Five Ways to Add Some Fun to Your Workday

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

No matter where you work, you probably suffer from time to time through days that seem as if they're never going to end. Since you spend a large majority of your life at work, it's important to enjoy the process! You can lighten your spirits by adding an element of fun to your workday. Here are some ideas:

• Work in a perk. When you plan your day, include one item that you can look forward to: lunch with your best friend, your favorite candy bar at the afternoon break, or a brisk, refreshing walk at noon.
• Breathe. Several times during the day, pause for three slow, deep, relaxing breaths. This helps clear your mind and calm your thoughts. Throw in a few good stretches for good measure.
• Keep stress relievers on hand. During a break, perform a fun activity that will let you rest the serious, logical part of your brain. A computer puzzle, or a quick game of "shooting hoops" in your wastebasket using a wadded-up sheet of scrap paper can rejuvenate your energy level. You might even want to keep your favorite joke book on hand for super-stressful times.
• Celebrate small victories. Throw a five-minute party with a treat from home, or quickly write out a thank you note for a coworker. Both you and your colleague will get a much-needed lift.
• Review your successes at the end of the day. Think about what you did well. Dwelling on your mistakes and failures will magnify their importance unfairly. 

 Remember, the most important thing your job provides is time to have magic moments with your friends and family, and pursue hobbies and other things you love to do. Enjoy your time at work, as much as you can. Then, enjoy your success and the money you make every chance you get!

Tall Order! is a book that gets to the point. It helps you pinpoint what is going to get you the results you want, starting right now. Jeffrey Gitomer says, "Don't let the size fool you -- this book is compact dynamite! Buy this book!"

Honorée Enterprises, LLC. turns service providers into rainmakers, average producers into rock-stars, and dreams into reality. For more information on how we can specifically help you or your organization, click here. You can read all about Honorée here.

Spring Break "Hangover"

Welcome back from Spring Break. You probably enjoyed time away from the daily grind of emails, phone calls, appointments, contracts, meetings, and more meetings. You most likely have “vacation hang-over” which can lead to a slow start, sluggish activity, and a lack of enthusiasm.

Here’s how you can jump-start the momentum you enjoyed before your break:

Schedule every minute of your day. Before you enter the office, schedule time for each your The Core Four business activities: business development, work product, keeping current clients happy and administrative tasks. With a "to do" list full of purpose, you will know what needs to be done and what gets scheduled, gets done.

Schedule every minute of your week. Schedule the activities every day of your first week back that make all the difference: 

• Review your prospective client list and set some appointments. The best time to close a sale is when you just closed a sale, so go close a sale. 
• Schedule time to knock out some work product. Doing work you can bill for always feels great. 
• Call a few clients who don’t expect to hear from you, just to say hello. This will do great things for your relationship. 
• Turn in expense reports, enter your billing, and clean out your inbox. One of my clients calls this the “crip, crap, crud” and I agree … but it still needs to be done. Schedule it and get it done.

Schedule your next break. The light at the end of the tunnel needs to be something you’re looking forward to, not feel like an on-coming train. Plan your next three-day weekend, or three-week African safari. Give yourself something to look forward to, and the work you do to get there will make the time fly by.

Breaks and vacations can be a double-edged sword: they allow you to rest and recharge, and yet time away can increase stress when done without proper planning and execution. Put intention back in your days and you’ll step forward into your successful future with ease.

Tall Order! is a book that gets to the point. It helps you pinpoint what is going to get you the results you want, starting right now. Jeffrey Gitomer says, "Don't let the size fool you -- this book is compact dynamite! Buy this book!"

Honorée Enterprises, LLC. turns service providers into rainmakers, average producers into rock-stars, and dreams into reality. For more information on how we can specifically help you or your organization, click here. You can read all about Honorée here.

8 tips for polite communication in today’s technological world

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

You want my attention right now, this instant. I get it, I really do. But I wasn’t sitting here just waiting for you to send me a text, email or VideoChat connection request. No, I was already busy when you decided you needed my full focus. The same is true for you, I’m sure. You are constantly interrupted throughout your work day, making focus time and productivity a virtual impossibility.

In today’s world, instant gratification is the expectation, yet it doesn’t allow for optimal productivity, and it certainly can cause problems when done the wrong way. Your preferred form of communication isn’t always how the person you are communicating with prefers to receive your communication. A mouthful, I know! Said another way, it’s important to know how your colleagues and clients prefer to hear from you.

What if you could communicate in a way that makes your client or colleague open and receptive to you and your message? In Gary Chapman’s The Five Love Languages, we learn that every person has a preferred method for giving and receiving love. Expressed the right way, love flourishes. Expressed the wrong way, soon you’re single. The same is true in business: Communicate in a way that causes the recipient of your message to be receptive, and you increase the likelihood of success for the rest of the conversation … and the relationship.

There are now almost a dozen common methods of communication: phone, fax, email, mail, text, Skype, VideoChat or iChat. Everyone has their preference, including you.

The Core Four Business Development Activities You MUST Do

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

You can spend your time at work many ways, but the million dollar question is: “What are the activities that make the difference?”

