In point #1 of the Total Experience Design Manifesto you learned that everyone creates an experience whether they know it or not.  Point #5 expands on that idea and gives some specific areas where this point is represented.

If you still don’t have the manifesto, you can get it here.

Listen to today’s podcast and make sure you leave us your thoughts.

If you have ever tried to brand your business, the whole concept of what a brand is and how it looks for your business can seem confusing and in some cases ridiculous.

Branding in some cases feels like the girl in high school who doesn’t get enough attention so has to act outrageously to get the attention that they so crave.

We argue that branding starts with how you handle your business and the experience you deliver goes hand in hand with that.

Before you can give an outstanding client experience, you have to have the internal culture in place to support it.

That’s what point #4 of our Manifesto on Total Experience Design covers.

Today’s podcast deals with how you can do that effectively for your business.

Moving beyond the corporate buzzwords of mission, vision and values lies a powerful tool that can’t be underestimated for your business.

Businesses that have a defined mission and a shared commitment to that  mission.  This is not only important for you and your team but is also important to your customers.  They want to know that you are in alignment with their values and beliefs as well.

Take a minute to assess your organizations mission and ask yourself how clear it is.  Also, determine how committed your team is to your mission as well.

What could you do today that will help you improve your life, your business and your practice tomorrow?

Apply this to your patients…what could they do today that will help them improve their quality of life, health, happiness and productivity tomorrow.  It is for these reasons that many doctors have become coaching clients.

Why bring up coaching?  To a large degree, you are coaching your patients.  A good coach can hear what people are not saying and can see more in their client than the client can see in themselves…even if just for the moment.  You do this in your practice every single day.  So, when it comes to your patient’s health and well being or your business and practice, it is critical to focus clearly on what is wanted and why it is wanted.  What I continually find is that most people don’t have what they want because they don’t know what they want.  Practitioners, like patients, are clear about what they don’t want but you can’t create what you do want by trying to get away from what you don’t want.

We become stuck here because we lack clarity, skills and/or the willingness or ability to execute our plans.  Many are not wired neurologically for their own success, their own abundance, their own happiness…but, again, that’s what coaching is for.

If you’re clear about the parallels between coaching for you and how you coach your patients then you understand how important it is to be clear about what you want, where you want to go and, perhaps most importantly, why you want to go there.

The next step is in knowing the system to create what you want that is equally applicable to helping your patients create what they want. Generically, here it is…

1. Vision:  what you are really trying to create?
2. Skills and Abilities:  what you need to be, do and have to know that you can “do it.”
3. Motivation:  the drive needed to overcome inertia, procrastination and complacency.
4. Resources:  what human/material resources will you need to accomplish your vision?
5. Information:  what needs to be done and how to do it?
6. Systems:  the process and procedures through which that information is implemented in the practice to produce practical and quantifiable results.
7. Identification of key concerns:  to establish priorities for correction.
8. A Plan:  to establish in time, what needs to be done, who needs to do it and by when?
9. Desire:  without a willingness to have what it is you say you want, the discipline to do what it takes to get it is often missing…what will it take to get you to follow your plan?
10. Determining your Strengths:  why not ride a horse in the direction that it is going in?  Everyone focuses on fixing weaknesses.  This is in violation the Law of Attraction.  Let’s find your strengths and capitalize on them…on purpose, and by design.

Now, let’s apply these 10 steps to your practice so that you may identify the missing piece or pieces for yourself and your patients.  Here are some simple questions to ask, tips and strategies to employ:

