This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

In yesterday’s post I listed what I called The Hierarchy of Getting the Important Stuff Done. Truthfully, I wasn’t prepared for the immediate and passionate response from my readers.

It seems that staying focused on priorities is one of the toughest jobs we all have.

Several readers correctly identified that while I had outlined the path for staying focused, I hadn’t addressed just how you stay on that path. So, that’s what I want to address today.

By dividing my week into specific kinds of work I get more done

There are lots of time management systems out there and I don’t profess to claim that my adopted method is anything more than the cobbling together of systems from some terribly genuine and creative people like Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach and David Allen of GTD. I’ve had the pleasure of spending time with both and credit them with a great deal of my thinking on managing myself.

I will say that, like any good hack, I have my own take and it starts with a focus on managing energy and the whole person over managing time. I wrote specifically about energy here.

People constantly remark that they have no idea how I get so much done. While it does involve mirrors and an incredible spouse, a great deal has to do with an organic system that I’ve used for years and have only recently been able to articulate.

The basic unit of my time and energy management tool and the thing that allows me to stay on important stuff done path is the week.

I divide each week up into days with a specific type of work plan. Each type of day plan has a unique emphasis that is biased towards a certain type of work. I have Intention Days, Attention Days and Ascension Days.

Intention Days are set aside to concentrate on my big ideas, my own personal growth and in some cases renewal. I take my higher purpose into these days and allow myself the luxury of dreaming.

At the risk of getting too personal, these are days where I often spend a lot of time alone and reassess meetings and feelings and words I’ve used wisely and unwisely. These are days when I forgive myself and forgive others. This type of renewal allows me to tap that little flicker of creativity that I so often attempt to extinguish.

While I intentionally protect my thoughts and actions on these days I don’t go as far as banning all digital activity, I simply make certain that I witness my thoughts and spend time doing things I wouldn’t normally do. I go to art museums and read books about architecture and geometry.

Attention Days are set aside to spend as much time as possible making money. Now, this may sound a little too focused for some, but what I really do is spend time doing my three or four highest payoff activities. The kind of stuff that either makes me money now or lays the foundation for meeting objectives down the road.

For me that’s writing, creating products or courses, working with sponsors and customers or writing an email that entices people to sign up for a workshop.

I typically plan these days with my staff during our weekly all hands meeting and take them outside of the office to limit the temptation to stray from full attention.

These days are easy to plan as I limit them to just a few items. In some cases I may only get to creating a PowerPoint Deck and writing one article, but I know it’s the right work and I know it’s time well spent.

Ascension Days are days spent climbing the hill. It’s when I get to those meetings, interviews, WordPress plugin tweaks, accounting reviews, inbox emptying parties and pretty much everything else screaming in my ear.

Maybe one day I’ll get to the point where I never have these kinds of days, but I doubt it. Ascension Days are like physical therapy, you’ve got to do this work so you can grow and get to the high payoff work.

All of these types of days, in fact, all of this type of work, is important, but my experience tells me that if you don’t carve out and make time and space to dream and create and focus on priorities, every day will turn into a climb the hill day of stirring the noise.

My pattern for these days can change depending upon what’s going on around me, but I typically try to take one Intention and two Attention Days a week and it’s the thing that keeps me most sane.

read more

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

If you like this post be sure to check out follow-up The Cycle of Getting the Important Stuff Done for even more.

There is always more that you want to do than you can humanly or otherwise actually do. That’s just the nature of owning a business and the minute you let up it comes right back at you.

The key is to find a way to focus on the right things and let the other things, no matter how loud and shiny, go.

The trouble is that in the course of a week, a day or even an hour, what’s important work and what’s a distraction can look pretty much the same unless you have a plan – A plan for knowing what’s important, a plan for what’s now and a plan for what’s next.

While this may sound like a to do list, and perhaps there is an element of that, it’s much more than that. It’s actually a strategy that begins with it a clear understanding about what’s pulling you forward, what’s on the horizon, what’s your target, what’s the next hill and what’s on tap for the day.

Planning the Hiearchy of Important Work

There is a hierarchy of work that must ebb and flow throughout your days and weeks that acts as the filter for your focus. This hierarchy has to inform what you allow yourself to do and not do throughout your week.

You can only focus on so many things and if you are to move your business forward in a way that doesn’t feel like treading water you’ve got to focus on the right things.

