My 3 Words for 2014

December 31, 2013 by Leave a Comment

My 3 Words for 2014I recently went to a creative space in Milwaukee called Translator. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning, they host what they call a Lab (the rest of the time Translator is a digital marketing agency). If you’re in the area you should stop by. People get together and share ideas, get advice, and help others with their problems. It’s a great place for business and creative types to meet and collaborate in a positive environment that fosters creativity. I don’t go nearly often enough.

 A recent session was held on goal setting. Many ideas were presented, but one intriguing one offered by Katie Felten, who moderated, was about Chris Brogan’s three words for the year idea. Basically you pick three words you want to be the overriding theme for the next year and live them daily. It was amazing and inspiring to hear the stories of how that’s worked for Katie and Mark Fairbanks over at Translator. There was an exercise where we wrote down three words that we wanted our next year to be about and we went around the room and discussed them.
My three words for 2014 are:
Declutter – I have way too much stuff in my house and in my life. It’s stuff that doesn’t matter. Why do I need so many shirts when I don’t wear half of them? Why are there so many empty boxes lying around? What am I going to do with them? By having so much stuff around, it doesn’t leave room for new stuff to come in.  Decluttering will be not only a physical but a mental purification. I won’t reach minimalism, but I can sure try.
Focus – I want to focus on the things I really want; the things I want to do, the things I want to spend my time on, and who I want to spend my time with. Life is very distracting; especially with TV, the internet, magazines and other media. I can easily waste away a few hours everyday without even trying. I want to eliminate those distractions. When I used to play darts I would get extremely focused on my dart throwing. I would imagine a laser going from the tip of the dart to the dart board. It had to go exactly where my focus was, there was no way around it. And when I could focus so closely as to the exact hole I wanted that dart to go to, I could get pretty darn close. I want to have this kind of focus on whatever I spend my time on or whoever I spend my time with in 2014. I think decluttering will also help a lot with this goal.
Ship – I borrowed this term from Seth Godin. It means that your ideas don’t mean anything unless you ship them, unless they make their way out into the world. As one person said at Lab, “if it doesn’t ship, it doesn’t exist.” That’s true. No one will know about my work unless I share it, and put it out into the universe. It has a chance for a life outside of my mind or the hard drive on my computer if I expose it to the rest of the world. Sure, there’s a chance that nothing happens or the work gets criticized, but there’s also a chance for it to impact people. And at least it sets you up for some unknown possibilities.
I’m excited to see what 2014 shapes up to be because of these three words. You can do this too. Write down the first three words that come to mind (there’s probably a reason they’re right at the top of your head). Put them in a place where you can see them, so you have a reminder of what the words are.
What are your three words for 2014? Why did you choose them? How do you think they’ll impact you in 2014?
Filed Under: Inspiration, Motivation Tagged With: ,

My Favorite Books of 2013

December 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment

My favorite books of 2013I’m an avid reader and am constantly looking for good authors to inspire me, motivate me, and fire up my mind. This year I discovered some truly amazing ones that did that and so much more. These books are filled with awesome information and most definitely had an impact on my life. I encourage you to check them out and if you are looking for a gift, you won’t go wrong with any of these.

Here are my favorite books of 2013:
Daring Greatly by Brené Brown. A book about being brave, stepping into the arena, and giving it your best shot. This book will help you move past your fears, the critics (both internal and external), and slay the dragon of perfectionism. Brené has said, “Perfectionism is a 10-ton shield that stops us from being seen.” Daring Greatly will make you appreciate your talent and your life more. You are enough, just as you are, so start living like it. It had a huge impact on me. If you read anything on this list, start with this one.
The Impact Equation by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. So good, I read it twice this year! The Impact Equation is a wonderfully written book about making an impact in the world by being as helpful as possible, keeping things simple and being brave by thinking like an owner, not an employee. This book resonated with me so much that it gave me the kick in the butt I needed to start my blog (which is a chapter on building your platform). I continued looking for other ways to share it, and suggested to our CMO that everyone on our team should read it. I was thrilled when he decided to buy a copy for everyone. That weekend I emailed Chris Brogan to let him know how much the book meant to me and about our team reading it together. He not only responded to my email but he ended up coming to Milwaukee to meet with our team! I even got to spend some extra time with him one-on-one. Do yourself a favor and read The Impact Equation, oh, and sign up for Chris Brogan’s weekly newsletter. You never know what could happen!
How to Be Interesting (In 10 Simple Steps) by Jessica Hagy. I saw Jessica was going to be at a book signing and I liked the title of the book, so I went. I’m so glad I did. I left the book singing saying, “I’m starting my blog.” That’s how inspiring Jessica was. How to Be Interesting (In 10 Simple Steps) is an insightful and funny look at life lessons we could all learn from. Follow the steps presented in this wonderful book and just watch where life takes you.
Give and Take by Adam Grant. I read a New York Times article about Adam and was so blown away by this man that I was going to buy the book that weekend, but didn’t get a chance to. The book arrived the next week, sent to me by a friend who also enjoyed it. Adam Grant has studied how givers get ahead in life and in business, more than takers. At the age of 30 he became the youngest tenured professor at the famous Wharton School of Business, and also it’s highest ranking professor. This book made me pause and reflect on things so many times. I highlighted the heck out of the pages of Give and Take, that’s how much it spoke to me. Reading it also helped me come up with a ton of creative ideas.
The Art of Explanation by Lee LeFever. If you want to know how to break things down to its simplest form, The Art of Explanation will help tremendously. Whether you need to explain a product to your customers, explain your ideas to team members, or tell something to your family, this guide will help you. Lee offers great examples of what’s worked for him and his clients in explaining even the most complex ideas so that anyone can understand them. And if you aren’t understood, you won’t get anywhere in life, so therefore this is a must read.
Likeonomics by Rohit Bhargava. A book that will make you smile throughout and gives insight on how to do business in a better way. Likeonomics made me stop and say “yes, yes, yes” many times. Each chapter is filled with wonder advice and real-life examples of how to treat your customers; not as numbers, not as dollar signs, but as real people. It’s refreshing to read something that I feel to be true.
The Icarus Deception by Seth Godin. It’s hard not to be impressed with anything Seth Godin writes. He’s so succinct and so right-on and The Icarus Deception is classic Seth Godin. There’s something about this book that makes you want to go out and rule the world. He makes you feel like anything is possible, if you care enough to put forth the effort. He challenges you to believe that you can, so you might as well go ahead and do it.
The Passion Conversation by Robbins Phillips, Greg Cordell, Geno Church, and John Moore. The folks who wrote this are from a group called Brains on Fire, which focuses on helping companies with word of mouth marketing. I saw Robbin, one of the authors, speak at a BMA Milwaukee event and was drawn in. The Passion Conversation takes customer engagement to a whole new level. It goes in depth with four real-life examples of organizations (both for-profit and non-profit) that have used their strategies successfully. This book is an eye-opener that also sparked a lot of ideas.
What books impacted you in 2013? What are you looking forward to reading in the new year?
Happy reading in 2014!
Filed Under: Inspiration Tagged With: ,

