Focus Like a Laser Beam: Lisa Haneberg

My friend and fellow blogger Lisa Haneberg (photo below) has just published her latest book. Already a widely read and critically acclaimed business book author, Lisa's most recent installment in the literary world, is receiving many postive reviews. While I haven't read the book as yet, I know Lisa's information and advice are very sound.

The book is titled Focus Like a Laser Beam: 10 Ways to do What Matters Most



Lisa has posted the book's Table of Contents on her blog:

Foreword – Keith Ferrazi
Introduction
Section 1: Excite and Energize
Chapter 1: Know and Feel the Power of Laser Focus
Chapter 2: Get Intimate with Your Employees
Chapter 3: Have Fun and Be Fun
Chapter 4: Relax to Energize
Section 2: Tune Your Dialogue
Chapter 5: Turn Meetings into Focus Sessions
Chapter 6: Invite a Challenge
Chapter 7: Huddle
Section 3: Zoom In
Chapter 8: Stop Multitasking, Start Chunking
Chapter 9: Do One Great Thing
Chapter 10: Let Go
Chapter 11: Conclusion
References
Index

In the past, Lisa Haneberg (pictured left) has provided me with valuable assistance and advice on projects. Her information is so useful and powerful that I apply many of her business principles to all of my ventures. Lisa's books always display that same high level of expertise and professionalism and I expect this newest volume to be another winner as well.

Many of you know Lisa from her must read business wisdom, creative thinking, and advice blog known as Management Craft. Her posts have a way of stimulating new ideas and helping to kick start the creative process. Lisa's unique approach to business and management is always refreshing as well as informative.

Lisa's newest book, The book is titled Focus Like a Laser Beam: 10 Ways to do What Matters Most, is now available for pre-order.

Tags: Lisa Haneberg, Focus Like a Laser Beam, business books, published authors.

Contrarian thinking: Don't follow the herd

People tend to follow the crowd. From fear of being left behind in business and social circles, many business people follow the latest management fads. They blindly chase the latest self-proclaimed guru endorsed, flavour of the month business concept. Not taking into consideration what's best for their own companies, otherwise astute executives run with the herd. All too often, they wind up getting trampled.

Intead of chasing fads, it's better to march to your own business beat. Think like a contrarian. You know the type. When others are rushing to buy, they are selling. At moments of panic and rushed selling, our contrarian friend is busily buying, and often at greatly reduced bargain prices. While contrarian tendencies are obvious in the financial and investment communities, they are more difficult to discern in the everyday world of entrepreneurship and independent business. Still, the contrarians are out there, and more often than not, their companies are thriving.

The image many people have of the contrarian is a gruff, crotchety, almost Ebenezer Scrooge type individual. While there might be a few individuals will resemble that caricature, more often than not, the person appears more like a typical business owner. They are far from ordinary in their thinking, however. Always cautious of the latest mainstream group think ideas, these rugged individualists prefer to trust their own judgement, experience, and their hard financial and marketing data.



You don't think you want to be contrarian?

Think about this idea for a moment. When following the crowd, you are always behind, by definition. It's impossible to become an industry leader when travelling in the competition's dust. Fad followers are already several steps behind.

Think about it this way. When everyone is competing for the same market, and very often with virtually identical products and services, entire market segments are left almost untouched. A contrarian would happily find and fill those profitable business niches.

When finding your own way on the entrepreneurial journey, advice will be offered from all quarters. Sometimes the advice is sound and helpful. All too often, the loudest voices are simply critical and destroy your confidence. Instead of providing support, they prefer to subject the listener to negativity. The word can't is heard constantly. Rather than fight the naysayers, many business people take what appears to be the safe and popular route. In many cases, what looks like the path of least resistance, is the fast track to business failure.



Should you decide to become a contrarian, it's essential that your business maintain solid business and financial records. Follow your marketing and advertising through careful tracking mechanisms. It's impossible to make sound business decisions if you don't have dependable and accurate numbers as your guide. After all, when you make a decision that flies in the face of conventional wisdom, it's crucial to have the data to back it up.

Contrarian business people are often strong believers in creativity and brainstorming new ideas. Getting members of your staff together, from many different departments, will provide fresh and unique insights into new products, services, and customer relations. Staff input can also alert the owner or manager to potential signs of trouble. Don't surround yourself with yes people. Give everyone the opportunity to express their opinion freely and openly at your creativity and idea seeking sessions. In the end, however, the final decision as to the course of action, rests with the business owner or top executive.

Become a contrarian, and zig when everyone else is zagging.

Your business success could depend on it.

