Performance = Motivation x Ability x Opportunity by Pete Lorins, PhD CD, JD

Performance = Motivation x Ability x Opportunity

Isn't time for you or your company to perform up to its fullest potential?

Many of us have wondered why we have seemingly done all the right things, yet haven't quite achieved our desired outcomes. Well, the above equation is all you need to remember the next time you're puzzled by your lack of business or personal achievement. But if you doubt me, please keep reading this article and I will clarify the equation for you accordingly.

For instance, you may remember having classmates or coworkers who were very intelligent/able (hence had the ability to do whatever they wanted to do), yet they lacked the motivation. Thus, despite having the opportunity and ability to perform to their fullest potential, they still fail to do so. Likewise, you have met those who have the motivation, yet might not have had the ability or opportunity hence failed to perform.

Either way, one needs to have all three of the above components of Performance  in order to perform to one's maximum potential. There is a field called Human Performance Technology (HPT), which categorizes corporations as well as academic and governmental institutions by several means, and use the characteristics of any particular organization's category to determine the nature of its HPT development, practices, and emphases within that organization.

At Brainstorm Capital Group, we use the power of HPT, which is born out of many fields, as influenced by the environment in which it is applied. But generally the following phases come into play:

1) Launch Phase
2) Assessment Phase
3) Design Phase
4) Implementation Phase
5) Monitoring/Adjusting Phase


The last phase of any intervention is the phase of monitoring and adjusting. It is an ongoing process in which constituents assess the results of the intervention, as well as the new behaviors and new knowledge that have accompanied it. Here, gains and losses are summarized, and the causes of any losses are determined; people take action, communicate about their progress, and hopefully, celebrate their success.

This phase is often neglected; people are afraid of not having met their goals, or they lack the time needed to monitor results. But monitoring and adjusting are crucial, not only to business results, but also to the likelihood of the organization's willingness to undertake future projects (assessing its own capability maturity level.) This phase also adds to the power of the Human Performance (HP) consultants who have been involved.

Our Brainstorm Capital Group HP Consultants are prepared to help your business excel at any projects in which it tackles or any hurdles, which your business faces. We'll be holding our next FREE Telinars or Teleconferences in the near future. It is our desire to continue to motivate as many passionate entrepreneurs into successful ventures as humanly possible, and we're doing the latter, one venture at a time. Feel free to contact us whenever you're puzzled by any business hurdles. We'll always be prepared to provide you with the right solutions at the right time.

By Pete Lorins, PhD CD, JD -- pete@snirol.com (email)  -- (407) 272-0873 (phone)

Let's Start HIRING Again! Let's Not Fail Each Other by Fearing Failure -- By Pete Lorins, PhD CD., JD

OK -- It seems like it was yesterday that I arrived on this great land called "The United States of America". Having arrived from the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere to the richest country in the World, needless to say, I was FASCINATED at the contrasts, particularly, the ones that I saw in NEW YORK CITY, the best City in the World. I discovered myself in that organized chaos. And it was awesome... The possibilities seemed to have been endless, Americans were optimistic and poised to spend on each other, and  I, the skinny little Black kid from the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, was literally in paradise!  I saw the American spirit, a great people. I saw people walking fast, talking fast, easting fast. I saw purpose, resolve, determination, passion etc. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE AMERICA THAT I LOVE?

We can get back to that lovely place again. But we can't do it by fearing failure. We have to start creating business structures that will CREATE JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS again. Yes, we need HEALTH CARE as well, but we need JOBS even more. People gain a certain level of freedom and self-belief just from having good paying jobs. Marriages have more stability, wives are happier, and as the saying goes: "If momma is not happy, ain't nobody happy, huh?". But on a serious note, WHY SHOULD WE START CREATING JOBS AGAIN? NEWER TYPES OF JOBS? and WHY IS IT VITAL TO GETTING BACK TO THE AMERICA THAT WE KNEW AND LOVED?

Well, as entrepreneurs, when we start to strategically create jobs, we don't only help the economy, but we also help our own businesses' capability maturity level. Imagine being BOMBARDED with a lot of phone calls or guests or prospects  after conducting a strategic marketing/advertising campaign.  Would you be able to single-handedly, seamlessly and successfully process all your prospects enough to turn most of them into lifelong clients?

Well the answer is probably a big fat NO. As the saying goes, "one can do everything in life, but one cannot do it alone..." In other words, we need each other, and as a French saying goes, "we always need someone who is smaller or less sophisticated than we are."

