Play to Win!

The Secret to Building

a GREAT Business:

Discover Your Strengths

By Walt Goshert

WaltGoshert.com
MarketingCaddy.net

"Walt Goshert is the common-sense, no-nonsense, breath- of- clear-

thinking, marketing specialist for local contracting and service
professionals."

You'll find hundreds of ideas and tips to increase your sales, along with the
FREE Marketing Caddy Weekly Marketing ACTION Newsletter, at
WaltGoshert.com

WaltGoshert.com MarketingCaddy.net
 Play to Win!
You are free to share, email, post to your website or blog, make available as a
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Please do not alter or change any parts of this ebook or claim it as your own
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Published by WaltGoshert.com and MarketingCaddy.net and written by Walt

Goshert

15 Cherry Alley
Stevens,PA 17578
Telephone 1-717-466-9343
WaltGoshert.com
E-mail: walt@waltgoshert.com

Created in the United States of America.

©2010 waltgoshert.com. Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial No
Derivative Works 3.0 United States License
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The author and publisher of this manual and the accompanying materials have
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The author and publisher shall in no event be held liable for any loss or other
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 Play to Win!
If you're in business for yourself, you've got to play to win. And if you’re going to
win then you got to focus on your strengths where you have an advantage over
your competitors. This is the foundation of great business strategy and great
wealth.

When you let your market determine your choice of business, you are not
playing to your strengths. You lose any long-term advantage over newer,
hungrier competitors in your market.

But ... when you have a Passionate Business that Plays to your Strengths…

1. You attract clients of your choosing, willing to pay your price.

2. You attract talented people to work with you because:

• They want to learn from your strengths

• They want to be associated with a winning business
• They got a purpose bigger than themselves

You need to understand your strengths and passions before determining your
Ideal Client and target market niche. It’s your only way to provide value for your
clients, and employees and team.

If you already have a business, you’ll need to make adjustments to capitalize on

your strengths---that give you a competitive advantage.

Is your interest and desire to build a long-term profitable business?

Then you must think strategically. You must think long-term. To win long-term,
you must have an advantage. Your advantage MUST come from leveraging your
strengths---directly and indirectly.

WaltGoshert.com MarketingCaddy.net
Learn how to win in your
business...
Change the rules of the game to favor your strengths so you gain a clear
competitive advantage.

Key business concept:

You are in the right business only if…

1. The core skill needed to win is a strength of yours.

2. You can disrupt the entire competitive landscape because your

strengths will give your business a powerful advantage.

A faster, easier, and more certain way to build your

business

What I'm about to explain to you is powerful stuff... because it's so incredibly
effective. I'll show you how to reposition your business to win. You will get very
clear about what your strengths are and then you'll combine your strengths and
passions with the current opportunities in front of you (your Ideal Client
prospects).

It's a smart approach that is uniquely powerful

It's an entirely strategic approach. It's about entering or staying in a target

market on purpose because it's the best place for you to be. Not because you
happen to stumble across some projects or jobs because the work was there.

WaltGoshert.com MarketingCaddy.net
 Are you a workaholic?
What you must do to avoid this destructive force

Some small business owners become workaholics because they get confused.
They mistakenly picked their business, because they're interested in the product
or the promise instead of a business where they have an edge because of some
natural talents they've refined as strength.

Big mistake!

Working in a business that doesn't capitalize on your natural strengths is a recipe

for disaster.

The result?

Long hours, little progress, and mounting frustration because you rely on the
backwards approach of trying to minimize your weaknesses to make progress in
your business.

Hey, it's your life were talking about here. When you pick the wrong business
to be in, you force yourself to struggle.

And this is one of the biggest reasons why many local,small businesses…
contractors and service professionals … fail, struggle, or work their butts off for
insignificant rewards.

Because they either got into business for the opportunity, or even worse, they
chose building, remodeling, landscaping, design, renovation services… or,
dentistry, accounting, practicing law, cosmetic surgery… whatever
line of contracting or professional service… because they are interested in it.(or,
even worse, saw it as a path to the kind of money and lifestyle they wanted)

Most entrepreneurs focus on their weaknesses because they bought into the
faulty assumption that anyone can successfully build any business they really
want to build.
You see, picking a business based upon your interests (or, because of the
amount of money you can earn) instead of your strengths forces you to work
harder for less. (Because you're forced to earn and learn at the same time).

In business, you don't get an “A” for effort

WaltGoshert.com MarketingCaddy.net
 How Do You Build Your Strengths?

Definitions:

Talents- Special abilities that you were either born with or developed when you
were under three years old in the areas of thoughts, feelings or behaviors.

