Drowning without Leadership Skills?

Posted on August 21, 2013 by Jeff Pennypacker

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Are concrete boots drowning your potential hindering the development of quality leadership Skills?

How much precious time and energy do you spend thinking about things you SHOULD do?

As an entrepreneur myself, I can imagine your “I should” list is long and eats up a ton of your time. Becoming great in your industry takes learning the leadership skills necessary to push your self to new levels. This post should help.

There are steps you can take to break into a new world. “Should’s” are like concrete boots drowning your future potential. Crippling thoughts and captive emotions flood your mind right after telling yourself you “Should” do something. Joy is not usually present, instead a heavy feeling of obligation.

As of right now where do your “should’s” stand?

I should write a book

I should start a business

I should make and execute a marketing plan

I should loose weight

I should hire a coach

I should…

“I should” statements are just thoughts. Thoughts, when not acted on, produce self-esteem lowering negativity. On the other hand, confidence builds strongly by taking acting on them and can build your self-esteem. Building your self-esteem is never a bad thing, the deeper challenge comes with knowing what should’s, should stay on your list. I want to challenge you to “DO” the right things because not every “should” is lined up with the maximum potential you are meant for, thus hindering your leadership development.

I believe having a long list of “should’s” steals focus from important things that will give you the most satisfaction.The thing is, we all have “should’s.” How do we decide whether to keep them or throw them away? It’s a tough decision, such is life, so let’s work through it together.

Here is a personal example.

I used to make furniture as a hobby. After a few years I decided to turn furniture making into a business. I made the business plan and off I went, Forever Built Furniture was born.

It wasn’t long into the furniture business I saw an even better opportunity to start an ice sculpture business. Many of you know sculpting ice became a large Christian business doing hundreds of thousands of dollars per year (you can check out the ice business if you are interested masterpieceice.com).

After starting Masterpiece Ice, furniture making was pushed aside, never to be touched again. The wood-shop laid dormant in the corner of the basement. The hard part was every time I did laundry or worked out in the basement I would see the wood-shop and say, “Man, I really should build something.” This kept me feeling discontent and anxious.

After a few years of beating myself up, feeling like I had a set of concrete boots holding me down; I decided to sell the entire wood-shop. It was not getting used and had become a downer for me. It wasn’t long till I found someone to buy the whole shop (Thank you Charlie)! Selling the wood-shop was heartbreaking at first, but reality told me it was time to let go of the “should’s” of my past to move on to the bright opportunities of my future. I have this dream for you too, look upon the bright opportunities of your future.

As I mentioned above, unfulfilled “should’s” can lower your self esteem and strip energy that can be used to fulfill the purpose of your future.

Here are my thoughts on how to get rid of the mental junk that is holding you back.

Step 1 – Write down your “should’s”

Step 2 – Reflect and ask questions

How long has it been on my list?

Why should I do it?

Is it aligned with the true purpose that is in my heart?

Step 3 – Evaluate

What is the consequence if I NEVER do them? I find when I ask this question, it refines the list to items that will make a difference to more than just me.

Step 4 – Delete

Delete the one’s that don’t make the cut. Get rid of the daily reminders triggering “I should” thoughts.

Step 5 – Release yourself of old “should’s” to make room to soar to new heights.

How is this relevant to you?

I am not a mindreader but I feel it’s safe to say you have a much longer list of “Should’s” than you have of completed work. “Should’s” can be small and large. My motorcycle sits outside telling me I “should” ride it more, but in reality, do I have the time? Everywhere I travel these days I am either taking stuff with me that won’t fit on the motorcycle or I am taking Henry, my pup with me. Keep it or sell it, that is the question I am wrestling with right now. As for something small, there are a few emails sitting in my inbox that I “should” respond to, but the only thing I really should do is delete them and move on with my life. Just as you should!

Give yourself permission to throw out the “Should’s” that are like concrete boots.

Stick to only what is most impactful and important.

Free your mind and enjoy your time. My advice, let reality speak, and listen to what it says.

Reality will give you all that you need to reach the potential you were made for and master the leadership skills necessary to reach your potential.

If you want help with the “I Should’s” or any part of your business you are always welcomed to give me a call. From mastering your time, to increasing the bottom line I can help. Contact me.

To your Success!

Coach Jeff

Leadership Success is not a Light-switch

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Jeff Pennypacker

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Leadership success is not a light-switch you can turn on and off.

There is a correlation between personal growth and business success.

