Aaron Hoos

I love dreaming up new ideas.

I love starting things.

My mind is always brimming with things I want to try.

A torrent of ideas is helpful in my line of work. And when I can get those ideas down fast, act on them fast, and see results… I’m a happy writer.

The problem is, not everything goes from start-to-finish in an hour or an afternoon. Sometimes they take longer: An idea might not be fully formed for a few days or weeks. Then the execution of that idea might take even longer — days or weeks or even months.

And that’s when the challenges start: Newer ideas eclipse the old ones. More pressing demands from clients push older stagnant client work aside. The exciting opportunity to create is so much more tempting than the apparent drudgery of managing the details.

But those details won’t take care of themselves. That book won’t get written, that website won’t get built, that business won’t become prosperous unless you roll up your sleeves and actually slog through the hardest part no matter how tedious it seems and no matter how much more exciting other things are.

I confess: I’m a great starter but not a great finisher. I’m an ineffective executioner.

I know I’m not alone. I know there are MANY other entrepreneurs and investors out there who face the same thing I do. I know this because my clients have told me. (In fact, I’m often hired because a client started something that they couldn’t finish.) And some of the clients for whom I finish work simply let that work collect dust because they’ve moved on to something else, too.

Starting is fast. And exciting. And creative. And when something is fast and exciting and creative, it’s almost easy.

But finishing is slow. It’s tedious. It’s detailed. And when something is slow, tedious, and detailed, it’s hard.

I’m a good starter and I suspect that maybe you are, too.

My work as a writer requires me to be a finisher. But I’m not a very good finisher. I confess that I struggle with finishing. I do it because I have to but I’m not great at it. I know I could do so much better.

So I’m issuing a challenge to myself and to you.

THE FINISH-WHAT-YOU-START CHALLENGE

Do you have any projects you’re struggling with finishing? I do. I have 14 projects I DESPERATELY want done. Some are overdue. Some are on-time. But I want them done and off my desk.

So here’s my challenge: There are 10 days (technically 10 and a half) between now and the end of May. And in that time, I want to finish 10 projects. I know it’s possible. But these are all half-done projects that now need some buckle-down-and-execute effort. I’m listing them below and I’m going to update each day (in a new blog post) how I do… along with tips and ideas about become a better finisher.

The projects I’m working on are…

1. Finish an ebook for a real estate investor about investing in empty land
2. Finish an ebook for a real estate investor about wholesale investing
3. Finish an ebook for a real estate investor about marketing system
4. Finish an ebook for a real estate investor about a real estate investing method he pioneered
5. Finish a book for a debt repair expert
6. Finish a sales letter for an internet marketing company
7. Finish a sales letter for a health and fitness company
8. Finish a sales letter for a social media marketing firm
9. Finish 100 articles for an income trust client
10. Finish a report and autoresponders for video marketing site

I have my work cut out for me in the next 10 days. There’s a lot of work here but I think it IS possible to complete this work. I’m going to put in some overtime (plus I do have some other regular keep-my-business-running commitments I still need to keep) but these are the projects I’m going to be working on in the next 10 days.

How about you? In the comments below — IF you’re bold enough!!! — why not list some of the work you need to complete in the next 10 days and participate with me in the challenge.

It’s St. Patrick’s Day today — it’s a day where we celebrate the luck of the Irish (even though St. Patrick himself didn’t care that much about luck).

I’m not a big believer in luck. I think chance and circumstance deal us a hand of poker and it’s up to us to play the hand, regardless of what we’re dealt. As in poker, real success comes in playing what you’re dealt rather than relying on luck to help you win. Some people call this “making your own luck”. I think luck is simply the timely use of your skills/abilities/strengths to act on an opportunity, and to receive a significant reward for it.

Here’s a 3-step plan to make your own luck.

STEP 1: BUILD A PLATFORM

To be lucky (successful) you need to have an area to be successful in. (Even lottery winners might be considered “lucky” but they are only lucky in one area — money). Do you want to gain fame in something? You need a personal brand and the infrastructure (i.e. maybe a website) to launch with. For businesses, a sales funnel is key here.

STEP 2: CREATE CRITICAL MASS

Once you have your platform in place, you need to have some substance behind it. I call this “critical mass”. Think of it this way: If you want to be a famous blogger, are you going to do it with only a week’s worth of blogs? Probably not. If you want to be a famous actor, are you going to do it with a portfolio that only lists one local production of “Little House on the Prairie”? No. You need to have a volume of experience backing you up. It doesn’t have to be a huge amount but it needs to demonstrate that you have the chops.

