How To Guarantee Success And Eliminate Failure.
By · CommentsHow many times have you asked yourself that question?
Stick with me for a second. Close your eyes and then ask yourself the question, “Why do people fail?”
What is the first thing that came to mind? For me it was: fear.
So what is fear? (“False Experiences Appearing Real” they shout from the peanut gallery.)
Ok, I agree, it is a good acronym and there is some truth to it, but is it really fear?
I believe that fear is an anticipation of pain, either real or imagined.
But this article is not about fear; it is about failure.
Does fear cause failure? Or does failure cause fear? Perhaps they cause each other.
If you have ever stuck your toe in, or even dove head first into, the pool of self improvement, you have probably heard the name Anthony (Tony) Robbins.
Now I will be the first to admit I have not read or listened to all of his material (and probably never will). However, I did run across something of interest a few months back that directly relates to this article.
Tony says that our lives revolve around a cycle of conditions, and that the cycle can either propel us higher or lower depending on where we are.
Allow me to elaborate. According to Tony Robbins, we follow a certain pattern that I will attempt to illustrate below…
To Read this entire article and keep it as your own to give away to anyone who might benefit simply click here: Guarantee Success This is my gift to you for visiting my blog today… BTW its in PDF format.
Jimmy Slagle
This was my answer…
As a business immersion coach, serial entrepreneur, and business acceleration strategist, I have had the opportunity to ask and answer this question not only of myself but of the countless clients I have worked with… It is the answer to this question that prompted the creation of my Unleash Your Inner Maven Program.
Below are the top five things that have routinely surfaced as this question is posed.
1. Create a Charismatic Magnetizing Blueprint (CMB) ~ This answers the how of a traditional business plan. This blueprint specifically addresses the six obvious entrepreneurial trends that induce marketing deficit disorder: Access to Capital, Marketing and Innovation, Workforce Culture, Customer Service, Emerging Technologies, and Compliance. A CMB will identify the who, what, when, why, where, and how of these six components of success.
2. Hire a coach ~ According to a recent survey of executives from large (mostly Fortune 1,000) companies who had participated in either “change oriented” coaching, aimed at improving certain behaviors or skills, or “growth oriented” coaching, designed to sharpen overall job performance. The programs lasted from six months to a year.
About 60% of the executives were ages 40 to 49–a prime age bracket for career retooling. Half held positions of vice president or higher, and a third earned $200,000 or more per year. Asked for a conservative estimate of the monetary payoff from the coaching they got, these managers described an average return of more than $100,000, or about six times what the coaching had cost their companies.
Almost three in ten (28%) claimed they had learned enough to boost quantifiable job performance–whether in sales, productivity, or profits–by $500,000 to $1 million since they took the training. They also reported better relationships with direct reports (77%), bosses (71%), peers (63%), and clients (37%), and cited a marked increase in job satisfaction (61%) and “organizational commitment” (44%), meaning they are less likely to quit than they were before. (source: Manchester Executive Coaching)
Managers described an average return of $100,000–about six times what the coaching had cost their companies.
My own personal experience and that of those I have directly asked this question would unanimously agree that hiring a coach (specifically a self-funding coach) should be in the top 3 priorities of every business owner who wants to move beyond their own limitations and comfort zone.
3. Truly understand the financial nuances of the business: This goes beyond the basic profit and loss statements, cash flow reports, and other metrics studied by most business owners. To truly understand the finances of a business, the owner and financial officers must understand the “why” behind the numbers. They must understand the element of time impact (inventory shelf life, days to receivables, contract terms, etc.), they must understand percentage trends (sales growth rates, percentage of price to cost of goods, etc.), and they must understand what factors are in their control and manage them effectively.
4. Focus only on their (personal and corporate) strengths: Most businesses try to be all things to all people in the niche they have chosen. This, more than any other factor, leads to complacency, mediocrity, and frustration for the business and the client. Business owners should focus on their core strengths and reach a level of mastery while discovering and identifying core weaknesses and outsourcing them.
