Successful Blog

Is Success on Your Mental Playlist?

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by Sean Glaze

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You Control the iPod in Your Head

Your self-talk has a huge impact on your performance, and inside your mind is a mental playlist of phrases and thoughts that will either help ensure your success or sabotage your every effort.

Each of us has an internal iPod, and it is the mental playlist that we choose to replay to ourselves over and over throughout each day that influences our actions and ultimately the outcomes and results we experience. Many of us have simply carried around these sayings, assumptions, and phrases since early childhood. This self-talk has a tremendous power over our performance.

The truth is that people walk around listening to negative messages that keep them from achieving the success they desire.
Sometimes it is parents who shared criticism or negative comment.
Sometimes it is peers.

But the criticism and comments keep replaying on our mental playlists. If you think defeat and expect failure, if you are constantly reminding yourself of past mistakes, your mental playlist may actually be more responsible for your poor performance than your opponent or circumstances.

As Norman Vincent Peale writes, “Change your thoughts, and you change your world.”

Recognize that YOU control what gets added, what gets deleted, and what gets played when you listen to the voices and ideas inside your mind. By replacing those negative messages with positive affirmations and reminders of your successes, you greatly increase your chances of future success!

One of the best examples of how self talk has influenced performance can be found in the Hall of Fame career of pitcher Gaylord Perry.

Gaylord Perry began his Major League career in 1962, and soon became successful 9and famous) for his “spitball.” He was a five-time all-star, and played a total of 22 years – recording over 3500 strike outs over that time period and finished with a lifetime era of 3.11. But as strong as his pitching performances were, he was often dejected about his hitting.

Just over a year into his career, in 1963, he reportedly told a teammate “They’ll put a man on the moon before I hit a home run.” Not surprisingly, in 1969 he had compiled a horrible .141 career batting average. And his self talk proved to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

On the evening of July 20, 1969, a few hours after Neil Armstrong first stepped foot onto the surface of the moon, Gaylord Perry hit the first home run of his career.

He finished with six before he retired, but the impact of his self talk – the story he told himself internally and the mental playlist of assumptions about his own abilities – cannot be over emphasized. What he said is what happened.

What you say to yourself — and what you say to others — has a profound influence on their perceptions and performances.

Is Success On Your Mental Playlist?

Team development begins with individual improvement … and the most important conversations you have in life are with yourself. Are you talking to yourself about failure or success? Confidence cannot be bought. It is built – by replaying your past performances and filling up your mental playlist with positive affirmations.

So, what is on your mental playlist? Is your self talk positive and contributing to your success. Or are you allowing negative thoughts and expectations of failure sabotaging your attempts?

To be a better team builder, replace those negative messages on your mental playlist with positive thoughts and reminders of past success. Build and improve your own and your team’s confidence, self-perception, and performance by changing how you think.

Take a moment to review what you have on your mental playlist – and consider replacing those negative messages and thoughts with the positive videos and affirmations that will help everyone perform at their best!

Don’t wait. Start now.
Think one positive thought about yourself or your team’s performance.
Write it in the comment box right now.

Author’s Bio:
Sean Glaze is a Team Building Speaker who writes about teamwork and leadership at his Team Building Blog. He is also author of Fistitude. You can find him on Twitter as @leadyourteam.

Have What it Takes to Run a Small Business?

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In my blog piece last week, I talked about the potential need to turn to family and/or friends for funding for those looking to start their own small business.

Yes, such a move can be tricky on several fronts, most notably potentially upsetting relationships that have formed over decades. But before you possibly go to a loved one or friend with your hand out, consider the pros and cons of starting your own venture in the first place.

According to the Small Business Administration (SBA) as of 2011, there were some 27 million small businesses nationwide, with anywhere from 60 to 80 percent of all new employment created in the U.S. attributable to small business.

