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Article by Peter J. Normandia. Follow me on Twitter.

WARNING: The following article will obliterate any and all excuses you have created for why you can not be successful. If you wish to continue to effectively believe these excuses, please skip today’s post.

When I was a kid, I used to be sure that I was going to be rich. When I was in film school, I was sure I was going to be the next big movie director. And today, for the first time in a long time, I am sure of those things again. It’s just a matter of time.

I realized this the other day, before Jiu Jitsu class, while reading the back of a t-shirt. As stupid as that sounds, it is actually true. I’m sitting there stretching between classes and I see this printed on the back of my boy’s t-shirt

“What would you do if I told you, you could not fail”

I started thinking about YinvsYang immediately, and figured I’d write a post about the concept. However, I thought the quote could go even further. I started thinking about it, and suddenly, I realized something I could not believe. How did I not think of this before? My eyes popped open with excitement, like a kid who finally figures out the way to beat a tough video game. What I realized was…

Failure does not exist.

Take a minute to let this settle in for a second.

Failure does not really exist.

Think about it. What exactly is failure?

In the literal sense, ‘failure’ is a word. In the Oxford American dictionary, a ‘word’ is a single distinct conceptual unit of language, compromising inflected and various forms. Words are created by humans to have a meaning. Oxford American dictionary defines ‘failure’ in 2 ways.

1. A lack of success.

• An unsuccessful person, enterprise, or thing
• lack of success in passing a test
• A grade that is not high enough to pass a test.

2. The action or state of not functioning.

• A sudden cessation of power
• The collapse of a business

Upon closer study, you see that ‘failure’ is only specific to a moment in time.

• Being unsuccessful means you have not reached success yet. That is time specific. It only takes having success once to realize your time ‘being unsuccessful’ was actually just the bumpy ‘road to success’.
• Failing a man made test happens at a specific time. Many students have failed a test, and then passed the class.
• A sudden cessation of power has different details behind it every time.
• Businesses only collapse once, unless they are rebuilt and collapse again. Either way, it’s unique to a moment in time. 

The point is you can fail in the short term hundreds of times, but that does not make you a failure in the long run. Failure is a word that is based on other’s perception. An unsuccessful person, and a grade that is not passing, are both defined by man. Man creates the test, and Man creates a definition of failing that test.

Unless you let a time that you fail be your last moment chasing that goal, how can you possibly be a failure? The answer is, you can’t. If you continue chasing your dreams, it is impossible to be considered a failure. You are just going down your path to success, and these are the bumps in the road you are facing. Each one you navigate over builds character, confidence, and wisdom. Just look at some these ‘failures’ we know about in life….

• Was Michael Jordan a failure when he got cut from his high school basketball team?
• Was Donald Trump a failure when his business went bankrupt?
• Was Abraham Lincoln a failure when the country broke out into Civil War?

The answer to all of these is both ‘yes’ and ‘no’. If they would have gave up at those moments, then yes, they would have cemented failure for them self. However, they did not give up, and history shows that these men have been anything but failures.

‘Failure’ is not a term to define our life as a whole. It is used to define the sum of events up until right now. For example, if I fail my driving test, then right now, I am a failure. However, once I pass it, that is no longer the case. It just took me two times to succeed.

‘Failure’ is also a manmade term. Animals don’t understand failure. They are simply survivors. Whatever they fail at, they try again and again till they figure it out, or they move on and forget about it.

Failure does not exist, except in our own minds.

The mind is powerful, and can show you all sorts of potential devastating outcomes. However, the mind is a muscle. It needs to be developed and taught the right answers. The mind’s best teacher is experience. To get experience, you must fail over and over. These ‘failures’ are all just moments in time. Once you reach your goal, the ‘failures’ wind up becoming the obstacles you overcame. The bigger the failure, the bigger the obstacle, and subsequently, the better the story.

The fear of failure, is the fear of your own mind.

Anything we want to accomplish can be done, if we just realize the road to success is going to be bumpy on the way there. Many people try to travel the road to success, but as soon as the terrain gets rough, they turn and run back. Successful people keep going. They know the road to success is never easy, therefore they never expect it to be. In fact, they know the more difficult the terrain, the greater the success will be. It’s all relative.

Once you realize this, than the truth becomes obvious. We really can do anything we want to as long as we put our mind to it. Putting our mind to it means we are willing to deal with the terrain of the road we choose to travel.

Becoming successful is really all about answering the following questions, which you can do in the comments below.

1. What do you dream of doing?
2. Are you truly willing to deal with ALL the bumps in the road it takes to get there, even if you don’t know what those bumps are?

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Article by Peter J. Normandia. Follow me on Twitter.

Hey, you want to be successful? You looking to take it to the next level? You ever wonder what is it really going to take to achieve your wildest dreams? Me too. Over the course of the road I have traveled, I have come up with six things every single person must know if they ever dare to dream of success…

1. Shit ain’t easy.

I don’t care what it is, being successful is never, ever, ever, going to be easy. It is going to be a grind regardless. Just think about it, if it were that easy, everyone would be doing it. It takes physical and emotional strength. It takes faith. It takes nerve. Put it this way. Right now, think to yourself how hard you estimate it’s going to be to become a success in whatever you choose. Think about the long road. Okay, now however hard you just thought it was going to be, I would times it by 100. That might even be a little optimistic.  The bottom line is, whatever you want to do, it takes a lot of sweat and tears. If you know that going in, it makes the bumps in the road that much easier to travel. 

