2009

Entanglement

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations – entangling alliances with none.” -Thomas Jefferson.

Without apology I’ve pared down the people in my life. Without apology, I’ve gotten rid of the distracting, the dramatic, the weary and the crazymakers. In order to serve people at the highest level, I have to get rid of people that prevent me from doing that. It seems like it’s not hard, but it is. When you’re entangled with people in full blown adult failure spiral, they make you think a different standard is OK. Adult failure spiral, when your around it, is kinda captivating. Kinda addictive, and then you think that that kinda stuff is acceptable. Because you want to be a nice guy. The flop sweat stink of failure gets on you and it’s hard to get off.

Social media is cool, but it doesn’t obligate you to give too much access to people that don’t have anything to offer. You can connect with whom you chose to, and you should be cordial with all. You don’t need to let someone else’s drama become yours. You don’t need to let someone else’s whim become yours, and you gotta be comfortable in your own skin.

If you’re an approbation junkie, needing your ‘attaboy’ fix from anywhere, you’re only going to shovel people in your lives that trade that for letting them cancer your thoughts with the idea that adult failure spiral is fine. The need for approbation makes you weak in a million ways. If you want to do something, transmute that need into the need to do astonishingly good work, work that pleases you, work that is detail perfect. Needing praise just shuts doors in your face.

None of this is saying “be a spiteful jerk.” What I am saying is this:

You don’t have to engage everyone that engages you.
You can ignore emails
It’s OK when people ignore your emails.
Ditto with phone calls.
Same deal with Twitter messages, facebook pokes or whatever. Don’t be pissy when people don’t respond, and don’t respond when you don’t have it in you (exceptions apply).
You don’t need to make people wallow in your drama, it make your drama more real when you relive the bad stuff that happens.
You don’t need to wallow in other people’s as a quid pro quo for them to call you a ‘nice guy.’
Some relationships dissipate, some enrich. You don’t need to be in the dissipatory parts.
Focus on service to already engaged servable people.
Limits preserve your ability to help other people.

The hook that they use to keep you around is “that you’re being a jerk.” The hook is social pressure to validate them. And the trade isn’t worth it. The people that you let into your life, particularly your circle must be winners. People you want to be like, people that put you on your toes and keep you on your best behavior. People that you’re honored to call brothers or sisters. Not just people that show up and tell insipid stories.

Next post: 2010 Business Plan

Anti-Social Mediocrity: Screw Validation

By chris Filed Under: entitlementality

People that can’t sell seek validation as a way to feel good about their social media efforts. The only score card that matters, though, is the ability to get people to take action. But, social mediocrities must feel good about the hours they spend on Twitter. They have to keep score in some other way: followers, retweets. To feel better about themselves, they get a chorus of mediocrities screaming “hallelujah, brother, you said it best.” That’s meaningless. What’s better: 15 people that will drop $100 bucks when you say so, or 10,000 people that will retweet your every word? Thought so.

But, all the social mediocrities are popular. They approve. Engage, connect. Don’t be pushy. How dare you try and sell to me using social media. No achievement, and yes, you must submit your every thought to Twitter in order for us to vet what you’re doing next. Americans have been fighting mob enforced behavior norms since the Salem Witch Trials.

Spam: The Ultimate Insult.

The nasty accusation of “spamming” almost always follows those that monetize their following. The medicorities insist that everything you say must be said (a) for free and (b) for no financial compensation to you. They’d rather wade through shitty but “pure” advice than take action great advice that costs.

When you engage the social mediocrities, there’s a rule. You’re only permitted to sell but rarely, and only IF you’ve provided value (in their eyes, to their standards). And even when you have provided value, other people place a claim on what you can/can’t do by sending you nastygrams when you dare try and make a living. You’ll be a spammer, otherwise, even if you’re not technically spamming, and even if they DID opt into your list.

The next frequent insult is calling you “unprofessional” nothing more clearly marks someone as an idiot as the frequent and shrill cry of “unprofessional” to insult those that are smarter and faster than they are. The second time you try to hang the albatross of “unprofessional” to describe someone that is having more success than you is when I tune out forever. What the hell does “unprofessional” even mean? Dan Kennedy is ugly and unprofessional. He’s also dirty, fithy stinking rich.