So, are you looking to become one of the millions of small businesses nationwide? In the event you are, keep these four factors in mind:

1. Have a mission statement – It is of utmost importance that you clearly define why you are going into business for yourself in the first place. Sit down and put in writing the reasoning behind your business, what your business will do, and what your long-term goals are for the company. Not only does this help you stay on track, but it also gives potential customers an idea of what they can expect from you as far as products and services. If your mission is simply to make a whole lot of money, trust me, you’re already off to a bad start;

2. Learn New Skills
When you take over as your own boss, there are many hats to wear. In many cases, it is too soon for you to hire much help if any at all. That being the case, you need to make sure that you can handle a diverse number of tasks like sales, accounting, marketing, and project management. In today’s world, all of the above-mentioned skills are important to your business having a fighting chance, especially marketing. Long gone are the days where you just hung a shingle out and waited for people to come into your office. In 2012 and going forward, marketing involves things like social media, SEO, email blasts and more. One of the first things I always recommend to someone thinking about going out on their own is that they be social networking savvy. You do not have to live on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc., but you do need to know how to work them, how to market yourself, and how to outshine the competition;

3. Be willing to work long hours – Whether you are running a restaurant, floral shop or your own marketing company, be ready to roll up your sleeves and put in some time. When you are working for someone else, it is normally their job to make the assignments, balance the books and put out the fires, i.e. customer service complaints. When you are the top man or woman, however, you get to make all those wonderful calls. As someone that has been laid off for several weeks now, I have actually found that doing freelance work for this individual and that company, etc. is tougher than I thought it would be on a regular basis. While my freelance work use to consist of evenings and/or Sundays, it now keeps me hopping from early in the morning until the time I go to bed. I find myself spending lots of time doing research and writing most days, along with looking for another full-time position. Given I have some friends that run their own companies, I can tell you first-hand from my chats with them that they are always thinking about the next project, how they can grow, and what it will take to increase their return on investment (ROI). If you are not willing to put the time in, running your own business is not a good call;

4. Appreciate your opportunities – I can’t help but always remind myself on a daily basis of how grateful I am to have been born and raised in the U.S. While there are opportunities to be a successful businessperson in other parts of the world, there are also many regions where the dream of running one’s own business is just that. Even in the event you open a business, give it all you have for a year or years and it fails, appreciate the fact that you had this opportunity in the first place.

I found an interesting Tweet recently (not mine) that said “Success” depends on the second letter of the word. That comment really resonated with me as I explore my options today.

Running a small business is not for everyone; those that choose such a venture should always refer to that Tweet I mentioned a moment ago.

To me, that says it all.

Photo credit: http://www.forbes.com/2010/11/02/retire-early-plan-lifestyle-personal-best-10-saving_slide_2.html

Dave Thomas has more than 20 years’ experience as a writer, covering marketing, SEO, press releases, social media and more. Contact Dave at: http://beemoresocial.wordpress.com/

5 Tips to Start Your Small Business in the Strongest Way

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Abby Evans

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Your dreams of starting your own business may be the result of one or more factors; a life –long desire to make a career out of something you’re good at or a need to supplement your current income are two very popular reasons. The jobs we have may not always be the jobs we want and starting your own business, be it small or medium sized, may provide you with the career enrichment or financial autonomy you’re hoping to achieve.

Your Input Determines Your Outcome!

But don’t be fooled…don’t think that starting your own business will be any easier than working for someone else. The only way to guarantee your own success is by hard work. Sometimes the input required is more arduous than jobs(http://www.jobs.ca) you’ve had or have. At any rate, it requires dedication, thoroughness and a follow-through attitude. Here a five key tips to give your business starting efforts the jump start they need to be rewarding and triumphant!

1. Give The People What They Want!

It is a regular occurrence that when starting their own business, many people center it around a product or service they think will be successful rather than on an already existing idea that has a proven and functional market. Think about it – it’s much better to grab a slice from a large, thriving market than from an industry with no market standing at all.

2. Keep Your Costs As Low As Possible

Stimulating a steady cash flow will be moot if you’re spending more than you’re making. Especially where starting a new business is concerned, you don’t want to spend the formative portion of its inception in debt. One simple standard to adhere to at any stage of your business’ development is – Don’t Pay Retail! Wherever possible try to source wholesale prices on your purchases and always try to negotiate a discount. Trust us, it adds up.

