So many engineering leaders and business owners groan when you talk to them about winning work.

"It's really hard"

"It takes a lot of effort and most of the time doesn't pay off"

"Most of the potential customers I talk to already have their preferred engineer and they are just going to give the work to them regardless of what I say or do"....

...and this is absolutely true if you're approaching BD and winning work like everyone else - unfocused networking, boozy lunches, fighting for work based on being the cheapest etc. etc.

Today I want to talk to you about a strategy that has been absolutely amazing for my clients: Authority marketing.

Authority marketing is where you are actively and consciously positioning yourself, your team and your business as a thought leader and a market leader in your chosen field.

You are constantly producing articles, marketing material, content for LinkedIn and other platforms as well as your email database where you are talking about your specific...

Today I want to explore with you a super interesting concept that I’ve been playing around with in my own life and in my own business.

It’s called the 80 / 20 rule for getting ‘stuff’ done.

This concept is all about being conscious, being intentional and accessing the appropriate energy and emotions within yourself to get done what you need to get done.

Let me explain.

You see most of us go about our days and our weeks not been hugely intentional with the energy, the state and the emotions that we’re in in order to get things done. Most of us stay in fairly comfortable emotions and a fairly comfortable state of being, acting, operating and behaving. We like being this way because it’s familiar to us.

And most of us, if we really analyse the energy and the emotions that we operate out of every day - it’s one of being nice to others, it’s one of been quite laid-back, it’s one of not wanting to do things that rock the boat and being...

Procrastination is single-handedly the biggest productivity and goal achieving killer.

Do you find yourself regularly doing things that you KNOW aren’t really that important?

Do you even catch yourself, acknowledge what you're doing isn’t that important - but keep doing it anyway??!!

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself:

 "I know this isn't that important - so why am I doing it?"

 "What's the REAL reason I'm procrastinating here?"

This week I explored with my clients on our coaching call the real and underlying reasons why you ACTUALLY procrastinate.

Think about it for yourself - what do you do when you're procrastinating?

Some of the answers from my clients on the coaching call to this question:

• Eating / snacking.
• Getting another coffee.
• Mindlessly responding to or cleaning up emails.
• Talking to colleagues about things that just aren’t important.
• Surfing carsales.com!!

Then we got to the heart of what is REALLY going on when I asked WHY?

Some of the...

Today I want to talk to you about a training concept that I've just talked to all of my Boardroom clients about, which is the 3 ones.

For those of you who don't know, Boardroom is my training program where I work purely with business owners of engineering consultancies. So a real niche group of amazing clients who are making incredible things happen in their businesses.

This training concept of the 3 ones is really simple and I honestly think that leaders & business owners complicate things when it comes to building their team or business. The 3 ones is essentially this – 1 Client + 1 Connection System + 1 Problem that you solve.

So to expand on this…you only need one ideal client, not four, not five – just one. You have one client where you know their world intimately in terms of all their pain points, all of their frustration points, and you know all the things that you can do to help solve their problems.

One ideal client where you’re really clear on...

So many of us know that as leaders and business owners, we need to be more strategic with our days, weeks, months and years.
 
We know we need to spend more time on big picture thinking, thinking about where our market is going, thinking about how to solve our clients’ problems in a new and unique way, thinking about and forward planning for the pipeline of work coming in the door and making sure the team and the people around us are performing to the best of their ability.
 
So why do so many of us find it difficult or get uncomfortable when we think about or even go to take some time out of our weeks to stop and think creatively and strategically?
 
The answer lies in the conflict in your mind between the different parts of your personality.
 
Let me explain.
 
You see, you have different parts of your personality that want different things for you.
 
You have a driver / achiever part of your personality that only ever wants you to be actioning things,...

I hope you are super well and are having an amazing start to your week.

I've just finished a live coaching call with everyone in my Boardroom program. Today was a clarity call, so helping all of my clients in the program get unstuck, move past roadblocks and clear the way to make good quality strategic decisions.

It was a really powerful call, and my main takeaway was really that no matter what is going on in your world – good, bad or coasting - there are always going to be challenging and difficult things to do. 

Growth is hard. Consolidation is hard. Winning work is hard. Losing clients is hard. Hiring is hard. Firing is hard. 

There are always going to be things that we have to do that are uncomfortable.

And this is some of the advice that I gave everyone on the call today – when things get hard or difficult or challenging - it's so important to come back to your why. 

Who am I doing this all for?

When you have a hard decision to make. When you've got...

I was talking with a client recently about a common frustration in the engineering market at the moment - which is that it’s really hard to find good people.

There is work on everywhere, but business leaders and business owners are finding it hard to actually deliver the work because they don't have the teams in place to deliver good quality work to their clients.

When this happens, there can be a tendency to just hire the next person that walks in the door....regardless of their personality, skill or ability.

A bum on a seat is better than none........right?.........wrong!!

Today I want to explore with you a concept to help you ensure that you are recruiting the right person – every time.

Recruit slowly!!

Don't rush the recruitment process. Find the right person to fill the role, even if it takes WAY longer than you want it to - otherwise you will forever be paying the price.

Yes, it can be hard when clients are frustrated that you aren't delivering quick enough - and...

Today I'd like to explore with you a really simple, but highly effective technique my clients are using right now to set their weeks up so they win.

It all comes down to being really intentional with how you start your week.

Most leaders and business owners get to work or get to their office on Monday mornings and they just start 'doing'.

They just start answering emails or phone calls and get stuck straight into delivery mode. 

I'd like you to do something completely different with the start of your week. I'd like you to block out 2hrs somewhere on Monday morning which will be your time to get intentional and strategic about your week.

In this 2hr block I'd like you to think about, strategise and get clear on your actions around the following:

1)  Business development. This could mean reaching out to a potential client for coffee or lunch, strategising about who you're targeting next with your BD strategy or even sitting down to write a proposal.

2)  Existing client...

As an engineering leader or business owner in the industry at the moment - building and showing the traits of a resilient leader is so critical right now.

The people around you need someone to steer the ship. They need someone who is calm under pressure and who makes decisions quickly when they need to. 

Your team and your business can't afford to have someone at the helm who is unsure, hiding and cracks under pressure.

Now resilience is a difficult skill to master - particularly when you are trying to navigate your own emotions, thoughts and feelings through this busy period as well as being there for your team and your business.

Today I want to give you 3 strategies to become a more resilient and more effective leader during these busy times.

1) Build Awareness

The first step is building awareness of yourself, your thoughts, your feelings and your emotions in any given moment. The easiest way to do this is to set reminders for yourself on your phone throughout the day as a...

Today I want to explore with you an area that a lot of engineering business leaders and business owners aren't getting right at the moment.

Everyone is rushing around so busy, with a million things on their action list and just trying to get enough done to keep their head above water.  

Because of all the rushing - rushing to do BD, saying yes to everything, rushing to get projects done, rushing the delegation process to internal teams etc. - no-one is pausing long enough to get clarity on what it is that they're actually supposed to be doing and actually trying to achieve.

The problem with rushing and the problem with taking action without clarity - is that it leads to mistakes, it leads to rework, it leads to unhappy clients who may start looking elsewhere, it leads to wasted money and resources and it leads to not profitable projects - all of which is completely unsustainable.

If you're looking to thrive right now (which I know you are) then you need to be ensuring that...