Earlier this week I was in Marshalltown, Iowa facilitating two 3.5 hour diversity training sessions.   On my way back from lunch I walked by this open yard and I had to stop, admire, and eventually take this picture. 

What a beautiful site!

I don’t know much about trees, nor do I really care to, but I couldn’t help but pay attention to this one.  If I would have had more time I might have actually walked over there and looked at it closer, but I was happy to see it like I had and get this picture.

This got me thinking about what I am doing with my life and my business everyday.   I am trying to use my natural attributes and impact the world around me . . . like this tree is doing. I know a lot of young professionals, entrepreneurs, small business owners, and executives who are trying to do the exact same thing with their careers and businesses.

The older I get and the more I work with people the more I see that we are going 100 miles per hour in pursuit of . . . something!   I say something because many times we don’t even know what we are going after . . . we are just moving really fast in a direction.   We love living life in the fast lane because if feels like we are productive, but what forget that when we go that fast it’s hard to make corners or even stop.

Sometimes we have to change direction or stop!

What I don’t see people doing very often is preparing.   Have you heard the “6 P’s”

“Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance”

We spend more time in front of a mirror “getting ready for our day” than really looking at ourselves and preparing for our lives.   On my online radio show Realization Nation I talk a lot about “getting ready for our life”.   It is critical to take time to do this.  One challenge is, some people don’t even know where to start.

Here is what I would start to with:

• Who are you?
• Who do you want to be?
• What do you want your life to look like one and two years from now?
• What is your plan to make this happen?
• Who do you know who can support you in being the type of person you want to be and living the life you want to live.

The Personal Leadership Boot Camp is a great way to start this process.  I truly believe if you take the time to answer these five questions your world can significantly change, but it’s up to you to take the first step and make it happen.

Like everything in life . . . what you put in . . . you will get out!

Good Luck!

Jason Kiesau Business Leadership, Careers, Personal Leadership

–
This is a great reminder of HOW IMPORTANT it is to understand another person’s point of view before preaching your own!
–

Jason Kiesau Business Leadership, Personal Leadership

“That’s the first rule of being a leader . . . just put your ego aside and find people that are smarter than you.  I found they exist in groves.”

Jason Kiesau Business Leadership, Personal Leadership, Youth Leadership

What if Leadership was taught in everyday life as it is in sports?

• You can’t be afraid to go out and compete and do whatever it takes!
• Losing gives us a great blue print for how to do things better in the future!
• You find a way! Everyone needs to step up and see how we can become better!
• Life is competitive!

Would the world be a different place?

Jason Kiesau Business Leadership, Personal Leadership, Youth Leadership

Rise up this mornin’,
Smiled with the risin’ sun,
Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin’ sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin’, (“This is my message to you-ou-ou”)

Singin’: “Don’t worry ’bout a thing,
‘Cause every little thing gonna be all right.”
Singin’: “Don’t worry (don’t worry) ’bout a thing,
‘Cause every little thing gonna be all right!”

–
It’s a dog eat dog world out there.   As hectic as life can get at times it’s absolutely critical to have good people around you that:

• Understand you
  
• Respect your values and beliefs
• Support your mission in life
• And occasionally sing you sweet songs and melodies pure and true

If you have read my blog and listened to my radio show you have heard me organize life into four areas:

• Health
• Finances
• Relationships
• Careers

I feel the area that is the most critical and can significantly impact the other three is relationships.   When we set goals in the other three areas: Health, Finances, and Careers we can become successful and fulfilled by setting our goals and with our individual actions.  Granted people are probably involved in each area, but in most cases we don’t have to be dependent upon anyone else for happiness, success, and fulfillment.

With relationships, we have to work directly with other people.  Other people who probably have different:

• Values and beliefs
  
• Perspectives on the world
• Reasons and methods for doing things
• Goals

A difference in any of these areas can lead to disconnection with in a relationship, be it personal or professional.

In ’7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ Covey talks about reaching the stage of interdependence.   This means that we approach the world around us understanding that our best chance of becoming a highly effective person is to work with others as we are working toward our goals.

He also talks about the concept of ‘Toxic People‘.  Toxic people are like poison.  They stifle or prevent you from being who you want to be and living the life you want to live.   Our ability to make wise choices with the people we surround ourselves with on a daily basis can make all the difference in accomplishing our goals and living the successful and fulfilled life we deserve.

In this song, the “Three Little Birds” represent those people in your life that help you be the person you want to be.  The are supportive and encouraging.   They want what is best for you!