ROI & Social Media: The Real Currency

Validation is not currency. You can’t send Twitter Followers to pay your AMEX Bill. You don’t get ahead when you demonstrate that you live in lockstep with the masses who, by definition are average. You don’t get ahead by following the tired and vague formula “engage & connect.” What does that even mean? Go say hi? Big. Old. Waste. Of. Time.

ROI matters. It’s the end all, be all. You’ve gotta track it, and if your social media goon is saying it can’t be tracked, then they’re full it it. Wide swatches can be tracked, measured, tested and duplicated.

Hey, Jealousy

When there’s backlash against social media monetization, it’s because there is jealousy against those of us that earn money. Most people on social media, hell, most Americans, are deeply in debt and gravely scared, stuck at work unable to segue. When people are in that moneydrunk panicked state, they’re not gonna act normal. I know. The IRS pursued me so hard and during the darkest part of that, I lashed out at people that loved me, people that supported me, let alone strangers. It’s nearly impossible to be sane or kind to others when you’re hording pennies in a workaday battle for survival. The people that haven’t had their fix of cash focus on “need cash-need-cash-need-cash” not “how can I truly be helpful.”

Most people are unhelpful in any way that matters. Most people are negative and sour, and they will pull you down and harm you. Because when you succeed you demonstrate that they could succeed too. And when you demonstrate something that they are not doing right, you indirectly point out what they haven’t done. This makes them use what they have–social acceptance–as a tether. When you value other people’s thoughts and opinions of you, you open yourself up to this.

So what to do?

Sure:

Set Your Own Agenda
Be Selective On Who You Interact With. (Key. Mediocrities get mediocre all over you)
Help Others Proactively and With All Your knowledge.
Earn money. Nothing in the world restores your sanity fastest
Be yourself, don’t be an echo of the social media greats
Realize there’s always room at the table for excellent people with loads to give.
Be happy about others successes: they are lighting the path for you to follow.
Do It Your Way.
Promote those that are scary good and scary different.
Pick your own tribe, don’t let your tribe pick you.

Don’t let the bastards grind you down.

Entitlementality: Cancer Of Success

By chris Filed Under: entitlementality, Start Here

I’ve been playing at it for a long time, but I’m completely convinced that entitlementality is why people don’t succeed. Some that the world owes you a living, that your talents are more than they are, and that you earn something because of your “talent” is bullshit.

When you think you “deserve” something from your employer, from the world, you’re focusing inward. Your eyes are tuned to what you’re supposed to be getting. And as a consequence, there’s always someone prettier, luckier or more connected than we are. Focusing on that will make you nuts. Talent…doesn’t…matter without service to others.

The deal is we get paid because we are of service to others. We get paid only because we are here to help other people. Not because of our talent which is over rated, but because of what we’re able to do that others want. And at every level, we can provide what others want. All we have to do is admit it. Admit that what we made doesn’t have a market, or that it’s not good enough to get people excited.

The world has rules, and the most simple one is this: if you serve others at the highest level, you’ll become rich in friends, money, opportunity, connection. If you try for a living through arbitrage or self focus, the poison you swallow will eventually kill you.

So the question is this: instead of focusing on what you get, what are you doing to focus on how you can help others? Instead of focusing on how that dude ripped you off, ask what did you do for that dude–did you keep your promises? Did you serve? Did you help?

Your wallet is the first to know where your focus is. Think of the people that you admire. They are highly paid servants that chose what service they were going to perform. They are not focused on grabbing all they can, but proudly performing an amazing service that is valuable to others.

How Not To Be a Troll: Kill Your Entitlementality For Your Own Good

By chris Filed Under: entitlementality, Start Here

When you are focused on what you’re here to GET, you’re never, ever going to win.

I have a private list on Twitter called “content heroes.” These people push out great, usually free, content often in their niche. I follow them avidly and devour everything they make. There are 21 names on that list, a few of ‘em are: Brian Clark, Chris Garrett, Michael Martine, Sonia Simone, Chris Brogan, Hugh MacLeod, Nametag Scott Ginsberg, Ian Greenleigh, Jim Kukral and Dave Navaro. These dudes are my trusted filters and my daily news.

Success Leaves Clues: Figure Out Why They Are Successful

I’m grateful that our economy is so good that it supports the work of these people to the point where they can pump out stuff for free and for cheap. I’ve made money off of the free and cheap stuff. Some specific examples:

Chris Brogan’s Trust Agents: Found it too long, but it gave me a vocabulary that I didn’t have and inspired me to set a good example of doing things above board. (His Overnight Success stuff is pretty promising, too). This has lead to me approaching clients with giant balls.

