November 2019 « Confidence Coach

The Difference in Business Owners

One afternoon, two business owners who had graduated from the same university ran into each other. In college they had the same professors who taught them the ins and outs of running a business. They had both been filled with dreams of becoming rich by building a successful company that made a huge difference in the world.

Recently when these two guys ran into each other while on a break at a seminar, they realized they were still very much alike. Both were happily married, had young kids, and as it turned out, they each had started businesses in the same industry.

BUT there was one difference!

One of these business school grads was working as a solo entrepreneur making a comfortable $100,000 a year. The other guy had built a team of employees that were fully engaged and they all had an “ownership” mentality. He had invested and leveraged all their skills, abilities, hopes, dreams, aspirations, and their creativeness to build a company that had accomplished all his hopes, dreams and aspirations. He was raking in over $1 million a year in net profits.

What made the difference?

The Secret was The Dream Employee Process

If you’re like me, when you hear a story like this you wonder what really did make the difference between these two men?

We all know stories like this, and we all have evidence demonstrating that it isn’t always raw talent, intelligence, perseverance or even dedication that makes a difference. It isn’t that one person has a “burning desire” and the other doesn’t.

The difference lies in this –

What each person knows.
How they personally make use of their knowledge.
The difference is in continuously growing and using their knowledge.

I’d love to help you can grow your knowledge and learn how to have a successful business by leveraging The Dream Employee process. Schedule a free consultation now to learn more about it.

by Scott Ballard , November 24, 2019

When Exactly is “Someday”?

Do you find yourself in the habit of thinking about things and saying you will do them “someday”? I consider myself a very positive person, but we have had some family situations lately and we’ve decided to do things “now”. There’s no guarantee that you have tomorrow to do it.

Maybe you find yourself in a similar spot. There’s no time like now to start doing things that you were always putting off until tomorrow – whether that’s in your business or in your personal life.

I want you to do an exercise for me using a tape measure.

Take the tape measure, set it on the floor, and mark that very first notch as the day you were born.

The next few dashes – mark graduation, marriage, birth of kids, etc.

Also put a mark down for the day you started your business.

Then the inevitable question becomes this: How long is that tape measure?

How long do you think you’re going to live?

Have you thought about what’s outside of that tape measure — what is your legacy going to be?

Or have you forgotten why you’re doing this business? Did you start it so that you and your family would have the freedom to do the things that were important to you?

Maybe you’re just drifting, inch by inch, year by year along your life and in your business.

If you’re looking for the mark on the tape measure that says “Someday,” it’s not there.

This isn’t a dress rehearsal. Your life is represented in this tape measure. It has a beginning, it has a messy middle, and it has an end.

You ready to face the truth?

Someday NEVER comes!

Reach out and schedule a free coaching session with us today if you’d like help getting back on track to start doing things now, instead of tomorrow. Each day is a gift to be thankful for. Don’t waste it.

by Scott Ballard , November 17, 2019

Are You a Grateful Person?

Do you consider yourself a “grateful” or positive person?

Are you in the HABIT of being grateful for things that happen in your life or do you tend to be a pessimist?

I want to encourage you that you always have a choice to react in either a positive or a negative way. Even in difficult circumstances, if you develop the practice of thanksgiving and gratitude, your outlook and attitude with improve.

What is your first reaction when things aren’t going the way you want? Next time this happens, stop and think twice about how you are going to respond.

As we say, think about your thinking. Here are some questions that come to mind that you should ask yourself first:

How am I going to react to this?
How am I going to process this?
How am I going to think about this?
How am I going to respond?

That’s what it all comes down to: MAKING A CHOICE to be thankful and grateful in spite of your circumstances.

Do you choose to view a situation positively with gratitude or dwell on the negative?

Gratitude was a choice that I made at a very young age.

School was extremely difficult for me, and I had teachers telling me that I was stupid! (Hopefully this isn’t happening in the schools now like it was back in the ’60s.)

Luckily, I had an extremely loving and caring family so all my self-worth was not based on the education system. I also had a faith and belief in God that sustained me. (I wrote a book a few years ago that tells my whole story and the practice of gratitude.)

I decided at a very young age to think about everything in my life that I was grateful for.

Every night before I went to sleep, I sat in my little bunk bed and thought about what I was grateful for. Here are a few of those things I thought about:

I’m grateful for my grandmother and how much she loved me.

I’m really grateful for how much my parents care about me.

I’m really grateful that today I got to play football.

This may sound trivial because it’s just a little kid thinking about little things. But, it’s that kind of thinking that has made me the positive, encouraging person I am today. In fact, that’s the number-one thing people say about me: that I am one of the most positive, encouraging people they’ve ever met.

The reason for this is simple:

GRATITUDE.

I’ve made it a daily practice in my life to list out all the things I am grateful to God for. Gratitude has allowed me to be able to serve people without any expectation of them ever being able to do anything for me. Instead, I am simply grateful for the opportunity to serve and how good it makes me feel in my heart and soul.

Often people wonder why they are so discontented, unhappy and stressed. They have anxiety. One of the main reasons for this is spending too much time thinking about what we don’t have instead of what we do have.

Gratitude is like an inoculation against being discouraged, upset, afraid or depressed.

We all have low times, but gratitude can help us make our way through them.

When I am feeling down or depressed, I stop and think about what I am thankful and grateful for. When I focus on those positive things, I start to appreciate them more, and they become more valuable to me. I think about God, my wife and kids, grandkids, friends, clients, experiences, places, etc., and realize how very blessed I am!

You too can live a different life with a different purpose and a different intention. Start leading a life of gratitude. Take into account – on a daily basis – everything you are grateful for.

Please share with us how gratitude or choices have made a difference for you and what you’re grateful for today.

For more on Gratitude check out The Biggest Disability is a Bad Attitude.

by Scott Ballard , November 10, 2019

Are you asking yourself these questions?

There are several questions that are really important for you to consider in order to gain clarity and confidence in your life and business (whether you’re a business owner, CEO or entrepreneur).

The first question is: What do you stand for?

Once you’ve figured this out, then you need to ask yourself the following questions as well:

–What do you believe?

–What are your priorities for your life and your business?

–How do you make decisions?

–How do you connect with your customers and your employees?

–Are those connection points getting you the results, time, and money that you want?

If you’ve been in business for very long, you have probably realized that not everyone is going to love you or what you do with your business. But that’s okay! Because your product or service isn’t for the whole world — it’s for those people who will get the greatest value from it.

When you can answer all the above questions and feel confident about your answers — there is a certain peace and clarity that comes from it. This comes from knowing what you’re doing, what you’re about, who you are and what you stand for.

If you want help answering those questions, reach out and schedule a free consultation. This type of training and thinking is what we do best. Are you ready to go to the next level?

by Scott Ballard , November 3, 2019