The Secret to Happiness, in Three Books?

Is There a Secret?

What is the secret to happiness?  Is there such a thing as a secret formula, a set of principles, or a defined ideology that if followed can truly make us happy, all of the time?  While I have no authority to provide an answer to that question, I have been actively seeking the path to happiness for as long as I can remember.  I travel frequently for work, and can always spot people who, on the surface, generally look happy and content.  Then there is the antithesis; the people who feel that everyone else on earth woke up and plotted to disrupt their day.  It has always bewildered me as to why there is such a dichotomy between these two types of people.  Four years ago, I chose that I wanted to live my life happy and content; regardless of circumstance, perceived obstacle, or challenge.  That decision led me to begin a four year journey of reading over one hundred books that focused on the brain, perception, happiness, living in the moment, exceptional leaders, success, expectations, among a variety of other topics. While this journey is constantly evolving, I will never forget an epiphany that I had in 2010 after reading a succession of three books.  I went through a very volatile period in my life where I lost my father, among other major life changing events, and started to question what does this all mean?  Then I was introduced to three books that sparked a new perspective that set my life on a path of gratitude, happiness, and meaning.  In this order I read Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now, Gay Hendricks’s The Big Leap, and Andy Andrew’s The Noticer.  The intent of this post is not to summarize these books, but rather paraphrase my interpretation of the collective writings and the impact they have had on my life.  Below is a brief synopsis of the key concepts that connected with me to help me achieve a happy life and a renewed perspective.

Living in the Moment

“You are where you need to be because you are there right now”.  Sounds like a metaphysical statement of the obvious, right?  However, really think about it.  What if you enacted this statement into your everyday life?  Am I meant to be in traffic for an hour after work, or stuck on a malfunctioning plane for two hours in Austin, Texas.  The answer is yes.  You are exactly where you need to be.  Every moment is a chance to change the course of history – sounds big, but true.  We have become a culture of instant gratification, so we only evaluate our sphere of influence over a situation; however, the ripple effect of our actions can alter the course of history.  I made a conscious decision four years ago that every opportunity is one for me to inspire and make a positive impact versus contributing to the negativity.  If I am on a delayed flight, I look it as an opportunity to meet someone new.  If I am stuck in traffic, I look it as an opportunity to look up at planes and wonder what adventure the 127 people flying overhead are about to embark on.  Time is an illusion; it is an allusive perception that we try and wrangle to gain control.  The true fact is that by the time you tell someone what time it is, the time has changed; so all you ever really have is that moment.  The future is just a series of current moments strung together until there are no more moments available, so how do you want to evolve your future?  Through a series of passive moments trying to quickly reach your perceived destination, or through a journey of active moments that make your whole life a continual, amazing expedition.  The choice really is yours and yours alone.  People, circumstances, negativity; they don’t affect your moment if you do not let them.  The Power of Now mentions that our brain is the most complex problem solving machine, so when problems don’t exist, they are manifested in order for the brain to justify its existence.  We actually have to choose to overcome our hard-wiring and be present in the moment; how will you choose?

Releasing Expectations

I once read that depression lives in the past and anxiety lives in the future, so it made me think; what lives in the now?  We set expectations all of the time, in relationships, at work, with family, before watching a movie.  We develop a certain expectation of how an event will turn out, and then judge the outcome based on our initial perception.  Due to the fact that I have never met anyone who can accurately predict the future, it seems we  can only set expectations based on previous experience, or other people’s experience; essentially using past outcomes to predict future occurrences.  So if we are using the past to look towards the future, are we limiting our potential?  Tony Robbin’s is famous for saying, “if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always have gotten”.  So if that’s true, is meeting our own expectation only a reflection of the best the past had to offer?  Personally, I have found that expectations limit your potential, affect happiness, and don’t allow the freedom of the moment to take place.  I am in business development, and early in my career I set expectations of how a meeting would go before I had ever met the client.  After the meeting I would deem the outcome a failure or success based on my pre-defined expectation of achievement.  It was not long before I realized the limitations tied to those expectations.  Did I miss a larger opportunity because I was so focused on getting to my expected outcome?  Were there subtleties that were missed in conversation because my mind was tainted with expectation?  Even more, am I doing this in my relationship, with family, friends, and co-workers?  Learning to release expectations and be present in the moment is one of the hardest conquests for a human being.  Our brains are not hardwired to live in the moment, it is a conscious decision that we either chose to make or become slave to our own limitations.  The Power of Now and The Noticer both provide unique perspective on how living in the moment can change your perception and road to happiness.

