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Worry Your Way to Success

Normally we advise people to stop worrying. But some people just can’t do it.

In fact, there are people who are only happy when they’re worrying.

If you fit into one of these two categories, this post is for you. We’re going to give you three things to worry about.

Worry about what you can control

You can’t control the economy. So worry about your personal economy.

You can’t control your spouse or your kids. Worry about how much love you give them.

You can’t control what happens to you. So worry about how you respond.

So stop worrying about anything and everything you can’t control. And start worrying about what you can control.

Worry only about the next level of success

If you’re unemployed, don’t worry about becoming the CEO. Worry about getting a job.

If you just started a business, don’t worry about selling out for millions. Worry about reaching break-even.

You know what it will take to get you to the next level. Worry about the things you need to do to get you there. Don’t worry about anything else.

Don’t worry about BIGG success. Worry about your next success.

You will never achieve the ultimate if you don’t focus exclusively on the next level.

Worry about not getting it done

Don’t worry about all the things that could happen. Worry about what you’re making happen.

Don’t worry if all doesn’t go as planned. Worry about how you will get back on plan.

BIGG success is life on your own terms. If worrying makes you happy, then worry away in a focused way. Even worrywarts can reach BIGG success.

At least that’s what we think. What do you think? Can you worry your way to success?

 Image in this post from JuliaF

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Do You Need a Bigger Boat to be a Success?

sailing on a boatWe once heard Donald Trump asked, “What’s the difference between a net worth of $70 million and $700 million?”

He replied, “A bigger boat.”

BIGG success is life on your own terms. If a bigger boat floats your boat, then go for it.

When people sell their boat to buy a bigger boat, it helps our economy. It puts people to work. Companies make more money. Taxes are generated. It’s a win all the way around.

Or is it?

We’re going to share a thought process to determining if a bigger boat (or any other major purchase) is consistent with life on your own terms.

Hear George & Mary-Lynn discuss today’s topic on The BIGG Success show. Click a player to listen.


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[haiku url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00721-072611.mp3″ title=”The BIGG Success Show #721″]
There are five elements of BIGG success – money, time, growth, work and play. All five elements are involved in the decision to buy a bigger boat.

We hope to demonstrate the interconnectedness of the five elements with this discussion.

Money

Obviously, it will cost you money to buy a bigger boat. You will get the money by earning more than you spend.

The question is: Is a bigger boat worth the price? To determine that, you need to answer two more questions:

What are the returns?

What is the true cost?

A bigger boat may or may not yield financial returns. We’ll talk about this more when we hit on work.

However, you would expect a bigger boat to give you emotional benefits.

Time

In order to reap those benefits, though, you will have to spend something else – time. Time is part of the cost of a bigger boat.

Will you really have time to enjoy it? Or will you have even less time because you’re working more to pay for it?

Work

Let’s skip growth for now. We’ll come back to it shortly.

Work may pay for your bigger boat. However, if that’s the case, your true cost of the boat is higher. In your quest to live large, you’ll sacrifice living.

You’ll be spending more time at work. Is it worth it?

Of course, a bigger boat may actually help you make more money. You may be able to entertain clients, employees, funders, etc.

A bigger boat may help you build more and better relationships. Or is that just a rationalization? If that’s what it takes, are they the right relationships?

Play

On the other hand, a bigger boat may be the ticket to more free time. You may enjoy being on it so much that you just naturally schedule time away.

Of course, you could do this without a bigger boat. But maybe you know you won’t.

Growth

How does growth come into play? If we use the factor cited by Donald Trump, your net worth must increase 10 times to buy a bigger boat.

So it will take a significant amount of growth to accomplish this. How can you increase your wealth 10 times over?

This is where a bigger boat really comes into play. It makes the intangible tangible.

It’s your reward. You know you will work long, hard, and smart to be able to buy it. You will save and invest your money wisely or you won’t get it.

It represents BIGG success to you. Great!

Then get a brochure. Or find a photo of the bigger boat you want.

Keep these visual representations in front of you. Plaster a BIGG “10x” on top of it.

Put the exact net worth you need to reach on the brochure or photo. Now break this goal up into smaller steps. Devote all your energy to getting to the next one. Then keep going. Keep driving to BIGG success!

For you it may not be a bigger boat. What is it? What drives you to achieve more?

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file | podcast:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00721-072611.mp

Image in this post from Eastop

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A Bold Career Move May Save Your Life

opening a new career doorWe chat with a number of entrepreneurs day to day. We’ve noticed that a number of them are tired, stressed and even burned out.

In some cases, it’s because of the economy. More often, though, they’re just ready for a new challenge.

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We often associate career moves with employees. But even small business owners sometimes need to move on.