1. Vision is a consultation question that asks, “What would perfect health look like to you?”
2. To have the patient understand what they must bring to the equation in the way of skills, in the consultation the chiropractor would ask the question, “What do you think you will have to do to attain that level of health?”
3. Motivation asks the question, “What would be so good about it if we could help you create the level of health you say you want?”  This allows the doctor to elicit specific, patient centered benefits of care thus raising the value of the chiropractor’s services in the patient’s mind.
4. Resources is where technology would also fit into the equation.  Here the questions would include, “What do you have at your disposal that would help you accomplish this?”
5. Information is your patient education system.  The best patient education systems place the nervous system at the center of the world of understanding for the chiropractic patient and here is also where technology shines.  Wouldn’t it be great if patients truly grasped the importance of their nervous system in health and disease?
6. Systems include communication systems, patient education systems, technic systems and numerous other systems for us.  The question is in your ability to help the patient create systems for their own health development.
7. Identification of key concerns also is a consultation questions but it also comes up largely on a visit to visit basis.  I was always taught to move patients away from discussions of their symptoms but wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could use their symptoms as an education tool and a way to enroll and activate the patient in their own healing process?  Again if we ask the patient when they present a key concern, “what would be so good about it if I could help you with that?”  Here, you will begin to layer benefit after benefit for that patient in that patient’s mind about how you are contributing to their life.  And, if the patient can understand the spinal-neurological CAUSE of their key concern, then they can fully comprehend the relationship between stress and their health.
8. The plan is your set of recommendations for that patient’s care.  Part and parcel within those recommendations should be periodic re-assessments to insure their nervous system is properly responding to your care.  If you are basing your recommendations on the patient’s symptom picture, then why blame the patient when they discontinue care based on their symptoms or lack of symptoms.  If we want patients to understand it is more about function than how they feel, we must base our recommendations on documentation of functional changes.
9. Desire comes for the patient to get rid of what they have but do not want.  Wellness and family practices have mastered the art of patient communication so that the original intent shifts to using chiropractic to gain what they want and do not have…health for them and their family!  The transformation from symptom care to function care is taking root when patients begin making lifestyle changes on their own and want to see, the impact of those lifestyle changes on their function and health status.
10. When it comes to your strengths, focus on what you may have said or done to produce ideal patients in your practice.  If you knew what you said, what ideal patients heard or what they experienced that contributed to them becoming great patients, you would duplicate that experience for every patient who came through your doors.

Most practitioners are paying dearly for the absence of the “essentials” in the only way they can…by working much too hard for much too little.  If you can embrace change, then you have two choices.  You can create your own systems, strategies and procedures or you can embrace today’s modern technology and let me help you create systems, strategies and procedures with you…not for you.  I pride myself in actually knowing my clients as people…not just another client and, in doing so, we both get to develop a renewed sense of clarity, direction and momentum…the three pre- requisites for the development of your life, business and practice…on purpose and by design.

That’s a great start.  In addition, I recommend the use of a planner or journal that is templated for your success.  Let’s see where you are with regard to time and maybe create a little more time for you.  If we plan our time effectively, we tend to use it more effectively.  On the other hand, if you are overwhelmed now, growth is unlikely:

Is there enough time in your day to get your job done?

Š     Yes, my days are well planned and I complete everything I set out to do each day

Š     Rarely.  I struggle to keep up with my workload

Š     Never.  I feel completely overwhelmed with my workload

How do you currently manage your workload?

Š     My days are largely disorganized and unscheduled with unpredictable interruptions

Š     I plan ahead but also allow for unexpected challenges

Š     I prioritize my tasks by level of urgency and/or importance

Are you able to spend quality time with the people you care about?

Š     I always spend quality time with my family and friends

Š     I occasionally spend time on the weekends with my family and friends

Š     I am so exhausted after work, I don’t want to spend time socializing with anyone

Do you use time in meetings to your advantage?

Š     Most of my meetings rarely accomplish anything

Š     Meetings are arranged on an as needed basis with no set agenda

Š     Every meeting accomplishes some specific outcome or objective

What time do you take out of the day for yourself?

Š     I put aside time to enjoy my personal interests and hobbies

Š     I try to leave work behind me at a certain time each day

Š     I don’t have time to relax

So, if I were going to assist you in becoming more organized, here’s where I would start:

1. Print your daily schedule every day and organize your day in time
2. Print and review your LifeWorks Checklist
3. Create a priority system on the things that must be done
4. Take the quality of your life and put it into time so that you make it happen
5.  Be committed to completing your cycles of action
6.  Use a Planner to manage staff, projects, weekly planning meetings and to do priorities
7.  Start and end every day with a clean desk
8.  Schedule time to stay organized
9.  Create checklists in time
10. And, just as you would pay you first…your time must come first (HINT:  think PowerHour)

The most common excuse for NOT doing this is that it takes up too much time.  Truth is, if you did this, you would have more time.  And, if you don’t have the time to run your business/life/practice right to begin with, when will you find the time to fix it?

This is a patient mentality excuse.  Plan your life now and you can help them plan their lives out of your experience.  Remember, it’s wrong to sell what you don’t own.

The last type of plan we will discuss in this article series is a Marketing Plan.

