The message of persistence and resourcefulness seem to be coming to me from all directions these last few days.

Since each incident has been inspiring singly, but even more clarifying as a group - seems to make sense to post them all here

• First stop - askdarlenedavis.com

Darlene is a coaching student and friend who, despite personal challenges, never fails to keep on trying and taking baby (and some days not so baby) steps forward. Each time adding to her online marketing success story.

Yesterday she posted her very first video and I couldn’t be more excited for her.

• Next stop - Tony Robbins on leadership.

I have to confess, I haven’t tuned into Tony Robbins the way I’m thinking I probably should.

But every single time I do - I’m glad I did.

And this latest ship passing moment is no different.

This video came to me by way of Facebook friend request - a lesson on leadership and resourcefulness:

What Do Leaders Do? (part 1)

What Do Leaders Do? (part 2)

• And finally - here comes Harvey Mackay this morning.

(I’d link to it, but for some reason he only leaves them online for 3 weeks)

What I like about Harvey is that he’s good at lists and recommended actions - and somehow his way of putting the points to paper usually cause a paradigm shift for me.

So I share him with you

I think his 1a item below is one of the things that I tap into really well in some areas - and in others not so much.

Something to work on…

Enjoy!

Andrea

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Harvey Mackay’s Column This Week

Why do we fail? And how do we fix it?

As any successful person will honestly admit, I’ve had my share of failures. Since this column is limited to 750 words, I won’t bore you with the details!

But from every failure I have learned an equally valuable lesson. The first lesson I learn is that there was at least one reason I failed. The second lesson I learn is that I can rebound from that failure.

According to Shiv Khera, author of “You Can Win,” failures most often occur for one of the following seven reasons:

1. Lack of persistence. More people fail not because they lack knowledge or talent, but just because they quit. It is important to remember two words: persistence and resistance. Persist in what must be done and resist what ought not to be done. We all have had setbacks in life. Failing does not mean we are failures!
2. Lack of conviction. People who lack conviction take the middle of the road. But what happens in the middle of the road? You get run over. People without conviction go along to get along because they lack confidence and courage. They conform in order to get accepted even when they know that what they are doing is wrong.
3. Rationalizing. Winners may analyze but never rationalize. Losers rationalize and have a book full of excuses to tell you why they could not succeed.
4. Not learning from past mistakes. Some people live and learn, and some only live. Wise people learn from their mistakes. Failure is a teacher if we have the right attitude. I’ve always said experience is the name we give to our mistakes.
5. Lack of discipline. Anyone who has accomplished anything worthwhile has never done it without discipline. Discipline takes self-control, sacrifice and avoiding distractions and temptations. It means staying focused.
6. Poor self-esteem. Poor self-esteem is a lack of self-respect and self-worth. People with low self-esteem are constantly trying to find themselves, rather than creating the person they want to be.
7. Fatalistic attitude. A fatalistic attitude prevents people from accepting responsibility for their position in life. They attribute success and failure to luck. They resign themselves to their fate, regardless of their efforts, that whatever has to happen will happen anyway.

The rebound lesson is the more pleasant part of the equation, but it is not without challenges. Here are Professor Mackay’s lessons learned from the problems posed above:

1a. Try new approaches. Persistence is important, but repeating the same actions over and over again, hoping that this time you’ll succeed, probably won’t get you any closer to your objective. Look at your previous unsuccessful efforts and decide what to change. Keep making adjustments and midcourse corrections, using your experience as a guide.

2a. Decide what is important to you. If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing right and doing well. Let your passion show in even mundane tasks. It’s ok to collaborate and cooperate for success, but it’s not ok to compromise your values — ever.

3a. Change your perspective. Don’t think of every unsuccessful attempt as a failure. Few people succeed at everything the first time. Most of us attain our goals only through repeated effort. Do your best to learn everything you can about what happened and why.

4a. Define the problem better. Analyze the situation—what you want to achieve, what your strategy is, why it didn’t work and so on. Are you really viewing the problem correctly? If you need money, you have more options than increasing revenue. You could also cut expenses. Think about what you’re really trying to do.

5a. Don’t be a perfectionist. You may have an idealized vision of what success will look and feel like. Although that can be motivational, it may not be realistic. Succeeding at one goal won’t eliminate all your problems. Be clear on what will satisfy your objectives, and don’t obsess about superficial details.

