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SPICE UP DATE NIGHT Here’s How!
The Mechanics of a GREAT Game
Hearts and Flowers and Chocolate and Health
Romance Works for Business, Too
MARCH TO THE BEAT OF YOUR OWN BUSINESS | February 2015
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The OffBeat Business Show interviews experts in all areas of business, dishing up practical commentary and encouraging, actionable advice!
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Listen on PegasusNetWaves.com – We’re on TuneIn Radio! To listen to past shows, go to our website, click on ‘replays.’ Please contact us if you would like to be a guest on The OffBeat Business Show. Coming up in February: Krista Hartman – Got a favorite wine for Valentine’s Day? Krista has made wine and wineries her business! Fun wine trivia will make your conversation interesting February 3rd Jeff Klein - Learn how to ‘romance your audience’ when you remember these great points! February 10th Laura Klekar – With Empower Everyday shares her new philosophy and direction with Oomph on Demand. She’ll inspire you to think differently and ask the questions you need answers to. February 17th Jack Bick - Sobering conversation will have your wheels turning about being prepared for change as we move from one season of our lives to another. NO, this is NOT limited to retirement! Don’t miss this valuable, friendly chat. February 24th For upcoming shows, replays and your own subscription to The OffBeat Business Magazine, go to OffBeatBusiness.com. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google + and YouTube If it matters to you, we talk about it on The OffBeat Business Show. Enjoy 20 minutes of lunch with us, and you’ll be ready to take your company to new levels the rest of the week!
03 | Table of Contents
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Amy Hayes Christi Rains Jeff Klein Jack Bick Claire Billingsley John Carroll Monica Cornetti Kris DeFoer Clint Fuqua Susan Hamilton
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Editor’s Note / THE OFFBEAT BUSINESS MAGAZINE | 06
Editor’s Note This Month, it’s ALL About The Romance
WOW. The OffBeat Business Show and Magazine are off to an amazing start! With less than a year under our belt, we’ve been growing our columns with top of the line contributors whose biggest desire is to help YOU become the strongest, most successful business owner you can be. As a business lifestyle magazine, we’re extremely focused on the type of support and entertainment that empower you every day – at home, at work, and on vacation. In January, we launched the extremely popular Rhythms in Parenting column to help us be more effective communicators and leaders in our homes. Most of us feel like we have to choose between work obligations and parenting responsibilities. Amy Hayes helps us remember it’s all in our perspective and word choices. We CAN have the best of both worlds! I hope you enjoy her monthly encouragement and find it helpful. Contact us at info@OffBeatBusiness.com and share your opinions with us, we love to hear from you! This month we launch our new Technology Beat. Marian LaSalle didn’t start her expert career until later in life. Many of us are intimidated and overwhelmed with the very technology that can make our lives in business so much easier. Marian was, too, but she got up, dug in, and is now a highly sought after expert in several magazines, podcasts, and events. Please take her monthly advice!! Anyone can decide at any age to embrace technological advances, and it can be quite an amazing journey once we do. LOVE your family, neighbors, co-workers and community even better with perspectives in our Health and Coaching Lifestyle Chords. Reach for the stars with our expert panel of leaders contributing to OffBeat Business Tips in Communication, Advertising and Employee Training. This month, we remind you to date and have a good time. To LAUGH. We’ve got even more to unveil in our March edition, as Chef’s Corner and Fashion Flair come onboard. Can you afford to miss a single issue? Not on your life. Continue to reach out to us with your comments and suggestions. YOU are the reason we strive monthly to bring the very best information available in a fun and actionable way. Here’s to your success in business and in life! ~ Susan
07 | FEATURE / Laugh
Laugh Your Way To Health By Kris DeFoer
You’ve heard the phrase “Laughter is the best medicine,” right? Researchers from the University Of Maryland School of Medicine wanted to know how that works. To find out, they showed scenes from movies to their participants. Half the group saw comedy scenes, the other half saw stressful ones. Those moviegoers who watched the stressful film experienced narrowing of their blood vessels, with blood flow being constricted by an average of 35%. Conversely, the blood vessels of those who saw the comedy expanded, and their blood flow was increased by about 22%. From watching a MOVIE.
If these sorts of physiological changes happen when we’re watching a movie, what in the world are our bodies experiencing in real life?
When we’re under stress, real or perceived, the flow of cortisol through the body is increased. Cortisol is a hormone whose function is to deal with immediate threats. Think about the ability of the mother whose child is in danger to do whatever it takes to protect that child. But we were never meant to live with a constant flow of cortisol through our systems, and that’s exactly what we get when we’re in a perpetually stressful state. Excess cortisol increases the risk for cardiovascular disease and Type 2 Diabetes, and decreases immune function, leaving us more likely to catch every little bug that goes around. And it probably goes without saying that someone in this state doesn’t laugh much.