5. Understand and Strive for Balance: Many, if not most, business owners dedicate their lives to their business and in the process destroy their health, family, relationships, and soul. It is not only possible to achieve a life of balance; it is far more rewarding. Most entrepreneurs enter this arena for the challenge… the battle. You see, it’s not just that an entrepreneur needs a battle to fight; he needs someone to fight for. This is balance. The battle itself is never enough, It’s not enough to be a hero; It’s that we have to be a hero to someone in particular… our spouse, our family, our community.
I could go on for hours, however I think you get the point. Every entrepreneur enters the battlefield because of a desire to answer one question: “Do I have what it takes?” Most continue to try to answer this question daily. For some, clarity comes and the question is answered. For others they get lost in the daily grind and can never break free from the “job” they have created and it will ultimately kill them either financially, morally, or even worse physically.
Creating a plan, having a coach, understanding the financial nuances, working in strength, and fighting for balance can and has answered the question “Do I have what it takes?” for many entrepreneurs… myself included.
The victory of this battle ushers in the prize of Security, Variety, Significance, Growth, Connectivity, and Contribution. A worthy prize to fight for, wouldn’t you agree?
Jimmy Slagle is a pioneer in the emerging profession of immersion coaching, he has developed a deeply focused, intensely personal, and profoundly effective coaching program that enables his clients to fully Unleash Their Inner Maven and robustly achieve their desired business, financial, and personal objectives.
By skillfully guiding you through the Six Phases of Maven Growth, Jimmy is uniquely qualified to help you create your own personal and corporate Charismatic Magnetizing Blueprint. This personalized blueprint will identify why your prospects don’t buy, galvanize your team, captivate your clients, release an internal stream of never-ending capital, streamline your processes, target your preferred audience, And Unleashes Your Inner Maven by extracting your core strengths and magnifying them to the point of you becoming the obvious choice to your prospects in an often overcrowded marketplace.
What Can Jimmy do for Your Company? Deliver On-Target Results!
Founder of: Unleash Your Inner Maven ~ The only program in existence that will intimately guide you through the six phases of Maven Growth. This intensely personal experience will Unleash Your Inner Maven empowering you to masterfully execute your Charismatic Magnetizing Blueprint.
A blueprint that offers: The ability to achieve self-defined financial comfort, the ability to work with interesting and influential clients, mentors, and peers, extreme local (and probable national) celebrity status, the uncompromising ability to focus on and achieve mastery of your strengths, accountability from other achievers, the unencumbered ability to contribute your time, talents, and resources to those who will benefit the most.
And a Little Child Shall Lead Them
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“Nick always gives me more candy,” she replied. “The girl in the other store always takes some away.”
Upon further investigation, Fred Kaiser found that the clerks in the big store always ladled more than a pound into a bag on the scale and then took some candy out to balance the scales. Nick apparently had the opposite habit of starting with less than a pound, so that he would have to add candy until the scales were balanced. Although the end result was the same, the children were convinced that they got a better deal from Nick.
The challenge of either starting a recession proof business, coming up with great business ideas, or identifying an easy business to start is being honest with yourself about your motivation for starting a business.
What is your motivation?
1. To serve others or
2. To make money.
If your primary motivation is to serve others, you may end up making a profit. If your primary motivation is to make money, you probably won’t.
If I were starting a new business today, the following entrepreneur advice would outline the exact steps I would follow (others have followed these successfully… it works).
Creating a great business idea from scratch.
Step 1: look in the mirror and honestly answer these questions: “What do I complain about on a regular basis?” or “What problems do I have a difficult time consistently overcoming?”
Step 2: Write down everything that comes to mind (no matter how silly it sounds). These could eventually become your great idea to a real business. All independent business ideas which evolve from these actions should be investigated fully.
Step 3: Go to your favorite search engine and type in the words: “How do I [solve, fix, overcome, get rid of] …blank” (insert each of your complaints and/or problems at the end of the sentence).
Step 4: See what others are saying, asking, or complaining about, as it relates to this problem.
Step 5: See what solutions are already being offered by different types of businesses (books, products, websites, seminars, workshops, etc.). If there are no solutions being offered to the problem you have searched, you are either sitting on a goldmine, or about to begin a journey that could hopelessly waste your time, energy, and money.
