Life Stoked

create a life you're excited to live!

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Live it Up this Holiday Weekend

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Want to know what you could do this holiday weekend to really drive your success? Before you quit reading I’m not suggesting you spend the weekend buried in a book or constructing a life plan. In fact I’d suggest quite the opposite.

The most important thing you can do this holiday weekend to fuel your pursuit of freedom is to live it up! Soak up some sun. Play with your friends. Do whatever it is you enjoy most.

This is what I do quarterly to sample the lifestyle I’m ultimately working towards.

Stoked Lifestyle

I’m not saying we should be working less. I love working to add value to the world, and my current job is awesome. But I AM saying we could be living more.

One of my big motivations behind becoming a solo-preneur (business owner with no employees) is that I can work from anywhere, anytime.

I could spend a couple weeks in Colorado mountain biking in my downtime. I could go hang out with my college buddies in San Antonio. I could visit my family in east Texas for longer than 2 days. I could work from the lake (my most favorite place!).

I could take my work on the road and spend my off hours experiencing things that are currently confined to three day weekends. Wouldn’t that be awesome?

The freedom of being able to design a career around your life instead of the other way around is what I’m after.

Fuel Commitment

There’s one problem though – it’s a TON of work to get to that point. I don’t have much trouble imagining how great life will be when I reach this stage, but I do have trouble staying motivated to get there. It’s the difference between being interested and committed.

Everyone is interested in a free lifestyle, but not everyone is committed to do what it takes to create it.

So as I head down to San Antonio for a long weekend with my oldest friends I’ll be soaking in what my life could be like as a solo-preneur. These weekends are always refreshing for me. Not just because of the relaxation and good times, but also because of the taste of what life could be like.

Your Job – Soak It Up

Many of us live our lives trading five days for two. If you’re interested in building a different lifestyle use this weekend to fuel the commitment it will take to get there.

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Entrepreneurs Can Change the World

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I’ve never been one for motivational tools or stuff like that, but over the last year or so I’ve learned what a powerful force the right stuff can be in your life. This is a video I’ve watched probably 50 times over the last year that always inspires me to create something great.

What do you listen to or watch to give you a jolt of inspiration?

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Delight Your Customers at Every Chance

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The world has changed. It’s no longer enough to smile, introduce yourself, and let your products do the talking. Of course these things are important, but they’re an expected requirement nowadays – you don’t get extra credit. The old standards of excellence are the new price of admission. To stand out now you’ve got to build a complete process to WOW your customer at every opportunity.

Think about your favorite brands to do business with – the ones you really love to refer to people and are delighted to spend money with. Whether they’re big or small I’ll bet there’s a lot more to them then a great product. There’s a whole process that goes along with it that makes shopping, purchasing, and then finally getting the product a complete experience.

The brands that are really excelling are the brands that work hard at ALL of their customer touch-points, not just the obvious ones.

Start Big!

Let’s take for example an experience my wife Cameron had recently with a small online business. The shopping experience was fairly typical: easy to navigate online store, great pictures, plenty of info, and a smooth ordering process. Again, this is the standard for doing business, nothing remarkable.

delight clients with great packaging

When Cameron opened the package was when it really surprised and delighted her. Inside the typical shipping package she found a “cutely” (as it was described to me) crafted package with her name, detailed instructions for best results, and a thank you note. It was like a little Christmas gift for herself. The connection this small business made with Cameron was instant, unexpected, and very real.

I had a similar experience with a different small business that same week. My t-shirt from Compete Every Day arrived accompanied with a quality brand info card, the owners business card, and a hand written thank you note. Wow!

great customer service from compete every day

Neither of these small businesses went too far to delight their customers, but in both cases the unexpected care and surprise of the little touches was enough to make a lasting impression.

Don’t Blow It

Now here’s where the two experiences took very different roads. Coincidentally both me and Cameron needed to exchange our purchases for different sizes.

Cameron fired off an email to the personal email address of the store owner. Days later there was still no response. So she emailed them again, still no answer. The website didn’t mention anything about returns or what to do if you were unsatisfied with your purchase.

Suddenly Cameron’s delight with the brand has turned to frustration with the lack of service. What good is this product if it’s the wrong size? And what are you supposed to do about it if they don’t respond to the only channel available for support? Sadly, Cameron won’t be shopping there again (and she won’t be telling her friends about it either).

