Successful Blog

5 Focus Strategies to Seize the Right Opportunity Right Now!

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The Signal to Noise Issue Isn’t Only On the Internet

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Has it happened to you that you’ve invested your best strategy into landing a chance — an introduction, a project, small job for a potential client. Now is your moment! You can move forward your mission, change your position, take advantage of the changing conditions this chance affords you to leverage your expertise into new rewards and new experiences.

Even on a small scale a new opportunity ripe with potential can set off a world of thinking that undoes our ability to get down to what needs doing. We find ourselves over researching, procrastinating, contemplating the future, and social networking to see what others have done who have had the same experience.

The signal to noise ratio ratio on the Internet may be a distracting influence, but nothing undermines our ability to seize the opportunity right in front of us more than the signal to noise ratio that we allow in our heads.

What We Do That Undoes Us

In faster than you can fragment a computer, we fragment our heads and convince our hearts that they’re not a part of what we’re doing. We get busy with thoughts past and future and irrelevant arguments about what we could, should, or might be doing. Does any of this sound the least bit familiar? We fill our heads with

  • how we’re the wrong person to do this.
  • how we’re much better suited to be doing what we’re always doing. .
  • how people won’t respond well to what we end up doing.
  • how while we do this we might be missing other exciting opportunities.
  • how our results have backfired or fallen flat in the past.

    • And the big one …

  • how boring, uninteresting, long, hard, difficult, not fun, time-consuming and beyond our abilities we’ll find this new opportunity — among the 23,067 other reasons we might have for not doing it.

All of which are centered in the past or the future, not the current reality.

5 Focus Strategies to Seize the Right Opportunity Right in Front of You Now!

How do you know that you’ve got the right opportunity? A well-chosen opportunity is a match of our skills with enough challenge that we’re the perfect halfway between anxiety and boredom. We’ll need to stretch just a little bit, learn a few things as we’re doing it, but that will keep our concentration.

If you’ve chosen the right opportunity, the key is to focus and to stay completely in the moment. NOW is the only moment and the opportunity is the only the focus. Here’s how to do that successfully.

  1. Focus in on seeing the project finished. As Tim Sanders says and my experience agrees with, when our brains know that we plan to succeed, our subconscious releases the chemicals we need to help us do that. Call it flow or in the zone, but it’s the optimal experience. In order to get there, we have first have to know exactly what the task is. Every task you successfully finished had as many roadblocks and snags as those you left by the ditches. The difference in your successes was that you knew, you had decided you would finished and that became your first point of focus.
  2. Focus on the process and resources you need to do it well. In your mind plan through the process and see yourself doing it. Break that process into stages and determine what resources you need to complete each piece of the process. Bring the resources you need to where you will need them. Get serious about dedicating a true workspace to the project.
  3. Focus on making that opportunity a priority.Decide how much time you will dedicate to moving it forward every day and allow yourself no excuses. Include time for rests, rewards, breaks, and some play away from it — but don’t let the play be more important than the opportunity you’re ready to seize right now.
  4. Focus on working in the moment. Keep every step of completing the process in the NOW. Don’t relate to past successes, except to move this process forward. Don’t think about future rewards until it’s over. Don’t let other things interrupt you.
  5. Focus on how any opportunity can be the vehicle you need to learn what you should be learning. Love the faults and flaws of the project. Challenge yourself to value everything that you wouldn’t normally like doing. Find the fun in the most mundane tasks and huge overwhelming challenges. Turn every bit of the opportunity into a smaller, exciting opportunity of its own.

If you can master those five strategies, the payoff for you will be huge and long lasting. You’ll find that your life is more in control because it’s more focused, less hurried. The things you’ll be doing will be more efficient because you’ll be choosing to focus on doing only one of them at a time, which means it will get your concentration and best thinking.

Listening will be easier and you’ll be more likely to know what to ask and what to listen for.. Fewer communication problems will be happening. You’ll find yourself easier to work with and other people will agree with that assessment. Your confidence will rise.

Work will be more enjoyable and you may find that you like doing more kinds of work than you ever thought you would. Proof of concept is that what I’ve written here is exactly what I did when I didn’t want to write this blog post. And I had a blast doing it.

It’s really just a matter of turning down the signal to noise ratio in your mind. Are you ready to seize the opportunity right in front of you now?

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

Are You Afraid of Getting Personal in Business?

