January 5th, 2009 by Jim Donovan
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If you happened to watch the New Year’s Eve festivities from New York’s Times Square, you may have seen Mayor Michael Bloomberg being interviewed and heard him say, as far as he is concerned, the operative word for 2009 is “Optimism,” which according to Wikipedia, is an outlook on life such that one maintains a view of the world as a positive place.
I’m with him. It’s about time we had optimistic talk being spread over the airwaves. We’ve certainly had our fill of the other kind.
As with anything else, if we believe this and begin affirming it, we will make it so. It would be really great if the majority of people followed the sentiment of “Mayor Mike,” however, what’s even more important is that each of us affirm it for ourselves.
In truth we can only create our own experience, not the experience of others so, regardless of what the masses choose to do we can start seeing this coming year through a lens of optimism and act accordingly.
No one but you can create your life experience. Not the government, not your employer, not even your spouse. What occurs in your life is totally within your control and is a result of your thoughts, feelings and actions.
If you choose to join with me and Mayor Bloomberg and see this year optimistically, as a year of opportunity and positive expectations, you will, in fact, create your best year ever.
While optimism is a great outlook on life and a key ingredient for success, it’s not all there is. You’ll need a vision of what you want your life to become, specific and measurable goals, an action plan to follow and, hopefully, a mentor or coach to keep you on track.
If you have a coach, great. If not, now would be a good time to get one. Or, if you cannot afford a coach right now, “buddy up”with someone and hold each other accountable. Find someone you feel comfortable sharing your dreams and goals with and arrange to meet with them regularly. This is an important component for success. No one does it alone.
With all the change in the air and the general feelings of hope and possibility being expressed by people from all walks of life, it’s looking like 2009 is going to be a banner year.
As with everything else in nature, there’s an ebb and flow to our life. After last year, I think you’ll agree we’re all ready for the flow to begin. Bring it on!
If you really want to make 2009 your best year ever and are ready to play full out, check out my new tele-seminar program “Live Your Destiny 2009.”
Over the course of the next few days, I’ll be posting a series of articles specifically written to help you start your year off right. If you miss any, or if you’re new to personal development, you can always find the entire series in the “Starting Out” category.
By the way, if you are planning on working one-on-one with a coach, I have an opening. You can learn more here
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December 29th, 2008 by Jim Donovan
This is the second in the series of “year end” exercises. In case you missed the first exercise, you can get it here: Write your accomplishments
Before we go on to the fun parts of creating your fabulous vision and plans for the coming year, I’d like you to take a look at everything in your life and list those things you are putting up with that you’d be better off eliminating.
As the title of one of my books points out, This is your life, not a dress rehearsal. You deserve the best life has to offer.
This means having a life where you feel safe in your own home. A life where you are treated well and respected by others. A life that is free from the things you do not wish to experience.
In the filed of professional coaching, there is something called Tolerations. These are the things that, for whatever reason, you tolerate in your life. Sometimes, they’re minor inconveniences like a friend who’s always late for appointments. Sometimes, people tolerate serious things like physical or emotional abuse. You do not have to tolerate that which you do not want or have in your life.
Take some time to look at your life as it is right now. What are you tolerating that you’d rather be rid of? Do you tolerate friends who constantly put you down? Why? Why not surround yourself with people who will support you in your endeavors, whatever they may be. After all, it’s your life, isn’t it?
Do you tolerate a boss who treats you poorly? No one should have to put up with disrespect. Maybe you should have a talk with this person and let them know how you feel. Perhaps, it’s time to look for another position or a career change.
Do you tolerate an abusive parent, spouse or child? Don’t! Go and get some help before it’s too late.
What about your home? Are you tolerating a dirty, cluttered environment when what you really want is a clean, uncluttered one? Change it!
Are you tolerating a dripping faucet or shower? Call a plumber. Do you tolerate an automobile that runs poorly or is unsafe? Have it fixed! Does your bedroom need painting or a carpet cleaning? What are you waiting for?
