Nobody Noticed, So Who Cares Anyway?

Clues Are Everywhere

A couple of days ago a film production crew from a large metro area came to one of the little neighboring communities 25 miles from my hometown.  The little community is a small town of 326 people.  They are like many small town America's trying to make their public services be able to provide basic stuff like schooling and water.  The plight in these small towns across America is real and has been in this type of poor financial condition for so long the 'locals' have come to accept it as being normal.  They have learned the art of how to live on the edge of poverty.  They do a pretty good job of disguising it.

This film production crew was in town setting up a schedule to shoot a series of Audi and Porsche commercials.  (I am not hear to bash these companies, my wife owns an Audi A6.)  These film production companies like the appearance of the old country roads with their narrow 'switch-backs' and 'turns' that roll back and forth through the wheat fields in the area.  The film production crew sent their representative into the community ahead of schedule to make the necessary arrangements to come in and 'use' the facilities they needed to make this set of commercials.  Their representative came into our business and was interested in using a large portion of our 'open space' to park their equipment, crews and automobiles for temporary staging.  Our location was one of the largest spaces available in the area for them to use.  She came into our retail store to discuss the possibilities.

My boss heard about their searching efforts and asked me to work with them and try to see if we could charge them $500 for the rental of our commercial properties.  The lady they sent to do the negotiations was very good at what she does.  She said all of the right things in all of the right ways.  She was not a rookie at securing properties to perform their work.

Before we move on with this story, I must confess some things.  First of all, when I lived in Sacramento, California the company I worked for did a lot of 'staging' work for some commercial media production companies.  I have worked a lot with their production teams and their management staff.  I am fully aware of how much they budget for properties and ancillary costs for each production project they contract to perform.  I have also seen how they produce line item billing sheets for properties they never paid for but charged off as a cost to the customers they produce commercials for by contract.  Property rental costs are a common line item charge.  It is included on all of the line item bills those companies forwarded to their clients.  I have worked with them enough to be able to see the billing process.  Property rental costs are a common line item charge sent to the customer.  Every bill I witnessed had included a charge for property rental costs.  It is common in the production industry.  The customer accepts this portion in their commercial production expenses.  This is the first confession I must share before we move on with this story.

The second confession I must share is that I have worked enough with media production companies to know that they are not performing 'charity' work.  They are a 'for-profit' organization and do very well at it.  I enjoyed working with them because they did very well, financially.  They are able to produce their work with some very strong charges to pass on to their clients.  Their work does not come cheaply.  If you work for one of these companies you are likely a member of a strong teamster organization and 'prevailing wages' are a very common standard in the industry.  The lady who came to make the commercial arrangements had her teamster local number printed on her business card.  This is a common process.  They are a profitable industry.  They are not a 'non-profit' affair.

The third confession I must share is that the industry is littered with dishonesty.  The representatives they send out into these small communities are not honest in what they promise to deliver.  They are good at what they do because they accomplish their work in a quick and effective fashion.  They lead the scheduling and facility uses with precision.  They are great organizers.  They are not great promise keepers.  They are great salespeople and facilitators, not necessarily honest in what they promised to deliver to the people they meet and need to 'use' in their work process.  I have worked with many crews in the past who have this nature deeply embedded into their habit systems.  Monkeys eat bananas, giraffes have long necks to eat tall trees.  The media commercial business has its habit patterns deeply rooted.

Now that I have come clean with my previous experiences with these type of production companies and their customary habits, I can finish the story.  This is a post about keeping your word.  It is also a post on how we forget to respect someones word because it has become so rare.  Nobody notices when we violate our word anymore because it has become so prevalent that it looks normal.  Someone bumps into us on the street and invites us to a neighborhood barbecue and we agree to come.  We do not show up nor do we call to let them know we changed our mind.  It means absolutely nothing to anyone.  We expect it.  Keeping our word is no longer an important element in life to perform.  Nobody cares anyway.

Same Market, Same Conditions, Different Results.

Become Noticed!

I was having a cup of coffee with a friend from out of town.  He was one of those people who gets real excited very easily.  I have a lot of energy, he has a lot of reaction.  He loves conspiracy stories.  Everything is a by-product of some kind of a conspiracy.    One conspiracy viewpoint leads to another one.  He also uses some fast and rough language while he visits with anyone.  In addition to using colorful vocabulary, he is also kind of loud when he speaks.  People in the coffee shop knew he was there.  In fact, everyone in the coffee shop knew what his philosophies were.  I noticed they all noticed him.  He did not notice any of them.

He is a big man in body frame, too.  He stands about six foot seven.  His shoulders are wide and his build looks a lot like a well organized professional basketball player.  He looks to be in fairly good shape.  He smiles a lot so his words and ideas have some friendly parts to his delivery of thought.  He has the ability to 'work' the stage, so to speak.  He tells a fair joke here and there.  I like having a cup of coffee with him once in awhile.  It is usually quite an experience.

We will call his name, Ken.  Ken is one of those guys who gets easily excited about how sour our politics in this country have become.  It is his favorite subject.  He seems to know everything about politics, past and present.  He uses facts and figures as if he has read a library on them.  He makes it very clear that nobody should dispute his theories.  He will not be easily convinced against his will.  He said it, that's a fact and you better accept it.  If you throw a challenge on the table about one of his theories, batten yourself down...the debate begins.  Ken is one of those who is loaded for bear.  He is very ready to take anyone on that does not agree or confirm with him on his thoughts and beliefs.  His response gun is fully loaded and ready to fire off in a loud blaze of glory.  Ken makes that very clear when he chats with you.  It is always kind of fun watching the facial reactions of the others sitting around the coffee shop.  It is very clear most of the people coming into the coffee shop to place an order for their drinks make an effort to work their walk to avoid the area Ken occupies.  They do not want to become part of his shrapnel.

Ken is a perfect example of how someone can work their life into a tizzy and never notice how it became such a tizzy.  It will always be the fault of someone else in his mind.  I use situations like chatting with Ken as an example of how some business owners will operate a similar business in a similar market area with similar marketing conditions and receive completely different results.  Everyone that headed to that coffee shop had a clear idea why they were headed to that coffee shop.  That particular coffee shop is a popular place to hang out.  It seems to be very busy at that shop almost every time I go there.  They do make very good coffee.  They have very good seating spaces and their selection of choices is very good.  Their business model design is very trendy in a good way.  They are not a chain operation but operate much like a good chain might behave.  It is a popular spot.  Ken was obviously attracting a lot of attention.  He did not seem to care about it very much.  It was clear to Ken that any challenges those people had about his views was their own problem.

Wicks Eventually Burn Out

Step Away From Your Model Once in Awhile

What if your business was a standard on-line business?  Would you go to work everyday?  Would you skip a few days in a row and allow the technology to drive the business response activity?  If you designed the on-line business model well enough, you might be able to step away from the model more often.  Did you know that is the same thing that holds true for a brick and mortar business model?  If you designed it well enough, you would be able to step away from it for short periods of time without loosing step in volume production.  It is possible.

