Inner Game

For the past sixty some days, I've spent a good amount of time on what I like to call the "outer game" stuff, which is the actual how-to portion of making changes in our lives. The goal of 90 Days to Discipline has been to grab hold of ourselves, our minds, bodies, and most importantly, our emotions and get down to business working on the specific actions we know will produce the results we all seek. We have much of this aspect figured out...the "outer game" stuff...the how part, I'd say...or at least enough to get started and be dangerous.

But, the one thing I'm certain of is that a man can have all the answers right in front of him and understand them intellectually, but if he can't get himself to take action and follow through, then it's all in vain. Actually, it's much worse than that...it becomes a curse, because he is now painfully aware of everything he's not doing. That's where the "inner game" stuff comes into play. This is what I'd like to discuss tonight.

Every single morning, I come down to my office, sit down and turn on my computer monitor. My schedule pops up, along with my long-term vision, long-term goals with dates for completion, shorter-term milestones to hit along the way, and my plan to make all of this happen. My plan includes my big goals for this year and describes in great detail how I'll make each one of these a reality this year. This is all great stuff. Hell, it's all right there, leaving absolutely nothing to chance. The only challenge is sometimes I just don't feel like doing any of it. That's when this whole deal can get a little dicey.

So, what is the key to getting ourselves to follow through on the plans we create? I know I don't have all the answers, by any means. But, I'm going to share with you what works for me...most of the time. Nothing works every time, I'll be completely forthcoming. But, this routine I've created(with the help of some kick-ass philosophy and strategy from Tony Robbins) will make it much easier. Here's how it all goes....

First, I awake early...real damn early, like 5:00 am. Just the thought of getting a bunch of hard work in before most of the world gets out of bed gives me a slight edge mentally right off the bat. Then, I take in a full 8 oz glass of clean water, to get the inner parts performing the way they should. From here, I go into a crisp visualization exercise in which I sit down in my office and project myself into a life in which everything I dream of has come true. My business has evolved into a full-time writing, speaking, coaching endeavor that's completely portable, it's hugely profitable, and it's helping millions of people all over the world(I know this may sound a bit egoic, but I refuse to think small...I just won't do it any longer. I'm going HUGE from now on).

My office in my home is huge with dark mahogany custom woodwork, with zero clutter, efficient, clean, elegant. My office is a metaphor for who I've become in my vision - a man who's in complete control over his mind, body, and emotions with laser focus on providing more value to more people than anybody in my business space. My personal income is significant, I'm liquid, and I am confident that I'll never HAVE to do anything anybody tells me ever again. No more dependence on anyone else for my economic needs. I now have complete control over this aspect of my family's existence...and they all respect and love me for this.

My body is light, lean, and explosive. In my mind, I can feel myself step out of bed with ease, because my abs look like they did when I was 17 years old. I can see myself in the mirror, looking absolutely phenomenal. I see myself going through an intense workout in which I'm strong, explosive, and can go and go. When my visualized workout is complete, I shower up and get into my kick-ass Aston Martin DBS Volante and drive up the coast to my office(again, my biz is portable, so I live in a ridiculous place on the beach).

The viz process goes on for a good 15 minutes. I know it probably sounds ridiculous, especially to those of you who really know me, but this is the stuff that drives me. Down deep, I'd love nothing more than to be writing full-time, have my business focused 100% on this "inner game" and "outer game" stuff. This way I will be portable and will live somewhere I love, instead of living just somewhere because my job is here or my family is here or whatever.

The point is that this has become a compelling, white hot obsession for me. So, it's easier for me to pop up out of bed in the morning, while all of my competitors are all tucked in bed in fetal position. Gives me a competitive edge in my head, which is what we all need.

So, after the viz process, I get my butt to the gym. Most of my workouts consist of some cardio and strength training. I run too much right now to build the muscle I'm searching for, in preparation for this race I committed to with my wife. Anyway, I'm usually there for 75-100 minutes.

Then I shower up at home, have breakfast, and get locked in with the plan. This is the short-term, one year strategy. I make sure I understand everything I'm working towards and why...most importantly. The why is the deal. This is much easier having already seen my life "as if" this morning. There's a method to all of this. But, again, I take a good 15 minutes to go through all of the details of the plan and make certain I've committed to doing the right things for the day. Once I'm re-sold on what I'm doing...I do it.

Before I head out, I go through a list of the philosophy I've created and the stuff I've borrowed from other people. This list reminds me of all the empowering beliefs I've built inside of me, the ones that have replaced the fearful beliefs I once held. By the time this exercise is complete, my mental filters are that of an unbelievably insightful and courageous leader in business and life in general. These filters have allowed me to lift myself up out of a life of mediocre results. They now guide my thinking and the decisions I make on a daily basis.

By this time, I am ready for whatever life throws at me. But, think about how hard it must be for somebody who's not fired up about his current station in life, or his job. He is faced with scraping himself out of bed every morning and it's not easy because he isn't even slightly enthused about his gig. This is not a great situation and sadly, I'd say it's the case for a large percentage of our population in this country. But, the question I'd have to ask to this man is..."what is ever going to change if you don't change?". "How can you ever expect to do whatever it is you love if you don't even have the energy or the enthusiasm to do your current responsibilities well?" It's crazy to think any of this is going to change.

My suggestion to a person in this circumstance is to figure out a compelling vision for his life. From there, he can then create a plan in which he continues to fulfill his day job or continues to grow his current business while he works his ass off in his spare time to make a go of his true passion. But, he must first kick seven shades of ass at his current gig before he leaves. Some may argue this point, but I truly believe we only make good decisions when we're in that state of being on fire. When we know we're not doing something well or we're half-assing something, our brains have too much fear and limitations running it to think freely. So, go forth and kick ass, while you dream and work toward your dream at night, or whenever you're not working.

Flip the switch

Handling setbacks

There are only a couple of ways we can handle setbacks when they come our way...we can lay down and feel sorry for ourselves-complain, bitch, ask ourselves "why me?". The other option is to dig down deep, find some gumption, and bare down... on guess what?....The Simple Disciplines.

Let me first explain that I'm experiencing some unforeseen challenges right now in one of my businesses. All of a sudden, the deals have stopped. Nobody seems to be pulling the trigger and signing contracts. Normally, by this time of the year, we've got a fairly full schedule of projects going on right now. But, right now, we've got very little happening. Lots of quoting, lots of sales presentations, people want to know how much it costs...but NOBODY is pulling the trigger. It's quite strange. My normal closing ratio is between 33% and 60%. In the past couple of weeks I've ran almost 20 leads and have inked zero deals. Never seen anything like this...ever. I'd normally be at $100,000 at least in sales volume for the month of April...right now I'm at $7800. I'm panicking a bit, to be forthcoming.

The angst has been building inside of me for the about the last five or six days. I guess I probably shouldn't be so quick to highlight my struggles, seeing as how I'm striving to set an example and help others get past their short and long-term struggles. But, the fact of the matter is I'm far from perfect, in any aspect of my life, and I've been shitting my pants over this. The last thing you'll ever get from me is a bunch of bs about doing all fine and dandy if I'm having some trouble. And like I said, the past few days have been a rough go.

In fact, the dark thoughts had actually taken over my brain as of about 2:00 this afternoon, and I had the urge to call up a bunch of my prospects and lower my prices, to try to get some momentum going. It made total sense to me at the time. I thought, this just might work...I could call them up, tell them we're struggling to get people on board, and that I could take some off the price if they'll commit right away. I began rehearsing the phraseology, going through it all out loud to see how it sounded. I used my voice recorder to check and see if it sounded desperate or not. I was on the verge of placing my first call and it hit me...luckily. My inner dialogue was something like this: "How in the world can I justify this to anybody in my peer group? I've always prided myself in being a man who refuses to come from a position of weakness. Is this a move coming from someone in a position of strength?" "Don't you write every night about what a person can do to improve his outcomes in his life, by simply changing his inner game?" "What would you say to one of your business buddies who came to you with this very same challenge?". No doubt this is the result of the thousands of hours of personal development study I've done over the past eight years and of the hundreds of hours of writing. All of these negative feelings and thoughts had taken over and my new philosophy kicked in to override these fearful attitudes just when I needed it most. The filter that really convinced me not to make these desperation attempts was the one in which I asked myself "if this is really the man I become when I'm faced with a real challenge? Is this the example I want to set for my friends and my family?" Hell no.

So, here's what I'm going to do, here's the Inner Game(my thinking and beliefs) change:

Instead of crawling into a hole, I'm going straight to what I know will never fail me...the fundamentals. I have 100% faith in the fact that the Simple Disciplines I've committed to will get me the results I seek, if I execute them every day with faith and enthusiasm. That being the case, I'm going to double the Simple Disciplines pertaining to the success of this particular endeavor. Instead of sitting around pondering a million negative scenarios, I'm going to focus all of my energy on visualizing me closing every deal I come across. I now refuse to engage in any negative thinking or speaking about this situation. When I think or speak of it, I will do it from a position of strength and positivity. I will expect great things to happen from this point forward. It's imperative because what I realized is that all of the "no's" I've been hearing have taken their toll on my confidence. Normally, I go into most every deal fully EXPECTING to get the deal. Lately, I've been expecting the opposite. That will become a self-fulfilling prophecy, no question.

So, here's what this outer game change is going to look like...

For the next two weeks, instead of canvassing for five hours per week, I'm going to canvass ten hours. Instead of visualizing for 15 minutes, twice per day, I'm going to visualize for 30 minutes twice per day..with an emphasis on seeing me close these deals with high profit margins.