Some market when they NEED new clients and usually find that their actions rarely produce the desired result.  Others market even though they are overwhelmed and have no room for growth and, as a result, rarely find their marketing “pays off.”  I am often asked by clients what I think about this program and that program so, in turn, I often ask them, “who are you trying to attract?”

Even the most rudimentary marketing plans start with “who is your target market?”  Most practitioners cast a wide net hoping for something instead of having a laser approach to the demographic and psychographics that are most appealing to them.

Once you have identified your target market and perhaps your secondary market, the next step in the development of a marketing plan is to determine and clarify YOUR MESSAGE.  In its most basic form, your message answers the question, “the problem(s) that my product or service solves for people is?”

Then, there’s the question of the image you want your business to have.  If you’re about wellness then having a “pain” image makes little sense.  It is within the realm of your message and your image that you can tell the story behind the business or yourself…meaning why are you doing what you’re doing?

A critical aspect of marketing is the concept of features and benefits.  Everyone tries to sell on features alone but rarely does anyone buy based on that.  You must be able to convert, in your client’s mind, the features of your service into very real, specific and concrete benefits for them…or no sale.

Do you have an effective call to action?  In other words, is it easy for a new client to be eager to accept what you have to offer?  It should be.  If you’ve been paying attention to the series of articles I have written here over the past several months, I always have something more that you can get from me…just for the asking.

Now, with regard to the marketing plan itself, are there people you could joint venture with?  Can you take your product/service and their product/service and find a more unique niche for both of you?

Do you have a formal referral system in place that actually rewards referrals?  Do you have a usable database that you can market your products and services to?  Do you have an ongoing database marketing system?  Do you know how and when to upsell?  And, conversely, how and when to downsell?  Do you have ancillary products and services that you can offer.  Have you ever considered bundling your products/services into a more usable and affordable form?  Have you ever thought of having a monthly fee for certain services?  Do you have a program to acknowledge your very BEST clients?

I could go on and on about interviewing clients and using that for marketing purposes.  About doing charity work and networking with merchants within your community.  And I do in our 12+ hour marketing audio series and 200+ pages of transcripted information.

Now let’s look at why plan to begin with.  When I ask clients what steps they’ve taken to plan for the growth they want in their life,, business and practice in the year ahead, the most common answer is, “why plan?”

Typically, at this stage of the conversation I ask if they ever worry.  “Of course” is often the answer so let’s begin by defining worry.  To me, we worry because we don’t know something.  And, if we did know it, we wouldn’t worry.  From here, I often ask, “what would you need to know, that if you did know, would cause you to stop worrying?”  Here’s a hint from a previous article…people worry because there is a skill, talent or ability missing…in this case, it is the ability to predict the growth, development and success of their endeavors.

While this may sound simplistic, why not try it?  This is where the process known as planning often begins for my clients.  Also, it is important to remember that business is just a game.  All games are won or lost based on the known vs. the unknown.  So, in the game called “YOUR BUSINESS” what do you have to know that you don’t know?  And/or, what do you have to know how to do, that you don’t know how to do to win the game called business?

When you know what you need to know, you can win in the game of business.  If practice members knew what they need to know, they would win in the game called health.

So, by way of example, let me share with you what I hand hold clients through in our Annual Management Planning Seminar.  The seminar agenda, briefly and vastly oversimplified, looks like this:

PURPOSE OF PLANNING:  Effective and well planned company which causes increased profits and expansion.

1. Business Manual review and update
2. Vision, Purpose and Mission Statement review and update
3. Company organizational chart review and update
4. SuccessFormula applied to each department in the business
5. Management
6. Administration
7. Finance
8. Marketing
9. Sales
10. Production
11. Quality Control
    1. Determine personal income and expense projections
    2. Review and revise Job Descriptions, Annual Goals and Monthly Planners
    3. Pilot Projects: Research & Development

We recommend that our clients spend at least 1-4 hours per week planning the upcoming week.  Another 1-4 hours per month planning the upcoming month and we typically spend about 20 hours every December planning where we want to take our business in the upcoming year.  And, because most people will not dedicate the time to actually sitting down and doing this, we hold our Annual Management Planning Seminar where we take 7 solid hours leading our clients through this process.

Next, I want to introduce you to a personal form of planning we call the LifeWorks checklist.  This is a planning vehicle based on your ability to catch yourself doing things right.  Watch this…

How do you feel after a great day?  Great—right?