As part of your Six Daily Actions, sandwiched between Action 1: You and your personal development, and Action 6: family time, I believe there are "The Core Four" business activities that make a measurable difference to your efficiency, effectiveness, productivity and bottom line, Actions 2-5: business development, work product, keep current clients happy, and administrative tasks.

Business Development. If no product or service is sold, no-one is paid. Period. Each day needs to include focus on rainmaking, a.k.a business development. This includes marketing events, networking, pitches, presentations, meetings, coffees and lunches.

Relationship Building Requires Constant Contact

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

Relationship building and networking does not end with the contract being signed or a handshake. The key to success with current and future clients is following up. The saying is true, "The gold is in the follow-up!"

Here are three ways to stay in touch and be remembered long after the initial encounter is over:

Send a handwritten note. The day after you meet a potential client, write them a note stating how much you enjoyed meeting him. Invite him to meet you for a breakfast or lunch so you can get to know each other better. When friendships form, business opportunities eventually develop. With your current clients, stay in touch with a note to say “hello,” “thanks for your recent business” or in my case, “Way to go!”

Make Every Call Count Part 3

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

In this series, I share tips for making every call you make count. You can't not make calls, and your excuses aren't cutting it because they simply aren't adding cash to your bottom line. 

Here are the final six tips you must use to make every call count:

Ask for What You Want. Do not hang up the phone before you ask for what you want. Even if you think you will not get it, ask anyway (Go for No!). You may be pleasantly surprised with the answer. If you do this consistently and you are making enough calls, eventually you will be successful. As Wayne Gretzky says: "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." I say: "You have to a-s-k to g-e-t."

Make Every Call Count Part 2

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

In this series, I share tips for making every call you make count. You can't not make calls, and your excuses aren't cutting it because they simply aren't adding cash to your bottom line. 

Acknowledge the Person You are Calling. Personalize your conversation and develop rapport by taking a moment to acknowledge or appreciate something about the person you are speaking to. Say something like, "I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me." or "Thank you for being at the meeting last week." or "It was great to meet you the other week at the conference." Find something to say that is a genuine acknowledgment of the person you have called. This transforms a sales call into a conversation.

Read the Level of Rapport. You want to build rapport with the person you are speaking to as quickly as possible. Some people play "Relationship Geography," asking people questions to try and find a person they know in common. This is fine if the person is friendly, interested and has time to spare. Other people find this intrusive and frustrating because they are at work so they can be working. You have to be able to gauge the level of warmth, interest and enthusiasm of the person and match that level, plus just a bit more. If they seem stoic, be a bit warmer than stoic. If they are enthusiastic, be a bit more enthusiastic. If they are in a hurry, spit it out and get on your way quickly! You don't want your conversation to make anyone feel like this:

Make Every Call Count Part 1

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

In this series, I share tips for making every call you make count. You can't not make calls, and your excuses aren't cutting it because they simply aren't adding cash to your bottom line. 

There is one thing that stands out as an important differentiating factor between those who have average success and those who consistently soar. It is not enough to go on appointments, send out fancy packets, and pass your card around. You have to be willing to become masterful at using the phone. 

Use these 17 "quick tips" for making every call count, and you will be more masterful the next time you dial. Here are the first 5:

Put Yourself in a Peak State! Do not simply locate the number and begin to dial. Visualize the person picking up the phone, saying how glad he or she is to hear from you. Expect the call to be excellent!

Guest Blog: Are You Selling to Succeed? by Andrea Waltz

Chances are you are likely looking for ways to be more effective – in other words, to achieve a greater level of success.  And now I have a rather unique piece of advice for you: start failing more! 

Okay, let me explain.  

When starting out in sales, most of us are conditioned to go for “yes” not “no.”  However, the greatest success strategy is not to avoid ‘no’ it is to do something called, ‘Go for No!’

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

To a large degree, success in sales is a "numbers game."  So, the strategy is to increase your ‘failure rate’ – in other words, how many times people tell you ‘no’ for whatever product, service, or idea that you are selling.  Increasing your failure rate is to literally improve your "chances at success."  For any salesperson, the mere act of increasing the amount of product you show and services you offer increases both the yesses and no’s you will hear.

The perfect example is girl scouts selling cookies. The best, top producing scouts are the ones that talk to and ask the most people to buy cookies! Now in process of getting all those sales, they also ‘fail’ the most as well.

Now, you may be thinking, “okay that seems to make sense.”  However… getting all those "no’s" might have you feeling depressed and bad. But how do you start feeling good about hearing no more often?  The truth is that when you hear “no” you are taking action in your business and that is a very good thing! 

Most salespeople make 'yes' this incredible high with the 'no' at a depressing low. If the straightest distance between where you are now to where you want to be is a straight line then equalize out the emotional reaction to both yes and no. When you get a yes, you should say to yourself, "great" avoiding the fanfare. And when you get a "no" you should say, "Great - the next one may be a yes. But I know that the no's bring me the yeses, so I'll keep going."

That's the great thing about this strategy, because ultimately for this to work, you've got to get into action. You have to step outside your comfort zone and start hearing no's! When you start hearing no's and start thinking differently about no, realizing that you are on the right path, you'll feel more empowered than ever before.