In summary, I have two paths I can go down. One path is the path of worry, doubt, that will ultimately lead to failure. It might feel better in the short-term, I could go around and whine to all of my friends and family and my crews, talking about how none of this is my fault. We could all engage in the normal conversation in which we all blame anybody and everybody for the poor circumstances we find ourselves in. Or, we could go the other way. We can make a DECISION, that we will see this through and we will find a way to not only survive, but to hammer the numbers we committed to when we started. See, in times like these, we can't lose our perspective and focus on just surviving. When we focus on survival, that's what we get...survival. I'm not looking for that. I'm looking to thrive, to prosper. This is the path I'm choosing to take. Yes, it's going to require more effort, more time. But, I've got way too much skin in this game to hunker down in fear and quit. It's not in me anyway.

I'm hoping you're all rolling and don't have to use any of the stuff I'm faced with using here. I hope you're all on the right path and are seeing magnificent results. But, if you're not, then I know this perspective can help. It is really the only path we can take. The short-term pain we'll feel from doing this right will be nothing compared to the long-term pain and regret we would experience from taking the easy road and giving up.

Flip the switch

Use this right now

Alrighty folks. Totally against the urgings of my internet marketing friends, I'm going to lay the cards on the table as to how I go about living my business life. I've thought about doing this for over a month now, but I've heard consistently that what I'm offering is worth too much to just lay out there for the world to see and use, for nothing. But, here goes....

What I plan to do in this blog post is give you a good chunk of my business strategy, with a solid amount of reasoning behind it, so that you can see what I'm doing, create something like it for yourself, or whatever. Up to you. Again, I have never claimed to have all the answers, but I'll let you be the judge. You may read it and say it sucks. Refer to Bobby Brown if so. That's quite alright. But, if this helps you, do me a solid and let me know. The only thing I'm asking in return is for you to drop a note about what you think of it, and to spread the word for anybody and everybody to see, again, if you think it's something that can help them. Sound fair? Cool, let's get it on..

The philosophy behind this, from 40,000 feet above it, is that we must know exactly what we're after, where we're headed and how we plan to get there, if we wish to live our business lives at the highest level. If you want to be a follower, then ignore everything in this post. If you want to lead, if you want to produce huge numbers, if you want to be a revenue producing machine for your company, plug in. This is a body of work from the past seven or eight years of my life - the result of thousands of hours of study of success principles, philosophy, strategy, and the lives of great men in history.

So, here's the deal....

First, I'll outline the financial vehicles I utilize to earn a living. I have interest in two separate businesses, both are in the same space - home restoration and remodeling. One is a manufacturing business, that I'm part owner of, there I lead the sales and marketing efforts. The other is a residential and light commercial remodeling contracting business which I own solely. The majority of my focus is geared toward the manufacturing business.

The reason I spend more time here is for long-term salability. Our industry is forecasting significant mergers and buy-outs over the next decade or two. We fit a nice niche within the high end of our industry, at Winstrom. I anticipate some large manufacturing outfit wanting to buy us, in order to gain entry into the high end market. The brand they carry will keep them out of this niche. Their only way in is through M & A. We expect to receive a high multiple at some point in the future.

So, I know what I wish to earn for 2010, in order to achieve the investment goals, the lifestyle goals, the charitable goals I've committed to. I won't share all of my objectives for the year, but I'll offer some, so that I can derive the numbers aspect of my plan. In the end, the numbers are the deal. It's not all dollars and sense, by any means. But, I won't stroke you here, I would be lying if I said I did all of this solely out of the goodness of my heart. Well, I am doing this blog out of the goodness of my heart, but anyway. The numbers are as follows:

My income goals require that I hit the following numbers, based on what I earn from sales and profit at both companies. These numbers come from the sales commission and profit dollars. Hypothetically, if a sales person is earning a 10% sales commission on what he sells and he wishes to earn $50,000, then he needs to sell $500,000 for the year. Pretty basic math. Well, in my deal, I need to hit $6,000,000 this year in my territory and $1,220,000 with MBJ. These are the primary objectives, the broader strokes that will pay me what I've established as my goals for this year.

But, I like to break this down to much smaller chunks, so I don't leave anything to chance. Here's a further look at the manufacturing numbers. I break it down into goals for new business and for retention growth. We need to bring in new dealers, as new business is the lifeblood of any business, young or old. But, I'm a big believer in the philosophy that it's much easier and much less expensive to get a current customer to grow than it is to go out and convince somebody who knows nothing about you to buy from you. I focus on both. That being said, I'm looking to experience $2,000,000 in new business and retention growth of $900,000(over what I sold last year from that same group of dealers).

The first thing I've done is go through my list of dealers and, based on what I know of these guys, outline a list of the top half dozen guys that #1..have the capacity to grow significantly with us and #2...we have a chance to land more of their business with some good hard work and creativity. When I say significant growth, I'm talking about at least $100,000 over what they gave us in 2009. My list looks like this:
1. Milwaukee Builders ($250,000)
2. Lisbon Storm and Screen ($400,000)
3. Hardy & Jensen ($300,000)
4. Kroll Siding Supply ($600,000)
5. City Builders ($150,000)
6. Murphy's Windows ($100,000)
7. Landmark Exteriors ($150,000)

Total Sales Growth Opp. ($1,950,000)

Here's my list of New Business Targets for this year:
1. Lumberyard Suppliers, E Peoria IL ($1,000,000)
2. Jarvis Exteriors, Chicago IL ($100,000)
3. Wilson Colonial, Chicago IL ($250,000)
4. Aspen Exteriors, Chicago Il ($500,000)
5. Lumberyard Suppliers, Champaign IL (1,000,000)
6. Lumberyard Suppliers, STL (1,000,000)
7. Cardinal Home Imp, STL ($500,000)
8. Midwest Siding, Des Moines, IA ($200,000)
9. Omaha Door & Window, Omaha NE ($600,000)
10. Obermiller Seamless, Lincoln NE ($250,000)
11. ABC Seamless, Lincoln NE ($200,000)
12. Stronghold Construction, Chicago IL ($250,000)
13. Evergreen Windows, Chicago IL ($750,000)
14. Brew City, Milwaukee Wi ($100,000)
15. Advanced Window Systems, Milwaukee ($200,000)
16. American Thermal, Chicago IL ($300,000)

Total Sales Opportunity $7,650,000

So, we need a little less than a third of this volume...

I've outlined 15 targets, as you can see. What I'll do is focus all of my Winstrom efforts on this group of seven retention targets and fifteen NB targets. My phone work centers around setting appointments with these owners of these businesses, and following up with this same group. When I'm working a specific geographic segment of my territory, I'll use this accounts as the centerpieces of those trips. From these meetings, I'll fill in with other local companies to take full advantage of the time I have in each market. If I find another good company to work with, then great. I just need to make sure I'm spending every minute of my day, from 7:00 am to night time, face to face with somebody I can add value to and get some volume in return.

So, a quick summary....

So far, I've got a list of 22 targets that I plan to focus 90% of my face time with. I'll build trips to each market segment around these specific accounts, and then add other quality opportunities around them.

Let's go through the geography of it all...

I'm responsible for all of the Midwest, from Kansas through Minnesota. I personally cover Illinois, Milwaukee, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Indiana. Here's how I've labeled it, into five segments:
1. Chicago
2. Milwaukee
3. Downstate
4. STL
5. Iowa/Nebraska
6. KC
7. Indiana

This is obviously too much ground to cover for one sales person. My plan is to partner up with independent rep groups in Indiana/Ohio/Michigan and KC, for now. I'll personally cover the remaining segments, with a focus on Chicago, Downstate, Milwaukee, Iowa. I have Lumberyard Suppliers on board and plan to leverage their outside sales force of 15 good reps to grow market share in STL and Downstate. In these other segments, I will focus on dealer direct accounts. These accounts are much more profitable and are easier to land, ultimately.

My strategy to manage this territory is simple....manage my focus. I've never bought the notion that we, as sales professionals, have to manage geography. In order to grow a territory...any territory, we have to manage what we choose to focus on. I'm going to focus on a specific group of great targets and pour my heart and soul into adding so much high-level value to them that they feel they HAVE to do business with me. This is my primary "Time Management", "Territory Management" philosophy and strategy. Find the people you want to do business with and can do business with and add tremendous amounts of value to them without any expectation of anything in return. You take this approach, and you'll have more deals than you've ever dreamed of. I promise.

MBJ Breakdown:

The way I like to look at this business is through the number of projects we need to close in order to hit our objective of $1.2 million for the year. Our average project cost is roughly $10,000. So, we need 120 project for the year, to get us there. We can work 44 weeks per year, due to harsh winter conditions. That means we need about three per week....

My closing ratio is about 33% overall. It seems to be down this year, so far, as folks are just not pulling the trigger the way they have in previous years. But, for the sake of planning, I'll budget it at 33%.

MBJ needs 360 leads per year, chances to pitch a deal, to get us the 120 we need. That's about seven per week, really.

A canvasser can generate, as our metrics tell us, one lead per hour. We need seven hours of canvassing per week to get us home. I like to play it safe, so we've hired a crew that will have anywhere from 2 to 6 college students working 6 hours per week. We should be able to generate at least 20 leads per week. Boo Yah.

I'll end up needing a salesperson or two by mid-April, according to my plan, just to be able to run these leads, assuming they're out there....that many people who want and need roofs or windows right now. I'm certain they're out there. We just have to look.

