#1030 Wardrobe Malfunction

I’m referencing America’s most famous halftime incident to get your attention because that is where we are…Halftime. July marks our entry into the second half of the year. While Janet was performing the action that put that phrase into the popular lexicon, the coaches were in the locker room making adjustments. That’s what we do at halftime. We adjust.

Most smart businesspeople make course adjustments monthly, weekly, or even daily, but the body of work that is the first half contains enough data to make significant moves.

Take a look at January 1 through June 30. Hold it up against your yearly goals. How is your progress? How does the first half of this year compare to the first half of last year? Look at whatever data you keep, KPIs, Benchmarks, and financials. Look at the trends. Six months is long enough to see the line on the graph slanting up or down. How do you feel? Are the yearly goals in range or a pipedream? What went well this half? What didn’t?

If you are off the mark, try this exercise. Grab a pad and a pen and find a quiet place where you can sit undisturbed for an hour or so. Think deeply about the miss. Imagine it will continue, and the year will be an epic failure. Sit in that failure. Feel what you’d feel, see what you’d see, think what you’d think.

Immerse yourself in that year-end failure.

Then, write this sentence across the top of the pad. “IF ONLY I WOULD HAVE…” What are those dots?

Do a brain dump of everything that comes to mind as you sit in the regret of failure, saying IF ONLY I WOULD HAVE…”

If you are a solopreneur, try this in the yard, at the park, or sitting on a beach.

If you have a team, get them all into one room without phones and a DND sign on the door. Write the sentence on the whiteboard and go around the room with each team member completing the phrase. Don’t stop until the popcorn stops popping.

Then, take all the ideas, sort through them, and create your plan for the second half.

Just be sure to adjust more than your wardrobe :)

Own Your Sales Gene