by Julia Felton | Oct 21, 2019
Recently I
was attending some sales training and we were discussing the difference between
a fixed and growth mindset. In essence a fixed mindset believes that everything
is as it is for a reason and we really can’t change that. Contrast this with a
growth mindset where we are always looking for opportunities to learn and
develop. There is no such thing as
failure only learning opportunities. People with a growth mindset are continually
looking to improve whilst those with a fixed mindset are often looking for
someone to blame.
As I listened
to the training and reflected on my own position I realised that I can often be
a combination of the two. Most of the time I have a growth mindset. After all I
create experiences for people to stretch out of their comfort zone and grow.
However, I realised that often when it comes to sales I have a fixed
mindset. I keep trying all kinds of things
and when they don’t work I blame my products, services or imperfect execution.
Then the
trainer said something that hit hard. He said that when it came to sales the
difference in success between the fixed and growth mindset all came down to
EFFORT. This floored me. I had always
thought I was putting in enough effort but I guess if I am really honest I
haven’t been.
These are
the skills I have not been cultivating when it comes to putting EFFORT into
sales conversations.
Enthusiasm – often I just dread the sales process.
It can seem sleezy and forceful and I know that this comes from being the recipient
of some less than ethical sales tactics that have left me with buyers remorse
as I have invested in programmes and services I never really needed. God forbid that anyone would see me like that.
Focus – success in sales requires focus
and consistency. You need to be laser like in identifying the solution that you
offer and who it serves. You need to be confident that your solution meets their
needs. Any wavering or doubt on your part and the potential buyer will sense
this and so never conclude the purchase.
Follow
Through – according
to the latest research it can take upto 12 touch points to convert a prospect
to a client. That’s an awful lot of
interactions. So it is imperative to continue to follow up with people. Even
those that say No, because a No often means not just now.
Overcome
Objections –
mastering how to overcome objections is essential if you are to be successful
at sales. Think ahead to some of the common objections that your prospects have
and craft answers to these. Typically they will involve the price, so ensure
that you always help the client understand the return on investment (ROI) of
working with you. A good rule of thumb is that you should be able to deliver
10x value. In other words if your service costs £10,000 then the client should
be able to achieve a £100,000 cost saving or revenue uplift.
Resilience
– given that only
some 3% of people and waiting and willing to buy when you connect with them the
prospect of you getting no response is really high. This means that you need
resilience to pick yourself back up and try again. Remember a No is often this is not right for
us right now. Try this game and see how many No’s you can get in a day. Every
No takes you closer to getting a yes, so embrace the process and don’t take No
personally. It is never a reflection on you
Trust – the great thing about having to
have multiple contact points with someone before they purchase means that you
have the opportunity to build trust. Always be in service to the other person
and never be afraid to withhold your services if you don’t think they are a
right fit for the prospect. You will earn significant levels of trust by
referring them to another supplier or solution and in my experience they will
return in due course.
So when you are thinking about sales please make
sure you put in enough EFFORT or else the process simply won’t work. Now I’m off to start changing some habits and this
new found wisdom
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
by Julia Felton | Jul 14, 2019
Great leaders are those people that can view any situation through multiple lenses, and so find different perspectives that can yield different results. I’m sure many of you will be familiar with the three positions of perspective. This is an NLP phenomenon that, in essence, states that there at least three viewpoints through which you can look at any situation. The three perspectives are through the lenses of:
- Self
- The Other Person
- The Observer
The perspective of self is naturally your own viewpoint. For example, you might think that designing a product to solve your book closing is not possible. From the other’s perspective, they might believe it is absolutely possible; whilst the observer, who typically has no vested interest in the outcome, can see another viewpoint altogether.
Emerging Leaders
This is exactly the situation I found myself in recently as I was mentoring a group of high school students to create their own business and develop their entrepreneurial flair for a competition called Young Enterprise. When we started out, the students launched gung ho into the project, determined to create an amazing product without undertaking much market research. And big surprise: the first product idea they came up with failed.
