by Kirby Hasseman
I am a bit of a rule breaker by nature. I always have been. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say I follow rules that make sense to me. Now, let me clarify a bit before I hear sirens wailing outside my office. It’s not the that I am a criminal. It’s just that I have a bit of a contrarian streak in me (a lot of entrepreneurs do). And I like to consider all options for myself. I remember when I was just starting this business. I had an office in my home, so I was almost always working. There was just always something to do. When I was at dinner with the family, I could hear my phone ringing in the office. When I woke up in the morning I started working. It’s what you do when you are starting a business. No big deal. But after a long winter, I was ready to break out! So in March I went to my wife and said “We need to take a quick trip to Florida…like now. I am booking a trip for next week.” She protested saying that next week was the mandatory state testing for the students, including our girls. I looked at the school calendar and confirmed that it was state testing next week. I also noticed that the following week was “makeup testing.” Then I pointed out to my wife something really important (to me). I don’t care about state testing. Not at all. My oldest girl at the time was in third grade. What does state testing have to do with her long term success? The answer? Not a damn thing. My wife agreed, but told me it was my job to tell the school principal. “No problem,” I said. I went to the school the next day to talk to her about it. I said, “We are going to be taking the girls out of school next week for a family vacation.” She said, “But next week is testing.” She waited for the impact of this enormous announcement to sink in. But I said, “I know. But the next week is make up testing. I am sure they can take the test then, right?” She thought for a moment and said, “Oh…ok. But if they take it later the girls will not get their results with the rest of the school!” She clearly felt this was a big deal. “I literally don’t care about that at all.” I pointed out. With nothing left to offer, the principal (who was very nice by the way) said “Well…have a nice vacation.” And we did. The point about this fun story (that became a fun vacation) is that rules are important. They help keep society moving, and in many cases, polite. On the other hand, I don’t think that rules are made to be followed blindly. They are to be considered. They should be evaluated. And in some cases, they should be ignored. Don’t ignore this! It’s a great time to sign up for the VIP newsletter. Each week we take all of the content we create and put it in one email for you to consume. We know you are busy…so sign up to be come a VIP now.
by Kirby Hasseman
If you read this blog at all, you know I read quite a bit. But rather than just giving you a list like “Hey, here are some books I read,” I wanted to break them down into audience. For example, if you are in sales, I wrote a list of books that you might want to read. In addition, if you just want to grow personally, here is a foundational list of books I want my daughters to read. Today I wanted to focus on 10 books that I recommend for entrepreneurs.
There are a ton of great books out there that can help you grow as an business person…but here are a few that have inspired me!
E-Myth by Michael Gerber: This, my friends, is THE entrepreneur book. It starts here for me. I have read this book 10 times, and every time I read it, I am in a different place in my entrepreneurial journey. It’s an easy read and it’s powerful.
Profit First by Mike Michaelowicz: For me, this book was a game changer. I listened to this book the first time, and I was honestly wondering if Mike was following me around! We changed the way we did accounting in my business because of this book…and we are glad we did!
Finish by Jon Acuff: If you are like most entrepreneurs I know, you don’t have a problem starting new things. But do you finish? Jon Acuff gives tips and tactics for moving things to the “done pile.”
Content Inc by Joe Pulizzi: Yes…this is a marketing book. But I think this book has great meaning to entrepreneurs trying to tell their story in the world today. How can you become a “media company?” Start by reading this.
SCRUM by Jeff Sutherland: This book helps to answer the question, “how can my team and I get more done?” The SCRUM methodology is incredibly interesting and allows you to think about project management in a totally different way.
The Automatic Customer by John Warrillow: This one got me thinking about how you can make ANY business a subscription model. I love books that make me think! This one had me running new ideas in my mind for weeks.
4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney and Sean Covey: If you have ever gone to an event and come back inspired, then watched your ideas get lost “in the whirlwind” of business, this is the book for you. It greats down the 4 steps to implement “wildly important goals.”
The Go Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann: We always here that you need to be a “go getter” to be successful. I love this take on giving first.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*$k by Mark Manson: I loved Mark’s take on life. And once you get through the f-bombs, it’s pretty zen. My favorite concept had to do with the idea of “what are you willing to suffer through?” I love that.
Hustle by Jesse Warren Tevelow: This is not the deepest book…but I really dug it. The concept is he wrote the whole book in a week. It inspired me to think of what I could do if I just got out of my own way.
Hopefully these inspire you as much as they have me! Oh, and I am always looking for new books to read. Feel free to let me know your favorites!
Make sure you never miss an update! Sign up for our VIP newsletter here.
by Kirby Hasseman
“Busy” is the most over-used word in our culture today. It’s become the default answer for many people about how anything in their life is going.
How are you doing? Busy.