Sure, and how do you feel after a “bad” day?  At least, not so good, right?

Could it be the other way around?  Could it be that we have bad days because we go into them feeling badly?  And we have good days because we go into them feeling good?  Sure.  So why not figure out who we were, what we felt, how we acted during the best days in our lives, in our relationships or in our practices?

Did you realize that pilots, no matter how many times they’ve flown a plane, still print out and review a pre-flight checklist?  Why do you suppose they do such a thing?  Could it be that they consider that what they do is so important that, just maybe, they shouldn’t leave anything to chance or memory?  After all…lives are on the line.  Could it be that they realize it because of the danger of their job and that you don’t perceive the urgency behind what you do?

Why do we leave our lives, relationships, finances, personal development, business development and practice development to chance when simple planning  checklists can help you have what you want?

Your job is to look back over the course of your life, business, practice, relationship and see what the very best days had in common.  And then, checklist the commonalities so you are creating your best days on purpose and by design.

Here are some suggestions for your daily checklist from mine:

1. Start your day with a celebration of your life.  Most of the time, we just go through life not thinking we can affect the outcome.  We also tend towards self-judgment and being self-critical. Why not celebrate instead?
2. What do you have to be grateful for?  Start by focusing on what you have instead of what you don’t have.  You have indeed been blessed…why not acknowledge your blessings?
3. Create happiness for yourself today.  This is much easier than trying to create it for others.  If you’re happier, you’re halfway there and the chances are good that others will follow.
4. Have fun.
5. Finish what you start.
6. Make yourself a higher priority.
7. Shift your attitude from “what do I have to do today that I don’t enjoy?” to “how can I enjoy everything I am going to do today?”
8. Make someone else’s day today.
9. Speak Your Truth: never forfeit the truth for acceptance. Always follow your heart.
10.   Be open to receive and celebrate your completions and accomplishments.

Your LifeWorks or PracticeWorks or RelationshipWorks (get the idea) checklist is a living document that you would consult and use everyday to insure the best days of your life.  That means, create your own checklists and realize that they are for you to review and revise to make sure that they are accurate for your life at the time.  And, I would definitely plan to periodically review them to make sure that this plan is serving you!

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Small Business is married to the web

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Gear up… its coming!!

We have shown that an unclear vision leads to confusion instead of success.  A lack of necessary skills leads to concern and worry.  And, insufficient motivation produces a resistance to change, growth and success.

What of the next ingredient – resources?  Well, first of all, in-sufficient resources always lead to the same product in the place of success and that product is always FRUSTRATION.  If you have ever felt frustrated in your quest to grow, change or succeed, you can be certain that there was a lack or a perceived lack of necessary resources.

What resources are there?  Typically, resources fit into a small number of categories namely financial, time, materials, equipment, your facility and human resources.  So, while the question we asked for vision was “what am I trying to create?” and the question asked for skill was “do I have the abilities to create it?” and the question regarding motivation was “why do I want to create this?” the question that best applies to resources is “do I have the necessary tools-the right vehicle to get where I want to go?”

So, let’s assume that what you really want is a practice that’s fun and filled with ideal clients.  You know how many and you know why.  You have the skills to create it because you have some ideal clients already.  What resources will you need?  In addition to your facility and office floor-plan, equipment and proper staffing, time and money, you will also need…

1. New practice member call in communication strategies
2. Consultation and evaluation communication strategies
3. A Socratic new client orientation or workshop that gets people to think
4. A report of findings that is a “WOW” experience for the practice member
5. A new client resource guide to your office with vital office and health information
6. A visit to visit patient communications template
7. Visit to visit patient education strategies
8. Referral tools
9. Marketing tools
10. Retention strategies
11. Branded, visit to visit patient education tools that will keep clients thinking health and YOU like
    1. Congruent practitioner/staff member communications
    2. Office videos
    3. Office posters
    4. Handouts
    5. Brochures
    6. Audio programs
    7. Workshops
    8. Recall letters and a recall system
    9. Marketing and public education materials
    10. An internal referral system
    11. And, guidelines for their most successful implementation

Of course, these resources and more are available through Dr. Hoffman and others.  It is incumbent on you to seek out the resources that will help you build the type of practice that you really, truly want to develop.

Another type of resource, in today’s marketplace, is technology.  Do you have the technology to operate your practice and business most efficiently?  Do you have the technology to attract new practice members from your website?  Do you have an effective strategy to gather leads from your marketing efforts?  And, do you have an automated way of following up with those leads consistently with valuable information to develop a relationship with them so that when they think “health” that they think of YOU?

