Why Don’t We Use What We Learn?

We go to seminars, we join webinars, we listen to CD’s, we watch DVD’s, and we read books. Why don’t we use what we learn in all these ways, from all these sources? Why do we make the effort in the first place if we don’t at least try to apply what we learn? What are we doing, and why are we doing it, or not doing it?

If we keep doing what we always have done, why are we amazed when we get what we have always gotten? That is the question that we should ask ourselves more often about so many situations. Other people share new ideas with us all the time, and often we do nothing with these ideas. Why don’t we at least try something new and different?

We have all heard the reasons, or made the comments. “That won’t work here (or now, or for us, or in our company). We have always done it this way. We have never tried that. Our company is different. That is too expensive (or too time consuming to learn). Our clients won’t understand. We can always just work harder.”

We went to that seminar so we would learn something that would help us improve our business. We listened to an amazing person tell us all about the tools that we should apply to our business processes in order to streamline our operations. We even bought the DVD’s and the books to help us implement the new steps to improve our business.

So are all the notes we took going to be used. Are we going to share the information, DVD’s, books, and anything else that we got with our co-workers? What are we going to do, stack the stuff we got in a closet or use it? It makes us wonder why we went to the seminar at all. Maybe we should act like a responsible business owner and take the action that reflects the intelligent decision that we already made.

Perhaps we should discuss what we learned with someone that we met at the seminar. Maybe they have some insight into how the information might help us improve our business and how to actually apply what we learned. We did make at least one connection at the seminar, didn’t we? We did try to establish some networking partnerships at the event, didn’t we? If not, what were we really doing there?

If we are responsible and intelligent business people, maybe it’s time we started acting like responsible and intelligent business people. We must start applying what we learn to our businesses and see if we can make positive changes. If what we try doesn’t work, we must see what we can alter to do something positive. Maybe we should justify the money we spent on the seminar, like responsible business owners.

Successful and responsible business people, whether they are owners or employees, should always be open to learning new tools for their operations. We must all spend a certain amount of time each, and every, day on self-improvement. If we are what we believe, intelligent people who make intelligent decisions, we will see the stupidity in wasting money on education and never applying what we learn.

How can we spend time on self-improvement? How can we combine this education effort with our gathering more networking partners? What do we want to actually do with information that we learn from our self-improvement? Intelligent, responsible business people will answer these questions in a positive manner. Please leave me your comments, or email me at Jim@JimTeasley.com, or call me at 360-314-8691.

Give to Give

When we go about our daily lives, we have opportunities to “give” to others. We must “give” to others with the objective “to give”, never “to get”. People who strive to get may seem that they receive adequate benefits from their actions, but they will never realize the abundance that they can enjoy from giving to others in order to give.

Let’s explain what exactly is meant by “giving to give” instead of “giving to get”. When we give to give, we do so without basing our actions on whatever we may receive back. It doesn’t matter what we provide to others, from information to services, we just give without any strings or attachments. We do not expect a reward or any benefit from our action, nor do we make demands on the recipient of our action.

When we have the opportunity to provide information to someone who may benefit from our expertise, talent, or knowledge, we should help the other person by imparting the information to them. We must never attach any requirements that the other person must repay us or agree to any future return on our action. We must never imply such a requirement. We must provide what we give as giving to give, never to get. Information is power, and we empower others by giving them information that helps them.

The law of reciprocity is based on the theory of karma. I have a friend who, in his very blunt manner, says that karma means that whatever we do will return to us and either kiss us on the lips or bite us on our butt, depending on whatever we put forth into the universe. This belief in karma does not involve a cult type belief or any demands on any of us. It is just the belief that we receive back whatever we do for others.

We have all met people who always have a “hook” in whatever they do. They always look for the way to put others into their debt, setting up some return in the future. They never do anything for anyone without expecting a “return on their investment”. If there is not something in the future for them, they will not lift a hand to give anyone anything.

Do we really want to do business with this type of person? Do we really want to refer business to these people? Can we trust them to perform as upright business people and treat our referrals as we would want to be treated? Is this the type of person with whom we want to build a business relationship?

What if we operate our lives and our businesses by giving to give and not giving to get? Stop looking for the “hook” that benefits us and a way to make others dependent on us because we shared something with them. When you give advice or guidance to one of your networking partners it should be done because you have established a networking or business relationship with them, not for any other reason.

When we help other people, without expecting anything back for our efforts, we will most assuredly receive something good in return. It may come to us from the person we helped, it may come from someone they know, or it may not be connected to them at all. It will come to us, and we may not even see it coming, but it will come to us.

Conduct your business in a manner that will result in good karma for you, without expecting anything to be paid back to you for your efforts. Look to associate yourself with other networking partners who operate with the intent to give to give, not to get. Then enjoy your life as you help others enjoy theirs. Please leave me your comments, or email me at Jim@JimTeasley.com, or call me at 360-314-8691.

