The other day my wife, daughter and I went out for my birthday dinner. It was the restaurant my 5 year old chose (of course…). Once we got seated the waitress came over and asked what we’d like to drink. My daughter said, “What do you have”? The waitress responded with all the major sodas (pop for us Michiganders), various lemonade flavors and then like a right hook and with a big smile she says and “root beer floats”. She pauses just for a second, looks at me and says, “oops, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have said that should I… ugg I am so sorry”. Well, my daughter wasn’t sorry. She was shouting “yes yes a rootbeer float sounds yummy”.

Now, I’ve never waited a table in my life but I can smell a ploy when it’s being dealt. She knew exactly what she was doing. Problem is, a five year old drinking a rootbeer float with a main course never gets to the main course. I looked at my daughter and said if you eat all your meal (hey wait… now I’m running a game) you can have a rootbeer float or a dessert. She said, “ok dad”. I got off easy that time. Another night and we’d have had a pouting angry 5 year old.

Toward the end of the meal the waitress asks if we’d like a dessert. My wife and I declined but my daughter asked what they had on the menu. The waitress looks at me after my daughter decided and said, “let me get that for her, I’m not even going to charge you anything for it”. Beep beep, radar up. She already pulled one scam earlier what is she up to now? Well, I read my birthday coupon and it said my free meal included a sundae. Guess who got my “free sundae”? Yeah, she acted like she was doing a favor for us to improve her gratuity but in my eyes she dug a little deeper into her transparent repertoire of tricks.

You know, I’m not one to think the world is all out to scam me but sometimes you can just feel the game someone is playing on you. It makes you wonder if they really think the world isn’t up to their speed. Why do I share this? Well, young or old, people can often tell when someone is trying to bamboozle them. Most people are too polite to say a word. Most people however will vote with their dollars when it comes back to giving a business a second chance.

Think twice and always work from a place of integrity. It will come back to you many times in all that you do. It doesn’t mean you’ll never get taken advantage of but it does mean you can hold your head up high knowing you do the right things even when no one is looking.

Twitter @yecoach
Dan Nichols – Business Coach

I could probably write for hours on this topic of energy in communication because frankly it’s a topic I am personally still wrestling with. Here is what you need to know in a single sentence. It’s not what you say, it’s the impact (how it hits the audience) that matters. Consider the next time you craft an article to say benefit your audience. You need to ask yourself the question — Did I leave room for them “in there”? Was it more about you and your agenda (hidden or otherwise) or more about helping them? It’s NOT an issue of right or wrong but an issue of effectiveness and how you want to be perceived.

I have had to learn this the hard way (and that’s ok too) many times. Finally, I am becoming more aware of it in all my communications. Including my public speaking and my own marketing efforts in business. Another way of sharing it is to say it’s not the content, it’s the container. See the picture above which illustrates this literally and as a feeling. Now, consider how obvious this is. Because it is so obvious you pick up on the “Twisted” impact. It doesn’t set well. Consider that it’s really easy to communicate like this, impact others in a way they know but can’t put a finger on and then lose them as customers and prospects.

Twitter – @yecoach
Dan Nichols

I spent a week this August in Northern Michigan and watched as my wife and daughter fished. For me personally – I just take them off the hook and watch as my “girls” do their thing. As I sat their doing my favorite hobby, thinking about entrepreneurship, I pulled out my iphone and made some notes. It was the genesis of yet another blog post. I hope you enjoy it. Oh and lest you wonder, that Pike was 32 pounds and 4 feet long. We had to bolt the darn fish to the deck to keep from tipping. Gloves — it was really slippery. Taste – the pike patties were excellent even my 4 year old daughter thought so.

1) It’s easier to land a fish if you know what kind you’re going after.
2) I’d rather fish in a stocked pond than a big ocean.
3) If you use the same old approach as everyone else you’ll get the same results as everyone else. That’s not always bad but it may take a long time to land a trophy.
4) If you want to land the big fish you gotta work harder and smarter than the others angling for the same prize.
5) Flashy and loud works some time but never as well as being there when they need you.
6) The more times you try the more times you stand to win.
7) Preparation may not always mean you’ll do better than the next guy but it sure improves your odds.
Not just experience but learning from your experience greatly improves your odds at success.
9) Sometimes you’re the fish, sometimes you’re the worm.
10) If you tangle the line you can always re-measure and start again.
11) Learning from those that have come before you greatly decreases your learning curve.
12) Sometimes surviving is as much about a pan full of small guys as a trophy. They both fill your belly.
13) Beginners luck is one thing but catching enough to eat every day is the true sign of expertise.

Follow YE Business Coach Dan Nichols – @yecoach

I had a cool opportunity to touch base with Daven Michaels who has created a really cool company helping entrepreneurs with their virtual assistant hassles. I’ve personally used a VA or 2 in the past and found the same experience Daven found before he launched his business. I got great service for a couple days and then they fell off my radar screen completely. Not only does his company train the VA for you, but you get to interview your Virtual Assistant to be sure you’re the right fit. Think of all the things you spend your time on that sap your entrepreneurial creative juices including but not limited to;

Facebook, Twitter, Emails, Calling Clients, Data Mining, Customer Service, Web Design, Blogging, Research, Establishing JV’s and the list goes on…

I am going to be hiring a virtual assistant in the weeks to come. To me it’s a no brainer as to where I should go to do that – 123Employee! ALSO, from a technical perspective I had a first. My guest shows up as half a person… Daven is actually a complete person despite the video wherein he shows up only half way. Geez… we may have to re-shoot this video (once I get time — yeah… right). Watch as Daven shares his entrepreneurial journey, why he knew the niche for virtual assistants was growing and why he knew he could be the guy with the right solution to afford-ably help all of us entrepreneurs. Now with 350 plus employees he is on a mission and we can all benefit from his success.

NOTE: A Special Offer for YoungEntrepreneur.com’s audience including the cool bonuses and freebies Daven spoke of – follow the link > Here

Virtual Assistant Information – How To Hire & Where to Start from YECoach on Vimeo.

Remember if you want to learn more go here – Virtual Assistant Info

I am so happy to have had a chance to not just interview Tim Mai but get to know him as a fellow entrepreneur. This guy has been through real adventure in his life. Have you ever been robbed by pirates? He has… at the ripe age of just 11. He’s not just a star in real estate investing but he’s shared his talent regularly with fellow entrepreneurs on what makes a business succeed. Check out this video for some inspiration. It’s neat to see how against a whole lot of pressure with no money at all and not even any food to eat you can emerge victorious. Enjoy!!

Tim Mai – Victim of Pirates at 11 Years Old To Real Estate Star from YECoach on Vimeo.

Follow Me ( Business Coach Dan Nichols ) – Twitter @yecoach

From time to time I simply get inspired by a really well written article or video. If you are looking to improve your sales, attract more clients and so forth – you gotta see this article. I know this is a really short post but grant me some grace as I’m slowly rolling back into the swing of things after taking some time for some family and business related stuff.

http://ow.ly/2oZTa

Twitter – @yecoach

Hi everyone, this is an exciting opportunity for us all to express our creative juices and submit an idea for an Entrepreneurial T-Shirt Design. If you think you’ve got mad skillz and you’d like to see other entrepreneurs rockin’ your design around the world then submit submit submit. FYI – Jeremy Parker is part of the YoungEntrepreneur.com Community so let’s all see to it that this contest is a huge success. Click the link here and watch the video both for information and to find out what we’ve got up our sleeve.

You Think You’re Skilled? Win This Contest… from YECoach on Vimeo.

Be sure to tweet the contest so others can enjoy it too! Your Business Coach – Dan Nichols @yecoach

I remember sitting in political science class with a teacher that “felt” really right wing. I remember a whole new world opened before my eyes as he shared things about how the world operates and why things work the way they work and so forth. I am not here to cast judgement on what he said one way or another but having him as a teacher sure opened my eyes to a lot of things. It got me to question the status quo and examine things more deeply. It got me to not just accept what I read or hear but to question. Ronald Spainhour was a catalyst for changing my life by removing some filters from which I had previously examined it.

The video clip to follow shares in essence what he taught us about the world and it’s “economies”. I have no investment in getting you to believe it or not. I do however think it’s important that all of us, entrepreneurs too, have some understanding of this. For me it was like my first psychology class – all of a sudden I could understand more about why my dad wasn’t always so nice growing up – it gave me some context. This understanding of the federal reserve system all of a sudden made economics easier to understand.

I highly recommend this “watch”. Twitter @yecoach

This video demonstrates something I learned years ago in school about motivation and the psychology of people in general. We’re not necessarily motivated just by money. Sure, money is important but once you have enough to move beyond the pain point (where you have enough to live) money is not the motivating force.

Not only is this video cool to watch it might help our entrepreneurial community better understand how to run a company as well as provide a lot of enlightenment for their own personal lives. After all this guy shares the 3 critical pieces us entrepreneurs are after once we have enough cashola to get beyond pain. It’s a really cool video on many levels.

I highly recommend this “watch”. Twitter @yecoach

I was listening to one of my favored speakers this evening and was just struck to share some of what he was speaking on. I know there isn’t anything knew under the sun per se’ but there are certainly better ways of expressing, more succinctly, old ideas. I think the few lines below do just that. Maybe, maybe, maybe, one of you entrepreneurs will see the truth in this and forever be changed.

So often people make others out to be the star, not choosing to be the star themselves. I find so often people want to make others feel as though all they really are is “extra” material. I say the hell with it – go be the star you are!  Go and claim your rightful place on the throne.

The propensity to make others be bigger than you stems from a number of psychological issues holding us all back at different levels. This one to me, is most closely tied to the ADA Syndrome wherein we either don’t allow ourselves to succeed, don’t feel we deserve to succeed or are seeking approval from another source before we’ll take the chance to succeed. There is much more on the ADA Syndrome… believe it or not – in my audio book – 8 Degrees of Separation.

Why not you? Why not you right now… today? Go be the star you are. Don’t worry about the struggling “extras” on the set screaming for you to stay with them for fear of being left alone. Go be the star you are. You deserve it, you just need to allow it to happen. I completely approve of you going to be the star you are!

Dan Nichols – Lead Business Coach
Twitter – @yecoach

I’ve followed David Meerman Scott for several years. He’s a thought leader in both leadership and in marketing and pr. I think he’s brilliant and in an effort to expose all you entrepreneurs to the best I bring you yet another brilliant author. Enjoy and post to let me know that though traditional agency style marketing may be dying on the vine, our young entrepreneurs are thinking, breathing and posting!!! From your business coach – Dan Nichols @yecoach

David Meerman Scott speaks at South-by-Southwest 2009 from David Meerman Scott on Vimeo.

These 3 Tips were stolen from subversive government mind control experts. They were clueless as I ran off with their black briefcase filled with notes on how to completely control ANYONE and have them reading your blog posts, watching your video posts and forwarding your articles to 300 of their facebook friends. This article should not be shared with anyone. Why? Well… if every single person understood these strategies on writing blog posts, articles and making riveting video titles, nobody would do anything but read. They would have no control over it! See what business coach ( @yecoach ) Dan Nichols has to share in this video post – before we are slapped with a restraining order, have our computers confiscated and our minds numbed up on subversive chemical agents designed to make us write articles with 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8 or 9 tips instead. Gotta go… somebody is knocking!

3 Blog, Article and Tip Writing Tips – Absolute Proof on What Works from YECoach on Vimeo.

Any thoughts anyone? I want you to know I never checked google before i did this video. This is stuff I’ve been thinking about for a long time. Don’t you think the 3 numbers i discuss for tip writing are the same 3 numbers that jive with you?