How is the family? Busy.
How is work? Busy.
Because of that, “busy” has lost it’s meaning. What does busy even mean?
I don’t want to be busy. I want to be productive.
This may sound strange if you read this blog a lot, because I spend a lot of time talking about “activity.” The idea in this blog from yesterday, is that you need to focus on the pro-active activities that lead you toward your goals. If you focus on those, every day, you will make steps toward success.
You might be thinking, “But won’t doing that make you busy?”
I can speak from experience when I say “yes.” But more importantly it will make you productive. I was reminded of this when I went on sales calls recently with another seasoned sales pro. We visited several customers. We dropped off samples. We had great conversations. We talked about new sales offerings. It was great! After the group of meetings I asked what we needed to do to follow up with these customers. After some thoughtful consideration, the answer was “nothing.”
I wasn’t sure why at the time, but that answer made me uneasy.
Then I figured it out. There was no next step. There was no call to action. We had some great conversations and engagements, but there was nothing we had decided to do to move the conversation forward. If that’s the case, then those calls were just “busy work.”
Action is important. But action for the sake of action is not the goal. The idea is to create action that moves to an outcome. Now don’t get me wrong. I am not suggesting we had to sell something right then. I just wanted to know what was next. It might have been:
*Sending a presentation with ideas.
*Calling to set up another appointment
*Writing an order
*Sending a sample
*Or even sending a note for taking the time time meet.
There needs to be a specific next step. And here’s the thing, your customers and prospects want that too! They have just taken time out of their day to engage with you. They have plenty of other things to do! So if they have given you the thing they can’t get back (time), what was the point of it?
So the next time you create a list of prospects and customers to call on, make sure to determine what you hope to make happen. What is the goal? What is the next step? Especially if you are going to call on me. If not, I will probably be “too busy” to see you.
Make sure you never miss an update! Sign up for our VIP newsletter here. We send out one email per week to catch you up on all of the content!
by Kirby Hasseman
I am a big believer in goals. Huge. I think it’s the first step in creating an “intentional” life. So many people have life “just happen” to them. They don’t think about what they want to do or where they want to go. So one day they wake up and are confused and disappointed about what their life has become. Why did this happen? Because they did not create their life on purpose. That all starts with goals. But here is something it has taken me a long time to learn…Goals are only part of the equation. You can’t just dream about a life that you want. You can’t just think it into existence. You have to go out and make it happen. That’s where your daly activity comes in. Jeff Haden does an amazing job of illustrating this in the book “The Motivation Myth.” He says his idea around goals is to “set it and forget it.” Then you need to focus on the daily action. So first you set the goal. Then you reverse engineer what you want to accomplish with activities that will get you there. Then you obsessively focus on the daily activities to keep you moving toward your goal. For example, let’s assume you want to achieve a specific sales goal. You set your big volume goal. But as they say in the book The 4 Disciplines of Execution, that is known as a LAG goal. That means, by the time you measure it, it’s in the past. It’s important to have a big LAG goal. But as a salesperson, you can’t make them happen without someone else. You can’t force the prospect to buy. You can only control your own actions. So in order to achieve the LAG goal, we want to create a LEAD measure. This LEAD measure is something that you can do on your own that will ultimately lead to more sales. What might some of these look like? *10 Prospect Calls Per Day*10 Face to Face meetings per week*1 Piece of Content Per Day*10 (Relevant) Product Presentations Per Week You get the idea. These are things that you can do to drive sales. You don’t need permission. You just need to do these things every day. If you do them, over time, good things will happen. So set the big goal. Dream big. I love it. But then it’s important to take the extra time to map the activities it will take to execute on the goal. Now…go do them…every day. Make sure you never miss an update! Sign up for the VIP newsletter now. Each week we send out one email to our VIP’s to give them all of the content in once place! Sign up here.
by Kirby Hasseman
Once a month, over the fall and winter months, a group of guys in my community get together to play poker. We are not expert poker players, by any means. Sure…some of the guys are better than others…but none of us have found ourselves in Las Vegas at the World Series of Poker. And that’s just fine. It’s not about the Poker. Each month I look forward to getting together, catching up, and laughing with this good group. Sure…all of us want to win. But that’s not the point. The point is to reconnect and to re-energize. That’s how I feel about some industry events. I might be going to a Trade show, but the products at the Trade show are often not the point. It’s about growing the relationship with supplier partners…or the education. Why does this matter? Because it’s important how you gauge success. If I only go to Poker to win a few dollars, I am missing the point. In addition, I am missing out on the best part of the experience. The same is true for events or other activity in our lives. Make sure you recognize and decide what you are there for. Then focus on that. Then you might get something from the exercise. Make sure you never miss an update! Sign up for our VIP newsletter here.