3. Too Much, Too Little…

This one’s pretty basic but is a useful maxim to apply when you’re starting your own business – overestimate your costs and underestimate your revenue. Being conservative in your incoming revenue expectations isn’t saying that this is what you’re hoping of aiming for; at the start of your own business it just gives you a greater wingspan with which to maneuver. Likewise, overestimation of your expenditure is just plain smart – how many times have you PLANNED on spending XXX amount of dollars on something and by the end you have to shell out three times that amount?

4. Testing Testing!

Whatever you spend your money on must directly and consistently prove and maintain value. Don’t let emotion or tradition be the rationale behind what you fund within your business. Test that what you’re paying for is actually commensurate with a real, functional value. For example, don’t spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on a marketing scheme that isn’t bringing customers to your door for the sake of it. Constantly evaluate the return statistics of every level of investment you make in your business.

5. When In Doubt, Ask!

If you’re worried about making a certain move or you just plumb don’t know what something will mean to your bottom line, seek professional help. There are a plethora of free SMB mentorship programs available that can pair you with seasoned professionals. These people provide valuable advice and perspective and can save tons of money and prevent you reinventing the wheel.

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Author’s Bio: Abby Evans is an avid blogger who writes on everything from how to find jobs in Toronto to outlining the principals of how to write a killer blog post.

Thank you for adding to the conversation!

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

How to Be Bigger than Fear and Get on with Success

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FDR Was Right

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When I told the story of my mom yesterday, friends and colleagues commented on my courage — courage in telling my mother’s story, courage in putting down my cigarettes, courage in sharing out loud what might be choices that other folks don’t see as I do. I wasn’t afraid to tell the story. I had already lived it. It was true.

The thought kept occurring to me that every time people have accused me of courage has been a time when in my mind I saw no other option, a time when my answer to act was the only right answer I could see.

I don’t know that I know much about courage. Rare has been the moment that I had to muster up the nervous energy to take on a cause that I didn’t believe or to face a giant who would crush me to smithereens.

What I know about in these years of taking on the responsibilities of a family, a mortgage, a business, and decisions that would affect other people’s incomes is more what I’ve learned about fear.

And what I’ve learned about fear is that FDR was right.
And that understanding fear is the key to success in business and in life.

Be Irresistible and Fear-Less

We’re facing times not unlike those that followed the Great American Depression. If history repeats itself, it’s worth paying attention to what happened then, when my dad started his business, when FDR gave his First Inaugural Address and said …

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

FDR’s words resonate for me. In times of learning to build a business, in past worries of whether I’d be able to pay the rent, fear was the enemy that tried to undo me.
Fear of failure.
Fear of losing.
Fear of doing nothing and doing the wrong thing.
Fear that I might spend a life telling the truth to everyone, but lying to myself.

Fear of finding my best efforts not enough paralyzed me. Fear of commitment enticed me into procrastination. Fear that the world I believed in and the person I was might not exist confused all of my decisions.

Carrying that fear wherever I went was a burden bigger than any one person could manage.
Slowly that fear broke down the integrity of the person carrying it.
Fear made me give away what I valued as if it were worthless.
Fear made me think that givers never get and getters forget.

Survival instinct says if the situation isn’t paying off, it’s a good time to move.
Fear wasn’t getting me anywhere.
I didn’t like where I was or what I saw around me.
I didn’t like the kind of people my fear attracted.
I didn’t much like myself.

I sat down and did the math.
I figured out that fear and trust don’t exist in the same space.
I looked my fear in the face and waited for it to devour me, crush me, embarrass me, or shun me.
It didn’t.

I studied my successes. I saw that I’d never carried fear into my success. I’d always gone in knowing I would be, do, and achieve what was needed to finish ahead. It wasn’t that I was stronger, better, or particularly more clever. It was that it crossed my mind that another option existed, except to come out ahead.

