Melinda’s Positive Thought of the Week

People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking they can do things.

How To Apply This As A Young Professional

As a young professional and rising leader, a big secret to your success is believing that you are capable of doing anything you put your mind to.

It sounds cliche, but it’s the absolute truth. If you believe in yourself you give yourself greater chances to succeed in your career.

The most successful leaders are those who dare to dream. Those who visualize success in their minds. Those who think and say they can…and therefore DO!

Early in your career as a young professional you will come across many reason’s why you “can’t” do things. You will be told you are too young, do not have enough experience, and the list goes on and on.

Keep a positive mental attitude about all that you do.

When you think positive, you perform positive.

As a young professional and rising leader, realize that you are destined for great things. And all great things require the right positive mental framework to come to fruition.

I believe you are going to do great things in your career.

However, it’s more important what you think!

If you missed me last week or just want a review, click here to see last week’s installment of Monday with Coach Martinez.

See you next Monday, but more importantly…

See you at the top,
Coach Melinda Martinez

Melinda’s Positive Thought of the Week

If you want to be among the most successful leaders in the world develop the right kind of attitude…the I-will-keep-trying, never-give-up, stick-with-it, hang-in-there, keep-it-going attitude.

How To Apply This As A Young Professional

As a young professional and rising leader, developing the right type of attitude is key to your success.

When times get tough, the tough get going. No doubt you have heard that one before.

Question is, are you among the tough that actually get going when times are hard?

If not, you may find yourself having a hard time trying to effectively lead anyone as a young professional. Having the right attitude will help keep you motivated to push forward when you need that extra push.

In fact, consistent success requires the right attitude.

Far too often developing the right attitude is not given enough attention. It’s easy to have a good attitude when things are going well, but when things are headed south, having the right attitude is doubly important.

Early in my career I always made it a point to stay positive. Even when deep down inside I felt like the odds where stacked against me, I always focused on the positives of any situation.

Doing so always helped me overcome any obstacle I faced.

Think of the leaders you value the most in your life…you know…the folks you would follow in any situation, trust with your life, and not think twice. Chances are their attitude is a large reason why you follow them.

They are probably always upbeat and a pleasure to be around. Even when times are tough, the manage to smile, lead themselves, and then lead others.

That is exactly the type of person you should be strving to become. Don’t just settle for following great leaders, strive to become a great leader.

It’s been a while since I shared a video with you all, so allow me to share one with you this week.

This is one of my favorite Michael Jordan commercials. MJ, a great leader in his own right, always had a great attitude on the court. He often failed his way forward to success, and attitude played a huge role.

Take a look at how the greatest basketball player to play the game used attitude and determination to keep trying…and eventually…keep winning!

If you missed me last week or just want a review, click here to see last week’s installment of Monday with Coach Martinez.

See you next Monday, but more importantly…

See you at the top,
Coach Melinda Martinez

Reflection Friday

Are you putting your dream to the test?

What’s up young professional and rising leader?

One of my favorite authors is leadership guru John Maxwell. I’m currently reading one of his newest books, “Put Your Dream To The Test.”

So the question for you to reflect on this weekend is just that…

Are you putting your dream to the test?

In the opening pages, Maxwell defines a dream as “an inspiring picture of the future that energizes your mind, will, and emotions, empowering you to do everything you can to achieve it.”

We all have dreams. We all grew up wanting to be someone or do something special.

What was your dream growing up?

Maybe you have already realized it. Maybe you working towards it. Or maybe, if you are a dreamer like me, you have already realized many of your dreams, and have many more to go, and many more yet still to dream up, strive for, and accomplish!

As a young professional and rising leader, you must dare to dream!

What so many young professionals fail to realize is that now is the time to be adventurous. Now is the time to try new things, to fail, to learn, to grow, to put you one step closer towards achieving your dream.

Not all dreams have to be huge to be worth pursuing. They just need to be bigger than you are today.

They need to challenge you to stretch, to grow, and to evolve into the leader and success story we both know you can be.

Some people fail to dream because they fear to fail.

Fear not what failures await you, because one thing is for sure…you will fail in life.