Laugh / FEATURE | 08
On the other end of the scale is serotonin. Serotonin is a feel-good neurotransmitter, increasing happiness and that good-mood feeling, and is increased when we laugh. We feel good, so we laugh more, and our serotonin levels increase and we feel good… that’s the kind of merry-go-round to be on! Healthy serotonin levels reduce stress and anxiety and help with sleep and appetite control. And when we laugh, that expanded blood flow reduces cholesterol and blood pressure levels, and allows oxygen to flow more freely through the body, which relaxes muscles, increases immunity and makes our energy soar. So, how do we move off the cortisol train (wreck), and onto the serotonin merry-goround? See a funny movie, watch a baby human or animal, get with your friends and just act silly. Tell jokes. Look for funny videos on YouTube. Take a break and don’t take anything too seriously. Good health involves eating right and exercising, for sure. But let’s not forget that caring for our inner health affects our physical health. And what more enjoyable way to get healthy than a good belly laugh! Kris DeFoer is a certified Holistic Health Coach who works with women individually and in groups, to help them re-discover their natural health and vitality. She believes that healthy living should be fun, that healthy food should taste good, and that good health is about much, much more than eating well and exercising – that how we live has an enormous impact on how we feel.
09| FEATURE / Gamification
Three Factors to Consider About Gamification and Your Organization By Monica Cornetti Games are without a doubt an addictive fascination, and their use in the workplace is ever growing. The result is a new trend in the marketplace to engage employees and clients called gamification, and research indicates that the gamification market will exceed $5 billion in the next few years.
Using game mechanics and rewards for non-game applications, gamification strategies can play an important role to drive brand allegiance, customer loyalty, employee productivity, and even organizational alignment. Already, organizations of all sizes have used gamification in areas such as customer engagement, loyalty programs, sales training, learning and development, and employee onboarding. The driving philosophy behind gamification can be summarized ‘to engage consumers or employees through motivators they find most exciting’ such as competitive challenges, collaborative teams, instant
rewards, status, and occasionally winning some stuff. Basically, there are two types of motivators that cause people to take action – extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation involves doing something for external rewards, like points, badges, trophies, leaderboard ranking, status, money, praise or something else tangible. For extrinsically-motivated people, it is not the action or behavior itself that motivates them, but rather the outcome, such as the promise of a bonus at the end of the process.
Gamification / FEATURE |10
Intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, drives behaviors that result in internal rewards, like achievement, mastery, adventure, enjoyment, and purpose. When people are intrinsically motivated, they have a genuine desire for the activity itself and a drive to complete an action because of the effect it has on them internally.
In successful gamification, extrinsic and intrinsic motivators are not polar opposites, but instead, they are co-dependent on each other. The best combination is a balance of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation such as, an unexpected reward accompanied by a public ‘Atta Boy.’ Here are three factors to consider as you explore how gamification can help your organization. 1. Clearly Identify the Business Objectives: Instead of asking, “How can we leverage gamification in our organization?” begin with clearly defined business objectives and an analysis of the suitability of gamification to achieve those business objectives. 2. Think of the Audience as Players not Puppets: Slapping some meaningless points, badges, and leader boards into your sales campaign or marketing strategy does not mean that you’ll be able to get people to do what they’ve been unwilling to do before. Engage the target audience with meaningful incentives. 3. Design for Player-Centricity: The sweet spot for gamification is where the business objectives and player objectives overlap. Gamified applications must be designed to motivate players to achieve their goals and not just the goals of the organization.
Gamification/ FEATURE | 11
Gamification certainly has many benefits. When done well it can increase productivity, strengthen teams, motivate employees to achieve goals, create fun and enjoyment, inspire friendly competition and increase engagement.
Making smart decisions about how to gamify diminishes the risk of negatively impacting your workers. Forward thinking organizations who understand the power of gamification to increase engagement are quickly learning how to leverage its power to achieve their business objectives.
But when it is applied in a haphazard way you encounter dangers such as:
Let’s play!
Players focused on ‘winning the game’ rather than on the actions that are necessary to achieve your business objectives Players finding ways to cheat or ‘game the system’ Players fostering an expectation for continuous rewards and the incentives must constantly escalate to be effective A gamification keynote speaker and designer, Monica Cornetti is rated as the #1 Gamification Guru in the World by UK-Based Leaderboarded. She is the author of the book Totally Awesome Training Activity Guide: Put Gamification to Work for You and host of the weekly Gamification Talk Radio program.