Nametag Scott’s intimidating mass of content: Scott’s showed me lots of things. Morning pages, which I do a lot.

Brian Clark’s “Authority Rules:” That’s sold clients for me. I’ve emailed that pdf and persuaded people to buy a blog or get some planning done.

Dave Navarro’s Blog: Holy crap. Talk about action items. Probably the best “free” stuff on the entire Internet.

Everyone I follow leaves clues. I’m profoundly grateful, and feel lucky and fortunate that these dudes can profit from giving free stuff away. Because the ideas I see that I dig, I synthesize. I use as my own. As is their intent.

It didn’t used to be that way. I used to be hyper and angry about it. I used to want specific and a step by step guide to my own success. For free. I used to get angry because I hadn’t learned the mindset that makes success inevitable. I was on some lists that had 3/4 good content that I could take action on.

I Deserve More, More: I’m Entitled.

But when a dude had the audacity to try to sell me something or send me an affiliate link? Oh, hell no. That was un-fuggin-acceptable to me. Mentally, I was lost. “This dude is just trying to sell me, screw him.” I was mad about being used, being monetized. Despite the good content, the fact that there was some portion of it that was interested in making money, I was enraged. I would unsubscribe.

It was about me. How dare this dude try to monetize me. How dare they try to do something to me. Nevermind the fact that I got great content (that I wasn’t ready to act on). This sumbitch tried to sell me? How DARE HE!

Why was I mad? Bottom line: I was broke, confused and lost. I was pissed because the world was passing me by, I didn’t have enough to give, so I didn’t have the cash to jump on good ideas. I was mad because I wanted the stuff that I was being sold, but $160 or more was out of reach. My entitle mentality made things about me. Get it?

Entitlementality is cancer of the will.

OK, let’s be really, really clear. When you are focused only on what you’re getting, how your own experience is, you’re going to fail. You’re so limited by those ideas that it’s nearly impossible to succeed. When you’re focused on how much you deserve, and you turn your eyes inward, you’re gonna get a close up view of your faults and flaws. Your ego will reject them and put the blame on others.

You can’t survive with this mindset. You are here and born to give something, not get something. Gratitude is the chemotherapy that kills entitlementality. Instead of being pissy about the valid efforts of good people to earn their living, why not simply be happy that you got some ideas, why not be ready to take action on the good stuff you’ve gotten?

Left untended, though this is a natural process. You focus on yourself, we all do. It’s a poison we swallow that is so very limiting. What about helping others? What happens when you give all you can to that? I’ll tell you what: you succeed financially, especially when you let go of the self righteous “all I do is focus on others” line that people that don’t really focus on others give you.

When you kill your entitlementailty, you can finally succeed. You will have a hard time doing anything good without accepting the fact that you’re paid in proportion to how much you’re been of service to others. With very few exceptions, bubbles and anomalies, that’s how the world works. Embrace that idea and up your service. The “How” is on its way.

10 Ways I Survived My Cash Crunch As a Freelancer (And You Can, Too)

By chris Filed Under: Business Building, Start Here

It’s a dirty secret: Freelancers and entrepreneurs, even successful ones sometimes have cash crunches. I’ve been cash starved due to the IRS, I’m something of an expert at surviving a cash crunch. I’ve operated on a zero cash. It’s stressful, aggravating and survivable. The “hard part” is in my rear view.

Yesterday on her call, Sonia Simone touched on this reality. Hit home because I’ve lived it. So many soloprenuers hide the fact that they are flat ass broke. And it hit home because when you’re flat ass broke and don’t have a survival plan, you focus on yourself. That’s how you become a “sales douche”. When you focus on you, and all you can think about is your mortgage, you’re susceptible to all the fucked up things that adult failure spiral brings.

The crucible that I’ve gone through has enhanced my work habits, has made me a better business person. It’s even made me more honest: I know I can survive a cash crunch and I’m now more immune to the cancer of scarcity thinking. Once I’ve got those bastards free and clear (goal is end of January for all tax liability including 2009), you’ll see my empire grow.

So, here are ten things I’ve learned, and am still learning:

Stop Hiding It: People will figure it out anyway. Manufacturing the appearance of riches, or even giving a shit about what other people think of your pocketbook was a mistake I made in 2005-2007 and it made things vastly worse for myself. Don’t try to be someone you’re not.
Admit the cash crunch is your fault: I played the “victim of the IRS” card mentally for a long damn time. I had a severe amount of Karmic Debt from life, and I deserved everything that happened to me. It wasn’t till I embraced that idea that I started digging out.
LIFO for Bills Is Your Friend: LIFO means: last in first out. It’s the way to get ahead of a cash crunch. When you’re in “catch up” mode, you’ve gotta pay bills based on what’s shows up today, and work backwards. This puts you back in reality land. You stop pissing off new people.
Accounting Is Your Friend: I’m still shitty at accounting. I’m getting better. On my wall is a list of total debts, IRS debts, daily interest and goals. I haven’t hit what I wanted to, but without that I’d be further behind. Accounting = Reality. Embrace Reality, don’t prolong the misery. You’ve gotta know three things: monthly expenses (business and personal), your daily expenses (based on monthly/20) and your average daily income. Peter Drucker says that anything you measure improves. Measure your money.
Be Frigging Frugal: Look, if you’re in debt, it’s not time to let off steam at the church of St. Arbucks. It’s not time for a $9 appeltini. It’s frugal time. For selfish reasons. Go through your last 3 months bank statements. Look at all purchases below $15 bucks. Add those up. Chances are, 90% of that money could have been avoided.
Be Really Frigging Frugal: No holds Barred: We moved and cut expenses. We cut cable, everything. We went all in on paying this debt monster, going down to one car, stopping the travel. We sold possessions. It’s not enough to be “kinda” frugal. That’s a ruse. Our housing cost and other costs were a nightmare. Ego had us in a nice house we didn’t have the coin for. Being able to move was a freeing experience.
Debt Sucks, Don’t Get More. Debt is slavery. Debt sours the way you feel about the entire world. “Priceless?” That’s bullshit. It’s never good. It puts off what’s inevitable, and it masks the fact that you’re currently not good at business. When you have debt, it’s the opposite of LIFO, it obscures how you’re doing. Kill your debt. (My timeframe for this is April of 2010).
Give More Value To Others & You’ll Be Just Fine: This is hard, but your net worth is generally a reflection of how much you’ve given minus how much you’ve consumed. My net worth is still negative, (it’s getting better). You figure out ways to give more to others. Every day write down what you’re going to give. Focus on others and God takes care of you.
Account For Your Time, Too: Figure out if you’re spending your time on productive work. If not, fix it. Write down an ideal schedule in order. For me, it’s not “at 9:30 I’ll be doing this,” but it’s “this repeating task, that one, then that one.” Make sure you’re not constantly rechecking paypal and re-adding your bills up.
Get Over Anxiety: Johnny said there is no spoon. Anxiety and scarcity makes you nuts. When you’re nuts you focus inward, and nothing is more repulsive than a selfish flame-out. Work for others, you’ll be fine. Money stress totally sucks. When you’re anxious about it it vibrates and people can tell. They avoid you. It’s hard to do, money-stress comes back sometimes, but you gotta remind yourself that you’ll be fine. Focusing on helping others did it for me.

Anyway, I’ll trim this down to 860 words then hit publish. You get the gist.

Best Case Scenario Vs. Worst Case Scenario

By chris Filed Under: miscellany

When I had some friends move me from my “nice zipcode” 2600 square foot house to an, at best, mediocre, townhouse, my thought was “is this right?

Nobody I know would do this.” I was embarrassed for myself, and for GenuineWife that this wasn’t the correct thing to do. I was worried, “will these people think I’m a failure?” How stupid.

I had to deal with all kinds of idiocy:

“You’re crazy to start a business.”

“I can’t believe your jeoprodizing your family’s security.”

“You don’t know anything about the web.”

“You’re kind of a prick”

“It’s harder than you think.”

I heard this garbage 2 years ago when I mentally broke away from the mortgage company that I worked for. I heard it from people that were protecting their own self interests, that were afraid of facing the reality that the Mortgage industry was to be radically different than it is today. I pressed on only because I figured being a mortgage dude was, best case scenario, a bad life.

So, I cut damn near all my overhead, sold most of my possessions to have the cash. The wife and kids were scared. I cut the monthly living expenses from $5k to under $2200. Then I sold my car, sharing one car with Heather. She’s going to school full time during this. I had a couple of clients that were pretty steady, and I stayed about a half step away from disaster. Cutting everything (no cable, one car, no payments) was the only way that I could have done this.

