Get the full story…

It began at 5:37 am that fateful day.  No really, it was early!  The world for me will never be the same though the  ”Life Changing” descriptor probably does not fit.  I saw the  opportunity . I acted immediately.  I JUMPED!  (More about later in the “How to Learn Like a Guru” course.)

When I landed and it was awesome… free leads!  Everyday. Every time of day.  All day long.  Talk about cool.  It was like having a pile of seeds.  Leads would mean my business would take off.  Leads could mean no more chasing people.

What would you do with real, honest everyday leads for your business?  Well, that’s what I should have done too.  I didn’t….

Take 3 Super Simple Steps

Leads Lead to Cash… Regular Ongoing Cash.  Until…

…it stopped.  This is where some of the failures surfaced.   My very business began to falter… Don’t worry, I’m still OK. You’ll likely survive as well.

You may not get it.  Having a the pile of seeds (leads) isn’t enough to build your business.   Lead Generation System produces may not be what you should be focused on.

resulted in some successes but a whole lot (41,844) failures. Among other things we’ll be sure to cover:

Step 1. Implement Your Lead Generation System so you won’t loose out on valuable visitors like I did.

• Relevant
• Congruent
• Authentic Authority
• Unique Voice
• Deliver Real Value

Step 2. Compensate for Weaknesses in your Lead Generation System.

• Productivity Performance Patterns (MOM is alive and well!)
• Opimize Your Results with Project Management
• Run YOUR Business not THEIR system
• Put YOU into the Formula
• Keep Current with Follow Up

Step 3. Use Your Unique Voice in your Lead Generation System to Amplify Your Authentic Authority

Many companies provide pre-build lead generation systems for you.  You may be tempted to use their systems without putting YOU into the formula.  This can be a mistake if you are not careful.  Because you are different and have a unique voice you will want “you” in the process early and often.

To get started with a new effort you may need to leverage the quality of the initial system.  This is fine for getting going.  You can add  yourself into the system with early and often  quality followup.

As soon as you are ready jump into your own system or interject you into every aspect of the marketing system.  We have tools and techniques for moving this along quickly.  Some systems in the “Breakthrough or Bust Home Business Lead Generation System” Report allow easy and simple customization. (We can help you with this if you need.)

Step 4. Deliver More than Required… Always! (Bonus Step!)

Your chance to see the secret foundation behind it all.

1. Get the Report and Participate in the Update Effort

2. Leverage Leader’s Learning – Instant Income Shortcut – Subscribe and get the lessons of a lifetime!

3. Free Consult – I’m determined to Compensation for my mistakes by building authentic connections with my friends and fans.  You qualify for a free consult if you’ll be brave enough to make the  appointment.  Speak Soon.

You’ll also get the summary of lessons learn on how to leverage Lead Generation Systems into your next success story.

Apply the lessons learned so you can enjoy the rewards of 41,844 failures….

Best of Success,

The post My Painful 41,844 Lead Generation Failures Won’t Be Yours If You… appeared first on The Teach Jim Blog.

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This is a really cool chart for exploring your career options.  Best if you find positions on the rise and not the decline.  Enjoy the process and the possibilities.  Try to stay in touch with your own reality.  Who you are and your potential to stick to your passion and interests.

Click image to open interactive version (via Provided by Rasmussen College).

The post Career Possibilities appeared first on The Teach Jim Blog.

 This post is a reminder you and I how to find and keep balance in our lives as we juggle all the busy demands of each day with those things that are essential and important. I’ve drawn on remarks I heard at a conference this weekend. It is sound and timely advice for each of us.

Know Where You Will Land!

To find balance you and I need to determine what we really want. We need to decide what it is that is really important. Without know where we are going we may end up like this fish. The results can be disastrous.

If you are not careful you’ll end up like the salmon who finds himself mid-air wishing he can change directions. Sometimes lack of planning makes for rough landings.

So how do we keep our eye on the prize and withstand the clamor of yelling voices? Before you jump you need to know where you will land. This means planning. Knowing where you are going allows you to keep focus on the important while the world around you is screaming about the intently interesting. This is how you stay tough in the moment.

