There’s Networking, and then there’s Relationship Building.

They both have their place in business to be sure.  But, what is the difference?  In business most Relationship Building starts with Networking.  Networking is certainly critical, as it is the initial contact, the handshake, the exchange of names, business cards, and hopefully enough interaction that the seeds of a possible relationship have been planted.

Relationship Building however goes beyond Networking.  Once the seed is planted it needs to be nourished, taken care of, supported.  Attention needs to be paid to it.  If not, it withers and dies.  Relationship Building requires Follow Up, and a lot of “Just Because” attitude.  If you are building the relationship purely for the purpose of getting business it just won’t be the same, no matter how hard you try.

I love the mantra that I always hear at Corporate Alliance functions such as the recent Reunion Tour held at the Zermatt Resort in Midway, “Every opportunity has it’s root in a relationship!”  Now, break that down a little and you will realize that the relationship comes first, then potentially an opportunity.  It is NOT the manufacture of an opportunity through a contrived relationship.

So, be genuine.  Be sincere.  Network?  Yes, but don’t stop there.  Build relationships, learn about others, seek opportunities to serve them “just because”, and your relationships, both business and personal, will experience significant growth.  As a side benefit to those quality relationships you never know what opportunities may come your way.

To Your Success!

Kip Kint, Success Coach & President, Mission Ignition

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.  We all know that.  But did you know that  “Laughter is the shortest distance between two people?” (Victor Borge, 1909-2000)

There is tremendous power in laughter.  Human Beings are so-wired that we need to have fun and laugh and smile. In fact, we are hard-wired for this. It is a proven fact that just smiling, even when you don’t feel like doing so, will release a small amount of endorphins in the brain, the very chemical that causes us to feel good. Keep smiling long enough, and eventually you really do feel like smiling. Add laughter to that equation and look out, you’re feeling pretty great before you know it.

So, what if you are sharing smiles and laughter with another person?  What happens when two people are simultaneously experiencing the sense of well-being that comes from laughing?  Those two people are drawn closer together.  Laughing together with another person strengthens bonds, including bonds that are brand new and just forming, and shortens the distance between them.

This applies in the world of business as much as any other part of life.  I know we tend to think of business as “serious stuff” but business is all about relationships, and influence.  We have more influence with those we are close to.  We draw closer to those that make us feel good when we are around them.  The distance is shortened significantly when we laugh and share good humor with one another.

So, lighten things up.  Have a laugh or two with your prospects, clients, and associates.  I can’t think of a more enjoyable way to improve your business relationships and your influence with others.

To Your Success!

Kip Kint, Success Coach & President, Mission Ignition

How is your Follow Up?  Are you consistent? Are you persistent?  In what ways do you follow up?  Do you call, send cards, email, call again?

In her book, Get Clients Now, author C.J. Hayden says, “Following Up is at the center of the Universal Marketing Cycle for a reason: consistent and persistent follow up is central to successfully moving a prospect forward to making a sale.”

I have a card that I like to send to my coaching clients, especially those who are trying to improve their marketing and sales.  On the front of the card it reads:

Sales Statistics:

48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect
25% of sales people make a second contact and stop
12% of sales people only make three contacts and stop Only 10% of sales people make more than three contacts

2% of sales are made on the first contact
3% of sales are made on the second contact
5% of sales are made on the third contact
10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact

Fear is one of several reasons people don’t follow up with their contacts.  On page 181 of Hayden’s book she writes:

“If I follow up that lead, I might be rejected,” reasons the voice in your head.  “So I’ll avoid the pain by not making the call in the first place.”  Or conversely, you may be thinking, “If I place the call, I might get the business, and then I’ll have to do the work, and people will have all these expectations of me.”  But the reality is that if you don’t place the calls, you’re going to fail even more dramatically than in these two imaginary scenarios.

Remember that fear is really an acronym, F.E.A.R which stands for False Evidence Appearing Real.  When you take action in the face of your fear, by following up with prospects for example, you can then expose that false evidence for what it is and move past it, and your fear.

In summary, Follow Up is king.  Take the time, get organized, and follow up with your prospects, again and again.

To Your Success!

Kip Kint
Success Coach & President
Mission Ignition

As a Licensed Get Clients Now Facilitator I would be happy to offer you a free consultation to determine if the Get Clients Now coaching program may be right for you.

Imagine that you are driving in an area that is unfamiliar to you, just hoping the directions you scratched on a napkin will get you to where you need to be, when all of a sudden you see a detour sign ahead. Now this wouldn’t be so bad if it were a “good” detour, meaning that shortly after following the directions of the first detour sign you promptly see yet another detour sign which continues to direct your path, and another, and another until you find yourself on the correct course once again. That is a “good” detour.

Now, imagine once again the same scenario, only this time you experience a “bad” detour. A “bad” detour is simply this: after the first detour sign causes you to leave your original path there are no more detour signs to get you back on the right path. This is a “bad” detour because it only gets you off course, but not back on again.

In this case the “creators” of the detour gave no thought as to directing you back to your original course, only how to get you off course. When it comes to having a plan for your day or your week that is intended to get you to your desired “destination”, YOU are the creator of the detour.

