Finishers Persist

If you are pushing to the edge of your industry, or your position, or your career choice, there must be something to push against.

Finishers Persist, even flourish, when the Way gets harder.

As the line from "A League of Their Own" goes, "Of course baseball is hard. It is the hard that makes it great. If it wasn't hard, everybody would do it."

How do you learn to persist when The Forces of Mediocrity (a recent Seth Godin Post) start dumbing down your remarkable plan?

First you have to fail and learn by failing. In tennis, getting to and winning a third set or a fifth set (if you happen to be in a Grand Slam), is a big hurdle. Some players feel the pressure and learn to focus on the details and plans. Other players get off track, lose focus and even though they won the second set by playing better than their opponent, lose the third 6-0.

You have to lose a few third sets before you start to figure out how to win them.

Great Finishers Learn to Fail.


Persistence does not Mean chasing down every attack

Many years ago when I loved cycling I was watching a stage of The Tour De France. A rider was in the leader's yellow jersey and the elite riders in the race were at the front of the big field. This leader was a very good rider, but he did not have a strong team. As the road went up a huge mountain, the other leaders of other teams began attacking. One after another they launched attacks trying to get away from the yellow jersey. Each time someone attacked, the leader of the race tried to chase them down. The problem was, as soon as he chased one down, another attacked. Within 15 or 20 minutes, he was unable to chase the attacks and was left behind.

The smarter thing would have been for him to rely on people who had an interest in the outcome as well. "If you want him to win the race, let him go...I'm not chasing him down."

Persistence does not mean chasing down every attack. Sometimes there are people who can and will help you out because their interests align with yours (even if only temporarily).

So, as Seth Godin implores...persist. If you are struggling it is because you are pushing.

Finishers Look for Subtraction

Here at the Finisher's Blog, I try to observe and report what makes people great "finishers" in their chosen fields / areas. Then I try to connect those observations to business work...sales work...marketing work.

This week's observation is counter intuitive and a lot of people don't want to try it.

Great Finisher's subtract stuff from their list without apology.

(Here comes this week's Seth Godin Moment)...

Read The Dip...Seth's great book about when to quit and when to stick. He recently blogged about this idea HERE.

The idea is that you have to become the BEST in the world...and you get to define how broad your "world" is. In his blog post, he says that means you have to eliminate all the "a little of this...and a little of that" stuff. Be strict.

Great Finishers...whether they are in sports, in sales, in business or in real estate... SUBTRACT the stuff that is keeping them from being the best.

Addition by subtraction is not a new idea...but applying it to your day and applying it to your business WILL help with finishing.

What can you subtract this week?

Click HERE to see our SUBTRACTION CHALLENGE.

Finishers Seek Stress

The great Seth Godin wrote a post about stress the other day. He inspires me even in his "worth thinking about" moments.

HERE is the post entitled Stressed.

This is great stuff to think about if you are a marketer ... what is the language we use and how does it color our approach to what we do.

I also think that Seth's post is very applicable in the Finisher's Qualities arena...

Great Finishers seek out stress. If you can't turn stress to your advantage...if you can't take the stress that will come when you "put yourself out there" or when you find yourself in a stressful situation... then you will not finish.

The movie "Miracle" was on this weekend...it is the story of one of the great jobs of Finishing in sports history.

The 1980 USA men's hockey team grew and learned how to finish.

10 days before they defeated the USSR 4 to 3...they had lost to them 10 - 3.

Herb Brooks had put his team into a very stressful situation BEFORE the Olympics started so that when the tournament started...they had already gone through it.

Great Finishers seek out stress, fail, and then seek it out some more.

Thank you Seth for helping me with my blog this morning! I was stressed about what I was going to write about!

Finisher's Quality: Knowing When to Focus

Last night I was playing in my weekly tennis league. It is a double's league where you play 35 minutes with each player on the court. The player with the most games won moves up the ladder, the player with the least number of games won moves down.

I played so well for the first two rounds, and I didn't play well in the third. Now, this isn't that interesting to anyone, except that it is a great illustration of this week's idea.

Finisher's Quality: Know When to Focus. Know when to drift.

The last round I was playing with the best player on the court and I relaxed. The previous two rounds, I knew I would have to be at my best to keep from losing badly to the stronger player. Then, when I got my turn with the better player...I didn't mean to, but I stopped focusing on my own game.

You have seen this a hundred times in every sport on the planet. An individual has the focus to get ahead, but doesn't have the ability to close it out.

This does not just apply to sales people. I bet you can come up with a situation when you were focused...focused...focused...on a big goal. Then, once the goal is within sight, within reach...you relax.

"Well, I can get there even if I only..."

That is the tank. Instead of finishing...you are going into the tank.

I am convinced that I was playing the best tennis on the court last night...but I am the one going down the ladder. I didn't finish the night. I drifted when I should have focused. For two sets I played the ball and I simply concentrated on playing the point, not the person across from me. Then, I let the thoughts of who I was playing with and against get me off course.

Once you wander off that course, it takes some time to get the focus back. Next week I will explore how great finishers get their focus back.

If anyone has any ideas, examples, tricks about this...please let me know.

It is time to Finish something

I was putting together my week's list this morning, and realized that there was an unfinished item on there from September 7...

That is not good finishing, but it was a result of focus on other priorities.

The problem? This was an item that was directly related to the future of my own business. This item, to finish a website for Brain Bucket, was not a paying customer, and therefore had been put off for more than two and a half months.

How unfinisher of me!

Therefore, this morning, I am going to go finish that task.

If there is anyone reading my blog each week, I encourage you to go check out two friends blogs who each have excellent recent posts:

Jerry Smith is Accord Coaching - www.balancelifework.com

and

Shawn Kinkade is Aspire Business Development and his blog should be read by anyone interested in learning how to run their own business.

http://www.aspirekc.com/Blog/2007/12/01/have-you-referred-anyone-today/

Have a great week.

Focus is Easy...Finish is Hard.

My wife accuses me of terrible bouts of indecision because I am a planner, and she is a big time do-er.

Everybody knows that you have to focus in order to do something well.

I tell myself and my daughter and my customers to focus 100 times a day.

Deciding to focus is easy. Linking Focus with Finish is another thing altogether.

Everybody realizes that sometimes in order to reach a goal, you have to focus your energy. I can focus on a project for hours...For me, though, that doesn't usually result in "Finish."

I am a notorious starter...and even my grandfather could tell that I was a slow finisher. I am working on my "finishing" because I think that successful people finish.

Finisher's Quality: Finishing is one part focus and 3 parts action.

I feel that I have accomplished something or had a really good day when I have focused on my goals, and completed the two or three essential action items necessary to see the project through ALL the way to completion.

I always have to apologize when I stop before I am done.

Go Finish.

Finishing when You Are Busy

In tennis there is a moment of shot recognition when your opponent can only make a defensive shot that is only just going to make it over the net. Once you recognize that they are not able to hit an offensive shot, you must "close on the net" in order to get to the ball before it drops below the level of the net...

Some people are waiters...they wait until the ball bounces and then blast it out.

Some people are flailers...they swing hard at the ball and blast it right into the net...their feet were not in position.

Finishers recognize the shot early, get in position, and close on the net in order to put it away.

I think that the ability to maintain your system, as well as a systematic approach to your work, when things really start flying is a finisher's quality.

My business and the "busy-ness" has really picked up in the last few weeks. More people are signing up for the basic Brain bucket website, and I am lined up to do consulting-type work with a great company. This is all great stuff that I have been working hard to make happen.

But that means that it is harder for me to finish the things that need finishing.

I see others that I consider good finishers handling this type of workload / flow much smoother than I do.

I keep telling myself to maintain my system and to take time to reset my work list...and to set aside enough time to complete my tasks.

