WELCOME TO THE BIG SHIFT PODCAST!

The Big Shift is a podcast, a community, and a movement. It is our aim to help those who want to make a difference, have success in carrying out their mission. The goal of our podcast is to inspire heart-centered entrepreneurs to create their dream business, do what they love, and make the world a better place in the process.

We will help you get there by sharing with you the best marketing, sales/enrollment and mindset practices known to humankind today… All of these practices are tested and come from the people who are the very best at utilizing and teaching them. These will be some of the most extraordinary people on this planet. Get ready for your Big Shift!


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What’s Your Promise?

I get a ton of questions from people who ask me how to choose a good niche.

I’m going to tell you exactly what to do to get it figured out for good.

It all boils down to one very simple thing.

What’s your promise?

Everything you do in your business is about making and keeping promises to your customers.

Seriously, think about it.
Tylenol promises to reduce fevers and help your headache go away.
Your TV promises to project moving images for your entertainment.
Your manicurist promises to help your hands look more beautiful.
What are you promising with your service?

A confused customer always says no

Are prospective clients confused by what you do?

Here’s a tip: think about the service or product that you provide as a promise.

Instead of thinking of yourself as a massage therapist, what if you thought of yourself as “helping women get totally relaxed in an hour” expert, then you can totally devote yourself to delivering on that promise.

Instead of thinking of yourself as a life coach, what if you thought of yourself as a “find a career that fulfills you” expert then you can do what it takes to you have all the tools in place to help people with just that problem.

When you can promise what your ideal clients want, and consistently keep that promise you will have more business than you can handle.

Are you a generalist?

It’s often said that generalists tend to be less successful then experts in a service based business. Simply put, people want to work with experts or specialists.

I’ve run into this challenge myself, because I have the tendency to be a generalist. Here’s my own experience: the more I became an expert in helping you get more clients in less time, the more money I started making.

Because, figuring out your niche (and your promise) is such a common challenge, I’m going to be launching a unique program in a few weeks that will give you powerful tools for CLAIMING a niche that you can be an expert in. I’ll send details soon.

I promise you’re going to love it!

———————————————————————————————————————–
IMPORTANT UPDATE!

I have since launched the Coaching Niche Telesummit taking place December
15-18. If you are a coach and this post spoke to you, then you definitely
need to attend. Go to http://www.coachingnichetelesummit.com for more details.

This event features coaches who are leaders in 6 in-demand coaching niches.
Each hour long telecall will feature a different area of specialization and
will show you key strategies for you to take your business down a path of
growth and success.

Sign up at http://www.coachingnichetelesummit.com to see our full list of
experts. You’ll get completely free access to the Coaching Niche Telesummit
as well as a complete schedule of telecalls.

Plus, we’ll send you the recordings after the event has concluded.

See you there!

The Business Secrets of a Poker Player

“If one is master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time, insight into and understanding of many things.”Vincent Van Gogh

Why is mastery important?

There is a difference between knowing how to do something and being a master of it. There is a difference between dabbling in something and being a master of that pursuit.

I know how instrumental this mind shift has been for me in my life.
And naturally, I just want to share with you some of what I’ve learned.

Here’s an example – my path towards mastering getting clients:

  • I learned to see the whole picture of what it takes to get clients anytime, anywhere (my system)
  • I committed myself to a relentless pursuit of learning everything that’s relevant for me on that subject (pieces of the puzzle)
  • I learned to say no to other things while I was in the throws of my pursuit (focus)
  • I also gave absolutely all of me while I was with my clients and always put them first (it’s not about me)
  • I never gave up even when it seemed like I was going to fail (perseverance)

There have been tremendous tangible benefits to this pursuit. I have an overflowing practice and a coaching company with 5 successful coaches. I now know what works and what doesn’t work as far as getting and keeping clients. I have the confidence that I can get clients. The freedom that gives me is huge. And most importantly to me, I now have intimate knowledge of the mechanics of success and the confidence that I can be successful with anything I commit myself to.

What I learned by playing poker

I have recently got into playing poker. I love the game. There are a lot of moving parts and it takes a lot to master. I have to know the cards. I have to know myself. I have to know the people I playing with. I have to know the situation. It’s complicated and I love it.

I can talk about poker all day, but one important thing I have noticed is that many of the top players were once champions and winners at other games/sports – chess, backgammon, bridge and even basketball.

In this past World Series of Poker, Jordan Farmar, a point guard for the Lakers basketball team, made it to Day 3 of the event. I have played in the tournament and I know how difficult it is to get to Day 3.

What’s remarkable about Farmer’s great poker run is that he learned to play poker just a few days prior to the tournament. He already knows what it takes to win. He knows what it takes to be a masterful point guard. And he converted that to doing well at the World Series of Poker.

When you commit to mastering one thing, you commit to being successful.

Another example of this is Josh Waitzkin. He was a Junior chess champion and now he is a Martial Arts champion. I’ve heard him mention in interviews that he sees no difference for himself between chess and martial arts. He understands mastery and the rest is simply picking what he wants to be a master of.