Tags: contrarian thinking, creativity, management fads, brainstorming ideas.

Business leadership: Crisis management

Daily frustration is something all business people must learn to live with as part of the price of entrepreneurship. Problems arise everywhere in a company's day to day operations despite the best efforts of everyone to prevent them. From items not delivered on time to banking errors to staff personal emergencies, small fires appear that require a prompt extinguishing.

Some business people have great difficulty working through these minor daily setbacks. Many times, they become frustrated and angry in response to the problems. All too often, the result is lashing out at customers, clients, and staff. Instead of solving the difficulty, anger escalates the situation even more. A small snag can quickly morph into a major catastrophe.

Keeping one's head in time of crisis is a sign of good company leadership. A person who can control those dangerous emotions of anger, jealousy, and frustration is a powerful asset to any business. Instead of responding with shouts, screams, and throwing objects through windows, the responsible person sets a calming example. Rather than yelling and raving at everyone and everything, a level tone of voice seeking a solution, will work wonders. The staff will understand that the minor difficulty can be overcome with a little thought, creativity, and a bit of work.

Instead of escalation of the problem into a full blown disaster, creative problem solving can provide several positive results.

1. The immediate problem is solved and no immediate damage results.

2. By not letting the situation get out of control, long term consequences are avoided.

3. Solutions can be devised that can prevent the same thing taking place in the future.

4. Everyone in the organization learns to work together, and to become a stronger and more cohesive unit, as they face and overcome potential disaster together.



Next time your business finds itself faced with an unexpected difficult hurdle to jump, don't lose your head. Instead of yelling at everyone, remain calm and work the problem. By keeping the matter contained, and your emotions in check, you will become an even more respected member of your business team.

It's better to be seen as a problem solver, in times of crisis, than a ranter and raver. True leadership begins inside with your own self control. Your calm will rub off on everyone else involved in the crisis management team. As a result, the small concern is removed, and the business can return to normal.

Staying calm, and keeping a steady hand on the helm, helps your company to sail smoothly through troubled waters.

Tags: business leadership, crisis management, problem solving, creativity.

Business problems: Be prepared for change

There are few things that can shatter a person's view of the world like the discovery that all that was thought to be true no longer holds. To find out that everything one knows is wrong can be devastating news for many people. It doesn't have to be that way.

Many business people are faced with changing market conditions, often brought on by circumstances beyond their control. Suddenly like a being hit by a bolt of lightning, what worked in the past will now lead to failure. The ebb and flow of business cycles and changing tastes will often require a complete revamping of a business plan. In the twinkling of an eye, everything you know is wrong.

The change doesn't have to be as dramatic as waking up in 1929 with the onset of the Great Depression of the 1930s. It can be more subtle and sneak up on you. For example, importers and exporters have concerns with changes in exchange rates; as well as the political stability of their offshore business associates. Overnight, a profitable business plan can transform into a money losing nightmare. The need to change your thinking in a hurry is paramount.



I am in a profession where knowledge can become obsolete at best, and entirely wrong at worst. Search engine optimization is based on educated guesses as to the requirements of the various search engines. Google can and does change its search algorithm overnight. The way it calculates the search engine rankings can turn proper SEO actions one day into disasters the next. In SEO, a person has to always be prepared to admit that carefully learned concepts can suddenly be wrong.

With any business, the ability to change and adapt to various market conditions will lead to succcess. Whether the times are good or bad, the flexible person will do well. Simply clinging to what was the correct business formula in one era, and expecting it to work in all times, leads to financial ruin. Constantly monitoring business trends and adapting your business and marketing plans to the changing conditions is a better approach.

We've all met or even worked for business people who believed they held the answers to every business issue or problem. We've also seen many of those same business owners fail during an economic downturn or a major change in their industry. Overnight, everything they were sure they know was wrong. In fact, what they thought was right was often precisely the wrong course of action. Refusing to listen to others, and accepting new and innovative ideas, can cost a person their company.



Accepting that one is not infallible and the fount of all wisdom is the most important first step. Often pride or ego prevents that harsh acceptance of reality. As a result, the business suffers some severe setbacks when the old ways aren't effective any longer. As they say about pride, it goeth before a fall.

Instead of letting selfish personal vanity get in the way of your success, step back and consider how the business is being operated at present. Consider the creativity and new ideas offered by your staff, your clients and customers, and even your competitors. The periodic reassessment of current business practice, and possible changes in the business climate, is a healthy exercise for any business. It's especially important when change is taking place all around you.

Your very business survival depends on keeping an open mind on every business issue.

Be prepared to admit that everything you know is wrong. It could be the first step toward making your business cash flow turn out right.