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Guest Post
by Annabel Candy

Would you like to build stronger relationships with your potential clients and create trust faster?

Me too and I’m finally making in roads. It took me 1o years to work out how to get my clients to trust me or, more accurately, to accidentally discover how to build their trust faster, but now I’ve cracked it I’m never going back.

When I first set up my own business in 1998 I didn’t know much about the business world and I lacked confidence. I felt as if I didn’t fit in. In my mind business people were hard-nosed professionals, wearers of suits and time poor workaholics.

To make things worse it wasn’t just that I felt as if I didn’t fit in. I really didn’t. I worked from home on a small island in New Zealand and all my clients were a 30 minute ferry ride away in the city.

They had real jobs in real offices. They were real business people and I was just a pretender, a business wannabe.

To make sure my prospective clients didn’t find out that I worked from home I played safe. I invested in a great logo in a timeless design and chose safe corporate colors of blue and grey.

My branding, which carried through to my website and business cards, looked classy and professional but it didn’t have any personality. It just wasn’t me.

Being new to business I did what I had to do to start finding work. I got the yellow pages out and started cold calling.

My business is web design and web copywriting. I had an MA in Design for Interactive Media and two years experience designing, writing and setting up effective websites but getting work was still hard. Like pulling nails in fact, and during the nine years I ran that business I never once got a job unless I met a client face to face.

Even after we got our first few jobs and started getting leads through the search engines and word of mouth recommendations, I still had to meet people before they’d give me the job.

But over the past few years my business has turned around and so have my clients. All of a sudden I have clients in faraway places who’ve never met me and couldn’t even if they wanted to. Even though I live in a small Australian vacation resort town I now have clients all over the world.

So what changed?

Two years ago I started blogging. I set up a blog called Get In the Hot Spot because I wanted to learn about social media and blogging to help my web design clients.

I wrote about travel but my blog posts often strayed into personal development or just personal stories.

My blog was definitely not a marketing tool for my business but gradually people started contacting me and asking if they could work with me even though they’d never met me.

People all around the world suddenly wanted to work with me not because they knew my qualifications or work experience, but because of personal experiences I’d shared on my blog.

Looking back to when I was new to business I made a big mistake by always putting up a professional front. I hid my personality and values behind what I thought was business-like behavior.

But sharing personal stories has helped build trust and grow my business much more effectively. Whereas before I probably came across as one of those boring experts we all try to avoid, now people see me as a real person, someone they wanted to hang out with online and offline, someone flawed like them and someone they’d enjoy working with.

These days I still have my safe, grey and blue corporate website for my web design business Mucho but my fun blog Get In the Hot Spot has really taken over. To give you an idea of the difference in branding check out the logos.


Which business would you prefer to work with?

 

How to Get Personal in Business

Blogging helped me grow my business so well that I eventually set up a separate blog where I could share my business and online marketing tips. But I’m careful that, although the topic is business, the writing style is still fun and shows my personality. I often share personal stories there too if they’re relevant.

You don’t have to have a blog to share your personal side with your clients and show your personality. You can do it on your website, through Twitter or Facebook or anywhere else you connect with your clients both on and offline.

Of course there are parameters and you don’t want to over share, but these are my tips for humanizing your business by sharing personal stories:

  1. Be personal but still professional. Make sure your language and stories are family friendly.
  2. Tell stories that people can connect with and choose personal themes like childhood, family or holidays that everyone can relate to.
  3. Keep it interesting – short, sharp injections of personal stories are good. Lessons learned are always popular. Endless rambling monologues about you aren’t.
  4. Inject humor into your story. Everyone likes to laugh and a smile or chuckle will make people relate to you faster.
  5. It’s a two way street. Don’t forget to pay an interest in your client’s personal life too and ask them about their family or vacation plans. It will let them know you care about them as people, not just as potential clients, and help you find common ground.

What are your experiences? Do you share personal stories with your clients?

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Annabel Candy is a copywriter, web designer and travel fiend. She wrote Successful Blogging in 12 Simple Steps to help other small business owners and writers tap into the power of blogging. Annabel shares her blogging tips at Successful Blogging and her travel stories and personal writing at Get In the Hot Spot.

Thanks, Annabel, for sharing your story!

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

When your skills are not valued

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by Patty Azzarello

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Personal Brand and Defense

Sometimes you find yourself in a situation where your gifts and skills don’t line up with the type of skills that are valued in your environment.

