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Mar 16 2015
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The Art of Doing

By Entrepreneurial, Business Growth, Business Health, Leadership No Comments

Leading a company takes a lot of guts and hard work. It starts with having a vision, and an idea that you’re passionate about but it doesn’t stop there. You must assemble a team, and bring that concept to life. The ability to successfully execute your vision or idea is what separates the dreamers from the entrepreneurs.

Here are some key qualities that every good leader should possess, and learn practicing every day:

Honesty

Your business and its employees are a reflection of yourself, and if you make honest and ethical behavior a key value, your team will follow suit. Honesty and Integrity is everything. Be as transparent as you can with your team to ensure success.

Delegating:

As a leader you must learn to delegate tasks accordingly and in the right way. Your brand’s vision is everything and it is essential to creating a trust with your team to help progress to the next level.

As things continue to grow for your company, more and more work will begin to pile up, and the more you stretch yourself thin, the lower the quality of your work will become, and the less you will produce great results. In addition, you want to keep your team motivated towards the continued success of the company, and keep the energy levels up. Keep the office mood a fine balance between productivity and playfulness.

Confidence

Confidence is key to leading the success of any business. It’s very important to keep your confidence at a high level especially when things are going in a downward spiral. Your team will look to you for support and leadership to help pick things up. There’s nothing worse than a leader who’s lost all confidence in his/her abilities.

Communication

“Miscommunication leads to complication.” I’m sure you understand where I’m going with this. Knowing what you want accomplished may seem clear in your head, but not always to everyone else. Being able to clearly describe what you want done is extremely important. If you can’t relate your vision to your team, you won’t all be working towards the same goal.

Ability to Inspire

This is very important. Creating a business often involves a bit of forecasting and speaking things into existence. Do we all know what the future holds? Probably not. But it’s important to write your goals down and work towards them. Especially in the beginning stages of a startup, inspiring your team to see the vision of the successes to come is essential to success. Make your team feel invested in the accomplishments of the company. Being able to inspire your team is great for focusing on the future goals, but it is also important for the current issues. It is your job to keep spirits up, and that begins with an appreciation for the hard work.

I wish you a great and productive week.

Frank.

Mar 09 2015
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FOCUS!

By Entrepreneurial No Comments

Focusing is probably one of the hardest things to maintain in our daily lives. Whether we’re going through internal or external issues in our lives, it is always important to maintain focus. Throughout my career, getting rid of all the ‘noise’ that I’ve been surrounded with, has helped me maintain my success and growth as well as plan ahead for the future.

I’ve listed a few tips this week to help you maintain and get focused!

1. Meditation: Mediating is not only a great way to relax, but if you meditate for just 10 to 15 minutes each day it will improve your focus. You can easily transfer these skills to clearing your head and focusing on the work ahead of you. You can meditate when you first wake up or to wind down before bed, or even during both times.

2. Build up your focus stamina. To build your focus stamina, just give yourself a certain amount of time to do nothing but work on a certain task. When that time passes, see how long you can keep going before actually stopping, whether it’s just another five minutes or another half hour. Keep going until you feel you need to stop, and try to focus for longer the next day.

3. Read more. Reading is a great way to build up your focus. Try reading something without stopping for just thirty minutes, and slowly build your stamina to reading for a longer period of time. Being able to focus on the material in front of you, whether you’re reading a novel or a biography, will help you learn to focus on your work.

4. Multi task less and less.Though many people think that multi-tasking is a great way to accomplish goals more quickly and to get two or three things done at once, multi-tasking can actually be harmful to your growth.

With that said, don’t do too much at once. It may look and sound appealing but one thing is going to suffer. To be the best, you must do your best!

Stay focused.

– Frank.

Mar 02 2015
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The Power of Positive Thinking

By Success & Inspiration, Foundations of Success, Personal Accountability No Comments

The Power of Positive thinking is quite real. In fact, it’s all that gets me by, especially on bad days. Let’s be frank. There were days when I began my journey where I thought to myself “Am I on the right path?”, or when I was studying for an important test and thought to myself “I think I’m going to fail”.

One thing that’s always helped me while continuing on this journey called life, is that when the going gets tough, maintaining positivity has always pushed me through. Especially in sales. Sales can be a very hard task, especially if you’ve just started.

