This past week in LA, I hobnobbed with some of the most successful people in music at the major industry event of the year (okay, well, more like I saw most of them, but I did meet David Meerman Scott!) . Having talked over the years with mega-successful entrepreneurs about what success really means, I decided to share some of their success tactics with you.
Mega-Success Tactic #1: Define Success For Yourself.
Consider this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “To laugh often, to win the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch…to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!”
Think about it- what is your definition of success? Is it freedom, financial independence and wealth, international travel, a happy, healthy family, physical health, doing good for others in the world…what does it mean to you to be successful?
This one can get a little tricky- sometimes we want things because we get the idea we’re “supposed” to want them. As my friend Dixie says, “Do you want what you want or only what you WANT to want?”
For example, when I do the Lifestyle & Business Planning Analysis with clients, one of the areas of the questionnaire focuses on what material things you want. I see a lot of answers- cars, boats, vacation villas in Tuscany. And I think we’ve been trained to believe that’s what success is. We see wealthy people on TV with their conspicuous spending and outrageous purchases and think that’s what we’re supposed to want.
But when it really comes down to it, when you soul search and go deep, when you close your eyes and take a deep breath and envision your perfect life, what do you want?
Once you know what you really want, it’s easy to implement the remaining four tactics:
Mega-Success Tactic #2. State your goals in positive terms.
If you believe in the Law of Attraction, you’ve already heard this message. But even if you haven’t or if the Law of Attraction isn’t your “thing,” your brain receives messages in the same way the universe does. If your brain hears, “Avoid creating problems with clients,” what it actually hears is “create problems with clients.” The brain also hears a negative word, “avoid.” This creates a negative state of mind that follows you around. If, instead, your brain hears, “Create a pleasant and positive relationship between company representatives and clients,” it hears a positive and clear message and knows exactly what to do. This kind of positive message breeds a positive, upbeat state of mind that follows you around. (And thank you to Kat, one of my Facebook pals who recently reminded me gently of this tactic when I said my mantra was “I’m not getting sick!”)
Remember, too, that your brain needs clear messages. “Avoid creating problems with clients” tells you what not to do, but it doesn’t say what you should do. There are lots of possibilities that aren’t “creating problems with clients,” but which is the alternative that you want?
Mega-Success Tactic #3. Define your goals in measurable, time-sensitive terms.
Once you’ve stated your goals in positive terms, you need to come up with a way to determine if you’ve achieved your goals. How do you know you’ve achieved your goal? By when do you want to achieve it?
Using the previously mentioned goal, you can change “Create a pleasant and positive relationship between company representatives and clients,” to “Create and maintain a pleasant and positive relationship between company representatives and clients, as evidenced by quarterly customer satisfaction surveys.” Here you’ve created a measure of your success in the customer satisfaction surveys and you’ve said that you will initially create and then maintain your goal, which shows you what you need to see in those surveys- an increase and gradual leveling out in positive ratings. You’ve also made it time-sensitive by stating that the surveys are to be done quarterly.
Setting measurements and timing for your goals keeps your goals clear and attainable instead of wishy-washy and vague.
Mega-Success Tactic #4. Plan ahead.
Sometimes business owners experience what I like to call “post-success laziness.” You have a goal, you achieve your goal, and then you take a break, resting on your laurels and, yeah, let’s face it, you get a little lazy. This happens when you don’t plan ahead and set your next goal before you achieve the first one.
Creating a roadmap of goals does a couple of things. First, in creating a series of goals, you assume you will achieve the closest goal and the next one and so on, and that’s just smart, positive thinking. Second, you avoid the post-success laziness because you’re already working toward the next goal before you achieve the first. You do want to take time to celebrate achievements, but don’t let yourself get so bogged down in the celebration that you forget to keep moving forward.
Mega-Success Tactic #5. Follow through!
The single most important tactic to achieving success is the ability to follow through. If you create goals and then don’t set up systems and structures to follow through on your goals, you’re not a mover or a shaker- you’re a dreamer.
Don’t get me wrong- there’s nothing wrong with dreaming. Being a dreamer is a wonderful, important thing, actually. Dreamers can be extremely successful people, but not without follow-through. So find ways to follow through on your dreams- and if you need help, find it! If there are things you don’t know how to do, learn how to do them or delegate them. If you struggle with time management and accountability, hire a coach. Because once you figure out where you’re going, all you have to do is figure out how to get there and follow through.
