Business Success Coaching

“It has been said that all battles in warfare are won or lost, not on the firing line, not after the battle begins, but back of the lines, though the sound strategy or lack of it, used by generals who plan the battle.” Napoleon Hill

What is true of warfare is exactly true in business and in life. Victory or defeat comes based on our plans and execution there of.

So – how are you doing?

This is actually a two part trick question.

Part one – do you have a written plan.

Part two – are you executing the plan.

If I ask you to show me your written plan for this year in either your business or your life or both – could you do it? Well? Or will you just try and tell me that the plan is in your head? I know what I am doing, I have it all up here? Forget it.

The reason it has to be written is that is the only way it is committed. When you put it on paper it becomes real. Other people can see it. You can see it. Beside, things in our mind can change to quickly.

Second, it is very critical that others see the plan. That others buy in. That others know you are committed because you put it in writing and now others can hold your accountable. Accountability creates commitment to results. No one wants to come up empty handed.

If you have not put a plan together for this year, it is not to late. Put the plan together in writing – today. Plans do not have to be fancy and perfect. They just have to be written down. Do it.

Second comes execution. Great plan are sitting on the bookshelves or in the desks all over the world. Plans that could have changed the world. Plans that really could have created great things and made a difference. Just simply never got executed.

Some of the greatest software products ever dreamed of, products so much better than anything out there today – just never got past the plan.

You know I believe in planning by now, but not just planning – but execution.

So once you have the plan laid out, and tested in your mind, then get input from others. Finalize it, create measurements to make sure you are on target and then get started.

It doesn’t always go smooth and easy. But then neither do most battles. Neither do most things in life worth having. So forget smooth and think execution. Go out there and make it happen.

You will have to make adjustments. But again, adjust targets, create new measurements and get rolling forward. Always have a written plan. Know what you are going to do and how you are going to do it. Then do it.

If you do this I will guarantee you you will find success in your business and in your life.

Do it.

Plan/execute/win

Are you ready?

Then get started today.

Remember, Failure Creates Success

Go do it.

In a study done years back of over 16,000 people, it was discovered that 95% of them who were classified as failures were in that classification because they had no definite consistent aim in life. No target. Nothing that drove them day in and day out to achieve.

While the 5 percent that made up the successful ones not only had purposes that was definite but they also had definite plans for the attainment of their purpose and they were doing it.

Some other interesting facts include that of the 95% who were classified as failures, most were engaged in something they did not like. What about the five percent, yes, they were doing what they loved.

But a real interesting fact is that the 5% who were succeeding in life,were also succeeding in in saving money where the 95% were not.

The above information is adapted from work by Napoleon Hill.

How about you?

Are you going to be in the 95% or the 5%

You determine where you go. No one else does.

Don’t buy into any other story.

You control the process – so, what are you going to do?

Success is really that simple. Notice I did not say easy, just simple. We try and make it so complex. We write volumes upon volumes of books. We produce mass amounts of material to try and explain it, when it really is that simple.

Yet, success really comes down to the simple process of knowing what you really want, building the plan to get it and executing the plan. Period,.

In my years of consulting to business executives and entrepreneurs I have seen this proven time after time after time.

It has nothing to do with money, if you want it bad enough, you will find the money.

It has nothing to do with skills. I have seen huge businesses built simply from desire and execution. You can always find skill.

It has nothing to do with what most people say, “luck.” Luck is what you make it, anyone can be lucky if they work hard enough at it.

Success comes simply from:

This is what I want

I want it that bad

I will not except failure

I expect success and will not stop until I achieve it.

Here is the plan and now lets get started executing the plan.

So what that simply means to you is to follow the “Failure Creates Success” Process of:

This is where I want to go – this is the vision.

Take time to build it, know it and make sure it is where you really want to go.

This is how I am going to get there.

This is the plan, this is how I am going to do it. This is what I need to do to make it happen.

This is making it happen. Action creates results, decisions make things happen, persistence keeps it going. You need all these.

Are you ready.

Then get out there and start making it happen in your life, career, business, and family.

You hold the keys to success, start using them today.

Failure Creates Success – an amazing methodology that works

Do you take the risks that could create real success in all you do!

Or do you hold back?

Do you believe that the more you fail – the greater your chance for success?

Are you ready to look at something that can help you creates greater success in your life?

