Darren Hardy Shares His Secrets to Success in Business and Life

In this powerful FREE interview, Kyle Wilson, long time marketing superstar of such legends as Jim Rohn, Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar and Denis Waitley, discusses with Darren Hardy, long time friend, colleague and publisher of SUCCESS magazine, the distinctions and ideas they gleaned from thousands of hours spent with some of the best marketing and success thought leaders in the world.

In part one of this interview Darren shares insights and lessons learned from personal interviews and conversations with icons such as Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett, Jim Rohn, Maria Shriver and Paul J. Meyer.

Darren talks about the number one thing a company must focus on when given the choice between management, margins, marketing or product.

He also uncovers the secrets of how companies like Apple, Nike, Starbucks and Harley-Davidson create cult like followings and the strategic process of turning customers and into raving fans and then converting those fans into passionate and loyal advocates.

Darren and Kyle both share from their own 20+ years of personal experiences with legends Jim Rohn and Paul J. Meyer.

Listen or download part one today and we’ll send part two in a few days.

Enjoy!

Times are Changing: Age, Sex and Our Future (2 of 2) by Darren Hardy

As we discussed in the first post, gender and generations are changing the landscape of business and the dynamics of the work environment in dramatic fashion.

If you can learn to adapt your culture and your leadership you will thrive as we march forward into the future.

Don’t adapt and it could be curtains for your business and your prosperous future.




So I have two methods to suggest in helping you adapt, develop and thrive.

1. Reverse Mentoring
This is the best way to integrate the trading of skills, perspectives and experience throughout your organization. Have men be mentored by women and boomers mentored by millennials.

Have women teach men many of the communication, social and interpersonal skills that women are more naturally adept at and how a man should best communicate to, work with and help support women in the workplace.

Have millennials teach boomers new technology, web services, social media and how the should best communicate to, work with and help support their younger colleagues in the workplace.

You might be asking, why the one-way street?

Well, first, it’s where the greatest gap and need exists, and secondly, mentoring the other way will happen naturally through the relationship.

Women will learn a lot more about their male counterpart in the workplace and how they, too, can adopt some of the skills more natural or prevalent in males in the workplace, and certainly millennials will pick up important leadership, discipline and mindset insights from their more experienced boomer workmates.

2. Be a Student Leader
This action item is particularly for you—the leader of your organization. I want to suggest you go around asking lots of questions to those outside your gender and your generation.

The best way to find out how they tick is to ask them… and listen… really listen.
Here is a questionnaire document I made for you to go through this process. Download here

Suggestion:
Interview at least 3 people (5 is better) from the opposite gender and 3 (5 is better) people from a generation other than your own (particularly the one you understand the least and might frustrate you the most as a result).

Next Step:
Ask one of those from the opposite gender and different generation to mentor you on the topic. Ask them to be your go-to person to talk through interactions and experiences you are going through with people of their orientation and get feedback and advice from them.

Follow-up:
Let me know how it goes. I’d love to hear what ‘ahas’ you get when you interview those of different mind and background. You can find me on my blog, Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. I can’t wait to read your comments.

Take on these two suggestions and you will become a dynamic and influential leader of men and women… of all ages.
Wow, what power that will give you.

Share your thoughts, ideas and inspirations in the comments below. ‘Share’ and ‘Like’ below too.

Times are Changing: Age, Sex and Our Future (1 of 2) by Darren Hardy

We live in such incredibly dynamic times. These are exciting times to be alive… and challenging.
Most everything we have come to know is being disrupted and changed… seemingly all at once.
And for this conversation I’m not even referring to the technological or globalization changes that have impacted every function and facet of our business life.

I’m talking about the massive change in diversity we are undergoing in our workplace.


Not a diversity of race (although that is certainly another consideration with the impact of globalization), I’m talking about the diversity of gender and generations.

These changes are so significant that they are an ‘Adapt or Die’ threat level to the survival of your business over the next decade or two.

At the same time, if you DO adapt, and quickly, this can become one of your greatest advantages, helping you build a dynamic and thriving organization over the next several years, adding to your experience that these are the most exciting times to be alive.

