Archives for November 2013

Focused Productivity

 

 

“The single-minded ones, the monomaniacs, are the only true achievers.
The rest, the ones like me, may have more fun; but they fritter themselves away . . . Whenever anything is being accomplished, it is being done, I have learned, by a monomaniac with a mission.”
Peter Drucker, Adventures of a Bystander

Are you struggling to stay on task? Do you often feel like you are jumping from here to there and back again, only to forget where “here” was? The good news is that you are not alone. The bad news is: if you don’t fix it, you will be alone (with a struggling business). My book Double Double, is all about the simple to put in place, and execute, systems that every company needs to get more done, with less people, faster. There is no way I can compress 220 pages, and two years of writing into a single blog post. You’ll have to read it yourself. The whole book however is focused.

My first mentor, Greig Clark, recently told me that real leadership is saying no instead of yes. Saying no will provide more focus than saying yes to yet another project.

Multitasking may make you feel busy, but it doesn’t drive results. It’s impossible to get real results while doing two things at once. Whatever type of environment you need to focus, find it and utilize it. Your productivity will improve and so will the quality of your work. Try turning off your cell phone, shutting down email, and focusing on projects for a little bit each day. You’ll be amazed what you get done. During Focus Days, it’s good to think about some of the following issues:

Where in your business could you be focusing more?

Who could you be building relationships with, whether inside or outside of the company?

Who are your biggest clients?

How could you get more business from them?

Are you taking some time to really focus, without the trappings of day-to-day busyness distracting you (laptop, email, phone)? I strongly urge you to think about taking a Focus Day (or a few) to disconnect from the rest of the world and be alone with yourself and your thoughts.

Think Ahead (But Don’t Get Ahead of Yourself)

 

We’ve all been in job interviews and fielded the inevitable “Where do you see yourself in five years?” question. It’s a tough one to answer without appearing too ambitious or too complacent.

But I think this question is flawed for a whole other reason. In our fast paced world, how on earth can you accurately describe where you’ll be in five years?

If you’d have told you five years ago that we’d be watching live TV on our cell phones or spending hours a day on something called Facebook, I’d have slowly nodded and made a mental note to never sit beside you at a dinner party.

At the rate of change we’re seeing now, you could very well be married to a robot and living on Mars in five years.

That’s why I suggest my clients look three years ahead when creating their Vivid Vision (formerly Painted Picture). It’s far enough into the future to allow for some optimistic dreaming, but short term enough to avoid having technological advancements make your plans seem dated and useless.

Trying to visualize where your company will be further out can get overwhelming. There are too many factors to consider, too much to cover and too many contingencies to build in. And, after all that effort to soothsay what your company looks like in 10 years, some MIT grad will come along and render the whole thing moot by inventing some revolutionary device that completely changes the game.

Keeping your Vivid Vision to three years out also gives your employees a chance to wrap their heads around it, and still have time to incorporate it into their day-to-day decision making process.

And, as a bonus to you, three years means you won’t have to continually undergo the process. I suggest my clients begin working on their new Painted Picture about six months before the existing one is complete, so you’ll have plenty of time to focus on making it come true before you need to ‘paint’ another one.

Hopefully you’ve hired ambitious people, and shorter-term Vivid Visions allow them to advance and move up without disrupting your plan. If you try to forecast further out and share a vision of the company that doesn’t accommodate growth for certain employees, you might find yourself losing talent.

I usually work with young, ambitious entrepreneurial types that got where they are by always looking into the future. Getting them to scale back a bit and focus on only the next three years can be a little difficult. But I explain it to them like this; in order to create your Vivid Vision, you have to keep one foot planted in the present, and lean out to test the soil in the future with your other foot. If you lean out too far, you’ll fall down and likely stain your flashy future pants (I assume they’ll be shiny and silver.)

So don’t get ahead of yourself. Craft your Vivid Vision three years out and get to work making it come true, Those 36 months will be over before you know it!

How To Run A Call Center – 5 Steps

Running a call center is pretty simple.  We just over complicate it.

If you run your own call center.  Or take calls from clients.  This is all you need to do:

  1. Answer The Phone Fast. Maximum 4-5 rings.
  2. WOW The Customer.  Don’t meet their expectations – BLOW THEM AWAY.
  3. Ask For The Order.  Twice if you have to.  People call because they want to buy.  Sell them.
  4. Handle Objections.  Expect them.  Draw them out.
  5. Finish With A Hug.  Make sure the customer knows you REALLY appreciate them.

If you’re not doing those five things really well on EVERY call.  Then that’s all you need to focus on.  And if you are doing those on every call.  You’re killing the competition.

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Meetings Suck: Turning One Of The Most Loathed Elements Of Business Into One Of The Most Valuable

We all know that meetings suck, right?