So, start by deciding where you’re going and how you’re going to get there, and then build a plan to follow through. With this plan, you’ll find success on your own terms.
If you’ve read my “The 7 Lessons of Mega-Successful Entrepreneurs” or if you’ve been reading my weekly e-mail newsletter, then you know that there was a time that my business had plateaued and no matter what I threw at it, money, marketing strategies, time, effort…I just couldn’t get the darned thing to budge over the bump to the next level. My business was doing fine, but I wasn’t satisfied and I certainly wasn’t fulfilled.
I started thinking that maybe it was time to walk away. In fact, I actually did walk away. I took a three-month hiatus away from my business and started to look at other opportunities. My husband and I looked at all kinds of businesses.
But try as I might, I couldn’t escape the nagging feeling in my heart that I still had more to do in my own business.
So, a month into my little sabbatical (about the time when I got really bored), I started working with a coach to get through the burnout and frustration to the heart of what was holding me back in my business. Because the one thing I did know for sure was that when you’re too close to something, it’s usually too hard to see the answers. Having the outside perspective of a coach or consultant can give you insight and a big picture viewpoint that you’d never have on your own. And if I was going to figure out what had kept me in that plateau, I knew I needed someone who could be for me what I am to my own clients.
For two months my coach guided me as I dug deep and searched my soul. When I finally came up for air, my mind was clear. And that’s when I discovered precisely what I’d been missing all along that had held my business firmly at that plateau.
It wasn’t just one answer. In fact, the answer to what was holding me back came in the form of seven simple lessons, and I’d been hearing them from my mentors for awhile. But sometimes you hear the right answers at the wrong time, you know? And that’s what had happened to me. I’d heard them, I just hadn’t gotten them.
As soon as I started implementing the Lessons in my own business, things started to change. Things didn’t change overnight and I did still have to work. That’s just how business operates! But the more in tune I got with the Lessons, the more things happened. Opportunities started to fall in my lap and people started to take notice. I felt an ease in my business that had never been there before, and my creativity soared.
I don’t know if now is the right time for you to hear the Lessons, but even if you’re not quite there yet, I’d like to encourage you to start learning about them. You can download my original “The 7 Lessons of Mega-Successful Entrepreneurs” using the form at the top of this page. Once you click the confirmation link in your e-mail, you’ll receive another e-mail with a link to the free download (sorry to make you jump through hoops, but it’s become necessary with bots and spammers; I promise the download is worth it).
If you’re not just ready to hear the lessons, but you want to see how dramatically your business can be changed like mine was, then join me for my free Webinar, “The 7 Lessons of Mega-Successful Entrepreneurs,” where I’ll share the Lessons in-depth and give you action steps for every lesson in a handout. You’ll walk away with a few ways to start seeing changes in your business now, even before the New Year.
If you’ve been feeling frustrated like I was and you’re ready to jump out of your plateau, this webinar is for you.
Join me November 29 for “The 7 Lessons of Mega-Successful Entrepreneurs” at 1:00 PM Eastern.
(Seriously, it’s free. And it’s not a sales pitch. That’s not how I roll. I’m just saying.)
Ross Faris, founder and owner of Your Neighbor's Garden (image from YNG)
I just received a heartbreaking e-mail from one of my favorite family-run businesses. Ross Faris, the founder and owner of Your Neighbor’s Garden, a small home market in the suburbs of Indianapolis (and I dare say, one of Indy’s best semi-kept secrets), passed away last night.
The story of Your Neighbor’s Garden has always held a special place in my heart, partly because it’s such a lovely family story, and partly because it’s such a perfect example of the business philosophy that is so near and dear to my heart. I’ll quote Ross’s own posting of the history of YNG from their web site:
“Thirty years ago my son Greg and daughter Anne asked me if they could have a lemonade stand. I suggested they could make more money selling vegetables from my garden. We started with the produce on a picnic table in our front yard along Grandview Drive. And soon we erected our LOCAL PRODUCE sign at the end of our driveway and moved closer to the house. Sales were brisk so I made my garden larger and started using other parcels of land to expand our garden business. I might add that I was in charge of production and the kids marketing. I took half the proceeds for my contribution and they took the other half.
We first called ourselves FARIS FRUITS AND VEGGIES and after a few years we changed our name to YOUR NEIGHBOR’S GARDEN because at the beginning our Highland Kessler neighbors were our main customers.”
The YNG story continued after the children grew up, and Ross ran YNG part-time for thirteen more years before he retired from a successful career and took the market on full-time, finally satisfying his life-long small business aspirations.
