Sacramento – Executive Growth Strategies

February 9, 2021

Preparing For The Next Pandemic And The Elk Grove Food Bank

I’m reaching out to a few very specific people. I hope we can help each other and feed some people…

The pandemic has shattered a lot of lives personally, professionally and from a business standpoint.

I’m fortunate and was prepared… Not everyone else was.

Will you be better prepared for the next pandemic in whatever form it happens?

I am hosting a 90 minute workshop to address how to be better prepared on February 11 @ 11:00 am.

I am asking, not requiring a $20 donation to the Elk Grove Food Bank (click below to donate).

The donation is not a requirement. Some may not be able to afford it. I am not here to judge anyone!

This workshop be about how to get back onto stable ground and what to do right now to scale.

If you don’t feel like you will be able to at least 10X your $20 investment I will refund your money to you from my pocket.

The Food Bank will not suffer any Financial Risk. I like seeing hungry people eat, especially children.

Below are links to register for the class, to donate to the Elk Grove Food Bank and a 6 minute video about what we’ll cover.

Event https://calendar.google.com/event?action=TEMPLATE&tmeid=YmhmMm1hOTZkcGF2dmNhamRhZzNjMGJtNzAgZHJzdGV2ZW5jbGF1c29uQG0&tmsrc=drstevenclauson%40gmail.com

Donate https://elkgrovefoodbank.org/how-to-help/donate/

Video https://youtu.be/CDuP__It1Sg

Dr. Steven Clauson

916-230-0176

February 5, 2021

Did You Know That 6 Of The 8 Female NFL Coaches Are Working Sunday?

Many purists are borderline apoplectic due so many new coaches in the NFL being women. To be clear, these are women who have likely never played a down of high level tackle football in their life. What could they possibly bring to the table? I’ve been asked that question a lot during my own career about how I can help my potential client and my ability to learn and solve problems has taken me to a lot of unexpected places. From what I’ve read it’s taking many female coaches to places they may never have expected.

When the only tool someone knows how to operate is a hammer everything needs to be a nail. The NFL has always been a game reliant on size, strength and power and these attributes will always matter. In 2021 the NFL has evolved to the point where finesse and problem solving skills are more important than ever. Defeating a complex offensive scheme demands different thinking. Complex game plans on either side of the ball demand thinking in a very different way. Imagine how differently a 5’ 6” police officer must think when they work to enforce the law in any gang infested neighborhood just so they can go home after their shift is over? The thinking that got her the job won’t get her home!

People from all walks of life, all ages, all colors, all sexual orientations and all backgrounds learn to be great lawyers, skilled surgeons, accounting geniuses, and anything else you can think of. Others who have the talent to excel at these professions are complete failures for many different reasons. Some of the common traits of anyone who excels at anything comes down to hard work, the willingness to learn something new and someone who said “What the hell do we have to lose?” From my side of the desk I know more about how to successfully market a business than my potential client does and when they let go they see the results. There are 8 female coaches in the NFL and six of them work for the Tampa Bay Bucs and the Kansas City Chiefs. Coincidence? Finding and retaining world class talent matters now more than ever! I Guarantee I Can Help You!

My name is Steven Clauson. I coach people who want help getting where they want to be. The people I coach are typically already taking action, getting results and ask what’s next and what actions to take to make an even greater impact. They aren’t afraid to ask for help. How can I help you? What actions are you taking? Those who have a plan and implement that plan lead the pack. Planning, preparing to win and taking appropriate action means you hear the word “YES” more than ever. Only if you are one of the few willing to take action, do what’s required and play full out are you likely to hear the word yes more often. People hearing the word “YES” are winners on the playing field because they play full out and dominate. For these people results matter. Tired of results less than you know you can produce? Call me at 916-230-0176 or visit www.stevenclauson.com

February 3, 2021

Did You Know That 6 Of The 8 Female NFL Coaches Are Working Sunday?

December 14, 2020

The Economic Explosion Resulting From The Coronavirus Vaccine Or Do You Want Fries With That???

CVS, Rite-Aid, Walmart, Sams Club along with just about any place that has a pharmacy cannot get the Coronavirus soon enough and for reasons that may not be clear to everyone. This morning on Stuart Varney I saw the statistic that 41% are ready to get the vaccine as soon as possible, 44% want to wait a bit and 15% said they would never be willing to get vaccinated. While these are the highest acceptance rates I’ve seen I don’t doubt them. Why are so many companies in line to provide this service? The reason is selling fries with that vaccine.

McDonalds became very profitable after training their counter staff to ask “do you want fries with that?” This simple question raised the average ticket by only $1.79 (the cost of a medium fry). While $1.79 may not seem significant on its own merit you must consider McDonalds sees 62,000,000 customers every day! If only 20% are upsold to that means an additional $22 million in sales daily and $8 billion in sales annually! This all comes from asking “do you want fries with that?”

When you know what you can sell your ideal customer and you combine that with what else you can sell them you enter the Zone Of Pure Genius! These companies know that 41% of the nation cannot get the vaccine soon enough. In these stores the place where you will physically get the shot is at the back of the store. They’re betting you’ll do some shopping for other things while you’re there anyway. This is a very solid plan. I’ve already had e-mails from two of these named companies reminding me that they will be offering the vaccine and asking to place me on their list. It gives them a reason to contact me with the expectation I will open and read it. The initial e-mail also contained coupons for products related to colds and the flu. As a friend who is a CPA tells me “whenever the IRS announces a tax simplification measure it is the same as a full employment act for accountants!”

September 15, 2020

The Trip That Seemed So Long Is Actually Shorter Than It Seemed

Be forewarned… This e-mail will be blunt and in your face. If that bothers you quite frankly I don’t care as long as you pay attention to every word! My sister called me yesterday morning to tell me my father passed away. Even though not unexpected, it was also not easy to hear.
     My father was never the loving guy with lots of amazing advice who would comfort you and leave you with the wisdom of the ages. He was closer to the drill sergeant you’d have in basic training who wanted you to stand on your own two feet before you could even walk. I heard the term “walk it off” more often than I care to think about. I won’t tell you I always appreciated his intensity or that it was easy. Maybe that’s why I moved out between my junior and senior year of high school. Maybe that’s why I named my company Assault Marketing and not Bunnies and Kittens Marketing. Also, the domain bunniesandkittens.com was taken. Maybe that’s why I succeeded.
     So here I am today… a 65 year old orphan. I’m also incredibly fortunate. Two weeks ago I spent the weekend with my father, both of my sisters and my brother at my fathers home watching the COVID version of the Indianapolis 500. At the time I felt it might be the last time I’d have to actually interact with him. Sadly I was right. I made certain I told him what I needed to, made certain to hear what he had to say and be certain he knew that I was there to support him in any way I possibly could. He’d give me a decent grade on that. I did the best I could.
     Losing someone sucks. Losing someone is especially hard when it’s a parent, sibling or child. I learned much from my father I use daily. Another benefit has been listening to and sharing with other men and women stories their fathers and their takeaways. I always thought my childhood was uniquely difficult. I’ve learned I was not unique in thinking I had a difficult childhood. Today I have a much more clear meaning of what Mark Twain meant by “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles but most of them never happened.” In retrospect my childhood was pretty freaking good.
     It’s funny… I wanted to write about delayed conversations today and I’m writing about a conversation that wasn’t delayed. Good on me. I’m going to write next time about someone who delayed a conversation for 7 years because of fear. He has since seen first hand what having the results from that conversation has meant to him and his family. I’m pretty good at talking to anyone about anything yet my father always intimidated me at least a little. Perhaps you can relate. If you’re delaying a conversation with someone sack up and get it started. Look for middle ground. Mend a fence. Apologize. Hear someone out. Help someone who just might be having a more difficult time than you can imagine.
     If I can help you with your business or by simply listening I will happily do so. Just tell me this one’s on Lloyd! I’d be honored to talk with you. Pick a time at www.speakwithsteven.com and let’s connect!

Dr. Steven Clauson
916-230-0176
steve@stevenclauson.com

Ps: If you don’t already know, I help business owners and entrepreneurs get where they want to be and have a life in the process. If you’re already taking action the next question is what’s next and what actions should you take to create an even greater impact.

Pps: How can I help you? Anyone who has a plan and implements that plan will lead the pack. Planning, preparing to win and taking appropriate action means you hear the word “YES” more than ever. If you’re one of the few willing to take action, do what’s required and play full out are you’re likely to hear the word yes more often. People hearing the word “YES” are winners on the playing field because they play full out and dominate. For these people results matter. Tired of results less than you know you can produce?  Call me at 916-230-0176 or schedule time with me at www.speakwithsteven.com

September 1, 2020

There Is No Adversity Without A Solution… None!

