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4 lessons learned about ATTITUDE

January 30th, 2010 by John Gallagher 3 Comments

This silly jump box (aka BLUE monster) taught me a few lessons this week about ‘ATTITUDE’. First, the timeline leading to the lesson:

Tuesday – Working out at LifeWise Fitness, I point to the box and ask the owner, Che Torry , what that box was for and he said for folks to jump on. I told him there was no way I could jump on that box.

Wednesday – Participate in Basic Conditioning class with Che as the ‘coach’ for the class and he had us doing box jumps in increments on an aerobic step. After class, I looked at the blue step above (you know, the one that I said I could not jump on!) and brought it over to the equipment we were jumping on. Low and behold…the blue step was about 4″ LOWER than what we were working out with that night. I just looked at Che and smiled, quite sheepishly.

Friday – Did my regular workout and then brough over the blue step. I still found myself nervous, but did jump on it a few times. I even wanted proof. See video here:

If you cannot see this in your reader, CLICK HERE for the video.

So, what were the lessons learned:

1) Attitude (Positive or Negative) is a CHOICE. I chose on Monday to say that I could NOT jump on that blue box without even trying. “If you think you can, or you think you can’t…you are probably right” – John Maxwell

2) Most of our fears are unfounded - I was nervous to jump on the box. The challenge is to funnel the energy we place in our fears into the task at hand. We tend to fear the worst. Rather, try to think of the best!

3) Having a ‘coach’ is important – A good coach will push you just a little bit farther than you will go on your own. (You can replace the word ‘coach’ with ‘friend’, ‘accountability partner’, ‘teacher’, ‘mentor’ etc.)

4) Practice what you preach – After I jumped on the boxes on Wednesday evening and saw that it was higher than the BLUE monster, I was disappointed in my negative ‘choice’ on Monday.

So, what is your current ‘BLUE monster’ and what is it going to take for you to CHOOSE to say that you CAN?! Time for me to reflect on that…

Posted in Continuous Improvement, Discipline | 3 Comments »

3 Simple Questions to ask in preparing for 2010

December 31st, 2009 by John Gallagher No Comments

As 2009 comes down to the wire, I hope that you have had a chance to reflect on the past year. I have enjoyed reading some other blogs about preparing for 2010 so I felt compelled to share my own preparation techniques. This technique doesn’t just work for New Year’s goals or resolutions, but solving many problems you may face. This is a tool introduced to me by my coach, Raymond Gleason of Building Champions.

To achieve the new goals you set, I ask myself the following 3 questions, in this order:
1) What do I need to KEEP doing? – What are those things that you have done that have worked? Be as specific as you can.
2) What do I need to START doing? – Maybe there is something missing from your process that you need to add. Again, be specific. If you have a goal to lse weight, it doesn’t help to say that “I need to start eating better.” It might be better to say: “I need to start packing my lunch three days a week to reduce fast food intake.”
3) What do I need to STOP doing? – Maybe the most important question to answer. Because we only have 24 hours in a day, if we want to START doing things and don’t STOP doing things, then we will become overwhelmed and likely not succeed. Our KEEPs will suffer and our STARTs will be ineffective. So, what are those things you need to STOP doing (even though they may be good things) so that you can achieve your goals. The Law of Sacrifice says it best: “You have to give up (STOP) to go up (Achieve goals)”

KEEP, START, STOP – It really is simple…and effective.

So, what are you going to KEEP, START, and STOP doing to go higher in 2010?

I wish you all the best in 2010. I hope that this blog continues to add value to your life.

Posted in Continuous Improvement, Leadership | No Comments »

Is Social Media a 'Fad'?

August 30th, 2009 by John Gallagher No Comments

I saw this video posted on another blog recently and wanted to share. If you have just 4 minutes, it is a GREAT snapshot of the impact of social media on our lives. I was really shocked by the data on how LONG it took for TV & Radio to gain an audience of 50 million users, compared to Facebook. Astounding.