Step 6: Identify and create a list of businesses that would constitute your top five primary competitors (locally and nationally).
Step 7: Identify the primary “solution”, on which the majority of the products (offered by these different types of businesses) focus. Identify what each of these “solutions” have in common, then identify the strengths and weaknesses of each “solution” you discover.
Step 8: Identify what is missing from your top competitors “solution” products (something is ALWAYS missing).
Step 9: Create a product/service that accomplishes two distinct objectives:
A: Fulfills the missing piece you have identified, and
B: Complements the other products currently in the market place.
Creating a product that meets these two distinct objectives will ensure two primary outcomes. First, you will have a product that is perceived as high value (it is either the key that opens the lock, completes the puzzle, or fills in the blanks) because your target audience will be thinking… “Finally someone has cracked the code that explains why all the products I have previously purchased have failed to eliminate my problem”.
Second, it will compel your competitors to want to work with you because your product will be another profit center for them, one that requires no research and development cost.
Step 10: Position yourself as the exclusive provider of this missing key.
Step 11: Package the product in a way that complements the other products on the marketplace. If possible, provide your product in as many mediums as you can (book, video, seminar, physical product, service, etc.). For example, if your competitors are offering their solutions as a service, then yours should also be a service. If theirs is in book format, yours should be as well, likewise if they offer workshops, physical products, and so on. Match their formats whenever possible.
Step 12: Market your product to your target audience by simply placing the product where your audience is already looking for the solution.
This is how many great business ideas and previous recession-proof businesses have been developed. If you are looking for an easy business to start, this is a powerful path to follow. If additional small business advice is required I would invite you to visit… http://heymarketingguy.com or http://dartthrow.com
Hope this helps,
Jimmy
The first step in our “how to get your site on Google” journey is check to see if your site is already indexed by Google and if so which pages. Being indexed by Google and “ranked” by Google are two completely separate issues, therefore I will take a moment to describe both and then some steps to achieve the goal.
Is your site indexed by Google? Being indexed in a search engine is nothing more than an acknowledgement that your site exists in the eyes of your favorite search engine. Being indexed is a search engines physical recognition of your website on the World Wide Web. Having your site indexed does not mean that you will have your site ranked for any of your chosen search terms or keywords.
The first step in our journey is to confirm whether or not your site is indexed. This is a simple process which I will walk you through for sake of teaching I will focus on Google, although these steps can be performed in any search engine.
Log onto google.com and type the following into the search box…
site:yoursite.com (change yoursite.com to YOUR homepage URL).
This step will tell you how many pages Google has in its index. You can perform this same action for Yahoo.com, Bing.com, or any other search engine you would like to check.
After performing this initial step you will have confirmed the following; your site is either indexed in the search engine you checked or its not. If you discover you have some or all of your pages indexed follow the next steps to check your keyword rankings. If you discover your site is not indexed follow the steps to below to accomplish this task.
Three steps to getting your website indexed in Google:
1. Create a Google webmaster account and submit an XML sitemap to Google. Visit the following website and follow the instructions…xml-sitemaps.com/
2. Submit your site to tagzbook.com/
3. Create a Google analytics account and add the Google tracking code to your website.
Once your site is indexed in Google the next major hurdle is to begin to rank for the keywords and phrases most closely related to its content.
You’ve accomplished the task of getting your website on Google, Yahoo, Bing; now what? Your next task will be to identify the primary keywords and phrases you would like your website to rank for.
Ranking in a major search engine can be a difficult task that primarily depends on the specific keywords that you choose to rank for and the number of competing sites in the search engines index.
When you become serious about implementing proven small business marketing strategies that will enable you to establish an automatic marketing system that can get you new customers, follow up with current customers, crush your competition, dominate your local market, raise your credibility, and explode bottom line, and position you as the obvious choice in an overcrowded marketplace then I would invite you to visit… HeyMarketingGuy.com for proven small business marketing tips, articles, case studies, and more.
As a business owner, investor, entrepreneur, and business acceleration strategist, Jimmy has had the opportunity to work with businesses and consumers in a variety of industries and specialties.