Your practice development resource materials should provide new understandings about health and well-being to your clients then continuously reinforce those concepts so that when you do test their competence in the information you’ve been providing, you have some assurance that they’ve been “getting it.”  This is where lasting change is produced both in your practice and in your community.

We’ve covered the first 4 ingredients to the SuccessFormula and now we’re up to the final ingredient…planning.  It has become cliché to say that one doesn’t plan to fail but rather failed to plan. Why is it that so few will take the time to actually sit down and create a plan to be, do and have what they truly want and desire in life?  Indeed, the lament of every failed business is, “there are so many things we could have done…we just never did them.”  They simply didn’t have or didn’t follow a plan.

As a personal, business and practice development coach and consultant, determining the “what stops them?” is an integral part of helping others achieve their objectives in life, health, business, relationships, finances and more.  I encourage you to determine the answers to this age-old question.

Few of us have had role models to teach us that planning the use of our time is more vital, useful and precious than simply “spending time” doing.  Everyone works in their practice…planning is working on your practice.

So, let’s plan where you want to take your life, your business and your practice in the coming year.  The first step is to create a regular period of time in your schedule to create an action plan, observe what you have accomplished, see what still needs to be done and then schedule what can be scheduled for completion over the course of the upcoming weeks and months.

Inherent to a proper plan of action must be that you have or can obtain all the requisite ingredients to insure your success.  Because the SuccessFormula is a linear cascade, there is little point in formulating a plan of action until and unless these ingredients are in place.  To review, these ingredients include:

1. Having a clear vision of what you want to accomplish.
2. Possessing, acquiring or hiring someone with the skills, talents and abilities to know what to do that will move you towards your objective.
3. “Enlightened self-interest” makes “what’s in it for you?” an acceptable means to an end.  Have a strong motivation to get where you say you want to go or there will be resistance to change.
4. Having, developing or acquiring the necessary resources to put your plan into action. Knowing where you are going, how you will get there and what will be required to keep moving prevent the frustration that often comes with an ill-conceived plan.
5. Ultimately, it comes down to your willingness and ability to follow your plan and consciously create what it is you say you want.

In the next article in this series, we will take a look at why plan and some of the different types of plans you will need namely, a personal plan and a marketing plan.

How good are you are focusing on important areas in your business?  If you’re going to put your focus somewhere, then make sure that it is on the experience that you deliver.

By focusing on the delivered experience, you are really focusing on all of the different systems and processes that go into putting that together.  Business owners who focus on the experience have more satisfied clients and employees.

This episode focuses on the Total Experience Design Manifesto Point #2.

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Now go build! Be a better Entrepreneur!

Once a crystal clear vision of where you want to go and why you want to get there is established, getting there becomes the objective.  The first step in getting there is determining if you have the skills, talents and abilities to actually to what needs to be done to get where you want to go.  And, if you don’t;  finding a way to acquire them or hire them.

Your talents are the natural gifts you were born with.  These are things that you know you do well;  so well in fact, that others may compliment you on them.  They are often things which can’t be learned although you can certainly develop and enhance your natural talents through practice and training.  Talents are, for lack of a better definition, your innate abilities.  By example, I am a synergist by nature…I love to take your one and my one and make three out of it.  Garrett, on the other hand, is a connector and networker.

On the other hand, your skills are things you have learned.  Skills are often practical abilities which you have acquired and, possibly mastered, through study, training and mentorship.  While talents are innate abilities, skills can be looked at as acquired abilities like time management or communication skills.

There are two other concepts that must be added to the equation here and you will see why in a minute.  Those concepts are your passion and your interest.  Curt Rosengren, at Passion Catalyst International, defines passion as the energy that comes from bringing more of YOU into what you do.  In other words, passion is being who you are and doing what comes naturally.  For me, passion is the discovery of what matters most in my life.  I believe that when you consistently choose in favor of the things you are passionate about, you will find yourself filled with a sense of purpose.

Interest in or about something could be strong or weak, permanent or temporary, waxing or waning.  In other words, our interests vary and may change over time whereas our passion likely is steadfast and grows over time.

