Goal Setting & Achievement Podcast: Business|productivity

[[:encoded, "Most entrepreneurs experience a critical stage in their business where they need to consistently build their client base, yet they don’t have the time or resources to devote to serving more clients. So, how do you get more clients without working harder? \n\nLet’s talk about 6 tips to help you do this. \n\nIdea #1: Create Information Resources\nRegardless of your industry, your business has a powerful point of leverage that can be used to find and keep more clients: information. Create free and low-cost channels through which you can introduce yourself and your business - without significant time or effort investment on the backend. This is the “Create-It-And-Leave-It” method that creates not only more avenues for prospects to learn about you, but also expands your market reach and/or revenue.\n\n*The goal here is to create a hands-off/low-touch method to allow prospects the opportunity to Know-Like-Trust you. As we all know, this process takes time and effort. By providing these hands-of

[[:encoded, "Robby Slaughter is a workflow and productivity expert, and you know how important I think having workflows and being productive are to the success of your business. His consulting practice assists a wide variety of organizations, including Fortune 500 companies, regional non-profits, small businesses and individual entrepreneurs to help increase productivity, simplify workflow and optimize business processes. He discovered that to become more effective and efficient at work, we need to empower individuals with authority and responsibility, and I couldn’t agree more.\n\nHere are some questions I asked Robby that you will benefit from by listening to his answers:\n1. What is the #1 reason people struggle with being productive at work?\n\nInability to understand the emotional impact of tasks and the people around those tasks.\n\nPlease elaborate on this for us.\n\n2. When asked, most business professionals tell me they waste about 2-3 hours a day. How can the average business professional becom

[[:encoded, "Today we are talking about Delegating Even More and Accelerate Your Business Success. \n\nDelegation for business owners is a must-do for success! When you can hand over your administrative tasks and projects off to an able assistant or employee, you can focus on more important tasks that only you can do to grow your business and increase revenue. The art of delegation is an essential part of establishing a growing business. \n\nWhy Delegate? \n\nThere will come a time in your business (for most business owners, this comes sooner rather than later) when you feel overwhelmed. You may find that you have too many tasks to accomplish without enough time to get them done. It is when you come to the realization that delegating the small or low-priority tasks to an assistant would make your life a whole lot easier, that it is time to do it. \n\nDelegation allows you to eliminate the low-priority tasks so you can free up time to focus on the high-payoff producing tasks. Clearly, this can allo

[[:encoded, "Bryan Clayton is CEO and co-founder of GreenPal which is an online marketplace that connects homeowners with Local lawn care professionals. GreenPal has been called the “Uber for lawn care” by Entrepreneur magazine and has over 100,000 active users completing thousands of transactions per day.\n\nBefore starting GreenPal Bryan founded Peachtree Inc. one of the largest landscaping companies in the state of Tennessee growing it to over $10 million a year in annual revenue before it was acquired by Lusa holdings in 2013.\n\nHere are some questions I asked Bryan that you will benefit from by listening to his answers:\n•\tTell us what specifically was the single most important activity you did to go from zero revenue to descent profitability, and how long did that take you? \n\n•\tDid persistence play a role in your success? If so, how did persistence help you?\nBryan said: Learning more from your mistakes than your success is what is going to carry you forward. Moving from failure to failure wit

[[:encoded, "Through my 24+ years of coaching people, I have found that we're all guilty of allowing the little things to distract us from what we should be doing. This happens to all of us to some degree or another. Instead of working, we chat with our friends or co-workers, check the latest chain email in our inbox, surf the internet, and do everything we can to avoid working. Why? Because we don't feel like working - we're too busy daydreaming about being on the beach in Hawaii sipping a MaiTai or skiing the slopes. I'd like that too, but the fact is that in order to get where you want to be, you have to do the work required to achieve your goals and experience ultimate success.\n\nWhether you are an employee or self-employed, your income depends solely on you. And the more efficiently you can work the bigger returns you will receive. Take a moment and ask yourself where you truly want to be? Now tell me how many things you did today, yesterday, and the day before yesterday

