Successful Blog

The Top 7 Ways to Motivate Yourself Even on Mondays!

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How to Own Every Day

I used to not like mornings. Monday mornings were the worst. I liked them so little that I thought of Sunday as the impending doom … that made my weekends even shorter.

One day it dawned on me that if I lived to be 70 holding on to this feeling about Mondays, I’d have discounted 10 whole years of my life. Ten years — 520 Mondays lost, crashed, and burned — due to a bad attitude. I had to find a way to get and stay motivated. I had to get back my Mondays. I was pretty sure that I didn’t have enough future left to be throwing away 10 years like a fool.

Monday mornings made feel like a giraffe — all gawky and spotted, all sleepy eyed and too tired to chew my food. I needed motivation. But I wasn’t sure I knew how to do it. It would take some experimentation. I got down to it.

Who wants to sleepwalk through life? I had things that needed doing.

The Top 7 Ways to Motivate Yourself Even on Mondays!

Motivation, without it, we move slower. We’re susceptible to distraction and procrastination. Inside a company or working from home, what fuels our success is motivation — that reason, that determination to make something good happen.

I figured out early that it wasn’t such fun to be unmotivated. In fact, it was both stressful and boring. I didn’t like myself much and maybe that is what struck that match that got the home fires burning. Once I made it a quest to motivate myself, the rest was mostly easy. Here are 7 ways I found to motivate yourself even on Mondays!

  1. Feel all of your senses with amazing experiences. Give yourself the luxury of time to enjoy your shower. Wear clothes that feel good on your skin. Drink delicious coffee. Eat lovely food that smells good while you’re fixing it. Look at fabulous colors. Listen to amazing music. It’s hard not to feel alive when you put your whole body into the experience. Don’t just bring your head into the day show up with every cell of you. Let your DNA have a chance to be part of what you’re doing.

    It’s no accident nature puts on such a great show at sunrise – it inspires, invigorates, and motivates human beings. Try to see it. Don’t just look at walls, windshields, and buildings.

  2. Live every day as a quest. Work is work, but a quest is valiant and noble. Don’t just brainstorm, conspire. Let your fingers dance on the keyboard as you type. Smile while you think. Enjoy your food. Don’t just walk, stride — feel the ground beneath your feet. When you stop for a break look at the sky. Dare yourself to find everything easier, faster, more fun, and more meaningful.
  3. Work at your best learning level — your challenge sweet spot. Beak down your challenges to meet your skills set. Challenges that are too easy are boring. Challenges that are too hard cause anxiety. Neither state moves to action. Challenges that fall equally between anxiety and boredom inspire us. They catch our attention and feed our need to grow.
  4. Know that almost any work can be motivating. Whether you’re copying documents or cleaning up after a party, devise a way to put the task in your challenge zone. Time it. Measure it. Set a standard for your personal performance. Turn the work itself into art form. Make it a game.
  5. Get curious and confident. It’s hard to think of a knot as a problem when you curious about what holds it together and confident that you’ll find the way to unravel it. Be alert. Be aware. Notice things. People who notice things know more than people who don’t. Then choose the things you notice energize you. Let them fuel your day. Ask new questions. Rather than asking, “What will I do to fix this problem?” try “How can this situation be a strength?” “How can go with it and end up with a better than what I had in mind?”
  6. Stop listening to the voices in your head. Those voices undermine determination and focus. Tell them you might have needed them once, but you know what you’re doing today. Lock them away and get on with being productive. You know how.
  7. Appreciate your ability to choose to be in a good mood AND appreciate the people who respond to that good mood in good ways! You’ll get energy from doing both. Let it fill you up. Be liberal with your smiles and your thank yous. Give a few extra smiles and thank yous to the folks who try to steal energy from you. Be confident that they’ll enjoy their bad moods even more if you leave them alone.

The trick to motivation is knowing that every bit of it is in our control. Even if we start to go off track, we can go back to number 7 and choose again to be in a good mood. Then start all over at Number 1 … No day is lost until we give it up.

It’s your day. It’s your life. You’ve got 7 ways to own every day.
Why would you spend a minute in unmotivated and boring?

Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

3 Writing Mistakes that Erode Trust in Your Small Business

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Careful or Careless?

