Dutra Associates

Unleash Your Peak Potential

3 Keys to Maximizing Business Value

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How ready is your company to be sold?  If yours is like most, there is probably much to be done. A primary reason for the lack of readiness is that the business is often too dependent on the owner. Consequently, millions of business owners will never maximize the value they have worked so hard to create over years and years of effort.

To prepare your business to be sold for top value, consider these three keys:

  1. Develop the right mindset. Your success largely depends on what goes on between your ears. Many business owners stumble into a trap of keeping their businesses dependent on them. Have you ever said or thought, “I can’t trust anyone to do the job the way that I would”; “It’s got to be perfect”; “This is my baby and I can’t give up control”? Business owners who realize the most value for their businesses have a different way of looking at things. They empower others to take on more responsibility and trust their decision-making. They give up full control. They refrain from micromanaging. They recruit people who are smarter than they are and provide the time and resources to prepare and develop them for senior roles.
  2. Create the infrastructure to recruit, retain and develop leaders who can seamlessly keep the company growing on their own. A company that establishes a strong infrastructure sets the stage for success by making it possible to develop a talent pool of leaders who are capable of successfully running the company without you. Key elements of this infrastructure include:
    • clear roles and responsibilities,
    • performance metrics for accountability,
    • a clear organizational chart,
    • a recruiting process that brings in top talent,
    • a talent development process,
    • a culture that engages and retains talent,
    • clear career paths for key roles,
    • systems and processes that allow for efficient company operation,
    • a performance management system that is fair and stretches people to grow and
    • the encouragement of behaviors that create cohesive, team performance.
  3. Implement an ongoing succession planning process that continues to develop and grow new leaders. Once you have the previous pieces in place, the final puzzle piece is an ongoing succession planning process. In some businesses, succession planning is only visited when a need arises, such as the retirement of an executive. Instead, succession planning must be a regular process to identify high potential performers, develop them, and continue to challenge them with the learning, assignments and opportunities that will prepare them to move up.

Companies that have done the hard work to have these three keys in place are in a position to keep growing. Consequently, the business owner is now freed from the weeds of day-to-day operations and can focus on strategy and setting standards of excellence. Also, when leaders within the business are empowered, it offers the owner a better integration between their work and personal life. Finally, the company is made more valuable with these elements in place. This sets the stage for the owner to gain a substantial return on their investment of time and effort over the years and to leave behind a thriving company for their team.

Adapted with permission by Center for Executive Coaching

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who works with corporate leaders in small to mid-size businesses, across the span of their careers. She helps them to accelerate business outcomes and team performance, navigate their own career path, and transition to retirement with ease using proven methodologies and strategies that get results. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Finding Your Passion: Entrepreneurship and Older Americans

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“To love what you do and feel that it matters – how could anything be more fun?”  – Katherine Graham – American Publisher.

According to research conducted by the Kauffman Foundation in 2019, more than 25% of new entrepreneurs were between the ages of 55 and 64. This is compared to just under 15% in 1996. The impact of COVID-19 is continuing to fuel this trend in 2020. As older workers experience layoffs or take early retirement packages due to the pandemic, many are evaluating the possibility of launching their own business.

One of the first things to consider involves determining what will ignite excitement and fulfillment in you. Starting a business is hard work. Pursuing something that is purposeful and taps into your passion will keep you motivated during the inevitable ups and downs. If you are amongst those older Americans who are now considering starting a new chapter in your career, here are some tips to help you find your passion.

Being in the Zone

When was the last time that you were so engaged in what you were doing that you completely lost track of time?  What is it that you were involved with?  Were you organizing, planning, decorating, running a meeting, painting, gardening, helping others, or teaching? Whatever you were engaged in, you were experiencing being “in the zone”.  This is a state of being fully focused, motivated, and passionate – a state where you are doing what you are uniquely gifted to do.

