Tag Archive for: Goals

What’s Your Communication Level?

We live in a complex world, but not everything is complex. Even with items that are more challenging or difficult to understand, the key is communication.

Please allow me to give you a few examples where communication may assist:

  • You are concerned that, given lower prices and rising costs due to inflation, your credit line may get fairly tight. Communicating this to your loan officer is an excellent idea. If you give him or her enough time, they can probably complete an increase on your line availability before you even need it.
  • You have a large A/P with a vendor. Let the vendor know as soon as possible and set up a payment plan or whatever it takes to satisfy their situation. They also have bills to pay and a payroll to meet. Communication here goes a long way.
  • You have IRS payments that are past due. I have heard, “But I can’t reach them.” Then, leave a message and reach out in writing. They may be overloaded with work, but at least you can demonstrate that you are attempting to communicate & solve the issue.
  • I am the master of doing just one more task before heading to dinner. Sometimes I even overbook myself. Speaking from experience, communicating these delays to my spouse can go a long way toward maintaining peace at home.

In all these cases, as my Business Coach Dan Sullivan stated, “All progress begins with telling the truth.”

With your banker, reach out early to provide them with adequate time to meet your needs. With Vendors, reach out if you are having challenges paying on time. They will likely work with you. With the IRS, start talking about solutions, not just the problem. Finally, let your Family know when you might fall behind schedule.

All communication is beneficial, and no one was ever faulted for communicating too often or too early. Use it to your advantage.

“The most effective way to manage change successfully is to create it.”

Peter Drucker, Management Expert

Let’s take your business to the Next Level!

Are You an “Overnight Success?”

I recently had an interesting conversation with a new Client who suggested that I was an overnight success. While I appreciated his kind comment, I had to admit that my “overnight success” only took 27 years of preparation.

This included many experiences, most positive & a few negative, to finally arrive at what may have looked like an overnight success… Believe me. There were plenty of rejections along the way. Yet, the best part of this entire process has been the wonderful Clients in this journey who had put their faith in my Team’s ability to navigate some “dangerous financial waters” and find a solution to their challenges.

Was it easy? No. If it had been, anybody would have been doing it… Here are a few examples for you, some of which may lead you to question my sanity in tackling these problem deals:

  • How about the food processing company who owed their bank about $8,000,000 and only had $2,000,000 of Accounts Receivable and Inventory on hand. However, they did have big hopes for the future of their product line(s), and we were able to get the bank to finance new equipment for an additional product line. This allowed us to generate cash and pay the lines of credit down to a more workable level. It also taught me that the only certainty when you are in the process of developing budget projections is that this is not exactly how things will turn out. Yet, the cash flow results were strong enough that it got us “across the goal line.”
  • Another Client was a struggling partnership that was burdened by owners not getting along & then getting hit with a cash crunch as their milk prices plummeted. In trying to identify the answer to their challenges, I was often reminded of the story told by President Ronald Reagan where a little boy was faced with a barn full of horse poop. When asked why he was so excited, he replied, “With this much horse poop, there has to be a pony in here somewhere!” The Client’s bank had just delivered a mandate through a letter, informing them that they should start liquidating assets. I responded with a three-page email, refuting their “short term thinking” and laying out a game plan for their successful continuation. I met with them every month, and, frankly, it was the fastest financial turnaround I’ve ever coached someone through. Within two years, they had sold the entire partnership operation and real estate, allowing two of the former partners to start new businesses that they are operating today.
  • Three other examples revolve around Clients who I would describe as “land rich & cash poor…” As a result of a horrid loan structure, they became strapped for cash. By restructuring their overall debt and expanding their operations, we were able to boost their overall cash flow to the point that they were very profitable and in a position to market young animals from their dairy businesses. This, too, created an additional source of cash to help them operate. Overnight success? No, but ones that would not have happened at all without the plans we designed together.

All these examples met with success, following a lot of demanding work, planning, and solid execution of the plan. Sometimes, I even had to remind them “Success often is described as the willingness to bear pain; not to be a pain…” By working together in each of their cases, I am pleased to report another “overnight success.”

“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from the old ones.”

John Maynard Keynes

Let’s take your business to the Next Level!

What Is Your Reason?

