Work Smart Business

by Jason Linett

  Don’t spend the day waiting for the phone to ring or refreshing your email several thousand times.

  Harness the networks of social media to build real human connections and share a message with a purpose .

  Treat time as your most valuable commodity. You can lose money and earn it back, but time is something you can only spend once.

  Do it your way to stand out to the world.

  Dig deep into your personal motivation to have a powerful WHY beneath your efforts. What will your efforts give you? What results will you create? What message or legacy do you wish to leave behind?

  The darts are more likely to stick if you’ve clearly defined the target.

  Start with the end in mind. What journey are you going to take, and where will it end? Like a game of chess, what pieces and moves will make it happen?

  Embrace that where you start is not where you should end up. Growing your business will be a game of ongoing learning, testing, and challenging the model of what’s already working.

  Become excited when you find something that doesn’t work. You will discover the powerful feedback that comes from what others would just label as a failure.

  Move forward with confidence, creativity, and flexibility.

  Here’s a preview of where we’re about to go… .

  The WORK SMART PRINCIPLES

  The Power of Premise

  Discover the power of thinking differently. Let your mindset become a catalyst for change, an opportunity to observe the world differently.

  Build Assets and Leverage Them

  Harness your past and current successes. Make use of the resources you already have to level up your business.

  Print Money

  There are abundant opportunities all around. Open your eyes to the possibilities to grow your financial freedom.

  Build Rituals

  Go beyond habit. Lock in your new behaviors as something sacred.

  Design Systems

  Discover how you can duplicate yourself. Automate your efforts so your focus can be on growth.

  Scale Up

  Think bigger about growth. Build something bigger than you originally imagined as you increase your reach.

  Harness Lead Generation

  Create relationships rather than customers. Position yourself as an authority within your field to provide maximum value… to receive maximum value!

  Creative Solutions to Dissolve Problems

  It’s hard to see the forest with all those trees in the way! Rise above challenges with a dash of creativity.

  Be Hypnotic

  Mentally immerse yourself in your desired result. Tap into your unconscious programming to rapidly shift your thinking in ways that pay off big.

  Keep Balance

  Don’t become a slave to your business. Metaphorically embrace the power of making a new entrance to sharpen your business skills.

  Every chapter will give you WORK SMART action steps to plot your moves toward greater success. But wait, there’s more! We’ll also explore the strategies to make it happen.

  This book isn’t about attraction. It’s about action.

  Mindset is going to be a big part of this journey. It’s mindset put through the filters of research, experience, testing, and neuroscience. Mindset also is about being willing to give yourself an appropriate smack of reality to keep yourself in line. I know I need that sometimes!

  Stop saying “That doesn’t work.” Approach your life from this point forward by asking “How do I make that work better?”

  Who else is ready to WORK SMART?

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  WORK SMART PRINCIPLES

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  THE POWER OF PREMISE

  The worst business advice I ever received made me an instant success.

  We’re about to explore how quickly you can shift your thinking to observe the world differently from others. When I talk about mindset, it’s not just about positive thinking and affirmations. Mindset is your internal game of challenging the myths and misconceptions that stifle success. It’s about that smack of reality you can give yourself to rapidly discover new opportunities in your business or even in your personal life. If you operate as if obstacles are a possibility rather than an inevitability, your opportunities for success are greatly enhanced.

  You are about to discover “The Power of Premise,” a principle in which you choose to shift your mindset in order to fuel your passion. We’ll talk about what assets are the most valuable to you in the start-up or scale up phases of your business. You’ll learn how to craft a creative narrative that draws in your ideal audience. Prepare yourself to let every reason why the odds may seem stacked against you become every reason why you’re going to make this happen.

  It wasn’t my original goal to become “the business guy.” Instead, a curious series of events decided the specialty for me.

  My professional career began in management for performance arts. As a theatrical stage manager, my job was the least creative part of working in professional theater. It was my responsibility to schedule rehearsals, deal with unions, orchestrate the running of a live show, and help all the highly creative people involved get along. Think of this as a higher form of psychological training.

  I worked through internships, put in long hours, and “paid my dues” by sitting in dark theaters fine-tuning the precise operation of productions. I rose through the ranks of stagehand to intern to assistant stage manager to eventually joining the union as a stage manager for theatrical stage professionals. My dream job was getting closer and closer, and as soon as it was offered, I walked away from it all.

  Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you have to do it for the rest of your life. I don’t regret for a minute the experiences I had in this former career. I learned the value of building professional relationships, collaboration within a team of unique individuals, and the importance of precision as sometimes I would have to call a lighting cue on stage based off the sight of an actor raising his eyebrow. Over the course of eight shows a week throughout several months of performances, the precision was always there, that eyebrow raise would always happen, and the lighting change would always occur on time. The moment appeared spontaneous on stage, yet it ran like a well-oiled machine. You’ll learn how to “Design Systems” for your business in a later chapter of this book.