One of my teachers, Laura Berman Fortgang, has said, “your satisfaction will not stem from what you do but from who you get to be while you do that thing.”  We often get caught up in what we are “supposed” to be doing.  This can stem from a wide variety of influences including parents, friends, teachers, and societal pressures to name a few. Forget titles and look at the essence of who you get to be in any business pursuit you consider. It can open up doors you never imagined.

Find what it is that uniquely lights you up. Your passion can be something that you’ve known all your life or you may evolve into it as you notice what you most love. To begin your own exploration, consider the following questions.

Ask Yourself

  • What gets me excited about life?
  • What brings meaning to my life?
  • If I could do exactly what I’d like to do, what would it be?
  • What are my natural gifts and talents?
  • What did I most like to do as a young child?
  • What are my criteria for happiness?
  • What are my values?

Your Next Steps

Once you have jotted down the answers to these questions, it can be helpful to share them with a close friend, a mentor, or a coach to flesh them out and look at possibilities. It’s never too late to embark on a new path. Dreams can be realized no matter where you are in your life’s journey. Take these first steps to open the door to what could be next for you.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who works with corporate leaders in small to mid-size businesses, across the span of their careers. She helps them to accelerate business outcomes and team performance, navigate their own career path, and transition to retirement with ease using proven methodologies and strategies that get results. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Building Your Personal Brand – Part Three

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In this final segment on Personal Branding, we’ll cover steps 9 – 12 which are focused on messaging, image, consistency and visibility.

As a quick review, in Part One we looked at the importance of a personal brand and the initial steps to defining how you choose to be known in the world. In Part Two, we built on your initial foundation by exploring what makes you valuable, unique and impactful.

So, bring out the work you’ve done so far and let’s put on the finishing touches.

  1. What is your compelling message?
  • There are several key messages that you’ll want to create. If you look to the work you’ve completed up to this point, you’ll find that you already have a head start on this.
    • First, create a simple statement that quickly identifies who you are. The formula we used in step 5 serves this purpose, “I help X get Y.”
    • Second, if you own your own business, it’s important to have a tagline that, in one clear phrase or sentence, defines who you are. One way to come up with this is to reflect on why you do what you do. What is it that gets you up every day? Michael Port, the author of several books including, Book Yourself Solid (https://www.bookyourselfsolid.com/), has become known as “the guy to call when you’re tired of thinking small.” This tagline clearly demonstrates his desire to “help people think bigger about who they are and what they offer the world.” What’s your tagline?
    • A third component is to craft a brief story – no more than 30 seconds – that describes your greatest achievement. Start with a short description of the problem, then move on to the actions you took and finally speak to the results that were achieved. This demonstrates the value that you offer.
    • Finally, it’s important to craft an overall marketing message that allows you to talk about what you do in an interesting and compelling way. Keep in mind that, if you completed steps 1 – 8, you already have most of the components for this. Michael Port offers a 5-part formula for creating this message.
      1. Summarize your target market in one sentence. Who do you help?
      2. Summarize the three biggest and most critical problems that your target market faces.
      3. List how you solve these problems.
      4. Demonstrate the #1 most relevant result you help others achieve.
      5. Reveal the deeper core benefits that they experience (e.g., financial, emotional, physical, spiritual.
        Put this all together to develop your message. For a firm that provides tax services, it might sound something like this: “I’m a tax advisor. I help small to mid-size business owners protect their wealth. You know how business owners are looking to maximize their profit while minimizing their tax liability but often complain about how complicated the tax code has become? What I do is get to know my client and their financial goals and work closely with them to create a strategy to achieve those goals in a cost-efficient way that, at the same time, helps them to sleep at night knowing their tax return is submitted correctly.”