Optimism

Good selling requires that you understand the product well and work as hard as you can to meet the customer’s need. But before everything, the secret of a good salesperson is about what goes on inside their head. Selling is an attitude. It’s how you think and feel. It’s about your whole approach to yourself, your company, your products and of course your customers. All of this can be summed up in three words: Confidence, pride and care.

A positive person anticipates happiness, health and success, and believes he or she can overcome any obstacle and difficulty.Please note that positive thinking is not accepted by everyone. Some, consider it as nonsense, and discourage people who follow it, but there is a growing number of people, who accept positive thinking as a fact, and believe in its effectiveness.

To use it in your life, you need more than just to be aware of its existence. You need to adopt the attitude of positive thinking in everything you do. Trust me, it will only steer you in the right direction.

Frank.

Feb 23 2015
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Spring Cleaning!

By Entrepreneurial, Personal Accountability No Comments

I hope you’re staying warm! It’s a new week and it’s pretty frigid in Toronto. So cold that it is 30 degrees below zero. That doesn’t mean that work cannot get done! As we’re close to the end of the first quarter one question I have for you is are you on your way to reaching your goals this year? One thing for me that’s always been essential to attaining my goals was to maintain a high level of organization.

I’ve learned that without being organized, you only add stress to your work, and with stress comes more issues. Gladly, spring is coming up so why don’t you start on getting organized now?

Here are some tips that I have come across to keep me steadily organized when it comes to completing tasks and keeping on top of my goals:

  1. Get Rid of Junk – It’s important to always take away the clutter that you don’t need in your work space. Make sure that you make a ‘toss’ pile of things you’d like to throw away and a ‘store’ pile of things you’d like to keep. Be mindful of the value of things that will help you be efficient in the work place. Also, don’t forget to create and maintain a well-documented ‘to-do’ list.
  2. Store what’s important to you – Do not hoard things for the sake of having them or else it will take away from what you actually need! Create a way to organize your materials in a way that makes sense to you. Everything related to what you need to be successful, ensure that you keep it in a safe place to allow you to refer to it when you need to.
  3. Tackle your to-do list – This is where you should always invest your efforts for the biggest payoff in the long-term. Create file folders for each project. When you complete a project or tasks, go through the file and discard the unimportant documents from within then store and organize the file accordingly.
  4. Keep your desk (work space) clear! – The surface of your desk should always be visible. Keep it that way. Deal with every piece of paper that crosses your desk immediately, to ensure that you are getting tasks done in the most efficient way possible.
  5. Use Technology Wisely – Develop a method of storing phone numbers, and files on your computer and/or mobile phone. Online organizers which you can access via your computer or phone may take a little while to master, but will save you time in the long run.

Lastly, always remember to self-evaluate your progress to ensure you’re on the right path. Here’s an amazing article that I came across from Forbes explaining this: http://onforb.es/1hOBNaN

Have a great week, stay warm, and don’t forget to keep your eyes on the prize!

Frank.

Feb 17 2015
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Work & Life Balance

By Business Growth No Comments

Here in Canada we’ve just had our family day. A day off in February for us to spend time with or without family. If you’re reading this, I hope that you had a great weekend. As I think, life gets so crazy and busy sometimes that we don’t have any time to spend valuable time with our loved ones. As I’ve grown through my professional carer, I’ve always found that it’s important to find balance. Especially, in your business and personal relationships.

Life is a cycle and in order for positive things to happen in your life you must ensure that you put effort in all things that matter to you. It’s never a good idea to bring personal situations in to your work place. Nor is it better to bring work back home. In my career, I’ve found that separating the both has helped me sustain a healthy relationship between both.

I’ve come to understand that the workplace is also a family. We spend at least 8 hours a day around fellow employees 5 days a week. Sometimes more than our immediate family. So do what you can to maintain healthy relationships at work. The better your relationships are at work, the happier and more productive we’re going to be. Good working relationships give us several other benefits. Work is more enjoyable when we have good relationships with those around us. We’re more innovative and creative. I find that good relationships give us freedom, instead of spending time and energy overcoming the problems associated with negative relationships, we can, instead, focus on opportunities.