Small business owners, like us, start out believing business success is a result of a great product. That is true to some degree.

Real success is deeper, because a great product is a result of authentic leadership, character, and integrity.

Leadership, Character, and Integrity cover a large surface area. That being said you can easily see there is much more room to grow in your leadership than in your product.

To make large gains in your business try intentionally growing in one of these three areas first and see what happens. I believe when you grow personally, the rest will follow.

If you don’t know where to start, begin with increasing your leadership.

So lets talk about leadership for a minute. I need to break the myth you’ve been believing. The myth that there is this magical leadership light-switch you can turn on and off.

Truth: There is no light-switch.

You cannot turn on great leadership at work, and stink at it at home. Detail is the same way. It’s not possible to have a messy car and house, then walk into work, flip the switch to automatically become detailed oriented.

Stop and reflect on that for a moment… How often do you try to be one thing at home and something else at work? It feels like you are about to be ripped apart, like your life is playing tug-o-war and your body is the rope.

Why is this important to you?

It’s important because you want to be successful. You want to reach your potential and have meaning to your life.

The Solution: Do what great leaders do, follow the lead of other great leaders.

Great leaders grow personally. When you become a new you, you will naturally use it in your business.

Real success starts with your personal leadership.

Its time to be a little selfish by investing in your personal success. Everyone around you will benefit from it.

How can you easily do this?

Read a book. I recommend anything by John C. Maxwell, Seth Godin, Dan Miller
Listen to podcasts. My favorites are The Dave Ramsey Show, and TWIT, and Andy Stanley
Find a mentor. I have many of them. They are like my own personal specialists. They are all great men. I usually go to each one based on who they are. One man is for business advice, one for spiritual, one for marketing, and one for marriage.
Volunteer for Non-Profit Board. This type of leadership experience will challenge you to new levels in basic leadership, teamwork, and collaboration

Take the lead in your life.

What is leadership? It just means that you go first, you take the initiative to make an impact on your own life first, then it will turn into growth in your business as well.

To your success,

Coach Jeff

Your Biggest Growth Opportunity

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Jeff Pennypacker

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Your Biggest Growth Opportunity is in how you handle Criticism.The best growth in life comes from the toughest times.

The difference between you and the “unsuccessful people” is your ability to capitalize on those tough times. Too many people go through tough times without learning anything.

It’s sad. Don’t do that!

My mentor John Maxwell says, “When you fall down, pick something up while you’re down there.” What he means is, when you fail and are at the bottom of it all, you should look around for the silver lining. Sometimes you may have to shovel through crap to find it, but it’s there.

Tough times are sometimes thrust upon you in the form of criticism.

Criticism is like kryptonite, it can take a superman down. You may have been flying through the clouds until, unexpectedly, someone throws a fiery ball of criticism and knocks you down to ground zero. Hey, if I had a penny (I am a Pennypacker) for every time this has happened to me ….. well I would be on vacation right now.

I challenge you to a new perspective today.

Life experience attempted to convince me there is only one definition of criticism:

“Criticism = Threat.” So back away and fight it at all cost.

That definition is a lie!

Those who truly become successful as an individual use the new definition:

“Criticism = Opportunity”

Take a moment and let that sink in.

When being criticized if you were to ask “Whats the opportunity here?” how would the outcome change?

My first business mentor Chuck Fiske (aka, The Old Man) opened up our relationship by criticizing my lack of business acumen. Initially, I told him “Take a hike old man and stay out of my business.” When he persisted, I ended up giving in. Eventually I began to ask “Whats the opportunity here?” The answer was a friendship going on 11 years and counting. Without his lessons, I would never have made it in business.

Keep reading, the “How To” part is coming up.

I don’t expect you to love being criticized but you can learn to love the results reflecting on criticism brings forth.

Those who love the results, no matter how tough it was to hear, will prosper. Those who can’t handle it perish by their own ignorance.

Who will you be?

Will you be the person who learns new skills, techniques, and gains knowledge but does not grow personally into a more mature person. Yes, it’s possible and happens often.

“Learning new skills does not equal personal growth”

Or will you accept criticism, reflect on its truth, and grow personally?

No one really likes to stand and listen to criticism. If you do, you might be crazy but we all need to fall in love with reflecting on it, filtering out the lie, and accepting the truth.

Criticism always has two parts:

Someones perception of you and
The truth about you.

It is up to you to separate them out.

What I have gleaned from criticism is that we NEED IT to conquer our weaknesses while stretching our strengths.

