170 - Are You Making It Difficult?

We tend to over complicate everything, that’s the truth!  I was most likely one of the best examples of this phenomenon.  In my defense, I used to work for the government, perhaps that’s where I picked up this bad habit. 

To those already started or getting started, please take note of a few tips to help you keep it simple:

1. Don’t buy too many tools.  How many are too many?  If you have not used a tool in the last week or two, you have too many tools.  I learned to find my core group of tools, test each on trials and then pick one for each task grouping and stick with that tool for a year.  I also buy them on the annual plan versus a recurring monthly charge which can save a ton of money.
2. Don’t sign up for more training than you can consume.  Again, I have done this more times than I would like to admit.  I am an info junkie, I love to learn, but, I only have so many hours of the day in which to learn.  For me, this meant promising myself that I would not purchase any additional training until I finished what I already have.  This is challenging to say the least because info marketers are really good at sucking us in with the “doors are closing forever” gimmick, therefore, triggering our Fear of Missing out reflex.
3. Implement what you learn immediately.  Knowledge is NOT power, implementation of knowledge is power.  If you hesitate, you might miss your window so do it now before old man procrastination takes over.
4. Don’t simply follow the herd, the truly successful are the innovators and risk takers.  Think and Act outside the box.  Quite often the most obvious idea is the most overlooked.  The herd is usually somewhat blind to the environment in favor of following the sheep in front of them.  Indians used this to their advantages in the old days to harvest herds of buffalo by literally herding them towards a cliff.  One after one those buffalo blindly jumped to their death.
5. Keep your public facing deal strategy simple.  When working with a seller, whatever solution you propose needs not be complex.  Remember, people fear what they don’t understand.  Also, as the saying goes, the confused mind always says NO!
6. Treat each lead like a dog!  Yep, I just said that!  Think about how you approach a strange dog..first, let them smell you (get to know you), then build rapport.  Go easy or they will either run away, or bite you.