What are you tolerating in your health? Do you tolerate being overweight and in poor health when you’d really rather be healthy & fit? You’re in control you know. It’s your life and it’s up to you to make it what you want it to be.
Most of these things can be eliminated just by making the time to address them. While some may require you to hire a professional to help, others you can do yourself.
The interesting thing about making a list like this and going through it, item by item, is as you do it, you will feel more and more in control of your life and environment and this powerful feeling will carry over into all areas of your life.
Tolerate nothing. You are in control. This is your life, not a dress rehearsal.
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December 18th, 2008 by Jim Donovan
Several years ago, I began a practice of writing my accomplishments at the end of the year I borrowed the idea from the corporate world. In most companies, managers are required to submit a list of their accomplishments and objectives annually. This information is used as the basis for performance reviews, raises, and promotions.
I thought, Hey, if it works for them, maybe it will help me. The sense of personal satisfaction and encouragement I received after doing this once was so great that it has become a regular practice.
We take so much of what we do for granted, or just shrug it off, saying, It’s no big deal. We point to the successes, contributions, and accomplishments of others while overlooking all that we ourselves have done. Only after taking the time to list our own accomplishments and activities do we see that we, too, are making a difference. We realize how much we have actually done in our lives, and this serves to encourage and motivate us to even greater heights.
In your journal, make a list of what you have done in the past year
- Where have you vacationed?
- What plays, movies, or concerts have you seen?
- What books have you read?
- What have you done for and with your family?
- What have you accomplished in your business?
- What about personal goals?
- What have you done for yourself?
- What about your health?
- Have you lost weight,began exercising, or played a sport?
- Did you start a business, write a book, or give a speech?
Write down everything you can think of. The more, the better.
Seeing all you have done will raise your self-esteem and increase the likelihood that you will accomplish even more in the coming year. You have probably done much more than you realize, and writing it down will enable you to see just how much you have accomplished.
Excerpt, Handbook to a Happier Life by Jim Donovan (New World Library)
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December 16th, 2008 by Jim Donovan
Business guru Brian Tracy, once commented that whenever he interviewed a prospective employee, one of the first questions he would ask was, What’s the last self-help book you read? I’m guessing that the answer had a lot to do with how long the rest of the interview would last and the candidates chances of being hired.
With job losses mounting, this is a question worth considering. Why would anyone, especially a prospective employer, care what you read?
From where I sit, it’s quite simple. If you’re not interested in your own personal growth and professional development, are you really someone I want representing my company?
It’s a fact that virtually every successful person makes a habit out of reading and listening to personal development information. Years ago, audio program producer, Nightingale-Conant, conduced a survey of their customers and asked what value, in dollars, they would place on having listened to one of the company’s programs. The average was $180,000.
Years ago, as I wrote in my book Stop Living paycheck to Paycheck, my friend, John, increased his income 15% during one of the worst automotive slumps in history. The only thing he changed was he started reading self-help books for fifteen to twenty minutes each day before going to work.
Millionaire network marketers teach their people to read each day as a way to remain motivated. The people who are successful in that industry are the one’s who follow that advice.
Sadly, most people have not read a book since they left school and a third of the population has not been in a bookstore in years. In Korea in 2006, more money was spent on cigarettes than on books.
Joe Girard, the number one car salesman in the world, wrote a book, How to Sell Anything to Anybody about how he did it. It amazes me how few car salespeople I’ve meet who have read the book.
Personally, I watched as my life changed in direct proportion to what I was reading and listening to each day. To this day, if I start to feel, “less than great” it’s usually because I have not been keeping up my practice of ongoing personal development.
There are lots of great books published and more being released each week. Of course, I’d prefer you start with one of my books but it’s more important you read something that will nurture your spirit and help you maintain a positive outlook on life.
If you’d like to know more about the books I’ve written, you can start here
But, don’t stop there. Make this a part of your daily routine and you will learn, as I did, that it is one of the “secrets” to a happier, more successful life.
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December 4th, 2008 by Jim Donovan
Leveraging your relationships
You can grow your business by leverage your relationships with colleagues, suppliers, distributors and yes, even your competitors.
