Learning from others who have gone before you not only helps you supercharge where you’re going; it also helps you avoid risks by learning from the mistakes others have made. Simply put, if you want different (better) results, you need new thinking. Learning strategically from the wisdom and insight of others helps you be more successful faster. In fact, it’s often the piece of the success puzzle that brings you the extraordinary results you could never have achieved alone. How are you doing at bringing strategic advice into your life?

Jay Rodgers has been a true blessing to me as my business mentor for many years. Three or four years ago, I asked him why he continues to meet with me frequently and pour his advice into me. He said, “Often when you’re older, one of the things you want to do is give advice to people who are willing to listen and actually take action on the advice you give them—and you always take action.” Jay and I usually meet twice a month, and during our sessions, I take careful notes. Afterward, I send him an email listing in bullet format the advice and aha’s he gave me. That not only lets him know I was listening—it also gives him an opportunity to correct anything I may have misunderstood. Then the next time I meet with him, I share the actions I’ve taken on those items.

Being a publisher, I asked Jay a few years into our relationship if he would consider co-authoring a book with me about mentorship. As we started digging in to write the book, we realized we needed to expand its scope since getting advice involves much more than just mentors. We came up with the title Advice Matters, and we wrote about the six places you can actually turn to in order to uncover blind spots and learn from others.

Mentors: Mentors help you see what you can’t see. Like Jay, they’re often at a point in their life when they want to pour back into others, and they will usually give you advice for free. Ideally, a mentor is strong in the areas where you know you are weak. People often ask me how to get a great mentor, and I tell them to find someone who has done (or is doing) what you want to do or who has accomplished what you want to achieve. If your values match theirs, they will often consider a connection. I have several mentors myself—mentors for health, parenting, and business—and I encourage you to do the same.

A Coach: Coaches are, in essence, paid mentors who will point out your key strengths as well as your blind spots to help you gain more clarity, and they often challenge you to find new perspectives and different solutions to achieve your goals. They help you focus. There are a couple of other significant differences between mentors and coaches as well. The exceptional coaches are those who have a toolbox—an arsenal of tools they have built over time that they can give you to speed up your learning and help you accomplish what you want to do. These tools could include books, articles, templates, checklists, videos, audios, helpful websites, and anything else that will help you in your pursuit of exceptional results. In fact, the bigger their toolbox, the stronger and more impactful they can be. The second difference is their connections (their Rolodex). The best coaches bring to the table a ton of other cool people they can connect you with who can open doors, share perspectives, and advance your results.

Trusted Colleagues: There are, of course, many organizations you can join where you will find trusted colleagues you can turn to for advice. You can also look to the people around you or those you work with (zero in on five or ten of your best business friends) for a reciprocal relationship where you share ideas and insights or actually ask for input on certain things. I encourage you to be intentional in finding several trusted colleagues who can be valuable to you by trading insights and advice, giving you new perspective to see details and distinctions, and helping you go to another level of thinking.

Paid Advisors: These are people like attorneys or CPAs whom you actually pay for advice. I’m told there are approximately 3.9 million words in the IRS code, and most of us are not going to take the time to study it. However, good CPAs will not just have a good grasp of it; they will also be able to dig deeply into it to find the distinctions you need for your specific situations. Because of their knowledge and expertise, they can often uncover blind spots you may not be able to see that will help you with your tax strategy.

Resources: Generally, resources fit into three categories: audio, video, or a book. I think it’s safe to say that everyone who is reading this article is a big believer in using resources. If you’re in the direct selling industry, you’re going to read, watch videos, and study as many resources as you can, because it is a remarkable way to learn and advance your results. You can even pick up great ideas from people who died years ago who had a recorded or published work. Are you pouring enough resources like these into your mind so you can consistently absorb advice from some of the best experts in the world? Optimizing the use of resources is an excellent way to help you make the best decisions and constantly be refining the distinctions and principles on your belief window.

Self: You really can’t see your own blind spots. What you can see is patterns. If the patterns are working, you want to continue and double down on them. If the patterns aren’t working, you’ll need to reflect and see if you can make adjustments to get more of what you want. Giving advice to yourself, reflecting, and thinking through challenges and ideas is something most people don’t do enough of.

So, there you have it—six specific things we wrote about in Advice Matters. I hope this simple article can have a great impact on your life. In fact, I hope it’s much better than just a perspective or an angle. I hope there are some aha’s here, or maybe even an epiphany or two, that could be life-changing kernels of wisdom that could really impact you and your organization.

Tony Jeary—The RESULTS Guy—is a prolific author and a strategist. His organization, TJI, facilitates powerful meetings, keynote events and coaches high performers to accelerate their results.

The post Advice Matters first appeared on Direct Selling News.

One good thing that’s come from it is that it has helped us all reevaluate our priorities. And here’s another big win: because of COVID’s effect on so many businesses, many people are turning to our industry—causing a lot of momentum. In order to take advantage of that momentum as we go into 2021, we want to make sure we’re as clear as we can be on what our force multipliers are so we can focus our teams and our efforts accordingly. We want to be sure and execute with precision and obviously with accountability and create wins in 2021.

Here is a list of twelve distinctions that can help you have more momentum. You may want to take a picture of the list and talk about it in your staff meetings, or you may just want to review it for yourself ongoing and see which ones apply to help you have your best year ever.

1. CLARITY pulls you toward the direction of what you set out to accomplish. You can gain clarity of your goals by writing them down, visualizing them, and employing positive self-talk.

2. FOCUS ensures you don’t waste energy. What you want is less Low-Leverage Activities (LLAs) and more High-Leverage Activities (HLAs).

3. EXECUTION is the foundation for momentum. When you get things done and own that you’ve accomplished them, you get mental power that keeps you going.

4. Get RESULTS, not excuses! Whether you lead the pack, you’re in sales, or whatever your position, you have to keep things moving and own the fact that the results are up to you.

5. REVIEW your goals daily and adjust your daily lists to be sure they align with your global goals. If you’re part of a team, huddle and synergize on the goals at hand.

6. SOLVE problems. Be a roadblock buster. Things can come up every day to get in your way. Life is not perfect. Be flexible and have the mindset of being a problem solver. If you can’t personally solve the problem, reach out for a “lifeline”—get more information, find a technology tool that will help you, or reach out to someone who can assist you.

7. Put it on your LIST. If it’s not on your calendar, it doesn’t matter that much to you. Schedule actions on your daily lists, whether they are hand-written, on your computer, or on your phone (or all three).

8. EMPLOY Production Before Perfection. Stuck leaders can paralyze an organization. Be aware that people can get stuck because of perfectionism, and perfectionism can stunt momentum. Make sure to get people moving (including yourself) because a RESULTS culture is a winning culture! Procrastination is the enemy of momentum.

9. Have relentless levels of URGENCY. Understand that thinking—the right thinking—impacts your success. If you want more momentum, develop the thinking of Nike—Just do it!

10. Get the Xs in the box. At the end of the day, you either got it done, or you didn’t. If you got it done, you can put an X in the box and feel the accomplishment. Accomplishments support momentum!

11. Ask yourself what you can do right NOW to keep your momentum going. Maybe you need to:

 Make a phone call

 Send an email

 Send a text

 Give a gift

 Write a note

 Listen to a training

12. The stronger your desire, the more MOTIVATED you are. Be clear on what you value and know what you desire. Leverage self-talk. Say something like, “I am a person of action, and I get it done.”

The sooner you get going, the easier it is to keep moving forward. As you gain speed and stay focused, momentum will take over, and you’ll be unstoppable.

Tony Jeary—The RESULTS Guy—is a prolific author and a strategist. His organization, TJI, facilitates powerful meetings, keynote events and coaches high performers to accelerate their results.

The post The Power of Momentum first appeared on Direct Selling News.

Here are twenty-one life areas where you can be more strategic. Be encouraged to think more and be more strategic in everything you do—not just in your business.

1. Strategic Thinking: This is where it all starts. Every problem is a thinking problem. What do you do when you don’t get the results you want, or when you don’t get the results you want fast enough? Make some changes. There’s a ton of power in thinking strategically.

2. Strategic Health: Being strategic with your health means you think about it in such a way that you make everything you do a habit—including eating properly, getting the right amount of sleep, handling stress, taking the right supplements, and exercising—so it becomes part of your lifestyle and who you are.

3. Strategic Preparation: Thinking ahead and being prepared pays off in spades in every area of your life. For example, delayed gratification is a powerful concept that involves thinking and planning far into the future, and it yields amazing results down the line.

4. Strategic Time: Strategic time has to do with getting really clear on the Low Leverage Activities that steal your time and investing in more High Leverage Activities that have the most impact on your results. Also, saying “no” to the things that don’t matter allows you to focus on the things that are important. Think through what you put on your calendar.