The freedom that having $2800 less in money gone each month provided was the step that nobody would take. Remember: I had a six figure IRS debt staring me down. I had to earn money. But, the mortgage business, I saw as a dead letter. From the entitlementality of the customers to the regulatory hassles, to the fact that I never once saw myself as a “lifer” I knew I had to leave.

Otherwise, I’d be one of those frauds with a little ability and a dream.

A big talking, no account no action contemptable pudgy white guy with a lifetime of “almost hads,” “almost dids” and so called “expertise.”

I refused to become that guy.

So, I compared the “best case” real estate scenario to the “worst case” freelancer scenario.

In Real Estate/Mortgage: Best case, I build a team of 4 people, the regulatory changes (this was 2007) don’t get worse, and I make $350k a year cruising through 30 million in loans or whatever. I’m stuck working 50 hours a week working to help my clients refinance, and I’ve gotta shephard a process I care little about.

That’s best case. I didn’t have the skill to build a team, nor the dream to get beyond the solo practitioner level. It would take a ton of work, and it would take new habits. I didn’t want to stay in the business for life, so I’d have this non-portable asset that wouldn’t be able to do shit for me if I left.

Worst Case, Freelancer: I fail. I don’t sell anything, and I go back to being a Mortgage Lender, or whatever having taken a title shot, and having missed. At least I tried, at least I did everything I could do. At least I gave it everything I had to give and took my shot, and wasn’t enough. Maybe I’d have to beg to catch on somewhere.

That was it.

That worst case? Not horrible. Not the end of the world. The Best Case? Not bad, but not a dreamlife. Congratulations, you’re mediocre. Not really what I was into.

So, I left. I did some dumb things, some obtuse things. I made some mistakes, and I had some arrogance. But, it is so much better running things, it’s so much better being in control of my life, and choosing who I hang out with, on purpose than it is to do the safe thing.

Had I really resisted having friends see that I was downsizing, I’d not have been able to do what I did.

In a 2010 we’ll really see if I’ve built the skills to make it worth it, but it looks promising.

Heap CRM Categories: Set Them Up Like Tags

By chris Filed Under: miscellany, Products, Projects and Process

I’ve been using HEAP now and digging what it will be doing for me. I review Heap CRM as a better CRM than I review Infusionsoft. It’s more functional, and Heap is staffed by people that never lie to you, unlike infusionsoft which has business “coaches” which aren’t really coaches but hourly type employees. They don’t know how to run a business, just punch a time clock (think, people–why would you trust someone like that). Heap is different, it’s self serve, damn near perfect and you can bend it to your will.

The first part of the last list was to rethink my categories, so I’ve done so here. This is probably too many, but it’s consolodated from about 40 ID/Statuses from ACT. I’ll keep banging on this list.

Heap Categories/Tags:

VIPs Anyone that’s important and rare: No more than 50 people can have this category at any given time, and it’s meant to be the 50 people most important to my business. They can be anything: vendors, service providers anything. This tag is for other people to know that these folks get whatever we can do for them. A VIP vendor is someone that has my back.
Prospects: People that may buy something and are in the category of likely to buy at some point some day. This is people that have or haven’t bought from me.
- Never Bought: Someone that’s never bought from me.
- Have Bought: People that have bought something from me.
Big Time: Anyone that’s a megaprospect or hugely good at what they do.
Met/Talked To
Unmet/Never Talked To
Competing Services: Just so we watch it.
Social Media
- Found Me - If someone randomly follows me on Facebook, I get to market to them. They came to me, so it’s all cool.
- I Found. I have to tread carefully here.
- FB-
- LinkedIn
- Twitter (how they got added)
Aweber Opt In: Someone that opted in to AW and became part of a database (scrub against Aweber unsub list before sending mass emails).
Personal: Primary source is personal. Friends and Family.
Refered By Other
Advocate: Whenever someone refers me someone, closed or not, whenever someone has helped.
Prior Bad Acts: So we don’t see it as a big deal when they are brusque. Should be rare that we tag them.
Live Lead: Took action to call on purpose.

Loads of fun.

