September 20, 2017 by BarbStuhlemmer Leave a Comment

The Decision Matrix – Making Decisions Easier

Doors_decision

In my book the Entrepreneur Awakening – Making a Move from Employee to Business Owner I describe several rules and tools of decision-making. One tool I use all the time for helping people make any type of decision is the Decision Matrix.

The decision matrix is basically a way to evaluate your choices and their potential effect on your values. You get a score for each decision that will more clearly reflect how you feel about the option and how it may affect your life.

To use this tool, you need to know all of your options and all of the possible outcomes. I recommend you brainstorm ideas with a friend, colleague, or your accountability partners to ensure you get the full picture of what’s available.

The important point to recognize is that the numbers only apply to you and no one else. It is your decision and your outcome.

Start by drawing a table with five or more columns and rows. Down the left side of the matrix are the items that are important you and that will affect your decision. For example:

Avoid working on weekends.
Must be available to pick up kids when the husband is on shifts.
Cannot afford to buy a second car.
Pays well

Or other items about your business and your life that will be affected by the decision.

Across the top of the matrix is a list of all your options. When using this type of matrix, you must have more than two options. Look for all of the outcomes that could apply to you so you get a broad understanding of your expectations and your needs. For example:

Work from home office for self
Work from home office for someone else
Commute to city for job

Now we look at how each of your options affects each item that is important to you and rate it out of 10. For example:

“Commute to the city for a job” vs “be available to pick up kids” is likely less valuable to your desired outcome so you would rate it lower.

“Commute to the city for a job” vs “Pays well” is likely more in line with your desired outcome.

Use a higher number for combinations that are more desirable and a lower number for combinations that are less desirable.

	Work from home office for self	Work from home office for someone else	Commute to city for job
Don’t work on weekends	2	4	10
Pick up Kids	10	8	2
Must pay for a second car	10	8	2
Pays well initially	2	7	9
Unlimited potential income	10	1	1
Totals	34	28	24

When you have completed the evaluation you simply need to add up the totals for your options. After doing the tally some options become front-runners and some are easily removed from the list.

This does not make your decision for you, it shows you what you see as valuable and how you rate your options against what is valuable to you in your life. If you still want to take the option that rates the lowest, then you need to justify that choice. When you do, you will likely have another “item that is important to you” to put in your matrix.

Check out my book for another decision tool and the other rules of decision-making.

Entrepreneur Awakening

Making the Move From Employee to Business Owner.

Now on Amazon (also in Kindle format)

September 6, 2017 by BarbStuhlemmer Leave a Comment

Align Yourself with Purpose

A life’s purpose is sought by all humans. I believe it is one of the things that makes us human. Animals don’t look for their purpose, they simply live it. We, as humans, spend a great deal of time and career-firefighter-relaxing-job-purpose effort trying to decipher the meaning of our lives. Having meaning allows us to live in our purpose.

But how does living in our purpose actually benefit us and our business?

When we don’t have a purpose we stop things from happening. If you are trying to grow your business, open a new market, reach new clients, create new products, attract an advisory board, raise your rates, etc., without purpose it is harder and takes more effort to make these things happen.

Related Article – Spiritual Business: Beyond Balance

If you are not aligned with your purpose you will not have a “Desired Focus”. This desire helps you find the one thing in your business that is important enough to hold most of your attention and take more of your investment of time and money. Without it, you continue to give to all aspects of your business with the same time, attention, and money. If you try to do all things equally you will likely not do any of them well.

Without Focus, there is no endpoint or destination. How will you know you have met your target? How will you know when to hire, fire, invest, rent, stay open, etc.? How will you know when you should give up and stop investing? How can you have any metrics at all?

Without a destination, there can be no strategic plans. Plans are like the GPS that tells you when to turn, how far to go, and when you have arrived. There is no way to get a GPS to give you directions until you have entered a destination. Strategic planning is the same. Once you know your destination or goals for your business, you can then start making the plans to get your business there.

Purpose Desired Focus Destination Strategy Success

There is no way to a truly successful business without first understanding your purpose.

Want to hear Barb explain this further? Watch this video

August 24, 2017 by BarbStuhlemmer Leave a Comment

Seeing Yourself As An Expert – You First!

If you cannot believe you are an expert, no one else will believe it. To be seen as an expert you must first become the expert and that requires more than skill. It requires emotional and psychological buy-in from you! You are the first person that must believe if you want others to spend money on your expertise.

