by Helena Escalante | Celebration, Creativity, Goals, Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Opportunity, Sales, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 33 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Passion is nothing without persistence
— From The Art of People: 11 Simple People Skills That Will Get You Everything You Want by Dave Kerpen
“Dave from Radio Disney! Are you ever going to stop calling me and singing to me?” asked Brenda Fuentes in a playful, upbeat way.
Fuentes was a marketing manager for Burger King. Dave Kerpen, the author of The Art of People, worked back then as a local sales rep for Radio Disney in Boston. Kerpen had been trying to get in touch with Fuentes for a long time, but she seemed elusive. Yet he had been assigned this account as a target, was determined to get in touch with her to gain an understanding of Burger King’s marketing needs and, ultimately, try to sell her radio advertising and promotion.
Since this was during the early days of the Internet and she worked from home, the only way Kerpen could get a hold of Fuentes was by phone. Kerpen could not get a hold of her, as all his calls would go to voicemail. He thought of the many other sales reps leaving messages and realized that “the one thing [he] had that none of those other reps had [was] Radio Disney.”
Kerpen recalls, “For me, Radio Disney wasn’t just a job; I loved the station and its bubble-gum pop music. It was both fun to listen to and safe for the whole family… I decided to get creative in my persistence… Each time I left a voicemail message, I would sing a parody of a Radio Disney hit song into the phone. Eventually, I figured, this creative strategy of leaving her messages to the tunes of popular songs would get her attention and help me stand out from the countless other phone calls and voicemails I assumed she got.”
To make a long story short, after 37 calls (!) Fuentes finally picked up the phone. “But this wasn’t your average opening sales call. After all, she already knew [Kerpen] pretty well from all those voicemails.” Now it was his time to get to know her and listen to her needs and see how Radio Disney could help Burger King market itself.
It worked. One week later Kerpen had a signed agreement for over $50,000 in revenue. And what’s more, to this day, he still has a great working relationship with Fuentes.
Were there times when Kerpen felt like giving up? Of course! He says he felt dejected and demoralized many times, and wondered if he was wasting his time, not to mention feeling embarrassed when his colleagues made fun of him for his silly songs. But he refused to give up on Fuentes and Burger King, and adopted a persistent approach in a creative way that was memorable and fun.
Kerpen points out, “As it turns out, one of the biggest differentiators between those who successfully influence others and those who don’t is persistence. Many people talk about passion, and of course passion for one’s idea, product or belief is important, but many people have passion. Far more people have passion than have persistence… persistence is what makes the difference.”
And he goes on to say, “Persistence is defined as ‘firm or obstinate continuance in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition.’ In other words, when the going gets tough, you keep trying.”
“Persistence is trying until you get what you want or go down swinging. Persistence is continuing until you are certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that it’s time to move on and collect the lessons from the failure. Persistence is trying until you drop. Persistence is thirty-seven phone calls.” – Dave Kerpen
ACTION
Note: Both actions below come directly from Kerpen’s book.
TODAY: “Write down something that you really want from someone but that won’t be easy to get. [Who would you like to meet more than anyone? What client would you like to land? What business idol would you like to have lunch with?] Use your passion and your creativity to come up with a plan to pursue this person doggedly in an inventive, original way.”
FUTURE: “Put your plan into action and be persistent. Make as many attempts as it takes to make this vision a reality.”
How about sharing this post with someone you know whose persistence you admire? Email, Facebook or Twitter.
by Helena Escalante | Creativity, Goals, Mindset, Planning, Productivity, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 21 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Your external brain
— From a mash-up of two books: Less Doing, More Living: Make Everything in Life Easier by Ari Meisel, and Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
“Using your memory to store everything is stressful and unreliable,” says Ari Meisel, productivity guru, in his book Less Doing, More Living. He points out, rightly, that trying to hold all thoughts in our head is inefficient. “The problem with trying to remember everything is that in doing so, you run out of space in your head to actually think about the task at hand. What’s worse, it doesn’t always work.”
How many times have we made an effort to remember something and we still forgot? I’m so guilty of this: I know I tied that string around my finger to remember something, and later I couldn’t remember what that something was… I rest my case.
Enter the external brain. “It stores everything reliably, offers instant access, and frees your mind for more interesting work,” says Meisel.
So, where do I line up to get one of these external brains??!
We all have it at our disposal and it’s more low-tech than you can imagine: “The heart [mind?] of the external brain is note-taking. If an idea is in your head, get it out… we have to create idea flow for good ideas to come out… When you let your ideas flow freely, you get more ideas, and that leads to more good ideas.”