However, looking at the project through a new lens, they sought to develop a product that would solve a real problem that they all faced. That was when Page Keep was born, because their biggest frustration was how to keep their textbooks open on the right page when they were studying. Most of the books kept shutting, wasting valuable time and energy as the students had to find the page again.
When they first shared the idea with me, I must confess to being somewhat skeptical — but I quickly realized that was my lens. I was being constrained by my past experiences. However, the students had no fear and, unconstrained by rules, assumed that anything is possible and achievable. So off they went to their Design and Technology Lab to experiment making prototypes. Yes, some failed — but eventually they came up with a great design that was really functional and based on their market research of what the other students wanted to buy.
However, what happened next really highlighted to me how narrow my lens of innovation had become. The students were not content with making their Page Keep from any old plastic. No, if they were to make a product, it had to be environmentally friendly and sustainable. So with no prompting, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, they went and sourced the UK’s only supplier of recyclable plastic and persuaded them to permit them to have a just-in-time delivery schedule. Furthermore, they designed the product in an interlocking design so as to minimize wastage. How inspired is that?
There are the three lessons I have learnt from this emerging generation of leaders.
1. When things aren’t working out, stop and see if there is another solution. All too often in business we keep ploughing on with the same old strategies, which aren’t yielding the results we want, and we never think to try something new. The students rapidly realized their first product wasn’t viable and so created something new.
2. Often it is only a minor change in perspective and approach — in other words a pivot — that can catapult the situation to very different results. Through realizing they could personalize the Page Keeps, a whole new market and revenue stream opened up for them.
3. Once you have seen the situation through a different lens, then results accelerate as momentum drives you towards the goal. For the students, once they saw the initial success of their product, they were able to make incredible sales and the leverage this into selling workshops to teach other students what to do.
These emerging leaders are ambitious, enthusiastic, hardworking, and see endless possibilities around them. Maybe that is why they are such great ambassadors for saving our planet.
I’m curious: what inspiring lessons are you learning from our emerging leaders that are really forcing you to rethink the way you see the world and the lenses you are using to filter information?
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
by Julia Felton | Aug 30, 2017
It’s a fact of life that adversity happens but it is the way that we handle it that helps defines who we are and what type of person you are. How do respond when things don’t go to plan? Do you become dominant and aggressive, or do you disconnect from life and hide out?
We’ve all experienced difficult times in our work or home lives, often through events and circumstances outside our control. But like great trees, humans grow stronger when exposed to powerful winds. Here are 10 suggestions for dealing with the hard times when they happen.
1. Take responsibility. Assume an “I can do something” attitude rather than pointing fingers. If nothing else, you can control your own response to the situation.
2. Limit the focus. Don’t let the problem become all encompassing. When you compartmentalize the difficulty, you can focus on a workable solution.
3. Be optimistic. The ultimate belief in life as positive, even with hard-times and troubles, will result in positive behaviours and positive actions.
4. Think creatively. Approach the problem from new and different directions. Trust your creativity.
5. Have courage. Having courage doesn’t mean you’re not afraid. It means that you don’t let the fear get in the way of doing what you need to do.
6. Take action. Handling the day-to-day details can keep you from getting bogged down in the mud of adversity. Determine what can be done, and do it.
7. Take the long-range view. Remember that “this too shall pass.” Recount other times when you have overcome challenges.
8. Maintain a sense of humour. Even in the darkest times, laughter can help ease the pain.
9. Get support. No need to do it alone. Ask for help.
10. Don’t quit. Persistence may be the greatest of human qualities that help us overcome adversity. Consider how water smoothes stones and wind sculpts cliffsides
I really hope these top tips on handling adversity help you, they have helped me no end.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
by Julia Felton | Jul 12, 2017
Are you ready to break free?
Today I wanted to share the words of Natasha Bedingfield’s song called Wild Horses.
These words really resonate with me right now and I know that often many of my clients feel trapped in their lives and wish they could be free.
The great news is that we all the have ability to Grab The Reins and Lead Our Life, so if you are feeling stuck right now register for one of limited number of complimentary discovery sessions I offer each month.
