True Leaders Are All In

 The most dramatic move in poker is the “all in” move where all of your chips are thrown into the pot. Let’s face it — even the most disciplined poker face will show signs of tension when the “all in” move is exercised. It is easy to understand why. It is do or die time. You are betting that your hand is superior (or that everyone else that is still “in the game” will go with your bluff) – and you put everything at risk.

Why Not Go All In?

As an entrepreneur we have a unique viewpoint in our business lives. The idea of all in is one we all have come to face at least once in our businesses. Our corporate world peers rarely ever reach this level of commitment – especially in their organizational lives where the game is much more about positioning, politics, and being opportunistic. The “finesse” game gets rewarded most – with savvy players carefully picking their wins and avoiding potential “black eyes.”

I am curious to know the things in your work life where you personally are “all in.” What products, projects, processes, or new strategic initiatives have the benefit of not just your full attention – but are being driven by your whole leadership presence. By “all in” – I mean you are fully committed to championing and leading the meaningful change that is needed for your business to truly thrive.

When we are “all in” – we gain the special powers that come from making a commitment. We are released from the anxiety of waiting and making small incremental gestures – and rewarded with a feeling of confidence for stepping forward. We also gain access to the additional resources that come our way as others will always gravitate to action, meaning, and leadership.

The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help that would never otherwise have occurred. A stream of events issues from the decision, raising unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. – W.H. Murray

Are you “all in”? It’s a great question. It’s not just about what we bring to a problem – because we do bring a lot of sincere effort. It’s more about what are you withholding. We often withhold the best part of ourselves – the passion that comes from personally committing to something that is truly worthy of our commitment – worthy of being all in.

Isn’t It Time You Go All In?

Be Best In The World – Home Business – Any Business

Being Best In the world at something – at one thing – matters so much! The fact of the matter is for your home-based business nothing matters as much as identifying what you and your home business are going to be the Best In The World At!  Our culture celebrates and loves superstars: Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Tiger Woods, Oprah. Sports, business, Music, Hollywood! In business – top salespeople, top performing divisions, #1 this and #1 that! We all look at lists and want to know who is on top and – who for that moment is the best! Nobody except rabid fans ever remembers who lost the super bowl! OK so how does this apply to your business, franchise or home-based business?  Stick with me for a few  minutes!

As much as I love Chris Anderson’s book – The Long Tail.  This about the opposite extreme of that graph that starts high on the left and slides down to the long tail (short stuff) way out on the right!  If Chris is about getting the long tail – Being the Best In The worlkd is about Getting the Tall Head!  It’s about getting the juicy-est meat of the market!

Winners win big because everyone loves a winner! Number one producers continue to win sales contests because everyone loves a winner. First companies to a market niche dominate a niche and continue to dominate it because everyone loves a winner!  Everyone loves the #1 guy/gal/company in the market. 

This is really all about a statistical law – Zipf’s Law – #1 in the market will always outperform #2 by 2-3 times!

Now apply this to your life.  Your child has a rare life-threatening illness – do you want #2, second best or an also ran?  You have a very unique job that needs to be done and you are reviewing resumes to hire a special candidate for the role.  Do you tell your assistant – “give me the second or third best resume” or “give me an average resume…”  No you say “Give me the best!”
OK so now you are saying – “Glenn… yeah but … how to I compete with… so and so…?”  Here is the key for you and your home business. Marketing is not about mass marketing – it is about niche markets! There are millions of niche or micro-markets! This is about niche target prospects! Best is no longer an objective mass term – it is specialized!   The world is getting larger and larger – we have access to more now in a growing interconnected world than ever before! But specialization is helping keep the world smaller and smaller – manageable – allows us to avoid information/selection overload. You now can define your world – what you want – to be exactly what you desire from anywhere in the world! See How

You have the idea… you know your passions, your skills, your success track.  Pick your niche – identify your first – one thing and now go out and be the best at your one thing!