The business owners who design their model to require their full time, over-time presence are the business models most susceptible to causing job burn-out.  Your body, your presence is much like a wick.  You can eventually burn out.  You ain't that tough.  Your mind and body will reach some of its natural limits and begin to irritate how you think creatively, constructively and beneficially.  You may not notice this change in your leadership style because we have this wonderful ability to adapt.  However, the destructive activities will begin to erode the wonderful work we do without us first noticing the patterns of destructive work that is being cleverly done.  Our mind and soul will naturally protect us from seeing job burn-out in ourselves but the activities we perform will slightly suffer.  Wicks eventually burn out.  The flame on the candle, quits.  It usually stops suddenly.

I do not practice what I preach.  I flirt with job burn-out in my career.  I give more than necessary to what I am dedicating myself to do in my business world.  It has become my strongest habit to perform.  I work hard on controlling that habit.  I will 'press' my 'go' buttons constantly and keep doing a lot of what I think I need to be doing to make my business life happen well.  It is a deepened part of my business life conditioning.  I can do business 24/7.

Restraint and balance are as important to business success as completing your current idea you are working to introduce.  You do not need to feel guilty for taking a break from the action.  Taking a break from the action is a time to allow your mind and body to rest and restore itself.  Rest and restoration are vital to success.  Make sure you have learned how to employ those success elements in your business developments. They are as important to your business success as your keys are to the locks on the front door.  You will need them on a regular basis.  You will need to re-freshen your daily business work with some restful activities.  If you do not perform adequate rest, your wick will burn out.  All wicks eventually burn out.  Yours is no exception.

Burn-out can be ugly.  I have watched couples get divorced over job burn-out.  I have watched children become forgotten over job burn-out.  I have watched excellent business leaders destroy their wonderful leadership over job burn-out.  I have watched customer service spiral into some of the poorest levels of human respect caused by job burn-out.  I have watched business leaders completely ignore their required sensitivities due to too much energy devoted to preventing job burn-out from surfacing.  Job burn-out is real.  It is debilitating as well.  It can destroy a great business model, and does.

Wicks eventually burn out.

When You Go Fishing, Tighten Up Your Marketing Line.

How many big ideas do you have right now?  Are you thinking of one right now?  Do you have a couple that intrigue you?  Do you have so many cooking in your mind that you do not know which one to start first?

Big ideas are the ones that produce the best results.  They become the flashes of increased activity that fill the trough up for awhile.  Some big ideas make you go build more troughs to hold all of the new activity.  Big ideas are the part of your business model that make you stand out in the crowd.  If your business model does not successfully stand out in the crowd, you do not have a big business.  What becomes your claim to fame?  What do your customers see you are?  Big ideas help make that kind of thing happen.  Your customers recognize who you are by the ideas you were able to pull off.  If you do not have any big ideas, your business model is running very quiet.

Marketing your business model for success requires that you learn how to go fishing better.  You need to go fishing for more customers.  You need to learn how to attract the fish to your line of activity.  Customers swim in bait infested waters.  The amount of bait they must see every day is overwhelming.  Customers are 'hit' with marketing messages constantly.  Sometimes the customer finds you by accident.  Finding your business model should not be one of their accidents.

Customers like to go where the ideas are the best.  Customers hate bad ideas.  Customers hate bad ideas that do not help them do what they want to do.  Customers will actually disappear when the bad ideas become something that produces results they hate to see.  When you go fishing, remember these things.  These things should be in your tackle box.

I have done quite a bit of fishing in my life.  I am not an avid fisherman but I have fished in seven states and three countries.  I have fished deep sea, large rivers, small streams and various lakes and ponds.  I think fishing is fun.  I sometimes fish for the company I am with.  Other times I fish because I like the 'break' I get from the outing event.  Sometimes I fish for the challenge it provides.  Sometimes I enjoy wandering about the streams checking everything out that is some place beautiful where nobody else walks.  The sounds, the wildlife, the wonderful sweet smells, the sunlight sipping through the trees once in awhile and the pureness of mother nature all come together to produce a heavenly place to be.  I enjoy fishing.  It becomes so much more rewarding when you 'get one on.'  I love the surprise of a sudden 'hit' and the 'wiggling' begins.  In a fast moving beautiful stream, it does not get much better than that.  That 'feeling' is a total rush.

I feel the same way when I see this kind of similar thing happen to a business.  When I see a business make the proper arrangements to tighten up their marketing lines I get excited when their results begin to improve.  A business model who finds the right bait in the right water with the right fish at the right time produces a wonderful rush nobody can describe.  The checkbook swells with the activity of the excitement.  When a business finds this kind of success, it usually means they are successfully fishing for more customers.  It means they have learned how to turn their big ideas into a better tightened plan of attack.  When they go fishing, they have learned how to tighten their marketing line.

You do not need a boat.  You do not even need to own a fishing pole.  I have never owned a boat and currently, I have a broken fishing pole.  I do not consider those obstacles any reason for keeping me away from fishing.  Big ideas do not need a boat to survive.  Big ideas do not even need you to own them.  Big ideas only need you to decide to make them happen.  Big ideas are waiting for you to tighten up the 'do it' line so they can become part of your business model.  Learn how to go fishing.

When you go fishing, tighten up your marketing line.

We Care More About The Stuff That Goes Wrong!

The Year We Completed The Stream Bed And Deck

I built an 89 foot stream in my backyard.  We live on the edge of our little town so we look like we live in the country.  We have three homes next door and the nearest one is located 50 yards to the north of our house.  The rest of our property behind our home is sloped gradually up to a 60 degree hill.  It was perfect terrain for building a cool looking stream bed with a couple of nice waterfalls.

We landscaped the area with a couple of starting points to the water flow.  The beginning of the two water sources are separate areas that spill water into a large pond area that overflows its lower edge into the stream bed.  At the bottom of the stream bed is another small water feature that collects the water from the stream and pumps it back up to the two sources at the top of the loop.  Over the large pond at the top of the loop is a small deck which appears to be floating over the pond.  It over-looks the flow of the whole stream down the hill.

On the deck is a cast iron wood burning outdoor stove with a very cool chimney.  We sit out there some nights watching the evening pass by.  It is a great place to chat about stuff.  The water and the fire have some very cool evening lighting installed that makes this place kind of special.  It is almost a perfect campground area in our backyard.  Our backyard is half of an acre.  The landscaping is a woodland-styled arrangement.  We love hanging out in our yard.  Many folks who visit and spend time with us in the yard by the fire have made comments about how peaceful it is outside.  Peaceful environments are a joy to experience.  The world is very loud.  Most of you all know what I mean.

The rocks in the stream bed took eight full trucks to haul in.  Some are very large.  I carried each rock by hand and wheelbarrow.  I shaped the terrain, carried all of the rock and even rolled the real heavy ones down the hill from the top of the place where the water begins.  Two very large rocks were brought in by a paid landscaping crew.  They were just too heavy for me to budge.

It took another three truck loads of river rock to wheelbarrow into the river bed and spread about.  That was a heavy job as well.  Once the larger rocks were in place and the river rock was completely spread about we brought in a full truck load of pea gravel.   The pea gravel was used to make a small path near the lower edge of the stream and some 'landing' areas to design a few woodland landscaped garden features where birds and critters might like to collect.  In total, I suspect the rocks might weigh 15 to 16 tons.  I ruined two wheelbarrows doing the job.

