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Success & Inspiration

May 05 2014
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Optimize Your Productivity for Future Success

By Success & Inspiration, Achieving Wealth, Self Education, Foundations of Success, Planning for the future, Leadership, Personal Accountability No Comments

To-do lists are a mixed bag for me. On one hand, they’re great for getting organized and prioritizing your daily tasks. On the other hand, if you’re not using them properly (like I’ve seen many entrepreneurs do) you run the risk of derailing your entire day.

Luckily, I’m not the only person who thinks this. I read a great article on Forbes that discusses “Organizing Tomorrow Today”. In his article, Jason Selk discusses the many benefits of planning for the future, something I’ve discussed in my previous posts. I encourage you to read the full article, but here are the two most important points I was able to take from it:

Your To-Do List Is Wrong: Like I mentioned, most people tend to make a massive to-do list full of both important and unimportant items. Simply listing off what’s on your plate is a waste of time. Instead, organize your list in terms that makes sense to you. Selk encourages that you list off your top three tasks of the day, followed by lesser tasks. What I do personally is organize my most important tasks of the day, and then group my lesser tasks into a separate category called “end of the week”. Whatever method you use, the main thing to remember is that you have to start off your day with your most important task, instead of tackling the less important items first. Otherwise, you’ll fall into the trap of constantly completing your simple tasks first, and never getting around to actually finishing what matters.

Take The Time To Plan Ahead: Arguably the most important thing that Selk says in his article is that no matter what, take the time to plan ahead. Don’t leave all of your future planning to the morning of said day. Take ten to fifteen minutes the day before to figure out what needs to be done first, what can wait until throughout the week, and what you can delegate. Selk summarizes this point nicely: “Highly successful people do not get everything done each day, not even close. They have learned to get the most important tasks completed, and then to do their best to get the rest done.”

All in all, the most successful entrepreneurs know the importance of prioritizing their tasks, and they also know the best method to complete them. Let me know how you tackle your important tasks and we can discuss it in detail in the comments below.

Apr 14 2014
Love0

Personal Brand Building with Social Media

By Comments & Opinion, Success & Inspiration, Entrepreneurial, Business Insights, Foundations of Success No Comments

One of the biggest challenges I’ve recently faced is jumping deeply into social media. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t understand the value of social media, I honestly just couldn’t dedicate an adequate amount of time to try and build a proper following. Fast forward to the present and I’m happy to say that I’ve not only been able to post consistently on my blog here, but also on my personal Twitter account.

But why even bother with a social media presence? Most entrepreneurs have been told time and time again that social media is important, but it’s rarely explained why it’s so important. Every user will define the importance in their own way, but for me, social media is a powerful tool to build your own personal brand. As an entrepreneur, you’ve probably started a business in the field of your choice, which means that you’ll be able to provide incredible value to your audience by sharing your unique insight, be it with short and succinct tweets or in-depth blog posts. Sharing these kinds of insights on your social media channels will eventually make you a thought leader in your field, but of course, this will take time.

When it comes to social media, another point that will take time and effort is growing your number of followers. For what seemed like the longest time, my Twitter account had only a handful of followers and refused to grow. After discussing strategies with a digital marketer, the two most valuable lessons I was able to learn was that (a) follow growth takes time and (b) I simply wasn’t being social enough.

These two items are very important to know for any of your social media efforts, be it for personal use or for your brand. The first point about follower growth is especially critical, as business owners become very disappointed with their lack of growth in a set period of time and abandon all of their social media channels. Using my own Twitter account as an example, after two months of consistent use, I now have 190 followers. This is following three months where I couldn’t break 40 followers. So what happened that made my follower number jump? It leads directly to the second point of being social.

It’s called social media for a reason: if you don’t join in on the conversation, then you can’t expect to see any kind of growth or engagement. Admittedly, one of the things I want to improve on is the engagement of my audience. While I do interact with my followers, I want to specifically try and reach out to more of them and get a regular dialogue going. You need to interact with your followers regularly, otherwise no matter what kind of information you share on your accounts, it’ll quickly become irrelevant.

What has your experience with social media been like? I’d love to discuss this topic more in depth in the comments below.

Mar 03 2014
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Don’t Halt Creativity in Your Office – Let it Grow

By Comments & Opinion, Success & Inspiration, Entrepreneurial, Business Insights, Foundations of Success One Comment

fostering-creativityNo matter what type of industry you’re working in, creativity is the foundation of exceptional work. If you’re not fostering that creativity in your workplace, your team won’t produce the best work that they’re capable of. I touched this point briefly in one of my previous blog posts, but I decided that I should expand on this issue because of how important it is. Making sure that your work environment is a transparent and accessible space for ideas to flow will let your team reach new creative heights, allowing them to produce stimulating work at the same time.

