Beliefs | Choosing the Truth

Stratospheric Success? Follow these Five Laws – Part 1 – Guest Post by Todd Pillars

Written on January 15, 2011 by Todd Pillars in attitude, beliefs, entrepreneur, entrepreneurialism, great books, Guest Posts, mindset, optimism, raving fans, transparency

The biggest reward of using the “The Go-Giver” as one of our Bob Burg International Consultant coaching programs is that not only do I get to read the book, I get to devour it (while being mentored by the author), and then I’m priveleged to share it with others. There is true power in knowing your craft well enough to teach it to others.

In a short 30 minute chat with Jerry Kennedy on his Blog Whisperer Radio program it has solidified my belief that business as we’ve known it for the last two decades (more or less, your mileage may vary) is so antiquated that to continue “as it’s always been” is maybe the most deadly thing you can do to your business.

If your business has stagnated over the last 12 months, if it’s slowed down to “just getting by”, or if you have serious concerns if you’ll be in business 12 months from now you can cheer up! Pick up the book and follow along as we discover and APPLY these “Five Laws of Stratospheric Success”.

The first Law, The Law of Value states; “Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value that you take in payment”.

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Facing the Same Direction – Guest Post by Todd Pillars

Written on January 4, 2011 by Todd Pillars in attitude, beliefs, entrepreneur, entrepreneurialism, great books, passion

“If we’re going to take this walk together, we need to start by facing the same direction.” –Pindar,
The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann

As I was reading Chapter 2 in “The Go-Giver“, reviewing the material for one of my Mastermind Groups, I thought “Hey, you didn’t make sure everyone is facing the same direction!” Here’s why it’s important.

Imagine you and and I are standing at a cross-roads. I’m facing North and you’re facing West. I tell you we’re going to take a six month journey and say “Let’s go”. Do you think, after taking the road in front of us for that amount of time, we’d end up in the same location? Nope, not a chance.

We need the same map to arrive at the same destination. Simply put, the book is the map, the directions are each of the “Five Stratospheric Laws”, but they require a secret key to unlock their power.

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Changing the Conversation – Guest Post by Gary Klaben

Written on December 6, 2010 by admin in beliefs, cool people from around the web, entrepreneur, great books, Guest Posts, Motivation, Positive Mental Attitude, Small Business Success

Gary Klaben

Today, there is a strong pull between the profit maximizers and the purpose maximizers. It is not that working on Wall Street or Main Street for large companies is all about profit maximization, or that starting a small business is all about purpose maximization. It is about the tide turning towards purpose, while maintaining profit.

In Daniel Pink’s recent book, Drive (2010), he identifies and discusses three types of motivation. Motivation 1.0 is the basic need to survive. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors spent nearly all their time fulfilling this need. Motivation 2.0 involves seeking rewards and avoiding punishment. From the time of antiquity through the 20th century, this was the primary motivator after achieving survival. Finally, motivation 3.0 seeks internal, intrinsic satisfaction — the fruit of personal freedom, challenge and purpose. What we like to call MVP (meaning, value & purpose).

Ours is a motivation 3.0 world. The unexpected and unpredictable will increasingly occur. Change is the only constant. Continual surprises! Microsoft’s digital Encarta encyclopedia — a profit maximizer — lost out to tens of thousands of online hobbyists writing and editing topics in Wikipedia’s open-source, interactive encyclopedia without pay — a purpose maximizer.

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Making Waves, Business Heretic Style

Written on November 18, 2010 by Jerry in 30-Day Blogging Challenge, beliefs, Blogging, Just Say No To SEO, Small Business Success, social media

I’ve been enjoying the looks on the faces of internet marketing folks I meet when I tell them about the two domain names that I registered this week: JustSayNoToSEO.com and SEOIsUseless.com.

Some stare in wide-eyed horror, failed by words, others gasp and clutch at their hearts, and still others start to hyperventilate. It’s pretty funny, if you’re the kind of person who enjoys upsetting apple carts. Which I am.

The way I see it, many of the SEO practices out there are a lot like the “closing techniques” and other slimy sales practices that so-called sales experts teach; they’re designed to shortcut anything that resembles effort. I learned a long time ago that shortcuts like that don’t work in the long term.

For a sales professional to be truly successful, she needs to know a lot more than a couple of lame closes; she needs to have a great product, to pay attention to her customers, to ask questions, to follow through on her commitments, all of which take effort and hard work.

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The 30-Day Blogging Challenge – Day 2

Written on November 17, 2010 by Jerry in 30-Day Blogging Challenge, beliefs, Blogging

Just so you know that I’m keeping my commitment to post something every day for the next 30 days, check out this post over at The Blog Whisperer‘s blog. It’s about the fallacy of writing what your readers want to read.

Do you agree or disagree?

