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I’m an avid follower of Seth Godin (founder of squidoo) and his simple wisdom often astounds me. His latest post on his blog is all about the simple truths that form the foundations of full employment:
- Sales – if you can make sales you’ll be always employed
- Additive effort – if you can add value to what others do then you too are likely to be valued
- Initiation – if you start new things then the wise business owner will grab you with both hands and more but sadly most people who are initiators are misunderstood by the masses.
So which one of these are you?
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Just the other day I was thinking marketing and my thoughts turned to relationships. In business the overriding emphasis is placed on finding new customers, selling more products, and making more money.
I have a problem with this classical view of business and seem to be swimming like a fish against the tide. My emphasis in business has changed over the last few years and today my focus, and going on record here is dangerous, is on making better relationships rather than just making more relationships. The reason it is dangerous for me to go on record as saying “my focus is on making better relationships” is I lay myself open to criticism.
My preference would be to maintain and improve 10 existing relationships by adding value than trying to add 10 new relationships. It is easier to maintain a relationship than it is to add a new one.
One of the most influential books I’ve read in recent years is The Five Love Languages – It is a Christian book but contains such practical wisdom that it should be standard reading for everyone in a long term relationship. I actually learnt how my wife prefers to be communicated with. My preferences are quite different and just understanding that difference has made the world of difference in our relationship.
Please share what you think and feel.
I’m not talking about the brown things that monks wear when I talk of habits. I’m talking behaviour and thought patterns.
On one hand habits are like suitcases and bags that get in the way. On the other hand habits of behaviour that help us achieve what we desire.
Much has been written by many skilled authors over the years about habits. How to break them, how to improve them and I’m not about to try to compete with those writers. Just recognising that you have a habit is the first step and 90% of the solution.
In very simple terms habits are things that we picked up and employ every day without even thinking about it. As before they can be both positive and negative. The same dynamic is at work in our work. If you walk into any business and start looking around you’ll see good and bad habits. The good habits might be good customer service. For example following up with customers who have reported a problem with your product or service. A bad habit might be as simple as having a cluttered desk and being unable to find something when you need it. I just looked at my desk and realize that’s one of my bad habits.
So how do you decide whether a habit is good or bad? It’s really very simple. The question I would ask is “does my habit take me nearer my ultimate goal?” If the answer is yes all well and good I’ll decide to keep that habit. If upon examination my habit does not take me nearer my ultimate goal and then I have to conclude, based upon the creative process, that it’s a bad habit.
The more difficult ones to assess are those habits that are so small that I do not even recognize them as habits. So how do I assess them? It may be you need the advice and help of someone close to you who can dispassionately assess your activities and help you to see what is good and what is less good. You may find it helpful to diary your time and keep a record in 15 minute increments of when and how you spend your time.
In order to assess your habits in this way you need to have a very clear picture in your own mind of what you’re trying to create. If you tend to drift through the day without a clear idea of what your end goal is then I would suggest that you read Your life as Art by Robert Fritz. In this book he explains a very simple process, but once you understand what he is recommending, you’ll never look at your life goals in the same way again. Julia Frances put it so eloquently – “common sense in a poetic form”. It may not be the easiest book to read but it is one of the most profound in my experience. He also has a weekly newsletter which can be subscribed to at www.RobertFritz.com.
There I was talking with our daughter about or plans for the future and admitting that we were a long way from achieving them? She then came back, quick as a flash with something I’d taught her years ago.In essence what she suggested was:
- Know where you are starting from
- Find out where you want to end up
- Develop a strategy to get you there
So don’t forget to put into practice what you taught (or teach others). Go back and re-evaluate your learning and growing processes. Teach yourself as well as others.
While walking the dog this morning I had a moment to ponder why was I walking the dog? It gets her out and gets her some exercise. I get some fresh air and some exercise, not as much as she does, but it helps me to maintain my levels of fitness or even improve them.
Point 2 for today is “exercise is not a luxury – it is a vital necessity“. I we don’t use a muscle and stretch it then it will wither and die. If we don’t exercise we will lose the ability to do so. You don’t get fit or healthy overnight and conversely you don’t get unfit or unhealthy overnight either. The process is the cumulative effect of lots of small steps and choices that add up to one or other of those options. The best book on the subject is one by Jeff Olson called the Slight Edge. Well worth a read as it will add to your understanding but remember knowledge without action is fruitless.
Point 3 comes from a long held passion of mine – to keep developing. So what new skill have I learnt this week, what new hobby have I taken up, what do I now do better than I did at the beginning of the week. So what new skill or ability am I going to learn this week.
A short but interesting note I hope on healthy living. Our youngest daughter has Down syndrome, and she is now 12 years old. Over the last 12 years I have tried to watch her diet and tried to give her good healthy food. This is not always the case as children have their own minds as to what they like to eat, and one of her problems is crisps.