You hear it all the time. It’s the one thing that almost everyone in business can agree on.

Except it’s not actually true… 

Meetings don’t suck.

We just suck at running meetings.   

When done right, meetings not only work, they make people and companies better.

In Meetings Suck, world renowned business expert and growth guru Cameron Herold teaches you how to use focused, time effective meetings to help you and your company soar.

This book shows you immediately actionable, step-by-step systems that ensure that you and everyone in your organization improves your meetings, right away.

In the process, you’ll turn meetings that suck into meetings that work. 

In life, we always hear about people who’ve made huge decisions from their gut – without data.Today, I want you to make a decision, not only from your gut, but also from some data.  A decision that is only $12 per employee but will be priceless for your business.

Right now, your gut is telling you something is wrong with your company’s meetings.  You KNOW everyone complains about meetings.

People HATE going to them, they HATE running them, and they really have NO idea which meetings are truly necessary but they hold meetings simply because they think that is what they SHOULD do.

Even some of the smartest CEOs in the world complain about meetings – Elon Musk publicly told employees at Tesla & SpaceX to walk out of meetings if they weren’t being run properly.

I sent Elon a message saying that wasn’t going to fix anything – the key is to fix the root of the problem – NOT continue to ignore why meetings suck.

A Meeting is – Any phone call, video call or occasion where 2 or more people meet to discuss or work-through office topics.

Most employees on average spend 1-2 hours per day in meetings.

And likely, none of those employees – front-line staff or leaders – have had any training on how to attend meetings or participate in them, LET ALONE How to RUN THEM.

Consider this…

If the Average employee spends just 1 Hour per day in meetings – that’s 1/8th of their time.

If the Average employee earns $50,000 per year.

And they’re spending 1/8th of their time in meetings, that means you’re paying $6,250 dollars per year for just ONE employee to attend meetings.

The reality is, employees spend 1/8th of their time – and 1/8th of your company’s payroll – doing something they have literally NO idea how to do.

The Reality is…

95% of employees are booking & leading meetings – and they have NEVER been trained on how to run them.

95% of employees have had NO training on how to show up and participate in the meetings they attend daily.

And 95% of employees and companies have no idea what meetings are even necessary to hold.

Meetings CAN be hugely effective – IF you know how to run them

Meetings don’t SUCK, we just SUCK at running meetings. 

Investing $15 per employee – to help ensure the $50,000 a year you spend on them is an obvious and easy choice.

This could be the most impactful $15 you’ll ever spend and will save the company’s money, time and resources instantly.

Buying a copy of Meetings Suck for 100% of your employees and having them read it this month will have a huge impact on your company’s success.

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Free PR: How To Get Chased By The Press Without Hiring A PR Firm

Public relations has always been an essential part of doing business which is probably why you’re shelling out big money to an outside PR firm. But the truth is that you don’t need them. You already have all the necessary tools in-house to do as good a job as the so-called experts. 

Cameron Herold and Adrian Salamunovic have taught thousands of company execs how to exploit free media coverage and ditch these expensive, often ineffective outsiders. 

Cameron & Adrian have also built in-house PR teams, spent decades learning how to generate Free PR and how to leverage public relations to complement their sales and marketing strategy. 

In Free PR, you’ll learn how the media world operates while you gain invaluable insider knowledge and actionable advice on how to: 

  • Build your own in-house PR team
  • Provide effective interviews
  • Score great media coverage for free with just a few easy steps 

Landing public relations coverage for yourself and your company is a powerful tool to help elevate your personal brand. PR is easier to generate than marketing, PR is easier to leverage than marketing and PR is more cost effective than marketing. In other words, Public Relations is more critical than ever in growing your brand and your business. 

You’ve got more passion, commitment, a larger stake, and a deeper understanding of your business than any outside PR firm could ever have. So stop wasting money and take the reins yourself.  Learn the secrets to landing TONS of Free PR for your company.

What they’re saying:

“I think PR is the core for promoting any business. Public relations acquires customers! That’s what’s cool about this book.”

– Kevin O’Leary,  Shark on ABC’s Shark Tank

“The ultimate guidebook for those looking to get press, grow their brand, and get in front of the masses. Free PR is the roadmap you’ve been looking for.”

– Peter Shankman, Founder, Help a Reporter Out (HARO)

“Adrian and Cameron will show you the secrets of getting massive exposure for your business. This book is packed with actionable insights from two guys that actually know how to to do it.”

– Dan Martell,  Serial Entrepreneur & Investor (Intercom.io, Unbounce)

“I told Cameron to write the book on generating free PR. I’m excited to see that he’s finally sharing his secrets with the world. This is a must read for any entrepreneurial company and marketing team.”

– Verne Harnish, Founder of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and author of Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0)

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Vivid Vision: A Remarkable Tool For Aligning Your Business Around a Shared Vision of the Future

Many corporations have slick, flashy mission statements that ultimately do little to motivate employees and less to impress customers, investors, and partners. 

But there is a way to share your excitement for the future of your company in a clear, compelling, and powerful way and entrepreneur and business growth expert Cameron Herold can show you how. 

Vivid Vision is a revolutionary tool that will help owners, CEOs, and senior managers create inspirational, detailed, and actionable three-year mission statements for their companies. In this easy-to-follow guide, Herold walks organization leaders through the simple steps to creating their own Vivid Vision, from brainstorming to sharing the ideas to using the document to drive progress in the years to come. 

By focusing on mapping out how you see your company looking and feeling in every category of business, without getting bogged down by data and numbers or how it will happen, Vivid Vision creates a holistic road map to success that will get all of your teammates passionate about the big picture. 

Your company is your dream, one that you want to share with your staff, clients, and stakeholders. Vivid Vision is the tool you need to make that dream a reality.

miracle-morning

The Miracle Morning for
Entrepreneurs: Elevate Your SELF to
Elevate Your BUSINESS

READY FOR EXPLOSIVE GROWTH AS AN ENTREPRENEUR AND ACCELERATED SUCCESS IN THE REST OF YOUR LIFE?

A step-by-step guide to enjoying the roller-coaster ride of growth — while getting the most out of life as an entrepreneur. A growth-focused approach: The book is divided into three sections, which cover planning for fast growth, building a company for fast growth, and leading for fast growth. Each topic the author covers — from creating a vision for the company’s future to learning how to generate free PR for a developing company — is squarely focused on the end goal: doubling the size of the entrepreneur’s company in three years or less. A down-to-earth action plan: Herold’s experienced-based advice never gets bogged down in generalities or theory. Instead, he offers a wealth of practical tips, including: How to design meetings for maximum efficiency; How to hire top-quality talent; How to grow in particularly tough markets; How to put together a board of advisors — even for a smaller company; How even the busy entrepreneur can achieve a work/life balance.

READY FOR EXPLOSIVE GROWTH AS AN ENTREPRENEUR AND ACCELERATED SUCCESS IN THE REST OF YOUR LIFE?

Hal Elrod’sThe Miracle Morning has helped redefine the mornings and the lives of millions of readers since 2012. Since then, careers have been launched, goals have been met, and dreams have been realized, all through the power of the Miracle Morning’s six Life S.A.V.E.R.S.

THESE SIX DAILY PRACTICES WILL FUEL YOUR EFFORTS TO CREATE AND SUSTAIN POSITIVE CHANGE IN YOUR LIFE.

Now The Miracle Morning for Entrepreneurs brings you these principles in a whole new light—alongside the Entrepreneurial Elevation Principles and the Entrepreneur’s Elevation Skills. These are essential skills that you need to create a successful business and personal life. Cameron Herold— Bestselling Author and a widely-respected expert on entrepreneurial mindset—brings his wisdom and insight to you using Hal Elrod’s powerful Miracle Morning framework.

DEVELOP A VISION FOR YOUR BUSINESS, AND BECOME THE INFLUENTIAL AND INSPIRING LEADER YOU WERE ALWAYS MEANT TO BE.

The principles and skills you’ll find in this book will help you to channel your passion and achieve balance in a remarkable new way. – Learn why mornings matter more than you think – Learn how to master your own self-leadership and accelerate your personal development – Learn how to manage your energy—physical, mental, and emotional – Learn how to implement Hal Elrod’s invaluable Life S.A.V.E.R.S. in your daily routine – And much more… You’re already an entrepreneur. Now discover how to take your success to the next level by first taking yourself to the next level. The Miracle Morning for Entrepreneurs is your roadmap to masterfully building an empire with a powerful vision, utilizing your areas of personal genius, with the right team at your side.

Start giving your business and your life the very best opportunities for success, right now.

A step-by-step guide to enjoying the roller-coaster ride of growth — while getting the most out of life as an entrepreneur. A growth-focused approach: The book is divided into three sections, which cover planning for fast growth, building a company for fast growth, and leading for fast growth. Each topic the author covers — from creating a vision for the company’s future to learning how to generate free PR for a developing company — is squarely focused on the end goal: doubling the size of the entrepreneur’s company in three years or less. A down-to-earth action plan: Herold’s experienced-based advice never gets bogged down in generalities or theory. Instead, he offers a wealth of practical tips, including: How to design meetings for maximum efficiency; How to hire top-quality talent; How to grow in particularly tough markets; How to put together a board of advisors — even for a smaller company; How even the busy entrepreneur can achieve a work/life balance.