April 2011 – Page 3

Weeding Out Prospects

Recently, a brilliant want ad
for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune
has been making the rounds
on the internet.

Here’s a snippet from it…

“But if you’re the type of sicko
who likes holing up in a tiny, closed office
with reporters of questionable hygiene
to build databases from scratch
by hand-entering thousands of pages of documents
to take on powerful people and institutions
that wish you were dead,
all for the glorious reward of
having readers pick up the paper
and glance at your potential prize-winning epic
as they flip their way to the Jumble…
well, if that sounds like journalism Heaven,
then you’re our kind of sicko.”

Not only is this ad
great marketing,
but it serves the purpose
of weeding out a great number
of casual candidates.

Only serious candidates
with an appreciation for the management’s wit
and an understanding of the hard work
journalism entails
will bother applying
(I read somewhere that a very manageable
20 candidates have applied).

The best way to weed out
undesirable prospects
is to be brutally honest
as early on
in the process as possible.

This allows you to focus
on the serious candidates.

Self Awareness

Geoffrey James has a post
on the 8 Key Character Traits of Top Sales Pros.

One of those traits is
self awareness.

“Top sales pros have the ability
to understand
and control their own emotions,
regardless of what happens.”

I think self awareness
is a key success attribute
for every profession,
not simply sales.

Self awareness is not
the same thing
as being self centered.
Self awareness involves
being aware of bad traits
as well as good traits.

When we are aware of
our good points
and our flaws,
we can design systems
to work with them.

I know,
for example,
that I get distracted
by bright shiny ideas.
I have a system for dealing with this.
I list my new bright shiny ideas
in a notebook.
This gives me the satisfaction
of ‘taking action’ on the ideas
without taking so much action
that I derail my current projects.

I also have a few friends
assigned with the duty
of keeping me on track.
They remind me why I’m involved
with my current projects.

Become self aware.
Realize when you’re sabotaging
your own success
and put in systems to deal with it.

McKendrick’s Steak House And Customer Service

A loved one recently visited
McKendrick’s Steak House in Atlanta.
He ordered an appetizer
with a tuna steak on the side.
The tuna steak arrived overdone.

Good customer service
would be to apologize
and replace the tuna steak.

McKendrick’s Steakhouse, however,
provides great customer service.

When my loved one
brought it to the waiter, Antonio’s
attention,
Antonio immediately apologized,
took it off the bill
(my loved one didn’t want a replacement),
and offered him a free dessert.

Is your company
giving customers ‘free dessert’
when a mistake is made?
If not, why not?

Talent Vs Hard Work – A Redneck Weighs In

A loved one once said
“She worked damn hard”
would be written
on my grave stone.

I’m not the smartest person.
I don’t have the most talent.
I work hard.
That’s my claim to fame
and it has made all the difference.

Jeff Foxworthy,
comedian and talk show host,
sees the hard work vs talent debate
the same way.

“I look back through the years
and there were a lot of men and women
I worked with
and I would think,
‘Man, are they ever funny,’
but they didn’t necessarily work at it
and a decade later
you’re asking,
‘What ever happened to them?'”

“I’ve been in this for 26 years now,
but if I look back to the people
I started out with,
the Jay Lenos,
the Jerry Seinfelds,
the Adam Sandlers,
even people like Judd Apatow,
the common denominator is,
they all worked at it.
They didn’t all necessarily
continue to be standups,
but they were workers.”

The great thing is…
working hard is controllable.
I decide if I work hard.
I decide if I’ll be a success.

Disconnecting Yourself

I write 1,000 words every morning.

On paper, using a pen.

Yes, gasp, very low tech.
I type those 1,000 words
into the computer every night.

You may think…
“What a waste of time.
Why doesn’t she use a laptop
and type the words in immediately?”

Because

1) The actual act of writing
frees up a creative part of my brain.

2) I revise my words as I type them in
so I do 2 drafts in one day.

but most of all

3) My paper is disconnected
from the internet.
There is no temptation to check email
or to fact check on wikipedia.
I simply write.

Seth Godin has a great post
on using two electronic devices,
one for working
and one for playing,
and never mixing the two.
That’s another way to disconnect.

Find out your own way to disconnect,
and
use that offline time
for your creative work.

Jeff Foxworthy, George Strait, And Being On Time

In an interview with Bill Harris,
Jeff Foxworthy, comedian and tv host,
talks about being on time.

“Musicians aren’t real good
about getting up in the morning.
But you know what’s funny is,
the one who are the best at it
are the successful ones.
The George Straits and the Tim McGraws,
they’re the ones who always call on time.
It’s the new guy
who really needs the exposure
that doesn’t call, you know?”

“It makes you think,
‘There’s a reason George Strait is George Strait.’
I’ve always said about show business,
everybody likes the ‘show’ part,
it’s the ‘business’ part that’s hard.
But the successful ones do both.”

Being on time is part of being a professional
and to be successful long-term
in ANY business,
you have to be a professional.

Even America’s most famous redneck
knows that to be true.

Perfect People

We hate them.
Seriously.
Who likes a perfect person?
Who buys from a perfect person?

No one.

Why?
Because there’s no such thing
as a perfect person
so when we meet someone
pretending to be perfect,
we wonder why she feels the need
to hide the fucked up side of her personality.

So don’t hide your smaller faults
and don’t feel it is the end of the world
when you fuck up.
It is actually the opposite
(especially if you mitigate the risk to others).
Folks will trust you more
for having made a mistake.

Perfect people,
don’t pretend to be one.

Why You Need Goals

In the March/April issue
of The Costco Connection,
Roger Ellerton explains why
you need a clear goal.

“If you don’t have an immediate goal
and you meet a friend who does,
most likely your friend will enlist you
to help him get what he wants.
And you may
(silently or otherwise)
become angry with him
for taking advantage of you,
when in reality you set the stage
for what happened
by not having direction.”

This past weekend,
exactly that happened to me.

A friend asked me to read for her.
She didn’t need me
to provide input on her work.
She simply wanted reassurance
that she was on the right track.

I was tempted to do the reading first
but I had my word count goal
clearly outlined.
I told myself I’d write first
and read second.
I didn’t get to reading
because I finished my writing late at night.

My friend didn’t care.
I did care about my word count.
I would have been irked with myself
and with her
if I hadn’t met it.

Write out your goals
and put those goals first.

April Fool’s Day And Branding

I received an email yesterday
asking why I don’t play April Fool’s jokes
here on Clientk.

I don’t for the same reason
I don’t play April Fool’s Day jokes
anywhere.

I spend 364 days out of the year
building trust.
I’m not going to destroy it
in one day.

The mind doesn’t associate
a lie with a date or time.
If I ‘fool’ my readers once,
they will assume
that I can and will fool them again.
They will be wary and distrustful
and for good reason.

Does this mean I don’t joke
or have fun?
Of course not.
I simply don’t lie while doing so.

Think twice
about destroying trust,
regardless of the date.

There’s Knowing And There’s Knowing

I’ve known a certain concept in writing
for years now.
I’ve known it.
I’ve tried to incorporate it in my work.
Yet it wasn’t… there.

Then yesterday,
as I was writing a scene,
it clicked.
I now KNOW this concept.
It went from damn difficult to easy peasy.

When I was studying French,
I knew I had to roll my r’s.
I practiced and practiced and practiced
but I couldn’t.

Then one day,
magically it happened.
I rolled my r’s,
and since then,
rolling my r’s has been easy.

Some readers wonder
why I repeat concepts on Clientk.
THAT is why.
You may think you know a concept
but you may not truly know it.
With repetition and work,
it will come.