Category: New Business Development

Waiting To Get Back To Normal

Many people are in a rush
to ‘get back to normal.’

Schools are offering
in person classes.
Companies are asking
their employees
to come back to the office.

They want to do this
NOW,
not in four months
when the under 12 crowd,
the kids,
the next generation,
will likely be vaccinated.

There is a lot of pressure
for all of us
to ‘get back to normal’.
I feel it
and I work at home
all the time.

It is okay to resist this.
It is okay to wait.
It is okay to continue
to be cautious,
to be safe,
while we wait
for the vaccines for the kids
to be ready.

And it is okay
if we decide to keep our kids
at home
for a few more months.

There is no true rush
to ‘get back to normal.’
Operate at the speed,
on the time table,
you’re comfortable with.

What Is In It For Them?

This week,
it was revealed
that most of the politicians
pushing hard and vocally
for no masks
and no vaccinations
are profiting financially
from COVID.
They are getting rich
from people getting sick
and dying.

When I receive advice
from someone I don’t know
and don’t completely trust,
I always try to figure out
how they would benefit
from giving me that advice.

There’s ALWAYS a benefit.
And the harder people push their advice,
the bigger the benefit
there is.

I benefit from posting here
on client k.
Posting here
fulfills my promise
to previous mentors
to pass along their insights,
to pay their generosity forward.

It also forces me
to write every day,
to continue learning,
to stay current.

I don’t push hard
because having merely 1 reader
will do that for me.

When you receive advice,
always ask yourself
what is in it
for the advice giver.

Note: Earlier this week,
I mused that there was no downside
to letting people wear masks.
I was wrong.
There IS a downside
…for people like these politicians,
people who profit
from other people
getting sick and dying.
The rest of us
merely shouldn’t concern ourselves
with this downside.

What Do You Take With You?

One of my loved ones
is a skilled salesperson.

The first thing
a company hiring him
wants from him
is his list of clients.
They encourage him
to enter client details
into a database.

He resists this,
doing the minimum required,
maintaining his own
more extensive database.

Why?

Because his client list
is one of his greatest assets
and he wants to take it
with him
when he leaves the company.

He also knows
this client list
is WHY he was hired.
Once the company has it,
they no longer need him.

Seth Godin
shares

“A hard-working
but disrespected worker
(whether an online freelancer
or an actual factory worker)
struggles because
they’re not seen
as owning enough.

People have choices,
and they often choose
to hire and
do business with
entities that own something
that they want to use
or leverage.”

With the internet,
everyone has the ability
to own something.

Because that something
could be knowledge.
It could be the years
of weekly podcasts
or blog post
or online workshops
you’ve taken.

If you’re reading this post,
you own something.
You own the knowledge
you have learned
in this post.

Consider
tracking that knowledge
and adding to it.

Build an asset
– your brain –
no one can duplicate.

The You-Shouldn’t-Wear-A-Mask Crowd And Other Harmful People

There are people
who want to prevent
OTHER people from wearing masks
during this pandemic.

There is no downside
to other people wearing masks.
None.

And there are potential upsides.
That person might live,
might not get sick.
The anti-maskers might live,
might not get sick.

There are many theories
why they don’t want other people
to take precautions.
I don’t know which theory is correct.

I DO know
1) the you-shouldn’t-wear-a-mask people
don’t have our best interests
at heart
and
2) they don’t give a f*ck about
our freedoms.

There are people
who feel the same way
about our dreams,
our goals.

They don’t want us
to achieve our goals
and they actively try to block us,
even though it doesn’t impact them
in any significant way.

Accept there are people
like that.
And then ignore them.

Preparing For Climate Change

There are some big reports
being released this week
regarding climate change.

The news will be dismal.
Anyone who has stepped outside
already knows that.

But there ARE
resources available
showing us what we can do now
and how we can prepare for the future.

Many governments, for example,
have been
preparing reports
on the future of their biggest industries.
These reports are usually free to read.