  The hobby of hypnosis had been growing in the background, so we now rejoin a young Jason Linett standing in an empty office at the start of a new business.

  I did not want to reinvent the wheel, so I scheduled time to attend a local networking event specific to my business. I decided to go out and discover what others were doing so I could model their success. My expectations were positive. I was excited to meet others in my industry who would share words of wisdom and encouragement.

  Unfortunately, that was not my experience. Though the locals were friendly and welcoming, the message they shared was full of doom-and-gloom.

  “It’s going to be slow your first year.”

  “You won’t receive any referrals as a new business owner. ”

  “You should have started a part-time business, there’s too much risk in going full-time.”

  I expected to find a room full of people talking about themes of abundance and, perhaps, even the law of attraction. This was far from it!

  Fast-forward to the next month. Given the negative reaction from my first meeting, something happened that told me I had to go back. I had a surprise to share. Business was booming. I had a fully-booked schedule of paying clients. The negative tones of “This will be difficult for you,” shifted to, “How are you doing that?”

  I was back at this event a few months later teaching the group how I had built my business.

  Where you focus your attention and what messages you listen to is a choice. There’s a lot of negative dialogue out there. The antidote to this negativity is something I call the “Power of Premise.” Imagine what will happen when you flip your thinking in a new dire
ction. Rather than immediately accepting negative expectations, train yourself to adopt a flexible mindset.

  What if every reason you couldn’t do something became every reason you could?

  Live by the catchphrase, “I refuse to buy into that premise.” It’s like the moment of orchestrated frustration in a television infomercial: “There’s got to be a better way!”

  The story of scarcity beliefs I heard at the networking event did not fit with my business projections. I refused to buy into that premise. Rather than absorb the negativity, I took serious action. If my schedule was open and I wasn’t working with a private client, I physically removed myself from my office. I introduced my business at dozens of networking events. I gave as many live talks and presentations in the local community as my schedule would permit. Since I started with no clients, there was a lot of open space in my schedule!

  My mission was to represent my work with passion and professionalism. The result? Filling my schedule was easy.

  Which do you have more of? Time? Or Money? I meet many people who hold themselves back. They believe they don’t have enough money to launch their business. They believe it isn’t the right time. Remember, “someday” is the worst day to start a diet. Some people get locked in a position of, “It won’t work.” Sadly, their dreams fizzle out before they genuinely take action. Remember, “There’s got to be a better way!”

  Shift your thinking to understand that time is just as valuable as money. In my start-up years, I employed my time as my primary asset. Rather than spend a lot of money, I focused on no-cost to low-cost methods. I preserved my savings and watched my bank account grow.

  Go against the grain with the “Power of Premise.” I don’t want you to think the attendees at this networking meeting were horrible people. The messages and well-meaning advice came from genuine care and concern. I gained an appreciation for these people as their ideas did not come from scarcity or competition. I used it as a catalyst to put in the work necessary to get positive results.

  As “time” was my tool of choice, I ventured into several other professional networking organizations. Do you think I was surprised to find the “It’s going to be slow your first year” premise was a virus infiltrating many of these communities? I challenged the model, I chose to WORK SMART, and I received very different results.

  Sally Hogshead, author of the book Fascinate, Revised and Updated: How to Make Your Brand Impossible to Resist , speaks about the idea that “different is better than better.” You can be the best at something, yet if nobody knows of you, what good are those skills? There’s a history of tech products that were phenomenal, yet they didn’t gain commercial success because another product stood out as “different,” which made it better. In the world of personal music devices, the Microsoft Zune had features which could have made it superior to Apple’s iPod. In addition to your personal mp3 files, you could share your music and listen to the radio on the Zune. However, the iPod stood out in the market as something new and unique. Why were Apple’s headphone cables white? Because everyone else’s were black.

  Being “different” is just one of the ingredients of standing out to your potential audience. You need to be able to “walk the walk” rather than “talk the talk.” Your skills need to be effective. Your product needs to actually work. Telling a good story isn’t enough to maintain a business. Remember the principle of “10,000 hours” Malcolm Gladwell speaks of in his book Outliers , calculating the time necessary to truly become an expert at something.

  I’m going to share with you my method to stand out as the authority that you are in your community. An “elevator speech” is a classic strategy in which you craft your marketing message in such a way that in a short elevator ride someone else can understand your business. The classic premise for an elevator speech is to state your name, your occupation, your location, and perhaps a good referral for you. “My name is John, I’m an accountant in Washington DC, and I’m looking to meet real estate agents.”

  Shift this premise with a strategy I call “The Hollywood Effect.” Many movies begin in the middle of the story. The story kicks off with an action sequence. The film now rewinds to the beginning of the story, and you watch the story unfold up to the climactic moment.