2. Don’t just do things, do things right.

We all love the short cuts. I am the king of short cuts. However, I learned time and time again, especially in Jiu jitsu, that you have to do things the right way. You may be able to get over everybody on a daily basis, but you are only fooling yourself. Take the time to do things right. Don’t rush them, or just do things to get them done. Take the time to learn everything you can. Do the research to feel confident in your decisions. You can’t win every battle, but you sure as hell can increase the odds each time. 

3. Even when no one else does, believe in yourself.

Risk is an essential part of becoming successful. A lot of people will warn you of the risks, mostly because they wouldn’t dare to take them themselves. Want to know what I think of this kind of advice? Next time your stomach is not feeling well, turn around after you finish using the toilet. That stuff floating there is just as valuable. I mean actually, it might be worth more. Business is business. No one knows what it’s like in your position except for you. No one has your passion. Don’t let the crowd steer your ship. That’s the captain’s Job, and passion is his steering wheel.

4. Out work your competition

Picture your job field like a huge MMA tournament. Everyone is training hard, but some are pushing the limits. Some are so dedicated to their own success, it consumes them. They become a machine, working every day toward their goal without thought. When it comes time to get in the cage, they look like silent predators stalking through the night, emotionless, till the cage door closes and it’s time to attack. Their belief in their preparation is what carries them through the arduous fight. Apply this same story to your job field. Are you a machine? Are you prepared for the grueling grind to be successful? You better be.

5. Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself.

An oldie, but a goodie. You don’t need to be religious to live by this creed. I have found that Karma is real. It is everywhere. When you do something negative, you send out a negative vibe, which always reverberates back to you in some way. The same goes for when you do something positive as well. Don’t worry about what other people do to you. Just do what you do. If your mind is right, they don’t have a chance anyway. You can overcome everything on the road to success. As I was always told by my family, it just takes patience, persistence, and perseverance to overcome any obstacle life throws your way.

6. Reap the Rewards and Pass them Around

You work your ass off. The first five steps involve taking people’s crap, working when other’s sleep, taking risks most wouldn’t dare, and making sacrifices most couldn’t bare. When you travel this kind of road, you better enjoy all of the success you get. Reward yourself for pushing the limits. Reward those who have helped you push those limits. Give away parts of your rewards to those that deserve them. Remember, whatever good vibes you spread around always reverberate back to you, so spread them while you can. Nothing breeds success, like success…or so I have heard

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Article by Peter J. Normandia. Follow me on Twitter.

Every Wednesday is Personal Development in Business, and this week, to make up for Monday, I included some Jiu jitsu as well.…

The last few months or so have been pressure packed for me. As you can tell by my various posting schedule, my time has been short. I have a budding business I am helping mold, major projects being released, and a growing list of clients to deal with. On top of that, money has been tight because I have been putting it all right back into the business, or working for pennies to build my portfolio. All in all, you could say it has been a tough, but very productive, first quarter of the year.

Considering the economy, I’m sure many of you have been dealing with similar problems in your business or job. Your mind is tied up with all sorts of issues while you try to hack out the best possible path in your life. You have bills, deadlines, worries, expenses, and not nearly enough time in the day to take care of them all. Your mind is clouded with these thoughts, and you want nothing more than for them to disappear.

If you are like me, then you toss concern to the side and just keep on pushing, knowing that at some point, the night will eventually fade into the spectacular splendor of dawn. At least that’s the hope  However, the other day in Jiu Jitsu, I noticed how much of an effect these thoughts have on our daily state of mind.

Performing at your Peak

When times are tough, it is more important than ever to have a clear mind, and attack problems with confidence and optimism. However, when times are tough, confidence and optimism can be hard to come by.

When training in Jiu Jitsu, if I have a clouded mind, I am completely off my game. I don’t have the same drive, or energy level needed to do my best. My mind is constantly wandering, and nothing seems too important until I’m put in a really bad position and forced to fight my way out. It’s as if I don’t even care until it’s almost too late.

I have found the same goes for life as well. When our minds our clouded, we tend to not want to deal with anything. There is too much on our plate already, and anymore will break the entire dish. Therefore, we tend to lose focus, trying to just to keep up as best we can. It seems each time we solve a problem, another has already built up enough to cover the part of the plate we just cleared. The cycle goes on and on, like a bad dream you can’t wake up from.

Clearing Your Mind

I realized this the other day, how can I possibly become successful if my day is spent focused on the negatives? How can I be optimistic in my approach to success, if all I deal with is one negative after the next?

The answer is you can’t. Remember, success is a state of mind. You do not get this state of mind after you are successful. That is called getting lucky. You develop this state of mind first, and that leads you to your success. Developing that state of mind is the first step to becoming successful beyond your wildest dreams.

Developing this state of mind is not something we are going to accomplish by the end of this article. No, that is something we have to continue to work on each and every day. However, by the end of this post, you will have a great base to build off of.

Developing the Successful State of Mind

Times are rough. There seems to be more problems than solutions in the current world.

For a person feeling down about their situation, this is a negative statement. They think like the majority: ‘there are too many problems to deal with, so we just do our best to get through it.’

For a successful entrepreneur, they see that statement as a gold mine of opportunity. A successful entrepreneur realizes that if there are more problems than solutions, then there must be a lot of opportunities to make money off of solutions.

