Inspired By A Simple Conversation With A Good Friend

It has been quite some time since I last wrote in this blog. I have a number of reasons . . . but they are all excuses. And although we all think our reasons are "valid", I don't want to disrespect you or waste your time by pretending they are justified. Suffice it to say that I let life get in the way.

If you are coming back and enjoying my blog again after my long hiatus, Thank You. I appreciate the second chance.

Or if you are a first time reader, I hope you enjoy.

Either way, I hope to incite some conversation about business and life. And I look forward to engaging with you through discussion and generating new and insight methods to deal with the struggles that we all face in both our business and in our every day lives. And even more so, I hope that I can show that as much as we all try to separate the two, Business and Life, the two are so closely related, that it's often hard to tell where one end and the other begins.

So, without further ado, let me get back to blogging . . .

I had an interesting conversation with a good friend of mine yesterday about a simple concept that I've written about before, but I think warrants new light to be shown on the topic.

You can't manage . . . or improve consistently, what you don't measure.

What do you truly want to change in your business or in your life? When it comes to your goals, what do you want? Where would you like to be tomorrow . . . next month . . . or even next year?

If you are you thinking from a business perspective, you might be looking for more sales, more new clients, decreased costs or maybe more market share?

Or maybe your goals are more personal in nature. More income? Weight loss? Healthier lifestyle? Lower cholesterol? Or maybe a better education?

What would make you happy?

Time and time again, the more I live, the more I see a pattern . . . if you set and commit to a goal (a specific, measurable goal), measure your progress consistently over the entire time span of the goal, you can't help but begin to see improvement, towards the goal, if not complete fulfillment of that goal.

Are things going to change right away? Absolutely NOT!

But they will change. Not because of something magical that happens when you set and measure goals. No, life doesn't work that way. Things change because YOU will start making a difference in the way you behave - you will begin to change the way you behave, if for no other reason because you will get tired of facing the failure each and every day of not improving.

Will you get it right the first time? Possibly, but not always. You will have to "adjust fire" (as the Army likes to say - correcting for missing the target on the first shot), but if you are measuring and you have defined goals, you will be more likely to find the combination that gives you the best opportunity to be "more right" with each subsequent change.

Why is Goal Setting and Measuring Results So Hard?

Unfortunately, in spite of the simplicity of these ideas, we still struggle. In fact, what we all, as flawed human beings, tend to do is to say we want something, and then NOT put into place the systems we need to make sure we actually to ensure our success.

We do this by:

1. Not measuring what we want to improve. We leave our goal nebulous and random so that we can make growth towards that goal COMPLETELY at our emotional whim. If we feel good about what we have done, we say we fulfilled our goal. When we don't feel good about how we are doing, we say we failed. Either way we move on - forgetting (intentionally or unintentionally) what the original goal really was in the first place.

2. Not measuring "interim results" or "the process". Sometimes the end results are a long time coming - or just plain difficult to measure. When this occurs, it's important to set up measurements that are either direct inputs into the results you want, are by-products of your achievements, or are associated with the process you are going to take toward your desired goal. In cases like this, we know that if we follow a process, record the progress (as small as it might be) and measure our consistency, we will see results.

3. Giving up at the first sign of failure (or we don't put into place systems / methods for correcting our mistakes, when the growth doesn't occur as we expected it to occur). This is the number one cause of failing to reach our goals. We set a goal, start down the path to make it a reality, and then give up at the first sign of failure - or we think that since things are going as well as we had hoped (i.e. perfectly) then we just aren't meant to have what we want.

I know these all sound silly to read, but everyone I know and ever spoken to about success, including myself, has seen each and every one of these - at some time during their lives. And if you are honest with yourself, I suspect you will find each of these three struggles in your life too.

Keep It Simple

As simple as the struggle may seem, in my opinion, the solution is ever easier.

Stop over thinking things and keep it simple.

If you want to create a change in your business or in your personal life:

- DEFINE IT. Write down your goals and face them every day. Don't think because you said them once or thought about them, that you will actually remember them as you go about making decisions each and every minute of the day.
- MEASURE IT. Measure daily how you are progressing towards your goals - either directly or indirectly through a process or series of related steps.
- DON'T QUIT. It's inevitable - something will happen that you didn't expect or plan for and you will feel discouraged. No goal worth having doesn't involve some hardship along the way. No matter what the cause of your struggle, stay focused on what you want and make it happen in spite of the setback.
- MAKE ADJUSTMENTS until you find the right answer. There is a path to each destination - some are easier to find than others. If your first path didn't work, figure out what didn't work for you and make corrections so that you don't make the same mistake again.

