Life and business can be like eating a steak…
So, everyone knows you can only eat a steak one bite at a time – right!
So, why do I keep trying to take on my business by expecting myself to learn and then do the whole thing at one time?
Blogging can be more than frustrating. It can drive you nuts till you learn the business! Or, maybe I should say, “it can drive you nuts until you learn to focus on one thing at a time.”
I have lists, goals, mottoes, graphics around the office, VAs, accountability partners, time management apps, a drawer full of bright shiny objects (BSOs) promising to help me get past this problem or that problem, and nothing has really helped me that much. I guess I have not been ready to listen.
But there is hope for me yet…
I went to a weekend beach get-away this past weekend. It was called Beachpreneurs, and almost every speaker talked about taking one bite at a time and really focusing on it. Nobody used the term “one bite at a time,” but that was the message I kept hearing all weekend.
I want so much to have a successful business, and I keep thinking and believing that I am going to make it–while I also keep trying to cram the entire steak into my mouth at one time. I can’t chew. I can’t swallow. I can’t even taste any part of it. I, effectively, have been affectively sabotaging myself over and over.
So why would any reasonably intelligent person do this to themselves?
Up to now, I have been asking myself that question over and over–and I have been drawing a blank… That is until Beachpreneurs.
St. Petersburg, FL Beachpreneurs
Rachael Martin, the beginning Keynote Speaker talked to us about how important it is to reach out and make a difference in this life–something which is truly my passion. She touched my heart deeply and I found myself feeding on her perspective.
Tony Laidig impressed me again when he told us the plain fact that our products are not products until they are out there for sale. He went on to talk about Consistent Intentional Action (CIA), which is something winners do–and losers do not do.
Up to now, I have actually been practicing how to be a “looser,” and I have been succeeding at it quite well. When Tony reminded us that we are all creatures of habit, and I realized I needed to start paying attention to my habits and making some serious changes.
This paradigm shift helped me to draw a line down a clean page and list on the left what IS working and on the right what IS NOT working. At this juncture, I had a clean list of obvious habits to break and a clean list of obvious habits on which to work–the main one being far better self-control.
Leslie Truex brought us home to reality with her concrete presentation regarding business analysis. I look at my Google Analytics and Crazy Egg page stats, but I have not been looking at them with a magnifying glass like Leslie does–and that is obviously why they have not been telling me the story I need to hear. She listed specific things to look for and ways to improve performance, and I came away with a determination to actually use the information to push my business forward instead of just glancing at the graphs to see if they are going up or down.
Debbie O’Grady is an accountability coach. The keyword, accountability, resonates with me, rings my bells and pushes all my buttons. I am always looking for ways to be accountable because I know my mostly right-brained self and how she can go tiptoeing off into LaLa Land. When Debbie asked us, “What is going to make you switch and grow your business?” I got one of those little glimmers of hope that maybe she could be the one to help me be accountable. I know that I need this–big time!
Debbie told us that what we focus on expands. I am a committed Christian, and I had just been reading in the Bible that “what I put my hands to prospers.” It does not say this exactly, but I believe it means regardless of what that is. I mean, if I put my hands to everything that distracts me all day–that’s what will prosper, and I will become a mindless marketer going nowhere.
Simple but Profound…
However, if I put my hands to work on the things I am learning to do to promote my business. My business will prosper.
Tracy Roberts spoke to us about relationships in business, and then we enjoyed a panel of experts who were willing to answer a myriad of questions spontaneously thrown at them by everyone in the room. They each bent over backward to give us more than we asked for, and they were all great!
Our ending Keynote Speaker was the famous, Bob Jenkins, better known as “Bob the Teacher!” He laid out “The Fastest Path to Get Me Where I am Going.” Bob used a Marine theme to help us discover whether or not we are star-fishers or real marketers. He outlined how important it is for each of us to get in touch with our core values before we launch out into the deep world of internet marketing and unknowingly become star-fishers. I have heard Bob say this before–many times, and he has even said it directly to me–many times.
I wonder how many times I, personally, have to hear a thing before the light goes off and I take action on it? I may start tracking that…
Kelly and Nicole both spoke with us several times, and each time was packed full of encouragement and direction. They put together an outstanding weekend for us, and I came away a changed person–focused on a new track. Many thanks to both of them.
Remember Always: We build Brick-by-Brick
Just Blogging Along …
Leave a Reply