Every week as SmallBizLady, I conduct interviews with experts on my Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. The show takes place every Wednesday on Twitter from 8-9 pm ET. This is excerpted from my recent interview with @jakenawrocki. As a recognized expert in motivational speaking and life transformation concepts, Jacob Nawrocki has reached over a half million people with his top-rated podcast and high impact presentations, and as a best selling author.
Jacob knows how to accelerate personal achievement and reach business success. He has created a proven method and framework to help people create breakthrough results in any stage of life.
Relating to audiences with his real life stories, high-energy, stand-up comedy style will have them laughing out loud and empowered with powerful, actionable strategies to take their productivity and results to levels beyond what they have ever accomplished before. For more information, visit operationselfreset.com.
SmallBizLady: How do I reset my business?
Jacob Nawrocki: Let me be clear. I am not Chef Robert Irvine from Restaurant: Impossible. I am not here to wipe out your products, logos, and taglines and remodel the color scheme of your business. I am here to challenge, inspire, and motivate you to make the needed changes in your life so you can reach personal and business success.
Any time we start with a reset it’s not about the end result. It’s about asking questions first. Are you asking yourself the right questions to get the right answers you need? If your customers are leaving not smiling, it has nothing to do with the design; it has everything to do with your interaction.
The wrong question people ask is, “How do I improve the emotional level of my customers?” Sounds good, but there is a better question. The right question is, “Why are my loyal customers not enthusiastic when leaving my business?”
The wrong question started with “how.” How is a word that is used to think of new ideas without looking at the current situation. The right question used the word “why.” Why is a power word. Thinking in a WHY mindset allows you to look at the whole picture. You can’t see the frame when you are in the picture. It’s all about a different perspective.
SmallBizLady: Is there a way to remove that negative chatter in my mind so I can focus on what needs to be done for my business?
Jacob Nawrocki: There is a way, but before I give you the tips, I want you to start to name your inner voice. I call the inner voice the Doubt Man. The Doubt Man sits in the front of your brain and he has all the controls he needs to ruin your day and business. He has a lever to turn your gut inside out, another to make you shake, and more buttons to make you sweat, stutter, and look like you have no idea what you are doing.
To quiet the Doubt Man is to do a little or a lot of self-talk. There are two types of talk you do to yourself. First is mental talk where you talk internally; that works when you are trying to complete a task, but not when it comes to the Doubt Man. The second kind of talk is outward talk, or as I like to call it, “Crazy people be looking at me because I am talking to myself.” Studies have proven that greater ideas, clarity, and easy fixes to problems came from talking out loud.
So be weird and when you feel the Doubt Man come on out, start talking to him.
SmallBizLady: How do you make on-the-spot decisions and feel confident you made the right choice?
Jacob Nawrocki: The fire department has trained me to make on-the-spot decisions and get really good at them really, really fast. There is no better way than just to get good at it. On-the-spot decisions are like working out. The only way your muscles get bigger and stronger is when they are under tension. Without the muscle under tension, it won’t get stronger. Your decision-making is a muscle. When you make a fast decision, it’s under tension and over time it will get stronger.
SmallBizLady: How do we rebound after a huge business failure?
Jacob Nawrocki: Tiger Woods wrote a book called, How I Play Golf. This book was launched at the top of his career. In the book he answered a question of how he moves past a bad shot. He stated that once the ball leaves the club and it’s not the shot he was looking for he pushes it out of his mind as fast as he can. If he dwells on it for even a few seconds the whole round is ruined.
Tiger Woods will look at that bad shot but only when he is not in the game. He and his coaches will get tougher and analyze, deconstruct, and learn from the mistakes. The same is true with business.
When you launch a product that you feel will go gangbusters but instead it falls out of the gates, it would be easy to pull it as quick as you can. The problem with pulling a failed product too soon is that you don’t have all the information. You need to do what Tiger Woods does.
When it comes to business we can reflect on it for more than a few seconds but only when the timing is right.
SmallBizLady: After a mishap within the business, my attitude is all over the place. How do I pull it back into shape?
Jacob Nawrocki: In my upcoming book I talk about attitude. As we all know, it can literally ruin your day and become a plague around your business.
The best way to get your attitude back to even keel is to flick yourself off. Yes, sounds weird but think of it this way. We use our middle finger to show outward negative and mean emotions to others. When your attitude becomes out of whack, flick yourself off.
It’s a powerful, easy way to pull yourself back in and to save others from your negative virus.
SmallBizLady: What non-verbal cues are needed to be a great leader?
Jacob Nawrocki: Under a decade ago, the old leadership style was “tell others what to do.” In today’s world if you want to be a great leader you must lead by example. As a leader of your business you must be the action taker. I’ve learned from the fire department that it’s easier to pull a hose line than to push it. The same thing goes for working with people in your business.
The non-verbal cues are: First, take action, do it yourself, and make sure others see you doing it. Second, reflect what you want to see. Inside our brains we have mirror neurons. Mirror neurons allow us to copy physical attributes of others. Have you ever smiled at a baby and that baby smiled at you? No offense, but it’s not because of your pretty face; it’s because it’s built within us to look and copy others.