Here are some other finishers from the weekend:

Oliver Truog (my brother) reached a huge, long-time goal when he qualified for the Boston Marathon this weekend. He ran the Kansas City Marathon in 3:09. GREAT JOB!

James Tomko (a great friend) completed a half Iron Man triathlon...That is a great achievement!

Make a "Honey Do" List for your Business

Finishers do little things right away, and put the big things in a plan.

I have a list of "honey do" items around the house and the yard and the car and the garage.

Unfortunately, those have been supplanted by larger and more pressing projects that take multiple weekends and late week nights to complete.

But this morning, as I walked to the car I saw four or five very small projects staring me in the face. They are little things that I know I must do. Things that I know I will feel better about walking to the car and playing in the backyard once I get them done. I just haven't made them a priority...other things that are more important always jump in line.

Sound familiar? Does that sound like some parts of your business?

I have said before that I struggle with finishing and that is why I write this blog. So here's my confession for the week. I basically ignore those things until either (1) someone yells at me to get them done and stop sitting on the couch watching football, or (2) I get so sick of them myself that I decide to make them a priority.

What are the things you are not finishing?

For many business owners I have worked with, this could be as simple as setting aside part of a day each week to outline a sales system and to build a marketing plan. Then you will need to adopt some of the other finisher's qualities in order to actually make sure that those things get FINISHED.

This weeks book list:

"The Power of Focus" - Amazon Link Here


"Mentally Tough - the prinicples of winning at sports applied to winning in business" - Jim Loehr is a big time sports psychologist who turned his ideas towards business people a number of years ago. HERE is that book. I find things in this book that help me every day.

Blogs to check in with:

Shawn Kinkade will get your head back in your business: Aspire Blog

Stephanie Diamond: As always, Stephanie has some great business perspective. Read this and take the advice! More Ideas, More Profits?

Jerry Smith helps me every week. Read this blog and get your head straight: Accord Coaching

Finishing and Not FInishing...

The Kansas City Chiefs were playing at the same time I was playing a tennis match yesterday. One of us did a great job finishing, and the other did not.

The Chiefs were on the road, coming off of several sub-par performances, and against a top-notch team from last year. They never quit. They were behind in the first half and they stuck to their game plan, kept making good plays to put their opponent under pressure, and they never quit.

I, on the other hand, felt like the San Diego Chargers. The weak part of my game was constantly under pressure. The better part of my game was ineffective, and I lost focus. I didn't quit...but I did go in the tank. I rallied late and finished with a few good points and a few tough games that we won...but I was terribly disappointed with my performance.

I know I am better than I played...and yet I didn't put any "finish" to my game. I was hanging my head late in the match, and I wasn't engaged like I should have been.

Today's Finisher's quality: Finishers Never Quit.

Even when all seems lost, a finisher digs in, gets back to the basics, and Never, never quits.

Take that and go finish this week.

The Finisher's Qualities...so far

Over the last couple of weeks I have transformed my blog into examining the qualities of people who are strong finishers. Here are my first few observations:

1) Finishers Do Not seek out the path of least resistance. You can insert any number of quotes here - "Do Not let good enough be good enough." - Bill Parcels comes to mind this morning. Any number of quotes from Gordon Ramsey also fit here.

2) Finishers take responsibility for their own actions - Roger Federer does not have a coach at the moment. Maybe he will seek one out later...but for now, he is structuring his work and his life without one. And it is working.

3) Finishers do not relax when they have a little success that puts them close to a goal. They set the next goal and find ways to push themselves through that first goal. (See qualities 1 and 2)

4) Finishers know how to set goals. You can read any number of books about setting goals that are a stretch but that are measurable. You have to know when you have achieved a goal...and you have to have the ability scratch a goal off your list.

Coming next - more qualities of Finishers and maybe some ideas of how to foster these qualities in your business life.

What Does "I Don't Know" Really Mean?

