Like Nobody's Business Podcasts

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Business Success Coach and Strategic Planning Consultant, Lalita Amos, of Total Team Solutions, LLC, discusses key issues for the success of small businesses. Her show features thoughtful interviews, breaking news and how-to's to keep you at the top of your game. True to her coach's calling, she serves up the real deal in business straight -- no chaser. Primary Format : Business Also Listed as: Business City : Indianapolis State/Province : IN Country : USA Country : NA User Tags: User Votes: RSS Feed Website People found this Podcast Searching for: View this Podcast on a Google Map. Add to iTunes Text Only listing of Like Nobody\'s Business Podcasts Trumix.com listings available of Like Nobody\'s Business Podcasts Click Here to Update the directory of this podcasts programs.

Trumix.com listings available of Like Nobody\'s Business Podcasts Build your own playlists with this podcast. LNB #053: Help! I Neede Someone! I remember seeing the Beatles' movie, Help! when I was a kid. Love the lyrics, which are so brilliant: (Help) I need somebody (Help) Not just anybody (Help) You know I need someone (Help) When I was younger, so much younger than today I never needed anybody's help in any way But now these days are gone I'm not so self assured Now I find I've changed my mind I've opened up the doors Help me if you can, I'm feeling down And I do appreciate you being 'round Help ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #052: The Dip (Pt. 2) This week, we cover ways to think your way through quitting. Knowing the answers to the key questions for your business or accountability, you can figure out pretty quickly what you should be saying "yes" or "no" to. To remind you, in Seth Godin's book, The Dip, he describes three key conditions when we get stopped: The dip: where the break in your action is so deep and wide that you can't move out of it with the resources you're expending. Kind of like the straight-A highschooler who ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #051: The Dip (Pt. 1) Marketing guru, Seth Godin's book, The Dip, forms the basis for this podcast (and several more to come). Seth describes three key conditions when we get stopped: The dip: where the break in your action is so deep and wide that you can't move out of it with the resources you're expending. Kind of like the straight-A highschooler who never really had to expend herself...until she got a snootful of Calculus 115. The cul de sac (or dead-end): staying here will keep you from doing somethin ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #050: Gobbledygook (Biz Communications) Leverage... Cutting edge... Scalable... ...and the list goes on. When did our business communication stop being authentic and start being a frantic race to leverage robust world-class business intel that offers flexible, yet scalable, capabilities to help achieve (I really wanted to say "leverage" again) potential and future stakeholder value? Use language that is clear and check in to make sure that your intended meaning is coming across. _____________ FOR MORE INFORMATION ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #049: Work-Life Balance (sigh) This is a short work week due to the Labor Day Holiday. People are slammed, trying to get work done and the children back to school...and everything else. Someone said their short week felt more like a punishment requiring them to work even longer hours. Conversations have turned to the mythic Work-Life Balance. Where did this come from? This term was coined around 1986. Men and women of color and white women had begun making serious inroads into the professional workforce. The countr ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #048: Just Say "No" (pt. 4) Cleaning Up the Slop No. Nein. Nyet. Non. Little words in whatever language we speak. Big mischief if we don't use them when we should. We end up half-committed to projects and other decisions we know we really don't support, taking precious time away from other priorities, working without the focus that comes from commitment. Resentfully wasting time. Search Amazon.com and you'll find a staggering amount of books in getting to "yes" but nary a one on getting to a "no" or saying "no" for that ma ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #047: Just Say "No?!" (pt. 3) It's What You Say "Yes" To Just say "no?" Seems like this has energized many of you (ticking off some) and gotten you into action. Being one who thinks when it gets tough one should dig deeper (as opposed to scarpering away), we're going to look some more at this ugly topic. We've discussed the bloated lifestyle that has us say "yes" to everything without limitation...and then giving up sleep, family life and sanity to try to make it all work. We've talked about the fact that our actions (including what we say) ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Just Say "No?!" (pt. 2) Beliefs Face it. We suck at "yes" and "no" to the extent that we're doing work that isn't meaningful, takes up lots or time (or keeps us from the social lives we though our buisnsses woulc give us access to), we don't go on vacations and when we do, we can't unplug. Some of you have asked me: OK, Amos, how do I say "no"? When do I drop the n-bomb? How do I deal with the consequences? I've rolled over so many times, if I said "no" it would speed up global warming How do I deal with ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #045: Just Say "No?!" (pt. 1) Let's face it: We're tapped out. We work longer than ever with less return. We spend more to get the