Building Teamwork
Building Teamwork
In my last blog post I wrote about two key things
- Managing Frustration
- Consistency and Focus
This post is about Building Teamwork but first is story time
Tracking Back
How does the scorecard look since I wrote that?
I have just not been good at getting back on the horse. The black dog of depression has been having its day. My wife and I had a trip to Europe planned for July. My thought was I could find time to keep the Internet Marketing and investing activity ticking along while we were travelling. I decided to just take a break and focused in on the travel and the friends and the family. I did do a little investing stuff but no Internet Marketing stuff (at all). This post is a bit of a catch up on what was going on after I hit the wall on Twitter Ads all those months ago.
Solo Ads Deliver
It is not all bad news. My solo ad provider has unblocked their processes and delivered the email addresses he promised. What was coming along at 250 names at a time every two or three weeks turned into a flood of 800 to 900 at a time only a few days apart. These are now working their way through the follow up sequence and there are a few flashes of light with June showing 3 people sign up for an Internet Profits product and 1 in July. The way this works is they pay a refundable deposit and schedule a call with the Internet Profits team. That call is all about assessing the fit with the program. My mentor, Dean Holland, is very keen to limit the intake to people who can afford to make the time and resource commitment to really make a big go of things. Time will tell how that goes.
Co-branded Book Coming
The timing for this ramp up in numbers is pretty good as Dean is making progress on finalising the new co-branded book offer – now complete and called The Iceberg Effect. We had a solid coaching program for this and made it to launch with a few delays. The delays were not wasted as the team have been optimising the new sales funnel that works around the book launch. Process for a list in waiting is to progressed them through a warm up sequence that gets them acquainted with what I do and who I am and what is coming. They are also getting to know Internet Profits.
Volatility in Markets
I have also been quite focused on the investing markets. The last 2 weeks of June were busy. Markets have been swinging quite widely up and down. I started some new investing avenues widening my agriculture commodity investing beyond corn into other places, like wheat and soybeans. Some of that has been inspired by what I saw while I was following the Race Across America. The riders copped a lot of rain especially in the Mid-West. Rain has delayed corn plantings which was pushing corn prices up. I figured it would do the same for other key crops that grow on the plains of the Mid-West (like wheat and soybeans). The other thing that has been moving hard in markets is the whole cryptocurrency space – Bitcoin especially. Facebook announced their Libra Coin project on June 18 – since then the price of Bitcoin has rocketed up 45% (to June 26). That has been great news for me as I trade this actively on reversals on the way up (not on the way down). Not that the trading takes a lot of time. I have a clear strategy and I can set trades up and then let them run. In fact in the last week of June I have had trades close out that have been open more than 18 months. What it has done is get in the way of applying consistent and focused effort on my blogging and traffic strategies here. Thank heavens for pre-ordered solo ads that just keep flowing along unattended by me
Cycling and Teamwork
Marko Baloh on RAAM duties
Now I did mention Race Across America, which runs in the early part of June between Oceanside, CA and Annapolis, MD. I sponsored my friend, Marko Baloh, who was competing in the solo men’s race. I followed the daily reports from his team and from the race organisers. I lived through the agony and the ecstasy. I remember it all too well from the previous times when I crewed the race (in 2007 and 2014). What was really cool was one of the crew members, Martin Dressman, on Marko’s crew, crewed with me in 2014 and it was his photos I got to see and share. This race is quite extraordinary. It runs non-stop. The riders are not allowed to ride in groups. Even when they overtake, they are limited as to how long they can ride together. Basically what happens is rider comes behind and alongside, says “Good day. How are you going? Good luck” and off he goes. The passed rider is allowed one chance to pass again – fail that and they have to drop back. This is quite unlike what we see in stage bicycle races (like Tour de France) The key to success in the race is a lot more than the rider. It lies in how the support team is able to feed and water their rider on the move. Their success lies in how well organised they are to get shopping done, to cook solid food, to wash gear and to look after themselves. The most important part is making sure they work in a way that they can get enough sleep. For the solo rider support teams this can be a little easier as the team can sleep when the rider sleeps (which is not a lot) as the vehicles can stop. Last time we had a tent which I could set up and sleep in away from the others – that worked quite well.
One of the support crew wrote up a post about Marko’s team.
I met Marko Baloh well maybe 5 years ago. Since that time we have been on a RAAM crew together, he was my coach 3 years ago (best year on the bike) he has done rides in Scottsdale and has been a dear friend over all these years. It was an HONOR to crew for him. Even better a record shattering year for him.
