Toastmasters Tour!

On Friday afternoon I got the chance to have a personal tour of the world headquarters of Toastmasters – thanks, Jonathan!!  I came away so impressed.  I have always been a big fan of Toastmasters, recommending it to many people, but I learned a ton about this organization that I wanted to share with you.

- Head office is in Rancha Santa Margarita, a beautiful community in the Los Angeles area.  Toastmaster clubs are in 106 countries around the world.  Eighty dedicated, talented staff members run this international organization.

- They have amazing programs in both public speaking AND leadership.  Their vision is to empower people to achieve their full potential and realize their dreams.  The clients and business acquaintances that I know that have joined Toastmasters have not just learned how to speak well publicly, they have also developed confidence and poise.

- Toastmasters is not just for anyone who has to stand up and make a speech at a special occasion or for anyone who is terrified of speaking in front of others.  Their programs offer valuable tools to any business professional who wants to sound more confident and poised.   They teach people how to break the ice, so you can network more effectively.  And you get to build connections with other people in the organization, so it’s also a great business development opportunity.

If you need to improve your speaking skills, go check out Toastmasters!

Work With Your Energy Level

I am seeing a lot of tired, burnt out people out there.  Trying to juggle too much stuff, not taking enough time off and being relentless in beating themselves up for not getting stuff done.

For all of you out there struggling with this,  I suggest you read my posting for today on Sheteam.com.   Read the article here.

Not All Prospects Are Worth It!

One of the biggest dust bunnies I see in business is hanging onto prospects for too long. A lot of us HATE prospecting – you know who you are!

For a variety of reasons you have decided that prospecting is a horrible task, so you grudgingly find a few prospects or perhaps they stumble across you. However it happens, you hang onto those prospects forever, waiting for them to buy. Because as long as you are focused on waiting for an answer from them, you do not have to find other prospects. Because if you do, and they all buy from you, how will you ever manage all that new business? (I actually had a business owner say that to me.)

STOP! To survive in business today, you must get rid of the clutter of old prospects who are hanging around tying up your time and energy. For every old one you hang onto, you are missing the opportunity to find a customer that is likely to buy from you. Show me a business owner who is not making money and I will show you someone who is doing very little prospecting. Dust off that prospect list – clean off those prospects who are dragging their feet on buying. Focus your time and energy on finding ones who will.

This Week We Celebrate

“Celebrate any progress. Don’t wait to get perfect.”

-Ann McGee Cooper

There seems to be an epidemic of perfectionism out there among women.  I keep meeting bright, successful, amazing women and all their focus is on the stuff they haven’t got done, all the things they’re behind on, all the mistakes they’ve made.  When you bring up their successes, they brush you off.

So I am declaring that this week is one of celebration.  Where each of us celebrates what we accomplish, what we get done.  No matter how small, no matter that you only got one part of a project done.  The truth is that the ‘to do’ list will still be waiting after you’re dead and gone.   So celebrate your victories this week, no matter how small.  Give yourself a pat on the back, say thank you when you get a compliment, smile at yourself, be a champion to yourself.  Treat yourself with the same kindness and compassion that you use for others.  Life isn’t about being perfect and getting everything done.   It’s about enjoying yourself and recognizing your accomplishments.

Pressure

“Pressure is a word that is misused in our vocabulary. When you start thinking of pressure, it’s because you’ve started to think of failure.” — Tommy Lasorda, baseball manager

When I read this quote it made me stop and think.

Because whenever I start something new, I always feel a lot of pressure.  And after reading this quote,  I realized this happens with every new venture because I do start thinking of all the different ways I might fail.   Which makes me feel very pressured.

And suddenly I’m not so excited about that shiny, new idea anymore!  And then I find myself procrastinating – which only increases the pressure!  What a ridiculous thing to do to myself.

So I have just stuck this quote up on my office wall, to remind me every morning to reduce the pressure I put on myself.

Inspiring A Leader

I recently read “Developing the Leader Within You” by John Maxwell. What struck me most about this book was his comment that “success without a successor is failure.” A leader who influences others to follow is a leader with limitations, but a leader who influences others to lead is a leader without limitations. Our language should have a special word to describe this kind of leader.