Having a good detour in life boils down to having a good plan for the week written down, with some flexibility built in, so that if you experience a “detour” in the form of an interruption or some sort of emergency you can enter back onto the original path at an appropriate point. On the flip-side, if you have no plan at all then it would be difficult to resume a plan you never had. Having a good plan is like a “good” detour, it can help you get back on track and on your way to a successful week in spite of obstacles life may throw in your way.

To receive a Free Coaching Session to discuss the effectiveness of your planning just click the image below.

To Your Success,

Kip Kint
Success Coach & President
Mission Ignition, Inc.

No, I don’t mean your chronological age, you know, the one that is determined by your birthday. Everyone knows how old they are using that criteria. I mean, do you know how old you really are? Are you biologically younger, older, or the same as your calendar age?

The average lifespan for an American is 72 for men and 78 for women. Based on various factors that have a direct or indirect impact on longevity your lifespan may be either longer or shorter than these averages. So, how old you really are is based on how much longer or shorter you might expect to live in comparison with the average.

For example, I am 42 years old, according to my birthday. However, my “Real Age” is 29 years old according RealAge.com, a popular health website that assesses your real age according to your lifestyle, diet, execercise, genetics and many other health-related factors. Find out your real age today by taking the free assessment at RealAge.com. You will even get a customized action-plan for lowering your real age in as little as 90 days. Just click the image below and find out what your Real Age is.

If you would like to have a free coaching session to discuss your health goals or any other goals you may have just click the link below to submit your request.

To Your Success,

Kip Kint
Success Coach & President
Mission Ignition, Inc.

The other day I was tidying up in the kitchen when I heard all heck break loose downstairs. Apparently there was some sort of exchange between by 14 year old daughter and my 8 year old son. My boy came out on the short end of the stick, suffering some minor lacerations to his knee. Although it seemed clear that it was an accident the first thing my son said to me when I arrived on the scene was, “She did it on purpose.” This statement gave me pause to think about how we use the phrase, “on purpose“.

Was it really my daughter’s “purpose” to injure her brother? I don’t think so, nor is that what he meant when he said it. Usually when we say, “on purpose” what we really mean is “intentionally”. However, intention and purpose are two very different things. We might occasionally do things intentionally that have nothing to do with our purpose. But to have a purpose, a clear and meaningful one, and to be on that purpose, now that is something that can have a meaningful and lasting impact in our lives and the lives of others.

As this New Year unfolds let me encourage you to have a purpose, know that purpose inside and out, and focus your energy and efforts toward being truly “on purpose.” Being on purpose is like being on target, and that is one target you definitely don’t want to miss.

If you would like to learn more about your purpose and how to be on purpose in your life let me encourage you to sign up for a free coaching session by clicking the link below.

To Your Success!

Kip Kint
Success Coach
Mission Ignition, Inc.

Want to build a better relationship? Whether it’s your marriage, a partnership, or a relationship with a child, you might enjoy performing this little experiment. It’s called the 7 Day Relationship Experiment. Here’s how it goes:

For seven days, without letting the other person know what you are doing, flood the relationship with positives.

Withhold:

• Criticism
• Put-downs
• Complaints
• Interruptions
• Corrections
• Directions

Go out of your way to:

• Express genuine appreciation (pretended or exaggerated praise is deadly to this exercise and to the relationship).

• Create the opportunity to give a kind and friendly touch to the other person in a non-demanding and unobtrusive way at least once each time you are together. This could be as simple as a pat on the back, a hand on the arm, or an arm around the shoulder.

• Choose at least three things the other person would really appreciate this week, and DO THEM!

Note the changes, if any, in the other person’s behavior over the course of the seven days. Write down your conclusions from the experiment.

So, are you feeling adventurous? Are you ready to try the experiment? You never know what might happen!

Want a Free Coaching Session to discuss an important relationship you would like to improve? Click the link below:

To Your Success!

Kip Kint
Success Coach & President
Mission Ignition, Inc.

I was talking to a prospective coaching client the other day. As I was explaining the emphasis we place on balance and personal success in our coaching programs he interjected and made an interesting comment. He said to me, “Kip, I know I have some things I need to improve on personally, but for right now I really need to just focus on improving my business.”

What a revelation! In one sentence he revealed a paradigm that more than anything else was holding him back from being as successful as he could be. There is one principle, one natural law, one fundamental truth that he was not recognizing and applying, and that is this:

No Success, including Business Success, can precede Personal Success.

You see this is the deal, the crux of it all really. The fastest car in the world doesn’t win the race without a highly skilled driver; the finest paint and brushes have no meaningful impact on the canvas without the hand of a talented artist; and successful, highly effective businesses are run by people who are successful and highly effective as human beings. It is a PRErequisite. Being an effective, successful person does not come after first building a successful business or career. IT COMES FIRST!!! If Business Success is the chicken, and Personal Success is the egg, then the answer to the age-old question is most definitely and emphatically “The Egg!”, and if you will take the time to nurture the egg (your personal effectiveness) you will find it results in a more robust and healthy chicken (in other words, a great business/career).