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So, let me ask you, "What things do you want to change in YOUR BUSINESS or in YOUR LIFE?"

Don't END The Same Way As This Small Town Restaurant

There is a restaurant in a small town near where I live that has recently been closed and "bought out" by a new owner. The original restaurant was seemingly a perfect match for the small town folk it set itself up to serve. Unfortunately, it didn't last.

Here is a short story about what happened and the lesson to be learned.

For a couple months the small town restaurant did VERY well. Any time of the day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it didn't matter. It was busy. People not only came in to try it out, but also because they enjoyed the fact that they had a "new" meeting place, to visit with all of their friends and family.

Bottom line . . . business was good. And it looked like it was going to be good for quite some time.

But, as is often the case with small businesses, especially restaurants, business started to fall off. Slow at first, but eventually quite rapidly. And with little word, the doors closed unceremoniously for the final time under the old management.

What Happened?

Depending on who you ask, you will likely get different answers to that question.

For example, if you ask the owners, they will blame the economy and the "cheap" town folk. from their point of view, it wouldn't matter how good or how cheap the meals were, there just wasn't enough interest in the small town for the restaurant.

But. . . if you ask the patrons, they will tell you a whole other story. A story of inconsistent product and deteriorating quality that seemed to be common knowledge amongst the town folk.

So, what was it? The customers or the business?

Far too often business owners make excuses for the decline of their business: the economy, the new business across town, finicky customers, and / or even cheap customers. And rarely face do they face the real truth - they aren't meeting the needs of their clientele.

The truth is, most customers (people like you and me) love to find a place that we can call our own - a business that we can rely on and that makes us feel like we matter. And if it is really good, we will brag about it to every one we know - not only to help the business grow, but to be the show everyone how great we are to have found it first.

Unfortunately though, in order for us, as customers, to come back, not just once, but again and again, we have to know what we are going to get - we have to feel like we are going to get the same service, the same food, the same EXPERIENCE every time we walk through the doors.

And that my friends, is what this small town restaurant failed to produce - a consistent experience each and every time people came back for a meal.

You see, when they first opened, it was the owners that did everything. They cooked, they waited and bussed the tables, cleaned, and of course managed the entire operation. The experience their patrons had and the meals they enjoyed were born out of the pride of the owners. But very rapidly, the business grew beyond the owners' capacity to support on their own and they were forced to hire help. And so, they did exactly that - they hired good, experienced help.

They hired cooks with previous experience in short order cooking and a wait staff that was fully capable. And they did so, because the one thing the owners didn't know how to do was teach anyone how to do it like them - nor did they want to take the time to learn how.

With the new staff, came a NEW experience for the customer. Not necessarily a bad experience, but DEFINITELY not the one they got when it was just the owners doing everything. And so, slowly but surely a lot of the original, reliable customers stopped coming in.

Although the owners noticed a small drop off in patronage, there were enough new customers that were coming in that seemed to like the food and the service with the hired help that the business was able to survive. And besides, the owners liked feeling like they didn't have to do EVERY THING all the time.

Unfortunately though, as months passed, and the bills continued to exceed the sales, the owners had a make a decision - cut expenses or go out of business. So. . . they decided to cut in two arenas, they reduced (just slightly) the quantity of servings (that seemed only natural since most plates had lots of food left over after the meals) and they cut their experienced staff and hired some high school students with little / no experience (heck if McDonalds could do it, so could they).

Although it might make financial sense to impose these cuts (and often it does create a benefit in the short term), good financial sense doesn't always mean good business sense. And as it turns out, it was the beginning of the end of the restaurant.

In fact, it was only 4 short months later that this decent restaurant in a small town, aching for a nice restaurant, declared bankruptcy.

The Lesson To Be Learned

What it came down to was the fact that the owners failed to realize one VERY important fact when it comes to business:

It's easy to get new customers to walk through your doors - all you have to do is promise them an experience that appeals to them. But running a business isn't getting them to come in once - success in business is based on the ability of the business to deliver the same experience the customer enjoyed, again and again and again.

In the case of this small restaurant, it wasn't that their food or service were bad, it was that every time customers came in the door, they didn't know what they were going to get. Literally, it was like walking into a different restaurant every time they visited.

So with each visit, the customers got more and more disenfranchised and frustrated, until one by one, each decided to stop patronizing.

And in the case of this small restaurant in this little country town, there just wasn't enough potential customers in the pool to keep it afloat.