10. What image aligns with your message?

    • How do you actually embody the brand? Consider everything from how you personally present yourself to your logo and marketing collateral to the types of groups and associations that you will align yourself with.  How well do these various components align with who you are and what you do?
  1. Be consistent.
  • If you’ve ensured that you’ve created an authentic message throughout this process, then consistency should be easy. Be yourself, in alignment with your brand, wherever you go and with whomever you encounter. Be clear about how you want each person you interact with to experience you. What behaviors do you need to modify or adopt to create this consistency?
  1. Be visible.
  • You might have the best brand in the world yet, if it’s also a best kept secret, it won’t have its intended result. Determine how you want to gain that visibility.
    • Networking is a key strategy for building and expanding your connections.
    • Social media is another important strategy to keep in mind. Pay attention to the platforms where the people you want to meet hang out. For example, LinkedIn is critical for anyone in the business community. A strong profile along with being an active member through posting, participating in LinkedIn groups, etc. is a must.
    • Look for ways to participate. This could include a leadership or committee position in the community or with a professional association that allows you to meet those in decision-making roles.

Call to Action

So, as this series opened, I ask again. Who needs a personal brand?  Essentially everyone who has a career. Whether you own a business, serve others as an independent consultant, or work inside a company, personal branding is a powerful tool to help you further your career goals. I encourage you to set aside some time and work your way through this personal branding process. It’s your opportunity to establish how you want to be known in the world.

Adapted with permission by Center for Executive Coaching.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who works with corporate leaders in small to mid-size businesses, across the span of their careers. She helps them to accelerate business growth and team performance, navigate their own career path, and transition to retirement with ease using proven methodologies and strategies that get results. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

 

Safeguarding Your Most Important Resource as a Leader

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So, what is your most important resource as a leader?

One of the first things that might come to mind is the amount of available cash and the state of the investment portfolio of the business. While these are certainly important, would you agree that you can always earn more money, find better investments, and eventually find your way back from a financial loss?

Another resource that might come to mind is your network of relationships. The connections you have nurtured in your professional life are important resources in your success. Yet, even if there has been a significant hiccup in a relationship, you can choose to mend it while continuing to meet other professionals and adding to your network.

Your health is another resource that hits high on the most important list. Many times, there is a tendency to not do as much as we might to protect that resource. However, in most cases, we have the control to make adjustments to our daily habits that will positively impact our health. And, when we have a healthier lifestyle, it positively impacts the energy we bring to our work.

So, if your most important resource as a leader isn’t money, relationships or health, then what is it?  What these three have in common is that, for the most part, they can all be revived or renewed. There is one resource, though, that cannot be revived or renewed.

That resource is time. With each moment that goes by, that’s it. You’ll never see that moment again.

This is not new news. Yet, even though you know this, how often do you take actions that aren’t in alignment with this knowledge? How much time do you spend in meetings that you don’t need to attend (or that even need to be held at all)? How much time do you spend on doing things that don’t contribute to your business’ top priorities? Where are there opportunities to delegate something that doesn’t require you to do it?

Failure to see time as your most important resource, often results in stress and overwhelm. We become scattered and lose our discipline. When we’re in this state, we also negatively impact those other resources. High stress levels wear away at our health. It may make us impatient and short with others which may damage our relationships. Our thought process becomes clouded and our decision-making may be impacted which can lead to financial missteps.

Time, then, is our most important resource.  So, safeguard that resource. Pay attention to how you use it. Where are your opportunities to use it more strategically? Put new habits and disciplines in place that allow you to set and maintain boundaries and act in alignment with your new choices.

Remember, time is the one resource we cannot get back.

Adapted with permission by Center for Executive Coaching.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who works with corporate leaders in small to mid-size businesses, across the span of their careers. She helps them to accelerate business growth and team performance, navigate their own career path, and transition to retirement with ease using proven methodologies and strategies that get results. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

 

Seven Principles of Extraordinary Results

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Image Provided by ThoughtAction LLC

Are you consistently getting the business results that you desire? What if you had a model that easily conveyed how you create the results that you experience each day? What if you could gain insight into the patterns of your thinking and behavior that serve you as well as the patterns that do not?  What possibilities might be open to you if you could learn to run your system rather than having it run you? The Results System™ allows you to gain these benefits by providing the framework, tools and solutions that raise the bar and drive results.

The Seven Principles of Extraordinary Results provide a simple introduction to the key concepts behind The Results System™.

  1. Results First and Foremost:

What is the outcome that you desire to achieve? Start first with defining your end result and work backwards from there. You create what you focus on.