Nine years later it has all grown in nicely.  It is a wonderful place to hang out.  The neighbors house located 50 yards next door is almost invisible now.  The trees and plants we planted have grown up enough to become the nice barrier we originally planned.  Just the very top of the other house down the hill is visible to us now.  We almost feel secluded inside our park.  It would serve as a great entertainment home for someone.  Electrical, plumbing, lighting feature boxes, outlets and music are all located underground.  It is kind of nice.

Our yard has intimidated some guests that are weekend landscapers.  You can tell when they visit it for the first time.  It is an ambitious project.  My neighbor quit three years ago trying to keep up with the Jones'.  He always apologizes for how he keeps up the area that borders our two properties.  We like to keep our woodland area pristine.  It is a big job.  We have never been offended by how he maintains his property.  He worries about it far too much.  He is always apologizing to us about it.

There are several really good stories in this project to talk about.  This kind of project is a perfect example to help point out how a small business should be run.  When you decide to build your business, decide to make it special.  Make sure you focus on how well it attracts others, while at the same time provides you with a peaceful place to maintain.  Your personal rewards need to come from the same place you devote all of your energy to building.  It can be done.  You need to learn how to do that kind of business work if you want your business to be growing hot and attractive.  Make the two elements become one...work and pleasure.

When Do You Quit Selling? Never.

Selling Is Everywhere, Even At Home.

I repair broken business models.  They are everywhere.  The last one I was hired to repair was the one in the worst shape when I arrived.  Both legs of that business were in the grave.

One of the most important components to perform of any business model is to learn how to sell.  The best example of the importance this step requires will be seen in a really broken business model.  The need to sell at all times, all people, is most noticeable in a broken business model.  The first people who need to be sold all of the time are the owners of the business model.  They need to be sold how well their business model 'can' do.  They will need to be sold that philosophy every moment they think about how tough it is digging themselves out of the terrible whole they have created.  That kind of selling will need to be constant.  Convince, convince, convince.

The second most important group that needs to be sold on a constant basis is the staff.  The people who meet and share time with the customers will need to be sold about how well this business model will perform.  The staff are in the trenches and need some convincing tools to help arm them while they work with the disappointed customers.  Broken business models do not have a great and happy consumer base.  That is why they are broken.  Supplies are always out of stock.  Equipment does not work well.  Tools are limited and usually old or broken.  Consumer inventory is out-dated, short in quantity of supply and usually consists of off-brand products nobody recognizes.  The staff will be faced with uphill battles, everyday.  They need to be sold well to do their job well.  All of the time.  Convince, convince, convince.

The next group in line that needs to be sold on a constant basis are the product suppliers.  In the last messed up model not one of their suppliers allowed that business model to buy anything on credit.  All relationships were broken.  Every supplier wanted cash on the barrel before they would drop any inventory off for that business to sell.  The first thing I began to do when I arrived is call each supplier on the phone and find out who made the real decisions of the credit policies for that supplier.  Who actually made the decisions to allow credit to occur.  Not always is that decision made by the owner for that supplier.  Most would assume this to be true, but I have discovered many suppliers have a single person who has become 'in-charge' of that irresponsibility.  Often times, it is not the owner.  I called everyone of those 'gate keepers' and began developing a level of trust they could count on for opening a very small line of credit to use in our efforts to purchase inventory.  They needed to be 'sold' on the idea.  Convince, convince, convince.

Keep in mind, when you are selling ideas, concepts, promises, products, services, philosophies and yourself you will not always be successful in convincing your listener to actually buy what you are selling.  Some are not interested in your story.  If some of those people who are not interested in your 'story' are on your staff, get rid of them.  Keep selling.  Just go find a new buyer!  Hire someone else who will listen to how you plan to make it happen and how they are going to be an important part of that plan.  The right listeners are out there.  Keep on selling.  Convince, convince, convince.  You will attract, attract, attract.  Never quit selling.

The reason why a broken business model is the best example of providing the need to always be selling something is that they are the type of model that does not believe in anything good.  They have too much evidence stacked against them.  They have been beaten to death and are headed in the wrong mental direction.  Some serious constants need to be employed with regard to convincing them to improve how they view how well they can perform.  They need to be convinced against the evidence they see.  They need to be sold.  They need to be sold to buy a mental process that does not yet exist.  Selling this process never quits.  When the selling dies, the process dies.  Convince, convince, convince.

The next group that needs to be sold is the banking support.  The people who process your money are the most important people you need to convince.  You better start selling their gatekeepers right now.  Get to know who those gatekeepers are and begin developing some very trusting relationships with them so they can go to bat for your efforts.  You will need to do some very interesting things with your money management and to have the confidence of the banking support will come in handy down the terrible trail you are planning to walk.  You will need to convince those bank gatekeepers that you are the right one to handle the money management issues you plan to use to repair that model with its ugly evidence.  You will need to quit bouncing checks immediately.  That activity must absolutely go away.  Never bounce another check, regardless of how bad your situation is financially.  Never bounce another check, ever.  Find some other pain to deal with, but never bounce another check.  Zero.  It will be the best step you can make to begin convincing your bank that you are the one.  It is part of how you sell them who you are.  Bank keepers need to trust in your accountability.  This is the first thing they look at to determine your accountability.  If you cannot get this first basic thing down, you will not be able to sell them more complicated things later.  Convince, convince, convince.

Now we need to improve the selling process to our agencies.  The tax people who are hounding you.  The accountants who are not getting paid.  The landlords who have accepted late and short payments.  The service industries like utilities and equipment maintenance business models all have a history with your recent slow paying past that need some selling repair.  Make some corrections in how your business model does what it does so you can improve upon the uses required as you share what you do with those services they provide.  Begin a tiny payment plan with those who have not seen any money and routinely issue that tiny payment plan to help you sell them how your efforts will be able to correct this process at a later date when times are better.  You will need to convince, convince and convince.  They need to be sold on that plan.

Selling never quits.  Keep in mind, we have not yet seen any customers in this example.  Your business model is and will be successful when you learn how to sell all of the time, all of the things that it does, with all of the sources that it does its business with and who serve it in what it does.  When you learn the art of "never quit selling" you will help to ensure that all of the right things behind the scenes are performing well so the things you do for your customers can be done well.  When your customers arrive they can count on you because all of the backside things are properly in place doing exactly what they need to be doing to support how well you treat the customers that arrive.  This process will make or break you.  The selling ability you provide will help you to overcome the obstacles that naturally occur in the management process of this complex backside tasking.  It is vital for your business to understand the importance of this effort.  You need to 'get it' on this one.  When you sell your customers, no backside challenges need to appear.  Customers hate backside interference's.  They look like disservice to them.  They make your business model look like poor service.  They make your business model appear insensitive.

Business Ideas, Are You A Starter Or A Finisher?

Some Places Need A Lot Of Work

My neighbor has some interesting patterns he has developed on his home projects.  For this blog post I sat down to think about how many projects he has on-going, right now.  I can count twelve of them.  Those are the ones that are visible to me.  He may have more of them I cannot see.  He may actually start another project while he is trying to finish up one of the ones he has going.  During the past 8 years, this is his pattern of operation.