To help your planning for balance it is suggested we answer a few simple questions honestly. These questions help us improve our situation.

1.1 What Are My Highest Priorities?

There will always be too much to do. Only as we follow our heart and stay true to who we are will we begin to pick the most important activities. So what is it you want out of life? What is it you were meant to do while breath is still in you? Are there obligations, duties that you need to perform?

Once you get to the actions that matter most can you start to make certain the selection of important and meaningful activities are equally distributed. Balanced across the areas of your life. So what is it that is important? Really meaningful?

If you are not sure got to a few funerals and see what they talk about.

1.2 How Am I using My Discretionary Time?

Outside of the parts of life that are scheduled or filled with obligations, you are in control. You have full control and choice. This question really is two in on.

First,What are you now doing with the time you have? Is it a hobby? Community Service? Time with family/friends?

Second, What will you do with the time you have you call your own? Are you planning to use this time or are you going off with no plan? The future is yours to use as you will. The next two questions point you in the way of balance.

1.3 Am I Applying My Discretionary time to what matters most?

This is really the choice. You start to see there are things you can do that will forward the important parts of your life with your discretionary time.

Planning on putting the activities that matter most into some of your “free” time can work wonders for you. You can indeed stretch into the essential activities. You can put so many small but important activities into your time. Small steps taken one by one can help you reach your goal over time.

1.4 If I know I should be using my time for other activities Fix It!

Mistakes happen. Priorities change. What is important now may not be what you thought was important a few weeks ago. Embrace the growth patterns and give yourself permission to get over the decisions of the past. For me, each week I forgive myself for my mistakes. I buckle down and jump into the next week of “best” choices. You can grow too. Jump on to your best choices and forgive the mistakes of the past.

Tomorrow is a better day! Take aim. Know where you want to land and …. jump!

A Few Short Term Goals

There are some simple formulas to help you implement your plans. Putting together a few simple goals that are not too hard and not too easy can help you do what you plan. Highest, important key performance activities can help you and I make the most of our time.

Saying no to the activities that distract you from these goals is easy. Keeping focus on the few, simple goals keeps you making progress. You can do more than you thought when you are giving that attention to what matters. Simple is an overstatement. Life still has it’s challenges. Everything isn’t always easy. Focus on what you need. Simple goals can help you.

Teach Each Other

With the important tasks in the goals and the goals aligned with your highest priorities you’d think life is good. It can be but balance is not always obtained in this way. This is here teaching each other the principles involved in reaching goals and dreams comes into play.

Teaching and learning from each other gives us the feedback we need to see if balance is in place. Reminding each other of the principles of individual balance helps to keep our goals in line with what we need now. When we teach each other about physical, mental, social and spiritual needs we nudge each other toward the balance we seek.

Pointing out our strengths and weaknesses can help some times. Helping each other see our performance successes and gaps also keeps us progressing. Teaching each other the next “best” steps for us is helpful for each of us.

Budget – Spending Plan

Keeping the finances in check is also one of the keys to balance. If we go off and devote too much of our financial resources in any one area we are headed toward imbalance. Again busy is fun but is it meaningful? Using our financial resources in controlled ways adds more control into the other areas of our lives.

Budget your money and your time budget will also be easier to stay with. Something about being in control and managing your affairs that gives you added strength to fulfill your desire for balance among business.

Rest, Exercise and Relaxation

All this talk of goals and using every spare moment may get you thinking you need to be active every instant. This is actually unproductive. You are in need of recreation and rest just as much as you are in need of action.

Physical exercise and being in shape actually helps you sleep deeper and rest more completely. Balanced exercise and rest between other “high” value activities will allow you to deliver on your own personal productivity.

Need to get a lot done? Take a break. Rest, relax and exercise. Productivity will skyrocket!

Close to Family and Friends

Productive balance often requires leaving the task list alone. Listening to family, friends and close associates can be very productive. More over it fills social and emotional needs that are often overlooked during time of high energy to accomplish exacting goals.