Failure is a key ingredient to eventual success.

Do NOT let fear of failure stop you from dreaming.

Others fail to dream because they worry what others have to say.

Worry not what others think of YOUR dream. Worry only how you will make your dream a reality.
As a young professional and rising leader, you owe it to yourself to pursue your dreams. Do NOT be deterred by those who feed you words of discouragement. Realize that they are likely members of a group of people in society who have given up on their dreams and now wish to see others do the same.

Don’t fall for it!

Your dream is your dream. And just like no one can dream a dream for you, no one can kill your dream…except you!

So over the weekend, have some fun, unwind from a long week, but make sure you make some time to figure out how you are going to work at making your dream a reality!

If you haven’t already, will you accept my challenge and start putting your dream to the test?

Happy Leading (and Dreaming),
Coach Johnson

RECESSION…  DEPRESSION…  GLOOM & DOOM…

It seems that these words are all you hear about during these tough economic times that we are currently in. Who in the world would want to start a business in the midst of this mess?

People have forgotten how to focus on the big picture, and instead, they occupy their time crying and worrying about the smaller things.

For example, everyone right now is crying about AIG giving out $165 Million dollars in bonuses.

Is it a problem? Sure, you could say so…..

But…

What about the bigger picture….$165 BILLION!

Frankly, I don’t think much about the $165 Million because I’m more concerned about the $165 BILLION that they got!

But everyone else is focusing so much on the smaller picture, $165 Million, making it easier for these guys to secretly siphon the $165 BILLION (need I say BILLION again?) to their accounts.

Oh well, WHATEVER!….BLAH BLAH BLAH! “OH MY GOODNESS! LET ME JUST GO CRAWL INTO MY CAVE AND DIE BECAUSE OF ALL THE GLOOM AND DOOM!” (Being sarcastic)

ANYWAY!…..

I’m here today to give you 3 reasons why you should start your business today, in the midst of a recession (I believe this is more like a depression than recession).

1.) Everyone else is glued to their television sets soaking up all the bad news in fear.

What does this mean for you?

Less competition…

Since everyone is soaking up all of their time focusing purely on the gloom and doom, less people are actually going out and attempting to start companies.

This is a sad fact, because you would think that with all of the job layoffs, people would be more interested in taking control of their life by starting their own business so they wouldn’t have to let their family’s livelihood depend on someone Else’s hands.

It’s possible that a revolution of entrepreneurship could occur as a result of these times, but you don’t have to sit around and wait for it.

Start right now so you can get a head start in building your company brand while everyone else is still glued to their television set watching the latest news about bailouts and stimulus packages.

2.) As Big Businesses begin to fall, small businesses can rise.

The barrier to entry is starting to crumble in certain industries, because the big companies with deep pockets are no longer in control as they used to be.

This means that you can start your business with less money, because you won’t have to fight as hard to compete with the big corporations, because they are too big to really do anything useful to heal their wounds.

The only thing it seems that these companies can do to improve their profits is to lay off employees.

You on the other hand, being small and nimble, can enter the market, find a corner (so to speak), and come up with something new and innovative that will allow you to capture a small piece of the market’s revenue share that the big corporation wouldn’t benefit from even if they attempted too.

For example, there could be a product that a company could develop that would generate an extra $1 Million dollars per year in profit.

The problem is, $1 Million dollars isn’t worth it for a big Billion dollar corporation to put in the effort required to attain it.

You on the other hand, could benefit from $1 Million dollars per year greatly! So go and get it!

3.) This isn’t the first, & won’t be the last, unless its the very end…

If you look at history, there as always been periods and ’seasons’ of recession, depression, wars, etc. It seems that about every 70-80 years there is a depression, and recessions happen even more frequently.

When you look at it, there has always been a rebuilding or ‘reconstruction period.’

After this reconstruction period, things start to flourish, people start to prosper….well, those who prepare prosper.

Do you want to be one of the people who sit around for the next 7 years and wait for things to get better just so you can go back to work?

Or…

Do you want to be one who takes part in the rebuilding, and in turn sets themselves up to prosper greatly when the cycle resets itself?