We have come to the conclusion that he is not a finisher.  He is a starter.  He loves to start new projects.  I have a few projects in my yard that have not been completed.  I am a good starter, too.  I have six major projects I have not completed.  They are the type that will require great energy to complete and some bigger money than what was originally planned.  They will need some extended time chips to become part of the finishing process.  Currently I do not have that kind of time budgeted.  I also have not set aside enough of the right amount of money to complete them the way they need to be completed.  I have decide to take one of them on per year.  I had seven of them before this year started.  I just completed one of them.  That is why only six remain.  If funding becomes more available before this summer comes to a close, I will tackle one more of them.  I know which one should come next.  I now have the right tools acquired to use on that project.  I used it on the project I just completed.  It was my new cement mixer.  It was the perfect tool for helping me to complete the project I just finished.

Are you a starter or a finisher?  It is very important to know which one you tend to lean on the most.  Projects in your business like a good starting process and they also do best when they have a nice finish.  It is important to know which process you tend to do the most.  Most leaders are great starters.  Very few are good finishers.

If you watch the building trades people do their work you will notice most contractors and subs are great starters.  Most of them are not good finishers.  This is a typical pattern for most people.  Good ideas flow all around us and many of them get a quick start when they begin to flow around.  The trouble with good ideas is that they tend to die too early.  They get a good start and some after, they fizzle out.  They fail to reach a good finish.  Some of your business ideas are still waiting out in the rain for their day to finish.  Walk around your business model and count them.  You might be surprised with how many unfinished projects you have going at the same time.  Some of them have been started several years ago.  It is not uncommon.

We have talked about the value of critical and comprehensive thinking.  Performing these patterns of operational thinking is a big plus to a successful business model.  When good ideas begin to float around it is so helpful to have acquired the extra tool of adding critical thinking to the process of starting a new project idea.  Critical thinking leads to comprehensive evaluations.  New ideas need this type of care before they can become great finishers.  The planning is done so much more carefully when these two procedures are part of the starting methods.  When you get a good idea, do not just immediately get started on it.  Allow the idea to flow freely but at the same time, make sure your mind revs up its juices for critical thinking.  Begin the first work you do on a new idea by starting your critical thinking process.  Begin to think what the new idea will look like when it is finished.  See how it looks.  See how it is managed.  See how it is maintained.  Open up your mind to the comprehensive patterns that will be affected when the new idea begins its start.  Develop a solid comprehensive pattern of relational respects before you start your new project.

What Gives? Treated Too Loosely?

There Is No Magic, You Get Only 24 Hours Each Day.

It is a common mistake.  We do it at home.  We do it at work.  We do it without giving it any serious thought.  We treat this process way too loosely.  As a result, we leave much of what we need to be doing, undone.  Our minds are too ambitious.  Our hopes are running the extra mile.  What is it?  It is the act of trying to add something new to our already busy schedule.

We get a brilliant idea and we think, let's do it.  It sounds like a good idea.  We like the idea so much we decide we should do it.  So we start doing the new idea.  We get started and soon discover we do not have enough time to do a good job with the idea.  Soon we discover we do not have the right kind of time chips set aside to do the new project idea very well.  In order to get the new idea done, we discover we need to rush it a little bit.  What gives with this?  We first envisioned a great result when the idea originally surfaced.  However, we may need to compromise with a second rate result because we do not have enough time to do the correct kind of work the idea requires.  What gives with this?  Now we must treat the results more loosely.  We need to accept second rate stuff.

I suppose it is O.K. to lower the standard of a great idea if you are cooking hot dogs for dinner with a new twist of creative cooking.  If the creative idea does not work out properly, it is just hot dogs.  Compromise is O.K. in this case.  However, what if the idea is more serious.  What if the idea centers around developing a new service package to your business model.  It sounded like a great idea when you first developed it in your mind of thoughts.  After some discussion, it still sounds like a good idea.  So you begin setting it into place.  You start working it out and developing the process to include it into your current business process.  You discover you did not allot enough time to do the new idea correctly.  Do you compromise to get it done?  Do you want your new idea for an added service to become second rate?  What gives with that?  Does the idea of getting it done become more important than doing it right?  What gives with that?

Do not treat your current schedule too loosely.  You do not have enough time to take on a new project.  Face it.  Your schedule is already full.  You fill your daily schedule with a lot of things.  It is full of things you are trying to get done.  When you come up with a new idea, think about how you will need to re-arrange what you are currently doing.  Something has to go away in order to add new time chips to the new idea.  Something has to give.  Face it.  The new idea will need to consume some 'already-spoken-for' time chips.  If you do not face this reality you may be treating the new idea too loosely.  If so, it may become a high probability that it will become a candidate for presenting second rate work.  Many new ideas in your business path are very much like this.  Most of them fail, also.  What gives with this?  You may be treating them too loosely.

Great ideas need great design and great patterns of work completion.  Otherwise, they end up second rate work and your business does not need another second rate set of policies to practice.  It already has too many of those happening right now.  What gives with this?  Are we treating our business affairs too loosely?  Maybe.

Splattered By Discontent

This is serious business.  It is tough trying to fix a business that is trying to navigate well in this kind of touchy economic atmosphere.  Enthusiasm is so hard to generate when it is so necessary to produce.  Tight checkbooks, troubling financials, limited resources, skeleton work crews and bad attitudes mix up together to make for a very tough road to travel.  Somehow all of this stuff needs to unwind.  If your business model is splattered by discontent, quit trying to do everything all at once.  Slow down just a minute.  Let's not get ourselves all wrapped up too tightly, just yet.  I have seen business models with two feet in the grave make some great turn-around efforts happen.  If you are splattered with discontent, just slow down for a little while.  Let's catch some air.

First of all, I am going to promote that you learn how to procrastinate.  Procrastination is part of the devils work, unless of course it is part of your wonderful business plan.  I procrastinate.  I am very good at it.  I choose when to procrastinate and on what subjects I want to procrastinate the most.  So should you.  In fact, if your business model is experiencing some very troubled times, I recommend that you learn how to procrastinate a lot.  We will call this technique, "positive procrastination."  I did not develop this technique.  I borrowed it from someone else.  It works wonders.

Every business model has junk it must wade through.  Some junk is more critical to manage than others.  Some junk needs to just go away and quit dominating our daily energy.  A good example of this kind of junk is an irritating employee.  Someone who is not productive yet produces a constant energy drain for the types of things they bring to the table that do not belong on a winning team, is a great example of an irritation that needs to be surgically removed.  I have no problem cutting someone like this loose.  Good-bye.  Go find something else to do.  Go find a better match to your employment life.  Bye-bye.

Every business model has junk it must wade through.  Immediately get rid of the junk that does not need to be there.  Those kinds of decisions are usually very easy to make, unless you are mentally under water with too much stress.  If too much stress is on the table, likely you have developed some defense mechanisms strong enough to hide that stress from yourself.  I am good at hiding my stress from myself.  My wife sees it long before I actually identify it.  I once-in-awhile do a check up for myself.  I pay attention and listen to my wife talk about stressful things.  I check to see if she is talking about me.  I am a strong personality and she knows that.  She will usually approach me in a rather stealth mode to give me hints and suggestions.  If stress is on my table, she is very careful how she tells me I am stressed out.  I will see and hear little signs coming from her that will be hints that I need to manage my stress factors a bit more carefully.  I pay attention to those hints like I am not paying attention to those hints.  Find your method to manage stress and issues.  Get some form of check and balance laid out so you can keep the monitor alive and well.  Manage your stress better.  Usually your health and attitude will tell you what is going on with stress.  If you are splattered by discontent, everyone will be giving you hints!  Open your eyes!  It might be time to make some serious changes.

