That only makes sense, right? They’re paying you fees, sometimes large fees, to help them either change something or accomplish something that they just can’t manage on their own. It doesn’t matter whether you’re hired to give advice, as a consultant might do, or be more hands-on in helping with change as a coach might – the desired outcome is still the same.

This sometimes leads to pressure to help our clients get results. A little pressure on the client to change is good. After all, change is seldom easy and often requires a little push to get started (okay, and sometimes a big push).

Yet any good coach or consultant knows that we have to manage our clients and how they progress with a bit of skill. Sometimes we can put it all out there and people get it. Other times we have to pull back a bit and offer change in small steps. So we give each client what they can handle in the way they can implement it best. As I’ve seen it, this is the art to being an effective coach or consultant – and even to being an effective teacher, parent, spouse, or friend really.

In the years I’ve been a coach / consultant / advisor (I’m still uncertain what to call myself) one piece of advice has stood out from the rest. It came from the most interesting of sources.

Hannah Whitall Smith was a Christian speaker, author and women’s rights activist in the late 19th century. She was an active speaker in the Holiness Movement of the 1800’s and was active in Women’s Suffrage and the Temperance Movement in the U.S.

Years ago I found a quote which she wrote and tucked it away with thousands of others I have. Then a few years back, I ran across it again. Now as a website designer who was also coaching and advising my clients on how to use their websites to grow their business, it made me stop and consider how I approached my coaching work.

The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right.

- Hannah Whitall Smith

Stop and think about it for a minute. How would your coaching practice or your consulting business change if you took this approach? How could it change the relationships you have with your clients? And moreover, how could it enhance the results your client’s are getting?

What changed in me was the understanding that it’s not my responsibility to create change. It’s only my responsibility to offer the opportunity. So rather than feeling like I had to create change in someone’s business, for instance, I could be more effective by meeting my clients where they are and giving them the space and time to come to change themselves.

Someone once told me that it’s not in our nature as human beings to want to share what we know and not see it utilized. It was suggested that it shakes us up inside a bit when people don’t do what we advise them. Whether that’s true or not is an interesting debate of its own.

Yet what I’d like to know is how this quote might change the way you do business? How might it affect your conversations, relationships and approaches with your clients – even if you’re not a consultant or coach?

And maybe the more interesting question of all, if you so choose to consider it, is how could Hannah’s advice change your relationships with your loved ones?

Let’s talk about it…

(note: image from ambergris on Flickr)

For years Adam was a successful intuitive healer and teacher who helped countless people work with and heal their personal issues and physical diseases. As a teacher, Adam could explain the most complex ideas about consciousness and healing to people in ways that were easy to understand.

It was as a teacher that Adam got his first experiences working with businesses. Soon, he was focusing more on bringing spirituality and personal development into the workplace. And he loved it.

So this past fall, Adam decided to close down his healing practice and begin working as a business coach. Now his focus is on helping people find the “purpose and meaning behind their work, so you can attract and serve the people who love what you do.” (his words).

And so was born, Monk at Work.

Why did I tell you this story (other than Adam being a close friend)? Well, in our latest one2one conversation, Liz Strauss asked me…

What do you do when your business is going well and close friend’s is not?

My answer…YOU HELP!

What else could I possibly say?

Like most new business, Adam had to endure the early, lean stages of Monk at Work. All the pieces were in place – knowledge, experience, expertise, great service and products, and…great looking blog (if I do say so myself). What he lacked was clients.

That’s where I knew I could help. I knew that I could use my own success to help my friend get started toward his. Of course, it didn’t hurt that the core of my work is to help businesses go from where they are to where they want to be.

Adam consulted with me on blogging, marketing strategy and relationship building. We talked a bunch about how to use the conversations on his blog to create momentum around your business. We talked about blogging as a central marketing strategy. I helped him with solutions for increasing his website and product reach. I even introduced him to people who are now fans of his work.

More than anything, I think what I’ve done is help Adam understand how his website/blog are the foundation for his marketing efforts. And now, Monk at Work is building momentum. Am I responsible for that – not really. He still had to put what we talked about into practice. I simply filled in his gaps in knowledge and helped him focus his efforts using his website/blog.

Do you have a good friend who’s struggling with their business? What can you do to help them?Â

And Liz, since we’re having a one2one conversation,

What tips can you offer for writing quality, conversational blog posts and website copy?Â

What’s the the part of business, besides relationships, that you look forward to doing more of?

