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[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Eric Graham and wordingme, WatchUsFlip. WatchUsFlip said: Yes, No.: Tuesday, 7:35pm Reno, NV “No no, no, no no no noooo no, no, no, no, no no no no!” (The Human Beinz, No… http://bit.ly/g0lIKR […]
ReplyStaying disciplined and saying no to yourself is one of the hardest parts of the job, because many business owners make the false assumption that once they get their start-up, they can do anything they want.
ReplyHard, but totally worth it. Also, it gets easier as you get in the groove and make it a habit. And after a bit, you can’t even imagine living any other way (cuz it feels good and right and empowered to be in control of your time and commitments).
ReplyCarlton, your blog is my espresso machine. No sugar, no “fluff”, just hard core, strong, bold, kick-in-the-ass shot of sanity.
Thank you. I’m printing this puppy out to save it.
Lisa
P.S. See y’all in a few weeks…
ReplyTurkish style espresso, with the sludge on the bottom?
Hell, yeah…
ReplyHi John,
Great lesson. One I could well do refocusing on.
“No” is also critical for gaining greater productivity in one-on-one selling. There are many potential time waister sales inquiries.
It’s an art questioning them down on the phone to see if they can buy now and politely trying to answer their queries on the phone so I don’t have to spend 2 hours (including traveling) doing a presentation for them.
“No” lets me focus on the potential customers that I know will buy from me on the first visit.
It increased my productivity and closing ratio dramatically.
I need to bring it to other aspects of my life now…
The competition was great fun. It was amazing to see the broad range of answers.
Thank you
ReplyThanks for the note, Patrick. “No” is an essential tool for any pro dealing with clients… and knowing how to use it correctly will make your life easier and much, much more profitable.
Biz owners appreciate and respect a pro who is in control of his promises and knows his boundaries. They may fuss and fidget at first, but when the respect hits, they’re on your side forever…
ReplyMy cousin, who is a professional photographer says you can’t say “No” to a client EVER.
He thinks that if your client ask you something and you can’t do, you will lose him forever.
A lot of people have the same way of looking at live, the scarcity mentality. What has delighted me is saying no to someone and seeing this person respecting me for this: It speaks the message I’m so good I don’t need them and that increases my value!!
It happens with women too and is counter intuitive, but as you try to please women more and more, they disrespect you more and more.
ReplyHey John,
Darn, only 20 spots away from Kelly (to whom I want to congratulate for winning such an awesome prize).
I really do agree with the movement part of goal setting, and you do need a veteran to show you the ropes. I started trying to do this on my own, only to get completely shut down and a bit discouraged.
Now, from working with Alex, I know exactly what I’m doing and how to get there. So making me a better marketer, copywriter and overall better person.
Thanks for the advice as always
Adil
P.s. Was wondering if you could do a post on two things….
1) how to get comfortable with money (a practical guide)
2) not comparing yourself to others in a negative manner.
Thanks again dude.
ReplyAnswers to both questions were addressed in recent blog posts. Check the “most popular posts” here, Adil… Money, money, money, and The Envy Cure…
ReplyJohn… as I’ve said in so many posts and on your profile on my site (yes you look awesome)… you are a legend 🙂
ReplyI was in the middle of writing and I said to myself. “I will have to take 10 mins off from this…head to the John Carlton’s blog…read the blog post and write a comment. (I can’t say No. Damn!)
Totally agree.
No is a very difficult word to say. Probably because we want to do many things (important and the not so important task) in the shortest time.
It is the small little things that we don’t often say no to. Things like, “let me check my messages for a minute” and “what is the latest news on TV, I only need 5 mins to check.”
10 mins up. No extra time. I got to get back to what I was doing.
PS. Great quiz…and great lesson.
ReplyHey John,
I know this wasn’t the crux of your post, but could you share your visualization “ritual” if you have one?
I recently started a 30-day challenge for myself where I commit to visualizing my outcome for 30 minutes a day for 30 days in a row. How I’m doing it is writing a description of my ideal situation and behavior, visualizing it, and at the end of the 30 minutes, rewriting it. (This is how Bob Proctor recommended it in one of his programs).
What was your way of doing it? I know that you are a fan of “Think & Grow Rich,” where Hill says to visualize for 30 minutes a day, but doesn’t give very detailed specifics.
Thanks. I’ve been looking forward to your teachings on goals ever since you mentioned in the “Freelance Course,” your desire to one day teach a course on it.
–Dan
ReplyWe’ll be covering goals, a lot, at the Action Seminar, Dan…
You should come.
ReplyThanks John,
As a SWS member I’m already booked (and live in San Diego), so I guess I’ll find out then!
–Dan
ReplyThis is a valuable explanation of the answer.
And please consider this detail for future posts; if you look at any post on this blog before clicking the title or the comments, the text is just normal.
BUT, if you click the title, or the comments, and have just one post on the whole page with its comments, there are some links that appear in the blog post, I mean some phrases that were not clickable, like “the answer” <—- which became clickable. But I did not notice this until now.
After I discovered the answer here, the first thing that came to my mind was: oh! was I mislaid because of that link "the answer"???
I remembered that I wanted to make sure the word "NO" was not the targeted word in the clicked "the answer", and that it was not the answer, and after clicking the link "the answer" (which is logically supposed to be actually "the answer") I detected nothing that refered to the concept of "No". I only found something like "hook" or "hook up"
This problem of "irrelevant link" (like a link with a tittle like "the answer" but where it is absolutely not the answer here… ) still touches this same article, look at the two words "the answer," in this present blog post, it became a link, the same that was in the quiz #11 blog post.
If this system of links stays like that, I would have learned something more than the power of a "hook", or the power of a "no", it's that any link inside any blog post on this blog, may as well be completely irrelevant to the actual subject of the current blog post, which is really a shame compared to the high quality of the content.
Ok that was my rant, but I completely appreciate the real answer which is "No"
and it is wonderfully explained by John, very deep explanation, and perfectly relevant to the problem of productivity.
Hello Dan,
🙂 well, not that hard if you learn from your failures, nobody’s perfect; I failed at finding John’s answer, but it gave me some cool thinking exercise, plus some valuable super practical advice, now I just have to practice it whenever I can.
ReplyHi Karim. We’re experimenting with software all the time with this blog… that particular thing you saw was something that highlights words and phrases that are found in previous blog posts. It’s annoying, and I’ve asked our programmer to remove that software. Sorry for any confusion… not intentional. Seemed like a good idea at the time…
ReplyHey John, no worries, and while we are talking about technical stuff, please add the possibility of being notified by email whenever there is a reply or comment, I’m sure a lot of readers will find it useful, and participate more.
Thanks again for the crazy critical thinking week, answers were quite amazing lol, not only some of them could be articles by themselves, but you could even create a free downloadable report containing a best of “echos” to that quiz : )
Oh and also, I emailed you to tell you about a big delay in receiving your emails, please make some tests to evaluate the effectiveness of your emails, I have no problems at all with other subscriptions and email communication/subscription/notification.
See you next time, have a cool day : )
Friendly,
Karim
Bob Ansett the man who started Budget rental cars does a great talk on the “Power of NO”
This turned him into the “Can Do Man” at all costs because the word No in the hands of your employees can be your undoing.
In the hands of an employee the word No empowers them with authority.
“No Sir we do not have a car for you”
instead of…
“If you wouldn’t mind waiting we have a car due back in 15min”
So No in the wrong hands could destroy your business.
My advise is to take “No” away from your employees.
ReplyNice piece of advice there, regarding employees, Colin. But irrelevant to how entrepreneurs use the word. I see your point, though, and appreciate the note.
No IS a powerful word, which can be used right or abused wrongly. That’s why I spent so much time explaining the right way to use it.
Don’t you guys ever read anything I write? Are you all just skimmers?
ReplyWhile this post is aimed at entrepreneurs rather than employees, I think that blindly taking “No” away from employees is not the right way to do things.
A proper job description which details what they can say no to and what they cannot is important. That allows them to focus on what they were hired to do if needed but still gives the manager the power to ensure the job gets done.
ReplyActually, Dan quoted me on deadlines years ago, when I wrote “The most important invention in the history of getting stuff done is deadlines.”
But it’s not the Magic Word, Stephen. Deadlines are a concept.
ReplyThanks John. Timely words given I’ve had to say ‘no’ to so many demands (including many of my own frivolous ones) lately so I’d achieve my goal of finishing SWS on time.