I didn’t know Ross very well. I went to YNG fairly often for fresh, local produce, but more often than not, Ross was busy unloading produce or puttering around in the garage next to the market itself. He was quick with a smile and a friendly hello, and always made sure we had everything we needed. He was a really nice guy, that much I know.
Your Neighbor's Garden home market (image from 4thfrog.blogspot.com)
Your Neighbor’s Garden is (despite the uncertain future of YNG, I hold out hope that Ross’s legacy will continue, so I’m writing in the present tense) the embodiment of what I imagine I would have discovered, if I’d known Ross Faris better. It’s welcoming, friendly, and the kind of place that returns you to a time when we all trusted one another. You see, Your Neighbor’s Garden operates on the honor system. There’s no cashier. There’s a locked cashbox, where you put the money for your produce, or, if you don’t have the right cash on-hand, a handwritten IOU (and you always pay the IOU, because in this day and age, if someone trusts you to give them an IOU, you never want to disappoint them!)
Your Neighbor’s Garden is housed in a small shed next to the Faris’s house. The shed is air-conditioned and there’s a fridge in the back where 4H students and other kids sometimes sell eggs from their chickens. By the street hangs a wooden sign that lists the various kinds of produce in stock. It’s very homey and sweet.
Sign for Your Neighbor's Garden (image from goinglocal-info.com)
I remember the first time I went to Your Neighbor’s Garden. I’d heard about it for years, even drove by without realizing what it was. The first time I actually visited, though, I worried that I might be trespassing on someone’s private property. When I got out of my car, Ross welcomed me with his big smile and I knew I was in the right place.
Over the years, the Faris’s added a small parking lot, started working with other local farmers, and selling at the weekly farmer’s markets in town. And if you’re a “regular” to the home market, then you encounter the same welcoming friendliness when you see YNG staff at the local weekly farmer’s markets around town.
Ross Faris was a brilliant example of a parent teaching his children about small business. Many of us started out with lemonade stands (myself included), but how many kids left their lemonade dreams behind and stopped dreaming the entrepreneurial dream? Ross not only kept the dream alive for 30 years, but transformed it the embodiment of his own small business vision.
I decided to write about this today because I’m so saddened by the loss of Ross Faris from a personal perspective, but also because I also wanted to share his story from a business perspective. So often those with small business dreams think that they have to come up with a grandiose idea or a big invention. So often, people who fantasize about leaving corporate careers behind think they have to spend a lot of money to start a business.
Ross Faris and Your Neighbor’s Garden are a testament to the idea that you can start a business inexpensively, doing what you love, do it in your own style, do it on your terms, and you can do it extremely well.From where I sit, that’s the perfect illustration of a successful Business in Blue Jeans.
Recently, someone posted a kind comment on my Facebook Wall, saying how special I am and how much my friendship means to them. At first I thought, “Wow, I’m really glad that person is my friend!” and started to post back a thank you for the warm and friendly post. But then I noticed where the comment was generated from.
You know how Facebook tells you when something’s been posted from HootSuite or Ping or a mobile application? Well, this one was posted from a tool that acts much like an e-mail list management tool that lets you insert “%firstname%” into the body of your text so that the person’s actual name appears. For example, when I write my weekly e-zine, the software I use allows me to write something like, “Hi %firstname%, Welcome to No Suits Allowed!” and the e-mail that the subscriber receives, says, “Hi John, Welcome to No Suits Allowed!” Well, this software allows you to do the same thing, but with social media. So you can write something like, “Hi %firstname%, I just wanted to let you know how special and amazing you are, and to say that I really treasure our friendship,” and send it to a thousand people.
Efficient? Yes. Totally against the entire point of social media? In my book, pretty much.
Social media isn’t designed to be a mass enterprise. It’s designed to form and build relationships and connections among people. Whether you’re talking about Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, social media is all about a conversation that takes place between individuals. If you want to leverage social media to its greatest advantage, you have to actually participate in that conversation.
I’m not entirely against time-saving tools for social media. In fact, I make great use of them myself. I use Networked Blogs to automatically post my blog posts to my Facebook and Twitter accounts. I use HootSuite to load in links to articles I’ve written, to maximize visibility of those articles over a longer period of time. And I recently started using the feature in my e-mail newsletter software that allows me to post my weekly e-zines to my Twitter account.
