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?
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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
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.
by Kirby Hasseman
At Hasseman Marketing, we have several goals. You may have heard this one: We want to Deliver Marketing Joy! We are committed to making your marketing (and the creation and purchase of it) fun! In addition, our goal is to become full-service. We want to become the Premier Marketing and Media company in Ohio. That’s a lofty goal. But having goals like that help us think about the company we want to become. What do we want to accomplish? How do we want to serve? It’s actually what drove us to start OhiosHeart.com. And now it’s driven us to take another bold new step. Hasseman Marketing has invested in a new Production Printer! Though we have always “offered” print as a part of our services, we have needed to outsource it. That’s been fine. But we feel it needs to be more of a sincere focus if we want to truly be full-service to help our clients achieve their sales and marketing goals. The reality is, our clients already trust us with their brand. Why not take this next step so they don’t have to trust anyone else? This in house print solution is now a reality with Hasseman Marketing…and we are fired up about it! What does this mean for you? The simple answer is, if you are a client of Hasseman Marketing, we can service all of your needs. So if you need a marketing video, a t-shirt or a printed piece, we have your back. And from our perspective, if you are thinking about doing business with Hasseman Marketing, a print job might be a great way to test us out! What kind of print? That’s a tough one because the list is a long one. But here are just a few things you can consider printing with us. Business Cards Flyers Greeting Cards Postcards Envelopes Postcards Posters Menus You get the idea. If you want to print it, talk to us. For more information, please talk to your HMC rep. Don’t have one? Email us here and we can hook you up! Thanks for indulging us with this blatant self promotion on the blog! Let us know how we can help! Want to make sure you never miss an update? Now is a great time to sign up for the VIP newsletter. It’s just one email per week…with all of the content in one place. Sign up here.
by Kirby Hasseman
Fact > Opinion Here’s a troubling thing about social media and our culture today. We have blurred the lines between opinions and facts. I tell you this and it’s a FACT! Careless Whisper is a terrible song! I mean, what kind of lyric is “Guilty feet have got no rhythm,” anyway? It’s so bad! Though I stand by that statement, it’s my opinion. It’s not a fact. And one of the biggest challenges I see to real truth telling in the world today is that (ever more) blurred line. It certainly starts with our traditional media. At one point, our news was brought to us at 6pm and 11pm and was designed to be informative in nature. Here are the events of the day But what media companies have discovered is that controversial opinions move the needle on viewership…and eyeballs mean advertising dollars. So more and more of what you see on the “news” is simply someone’s opinion on the events. It’s a line that has become difficult to see if you are not looking for it. But it’s not the media’s fault, my friends. It’s ours. Why? Well first of all, the media is a reflection of what interests us. If we stop watching, and ratings plummet, they will change. They are a business. So if we continue to gobble it up, they will continue to serve us. That’s part one. But maybe more importantly is what we do with the information that is served to us. What do we do with it? So often, we take the information at face value, with no research or thought, and we regurgitate it. Hateful and deceitful and, at the very least wildly biased messages get shared again and again. That, my friends, is not the media. That’s us. And you might say that “it’s the same for both sides of any argument.” You would be right…sort of. The fact is, more and more today we can shut out any voice that does not agree with us. We can block them on social media. We can watch only the the networks we agree with. We can attend only the events that rally our emotions. It becomes an echo chamber and that sort of distorted information channel is dangerous. What does this mean for you? It means, most likely, you have really strong opinions on most matters. They might even FEEL like facts. But have you really listened to both sides? Have you really dug in? Have you really done the research to understand the specifics? If so, cool. Let’s talk about it. I will probably still view it as your opinion…but at least it will be an educated opinion. If not, do us all a favor. Keep it to yourself. It’s time to get educated each week! Sign up for our VIP newsletter here.