I've mapped out my Personal Focus Plan for the month of April. Hopefully, you can find something in it that you can use to grow your business

This week, April 5-10:
Monday - MBJ primarily, with some WW scheduling
1. Get two MBJ leads personally
2. Measure two leads from Saturday - Ed Riehl, 2801 Park Ridge
3. Estimate these two leads
4. Create proposals for these two leads
5. Face to face calls with Ed R and Cathy Vale for MBJ
6. Schedule calls for Wednesday and Thursday for Winstrom.

Tuesday - MBJ focus
1. Secure contractor for Chanel and Carl's projects.
2. Measure P.R lead and B.M. leads
3. Estimate and create proposals.
4. Face to face call with Todd Smith for roof project
5. Close deals with Kate McCarthy, Kevin McGuinness, Kevin Maguire, Brendan
6. Meeting with Alex
7. Meeting with Tim from Peoria

Wednesday - WW Focus Milwaukee
1. Meeting with Lisbon, Milwaukee Builders, Advanced, and Brew City
2. Calls to schedule for Friday
3. Fill ins with Pro-tite windows, WeatherTite, All About Windows & Siding

Thursday - SE Wisconsin, Chicago
1. Meetings with targets: Hardy & jensen, Southway Supply, Patrick Windows, Lakeland
2. Schedule for Monday and Tuesday next week
3. Follow up calls on proposals from this week's MBJ leads.

Friday - STL
1. Follow through on private label details for new customer in STL with LS
2. Relationship building dinner and drinks with new clients.

Week of April 12-17:

Monday - Chicago WW Targets, Wilson Colonial, Aspen Exteriors, cold calls // Canvassing Team out for MBJ - should generate 3-4 leads
Tuesday - Chicago Murphy, Stronghold Construction, Siding 1, Jarvis Exteriors
Wednesday - Downstate with LS, training reps in Champaign in morning, MBJ in pm // Canvassing team out for MBJ - 3-4 leads
Thursday - STL with LS reps in morning, joint sales calls in afternoon
Friday - MBJ all day, running face to face sales calls on leads from team(estimated by my production mgr)
Saturday - MBJ all day, face to face sales calls the leads from the team(estimated by prod mgr)

Week of April 19-24

Monday - Quad Cities today Kroll Siding, Cold calling in IA City all afternoon, drinks with Dewey in Cedar Falls at night// MBJ Canvassing Team out for 3-4 leads
Tuesday - Cedar Falls, IA City Builders, Midwest Siding Des Moines, cold call Des Moines
Wednesday - Cold Calling in Des Moines
Thursday - Omaha Door, ABC Seamless, Obermiller Seamless
Friday - MBJ face to face calls 4 leads
Saturday - MBJ face to face calls 4 leads

Week of April 26-31

Monday - Kansas City, Deriek Braun(independent rep), cold call, Struckel drinks // MBJ Team out canvassing
Tuesday - KC, cold call all day long
Wed - KC, cold call all day long MBJ Canvassing Team out canvassing
Thursday - L/S E Peoria sales team training, joint calls
Friday - MBJ all day, face to face calls
Saturday - MBJ all day long, face to face calls

Again, during these trips, between sales calls or cold calls, I'm making lots of phone calls to existing dealers, prospects trying to get appointments scheduled, follow ups on promises, anything I can to add tremendous value to those I'm trying to serve. My whole deal is to build the Greg Mote brand within each person I meet and serve along the way here.

The results I'm expecting to get? What I'm fully EXPECTING is to close 3-8 projects per week, as a minimum, with MBJ, for a total of at least 12 for the month of April. Maybe as many as 20. At the same time, we should be in serious negotiations with at least 8 qualified, high volume new biz targets for Winstrom Windows. These eight will be from the target lists. We should also have an additional 8 from outside the lists, which will be smaller volume dealers we can earn a greater profit margin from, boosting the overall gross profit percentage of the business. These should blend out for a handsome GP number for 2010. So, when we beat the projections and show them to the bank in December, they'll see that we not only kicked the crap out of the top line revenue number, we significantly grew the profit margin percentage as well. My partners will be floored and will throw a huge fiesta in our honor.

So, what will April look like for me, personally? Fan-tastic. Enough said.

So, then, how can I break this down even further, to make sure I'm leaving nothing to chance? Let's look at each day...to make sure we're investing our time in only the tasks that will make these dreams real for the month of April.

The one thing we all have that is equal is time. We're all given the same amount of time in which to work and earn for our family. Some of us choose to use every single minute of the day to maximize what we get for ourselves, our wives and our kids. Some of us take our work seriously enough to plan each day and try to not waste even a moment. I've recently awoken to the notion that until we've got enough cash and liquid investments to never have to work again, we owe it to ourselves, our families to man up and quit wasting time. Far too many guys and girls I know are spending far too much time fucking around when they should be making money...so that their kids don't have to work every second of their lives in college and actually enjoy the process, so that they can actually take the family on vacation instead of making up a bunch of bullshit as to why they can't, so they can pay cash for a house instead of begging a lender to give them the 100% financing on the house they
don't really want because they'd rather have the house their friend is living in. Harsh, I know. But, if you are wasting time and you're aware of it...I have to ask...are you worthy of the job you have now, even? Let alone the job or the business you say you deserve and have been dreaming about...Do you deserve the job you have now? Do you deserve the few customers you have managed to cling to? Food for thought.

Anyway, we all have equal time to get whatever it is we do, done. So, it's up to us as to how we spend it, or invest it. We should choose to invest our time. I'll show you my schedule. Time is what it is, it's time. We become effective, we become great by controlling our focus. My reco is to move around in your business in highly concentrated blocks of time, in which you perform the highest producing, highest value, highest revenue generating tasks that drive your best results. For me, it's prospecting, face to face sales calls, canvassing, and following through with creative, high value solutions to my customers' and prospects' problems. Knowing these are what drive all of my results, I've planned each day to spend hours and hours on these tasks, in a focused and undisturbed manner....

Monday, April 26 -
5:00 am Arise for Hour of Power, visualize for 15 minutes, work out hard for one hour
7:00 am - Focus and Planning, plan each minute of today, including who, when, where, why, how, and details of targets and their locations for cold calling
8:00 am - Breakfast with Deriek Braun, candidate for ind rep in KC market and MO market. Planning to grab a list of dealer direct targets to cold call
10:00 am - Cold calling KC market, with a well-planned approach to hit as many good targets as possible. Hoping to spark some interest with three or four good guys there.
4:00 pm - Conference with Bridge, Nicole, and Skip to get them started canvassing in Bloomington/Normal. Their goal is to get 6-8 leads tonight.
4:30 pm - Wrap up today, go through all notes from today's action. Make sure all emails are sent and all details are accounted for from everything....
9:00 pm - Write blog
10:00 pm - Write five pages in book

All day - While in vehicle, listen to personal development disc
All day - Between stops while cold calling, make phone contacts to follow up and schedule meetings, and work out details with staff at home.

So, if you notice, I've got every important aspect of my life accounted for in this plan. I'm working out early, planning and visualizing the vision, selling and growing the business(new business targets $2M), I've got team out canvassing($1.2M in MBJ sales), writing blog and book(internet mktg dream). It's all there. This plan will absolutely produce everything I'm looking for, minus the personal relationships at home. But, I can't do much about that aspect while in KC. I'm sure I'll talk to Bridge several times each day, as I always do.

The real value of this plan is that I am able to wake up every single day and be crystal clear as to what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and how I plan to get it done. Nothing is left to chance.

Now, this may seem rigid as hell. It is. It's rigid for a reason. If I were to be like everyone else in how I manage my "time", I'd be running around all day, answering phone calls, texts, emails, buzzing around at 100 mph, getting shit all done. We can't mistake activity for progress. They are two totally different things. The more we react, the more we lose. I choose to work in these highly focused blocks of time. You'll find you'll still be able to chat up your buddies or your girl, you'll still be able to plug in to talk radio/politics, whatever. But, you'll be able to do it without any reservations or guilt because you haven't done shit all day long.

Thursday, April 12:

5:00 am - HOP, visualize, work out balls out, strength training
6:45 am - Breakfast
7:00 am - Focus, Planning(plan every detail, who, when, why, etc)
8:00 am - Meeting with Milwaukee Builders
10:00 am - Meeting with Lisbon Storm
11:00 - Meeting with Brew City Home Improvement
1:00 - 4:00 pm Cold Calling Milwaukee Area (from list of 20 stops)
4:00 pm - Check in with crews back home, making sure jobs are ok.
5:00 pm - Wrap up day
9:00 pm - blog
10:00 pm = Book


This plan, this sort of legitimate planning is the path to freedom. It will not only set you free financially, it'll strip away all of the noise and junk in your head, so that when you walk through the door in the evening, you can give all of yourself to that team at home, that wants nothing more than your attention.

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Jog our memory

I'm pretty sure none of us were just born to be ass kicking machines, who, by nature, automatically hone in and do the things a man must do to be a high achiever. Can't speak for any of you but I can say with 100% certainty, that I wasn't. In fact, with the hand I was dealt, I may have been the farthest thing from it. But, now I've gathered the information. I've studied and studied and uncovered the philosophy and the strategies I need to shape my life any way I choose. I spend a great amount of time each day churning through them and articulating them on this blog for us all to use in our own lives. What you and I need now is to have this stuff in front of us, at all times,so we don't forget what we're after.

My next project....Coming Soon

Content for the day....