There is much more that could be said about this subject as a whole, but this post has went way longer than I planned, so we will touch on these things as well as how you can profit during these times in upcoming posts.

Don’t let these tough times discourage you, because…

Today’s Action Yields Tommorrow’s Results…
-Coach Bradley

Quote of the Week:

“You can’t win with good athletes, but you can lose with them.”
-Lou Holtz

Leadership Quality of the Week:

“Mentoring”

As a young professional and rising leader, mentoring those around you is an excellent way to display and improve your leadership abilities.

A great leader is not a leader of followers, but a leader of leaders.

This is because the best leaders are those who are always looking to help others.

Growing up I’ve always been interested in helping other people succeed. (Hence why I started Inspiratude Leadership Coaching for young professionals like you!) I truly believe and know from experience that in helping others, I’ve helped myself twice as much.

As a young professional it can be easy to get caught up in worrying only about you. It can also be easy to feel as if you are too young or do not have enough experience to mentor anyone, older or younger.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

Because you are a leader, you have the ability to show others the way. A way to do things better, more efficiently, and with more passion.

My dad is a small business owner. And I always remember that growing up he would often tell the competition and some of his customers how he did some of the things he did! He would give up his paint formulas for his screen printing company. And I never understood why until I asked one day. His response…

“Just because you tell someone how to do something does not mean they can do it better than you.”

The point he was trying to make is that there are enough people in the world who are secretive and all about self. As a leader in his industry he felt it was his responsibility to further the abilities of others. For in teaching he learned, and as he learned more and more, he always remained one step ahead of the competition and the first choice of his customers.

Like my dad, the best leaders are not threatened by the great potential of those around them.

Instead they look for it, seek it, recruit it, and develop it. They realize that by helping others, it becomes possible to accelerate their own success and get more work down.

So as a young professional looking to become a high impact leader, here are a few things you can do to start mentoring others today:

1. Find a mentor of your own: always easier to help others when you have someone helping you
2. Offer to mentor an up and coming student or employee: help them do more of what you’ve found works and less of what you’ve found doesn’t
3. Be candid with your mentee: put aside the warm and fuzzies, be honest with how they can improve
4. Listen: mentoring is now about talking someone’s ear off to show how smart you are, its about listening to your mentees needs and helping to address them
5. Drive accountability: set goals for your mentee and hold them accountable for taking the right steps towards success
6. Instill confidence: ensure they maintain a positive mental attitude at all times and feel as if at the very least they have one person in their corner at all times — YOU
7. Measure results: make sure goals are objective and from time to time measure progress to gauge effectiveness of your relationship, their drive, and your influence

Think of someone you know who could use a little help or boost in the right direction.

We all know at least one person!

Now instead of just thinking of them, reach out and see how you can help them. You’ll be amazed at how much you end up helping yourself along the way.

As a rising leader yourself, who will you decide to mentor towards greatness?

Happy Leading,
Coach Johnson

Melinda’s Positive Thought of the Week

If you want to get somewhere, you have to know where you want to go and how to get there. Then never, never, never give up!

How To Apply This As A Young Professional

As a young professional and rising leader, so much of your success depends on taking the time to roadmap where you want to go in your career…and having the courage to stay the course no matter what.

Where do you want to go in your career?

STOP!

Don’t just keep reading, really stop and ask yourself, where do you want to go in your career.

Do you want to rise all the way to the top? Do you want to reach the VP level? Are you okay if you make manager and that’s it?

You have to ask yourself where you want to go so that you can formulate a vision and plan to help you get there.

Far too many young professionals do not take the time to strategically plan out their career.

They spend too much time in positions that do not stretch or grow their business acumen. Or they spend far too much time in positions that may be challenging, yet do not adequately prepare them for what they want to do long there.

Invest the time to plan for your future.

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there!

But figuring out where you are headed is only half the battle. You must then have the courage and drive to stick to whatever plan you assemble for yourself.

Most people in life quit too soon. In fact, my dad always used to say that most people quit one step before they would have realized success.

You have to keep chipping away at your plan. There will be setbacks and let downs, but nothing worth having will come easy.

