Tag: training

Sport-specific training

Working on your genera fitness is great for most people. This would include your average working out like running, lifting weights, or doing yoga. But general physical preparedness (GPP, as we call it in the biz) should only be the baseline for those who are training for a specific sport or event. GPP focuses on health, but not on performance. And while you typically need to be healthy to perform at the highest level, being healthy does not necessarily translate to athletic achievement.

For example, in most sports, it helps to have one or more of the following attributes: strength, explosiveness/power, flexibility, agility, aerobic and anaerobic conditioning, etc. You can easily work on all of those at the gym by yourself. But no matter your strength or conditioning level, you still need sport-specific training to work on your skills if you want to excel at your sport. It doesn’t matter how many times you hit the weights or run, those are not going to make you run a better route, use better technique, or improve your hand-eye coordination. Being more agile will not make you a better shooter, swimmer, golfer, etc.

Always work to have GPP. But if you are competing in a sport, make sure you take the time to focus on your sport-specific skills. Most of the time, if someone is highly skilled and in decent shape, they will outperform someone with low-to-moderate skill but is in great shape.

Ability

There is natural ability (what you’re capable with very little training) and there is learned ability (effort that you put in to increase your overall ceiling for achievement). Don’t rely too much on natural ability. This can lead to overconfidence and a lackadaisical approach to learning, growing, or improving. Don’t discredit yourself thinking that you don’t have much natural ability either. You are more capable than you believe. If you don’t believe in yourself, you’re less likely to step out of your comfort zone and try to tackle new challenges that can help you grow.

8 Tips to Succeed in Business

To succeed in business, you need to do the following:

1) Hustle for new clients…until you’re well-known and have a history of getting clients what they want, it will be very difficult for them to find you. Instead, you have to find them! Be on social media, attend local meetups, go door knocking, cold calling, etc. The bottom line is you have to work to get new clients.

2) Pay…this isn’t always true (depending on the level of “success” you want to achieve), but it is true if you want to be the top in your field. I’m not saying you have to spend frivolously on things that don’t matter, but you do need to pay for marketing and advertising, have a well-built website, etc. You’ll also have your normal expenses to account for (any licenses, utilities, repairs, or big ticket items like a commercial vehicle). Just like the saying goes, “you have to spend money to make money.”

3) Save…once you start earning money, you can’t spend everything you make. If you do this, you’ll soon find out that the government wants their cut. After all, they put a lot of time and money into this business venture and risked losing it all if…wait, no, that was you. Regardless, the government does do some good (update roads, pay firefighters and the police force, etc.), even if they waste a lot of taxpayer dollars.

In addition to saving for taxes, you’ll also want to save for “stormy weather” like a couple of bad months of selling, a slow season, etc. Many financial experts recommend 3-6 months of personal savings, but most recommend even more (12 months or more) savings for your business. Don’t run your margins so thin that you can’t save any money. If you don’t save money and there happens to be a pandemic (*cough* coronavirus) which includes a shutdown of “non-essential” businesses, you’re screwed.

But in order to save money, you need to…

4) Charge what you’re worth. Be fair with your pricing. But don’t confuse fair with free. You have to get paid. Any business that is still in business needs to make a profit, otherwise they won’t be around for long.

On the other end of the spectrum, don’t charge a premium for something you’ve never done before. Everyone needs to start somewhere, but if you’ve never done something and you act like you’re an expert, you’re misleading the client. Eventually come back to bite you in the butt (and with that will come negative reviews), which is why I believe you should always…

5) Be honest…telling the truth isn’t always what the client wants to hear right then and there, but in the long run it is what’s best. You are only as good as your reputation. If you destroy your credibility, you destroy any trust that you may have built up with your existing and potential clients. That is a much harder hill to climb than being truthful from the get go.

6) Show up on time for appointments…This is the easiest thing you can do to start off on the right foot! It takes no skill to show up on time. If you’ve never met with someone before (or even if you have), don’t disrespect them by showing up late. If they made it a point to be somewhere at an agreed upon time, you should be there too. When you show up whenever you want, you’re essentially telling the other person that your time is more valuable than theirs. Call me crazy, but I don’t think that’s the best way to win business.

7) Communicate…set expectations for them, keep them in the loop on what’s happening, and if you don’t have an answer to one of their questions, let them know you’re working on it. When something bad happens, tell them face-to-face or call them if you need to, but never text/email bad news. Yes, it will be harder to do in person, but once again, it goes back to respecting the client. It shows you care and if you were in their shoes, you would probably want them to do the same.

8) Be personable…when everything else is equal with the competition, people buy from people they like. If you can build rapport with them, make them feel like you actually like them/care about them (which you should), and they don’t think you’re being disingenuous, you will win over a lot of potential clients that were on the fence.

Those are my 8 simple tips to succeed in business. There are plenty of other rules, but if you’d like to add any of your own, feel free to add a comment below!

Competing and confidence

Be confident in your ability to compete. You don’t have to win every time. You won’t win every time. But you can always compete…Try your hardest, have a good attitude whether you win or lose, and make sure you learn from your experiences.

If you don’t like losing, keep practicing. Keep competing. Be a student of the game. What worked well before and what didn’t work? How can you implement what worked and reduce what didn’t to get more consistent results? Become an expert in whatever it is you’re trying to do. With competence comes confidence.

Sales

Good salespeople have good answers. Great salespeople ask great questions. Ask open-ended questions and then repeat their answer back to them to get your prospect to feel understood. This also helps because it allows the prospect to clarify something you may have misunderstood or assumed incorrectly.

If you are confident in your abilities and are a good communicator (i.e., you listen well and know how to encourage others to give you more relevant information), you will do well in sales.