During our call you will:
- Uncover hidden opportunities to create more income in your business
- Discover how you may be unconsciously sabotaging your business and its success and break through those limitations
- Create a clear plan that describes in detail the steps you need to unleash the hidden potential in your business
- The one simple step you can take immediately to get into action
Click the link here to register for one of the limited number of complimentary discovery sessions.
Ooooh I feel these four walls closing in
Face up against the glass
I’m looking out, hmmm
Is this my life I’m wondering
It happened so fast
How do I turn this thing around
Is this the bed I chose to make
It’s greener pastures I’m thinking about
Hmm, wide open spaces far away
All I want is the wind in my hair
To face the fear but not feel scared
Ooh, wild horses I want to be like you
Throwing caution to the wind,
I’ll run free too
Wish I could recklessly love like I’m longing to
I want to run with the wild horses
Run with the wild horses, oh Yeah, oh oh, ye-yeah
I see the girl I want to be
Riding bare-back, care-free
Along the shore
If only that someone was me
Jumping head-first, head-long
Without a thought
To act and down the consequence
How I wish it could be that easy
But fear surrounds me like a fence
I want to break free
All I want is the wind in my hair
To face the fear, but not feel scared
Oooh, wild horses I want to be like you
Throwing caution to the wind, I’ll run free too
Wish I could recklessly love like I’m longing to
I want to run with the wild horses
Run with the wild horses, oh
I want to run too
Oooh oh oh oh
Recklessly emboundening myself before you
I want to open up my hear
Tell him how I feel, ooh ooh
Oooh, wild horses I want to be like you
Throwing caution to the wind, I’ll run free too
Wish I could recklessly love like I’m longing to
I want to run with the wild horses
Run with the wild horses
Run with the wild horses
Ooh ooooh ooh ooh ye-yeah yeah oohh
I want to run with the wild horses, ooooh
Did you enjoy that?. Did you resonate with the words and are you ready to break free and grab the reins? If you are then please connect with me and let’s have a conversation about how I can help you.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
by Julia Felton | May 17, 2017
As an entrepreneur one of my values is continual learning. I can’t get enough of it because I know that every time I learn something new I grow and new opportunities open up for me. And you don’t have to just be an entrepreneur to keep learning, anyone has the opportunity to keep learning. And today continual learning is even easier due to the mass of free educational material available on the internet.
This is one of my favourite quotes on learning: “If you are not willing to learn no-one can help you. If you are determined to learn no-one can stop you”. Learning and education are key tools that you can use in business and life to expand your circle of influence, create new contacts and help uplevel your own confidence levels. The more you know the more you can share your knowledge with others and help them along the journey.
I know that at a deep level I love educating people about the possibilities that are available to them. That’s one of the reasons I am a trainer, coach and consultant. It allows me to fulfil my purpose of being in service to others and helping them realise their hidden potential. One of the teachers on my journey has been Roger Hamilton. He is the creator of Wealth and Talent Dynamics and the founder of GeniusU. What I love about his teaching is the way that all his work is based on the five elements and he manages to link practical business tools with lessons from the natural world. He has been a big influence on my work and continues to inspire me.
So when I heard about this training he is offering I just wanted to share it will you as I know it will transform your life whether you are a business owner or not. Roger is giving away a great Entrepreneur Inspiration ebook, which I have read, and is packed with loads of examples of how other entrepreneurs have overcome adversity to achieve success. This is supported by a video series that I know will be packed full of great content.
It’s really simply to get access to this amazing training material. Simply click here and you will be taken to the sign up page. I’m part of this training so why not join in, let me know and we can share our thoughts on this along the way.
And if you decide this training isn’t for you, great, but please do search out something else that resonates with you so that you keep expanding your comfort zone and knowledge zone and continual to grow every day.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
by Julia Felton | May 4, 2017
Firstly, many apologies for this week’s Wednesday Wisdom being a day late. As you might have seen my computer had a major meltdown yesterday and threw my day into disarray. It’s amazing what happens when you don’t have a computer. I literally couldn’t do anything. It was super frustrating and I kept battling on but everything took ages to do.
