...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.

Talk to yourself

Jerry Smith is a personal coach, and I read his blog when he does it!

Here is his latest post:Excuses, excuses

It made me think of another crossover between sports training and "training" for running your business.

There is an idea in training that if you know you are going to have to miss a day of training, then you should drop your hardest day that week. The idea is that you should not skip a recovery day, as those are the days that your body must have in order to grow stronger.

This, of course, runs counter to what most people would do.

To take this idea into the business realm, give yourself time to recover. Often you CAN push through a little fatigue and go to that networking group. However, if you are honestly out of energy, instead of dropping your recovery time, drop your "hard day." Then the next time that "hard day" comes around, realize it ahead of time, schedule it better, and execute.

By the way, Jerry, do you still want me to cover for you this Wednesday at that networking group?

What you do and How you feel

For July is the end of the year. The time off around July 4, and then a family vacation planned for the end of July always mark the end of my year.

I go away, rejuvenate and come back refreshed, if not always ready to roll.

I usually take a little time to stop and think, reshape my plans for the coming year, and then try to figure out how to get myself motivated to do the things I KNOW I should do, but I don't always feel like doing.

My Friend Jerry has a great post with some hints:

URL: Vacations and business

Quit the Bad Stuff

I thought I knew where I was going...and then I read about quitting from Seth Godin's new book.
It is called The Dip and it is about quitting, leaning into the dip, and being the best in the world.

And then I met with a personal friend and coach, Jerry Smith.

And then I read his Balance Life Work blog.

Jerry Smith is a fantastic coach. I had lunch with him the other day and we talked about how difficult it is to get on course with work and life and balance. And then once you are on course and you think you "get it"... how do you keep yourself on course.

I have decided that a regular lunch session with Jerry is one of the ways to keep myself on course. Jerry - I hope that's OK with you!

Go find Jerry's most recent post called Life can get in the way!. Jerry writes about the ridiculously simple things to do when life gets in the way, and how to Quit doing the stuff that knocks you off course.

Network Marketing...How Is Your Elevator Speech?

I had the pleasure of attending a well run, established referral group meeting yesterday.

Great lunch guys..thanks.

This is a group of people that are as varied as you can imagine, and this is a group that does not allow direct overlap of business descriptions in its membership.

I was struck by the friendliness and genuine desire to help others in order to help yourself attitude that is a huge part of this group's motto.

I was also struck by how the membership described what they did, and it got me thinking about the dreaded elevator speech.

We work with small and medium sized companies to help them put together marketing plans, website plans, sales plans, printed collateral, interactive plans.

I promise you that if I ever get to work with you, the first thing I will ask you to do is to describe your company and what you do.

Commonly, people start with their name, their company, and they tell me exactly what they do.

Occasionally, there is a silly lead in teaser...and then a repeat of the above.

What many people don't get is that the elevator pitch is NEVER about what you do...

It should always be about your customers, the kinds of things they deal with, their struggles, their challenges...

Too many people think of the 30 seconds or less description of what you do as a "pitch" or a "speech" or a "presentation"...

In reality it will only be memorable by being engaging.

Engage the person who is asking you "so, what do you do?"

Get them to ask you another question.

Get them to ask you to tell them more, "Oh, how do you do that?"

It has become such second nature to describe what you do from your own point of view...

When really what you should be doing is engaging people by describing what your customers say you do.

Got any questions?