Why is it important to pay attention to people's buying behaviour?

Analyze how you do things because chances are other people do the same things.

People focus on what they can relate to. Getting people's attention is not the hard part, it is keeping their attention before they get distracted by something else that they may think is more interesting.

So you want to sell a product or a service?

Simple, watch who buys, how they buy, ask them why they buy from you, and turn all that feedback into a systematic machine that can be replicated and managed.

People are a lot a like yet they are unique. We are creatures of habit. Our buying habits become very universal and this is why advertising companies have done such a great job at influencing our decision process.

Videos go viral because they touch on our emotions. We are not logical buyers we are emotional buyers, will save this for another post.

So how can you watch people's emotions? You don't need to. You can get their feedback on how it makes them feel, and pay attention to their answers.

On a side note there are great sites to conduct surveys to get instant feedback from a wide crowd, Quaraloo.com and Surveymonkey.com.

Your goal is to build a community and harness the power of your community to grow your business on an exponential level. This is a goal of mine.

Every business needs a community and not every community needs or becomes a business. Whether you are in the Vegan Restaurant business or in the Headphone business, without those loyal foodies or people who love listening to music your business will fail.

So where am I going with this? I know I ask this question sometimes in my posts and I think it is more to keep me on track.

When you become a good observer, you start to understand how things work, why they work, and how you can make them better.

The way to become a good observer is by asking critical questions while observing. Asking the right questions. Okay Lev what is the right question?

The right questions get you the right answer. The right question to ask almost every time starts with why. Kids are the best at this. Do you notice how children always ask why about something and they ask it over and over again?

Up to the point of where you get exhausted and cannot come up with an answer.

Why do they ask why? Because this is how they learn. By asking why they gain a deeper understanding.

Release the inner child in you. Gain a deeper understanding on what it is you are observing. Ask why, why, why, and keep asking until you get to because...

Did we get off track on this post? No. Let me tie it all in together for you so this all makes sense.

When you have a business the objective of the business is to turn a profit. How do you do that? By understanding the buying behavior of your customers. How do you understand the buying behaviour of your customers? By observing them and asking why when they are making the purchases they are making.

Once you understand what works and what doesn't. Focus on what does work, and as always double down on that.

Pay attention.

That sums it up quite nicely. Thank you for reading this post, I know it is a bit shorter then my usual posts as of lately, hopefully it is refreshing and right to the point. to be continued....

Image copyright respectively by detechter.com, fullhdwpp.com

How can we avoid the noise?

Hyper connectivity

You are powerful and ill tell you why.

How do you filter out all that noise that you are constantly bombarded with?

The internet is a powerful tool and also a powerful distraction. A double edged sword. On one end we can extract relevant and useful information in mere seconds on the other end the hyperlinks lead us to other irrelevant sites, and the advertisements do not serve our purpose.

Social media interactions with friends of whom you find out about their status yet you don't actually know what they are feeling. You know about their updates yet you know nothing about their circumstances.

Emails that come in from marketers who push products on you that you don't need or want. They beg you to try them out and harass you until you reply. Then they harass you some more.

Text, calls, notifications, beeps, vibrations and sounds. NOISE.

How do we know what to pay attention to and what to avoid?

In this hyper connected world, we become obedient slaves to the system of which we have created.

I have written about how we are so connected yet isolated and alienated.

Even now as I am writing this blog I am can hear my phone beeping with messages, pings and vibrations. As the messages are coming through the phone begins to ring while that is happening emails pop up. As that's going on social media feeds are updated, and now someone sending a message over on Whatsapp.

How can we stay focused on our task when this happens to us all day long?

We have become so good with distractions that we actually think on a different level than our ancestors. Our neural connections allow us to think rapidly about several different unrelated things at once. Is this good? Have we become smarter?

We created these tools and machines as a means of being more in control, instead we have lost control. We have lost control over our behaviour and actions.

