Nance Rosen Blog

Being on CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch last Wednesday was a great opportunity for me to be with other people who really want to make a difference in the lives of working people. Donny was amazing and the hour flew by. His staff asked me to follow-up with a blog post, so I wanted to share these thoughts with you now.

ATTITUDE – What is the latitude of your attitude? Be powerful and positive when you communicate, because that’s how you want people to FEEL about you. Eighty percent of why you’re going to get anything: a job, an order, or your next meeting is about your likeability – and in business you want to be liked for having an upbeat outlook and a strong conviction that you can make a big contribution to the individual or organization you’re talking to. Go in there and wow ‘em with a big smile, a strong handshake and an authentic thank you at the end of your time together. Don’t go on about your last surgery, your last miserable boss, or your last dollar. Remember: you want people to feel good about you, especially if you are cold calling – which you should be everyday!!! Don’t know how? Not a problem. I have a solution for you.

Okay, here’s the program.

Step One: Adjust your attitude upward. Before you walk out the door or get on the phone, consider all the good things that may be coming your way.

Step Two: Fine-tune your sales skills – so you can sell the number one most important brand in the world: YOU. Even if sales isn’t in your job title, learn how to cold call, open a conversation and make a great presentation.

Step Three: Enjoy, don’t just endure the chase to your goals. Need some tips to on that? Find a buddy that’s motivated – just like you are. Have a goal setting session and write down your goals for this quarter, so you are held accountable. Schedule a daily call to check in – even if you leave voicemails for each other. Be each other’s reality check and cheerleaders.

Step Four: Keep getting educated. Read books, take classes, and talk to people smarter than you are. Ask for feedback – ask what’s powerful and positive about you, your work and your communication skills. Ask for what could be strengthened. You don’t have to believe everything you hear, but remember that it’s a gift when people share their thoughts and feelings with you. Sit with what you hear and find something to work on.

Step Five: Give back. Reach out to someone who needs a mentor or just some good advice. Get used to being generous with your time, information and attention. It comes back to you, multiplied.

I know this: a rich life is comprised of two things, great love and meaningful work. You have a right to both. But, you have to work for them. I wish it weren’t true. I wish your soul mate wore a badge with your name on it and knocked on your door. And your ideal job picked up the phone and called you with your start date or the ideal client called with a perfect new project.

But, if that hasn’t happened, you are merely mortal. And, if no one else has said it today: I care about you.

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Take everything you believe about success and throw it out with the holiday leftovers.

This is the year to stretch your mind, to work smarter and achieve more in less time, and to achieve virtually anything you envision that might enrich your life. By the end of this year, I want you to tell me how far you surpassed your greatest expectations.

No more goals! Resolutions aren’t enough – it’s time for a revolution.

The greatest success in my life came when I threw out all my old goals and resolutions from the past. In fact, I threw away the idea of having goals. Instead, I wrote down my life’s REQUIREMENTS.

Plus, I stopped hoping. The death of hope gave life to mastery. Here’s what I found. If it can be done, I can do it. If it can’t, I can’t. Now, I have ideal OUTCOMES for every relationship and every interaction I have – or want to have. The map to these outcomes flows so easily – because I start by focusing on the finish line. That single strategy has remarkably accelerated my progress on the path to success.

Here’s your work. Get a book with blank pages. Then, in handwriting – not on the computer – write down your exact requirements for:

• Prosperity
• Vitality
• Connection to loved ones, friends and community
• Creativity
• Security
• Recognition of your individuality and specialness

Use any metric that makes sense to describe your requirements. You might settle on a number or activity that proves you’ve reached your milestones, or are moving toward them.

I use a technique found in the Bible. I like to tell myself a story that illustrates the extent of my requirements. For example, my Vitality Requirement involves my training and traveling all over the world, meeting scads of people from the moment I touch down on new ground – which means no jet lag and lots of reserve energy. My brain then figures out the nutrition, strength and conditioning, and height of my high heels – or leads me to the expert who can guide me (thank you Jon J.).