But the automation stops there. If I automate personal messages, how, exactly, am I building high quality relationships, and how can I bring true value to my friends, followers, fans, and associates? How can one form an authentic connection, if one starts by deceiving people by posting what seems like an intimate and individual comment, but what turns out to be a generic message which was actually posted to several (or even hundreds) other people?
Back to the individual who posted this message to my Wall…I looked at this person’s Facebook Wall, to see what response she was getting from others. Many people had posted and thanked her for the message she posted (and a little detective work proved that indeed, it was identical to the one posted on my Wall), and it’s pretty clear to me that most didn’t know (or didn’t care?) that this was the exact same message she’d posted to everyone else…and that she hadn’t visited their Facebook pages to learn about them, but rather had just clicked a single “Submit” button to send one message to many.
So maybe this tool provides a jumping-off point for forming a relationship? But…no. Because as I suspected, the person in question hasn’t responded to a single one of the people thanking her on her Wall, which is what you’d think someone would do, if they understood the point of social media and were truly interested in forming those connections.
Folks, social media isn’t about collecting followers and friends. The numbers aren’t what’s important – the quality is what matters. If you have thousands of friends, how much good does that really do you, if you don’t talk to them or engage in a dialogue with them? How does it serve you to have that many friends you don’t have a relationship with, and more importantly, how can you possibly serve them?
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times…social media is about engagement and it’s about the conversation. If you post to your Wall or tweet and you get no response from your friends and followers, there’s a reason why. You’ve got to get to know people to know what will interest them. You’ve got to get to know your friends and followers to know what they want to hear about from you. And if you don’t bother doing that, you’re wasting the incredible business and personal potential that social media puts at your fingertips.
Now, if you’ve got thousands of Facebook friends and Twitter followers, obviously you won’t be able to have conversations with each and every one of them every day. But what you can do is post things that appeal to your friends and followers, and engage in a dialogue about those things. Different things will appeal to different people, which means that over time, you’ll get a good mix of many of your friends and followers involved in the conversation. People will talk to you and they’ll talk to each other, and you’ll create a little community, just by getting to know the people who you’re connected to in social media. And that’s the point.
On March 31, 2010, Business in Blue Jeans CEO Susan Baroncini-Moe and her husband, Leo, were featured in USA Today, in an article on video chat. Check out the article here!
For the first time ever, I’m running a contest, and there are just a few days left to enter! I’m running a one-week-only contest and giving away free Power-Up sessions to three lucky small business owners. Entry is easy and the pay-off is huge!
What You Win: An hour-long, one-on-one Power-Up Session with me, Susan Baroncini-Moe, CEO of Business in Blue Jeans, also known as “The Micro-Entrepreneur’s Mentor.” In this session, I’ll determine the three biggest mistakes you’re making in your business and provide personalized strategies for powering up your business to grow profitability and achieve success.
How To Win: Write one paragraph. Topic: “If I Could Wave A Magic Wand and Change Something About My Small Business, It Would Be…..” Post it on your blog or Facebook page with link back to http://www.businessinbluejeans.com/contest.html (or to this blog entry…makes no difference to me).
Then, e-mail contest@businessinbluejeans.com with a link to your entry (or just e-mail your entry to contest@businessinbluejeans.com) before February 22, 2010. It’s that simple!
Contest Rules: Three winners will be chosen at random on February 22, 2010. You’ll be contacted by me right away.
So…go write your paragraphs! It shouldn’t take too long and you just might win a freebie Power-Up Session with me!
For the first time ever, I’m running a contest! I’m running a one-week-only contest and giving away free Power-Up sessions to three lucky small business owners. Entry is easy and the pay-off is huge!
What You Win: An hour-long, one-on-one Power-Up Session with me, Susan Baroncini-Moe, CEO of Business in Blue Jeans, also known as “The Micro-Entrepreneur’s Mentor.” In this session, I’ll determine the three biggest mistakes you’re making in your business and provide personalized strategies for powering up your business to grow profitability and achieve success.
How To Win: Write one paragraph. Topic: “If I Could Wave A Magic Wand and Change Something About My Small Business, It Would Be…..” Post it on your blog or Facebook page with link back to http://www.businessinbluejeans.com/contest.html (or to this blog entry…makes no difference to me).
Then, e-mail contest@businessinbluejeans.com with a link to your entry (or just e-mail your entry to contest@businessinbluejeans.com). It’s that simple!
Contest Rules: Three winners will be chosen at random on February 22, 2010. You’ll be contacted by me right away.