Simon Sinek says: "What all those notifications do is increase our dopamine hits." This is what makes us want more, and we have the hardest time resisting letting go when we know someone is trying to reach us on the other end.

In fact, Pebble the smart watch was created for that same reason. When you are riding your bicycle and you hear the phone ringing do you stop to answer it or let it go. Well now you can just look at your wrist and there it is. You won't miss a beat.

On a side note, did you happen to click on any of the links above of which I highlighted and underlined? Did this distract you from finishing this post? Was it your curiosity that led you to find out where that link was going to send you?

What happened to becoming empowered by these tools? Instead of becoming debilitated. There are solutions. Yes, that's right you can get control back over your life, if of course that is what you want.

Uh the power of choice.

Airplane mode, silence, turn it off, UNPLUG yourself from the connected world and you gain power over what has been governing you. Easy to say? Easy to do!

All those tools were meant for us to decide when to connect to the person on the other end. It's not up to the tools and it is definitely not up to the person on the other end of them. It is up to you.

So you say that you need to check your emails after work? Who put you up to this? Your boss?

After work is your time, not your boss's time.

So you are an entrepreneur and business, as I am well aware of this, runs from when you wake up until you go to bed. Are you satisfied with the current state you are in? Yes, technology affects our moods. If you are satisfied, then great don't change anything.

Dr. John Douillard tells us that "Our computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices can have us plugged in 24/7 and can often cause us to feel fatigue and exhaustion, which can take heavy tolls on our mood, health, and well-being. Since our technology never sleeps, it is important that we sync with the daily rhythms of nature and get adequate rest at proper times for optimal health."

However, if you feel that you are constantly stressed, then change must happen and it must happen now not someday. Disconnect yourself from this connected world. Let it earn your attention.

“Stress often leads to forgetfulness, depression and poor judgment,” says Patricia Gutentag, family and occupational therapist.

"Your attention is limited, treat it like the scarce resource that it is."

Very basic principle: When you pay attention and focus on one thing you do not and cannot focus on something else.

Deep Work as Cal Newport puts it "Focused work comes from deep rooted concentration, putting yourself away from any distraction.....The best moment is when the person is stretched to his limit, body or mind.....You need structure to how your going to do your deep work, change to the environment might be necessary......When you realize time is scarce you become frugal and you do not waste it."

Many of the prolific writers warn us that in order to get thought provoking work done we must get into the state of flow, this means putting away any distraction or switch tasking.

There was a point in time when I felt not only addicted by wasteful with my time on social media, specifically Instagram. I will write another post about my 30 day Sabbath. What pushed me to do it. How I felt about it before, during and after. The findings of my result.

What I would suggest is this: Set priorities. Ask yourself what is the purpose and importance level of what you are doing? If there is none put it away or don't do it. If it is for pleasure, make sure you monitor your activity so it doesn't go beyond your specific time of which you set yourself.

All of this goes back to becoming self-aware. I know setting limitations in what seems to be an unlimited environment seems childish. However, this structured method is the best way to get the most use and the most concentrated work with your time.

There have been studies proving that going out on nature walks or looking at nature photographs does increase your attention rather than walking through an urban city. The difference was noticeable when they returned to their work.

What my intentions for this post were to explain to you how to filter out the noise and find the things that are of utmost importance to you however, I feel instead I now gave you a backdrop on what that noise is doing to you and how you can avoid the noise all together.

Remember the reward will still be waiting for you. Turn of those notifications and go to whatever it is you choose on your time not when the notification is blinking and telling you to do it.

Do it on your terms.

That is the power that we forget we have with us at all times.

As always thank you for coming to this part of the post. To be continued....

Image copyright by willisresearchnetwork.com

This is a story about a man who lives a life full of meaning

I met a man who lives a simple life full of meaning, and this is his story.

Who is this man? What does he do? Has he always been this way? Near the end of the post I will ask a question of which sparked a debate between myself and my two friends.