Basically, in a nutshell what had happened was that my computer had been infected with some adware that meant that every time I hit return on my keyboard it automatically took me to another page. After hours of frustration I finally called my lovely computer man who came out at 7pm at night – now that is what I call customer service – and after 2 hours finally managed to fix it. What was interesting was that on face value everything looked fine on my computer. There were no rogue files in the usual places and no illegal programmes installed.
Eventually, through trial and error, he found the pesky bug embedded deep within a seemingly innocuous add in for my internet browser. There was nothing about the add in on face value that seemed malicious and yet it clearly was the cause of all the problems. He had to reboot everything to make everything work again and I’m delighted to say I am now back in business.
Reflecting on this incident I have been fascinated to see the parallels between what happened with my computer and what I observe happening to some of my clients. I’m sure you have often heard the brain being referred to as being the operating system of your body. It is what makes everything run smoothly and just like my computer everything on the surface can appear fine, but then from a dark, hidden corner of your mind some limiting beliefs come up that just prevent you from taking action. Just like the adware did to me. Examples of some limiting beliefs could be fear of public speaking, fear of sales conversations or fear of being visible in your business.
The irony is that those limiting beliefs, many of which you are unconscious of, were embedded whilst you were growing up. They are hidden deep in your psyche and can be very difficult to detect, but rest assured they are impacting everything you do. When you come across them there is nothing else to do but deal with them head on, and if you can’t detect them, then find an expert who can help you, just like I did with my computer man.
Of course, once you have detected the limiting belief and removed them you can then reboot your system. Just like your computer slows down if you leave it turned on for too long, so does your mind and body. That is why sleep is so important to help renew and refresh us. But sometimes you just need to do a ctrl-alt-delete and just reboot everything and restore it to factory settings. Ironically that is what I had recently decided to do with my health. So on Monday I started a 90-day reboot programme. I’m curious to see what happens over these next 90 days as I reset my body to stop craving sugar and carbohydrates. I’m sure my energy levels will soar and I will get more motivation as well as release some excess weight. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.
The same principles also apply to your business. Sometimes your business needs a reboot or a jump start to get it into action which I why I am delighted to be offering one day Jump Start Your Business Intensive Days with me. We’ll analyse what is working and not working in your business and then create a plan to move forward so that we can get your business into flow. To find out more just give me a call. You can book into my diary here.
And as an added incentive to get to into action I have decided to offer a massive 40% reduction on my normal fees for anyone booking and paying in full before 12th May. So if you’ve ever wanted to work with me but thought you couldn’t afford it, now is the time to take action. Simply book in for a call and let’s start rebooting your business.
I can’t wait to hear from you.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
by Julia Felton | Feb 15, 2017
From my extensive research I have found that successful people all have one thing in common. They get up early in the morning and have a very specific routine that they follow, no matter what. It is this routine and consistency each and every morning that sets them up for success.
Starting and maintaining a positive morning routine is an investment of a life time. It provides structure, builds life-changing habits, and creates momentum for the rest of your day. According to research, when you create and follow a morning routine, your stress and anxiety levels will begin to plummet and your life satisfaction levels will begin to soar.
In the words of Hal Elrod, author of The Miracle Morning:
“How you wake up each day and your morning routine (or lack thereof) dramatically affects your levels of success in every single area of your life. Focused, productive, successful mornings generate focused, productive, successful days — which inevitably create a successful life — in the same way that unfocused, unproductive, and mediocre mornings generate unfocused, unproductive, and mediocre days, and ultimately a mediocre quality of life. By simply changing the way you wake up in the morning, you can transform any area of your life, faster than you ever thought possible.”
If you want to make your morning routine stick, focus on making it a habit. A healthy morning routine instills a sense of purpose, peace and productive ritual to your day.
Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, says maintaining a good morning routine is no different than having a positive outlook.
“Over my 50 years in business I have learned that if I rise early I can achieve so much more in a day, and therefore in life. No matter where I am in the world, I try to routinely wake up at around 5am. By rising early, I’m able to do some exercise and spend time with my family, which puts me in a great mind frame before getting down to business.”
