Comfort Zone Busting, Something You Must Do If You Want to Grow and Succeed

Last night I busted through a huge comfort zone. I attended and participated in an Improv Training Program. Yes, like a comedy improv show or Drew Carey’s “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?”

It was my own fault, I asked for it. A fellow toastmaster told me about it and I decided to give it a whirl.

For years I have attended comedy clubs where they do Improv and I’ve watched “Who’s Line Is It Anyway” regularly and only wished I could do something like that.

Well, Wednesday night I did it. I wasn’t great but I got laughs from my partners who thought I did well for a first timer.

So, what does this mean on the bigger picture. It means that I have started to create a new belief about what is possible for myself and my business. How does that correlate? You may ask…well like this…

There is an adage in the speaking world that goes like this, “do I need to be funny if I’m a speaker?” answer - “only if you want to be paid.”

The next phase of my business development is to improve my weakest area and become at least semi-humorous. I”ve never believed I was funny and longed to tell a joke or a story that could make people laugh.

Well, the other night I did it, without really trying. I was just focused on doing my thing as good as I could and it worked. I still need work and practice but that one baby step out of my comfort zone Wednesday night sent a powerful signal to my subconscious mind that something is changing.

It was a huge shift, I could sense it deep within me. We meet every Wednesday night to practice, so look for my Improve updates each Thursday.

But, enough about me. When was the last time you did something not to just stretch your comfort zone but to absolutely BUST THROUGH IT so that you can never go back inside it?

If you had one area of your life where you were stuck, where you knew your comfort zone was holding you back, where would it be and what would be the step that would create the greatest fear and anxiety within you? That’s the thing you must do!

When you do the thing you fear, the death of fear is certain. I’m one step closer to breaking through the paralyzing fear of trying to be funny, and it’s going to get easier each and every week. Stay tuned…but commit to doing your one thing this week!

Where’s the Value in Cuil.com’s “Value Proposition?” All I Read is Features Without Benefits or Value?

I was reading an article in the Wall St. Journal today about Google’s latest competition, www.Cuil.com which is launching this week. The founders, former Google engineer Anna Patterson and her husband former Stanford and IBM researcher Tom Costello have raised $33 million in venture capital to go head-to-head in the web search engine game. They are venturing where many others have gone and failed before.

Based on the crux of the story and how Ms. Patterson explains their value differentiation, I believe they may be set up for failure as well.

In reading the story all I read was features. Even though the WSJ reporter used my hero Bruce Springsteen as the search from which to compare Cuil.com with Google, I was not sold on Cuil.com’s value difference.

All I read that seemingly makes Cuil.com better than Google is that it has the capabilities of searching 140 billion web pages as opposed to Google’s 40 billion. That according to Ms. Patterson is the primary reason the other search engines failed.

I know little about the search engine business but I know something about customer attraction, conversion and building a business from scratch and for me, that just isn’t enough of a reason to use www.Cuil.com for my searches instead of Google. I mean, what am I going to find and learn with 140 billion web pages I can’t get from 40 billion?

Maybe, alot. But what Ms. Patterson failed to communicate is why that extra 100 billion web page searches is important to me. Ms. Patterson is selling features here, not even benefits and isn’t even close to selling “value.”
In today’s marketplace sales people who are still selling features will lose. In today’s marketplace those who sell just benefits will lose. You have to sell “value.” What is the value your product provides to its end user. All its bells and whistles are useless if the end user doesn’t understand the “value” as it pertains solely to that end users life and/or business.

I sure hope the venture capitalists who invested $33 million to get www.Cuil.com off the ground understand the “value” Google’s latest competitor brings to the marketplace. I’m sure it was in the business plan, right? Otherwise that money will go the same place as the other .com startups in the early part of this decade. Of course, in the .com world “value” never was a big issue and since there is nothing sexier than knocking off the web’s darling Google, I say go for it with as many features as possible but don’t be surprised if it fails.

The 4 Things Every Business Has In Common With Sports’ Champions

In order for a sports team or an individual athlete to become a champion they must master four areas of their game. It’s amazing how similar all sports are in this regard and how we can apply this strategy to creating champion businesses.

In baseball a team must master these for areas, pitching & defense, hitting & offense, bullpen/bench and attitude & focus. In football its offense, defense, special teams and attitude & focus, same with hockey. In basketball its offense, defense, free-throws and attitude & focus. For individual athletes in golf it would be driving and long shots, putting and the short game, playing from hazards like the rough and sand, and attitude & focus. In tennis its ground strokes, net play/volleying, serving and attitude & focus.