So…go write your paragraphs! It shouldn’t take too long and you just might win a freebie Power-Up Session with me!
The other day, I received a wonderful little package from EzineArticles.com. Inside was a leather coaster marked “Expert Author,” a large coffee mug, and a little bag of coffee, along with a note thanking me for submitting high-quality content to their site. Now, I’m not sharing this to brag, because frankly, this company has literally hundreds of Expert Authors. The reason I’m sharing this is because there’s an interesting business lesson in here.
Frankly, in small business, little things count. I never expected this company to send me a gift. And when I received it, even though I know they’ve sent that package to hundreds of people, it brightened my day and made me feel special. I liked it. It was nice to be acknowledged.
Whenever someone signs on as a client of mine, at some point during the first couple of months of our relationship, I send them a little gift. It lets them know I value them as a client and I’ve taken the time to welcome them.
Spend some time looking at your business and asking yourself, “What can I do to brighten my customer’s day?” The little gift you send to express your appreciation just may forge a stronger bond between you and your customer, encouraging repeat business and long-term loyalty.
In 2010, my “Year of Making It ALL Work,” I’m committed to taking a long, hard look at my own business each month, relative to that month’s theme. Last month was all about getting organized, so I attacked my organization and planning. This month is about finding your purpose and getting authentic. So today I’m musing about the first part of that — finding your purpose.
Finding my own purpose took me down sort of a roundabout path. As I sought my true purpose, I tried lots of things. I was a social psychologist, a web developer, a success coach, a Reiki master…I took courses on project management, and even on how to be a travel agent. I tried many things. But no matter what I did, there were always two constants: I have always been a teacher and I have always been a writer. And no matter what I do, somehow I always come back to that. Are there things in your life that have been constants? If so, these might be connected to your purpose.
Now, I don’t know if I buy into the numerology thing, but my birthdate adds up to 33, which I’m told is the number of the Master Teacher or Healer. As a 33, my life path number is 6. According to what I’ve heard and read (and again, I’m still on the fence about this stuff), the 33/6 life path calls one to leadership and responsibility. Numerology or not, I’ve always felt that calling, and I’ve walked that path my entire life, with some ventures more successful than others.
How does this life purpose translate into my business? First, I write. Prolifically. I’m always working on a book, a blog post, an e-zine article, or content for one of the several sites I post on. Second, I teach through my writing, but I also teach my clients. Virtually everything I write is written with the intent of teaching something, whether it’s a technical piece on how to use social media or an article about finding inspiration for doing something tiresome. I teach my clients about authentic business, including marketing and sales, as well as “nuts and bolts” logistic stuff. I’m always teaching. I teach when I speak publicly so that people walk away going, “Wow, I really learned something today.”
How will this translate into future business? I’ll continue writing and teaching, of course, but in a bigger arena. Part of my Year of Making It ALL Work is growing my brand awareness so I can reach more people and share my own unique voice with a bigger audience. Once thing I’ve learned for sure is that once you find your purpose and get grounded in your path, you know where you’re going and everything starts to fall into place.
For me, that means reaching out to more people, talking more about what I’ve learned, offering more, and giving more. It also means knowing it’s okay not to be perfect and remembering that if I learn from my mistakes, surely I can help you to learn from them, too, so you don’t have to go through everything I did and make the same mistakes I did. I’ll be talking a bit more about that in my next post on authenticity.
This afternoon I had a pleasant chat with none other than Jack Trout, the man, the legend. And I’m pretty sure I’m dreaming, because he agreed to do the interview for the series, and he’ll be featured in March.
I have to say that it is just weird to see e-mails in my inbox from these guys. I mean, I see their names on my bookshelf all day long — these are the guys whose books sit next to me for easy reference. So it’s fairly surreal to see my Inbox with an e-mail from Jay Conrad Levinson (telling me he’s a notoriously late sleeper, so please don’t call him too early) sitting next to an e-mail from my dad, asking if we’re coming by for Sunday dinner.
Anyway, I wanted to tell you a bit more about how this series is going to work. You can sign up to join in for a month, or you can sign up for all 11 months. I recommend that you participate in all of the months, because you’ll only get access to the calls you pay for. So, if you join in June, you won’t get access to any of the calls before June.
As a member of The Experts Series, you’ll also get access to a second call during that month, which will be a Q&A teleseminar call with me. We’ll operate the call a first-come, first-serve basis, and I’ll answer your business questions one by one and get to as many as I can during the call. It’s a great way to get access to my advice in a very affordable way.