lifestyle and wind up working longer and harder (notice I didn't say "more effectively"). How do we get off the treadmill? A HISTORY LESSON In the 1940's and 50's, the post-war business climate was booming (as was the population). By the 70's anti-discrimination laws were gaining ground, opening the workforce to women and men of color and white women. At the same time, the economy ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #044: Where is a Mirror a Doorway Only in our fevered imaginations. While on vacation, I observed my expensive (but not very bright) purebred cat checking out her temporary new digs. She touched everything in the hotel room and got poleaxed at the full-length mirror. Believing it to be a doorway to a magical new world, she began frantically digging for gold on the face of the mirror. Every few minutes all through the evening, she'd stop and gaze longingly at that mirror, expecting it to become something else. Don't gi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #043: What Are You REALLY Listening to (Customer Service "We're committed to excellent customer service." Interesting idea. However, I'm not sure that we really are. Most of the time, I assert, we're too busy listening to the little voices inside our heads. I mean the voices that are constantly filtering our experiences--judging and assessing, telling us that we agree/don't agree/like it/don't like it/seen it before/trust you/don't trust you and on and on and on. With our little voices giving us the blow by blow from Radio Free Saigon, it get ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #042: Virtual Offices/Real Power We're not in business the same way we were in the PE (pre-email) days before 1987. Small businesses are proliferating in a curious way. Non-micro enterprise businesses with between 11 and 499 staffers have declined from 12% in 1997 to 9%. Micro enterprise business, however, has grown by 95%, with 76% of that growth coming from firms with no employees at all. Over half of those new businesses are being operated out of people's homes, lofts and garages. Yup. The business horizon has change ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #041: Sales vs. Referral Mindsets OK. You’ve started lining up your raving fans—people who know, like, understand and trust you. You’ve begun meeting with them, but are concerned that your relationships are starting to feel the chill. Consider these two broad mindsets when meeting with your raving fans and the prospects they bring you. Sales Mindset (Referral Mindset concepts in parentheses): * People who may need to be "sold to" (Raving fans find people who are ready to be buy. Need established by your ravi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #040: Raving Fans RESOURCES At www.totalteamsolutions.com's whitepapers page, you can find the whitepaper "Create Your Kitchen Cabinet," which details how to create an advisory council. Use it to help you find additional customers and key business contacts. Find and read "Raving Fans" for more information on how to use the power of people who know, like and trust you to more easily generate new business. FIND HIM AND CONGRATULATE HIM Scott Forgey's the gentleman I was referring to on today's show. He ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #039: Ready! Set! Go! (starting off on your own) Starting your own consulting firm is not for the timid. One must think like an entrepreneur. Here are a few key areas of your business you should concern yourself with: * Administration: As I said, the tedious bits of your business that include your phone system, your location, your clerical support, your relationships with bankers, insurance firms, attorneys and accountants * Research & Development: How you develop your new offerings * Marketing: Key demographic information about ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #038: When the #%$! Hits the Fan (Disaster Preparedness) Do you have a disaster plan? Given that we in the Northern Hemisphere are just entering hurricane and tornado season, we would do well to know what to do. Write a brief (you know how much I love working from one page) plan, including medical other disasters, give it to a trusted party and then practice. However, there are those disasters that are entirely personal, like a very sick parent, partner or child. Do you know how to keep your business running or will your business run out of ga ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #037: Messy, the New Neat? (organization & productivity) Neatness is overrated. More relevant are questions of productivity and effectiveness rather than how pristine your office space is. CONSIDERATIONS: Are you a serial (single thought processes) or a parallel (multiple trains of thought) thinker? Do you have separate private thinking spaces (which you can keep in whatever way works for you) and public meeting spaces (which you can keep in pristine condition for meetings with prospects or clients)? RESOURCES: * Intelligent Office: http ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #036: Truth Telling While Selling This episode includes an interview with the fabulous Toni Nell of Springboard Consulting. Focusing on one of the key steps in her"Stop Selling Like a Man"program, she helps us understand the importance of truth-telling while selling.Toni Nell of Springboard Consulting is a player. She’s worked with A-List clients (like Morgan Stanley) and been the go-to-gal for such business luminaries as Jim Horan (One Page Business Plan) and Michael Gerber (The E-Myth Revisited). In her own right, she†... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #035: Care and Feeding of Partnerships We spend more time picking an Ob/Gyn that will birth our babies than we do building the business partnerships that provide the income we need to take care of said babes. We know that one out of nine new businesses experience a five year failure rate and that the survivors may not be fairing all that well. For partnerships, more attention is spent on the legal and financial positioning of the partnership - whether it was a limited partnership. S or C Corporation, whether it was taxed lik ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #034: Stop Selling Like a Man (Be Yourself) This episode is NOT about women. What it’s about is selling in such a way that in bringing your A-Game you bring yourselves. Toni Nell of Springboard Consulting is a player. She’s worked with A-List clients (like Morgan Stanley) and been the go-to-gal for such business luminaries as Jim Horan (One Page Business Plan) and Michael Gerber (The E-Myth Revisited). In her own right, she’s seen and done about everything in a sales context. What she’s learned is that selling is truly about ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #033: Open Book Management OPEN BOOK MANAGEMENT Key Elements * Provide employees and key contributors with all the information they need to help the business be successful Financial data Profit data Performance data Cost of goods/services sold, etc. * Train these good people how to use and understand this information * Give these people responsibility for the numbers under their control. * Provide these people with a financial stake in how the company performs. Resources: http://en. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB 032: Staying off the "Road to Hell" (Achieving Goals) Considerations for success in achieving 2007 goals: Courage -- see Wesley Autrey Structures for existance Structures for fulfillment What matters most Resources: Landmarkeducation.com ------------ For more info: Question Line: 214 615 6505, pin #3895 Comment Line: 214 615 6505, pin #3386 www.totalteamsolutions.com/podcast/podcasting.htm totalteam.blogspot.com Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #031: What Matters Most "That which matters most must never be at the mercy of that which matters least." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Never confuse what you want in your business with what you'd be willing to settle for. Further, be clear that your business exists to fully fund your life and interests -- not just to make money. Be clear what you want the money for, so you make certain that you pay due diligence to those things as well. Special thanks for 2006: - John Weymouth (Medisurg.com) and Yo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #030: Get the Most of What's Left of '06 On a recent call with consultants from all over North America, we generated a list of things we could do to get the most of this waning year. Here are the highlights of our conversation (with my own offerings added for spice) and my invitation to try some of the things we're doing now to ramp up for 2007. * Take someone new (or weird) out to breakfast or lunch. * Send out information to begin lining up speaking gigs. * Finalize my own One Page Business Plan. Done! * Write out 3 thing ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #029: One Page Proposals? While on my "one page kick" I didn't want to leave out one of my favorites: The One-Page Proposal: How to Get Your Business Pitch onto One Persuasive Page. I found the book several years ago and have used the principles the author espouses religiously in my business with great success. Key elements: - Title and Subtitle, defining the entire proposal - Target and Secondary Targets, clarifying the goals of the project - Rationale, with information about the client's needs and why the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #028: Collaborative Business Ventures Consider bringing in others to help round out the gaps. However, as you're marshalling the troops, be sure to focus on the things that matter -- particularly before you start creating a business proposal for services. Joint Ventures What you need to know about a joint venture (JV) is that it is a business entity (partnership or corporation) that the members or member organizations create. Wikipedia lists these reasons to JV: Internal reasons: spreading cost and risk; maximizing finan ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #027: Being Remarkable Everybody says they provide great customer service, but are they extraordinary or just plan ordinary? Some considerations: * Remarkable will get you heard over the din. * Remarkable isn't what YOU think it is -- it's what your customers, vendors, suppliers and employees think it is. * Remarkable may be something small. * People may insist that your remarkable offering isn't feasible, necessary or possible. * Remarkable may develoop over time and be inperceptible to you. Read: ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #026: Resistance is Futile When you have the systems, the business plan and the structures to succeed, what gets in the way of your ability to win? Lewin's Model of Change Unfreeze: old systems comes back to conscious arwareness and there's a committment to change Move: create and apply the new systems, strategies and plans Re-Freeze: lock in new behaviors such that they become automatic While you're changing, there are several types of resistance mindsets (Denise O'Connor) Survivor (C ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #025: Objectives, Strategies & Actions As the final part of this series on business planning, we cover