6a. Don’t label yourself. You may have failed, but you’re not a failure until you stop trying. Think of yourself as someone still striving toward a goal, and you’ll be better able to maintain your patience and perseverance for the long haul.

7a. Look in the mirror every day and say, “I am in charge.” You may not have control over every phase of your life, but you have more control than you realize. You are responsible for your own happiness and success. As I like to say, your attitude determines your altitude!

Mackay’s Moral: You can turn “down and out” into “up and at ‘em.”

Where to begin - well we’ll start at a blog video that I recently watched on Jonathan Budd’s blog that really had a good take away for me.

It was all about getting in touch with your ‘Inner Teacher’ and looking inward for answers rather than outward for the answers … stuff like that. Now I have a tough time getting (intentionally) too terribly deep and introspective but there was still a HUGE take-away for me.

The upshot of it was this:

“You haven’t helped anyone until you’ve helped them not need your help”

Now some people might hear that and scoff - ’cause  it sounds then like the goal is to always be working your way out of a job. And I guess that sort of fear might creep in IF you were either bad at attracting new people or unwilling to reinvent the value you bring.

And actually, that’s by far the easiest way to bring continuous value - be willing to always be learning and also share it enthusiastically.

YES we should become good at both sourcing new traffic to our marketing funnels and always expanding our value to others …  but we already know that it’s WAY easier to re-serve an existing customer than it is to source a new one. That’s why listbuilding is such a critical part of any marketer’s equation and bottom line.

Adding value is what makes that list relationships last.

So, I had a new twitter friend ask me yesterday about how to go about “constantly creating value” and I thought I’d address that here by sharing three rock solid ways you can begin today:

–> Way to Add Value #1 - Share something you learned yesterday.

Sometimes I think we fail to realize just HOW much we take in and how completely people appreciate it when others short cut the learning curve for them. Could be something as simple as how to reply on twitter or come up with an article topic. This is a case of ‘little things’ really can mean a lot.

–> Way to Add Value #2 - Make ‘em laugh.

There are very few people who don’t like a honest to goodness belly laugh.  But like anything else - searching for funny stuff is no where near as satisfying as hitting just the good things. Consider becoming a dependable source of things that really really make you grin.

–> Way to Add Value #3 - Send them to other great resources.

Yep that’s right - you can be valuable by just being an info ‘aggregator’ of sorts. Become known as the go-to person for all things “(name-your-topic)” and people who are also interested in that topic will be drawn to you automatically as word spreads.

So I guess my point it this - adding value works (and causes you to stand out) because it’s not about you - it’s about the wants and needs of others.  Ask yourself this - will someone be able to take what I put out there and readily share it with others?

• If it’s nothing but an ill disguised link to your opp - highly doubt it.

• If it’s all about you and not about them - chances are slim to none.

• If you’re talking at them (rather than to them) and are way off their radar topic-wise (bible thumping door knockers and dinner-time telemarketers come to mind for me here) … you’re clearly not targeting your market right.

Help Them Not Need Your Help

Give them what they want - you’ll be golden - you’ll see

Andrea

I’m a quote lover.

Thanks to Eben Pagan - I’ve just met Peter Drucker.

Some pretty amazing quotes are attributed to Peter Drucker:

The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.

Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action..

My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions.

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.

Suppliers and especially manufacturers have market power because they have information about a product or a service that the customer does not and cannot have, and does not need if he can trust the brand. This explains the profitability of brands.

The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.

Any of those work especially well for you today?

Andrea

No this isn’t some “Being John Malcovich” moment I’m having - lol.

For about a week, I tossed around and chewed on an email that @Mike Morgan sent me (well, not me - his list - grin) promoting John Carlton’s freelance course (appreciate it enough to use his affiliate link here - wow that’s something huh??)

I was torn. Really torn.

It was partly the price (even though it’s an amazing value for the money) -’cause I don’t yet have $600 just to toss around. That shouldn’t be the measure of whether I invest in something anyway. ROI should.

So I thought about it some more.

There are a whole lotta quotes in this world that inspire me - and some come from the most unusual of places - (for a NYC raised, multi-racial,  art & craft lovin’, thinkin’ I got it all figured out kinda girl like me - anyway).

Henry Ford immediately comes to mind

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the man who though his vehicle was - well - vehicles, is someone who I am proud to be more like than different: