Motivation

Regain Your Motivationstring(22) "Regain Your Motivation"

March 1, 2021
infinite giving, Motivation, Who's in Your Room 5

Motivation comes from within you, not from outside you. No one can motivate you but yourself. I’m speaking long-term motivation. Many years ago, author Frederick Herzberg wrote about motivation in the Harvard Business Review, where he said that others can motivate you but only in the short term. He called that KITA (Kick in the… Anatomy – that’s really what he called it). On the other hand, long-term motivation comes from within. Everyone struggles with motivation at some point during their professional lives.

How do you motivate yourself when your motivation is low?

1. Minimize contact with negative people.

According to my book,  Who’s in Your Room?: The Secret to Creating Your Best Life, you make decisions based on the positive and negative things that happened with people from your past that you let into your life. That really resonates with people who let in negative individuals. Therefore, they make future decisions based upon their previous negative experiences. Some people complain as though it were an Olympic event. Keep clear of them while you are trying to regain your motivation. Surround yourself with positive people.

2. Maximize time with people that refuel your energy.

The quality of your life depends on the positive people in your room. The people in your life will make or break your success. You become the five or six people with whom you hang out the most. Surround yourself with positive people who make you want to “do” and “be” better.

3. Read/listen/watch positive things.

If you are feeling down, read a positive book. My newest book, Infinite Giving, explores the positivity of sharing with the 7 Principles of Givers Gain®. Listen to an audiobook or podcast with a positive message. Watch something that makes you laugh. Surround yourself with some things you love. Live a life of giving not just for the benefit of others, but most importantly for you as well.

4. Prioritize the items on your list. 

Make a list of the things you want to do and must do. Then, take that list and post it somewhere visible. Tackle something from that list every day. Focus first on the smallest item from your list as a short-term goal to achieve this week.  A small win this week can be very motivating during the month. Next, work on those items from your list that inspire you to take action and complete them this month. Eat the elephant one bite at a time. You will be amazed at the number of small items from your list you will accomplish during the month. The more small wins you accomplish this month, the better you will feel during the year. You will quickly become motivated to take action during the year to complete some of the bigger things from your list.

5. Remember your big picture.

If your motivation is low it helps to step out of your daily tasks and remember why you are doing what you do. Allow yourself to be motivated by your big picture and let your goals drive you. Remembering why you are doing what you do in business can most certainly help you find some new energy to keep going. Your goals will help motivate you to get back on the road to productivity and success in no time.

It is nearly impossible to feel motivated all the time. Sometimes it can feel like we are in a real doldrums slump. In this video, I expand upon these five tips for getting inspired when you’re lacking motivation. You will glean some powerful insights on what is causing your low motivation and how to become inspired to take action.

What do you do when your motivation level is lacking as well as your self-esteem? What do you do to regain the motivation needed to move on with your plans and pursue your endeavors? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Encourage Employees to Network

Five Ways to Encourage Employees to Networkstring(43) "Five Ways to Encourage Employees to Network"

January 13, 2020
, , Employees, Motivation, Networking, work ethic 3

Too many entrepreneurs focus on bringing in new business themselves or in tandem with the sales force but overlook their support staff as a source of referrals. Building word-of-mouth for your business is not just the responsibility of your marketing or sales department. As you might imagine, it’s far better to engage your entire staff in your word-of-mouth marketing campaign-not only at startup, but also throughout the life of your business. Here are five tips on ways to encourage employees to network:

1. Include networking in the job description for each and every employee

Often, if a new hire knows upfront that he’s expected to incorporate networking into his job, it will happen.

2. Have clear and reasonable expectations.

If your company manufactures a very obscure product, your staff might have a hard time bringing in tons of referrals. However, keep in mind that people are more important in the networking process than the type of product being sold. When you have the right person, he or she will be able to build a network around any kind of product or service.