Okay, so here’s how I read your question…”what other part of business, besides building relationships.” I hope this is what you meant, because my entire business is about relationships. From how I market to how I work with my clients, what I see in my business IS relationships.

But I can look through building more and stronger relationships at aspects of my business. So that’s what I’m going to run with.

I’ve been building websites for more than a decade at this point. So it’s mostly what I’m known for. It’s also the easiest way people can describe what I do to their friends, clients and colleagues. So more often than not, I get calls about website design.

What ends up happening, however, is that the people soon find out that I do so much more than most web designers. They learn that I understand business development, marketing, product development, copy editing, etc. And often, they hire me to consult and coach them while we’re working on their website.

So really, I’m really a born teacher. I know that sounds like a vast, presumptuous statement. Yet at every point in my life this fact has been mirrored back to me. In elementary school I used to show my classmates how to do math problems when they didn’t get it. As a baseball player I could spot mistakes in a teammate’s swing and help them feel the correction. Even when I had a private healing practice I would somehow find a way to explain complex spiritual concepts in a way that people just understood.

Even as a web designer, I’ve been very successful at making the technical easy to understand – even a neophyte. This gives clients the power to make their own, informed decisions about their business.

So like you, Liz, I am a teacher. I’m a teacher and I love to solve problems. And this has led me to doing more consulting/coaching/educating-type work. I love it. And it’s opened up a whole new part of my business.

Now people don’t have to need a new website to work with me. They can hire me to help them with any number of projects or aspects of their business: from service and product development to marketing, increasing traffic and building relationships to branding, utilizing a newsletter to just plain problem solving.

And best of all, they can hire me to help them learn how to use social media – blogging, social networking, etc, – more effectively, to grow their business or to increase the visibility of their blog. That I’m doing already with a handful of clients.

So that’s what I want to do more of…coach people to a more rewarding and successful business, consult with people to solve their business problems and educate people on how to do anything they need without being dependent on me. Does that make me a coaching strategist? Maybe.

So Liz (and you, reading this, too), speaking of strategy:

What do you feel is necessary to create an effective strategy to promote a business?

If you got this far, I’d love to hear your answers to either question. Join our one2one conversation in the comment box below.

And if you need some help with your business, let’s talk about it.

Most marketing experts will tell you it’s clearly branding your business or creating your comprehensive marketing plan. Both those are certainly important.

But according to 19 year-old entrepreneur Ben Casnocha, founder of Comcate and author of My Start-Up Life: What a (Very) Young CEO Learned on His Journey Through Silicon Valley, the most important thing you can do when starting a business is “harbor a bias towards action.”

If you want a successful business, any successful business, you have to take action. Don’t just think or talk about your ideas; actually put them into action. Successful business owners actually implement their ideas. They let themselves make mistakes, learn from those mistakes and keep growing. Action is what makes a business successful.

If you’re a coach or consultant, you’re paid to think, to talk, to be an expert. Yet to be successful in your business you’ll need to go beyond just thoughts and conversation. You’ll need to actually implement them.

How? Action steps

• Write it down
  When you have an idea around your business, write it down (take action). Writing it down makes it a bit more real. If your thought in your mind, it’s likely to get jumbled up with the thousands of other thoughts you have each day.
• Brainstorm
  After you take the action of writing down your idea, brainstorm it. You can do this in as little as 2-3 minutes. Take longer if you have But get your thoughts about the idea on paper while their fresh. You’ll be surprised what this can lead too.
• Action Steps
  At the end of your mini brainstorming session, write at least one thing you can do in the next 48 hours that will help in the development of your idea. AND DO IT!
• Do It
  I put this twice on purpose. It’s in the action of doing that you’ll find success. Creating action steps that you don’t take action on are useless. So honor yourself and your ideas by following through on your action steps.
• Get Help
  If you find you’re having trouble implementing your ideas, get help. There are plenty of coaches and consultants who can help you take action. Generally, consultants are great for ideas and training while coaches tend to be better at keeping you on task and helping with follow through.

Believe it or not, this is how almost every successful business gets launched. You have an idea and you put it into action. So today, how can you take a single step toward implementing your best idea? Think about it – then act. First with your comments below.