So as you start another work week remember to do what you love, and love what you do, with the people that you love.  Make your career your vocation. Your calling, something that keeps you excited for the next day.

Have a great week.

Frank.

Feb 17 2015
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Work & Life Balance

By Business Growth No Comments

Here in Canada we’ve just had our family day. A day off in February for us to spend time with or without family. If you’re reading this, I hope that you had a great weekend. As I think, life gets so crazy and busy sometimes that we don’t have any time to spend valuable time with our loved ones. As I’ve grown through my professional carer, I’ve always found that it’s important to find balance. Especially, in your business and personal relationships.

Life is a cycle and in order for positive things to happen in your life you must ensure that you put effort in all things that matter to you. It’s never a good idea to bring personal situations in to your work place. Nor is it better to bring work back home. In my career, I’ve found that separating the both has helped me sustain a healthy relationship between both.

I’ve come to understand that the workplace is also a family. We spend at least 8 hours a day around fellow employees 5 days a week. Sometimes more than our immediate family. So do what you can to maintain healthy relationships at work. The better your relationships are at work, the happier and more productive we’re going to be. Good working relationships give us several other benefits. Work is more enjoyable when we have good relationships with those around us. We’re more innovative and creative. I find that good relationships give us freedom, instead of spending time and energy overcoming the problems associated with negative relationships, we can, instead, focus on opportunities.

So as you start another work week remember to do what you love, and love what you do, with the people that you love.  Make your career your vocation. Your calling, something that keeps you excited for the next day.

Have a great week.

Frank.

Feb 09 2015
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The Power of NOW.

By Foundations of Success 2 Comments

Have you ever seen those Everest College commercials on TV? If you haven’t, you must be living under a rock (just kidding). As we’re now in the second month of the new year I have a question for you. Have you been living up to those New Years Resolutions you set forth on New Years Eve?

I hope so! If not, it’s OK. We all have made empty promises to ourselves. But you have to ask yourself, when will you commit to making a change? There are tons of self-help videos you can watch and books you can read but it all starts with YOU. There are billions of people in the world and each of us have fears and past experiences good and bad. We’ve all dwelled on the past, wishing and hoping we could go back in the vault and make some change. Why waste your time? You can’t change the past, you can’t predict the future. The only time you can control is NOW.

The choices you make today is totally up to you. As Eckhart Tolle stated in the “Power of Now,” — which I highly recommend everyone read at least once in a lifetime: “Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.”

I have been through this and I’m sure you have too. I am speaking from experience. There will be so many moments where you won’t have the answers, but that’s fine. It’s completely normal. Do not allow anyone to let you think otherwise.

Get rid of the fear. You will have bad moments and good ones. Embrace all of this and move forward in your life. None of us are meant to control everything. All we can do is live our lives and navigate the best way we know how.

So if you’re reading this make a pact with yourself. Don’t wait any longer, start now! From this day forward, live in the now and navigate your life moment by moment. I’m sure you’ll end up where you want and deserve to be!

StartNow

Frank.

Feb 02 2015
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What DRIVES You to Succeed?

By Success & Inspiration, Business Health, Leadership No Comments

As we embark another week, I couldn’t help but look outside and see another SNOW day in Toronto. The shovelling, the treks in the 2 feet snow all seems a lot of fun right? Well, I think so. One thing I noticed while travelling for another day’s work was that many people either looked very happy to see the snow, or really angry that there was another day of bad weather and slushy sidewalks while commuting to work.

I couldn’t help but think to myself,does everyone’s place of business care about how or whether or not they will come in to work? For me, it’s always about Safety first. Communicating, and establishing an amazing rapport with my employees. I’ve heard many stories about companies forcing their employees to come in to work regardless of their location, personal issues or weather conditions and I think that’s terrible. As a company, it’s important to understand that your employees are your driving force! They are the front line in our daily battles. If they are not happy and successful, then most likely your company will not be either. So if you’re a business owner or manager, I have one word of advice: LISTEN.

At the end of the day we all have goals. I do, you do, and your fellow employees do too! So as you embark on another work day I have shared this image below as a daily reminder and I hope you can agree.

WorkForACompanyThatCares

Sharing is caring,

Frank.