Having worked at success for the past 35 years I’ve helped many people from many different walks of life embrace the idea of “massive imperfect action.” Some refer to this as fake it until you make it… I don’t agree. Even before I opened my initial chiropractic office I knew I wanted to be unique in my approach along with the level of success I enjoyed.
          Early on when I was seeing very few patients every week, I acted as if I was seeing many more. In my mind I figured out what it would take to move from treatment room to treatment room and take films, do a report of findings, adjust my patient and take chart notes while still doing the other things required to build a bigger practice. My goal was to deliver a certain dollar level in services annually with a 35% overhead and do it all without advertising. I accomplished this and never quit growing. I eventually exceeded 300 patient visits per week in 21 hours. Keep in mind this was accomplished without advertising and was 100% referral based. In 1995 I injured myself in a permanent manner and sold my practice in 1996.
          Times were not always great. There were times when I focused 100% on the internal aspects of my practice while placing the external aspect on the back burner. There were also times I placed things on the back burner longer than I should have and I paid that price as well. That doesn’t happen any longer. When I see it happen with a marketing client or a coaching client we come to an agreement on either discipline or justice. Discipline are actions you take on yourself. Justice are those actions done to you from an external force. Justice is when you’re caught speeding and get a speeding ticket. Discipline is when you notice you’re speeding and slow down on your own.
When a marketing or coaching client leaves things on the back burner for too long a period of time for any reason or they’re looking for a period of extreme growth in their business I help them with a plan to REACT to the reality they created. This plan is not one size fits all. This plan has yet to fail myself or anyone else. I shared this plan with my personal coach to use on me. I learned about this plan in a book titled “Overcome” by Jason Redman. Lieutenant Redman is a retired Navy Seal with multiple awards who was severely injured in the line of duty. He and his family have seen a side of hell most of us cannot imagine.
          The willingness to walk down difficult roads requires the willingness to think like an adult and in an intellectual manner. This is only for those who demand results and don’t have a pre-designed back door they can escape out of such. Back door escape hatches appear as a rich family or someone who has a pile of money and they are willing to spend what they need to live on. Creating, implementing and living a plan like this requires courage.
What’s your current plan?  I’d be honored to talk with you. Pick a time at www.speakwithsteven.com and let’s connect!

Dr. Steven Clauson
916-230-0176
steve@stevenclauson.com

Ps: If you don’t already know, I help business owners and entrepreneurs get where they want to be and have a life in the process. If you’re already taking action the next question is what’s next and what actions should you take to create an even greater impact.

Pps: How can I help you? Anyone who has a plan and implements that plan will lead the pack. Planning, preparing to win and taking appropriate action means you hear the word “YES” more than ever. If you’re one of the few willing to take action, do what’s required and play full out are you’re likely to hear the word yes more often. People hearing the word “YES” are winners on the playing field because they play full out and dominate. For these people results matter. Tired of results less than you know you can produce?  Call me at 916-230-0176 or schedule time with me at www.speakwithsteven.com

August 10, 2020

A Business Without An Active Mailing List Isn’t

If you’ve been in business more than a few hours and still don’t have a mailing list you’re using at least twice every month I wonder what you’re waiting for. After the start of this pandemic I was getting calls from business owners I’ve met with who poo pooed the value of a mailing list…. who all of a sudden wanted to create a database really quick without the raw material to do so. A truly heartbreaking case was a family owned restaurant with great food and a not so great location. When we initially met a couple of years earlier they didn’t want to bother with a mailing list or an active social platform (which could work as a secondary mailing list). Today they have closed their doors permanently and filed bankruptcy. The reason he didn’t want to take the time or spend the money to create this list is they were “too busy” and based on the level of business it wasn’t needed.
I’ve seen so many businesses spending money on advertising to get a new customer then balk at spending less money to keep the customer they already have. If a business makes a sale to their customer twice a year on average and they increase that average to three times per year they have increased their business by fifty percent (50%)… How would accomplishing this be a bad thing? People who already buy from you know what it’s like to do business with you and are the easiest to get a return visit from. These same people are easier to get an increased dollar value sale out of as well.
Few owners make the connection between the value of their business and how it relates to having a database. True Story… Several years ago I was working with an HVAC company who maintained their customer database within their billing system. They weren’t using the database for marketing purposes. Everything was kept on a tape back-up which was left in the back-up slot in the office computer. Nothing was ever taken off site. I suggested they learn how to restore from a back-up and also recommended the back-up be taken off site. A tragic fire happened late on a Sunday night several months later (not suspicious in any way) and the physical business burned to the ground… A complete loss. Some technicians took their vans home and they were unaffected. Monday morning I had them go to a local office supply store and buy a computer with a tape back-up already installed. They went about restoring the data. By a little after 11 am that same morning they had their database reinstalled along with their A/R and A/P and due to remote call forwarding were already taking calls for service. They had a database, knew how to restore it, knew how to use it and leveraged that information. They continue to use it even today and most of their marketing is driven from their internal database.
How do you use your database? There are several businesses who have already come out of this and doing better year over year compared to 2019. Great! Top Of Mind Awareness is critically important right now. Create, use or enhance what you have and you can move from a market participant to your market leader. Being the leader is what this is all about! I have a few suggestions so you can move in that direction!
If I you want to talk let me know at www.speakwithsteven.com