So, get busy on your requirements. You might start with the easiest one or most urgent one. Then, journal right before you get a good night’s sleep. While your body rests, your brain does its best. You’ll wake up with a plan (even if its hidden by your subconscious) and the confidence that comes when you act on your inner, unrestrained intelligence.

What are your requirements for living your most fulfilling year ever?

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Where have you been? Oh, that’s what you’re probably asking me! I’ve been away – for good reason. Been so engaged in the real world that I haven’t had time to catch up with you in our cyber one. I’ve just come home from Hong Kong, where I spoke to the CEO Club’s International Summit on SME Global Enterprises (SME = Small and Medium Sized Enterprises). My topic was Why Consumers Buy, with a special emphasis on the newly emerging middle-class Mainland China market. Throngs of people attended the World SME Expo and conference – it was touted to be 35,000 people but after a few thousand, who can keep count? The best part was meeting the movers and shakers from Asia, who weighed in that while we’re all focused on China – it’s India that may be the next superpower. Because the conference attracted CEOs and experts from all over the world, there was plenty of dialog – even some vexing questions – about where the next great opportunities for business will be. I had lunch with the Asia-based think tank that does nothing but ask the most difficult questions and formulate the most profound solutions. And, who are you having lunch with?

Personally, I’ve cracked the code on the Chinese consumer, so you definitely want to ask me what products and services you should be designing – and how you should be promoting them – before you plunge into this 1.6 billion target market.

I did enjoy some super luxury by spending a whole day in Macao, which is Vegas, baby – in that part of the world. Stayed at the Venetian and lunched at the Wynn, courtesy of the Chinese government. Got there by ferry from Hong Kong. And, took the underground, the tube, the metro, the subway or whatever it’s called there – to shop like a fiend in Causeway Bay during the two hours of “me” time between meetings and more meetings.

By the way, a total of 26 hours on airplanes is the perfect tonic for the busy businessperson. I got in an entire learning program on teleseminars and webinars – so you will be hearing from me about why YOU must start getting out your message with regular broadcasts.

And, I now have my hands on the one and only solution to your search engine problems: a whiz-bang new search engine optimization program that, honestly, is the best find of the new year – if being on the first page of the organic listings is among your New Year’s goals. This 3-month SEO program is so good, and so easy, and so affordable – I should wear a button that reads: Ask Me About Optimization. Seriously, call me and ask – you won’t get over how suddenly your customers find you – and how much less you can spend on your offline and online advertising and promotion.

So, how are you going to optimize your business – and yourself – in 2008?

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Sunday came quick this week! It seems like we didn’t get enough days in this week. Or, is it the reality of my workdays and nights that explains why I’ve been away from the blog? Honestly, I only ate dinner twice since I last wrote – once for Apollo’s birthday on Friday night, (I shared the duck with Jon J at the uber-cool restaurant Eleven in West Hollywood), so I think days dropped off the calendar.

So, now comes the avalanche of words that’s been building and was shaken free by turbulence as I jet to New York this afternoon, to arrive for Molly Jo’s gallbladder surgery on Monday. Oh, and taping a young entrepreneurs program on television with Bryan Jenkins on Thursday. Honestly, I sound like a much worse mother than I really am. Even if I weren’t doing television in the NYC area this week, I would still have flown in for Mo’s surgery, for goodness sake! New Jersey in November? Why would anyone miss that?

Okay, I have something important to tell you.

According to this month’s Harvard Business Review (HBR), the most important thing you can do for your career is learn. Just learn. For example: learn how to play the cello; how to speak a new language; or how to act differently in meetings, presentations and conversations. Obviously, because I am the author of Speak Up! & Succeed; I want you to seriously consider the last option. Seriously. Think about it.

