Why Try To Get Out Of Your Box, When You Can Use What's In It?
The cop-out assumption about professional development is that you need time.
Better, though, to use the constraint of time to work smarter, differently, expertly on a specific problem.
The issue usually isn’t time; it’s the number of problems your working to solve because you wanted to fill all of your time.
Focus. Minimize. Focus again.
Stay Positive & Let The Small (Focused) Things Add Up
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Certainly there are times when good enough is just that–good enough.
But other times, specifically when you have time, it could always be better.
The amateur ships anyway. The artist spends the extra tad of time to make it better.
Stay Positive & Which Are You Again?
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You can put yourself out there more often. After all, obscurity is your worst enemy.
You can invest time in learning more often. After all, doing the reading is what it takes to be seen as an expert.
You can connect to more people more often. After all, it’s the connections that make both the good and bad times better.
You can travel more often. After all, there’s so much to learn from other cultures to reuse in your own.
First step, of course, is to do it. The second, is to do it more often.
Stay Positive & Did You Really Think It Would Be A One And Done?
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You’re pissed off. Frustrated. You’re upset with how things turned out.
It’s likely you’re reacting to a situation.
Responding is a far smarter choice.
Take a moment to consider what someone more experienced than you would do in your position.
Stop to think through what you have control over and a next step to make the situation better.
Count to ten or go out for fresh air if you need to, but whatever it is you do, be sure you’re responding, not reacting.
Stay Positive & There’s Always Someone Watching By The Way
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As the work gets more difficult, so does the act of holding yourself accountable.
I like to think that each day we have a meter filled with willpower and throughout the day it drains. Once the work gets larger, the willpower depletes more quickly, and the first sign of a near-empty meter is a lack of self-accountability.
A quick safe-guard you can put in place is to have someone else hold you accountable… but without them knowing it. Set up a meeting to have someone smart review the work that you’ve put off. Sometimes you need that added layer of disappointing a friend to get you working.
Stay Positive & Keeping Trust Keeps Us All Moving Forward
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Sometimes it’s not the service, it’s you.
The barbershop on the west side of town is there for a specific kind of customer. They’re not going to remember your name next time you stop in. They won’t remember you get a 2 on the sides. They won’t remember your fiance’s name. They are there to fulfill a specific need of a specific customer.
It can be easy to think they should be taking notes of when your birthday is, what cut you got, and where you’re traveling over the weekend, but that’s not them. The moment they begin to do that, they fall out of line with their positioning.
It’s not always about being the best in the world, it’s about being the best to a target.
And for that barbershop, their target is men who need a last second hair-cut that they can relax while getting. The haircut is their place to escape, not to be absorbed by.
Stay Positive & For Some It’s Not About Making A Shop Better, It’s About Finding A New Shop (And That’s Okay)
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One of the many elements to developing a customer-first business is to create a VIP experience for the regulars.
After all, 80 percent of your profits will come from 20 percent of your fan base. It makes sense to treat them well enough that they keep coming back.
However, VIP treatment for your avid customers likely isn’t something new you need to do. You already treat them a bit better. They’ve already signed up for your newsletter to get deals. You’ve already welcomed them to the mug club.
What truly sets one customer-first business ahead of another is the VIP experience for those who complain, for those who didn’t get treated right at your competitor and are a first-timer at your place, for those who you might like to think aren’t worth your time.
If they aren’t to you, they will be to someone else. The goal is to not only create a VIP Experience for your regulars, but for everyone. The first-timers. The had-a-bad-experience-last-timer-ers. Anyone who walks through your brick & mortar or digital door.
Stay Positive & Right This Way
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