What keeps you from the benefits of criticism?

The difficult part is allowing criticism to pierce through our arsenal of deflection. Somewhere in life we are trained to put our guard up, build a wall, or throw punches at those who criticize us. When that happens, the odds allowing criticisms golden nugget to stretch and challenge you decrease.

How you get over this is to know what your defense tactics are and change them, or at the very least, acknowledge them. Both will allow you to be stretched.

I think we both know that criticism is more prevalent in your life than pure encouragement, sad but most likely true.

Here are tactics in the arsenal of deflection. (I have used many of them)

Go on the defensive.

Give Excuses.

Agree with everything but listen to nothing.

Crying.

Avoidance.

Anger.

Get loud.

Walk away.

I don’t want to talk about it.

What is your arsenal of deflection?

How can you react better to criticism?

Since you can’t change what people say to you, change how you receive them.

I was thinking about this a bunch (as you can tell). I asked myself “whats the proper reaction?” So I started to day dream of how I would want someone to react if I was to sit them down and have a critique session. How would I want the other person to react?

In my dream I was talking to Mr. Potato Head about his shortcomings and assaulted him with well intended Criticism, I wondered how I would want him to react.

In dreamland I would want him to smile and say THANK YOU for caring enough to say something to me. Then I would want him to leave happily. I would want him to think about it, analyze it, and throw out the parts that were not true, accept the parts of the criticism that were, then make the necessary changes immediately.

Honestly, if you are the one doing the criticizing, isn’t that how you want them to react? You may even dream they would ask you for tips, tricks, advice, and strategy to make the change. Yeah, wouldn’t that be awesome! Yes in your dream world that would be awesome, however in the real world it’s not like that.

Whats the solution? Since you can’t control the other person, all you can do is BE the person you just Dreamed of. When someone comes to you and wants to criticize… listen, then smile and say thank you for caring enough about me to say something and help me grow. Then go make the necessary changes and earn their respect. Even more than that, you become a respectable person.

If you can begin to love the results of criticism you will prosper and live a happy life.

Remember “Criticism = Opportunity”

To your success,

Coach Jeff

3 Keys to Unlocking your Dream Potential

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Jeff Pennypacker

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Your potential is locked up inside. How do I know?

Because I almost guarantee you have recently thought;

I should have done this…
I had planned to do this but…
There was not enough time to…

I too, have been trapped by those thoughts of guilt and dissatisfaction.

That was until I learned the 3 keys and used them to unlock my Dream Potential.

You can use the 3 keys to unlock your potential.

It’s important to learn how to write out your goals and execute them. More importantly, achieving your goals will create overwhelming feelings of joy and satisfaction.

Don’t you want overwhelming joy and satisfaction?

The 3 keys to unlocking your Dream Potential are –

Match the “What with Why” – Match what your dream is, with why you want to do it. If you’re not personally connected to the Dream, its not really yours and you will fail.
Make Room – A common reason people fail to achieve their dreams is for lack of having the “guts to quit” something; throwing out the old and making room for the new.
Make Appointments – You are only 50% likely to achieve your goals if you write them down and tell someone. Might as well flip a coin! But…you are 95 % more likely to achieve your goals when you make specific appointments with someone who will hold you accountable.

You can use these three keys to unlock your dream potential. It’s no secret that you want the euphoria of achieving your Dreams, 360 business has the formula to get you there.

Coach Jeff

360 Business Inc.

Your incompetence could make you wealthy…here’s how

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Jeff Pennypacker

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Face it, you are incompetent.Someone has to tell you the truth. Get angry with me, I can take it! It doesn’t feel good to hear the truth, but this time incompetence is a good thing. @#%$?

I want to challenge you again to a new perspective. The perspective that incompetence is great and you should love every minute of it. I do.

So… in my outside voice while pointing my finger I shout “YOU ARE INCOMPETENT!”

Your first reaction may be anger.

The second may be to defend yourself to its lie. The third reaction is realizing its truth. The fourth reaction is thinking about all the areas of your incompetence and laughing hysterically at yourself. Once you get to level #4 you can begin to see the light. You may come to enjoy being incompetent in many areas. Its fun to allow other people to step in where you fall short.

