A Budget-Friendly Way to Do Market Research

A Budget-Friendly Way to Do Market Research

Sean: What keeps you going every time you don’t feel like leading or doing your overall commitment to the company?

This is a hard question. That’s tough. I’ve had those days. That’s tough. Yeah, this is a tough question. Honor. It’s really my honor. If you’re familiar with Reiss Motivation Profile, which is another profiling test like Gallup Strengths Finder, my desire for honor is extremely high. So you could almost say that I’m a person who values honor at a very high level. Honor is a very big deal for me.

And I feel really bad if I don’t serve my people just because I don’t feel like leading that day just because I don’t want to commit that day to serving them and doing the work. I’d feel very bad. Superbad. And I guess that’s what keeps me going. That’s what keeps me present, even when I don’t feel like it.

Maybe I’d sneak in by delegating a thing or two something that I should be personally doing, that I know I can do, but I’d delegate it anyway if I don’t feel like working that day or eating that day. Maybe I’d do that just to balance myself out. But I cannot not work just because I don’t feel like it. If ever that has happened, it rarely happens.

Next question from Sara: What are your simple habits to practice patience?

Patience is something that I believe God has given me as a gift. So I know a lot of people who have road rage. I’m one of the people that is super chill when I drive. You never hear me cuss or get angry even when people cut me or they’re too slow or they’re a little crazy when they are driving. You never hear me say anything about that. You can ask my wife about it.

So I think patience is something that God has gifted me with. Yeah, I just keep in mind that you know you are where you are because it’s the perfect timing that God put you there. If you believe that, then there really is no reason for you to be impatient. If you believe that you are where you are, because at that time that’s where God put you, there is no real reason for you to be impatient. So I hope that helps Sara.

You have problems with patience? I wonder. I’m sure you don’t. You seem such a patient person, but I hope that helps. Let’s go to the next one.

Niño: I sometimes stay away from goals, and I tend to procrastinate, what do I need to do to keep me motivated?

Sean: This is the struggle of a lot of professionals actually, so you’re not alone in this. A lot of people struggle with that. What I realize is if your goals, if the reason why those goals are on your plate is not big enough, then you won’t work hard enough. So it may be that the goals are not that big enough for you in your life. It doesn’t matter that what you think about it is not big enough. It doesn’t matter too much for you. It might be one of the reasons why you tend to procrastinate.

Because if it is something that really matters to you, matters a lot to you and you meditate on it, you think about it, “When would I be able to finish this? When will I be able to do this? What would happen to my life if I actually accomplish these things?” Then you’d do whatever it takes. That’s going to be your burning why. Why do I have these goals? Why do I want to achieve that? That’s what we call the burning why. If it’s burning hot enough, if it’s big enough, you’re not going to procrastinate.

One of the other things that I do to make sure that I hit my goals is, it sounds so simple, I keep a task list in my calendar and I make sure to clear my calendar for things that I want to do that are important but not urgent. Because there are so many urgent things that would come within your day and it’s going to demand time from you. So in order to keep that at bay and make sure you have focus time, because when you do deep work you’re going to need one hour at least of transitioning into that deep work.

What do I mean by deep work? It’s like writing a book, writing a process document, writing your mission vision statement, writing your core values, and I had to do that. I’m the CEO. I was the one who wrote those things for my company. I needed deep work, and that, again, is one hour of transitioning in time. So maybe four to five hours of focus time, that’s what I needed to do that.

And in order for me to do that, I have to block off my calendar and tell my team, “This is off-limits, you can’t book any meetings here.” So that’s one of the things that I do to make sure that I am on track with the things that are important and I need to do and I don’t procrastinate them.

Because sometimes procrastination is also a result of you keeping on accepting work. Anything urgent, just throw it my way and I’m going to accept it and I’m going to work on it. And then you realize the day’s gone and that important thing that you wish to do, or you planned to do today, is going to be pushed to another day and you don’t have the same inspiration on that day. So those are some of the things that I do to make sure I hit those goals and don’t procrastinate.

Your second question: What do I need to do to keep motivated? Always remember why you’re doing what you’re doing. Always remember why you have those goals in place. There’s a reason why you have those goals, those important things, and if they’re burning big enough, bright enough, you’re going to be motivated to finish them on time.

Question from Ann: We’ll be submitting our accomplishment report this Friday for evaluation. What are the contents? I can include aside from the actions taken and challenges?

Well, an accomplishment report is something where you put in all of the stuff you’ve been able to do for the company, for the client. So when we send an accomplishment report, we just make sure to put in everything, every little detail that we were able to positively accomplish for the client there. I guess in your case that’s what I would do. I don’t know what you do Ann and I’m not familiar with your work, but at least for SEO Hacker, that’s how we do it.

Make sure to make it simple and make it designed well so that the client will be able to understand it easily. Because sometimes the person you send the report to is not really that into reports. So make sure that it’s super easy to understand, and well-designed so that when they submit it or when they present it to their board of directors, advisors or execom, it’s easy for them to present it. And you’ll look good because you’re the one who made the accomplishment report. ‘

What are the contents you can include, aside from actions taken in challenges? Make sure you include stats. How well did your work contribute to the bottom line or to their KPIs? If you can have that, that would be great. Or if you have KPIs that you’re measured with, make sure you put in there how well you’ve measured against your KPI. That’s going to make for a really good accomplishment report. I mean that’s what I want to see if I was the one asking for the accomplishment report. So I hope that helps, Ann.