You might get shut out or pushed down because of it. It is stressful and uncomfortable.

When this happens, there is a tendency to go on the defense — to prove that you belong there, and to try and show that you can be more like them.

But you’re not.

When you try to do this you put yourself on a back foot.

You are not at your best. You are caving into the pressure and expectations of the group, and trying to win them over by being something false, that you are not good at.

Use your brand to turn the situation around

When I talk about the value of building your personal brand, solving this problem is one of the big payoffs.

Having your personal brand defined lets you put your best foot forward with great confidence all of the time, especially when you are in a situation or environment where you are not comfortable.

If you are clear about your personal brand, you don’t need to be defensive when you don’t fit. You can use it to sell your strong points.

You’ll be more confident and more impressive.

Confidence and Advantage

Here are some examples of ways people have used their personal brand to go on the offence, build confidence, and get an advantage.

Example 1: “Boring old person” in an internet startup

I loved this feedback from a woman who heard me speak on personal brand, and put the idea into action.

She found herself bidding for work in an internet startup company full of hip 20-somethings. She was initially concerned that she would not fit with their culture — like she might be viewed as their mother! As a result, she was concerned she would be under-valued even though she believed she could help them.

Don’t even try to fit in.

But with her Personal Brand in focus, she decided not to even try and fit in, and not to worry about it. Instead she decided go in unapologetically with her personal brand which was about focus, achieving clarity, and translating ideas into revenue.

Staying on brand made it easy for her to engage this group. It removed the stress and the uncertainty. By focusing on her brand, she gave herself the opportunity to sell her strengths without hesitation. She was able to demonstrate truly authentic confidence.

Instead of being cautious and defensive and trying to earn their respect on their terms, she wowed them on her terms.

She got the job.

Example #2: Business Person in a Technology Organization

This was me at various points in my career – Although I have a technology background and an engineering degree, I am a business leadership expert, not a technology expert.

I know many people who have this particular problem in technology companies. The environment doesn’t respect you because you are “not technical enough”.

What I did, is to go back to my brand, and build my confidence from an authentic position of strength. Instead of defending my right to be there by trying to convince them that I was technical enough, I went on the offense.

“You don’t need another one of you”

I would say, “the last thing you need is another technical person. We have plenty of them around here, and I’ll never be as smart as you on technology.

What I contribute is an understanding of the people who use our products and what motivates them. I can translate all this technology into things that they not only care about, but want to spend their money on. I can help bring revenue in. You don’t need another technical person, you need one of me.” (Implied, respect me. I’m different, but I can do things you can’t.)

It put me on solid ground. It made me feel confident. I didn’t’ care if they thought I wasn’t technical enough, because I had real value to offer. It gave me strong executive presence, because I was using the part of my brand of being straightforward, business-focused, and making real and useful connections with people.

I did not need to be defensive. (or technical). I became respected.

Example #3. Program Manager in an Engineering Organization

Another non-technical person I work with used a similar approach in a highly technology focused engineering organization. She was being challenged on her lack of engineering pedigree. Did she really belong here? Many people thought not.

Pedigree doesn’t matter. Results Matter.

Instead of getting defensive she said, basically, “you’re quite correct I am not an engineer. That’s a good thing. I wouldn’t be as good at my job if I was an engineer. What I contribute is an ability to drive complex projects through to completion. The fact that I don’t get involved in every technical detail is actually an asset. I can keep the program focused on the finish line, and get it out on time and on budget. That’s what you need, not another engineer doing a deep dive on technical detail.”

Steady Confidence

When you have your personal brand defined you are more powerful and more impressive for two reasons.

1. You are leading with your strengths, so you’re good at what you are doing and it truly impresses others.

2. But even without that, by using this approach you give yourself the gift of confidence. You give yourself solid ground to stand on. You define the terms you are going to interact on, and it’s a place where you feel comfortable. You give yourself an advantage no matter what the situation. Your executive presence soars when you are confident.

Next time you feel like you don’t fit, and people are under-valuing you, don’t try to be like them. Lead with your brand. Lead with your strengths.

Being clear about who you really are, and what you are naturally good at and building that into your personal brand is a great way to increase your confidence and your value.

Building your Personal Brand

If you want some help building a strong Personal Brand based on your natural strengths, you can use my Personal Brand Building workbook.

