie now, because of her fame and money, is able to help many, many people through her great work and financial contributions.  Could she have done that if she did not pursue he passions for acting?  Maybe.  Could you help people like she does with out the fame and money?  Sure but your path to achieve the same goals would be different.  Your creativity will help you find the best solution.

The key is to take the time you need to figure out what gets you jazzed and then figure out how to get paid to do it.  This is where your creative mind needs to crank it up early in your life so you can live the life others dream of.

What would you do if you knew you would not fail?

What Drives You? is a post from: Elevenfourteen

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Coughlin’s Law – Just a Little Effort Please…..

What does it take to have a .300 batting average? A few extra days in the batting cage?  A few more hours of practice when everyone else goes home?  What is the pay off for one extra base hit in every ten at bats?  At a .200 batting average you are most likely in danger of going back to the minors.  At a .300 batting average you are looking at a salary double that of your team mates averaging just .200.

So does the batting cage translate to the pub or other businesses?  Of course it does!  The customer looking for a drink will tell you what they want and put the money on the bar and you wouldn’t have to say a word to them.  Chances are they won’t be coming back nor will they become a Raving Fan either.  How much effort would it be to say hello and show some level of interest in them?  Very little.  When I was a Barman, it was standard practice for everyone working to say hello to everyone you knew and to introduce yourself to everyone you didn’t.  It didn’t take any time for us to ask the customer their name, tell them ours and then let them know its would nice to meet them.  Through out the night we used their names as much as possible to reinforce the relationship and to help with the name to face recognition since we didn’t have a basic CRM system.  This behavior would then lay a foundation for the customer to build on then next time they came in as well as talking to others about the Barman they just met.

When you tell / promise a time or a deadline, what does it take to keep that promise or meet that deadline?  Things happen and sometimes you can’t keep your promise BUT you need to let the customer know in advance and as early as possible.  Their time is just as important as your time.  Keeping promises on the small items, lets the customer know that you can keep your promises for the big things.  Remembering a name, being on time, delivering on a promise means something and it is sad to say that it is not the norm.

Look around in your industry or place of work and watch the high performers.  Who makes the most money, has the best position, works on the best projects, has the most prestige, is the go to person?  Watch what they do on a daily basis and you will see something in common across the board.  They do one small thing / take one small action every day or at every interaction.  This small action everyday adds up overtime and this snowball of goodness gets very large over time to the point it start growing on its own with even less effort than before.  These high performers are not doing anything special.  They just have the determination to do the simple things everyday consistently.   Treating someone with respect and kindness is not difficult.  It is not a deep secret from some secret society.  It is common knowledge but seldom practiced with consistency.

If you don’t like what you are doing, STOP NOW.  Life is too short to mess around doing something you dislike.  Take the time to figure what you want to do to earn a living and then make a plan on getting there as soon as possible.  When you get there, dump the garbage and never look back.  When you are doing something you enjoy, the extra hours in the batting cage going from the minor leagues to the Hall of Fame becomes very easy and fun.  This fun and enthusiasm then becomes contagious to everyone around you.

What are you doing extra to make yourself a top performer?  Got a plan?  Are you taking small steps every day to get there?

A Wee Dram More Please is a post from: Elevenfourteen

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Coughlin’s Law – Give a Little Now to Make a Lot Later

I used to sell a lot of Whiskey.  I used to drink a lot of Whiskey but that’s another story.  Specifically, I used to sell a lot of Single Malt Scotch Whiskey.  Back in 1993 when I was a barman in an English pub, Single Malt Whiskey was not well known in the Atlanta area and therefore some education was needed.  At that time a single malt was going for $5.75 (don’t you wish we still had those prices) but a regular blended Whiskey was $4.00.

So here comes the up sell.

Given the time and the right first impression, when a customer would order a Whiskey, I would bring over a Single Malt Whiskey and a few others to show diversity instead of what they ordered.  I would bring over three glasses and arrange them in order to taste so the customer could take a quick tour of Scotland and be able to then make an educated decision on sticking with their well Whiskey for $4.00 a glass or go with their new best friend’s suggestion and explore Scotland for a higher price.