Several years ago I attended a demonstration at a local copier supplier. It was a huge success as a herd of people roamed throughout the building seeing live demos of the latest in office copiers.
While the local business hosted the event, their supplier provided the factory trained experts on hand to answer people’s questions.
Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, and Saks have regular “trunk shows” and make-up events to attract customers, again with the expertise provided by the manufacturers.
Faith Popcorn pointed out in her landmark book The Popcorn Report published in 198?, people like entertainment while they shop.
Could your supplier help you create an event and fill your business with customers?
By the way, if you want to learn more about a huge untapped market, namely women, read Popcorn’s latest book Eveolution.
What about your colleagues? Could a carpet or home cleaning company team up with a caterer and offer a holiday special?
Might a lawyer, accountant and banker put together a free event for their business customers? What could you do to leverage your business?
Do you have underused equipment sitting around? Many local newspapers whose presses are only used for a few hours a day, will take on outside printing jobs. Your typical weekly paper is most likely being printed on a daily newspaper’s presses.
One smart auto repairperson I knew would rent out his extra repair bay to hobbyists who wanted to do their own work. Do you have additional capacity from your equipment that would be of interest to someone else?
Opportunities on the internet
I’ve saved the best for last. If there is one area that is underutilized by small businesses, it’s your website. Ninety percent or more of local business websites that I’ve visited are nothing more than online brochures. I call them Tombstones in Cyberspace.
Contrast this against the sites used by internet marketers. Internet marketers, people whose business profits entirely or in part online, engage the customer with an array of techniques designed to keep them coming back, refer them to friends and leave them wanting more.
The typical offline business gets little if any internet traffic, mainly because their sites have not been setup properly or not even optimized for search engines.
What is even sadder is that if someone does manage to stubble upon their site, they have no way to connect with the visitor and develop an ongoing relationship.
Other than SEO, the easiest thing that you can do is set up some sort of “capture mechanism.” A simple subscription box connected to an auto responder will enable you to begin building a database of your customers and potential customers.
As my friend Vic Johnson, a highly successful internet marketer of personal development information said, “He who has the biggest list, wins! Or, as every online marketer knows, the money is in the list.
Once you’ve started building your online database, you have the ability to contact your customers whenever you want and at virtually no cost.
If you can’t go into your business tomorrow morning at 7:30, create a special offer to jump start sales, and have it out to a list of several hundred or thousand customers by 9:00, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. Go here if you want to learn how you can grow your offline business with online strategies.
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November 13th, 2008 by Jim Donovan
(Editors note: This is the unedited version. I figured with so many small business people under pressure, rather than wait until I finish writing the entire article and proof and edit, I’d just start posting. Hey, it’s a blog, right:-)
Your greatest opportunity for business growth, regardless of the economy, are the assets you already have in your business. From personnel, customers - past and present - relationships with colleagues and suppliers, and other “people” assets, to your investment in equipment and technology, the assets you’ve already built represent your greatest opportunity.
Jim Donovan's business seminar in Perkasie, Pa
And the really good news is they will require the least in either time or money.
Of these “hidden” assets, your customers are the easiest and most obvious place to begin. Do you know who they are and why they do business with you?
This may seem like an obvious question, however, many businesses do not know who is buying from them or why. Once you’ve ascertained this, you’re in a position to explore how else you might serve them.
One of my favorite questions has always been, “is there anything else I can help you with?” This simple question can increase your business tenfold.
A friend of mine is a graphic designer and print broker. One day she asked her client this question to which the client replied, “Yes there is. Can you help us get some of those imprinted jackets with our logo on them?” She happily replied that she could and took the order. (hint: if you own a small business, the answer, within reason, is always, “Yes.” You can figure out later how to deliver.)
Don’t fall into the trap if thinking just because you’ve been around a while that people know everything you do. Often we “ass-u-me” that our customers know what we do.
