Education

Category: Education

Top 10 Ways to Crush Distraction (6-10)

Posted on February 10, 2024 by Mark Ford

Part 2:

We all know what we should be doing; we just don’t want to do it. It’s easy to put off undesirable deadlines and assignments until the very last minute, but then we’re forced to pull a stress-induced all-nighter. Seven cups of coffee later, we’re exhausted, frustrated, and turning in a project that hardly showcases our best work. Here are the top 10 tips to crush procrastination and actually get some work done!

Last time we covered 1-5:

Get organized
Set simple achievable goals
Create a timeline/schedule
Set a deadline
Get rid of distractions

Now let’s complete the list and the coaching… (#9 is my “go to”)

6. Time yourself

When loaded with projects and deadlines, it’s easy to overwork yourself. Plus, our brains can really only handle so much information and focus at a time! So how long should you work on one item? Everyone is different, but most experts agree on a range of 50 to 90 minutes. Set a timer for a block of focused work to prevent yourself from burning out. You may have to experiment to find your “sweet spot” for the length of time you spend on each task. According to the Atlantic, the formula for perfect productivity is to work for 52 minutes and break for 17.

7. Take a break

It’s important to take mental breathers from work every now and then. When your timer goes off, take a 10–30-minute break. Listen to music, take a walk, do something less intense, or scream into a pillow—anything that takes your mind off of work and allows you to relax.

8. Use incentives

Everyone loves being rewarded. It’s important to give yourself incentives, no matter how small. It could be something as simple as, “If I work on this project for an hour, I’ll take a break to read a chapter of this new book.” Or it could be a bigger goal like, “If I knock the ball out of the park with my presentation at the meeting, I’ll take my significant other to our favorite restaurant.” It’s easier to pay attention when something is at stake.

9. Get the hard stuff done first

This may make you want to push everything back farther. It’s hard to do something that you don’t want to do. But guess what? Once you do it, it’s over! It is best to complete your most challenging assignments first. That way everything after it seems easier and takes a shorter amount of time. If you keep pushing the month end report back, you’re never going to get it done. It’s best to buckle down and just do it.

10. Tell someone about your goal

It’s easy to forget about assignments or put them off if you’re the only person holding yourself accountable. If you really want to get something done, tell a co-worker, friend, or family member. Now there is someone helping you hold yourself responsible for your goals. You can’t back out or slough it off. As an added bonus, you also have someone to celebrate your victories with, no matter how small. Whether it’s getting the promotion you’ve worked hard for this year or even just finishing a project a few days in advance, your friend will be there to support you.

Top 10 Ways to Crush Distraction (1-5)

Posted on September 18, 2023 by Mark Ford

Get organized

You can’t do any work if you don’t know what projects and items need to be completed. Invest in a planner or start using the calendar app on your phone. This makes it much easier to keep track of individual projects and important due dates. Need help getting started? Reach out.

Set simple, achievable goals

Part of the reason we procrastinate is because the task at hand seems too daunting. It’s much easier to start a project when you establish simple, reachable goals rather than to have just a big, vague plan. Instead of telling yourself, “I’ll complete the inventory tonight,” say, “I’ll complete inventorying sections 2 & 3 this evening.” This makes your goals less intimidating and more attainable by breaking them into smaller, more easily achievable tasks. It will help you feel more accomplished and driven to keep going if you’re checking off more tasks as you go.

Create a timeline/schedule

After you set your goals, create a timeline to complete them. This could be a schedule for your big sales event coming up (“Monday – Create the draft marketing plan. Tuesday – find out the pricing for the proposed marketing,” etc.), or it could be mapping out the inventory ordering training process (“I’ll write out steps 1-10 today from 1-2:30 p.m.”). Breaking an assignment into small chunks over time makes it much more manageable.

Set a deadline

So many people get trapped in the cycle of “Someday, I’ll organize my training manual” or “I’ll get to that communication later this week.” The truth is that “someday,” and “eventually” never come. It’s important to set a specific date for when you want your goals to be accomplished. If you have to meet a deadline, aim to have it completed one or two days in advance. Then, if something unexpected happens, you still have extra time to complete it.

