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From Hopelessly Overwhelmed to Unstoppable Force – A Case Study

April 16, 2013 By deacon 3 Comments

productivity-toolI felt hopeless more than anything else. Here I had discovered this amazing new world where I could design my work around my life (instead of the other way around), but I just couldn’t get there.

Why?

It wasn’t for lack of effort, that’s for sure. In fact, I’d been working on Life Stoked daily for over a year at that point. I knew exactly where I wanted to be, and I was already impacting others lives in exciting ways! The future was bright!

But in that moment last summer, I felt hopeless.

I remember sitting at my desk staring at my computer screen. A pile of notes lay in front of me, a pen in hand, and no idea what to do next.

There was just too much to do! Articles have to be written, marketing has to be planned, websites have to be updated and maintained, services have to be refined, and clients have to be served. And this was all “on the side” of being a full time husband, dad, and employee.

I was completely overwhelmed.

And so I did nothing. I froze. I sat. And I stared.

Days went by where I did little real work. As days turned into weeks I began to feel both frustrated and hopeless. I was frustrated I wasn’t making progress, and hopeless because I didn’t know how to handle it all.

What I needed to regain hope

What I needed was a way to attack and achieve my big goals without being completely overwhelmed. I needed a way to get big results with limited time.

And I found it. My quarterback method completely changed the way I work, and it completely changed my results! I want to share with you exactly how I implemented it, and five unexpected ways it changed my results!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Article, Productivity Tagged With: dreams, goals, motivation, processes, productivity, time

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4 Productivity Tools to I Could Not Live Without

May 22, 2012 By deacon 9 Comments

best-productivity-tools

You know what they say, time is money! But that doesn’t mean it’s all the same denomination of money. Most of us trade minutes for pennies and nickels. But a few who have really worked to build something special can trade minutes for Benjamins!

While I’m certainly not in that class (yet), I work hard at increasing the worth of the minutes I do spend working towards a Life Stoked. Here are my absolute top, could not live without tools that help me continue to move forward every day.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Business, Technology Tagged With: processes, productivity, solopreneur, time

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The 3 Simple Questions To Get You Unstuck

February 7, 2012 By deacon 2 Comments

questions when you're stuck

I always strive to be better tomorrow than I was yesterday. Sure it’s a great philosophy, but it’s not always that simple is it?

Sometimes things just don’t move forward.

Sometimes you get stuck.

Even with the best intentions and a lot of motivation you will hit a wall every now and then.

Lately I’ve been struggling with productivity. I’ve got some awesome things planned for Life Stoked, but I’m spending too much energy spinning my wheels.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m putting in a lot of time on this stuff, and I’m having a blast. But I can tell I’m not completely in stride. I could be getting better results without struggling so much.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Personal Development Tagged With: fear, goals, processes, productivity

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Why I’m Frustrated With Goal Setting

January 13, 2012 By deacon 5 Comments

goals vs no goals

It frustrates me to no end that we’re never taught how to set goals right in school. Sure, I can tell you the chemical formula for table salt, but I couldn’t plan my best year ever in a way that breeds success.

Our culture does a great job of impressing upon us the importance of achievement and goal setting. We get an A for that.

But most of our goals are just… flat.

  • I’m going to complete a triathlon
  • I’m going to lose weight
  • I’m going to read my Bible every day

We’re never taught the art of goal setting that helps us craft a life we’re excited to live. We’re never let in on the process to doing this right.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Personal Development Tagged With: dreams, goals, processes

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How You Can Increase Your Success Next Year In 30 Minutes

December 30, 2011 By deacon 2 Comments

How To Do An Annual Review

So you want to CRUSH 2012? I mean really knock the cover off it?

Great! Me too. You’re in the right place.

Most of us spend this time of year crouched at the starting line in anticipation. Our feet are set. Our heads are bowed in focused preparation. We’re ready for the race.

But before you set your feet in the starting blocks and wait anxiously for the gun to blast there’s something I want you to do that’s going to make all the difference in your performance:

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Personal Development Tagged With: 2011goals, experience, goals, processes, tracking

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How To Track The Key To Success

November 10, 2011 By deacon 6 Comments

consistency is the key to success

I’ve got some great news for you – achieving massive results only requires you to take a series of tiny steps, one at a time, over and over and over.

Isn’t that awesome? You don’t have to muster up some heroic strength and expend your greatest effort only to be left completely spent at the foot of another mountain.

Consistency is the key. Seriously, THE key.

Jim Rohn talks about this in his Challenge to Succeed series. Zig Ziglar illustrates it in his famous “Biscuits, Fleas, and Pump Handles” talk. Darren Hardy wrote an entire book about this called The Compound Effect (Affiliate links – highly recommend all three of these!).

Okay I’ll buy it. It sounds pretty smart to me. And that’s as far as I went for a long time.

Measuring Consistency

But believing consistency is the key and practicing it are very different things. I believed it for years, but only started tracking it and practicing it about a year ago – BIG difference!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Personal Development Tagged With: 2011goals, Darren Hardy, Jim Rohn, processes, tracking

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How to Innovate at Work

September 29, 2011 By deacon Leave a Comment

how to innovate at workRaise your hand to ask a question. Form a single file line. Color inside the lines. From the earliest age we’ve been cultured to follow instructions. We’re rewarded for following directions. But unfortunately those things that make a great student are holding you back in your career.

If you want to be valuable to your business you must become a innovator. If you want to become truly remarkable you must, must, must be the guy who moves things forward. This is the way you thrive in todays world.

Easier said than done, I know. I spent years of my career piling up great ideas in a box and never doing any of them. I was the guy who had a better way, but waited for someone with “power” to execute. Don’t follow this path and expect results.

You need to be indispensable – a linchpin. Your training starts now: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Personal Development Tagged With: career, innovation, opportunity, processes, startHere

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Delight Your Customers at Every Chance

June 23, 2011 By deacon Leave a Comment

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.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: biz, brands, experience, John Jantsch, processes, referrals

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