This is an example of the state of mind you need to have to be successful. It is an optimistic state of mind, bordering on lunacy. Whether times are bad, or times are good, you know opportunity is everywhere. Each problem that comes your way is just another step on the old ladder. Success is all about how you perceive the environment around you. With this in mind, I have come up with…

5 Steps to a Successful State of Mind

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1. Take control

Today is today. Yesterday was yesterday. Tomorrow is not here yet. The first thing to do to clear your mind is to let go of all the nonsense out of your control. Let go of the past. Let go of all the possible future outcomes. Let go of anything you can not control right now. If it is not in your control at the present, then you can not concern yourself with it. You can only take care of the now.

2. One problem at a time

Too many times, as the problems start to pile up, people get overwhelmed with taking care of all of them at once. The bottom line is that to correctly solve a problem, you must focus on only one at a time. Write down your problems somewhere, prioritize them, and check off that list as you attack each one. Don’t worry about how long it takes. Just solve one, and move on to the next.

3.  Nothing is as serious as it seems.

When I was 18, I was deathly sick with Crohn’s disease. Out of the blue, in the middle of college, I lost over 60 pounds in a few months. They were not sure if I would ever be the same. Surgery was my only option. The reason I write this is because your health, and your loved one’s health, is all that really matters. Everything else may seem like a big deal, until you compare it with the value of good health. So when facing financial, business, or personal problems, remember, it could always be worse. Those problems are easy compared with some of the health issues others are forced to handle.

4. Enjoy the Challenge

Problems are fun, right? Maybe not while you are facing them, but afterwards, we always like to reminisce how we overcame the obstacles we face in life. It gives us character, and a sense of pride. Try to remember that while you are dealing with the problem. Look forward to be able to one day talk about how ‘it was really no big deal’. I will even go so far as to advise you to pretend in your mind that you already solved the problem, and see what it feels like. Get a glimpse of that feeling of success, and then hold on to it for motivation during the hard times.

5. Believe in Yourself

If you don’t believe you can be successful, then stop reading, shut down your browser, and start thinking about changing careers. Your belief in your own success does not get tested when times are good. No, belief in your own success gets tested when times are rough. A true success thinks like the aviator Howard Hughes. Even when the whole world is laughing at your feeble attempts to reach your seemingly impossible goals, you know that just makes it all the more glorious when you come through. It is this belief that carries you through the darkest times of your journey.

6. Take responsibility

Each problem you face is a test of your resolve. It is up to you and you alone to make sure a solution is found. It is not up to your friends, families, co-workers, or relatives. It is not up to fate. Life is what you make it, and if you give up trying to make it, then nothing and no one can help you out. You must fight hard to stay focused and take responsibility.It will by no means be an easy task, but you can overcome anything you put your mind to. I can not tell you how long it will take, but any problem can be solved over time. Just look at what one of the smartest people in our history said…

“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer .”
–Albert Einstein

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Article by Peter J. Normandia. Follow me on Twitter.

Every Wednesday is Personal Development in Business, however I was late this week due to business obligations…

‘No nuts, no glory’ is a rather vulgar way of saying that if you don’t take risks, you’ll never get where you are going. This is great advice for business, and if you are like me, than the blunt, vulgar approach sinks in much faster than the sugarcoated, sappy crap.

I was listening to the rapper TI’s ablbum the other day, and apparently, this is a favorite statement of his. It’s not like he invented it, or that I never heard it before, but being in the position I am in right now, it really hit home this time.

My business is in it’s second year, and we are just now getting to the right point we should be. It has been a long road, as this blog can reveal, and we are still climbing up hill. However, we have really made it through thick and thin, and survived.

When we first started, many thought I should just get a job for security and safety, especially after my failed mortgage venture. However, I have a very thick head and now, because of the ailing economy, everyone is realizing that the idea of a job giving you security and safety is a just an illusion. No one is safe from bad times. Truth is it’s not about avoiding the bad times, it’s all how you handle them.

After my experiences, the best analogy for starting a business I can come up with is playing a game of Texas Hold’em. Whether in business, or poker, it’s all how you play the hand your dealt.

Surviving the Initial Buy In

The initial buy-in in Texas Hold’em is like your initial investment in the business. Many people lose everything on the first few hands. It’s kind of the first test of a business.

• Can you survive?
• Are you able to live with the risks you need to manage?
• Can you handle financial stress while working for cheap, sometimes even free at first?
• Do you have the gall to risk everything on a pipe dream?

These are the kinds of questions every self employed person needs to answer. Believe me, there have been plenty of times I thought about whether or not I am on the right track. It certainly has not been easy. In fact, IT’S BEEN DAMN HARD. So hard, that I could not imagine possibly ever going through it again.

However, as a friend of mine recently said, ‘…these are the good times. When the money is rolling in, don’t get me wrong, it’s great, but these are the fun times, when you are building it all up. This is the stuff you remember.’

Over the years , this friend of mine made over a million, lost it all, made it again, lost most of it, and then just got it back again. He is a survivor, and the kind of person you need to be to deal with the lightening quick changes the information age causes today. Just like in Texas Hold’em, it’s not how many chips you have that matter, it’s how you play the hand you have.

Managing Risk

Now, if you have ever played Texas Hold’em, than maybe you can understand the meaning of ‘No nuts, no glory’ for a business owner. You see, the poker table is like your business world. The chips represent your market share, or your assets. The only difference between the table, and your world, is that at the table, everyone starts with the same amount of chips. In the real world, it is much more skewed.