Make Sure You Massage Your Business Decisions

It Is Always More Than A Good Idea.

I raised three daughters.  I rest my case.

They have turned out quite well, however.  All have completed their college education and are gainfully and wonderfully employed.  My wife and I are fully aware of how blessed we are on that subject.  One has her Masters, one completed some foreign studies before she graduated and the third one graduated from a tough private school.  All three are also wonderful citizens.  They are very giving young ladies.

When any one of those three girls take on a project in life, count it done.  They have all learned how to start a good project, massage it and complete it.  One took on motorcycle riding.  One took on photography.  A third one climbs dangerous rock cliffs.  They love living in cities yet prefer quiet time alone.  They have learned how to massage just the right dose of each.  All of them can find enjoyment in a variety of craft projects.  All of them are technological skilled and read very well.  All three pay close attention to the world and its current issues.  They have come to recognize how important it is to massage life.

Five weeks ago, I was asked by my employer to write a business plan for a suggestion I made about introducing a new revenue stream.  I was serious about the idea enough to gain his interest.  The request was the result of an initial brief conversation, some continued follow-up idea exchange conversations, and a more forceful series of brief discussions.  At which point, he said, "Go write me a business plan to make that idea happen."  The vision needed to be massaged.  The buyer and the seller needed some time to work the idea through the tunnels of thought that massage all of the tight thoughts that restrict the flow of ease and possibility.  The vision needed to be massaged.

I spent the last five weeks working on the development of that new business plan.  The first week was a week of 'visioning.'  I had to massage my own brain.  I completed that process by the end of the week with a PowerPoint overdraft of what the new program might look like.  I did not provide a high level of specificity.  It was prepared and presented much like an entertaining commercial.  It was not filled with heavy details.  It was prepared with a lot of massaging.  When completed I made sure my immediate supervisor was given the first opportunity to review the video presentation of the PowerPoint.  I wanted to make sure I was massaging protocols correctly.  He was amazed with the production.  I spent some time with him to see if he had anything to add to the project idea or if he would change anything.  He was overwhelmed with the project idea.  I needed more time to massage his acceptance.  Massaging your work is something all business owners should consider.

Once he felt comfortable with the presentation he moved about our division sharing how much he was impressed with the idea.  I then sent the PowerPoint commercial to the CEO who requested the business plan in the first place.  I was convinced the right level of massage was given to the middle management managers and was received very well.  It was ready for the CEO in corporate office to review.

The same day the CEO viewed the PowerPoint was the same day he shared how he believed the idea would work.  He called and said to prepare a business plan for the idea.  The past five weeks was consumed to find the time chips squeezed to complete this plan and submit it for adjustment and approval.  The process for massage was endless.  Every idea was massaged with thoughts and mental tests given for the purpose of check and balances.  The final written business plan was completed, printed in two copies, one for my immediate supervisor and one for the CEO.  It was a comprehensive presentation so not much was said for a few days.  The final written business plan was not a simple commercial.  It was comprehensive, detailed and specific.

It May Be Time To Take 5 P's For Profit.

Corn is Profit!

Don't Poo Poo Programs that are Planned for Profit.  Five P's.

Most of my career in business leadership has been located in small marketplaces.  I am absolutely clear why some small marketplaces resist certain methods of business marketing.  New and creative ideas are often times resisted.  Amazing enough, it is rarely the consumer who does the resisting.  Resistance usually comes from the leadership of the business models.  As a result, I say, "Don't Poo Poo Programs that are Planned for Profit."

Small markets are just as informed today as larger markets.  The world of technology has brought the two cultures so close to each other that many times smaller markets are much more informed of the "what's happening" scene than the larger markets.  Smaller markets have less commute travel time to eat up their entertainment and exposure clock.  This additional time allows them to be able to find more technology that provides worldly exposure of current media programming.  It is the media programs that provide the current marketing exposure to the audience in small market regions.  Those customers are very well informed.  They are also very much 'in-tune' to the advanced media attention used in current marketing attempts.  Unique, advanced and creative methods of marketing are already implanted into their motions of daily life.  The customer in smaller regions is fully prepared to accept new marketing methods of operations.  As a small market region operator, do not catch yourself Poo Pooing new marketing ideas.  Done correctly, they will work just fine in your areas.

It may be time for your operation to take on the 5 P's.  Leaders in small markets may actually believe they are different.  They are not.  They may have different cultural aspects that are more prevalent in smaller regions than the ones practiced in larger regions, but as far as exposure techniques are concerned, the timing is the same.  Technology no longer has a generation of delay.  It is instant.  As a result, current and advanced marketing techniques are instant.  As a matter of fact, I live in a small market and I see every new and current method of marketing technique available today.  I have wireless Internet, digital cameras, extremely fast email, satellite, cable and hundreds of choices in television programming.  I listen every day to one of my favorite Christian radio stations located in a state 1500 miles away from my home, clearly.  Yesterday they performed an 'on-site' live promotion 2500 miles away from my home, 1000 miles away from their base radio station.  People living in the smaller markets no longer live in the pucker brush with regards to media exposure.  Marketing is absolutely current.

If you are a small business owner and refuse to employ current marketing techniques in your business model because you are way out in some small community, think again.  Regarding consumer exposure, your customer is very current.  You do not need to bring them 'up-to-speed' or 'break-them-in-gently' like you would have had to do 15 years ago.  They are way ahead of you today.

Quit practicing old marketing techniques.  They are aging your currency.  Old marketing techniques have become a thing of the past.  For the sake of your business survival and for the sake of increasing profits, get up to speed on the techniques you are using to market your business model.  Do not Poo Poo new methods.

I listened to a small conversation between two farmers the other day and one of the teenage children of one of them came by the retail store where we were and picked up a key from her dad.  The conversation shifted gears immediately.  Words and phrases I have never heard from those farmers recently came out of their mouths.  It was an interesting observation.  I heard the dad, a throw-back styled farmer, say this, "Make sure you text your Mom to let her know you will be picking the boys up after school today.  Don't forget!"  "I'll swing by and get the new monitor at Darren's shop later today and have it wired to go before you guys get home."  As the young teenager left the store with her key he reminded her again, "Don't forget to text Mom!"

This small community has 360 people in its population.  It is located over 100 miles away from a major metropolitan region.  This farmer uses a GPS electronic system on his combine to help him accurately harvest his wheat when it is ready.  Darren is the local owner of a computer shop that repairs, sells and manages all of the technology systems in this small community.  For goodness sakes, quit trying to market yesterday's techniques.  They are dead.  I once heard a bright and wealthy business owner say this about old methods, "When your horse is dead, dismount."

Move on.  Begin to develop a more creative and advanced series of marketing techniques for your business model.  Your customers are way ahead of you.  You may need to catch up.  You may not be using the most current language and concepts of marketing ideas.  You may need to speed up a little bit.

Practice The Art Of Managing Customer Involvement.

I watched a CEO and his retail manager discuss the idea to print out a simple suggestion request for customers to fill out.  They decided to keep the request simple.  They wanted to place the request on some tables where a few of their regular customers come into the retail store and have coffee.  Later, I picked up the note and read the request.  The request was a simple one.  It read, "What kinds of products would you like to see our retail store offer?"  Below that question were a few blank lines for the customers to use to fill in their answers.  Very simple.