3. Teach your staff about how to network effectively for the company.

Hold focus groups where you role-play ways to ask for referrals from other customers, friends, and family. Bring in local networking experts for in-house training. If you belong to a weekly networking group, bring your staff to those meetings one at a time so each member can see firsthand what networking can produce. This also helps your networking partners feel that they know your business better since they’ve been able to meet the people in your company.  Until you teach someone how to do something effectively, expecting them to do it well or even at all is unrealistic.

4. Motivate your staff to bring referrals to the company.

My wife once worked for a business owner who incorporated monetary bonuses into her word-of-mouth marketing expectations. For every new customer, she was given a bonus. It was a win-win arrangement for the company, as each new customer brought in revenue well above the bonus amount, and my wife felt rewarded each time one of her referrals came through the door.

Having a bonus system in place made it obvious that she would be attending chamber meetings with the boss and developing other connections in the community while passing out business cards and flyers for the company. To properly execute this idea, check with your CPA or tax preparer.

You might even establish a “networker of the month” status for the staff, using a reserved parking spot or an overnight hotel stay somewhere fun as a reward. Make the motivation something that’s relevant to your industry and, most of all, exciting to your staff.

5. Be sure your staff sees you practicing your networking skills.

Often, we as entrepreneurs don’t share with our staff the amount of time and energy we put into building and maintaining our businesses utilizing word-of-mouth marketing. I have always felt very strongly about this point. If I am going to expect my staff to do something, motivate and reward them for doing it, I better let them see me doing it as well. All too often, networking is something done behind the scenes and not necessarily in front of the staff.

One way to change this is to track how much business you brought in, as well as the staff’s numbers. Imagine the pride one competitive staff member will have when he or she breaks your number. Imagine the profits your company will realize when everyone in the company focuses on growing the business.

Networking is a group activity. Make sure to encourage employees to network and get your whole team on board with the process.

Four Keys to Becoming a Networking Catalyststring(43) "Four Keys to Becoming a Networking Catalyst"

March 7, 2016
, , , Culture, Education, Motivation

ID-100227642I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no mechanic. In fact, when I was a kid, my father (who could fix just about anything) took me out to the garage one day and said, “Son, you’d better go to college because you’re never going to make a living with your hands.” Well, that was great advice, Dad. And I think things have worked out pretty well for me as a result of your suggestion.

Despite my lack of skills as a mechanic, I can, however, tell you how a catalytic converter relates to networking and your business. By definition, a catalyst is an agent that initiates a reaction. In networking, a catalyst is someone who makes things happen. Without a catalyst, there is no spark, and not much gets done. So what does it take for you to become a catalyst for your business and your network? Four things: initiative, intention, confidence, and motivation.

  1. Initiative. Catalytic people don’t sit still—they make things happen in all aspects of their lives. As networkers, they stay alert for a problem that needs solving and then spring into action, calling on someone from their network to solve the problem. They operate with a “get it done now” mentality.
  2. Intention. Catalytic people operate with intent and are goal-driven. As networkers, catalytic people have both business and networking goals. They learn the goals of others so they can help people achieve them.
  3. Confidence. Catalytic people have confidence in themselves and in the players on their team. This helps ensure that the task at hand will be accomplished with stellar results.
  4. Motivation. Catalytic people are not only motivated themselves, but they also spur others on to perform at their highest potential. These people encourage others to contribute, sharing their energy and excitement through their words and actions. They are motivated by personal and professional rewards that they can’t wait to share with others, and they desperately want to help others succeed.

To set your network in motion toward helping your business, make it your goal to become a catalytic person. Think of your network as a row of standing dominoes. Each domino will remain standing until you act on the first domino. As a catalyst, you must tap the first domino to watch the chain reaction of tumbling dominoes. Your network is standing in place, waiting for you to set the pieces in motion.

But what if you’re looking at your rows of dominos and realize that there are serious gaps that will disrupt the chain reaction? Or maybe you don’t have nearly as many dominos as you thought. Even if you are a catalytic person, you first need to have a well-rounded and sufficiently populated network.

Who Cares about Your Business?string(30) "Who Cares about Your Business?"

