HOW TO FOCUS ON YOUR GOALS

We were about to speak to 150 business owners about social media and the best way to build your business. As I got dressed, I needed to pick a tie. A tie that would somewhat match with Sharyn's maroon shirt. From the bottom of the stack, a tie I had not worn in years spoke to me.

“Wear me.”

Wear you?

“Yes – if you wear me, I PROMISE something great will happen.”

OK, I believed in ties and they have never lied to me so I grabbed it and GOODNESS, it was a tie with Mickey Mouse on it that says:

“IT ALL STARTED WITH A MOUSE.”

It all started with a mouse. I thought about that for a bit. Walt Disney had a mouse with a different name. He changed it to Mickey. And drawings became cartoons. And that turned into one of the most popular brands in the world.

That made me think of something else.

Years ago, Sharyn and I were asked to participate in a group called the New Leaders Project where up and coming entrepreneurs were taught what it is like to be a leader in the community. We met lots of other business people our age, and lots of leaders in positions we aspired to.

One of them was retired Los Angeles City Councilman, Marvin Braude. Never heard of him? That's ok. What you have to know about Mr. Braude is that it is because of him you can eat in a restaurant and almost everywhere else without being disturbed by nasty cigarette smoke.

As he told us: one day, Mr. Braude was in an elevator with a pregnant woman and several other people who were all smoking. She coughed and Braude thought: there really should be a law that would prevent people from being forced to inhale smoke. Then he thought “I am an LA City Councilman. I can WRITE that law.”

He did and it spread from there. Soon, there were laws establishing non-smoking areas and finally, the only smoking area for Los Angeles was Las Vegas.

As Mr. Braude was speaking to us, he told us this simple message: You can have a huge goal. But sometimes, what you need to do is start small.

YOU CAN START WITH AN ELEVATOR.

Let's talk about YOUR elevator. Do you have an elevator? Do you have a goal? A project you need to start? What ideas do you have that you have not acted upon? When are you getting started?

Do you have some goals you have not taken a first step towards? Is it because they are so large that you are frozen by inaction? We have all seen that expression: “A Journey of 1,000 miles starts with a single step.” It reminds us to just take that first step. Which, sure is easy, but not when we keep looking waaaaaaaay down the road 1,000 miles ahead.

WE HAVE A GOAL. FOUR ACTUALLY. AND THEY ARE ALL BOOKS.

Well, we have other goals, too, but for this post we'll focus on these four goals.

The first book goal came during a break in mastermind session when I had a conversation with Dan Janel. Dan's business is helping first time authors go from idea to publication of their first book. He told me that “I read your book (The Marketing Checklist 2) and think that you and Sharyn should write a book about couples who work together.”

That was a lightbulb moment and 24 hours later, Sharyn and I came up with a title, a cover design, bought the URL, and created a list of questions that we would need to answer as chapters. Our first steps were taken, but there are many more. We need to find between 5 and 10 couples who want to be part of the book (we think that would be better to have several points of view), and are willing to invest in becoming best-selling authors. Or we need to write the entire book ourselves. So while we create the process to look for couples, we are stuck. That and we need to find a teeter-totter for the front cover photo.

Another project goal we have is a book about how the laws of Physics can be used to describe how to market your business. For THAT book, we are waiting for our co-author, Randy Gold, to write the physics part. Then we will write the marketing laws that tie in. For example, The 3rd Law of Thermodynamics states that (roughly, remember, I am not writing that part) a body in motion will stay in motion until acted upon by an outside force. The marketing equivalents? Your marketing is going to continue to suck until you do something to change it. Well, it may end up more graceful than that.

Then there are two more books in The Marketing Checklist series. One is a marketing tips book, and the other is a sales tip book. In fact, this blog post is the first chapter for that book.

Each of these books has a checklist of things we recommend you do to improve your marketing and your business.

YOU NEED TO DO THE SAME THING FOR YOUR GOALS:

Write down your goals and the steps you need to take to reach them so that you can know at any moment, how far along you are in your journey and you can become neither overwhelmed nor overconfident that the project will be completed.

This is especially important for the products you are selling. (Were you wondering when I would get to sales?) It is so important to ‘checklist your process' and make it easy to follow up and follow through. Your clients can also benefit from your checklist because they can follow along and realize that you are not there to make a commission, but are there to assist them in their business and their lives.

Remember this most important of sales rules: 99.999% of people in the world do NOT want to write you a check. The good news is that .001% would still keep you very busy. Your job as a salesperson, or as a the owner of your company looking for new clients, is to solve their problems. If you are able to take away your client's pain, you will receive their support and their money.

Sales is not about you. It is about THEM. You can say you care, but until you demonstrate it, the sales will not happen. All you have to do is help them ride their elevator without being disturbed by cigarette smoke.

Do you want help in finding your elevator, or helping your clients find theirs? Let's have a conversation. Go to www.FreeMarketingConsulation.com and after you answer a few easy questions, you can choose a time in our calendar that is best for you.

*DING* Your elevator doors have opened. It's time to rise to the top. All you have to do is step in and we can help you. Will you let us help you stay focused on your goals?

Originally published at www.YuloffCreative.com