Related Article – No One Can Make You Believe You’re an Expert

What is an Expert? Google describes an expert as “a person who has comprehensive knowledge [or skill] in a particular area.” I would add that the expert has the experience and wisdom that allows them to apply this comprehensive knowledge and skill.

We assume:

experts are the authority to answer our questions
the opinions of experts are correct
authorities agree on the application of their knowledge or skill

Because of these assumptions people worry they cannot be seen as an expert because they cannot answer all the questions, they are not always right, and they often don’t agree with other authorities in the field. Here is an example from history that shows how wrong experts can be and still be seen as experts.

Tongue Map (image taken from Wikipedia)

A mistranslation of a German paper in 1901 allowed our society to believe this myth that the tongue had areas that were covered in taste receptors that could only recognize one basic taste. Because the person that made the translation and then created their own research, was seen as an expert, his interpretation of the research was accepted as the truth. It was taught in schools and used as a foundational understanding of how our body worked for almost 75 years.

He was an authority who gave information for other authorities, like teachers, to answer our question about anatomy and psychology.
He was an expert and he was wrong.
Other authorities agreed with him until one day another researcher challenged the myth and disproved it.

Should he have been hated or excommunicated from his title? No. He was an expert and he stood up for his understanding based on the most relevant and accurate information he had. He did not willfully try to mislead other experts with his findings.

Should we not believe experts for fear of their mistakes? No. We should always question what we don’t understand, but we need experts to show us the path that has already been taken. We cannot find new information and new understandings by continually revisiting the same knowledge.

Big Pharma Controls Medical Knowledge

Are authorities more dangerous in groups? Yes. When people are afraid to speak out for fear of being ridiculed or seen as incompetent in front of their peers, it is a blow to intellectual, spiritual, and emotional growth. You cannot be a true expert if you are afraid to share what you know. The doctors that first used the term “plasticity” when referring to the neurology of the brain, were not accepted by their peers. There are stories of these experts being completely shunned by the academics, researchers, doctors, and other people in the industry. Because of this, it took nearly 100 years for real breakthroughs in this field that have led to a better understanding of how the brain works and how we can better help people with disorders and damaged brains.

You may not be a ‘Neurologist’ but your expertise is needed. Every person holds some type of expertise and it is needed in the work they are called to do. Find the area where you have comprehensive knowledge or skill and step up into your role as an expert. Remember, the person that focuses on ‘no one thing’ is not an expert at anything. So, focus on your knowledge or skill, work on it, use it daily, grow it and continue to be an expert.

For a few additional words on this subject, check out this video.

April 29, 2017 by BarbStuhlemmer 2 Comments

When It All Goes Wrong, What Does It Mean to be Right? Nothing!

man pointing at you When things don’t go right in your business, and those things were your responsibility, then you take the blame. You might feel shameful, defeated, uninspired to try something new, or simply ready for a new direction. When it’s our problem, we deal with it. The challenge is we are hardwired to look for the cause and that often also includes looking for the person that created the situation. Sometimes others may be the catalyst or the actual instigator of the issue. When things go wrong and it was caused by someone else, it is easy to blame. Blame that can be filled with anger. Anger that stalls your business, will ruin relationships, and stop your growth.

After all, it is their fault; right?

When something goes wrong and we have no control over its outcome then all we have control over is our response to that outcome. In fact, when it comes to other people, the only thing we really have control over is how we behave towards them.

Once, while speaking at an event I was asked to speak at another event. They told me the date, I thought that would work, and said they would speak to the person in charge of the event. I was surprised to find out 2 weeks before the speaking date that they had booked me. There had been no confirmation that the person in charge of the event was on board, that the date was confirmed for me, what the topic I was to speak on, what the agreement was, where the event was going to be held, or anything that I would need to know to ensure I was prepared and had the time blocked in my calendar. They didn’t even ask me for marketing copy. They simply got it from the website. They loved my talk so much they just assumed I would give the same talk to their members.

At first, I was confused and then I was angry. Angry that they would assume I was booking events while I was in the middle of a speaking engagement. Frustrated that I was going to be seen as incompetent if I was not available or I was unwilling to work for their fee. Irritated that they didn’t have a system that included all the information they needed to ensure no miscommunication. “Them…”, “they…”, “their…” Everything I said and thought about the situation was their fault. I don’t often feel this way so it was overwhelming.