We live in a crazy-fast paced world and sometimes it’s easy to forget and ignore the three little birds are in our lives are.   We also forget that we have people in our lives who depend on our sweet songs and pure and true melodies.

“Don’t worry ’bout a thing,
‘Cause every little thing gonna be all right.”

Jason Kiesau Business Leadership, Employee Engagement, Personal Leadership, Youth Leadership

Do you think you can change the world?

If not . . . why?

If so . . . how?

This is a great reminder of what can happen if we simply believe in ourselves.   It’s a dog eat dog world out there and those who can overcome challenges, ignore insecurities, remove toxic people, and believe in themselves are the ones who have the greatest chance of living the lives whey want to live and impacting the world around them.

This video is  a great reminder that it doesn’t matter what other people say or do . . . all that matters is you!

Are You Crazy?

-

Jason Kiesau Business Leadership, Personal Leadership

The other night my wife was out and I had daddy duty with my eight month old son.

With in the past month he has figured out how to army crawl all over the place.   If he sees something he is interested in while you’re holding him he will relentlessly wrestle his way out of your arms to try to get it.   Right before I took this video he army crawled over to the couch, reach up and grabbed the cushion with both hands, and tried with all his might to pull himself up.   His first attempt ever was unsuccessful.   I wasn’t about to let my little boy go out like that.

Knowing he was going after the remote control I sat him down about five feet from the couch and I showed him the remote.  I knew once I set the remote down he was going to make another attempt to get it.   As seen in this video, in a six minute period of time he:

• Went after what he wanted
• Saw the challenge in front of him
• Wanted help
• Got upset
• Gave up

But, he never quit!

What was six agonizing minutes for him is representative of what I and many other small business owners face on a daily basis.

• I wake up ready to take to world on.
• I know what I am doing is challenging and rewards aren’t always easy.
• I talk to people and look for support in my efforts.
• I get frustrated and sometimes and I want to give up.

I watch this video every morning to remind me of what I need to do and why I need to do it.

I hope he never loses his will to get what he wants in life!

Jason Kiesau Business Leadership, Personal Leadership

What is Coaching?

When I meet people and we learn about each other I get more questions about my coaching services than anything else.  If you’re like most people you may have met a coaching professional before or have heard of “life coaching” . . . but do you really know what coaching is?

Many people think only people with “problems” work with a coach.  Or they confuse coaching with mental health.  Both beliefs are inaccurate. Coaching is about opportunity and potential.

• Health
• Finances
• Relationships
• Careers

This impacts our effectiveness and focus with our families, careers, and how we see ourselves and the world around us.  It doesn’t have to be this way.

In my information session I am going to give my perspective to why we as a society are in the situation we are in and what we must do as individuals to be different.  I will talk about how Personal Leadership Coaching will help you do this.  I have programs for:

• Young Professionals
• Individuals in Transition
• Couples
• Business Professionals
• Business Owners

The foundation in each is Personal Leadership.

At minimum you will walk away thinking differently about the world around you.  If you like what I have to say, we will talk further.  There will be no high pressure sales pitch.  I have a proven track record of helping people live life and do business with greater success and fulfillment and I truly believe everybody deserves that opportunity.

To see information session details please visit YourFullCircle.net.  Session information and an option to RSVP is available on the home page.

If you won’t be able to make an information session, but would be interested in learning more or attending an information webinar please let me know by sending me an email at: jason@yourfullcircle.net

Have an amazing and safe 4th of July weekend.

I hope to see you on July 16th.

Jason Kiesau
Owner and CRO
Full Circle Development Group

Jason Kiesau Business Leadership, Personal Leadership

We Are Losing A War . . . the Information War!

We could all learn a lesson from Bill Cosby in this clip of the Cosby Show.

We need to learn how to say: “That’s the dumbest thing I have ever heard in my life.”   We need to teach our children to do so as well.

Consider these statistics:

• Television – Direct TV has over 250 Channels
• Radio – Breaking it down, there are 4,776 AMs, 6,309 FMs and 2,892 educational FMs, which the FCC lists separately.
• Internet – Yahoo registered 19.2 billion websites
  

USA Today Article:

• Consumers today encounter from 3,500 to 5,000 marketing messages per day, vs. 500 to 2,000 in the 1970s, says J. Walker Smith, president of consumer and marketing watcher Yankelovich.