I calmly decided I was better than any fear I could dream up.
I knew that I could out breathe any fear and build something better instead.

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
— the Litany Against Fear from Frank Herbert’s Book Dune:

I don’t know much about courage.
I know enough about fear to watch it, learn from it, and let it pass.
Like the litany says I let it pass over me and through me until only I remain.
Fear can’t stop me from telling the hard truth gently, pursuing a quest I believe in, or trusting in myself.
And I’ve learned to recognize my friends by how fearlessly they won’t allow me to fail.

If “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes” has become a problem in your business or your life, breathe deep. Speak the truth. Trust your instincts. Believe in who you are. And surround yourself with people who will fight you for the right to not let you fail.

Be irresistible. Be fear-less.

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

If You’re Still Asking What Business You’re In, You’re Ahead of Them

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Questioning Success

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Possibly the smartest businessman I ever met is a guy named Ed. He is the key partner in a prestigious equity firm on Park Avenue in New York City. I met him in a meeting to discuss a company he owned. He ended up hiring me to conceive and drive the strategy to turn that company around.

It’s no wonder I think he’s smart. But truly other folks think so too.

After I’d worked at the company for almost 6 months, I realized something about how Ed was seeing this company that he owned. Because all of his other companies were publishing magazines and newspapers, he figured our book publishing company would work the same and grow the same as those he already owned.

But book companies are significantly different from magazine and newspaper companies in the fact that the Inventory investment — books — lasts so much longer. A newspaper dies within a day. A magazine is done a month later. A book can live for years. What that means is that a mistake in a book is far more costly because it represents inventory that can’t be fixed until that huge investment on the shelves in the warehouse has been sold or burned.

Ed didn’t realize that simple difference until I said it.

I didn’t realize until that moment that Ed didn’t know what business we were in.

From that moment decades ago until this moment now, I’ve made it a mission to start with the idea that everyone I work with needs to know what business we’re in. What I’ve experienced is that from entrepreneur to CEO of huge corporations, those who truly know what business they’re in are fewer than I’d imagined.

  • Some had lost sight of their actual customers.
  • Some saw their value proposition differently than their customers did.
  • Some were trying to reconfigure their customers to fit their idea of what business they were in.
  • Some thought they were smarter than their customers.
  • Some were trying to be the business they had always been.

Some never had asked the questions, “What is our business? Who do we serve and why do they care?”
Some had asked those questions and answered them. Then the business changes, the economy changes, the customers change, and they forget to ask again.

And as a result here’s what I saw happen over and over and over again. The little company who still asked the question would get the customers. They’d have the 10-foot booth at the big trade show (think CES) one year. A few years later, they’d have a 60-ft booth at the trade show. Not much later, they’d have a 90-foot booth at the trade show and be looking to their corporate partners and possible acquisitions to grow <-- losing track of what business they were in.... and while they were looking at other businesses, another little company who still asked the question was talking to their customers from the 10-foot booth right next to them. The biggest mistake a successful business makes is to quit asking the questions that got them there.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a small business, or a corporation, if you’re still asking what business you’re in, you’re ahead of them.

What business are you in?

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

Top 10 Social Media Fears that Go Bump in the Night and How to Make Them Worse!

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Nightmare

In honor of Halloween, I’ve updated this advice, I first wrote in 2007. Read it now and be wise. heh heh.

help me

It’s the middle of the night. The wind is blowing. The moon is high. Creaking noises are sounding. Memories of comments are running through your head, and you’re thinking of emails you sent that went unanswered.

You had such hope when you started in social media. It was daytime. You were always laughing then. Now you’re just shell of yourself in despair, dejected, and broken. Your socmed fears have taken over with the things that go bump in the night.

Not to worry.
Wait, sorry.
Indeed with just a little more worry, you have the power to take those concerns beyond the social business world!!
Go for it. . . . give in to it … become a mess on the floor.