The lesson is simple . . . quality is great to get people to come once. But consistency is the key to long term success. And the key to consistency in product / service is to build your business based on systems, not people.

Keep Flying The Airplane First!

When I was learning to fly, one of my instructors told me that most pilots get themselves in trouble, not because they don't know their procedures, but because they respond too quickly without knowing the whole situation, or simply jumping to conclusions. He taught me that when an emergency happens, one of the best things you could do was just to "keep flying the airplane first" (do whatever you are currently doing) until you thought about and understand all that you can about the emergency.

The reason he would say this, is because in the heat of the moment, most people tend to react without thinking. They tend to move switches, turn dials, or pull circuit breakers, trying to solve the problem as fast as they can. Sometimes, this is the right action, but most times, it isn't.

Most times we aggravate situations by responding quickly and emotionally and make things even worse than they already were.

That's because the initial reaction to unplanned stimulus is usually emotional - and rarely thought through. It's simply an emotionally driven reaction.

What my instructor all those years taught me is to "keep flying the airplane first." It sounds obvious, but many pilots forget to do exactly this - fly the airplane. Don't move any switches or react to conditions until you have all the inputs and actually can think about it clearly. The act of flying keeps you grounded in what is important and keeps you on track. By consciously focusing on "flying first", I could change my thought process from reactive to proactive - from simply accepting consequences as they play out before me to thinking through the consequences and choosing the ones that I want.

The great thing is that this is a great business and life lesson as well. No matter what the circumstances are, you get to control your response. Whether it is declining sales in the recession, finding out a trusted employee is leaving you, getting an angry complaint from a customer, or your spouse picking a fight with you over something you did or didn't do yesterday, it doesn't matter. You control the situation, because you have control of your response.

Keep flying your plane, and give yourself time to think!

By continuing to "fly your plane", you ease your emotions and take the edge off of things. Even if its a "silent count to five" in your head, before you respond, you are more likely going to respond with a clearer mind, and less emotionally.

Bottom line and lesson learned from my experiences flying is:

Don't respond instantly and emotionally, every time a crisis comes up. Take your time to respond, its how you take back control of a situation that often times feels completely out of control.

4 Steps to Building and Evaluating Systems In Your Business

According to Dictionary.com, Systems are any formulated, regular, or special methods or plans of procedure.

Whether you like it or not - you have systems in your business. But they may not be very strong systems, and they may not be very effective systems. And in the world of business, the stronger the system is, the more consistent your product is, and most importantly, the more likely your customers will come back to you, again and again.

Literally, everything you do is a system. How you make your product, answer the phone or hire new employees are all systems. Unfortunately, even though you may have systems, if you are like most small business owners, they are haphazardly used and usually require the owner's presence / knowledge to make them work correctly.

So how do you improve on this situation, if you should choose to do so? How do you take your currently haphazard, "fly by the seat of the pants" processes and turn them into consistent reliable systems that both you and your customers can't count on.

The answer is easier than you think. Below are Four Steps to Building and Evaluating Systems In Your Business:

1. Document (write it down). When creating a system for your business, the first step is documentation - get it down in writing. I don't care how you do it, or even if how you do it is how you want to do it, write it down. Write down what you do, what you say, how you do it, when you do it, and if you can, why you do it. It does haven't to be pretty and it definitely doesn't have to be perfect - it just needs to be done. Most people get hung up at this stage, simply because they let perfect get in the way of "good enough".

As you will see, the process I'm going to lead you through is all about continuous improvement - for two reasons:

a. Nothing is perfect - ever. Even as you come close to having a perfect system, the market and or the environment that the system operates in will change and you will have to keep adjusting.

b. It's too much work to try to make it perfect. They say that it requires 20% effort to get an 80% solution, and 80% more effort to get the last 20%. Well what we want to do with our systems is get the 80% solution and then improve it as necessary to keep making it better given the existing conditions.

2. Evaluate (test it and measure it). Now that you have a system or systems in place, it's time to figure out what we are going to improve first. This requires evaluating the system - measuring the efficacy of the process that is currently in place. As much as possible those measurements should be quantifiable, but there may be qualitative measurements on occasion (but consistency of evaluation is important).

Fact of the matter is that you have limited time and assets. So it's going to be important to figure out where you overall system is broken (or not working as well as you want it to), so that you can leverage your time and money to generate the largest "bang for the buck".

