techniques Archives - Page 4 of 16

So You Want to Sell Your Soap? (Part One)

June 15, 2011 Filed Under: Business Musings

This is the first of a three part series on selling soap. Part One will discuss general topics like packaging and labeling, where to sell, licenses, taxes, etc. Part Two will discuss issues specific to cold process soap and Part Three will discuss issues specific to melt and pour soap.

You’re excited! You love soap and you want to sell yours. You love your product, you love making it, your friends love it! Now what?

There are several considerations:

How will you package it?
Where will you sell it?
What does the government want from you or require of you?
Where can you get insurance?

We’ll take one at a time.

Packaging: If you’re selling your soap, people will be picking it up, smelling it, passing it to friends and family, dropping it and so forth. If you’re doing markets and fairs, you’ll be packing and packing, transporting and displaying your product. In a nutshell: It’s going to get battered. When you package your soap, you should think about how you can best protect it and how you can best get information to the buyers on your package. One of the cheapest ways to wrap your soap is with what’s called a cigar band. It’s just a strip of paper that goes around the bar. You can use plain or fancy paper, you can print them yourself or have them printed. In the photo below, you can see my soap with cigar band wrapping. The logo and soap scent are listed on the front; ingredients, etc., are on the back.

Cigar band-style labels indicate brand and scent

You can wrap vertically or horizontally. The bands on my soap are quite narrow, but most people still place their fingers on the paper when they pick up the bar.

Obviously, you can go beyond the cigar band. You can use paper or fabric to wrap the whole bar, you can shrink wrap the bars, use boxes, fabric bags…. The list goes on. Bottom line: Protect the bars.

[Read more…]

How To Avoid Social Media Wipeout

June 8, 2011 Filed Under: Business Musings

You may be familiar with the ABC “Wipeout” series, where people compete in an extreme obstacle course for the title of “Wipeout Champion” and a chance to win $50,000. My family and I enjoy watching it from time to time, though I cringe when people are catapulted 50 feet into their air into a pool of water, or are hit in the head with a swinging pendulum.

Isn’t social media sort of like that? We’re thrown into deep water without a net, and forced to sift through a sea of “how to” information to figure out what works best for us. To be sure, there’s a lot of great information out there, but avoiding social media wipeout boils down to doing three simple things: [Read more…]

The Power of the Pause

June 1, 2011 Filed Under: Business Musings

I spent the last several days on pause, on #INDIECruise 2011. You can enjoy the photo album at our FaceBook Page here. As most of you know, this is a rare thing for me — or at least it used to be. Along with Lela Barker, Kelly Bloom, Dawn Fitch, Maria Gelnett, Robin Schmidt, Stephanie Craig, Nikki Brown, La Shonda Tyree and other IBN members and friends, I traded in my laptop and iPhone for the power of the pause.

Playa de San Juan, Mexico

I took this photo on Playa de San Juan, on Cozumel’s northwestern coast. While on pause, I enjoyed freshly prepared meals, an amazing spa, powerful MasterMind sessions, several amazingly creative INDIEs, and our earth’s natural beauty. I am now emerged from my pause inwardly and outwardly refreshed. Not once did I feel out of touch with anyone or anything. Instead, I felt in touch with myself, and that makes all the difference. Here are some of the ways I benefited from the power of the pause, and how you can too.

Experience beauty. Nature is healing. The sound of waves, the aroma of fresh sea air, the reflection of the sun and moon on the water’s smooth surface, the crash of waves against the rocky shore of Playa de San Juan, the peaceful flow of schools of fish in a clear blue sea. When you pause, try to do so in nature. You’ll feel alive and more a part of all things greater than yourself.
Create and strengthen relationships. I enjoyed deep and meaningful conversations. We shared long embraces. We laughed until we cried, then we cried until we laughed. I formed deep friendships, and watched others do the same. If you pause for nothing else, pause to create deep and lasting relationships with other human beings.
Celebrate the moment. I stopped many times just to breathe and feel where I was. Whether on a rocky shore, a gently shaking cabin bed, or overlooking the port as the ship sailed into or out of it, I relished the simple experience of where I was at the moment.

A Final Note

You don’t have to go to Mexico to experience the power of the pause. You can create your own mini-pauses throughout the day by shutting everything down for 15 or 20 minutes every afternoon. Turn off the computer, mute the phone, don’t answer knocks at the door, and let your family members and/or employees know that you are not to be disturbed for this period of time. Even though my pause took place while on #INDIEcruise with wonderful people, I went off to myself for stretches of time each day. You can do the same wherever you are, as you plan for a more comprehensive future pause. Speaking of which …

Join Us in 2012?

