If you say you Lost the sale on Price, what you are really saying is that you did not establish your Value. Without Value, it comes down to Price only. Remind yourself What is your USP?

If you can’t get an appointment, it’s because you are boring and sound like everyone else. Have fun. Be more interesting. Be Creative.

Are you Engaging the Prospects? What kinds of Questions do you ask? Do any of your questions make the prospect thing differently?

Voicemail sucks doesn’t it? And you can’t get calls returned, huh? Why? You don’t give them any reason to call you back. Be Creative. Be Different. Intrigue them. Be funny.

What makes me laugh is the “I don’t have enough time to ….” Time Management is everyone’s Achilles Heel, but you have to do what is important, not urgent. Pre-call preparation is important. Dialing and Smiling works better with a little research. We have this thing called Google that holds a boatload of info about your prospective company.

At the end of the day, Action, Hard work, Creativity, and Preparation will help you succeed. Remember to Work the Process.

Your own Happiness is your Responsibility. Not anyone else’s. If you are Unhappy, it lies within you to fix it.

People don’t make you Happy. You are reacting to the stiuation. The only 3 things we can control in life are:

1. Your actions.
2. Your responses to situations and your experiences.
3. Your thoughts, beliefs, or attitude.

By the way, you can’t fix people. Or change them. Period.

You have to be comfortable with yourself – and love yourself.

Manage Expectations. When I suggest lower your expectations, I’m not saying lower your standards. I’m saying be a little realistic about what will happen or how it will go. For example, if you go to an event that you paid $75 for, don’t have an expectation that the food, drink, crowd and other details will be fabulous. Often that isn’t the case. But if you just expected to meet a few people, have a nice conversation with someone, and relax through the experience, your expectations are set at a more realistic level. Hence, you will be less disappointed. Less often your hopes will be shattered.

I lack Patience. If I had patience, I would likely be happier. I wouldn’t be grumpy in traffic. I think Patience makes waiting for “The One” easier. It makes the wait for the perfect job (whatever that is) easier.

Last thought:  you have to have some kind of map or plan or goal – or you will just float along. Happiness and Fun take some planning. It doesn’t usually happen by itself.  Enjoy the Journey.

Listen as if you care what the other person is saying. Don’t just wait for your turn to say something or blather.

Active Listening Is an Essential Sales Tool by Keith Rosen contains Eight Ways to Become the Most Effective Listener, including Listening for what is not said.

David Kahle has the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Technique for Improved Listening here.

I hope you were listening.

If you are blogging, you have to do it regularly. So set a schedule and hit that 300-350 word quota.

People are frustrated with PayPal. The fees. The hurdles to jump through. The ease of use that does not exist. And the 4 day delay to transfer money out of PayPal (eBay owns them) to your own bank account.

People forget that merchant services (credit card processing) costs money. Most brick-and-mortar retail stores have a card swipe machine that usually comes with a monthly fee (rental or lease payment) on top of the actually bank fees for credit card processing. VISA, Mastercard, AMEX and Discover want the money for the risk. More money for more risk for online cc processing. With PayPal I pay high fees but I don’t pay a monthly charge nor do I have any quotas or minimums.

I also do not have to worry about PCI Compliance, which is a big PITA.

One thing about the Intuit’s Payment Network: it doesn’t accept credit cards. It’s cheap because it’s mainly ACH transactions. I have a problem with that. I use bill pay discreetly – to insurance companies and credit card companies, who have to be security compliant.

I for one am scared of ACH, because if they can hack credit card info, they can certainly hack ACH info. It’s the same reason I do not use a debit card for anything but the ATM machine. There’s no protection if your bank account or debit card get whacked.  Who wants to fight with the bank after my account was wiped out? Have you ever fought with a bank about an ACH transaction that went the wrong way (they took the money out not in). It took weeks to get resolution – and not to my satisfaction.

Let’s face it we live in a credit card society. There are costs to that.  Even Authorize.net has monthly charges for cc processing. But the complainers are usually also the cheapskates.

Have you read the book? Linchpin by Seth Godin. Reviews are collected here at Squidoo.

Are you a Linchpin? Do you aspire for more? Do you want to lead or create or connect or give back?

Linchpins are meeting in 700 cities world-wide. More than 4000 people. On June 14th, 2010. Are you going to be there?

There are many places to connect with Linchpins online. There is the Tribe. (Now with a blog everyone can read). There is a Linchpin NING. There are a few LinkedIn groups. Now there are over 600 MeetUps. There are probably groups local to you similar to the Tampa Creative Network or Brand Tampa.

But this is In-Person! Connect with another local Linchpin live! Maybe you will connect through Art or Genius. Maybe you will Inspire each other to Ship!

(Did you know that there is a Linchpin Manifesto?)

You can meet Seth live on his book tour (dates here; Boston on June 17th)

Linchpin Meetup June 14th

PS: There is another way to meet Linchpins in-person: events like BarCamp.