At the table, though, the real playing does not begin till the chips start to move around. How many times have you seen somebody up big, and all of a sudden, like that, they are out? This person is probably a big risk taker. They may win big sometimes, but in the end, they are going to take one too many chances, and wind up ‘all in’ at the wrong time.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, how many times have you seen somebody play it so tight to the vest, that they never are even in the game? This person takes no risk. They play the hand they have to the tee. If it’s good, they are in. If it’s bad, they fold. They never lose a lot of chips at once, but they always lose them all over the course of the game while waiting for the perfect moment that may never come.

How to Play Poker Better and Apply it to your Business

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The same traits can be applied for business owners. Behind every success story is a story of tremendous risk management, and a soldier like work ethic. The best businesses, and the best poker players, all know how to manage risk. They take big chances, but only when they should.

For example, the best poker players bide their time before suddenly swooping in and taking all the pots. The reason is, they know how to manage their risk. They know that it’s not only about the hand you have, it’s also about the hand everyone else has. So they tend to skip a lot of hands in the beginning because the risk is too big. Too many players with too many cards and chips.

However, after getting a handle on the table, and how the other players play, a great player then feels comfortable taking big risks. As soon as the opportunity presents itself, they swoop in with big calls, and take home the pot.

For business owners, it is the same idea to build a successful business. At first, you need to keep your risks low, and get a feel for your market. Get a feel for your competitors. See what they do well, and what they don’t. Know your business world inside and out. Then, when an opportunity presents itself that just feels right in your gut, it’s time to suck it up, and take that big risk. If you don’t take the risk, you will never advance.

Most people are afraid of falling backwards. Not me. I’m afraid of staying still. The only time their are ups and downs is when you are making progress. If there are no ups and downs, than you are not moving at all, and that’s scarier then anything I can imagine.

Taking big risks does not mean you will always win either. That’s okay. No professional poker player wins even half the time. However, they all make a lot of money when they do win, and it usually compensates for the times they lose. Not only that, but each time they lose, they gain experience for the next time they face a similar situation.

So it’s all up to you whether you use this advice to take your friend’s money at the Texas Hold’em table, or simply use it to motivate yourself to success. The choice is yours. Just remember, the next time an opportunity presents itself…

NO NUTS = NO GLORY.

Go for it. Win or lose, you always come out on top in the end. It’s those of us that don’t go for it, that wind up the worst off.

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Article by Peter J. Normandia. Follow me on Twitter.

Every Wednesday is Personal Development in Business…

I would imagine the saying ‘stick to your guns’ developed over the course of history from gunfighters meeting their tragic end while trying to use a weapon they were not familiar with. Fast forward hundreds of years, and even though I am not a gunfighter, my experience in business has lead me to understand the true value of this pearl of wisdom.

For those that don’t know, my partner Chris and I started up a new business in November of 2007. The business is a media production company called Reimagine, that specializes in web and video production. Chris is a multi talented graphic/web designer from an advertising background. He has been in the freelance creative business for a long, long time. I was a video guy with a background in business. My skills shine when I am networking, selling, and at the editing station.

As a company, we could make money doing print media, web design/development, social media consulting, marketing videos, event videos, TV commercials, internet videos, motion graphics, email blasts, t-shirts, writing, and sound production. I’m sure you are saying, well that’s a good thing. A lot of avenues to make money. However, time has taught me that this can actually be a negative.

A Positive experience with Mortgages

It’s funny, cause before I got into this business, I had my own mortgage branch. I graduated film school and got engaged. I was writing screenplays, but that was not cutting it. I needed something to pay the bills while I honed my skills. That’s when I jumped on an opportunity to get into the hot mortgage game.

One of the things I always remember from my experience in mortgages is how the successful brokers did business. Depending on their license, a broker can do refinances, purchases, FHA, VA, FHA streamlines, Jumbo, and until recently, Home Equity Loans and 2nd Mortgages. Not only that, but you could even get licensed in multiple states. However, with all these options, I found that a very successful broker usually only did one kind of loan. This means they specialized in one type of loan from the hundreds they could do.

At first, I didn’t understand this. As a young broker, each time I got a lead, I was pumped. I didn’t care what the person wanted, I would figure out how to get it done. So if they were doing a refinance, I could do it. Purchase, no problem. FHA, of course I can. As long as I could make money, it was legal, and good for the client, I was in. While many brokers had no regard for their clients, it was very important to me. Doing right by my customers was not so I could say I was a good person. It was so the client would refer me to someone. I always found doing good business to reward itself.

However, with all these options, the money for these loans got stretched very thin. Doing a good job for my clients was hard. Each loan was completely different from the last. I had to learn the bank guidelines, the proper procedures, which paperwork and information to get, as well as the little rules unique to the client’s situation. Instead of knowing what was next, I was always trying to figure it out. Each loan I got was like starting over from scratch.

One weekend, to open my own branch, I flew down to Florida for a big mortgage conference hosted by the enormous company I was joining. At the conference, to pump us up, they celebrated their top branches across the country. I was shocked at the time to find out that each of these ridiculously successful branches only did one type of loan. One person, who grossed the most ever for the company, specialized in only VA streamline loans in Kansas. That’s it. That person just did loans for veterans living in Kansas. He did no other type of loans whatsoever. None. I didn’t even know there were that many veterans in Kansas.

Another top person just specialized in FHA Streamlines in Missouri. Another just in FHA in Florida. All of these top people did one type of loan. What I learned was that it made their job, their service, and their time management that much easier. Sure, there were opportunities to make money doing other loans, but that would mean learning a whole new routine. The time alone was not worth it to them. It was more beneficial to just stick to what they knew.