You can start planning to pause with us on #INDIEcruise 2012 by joining the public #INDIEcruise FaceBook Page where you’ll get the first update shortly about the date and location of our next cruise. We will make it easy for everyone to attend my including a payment plan so you can pay in small chunks. No pain, all gain!

Question: When was the last time you paused? What benefits and tips can you share?

Generate Sales With Your Email Newsletter

May 18, 2011 Filed Under: Business Musings

If you are a small business owner, your chief job responsibility is to generate sales. There are many ways to do that, and if you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I am a big fan of online newsletters. They are an inexpensive way to stay in touch with customers and show them that you care, even when they are not buying something from you. They are a great cross-promotional tool, and if they contain quality content, they are also great at generating sales leads.

Many people publish a newsletter because they know it’s a good thing to do, but that’s where it ends. Some don’t know exactly how to properly format a newsletter, while others don’t know how to create sales generating content for the publication. I addressed the issue of formatting in a webinar with my members recently. (If you’re a member, you can log in to Private INDIE and get it here.) This blog post shares tips for creating newsletter content that generates sales leads.

[Read more…]

The Power Of A Vision Board

May 10, 2011 Filed Under: Business Musings

Karen Bowlding is my cousin. She’s also a wife and mother, and an author. Her new book, Say No With A Smile,” has just been published in ebook format. While Karen and I have known each other all our lives, we’ve become closer since she started her business, Karen Bolding Edit, Write & Design. This is Karen’s 2011 vision board.

Karen was inspired by my family’s creation of our 2011 vision boards to create her own. Before a vision board, Karen’s new year “resolution” routine was to record general life goals on a piece of paper, which she promptly lost. She says this is different, and I asked her to tell me why. Here’s what she said.

Immediate gratification. Karen says she enjoyed immediate gratification from the process of creating the board. Instead of paper and scissors, Karen used Logo Design Studio”>Logo Design Studio for her vision board. The board was created in about two hours, most of which was invested in thinking about her life. Within 48 hours, Karen had an experience that confirmed the value of her vision board.When her daughter threw food on the floor while eating dinner yesterday, Karen quickly glanced at the vision board displayed as the screen saver on her laptop. “I quickly decided this was a $5 issue, not a $50 issue and, instead of fussing at my daughter, I simply told her to finish her meal and pick up the food after she was done.” Karen says this resulted in reduced stress for both of them. Karen says that, because her vision board contains visual cues to “pick my battles,” she was able to incorporate the visual into her life to improve an important aspect of her day — dining with her 3-year old child. Karen says that now that the image is in her mind, she can call it forth when she needs it, not just when it’s in front of her on her screen saver.
Bringing it home. Karen says that the process of thinking about what she would include in her 2011 vision board forced her to compartmentalize and be more specific about her goals. Before using a vision board, Karen’s “write-it-on-paper” method resulted in a few days of motivation. Since Karen selected graphics and fonts for her vision board that resonate for her. As a result, she’s more invested in it. Says Karen, “I was able to ‘bring it home’ and focus on specific behaviors and things I want to do to create the life I want to have this year.”
Focus on triggers. Karen chose graphics for her vision board that reinforce positive results she has previously enjoyed as a result of engaging in specific activities. For example, because candles and a bath help her relax, the board’s visual of the candle and rocks, underneath the word, “relax” helps Karen recall peaceful times of solitude in the bath. The visual encourages her to want to re-create that experience. This desire It triggers action that leads to the specific result Karen desires — reduced stress

“My goal is to change myself, and therefore make things better for me and my family,” says Karen. “My vision board will help me do that; it’s already happening!”

By this time next year, Karen says, “I plan to have a significantly reduces stress level in large part because I will intentionally say, ‘No” more often. I also expect to have a stronger marriage as a result of communicating more clearly and effectively with my husband.” This intention is represented in the board as well.

I’ll check back in with Karen later this year to see whether her 2011 vision board is in the pile with the “write-it-on-paper” goal sheets of the past, or whether it’s has the positive impacts she expects as she leads her business and herself into 2011.

Go Karen!

Question: If you have a 2011 vision board, how do you use it? Is it a physical poster or virtual like Karen’s?