In any case, HBR reports: try something new and your right brain gets joyfully engaged. Oh, you hard-nosed businessperson! Joy seems like a silly objective? It’s not. (Sorry about the pun).

Joy is no longer just for feeling good! Joy is a mission critical objective because it takes good care of your brain. Albert Einstein’s great scientific and mathematical contributions (or his wife’s – depending on if you read HIS-tory or HER-story) flowed from the neurochemically-induced joy he experienced when he proactively put his brain into play mode. Why?

Fun that comes with novelty and new experiences, builds a kind of neural network trampoline in your head. With this delightfully springy platform, you naturally come to bounce around imaginative and innovative ideas, connections, solutions and responses.

Even at YOUR age? Yes. The academic and scientific community has announced it has been wrong, very wrong about your aging brain. We used to believe that your brain-building days were over; right around the time you graduated from college (if you were on the four year plan, anyway). Now, we find out that if you live to 103 or beyond (God-willing), you can have all the Alzheimer’s you fear, but if you are a lifelong learner: you’re likely not to show or feel many – or even any – symptoms of that dreaded disease.

Why is learning your key to a happy day, a happy old age and great results in your business or career, which will make you happy as well?

When you learn to do something new, you don’t just learn the new skill you think you’re learning. You’re teaching your brain to bounce around for solutions to real problems, too. That’s right: you are going to excel at seeing, solving and overcoming obstacles in business, on this same pliable platform you created, simply by pathetically squeaking out almost-notes on your new cello.

By the way, rent first. You probably aren’t going to become first cello with the New York Philharmonic. You’re competing with 7 billion people for that one. You’re more likely to be the starting pitcher in a World Series game (there’s as few as eight and as many as 14 of those spots each year). See what the scientists mean about new connections??? Seriously, I spontaneously manifest this bizarre connect and compare routine in meetings all the time, and people insist I’m a genius. I’ve just spent lots of time and money trying to learn things that I had no business learning. My reputation for innovation is personal proof that learning anything is better than learning nothing. In truth, I’m not good at anything other than business and teaching business. I even run weirdly – and I was coached by a champion marathoner.

To continue our lesson for today: As you right brain re-wires with new patterns that eventually lead your family to let you practice somewhere other than your deaf neighbor’s basement, your left-brain learns how to integrate enhanced pattern recognition techniques. This one function: pattern recognition, is the single greatest predictor of who will become a successful leader.

The moral is two-fold. First, you left-brain people better be nicer to the right-brain people: they don’t excel at Excel but they do excel at marshalling the forces that drive competitive advantage. Innovation. Continuous process improvement. What to do with returned eye make-up (honestly, there’s an article on this in the HBR this month). Fabulous.

Second moral: You right-brain people have to stop calling the left-brainers: joy-killers. The left-brain puts right-brain connections to work. Left-brainers know how to spot the right new hire, wring the excess expense out of the value chain, and actually run the enterprise after they bought – and successfully installed – the right enterprise management software package.

Truth is: even though collaboration brings all of our skills together as a team, each of us needs to nurture both sides of our brains. That’s how we create new ambitions – like seeing what promotion or change in department would make the most of our skills, or what company we should acquire or what technology we should invest in. We need both sides of our brains engaged, so we can imagine new choices, identify obstacles, make superior decisions and implement effective solutions.

It just happens that the right brain leads the way to having more skills, seeing more choices, and making more insightful decisions. Then, the left-brain pays the bills.

Of course, you can’t just build your brain trampoline and then let it rust and become brittle – if you want to enjoy spectacular, lifelong benefits. You have to administer a regular brain care maintenance program. Continue to master new and joyful challenges, and engage in new experiences. Take on increasingly difficult levels of what you find engaging. Or, switch around your perspective entirely. If you know everything about strength and conditioning, learn to play the bass guitar (Jon J is doing just that while I’m in New York, so he says).