I asked the manager a few days later, did you get any answers from the 'survey' you guys placed on the coffee tables?  He said, "No."

I was not surprised.  Customer involvement is not a practical process.  Success is simple.  It is the mind that is difficult.

To approach a customer in such a pragmatic, direct and impersonal fashion, such as this, is simply a part of projecting how insensitive we can become with our thinking process.  The survey request note had absolutely no indication how the customer was able to win by offering its expertise to the owners search for valuable information.  It was so simple it appeared as if it was a one-way road.  It appeared as if the request might easily have said, "Just give me some really good suggestions of some products I can sell to you and off I go."  Maybe it might have been nicer to say, "You are here so give me some suggestions...fill them out."

When my business model reaches the part of its production that requires me to write a note of request, given to my regular customers instead of sitting down and chatting honestly with them, I reveal to them how I have not been on the correct path of observation in the first place.  It shows.  Customers will immediately 'clam up' when they sense we are insensitive with our relationships.  Customers can make very keen observations when this is true.  Laying a request for suggestions on 'their' table in 'their' territory for 'them' to fill out is a rather insensitive move.  Missing this perspective is wrong on so many levels I am surprised a few short remarks were not made about the effort.  Managing customer involvement is an art, not a science.  To practice the art of customer involvement is to learn how to quietly know what they are looking for without putting them on the spot.  Customers want the spot light of their involvement to glow rather than being put immediately on the spot in the light.  There is a huge difference.

The request that was left on the table where the customers have their daily coffee was destined to fail.  It set a tone for failure.  I may have been the only one who was happy to hear that the request failed.  I was able to quietly confirm my suspicion for results and thereby be accurate with my expectation.  I was able to feed my ego and continue to increase my knowledge.  I could get all puffed up about being correct when no answers came in.  My last post on this blog cautioned us about practicing the art of allowing our ego's to get out of control.  Truly, nobody won this one.  There was no win, win situations developed with this kind of product survey.  Everybody lost.

Let me provide an example why this marketing request note failed with the regulars at the coffee table.  While this small 'product request' note was resting on the tables where the small group of coffee crowd congregates, I heard a little lady at the sales register tell one of the clerks, while she was paying for her purchase, that she wished this store would carry some organic garden seeds.  The clerk responded exactly as quoted, "We brought this seed line in last year and they nearly sold out.  They seem to be better than the line we carried before.  I planted some of their seeds last year and I think all of them came up!"  I stood quietly behind this exhibit of insensitivity and wondered, what?  Market insensitive responses set a tone of 'no support' from your customer base.  A better answer for the clerk to offer might be, "What brand of organic seeds have you seen that you like?"  Once the question is asked; shut up...take notes...and listen to the answer.  Tell that customer you would look into the possibility to examine that line of organic seeds.  Take her phone number down and call her when they come in.  Find out what particular plants she was interested in and if you do not secure the line for resales in your store, at the very least make sure you purchase those seeds where they are offered at another retailer and call her to tell her you at least found her seeds that she wanted.  You will not make any money when you practice this move.  However, you will win the heart of that customer who will increase their trade activities with your store.  Practice the art of managing customer involvement.  When you acquire the hearts of your customers in this way, you can ask them a simple question on a simple note like the one that failed on the coffee crowds table.  Your results will be different this time.  Your customers will get involved this time because you have proven you are involved in caring about how they are treated.  It was not the method that failed.  It was the art of projecting how much you cared that failed.  Do you see this difference?

A while later I had a chance to refer to the organic seed conversation with the register clerk.  I described a seed company that was very famous for producing organic seeds.  I shared how customers have become very active in trying to do more things in life that represent some form of organic living.  I also shared with this clerk how this same organic seed company was one of the only remaining producers of seed that do not genetically alter its seeds.  I shared with the clerk how I think customers would like that information more than the fact that the seeds are organic.  I shared how the seeds on display in 'our' store are good ones, unfortunately, they cannot satisfy the needs organic customers want to buy.  We should be the place where they can get organic seeds, also.  One one hand, this retail outfit placed a marketing request note on the table of the regular coffee crowd area, looking for new products to add to the store inventory.  Yet on the other hand, did not listen to a customer product request that came unsolicited at the sales counter.  The clerk missed this golden opportunity.  On the platter of 'free marketing advice' was a customer who was completely willing to share what they were willing to purchase in this store if the store was interested in selling something new to them.

To practice of the art of customer involvement is a philosophy, not a job task.  A business cannot produce a list of things it must follow and check off each day in order to become consumer driven.  A business cannot successfully pull off success in this fashion.  It will not work.  If you are trying to perform this type of consumer involvement approach, quit it.  It is not helping you very much.  In fact, I believe it is killing you more than you recognize.  Poor techniques are measured more seriously by the consumer than no technique at all.  Pay close attention to that statement.  It is a truism that can make or break your growth efforts.  Consumers do not notice 'no technique.'  They notice 'poor techniques'.  That concept should raise your eyebrows.  If you decide to practice a new concept for marketing, make sure you exhibit a good technique.  Otherwise, forget it.  You will be better off doing nothing as opposed to doing something very wrong and insensitive.

Are You Protecting Your Profits Or Your Ego?

The subconscious mind is a very powerful force.  It can dominate our thoughts without us discovering how it dominates us with ease.  We often times cannot hear what we are saying.  We often times cannot see how we are reacting.  The subconscious mind moves around in our lives even when we try to ignore it.  We can use our conscious mind to help control it and fail without noticing we failed.

The other day I was standing near our sales counter as two young men came to purchase a couple of small items each.  They were not traveling together.  The first young man in line was mentally challenged.  He is a regular customer.  He has a heart of gold.  The young man behind him was someone new, I have never seen him before.  As they were waiting to step up in line to check out, both were looking out of the glass double doors of our retail facility.  The first young man was chatting with the sales clerk as he moved slowly to the counter.  These two young men were the only two customers present at this time.

Outside the two glass entryway doors were two young ladies coming in.  We know them.  One was the mother of the young high school aged girl.  They are also regular customers to our store.  Just about the time the two guys at the sales counter were looking outside a heavy gust of wind blew a small windshield wiper mobile display rack over.  It blew over onto the mother of the two ladies just before they came into the store. One of the arms of the wiper blade display rack became caught up inside the medium low cut top of the mother when she walked by the rack.  It did not hurt her but did get tangled up momentarily in the top of her bra and sleeveless summer shirt.  She was also a well-built woman.  The two ladies had a good giggle outside as they both unhooked the arm of the wiper blade rack from the interesting landing on the woman outside.  The two guys inside the store noticed the 'quick-happening' event caused by the large gust of wind.  I witnessed the surprise, also.  Before the two ladies could enter the store, the first guy at the counter said, "Wow, did you see the wind blow that lady over onto the "rack" of that woman?"  Keep in mind, the first guy is truly mentally challenged and the second guy behind him in line did not know the first guy.  The first guys comment caught my attention, as well as the attention of the second guy in line.  The second guy in line began to giggle at the comment but tried hard to conceal his giggle.  It was obvious to me that he did not want to embarrass the mentally challenged young man.