Thanks to Wendy Piersall for asking me to write for her Second ‘How To’ Group Research Project. There’s a number of great posts people have put up on various topics around blogging and business. Check some of them out:

• Mr Flexibility: finding work-life balance
• How to start a company and a family at the same time
• How to cross-market your blog and your business, promoting each to each other’s audience
• Increase your blog’s stickiness
• Google Sitemaps: get found faster
• Countermeasures to combat Google Page Rank leak
• Non-techie intro to SEO
• The how and why you should start leveraging video
• 3 huge steps on how to leap from the business security of a job to a home business
• Beyond Adsense, how to attract independent advertisers to your blog
• How to get your Google Adsense account banned
• How do you get your home business setup right?
• Moving to another domain, what I’ve learned so far, part 1
• Recognition, reaching out, & beyond
• The ultimate guide to where the moms are online
• Safely move your blog
• Protecting forms from spam
• What is Reddit and how can I use it to promote and market my blog posts?
• Web 101, the three-column CSS layout
• CSS for beginners – changing the fonts
• Quick guide to Google Analytics for bloggers
• Statcounter.com and how you can make it work for you
• How to start an online store

These are all good reads, so check them out. But not before you join the conversation below.

I have a number of processes that help me keep a stable and productive workflow. Yet I’m always looking for better and more efficient ways to run my business.

So is Ben Yoskovitz. But he wants to help all of us with our productivity. That’s why he’s instigated (sorry Ben, couldn’t resist) the Ultimate Guide to Productivity Group Writing Project Meme.

Ben kicked it off by tagging Alister Cameron, Adam Kayce, Chris Brogan, Guy Kawasaki, Andrew Wee, David Armano, Tony Clark, Mike Sansone and Chris Cree. As of tonight, Adam and Andrew have responded with some solid tips. I’d love to hear from everyone else Ben’s tagged.

You’re probably wondering how did I get here then? Well, Adam tagged me along with Dave Schoof, Char, Chris Garrett, and Karin H. H. Each should have some great feedback.

So are you ready to hear one of the ways I stay highly productive?

Focus. No, not you – if you’re reading you’re focused enough. My productivity tip is focus. For every 60 minutes of the workday, I stay micro focused for 50 minutes. Then I get out of my chair, away from my computer and out of my office for 8 minutes (give or take). The remaining two minutes I settle back down in my chair, look over my next todos and look at what I can accomplish in the next 50 minutes. Then I’m off to the races again.

During my 50 minutes of focus, I do nothing except what is on my todo list. If I’m writing code, I code for 50 minutes. If I’m returning phone calls, I do that for 50 minutes. If I’m writing a blog post, I do that for only 50 minutes. I keep a timer running in the background with an alarm so I don’t have to watch the clock.

This sounds similar to what Ben suggested about working in bursts. I take a bit different approach then being single tasked for a length of time. For me it’s all about how much I can get done in 50 minutes. Like Ben, I stay focused to one task at a time. But if I complete that task in under 50 minutes, I move on to the next task that needs to be done. Sometimes I can get dozens of tasks done in 50 minutes. Sometimes, like with coding and styling a website, I may work an entire day at 50 minute intervals. They key, for me, is in working uninterrupted for 50 minutes.

Also, during the 50 minutes I don’t answer the phone, I shut down my email client and turn off my feed reader. I minimize all programs that don’t directly relate to my task at hand. Not answering the phone and shutting down my mail client are TWO MAJOR KEYS to making this work.

So when do I answer email or return phone calls? Well, that happens in its own 50 minute block. As does scheduling coaching and consulting sessions with clients. I just don’t do these things during a 50 minute block where they’re not included.

One other trick to this…you have to walk away for the 8 minutes. Regardless of how little or much you’ve gotten done, stop at 50 minutes. Walk away. And then come back. That short break every hour has helped me stay even more focused during my 50 minute blocks. And, I find that I’m more refreshed at the end of the day.

So that’s it. This process has probably increased my productivity two fold, minimum. Probably more.

To summarize…

1. Begin with a clear task list for the day based on all the projects you have going on (I’ll let someone else tackle creating task lists)
2. Work through your task list in 50 minute intervals. Remain highly focused on the one task you’re working on.
3. If you complete your task in less time, move on to the next one. If not, stop at 50 minutes anyhow and pick up where you left off in the next interval.
4. At the end of 50 minutes – stop what you’re working on. Get away from your work, leave your computer/office for 8 minutes. Get some water, do something completely unrelated to work. Breathe…
5. After 8 minutes (or so) return to your office and spend the remaining two minutes preparing for the next 50 minute interval.
6. Repeat.

So now it’s time for me to tag some folks I’d love to hear from. I’m tagging Dave Taylor, Liz Strauss, David Airey, Ted Demopolous, Andy Beard, Mike Sansone (again), Edward Mills, Drew McLellan, Valeria Maltoni, Sarah Lewis, Doug Karr, Easton Ellsworth, Aaron Potts, and David Armano.

