We all need help sometimes

I think it's key in business to realize that we all need help sometimes. Even the best, like Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, and Tom Brady realize that they need help from their team and from their coaches. Their business really is a team sport. Everyone on the team plays a key role. Even the managers and owners of teams, sponsors, marketing staff, agents, PR team, and the fans. If you remove any of the key parts, the machine just doesn't work as well.

As business owers, we need to understand that we can't do it all. We need help and we need insight from others. It's one of the biggest and most mature steps we can take to grow our business.

Also, it's not admittig defeat to ask for help. In many cases, asking for help is the one thing that stops us from disaster. The bible even backs this up. It calls for outside counsel from another. And that that action is that of a "wise" man.

I encourage you to seek help before things get bad in your business. Looking for help while things are stable is usually much easier than waiting for things to get rough. Find some help and invest properly in your future. You'll thank me later that you did.

Friend or Foe - Making a great first impression

We often refer to the brain as having two hemispheres: the left, largely responsible for logic, and the right, predominately responsible for creativity. This description fits what we know to be the cortex or new brain; however, there is a third dimension, the hypo-thalamus or pre-historic brain, which is in fact the brain stem and is solely responsible for instincts. Bruno Catellani of the Institute of Communication, Management and Sales in Switzerland refers to the pre-historic brain as the ‘Guard’ or ‘Gatekeeper.’ The ‘Gatekeeper’s’ sole function is to decide whether you are a friend or a foe; it is incapable of thought or rationalization and reacts purely on instinct by how it perceives your approach. If your initial approach stresses the ‘Gatekeeper,’ it will switch on the fight/flight response and part of this process includes shutting down all other message receptors which means any opportunity you had to communicate has just been totally closed off. It’s absolutely true that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Building the language of trust is the first step to successful customer service, which translates into building sales. So, if the ‘Gatekeeper’ doesn’t think, does the initial ‘Language of Trust’ have to be verbal? No, the first impression you deliver is based on instinct alone. The signals that you need to give out in the first 10 to 20 seconds are instinctive, i.e. your body language translated by your movements, gestures, facial expression and eye contact are open and relaxed. Your voice modulation and tone are calm, the speed of your speech is controlled and gentle and finally, you must not invade the customer’s space. Other factors, which will influence the ‘Gatekeepers’ decision whether you are friend or foe, are, your appearance, clothes, smell, enthusiasm and posture. Once you’re past this initial first impression you can get on with developing a relationship with your prospect. Professor Albert Mehrabian of UCLA broke communication down into three “V’s” as follows: Verbal: The message itself; i.e. the words you use. Vocal: The sound of your voice, intonation, projection, pitch and speed of your voice. Visual: The posture and gestures, facial expression and eye movement that people see. The Thomas Gordon Institute added another dimension to this research and came up with: Words: Verbal Voice: Vocal Face: Visual Body: Visual Both institutions measured the effectiveness of each component of communication and it’s contribution to believability. Here are the results of their respective research: So, the first step in delivering Great Customer Service to Create Great Sales is: Approach and greet your suspect/prospect with open, friendly body language coupled with soothing, gentle voice modulation. Our total focus in this step is to get past the ‘Gatekeeper’ so that we develop and build rapport and open the prospect’s message receptors. The words themselves are not that important, a simple “Hi, how are you today,” is a good ice breaker.

Would you like more of your time back?