Big Projects For Organizing My Business:

By chris Filed Under: Start Here

I haven’t really blogged in a while, and it is indeed a bad sign. My wallet is getting fed, and the arrearages that I was in to about everyone from another self inflicted cash crunch are nearly over. I was in kind of a funk over that stuff, and I’m now more or less out, and on neutral footing.

What I was doing was building a machine, or series of machines to sell my stuff. Nothing is perfect yet, but the process is sort of coherent now. Units vs. volume is a big different way to sell things. Next steps? We got your next steps.

Create categories For Heap
Create Marketing Calendar
- Blogs
- Guest Posts
- Push/Outbound
- PPC
- Testing
- Free Stuff
Create daily schedule (roughly)
Create standards for all products
Create Testing Protocols
- A/B
- Multivariate
Create improvement Plan for everything I do.
Create content plan
- Free
- Paid
Create Flat Rate Web Jobs goals
- PR4
- Best Brand synonymous with “Internet Marketing For Real Businesses”
Create Follow Up Sequences for Heap
- How leads come in
- Find what sequences will be needed.
Create Landing Pages & Copy
Create customer service Plans

Freelancer Sales Vid: What to do W Random Facebook Adds

By chris Filed Under: miscellany

Just something I decided to do with the hordes of people that add me.

I wouldn’t do it if I added them.

What I Sell For A Living

By chris Filed Under: Business Building

There are lots of fit and finish details to clean up all around everything that I do. This is to be expected. But, I’m winnowing down the list of things to sell…things that help small businesses.

#1: I have to get off the $2,000 “non productized” project crack pipe. I sell a lot of $2,000 projects by bundling my services in such a way that it’s a no brainer. That, and the promises of extra stuff are killing me because those things take Chris-bandwidth, not just bandwidth in general.

#2: I have to open channels for all the things that I routinely sell. Right now, the cusotmer experience is often subject to the caprices of my moods, and I can do BETTER without doing more work. I want the customer experience to be uniformly superior.I It has yet to be.

#3. Here’s what I’m selling nowadays. Sites are going up in roughly the order that you see, then I will go through and add all the fit and finish I need en masse.

Small Business Blogs: $797
Personal Broadcast Tower: $497
Search Engine Superfuel: $475
Home Page Sales Machine: $897
Video Customer Finder: $797
Online Treasure Map: $899
Email Customer Harvester: $599

And #4: This is what a Product Is & When It’s “Done” this keeps me moving and knowing when stuff is done:

1. Clear Definition to customer in Flat Rate

2. Bullet Points

3. Intake Process:

a. Welcome and profuse thanks

b. Give something free and unexpected

c. Tell what happens next and when

d. Tell how to get help.

e. Reassure that right choice was made

f. “As Promised” reminders

g. Delivery of product

h. Internal Survey.

i. Survey

j. 30 Day Call

k. 90 Day Call

4. Sales Letter

5. Sales Video

6. 3 Video Testimonials From People That Don’t Appear Elsewhere.

7. Opt IN/Autoresponder List

8. Stand alone website

9. Bible

10. Paypal Product ID/DAP ID

11. Video Based Training

12. Feedback loop for us (internal)

So, away we go.

F#@% The Next Level: If You Like It, Put a Zero On It!

By chris Filed Under: Achieving Goals, Start Here

I hear people talking about “getting to the next level,” or “taking it to the next level.” I hear this all the time, on Twitter, on line and everywhere else.

But what does that even mean? What does “the next level” mean for most people, who–if they are like me–are walking a razor thin edge between prosperity and bankruptcy. What’s the “next level” then? What is the next level for someone who’s working like a dog and barely paying the bills?

What I’m really asking, is this: the “next level” implies incremental improvement. And it’s limiting. It compares you not with what you could be but with what you are. Yes, it allows for improvement. But if you only think in terms of where you’ve been, you don’t see how rich things can be, how much potential is in us, and what can get done.

So I’m saying it: F#@% the next level. Hard. And without remorse. It’s your problem, and it’s the limiting factor in your life. Being content or complacent with “just a little better,” is the reason that I haven’t become what I am going to become.

The “next level” is self congratulatory. It begets complacency when you look not at what you are about to be but what you have been. I look at my IRS debt–debt that should be gone by now–and I think “man it’s not as bad as it USED to be.”

“I’m not nearly as fat as I used to be.”

“I’m not the asshole I used to be.”

“My customer service doesn’t suck as much as it used to.”