Be a Mentor: I know I’ve discussed this point to no end in other blog posts, but I come back to it so often because I can’t stress how important it is to provide an avenue for creative growth. You simply can’t bring someone onto your team without providing constructive criticism and constant mentorship. However, you can’t micro-manage people either; you need to find a balance where you can give them a space to devise their ideas, and then see how you can help these ideas grow.

Have an Open Door Policy – and Mean it: Tying in with my last point, a phrase that is often tossed around by leaders when a new team member is brought in is “my door is always open”, yet this isn’t always the case. When you tell your team that your door is always open – mean it. Be available to them when they have ideas, suggestions or even just banter. Not only does this make you more human from your staff’s point of view, it also makes them more comfortable with you. This means that they’ll feel at ease when they suggest outlandish (and often creative) ideas.

Encourage Open Discussion: When you come together with your team for a brainstorming session, you should ask everyone present to throw an idea on the table, no matter how “bad” they feel the idea is. This open exchange of creativity often leads to some great ideas created from a thought that could have been discarded. A great idea is simply a bad idea that has been refined.

Reward Great Ideas: One of the simplest and most effective ways to foster creativity in your workplace is to reward great ideas. Of course, this doesn’t mean punish bad ones, but when there is a fantastic idea brought to the table you need to praise and reward these efforts. Don’t go overboard and give every admirable thought a new car – it can be something as simple as a cup of coffee or showing them praise in a companywide e-mail.

Do you feel like you’re doing enough to encourage creativity in your workplace? What methods do you use at your office? Do you feel like your team is comfortable sharing all of their creative thoughts? I would enjoy discussing this topic with everyone in the comments. 

Feb 18 2014
Love0

Follow Your Heart to Turn Passion Into Profit

By Success & Inspiration, Achieving Wealth, Foundations of Success, Planning for the future No Comments

turn-passion-into-profitWhen was the last time that you asked yourself if you love what you do? You might immediately give yourself an enthusiastic “yes”, while at the same time find yourself struggling to go into the office every morning. When you love what you do, others will take note and your passion will inspire and motivate them. You can easily spot businesses that are passionate about their craft. Their care and effort shows up in their work, which excites people to work with them.

It’s no secret that I love what I do. I feel like I was born to own a business and am grateful that I’ve been able to tap into my passion to thrust my entrepreneurial endeavours to the next level. Here are a few tips that I have for entrepreneurs that can help you turn your passion into profit.

Be honest with yourself: As I mentioned, you need to ask yourself if you love what you’re doing and actually take the time to think about your answer. If you realize that you really don’t love your work, you need to figure out what it is that you love and start on your path to get there. Of course this won’t be an easy task, especially if you’re a business owner, but in the end you will get much more satisfaction from finding your passion rather than slowly becoming bitter towards your own business.

Remind yourself about your passion: No matter how much you love what you do, everyone has their off-days. Tight deadlines, lackluster sales quarters, personal struggles… Overwhelming stress can make you doubt what you’re doing and that will slowly drain your love for your work. Remind yourself why you love what you do – hang an inspirational quote or image that resonates with you, talk with your team or simply take some time to reflect so you can reignite your passion.

Ignore the cynics: If you take a brief look online, you will find various articles written by business owners who say that doing what you love is the worst decision you can make when you’re in business. They claim that “career passions are rare” and not realistic. I strongly disagree with this notion, as everyone should be doing what they love. If you’re living your life doing something you have no passion for, you need to at least try to take the steps to go after your dreams.

Don’t forget the fun: At the end of the day, you need to remember to have fun. Entrepreneurs that start a company spurred from their passion find their business fun, but they need to spread that positive energy to their team. A serious, grim and frigid work environment won’t allow your team’s creativity to fully flow, which leads to uninspired work from your company.

Do you still find passion in what you do? When was the last time seriously reflected on this topic? I would love to talk more about this topic with everyone in the comments.

Feb 11 2014
Love0

The Difference between Being a “Boss” and Being a Leader

By Success & Inspiration, Entrepreneurial, Foundations of Success, Leadership No Comments

difference-between-a-boss-and-a-leaderWhen you’re an entrepreneur who runs their own business, you might find yourself questioning your leadership techniques from time to time. Being a leader is no easy task, and business owners should take the time to reassess how they’re influencing their co-workers and staff. Over the past 12 years of my entrepreneurship, I’ve had my share of triumphs and failures concerning leadership. I’m constantly trying to re-evaluate and change my methods to ensure that I’m not “bossing” my team around, but that I’m providing an avenue for personal and professional growth instead.