Marketing your Soap Business

April 19, 2011 Filed Under: Business Musings

Whether you are a small “craft fair” type of entrepreneur or have a “brick and mortar” shop there are several marketing ideas that can benefit your business.Email Marketing

Email marketing is extremely powerful. Emails are customizable, cost effective, easily tracked and best of all they are highly targeted to consumers interested in what you have to offer. Email marketing is one of the best ways to not only get new customers but to keep the customers you already have by communicating with them and reminding them of what you have to offer. There is a fine line between email marketing and spam. Be sure you adhere to all email marketing best practices.

There are some great email marketing service providers on the web that will allow you to create lists, design emails (no design or HTML skills needed) and track your emails sent. Two of these companies are www.constantcontact.com and www.icontact.com. They do charge a monthly fee based on the number of contacts you have but it’s well worth the organization, tracking and design features they offer. Both of these sites also offer a free trial so you can try it out ahead of time.

Apply It!
Collect your customer’s email addresses whether at craft shows or from customers at your shop. Ask them if they would like to receive emails from you with updates on products or shows you are going to be selling at.

[Read more…]

The Thank You Economy

April 5, 2011 Filed Under: Business Musings

I am extremely lucky that I’ve heard some of the best business minds in the country speak over my last decade in business. Gary Vaynerchuk is one of those minds. Though his message isn’t rocket science but the way he presents the information is compelling and moves people to action. In person, he’s a bit like Lassie on Red Bull – frenetic, hyper, happy, and wagging his tail because he’s got an audience. Though, to be fair, he did tell us that he would be just as jazzed to speak to 10 people as he was to speak to the 500+ people in the audience last week.

Big props to our local Village Books for bringing Gary in. Some of the high points, in my mind:

* SEO is going social – Google has changed its search algorithms to include social media (this blog, my Twitter stream, Quora – any open systems. Hint: Facebook isn’t open). This means that Google, the largest search engine in the world, will be looking for relevancy. It’s not just about putting a bunch of key words on your page. It’s about who is talking about you, what you said about XYZ product in the last 2 days and on what medium. Keeping up to date and relevant in consumers’ minds remains key for business success but romancing the Google machine will mean that you need to remain active in social media spheres.

* Winners do it til the job gets done. – Never. Ever. Quit. Ever. Period. Even in this “new” economy, hard work still has a place. It still matters. It always has. It always will. There is no substitute for a work ethic and tenacity that won’t quit.

* Shepherd your new customers. Tend to your old customers more. – Yes, it’s about attracting new customers but more importantly, it’s about saying ‘Thank You’ more frequently and retaining your old customers. Getting new customers costs a lot of money compared to retaining your current customers.

* It’s not just about transparency; it’s about authenticity. Never be selling. Always be helping. – Gary talked about how he uses search.twitter.com He just goes on there, sees who is talking about wine and is helpful about wine selections. He doesn’t pimp his own products or website (though he easily could) but rather, he just jumps in and is helpful. And in the end, that will eventually garner him new customers and loyal repeat customers. The art of reciprocity is alive and well.

I thought this series of photos was funny – you can see that Gary is extremely focused on whatever is in front of him. Notice he’s moving away while I’m still stuck in the moment, happily smiling for the camera. When he’s focused on you, he’s there 100% but when he’s done, he’s intensively focused on the next person. His charisma is palpable and his smile is quick to materialize. If you haven’t heard of Gary, here’s his website. And, if you’re interested in his new book “The Thank You Economy” (I bought it – I can’t wait to read it!), more information is here (Amazon) or locally (Village Books).

How to Deal with Haters

January 25, 2011 Filed Under: Business Musings

photo by Michael Lorenzo

Bramble Berry is growing (rapidly!). We’ve hired six people in the last two weeks. One of those people was an assistant to our Chief Marketing Officer (though for a small business, having the title ‘Chief Marketing Officer’ might be reaching but hey, aspirational titles are good too, right?). We put the ad out on Craigslist for $9.75/hour. Since the job was for an assistant who would help with graphic design, we proudly gave the URL of our website so applicants could see the quality of work we currently put out and would expect of them. Within 4 hours, the first tweet came: “$9.75/hour? Doesn’t that seem low to you?”

Minimum wage in Washington state is $8.57/hour. Federally, it’s $7.25/hour. Paying $2.50 over federal minimum wage for an entry level, part-time position doesn’t seem low to me. That’s the going rate for an assistant. So, I tweeted back and said something to the effect of “No, it doesn’t seem low. And everyone at BB, even our COO starts low.” That’s true. We don’t hire people who have money as their number one motivation. For one thing, we’ll never be able to keep them. Our company, though profitable and growing, does put the “Small” in “Small Business.” Unless you advance in the company with responsibilities and job title, your position pays the going market rate. And advancement does happen – our Chief Operating Officer started at $7/hour pulling orders and our Chief Marketing Officer started as my part-time assistant and took a $5/hour pay cut to come work for us.