You’ve heard me quote Seth Godin before as saying, “You can’t have good ideas unless you’re willing to generate a lot of bad ones.” This is exactly how we make that happen. Meisel says the same thing: “Not all ideas are good—out of ten ideas, you may have eight that are bad or irrelevant. But even bad ideas can lead to good ideas. You want to get them out of your head not only because they may be blocking a good idea from coming out, but also because they may come together with some of your other ideas to make a good idea.”
Meisel suggests finding a great tool or set of tools that enable you to capture the info and ideas outside of your head. His favorite app is Evernote. And if you are like most of us who get awesome ideas in the shower, he recommends AquaNotes (water-proof notepad).
On the other hand, in his bestselling book Getting Things Done, productivity guru David Allen, suggests—even for the most high-tech oriented among us—a stack of plain paper to capture each thought in its own sheet or card. Allen recommends:
Write out each thought, each idea, each project or thing that has your attention, on a separate sheet of paper. You could make one long list on a pad, or in some digital application, but… there is a discipline required to initially to stay focused on one item at a time as you process it. So giving each thought its own placeholder, as trivial as it might seem, makes it that much easier.
Go for quantity. It’s much better to overdo this process than to risk missing something. You can toss the junk later. Your first idea may be “Implement global climate change,” and then you’ll think, “I need cat food!” Grab them all. Don’t be surprised if you discover you’ve created quite a stack of paper during this procedure.
According to Allen, “It will probably take you between twenty minutes and an hour to clear your head onto separate notes.” And as you go through this exercise, “You’ll find that things will tend to occur to you in somewhat random fashion—little things, big things, personal things, professional things, in no particular order.” To help you clear your head, Allen has put together a wonderful Incompletion Triggers List that you can review to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything. Also, you can listen to this podcast where Allen guides you through what he calls a mind sweep session to put down, in paper, what is now occupying space in your head.
“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.” – David Allen
Create your external brain and get those ideas flowing!
ACTION
TODAY: Take some time to figure out the “external brain” system that will work best for you, and then go through David Allen’s list or mind sweeping exercise to get everything out of your mind.
FUTURE: Once you have created a stack of notes, start prioritizing and processing each one based on your goals. You’ll likely see that some are not all that important, and some others become great ideas that you definitely want to act upon. What is the next action that you need to take? Determine it and take said action (it may take a while to get through all, but keep pushing through). It’s important to take this step because if you don’t do anything, the items from the list “will creep back into your consciousness, since your mind would know you weren’t dealing with [them],” says Allen. If there is no next action to take, then he suggests, trash the item, incubate it, or file it as reference material. That will be your action and your mind will now be unstuck and free to produce more ideas.
Please share the external brain with someone else! Email, Facebook or Twitter.
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Creativity, Goals, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Opportunity, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 53 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Welcome adversity in your own style
— From No Limits: Blow the CAP Off Your Capacity by John C. Maxwell
Bummer. Just hit a snag. So what now?
It’s our choice. We can focus on finding a solution or an alternative to the initial plan, or focus on our bad luck, moan, and complain.
Totally our choice, but sometimes it’s not all that easy. In No Limits, leadership guru John C. Maxwell says, “You can’t moan and lead at the same time.” And the same goes for success, “You can’t complain and get ahead at the same time. Moaning about your troubles and moving in the right direction rarely happen together.”
One way of moving forward and avoid feeling sorry for yourself is to personalize the way you see and face adversity and annoyances. Make your point of view about this as unique as you are.
What exactly does this mean?
Maxwell tells the story of how PGA pro golfer Richard Lee handles adversity on the course. When prompted by Maxwell to share the best advice he had ever received, Lee answered, “Welcome the ball.”
Intrigued, Maxwell asked him to explain. “I play golf for a living,” Lee said. “Every shot is important to me. Any shot can either make me or break me in a tournament. Early in my career, my mother-in-law could see how, when I had a bad shot, I would get really disappointed and my negative emotions would start to fill my mind and hurt my play. One day she said to me: ‘Richard, you will always have days when you make bad shots, every golfer does. As you walk toward your ball you will have a decision to make: will I dread seeing the lie of my ball and begin filling my mind with negative thoughts and my body with negative emotions? Or will I welcome the ball and be glad I am a golfer, and realize that I have an opportunity to make a great recovery shot? If you always welcome the ball, regardless of your lie, you will more often make good recovery shots.’ ”
And ever since, wherever Lee’s ball lies, he walks up to it and welcomes the ball, thus making a great difference in his game.
This is a fantastic way of thinking about adversity in terms of making a recovery shot.
How can you personalize the way you see adversity in a way that resonates with you? How can you turn it into something that you welcome and look towards a recovery shot afterward?
“Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records.” – William Arthur Ward
ACTION
TODAY: Take some time to ponder whether you welcome the ball or you get all bent out of shape about annoyances when they happen. How can you welcome the ball?
FUTURE: Murphy’s Law says that “anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” We’ve all lived through it. O’Toole said that Murphy was an optimist… and O’Malley’s law crowns them all: “If it can’t possibly go wrong, it will.” This is not meant to be pessimistic but to share a bit of Irish popular humor to give you a good laugh. 😉 The reason why I bring this up is because, in a future, when faced with a challenge, you can ask yourself, “What’s the worse that can happen?” and then move forward. If the outcome is as bad as what you thought, you can deal with it as you had anticipated; if it’s not as bad, then all the better!
Know someone who needs to snap out of a funk? Please share this post! Email, Facebook or Twitter.
by Helena Escalante | Celebration, Creativity, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Opportunity, Planning, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 3 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: A daily, 5-minute exercise for adding value to people’s lives
— From No Limits: Blow the CAP Off Your Capacity by John C. Maxwell
Today’s post is a short but profound exercise that comes from the fantabulous book No Limits by John C. Maxwell, leadership guru. (The book is really fantastic AND fabulous, so why not combine that into one word?)
Every day think of ways to add value to people. “Spend 5 minutes every evening thinking about who you will see the next day and ask yourself, what can I say to them, give to them, or do for them that will make our time together be memorable, be unexpected and add value to them?”
That’s it. Easy. Simple. Profound. Life-changing for you and for those to whose lives you will add value. Maxwell says, “This exercise will set you apart from 99 percent of all the other people in the world, and if you do this every evening and then revisit the ideas you come up with the next morning to potentially improve them, you’ll be amazed by the difference you can make for other people.”
The value that you add doesn’t have to be in the form of grandiose, elaborate deeds, unless you want to, of course. The author cites the example of having dinner with a couple of friends who were married, and coming up with three ways to add value to them.
First, since he (the friend) had been the publisher of several of Maxwell’s books over many years, the author thought of telling him how much he appreciated helping him grow as an author. Maxwell specifically thanked him for coming up with the title of one of his famous books (Talent is Never Enough)—to show that he remembered and that he was grateful.
Second, Maxwell added how much he admired the couple for their eagerness to learn in every situation, and especially at Maxwell’s conferences (where they would always take a seat in the front row of and take copious notes), despite them being already very successful.
And third, he asked his friend if they could still do another project together: Maxwell wanted his friend to know that he valued enormously his ability to contribute to his life and success, especially because his friend was 82 years old at the time.
In Dr. Kathryn Scanland’s blog, she recall’s Maxwell telling the story of asking his 9-year-old grandson how he was going to be intentional about adding value the next day to the people around him. The boy said he would open as many doors as possible with a smile. At the end of the day, the boy had opened a total of 42 doors, all with a beautiful smile!
So there you have it. Take a look at your calendar every evening and determine what you will be doing the next day and with whom you’ll be meeting. What are the ways in which you can add value?
“It only takes five minutes, but the opportunities to make a difference are endless.” – John C. Maxwell
ACTION
TODAY: Take five minutes to look at your calendar for the rest of the day and determine how you will add value to the people with whom you will meet.
FUTURE: Create the habit of looking at your calendar the evening before and taking 5 minutes to figure out how you will create value for others. Set that as an intention for your meetings the next day. Then give it another 5 minutes the next morning to revisit the ideas and improve them. You will have a beautiful impact on the lives of others, and your life will be all the better for it.
Please add value to someone’s life today by sharing this post! Email, Facebook or Twitter.
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Creativity, Goals, Growth, Habits, Mindset, Opportunity, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 42 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Pick Yourself
— From The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly? by Seth Godin
In yesterday’s post, the closing quote by author James Altucher was, “Rejection and the fear of rejection is the biggest impediment we face to choosing ourselves.” It reminded me of the importance of dancing with fear and picking ourselves, because no one else will.
We seem to spend an inordinate amount of time waiting to be picked, but the moment we pick ourselves is when we start creating, achieving, and moving forward. Because of this, I wanted to share with you a wonderful passage from the book The Icarus Deception by Seth Godin. Here it is, verbatim:
* * *
Pick Yourself
Pick Yourself by Hugh MacLeod @gapingvoid (click to enlarge)
Authority?
You want the authority to create, to be noticed, and to make a difference? You’re waiting for permission to stand up and speak up and ship?
Sorry, there’s no authority left.
Oprah has left the building. She can’t choose you to be on her show because her show is gone.
