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Do You Do What You Say You’re Going to Do?

“Do what they say; say what they mean”

lyrics from “One Thing Leads to Another”, The Fixx

I’ll admit it; this is going to be a bit of a rant, so here goes. I’m terribly tired of people saying they want something (like more contacts, more business, to make more money, etc.) and yet, they aren’t willing to follow through and do the things that it takes to achieve those things!

Here’s what I’m talking about: recently I attended a fantastic networking event. In fact it was billed as “increasing your contacts by 50%”. It wasn’t cheap to attend (tickets were $45), so I assumed that only the serious networkers would show up.

One of the activities at the event was to identify something that you were looking for or needed (such as interest in your product or services, a coach, people to sign up for a class, etc). At each table, someone volunteered to be your “worker bee” and go around to the other tables, putting out there what you were looking for and if people were interested, they would give their business card to the worker bee. The worker bee’s then came back to your table with five or six business cards for the person to follow up with. All warm leads-wouldn’t you say?

But here’s what’s interesting. I received six business cards from people who were interested in what I was looking for (which was to tell them more about a teleclass I was holding). I also gave out six or seven of my business cards because I was interested in the products or services of six or seven other women at the event.

Here’s the interesting part…

I followed up with my leads, with a nice email-(nice to meet you, my worker bee collected your card and identified you as someone who wanted to hear more about my teleclass etc). However, not one person responded to the email.

In fact, I sent two emails and I called each one personally. Trust me, there was no sales pressure whatsoever-not even implied, just a friendly follow up kind of message.

What I found even more interesting is that not one of the people I gave a card to, to learn more about their product or service called or emailed me to follow up. Not one.

My second example this week is around attendance at my networking group. We meet every other week. People say they are committed, but many only sporadically show up at the meetings.

In fact, there’s one member who talks (and sends emails) to the group around the issue of instituting one-on-one coffees with people in the group. I e-mailed her over six weeks ago with some dates to meet for coffee and I’ve yet to hear back from her. In fact, she’s missed three meetings in a row (we meet every other week) and today she showed up and said she was so sorry, and would be getting back to me.

Do what you say and say what you do….

If you want to grow your business, if you want to expand your network or connections-you MUST FOLLOW-UP! You must. Don’t leave the business cards from a networking event in your jacket pocket or on your desk. If you tell someone you’ll call them next week-call them next week. If someone gives you a referral, call the referral for an appointment. If you say you’re going to make an introduction for someone-then make the introduction.

You must do what you say, and say what you do.

Okay…I feel better now. Thanks for listening and if you have any comments on this subject, be sure and leave them below!

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.

Are You Getting Enough Sleep?

by Mandy Schumaker Leave a Comment

I recently had the fortunate opportunity to attend a great workshop on improving your brain function and keeping it sharp. One of the things the presenter focused on was sleep and the importance of getting enough every night.

Now, I certainly have heard this before, and have myself, experienced significant sleep deprivation when my son’s were born, but what I hadn’t seen was some of the research and numbers on the impact lack of sleep can make on your output and general well being.

The ideal amount of sleep varies amongst individuals. And to determine how much sleep you need, you have to find out how much time it takes for you to wake up feeling refreshed without needing an alarm clock. Studies show it can be anywhere between 6-10 hours per night, which is why you hear that 8 hours is recommended, because it’s the average.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember the last time I had 8 hours of sleep in a night. I usually average 6-7 hours, mostly because I try to fit just one more thing in before I call it a night, like reading or sending one more email, or writing one more blog, or working on content for a teleclass.

According to a study by the Better Sleep Council, Americans know how to get better sleep; they just don’t act on it. And more importantly, it was also evident that Americans are not aware of the mental and physical consequences of sleep deprivation.

Another recent study by the Better Sleep Council shows sleep deprivation impairs quality and accuracy of work (31%), clear thinking or judgment (31%) and memory of important details (30%). In all areas, that’s one-third of our capacity for quality of work, clear thinking and remembering important details.

These studies and data have gotten my attention and so here’s what I propose: I’d like to challenge my Higher Performing People community to a sleep challenge. Here’s how to play.

You must commit to:

1-Finding out how much sleep your body really needs. Go to bed earlier than usual for a couple of nights and see what time you wake up without an alarm clock.

2-Once you get that number (somewhere between 6-10 hours), make a commitment to get that amount of sleep for 7 consecutive nights.

3-Notice any difference in terms of your productivity, judgment, physical condition, tiredness, afternoon slumps, your moods etc. You might want to jot these down in a journal.

Then let me know how you did, share what you learned and what you’re going to do on a regular basis when it comes to sleep. I’ll share comments and stories, as well as my own experience with this challenge, in an upcoming newsletter in the next couple of weeks.

If you have comments or suggestions for any of us up to this challenge, please leave a comment below! Good luck!

What’s Your Why?

by Mandy Schumaker Leave a Comment

“Those who know their Why are the ones who lead. They are the ones who inspire”

Simon Sinek

Do you know Why you do what you do? What’s the compelling story around how you ended up in the business, or career you now have? As someone once said, there’s always a story behind the story.

And that’s the story you need to be telling your clients and your employees, because our Why story is much more inspiring than what we do or how we do it.

When I was a sophomore in high school, my mother went back to college, finished her undergraduate degree and went on to get her master’s degree in Communications (both with a 4.0 grade point average). I then watched her struggle trying to figure out what to do next with all this knowledge she had collected.

Should she start her own business? Buy a business? Become a trainer? Work for someone else as a trainer? It was incredibly painful to watch her struggle over the years with what to do and how to do it. Paralyzed by her lack of confidences and self-doubt, she couldn’t even take that first step towards achieving her full potential.