[[:encoded, "Today we are talking about 8 Ideas for Getting Even More Done and Accelerate Your Results.\n\nWe all want more success and the fear of failure can often be the driving force of our actions. We work long hours, sacrifice personal time, and even sleep. We put our heart and soul into what we're trying to achieve, only to find that we're spinning our wheels. We think we're getting things done, because at the end of the day all of our Action List items are crossed out; but did we really get closer to achieving our goals? The fact is, most of us accomplish a whole list of things by the end of the day, but have little to show for it. Your success depends on what you are doing and the way you are getting things done. If you're not moving closer to your goal achievement, you are not getting things done the right way.\n\nThe good news is - getting things done the right way requires only a simple shift in your actions. There are only two ways of getting things done; one way l

[[:encoded, "Today we are talking about ideas to apply effective time management principles to help you be even more success.\n\nOne of the success principles of any successful person is effective time management. In order to create your ideal life and business, you must learn to schedule EVERYTHING (even showers initially, eating, drive time, working out, family time, etc.) and be extremely effective at time management. If you are like me, you think you can get done more than you actually can, so you run out of time to get everything done you put on your list. For me, this isn’t a good feeling, especially if it were to happen day after day. \n\nWhen you begin to calendar your activities, take a look at everything you have to do and how long you think it will take to get each one done and then add “cushion” time to each activity. I haven’t been able to come up with a rule of them for how much extra time should be given to each activity. It is dependent on you and the activity. You may have to explo

[[:encoded, "As a busy working mom and wife, Tameika Isaac Devine understands the challenges that can come with trying to excel both at home and at work. Tameika’s personal passion is in helping working moms conquer overwhelm in order to perform their best at work and at home. She is an advocate for women in leadership and speaks on work-life balance and integration, leadership and networking, along with politics and community engagement. Additionally, she has authored multiple books including, “Think Like A CEO, Act Like A Mom: The Pursuit of Work Life Integration” where she shares the perfect blend of sage advice and personal anecdotes to explain how working moms can truly have it all. Tameika is an elected official, attorney, and a leading expert and speaker on work-life integration for busy working moms and whose insights have been featured in CNN, MSNBC, Forbes, Jet Magazine, and more.\n\nHere are some questions I asked Tameika that you will benefit from by listening to her answers:\n• Describe your

[[:encoded, "Today we are talking about 4 Benefits of Embracing Change to Increase Business Success. \n\nYou don’t need anyone to tell you that the world is undergoing many changes right now, that’s pretty obvious. What may not be so obvious is your ability to adapt to the changes that are necessary for your business to survive and thrive in the changing market. How do you set yourself up for success when global changes are affecting the future of your business? You find out where the change is headed and adapt to meet the demand.\n\nHypothetically, you could resist changes in the market and stand stubbornly in your comfort zone. The major drawback to that would be that you would probably be sinking in quicksand – and taking your business with you.\n\nEmbracing change is important for everyone to embrace. The ability to adapt to change, and even welcome it, is absolutely essential to the success of your business and life. What happens when you fight change? That’s pretty simple; instead of embraci

[[:encoded, "New business owners are especially prone to delay taking action in their business, because the unknown outcome can be pretty intimidating. However, even seasoned entrepreneurs will put off taking action, simply due to the fact they lack the free time to juggle another endeavor. \n\nSo, what to do when you know that taking action would benefit your business, but you can’t seem to implement much needed change? Ask yourself these questions:\n\n1.\tDo I want to increase my income (grow my business)?\n2.\tDo I want to grow my client base?\n3.\tDo I want to create more free time?\n\nIf you answered yes to at least one of these 3 questions, then taking action now is the best thing you can do for you – and your business. Just for a moment, let’s go back to the reason(s) you became an entrepreneur? Although there may be many reasons, they are all probably related to the following benefits:\n\n•\tMore free time\n•\tWork from home\n•\tThe freedom to make money doing what you enjoy\n•\tIndependence

