Laura Tucker

Photographer, Writer, Podcast Host

Success

How Playful Practice Can Help Your Business

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Are you really making mistakes, or are you on the journey to mastery?   The difference in your results could be as simple as whether you experience practice as work or as play.

Before I learned how playful practice can help your business, I’d become frustrated when I tried something new and it wasn’t perfect right away.  I’d compare myself to another person’s best, not recognizing or appreciating that they had invested thousands of hours of practice and at least as many dollars to become masterful in their pursuit.

Mistakes or Mastery?

In his book Outliers – The Story of Success,  Malcolm Gladwell writes that it takes roughly ten thousand hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field.  Whether you suffer through your ten thousand hours or play your way through is a choice.

Are you really making mistakes, or are you on the journey to mastery?

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We’ve all heard the mantra “practice makes perfect”, but practicing can get a bad reputation.  It starts early.  In my email newsletter, I shared a story about how I felt about practicing piano compared to my experience of practicing baseball as a child.  Two different environments and activities produced opposite reactions in me as a child.

Practice without play is just hard work

I don’t know about you, but I prefer easy work, or fun work, over hard work.  If you’re not able to enjoy the journey because you are solely focused on perfection, you may be setting yourself for the 3 Fs:  frustration, fear and failure.

In several recent coaching sessions, I’ve asked my client to lighten up and give themselves permission to make mistakes rather than retreat back into their comfort zone.  You need to give yourself permission to try something new and mess it up!  Mistakes are a part of growing and learning.  It’s not realistic to expect mastery from yourself right away.

Lighten up!  Mistakes are part of growing and learning.

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How to get moving towards mastery:

  1. Identify one thing you could do on a regular basis that is new to you and would help grow your business.
  2. Use the magical power of the internet to research 3-4 examples of people in your field doing what you need to do.  This should take you no more than a couple of hours.  Anything more is procrastinating.
  3. Now that you have met your new role models, emulate them.  (Note:  Emulating is not the same as copying.  Use your ideas, your material, your way of seeing the world.  Don’t copy their content.  Emulate HOW they are doing it.)
  4. Take ACTION.
  5. Celebrate!
  6. Go back to step 4 and repeat over and over.

You might ask yourself, “Wait a minute, I’m doing the thing – I thought I was supposed to be practicing!  You are practicing – while you’re in your game. Eventually you will find your own approach, voice, and style.  The important thing is you are taking action, not thinking about taking action.

The important thing is you are taking action, not thinking about taking action.

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Unless you are an accountant or surgeon, your success in business relies on your capacity to move forward, not on your ability to be perfect.  Your playful, imperfect practice is better than anyone else’s inertia.

Grow Your Business with the 7 Phases of Every Authentic Sales Conversation

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Sales and marketing are two of the hottest topics whenever small business owners gather to talk shop.  But when I ask small business owners if they have had any formal sales training, the answer is often “No”.

How does this happen?  It’s simple.  People get trained to sell when they are working for someone else – as a salesperson.

Most small businesses are created out of inspiration.  Small business owners are passionate about what they do; they are courageous people who have taken the plunge to bring a product or service to the marketplace.  They believe in what they do so strongly they have traded the predictability and relative stability of full time employment for the less predictable journey of the entrepreneur.

Without an understanding of the steps involved in sales, it can become very frustrating once the initial burst of motivation and inspiration wears off.

What’s a small business owner to do to create an authentic sales strategy?

Let’s start by getting practical and identify the seven stages of every authentic sales conversation

1.  Visibility

It may seem obvious, but it’s not always simple – the purpose of this first phase of sales is to be seen.  Face-to-face networking, community involvement, speaking engagements, social media, blogging…the list of activities an business can engage in to create visibility can be long, and become overwhelming.  Don’t try to do everything or be everywhere.  Choose what is authentic and right for you and do it consistently.  Regardless of the elements of your visibility strategy, you know you are winning the visibility game when people want to connect with you.

Step up and be seen! Visibility is the 1st phase of every #sales conversation

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2.  Connection

Once someone has connected with you, it’s time to let them know why you do what you do.  In his best-selling book Start With Why, Simon Sinek does a definitive job explaining the importance of knowing your why and the impact it has on leadership and its impact on attracting customers. I’ll use myself and my coaching as an example.  I have an unshakeable belief that there is a sweet spot where our personal growth journey and our business growth strategy meet.  When I’m looking to create connection, I come right out and say it! “I coach entrepreneurs to grow their business by growing themselves first.”  I know I’ve connected when the person I speak to nods, leans towards me, says “What?!??!”, or asks “How do you do that?”

3.  Engagement

Selling is not telling.   Unless you want someone to wish they had not connected with you, never ever launch into telling telling telling other people what you do,  Engagement is a 2-way conversation.  At this stage of the conversation, you are revealing what you do and how it might help them.  The goal is to have a conversation that opens the door to the possibility that your product or service is exactly what they need.

4.  Exploration (aka Discovery)

Now, you’re getting somewhere!  The first three phases of selling might happen on separate occasions, or in the space of five minutes.  It depends on the setting,  circumstances and the size of the transaction.  Typically, the larger the investment or more complex the product or service, the more likely you will arrange at least one separate conversation to discover how you might help them.  Ask questions and LISTEN to the answers.  Go deep and uncover how you can help.  When it’s time to move on to the next phase, both parties should see the value of investing in a solution.

5.  Offer Your Solution

All right, you have arrived and it’s your time to shine!  You are going to demonstrate that you have been LISTENING by offering a solution that meets the needs that have been shared with you.  There is nothing worse for a buyer to have invested the time, energy and trust by being open and sharing their challenges, only to be met with a cookie-cutter solution.  Address each need during your offer.  Before you move on to the next phase, be sure to ask if you have addressed their needs.  Once they have agreed, present your fees and ask for….

6.  Commitment

You’ve arrived.  The relationship has been created and nurtured.  The challenges have been examined and addressed in your solution.  It’s time to ask for a commitment in the form of money.  You won’t always receive a “yes”, but one of the most common reasons for a “no” is that your value isn’t understood.  Check to see if you have skipped any steps, particularly during your Exploration (step 4) and presentation of your Solution (step 5).

Skipping steps in a sales conversation is the root cause of many ‘No’s.

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It’s important to understand that if you have any of your own issues around money, it is likely you will bring them to this stage of the sales process.  It’s worth doing the work to uncover any limiting beliefs you have in this area.  It’s also important that you are willing to invest in the type of product or service you are selling.  If you don’t see the value, why should they?

7.  Fulfillment

Unfortunately, many people think they are finished once the money is in the bank.  Salespeople working with large organizations turn their clients over to implementation teams to fulfill the order.  Small business owners are either the one fulfilling the expectations they set, or much closer to the action.  In both scenarios, the degree to which solutions are fulfilled and expectations are met, is the degree to which you will retain customers and gain the best form of visibility there is – referrals.

Get to know your Play Safe Team – Like it or not, we all have one!

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What is your play safe team?

You know it as a persistent, shrinking feeling.   It’s gnawing at you, causing self-doubt and unrest.  How and when it shows up is intensely personal, but it always seems to happen when you need to be at your best.  You may break into a sweat, or your heart may race.  Maybe it’s a tightness, or a burning sensation in that familiar place in your body.  It might be a throbbing, or a stabbing feeling.  For some of us, our guts go wild.  For all of us, there is a clear message:  Retreat! Withdraw! STOP!!!

You may ask yourself, “What is this?”, “Why do I feel this way?” or “What is wrong with me?”

Allow me to introduce you to your Play Safe Team.  Like it or not, we all have one.

As uncomfortable and counter-intuitive as it feels, your Play Safe Team is here to serve you – if you know how to respond with awareness.

The #1 imperative of your Play Safe Team is your survival.

This powerful mechanism is often triggered by dream-killers like overwhelm and frustration, or when we muster up our courage and step out of our comfort zone.  Linked by fear to our sympathetic nervous system, the reaction prompted the Play Safe Team is either fight or flight.

The fight or flight response to fear makes a lot of sense observing wildlife, and it must have served our prehistoric ancestors well, or we wouldn’t be here.  If only it were so simple for the modern-day entrepreneurial human!  We’ve been taught to handle our fears by hiding them, avoiding them or powering through, aka “Feel the fear and do it anyways!”  The problem is that none of these responses to fear is sustainable over the long-term.

Get to know your Play Safe Team. Like it or not, we all have one. Click to Tweet

Imagine a modern-day entrepreneur whose guts go to mush and back gets up every time she needs to make a big move in her business.   She powers through (fights) and has some measure of success, but she knows that she could be more effective if she wasn’t battling her intestines and feeling defensive in front of her clients and employees.  Despite all her goals and planning, she always manages to come up a little bit short, leading to lackluster results and crippling disappointment.