And then it was too late.

My mother died of cancer at age 56. A dozen years later, I still miss her greatly, but what haunts me about her passing is that she could never find a way to use her many gifts to make a difference in the world. That’s why I decided to dedicate my professional life in helping people connect with their own gifts, to find that inner strength and to play a bigger game in this world.

This is now my quest – to help as many people as I can see and experience what my mother never could.

That is my Why story, and it’s a lot easier to connect with that story, than if I just said I was a business coach-right? Because people buy Why you do it, not what you do.

What’s yours? What is the reason—your Why—you get up every morning to do what you do? Reconnecting with your Why story can also inspire us to continue on in our businesses, even though things may feel hard and bleak.

I encourage you to take the time to reconnect with that story and start sharing it. Use it when you talk to a prospective client, or give a speech or presentation, and certainly be sure to share it with your employees.

Watch what happens, because people will really start to connect with your Why. Remember, people don’t buy what you do or how you do it, they buy Why you do it!

Please leave a comment below, I’d love to hear your Why story!

How Much Time Are You Working on Your Business?

by Mandy Schumaker Leave a Comment

Getting overwhelmed as an entrepreneur can be a fairly frequent occurrence, because there are so many things to do at any given time. I recently talked with a couple of entrepreneurs who have really increased their business in the past couple of weeks to the point where things are starting to feel overwhelming and stressful.

And there’s fear. Big fear.

Fear of having all the new business they’ve picked up, run out, and dry up. Because right now, they are so busy working in the business that they can’t work on the business.

In other words, all the prospecting, networking, following up, and seeding they did in the past six months, has really paid off, but now they don’t have time to continue their prospecting efforts and they know they may have nothing in the coming months, because they haven’t been seeding prospects.

One of the other challenges is not feeling like there is the time to work on some of your longer term projects, or to set up some of the systems in your business that would really move you forward in the future.

These are common concerns and ones that I see fairly often and there is just one solution: you must make the time in your schedule to continue to network and prospect, as well as move some of your other projects forward.

Here are some thoughts that might be helpful:

1-This is a good time to analyze what worked in terms of your networking and prospecting work. Where did all the business come from? Was it one particular activity? Maybe you sent handwritten notes, maybe you attended a lot of networking events, and maybe it was one-on-one coffees. Really look at what activity worked the best in bringing in all the new business you currently have.

2-Next, you must set aside the time to do the activity you learned from your analysis in #1 above EVERY SINGLE WEEK…regardless of how busy you are right now! Only you are in charge of your schedule and it’s crucial to schedule a few hours, even an hour or two to continue the prospecting activity.

3-You must also schedule the time in your calendar to continue working on some of the longer range projects. Perhaps you can’t currently spend a lot of time on them, but it’s important to get dates blocked off in the future, so you’ve created the time and space to work on them.

Not blocking your calendar to make time for yourself to prospect new business, or work on the projects that will help move your business forward is one of the biggest downfalls for entrepreneurs. It turns into a “feast or famine” situation over and over and over again. You either have too much business or no business. Using the three tips I listed above will help round out that roller coaster feeling for your income stream.

Please leave a comment below, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this and if you found this post helpful!

Are You Ready to Step Up, Innovate and Accelerate?

by Mandy Schumaker Leave a Comment

I began hanging around newspapers at the age of eight years old. Every Saturday morning, I’d go to breakfast with my Dad, and then we’d head over to the newspaper where my father was an editor, to spend the next few hours while he wrote his column and edited articles for the Sunday newspaper. I loved it so much; I then spent nearly twenty five years in the business myself.

This month, I have the opportunity to address a group of newspaper advertising executives with a message I’ve learned from working with and being an entrepreneur for over the past seven years. The connection I see between those in the newspaper today and some entrepreneurs is around mindset and beliefs.

For example, the newspaper industry research shows today that 69% of people over the age of 18, get their news from some sort of newspaper platform i.e. print, online, mobile, etc. That’s a number that other media would kill to have.

And yet, if the data were truly sufficient enough to truly change the way people think or behave, nobody would smoke, organized religion would have no followers and no one in their right mind would have unprotected sex!

Even with data and numbers that other media would love to have, many people in the newspaper business are negative and cynical about their industry. Again, it’s mindset. Newspapers have the numbers, they certainly have the brand-but they fall prey to all the negative beliefs about themselves, which is very similar to my experience with entrepreneurs. And where does that leave them—as a target for negative comments, feedback and the butt of many a joke.

Similarly, as an entrepreneur, you can have the best talent or gift, the best website, the best brand, the best idea, the best data on your product—but that’s not enough if you don’t believe in yourself.

You’ve got to believe in yourself, in your product and in your success…every single day, even when you don’t.

It’s a choice you can make every day. Will you step up, innovate and accelerate? Let me know in the comments below.

You Become What You Think About

by Mandy Schumaker Leave a Comment

I had the privilege this week of working with a group of terrific entrepreneurs and in the group was a woman I had met at another workshop I had conducted several months earlier. She and her husband had recently moved themselves and their business to Maine.

However, while they had had a successful business in the Midwest, they were struggling getting new clients from their new city. The story she was telling herself, over and over, was that they had been successful in the past and now since they had moved, they had to start all over again and they were failing.

The real story was, they still had lots of business coming from their former city and they weren’t doing any kind of marketing or networking in their new city to build on their base. I pointed out to her, that the story she kept telling herself (and others) was becoming true. They were starting to fail in their business-but not because they were failures, but because of her thoughts.

Dr Wayne Dyer does a great job talking about this very subject in the video below. It’s about 13 minutes long, but well worth the watch! Please be sure and leave a comment below and let me know what you think!

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