BAI – At the top of the pyramid is what I call your one big audacious idea. This is the one thing that is far out there, but that possesses a gravitational pull that keeps you going. It’s the big thing you know you want your business to become, even if you’re not really sure today how you’ll get there.

I believe you must always take stock of this idea and make sure it’s alive and, in some cases, actually big enough to alter your behavior. Without this pull, the other stages can turn into busy work.

Priorities – Each year you should define your top 3-4 priorities. Keep this list small or your focus will become diluted. Most business can’t accomplish more than this number and trying to do so means nothing really get accomplished. This is also a great way to identify the highest payoff work when it comes down to utilizing scarce resources like the owner’s time.

When you pare your list to only the top priorities, you have a filter for making determinations about what projects or great new ideas should actually receive consideration going forward. If they don’t support one of you annual priorities, they go on the back burner for later consideration. It’s a great way to keep everyone moving in the same direction, including the self-sabotaging owner!

Goals – Everyone is familiar with the idea of using goals, but few businesses establish goals as a key way to track and measure progress, particularly as it relates to the stated major priorities for the year.

After you agree upon the 3-4 priority objectives, you must establish goals that allow you to track your progress in ways that help you understand what’s working and what’s not.

Projects – Each of you priorities will involve any number of projects. For example, if one of your primary objectives for the year is to increase revenue by X percent, you’ll probably need to identify a series of projects that are geared towards reaching that objective. This might include a new product launch or aggressive lead generation campaign.

You should attempt to identify only a handful of ongoing projects that support your main objectives on a quarter by quarter basis. These projects should have owners and supporters and progress should be tracked and reported on a weekly basis.

Tasks – The smallest unit of work is the task. Even so, tasks should be associated with projects, which in turn support the primary objectives.

Now, tasks often pop up in the form of the daily to do list. Where people fail in their the day to day productivity is that many don’t use to do lists and those that do employ them don’t always have the end in mind when they plan.

The hierarchy of important stuff suggests that unless you plan with the end in mind, or with a focus on the big audacious idea, you’ll constantly fall victim to the swirl of what seems important at the time.

When you build your pyramid from the top down you can plan your days, weeks and months with each of stages firmly rooted in every decision you make hour by precious hour.

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

This is a new Sunday series that I’m calling Stuff that Works. Each Sunday I’ll pick an item that is for me a foundation element in my line up of stuff that matters or as legendary Texas singer songwriter Guy Clark put it – “The kind of stuff you reach for when you fall.”

Bob's Red Mill founder Bob Moore

Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods is a Milwaukie, Oregon company that produces a wide range of all natural flours, meals and grains.

My guess is that I’ve consumed several tons of their Old Fashioned Whole Grain Rolled Oats. I’ve also bought plenty of their flours, grains, egg replacer, and meals like polenta.

There’s just something very comforting about oatmeal, particularly the real deal, no quick cook allowed, whole enchilada oats made by a company that cares.

Now, I could make the determination that Bob’s is a company that cares based on the wide range of organic, gluten free and otherwise no nonsense products and approach to whole goodness. I could also get pretty attached to the friendly looking face on the package – that’s Bob by the way.

But, the real kicker for me came when I heard this story a few years ago.

At a company party where employees gathered to help owner Bob Moore celebrate his 81st birthday, he surprised the 209 employees by telling them he was giving the company, estimated by some to be worth several hundred million dollars, to the employees by way of an Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP). Any employee that had more than three years of service was immediately fully vested.

“In some ways I had a choice,” Moore said of what he could have done with the company he founded with his wife, Charlee, in 1978. “But in my heart, I didn’t. These people are far too good at their jobs for me to just sell it.”

Those that know Moore well, were not really that surprised, although the size of the gesture was awe-inspiring. To them he was simply living his purpose and values, the same purpose and values that are evident in the products the company makes and I’m guessing the same purpose and values that he used to forge commitment with his staff and loyalty with customers like me.

You can meet Bob talking about his company’s transition here

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or my travels around the globe.

Local Austin Hat Shop – had to grab the Bruce poster in the background

Good stuff I found this week:

PunchTab – unique service that makes it very easy to create more user engagement on you site with loyalty programs, giveaways and badges for achieving milestones.

Intercom – this newish tool allows you to create far more user engagement with folks that frequently visit your site or app. You can gather social data and interact with frequent visitors.

Speaker Deck – great, simple way to share slide deck presentations online.

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or my travels around the globe.