March 30, 2015
, , , , , , Building Relationships, Business, Collaboration, Connections, Goals, Growth, Motivation, Networking, Networking Prep, Networking Tactics, Referral Incentives, Referrals, Relationships

Do you know who really cares about your business and wants to help you?  Realistically, there are only a few basic ways of motivating people to care about and help build your business.  Basically, it comes down to relationships and rewards.  

Photo courtesy of graur codrin at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Photo courtesy of graur codrin at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Some folks, usually friends or family, will simply want to help because they like you and want you to do well.  These people will be motivated by the relationship itself.

But in most other cases, the long term motivation to build your business is not based primarily on whether or not the other person likes you.  Business partnerships, including referral relationships, almost always include some form of mutual reward; typically in the form of social or financial gain.  Both you and your networking partner have something to gain, and you are both eager to help each other achieve it.

Some people are motivated by the potential for business referrals you can send, while others are motivated by the prestige and opportunities created by having a relationship with you.  Regardless of the underlying motivation behind them, relationships can take time to prove profitable in a substantial way, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth cultivating.  Ultimately, strong relationships will steer back opportunities because of the nature of networking itself and of the endless variety of products and services to which it can lead.

I firmly believe that most relationships will probably prove rewarding in the long term, even in cases where you don’t receive referrals in return.  There are a few super successful people to whom we send referrals who’ve never reciprocated with a referral back.  We’re motivated to continue helping them in any way we can simply because they will work with people we refer to them.  That makes us look good, because it’s very difficult for the average person to start a working relationship with these very successful, very busy people.

If we refer someone, it opens a door that might never have otherwise opened.  The new person that we are referring to our very busy friends or associates is the one who now goes out of his way to reciprocate.  That’s our motivation; helping our networking partners achieve their goals.  And, of course, in one form or another, it winds up coming back in some way.

What are some experiences you’ve had in which you’ve benefitted in some way or another as a result of truly caring about others’ businesses and helping them to grow and achieve their goals?  I’d love to hear your story/stories so please share your experiences in the comment forum below.  Thanks!

The Success Principlesstring(22) "The Success Principles"

January 29, 2015
, , , , Author, Book, Focus, Goals, Growth, Motivation, personal story, Self Development, Strategy, Success, System, VCP Process, Video Blog

In this video, I talk to my good friend Jack Canfield about Jack’s just-released updated edition of his bestselling book, “The Success Principles.”

Watch the video now to hear the truly amazing story of a man whose life was completely transformed as a result of following the principles in Jack’s book and to get both  Jack’s take  and my take on what it takes to be truly successful in any given area of life.

if you’ve read the earlier edition of Jack’s book, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. Please share your feedback in the comment forum below. Thanks!

To learn more about the newly released edition of “The Success Principles,” please visit www.TheSuccessPrinciplesBook.com.

Classic Video Feature–“Making a Difference in Someone’s Life”string(85) "Classic Video Feature–“Making a Difference in Someone’s Life”"

July 3, 2014
, , , , Classic Video, Gratitude, Relationships, Self Development, Showing Gratitude, Success, Video Blog 1

I have been doing video blogs for quite a few years now and it occurred to me that some of the videos I’ve previously posted focus on timeless topics that deserve to be revisited and not buried way back in the video blog archive.  For this reason, I’ve decided to occasionally feature a “classic” video blog from my blog archive and today I am sharing the first one–“Making a Difference in Someone’s Life.”

There are little ways and big ways of making a difference in someone’s life.  More likely than not, there’s someone you can immediately call to mind who has impacted you and really made a difference in your life, whether it happened recently or even back during your formative years.

There are definitely certain individuals in my life who have made a big difference for me and in this five minute video, I tell the story of how one of these people in specific really made a positive impact on my life back in high school and helped shape me into who I am today simply by believing in me and giving me a chance when it seemed that no one else would.

After watching the video, please share a story of your own in the comment forum below about a person you are grateful to for the way they positively influenced your life and made a difference for you.  Taking this opportunity to tell your story and publicly recognize a special person who impacted you is a great way to show them gratitude and a fantastic way to inspire others to strive to be positive influences themselves.

