Pat and Lorna Shanks Archives - ** TCC-TESTING **

Expectations, Disappointment and Remembering Why You Did It in the First Place

Pat & Lorna Cool Knowledge, Pat and Lorna Shanks

You’re so pumped… so sure that you’ll achieve a certain level of success, you can almost taste it. Then, whoa… what the heck? You fall short of where you expected to be, the level of success or the award you felt you would achieve.

Here’s my (Lorna’s) experience on this very subject:

I was so excited. I had worked my butt off in the gym, ate more chicken than seemed humanly possible, and noticed way more improvements in my body’s physique than a mere 4 months earlier in my last Figures Competition.

I was confident I`d place in the top 5… perhaps very near the top. In fact, I was almost positive this would happen.

Not so.

I couldn`t understand why (at first). I pretty much knew after the morning show that I would not be in the top 5… I almost felt like just skipping the evening show. After all, what was the point? That`s when Pat stepped in with some very empowering questions (he`s an excellent coach :)), which reminded me… it’s about the journey, not the destination; and it’s about improving myself, not the competition with the other girls. And darn it all, I met a lot of wonderful people… and had a blast.

Basically that was it… the reasons why I worked so hard in the gym, and followed such a stringent diet. (Not to mention how much I enjoy my workouts.) Basically, why I did it in the first place.

I was shocked to see how carried away I was by my lack of “awards”. Perhaps there is the underlying answer to it all… I “expected” awards, and in the end received much more in the way of life lessons and huge reminders about the real rewards; the sense of accomplishment, the enjoyment of doing what I love, and meeting some extraordinary people.

My expectations at the next competition will be much different. Will I have some? Oh yes, I expect to show some physical improvements, meet some wonderful people, and have a whole lot of fun along the way!

P.S. After looking at my professional photos, I could see where I fell short… giving me more incentive to turn it up a notch or two at the gym, and a better idea of what I need to work on.

Lorna`s Trailer Of The Competition

Pat Interviews Lorna On Her Experience

Unorganized and Overwhelmed? What’s the Real Cost of Not Having it Together?

Pat & Lorna Cool Knowledge, Pat and Lorna Shanks

Are you overwhelmed… drowning in a flood of online contacts and information? Yep! Like most people operating a business online, you are bombarded with “stuff” every day; and if you are unorganized, anything of value just floats away with all of the garbage.

What does this mean to you and your audience?

It means that you cannot connect with and reach people who could really benefit from your message and what you have to offer. And… you miss out on a lot of information, that added to your knowledge base could make a huge impact in your customers’ lives.

So not only do you and your business miss out on an opportunity to grow and move forward, you are cheating a lot of other people out of an opportunity to learn, grow and move forward as well.

How do you get it all together? Find a way to organize it all that makes sense to you and in a format where you can find things and take action on them.

You owe it to the world to share your passion and expertise… but if people can’t connect with you… and you lose the information that’s valuable to them… you are falling short in the potential you have to make a difference in peoples’ lives.

Tag You’re It! Are Your Connections Still Inside Your Camera?

Pat & Lorna Cool Knowledge, Pat and Lorna Shanks

You go to a seminar or event, and you take what seems to be a million pictures with the speakers and attendees that are there. So what do you do with those pictures? Do you take action and post them on your Facebook profile, with all the people tagged, while you’re still at the seminar? Or do you promise yourself (and others) that you’ll do that as soon as you get home?

What usually happens when choosing the latter situation, is you get home and the pictures don’t even make it off the camera. Or… you download them off your camera, and they still take days, weeks, even months to make it to your Facebook profile. By then, half the people don’t even remember who you are (or you don’t remember who they are).

People love it when others remember their name, and they also love it when the pictures they volunteered their time for are actually posted with their name attached. And if you want to contact them later for help or to joint venture with them… do you think they’d be more willing to say yes if they felt you actually took the time and effort to acknowledge them before? We’re pretty sure they would.

You asked people to have a picture taken with you for a reason… and you’ve made the connection with them. Don’t lose that through procrastination on posting your pictures. In fact, they will be tickled pink if they go back to their room at the seminar and find the picture they took with you a few short hours earlier was already online.

Here’s what someone wrote to us, and a few others, after finding out her picture was posted and tagged when she got home from the seminar…

Your business is about relationships… and you need to be diligent in maintaining those connections you’ve made. Making sure you post and tag your pictures as soon as possible after you’ve taken them is one way of strengthening that connection.

We also understand how much of a challenge it can be to remember who all the people are that you’ve connected with, and to know where to keep in touch with them. We have a system for doing just that, and it works amazingly well.

To see how we organize and manage our connections, Go Here!

So when it comes to staying connected and maintaining relationships, one very COOL step is to take action and get those photos posted!

Plans, Preparation, Action and Progress!

Pat & Lorna Cool Tips, Pat and Lorna Shanks

You have a goal in mind; something you want to achieve. So you do what you feel is logical:

1. Make a plan on how to get there.

Or do you? Yes, some people decide they want something yet don’t make a plan on how they’ll get there. Seems kind of strange, but it does happen.

Now, it’s a known fact that not all plans turn out as anticipated. The solution? Make a Plan A, B, C – or as many as you can come up with. After all, you won’t know how many you’ll use to get to your goal.

2. Make all the preparations to reach your target.

That one statement can cover a lot of ground. It encompasses everything from collecting and organizing the tools and resources to reach your goal to reviewing your plans and clarifying your path forward.

A great way to make sure you’ve covered all your bases is to make a “checklist” of all the things you need to do to prepare for your journey to reaching your goal. That way you can be sure you haven’t missed anything, and it may even tweak your mind on things you never thought of to start with.

3. Use your plans and preparation to take action!

You can make all the plans and prepare all you want… if you don’t take action, nothing will happen. Your goal will remain as a dream or a few words written on a page. Again, it’s a great idea to track your action steps to keep you moving in the right direction… noticing where you need to adjust to get closer to your goal (not farther away).

And of course action leads to…

4. Progress!

But does it? Sometimes yes and sometimes no… and sometimes you progress, but not in the direction you had planned.

Once again, track it. Track your progress. Find a way to determine where you are, what you have done, and where you are at on your journey.

It may seem to you that this is way too “logical” and doesn’t leave any room for creativity and “going with the flow” of things. Not so. Yes, it’s great to plan, prepare, check that you’ve thought of everything and then track how well you’re doing… but corrections and adjustments are a part of this process as well.

Keep in touch with YOU throughout this journey, make sure it feels right and is aligned with who you are. Plans can be altered, next steps can change… in fact they will! Life and our plans are not cast in stone, change is a constant.

So plan, prepare, take action and watch your progress… it’s a wonderful feeling to see how far you can go in very little time. Surprise yourself… be your own biggest inspiration and motivation to achieve your goals.

Skype Phishing Scam How To Tell The Difference

Pat & Lorna Cool Tips, Pat and Lorna Shanks, Skype

This video shows the Skype phishing scam and showing you how to know if you are on a valid login for Skype. A few of our members have had this happen to them and we want to show how to prevent this and bring awareness. There are sure signs of when this is happening so please comment and share and let’s stop this scam.

Click below to watch a larger presentation