Suddenly, the first guy turned to see why the guy behind him was laughing at the lady who got hit by the falling rack.  He almost gave the second guy a scowling look.  For a brief moment, the second guy noticed how the challenged first guy truly did not notice what he had just said.  The moment was priceless and completely innocent.  As if by magic, the challenged young man put two and two together and said to the second guy in line who was trying not to laugh, he said, "Wow, did I say it hit her rack?"  The mentally challenged young man was obviously embarrassed but began to laugh at himself out of control...and I mean out of control.  The whole experience was very funny.  It was one of those moments that did not need much more to happen in order for the laughter to explode.  The second guy in line began to laugh harder at how innocent the mentally challenged guy was and how much he was making fun of himself for noticing his slip of the tongue comment.  It was a priceless moment.  As I walked around the counter to go move the wiper blade display inside and see if the lady was fine, the two guys began laughing out of control.  They were both laughing in tears and both became embarrassed about the elevation of the event.  Both young men stepped away from the counter as the lady and her daughter started to come inside the store.

How Is Your Business Audit Trail Coming Along?

The I.R.S.

We have so much fear for them.  The minute they contact us we get nervous.  It is automatic.  We hate the idea of having to do an audit.  We hate audits.  We do not even do our own audits.  That is how much we hate them.

An audition is an evaluation.  Singers and dancers do it all of the time.  It is a way for us to examine the ability our business has and how much improvement we can employ in our business model.  An audit is not a negative process.  An audit is a form of audition.  It is an effort to improve the likelihood that our business model will bring more profits home to our own pockets.  That is not a bad thing to fear.  It is a good thing to promote.  I cannot see how that kind of thing can become so much of a thing to fear.  Yet it does.  We have become confused.  Confusion has set in so deeply we cannot see how audits can become something we perform on a regular basis, enthusiastically.  We cannot compute that kind of thinking.  We will rely on taking whatever profits 'happen' and refuse to audit our way into finding more to take home.  We get confused.

Yesterday one of our employees, a really good one, asked me how she can quit taking things so personal.  She wanted to know how some people can move about their daily business and never allow certain things to become so personal.  She said she has a tendency to take things so personal that it sometimes interferes with how she tries to relate well with her supervisors.  I paused for a moment.  First of all, why did she ask me this question?  Second of all, who might she be referring to?  Be careful when someone asks you a question.  Remember this...you are not always required to answer it.  It is not immoral, illegal nor unethical to avoid the answer.  You do not need to give an answer to every question you have been asked.  Learn to pause.  Discipline your self to pause when a question surfaces your way.  It is good leadership.  This time, I paused.

While I was pausing and when it was momentarily silent, as my eyes were looking around as if the answer was somewhere in the air above us, she continued on.  She described more about what was bothering her.  It was a good thing I did not quickly offer the answer that immediately came to my mind.  As she shared more, my first impression would have been way off target.  She was not talking about a supervisor.  She was talking about her mother!  Now I am puzzled.  How did I get into this loop of information flow?  How does whatever her mother did dominate how she should worry about her supervisor?  I am now convinced that I do not need to answer any of these questions.

Leaders become part of some circles of trust and do not even notice when it happens.  I did decide to give her a series of answers.  My first answer was a bit like you might expect from me, it was business-like.  I told her the reason why she takes things so personal is because she is living to close to her dreams.  She is operating each day side-by-side with her short term dreams.  The moment someone says anything that bumps up against those short term desires, it interferes with her daily goals.  When that happens, you have a tendency to take that kind of interference personal.  I told her that she needed a bigger dream.  She looked at me with the 'deer-in-the-headlight' look.  Her face said, "What?"

I raised my arm up and put my hand out as I pointed out into space.  Holding my hand out I said, "If you were to be able to look out into the future about 15 years from now, this moment we are having here right now would not be something you would even come close to being able to remember.  It will have become totally forgotten, fifteen years from now.  It would not matter worth a hick of beans.  You will not remember this conversation."  I kept pointing out into space.  I paused again.  She was still mystified.  Her head was tilted to one side and her eyebrows were frowned, her lip was raised up on one side.  She did not get it.  I tried again.  I pointed back up into space and said, "Fifteen years from now none of this stuff today will have any effect on your daily plans...none of it.  It will be totally irrelevant to the things you will need to be doing on that day, fifteen years forward.  None of this will matter."  I continued, "The reason that is true is because your current dreams are not big enough to take you fifteen years out there so you can prevent these little hiccups from becoming such a big shadow over the little goals you are trying to achieve."  I kept pointing out into space.  Her eyes got as big as baseballs.  Her mouth shifted into the shape of an "oh" sound.  She leaned back and said, "Wow."  I immediately said, "Your dreams are too tiny."  I continued again, "Someone says smack in a fit of conversation and we get turned upside down because they killed our immediate daily dreams.  Your immediate daily dreams do not link together enough to form a series of larger ones that can lead you toward bigger and better things in your life.  So you get overwhelmed with the small miniatures of life."  As I walked away I said, "Get a bigger dream!  Get out of the business of trying to hit your dreams today or tomorrow!"

As I walked away I heard her say, "Wow, I never looked at it that way?"

We get confused.

Don't Get Fooled, Customers Are Fickle.

We love trends.  Trends make us feel good.  We want to belong so bad that we will do some of the craziest things in our life to make sure we are accepted.  We will check out magazines to see what is happening with cooking, bathroom designs, fingernail polish, hair styles, Hollywood, new and up-coming colors for spring and even raw fish restaurant choices.  Trends are part of our quiet patterns for how we tend to move about in society.  It is a human foible that provides the marketing world with fodder for employment security.

What's more, each of us denies that we are moved by the most recent trends.  We believe we are truly drinking the most recent energy drink because it tastes good and offers us a short term boost of energy that we need.  We are convinced it has nothing to do with being part of a popular trend.  Although all trends eventually pass beyond their life expectancy like Air Jordan's used to be the best basketball shoe money could buy.  We may truly find ourselves smack dab in the middle of the fullness of a trend.  We may want to deny our involvement and do not want to believe we are capable of contributing certain parts of what makes that trend popular.  We want to believe we are the exception.  We want to be seen as individuals, not just like everybody else.  The truth remains, we are like everyone else.

I am writing a blog for business.  Millions are doing it.  It does not set me free nor provide my life with one of the great requirements for success and happiness.  It is a trend.  It is a trend that provides my inner self with some sense for being included in a society that wanders about finding all types of emotional glue that eventually holds our vast interests together in an acceptable pattern of understanding.  It is a trend.  I am a contributor to that trend.  All trends are fickle.  Don't get fooled.  I will not be writing a blog for business until I am 99.  This trend will change and I will change as well.  Trends are fickle.

Business owners who want to be successful for a very long time must get this truth down very well.  They must not fall in love with the Hula Hoop.  If you entered your business model making cinnamon rolls for gatherings and small business offices, you know what I mean.  Eventually, you need to add some chocolate and maple bars in order to survive the fickle move away from cinnamon rolls for awhile.  Trends can become a difficult moving target.  Not only are trends tough to identify for your business they are different from region to region.  I once attended a furniture market in Dallas, Texas and one evening we 'hit' the social strip checking out some of the more popular night clubs.  I was amazed to discover some of the clubs had a lot of their patrons wearing a single leather glove on their drink holding hand with the glove finger tops cut off.  You know the type of glove I am describing.  It was the tight leather motorcycle glove that has little breathing holes in its design with the finger tops missing so your fingers can feel and touch what they are holding.  I have never seen this trend happen anywhere else in my life.  I am also sure it is no longer happening there anymore.  Trends can be seasonal, regional, sectional, fashionable, driven by gender, by age, by industry and even political; but all of them are fickle.  They come and they go.