Sex/Gender
A new milestone in U.S. history has been reached…

• According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are more women working than men.
• Unemployment for men: 9.3% compared to 7.6% for women.
• 78% of the layoffs in recent years were men.
• More married women have unemployed husbands than ever before, a record 21%.
• Stay-at-home dads have doubled in recent years, making 1 out of 5 stay-at-home parents a father.

Add all that to this…

• 20.1 million women have bachelor’s degrees vs. 18.7 million men—a discrepancy of 1.4 million (it has been increasing since women passed men in 1996).
• And now, for the first time, women have passed men in gaining advanced college degrees.

All this gives us a very clear view of the future of our business culture. The era of yang-based business is over. It’s important you learn the yin way of doing business if you want to continue to thrive going forward.

Age/Generations
Add that to this interesting challenge…
In prior years, we have had three generations, sometimes four, but today because people are living and working longer…

• We will soon have five generations in the workplace—all at once.
• In four years Millennials (born between 1977 and 1997) will account for half of all the employees in the world, according to Harvard Business Review.
• It’s important to realize these are not all fresh from dorm rooms 20-somethings. By 2015 the oldest of this generation will be around 35, holding roles of significant leadership and executive management.
• Also, while the median age of the working population in the United States is around 36.7, in emerging markets, it is closer to 26 years old, with a larger population of younger workers.

Learning how to recruit, retain, motivate and leverage the diversity of experience, skills and capabilities of both genders and these different generations will be essential for you to stay competitive during these dynamic, very exciting and fast-changing times.

Now that you have this new awareness, in the next post I will give you two methods to help prepare and develop your internal culture and your leadership capability so you can not only adapt to survive, but actually thrive by leveraging these exciting shifts shaping our future.

How have you seen the workforce change? What have you done to adapt to these changes? Share your ideas and thoughts in the comments below.

The Franchise Player by Darren Hardy

I was watching a major sporting event recently and the commentator kept referring to one of the athletes as a “franchise player.”

Wanting to know exactly what this description meant, I did what we all do nowadays—I looked it up on Wikipedia.

The Great Wiki said a “franchise player” is an athlete who is not simply the best player on the team, but a player that the team can build its “franchise” (team or business) around for the foreseeable future.

The game I was watching was on the line, the outcome dependent on the performance of this franchise player. If he came through, his team would go into the playoffs, resulting in many more games, with additional coliseums filled with excited fans buying tickets, food and merchandise.

I started to think about the owner of the team. His or her entire annual return, maybe the entire future value of the enterprise, was riding on the shoulders of this one player. One player determined the difference of hundreds of millions of dollars. I thought, if I were the owner of the team, I would hire and pay a few people six-figure salaries just to manage the well-being of this one player. It would be worth it.

Last year I read Tom Rath’s book Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements. Tom explains that true well-being encompasses your professional life (liking what you do every day), social life (having positive relationships and love), finances, physical fitness and health, and community involvement.
Thinking about this franchise player, I started masterminding the different ways the team owner could keep the player’s job fun, challenging and enjoyable (ya, SUCCESS always on the brain!).

Then ways to ensure he was hanging out only with people who were supportive, loving and positively reinforcing. Certainly I would hire the best and most trusted financial advisers. Every aspect of his physical health, nutrition, training and rehabilitation would be managed and monitored by a team of world-class trainers. Then to complete the well-being management, I would be sure he was actively involved with charitable endeavors to make sure he gained a sense of his higher purpose and felt the fulfillment of contribution.

Then I thought, Hey, I’m the owner of my team, I should take care of my franchise players like this as well. My financial future is in their hands. If I take great care of them they will take me all… the… way… to my goals and dreams.

Then I thought one step further: Hey, I AM the franchise player for my team— family, business, life—as well. I should take care of my well-being with this much care, consideration and investment.

It’s the shrewd and prudent thing to do.

That’s what I want to encourage you to do as well. You are the franchise player for your family, business and life. Invest the time, money and thoughtfulness to be sure your well-being is well-managed. The future of your team—family, business, life—depends on your performance.
That is what our current issue of SUCCESS (on newsstands now!) is focused on helping you achieve—greater well-being in all five essential areas of your life.

The game is on the line (every day): Is your well-being in peak-performance condition?
I hope so. (watch my free nutrition and fitness videos here)

What do you do to take care of your franchise players–your key team members and yourself? Share your ideas in the comments below.

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