  1. Goals are Not Results:

It’s important to make a distinction between a goal and a result. When you do not, you run the risk of limiting your choices and options.  A “result” is the outcome you want to create.  A “goal” is a target or milestone designed to achieve the result. For example, when you say, “I want to reach my sales target for the quarter,” you might think you are describing a result.  In fact, this is actually a goal. The result is what you will have when you achieve your sales target, such as financial stability.

  1. Choices Not Actions:

Choose your actions wisely.  Often, you might feel you are making progress when you can check items off of a list.  Yet, you may end up wasting time by leaping too quickly to action and completing tasks that are not fully aligned with creating the results you desire.

  1. Invisibles Make the Difference:

Remember that everyone has blind spots and other factors that are not yet visible. Take time to become more self-aware to reveal the aspects that are operating behind the scenes. Doing so drives better choices and actions.

  1. Silent Partners Make Predictable Patterns:

All humans have a unique and wonderful “operating system” that creates unconscious repeatable patterns of thinking and behavior.  Having such a system allows you to motor throughout your life without having to consciously think about each step you need to take to complete daily tasks like getting ready in the morning or driving your car. Over time, these patterns of thinking and behavior become invisible and operate behind the scenes.  In most cases, they serve you well. Yet, when you want to change in order to get a different result, these automatic patterns kick up a fuss. In order to dissuade you from changing, there are even three lines of defense to keep you from making a shift: remaining invisible, making change awkward, and telling us stories in our own voice that convince us that change would not be beneficial.

  1. Change is a Process:

Any change that you set out to make has an emotional component to it. To create change that lasts we must deal with the inevitable feelings that will come up. While initially you might start off positively fired up about making the change and are certain you will be successful, the actual practice of creating new habits and permanently changing your behavior may cause you to swing from confidence to doubt to hope.  When you experience this roller coaster, it may be enough to have you give up and go back to your old habits. Keep in mind that the emotions that arise are all a natural part of the change process.  In knowing that, you can design strategies to manage the emotional ups and downs and achieve the result you want.

  1. Use the System:

Take a systems based approach to creating your results. The Results System™ model helps you to reveal the visible and invisible factors that drive your ability to create results. Your Results System™ is unique to you. Even teams and organizations have a Results System™. Using the model will create greater self-awareness around the strengths and the detractors that impact your results and provide you with a means to make conscious choices and choose the actions that support the achievement of your key outcomes.

Call to Action

  • Are you willing to make changes to achieve the result you desire? If so, what action(s) are you willing to commit to in the next week to help you achieve this result by implementing the above principles into your life and work?
  • If you would like to learn more about how you can reveal your own Results System™ and develop strategies to create the results you desire, please reach out to me to discuss how this system can help you in all areas of your life.

Adapted from “Seven Principles of Extraordinary Results” by ThoughtAction, LLC, 2015. Adapted with permission.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development and Career Coach and Facilitator who believes we each have far more potential than we typically tap in to. She helps you learn how to step into your full potential so you can create consistent, optimal performance for yourself and your team with less stress and more enjoyment. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

 

Transformational Presence Series: Part Four: The Four Levels of Engagement

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In the final blog of this series on Transformational Presence, I’d like to share a model with you called the Four Levels of Engagement. The purpose behind this model is to bring awareness to how we ‘show up’ in relation to the daily events and circumstances we face in our personal and professional lives. This model is really just a description of what we’re all experiencing internally, all the time. When we work through this model, we’re choosing to slow down enough to see the inner workings of our level of engagement. We can take any situation or challenge and notice how we engage with it in a particular way.

To explain and demonstrate this model, let’s take a situation that we’ve likely all experienced at some point in our lives – a client or colleague who frequently is late for, misses or cancels meetings at the last minute. You are now faced with the fifth time in two months that this has occurred.

