End of June already???

It's the end of the month already and I've been so swamped that I have neglected to post much of anything. Sorry about that!

The Extreme Business Makeovers event was a smashing success on the 19th-21st. Over a week later now and I'm still getting people sending me emails and cards to thank me for putting it all together. I've got to say, it was an incredible lineup of speakers and each one not only delivered different expertise, but they have the same deep care for our participants that I have!

So, now that 2008 is half over, it seems an appropriate time to measure where I'm at for the year ... what's working, what's not and how to maximize the strengths and workaround the weaknesses.

Which leads me to the topics of balance and structure - not something that a typical "creative" type like myself excels in. I tend to bounce back and forth between juggling 50 projects at once or getting ultra picky and ultra focused on a particular project. The end result is the same ... a lot of busyness and much less fruitfulness. And, I've also done a lousy job at consistently taking care of myself by getting enough sleep and eating regular small meals versus my feast or famine pattern. Do you ever feel challenged in that area?

Well here's how I'm handling it for myself. First, I've created a block schedule, as per my friend, Stephanie Frank's advice. In it, I account for Focus Time (for projects), Flex time (general office stuff/communications, etc...), Family Time and Free Time. By making sure I have that Focus time when the door is shut, the phone is off and I'm not checking emails, it's much harder to get sidetracked or distracted by the tyranny of the daily urgent stuff and neglect the big projects that have huge payoffs.

Also, starting tomorrow, I'm taking a couple weeks for a working vacation - first to go to Hendersonville, NC to visit with my Mom and Dad, my sister and brother-in-law and their kids and another of my brothers. Then, after that, we head to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a mini reunion with my In-Laws and my wife's sisters and their husbands and children. With 13 grandchildren and 8 adults all staying in the same house, that should be a fun time. And, of course, the time out-of-pocket will give me the time to come back to the office ready to implement my new schedule versus if I didn't have that transition time for my mind.

On the positive side, I'm working on a book and should have a really large chunk of it done by the time I return! I'll save the details about that for another day.

If I don't post before then, have a super and safe 4th of July holiday! Be sure to take time to be grateful for this incredible country we live in!

All the Best,
Thom

Down to the wire

Extreme Business Makeovers 2008 kicks off tomorrow at 8:30 am at the Caribe Royale in Orlando. Which means ... I haven't had more than 2 hours of sleep a night for the past week.

It always amazes me just how many details there are in events like this. There are lots of parts that I don't mind letting someone else handle. But, there's a lot of it that I feel the need to be involved in from a quality standpoint. I'm not talking about if the food is good or the coffee is hot. That's not my focus at this event. It's things like ... Do we have the best video clip to use to set the mood and mindset for the next speaker? ... Do we have the right music to play during breaks so that we fill the atmosphere with positive attitudes and energy without trying to become a pep rally? ... Are the workbook materials going to help our participants walk out the door ready to apply what they've learned immediately?

But, I have to say ... it is very easy to get hung up on decisions concerning food and beverages, signs, name badges, graphics, etc... and lose track of the only really important item - making sure the "deliverable" of information and motivation surpasses all expectations.

Hey, look for another post tomorrow morning. I'm thinking about letting those who couldn't make it have a few sneak peeks throughout the day with a live stream from the event. If I decide to do this, I'll go ahead and post the times here.

Meanwhile, be blessed. I'll let you know afterwards how it all went.

Thom

Reaching New Summits of Success

Out of the hundreds of clients that I've worked with as a legacy architectTM and marketing coach, I have to say, there are only a handful that I can remember who have been truly consistent in their personal and business growth. They are the types like my friend Christopher Guerriero, one of the experts on the Extreme Business Makeovers 2008 training team, who continually discover and practice daily habits and seemingly small distinctions which pay off in huge dividends over time. I love them and can appreciate them for what they do, but I have a really hard time identifying with them. I'm just not naturally wired that way.