Tags: management ideas, economy, SEO, business planning.

Carnival of the Vanities 194 at Punny Money

The 194^th edition of the longest running internet blog carnival, the well known Carnival of the Vanities appears at Nick Ferris's personal finance blog known as Punny Money.


Carnival of the Vanities is the original collection of blog postings, assembling some of the best and wide ranging bloggers on the internet.

This week's Carnival of the Vanities entries include politics, literature, science, medicine, technology, business, and personal finance.



I have an entry in this week's Carnival of the Vanities as well.

My post is titled "Business advice from Margaret Mead" where I discuss how changing the world can be a global change resulting in the elusive world peace, elimination of hunger and poverty, or saving the environment for future generations. The world can also be as small as your own independent business.



To participate in the Carnival of the Vanities, or any of the other blog carnivals, one of the easiest techniques is to use the all inclusive carnival entry form at The Conservative Cat.





Another participation option is to simply e-mail your entry to the new e-mail address:

cotvmail -at- gmail -dot- com

As I suggest elsewhere, hosting and contributing to the various internet blog carnivals is a great promotional idea for your blog.

Next week's edition of Carnival of the Vanities appears at Greg's music, politics and eclectic blog known as Generic Confusion.

In the meantime, head on over to the Punny Money hosting of Carnival of the Vanities and enjoy the posts on offer.

You will almost certainly be introduced to some great new and interesting blogs.

Tags: Carnival of the Vanities, blogging, carnivals, promotions.

Carnival of the Capitalists at Rethink (IP)

This week sees an intellectual property law approach to the travelling business show, recognized by one and all as Carnival of the Capitalists makes a visit to the team intellectual property legal blog (or blawg, if you prefer) known as Rethink (IP).

This week's edition of Carnival of the Capitalists highlights some of the best bloggers writing on the internet today.

Blogging topics presented include entrepreneurship, management, market trading, internet commerce, marketing, the national and global economies, and technology.

As you would expect from Rethink (IP) there are many discussions of business, marketing, entrepreneurship, and law.

It's always great to read and discover the many high quality blogs out there in the blogosphere.

We don't always get to them all, and this edition of Carnival of the Capitalists has introduced many of us to some brand new ones.



I have an entry in this week's Carnival of the Capitalists as well.

My post is titled "Blogging: The lazy person's way" where I discuss the nagging questions: Are you getting lazy about regular posting to your blog? Are you feeling that it's just too time consuming to find topics and then have to develop them into worthwhile ideas? Do you think your time could be better utilized in some other manner than writing yet another blog post?


If you wish to submit an entry to next week's, or any Carnival of the Capitalists edition, e-mail your entries to the new address:

cotcmail -at- gmail -dot- com

You can always use the handy entry form at Gongol.com where all you have to do is fill in the blanks. Talk about making it easy to be included!

Another brand new form for sending entries to all of the internet carnvivals is provided by The Conservative Cat. This is a great one stop entry drop, for all your blog post entries, for every blog carnival.

Note as well that Carnival of the Capitalists. has a new URL at http://thecotc.com/. Be sure to update your links and bookmarks.



If you are searching for new and exciting ways to expand your blog's readership, you should seriously consider sending an entry to Carnival of the Capitalists.

Merely being included in the company, of the first rate regular Carnival of the Capitalists contributors, will enhance the reputation of your blog.

The extra visitors sent to your blog won't hurt either!

The growth and staying power, of Carnival of the Capitalists, is beginning to catch the attention of people outside the blogging community. Each hosting, brings a fresh assortment of new readers, to the various blogs involved.

The visitors aren't only bloggers anymore.

Readership is expanding to include the mainstream media, various government and private organizations, many businesses, and other interested people from beyond the blogging community.

Many people are introduced to some tremendous blogs that they might otherwise have missed.

Next week's Carnival of the Capitalists will be at Mike's personal finance and investment blog known as Value Investing, and a Few Cigar Butts.

In two weeks time, Carnival of the Capitalists will be hosted right here at Blog Business World.

In the meantime, click that mouse over to the Rethink (IP) hosting of Carnival of the Capitalists.

If the great posted entries don't convince you to click, or the possibility of finding some brand new blogs to read doesn't do it, then Carnival of the Capitalists certainly will offer some ideas on the intellectual property of your business. (groan)

Tags: carnivals, capitalism, business, marketing.

Business advice from Margaret Mead

Quotations are widely used by writers, speakers, business people, and the average person on the street. Everyone from William Shakespeare to Mark Twain to The Simpsons find their words respoken as wisdom. In fact, quotations are thrown around so often that no one even takes time to assess the meaning and impact of the famous person's statement.

