“I can’t do this anymore”, he said. A frustrated attorney was feeling beaten by the struggle of putting himself through law school, looking for a job in a tough market place, to finally opening up his own small firm. “I just want to practice law, he said”. The marketing and business development side of this is too much. Every question I asked and every suggestion I made was met with a very negative response. He really believed he was done.

The Outcome:

It’s not a matter of having a bad or good attitude. It is an attitude that comes from a core belief that that we are the captains of our own ships. It is a belief that our thoughts control our feelings and that we are in control of our thoughts. We can steer the ship by believing that all can change and will based on our own reactions and attitudes.

If we do the work to understand what’s driving our thoughts, then we can change them. Attitude, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, education, money, circumstances, failures, successes, or what other people think, say or do. It is more important than appearance, or skill. It will make or break a company. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past, we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change some of life’s events. The only thing we can do is be responsible for how we react, how we greet the day and how we affect everybody around us.
In this culture of overwhelm, demand and possibilities, one of the most important aspects of building success is our attitude. When there is so much we do not have control of, attitude is something we can control. Controlling our attitude converts the present to the future. One of the greatest ways to change your behavior or responses is to change your attitude. To change your attitude, you must separate the stimulus from the response. We have the ability to choose our response to any situation. There is a space, a bit brief, in which we may choose how to react in every situation. Often we allow our subconscious to make decisions, which is why we feel so out of control. We can take back control. It is not what happens to you that counts, it is how you react to what happens to you, especially when you have unexpected problems of any kind. If you think nothing can change, then you’re are right, nothing will change, but by taking control of your attitude you open the door to all things possible!
As as result of changing this attorney’s attitude and committing to a few strategic business development steps, he was able to retain a few new clients and turn things around in his business very quickly.

Here are four strategies to keep your-self thinking and acting positively:
Decide to Be Positive
Believe that a Positive Mental Attitude is indispensable to you professionally, personally and physically. Having an ‘I can do this’ or ‘I can handle this’ attitude changes everything. You can be as positive as you want to be if you will simply think about the outcome you are looking for, and focus on the solution. Become aware every time a negative thought appears and turn it around! Use your mental control to turn the negative thoughts to positive.
Look for the Learning
Although sometimes painful, practice assuming that whatever situation you are facing at the moment is exactly the right situation you need to ultimately be successful. This situation has been sent to you to help you learn something, to help you become better, to help you expand and grow.
Look For the Good
Always look for something good. Develop the belief that good is hidden within each difficulty or challenge. Everyday situations will happen, sometimes bigger than others. Practice looking for the good. If you look for it, and assume it is there, you will always find it.
Think about the Solution
Whenever you are faced with a difficulty, focus on the solution rather than on the problem. Think and talk about where you are, where you want to be, what the obstacles are and create the solutions! Rather than wasting time rehashing and reflecting on the problem, move to the solutions. Solutions are inherently positive, whereas problems are inherently negative. The instant that you begin thinking in terms of solutions, you start to see thing change.
How does negative thinking get in your way?
What strategies do you use to stay positive?

Here are four suggestions for the steps to begin your journey:

•Connect, communicate and collaborate with other business owners
•Don’t just get the job done, think carefully about how we get the job done
•Tap into your creative genes to do things differently
•Make a commitment to continued learning

What will you do in the next 30 days to grow your business?

How will you get off that treadmill of work?

Learning and change can be unsettling, unnerving, and intimidating. Whether change is anticipated or welcomed it can cause fear, stress, resentment, and resistance. Reactions to change often mimic the stages of the grieving process. First comes denial, which is considered the greatest obstacle to organizational or individual change. Next comes resistance. Then comes a time of exploration, questioning and reflection and that is when business owners are often ready to reach out for help and make change.

Outcome:
Rather than denying emotions and negative reactions, or being tough and bulldozing through change, effective business owners allow the transition process to take place. Through that process, effective owners can develop greater adaptability in the face of change and resilience in times of difficulty.

Adaptability – responding effectively to change – is a key skill for every company. It is imperative not to get stuck in the resistance stage. When we grasp the concept of adaptability we will experience a shift from holding on to the past to looking forward to the future. Finally, commitment emerges, with new ways of thinking and behaving that are consistent with the changing environment.

What is it that allows us to become more adaptable? Here are 3 things to consider:

Cognitive: the ability to use different thinking strategies and mental frameworks. People with cognitive adaptability readily learn from experience and recognize when old approaches don’t work.
Emotional: the ability to vary your approach to dealing with your own emotions and those of others. An emotionally adaptable person is comfortable with the process of transition, moving relatively easily through the grieving, complaining and resistance stages.
Dispositional: the ability to remain optimistic and at the same time realistic.
An individual with this kind of adaptability will acknowledge a bad situation but simultaneously visualize, plan and orchestrate a better future.