Have Fun

Anyone who knows me understands (often while shaking their heads) that I must have fun while I do what I do. If we are not having fun in whatever it is that we do, we will never enjoy the work involved. Also, we will never be successful in our businesses if we are plodding through every day with no fun involved.

Happiness is very important to anyone who works as a business owner or to those employees who make the business operate smoothly. If we are not having fun and are unhappy, it will show in our operation and in our interface with clients and prospects. No one wants to do business with anyone who never smiles, and no one wants to engage with a business which makes its representatives grumpy.

When we are marketing we must make our contacts believe that we enjoy what we do. Everyone who we meet must learn to know, like, and trust us. If they believe that we are miserable in our business, they will not like us or trust that we will be in that business much longer. They do not want to engage with people who are miserable.

Seriously, would any of us want to interface with business people or networking partners who are moody, unhappy, never laugh, and just drag through life? We should prefer partners who are happy, smile a lot, and project happiness through their actions and their mode of operation. Life is too short to do business with miserable people.

Anyone who has ever ordered from Zappos knows that their motto is “Delivering Happiness”, and they do it each and every day. We must strive to make doing business with us, and our employees, a process that brings happiness and joy into the lives of our prospects, clients, and networking partners. We must make sure our employees are happy in their jobs and our customers are happy that they do business with us.

This does not mean that we have to “give away the store”. We just need to treat everyone as a human being, be professional and fair in our operation, and concentrate on doing the “right thing” always. We must treat others as how we should want to be treated. Personally, I am very high maintenance when I am a consumer, and I treat all my clients as I want to be treated.

There are times when one of the best actions we can take is a good, old fashioned belly laugh. We must let ourselves go and enjoy the moment when something strikes us as funny, even if it is something that we do that is not planned and might be odd. It might be something that occurs to us “out of the blue” or something that someone else says or does. It may be something that we hear on the television or radio or that we see in a coffee shop. We must enjoy the moment and let ourselves enjoy.

Of course, we should remember the words: “Enjoy the moment and smile so others will wonder what you are up to.” Maybe that wondering will bring some joy into the lives of some others, and maybe some people will just believe that we are a little crazy. However, they may also try to base their lives on these thoughts if they see success running wild in our lives.

Put some silly into our lives and then try to put some into the lives of others. See if we can bring joy and happiness to everyone we meet; that’s part of Gratitude Marketing. Our clients will appreciate doing business with us. Please leave me your comments, or email me at Jim@JimTeasley.com, or call me at 360-314-8691.

Imagination, Part 2

Previously, we discussed how we must be creative and use our imaginations when we market our businesses to others. We must imagine what others need or want before we try to market whatever we have for them. If we learn and help them obtain whatever they need, we will form a bond allowing us to build a relationship for mutual success.

How do we build our imaginations and get more creative in our businesses? We should look at whatever our competitors do, how they market their products, and how they relate to their market. They may not do their marketing well, or they may be inventive in their marketing. Obviously, we should mimic the latter and not the former.

Sometimes we just look at the successful businesses in our industry and gain great ideas about our own marketing. In addition, we should look at all successful people in all industries and see what we can use in ours. If some marketing technique works in another industry, it may very well work in ours. Gratitude Marketing is the basis for success in any industry and should be employed by all of us, no matter what we do.

When we look at the marketing of other businesses, we should look at how to take their techniques and material to “the next level” of creativity. We must try to stand out, in a good manner, for being different and advancing our marketing to a higher level of customer service. We must think “outside the box” and look at other possibilities. Not all of these ideas will be good, but we should consider everything we can imagine.

In addition, when we take our marketing to “the next level”, we must be able to stand behind this level of marketing. If our shipping, customer support, or other customer service does not measure up, we will be known as failing to back up our marketing promises. Don’t allow others to brand us as “Big hat, no cattle”.

One way to learn from the efforts of other businesses is to form relationships with successful people that we meet. If we don’t try to “sell” everyone whom we meet, but just get to know them, they will be willing to form those relationships from which we can share ideas and learn. We need to get to know others, decide if we like each other, and then move to establish a trust-based relationship and progress to mutual success.

How do we meet these other people? How do we start these relationships? Go networking and then meet individually with everyone whom we discover there. Get to know each other, ask questions, and share information. Get comfortable with each other and establish solutions to the needs of each other. Networking is a two-way street. It does no one any good for only one party to learn about the other.

Go networking, meet other business people, meet with them individually, learn about each other, and build relationships. Help each other get whatever both parties need and build knowledge and trust. Then apply what we learn and be creative, using our imaginations to build on what we have learned, thinking outside the box with our marketing, making sure we can back up what we promise.

Unleash your creativity and crank up your imagination in your marketing. Based on gratitude for others, you can build a successful business and gain referrals from both your networking partners and your happy clients. Please leave your comments here, or email me at Jim@JimTeasley.com, or call me at 360-314-8691.