Calendar | The Barefoot Spirit

Don’t Let the Holidays Take Your Eye Off the Ball

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 28 Dec 2017 18:00:37 +0000

You had some good momentum going toward the end of the year. But as the Holidays began to approach, you got increasingly put off with “call me after the Holidays,” or “I’ll be out of town ‘til after the first of the year.” Projects you’ve been working on all year have been put on hold. You yourself have taken a break and may have lost track of where you were with this person and that project. This time of year can be downright frustrating and confusing!

The new year seems to favor new projects. Who wants to go back and rehash old ones? You might say, “Hey, if they didn’t get closed by year end, it seems futile to resurrect them now.” We have faced this “holiday” problem for years. And yes, it’s always better to finish out your initiatives before the end of the year. We all feel the pressure to do so. But with so many other folks trying to complete their projects at the same time, the competition itself can put a drag on completion and cause you to miss that all important “holiday” deadline.

Here are some ways we have found to save the day and remove a little of the pressure, guilt, and frustration the Holidays can bring:

Calendar. Check your calendar for any meetings you may have had in October, November, and December. Re-acquaint yourself with the attendees, the goals for those meetings and the follow ups you and others have committed to. Reschedule with those folks for follow-ups now.
Call Log. A quick review of your call log will remind you of the conversations you had at year end. You will be able to quickly identify the ones that you still need to bring to a conclusion. Make a list and prioritize.
Email. We like to review our sent items, the ones that have yet to respond, or the ones where we were the last message in the chain. Schedule some time to piggy back on those sent items, include the chain of correspondence, and resume the discussion.
Make Appointments. After reviewing you calendars, calls and emails, and setting priorities, reach out early to set up appointments even if they are a month away. Just knowing you have taken action will relieve your anxiety.
Set Deadlines. Try to get all of last quarter’s business completed, cleared, or resolved by the end of the first quarter of the new year. You’ve done most of the ground work already in the fourth quarter, so why not capitalize on that “head start” in the new year?

Remember, January looks like a long month on the calendar, but consider that New Year’s Day and Martin Luther King Day holidays take a bite out of January’s work weeks. Consider also that many use January to take a winter vacation. So, get going and set reasonable deadlines for yourself – and others! Pick up where you left off, keep your eye on the ball, and see some early home runs in the new year! It’s time to follow up or foul up. Happy New Year to you all!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Happy Old Year! Be Thankful for What Went Right to See More Go Right!

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 00:49:54 +0000

It’s easy to get carried away with the new prospects for the New Year. After all, this year is over (finally!). And not all the news was good… The media has done a fine job of frightening us by focusing on the negative. Then there’s the personal frustrations of all the things we wanted to do that got derailed, delayed, or deferred. It’s easy to complain about what went wrong last year. We almost can’t wait to put the past behind us and move on to a new world of all possibilities. There are New Year resolutions, plans, goals, and a general attitude that things will somehow get better.

But we’ve found that best way to make the New Year better is to take some time over the Holidays to make a list of what went right this last year. We call it our Annual Accomplishments List. It forces us to really think about all that we have accomplished in the “Old Year.”

Every year about this time, we spend an hour or two going through our calendar to help us recollect what happened. Then we make a list of everything we’ve accomplished, everything that did go right, and all the great times we had. We also add all the great people we met or did business with. We take the opportunity to continue to grow these new relationships by putting them into our contacts and sending them a personal note of appreciation before the year end. If you use this method, it’s amazing, but you will discover that you are making progress, making new friends and achieving your goals!

By taking the time to put together your “Old Year” list several great things can happen. You become more grateful instead of frustrated, hopeful instead of fearful, and most importantly you have real evidence that you can achieve your goals. All this results in an attitude you can take with you into the New Year where you will expect solutions. You will be looking for them at every turn. You will be less likely to overlook solutions just because they weren’t wrapped in a pretty package and hand delivered. The more you appreciate what you have the more you get what you want, if for no other reason than you are focusing on what you want and not what you don’t!

Now you are ready to work on your New Year’s resolutions with the confidence that comes from success. You can more easily visualize your new goals finding their way onto your next year’s Annual Accomplishments List. Why? Because you took the time to appreciate your progress this year, saw it all on one list and said, “Yes! I can do this!”

We want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who has followed us and shared our blog posts, joined us on social media, and attended our talks and Keynotes throughout the year. We hope that our experience has made a positive difference in your lives and businesses.

Michael and Bonnie say thank you for a great Old Year and we wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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9 Steps to Achieving Your Goals for the New Year

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 15:31:40 +0000

As the current year winds down and we look forward to the New Year, start thinking about your annual goals. Don’t wait until the New Year is upon us. These last few weeks of December are a great time to identify what you want to achieve during the next year. Writing goals seems like a daunting task, but we have discovered a fun and easy way to get started:

List Your Achievements. How have you progressed so far? How many goals have you achieved this year? Reviewing your achievements is always encouraging because you can see the value in setting goals.
Identify Your Incomplete Goals. What goals did you set for this year that are yet to be achieved? Are they still relevant? If so, they need more time, so those are a great place to start your goal list for next year.
Write Your Annual Goals. What are the big goals you want to achieve for the New Year, for your business, your career, your health, and your education? Add those to the list of this year‘s goals that need more time. Now you have a core goal list.
Study the Year Ahead. Take a good look at a calendar with holidays and events already printed on it. This is the landscape of the New Year. This is the layout you can’t change, the one you must work within.
Set Your Deadlines. Break down your annual goals into achievable milestones to be completed before each 3-day holiday weekend and post them on the calendar. Make a list of the milestones for that period and keep it handy throughout the period as a reminder to keep you on track.
Set the Lead Times. Calculate how long it takes to prepare for any event. Look to see if there are there overlaps. By working backwards from the events, you will see when you must begin preparations.
Post the Must-Attend Dates. Identify the dates that you absolutely must attend, whether it’s at work or for a social affair. Those are the dates you can’t be on vacation.
Identify the Holiday Periods. When does school begin and end? Vacation spots are less crowded and often less costly when students return to school. When are the three-day weekends? These are great for short getaways. When are the key selling seasons? Some business people must plan months ahead to assure all is in place for essential selling seasons, and can take a break only after this essential work is completed.
Book Your Vacation. Now that you understand the fixed landscape of the coming year, when would be the ideal time for you to take your vacations? Buy your tickets now! You’ll get a better deal and you will have some hard dates by which to accomplish your goals. The rest of your work will fall in “magically” around your vacations.

By working with your goals on an actual calendar, you will be more likely to achieve them. When you discover the existing dated landscape that you must work within, you are setting yourself up for success. You will see the practicalities of the New Year and use it to your advantage. Your personal time-off rewards will be visible and your milestones will be more realistic.

You’ll be surprised how much you can achieve when you can see the end of the tunnel whether it’s a booked vacation or a three-day weekend. Nobody wants to come back to unfinished business and you won’t either. Be practical about your goals, the calendar, and your much-deserved rewards. Book your vacation now!

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post 9 Steps to Achieving Your Goals for the New Year appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.