The Tweets got progressively meaner:

And, as local Tweeple started RT’ing (re-tweeting) our job (because yes, yes we are a rockin’ place to work with very low turnover for our core team), one person on Twitter started harrassing the people who RT’ed the job:

Even as I look at the Tweet screenshots above, I can feel my blood pressure start to rise and my heart start to beat quickly. I want to get snotty and ask what sort of business degrees that person has, what sort of small business they’ve run and how in the world they think they know what our company makes. But, this type of thing happens when you start to have a higher profile and start to be more successful. So, coming up with a better coping mechanism than defensive sarcasm is a more mature response.

How to Deal With Haters (or, in texting lingo: “H8trs”)

Step One: Examine the premise. Is the criticism true? Is it valid? How much of it is valid? What could you do differently in the future? What should you have done differently? In this case, I’m happy with my actions and my company’s actions.

Step Two: Examine the source. Who is delivering the message? What medium are they delivering it to you in? For example, in person delivery is significantly more valid than anonymous sniping on Twitter by someone with 22 followers. If you do know the person, what kind of person are they? Do they consistently tear people down or do you find them to be a thoughtful, rational person? Are they speaking from experience?

Step Three: Identify your feelings. How are you feeling? No matter how you’re feeling (sad, wounded, defensive, angry), your feelings are valid. The hater’s perceived reality may or may not be valid. Whatever you’re feeling is okay. Extra credit: Journal about the situation for 20 minutes, writing without stopping.

Step Four: Step 4: Recognize that to ‘Assume’ makes an ‘A$$’ out of U and Me. What assumptions are being made by you here? What assumptions are being made by the hater? In this case, the assumption that Bramble Berry is ‘raking it in’ and is deliberately undercutting the market were being made. However, judging from the flood of resumes that came in, that market rate was appropriate for the job.

Step Five: Circle the Wagons. Let the healing begin by reaching out to those who love, admire and respect you. In this case, my husband who spent a good 30 minutes calming me down and my CMO and COO all got text messages at 10 p.m. at night. Every single one of them responded quickly and reassuringly. I went out to lunch with my friend @BobPritchett who is a CEO I greatly admire and an awesome VC fund guru Robin Halliday and told them the story to get their take on it. I told another CEO, @PCValentine the situation. I got their feedback. And they all gave me the same response: “You’re employing people and creating jobs. Don’t apologize for creating a job that wasn’t there to begin with, even if it’s lower than you wish you could pay.” It was nice to be validated and feel supported.

Step Six: Respond with kindness and positivity. Do not respond with anger or hurt. Remember, the origianl message speaks more about the messenger than it does you. It costs you nothing to be kind. It costs you nothing to be gracious. How do you want to look back on this situation in 5 years? In 10 years? Always do the classy thing, even if you’re the only one watching.

Testing 1, 2, 3!

January 6, 2011 Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

Yes, I know I’m always declaring that this or that is my favorite. But I really mean it this time. . . for now, anyway. I love our new 12 bar square silicone mold. It is so perfect for testing soaps but also makes 12 perfect bars of soap in a flash! We do a lot of soap testing to ensure that each fragrance we carry is safe for use in cold process soap. For every fragrance you see at Brambleberry.com, we’ve tested at least 100 more (really, I swear, that is not an exaggeration) that didn’t make the cut.

Rather than go over the basics of how to make cold process soap again, I’m just going to share my basic technique for testing fragrances. If you’ve never made cold process soap before please learn about the safety precautions and basic steps first. My series of 4 videos about how to make cold process soap would be a great place to start. Episode 1: Lye Safety, Episode 2: Basic Terms, Episode 3: Using Fragrances, and Episode 4: Using Colorants. And if I catch you making soap without goggles, may the Soap Fairies forever take away your soaping luck.

This is a really great basic recipe that I frequently use for testing. It makes a nice, hard bar of soap and with the high percentage of Olive Oil it traces slowly, which gives me plenty of working time. Get everything you need to make this recipe (except the fragrances and olive oil) with the click of a button.

Whenever you make CP soap, prep is very important. When you’re trying to test 12 fragrances, it’s ultra important. I gather all of my safety equipment, ingredients, tools, containers and molds. Next, I mix my Lye solution. While that’s cooling, I measure out my fats and oils.