After an introduction like that, you just know that I'm going to quote some well known individual as well. Already, you are bracing yourself for some profound words from the ages. Well, you're right. I want to discuss at least one quotation and the implication of the words for your business and its future. This will be part one of an occasional series on quotations by various people from different walks of life. Some will be business people and others will be from men and women from other backgrounds and specialties.

Let's start with a few ideas from the well known anthropologist Margaret Mead (pictured at top).

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

Margaret Mead

Changing the world can be a global change resulting in the elusive world peace, elimination of hunger and poverty, or saving the environment for future generations. The world can also be as small as your own independent business. After all, you do a have the requisite "small group of thoughtful people" at your disposal. All you have to do is put their ideas and energy to work for you and your company.

For many business owners, asking for ideas and guidance from employees is a very difficult decision to make. In fact, it may be the hardest choice facing an entrepreneur of a growing company. It's difficult enough for a person, who bootstrapped the business from nothing to its current success, to even delegate day to day operations. It's another level of magnitude higher for the owner to seek new ideas from the staff.

The need to let go and work on the business instead of in the business is a huge step for an entrepreneur. While it might not be Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong on the Moon large, it is necessary to grow the business. Instead of handling day to day tasks, the owner's time and energy are better employed at increasing the overall business revenue and profits.

The way to success is to let your employees help you to change your world. After all, when you hired the staff members, their talent and skill were needed in the organization. From previous positions with other companies, and from working at your place of business, your employees possess a cornucopia of valuable experience. Why not put that experience to work for you.

At the same time, people have ideas to improve the business and more often than not, they are ideas that can be very profitable to the company. The creativity can be put to work at cutting costs, improving operational efficiency, marketing, customer service, and business expansion. Those are just for starters as many more creative solutions to long standing problems can be developed by the people who best know the business. The company's people are its most powerful resource.

When people develop new ideas, and share in their development, they take ownership of those plans. They set the goals, and as a result, they have the personal emotional investment to achieve them. People want to succeed if they are given a chance to display their talent and effort. They will make the committment to success.

That's a small group of dedicated people changing the world.

Thanks to Margaret Mead for that powerful business idea.

Tags: quotations, Margaret Mead, Neil Armstrong, business creativity.

Birthdays: Make them special

Today is my birthday. Yes, it's that time of the year again.

Of course, my personal birthday is not to be confused with the October birthday (or should I say blogiversary) of this blog.

Anyway.

All gifts of links, cards, and merchandise are cheerfully accepted. :-)

Cash is good too! :-)

But seriously...

Thanks to the many forums where I am a member for their automated birthday greetings. It's a great idea. When members register, the forum asks for the date of birth. Usually, only the day and month are required for privacy.

When the member's special day arrives, an automatic Happy Birthday message is sent to the member's e-mail.



The recipient is usually pleased to receive the greeting as a nice gesture.

I thought it was a nice touch, and a great idea for online marketers to consider adding to their sites. When your clients, friends, fellow bloggers, and everyone else that you know have birthdays, an online card can be sent automatically to their e-mail address.

Anything that adds a personal touch to a business, or to a business blog, is a good idea and worthy of consideration. A special birthday card would certainly qualify for the personal touch. It's something your online or offline business should adopt as a new relationship building policy. It's always great to brighten someone's day, and to make it special.

Have a great day everyone.

I am thinking of enjoying some cake and ice cream myself.

Tags: birthday, greeting cards, online business, marketing.

Blogging: The lazy person's way

Are you getting lazy about regular posting to your blog? Are you feeling that it's just too time consuming to find topics and then have to develop them into worthwhile ideas? Do you think your time could be better utilized in some other manner than writing yet another blog post?

That sense of blog burnout has happened to everyone from time to time. You even can sense the symptoms. Instead of posting to your own blog, you read every blog on your links directory; and then onto every new blog's links you can find; plus everything appearing on your entire blog RSS feed reader besides.

Perhaps, you had a better idea of how to spend your time. Taking a tour of the offline world, and enjoying the great outdoors, beats blogging hands down. The wonders of nature trump almost everything blog related. Blogs are fine in their place, but they are not the end goal of any business or hobby. They are simply a means to an end. A blog is merely a tool.

That's right. A blog is just another tool in your repetoire. Like a hammer or saw or a pipe wrench, a blog has its uses. A blog also has its limitations. While a blog can help establish and develop long term business and personal relationships with others, the blog can just as easily deliver less than expected results. Failed blogs result from many factors. One of those factors is placing lofty expectations on the blog as if it were some mythical magic bullet. Instead of building relationships, the blog can often create posting stress and blog burnout.



