Ritual de lo Habitual

Yes, a great album by Jane’s Addiction circa 1990 (and yes, it was really THAT long ago)…but the two words, “ritual” and “habitual” are really the impetus for this post.

The concept of a ritual, stripped of any cult or religious designation, is basically something done the same way, over and over.  It’s usually symbolic in nature.  For example, in the United States we have the built in ritual of shaking hands with people when we meet them.  In other countries this same act is seen as a threatening gesture.  We all have rituals that we perform, and we are generally conscious of these efforts.  Some people have the ritual of a Friday gathering with friends over beers.

Rituals and habits may share some common ground in the psyche, but there is an important distinction between the two.

One of Merriam-Webster’s definitions of habit, which I feel best meets the general perception is “a : a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or physiologic exposure that shows itself in regularity or increased facility of performance b : an acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary”

While rituals are learned responses which we are cognizant of, and perhaps create out of enjoyment, it seems habits take time to develop, and that eventually may be performed involuntarily–sometimes even though we know it’s wrong (i.e. smoking).  It is therefore important to distinguish between good habits and bad habits.  Perhaps even by creating rituals based around good habits (i.e. I worked out today so I’m going to enjoy a glass of wine with dinner).

The formation of positive rituals and habits are what make the most success people in the world successful.  And by successful, I mean whatever describes their success.  Generally it’s linked to a sense of accomplishment coupled with a sense of happiness.  However you describe success, creating rituals and good habits are an important step towards achieving that end.

What are your habits? Your rituals?  How do you distinguish between the two?

Skin in the Game

Warren Buffett is credited by some (Answers.com included) for coming up with this term which, basically, means investing your own money in your company.  By doing so you are proving that you believe in your company and it’s eventual (if not present time) success.

Investors, including banks and angel investors like to see that you have some skin in the game as well.  It makes sense, if you’ve put $20,o00 of your own cold hard cash (or credit) into your company, it acts as a show of good faith.  You believe it will work and have a vested personal interest in the companies success.

I like to add emotional and physical to my own equation of skin in the game.  Time spent + sweat spent + sleepless nights spent + money spent = Skin In The Game.

How much skin do you have in the game?

Progress, Completions and Moving Forward

It’s a great feeling to actually get something done. To look back, remembering the before, and to see the after. It could be something as simple as cleaning off your desk, cleaning out your wallet or purse, writing a blog post. It could also me something like setting daily goals and checking them off of your list one by one.

As it turns out, these completions and the feeling of progress that we make have a profound positive impact on us. The human mind craves these completions and we tend to seek out things which we know we can complete. This is an important thing to understand, because we often tend to avoid things that we don’t think we can complete.

I was reading the most recent Harvard Business Review and happened upon an interesting article about what motivates employees in the workplace. While most people would guess that money would be the number one motivator and that praise would probably be a close second, those answers were actually both incorrect according to their study. I thought their findings were so interesting (and relevant to this post) that I took a quick snapshot with my iPhone. Here’s the graph:

As you’ll notice, the number one answer during this study of what motivated actually employees was progress. Getting stuff done. Checking it off the list. Making headway. Seeing the fruit of their labors.

We all have a deep desire for completion and forward progress. So help yourself to gain a mental stronghold on your day by making progress and setting daily goals which are actually attainable. If your goal is to create an entire marketing plan, that might be too big for one day. Break it down into sections that can be accomplished.

The flip side of this is, of course, leaving things incomplete and unfinished. The emotion and feeling that normally accompanies incompletes is frustration and a lack of fulfillment. Enough incompletes and you start to tell yourself you aren’t going to be able to accomplish your goal. You may even abandon the goal is search of a more favorable goal that you can accomplish quickly.

This can be very detrimental, especially if the goal you are trying to accomplish is, say, building a new business. A complex and formidable goal, building a business takes time, planning, and honest goal setting.

Naming goals, making progress and getting things completed will help you to Build Momentum. Don’t believe me, clean your desk.

Building Momentum and the Upward Spiral

The economy is in a tough spot. Millions without jobs, a government that bickers more than they actually solve problems, investments have tanked, banks have closed…hell, even Tiger Woods has fallen from grace. With so much negativity spinning around, it can be easy to allow your inertia to take a turn for the worse. It can be easy to become jaded and start looking outward to find blame for failures.

That’s one road to take.