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Patty Azzarello is an executive, author, speaker and CEO-adviser. Patty has held leadership roles in General Management, Marketing, Software Product Development and Sales, and has been successful in running large and small businesses. She writes at Patty Azzarello’s Business Leadership Blog. You’ll find her on Twitter as @PattyAzzarello. Also, check out her new book Rise…

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Love Closure or More Possibilities? How to Best Balance Your Ps and Js

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Not Everyone Thinks the Same Way

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It came about because I’d had time to read a book called Please Understand Me. Character and Temperament Types by David Kersey. The book discussed the personality differences that were described by the four pairs of preferences defined in the Myers-Briggs Personality type Indicator. The book led me to champion the idea that the whole editorial department might benefit from a Myers-Briggs workshop. Approval came. All 30 or so of us took the personality test and about a week later we met offsite with a trained administrator who had scored our results but hadn’t shared them.

By way of background, the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator identifies which are your preferences in four pairs of trait behaviors.

  • I or E:
    Introverts prefer to work out their solutions alone, thinking through their thoughts before speaking.
    Extroverts prefer to work out their solutions with others, talking through their thoughts to see what they’re thinking.
  • N or S:
    iNtutive people prefer to go with their “gut feeling,” the whole of the information — the rightness or wrongness of what they understand internally.
    Sensory people prefer to go with the empirical data, the facts of the sights, sounds, tastes, touch, and smell and what those facts reveal.
  • T or F
    Thinkers prefer to interact via information.
    Feelers prefer to interact via emotions.
  • J or P
    Judgers prefer decisions. They value closure.
    Perceivers prefer multiple options. They value the possibilities in every situation.

The documentation and studies make it clear that every person has all 8 traits. The test measures which in each pair is an individual’s preferred way of interacting with other people and information — sort of the default setting, the one we go to when we’re left to our own devices, in a crisis, or designing our own situation. I thought was that it might bring home the reality that …

we can’t assume others think the same way we do.

Plan a Vacation

The facilitator set up activities that used used each trait pair to underscore the differences in outcomes that occur when we approach a task with different preferred ways of thinking. We were unaware of which trait we had when the task was assigned. Some tasks had mixed preference groups. Some had a group that wa all of one preference. The most memorable task and lesson for me was when she asked two groups to plan a vacation.

She assigned us to two groups by name. We didn’t now at the time, but one group was the Ps — those who value possibilities — and the other was the Js — those who value closure. She gave us about 20 minutes for planning then asked us to report back. The reports from each group were something like this.

I suspect it was purposeful that she had the Js report first.

The J Vacation

The Js had decided that they would go to Europe for precisely 21 days. They knew which countries they would visit in which order and how many days they would be staying in which country. They also knew which sites were on the list to visit in each country. Assignments had been made. Every member of the group knew his or her role. Assignments included: transportation, lodging, tickets to venues and sites, special meals in each city, even collection of emergency documents and numbers.

The Ps started snickering as we listened to the Js report. The reason for our delight was evident when our turn came.

The P Vacation

In the same amount of time, the Ps had decide to meet up in Taos, New Mexico and hang there for a while doing whatever we liked from a whole list of possibilities. The list of possibilities was quite impressive. Then those who wanted to could go on to visit the Caribbean — one island or more, and those who wanted to stay in New Mexico could.

As you might notice, the two groups had significantly different reports. What you might not fully appreciate is that both groups were quite pleased with their results.

How to Balance Your Ps and Js

The task was so well chosen that whenever I tell the story people have no problem deciding which group defines their preference. More importantly, the way we frustrate each other becomes apparent. .

Imagine a project team with an equal number of Ps and Js. While Ps are trying desperately to leave all of the options open, the Js are pushing fervently to get to a decision. Both groups are so intent on their preferred way of thinking, it can be hard to see the value of the other. Yet a team of all Ps would get lost or get nowhere and a team of all Js would miss out on many options that could raise their game. Here are some ways to best balance the value of your Ps and Js.

  • Make a no closure rule during brainstorming. Brainstorming is where Ps excel. Give them the room to explore all of the options safely without the need to justify leaving the door open. Suggest Js brainstorm several starting points as a way to work to their strengths.
  • Separate the two groups when problem solving. Ask the Ps to limit their options to three actionable solutions. Ask the Js to get past their first solution to two more that would work as well as the first.
  • In project planning, use your Ps and Js in different roles. Invite Ps to conceptualize, ideate, and sketch out new ideas and processes. Ask Js to pinpoint how those ideas might take form and how those processes might work in action.

