Mindset Archives - Superfast Recruitment

A story about past events and future success! This is a direct transcription for your benefit, so excuse any weird typing errors.

I’ll let Sharon take it away!

I promised you a story, and it’s a famous Sharon one. Imagine. Let’s go back, probably 30 years now, which is a frightening thought. It’s the early days of my sales career. I was a pharmaceutical salesperson, and I was going for my first promotion. And that meant that I potentially could enter the world of selling all day to consultants, to pharmacists, to professors in hospitals. And it was a big step up at that point, two years into my career.

And I remember the day, I can even tell you the hotel where this conversation took place. It was on the M62 at Brighouse. And my boss at the time said these words, and they’re almost like ingrained in me. It stayed with me. I was affected by them for quite a while afterwards, but I have binned them, but they have stayed with me because it’s very meaningful. Because this person said to me, “Some people, Sharon, have higher aspirations than their abilities allow.”

And the outcome of my conversation was that I wouldn’t apply for this hospital representatives position. And at the time, as a naive 23-year-old, I initially thought, “Well, he’s done an okay job of managing my expectations.” Until I went away and thought about it that night, and I suddenly thought, “Some people have higher aspirations than their abilities allow.” So here, this person was saying to me at 23 that actually, I peaked. And I didn’t have the potential to go any further.

Now, if I had allowed myself to be defined by that statement 30 years ago, there were so many things that I wouldn’t have done. I would not have ended up managing a team. I would not have ended up being a national trainer. I would not have ended up being an external trainer, coach and consultant, creating leadership training programmes and delivering them across the world for one of the biggest online hotel accommodation booking companies. I would not have left the corporate world and set up a business. I would not still be here 15 years later in business.

If I had allowed that one statement to define me, I certainly would not have allowed myself the opportunity to be Pfizer’s top salesperson selling Viagra, which I still dine out on today. We all have success, don’t we, that we’re particularly proud of. And that’s one of mine. Now, why am I sharing this story? Because as business owners, as we go through our life generally, and as we go through our business journey, we have highs, lows, and challenges.

Now, if we spend too much time focusing on what went wrong, what the failures were, what the challenges were and how we overcame them and have the fear around, “I don’t want that to happen again.” If we spend too much time living in the past, potentially, that limits our ability to focus on the future, on what we want, and to have that clarity around how much I want to grow the business? What will that mean financially in terms of the numbers that I want to achieve? Do I want to go from 1 million to 5 million in a certain timeframe, or is it 5 million to 15 million? It doesn’t matter really what the number is. It really doesn’t.

What matters is where you focus your energy and your time. And when you’re reading and listening to various entrepreneurs who are massively successful, there’s a consistent thing that they share, and that is when they realised and made the decision to focus their decision-making and their actions on their future self; that’s when things really started to shift for them.

Let me explain a bit more about that.

The person you are today in your business, whatever level of turnover and profitability you have, you think in a certain way, do things and have a certain kind of role. And you are successful today getting your business to that point.

However, whatever your growth trajectory is, however big you want your company to be, how many people you want to employ, you will need to think differently. You will probably have a slightly different role in your business, and you will do different things.

If you start to make decisions today from your future person, your future self, rather than who you are today and what got you to where you are, you will put yourself in such a strong position to create that as a reality. As opposed to making decisions about where you want to be from who you are today.

So, Denise and I will often have conversations as we’re doing our planning and looking at where do we want to be? What do we want? What is that going to look like? All that kind of detail. And then we start making decisions about investments and resources, et cetera, et cetera. One of the things that we say is, “What would the Sharon in five years time, say? What would Denise say? What would that decision be?

And that piece of advice was given to us by our first mentor many years ago. And it’s one of the best pieces of advice I think we’ve ever had.

So, make decisions from your future self, be clear about who your future self is and stop making decisions and reflecting and spending too much time in the past. Good luck!

We have many clients on track for their best year ever because they implement what we teach and utilise the content and campaigns we give them. If you want a quick chat to see how Superfast Circle can work for you, book your call and demonstration here.

Thanks,

Denise

The post A Little Known Fact That Will Impact Your Future Success appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.

You might be wondering how a blog on decluttering will help me and my business growth?

Well, it might surprise you. Let me explain.

We are moving to a new house; our house went up for sale, and it sold very quickly. It’s a buoyant market in the UK at the moment. It may be in other places in the world too.

We have started this huge decluttering and removing things that are broken and things that don’t work or cupboards full of clothes you haven’t worn for four years.

What’s been fascinating about this is that decluttering on a personal level has freed up energy in all parts of our life.

I’m a great believer that life is about energy. Energy moves, it’s flexible, and we need to have the right energy in our business for it to succeed.

I don’t know whether there’s any correlation between the fact that we’ve just had a great business month on the back of major decluttering over the past few months. That’s a fascinating one, isn’t it?

When you think about the time of year, pruning and decluttering is a natural process. Deciding to have a decluttering session around the next four to six weeks will make a massive difference for you.

I’m interested in Chinese astrology, and this month is the month of the water dragon, which is a great month to create change in your life. I’m quite a keen gardener as well; I know that when I cut things back and remove them, they will grow back stronger.

Think about the difference that happens around springtime and when it comes to growth.

If you want to do well, it’s time to look where you have clutter in both your life and business. Think about what you could change and move around; this will make a massive difference.

Let’s talk about a few areas where this can work for you. I’m going to focus on two areas. One is home life because as you start to alter your home life, you will be fascinated by how this will help from a work context too. I’m going to move into work and look at systems, structures and how you do things.

First of all, let’s start with some easy practical stuff. I have seen this work time and time again for myself and the clients we coach. When they start a decluttering process, there’s suddenly a massive shift in energy for them in their business as well.

The first place for anyone listening to this, male or female, is to look in your wardrobe and your drawers because there will be things in there that you either don’t wear, they’re in the wrong order, or they’re not particularly useful.

Decluttering helps to establish order which saves time and ultimately improves your productivity.

I had a corporate career for many years, and I used to get up very early in the morning and fly or drive to various places. I made sure that all my wardrobes were organised and colour-coordinated. I know it sounds very meticulous, but it certainly did work.

I knew that if I was getting up at four o’clock in the morning and had to be out of the house by quarter to five, all my clothes were lined up and ready to go the next day. It’s incredibly freeing.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes it’s, “When did I last wear this top on a Zoom call? Could I wear this again, or do I need to put on another top or do I need to buy some new ones? Where is that one? Is it in the wash?”.

The stuff that goes on in our heads around this, when you think about it, you could probably save yourself at least an hour a day just by cleaning out your wardrobes.

And of course, this extends to every part of your house.

When you start to think about what you have collected over the years, think about how much space, both physically and mentally, this creates.

Let’s move to the office; it is fascinating when you start to clear things out in the office.

We all know that lovely feeling when the office desk and drawers are clear. Even if you decide to take 10 minutes every morning to do that, watch how your mood shifts by simply implementing this one strategy.

I like to think about our file structures because by having a decluttering process, you save yourself time.

How often do you find yourself saying, “Where is that folder?”, “Can you remind me where we’ve saved that?”.

When you then recreate your folder and file structure, you will be amazed at what comes up. I found an old campaign that we ran ages ago, which was successful but forgotten.

We will be using that again, and I’m sure it will be just as successful.

If you look at your past clients, we’ve often had this conversation with clients of ours where they’ll say, “Oh, yes, yes, I forgot about that client; I’ve not been in contact with him or her for eight months”. When you look at your systems and processes, it may take time, but you’ll be astounded about what comes up for you, what things you find that you can reuse.

And other things you will think, “You know, that is a waste of time” or “That particular client, they’re not our ideal client anymore”.

Get them off the system. Put them in an archive.

All of these things will come up for you as you start to declutter. I often look at all the campaigns and the lead magnets that we have because some things in marketing still work today just as well as they worked ten years ago.

The other thing that I’ve noticed that as I start to declutter, I look at better ways of doing things.

I start to create new procedures because what happens is your mind starts to declutter. Your inner world is reflected in your outer world. And also vice versa.

This decluttering process makes a huge difference in our business efficiency and made us re-evaluate what is important.

What is it that I do that makes the biggest shift in the needle?

It would help if you started to look at all these areas as you’re decluttering. That can trim down and free up not only more space physically but also mentally. Importantly, it will give you more time.

One of the things about decluttering is it also helps to inform you about exactly where you can delete things from your business process and where you can delegate.

Sometimes it’s very easy to over-administrate things when we don’t need to. It might be that you are performing specific tasks because you’ve always done them.

Remember, we’re entering a new phase now. Now that Zoom is here to stay, we are working virtually, and video interviewing is taking off. Do you have processes that are no longer serving you and taking up time that could be better spent elsewhere?

Decluttering, something that, should you choose to accept it, could work at multiple levels for you as you reshape, realign, and refocus your business moving forward.

Are you currently ‘decluttering’ your business strategy and marketing plan – taking stock of what’s working and what isn’t?

If you would like to speak to one of our team about formulating a brand-new marketing plan that will bring in new leads every month– get in touch.

Call us on 01524 784311 or click here to book a complimentary consultation with one of us.

The post Decluttering and Improving Your Business Results appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.

Hi, this is Sharon from Superfast Recruitment, and today we have a completely different topic. And more than that, I suspect a topic that many of you will relate to.

Like many business owners, Denise and I have a lot of friends in business, and we’ve had some interesting conversations in the last few weeks that relate to client conversations, and some of the social media groups that we’re in.

Now, the topic is feeling flat, feeling a bit low, feeling out of sorts.

People have used different words in conversations and on online chats that we’ve been having, to describe how it is for them right now.

And it’s not surprising, is it? We have had the weirdest, toughest, most challenging year that any business owner probably has ever faced and hopefully will ever face.

When you think about it, we have been looking out for our businesses and keeping them afloat – if we can, trying to keep it up on a growth trajectory. Of course, that’s sector dependent, isn’t it?

We’ve been showing up and propping up and supporting team members. We’ve been there for our family, for friends.

At some point, when you’re carrying the weight of all that on your shoulders, it’s going to have an impact, and it’s going to take a toll.

Over the weekend, I was chatting to a friend who described their Sunday morning as being in floods of tears. It took them back to their childhood, having a good, good old sob into a pillow.

And she wasn’t the only person on Sunday who had a few tears either, because I saw various people chatting about it in some of the different groups that we’re in.

So what I want to do in this blog is share a few ways of handling this emotion and this flat feeling that many of you have been describing.

I have a coaching practice, as well as everything that I do in Superfast Recruitment and I’ve been having this conversation with clients there, too.

So let’s look where you can start.

I think the first thing that I want to say to you is, please cut yourself some slack, guys, because it’s a huge responsibility being a business owner.

You’re not superhuman. I know we like to think that we’re superheroes: superman or superwoman, and we are incredibly resilient, but it’s okay to be a human being.

Okay, so stop beating yourself up about the fact that you should always be able to turn on the inspirational side of you, that motivational side, and just recognise that it’s okay to feel the way that you’re feeling.

And even when you are feeling a bit flat, what do you do? Now, we all have different strategies, don’t we?

We all have different inspirational, motivational mentors that we might go and watch a video of; we all have hobbies that we might go and do.

So for me, if I’m not feeling myself, I always find it helps to just take a time out and go and have a walk, go out into nature.

I know for many of our clients listening to this as well – it will be exercise and taking time out to go and have a run or go and do a workout.

Whether it’s at the gym, socially distanced with a group of people, or whether it’s in front of a video at home, it’s about showing up.

Even if you don’t do your regular workout, putting your gym kit on, showing up in front of that video camera, or heading out for a run and doing five minutes and not your 30-minute run around the village that you might normally do; it’s the fact that you put your kit on, you show up, and you put one foot in front of the other.

And we can apply that principle to the business.

There are some days when I haven’t felt like getting in front of this video camera because I felt flat. And yet the best thing for me to do is get in front of the camera.

So we pick a subject that I really love talking about because that’s easy. I put on a different outfit because that helps me change my mood a little bit, as well.

And I get in front of that camera. And we don’t always publish what I might have recorded because maybe I’m not happy about it. But the fact that I’ve got in front of the camera and I’ve talked to people, and I’ve shown up, and I’ve done my bit, I feel better because I’ve just put one foot in front of the other.

So when you think about you and your business and all the different things that you need to do, just remember that you don’t have to do all those things today. Choose one thing that you’re going to show up for today, and just take one small action and move forward.

And another thing that you can do, is that if you are going to show up and do that one thing – put everything into it.

Whether it’s for five minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour, just put everything into it and see what comes out at the end.

And I can guarantee that you will feel different as a result of it.

So whatever strategies you have that work for you, make it important to give yourself the time and the permission to take a break and do something that will help shift your energy and your mood, because then you’ll be able to move forward.

And remember, be kind to yourself, guys. Stop beating yourself up, and look at the gains rather than the gap.

I’ve started a success journal, and I was sharing it with some colleagues in an exercise group that I’m in. It’s where you look at what are all the good things that I’ve achieved and that I’ve done that day, and that’s what I write about.

Even if it’s just a bullet point list, even if it’s five things or three things, or if it’s one thing, it goes down. And each day, it’s building up what are the successes. So that when I am feeling a bit out of sorts with myself, I can go back, and I can read all those successes.

Because, boy, sometimes we just need that pep up, don’t we?

So I hope some of those strategies have been helpful. If you liked this post and would like to explore more of our insights on leadership, coaching and owning a successful recruitment marketing company, head to our blog where you will find hundreds more blogs and podcasts.

We’ve also got several more free recruitment marketing resources available to download on our website. Click here to browse and download the recruitment marketing guides which will help you get a clearer picture of your recruitment marketing and where you can take it.

That’s Sharon Newey from Superfast Recruitment.

The post Feeling Flat? Here’s How to Turn it Around appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.

Here is a full transcription of part three of our podcast series dedicated to developing your bounce back marketing campaign. Excuse any rogue typing errors. A.I. is fantastic though occasionally even he makes the odd mistake.

Hi there everyone. This is Denise from the Recruitment Marketing and Sales Podcast. We’re on Episode 234, and this is our new mini-series on your Bounce Back Marketing campaigns as we catapult ourselves, well, ish, out of COVID.

I decided to do these podcasts and videos just a few days ago. We’ve got a new Facebook group purely focused on mastering your marketing. If you haven’t joined them, please do. We’d love to have you over there. Head over to Facebook and in the search bar look for Recruitment Marketing Mastery.

Anyhow, let me get back to a couple of messages that I’ve had because, over the last couple of days, we’ve been sharing some different ideas and strategies for people to use. I’ve had a couple of D.M. messages to me saying, “I’m shattered. I can’t possibly write. I just haven’t got the time to do that.”

The hard truth is you have to do the work.. Because if you don’t..”Do you know what? You probably don’t want to have a business then because if you want your business to survive, get through this, then sometimes you have to do what you have to do.” I’ve quoted him before, and I’ll quote him again, good old Billy Ocean. “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

This is a case of really just deciding, “Right, this is what we need to do. This is what we’re committing to., let’s do it.”

Now, I’ve suggested in the previous podcast, in the last video that you need to be thinking about what is it that your market wants and creating content around that.

Now, we’re all short of time, and it leads me to share that time is a mental construct, and that this is about challenging yourself because the more challenges you have, the more you grow, the better you become.

With that in mind, I’d like to remind you about Parkinson’s law

The lovely Cyril Northcote Parkinson is famous for an article he wrote for The Economist probably about 65 years ago, approaching 70 years ago.

What he talks about is work expands to fill the time that we have. It’s always the same, isn’t it? You’re going on holiday, and miraculously you can get so many things done in such a short space of time. How about mapping that over and doing that now?

Because it may be for some of you that you have people on furlough in your company which means you will have to handle implementation yourself.

Let me give you some ideas. You know what people are looking for because you’ve spoken to your candidates and your clients. Now, it’s a case of let’s just create some content.

Let’s just be realistic here,

Now, you may already have something on your website.

I am sure if you are listening to this, you’ll have written something about developing a career that you could tweak and change. I’m sure you’ll have written something about C.V.s. I’m sure you’ll have written something about engaging a team or building a high performing team, or onboarding, or all of those things that are still going to be essential and we look at it with a different lens now.

In the past, and I think I’ll drop a link to this in the transcription of this podcast, I shared one of our blog posts. You’ll probably find it online if you Google it, 10 Things That You Can Do with Your Blog Post.

It could be that you write something or you record a video. Let me tell you the strategy that we’re using at the moment, and we’ve done this before.

I record a video; I upload it into our Facebook group. I then grab that video, and I take the video, and I drop it into a transcription service.

There are many online that you can use. We use rev.com, and we also use GoTranscribe, both good. You get good quality transcriptions back. Typically, if you press the Fast Service button, it doesn’t cost you much, and they’ll get it back to you in less than 24 hours.

There you have a transcription of a video that you’ve got, and you can start to use little clips of that, little snippets of it. Then, what you can do is you can strip out the audio. That’s what we’ve done here, and then it’s a podcast. That transcription that you have has a lot of gold in it because you can have it as a blog post, you can grab out chunks of it, you can share it on social media, you can share it on Instagram.

There are so many things that you can do. You could even put it in an email and send it to people. Let’s just say you’ve got a blog post; you could do half a dozen things with it that you could then actually get your content out in front of your market.

They want it at the moment, and they are looking for information from you because we always go to places and individuals we respect.

Have you ever noticed– The BBC website, it’s crashed I think a couple of times recently because for those of you who aren’t in the U.K., the BBC website is probably the most popular website of all because people see it as a respected source and people go to the BBC.

If you get on well with your clients and your candidates and you want to support them, then people will be looking, if they know you. They see that you’ve shared something online and it’s relevant because trust me, people are not doing an awful lot at the moment when it comes to marketing when they really could be.

Get your content out in front of them. Be visible. If you’re used to only sharing roles or jobs, then this might be a bit of a shock for you.

How about sharing some value ad for the next few weeks and you share it more than once a day, you share it two or three times a day, and watch what happens because I have never known of an organization that does less and survives anything.

It’s always those that double down, that go the extra mile, that do additional things.

In this period, we’ve updated completely one of our products because we knew that people would have a little bit more time, they could be working through it.

We’ve also run an online training seminar for our clients. It should have been a physical event, but we delivered it online.

We managed to bring in a speaker. We’ve done all of these different things. This is our second series of podcasts, and we’ve launched the Facebook group.

Am I knackered? Yes, I am, but you know what? It’s times like this, you just have to put your foot down, and you just have to move forward, and just keep going because I know that there’ll be time for rest, at another point in time, won’t there?

As a friend of mine says, “You were made for times like this.” I’m suspecting, so are you.

That’s today’s podcast. I’ll get off my soapbox now. You have to do the work. There’s a great book, on Amazon by Steven Pressfield called Do the Work, fabulous book because he was an author and he just had to keep going set back after setback until he broke through.

Check out Parkinson’s law because it’s incredibly enlightening.

Message for today; do the work.

Thanks,

Denise

P.S. If you haven’t joined our Facebook marketing group you can join here.

The post Your Bounce Back Marketing Campaign Part 3-Do The Work appeared first on Superfast Recruitment.