The short answer here is tough! You cant get it back Once you spend your time, its gone forever. So you have stop spending your time and start investing it wisely. We only have so much time on the planet and we must do our best to make the most of it. Let me ask this question. If today was the last day of your life, what would you do different? What would you plan into your day knowing that today was it? How much would you accomplish? Would you have any limiting fears stopping you from doing anything? Ill bet you would pack a ton of stuff in if today was the last day of your life wouldn't you? So why wait for the end Start packing your days like that now. Its really simple. Start by getting up an hour or two or even three hours earlier. You will be surprised at how much you can accomplish by just getting up earlier. And stop wasting time on things that don't matter. Here's my simple 6 step plan for investing my time: Wake up earlier. Much earlier if you can. The first thing you do each morning is spend 30 minutes planning your day and creating your Action list. Put your plan for the day in your calendar in pen. Follow the 3 D's when things cross your desk Do it right now, Delegate it to someone else, or just Dump it. Allocate less time than you think you need for each task. It will make you get it done faster. Celebrate completing your list by doing something fun for yourself! One of the key factors that cause time wasting for many people is fear. Fear stops people from doing the really important things on their list and gets them to add little distracting and time consuming things. You know what I'm talking about. Phone calls are quite often at the top of the fear scale for people. Public speaking is another. So imagine how empowering it would be to get over that fear. Do you think you would be fearful of anything if you knew today was the last day of your life? You would probably make every phone call and every speech that you could. How much time could you save and reinvest if you get rid of these fears? The lesson here is to build a plan, get rid of the fear, and live your life like today was your last day on the planet. You have been given an amazing gift of time and should use it wisely.

How To Get More Out Of Life In 5 Simple Steps

Here's one of the most powerful and simple secrets to help you build a better life starting today. Are you ready? Its amazingly simple and yet it works all around the world in every language. Here we go Here's the formula Dreams + Goals + Plans x Actions = Results Its an amazingly simple formula. Here's how I break it down. Everything you want out of life comes from your dreams. So how big are your dreams right now? It matters more than you think. Its also often the hardest part of the formula for many people. Most people have low expectations for themselves and their life and this causes a lot of problems for them when working on their dreams. Do you? If so, its time to supercharge your expectations and get more out of life. Remember that you will only live up to your expectations. If your expectations are to have a mediocre life, then that's what you will have. If your expectations are to have an amazingly abundant life that creates and spreads happiness for all that you come into contact with. Then that's what you will have. Its your choice. Our next stop in the formula is our Goals. This is where we break down our dreams and create SMART goals and milestones around the things we truly plan to achieve with our life. Do you remember what a SMART goal is? SMART stands for Specific Measurable Achievable, Realistic, and Time oriented. Now that you have amazing dreams and SMART goals to go with them, its time to build a Plan! I recommend you start out with a 5 year plan. A really simple way to do this is a simple and detailed letter to yourself describing what your life looks like in 5 years. From there, break it down into 3 year goals and then 1 year goals. Then we get really specific around the next 90 days of your life. Ask yourself this simple question. What do I have to achieve over the course of the next 90 days in my life and business to be on track to my 1 year plan? Your plan should be full of Actions that you need to take. A great plan is action oriented and built specifically around the results that you want to create. So now you have to execute the plan by taking action. Remember, massive action will equal massive results. Anything less will equal less results. Now, if you created amazing dreams, broke your dreams out into fantastic SMART goals, built a plan around your goals, and took Action, your results should begin to equal your dreams. If not, here's a simple strategy to get you back on track. If you don't like your results, go back and examine the actions that you are taking. If you are taking all the action in your plan and still not getting the results you want, its time to examine your plan. If your plan looks solid, its probably a good idea to look at your goals and improve them. If you find yourself stuck on your goals and not getting much more out of them, go back to your dreams. How big are they? How clear are they? Do you actually picture yourself in your dreams or no one at all? How real do they feel to you? How excited do they make you feel? Now get into action and take my homework challenge. Take the next 30 minutes to write down your top 101 dreams for your life. It can be anything. Just put the pen, marker, or crayon to your paper and write like its going out of style. You'll be amazed at what you come up with.

Does My Business Need A Checkup?

If you were sick you would go to a doctor for a checkup right?

When was the last time your business had a checkup?

Your business should get a checkup once a year.

Most people don’t realize that a resource is available to them for their business.

I advise my clients to speak with our team at least once a year if not once a quarter to make sure their business is on track. We always want to make sure you are planning ahead with marketing and advertising.A simple checkup with your marketing and advertising firm will most often remind you to kick start your marketing, get your budget on track, and prepare for upcoming events.

This checkup can also be used to brainstorm where your business is and where you really want to drive it with your marketing and advertising. It's also great to have a third party perspective on your business from time to time just to get an outsiders view of what's going on in your business.Contact me directly at michael@michaellejeune.com to schedule your free checkup.