How have you adapted to the new rules of business development?
Where are you feeling caught in your ability to make change?

1. Get clear about the purpose of the meeting and offer the phone instead of actual meeting time
2. Limit the time to one hour meetings
3. Lead the meeting by talking less and asking questions. Be curious and learn about is going on for them
4. Do not try to solve their problems at this meeting
5. Keep the time about them and let the hour run out.
6. Tell them you want to think about how you might help and get back to them when you return to the office.

How do you choose whom to meet with? How often do you have meetings that are a waste of time? What is your strategy for choosing who to meet?

Over the course of a year, you make many meaningful client relationships and, like in any business, clients come and go. You’ve worked hard to deliver a high standard of work and make a solid connection with your clients. If all goes well, they don’t forget you and you don’t forget them.

Recently, a consultant came to us with concerns that that she did not have any new clients in the pipeline. She said that despite her social media efforts, the phone was not ringing.

Time and time again we see service providers get so busy with their work load for current clients that they don’t spend the necessary time building and maintaning the back end of their business. Every time a client goes away, the business owner lands back at square one. I asked a question about her past clients: “When was the last time you picked up the phone and just checked in on how they were doing”?

Outcome:   

Marketing and sales is never about one thing.  They are made up of a strategic combination of many different things through which you maintain visibility and connection.  Even so, one of the greatest marketing tools you can engage is simply making a call, saying hello and taking the time to have a conversation and connect.

Telephone calls in business are like showering to getting clean; you may not always feel like it, but it has to be done!  Make a plan to make at least 1 to 2 calls (not emails!) per day to past clients and stay connected.  The number one source of paying clients and prospects is always in your existing data base.

How do you keep your pipeline filled?
List at least five people you will call this week. (that’s only one per day)
When is it better to pick up the phone rather than email?

The Case Study:

As a young girl I was a tough, avid athlete. There were 48 children that lived on my cul de sac. From bike riding to roller skating, kickball, baseball, football, skating, sledding, hide-n-seek, and pogo-sticking, we were always outside, always moving.  In my house there was a staircase landing with a window seat overlooking the outside. At the end of the day, that is where you would find me…with a book; the curtains tucked around me so I could l keep my eye on the neighborhood and buried in my book. Reading has always been my greatest escape and continues to be so today.

Outcome:

Even today, when I seek inspiration, knowledge and an escape, I still turn to books. I love them; the feel, the smell, the cover, the design, the pages. I love being in book stores and wandering through the books.  Books that grab me enough to buy them  inspire my ideas and energize my imagination. I usually read nonfiction and I must admit I am addicted especially to small business and entrepreneur books, but there are times when I need to tell myself, “Enough! Read something fiction.”

I hope by sharing my love for books and reading that you too will seek to be inspired by picking up a good book.

Here are my latest top reads:

• Life Entrepreneurs by Gergen Vanourek
• The Intelligent Entrepreneur by Bill Murphy
• Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigner
• Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson
• Norumbega by Anthony Giardina

Do you have a passion for reading?

What are your top 5 reads?

Where, besides in books, do you gain your knowledge and inspiration?

THERE IS A TIME FOR PEN AND PAPER AND A TIME FOR THE KEYBOARD
When it comes to technology, keep in mind that there is a person on the other side of that keyboard.

The Case Study:
A new client came in last week eager to get some support on growing his business.  As we began, I asked his permission to take some notes in my note book.   His eyes opened wide and he said, “You are not going to be working on your computer?” I said, “I can, but I like the eye to eye and I like to write it down first. I will enter it later.”  He gave me a high-5 and said “Hired!”  I asked him what the heck was going on. He told me he went to a doctor’s appointment this week and that, as he sat on the hospital table, the doctor kept his back turned while typing for the entire 40 minute appointment. He could have been any other patient; he felt anonymous.  He went to another business consultant this past week and she also was busy typing everything he said.  He never felt a connection.

Outcome: 

As much praise as we have for technology, the keypad- whether it is in our hand or on our desk – is it is in direct conflict with our ability to make real human interaction and connection. There is a place and time for both typing and writing by hand. In the case described above, we see a place and time for the physical task of writing with pen and paper.

Research shows us that the actual act of forming the letters engages and rewires our brains in a way that typing does not.  It helps embed the information and leads us to greater action. It helps us clarify our thoughts, remember things better, and reach goals more surely.  Thus, writing by hand enables us to make the internal connections of brain to emotion, brain to integration, and brain to implementation.   Taking written notes in a meeting allows you to be much more fully present and engaged without distracting from the person speaking.

If you are interested in creating true connection and capturing the moment,   put your pen to hand and your eyes to the other person.

• Can you name a time when you wish someone was not on their keypad?
• When do you think that writing is better than typing?
• Do you think more creatively when you type or when you write? Why do you think that is?