She is a professional consultant and known for being one of the leading players in thinking differently to create different results. In fact, as an early adopter, she has been designing and delivering gamification programs for her clients since 2008.
12 | FEATURE / Spice
Spice It Up! (Here’s What to Do First) By Susan Hamilton
There’s almost nothing more difficult than working with your spouse! That being said, there’s no lifestyle more gratifying, either. When your spouse is with you every single day for most of the day, you DO begin to wonder if people who have separate careers might have it better. It’s easy to end up second-guessing each other, hovering, and pulling the reins when we know our business partner so well. When days are spent like that, it’s difficult to imagine spending romantic time together. Too much of the day can carry with us, making us over sensitive and impatient, instead of relaxed and intimate.
I watched this play out on several fronts. I was raised in a family business. All of my brothers, sisters, and even I worked for the family company for several years. Eventually, my older sister and I went into business together to address the marketing needs of small businesses, but today, everyone else in my family works together!
13 | FEATURE / Spice
My son works for his father’s family run corporation, my daughter works with her mother-in-law, and my husband and I joined forces over a year ago to begin working more diligently towards the life we really wanted to live. My mom and dad met each other at 13, married at 18, had their first daughter at 19 and went into business not long after that. They enjoyed 55 years together before he passed! I can tell you in no uncertain terms, when it comes to dating your business partner – I know what I’m talking about.
The only way to live this lifestyle successfully is to let the end of the day be the end of the day. It’s our natural inclination to want to make the end of the project the end of the day, but the reality is – we’re NEVER done! Resist the urge to let the project lead your lifestyle, and remember that leadership starts with you.
As a limited liability corporation, married couples are required to have corporate meetings regularly, complete with an agenda, minutes and plan to move forward. Make those times as pleasant as you can, and as focused as you can, so you have a healthy respect for the end of the day.
Knowing that you’ll deal with larger issues on a scheduled timeline will help you shake off the weight of the world and really listen to each other as you chat about your life together – not your business. Resolve to let your business conversations have an end, not because you’re done talking about ‘it,’ but because it’s time to invest in each other.
Spice / FEATURE | 14
Another thing that keeps us from the level of intimacy we desire is lack of a cohesive vision. While you shouldn’t spend your end of the day conversations talking shop, you SHOULD dream of your future. Out loud. Together. Often, we realize that we both want different things. Many marriages don’t survive that revelation! But yours can. Give each other the right to dream THEIR dream. Spend your laughter finding the similarities, not beating up the differences. This is such a great communication game changer. As you learn to encourage each other to really think about the lifestyle you both enjoy and the ways you want to spend your time improving your community, you’ll become more sensitive to the language you should avoid, and the language that that it takes to communicate effectively . Paint word pictures. How do you visualize your future? Learning to share it is very intimate. Not being annoyed with each other’s ideas and learning to speak with encouragement and acceptance is very intimate. Helping your loved one communicate their ideas, to visualize their ideas, is very intimate.
Letting someone in on your vision may come naturally to you, but it’s actually very common for us to assume our mates just ‘know.’ We don’t. Let’s talk about it. Believe it or not, another way to become closer is to work in separate spaces. That separation allows us to work independently, which actually gives us something to share with each other during casual conversation.
15 |FEATURE / Spice I was talking to a friend of mine about her warm and wonderful marriage. She said every day she and her husband start with big long hug. She says, and I totally agree, that most people would be surprised at the difference that one practice can make.
“Know your strengths as a couple. Together we are way more creative. “ ~ Kris DeFoer Many couples irritate each other when they work alongside each other on a project. It can be very helpful to take some preliminary time to think through each other’s strengths. Attack your project with those responsibilities settled. Then be at the ready to forgive an overstepped boundary with a jest or a tease. Some of the hottest arguments can result in some of the hottest playtime – IF you are determined to enjoy each other to begin with! So now that work is out of the way and you’re communicating better, dating becomes much more rewarding. Relax, find the ridiculous and laugh about it. Put on some music. Open the wine. Vow to avoid talking about the kids or the job or the parents. Shut off your cell phones or leave them in another room. Dim the lighting. Say something nice. Whether you spend your time at a nice restaurant, go dancing, get a room or stay at home – your relationship needs regular attention. Dating is a little trickier for a business owner. We have to get our companies off our minds. We have to wrap our heads, hearts and arms around our loved ones while we have the opportunity. And, just so you know, opportunity usually has to be ‘created.’ Seldom does opportunity to go out on the town just fall from the sky. Enjoy an intimate, spicy marriage. You’ll NEVER regret showing each other that you truly value them.
Susan Hamilton is your host of The OffBeat Business Show and Editor-in-Chief of The OffBeat Business Magazine. As a content coach, her mission is to empower people to communicate better in business, online, and in life. We’d love your comments, please send them to Info@OffBeatBusiness.com.
