by Kirby Hasseman
My wife and I had the opportunity to attend an event called “Married Life Live” a few nights ago. Though I often hesitate to attend events like this, I am nearly always glad when I do. The fact is, just like in business, your relationships need for you to invest time and energy in them to make them better. The speaker this year was Shaunti Feldhahn. She is the author of several best selling books and on this night she spent a great deal of time talking about her book “The Kindness Challenge.” The concept is simple. You pick any relationship in your life (in this case she was talking to spouses) and for 30 days you do 3 simple things. 1. No negative talk to our about that person. This means you can’t say anything negative them. But it also means you can’t run to your friend and complain about them either. No negative talk about that person for 30 days.2. Sincerely compliment them on something they have done. Each day you find something you appreciate about them…and tell them.3. Do some act of kindness for them. This could be big or small. As Shaunti mentioned, for her 16 year old daughter, this act of kindness might be to stop working long enough to watch a youtube video with her. But each day, you make it a point to do something for them. I really like this concept. But there was one idea that jumped out to me above all others. Shaunti talked about one woman in a focus group that told her that she would really struggle to compliment her husband each day! She just could not imagine that she could come up with 30 compliments! She was so sure that she would not be able to come up with them that she decided to keep a notebook. “That way,” she told Shaunti, “I can bank them!” Then an awesome thing happened. On the first page of the journal, she listed 2 things that her husband had done for her. She thanked him for one of them and decided to save the next one for tomorrow. On day 2 she wrote down 5 things. On day 3 she wrote down 11! She was absolutely blown away by all of the good things her husband was doing that she was simply not noticing…until she started looking! There is science to back this up. The fact is, when you actively start to look for something, you tell your subconscious mind that it’s important. So your subconscious mind starts to find that thing and show it to you! It’s like when you buy a new car and start to see it all over the place! They were always there. You just needed to turn on the mental lights. So on this week of Thanksgiving, I want to challenge you to start your own Gratitude Journal. Start to look for things that are good in your life. An amazing thing will start to happen. You will start to find them! We are thankful for you! So please make sure you sign up to become a VIP! We want to provide you value each week so we send one email with all of our weekly content in one place. Sign up here.
by Kirby Hasseman
What are you doing today to get better? I am a big believer in ramping up activity in order to get better results. That can be in fitness, sales or being a better father. If you work harder on it, you generally get better at it. As I say all the time, “It’s simple. It’s not easy.” On the other hand, nearly everyone needs days to refresh and re-energize. I get that. As a matter of fact, I need that too. But even when you are looking to rest, you can do it intentionally. Is what you are doing bringing you real joy? Or are you just sitting on the couch, mindlessly watching crap? Are you filling your brain with good things? If you need a list of cool books to start with, check out my blog from the other day. As this post comes out, this is Sunday. Sunday is often thought of as a day of rest. Sure…but rest doing what? As I have asked before, what are you willing to invest? Today, I am challenging myself to watch educational videos…or listen to a good book. I might spend some time working out. Or I might spend some real time (no phones) with my family. Either way, my time will be spent on purpose. Will yours?
Make sure you never miss an update! That’s another way to invest your time wisely. Sign up for our VIP newsletter here.
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!