[[:encoded, "Today we are talking about 8 Tips to Help you Maintain Persistence and Increase Business Success.\n\nPersistence is the ability to continue to get up no matter how many times you’ve been knocked down. It requires will power, flexibility, strength of character, determination, and a desire to succeed at all costs. \n\nMost people believe Richard Wagner became a great composer because he was gifted. Not so.\n\nFrom a young age, Wagner liked the theater and music, but he disliked being on stage and was a slow learner at the piano. But his lack of talent was overcome by great persistence.\n\nAt the age of 15, Richard Wagner decided he wanted to be a composer, so he checked a book out of the library on the subject and memorized it.\n\nTo train his ear, he asked a violinist from the Leipzig Orchestra to teach him about keys and chords and learnt the technique of every orchestral instrument except the harp.\n\nAs well, he studied the works of Beethoven to understand how to capture sounds and interpr

[[:encoded, "Communication is everything in business and in all of our relationships. Honestly, how else would people communicate? In order to enjoy an agreeable business and personal discussion, the communication level has to be excellent. How does one communicate effectively? Simply put, say what you mean, say it clearly, and say it with respect. Let’s explore 7 steps to effective communication that produces results.\n\nStep 1: Establish Trust\nSome people naturally distrust other people, because they do not know what the other one is thinking. Therefore, the sooner that you come out and say what you want, the sooner you can begin establishing trust. If you sense that someone is especially apprehensive, then you could go try and reassure him or her that you are not a threat. As you can guess, this doesn’t always work, so don’t waste time trying to change someone’s mind. Instead, continue being cordial and ethical and hope that your professionalism and consistency eventually wins them over – as

[[:encoded, "Today we are talking about How the Choices We Make Impact Our Life and Business Success.\n\nYou may have heard it said that it is the little things in life that are worth living for. Similarly, the little things in life are what change our lives for the better or worse. The choices we make in life define who we are and what we will eventually become. Certainly, making some rash decisions when we are young can have very ill consequences when we grow older. It is important that people maintain their health with a view to tomorrow, while balancing their desires for the present day. However, this advice also applies to a person’s heart and mind. When we take chances because of our passions or we take action because of our mind’s ambition, we have to live with the result of our actions—good and bad. \n\nKnowing this should impress upon us the importance of making somewhat informed decisions. Strong emotion should always be taken into account when making choices, but it cannot totally over

[[:encoded, "To give you some insight about what this special guidebook, Are Your Limiting Beliefs Stopping You From Achieving Your Goals?, is about and why you want to read it.…I believe that, inherently speaking, there is nothing that you are not capable of accomplishing. The truth is there is no such thing as can't - you only think you can't. Success is not a special privilege handed out to a selected few; success comes to applying success-oriented beliefs. Transform limiting beliefs into success beliefs and you can achieve anything.\n\nSometimes people don't realize their limiting beliefs have created an obstacle that is stopping them from achieving their goals.\n\nFor example, let me tell you a quick story. \nDuring one of my coaching sessions with a client, I asked him about his success with obtaining referrals (which is a key to any business). He told me that he typically will receive two referrals per client. When I asked him why he thought he didn't receive more, he repl

[[:encoded, "William James says, “Nothing is as fatiguing as the continued hanging on of an uncompleted task.”\n\nPoor follow through – consciously deciding to do something, but then not doing it for whatever reason – is a fact of life for many of us. Most people find that the gap between their intentions and their actions is too vast, and fall short of doing what is required to achieve their goals. \n\nThink about the promises you’ve made to yourself in the past. Of all the promises and commitments you have made to yourself, how many have you kept?\n\nPoor follow through is a fixture of modern life. Incredibly, most of us continue to believe that we will follow through “next time” rather than taking action to make our current goal a reality. \n\nThis phenomenon takes a toll on virtually every aspect of our life. Our lack of ability to commit to taking action prevents us from achieving personal, financial, relationship, and career goals that would otherwise be well within our reach.\n\nHave you ever cons

