DaleCallahan.com

As I’m heading to one of my coaching meetings, I have noticed that the single common denominator of each persons struggle - almost without exception - is themselves -  they are their own worst enemy.

• They undersells their own accomplishment and ability.
• They thinks less of what they can do than what even I, not knowing them well, know that they can do.
• They paint themselves into a box based upon their work experiences, their college degree, and their current salary level.  This box they cannot escape from, even though they have created it.

We use an excercise from time to time in the classes I teach where we ask people to supply their own resumes to another in the class.  The other class member will interview them and ask them about their experience and listen to them tell about the types of things they have accomplished. Then they are assigned to re-write each others resume based on what they heard.

It is often amazing at the staggering difference at what their classmate thinks they are capable of as compared to what they thought of themselves. The resonse is often  - “Wow -  She made me look really good on paper”.

Actually - it is the other way around - we often make ourselves look bad on paper

What about your resume?  Where have you made yourself look really bad?

What value do you add to your company? How do you either bring in income or generate savings? Are these numbers bigger than the salary they pay you?

I ask these questions often and get a variety of reactions. Some claim they do not need to know this; they are employees and not contractors or consultants. Others tell me they cannot measure their role since they have no direct impact on the bottom line. Yet, I find many CEOs who can tell me to the penny the economic impact of every employee. Are their numbers correct? Who knows? But, the key is that THEY ARE MEASURING YOUR IMPACT. Let’s face it, we (as customers ourselves) often fire vendors and service providers when we feel they fail to add value to our lives. Why do you think YOUR customer would be any different?

Here are some key questions.

First, know YOUR customer. No, I do not mean your companies customer – but the one who is measuring YOU. It does not matter if you are an entrepreneur, contractor, consultant, or employee – the same basic principles apply. Someone, the one who gives you cash in return for goods and services, is your customer. You may call them customer, boss, manager, company, or various other expressions. In some cases, such as the entrepreneur or consultant, you might have multiple customers you must treat as a group. But a key step to keeping the money rolling in is to get inside the head of your customers – and you cannot do that until you know who they are. In larger organizations this can be a challenge since you might play a variety of roles and have a line of management ahead of you. But, the clearer you understand your role, the easier you can show value added. You must know who is looking at you and the value you add to the company.

Second, find out what matters to your customer(s). How? Go ask them. To really get under the surface of the many statistical measurements that may or may not really matter – go ask them some key questions.
-    What are the key things you expect from me?
-    What struggles are you having related to your job or YOUR customers?
-    What keeps you awake at night?
-    How do you measure value?
-    What value do I bring to you? (Try to get to dollars if possible.)

Be aware, some customers may be taken aback by these questions, especially if your customer happens to be a middle line manager. They may not know themselves what matters and what is value added – which is a real problem for you. They may not even know what matters to their own boss (customer) and therefore your whole department could be in jeopardy. So if you do not get good answers, keep looking for new ways to ask. You may have to talk to the bigger bosses (customers) to see if you can understand how you and your group add value to the company.

A word of caution is due here. Many people tell me they already know what their customer wants – they do not need to ask. Perhaps, but I am guessing this is a dangerous assumption. Marketing groups spend billions trying to learn what customers value – and they also know it can change over time. These groups continually ask questions to make sure they are in line with customer demands. Why do we think we are any different?

In a past work life I spent much of my time tracking data on various measures of network performance thinking I was doing what mattered. In fact, I knew I was. It was my job. Yet, the boss never seemed happy with the numbers. When I finally asked what really mattered, I found out he was being hammered from above by customer outage issues. All of our measures were important, but the numbers did not have a predictable relationship customer service.

Third, align your efforts with their needs. Now that you know what matters look and see how well you are meeting the demands. What are you doing everyday and does it add value to what your customer cares about? When I found out my boss cared about real customer service over managing the numbers, I went after the companies customers to make sure they knew we cared and intended to fix their problems quickly.  My life with my boss improved, and as it turns out, I was now adding real value.

Fourth, find your number. Yes, back to that “How much value do you bring?” question. Can you put some numbers on how much you make/save the company? I know, for some of you this can be challenging. Trust me - you need a number. After all, what if your customer does not have a number to measure your value? What if you are working in a support role? If your customer does not have a number, you can share yours with them. (Of course, only do this if the value you bring is more than the money they spend on your services!) The funny thing is data talks – even if it is not perfect. Your customer can challenge your assumptions and you might learn how to improve your model of how you get your number. But the key is you now have a number. If your number does turns out to be lower than your cost, start looking for ways to add more value or start looking for another customer!

Fifth, do little things that keep selling your value. You know – we call it buyers remorse. You buy that new car and once home start thinking you really should have spent less money. Then the dealer calls you to remind you of how highly rated and safe your car is (remind you of value) and you feel better. Do this for your customers. Remind them often of the value you bring. How you do this can vary, but do it! Buying your services is an expensive proposition, and you had better believe that someone in your line of customers asks the question often “do we really need that person or that division?” Buyers remorse is a human emotion related to spending money – and not just on cars.