Local Austin Hat Shop – had to grab the Bruce poster in the background

Good stuff I found this week:

PunchTab – unique service that makes it very easy to create more user engagement on you site with loyalty programs, giveaways and badges for achieving milestones.

Intercom – this newish tool allows you to create far more user engagement with folks that frequently visit your site or app. You can gather social data and interact with frequent visitors.

Speaker Deck – great, simple way to share slide deck presentations online.

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

These days the word networking has any number of meanings and context.

There’s social networking, the kind of networking you do wherever two or more of you are gathers and of course that pesky wiring together of far flung computer nodes that might come up in a random search on the term networking.

I’m at SXSWi this week in Austin and hidden in all those tweets and posts from giddy geeks gone gonzo is the fact that this event is one of the premiere networking events for people in the online and interactive world.

But, networking in your world, no matter where that takes place, is still one of the most important elements of small business relationship building. Like many elements of marketing, however, it’s even more effective when you learn how to blend good old “hi, tell me about your business” with “Let’s connect online.”

Commitment

• Networking takes commitment because:
• You’ve got to actually get out and go where people are
• You’ve got to take some time to learn about who might be at the event
• You’ve got to make an effort to get uncomfortable
• You’ve got to actually care about what the new person you just met is saying
• You’ve got to hold off launching into a sales pitch
• You’ve got to commit to meeting everyone in the same way
• You’ve got to accept that people need to meet you
• You’ve got to be willing to approach anyone

Clarity

• Networking takes clarity because:
• You’ve got to know exactly how you add value
• You’ve got to know exactly whom you can help
• You’ve got to keep your business card from becoming a reflex
• You’ve got to have an online connection plan
• You’ve got to have a follow-up plan
• You’ve got to know who else needs to meet who you meet

Today, pick an event and make a plan to make it amazing. Stuff this list in your pocket and then move fearlessly around the room making meaningful connection with every single person you don’t already know.

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing podcast with Lindsey Pollak (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes or subscribe via other RSS device (Google Listen)

In a thriving business there’s growth. It doesn’t always mean the kind of hyper growth that we read about in feature stories, but a business is like any organism, it’s either growing in some fashion or it’s dieing.

The surest way to healthy growth is through the attraction of the best and brightest talent weaving it’s way through college and into the workforce.

But, we all know that the Gen Y worker just doesn’t have the same values and work ethic as the Baby Boomers right? Well, guess what, that’s what our parents said about our generation and their parents said about the generation before.

Every generation is different, the key is to understand how and build your business in a way that meshes with their priorities. (I raised four of them, I have some ideas on this!)

For this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast I spent some time with career expert and author of Getting from College to Career, Lindsey Pollak. Pollak spends more of her time coaching recent grads on the best ways to get ahead in their job search and career so I turned the tables on her and asked her to shed some light on ways for businesses to appeal to, attract and retain the best from the next generation.

The next generation of worker did not ever consider the notion that they would go to work for one company for life. They are looking for things that challenge, inspire and interest them, even if it means taking less money, or jumping around on the career path.

The next generation of worker is completely digital. But, that doesn’t mean they understand how to employ technology in business. They want to do work that matters, for companies that have a strong sense of story.

The next generation is social. But, that doesn’t mean they only get Facebook, that means they want to work with people they know and like and increasingly they want to work for small businesses that are doing something they think is worthwhile.

So, how do you attract this new worker? Have a story about where you’re going and tell it. Build a culture where creativity, collaboration and autonomy flourish.

And when they come to work for you, ask them what they think, ask them how they would do something different and most importantly listen.

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

March is Women’s History Month. Some 10.1 million firms are owned or co-owned by women, 40 percent of all businesses in the U.S., says the Center for Women’s Business Research. Between 2002 and 2007, women created almost twice as many businesses as men, according to data from the Census Bureau.

There is much written and unwritten about women business leaders, much proposed and assumed, and much left to say. So, I asked eight women business leaders three questions, and I think their answers have a great deal to offer in terms of what this group thinks about being a business owner, and being a woman. (You can find three answers below and answers from Martha Beck, Pam Slim, Nancy Duarte, Carol Roth and Sarah Robinson on AMEX OPENForum)

Lisa Barone is Co-Founder and Chief Branding Officer of Outspoken Media, Inc. She is widely known for her honest industry observations, her inability to not say exactly what she’s thinking

Who would you list as your primary role models when staring and building your business? And why?