Seth Godin hits the sweet spot again. I was all ready to write my own blog post...and Seth launches this one.

Two kinds of 'don't know'

What a great marketing thought that feeds into the Finisher's Blog concept.

The core concept here is that you can't deal with lack of motivation with more information.

Often people ask me to look at their website. First Red Flag: "It took me months to write it and I don't want to change it now"

Unfortunately, when you say something like that it just means that you don't know what a website is for these days.

Second Red Flag - "My business is about getting face to face with people, so the internet can't help me with that."

Oops...either I haven't done a good job describing interactive marketing to you, or you "don't know" that you can get a face to face interaction if you want to!

I have often responded to these red flags by spouting more information. I guess I should figure out what kind of "I don't know" I am getting.

Toby's Wednesday Finisher Concept: A Finisher Needs to recognize the difference between lack of information and a lack of interest.

My Finisher's blog post that is coming next: Trust Your Training and Stop Thinking.

The Productivity Formula

I once had a sales manager who gave me the mathematical formula for productivity.

Productivity = effort divided by interruption.

In the language of this "Finisher's" Blog, I will take that to mean that the more I Finish the things that interrupt my day, then the more productive I can be.

Of course, there are always stops and starts to any day. I believe that The Finisher is the person who finishes the interruptions quicker and moves back into productivity mode.

Most of us are working very hard and doing our best to work smart. If you keep your effort consistent from week to week, the only way to become increasingly productive is to reduce the distraction of your interruptions. FINISH them before they take over your day.

Here is a link to Seth Godin's blog. He is a key finisher for me. Seth is all about redefining marketing, and work, in order to do remarkable things. His post, Is good enough enough?, is relevant to this finisher's blog because of its focus on redefining your work.

Here is a post from a new friend and business coach Shawn Kinkade. Shawn takes a good look at activity vs. productivity HERE.

Here is a post that refers to a very good book for any business person to read, it is The Four Agreements. This post is from a blog that is called Book Yourself Solid. The blog and the website are a little commercial for me, but the ideas do resonate with me. Here is the post: The Four Agreements

Final Thought:

A finisher takes responsibility for his actions. A work day and a work week is all about finishing.

Three Things to Look At

Start the week off with a Happy Quote from WorkHappy.net. This is a good place for "killer resources for entrepreneurs.

Guy Kawasaki is always good for a handful of posts that will force you to think about what you do. Check out his blog, it is called How to Change the World.

The Personal MBA...is a list of the best business books. Its motto is "Mastering Business Through Self Education." And here is a link to the Reading List and Blog.

The Finisher's Blog

When I was 10 my grandfather made an observation about me...I was a fast starter but a slow finisher. I would often get excited about starting something, but would rarely finish it.

When I was racing bicycles I was able to focus on the early part of a race, but often allowed negative thoughts to creep into my head when the race started getting hard. One day I learned a big lesson while in training with a group of friends. We were turning up the pace and as we got to the last two laps on the velodrome I said out loud, "nope...that's it," and I pulled up the track and slowed down my pedaling.

After the race when we all sat down, my good friend and mentor came up to me and shouted, "If you ever go in the tank like that again I will never ride with you again!" I got the point.

In sports and business and life there are finishers and there are people who tank. There are people who do the work to get the job done, and there are people who are very, very good but who don't quite finish well.

For many athletes, it is a matter of mental approach and focus.

It is the same with me...I often lose focus right at the moment that I need it the most.

For the next several months, I will dedicate this blog to pointing out examples of finishing and of people struggling to finish.

Here is my first example:

A month ago I had a fistfull of proposals out the door. I was sure to have a good end of the summer because I allowed myself to count the dollars and say to myself, "Even if I only get two-thirds of these jobs started, I am in fine shape." And I went on vacation.

Well...I didn't finish the sales job properly and I didn't get most of the work. I had gone into sales presentation mode...feature feature feature....benefit benefit benefit...and I forgot to finish.