Is it really possible to be competent at everything? As an entrepreneur I want to say yes because sometimes we are forced to do everything at first. You are the sales person, the producer, the bookkeeper, the repairman, etc. At first this plan works because it has to, but that should change over time. The question is “Has it changed?” Lets face the facts, if you were competent at everything you would continue to do it all yourself. I’m tired just thinking about it. Think of all the downsides… you wouldn’t have any friends because you became that annoying know-it-all. Your business becomes a dreaded job. The economy would be further damaged since you’re hoarding all the jobs. Finally, you are limiting your income potential dramatically. Please turn over a new leaf and accept your incompetence with joy.

For so many entrepreneurs like yourself you are still doing way to much to enjoy your business.

When I learned to love the areas of my own incompetence it made living a fully alive, satisfied life, possible. I began to see opportunities for more competent people to step in and lend a hand. Realizing you are incompetent in most areas of life feels good because it gives permission to be extremely competent in the areas of your giftedness.

You have permission, I grant it to you, to be incompetent. The pressure to be perfect at everything is finally off. I just cut the ball and chain from your ankle, you’re welcome!

What you will find is wealth beyond measure.

Deeper relationships

Greater productivity

Satisfaction

Inner strength

Less frustration with yourself and others

Relying on other people builds relationships, and relationships in business build profits.

The level of your incompetence will determine the size of your company and the number of hours you work.

Action time:

Write down all the things you take responsibility for:

Etc

Next, circle the two items you are best at. Hire someone else to do the rest. If you can’t afford a full time person try using a Virtual Assistant (VA) for some tasks. I have begun this process myself using elance.com. So far so good. For some great advice on working with VA’s check out Tim Ferriss book The 4-hour work week.

Also if you have any advice for outsourcing, let me know!

To your success and joy in business

Coach Jeff

#1 Bizness Killer, Don’t do this…

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Jeff Pennypacker

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I am not going to “beat around the bush,” making you read all the way to the end to find out what the #1 Business killer is. I will give it to you right now because it is so important, if you read no further, at least you will have become aware of the biggest problem stealing the success out of your business. The #1 Business Killer is Pride.

Pride gets to all of us and it destroys!

Pride gets to all of us in one way or another.

Pride won’t allow you to take the lesser job, you would rather go into bankruptcy.

Pride won’t allow you to listen to your boss’s requests so you loose your job.

Pride won’t allow you to admit mistakes so your children grow up angry and unbalanced.

Pride won’t allow you to give in to the needs of your spouse so you get divorced.

Pride won’t allow you to listen to new marketing or product ideas from your staff so your business stops being profitable.

Shall I continue?

If I had to guess, I would say pride has contributed to almost all the outcomes you regret.

Pride is a strong emotion that arrests your being, shackles you in chains, and puts you in the dungeon of despair. I know how it feels, I live there too!

Recently, pride has been a massive issue in my life. Many of you know that just over a year ago I sold a highly profitable Ice Sculpture business called Masterpiece Ice. It was the right thing to do. I thought that my next business would spring up fast and be successful right out of the gate. Well, in truth, it is taking a ton of work to make it happen again. Since money doesn’t grow on trees, I came to the conclusion I would need to get a part time job to sustain life while I build this business. In theory this would be an easy task: put together a resume and voila`, a job would appear. Well, you have to know I have been happily self employed for 8+ years, going back to work for someone was a huge pride issue.

I didn’t know how big my pride had gotten until I walked in for my first interview. I almost threw up! When I got the job and went back for training, I was angry, almost threw up again, and just about told them to take a hike and walk out. Then I realized pride was killing me. I didn’t want to feel that way anymore and neither do you. What we both need to know here is that success is on the other side of pride.

Success is on the other side of pride!

What does pride do? It makes you fall. I am sure you have heard, “Pride comes before the fall”

and it is true because: Pride blinds, Pride binds, Pride grinds, Pride minds.

Pride blinds you from seeing solutions, innovative or creative thoughts and ideas

Pride binds you to the status quo and cements your “One Way” sign into the ground

Pride grinds negativity into relationships exiling collaboration, the heart of relationships

Pride minds if someone has something to say to you about it.

So…

If you are blinded from seeing solutions, bound to travel one way, have negativity in relationships, and mind if someone has something to say about it, how much momentum and higher profits in your business will you get?

Just in case your pride is in the way, I will answer for you.

NONE! Zero, zip, zilch, nada. Pride, in my opinion, is the #1 business Killer.

Has pride gotten to you? Leave a comment, let us know how pride has affected you. Unless your too proud to!

Until next time,

Coach Jeff

P.S. In my next post I will give you Prides arch nemesis!