Ask yourself these three simple questions:

1. Is the fear of failure holding you back from real success in all you do?

2. Are you holding back on making decisions because you might be wrong?

3. Are you afraid of taking the risk because you might look bad, or it might cost you a great deal?

The “Failure Creates Success” methodology from Coach Manny Nowak could be that step that changes your life – for the best – forever.

Do you really know the answers to these three questions:

Where are you going?

How are your going to get there?

When are you going to get going?

What if you could take 10 years of your growth path – move 10 years faster?

What if you could attain greater success than you ever thought you could?

What if you dreamed and believed bigger than you do?

Wow – what could you do with your life?

To learn more – visit the Ultimate Success University and learn about this product

http://ultimatesuccessuniversity.com/?page_id=47

“Less than 30 years before Henry Ford became the richest man in the world, a man was working in the same shop with Henry Ford, doing practically the same work. It was said that this man that worked with Mr. Ford was really a more competent workman in that particular sort of work than Ford. Thirty years later, that man was still engaged in the same sort of work for wages of less than $100 a week, while Mr. Ford went on to be the world richest man.” Story from Napoleon Hill

Why?

As you work today please think about this – where will you and your co-workers be 30 years from now- still doing the same thing? Or will one of you be the richest man in the world. Will one of you have taken his/her dream and taken some action to make it a reality. Or will you all still be there – thinking about it?

There are 3 types of people in the work force and only you can decide which of these your will be.

However, your choice will determine what happens in your life and the life of your family.

Our new methodology, “Failure Creates Success,” will actually take 10 years off your growth plan and propel you into great success if you follow it. But even with a great methodology, you still have to be the one to make it happen.

A methodology is just a tool, plain and simple. Just like a hammer cannot build a house, neither can a methodology make you successful. It is a tool.

So today I want you to ask yourself the question, “to which of the following groups do I belong.” Be honest and really think about it. Because if you are not where you want to be, then make a decision, take some action and move on forward. Start spending your life doing what you love to do.

1) Those that make it happen.

This is where Henry Ford was, it is where Bill Gates is and where Michael Dell is .

This is where you want to be.

Get out there and start making it happen.

2) Those that watch what happens.

This is the group that would like to try and do something.

But they are afraid.

Or they tired it once, failed and will never try it again.

Or they simply cannot make a decision and so just stay where they are.

3. Those that wonder what happened

The man that worked with Mr. Ford was in this group.

A great majority are in this group.

They live life saying stuff like, “Wow, he sure is lucky”. Or “she gets all the breaks,”

Forget it

Change today to be part of the the group that makes it happen.

Change today and start by taking some action

Change today by making decisions. Then watch what happens.

You make it happen.

Start today.

There was a man who had seven children. These children all worked together in the family business. These seven children just would not get along. They would not listen. They were always arguing, fighting and just bickering among themselves. It was a real mess.

One day this man called his children together to demonstrate just what this bickering and in fighting was doing to the success of the family business.

The dad had a bundle of 7 sticks which he tied together. One by one he gave the bundle to each of his seven children and ask them to break it. But none could. He then unstrung the bundle and handed each child a stick and ask the child to break it.

Each child very easily broke the stick.

The father then had them sit down so he could tell the story. You see, he told them, when you all work together in the spirit of harmony, you are like the bundle of sticks, unbreakable. No one can defeat you.

But when you quarrel and argue and fight among yourselves, you are like the single stick, so easily broken. And anyone can defeat you.

How is your team operating in your organization? Like the bundle? Or as individual sticks?

Is your team like seven weak sticks, each easily broken. Or like the bundle, strong, together and unbreakable.

Your team might be 2 or 3 or two or three thousand. The point is that all must focus on what is best for the team, not for each individual.

In this “me” world that is not easy, it takes real leadership.

Are you supplying that leadership to your teams?

Three simply points for you to think about and consider this week.

1. Honesty – tell people when they are not stepping up, stop holding back. Tell them and then help them. The only thing you are doing is hurting the team by not being honest. Ask yourself if you are helping the team to excel or if you are holding the team back to the level of the weakest link?

2. Push hard, push harder. Stop settling for less. If you settle for less, you teach all those who are watching you to settle for less. We are in need and in search of excellent. Yet we never find it because we never push hard enough.

