You can find inspiration anywhere…if you really want to be inspired!

Most of you who read my blogs know that I am also the Founder and Publisher of CAREER Magazine (a fantastic publication, that you should be subscribing to).   With that being said, I’ve been posting career, business and author/publishing tips on our Facebook Fan page since 2009.  I got the idea to do something really cool with those tips (what I call Recycled Resources) which I’ll be sharing with you all soon.  But…getting all of those tips from my Facebook page into a document that I could work from was proving to be a task.   After meeting Nicold Pittman on a controversial blog she and I began to share on a personal level and ended up talking by skype about her graphic design company.  During our call, I mentioned a project that I wanted to do, but dreaded the task of having to copy and paste 4 years worth of tips (somedays have 10 or more tips on them).  A few days later Nicold stated she was bored on her Facebook page and I told her I had a copy/paste job that would keep her busy.  In our normal fashion we LOL’d and moved on with our days.   However, shortly after this, Nicold sent me an inbox (and an invoice) advising me that she had gathered all of my tips from the page, cleaned them up and put them in a Word document for me.  I inquired about how she did it, she told me the name of the text editor she used.  I inquired about why I would need it in the future? she went technical on me and I said,  “never mind…I don’t need to know…as long as you know how to do it, I can get this done!”  (no more gravy needed on my plate!)

I shared that story because prior to working with Nicold, I had gotten the idea of what I wanted to do with those daily tips.  I was dreading the copy and paste process and neither Nick or Victoria took me seriously when I asked them to do it in their spare time.  Well, either they are working so hard that they don’t have spare time or they just looked at 4 years of copying/pasting and said, “yea right!” I may never know, but I digress.   In the interim, I had started to copy and paste all of tips since October 2012 into a Word Document.  Even though I have have intentionally pulled this program up everyday, it wasn’t until Tuesday of this week that this screen meant something to me.

There are 6 commands on this screen that every business owner can use for a little inspiration:

1.  Access:
I thought about how many times I’ve been traveling and had to tell someone via email or text, “I’ll get that to you as soon as I get back to the office”  or ” I’ll have Victoria  get that to you as soon as she gets into the office”.  Well, I’ve done a pretty good job putting things like our media kit, our editorial calendar and videos online,  and I use an external drive, GoDaddy’s online file folder, and Google docs to communicate with my internal network, but there are other things that I need access to that should be online as well.  Great another project!

2. Collaborate:
I’m big on telling like minded organizations to collaborate with others in their field to add more muscle, resources and even capital to their businesses.  In fact, it’s one of the first things I suggest when people come to me saying they are thinking about shutting down their businesses.

3.  Create: 
One of the greatest things you can do for your customers and clients is create products and services that will add to their business and lives.  When I first started out in business, I created product to “showcase” my expertise (my business model was different and I was seeking to expand my reach).  Now that I’ve gotten my name out globally, I create product that will help others to do some of the awesome things that I have mastered in my journey.

4.  Work:
It’s true, the only place you’ll find the word success before work is in the dictionary!   As a business owner, learning to delegate was one a huge challenge for me.  Learning to let go and give “said tasks” to others (thank you Nicold) who are better suited to accomplish the task at hand is a big deal.  First thing we have to do is separate  my work/others work and  necessary work/busy work.  When I was in Corporate as an employee, I didn’t have the option to always pass things to someone else for completion, and I admit, sometimes I have to remind myself, “that’s why you have hired hands”.

5.  Visualize:
Truth be told, I love exactly how the screen shows it “Visual Style Guides” and the caption “Instantly see…”  I’m a huge advocate that we need to have written and visual goals as a guide to first see our goals and a guide to help us stay on track with our goals.  It’s the first month of the new year and our visions should be bigger and better than last year.

6.  Manage: 
Figuring out the process is only a part of the process.  Effectively managing processes is the most critical.  It’s amazing how the simplest of things can be used to confirm that we need to do something or something that we are already doing actually works.  On Monday of this week, while speaking with Tina Forsyth on a REAL TALK WITH REAL ENTREPRENEURS session (hosted by Adrienne Graham and myself).  We were discussing the effectiveness of using standard operating procedures.  I shared how when I was in Corporate I viewed putting these together as a daunting tasks and now as an entrepreneur welcome having them so that my hired hands and do it “just like me” in my absence.

Who knew, that inspiration for a blog could come from simply opening a program that I use almost daily in my line of work.  I guess it’s true, you CAN find inspiration anywhere…if you REALLy want to be inspired!

To view our REAL TALK session with Tina Forsyth view below.