If you want your employees to do, become, and act a certain way, live that way every day in your business and they will follow.
SmallBizLady: How do you keep a level mind when the seas of business go up and down?
Jacob Nawrocki: I share a framework with my personal coaching clients. It is this: Look at your left hand. You have five fingers and a palm. Each finger represents a word that will keep your mind in the game day in and day out.
- Thumb – Thumbs-up to gratitude. Gratitude keeps you grounded and focused on what is really important in life. We all want business to succeed but we know nothing can replace our family, memories, and even a simple sunrise.
- Pointer finger – Leadership. Stop pointing at others to do the work and start pointing at yourself. Lead yourself to do the simply things daily to reach success.
- Middle finger – Attitude. As I stated before, flick yourself off if times get tough. It will bring your attitude back to reality.
- Ring finger – Love. Love yourself, but mostly the things you hate or wish were strengths. Identifying what you love and the bad qualities will allow you to work on them and make them strengths.
- Pinky finger – Help. Reach out and help others. We all know it’s good to serve others, but are you doing it?
- Your palm – Believe. Your palm brings all these power words together. Without your palm, these words would be scattered and not work with each other.
SmallBizLady: How do you get your business to the next level?
Jacob Nawrocki: It’s not the business that needs to get to the next level, it’s you. Yes, you are the one who needs to get to the next level in your connections, discipline, and personal development.
The main reason why a business levels out is because the person in charge has not learned anything new. All that you know, you’ve poured into the business. The level of impact the business has reached is the same level your personal development is at.
SmallBizLady: How can we improve our personal level?
Reach out to experts in your niche, go to conferences, hire a coach not only for business but also for your personal side, read books surrounding your business to give you different perspectives, and lastly ask questions and listen to your customers to see their pains, complaints, and successes. After you have done all of those things, your personal development will increase and so will your business.
SmallBizLady: There are areas in my business that I suck at! Should I improve these areas or should I hire the right person?
Jacob Nawrocki: Gary Vaynerchuk has a philosophy of leaning on your strengths and not worrying about what you are bad at. The amount of time you will need to get educated, practice, and screw up before you are good at it will take too much time.
If you are good at speaking, then speak. If you are good with the customers, then be on the floor. Know your strengths and really know what you suck at. Hire someone who is really good at what you’re really bad at.
Glenn Beck also has the same philosophy at his company. He is the visionary and he leaves the rest of the work to the right people he hired for each issue. Don’t take time away from what you do best. Find the right help and pay them so they can excel within your company and help your company excel.
SmallBizLady: How do I balance my small business while raising a healthy successful business?
Jacob Nawrocki: To balance at anything takes lots of practice, lots of failure, and lots of pain before you get it right. Look at tightrope walkers. They didn’t just get on the wire and walk across; they fell time and time again. They got frustrated, angry, depressed, and thought they would not be good at it. But over time they did become great at it and now they can walk on the wire in their sleep.
Family and business take time to find a balance. There is no one answer. No book is going to tell you the right formula; try different ideas until you get it right.
Remember that even when you find the formula that fits, to make it a habit takes doing it for 21 days.
SmallBizLady: How do you increase your energy on days you don’t want to work on your small business?
Jacob Nawrocki: There are three areas:
- Create Energy. As my mentor Brendon Burchard says, “The power plant doesn’t have energy; it creates energy.”
- Power positions
- Inspiring music or video
- Laugh at something or just laugh by yourself
- Switch your focus onto something positive in your business or focus into the future of what your business will be. Ask yourself: What is positive about my business? What is fun about my business? What do I love about my business?
- Think of Fun. Think of a fun time in your business that you loved. Was it your grand opening? If it was, then have another grand opening! Was it when you had your kids involved? Then involve the kids. Find the fun you had before and do it again.
SmallBizLady: How do I set up a game plan before working on my business?
Jacob Nawrocki: Michael Phelps didn’t win all those gold medals because he practiced swimming 24/7. He did it by attacking all things related to swimming. He ate a lot of food to fuel his body to swim, he worked out to fine-tune supporting muscles surrounding his swimming muscles, he practiced to perfect his form, he watched tapes to analyze his form, and he visualized his routine every night so he knew exactly what to do and when.
Everything you do in some way affects your business. If you eat like crap you will perform like crap at the business. As my dad would say, if you fail to prepare, prepare to fail. The night before you work, prepare yourself for your battle. Eat right, work out, and visualize your game plan before setting foot into the business. If your mind only turns on when you walk into your office, then you are already behind the game.
Become like Michael Phelps and dominate not only your niche but also your life.
If you found this interview helpful, join us on Wednesdays 8-9 pm ET; follow @SmallBizChat on Twitter. Here’s how to participate in #SmallBizChat: http://bit.ly/1hZeIlz
For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.
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I really learn a lot from this question and answer article. This is a big help for businesses who wants to reach personal success and that includes my own business growth. Everything really matters a lot and as long as it can help boost your business, you should go for it and never be afraid to do an experiment. Thanks a lot for sharing this one.