Or, what about the business owner who is experiencing overwhelm because of time commitments to his career, his partner and his children?  He knows there are only so many hours in the day and has to prioritize his time, keeping as many commitments as he can.  He has a supportive business partner, wife and children, but is so frustrated about what he knows he won’t be able to do that he becomes resentful, reducing the quality of what he is able to do, like fitting in a workout.  He goes out to grow the business, but he consciously or unconsciously knows that if his business grows, he will face even bigger challenges getting it all done.  He knows he is not doing his best and the seeds of the fear of being a fraud take root.  When he is challenged, a chain reaction of avoidance (flight) begins and he starts “keeping himself busy” on social media and watching TV rather than attending to his former top priorities.

Your Play Safe Team is a chameleon, affecting you in many ways.

The captain of your play safe team is fear, born of inner conflict.  There is nothing wrong with inner conflict; it is a natural and necessary part of personal growth.  What is wrong is the amount of suffering and failure that happens as a result of not being able handle inner conflict effectively.

There is nothing wrong with inner conflict; it is a natural and necessary part of #personalgrowth Click to Tweet

Learn how to play big in life, and bring the wisdom of your Play Safe Team along for the ride.  Becoming aware of the fears of your Play Safe Team and its desire to keep you safe is the first step.  The second step is to learn not to judge your fear as a negative thing.  Yes, playing safe keeps us from playing BIG, but sometimes it is the right move.  We don’t want to be eaten by the lion, but we can’t stay in our cave and thrive.  Learning how to tell the difference takes time, patience and wisdom.

As intelligent, rational, human beings, we often think we can figure this all out on our own.  Sometimes we can, but more often we can’t because the fears of our Play Safe Team are living in our unconscious mind.    It’s important to have regular conversations that shine a light on your Play Safe Team.  Learning how to play big and understanding the urge to play safe creates a new level of awareness in your business game.

Do You Need a Consultant or a Coach to Grow Your Business?

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It can be challenging to determine if you and your business would benefit most from the services of a coach or a consultant as you navigate the road ahead.  With so many choices in the business world today, it can be difficult to distinguish between the two very different roles.  This challenge is exacerbated by the liberal use of the title “coach” by many service professionals who are  functioning as consultants.  Having worked as a consultant for over a decade before becoming a coach, I can tell when I have my coaching hat on, or if it slips off and the consultant sneaks out.  Here are three key distinctions between a consultant and a coach:

1.  Consulting is problem-driven.  Coaching is purpose-driven.

Problems and projects are the territory of the Consultant, so it’s important they have experience doing the work they are hired for.  Considered a “subject matter expert”, the consultant’s role is to provide recommendations on how to fix a problem or achieve a predetermined goal.  Depending on the contract, the work of some consultants ends right there:  identify the problem and provide recommendations.  Generally the success rate of this type of consulting is low, so many consultants become involved in training and implementation.

When I consulted in the automotive industry, the project I was typically hired for was to set up a call center in the Service Department.  This project was often the solution to a number of problems:  phone calls not answered in a timely manner, inconsistent communication with the customers, chaotic appointment schedules, low customer satisfaction scores and customer retention challenges.  I had a set of best practices, experience with the complicated computer systems in the car dealership environment, and the relationship skills to help management and front line employees through times of change.  Some of the time I was being coach-like, but the majority of my time was spent troubleshooting and problem-solving.

The biggest misconception of coaching is it’s for people or businesses with problems.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The cycle of desire is the foundation of the relationship between a coach and their player.  A coach partners with a business owner or leader who has the desire to play bigger in their business game.  A great player is actively seeking the type of change that will push their boundaries.  They are driven by a sense of purpose and want to close the gap between their big picture vision of themselves and their current state of affairs.  The partnership between a coach and their player is just as essential in business as it is in sport.

The biggest misconception of #coaching is it's for people or businesses with problems. Click to Tweet

2.  Consulting is a business pursuit.  Coaching is a personal pursuit.

Because consultants are hired by leaders to solve business problems, the solutions are handed down the organizational chart or from the consultant themselves, who is by definition an outsider.  The consultant’s impartiality can be a tremendous asset when coupled with great solutions, but implementation is everything when it comes to long-term sustainable success.  One of the greatest challenges of my consulting work was attempting to ensure that the change was not entirely dependent upon my continued presence.  Sustainability is not attainable if the needs of the people are not in line with the needs of the business.

It is impossible to achieve sustained results consulting the business without coaching the people; because people show up as who they are wherever they go.    A great coach will help their player see things in themselves that they cannot see alone.  A coach does not simply give instructions or provide direction.  The purpose of the coach is to help our player define their big game and get them into action. When a player is in action, their coach helps to expand their awareness and capabilities.  A coach asks powerful questions, listens actively and communicates directly with their player as they meet the challenges of their game.  And the bigger the game, the bigger the challenges.