Your industry might not be specifically mentioned.
But hearing how climate change
will impact other industries
might give you ideas
about how it will impact yours.

There are training seminars
for industry leaders.
Canada, for example,
recently held workshops
on how our ancestors
farmed successfully during droughts.

Take advantage of these resources.
Prepare.
Build your business
to be climate change adaptable.

Hitting The Wall

I met virtually
with a bunch of buddies
last night.

We all had very different projects
but we were all dealing with
the same problem
– emotional exhaustion.

We’re looking at
a fourth wave
(or fifth wave,
depending on where we live)
of the pandemic
and it is impacting kids.

We’re dealing with climate change
and all the fires, floods, locusts
and other natural disasters
that come with it.

Other sh*t is happening.

It would be strange
if we weren’t emotionally exhausted.

Treat that emotional exhaustion.

Disconnect as much as possible.
Shut off the news.
Don’t look at social media.

Have a bubble bath
or at home spa day.
Or sit in the back yard
and watch the birds.
Or wiggle your toes
into the grass.
Take a long nap.
Read a book for entertainment only.

This is an investment
in yourself,
in your health.

Because, if you don’t take one day
for yourself now,
your body will take several much less fun days
for you
at the most inconvenient time.
You don’t want that.

Take some time for yourself.

The First Rule Of Predicting The Future

One of my roles
on New Business Development teams
was to predict the future,
especially the financial future
of projects.

I would preface
every discussion
with the first rule
of predicting the future
– Any prediction of the future
will be wrong.

Being right is impossible
and it usually isn’t the point.
Sure, we all knew
we were due for a pandemic
but we didn’t know
it would start in 2019.
That hit almost everyone’s forecasts
by surprise.

Being prepared
and having a game plan
are two main reasons
to try to predict the future.
Once the pandemic happened,
original forecasts were amended.
Maybe the disaster plan
was implemented.
Predictions were changed.

In writing,
it is known that
a second draft is much easier
and faster to craft
than a first draft.

Because it is MUCH easier
to correct something
than create something.
The existence of
the first forecast of the future
makes it easier
for others to make adjustments to it.

Craft that prediction of the future.
Know it will be wrong.
Amend it as you gain more insights.

Work With Your Personality

I have a binge and purge
personality
when it comes to food.
I know this.

And I work with this.
One day a week,
I do my version
of a fast.
It resets my brain
(a regular meal
feels like bingeing
after a fast).
It lowers
my weekly calorie count.
It has the additional impact
of increasing gratitude.

I’ve tried other diets
in the past
but those required me
to change my personality.
That was too difficult
for me to do.

I have applied
this thinking to other areas
of my life
and have had success
there also.

Consider working WITH
your personality,
not against it.

It will be easier
for you
and you will find
more success.

Leaving It Up To Fate

We have a saying
in our household
– Try our best,
work our hardest,
and
leave the rest
up to fate.

There IS a fate
or luck factor
to almost everything.

If we do everything
we can do
to make something happen
and it doesn’t happen,
that doesn’t mean
we’re a failure
or unworthy.

It merely means
that wasn’t the path
we were supposed to take
…at the moment.

We learn what we can.
We try again
or we try different things.

We keep pushing forward.

And we acknowledge
that it might be fate
pushing us down
another road,
a better road for us.

Skilled Labor

When I was working
for a quick service restaurant chain
in New Business Development,
part of my training
was to work different jobs
in the restaurants.

I was placed one day
at an ice cream station.
I didn’t last long there.
No matter how many times
I was shown the process
and how many times
I tried,
I couldn’t make a cone
without the ice cream falling over.

That required skill
and I didn’t have that skill.

Canada flies migrant workers
into the country,
offering them various incentives
like vaccinations and health care,
because the country
needs fruit and vegetable pickers.
That is a highly skilled,
specialized job
and very few people
within the country
have those skills.

Almost all jobs
require skills.
Those skills might not be valued
highly in dollars
but they DO exist.

Factor in training time
for all jobs.
Respect all jobs.
Consider paying a living wage
for all jobs.