I recently reread an old book from my personal library, entitled The Goal, written by Eli Goldratt & Jeff Cox in 1992. I read this 34 years ago, and, assuming you can still find a copy, I would highly recommend it.

Essentially, it is a novel with a great story that revolves around a corporate turnaround, one where the players initiate a change of strategy previously characterized by poor planning, numerous bottlenecks in the manufacturing process and consistently late deliveries.

As you might expect, based upon the title, the managers in this process had a two-fold mission to improve their delivery of product, but also set higher goals by challenging prior assumptions. I know. This is basic “corporate blasphemy,” but “challenging the system” is what I’m well known for. Frankly, it has served me very well.

Getting back to The Goal, it has some very solid lessons for us. Foremost, we need to take old assumptions at face value and consider that there are other ways to achieve new goals and accomplishments. One of my favorite parts in the book included a complete challenge to management on their thinking.

To put this into perspective, I had a recent meeting with a Client who was considering the completion of a new Bed-Pack Barn for their dairy herd. It would give them a boost in their operation by getting the rest of their herd out of muddy lots in the winter & hot sun in the summer.

They run a great operation with milk production/cow/day consistently in the 80-85 lb range. Unfortunately, the managing partners are sometimes dissuaded by well-meaning family members from making investments in their business that are proactive.

They asked if I felt they should complete this process, especially considering that the cost is being funded mostly by government money. I stated, using a section on page 150 of the book, that there are only two reasons not to complete it.

  1. If there was no market for their product. This is not the case for them or the Cooperative they sell milk to.
  2. If they are determined not to change anything in their operation for the better. I don’t believe that’s the case. If so, I probably cannot help them succeed…

Consider the pluses of this change. First, their business would improve from higher milk per cow. Additionally, their banker should be happy as the appraised value of the facility increases with no added leverage from more debt, decreasing their Loan to Value %. Even animal welfare advocates should be happy, given the improved conditions for their cows.

While the completion of this project is pending, I believe this would be a positive step forward. Are you facing a similar dilemma? As you think your hurdles through, please consider the positives & the potential downsides, but do move forward. What reason do you have not to accept the challenge to succeed?

“Change can be tough. But the only alternative is eventual obsolescence.”

Michael Hyatt

Let’s take your business to the Next Level!

Do You Care Enough to Fix It?

In my last blog, I discussed the steps needed to continually move to higher levels of achievement. I understand that we are often surrounded by negative news, but we cannot let that impact our levels of achievement. Often, it’s a matter of adjusting our approach, but sometimes it is simply a matter of managing our time more effectively.

On a phone call with a Client recently, I asked for an update on a key project they were working on. Instead of an update, I heard, “John we are just swamped right now…” While that might be true for a lot of us, we need to move beyond it. There are always more tasks to do than there is time for their completion. That’s why we need to prioritize our challenges & goals and lay out the steps to complete them.

First, here are the three biggest fallacies of “Time Management:”

  • People believe they can get more time. No, you already have all the time that is available to anyone. Thinking otherwise is what Author Dennis Waitley calls “Living on Someday Isle.” It’s a place where nothing ever goes wrong, and you have all the time in the world. You know, that place where someday I’ll…
  • People think they can save time & store it. This simply doesn’t happen. You must use it up, wisely, every day.
  • Some people believe they can manage time. Is this really possible? Or is it better to focus on managing ourselves within the time we have available?

You can use any number of different tools like the “Time Matrix” from Stephen Covey or a “Productivity Pyramid” to rank your priorities, but what I like to do is list my Top Three Tasks each day, as recommended by my Business Coach Dan Sullivan of the Strategic Coach. As Dan suggests, if I only get these three items completed, I’ve had a successful day.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you cannot do more tasks, if time allows, so I’ve got you “Overachievers” covered, too. If I have extra time, I may try to check off another small task, but the ultimate key is to maintain focus on what your highest priorities are, while not reaching a burnout phase.

Most important, as you go through this process, stay focused on your goal, track your progress regularly and celebrate your wins. Then, I will see you at the Finish Line!

“If there are nine rabbits on the ground, if you want to catch one, just focus on one.”

Jack Ma

Let’s take your business to the Next Level!

Are You Really Satisfied?