I would typically have them taste a highland Scotch first like my personal favorite Glenmorangie.  We wold talk about the color, nose, taste, finish  and other characteristics of a highland scotch.

Then we would travel over to the Speyside and taste a classic – the Macallan.  Once again we would discover the characteristics of what makes up a Speyside scotch.

Finally, we would finish our tour with an Islay scotch and choose another favorite of mine – Bunnahabhain.  Here the differences are quite obvious.  I would finish off my sales pitch by weaving together the different regions and also looping in menu items that would pair well with each one.

The customer was always appreciative for the quick lesson on Single Malt Whiskey and the taste-buds tour of Scotland.  Most times I could get them to take a chance on ordering a new Whiskey based of of what they just learned.  More than half the time I could turn a no-name brand Whiskey drinker into a Single Malt Whiskey drinker.  The next time I saw them in the pub all it would take would be a casual suggestion to have a new Single Malt Whiskey or the same one they had before and then adding in something from the menu to go  with the Whiskey was even easier.

So what did I learn years ago?

• Sometimes going a little out of your way pays off big in the long run.  Doing more than your typical sales slide deck for a sales pitch increases your closing percentage.  Customizing your pitch raises the bar even higher.
• A little education on new topic is sometime necessary to give the customer confidence.  This new confidence that you pass to your customer is given right back to you in the form of trust.
• Sometimes it takes more than talking about your product to get the sale.  Allowing the customer to “taste” your product  gives them a better understanding of what it is and what it means to them.
• Being memorable makes the difference.  Will your customers remember your sales presentation?  Enough to tell others about it?  Be known as the barman who knows his Whiskey.
• Don’t be afraid to educate the public where ever your are.  I would sometimes go through the same pitch at other bars if I saw a customer having a hard time or the barman floundering for answers.  This is another way to create Raving Fans.  Be confident in your company and product or service.  Customers can be found anywhere.

Got a favorite Whiskey?

Selling Whiskey and Software Solutions is a post from: Elevenfourteen

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day

From St. James’s Gate

Happy St. Patrick’s Day is a post from: Elevenfourteen

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- Entrepreneur

Coughlin’s Law – “Hold your future in your own hands.  Be your own boss.”

There are many reasons to start your own business and few not to.  The few not to are emotional ones that people have a hard time overcoming. At the same time, there are many different forms of a business these days thanks to the internet.  The traditional brick and mortar store, although still very necessary, is not the only or the best route for most.

The how to start your own business is the easy part.  Many, many books and classes have been written on the subject and they all cover about the same thing:

1. Write a business plan
2. Get financing
3. Get legal & accounting advice on how to structure your business – LLC / S-Corp
4. Legal stuff – register a business name, tax id, licenses and permits
5. Get customers – SELL, SELL, SELL

In addition to the list above, I would add in the following:

• Write out your worst case scenarios.  Prepare for it and use it as motivation to succeed.  See 4HWW book review.
• Have cash.  Borrow nothing if at all possible. See  The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness (affiliate link) In the long run you will be better off and happier.
• Start small and grow your operations only when needed.
• Do a trial – test run of your product or service if possible before expending too much time or money.  A quick website and a pay per click advertising campaign is a good way to test the waters.
• Go virtual.  Start an online something and do it part time until it allows you to go full time.  This will limit your risk as well as open your “store” to a much larger market.  From blogging with advertisement links to affiliate marketing to selling products – apparel, electronics or information, there are existing ones you can resell or create your own.  The extra income will help in the short term.

Now for the hard part.  The WHY.

Being your own boss is scary to most and the only way for others.  Having the responsibility to go out find customers, sell and perform a service or deliver a product takes a lot of responsibility.  If you have never done it before, the first time will be an eye opener.  An excellent book is The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It (affiliate link).  It will walk you through why most people start a business and where they fail.  When the business is there, you will need to replace yourself as soon as possible.  Outsource or hire is a question to be answered later but move as much off of your plate as possible and concentrate on what makes the company money.  Empower your new employee or contractor to make decisions on their own up to a certain point to streamline your processes.