Objectives, Strategies and Actions. These elements round out your business plan and will help clarify what you want to produce, the broad approaches and specific actions you'll take. Useful Business Planning Resources: + The One Page Business Plan for the Creative Entrepreneur + Fast Company (great magazine for business owners) + Business 2.0 [6-month subscription] Requests: + Record an intro to this podcast. Want to ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #024: Without VIsion, the People (and Businesses) Perish Unfortunately, this is true of your business -- not having a clear vision and mission will add unnecessary complexity to your business. However, the concepts of Vision and Mission has become obscured with consultant-speak. Here's a simple way to plan these two important factors into your business plan. Vision: include your target market, niche, products/services, territory, scope, productivity, and other key factors. Mission: use as few words as possible to convey why you're building ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #023: Could What We Know about Biz Planning Be Wrong?! People know that the chief reason businesses fail is lack of planning, followed by lack of a system for implementation. Still, business owners don't create them and don't operate from them. What gives?! Here's what people are saying: * I put together a business plan for my company when I started it. It was a horrible process and I ain't doing that again. * I put one together. It cost me a mint and then the consultant wanted more to implement it. * I don't have time. * I don't have ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #022: "C-c-c-courage," said the Cowardly Lion Funny how we're told to show courage and innovation, but we're not rewarded for having the kinds of key failures it takes to succeed like mad? Kinds of courage: * Courage to fail: to make mistakes and explore * Interpersonal courage: in dealing with strong emotions or charged situations * Moral courage: fortitude in dealing with temptations Challenge: be looking for places where your courage has taken a dive. ------------------------------------------- For more info, please V ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lnb #021 - When Good Habits Go Bad! Change in your organization is made up of more than discussions of character or morals. Change requires shifting to new habits -- repeatable behaviors that become "automatic" and produce the same results over time. Lewin's model: Unfreezing the old habit, moving of transforming behavior, re-freezing an altered or new habit. Prochaska & DiClemente's Model of Change: Pre-contemplation (not now), Contemplation (someday, but not today), Preparation (someday soon), Action (now), Maintenance ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #020 - Make It Simple, Cancel Complexity Happy 40th Birthday, Star Trek! No one could ever predict that a cancelled television show could spawn 6 series, 10 moves, hundreds of books and an entire language. BOOKS to READ: Guerrilla Marketing: Secrets for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business (Guerrilla Marketing), by Jay Conrad Levinson. The One Page Business Plan with CD-ROM, by Jim Horan. The One-Page Proposal: How to Get Your Business Pitch onto One Persuasive Page, by Patrick Riley. WEBSITE: Cafe Press, fun ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #19 - What Were You THINKING! One of the biggest challenge for business owners is what we think we know. It gets in the way of our being able to see things in new ways or explore new options. When asked why an action was taken, most people can't come up with a really well thought-out reason: "Why is your business plan written this way?" Because someone else said to do it. "Why are you at that location?" Because other people who seem to be successful are there. But, do you understand how you arrived at that decisio ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #018 - The 7 Deadly Sins of Marketing (Pt. 5) Leighton Haynes, of Twin Phoenix Marketing, continues his discussion of the power of brand and customer sensitivity on business success. He urges: * Not taking customer relationships for granted -- with both internal and external customers * Authorizing employees to take immediate action for customers with the tools needed to satisfy them, rather than passing it along to management. * Leading, or anticipating, customer needs -- not waiting for a complaint or a need * Measurement! ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #017 - Create Your Kitchen Cabinet (Advisory Boards) Business advisory boards are tools for furthering your business interests, increasing your networks, generating new ideas and advancing projects -- all of this without the formal responsibilities of a Board of Directors. WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW? Your business and personal goals Who can best help you What do you need them to do How you will reward them How to work with them ----------------------------- Call the comment line: 214 615 6505, pin 3386 Call the question line: 214 6 ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #016 - Are Incubators Hatching Sound Businesses? We've been told that business incubators work, but do they really? This episode investigates the current thinking about business incubators and whether they're all they're cracked up to be. ----------------------------- Call the comment line: 214 615 6505, pin 3386 Call the question line: 214 615 6505, pin 3895 Visit the website: www.totalteamsolutions.com for more complete show notes Post to the blog: totalteam.blogspot.com Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #15 - Say You're Sorry! You screwed up. It happens. Now, how to you go about cleaning it up while maintaining great relationships with customers, vendors, supplier, partners and employees? Triune Brain: Reptilian brain: oldest portion. Designed for survival and reproduction Limbic brain: designed for feeling and emoting Cortex: newest portion. The highest thinking part of the brain How to Get an Apology Done: Acknowledge what happened (tell the truth) Acknoledge the impact on them Explain what happened ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #014: Think Outside That Box.Then Burn It! The common human condition is that our thinking is more conventional that we know and that reality challenges us to stay ahead as the busibess landscape changes. Learn what you can do to continually challenge and expand your point of view about business matters while producing extraordinary results. Visit our website for complete show notes and for resources to expand your lateral thinking. ----------------------- Got a comment? 214 615 6505, code 3386 Want to have your business que ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB #13: The Laptop Lament (laptop security) LAPTOP THEFTS OF NOTE: Veterans Administration: 26.5 million records (including those critical for identity theft) December, 2005: Ford employee lost a laptop with 70,000 records on workers January, 2006: Ameriprise laptop missing with 215,000 records on workers and customers February, 2006: Deloitte & Touche auditor left laptop in airplane seat pociet March, 2006: HP lost a compupter with 196,000 records on employees THEFT STATS: In 2003, the Safeware Comp ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB 06-02-2006: The 7 Deadly Sins of Marketing, Pt. 4 Still messing up your marketing? Listen in as Senior Business Coach, Lalita Amos of Total Team Solutions, continues her on-going discussion with Leighton Haynes of Twin Phoenix Marketing on ways to thwart Marketing's 4th Deadly Sin. For more information on this and other podcasts, please visit www.totalteamsolutions.com. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LNB 06-23-2006: Mean People Suck! How workplace bullying can cost your company time, money, energy, resources and company morale. With host, Lalita Amos, Senior Business Coach with Total Team Solutions.For a transcript of this or other podcasts, see the Whitepapers section of the www.totalteamsolutions.com website. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The 7 Deadly Sins of Marketing, Pt. 3 As if the first 2 sins weren't deadly enough, Leighton Haynes is back to share more common things we can do to mess up our marketing!Visit www.totalteamsolutions.com for more info and read my newsletter (humor me!) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Take Your Vacation! You are the proud owner of a business....until you think about taking a vacation, and then it feels like the business owns YOU!Senior Business Coach, Lalita Amos, discusses how to get away...when you feel you can't get away. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Customer Rage on the Rise! Customers. They're the source of life for companies and fuel our economic engines. But, they're also getting increasingly, um, grumpy.Given the fact that everyone with a business card says they differentiate themselves with excellent customer service, what's behind the dramatic increase in customer rage? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Email Hell You thought you were just being productive...when you checked your email...in your pajamas...before you brushed your teeth. Is this productivity tool causing just the opposite effect? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Small Business Owner's Secret Handbook What are the new rules for owning a business? Business and Executive Coach, Lalita Amos, discusses what it takes to have a profitable business that you enjoy -- rather than one you just survive.Brought to you by www.totalteamsolutions.com Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Where Did All My Time Go?! You start you week with a host of good intentions and end your week...who are you kidding? Your week never seems to end. Listen for common places where you may be"leaking time." Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Change or Die! One out of nine. When told to change or your business will die, that's about how many will do what it takes to stave off the Reaper. Do you have it in you to transform your business if you're up against the wall?Check www.totalteamsolutions.com for a whitepaper on this and other topics. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The 7 Deadly Sins of Marketing, Pt. 2 Lalita Amos continues her interview with Leighton Haynes of Twin Phoenix Marketing, about the 7 key things we can do to mess up our marketing. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Contractor or Employee? How to keep out of tax and other trouble when engaging independent professionals. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The 7 Deadly Sins of Marketing, Pt. 1 In this episode of Total Team Solutions'"Like Nobody's Business"series, host Lalita Amos interviews Leighton Haynes about the 7 top things business owners can do to mess up their marketing.Leighton's a former brand manager for Dunkin Donuts and Proctor and Gamble and is the Managing Director of Twin Phoenix Marketing, a Washington, D.C. marketing and branding concern. This is part 1 of a 7-part series.Want more? Check out www.totalteamsolutions.com for articles, webinars, books and other us ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website