All of this improvement is nice, but it doesn’t get to the right question: are you as good as you can be? Are you holding yourself accountable to the right standard? Are you free to improve as fast as you can?

Or is comparing yourself to yourself limiting you?

If You Like It, Put A Zero On It!

Each quarter this year was about 15% better than the last quarter for me. My business grew solidly–in fact monthly revenue is double what it was last year. I became more diverse, doing product sales (http://flatratewebjobs.com/blog-setup) as well as some consulting, as well as everything else.

Because I was getting myself out of debt and losing a few pounds (mostly in the 1st quarter), I was proud of what I was doing. Patting myself on the back. Giving myself an “attaboy”.

But I was blind and stupid and limiting myself by what I’ve already done. By only imagining being *slightly* better, I didn’t have a high enough standard.

I had–at best–shoddy customer service.

I had half hearted sales and marketing efforts because at some level I wasn’t happy with my customer experience.

Getting “one level” better at any of this would still have been bad. Part of it was the mindf@#% that comes with being in debt, and seriously, more of my mental capacity is free now that I don’t constantly think and rethink how I can pay my bills. But “one level better” would limit me to still being BAD at the things that I’m bad at. Didn’t help. Being 10x better at customer service, at accounting and other things were needed for me to be “good”.

Now, I know, I know Marcus Buckingham and play to your strengths and all that s#!%. I know, that’s where you’re supposed to go. And I agree. But, it doesn’t excuse you from acquiring baseline competence in all aspects of business, does it?

No, it doesn’t. I don’t have to be a master accountant, but baseline competence is the ticket to enter any business world.

It’s time to make everything 10x better. It’s time to start from scratch.

How good could something you make be? What goal would be ideal? Just “making a living,” or representing a standard of excellence and service so high that the world rushes to pay you?

Ten times better. Ten times more revenue. Ten times better service.

That opens the mind up a little bit. How can I get ten times better than I am to day. How Do I put a zero on it?

How do I go from the 90th to 99th percentile.

How do I go from the 99th to the 99.9th?

How do I be the best in the world?

I’m gonna focus on that in the next few posts.

How I will “put a zero on it.” on everything I do. Go from “meh” to “how do I hire that guy?”

Better, just flat better, at everything.

Express Yourself in Your Buiness: ProActive Customer Service

By chris Filed Under: Business Building

Right now, I know that I’m on the cusp of getting huge. I’ve spent this year building my skills in deliberate anonymity. I’ve worked hard to get good and to help. I’ve dug myself 2/3 of the way out of the IRS hellhole that I put myself in in my 20′s. I’ve lost 25# so far, with another 10-15# to go this year

One of the things that changed what I was able to do was the notion that I saw my business as an expression of myself, and my standards. Not just a job I did for other people, but really and truly a way to impart my will on the world. This is how a business should be run. This is what should happen. My addiction to transactions hasn’t subsided all at once, but the big pieces are in place.

I will have a complete expression of what I can do, how I think business should be run and how my customers should be treated very soon. Working with a growing and excellent web team has meant so much to me. I’ve got coverage for what I’m weak at and the things that I did wrong are done right. The velocity of the business I can handle now has increased by an order of magnitude, at least.

I couldn’t be more happy about the direction I’m in.

It’s me. Every detail of what I’m crafting is planned out. I’ve created a 11 step customer experience that I’m expressing using Digital Access Pass. DAP has been wonderful–a membership site software experience that we can jury rig into a CRM. We’re going to refine this process as time goes by.