You could open up UCLA Extension’s catalog (www.uclaextension.edu) to a random place, and sign up for the first course your eye lands on (as long as your gut agrees it won’t be challenging in a nerve-wracking way, but in an inspiring and exciting way). Remember the online programs, if you can’t make the commute to class from your city, state or country. That’s why God or Al Gore created the Internet.

Okay, what are you going to learn – really learn and not just buy and put on the shelf, like the French language CDs from Rosetta Stone that someone bought because of a great radio commercial? What are you really going to commit to learning?

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It’s Sunday again! I keep hearing about this work-life balance thing. But, I’m not sure if balance is the ideal life we all should be striving for, all the time. Right now, I like working late. I like working on the weekends. I like waking up thinking about what I’ve got going on for the day. I’m sure it’s that I really like the people I work with. I like the work itself – it’s intellectually challenging, it involves an exchange of ideas with smart people. It gets me researching topics, products, experts, companies, and the hot topics that drive innovation.

Of course, I am lucky. This moment in my life is also filled with great love and support from my family, my fiancée and my friends. The time we get together is rich and my day is punctuated with our phone calls to keep up-to-date. Even better, I am in their hearts and they are in mine, all the time.

Part of the balance I do get in is training at BioMechanix with Jon J. It’s like being let out for recess plus seeing all the cute boys. How can a woman complain, when working on the weekend – to shoot Jon J.’s new brochure – winds up like this? Yes, that’s Apollo, me and Jon J. after a hard day’s work on Sunday.

What’s driving you to work hard and work out?

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Role models make you think of someone more accomplished, don’t they? And, someone further along the path than you are, right? Well, think again. And, think more dimensionally.

For our lives to be on purpose, we have to look at 360 degrees of our world, which means there are people all around you with one character trait, one skill or dint of intention that is the perfect model for you to use, in at least one part of your life. Of course, you may have to “get over yourself,” as my partner Zeb says, when we get stuck on a detail that stops us from moving forward on a plan.

So, get over yourself. Look at the physical strength of your water delivery guy, the power of concentration your infant demonstrates as she watches a mobile above her crib, and the romance of the very grey couple that still holds hands at the organic market (www.traderjoes.com). Make sure you take time now to acknowledge the strengths of the people you may be overlooking. When it comes to crunch time, in any aspect of your life, you’ll have a model for how someone is doing it right to guide you and comfort you. Yes, you will be assured: if they can do it, so can you.

Who are you overlooking right now, whose image will come to your aid when you have a crisis of confidence?

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A camera crew came to film my lecture at UCLA Extension, where I was speaking to an impressive, but jet-lagged group of Korean businessmen and one businesswoman from the digital entertainment industry. My topic: The Best Practices of the World’s Most Successful Interactive Brands. With concurrent translation, rather than simultaneous, I had to choose my words carefully – because the time is cut in half.

What happens is this: I deliver about a paragraph’s worth of material and then the translator gives that portion of my speech again. It certainly gives me time to reflect on what I’m saying – and make sure I giving only the most golden of gold nuggets. The craziest part is when I tell a joke. I deliver a funny story, but the audience stays mostly silent. Then, the translator re-tells it and gets uproarious laughter. It proves that what I think is funny crosses cultural divides – so I’m glad somebody got laughs.

Nidi Batra, my marketing manager at NAX Partners (www.NAXpartners.com), had gotten much of the PowerPoint and materials translated into Korean – including a massive glossary about web-based marketing and content development. The audience was truly delighted.

When you are speaking in any business meeting, presentation or conversation: consider that plain old hospitality is the best way to win hearts and minds. You really want to do what it takes to make people feel comfortable. If you must use jargon, then explain what you mean in simple terms. And, deliver content in bites that people can digest – and interact on.

Take the initiative and do more than what’s asked. I’ve never gone the extra mile for someone else, without that effort putting me further along my own path to success.

What can you prepare for your next meeting that will delight your audience?

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