A Family’s Life Turned Upside Down John, 46, was the owner of multiple restaurants. Everyone in town seemed to know him or his reputation as a quality guy. He lived in the nicest neighborhood; his children attended the best private school; his wife served on two community charity boards and golfed with the ladies group at the country club every Thursday. Life was perfect. John’s hard work and determination had paid off.   The fatal car accident couldn’t have been anticipated. Although the drunk driver who caused it was charged, the family’s life was turned upside down. While dealing with their grief, they found that John’s business was not an easy sale in the weak economy. Buyers were few. When a deal was finally struck, the price was less than 30% of what had been expected. John’s $500,000 in life insurance proceeds helped, but it didn’t stretch as far as he had hoped for his family. The balance of the mortgage ($350,000) was paid off, leaving just $150,000. It became quickly apparent that the life insurance and the distressed sale price of the business were insufficient to support the family’s income needs. There was no alternative but to sell the house, change neighborhoods and remove the children from their private school. The death was hard, but the life changes magnified the pain.    Are you a business owner who has enough life insurance for your spouse to pay off the mortgage with only a year or two of income to spare? Is it possible you have underestimated the financials that your loved ones would need if you died? With so much at risk, email and ask for the facts on how affordable additional life insurance is in today’s market. Remember: Life insurance is not about dying; it is about allowing others to go on living. Identifying information has been changed or omitted to protect the family. All numeric examples are hypothetical and were used for explanatory purposes only. Request Information→

 

If you ask a business owner what he’s doing for marketing and then what he’s doing for sales, you may well get the same answer for both. The distinction between marketing and sales is often misunderstood. The fundamental difference is:

• Marketing is building awareness of your business and brand to potential customers
• Sales is turning that awareness into a profit, by converting those prospective customers into actual paying customers

Securing business and achieving stellar revenue numbers begins with a purposeful alignment between marketing and sales. But one of the most often heard (and sadly, true) statements is that sales and marketing “just don’t see eye to eye.” This may be for many reasons. Let’s say upper-management is focused on branding but the sales leader has limited experience working with the company’s chosen set of marketing tools. A change in mindset from both sides and a creation of unified goals is typically the only way a business will experience the company’s greatest success.

Neither department can understand the other if they aren’t walking in the other’s shoes, so one team can’t know how to best help the other. Here is an important idea that often helps to improve the sales and marketing relationship: weekly group meetings.

Sounds too easy, right? But when sales invites someone from marketing into their weekly sales meetings – and marketing invites someone from sales into their weekly status meetings – something magical often happens!

Open conversations within these meetings frequently reveals the most common questions sales hears about marketing. For instance: What do prospects say about the website? What do salespeople continually repeat on calls or in meetings or follow-ups?

With this same type of dialogue in marketing meetings, sales will discover firsthand what tactics and brand messaging the marketing team has planned, and everyone will be able to discuss whether or not it is truly on point.

Business success takes both sales and marketing teams. And when they work together, targeted ads, content and brand assets can be created to increase sales cohesively.

Whether you are a busy stay-at-home mom, a senior entrepreneur, or a newbie executive, you likely struggle to remain focused and effective throughout the day because of one major challenge: Too much time spent on technology. Could it be wrecking your ability to focus?

Like many of us, you may be tethered to one or more digital devices. A recent survey shows that an average person spends almost seven hours in front of a screen daily.*

Technology touches virtually every part of our lives and can positively affect our physical and mental health, with everything from health apps to online medical records, doctor visits and ease of research. But while more convenient communication can make us feel more connected with one another, this hyperconnected state actually disrupts the metacognitive skills we need to get things done each day.

These skills include reflection, self-assessment, developing and using processes. It allows us to know when, where and why to use particular strategies for learning and solving problems. When you look at it that way, it’s easy to see why continuously checking our texts, emails and social media accounts might keep us from achieving other goals.

We need (and let’s be honest, want) to use all this brilliant technology at our fingertips … so, how can we use it and still concentrate more on what matters most?

As it turns out, ancient philosophers had this right all along. Something magical happens when we practice simple mindfulness, especially upon waking up, as opposed to checking our email or social media pages. Mindful activity can be anything that brings us joy … quietly taking a few deep breaths, reading a meaningful passage … watching the sunrise with a cup of tea. As long as the activity places our awareness on the present moment and we acknowledge our feelings, thoughts, and sensations, our brains have a chance to calm and focus.

So, turning off technology periodically and truly experiencing our real, not virtual, surroundings is a great way to slay the focus killer. It’s a small thing that can help us accomplish large goals.

*Rebecca Moody. “Screen Time Statistics: Average Screen Time in US vs. the rest of the world.” Comparitech.com, 21 March 2022,
https://www.comparitech.com/tv-streaming/screen-time-statistics/ accessed 30 August 2022