Accepting Success

How many people have made the following statements:  “things are going so well in my relationship right now; I am just waiting for something to go wrong”. “I just got a promotion at work, I hope they don’t realize I am not prepared for the job and fire me”.  “My life is finally going so good that I am worried about when it is going to end”.  Why do we consistently challenge the acceptance of our success?  Gay Hendricks labeled this phenomenon ‘upper limiting’.  Four years ago I made myself a deal.  If I live an inspired life, treat people with respect, act with integrity and enjoy the moment, I will not put a limit on the plethora of abundance that life can offer.  We were meant to be happy, live in abundance, and achieve limitless personal growth; only we can limit our potential.  As an exercise in Gay Hendricks’s book, I wrote a personal statement, “I will expand my abundance, health, wealth, knowledge, career and love, and will inspire others to do the same; I am inspired, I live inspired, I will inspire”.  Inspiration can happen through words or through action, so I feel that accepting success is an act of inspiration in itself.  So as long as I feel that I am making the most inspired decision in each moment, than I have accepted success and will feel satisfied with my own accomplishments and not some expected ideal of what others deem success to mean.

Living in Gratitude

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others” – Cicero

The act of being grateful is one of the single most powerful acts that we can start every day with.  Every person on this planet has something to be grateful for, being alive!  As long as we are breathing we have a chance to start anew, accomplish something great, inspire another life, and change the world!  Andy Andrews’s book, The Noticer, does a fantastic job of illuminating perspective and gratitude in a series of character interactions in which the marriage of the two ideals can change lives.  In my personal life, I found that I have evolved greatly since my journey started four years ago.  I used to wake up every morning and ask for things:  “please let me close this deal today”, “please let me get that promotion that I have worked so hard for”, etc.  What I found is that I was not starting my day in gratitude; I was starting it in expectation.  If those things did not happen, my day was destined to be a letdown; if they did, there was something new to ask for the next day.  I changed my morning routine to begin each day in gratitude.  My introspective conversation went from asking for things I don’t have, to being grateful for things I do.  This shift is one of the single most important changes that I made to my life which exponentially increased my happiness immediately.

Perception & Forgiveness

Happiness is perception, right?  Each moment brings new experiences, challenges, gifts, tragedies, etc.  No one person is immune from the preceding list, so why are some people happy and others not?  It would seem that perception is the reality that we create for ourselves, so why can’t that reality be happiness.  As I read these books, I realized that I cannot control my circumstances; however, I do have ability to control my reaction to those circumstances.  If my flight gets delayed, I can’t control that, but what I can control is how I react to the flight being delayed.  I heard a man on a recent flight that was delayed say, “this is ridiculous; why does this happen to me?”  The reality is the crew, passengers and air traffic control did not collude to ruin that man’s flight experience, or his day.  I personally ended up meeting a really great person sitting next to me on the same flight who was in a similar line of work and we shared some funny stories.  We chose to be happy despite our circumstances; a gift that was given through a ton of reading and perspective by three highly evolved people: Gay Hendricks, Eckhart Tolle, and Andy Andrews.  So the reason why I include perception and forgiveness together is that if we can chose to be happy in spite of our circumstances, why can’t we chose to forgive?  Tony Robbin’s said it best, “forgiveness is a gift you give yourself”.  If you are consistently angry and holding grudges, you are living opposite of every one of the principals outlined in this blog post.  When you are angry you are reflecting on a past event and not living in the moment, setting expectations for an apology, not accepting a successful outcome for yourself, obstructing gratitude with anger, and perceiving you are right instead of happy.  Is it worth it?  That is for you to decide, for me, I would rather focus on the now and not what should have been.