Are you truly satisfied with the progress you are achieving? If so, that’s good. However, I would suggest that it is okay to be satisfied and still want to accomplish more. The reason for this is simply that so many variables are changing constantly, leaving you behind if you don’t push forward to new levels.

The answer? Set new goals on an ongoing basis. Speaker Skip Ross suggested, “You have exactly what you want in life right now.” When I first heard his statement, I thought, “That’s just not true.” Yet, after thinking about it for a while, I realized he was right, because I wasn’t setting new goals and determining how I could get there at that time.

He offered a “Magic Formula” for achieving more:

Dynamic Living = (GGE + PS) X PSI

Very interesting. He added that Dynamic Living where you achieve higher objectives would only happen if you applied your God Given Equipment and what he called the Principles of Success, combined with a Positive Self Image…

Many of us don’t pursue new challenges (myself included) simply because of what others might think. So, what he is saying is to use all your talents, your thinking ability & your personal drive to initiate action.

Then, he suggested we use the Principles of Success, which he listed as follows:

  • The Law of Giving – “Whatever you give, that’s what you will get.” There are no free lunches. You always have to give something (e.g. effort & planning) to pay the price for success.
  • The Principle of Vacuum – “Get rid of what you don’t want, to make room for what you do want.” Get rid of the negative influences in your life and make room for greater achievements.
  • The Principle of Creation – I know you’ve heard me state this one numerous times in my blogs & articles. “Decide what you want, define it clearly, and write it down.”
  • The Principle of Visualization – “Look at what you want and picture it in your mind.” I would add: All the Time!
  • The Principle of Command – “Whatever you speak will be what happens to you!” Thus, always ask yourself, “Is that what you really want? If not, then don’t say it.” Don’t verbalize your fears to others, and, yes, we all have some of them… Ross adds that we spend 70% of our time talking to ourselves. Why not be positive?
  • The Principle of Action – “Do it now!”
  • The Principle of Discipline – “Do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, whether you like it or not.”
  • The Principle of Persistence – “I will until…” Ross added that one of the shortest, yet perhaps the most effective Commencement Addresses ever delivered came from Winston Churchill, who walked onto the stage and stated, “Never give up!” He waited in silence for 30 seconds and said, “Never give up!” 90 seconds later, Churchill stated, “Never give up,” and then walked off the stage. As I suggested, while it was likely one of the shortest addresses ever, it was also one of the most effective ones.

Combine these steps with a Positive Self Image, and you will become unstoppable. Your self-image is a combination of your experiences and what you believe about yourself. Don’t sell yourself short. You can achieve anything you set your mind to. With that thought planted in your mind: What’s Next for You?

Please let me know if I can help you. You can reach me at john@success-strategies.com, and consider the following advice:

“Never give up!.”

Winston Churchill

Let’s take your business to the Next Level!

Are You Willing?

As you move through this year, it is important that we consider the following question. Are you willing to pay the price for greater levels of success? I assure you that this is a question worth answering, because it will provide the very foundation upon which your entire year can be built.

What exactly do I mean when I ask, “Are you willing to pay the price?” Let me begin by explaining that none of us reaches 100% of our goals, but as the legendary hockey player Wayne Gretzky stated, “You will always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

So, with this in mind, let’s operate on the assumption that you do want to succeed at an even higher level. What will this require? My first step is always to lay out a plan. What is it you are trying to achieve, who is involved and when do you want to hit your goal?

Futurist Jim Taylor was even more blunt about this process when he stated, “Plan for the future, or you will have no future.” When I work with Clients on their goal achievement, I follow a process called SAVE™. This is an acronym for Simplify, Analyze, Visualize and Execute.

Just as when we run into any problem or new challenge, we need to Simplify it by breaking it down and answering what was behind it, how do we overcome it, what is our ultimate objective and finally who can help us win with this hurdle.

Then, we Analyze all the variables involved with it. Are there problems to overcome, and what is the cost & return of doing this? Then, begin to Visualize the outcome that you desire. Finally, we need to Execute, and this is a step that people often have difficulty completing. Why? This is simply because other people (parents, siblings, friends, or neighbors) dissuade them from moving forward.

I am not suggesting that you totally ignore them. However, unless they have been in the exact same position that you are and all other factors are precisely the same for you as they were for them, I suggest you consider their advice and then move forward if you have followed the four steps above and believe you can succeed.

