The Ideal Prospect

Who is the ideal prospect and how do you find them?  If you’re in business (any kind of  business actually) that is your key/core question.  Recently Jillian and I had an idea and decided to do an informal survey.  We decided to query as many people as we could to ascertain if they were entrepreneurial as kids.  Did they have a newspaper route?  Sell Girl Scout cookies?  Do fundraising for school projects?  I sold greeting cards door-to-door when I was about 10 years old.  Jillian sold Girl Scout calendars when she was a Brownie!

What Makes an Entrepreneur?

Like Jillian and myself, we found a lot of entrepreneurial adults were also entrepreneurial kids.  Thus, it makes sense, that might be a good place to start looking for your ideal prospect.  While you’re at it, expand your thinking to include:  What makes an entrepreneur?  Is It:

•    Willingness to take a risk?
•    Believing in oneself?
•    Open-mindedness to new ideas?

And, if someone possesses these qualities, what makes some people act on those tendencies?  What makes others just think about them?  What makes others give up if they get burned while others stay in the game until they reach their goals?  Be interested in the answers to these questions, and you’ll be surprises what you learn.

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You’ve no doubt heard the cliché – we were given two ears and one mouth because we should listen twice as much as we talk.

Be All Ears

Guilty Pleasures

Are you guilty of talking more than you listen?  I sometimes am.  I just spent 5 days with my brother who does a lot of public speaking and unabashedly admitted that he loves to get in front of the room and talk about his favorite topic: HIMSELF!  Social scientists tell us that whether or not we want to admit it, that’s true for most of us – we are our own favorite subject.

Do you know that the people most of us like best are the ones who ask us about ourselves?  Who really listen to what we have to say?  Unfortunately, I find that in networking, especially when people get nervous or are a bit intimidated, they tend to talk more than they listen.  If you can develop your ability to listen and ask questions, you’ll increase your income.

Shut Up and Increase Your Income  (more…)

Recruiting is a tough thing to do.  Sort of.  For some of us it is much tougher than for others.  And for some, it isn’t tough at all.  Which says that it doesn’t really have to be tough, period.

You see, recruiting is a process.  A process that takes skill.  All recruiting starts with directed conversation.   Yes, directed.  You have to know where you want to go, in order to get there.  Unfortunately, the people you are talking to don’t know the route.  They say things that we allow to stop us.  Key point in that sentence is “allow’ to stop us.  You see, you have control.

Don’t you hate that?  Actually, it’s really good news.  You can only change things you have control over and the only thing you have control over is YOU.  Here’s the deal. (more…)