Education- Information that is prepared for you in order to facilitate absorption.

Experience- What you've learned throughout your life and pulled out of it as an
observation.

Skills- The step-by-step instructions that experts before you have refined for you
to more easily learn any sort of activity.

All combine and build upon each other to create...

Strengths
Strengths- What you can do incredibly well, easily, and consistently.

STRENGTH = Inborn Talents + Experiences + Education + Skills

In a way you've been working your whole life for this moment. Your strengths
are the direct result of the natural talents you were born with. These talents
have been honed and sharpened throughout life experiences, education, and the
skills you've developed.

In the next section, you'll learn how to determine what your strengths are so you
that you can really build a strategically focused business that has a competitive
advantage.

In order to clearly identify your own strengths it will be helpful to lay out for you
how strengths are developed. It all starts with inborn talents. Your talents are the
special abilities that you were either born with or developed when you were
younger than three years old.

WaltGoshert.com MarketingCaddy.net
These abilities can take many forms:

1. Thinking abilities (strategic thinker, a marketing mind, visual or spatial

thinking, genius thinking, creative thinking, linear thinking, curiosity,
etc....).

2. Feeling abilities (intuitive, empathetic, passion, confidence,

determination, spontaneous, etc....)

3. Behaviors (working well under pressure, being responsible,

persuasive, the ability to focus, being a good listener, the negotiator, good
bluffer, eye-hand coordination etc....)

Your talents are the foundations of your strengths.

To achieve mastery, to be really excellent at anything first requires that you are
born with a foundation for it.
If you have the foundation, then you still need to receive the education,
experience, and skill training to convert the talent into a strength. If all these
elements come together you have a strength. Now don't worry, we all have
strengths-- even though the overwhelming majority of people can't tell you
theirs.

No matter what though, you must have the natural talents as a platform to any
strength- always remember that. You can't be great at something you don't have
a talent for doing.

In some areas it's very obvious-I can't carry a tune, nor do I have rhythm and I
have never had that ability. This means that no matter how hard I try I could
never be a final contestant on “American Idol” or “Dancing With the Stars”.

What trips a lot of people up is they easily understand natural talents that are
physical-singing, dancing, tennis, golf, boxing, etc.... But, because of the way we
are raised and schooled, (always trying to focus on and fix our weaknesses) we
naturally want to believe that when a talent is mental somehow we can all
achieve anything anyone else can, if we are willing to work really hard and put
our mind to it. And this is simply not the case.

WaltGoshert.com MarketingCaddy.net
The next building block of your strengths is your education.

This derives from schooling, through mentors, reading, attending seminars, audio
programs, and every other way you can bring in information that is already
prepared for you in some form or another.

I'm sure as you went through school, you noticed that some people excelled at
math, others excelled in English, and for some gym was where they performed
best. The reason why people excel where they do is because they had inborn
talents for these areas, so what they derived from their education was
determined by their natural talents.

Do you see why your natural talents are so important? They really are the
foundation to your success in all areas.

Next are your experiences.

What you've learned throughout your life and pulled out as observations on how
to do things. The master salesman knows the right words to say, when to be
quiet and allow the pressure of silence, and when to go for the close. These
might not have ever been taught, but simply gained through experience and
observation, layered on top of his natural abilities. This is what allows them to
develop the strength of selling.

The last component of your strengths are your skills.

Skills are the step-by-step instructions that experts have refined for you to more
easily learn any sort of activity. While learning skills will help you improve your
performance in any area, the areas where you have foundational talents will
show explosive growth in your ability to get better.

An example might be golf. I would imagine that no one has ever played at the
pro level the first time they picked up a club. But some people take lessons for
years and while they improve they still kind of suck. Others though show
incredible progress from lesson to lesson. The difference between the two is
inborn talents.

Another example would be public speaking. A master public speaker can break
down the different steps to a winning presentation. And a beginner will certainly
benefit from the instruction, but if you have the natural talent you’ll take the
instruction so quickly that people in the audience would think you had been doing
public speaking for years when it might have only been weeks.

WaltGoshert.com MarketingCaddy.net
Here's one more example because it really exposes what's going on. Michael
Jordan obviously has natural born talents to excel in sports. We can define his
inborn trait as being a “natural athlete”. This means that he is predisposed to
excel at sports right from birth. Through experience and skills Michael became
one of the best, if not the best basketball player who ever lived. But then
Michael retired from the NBA and went into baseball, and even though he is
certainly a natural born athlete, he wasn't able to excel. Why? Because having
talent is only the starting point, your current strengths are talents that were
continually reinforced through a combination of education, experience, and
skills.

Do You Know Your Strengths?

"Most Americans do not know what their strengths are. When you ask them, they
look at you with a blank stare, where they respond in terms of subject
knowledge,
which is the wrong answer." Peter Drucker

The first and biggest obstacle you will face when building your business around
your strengths is figuring out what your strengths are in the first place.
Remember, we are so conditioned to focus on her weaknesses that we hardly
ever give our strengths a second thought. We think to ourselves… if only I could
be better at (weakness), I would be able to___________. And right there we've
limited ourselves because we are focusing on our weaknesses instead of our
strengths.

Generally, the most successful in any category, whether it’s actors, CEOs,
athletes, singers, teachers, etc.... are not the most well-rounded. In my
experience, they usually have some big weaknesses or challenge areas right
alongside those big strengths. In other words, they kept refining their strengths
from a young age, while neglecting their weaker areas.

WaltGoshert.com MarketingCaddy.net
Qualities of Strengths

• You're better at it and people notice.

• You enjoy doing it-it's fun.
• You feel alive and energized when doing it.
• You continually improve your performance at it.
• You experience a flow state while doing it.

What Does a Strong Life Look Like?

What does it look like when a person succeeds in building his life around his
strengths?

“If there is any difference between you and me, it may simply be that I get
up every day and have the chance to do what I love to do every day. If
you want to learn anything from me, this is the best advice I can give you.”
Warren Buffett

Look inside yourself. Try to identify your strongest threads. Reinforce them with
practice and learning. And then, either find, or carve out a role that draws on
these strengths every day. When you do, you will be more productive, more
fulfilled, and more successful.

The secret to most all success lies in the ability to discover your strengths,
and organizing your life so that your strengths can be applied.

Now, let’s look inside… let’s discover your secret to your success.

Ready?
 WaltGoshert.com MarketingCaddy.net

Discover Your Strengths

Read the list below. Think about your answers. Write out your thoughts.

1. Think about, and try to identify any time in your past you were able to
pick up things very fast. If you were with others, you “got it” much
faster than all of the other people around you.

2. Are there any areas of your life where several different people (who
do not know each other) come to you for the same type of advice?

3. Is there something that lots of people ask you to help them with?

4. What are you most productive doing?

5. Which activities come easily and naturally for you?

6. What have people praised you for throughout your life?

7. As a child, were there any activities that you loved doing and that
you did better than all your friends?

Next, ask your close friends and family members what they think your strengths
are. You can usually get really good information from anyone who knows you
well.

WaltGoshert.com MarketingCaddy.net
 Sentence Stems for Strengths
Another way is a writing exercise that I've used for many different areas of my
life. It's called sentence stems. When I'm struggling with a challenge or I'm
trying to come up with an answer I will commit to writing 20 sentence stems a
day for a week, and on a few occasions even for an entire month.

A sentence stem is just a fill in the blank. So in this case, you would just write 20
different endings a day for the sentence stem:

One of my strengths is____________________________________________.

I generally do them in the morning and I won't look at what I wrote the day before
until the end of the week. And then I'll look for all my answers. This method has
always worked for me whenever I was searching for an important answer that
only I could come up with. The trick is to stick with it long enough-eventually
the answer will surface.

WaltGoshert.com MarketingCaddy.net
 Becoming World-Class

Once you have identified your strengths realize you now know your path to
becoming world-class in building a powerful business. Remember, in order
to be the best at anything, it must first be a strength.

The whole point of knowing your strengths is to spend as much time as

possible in activities that leverage your strengths so you get the best output
you are capable of, and so you can continually improve the strength until it
becomes world-class.

Based upon what you discovered about yourself in the Strength Exercises,
what areas of you business should be your personal focus?

You want to build a business around your strengths so you can provide
greater value to your clients than anyone else can. Doing this will grow your
business and your profits at the very same time. Even if you only spend an extra
30 minutes a day focused on exercising your Strengths in your business, you
achieve tremendous leverage.

WaltGoshert.com MarketingCaddy.net
 Make Money with Your Strengths

The only limits to the way you use your strengths is your creativity and
imagination. But let me give you a few tips about making the most money from
your strengths.

First and foremost, you must connect your strengths with something that
people want. Sometimes this is very easy to do because the output of using
your strength is the very “thing” that people want to buy (Mrs. Fields and her
cookies, or Bono and his music).

Other times it's not so straight of a path. When it's not a direct path from your
strength to what people want and buy, you need to figure out what you can
combine your strength with that people already want. Your goal is to use your
strength to create a stronger, faster, better, or more value-added version of
what had previously existed.

Your challenge is to adjust your business so that your strengths give you a
competitive advantage over the rest of the field.

Does that seem difficult to you?

It's not.

Everybody... and... every business is unique, and everyone has a strength that
can be leveraged into success, no matter where you are or what you do.

Take what I'd shared here and run with it. Build yourself a contracting or service
business that clients want to do business with, a company that employees (and
subcontractors) fight to be associated with.

WaltGoshert.com MarketingCaddy.net
 Apply Them to Your Business
Now that you know your strengths, spend some time to put them into
perspective. Give them meaning.

Treat Yourself to a Life-Changing Gift:

Grab a pen, notebook or journal. Set aside a half an hour to an hour.

Free from interruptions or distractions. Perhaps a slow Friday afternoon is a
good time for you; or early morning either before work, or on a weekend day.
Pick a time when you're not crazy with deadlines, and when you can allow
yourself the luxury of some deep, pleasurable thinking.

Answer these questions in your journal. Allow the writing to flow. Don't pay any
attention to spelling, grammar, style. This is all for you… for your benefit. It's
your chance to hash out what's important and timeless about you. Perhaps
you'll need more time. Take it---there is no more important work to be done in
your business.

Do this exercise right. It'll pay you back a hundred-fold.

What don't you want people to say about you and your business?
How don't you want to be known?

What do you want people to say? What do you want your reputation
to be?

What do you want to be written in your obituary? What impact do

you want to have on the world?

What do you want your customers to be able to achieve thanks to

you?

What do you want back from your customers, in addition to money?

What's the most important to you about your business, in addition to

money?

When you're done writing and thinking, summarize your long answers. Boil it
down to a single sentence that this describes the essence of your business
and life purpose.
WaltGoshert.com MarketingCaddy.net
 Now Build the Business of Your Dreams
“Every human being has been literally “engineered for success” by his
Creator. Every human being has access to a power greater than himself.
This means “YOU”!” Maxwell Maltz,M.D.

No one else has the same combination of your unique talents and strengths at
the same place and the same time.

Remember, I shared with you earlier that I can’t sing a lick. Funny how one of my
most vivid memories of my childhood is Sunday School, getting up and singing in
front of the whole packed church… in front of all my aunts, uncles, cousins,
friends, and neighbors, and all the other kids. One song sticks in my head:

“This little light of mine

I’m gonna let it shine,
Let it shine”

I don’t know your beliefs, and my point here is not to evangelize, but I always felt
God smiling and whispering to me:

“Yes, son, you are.”

This means YOU too!

Make your life… your business… a soaring song even if you can’t hear the beat.

Find your own unique music within you.

And… let it shine!

WaltGoshert.com MarketingCaddy.net
Your Next Step
Your next step is to take your Strengths and Play To WIN.

OK, the information and links to the Resources in this Special Report present you
with a crucial challenge. My hope is at least you got the wheels turning and
you’re working on applying these concepts to your business and your life.

It’s also true that you could go deeper into this concept of identifying
and leveraging your Strengths and putting them into play in your business.

Not to worry…

At my blog, waltgoshert.com , you’ll find related articles and updates as we

continue to explore aspects of Business-Building each and every week. Also, the
Marketing Caddy Weekly ACTION Newsletter reveals simple, practical Business-
Building strategies, ideas, and tips each Thursday.

Now… if you discovered a break-through in identifying your Strengths, you

already knew your Strengths but this Special Report brought them more into
focus, or if you’re still kinda stuck…

Please do me and your fellow Business-Building community a favor...

Take a moment, hop on over to this link, and share your ideas, thoughts,
feedback, and questions.

Finally, please… if you found this Special Report valuable… feel free to
share it.

Link to it from your site. Tweet it. Buzz it up. Share it with your Friends and Fans
on Facebook. Here’s the link for your sharing.

Thanks for your INVESTMENT, attention, and efforts.

More great Business-Building coming…

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Resources and for Further Reading:
7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Dr. Stephen Covey

Good to Great - Jim Collins

Psycho-Cybernetics - Maxwell Maltz, M.D.

Now, Discover Your Strengths - Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton,

PhD

In this book, you’ll discover a revolutionary program to help you identify

your talents, build them into strengths, and enjoy consistent, near-perfect
performance. At the heart of this book is the Internet-based
StrengthsFinderProfile. This Web-based interview will reveal to you your
five most powerful signature themes. With accessible and powerful
insights on how to turn your talents into strengths, and with the immediate
online feedback of StrengthFinder at its core, this book is one of the most
ground-breaking and useful business books ever written.

University of Pennsylvania - Dr. Martin Seligman’s Authentic Happiness Test

Center Http://authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/default.aspx

The Values in Action Signature Strengths Questionnaire Measures 24

Character Strengths

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