Another is to Build Positive Momentum and create an Upward Spiral of success. Take even the smallest wins and celebrate them. Take one sale and turn it into three sales. Look for people who are succeeding and “hang” with them. Success begets success or the old adage I prefer, “You are who you hang with”. Instead of looking for ways to cut back, look for ways to expand. Look for new areas of opportunity that may be hiding under that rock over there. By the way, expanding and looking for new opportunities doesn’t necessarily mean spending more money, it could be accomplished by a little sumpin sumpin called networking. The power of many brains thinking about solutions to a problem is almost always more effective (except in government).

I like the word “stratification”. Wikipedia refers to stratification as “…the building up of layers. Stratified is an adjective referring to the arranging of layers, and is also the past form of the verb stratify, to separate or become separated into layers.” When you think of stratification, start to picture your business this way.

For example, is your marketing stratified? I mean, do you have layers of marketing like a website, mailers, social media, a solid name in your community. All of the elements allow you to stratify your business and help you to Build Momentum towards the Upward Spiral of success.

Do you have multiple offerings that allow you to stratify your business across different market segments, or even different demographics? You should. If you’ve only got one thing and that one thing is suddenly no longer valuable, you don’t have a business anymore. Plus, by looking at the layers of your business like this you may find ways to stratify and build momentum that you hadn’t seen before. I know I’ve had some big discoveries and helped clients have some big ones too, just by thinking about my business stratification.

So, instead of watching CNN or reading all the depressing crap in the papers, focus on your successes. Write ‘em down. Multiply them and trend towards the upward spiral. You’ll be better off for it and so will everyone around you.

-Brian

Goals, Planning and REALLY Planning

Every January I put my pencil to the pad and start thinking of what I want to achieve in the new year. I look back at what I wanted to achieve in the previous year. Did I make it happen? What was left over? What worked that I can do more of? What failed miserably and won’t be repeated?

I learn a lot about myself and my business when I do this. And it starts my brain thinking about how to achieve these things. My plans change. My goals need adjusting. But this start IS important.

A lot of business owners I work with fail to do this. Fail to plan for the year ahead and beyond. And often, it’s these very business owners who find themselves in a tight spot. Their vision is missing. How can you expect to run a successful business without vision. Here’s an idea; next time you go out for a drive, blindfold yourself first. Then go ahead and put the car in drive (or first for you manual folks) and see how far into the future you are able to make it. Obviously, not very far. This may be a bit of a tired analogy for some, but the truth is, this is EXACTLY what many business owners are doing every day. And it doesn’t have to be that way.

By just writing down what you expect, hope and want to achieve, you will be surprised at how much of it you actually achieve.

So what’s on my list for the year? Well, I’m thinking of starting a new blog. A more personal blog where I discuss things that I like in general. Some business, some sports, some nerdy/techy stuff, some current events; a little bit of everything. And to make it happen, I’ve written it down. Therefore sealing my fate.

A word of caution though. Writing it down is a GREAT start. But it’s just a start. Start with a list of goals, then break them down into smaller, more accomplishable goals. This way you can actually get closer to your larger goal every day, with the completion of a smaller, more manageable goal.

Feeling disgruntled? Frustrated? Stuck in the mud? If you start to feel as though you aren’t making any forward progress, revisit the list. Rethink your goals. Re-examine what it is you REALLY WANT to accomplish. The adjust your goals accordingly.

Still not working? How about an inspirational read? There are a bunch of good ones out there. Here are a couple I know are good, practical and worth reading multiple times (especially when you are in one of these moods where you are just fed up!)

Gary Vaynerchuk, of wine TV fame, has a book out that is easy to read and motivational as hell. You can get Crush It here (link redirects to Amazon.com) (and no, I am not a paid endorser or anything). He’s managed to land a 10 book deal as well as land millions of viewers and fans on his wineTV blog site. This guy is smart.

Napoleon Hill wrote the quintessential entrepreneur’s motivational book with Think and Grow Rich. If you haven’t already read this book, you can get it here. (again, no affiliation with Napoleon Hill’s estate or anything). If you have read it, do yourself a favor and read it again. This book does an excellent job of reminding you why you became a business owner in the first place.

Marketing in the New Millennium

In the wake of the most recent market slump, many business who survived have learned to market in a whole new way. The status quo no longer produces the desired results, and big, slow companies are feeling the affects of antiquated marketing thinking.

Marketing in the new millennium means discovering what your potential clients, customers, patients or whatever, want and need and then addressing those issues specifically. It means reaching out to your customers with customized, individualized marketing messages that they can relate to and speak to. It means being part of a discussion, not just blasting out your marketing until people are tired of seeing it, praying that someone will respond. Marketing for today and tomorrow means crafting a message and targeting your audience, interacting with your audience, and providing solutions that work. Your marketplace will expect it and if you don’t deliver, you may end up with numerous bad reviews about your business that people read before they choose to do business with you.