The key here is to evaluate (test and measure) all of your processes to see what is working and what isn't. Sometimes you will make major changes to single process and sometimes you will make make minor changes to many processes. But for each change you need to ensure that you know if what you did helped or hurt the overall all system before it becomes a permanent change in your business.

3. Innovate. Now that you have all of your systems in place and you know which ones are working and which ones aren't, it's time to start improving them - taking them from what they have always been and start making them better.

This doesn't take rocket science - it just takes a little creativity and / or a little bit of imitation. Truly, if you want to be the best, you are going to have to be a bit creative, but if you are still far from the best in your marketplace, there is lots of room for improvement just by understanding better how you competition (or similar business in other industries) do well - and copying it.

The truth is the wheel was invented a couple thousand years ago - and I believe the patent has expired. So in most cases there is no need to re-invent it. Although the process / system involved in producing your main product may be unique, there is no reason you can't leverage other systems that other are using quite effectively.

4. Validate. And finally, now that you have improved your processes, it's time to make sure your new and improved processes are actually better than the ones you previously had. And that should be simple, since you should already have a measuring tool built into your system so that the you can see right away whether or not you improved or hurt the output of the changed system.

If you hurt the output of that process or the overall functionality of your business, then undo what you did and go back to the drawing board.

However, if you saw even the slightest bit of improvement, its time to go back the documentation step and start all over.


All too often, people make this process entirely too hard. They get caught up in fixing before they even write it down. Or they try to fix things without being able to tell if their improvements even made a difference. But if you follow these steps, you will quickly start to be able to take your business from being inconsistent in some or many aspects of operations, to soon becoming the best in your market at some or even all the processes within your business.

If You Want To Be The Best, Stop Trying to Be Everything To Everyone

Personal, as well as Business, Greatness doesn't come from being or doing everything all the time. Instead, I believe that Greatness grows out of doing what YOU CAN do absolutely better than any one else in your market - and then doing just that until you BECOME the best at it.

So the question is, do you want to be the Greatest . . .

- In your industry?
- In your market?
- In your Job?

If so, then stop trying to do everything. . . and do what you can become best at.

If you can be the best Carpet Cleaner in your market area, then focus on being that. Live it. Breathe it. Build your business around it. Market your business that way. Be that person - which means that you should no longer do other forms of floor coverings - they will distract you from being the best at what you do.

Conversely, if you want to be and can become the best Floor Covering Cleaner in the same locale, then be that. This might mean that you aren't the BEST Carpet Cleaner. But when it comes to servicing ALL of your floor covering needs in a home or business, through a single source, then you would be the man to turn to.

Think about it. They are completely different things - requiring completely different strengths and different skills.

The difference is subtle, but the impact to your business can be profound. The key here is understanding deeply what you are capable of being the best at . . . and dominating that market - like no one else out there.

So what are you the best at?

What can you do better than anyone else in your market?

Why are you doing any thing else?

Here is an example. I'm not a big fan of Dennis Rodman, but you have to be impressed with what he did. He has some good Basketball skills, but nothing compare to most, especially since he played on the team with the best Basketball player ever, Michael Jordan. And Rodman knew he couldn't compete, if he tried to simply be a Basketball player like so many others. Had he attempted that path, he would have failed miserably. But he did have a gift, and he realized what he could be the best at - rebounding and defense. So rather than trying to be like Mike and everyone else, Dennis Rodman decided to become the best Rebounder and Defender in the NBA. And he did it, making himself a pretty penny at the same time.

The same thing happens in Baseball. There are pitchers that would be average at best if they had to pitch 8 innings each game, but as "closers" they have become the best at what they do. They come in, do their job and finish the game.

I could go on and on with sports, business and even personal examples. And I know you could too. But that's not as important as figuring out what you can be best at.

So what is it that you and your business can be best at? Figure it out and you have found your gold mine - because everyone wants the BEST person at what they do.

Spend some time thinking about this. Ask your employees what they think. And even better, ask your best customers, you might be surprised at what they say. Then, go for it. Don't just act like you are the best, BE THE BEST.

Six Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Coach

Industry experts estimate the number of business / personal / life / executive coaches to be in excess of 30,000 and growing daily. So how do you know that the Coach you have found (or more likely has found you) is the right one for you and your needs? How do you know if they are what they say they are? And how do you know if they will in fact be able to help you?

Unfortunately, in spite of the efforts of a couple organizations trying to "police" the industry, there is no single entity that governs the coaching industry and controls any form of certification process. So in many ways, the process is up to you.