Also, think about ways you can easily add extra value. Do you have data that can be used to provide valuable information?  Can you provide a report for your boss to provide to his or her boss? In your interactions with customers can you provide sales opportunities? Think about Amazons “New for You” service. They know what you have bought in the past and tell you what is similar that might interest you. They save you time and keep you up to date. They already have this data and are providing you extra service with little effort on their part. And oddly enough, the value they add to you often brings value back to them! Your value adds to your customer may do the same.

Remember, we are all in the business of marketing our services to our customers. It is critical we know who our customer is and what matters to them. When we have delivered the goods, we need to remind them of the value we have added. Tell your customer(s) how you are solving their problems and adding value.

The recent debates over a bailout of the financial sector by the US government has brought lots of emotion to the table. Fear, anger (lots of anger), and betrayal. I understand them all. But the other feeling I continue to hear is even worse - apathy. Too many of us have just given up - deciding we are the victim.

Yes - I said victim - and I do not mean the massive number of Americans who USUALLY play victim to the system and live on entitlements. I mean those of us who work for our money and pay taxes. So many people are mad at Wall Street, Congress, CEOs, etc - anybody. Everyone says THEY have done this to us or THEY are doing this to us. But, what ever happened to a government OF the people, BY the people, and for the people? Have we just decided it is just FOR the people? Or have we just gotten comfortable and lazy? If we expect it to be FOR the PEOPLE (us) then we have to do our part – the OF and BY words mean something here. We cannot just show up and vote a few times – mostly making decisions on sound bites alone – and call ourselves part OF the government!

The “government” is not the problem – we are! We sit on the sidelines casting blame and not taking action. This LACK of action and giving up and letting the system run over me is not American – it is not the spirit that put a man on the moon or found victory in war. It is the spirit that all I care about is me and mine.

So we who go to work everyday and try to make something happen are no better than those living on entitlements. The government we have is in fact BETTER than we deserve.

I for one plan to change that! And, I expect I am not alone! This “crisis” may help us all to wake up and realize we need to put the OF THE PEOPLE AND BY THE PEOPLE back into government. And if we do, this crisis will be a major blessing to us and our country.

People often ask me about investing after they have figured out how to get out of debt and have covered the basic financial goals. (Mostly the Dave Ramsey baby steps. The final step of Dave’s is about building wealth.)

There are tons of strategies out there which work and which work well - and of course there are hair brained strategies sold by so called gurus which are loosers. For the most part, I see people with no strategy at all. Dave would say - “invest in quality mutual funds with a 10 year track record.” That does leave you hanging a bit, but Dave’s business is not about investing and wealth building. For years I did this with my own research and efforts. While it worked - I was always questioning myself and my research. 

Now I typically invest in funds and use the SoundMindInvesting newsletter as my guide. It is simple and has been very profitable. 

Here is how it works….

You get the newsletter and decide on your investing strategy- Upgrading or Just the Basics. (upgrading requires monthly adjustment – Just the Basics requires only annual adjustments)  
1. Open a brokerage account. (He tells you about them in the letter.) I have accounts with Fidelity, ScottTrade, and Ameritrade – all have pros/cons – but all basically the same.  
2. Then from your account – you invest into the funds per his guidelines.

I have found the returns to beat the market and blow away most company 401k mixtures of funds.  They are down the last month or so – but overall do very well.

See the website at http://www.soundmindinvesting.com/ and the latest newsletter is attached. 

In the United States, we often reflect on the slavery issue our country has struggled to get past. We have books, movies, and even days to remember the struggles. But, as I look around and meet with people I see new forms of slavery in the most prosperous country in the world.

1. Debt - The debt crisis has overtaken us - and many have become totally enslaved to serving their debt. Their solution to get out is often a more creative slavery relationship through refinancing or “debt-consolidation.” While I do not consider myself to be a financial counselor - I have had to dive into this area of slavery many times. Debt causes people to give up on their dreams since they can never break free from what is holding them back.
2. Corporate America - No… I am not bashing the corporate machine in this country. But lets face it - the Dilbert syndrome has crushed many of our desires and forced many of us into another slavery trap. We now worry about what changes are going to take place in our companies in the coming months - worrying what benefits we may loose, what jobs may go away. Like refinancing deals - we sometimes find a glimmer of hope by changing employers - at least until the reality of the new slave relationship we have just gotten into hits home.
3. Entitlements - Our government (which is “we the people”) in our goodness to take care of our own, have in fact created slaves. I meet with people every week who have the mindset that getting free money from the government - from food stamps to free housing or free tuition - is the way to live. Yet, they are stuck. Again - one law change crushes them - or gives them hope.

Of course you see the problem - neither debt, corporations, nor government programs are the real slave masters - we are. Something has happened in our country that has taken all the spirit away. People in NASA will often say they do not know if they can get back to the moon. Something in the spirit is gone. Could we ever prosper as a nation if we found times of struggle again? Have we become so soft? In all three cases of modern American slavery we have given up our freedom, hope, and future by taking the easy way out.