THIS WEEK’S COVERAGE
Relentless Solution Focus
Problem solving is the main job of any entrepreneur and business owner.
After all, the only reason you’re in business is that you’re solving the problems of your customer or client – but typically, there are other problems in your business. Revenue growth, hiring and managing a team, executing on promises, etc.
My businesses are no exception.
When I read Relentless Solution Focus by Drs Jason Selk & Ellen Reed, I had some great reframes and ideas on how to approach my problems in my business (full disclosure, I only read the Blink).
Notice Negative Thinking and Shift to Positive
We tend to focus on problems (the negative) vs solutions (the positive). And unfortunately, the mind can only focus on one thing at a time.
So when you catch yourself dwelling on an issue, immediately shift to looking for a fix. (Side note: getting in action helps with any anxiety you may be having around the problem. Bonus!)
For large projects, break down what you need to do into simple steps.
For long term goals like adding new clients, commit to a single action you can commit to each day to move you forward and achieve your vision. For instance, you may commit to spending 60 minutes each day reaching out to potential clients on LinkedIn.
Finally, focus on commending yourself for what you’ve done well vs glossing over what’s working and continually looking for improvement.
Visualize What You Want
Every great athlete uses visualization to improve their performance. You can use it in business, too. Here’s the 6 step process that Selk recommends you do each day (it should take you 2 minutes, tops):
- Take a centering breath: 6 seconds in, hold for 2 seconds, 7 seconds out
- Recite your mantra 2 times (this should be something that is aligned with what you want to accomplish – for example: I am healthy, confident, and strong. I attack every day. I am unstoppable.)
- Plau a mental video of your dream life & work, 5 to 10 years down the road (30 seconds)
- Visualize yourself dealing with any challenges in the next 24 hours (30 seconds)
- Recite your mantra again
- Finish with one more centering breath
That’s it! I’m looking forward to seeing better results to my business problems employing the Relentless Solution Focus strategies. I hope you do too!
Greatest Hits
Which state would you choose if you were forming a brand new LLC? Our Facebook members discuss.
Bright Ideas
Does your job entail selling? Do you work remotely? How do you juggle not only your own schedule, but that of your prospects, your team members, and your family?
Do you struggle with maximizing your schedule for productivity?
Close.com does an excellent job of outlining what it takes to build a winning remote sales schedule (and honestly, even if you aren’t in sales, if you struggle with organization, motivation, or focus during a typical workday, this is worth a read).
From your morning routine, to tips on how to time block and when to leave open gaps, I found myself nodding time and again.
Under the Hood
If a tree falls in the forest but nobody hears it, does it make a noise?
If you create stellar content but don’t spend time sharing it, does it reach people who could benefit from it?
I feel this problem so hard. Over the past decade or so, I’ve generated a ton of content (podcasts, blog posts, videos), but other than cursory shares on social media, I’ve not been as good at promotion.
For example, I’m really proud of my recently published Comprehensive Step-by-Step Guide to Quick Results with Outbound Marketing. It covers in great details the systems that are built out in the Outbound Marketing Playbook.
But so far, I haven’t done nearly as much promotion as I’d like. Sure, I shared a bunch of juicy screenshots from it on Twitter (63.9% connection rate for one LinkedIn campaign! 65% reply rate for connections on another!). But the amount of time I spent working on that Twitter thread was a small fraction of the time writing the content itself.
I guess I’ve got some work to do!
The good news is, while I’m focusing on promotion, you can bet I’m working promotional systems into new Flowster playbooks. One example is Promoting Your Cornerstone Content to Influencers to Gain Social Proof.