5. Strategic Emails: Emails can be a huge waste of time because most organizations have not taken the time to set email standards for their people. For example, our standards include frontloading your emails, so they’re really clear and concise and using bullets instead of paragraphs.

6. Strategic Goals: Being strategic in your goal setting is understanding that you become what you think about. Design your own life by setting goals on not just what you want to have, but also what you want to share, experience, give, and of course become.

7. Strategic Meetings: The two ways we communicate, especially today, are through emails and meetings—and many meetings today are virtual. Most people do well on their delivery in their meetings. The big takeaway we teach here is the power of effective preparation (including objectives and a strong agenda) and follow-up. (Live note-taking on a screen, showing who is responsible for what action and by when is a huge asset here.)

8. Strategic Travel: There are many great things you can do strategically to turn your travel into black-card experiences, starting with defining your perfect trip and all the details of what you want to experience. Be sure to strategically engage your co-travelers and your support team. Then plan to the hilt and check and double-check all you’ve done to make sure there are no glitches, and finally, enjoy!

9. Strategic Eating: Understand how food works. The big takeaway here is whatever you put in your refrigerator and your pantry is what you’re going to end up eating—so be strategic about your shopping!

10. Strategic Communication: When you communicate strategically, you understand how people want to receive it—by text, email, voicemail, podcasts, or whatever—and communicate that way. Understand a person’s personality style and communicate accordingly.

11. Strategic Assessment: Assessment is one of the most powerful tools you can use. Create a rhythm in assessing yourself, your company, and your team to see how you’re doing and then reflecting on your findings and making improvements on your efforts.

12. Strategic Service: Strategic service is going the extra mile and doing more than is expected. There is a little booklet called Customer Experience, and one of the big takeaways is the idea of giving your customers a membership experience—making them feel special, whether they are actually members or not.

13. Strategic Planning: Do you have a powerful and well-thought-out strategic plan for your organization, tied to a simple, well-thought-out vision? And do you have a system for ensuring all team members understand the vision and are reminded of it constantly, to ensure focus? How about a strategic plan (design) for your life?

14. Strategic Culture: Working with some of the greatest companies in the world, including helping the president of Ford create a High-Performing Team years ago, I have learned we can all be more strategic with our culture. It’s a matter of defining the standards and values you want to build your culture around.

15. Strategic Advice: In Advice Matters, it states that seeking advice from others who have achieved the kind of results you are looking for is one of the wisest—and quickest—ways to design and live a successful life. You’re able to uncover blind spots by intentionally having people give you insights so you can learn from things they’ve already done and be able to make better decisions.

16. Strategic IQ: Strategic IQ is having an intentional balance between your strategic (thinking) and tactical activities. It’s thinking strategically at a whole new level that focuses on solutions rather than problems.

17. Strategic Wealth: Being strategic about wealth is not just about money. It’s about delaying gratification and positioning yourself, so you win every day—now and in the future. That means intentionally putting some things off until you get everything in the right order.

18. Strategic Results: Everyone wants to get the best results, to achieve the best results think through what force multipliers will drive your results quicker, including how well you prioritize.

19. Strategic Relationships: Strong relationships help you leverage your career growth, expand your success, create your legacy (both personally and professionally) and live a happier life. It’s important to nurture your relationships by doing favors for them, whether they are your corporate employees, someone on your team, someone in the field, or even strategic vendors.

20. Strategic Success: Are you over-delivering for whatever you’re promising in your business? That’s one of the most powerful things you can do to get the results you want and be successful in life—both personally and professionally.

21. Strategic Acceleration: My foundational methodology is Clarity, Focus, and Execution. It’s a three-legged stool, and if you’re missing one leg, the stool (your organization) will collapse.

I’ve just shared with you what I’ve learned over the years of my own personal journey in becoming more strategic. I hope it’s impacted you and maybe given you an “aha” or even an epiphany about the importance of being strategic and using it as a major component in your own journey to success. 

Tony Jeary—The RESULTS Guy—is a prolific author and a strategist. His organizat ion, TJI, facilitates powerful meetings, keynote events and coaches high performers to accelerate their results.

The post Strategic 21: There are many ways to become more strategic and think deeper. first appeared on Direct Selling News.

Brand loyalty is developed when employees establish a positive and authentic emotional connection with the consumer. Start by looking for small ways to exceed customer expectations, and over time you’ll gain the skills necessary to keep a customer for life.

Be sure to deliver (or over-deliver) when it comes to your promises! Remember, just doing what is expected typically means performing at a minimal level.

