Editting your own writing

One of the ways I market my business is by writing articles. Early this month, I submitted an article, 'Traditional Sales Calls Don't Work for Coaches - What to do Instead, to Business Coaching Worldwide Magazine, for their September issue. The good news is the editor liked the article very much. The bad news is she asked me to cut the article by 300+ words to fit the space for their 'Get the Edge' section.

I am a writer. It's one of the things I love to do. But editting - especially to cut content that contributes to the objective, is antithetical to what I do well. This was hard.

To meet their deadline, I have just gone through the article slashing whole paragraphs as well as sentences, examples, and headings. My goal was to meet their word limit without sacrificing the purpose and value of the information for the magazine audience.

In the corporate world, I used to have an editor go through my material before publication who decided those things. It was out of my hands. Then as a manager, with no ownership of the writing, but responsible for the result, deadlines and budget, it was easy to go through another writer's material and see where it could be tightened up.

It's a different discipline now as a sole-proprietor.

Customer Service

Yesterday I was on the phone a lot with a variety of customer support centers. Compared to the fiasco last weekend with Amazon, each one of these conversations was efficient, pleasant and productive. When customer service works well, the client not only feels served but satisfied with the result. It's one more way to tie your clients to you. With that kind of service, why would they want to look elsewhere.

I wrote an article recently on SPIN selling (ref. Neil Rackham) where you focus on client needs rather than your product benefits. This quote in MassHighTech Journal was a nice example of it:

"From a business leadership perspective, Robert Nierman, CEO, RuleStream Corp. has found success in understanding where customers want to go and working collaboratively to help them get there. 'So it's not necessarily the technology, it's the application of that technology and how customers can profit from the application of that technology that makes the difference.' "

Amazon and UPS :-( Borders Bookstore:-)

Like millions of other afficionados of all ages, I was up early Saturday morning anticipating the long-awaited arrival of the 6th volume in the Harry Potter series by J.K.Rowling; Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Amazon had courted us nicely since January to order our copy from them to be shipped July 15 for guaranteed arrival on Saturday, July 16. In March, I ordered the book along with two others. I was reassured in the order confirmation that it would arrive on July 16.

I had blocked out time this weekend specifically to read the book, knowing I'd not have time during the week and that my eldest son would be home Sunday night at the latest and want dibbs on it himself.

So Saturday morning I got the yard work done as I waited for the book to arrive. I was still waiting after lunch. I was still waiting at sunset!

I went to the Amazon website and confirmed my order again. There at the top, it gave me an expected arrival date of July 21 via UPS! Not July 16 as guaranteed in the order - but standard shipping time for every other Amazon order.

That was the last straw. I got in my car, drove to Borders Bookstore and bought the book again. It was painless, quick and immediate. I got online one more time to cancel my order - all 3 books - with Amazon.

I then settled down to a delightful read once again from J.K.Rowling. It was one of those wonderful times when even before you open the cover, you know you'll enjoy every minute you are absorbed in the story.

I know when book seven comes out (2007?), no matter how many times Amazon invites me to reserve my copy with them, I won't. And I know I'll be back at Borders Bookstore because of their fantastic service.

Hard to explain, easier to do

Today I was challenged to explain emotional intelligence mastery in simple enough terms that when people visit my website and investigate my teleseminar introduction (to be posted 7/21), that they will understand what it is and why it is important to everyone.

I've been an advocate for teaching emotional intelligence tools to all ages since 1999. I've introduced these valuable tools to my clients in the context of their coaching needs. I've taught them to parents and even to pre-teens.

But because I am so comfortable with the tools and the benefits, I had a hard time backing away enough to be able to simplify my introduction.

The simplest definition that doesn't complicate things is that 'emotional intelligence is a different way of being smart'. The research shows that the benefits are numerous socially, professionally and physiologically. Getting it into mainstream usage is taking a long time.

Emotional Intelligence will never replace rational thinking or intellectual pursuit, but it is beginning to take it's place as a leadership skill set to be cultivated in all leaders socially and professionally.

Daniel Goleman, Daniel Pink, Doc Childre are some of the authors who have all written about the impact on society and the need to master the leadership skills of emotional intelligence. For more information, turn to these thought leaders first.

Graphs to Summarize the Enterprise

In the past 24 hours I've come across two articles about the life cycle of a business. What I caught was the graphs they used to summarize pages of text. I will use both in my workshops but for different reasons.

The first article summarized my two semester strategy course in graduate school . It correlated the stage your company is in to the role of the CEO. This was a great table I will use in workshops to help business owners clarify their primary role.

The second article started from the vision of a company as a pie divided into pieces: sales, finance, marketing, product development, operations. In addition the pie is divided into 3 rings. The inner core is the original concept of the business. The middle ring is your inner circle of strategy in each pie area. The outer circle - the piece everyone else sees - is the tactical execution part of the business. This one was cool because it took my current 2 dimensional visual tool of a pie and added another dimension.

Both of these tools are great if you go beyond the concept and apply them directly to your own business. That's where the Breakthrough Business School comes in. Because as the Japanese proverb says: "Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare."

Change location, change of mindset

Getting away is really a great thing. I took off almost a week with no phone, cell phone, laptop or email. I only went 100 miles away to Cape Cod. But the difference in location made all the difference in how I felt and my mindset. I dove in to books I had been wanting to read. I dug my feet in the sand daily and soaked up lots ofsun and waves. Just a little change in routine can make a big change in your outlook.

Being in business for yourself makes vacationing hard to do. As I've said many times, I skipped them for many years. But I've turned over a new leaf as it were. I take the stand now, that you (like me) need to take vacations even more if you are in charge of the whole show in your business. It clears the cobwebs and stirs creativity and problem-solving juices, so when you do come back you are fired up about what you want to do/achieve, re-igniting the passion that pulled you into business in the first place.

Vacations fall in the important category (not critical, but not unimportant either) using Stephen Covey's 4 quadrants. They are just as necessary as having the right tools to get the job done in the first place.

A long weekend

It used to be that when you took a vacation or even a long weekend away, it was a break from work entirely. You couldn't carry your desk with you. You couldn't forward your phone calls to you. Your mail couldn't find you.

Not so today. Everywhere you go, people are attached to their cell phones. You find more cell phones on the beach than radios or boomboxes.

When the boss or client tracks you down on a holiday weekend - they expect you to have all their information at hand - pushing us more and more towards ipods, blackberries and other gadgets, never mind taking the office desk (aka your laptop) with us.

I was flummoxed to hear at a conference a few months ago that companies now expect key personnel to stay in touch when they go away. Gone are the days that you can get away from everything and everyone.

How do we get balance this way? How do we take a break to recharge, reflect and get renewed?

Myself, I'm heading to the beach for the holiday weekend with a couple books I've been waiting to read - no phone, no email. I'm looking forward to lots of cribbage and backgammon in the sand.