Lisa: Vanessa Fox I didn’t necessarily look to her as a role model in terms of starting a business (though she’s done a fine job of that), but more as an example of how I wanted to conduct myself and be seen in my industry. Vanessa is the brain responsible for building Google Webmaster Central, but since then she’s gone off to start her own consulting firm, is ever-present in search, and is just someone who does things *right*. She does them for the right reasons and with her clients’ best interests in mind. And that’s important to me.  It was also important to have someone in my sights who works just as hard today as she did before she became a success.  She’s kept her head and she’s an expert at what she does.  Who wouldn’t look to someone like that for an example?

Anita Campbell is the Founder, CEO and Executive Editor of Small Business Trends and co-autor of Visual Marketing: 99 Proven Ways for Small Businesses to Market with Images and Design

Do you feel you’ve been able to contribute something unique to your business precisely because you are a woman? If so, please elaborate.

Anita: Usually I try not to dwell on gender, but as I look back I think being a woman made me work all the harder, and not give up.  Whether real or perceived, I felt I needed to strive to be better than men in whatever I took on because I was a woman.  Whether I really HAD to be better than my male counterparts or was in fact being treated differently is not the point.  I felt that way — and it drove me.  So much of our success in business starts in the 6 inches between our ears (i.e., in our own minds) that we become a product of what we believe.  And so, because I believed I had to work harder, I did work harder. While I might never have been the most creative or the most brilliant, I can say that I worked harder than many to build my business.

Known as The Barefoot Executive, Carrie Wilkerson is a mentor/coach/adviser to over 100,000 men and women as the Barefoot Executive through videos, podcasts, masterminding, mentoring and live speaking. She is the author of The Barefoot Executive: The Ultimate Guide for Being Your Own Boss and Achieving Financial Freedom

How would you characterize the differences between male and female business owners?

Carrie: I would say that, for whatever reason, men do seem more driven to keep going while women seem to slow down their growth when they think it is ‘enough.’ Other than that, maybe I’m naive, but I don’t see that many differences. I do get the ‘how do I balance work and life better’ question more from women than men. So either men have that figured out or it’s not top of mind for them.

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Have you ever encountered a business where everything just felt in place? The experience was perfect -the products, the people, the brand, everything worked in seemingly effortless fashion. You made an odd request; it was greeted with a smile. You went to try a new feature; it was right where it should be. You walked in, sat down and felt right at home.

Building a business can seem a bit like a giant set of Legos scattered all over the room. There are countless bits and parts and pieces that might fit together or they might not, but the game appears to be locked in composing these fragments in a manner that verges on what seems like some kind of normal.

But here’s the thing. Normal is a trap. Normal is the business you ran from to start this business. Normal is the last three businesses that choked and spurted and collapsed under the weight of management. Normal is a poor imitation.

Businesses that run so smoothly as to seem self manage aren’t normal. In fact, they are terribly counter intuitive, but terribly simple it turns out. The key is a tremendous focus on three things only – clarity, culture and community.

Clarity

Until you can get excruciatingly clear about the one thing your business really does that no one else does and, perhaps more importantly, the handful of high payoff behaviors that you the owner of said business must to spend as much time as possible immersed in, you will have a very difficult time practicing anything that looks or feels like art.

Until you can feel why you do what you do and use that as your guide the road ahead will always seem uncharted.

When you are clear about the one thing everything just gets so simple. You don’t even have to think about decisions anymore because you have the perfect filter and the filter runs the business.

If clarity for your business means earning a referral from 100% of your customers everyone know what to ask, how to greet a customer and who owns the result.

Culture

If a business is to mange itself a culture of ownership should be the sole objective. This must come at the expense of hierarchy and the assertion of autonomy. Every business, regardless of size has a culture. The only question really is whether or not it serves the business and the people that come to work there.

I’ve worked with business owners for years now and in my experience control, or the inability to give over control, is the greatest threat to business growth. Until a business can extend trust to those around him and give up control, there will be little more than constriction and contraction.

This means that you must also be able to communicate your sense of clarity and package it in a set of core values that when practiced in action become the road map for culture and the mantra for “this is who we are.”

Community

There was a time when community meant only customer. Today the customer is the community and that includes its customers, employees, mentors, vendors, advisors and even competitors all conspiring to advance and influence the business ecosystem.

When there is a clear picture about what the business stands for and the people that fill in that picture are given the freedom to manage their outcomes, the creation of a strong, vibrant and supporting community is a natural outcome.

A fully alive, self-managed business is little more than the sum of these parts orchestrated with total purpose.