Hugh's Blog

You are more creative than you know. One insight can lead to a new sale, one question can reduce staff errors and one new strategy can open a new market and new revenues. The problem is that most of these great epiphanies are lost in our day-to-day To-Do mentality and habits.

One of the best ways to access your creative juices is to remove any distraction that keeps them from flowing.

In the brilliant biography Steve Jobs (Walter Isaacson) we discover the angry, self-centred side of the genius behind the Apple empire.

Jobs was unbelievably persnickety about product details (example after example are given of six month product launch delays because of his insistence on some small design change.) Other details he was less concerned about – unless they suited him.

To the detriment of his family and relationships, he routinely ignored whatever he deemed trivial and poured his passion and enormous energy into a current game-changer project instead.

Sure, it’s hard to admire this ruthless take-no-prisoners approach, but it did lead to the most innovative products in recent history in computing, animation, telecommunications, retail and music. Not bad for one protracted career.

Maybe you find it hard to relate to Jobs, but what about your creativity? Are you creating space everyday to allow creative solutions to happen? Constant rushing, a cluttered workspace and a busy schedule are the ideal antidote to Ah-Ha spark moments.

Gretchen Rubin (The Happiness Project) dedicated one year to tackle every possible barrier to her happiness, including her To-Do list clutter. “I had a long list of neglected tasks that made me feel weary and guilty whenever I thought of them.” She wrote, “I needed to clear away the detritus in my mind.”

The distractions that keep me past-focused, instead of sparking with new ideas include:

• Long To-Do lists mostly made up of carry-overs from last week.
• Unnecessary desk clutter (sticky notes, unread magazines, cables to some electronic thing that is probably no longer used, unfinished books and a stack of paper that goes back three months.
• Reoccurring worries that I can’t act on now, regardless of how much or how often I fuss about them.
• Low-value work that should be either delegated or dumped (Rubin adopted a “one-minute rule” – don’t postpone any task that can be done in less than a minute.)
• Filling every available moment with texting, checking email, making lists, worrying or FarmVille (you know, it is okay to stand in line for coffee and just be there.)
• The dread that emails need to be attended to, FaceBook needs to be updated, or that I should tweet about the sunset I’m enjoying.

Here’s my challenge for you today. Find one thing to undo in your life. Get it off your list (maybe delegate it), clear it up or finally do it. And then allow that space to be there – unfilled and see what happens.

Tags: accountability, business, business growth, change, creative thinking, delegation, effectiveness, entrepreneurs, freedom, goals, growth, inspiration, leadership, productivity

My back is a little sore, but it was worth it. This past weekend I set aside four hours and moved furniture, reorganized and cleaned out our little office in Kelowna. Here’s why this is so important.

Every couple of months I realize my office has become uninspiring. The day-to-day stuff we deal with has set up camp and it’s feeling cluttered, messy and uninviting. It still works – everything is there that I need – it just isn’t as inviting as I want.

The good news is that with a small effort everything improves – it feels like a new, creative space again. We aren’t looking at old magazines, banker boxes and rolled up flip chart paper. Furniture is moved to better locations and my desk is all mine again – the way it should be.

It sounds crazy, but your environment has a huge influence on your success. You feel better, sound better on the phone, think better and, yes, even sell better when you work in a space that makes you feel good.

It’s no different in other areas of your life.

• An expensive restaurant has to be elegant with top-class staff that compliment the $30 entrées – otherwise it seems over priced.
• Nice, well fitting clothes make you feel more successful and help you to present with more influence (old jeans and a turtleneck are for billionaires).
• Spend a couple of hours cleaning up your workbench at home and you’re happier to work on projects. Clean out a book self and the titles that remain seem more valuable.

When I step on stage to motivate an audience I need to feel successful – Dockers and a shirt from Sears won’t cut it. My environment includes the car I drive, my office and even the clothes I wear – it all has to be congruent with how I want to feel and what I want to project to my audience.

What about you? Maybe you also need to invest a few hours and step up your game.

Tags: accountability, culver, effectiveness, fitness, growth, happiness, libby norris, Michael port, office clutter, organization, productivity, small stuff, success

I have worked with many small business owners that have loads of talent and great products, but don’t have loads of sales. The reality is that (assuming you have a valuable product or service) there are always people with a need and who are ready to buy. But the problem is that the seller thinks that marketing is like fishing.

They pick a good day, meet with advertising sales people, review their web site and revise their sales calls. The hope is that this sporadic splurge of energy and money will bring home dinner.

And then, just like after a day of fishing, they put everything away and go back to work. It’s like doing a client promotion and then not following up – you might as well not do the promotion at all.

There is a movement happening that replaces the old tell and sell model.

A better system is to be continually creating valuable free advice that reminds your existing clients that you are the best and attracts new prospects to you. The beauty of this system is that it requires less energy to maintain, provides consistent delivery and is easier to measure.

This month I interviewed best selling author David Meerman Scott (The New Rules of Marketing and PR) about this topic. This is how he puts it “Organizations gain credibility and loyalty with buyers through content, and smart marketers now think and act like publishers in order to create content targeted directly at their audience.”

Try on these strategies as a part of your overall marketing strategy:

• blog posting that serve your clients with useful information (not advertisements) and links to more helpful resources.
• free webinars or tele-seminars that teach clients how to solve problems related to what they sell (for example, the landscaper can teach people how to reduce weeds.)
• interviews with experts in your business or your industry who share valuable advice for your clients.
• free reports or e-books (longer versions of reports) that provide in-depth solutions for problems you know your customers have (like how to choose a mortgage or how to hire a coach.) The most valued reports often are based on a lists, like the “Top ten ways to…”
• on-line free resource section for clients with useful links, videos, articles and content related to what you sell.
• invite your clients to take an on-line survey (keep it short!) and then share the results with them. This could be your clients’ best strategies to solve common problems (ideally ones that you also can solve for them.)
• templates that your clients can use to organized their marketing campaigns, or plan a meeting, or evaluate their internal communications (I have a free time audit on my web site that has been downloaded hundreds of times.)

Curious about free reports? Here is how we do it.

Tags: advertising, business, business growth, decisions, effectiveness, entrepreneurs, goals, growth, marketing, productivity, sales, success