Get rid of distractions

It’s important to rid yourself of all potential disruptions before you begin working so you don’t get needlessly sidetracked halfway through your task. If you tend to spend too much time on social media when you should be making cold calls, then set a timer on your phone to go off when you’ve spent 20 minutes scrolling so you can get to work. Distractions could also be external sources, like annoying employees. Try listening to music or white noise to drown out their constant chatter. Alternatively, you could change environments altogether and head down to the local coffee shop or to a private office, where you can clear your mind and study distraction-free.

Next time 6-10.

Strategy to Success – Why and Who

Posted on December 3, 2022December 3, 2022 by Mark Ford

Why strategize?

By developing and executing a strategy, you will save yourself money, time, and energy. Strategizing is the intelligent way to go about accomplishing your ends. It sets you up for success because of its inherent structure and organization. By strategizing before you barrel through aimless steps that might create desired change, you can avoid unnecessary frustrations and potential disaster.

What other reasons do people strategize?

Strategy opens up the possibility of achieving MORE than you anticipated. By working through the steps of strategizing, you can force yourself to realistically achieve loftier goals. Maintaining structure and organization will become second nature and you will see your potential outcomes thrive.

What types of goals should have a strategy?

ANY goal deserves a strategy! A strategy is not something that is only relevant to your most pressing goals. It is an innovative way to meet any and all of your expectations.

Is there a “right” strategy for my problem?

The short answer is no. There is a vast quantity of viable strategies for whatever position. Just as there are many different ways to get to New York City, there are many different paths to success. These paths, your strategies, can be adapted to fit your personal needs and enhanced by your personal strengths and talents.

Who can strategize?

Anyone can strategize. Strategies are appropriate for personal goals, financial goals, business success, and professional success to name a few. The possibilities are limitless. If you can think of a goal, you can develop an appropriate strategy for success.

Why strategize?

What other reasons do people strategize?

What types of goals should have a strategy?

ANY goal deserves a strategy! A strategy is not something that is only relevant to your most pressing goals. It is an innovative way to meet any and all of your expectations.

Is there a “right” strategy for my problem?

Who can strategize?

Coming up: “How to Strategize”

Strategy to Success

Posted on November 26, 2022 by Mark Ford

In our fast-paced world, how we achieve our goals and succeed can seem like an insurmountable challenge. Long gone is the era of simple action plans and typical conference calls. With accelerated advances in technology popping up with every tick of the clock’s second hand, we frequently see ourselves scrambling just to keep up.

The answer to how to keep up and get ahead?

Strategize.

You can have control over your goals. It just takes a bit of finesse, a dash of patience, and a heaping ton of strategy. Learning how to strategize is not only empowering and liberating, it’s essential for your ultimate success.

What is strategy?

To strategize is to determine how you will execute what you want to achieve. It is the solution to the looming “how am I going to manage this?” question.

What makes strategy different?

Strategies are NOT the same as plans, goals, outcomes, purposes, missions, or even visions. Let’s break it down.

Plans: Plans are developed to sort through what is needed to complete a goal. Plans can be lists of resources, milestones, and timeframes.

Goals: Goals are quantifiable results. The goals are the measurable portions of what you want to achieve (think numbers: for example, a set percentage profit gain).

Outcomes: Outcomes are the aftermath of reaching your goals. These are the things that happen or result from achieving your ends.

Purposes: Purposes answer the “why am I answering this?” question. They are ultimately the motivating force behind the action.

Missions: Missions combine your values and your purposes. Missions are most simply what makes you YOU and your business unique.

Visions: Visions are the realization of the endless possibilities. They are the “feel” of what you wish to accomplish. Visions, unlike goals, are intangible and cannot be scientifically measured.

Coming up: “Why Strategize?” and “How to Strategize”

Mind Your Own Business!

Posted on November 19, 2022 by Mark Ford

The concept of minding your own business means that while you are grinding away at your day job you need to be investing in your future and minding your own business. Pretty soon you’ll be able to walk away from that day job and mind your own business full time.