Let's call this man George. George is an aerial kite boarding trainer. For those of you who do not know what that is: It is an international extreme water sport which combines the physics of flying a kite as well the same laws apply as when you wakeboard, wake surf, skateboard, paraglide and surf.

George is in his early 30's, around my age, and he is single. He seems to live a life free from burden and stress. What caught my immediate attention about George and the reason for writing this post was how he lit up when he said that the only thing that he loves most in life is when his students become independent kite boarders.

That's it.

That is the reward of which George pursues. He explained that the persistence, determination, and the willingness of a student is what determines the student's success at becoming an independent kite boarder. With these characteristics of a student George will not stop training until the student can become independent.

If you notice it is not how much money George makes from teaching, and he doesn't care about the amount of time he spends working. What motivates George are his students.

George explained to us that he has been a trainer for 9 years, and that he is the only one out of all the trainers in the company that works 7-8 hour days as opposed to 3-4 hours for the average trainer.

For George aerial kite boarding is not a job instead it is work. I believe that George has found his calling, wouldn't you agree?

What is the difference between a job and work? "A job is an activity one performs in exchange for a specific fee or payment. Work is the activity one does because he loves doing it, and does not always have to be paid for the activity."

Remember that analogy I gave you about the brick layers. George is the brick layer that is building a house for god not one that is there from 9-5 to build a church. His end result was the success of others, not the paycheque he receives.

This is where I want to go next with this post, and this is the debate which was sparked between myself and my two friends.

George being the simple man that he is, who does not need a lot of money to be extremely satisfied with what he does, and his lifestyle choices, what would happen if he received a large sum of money? Would his lifestyle change? Would he change as a human being? Would he become less satisfied or more?

Before we dive into this I just want to give you a brief back round about George so you understand why we got into this debate.

We have established that George is very passionate about what he does for his career.

He has an extreme wealth of knowledge about every aspect of kite boarding and he displayed it when we were out in the water. He was able to explain every single detail of what goes right and what goes wrong. He gets real serious about it, so much so that you cannot recognize training George and friend George. I would say he is definitely in the state of flow while he is on the water.

What I haven't told you is what he does outside of his career.

George works 6 months out of the year teaching students that range between the ages of 6 and 71. In the summer for 3-4 months he teaches water sports and in the fall he teaches snowboarding and skiing. What does he do the other 6 months of the year?

George packs a backpack and heads south with his motor bike to visit family, friends, to meet new people and relax all on a budget of 10k. How can someone afford to live on 10k for 6 months? This defies a lot of people's beliefs who have become accustomed to our ever demanding social responsibilities. (This topic requires another post, since it is a great deal of content of which I want to cover)

I think you can see now why my friends and I have sparked a debate about George and money. Since we realize that George seems to be a simple man, what would he do if he earned drastically more money than he does right now?

You may or may not agree with me however, I believe that if George had access to more money that his lifestyle would change.

He wouldn't stop teaching but I believe he would do things differently. I don't think he would ride his motor bike down south I think he would fly. I think he would get a nice place he would call home. His habits might slightly change in terms of eating, drinking, and partying.

Would you agree with me? This is the lens of which I see it. Why do I think this way? Not because this is what I would do, but because of the small detail I left out before my last paragraph.

When my friend and I had a discussion about another friend of ours and his successful investment in a condo. George's eyes went wide open when he heard the amount of money of which was earned by my friend.

There I knew that to George money does matter. It is however not the only thing that matters and if George was to choose between a better corporate paying job and the work that he does now, he would not take the corporate job.

George is the Mexican fisherman.

George doesn't need money like most of us think we do. George just wants enough so he does not have to think or be motivated by money. George already lives life on his own terms, even though he is working for someone else.

How do you live your life? What lights you up? If it is not your work, then what is it that you do outside of work that matters so much to you that you would never give that up? Do more of that!

Thank you for reading this post. To be continued....

Image copyright by kitesurfingszkola.files.wordpress.com