Lead is a 4 letter word…#4

Continuing with the 4 letter lead series today. Four letter words are not always negative and they can be a great help to you, if you allow them to be.

(I will not have these up everyday, but every couple or few days - they're a little longer and I know your time is valuable.)

Let me remind you it takes WORK (a dreadful four letter word) to get to where you want to be in life.

Keep moving forward towards your goals and don’t let the challenges distract you.

If you missed the first two words, you can see them here - LOST, SEEK, HELP...

Todays word is STEP - S.T.E.P…

S - Select a target group

Whatever your dream is, you will have others involved. 

If you’re starting a rattlesnake petting zoo, you can’t target customers who own rat farms. 

If your dream is to grow your pet grooming store, then you may want to spread the word to pet owners.

You have to think through who your audience is going to be. You have to make sure that your business, blog, dream are focused on the right people - the ones that need your product, service or encouragement. There is a target group out there - it may be small, or it may be large, but all people have needs, so figure out who’s needs you are fulfilling.

T - Set a target topic

Referring to the previous letter “S” in this post. Once you have a target group, you need to be sure that your target matches. You can do this either way - first the topic, then the group - you pick it - whichever one works best for you.

If I go back to my rattlesnake petting zoo idea, I can’t have postings on my business blog about the Rubik’s Cube - it doesn’t match - there is not flow (unless of course this is one magical snake).

I have to have a topic that is consistent with the theme of my dream. You will not be perfect at this, but try to keep your topic and audience in mind as you go through your day, so all works smoothly.

E - Explain your cause

What’s your purpose? Why are you fulfilling your dream? Who is your dream about?

Keep it as easy and focused as possible. Think of it as a tweet. Keep it under 140 characters. That’s hard, because your dreams are big, but it’s doable. Seek some help from people that want to see you succeed. Remind them not to be offended if you don’t use their ditty (you don’t have to sing it, either), because it is your dream, however input is helpful.

I had to rethink my tag line several times, and not everyone gets it, but it’s concise.

“Never Fail - What I mean by that, is fail a lot!” 

It makes people think and draws them to my topic. It won’t work to draw everyone in, but it gives the simple message of my blog. We all fail, let’s do better - lessons on leadership, failing, encouraging, etc. Hopefully simple enough.

BTW - your tagline or cause will change over time. Mine did.

P - Purposefully simplify you - keep on one track

Oversimplify.

I mean, get down to the lowest common denominator that you possibly can. Figure out the 10 items you are focusing on, and cut them in half. Delete the ones that you can still use to impact your group. Now, take that list down to two. 

When you have intense focus on a topic, service or motivating factor, you will be more focused and intent on delivering the results that are needed by your group.

If I start my rattlesnake petting zoo, but I also start a ferret hotel, an ice cream shop and an ant farm, I will not have a focus on my audience or on my task, plus, I may just get bit by one of those groups.

Losing focus on simplicity will end up drawing you out of your main dream and into being mediocre in areas that you hope to serve others.

Lessons Learned:

Thoughts:

#failalot

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