The best way to do this is through the acquisition of real estate.

Let’s take a quick look at where you are losing a great deal of your money. Taxes. Taxes have been around since 1913 in the U.S. (earlier in England). While the original intention was to only tax the wealthiest of the population, obviously that’s trickled down to the masses, including those in poverty.

Now, keep in mind the more money you make the more taxes you pay. The wealthy know a way of getting around this – form a corporation. Corporations offer tax benefits and protect you from lawsuits. To learn more about this talk with one of our business coaches or your attorney.

We’ve all heard the golden rule of: Pay Yourself First.

But many of us don’t do it. Until you learn and put this rule into effect, you won’t have any chance of getting out of the rat race. What this rule does is force you to come up with more income to pay your expenses.

There are some key areas of finance you should learn about, taking classes is one of the best ways to do this. Here are the basics you should learn:

Accounting

It pays to know how to read financial statements. When acquiring businesses or assets you need to quickly see the financial standing of the company you are acquiring.

Many do not know how to balance a balance sheet. In the long term, this knowledge will pay off for you and your business.

Investment Strategy

This skill will sharpen with experience. Talk to investors and observe how they play the game.

Market Behavior

Know the laws of Supply and Demand. No business owner can do without understanding these basic principles of the market. Bill Gates saw what people needed. Open your eyes to opportunities. Look at what sells and who buys.

Law

Do everything you can to grow your business within legal boundaries. Know your corporate, state, and accounting laws.

Once you know these areas of finance you can make them WORK for you. The rich practically invent money, and that’s many times through investments. You have to know where to find a great deal. Let’s continue with real estate. Look for houses in trouble or find the court in your area that handles foreclosed, police impounded or other real estate situations. You can either renovate and sell or rent for residual income.

So, essentially there are two main types of investors:

Those who buy pre-packaged investments
Those who create their own investments

You know which are the most successful. In order to be one of those people you need to know what to look for and how to respond.

You must:

Find a good deal other people have missed.
Raise the capital needed for the transaction.
Put together a high-performing team to execute the plan.

There is risk involved in every acquisition. The goal is not to avoid the risk, but to respond to the risk with confidence and a steady hand.

If you need help identifying potential money-makers, where to get the capital you need and how to put together a smart team, try our FREE test drive to gain access to our resources and tools.

Get Out of the Rat Race

Posted on November 12, 2022 by Mark Ford

We’ve all worked jobs we hated. We were underpaid, underappreciated and bored out of our minds. We either quit these jobs or were let go due to poor performance or poor motivation because we just gave up. Instead of taking that approach you need to consider every job an opportunity to learn something new that you can apply down the line to find success.

When you give people the tools they need to come up with unordinary solutions, you are enhancing their lives for the long run. You need to take this approach. What if one of your terrible jobs had been one with no pay at all and you needed to come up with some ingenious ways of making money? I bet you could have found a diamond in that rough. This idea can also be used in your own company.

I don’t recommend going into the next meeting declaring that no one will receive pay anymore, but you can tell them that their potential raises, bonuses and other perks are now dependent on their creativity in ways to enhance business.

Let’s talk about a great concept called financial literacy. This certainly isn’t something they taught you in school but is still essential to know. So, what is financial literacy?

The old school way teaches people to be good employees and not employers. This mindset will never make you wealthy. You need to focus on becoming a good employer. You also need to learn how to not only attain wealth but sustain wealth for generations. This is what financial literacy is all about.

So, how do you get out of the rat race and start working toward a wealthier future? You need to understand the difference between an asset and a liability. Take a look at your own life and you’ll probably find the following:

Assets

Real Estate
Stocks
Bonds
Intellectual Property

Liabilities

Mortgage
Consumer Loans
Credit Cards

You’ve probably been fooled into thinking things like your house, car and entertainment system are assets. They aren’t! Assets should be continuing to MAKE you money. When you continue to struggle, you are not building wealth. If your primary income is from wages and each time you make more money you pay taxes, you’re not really creating wealth either, are you?