The Sandler Sales method is called "post sell" to finish the sale. I have worked with another great sales manager who called it "confirming" the sale.

Either way, there are ways to re-confirm what you think is happening. And I learned that if you can't get the customer to confirm the project with you...then you are just chasing and hoping.

I wasn't finishing.

The Psychology of Losing

The other night my wife (a relatively new tennis player) had the opportunity to practice with one of the best tennis instructors in the WORLD. HIs name is Ajay Pant and he is an amazing tennis geek.

She shared this story with me. He was talking to them about losing on the tennis court, and he related that when he loses he is absolutely torn up. He is angry, depressed and not fun to be around. This is not really surprising coming from a person who is clearly very competitive, successful, and driven.

His point was that it it OK to be really upset about losing. It is ok to be driven and then upset when you don't win. Go home, be upset and get it out of your system.

THEN - get back on the court, learn from your loss and let the losing motivate you more.

Try it with work!

Marketing in Bits and Pieces

Most people these days have a website. (It is not hard to get a website, unless you want a really hard website to get.)

Here is a post from Earnie's Blog...one of my favorite interactive marketing bloggers. His points about multiple waves of marketing, and that online marketing is not about finding a silver bullet, are really applicable to business and marketing today.

Here is the link: Multiple Waves

Scarcity as Strategy

I have attended a number of networking groups for small business owners over the past year. Many of the organizers of these groups create scarcity by not allowing duplication...that is, you can't ever be the second web developer, plumber, real estate agent, in these groups. I like this idea because it forces you to truly define what you do that is different.

For example, I went to a meeting a week ago and there were three coaches attending...each one was unique.

The other thing that many of these groups have done is to ban the ever-present financial advisor. There are so many of these people preying on these networking groups, that they have been banned. Not only are there too many of these folks, they don't participate in the mutual referrals that are the cornerstone of these groups.

This is what Seth Godin is writing about in a recent blog post from FOUR years ago.

The Scarcity Shortage

I believe these ideas are more appropriate today than they were four years ago.

...Continuing with the Sports Theme

I play tennis. I love tennis, and even though I am fast closing in on 40, I work hard each week to get better. There is always something to work on. I like playing with other people who are working hard to get better. I like playing with them even when they beat me!

I do not like playing with people who really aren't trying to improve. In tennis, often these are people who are called "pushers." They push the ball back over the net, without really making a shot, and without really taking a true swing. Tennis instructors will tell you, "you can play like that, but you will never get any better." Pushers have no follow through...which leads me to this post from Seth Godin.

Follow through is another sports training idea that is completely applicable to business.

Your Marketing Community

Marketing is about connecting with a community ... your community.

Seth Godin (again!) blogs about this concept in his post: No Business Model.

The concept I have found myself trying to convince people of is that authentic content that is really relevant to a key group of people within your target market is much, much more valuable than a huge email blast spam campaign.

The problem is that people are comfortable with buying a list and sending a bunch of postcards... or emails...ugh. It's all about instant gratification..."we sent the emails on Tuesday, so then we should start seeing their effectiveness today..."

Instead, connecting to your community is a longer process, it takes a commitment to that group, it takes authentic content...stuff people really want to know.

It is slower, harder work...and a much more sustainable approach to growing your business.

I know it seems weird to embark on a project that won't give you immediate ROI numbers this week...but in six months...well, in six months you won't know where you will be either because if you are REALLY committed to authentic interaction with a group, they will take you places you never knew you would go.

Want to give it a try?

Start At The End...interactive-like

Great Point from Stephanie Diamond from The Marketing Message Blog.

First: Figure out who your audience is. (Easy enough to say...and everyone thinks they know who that is)

Second: Learn about that group's tendencies on the web.

Third: Devise the smoothest, most sensible method of putting yourself or your service or your product or your content right where your target people are already residing.

Take a look:

URL: Web Strategies that Cater to Customers