Think of Your Customer as Your Partner

Create a brand promise so compelling and effective that it makes your customers think of you as a partner rather than a vendor. Your brand promise must be apparent in every touchpoint a client encounters with your company.

Let’s look at Dell Inc. as an example. They started by asking their customers what they wanted their computers to do—both at present and in terms of future product development.

Then they connected with their suppliers and challenged them to develop innovative plans so the changing needs of their customers would be met.

Brand loyalty is developed when employees establish a positive and authentic emotional connection with the consumer.

Treating customers as partners continues to be a foundational strategy throughout Dell. The company’s founder, Michael Dell, has a reputation for anonymously entering internet chatrooms where individuals openly discuss their purchasing likes and dislikes. This practice serves as a tremendous learning opportunity for both Dell and his company.

Know your customers by segment, by spending, by market, and by product, and work to make them advocates of your company’s efforts. Actively listen to your customers and seek their input. All feedback is a gift to be cherished!

Give Your Customers a Membership Experience

Whether or not your customers are actual members, treat them as such—special!

Customer membership is a powerful strategy that can leave clients with lasting positive impressions. Make it obvious that you’re happy to have them on board. Loyalty programs and social media networks are dynamic features in the membership experience because they create an appearance of being exclusive and socially popular.

Think of the airline industry, which is known for giving a great membership experience to its frequent flyers. They offer benefits in the form of redeemable travel miles, upgrades, preferential seating, unique perks, and more.

When customers subscribe to membership clubs like StitchFix, Dollar Shave Club, and FabFitFun, they receive handpicked products from the company that are tailored to their member profile.

Treat each customer like they’re your only customer, and you can own their loyalty; they will likely go on to rave about their experiences with you to others.

The best customer memberships are interactive in some way and keep the customer thinking about you and your brand in a positive and emotionally connected light.

Treat each customer like they’re your only customer, and you can own their loyalty; they will likely go on to rave about their experiences with you to others.

Get Team Members Excited About Working for You 

Creating positive work experiences for your employees is critical because customers can often perceive the “atmosphere” of your company’s culture—whether it’s enthusiastic, cheerful, and caring… or not! You want to keep your employees happy, and there are many ways you can accomplish this through leadership action, engaging activities, strategic communications, training, and an emphasis on brand awareness.

Happy employees will attract friends, family, and—most importantly—customers to your brand. There are multiple benefits that come from creating an environment where your employees are happy and committed:

• There is an observable ripple effect when people are happy.
• Success is often linked to happiness.
• When people enjoy their work, it’s reflected in their attitude.
• Happy people are less stressed, and reducing stress increases productivity.
• Creativity rises during periods of contentment.
• People gravitate toward happy people.
• When the right conditions exist, your employees bring extra positive energy to work, and your customers benefit from it.

Remember, your employees are a powerful tool when it comes to guaranteeing exceptional customer experiences. Honor and treasure them.

Delivering Great Customer Experiences Generates an Environment Where Employees Win and are Proud of Their Work

Making adjustments to keep pace with a changing world can only happen with a motivated team. Receiving fantastic feedback from your clients can be a real encouragement to your team, and they’ll want to continue providing the ultimate customer experience. One way to accomplish this is by developing innovative internal recognition and reward systems that are tied back to the desired customer outcomes.

Make it easy for your employees to do business within the company. Encourage employee interactions with executives by making them accessible, by setting appropriate policies, and by making information available using internal websites and HR systems. C-suite leaders (especially) should be transparent in their actions.

Maintain open lines of communication with your team to motivate and inspire them. Constantly make them feel valued, and they will be encouraged to continue working for you.

Google’s mantra is, “Do cool things that matter.” This mantra is exhibited well, both internally and externally. Google provides its employees with great perks and a neat campus-style workplace that inspires them and keeps their performance levels high. This translates into great customer experiences, which serve as positive reinforcement for the employees and make them proud of the brand. Note how the pattern becomes a continuous cycle.

When the customer experience demonstrates caring and commitment to excellence across the journey, your brand will be in the consumer’s top of mind each time they look to buy!

Tony Jeary—The Results Guy^TM—is a prolific author and a strategist. His organization, TJI, facilitates powerful meetings, keynote events and coaches high performers to accelerate their results.

The post The Customer Experience first appeared on Direct Selling News.

Brand loyalty is developed when employees establish a positive and authentic emotional connection with the consumer. Start by looking for small ways to exceed customer expectations, and over time you’ll gain the skills necessary to keep a customer for life.