In addition to his work with business owners, Jimmy is the author of two popular books, and is the author and creator of core curricula for two well-known international seminar companies, as well as hundreds of published articles.
His position as keynote speaker at several major conferences and summits ultimately led to his featured interview with Consumers Digest Magazine.
To date, Jimmy has stood in front of over 80,000 entrepreneurs teaching upwards of a thousand workshops, boot-camps, and seminars throughout the United States and Canada in the last 22 years. To learn how Jimmy’s innovative marketing strategies can help your business visit… DartThrow.com
Creating, implementing, and profiting from a successful marketing campaign is actually quite simple and can be broken down into seven steps.
1. Identify the problem that YOU solve. Simple enough, except for the fact that the problem you solve must be an actual problem that your target market has. The worse thing a business owner can do is to offer a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.
Therefore… step one becomes, what problem do you solve better than anyone else to the target audience you have chosen to serve? Find One Thing That Frustrates the Heck Out of Most of Your Customers.
2. Once you have identified the most pressing and painful problem your target audience suffers from; provide the ultimate solution. Truth is, if you have correctly identified your customer’s problem… the solution is simple.
The Solution is the Pain Reliever. And remember, many others can and probably will offer a similar solution to your target markets pain. Why should someone choose your solution over another and it better not be price. The minute you try to compete on price you have already lost (someone else can ALWAYS do it cheaper than you). Your solution needs to be on point and provide a valuable conclusion for your customer. Your Solution = Pain Stopped. Period.
3. Now that you have identified your customers’ primary problem and you have a comprehensive solution, you must identify your primary target audience. The key to selecting your target audience is to drill it down to a core group of buyers who can afford your service, need your service, and will ultimately recommend your service to others.
Don’t go after the masses; focus on those who specifically suffer from the exact problem you solve… Become a brain surgeon, not a general practitioner. Brain Surgeons CHOOSE who they work with, general practitioners have to compete with every one else.
4. Identify and answer (UPFRONT) your target audiences’ primary objections. All of us love to buy stuff; very few of us like to be sold… so we hesitate in making buying decisions. Why? We don’t want to make a mistake or be wrong in our decision.
Your job is to get rid of these “hesitations”. Your mission is to introduce the primary objections they may have before they even think about them. The three most common objections are Price, Trust, Performance. These should be the first three you handle in all of your marketing and communication and I am sure there are more based on your specific business.
5. Provide a case study. A case study is a silent sales person. Provide a case study to your prospective target audience in as many formats as possible (video, audio, text). The case study should involve an actual customer who had the problem you solve.
This is not a testimonial; it is a case study and should follow this simple format. Customer (Target Audience) had the problem you solve (provide examples of how miserable this problem caused their life to be). Customer met you and tried your unique solution. You solved customers’ problem. Customers’ problem is solved and life is good. Customer tells everyone who will listen about how wonderful you are.
6. Eliminate all of your customers risk… All of it. Provide a guarantee. The best one I ever heard of went something like this… Satisfaction Guaranteed. Period. Yes, that was it.
IF you want more happy customers (raving fans) then you need to take on ALL of the risk. But… won’t people take advantage of you? Some will. Most won’t. The one’s that do were NEVER your target audience anyway… let them go with a smile. The ones who stay… well, they are the ones who stay and will tell others about you.
7. When it is all said and done what makes you so special? In a crowed marketplace with many others offering solutions… why should I choose you. And it BETTER NOT BE PRICE. Stop trying to compete on price. Compete on value. Compete on uniqueness. Create a solution that is an experience one that causes your target audience to stop and actually say out loud; “How do you do that!?!”
Offer a SPECIFIC UNIQUE solution to your target markets most painful problem and do it without risk to them and you will never want for customers again.
If you are serious about implementing proven small business marketing strategies that will enable you to establish an automatic marketing system that can get you new customers, follow up with current customers, crush your competition, dominate your local market, raise your credibility, and explode bottom line, and position you as the obvious choice in an overcrowded marketplace then I would invite you to visit… http://heymarketingguy.com for proven small business marketing tips, articles, case studies, and more.