July 18, 2020

The World Has Changed… What Skills Will You Need Moving Forward?

For many people in the pre-pandemic workforce required skills boiled down to remaining relevant. Could you do those things that were minimally required of someone in your position? With the overly stressed labor pool that existed in 2019, if you were minimally competent you were pretty well set. It was Woody Allen who so accurately said that 80% of success was just showing up. My suspicion is the post pandemic world will change a lot of that.

The shift for many from in-office work to working from home sounds great on the surface and it also brings with it the statement “Be careful what you wish for.” Working from home while being both productive and busy will be a real test for most people. Learning to do a Zoom meeting is just the beginning. Being comfortable with new tech will be critical and self-learning will likely define tomorrows leaders in these new and uncharted waters. The rules will be made as we go along and unless you’re one of the lead dogs the view will never change…. Neither will your paycheck!

Self-learning will not revolve around watching a YouTube video or Ted Talk. Self-Learning for many will come down to a return to reading and starting to re-invest in your personal education along with the development of a personal library. Books will once again matter in my opinion the sooner this starts the better. You can either resist this shift or embrace it but make no mistake the shift is happening as we speak. What’s your plan?

June 30, 2020

Most People Work On The Symptom Not The Problem…

I spoke to a business group recently and ended by taking questions. This was a group of legal and accounting professionals and their questions were many of the same questions general contractors ask. All questions were symptom related and avoided the actual problem. A symptom question would be “How do we get busier?” and a problem question would be “Our director of outreach is getting more potential customers in the door and I want to know how to change the demographic they are reaching?” Symptom as opposed to problem.

To make the shift from symptom to problem requires better questions. Great questions define the actual problem. Poorly framed questions produce only tactics. Tactical answers don’t have the ability to change the result but make you feel like progress is being made toward a worthwhile goal.

Here’s cheat sheet on asking better questions. Start with a question that outlines the actual thing you need to repair. Once you have a clear and true understanding of the actual thing work on simplifying the thing to the greatest extent possible. The last action is to expand the different ways you can get there. In 1958 Dr. Robert Schuller needed to raise $1 million dollars to build his church and that was a lot of money in 1958. If he could find 1 person with $1 million it would be easy… Finding that 1 person would be very difficult. Then he looked at 2 people at $500,000 which was still hard and he finally settled at $100 from 10,000 people. He outlined what he needed, simplified what was needed and expanded the possibilities until he got the right answer.

What is your right answer and how much more time will you spend asking the wrong question?

June 23, 2020

If You’re Motivated By Weekends And Vacations Something is Missing!

When you start Monday looking forward to Friday something is missing. Time off is great until that’s what driving you. When that happens everyone knows it and can feel it. It’s the feeling you get when you talk with someone who must make a sale to stay alive.

I was promoted to foreman for Home Building Center in 1978. The person whose position I was promoted to left behind a sign that said “If you want to kill time try working it to death.” Like so many people who are initially hired to do a job I was unqualified. I knew it was up to me to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible. I spent evenings in the local library reading books on project management and logistics. This made for long weeks and weekends. I looked forward to Friday to arrive because I had the weekend to immerse myself in what I was going to implement on Monday. This drove me and motivated me to want more. This was time well spent. Within just a few months I was driving a new car and my sales numbers were the best the company had ever had.

Fast forward to 2020. I see too many uninspired people largely just going through the motions. Long ago they decided to quit reading, they decided to quit challenging themselves and in many respects they decided to just give up. It appears that some of the people get out of bed to share their defeat with others… no need to keep their level of sadness and defeat to themselves when we we’re all told that misery loves company.

I spend my weekend with friends doing what’s important to me. I read every day to sharpen my axe and never turn off my cell phone. I’ve learned to either fix most any problem comes up or who to call if I can’t get the job done myself. What motivates you and actually gets you out of bed? If you aren’t excited when your feet hit the floor we need to talk!