While it’s true that Asian restaurants are notorious for menu typos, the question I want to know is that if you know English is not your first language, why don’t you get someone else to proof read your menu?  Seems simple enough, but this is a classic case of a very common business problem…assuming you know something when in fact you don’t.

I read somewhere that our beliefs about successful businesses are distorted because once we see a business as successful we assume that they are doing everything right.  The truth is that most businesses manage a certain level of success despite themselves.  I learned that in a big way many years ago when a major money center bank who will go unnamed was a client.  By the time I was working with them, I had been in the business long enough to realize that the closer I got to senior management at the bank, the less they knew what they were doing—at least in terms of consumer marketing.  It’s a good thing they knew what they were doing with third world loans because those loans were what kept the organization afloat.  Imagine what that bank…or any business, really…could achieve if they were aware they they naturally do some things better than others and that they didn’t know everything about everything.

Which brings us to a very basic question:  How do we know what we don’t know…especially if it seems like we know it?

Here are my three rules to help you navigate.

1. Take your ego out of it.  It isn’t about being right. It’s about doing it right.  So what if you don’t know something.  Better to get that out in the open and then do what needs to happen to rectify the situation.

2. Assume you know nothing.  Or at the very least that you don’t know it all.  Just make that assumption.  Always.  When you assume you know nothing, everything becomes an opportunity to learn and improve.

3. Talk to experts.  Lots of education and lots of years working at very specific tasks is what make people experts.  Once a year call in a few experts…marketing, sales, HR, a coach, etc.  Ask them to review what is happening in your company and provide you with a recommendation on how you can improve things.  Be honest with them and pay attention to what those experts say.  They do know more than you.

Socrates said “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”

Indeed.

We hit an unexpected cold spell. It hovered between -35 and -40 C.  (For those of you who are interested in the conversion, trust me, it doesn’t provide much relief.  At -40, C and F are oddly the same.) Too cold even for the natives, too cold for cross country skiing and dog sleds and too cold to set up a tripod to take pics of the Northern Lights in the middle of the night…not that there was all that much activity anyway.  So we busied ourselves with indoor activities: shopping and eating reindeer.

I had reindeer jerky (homemade), reindeer sausage, reindeer soup, smoked reindeer, fried reindeer, fried smoked reindeer, reindeer ribs and reindeer stir fried. I stopped short of reindeer heart and reindeer tongue, although my travel companions dug into that. I ate reindeer off a steam table and in a Michelin-starred restaurant in Stockholm.

For me, it was hard at first to wrap my head around eating reindeer.  All I kept picturing was those cute little guys who pulled Santa’s sleigh.  I could barely think of these as real animals, let alone food for an entire population.

The Sami…the indigenous people who live in this frozen area that I visited…are nomads.  They are traditionally reindeer herders.  They don’t know political borders and follow the herd from Russia, through Finland, Norway and Sweden.  Reindeer are the center of their world, providing food, warmth, their livelihood.  They could not survive without the reindeer…and I bet the reindeer couldn’t survive without them. Their world is filled with everything reindeer.   My world was filled with a cartoon version.  But as the trip progressed, my perspective on eating reindeer also progressed. .. from initial horror to sustenance to utter delight at that Michelin-starred dish in Stockholm…truly one of the better eating experiences of my life.

I learned a lot of lessons on this trip.  The big one is this.  We all see the world through our own perspective.  And while the world doesn’t change, our perspective towards it can.

Reindeer will always be reindeer.  But a lot depends on how you cook it.

Mush on.

Some people think I’m crazy. Why am I leaving a relatively warm NY winter to go where there is no warmth, no matter what?  Sure I’ll be armed with layers and hats and down and heavy boots.  But still…am I nuts?

I don’t think so.  Those who know me know I’m not necessarily a thrill seeker.  I don’t go in for bungee jumping.  But I do believe it’s important to get out of your comfort zone and I try to do it on a fairly regular basis.  Sometimes it’s my choice… like taking an exotic vacation, or pursuing a new career.   And sometimes, like when I got divorced, it wasn’t my choice at all.  But each event, whether planned or not, changed me for the better.   Those experiences pushed me in a new direction or gave me clarity about an old direction, or taught me something I needed to know…about myself or about others.  They all changed me somehow. And whatever that somehow was, the end result was always positive.  Even if the process didn’t feel very positive.

I tell my clients if you want different you need to do different.  (Hmm, I think I even said it in last month’s blog).  And this experience is going to be really different.

Northern Lights.  Dog sleds.  Reindeer.  The Ice Hotel.  The Sami culture.  So what if it’s cold and dark.  It’s an adventure.  It will change me.  And I am looking forward to it.

You, too.  Try an adventure. Any adventure. It doesn’t have to be an exotic travel adventure. Maybe just something you have never done before.  Because it’s not where you go on adventure that counts.  It’s where the adventure takes you.

Mush!

What are you going to do differently next year?

Who was it who said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different response? Doesn’t matter who said it. The idea is what’s important.  If you want different…more, better, or even just different…you just gotta do different.  That’s how change happens.  Want to lose more weight?  Do more exercise.  Or eat less.  Or both. Want more business?  Do more marketing.  Or change your marketing.  Or change up your networking.  Or lower your prices.  Or (for the lucky few) raise you prices.  Do something different.

Or course, it’s not quite that simple. To really make a change you need a solid plan about what you want to do differently, making sure the actions you take are connected to the result you want.

Here are some hints to make it easier.

1. Clearly articulate your goal. Make it specific and measurable.  Not just lose weight.  But lose 10 or 20 or 30 pounds.  Not just get more clients, but get five more clients a month. Or 10.  Or whatever number works for you.

2. Then find all the things you do or don’t do, or could do that can contribute to the goal.  Look over what you did last year, see what worked and what didn’t work and then figure out exactly what you could change that could help bring about the effect you want.

3. Break down all the items into even smaller manageable tasks.  If you want more 5 more clients a month, and changing up your networking is one of the things you need to do to find them, that task could be broken down into spending two hours finding new networking opportunities, visiting five new groups to explore possibilities, and then joining one or more.   Trust me on this one.  The more specific you are, the easier it will be to accomplish your tasks and get to your goals.

And finally, if you can’t figure out what to do next or if you need someone to hold your feet to the fire (and you know who you are) you also know where to find me.

I wish you all great success in 2012…changing it up for the better.

So I made a conscious effort to smile.   Sometimes even with gritted teeth, but always smiling.  When people asked me how I was, I always responded “Great” or “Terrific” no matter what I was feeling.  Not a single complaint left my lips.  And slowly, over time, things changed at the job.  The job got better.  It became less stressful.  People wanted to be around me and spend time with me.  After a while I got happy.   I didn’t need to put on that smile anymore.  Happy came naturally.

Smiling is contagious.  When you smile, other people do too.  And people naturally gravitate to happy people.  Smiling is a critical part of successful selling and networking.  Anytime you come in touch with people, particularly if you are trying to influence them, make sure you smile. Smiling even makes a difference on the phone.  People don’t have to see you to sense when you are smiling.  When you smile on the phone, you generally get a better response.

The brain is not very smart and it takes its cues from the body.  The act of raising those muscles in the corners of our mouths releases happy endorphins in our brain. So it isn’t happy that makes you smile. It’s smiling that makes you happy.   Even that fake smile I walked around with for a while at that job released endorphins.  That’s why I got happy.  It had nothing to do with the job.  That didn’t change.  I did. All it took was a smile.

Smile.  Watch your world change too.

Your audiences expect regular communication. Too much time away from them and you fall down to the bottom of their brains.  We all have limited brain space to retain information and it’s your job to make sure we retain you.  It’s important for you to stay top of mind, so that when people actually need your product or service, they think of you.

There are lots of ways to accomplish that.  Regular newsletters are just one way. Or you can just send them an individual email.  But remember, a “hi, how are you?” email is probably going to get deleted. It’s certainly not going to get remembered.  Something of value to them as business people, some bit of education or business building idea, will do a much better job of imprinting those synapses with your name.  Don’t try to sell them something. They get sold to all the time.  Try to help their business.

