Control Your Mental Real Estate

***After you read this post, be sure to visit me at my new                                     home here.***

Without question, the most important element in determining one's success is their attitude. I've noticed its really easy to have a great attitude when things are going great. What about when you're experiencing challenges? Your potentially positive attitude comes from controlling your mental real estate: your most valuable property is that which lies between your two ears.

When you're on top of the world, it seems as though everything goes right. This can be attributed to "like attracts like." You may have heard the saying, "The best time to close a deal is when you've just closed a deal." You've reached a high vibration, or have gotten in a flow state that seemingly makes things happen. The opposite also seems to be true: you lose a client, then another, then another. What you're focusing on, you're getting ... positive or negative.

If you want to begin to, or continue to, "trend up," here are action steps to get you started:

• Remember "be, do, have." You must be positive, then do the right things to have (get) what you want. To be enthusiastic, you must decide to be enthusiastic and fake it 'til you make it.
• Shift and the world shifts with you. Decide today is going to be an awesome day. Expect it to be awesome. Sit in a field of positive expectation and wonder what great thing is going to happen next.
• When something less-than-fantastic happens, you can respond or react. Choose to respond in whatever way is appropriate, then press the reset button on your attitude.
• Dedicate yourself daily (hourly, if necessary) to expanding the scope of your positive attitude.
• Think positive. Read positive. Listen positive. Talk positive. Affirm positive. Watch positive. Practice positive. Make yourself positive. Daily.

Tweet this: "Thinking you can unleashes the force that allows it to happen." ~@Honoree

Events = Bottom-line Boosting ... or Not!

{Via}

I recently attended a networking function last evening hosted by a service firm here. I was excited to attend because I do a lot of work with firms of this type and haven't yet done any work with this particular firm. For those of you who are planning your holiday parties and events, this post is especially for you!

The firm's idea to do an art show and get lots of people into their offices was, quite frankly, brilliant. The execution of their idea was poor at best. I'll dissect my observation and experience for your amusement and reading pleasure, and offer notes on what you can do in your future events to make them successful.

Let's start with the good stuff:

• They invited everyone under the sun and lots of people showed up. As someone networking here for several year, I saw a few familiar faces and lots of new faces. A great sign.
• There was a "reason" for the event: they hosted several artists and their artwork. There was a lot of artwork, it was well-placed and the prices were palatable. This made for conversation, or at least conversation starters.
• They had a bartender serving a few drinks in the lobby and hors d'oeuvres (pupus for my friends in Hawaii) in a conference room at the other end of their offices. A great strategy to get folks moving around to see all they had to offer. Even the conference rooms were cleared out and artwork was displayed.

Right Actions = Right Results

The only way to really get what you want is to take action. These actions will ensure you get what you want, if you do enough of them and they are the right actions. If you want to increase revenue, you must get new business. In order to get new business, you must do the things that get new business.

You can break down getting new business to a few simple principles:

• Recognize where past business has come from and mine those fields. If your main source of business is referrals from other people, who are those people? Are you rewarding them for their good behavior or taking them for granted? Are you making sure they have incentive to continue referring? Be sure to pay a referral fee and express gratitude each and every time, even if they refer someone to you every day.
  
• Consistent and intentional marketing is key. Determine the number of marketing events (meals, coffees, drinks, networking events) you are committed to attending each week and calendar them. Make sure those events will yield direct or indirect new business. Action for the sake of checking a box is not what I'm talking about here: you must be intentional in pre-determining who you are going to sit in front of and be absolutely sure they are going to (in some way) get you closer to your goals.
  
• Meet with the right people. Meet with your ideal potential clients and those who serve your ideal potential clients. Anything else you can classify as "social." You have plenty of time for social meetings if you have plenty of cash flow, stashed cash and future cash coming. If you don't, schedule social time for outside of work hours.
  
• Make the ask. You have to a-s-k to g-e-t. If you sit in front of someone and don't at least ask if they are interested, you've lost a golden opportunity. They may say no, which is great! For every no, you're closer to a yes. (Note: Read the book Go for No! as soon as possible. It will change how you feel about "no" and help you achieve your goals even faster.)
  
• Have enough hooks in the water. If you're relying on one or two potential "yes's" to make your week, month or year, your chances of failure are high. If you need two "yes's", get in front of, present to and ask as many potential target clients as you can for their business. With enough potential business on the horizon, you have a much higher chance of meeting and even exceeding your projections and goals.
  
• The right actions will yield the right results, even if you experience a big of "lag time" in the process. In other words, you will not experience momentum for a bit of time after you commit to taking action and follow through on taking action. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. Right actions will eventually yield right results. The worst thing that could happen is you end up with too much business. That's a problem everyone loves to have.
  
• Stop doing what's not working. This includes time-wasters like surfing the internet, updating your Facebook status or whatever else is causing you to find yourself at the end of the day feeling like you haven't made progress. Notice what's not working and change your actions until you figure out what works. Then do that as often as you possibly can.

It is also important that you believe there is business to be had, you are qualified to have that business and you can have that business! You must have the conviction that its your potential client's lucky day if they say "yes!" to you. My old boss used to say, "Set yourself on fire and people will come for miles around to watch you burn!" Enthusiasm for, and commitment to, what you do is crucial. Be sure you're ready for work before you get there every day. It will yield just the right results you're looking for!