To help you navigate through the fog, here are 6 questions to ask a perspective coach before you make any hiring decisions. It's important to note that there are no right answers to any of these questions. It is through the process of asking that you will gain invaluable insight into the person you will be building a very deep, trusting relationship with.

1. How do you coach / What is your coaching process? There are as many coaching processes and systems as there are search results for the word "Coach" in Google (150,000,000 last time I checked). Regardless of their process though, every coach should be able to walk you through what they will do, how they will do it and what you should expect to see as results.

Funny thing is that no matter who many methods of coaching there are, at their core, they all come down to the same things. All coaches provide the following services at some form or another:

- Cheerleader
- Confidant / Trusted Agent
- Coach / Mentor
- Teacher
- Accountability Partner
- Objective Observer
- Therapist (at the lowest levels)

Listen for these words and make sure your perspective client touches some, most or even all of them.

Additionally, Coaches will meet with their clients at different intervals - ranging from as often as daily to as infrequently as quarterly. These intervals should be flexible (to meet YOUR needs, not theirs). However, if their system provides for embedded flexibility in other ways, they may be somewhat strict on how often they want to meet with you.

Truth is though, you know yourself better than anyone else. You know your habits and your limitations. Don't set yourself up for failure, by signing up for daily / weekly sessions when you know you won't commit to doing the work. And don't sign up for monthly / quarterly sessions if you know you are a procrastinator that needs more daily / weekly accountability. Find someone that will stretch you, but it HAS to be in a way that you will actually enjoy (at some level) - or you won't do it.

2. Why did you decide to become a coach? One of the most telling questions you can ask anyone, is "why they have chosen to do what they do". Not only does it give you insight behind their motivations, but when it comes to coaching, it is extremely important - because of the level of passion and commitment you will need - when you struggle with your own passion and commitment.

Obviously, there is no perfect answer to this question, but the answer will perfectly give you insight as to whether you can work with them.

3. What is your training / experience with regard to coaching me to reach my goals? What are your core areas of expertise? Every coach is going to try to solve problems based on their own personal experience and training. Obviously the more tools they have in their toolbox, the more likely there will be one that is perfect for every situation you might encounter. However, no one is an expert in all areas - with all tools. So if they tell you they are, they probably aren't very good with any of them.

Bottomline, it is important that your coach be able to communicate what they are best at and how that is going to help you reach your goals. But it is equally important for you to recognize when a coach's experience and training are not a match for you - regardless of their past successes. Listen to what they say . . . and what they don't - both provide insight into their practice.

4. Do you have a list of past clients / referrals that I can contact? Both ones that have worked reached their goals and ones that haven't? Past performance is no indication of future success, however, it is an indicator. Get a list of clients that your perspective coach has worked with - both clients that reached their goals / dreams and those that didn't.

Contact at least one of each of the two categories - past successes and failures. Each will provide fantastic insights into the coach and how he will work with you. Ask them what worked for them as well as what didn't work. Ask them what they struggled with and how the coach helped them overcome their difficulties.

Finally, ask your soon to be coach, which client from their past is most like you. Ask if any one them match you at all. Truth is, it may be rare, but talking to this person will give you some great insight into what you will go through.

5. Do you use a coach yourself? Although not a necessity, having a coach or some form mentor / accountability partner is definitely a plus in everyone's life - including your coach. He will be asking you to do things that are going to be very tough for you to do - stretching you and helping you grow in ways that you have never experienced before.

Knowing that he is going through the same process both lends credibility to his requests, as well as gives him a uniquely qualified appreciation for what you are experiencing at each stage of the coaching process.

6. What is your billing process / contract length? Do you offer a trial period so that we can learn about each other - learn whether or not we are a match? Truth is, you aren't going to know if you are a good match after one meeting. I recommend 3-4 meetings before making any level of commitment to the process.

It comes down to the simple fact that, "You don't know what you don't know." Give yourself some time to think through what you want and whether or not this person is going to be able to help you reach your goals.

As far as billing is concerned, there are numerous ways that coaches bill for their services. Some bill hourly, some on retainer, while others bill based on the results they produce. Some require long term contracts, while others go session to session. Regardless of their methods, make sure it is a match for you - that you are comfortable with the process and you can commit to the contract.

The only warning I will make, is that coaching is not a short term fix. If you are unwilling to commit (at some level) to at least 3-6 months, don't waste your time.

If you have any other questions about the coach you are thinking about hiring, please feel free to contact me at coach.jj@impossiblefutures.com or for the most non-biased support available, contact SCORE at www.score.org.