Wizard of Ads Clay Campbell

Can You Manage Time?

I have a good habit, of making out a list each night,of the 6 most important things I have to get done the next day. Then I try, as best as I can, to actually do what is on that list. That is very easy to say; and very difficult to do consistently, but this quote from  gives me a kick in the backside to Get it Done:

"Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task."
--William James

I read a great book called the Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes and in the first chapter he had a system of time management. He says there are 6 steps to good time management and I agree with these six.

1 Touch it once
2 Make a list of the 6 most important things you must get done the next day.
3 Plan how much time each task will take
4 Plan the day
5 Prioritize
6 Will it hurt to throw this away?

 

A Daily Routine

"You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine."

-- John C. Maxwell
I am not quite where I'd like to be, so I pray daily, read the Bible daily, as well exercise about 20 minutes daily, I don't eat fast food, fried food, or junk food, I set goals and try to reach for them daily. I also work about 12 hours a day 6 days a week running several companies - and I take a nap every afternoon. :-)
What's your daily routine?

Eat an Apple every day

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Eat an Apple every day

That seems easy enough. My mother used to say, "Son, you should eat an apple a day." Then she would grin and say, "But you can´t wait till Sunday and then eat 7 apples." How true that is! People say: an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Besides the fact that apples are very good for you to eat for your health, they can help you in a lot of other ways too. You see, anyone who would/could dedicate themselves to the self-discipline to eat one apple every day, I believe, can do great things. The reason for that is because the focused, self-discipline to eat the apple every day, will easily transfer over to other things.

If you could make yourself remember to eat the apple each day, you could make yourself submit to a healthy eating regime. If you could do the healthy diet and the apple a day, then you could easily save 10% of your income. If you could do those three, you could exercise 20 minutes each day. If you could do those four you could write a page a day in your book.

One good discipline leads to another and the lack of a discipline leads to another lack of discipline. If a person won´t stick to a healthy eating regime even after a heart attack, I would wager that he/she would be careless with other things too. I think this is some kind of hidden law of the universe. There are some lucky ones that discover it. When someone does discover this principal, it enables them to do great things. When some people do those great and difficult things, it causes the rest, that are not so disciplined, to say, "Well, you are always were just so lucky."

So I say, if you want to do well with your life, your family, your business, your health, church, career, whatever; then start with the apple a day. My advice is, "Do not try any hard stuff, until you get the easy stuff down pat." What´s easy to do is also easy not to do. It´s easy to eat an apple each day. But it´s also easy not to do.

My wife just walked in and read this with me and I said, "Honey, what do you think about this?" And she said, "What if they don´t like apples?"

Mean ole Dad

 I am a mean ole dad. We have three boys and I made them memorize this little poem.

I'm gonna be happy today
No matter what comes my way
Though skies may be cloudy & gray
I'm gonna be happy today

I made them say it when the were grumbling about doing some work that I made them do. For example I made them mow the yard, weed eat, pull weeds, do the dishes, and put stuff away after they used it. Yes I was a mean ole dad.

Grow Your Business with Facebook & Twitter?

Roy Williams has good news for those who are frustrated with trying to grow your business with Facebook and Twitter.

This whole “Facebook and Twitter” thing reminds me of a conversation I had with a client 14 years ago in Milwaukee.  Working together we had grown his business 10-fold in just 5 years. That’s right, one thousand percent growth. He was swimming in cash because he was tenacious, hard-working, had excellent judgment and his employees loved him. All I had done was...
READ the rest  http://www.mondaymorningmemo.com/newsletters/read/1927

Saying it well

I really love the old fashion way people used the English language and talked about 150 or so years ago.  Here is some advice from Emerson that is still very relevant today in this Youtube and Facebook  World. It’s great wisdom for anyone trying to accomplish any objective and he says it so well:

"Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little course, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble."

 

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American

lecturer, essayist and poet.

Laugh More

It’s easy to laugh - plus smiling and laughter makes us happier. Today I went to numerous websites to answer this question: How many muscles does it take to smile or frown? There are pages of answers, but to boil it down - no one knows for absolute sure. Many sources say it takes more muscles to frown that to smile. I just know that laughter and smiling makes you feel better than frowning and scowling.

Watch animals - they do funny stuff. Americas’ Funniest Videos show animal clips a lot, and they are some of my favorite. People get uptight, tense and too stressed in the pursuit of daily living. Things can get you frustrated really easily:

• Like other drivers on the road

• Children

• Your job

• Your marriage

• Problems with your health

• Money problems

Maybe you’re like me in that I always laugh about dumb things I did in the past. We just need to laugh sooner I think.

Ways to laugh more:

• Read a humorous book

• Go to a funny play

• Go see or a comedy movie

• Try to remember a couple funny jokes

• Hang out with some fun loving people - they laugh a lot

• Watch Americas Funniest Video –record them to watch again later

• Make a list of all the stupid or funny stuff you have done or said.

• See good comedians

• Watch old Bill Cosby videos

• Lastly Youtube has enough funny videos for you to watch a couple everyday for the next 10, 000 years.

A duck went into a restaurant and ordered breakfast. Later the waiter brought more coffee and the check, then the duck said, “I don’t have any money – can you just put that on my bill?” yuk, yuk, yuk. I know it’s really corny - but every time I speak, I use that little joke, and I always get a laugh. Most of the time, if you can make people laugh, they love being around you. The opposite is true as well – do you like being around a frowning unhappy person?

Laugh more; it keeps you happier. It’s an easy thing to do but it’s also easy not to do.

Self Confidence

 I told one of my young clients, “You sing great - but more than vocal lessons, you need work on building a stronger self confidence.”

Each of us needs more areas in our life where we can say – “I did great with that - I am so proud of myself.”