Be well staying frosty.
ReplyGood job, Andrew. That’s why we set limits inside the SWS, to help folks get a taste of mild (very mild) pro-level discipline while learning this life-changing new skillset.
Thanks for the note, man…
ReplyI love this series of posts. I think saying “No” is hard to do if you’re used to pleasing other people (from experience).
However, I think this post is a refreshing take on the subject, especially the last part about saying no to yourself.
I have to admit, I find it easier to say no to myself than to others but this has opened my eyes.
Adopting the entrepreneur mindset does have its perks, this is one of them. I’ll keep this in mind.
Thanks John. I am so loving your no-nonsense blog posts, newbie that I am and I look forward to more quizzes. Hope I get enough chutzpah to join next time. Awesome post. 🙂
ReplyKristina, I’m betting you’ve got a snarling Chutzpah Beast snoozing inside you right now, just hoping you’ll wake it up and let it get to work making your life better.
Remember: A good reputation comes from being firm and knowing your boundaries. People will resent you doing this, until they realize you mean it… at which point they will PROMPTLY stop resenting you, and start respecting you. It happens in a blink. They want you to fail at being firm… but when it’s your groove, and you’re comfy being firm, it’s game-over. And everyone moves on (and you get to enjoy fresh respect)…
Thanks for the note. Good luck to you on waking up the beast…
ReplyJohn, what you say is sooo true about people resenting you for it at first.
When I started writing copy, I was a “yes” man, doing anything and everything, working weekends, evenings, and honestly feeling like a friggin’ slave.
Then I started to say “no”, and at first, it was a hard “message” to get across to clients, family, friends, etc…
But then, just as you mentioned…in a blink people started to respect the boundary. An amazing change happened in my life, my business, etc…etc…
I actually started TAKING weekends off, evenings off, and other time OFF…yet still manage to accomplish the same amount of work. (saying “no” seemed to work for me too in terms of the time management of myself)
This is one of Those blog posts.
One other tip for the readers, if you just LOVE one of John’s posts, there is an application online (free) called “Readability”, where you put a bookmark in your browser. When you come across a blog post you want to print, this application makes that blog post all pretty and formatted nicely according to settings you control at first. Then, it allows you to print that post by itself as an article.
ReplyOh John, well I guess it could have been any or at least most of the brilliant answers posted on the original post.
I love the power of yes-no though because you just move through decisions into action so quickly. And can get rid of the rubbish in between (yes it’s an energy drain even if you might not use quite those words 😉 )
Cathy
ReplyJohn this is a classic! You can’t really say Yes if you don’t first say No to what doesn’t fit your highest good/priority/goal.
Being passionate — and clear — enough to do this consistently is what sets the winners apart. By a very wide margin.
Thanks for a truly inspiring and true article.
Nancy
ReplyNo is a great word to use with in two circumstances in particular I’ve found:
#1) moocher/bad/freebie non-customers, as in:
“no you can’t get a free copy of my latest (whatever) and pay me out of the profits you think you’ll get in a year”… like Popeye character “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today”… or “NO I won’t answer all your questions and give you free consulting advice just because you bought one product from me many years ago”… or..
#2) people wanting me to promote bs… “No I won’t hawk your $2000 trading system to my traders because number one you’re not even a real trader and number 2 I want my customers to always trust me, so I won’t compromise my reputation by affiliate promoting crap… sorry go away g’bye.”.
“Harrumph harrumph harrumph” quote from one of my favorite movies Mel Brooks’ classic “Blazing Saddles”.
Gotta just say no.
to not wasting my time,
-k
ReplyYou’re always delivering a very powerful ideas. In my business, time is of essence and getting the yes even if they already said no is what makes my business keeps going stronger in spite of the economic condition. Getting the yes or no answer will impact your business in a positive way. No mean move on to the next.
ReplyI say YES to making money and focusing.. and NO to other stupid things
ReplyDamn! I missed this one…Next time for sure…gearing up for that! Ha ha.
ReplySo it looks like Nancy Reagan had it right years ago, when she said…
Just say ‘NO.’
IJS,
josh
[…] This entire section reminds me of a blog post by John Carlton where he discusses working with the universe to create your reality and the importance of saying no: sticking to your … […]
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