Next, I weigh out all of my fragrances. It is really important when testing fragrance oils, like I am here, that everything is accurately weighed so that you can duplicate your successes .And, when all the fragrances are weighed out, you can just do a quick ‘dump ‘n’ stir’ – you need 12 little dishes if you’re working on 12 individual fragrances.

Next I mix my lye and oil and bring it to a very light light trace, after everything is prepped. Then I weigh out 4 ounces of soap batter into each container. I fill all 12 containers before moving on to the next step. You may have noticed that this recipe makes a little more than 48 oz. This is because you can never get every last drop of soap out of the pot, and with this recipe you are sure to have 4 full ounces for each bar.

Finally, I thoroughly mix in the fragrance into one of the cups (by hand with a spoon) and pour it into the mold. Then move on and do the next one. I have 12 individual spoons waiting to go. It’s the only way to ensure no scent contamination.

For clean-up there are a couple of ways you can tackle the job. You can wipe out the wet soap with a paper towel and then immediately run very hot water into the cups to wash the oily mess down the drain. Or you can wait a couple of days and wash the fresh soap out the cups. The waiting method is easier – but it only works if you have the space and enough containers that you don’t need them for a few days!

Do you have other testing tips and techniques? I’d love to hear them!

Stumbling Blocks or Five Surefire Paths to Failure

December 31, 2010 Filed Under: Business Musings

Click here for Day One: Examine Your Starting Point of ‘Designing your Best 2011!”

Click here for Day Two: Determine Your Values
Click here for Day Three: Visualize Your End Point
Click here for Day Four: Chunk Into Goals
Day Five: Stumbling Blocks
Day Six: Public Declaration/Word for the Year (and a wee small contest!)

We’ve all been there – excited, rarin’ to go and totally pumped up about a new goal or commitment that we make. And then a few weeks later, we find ourselves not keeping that commitment and within a few months, we pretend we never made the commitment to start with. I’ve done that. Everyone has done that. It’s human nature to make Big Hairy Audacious Goals and then let them slowly dwindle into nothing as life and time hammer us. I am going to touch upon the Five Surefire Paths to Failure when setting goals and give you tools to overcome each of these stumbling blocks.

1. You made a goal because your sister, husband, brother, mother, teacher, boss thought you should make it. You never truly committed to it.

I fall prey to this stumbling block often. I have a huge advisory board of people, all carefully vetted and chosen to help me along my path in business and life. Over the years, some of those advisers have given me downright bad advice. But, it sounded good at the time so I followed it. But ultimately, their goals weren’t the same as my goals and so I let those goals go.

The way to overcome this stumbling block is by doing exactly what we’ve done for the last three days: Determining our Values, Figuring out our Dream Future and using these tools to Create SMART goals.

2. Your lifestyle is years away from allowing you to reach the goal.

Yes, we all want to find time to work out 60 minutes per day, six days a week and cook healthy home cooked organic low fat veggie-filled meals daily (or is that just me?) but the reality is that very few of us, unless we’re independently wealthy or it’s our job to look good (a la movie stars) have that sort of schedule that allows us infinite amounts of time or resources.

Look at your goals. Do you realistically have the resources (time, money and/or support) to achieve your goal? If you are a Mom, working 2 part time jobs and getting your soap business off the ground, perhaps making a goal to become President of the Neighborhood Association AND the PTA isn’t a wise goal. You are lacking in the ‘time’ resource part of the equation. But, what you could make a small, reasonable (yes, realistic!) goal around is becoming more involved by attending one Neighborhood Meeting per month and going to one PTA meeting per month.

3. The goal is so big, so hairy and so audacious that there is no chance of meeting it.

In business school (well, at least the one I went to!), they taught us to dream big and make HUGE goals that were so big that they inspired everyone around us to help us reach those crazy, insane goals! I went along with this and have some insane goals from that time period of my life. And that’s okay. But for yearly goals, we want those goals to actually be achievable in a year. Take a look at your life (see step 2) and get real (see Day 1 of our Planning Your Best Year Ever series). There is absolutely no shame in downgrading or simplifying your goals. My goals for next quarter are laughably simple because my life is changing so radically with the addition of our baby boy into our family. But, laughably simple or not, they are still goals that get me along the pathway to my ultimate dream family and business life.

4. You always break promises to yourself. Why will this one be any different?

This is a toughie. Ultimately, lack of willpower is a character and practice issue. When you lie to yourself, it’s easy to lie to others. When you break promises to yourself, it’s easy to break promises to others. You are the most important person to always keep your promises to. Willpower and keeping promises to yourself is a daily practice. It is not easy. It is not a born, innate skill. It is a learned skill. It is something that is often a 2 steps forward, 1 step back type of practice. But every single 2 steps, 1 step gets us more along the path of ultimate success with willpower.

