What Happens When You Shift Focus to Your Customers?
Something I regularly hear from friends and clients is that they opened their small business because they either wanted to be their own boss, take charge of their destiny with something they’re passionate about or even find a more flexible work schedule. The one common denominator here is “me, myself and I.” But, what about your customers and their needs?
June has arrived which means summer is finally here. This time of year means longer days, warmer nights, and the start of summer vacation! People are out and about more often and for longer stretches of time. This may be why most small businesses see summer as the busiest season of the year.
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Since 2011, I've been offering email marketing strategies to speakers, Authors and professionals in the Toronto area. In that time, I've helped my clients get the results they need to see their business grow. And I'd like to do the same for you.
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Contact me today, and we'll get started on growing your business together!
In life—and especially as an entrepreneur—one of the most valuable lessons that can be learned is that we all have superpowers.
What we mean by that is that each one of us has certain things we’re exceptionally good at and have endless energy for—but too often we disregard them and get caught up in the idea that we need to be good at everything.
Take it from an entrepreneur who learned firsthand that trying to be good at everything only gets you to average. Joel Zadak explains that for him one of the biggest benefits of Strategic Coach has been getting clear on what he’s really, really good at and what he’s not.
Your Unique Ability is your superpower.
“What I love about Strategic Coach,” he says, “is this concept of identifying your superpower and then delegating all your other responsibilities that you don’t like doing so you can maximize your effectiveness and productivity.”
Joel’s journey to finding his superpower is what we call discovering your Unique Ability. It’s about finding the activities you love to do and do best, and building your life and business around those.
As Joel says, “I think a lot of us have this idea that we need to be good at everything. And here’s the truth: It’s not possible to be good at everything. It’s possible to be good at a lot of things. It’s possible to be good at one or two things. But I think that when you understand you have a superpower and spend more time developing that superpower, you’re going to be far more satisfied.” Here’s the truth: It’s not possible to be good at everything. Click To Tweet
Your greatest opportunity for success comes from strengthening your own areas of natural talent. Focusing on these provides your clearest path to extraordinary results. This type of success doesn’t come by managing and giving extra attention to your weaknesses; that just leaves room for frustration and feelings of failure.
“It’s realizing that Michael Jordan loves being evaluated on his basketball skills, but I’m sure he hates being evaluated on his gambling or business skills,” says Joel.
Strive for better than “average.”
Joel brings attention to another story that’s common in entertainment. “I talk to a lot of people about the movie Rudy. There’s this guy, he’s a water boy, and he wants to play for the Notre Dame football team. He works really hard, goes to all the practices, and then he reaches the pinnacle when he’s put in the last couple plays of a game that’s already won.
“I always think to myself, what if Rudy was really good at science and biology? What if instead of spending all that time on the football field, he was in the lab instead? Rudy could have cured cancer. But he spent all this time on football, and he probably graduated and never played again,” explains Joel.
So why do we put so much pressure on ourselves to become good at the things that don’t come naturally to us? It’s important to try new things and understand the different parts to a process, but it doesn’t mean we need to be involved in all of them.
Finding success and catapulting yourself to new levels is never found when playing to your weaknesses. It comes through the awareness of where you excel, and then challenging yourself to use those strengths to reach extraordinary heights.
Entrepreneurs, especially, think they should be able to handle everything in their business. If you’re beating yourself up for not being good at something, look for the person who is solid in that area so you can delegate to them and focus on building your superpower instead.
Much has been written lately about the phone becoming an obsolete communication tool. Some experts claim that texting, social media, and email make talking on the phone unnecessary. For many millennials, the thought of speaking to someone on the phone can bring on bouts of anxiety. But the fact is that the telephone allows us, as a species, to communicate in our most natural form. So before you start typing that next text, check out these five reasons to not give up on the telephone.
More efficiency, more influence. From a quick one word answer to detailed explanations, speaking in real time on the phone allows for the most rapid exchange of information. This is because we speak and listen faster than type or read. And this allows us the ability to let the conversation naturally flow or influence the direction and tone.
You can read emotions. When a response to news is met with an “OK” or an emoji, it can be interpreted in different ways. Is the person happy, angry, indifferent, or just being polite? When sharing news on the phone, you will receive the most emotionally honest response. Their tone of voice, pauses, inflections and choice of words will tell you way more about how they feel than could ever be shared in a text.
Talking is the great equalizer. Anyone who’s received a text that went CU@8HAGD (See you at 8. Have a great day), knows even a simple text chat can be a confusing experience. Add to that any cultural or language differences and things can get pretty confusing. Speaking on the phone or in person allows for the natural exchange of dialogue and easy clarification of slang and technical terms.
You can multitask. With your head down and two thumbs typing away, you can only accomplish so much. Tasks as simple as eating or walking can become challenging or even dangerous. Talking on the phone leaves both hands free and the ability to look straight ahead, allowing for easy multitasking such as taking notes, driving (with a hands free device), or just crossing the street.
Improves both business and social skills. The ability to build rapport, convey ideas, influence opinions, and understand others is something everyone should possess regardless of profession or age. Choosing to only use certain technology to communicate only weakens these skills. Being able to effectively communicate in person and across all forms of technology will result in building the greatest number of personal and professional relationships.
Marc is an internationally recognized thought leader in the fields of marketing and customer experience. He works with companies that understand the importance of creating exceptional customer experiences that cultivate relationships and build loyalty.
Marc has consulted and provided marketing services for some of the world’s most respected organizations and has also spoken on stages from Toronto to Tehran and from Montreal to Miami.
It was amazing experience to be a mentor at the 2018 Speed Mentoring Marathon.
Deborah Swartz, Corporate Citizenship Lead at Accenture Canada.
Bennett Olegasegram, Corporate Service Manager at J.P Morgan;
Awesome Mentor's
amazing mentee's
Jim Pagiamtzis and Frances HO
Bennett Olegasegram, Corporate Service Manager at J.P Morgan; Allison Pond, President and CEO at ACCES Employment and Deborah Swartz, Corporate Citizenship Lead at Accenture Canada.