In today’s social media-driven society, where more interpersonal interaction takes place on the Internet than ever before, one of the best things a small business can do to steer themselves toward success is develop a strong Internet-based presence. From a functional webpage to well-managed accounts with top social networking sites, consumers need to access and learn about your business from their laptops and smart phones during their busy and often Internet-focused lives.

Your website should be a snapshot of your business, introducing clients and consumers to your brand and influencing them to trust in your services. Because of that, it is imperative that you avoid these common, easy-to-make writing errors that may broadcast your business in the wrong light.

  1. Incorrect or no punctuation. A missing or improperly placed comma can change the entire meaning of a sentence, and over-zealous use of exclamation points may read as campy or unprofessional to your website viewers. Have a member of your team who is well-versed in the rules of punctuation look over any copy before you hit “publish.”
  2. Mixing up homophones. They’re, their, there. Two, too, to. Than, then. Your, you’re. Affect, effect. When typing, especially in a hurry, it can be easy to mix up these homophones and use the wrong one. When you do that, not only does your sentence take on a new meaning, but also, people notice. For many, mixing up those words is the visual equivalent to running nails across a chalkboard.
  3. Writing chunky blocks of text without any visual appeal. Though not a grammatical error, improperly forming paragraphs or not minding the visual structure of a paragraph can be just as irritating for a reader. We tweet in 140 characters, update our statuses in a sentence or two, and skim the book jacket before opening up to the first page: we’re busy, and we want our information quickly. When visiting a business’s website, readers don’t want to read a novel. They want quick, accessible information that gets to the point and tells them what they need to know without searching through blocks of text to get there.

The problem with these errors is that they send the message of carelessness or neglect to your readers. While we’ve all made mistakes, such as misplacing an apostrophe or writing who’s instead of whose, consumers want to bring their business to companies who take care of the details of their brand. It isn’t uncommon for consumers to even leave a webpage after finding a few of these errors.

The subconscious thought process for many consumers is that if the business can’t even proofread their webpage, why should I trust them to give me the best service possible?

To ensure your small business’s website and online content is presenting potential clients and consumers with the best possible image of itself, take care to avoid seemingly small writing mistakes and blunders. People will see how much you care about your presentation as an indicator of how you will care for them if they decide to bring their business to your company.

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Author’s Bio:
Amanda Valenti is a writer and content editor for College.com She also writes and publishes for a variety of other blogs/websites on the topics of traditional campus schools as well as accredited online colleges

Thank you, Amanda.
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Be Irresistible

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

How to Set Up Your First (Or Your Next) Office

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A Guest Post by
Rosemary O’Neill

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Remember when you moved into your first apartment and you realized that toilet paper didn’t magically appear anymore? That’s what it’s like when you set up your first physical office as an entrepreneur.

If you’re ready to move from your kitchen table to some real corporate space, here are some basic tips that will smooth the transition.

  • Consider creative space sharing – there are incubators, shared spaces, and professional suites that come pre-furnished and ready to go. For a fee, some will include a receptionist or admin support. Regus.com is one company that provides meeting rooms and pre-configured offices around the world. You don’t necessarily have to start from scratch.
  • Bring-your-own computer policy – you may not have to make a capital outlay for computer equipment these days. Many employees prefer using their own laptop, and it facilitates occasionally working from home. Additional considerations include:
    • Look at providing larger screens or keyboards as peripherals at the office; laptops are not great for ergonomics in extended use.
    • Establish a written policy of how you will handle data storage and transfer, especially when an employee leaves the company.
    • Consider what sort of upgrade or maintenance you will offer for employees who bring their own device.
  • You might not need an expensive phone system – similar to the computer scenario above, many companies are allowing employees to use their own smartphones for business calls, with a virtual phone system. Services like Google Voice and Grasshopper allow you to have a business telephone number that’s portable across devices.
  • Costco (or Sam’s Club) is your friend – paper clips, coffee filters, beverages, paper, pens, snacks, all these things can be bought in bulk. They will even deliver.
  • Legal signage – once you have employees, you need to ensure that you’ve posted the required Federal and State signage (which varies according to location and type of business). This will include safety information, workers comp, and minimum wage requirements (see examples here: http://www.laborlawcenter.com/c-3-state-only-labor-law-posters.aspx?gclid=CPbt_Pa3160CFcuP7Qod2i4jlA)
  • Decor – if you’ll be receiving clients at your new location, be sure to set up a welcoming entry with a couple of chairs and a small table for coffee. This can be overlooked as you focus on your employee work environment, and you want to create a nice first impression for visitors. This is also a good place to display a little personality!

