“Feedback is the Breakfast of Champions.” Or so said a Peter, a fellow I used to attend Toastmasters with in Charlotte with.
There is so much contained inside that phrase. It is a challenge. It is an accusation. It is a supposition. It is the recipe for success.
The Phrase “Feedback is the Breakfast of Champions” presupposes you have done something worthy of feedback! It presupposes you are going to take that feedback and do something positive with it – like eat it for breakfast!
The Challenge and the Accusation:
Hidden inside that sparse phrase is the challenge that if you are not actively soliciting feedback – and devouring it – you are not a champion. To think of it, Peter was absolutely correct. Champions take feedback and turn it into success. The accusation is a bit more insidious but no less accurate. If you have done nothing worthy of feedback, then you are no champion. If you do not actively seek out your faults, you don’t make the cut. True champions take measures to correct them and turn them into strengths! Are you, then, are a champion? Is your business?
How to Become a Champion
Luckily, there is a simple way to become a champion. In fact, no matter which champion you ask be they an athletic champion, a business maven, a technology guru, I promise you they followed this 4 step process:
- Do Something: Build a Website, Send a Newsletter, Write a Blog, Call a Potential Client.
- Measure & Analyze Results: Every action has a reaction. Measure that action. For example, spending $600 / month on Yellow pages yielded X number of leads resulting in Y number of profit. Why was that? How can you improve the results? Should you continue, should you try something else, should you change the copy of the text?
- Change the Process: Take a look at your current process and your results and make a plan of attack!
- Repeat! Now it is time to field test your new process. Start over again at #1 and you are on your way to success.
These are the essential ways to make your business a champion. Big business does it. Several prominent North Carolina and Charlotte companies like GE, Bank of America, and others have used it to great success and profitability. I am using it now.
Here’s the example:
- I Have a Website, Write Frequent Posts, Advertise by Syndicating my content across the globe.
- I measure results through the comments my audience leaves on each post, by the emails they write to me, by the statistics package I have that details where each of my visitors come from, what they do when they get here, how long they stayed, and how they leave. I have statistics built in to the newsletters I send. I know which of my subscribers read what parts of my newsletter and my analysis tells me why.
- When an article does not perform to my expectations, I write another one, hopefully better, and measure the response. If some page of my site has a high incidence of abandonment or people do not stay long enough to read what I write, I change it.
- Finally, I start again with new posts, newsletters, and actions. Eventually I will get it right!
Well, I hope you enjoyed this post. Now give me feedback! Contact us, send an email, give a call, write a comment!