A Clean Sweep!

My wife and I have just spent the weekend on the obligatory spring chores that follow a season of skiing. Winter was long (the skiing was excellent) and the chores have piled up. It’s funny how you can intentionally overlook those things that are right in front of you that need to be addressed.  Perhaps this notion of spring cleaning isn’t on the top of my list of preferred activities!

However, spring cleaning seems like a good metaphor (at least it does to me) for the messes that we all accumulate in our respective businesses. Dan Sullivan of The Strategic Coach talks about Entrepreneurial Time. In this construct, every 24 hours is comprised of three segments: focus time; buffer time and free time.

He describes focus time as the period in which we work on those activities that move our business forward, in whatever way we define it. Free time is that time in which we are not doing any work related activities whatsoever. Buffer time is the remaining time that we use to get ready for great focus or free time activities or it is the time we use to clean up our messes.

Spending some time in buffer mode will enable us to resolve some outstanding issues/problems/concerns. We’ll feel good when we get to say Done! We’ll also be positioning ourselves for some excellent focus or free time.

We have just entered into the second quarter of 2014 and most of us have likely accumulated a few messes.  While they may not be fun to resolve, some number of them will likely grow in importance if they are left unattended for too long.

What are we waiting for??

 

 

Sales Success Intensive

Brian Tracy has done it again!

The survival and success of all businesses relies upon the ability of the business to sell its products and services. Highly skilled sales teams and managers have a greater impact on revenue and volume than any other single investment or activity. With this reality in mind, Brian Tracy International has launched a video based sales training program that features Brian Tracy presenting the seven steps of the sales process. It is an intensive one-day training program and it is appropriately called Sales Success Intensive.  Hold on to your hats, as it is very impactful.

Brian Tracy is certainly one of the world’s leading sales training authorities, if not the leader in this field.  He has trained approximately two million sales professionals, around the world, during his extensive career. His methods are proven. They work.

I am now a certified Sales Success Intensive facilitator. Sales Success Intensive is an experience based teaching program.

Contact me to learn how you can develop new skills in the field of sales or simply “sharpen the saw”. An investment in yourself is one that keeps on paying.

 

 

Invest for Success

Have you ever been told that the largest single investment that you will make is in your home? I know that I’ve repeatedly heard this bit of folk lore in the past.

Why are we so quick to overlook the income that we can generate over a lifetime of productive activity versus the price of a house? I won’t dismiss the fact that houses typically cost upwards of ten years worth of income. However, ten years does not a working career make.

 For me, the much more critical investment question is “how much investment am I going to make in myself?” This is a question  about both what to invest in and how much to invest. A friend of mine once suggested that we are all our own human resource  director.  He was right then and is still right today.  Our success (or lack of it) is largely of our own choosing and making.

One of the wonderful things about walking upright on the planet is that we get to make choices. Lots of them. To me, one of the  most critical and important investment choices anyone can make is to decide to invest in oneself.

Try it.  Aim higher. You might just find that it opens new possibilities.

 

 

BIZBUZZ: F. Partnoy, Wait: The Art & Science of Delay

This is episode 9 of BIZBUZZ.

I stimulate conversations in order to challenge business owners to consider new possibilities and to Act Boldly.  The following video highlights some of the content from Richard Restak’s book The Naked Brain that grabbed my attention.

Hi, I’m Gary Brown a FocalPoint business coach.

Welcome to BIZ BUZZ.

I’ve chosen to comment on Wait: The Art & Science of Delay, a book written by Frank Partnoy that deals essentially with the subject of decision making.

I’d like to make three observations from the book that I feel are the most compelling. Ah, wait a moment, I’ll make it four.

Partnoy first suggests that the central element of good decision making is a person’s ability to manage delay. Bear in mind that he’s not talking about procrastination.

He also quotes Robert J. Sternberg, a Yale psychologist, who states that the essence of intelligence would seem to be in knowing when to think and act quickly and knowing when to think and act slowly.  This might be tricky in a world that tempts us to respond instantly to all sorts of information and demands.

My next observation is simply Partnoy’s statement that a wise decision requires reflection and that reflection requires a pause.  Hmm, what do you think?

My final observation deals with a method that Partnoy describes for decision-making.  He calls it the OODA method – Observe the environment; Orient yourself based on these observations; Decide what to do; Act quickly at just the right moment.  This emphasizes the idea that timing is everything.

Well, that’s it for Wait. The Art & Science of Delay.

Thanks for watching.

Your comments are always welcome.

Stay tuned for more BIZ BUZZ.