Posts in Tips

Positive or Negative?

Business Coaching Business Consulting Change Management Leadership Meandering Genius Organizational Commitment Strategic Planning Stuff Take A Leap Wednesday Tips

So, are you being positive  through this or are you being negative ?

This morning, I woke up to a really negative post on LinkedIn about people being positive in this crisis.

He was complaining about people “predicting” what business will look like after this is over and how things will change.

His mantra was that this will last a long time and the world will be in ruins, so everyone should stop being positive and predicting the future.

Funny, but isn’t that what he’s doing … predicting the future?

However, his prediction was one of doom and gloom over positivity.

How about you right now? 

16 days ago, we had our first day of over 1K of confirmed cases.

Everyone pretty much started working from home about that same time.

Yesterday, we had our largest number of confirmed cases, but the incubation period is 14 days. So, that’s not a huge surprise.

Look at China. On their worst day, their confirmed cases spiked to over 15K and then significantly dropped off.

Since then they’ve practically eliminated confirmed cases.

I’m going to continue to look to a positive future.

How about you?

#success #incubator #business #coaching #consultants

Contingency Planning

Business Coaching Business Consulting Change Management Innovation Leadership Life Meandering Genius Start-up Saturday Strategic Communication Strategic Planning Tips

How important is disaster and contingency planning for your business … now? 

In 2016, my wife and I opened our horse farm. We also started an equitherapy-for-vets nonprofit.

One of the requirements for accreditation of the nonprofit was to establish contingency plans to mitigate potential risks.

After 21 years in the military and 7 years as a war planner, I fully understood the importance on risk mitigation through disaster and contingency planning.

Even though we’re a small business, we have plans in place for Flooding, Freeze, and Fire. The Flooding and Freeze plans have been used every year since we opened.

We never imagined that Pandemic would be on the list!

However, what we found is that we were able to pull out our plans and were able to quickly pull key aspects of the existing plans to create a quick response to deal with this crisis.

Did your business have any formal contingency plans going into this? Have you ever considered business risks and devised mitigation strategies.

No one could have planned for a Pandemic, except maybe the World Health Organization. However, planning is still quite important.

If you don’t have any contingency planning, what are you going to do about it today?

#success #incubator #business #coaching #consultants

Getting Up To Speed

Business Coaching Business Consulting Innovation Meandering Genius Organizational Commitment Performance Measurement Process Improvement Stuff Success Sunday Tips Travel

How do you quickly become an expert at work? 👨‍🎓🚇 And what does a subway have to do with it?

I’ve been in subways before, in Washington, DC, and in Paris, France. So, I have some experience with them.

However, the subway in New York City definitely provides a different level of understanding and expertise.

I took a little time to study the subway map and to research online how to navigate the subway.

This allowed my wife and I to be able to effectively navigate around town over the last two days. Numerous times, my wife was lost or would have got on the wrong train, but I was confident and got us where we needed to be.

Last night, she commented on my ability to quickly learn the system and get us around easily. The trick, she pointed out, was that I took a little bit of time to learn about the system.

Trust me, there’s no better school than doing something, as there were things I continued to learn riding the subway. But, I knew enough to start and be successful and that helped me learn from there.

How do you quickly get up to speed on something and how does it work?

Any tips or tricks you would care to share?

#success #incubator #business #coaching #consultants
Crosscutter Enterprises
www.crossctr.com

That’s your marketing plan?

Books Business Coaching Meandering Genius Performance Measurement Promotion Tuesday Publishing Speaking Tips

🤔 Are you considering writing a book? 📖 Start with marketing it! 📢

On Facebook, this morning, I saw someone post, “I just published my book, can someone tell me how to market it.”

Too late! ⏰

If you are considering writing a book — I mean it’s a twinkle in your eye — start marketing your book first!

If you wait…your too late!

The first step is to define and hyper-focus on your audience — write the book for them.

Build your social media connections around that audience and develop qualified leads as you write.

Close to final draft, start building excitement with updates, videos, and snippets. Pull pre-release readers to test your book. Send it to someone influential for the Foreword.

Have a pre-release party and make the book available for pre-sale and become a bestseller prior to release.

Have big social fanfare, public service announcements, presentations, and book signings at final publication.

How do I know all this? I did the same as that person in 2012 when I published One Dead Marine, my first book.

#success #incubator #business #coaching #consultants
Crosscutter Enterprises
www.crossctr.com

Success takes time

Business Coaching Business Consulting Meandering Genius Organizational Commitment Performance Measurement Process Improvement Publishing Speaking Start-up Saturday Strategic Communication Strategic Planning Stuff Tips

True Success … for most of us … takes time! 🏅⏰

“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.” Vincent Van Gogh

This is not a brag fest email–just sharing a personal success story. It’s about being consistent and constant, while focusing on things bigger than yourself.

