The point is that who you hang out with matters. And it matters a lot.

As you may know, Ron Ipach is one of my business mentors; he recently sent an email which included some business lessons from his recent trip to Jamaica. His points were right on, so I’m borrowing from them with my own observations.

So, here are “business lessons you can use”…

Lesson #1 – SMILE

Smiling does several things…one, it’s hard to raise your voice to someone else when you’re smiling. I’ve found over the years that when I raise my voice, the other person raises their voice, and then we’re off and running.  Not much gets resolved when voices are raised.

Smiling also makes you more “attractive” to talk with. Talk about a natural Law of Attraction. And in today’s business climate, attracting more customers, clients, etc. will reduce some of the economic pain you may be experiencing.

Lesson #2 – REMEMBER WHY YOU’RE IN BUSINESS

Your existing customers or clients have choices. Are you giving them good experiences so that they’ll want to continue to choose to do business with you? I follow Dan Kennedy’s philosophy that we’re in business to obtain clients so that we can continue to provide them services which help their businesses. Many people think they’re in business to sell something to get a new client or customer.

What about you?

Lesson #3 – DEVELOP YOUR SALES SKILLS

I’m always amused when someone tells me, “…but I don’t like to sell.”  Wrong answer. All of us are always selling, regardless of what our “job” is. If you’re male and you’re married, if you’re like me, you performed the best sales job of your life.

The point is to continue to improve these skills, whether it be your writing, speaking, relationship, etc. skills or whatever. The biggest impediment to most people is their lack of skill in communicating or getting along with other people. I submit that these are all selling skills.

Lesson #4 – NO PROBLEM

When something doesn’t go exactly as planned, what’s your response? Remember that your customers and clients have choices. I’m not talking about being a doormat, but in many cases you can take the little challenges away by a “no problem” attitude.

I remember several months ago where a client and I had miscommunicated about the scope of services to be provided. He didn’t include the particular item and neither had we. I could have pushed for extra payment, but didn’t. We “ate” the $1,000 or so in cost, but over time this client will have a value exceeding several hundred thousand dollars; right choice?

Lesson #5 – COME BACK AGAIN, SOON

When you end a project with a client, what’s your parting comment? I’m working harder (don’t have it perfected yet) at implementing a formalized process of (1) letting him/her know how much we enjoyed working together (assuming that was the case), letting him/her know we’ll look forward to working on future projects, and keeping in touch with them to update them on changes they want to be aware of. By the way, this is also a good time to ask for referrals.

There’s another lesson here – as Ron’s email talked about his vacation trip one response would have been to read it as just that. I’ve learned that another approach can be to read something like that and ask myself the question, “Is this something here that I can apply to my business?”

I encourage you to do the same.

Recently read an interesting message from Dan Kennedy where he talked about basically bad choices or behaviors of even successful people.

Do you have any of these (ouch, they hurt me when I read them)?

1. Closing your mind or not “listening” to unpleasant realities and challenges? It’s important to stay positive while at the same time being very aware – especially important in uncertain times.

2. Discounting real danger, denying difficulty, and being overly optimistic? 

3. Chasing or being distracted by “bright shiny objects”? Toddlers do that, but as adults we need to stay focused. At the very same time, we need to be aware of new things that can help move us forward to reach our goals.

The paradox of each of these is evident. As Dan said, they’re two sides of a coin.

Bottom line? I really can’t trust myself. I’m reminded of the 11th commandment: thou shalt not fool thyself.

But we all have a tendency to do that (I do at least).

How to overcome it? A few things are important: first, I need to keep myself “aware” of my natural tendencies. Next, I surround myself with a few very trusted people, both in and out of business, that I can check with to see if I’m still on track.

What do you do?

Took a week off preparing my mind and body for 5 days in Chicago at the Glazer-Kennedy Marketing and Money-Making Superconference; arrived last Wednesday afternoon and returned to Cincinnati late Sunday night.

Took over 30 pages of notes, including 15 from Dan Kennedy at a special Sunday session. While the conference was great (I always look at these from an R.O.I. perspective), the networking and other opportunities make my time there very valuable. I left with ideas for two new businesses which I suspect we’ll kick off within the next 3 to 4 months.

While the conference focused on marketing (as I’ve detailed in previous emails and my monthly printed newsletter) there was a great deal of discussion about growing your business in these economic times and preparing yourself and your business for the New Economy that will come out of the R (pick your word).

I have transformed myself and my business over the last two-plus years into a total focus on marketing. I now belong to three different mastermind groups which take almost 24 days a year of my time. I’ve had people ask me why I “spend” (their words, not mine) that much time. I choose to look at it from an investment perspective.

Why do I share that with you?

At the end of the day, it all comes down to attitude. And I’ve morphed myself into having a total success attitude.

I see winners in all types of businesses having a positive attitude, an open mind, and an ability to see opportunity in EVERYTHING. They listen to other successful people (they don’t spend much time with unsuccessful (in their mindsets) people.  They can spend several minutes with other winners and walk away with new ideas that will help take their businesses to the next level. Plus, they take responsibility for their successes and failures. They see failures as events only, as something they can learn from.

People on the other side of the coin, the so-called “losers,” have a negative, can’t be done attitude and see disaster or failure in every situation. Since they are close-minded, they couldn’t recognize an opportunity if it whacked them in the face. They have a “fixed pie” mentality, focus on their losses and never on their gains, and their language is filled with, “but…, if only Ida, etc…”

It comes down to simple choice as to which side of the coin you choose to focus.

Choose success.