Who Have You Helped Today?

November 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Who Have You Helped TodayLearning how to give instead of trying to get, changed how I approached sales, customer service, and life.
At one point, early in my career, I worked in sales for a large telecommunications company. I struggled constantly to meet my monthly sales objective. I came close a few times, but never made 100% of my objective. My job was held over my head every month. The message was – “sell or you could find yourself out of a job.” Talk about stress.
Then one month I finally made it – 100.2%. Time to celebrate. But, the next day I checked, I was only at 99.9%. I went through my orders and found that someone had gone in and put their sales codes on one of my orders. When I told my manager all she told me was, “You need to pay more attention to your orders.” She didn’t even try to help me rectify the problem, and stealing sales was a huge problem where I worked.
This episode left me bitter. Why try to meet the sales goal when it’s going to be stolen from me anyway? The company is going to say I am a bad employee (anything less than a 100% was “does not meet expectations.”) Throw in a daily dose of customers yelling at you and I was at the bottom. I went through months of the absolutely worst days I had working in that call center.
Finally, I made a decision. Since I couldn’t find any satisfaction in the job doing it the company way, I would try things differently. I love helping people. It makes me feel good. I was raised to think of others. I decided if I could help one person each day, then it would be a successful day in my books, regardless of how much I sold. If I was going to get fired, at least I was going to enjoy the process.  I essentially ignored my sales objective. I forgot about it, didn’t care, eliminated it from my radar. I wasn’t going to let my sales, or lack thereof, define whether I had a good day or not.
So, I started each day with two objectives. The first, was to help one person that day. I would literally say to myself before logging in to take my first call, “Who am I going to help today?” I knew somebody out there really needed my help, and if I took their call I would do everything in my power to help them.
The second thing I said to myself each morning was, “What’s going to happen to me today, that’s never happened to me before?” This was freeing. I knew I’d get a nasty call that day, a problem that would otherwise ruin my day, but I wasn’t going to let it affect me. I built it into my day. I anticipated it. I looked at it as a learning experience.
The funny things is, once I started to ignore my sales numbers and focus on helping my customers, my sales took off. I went from making 90% of my monthly sales to an average of 120%. The highest month I had was 153% of my objective! And, after a while I was helping more than one person a day. Go figure!
And, because I didn’t mind receiving the “problem” call, I looked at it as a way to learn and also help, I became the guy that knew how to solve problems. If someone ran into some mess they’d be referred to me since I had probably run into it at some point. I kept records of the problems I encountered and how to fix them. I ended up becoming a team leader; writing and presenting training, handling difficult calls, and helping coach others.
I also sat in on a few sales meetings because of my high sales. You know those meetings where they want to know what you do and then roll it out to the rest of the call center? Yeah, those. When I was asked for my opinion on how to increase sales I said, “Get rid of the sales objective.” The manager looked at me and blurted out, “that will never happen” and ignored me for the rest of the meeting. Their loss, I thought.
There’s been a lot of research lately to back up why looking at helping others is a good plan to have. One fantastic book that explores this is Adam Grant’s “Give and Take.” It shows why giving is the best way to achieve your own success. It’s worked for me. What is your experience?
Filed Under: Customer Service, Motivation Tagged With: , ,
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