Wondering how to strength your willpower muscle? I wrote an article about it here. Additionally, there are tools you can use – simple things like setting Outlook calender reminders for your goals, buying Apps for your Smart Phone to put your goals into or gathering up a team of helpers (your kids!) to help keep you on the straight and narrow.

You are important. You are too important to continue breaking promises to yourself. Deliberately use 2011 to strengthen your willpower so that you can bust through any mental barrier set in front of you as you move through your goal list for 2011 successfully.

5. You don’t have a written plan in place with a support network.

This is my number one dynamic duo success tip. It did not originate with me. Many wiser people (including Jesus in the Bible) found that there is dramatic power in groups. I’ve written about this concept of Accountability Groups before (here, here and here). It is such a valuable success tool that this post would be remiss in not pointing it out, again. The concept of an accountability group is simple. Choose 2 people (not 1, it’s too easy to let things slide when it’s only one person you’re disappointing) and commit your goals TO PAPER and share them with one another. Make up your weekly and monthly plan and have it, on paper, to share with your accountability group. Check in with one another and give yourselves consequences and prizes.

Over the years, I’ve had a variety of differently structured accountability groups. My current one is comprised of three businesspeople (two guys and me) and we use DropBox to upload our goals and our progress for those goals to every other week. We speak on the phone every other week about our goals and meet in person 1 time per month to talk about our goals.

We have PAINFUL consequences for not meeting our goals. My consequences range from buying each smoking member on our staff cigarettes for the week to donating $250 to a charity I abhor. We also have celebrations and rewards for meeting our goals (as if the reward of meeting the goal wasn’t enough). Mine all revolve around cupcakes (no surprise).

Additionally, the important people in my life know about my goal and verbally give me cheering on to help me make the goals. In some cases (like date night with my husband weekly), they’re part of the goal! It’s important the people you are close with understand your goal so they can help support you in it. For example, if your spouse knows that your goal is to make yoga at 4:30 p.m. on Mondays every week, they will be less likely to expect dinner on the table by 6 p.m. on Mondays.

These are the major stumbling blocks I’ve experienced in my life as I’ve made goals, broken goals and succeeded in goals. If you have any stumbling blocks and great solutions, please share and post them here. I love group learning and I know there are more solutions out there than just the five I’ve listed.

Tomorrow is the big wrap up and a fun contest to kick off the New Year right! As for tonight, celebrate responsibly … =)

Chunk Into Goals – Planning 2011

December 29, 2010 Filed Under: Business Musings

Click here for Day One: Examine Your Starting Point of ‘Designing your Best 2011!”
Click here for Day Two: Determine Your Values
Click here for Day Three: Visualize Your End Point
Day Four: Chunk Into Goals
Day Five: Stumbling Blocks
Day Six: Public Declaration/Word for the Year (and a wee small contest!)

Today is where Day One, Two and Three come together in one glorious whoosh of activities.

1. Read through your Values. Is there anything in your Values that isn’t currently being actively fulfilled or worked on? For example, if Family is a value of yours but you never see yours, a goal around family time seems like a natural. Write down possible goals for the areas that have holes in your Values system.

2. Read through your Essay from yesterday. Where are you on that path way? Write down 10 concrete baby steps you could take in a year to get you closer to your dream house, body, partner or whatever you wrote down.

3. Look at the following categories and pick 5 (only 5!) to work on for the year:

Financial
Spiritual
Physical/Health
Fitness
Leisure Time/Recreation
Career
Family
Public Service
Business
Health
Artistic
Learning/Intellectual
Living Environment
Personal Relationship
Psychological/Attitude

Write down possible goals for each of these 5 categories. You can write down potential goals for each of the categories but the bare minimum is to write down goals for your top 5 categories.

Putting it all together

Do any of the above categories have a natural fit with the answers from #1 (Values) or #2 (Essay)? Now it’s time to make some tough choices. What are you going to choose as your Top Five Goals for the year from all of the options (1, 2 & 3)? At this point, don’t be surprised if you have 5 or 20 worthy potential goals. Remember, goals need to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic/Relevant, Time Oriented). I’ve written a few times about what a SMART goal looks like. If you need a refresher, here are 3 posts on SMART goal setting (here, here and here).

