FISH! Philosophy

• Choose your ATTITUDE – one that will make today a great day!

• Find ways to PLAY!

• Be PRESENT – by staying focused and responding when customers and colleagues need you most.

• MAKE someone’s day – Do something out of the ordinary.  Find someone who needs a helping hand, words of encouragement and support or a listening ear and give without strings attached.

What is your scent today?

Excerpted from FISH! By Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul and John Christensen.

This statistic is a great reminder of what we already know – the relationships that we build can make or break our business.   

*As reported in 6 Tips to Deepen Customer Engagement and Increase Sales, by Joe Keenan of AllAboutROIMag.com.

Day to day most all of us find ourselves with the opportunity to lead – whether professionally, personally or within other avenues.  These opportunities may not be obvious at first or come with a fancy title but we partake in them more than we may think. 

Carly Fiorina’s insights about leadership in her memoir made me think.

“Leaders are defined by three things: character, capability and collaboration.  Leaders are candid and courageous; they know their strengths and use them; they bolster their weaknesses by relying on others with complementary skills and by constantly learning and adapting; they know when they need help and seek it; they know when help is required by others, and they provide it.  They have strong peer networks and are not afraid to share with others.  Leaders come in all shapes and sizes and colors from every walk of life and level in an organization.  They can emerge anytime and anywhere, but they are consistent and steady in their actions and approach.”

Although I do not often think of myself as a leader per se, I know that I would be proud to be defined in the context above.  This made me examine how I am doing in the character, capability and collaboration departments.

•  Am I acting with candor and courage?
•  Am I utilizing the strengths that I have been gifted with and accepting the help I need from others?
• How have I adapted and what have I learned this year?  What are my plans for those areas for next year?
• Am I helping others in my pursuits?
• How does my peer network look and do I appreciate that peer network?
• Can my actions be described as consistent and steady?

Hmmm lots to think about.

As a child, I was often referred to as “The Prince of Procrastination”, and I was well into adulthood before I truly understood the importance of writing a schedule.  I relied on my “incredible” memory for dates, times, and places.  My memory faded with age.

Now, in order for me to accomplish everything that I must do in a given period of time, I must schedule each task or event.  I write down places, times, names, and numbers in my calendar/planner and I carry it with me constantly.  Writing out a plan of action for the day helps to reinforce my memory, but also provides backup should my memory fail me.

Most of us already have a routine.  If you need more time in your daily routine, take inventory of how your time is normally spent.  You can budget your time more effectively if you know what your “time vampires” are, and by planning your schedule you’ll learn how to avoid them.

Sam Bennett, Advanced Floor Care

An excerpt from their website explains…

More families bring pets into their homes during the holidays than at any other time of year. What better gift can any of us give during the holiday season than to give a home to an orphaned animal? Nobody wants to think about an orphaned pet waking up behind bars on a holiday morning. In the past some shelters have discouraged families from adopting pets during the holidays, forcing them to support the puppy mill industry. Home 4 the Holidays shelters work together to match the needs of the pets with the desires of the families. Everybody wins.

The event is scheduled for December 12.  Please visit the site for more information.

Whether you have a product or a service, at the bare bones profit is generated from people who do business with you.  It’s the people who pay you, refer you and /or continue to do business with you that are your livelihood.

So the question becomes about accessing the people who produce sales for your business.  The word “sales” can bring butterflies to the stomach of some business owners including myself.  What I have come to realize is that we have all practiced sales at some point in our lives and probably continue to do so daily without even realizing.  With a dazzling smile and stellar character my husband sold me that he was the one for me.  In business, I daily practice the art of finding a need and authentically articulating how my team can fill that need or refer the needy to who can help.  A sale is people skills at its most basic.

Upon realizing people are paramount to sales, now what?  Planning is the other key in my book.  While networking events, social media and marketing strategies are critical in generating leads what happens next?  Questions to consider:

• Is your business visible in numerous ways to generate leads?
• Can you authentically articulate the value of your business to others?
• How does my business interactively engage the leads that are created?
• What systems or methods does my business use to follow-up with prospective leads long term?
• Is there a compelling program or reason in place for others to refer business to you?
• Do you have a program in place to appreciate clients that are loyal to your business?

Please feel free to share your sales funnel liberation techniques here. 

Melissa Silva, Alchemy Virtual Business Solutions

Two things that the author expresses right in the beginning strike me:

1. “It’s about tapping into your potential for becoming the best person you can be and enjoying life to the fullest”; and
2. “I discovered long ago that regardless of age, people are eager to learn when it means understanding life more deeply and living it more fully.”

As a couple with a little bit of a challenge creating Abbie and then a rough-n- tumble pregnancy, I have to admit that I am one of those parents who is focused on being the best me that I can be for her.

 The top of my “Aha” list from the much appreciated advice that I have received is the importance of teaching Abbie that every day is to be one of joy and appreciation.  For someone who has a tendency to see the day as an endless “to-do” list to check off and finds joy in achieving, I have had to make a slight adjustment.  As I tap into my full potential, I have learned that it is my decision to express the joy of every day and to live that day to the fullest.  A very good friend reminds me that it will not matter five years from now if I have made the bed but Abbie will remember that I took the time to play a quick game of peek-a-boo with her.

Besides it being a lesson for Abbie, this advice makes me a better business owner.  The entrepreneurial spirit is not always an easy journey.  If Alchemy can take over the administrative worries that are bogging down a business owner then that is one step closer to them reaching their fullest potential.  Also I would like to think that if we have joy daily then maybe that will rub off on others around us when their day is just not seeming as enjoyable.

This love continues to flourish as an adult.  Through reading I have been inspired by the lives of others, learned about aspects that make us who we are, experienced faraway lands, laughed and even embarrassingly cried on an airplane as I finished a heart wrenching book.  My husband would like for me to stand corrected here that I actually read an entire book on the plane, sobbed at the ending and a number of fellow passengers around me were a little concerned for my well being.  Oops.

I have learned that two things happen when I share what I read:

1)    I retain the information allowing me to apply it and

2)    conversing about it feeds my intellectual soul.

So the “Now Reading…” section of the Alchemy Virtual Business Solutions blog is the self-indulgent side of me sharing.  Please feel free to share what you’re reading and/or dive into the conversation if I post a topic from reading that gets you going.  Thanks so much!

Who knows you?

One of the most overlooked resources in our lives are those people who care about us the most.  We spend a great deal of energy and money trying to find people that can figure us out and put us on the right path.  The truth of the matter is, many of us have already built that support group right in our own backyard.  Sometimes the best time saving technique we can implement is calling on that person who can help us get our focus back.  The dailies of life can be super distracting.  Keep the list of people you can reach out to handy and be prepared to return the
favor.  Everyone will be better off for it.