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To Speak With The Voice Of Your Soul

Written on September 2, 2010 by Jerry in beliefs, passion, transparency

“If you want to speak with the voice of your soul, you have to quiet the voices in your head.” – Me

I was talking to some friends after the Sacramento Speakers Network meeting tonight (the greatest networking group ever!), and I heard the phrase above come out of my mouth. I was stunned. It was a big “A-ha!” moment for me. I’ve been trying to figure out how to succinctly describe what a Blog Whisperer does, and suddenly there it was: what I’ve learned to do, and what I’m enjoying helping other people to do, is to quiet the voices in their heads; when they learn to do that, they can start to find and speak with their true voices.

I know from my own experience how debilitating those voices can be. Have a look at some of the early posts on this blog; they sound like they were written by a robot, and, in some respects, they were. The stuff I wrote was aimed at…no one in particular. I was writing to appeal to as wide an audience as I could manage, and no one cared.

And yet, I was convinced it was the correct way to write. Don’t offend, don’t alienate, don’t polarize…those were my mantras. When I finally started to quiet my mind, though, I started to hear a different voice. The new voice was vaguely familiar, but it had been a long time since I’d heard it.

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Learning To Let Your Light Shine

Written on August 24, 2010 by Jerry in attitude, beliefs, entrepreneur, General Interest, Small Business Success

Last post, I discussed the problem with the “fake it ’til you make it” approach to business, namely the difficulty it creates for building open, honest, transparent relationships with your clients. I promised to follow with a post discussing the benefits of transparency in your business, so here goes.

#1 – Transparency Builds Trust

When I read a post by Johnny B. Truant that detailed a financial difficulty he had in the past and how he dealt with it, I felt an instant affinity for him. I could tell as I was reading the post that this was a guy who really got it, a guy who could relate to the struggles I was going through and, as a result, I trusted him immediately.

Funny how that works, isn’t it. I mean, I’ve never met Johnny; for all I know, he could be a guy who beats up Boy Scouts and steals money from nuns to support his toad-licking habit. Whatever he is, though, I trust him because he had the guts to tell the world that his life isn’t always sunshine and roses, and that occasionally he gets kicked in the crotch, too.

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The Secret to Ultimate Satisfaction: I’m Just Going to Be Me… – Guest Post by Dan Waldschmidt

Written on August 10, 2010 by Jerry in beliefs, cool people from around the web, Guest Posts, mindset

Guest Blogger Dan Waldschmidt

I’m just going to be me.

I am tired of being the person that you think I should be. I’m just going to be the best “me” possible.

And isn’t that what you really want from me?

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Are You Acting Like a Scared 9-Year-Old? – Guest Post by Todd Pillars

Written on July 27, 2010 by Todd Pillars in beliefs, customer engagement, entrepreneur, Small Business Success

You’re standing on the playground and it’s the first day of school. You know exactly two people – your little brother and the lady that says she’s your new teacher – neither beneficial to making new friends. You’re scared stiff and you’re at a crossroads… Do I act like them? Or, do I be myself? What’s the best way to get them all to like me?

Wisdom tells us you can’t please everyone. However, it can be tough to call some entrepreneurs wise. It’s been my experience working with first time business owners and salespeople that it’s instinctual to group “everyone” into the “user of my product/service” category. We want everyone to fall in love with our wares. It’s also been my first-hand experience that no, not everyone is your ideal prospect (or client, partner, etc). Some customers can actually cost you money! How, you ask?

By being so different from you, and most importantly your core values and beliefs, that you are forced to repeatedly convince them why they need you. Then you have the added burden of selling them your product or service. Then you have to constantly reinforce their decisions just to retain them. Have you recognized your worst clients yet?

So what’s to do about it? Repeat after me: “Just like them”.

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Calling All Members of the Choir: It’s My Un-Bio

Written on July 22, 2010 by Jerry in attitude, beliefs, Motivation, passion

Great: they asked me to write a bio for a new collaboration project I’m working on. I hate writing bios. No matter how hard I try, they always come out sounding plastic and fake and manufactured. So instead of writing a bio, I just wrote a bunch of stuff about me. I know that sounds like a bio, but it’s not. In fact, you could call it my Un-Bio.

And since I’ve been railing on in the last several posts about sharing who you are and what you believe in and why you do what you do, I decided to post my Un-Bio here, too. Let me know what you think. Or, better still, share your Un-Bio (or a link to it) in the comments.

1. I’m pretty opinionated. I don’t think that’s a bad thing; in fact, I embrace it. Really. I even include it in my bio sometimes, usually preceded by the word “outrageously”. And if you don’t believe me, just ask my friends what I think of James Cameron’s “movies”, or anyone who’s ever met me what I think of Bob Dylan’s “music” (I don’t know how, but it always seems to come up in conversation…genius my ass).

2. I love ideas. I think ideas are what make life fun. I love having ideas, and I love sharing them even more (see #1). I love hearing other people’s ideas, too, especially the brilliant ones. I love it when my ideas have sex with other people’s ideas (you can blame Matt Ridley for giving me that phrase to play with), and my ideas are pretty promiscuous. They also refuse to practice safe sex, so don’t be surprised if our ideas get together, have loads of idea sex, and spawn lots of tiny new baby ideas.

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Category Archives: beliefs

#1 – Transparency Builds Trust