Let both groups know how the dynamic tension between their preferences supports and complements each other making the team stronger. After all, without the flexibility of a P it would be hard to respond to a disaster and without the structure of J wasted time could be a real problem.

Which are you and how do you value the other in your business?

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

Deeper Shade of Viral: How 1 Brand Hero Delivered an Irresistible Experience

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A True Story of How to Win a Life-Long Advocate

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Now, more than ever, growing brands search for connections that mean something to their customers and the people who help their business thrive. The good ones reach to their employees to put human values inside their value proposition.

That isn’t a new thing.

And the brands that long for their messages to “go viral” might check out this story. It happened over 25 years ago, yet it’s so powerful, memorable, and moving that I think of it and repeat it every time I see the FedEx logo. I still choose FedEx over the others, because of this one event. I still forgive their occasional mistake as an accident. That’s a lifetime customer relationship and since I’m still telling the story, in my book I’d call that hugely viral.

In the last century, when Federal Express was at its peak performance. I was working at home right after my son was born. The work in my hands was on a drop-dead deadline that day. I called FedEx for a pickup because I was not going to be able to deliver the package myself.

We were in a suburban disaster – a fast-rising flood. Hours after the rain, we watched from our second-floor balcony as the water from the Des Plaines River in the parking rose above the door handles of our only car. My husband, my infant son, and I were waiting to hear when we’d be evacuated and for how long?
Then the phone rang. It was the FedEx man. He was on a high spot across the street. “Ma’am, I have a delivery. Do you need this package today?”
“I’m sorry. Yes, I do and I have one going I out too,” I explained the uncertainty, the deadline, and the evacuation.
“No problem,” he said. Then he confirmed the entrance he should use. The door was on a slope above the water line still.
I hustled to ready what I had to send. Then I went on the balcony, just in time to see a young man holding package over his head, walking through water that was up to his chest. Amazing! The neighbors on their decks were as transfixed with the image as I was.
We met at the door. We did the business of trading packages. Then he went back out. As he stood on the stoop, he thrust the new package up over his head and before he set off through the flood again. He surveyed my neighbors with a huge grin and shouted,

“We not only deliver. We pick up!”

He Delivered More Than a Package

That day that FedEx man delivered more than a package to the people who saw him. He delivered hope and trust to folks silently wondering when they would be evacuated, how long it would last, and what would be waiting when we got back.

He was a hero to people who were in distress. He saw what he saw – opportunity not a problem. He knew what he knew – he could use his power to refuse or do something outstanding, heroic, and incredibly cool. And with a huge and generous grin, he walked through four feet of water to make things work better than they were supposed to work.

He was living the values of company. Their tagline at the time was “Relax, it’s FedEx.”

If that same experience happened today, all of us watching the FedEx man in the water would have taken pictures and video with our smart phones. In seconds, we would have uploaded the pictures and video with the caption “We not only deliver. We pick up!” to YouTube, Flickr, Twitpic, and Twitter. Within seconds, thousands of people would be sharing his quote with the picture or the video.

What the FedEx man did was irresistible and shareable by definition. He made everything easy. He made me feel good about being part of it. And he left me with a story that I’m proud to pass on. It’s an unforgettable feeling when a guy is willing to trek through half a block of river water for you. You can bet I became a fiercely loyal FedEx customer.

FedEx built their brand on a company community of employees who were the value in their value proposition. It’s hard to compete with a community like that. The true stories about FedEx hero employees made them the company we trusted, relied on, and got to know as our friends. We didn’t think about other options until the heroes started to look the same as “the guys” who delivered packages from the lower priced brand.

And because my experience with the FedEx man actually happened, I’m still sharing it 25 years later.
Will you even remember the Old Spice Man in 5 years? Human relationships are a deeper, more lasting shade of viral.

Whether you’re a brand of 1 or 1,000,000, the deeply loyal relationship you make with your customers can outlast any single offer, product, or incident.

What is your brand doing to build a winning community?

Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Need help building that winning community? Work with Liz!!

Beach Notes: Time to Reflect

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

Right now on my healing journey I have been givine lots of time and space for reflection. The beach is my favorite place to just sit and be still. I find the calmness of the sea and the ever changing patterns that nature provides is the perfect place for me to just be. – Suzie

Do you have a quiet space where when you need to recharge or just take time out that you go?

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh