I have been a serial entrepreneur since I was 6 years! I saw an ad on the back of a comic book I was reading and much to my parents horror, filled out the ad and enthusiastically started selling greeting cards door to door.

This was going to be awesome! I was going to have the money for that new pellet gun within a week. The booklet I read said it was easy. Just go knock on some doors, smile sweetly and ask the nice lady if she would like to buy some greeting cards.

So I braved the Canadian winter weather and went to my first door and knocked. No answer! No worries I went to the next door. No answer! Hmmm that is weird I guess most folks aren’t home after school. Next door no answer. Next door ….. Success …… someone is coming ……. “Hi I wanted to know if you would like to buy ……. SLAM ……. Damn that was rude shutting the door in my face. Where are all the nice ladies the booklet spoke about?

Well I am betting you can guess how the rest of that day went. 36 doors, 19 no answers, 15 no thanks and 2 slammed doors in my face. I took my freckled 6 year old face home with tears freezing to my cheeks, dejected, heartbroken and ready to quit.

When my mom questioned what the tears were about I had to confess about the business I had started and poured my little 6 year old heart out to her about how hard it was and how mean people were. To her credit she never laughed and didn’t even scold me that badly for doing something so silly without asking her first. Mom told me it would be alright and we would figure something out.

Well it did turn out alright. My first business was a success. I successfully sold all those packs of greeting cards! Well ………. actually better stated my aunts, mother and grandmothers bought the greeting cards and saved my butt. But I did learn some valuable lessons that continued to carry me through my life …….including increasing the circulation of the paper route I took over at age 9, by 28% in three years!

Entrepreneurs are an interesting breed of animal with some very unique quirks, strengths and weaknesses. One of the things we love is being able to contribute our gifts to humanity in a meaningful way so let’s review some of these strengths and weaknesses to see if there is a way to enhance our contribution to humanity.

We love the idea of being self responsible and taking charge of our life and businesses. On our best days we love the fact that the rise and fall of our business is completely reliant on us. On our worst days …….. we piss and moan and wish we just had a stable job with stability and guaranteed income.

We rely on our intellect, our drive and our charisma to work our way through the daily grind of running our own businesses. We are high energy people by nature and get a lot done relative to most other people in the workforce. This is one of our greatest attributes and is also EXACTLY THE THING THAT HOLDS US BACK FROM REALLY HITTING OUR STRIDE IN BUSINESS AND ENJOYING LIFE THAT MUCH MORE!

You see the limiting factor to personal energy is that there is only so much of it to go around. I am not suggesting that energy is a static state entity that does not have fluctuations nor am I suggesting that most people are not expressing as much of it as they can but ………. We are still physical human beings and as such have only so much energy to go around.

That is precisely why relying on our energy in our businesses is limiting our expression to impact more lives with our amazing products and services. We can only express so much energy at any given time and since we share our human energy with our personal life and express it in our hobbies, our sports and in our relationships with friends and family, there is only so much left for our business.  

So what are we supposed to do? What is better than relying on our energy and charisma? In a word …………. RHYTHMS!

Rhythms are important processes or systems that we build into our lives and businesses that we rhythmically do. We let the energy and momentum of the rhythm carry us forward instead of relying on our own energy. Here are 5 of my favourites rhythms that you can implement in the next 30 days to boost your business by enhancing your impact.

RHYTHMS

1/ TEAM MEETINGS; These are a great way to connect with your team and move projects forward in an effective and efficient way. One of the hardest parts is getting them orchestrated in everyone’s calendar. If you have a standing rhythm like our weekly Monday morning planning meeting, you never have to worry about conflicts because it is prebooked for the year at the AGM.

Two of the keys to effective team meetings is having a preset agenda and a hard and fast timeline. This minimizes the possibility of long boring meetings that go off on tangents and become a waste of time and energy.

 

2/ RHYTHMIC E-MAIL; E-mail can be a great communication and marketing tool but it can also be a big time waster. My team is instructed to check e-mail 3 times per day at set rhythmic times …… early morning, mid day and end of day …….. AND THAT IS IT!

Many people are constantly on and off e-mail and are very distracted as a result. Distraction leads to a lack of present time consciousness and focus which ultimately leads to inefficiency and ineffectiveness. Many entrepreneurs use e-mail as a social outlet and a way to feel important. Get those needs met somewhere else and watch your productivity rise as you create e-mail rhythms that serve you and your clients and friends (check out this blog post on getting rid of e-mail).

 

3/ MONTHLY BUDGET MEETINGS; Ours are booked within 10 business days of the end of the past month. The purpose of these meetings is to inform the team as to the level of manifestation you achieved in the past month and compare it to intention. It is also a chance to review expenses and ensure they are on pace with intention. The ups and downs of these two variables impact everything from team morale to possible bonus payments and the CFO’s ability to plan for the month coming.

 

4/ MORNING RITUAL; A morning ritual is an investment in yourself and a way to serve yourself before you serve and give of yourself to your family, friends and clients. Most entrepreneurs are better at giving than receiving and this is a chance to give to you so you can give more to others. I recommend you custom design your morning ritual keeping in mind it’s main purpose is to ground you, energize you and allow the best version of you to enter into the day.

I personally have found a balance of mental, physical and spiritual traditions is wise. I personally meditate and do subconscious mind defragging exercises for the mental aspect. I do Taoist Tai Chi, Yoga and strengthening exercises for my physical body as well as commonly hike or run in nature. All of those things I mentioned rejuvenate and recharge my spirit as well and as a result I start each and EVERY day of my life grounded in my spiritual essence.

 

5/ QUARTERLY REVIEWS; This is one of the best rhythms I am aware of to optimize the relationship and expand the level of manifestation your team creates. They are focused on the outcomes assessment for their role and their performance of those outcomes in the last quarter. It is imperative to only review their performance in the past quarter and not bring up issues and items from times in the past.

I love to use the forms I have developed that focus on both supporting and challenging them to be better. The last thing you do before you leave the meeting is book and confirm the next one in both your calendar and theirs.

 

Rhythms are one of the easiest and most underutilized ways to grow your business expression and make you more money. Embrace these five rhythms and watch the stability it will create in your business as well as the expansion of your impact on humanity. A nice side effect is the extra energy you will have to invest in your family, friends, sports and hobbies.

Try 30 days of focused intention on these 5 pieces and see how your energy, productivity and business grows while you suddenly have more attention to your family. We would LOVE to hear the results.
Send us an email if you would like the forms we use in our quarterly reviews and to check out a video of my morning routine, check that out here.