Closed a monster deal today...a friggin whale, down in STL. Well, I shouldn't say it's a done deal. The prospect gave me his commitment...all of the decision makers and key players were present and all bought in...my team just has to produce and follow through on the promises we've made on our end. I thought this would be a good time to go through my approach to this phase of the deal.

In blogs past, I'm sure I've given my thoughts on what we need to do once the deal has been inked. You're about to hear it again. The work has only just begun, at this stage. They've seen something in me and my offer they like, but now we have to earn the business. I'm talking about all of the business.

Early in my career, when I got to this point, I handled it about as poorly as a guy could handle it. Here I was with a deal in hand, and I got soft. I assumed the customer was going to follow through. I assumed my company was going to just magically going to grow from this new volume we'd been promised. Shortly after the news to my boss, the questions started coming...."when is that new guy going to start ordering, Greg?" "Well, I got them their samples last Tuesday. Should take a couple of weeks to get their sales guys pushing our stuff. Probably see some deals next week, or the week following." But, truth is, I was quietly shitting my pants. I hadn't talked to anybody since that last meeting a couple of weeks ago, and I had no idea what was happening. So, I call the owner...no response. I stop by the office, unannounced...lukewarm reception from a few of the folks there, but the owner is out. Look in a couple of the sales guys' cars...not my window sample in his car. Uh Oh.

On many occasions, I didn't do what I needed to do to get the deal done. What I'd gotten at that point was the ok to earn the business, and it was up to me to walk the walk that I'd been talking about during the discussions we'd had up to that point.

So, here I am again. The dealer told me they love the window, they love the program, they love the private label marketing solution I created. Now, I have to see it through. Where do you think I'm going to focus my energy and time? Product? Literature development? Memorizing key people's birthdays and favorite colors? Forget that noise. I'm digging into the three areas that keeps my new best friend up at night: internet marketing(he's freaked out about being old school and has nobody who's comfortable with it / Sales training to help his sales team close more deals at a higher gross margin / A canvassing system for his sales guys so they have more deals to pitch.

This stuff is what's hurting my guy, so I'm going to come back next time and blow his doors off with some kick ass systems for him to utilize immediately. I won't show up and regurgitate some half ass idea I heard on the radio or from some other dealer I call on. I will walk into his office with something real for him, and I'll immediately separate myself from every other sales guy that has or will come calling on him.

I say we have fun with this. We only get one chance in this life....we might as well pin our ears back, have some fun, and be memorable in the work we do with our customers. Go hard.

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Flip the switch

Let's Get on With It

If we are not really fired up about what we're doing in our careers, it's time to get on with it.

I'm just going to put this out there and be forthcoming. Hopefully you all will appreciate my honesty. If I hear myself tell my wife one more time how much I'd rather be writing and creating content full-time as a career instead of building this window biz and my roofing biz, my head may implode. There it is, fellas, I said it. I've been a raging pussy about this and it's time to own it. And for all of you who are not fired up about your gig and you're not jumping out of the rack in the morning, it's time for you to own it too.

Yes, I have been blogging and working on my book pretty consistently. Yes, I have a pretty damn good couple of gigs right now and I'm making great money. But, the reality is nothing lights me up more than writing and creating this stuff. Nothing. Truth is, I want to sell this business and write full time. Don't care if I make the same money as I have lately. Fact is, I can get by on less than half of what I'm making now. But, I'm just not moving at a pace to get there. The argument could easily be made that I'm taking consistent action toward the goals I've set in this particular area of my life. That argument would have merit, no doubt. But, down deep, I know the skinny and I can not kid myself any longer. Time to pin my ears back and get to work.

There's a distinct difference between somebody who's working and somebody who's working with a purpose and sense of urgency. The 90 Days to Discipline has been effective in keeping me locked in on the fundamentals and the proper actions I need to execute every day. That's great, we all have to take consistent action to make it real. After all, it's what we do every day that determines our outcomes. But, when it comes to the writing aspect, I've gotten into a routine. But, I'm not doing it hard, with purpose, with the balls I carry when I'm working in my other two endeavors.

Moving forward, I'm taking a more aggressive approach. I'm establishing a launch date for my book. A public declaration of my intent is the kind of commitment I need to make to get that ever-crucial sense of urgency. Looking like a talker instead of a doer is effective leverage for me. My brain links tons of pain to looking like a poser. So, the gauntlet has been thrown. Book completion, rough draft at least, by May 15, 2010. There it is, fellas.

Enough about me. What about you? What is it that you'd rather be doing? Because I'm also sick of hearing the same complaints from you. You can't sit in a holding pattern any longer either. Time is flying. We are all getting older. Fourty? We are all either there or are getting real damn close. Guess what? Fifty is on a dead sprint toward us as we speak. The worst...the absolute worst scenario I could imagine, at age 50, or 60, would be to be sitting in my car, thinking the same thoughts, churning through the same bullshit rationalizations about why I can't do what I really love. What a fucking tragedy that would be. Imagine it, looking yourself in the mirror...looking your wife in the mirror, trying to justify why you never did what you said you were going to do with your life. Remember those big dreams? Remember those conversations with your wife or your kids about building this business, or buying this big house, or taking that kick ass vacation...the ones you promised them. The ones you promised yourself. I've got news for all of us. If we are not doing the thing we absolutely love, we will never be happy. We will never be financially free. Never. No one gets on in this world by simply chasing a paycheck. We are selling out.

Am I recommending you go out and scrap your job or biz or whatever? No. But, I am begging you to schedule yourself an hour per day, every day, starting tomorrow, to sit down by yourself and give this real thought. What would you love to do with your time if you were already rich? Take the time to explore your brain. Figure it out. Right now. You may not have the perfect idea just yet. Hell, no great ideas come to us when we're being soft. Only when we are winning, when we are doing the things we committed to and are having success will our best ideas show up.

But, we have to start somewhere. Get busy, get moving, doing something. Do your job to the best of your ability. Leave it all on the field. Get into that state. Think and dream for an hour per day. Take action tomorrow. Do something every single day with a sense of urgency to make this real. We can't wait, we can't put this off. Our lives are on a dead on sprint. The time is right now.

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Let's get serious

I'm all about shedding the fat these days. My goal is to be able to get into a weenie bikini this summer and look fantastic. Not really. That'd be wrong. But, I do want to be proud to strip off the t this summer, instead of being the kid who's swimming with a huge cotton t-shirt on. That's not for me.

Unfortunately, the quickest way...and the ONLY way to shed fat, is through proper nutrition(diet). Working out is a critical component, for sure. But, at age 35, the days of just working out harder and losing the extra pounds are over. We have to eat right, eat almost perfect if we want to do it in short order. It's April, so we're doing this in short order. I've got a good 20 pounds of fat I need to shed. And I've only got a couple of months to do it. So, the diet is ON.

I'll give you a few of the general philosophies behind my diet/nutrition strategy for the next two months. Much of this you've heard many times, I'd imagine, as just about every program out there touts this principles....
1. Eat smaller meals, more often -- My goal is to eat 5 or 6 small meals per day. It keeps us feeling full and it blows our metabolism rate up to a much higher level.
2. I'm focusing on protein at every meal -- the goal is to get protein each time I eat, but it's not just any protein...lean meats, protein powders, fish, eggs, etc.
3. I'm cutting simple sugars out completely -- complex carbs are ok, as are fruits and veges. But no soda, no ice cream, and no Sour Patch Kids.
4. I'm adding some supplements to it -- I'm focusing on fiber supplements, fat burners(before workouts) and protein shakes.

These are the broad strokes of how I'm structuring my nutrition, but the bottom line is that I need to have a calorie defecit of around 700 calories per day. That means I should be consuming around 1800-2500 per day, depending on my workouts.

My workouts are looking like this....

I'm still running quite a bit, as I'm training for a half marathon in Champaign on May 1. So, that training has me running about 30 miles per week or so. It's hard to put on lean muscle mass when you're running that much, but I'm doing my best to do enough strength training and eating to a point that I don't just wilt away. Don't want to be the guy who gets sand kicked in his face at the beach...

The strength training is four days per week, focusing on total body workouts. I'm incorporating a lot of the CrossFit principles, doing Olympic lifts, body weight exercises and power moves. That's not all I'm doing. My main objective is to make sure I blow up my muscles four days per week, minimum. I'd ask you to refer to Crossfit.com and check out their WOD's(work out of the day). I don't care what kind of weight training you're doing, I just think we all have to do it. Muscle mass is too fleeting at this stage of the game for most of us. We have to keep slamming in the weightroom or we're not going to have the broad shoulders the women are looking for.

When it comes to lifting, I am proud to say I still have a fairly juvenile attitude towards it. I'm still wanting to throw around as much weight as I can(without injuring myself of course), because I want to push my limits. I want to be in the best shape of my life. Going in and doing 135 pounds on the bench for sets of 30 is not going to cut it. It's better than doing nothing, for certain. But, I think we have to get after it in there, the same way we do in our businesses and in life in general...

Which brings me to my next point. There are times in a man's life when it serves him to be casual--to just go with the flow and have a relaxed attitude about whatever is going on. You know, to just not sweat the details...whatever happens, happens. Our fitness is not one of these occasions. Our time at work is not one of these times. Too many good guys I know are falling short in this area. The highest achievers...the ass kickers in life, business, and fitness are never casual about anything having to do with the "bigs" in life. There's just too much at stake to take a casual approach and just fuck around. Look around, brother, there are guys out there who are trying to take things from us as we speak. If you've got something good going in your life, I can promise you there's somebody thinking of a way to take it from you. Your business, your job, your customers, your girl...some asshole is chomping at the bit to strip it from you.