So, if buying a house isn’t an asset (and it’s not because you spend about 30 years of your life paying it off), then what is? Here are some of the best assets to attain and when you can start to actually see wealth being created because of it:

Average time of holding on to an asset before selling it for a higher value:

1 year

Stocks (Startups and small companies are good investments)
Bonds
Mutual funds

7 years

Real estate
Notes (IOUs)
Royalties on intellectual property
Valuables that produce income or appreciate

So, here are the steps to getting out of the rat race and onto your journey of creating wealth:

Understand the difference between an asset and a liability.
Concentrate your efforts on buying income-earning assets.
Focus on keeping liabilities and expenses at a minimum.
Mind your own business.

If you need help getting out of the poor mindset and into the wealthy one, try our FREE test drive and work with one of our experienced business coaches today.

We went through the first three and next time we’ll talk about how to mind your own business to keep your eye on the prize.

Prepare for Lift Off!

Posted on November 5, 2022 by Mark Ford

Last time, I gave you a laundry list of tips and tricks you can use to make your word of mouth program work for you. Hopefully you’ve taken a look and decided which ones are the best fit for your company, products, services and target customers, so you can put them to work in your word of mouth campaign.

We are going to wrap up this series on word of mouth where we give you the specific steps to create a word of mouth campaign.

Now, let’s take a look at those steps:

Seed the market. Find some way to get the product into the hands of key influencers.
Provide a channel for the influencers to talk and get all fired up about your product.
Offers lots of testimonials and other resources.
Form an ongoing group that meets once a year in a resort and once a month by teleconference.
Create fun events to bring users together and invite non-users. Saturn, Harley-Davidson, and Lexus have all been successful with this approach.
Develop clips on your website featuring enthusiastic customers talking with other enthusiastic customers.
Hold seminars and workshops.
Create a club with membership benefits.
Pass out flyers.
Tell friends.
Offer special incentives and discounts for friends who tell their friends.
Put the Internet to work.
Do at least one outrageous thing to generate word of mouth.
Empower employees to go the extra mile.
Encourage networking and brainstorm ideas.
Run special sales.
Encourage referrals with the use of a strong referral program.
Use a script to tell people exactly what to say in their word of mouth communication.

These are all amazing ways you can get the word out about your products and services and start a word of mouth campaign that takes on a life of its own. Before you can release your word of mouth campaign out into the world, you need to go through the checklist to make sure you’ve covered all the essentials.

Here’s your word of mouth campaign checklist:

Are all of your communications sending the same simple message? If it can’t survive word of mouth, it’s not a compelling story.
Is your product positioned as part of a category? ex.”A dandruff shampoo that doesn’t dry out your hair.”
Are your examples outrageous enough to be shared?
Do you enhance your materials with success stories from real people?
Are you using experts effectively and in an objective manner?
Have you created mechanisms so people can follow up on the word of mouth they hear, as well as simple ways of inquiring or ordering?
Have you made the decision process easy for customers?
Have you created events and mechanisms so that once a year your prospects hear about your product, and it is easier to try or buy?

These are all essential elements to keep in mind when taking a second or even third check over your word of mouth campaigns. I hope you’ve found this series on word of mouth to be a great resource and are getting ready to put it into action for your own products and services.

Remember, if you need help with anything in this series, try our FREE test drive to gain access to the best resources, tools and business coaches you can find.

Put it to Work!

Posted on October 31, 2022 by Mark Ford

In the last post we talked about how to conduct word of mouth research and then put that research to work. Today we’re going to give you some great tried and true ways to use word of mouth when building and executing your campaign.

We’ve done it in a list form, so you can go through and highlight the ones you want to put into action. These are offered by George Silverman which you can find in his amazing book The Secrets of Word of Mouth Marketing.