It may be because the majority of my clients have been typical creative, passionate and somewhat scattered entrepreneur types, but in my experience, most growth is not so methodically planned and consistently executed. It's more like an alternating pattern of growth spurts and plateaus. From my experience, most growth takes a catalyst to inspire it and help us change our actions so we can change our outcomes.

These catalysts can vary greatly from individual to individual, but they can pretty much be grouped in one of these three categories: negative, positive and planned events.

The negative catalyst is characterized by taking new direction and action to avoid an undesirable outcome. For instance, someone starts working out and eating better because they are diagnosed with high blood pressure ... a man agrees to marriage counseling when his wife threatens to leave ... a business owner will revamp their marketing because sales keep eroding. While this is by far the most prevalent catalyst for growth, it is also the least effective at maximizing one's potential as it doesn't bring one from success summit to success summit. Instead, the one who seeks growth in order to avoid the negatives merely avoids the valleys, but too often makes their base camp at the foot of the mountain.

The positive catalyst is characterized by taking new direction and action due to a positive event of sorts. This would be the bride or groom who starts shedding unwanted pounds in anticipation of their wedding day... the couple who start going to church to inspire new spiritual depth because they've just had their first child ... the business owner who improves the product line for the company's twentieth anniversary in business. While the positive catalysts can, at times, be effective, it is difficult, in situations when the positive events pass, to maintain the same level of motivation and momentum.

In working with entrepreneurs, I have found that the catalysts which tend to produce the most consistent and long-lasting results are planned events. With this catalyst, an individual may not know the path they need to take, but they have a destination in mind and periodically they evaluate where they are with where they would like to be. When they come up short in any area, they seek out information and take quick, decisive action to get to a new level. This is like the fit individual who may have hit a plateau and hires a personal trainer to have a full day session help them change their workouts and eating plans, or attending a fitness retreat. In business, this could be hiring a coach or consultant for an intense planning day or attending a seminar.

Out of all the possible planned event catalysts, I like attending seminars. Here's why:

1) Even though I prefer to be rather hermit-like and just read a book or watch seminar videos on DVDs, there's enormous energy and power that comes from being at a live event. The information is more dynamic in that the specific information I need to apply personally seems to leap out at me. When I read a book, I feel like I need to apply it all and often come away with a mile long to-do list that never gets done. There is also a great deal of energy, motivation and perspective that comes from the other attendees. I find myself learning from their situations and feeling a certain amount of camaraderie and accountability for making new changes.

2) It's an automatically "NOW" kind of a setting. Unlike a book or DVD which could easily be set aside for another day, week or month, a seminar is date specific. The line in the sand is drawn and by participating you are deciding that you will not be the same person leaving that event as you were going to it.

3) Seminars are incredibly cost-effective. You will wind up investing a very small fraction of what you would typically have paid to have the speaker(s) consult with you individually. You can literally walk away with a world-class education for less than the cost of a typical vacation.

4) Of course, there is also the X-Factor of seminars. We may participate with our particular agenda for growth, but our "Creator" often has something even better in mind. I can't even remember the last seminar or conference I attended where I didn't walk away with a new relationship that ended up being a source of referrals, a joint venture partner or other such person of increase. While I definitely walk away with the growth that I was seeking, the financial increase that has come from this X-Factor has often added 10%, 20%, even 40% to my bottom line - quickly and with zero effort on my part.

There are many other reasons to attend seminars and conferences, but suffice it to say, I recommend that everyone plan to participate in two or more annually to keep your self-development muscles growing.

My only word of caution is to concentrate on seminars that impart unchanging principles and that focus on application, not just information. Short-term tactics come and go and can be easily learned, as needed, through books. True principles are timeless and often need a seminar or other planned event setting to be successfully applied. By focusing on developing principle based skills and character traits, you will continually climb from summit to summit in your personal success journey.

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Hey ... just 16 days till Extreme Business Makeovers 2008. I hope to see you there!

All the Best,
Thom