3. People perform at the level you expect. Is it time to raise your expectations. If you expect people to operate at the level of 5, they do. If you expect that same team to operate at a level of 7, they do. What do you expect. Tell them, and show them that is what you expect. Expect them to operate at the level of 10 and guess what level they operate at?

This week do it. Honestly tell them what you expect, push them hard, and make sure they know your expectation. Then watch what happens.

Failure creates success.

Fear doesn’t create failure, it creates hesitation, procrastination and lack of success.

Go out this week and lead your team to success.

Or as quoted from Creflow Dollar:
“You have got to be willing to step out on the water
if you are ever going to walk on it.”

As you get ready for the second quarter – are you ready to walk on
water, or will you simply go through another quarter of hum drum?

This is the time to get started.
This is the time to build that vision
This is the time to do something different
This is the time to commit to make this the best year ever
This is the time – stop hesitation
Stop holding back
Stop thinking about doing it some day

Step out onto the water in this year.

Remember what you said on January 1^st?

What happened?

Time to shape up or ship out.

Even if this quarter was bad, it is not to late to pick up the pace.

Commit today to make it happen.

Mark Twain puts it very well:
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by
the things you didn’t do then by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bow lines, sail away from the safe harbor,
catch the trade winds in your sails, explore, dream, discover:

If you do exactly what you did this quarter, you will be exactly
where you are right now 3 months from now. Are you in the
same place you were in December of last year?

Is that were you want to be?
Or would you like to be somewhere else?

First do as Og Mandino tells us, “Tomorrow is the day reserved
for the labor of the lazy, I will act now”

“Many of us are sitting right on top of the richest sources of
power that can be imagined and do nothing about it at all”
Norman Vincent Peale

To make this the best year ever, you first have to commit that
you are going to do it. Just as I stated at the being, you
have to step out onto the water, make a commitment, make a
public commitment and don’t let anyone or anything stop you.

There is a great bible story about a fellow by the name of
Peter who had the faith to step out onto the water, he did
it, he was walking on the water. But, then he started
thinking to hard about it, then he started to say to himself,
“self, you can’t walk on water”, and what happened, he fell in.

It is not just about the commitment to step out on the water,
it is also about keeping that commitment, keeping that faith,
believing. Do you believe in yourself? If not, how can anyone else?

To many times we start the new year with all kinds of ideas,
plans and hopes. We start the year stepping out onto the
water. But then, just like Peter, we start thinking to much
that we can’t really do it, and we fall into the water

Make the commitment now. 1^st quarter in over, but the year still has 3 quarters in it. So it doesn’t matter what I did to date. What matter is what I do forward from today. I am going to make this the best year ever and nothing and no one is going to stop me. I believe it. Now you too can believe it.

Time to step up and be accountable.

It is the end of the quarter.

It is time to see how we did.

Whether you are in sales, management, business owner, or any other position.

It is accountability time.

Are we ready.

Are we ready to take the time to take a real look at how we did.

Time to do a detail analysis and understand how the quarter went and try and determine what we need to do moving forward.

Time to be honest and make whatever changes we need to make.

Facts are fact and we need to take time to understand them and to make the right movements forward.

Yet, how many of us are hesitating?

Holding back.

Knowing what we need to do , but not doing it?

Here are some tips to help.

1. We need an accountability partner. It can be a coach, mentor or friend. But it has to be someone who is going to be totally truthful and honest. If we don’t have one of these, we need to get one. This person is the one who needs to sit and work through the data with us and give honest and straight feedback.

2. We need to compare our budget, our actual and as a plus our numbers from last year. How did we do? We must be honest and look at the numbers for what they are, numbers never lie. Where are we behind, where are we ahead. Why? What adjustments and changes are we going to make.

3. We need to look at our goals and compare where we are to where we thought we would be at this point. Again, how are we doing. What is working, what is not. What needs to be changed at this point.

4. We need to look at our tasks under your goals. What did we say we were going to do and what did we do. What did we fail to do? Why? What are we going to do about it.

5. What do we need to do to make the next quarter and the rest of the year work. What needs to change, what needs more attention, what needs less attention.

If it was a great or even a good quarter, why. What did we do right, what did we do wrong. What do we need to keep doing to keep going. First quarter is over, but there are 3 more quarters to the year. If it was good, then how do we stay on track.

If it was not a good quarter, why. What did we do right, what did we do wrong. What do we need to change. What do we need to keep going with. Again, there are 3 more quarters, how do we get back on track and stay on track.

This needs to be done this week.

If you don’t have the data, get a better system. There is no reason for you not to have the information at this point. This is 2012 and the technology is all there, affordable, and easy to use. There is no excuse.

This week, turn the ship where and how it needs to be.

Correct the course and stop hesitating.

Turn you life to make the next quarter work.

You don’t have weeks, it needs to be done this week.

Then you can move forward.

Don’t kid yourself – you need to do this.

Accountability is what shows it to us.

But action is what make it happen.

Make the changes and move forward.

This can still be the best year ever, but we have to make it happen.

We start the process by being accountable and honest with ourselves.

Much success to you as you enter the next quarter.

Make the changes now – then move forward.

How long will you stick with it?

How long will you put up with all the work and struggle and pain?

How long will you persist?

Great question that so many successful business owners have to deal with.

How long do you keep going?

If you are still going, then you have persistence and you will prevail.

So many never make it in business for this simple fact.

You see it is so much easier to quit.

It is so much easier to just stop and get a job.

It is so much easier to find something else to do.

But the real entrepreneur, he or she is still going for they know success will come.

They know that if you persist, you will prevail.

James Watts spent twenty years perfecting the steam engine.

William Harvey worked for eight years to demonstrate how blood circulated in the human body and another 25 years trying to convince the medical establishment .

Have we become weak?

Where is this persistence?

This is the great difference between those that make it and those that don’t.

Those that make it, simply refuse to settle for less.

They will not take the line of least persistence – for them it only leads to failure.

So point one for today – change your mind to a mind set that will not accept anything less than success.

We often look at the great success in the world and have no idea of all they went through to get there.

R. H Macy, the founder of the Macy Department Stores, failed at five different professions before his success – whaler, retail, gold miner, stock broker and real estate broker.

Point number two is simple, if you really want it, then you have to adopt the simple words, “Noting shall hold me back.” If you do, nothing shall hold you back and you shall prevail.

I talk a great deal about vision and those that know me know I believe without it you will never get there. But just dreaming is not enough. Purpose and persistence are what makes it happen, it separates those who achieve from those who merely dream.

The third point is you need that dream, you need that vision, you need to know what you want. Then make it part of you, your purpose and your persistence will take you there.

You can get along without many other qualities, but not without persistence.

As the great success coach Napoleon Hill said: “No man is ever whipped until he quits – in his own mind.”

“I had learned, from years of experience with men, that when a man really desires a thing so deeply that he is willing to stake his entire future on a single turn of the wheel in order to get it, he is sure to win.”

Thomas Edison

Remember as we always say, failure is the road to take us there. Failure creates success. Are you ready to persist, or are you just going to give up?

If you persist, you will prevail.

Most people are.

Most people do.

It is a fact of life.

But what about you?

Are you settling for less than you really can do?

Simply because it is easier?

Faster?

Less risky?

Or – are you one of those who is ready to go for it all.

Simply fact I need you to understand.

Think small – achieve small.

Think big – achieve big.

In life, in business, in your career in your family – in everything you do, this is a fact of life.

Whether you believe it of not is not relative, it will still happen this way, that is a fact.

If you want to achieve a great deal, then today, stop thinking small and start thinking big.

Great success is about believing that you can do so much more.

It is about taking the limits off and letting yourself go after what you really want with a belief you will get it.

We have become a nation that settles for less than we can have – thinking way to small.

We have allowed the tough times to make us think smaller instead of bigger.

We have allow the world to hold us back.

We have slowed our thinking so we all are thinking small – that way everyone can keep up.

A great part of thinking big is seeing big.

Please understand that if you can’t see it in your mind, if you cannot see it happening in your mind, then you are never going to be able to make it happen in real life – and that is a fact.

So if you want to go for the big – then get that solidly engrained in your mind – today.

Are you ready to get started and ready to start thinking bigger – today.

Ready to believe in what you really want.

Ready to believe you can really achieve it.

I know you might just think it is all fluff – but before you do – go out and talk to those who have really made it big. The one thing you will learn is that they had vision, they had dream, they never through little, they though big. Well so can you.

