I can’t believe that it’s my 2-year anniversary already. No, not my wedding anniversary (we’re approaching 30 years), rather my business anniversary. It’s been 2 years now that I’ve been an independent speaker, business consultant and author and I wanted to share some of my reflections of the last two years and what I’ve learned. I’ve had the opportunity and privilege to work with so many wonderful people, travel to so many new places (which is not easy for me as I’ve been traveling a lot over the years), and make many, many new friends.
So, here are 10 things I’ve learned from you over the last 2 years:
- There are so many creative and talented people, with wonderful passion. There’s no end to the ingenuity I’ve seen.
- However, being passionate and creative does not guarantee business success. That requires a different skill set.
- Everyone I meet is busy… some are just more successful. This was the spark for my new presentation “Are you too busy to be successful?” – I posted a survey for this, so if you didn’t get a chance to share your thoughts, please click here to take the 10 question survey.
- Life happens! Sometimes your day to day gets in the way of your big ideas and dreams. I’m working on a new presentation about this, tentatively titled “Don’t let your Today list get in the way of your To-do list” – stay tuned for the debut of that one.
- Lots of businesses are thriving, while others, in the same market and category are struggling. It’s not a lack of opportunities. I believe it’s an attitude of success, something I’ve written about extensively.
- There are people who are afraid of success. They’re afraid of what success might do for their life, family, how they’ll be perceived by their friends, etc. So they sabotage their success to avoid those changes.
- Many people just get comfortable with the status quo, which is fine until the status quo changes on them. If you’ve never read the book “Who Moved My Cheese”, by Dr. Spencer Johnson, I highly recommend it.
- There will always be negative voices around you. Some are trying to protect you. Some are trying to undermine your success. Some are just negative people who don’t like to see anyone succeed. If you can’t avoid them altogether (you choose your friends, not your family) learn to tune them out. If Thomas Edison, or Bill Gates, or Steve Jobs, or Mark Zuckerberg listened to the negative voices, none of their ideas would have ever seen the light of day.
- Stuff happens. No matter how hard you try, or how hard you plan, things will go wrong. Learn to deal with making it right, first, then find out what went wrong. No good comes from pointing fingers while the fires are burning. Put them out, make the customer happy, then find out what went wrong.
- Why is it so hard to say “I’m sorry”? When something goes wrong it’s OK to take responsibility. Most reasonable people will forgive you if you 1) apologize 2) keep them informed of what’s being done to fix it 3) fix it as fast as you can 4) make sure they’re happy again. Too often the first part is left off. I’ve experienced a few times recently, as a customer, where someone didn’t call or come when they were supposed to. Instead of apologizing, they went right into excuses about what happened. Just say “I’m sorry, would it be ok to reschedule? When is convenient for you?”
Mostly what I’ve learned is the there are so many generous, hard working, well-intentioned people, who invest their time to make their customers happy. They give up family time, especially in the wedding and event industry where weekend and evening work is the norm. I’m privileged to be able to help so many of you with your websites, businesses, attitudes and more. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your success. I’m looking forward to many more years in your service.
Alan
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Speaking of saying thanks… Are you looking for a unique way to thank your staff for your success, or all of the people who referred business to you last year?
Many companies bring me to their market to present day of training for their sales/customer support teams or a vendor appreciation event, where you invite your key partners for a day of education. We’ll choose the topics together from sales, motivation, marketing, websites, social media, etc. to create a program that will inspire and inform.
It’s a great way to show your team and key partners that you value and appreciate their contributions to your success… and it can help foster even more referrals and success.
I accept a limited number of such engagements each year, domestically and internationally, so if you’d like to stand out in your market, and hopefully inspire more referrals from your industry partners, or you know someone else who would, call or email me to discuss dates, topics and rates, 732.422.6362