Jan 26 2015
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Stopping Yourself Before You Even Try

By Sales Advice, Business Health, Foundations of Success, Personal Accountability No Comments

Stopping-Yourself-Before-You-TryHow many times have you wanted to try something, only to stop yourself before you even attempt it? Travel to a country where you don’t know the language, jumping into a cave with a pool at the bottom, asking someone on a date… or perhaps more relatable, asking for the close when fear has the nasty habit of making you say “I can’t do that” before you even attempt it.

I’m not going to go into the psychology or anything too heavy about fear, but what I am going to try and do is convince you that you’re you own worst enemy. Thinking about it logically, the reason that you think that you can’t do something is because you’re afraid of the negative outcome. If you’re scared about jumping into the cave with the pool at the bottom, you’re most likely scared that you’ll hit something on the way down. If you’re afraid of asking for the close, you’re most likely afraid that they’ll turn down your offer and all your hard work will be for nothing.

When it comes to fear holding you back when you’re selling, I can offer you two points of advice based on my own experience:

You Won’t Know Until You Try – Why would you put in all the work of building a connection with a prospect, getting to know them and realizing that your service can genuinely help them, only to stop yourself before asking for a close? Getting cold feet near the end of the sales process can be tricky, but the absolute worst case scenario is that they’ll say no. Afterwards, the solution is simple…

Worst Case Scenario: Move On – So you do the big ask and they say no. Was it as bad as you imaged? The reality is that it probably stung a bit, perhaps it was a tad frustrating and threw off your day, but you moved on right? Even if we don’t admit that we can, moving on is just something that people do naturally. Of course, it comes easier to some than others, but no matter what it’s important to simply deal with whatever outcome has happened and grow from it, instead of dwelling on it and letting it prevent future opportunities.

It’s better to cope with failure than live with the “what-ifs”, both in life and in sales. Trust me, once you get rid of all fear when selling, you’ll excel further than you thought possible and soon enough be sitting on that cash throne.

Jan 19 2015
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Integrity When Selling Makes A Difference

By Comments & Opinion, Entrepreneurial, Business Insights, Sales Advice No Comments

SuperBowl49_EMR0100a_2014_SCC_SRGBI have no doubt that many of you were glued to the TV watching the championship games to see who would make it to the Superbowl in a couple of weeks (Patriots vs. Seahawks in case you missed it). While the Seahawks incredible comeback is its own story, I want to focus on the Patriots.

On the surface, the Patriots dominated the Colts 45-7 and earned Tom Brady another trip to the Superbowl. However, what happened after the game were accusations that the Patriots were cheating – specifically for deflating footballs during their championship game. As of writing this, the investigation is fresh and will probably take a while to fully examine. That point though is that this isn’t the first time that the Patriots have been accused of cheating. Back in 2007 they were fined $250,000 after a NFL investigation found them illegally videotaping their opponents.

This leaves the Patriots in a very interesting position, regardless of whether the allegations are true. I know many people who instantly scoff at any mention of the Patriots because of all the constant cheating allegations that have followed them. While they’re undeniably one of the top football teams, their credibility is always up for debate. The question I ask you is this: has anyone on your sales team made it so that your company’s credibility is lost? Worst yet, have they ever blatantly lied just to make a sale?

Whether it’s stretching the truth or promising things that simply aren’t possible, there will be a time when your client finds out the truth and then your trust is broken. Having integrity when selling is something that you would think would be common sense, however I thought it would be important to discuss why being dishonest during your sales process is simply a terrible idea:

Distrust Leaves A Lingering Taste – The biggest problem with the Patriots’ latest scandal is the fact that people are generally saying “again?” Obviously this is not the kind of reputation that any team or company would want when nasty things are being said about them. This doesn’t always have to be about blatant “cheating” as well. Terrible customer service or anything that makes anyone’s experience with your company unpleasant will unfortunately linger a lot longer than a good memory.

Hard To Earn Back Trust – As mentioned above, it is going to take a long time for the Patriots to lose their reputation as cheaters, and for fans to just see them as champion-level team instead of anything else. Earning trust is already a difficult task, but earning back someone’s trust after you’ve wronged them is an entirely different beast. It’s simply much better to not get into that situation in the first place.

Ensuring that integrity is something that is constantly talked about to your sales team will ensure that your company’s reputation stays intact.

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