The reasons to start a business, for me, begin and end with freedom.  Freedom to spend more time with my family.  Freedom to follow my passions.  Freedom to help others.  Having a successful business gives you a buffer between you and the street and allows you to think differently.  It allows you to create something from nothing.  It allows you to make someone else happy.  Write out your worst case scenario.  Is it so bad?  What would you do if it happened?  Go back to a where you were and try again?

Photo by Diloz

Starting Your Own Business – How and Why is a post from: Elevenfourteen

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-Great Expectations

Coughlin’s Law – “When life gives you lemons, make lemon drop shooters.”

Putting Your Best Foot Forward. It is a simple saying.  Quickly interpreted you could take it to mean do your best and set a good foundation or it could also mean making a good impression at your first meeting or do the best with the hand you are dealt.

Starting Off

My wife always likes to start things on Mondays.  I like to start things  once I’ve made a commitment.  I don’t mind what day it is.  If it helps you to put your best foot forward, then start on a Monday.  Start when the feelings are fresh.  Start when you can associate an emotion with the action.

First Impressions

The first impression of meeting someone stays in your memory.  It writes a deeper track in the record than other occasions.  The funny thing is, you never know when you will be having a first impression moment.  You never know when a “coincidental” meeting will turn into more than that.  Looking and behaving your best should also can carry over to your website, email etiquette and your telephone systems auto-attendant.  Spelling and grammar mistakes are sometimes overlooked but remembered.  Being polite means all the time and no matter to whom you are communicating with.  Email, voice or IM.  No exceptions.  Auto-attendants are helpful but someone called to speak with someone so don’t try and loose them in a labyrinth of choices.

Promises

Surprisingly, these days someone who keeps their word and does what they say and says what they mean is rare.  We have gotten too used to telling white lies to avoid the difficult conversations.  Take it slow.  Start by setting a goal to return all calls or emails that need a response (not all communications need a response.  See 4HWW).  Don’t say it if you don’t mean it.  Sometimes no is the correct response.

Opportunities

Sometimes you have been dealt a raw deal.  However you interpret the situation would depend on what your expectations were.  Regardless of what you think, your character will shine through with how you take your next step or if you put your best foot forward. Will you make the most of …. your situation, your talents, your job?

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” – Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings, The: The Fellowship of the Ring (affiliate link)

Photo by Μøỳαл_Bгεлл

Putting Your Best Foot Forward is a post from: Elevenfourteen

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-Lifestyle

Coughlin’s Law – “Live your life every day.”

WOW!! I could end my review right there.  No need to go any further.

For some, this book will be exactly what you are looking for.  For everyone else you can take a good chuck of it and apply it to your life to get back to working to live instead of living to work.  Applying the advice in this book will take some courage and that is where the homework comes in at the end of each chapter.  The exercises at the end of each chapter are designed to help you overcome some fears of asking the hard questions or negotiating for the best deal.

If I had to summarize the 4HWW in a sentence I would say it is a way to get your life back.  Most of us have to work to earn money but why not condense it down to what needs to get done instead of watching the clock.  Get your job done and get on with what is great about life.

The author, Timothy Ferris, advocates in taking mini-retirements or extended vacations instead of working hard all of your life and then retiring once your best years are behind you.  I think most people would be happy to have more time off to be with their family or to pursue their passions.

The 4HWW is broken up into four sections or DEAL – Definition, Elimination, Automation and Liberation.  The author explains in each section on how to gain more time for yourself and less time for work.  Less time for work really should be expressed as being more focused doing what is needed to be done.  Eliminating distractions, eliminating the unnecessary and applying the 80/20 rule to your life and work so you will have more time to devote to the things that mean something to you and make a difference.