You ultimately need that urgency and attention. You and I need the activity to get the goal done. Especially when it is aligned with our high and noble priorities. Balance means keeping the most important and meaningful connections of your life alive and well too.

Balance: Beyond Busy and Overwhelm

Balanced business is really possible. You and I deserve the very best as we make the most of our lives. Staying true to the high priority, important aspects of our lives rewards us with satisfaction and lives well lived.

We will likely never have time to do all we feel we need to do. We can staying on top of the important, high priorities that will allow us to avoid overwhelm and keep balance. Applying the simple principles of teaching each other, staying on a spending plan, resting and relaxing and staying close with family, friends and associates will help.

Balance in our busy lives will keep us working on the important, priority tasks all without overwhelm. You can even achieve excellent along the way!

Ideas and concepts presented at today’s conference used information in the following talks from 1987 and 2001 General Conferences of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1987/04/keeping-lifes-demands-in-balance?lang=eng

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2001/04/first-things-first?lang=eng

The post Know Where You Will Land! Balancing Between Busy and Overwhelm appeared first on The Teach Jim Blog.

Effective note taking can make or break your day.  Whether it is capturing a phone number or the name of a referral small bits of timely information can make the difference in short term activities.  Effective note taking can make the difference in your career or your company.  Applying the learning you gained in the last class, course or conference you attended may make the difference over the long haul.  So what is the most effective way to capture notes and get them into your life?  Listen and enjoy the answer.

Use Context as Your Clue!

Context gives your activities focus and intensity. If you are focused on the wrong thing your productivity decreases and your likelihood of success too. Getting your mind and energy into the correct context will save the day. Context for choosing the optimal reading strategy is the focus of this call. Enjoy!

Schedule Time for You!

Scheduling “Nap Time” or “Down Time” may be the most important thing you do today to increase your productivity.  Inspired by “The Importance of  Scheduling Nothing” by Jeff Weiner, CEO Linkedin and conversations with some fellow entrepreneurs.  So when is your “Nap” scheduled today? (BTW: We really do learn everything we need in Kindergarten…)

The post Professional Development Daily – Improving You, Your Career and Your Life One Day At A Time appeared first on The Teach Jim Blog.

First: Engaging Interactions

Weekly we engage in a Master Mind Group.  The teams move through 7 weeks of business building activities.  Each week there is listening and understanding as each person shares goals set and met.  When goals are not yet met where is brainstorming on how to overcome and blow through the barriers.

Sometimes these interactions are filled with laughter, smiling and winking.  Sometimes they even sound like a business meeting.  Keeping the flow and the fun is the balance we seek.  How does your team support one another weekly?

Second: Exacting Activities for Proven Results

Like many of you we have an exacting list of activities we know will help a person develop the work habits they need and land them in the  success side of business building.  We are using a shared Google spreadsheet to help us each record our activity and see our progress.  Where successes come all on the team know what is happening.  Where failure jumps our and grabs us all on the team are there to pull each member through.

Third: Activity Transparency

Some times a list of detail like this seems like a little much but it is clear exactly what is expected and how each person is doing against that standard. This kind of transparency is often seen as a threat.  Most of the time it takes a bit to get comfortable with the other team members being “in your face’.  While most of the time the accountability is gentle and full of understanding there still a level of discomfort.  This, for some, adds motivation and drive. For others it drives them away. What are you finding?  Is this the kind of tool your team is using?  How is it helping? Hurting?

Here is a glance at the simple spreadsheet where we coordinate our activity sharing.  Do you have something like this?

 Please share your  comments about what is working for you.  Thank you.  We can all learn so much from each other!

Other Ways to Build Team Momentum

When I work with my teams I really enjoy seeing how they come together and gel.  Just tonight I was members stepping up with their talents and skills to assist others.    While our group is full of different people with a variety of skills each has so much to contribute.  Just as you see in your groups there are a wide variety of ways to connect with individuals and build team momentum.  What works for one may be the turn off for others.

For now we are moving forward with these three simple actions.  We hope it will be just the right mix.  What tips would give a group seeking to build team  momentum around a common cause?