TODAY, Americans have a fear to venture out, and quite understandingly so, such a fear is not without merit. But as one American president stated, "the only thing Americans have to fear is FEAR itself." I have, personally, embarked on a mission to be a MOTIVATING FACTOR/ INSPIRATION LEADER to all Entrepreneurs, and particularly American entrepreneurs because to whom much is given, much is also required. It's time to start spending again, time to start HIRING AGAIN, and last but not least, time to start INNOVATING again. Americans need factories in AMERICA. Not in INDIA, not in CHINA... Right here in AMERICA.

America became great because Americans had to unite against factions and fear with the goal of being ONE NATION, UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL. And as such they have PLEDGED ALLEGIANCE to the American flag to that end. Not because they had no fear, but because sometimes they realized that they had to "pinch their noses to swallow the medicine" and that medicine is RISK-TAKING my friends. NO PAIN, NO GAIN.

With just a little bit of RISK TAKING by those who have the money and a dialogue with those who have the ideas, we can start fueling that PASSION/FIRE again. There's nothing life having FIRE in one's belly. The FIRE in my BELLY is limitless. In fact, it's enough to conquer the World... I believe that I can <smile> through business... It's quite American. We are CAPITALISTS here right? There's nothing like that ENTREPRENEURIAL ENTHUSIASM. It's like conceiving a baby and then giving birth to it. You cannot wait to see that baby grow, you cannot wait to give your ALL for that baby. Businesses are the babies of those who form them and if we are willing to consider taking HIGH CALCULATED RISKS for HIGH REWARDS we'll be on our way there again.

Failure is the mother of success. If Americans continue to be afraid to fail because the Banks are not lending or because the venture capitalists are skeptical, then they'll keep closing down their businesses, and the JOBS will dry up and our systematic economy will collapse and the American Dream will remain only a dream for most.

I started my first business on a shoestring budget almost two (2) decades ago, and it still remains the best decision of my life. Yes, you can start HIRING again, yes you can make the phone ring again, yes you can have your dream business again, while reaping the fruits of your hard work. All it takes is a bit of RE-INVENTION in your mind's eyes. DOUBTFUL ABOUT WHAT I'm saying? CALL ME ON IT.

I'll even give you a FREE CONSULTATION. Call me at (407) 272-0873 and if I don't show you how I can work with you to turn your idea into a full-fledged profitable business, I'll personally pay you for your time. Come on now, let's rebuild America again. The government won't do it for us. We, the entrepreneurs, are the ones who will create the lasting jobs. It's a cycle... if we don't create jobs, then people won't have the money to spend on other businesses, and businessmen and women won't have the money to spend on lawyers, doctors etc... it's like a domino-effect... LET US STOP IT ONE BUSINESS AT A TIME!

Pete Lorins, PhD CD, JD - petelorins@aol.com (email)

Understand Your Value - Manage Your Opportunities by Pete Lorins PhD CD, JD

Before embarking on any entrepreneurial endeavor, one should consider the following ancient proverb: "KNOW THYSELF." What it really means is that before we start trying to understand our customers'/prospects' worlds, we should develop a full understanding of our own world and have a guiding vision that begins to define the IDEAL CUSTOMER. More specifically, we need to understand our offerings, the markets they target, and the quantitative and qualitative levels of activity we must attain to reach our personal performance goals.

Self-knowledge begins with the VALUE PROPOSITION inherent in the goods  and services we are offering customers. In other words, the positive business and personal impact that your offerings deliver to your customers. This value represents your competitive advantage in the market place. It also serves as a baseline from which you can begin to measure the fit between your offerings and prospects (prospective customers). The UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS of your offerings help you define the IDEAL CUSTOMER.

STEP-1: Quantitative Approach
1) Sales Plan/Business Development - Contact a predetermined number of prospects
2) Contacts - These become your contacts
3) Appointments - Set "x" number of appointments
4) Presentations - Set the appointment in "y" presentations
5) Sales - Yield "z" number of sales.

STEP-2: Qualitative Approach
1) Develop Qualitative Metrics
2) Determine the Best Leads for a Particular Moment
3) Perform Opportunity Management - Recognize the Opportunities

Opportunity Management -- encompasses how we develop and manage our leads. As the opportunity represented by each customer changes, so does their priority in the salesperson's schedule. The ultimate purpose of opportunity management is to point salespeople toward that single individual or company that represents the best place they could be at at any particular moment.

If you're struggling with any of the above concepts/approaches, please feel free to call Pete Lorins @ (407) 272-0873. The value of your business and entrepreneurial aspirations depends on it.

Pete Lorins, PhD CD, JD --  petelorins@aol.com (email)

Fear (Make it Your Best Friend) By Reed Sawyer

Robert Kyosocki once said, "If you do the thing that you fear the most, you will have conquered your fear." As an entrepreneur, fear is a constant companion. You are fearful that you won't sell any of your product, or run out of money, or be sued by a deadbeat, or....

You will never be able to avoid risk, however, if you can manage risk intelligently, you can minimize the risk and make it acceptable.