Some key points that everyone can relate to:

• figuring out your worst case scenario.  Once its defined it’s not really that bad.  Then you will be able to make a better decision about if you should take a chance on a better opportunity.
• scheduling email /IM / social media checking to very seldom from always
• Only have 2 to 3 things per day on your ToDone list.  This makes you focus on what is truly important.  Accomplish the first one before you check email or voicemail
• Answer the phone (when you answer it) by saying “how can I help you?”.  Avoid the small chit-chat and get to the point.  Another way is to start off with “I am right in the middle of X, how can I help you?”.  Once again, focusing the caller to get to the main point.  The second choice gives you the option to cut the phone call short if it runs too long.
• Only attend meetings that have an agenda, a set start time and a set finish time.

The 4 Hour Work Week finishes with some real stories of how people have applied the book’s advice to make their life better.  All of them are very inspiring and also very different.  This is a book that I will look to quite often over the next few months as I make some improvements in my life.

Have you read the book?  I would love to hear what you thought and what you have accomplished so far.

The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated: Expanded and Updated, With Over 100 New Pages of Cutting-Edge Content.

Book Review – The 4 Hour Work Week is a post from: Elevenfourteen

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-Marketing

Coughlin’s Law – “Improvement comes from knowing how well you did yesterday and what you will do  differently today.”

Marketing is something that every organization has to do no matter what size you are.  Even if your plan is simply word of mouth.  Marketing Campaigns need to be managed and reviewed to see if it is the best plan and where you can make adjustments.

Some basic questions need to be answered so you can see how effective your are being.  At one time, success was measured by:

• How many people reTweeted your Tweet
• How many people like your Facebook fan page
• How many people subscribe to your blog
• How big is your mailing list

Now marketers are realizing that while those numbers are important, the ones that are of interest to the business side are :

• How many people took some action based on your campaign
• How many people signed up for a trial or demo
• How many people made a phone call
• How many people made a purchase

Without tracking your campaigns, how do you know your successes and your , “well let’s try something different”.  I don’t want to say failure because there are somethings that work and some that don’t but all can be adjusted to work better.

Things to remember when preparing for a new campaign:

• Who is your audience? Should you target people who you think will buy or people who most people want to be like?  Slight distinction but one that needs to be made
• What medium will you use?  140 characters Vs. blog pages.  Big difference.  Where will you find your target audience?  Some industries lend themselves to one medium over the other.
• Will you be launching the same campaign across all mediums at the same time of will there be a wave from one to the next?
• Where will you keep all of this information?  Most CRM systems have a module for marketing and is an excellent place to store your campaign information as well as leads generated from it.
• How to track and measure how well you are doing?  You CRM system might have some reporting capabilities to see how many people have responded to an email campaign (don’t forget to add in the unsubscribe link if using email) but can it track Twitter or Facebook or Blog actions as well?  If not, it is time for some customizations or a new system or a temporary patch until you can bridge the gap.

My suggestions for tracking are going to be ones you can do for free or on the cheep.  Customizations and new systems are large topics on their own and this will get your started.

1. Start off with creating a tracking code system, a naming convention, on how you will track your campaigns.  This should be a few characters long so you can include the same “token” in all of your campaigns or be able to add onto it based on media.  For example a campaign on your new organic beeswax lip balm product could be – OBLB – which you could use in all of your campaigns or add onto it by adding say a TW for Twitter – OBLBTW.  Now you know that that “token” is for your organic beeswax lip balm campaign and someone found you on Twitter.
2. Make sure you have analytics set up on your website and your analytics package has the ability to track campaigns by your “token”.  Google Analytics is a good example.  You will be driving people back to your website most of the time so this is where you will track them.  You will want to have this set up in advance, so you will know what a typical day’s web traffic looks like.  This is a just in case the person does not keep the tracking “token” when they come to your site.
3. Landing pages are a good idea as well.  For each campaign, create a custom tailored page to reinforce your message.  Once on your site, they might navigate around but the landing page will be your best shot to keep them there and help them take action.
4. For our “on the cheep” solution, we need a calendar.  On our calendar we will mark off days we have blogged, Tweeted, emailed and anything to do with the campaign and then also the campaign “token”.  This will be our “mashup” location.  Although your analytics package will be tracking everyone coming to your site and from which campaign they got there, unless you modify each “token” for each Tweet or posting it will be hard to determine which message worked best.  Being able to match up your calendar of actions to your analytics charts will give you some real insight into your work.  Now you will have an idea what is working and then can adjust that message and “token” to get more accurate information.
5. Sign up for Hootsuite Pro.  It is not that expensive but does allow you to adjust your shortened url to include your tracking “token”.  You can do this in the custom URL parameters.  Using #hashtags is another way to track your Twitter campaign but will not come through to your website analytics.  The Pro suite also allows your team to tweet from the same account and have “assignments”.  There are many other features to the Pro version and all worth it.
6. Facebook has many, many different options to track who is on your Fan page and how much time they spend there.  If you are tracking activity on your Facebook page and getting activity, then you need to add some “call to actions” on your Facebook page.  have your fans take action there instead of then forwarding them onto your website to do the same.  The benefit here?  In Facebook you will know who the person is with out filling out forms.  You can track their activity back to their user account –> the “holy grail” of analytics.