This year was absolutely in my eyes flawless. I cannot think of one instance where the crew lost control nor a fight broke out. Of course we had our moments of stress and typically that comes from being sleepy and grumpy.
From there in I was welcomed with open arms and my crazy, eccentric personality was respected as apparently I am known in the RAAM world for my costumes and passion for making racers smile.
As the miles went by Marko Baloh – cycling always thanked us for everything and anything. I was the “feeder” on my shift and that is a job that requires my crew chief, Irma Baloh to have major trust in me.
The times that were the toughest were the sleep times. Anyone who crews knows..sleep is the hardest. You have to get your self together and when it is your turn you have to leave reality behind.
I wanted to write about this story as Marko was a winner – he came 2nd overall and he came first in his age category in a new record pace. I was proud to be Time Stage sponsor for the finishing stage. I knew he would be a winner. I knew he would do the work before the race and during the race to win. I knew his team would pull together under the team leader, his wife Irma. I knew that Marko and Irma and their team would be great ambassadors for their sport and their country (Slovenia) and their sponsors. Winning is about building teamwork
Marko and Irma Baloh
Now I have done my fair share of endurance cycling (not racing like Marko does). I have completed 7 journeys across Australia for over 20,000 kms of riding alone. I qualified as an Audax rider to ride Paris-Brest-Paris in 2007, which is the pinnacle of endurance cycling events, run every 4 years. That requires an amazing amount of dedicated effort and mind control. The cycling comes down to a massive solo effort – your mind and body versus the road and the elements. Building teamwork is what separates winners and losers in Race Across America – the rider has to ride solo but the team provides the living and working and safety environment that allows the rider to push the limits. Great riders need great teams to be winners. Marko and his team are exactly that – great rider and great team. I am proud to be one of their sponsors.
Building Teams
Now I have spent a lot of time working in teams. I spent my 25 years working as a management consultant in teams and leading teams. Building teamwork is what I learned to do. I have worked in good teams and in bad teams. I like to think that every team I led was a good team – I know because we can show amazing results AND I remain friends with very many of my team members long after. Teams are about leaders and followers. Good leaders are the ones that create an environment for their followers to grow and to succeed. Good leaders create clear guidelines for the working space they want their team members to operate in. They provide the tools and the training and the coaching and the cocoon of safety. I watched Irma Baloh operating when we crewed alongside her in 2014. I shared an apartment with her and Marko before the start. I read the team member report for 2019 and I see the result and I know this was a high performing team. Building teamwork is what Irma Baloh does well
Internet Marketing and Building Teamwork
Now you might wonder why I am rattling on about this in my blog post about Internet Marketing. You see, the life of an Internet Marketing entrepreneur can turn into a challenging solo effort with long hours spent in front of a computer just like the life of an endurance cyclist. Ride – Rest – Ride – Repeat. Success comes from finding a good formula (buy one or work it out for yourself). One can get a long way doing everything oneself – something has to give as this is not really sustainable longer term. A jack of all trades approach is just not sustainable – especially if jack is prone to bouts of depression when results do not match the effort – like I am. My head is coming around to the importance of building a team to tackle this – work out what can be outsourced and outsource it. That is easier said than done. I know the last time I did actively outsource stuff (article writing) it was a lot harder than I anticipated. BUT we did get more articles edited and posted than a one man team could ever do. I have written before about leverage – building teamwork is a powerful way to apply leverage.
Mentoring and Building Teamwork
Another way to step up to success is to find a good mentor who has seen the hard times and worked out what works (for them). I must say I have done less well in this area – maybe it is the price of strong competence – I can work it out the voice in my head always says. This is ultimately though why I chose to join Dean Holland’s program – it is a mentoring program; it is a training program; it has established products and processes to drive results; there is a team of people doing all the sales follow up work – they also do a fair bit of product design. And sitting behind all those processes is a team of people working to support the partners. This feels a whole lot easier than working alone to build out one’s own team to drive faster and greater success in affiliate marketing. The team is a bit like the Race Across America support crew. They do all it takes to keep the cyclist focused and fed and on the bicycle. My Internet Profits team keeps me fed and focused on the traffic process – find leads and they will convert and nurture them. Building teamwork is something they do quite behind the scenes – that gives me the freedom to focus in on delivering qualified and quality traffic. Time to get back on the horse to focus in on doing just that and be ready for the launch of the new book.
Credits
Teamwork image in header image by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images