YouTube wants you to have your own show now, but they’re not going to call you.
Dick Clark has left the building. He’s not going to be able to get you a record deal or a TV gig because he and his show are long gone. iTunes and a hundred other outlets want you to have your own gig, but they’re not going to call you, either.
Neither is Rodney Dangerfield or the head of programming at Comedy Central. Louis C. K. has famously proven that he doesn’t need the tyranny of the booker—he booked himself. Marc Maron didn’t wait to be cast on Saturday Night Live—he started his own podcast and earned a million listeners.
Our cultural instinct is to wait to get picked. To seek out the permission, authority, and safety that come from a publisher or a talk-show host or even a blogger who says “I pick you.”
Once you reject that impulse and realize that no one is going to select you—that Prince Charming has chosen another house in his search for Cinderella—then you can actually get to work.
The myth that the CEO is going to discover you and nurture you and ask you to join her for lunch is just that, a Hollywood myth.
Once you understand that there are problems waiting to be solved, once you realize that you have all the tools and all the permission you need, then opportunities to contribute abound. The opportunity is not to have your résumé picked from the pile but to lead.
When we take responsibility and eagerly give credit, doors open. When we grab a microphone and speak up, we’re a step closer to doing the work we’re able to do.
Most of all, when we buckle down, confront the lizard brain, and ship our best work, we’re becoming the artists we’re capable of becoming.
No one is going to pick you. Pick yourself.
* * *
Click to enlarge.
Beautifully said. And so true. I am lucky to have one of the printouts of this passage that Seth Godin gave me. It’s a treasure that hangs on the wall of my office. It inspires me every day and motivates me to pick myself, and I want to share it with you in hopes that it will do the same for you. Click on the image on the left to enlarge and print.
What about the lizard at the end?? That’s a reminder of quieting and ignoring your lizard brain as you pick yourself and move in the direction of your dreams. Unless you are in true danger, think of your lizard brain the same way you would of a worrywart aunt: thank her for sharing her (doom and gloom) point of view, and don’t pay attention to it.
“How much responsibility are you willing to take before it’s given to you? – Seth Godin
ACTION
TODAY: Pick yourself! The world needs your gifts. And you’ve been wanting to share them for a long time… Start today.
FUTURE: Create the habit of picking yourself. It’s not a one-and-done thing, it’s a recurrent mindset and attitude to be developed. For those of us who struggle thinking that picking ourselves is arrogant or presumptuous, let me turn it around in the same way it helped me: it’s not selfishness, it’s responsibility, because it’s what will enable you to help yourself and others achieve goals and dreams.
Love this post as much as I do? Please help me spread the love by sharing it with other people so that they can pick themselves! Email, Facebook or Twitter.
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Creativity, Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Tools
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 53 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Model the best, remember the worst
— From LEAD RIGHT by Steve Ventura
There’s no question that we’ve all been exposed to many leadership lessons. These learnings come to us courtesy of the many leaders, both in business and in life, with whom we’ve interacted—or whom we have read about, watched on TV, or seen or heard from in other ways.
Steve Ventura, author of Lead Right, has a short, yet powerful idea to share with us today. He says:
“Think back on all the various people you’ve worked for. Some you’ll remember fondly—some not so fondly. Undoubtedly, some were ‘saints’… or at least they exhibited almost saintly behaviors. These were top notch leaders who showed you by their example, what you should be doing now. Emulate them; follow their lead. When in doubt, ask yourself ‘What would he do… how would she handle this situation?’ Then, DO IT!
Maybe your inventory of past bosses also includes one or two jerks… and you’d probably just as soon forget them. DON’T! You need to remember them clearly and frequently. They provide your best lessons on what NOT to do! By avoiding the kinds of behaviors they exhibited, you’ll make sure that, down the road, you never appear on any of your team members’ list of worst leaders.”
There you have it. As uncomfortable as it is to watch or to interact with people who are bad leaders, the lessons derived can be very valuable (albeit painful at times). Poor leaders are inverse mentors: they teach you how not to lead. Pay attention so that you remember to never do what they do.
Instead, emulate those leaders whose behavior consistently yields good results. Those are real role models and mentors.
“People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy after.” – Oliver Goldsmith
ACTION
TODAY: Recall an experience that you witnessed, whether at work or in your personal life, that was the result of poor leadership. What can you learn from it? What lessons can you derive so that you don’t make the same mistakes?
FUTURE: When faced with a difficult leadership decision or challenge, recall those leaders whose example you value and admire, and ask yourself how you think they would handle your situation. Then act accordingly.
Know someone who would enjoy reading this post? Please share it via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