I’d love to hear feedback on anyone else who’s using or trying this method of working. It’s worked great for me.

I’d also love to hear your ideas for improving on it or adding to it with other productivity tips. So please, share your thoughts, ideas and tips.

And remember to visit Ben, Wendy Piersall, Kathie Thomas, Harrison Loke, Ploop, Engtech, Lorraine Pirihi, Janet Barclay – who have already shared their gems for productivity.

When I wrote the post on Friday about my ‘Gotta Get Goals,’ I didn’t realize it would have such an effect. Not only on you, by your comments – which I thank you for, but on me as well. Over the weekend and into today I’m a little foggy on how I want to proceed.

I’ll certainly continue blogging about small business development, marketing, using the web, blogging, etc. And, it feels right to begin doing so with even more of my own, unique perspective.

When I work with clients, it’s never just about business building. It’s much more. Often I share with my clients how to bring themselves more forward in their business. Not just ‘own,’ but how to bring more of their own, authentic selves forward in caring for their clients and customers.

This doesn’t mean getting all touchy-feely with your clients, not at all. It does mean moving with your clients and customers from, as Liz Strauss talks about, your fully-expressed self.

Moving is the key word because as a good service providers I actively move with my clients through their process. Not in a co-dependent way. No. Rather in a way of coaching, consulting and educating in which I’m interested in my client’s success.

Hence, I’m not just selling them a product or a service. Instead I’m taking a position the position of mutual benefit – they win, I win. Not, they pay – I win, they may win if they get it. I help them get it so they can win too.

So stick around. Looks like another set of changes coming. But that’s one thing I can say, I rarely stand still.

Do you have one blog post that you feel has made a difference to how you blog or do business? Please share it with all of us.

And remember, I’ve removed the nofollow in comments so all commenters now get link love.

The first…my website/blog has moved. It is no longer at healthywebdesign.com. You’ll see above that it’s now at dmiracle.com.

Second, I’m changing the name of my site from Healthy WebDesign to Dawud Miracle @ dmiracle.com. I’ll be updating the banner in the coming days.

This is a difficult, but for many reaons, a necessary move. The short of it is I’ve far outgrown just being known as a web designer. So while I’ll continue to build websites long into the future, I’m going to begin directly promoting my coaching, consulting and educational services as well. I’ll be sharing much more on these changes in the coming weeks.

For now, I just need to get the word out.

So can you help me? How, you ask?

1. MOST IMPORTANT: please change my feed link in your feed reader. In time I will phase out the feed attached to healthywebdesign.com.
2. If you’ve bookmarked my site, please update your bookmark to dmiracle.com
3. If I’m in your Technorati Favorites or favorites with any other service, please update your favorite to dmiracle.com
4. Update your blogroll to dmiracle.com
5. Tell anyone you know who’s been to my site that I’ve moved it to dmiracle.com

And if you feel so inclined, I would be deeply appreciative if you wrote a short post on your blog about my move. Even though I’m redirecting every URL from healthywebdesign.com, I have effectively lost all my inbound links.

Whatever steps you can take, I deeply thank you for in advance. And thank you for continuing to read and support my blog.

Look for more changes, including design tweaks, coming soon.

Dawud

My friend Rich Brooks from Flyte has tried to help with his post a few day back, How to Subscribe to a Blog Feed. Mike, from Converstations, the folks over at Business Blog Consulting, and I have tried to get the word out.

You may wonder how people can regularly read dozens or even hundreds of blogs . Do these people visit dozens or hundreds of blogs a day, on the hope that each one has a new post worth reading and reviewing? How do they get any work done? Don’t they have lives?!?

The answer is that they use newsreaders to subscribe to multiple blogs. With a newsreader–like my personal favorite, NetNewsWire, (sorry, Mac only!) or Bloglines–you can quickly scan dozens of different blogs in a format that looks a lot like an email program.

However, subscribing to a blog feed isn’t as intuitive as it should be. The very act that we’ve trained people to do on the Web–click on a link–brings up a page of XML mumbo-jumbo.

His video, How-To Subscribe to a Blog Feed: The Movie!, does a nice job covering subscribing to an online service, like Bloglines. Definitely worth a watch.

Thanks Rich.

About LionHeart, they’re a business consulting group who help businesses increase their bottom line without compromising the quality of life of decision makers and employees. I personally know the team and know, from experience, that they do a terrific job. Read their Leadership Imperative white paper and you’ll get a clear idea of what they can do for your business.