[[:encoded, "We’ve all been afraid to try something new at one time or another. Why is that? And it seems as we age, our fear controls more and more of our willingness to try something new. We prefer to forego a new experience because we want to avoid whatever bad thing we think could happen. Or maybe the anxiety is just too stressful for us to even contemplate facing our fears. Whatever the reason, we justify that trying something new is not worth the risk.\n\nMost of us learn to live within our comfort zone by default because we base our daily decisions on whether or not they cause feelings of anxiety. Every action we decide to take is based on whether it lands inside or outside our comfort zone. \n\nAs humans, most of us have the tendency to remain within the boundaries of our comfort zone, to avoid situations that cause feelings of anxiety and fear. And although it may feel like we are in control, we are actually out of control. When we live our life inside our comfort zone, we allow our fea

[[:encoded, "Ask any successful business owner and they will tell you one of the number one rules to optimizing the success of a business starts with producing effective results with the greatest efficiency. This may not seem like a concern if you don’t own your own business, but even as an employee, or business professional, your success is riding on your ability to perform with the greatest effectiveness and efficiency.\n\nWhether you are an employee or business owner, it is your goal to be as effective as you can with the greatest efficiency. If you are an employee, the more effective and efficient you are, the greater asset you present to your employer. As a business owner, the more you can optimize these two factors, the greater return on investment you will realize in your business.\n\nSo, how do you improve your career or business by improving effectiveness and efficiency? Let's begin by reviewing the difference between the two terms: \n\nEffective - Producing a decided, decisive or desir

[[:encoded, "Sure, many entrepreneurs say they are committed to their success, but are they really?\n\nWhen it comes to commitment to your success, there has to be a “no excuses - no exception” rule to back it up. This rule is especially true for entrepreneurs, simply because there is no one to point the finger at should things not work out as planned. As an entrepreneur, you are the one holding the key to your success and no one, but you, can be held accountable.\n\nOnce you make a commitment to something, there absolutely has to be a “no excuses - no exception” rule, because that is the only rule that separates the failures from the successes. \nImagine what would happen if you were to commit to your success only 99% of the time:\n\n- 1% percent of your clients would be unhappy with your product or service and proceed to tell 10 of their friends. Those people would proceed to tell their friends they had a friend that had a bad experience. This could translate into dozens of lost clients and thousa

[[:encoded, "If you’re working too hard and still not generating the revenue you desire, you may not be honoring your core values. These core values, when sacrificed, create disharmony, frustration, and struggle in your life and business. Honor your core values and you create flow, ease and success. Know your core values and adjust your business model accordingly. The key here is to learn from other successful business people, but put your own spin on it. When you honor your core values you’ll find a magic formula that allows you to work the way it works for you. In turn, your clients will be even better served. \n\nGo to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/values-clarification/ and download a complimentary values clarification exercise to help you get clear on exactly what your values really are. \n\nExample: Let’s say freedom is one of your core values, yet you’re tied to a desk. Perhaps one of your core values is family, yet you need to work long hours to generate the revenue you need to support your

[[:encoded, "If there is one thing that holds the most power over your success, you can bet that it comes down to your beliefs. Before you even have the opportunity to consciously process the reason behind your actions, and the results those actions put in play, your beliefs are at work determining whether you are headed toward success or disaster.\n\nThere are literally tens of thousands of actions you take daily (some consciously, most unconsciously), but do you know how those actions are affecting your success? You can probably think of at least one action that you have taken in the past that didn’t necessarily deliver the results you desired. With conscious awareness, you have the ability to examine and identify what went wrong, and what you could change to bring about a different result next time. This is an example of conscious awareness. \n\nBut what about all those times you make unconscious decisions that bring about undesired results. How do you stop them from occurring? Let’s explore 6