The terms “boss” and “leader” are often used interchangeably, but there is actually quite a big difference between the two. A boss watches and supervises workers to ensure that tasks and projects are getting delivered on time without any difficulties. A leader will give the same list of tasks, but also brings with them a level of inspiration and guidance. Leaders are there for their employees, and instead of telling their team to complete a task, they provide guidance and offer different methods to complete them.

Another quality that a boss possesses is that they only focus on their projects one at a time, and once those projects are complete they move on to the next item on their list without considering the big picture.  Leaders understand that every project your team completes should grow your company in some shape or form, be it financially or professionally. This isn’t limited to simply successes either – even a failed project or a lost client can help your team grow by realizing what mistakes you need to avoid in the future.

Lastly, a boss will examine their employee’s work and criticize their mistakes, while a leader will view these mistakes as coaching opportunities. It’s vital that instead of simply telling your staff why something is wrong, you coach them through their mistakes, tell them what they can do to avoid these mistakes in the future and how they can improve their work. There is nothing worse than having someone on your team who is too afraid to approach you with their best work because they’re concerned with how much you’ll dislike their efforts, instead of providing them with advice on how they can improve.

Of course, the transition from being a “boss” to becoming a leader takes time. I find myself struggling with these challenges almost every day, and even after 12 years I constantly remind myself to look for all of the coaching opportunities available for my team. It will take time and dedication, but the outcomes are well worth the effort.

Jan 27 2014
Love1

Live Your True Calling

By Comments & Opinion, Success & Inspiration One Comment

Recently The Wish Group had our annual Winter Kick Off in Niagara Falls. The theme was centered on Top Gun and specifically around one of The Groups values of Discipline. My interpretation of the Top Gun theme beyond the integrity, energy and ambition that it takes to be one is understanding what your true calling and destiny in life is, similar to Tom Cruise’s character in the movie.

I’ve been rereading Steven Pressfield’s newest book Turning Pro which is a follow up to his amazing book The War of Art.  In this book Pressfield talks about “shadow” careers. That is to say, things we do that are not our true calling because we are afraid to or fall victim to resistance. Resistance, or the bad voice in your head, is what inhibits us from doing our work, from being a professional versus an amateur in our lives. We get a lot of certainty out of our shadow careers, but not true fulfillment. Imagine the actor who chose to be a server in a restaurant instead or the entrepreneur who took the 9 to 5 because it was a more certain path. The shadow career is a false expression of who we really are, it’s what I’ll call our fate or the way our life will turn out based on the circumstances of our life. Fate is letting your life be defined by your conditions and by fear. Fate is not destiny, destiny is something you create which has a calling to it. As Anthony Robbins says, growth equals happiness and in regards to our job in life – if we want to be happy we need to step into our destiny, into our calling.

For a long time in my life I thought I wanted to be a lawyer, a grade 8 teacher along with my father’s guidance helped me come to that conclusion. I focused much of my attention from that age until my mid-twenties pursuing that objective but it never felt right for some reason. That being said I think I would have been a good litigator and would have thrived as many living their shadow careers do. However something happened when I started my first entrepreneurial venture at the age of 28, it was like the universe hit me with a burst of energy and what became clear to me was that my true calling in life was being an entrepreneur and the result of that revelation changed my life so profoundly that my life’s purpose now is having others live their calling and expressing it with passion.

I’ve been on my destiny path for a few years now. At first I wasn’t even aware that it was my destiny and it started out terrifying and although it’s often still scary, I keep reminding myself that part of living your destiny and not your shadow career is being able to live with and even embrace uncertainty. It’s about declaring that you love how your life is currently unfolding regarding of whether you’re currently dealing with a breakdown or breakthrough. It’s about trusting that God or the universe always has your back and realizing you have a gift and your job is to give that gift to the world. It’s about doing what’s right, rather than what’s easy. It’s about turning pro and showing up to do your work- whether you are inspired to or not.

Are you living in your shadow career? Are you bound by fate or creating your destiny? Take the leap like I did years ago and you will be surprised at how graceful the transition will be and how joyful your life will become.

Jan 20 2014
Love0

Success is Revenge!