Conclusion

I originally started this blog to inspire young leaders to live a successfully happy life.  Happiness is a constantly evolving journey, and a choice.  People can only steal your happiness if you let them, and life offers you happiness every moment of the day if you allow yourself to feel it.  I did not write this as a doctrine to validate my principals or push an agenda; it is simply a reflection of ideas that I have compiled based on the words of some much evolved authors and human beings.  Can you find happiness in just three books?  I don’t know if everyone can, but if you are open minded, open to constructive criticism, and willing to release the bonds that tie us down from being happy every day; these books are a great start.

The Killer Presentation: Where Lincoln Meets Steve Jobs

5 Ways To Deliver a Killer Presentation

In a world of tweeting, texting, acronyms, and e-mail; our communication has been diluted down to a mere 160 characters.  While being concise and exercising brevity is a way to save time; what happens when you are asked to give a presentation in front of a few hundred people, or even a high profile interview?  Not every presentation is a formal, structured event; this blog entry will give you several tips on how to structure your 'presentation' to deliver the greatest impact, regardless of the audience or scenario.  It will not focus on which support tools to use (i.e. PowerPoint, Prezi, etc.), simply how to deliver your message.

1. The Lincoln Effect

Ok, so I have to admit that I am a bit obsessive when it comes to the legacy of Abraham Lincoln.  Without being formally educated, and in the face of severe failure and tragedy, Lincoln still became (in my opinion) the greatest American President to ever live, and a historical figure that stands for great change and progress.  The reason that step one is called the 'Lincoln Effect' is because of his unique ability to concisely deliver a powerful message, and then use silence as a tool, not a crutch.  Below you will find a link to the Gettysburg Address; one of the greatest overall speeches in American history.

http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm

In 263 words (yes, I counted) President Lincoln manages to honor the fallen soldiers at Gettysburg, provide perspective on the perils of the Civil War, express supreme disapproval for slavery and declare that the democratic process shall not falter.  Then he walked off and allowed the words to resonate instead of continue talking - silence.  Most of us cannot concisely communicate what we want from the grocery store in 263 words.  Be brief and use silence as your ally.  If your message is powerful enough, you do not need to continue talking.  

Key takeaway:  For all of you Twitter fans, your presentation message should be summed up in the equivalent of a Twitter headline.

     2.  Tell a Story

This is one of those presentation attributes that exists in every book on the topic of presenting, and for good reason.  A good, relevant story connects with your audience, captivates their attention and makes it memorable.  Bring levity to a situation, even if it is a serious presentation, by telling a brand, personal, or customer related story.  The important thing here is that you want to make the story relevant.  As you prepare for your interview, presentation, or meeting, chose the three points that you want to communicate to deliver the most impact with your audience. This way you have a baseline to turn at least one of the impact points into an engaging story.  In my experience, people like personal stories - it allows them to connect with the presenter and engage on a personal level.  Also, connect your story to powerful images.  Providing these images in direct correlation to your story will engage auditory learners similar to those who prefer visual stimuli.

     3.  Introduce a Villain

All great stories have a hero and a villain right?  Steve Jobs was a master at doing this in his presentations. The villain can be a business problem, and inefficiency, the weather, a competitor, etc.  Using a hero/villain narrative can be very engaging; below is an example from the master himself:

In 2007, why did the world need another version of the iPhone at a higher price than before?  Jobs set up the narrative by introducing a villain, a problem that needed to be solved:  

"Regular cell phones are not so smart and they are not so easy to use.  Smartphones are a little smarter, but are hard to use.  They are really complicated...we want to make a leapfrog product, way smarter than any mobile device has ever been and super easy to use.  This is what iPhone is". 

He was very simply able to present the villain, validate the problem and present the solution in three sentences - the world now needed another iPhone! 

     4.  Be Unexpected

We have all seen the movie The Sixth Sense, right?  Well if you have not, I recommend you go out and rent it. The ending was so unexpected that it had people talking for weeks, months and even years after the film - Bruce Willis was ..... go rent it, I won't spoil it.

