Month: July 2017

Let’s Celebrate!

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What do you celebrate in your business? Is it reaching a sales goal or locking in a promotion? Winning an account or delivering a great pitch that your client loved? Is it a certain number of years in business or a new and greater number in your bank account?

People celebrate all kinds of milestones and achievements, but if you’re like most of us you don’t do it often enough. When we achieve any kind of goal most of us don’t even take the time to acknowledge it, much less sit back and rest on our laurels. More often than not, we just keep moving forward, continually resetting the goal posts higher and higher.

And, really, there is nothing wrong with that strategy, for that tendency to constantly push ourselves to reach higher and do better is how we grow. But I’d like to suggest that equally as valuable is the act of pausing for a moment to recognize the small victories. Taking a moment to reflect on where you started and how far you’ve come is a great habit to get into.  When you adopt this practice of celebration it can help keep you moving forward when the going gets tough, because you’ll be better able to remember your successes, victories and achievements along the way. And, if you’ve had celebrations in the past, why not also in the future?

That is easy enough to understand, but here’s the part that most people don’t realize: you don’t just have to celebrate victories.

What if you also learned to appreciate your failures? How would things change for you if, instead of berating yourself when things don’t go the way you planned, you chose to stop and honor the lessons learned during the experience? What if, instead of getting angry and upset with those who have wronged you, you instead practice showering that person with love, light and even gratitude?

The thing that happens when you do this, is you shift the energy and rid yourself of negative connotations that you may be associating with a so-called failure. Start seeing these failures as valuable lessons and stepping stones and suddenly everything gets a little easier. You may find that you’re less afraid of missteps along the way when you remove the aspect of judgment from them, and that newfound boldness may lead you to victories and green pastures that you’d only dreamed of previously.

So, go ahead and celebrate the good and the bad. Every step along your journey really does move you just that little bit closer to your goal, and that truly is something that’s worth popping the champagne cork for.

 

 

Elin Barton is the President of White Knight Productions and the host of the podcast, Ready, Set, Grit.  Her first book, Ready, Set, Grit: How to Turn Your Daydream Into a Phenomenal Success, will be released in the Fall of 2017.

It Takes a Village

~ whiteknighthub ~ Leave a comment

I saw this video of Arnold Schwarzenegger the other day. It was just a video that someone had posted on Facebook or Twitter, and I’m not really sure what made me watch it, but it turned out that Arnold said something very profound that stuck with me. I don’t remember his exact words, but essentially he asked people to never call him a self-made man, because along the road to his success were so many people who helped him on his way.

That idea struck a chord with me because I think that it is so completely spot-on. There are very few things, if any, that we can succeed in in life that are true solo endeavors. On the contrary, most significant achievements involve both teamwork and a good support system. They require a solid outside perspective, resources and skills that you yourself may not possess, or even just someone who is going to challenge you and push you a little harder.

This is the very reason why people hire mentors and coaches and why the tribe that you choose to surround yourself with is so important.

Recently, I was surprised to learn what a group effort is involved with writing a book, something that I had always assumed was more of a solo project. I’m now in the final stages of completing my first book and in the course of its development have grown and nurtured a supportive community of fellow writers, early readers of my work, my publisher and editor,  my cover designer, all the publicists and other publishers who have offered additional advice and guidance, my family who tirelessly offer encouragement and constructive criticism… then there are the folks on the periphery who ask about the book and who help keep me focused on finishing it when life tries to get in the way.

I’m sure I’m forgetting some of the people who have helped, and for that I apologize, but hopefully you get the idea. Every single one of those people has played an important role in bringing the book to fruition.

In business, the same thing is true, but of course the list is much longer. You get into employees, support staff, strategic partners, suppliers, clients, affiliates…

And then there’s the thing that not many people want to talk about. Sure, it’s easy to find support for your business when things are going well and the money is flowing. But what about during the tough times? Who do you have on your side then? The answer might end up surprising you, if you ever happen to find yourself in that situation.

It’s a tough way to find out who your real friends are, but it’s also a valuable lesson, and one that you must make a point to remember once your fortune improves. For, the most important lesson in the whole “village” concept is that you’re part of someone else’s village too, as you help them to build their dream.

So, appreciate the people who show up for you, then pay it forward with gusto. That’s how we build the things that really matter, and isn’t that what we all want, on some level?

An Independence Play

~ whiteknighthub ~ Leave a comment

We’re fast approaching Independence Day here in the States and it’s got me thinking about business and why we start companies in the first place. In the beginning everyone imagines that their business is going to give them freedom – financial freedom, but also the ability to choose how to spend your time, both at and away from the office.

The reality, however, is often far from this utopia. Many of us business owners get through the start-up phase doing anything and everything that needs to be done, from answering the phones to taking out the trash. And, truthfully, some of us never stop being that person – that “start up hero”.

But at some point we have to consciously make a shift away from the place where we are the core of all that happens in our business. This can be difficult for some people to do (after all, the business is our baby). But, if we don’t grow these businesses in a smart way, putting systems for our business in place, AND empowering our employees to make decisions, we’ll never achieve that freedom that we so badly want.

In fact, we’ll end up with the opposite effect – our business will start to feel like a prison. Even worse, when a business relies so strongly on a single person to function properly, this means that systems are not properly in place. And, in many cases, it also means that the business has little cash value if the owner should ever wish to step away.

Creating a business without systems, and without a way for your team to make key decisions, means that you’re designing a hamster wheel that you can never step off of. Company founders and CEO’s feel important when they’re required to sign off on everyday tasks, and oversee operations. But, isn’t it a better testament to a company’s health and value when nobody even notices when the CEO is out of the office for a week? When things run smoothly and established policies and systems do what they’re supposed to do?

When that happens you know that you’ve built something good. Something of value that will not only provide freedom to those on the top, but which will be a sustainable and scalable company that’s in it for the long haul. And that, my friends, is when you get to experience true independence.

Elin Barton is the President of White Knight Productions and the host of the podcast, Ready, Set, Grit.  Her first book, Ready, Set, Grit: How to Turn Your Daydream Into a Phenomenal Success, will be released in the Fall of 2017.