All that effort up front wow-ing the customer ended up being wasted.

Finish Strong

Now contrast that with my exchange with Compete Every Day: I emailed the address on the personal business card included with my package asking if I could exchange the shirt. I quickly received a response back saying “No Problem!”

Yes!

Even better, the owner went ahead and shipped it that same day knowing I wasn’t able to ship my return until the next day. Now that’s service!

The Complete Package

One of these two small businesses has a raving fan excited to refer business. The other has a disappointed customer with a useless product. All because of processes, NOT products.

Putting the proper processes around your products or services is probably even more important than the product or service itself! John Jantsch of The Referral Engine recommends creating a “customer touch point” map to help make sure you’re completely covered.

Basically, walk through the processes a customer goes through and write down all the touch-points of the experience. For example:

Online Store Touchpoints (Example)

  1. The store itself
  2. Online checkout process
  3. Checkout Confirmation Email
  4. Order fulfillment package
  5. Returns and customer support

Photographer Touchpoints (Example)

  1. Website portfolio & Services explanation page
  2. Initial inquiry & Consultation
  3. Payment and Scheduling
  4. Shooting the event
  5. Reviewing photos, delivering album, etc.

Now make sure you’ve got a process in place (even if it’s a simple one) to delight customers at each of those points. Your consultation should valuable, not just a sales pitch. Your scheduling and payment should be easy, smooth, and professional. Your delivery should get people excited.

Don’t get caught up in perfecting all of these points (that’s a huge job!), but do be aware that they exist. There’s a lot of opportunities to build your brand and WOW your customers, and there’s plenty of chances to drop the ball too.

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Book Review: The Thank You Economy

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The Thank You Economy Review

The Thank You Economy is another great read from the renowned entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary V. (as he’s known) explains how we’ve entered a new business era in which the brands that thrive won’t be the ones with the biggest advertising budgets, but will instead be the ones that can prove they truly care about their customers.

I learned a lot from this book, although I wish it hadn’t spent so much time trying to convince me that social media was a worthwhile pursuit. I get it already!

One thing I loved about this book is the time dedicated to real world examples. Gary V. walks through a variety of businesses that are doing things right. My head was spinning with new ideas for the businesses I work with!

Here are some of my big takeaways:

– social media has transformed the world into one giant small town: strength of relationships and the currency of caring is what matters here.

– Valuing every single customer is crucial in the Thank You Economy no matter how small!

– Seek out your advocates and knock their socks off! This will pay huge dividends!

– Be real. be transparent. stop wasting time trying to control your message, that ship has sailed!

– No matter the challenge, the solution is to “Outcare!” This will always win in the Thank You Economy

Read it if

– You’re a business owner or executive (or want to be)
– You need a crash course in how to make the most of social media for businesses
– You want some real world examples of how businesses are using social media to crush it!
– Your career involves interacting with customers & clients.

Have you read it? What were your biggest takeaways?

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SMART Goal Setting

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There’s a basic litmus test for goals that will help ensure they are set up correctly. Whether you’re familiar with it or not I’m going to review it quickly because it’s so simple. All you have to remember is SMART. You want SMART goals.

– Specific – what exactly do you need to do to achieve this goal. No generalities here!

– Measurable – You must be able to measure something to achieve it. Pretty simple.

– Attainable – Aim high enough to make your stomach jump at the thought of it, but not so high you secretly know it’s ridiculous.

– Realistic – Michael Phelps wanted to win 8 gold medals, awesome. You want to win 8 gold medals? Just be honest, that’s all I ask.

– Time bound – Your goal must have a deadline. Don’t cut yourself too much slack here.

Examples

Let’s take a few examples to see how we can make some basic goals pass this test:

Goal: Lose weight

This is realistic and attainable, but fails the other three tests. Looking at the SMART test we can reverse engineer the goal to pass:

SMART Goal: Lose 35 pounds by December 1, 2011.

Boom! You’ve just instantly multiplied the likelihood that you’ll achieve this goal. Now let’s try one of my personal goals that’s a little bit harder.

Goal: Read 30 min a day, 3 times a week in 2011.

Is this SMART? Basically, but I struggle with one part of it. It’s not really time-bound. To achieve the goal I need to follow the pattern for 52 weeks in a row. Only read 2 days one week, fail. Skip a week for vacation, fail. I’m basically setting myself up for failure on this one.