Be Your Personal Best – Learn About The Ancient Greek Term Arete’  – http://www.WhatIsArete.com

What Do A 2 Year Old And Business Success Have In Common

This is certainly one of the more personal posts here on my blog I have ever made! I hope you enjoy it.  I was/am amazed what you can learn from kids and how relevent it is to business.  Specifically I hope you are able to see the parallels between:

•  A 2 year old doing something challenging the first time and being successful
• An Entrepreneur Being successful at a new venture/start-up

 

Here is what I saw:

1. How important it is to step back and get a detached view from afar
2. Get A Good Start
3. Embrace what appears to be your challenge – get closer
4. Have fun doing it
5. Have a mentor to support and help you
6. Celebrate your journey and success!

Some other pictures:

 

 

 

What Does The Greek Term Arete Mean

A Short Video on just what the Greek term Arete means.  You can also see additional information at www.whatisarete.com with a link to another website or at www.livewitharete.com.  In brief – Areté at one time was a key concept in greek culture – the ancient philosophers said – if you want to live a life of happiness you must live a life of Areté.  Sounds like they had what we would refer to as the key to happiness!  Watch and enjoy

Arete and The Art Of Living

A Quote that embodies the concept of Living With Arete

The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion.  He hardly knows which is which.  He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing.  To him he’s always doing both.
James Michener

Excellence at what ever you do! Outstanding example of Living With Arete

Inspiration

The Interview With God

A friend shared this video with me many months ago and I was encouraged and blessed by what I saw.  I was browsing through some of my saved links and cleaning up old ones and took a look at it again today.  It was as moving seeing it again – truly a timeless work!

Please take the time to watch it. If you’re not lifted up by the music, the words or the beautiful photography, then you might want to question yourself why … then re-watch it again without an attitude of  “religious judgment”

This comes from the actual site www.theinterviewwithgod.com

Click Here For The Video To Open In A Pop-up Window

Have a blessed day!

Daily Plan and Focus

Over the last month a number of my team members and associates have asked what I focus on and how I go about my work routine.  Those of you who have known me a while – know I have and leverage a talent for focus. (Sometimes to my detriment – more on that another time).  I do have a written plan to work and set about each day working my plan.  I have my daily plan posted in plain sight in a frame in my office. This is so I give it the attention it deserves!  I know that if you fail to plan you are planning to fail. There are numerous plans I designed and created to assist and guide me in my home business.

• Strategic Plan
• Marketing Plan
• Customer Plan
• Knowledge Plan
• Operations Plan
• Product Innovation Plan

Todays topic is my Daily Plan

Link to a bigger screen shot of my planner 

Screenshot Of My Daily Plan

Let me summarize the overall structure and focus of the categories.  At first review you will see that I take my own advice and do focus on the 5 things I mentioned in my earlier blog every business owner must keep their focus on:

• You and Your development
• Your Market
• Your Marketing
• Your People
• Your Systems

Here are the things I pay attention to each day both personal and business.

1 – Me and My development – (this gets my attention 7 days out of 7 each week)

• Each day I acknowledge and write down what I am grateful for
• Each day I spend at least 30 minutes in meditation
• Exercise each day for health and stress management
• Two – three times each day I read, I listen to an audio on my IPhone or watch a DVD on personal development
• I attend a formal class each week on personal development and growth
• Scheduled Training Calls Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evening

My Family (specific events and rituals are planned 7 days out of 7)

• Although a little more fluid in calendaring I do maintain daily family activities. I am blessed to have a wonderful, loving and supportive wife Noelle,  my adult 25 yr old son Tim our 22 month old Sabrina.  I have been really blessed to be able to spend such consistent quality time at home with my daughter.
• We structure specific times, activities and rituals to ensure that our relationship grows and flourishes with attention and care like our business. There is never a conflict in priority setting.  Family is always priority #1.

2 – My Market

• As part of my reading and training I review Tweets,  Blogs, articles, videos, audios on my market. Constantly looking to acquire more information and knowledge on my market and customer.
• There are specific projects within my operating plan focused on this area.

3 – My Marketing

You can see this gets my full attention 6 days out of 7 – I do rest and recharge on Sunday in projects and specific marketing actions. Each Day/Week I focus on specific marketing projects and details such as

• Google – Pay Per Click and Organic Search
• Twitter
• Prospecting and Contacting Calls
• Broadcast emails – separate from my normal automated list management
• Blogging
• Articles
• Press Releases

4 – My People

• I have scheduled coaching calls each day that I arrange or my team members arrange to speak with me
• I send a broadcast email to my team each week
• I return all calls and emails each day that are received in by 4PM EST. This is a productivity tool. I focus on staying out of my email inbox all day long and manage to meet responsiveness and expectations for my team

5 – My Systems

• Each day ( 7 out of 7) I have a time block devoted to “Work On The Business” vs. “working in the business” and Operating Plan Projects that have specific projects, milestones and goals for my business development  Working on your business gives you the mindset and behavior necessary to allow and manage growth as you add people and suppliers.