10 Essential Habits of Sales Superstars: Plugging Into The Power of Ten By Butch Bellah “Butch Bellah makes selling fun again!” The Best $12.99 You’ll Spend All Year! If you’re as good as you’re going to be, life is as good as it’s going to get. Don’t limit yourself. EVERYBODY is in sales, like it or not. Sales is something we do for people, not something we do to people. Wrap your head around successful mindsets and start taking simple steps forward every day to dramatically increase your income NOW.
“The power of this book is how it gives the reader simple techniques that dramatically improve results. Butch's combination of creativity and common sense makes this a fun book to read. The strategy for getting past gate keepers makes the book worth the time and money ant that is just the tip of the ice berg!”
Noble L. Feldman, Amazon review
17 | LIFESTYLE CHORDS / Health
Hearts and Flowers and Chocolate and Health By Clint Fuqua
That little baby with a bow is about to start flying around taking aim at every single person in town. Those commercials of glittery trinkets of love and flowing rivers of chocolaty sensuousness will be beckoning for your hard earned money. Little pink and red roses will be littering the isles of every store as a reminder of your love (or lack thereof.) So what are you to do with all of the candies and desserts tempting the healthy new you that you JUST resolved last month to live up to? Invest in the best to take care of your lover, if you have one, and that heart beating in your chest. Even in the office, share a little love for your employees. Let them see the healthy new you. Let’s start with your heart because without it everything else will fall apart. If you read my column in January, remember those 3 resolutions you committed to making a reality this year? Have you started on the first one? Did you start, only to take part in national resolution dump day on Jan 15th with millions of others? It’s time to show you have some heart and start taking care of the one beating away in your chest night and day. Get back on that resolution and make it a part of your life so you can really enjoy the fun and festivities with your loved one. Recommit to loving yourself this month, get out your list, review your plan, and get back on it. This is your year to make health a reality in your life for years to come so you can enjoy more time with the ones you love – let them have more time with the best version of you. Love around the office? It’s as easy as clearing the air and making the environment a better place to be. Save flowers for that special someone, and plant some fresh new vibes in your workspace. Extra leaves of green will lead to better air to breathe. (Even more green bills as the year goes and the plant grows.) Living plants such as Golden Pathos, English Fern, Bamboo Palm, Snake Plant, and many others have all been shown to clean the air of
Health / LIFESTYLE CHORDS | 18
toxins and give you more oxygen to breathe. This will both make your work space a more lively place to be and put more life into everyone around you.
Little candy hearts with sweet messages and milk chocolate kisses may be all the rage, but it’s time to invest in better treats and start acting your age. Better treats equal more love due to the purity and nutrients that you won’t find in a candy made by Wonka or Dove. Real chocolate (90-100% cacao) actually DOES give women that loving feeling, but also reduces body fat and protects your heart from stress and damage.
Cherries, blueberries, and strawberries reduce inflammation and increase blood flow. Chocolate covered fruits can either improve you health and your love life, or damage both of them with just one bite.
Candy and super foods both come from the same place - but funny things happen on the way to the store, so choose.
Do you want a sugar rush, or better health? Action Steps: 1. Cut out the candy and eat the super foods. Milk chocolate (cocoa) and dark chocolate (cacao) come from the same bean, but the difference is in everything that happens to it on the way to the store. 2. Plastic plants may last forever but they will do nothing to energize the office. Get some real plants around the office and breathe in healthier air year round. Just be careful of the flowers because allergies are a real thing. 3. You have a heart so make sure you continue what you start. Yes, get back to doing that ONE resolution you committed to in January to show you’ve got some heart and to take care of the one beating in your chest.
Visit me at ClintFuqua.com and contact me with any questions, comments, request, recommendation, proposals, fan mail, or hate mail at Clint@ClintFuqua.com.
19 | LIFESTYLE CHORDS / Rhythms In Parenting
Make One Of Your Goals A Word Review By Amy Hayes
It's that time of year when we develop our vision for the next 12 months. As business owners, these usually center around our businesses with perhaps some fitness and personal development goals, too. But I’d like to talk to you about relational goals. More specifically, parenting goals. I think these are vital to our success as parents. Parenting is a multi-faceted task to be sure. There are an endless number of goals related to parenting that simply overwhelm and discourage us. I have an idea that will make your parenting goals easily attainable, and quite profitable.
statements send negative messages and negative energy which disturb the vibes of your family. To get harmonic melodies flowing through your home, positive words are much more effective. Words of encouragement and edification. Once you have your list of negatives, the task becomes very simple. I said simple, not easy. Your goal is to turn your negatives into positives.
