The power of saying no in business and as a leader is huge. It helps you to focus on what is important as a leader and for your business. In fact, saying no in business is imperative.
How do you review a year like 2020? In a normal year, November is when I pull out my goals for the year and see how we’ve done. Maybe there are one or two areas where I can buckle down the last 6 weeks of the year and make up the gap between my January…
Normally around this time of the year, it’s good to pause and review our progress. Take a minute to stop and review what’s been going well so far this year, what’s not, and plan how we can end the year strong. But this year… 2020… Well, it hasn’t gone according to plan, right? I don’t…
One of the consequences of living in a crisis is that our time horizon gets real short. It makes sense–the future is uncertain–it’s not clear what part of the things that we’ve adapted to are permanent, and which are temporary. Our clients and prospects are going through the same thing, so it’s not clear how…
Jim Collins, in his book Good to Great, tells the story of James Stockdale. As a POW in Vietnam Stockdale experienced almost continual torture with no way to know when it would end. When asked how he survived he said, “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can…
When I learned to drive, we watched a series of videos that taught us some simple “rules” for good drivers. One of those rules was “Aim high when driving.” The instructor was trying to keep us from looking right at the end of the car instead of watching further down the road and trusting that the…
One of the challenges of owning your own business is that you are both the CEO, responsible for the day-to-day decisions and direction of the company AND you are also the principal investor responsible for the long-term health of the business and interested in improving the equity value of the firm. To use a sports…
Following up on my post about how focusing is essential to growth I got a question from a fellow business owner, Paul asks; Hi Brad, I love this Venn Diagram; in fact, I have a copy hanging on my office wall! The dilemma occurs when the intersection of something we do well and don’t love…
This week we’ve talked about evaluating the performance of our team and having difficult conversations when needed. Now its time for the hardest evaluation question… Who has difficult conversations with YOU? Business owners wear a lot of hats! First and foremost, you are the CEO! You set direction, manage performance, and guide the business toward…
Have you ever heard a really great conference speaker? One who’s words echo in your head for weeks after the actual event? I was at ICON14 — the annual Infusionsoft users conference — where Casey Graham was one of the featured speakers. Casey has grown his company, The Rocket Company, over 832% in the last…