Kid’s Health.org

• Two-thirds of infants and toddlers watch a screen an average of 2 hours a day
• Kids under age 6 watch an average of about 2 hours of screen media a day, primarily TV and videos or DVDs
• Kids and teens 8 to 18 years spend nearly 4 hours a day in front of a TV screen and almost 2 additional hours on the computer (outside of schoolwork) and playing video games
• Children who consistently spend more than 4 hours per day watching TV are more likely to be overweight.
• Kids who view violent acts are more likely to show aggressive behavior but also fear that the world is scary and that something bad will happen to them.

About Kid’s Health

• In Canada, the average child watches about two hours of television a day and sees more than 20,000 commercials per year. And marketers have become increasingly sophisticated, using research into developmental psychology to exploit children’s age-specific vulnerabilities and make their messages that much more powerful:
  • Up to age four or five, most children don’t understand that there is a difference between entertainment and advertising. They watch commercials and television programs with equal attention. Commercials aimed at this group often associate the product or brand with fun and happiness, rather than talking about actual product facts.

  • Children don’t develop a concept of other people’s beliefs, desires, and motives, known as “theory of mind,” until they are at least six years old. It’s difficult for children younger than seven or eight years old to understand that the intent of advertising is to get them to buy things. They also tend to take advertised claims about a product literally.

  • Tweens, age eight to 12 years, understand the purpose of ads but are still vulnerable to them. These children are starting to develop their sense of identity. “Aspirational” marketing targets their desire to be slightly older and seem more sophisticated than they are.

  • Teenagers are trying to differentiate themselves from their parents and fit in with their peer group. Marketing aimed at teenagers may focus on teens’ insecurities, or it may take positive qualities such as their activism and desire to challenge conformity and repackage them in the form of cool, counter-culture brands.
    

As we “Americans” seem to be struggling in every area of life.

• Health
• Finances
• Relationships
• Careers

It is my opinion we as a nation are are living in insecurity and until we as individuals regain confidence in ourselves life will continue to be an unfulfilled struggle.

Why Is That?

As stated above the average American receives 3,500 – 5,000 marketing messages per day.   These messages come to us in a variety of ways and regardless of how they act like they want to help us . . . most messages have the senders best interest in mind.    In the United States alone, $6.7 million is spent on market research each year.   This means that $6.7 million is spent on understanding how babies to elderly people think and behave.   The business world knows that if they learn how you and I think and behave that they will be able to speak to us in ways that will influence, motivate, or manipulate us to take action in their favor.

They know what they’re doing . . . and they’re winning!

Let Me Ask You a Question!

With of all of the 3,500-5,000 messages your children or students are hearing on a daily basis, what are you doing to make sure your message gets the attention you need it to?

We wonder why parents are having trouble controlling their children.   We wonder why teachers are having a hard time in the classroom.   How are your messages competing with the thousands of other messages coming at them?

They’re not . . . and that’s a problem!

Parents and the education world need to start thinking like a business.    What do you need to learn about the children you are working with to touch them at their souls?  Businesses need to start treating their employees like they are customers.  You do market research for a reason.   Why don’t you give the same attention to your most important resource . . . YOUR PEOPLE?

Is There Any Hope?   Can we win this war?

It’s not looking good!

Jason Kiesau Business Leadership, Personal Leadership, Youth Leadership

This morning a question was posted on LinkedIn from Kimberly Horn an Area Sales Consultant with Elwood Staffing.

Her question was:

How do you step outside of the box and differentiate yourself from your competition?

My reply:

“You need to know about two things.

1. Your Customers
2. Your Competition

I would create a matrix for all of the factors that your customers find important in your product, services, or industry. Once you have identified this information than you need to determine who your competition really is then find out what they are doing in the areas your customers find important.

This will give you the ability to see right now how you are the same, different, and where you you need to change. This also gives you an opportunity to pick areas where you and your team can thinking how you can be different.

A great example is Saturn. They looked at all the factors in the car industry especially ALL the things that were important and frustrations for their customers and they reinvented the way a dealership sold cards.

With in the past six months Hyundai had a commercial that said if you lost your job they would take your car back.  Now, I took it as they would relieve you from the burden of the new car payment and help you.

Soon after Saturn came out with a commercial painting the picture that Hyundai taking your car back would he horrible so they weren’t going to take your car back, they were going to make your payment for 9 months.

I guess the lesson here is Saturn pays attention to everything. That’s exactly what you need to be doing if you are going to get a head and differentiate yourself from your competition.”

Pay Attention!

I don’t care if you are selling a product or looking for job.  You must really understand what the people you are trying to influence are looking for.    Your competition is . . . so you better!

Do you want to be average?

Jason Kiesau Business Leadership, Sales & Marketing