Deep down you know this is true, we all do. Yet so many would try to convince themselves they can take the shortcut that no one else has been able to take, that somehow they can have the business success they desire without doing the work on themselves first. Why do so many try it? Why do they skip the part where they work on themselves and work on other things first? The answer is fear.

Think of it this way, if I try my hand at creating a successful business and fail I can reason that it was due to any number of reasons and circumstances outside my control. However, if I work on being an effective person and fail… well, you can see how this pill might prove a little harder to swallow if we let such fears get the best of us. As a result, most of us focus our efforts in either the wrong place, or in the right place but prematurely (in other words, without working on personal effectiveness first).

My Challenge to You:

1. Focus your efforts on becoming a highly effective person, one who makes and keeps commitments to yourself and has a high degree of personal integrity and follow through, even when no one else knows of your commitment.

2. Be an excellent manager of your time. It’s not about scheduling every minute of your time, but rather doing the right thing at the right time.

3. Establish habits that will serve you throughout the rest of your life, habits that will lead you to succeed regardless of your chosen business or career endeavors.

If you will do these things I am confident you will enjoy tremendous success in all aspects of your life, including business and career.

To get a Free Coaching Session to discuss your Business and Personal Success and Effectiveness just click the link below:

To Your Success!

Kip Kint
Success Coach & President
Mission Ignition, Inc.

There are plenty of planning methods out there. There are a lot of different ways to organize your schedule. Which one is best? Well, of course the answer can be highly subjective. However, based on my experience in coaching thousands of clients, to be more effective in getting the results they want out of business and life I have found a method that works best for most. It is Roles-based Planning and it can make all the difference in the success you achieve in the significant roles in your life. Here’s how it works:

1st:
Clearly define your vision for each of your significant roles in your life. Are you a Business Leader, a Husband, a Mother, a Friend? What is your vision for fulfilling those roles in your life? The more clear and well-articulated the vision the greater the likelihood you will achieve it.

2nd:
Plan goals for each role each week. These are not necessarily big, long-term goals, but rather goals that can be fulfilled and accomplished within the coming week. List these goals right under your roles. The most common way to do this is called a Weekly Compass (right).

3rd:
Time-activate your goals into your schedule. I suggest you color-coordinate them with a different color for each role. I use blue for my role as a Business Leader and pink for my role as a Husband, purple for my role as a Father and yellow for my role as a Coach. The colors you choose are up to you. Of course this will add a few minutes to the planning process. However, the increased effectiveness in the execution of your plan will make it more than worth it. Here is a sample calendar that has been color-coordinated to match the Weekly Compass and Roles it is associated with (click calendar to enlarge):

This life, and the success we enjoy in it, is all tied to relationships, and every relationship we have is tied to a role the we play in that relationship. The more successful you are in your roles, the more successful you are in life.

To your Success!

Kip Kint
Success Coach & President
Mission Ignition, Inc.

One of the important “spokes” on the Wheel of Life, that I have blogged about in the past, is Fun & Recreation. In working with over 3,000 clients I have found that when time gets tight this is one of the first things to be sacrificed by most people. I have come to the conclusion that this is not the wisest path to take.

Fun & Recreation are important, even critical, to one’s self-renewal. Even break down the word “recreation” and what do you have? Re-Creation! We need to constantly re-create and renew ourselves. Human Beings are so-wired that we need to have fun and laugh and smile. In fact, we are hard-wired for this. It is a proven fact that just smiling, even when you don’t feel like doing so, will release a very small amount of endorphins in the brain, the very chemical that causes us to feel good. Keep smiling long enough, and eventually you really do feel like smiling. Add laughter to that equation and look out, you’re feeling pretty great before you know it. Engage in activities you personally find to be fun and recreational and you are getting some much-needed renewal.

One of the exercises I assign to my Coaching Clients is called, “20 Things I Love To Do”. Basically, it’s like this:

Take out a piece of paper, or turn on you computer and begin brainstorming things that you love to do. Never mind how long it’s been since you last did it. Maybe it was yesterday for some, or 20 years ago for others. The point is that it’s a brainstorm, so no “editing” while you’re writing. Come up with at least 20 things and put them on your list.

Next, ask the following questions for each of the items you brainstormed:

1. How long since I last did this?
2. Do I prefer to do it alone, or with someone?
3. Is it Job Related?
4. Is it generally done spontaneously, or does it require some planning?
5. Is it more fast-paced, or slow-paced?
6. Is it Mental, Physical, Social, or Spiritual (or any combination of the four)?
7. Does it cost money, or is it free?

The answers to these questions are merely to shed a little insight into the things you love to do, and help you choose what you might do next, and then do it.

So, don’t delay. Having Fun and Re-Creating are critical to your success and happiness. I suggest you start right away.

If you would like to see what your Balance Score is for Fun & Recreation in your life, just click the link below to take a Free Personal Assessment of your balance.

To Your Success!

Kip Kint
Success Coach & President
Mission Ignition, Inc.