Drama

So, let’s step into the first level of engagement which is Drama. The initial internal dialogue might go something like this. “Are you kidding me?”, “What is he thinking?”, “I’m honoring the time on my calendar for him, why can’t he do the same?” That’s the level of engagement of Drama.  So, I know none of you reading this EVER goes to that place of drama, right? But, I’ll admit, sometimes, I can go to a dramatic place. So Drama is an either/or, black or white, whose fault is it, type of space. It’s a criticism or a complaint. And then, after there has been time to vent, we might start to move into another level of engagement which is Situation.

Situation

Now, Situation sounds like this. “So, I’m going to need to address this. Let me sit down and prepare and I’ll go through the 5 steps to having a difficult conversation so I can take care of this.”  Situation is about fixing the problem. It’s about getting it off my desk, moving on, getting it over with and getting it done.  Often, for a while, these situational approaches will work, as has been pointed out earlier in this series. The problem-solving done here will likely lead to an okay result but one that typically isn’t sustainable for the long haul. So, when we run into the same situation again, we look for the next solution or drop back into Drama again and then shift back into Situation.

Choice

At some point, if we’re willing to go deeper, there’s a third option that shows up where we begin to notice there’s an invitation to ask the question, “Who do I want to be in this situation?” or “How do I want to show up?” Taking this deeper perspective breaks out of Drama and Situation into Choice, which is the next level of engagement. So, as we ask ourselves those questions, the answer in this circumstance might be, “I want to be a person who is both compassionate toward my client’s (or colleague’s) competing priorities and confident that we’ll reach a solution that works for both of us.” So that is who this situation is asking for the individual to be and that’s the individual’s choice to show up that way.

Opportunity

From Choice it’s rather easy to move into the 4th level of engagement which is Opportunity. So, let’s take this same situation into Opportunity. What’s the hidden opportunity of the situation? What wants to happen or evolve out of this? So, as we step into opportunity, there is an opportunity here to evolve as a leader. A leader who not only demonstrates deep commitment and caring for clients or colleagues but also demonstrates the same level of caring and commitment to themselves. That is what wants to emerge.

Four Levels of Engagement Exercise

Now that you have a sense of each of these levels, you’re going to have a chance to play this game.  It works best if you physically stand up and step into each of the different levels.  If you remain seated, then simply choose a different spot on the floor or around the room to focus on for each level.

Bring to mind a challenging situation with a client, manager or colleague. It could be something current or from the past.

  1. Choose a spot that represents Drama.
  2. Step into the drama of your challenging situation. Close your eyes if you’d like. Really hear, in your mind, what’s happening.
  3. Notice and ask yourself “What’s going on?”

Step back to a neutral spot and repeat the steps above replacing Drama with Situation, then repeat again with Choice, and finally, with Opportunity.

Four Levels of Engagement Debrief

What did you experience? Where has your level of engagement been in past interactions with this person?

What would be different if you approached the challenge from Choice and Opportunity?

How can you apply your awareness of the Four Levels of Engagement in your life and work starting today?

I invite you to share what you discover in the Comments section.

Summary

When we engage with the events and circumstances of life primarily from Drama and Situation, we spend our time primarily on struggle and problem-solving. It can be that feeling of putting out one fire after another. Ultimately, this can be exhausting. On the other hand, when we engage with life mostly from Choice and Opportunity, we step into a powerful place. We are no longer buffeted about by circumstances and choose how we want to respond and focus on the potential that wants to emerge.  I invite you to apply the Four Levels of Engagement model in your own life and see what happens.

If you missed the earlier parts of this series, please click here for Navigating a Complex World, here for Part One – The Three Questions, here for Part Two – Becoming Mindful, and here for Part Three – Working with What Is.

For more information about Transformational Presence, please visit: www.transformationalpresence.org

Derived from: Seale, Alan. Transformational Presence: How To Make a Difference In a Rapidly Changing World and Transformational Presence: The Tools, Skills and Frameworks. Topsfield, MA: The Center for Transformational Presence, 2017. Used with permission.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development and Career Coach and Facilitator who believes we each have far more potential than we typically tap in to. She helps you learn how to step into your full potential so you can create consistent, optimal performance for yourself and your team with less stress and more enjoyment. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Transformational Presence Series: Part One – The Three Questions

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Our last blog was focused on Alan Seale’s Transformational Presence approach to leadership and its application to navigating a complex world. If you missed it, please click here.  In that post, we announced a four-part series dedicated to exploring a tool or framework of Transformational Presence in each of the next four months.  Read on for Part One.

