Is a Prompt Response Really Required?

One of the nice things about my life is I have no clue what day of the week it is or the date is most of the time.  Unless I have a client meeting, I don’t have a clue, nor do I need one.  There is a really funny side effect in that I am really behind on lesser current events and articles.

Just this week I had a couple of thoughts on an article that I read in the back of a limo.  I looked at the date of the magazine and it was 2002.  Can you imagine that?  A magazine in a limo in good shape from 2002?  It was bazaar.  I was catching up on my magazine reading, and read a pretty good article in Fortune Magazine.  It was the November 1^st 2010 issue.  The article was “Work less do more.”  I really liked the article, but at the end there was a comment that really threw me off.

Do You Know How to Buy Time? I Do.

It is really funny how many times I hear somebody say “You can't buy time.”   I don't agree with this idea at all.  If you are anybody who is a business owner or wants to succeed in life you have to learn to buy time.  In fact I will make the statement that you have to go beyond buying time and learn how to leverage the time that you buy.

One of the great mistakes that many budding entrepreneurs make is spending too much money too soon and they run out of cash. At the other end of the spectrum is the guy who wants to do it all himself and save every penny he can. The guy that wants to do it all himself and save every penny he can is the guy that needs to learn how to buy time first and leverage time second.  Otherwise he will just struggle and never get ahead. 

Fly First Class – Buy Time

After all isn't somebody buying time when they buy a first-class airline ticket and get to go to the premium security line? Aren't they buying time when they get to arrive at the flight anytime they want? Isn't a first-class customer buying time because he can get on the airplane first and continue to work while everybody else is boarding and trying to find a place for their bags?

Do You Have A Story, Or Are You Just Living?

What Is Your Headline?

This week, I was researching the title of my next book.  I know now that the title of the first book, So, Now What? was not the headline to make the book fly off the shelves.  I know this because my royalty checks haven’t paid for the new Aston Martin or X5d just yet.   Most people that read So, Now What? only admitted to understanding the title after reading more than half the book.  With the help of Imal Wagner, I realized that a title of a book is nothing more than the headline for the story.  As I looked at all of the books that were on my shelf, one title stood out.  The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris.  All I could think was “What a great headline, what is mine going to be?”

Why Strategy Matters

Yesterday I had the pleasure of watching somebody have an epiphany and understand completely what I do for a living. I had been out house shopping with my wife. We looked at a couple of homes with the exact same floor plan, and with very different selling conditions. The first house was a short sale where the people had already moved out. The second home was priced 22% higher and the homeowner was very clear that she was not going to budge on price. She also said she was going to stay for quite some time if necessary.

We decided to discuss the two houses with the real estate agent at the local Starbucks. In doing so the agent asked what I did for a living. When I told her that I was a Business Strategy and Marketing Coach the puzzled look on her face gave me the opening to continue. I said "I help people narrow their niche and find their business strategy so they can become better at what they do, make more money and work less."

Determination

This is been a very cool week for me, I was able to do something I never expected to do. Well I shouldn't say I never expected do it, I should say that nobody else expected that I could do it, or really no one expected that I would do it.  Up until a few years ago I was one of those people who was always letting myself down.  I would say that I would to something big, and never get to it.  I just made excuses.

Now that it's been over a year since the book So Now What?  has been on the market, I was starting to get a little frustrated. I have been grinding and pushing to get anybody of any value to look at the book. Finally, a couple of months ago, Jim Pawlak agreed that he would look at it clearly stating that it only had a 1 in 40 chance of him even reading it and much less of it getting reviewed.  After Mr. Pawlak, two more people agreed to "consider it".

Almost one year to the day after the book was published, the San Jose Business Journal online was the first to publish Jim Pawlak's review. I had no idea that he read it and wrote a review, so getting the google alert was very exiting.  If you don't know what a google alert is, stay tuned.  I will tell you how to use them and why they are so important.

The Success Practice of Giving Thanks

I want to start by saying happy Thanksgiving and safe travels anyone reading this on Thanksgiving day, and I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving for those who are reading it later.

This month my wife tried a new technique, really a new angle on a technique that we learned a long time ago. Every day she posted something she was thankful for on Facebook, something that she could share with all of her friends. Being thankful for what you have is strangely one of the keys to getting more and living a better life. I can't tell you why it works, but it does.  At least no one has ever said it doesn't.

Maybe this is why most religions have you give thanks at meals or before going to bed. It simply works. Personally I try to think of the things that I am thankful for each day before I start my day. Sitting on the deck getting ready to write or walking the dogs in the forest, is a great way for me to give thanks and let the appreciation really set in.

Jeff Walker posted an interesting angle in his blog this morning, he suggested that we each say out loud what we are thankful for today. I think this is a great idea since it lets everyone around us hear  what we are thankful for, and helps them to gain a better appreciation of what today is all about. So why not give it a try.

Happy Thanksgiving

The 366 Method of Daily Planning

Today is one of those days where I really enjoy being in a business that helps other people. The entire reason that I went into business was to help other people avoid the mistakes in business I made. The more businesses that I can help and the more people that I can help, the better we all do. The mistakes I made are way too common in business and way too expensive to ignore.

I got an e-mail this morning with a great question. It was from a guy that I met in Scottsdale Arizona at a marketing conference. His question was this: "I have a problem staying focused on my daily tasks and I'm wondering if you have any tips to help me get work on things done."