The Top 10 Social Media Fears and How to Make Them Worse

As you read, remember, the more you buy into these, the better you’ll be at crippling yourself. Here’s your chance to prove you’re good at something besides misspelling words online and making social goofs.

If you’re faint of heart, read no further. Jumping without a parachute and shooting yourself in the foot require a certain dedication to being . . . hopeless.

    10. Fear of Looking Like a Fool Don’t go near the comment box on any blog. Stay away from posting on Facebook. If you make a remark on Twitter or ask question on LikedIn, folks might find out about you. If you find you’re having trouble keep silent, translate your thoughts into a language you don’t understand. You need this fear in your repertoire — Fear the clueless, pest that everyone knows you are.

    9. Fear of Content See how much better every other person’s content is. Count the ways that you’ll never be half that good. Write the reasons. Frame them. Put them on a wall in your line of vision. Feel the fear of an undisciplined wimp who is inept when you do your best work.

    8. Fear of To-Do Lists Think up at least 5.000 urgent things you MUST do — blog tweaks, promotion spots, Twitter updates, Facebook posts, shares to buy and sell on Empire Avenue, LinkedIn status updates, blogs to read and not comment on. Don’t stop until the list could only be done by 83.479 people. (Get the math right, not 84,000 or 83,479. Be precise.) You’ve moved up a level on the fear chart. Fear how lazy and shiftless you are. [What does shiftless mean?]

    7. Fear of Code Tweak your website template for hours to fix minute details. Then copy and paste the original stylesheet back onto the site, throwing your own work away. Changing the code should fill you with fear that you are an egotistical and anal-retentive rat.

    6. Fear of the Numbers Check your stats. Hit refresh every 30 seconds for an hour. If your page views don’t rise by 100,000 or more between clicks, start reading every blog post you can about how to improve your social media ROI. Write three blog posts. Publish them. Spam all of your social networks with their links as soon as you might. Then do the whole thing again. Fear being exposed as a woeful underachiever.

    5. Fear of Ideas Hunt down the perfect idea — the one that will get you tetweeted all day and on the front page of every social sharing site. (Great ideas have nothing to do with readers.) If you don’t find that perfect idea, you are ridiculously dimwitted and slow. Fear that everyone knows what an idealess idiot you are.

    4. Fear of Relationships Link out in every sentence of every post you write. Link to anyone who has ever said “hello.” Link to rocks, trees, and statues, if you can. DM your links to everyone you’ve connected to on all your social sites, whether you’ve said hello to them or not. It will take forever, but people will notice how desperate you are. Link promiscuously, while you fear people see you as an anti-social hermit and a prude.

    3. Fear of Saying “No” Answer all email, including spam. Always do what folks ask — buy, do, sign up, attend, subscribe. You’ll prove you’re needed. Fear that those you gently refuse will call you jerk or go higher and fear that no one would know who you are or care.

    2. Fear of the Written Word Get out your dictionary and Thesaurus. Be sure you have two grammar books near. Use words so large that you can’t say or spell them. Be sure that you write unintelligible mush. See every teacher you ever had finding out how much you forgot. Fear that you’re not only a slacker, but also a bottom-of-the-barrel communicator.

    1. Fear of Your Personal Worth All of your fears come together here. If you can’t get those first 9 right, then what could you possibly be good for? This the crown jewel. You have made it to the consummate fear of all . . . fear you are a worm.

On this deep, dark, dastardly night, you no longer have to be a shell of yourself in despair, dejected, and broken. You can be crippled and hopeless too — melted down into unrecoverable mess. Follow this Top Ten List, and you’ll show the world what fear is really for.

On the other hand, if you would rather get out of your funk, give up those fears, and come back to us. . . .

Definitely, positively, and for sure, surround yourself with positive people, because positive people make positive things happen. Wouldn’t you rather …

Build Opportunity into Your Life Right Now!

Find the Irresistible Rock Start in You.

Choose and Tell Your Best True Story

Grow With the Community Who Loves to Tell Your Story

Take on the Top 10 Ways to Start Living Your Life

Happy Halloween!

Be Irresistible!

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

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