Do Dreams Come True?

As I was growing up, the only thing I learned to focus on because my parents said that was what was important was getting good grades. Maybe because I was more of a dreamer I experienced doing and having the things that dreams are made of. Goal setting was not formalized for me until later. But one of my members recently shared the real experience of setting the goal.

She had just gotten back from a wonderful trip she had set a goal for. She had spent the time setting money aside, planning the activities so she and her Mom could spend time together. She came to realize that it wasn’t the money that was the goal, although that was a necessary part of the goal, it was the feeling state that she wanted of being with her Mom and sharing some fun and adventures.

Think about it. When you say you want a million dollars – is it really the money? Or the FEELING it creates to have the freedom to invest that money in experiences? Mind Masters members are successful at achieving great goals. They are not all in the lime-light of great public acclamation, that fact doesn’t change the value of the achievements one single bit!

We all have already achieved much in our lives.  We already have done many things since we were born, and so the truth really is that we are already achievers, and the quality of those achievements depends on the value of the achievement to us, how we feel about our new car, the business we have built, our lovely home, our great garden, our life-enriching family, the assignment scoring a percentage far greater than we ever thought we could get, saving up $1 when we had only had one coin at a time, or making a profit at the end of the year, when our business was going down the hill last the quarter before.

So as this first quarter comes to a close, review those goals you wrote down, do they still have the same excitement and anticipation to move forward with? If not look deeper to see what will bring the joy and excitement of achievement. Your business depends on it!

The Challenge: Take a pen and a blank piece of paper, divide it in half. Now write down one thing you remember from your goals list that you wanted and on the second side of the page, write down why you haven’t gotten it. Then take some time and visualize the experience of achievement.

 Your “Engine that Could!”

As a business owner are you getting caught in the hyper competitive market environment? When you work alone it is often difficult to fulfill all the roles you have to play. So how do you stay competitive? I often harp on the importance of staying focused to the high priority, high payoff areas of the business, but when you are doing it all, everything seems “high priority”. But being in business means staying connected to the people who do business with you as well as the people who refer business to you.

There are three areas that can help you keep “chugging along”.

1. To stand out in your market there needs to be a level of interaction that you consistently put forth; developing a personal brand answers to this idea of connecting. Your customers want to know who you are; remember the more they know about you, the more they can develop a sense of trust.

One of my clients sends out her marketing material with a cartoon like theme of the “royal family” and fun pictures of her staff and her daughter. When people stop by her shop, it reflects the message she wants to get out, we are a fun place, and fun people to do business with, come and see! Your materials, behavior and connection with your audience help build your brand. Connect by being “real” to them reveals the person they want to know.

1. Another area for connecting is in your networking. I am not talking about going into a group and handing out business cards. I am referring here to meeting regularly with advocates and strategic alliances who refer business to you. It requires “reaching them with information that matters to them” and having some real interest in developing the relationship. Ask them about themselves so that you can better support them with articles and events that may be of interest or people they need to meet.

One of my clients needed to up their social media visibility. I was able to connect her with someone who works in that segment of the business. Each person got what they needed, one got, social media support, and the other an ongoing client and I got to go out to lunch.

3. Connecting with your customers requires some new approaches. Your web site will not create any significant prospect attraction for the person who has never met you, says Robert Krumroy, in his book, Brilliant Strategies and Fatal Blunders. His prediction that personal contact with customers will be solely through the interactive Internet and only businesses that adopt Internet technology as part of their marketing strategies will be able to survive in the coming years. We know it as Social media. It has become woven into our daily lives, more and more business buyers and consumers are checking reviews about products or services before they decide to buy. Online social influence is a powerful way to create awareness.

Make your voice heard. Your content must have a distinctive view for your niche – without that, no one would pay attention. You can do this with your blogs and using e-mail as a means to keep connected, will keep you ahead of the competition, and help you build on going relationships with customers. The information you send out becomes information they can pass along to others, you stay connected and so do they.

Challenge: Check yourself. How have you stayed connected lately? How have you promoted your personal brand, showed interest in your advocates or sent your clients and customers something that kept you in front of them? If something has worked for you, let us know, we’d like to print your story.

Until next month – stay connected.