What are some of the ways that an entrepreneur can manage risks?

1) Incorporate: If you own a sole proprietorship, all that you now own, or will own in the future, can be taken away in a lawsuit. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that are professional victims that are just looking to sue someone, and because we do not have a "loser pays" legal system, they do so at no risk. How do you manage those risks? Incorporate. If someone sues, and wins, all that they can do is to take the corporate assets, not your personal assets.

2) Insurance: Do you have a "key man" or woman that your business depends on to be profitable? What would happen if they died? What would happen if they got an offer at a different job? (Can you say, "Lebron James"?) Key man insurance is expensive, but it gives you a buffer to survive and move on if a key employee is no longer there. At the same time, if you have a key employee, and you are not paying them well, do not be amazed if they leave at the first opportunity. One of the ways to manage this is to give them a piece of the company. You do not do this out of altruism, but because it makes good business sense.

3) Investment (Research and Development): A lot of companies work like crazy to develop new technologies and have the latest and greatest product...and then stop innovating. In our technologically advanced culture, a new technology will be cutting edge for weeks. It will be innovative for months, and it will have a life span of 18 months...if you are lucky. If you are developing new technologies, you must be constantly adapting, revising, and coming up with new products/services that are "cool". If you don't you risk being a "buggy whip" manufacturer with a great product...but no demand.

4) Instant results marketing: One of the ways to lower your risks in marketing is to only pay for results. For instance, If your advertising budget is 10% of gross sales, and you want to increase sales, offer a 10% discount off purchases, if they buy using a coupon. You only pay for results WHEN the sale is made. OR, you use consultants, and you ONLY pay when they make a sale. By using production results (or commissions) you are only paying when you receive money. If you are using dinosaur marketing techniques, you pay for the possibility that someone will notice the ad, remember, contact you, and purchase. If you use Instant results marketing, you pay the commission AS you are paid, and not before. This lowers risk.

5) Bundling services/products: Instead of offering to sell your services piecemeal, offer to bundle services so that your customers pay for a larger purchase, increasing your revenue, by giving them a discount over buying the separate pieces individually. (Buy a case of Mountain Dew, for $150, rather than purchasing one Mountain Dew for $1.50. The per unit cost is lower individually, but by selling a greater volume, you increase your revenue. Assuming that they will continue to purchase your product.)

In short, if you are able to reduce your risk of failure, you will increase your chances of success, with all other variables being constant. Manage your fear, and you will manage your success.

Reed Sawyer -- ReedBetweenTheLines@yahoo.com (email)

Creativity (For Your Business) -- By Reed Sawyer

A lot of business owners are looking for an inspiration for a new product idea, marketing plan, or simply a new design. They just feel that they aren't creative, and don't know how to be inspired. Here are a few easy tips.

1) Know your schedule: If you are a morning person, and you feel most alive/inspired/awake early in the morning, this is your time. Try waking up a little earlier and writing down a few thoughts that are NOT what you would usually think about. Creativity is nothing more than thought paths that we haven't taken before, and noticing the journey.

2) Let your subconscious do the heavy lifting. Joe White, a serial entrepreneur in Colorado, used to write down the top ten things that he wanted to do the next day just before he would go to bed. Then, while he was sleeping, his subconscious would start working on the list. When he woke up, before he got out of bed, he would just start jotting down his thoughts and ideas. He was one of the most organized people I have ever known, and he did more before 9:00 than most people did all day.

3) Read things you have never read before. Go to www.stumbleupon.com, enter your interests, and stumble away viewing sites that are wildly eclectic and totally different from anything you have ever seen before. Some will make you think, others will make you quickly click on the "stumble" button, leading you to new adventures.

4) Make a planned attempt to be creative. Use the "reticular activator" section of your brain to help you find answers that you hadn't even thought of before. (Think back to the last time that you bought a car. What color? What make and model? When you did that, did you suddenly notice all of the other cars that were just like yours? That is the "reticular activator" noticing new things, and suddenly finding them everywhere. It is one of the brains most powerful...and under-appreciated tools that allows you to notice things and be creative.) In other words, write down what you are looking to achieve, and suddenly...you will find it. If you don't know what you are looking for, you will never even come close to finding it.

5) Don't cherry pick ideas. If you do this diligently, you will generate 50 ideas that are terrible, for every good one. However, that good one might be a million dollar idea. Write them down, expand them, go into different applications of the idea, expand on those, write down their different applications, and expand on those, and then set it aside for a few days. What you will find, when you come back to it, is that the first idea probably stunk, but the tangential ideas that came out of the first one were better, and became better with each tangential turn. Don't be afraid to take the bunny trails when you are brainstorming, but record the journey, and revisit. Use your subconscious and the reticular activator to really ramp up the process.

6) Write when you are asleep. I will suddenly wake up at 4:00 in the morning, have a brilliant thought, and before I fully wake, I will write it down...and then go back to bed. When I am fully awake, I can then explore this fresh new idea, that was unemcumbered by common sense and logic. It had the freshness of a dream. Use the tools above to flesh it out, and explore the possibilities.

7) Find an idea partner that you can bounce these off of. A good brainstorming session will create ideas that are better than what you can create by yourself, and will lead you to action. (Ideas without action are just dreams. Ideas with action...change the world.)

8) Once you have written out your ideas in full, ask yourself, "What need does it fill?" "Find a need...fill a need" (Robots). If your application doesn't fill a need, then it is useless as a business application. However, don't throw it away, find a need that it DOES fill. Some of the greatest inventions didn't fill existing needs, but created something so fresh that the need became apparent after it had been invented. (VCR's, DVD's, Personal computers, cars, railroads, fire....)

9) Articulate the idea into a sentence. If you can't articulate it into one sentence, rethink it. The greatest ideas can be shared easily and expressed simply.

10) If you have developed your idea into a complete business application, now you need to bring it to market. That is where you need the Capital and Expertise of Brainstorm Capital Group to help you take it to the next level. 

 

Reed Sawyer -- ReedBetweenTheLines@yahoo.com (email)

Establishing Rapport Quickly!!!

One of the secrets to negotiating is effective communication. However, if someone feels that they are being interrogated, they will not reveal anything about what they want.

The easiest way to begin a negotiation is to start with sharing a little bit about yourself, and then revealing a little more, and a little more, and then let the other person talk. I use open and closed ended questions to precisely find their objections and motivations.

What are open ended and closed ended questions?

An open ended question is one with no easy answer.

• "Can you tell me a little bit about your situation?"

• "How do you feel about that?"

• "What are you looking to accomplish with this sale?"

• "What would make you happy with this sale?"

As you start asking these questions, and you must listen sincerely, the other person will be amazed that you want to listen, and they will start telling you everything you wanted to know...and more. The open ended question gathers a LOT of information. It will be free ranging, and go off in unexpected tangents. Your job here is to herd cats...by asking the closed ended question to clarify their response.

Here are some closed ended questions:
Open: "Tell me about your situation?"
Response: "I lost my job, and can't make the mortgage payments, I am wanting to sell so that I don't hurt my credit in a foreclosure."
Closed: "So you're worried about a foreclosure hurting your credit?" (We have moved away from the price, and are focusing on the foreclosure hazards, and the deleterious effects on their credit. The closed ended question can be answered in a single word or sentence.

If the seller starts going in the wrong direction, use the closed ended questions to get them back on track. You can interrupt...IF you are doing it to understand them better. "Pardon me, I just want to make sure I understand, So you are saying that you are most concerned with avoiding a foreclosure?" This question gets them back on track, and steers them in the direction that you want them to go.

Although it seems rude to interrupt, you are actually engaging in intense listening, and if you also use mirroring techniques the seller will be amazed that you understand them so well, and will want to open up.Practice this with friends and family, and you will be amazed at the results. You will find that people want to tell you everything, and that is ok...if you can control the direction of the conversation.

These intense listening skills are powerful, and must be used with caution. If they are used without integrity, they can really take advantage of other people, so make sure that you let people know up front exactly what you want to do; help them solve their problem, in a mutually advantageous manner.

Open and closed ended questions work with almost any person, but you must be aware that there are cultural differences around the world, and if you can modify your listening skills to cultural norms, it will work with anyone.

Reed Sawyer -- ReedBetweenTheLines@yahoo.com (email)

The dreadful alternative - By Reed Sawyer

When you are seeking to buy, or sell, anything, use the power of the "Dreadful Alternative" as your partner.

What is the "Dreadful Alternative"? Imagine that you are looking to buy a house. As you are starting to talk, ask a few questions:

1) If I don't buy it, what are you going to do? (If they have been trying to sell it for a long time, they are already afraid of not being able to sell it.)

2) If you have to move to another house, and make double payments, how long could you afford to make them before it SEVERELY affected your life style.

3) If you can't make the double payments, would you lose the house in foreclosure and have your credit destroyed?

By asking questions, you are having the seller tell you the answer. If I tell them, it might be a lie, if they tell me, it's always the truth (at least according to them.) By using the dreadful alternative as your partner in negotiating, you are replacing the price (hope of gain) with the fear of loss. The fear of loss always wins. Because they are the ones stating the fear, it is always the truth.

Our next blog will go into detail on some of the techniques to use to maximize the power of the dreadful alternative.

Reed Sawyer -- ReedBetweenTheLines@yahoo.com (email)