The Three Questions

Let’s start with a focus on the three foundational questions upon which the Transformational Presence approach is built.
1. What wants to happen?
2. Who is that asking me to be?
3. What is that asking me to do?

On the surface, these seem like pretty simple questions. Yet, the beauty of these simple questions is their power to tap into our heart intelligence. Too often, we rely solely on our intellect which is incredibly good at analyzing situations, solving problems and keeping us safe. Our heart intelligence is more visionary.  It can take in the big picture and show us the next step to take. One is not better than the other – which is a huge relief to me since I’ve spent most of my life relying primarily on my head. It’s using the head and heart intelligence in concert with one another that is the key.  Incorporating our heart intelligence helps to break through overwhelm and complexity and find an element of clarity that can show us the way forward.

A Discovery Process

Let’s take a brief look at each of these questions.

When we ask “What wants to happen?”, we’re open to discovering what the shift might be that wants to take place or what the opportunity or breakthrough is that is waiting to emerge. We are recognizing that there is a message in the situation or circumstance we are faced with and that something “wants to happen” or evolve.

As we look at question #2, “Who is that asking me to be?”, we are exploring how we choose to “show up” in relationship to “what wants to happen”. What are the qualities and personal attributes that we want to express?  For example, this might mean being more playful, forthright, resilient, open, etc.

“What is that asking me to do?” is our action question. Rather than this being a question where we try to figure out what to do next, instead we are inviting “what wants to happen” to reveal the next step to us. Then, after we take that next step, we go back to question 1 and repeat the cycle.

While we navigate the complexity of our world, we typically go directly to the third question and try to figure out what actions we need to take and how will we execute on them.  Yet, if we begin to consider that every situation or circumstance we encounter might have a message for us, we can start to develop a new approach.  No longer is it reasonable to plan far out into the future. Our world is changing too quickly for that. Instead, if we apply these three questions to everything that we do, we can be shown the way, one step at a time.

An Exercise to Get You Started

Here is an exercise that Alan shared with us in our recent Transformational Presence – Leadership in Action course. I invite you to experiment with this as a means to begin applying this approach to your own life and work.

  • Bring to mind an opportunity available to you, personally, or to your company or business right now.  Then, ask yourself The Three Questions. Really listen, sense and feel the answers that come.  This is a no judgment zone – let whatever experience you have with these questions be okay.  It does take practice to quiet our minds so that our heart can be heard.

Then, please feel free to share your experience with us in the comments section.  And, if you’d like to learn more, you can purchase Alan Seale’s book here.

Derived from: Seale, Alan. Transformational Presence: How To Make a Difference In a Rapidly Changing World. Topsfield, MA: The Center for Transformational Presence, 2017. Used with permission.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development and Career Coach and Facilitator who believes we each have far more potential than we typically tap in to. She helps you learn how to step into your full potential so you can create consistent, optimal performance for yourself and your team with less stress and more enjoyment. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

The Book Yourself Solid ® Six Keys to Creating Connection

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If you want a perpetual stream of inspiring and energizing ideal clients clamoring for your services and products, then you must build relationships of trust.  Without trust, then it doesn’t matter how well you’ve planned or what you’re offering. If a potential client doesn’t trust you, nothing else matters.

So how do we create connection and build trust? Let’s take a look at the Six Keys to Creating Connection. Knowing the answers to these questions will ensure that the offers you make to prospective clients are right on target.