There isn’t a single I in Team. But there are 4 I’s in this group: INITIATE, INVITE, INFORM, and INSPIRE. (Thanks to Ed Brenegar).

A few other posts about being a Linchpin:  Mind Map, Tampa Linchpin MeetUp, and Are you a Linchpin?.

This is my Linchpin mind map about the basics of what the book Linchpin was about.

Seth also wrote a shorter version of this book titled Brainwashed: 7 ways to reinvent yourself. At the same time be was helping to compile What Matters Now – a compilation of 70 big thinkers writing thoughts to help jump start your ideas, and hopefully your actions.

In Brainwashed and in Linchpin, the main message is Do Work That Matters. The 7 concepts are as follows:

1. Connect
2. Be Generous
3. Make Art
4. Acknowledge the Lizard
5. Ship
6. Fail
7. Learn

My take-aways were that this book followed his others, including Tribes, The Dip, Meatball Sundae and Purple Cow. A Purple Cow is something Remarkable. It’s not a commodity. It’s something that gets remarked about, talked about, word-of-mouth, stories spread (The IdeaVirus).  Seth says that we all have Genius but the Lizard Brain has stopped us from producing our Art. We aren’t using our SuperPowers to make Art, to ship that Art. By shipping our art that has been produced with Emotional Labor. It’s our Genius at work, when we can get the Lizard to shut up.  Also, there is a Generosity Economy that rewards people who create and share their Art and their gifts. (Think about the Freemium business model).  To be  Linchpin, you need to be an Artist, Generous, but also you have to be a Leader of your Tribe. Leaders Connect People. That too is an Art – and a Gift. See how all that works out?

Tampa has 20 people attending its Linchpin Day at the Ideafield Offices. Details here.

What will people do that day? A little speed networking, talk about all the great ideas in Seth’s books, and maybe discuss the following: “How to advance “leadership” in Tampa Bay. In tech, culture, economy, urban living, and sustainability.”  Will you be there? Are You a Linchpin?

Ricki introduced me to another VA that edited my book. I met Susan from Ace Concierge online. I am getting busier so I am trying to figure out how to delegate better. I need to learn how to utilize my VA better to free up my time, so I can spend more time writing (blogs, articles, book #3); doing podcasts; speaking; consulting; and talking with prospects and clients.

I asked Susan if she had a tele-seminar about How to Use a VA. She didn’t but gave me thoughts. Then I Googled it. This is what I found:

1. WebWorkerDaily has an article about How to Use a VA.
2. Here’s a list of 101 tasks that a VA can do for you.
3. And here’s 30 creative ways to use a VA.
4. The typical MLM article: How to use Virtual Staff to make passive income. I actually have hired a freelancer to write non-technical copy, so anything is possible.

For me, the key is probably control. Susan wrote to me, “It is not easy to delegate what we have always done; to trust another to do it, or to believe someone can complete a project/task as well as we can. Developing a comfort level and knowing that someone can truly and effectively help you manage your business is a learned skill.”

I think it’s my mindset that I can get it done myself faster before I even explain it once. But that’s a falsehood. If I explain it correctly once, the VA can do it over and over. Also, it always takes longer to do something than I think it can (or worse schedule it to). (Like this blog post).

“Solo-preneurs cannot do it all themselves. It is impossible. Something will always suffer for this type of mentality. We all try, but miss the mark,” Susan points out.

I think she is right on the mark with this: “Once you lay the foundation, discuss accountability, responsibility, expectations and deadlines, it comes together. Some tasks may take a little more creativity with training while others, not so much, but in the end, if you think about all you stand to gain with outsourcing, it is a win-win. Just think if you delegated only 4 hrs per week-that is 16 hrs per month to work on income generating activities or have a little more me time.”

Thoughts? [I am going to spend this week thinking about what I can outsource].

One piece of advice: Put it in perspective. You think you have it bad? Are you in Iraq or Afghanistan? Do you have all of your limbs? Are you suffering from a debilitating illness? Do you have a job? Okay then. One last test: Is it a problem that money would solve? Then it isn’t really a problem at all.

Two: Change the Archetype. By that, I mean, change your behavior. Get outside your comfort zone. Do something different. If you are having boy/girl trouble, it might be related to the fact that you pick the same type of partner each time. Break the mold. Escape the Archetype.

Three: Make better decisions. It is a corollary to number two.

Four: Take a leap. Another corollary to number two. Want to change that Archetype? Take a leap in a different direction.

Get a Lifeline Group. (see this podcast at about 30 minutes). That means get some honest feedback from people. Most times we can’t fix errors because we can’t see them. It takes an outside perspective to see some things — from someone we trust will give us constructive feedback. It works in business and in life.

It’s okay to yell FML. Just remember that it’s your life and only you can change it.