Back when I had a marketing and advertising business, I did a lot of business with a local printer. They had been printing a newsletter for one of the high schools for 25 years. One month, they asked the school to pick up their order since the delivery person was out sick.
I happened to be standing there, watching the woman from the school reading the sign behind the counter as she waited for her order. The one listing all the various items the printer had available.
“Oh,” she exclaimed, “I didn’t know you printed letterhead and envelopes too. We’ve been going somewhere else for them but if you can do that it would be easier for us!”
For more than 25 years the printer did business with the school and never bothered to make sure the customer knew everything they could do for them. This can be a very costly mistake.
Are all of your employees, regardless of their job title, trained in the basics of sales and taught to look for opportunities to present your products and services to your customer? Are they compensated for making the extra effort?
Ms. Jones walks into the bank one day and, as she approaches Fred the teller, he notices she’s not her usual joyous self. Fred inquires if everything is okay, only to have Ms. Jones tell him about how her car keeps having problems. Being a trained representative of the bank, Fred sees the opportunity and, casually, mentions to Ms. Jones that the bank has a special on new car loans and offers to walk her over to a bank officer to learn more.
Not only did Fred help his company by recognizing the new business opportunity but, equally important, he solved a problem for the customer.
Are your people like Fred or would they have said, “Gee, Ms. Jones, that’s too bad about your car,” and gone on performing their job.
Go here for a free e-course Six Steps to Grow your business in Difficult Times.
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October 19th, 2008 by Jim Donovan
FREE Help with Optimizing Your Marketing & Mindset in ANY Economy
Are you interested in optimizing your business to increase profits? Are you looking for ways to get more clients? Are you trying to stay positive despite the economy? If you answered YES then I have to tell you about an upcoming FREE teleseminar event aimed specifically at entrepreneurs and business owners that will help you do just that!
This is your chance to hear me and 16 other phenomenal expert and bestselling authors such as: Dave Lakhani, Melanie Benson Strick, Ben Mack, Fabienne Frederickson and many more interviewed by Business Optimization Coach, Stacey Hylen, for the second annual Business Optimization Week 2.0: Marketing & Mindset to Make You More Money teleseminar event.
This must listen event takes place Monday, October 20th through Thursday, October 23rd. Participation in these calls is absolutely free of charge and you will come away with amazing tools and strategies to implement into your business to achieve your goals, attract more clients, generate more profits, and develop a million dollar mindset.
Join me! Sign up for your spot today!
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October 14th, 2008 by Jim Donovan
“You cannot continue to tell the same story without continuing to live the same circumstances.” Abraham-Hicks
Ignoring reality may seem like a strange suggestion but that’s precisely what we have to do to create change in our lives. It’s really quite simple but can be subtly deceptive.
For example, it is pretty much accepted in psychology that we attract what we focus on or, put another way, our minds move in the direction of our thoughts.
Taking that a step further, it becomes apparent that, in order for our lives to change, we must be focusing on not what is, but rather what we want, hence ignore reality. We must start telling a different story about how our life is.
So many people cling to their “story” about how their life is and why and then wonder why it’s not changing. It can’t!
As long as you’re constantly reinforcing conditions as they are, they cannot change. Only when you are willing to let go of your “story” and start telling yourself a new one, will things on the outside begin to change.
If, for example, you wanted to drop 10 pounds you cannot be talking about how hard it is to lose weight or how overweight you are. You cannot keep looking at how slowly the weight is dropping, if at all.
Instead you have to affirm that you are, in fact, losing the weight and shift your self-talk to that of having already reached your ideal weight. Visualize yourself as already having completed the process.
Affirm, “I am in the process of reaching my ideal weight” (income, lifestyle, or whatever).
Right now, with everything going on in the financial industry, most people have their attention on what’s wrong, how much they’re losing in the market, their bills and how bad things are. The problem here is that they are still holding their attention on the problems. All that can possibly produce are similar conditions; namely problems.
The only way to change this is to notice the abundance you already have and, as like attracts like, you will begin to attract more abundance into your life.