One of my goals for this year is to instill a better routine into my mornings. One that I stick to no matter what. There is no best formula for how your morning should look but some of the activities that successful people do every day include meditation, exercise, stretching and drinking green smoothies. Then prioritising their top three income producing activities of the day, which they then execute. What they don’t do is get out of bed, react to emails, jump on social media and then find its lunchtime and half the day has already disappeared.
Each and every day there will always be important and urgent tasks that you have to get done, such as client work and sales conversations but there are also a raft of tasks that are important and non-urgent. These important and non-urgent tasks include eating well and making sure you are taking care of yourself. Let’s face it you can serve no-one if you are exhausted and not up to the job. And yet time and time again I come across business owners that have not prioritised their personal well-being in their daily schedule. They keep saying they don’t have time for exercise and yet studies [keep showing] SHOW that exercise helps make us more productive. This is the conundrum. We keep thinking we don’t have time when actually if we don’t take the time to do these things we won’t be able to sustain running a successful business.
Like everything, when you start to implement your morning routine, start with small steps. If you currently get up at 7am then trying to get up at 5am will be a stretch. Why not just get up 15 mins earlier for a week and then the next week another 15 mins earlier. Soon you will reach your goal. Likewise, don’t try and meditate for an hour, 15 mins is a great start. It’s the same with exercise too. If 30 mins seems to long start with just 15 mins. Like everything it is the intention and commitment to take action that is JUST as important as the duration of the activity.
So, what are you going to do today to start putting better morning routines in place? I’m going to take some of my own medicine now and go for a run!
Wishing you a great flow filled week.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
by Julia Felton | Feb 8, 2017
“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying “no” to 1,000 things” Steve Jobs
Over the past few weeks we have talked a lot about taking action and staying focused, and the quote above from Steve Jobs sums this up so well. Staying focused doesn’t mean saying yes to everything, in fact learning to say No is probably the most powerful action you can take. One of the challenges that I come across time and time again with entrepreneurs is that they want to do everything. Maybe you can relate to this?. Entrepreneurial Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) is the curse of the entrepreneur because when it kicks in they jump from one project or shiny object to the next. And why is this? It’s because great entrepreneurs can see the opportunity and possibility in everything. And so they just want to pursue all possible options. The challenge is to remain focused when their energy and focus becomes distracted.
So how do you know what to focus on? Firstly, it is so much easier to say No when you are crystal clear what you want to say Yes to. When you have clarity on the reason why you are doing what you are doing, then it is easier to see what a distraction is. This is why, with every business owner I work with, we start by getting clarity on the purpose for the business. The purpose provides the GPS and sets the business owner in the right direction. After all, if for example, you were travelling to Singapore from London, you would instantly know that going to New York was not a sensible idea, as it is in exactly the opposite direction. So having a clear purpose helps you filter out distractions and items that might take you off course.
Having clear values also helps you know what to say No to because your values inform your thinking and actions. If you are asked to undertake a task that is in violation of your values then most likely you would not do it. Our values become our DNA, the basis of what we stand for. Without values we can become like a rudderless ship bobbing around on the ocean, getting swept one way and then the next, never making any progress.
As creative entrepreneurs we often come up with many different types of products and service lines. The reality is that you cannot be an expert at everything. When Mark Parker, become Nike CEO, in 2006, he asked Steve Jobs for his best advice and this is what Jobs said:
“Nike makes some of the best products in the world. Products that you lust after. But you also make a lot of crap. Just get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff.”
Jobs calls the process of just focusing on the good stuff editing. It involves reviewing all your products, services and activities and then streamlining them. Whether it’s design or business strategy less is more. Nobody produces all masterpieces. You’ve got to edit it down and throw away the crappy stuff. Take away unnecessary hardware parts from your computer, unnecessary code and features from your app, unnecessary products from your offering, extra words from your presentation. This is not easy. It takes guts to take away a physical keyboard from a smartphone but the results can be astounding. Throw away the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff.