In building my daily planner outline there were a number of beliefs and goals in it I learned from my 25+ years in business:

1. I use a clock to manage my work in 60 minute blocks. This helps me manage my perfectionist tendencies allowing for “just enough and good enough” rather than perfect. I also take 5 minutes on the front and back of each block to rest, walk around, get a drink and re-center for the next block.
2. Schedule in family and spouse times and rituals and always honor those!
3. Don’t waste time on TV.  ( A given) Any family viewing is always Tivoed! Watch new ads for ideas but hit the fast forward on repeats!
4. Don’t allow yourself unstructured internet browsing.  Have a goal, scan and categorize for further review in appropriate blocks.
5. Other than listening to audios and books on tape while I exercise I do not focus on multi-tasking. I give things my full focus and find it more efficient. I do not listen to TV, CNN or even music/audios while working on a key block of time
6. Avoid distractions and interrupters – note blocked times for phone calls and emails. My family is aware of my times and protects me in those activities, have systems in place for urgent & important.
7. Ignore/delete non-urgent and non-important.  Scan for info the urgent and un-important. Do Now the Urgent and important – Plan/schedule the non-urgent and important
8. I build systems, routines and acquire software where applicable for repetitive tasks
9. I keep my focus and priority setting on revenue generating tasks and activities

Who Is This Areté Guy

Who Is This Areté Guy?

I am an analyst, project manager and coach at heart!

I have had the benefit of a long life and spent many years of that getting to know myself in formal programs (like the Gallup managers and leadership programs) and informal activities (reading, self reflecting, quiet time, etc).

It’s pretty easy to share with you my profile:

1) I love reviewing and understanding facts and data, researching, asking questions, analyzing, peeling the onion, connecting the dots and drawing conclusions from the analysis! I have been called a facts and data guru my entire career (three decades) across several segments of one industry. (Logistics) I completely understand critical paths, timing, commitments, quality measurement, customer service and executing a plan. My clients and employees have always come to appreciate my love of facts and data and my ability to help YOU make sense out of “information overload”.

2) I love asking questions and really listening to others. I am rarely “the life of the party” but people usually remember me and recall our “conversations”. I am adept at asking questions to get people to talk about themselves and making them interesting! And I really love the listening and learning!

I have always enjoyed, taking things apart and putting them back together. Even as a kid my folks were amazed at how I loved to diligently take things apart and methodically put them back together (usually without unused pieces left over). To this day I can disassemble complex machinery and gadgets, fix them and put them back together! I have even been known to read the instructions first or ask for directions too (Did I say I detest re-inventing the wheel and wasting time – I won’t waste yours!). This developed into a 20 year corporate career that really took off in project management and leading teams. My career advanced quickly to the C-level!

I am passionate about analyzing systems, processes, understanding how they work, improving them and tweaking them for maximum performance (Gallup Maximizer theme at work) and training/coaching people on how to best use systems and processes for their maximum performance!

3) Some people would look at those two things and say wow – what a geek! I however have a couple of balancing themes. I have always had a desire and need to help others! (Gallup Developer Theme) My path to that is usually based on 1 & 2 above. Asking questions, helping others “see the forest from the trees”, helping them “see the big picture” I have an innate ability to build pictures and a vision from the details up to the big picture or from the big picture back down to the smallest tactical detail. I love helping people understand how things work! I am a strategist (Gallup Strategic Theme) I love planning and following a plan, I love breaking apart processes, showing others how the systems and processes work and then coaching them on how to leverage the systems and processes for their own maximum performance. I get hyped up being in the trenches with others (not in the boardroom), rolling up my sleeves, doing the work along side others and demonstrating how to do it!

So what does all this mean to you? Whats the benefit to you!

I invite you to visit my website and read more about this Arete Guy and take a few moments to learn about my business.