Be sure to deliver (or over-deliver) when it comes to your promises! Remember, just doing what is expected typically means performing at a minimal level.

Think of Your Customer as Your Partner

Create a brand promise so compelling and effective that it makes your customers think of you as a partner rather than a vendor. Your brand promise must be apparent in every touchpoint a client encounters with your company.

Let’s look at Dell Inc. as an example. They started by asking their customers what they wanted their computers to do—both at present and in terms of future product development.

Then they connected with their suppliers and challenged them to develop innovative plans so the changing needs of their customers would be met.

Brand loyalty is developed when employees establish a positive and authentic emotional connection with the consumer.

Treating customers as partners continues to be a foundational strategy throughout Dell. The company’s founder, Michael Dell, has a reputation for anonymously entering internet chatrooms where individuals openly discuss their purchasing likes and dislikes. This practice serves as a tremendous learning opportunity for both Dell and his company.

Know your customers by segment, by spending, by market, and by product, and work to make them advocates of your company’s efforts. Actively listen to your customers and seek their input. All feedback is a gift to be cherished!

Give Your Customers a Membership Experience

Whether or not your customers are actual members, treat them as such—special!

Customer membership is a powerful strategy that can leave clients with lasting positive impressions. Make it obvious that you’re happy to have them on board. Loyalty programs and social media networks are dynamic features in the membership experience because they create an appearance of being exclusive and socially popular.

Think of the airline industry, which is known for giving a great membership experience to its frequent flyers. They offer benefits in the form of redeemable travel miles, upgrades, preferential seating, unique perks, and more.

When customers subscribe to membership clubs like StitchFix, Dollar Shave Club, and FabFitFun, they receive handpicked products from the company that are tailored to their member profile.

Treat each customer like they’re your only customer, and you can own their loyalty; they will likely go on to rave about their experiences with you to others.

The best customer memberships are interactive in some way and keep the customer thinking about you and your brand in a positive and emotionally connected light.

Treat each customer like they’re your only customer, and you can own their loyalty; they will likely go on to rave about their experiences with you to others.

Get Team Members Excited About Working for You 

Creating positive work experiences for your employees is critical because customers can often perceive the “atmosphere” of your company’s culture—whether it’s enthusiastic, cheerful, and caring… or not! You want to keep your employees happy, and there are many ways you can accomplish this through leadership action, engaging activities, strategic communications, training, and an emphasis on brand awareness.

Happy employees will attract friends, family, and—most importantly—customers to your brand. There are multiple benefits that come from creating an environment where your employees are happy and committed:

• There is an observable ripple effect when people are happy.
• Success is often linked to happiness.
• When people enjoy their work, it’s reflected in their attitude.
• Happy people are less stressed, and reducing stress increases productivity.
• Creativity rises during periods of contentment.
• People gravitate toward happy people.
• When the right conditions exist, your employees bring extra positive energy to work, and your customers benefit from it.

Remember, your employees are a powerful tool when it comes to guaranteeing exceptional customer experiences. Honor and treasure them.

Delivering Great Customer Experiences Generates an Environment Where Employees Win and are Proud of Their Work

Making adjustments to keep pace with a changing world can only happen with a motivated team. Receiving fantastic feedback from your clients can be a real encouragement to your team, and they’ll want to continue providing the ultimate customer experience. One way to accomplish this is by developing innovative internal recognition and reward systems that are tied back to the desired customer outcomes.

Make it easy for your employees to do business within the company. Encourage employee interactions with executives by making them accessible, by setting appropriate policies, and by making information available using internal websites and HR systems. C-suite leaders (especially) should be transparent in their actions.

Maintain open lines of communication with your team to motivate and inspire them. Constantly make them feel valued, and they will be encouraged to continue working for you.

Google’s mantra is, “Do cool things that matter.” This mantra is exhibited well, both internally and externally. Google provides its employees with great perks and a neat campus-style workplace that inspires them and keeps their performance levels high. This translates into great customer experiences, which serve as positive reinforcement for the employees and make them proud of the brand. Note how the pattern becomes a continuous cycle.

When the customer experience demonstrates caring and commitment to excellence across the journey, your brand will be in the consumer’s top of mind each time they look to buy!

Tony Jeary—The Results Guy^TM—is a prolific author and a strategist. His organization, TJI, facilitates powerful meetings, keynote events and coaches high performers to accelerate their results.

The post The Customer Experience first appeared on Direct Selling News.