Moving from the virtual office to a “bricks and mortar” office space can be challenging, but it’s also fun. Roll up your sleeves, keep the pointers above in mind, and create a space that inspires you and your team.

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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 their blog. You can find her on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee
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Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

Even Cheap Is Expensive When the Model Doesn’t Work

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What IS Reach?

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Once upon a time, I subscribed to the Chicago Tribune. (I apologize to the New York Times and my friends who Yankees fans. I also live in Wrigleyville.) I subscribed to daily delivery during the period that the Tribune won 11 Pulitzer Prizes. I’m not certain that I read any of the winning articles. Though the paper came as promised, with a job in the city, my schedule often didn’t offer me the time I wished to read it. Even when it did loosen a bit, I didn’t read every word of it.

So though the paper reached me. I wasn’t exposed it. I was on their list and I would bet that I was counted in their ad fees based on circulation.

My point is that reach only meant I was paying for it.
They didn’t have my eyeballs, impressions, or attention.

The traditional model of impressions, circulation, subscriptions has always been false.

The model of impressions and circulation numbers sold ads and justified advertising costs. I was the product the Tribune was selling. I was the demographic they were basing their numbers on. The people who bought the ads knew that I was supposed to be seeing, reading, and paying attention to those ads, but that there was know way to know if I was.

They were access to subscribers — much like the subscribers to my blog.
Do you believe for a second that they got access to every subscriber? Do you supposed every subscriber read every ad in every paper. Do you read everything you subscribe to — even most? (If you do, perhaps I should talk with you about some ads in the email that goes out with my blog.)

The impression, circulation, subscription model never delivered the numbers that it sold.

Now we’re applying that model to social media.

If I pay close attention and “prune” my power network just right, I should be able to connect to the perfect 150 power people who have each also connected to another 150 power people and so on outward. A mere two generations out would be a network of 3,375,000 power people. But just to hedge the bet, perhaps I should connect to 150,000.

Thing is any message I send to my own group only gets read the same as the Tribune did … when they have time. I’m not foolish enough to believe more than that.

Reach is not a guarantee of engagement, participation or even exposure.
Reach is merely a possibility.

Andrew Smith at marcom international points out,

“For decades, PR has been seen by many marketeers as “cheap reach via editorial” – in other words, the goal of PR was to gain editorial coverage that provided the greatest number of opportunities to see – at a significantly lower cost than advertising.”

But even cheap is expensive if no one is paying attention.

How do we tell the folks who don’t want to know?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Fire Up a Kindle Fire & Re-Kindle that Resolution to Be Tobacco-less in 2012!

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They’re Letting Me Do This!

You might recall a post I wrote called Mission: When My Mom Died and Who Saved My Life. Since then, I’ve been a fan and an advocate of Safe Cig. I’ve joined their team and have my own Safe Cig battery charger in the USB of my computer. I’m proud to be working with them.

Today, I’m teaming up with the folks at The Safe Cig to move the mission to see a tobacco-less world. And I get to offer anyone over 18 in the US a chance to win:

  • a The Safe Cig micro kit [in the most popular flavor] which includes
    7 refills,
    2 batteries,
    and a charger
  • three more refill kits –
    the 2nd most popular flavor
    the third most popular flavor
    my favorite flavor – Columbian – go figure.
  • AND a brand- new, full color, 7″ multi-touch display Kindle Fire which includes
    Movies, apps, games, music, reading and more, plus Amazon’s revolutionary,
    cloud-accelerated web browser

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Here’s what you do to enter and get a chance to win!

Post your entry by midnight Pacitic time on January 25, 2012

1. Choose a who, a what, or a where that refuels you, that fires up your life.
2. Take, make, or find a free image to represent . Write a caption starting with words “Dear Safe Cig, My life is fired up by … ” no longer than 50 words.
3. Post it on http://www.facebook.com/thesafecig/
Share it on your wall too.
SEE: the sample entry picture and caption that follows.

SAMPLE ENTRY


Dear Safe Cig My life is fired up by the color and music in the people, places, and things that inspire me.