Maxwell offers some suggestions on how to build a leader who inspires leadership. First, as a leader yourself, ask the right questions about the follower. What are the strengths of the individual? In order to keep followers motivated, they must be working in their areas of strength. Have I reflected the value this follower will receive from this relationship? Followers will continue to be engaged in their work if they are aware of specific areas of personal gain.

Second, leaders must give the right assistance to individuals. By promoting a positive, creative and encouraging atmosphere, individuals will consistently feel motivated to complete the jobs they excel at. Personal mentoring that complements an ongoing training program keeps the follower in the information loop and promotes an attitude of building a career rather than working at a job.

If you have not read “Developing the Leader Within You”, I highly recommend it!

Time to Take Stock

So, here we are at February 1st already.  January is over in a flash and I think this is a good time for everyone to take a moment and think about those changes you wanted to implement at the beginning of 2010.  What goals did you set for yourself?  Any resolutions?  Any new habits you wanted to acquire?

Take the time today to take stock and see if you are doing what you said you would.  Chances are, if you’re  like most people out there, you lost your good intentions in the rushed days of the month just passed.    You may have started January pumped up with energy after the Christmas break and full of intent to make changes in your life.

And now it’s the first day of February and you may have accomplished little of what you had in mind.  Don’t just throw your hands in the air and say ‘What’s the point?”.  DO NOT give up.  It’s a new month.  Decide today one small action you can take each week of February to get those changes you want.  And then do one of them today.

What’s Hot in Business in 2010?

One of my favorite resources is out again – the current Trend Briefing that highlights 10 trends for 2010;  it always inspires me.

No matter what business you are in, pay special attention to this trend – Real Time Reviews.  Your customers are getting more involved in your business, whether you want them to or not.  So think about ways you can make this a good thing for you.

Why Smart Entrepreneurs Underperform

Most of the business owners I come across are pretty smart.  They have great ideas, great spirit, and relentless tenacities to get things done.  After all, you don’t venture into entrepreneurship if you don’t have these qualities.  However, where I see some entrepreneurs suffer in performance is in the area of “overloaded circuits”.  We tend to cram a lot into every day.  Do you multitask a lot, for example – do you check e-mail, talk on the phone, and have lunch at the same time?  Is this a regular occurrence?

In this day and age where we are constantly bombarded with information and live life at an ever-increasing pace, it’s easy to fall into the trap of doing a lot of things every day and yet not getting anything important accomplished.  As a result, we turn into people that find it difficult to stay organized, set priorities, and manage time.  We react to problems as they happen instead of managing what happens in our lives.

Don’t undermine your strengths and talents because of overload.  A few tips to help you get started:

• take care of your physical foundation:  get adequate sleep, watch what you eat, exercise
• each day, build some “think time” into your schedule that is free from appointments, e-mail, and phone calls
• before the end of a work day, schedule your tasks for the next day and stick to them
• break large tasks into smaller segments, and reward yourself for each small task done!

If you feel overwhelmed, slow down, move around, take a brisk walk.  The idea is that your business is a marathon, not a sprint.  Do like the marathoners do – run 10 minutes, walk 1 minute, repeat.  Give yourself permission to take the long term approach and move towards a more productive, better balanced, and rewarding environment!

Stop Cluttering Your Head!

As women we seem to be wired to keep track of a lot of things at the same time; we multitask and seem to manage multiple things seamlessly. But to be effective in business you have to be able to focus, especially in economic times like this. In the last 2 weeks I noticed I’m not feeling as effective as I’d like, so I sat down to look at what’s going on.

Rather than simply crank out another to-do list, I reviewed what had been on my mind the most, what things were cluttering up my head, what things were causing me to feel stressed. Surprisingly, they weren’t BIG things. But they were costing me a lot in mental energy.

So I made a list:

• Organize the top of my desk (when I get busy, I turn into a “piler”!)
• Update speakers package
• Get through my reading file

And then I booked 5 hours in my calendar this week to get them done. Voila! That little nagging voice has disappeared and I feel much calmer and focused.

What things are cluttering up your head? What undone stuff is sucking up your energy? What are you feeling guilty about not doing? Make a list, then set aside a time to get them done. What spurred me to action was the realization that I was spending way more time and energy thinking about these things done, than it would take to actually do them!