Stick to your Guns, Increase your Funds

That’s the approach my partner and I have learned to take with our business. While there are numerous avenues to make money, being a specialist at what you do is that much more rewarding. You can easily grow more and more efficient each time, and not have to spend the extra time feeling your way through the process. Your clients will appreciate it more as well. Nothing is better than having the confidence the person you hired is an expert.

For all of you out there with your own business, try this approach. Think about what it is that you do best. What is it that you can be better than everyone else? Then stick to that, and build from there. I’m sure it will be tough to turn down some business down at first, but you must look at the big picture. Over time, becoming a master at something effects the work process in the following ways:

• It gets easier
• Work time decreases
• Profit margin increases.
• Customer service gets better which leads to more referrals.

Looking at your short term money is necessary to pay your bills. However, using this strategy can pay your bills over and over as time goes on. It may be slow in the beginning, but after all, I believe it was the tortoise that won the race against the hare in that timeless children’s story, wasn’t it?

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Article by Peter J. Normandia. Follow me on Twitter.

Every Wednesday is Personal Development in Business…

Every business owner would love to have one thing: more clients. In today’s economic climate, it is more important than ever to properly build your network. Now, being that this is a blog, I can obviously talk about all of the ways you can network through Social Media. We can discuss Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr, and MySpace till we are blue in the face, but I feel like others have gone into much better depth about it than I ever could.

Today, I want to concentrate on 5 Ways to Find more business the old fashioned way: physically. To me, even with the massive amounts of people I network with online, I still get most of my business through personal interaction.

Networking for Your Business

It is quite easy for us business owners to network over a computer. I have done it myself for months. However, there is a trust issue over the computer. Most businesses are skeptical of working with people they have never met. Sure, I have gotten jobs this way, but it is difficult when you have not seen the other person’s face. I have found the following ways to have a much higher lead/job ratio, then the internet. Seems on the net, I get a lot of leads, but not a great deal of business.

What Methods Work for Me?

Now, of course this depends on your type of business. These methods work for every business, but especially for service based small businesses. For example, our company Reimagine specializes in web and video production. We could build a website for anyone in the world, ideally. However, so could anyone else.

To build your business from the ground up, I have found it is much more effective to make personal relationships, no matter what your business is. With personal relationships, you develop a camaraderie with your clients. They know what to expect, as you do. This makes it easier and easier to develop a positive working relationship. When they dial the phone, they know who they are talking to.

You can not put a price on reliability. It is probably the single most important trait a business can have. If your business is not reliable, then it will not be smart for a client to deal with you. This is what causes the fear over the internet. Sure, you have a website, and some great products, but how do your potential clients know what you say is true?

That’s why I have found building a business from the ground up to start with conquering your local area. Nothing beats having an effective base for your business, and there is no easier way to build a reputation then through personal interaction.

However, it all starts with spreading the word. Word of mouth is the most effective resource, but to achieve that, you have to give clients something to talk about. With that in mind, here are…

5 Steps to Physically Find More Business

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1. Join Local Networking Groups

It is a must that you find these groups and participate in them. There are private networking groups, the local Chamber of Commerce, networking events, tradeshows, town fairs, barter associations, and numerous other networks that businesses use.

2. Consistently Attend These Groups

It may take some time to sort out which groups work best for you, but to achieve success with this method, you have to go more than once. In fact, you have make consistent appearances. Let people get to know you personally, and that will lead them to what you do in business. Once people get to know you, not only may they give you business, they may recommend others to you as well.

3. Set A Good Initial Price

We all have the goals for what we want to make in our business. However, to get there, we have to sacrifice in the beginning. It can be very hard to give a good deal when you are struggling to build your business.

However, when approached in these networking groups, you have to think of the big picture. By giving out a great deal to one person, you will automatically get business from others. People in these networking groups network themselves. They talk to many other businesses. Do them right, and watch how your name spreads like wildfire among the people they know. Multiply this with a few key people in the group, and watch how the calls fly in.

4. Do Unto Others As You Would Want Done To You

No, I am not reciting the ten commandments. However, this is an important message. Most people attend these groups only concerned about how it can help their business. What I do, is I try to also pay attention to who I can recommend. I may meet a good plumber, mortgage broker, or landscaper who I can recommend to the people I know.

In turn, these people will be indebted to return the favor. Now, do not go hunt someone down who you recommended if they don’t do the same. It happens, but more often than not, this will get you some return business.

5. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

Keep on networking. Keep on meeting people. Keep on pursuing business relationships. I know a guy locally who even started his own free networking group. There is no fee to join. The only rule is there is only one business allowed in the group per field. So for instance, I am the group’s web designer/development person. This guy is a mortgage broker, and every meeting he gets more and more business. Why? Cause it is his networking group. He started out networking with other groups, and eventually formed his own. All it took was him renting out a restaurant for free, with the promise people will order food during these weekly meetings. 

Talk about setting yourself up with business for life. He now has grown this group to over 5o businesses, and it is still climbing. That is 50 businesses (think of how many people work in a business) that all know his name, what he does, and that he is a nice guy.

Feedback

In the comments, add any other techniques you have used to grow your business through personal relationships.

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Article by Peter J. Normandia. Follow me on Twitter.

Every Wednesday is usually Personal Development in Business, but today it’s just life in general…

Normally, a personal development post talks about what changes you can add to your life to make it better. However, this post is more about addition by subtraction.