By Success & Inspiration, Business Insights, Leadership No Comments

Based on the popularity of my recent hockey blogs I’ve decided to write about another on ice experience.  Due to some travel I missed a couple of games in a row and hadn’t been on the ice for a while, because of my improved play of late it was actually flattering and uplifting when my line mate Tommy Siskos was eager to have me back.  In a very nice albeit odd choice by team captain Grobo, he actually called on our line to start (almost never happens as we are usually the second or third line).  Coaches usually do this at time to fire up a line or reward a line that has been performing well of late so we did not disappoint, I scored a goal on our second shift and added another assist on one of Tommy’s goals in the second period.  We went deep into the third period with a 2-1 lead in what was a very tight game without a single penalty called on each team, yet at that point something very odd happened.  In the offensive zone, with only a minute to play Tommy had a very questionable penalty called on him, there is an unwritten rule in hockey code that says tight games where no penalties have been called you don’t call one with one minute left in the game especially on a marginal call in the offensive zone to boot!  Well needless to say Tommy was furious and venting in frustration (happens after almost any penalty) and the referees knowing this was such a debatable call should have understood but to add insult to injury gave him an extra two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct!  They had crossed the line, even I burst out yelling and I’m the soft spoken one on the team, how could the referees not only make such a silly call late in the game as opposed to letting it play out, but actually now be factoring into the decision?  It was ludicrous.

Well as luck would have it we were scored on almost immediately which forced overtime but because it was a double minor we would also went into the overtime period shorthanded 4-3 which given the momentum blow we just took almost meant a sure defeat.  As any hockey player reading this will relate too as it’s happened to us all, Tommy just felt awful that his mishap would cost us the game, he wished he could just disappear yet there he sat alone in the glass penalty box for everybody to see.  What happened next in this game as what often happens in life when we are faced with challenges was awesome.  As we were a few seconds away from killing off the penalty Grobo yelled out my name to go on the ice next when Tommy’s penalty had expired.  I don’t blame Grobo for the choice, I had played a great game scoring a gorgeous near perfect goal on a very good goalie to break the 0-0 tie late in the second period which gave us the belief that we could finally beat this stingy goalie.  I had then made a perfect pass to Tommy to give us the go ahead goal.  However, I had a gut feel, call it intuition or my belief in the powerful motivating force of redemption or sweet serendipity but as I was about to take the ice, I was standing right beside Tommy who was in the penalty box eagerly waiting for his penalty to expire when I looked at him right in the eye and said, “Tommy, you go out there AND score!”  What was a fraction of a second I saw a mix of emotions of surprise of the selfless act, excitement at the possibility of redeeming himself and what looked like a jolt of energy in his eyes as he yelled “ok!” with sheer glee and enthusiasm.  He skated directly into the offensive zone and scored in under six seconds flat and we won the game!  Sweet poetic justice.

Although nobody likes to face challenges, we tend to embrace the comfort zone or clear sailing so to speak, but in life we learn most when we struggle and face challenges.  We tend to find another gear, we dig deeper into our souls and further into our inner core for the strength to pull us through.  Whenever the storms or injustices of life hit me, I always find some solace in the fact that I’m about to learn a life or business lesson, gain yet another amazing experience or battle scare to mold me into a better human being capable of doing more to make this world a better place.  This attitude is always harder when we get dealt a blow that doesn’t seem fair, crap happens in life out of happenstance or coincidence but when we are clearly wronged by another intentionally to do us harm, it’s at those times that we question whether there is a force or God out there or whether there is even meaning in this life, so it’s not a comfortable feeling to say the least.  I’m a firm believer in the laws of compensation and when you sow good seeds, good things come back at you in different ways that you can’t even imagine.  When it comes to bringing justice to the world when unjustifiable acts happen, I urge you to immediately say to yourself “success will be my revenge”.  It’s what I do every time life or somebody knocks me down and I focus all my energy into what it takes to succeed in the circumstances and visualize what I want the end result to be, exactly what I did when I put the team first ahead of myself and put Tommy in knowing with all my heart that he was going to redeem himself.

Nov 25 2013
Love0

Check Your Ego at the Door

By Comments & Opinion, Success & Inspiration, Entrepreneurial, Business Insights, Business Growth, Foundations of Success No Comments

“If you always hire people who are smaller than you are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. If, on the other hand, you always hire people who are bigger than you are, we shall become a company of giants.” –  David Ogilvy

I have had the pleasure of working with many businesses over the years, helping entrepreneurs to build up their businesses and watching them flourish as leaders in the process. Many of them went on to become successful business leaders, others… not so much. Though many people talk about the passion and “never say die” attitude required to succeed in business, a quality that I have observed in successful leaders, and one that doesn’t get nearly as much attention as it deserves, is ego.

Successful business leaders are not afraid to admit their weaknesses, they know that there is always something more they can learn and an area that can always be improved. They understand that the growth and success of their business is not entirely a product of their own making, but is a collaborative effort of talented and dedicated individuals all working together towards a common goal – no matter how great a sports coach is, he isn’t going to win a championship with lousy players. Successful business leaders surround themselves with the best and brightest, freeing themselves to do what they as leaders do best – planning and developing the future growth of their business. They know exactly where they want to go, and put together the best team possible to help them get there – in a sense, they work on their business, not in their business.

On the other side of the coin is the mediocre business leader. They think they know everything and everyone else knows nothing. They are always right no matter what  because they view themselves as the single reason why their business is growing. Because of this attitude, they cannot foresee hiring anyone who is better at something than they are, and end up surrounding themselves with mediocrity which only tends to reinforce their ego. A harsh lesson that many of these mediocre business leaders learnt from the economic collapse of 2008 was that it was a hell of a lot easier to succeed in a booming economy. They had let their “success” blind them to the true realities of their situation. It was evident in the wake of the recession that the businesses that continued to survive — and even thrive — did so because of the planning of their leaders and the investment they had made in their people.

Are you prepared to become a successful business leader? You’ll need to ask yourself some tough questions and answer honestly about yourself and your own abilities. Maybe you won’t like what you hear. The real question is this: What will you learn from this exercise? And will your ego be able to handle it? Consider checking yours at the door, and maybe you’ll start down the path of building a company of giants.

Nov 11 2013
Love0

Who Are You Listening To?

By Success & Inspiration, Entrepreneurial No Comments

I’m a believer in the power of the spoken word, I’m a huge believer in self talk and the science of what gets programmed into your brain or what you speak is what you get in life.  Have you ever noticed that people who constantly speak of what they don’t want in life and are constantly complaining about what ails them continue to get exactly that.  Alternatively, those that are constantly upbeat and positive and speak about what they want as if it’s a done deal and only a matter of time before they have it constantly seem to have good things happen in their lives. I don’t think this is a coincidence. This story is a good example of just this.

One day a group of tiny frogs arranged a competition, the goal was to reach the top of a very high tower. On the day of the competition a big crowd gathered around the tower as the competitors got ready to climb. No one in the crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would make it to the top. They shouted remarks like “It’s way too difficult,” “They will never make it,” The tower is too high,” “There’s no chance they will succeed.”

One by one the competitors started collapsing, except for those who, with a fresh burst of energy, climbed even higher. The crowd continued to yell “It’s too difficult, give up, you can’t do it.” Sure enough more and more gave up, except one tiny frog, the smallest of them all, he kept going higher and higher and higher. He just would not give up! After a heroic effort he finally reached the top.

After the winner was declared all the others wanted to know how the frog had done it.  They were all puzzled until a friend of the winner let them in on a little secret…the winner was deaf.

The wisdom in this story and the lesson in life is:

1)  Never listen to other people’s negative comments because they will steal away your greatest dreams, the ones in your heart.

2)  Always think of the power words have, because everything you read and hear affects your actions.

3)  Always be positive, even in failure, because success is made of a bunch of failures that did not defeat you.

And Above All

Be deaf to those who speak negative over you, always think “I can do this.” Never allow others to steal your dreams.

Now!  Who Are You Listening To?

Nov 04 2013
Love0

Thrive Instead of Survive

By Comments & Opinion, Success & Inspiration No Comments

Thriving isn’t something we can luck our way into. Thriving is something we must cultivate, first within ourselves and then around us. Thriving first starts as a mental shift. Then it becomes an emotional shift and then a physical shift.

Our world is a direct reflection of our thoughts, actions and emotions. For the outside to shift, the inside has to shift, too. How we do this is since we can’t luck our way into abundance, the first thing that we want to do is focus on what we already have – and what we’re grateful for. Gratitude is the attitude of the blessed.

So, what are you grateful for? I would say, “I’m grateful for this breath, for my heart that works and I’m grateful that there are people in my life who I love and who love me.. ”

After a while, I was so aware of what I did have, that I started to appreciate it and associate it to a place of gratitude rather than fear. Shifting our focus from fear to gratitude is the first step. Then what we want to do is take our focus off of money as our supply. Money is just energy in physical form. The highest form of energy in the Universe is love. So if we put our focus on what we love, who we love and what we love to do, money will follow in the perfect time. Money will eventually chase people who are doing what they love.

Then finally, we must raise our standards. Surround yourself with people who believe in your dream, who life you up and inspire you. Who you surround yourself with is who you become! So it’s important to have a supportive and loving peer group.

If we focus on what we’re grateful for, if we realize that love is our supply and not money, if we focus on serving others and if we associate with people who lift us up, we are on the path to alignment with our soul, with our purpose and not just survival, but thriving!

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