I don’t want to go into a lot of details about her diet, but what I wanted to draw your attention to is healthy eating . Children with down syndrome has an extra lot of free radical being produced, but we all have free radical which can cause a lot of damage to our bodies.
Looking at Doctor Steve Nugent recent flyer he draws our attention to the fact how fruit and vegetables have declined dramatically over the years in nutrients. Today we would need to eat 53 peaches to 2 peaches in 1951. Wow ! That is where vitamins and mineral supplements come into being.
Please add you comments and we can have a chat about it in our call on Monday.
See you then Hazel (one of the team)
Whilst on holiday – a rare fine day in a wet summer – I came across something that I’ve know for years but had forgotten. How nice it is to receive a handwritten letter or postcard? When was the last time you made the effort to hand-write a letter? I used to write almost every day to my wife and children and some years I was away for 200 + days/year. Those letters are treasured and often re read and often bring about a smile or tears but the still produce a response.
Text messages and e mails and twitter don’t have the same effect. E mails bring me to tears sadly but all for the wrong reasons.
One company leading the swing back to letter writing is Papernation and the blog that goes with the site is always worth a peek.
As always these posts come with a challenge – who are we going to write to today or this week? Tell us what happened as a result. Go on encourage someone today!
In our weekly team call we talked about what is important to each of us and the resultant discussion was profound in many ways. So what follows is a discussion around what keeps you “ON MESSAGE” AND “WHAT GETS YOU OUT OF BED ON A COLD WINTER MORNING”?
Here are a few questions to prompt the discussions:
- What is it that you are in the process of creating and why?
- Who are you looking to add value to and why?
- What keeps you going when things get hard?
- What are the successes that you’ve had? Share them if appropriate.
- What does your journey look like and where do you see it taking you in the future?
To post a comment simply go to the post and scroll down and insert your thoughts and observations – and keep checking back to see what’s developing. The self portrait is in one of my more creative moments!!!
About 5 years ago i was reading a book by a well known author and came across a word that I didn’t know the meaning of. It was such an important word and so central to the writing that I had to stop and go and find out what the word really meant. The word was Maven and Malcolm Gladwell, in his book the tipping point uses it as a descriptor of someone who has an unusually detailed understanding of a particular subject. Mavens are relatively uncommon but well worth seeking out as they are the ones that are either early adopters or trend formers. They are not people who collect other people’s information and present it as their own but real visionaries.
If you are in business, running an organisation or in a position of influence my strong advice is to seek out Mavens.
Now about the book – it is all about people and events that start changes a bit like viruses. It is one of my top 10 books and well worth the £3 price. The Tipping Point is also available as an audiobook – great if you spend time driving – from £6.
On this mornings weekly team call we talked about the concept of ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ and I used the examples of the Freedom Writers from Long Beach and the film Pay It forward.
In the Freedom Writer’s film Erin Gruwell, a newly qualified teacher, takes on a class of ‘no-hoper’s and in the course of 2 years begins a movement, the freedom writers Foundation, that is definitely changing the world they live in and the world much further away – This film is in my top 10 and is a must watch.
In the other film, Kevin Spacey, challenges his class to come up with an idea that will change the world. One student suggests that if they get the Chinese population to jump up and down at the same time that it would knock the world off its axis. While the star of the film, Haley Joel Osment, comes up with a concept where he would do something that would help 3 people (it was something they couldn’t do for themselves) and then hope that they in turn would pay it forward.
My challenge for the next few weeks is to exercise the idea of Random Acts of Kindness – do something for someone that is of no benefit to you but makes someone smile, helps them values them, inspires them.
It needn’t be large, often the small things are best, but see what you can come up with and post your experiences on the site.
Go on – make someone smile today!
I’ve been in business for several years now and have the privilege of working alongside some of the brightest minds in business.These are people who have real experience of doing things that lead to success. I remember one lady Louise Fowler, who I worked with for 2 years and who to my knowledge built 2 £1/5 million businesses, who said “the fortune is in the follow-up” and it took me a while to really grasp what she meant. Follow-up is often talked about as part of the marketing process but in reality it is far more about building relationships and enabling people to trust you.
Follow-up can be broken down into two areas Active and Passive:
Active Follow-up might include:
- picking up the phone and calling a prospective customer/client and asking some very un-sales like questions like: “How are you doing”? If they’ve been on holiday ask them how the trip went. If you know that they had a daughter getting married ask how the wedding went. Don’t try to sell them anything – just ask them some open questions. Just find out what they like doing – kite surfing, flower arranging, extreme sports – just find out what they like doing. Continue Reading…