For 30 years, I’ve been building my knowledge, skills, and experiences in business improvement. For 16 of those years, I’ve been following a personal 20-year strategic plan.

Three years ago, I had great conversations with a company that was doing incredible things and was faced with incredible opportunities. Our timing wasn’t right.

However, I followed this company for the past three years, watched their progress, and stayed in touch.

Two months ago, the company reached out — they had been watching me on LinkedIn too. Our conversations three years ago made more sense now — they were ready.

This week, I started working with them on a strategic engagement and it is so incredibly exciting! My 30-years’ experience is coming to bear on a company that truly appreciates me and what I have to offer.

I am looking forward to huge successes with them!

#success #incubator #business #coaching #consultants
Crosscutter Enterprises
www.crossctr.com

What’s going on here?

Blogging Business Coaching Business Consulting Meandering Genius Strategic Communication Stuff Take A Leap Wednesday Tips

⁉️ Why don’t more people employ a content marketing strategy? 🧐🤔

If content marketing is so effective, why doesn’t everyone use it? 🙉🙈🙊

⏰ Time!

🏋️‍♂️ Work!

📜 Knowledge!

Let’s face it…content marketing takes a lot of time, work, and knowledge!

Someone can easily put together a sales AD LinkedIn message in about the same amount of time it takes me to craft this one LinkedIn update.

Then, they can cut and paste this advertisement, sending it to 100s to 1,000s of connections on LinkedIn in the amount of time it takes me to write another couple content pieces.

The AD route was simple. This is why people do it.

Content Marketing requires:

1️⃣ A great deal of time. Providing great content that engages an audience is built over several months of consistent and constant sharing.

2️⃣ A great deal of work. Every week or every day, you’re continuing to build and share valuable content and you’re engaging with your audiences.

3️⃣ A great deal of knowledge. Let’s face it, if you’re going to provide a lot of great value, you need to really know what you’re talking about.

It’s no wonder why so many people choose the quick and easy route over the hard.

#success #incubator #business #coaching #consultants
Crosscutter Enterprises
www.crossctr.com

Connections on Social Media

Blogging Business Coaching Meandering Genius Promotion Tuesday Stuff Tips

🧐 How do you grow your connections 👥 professionally on social media? 🤔

What do you mean, “professionally?”

Not all social media connections are created equal. Aside from friends, family, and coworkers, you should pick and choose wisely when building your network.

Often, we simply start adding connections from the recommendation list the platform provides us. It’s easy, but not the best way.

You want to be connected to people that actively use the social media platform. These are the people that engage on topics that you like to talk about.

Find a person, business page, or group that has a lot of connections, is active on the platform, and is aligned to your train of thought.

Find a post from them with a lot of engagement (Likes and Comments). These people obviously like the same thing you like and they are active on the platform.

These are the people you want to send connection requests to.

Chances are they will also engage with you. And, that’s the kind of professional connections you really want.

How do you connect with the right people on social media?

#success #incubator #business #coaching #consultants
Crosscutter Enterprises
www.crossctr.com

Nobody’s watching your videos!

Blogging Business Coaching Meandering Genius Start-up Saturday Strategic Communication Tips

If you think your videos are being watched … You’re wrong!

I did some analysis on Video Performance on Facebook. Business Pages on Facebook provide a great deal of data on their Insights tab.

Below are the deeper insights of just one video post, viewed by over 250 people. However, I researched several videos from multiple Business Pages and the trend was the same.

Guess what…

The average time someone spends watching your video is between 5 and 8 seconds! You heard me right — SECONDS!

You lose close 50% of your audience a measly 3 seconds into your video!

Are you trying to get your videos below 3 minutes? Try harder! If you’re over 30 seconds, you’re too long!!!

This was very enlightening for me … is it enlightening for you?

In the comments, leave your thoughts and discussion on how we possibly deal with this short attention span trend.

Crosscutter Enterprises
www.crossctr.com

It’s time to smile

Leadership Life Meandering Genius Speaking Stuff Thoughtful Thursday Tips

What’s in a smile? 🙁❓🙂

I never smiled!

In 1988, I entered the Air Force and spent the first 10 years of my 21 as a cop. 👮‍♂️

For about five years, I was unapproachable. There I would be, at an event, crossed arms, dark eyebrows, and a “Don’t you dare talk to me,” look on my face. I never smiled.

In fact, I had taken the Myers-Briggs Type Assessment several times and always came out as a strong Introvert.

I noticed that no one ever talked to me, but could see others that were always approached by others — the life of the party, so to speak.

I made a bold move…I started to smile.

The effect was almost immediate. Not only was I approachable, but now I test as a strong Extrovert.

Do you smile? Are you approachable? Try it…

www.crossctr.com