There’s good reason to do so: study after study have shown a link between satisfaction at work and our health. Even the person at the top experiences this occasionally.

But for small business owners, it’s not just a matter of changing jobs. It may require a bold move.

Listen to The BIGG Success Show podcast to hear:

  • George share what led to his career move
  • 7 signs that it’s time to move on
  • The surprising thing that happens when entrepreneurs talk about what’s next for them

If you’re a business owner thinking about moving on, maybe we can help. Leave us a voice message at 877.988.BIGG(2444) or e-mail us at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file | podcast:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00669-020811.mp3

(Image in today’s post by ilco)

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Beware of Being Too Kind to Your Customers

money-in-handA recent MSNBC article says there aren’t many shopaholics left due to the recession. Then it explores how retailers are responding to frugal consumers for the upcoming holiday season, which accounts for up to twenty percent of annual sales for many of them.

Last year, holiday sales were down 3.4%. This year, even more Americans are dealing with job loss, fear of job loss, wage cuts, a drop in home prices and a rise in credit card interest rates.

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So what will consumers do? What's a retailer to do?

Working twice as hard but not making anymore
Let’s start with retailers. Dropping prices to push out inventory has become the norm since last year. Offering extreme discounts is a tactic many will use to try to get customers in their doors. Here's what that means:

Let’s say you have a product that costs you $10. You normally sell it for $20, leaving you with a $10 profit. You decide to cut your price by 25% to $15.

So now you make $5 every time you sell a product. You have to sell twice as much of this item just to make the same amount of money!

In this example, we used a product sale to keep it simple. However, many small businesses sell a service. So think about it this way:

Carrying forward the numbers above – if you cut your hourly rate by 25% – you would have to work twice as much but you wouldn’t make anymore.

Is it worth it? Would you be better served pursuing another strategy?

Consumers are more price-sensitive, but value is still king
Now, let's look at those customers. Experts cited in the article say consumers will shop for good value on items they want and need. Note the term “value”, not price.

Consumers are more price sensitive than ever. However, because they have been bombarded with super-low prices, they are beginning to think that those products are worthless.

Furthermore, they will pass up an offer – even if the price seems too good to be true – if they think they just don’t need the item. If you cut prices too much, you may kill your business by killing your customer with kindness!

3 strategies for a tight-belt economy:

  • Divide your product or service offerings into three categories – must have, need and want. In this economy, focus on the must haves. Which customers must have your must have product? Focus most of your efforts here.
  • Is there a way to bundle a “need” with a “must have” or a “want” with a “need”? Offer a special deal on the bundle rather than the individual product or service. You may find that you can sell more without having to work a lot harder.
  • Think about your customer’s bottom line. How can you add value to your product or service and boost your customer’s bottom line at the same time?

For example, is there some essential knowledge that you could impart to help your customer use your product or service to save money? If so, they’ll be much more likely to buy – even now.

How are you compelling your customers to buy your products or services?

Share that with us by leaving a comment, e-mailing us at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com or leaving a voice message at 877.988.BIGG(2444).

We think you’re too kind for checking in with us today. Thanks so much!

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There’s a popular celebrity who says it took him 26 years to get one mile down the road. Please join us next time and we’ll fill you in on his story of bigg success. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

 

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00517-110609.mp3

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Getting to Know You – Part 2

personalitytype_logoToday on The Bigg Success Show, we continued our conversation with Paul Tieger, who is an expert on personality types, creator of PersonalityType, and author of the best-selling book “Do What You Are”. Last time, we discussed how personality types can help you understand who you are and see your natural strengths and blind spots. Now let’s get back to the conversation …

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marylynnNow Paul, George and I both took your free assessment. Then I went ahead and paid for the full complete profile. So I have my Career Profile here. When I look at the career paths that would make me happy, they all make sense because they’re in line with my natural preferences. I like how you list what my weaknesses are – those blind spots for which I need to be on the lookout. Again as I’m reading through it, I’m shaking my head in agreement.

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paul_tiegerThis report has your work-related strengths and your possible weaknesses. Another piece that’s very important is your career satisfiers. There’s a list of ten career satisfiers for each type. These are the things you need in a career to be juiced by it. The report never says that this is 100 percent true for you. What it does is say, “Okay, out of these ten things, which is most true for you?” You might find five of those things as most important, but knowing that is very helpful when it comes time to evaluate one job versus another.

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marylynnAnd even if you’re feeling a sense of dissatisfaction with where you are, to be able to look at this and say, “Well, that’s why. I don’t have this going on or I don’t have that.” I think this is so timely right now, especially as people are losing their jobs and being forced to find something new.

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paul_tiegerYou raise a great point because a lot of the jobs that people have now are never coming back. So even if it’s a job you love and even when the economy turns around, that opportunity may not be around in any company. So in this report, we give you many categories – probably about seventy or eighty jobs – that you can look at and say, “That’s something I never thought of before.” But they’re all things that are going to make sense to you based on the research we’ve done over many years. The other piece, that I’m really proud of and that really resonates with people, is that this report helps people approach a job search using their strengths and blind spots. I’m not a fan of generic advice. Everybody says in the career world that you have to go network. That’s true, but networking is a natural activity for extroverts but not for introverts. So we give introverts things to do that work much better for them. It’s a real customized approach to career counseling.

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Get the tips and tools you need to be a BIGG success.
Subscribe to the Bigg Success Weekly – it’s FREE!

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georgeNow Paul, I’d like to take our conversation in a different direction. Mary-Lynn’s an ESFP (Extrovert, Sensor, Feeler, Perceiver) and I’m an INTP (Introvert, iNtuitive, Thinker, Perceiver). Now is there any hope at all for us working and living together? The question really is – does this help you fill in gaps on your team if you’re a leader?

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paul_tiegerAbsolutely. My core business is called Speed Reading People. It’s a company that travels around the world training leaders – how to lead and manage – and sales people – how to sell and influence. We offer very prescriptive and practical advice about how to approach a person based on personality type. For example, if you are an INTP, you’re much more theoretical than Mary-Lynn is and you like to make connections. That was very clear to me from your first question. You weren’t talking about what is; you were talking about what might be. You were connecting and linking ideas. That’s what intuitive people do. So if I was talking to you about something and I said, “Let me tell you about my product.” If I gave you every detail that was on my spec sheet, your eyes would close and you would start to doze off within five or six seconds. Because that’s not what you want to know. You want to know the high concept. You want to know why it works and how you can apply it. So if I know that about you, that’s what I’m going to talk about. On the other hand, if I was talking to a very strong sensing type who really did want to know about all that stuff, then I would march them through the facts, the specifics, why it’s worked and where it’s worked in the past. It’s really about speaking the other person’s language. So that’s what speed reading people allows you to do.

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georgeThat’s really awesome. Especially since today, we have four generations in the workforce. As their leader, you have to get down to that individual level and relate to them one-on-one.

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marylynn
We didn’t really touch on this … what is your definition of speed reading people, Paul?

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paul_tiegerSpeed reading people is quickly understanding a person’s core values and motivations based on observable clues like their demeanor, energy level, vocabulary, and body language. The goal is speed reaching people – understanding how to communicate with that person on their level. I just gave an example of this based on the detail-person versus the high-concept person. People are motivated by different things. If you, Mary-Lynn, are a feeling-type and George is a thinking-type, then you’re motivated by very different things. If you do a good job, Mary-Lynn, and I thank you and tell you how much I appreciate it, that’s going to mean something to you. What will make George happy is telling him that his brilliant idea really helped move the ball forward. In other words, people like to be reinforced for what their gifts are. The gift of an ESFP is somebody who is helpful in practical ways. That’s what they want to be reinforced for. It’s very powerful. I’ve been doing this for over 25 years and I still have insights every day.

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marylynn
We can’t let you go without finding out what personality type you are.

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paul_tiegerThat’s way too personal! I’m an Extrovert – Intuitive – Feeling – Perceiving type. So you and I, Mary-Lynn, are similar in Extrovert, Feeling and Perceiving. People connect on dimensions with which they’re similar. That’s why the more similar people are, the easier the communication. The more different, the more challenging the communication. I didn’t say they don’t have a shot; they can really balance themselves out very well but it’s more challenging. So that’s my type and it’s really kind of a very entrepreneurial, counseling, artsy kind of person. And that’s what I do in my life.

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marylynn
No wonder it’s been so easy talking with you!

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george
I found it very challenging!

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paul_tieger
I found you very challenging!

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george Well, Paul, I have to say that out of all you’ve said, the thing I was most glad to hear was that you could give a quick definition of speed reading people!

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george You did fantastic. Because if you can’t give a quick definition of speed reading people, then we’d have to start questioning you!

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paul_tiegerYou are such a perfect example of your type! Which you don’t like to hear, because you guys like to be independent. So you don’t like to hear that there’s anybody else out there like you, but there are. Well, not quite like you.

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george
Thank goodness for them!

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What is your personality type?

You can find out by taking the free Personality Type Assessement we discussed today.

*Special Offer: To get a 10% discount on your full career report, use promo code: biggsuccess

We thank Paul so much for sharing his time and wisdom with all of us. And we thank you for the gift of your time today.

Please join us next time when we’ll discuss celebrating others’ bigg success. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

 

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00419-061809.mp3

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