Kylie Mullins and Myself – She is one Lean, Mean, SMALL WIN Machine that is going great. Amazing watch her succeed and get that bit more awesome each day!
I am a lucky man and get to work with some awesome business women across town. One of them being this amazing Early Education Specialist by the name of Kylie Mullins from ABC Come Read With Me. In the time that I have known her – I have watched her get more advanced in her life, move on from her job and focus on her business full-time and we had a great chat when we bumped into each other out in the Sydney Business Scene. We were comparing notes and sharing our own respective progress in our business and life ventures.
Interestingly we were talking about the evil topic of OVERWHELM which as a Small Business Owner / Entrepreneur is a very easy trap to fall into. That is your work is never ending and when you have been going for a while it’s easy – but early days when you are starting out it can be one of the most stressful things.
You say may have literally hundreds of things to get through and the question comes to “Arrgghhh! How do I get it done and work out the right order?”. That is obviously a big question I am barely even going to even scratch the surface with this article but what I can say is an amazing trait to help deal with this is understanding the importance of SMALL WINS.
Our societal zeitgeist is all about “Instant Wins & Gratification”. We are hungry, we get food. We want chocolate, we get it now. We want attention, we ask for it. We can success, do we get it now?
The answer is of course NO WAY. That is, if you are measuring success in terms of big things, the answer will be no way.
BUT, if you break down your massive objective into smaller parts (and obviously prioritize it in the right order which is another conversation) you can celebrate the small win at each stage of the process. Beyond some “Feeling Good / Group Hug / Rha Rha” throw away line, I mean this more from a pure productive viewpoint. If you are trying to do heaps of things and you complete none of them (say you get to only 80% complete on 10 items) you get no result. But if you get to 100% complete on say 3 items your possibly of results skyrockets!
If you do one little thing at a time and keep checking them off and do it in a methodical and patient manner you start having “Small Wins”. Many think “Oh that sucks Edward and you are silly, I want massive wins and I am such a big achiever and you suck Ed”. Sure, you may think that and may I tell my critics or anyone questioning this logic that I am a Persian Man living in Inner West Sydney. I am a very ambitious man and I have got massive results and I want more of them!
However, as Kylie and I were awesomely discussing – the BIG MASSIVE results are never achieved in one sitting. They are achieved by HEAPS OF SMALL WINS overtime that cumulatively contribute to the big win.
For example, let’s say you want to launch a Seminar and get 80 people like (like Martha Arifin and I just started the other day). There are about 400 – 800 little things that need to be done to make it happen. Concept, Writing, Website, Sign-Up Form, Prospect List, Site Integration – and it goes on forever. Nobody is going to achieve this in one sitting, but over time you keep knocking off the small items and it comes to full form.
Going back to awesome Kylie who is the heroine of this article – she was telling me her realization of this and it was great hearing it. Even though in her Tutoring / Early Education Business she is certainly facing a bit of overwhelm, she is working through her endless list of items one at a time in a productive / constructive and very mature manner. This may sound quite obvious to some, but I can tell you right now as a seasoned Marketing Mentor – very few practice this with the skill and approach that Kylie is embracing.
Hence, she has a great reason to smile! She is each day getting that bit more successful by taking plenty of minor baby steps and building her results.
My advice and thoughts on this one? Have a great priority list with tons of nice detail and work out what you should do in 1) Less than 30 Days, 2), 30 to 60 Days, 3) 60 to 90 Days and 4) 120 Days +. This “90 Day Action Plan” cures the overwhelm and helps you focus on what to do next in the right order.
Kylie is well armed with this plan and she tells me she loves it! So if you are feeling overwhelm blues, channel some of Kylie Mullins “Small Wins Success” and feel good!
Thank you for taking the time to read this and have a great day or night out there.
Edward Zia – Marketing Mentor, Kylie Admirer and Man of Many Small Wins!
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