Andrea's awesome book:

Andrea Waltz is the co-author of “Go for No!", a short powerful story written specifically for sales professionals in every industry who must learn to harness the power of no to be successful.   To learn more, visit http://www.goforno.com

You might also like these, also by Andrea:

Thought for today ...

What's Your Expectation?

Update: In just 5 months, we'll be opening that 5th year bottle of wine. It's nice to know we already have something with which to celebrate!

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

I recently got married and one of my clients sent us a very cool gift - a bottle of champagne to open on our first anniversary, a bottle of wine to open on our fifth anniversary and a bottle of port to open on our 10th anniversary. What I found most wonderful about the gift was the expectation -- that in ten years we would be opening that bottle of port and celebrating a decade together. (If you'd like to know the company he used, ask and ye shall receive.)

It reminded me that what we expect to get is very often what we get - whether it's positive (the client, the deal or the return phone call) or not so much (a bigger electric bill than you ever thought possible, another 'no' when you make the ask, etc.).

This is a very quick reminder to be mindful of your expectations. Expect the best, expect great things ... and great things will indeed happen.

Best Business Requires Teamwork

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

Teamwork and collaboration are mission critical to any organization that has to respond quickly to changing circumstances and remain on top. The most successful businesses use powerful strategies to bring out the best in their teams, and here are six of them.

Teamwork Concept #1: Well managed and focused constructive brainstorming generates more creative solutions. Even when conflict arises, disagreements can be good for a team. Bring your team together often to capitalize on the synergy that can only be created when great minds come together.

Teamwork Concept #2: Once you have a terrific team, allow them to gel. The longer members stay together as an intact group, the better they do. As unreasonable as this may seem, the research evidence is unambiguous. Whether it is a basketball team or a string quartet, teams that stay together longer play together better. Identify complimentary candidates, engage them and then encourage them to stay long-term.

Shaklee Saturday ~ VIVIX: Slow Aging at the Cellular Level

My new obsession is Shaklee's Vivix. Who wouldn't want a bucket full of a product with the tagline: Slow Aging at the Cellular Level? That's all I'm saying!

I take it every morning with my Vitalizer, Optiflora and a plethora of other supplements.

Here's what you need to know:

• Global cutting-edge research in the fight against cellular aging and years spent in partnership with leading scientists have culminated in Vivix—a scientific breakthrough from Shaklee.
• Only Vivix contains both resveratrol and a proprietary phytonutrient blend. This phytonutrient blend harnesses the powerful antioxidant properties of rare muscadine grapes and has been shown to be 10X more powerful than resveratrol alone in slowing a key mechanism of cellular aging.*
• Vivix is a scientifically advanced liquid dietary supplement with key ingredients that have been shown to Slow Aging at the Cellular Level™*.

The best news is it tastes great, and you only take a teaspoon a day. A win-win-win.

Click here to order some Vivix.

Honorée considers herself "powered by Shaklee." You can be, too. Learn more here.

I Call Bullshit Series: Excusa Numero Tres

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

In this three-part series, I listen patiently to the reasons you think you can't achieve your BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals). Then I call bullshit, and give you the reasons you can achieve them. 

Excusa Numero Tres: "My current situation (job, marriage, status) makes it too hard."

Excusa Numero Uno: "I don't have enough time."

Excusa Number Dos: "I'm too old, young, smart, stupid, orange, under-educated, over-educated, married, or single."

1. Your current situation means nothing. If you decide it means nothing, that is. If you keep selling yourself on why you can't do "it" (whatever "it" is), then you're absolutely right. No-one committed to their outcome can be stopped by someone or something less committed. Period.
2. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. It matters what you think. If someone dares to rain on your parade, get a cute umbrella and some wellies. Seriously, a spouse, friend or relative that doesn't support you needs to be replaced. Or at least proven wrong. Do what you want to do, in spite of what anyone else is telling you.
3. You're too young? Not a chance. The days, weeks, and years will pass, so get started today and by the time you're "old enough" you'll have a ton of experience. Too old? That means you've got tons of experience and can use that to your advantage. Married? Single? Unemployed? Too-employed? Give it up, none of these hold real water. Turn your excuse into your secret weapon.

I've countered all of your "reasons" for not going after your BHAGs, so the only thing you can do now is get started. Right? Start by repeating after me: 

Related Articles:

Forbes Up-and-Comers {Forbes}
Watching is not Doing {Seth Godin}
Your Current Economy is Up to You {Honorée}

Shift and the World Shifts With You {Honorée}

No More Excuses: How to Make an Extra $100,000 in the Next 6 Months {Tim Ferriss}

A Dangerous Activity Trap {Paul Castain}

Tall Order! is a book that gets to the point. It helps you pinpoint what is going to get you the results you want, starting right now. Jeffrey Gitomer says, "Don't let the size fool you -- this book is compact dynamite! Buy this book!"

Honorée Enterprises, LLC. turns service providers into rainmakers, average producers into rock-stars, and dreams into reality. For more information on how we can specifically help you or your organization, click here. You can read all about Honorée here.