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

Are you currently involved in ‘Social Media’? If not, why not? Top reasons I have heard folks tell me why they are not:
1) Don’t have time for it (250 million users of Facebook have the same number of hours in a day that you do!)
2) I don’t want to put my personal info out there – Especially in Customer Service, the question is if you are not putting it out there, who is?)
3) It’s too confusing to use – YouTube has over 100,000,000 videos(found this out in THIS video). Go there and search for How To ___________. You are sure to find it. Then, you don’t have to ‘embarrass’ yourself and ask someone how!

If you area involved in Social Media, are you connected with me? If not, why not? Just click on the links at the side of this Blog post. I would love to stay connected with you.

Posted in Continuous Improvement, Learning | No Comments »

Book review – Duct Tape Marketing

August 17th, 2009 by John Gallagher No Comments

Recently, I completed the book Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch. It was a gift from a friend that I received about 4 years ago and really have just gotten around to reading it. I wish I would have read it three years ago when I made the choice to enter in to the real estate business.

This book is chalked full of pragmatic tips for putting together a marketing ‘system’ for your small business. I filled the front and back inside bindings with notes and ideas as they popped into my head while reading the pages.

I appreciated the author’s definition of Marketing:

Getting people who have a specific need or problem to know, like, and trust you

I believe that definition is spot on for small business marketing. The book is broken out into 3 parts:

1) The Duct Tape Foundation

2) The Duct Tape Lead Generation Machine

3) Getting on a Roll – Finding out what ‘sticks’ and do more of it.

I implemented ideas he suggested and saw immediate results:

1)Webinars – We did a Webinar and generated three new leads and closed one in less than a week! Our average sales cycle is 4 months. Needless to say, we have another Webinar scheduled!!

2) Wake up the senses with an Image to Match Your Message – I updated the look of the header on our website and added this ‘image’ to our advertising, and marketing materials, and have already had comments about the improvements from potential clients. See some of the changes at http://www.whitegallagher.com/

And, I used the book to help set new measurements for Sales & Marketing including: Lead generation numbers and Lead conversion rations.

I have shared this book with team members and look forward to using it as a guide to put together our marketing plan for the future. I highly suggest this book to small business owners looking to leverage their marketing. The book was published in 2006, so it just started to delver into how to use social media as well, but as you read it, you can visualize how to make improvements via blogging, Facebook, Twitter, and other creative ways to get your message out to as many prospects as possible.

This book gets a ’10′ on my dogear rating system. My highest ranking. If you can’t find the ideas to help you improve your marketing system in this book, I don’t know where you will find it!!

Posted in Book review, Continuous Improvement | No Comments »

Are you "Peeing in your wetsuit?"

June 28th, 2009 by John Gallagher No Comments

A friend of mine, Kim Chaney, once used an analogy in a meeting. He said “This is like peeing in a wetsuit. It feels kinda good when you do it, but you KNOW it’s gonna chafe later on.” I don’t remember the exact situation we were in at the time, but I do know that I wouldn’t soon forget it!

At the time, I believe he was referring to a situation where our group was doing something that may have been easier at the time(peeing in the wetsuit), but would not be better for us in the long run (chafing!).

In life, we are presented with these opportunities all the time where we have to make a choice as to the right action to take. It gets back to ‘Discipline’ – Doing WHAT you need to do…WHEN you need to do it…even though you DON’T want to at that time. You KNOW you should, in essence, take off your wetsuit!

I like to think there are ways to be more disciplined. Here are a few tips that I would suggest:

1) Write down your ‘want’ and look at it on a regular basis (hourly, daily, weekly). It is harder to avoid when you see it in writing.
2) Look for an accountability partner to help you. Ask a friend or mentor to periodically ‘check-in’ on you to see how you are doing with your ‘want’. It is even more difficult (and embarrassing) to tell a friend or mentor that you have not been working on your disciplines!!
3) Pray about it. Ask God for strength.
4) Just do it! – You know you are going to feel better after you have completed the discipline. Why would you not want to feel better?

I am sure there are other ways.

Did you “Pee in your wetsuit today?” – What other ways are there that you have used to be more disciplined at what you ‘want’ so that you don’t become “chafed” in the future?

Thanks, Kim, for the inspiration for this post. I had a a couple friends who nearly fell off their chairs laughing this week when I used the analogy in a meeting.

Posted in Continuous Improvement, Discipline, Leadership, Leadership metaphors | No Comments »