That may seem like a jaded outlook, but ultimately, I think it's true. We can not afford to just go with the flow when it comes to these important aspects of our lives. Our businesses deserve every ounce of focus and energy we have inside of us. Our bodies deserve every ounce of respect and focus we have inside. Our women, our kids, our financial futures all deserve every ounce of blood, guts, and tears we have inside. Maybe you're one of those guys that's just too cool to give it your all. You have a rep to uphold. You wouldn't want your buddies to see you giving your gig your all...that's what the geeks and sellouts do. I'll tell you right now, no ass kicking, ripped, money making guy I know ever takes this sort of detached approach to the bigs. You can not have it both ways. You can't make it to the top -- be physically ripped, be liquid and rich, be a leader in your industry, make your wife or girlfriend weak in the knees and carry yourself with nonchalance. We have to get ourselves into that peak mental and emotional state every single time we work out, run, speak to our girls, pitch a deal, write a blog post...that state in which we have some cock in our walk, our shoulders back, heads high, ready to blow through any challenge standing between us and what we want. We have to stand up and give ourselves the respect we deserve, and we do this by demonstrating to those around us that we're worthy of their best. No one will ever give us their full respect, no one will ever come to us with the deal of a lifetime, if we're not showing ourselves the respect we deserve. Winners can smell that kind of confidence a mile away. Winners can sniff out a Sally or a talker just as quickly. We have to man up every day, get ourselves into state, and take care of our business. There will be plenty of time for casual later....

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Back at it...Hard as hell

Well, vacation is over, brothers. It's time to get back at it...or, as my former volunteer baseball coach in college said....time to stick our dicks in the dirt.

That was Carlton Fisk, by the way. How about that? He was the coolest dude. He loved to have a great time on the field and off the field, but he would accept zero excuses. We all need somebody like this in our lives..to keep us locked in and keep us from letting this society make us soft. Most men I know are softer than baby poop. Not us. No way in hell. It's time to stick our dicks in the dirt boys.

Tomorrow starts the strip down process. Time to get all the excess fat off before the summer gets here. So, diet information to be outlined as well as specific workout details. It's time to start measuring and really keeping score with this thing, so we can help the people we love duplicate it. But, it starts with us, right here. We need to be the ones who step up and lead by example, lives of discipline and focus. Let everyone else live soft. Not this group.

The goal moving forward is to keep the balanced approach we've outlined with the Simple Disciplines, but get back to locking in on the vision. The vision of being ripped, liquid, and independent needs to be stronger, more vivid as we bust through the excuses and the negativity we are all surrounded by presently. We need to be the few who "do" versus the many who "talk". It's back to execution of these Simple Disciplines, with laser focus on making these visions real. We have to get crazy excited about not just surviving these times, but getting ripped and rich during these times. No excuses, no bullshit. It's time.

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A little vacation...to let go

Tomorrow my family and I are heading down to Captiva Island for a ten day vacation...a much needed break at this stage of the game. It's been a pretty long winter and I'm ready for a little sun and some time to chill. I know my wife and kids are really looking forward to having my fullest attention, as I've been working pretty long hours lately with the spring busy season just around the corner. My body could use the rest as well. The last few weeks have been grueling with the added mileage I've been putting down. I'm really stoked about getting away.

I did have a message I'd like to share, though, before I get back to packing for our early morning departure. The past couple of days I've had a ton of stuff to do in order to be able to get away and not be distracted by loose ends while I'm down in Florida. Lots of details need attention before I bail out for ten days...paying people, paying suppliers, scheduling projects, estimating for material lists, sales follow through stuff, etc...a long, long list of pretty important stuff.

At about 6:30 tonight, as I'm still pushing through my list of work details, trying to make certain I don't leave ANYTHING left to chance, I realized something. I can not take this stuff so damn seriously all the time. We all need to take our work seriously, please don't misunderstand. I take my customers and their well-being as seriously as anybody. But, I just can't hold on to this stuff so damn tight. My expectations are so high, I expect every job to be so damn perfect, there's no way I could ever be satisfied with the outcome...because no job is ever going to come out perfect. I'll never walk away with a perfect record in terms of how my customers perceive me. I'm way too obsessed with the outcomes. I think I just need to make sure my crews know what's expected, make sure they have everything they need(from me on my end), and just let it happen. On the customer side, I need to make sure they understand what we interpreted their needs as being, what our solution is going to look like, and make sure they know that it's a major construction process and to expect things to stay fluid...there's no perfect process that will work on every project. If I'm able to create the expectation up front that we may run into challenges on the job, then I'll have less pressure to make sure everything goes perfectly on every job. I mean, I can only do what I can do. This isn't life or death here. Yes, it's important, and I'm going to give it my best. But, I can no longer worry about whether everything goes perfect and that every single customer loves me. Follow up, yes. Be a customer punching bag...no.

And in the end, the reason I'm doing all of this--the working ridiculous hours, knocking on doors(which isn't the most glamorous gig in the world), the huge risks I've made financially, the early morning runs(so I can work 12 hours and still get home at a decent hour), etc, it's all for my family...so they can have the best life has to offer. I want my life to serve as an example, not a warning. If I can't step away from my business and lock in 100% on my family, then I will end up a warning. It's the "richest man in the graveyard" story. No way. I don't care if it's at the end of the workday on Friday or on a trip to Captiva for two weeks, we've got to be able to set the shit aside and enjoy ourselves, enjoy our families, enjoy our friends. That's what this trip is going to be about.

I guess it's about faith, in the end. I just need to have faith that things are going to work out. The crews will do their best work, the customers will fulfill their end of the deal, the work will continue to flow, and people will continue to trust my team with their projects. Holding on too tight may just retard the flow of abundance, and hell, I might be guilty of this lately. Not any longer. I'm just going to give it my all, but that will have to be good enough. Just going to let it go. And let the chips fall where they may.

Take care, have a great night.

Flip the switch

Time is flying by. I mean flying by, at record breaking speed. The more time passes, the less time you and I have to build whatever it is we're trying to build. I heard a great expression this afternoon, listening to an interview with Jeff Walker, conducted by Tony Robbins. "In the end, every one of our lives is going to serve as either an example to follow, or a warning". Any of us, who is not presently doing what we love or not following through on the tasks we damn well know will make our lives better and get us on the path to doing what we love, our lives will serve as warnings. Warnings on what road not to take. Plain and simple.

It's tough love time, people. We can not continue to have the same conversations with the same people(or ourselves) about how we need to make these changes, while doing nothing. If you aren't taking action, you are not getting this message.

The time is right now. Take a good hard look in the mirror and ask yourself..."will my life continue down the path of being a warning to your family, your children, on how not to live?" It is your choice. It's my choice as well. Together, we can get this right.

On a positive note, I'm having some thoughts about what I'm going to do next week with the blog, since I'm going to be in Captiva Island, Florida for the next ten days or so. I'm planning to keep the blog content flowing, because of a couple of reasons. One, is I love to do it, quite frankly. Two, is because I have momentum and I fully subscribe to the notion that you either have momentum and are growing or you don't and are dying. Sad, but true.

But, the down side of this is that if I don't shut my hard-drivingness down, my wife and kids may go loco on me. Don't want that, and I don't want to waste a chunk of dough on a trip in which I can't let go mentally of the things I'm driving so hard to manifest.

So, I'm thinking the tone of the blog may change next week. Hopefully, you'll find the content worthwhile, and I am sure you will. Every time I go away or get away, I tend to get totally re-focused and am on fire with creativity and drive. I don't want to oversell it, but I just wanted to give you a heads up. So, there's your heads up...you've been warned.

In the meantime, if you have any comments about what I've been rapping about, let me know. I'd love for this thing to be more of a conversation than a monologue. If not, if you'd rather remain anonymous, that's cool too. I thank you for plugging in.

What would you think of some video on this stuff? Maybe some raw, real footage of some stuff that will add to the messages? Let me know...

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What is up with this fatness?

My body is not changing the way I'd hoped. I'm still looking like dogshit and I'm fully aware of why this is so...My diet is the primary driver of my lack of results, this I know for certain. My diet has been attrocious. Completely ridiculous behavior, and I'm almost sick to write about it. Believe me, I have NO delusions about who I am or what I do or don't do. In fact, I'm as aware of my shortcomings as most, it seems to come with the territory when you develop self-awareness and consistently analyze your behavior.

Before I get too down on my patterns, I find it necessary to point out that I've been rocking....absolutely kicking ass with the other aspects of my life. Both gigs are flying in terms of sales year to date, profitability, and the sales pipelines are full to the brim. My financial picture is improving daily, and I'm closing in on being able to throw down the jack for my dream home...all great stuff...all a result of these Simple Disciplines that are highlighted in 90 Days to Discipline. So, good job Greg.

Now, it's time to kick my own ass a little bit...The first place to look, when you're not doing the things you know you should be doing, is your belief systems. If you're not taking action in one particular area of your life, it's usually a product of some belief that's at odds with the goal you're pursuing. Or, it could simply be the fact that your goals in this aspect are impotent and you're not getting enough leverage on yourself thinking about the reasons why you want to make these changes. In my case, I've set a goal of weighing 165 pounds and having 8% bodyfat. Something deep in my brain is either against that goal or is afraid of achieving it...for whatever reason. My challenge would be to uncover this negative, disempowering belief, and leverage a new, more empowering belief in its place. This isn't an easy task, by any means. Hell, millions of people spend hundreds of millions on shrinks every day in this country, attempting to dig into themselves and understand why they do what they do.