Do you  Build Team Momentum with the KLT Factor? I bet you do!

The post Are 3 Ways to Build Team Momentum and Accountability Enough? appeared first on The Teach Jim Blog.

Do these to do list apps help or hinder your productivity?  Are there actual features that will make you and I productive?   Which features will give me confidence that nothing important will be over looked?  How can I assure my time is being spent on the activity that will produce results?

Productive To Do List Must Haves

Here we establish key criteria for selecting a To Do List tool.  Once the criteria is set I’ll examine several To Do Apps/Tools to see how they measure up.  Here are the key functions you want your to do list to have for productivity perfection!

1. Vision/Mission, Roles And Goals

In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey teaches that productive people keep their eye on the prize.  Their primary purpose is always front and center despite the pull of urgent pressures of the moment.  Regular connection with your Mission/Vision and Roles and Goals keeps you true to the truly important.  If your To Do List does not allow you to see your action items in light of the larger purpose and cause you just may be  missing the key to your personal productivity.

2. Master To Do List

Every proponent of personal productivity agrees you need a system to capture and process the daily demand placed upon you.  David Allen, author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, suggests a single “master list” is the key to less stress.  Stress goes up when you stumble over yourself searching through several to do lists. It  is very difficult to trust your system when you are looking all over the place for the next “To Do” item.

Whatever tool you choose you want to be able to quickly and easily pull everything into your master To Do List.  To Do List tools that make this collection into a master list a challenge should be dropped immediately.  Getting items onto the “Master To Do” list should happen in the flow everyday activity. Does your To Do List make adding, sorting and editing items easy?

3. Productive To Do List Establishing Importance

When you are hit with stuff to do you need to decide if it is worthy of your time.  Your To Do List needs to help you make that important determination.  How do YOU determine if something to do is “important”?  Do you use a deadline date?  A status of “active”, “next action” or “planning”?  Do you decide to do it if it has a High Priority?  Everybody seems to rely on different rules for deciding importance.  You’ll want a To Do List tool that works like you do in placing a “importance” status on your next action item so you don’t miss it.

4. Context – Is Id Doable Where You Are?

Some items on your to do list can only be done in certain settings. Can I call an associate at 5 am in the morning? Probably not.  The context of that call is during waking/business hours.   Some activities are only “doable” at your desk.  Others only at a certain location in town or when you are  out and about.  Your to do list should let you see the important  items you need at the time and place they can be completed.  Context clues in a to do list let’s helps you assure you are working productively where you are without being bothered by things you cannot do there.  Does your to do list provide you context to keep you productive?

 5. Related To Do Steps Make for a Nice Project

When you have several tasks to complete to accomplish a larger goal you have yourself a project.  Does your to do list let you tie related items together in a project or are you fighting to find related items when you are working to chip away at that looming project?  Project management in your personal to do list is inevitable.  Make sure you can group to do items into “projects” for efficiency.

6. Will You Work With Me?

Lastly your to do list will not live in a world along.  There is a strong chance you will need to delegate to others.  Some of the to do list tools actually let you delegate tasks to team members.  In today’s connected world it is nice to have confidence your team is on the same page.  Many to do lists let you work together.  This increases productivity. You are not in this alone!

Does your to do list play well with others?  Not only the people on your team but does your to do list make it easy to connect with the technologies, tools and systems that make up out connected society?  This may be more important to you if you are well connected.  It will matter for sure when you have many people working with different tools and technologies.

Grab Back Your Life! Get the Productive To Do List Tool for You!

Are you productive?  Can you improve? I’m always looking for ways to work smarter. Are you?  The 6 key elements of personal productivity are now ready to be put to the test.

Test 1 – Are these really the keys to productivity for you? Please Comment. Let me know what else needs to be considered.

Test 2 – Is there a favorite Productive  To Do List tool you want to see put to the test?  So far I have suggestions to run tests on  ToodleDo, Wunderlist, Remember the Milk and Nozbe.  Add your comments…What is your favorite productive to do list tool?

I look forward to your comments.