Why can't your presentation be like that?  Add an element of mystique or intrigue and you will have people talking for days after your presentation.  Again, it is all about relevance; however, no matter what your subject matter - there is always a more creative way to present it.  While I like to consider myself a "right" and "left" brain oriented person, my "right" brain is not quite as creative as some of the amazingly talented people out there.  Regardless of your discipline or topic, don't be afraid to ask someone with a background in liberal arts or marketing to review your presentation and suggest delivery and/or style options.  Also, don't be afraid to try something new!  Status quo typically equates to boring.  If you find the right mix, your hint of unexpected will equate to a memorable experience for your audience

     5.  Be Passionate With the Rule of 3

So this is last, but certainly not least!  You can prepare for days, do one million mock presentations in your bathroom mirror, but remember two things:

• You are the expert.  People are coming to hear you speak so don't be afraid to communicate your thoughts with a passionate inflection and enthusiastic presence. Understand your audience, and adjust according; however, don't sacrifice your passion.

• No matter how many times you have rehearsed, it is the first time your audience is hearing it! Don't go through the motions and sacrifice passion.  Even if you are nervous or forget to mention something, you are the only one that knows.  Keep moving and be passionate.

Finally, utilize the Rule of 3.  Steve jobs understood that the number 3 was one of the most powerful numbers in communication.  A list of 3 is more intriguing than a list of 2, and easier to remember than 30.  Try to structure your presentation into three sections (regardless of presentation length) and try to keep the list of important attributes for each to 3.  It is an interesting concept and it works!  I would recommend picking up Steve Job's book to learn more.

Conclusion

I hope these tips were helpful.  It makes presenting more fun, relaxed and certainly more memorable.  The final tip is to have fun.  Presenting is a fun experience and should be embraced.  If you use these tactics, you will find that you are more excited to present; if for nothing else, to see how the audience receives the different tactics you deliver.

5 Tips for Small Business Lead Generation

Small Business Tips for Lead Generation

I have been fortunate throughout my career to attend many events that celebrate the vital importance of small business and its contribution to local communities.  My experience working with a franchised organization has given me a new perspective and appreciation for the competitive nature of small business and how valuable devising a simple lead generation program can be.  While there are many great tools that can assist in the development of a lead generation program, it starts with a sound strategy and a commitment towards understanding the tactics that can drive the most effective leads at a cost that makes sense for your business.  I will share five key strategies that can be utilized individually or collectively to help stimulate more qualified leads for any local business.

     1.  Lead Management:

While every lead provides an opportunity to convert a sale, you can increase your conversion rate by focusing on leads that exhibit certain characteristics.  Customer segmentation analysis is usually associated with high cost and sophisticated regression tools.  The fact is any local business owner can devise a simple scoring system to turn leads into conversion with more frequency.  Take a look at your customer transactions and identify customer segments based on certain characteristics that make sense for your business.  Once you identify key attributes that exist in your current customer base, score them on those metrics to get a unique view into who they are and what motivates them to purchase.  Some key areas to look at are:

• Lifetime value - how many times has a customer purchased since their first purchase?
• Average ticket size - how much do customers spend?
• Promotion - do customers only buy when certain promotions are run?
• Channel attribution - how did you acquire a customer?
• Returns - is a customer a habitual returner of merchandise?
• Product - are certain customers more apt to buy higher margin products?

If you are a pure B2B company, you can overlay firmographics and industry attributes:

• Company size & sector
• Company annual revenue
• Product sale/type by industry
• Industry Attributes relating to average ticket, lifetime value etc.

There can be variety of other metrics that make sense for your business.  Apply positive scores to good attributes and negative scores to bad attributes.  This will help you identify who you should target, how you should target them, and even who you may want to stay away from.  A simple scoring grid in Microsoft Excel can provide directional insights into your business that are just as valuable as advanced data modeling. You can drive down acquisition cost and drive up profitability.