You must believe in yourself and your plan before you can land the success  you want.

When others cast doubt, you must stand tall and keep believing.

So remember, the next time you feel like giving up…you might just be one step away from success, two steps away from greatness, and three steps away from realizing your wildest dream as it relates to success early in your career as a young professional and rising leader!

If you missed me last week or just want a review, click here to see last week’s installment of Monday with Coach Martinez.

See you next Monday, but more importantly…

See you at the top,
Coach Melinda Martinez

Reflection Friday

Are you setting yourself up for success?

What’s up young professional and rising leader?

This weekend I want you to take some time to stop and think about the road ahead.

Far too often we get so caught up in looking back or only concentrating on where we are today, that we don’t effectively plan for the road ahead.

The best leaders are planners.

Now don’t me wrong, a leader must also be able to think on his or her feet and conquer the unexpected/unplanned, but they minimize the occasions for which they do not have a plan.

Have you spent some time planning your future lately?

If yes, great job! You are moving in the right direction. If not, we have some work to do now don’t we?

Unless you run into a massive amount of luck, your first or next promotion will not just be handed to you. There are things you will need to do, on your own, to help position yourself as the best candidate for your future job.

As a young professional and rising leader, you need to be aware of who you are as a professional.

By that I mean, what are your strengths and weaknesses? What do you enjoy and what do you really dislike? Where have you been, where are you know, and where would you be headed if it was all up to you?

Stop and think about these questions. They seem simple and basic at first glance, but you would be surprised at home many people don’t know the answer to them.

To ensure you set yourself up for success, you have to think about your future constantly.

What moves can you make today that will accelerate your career? Similarly, what moves if made today will slow you down or put you three steps back.

No matter where you work, or even if you work for yourself, planning is a critical leadership quality that helps ensure success.

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Do you have a plan?

Happy Leading,
Coach Johnson

Quote of the Week:

“When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.”
-William James

Leadership Quality of the Week:

“Decisiveness”

As a young professional and rising leader, being decisive when confronted with a choice is key to establishing yourself as a high-impact leader.

Do you take charge and make decisions when a choice needs to be made?

Or, are you passive aggressive and hope someone else makes the choice for you?

Leaders are decisive. They know it is their job to make choices, especially the tough ones. Without hesitation a true leader makes a choice, and never looks back on the decision.

However, it may be in your best interest to look back on the outcomes of your decisions for learnings, both positive and negative, but not necessarily to Monday morning quarterback or to cast regret.

As a young professional and rising leader, a great way to set yourself apart is to become known as someone who can consistently make the tough decisions.

It’s not always easy to make decisions. In fact, most people make the decision to not make decisions because that’s the easier route.

Leaders know that not making a decision when it counts is the worse decision that can be made.

Think about it. If there were no decisions to be made, why would we need leaders in life?

When was the last time you made a tough decision?

What process did you use to make it?

What was the outcome?

Chances are you have made more decisions in your life then you realize. There is also a good chance you weren’t as decisive as you could have been at times.

Part of becoming a high impact leader is reflecting on your decision making abilities and improving them to get to the next level.

So this week I share with you seven leadership coaching tips on how to become more decisive:

1. Be Confident: most people are afraid to make decisions because they don’t believe in themselves…trust, believe, GO!
2. Conduct Due Diligence: you must be decisive as a leader, but you must also do your research to make calculated decisions.
3. Ask For Help: the best leaders know they don’t have to do it all alone…and they don’t; asking for help can help you solve a critical decision point faster and more accurately.
4. Leverage Past Experiences: don’t try and start from square one with every decision…reflect on the past and use what you can to speed up the process.
5. Know Key Dates: know when a decision has to be made by so you know what type of urgency to operate with.
6. Understand The Impact: be aware of who and/or what will be impacted by your decision and plan accordingly
7. Be Objective: after weighing all your options and understand all the impact areas, make a solid decision based on fact and never based on popular opinion.

As a young professional and rising leader, decisiveness is key to your success. Leaders do not procrastinate when a key decision needs to be made…they dive right in.

Make a decision, trust your decision, believe in your decision, and win, lead, and dominate with your decision.