So, how are you going to use the Power of No in your business? What crappy stuff are you going to release so that you can focus on the really good stuff? Think about this over the coming week and let me know in the Facebook group what you have said No to.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
by Julia Felton | Feb 1, 2017
Happy February 1st. It seems amazing that the first month of the year has already flown by. I hope that you are staying focused on your goals and are making progress. Success happens one step at a time so if you are feeling disillusioned in any way just remember that one step every day will eventually help you reach your goal. This is the power of the compound effect – little and often is the key. There are no secrets to success except taking consistent action, planning and course correction.
Now if you are like me you might be wanting it all now. I know I can be super impatient, but the reality is that nothing in nature happens immediately. Seeds take time to germinate before they bloom into flower. There is a flow to everything and as any farmer or gardener will tell you, if you try to rush a plant or vegetable to grow it never works.
That is definitely the case with my horses. Every time I go to the yard in a rush, they slow me down. It is as if they just know I need to do something now, so they mess with me and make everything take time. And yet when I am detached from the time perspective, and act as if I have all the time in the world, they respond and complete the tasks effortlessly.
This was certainly the case this morning when I had to move the ponies to another field. Since there is limited haylage in this new field (as its their lose weight field!) they typically resist going in here but this morning they followed me into the field with no problem at all. It took just minutes as they were so accommodating versus the 5-10 mins it usually takes to catch them and then lead them, usually very reluctantly, to this field.
The end of the month is a great time to reflect on what has happened. Remember you get paid on what you get done so take some time to list all the activities you did in January and the impact they had. Were all the activities moving you and your business towards your goals or on reflection were some of the activities a distraction.
If you found yourself spending your time doing lots of £10 an hour tasks rather than £250 tasks then recognize this. Learn that maybe doing these small tasks that could be delegated to others might be your avoidance or procrastination mode and resolve to make changes in February. One of the great things about being in business and having flexibility over your schedule is that you can learn from your mistakes and make immediate changes. The only mistake is not learning from what has not worked and continuing to do the same thing over and over a again.
I’d love to hear what you have learnt from reviewing your January performance and what news strategies and tactics you are putting in place for February. As always let me know in the Facebook group.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
by Julia Felton | Dec 7, 2016
We all have doubts, fears and disappointments in our lives. We’ve all had times in our lives where we felt bound by our past and our fear of failure. We know we should change, but…we can’t. Can you relate? I know I can!.
This weekend I’ve been reflecting on my business and life and the changes I need to implement to make 2017 the best year ever. The challenge is that in order to change it means I need to alter my thinking. I need to “unthink” my past and eliminate fear in order to unleash my hidden potential. And unthinking my past is not something I’m relishing. I’ve invested loads in my past (both financially and emotionally) but I know that in order to grow I need to release some of this old thinking and create the space to make new decisions from where I am now.
So how did we create this thinking? This story of the elephant describes the situation so well. When an elephant is born into captivity, the owner ties the animal to a tree or post with a thick chain to prevent the 250-pound infant from escaping. During the first few weeks of his life, the small elephant tests the chain that binds him, again and again, in an attempt to free himself and wander as his nature urges him to do. His efforts, however, are no match for steel links. Over the course of a few weeks, he eventually learns that his resources are no match for the hardiness of the chain. He gives up any further attempts to free himself, and thus relegates himself to a life within a small circle.
As an adult elephant conditioned by a past experience, he can now be tethered to a small tree with the thinnest of ropes or, in some cases, no rope at all. He makes no attempts to wander because he carries with him, for life, the belief that he does not possess the power to break the ties that bind him. The adult elephant could easily snap the rope or uproot the tree to which it is attached, but he makes no such effort, because early in life, he was taught that true freedom was not available to him. For the remainder of his life, he is tame and nothing like the captivating, powerful creature he was born to be.
Can you sympathize with this story about the elephant? Do you feel your life has been shackled by what you were conditioned to believe when you were young? Maybe the conditioning was even more recent than that. Whatever thoughts came up for you as you read this I urge you to stop and reflect on whether your current thinking is serving you now. And if it is not then maybe you want to unchain your elephant and let it run free.
I’m off to do some elephant unchaining of my own. Are you going to join me?
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
