My salad, Garlic, and 2 knives

This started with a salad, but can apply to anything in your life… and your business (which is in your life, but some people forget that).

I lost 25 pounds on a raw food diet. Since being off of it , I”ve been eating meat, bread, and coffee (well.. I drink the coffee).  I thought that from binging on all this food, I’d blow back up again.  When I weighted myself, I saw that I didn’t.  In fact, I’ve lost another 6 pounds.  This last 6 pounds is probably from lack of sleep, so… don’t try to emulate THAT diet just yet.  Seeing my weight at 184 (started at 215) messes with my head!  It makes me chop up a fresh salad, instead of cooking up those yummy burgers I bought!  I want a burger, but I make a fresh salad.  Last night, this scenario happened.

I chopped up a zucchini, some portabella mushrooms, romano tomatoes, an avocado, and of course, garlic.  I used the same knife to cut the garlic that I did for the other veggies.  It was the same knife I used the night before, and the night before that.  I was in workaholic mode, and frustrated at the length of time that the garlic dicing is taking.  All of a sudden I remembered that I had this little knife that’s way sharper.  Not only was it sharper, but it turns out that because it’s smaller, I can maneuver it more easily, press down on it harder, and slice a lot more garlic a lot faster.  So then it hit me… this is a business lesson!

How many times are you doing things because that’s how it was shown to you?  How many times are you using a tool or technique that might be outdated, or ineffective, and you don’t even realize it because it’s the way you’ve been doing it for a while?

This can have dire consequences on your business!  Take Google Pay Per Click for example.  Google keeps changing their rules, and those who have had the price quadrupled are quickly motivated  to learn what the new rules are.  The consequence of not adapting is not always that obvious though!

If there’s a better tool for the job, you may not realize that you have it (in my case, forgotten that I already had it), or may not know that it exists, or may not know that it’s better.  Everyone uses the old “You can’t drive square peg into a round hole” saying, but what if you’re not using a hammer to try and screw in a nail (yeah… I did totally just combine two different sayings)?  What if your tool works just fine… but is ineffective compared to some other tools, or version of the same tool?

A perfect example.  I do consulting, and one department I shine in is online branding, marketing, and websites.  Back in the day, there was only HTML (the slow/bulky knife), but then Content Management Systems came out (The more effective knife).  They were a pain in the ass to learn initially, as I  had to learn about databases, php programming, new ways of designing, and securing .htaccess files.  In fact, it took a while to learn all that stuff!  Guess what? It was totally worth it!  I no longer do plain HTML sites.  They are a pain to maintain and make changes to, the client has to know how to use HTML (although the tools  have gotten better over the years), and adding functionality is much harder.  You look at the CMS these days, and in a tiny bit of time a complete site can be up.  The CMS site can be edited by the client with no software or HTML knowledge.  Pages and functionality can be added quickly, which saves tens of thousands of dollars in programming!  Much of these tools are given away for free, while some are sold.  The technology  keeps changing.  I recommend for most of my clients a WordPress or a Joomla site.  Joomla is more powerful, WordPress is easier.

As always, the first thing to ask yourself is “What am I trying to accomplish here?”  Whatever your answer is… whether it is “Chopping up garlic”, “Attracting more clients”, “making more sales”, “Growing my brand”, “Making my staff more effective”, “making my spouse happy”, you can evaluate your tools the same way.  Ask yourself “What am I doing to accomplish that task?”  (using a knife? building a website? Driving traffic to a website with SEO / PPC / Articles marketing? Making viral videos? Setting up your own show? Buying a course? Buying flowers?)  “How’s that working for me?”  are you feeling drained by it? Are you making good progress?  Do you know of someone else that is getting better results? What are they doing?  Even google your task (By the way, if someone asks you soething that they could have just googled, instead of asking you, type in their question in Let Me Google That For You, and send them the link.  It’ll make you feel great! ), for example: slicing garlic yields some videos, a garlic slicer tool (for about $20), and of course, the 1st 2 results are instructions on how to cut & crush garlic.

Sure enough, the very 1st one talks about which knife to use… and says that many people prefer a paring knife (apparently, that’s what the knife I used is called).  A garlic crusher looks like it would’ve been way faster.  Apparently, if I was in the garlic slicing business, I would be obliterated by the competition that knew about garlic crushers.  *sigh*  Well, at least now I know.

Here’s a trick:  When doing your research, try googling “best way to”… so “best way to slice garlic”  or “best way to improve productivity”  or “best way to impress a girl”.  One thing you’ll notice is that Google autocompletes things, so… as you’re typing, you may find a few other things that people are looking for that are similar.  “Best tool to” also works well… and often yields different results.  Now you can see what questions and solutions others are posting.  How are people doing what you want to do, and can those ways/tools improve your performance?”

The key thing is to remember to take the time in your life to take a step back, evaluate what it is that you’re doing, why, and what your end-goal is. Sometimes, you can just ask a friend what they think. It’s amazing how many people see things in us that we don’t.  I bet someone could’ve told me quickly that I was using the wrong knife.

You don’t have to go out and get a whole new set of tools.  It’s always good to use what’s around, but just be aware of the possibilities.  Be flexible & resourceful.  The other day my sweet-tooth was going off!  I wanted some candy, or ice cream, but there was none around the house.  I didn’t feel like going to the store, so what did I do?  I ate a spoonfull of powdered sugar. It really did the job, and was again another form of the same tool.  Instead of being a piece of candy, it was just sugar in another form, and it totally held me over until I had time to get the heavy-duty tool:  Klondike Bars.