I'm inclined to believe my inaction is a product of having impotent goals. Well, maybe that's not the best way to characterize my struggle. The best way to phrase it is that mentally, the goal makes complete sense...yes, looking good at the pool or beach or whatever would be nice. But, I'm leaving it there. I'm not working myself into a lather over what it would really feel like to make this goal real. In my business and financial life, every day, twice per day, I go through a very vivid "as if" scenario in which I'm the guy I want to become in this realm -- I'm leading a couple of huge businesses, I'm speaking in front of huge audiences, I've authored successful books, I'm earning a great living. My house is huge and beautiful. I can actually picture myself sitting in my office, that's decked out in the most exquisite dark mahogany woodwork. I feel myself get into my ride and pull out of my four car garage and jump on the accelerator cruising down Airport Road in Bloomington, on my way to the office. Most importantly, I can actually FEEL WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE THIS MAN. The man who's got the discipline, the focus, the skills, and the work ethic to build and manifest this level of success and abundance for my family. I can feel it...which is a cool thing, really. I look forward to this exercise, it's become one of my favority Simple Disciplines. Nerd Alert.

I'm just not doing that with my health and fitness goals. I throw it into my visions on occasion, but it's just not a priority. This may just be the wake up call I needed, in understanding just how critical the visualization process is, in building the visions we've created for ourselves. I'm on my way with the other aspects of my life...the biz and finance, the things goals, personal development, and contribution. And I can say with confidence the reason is because my emotions have evolved into a white hot obsession in these visualizations.

Now, I just need to focus more time, energy, and faith in this jacked up physique. I think I'll begin my vision with a scenario in which I arise early, before dawn and hit the gym. When I roll out of the rack, I can actually feel my abs contract and easily pull myself up out of bed...versus the circus act it is presently, when my gut makes me struggle to get up. I'll picture myself brushing my teeth before hitting the gym, and I look up in the mirror and see Brad Pitt's body from Fight Club with my dome on it. How about that? That's a pretty damn good motivator. Then I'll hit the trail for a quick 5 miler, flying on the trail, running at a 7 minute mile pace while feeling light and quick. Strength training after with a full-body workout, with an emphasis on explosive, crossfit type training. During this workout I'm strong, lean, and explosive.

Of course, I'm not lean, explosive or even very strong right now. But, this type of visualization tends to create awareness of what it'd feel like, look like, smell like to be, do, and have what I do in my vision. It propels us into taking massive action, because we can actually feel what looking like this would feel like. This is a hundred times more powerful than just sort of intellectually understanding what it would mean to be in better shape. That's weak as shit. And look where it's gotten me. Nowhere.

One other thing...I am going to work towards making the building of my body a passion of mine. This perspective is more positive than the way I've been viewing workouts and nutrition...as a necessary evil. If I can make have a more upbeat, positive inner dialogue about fitness and diet, I'll get much better results and I'll be more likely to view going to the gym as something I GET to do , versus something I HAVE to do. We'll try it. I'll keep you all updated

Do me this favor, though. Share your thoughts on this stuff. If you have something to add, please do so. If you want to call bullshit on something, call bullshit on it. I'd love for this to be a conversation. Could turn out to be a real fun thing...a bunch of people working hard to get better every day.

Flip the switch

Nine Thousand New Competitors

All of a sudden, everybody and their brother is now a contractor in my market. Last year, I had five legitimate competitors on the roofing side of my contracting biz. This year, I have 13. Thirteen companies are now marketing themselves as the best roofing company in Bloomington/Normal, and what's funny is they all claim to have over 15 years in the business. A company that's three months old has twenty years in the business? What a bunch of crap. I get it, though...one guy on the crew has been shingling for 15 years...

The bottom line is regardless of what any of these folks are claiming in their marketing messages, I have to step up my game, big time. There are more options than there's ever been in choosing a roofing contractor, and I have to do whatever it takes to be the one they not only choose to call about bidding the job, I have to be the one they trust to do the job. That's what my life is now about...well...my business life.

So, how do I do that? I don't know exactly, to be forthcoming...but, I think I've got some pretty good ideas. I'll run them by you all, let me know if you think any of them will work.

The nature of my business is such that the main challenge is getting the opportunity to bid it. There's a ton of competitors and the phone book has sixty different companies a homeowner can call. Traditional forms of advertising are ineffective today, considering the fact we all get hit with hundreds of thousands of marketing images and messages per day,and we've gotten real damn efficient at ignoring most of them. Getting a chance to bid the job is the deal for us, and there's no one answer as to how to go about doing that.

The approach that's worked for us in the recent past is to focus on the neighborhoods that need the work we perform. Sounds simple, I know, but for years the industry has always gone out and pitched a one-way sales message at the general populous, hoping a tiny fraction of those folks will jot down the phone number and call them when they need a roof. My trust in that system is gone, because I just don't see people buying roofs that way.

I'd say the majority of people make major purchases like home improvements through word of mouth...asking the folks within their family, social circles, etc who they'd recommend for whatever they're looking for. The other primary method is to observe the work going on in the neighborhood, because in these subdivisions, all of the houses are the exact same age and are getting the work done. So, they'll watch the neighbor's job and just sort of keep tabs on who does good work...or seems to, who shows up early and stays on the job, who keeps the place clean, etc. I don't know exactly what they look for when they're paying attention...all I know is that they do pay attention.

With this in mind, I'm pouring all of my resources into these neighborhoods and into taking care of my "List". My list is everyone I've done work for, everyone I've quoted, and really, everyone I've ever talked to about anything having to do with home improvements. We know who the people are in town who are going to need roofs, and I plan to spend every minute of just about every day making sure someone from my organization is out finding out every piece of information we can about these people, so that we can add them to our list and make sure they think of us when they do start the process of buying a roof.

Maybe your business is also having these kinds of challenges, in finding enough qualified people to do business with? Perhaps this list approach could benefit you and your organization? I'll go a little further...to see if it's something you can use.

The philosophy behind this "list" is quite simple...we want to develop long-term relationships with a ton of great people and become what I like to call "business friend" with them. Most of the list work will be done through email and will be executed by an auto responder outfit. We gather their emails and add them to the list, put them into the system, and carry on a conversation with them...as if they were business friends. The last thing I want to do is choke these people's inboxes with a bunch of cheesy, one way salesy bullshit that will drive them crazy. No, my goal is to get them some cool ideas that will help them with their house, and really keep the focus on them. I want to be viewed as the guy who's more focused on getting them squared away than getting a sale...or whatever. This way, I can feel good about what I do and I won't be the dude everyone's bailing out on when they see me at Starbucks or Sunday Mass or wherever. I couldn't stand myself if I were the salesy type everyone was avoiding. That's not my goal. I want each person to see me as truly interested in keeping them up to date on what's going on in the world of exterior home maintenance, energy efficiency, roofing tips, etc.

The key is to keep the dialogue in dude speak. The minute we get caught trying to sell something, we're dead in the water. My focus will be to give them something of real value...some real content in every message, that helps them. If I give them enough cool content, maybe they'll trust me enough to buy something from me when I have something to sell them...maybe. We'll see. In the meantime, it's balls to the wall in building this list. I'm looking for the best people in my market to help out. That's it.

Think about that, though. Think of the power of building a nice list of folks who trust you because you've always been cool, you've always had their back, and you've always been honest with them. And most importantly, you've always worried more about their well-being than yours. That's capital. Serious long-term capital.

What kind of list should you be building? What do you know or have inside you that could help people, that would be fun as hell to talk about? Or better yet, what would you like to learn about, that you could then turn around and help people with, that would be awesome to do? This is a great place to begin building a business, if you haven't started one yet. The way to do it is to find a thing to talk about, and start building a list.

I'm fairly new to this marketing style, but I've invested a lot of time and a ton of dough in it. The more I learn, the more I'll share. Stay tuned. I fully believe it's the way of the future, as the internet becomes a bigger and bigger part of our lives.

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A week's results

A quick rundown of last week's results....

I ran 31 miles total last week in total. Great week...the highest in the past six years, I'd say. I capped it off with an absolute sufferfest this weekend with my wife. She and I have never really been able to run together much...we have always ran at much different paces. But, she's worked hard at building her mileage and her pace, and has gotten into badass shape, so we're good to go. What a cool thing -- to go out and run until everything in you is screaming to stop, with your mate right by your side, suffering through it with you. Sounds weird to say it but I think it was a phenomenal experience we shared. I can't put my finger on what specifically it was that made it such an impact, but there was something to it. We had been out there before together, but she always had to ride her bike along side me on my long runs. This was different. She was in it with me, and she took great pride in doing so.

On the strength front, I did 900 pushups, 1100 crunches, and 310 pullups. Pretty good start. The one thing that concerns me is that I've not been able to get to that level where I'm sore the next day...from the strength training side of this deal. I'm concerned. My past experience and conditioning tell me I have to be sore as hell to know I hit it hard the day before. Not sure that's even accurate. Who knows?...there's so much information and misinformation out there. Hell, read Mens Health or any other fitness mag and you'll find four articles in there, all taking contradictory positions, with research backing all of them. Paralysis by analysis. Who cares. Do this, don't do that. Do that, don't do this. It's confusing as hell. Just move your fat ass, I say.