“There’s this wonderful buddhist story, an ancient Indian story, and basically the parable is this: If a man wants to walk across the Earth, and the Earth is covered with thorns, he has two answers, he has two possible solutions: He can cover the entire Earth with leather, which will take a lot of time – that’s the external solution – or he can make sandals, that’s the internal solution. And I really believe in making sandals.”Josh Waitzkin

So when you commit to mastery, you don’t just master that one thing, you learn how to master anything… and thorns will not stand in your way.

When you can make a mindshift from attaining your goals to being a master of what you chose to take on, not only do your goals come to you more effortlessly, but you learn how turn anything you want into gold.

What can you do now?

  • Decide if mastery is important to you
  • Pick something that you want to master
  • Commit to getting on the road to mastering that which you just picked
  • Identify what the first step is on the road to mastery
  • Start walking

“Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.”Albert Einstein

Here’s to mastery!!

JetBlue — The Passionate Skies

No matter how hard we prepare, plan and create systems – sometimes our customers are not happy with us.

It makes no difference if it is our fault or not, the experience of our customers is sacred and as business owners we have to take responsibility for that. Below is an example of full responsibility done in a powerful and creative way. This is the way to turn a potentially a negative situation into a positive one that converts customers into loyal passionate users.

How can you do that in your business and with you most important-yet-dissatisfied customers?

Jet Blue

Dear JetBlue Customers, We are sorry and embarrassed. But most of all, we are deeply sorry.

Last week was the worst operational week in JetBlue’s seven year history. Following the severe winter ice storm in the Northeast, we subjected our customers to unacceptable delays, flight cancellations, lost baggage, and other major inconveniences. The storm disrupted the movement of aircraft, and, more importantly, disrupted the movement of JetBlue’s pilot and inflight crewmembers who were depending on those planes to get them to the airports where they were scheduled to serve you. With the busy President’s Day weekend upon us, rebooking opportunities were scarce and hold times at 1-800-JETBLUE were unacceptably long or not even available, further hindering our recovery efforts.

Words cannot express how truly sorry we are for the anxiety, frustration and inconvenience that we caused. This is especially saddening because JetBlue was founded on the promise of bringing humanity back to air travel and making the experience of flying happier and easier for everyone who chooses to fly with us. We know we failed to deliver on this promise last week.

We are committed to you, our valued customers, and are taking immediate corrective steps to regain your confidence in us. We have begun putting a comprehensive plan in place to provide better and more timely information to you, more tools and resources for our crewmembers and improved procedures for handling operational difficulties in the future. We are confident, as a result of these actions, that JetBlue will emerge as a more reliable and even more customer responsive airline than ever before.

Most importantly, we have published the JetBlue Airways Customer Bill of Rights on our official commitment to you of how we will handle operational interruptions going forward including details of compensation. I have a video message to share with you about this industry leading action.

You deserved better a lot better from us last week. Nothing is more important than regaining your trust and all of us here hope you will give us the opportunity to welcome you onboard again soon and provide you the positive JetBlue Experience you have come to expect from us.

Sincerely,
David Neeleman Founder and CEO JetBlue Airways

Impassioned Response

It’s a typical Tuesday evening. Sylvia is running a little late to meet her boyfriend for dinner at great out of the way bistro on the Lower East Side. She is lucky to have gotten a seat on this rush-hour NYC subway cart. She is struggling to read Wired magazine, as the ride is especially bumpy today.

It’s amazing that on such a crowded train, she feels completely invisible. But if anyone is paying attention to her, they are noticing that she is beginning to be visibly excited by what she is reading. In fact, she is so excited that she is dying to tap the shoulder of the man sitting next to her and tell him about what she is reading. This stranger is startled out of his subway stupor and is soon engaged by what she is sharing. He learns how taken she is by her new discovery. He is now a believer, too.

She is reading a story about your business!

  • Is your product or service remarkable enough?
  • Is the story of your product engaging enough to a stranger?
  • How easy is it to spread your story?
What we are striving for is to create and market in such a way as to elicit an impassioned response. Once we do, selling becomes effortless, getting clients becomes commonplace and growing your business becomes a given.

Authentic Trust

TrustHow quickly do you trust?
How quickly do you trust someone who is selling to you?

The only way for you to gain the trust of your clients/customers is to have them experience that you care more about them then the $ they are giving you.

Check out Seth Godin’s brilliant post on the matter.

7 Steps to Customer Trust

  1. Wholeheartedly believe in your product or service
  2. Be authentic in your marketing and in all your interactions with your customers
  3. Be curious about your customer’s experience
  4. Create a business culture of integrity
  5. Over deliver
  6. Love your clients
  7. Trust Yourself

The Good Kind of Gossip

Russian Gossip

Are people talking about what you do or what you have created?

  • Are your customers telling their friends, “Oh my God!! You’ve gotta hire this … He is amazing!”
  • Are bloggers writing glowing posts about your products?
  • Are strangers to your business saying things like “Have you seen…?”

If not, the problem is not your marketing — it’s your products or services.