You see, the other day, I thought of something that really has boggled my mind. I was thinking about the concept of ‘perfection’ that is held so dear in our society. Here is the definition from Oxford American dictionaries…

Perfection: the condition, state, or quality of being free, or as free as possible, from all flaws and defects.

Perfection is something we all hope to achieve in certain areas. It is a concept that is held in the highest regard. In baseball, the best a pitcher can do is throw a perfect game. In bowling, the best is a perfect score of 300. When taking an exam, we hope to achieve a ‘perfect’ grade of 100.

However, what was really bothering me was this question: ‘Does perfection really exist?’

Is there such a thing and is it natural? To me, perfection does not exist, except in the minds of humans. Animals, and other life, have no concept of perfection. Babies, when they are born, also have no concept of perfection. In fact, without the word, there would be no such thing. There would just be life.

The world is not perfect, by all accounts, but yet is it? Maybe the balance of imperfections and flaws is what keeps the world going. Maybe trying to make everything ‘perfect’ by human standards achieves exactly the opposite in life.

The yang of this yin is that because perfection is held in such high regard, imperfection is something we are all embarrassed about. Our imperfect body, or our imperfect credit score, or our imperfect relationship history, etc.,  is something we all tend to be embarrassed about at one time or another.

With this in mind, I started to think of a world where the concept of ‘perfection’ does not exist. Suddenly, everything started to make more sense to me. If you eliminate the idea of perfection, what you are left with is trial and error. On some trials, there may be no error. On other trials, there will be nothing but error. Regardless though, they are both held in equal regard. They are a trial. Perfection is just one possible outcome of the trial. It is an expectation that we create in our mind.

So why do we spend our lives striving so much for something that really does not exist?

We strive and strive to be perfect in school, college, work, business, our hobbies, and our social life. Yet, if perfect does not exist, how will we ever really achieve it? Why when we make a mistake, or fail to be perfect, do we get so down on ourselves? Being imperfect is actually the most natural thing on this planet, so why not enjoy it?

Two Simple Steps to Achieve Happiness

I challenge you to follow these two steps throughout the next day, week, or even month. See if this change in mindset does not effect you in the most incredible way. Whatever task you have at hand, or whatever goal you are trying to reach, I want you to try a different approach. Instead of trying to do everything perfect, I want you to try this…

1. Clear your mind of the idea of perfection. It does not exist. The task you are about to undertake is simply a trial. No matter how you do, you will have learned from experience and be better for it.
2. Focus on the task, and not the outcome. Do the best you can, and do not judge the results. Simply doing the best you can is all that matters.

I have found this thought process to be quite liberating. Suddenly, the pressure that society places on us to live these perfect lives is gone. Not only that, but now when I notice other people’s imperfections I realize, they are just like me. In fact, that’s what makes them unique. Where I have succeeded, they may have failed, and vice versa. All Human beings are equal in this regard. Never has a person lived a perfect life, so why do we strive to do so?

Striving for something that is impossible to achieve is only going to produce unhappiness, and a lack of satisfaction.

I think that is why, regardless of the incredible advances in technology, work, sports, and other areas of life, we as humans, and especially Americans, are never satisfied. Nothing is good enough for us, except a concept that does not exist except in our minds.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this matter in the comments section below…

If you enjoyed this, please share by Stumbling it. It is much appreciated.

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Article by Peter J. Normandia. Follow me on Twitter.

Every Wednesday is Personal Development in Business…

It took us a year to figure out what I am about to share with you. I may be a bit of a slow learner, but at least it definitely all makes sense now. For any entrepreneurs out there, here is some advice that may save you the same trouble my partner and I experienced while building our company.

I am partners in a media production agency called Reimagine. We are a two man team. My partner specializes in design and creative direction. I handle the video side, client relations, project management, with a smidgen of content writing thrown in.

Making Our Mark

Our main issue has been in branding Reimagine over the last year. When we first opened, we were lucky enough to get a couple of major jobs right off the bat. However, this caused us to put off building our own image for the time being. It was only recently, this became a top priority for us.

For some reason, it always seems easier to help brand other people’s companies then your own. We tend to do design driven, edgy work, and wanted  to attract medium to large clients who had no problem paying for our talents. Usually that means attracting Agencies. To do so, we wanted to provide a very professional image. We wanted to be like the million dollar companies racking up the clients in our industry. We wanted to convey the impression that we were just like them.

The Reality

The problem is, we were not just like them. In fact, nothing could be further than the truth. Two men in a start-up business is no comparison to a seasoned slew of veterans in a million dollar company, no matter what image we projected. Our website and print media may look like a million dollar company, but after working with us for a a few months, it is apparent we are simply a small talented team.

That’s when my partner and a colleague figured out a better way. The solution they discovered seemed so simple, it was like, why didn’t I think of that? All of a sudden, it all made sense, and we had a concept for our branding. What was the concept?

We are a two man team that is hungry, talented, unique, off the wall, and easily accessible.

In other words, we would just be ourselves. We didn’t need to pretend to be something we were not. Actually, we realized it was quite beneficial for us to relish in the fact we were a small company with less overhead.

We even took it a step further. My partner and I are polar opposites. Whatever he can do well, I can’t, and vice versa. He’s way to the left, and I grew up conservative. It’s what makes us such a well rounded pair. We decided that this would be our identity. We didn’t have to be like the big companies to succeed. We had to just be ourselves and play to our advantages. 

Suddenly the longing for an identity dissipated into thin air. It seems the concept we were searching for was right in front of our eyes all along.