Here they are:

Give them something worth talking about
Cater to your initial customers shamelessly
Give them incentives to engage in word of mouth
Ask them to tell their friends
The customer is always right
Always tell the truth
Surprise the customers by giving them a little more than they expected
Give them a reason to buy, make them come back and refuse service from anyone else other than you
Make eye contact, and smile…even through the telephone
Find ways to make doing business with you a little better: a warmer greeting, a cleaner floor, nicer lighting, a better shopping bag, extra matches, faster service, free delivery, lower prices, more selection.
Never be annoyed when a customer asks you to change a large bill even if he doesn’t buy anything.
The customer is your reason for being. Never take her for granted. If you do, she will never come back, and will go straight to your competition.
Always dust off items, but never let the customer see you doing it.
Never embarrass a customer, especially by making him feel ignorant.
Never answer a question coming from a desire to show how smart you are. Answer with a desire to help the customer make the best decision.
Never shout across the store, “How much are these condoms?” or anything about the personal items a customer is buying.
When you don’t know, say so. Do whatever you can to find out the answer.
Every customer is special. Try to remember their names.
Don’t allow known shoplifters into the store.
Don’t ever let two sales staff talk when a customer is waiting. The worst thing you can do is count your cash while a customer is waiting.
If you can suggest something better, they will be grateful. Always respect their choice.
Never pressure anyone into buying anything.
Never knowingly give bad advice. Just help people come to the right decision.
Personally visit the store of the competition or assign people to visit and report back to you.
Hire a shopping service to prepare periodic reports on how your people are treating your customers.
If you hear of a store where the management is insulting the customers, buy it, then put up the sign “Under New Management” outside. Then sell it later based on the increased sales.
One expert (in the drugstore’s case, a nurse or physician) who is convinced you are better brings hundreds of customers and their friends through word of mouth.
Always look for ways to make a stranger a customer.
People will walk several blocks to save a dollar, or see a smile, or be treated right.
Always run a sale promotion or an offbeat event. Make them come back to see what you are cooking up next.
Use the best sign-maker you can find and pay him more than anybody else.
If someone is mad at you, they will tell everyone who will listen for as long as they are angry, maybe even longer. So – correct any dissatisfaction and ask customers to send their friends.
Treat your employees and salespeople who sell to you the same way you treat your customers.
Have a zero-error system. There may be terrible consequences for example, if a mistake is made filling a prescription. Have people check each other’s work for safety.
Occasionally make intentional mistakes to see if people are checking.
Always measure your performance.
Always ask a customer to “come back soon”
If customers say they are moving away, offer to send them their favorite items by mail.
Tell jokes.

I know this is a lot of information to digest so we’re going to wrap up this lesson and leave you with the homework of going through and taking a look at the tips and tricks you like best. Also, look for tips that fit your company, products, services and target customers for the most effectiveness.

If you need help with this process, try our FREE test drive and get all the help you need from our experience business coaches.

Search & Implement

Posted on October 22, 2022 by Mark Ford

People only remember the extraordinary, strange, wild, surprising and unusual. You need to make sure your ideas and marketing reflect these reactions. This doesn’t mean you have to have a product or service that is completely out of the norm, in fact, this could easily drive customers away. You need to have a product or service that is high quality and easily marketable, then you need to market it as extraordinary and new.

As you research word of mouth, there are some questions you need to ask along the way:

What are the users willing to tell the non-users?

Exactly how do your customers describe your product?
What are the non-users willing to ask the users?
What are the things they need to know, but are unwilling to ask?
What happens when these issues are raised?
Exactly what do your prospects have to know in order to trigger purchase?
Exactly how do your customers answer the objections, concerns, and qualms of your prospects?
How do your customers persuade their friends to use your product?
How do your customers suggest they initially get to know or try your product?
What warnings, safeguards, tips, and suggestions do your customers suggest to your prospects?
Are your sales messages, positioning, and important facts about your product getting through and surviving word of mouth?
What messages do you need to inject into the marketplace in order to turn the tide in your favor and how will you deliver them?

There are two main reasons why word of mouth research is so important:

To get the real impression and feedback from customers
To define word of mouth itself and the concept it creates

There is a simple formula that can help you conduct your word of mouth research. It’s called the “2-2-2” model.

2-2-2- Model

What this breaks down to is:

2 groups of customers
2 focus groups of prospects
2 mixed groups (enthusiasts & skeptics)

In these groups you need to ask the following questions:

What would you tell a friend?
How would you persuade a skeptic?
What questions would you anticipate from a skeptic?
How would you answer their objections?