More secure types of people do not need the approval of others. A person with strong self confidence is likely to get on Facebook and say: "I cooked a really great dinner tonight - I was happy it turned out so well - everyone raved about it" Or maybe they would slip on a sports coat, look into a mirror and say, “I look great in this coat”.

We ALL have areas in life that we feel more secure and confident in than others. I help people to develop more confidence in themselves at Toastmasters. It is a wonderful organizartion. I have seen a very competent, confident, successful CPA, shake and stumble and become extremely nervous - so nervous in fact, that he said he felt like he was going to through up. When did this happen? It happened when he got up to make little a 5 minute speech in front of 10 people. I have seen this same thing happen with very successful top money earners in Real Estate, Banking, Attorneys at Law, and I have witnessed it with very successful business owners as well. It is said that one thing people fear most, besides dying, is standing up to speak in front of a group of people.

Very good singers, artists and musicians are oftentimes insecure. And we seek the approval of others. It seems we need it. Research I have read shows that 90% of a child’s personality is formed by age seven. Approval seeking starts very early in life - "Daddy look at the picture I drew for you" Mommy look at me - I can ride my bike now!"

As we get bit older we seek the approval of the opposite sex. When we get married we are still looking for it. I have been bragging on my wife's cooking now for 30 years.However still she seeks approval.  Many times, after the dinners guests are gone, and we are alone - she has said, "I know you said during dinner that it was good, but do you really think it was good?" We are all that way at times about something.

To develop a stronger self confidence, I would recommend starting with some great books I know about personally:

The Little Engine that Could
The Power of Positive Thinking
How to Win Friends and Influence People

A very wealthy wise man once told me, “If you want to be healthy, study books good health. If you want to be a Christian, study the Bible. If you want to be rich, study books about wealth. Most people won’t read though. Only 3 % of Americans have a library card. It’s a sad fact that the person who needs to a book about saving money, and doing wise things with money, is least likely to read it.” Then he said, “Don’t let that be you. You be different. Go buy the book and read!” I will never forget that little short conversation with the late Jim Rohn.

I typed this into Google book to build self confidence - click that link and you’ll see that the search engine giant sent me to an Amazon page with 35 books listed about gaining or instilling self confidence. Look those over and get started today on a more confident you.

Mr C

   

 

Are You Missing Something?

The Missing Bowl

My wife Barbie, came to me this week and said, “Honey, have you seen my crystal bowl; the one that belonged to my Mother?” I said that I had not seen that bowl. Well my sweet wife went a bit frantic looking for it. She called our children. She looked all over for it at our place of business. She asked her Dad about it. No Bowl. She was frustrated.

I posted this two years ago on my Blog and The Wizard Times. It’s all the more important today. Most all businesses today are suffering from lack of new input, new ideas and putting a new twist on their products or services. Read the story of the missing bowl and it maybe will encourage you to come up with new ideas.

The next day she took everything out of every cupboard - anywhere she thought it could be. No luck. She called the housekeeper; and she had not seen the elusive crystal bowl. She said that it was her favorite bowl; and was distraught that it was gone.

After several days of searching, we got up and were getting ready for the day and we “discovered” the lost bowl sitting right there in the middle of the kitchen table with plastic fruit in it. It was right there in front of us all week long and we didn’t even see it. She said, “Don’t tell anyone about this, they will think I’ve really lost it” But we both have been telling our friends and laughing about it. The same kind of thing has probably happened to everyone at some time or another.

Business Owners are you searching and looking everywhere for some way you can advertise or promote your business that will bring people through your doors? It’s could be right there in front of you - an idea that you have over looked. Unleveraged assets. A virtue or core value that you could “find” that could mean the difference between success and failure this year.

If you can’t find it by yourself I have some brilliant Partners that specialize in finding that thing, or idea that will help you. Each one has a different specialty. I offer a free complimentary meeting or phone call to help you get pointed in the right direction. We'll ask questions and listen before we make recommendations. We will never try to sell you.

The Economic Revival

Roy Williams’ Monday Morning Memo article this week was:  How I Know the Recession Is Over. It was very clear: The economy is improving. The last quarter of 2010, and the first quarter of 2011, have both shown signs of renewed strength. I am talking not of Wall Street but Main Street USA. I live in Western Kentucky and the housing market here in this area is coming back slowly. Not Florida though. I just read an article on Yahoo News showing  20% of the homes in Florida being vacant and the median price down another 7%.

But I am talking about the small business owners across the USA. The economy shows signs of improvement in the way people are spending money. I am a promoter of concerts into the 575 seat Kentucky Opry, as well as the 1800 seat Carson Center. In February we hosted a Rockabilly Revival show with several Legend type performers doing the music of Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee, Elvis and Carl Perkins. To the amazement of the people at the venue, the radio group that ran the commercials, and everyone one involved; it sold out. 1800 seats! Coming next is George Jones I am promoting it as well. It’s almost sold out, and is still two weeks out as of this writing. I predict it will sell out.

I have Josh Turner coming in 90 days and it is almost sold out. So in my estimation, adding in what the real estate sales people, and car sales people here are saying – the economy has improved considerable.

There is a tire manufacturing plant 45 miles from here that has just closed down laying off 1900 people; and I am sure there will be some effect of that felt here.

But over-all, the last quarter did improve some, and many of the clients we have are saying they are up 10% in this first quarter.

As the economy improves, will your business? It will if you can answer these two questions:

What is your most pressing advertising or marketing problem?
And:
What do you feel is the main thing holding you back from growing your company?

If you have the answers work on solving them. If you need help, or would want a free consulting session, with a Wizard of Ads Partner, just email me. I can arrange a free no obligation phone call consultation.