Playing to Your Advantage

I think the original problem we had when looking at our company was we were too focused on where we wanted to be, and not where we were. Building your dream company happens one step at a time, and there are advantages and disadvantages for every step along the way. One of the advantages we were ignoring was the fact that we were a small personable team. We were too concerned with the giant shadow of some of the major players to just simply be ourselves. However, unlike the big wigs, we are extremely adaptable, easily accessible, and also, a bit less expensive. That was our advantage, and that’s the best way to brand ourselves.

For anyone else building their business image, try answering these questions:

• Who are you?
• What do you do best?
• What are the positives for a client that chooses your product or services?

Take the answers to these questions and start from there. No matter who you are, or where you are starting from, I guarantee there is some advantage to your position. You just have to find it. It is amazing, but if you think about it, there are always advantages to every position, from high to low. Just like Poker, it all depends on what your hand is, and how you play it.

Remember, you can not please everyone. However, rest assure that there is a deep pleasure derived from the relief of no longer pretending to be something you are not. Trust me on that.

Feedback

Have any of you had a similar experience with your business? Ever try to project yourself to be something you are not, when in reality, the best option was simply to be yourself? Leave your answeres in the comments below….

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Article by Peter J. Normandia. Follow me on Twitter.

Every Wednesday is Personal Development in Business…

I recently learned an important lesson in business that I’d like to share with you. My partner and I run a website & video production company. We produce design driven media to help companies brand their business online. Our business is highly dependent on team work, and therefore putting the right team together is imperative to each project. Everyone involved in a particular project plays a role, and as the saying goes, you are only as strong as your weakest link.

In order to stay versatile in the web business, it is imperative from time to time to work with contracted outsources. Picking these outsources is where I learned an important lesson. Like many other businesses, we have formed relationships with many different outsources that we feel confident in. However, sometimes, because of the rapid changing technology, you need to go outside your trusted sources. This happened to us a few months ago. We needed a developer specializing in a rather new coding language. So, as the process goes, we put out a job ad, and then checked out the work from the responders. It is evaluating these sources where I learned an important lesson.

Picking your team is critical to success in business…

At first, my partner who handles the majority of the creative decisions, would sift through the work and pick out the most talented and qualified people. After this, we send emails to each of them to get an estimate of both the cost and the time for completion. Then, after we have all of this information, we make a decision on who to meet with. It is during this interview that we decide if we have made the right decision.

The lesson I learned is the order of importance for certain characteristics when selecting who to work with. See, at first, my partner and I, like most people, were all about talent. The more talented the work, the more we wanted to make them a part of our team. Talent is an important part of the creative process, and everyone figures the more talent you have, the better off you are. However, this was our mistake.

Headaches Cost Money…

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation, and only 5 minutes to ruin it.” -Warren Buffett

Talent is not the most important characteristic when building a team. In fact, it is last on the list. Time is money, especially in business. Therefore, the less headaches, the less time spent, and consequently, the more money made. Plus, even more important, is building a relationship with clients. The more headaches for the client, the less likely they are to work with you again. Nothing is worse than having to cover for your team when you know they are wrong. Protect your reputation by choosing the right people to represent your company.

A perfect example of this is last year’s Dallas Cowboys football team. They ignored all external factors when putting together their roster, choosing to go with talent over all else. Their squad was loaded with talented players with questionable character. What happened was the locker room collapsed, the distractions became too many, and they are still dealing with the aftermath from this season. They sold their soul and now they are desperate to get it back.

Anytime you work in a team, it is the culmination of that team’s effort that makes a project successful. It is never just one talented individual, no matter how it may seem. Everyone plays their role, whether it’s a success, or a failure. To help you get the most out of your team, I have come up with a priority list to refer to when judging candidates. Whether outsources, employees, or just a 5th member of your local basketball pick up team, this short list will help you make the right decision.

Top 4 Characteristics for Picking Team Players

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1. Professionalism

The key to quality and efficiency is professionalism. This is defined as a person who understands they are part of a business and therefore acts in a professional manner. They understand what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. They help out with client relations by providing honest feedback, quick responses, and by meeting deadlines. In short, their professionalism makes your job easier. Even though they are not representing your business, they act as if they are.

2. Relationship Builders

A good team player thinks long term. They understand that one project can be the beginning of a beneficial relationship for both parties. Good team players will ask about the project, give their professional input, and list their price for services. Individuals will give demands, worry about themselves, and think short term. If the person starts to ask questions about personal goals, benefits, or rewards, then you may have to move on. These types focus only on the single project and how it affects the now. Long term team players worry about building a relationship. I have found businesses, even one person shops, understand the importance of relationship building better than the work-starved freelancers eager desperate to pay their bills.

3. Experience

Nothing makes working with someone easier than experience. Experience means they have learned from their mistakes, and can even add to your experience. Nothing makes life easier than have someone to work with who has experience doing what you need them too. It gives you confidence in their abilities. This confidence makes life easier, because you will spend less time questioning if what they say is accurate. Simply put, you know they’ve been there, done that, and therefore they can do it again.

4. Talent

Talent is important, but it takes a back seat to these characteristics. Don’t get caught up in the wow factor of someone’s work. Take it into consideration, but look past the glitz and glamour. Remember, no team is dependent on one person to carry them. A team is only as good as the sum of its parts. Adding talent to one part of a team is useless if it is going to drain the talent from other parts of the team.

Comment Below

What characteristics do you find essential to building the right team?

