October 31, 2014 by

Are You In Costume Everyday of Your Life?

Are You In Costume Everyday of Your LifeAre you in costume everyday of your life?  At work and at home are you who you really are, or are you role playing all the time and you have lost track of who you really are?

Are you really you when you are working with your clients and customers?

The point of this question is do you assume a role? Essentially are you in costume when you show up to work with clients, customers or are out networking.? Is this what you do?

In addition, do you have MVS syndrome? This stands for Multiple Value Systems. There is the value system you ask your family to live by. The one you live by in your place of worship. Then there is the value system you utilize at work and with your employees, your clients and your customers. Maybe you cut corners. Maybe you do not treat all of your employees as real people with a real life outside of the workplace. Do you have MVS?

Allow me to apologize if anyone is feeling attacked. As you will see these are questions meant to have you reflect on yourself for a few moments. Let’s take a quick timeout.

In case the calendar has slipped your mind, this is the end of October! Which means it is time to conduct a few activities for next year. A few of these might include:

  1. Strategy for next year
  2. Goals for next year
  3. Monthly plan for next year
  4. Events you are attending/hosting next year
  5. Vacations you are taking next year

There is more. Where you are able to add in dates, timelines and due dates put these in place as well.

Okay, back to the main article.

People know a fake a mile away. Why does anyone even go there? Why not be yourself? Why not be honest about who you are and what you value and care about?

More often than you might imagine the answer is fear. There is a fear of failure. By acting as someone else, there is a feeling that you will not be the failure it will belong to this ‘other’ person and not you. This is not the only answer or reason. It is one possibility.

Another is a lack of confidence. Again by ‘playing’ another role it is like putting on the Superman outfit. My suggestion is to be yourself all the time. If wearing the Superman outfit makes you feel better, fine. Wear it all the time then!

Mitch Tublin is an advanced certified executive and personal coach who resides in Stamford, CT.

 

Filed Under: Business Planning, Self Improvement, The Real You Tagged With: , , , , , ,
July 31, 2013 by

Fuel Runs Your Vehicle – What Runs Your Business?

BusinessHave you ever run out of fuel when driving your vehicle? It is not fun! The indicator is right there on the dashboard. Most newer vehicles have beeps and flashing lights going off when you are getting low on fuel in the tank. There may even be a screen that has a countdown – 30 miles to go until empty – 25 miles to go until empty. Yet it still happens, you just run out of gas. Why does this happen even in the face of the fact that you were warned, the indications were there in plenty of time!

How about your business? What runs your business? Is it funding or money? Is it your employees? Is it new ideas? What would you think if someone said it was a steady stream of new clients and customers. “Ah, yes, this is definitely what runs my business!”

There are numerous books, articles, courses, coaches and gurus who will explain a variety of methods of client attraction to follow along step-by-step for guaranteed results. At the right time, one or more of these tools might be a great resource for you to utilize.

It is my proposal to you that what runs your business is your energy and your excitement for what you are doing! If you are not energized and excited every single day to do what it is you are doing, you need to change that around first. You can spend a huge amount of money and waste a lot of time if you are not really in the right business, and not following something that gets you pumped up to be the business leader you have become (or plan to become soon) in your chosen field.

Some people say this is your mindset. My thought is, not exactly. For example, a great concept comes to you and you decide to start a business. Many more people than you would ever believe will begin to spend money on advertising, web sites, business plans, logos, trademarks, domain names, and much more. When my proposal is, to test the concept first. Is this a product or a service people would buy? If yes, how much will  they pay, how often and how quickly are they convinced they need it. If no, why not? Any suggestions to make the product or service more appealing? Or does the idea, well, suck?

Aren’t you glad you conducted this experiment and did some testing first before spending huge amounts of money and time creating something that would never sell?

Nothing will sour your daily approach to your business like a great business website, logo, and all of the other trappings built around a product or service that no one is interested in purchasing. They do not want it. They do not need it. You may work on your mindset until the cows come home, it will not change the facts. Test first. Make the changes. Test again. Adjust as necessary. Test again. Take your product or service to the market for all of your testing and listen to the feedback. Always be testing and listening. Oh and by the way, do this all quickly and in the fastest amount of time possible.

Mitch Tublin is an advanced certified executive and personal coach who resides in Stamford, CT.

Filed Under: Business Strategy, Leadership Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
May 2, 2013 by

What Smells in Here? Your Customers and Clients Will Tell You if You Ask

Busines

Today symbolizes that the first four months of the year 2013 have ended. These first four months are now in the past. What does this mean for you? Do you just keep doing the same things the same way and get the same results? It is possible this is a good thing for you! However, if you are like the most of us it is a good time to review what is working, what is not working and seek to make the changes necessary to achieve better results.

Many articles written by advisers and coaches will beat the drum to conduct a self review of your business and seek their help to fix what is wrong with you and your business. “What? Oh my, the first four months of the year are gone!” Sending the alarms off and basically creating fear in people to seek their services.

Another approach might be for you to ask your customers or your clients to offer to you their thoughts. What? Yes you read it correctly. Who better to give you feedback on your business than your customers and clients. There are numerous ways to obtain this feedback and these are adjustable depending upon the type of business your run.

In the brick and mortar retail environment you might run a focus group with prizes given to those who are selected to participate. What you want to know is how they experience your store. How do they find the people who work there and the interaction with you, the customer, at the register, on the floor of the store? Are the items in the store easy to locate? Do you wish we carried other products? And much more.

In the services business environment you might send a letter or a card inviting your clients to take an online anonymous survey. You may set this up to where a gift card credit is sent virtually once the survey is completed. This type of feedback will open your eyes to how your clients feel about your service, how you added value or not, your follow up, your scheduling methods and much more.

This is the perfect time of year to obtain this type of feedback. One critical point is, you must follow up on the feedback once it is given to you. This might be as simple as compiling a full list of the top five items you intend to change and how you intend to change them. At the end of this process you may very well be creating customers and clients for life.

Mitch Tublin is an advanced certified personal and executive coach who resides in Stamford, CT.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , ,