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Browse every published article connected to Melanie Benson Strick, with exact attribution and full-archive search.
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Browse every published article connected to Melanie Benson Strick, or search within this exact expert archive.
As my friends and I hovered in the lobby of the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, the reality was sinking in that American Airlines had cancelled all of our flights and we were stuck in Nashville for one more day. As we mentally reviewed the checklist in our heads of all the rescheduling, rebooking and ...
How would you like to be able to predict your future outcomes? How about achieve any kind of goal? You may not realize this but you have already perfected a simple formula for consistent, predictable results. So why, you might ask, are you not achieving all of your goals in record ...
Recently I watched a somewhat cheesy movie, Rockstar, where Mark Wahlburg plays an obsessed cover band singer who is impersonating a popular 80’s heavy metal band. Chris, the main character, takes his role so seriously that he learns everything he can about the lead singer – and completely imitates every facet of the guy’s life from his hair to his leather pants to how he sings.
The other day my friendly Trader Joes check out guy said, “Are you doing anything cool for the holidays?” I think I shocked him with my answer of “Why yes, we just dropped some toys off at the Holiday Drive and I’m enjoying finding unique ways to give this year.” Stunned, he responded, “I leave all that giving stuff to others. I think others can do more than I can.” As I smiled and turned away I thought, “I wonder how many other people miss out on the amazing inte al buzz I feel by doing what little I can.”
Laying on the floor sobbing, curled in the fetal position, the reality sank in that everything Martin had worked so hard for was gone. His trust had been violated, his life savings that he invested with his partner in an overseas venture, spent. Now what? Martin Howey, President of TopLine Business Solutions, realized as painful as this moment was that he had to rebuild. This failure was actually an opportunity to rebirth a business that would be based on solid ground – and today he is one of the most respected, well-liked and brilliant minds in business.
Do you ever feel like you are carrying the weight of a thousand people on your back? Somehow no matter how good you think you are at delegating it still feels like you have a thousand things to do. It's a feeling many entrepreneurs, managers and business owners have. William Oncken, author of Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey, calls it "the monkey on your back". Here is how it happens:
You are working your buns off every day, with the pedal-to-the-metal and yet, the realization has sunk in, you can't squeeze any more in. The experts however are telling you that to make more money you have to fit in these tasks: • Set up a blog and post 3 times a weekn • Systemize your ...
Do you ever feel like you are carrying the weight of a thousand people on your back? Somehow no matter how good you think you are at delegating it still feels like you have a thousand things to do. It’s a feeling many entrepreneurs, managers and business owners have. William Oncken, author of ...
As entrepreneurs, our strengths can become our greatest weaknesses. By nature we are fast paced, highly creative risk takers. But when it comes to building a team, it’s like forcing us to take a nap at 10:00am. It’s just not our natural way of doing things. The most important aspect of managing people (or in the virtual team model, their deliverables) is learning to delegate well. In my work, I’ve seen hundreds of people buy into the “myths of delegation”: Myth #1 – “No one can do the job as well as I can.” Myth #2 – “If I want it done on time, I have to do it myself.”r
In 2001 I discovered I was a much better entrepreneur than I was a corporate ladder climber. As I turned in my 2-week notice at Motorola after 10 years in business, I was ecstatic to finally be my own boss. Over the next 18 months I was broke, frustrated, overwhelmed and doubting my ability to be successful on as a business owner. Then, it hit me.
Recently I conducted a survey of entrepreneurs who expressed interest in virtual teams and asked, “What is your single greatest challenge with building a virtual team? Over 64% answered, “Knowing how to pay for a team.” The funny thing is I never questioned whether or not I could afford to ...
John is a highly creative person who loves to do one thing – write. And he makes a really great living at it. But when it comes to running a business and dealing with the operations John would pretty much prefer to get a root canal in the middle of the Sahara desert. Dan is a brilliant marketing strategist who grossed 7 figures for years doing what he does best – selling from stage and writing award winning sales copy. But it was a lot of work on his own.
Have you ever noticed how hard it is to fill a bucket that is full of holes? Imagine for a moment how silly it would be to try and keep the bucket full of water when the water just keeps pouring out the bottom. Well that is what most of us do when we try to leap forward in our growth with a ...
With credit lines diminishing and debt rising, how does one go about paying for all the resources to grow? It’s a common challenge facing many in the entrepreneurial community but it doesn’t have to be the roadblock that keeps you from investing in the right growth opportunities. I’ve faced fear in this area along the way myself, especially when I take a risk that didn’t pay off. And you know what, it happens. As a matter of fact, I had a big one this year. Yep a bone-crushing, mind-melting, heart-sickening failure.
Many years ago one of my mentors taught me this saying: “success is only sustainable when it’s good for you, good for the people around you, and good for the world.” That sounds good and everything…but what does it really mean? Do we mean people like Enron can’t just cover up their big oil spills? Or that high ranking government officials shouldn’t lie to their constituents in order to get elected? What if it means that as entrepreneurs, we have a responsibility to create sustainable sales – a sale that is good for you, good for the people around you, and good for the world.
In today marketplace, uncertainty seems to be the constant as we embrace our new economy. What used to work for many businesses to generate sales and increase profits now does not work. Many in the information marketing world have had to face the fact that buyers now want something different.
Did you start your business with the high hopes that you’d spend every waking moment pouring through piles of receipts trying to update your bookkeeping reports, chasing down past due payments from customers or struggling to keep up with the growing list of marketing tasks to hopefully attract enough sales to stay in business this month? Actually you probably started your business for one of two reasons: One, because you were extraordinarily passionate about your craft or two, you found a way to make money without working for someone else.
When we consider setting goals or making changes we tend to overestimate what we can do in the short run (and create goals and expectations that are too big) and underestimate what we can accomplish in the long run. I believe that we completely underestimate the value and the power of small ...
The other day I was at yoga class and was chatting with the owner about attendance. It’s a relatively new studio in a rural area of Los Angeles so I knew that it would take some time to build the word-of-mouth buzz she needed to sustain full classes on a regular basis.
If you were already a millionaire, what would you be doing differently? Got you thinking didn’t I. That’s the power of a question. So really, what would you be doing differently if every day you got up and went about your business as if you were already a millionaire? Most people who come to ...
Knowing what to spend your time and money on is not always as easy as it sounds. With time being scarcer than money, it’s easy to put our focus on activities that will generate the wrong results. But what I do know is there are a few activities that highly successful entrepreneurs do consistently that are guaranteed to get you closer to your revenue and achievement goals.
I recently conducted a survey of entrepreneurs who are still doing everything themselves. I discovered that the #1 reason why entrepreneurs hold back from investing in support is they still believe that the cost to build a team is greater than the potential revenue growth. Well that's just ...
An excerpt from the book The Power of the Virtual Team, available at: nhttp://www.powerofthevirtualteam.com/buy.phpnn“There is no such thing as a self-made man. You will reach your goals only with the help of others.” George Shinn (Owner of Charlotte Hornets basketball team The reason I feel so ...
I know you’ve heard me talk over and over about the importance of delegation. It’s crucial to business growth, but figuring out how to do it correctly isn’t always easy. I view it as “part Art, part Science”. The “Art” is knowing which tasks and responsibilities are most beneficial to delegate (and which ones would be detrimental for you to lose). The “Science” is figuring out that delicate balance of just HOW MUCH to delegate for optimum results. For the “Science” of delegation, you’ll first need to know if you are an over-delegator or an under-delegator.
If you’re an entrepreneur you’ve probably come across this situation before: You’ve invested big into a new project, new venture, new employee, or new system… You’ve spent months preparing this new thing, you’ve long been excited about it’s potential, and you’ve planned on it being a significant step in the growth of your business. But at a certain point, things stop moving in the right direction.