It's impossible to achieve sustained results consulting the business without coaching the people. Click to Tweet

3.  A Consultant helps people work better.  A Coach helps people play bigger.

Consulting is a necessary, if traditional role.  Businesses have specific challenges and there are people who know the solutions and how to communicate them.  If your focus is a problem, processes or tools, hire a subject matter expert with great communication skills.  If your goal is to do big things with your business and take it and you into new territory, hire a coach.

Entering new territory means becoming more masterful.  Becoming more masterful means stretching and growing.  Stretching and growing means practicing by getting out of your comfort zone.  Getting out of your comfort zone means there’s an excellent chance it’s gonna get ugly if you do it alone!   All great athletes have a coach to help them play better.  They don’t go it alone once they have achieved success.  Wouldn’t you rather enter new territory knowing your unique super-powers with someone who’s got your back?  Yesterday I called my coach to do a “gut-check” on an idea that had me bouncing off the walls with excitement.  I picked up the phone because in our previous session we had updated my Game Design for the next 90 days.  I wanted to make sure this idea was consistent with the plan.  I’ve gone down my share of rabbit holes in my days before coaching and all I can say is “No more wasting time, energy or resources!”

A Consultant helps people work better. A Coach helps people play bigger. Click to Tweet

I enjoyed my years of consulting because I made it about the people,  but I found my passion through coaching.  If you want to grow your business, you have to grow yourself first.  Because our businesses are extensions of ourselves, the best arena for personal evolution is the business game.  In my experience, there is no board-breaking, fire-walking alternative to having a coach who will both challenge and support you in the game of your desire; and who always has your back.

The Slowest Runner with the Biggest Grin!

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Laura Tucker running PeachlandWe were blessed with beautiful weather today in the Okanagan Valley.  This year, like most years, I’ve had enough of winter by now and every little bit of sunshine makes a big difference.  Since I am training for the Vancouver Half Marathon on May 5th, Sundays are for running.  The Sunday run is the long run of the week, known as LSD (long, slow, distance for those of you who were thinking of hallucinogenic substances).  Today, like most Sundays this winter, began with several presses of the snooze button and a tiny pity party because I would have preferred to sleep in.

The Sunday ritual usually consists of heading down to Peachland with my husband Tony and our dog (ok, my dog) Brandy.  Tony’s training for a full marathon, so he gets started while I do the first 2k with Brandy, whose nick-name is “Poops-a-lot”.  After much starting and stopping, I am always happy to put her back into the car so I can hit my own stride and experience the benefits of a solitary LSD run.

Today was a little different.  There was a small 5k race at the Peachland waterfront.  It was enough to keep my mind from wandering out of body as I observed and engaged with several of the racers, who were running towards me.  Every race has it’s Serious Leaders, and today’s race was no different.  The serious leader will make no eye contact with any one.  He or she is in the zone, with singular focus and their goal in mind.  Legs and heart pounding, lungs heaving, and eyes bulging, these runners mean business.  They are working hard and hopefully will celebrate with equal intensity at the finish line.

The middle of the pack was filled with presumably newer runners, putting in at least as much effort as the aforementioned Serious Leader.  With much effort, I graduated to the rank of Middle of the Pack last year.  There are good days and bad days, but increasingly the good days are outnumbering the bad days.  It’s highly unlikely that I’ll ever be out in front, but the rewards of good health, great cardiovascular endurance and permission to eat make the effort worthwhile.  The real trick to getting to and staying with the middle of the pack for me has been literally an exercise in patience.  I’ve had to exercise patience with my body while it adapted to new levels of physical activity and healed from injury.  I’ve had to exercise patience with my attitude, which wasn’t always positive, especially in the beginning, and still can get a little ugly on a really tough running day when I’m not fueled properly.

The runners I enjoyed watching the most today were the runners that were really struggling.  You know what I mean – huffing and puffing, frothing at the mouth, eyes rolled back, uneven stride.  You know that whatever their time, these people are going for a personal best.  These are the runners I celebrate.   I’ve been there, and if a random stranger cheered me on, it gave me a boost of energy.  Today they needed all the help they could get, because the path was also full of walkers, many of whom function as moving obstacles and peanut gallery.

I was on my second lap of the waterfront and I thought all the racers were gone when I saw her.  The Last Runner.  My heart was about to go out to her, but then I noticed her radiant smile.  She was having a break-through and she knew it.  Was this her first 5k ever?  Was she on her way back from an injury?  I don’t know, but I do know that she was HAPPY.  This radiant Last Runner has no idea, but she made my day.   If there is a moral to the story, it’s this:  No matter what your goal, challenge or race, it doesn’t have to be fast, pretty or graceful to be good for you and the source of inspiration for someone else.  Just get out there and get moving!

 

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