Busy Week - Too Much to Do, Not Enough Time in my Day - Sound Familiar?

After a week without a website this past week has been one of catching up.  A usually slow period for me is anything but that this year, which is a good thing for business development and prospects for 2008.

Where should my focus go this week?  Proposals, Projects, Presentations, Writing, Personal, Family? All of the above are necessary. My guitar practice and personal reading time is struggling to find room in the schedule.  I’m going to be applying my new concept of the “3% Percent Solution” this week to prioritize so that I can focus on the things that are most important over the next 40 days ’til January 1st.

 

A Trying Week Comes to An End - Time to ReGroup & Get Off to a Good Start on Monday, November 12th

You never know how important your website is until you don’t have one.

You never know how much not having e-mail contact with the world and especially your entire client base can make you feel so isolated until you don’t have it.

You never know how important person in your life and business is to you, until they leave you unexpectedly.

You never know how important old friends are until you re-connect with them.

Those are just some of my thoughts as I get ready to end this weekend and head into what is going to be a very busy week of client meetings, prospect meetings and peak performance presentations and trainings.

I will need all to apply all my peak performance strategies on myself starting first thing Monday morning, November 12 that I can muster as the past 10 days have been challenging for me.

My website went down in a host server transition on Friday, November 2nd and after some fits and restarts did not come back online ’til late Friday night, November 9th.  I felt totally out of touch last week and will be working to get caught up on projects for the next two weeks. Unfortunatley for one of my end of year initiatives the windown of opportunity may have been lost. We’ll have to see.

The big blow for me came on Friday night. A mentor of mine whom I was just getting to know and love through some intimate business coaching left me. I had a coaching session scheduled with my peak performance coach for Friday night, November 9th at 5pm.  When I arrived at his home in the Berkshires in Massachusetts, a 90-minute drive from my home, his wife of 16 years greeted me at the door. In a very somber voice she told me that he passed away suddenly from a heart attack two weeks ago, just one week after our last coaching session.

Needless to say I’ve been reeling in grief and disbelief for the past 48 hours trying to figure out where I go from here.  I certainly have enough tools to carry on.

In just the short time that Jena Marcovicci and I became coach and mentor I believe I finally began to move towards fulfilling my potential.  We met officially the final weekend in July at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York when my wife and I attended his Dance of Tennis workshop.

During that weekend we learned to turn our competitive tennis nature into one of partnership with the person on the other side of the net so that we could play an enjoyable game. We let go of the need to hit perfect shots and to win and learned to just be able to hit the ball consistently where we want it to go, even if most of those shots during our workshop were right back to our partner to keep the rally going.

We used relaxation, breathing, guided imagery, yoga and tai chi to prepare ourselves each day and we played tennis to music ranging from Bach & Beethoven to Little Richard to African bongos. It was the most joyous weekend I’ve ever experienced. It brought my wife and I closer together.

During the weekend I became enamored with Jena’s soft way of life and an ability to create even deeper focus and concentration through breathing than I was able to reach by myself. I knew if I wanted to get better at teaching these peak performance strategies I need to learn more under the tuteledge of a master and I believed Jena could help me do that.

It took two months after that tennis weekend for us to coordinate schedules so that we could connect for a 1:1 coaching session at his retreat center in the Berkshire Mountains on the Massachusetts/New York border.

We only had two sessions, one in late September and one in the middle of October but they will be with me forever.  I will use what Jena Marcovicci taught me to help other’s in business achieve the greater focus, relaxation and peace of mind that Jena brought to me and my business and other weekend and professional athletes.

I feel cheated that Jena, my coach and mentor is gone, as I wasn’t ready to stop learning from him. I feel cheated because one two-day “Dance of Tennis” weekend wasn’t enough for me and I was looking forward to attending again next summer. But, Jena and a higher power had other plans.

In speaking with his wife Skye that night at the doorstep of their retreat center I felt a deeper connection to Jena and his work than I had up to this point. Jena had deep convictions about life, death, this world and how he wanted it to be and how he wanted to leave it. He left this world on his terms and all of us should have the right to do the same and I respect him for that more than ever.

You see, as my wife watches the Wizard of Oz downstairs on TV, the show where four lost souls go searching for a lost piece of their personality, I went to Jena Marcovicci to find a lost piece of my personality, my congruency and integrity.

In just two sessions he opened my eyes and allowed me to recapture that integrity and congruency that I let slip away in recent years. For that I will be forever grateful and to honor Jena, myself and my clients I will continue the daily morning practice of meditation, yoga and the tai chi that Jena encouraged me to incorporate into my routine.

In just three short weeks I can feel a difference in how I approach my life and I have every intention of maintaining the practice so that I can continue to grow and serve Jena’s memory and the best interests of those that come to me for my help.

Believing in the Components of Your Marketing Funnel

This could be a big week. I have three meetings with new business prospects.  Two of whom have come to me in the last three weeks, one of which called me directly off my articles in the local Hudson Valley Business Journal.

I’ve been writing a twice-a-month column on business success strategies since February and I’ve received tremendous feedback on the articles from clients, prospects and colleagues but this is the first direct prospective business meeting I’ll have from the articles.

This just goes to show that you never really know where your next business prospect is going to come from and why it is vitally important to have a variety of ways to market yourself.

In the Business Achievement Gym I coach business professionals on creating a varied marketing funnel so that they can get their message into the marketplace in varied ways.

Sometimes you may not see a direct result from some of the components, but it is important to believe that each reinforces the other and provides a comprehensive approach to business marketing.

The business journal column may not be driving prospects to call directly but it is providing tremendous credibility and giving me a portfolio of work I can use in my direct marketing efforts as well.

How consistent are your marketing efforts and how varied are they? For me, the best of my marketing funnel consists of networking, writing, my website, and referrals from present and past clients, what about you?

Focus is Fleeting - So Create Rituals to Stay on Track

This post is from the ‘be careful what you wish for” file. Over the weekend I received this response to the Weekly Focus Log members of the Breakthrough F.O.C.U.S. Coaching Program complete at the end of each coaching week:

Question: What would you most like coaching on this week? How can I best help you?
Answer: In the face of much activity, I need to make sure that I am consistent in my FOCUS efforts.

After 60 days in the Breakthrough F.O.C.U.S. Coaching Program this client, John, has so significantly increased his business activity that he now needs to adjust how he applies the focus strategies.

Business and life is a continuing evolution. As the law of physics explains “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction,” and we must remain flexible to adjust accordingly.

Many times my coaching prospects feel a fear of success by knowing their new found activity will create this reaction in their business to which they must be ready to adjust. Sometimes that can be scary for those that are ill-prepared.

Peak performers know this is a by-product of the focus they will create and plan and or adjust accordingly. As you move forward in your business activity be sure you are continually looking ahead anticipating and adjusting.I’ll be addressing this issue with John in our coaching session this week and will report on how he will be creating new and improved rituals in his daily practice to respond to this new found and profitable business activity.

Progress for Clients in the Focus Coaching Program

We had two great teleseminar calls this week for my Breakthrough F.O.C.U.S. Coaching program. I’m excited about the feedback I’m receiving from the program participants and am looking forward to officially launching this business coaching program as a full time product this fall.

The feedback I’m receiving on the business coaching and the focus strategies has been tremendous and after three weeks the gang is making outstanding progress.

Thus far fifty percent of those in the coaching program are reporting nearly a 50% improvement in their F.O.C.U.S. Score after just 4 weeks.  You can assess your present F.O.C.U.S. Score level by clicking on this link and completing a two minute questionnaire.

They are telling me the difference in this program is that they have made a commitment to themselves to step up and begin doing something different. They are learning that creating focus is not difficult once you make the decision.

One member of the program, Cameron, a CPA, after months of haggling over a decision to bring on his first employee in his first decided to do so after just one 30-minute coaching session with me.

Another, John, a small business coach and consultant, realized that he was overwhelming himself by imagining he had too many priorities. After a 20 minute coaching session he came to the conclusion he only had three core objectives to focus on over the next few weeks.

Two others, Bikas and Tracey, are shifting the focus on their own individual identities and how they see themselves so that they can accomplish more and lead themselves better. They have been diligently working the Focus Identity worksheet I introduced this week and are expressing delight in their beginning transofrmation.

I amazed at the individual and business results program members are reporting thus far after just four weeks and look forward to reporting even more in the weeks ahead.