That should get your started.  This topic could and probably should cover many postings so check back for updates or better yet, subscribe to my RSS feed now.

Got a favorite tool for tracking marketing campaigns?  Let’s hear about it.

Photo by Tiffany Day

Marketing Campaigns – Email, Blog Postings, Twitter and Facebook- How to Track and Learn From Them is a post from: Elevenfourteen

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-Decisions

Coughlin’s Law – “Always do what you believe is right and let the chips fall where they may”

This is a book that any person interested in history or leadership would enjoy.

Typical autobiographies are written in a time line fashion but President George W. Bush had a very interesting idea of dividing his book up into he biggest Decision Points that he has had in his life.  Each chapter has a theme to it and then has some fascinating supporting stories to go along with that theme.  There are some interesting behind the scenes stories that were recently unclassified and I am sure there will be more to come.

The President starts off his book by talking about quitting alcohol.  Because of his addiction he was making the wrong decisions.  He was choosing alcohol over his family, himself and his God.  This change put him on a better path for his life.

He then talks about running for office and his families history of public service.  The difficulties of running for office and the personal criticisms create a large barrier that most do not which to cross.  From there W speaks about how he took on moral challenges.  He sought advice from all experts and in the end made his decision although close friends would have chosen differently.

President George Bush then, as you would think talks about the 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq and the surge.  W had different plans when he took office and then 9/11 happened.  His captains wheel was turned for him and he did what he believed to be in the best interest of the United States.  The details that went into those decisions is staggering.  The number of extremely smart people helping him make his decisions is inspiring.  During those tough times, he had to make tough decisions on his leadership and who would be on his team and how they would work together.

The President also has a chapter on Katrina.  There are an enormous amount of facts that did not make the daily news that should have.  He admits that given the chance he would have done somethings differently.  Hindsight is 20/20 and like any great leader, you need to recognize your mistakes and learn from them.

President George W. Bush finishes the book with the “Freedom Agenda” and “Financial Crisis”.  Both topics did not get their fair reporting while he was in office – My opinion.  W explains why he believes in freedom and all the good that comes in with it.  The hard part to understand is that there are people who have not known freedom like we have so it is a foreign concept to them but give them a taste and they will want nothing else.  The financial crisis was an event that lots of people were at some level aware that it was coming.  Preventing it meant taking medicine that no one wanted to take.  It meant that Senators and Representatives would need to do unpopular things but that were good for the country.  It didn’t happen so the crisis did which then made the President and advisers choose between what they believe in and what is best for the country.  The free market is usually the best decision except when you are looking at a massive economic collapse like they were.  They made decisions but I don’t believe they were happy with them.  It was the better of two evils.

Overall, outstanding book.  It cost me a bunch of sleep wanting to continue turning the pages.  A great read for anyone who lived through the period, interested in leadership or history.

Click here to purchase Decision Points by President George W. Bush or to read further reviews.

Disclosure: I voted for President Bush both times.  From what I know of the man, I like him and respect him very much.  The links in this post are affiliate links with Amazon.

Book Review – Decision Points is a post from: Elevenfourteen

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