  1. Who – Who are you trying to create connection with? Who is your target client or customer? The more specific you can be, the better. Once you have done this, choose one person (or organization) within your target market to focus on.  Identifying and gearing your marketing to a specific individual (or organization) allows you to make the important emotional connection that is the first step in developing a relationship with your potential client.
    Action: Identify your target client or customer.
  2. What – What do they want to buy when they look for you? What are the kinds of products and services they think will solve their problems or help them reach their goals? What’s going on in their life? If you don’t know, put yourself in the shoes of the client or ask your target market. This helps you to look at what is relevant to offer. Be clear on what it is they are looking for rather than what you might like to offer.
    Action: What are your potential clients looking for? 
  3. Where – Where do they look for the products and services? Is it a referral from a service provider or a friend?; the Chamber of Commerce?; a bookstore?; the web?
    Action: Where do your ideal clients look for you? 
  4. When – When do they look for what you are offering? What’s the trigger? What needs to happen in their personal or business life for them to purchase your services?
    Action: Describe the situations that will likely drive potential clients to seek your products and services. 
  5. Why – Why you? How is it that you are the best choice for the people you are meant to serve?  What is it that is unique and special about you or the solutions you offer?
    Action: Why should your potential clients choose you? 
  6. How – How do you want them to engage with you when they find out about you? Sign up for your newsletter?; attend a teleseminar or webinar?; call?; email?  What’s the first no barrier to entry thing you want them to do to sample your services?
    Action: How do you want your potential clients to interact or engage with you?

Clearly defining these six keys will help you to determine what you want to offer your potential clients as you create your sales process and to build trust and credibility in an authentic way.

The Six Keys to Connection are excerpted from Book Yourself Solid® by Michael Port and is a registered trademark of Michael Port & Associates LLC. Used with permission.  Sherry Dutra is a Certified Book Yourself Solid® Coach and Trainer.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development and Career Coach and Facilitator who believes we each have far more potential than we typically tap in to. She helps you learn how to step into your full potential so you can create consistent, optimal performance for yourself and your team with less stress and more enjoyment. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

7 Keys to Enhancing Entrepreneurial Resilience

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Entrepreneurship can be an exciting and rewarding experience. Yet, building any kind of business is not without its ups and downs.  There is no question that you will encounter situations where the outcome isn’t quite what you expected or you’ll experience what you might view as a “failure”.  To weather the inevitable challenges you’ll face, resilience will be a muscle you’ll want to enhance.  Resilience will allow you to ride the roller coaster of entrepreneurship and to continue to offer your gifts to the world when you might otherwise give up.

What is Resilience?

The dictionary.com definition of resilience is, in part, “the ability to recover readily from adversity or the like; buoyancy”.  The word buoyancy brought a childhood memory to mind.  I grew up near the ocean and used to play for hours in Cape Cod Bay.  I can remember tossing around a beach ball with my friends while we splashed in the water.  No matter what any of us did to push that ball under the water, it always popped right back up to the surface – ready for the next game.  Resilience is very much like that beach ball.  No matter what you face, if your resilience is strong, you can learn from your experience, reset your course, and be ready for what’s next.

7 Keys to Enhancing Resilience

Here are some practical keys that you can incorporate into your life that will support you in enhancing your resilience.  These keys will not only positively impact your entrepreneurial life but also your personal life. So what are you waiting for?  Let’s explore.