David Meerman Scott, author of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” crafted his very successful book based largely on feedback from the marketplace he exists in. While he was writing the book, he would post chapters and ideas to his blog which can be found here:

http://www.webinknow.com/

The results is a book that is a composite based on many individual thoughts, ideas and criticisms. It’s a fluid experience that would not have been possible had he not had the insight to have his book critiqued by what became it’s readers and supporters. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend you read his book and check out his blog. He is a great example of an entrepreneur who has been very successful at leveraging the internet and social media to market his message.

Marketing in the new millennium means understanding, or hiring someone who understands, the ever-changing world wide web and how to harness it’s power for the benefit of your business. Intrusive marketing is out, thoughtfully crafted, individualized marketing is in, and your website, along with it’s other online components, is the hub from which all of this marketing can resonate.

Take time to revisit your marketing strategy, both online and offlline. Revisit opportunities to connect with your clients and customers, and start listening to what they are saying. There may be a hidden opportunity for growth, and the creation of your own blue ocean.

Looking Beyond the Sale

I try to deliver real value to everyone reading my blog. There are many sources of great information out there, and I want to share those with you too. So before I start this one, let me recommend that you check out the people over at www.copyblogger.com. There doing some great stuff over there and delivering some AWESOME content.

Ok, now, let’s get right to it.

One of the problems I see almost every day with our Dynamic Web Solutions clients is business short-sightedness. I went to the optometrist this week and I must say, without my contacts or glasses, I’m blind as a bat. I can’t read a book more than 7 inches from my face. Yeah, I know, it’s pretty sad. But what it reminds me of, is the way business owners often look at their business.

They get so caught up in the day to day activities, and so caught up on making the sale that they become extremely short-sighted. Just as I can only see objects that are really close to my face without my contacts, these business owners stop seeing the big picture because they are so focused on the immediate future. They are focused on the goal of the sale, because the sale is what generates revenue to do the other things that they hope to do later.

Here’s what happens though, by trying so hard to get the sale, you may very well lose the sale. People eager to sell often oversell, or seem desperate to sell. This does not resonate well with potential buyers. It’s also an almost instant rapport killer.

Take a step back, look beyond the immediate.

Remember that to be successful, you have to keep you long term goals in mind. Build rapport and trust early with all of your clients and keep feeding that. The old, worn out cliche, “people buy from people they trust” is still applicable. Continue creating attainable long term goals and tackle projects that have long term payoffs (these normally pay way bigger dividends anyway). Take time to write down what you want beyond the sale. Define it. Literally write down what you want to happen. Is your goal to have this client or customer refer 10 others? Could you share contacts with this person that could stimulate future business.

What are your goals beyond this one sale? How will you generate 20 more sales like this one in a specific amount of time? Define your plan, and if you’re saying, “yeah, yeah, I already did THAT…” then take out that list, dust it off, and look at it again. Where are you on actually getting it done? Maybe your existing plan needs a little tweaking.

The key is to focus on a combination of long term goals and short time goals so that you are always moving forward. Plans will change and will need reevaluating, but you can continue moving ahead as long as you are able to see the forest, and the trees.

-Brian

Limitation, What Limitations?

I had the pleasure of meeting Nelson Marquina, PhD today. He is doing some amazingly innovative things with lasers in the health care field.  Dr. Marquina is a physicist who once worked with NASA and has now turned his passion for the laser into a life mission.  He actually created a laser (this is what physicists do for fun) that is unlike any other laser on the planet.  He is using this “pulse laser” (which pulses at up to 80,000 pulses per second!) to treat every type of ailment imaginable at the mitochondrial (cellular) level.   These ailments include everything from muscle, joint and tendon injuries, to liver and kidney diseases, to hair loss.  He has even successfully treated patients in Peru with life threatening heart conditions which some of his peers found unbelievable.  This is truly ground breaking stuff.

Now what does this have to do with you?  Everything.  You see, Dr. Marquina has been fighting against all odds for most of his career.  He is constantly being told that he cannot achieve what he is setting out to do, even when his data conclusively proves it!  The FDA and other regulatory agencies won’t even let him preform clinical trials in the U.S., so he travels to Peru where his work is literally saving lives.

The point is, there are no limitations.  The only limitations to human achievement are those that you allow yourself to believe.  The human mind, along with willpower, imagination, determination and hard work- can achieve anything.

Think about it, before the Wright brothers flew their first airplane, everyone said it couldn’t be done.  Even close friends and relatives of the Wright brothers said they were crazy.

It used to be, if you lost a limb, you were confined to a wheel chair for the rest of your life.  But that wasn’t good enough, and now there are artificial limbs that allow amputees to run marathons and participate in competitive sporting events.  Unbelievable, the human spirit.

We’ve gone from thatch huts to skyscrapers, wooden canoes to jet boats capable of 200mph+, not flying at all to landing on the moon, the candle to light bulbs that last 5 years and up, stone tables to teraflops of information available in a matter of seconds.

There are no limitations to what you can achieve, if you put your mind to it.  Don’t have all the pieces?  Don’t be discouraged.  Build from what you have and search out other resources to help you fill in the gaps.  The important thing is to keep pushing forward.  Dr. Marquina may discover a way to fight cancer, heal muscle, joint, tendon, and ligament injuries, even fix previously irreversible spinal injuries.  But if he had given up when the powers that be told him he couldn’t do that, all of that would be lost.  The key is to persevere in the face of adversity.  See a setback as an opportunity for advancement.  Study failures to glean information about how to improve results in the future.

Be passionate about what you do, no matter what you do, and you will see that there are no limitations to what you can achieve.

-Brian Forrester

Authenticity In a Skeptical World

Wikipedia defines Authenticity as “The quality of being genuine or not corrupted from the original” but what does that mean. On a more fundamental level as humans, we all have built in right or wrong meters. You know when you are doing something bad, dishonest, or wrong. Yet I see so many companies that have an Authenticity shortage.

Authenticity is corruptible from the top down, so it’s fixable, and more importantly, preventable from the top down too. This means that, as a business owner, the responsibility to stay genuine and, to use the parlance of our times, to ‘keep it real,’ rests squarely on your shoulders.

You know when you advertise something, or make an offer, whether or not it’s true or disingenuous. It can be tempting to throw in “not quite true” statements that are “almost” factual because, hey, these statements make you, your company and your offering sound better. The issue is that they aren’t true, and these statements are risky business. They have the potential to tarnish your reputation and hurt your business rather than to improve it (which is ironic because the reason you tell these little white lies is presumably to grow your business…).

Take a good look at your business. Remember why you started it. Remember what you love about it. Remember what you want other people to love about it. Use that passion to promote your business, because that passion is real, that passion is genuine, and that passion will keep you authentic in our ever more skeptical business landscape.

-Brian Forrester

Keeping Up With It All (Information Overload)

Info Overload?  Feeling like there is no way to keep up with everything going on around you?  This is the age of speed and the average Joe (and Jane) have been empowered through blogging and social media to deliver news even faster than many mainstream media like radio and T.V.  That means that news and other very valuable information is now available from thousands of sources which update all day, every day.  Keeping track of blogs you read, news, Twitter, Facebook, forums… yeah, it can be difficult.

So what can you do about it?

First, realize that you can’t keep up with all of it.  There is no way to process that much information.  The sooner you come to this conclusion, the better you will sleep.

Second, organize.    I subscribe to 50 or so feeds (which is probably a relatively small number compared to many of my friends) so one day of not checking my RSS Reader and I’ve suddenly got hundreds of possible articles to read.  The cool thing about the Google Reader I use (and there are many others, like Feed Burner) is that you can organize your info so that it comes to you in a form you can digest.   I’ll skim headlines until I see something I like.  If I notice I’m not reading a particular feed ever, I may just cancel the feed.  Get a RSS reader if you don’t already have one, it will change your life.  Basically think of it as a newspaper where you pick the content.  Pretty sweet!

Third, prioritize.  I’ve got a list of at least 30 books I want to read, I’ve got my RSS feeds, Twitter account (@rbrianforrester), Facebook, Foursquare and I’ve got my educational research…all of this is constantly happening.  So prioritization is key.  Make a list of how what you want to get done, and factor in your reading time throughout the day. Find your favorite blogs that deliver the best content, and put those higher on the list. The key is to make sure you absorb the information that is most important to you, without worrying about missing out on something. Just accept that you will inadvertently miss out on something- it’s O.K.

Get a system for organization.  Preferably one that works across platforms and projects.  I’ve been recommended a little service called Evernote which has been working out great for me.  It syncs with my phone, my desktop and online so I can access my lists and ideas from basically anywhere.

Got any tools that you use to stay organized in the ever-clutter digital world?  Feel free to share them with me.

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