The choice is yours!

What big decision have you been putting off that you will now go make this week?

Happy Leading,
Coach Johnson

Melinda’s Positive Thought of the Week

Don’t focus on what you “can’t” do, focus on HOW you will do it!

How To Apply This As A Young Professional

Growing up my father always challenged my brother and I to never use the word “can’t.” He always felt that where there is a will, there is a way.

Sometimes it just takes a little bit longer to find the way to success.

As a young professional and rising leader, there will no doubt be times when you feel as though you can’t do something. It’s natural. And there is nothing you can do to not ever feel this way.

But what is most important is that you never throw in the towel on yourself.

Prove them wrong! Fight the good fight, and do what others say you can’t do.

Nothing in life worth having or doing comes easy. And almost all that is not easy is first thought to be impossible.

Like Coach Bradley mentioned the other week on his post, it was first thought man couldn’t go to the moon or that planes would not fly, but man went to the moon and planes are flying faster then ever these days.

Train yourself to always look for the answer. It won’t always be an easy find, it won’t always be staring you right in the face, but it will always exists.

The best leaders are problem solvers. They think things thru, they ask the right questions, they leave no rock unturned, and the find the best answer. When an answer can’t be found…they create one!

The only things that can’t be done in life are the things that we mentally give up on.

As a young professional and rising leader, realize you represent a fresh set of eyes and a new wave of thought that has potential to do things that others once thought can’t be done.

You may not make the next biggest invention or discovery at your job, but the summation of all your little efforts to continuously improve existing processes or create new smaller ones, will add up to you becoming a better leader.

So the next time someone says, or you just feel like, you “can’t,” remember these words from Henry Ford:

“The person who says he can and the person who says he can’t are both right.”

As a young professional and rising leader, which person have you decided to be?

If you missed me last week or just want a review, click here to see last week’s installment of Monday with Coach Martinez.

See you next Monday, but more importantly…

See you at the top,
Coach Melinda Martinez

Reflection Fridays

Have you failed forward lately?

What’s up young professional and rising leader?

I woke up to a text message from a friend of mine this morning. It read:

INSPIRATION: “I haven’t failed. I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” -Thomas Edison.

I’ve seen this quote before, but it caused me to literally stop and reflect this morning. So here I am challenging you to do the same.

Failure is mental. It is what you perceive it to be. It is as crushing as you allow.

Or…it can be as positive an experience as you will ever know…if you let it!

As a young professional and rising leader, realize you have never failed in life…unless you quit. No matter how large a defeat you encounter, the best leaders realize even in loss there is victory through the lessons learned.

Failure is a key ingredient to success.

What you must remember is that success is not always instant. We live in world where patience is no longer practice most times. We want things now. We desire instant gratification. We live in microwave environments where we want the same results of of an hour in a conventional oven in less than 60 seconds.

Leadership and success is not instant. Often times delayed gratification is the name of the game. What are you willing to do today, for tomorrow’s gain? What are you willing to fail at today, to move forward tomorrow?

Les Bown, world renowned motivational speaker, challenges his audience to fail forward.

I had an opportunity to sit and talk with Les and I’ll always remember these words he shared with me:

“Al, we live in a society where people are scared to fail. But anything worth doing is worth doing badly and failing at. Because its through failure that you move forward, stretch yourself, and grow. If you know how to do something right, then by all means do it right out Th. gate. If not, just give it a try. You don’t have to be great to get started but you have to get started to become great!”

Powerful words right?

As a young professional an rising leader, you must keep your ideas of failure in check. Fear not what others think of you.

Early in your career is the time to fail, fail often, and fail forward.

Take risks, try new things, and dare to reach levels other dare say you can’t!

Don’t keep doing the same things you are good at hoping to become a better leader. Do bigger and better things. Do things that others refuse to do or are too scared to do.

Take the path less traveled and be reminded that status quo requires no leadership.

If you want to move ahead in your career and leadership abilities, then capitalize off of the learnings of past failures.

And always remember, failure is mental, its not over until you win.

What are you going to fail at today, in order to be wildly successful tomorrow?

Happy Leading,
Coach Johnson