Do you sometimes find yourself sitting there putting things off to the last possible moment? Thinking, “I’ll do that later”, even when the ‘THING’ you need or want to do is actually quite straightforward?

Let's face it, nearly all of us procrastinate at one time or another. To be honest, I have been procrastinating about writing this week's article! At best, procrastination is a frustrating (and annoying) habit. At worst, putting things off may cause us stress, anxiety and even problems with others. Yet if we boil it all down, in most cases we know just what we need to do to get started.

So I thought I would ask psychologist Victoria Kasunic, one of my Alumni Mentor Clients to share with you, her top five tips to overcome the procrastination monster that lives inside of each of us.

When was the last time you had a good look through your website?  Do you update it weekly, or is it sitting there dormant, not getting much in the way of TLC?

A quality website still is such a powerful way to connect with your prospective clients, so having a ‘brochure’ type website really isn’t going to cut it these days. 

This week I’ve been speaking with my mentor clients about what the critical ‘must haves’ are for their websites, and I thought I would share these with you.

Must have #1:  Engage with your prospective clients

When writing content for your site, you really want to engage with your prospective clients.  You want them to be sitting at their computer reading your copy, and ‘talking’ back to you, agreeing with what you have to say.  Your aim should be for them to realise that you provide the solution to their current challenges.

To be able to do this, you need to understand who your ideal clients are – know their psychographic profile and write specifically to that special client. 

Now that you have their attention, and they’ve remained on your site exploring the various pages, don’t forget about…

…Must have #2:  Have a strong call to action

Now that you’ve got their attention, what do you want them to do?  Do you want them to keep flicking from page to page, and then leave your site?  I hope not!

You’ve engaged with them, and they like what they are reading, so now you want to tell them what to do next. 

If you have specific products or services that solve current challenges for your ideal clients, then tell them what they need to do to either buy or work with you.  What is that next step – take them through this, and make it easy for them to buy from you.

In fact, don’t let them leave your site, without…

…Must have #3: Be able to capture their details

The most important MUST HAVE is making sure you capture their details before they leave your site.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to make sure you have a free offer/give-away or something of value so that they will want to provide you their contact details. 

It can’t just be ‘sign up for my newsletter’!  Your prospective clients will be savvier than this, and these days people aren’t giving away their email details ‘just for a newsletter’ – they want value, they want something that will make a difference to their life or business.

Take time to think about what it is you can offer them that is in-line with your business purpose, and then develop it into either a free report, audio or video product for them to opt-in (sign up) to download. 

Building your list, allows you to have a database to communicate with.  You stay in contact with them regularly by providing value-added information via your newsletter, and keeping them updated on your products, new offerings, and more.

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Australian Olympic swimming champion, Ian Thorpe, when asked about being placed in lane five at a swimming final responded with:

“There is water in every lane, so it is OK.”

This was not only a factual comment and a reasonable one, but most of all, it demonstrated a positive attitude.  In fact, we have come to expect positive comments from elite athletes.  It seems to go hand-in-hand with success. 

What is so important about positive attitude? 

A positive attitude helps to make the hardships of life and work less debilitating.  When looking at people who have been through events of extreme adversity such as Hanoi Hilton and 9/11, the key differentiator between those people who have gone on to have ‘normal’ successful lives and those who have been unable to ‘move forward’, is that the former group possess a positive attitude.

The simple key is not what they did, but how they did it. 

Rationally, they experienced a horrendous situation, yet, those who could frame it more positively were able to emerge out of it, able to go ahead and thrive.  One recorded example is Dr Frankl, a survivor of Auschwitz, who helped his fellow prisoners to find joy in a bowl of dirty water with a fish head masquerading as soup.  The experience was the same for all, but the attitude and emotion towards it was different.

I truly hope that no ‘down’ in your life will be this extreme.  However, we can learn a lot from it.  No matter how large or small the negatives are within your business, focus on thinking and feeling more positively about them. 

What can you do to help yourself be more positive?

If you simply don’t feel positive and your head is shouting “I’m tired, I’m fed up, I’m overworked and I can’t do one more thing”, then here is the other great piece of information:

Don’t do anything new.  Just do what you are doing but with a smile.

Conventional thinking says that attitude comes before behaviour, meaning that we need to feel positive before we act positively.  But this is only half the picture. In fact, our behaviours shape our attitudes.  The old saying ‘fake it until you make it’ works for attitudes too. 

For example, in Australia, it was exactly 30 years ago this year that a law came into place to enforce the wearing of seat belts in cars.  Prior to this, no amount of marketing, campaigning nor ‘scaring’ worked to create a positive attitude towards seat belt wearing, and as you can guess, seat belts were not used by the vast majority of the population.  Attitude was resistant to change.  However, after the introduction of the law, people’s behaviour changed to be compliant and interestingly, researchers also found that after a period of time attitudes also changed to match the new behaviour.

So, if you behave as though you have a positive attitude towards business, your attitude will actually catch up.

What You Can Do

How you act as a business leader sets the tone for all those around you.  Despite what your reality maybe, behave as though you have a positive attitude towards your business, you tasks, your role, and others.  If stuck, conjure up images from a recent positive event, such as a day at the beach or a meeting with a client that exceeded your expectation.  My guess is that as a consequence you will smile, share humour, relax and engage more with those around you.   Bingo!  You are on the way to building your own resilience, as well as showing others how to do it themselves.

Some other specific things you can do include:

1.    Keep a sense of humour – in the words of the Australian magazine queen, Ita Buttrose (2011), “never lose your curiosity, never lose your optimism and never lose your sense of humour”.

2.    Add fun – positive experience adds to feeling positive.  A great example given to me by a sergeant in the Australian police service is that during break time in night shift, she ran music trivia at the police station.  What a great way to keep the atmosphere positive in the depths of the night.  Consider what you can add to your daily routine.  Actually stop for a moment and ask yourself when was the last time you have fun within your work day?  If you can't remember, then today might be the day for you to have some fun!

3.    Smile and listen – be open and engaging with those who you come in contact with - it may be your employees, your virtual contractors or your customers.  Take time to actually stop!

Being able to work closely with business owners who are focused on making a difference to their businesses over this ninety days is such an honour. 

They all committed in their own way to the process of learning and implementing the materials and concepts that were presented. And as a group, they were there supporting each other through the ninety days.

When I begin working with my clients, although they may be in a variety of industries, they always seem to be confronting the same challenges.  They’re looking at ways to grow their business, improve sales and still have a life, it’s just that they may explain it in different terms to the person sitting next to them.

As we began our ninety day journey, foundations needed to be either built or strengthened for growth and clarity to occur.  It was time to step back and really work on their businesses, rather than getting caught up in the day to day stresses of running their business.

This is one of the main reasons I like working with my clients over a period of time, rather than coming in and doing a one-off session with them.  Given time, they are able to step away from the day-to-day stresses, even for an hour a week, and focus on their own development.  This really is time well spent...

One of the first areas we focused on was really getting clear on who their ideal clients were.  Digging into developing the psychographic profile and understanding what keeps their clients awake at night. Being able to read the minds of your clients is what makes the difference between a good business and a great business.

Once they understood who these people were, they were then able to work through the key benefits and results they achieve with their clients, and consolidate their offers as well as develop their core marketing message.

We spent time looking at all of the different types of marketing activities available, what needed to be included in their marketing plans to further build their client base, and the level of trust within this community.

Nearer the end of the program, and to really consolidate the transfer of learning, each participant ‘presented’ their business to the group.  They incorporated what they had learnt, and posed questions to the group for further brainstorming and masterminding.

The key messages that I know the group are walking away with is that building relationships, engaging and adding value to their clients is what is important in building their thriving business.  That the direction they are going is right for them and their business, and that they believe in the possibilities of not only themselves, but also their business.

So as we enter the second half of 2011, I will be excited to see what they create and achieve for their businesses over the next six months...

Ps. Our next 90 Days Get More Clients coaching program, begins Monday 8th August...