Let me provide you with an example. I recall a case where our Client’s dairy herd was producing 72 lb of milk/cow per day. He wanted to get in the 80-85 lb range consistently. What did it take? Following a change of Nutritionists, it necessitated grooming the free stall beds daily, adding more water troughs for the herd, adjusting the breeding program to move his herd’s Days in Milk to a more consistent level of 160-170 days year around and then culling his herd more heavily, which was a blessing with the recent higher beef prices… And he got there in a relatively brief period of time!

What is the Next Goal or Challenge you want to achieve? Please let me know if I can help you. You can reach me at john@success-strategies.com, and consider the following advice:

“The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious.”

John Sculley, Former Apple & Pepsi CEO

Let’s take your business to the Next Level!

Will You Thrive?

Currently, most of agriculture is in a challenging situation, with interest rates just starting to be reduced, costs that are out of sight due to inflation since 2021, and regulations on labor & other business items that are, at best, onerous.

However, given those variables, are you positioning yourself to do more than just survive our current downturn? Are you positioning yourself to thrive? At the risk of sounding like the eternal optimist, let’s discuss what this will require.

Here are a few steps to implement:

  • Skip the “worrying.” It will do absolutely nothing, except cloud your thinking. As Mark Twain so accurately stated, “Worrying is like paying interest on a debt you never owed.”
  • Why not focus only on achieving greater levels of success. What do you need to do to make things better? Spend some time thinking about this.
  • Fine tune your Revenues & Expenses. Are there particular items that you have been wanting to address but have been putting off?
  • I just completed my first two Client Budgets for 2026. Their specific focus was on the areas of Labor Efficiency & its resulting costs, Feed Costs, Insurance (which they have now bid out…), and the length of Loan Amortization of term loans.
  • Is it time to “pull the trigger” on Capital Expenditures with a definite payback? One of my Clients just initiated the installation of an $80,000 Sort Gate in their milk barn. With 2,600 milk cows, they figured the 1.5 lb/cow increase in production at $15/cwt would pay for it in 135 days. However, the bonus was on reducing their labor force by two men, a savings of $110-120,000/year!
  • Another example was a Client who bought a slightly used 17’ disk that will reduce the number of trips across their field by 1/3, saving on fuel costs…
  • As I suggested on bullet point #3 above, are there new Revenue sources you can add? One Client of mine is in the process of adding solar panels that will provide them with $95,000 savings/year on electricity. This is huge.

The biggest point here is that we all can do more than just survive, even in the toughest economic environments. Why just survive? That’s simply “Amateur Hour Stuff!” Let’s find ways to thrive, for as Winston Churchill so accurately stated:

“There ought to be ways of reforming a business, other than by merely putting more money into it.”

Let’s take your business to the next level!

Where Are They Now?

During the past 27 years, I have been blessed with the opportunity to work with hundreds of agri-businesses, specifically on their financial progress and, in some cases, their complete turnaround, in terms of how they operate.

Initially, we go through some basic questions about what is currently happening in their business and what they would like to see in 3-5 years. Ninety-five percent of them state that they would like to be more profitable.

I always explain that this will require three steps. We need to know:

1.)   Where are they now? In other words, we examine their profitability and cost structure. This is especially important now, given the recent rate of inflation. Do they have the optimal debt structure in place, one that best serves them well and maximizes overall Cash Flow?

2.)   What items can we change? Are there improvements that are possible regarding costs? If you are shipping milk or other food products, are you achieving “quality bonuses?” Is your work force being optimized? Their performance can certainly influence quality levels.

3.)   What must we change? Earlier this year, I worked with a Client who truly was the definition of insanity. You know, being unwilling to change anything and then expecting different results! Their costs were high, their producing units were lower and, as expected, their feed program was awful. Results? Equally terrible!

When we run into challenges like this, my most difficult challenge is convincing people to make changes, and, as I stated in #1 above, the first task is to measure results. If you measure them you can understand them. If you understand them, you can control them, and if you can control them, you can improve them!