  Model this storytelling strategy to sweep people into an experience, grab their attention, and become more memorable. Making them care about your message will cause your audience to really listen to you. Use descriptive language to draw in the audience. Kick off with a brief story to establish credibility and value.

  “Show” is always a better method than “Tell.” It might even serve you to be a little provocative.

  “Good morning everybody, today’s story ends with murder, so listen carefully. A successful lawyer comes into my office with a major challenge. She’s had a lifelong fear of bugs. Her firm assigned her the case-of-a-lifetime. She backed out of it when she saw a cockroach in the courtroom. She’s a new mother. She checked into a hotel after her son was born because she saw a centipede crawling through her living room. After our first meeting, she killed a housefly with her bare hand. Who do you know that is ready to release a fear? My name is Jason Linett, I’m a hypnotist, and I’m an expert at helping people release fears.”

  Create an emotional response to position yourself as an expert in a memorable way. Use the “Power of Premise” to go against the norm, stand out as different, and present your expertise in a way that demonstrates your expertise .

  This principle goes beyond business networking. With some creative thinking, you can flip your belief system on an entire industry. I meet too many people who believe their current situation is their only option. A friend of mine was once frustrated at the lack of options he was finding during his job search. He complained, “there are only three companies in this industry I could work with.” Something magical happened in a single pause. His frustration turned into a smile and then laughter as he exclaimed, “Well I guess there can now be a fourth!”

  The world is full of stories of people launching new products and services. You’ve likely already read several business books that have now begun to repeat the same stories of tech pioneers who changed the world. A massive change in the world can often be traced to a singular experience.

  When you shift your thinking, you shift the world around you. Shift happens.

  This is like a muscle in the mind you can begin to grow, and it doesn’t matter if you’re flexing it now for the first time. I grew up with it. I was raised in a family of entrepreneurs. My parents left their full-time “safe jobs” to then do something unique and out-of-the-ordinary. My mother quit her job as a secretary for a peanut company, and my father left a job driving a truck delivering plastics to launch a successful wedding photography business together .

  Create your own opportunities rather than hope they will happen. The actor, comedian, and podcaster Kevin Pollak would say, “If you’re not creating, you’re waiting.” His career achieved an incredible renaissance as he broke away from the mold of character actor and impersonator to become an online media pioneer. He leveraged the experience of having already appeared in hundreds of television shows and movies and took control of his career to create the next phase of his life. He launched the Kevin Pollak Chat Show , a podcast and live-streaming-video interview program which has now been downloaded millions of times around the world. The result? His career flourished as new acting roles appeared; he published a book and stepped into the role of director.

  It’s time for you to stop waiting and, instead, start creating.

  What if the power of premise could change your emotional state? Believe it or not, a dash of creative thinking can help you to dissolve fear, stress, and even anxiety.

  I grew up a safe and cautious driver. I discovered that if I illegally drove over the speed limit to pass another car, we would end up sitting next to each other waiting at the same stoplight. Why take the risk of getting a speeding ticket? It was easier to just follow the r
ules. However, I learned the hard way that a local highway is entirely a high-occupancy-restricted road during the afternoon rush hour. Most highways restrict only one or two lanes, right? Nope. The entire Interstate 66 in Virginia is reserved only for those with two or more people in the car.

  Imagine my surprise as I’m cruising down Interstate 66 by myself; the sound of a siren interrupts my experience, and the police lights are flashing behind me. At least the officer smiled as he wrote up my traffic offense ticket with a note that read, “driver was in the right lane going the speed limit.”

  “The Power of Premise” helped me view the experience from a very different perspective. First of all, I learned to not drive on that highway by myself, and I moved through the experience without stress. Yes, I could have just paid off the ticket, but I had never been to traffic court. Sounds like fun, right? I’ve got the morning off, let’s go and see what happens! In the worst-case scenario, I’d have to pay the offense. To be fair, I was guilty. Pending I had the common sense to not say offensive things to the judge, I knew I wasn’t going to be thrown in jail for driving solo in an HOV lane. I refused to buy into the premise that I needed to be nervous.

  Yes, many people were in court that day for much greater offenses. I felt a sense of safety, at least for myself, as the judge explained they reorganized the docket to start with the easy cases and finish with the more challenging ones. “If you’ve never been here before, stick around for the DUI cases. That’s where it gets interesting.”

  The judge announced the day would start with the first time HOV offenders. Before I could step up and testify, he asked, “Did you learn your lesson?” I responded, “Yes.” The entire experience was over in seconds as he banged the gavel and informed me to “Hit the clerks’ office on the way out. Pay the court fees. You’re good to go. Don’t come back again.”

  I asked, “Don’t you want to hear my story?” The judge smiled and asked me if I really wanted to try my odds. I paid the fees and haven’t been back to court since.