MIKE MATARAZA
Y O U R B U S I N E S S & LIFE C O A C H
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Make hard decisions easy...
How do you decide when there are too many options?
Making decisions: Are you opportunity focused or outcome focused?
I have been helping people as a Business Coach, Career Coach and Sales Trainer for over a decade now and I have noticed that so many people these days are telling me "I don't know what choice to make" whether it is finding a new job or changing some direction in their personal life.
To use job search as an example here is my coaching ---
Say you have a great degree, a great resume and a winning personality. It is likely that you will have multiple offers coming your way (OR you may be a highly creative entrepreneur and have multiple ides for business you want to start). For OPPORTUNITY focused people this is where the confusion kicks in. They start comparing---"Well this one pays more but this one has better benefits and this other one is a shorter commute etc. etc. On a scale of 1-10 they are all about the same I just don't know how to decide..."
The question I coach them to ask themselves is what is your OUTCOME?
Here is a perfect example: A couple of years ago I had a coaching client who had a chance to work with Donald Trump for a $250k salary. What he really wanted to do was start his own business but he said to me; "Mike this is a great opportunity. I will get paid a lot, work with a man who is a legend and make great contacts" all of which was absolutely true. Something, however, did not feel right to him and he had spent quite a few sleepless nights going over and over the options in his head, making pro and con lists and still could not decide.
So I asked him the MAGIC question: "What is your outcome?"
His answer: "Well I wanted to start my own business so I could work from home part of the week and see my family more. I want to have control over my schedule. I definitely want the tax breaks that having your own business gives you. Eventually I want to hire a good manager so I can dial back even more and travel."
We took a look at the opportunity he would have working for Mr. Trump. A salaried position at 250k so with half going to taxes (no good tax breaks as a w-2 employee) it would be about 125k in his pocket. Certainly not a bad net income but working for a man like Trump he would be expected to put in 60 hour weeks and sometimes 80. Of course if Trump kept him on after the year was over and he got promoted the work would only get harder--no hiring a manager so he could travel.....
What my client soon realized was that for the right person the offer WAS a great opportunity. For him however it just did not line up with his outcomes. He nervously but happily made the decision to continue to build his own business.
I am happy to report that in his first year he made 90k after taxes---less than had he taken the job with Trump but certainly a good income. In his second year he was able to double that and now in his fourth year he HAS hired a manager and works only about 25 hrs a week while earning a great and well deserved income.
While building his business he did have some periods of extremely hard work that kept him away from his family but they were infrequent. Most weeks he took Monday and Friday afternoons off. On other days he got home by 6 so he could have dinner with his family. And because has now hired that manager and is able to work less, he and his family can travel just as he had originally dreamed.
My client had been offered a great and glamorous opportunity but when he realized it was not in line with his outcomes the choice was easy.
Ask yourself what are my OUTCOMES personally and professionally?
Once you know the answer choosing the right opportunity will be easy!
Feeling Overwhelmed?
You have more free time than you think you do....
Overwhelmed executives and business owners make bad decisions and that hurts their business. It is extremely important to have balance in your life. The challenge is many people find themselves with so much on their plate they don't see any way to create balance and so they suffer both personally and professionally.
I take my clients through a process I call "Automate, Eliminate and Delegate." We make a list of every activity that they do in a given day, week and month and then we begin to categorize by asking questions: What can be automated through the use of software or some kind of system that allows it to get done automatically in the background? What can be eliminated? Perhaps there are some practices that are being done out of habit or tradition that are no longer necessary. And what can be delegated to someone else so that it is off your plate?
Often I am able to create as much as 10 hours of free time for a client per week. Think about that, that is 40 hours a month --- an entire work week per month! That adds up to 12 weeks or, to say it another way, 3 months of free time per year! What could you do if we freed up that much time for you?
Goals,
Plan,
Timeline.
I tell my clients that it is always possible to get from where you are to where you want to be...it is simply
a matter of creating clear goals, a detailed plan for make them happen and finally setting a real timeline.
The timeline is particularly important. I find that many of my clients get into "achiever mode" and set timelines for themselves that are unreasonable. Then, when they are not able to accomplish what they want to in the time they have given themselves, they become very self critical. The key to a timeline is
that it needs to be short enough to create a sense of urgency but long enough to take into account the
fact that we are all human and we do need time to eat and sleep!
Do you know exactly what you want to achieve and have a clear, detailed plan for how you are going to achive it? If not work with me and in a very short time I guarantee that you will be clear, on track and gaining momentum!
Know your clients better than they know themselves!
The key to selling is understanding...
When I teach a client or a company the powerful influence techniques from my program "No Pressure Persuasion"" the one thing they are most surprised by is that, once they start implementing what they've learned they never really have to "close" a client in the traditional sense again. They find that the client will start asking buying questions about 3/4 of the way through the process. The client will buy and think it was THEIR idea to make the purchase, they won't feel "sold" at all.
Why is that? Every human being on earth has a "decision making pattern", a process that they go through mentally and emotionally whenever they make a siginificant decison. In my No Pressure Persuasion program I show clients how to analyze their client's personalities and decision making pattern --- They are trained to observe their prospect and determine whether they are more of a visual, auditory or feeeling oriented learner, whether they care more about gaining pleasure or avoiding problems, where they fall on the D.I.S.C. personality profile and a couple of other key indicators. (While this may sound complex it is actually very easy to learn and can be mastered in a short time.)
The power behind the process is simply this: When you sell to a client in a way that aligns with how they already make decisions naturally then the sales process becomes invisible to them! The prospect simply thinks that what you said made sense and that it was their own decision to buy. Clients that don't feel pressured or sold tend to buy faster and thank you for it. They also feel great about giving you referrals because they themselves enjoyed dealing with you so they assume their contacts will too!