All in all, I'm stoked about the progress I'm making in my life right now. The consistent running at high miles always seems to strip away the noise in my head and allows me to enjoy myself, instead of obsessing about every little detail. Details in my business, details in my other business, details in my investments, details in my relationships, details in my cash flow. This stuff adds up. If I'm not able to stow it away and deal with it in chunks, I hear the noise and it hurts the quality of my life. Ultimately, it effects the quality of my family's lives, and I don't want to ever be the guy who drains the room of energy and life. Hell, my family looks to me to "bring it" every time I walk through the door. If I'm distracted, I let them down.

Both businesses are cranking right now. My contracting biz is starting to explode. My activity level has been tremendous...canvassing personally, building the marketing systems, and closing deals. We are 25% ahead in sales of YTD in 2009...off to a great start. My other biz endeavor is rocking as well. We are 42% ahead of last year's numbers. Amazing! No question in my mind that it's about what's going on inside of me that's giving me the results. It's 90 Days to Discipline that's driving this train. The discipline and perserverence it takes/builds is all we need to build the life we want for us and our families. I, personally, will never look back. I will never accept mediocrity for us again. This is who I've become. Have I made all the changes I want to make? No...absolutely not. But, am I rockin and rollin? Hell yeah.

So, here we are...a month or so later and we're still doing our deal. We're visualizing first thing in the morning. We are locking in for our hour of power, during which we go through gratitude, visualize as if, and then bust our butts in the gym. We lock into our plans to achieve and make sure our day is focused 100% on executing our Simple Disciplines -- those highest-value tasks that drive 95% of our positive results for our fitness, businesses, relationships, bank accounts, spirituality. Then we do the deal at work...selling, building marketing systems, doing the things that allow us to experience massive growth through personal relationships and closing deals with confidence yet a sense of urgency. We work hard, we work smart, and we serve(at the highest levels), those who can help us.

Then we come home and be the best men we can be...for our wives and our children. We lead, by example, lives of virtue, of discipline, of compassion and of hard work. Our kids will never want for anything because they've learned, by example, what a life of true service is about.

Then we wrap it all up with some blogging, writing, studying, so we can separate ourselves from the rest of the pack. Because, in the end, everybody is out selling, calling on customers and prospects, adding value. The difference is that we study and pour ourselves into mastering our craft, so that we are able to serve at the highest level, not at a mid to low level. Commitment fellas. It's what will determine whether our families get to experience all of what life has to offer or they get rationalizations about why they can not. That will be determined at certain moments of decision...early in the morning, when you're all tucked in bed still and you're deciding whether or not to get up before dawn and get your butt moving for the day, and when your evening is winding down...the kids are in bed and you must choose between blogging, writing, studying or watching the ballgame or Criminal Minds. It's these moments of decision our destinies are shaped.

Life, Success are a marathon, not a sprint. This I know for sure. But, we have to get on board right now, because our future is determined by what we do every day, not what we do every once in a while. Get your Simple Disciplines down on paper. Commit to doing them. Commit to doing the things that will set you free. You may not become rich, in financial terms...but you'll absolutely become rich in knowing you have the courage and discipline to follow through on whatever you set out to achieve. That's freedom.

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Help a friend

If you help enough people get what they want, you'll end up with everything you want...Zig Ziglar.

So true. Seems as though the more I pay attention to this principle, the more the world confirms it. This concept has been top of mind for me for the past two years. This kind of focus has almost forced me into the mindset of looking for opportunities to help the great people I know who could ultimately help me. Last night I had one of these example come up, so I feel compelled to share the story.

Our market here in Bloomington is relatively small in the remodel/home building arena. There's a lot of volume, but there's a relatively small number of "players"...a few big fish in a small pond. A few years ago I met one of the good guys on the real estate/home building side. He instantly made the list...the list of guys who could have an impact on my business, if I made it a point to help him.

Make a long story short, today he's been a great help in my business. He's given me roof projects on four or five of his rental properties, and has referred at least twelve people who've bought roofs from me. Awesome center of influence for me, to say the least.

Last night, I got a chance to re-pay this man. I was going door to door in the premier subdivision in town, trying to drum up leads for my contracting biz. I was having a good amount of success, really, and was feeling pretty damn confident. I stopped at the house I actually consider my dream home, because it's about 16 years old, and will be needing a roof soon. The owner was friendly...receptive. Turns out he's selling the place and would rather the new owner handle the roof. His only immediate request was that I help him with a leak he's been dealing with since last summer. When he told me he was wanting to sell, I asked who he was planning to list the house with. He had no real loyalty to any particular realtor, but had decided to use a guy I know at Prudential. By the way, this guy he said he was using, the realtor, is a total dick. He took a bunch of free window treatments from my wife, promising to steer business her way and never reciprocated. He's one of those blowhards who takes free lunches all week from small business owners who count on realtors to direct business to them, as their main system of marketing. This guy really only worries about himself, yet he promises everybody everything, just to look big time. Anyway, because of the tremendous support I've received from my realtor buddy, I went out of my way to push the issue with this homeowner. By the time I left, he couldn't wait to speak to my friend. When someone gives such strong reviews, who has no skin in that particular game, it sends a strong signal to the buyer. I think I just got my friend a $1.8 million listing. All because he helped me over and over without any expectation of getting anything in return.

This morning, by 9:00 am, I've already received two calls from people with roof issues who got my number from this same realtor. Amazing what happens when you help great people without expectation. It's the way the world works.

The real key here is that you're only going to get referrals from people if they're willing to go out of their way to help you. You have to make quite an impression for them to carry you that close in their day to day dealings. Think about that for a second. Everybody has their own issues they're dealing with. The last thing on anybody's mind is what's going on with you and what you need. They've got their own problems...family problems, cash flow problems, employee problems, customer problems, you name it. So, when, in the course of their day, somebody mentions in passing needing a roof, I'd better have done them right if they're going to stop what they're doing and say...."I've got a guy you have to call. He's the best, the only guy in town I'd ever use for a roof project". My situation last night is a great example. My boy has given me over $50,000 in profit from his referrals. Hell yes I'm going to find him every single piece of business I can find. His commission potential on this one house is at $108,000. Think he'll go out of his way to keep referring me to folks who talk about needing a roof? I believe he will. Plus, it felt damn good to make that call to tell him I may have gotten him a listing. Is there anybody out there fighting in your corner?

Keep this in mind when you feel like you're done for the day or the week. There's always time to go out and find a way to help somebody..especially somebody who could help you at some point.

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Results mar 11, 2010

Rested today, and ate a ton. My body needed the rest and the fuel. Back at it hard manana!!

Measure and quantify

Are these goals we've created as far away as they seem?

Think about just one of your "things" goals we've created over this journey...and consider what you need to do financially to get it. For the sake of our discussion, let's look at an example, so we can determine exactly how much we have to step up our earnings. A dream home...Imagine I've gone out and taken a great photo of the house my wife and I just love. It's hanging on our bathroom mirror for me to see every morning when I arise and every night before I rack out. The lakefront lot...the open floor plan, the quad staircases, the five car garage, the office with the dark mahogany woodworking. My wife would be stoked beyond belief if I brought home the keys to this place.

Ok, now let's use this goal to take a hard look at the numbers, to determine how much extra money we've got to make to have this home, to see how far we are from making this happen. Once we figure out how to break our goals down into workable numbers...and they are workable, we can apply our formula to just about everything else we wish to be, do, or have. My goal is to bring these dreams, that just seem like abstract, hazy "what ifs", much closer, because you'll see we're not that far away once you put the numbers to them. The house scenario will illustrate my point.

Look at what the house costs. Let's say it's $650,000. Compare that with our current hypothetical mortgage and take the difference. Let's say our place now costs $2,000 per month, with taxes and insurance. The difference is $4,000 per month, roughly, when you add in the extra dough on the principal, plus the increase in taxes. Now we've got a real number to work with. $4,000

Now, let's look at how I get paid for what I do. I have two main vehicles for earning money. One is as a commissioned sales rep/owner of a manufacturing company; the other is a contracting business in which we complete projects for homeowners..mainly roofing. What do I need to do to earn an extra $4,000 per month? What do you need to do to earn the $4,000?

On the rep side - my commission rate is 5% on what I sell. I'd need to sell $80,000 per month extra to be able to buy that home. On the contracting side, my average sale is $10,000, with a profit margin of 30%....$3,000 per project. So, I'd need to sell a job and a half per month to make it work. Simple right?

Let's take the equation a step further, to gain a better understanding. In order for me to sell an additional $80,000 per month, what would I need to do? Well, there's a bunch of ways to get to $80,000, but let's begin with our average customer and use that as our baseline. The average dealer direct customer is going to buy $10-$20K per month from us. We'll use the $10K for our formula. We need 8 customers buying $10K each to get us there.

We have a couple of strategies we can utilize. One, is to find 8 new dealers...guys that have never bought anything from us. We could also go to our existing dealers and figure out a way to earn a greater percentage of their business or we could dig in and help them grow their business with us organically. These are our choices.

In my experience, it's always more effective and cost effective to grow the business with the folks who are buying from you now. New customers are more difficult to get in front of. They're going to take time, for sure, and there are lots of variables in the equation that take time to uncover and understand. The dealers who've already raised their hands and said "I like you, I trust you, I'm going to buy from you", these folks are gold, because they already see the value in you and your product and organization.

That all being said, I like the concept of utilizing both strategies. Organic growth is easier, it's less expensive, less time consuming, and it works. But, new business is the lifeblood of any organization. We have to bring new faces into the mix...it's how we increase our market share and develop more quality relationships with people in our industry. So, I'm going to shoot for $30K of organic growth and $50K of new biz growth. This will make my partners happy and we'll get to know more people for future growth.

What do we need to do over the next 90 days to get those 5 new dealers on board? We simply have to work the numbers. Sales, as we all know, is a numbers game, ultimately. It's a relationship game, but we have to work the numbers in order to hit our numbers. We see x number of prospects...we pitch x number of deals...to convert y number of dealers. You know your numbers, I can't help you with that. The only thing I can offer is my numbers, so you can see a real example of what this looks like.

I usually convert 3 to 5 out of 10 dealers I speak with. I'm talking about guys who take the time to sit down and really open up about their business. If I can get them talking about what's going on and what keeps them up at night, my closing ratio goes through the roof. But, for this example, I'll use 3 of 10 as my number. So, I need to cultivate deals for 20 prospects, in order to get my 5 or 6 new guys on board.

My system for working new guys is like this...I schedule meetings with them every other week for the entire quarter, making sure I get my mug in front of them six times. Each time I'll make damn sure I'm bringing it....I'm not showing up to kick the tires and beg for business. I'm showing up with focus, intensity, and a sense of urgency to help him grow his business. I don't worry about mine. If I help him, my numbers will be there. So, for the next quarter, I'm going balls out to help these 20 guys grow and make more profit. The numbers will be there...I promise you.

The existing customer approach is no different, except the numbers change. I'll dig in with my 5 or 6 top existing dealers, who I know have the ability to buy more from us, or have the capacity to grow. I'm also going to see them every other week for the next quarter, taking the same approach. Laser focused on growing their business. No begging, no whining about the economy, no nonsense at all. I'll come in with leads that I found canvassing the night before. Imagine the response you'll get if you walk into that owner's office with three qualified leads. He'll love you forever. But, again, it's the same intense approach. They'll see you're for real and are willing to do what you say you'll do.

In total, we're actually targeting 25-30 customers in total. These are our targets for the next 90 days. We see half of them this week, the other half next week - 15 calls per week, which is the number I shoot for. If you're seeing much more than 30, it seems to me like you've got too much going on. You can't do that many people justice. Remember, we're not just looking to make sales...we're looking for great people to be our partners. We must position ourselves as one of the elite. Our actions dictate how we're positioned with our customers and prospects. High-level problem solving, laser focus on growth and profitability, with a sense of urgency to close business every single day with your new partners will allow you to shatter your numbers. Just remember to focus on your core group...we can't spread ourselves too thin.

At the same time, I'm going to work to earn that same $4K on the contracting side of my business. Why not? If I earn $8K per month extra, instead of just the $4K, that'd be just fine. How do I do this? This is much easier to figure out....

My canvassing experience has provided us with pretty reliable metrics. We know that a canvasser will generate at least one good lead per hour if they work the targeted neighborhoods we've outlined in our packet. We close at least one out of three leads we run. So, to find a job and a half per month, we need an extra 4 or 5 leads. Simple. Real damn simple. All I have to do is get the canvassers out an extra hour or so per week. That'd give us the numbers we need to earn an extra $4,000 per month that would allow me to buy my wife and kids the house of their dreams...in this scenario.

Moving forward, we all need an action plan. My plan is to make damn sure I know who my 30 targets are on the rep side. I've got six geographic segments of my sales territory with five targets in each, approximately. Develop a route plan to cover all of your targets each time you hit that segment of the market. Remember, the goal is to hit each target every other week. This really goes right back to our Simple Disciplines. We have to make our sales calls every day. In order to get them all scheduled, we have to make our phone calls - 10 per day. This will ensure we're seeing enough people and have the funnel full at all times.

The plan for my contracting biz is to have the canvassing team out working for leads 16-20 hours per week. This should result in 16 - 20 leads per week. This will give me the 5-6 jobs per week I'm shooting for this season. This sytem will shatter the $4K needed to buy that dream home.

We can't forget to remain balanced. We have to get our butts in shape...running, doing pushups, pullups, crunches. We have to keep eating clean. I've got to keep blogging and working to complete my first book. Gotta keep locking in with the wives when we walk through that door. We've got to keep studying and learning. It's all about balance. We want to be much more than just a money maker.

Hopefully, I shared enough specifics for you to apply this to your situation. You may have different goals, I'm sure your numbers are different. Doesn't matter. What matters is that it's easy and it's key to break these goals down. When we sit back and just sort of dream of having nice things, it's easy to leave it at that - a dream. If we take a minute to look at the numbers, we often see we're much closer than we think. Would it really be that difficult to generate an extra $4K per month? It's closer than we all think. We just have to stay focused on those Simple Disciplines.

Flip the switch

results mar 10, 2010

Again, the deal is to complete the following over a 55 day period, that began two days ago:

Run 200 miles
Complete 5000 pushups
5000 crunches
2500 pullups

Today's numbers...

ran 6 miles
50 pullups

Great day. It's days like these I'm proud of most. I had a tough time physically and mentally but pushed through and finished. Outstanding.

A little push

The discipline to push through, when others quit.

Four miles into my run today, I seriously felt like my heart was going to tear open and spill out onto the gym floor. We all have days where we just don't have much in the tank...today was one of those days. The pain was overriding any drive I had to press on. Repeated attempts to reference some belief in my brain, to find an empowering philosophy failed, time after time. Normally, some strong belief comes to the surface when I'm about to quit and am rationalizing about how much that would actually make sense. Today...nothing.

For some reason, though, I told myself to keep on going, even if I had to walk. Quitting was not an option, even though I was racing through every rationalization I had in the bag. So, I kept on. I slowed the pace to a brisk walk, so I could catch my breath a bit and hopefully, find some reason why I should reach down and find the gumption to keep going. My head was frickin pounding. My legs felt like they were someone else's, and I just could not get it going. Music wasn't doing the trick...nor was any of the internal searching I was doing.

Then it hit me...this blog. I realized I was going to have to sit down tonight and update this thing, and discuss my activity for the day. My goal for this run was six miles, and I wanted to be able to jot that number down tonight when I posted. I swear the pressure that comes with professing your goals to the world is one of the most powerful motivators we have in our arsenal. Nobody wants to look like a poser. It's the worst...at least that's what my rules tell me. I won't look like a douche. I'm sure that's ego..and a problem, in somebody's eyes. I don't care. It's what moves me into action. Now that I know this, I have a hugely effective strategy for leveraging myself into taking action.

The last two miles of the run were still brutal, but I finished. Not sure I would've had the guts to, if I hadn't dug deep and found a reference to drive me into that state of never backing down. We all have our thing that gives us this leverage. It may be a towards thing, it may be an away from thing...doesn't matter. What matters is that we find the leverage we need to get our butts moving. What's yours?

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The update

A quick tool to improve your business...

Recently, I came across a great little tool in managing yourself or your team. Well, actually, it's about managing our focus...the ultimate time management strategy. We can't do anything with time, other than manage what we choose to focus on during that time. That being said, I've got something that can help us manage our focus...

Commit to the following exercise:

At the end of each day, send yourself(or have your team send you) a daily business update. The update consists of three questions.
1. What did I do today? These are your results.
2. What challenges/problems did I come up against?
3. What questions do I have as a result?

Simple, yes. Powerful, yes. It's powerful because it drives activity. I don't care what business endeavor you're involved in, activity is the key to driving revenue. The more activity we create on the front end of our businesses, the more opportunities we get to land new deals. It's a numbers game, plain and simple. The more deals we pitch, the more we end up closing. Just knowing you've got to fill out the update will be enough to make sure you're out doing the deal...seeing enough prospects, making enough phone calls, creating awesome solutions for clients, etc.

Now, as a tool for leading new people(other than yourself), the update is extraordinary. First, you'll see if they even have the stones or wherewithall to send you the damn thing. You'd be amazed how many bullshit artists there are out there who talk big game and do nothing. You'll weed these losers out right off the bat. If they do send it, you'll know if they've got the courage and consistency to make it long-term. If they're not coming up against challenges, if they're not coming up with questions - good questions, you'll know they're not doing what they should be doing to make your business grow. The challenges/questions portion will allow you to sift through the bullshit, in case they're putting more focus into lying on the update than they are the actual gig.

The update will make you a better business person...period. The guilt would be overwhelming if you had to bullshit yourself on your own update. That'd be more than I could handle. If you haven't noticed, these are difficult times out there. Millions of good peeps are without work, and would do just about anything to take your job away from you, given the chance. We must step up our game, regardless of how well we may be producing currently. We owe it to ourselves, to our families, to our partners, to our employers to get better and go out and beat the bushes. The update will only help us in this endeavor.

Flip the switch

Today's Results -- Mar 9, 2010

Again, the objective is 200 miles from Mar 8 to May 1, a total of 55 days. Also, to perform 5000 pushups, 5000 crunches, and 2500 pullups.

Today's results...

3 miles
120 pushups
180 crunches
0 pullups

Pretty rough day, mentally, as far as getting off my ass and getting to it. I fought like hell to even get to the gym. Rationalizations were flying around my head all morning, all afternoon. I absolutely hate this side of my brain chemistry. Not sure what it is with our ability to make the worst of decisions sound like a genius plan. The good news is I pushed through it, though. I got some activity done on a day in which I'd have normally have pulled up lame. So, good day all-in-all.

The diet was pretty solid as well. I ate clean at Subway for lunch and had some baked lean chicken breast for dinner, with some steamed broccoli and whole grain noodles. Mixed in an apple mid-afternoon.

Getting closer.