We never want to be an example of “insanity,” as I said above, doing things the same way and expecting different results. As I review the results of our Clients these past 10 years, I observe the following. Their Revenue has increased by 32%, & their Costs have risen by 17%. That represents the answer to the question in the title above: Where Are They Now? More significantly, it clearly shows that measuring their results every month has achieved two tasks. 1.) They boosted their existing income results and sought out new revenue sources. 2.) While they were faced with cost increases, they maintained their jump in expenses at a level that was less than their revenue improvements. How did they do that? Simply, by measuring and fine tuning their monthly cash flow!

My question for you is – “Where are you now?” If I can assist you with this, please contact me. This is challenging and is not a time for excess pride. It is a time for action.

“There ought to be ways of reforming a business, other than by merely putting more money into it.”                Winston Churchill

Let’s take your business to the Next Level!

What Could Be Worse?

I recently heard Robert Kennedy speaking about a conversation that he had held with Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk, prior to his sad and unwarranted assassination. Kennedy suggested that there were worse things than dying. One such example would be to live in a communist or socialist state where you had no choices, effectively in a position where you could not make your own decisions, one where you had no Constitutional rights.

Now, I do not want to turn this blog into a political diatribe, but I do wish to use it as a launch pad for you to reach a higher level of your future. If money were not an object, would you pursue some role that is different than your current one? Do you absolutely love what you are doing in your life? Do you have higher aspirations? Are you being your best self?

If so, I applaud you. My point is that we have so many options available to us. Let’s not overlook them, particularly out of fear. Fear is nothing more than an acronym for – False Expectations Appearing Real…

Have you been thinking about something new and challenging, career wise or for your Family or something even bigger? Set the goal, recognize the obstacles, and then figure out how you can mitigate each of them, as you set out on your new mission.

Motivational speaker Les Brown tells the story outlined by Dr. Howard Thurman, who said that the ultimate positive would be to be on your deathbed and be completely surrounded by your Friends and Family, providing you with your final moments of love & comfort, celebrating your accomplishments in whatever you had pursued.

Contrast that with the pain associated with being in the same situation, except that you are surrounded by your unfulfilled dreams, and these dreams say to you, “We came to you, and only you could have fulfilled us. But now we must die with you.”

What a sad situation that would be… What goal or decision have you been putting off?

Please don’t let another moment go by without addressing this. Move forward with your dream. Prove the naysayers wrong!

I will see you at the finish line and if I can assist you on this process, please let me know.

“Wherever you are in life, you made an appointment to be there.”

Les Brown, Motivational Speaker

Let’s take your business to the Next Level!

If You Think for One Moment…?

If you think for one moment that you can do something, you are correct. In a recent article by Joshua Becker entitled “Focus on the Reasons You Can,” he does a great job of explaining the benefits of changing our thinking. As the saying goes, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are correct.”

So often in life and in business, we remind ourselves to be “realistic.” As a result, we temper our expectations. We accept less than what we could have or achieve. Sometimes even well-meaning friends or relatives tell us not to take the risk… If you do a survey of people, you will find a very small percentage of people who can tell you what they want in life. However, 95% of them can tell you what they don’t want in life!

Joshua Becker suggests that “Almost everything worth accomplishing in life is difficult.” He goes on to tell the story about a conference that he attended years ago where the prolific writer, Anne Lamott, was asked the following:

“‘How do I find time to become the writer I want to be? I am a new mother, tired and ragged, and I just can’t find the energy to write during this phase of my life. Should I wait until it passes?’

Anne’s response was swift, pointed, and memorable.

She replied, ‘Listen, there is always going to be an available excuse as to why you can’t do your writing. You are newly-married, or you have a young child. Next, you will have more than one child, or you will be parenting teenagers, or beginning a new career, or traveling too often, or involved in this or that. There will always be a reason why you think you can’t do what you need to do. The pursuit is to overcome these obstacles in order to realize what you are called to accomplish.’

I’ve never forgotten Anne’s words of wisdom that day. In fact, it’s been ten years, and I still remember where I was sitting in the room.”

The point is that you can, indeed, reach that goal you have in mind. Get beyond the paralysis of pessimism. Instead of asking if you can do something, start to ask how you can achieve this objective. Write it down and give your mind an opportunity to start working toward its achievement. Your subconscious mind will push you forward in a positive direction, and as Joshua Becker points out: “… those who focus on the reasons they can, find hope and energy and perseverance.”

What goal or decision have you been putting off? If I can assist you with this, please let me know.

Let’s take your business to the Next Level!