The best way to conduct these groups is by teleconference. This ensures you’ll get a good variety of demographics for your customers and potential customers. It also allows people to feel safe and more able to express their true feelings. These teleconferences should not be conducted by you, but an independent party to avoid adding pressure to the situation.

We’re going to transition a bit and talk about how to construct a word-of-mouth campaign. First, we’ll talk a look at the essential ingredients you need to put together a campaign. These ingredients are:

A superior product
A way of reaching key influencers in your marketplace
A cadre of experts willing to bat for you
A large number of enthusiastic consumers
A way of reaching the right prospects
One or more compelling stories that people will want to tell to illustrate your product’s superiority
A way to substantiate, prove, or back up your claims and how the product will work in the real world
A way for people to have direct, low-risk experience, a demo, sample, or free trial
A way of reducing overall risk, an ironclad guarantee

Once you have those ingredients ready to use, you should consider the situations in which your company can benefit from a strong word of mouth program. Some of these situations are:

When there are credibility problems
When there are breakthroughs
When there are marginal improvements
Where the product has to be tried in large numbers or over time
Where there is high risk in trying the product
With older or mature products that have a new story that people tend to ignore
With unfair competitive practices such as spreading rumors, or telling lies about your product
When there are governmental or other restrictions on what you may say or claim directly

While most of the word of mouth tactics are positive for your word of mouth program, there are a few products to avoid using in this program. They are:

Products where a seminar would not provide meaningful added value
Products that can’t be tried and where there is no consensus among experts
Products that are clearly inferior, without having a compensating superiority for similar products
Products that are so personal or emotion that rational discussion is irrelevant to the decision
Products where the decision value is so small (low price/low volume) the medium will not be cost-effective.

This wraps up this post on word of mouth research and how that research can be used when putting together your word of mouth campaign. If you need help with the research and a plan to use the results of that research, try our FREE test drive to get all the help you need with our top notch resources and tools.

Science of the Memes

Posted on October 14, 2022 by Mark Ford

Today I’d like to discuss the science of memes and how spreading ideas around and through society is ingrained in humans.

Memes

This refers to types of ideas that spread the fastest through society, why they spread fast and how that affects consumerism. You can use this same information to create a lasting positive impression about your company, products and services. People are more likely to try a new product or services when they feel protected and reassured by the masses.

It’s been determined that spreading ideas is essential to the survival of a society. There are 5 main situations where this occurs. They are:

Crisis
Mission
Problem
Danger
Opportunity

Think of evangelism. This is prime example of people not only spreading the word, but convincing people to jump on board and start to spread the word themselves. To do this effectively, you need to incorporate a few key things that always catch people’s eye:

News
Unique Results
The Unusual
Helping Others
Secrets

Next, we’re going to switch gears a little and talk about viral marketing. While, traditional marketing can be used to your advantage, the reality is viral and online marketing is the king of the castle. You can spread the word online like the plague, if you know what to do. Here are some simple steps to do this:

Find an interesting idea
Make it easy for people to experience or trial
Spread the idea while people who are in close contact with others
Take advantage of existing communication methods
Develop the way of trying your product in such a way that it automatically draws more try-ers

Some great places to use viral marketing are:

Geocities
Amazon
Roger Wilco
YouTube
Facebook Messenger
Instagram Messenger
TikTok
Gmail
“Tell A Friend” Buttons
E-Greeting Cards

There are six things everyone should be doing to benefit from word of mouth on the internet:

Put WOM components on your website.
Assign people to monitor your viral marketing.
Place testimonials in different places on your website to walk a customer through the purchasing cycle.
Set up an email marketing campaign.
Stay up to date on what products and services the experts in your industry are recommending.
Use your website to demonstrate the great ways people are using or finding success with your products and services.

This wraps up the lesson on traditional and viral marketing. If you need help putting together any of the plans or successes in this lesson, try our FREE test drive to get all the help you need to put these plans into action.