Think about an email with an article of interest, or links to a great website or blog post.  Event invitations can also keep you in mind.  Or better yet, try a business referral or make a connection for them.  That will always get someone’s attention and generate tons of good will.  Or try this….   If you’ve had a positive experience with someone, send a note offering yourself as a reference.  At the very least, they will be happy to return the favor if they can. At best, they will remember you when they or someone else needs you.

Today, a communication that isn’t electronic sticks out from the endless mass of tweets and emails that we all get to comb through.  A small gift or a card via snail mail makes a refreshing change.  But please, a tschotchke for tschotchke’s sake is not good enough.  Make it something useful, please.

The best way to keep top of mind is to provide value regularly in a way that breaks through the inbox clutter.  I vow to do that myself from now on.  And I missed you too.

What we are doing is putting off making the move, taking the step, sticking our toe in, and declaring to the world that we are something.  Trained enough, thin enough, experienced enough.  Whatever enough.  Enough already.

When I first decided I wanted to coach, I figured I better go to coach school for training and also credibility. Some folks hung out their shingle after the first set of classes.  Most, like me, went through the whole program first.  And I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who say they are a “coach” without having any coaching credentials at all…and they’re good at it, too.

There will always be someone better trained, with more experience and thinner doing the thing you want to do.  And there will always be someone not as trained, with less experience and heavier doing the thing you want to do.  Always.  But that doesn’t mean that you can’t do it too.

The most interesting thing about this affliction is this:  Of all the people I know, the ones who suffer the most from this condition seem to be those who already do have the talent and the ability to succeed.  Because they are also the ones who are conscious enough to be aware of all they can still learn, they doubt themselves the most.

When a surgeon makes his first cut, he has had a good education.  Is there more for him to learn?  Sure.  But he has to start somewhere.

I’m not saying that if you don’t have the skills to do the job you should be doing it anyway.  I’m not proposing a shoddy product or lack of ability.  If that’s the case, you won’t succeed no matter how hard you try.   The key is to realize when good enough is good enough.

As that famous horseman Will Rogers said, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

For the first month I found the whole thing to be one big pain.  He was shedding like crazy.  There was hay all over the apartment.  What made it even worse, was that despite the fact that he was litter trained, he peed on me.  In my house, the #1 rule is NEVER POOP ON MOM.  The birds follow it.  Why couldn’t the damn rabbit?  Every week I called the office and threatened to give him back.

But then I just decided to give him one last chance.  And so I made a decision.  I decided to just love the bunny and see where that got things.  And here’s what happened.

First of all, I was inspired to completely reinvent his set up so the hay stays in his cage.  He stopped his awful shed.  (Turns out it’s only a twice a year occurrence).  Then, once I started to accept him and his bunnyness, we were able to develop a relationship.  He now jumps up for scratches when he sees me, and jumps into my lap when we are playing.  He’s very well behaved, doesn’t seem to chew things, and doesn’t pee on me anymore.  The best part is that, unlike Justin, he is very quiet.  I, at least, am in love. And I’d like to think he is too.

What did I learn from all this?  Turns out the trick was in the DECISION.

Coaching is about action.  My job is to take my clients somewhere…where they want to go.  But before the action there must be the decision to act.  The commitment we make to ourselves to do something.   The decision can be about anything.  Get rich, start a business, find a mate, lose weight, love the bunny.  Frequently for my clients, the decision is to get coached.  But always, the very first step is to DECIDE.  Not to try.  Trying is tentative.  Trying allows room for failure.  Deciding is definite.  It’s bold.  It’s powerful.  It invites success.

When we decide, we also decide to do what it takes to make it happen.  When we decide, we become willing to make tradeoffs.  And as Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”  It really does.  See? 

The ratings showed 10% fewer watching this year vs. last. Ratings tumbled even more among younger viewers.  Well, so much for attracting a younger audience with young attractive emcees!

According to industry experts, there are a number of things contributing to low Academy Award show ratings.  There weren’t any blockbuster hits in the running…an extremely popular movie always gives the ratings a boost.  And there weren’t any megastars up for awards either.

But neither of those explains my absence this year.  I love movies.  I make it a point to see as many of the award contenders as I can.  I LOVED the King’s Speech.  And I truly admire many of the nominated actors. I just saw Geoffrey Rush at BAM! So why didn’t I watch the show???

When I watch the Academy Awards, I want to be entertained.  The show is long and I find much of it, like many of those acceptance speeches by people in categories I have no interest in, to be boring.  And so I wait for the clever skits and those great politically incorrect lines to punctuate the program.  I wait to see how far the emcee is going to push it.  And to see how well the actors can take the hits that are given out and poke fun at themselves.  I watch to see someone put holes in the pomposity that frequently is Hollywood.

I have no objection to James Franco or Anne Hathaway.  They are both fine actors and very charming. But they are actors, not entertainers.  And the minute I heard they were emceeing, I lost interest.  I didn’t think either of them had the cojones to really get the job done they way I wanted.  And from what I read, it seems they didn’t.  To me, even a bad comedian is better than two actors trying to be.

What happened here?  The Academy Awards went off their brand.  I had a relationship with that brand.  That over the top yet self deprecating and frequently irreverent brand. And I had expectations of what it would deliver to me.  And when the characteristics of that brand changed, like it did this year, I no longer continued to be brand loyal.

You know that old saying…consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.  Well, it might be. But it is also the thing that helps maintain a brand over time.  Being consistent allows your customers to understand what you do, what you stand for.  It allows them to create a relationship with you.  Changing that disrupts that relationship and can easily alienate your customers.  And it’s why I didn’t watch the Oscars this year.

If your pipe broke, you wouldn’t try to fix it yourself.  You’d hire a plumber to do it.  But when it comes to the internet, somehow we all think we can do it ourselves.

Technology has changed the way we do business.  It has given us tools that were unimaginable ten or even five years ago.  But just because the technology exists and we know how to use it, doesn’t mean we can do many jobs ourselves.

Today, just about every company has a website. And there are tools and templates out there for us to build our own.  But having the technology doesn’t make us a website designer.  We’ve all seen websites that don’t look professional, or have too much copy, or are not very user friendly.  Or that feel off, or inappropriate for the company.   Working with a professional web or graphic designer, who discusses your goals for your site and then designs something that will meet your needs, can not only save you a lot of money but make you money.  The result will better represent you, help you gain more business and keep you from having to redo your site.

Putting together the copy for a website…now that is also something we shouldn’t do ourselves…yet so many of us do.  Having MSWord and spell check doesn’t make us a writer. I see tons of sites with typos all over them. Sloppy grammar or typos on a website makes us look sloppy. Sure, we probably know more about what our product or service is than a professional writer, but they know how to write for an audience.  They can turn your ideas into words that attract people, and actually enhance your product or service.  They can make your ideas work harder for you.

Similarly, having a Twitter account and a Facebook fan page doesn’t make us social media strategists.  Just putting stuff out there isn’t enough.  What you publish needs to serve your business by engaging potential customers and creating conversations about your business.  It needs to engage people in a way that enhances your bottom line.  And if that’s not happening for you, your time and effort is wasted.

That’s the idea of any communication…website visuals and web copy included.  If it doesn’t work to deliver your objectives and to enhance your bottom line in some way, then it isn’t working for you at all.

A good professional will always start with your objectives, with what is it you are trying to accomplish, and then deliver something…logo design, website, copy, social media strategy, marketing strategy…whatever, that meets your objectives.  Besides, without objectives, how do you judge the quality of the deliverable?

I’m a big branding person.  How a business is represented in the marketplace creates the perception of one’s brand.  And how a business  is represented includes every way the customer sees you…from ads and website, to tweets and blogs.  EVERYTHING.

If you want to maximize the effect of all your communications…really create a brand image for your company…hire the professionals who have been trained and have experience…who know what they are doing.  It may cost more money now, but it will be well worth it in the long run.