From my mechanic, who just made 1200 bucks off me: Don’t call me when my car is ready, even though you said you would.

So goes the apocryphal story, a manufacturer needed to improve sales of their product. Apparently, people were not buying it often enough. A marketing genius came up with a way for buyers to use up, and therefore buy more of, the product, at double the current rate.

This was accomplished by adding three words to the label on the package.

“Lather, Rinse, Repeat“

Interesting post from allergicgirl: are you listening when your customers tell you what they do or do not like? Apparently some chefs feel folks are being less than honest, saying they are allergic to something when they are not.

I say, if that’s what it takes to get you to not put nuts in my food, well, that’s what has to be done.

It sounds like a big word, but it’s a very simple concept.

I wish there was a/an (X) so I wouldn’t have to (Y).

Scott Ginsberg calls it The Ultimate Dream Statement™.

Read more about it here

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Rob Wallis is an author, speaker and trainer specializing in success training and personal development. He is founder and CEO of The Wallis Group, a productivity firm located in California. Contact him at rob@thewallisgroup.com.

The director in the Billing Department passed through the office and noticed that the font office staff answered the phone with one word: “Billing.”

Well, this drove her nuts. She went to her Office Manager and asked if maybe they could make a small change to the greeting, like maybe, “Billing department, how can I help you?” And maybe say their name?

Can’t do it,” the manager said. “Takes too much time.”

Well, the director finally got her way, and now that office gets more compliments for customer services than the entire rest of the company.

For six words and a name.

How can you make your greeting more friendly?

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Rob Wallis is an author, speaker and trainer specializing in success training and personal development. He is founder and CEO of The Wallis Group, a productivity firm located in California. Contact him at rob@thewallisgroup.com.

There is absolutely nothing that can stop you if you don’t want it to. The only thing that can stop you is your decision to stop.

If they laugh at you…don’t stop
If they tell you it won’t work…don’t stop
If you’re afraid it won’t work…don’t stop
If they tell you you’re not smart enough…don’t stop
If you’re afraid you’re not smart enough…don’t stop

Go Get It…It’s Yours
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RobWallis
robwallis@thewallisgroup.com

It’s a question I have asked myself so many times until I’m tired of hearing it. We prevent ourselves from doing so many things because we are afraid. Afraid of what people will say, afraid that we will fail, afraid that we won’t like the result, whatever. The bottom line is that YOU DON’T KNOW UNTIL YOU DO IT.

Most people, me included, spend so much time worrying about “what if.” My wife came up with a saying recently that I think is very appropriate: “Don’t focus on ‘what if’, only on ‘what is’”. What that means is, if you don’t know the answer, you don’t have enough information to be afraid. So many people are certain that they will fail. No matter what it is that you want to do, you don’t know until you try. And most of the time, it will cost you nothing to try. And you just might succeed.

As a wise person once told me, you have absolutely no right to have an opinion on any subject until you have actually lived it yourself. Don’t ask people who haven’t done it. In fact, don’t ask anybody. Most people can only give you their opinion through their own filter of experience, which may be completely different than yours. How do you know? You have to live it yourself!

YES, you can learn from other’s experiences, as long as they don’t scare you out of having your own. Stop worrying about failure; worry about what you’re missing when you try too few times.

And what if you fail? Sure, your pride might get hurt a little, you may even be out some money. But in the long run, even of you do fail, you will have learned a valuable lesson which you will know not to repeat.

Think: It won’t kill you (if it would, you probably shouldn’t be doing it in the first place). Now go out there, stop worrying and START LIVING!

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Rob Wallis is a speaker and trainer specializing in personal development, productivity and time management. He is founder and CEO of The Wallis Group, a productivity firm located in California. Contact him at rob@thewallisgroup.com.

Found this interesting link on the “Motivate Me” blog site. How many times have you quit too soon?

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Rob Wallis is an author, speaker and trainer specializing in success training and personal development. He is founder and CEO of The Wallis Group, a productivity firm located in California. Contact him at rob@thewallisgroup.com.

One thing to keep in mind: email is not instant communication; email is instant ONE WAY communication. Have you ever had a colleague who sent you an email, then called you to make sure you got the email? How likely are you to want to help this person?

I’m going to suggest something really radical: check your email once a day.

Seriously.

If you are like most people and check your email every few minutes, or have some sort of alert system to tell you when you have a new email, stop it. You are splitting your focus and becoming inefficient.

Now, of course, if you are waiting for an answer about some urgent issue that you need to know right now, that’s a totally different subject. But most of us do not have that problem. We have just created email as a sort of instant messenger, in that we expect people to immediately jump and answer
our questions, just as if they had called us on the phone. (You don’t answer the phone every time it rings, do you?)

–Rob

By Will Newman

To-do lists are effective time-management tools - but only if they’re easy to use. Here are six strategies for making your to-do lists work hard for you.

1. Keep it simple.

Whether you use a computer-based to-do list or a paper tablet, it must be simple. If it’s too complex, you won’t use it… guaranteed. I keep my to-do lists on a 5″ x 7″ paper tablet. I list “major” tasks to be accomplished, with big sub-steps underneath each one. For example, “Edit The Golden Thread e-letter for AWAI” is a major task of mine. “Write main article,” “write Quick Tip,” and “write Introduction” are big sub-steps.

Note: A major task is not necessarily one that takes a long time.

2. Limit yourself.

Small paper tablets work well, because there’s a limit to how much you can write on a page. I stick to a maximum of 10 tasks, all of which can be accomplished within a week of when I list them.

3. Set a due date - and stick to it.

Due dates help prioritize what you do and when. Do not work on tasks in the order in which you write them down. Jot down the due date beside each one, and do them in the order of their deadlines.

4. Use a dark marker to reinforce your feeling of accomplishment.

Cross off sub-steps as you complete them with a regular pen. Use a dark marker to cross off the major tasks. Boy, does it feel good!

5. Redo the list every workday.

Do it every evening. This gives you a clear idea of what you have to do before the end of the next day.

6. Add “pop-ups” to your list.

When something pops up during the day that has to be attended to (such as an important phone call), add it to your to-do list - even if you’ve already done it. Then cross it off. To-do lists not only tell you what you have to do, they can tell you if you’re using your time well.

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.