Remember that to get big, you first have to think big.

If you can’t think big, you will never get big.

Sir Edward Hillary put it best when after a failed climb of Mt. Everest he said, “Mt. Everest, you have defeated us. But I will return. And I will defeat you. Because you cannot get any bigger, and I can.”

Wow – how much bigger can you get in your thinking of what you want to do.

Why not start today and really make it happen.

Start the process today.

Go back and look at the things you are trying to achieve with a new set of glasses on.

Go back and remove those limits that you have put on them.

Now, think big and see what you come up with.

Think big and write down what comes to your mind.

Think big and let yourself go.

Then capture that and start going for it.

Your success will be there, so, so, so much bigger than you ever believed.

But today – before we go on in the weeks to come – today you have to start by thinking BIG.

Failure creates success – if you never think big, you never fail. But the question is, do you ever really succeed?

That is if you do it correctly, effectively and simply.

There are hundreds of processes out there, taking you down thousands of roads with millions of forms, but, but, but how effective are they?

Like all things, the methods work for some, and not for others.

Today I just want to talk about simple outcome management and how to get the greatest results, for the time we have. Face it, we cannot buy time, we cannot generate it, it is the great equalizer. We all get 24/7/365.25. That is it.

How we deal with it, can and does make all the difference in the world.

Some get so much done and have time left, while other are always running out of time.

Let’s see if we can get to the group that has time left for more of life.

Today we want to spend some time simply looking at five processes to help us get better with our outcome and time management.

1. Focus – you cannot do everything. Those who try to do it all,end up doing nothing. A great friend of mine who runs a very effective company has a simple process he follows, “when you are working, you are working”, from 830-530 your focus needs to be 100% on work. Period. You will be amazed what happens if you stop getting sucked up into the internet, into office conversations, into personal issues and calls. People get sucked up into everything but what they should be doing. Cell phones, email, text and other tools have only created a bigger problem for us to stay focused.

This week – carve out your hours and spend them working, you will be amazed at the results.

2. Priority – everything is not just as important as everything else. There are drivers in what we do. There is stuff that when done, will create unbelievable results, and there is stuff that when done will create nothing -na da – zero. The key to success is always doing the highest payback item right now. Make a list, prioritize the list, and work the first one. We must stop letting the things we want to do, the things that are easy, the things that are simple get in the way. Priority is simple. The highest payback item, period.

This week – prioritize and work the highest payback item.

3. Completion – get something done. It feels good. It makes you want to do more and more. An old mentor and boss taught it to me many years ago. Person one works on 5 tasks and get them done, 50%, 80%, 30%, 50% and 70%. So in reality this person has gotten a bunch done or has he? Person two did one task and completed it. Who got more done. When you don’t complete anything, you feel like you didn’t get anything done, and you didn’t.

This week – start and finish things, get things done.

4. Time – we need to learn to treat our time as what it is, “the most valuable resource we have.” We have only so much, it can never, NEVER be replaced or recovered. We have to use it the most effective way we can. We must learn to allocate time for what we have to do and stick to schedule. Count it, keep track of it. Be on time. If we find ourselves wasting time, we have to fix the problem. Know where our time is going, account for it and get better and better at allocating it to the right things.

This week, we must know where we spent our time, just like we should know where you spent our money.

5. Discipline – this one really runs across all 4 of the others we discussed today and the others we will discuss in the future. We have to learn to do what we said we were going go do when we said we were going to do it the way we said we were going to do it. Time is the one place we get so slack with this. But we cannot.

To focus, we must discipline ourselves to stay with it.

To prioritize we must make hard decisions and stay with them.

To complete – we stick to the task and we get it done.

To account for time, we have to record it, most people just nix it off.

This week, do the first four and apply discipline to all of them, watch what happens.

Done correctly, time management equals great outcomes – start this week to make it happen in your life and watch what happens to your success rate.

So many men and women today love to fish and love to take their children fishing. It is a relaxing sport that can be a very enjoyable exciting weekend getaway. But then comes Monday and we have to get back to selling, and we just don’t get that same excitement that we had while fishing. So this week, I want spend a bit of time showing you how selling and fishing are actually very similar. The outcome we target is that you will still enjoy fishing on the weekend, and you will love selling during the week. Let me know if I hooked the fish on this one or if this is just another fish story and the big one got away.