     2.  Lead Nurturing:

Don't get lazy!  While you consistently want to be searching for new leads, don't forget about the customers that have made your business successful.  It costs more than twice as much to acquire new customers than to nurture existing customers - they have already shown an affinity for your product/service!  Instituting a loyalty program is a great way to show your customers you appreciate them; however, there are also other ways. Social media affords small business an efficient way to communicate with customers very cost effectively. Establish and maintain a Facebook or Twitter page, and incentivize customers to join and participate.  By publishing new, fresh content relating to your business or industry, you can provide your customers unique insights and look like an industry thought leader.  You can also use social media as a primary research 'hotbed' to get real time feedback from customers as it pertains to product design, service enhancements, or content desires.  This will make your customer base feel as if they are part of the solution and become more engaged.

     3.  Build and Optimize Landing Pages:

Marketing in the Age of Google

There are a tremendous amount of free tools available to understand what keywords and search strings are driving the most effective traffic to your site.  Google AdWords, Google Insights, and Google Trends are all free tools that can assist in your strategy development.  By using these tools to find which words are most important as it relates to your business, it can help your business structure a very effective way to generate organic leads through search engine optimization.  Building a website is no longer the solution; building relevant landing pages to drive traffic based on specific product search or expertise is how to convert higher traffic.

For example, if you are a local dry cleaner, your website should clearly focus on your prowess as a dry cleaner; however, how can you generate incremental traffic?  If you go to Google Adwords Keyword Tool (free) a quick search shows that there are 165,000 global monthly searches for the phrase "how to get stains out" with low competition.  If you create a landing page on your site with tips on how to remove stains, you can drive a new subset of traffic who now views you as an expert.  You can even have a coupon on that landing page to try and convert a searcher to a new customer. A fantastic book written by a small business specialist at Google who helped identify these trends is listed here.  It clearly articulates how to use these tools and set up your business strategy.  Remember:

• Create relevant landing pages that capitalize on search trends
• Organic search outperforms paid search by an 8:1 click ratio so make sure you are optimized efficiently
• Strong organic efforts combined with paid search can increase return on investment by 4:1 and increase leads by 2x.

    4.  Get Customers to Search For You:

In addition to building relevant landing pages, there are many other tactics that are search friendly to help create awareness for your business and optimize lead generation.  You obviously started a business because you are an expert in that particular area; use your expertise to generate new customers.  Here are several ways:

• Develop a strong social presence, but be sure to maintain it.  Nothing hurts a brand or business more than an irrelevant social platform.  Either choose to not have a presence or consistently update it with fresh content.  This is a very strong way to engage with existing customers and capture new customers when searching for products and services.
• Mobile optimize your website - even if you don't have the money to fully optimize your entire website, optimize mobile landing pages to capitalize on the exploding trend in mobile search.  
• Write industry white papers and work to syndicate them on third-party sites that prospects use when researching your business - all the way down the path to purchase!
• PR, blogs, public speeches, awards – if it makes sense for your business, become actively involved so your reputation can inspire trust in your brand brand.  
• Consistent brand awareness efforts - maintain brand continuity.  You want to be in relevant searches online, not show up where it doesn't make sense for your business.  Not only does it waste time, it hurts your reputation and affects your brand.

    5.  Understand Marketing Metrics:

This is a very important part of identifying how to successfully market your business.  Once you segment your customer base as in step one, understand how and why to market to each.  You may not have to discount as strongly to some customers, while others require a steep discount to motivate purchase.  This can help you maximize margins by knowing the most effective way to market to each group.  Another important piece is to understand the metrics, there are a ton!  Several ways to measure marketing are:

• Cost per lead
• Cost per acquisition
• Cost per sale
• Return on Investment

Understand which metric makes the most sense for your business and measure accordingly.  My biggest piece of advice is to not necessarily only choose the program with the lowest cost.  Marketing campaigns may cost more; however, if they deliver a higher basket size or better quality customer, they may make more sense.  Identify what makes the most sense for your business and stick to it.  Look at VALUE not only COST.

Conclusion:

There are many tools and tactics out there to help drive successful business activity.  These are a few that will not cost you a tremendous amount of money; however, they do require a time investment.  If you have the luxury of hiring trusted people to manage these efforts, or an agency to act as an extension of your business, that is always a plus.  If not, choose what makes the most sense for your business and stick with it.  If you believe in your strategy, consistency wins the game.