Here’s why I discuss these things.  Most of us apply our skills to our interest and wonder why life is such an uphill battle.  Find a role model in any field or profession and you have likely found someone who is applying their talents to their passions.  In coaching, for example, would you want to be coached by someone who thinks they understand what you want to do?  Or, would you prefer to be coached by someone who has done what you want to do?  And, has done it successfully!

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happiness=success… go figure

Despite the fact that creating products for your service business is easy, there are still a lot of businesses not creating for their business.  By not creating new products, these business owners are missing out on the opportunity to engage with their clients at a deeper level, tap new markets and grow their business in the process.

What’s the reason for the neglect?  It could be the usual suspects:

• Time
• Money
• Don’t have the right players on the team
• Not sure how or what to create
• Maybe you even think you don’t have any good ideas

Do these sound familiar?  Business owners are notorious for using them.

In today’s day and age, there is no excuse for not creating products for your service business.  Take a look at some of the traditional product creation vehicles and how easy and inexpensive they are to use today:

• Video-  It used to be that you needed a ton of expensive equipment.  Digital format for videos wasn’t invented until around the early 90s.  Since that time, creating a video is as easy as pointing a camera where you want it and start creating.  With equipment like flip cams you can record a video and plug it straight into your computer to start editing.  Apple computers has made editing videos easy as well.  Don’t have a video camera.  Use a service like Camtasia to roll a slide show that you can talk over and put music to.
• Audio-  You don’t have to have a professional recording studio to record professional sounding audio to use with products and podcasts.  Microphones like the Snowball make creating audio as easy as plugging the mic into your computer.  Free services like Audacity make editing simple as well.  You can use an inexpensive program like Reaper to capture your audio as well and lay multiple tracks.
• Workbooks- You don’t have to spend a fortune to have a professional looking workbook laid out and designed for your products.  Places like Elance make it easy to find solid professional designers to out together great looking material at a fraction of the cost.
• Books-  Whether you are creating an e-book or self publishing, creating a book is easier as well.  Not only is it easy to create content through channels like a blog where you can literally blog your book.  You also kill two birds with one stone by not only creating content to engage your following but you are also working towards a finished product of a book.  Amazon has a number of options to help you put out a finished product that can be used as an e-book, physical book or is compatible with their Kindle reader as well.  They will find editors, designers, etc.
• Home Study Courses-  Do you have a service or process that you take clients through?  If you do, are you missing out on the opportunity to capture that in the form of home study course?  A home study course will incorporate a number of the elements that I talked about above.  Videos, audios, a workbook, etc.  This is a great way to show people what your service is all about at a lower barrier to entry.   You can offer this as a physical product or make it strictly digital or even do both.

As you read through this ask yourself the following questions:

How good is your business at creating new products?

What holes are missing that need to be addressed with products?

To get you started and help you overcome some of your product creation obstacles, here are some of my most critical tips for getting more product created:

1. Have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish with each new product you create.  This seems fairly obvious but it’s easy to not articulate this upfront and then lose sight of what it is that you are really trying to accomplish.  Keep your end user in mind.
2. You have time here’s how to use it.  Creating new products for your business is about setting aside the time.  It’s all about creating the time and the space in your calendar to do this.  I would set aside time in your calendar each week that is focused on product creation and idea development.  If you don’t create the time on your calendar and stick with it, it will never happen.  It’s about creating a rhythm that you work in.
3. Holes that exist in your knowledge.  You may have avoided creating because you don’t feel like you are “tech savvy”.  I hear this a lot about entrepreneurs but the great thing about tech savvy people is they don’t come out of the womb knowing how to code in HTML and PHP, they learn it.  Granted some people have more of an interest in these things than others.  If tech ignorance is getting in the way of you growing your business, then you need to get over your fear or dislike of technology and make it your friend.  If you need help, then find it.  There is a lot of talented, inexpensive help out there.  They may already be on your team.
4. You don’t have any good ideas.  I don’t hear this a lot from entrepreneurs as typically I am trying to get them to rein in the “good ideas” but there is a decent percentage of entrepreneurs who feel stuck or are down on their abilities to come up with good ideas.  My suggestion here is to create quiet time for yourself to create in a location that is not work.  We call this time a “power hour” and it happens before we do anything else in the morning.  Having some quiet time to work-out, brainstorm, read, meditate or pray is a great way to get your creative juices flowing.

You know what to do and how to overcome obstacles, now it’s time to go out and do it.  Take a minute right now and put some product creation time on your calendar and stick to it.