One of the most important aspects in the sport of fishing is to find the right place to fish. A place that actually has fish that we can catch. This could be the classified a the first step in successful fishing.

It really isn’t that much different in sales either is it? Finding the right place to fish is finding a place that has prospects that you can meet, prospects that fit what you are looking for, prospects that you can catch. So, whether fishing, or selling, you have to find the right place. First likeness of fishing and selling – the right place is critical, a place that has fish.

But we must be careful for even if we know the great places to fish at and do not fish there we defeat the purpose. What happens if instead of going to the best places, we go to the places easiest to get to, the places closest, or the places we like to hang out best? Answer, we do not catch all the fish we could.

Interesting enough, the same goes for sales. Think about it, if we know the great places to prospect and yet we do not prospect there, instead we elect to go to the places that are easiest to get to, the places closest to us, or the places we and our buddies like to hang out at – then our selling truly suffers.

So do we all agree – whether fishing of selling – we have to go to the right places.

The second point in fishing is we have to have the right bait and usually we have to have more than one kind of bait to catch the fish. We have to have something the fish will bite on, we have to have something they want today. If we don’t have the right bait, they will not bite and we will not catch any fish. This is not good and only ends with us having to go home with only a fish story about the one that got away.

The parallel is that in sales, you also have to have the right bait, i.e.: the right product/service/presentation/skills. You have to present something people have to have, or something they want. Something they will buy. Otherwise, we will also go home with the story about the one that got away – a fish story I believe.

In fishing if we know the best bait to use, yet we do not want to spend the money for it, or it is inconvenient to get to where they sell it, or we do not like that bait and it is not fun or easy or simple or clean to work with, then we do not catch the fish we could.

In sales, if we know what we need to do, the materials we need to have, what we should do, and we don’t. What happens if we get a cheap business card, or we print our own brochures, or we do not spend the money to belong to the right groups? Simple isn’t it, we never get the business we could.

The third thing in fishing, we have to have is the right technique; we have to know how to cast the pole, play the fish when they are biting and hook the fish when the time is right. Remember, we can have the right spot and right bait, but our inability to fish will still send us home empty handed. Likewise, in sales we also have to have the right technique, we have to know how to build relationships, create opportunities and build proposals. To many times in sales we know the right spot, we have the right product, but we are not very good at selling it – thus we talk about the one that got away.

In fishing if we do not listen and learn and practice the things we are taught about being a great fisherman, we will never be great. If we don’t learn how to play the fish, how to hook them, how to reel them in, then we get no fish. In sales, if we don’t listen and learn how to do our job better, read, get educated, watch and learn from others, then we too do not learn how to be a great sales person and thus we go home with only a fish story.

One final point, in fishing we have to know how to bring the fish in, how to keep them hooked and how to reel in the fish and put him in the cooler. In sales, the final ingredient we have to have is to know how to bring in the client, keep them hooked and close the deal, “show me the money”.

If we cannot reel in the fish successfully, it doesn’t matter if we know the right places, use the right bait, or have the best equipment, or play the fish, if the fish does not end up in our cooler, then we are unsuccessful.

It is not any different in sales,we can be the greatest at networking, the one who has the best looking business cards and materials, the one who know how to meet with the people and get all the information, who knows how to put the best proposal in the world together, if we do not close and get a check, we are unsuccessful.

So, if you want to be the best at selling, then you have to:

1. Find the best places to meet the right people.
2. Have the right product/service/ presentation/skills.
3. Know how to present your product well.
4. Close the deal – get the check.

Can you be great without doing these 4 processes? No, we can get good, but to get great we have to do all four effectively. Just like to be a greater fisher, you have to do all four effectively.

When we go fishing, we always need to visualize catching a big fish and catching many.

When we go fishing, we always must believe we are going to catch those fish.

When we go fishing, we have prepared

We have selected the right place.

We have secured the right bait.

We have the right equipment.

We have read and practiced.

When we go selling we always visualize closing a big deal and closing many deals.

When we go selling, we believe we are going to close the deal.

When we go selling we have prepared

We have selected the right place.

We have the right product/service and technique.

We have read and practiced and gotten great.

We are going to close the deal.

So next time you are out there selling and things just are not going the way you want them to, take a moment, and relate what you are doing to fishing and you might just catch the big one.