I suggest you do a word review. Here's how. Listen to the words you speak to your children for a day or two.
There are many psychological and emotional benefits that can be summed up in this: you and your kids will be much happier and closer. The atmosphere in your home will become more enjoyable, and stress levels will decrease for everyone. Some negatives are easily identified, like “No more cookies!” “No, you can't go out with your friends tonight.” “Don't leave your bike out in the rain.” Take note of the negative words or statements you use. Ok, you see where we're going with this. Negative words and
Others are harder to identify, like “You can do better than that.” “Stop grabbing!” “When will you ever clean up your room?”
Rhythms in Parenting / LIFESTYLE CHORDS | 20
from your children, rather than pointing out the fault. So our above examples become something like: “We'll have cookies after dinner!” “Tell me about your friends.” (After a few weeks of positive vibes, your kids may WANT to stay home) “Son, your bike will rust in the rain.” “I can see you really worked hard on this.” “Ask nicely!” “Do you need help cleaning your room?”
Although these statements do not contain negative words like 'no' or 'don't' they carry a negative implication. What if there is a better way to say it that’s actually more effective? “You can do better than that” says “That's not good enough”. See the “not” now? “Stop grabbing!” says “Don't grab!” “When will you ever clean up your room?” says “You have NOT cleaned up your room yet.”
Lastly, the tone of your voice affects the sound of your words. A perfect symphony of communication includes the right words, tone and heart (or soul) behind it. Here's wishing you a year of family harmony!
The overall idea is to say what you want, the positive affirmation of what you expect
Amy Hayes is the Parenting in Business contributor for The OffBeat Business Magazine. Amy is the mother of 8 children, from grown to adolescent, and coaches business owners, church groups and others to improve effective communication for parenting success. Discover more about The Heart Minder at parentingforlife.org. You can also reach her at profparent@gmail.com.
21 | LIFESTYLE CHORDS / Money
The Double Edged Sword Of Confidence By Christi Rains
“Pride goeth before destruction…” ~ Proverbs 16:18
Some of us have heard this quote as “Pride goes before a fall.” Regardless of the exact wording, the sentiment is the same … don’t let your pride cause you to make bad decisions. Like most characteristics, pride is good in moderation. Ego is good in moderation. Confidence is good - you get the drift. As a small business owner our ego and pride and confidence are essential to success. A person has to have a certain amount of these characteristics in order to believe that they can take their destiny into their own hands. As entrepreneurs, we have done just that. But beware the double-edged sword. On the one edge is the confidence in your knowledge of an industry, to make good decisions, or the pride in your skills to know you can take on a certain client. It’s this part of your ego that helps to grow business, take smart risks, and move forward when others say stop. This is the edge that cuts your path forward to the life and business you dream of. It’s the other edge that is dangerous, and can cut away what you’ve worked so hard to build. Too much pride, confidence and ego can lead to poor decisions, over-estimations of your abilities and refusal to seek help. So often it is our ego that deceives us from looking at the truth and admitting our weaknesses. We become embarrassed to ask for help because we don’t want others to see our mistakes. Our pride and confidence that had lead us to take bold steps, also has the potential to lead us over the edge. How do you avoid these pitfalls? Involve others; keep your friends and family in the loop. You don’t have to follow their advice, but you never know when you may find a nugget in there to help you. Second, seek professional help from the start. Recognize that if you’re doing EVERYTHING, something will be done poorly. Get help for the things you struggle with, and find trusted advisors to support you. Professionals are here for assistance, it’s why they are in business. Please, don’t be too embarrassed to ask for help; we’ve all been there.
Christi Rains is the President of Alpha Omega Consulting & Bookkeeping, LLC. You can find her blog at Sensiblebusinessowner.com. For more information, email Christi@AOBookKeeping.com.