You should come out of this exercise with 5 worthy goals for 2010 based on your Values and your Idealized Life Essay. With the knowledge and understanding you gleaned from Day 1 (our ruthless self-assessment day), you’ll be well on your way to being 100% successful with your goals in 2011. Tomorrow, I’ll be taking a short break to post a fun winter tutorial (soap!) but on Friday, I’ll be back with a post on overcoming obstacles and pitfalls when on your path to achieving goals.

Great changes may not happen right away, but with effort even the difficult may become easy.

– Bill Blackmun

Visualize Your End Point

December 28, 2010 Filed Under: Business Musings

Click here for Day One: Examine Your Starting Point of ‘Designing your Best 2011!”
Click here for Day Two: Determine Your Values
Day Three: Visualize Your End Point
Day Four: Chunk Into Goals
Day Five: Stumbling Blocks
Day Six: Public Declaration/Word for the Year (and a wee small contest!)

“If you don’t know what you want, don’t say you never had a chance” Napoleon Hill

Have you ever started out on a trip and not gone to your trusty Garmin, or MapQuest or iPhone to figure out what turns to take? If you’re like me, you haven’t. We all love the magic of technology when it comes to actually getting to our destination and without getting (too!) lost. In order to get that accurate road map though, we need to know our final destination. We need to know the exact address of where we’re going.

It’s the same exact way with our goals. We need the final destination in mind. And not any destination. We need the specific address – the very specific final goal. Do you want to live in a new house? Don’t just say you want to live in a new house. Say “I want to live in a new house with 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, a pond for my dog to swim in and a 5 acre yard for my son to run around in. I want that home to be in this specific neighborhood. I want this home to cost XYZ.”

Do you have a weight loss goal? A fitness goal? A business dollar amount goal? A new partner goal? Anything and everything you want in the future can AND SHOULD be incredibly specific.

For this exercise, we are going to do a free form writing exercise for 20 minutes. The goal is to not let your pen leave the page. Not once. Keep writing. Even if it feels like gibberish. You can write longer if you want but if it feels like just forcing yourself to write each and every word, just give it 20 minutes for me. I want you to answer one very specific question:

In 10 years, when my life is ideal and I have reached all of my goals, this is what my life looks like.

If you read my idealized future essay, it is incredibly specific. It details getting up in the morning, the sheets I have (yes, they’re high thread count), the state of my white hotel-like bathrobe (fluffy and soft!), my polished toenails in slippers, what I see when I leave the bedroom, who is waiting for me at the table (yes, it involves children – plural!), what we eat at breakfast, how the conversation goes, what the emotions are at breakfast (enthusiastic children, loving partner, healthy breakfast food) how I get to work, what car I am driving, where I drop the children off at school.

It’s all the details plus the global stuff – how much we travel as a family, how often we see grandma and grandpa, how my business functions with and without me, how long my staff stay with my company etc… If you read it, it reads like the most perfect idealized life in the entire world. It is absolutely reaching for the stars and more. Much much more. And as kooky as it sounds, just dream with me for 20 minutes. Just do it so you can work on your final destination and get that end point for your personal road map clear.

Ready. Set. Write!

Determine Your Values

December 27, 2010 Filed Under: Business Musings

Click here for Day One: Examine Your Starting Point of ‘Designing your Best 2011!”
Day Two: Determine Your Values
Day Three: Visualize Your Ending Point
Day Four: Chunk Into Goals
Day Five: Stumbling Blocks
Day Six: Public Declaration/Word for the Year (and a wee small contest!)

My Values

One of the reasons that goals are not achieved is because the ideas behind the goals aren’t all that fully formed. The initial excitement wears off as soon as real life starts to wear you down. Sometimes, the goals aren’t the right goals. Maybe the goal to become an Engineer was your parents’ goal and not yours. And more often than not, your goals aren’t being made for the right reasons.

Making a solid base for your goals success starts with a figuring out the ‘Why’ behind your pursuit in life. Why do you do anything? What’s important to you? And, the most important, how do you want to live your life in the future?

If you’ve never done a Values exercise, they’re quick, easy and painless to do. I think they’re fun! There are a lot of ways to come up with your values but this is the one I like to do. Set aside at least 15 minutes for this exercise but don’t short change yourself. Take as long as you need to make sure you come up with values that are very reflective of who you are as a person.

1. Write down five people you respect and admire; an alternate method is to write down the five people who have had the most positive impact on your life.

2. Write down six qualities for each of these five people (so you’ll have 30 adjectives written down ideally).

3. Circle the adjectives that you think resonate most with you and your life. Aim for five or six values.

Bonus: Ask three people close to you if they feel the values you’ve chosen for yourself ring true. I did this with 8 close friends and they all had valuable feedback for me.