So what did I do to make it really SMART? How’s this:

SMART Goal: Read 20 books in 2011.

Now I can read at my leisure and as long as I’m getting through 20 books I’ll make it. By the way so far this goal has really been pushing me to get through books without stalling (I tend to do that every now and then).

Real World Problem – Can You Help?

One last example and this one I’m going to need some help with because I still haven’t figured it out. This is a goal I’ve never quite been able to make pass the SMART test and as a result hasn’t progressed like I wanted.

Goal: Spend 30 min a day, three times a week studying the bible and in solo prayer time.

How do I make this pass the SMART test? It seems to fall victim to a lot of the problems as my first attempt at a reading goal. And since prayer and study time isn’t something you complete it’s hard to make it measurable.

I’m sorry to say my relentless goal setting, progress tracking mentality has allowed me to let this part of my life slip. It’s something I really need to be better about, but without having found a way to wedge things like this into this framework it’s been noticeably absent.

What about you? Are your goals SMART? Can you make my last goal SMART?

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How To Get More Reading Done When You’re Out Of Time

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I’ve never been much of a bookworm really. In fact, when I was in high school I managed to make a 200 page summer-reading book ruin the entire break. I despised reading so much because of those assignments that I quit reading books all together for years.

Sure I knew readers were leaders, but if they had to become leaders by reading Jane Eyre and The Great Gatsby then maybe I didn’t want to be one that badly.

It was over 8 years after traumatic summer reading experience that I finally read a book that really drove home the power of reading. That book was Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover. I discovered people building my dream life in those pages and the instructions for how I could do it too!

From there I picked up a couple other books Dave recommended, then some more. I had stumbled upon a vast treasure of information that could help me become exactly the person I’d always wanted to be!

Who has time to read?

So reading can change my life, awesome. But who has time to read with a full time job, a family, and all the other responsibilities of life?

Zig Ziglar teaches that your car should never be moving without an educational or inspirational recording playing. Hmmm, so my work commute is about 30 min in the morning and 45-60 minutes in the evening.

That’s over 7 hours a week that could be devoted to learning without even changing my schedule!

Audible.com

Two Powerful Resources

The first resource I use to fill this time productively is Audible.com (affiliate link). For $15 a month I can download one book from their library each month. Since joining Audible.com the amount of quality material I’m consuming has spiked dramatically and I’m learning more than I ever had before! I’ve listened to the latest ideas from Seth Godin about becoming indispensable, Jim Collins’s studies of what makes companies great, and John Maxwell’s principles of leadership (to name a few).

The second resource I fill my commute with is the free audio CD from Success Magazine. If you’re not reading Success Magazine you owe it to yourself to sign up right now. Each issue comes with an audio CD that gives an inside look at the success habits of leading CEOs, entrepreneurs, and other achievers.

I can honestly say without hyperbole that these two audio resources changed the trajectory of my life. If you’re looking for a way to take yourself to the next level then this is the first thing I’d suggest.

Oh, and according to Dr. Thomas Stanley of The Millionaire Next Door the average millionaire reads at least one book a month. Just sayin…

What about you? What audio resources are helping shape your future?

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Ensure a Balanced Life

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The first time I went through Darren Hardy’s goal setting process I was surprised where it started. It wasn’t with a brainstorming session or answering questions about where I wanted to be in 10 years. But instead we started with an assessment of where I am now.

But I want to get to the good stuff Darren! Let’s go! I’m ready to make some serious progress now!

I went along with the process impatiently (because let’s face it, he’s the master goal achiever) and began my Life Assessment. In retrospect I’m grateful for the road it’s led me down! My life is more balanced and complete which is helping me achieve even more.

Why Assess Your Life?

Have you ever known someone with a rock-star career but a pitiful social life? How about a wonderful family man who struggles to rise up the ranks at the office? It’s all too common isn’t it? Using a systematic method to assess your life can give you a quick glimpse at how you’re shaped and highlight areas of too much or too little focus.

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Here is a free Life Assessment that I use courtesy of Darren Hardy’s book The Compound Effect:
Life Assessment Worksheet

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Following Darren’s example I assess my life along 8 axis: physical, financial, business, lifestyle, mental, spiritual, family, and relationships. My initial life assessment looked something like this:

Certainly not ideal and lots of room for improvement.