LIFESTYLE CHORDS / Coaching | 22
Are We Having Fun Yet? By John Carroll Well, the New Year is in full swing now. So … are we having fun yet? In the business world, we’re notorious for putting fun last on our list of priorities for the new year and as a result, never getting to it. We are so busy throughout the year trying to meet our sales, revenue, expense, quality and customer satisfaction goals that we don't set aside time to have fun. And that needs to change. Are you having fun yet? If not, here are some things to consider in order to put fun back into your work and workplace. 1. Put fun first on your list of priorities, and the rest will start to fall into place. 2. Laugh more. Laughter is a great medicine for what ails you and your workplace. 3. Ring the bell. Celebrate successes, both large and small, and be spontaneous with recognition, praise and “thank you". 4. Get the team involved. Schedule off-site, team building activities with employees, partners, customers and suppliers. 5. Release your inner child. Don’t be so serious all the time. Let others see the lighter side of your personality. 6. Make the moments count. Live with the 3E's - Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy. 7. Find your happy place. Meditate, take mental health breaks, or extended lunches in order to refresh and re-energize. 8. Get to the gym. Make daily exercise an integral part of your work-fun activities. 9. Keep things in perspective. Your work is a means to an end, not the end! Regardless of where you are in your career, if you're not having fun - what's the point? Life is too short to not enjoy what you are doing, so find a way to put fun back into your work or do something else. The negative trends in business as a result of continued downsizing, restructuring and economic uncertainty have taken a huge toll on the workplace, and the workforce is tasked to do more with less. We need to find ways to reduce stress, improve productivity, while keeping our morale and energy levels up. Putting fun back into the work is a great place to start. So, what are your thoughts on putting fun into your work and workplace in 2015? COPYRIGHT © 2009-15 John Carroll John Carroll is a business & leadership strategist who works with business leaders to help them ‘achieve the results to move beyond their vision.’ He is a best-selling author, educator, blogger and speaker. Email John at john@trescoach.com or learn more at www.trescoach.com/.
23 | OFFBEAT BUSINESS TIPS / Advertising
The Right Question Is A Game Changer By Jack Bick Have you ever been in a bad situation where you wanted to get out? Sure you have, and asking the right question is the way to take the initiative and turn the challenge into a victory. Have you ever wanted to get into a group or a company but your avenues were few or blocked? Again, sure you have and asking the right question is the way to victory. Choosing the right question No one can give you all the right questions for every situation; however, here is the formula that will help your brain choose the right question for the situation. By asking questions you gain control of the situation and you get the other person to talk. A great question gives you time to think and it makes the other person think through their response. When the other person is talking you are receiving information that helps you decide on your next move. The best type of question to start is a Polite Question. It is an open question requiring a full sentence reply not just one or two words. It is a non-challenging question that is easy to answer and keeps the conversation positive. For example, if you have a situation where a customer is angry about the product or service that you provided, then you need as much information as possible. Ask, “Your satisfaction is utmost to me, can you tell me the most important aspect of your dissatisfaction?”
If you are at a networking event and you want to get into a group that includes a potential customer ask, “Your thoughts are of interest to me, tell me more?” That way people open up to let you into the circle.
Advertising / OFFBEAT BUSINESS TIPS | 24
The follow-up question is a Probing Question. Once the person has opened up to you, the questioning can become stronger. In our first example the next question would be, “How has this affected you negatively?” And in the second situation you can ask, “How did you come to this opinion?’ By this time you are building a relationship and respect. The third type of question is required if you want someone to make a change or take an action. These are Projective Questions. If you want change they must project to the future where that change can take place. In our first situation with an angry customer, ask, “If I can overcome this shortcoming, will you continue to do business with us?” Your ultimate goal is to keep the business. You don’t want to make a costly adjustment and also lose the business. In the second situation with the knowledgeable potential customer, ask, “You are very knowledgeable, can we have coffee sometime in the next week?” If the person agrees, you have an appointment without ever making it a sales call. Here is the formula: Polite, Probing and Projective The end result is a partnership that can return dividends into the future. Of course the best use of this formula is for consultative sales. Jack Bick is an expert in the publishing arena, a business coach and speaker. To learn more about Jack Bick and his bottom line enhancing seminars visit JackBick.com.
25 | OFFBEAT BUSINESS TIPS / Technology Beat
New Ways to Stay Focused (And Easy, Too!) By Marian LaSalle
We live in a world filled with instant access to information, cool new gadgets, and constant distractions from well-meaning co-workers and friends. We need to find new ways to stay focused. As busy business owners we need to not only complete projects and goals, we also need to communicate with clients, employees, vendors, business partners and assistants. Completing tasks and projects seems nearly impossible unless you set yourself up for success by building and maintaining good habits. These habits can be much easier if you allow yourself to use some great tools we have found in our search for help. Use technology to your advantage to stay on track for completing those todo lists that keep getting bigger and bigger. From blocking out distracting websites to tracking how much time you spend on social media; many tools can help you stay focused. Let’s look at a few ways that really work. Set clear goals: Make a list of your tasks and projects. Try weekplan.net. It’s easy and free.
Technology Beat / OFFBEAT BUSINESS TIPS | 26
Work in 25 minute blocks: Set a timer and take a break at the end of each cycle. Reset your focus by listening to music for a few minutes, taking a short walk, do some stretching or calling a friend. Try focusboosterapp.com Shut out the world: Avoid temptation by closing your email, silencing cell phones and alerts. Think about finding a quiet place away from your desk to work. Try booking a conference room or hiding out in your office. If you need to, set up a system for urgent messages to reach you. Be sure to block off time in your schedule to play and browse, but stick to your schedule. Pay attention to yourself: Start to notice when and how you get distracted. What thoughts happen just before that? Are you tired, hungry, or bored? As you learn what triggers your distractions, you can head them off before you slip into the time warp. Set yourself up for success by taking the time to plan for a focused year!