The post Productive To Do Lists: Are You Missing the 6 Keys? appeared first on The Teach Jim Blog.

Quilting.

Sure I knew they loved and cared for their large family over the years but I’d never heard of this one and it seemed like a great idea so I’m sharing.

As you and I know quilts have a certain, enduring endearment.  They are made with loving consideration and often many hours of concentrated effort.  The love put into these comfortable blankets seems to go with the quilt.  It spans years and miles.  

This loving mother knew her son loved golf.  He has been in tournaments all over.  He has collected a large number of shirts and stuff.  These became the source of the quilt blocks for this quilt.  This themed quilt carried me into another world.

Memories.  Sure they can fade with time but they certainly can accumulate into a massive expression of a love or passion.  Golf was this mother’s son’s deal.  Mom’s goal is to validate her son’s value and her lover for him.  What a wonder these types of legacy projects have.  They take on a passion of their own.  I really enjoyed hearing this story.

More than a Story, A Legacy

Then the story continued as dad, now great grand dad, shared his desire to leave a bit of his legacy for his kids and theirs.  He had a few ideas on how to pull it off but was really struggling with how to pull it all together.  He talked of trying to help these next generations to understand and feel what it was like to “work on a farm”.

He talked of photos and stories and such.  It soon was clear he had a great desire to reach his family but did not know the best was to organize this project.

As we discussed some of the principles we teach in the Order of Profitable Producers he could see a path to leave a legacy by producing his own digital product.  This information product was indeed just what he wants to complete.

Do You Have a Legacy Project?

This family has a great desire to help their children appreciate their past and leverage it into the legacy they leave to the future.  The quilt is a great idea.  It captures the love of this moment and packages it around recognizing the passions of others.  Meaningful for years to come.

The book with pics and other resources gives context to the stories that made up this man’s life and much of who he is.  His family will know and love him all the more when they are readying about his life year after his passing.  He and I are getting busy in the next few weeks.

What are your plans for leaving your legacy? Do you have a practical plan for delivering your passion or recognizing the passions of your loved ones?  Please share your plans in the comments.

I can’t wait to hear how you are leveraging your learning into the significant “Legacy” solution for your loved ones!

Thanks for your stories…

The post Legacy, Passion and Practical… Are You? appeared first on The Teach Jim Blog.

Sometimes the introduction is painful due to the reality of the situation. So the real question is How will we deal with the cards we are dealt? For the last 15-20 years I’m continually been running into an elephant. I’ve come to call ED. Today, I’d like to introduce him.

Greetings and Introductions

Introducing Ed and His Aliases

Meet Ed. He is the elephant in the room. You’ve seen him and met him many times. Everytime you thought about going to school or sending your children off to school you ran into Ed. Ever fill out a job application? You ran into Ed. Ever been trained? Taken a course? Studied a topic? Read a Book? You’ve met Ed. Ed is Education’s nickname.

Ed is everywhere. Some of his aliases are “homework”, “learning”, “study”, “research”, “knowledge”, “training” and sometimes even “experience”. If you’ll notice almost every aspect of our lives is influenced or touched by our Education or the Education System and it’s related institutions. We can be talking about most any topic and education or one of it’s related words will show up in the conversation.  Just listen.

Just Listen. Do You Hear What I Hear?

You’ll be amazed as I am. Ed shows up is some of the most unusual and unexpected places. Ed will be in the Super Bowl this year. He’ll be at your workplace. Ed even showed up in my recent visit to our 4 day old granddaughter. Yes we wondered what she would become and that thought brought Ed into the room.

Do you have dreams? Aspirations? I bet Ed will show up in your plans! Just listen to yourself and your world. See if you can go a day and not think about elephants like Ed in the room.

Acknowledge “Ed” The Elephant In The Room with #EDTEITR

Try it out. See how long it is before you run into Ed in your life. Go on give it a go. When you run into Ed (and you will) just introduce him with #EDTEITR ( Ed, The Elephant In The Room ). We will all learn a lot as we come to recognize and acknowledge our new found friend, Ed.

Remember, Don’t Think About Elephants!

Enjoy!

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