Creating Focus Takes Some Preliminary Work

I had my first Breakthrough Focus Coaching sessions yesterday with the members of my test group of clients.

I think I learned as much or more than they did and everyone who comes after them into this coaching program will be reaping tremendous benefits. I’m so glad I created this test group so that I can learn even greater insights into helping business leaders create laster like focus.

Here is what I learned:

1) In order to create focus and be able to remain focused with limited distractions you first have to decide what to focus on. That may seem rather elementary but its not.  Four of the six coaching sessions I had yesterday dealth with the issue of identifying priorities.

2) There are truly fewer priorities than people originally believe there are.

3) Once #2 is realized, the distractions fade away and there are true priorities to focus on.

Here’s an example of a discussion I had:

CLIENT: I’ve been listening to your focused relaxation/meditation recordings but its really not working yet. I have so many things I need to focus on and I seem to bounce around and I haven’t been able to move forward.

SKIP: OK, I’m assuming some of those things are personal things and some of those things are for your business right, and they are all clustered together, right

CLIENT: Right.

SKIP: OK, let’s play a game. The game will be divided into two sections, business and personal. We’ll start with business first. Answer this question with the first thing that comes to your mind, OK.

CLIENT: OK

SKIP: What is MOST important you in your business at this moment in time?

CLIENT: I need to establish a marketing plan so that I can have a consistent road map to follow to move my business forward.

SKIP: Great, what else is MOST important to you in your busienss at this moment in time?

CLIENT: To get 1-2 new clients as soon as possible.

SKIP: Great, what else is MOST important to you in your busienss at this moment in time?

CLIENT: Being happy and knowing that I’m making a difference with the work I do.

SKIP: Great, what else is MOST important to you in your busienss at this moment in time?

CLIENT: Umm, Umm, that’s about it, I think.

SKIP: Great, let’s shift gears now, What is MOST important to you in your personal life at this moment in time?

CLIENT: To improve my health and fitness.

SKIP: Great, what else is MOST important to you in your personal life at this moment in time?

CLIENT: To travel more, but I really can’t do that because of my wife’s job and scheduling, so that has to be put on the back burner for now.

SKIP: Great, What else is MOST important to you in your personal life at this moment in time?

CLIENT: Umm, I think that’s about it.

SKIP: Ok, so let me get this straight. All the things you have running around your mind, all the priorities you have to focus on really can be streamlined to these three activities and one feeling?

CLIENT: That’s it.

SKIP: So, do you think it will now be easy to move forward and focus on those three key areas of:
1) Creating a workable marketing plan for your business;
2) Acquiring 1-2 new clients;
3) Improving on your health and fitness

CLIENT: Yea, that’s easy.

We’ll see how he does when we reconnect in two weeks. I had similar discussions with three others yesterday.

Our mind likes to play tricks on us and make things more difficult than they really are.

Why?

Because we need to feel important and to feel important we need to believe we have a lot of things to deal with. So, we get caught up in that feeling of importance and telling ourselves and others we have so much to do and we spin our wheels doing things, instead of focusing on the ‘right things.’

One other issue a number of people were confusing the power focus objectives is the daily, day-to-day life things we have to deal with, cooking and eating meals, cleaning the house, doing laundry, paying the bills, etc. Those are not objectives those are just things we need to schedule into our lives so that we can be comfortable.

Do not fall into the trap of confusing household, business and personal chores with clear personal and business objectives.

I’ll keep you posted, we talk next to the group on Wednesday, July 11th and we’ll see how everyone is does with this new approach.

Challenges in setting priorities is a big issue

Early on in the program it seems one of the big issues limiting the focus of the participants is an ability to establish priorities.  This is a big issue as an inability to establish priorities creates uncertainty in the mind, and uncertainty creates distraction, self-doubt and stuck states.

Many may even mistake this tendency for procrastination and I believe the two are separate issues.  Of course, an inability to decide on priorities many times can be caused by procrastination because of the fear, uncertainty and self-doubt that the options we are deciding upon get in the way.

Throughout the FOCUS Coaching Program, weekly and daily, members will be asked to establish objectives and then prioritize those objectives to move forward, I believe this will be a lot of the work I will be doing as we move forward.