Zip Ties, Twisty Ties, Plastic Clips, Or Duct Tape, They All Work.

I was wrapping up a business project in Eastern Washington several years ago.  I had completed writing a business plan for a group of owners that had an idea to work together on a joint project.  One of those business owners was a very close business associate I met while I was managing another business model at another time.  He called out of the blue one day and shared some ideas with me about a joint venture he and some other business owners were interested in approaching.  Before they went any further with their joint business idea they wanted to get a road map made on how to pursue this project effectively.  They wanted to hire someone to write their plan of attack.  I was called and performed the work.

It was a long piece of travel for me and took me away from home for short periods of time.  Eventually, the project was completed in a written business plan.  They liked it and paid me.  I consider those two minimums a very good plus when I do work for anyone.  When the customer verbally expresses their satisfaction and then writes the check to cover the bill, these are two very good signs.  No business owner should be ashamed of producing these two minimums.  I have met many business owners who struggle with compliments as well as determining what they are worth by producing a fair but appropriate bill for services rendered.  Be fair in your business affairs, but be clear about what you are worth.  You cannot donate intelligence and experience every time you turn around and waste valuable time producing Pro-Bono work, especially while you are not able to meet your own personal debt obligations.  Lift your family and personal obligations up a little higher on the scale of responsibilities.  If you have a customer who wants you to provide expertise and valuable work for nothing, you do not have a customer...you have a friend.  Do not get confused.  Some customers will want to become your temporary friend in order to get 'free' professional advice.  That line is a very long line.  Do not spend all of your business time in that line.

What's more, they offered to take me out on a guided fishing trip down a famous trout and salmon pristine river run.  We met the guide, loaded the boat and they brought some well-prepared food and drinks.  It was a great day.  The weather was just fine.  It could have rained and I would not have noticed my dripping wet outfit.  Fortunately, it was perfect weather.  What a great day for fun.  These business owners knew how to work hard and play well.  I recommend it.

While we were in the drift boat resting, fishing, eating and drinking we had a lot of time to tell great stories.  Some of the funniest stories come alive on trips like this.  When the fun reaches its peak, one story has a great tendency to lead the way to the next story.  Each one better than the last.  After some deep laughter, the sounds seem to quiet down.  Peace arrives.  True enjoyment begins to surface.  After gliding about on the still waters for a little while, someone quietly says, "It don't get any better than this."  The beauty of nature begins to truly sink in.  Not a soul cares about catching any fish right now.  Five guys could easily fall asleep right now and never miss the world around them.  Heavenly.

If you work your business life hard and have discovered that you rarely find time to take in some of these great moments of joy, you are missing the whole purpose of doing what you do.  It ain't wrong to add a little ice cream to your cake of life.  Learn how to unwind once in awhile.  It is critical for your leadership development to find time to unhook and restore your soul with a little rest and relaxation.  It is one of the components to success.  Make sure it is on your list of 'to do' items.

As we almost fell asleep one of the business owners said, "All we need now is for one of these fish to bite our line."  Then a powerful series of comments came alive.  One owner asked all of the others to hold their lower lip in a particular way.  They all mocked the idea but some of them made the facial move.  After a series of facial moves, one of the other business owners said, "Why are we holding our lips this way?"  The original business owner who made the suggestion about moving the lip in a particular way said, "That is how my lip was when the last fish bit my line."  This led one of the other owners to suggest another unique trick to use.  Then another one had an idea.  Before long, everyone was doing some crazy moves to try to encourage the fish to bite.  The comedy was good.

Let's Move It

Every once in awhile something good happens to your daily plan.  Things just seem to fall in order and everything happens all at once.  There are days when a problem you have been working on just cannot seem to get off the ground and then all of the sudden, poof, it fixed itself.  There are not many days like this, but when they come along it is nice to have them show up.  I like them.  I want more of them to happen.  I like it when things are clicking.  I like crossing things off my 'to do' list.  It feels good.  It makes me feel excited about doing a lot more. I get that "let's move it" attitude going.  It is kind of like the old saying, "shoot when the ducks are flying."

Let's move it.

Cross 'em off!

Busy people like getting things done.  They become very agitated when they are not doing some productive stuff.  They like to do two things at once.  They can water the lawn, trim the garden, chat with the kids on the cell phone clearing up some plans for an up-coming family event and be performing some computer upgrades online...all at the same time.  Multi-tasking to get it all done!  They are in the groove with the attitude, "Let's move it!"

Productivity is the key focus when someone is in that kind of mood.  Let's move it!  Check 'em off!  Get 'er done!

Some days are just like that.  Tons of things are in the way and tons of things are getting moved about.  The energy level is high when someone gets into their day like this.  People next to them who have a low energy day tend to avoid sticking around.  The low energy people say things like, "obsessive-compulsive today, aren't you?"  "Wow, I have got to get out of here, you are driving me crazy."  Let's move it has an attitude.  It sings a busy tune.  It wants to get a lot of things done in a short period of time.  It is not interested in wasting time on anything.  It becomes a trail of destruction if you are on the list to be moved.  You will be moved.  You could be a messy desk, you will be cleaned.  You could be a dirty warehouse, you will be re-arranged.  You could be a slow computer, you will be upgraded.  You can be a casual employee wasting time, you will receive a list of new duties to complete.  "Let's move it" takes over.

I like to hire people who have the 'let's move it' attitude already built in.  They get more things done in each day.  They are more comfortable doing a lot of things in a short time period.  They are usually very busy people.  You will not usually get them to slow down and visit for a very long time.  The may stop for a short while, but it is apparent that they need to move on.  They have some things on their mind and they want to go get some things done.  The more you delay them, the more they get nervous about not getting done what they want to go get done.  I like to hire people like this.  When I meet people like this I pay closer attention to what they are doing for a living.  I try to watch what they do for work employment.  I want to see if they are happy doing what they are doing in their work environment.  I won't ask them, they will just lie to me.  I prefer to watch how they work and see if they are truly happy doing the work they are doing.

I might be subconsciously watching two or three of these kind of people at any one given time.  I do not usually go out of my way to check them out but I pay attention to the chance crossings that happen to reveal what they do with their employment.  Someday I might need to replace an employee.  I like to have a library of busy people in mind to make that replacement happen.  I like the 'let's move it' people.  I usually know who they are, where they work and how happy they are doing what they are doing.  I keep my subconscious mind moving in this type of direction.  I may need to hire someone soon so I want to make sure I have a list of busy people in mind to fill that position.

Do you know some people like this?  Do you know where they work?  Do you have a simple relationship established with them?  Have you become acquainted enough with them to be able to call them by their first name, and it does not appear strange?  "Hey, Kevin, what's happening?"  "Not much, what about you?"  Have you established a comfortable level of recognition with them?  If not, start building a library of people in your mind that can fit this type of profile.  Get to know who they are and where they work.  They usually will be employed, by the way.  That is a major tip.  Work on developing a list of acquaintances that fit this type of profile.  They become very productive workers.  They like to get a lot of things done.  They are the most happy when they have days that sound like, 'let's move it.'