Marian LaSalle is a business coach, trainer and show host, discover much more at ToolsTipsandTechnology.com
27 | OFFBEAT BUSINESS TIPS / Communication
Romancing Your Audience By Jeff Klein So, based on reading what the experts say women and men want and need to feel special, here are my Since it’s almost Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d do a little online research. I found articles with titles like, 5 Romantic Needs of a Woman, 10 Ways to Romance Your Wife, and 41 Ways to Romance Your Husband.
Five Ways to Romance Your Audience: #1 – Meet Their Needs: For someone to become your customer, you must offer a solution to a problem they have.
I’m a little afraid to comment on why men can only handle 5 or 10 ways and women need 41, so I’ll just let y’all ponder that on your own. What I do want to talk about is how romance relates to your business. One of the definitions of romance in Merriam-Webster is ‘to try to influence or curry favor with, especially by lavishing personal attention, gifts, or flattery.’
If we want to keep our customers happy, ‘influencing or currying favor’ sounds like a good idea to me. Can we do it easily ‘by lavishing personal attention, gifts, or flattery?’ In theory, these sound like good ideas.
You have to show them that your solution to their problem will improve their life in some way. The more effectively you can solve their problem, the faster they will hire you and the more they will be willing to pay for your solution. For them to stay your customer, you have to be flexible to continue to serve them as their needs change.
Communication / OFFBEAT BUSINESS TIPS | 28
#2 – Appreciate Them: Sometimes all someone needs to make their day is an, “I appreciate you” or “You make a difference.” The kindest thing you can do is tell someone else they are special. If you’re not appreciating your customers regularly they will soon leave you for someone who does. Start with regular touches, weekly, monthly, quarterly, depending on your business. Always give value in your touches. The more frequent your touches, the less personal they have to be. In other words, an eNewsletter with tips can be weekly. A direct mail piece can be monthly. A quarterly touch would be a personal phone call.
What are their latest wins? What are their newest challenges? How is your staff doing when serving them? What do they want to know about you and your business? This lunch must be almost entirely about them. You can ask, after you’ve answered all their questions, if they have a colleague or two you can help the same way you’re helping them. And ask for a personal email introduction. #3 – Make Them Feel Safe: This is all about how you appear, or show up, for your customers. Do they see you in the news as an expert? How about online? If you are always out in the marketplace as the expert on how you serve them, then they’ll be more inclined to call you to help them with your expertise.
#3 – Show Them You Care: An ongoing campaign of customer appreciation can give your business a giant boost. Have lunch once a week with a client. You’re only going to have lunch once or twice a year with each client. It’s a great time to ask about their business.
#4 – Be Truthful & Trustworthy: Three of the most powerful words you can use are, “I don’t know,” as long as you follow them up with, “but I can find out.” Be responsive. Call people back in a timely fashion. And remember, Integrity is what you do when no one else is looking.
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If you don’t think your clients are not talking to each other, you might be in for a big surprise. For example, don’t charge clients vastly different prices for the same services. Your contact might go to work for the competition, see the billing, and then you’re in trouble. Unhappy clients are the loudest kind.
#5 – Take Care of Yourself: You can’t solve anyone else’s problems if you are constantly focused on your own.
Better is to surround yourself with an effective team of advisors and supporters so you actually are doing great instead of just giving it lip service. Serious business owners know they need coaches and ongoing training to succeed. The people at the top are lifelong learners.
Your business needs to appear healthy and robust from the outside looking in. Sometimes this is as simple as saying you’re “doing great” when asked how you are.
So, there you have it, five ways you can Romance Your Customers. Save flowers for your personal significant other, but send some value to your customers to show them that you care. And mean it.
Jeff Klein helps his clients turn the right prospects into loyal customers, keep them happy, and tell their friends to become customers, too. He trains professionals to use Business Networking and Business Speaking to generate bottom line revenue. In other words, Jeff specializes in The Path to The Cash. Here are a couple freebies for you. Download Free Business Speaking Education: www.SpeakerCoop.com/Education
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Professional copywriting gets results. Marketing Copywriters Know Language that converts Word placement that gets noticed And reputation building in an online atmosphere that attracts higher paying customers and clients to YOU “Hi, Susan Hamilton here. Host of The Offbeat Business Radio Show, Co-Editor of The Offbeat Business Magazine and owner of Leaping Walls Consulting & Services, inviting you to subscribe to my weekly newsletter, The Richardson Copywriter. I know the language of money-making, and I’m dedicated to YOUR success in business! Get The Richardson Copywriter, and join a fastgrowing list of business savvy entrepreneurs who want to learn everything they can to be the BEST.”