 

One More Time . . . How Do You Motivate People?string(47) "One More Time . . . How Do You Motivate People?"

June 19, 2014
, , , , Author, Motivation, Video Blog 5

 

Have you ever wondered how to inspire motivation in employees, friends, family members or others in your network?  In this video, I reveal the one secret to motivating people.  I also talk about how to provide an environment where people feel motivated, based on Frederick Herzberg’s concept of ‘satisfiers’ and ‘dissatisfiers.’  Satisfiers are things which have been proven time and again to motivate people hands down and dissatisfiers are things that do the opposite–they do nothing at all to motivate a person.

Watch the video now to find out exactly what to focus on if you desire to truly motivate people; and I’d love to hear some of your ideas/examples regarding what satisfiers and dissatisfiers are for you.  Please leave your thoughts in the comment forum below–thanks!

 

What to Do When You’re Not Motivated–Top 5 Tipsstring(59) "What to Do When You’re Not Motivated–Top 5 Tips"

May 22, 2014
, , , Goals, Growth, Motivation, Productivity, Self Development, Strategic Planning, Strategy, Success, Video Blog 9

Someone once said to me, “Man, judging from the amount of things you accomplish, you must be motivated all the time.”

Uhh, no . . . that’s hardly the case!  It’s nearly impossible to feel motivated ALL the time yet sometimes it can feel like we’re in a real doldrums slump.  So what can we do when that happens?  In this video, I outline my top 5 tips for getting inspired when you’re lacking motivation.

From advice on how to prioritize to examples of what to surround yourself with and what to avoid, you’re sure to glean some powerful insight that will help you get back on the road to productivity and success in no time!

After watching the video, I’d love to hear your personal tactics for pull yourself out of an unproductive rut and taking steps to start accomplishing great things.  Please share your thoughts, stories, and feedback in the comment forum below–thanks!

Four Keys to Becoming a Networking Catalyststring(43) "Four Keys to Becoming a Networking Catalyst"

December 30, 2013
, , , , , Networking, Networking Prep, Networking Tactics 2

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no mechanic. In fact, when I was a kid, my father (who can fix just about anything) brought me out to the garage one day and said, “Son, you’d better go to college because you’re never going to make a living with your hands.” Well, that was great advice, Dad. I think things have worked out pretty well with that suggestion.

 

Fully acknowledging my lack of skills as a mechanic, I can, however, tell you how a catalytic converter relates to networking your business.

By definition, a catalyst is an agent that initiates a reaction. In networking, a catalyst is someone who makes things happen. Without a catalyst, there is no spark, and not much gets done.

So, what would it take for you to become a catalyst for your business and your network? Four things: initiative, intention, confidence and motivation.

Initiative. Catalytic people don’t sit still–they make things happen in all aspects of their lives. As networkers, they stay alert for a problem that needs solving, then spring into action, calling on someone from their network to solve the problem. They operate with a “get it done now” mentality.

Intention. Catalytic people operate with intent and are goal-driven. As networkers, catalytic people have both business and networking goals. They learn the goals of others in order to help people get where they wish to be.

Confidence. Catalytic people have confidence in themselves and in the players on their team. This helps to ensure that the task at hand will be accomplished with stellar results.

Motivation. Catalytic people are not only motivated themselves, but they also can motivate others to perform at their highest potential. These people excite others to contribute, sharing their energy and excitement through their words and actions. They are motivated by personal and professional rewards that they can’t wait to share with others, and they desperately want to help others succeed.

To set your network in motion toward helping your business, make it your goal to become a catalytic person. Think of your network as a row of standing dominoes. Each domino will remain standing until you act upon the first domino. As a catalyst, you must tap the first domino to watch the chain reaction of tumbling dominoes. Your network is standing in place, waiting for you to set the pieces in motion.

Lacking Motivation?–Follow These Stepsstring(44) "Lacking Motivation?–Follow These Steps"

August 12, 2013
, , , , , , , , , , Emotional Intelligence, Ivan Misner, Leadership, Motivation, Rant!, Self Development, Uncategorized 10

Sometime ago, one of my blog readers asked me this question:

I was wondering what do you do when your motivation level is lacking as well as your self esteem? What do you do to regain the motivation needed to move on with your plans and pursue your endeavors?

