Author: Alan M

Young, Ambitious, and Anxious to Share my Tips and Secrets Along my Pursuit of Success. Sharing my Day to Day Life, Motivation, and Experiences throughout Business, Travel and More.

Get Off Your Butt & Get Going

Lately more than ever in this digital age of distractions I’ve found that procrastination is becoming a bigger and bigger problem. I don’t believe I’m the only person noticing this problem, so this is something I want to touch on.

I don’t notice this problem solely in business either. This issue seems to apply to not only your work life, but also your personal life. For example, in my free time I find great pleasure in coaching a kids sports team, and in these kids I see a definite difference in the level of distraction now vs back when I was playing sports as a child. With the digital age of games and digital media, the kids seem to be constantly engulfed in this world and it becomes more and more difficult to maintain their attention for the task at hand. I see this constantly in business too, people are constantly talking about media trends and the latest big thing, showing that they are fully engulfed in these distractions and becoming less and less able to focus on the current task at hand.

We will continue on this topic later, but I would love to hear some comments about the readers opinions on this issue.

Until next time,

AM

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Networking vs Sales Prospecting

Networking vs Sales Prospecting, Which is the Best Fit for You?

One of the lessons I’ve recently begun to teach is the difference between networking and business prospecting, and how they have drastically different approaches, and different outcomes. Which is more effective? Which is the best for you to find your clients? Let’s explore more!

I define sales prospecting as the act of reaching out to people with the intent of telling them about a promotion or an offer. In the act of prospecting you generally have an idea of what you will sell or attempt to sell to the lead when you reach out.

Networking on the other hand is more about meeting people. I find something as simple as creating generic marketing materials, rather than price or product focussed materials and approaching the community with an introduction as simple as “Hello, I’m with XYZ Company and I’m just out in the community trying to get to know the local businesses/people. If you ever need help or have any questions about (Product or Service you Sell) I’m your guy!”

Now that we’ve defined the difference between the two, which would you believe to be more effective?

Personally, I find the networking approach to be substantially more effective. Nobody slams the door in your face when you’re just saying hello rather than selling them something! Also, you build a longer term funnel that way by being able to follow up by hosting community events later on and inviting everyone you’ve met on your networking ventures.

Until Next Time,

AM

How Youth Sports Inspire Career Success

In my professional experience, I’ve found that youth sports can play a major factor in the career success of individuals early on in their careers. I know this may sound a bit crazy, however I’ve found this principle to be accurate I’m practice.

When children participate in sports as children they gain valuable skills. Each of the skills they learn allow them to have a strong baseline to grow and leverage these skills as they grow into young professionals.

The first of these skills is teamwork. No matter what you do for a living, teamwork is a life skill that will enable you to be successful in a wide landscape on environments. Learning to be a team player as an adult, once you start your career is substantially harder than learning it as a child. When a child plays team sports, and they grow up in that environment of being part of a team to be successful, that though is engrained into them for the rest of their lives. When you believe that your role enables the success of the team, it pushes you to work harder for others, and keeps that fire burning by motivating other members of the team.

The second major skill I notice that translates well is discipline. Children learn through athletics to be disciplined through a variety of activities, practice, and games. All of these activities require a child to do things a certain way, and to stick to a plan as they focus on bettering themselves. This discipline translates well into a career environment. Disciplined people have the ability to make a plan, and stick to it whether or not the road they travel gets tough.

Thirdly, and lastly the other major lesson that survives the leap from youth sports to adult career success is motivation, or competitiveness. When you play sports as a child, you have this drive deep within yourself to be better, this drive to always be better tomorrow than you were today. With this drive to be better, it induces a habit of being reflective and determining what you’ve done to be better today than yesterday.

When you combine these skills learned from sport together, they don’t necessarily help you succeed. What they do however, is ensure you have a solid arsenal of tools in your toolbox to grow and become a successful individual in career and in life.

Until next time!

AM

The Universal Need for Leadership

It doesn’t matter what field you’re in, what you’re doing, or what you plan to do.  Whatever the future holds, one of the most valuable sets of skills to possess are those of a leader.   Some people are said to be born leaders, however, I don’t personally believe this to be true.  I believe that people are a product of their environment and that these people learn their leadership skills as they grow.

I believe that skills are learned through either desire or desperation.  When desperate you learn new skills in order to survive.  If you need a particular skill to get a job, keep a job, or something along these lines, you push and push to learn this skill quickly, in order to ensure you can survive.  When it comes to desire, things are different and yet the same.  People with a strong desire, still have a feeling of desperation, however, this desperation is a need to achieve, a need to be better than they were yesterday.  These motivators are what allow you to learn new skills.

So when it comes to leadership, its either a burning desire to be a leader that allows people to become leaders, or a situation of desperation where something major hangs in the balance without the correct leadership initiative taken.

Whether you’re at work, playing sports, with your friends, or your family.  You’ll find leadership everywhere you look.  Leadership is essential to life.

AM

Embrace the Uncertainty

Embrace the uncertainty, because no path to greatness can begin without action.

We talk a lot about being in our comfort zones, and doing what we know, and I know I’ve spoken again and again about getting out of our comfort zone. But today I want to highlight something specific. Embracing uncertainty in life is a key step to getting on a path that enables a climb to success.

Thousands of years ago, we did what was certain, and acted a certain way to stay alive. Nowadays the odds of being eaten by a wild animal because we ventured from the group are slim to nil. Nowadays the fear revolves around much smaller things, we fear our lives will end if were rejected when we try to ask out the boy or girl that catches our eye. We fear the world is ending when we’re presented with a new challenge, and in turn a new opportunity to fail. Failure is what makes great people successful. You have to learn along the way and embrace the uncertainty to grow as a person. Also the law of averages sets in at a certain point. In a sales role this comes with prospecting new business. If the odds of making a sale are 1 sale for every 100 people you speak to, are you going to give up after 10 No’s and wonder what you’re doing wrong? Well to be frank, most of us will, but when you start out that 1 in 100 odds will most likely pay off after the 99th no. You have to push through and eventually, you’ll learn from your mistakes and grow, and as you grow those odds will grow to 2 out of 100, then 3 out of 100. At the end of the day, we still have to keep trying 100 times to be successful whether it’s 1 success, 2, or 3.

Embracing the uncertainty and doing what you’re afraid of is a great thing. If you get rejected, you realize that the world didn’t end! You can try again, and again, and again. Eventually you’ll get a positive response. On top of that you will have gotten better along the way.

Until next time,

AM