  1. Stay aligned with your purpose: I believe that we all have a purpose and that discovering yours will keep you on track no matter what circumstances arise. What are you uniquely equipped to offer to the world? What brings you the most joy and passion? The answers to these questions will give you some clues to your purpose. With a defined purpose, that you are aligned with, you naturally attract people, resources, ideas, and opportunities that support you.
  2. Practice gratitude: Take a few moments each day, throughout the day, to appreciate and express gratitude for the people and things in your life. Stopping to notice what you are grateful for on a regular basis develops a habit of looking for good things and releases dopamine that supports a positive outlook.
  3. Set clear goals: Research has shown that the brain loves a good goal. It will work tirelessly to give you what you focus on. The most successful and resilient people set specific, measurable and time based goals and consistently take action with the certainty that they will achieve them.
  4. Be present while working on those goals: A 2010 Harvard study found that people spend 47% of their waking time thinking about things other than what they are working on. When you are focused on the past or focused on the future, you are taking your energy away from what’s going on right in front of you. Mindfulness, or being focused on the moment, has been shown to modify brain processes that support resilience. And, experiencing and enjoying the moment is part of the journey.
  5. Act “as if”: Your brain doesn’t know the difference between a robust vision and reality. Don’t believe that? Then, take a moment and imagine that you have a beautiful, fragrant, juicy lemon in your hand. Cut off a slice of that lemon. Breathe in that lemony scent. Now, bring it to your mouth and take a great big bite.  Salivating yet? You didn’t really just take a bite out of a lemon, did you?  Yet, in creating that vision, your body reacted “as if” you had.  So, start to take action in accordance with who you want to be. Act “as if” you already are being, doing and having whatever it is you want to create in your business. Your attitude will be shifted to a more optimistic place and your resilience will build.
  6. Build a supportive team: Going it alone typically doesn’t work. Without the support of others, we tend to get stuck in doing things the way we’ve always done them. Create a community of supportive people from different backgrounds and professions who can help to keep your mind open to fresh perspectives and new ideas. Having others to lean on creates resilience-building social support.
  7. Look for the gift: What is the opportunity in the situation you’re facing? What might the situation be trying to show you?  By focusing on the opportunity rather than the challenge, you open the door to solution-finding rather than problem-solving. You choose how you want to “show up” in the situation and your positive focus enhances your resilience.

There is no one formula for enhancing resilience. Find what works for you and practice it on a regular basis. Over time, you are likely to find that how you respond to those entrepreneurial ups and downs is very much in your hands.

What has helped you to build your resilience?  If you’d like to share your strategies, please add a comment.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development and Career Coach and Facilitator who believes we each have far more potential than we typically tap in to. She helps you learn how to step into your full potential so you can create consistent, optimal performance for yourself and your team with less stress and more enjoyment. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Inspiring Leadership

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Are you in need of some inspiration?  Have you been wondering why your team isn’t more invested in their work? Are you struggling to describe your service or product in a way that captures attention? If so, then, please set aside a few minutes to watch Simon Sinek’s TED talk on “How Great Leaders Inspire Action”. Through his work, Sinek recognized that all great, inspiring leaders and organizations, think, act and communicate in the same way.  This led to his discovery of what he calls “the golden circle”, which is a simple but game changing insight.

The Golden Circle

Imagine three concentric circles. Why? is in the inner circle. How? is in the middle circle. What? is in the outer circle. Every person and every organization knows what they do. There’s usually no doubt around that. Some can also tell you how they do it.  Sometimes this is referred to as the value proposition or what makes them unique. However, a very, very small percentage can tell you why they do what they do. Contrary to popular belief, the “why” doesn’t have anything to do with making money, though monetary success tends to come to those who can uncover the “why”.  The “why” is about the answers to the following questions: What gets you up in the morning? What’s the belief that drives you each day? What is your purpose?

When we aren’t clear on the “why”, then we communicate from the outside in. We focus on the “what” and the “how”. Honestly, the “what” and the “how”, by themselves, aren’t very inspiring. When we think, act and communicate from the inside out, like those inspired leaders and organizations, we connect with others who believe what we believe and we capture other’s minds and hearts. As Sinek states, “people don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it”.

Implication for You

So what is the implication for leaders? No matter the size of your team or the company you work in or own, true leadership involves inspiring and energizing those with whom you work and interact. I invite you to get in touch with your “why”.  What is it that you believe in that gets you up and out every day?  How will you share this with your team – to inspire deep commitment?  How will you share this with your customers – to inspire long term relationships?

To hear more directly from Simon Sinek, including business examples and the science behind his theory, please click on this link.

Call to Action

If you’d like to share your “why”, please do so in the comments section.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development and Career Coach and Facilitator who believes we each have far more potential than we typically tap in to. She helps you learn how to step into your full potential so you can create consistent, optimal performance for yourself and your team with less stress and more enjoyment. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.