That’s it – it’s that simple! You have a great start on what your values are as a person. I have three sets of values that I live my business, personal and family lives by: one for my company, one for myself personally and one with my husband for our family.

The values you decide on are what are going to guide you through choosing well thought out goals that really resonate with you and your life. These values will be the filter with which you judge your potential goals: “Does this goal fit within my values?” Or, these values will direct your goals. For example, my core value that drives everything in my life is my Family. If my goals aren’t aligned with the idea of Family at the center, then it’s time to reevaluate those goals and the value. Am I just paying lip-service to the idea that Family is a value? Or do I need to change my goals to fit my values?

Here are a list of possible Values that will hopefully get you thinking about things that describe your favorite five people. It is by no means a comprehensive list – just a little zing! to get your creative juices flowing. Ready. Set. Write!

Designing Your Best Year … Ever!

December 26, 2010 Filed Under: Business Musings

I feel a bit like Oprah with that pronouncement but so be it. The reality is that having your best year ever requires work and planning. And that’s what we’re going to do for the next five days.

Day One: Examine Your Starting Point
Day Two: Determine Your Values
Day Three: Visualize Your Ending Point
Day Four: Chunk Into Goals
Day Five: Stumbling Blocks
Day Six: Public Declaration (and a wee small contest!)

Long time readers of this blog won’t be surprised by this subject matter. I write about the same thing this time of year, every year. I choose not to feel anything but professorial in this consistent repetition though. Greatness doesn’t come in a day and gentle reminders are always a good thing. I read a lot of personal development and business development books yearly so everything I’m saying today and the rest of the week is an amalgamation of what I’ve been reading this year (and my entire life). So if you’re reading this and feel like you’ve read something similar before … you probably have. =)

If you’re looking back over the year and wondering why your year didn’t go as planned, congratulations! You’re in good company. Many use the end of the year as a time for reflection and planning. And the first step to making next year different is to do a full autopsy on 2010. It’s time to figure out what is going to make your plans different this upcoming year so that your goals really do become your reality.

Step One: Get RUTHLESS. Today is not for the weak. Today is for a clear, level-headed assessment. Pull out your calender for the last year. Make a hot drink. Get in a quiet space. Grab the tissues. Grab a pen and paper. Find thirty minutes. Plan for an honest assessment; don’t spare yourself. Being kind to yourself has a place in most of your days but this is not that day.

Step Two: Look at the goals you set out for yourself last year (Didn’t set goals? Not to worry. If you had set goals, where would you expect to be today? There’s still a place for you to have an honest self-assessment, starting with “Why didn’t I set goals? What held me back?”). Which goals did you make? Write out your 2010 goals (or resolutions) on your sheet of paper. Check the goals off or put a line through them if you successfully completed them.

Step Three: Look at the goals that are left without a check mark or a line. Spend a minimum of FIVE minutes on each goal, writing down, free-form like a journal, what happened with that goal. Answer these questions:

(a) What happened? What physically held you back? What emotionally kept you from making this goal?
(b) What could you have done differently?
(c) Is the goal still important to you?

If the goal is still important to you, go back to (a) and write out all the corrective actions you should have taken and that you can take in the upcoming year. If you notice that all of your answers to (a) are things like “So and So did XYZ and so I wasn’t able to….” turn the mirror on yourself, and take a hard look at yourself again and take personal responsibility for what you could have done. (I’ve railed on this subject before. If you’d like a personal kick in the pants, read this blog post).

Step Four: Re-read all of your answers. Are there any patterns? Is anything jumping out at you? Now is the time to really mine the reasons that you didn’t make those goals and ensure that whatever needs to be changed for next year really and truly does get changed. Answers can range from: “I’m terrible at setting goals. Of course I wasn’t going to lose 120 pounds in one year!” to “I didn’t make it a priority in my schedule” to everything and anything in-between that.

Step Five: Now is the time for your grace. You were ruthless with yourself. You objectively looked at what went wrong for the last thirty minutes. Now, let it go. That was last year. This is now. You’ve done the play-by-play. You know what went wrong. You can fix it in 2011. And now, we can start this year off with a clean slate. Pssst: are you still feeling down? Yeah, you were pretty hard on yourself. Quick picker-upper? Write down all the things that you DID accomplish in 2010 that you are proud of, whether it was a goal or not. There. Now are you feeling better?

Stay tuned; tomorrow we’ll get to work on 2011 by starting at your very core, your foundation, your base: your values.