“Mastermind” is the one of the greatest “secrets” to success. A Mastermind is a group of people who share a common vision and commit to leveraging each other’s brilliance, skills and big thinking to achieve their biggest dreams. Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, talked about the ...
I’ve been watching something happen lately and it seems that the more our fear rises the more this issue has just gotten out of hand. It typically comes up behind closed doors in one of those private conversations I have with a client or a colleague who has hit the wall. The conversation starts something like this: “I can’t do it anymore. Things are falling apart faster than I can keep up and I’m frustrated, overwhelmed and bleeding money so fast that I’m losing control. I need your help.”
Most entrepreneurs spend the first 12 – 24 months of owning their own business feeling like they are crawling with a big anchor attached to their foot – progress seems VERY slow. The frustrating thing is that you can “see” what big success looks like but between learning what needs to be done and doing everything on a boot-strap budget (aka it’s just you trying to get everything done) – progress appears to be limping along at a snail’s gate. Until you learn to optimize. Optimizing is the ability to make the business you’ve worked so hard to build work ten times better.
I'm looking around the room at glassy-eyed stares. It is day three of a big marketing event where these entrepreneurs have been learning all kinds of new ideas, opportunities and strategies. I've been brought into help these entrepreneurs prioritize and focus on the right steps at the right time to get massive results. I can tell I've got my work cut out for me because they are deep in overwhelm. Not because they aren't capable, but because our brains can only handle so much before we shut down.
One of the biggest frustrations of having a business can be managing staff. It’s frustrating to have a team member who is constantly off the mark in terms of what you need from them. This is also one of the easiest problems to solve when you use the right tools that allow you to hire the right people for the right roles the first time – its called a Role Description. When you write your role description, make sure you skip the typical corporate jargon talking about communication, organization and leadership skills.
The last few weeks I've been testing a new high performance technique. Having been trained in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, I'm always fascinated by how when you give your brain a new directive how it responds. It all started on a phone call with a client of mine who was planning out a teleconference where the goal was to get 10 people on it. Now, that could be an excellent outcome, but I felt he had set the bar too low.
I've surveyed hundreds of entrepreneurs about what gets in the way of achieving their goals. The two highest responses are: "I don't have enough time," and "I don't have enough money." Now I don't want to seem callous or unsympathetic as I'm sure that many people do really have a lot of things ...
Your bills are piling up. Your website is in its fourth reiteration and you still aren't getting clients. You just discovered that you should be posting articles and doing online press releases but you are running out of time and money. You know you need to build a team so you can get things ...
What if I could guarantee you that I could teach you a strategy that would keep you stuck exactly where you are right now, designed to generate a predictably mediocre results? Would you race to my “buy now” opportunity? Heck no! But yet so many people spend hours a day perfecting a strategy in life to “just get by.”
Have you ever entered into a partnership with someone then found, much to your surprise, that a few months (or years) down the road that the partnership has blown up? Kinda like the moment you discover your wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend is no longer the person you want to spend your life with and you are about to break up. So how do all those people with thriving business partnerships make it work? They put some very specific elements into action early in the arrangement.
Some people think I’m nuts but I don’t watch the news. If I did, I think I’d be in a constant state of panic as the media chu s up the frenzy by constantly focusing us on: How our economy continues to decline. That unemployment is at an all-time high. Company leaders that are downright lying to the public and their employees so they can continue to build their personal wealth. How bankruptcy and foreclosures are as common today as credit card approvals were five years ago.
Once you realize you are ready to delegate to other you are probably going to want to get started quickly. That’s how we work as entrepreneurs, an idea gets in our head and we leap forward. Typically we rush to bring a new team member on board because we need help now – we can’t wait to get rid of the overwhelm and start making more money and having some much needed time off!
Two years ago I was coaching a client who was significantly in debt, had a service-based business that took him 80 hours a week to run, and was so stressed out trying to grow his business that he had stomach ulcers and slept about 4 hours a night. Of course I started running the numbers – how much does he make and what would have to happen to shift it. My jaw hit the floor when I figured he was making about $7.00 an hour. To grow the business he would have to dramatically shift his products, hire some help and change his money habits.