ENTER a new image of something you love EVERY DAY if you like.

_________________________________________________________________

Here’s how we’ll pick …

  • A board of judges comprised of me will view and read every Facebook post as they come in.
  • I’ll look for those that inspire, ignite, and fire up my love of life.
  • Then I’ll worry and fret for hours on end.
  • Until … a random choice will decide it in the end.

The winner will be announced on The Safe Cig Facebook page by noon Pacific Time on January 27, 2012

What a great way to start off the New Year again.
Do this for yourself or for someone you love … for life.

Any Questions??

Be irresistible.

Liz

Making Sales for Small Businesses More Predictable

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A Guest Post
by Cynthia Kocialski

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Seeing Sales as a Solution

Every business needs revenue and the more the better. Most don’t have cash reserves or access to capital like the big corporations to shore up operating expenses, and so getting sales right is crucial. What every small business wants to know is how they can increase sales with minimal effort and how their sales can be more effective.

I have to admit I didn’t begin with a background in sales. I had to learn it by doing. Everyone does it this way. As far as I know there aren’t any college degrees in sales. As I’ve gone through many start-ups, my view of sales is far from where I begin on my first start-up.

Without a sales background, I had an immediate dislike of this business function. It seemed a necessary evil. If someone mentioned sales to me in those early days, I’d cringe. I had visions of a sleazy used car salesman that would lie and cheat his way to closing the sale.

Now, I have a completely different outlook. Why? I looked at the sales from the customer’s point of view. As any customer, I have many problems in desperate need of solutions. Most of my issues don’t have easy-to-find answers. I want to know if someone can fix my problems. I want them to tell me about their solution. I am tired of dealing with the problem and I want it to go away forever, never to come back to bother me again.

Let’s flip back to the sales side, your customer wants you to tell them the solution to their problem. You are doing them a favor. You aren’t bothering them; they want to talk to you. It’s only when you are trying to sell them something they don’t need or want that you’re acting like a sleazy, greedy, unethical used-car sales person.

Once I was able to see myself as not becoming the used car salesman, I was able to embrace sales and learn how to do it much better.

Focus on the Customer

The first place to start is to begin by reviewing your sales of the past several months and to conduct some customer interviews. You want both the good and the bad customers, but focus two-thirds of your efforts on the satisfied customers. For your existing customers, answer the following questions among your staff before conducting any interviews. Then look for similarities among customers.

  • What problems are your customer trying to solve and what are they hoping to accomplish? There is a difference; the later are bigger customer goals.
  • Is your customer using the product in the way you intended?
  • Is there a specific feature to your product that they are using to solve their problem?
  • What is the financial cost if the problem is not solved?
  • Whose job is it to solve this problem? Who are your contacts and what are their titles?
  • What problems are blocking the customer from accomplishing their goal?

Customer interviews are important. You hear established business talking about how they have lost touch with the customer all the time. If your company doesn’t have any customers or your closing rates are low then customer interviews are immensely useful. I’ve sent my staff back to call on failed sales to ask questions. Most former prospects or potential customers will spend 15 minutes on the phone with you. You don’t need many phone interviews, 15 or 20 are enough. Patterns emerge quickly.

When conducting customer interviews, add a few more questions to the list above. Prepare the questions you want answered ahead of time, but always be prepared to let the customer take the conversation where they want it to go.

  • When your customer was in the process of buying your product, what concerns or questions did they have during this process?
  • What do your customers think of your competitors? Is there anything you could learn from them?
  • Have your customers interacted with your customer service and what did they think of it?

Why did you do all this work? Sales is a search for the customers that are most likely to buy. The shotgun approach of talking to anyone and everyone, hoping that someone will buy is not effective. You need to know who your most satisfied and happiest customers are and why they are buying. For example, if your happiest customers are using feature X with benefit Y, then why is this tenth on the list in your marketing materials. You want to find more like them, and not waste your time with the others.

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Author’s Bio:
Cynthia Kocialski is the founder of three tech start-ups companies. In the past 15 years, she has been involved in dozens of start-ups. Cynthia writes the Start-up Entrepreneurs’ Blog and has written the book, “Startup From The Ground Up – Practical Insights for Entrepreneurs, How to Go from an Idea to New Business.”

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Thanks, Cynthia!

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!