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Article by Peter J. Normandia. Follow me on Twitter.

Every Wednesday is Personal Development in Business…

I am a blogger.

These days, that makes you stand out about as much as saying you are from New York. Seems everyone and anyone has a blog, and that is cool with me. To be honest, I feel like my intelligence has increased tremendously since I started reading so many blogs. I guess I have been able to absorb many different view points that I was unaware of before.

However, being a blogger has become almost a dirty word. It’s like a few years ago when I used to tell friends I was doing mortgages. You just got this look like, ‘my rate is fine, what are you after my money?’.  Well, this time, it’s not the money (at least at first), but the subscribers we all lust after.

I will not mention any names, mostly because I have been guilty of ‘trying to build my subscriber list’ as well, but I have seen some crazy attempts to gain subscribers on other blogger’s sites. There are annoying pop-up boxes, free e-books that you have to sign up to seven newsletters to get, and also the famed, very personal, auto-responders.

‘Thank you for commenting on my site, blah blah blah.’

I seem to get that annoying auto responder every time I comment on some sites. Now, this is not to say that these methods do not work. I am sure they do on some level, but I am wondering at what cost? It seems the push to gain traffic has become an all out war of social networking, gimmicks, and just plain BS.  So I ask, what happened to ‘Content is King’?

The Origins of Blogging

I got into blogging cause I love to write. It took me 3 months to figure out how to get people to even find my site. What attracted me to blogging, was the ability to give real, down-to-earth advice, all the while keeping a log of the lessons I learned along the way. Inspired by these thoughts, I curiously checked out a little about the origins of blogging on Wikipedia…

The modern blog evolved from the online diary, where people would keep a running account of their personal lives. Most such writers called themselves diarists,journalists, or journalers. Justin Hall, who began personal blogging in 1994 while a student at Swarthmore College, is generally recognized as one of the earliest bloggers,^[57] as is Jerry Pournelle.^{[citation needed]} Dave Winer’s Scripting News is also credited with being one of the oldest and longest running weblogs.^[58][59] Another early blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person’s personal life combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and EyeTap device to a web site in 1994. This practice of semi-automated blogging with live video together with text was referred to as sousveillance, and such journals were also used as evidence in legal matters.

In 1993, Dr. Glen Barry invented blogging, defined as web based commentary, linking to other articles. The “Forest Protection Blog” (originally entitled “Gaia’s Forest Conservation Archives”) at http://forests.org/blog/ was also the first political blog, as Dr. Barry campaigned there for forest protection and documented these efforts as his Ph.D. project^[60]. The blog initially used the gopher protocol, and has been on the web continuously since Jan. 1995, making it the web’s first and longest continuously running blog. Prior to this, Dr. Barry provided forest conservation materials via email and bulletin board since 1989. The work has since evolved into the world’s largest environmental portals.

Early blogs were simply manually updated components of common Web sites. However, the evolution of tools to facilitate the production and maintenance of Web articles posted in reverse chronological order made the publishing process feasible to a much larger, less technical, population. Ultimately, this resulted in the distinct class of online publishing that produces blogs we recognize today.

Giving a voice to the common person is what attracted me to blogging. To me, just like Dr. Barry did, the ability for people to strike up a cause that others on the net can rally around is blogging’s greatest aspect. In a world filled with politically controlled media, and financially strapped corporate big wigs, blogging has been the breath of fresh air we can rely on for real talk and honest opinions.

That is, until it became the latest trend.

Now, it seems many bloggers are like the juice-head, Alpha Male in a skin-tight wife-beater at the beach, scouring the blogosphere for any attention and flexing their subscriber list like vein-ridden biceps, not too mention sweating anyone with a bigger list.

‘Hey I love that body of work. I’ll share yours if you’ll share mine?’

It seems everyone has the same agenda. It can even be difficult to tell if a compliment is sincere anymore. Do they really like my stuff, or do they just need another Digg? Not every blogger is like this of course, but I would say off the top of my head the majority of them are. Shit, I was even like that until I got fed up with the BS.

Building Traffic is What a Blog is All About

Now, I know the goal is to build traffic, and you have to do what you can to get ahead, but are we really that desperate to reach our goal? I would imagine the combination of good content, patience, and personal networking would be enough. Am I wrong?

The people who made it big in blogging certainly did not do it the gimmicky way. The John Chow’s, Steve Pavlina’s and Leo Babatua’s of this world carved a niche for themselves and provided CONTENT that caused people to want to subscribe. You may say John Chow is the king of gimmicks, but that is the niche he carved. At least he invents the gimmicks. Readers happily gave their email address to these blogs because they did not want to miss what these bloggers had to say, and looked forward to what appeared in their inbox or feedreader. 

I even read about a blogger who researched what topics were popular online in order to write an ebook. While that is very smart marketing, my question is, how can you write an ebook about something you are not an expert in or passionate about?

Let’s Discuss

My goal of this post is not to tell every blogger how they should handle their site or to seem like I am a better person than the rest. Let me make it clear, I AM NOT a better person. Just like each of you, I am trying to do what I think is in my best interest. I just feel that its in any blogger’s best interest to be personable, and not so business oriented. Am I wrong?

I’m also writing this cause this is honestly how I feel being part of this community. I was wondering exactly how everyone else feels as well. I don’t care if you are a blogger, reader, passer-by or whoever. Your opinions all are certainly valued the same.

So let’s start a discussion. Why did you get into blogging (or reading blogs), and how do you feel about the recent trends of the business side of it?

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