You may have to pretend that everything is getting better. You have to start acting “as if” you are living the life you desire. Start telling yourself how great it is having the body you want, the income you desire or the great relationship you’ve been wanting.
Just doing this for a few minutes a day will “trick” your non-conscious mind into believing it is true and you will soon start to see evidence of your new life showing up. Pay attention to even the slightest sign of your dreams becoming manifest. If you’re affirming an increase in finances and someone buys you lunch, see that as evidence of your new abundance.
This, by the way, is what President Roosevelt did during the depression of the 1930’s and as a result, conditions began changing.
Roosevelt called to the White House the leading positive thinkers of his time, Napoleon Hill, Norman Vincent Peale, etc., and everyone agreed, with the help of the media, to start telling a story of economic recovery.
Following the law of attraction, as people started hearing how things were getting better, they began repeating it and believing it and, sure enough, things did get better. Everything begins with thought and, manifests according to our beliefs.
The quickest way I know of creating positive change in one’s life is to start making “appreciation” or “gratitude” lists each day. By putting your attention on what you appreciate and are grateful for in your life, you put yourself in the energy of attracting more things to appreciate. These, of course, are things you want.
If you doubt what I’m saying, just try it for a few weeks and see what happens. I know, from personal experience, that your life will begin to improve.
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September 26th, 2008 by Jim Donovan
The condition of the economy has little to do with your own success and well-being.
This is an important concept to grasp.
We have a tendency to look at economic conditions as a way of explaining and justifying why we may not be where we want to be. In truth, one has little or nothing to do with the other.
Your ability to succeed is totally within your control and is a result of your own thoughts, words, feelings and actions.
Whatever direction the economy is moving in, whether in a downturn as it is at this time, or in an upward spiral, there are always opportunities for the individual who holds true to her vision to her ideal life.
It is this vision that will attract - through the powers of the universe - that which is vividly imagined, as Napoleon Hill would have said.
If you are watching the news and worrying about the current financial problems, while you are engaged in doing this, you are in a similar vibration and are likely to create a similar condition in your own life.
If you must stay informed about what is going on, fine. If you’re going to watch the news, do so without getting emotionally invested.
Just sit back and, as you watch, think to yourself, “that’s interesting.” It is possible to watch the news or read a newspaper and not be emotionally connected to it.
Feeling bad for the people affected by what’s taking place also puts you squarely in the same vibration. If you can do something to help, by all means, do it!
However, if not, get your attention back to your own ideal life’s vision and focus your attention on what you want in your life.
You may wish to see the other people having a better experience than they are having but, that’s about all you can do, because we each create our own reality and we can only control the circumstances in our own life.
It is crucial that in any circumstance, you’re able to “flip” your attention and therefore, your “point of attraction” to that which you desire and away from that which you do not.
Notice, I did not say to try and fix it or change it unless you can. Simply turn your attention away, toward whatever you do want.
The fastest way I know to shift your attention and, as a result, your vibration, is to make a list of what you are appreciating, what’s working or what you are grateful for in your life. This simple practice will immediately raise your vibration as a result of your change in what your putting your attention on.
It is important, especially in these challenging times, that we are watchful of our thoughts, words and actions. Keep your attention at what you desire and refuse to participate in discussions about what is wrong with our world. If you make a habit of doing this, pretty soon you will start seeing improvements in your own life.
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September 17th, 2008 by Jim Donovan
I’m not easy to impress but . . .
I’ve been around a long time (comes with age:-) and have seen a lot of people come and go, but recently I met an extraordinary woman, at a Ken McArthur Impact event, who not only inspired me but even left me feeling somewhat embarrassed. Yes, embarrassed!
I watch as she told her story of starting her business from scratch and, in a really short time, building it into a solid, respectable venture. And she’s just getting started!
Her name is Carrie Wilkerson and her business is The Barefoot Executive
What left me feeling a little embarrassed was how she, with little experience, just jumped in and acted. She’s fearless, high energy and a great role model for anyone, woman or man, who wants a little inspiration.
If you want to see her short but beautifully created movie, take a look at The Boss Movie
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