On Delivery: Welcome and Thank Them. . An instant thanks with a link to a video page celebrating and telling them where to get help if they need it.
On Delivery: Give something away for free that’s related, instantly. Lots of us content producers have stuff that’s half done that is valuable but hasn’t been finished. Finish it, put a bow on it, and then give it to the ppl. that buy from us FOR FREE. Tell ‘em it’s an EXTRA, and don’ advertise it on the outside. They will LOVE the fact that they are getting more than they asked for.
On Delivery: Tell ‘em What Happens Next & When It Happens: Predictability is paramount in this business. We tell people what happens next, and how many hours or days away that is, and they don’t get anxious and wonder “where’s my deal.” They are ALWAYS aware of the next step and the deadline for it.
On Delivery: Tell ‘em how to get help & access all support: Stuff goes wrong, telling people how to get problems solved is vital so customers feel in charge. Have an ‘emergency’ channel (private cell phone) along with a “regular” channel.
1 Day Out: Reassure that they made the right choice and share process stories and testimonials. This part of the equation is hard. But, people get buyer’s remorse. Within a day, share some more testimonials and case study notes.
In Process: “As Promised” attached to EVERY Message. We deliver blogs and do some light “consulting” and implementation. We are now telling people that we’re keeping our promises. It does 2 things: holds us accountable to keeping FUTURE promises.
Obsess over On Time Delivery: This is where I personally was weakest. The people I delivered on time left me testimonials. The people that didn’t were unhappy, (rightly so). Having people backing me up has been killer.
After Delivery INTERNAL Survey: Look for places to improve and streamline. Are there steps that we can remove? Are there redundancies? Can we proactively improve the experience for customers?
10 days out: Have a Survey That You SEnd: I am held accountable now because I have customer service survey. You can make one in Google Docs, or you can use Cforms. I myself want to learn how I can improve, get really good. I want to raise the bar myself as fast as possible.
30 day call: A phone call 30 days out to make sure everything is good and everything has been delivered is in my process. Not to drum up more business (but that never hurts), really to take care of and honor people.
90 Day Call: Doing a call 90 days after the fact is the next important thing. Do this, and you’ll be happy.

Bottom line is this: my business represents who I am and the standards I uphold. When I was a mess, it was a mess. Now that I’m hustling like hell to make everything I touch uh-mazing, the business is improving rapidly. I will be stopping to “productize” everything I do before I sell it.

What follows is one of my favorite songs.

My Goals Were Too Low

By chris Filed Under: Achieving Goals, Business Building

It was utterly crippling and incapacitating having IRS issues. Having a staggering-debt-as-big-as-a-house that I carried with me crushed me. Kept me selling real estate even though I hated it, and put me in a box doing things I never really wanted to be doing.

It also kept me from thinking straight, and made me set my sights too low. I was worried about this week, this day, paying my way out of the debt…it made me focus on me, and me and me. Not what I can build, make and e.

I was thinking too much about how the hell can I pay these brutal assholes off. Not enough about how I can build a business. And when you’re interacting with people, and the teeth of the hyrda are upon you…

…and you’re thinking only about how you need to shovel $1200 into the gaping maw of the 3rd head…this week…you become limited in what you can do. You think not about them but about you. I’ve been shoveling money at this problem for 20 months, and until about January, I was blind to any “future” i was just trying to survive. All I could see was right now. (I even called my company Right Right Now, instead of something sensible.)

Everything then was about me, right now, paying my bills. And through hard work, late nights & early mornings, I got a handle on the debt. Six figures became 5, and it’s now down to about $20k. Hard work made that happen, and moving into a tiny hovel despite the fact that my family was growing.

Now that it’s not insurmountable anymore, now that I can see the end of the debt, having cut down 4/5ths of it, and having learned to prosper, I’m seeing what I can build and do. I’m starting to think big again.

…the last time I “thought big” I was 27 and in Real Estate. I was starting to separate from the crowd (For those that don’t know, even in BOOM TIMES, 80% of Realtors failed, so that’s not saying much). I was about to be really big…but I didn’t care. “Lady, it’s the damned living room, you either like it or you don’t, I’m not gonna sell it to you…” I hated that profession, I see its need and some of its value.

Debt Crushes Big Thoughts

Paying debt crushes big dreams. Being chained to it, even a little, hurts. I’ve had a cash crunch mindset because of this thing since I got really serious about paying it off last year. My dreams and flickerthougths came back a little bit at a time. Not all at once. As the debt stopped dictating everything, I started daring to dream a little bit more.

And now? The debt isn’t gone, but I realized that I was thinking small…too small. This week instead of what I can contribute.

So, I’m deliberately thinking bigger.

Instead of survival, contribution, buidling things that help.

Some kind of Maslow hierarchy at work.

Debt is Bondage.

When you’re in the throes of IRS drama and all you can afford is a well intentioned but cut rate lawyer, it consumes thoughts. “How do I get the $X to pay Y by Z” is 60 or more percent of your thought…and that’s not a way to live. That’s a way to die a rapid death, to descend into a horrific existance. My goals weren’t anything other than reptilian survival. Now?

I want to make it so that EVERYONE has the tools and knowledge to serve others by connecting online. I want to make EVERY small business have intelligent inbound marketing.

And I want to do more.