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Employee Training / OFFBEAT BUSINESS TIPS | 30
The Path of Least Resistance By Claire Billingsley
When people ask me what a ‘coach’ does in the workplace, I always start with a sports analogy. Sports figures all over the world utilize coaches to help them observe what they are doing, and discuss results.
If Tony Romo’s not passing as well as he would like, it’s the coaches’ observations that can give Tony the opportunity to make a change, if he chooses. If he wants to have a better pass score, then he has to change what he is currently doing to make that happen. However, he does have the choice to continue doing what he is currently doing, as that is the path of least resistance. But expecting things to change while doing them the same way is called what again? Right. Insanity. As a coach, we don’t tell people what to do. We believe everyone has the answers inside of them. What we will do is ask questions that help the ‘coachee’ (employee) see things from a different perspective, and
work through the exercise to decide for themselves if the change in habit, attitude, or activity is worth the change in result.
This method is called Observer-ActionResult, and can be easily implemented into any organizational culture. The coach and employee together determine what action is not working for them, and discuss possible alternative ways of looking or thinking about something. In the beginning, the coach will need to be more heavily involved, because defining ‘thinking about what we are thinking about’ may not be a natural thought process. It’s easy to miss our routine thought processes because they’re automatic. We all have those little voices in our head, call it gut or intuition … it’s all a part of our problem solving. First we learn to recognize where we’re heading into the ditch, then we change those processes to avoid the pitfalls.
31| OFFBEAT BUSINESS TIPS / Employee Training
This very easy exercise trains your employees to eventually become their own coaches, and self-correct before getting completely off the path.
It gives them the confidence to change paths if the current one is not working. If they like the new results, then ‘yaay!’
If not, then you go through the ObserverAction-Result activity again until the preferred outcome is achieved. An important step in the learning process is to discuss what went right and what still needs tweaking, so it doesn’t feel like they are starting from scratch each time. The goal is to have your employee become their own observer, identify the actions they did before, brainstorm new and different actions they can take as alternatives, and then report back the different results. This activity empowers your employee to self-monitor their actions, and begin observing themselves in a different way.
It’s more of a refinement process. Once this habit is formed, you’ll find less and less resistance to change in your organization.
Claire Billingsley is an author, coach, mentor, Laughter Yoga Leader and radio show host. She uses improvisational comedy to help open lines of communication up for groups and organizations. Find more at www.billingsleyconsultinggroup.com
33 | Half Notes / Susan Says
Criticism Makes You Awesome By Susan Hamilton
It really and truly sucks to screw up. It doesn’t feel right to get something ‘almost’ good enough. When the unexpected happens or when you simply have a learning curve, it never feels good to know you have let someone down or missed a time frame or didn’t quite measure up.
And that’s my caution at the close of this issue. Stretching and learning the new things and the better processes ARE the hard work of entrepreneurship. Our itty-bitty businesses will shrivel and die without new life constantly being breathed into them. That doesn’t always feel good!
But that’s how it goes. That’s what this journey entails. And one thing I’ve learned by now – without criticism, without missing the mark – we’ll never get to excellent. I don’t want to go through life and wonder if I ‘could have,’ you know? I’m going to give it all I’ve got and I’m going to embrace my ‘not good enoughs’ and continue to improve until one day I look back and laugh at where I’ve been. Eh, I might as well laugh at myself now. I think that’s the magic pill, right there. Kris DeFoer hit it on the head in our opening article. We HAVE to be able to laugh at our junk. I’m not suggesting that we have a careless attitude or tell people who expected more to take a flying leap. No way. Rather, like Jack Bick shares in his advertising column – those shattered expectations are an opportunity to reach out and discover the details required for improvement. Ask the hard questions, and take the harsh criticism with grace. ALWAYS be thinking, ‘how can I rescue this relationship?’ The two worst things that could happen in our businesses, in my opinion, would be to be surrounded by people who tell you everything’s great when it’s not, and to have created an environment where people felt they couldn’t share their concerns and criticisms. How would we grow?
If you haven’t had to stretch in a while, if you haven’t had to wonder if you got it right, if no one’s told you recently they were ‘unimpressed’ – it might be time to add a new element to your busy, crazy mix. Just don’t forget to laugh at the ridiculous. Don’t forget to forgive yourself and try again. And whatever you do, don’t EVER give up. ~ Susan
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