STEP 3: LEVERAGE

Now it’s time to take this stuff and run with it. Create a plan to start promoting yourself and leverage the critical mass you’ve developed on your platform. I think this is the biggest area where people fall short. They are willing to do some of the work but they don’t think of doing enough. You need to be relentless. Take your inspiration from the most successful people — they’ll all tell you about their many failures on their way to success. (How many times did Michael Crichton or John Grisham or J.K. Rowlings get rejected before becoming hugely successful authors?)

When developing your plan to leverage, think big: Think sustained campaigns in some areas and massive, focused blitzes in others. To use an internet marketing example, maintain a consistent social media campaign but also aim to become the most prolific guest blogger ever. Or, maintain a solid press release publishing campaign but dominate a couple of forums in your particular niche.

NOW IT’S YOUR TURN

Luck doesn’t exist. Success comes to those who take the cards that were dealt by chance and plays them to perfection. Now it’s your turn to make your own luck! In the comments below, let us know what area you want to become “lucky” in…

You’re starting a business. But you lack experience.

You’re worried that people won’t take you seriously or that they will question the level of value you can provide. You’ve heard the “fake it ’til you make it” motto, which is easy to say but difficult to live out authentically.

Good news: I’ve been there. So has every other business owner. Ever. Don’t let your inexperience keep you from moving forward and even succeeding in your new business. If you feel that you lack the experience necessary to be successful, here are some ways to turn your lack of experience into an asset:

1. Become a “newbie-expert” — someone who soaks up the lessons of the existing industry experts and distills it down in a way that other inexperienced people understand. Don’t try to be the peer of the expert. Instead, become an expert to the people who are just like you. You’ll have the advantage because you’re speaking their language!
2. Become an innovator. You don’t have to have experience if you break new ground in an industry. You can enter this new industry and break the rules that industry insiders think are unbreakable.
3. Research the gurus in your market right now and find the common things that they are all saying… then say the opposite. Become the contrarian in your niche.
4. If someone calls you out on your lack of experience, point out that you aren’t shackled by the preconceptions held by most of the others in your industry.
5. In industries where prospects put a lot of trust into you as an individual (i.e. if you’re a financial advisor), sell your “hunger” and “hustle” as the real reasons people should hire you. Lots of people like someone with hustle compared to an experienced and successful person who is complacent.
6. As a new person in an industry, you’ll be able to clearly see problems and gaps that the more experienced people have ignored and worked around. Solve THOSE problems and fill THOSE gaps and you’ll carve out a unique place in an existing industry!
7. If you’re moving from one industry to another, don’t discard everything you learned from your previous industry. Leverage your previous industry experience by finding ways to weave it into your current work. I know a real estate investor who used to be a cop. Two different industries. But he is very good at weaving his law enforcement background into the due diligence and mentoring he does as a real estate investor. Find ways to bring best practices from your old industry into your new industry.
8. Even though there might be industry differences, some things don’t change from one industry to the next. For example: Prospects with problems buy products or services that provide a valuable solution. That’s the same no matter where you go. So instead of getting specific about your experience, generalize your previous-industry experience to make it relevant to your current-industry.
9. Start a blog and write about your foray into a new industry. That becomes part of your story. You’ll quickly gain experience AND respect as people see you learn. Keep the blog going as a journal of your experience. It will become invaluable to you and to others.
10. If it’s business experience you lack, don’t try to start something on your own. Partner with someone else (perhaps someone who possesses business experience but not industry experience!) and put your individual expertise together.

What is the biggest challenge or problem you face in your business?

What do you feel is keeping you from reaching the next level?

What is the one thing that, if you could eliminate it, would break the chain and truly unleash you?

Hopefully you can think of one thing that you feel is really dogging you. (If you can’t decide between several potential problems, just pick one, follow the steps in this blog post, and come back again in the future to handle another one).

Maybe it’s cold-calling, maybe it’s asking for the order, maybe it’s asking for referrals, maybe it’s organizing your time, maybe it’s getting motivated. Those are the big ones I’ve found either in my own business or working with others.

We tend to identify this one thing (whatever it is) as a huge anchor… but we really don’t do a lot to break that chain and unleash ourselves to reach our true potential.

When was the last time you did something to break that chain? Now’s your chance!

BREAK THE ONE THING THAT IS HOLDING YOU BACK

1. Articulate it. Write it down. Describe it in detail. Break the topic down into granular points and figure out what parts you can do, what parts you can’t do, what parts you like, what parts you don’t. (You might discover that by describing it, you realize that only part of it is a problem rather than the whole thing. For example, maybe you don’t hate cold-calling but only the rejection).
2. Write down your vision of what life would be like once you have mastered it. Take time daily to imagine yourself living out your vision.
3. Write down a measurable goal (with steps) to achieve your vision. If you don’t know all the steps to reach your goal, do as much as you can but leave the rest blank… you’ll fill them in as you go.
4. Mindmap what you know about the topic. As you learn, fill in what you don’t know.
5. Find the top blogs on the topic, bookmark them, and schedule time to read them daily.
6. Schedule time each day to do whatever it this thing is… and plan to do it consistently (more than usual) for at least a month. You might hate it at first but the mandatory routine will help. Also, if it is something that is truly holding you back, you should see some reward for your effort after a month.
7. Find books about the topic and read them.
8. Find a mentor who is an expert in the area and ask them to help you.
9. Start your own blog (on Blogger.com or Posterous.com) to chart your progress. If you want, keep it anonymous so that other people don’t know that it’s you going through the same thing (although people will probably appreciate that you’re so open to sharing your journey).
10. Learn everything you can about the topic with the goal of teaching someone else to become successful at it.
11. Become an expert on the topic. Yes, an expert. Not just a mediocre “I-know-some-of-it” wannabe but an honest-to-goodness world-class expert who other people call because they’re desperate for the same solution.
12. See if you can automate or outsource some of it.
13. Create a checklist (or some other tool) and sit down and do that checklist every single day
14. This one may sound crazy but it’s really not: Find joy in the challenge. Figure out how to thrive and get energized by doing whatever it is that you once feared or struggled at. For me, I used to hate cold-calling… until I discovered that I loved to cross things off of a list with a big stinky Sharpie marker. (Yeah, I’m weird that way). Since then, whenever I needed to make cold calls, I would list 1 through 25 on a piece of paper and then pick up the phone and start calling, looking forward to crossing things off with my Sharpie!

Running your financial or real estate business is complicated enough. So any opportunity to simplify is great. (Here’s a recent blog post about simplifying your selling process!)

Create checklists and flow charts to simplify your business

Yes, it seems almost too simple, right? After all, we already create checklists for when we go grocery shopping or when we have a project around the house… and our daily task list is also a checklist of sorts. But a simple answer is often the best answer! (Hey, even the medical profession has discovered the value of a checklist)

By creating checklists and flowcharts for your business, you become a master over all of your tasks. You also gain several advantages:

• You stop having to remembers stuff, so you can free up your brain to remember that more important stuff!
• You ensure that you don’t miss a step (which can happen even when you do something on autopilot).
• You break something down into basic steps, which can help you to see where you are spending your time (for better or for worse… and sometimes you can identify new profit opportunities that way).
• You identify opportunities to eliminate unnecessary steps and automate or outsource the steps you don’t need to do yourself.
• You highlight some of the areas where you are weaker and stronger, giving you an opportunity to improve or leverage.
• You make things really repeatable if you ever need to train someone to do what you do.
• You turn a big task into smaller tasks which you might be able to more easily fit into a busy schedule.
• You turn a big task into smaller, measurable tasks.
• (For flowcharts specifically) You create opportunities to predict outcomes and identify contingencies.

So, what can you create checklists and flowcharts for? Here are a few ideas:

• Make a list of the things you do everyday. Think of it as a HUGE checklist. Now turn each one of those things into one or more checklists.
• Make a list of the tasks you want to outsource some day. Create checklists for them now. (Yes, even if outsourcing is a long way off. You can still use that checklist yourself!)
• Make a list of the most important revenue-producing tasks you do. Create checklists for each of those.
• For situations where there is some complexity (such as client interactions — initial meetings, sales presentations, fact-finding discussions, etc.) create a flowchart with all of the possible scenarios.

Still want more ideas? Here are a few specific ones for the financial or real estate professionals:

• (For investment professionals) A checklist of the things you need to know about prospect to open their investment account.
• (For all financial and real estate professionals) A checklist of the things you need to know about a client to build rapport.
• (For insurance brokers) A checklist of the things you need to know about a client to sell them insurance.
• (For real estate professionals) A flowchart of most-important to least-important decision-making factors that clients have when searching for the perfect home.
• (For investment professionals) A flowchart of how you review a client’s investment portfolio.
• (For investment professionals) A checklist of what you need to cover whenever your investment client stops in for a visit. (Hint: Be sure to include “Asking for referrals!”).
• (For all financial and real estate professionals) A checklist of conversation starters whenever you meet someone. (Obviously you’ll want to commit this checklist to memory or YOU’LL be a conversation starter for them!).
• (For all financial and real estate professionals) A checklist of things you need to do when you write a blog post.
• (For all financial and real estate professionals) A flowchart of the most likely paths someone takes when you cold call them.
• (For real estate professionals) A checklist of things to bring with you when a client asks to list their home.
• (For real estate investors) A checklist of things to check for when a bird dog tells you about a home.
• (For accountants) A checklist of things to collect from clients when they bring in their taxes