This is a great question and here’s my answer:

First of all, let me say that I am as certain of what I’m about to say as anything in my life – motivation comes from within you not from outside you. No one can motivate you but yourself. I’m speaking long-term motivation. Many years ago, Frederick Herzberg wrote about motivation and he said that others can motivate you but only in the short term. He called that KITA (Kick in the… Anatomy – that’s really what he called it).

On the other hand, long term motivation comes from within. So, that begs the question – how do you motivate yourself when your motivation is low? First, you should understand that everyone has to deal with this throughout their lives. I’ve never met anyone that was immune to this (I certainly am not). So, what do I do when I feel down?

Here are some of the things that have helped me:

  1. Minimize contact with negative people! That’s not always completely possible but do it as much as you can. At least do this for for a short while. I really believe that some people complain as though it were an Olympic event! Keep clear of them while you are trying to get your mojo back.
  2. Maximize time with people that refuel your energy! You become the five or six people you hang out the most with. Hang out with people that make you want to “do” and “be” better.
  3. Read/listen/watch positive things. If you are feeling down, read a positive book. Listen to a CD with a positive message. Watch something that makes you laugh! Surround yourself with some things you love to be influenced by. Let that in to your life as much as possible.
  4. Prioritize the things you want to do and must do. Make a list. I live by lists. The more I can get a handle on the things I need and want to do – the easier it is to tackle them.
  5. Eat the elephant one bite at a time. Take that list you’ve created and tackle some of that list EVERY DAY. If you really do this – you will be amazed at how much you get accomplished. The more you accomplish – the better you will feel. They feed each other.

There’s plenty more we can do to generate motivation but I believe the list above is a good start. Is there something specific you have had success with that you could add to this list?  If so, please share it in the comment forum below and tell us how it has helped you motivate yourself?  This is an important topic and I’d love to hear your ideas about it, as I’m sure other readers would as well, because we can all use a little good advice to motivate ourselves every now and then. Thanks in advance for your input.

Who Are You Surrounding Yourself With?string(38) "Who Are You Surrounding Yourself With?"

September 20, 2012
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Building Relationships, Business, Connections, Entrepreneurial Enterprise, Mentors, Motivation, Networking, Networking Prep, Networking Tactics, Referral Institute, Relationships, Self Development, Success, Video Blog 6

A significant challenge for business owners who have stepped out of the world of corporate support and started their own enterprise is that they become worried and scared to take chances on their own.  In this short video, I speak with Dubai, UAE Referral Institute® franchisee Phil Bedford about success and the importance of the people business owners surround themselves with.

Jim Rohn has said that people are the sum of the five people they are around most and Phil has a related piece of key advice for business owners:

“Surround yourself with highly motivated, passionate people (who) want to help you succeed.”

So, who do you surround yourself with?  After watching this video, are you going to make it a point to seek out individuals who are more successful than you are, even if they initially intimidate you?  Leave a comment to let us know your thoughts about the video and what kind of efforts, if any, you’re going to make to surround yourself with those who will influence you and your business positively.

Thanks for watching!

What Motivates People?–Satisfiers & Dissatisfiersstring(60) "What Motivates People?–Satisfiers & Dissatisfiers"

July 19, 2012
, , , , , , Ivan Misner, Motivation, Self Development, Success, Video Blog 4

In this short video, presented by Applied Transformation, Inc., I talk with Roger Green about what motivates people and about how Frederick Herzberg’s concept of satisfiers and dissatisfiers was an epiphany for me–particularly the aspect that pinpoints money as a dissatisfier.

The four powerful satisfiers I mention here can have a lot to do with happiness and success; assessing whether or not these satisfiers are currently available to you or not may cause you to reexamine the direction you are heading in your business and/or in life.

What are some of the most important satisfiers and dissatisfiers in your life and how have they affected the choices you make regarding which directions to go in and which endeavors to pursue?  Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.

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