Notice the common thread through all of those. Attitude & focus. That one will also carry through to champion businesses. Here are the other three:

1) Vision & a Strategy to Achieve It
2) Leadership & Personnel Management
3) Customer Attraction & Retention

Master those four business success strategies and your company will become a Champion in its field. Stay tuned to this blog as I go deeper into each of those four Champion Business categories.

Continuing Education is a “MUST” But Not Nearly Enough

Having just returned from my week of working “on” my business I’m looking forward to the work week on Monday and getting to moving forward with my plan. On my way home from the west coast which included two airline delays totalling 2 1/2 hours, making an already long, cross-country journey even longer, I had a lot of time to think.

I reflected on the week of business development and continuing education I experienced and I realized that although “continuing education” is vital to remain up on the latest innovations in an industry, it is not nearly enough for a business to rely on that solely as their business development plan.

Obviously we all need to invest time and resources to stay up with the latest in our field, but I find that far too many professionals (attorneys, accountants, insurance, real estate, financial advisors, etc.), view their mandatory “continuing education” credits as their business development investment for the year. Few invest time, energy and resources in working “on” their business outside of those required CE hours. How shortsighted this is.

I’m fortunate to be in the field of business growth and development as a coach and consultant because as we learn new strategies and techniques for helping our clients grow their business and improve their work environments we also get to use the same on our own businesses. I guess we’re lucky as we kill two birds with one stone.

Regardless, even if we didn’t have the luxury of ‘double-dipping” in that realm, I would still invest time, energy and resources to work “ON” my business. I would do this by going to business evaluation workshops, goal setting workshops, business focus and planning programs, and work with a coach/consultant to move my business forward.

Too many of those professionals who base their income/revenue on “billable” hours see those hours spent outside of “billable” hours as wasted time. Yet, if done properly, these professionals could strategically build their business to increase their billable hours or create a business model less reliant on just billable hours, freeing them up to get off the gerbil wheel and into a lifestyle they can only imagine at this point. What a shame!

What is Your Kaizen Plan?

The Japanese call it “Kaizen,” Anthony Robbins calls it “CANI (Constant & Neverending Improvement),” a business colleague calls it “AGB (Always Getting Better),” Alan Weiss calls it the “1% Solution.” Regardless of the language, the acronym or cutesy phrase, it means the same thing, “constant improvement.”

I mention this because this week is my opportunity for working “ON” my business as a I attend a 5-day business development conference where I will be working on my business strategy and vision, learning new strategies while relearning and reinforcing other strategies to help my clients improve their business.

Sometimes these conferences create information overload and cause a state of paralyzation, ruining the program investment. Which is why I love the idea of the “1% Solution,” which Weiss states as “improve 1% each day and in 70 days you’ll be twice as good.

Most small business owners struggle to keep their many plates spinning and never seem to find the time to work “on” their business. But, it is imperative business owners find a way to put a “kaizen” plan in place.

Look for opportunities to improve the operation, get feedback from current employees through 1:1 discussions, and focus groups. Have them identify the type of training and development they’d like to have and go out and get it for them. Identify times during the year when you as the business owner can invest time in working “on” your business.

It is imperative and must be scheduled. Start today and put a year-long business development calendar in place. You’ve probably noticed, if it is not planned for and scheduled, it just never seems to happen, does it?

I know my business will be better next Monday then it is today, will yours?

Do You Feel Fear in This Economy or Do You See Opportunities

In today’s Wall St. Journal there is a great story about how major US retailers are using this time to ramp up their marketing efforts, retool their stores and make shopping in their locations even more attractive to its present customer base and other prospective customers who have never purchased from them but may begin looking in their direction as consumers look for additional buying options.

What does this mean for the small business? It means there are always opportunities in every market. The chances are greater that your competition is feeling the fear and anxiety of the current economy and is pulling back on its marketing, client attraction and customer retention efforts.

Think of it this way, if you feel fear in any situation your mind is limited in the options it has available to it. The two most prevelant reactions to fear is the fight or flight syndrome innate in all animals, human beings included.

But, if we look at the opportunities and begin asking ourselves questions that point us in the direction of those opportunities our prospective options are limitless, our creativity explodes and we can take advantage of the situation.

We can’t control what happens to the larger economy but we can always choose how we react to it. Read this WSJ story and see if you can glean inspiration, motivation and creativity for your business (you may have to subscribe to gain access to the complete story):
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121557373172638559.html?mod=hps_us_inside_today