That's why it's important to take time to smell the proverbial roses.

It's not a bad thing to be lazy about your blogging. Don't worry about any sense of guilt or some misplaced Puritan work ethic. Those concepts, whether outmoded or not, have absolutely nothing to do with maintaining a successful blog. Hard work and dedication will build a better blog, but they won't create the perfect one.

A good blog post requires some degree of care. A good blog posting can add many more new visitors to your blog. Other people will link to it. Your regular readers will e-mail a link to their friends and family. The word of mouth, or should we say word of keyboard, will provide much of the viral marketing your blog requires. The news will spread even while you sleep. I knew you would like that part.

A bad blog posting can send your regular visitors to another blog in a hurry. New traffic will simply pass on through your stop on the information super highway. In other words, it's better to have no post appear on your blog than an inferior one. Bad posts sink blogs.



Instead of being concerned about being lazy, and worried about not posting, use the time for more important things. Family and friends are infinitely more valuable than a slapped together post about...well...not much; or less.

Missing days of posting can be refreshing. A short break can help to refocus the mind on what your blog is truly all about. Take those days off to redevelop some new goals for your blog, as well as a workable plan to achieve them. Keeping your blog on topic is helpful, for those regular readers, who turn to your blog for specific information.

After all that talk about being lazy, I think I'll go commune with nature. The sky is blue, and the grass is green. Birds are singing filling the air with music.

After my sojourn in the great outdoors, and some time weeding the garden, I'll probably take a nap.

What could better display the lazy person's style of blogging than that!

Tags: ideas, blogging, posting, viral marketing.

Blogger quests: King Arthur

King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are familiar stories to almost everyone. From Sir Lancelot and Lady Guineviere, to Sir Galahad and the Quest for the Holy Grail, the stories of brave and selfless Knights and fair Ladies, Merlin the Magician, and daring deeds, the stories of Camelot are timeless. The tales even have lessons for bloggers, and for helping others succeed.

The Knights of King Arthur's Round Table worked as equals. Seated around the table, no knight was superior to another. They all worked together for the common good, and for benefit of others dwelling in and around Camelot. When a Knight saw an injustice done, it was his solemn vow to right the wrong. It was also the Knight's duty to help others when a request was made for assistance. As bloggers, we can learn much from these Knights of old.

Blogging helps to build connections with others, including other bloggers. When a blogger needs our help, it should be our pledge to assist the person, even if only in a modest manner. Bloggers often need advice, or aid with a business or personal problem. By sharing the connecting power of blogs, any blogger has an entire network of potential helpers upon which to draw. At some other moment, the previously assisting blogger might need the favour returned as well. As with the Knights of the Round Table, it is a mutual help society.



I attempt to provide assistance to at least one person every day. That is my personal pledge. While I don't always succeed in achieving that simple goal, occasionally, I exceeed it several times over. While my small contribution to helping others achieve success is quite small in the grand scheme of things, the blogosphere itself is very large. By the sheer power of numbers, one good deed per week from each and every blogger, can literally change the world.

Bloggers helping bloggers might not be the stuff of Arthurian legends, and the deeds of Lancelot, Galahad, and Guineviere may surpass what we do in story and song, but we can make a difference. Changing the world starts with one person at a time. That one person may as well be a blogger. That blogger may as well be you.



Take to heart the lessons of King Arthur and Camelot to assist those in need. Make the committment to help at least one person every week. With your help the spirit of Camelot can live onward. The dragons we slay might not breathe fire, but they are very real problems facing other bloggers, and equally as problematic. Like a dragon of old, difficulties facing today's bloggers must be driven from their kingdoms as well. The need for the quest never dies.

It's written in the old stories that King Arthur is the Once and Future King. An idea like Camelot and the selfless nature of the Round Table is with us always. It was an ideal that lived once, remains alive with us now, and will always be so in the future. Like King Arthur, helping others while asking nothing in return, is an ideal that will never die.

Become a proud and sharing Knight or Lady of the Blogging Round Table and build the glory of the Blogosphere Camelot. Share generously of yourself, and of your wisdom, and help others succeed.

Think of it as your own personal quest.

*This is a reprint of a previous post. I have received so much tremendous positive feedback on this post; and many wonderful requests to republish it. Here is the post in its entirety, unchanged from the original posting, except for the title. In the original form, the post appeared under the title heading of "King Arthur: Quests for bloggers".

Enjoy, and start planning your own personal blogging quest today.

Tags: King Arthur, bloggers help, quest, Knights of the Round Table.