“If you want to be a complete success you’ve got to become a complete individual” – Zig Ziglar

How It Helps Me

This chart is also useful in my monthly goal setting routine. It highlights obvious deficiencies and places where I’m spending too little (or too much) effort.

For example, one area I’ve always tended to scrimp on is “Lifestyle.” My wife and I bought our first home about 18 months ago and as a financial coach my personality wants to pour all the cash we can into paying it off and investing for the future. My poor wife had to work pretty hard to get some pretty basic house stuff into our budget!

My Life Assessment along with identifying some of my core values (more on that later) helped me realize as badly as I wanted to invest for the future I wasn’t able to relax and enjoy the home I was working so hard for. I value a nicely painted and furnished bedroom where I can unwind. I needed a pleasant office where I could work towards my goals.

2011 has been different. We set a big goal to have our house (v1.0) finished by September 1: Painted, furnished, and ready for guests! We’re making great progress so far and it’s already a great lifestyle boost!

That’s just one example of how using this systematic approach to evaluating my life has helped me become a more balanced individual. I’ve only been using this approach for about 7 months now and I’ve already seen big impacts on my life! Having a nicely painted, organized, and comfortable bedroom to retire to each night helps me relax and wake up ready to attack the next day!

As they always say, what gets measured gets managed.

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My Story

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I’m Deacon Bradley and I’m the brains of this operation. Okay I’m the only member of it too, but that doesn’t make it any less true.

My story starts out like many others. I was raised in a typical family in central Texas. I grew up playing competitive sports and was lucky enough to compete in college as well. I always dreamed of going to college, graduating, and then landing a job as some sort of engineer.

From there it’s a typical script: Work as hard as you can, get promoted, repeat. Always working toward that next milestone: a bigger house, a new boat, a Hawaiian vacation.

I thought that was the only way.

A New Direction

About three years into my career I was introduced to Dave Ramsey the personal finance guy. Dave’s message wasn’t what I was used to hearing. He taught people to live debt free and build a life of purpose.

I was fascinated by the stories of people living this lifestyle. They were regular people, with typical jobs, and they were millionaires living out their life’s purpose. Without the constant need for a steady flow of income they were free to chase their dreams.

This is how I got started. I wanted to live a life filled with purpose and I wanted the freedom to pursue my dreams. I started reading and discovered more and more people who were building the lifestyle they wanted and not just following the typical path.

– Dan Miller taught me how to discover the work I was meant for and do it passionately.

– Darren Hardy taught me how to set and achieve goals effectively.

– Jim Rohn taught me the importance of education and refining my personal philosophy.

– John Maxwell taught me how to become an effective leader.

I’ve learned a lot over the past few years, and I still have so much further to go.

Life Stoked is about my journey to make the most I possibly can out of myself. It’s about investing the five talents God blessed me with. I’m excited to share that journey with you!

 

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Hello, from Life Stoked

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As long as I can remember I’ve always wanted to be the best at something. Growing up I expressed this through athletics. As a competitive swimmer my life revolved around measuring things: distance, time, events, seasons. In college I played water polo for Pepperdine University and measured things by wins and losses as a team.

This was all very easy to do because goals came packaged naturally as a part of the sport.

After college was over though things were different. Despite a life long practice of goal setting and planning my progress I was missing the mark.

I was struggling to apply the same principles that landed me on one of the top NCAA teams in the nation to my career, my marriage, and my personal pursuits.

Through a series of fortunate events I was blessed to discover a treasure chest of ideas and techniques that are helping me put the pieces together and make some serious progress.

I’m no expert, but I’m getting better each day. I’ve tried a lot of things that didn’t work, found many things that do, and still have lots of refining to do before I really hit the big time.

Along the way I started Bedrock Coaching where I help people get out of debt and build wealth, and took up the business-development reigns at CrossFit Leander (a local gym). I’ve worked at a number of early stage tech startups (and have the scars to prove it!), and re-invented myself along the way.

I started Life Stoked to share my successes and failures trying to make the most out of life.

I’m looking forward to connecting with others out there on the same journey! What is it your’re hoping to achieve? What are your biggest road blocks? What do you struggle with the most in your business?

I’d love to hear from you and connect. You can find me on Facebook (the best place) & Twitter, or drop me a note any time through my contact form. Thanks for stopping by and make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed to get future updates.

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