What would you do if you knew that you could change your results in an instant? Would you create more money? More fun? More freedom? The ideal relationship? I'd like to share with you a story about John. John, a real estate agent, listed 2 properties. Three months later John was quite ...
Nancy is like every entrepreneur I know. Highly creative and visionary, she has a million ideas. First she wants to be a coach. Then a mentor tells her she should offer workshops. Then she decides she should offer consulting in her old industry. Then, confused and full of angst, she hears about how one guru makes a million dollars a year on selling just ONE e-book. Now Nancy jumps to writing an e-book but plans to have an audio program and a group coaching program three months from now. I want to shake Nancy and tell her to STOP THE MADNESS!
Learning how to leverage will free you from the burden of feeling constantly overwhelmed and scrambling to succeed. What is leverage? Leverage is the ability to apply a little bit of effort and get a massive result. Think of a lever - you move the lever a little bit and the lever applies the pressure to get a much bigger result. For entrepreneurs, there are three kinds of leverage we can tap into: money, systems, time. Let's explore each of these options. • Money - When you leverage money, you make more money. The three easiest ways are to: 1. Charge more 2.
Create your ideal lifestyle vision first. It's hard to shove your ideal lifestyle into a busy business, but if you create that vision first, you can then build your business to support it. Vision is the ability to create something wonderful in your imagination. There's a spiritual connotation to the ability to have vision. It taps into our deepest wisdom and creativity. Having clarity about your life is the most essential element of being successful.
There I was. Depressed, frustrated, and overwhelmed. Despite my best efforts to have a smooth running ship and organize my event, I realized I had a significant breakdown in my process. I admit, it wasn’t the end of the world, but come on, I teach this stuff! It was one week before we went live ...
Overwhelm is a state of mind that can sabotage your success and create unnecessary stress. Here are fifteen of my favorite techniques I use to help my clients (and myself) dissolve the feelings of overwhelm and feel inspired and powerful every day. Each of these techniques can be implemented in under 12 minutes (and some even in a nano-second) — the idea is to recognize how one simple shift in your approach to running your business can make a HUGE difference in your level of sanity! 1. Say No to BSOr
Most of us are taught that if we try hard enough we can accomplish any goal. But sometimes, when we’ve spent years training ourselves into a habit, determination isn’t going to be enough to change that pattern. Of course being determined is an essential ingredient in changing your habits but in my 12 years of mentoring and coaching entrepreneurs I can guarantee you, it’s not enough! Here’s why… Your habits are a direct result of your beliefs.
Jeanette was a typical go-getter who wanted it all. Mother to three children, owner of a thriving consulting firm to Fortune 500 companies, chairman of her industry association and wife to a successful doctor. Jeanette had goals, dreams and visions of a billion dollar company but there was just ...
What do Donald Trump, Oprah, Richard Branson and I have in common? Well I may not quite be at the billionaire level yet but what we do all have in common is we are all entrepreneurs who get things done in record time. Consider this: Over 80% of the entrepreneurs I mentor have great ideas with ...
Imagine what it would be like if you could run a profitable six, seven or eight figure business and enjoy as much freedom as you desire? For many, the moment you decide to grow your business you simultaneously think of all the hard work ahead. You begin to question the dream and wonder if it’s ...
5 Essential Habits to Protect Your Most Essential Commodity A couple of years ago I was at a leadership conference where one of the keynotes, Suzanne de Passe of Motown Productions, talked about protecting the entrepreneurs’ greatest commodity – our energy. Suzanne’s key comment was “how you ...
Your client’s check bounced and now you have to call them (again) to get paid. Cashing checks was NOT why you left your job, was it? Come to think about it, you don’t like having to handle all this financial stuff anyway. What a pain! Your new program (or product) fell short of your revenue projections. Disappointed, you start to doubt whether it’s a good offering. That seed of doubt makes you fantasize how easy it would be just to sell someone else’s’ stuff.