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Off Your Game?

The game has its ups and downs, but you can never lose focus of your individual goals and you can’t let yourself be beat because of lack of effort.

Michael Jordan

This week was school vacation week in our house and instead of taking a big trip away, we chose to take day trips and stay closer to home. It was a great week, lots of family time and fun activities, but I had recently just returned from a week away with a friend in Europe and was already feeling a bit “off my game” in my business.

It happens to all of us at one time or another. There are disruptions in our lives that can often pull us in another direction for awhile and we can lose focus of our goals.

I experience this with my clients and I often see it happening eight to ten weeks into the New Year. Remember back to January, where we were all so gung-ho to get our goals in place for the year and really commit to what we want? Then something or some event or situation demands our attention and we wonder how we got so off track to our best laid plans?

The trick is recognizing where you are and where you need to be, and getting yourself refocused and back on your game. Don’t beat yourself up, or make negative comments about any of it, because this happens to everyone. The muscle you need to learn to develop is how to refocus your attention and continue on your path and “get back in the game”.

Here are three suggestions to help you get refocused on your business-and they work because I just used them for myself this week!

1-Schedule a ½ hour with yourself (yes, put it in your calendar) to review your business plans, goals and visions. Figure out where you are in the process and write down the next three steps you need to take, from where you are today, to get back on track.

2-Surround yourself with positive affirmations, tapes, people, quotes, build a vision board; make a mind movie-whatever works for you. When we get off track, we usually start giving ourselves negative messages, which in turn spiral us further down and make it increasingly difficult to get back on track. Find a way to circumvent the negative tapes by creating lots of positive input for yourself.

3-Make a list of everything you are grateful for-nothing puts us in a better frame of mind than to be grateful for all the wonderful things in our life. It helps us focus on what’s important and puts us in a state of abundance, rather than lack.

I can guarantee that taking these three steps will help get you refocused on your goals, give you renewed energy and help you continue the success you’ve already created for yourself!

Be sure and let me know how this works for you!

Mandy works with talented, high energy self employed professionals and very small businesses who struggle to market their business effectively, stretch their capacity and play a bigger game. Mandy’s client’s receive proven, specific information on what they need to do to get more clients and grow their business. As a result, those who coach with Mandy increase their business, get more clients and make more money, faster and easier than they ever would have on their own. Sign up for her free Cd “7 Productivity Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs” right down below.

What’s Your Why?

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Do you know “why” you do what you do? Would you be willing to do what you do for free-all day long? This week, I spent a lot of time with several different groups of entrepreneurs. In each group we spent some time trying to understand why we do what we do. What’s our compelling story? What was our defining moment?

Why is it important to determine all of this? Because people buy your why-they don’t buy how you do it, or even what you do-they buy WHY you do it.

One of the best examples I’ve ever seen in explaining this, is Simon Sinek’s Ted Talk, “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action”. Take a look and be sure and leave a comment below…

What You Think About, Matters!

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“Wow-aren’t you lucky!” “You’re kidding me, how did that happen?” This is the response I’ve gotten from lots of my friends and family, when I told them I’d be going to Florence, Italy for a week (without my husband and two sons).

I have a friend who travels to Italy every year for 6-7 weeks and she has invited me to join her a time or two before. For whatever reason, it never worked out, because I felt for me, it was too hard to figure out how to leave my family, business, etc and run off to Italy. (Read that last line closely, I felt it was too hard, impossible, really).

But the last few years, I’ve been doing a lot of work on my belief system, which some people refer to as mindset. One of the exercises I did last year, was to create a mind movie, which is a visualization tool using pictures and affirmations set to music to help you manifest the life and business you desire. (You can search mind movies on
You Tube, to see some great examples of mind movies people have created) *

You then watch your mind movie once or twice a day, so the images, music and affirmations that support the life you are creating for yourself, are always top of mind. It’s the same theory as listening to motivational tapes and speakers, or frequently reading affirmations.

In my mind movie, I had placed quite a few pictures of the places I wanted to see around the world, including a beautiful picture from a terrace in Italy. And for nearly a year, I watched my mind movie everyday, sometimes twice a day.

When you see a picture over and over and over, it can really get into your subconscious, or your belief system. So this summer, when my friend asked me again to join her in Italy, I felt it was totally possible for me to take advantage of the opportunity. And things just fell into place, my husband encouraged me, I easily found childcare for my children, I easily found someone to help me book my flights, using my points from a credit card-it all became possible.

So, I don’t believe it was by luck, or by chance that this opportunity came; I believe that through the visualization of what I really wanted for myself, I was ready when the opportunity came again.

Your thoughts do matter. What you think about, what you believe, what you put in your brain, ALL matter!

What are you thinking about? Will you be ready when the opportunity presents itself?

*Mind movies can be created a variety of ways using IMovie, Animoto and many other software programs that are available. If you’d like more information on how to create your own mind movie, please feel free to contact me at: mandy@mandyschumaker.com and I’d be happy to help walk you through the process (and share some more results!)

You Must Keep Your Pipeline Filled

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Have you ever found yourself so busy handling client business that you stop networking, having one-to-ones, and putting yourself out there because, well, YOU’VE GOT TOO MUCH BUSINESS TO HANDLE?

And then what happens? You complete all of those client engagements and then YIKES-you turn around and there is nothing coming in. Nada, nuttin’, zero, zed. I can totally speak to this, because it’s happened to me numerous times. I network like a fiend, then am pushed to the max, handling all the business I’ve received from the outreach I’ve done, stopped the outreach (because I’m too busy with the client work) and then WHAM-nothing coming in.

This has happened to me nearly every summer when I move Downeast with my kids for July and August. When I come home in September, it’s like starting all over again. (I have a whole new plan on how this will work this summer.)

You MUST find a way to consistently network, put yourself out there and fill your pipeline. No matter how busy, or crazy your business (or life) becomes. Because when your pipeline is empty,it takes a lot of time, energy and perseverance to get the momentum going again. Not only have I seen it myself, but I’ve seen it with many of my clients.

And what’s worse, when you finally have room to breathe, and you go to find that new client work and there’s nothing there, that little voice (you know which one I mean) starts saying, “What if I don’t get work soon, I might not be able to pay my bills!” or “Wow-you really don’t have any business-what a failure!”

Then it becomes harder than ever to attract business when you come from a scarcity mentality.

So consider this:

1-Consistently schedule (and of course, attend) networking events

2-Make the time to go-no matter how busy you are

3-Schedule time each day or week for follow-up with leads and those that have indicated they might like to work with you

4–Schedule time to have at least one or two one-to-ones a week with potential clients or strategic alliances (those that are movers and shakers and can refer you)

5-Continue to practice gratitude for all the great clients (and client work) that you have-there’s nothing like gratitude to keep you in an abundant place, and attracting more and more new business

Let me know how this works for you-I’d love to hear from you!

Sorry, It’s Not About You…

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I attend a lot of networking events and currently belong to two different networking groups. I finally figured out what can make them feel tedious and drawn out at times: When people make it about themselves instead of other people, namely their customers or who they serve, I lose interest in what they are saying.

You’ve heard it before, “I’m an attorney and I practice criminal law, the usual, DUI’s, domestic violence and I also handle civil cases”. While this describes ‘what” they do, it is totally focused on them and not “who” they do it for.

Other examples of making it about you, is in website copy. Or sales pitches, or through email when contacting someone you don’t know.

The cardinal rule: Don’t ever make the conversation about you…make it about them- 100% about them.

All of your marketing material, emails, promotions, website copy, letters, elevator speeches, networking meetings, should be 100% about your audience-what you do for them, what you can do for them, and what you will do for them.

People are only interested in “what’s in it for me”, and the more you can make your message about “them” the more successful you’ll be. They want to know what results you bring, what value proposition you bring.

Derek Halpern, of Social Triggers has a great downloadable pdf, called, “How to Email Influential People”. He talks in great detail about this exact issue and while his article applies to emails, it is relevant for everything else as well.

Assignment: I challenge you to take a look at your website copy, marketing materials, previous email you have sent out, and your elevator speech. Look closely-have you made it all about you? Where can you make the changes to make it all about “THEM”.

See if this doesn’t make a huge difference in making connections with others and getting more “yeses” in your business!

3 Ways to Bring More Focus to Your Day

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“At some point you start seeing the difference between what you really want, and what is your priority order. I feel that today I know what I want. That’s the problem with perspective, as well as focus and concentration.”

Nick Cave

Imagine. Coming into your office in the morning, sitting down at your desk, beginning to work on that big project that’s been hanging over your head. You spend three hours, and get at least 80% of it done. You take a little break, then come back to your office and work through all the things on your to-do-list for the day. You end your day feeling productive, accomplished and pleased with yourself.

Sound like your typical day? If you’re like most of us, probably not.

Keeping focus on our big goals and tasks is one of the most challenging things we face as small business owners. Because we have to do everything, marketing, bookkeeping, invoicing, networking, follow-up, oh and yeah-we have to service our clients as well, being able to focus on the big vision stuff that will really move us forward in our businesses, often takes a back seat to everything else.

Here are three tips that may help you get your focus back, and start on those bigger vision projects that will help you play bigger in your business.

1-Be Clear On “The What”
You need to be laser-focused on “the what”. Having a to-do list that is a mile long, is not going to help you get focused or frankly on getting anything done. I urge my clients to choose three priorities for the day-and ONLY THREE! It really is difficult to focus or accomplish much more than that. I find, choosing the three things I want to work on, the night before, helps me jump right into it when I reach my office.

2-Start with the Big Stuff
Do you always leave the “big stuff” for last? Perhaps you find it easiest to start your day with email, making some phone calls, checking in with clients, then before you know it-it’s 4:30 pm and the day is almost over! Try beginning your day working on a big project (you know which ones I mean). The ones that have been hanging over your head for a while and are “zapping” energy from you because you keep thinking about them. Pick one, put a quick three or four step tactical plan together on how to complete, set a timeline and get at it!

3-Chunk Your Time in 90 minute Segments
If you’re anything like me, you want to wait until you have big chunks of time (like a half or full day) to work on what you deem, your “big stuff”. The problem becomes, when do we ever have a free half or full day available-rarely, right? I have found that when I first enter my office in the morning, instead of looking at email, or doing small tasks, I take the “big stuff” and make it a priority and spend an uninterrupted 90 minutes on one of the priorities. Uninterrupted time means turn off email, phone, social media and anything else that’s a big distraction to keeping you on task. Set a timer for 90 minutes and work only on that one project. You will be amazed at how much you get done and how far along you get. Oh, and be sure to block out your calendar for these 90 minute work periods and stay true to the appointment with yourself!

It’s so easy to let resistance get in our way; you know what you need to get done. I challenge you today, to pick one or two things you’ve resisted doing even though you know that taking action on them would be beneficial. Write down how it would “feel” to accomplish these, then take action on them TODAY. Even if it’s just the first step!

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