Successful Blog

The Secret to Success

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Rosemary O’Neill

Success in Life, Business, and Golf

Molly:
That was incredible! That was the shot of the tournament!

Roy:
I just gave away the U.S. Open.

Molly: It doesn’t matter.

Roy:
One time in my life I know
the safe play to hit and I still …,
I still can’t make myself do it.

Molly: It doesn’t matter.

Roy: My whole career, my whole life on the line …
I just made a 12 on the last hole of the Open!

Molly: You sure did. It was the greatest 12 of all time.
No one’s going to remember the Open 10 years from now, who won … but they’ll remember your 12! My, God, Roy, it was…Well, it’s immortal! I am so proud of you!

–Kevin Costner and Rene Russo in the movie Tin Cup.

Perhaps I have golf on the brain this week, since I live just a few miles away from where the PGA Tournament will be played this year. But I’ve always had a soft spot for Tin Cup, Kevin Costner’s movie about a washed up golf pro.

The enduring lesson of Tin Cup is that, sometimes, no matter how crazy you seem to the rest of the world, you’re still doing the right thing for you. After all, Roy gets the girl in the end.

The Secret to Success

In business, as in life, you often have the choice of the easy lay up onto the green vs the risky shot across the water hazard. It might even be in a clutch situation, with everything on the line and crowds of people watching.

The person who wins in that situation is the person who has clearly defined criteria for success. And that might not mean winning the tournament. It might mean getting past fear and going all out in a quest for knowledge.

Fear of failure, fear of looking stupid, these things keep us from going straight at our goals. We tell ourselves that it couldn’t possibly work. Stop worrying about how it’s going to work, and start focusing on what success means to you. See it, savor it, vividly imagine it every morning.

Then pick up your trusty 5 iron and go straight at that hole.

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

The ABCs of Scheduling

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Rosemary O’Neill

The ABCs of Scheduling

You can burn the candle at both ends, but eventually you end up in the dark with no candle.
Therefore, one of the most important skills a business owner can have is the ability to take control of the schedule.

A-Always. B-Be. C-Calendaring.

(Apologies to David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross.)

Get out in front of your schedule

One of the most embarrassing incidents of my life was in high school (aren’t they all). I was Junior Class President, riding high, and responsible for putting together the whole-school Spring Dance. Unfortunately I was also a world-class procrastinator. Let’s just end this sad tale by saying that there was no Spring Dance, for the first time in years. Picture a 16 year old girl fielding phone calls from angry parents who had bought dresses for their 16 year old girls.

That humbling experience made me a goal-setting, calendar-keeping nut.

Use the calendar tools that work for you

If you don’t wrangle the calendar, and your daily events, it will wrangle you. Here are a few tips for scheduling sanity:

Take advantage of your natural rhythms – Liz recently posted about kicking in your peak productivity time. Don’t try to work against your body, if you’re an early riser, schedule accordingly.

Have a central, master calendar – I use Google Calendar for everything, and have it synced to all of my devices. You can make different colored sub-calendars for various aspects of your life, too. I have an editorial calendar, family and kid activities, business meetings, birthdays, and personal development time displayed together in one master calendar.

Tell people how you want them to schedule with you – If you use an online appointment system like Tungle.me, or you have a virtual assistant, let people know how to get on your calendar. Ideally, you don’t even have to be directly involved. The key is to use only one mechanism.

Start your month, week, and day with the calendar – Everyone should master the art of visualization. When you start out by planning and picturing how the month, week, or day is going to go, you’re already ahead of the game. Put aside sacred time (yes, put it on the calendar too) that you will use to prepare your mind for what’s ahead.

What’s on your calendar this week? How can you start making next week look even more productive for your business?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

Show your Authenticity; Monkey with your Business

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Rosemary O’Neill

“True authenticity is a lack of perfection,” said architect Gil Schafer in the June 2012 issue of Architectural Digest. He was referring to a beautifully designed home, but the same principle applies to the beautifully run business.

The architect mentions, in the same interview, that he loves to include accents that are off-kilter, or “monkeyed with.”
Yes! I say. Exactly.

Show Your Authenticity. Humans Aren’t Perfect

Should a small business owner try to emulate the stilted language of a Fortune 500 on their website? Should an entrepreneur build a carefully crafted facade of social media perfection? No. Humans aren’t wired that way, and we have a hard time relating to businesses that are wired that way.

That doesn’t mean you can ignore the importance of copywriting, or that you can abandon business niceties altogether, and it certainly doesn’t mean you can show up at a presentation in your PJs.

But as a small business owner, you have a golden opportunity to show your human side, to be authentically you, as you conduct business. There’s no 50 page guidance document holding you back. If you screw something up royally, just apologize.

Embrace your lack of perfection. Celebrate it!

How to Be Off-Kilter On Purpose

Some inspirational ideas:

  1. I recently ordered some iPhone lenses that came with a tiny plastic dinosaur in the box, for no apparent reason. Photojojo.com made me smile.
  2. The AppSumo site has a funny, sometimes bizarre sense of humor, and a readily distinguishable “voice.”
  3. A local Seattle promo design shop (the fun folks at B-Bam!) caught my undivided attention last month by sending me a Christopher Walken t-shirt out of the blue.

Are you striving for B-school perfection? Stop it, and release the monkeys! Your customers will thank you for it.

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

One simple trick to get control of your life

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Rosemary O’Neill

One Trick to Help You Get Control of Your Life

One tactic greatly will increase your sense of peace and control over your life.
Set expectations up front.
When the people around you have total clarity on what you intend to do, and when you intend to do it, everything flows into place.

Parenthood 101

When my twins were two, and my older son was four years old, I learned about setting expectations out in the trenches—at the playground. After observing parents suddenly decide it’s time to go, and grabbing the child by the hand, and spending the next 30 minutes bargaining and cajoling, I knew there was a better way.

Once I started the 10 minute countdown and stuck to it, I never had to worry about the drama over leaving. There wasn’t any.

Time Management 101

Not to compare colleagues and customers to children (that’s a different blog post), but using crystal clear expectations, set up front, is a technique that will serve you well in just about every area of your life.

Here are some ways you can set expectations as a small business owner or entrepreneur:

  • It’s easy to be “on” 24/7 in your own business. If you don’t want to be left without weekends, stop answering work emails on the weekend. You’re teaching people that you are available (and telling your staff that you expect them to be available too).
  • Post your business hours clearly, even if you are a purely online business. Just because the internet is on all the time doesn’t mean you must be personally on.
  • When you reply to an email, give the recipient some idea of when you will follow through on whatever they requested. If the request comes on Friday, shoot back a “I’ll get back to you by Wednesday” and you’re set.
  • On your company voicemail, set an expectation of when you’ll call back. Tell callers that your corporate box is checked several times a day, and promise a returned call within x hours.
  • In meetings, whenever a new task is handed to you, set an upfront timeline for when it will be done. Then be sure to incorporate it into your time management system.
  • On your social media outposts, be clear about why you’re there and how often you will engage. If you start providing customer support via Twitter, you can’t suddenly stop. Consider posting your policy in your profile, so there’s no confusion.
  • Set up an editorial calendar for your content; you don’t have to be nuts about it, but having a plan in advance, and knowing how often you will produce content, gives you peace of mind.

How do you manage expectations? What do you expect of yourself?
Do you have any tricks to help you get control over your life?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

Words Matter

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Rosemary O’Neill

The Words Matter

The words you use every day surrounding your customers do matter.

Are you “driving eyeballs to a squeeze page?” Or how about “shutting down a trouble ticket?”

Used over and over again, these images start to permeate our corporate culture. And how do you think the “traffic” feels about being a tiny cell on your spreadsheet? Yes, they can tell.

Even the kitchen lunchtime conversation can have a long-term impact. Are you constantly hearing “war stories” about crazy or stupid customers? If you’re hearing that on a regular basis, it’s time for some vacation and re-thinking. Was that customer stupid to give you her credit card number?

Inject Positive Energy

The best way to address this issue is to start injecting different words and mental images into your daily conversations with colleagues.

Think of how beautiful Guy Kawasaki’s word “enchantment” sounds (and his book is full of good ideas). Instead of “trouble tickets,” what if you had “rescue missions?” What if you hung up photographs of your customers’ faces in your hallway?

Today, as you go about your business, try to capture the negative, destructive words and think of alternatives that uplift, inspire, and energize.

How do you talk about your customers when they’re not in the room?
Do your words matter to them and to you?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

Let your competition focus on you

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by
Rosemary O’Neill

Focus on the Path Ahead

The Summer Olympics are coming up, and I for one will be perched in front of my TV and iPhone app (yes, there’s an app for that) watching the proceedings.

I draw inspiration and courage from these athletes who dedicate their entire lives to achieving greatness in their event. There are so many lessons to take away, but one seems to jump out.

Have you ever noticed that the runners, swimmers, and other races NEVER look behind them during the race?

They focus their entire attention. Their entire being. Everything is focused on the path ahead, the swim lane ahead. The world may be on its feet screaming “he’s coming up behind you” and the sprinter is in a zone of silence.

Let your competition focus on you

The next time you’re tempted to spend time worrying about the competition, think like an Olympic swimmer. Stretch, jump, and swim like hell toward the other side.

Let them worry about you.

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss