Dear %%First Name%%,

We hope you've been enjoying your Monday Morning Motivator. If you've received this issue for the first time - welcome aboard! It only takes a couple of minutes to start your week off right with the MMM! Be encouraged by the success or great ideas of others in your business community. The MMM has a community of 86,302  subscribers.

Note : Please add Adam Advertising Group (drago@adamadgroup.com) to your address book to ensure it is not zapped by your spam filter.

Click Here to check out our recently updated YouTube Channel or copy and paste the following link (http://www.youtube.com/user/10ogard)


Click Here to check out our BLOG! 

8 Traits to Avoid to Ensure Success in Business & Life

This week we share a message from "Leadership Expert" and author, John Maxwell. John's mesage contains 8 truths that will help you to not only become successful in business and life, but also give you a foundation for life long growth. 

What’s holding you back in your business or career? It may be something you are doing now and don’t even realize it.

The seed of this lesson comes from the former president of Coca-Cola, Don Keough. He wrote a satirical article about ways people lose in business. A few of the points that I will share with you today come from that article.

So let’s get started. Here are some rules and attitudes to follow if you want to lose in business.

1. Quit taking risks.

“A ship in the harbor is safe… but that is not what ships are for.” Isn’t that a great saying? Anybody who has been in business realizes that risk is a big part of it. The moment you decide not to take a risk is when your competitors will pass you by.

It isn’t the incompetent who destroy an organization. The incompetent never get in a position to destroy it. It is those who have achieved something and want to rest upon their achievements who are forever clogging things up.

2. Rely totally on experts and research to make decisions for you.

Charles F. Kettering said, “Research is an organized method of trying to find out what you are going to do after you cannot do what you are doing now.” There are some wonderful consultants out there who add value to our businesses. The key word above is totally. When one allows what the experts say to totally govern decisions, that’s when trouble arises.

3. Always ask yourself, “What would the founder have done?”

The simple fact is that no one knows what a great leader would do in a new set of circumstances—except that he would not lose. There simply is no eternal formula for success handed down through generations.

4. Concentrate on your competitor instead of your customer.

I’ve read everything that has been written by the late John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach of the UCLA Bruins. Not only was he an incredible coach, but he was also an incredible teacher to his players and others who knew him.

In an interview he was asked how he prepared his team for the next game. It was widely known in the basketball coaching circles that Coach Wooden wasn’t one to send his staff out to scout teams that were coming up on their schedule. He said, “The way to build a team isn’t to worry about your competitor; the way to build a team is to play to your strengths. If we play our game right, they will be playing our game. We won’t play their game.”

Coach Wooden realized it’s much better to spend time making your team better than trying to anticipate what the other team was going to do.

Remember that the customer is king. The following customer service truths are the results of research conducted at the Tyler International Research Institute Inc., as well as that of the Technical Research Assistance Institute and other supporting research organizations.

> Poor service is the No. 1 reason American companies lose business.

> The average dissatisfied customer tells nine others of their dissatisfaction.

> Conversely, the average satisfied customer tells only five people.

> It costs between five and 10 times more to attract a new customer than it does to keep an old one.

> Customers pay more for better service.

5. Administrative concerns take precedence over all others.

When the organization becomes bogged down with administrative issues and bureaucracy, growth can screech to a halt. Zimmerman’s Law says regardless of whether a mission expands or contracts, administrative overhead continues to grow at a steady rate. Isn’t that the truth!

In the article that I referenced in the beginning from Don Keough, he has some scathing things to say about the cost of administration: “Look at any well-oiled bureaucracy. Innovation is never permitted to get in the way of the preservation of the organization. Such bureaucracies have something in common: Most of them are consistent losers or soon will be.”

6. Be inflexible.

A wise person once said, “Inflexibility is one of the worst human failings. You can learn to check impetuosity, overcome fear with confidence and laziness with discipline. But for rigidity of mind there is no antidote. It carries the seeds of its own destruction.”

Generating this flexible thinking requires an emphasis on high quality and strategic thinking, a commitment to principles, and a focus on learning. It also helps to have a cultural bias toward improvisation and innovation, within your framework of principles and a coherent strategy.

7. Look to someone else to do your thinking for you.

Author Gordon MacDonald calls this “mental flabbiness.” He writes, “In our pressurized society, people who are out of shape mentally usually fall victim to ideas and systems that are destructive to the human spirit and to human relationships. They are victimized because they have not taught themselves how to think, nor have they set themselves to the lifelong pursuit of the growth of the mind. Not having the facility of a strong mind, they grow dependent upon the thoughts and opinions of others. Rather than deal with ideas and issues, they reduce themselves to lives full of rules, regulations and program.”

8. Memorize the motto, “That’s good enough.”

Nothing is changed by a mediocre performance.

Complacency is a blight that saps energy, dulls attitudes and causes a drain on the brain. The first symptom is satisfaction with things as they are. The second is rejection of things as they might be. “Good enough” becomes today’s watchword and tomorrow’s standard. Complacency makes people fear the unknown, mistrust the untried and abhor the new. Like water, the man who is complacent follows the easiest course—downhill. He draws fake strength from looking back.

Excellence is not a policy decision. It is a mindset, an attitude, a way of thinking and behaving. We create a mindset of excellence in our businesses, our sports teams, our churches and our homes not merely by demanding excellence or preaching excellence, but by modeling excellence, just as Walt Disney did. Once we have created a climate where quality is not just something we do but a feature of who we are as an organization, then the people in our organization will be inspired to go far beyond policy, far beyond duties and job descriptions, in order to maintain the organization’s reputation for excellence.

If your business needs some ways to succeed, give us a call. We're here to help!

Have a great week unless you choose otherwise.

Drago

(Follow us on twitter now @AdamAdGroup)



PS - We are very big on "Content Creation" marketing and strategies for our clients. This latest example from Gateway Toyota is probably the best example of a vehicle demo we have seen yet! Click Here  

Here is another example from Sherwood Park Dodge  Click Here!  

Also if you are in the car industry you may enjoy our latest blog post - Canadian Car Dealers-a-Dead Guy- and Youtube Click Here 

Also check out how one of our other clients Spraggs & Co. has used content creation strategies to benefit their firm by Clicking Here   




PPS - It's been sometime in the making but we have finally finished and launched our new website. Check it out by Clicking Here or copy and paste the following link into your browser http://www.adamadgroup.com



Special Note :  Many of you know that my 12 year old son has Type 1 Juvenile Diabetes. We are extremely excited about our newly designed & revised program called MyBrandit.

(Check out our latest promotional offerings, perfect for client or staff gifts!)

This system offers our customers and subscribers, great selection, pricing and quality on all promotional products and merchandise. The products are hand selected as proven winners and the best part for us is that we will be able to donate a portion of all sales to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Please Click on the banner below to have a look around and let us know what you think!  

Testimonial Of The Week -  I  just received my first edition of your Monday Morning Motivator and I am quite impressed. So much so that I immediately subscribed. Your newsletter struck a nerve with me because the article titled “There are no secrets to Success” resonated with me in that all the daily steps the author talked about are steps that I usually take in my daily routine. I completely loved it, so much so that I am going to forward this incredible tool to all 75 agents in my office.
A big Thank You to you!”

(Larry B. Purchase - Royal LePage)

We also wanted to say Thank You for allowing us to meet with you every Monday Morning. The MMM has experienced incredible growth with a subscriber base of 86,302 people.

To Sign Up For The MMM simply send an email to drago@adamadgroup.com with the word subscribe in the subject line.



We are truly grateful and humbled by the positive comments we receive weekly. If you enjoy the MMM please pass it along and let others know about it.

To see our newsletter archives Click Here! or copy and paste the following link into your browser http://adamadgroup.com/newsletter-archive/

Please meet some of our fabulous clients or view their commercials at our YouTube Channel: (http://www.youtube.com/user/10ogard)

Success Profile

This week's success profile is Melanie Alsager and the staff at Sunshine Coast Health Center.

Sunshine Coast Health Center officially opened on the 15th of March, 2004, as a 16-bed drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility designed exclusively for men. Original ownership saw the need for privately-funded addiction rehabilitation and had the land, buildings and experience in residential group care to make it possible. The first two years were difficult but, over time, referring health professionals and the general public took notice of the benefits of an intimate, male-only facility that offered an extended stay (longer than 28 days) in an exceptional setting.

Today SCHC is a leader in the industry with their Non 12 Step Approach.

If you have a loved one or family member who is need of help call them toll free 24 hrs for a free consultation at 1 866 487 - 9010 or visit them online www.Sunshinecoasthealthcentre.ca

Can The Adam Advertising Group help your business, or do you have a success story we should hear about?

Contact Drago Adam at drago@AdamAdGroup.com
or call 604 937 - 8886 or 866 923 - 6477

Click Here! for our newsletter archive.