Here is the lesson I needed to learn; again:

When a friend said, what is the lesson you are supposed to take from this? I started thinking, “yes, what is the lesson? Why am I so angry? What can I do differently now?” The answers came quickly.

The Lesson: What was my system for accepting new work? I could have said something different, right at the event when I was asked. Something like, “I don’t book events until I’m in front of my booking calendar. Call me tomorrow and we’ll set something up.” As my potential lead, I should have put them on my lead page to follow up after the event.

The Anger: I was angry because I had not used my own system to ensure I was on top of my potential speaking engagements. They may not have had their own system to manage speakers, but many of my potential clients may be the same. I needed to work more closely with their needs to ensure they get what they need from me so I can be there to give what I can to their audience.

Differently Now: I needed to react differently to the issue. I had to accept that it was a potential problem and discuss what we could do about it. It turned out I could not be on location at the time they had booked for the event so we offered the training and business support via webinar and video conference.

The Reason: A couple of hours before the event the person in charge of the event had to deal with a family emergency. If we had been at a live event there would have been no one to look after the venue and her people. Because we were online and I had the host access, I could continue on with the facilitation and training. It allowed her to be with her family and not worry about a venue and managing her members.

When things don’t go right in your business, look for the lesson, stop being angry or hurt, and figure out what you can do next. The reason will show up and you will become better at handling adversity, making you agile and able to change when opportunities arise. You may be right. But don’t spend any extra time blaming others.

April 14, 2017 by BarbStuhlemmer Leave a Comment

The Work/Life Balance Myth

Family - time to just be together — Family – time to just be together

There is a general belief that, if only we could find this elusive work/life balance we would be happier. When asked what work/life balance means, the responses are varied. It is not something we are taught in school, but it is a goal worth achieving and it is not just business owners that are looking for this balance. Life has become very complex and knowing our paths and purpose is often a life-long journey.

There is now more information to understand, more options available, more resources accessible, more technologies to serve and service, and more images and brands coming at us 24 hours a day. We have had to learn to process the information of our environment differently, with habits and behaviours that are considerably different than one or two generations ago. And yet, we still look for love, we want companionship, we raise our children with manners and social norms, we live in and interact with our communities, we want to work and be seen as contributors to our work environment. We are not so different in our needs. Finding and understanding the differences between what we have to work with and what we want to achieve is where we need to look for balance.

Balance is not a scale with a zero-sum outcome, where one side equals the other. Let’s look at the general financial ‘needs’ for employees and business owners and see where balance may lie.

For Employees

The aspect of having a regular income can both add and detract from balance. Although we understand that money does not equal happiness, it is also the barter system we use to ensure we have the basic requirements for life available to us. In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs our money should incorporate both the Physiological and Safety needs at a minimum, including financial security, health and well-being. With our basic needs covered, our need for contribution, community, and love are now easier to achieve.

Unfortunately, not all employment pays well enough to meet our basic needs. Struggling with debt, unable to pay rising rent, clothing, and food costs can physically, mentally, and emotionally cripple a person. Balance is not possible when a person is emotionally, physically, or mentally compromised.

For Business Owners

Many small business owners are hoping to create a job for themselves to replace the job they left. With this type of business model, there is always a struggle for stability in pay. Creating a business that will leverage their time will allow for a more consistent income and potentially a larger take-home salary for the owner. Getting to a business model where the owner can hire others and earning profits off of their work takes a lot of initial work, marketing, investment, and a mental mindset willing to ‘risk it all’ potentially, including the security of their basic needs.

During start-up and during times of financial struggle in a company, there is always the potential for loss and thus a challenge with creating balance in the owner’s life. Time must be paid as an investment to a greater result.

For Anyone

When we want to get a better job, increase our business profits, hire someone into our business or look for a raise in our career, we must first put in the work. It takes energy and hard work to make it happen. During that exhausting time, we will not feel the balance, but it is there. It is our job to keep our purpose in mind, our passion at full, and our goals visible so we can get to our objective. Along the way, we must recognise the balance of being out of balance. The upswing of the next big hit. The push towards a bigger outcome. A want to fill a need, for ourselves and others.

The myth about Work/life balance is that it is not a destination. Work/Life balance is part of the journey. Like when we were children, riding a teeter totter; sometimes we are up and sometimes we are down. It is our duty to simply enjoy the entire ride. After all, we chose to get on. If the ride you are on is not for you then choose another and look for your balance there.