Requests Blitz - Day 8 for Y and Z

I would recommend this for anyone who wants to feel the thrust of a zooming goal. The rush of being on a roll is great!

Here's a portion of the email I sent Teams Y and Z:

Day 8 is a day for a Requests Blitz

I love doing requests blitzes - I still do them once a month or so and almost always make great things happen. Really!

Tuesday is a great day of the week to make requests, I think. It is better than Monday, because people are not in their best mood and they are often playing catch up. And by making requests early in the week, there is time for people to respond before the week ends.

Play big today. If you have not been rockin’ and rollin’ with requests, today is the day to make things happen. Remember, requests can cover a broad variety of topics and needs.

Before you create your list, reread this post about request.

Requests can cover a lot of territory - you can make requests pertaining to:

Creating more time for yourself, your schedule, your “you time”
Asking people to meet with you and let you pick their brains.
Asking people to participate in your project.
Asking for financial support, like sponsorship, advertising, or a sale of a product or service.
Improving your skills or effectiveness.
Asking people to barter with you.
Asking people to make an introduction on your behalf with someone you want to meet.
Asking a group of people to meet with you to help you brainstorm, think through, or plan your project.
Asking people to review and critique your plan.
Asking people to be your evangelists (like asking them to blog about you/your project, or to send an announcement to their email network).
Asking local/regional/national press for coverage/article. (Several of you who have businesses might consider doing and sending out a press release)
Asking for help on other projects so that you can concentrate on this one.
Asking for a job/interview/informal meeting.
Asking for a brief meeting to share how you think you can help company X meet or beat its goals.
Requests related to improving your finances (lower credit card rates, re-negotiate bills, sell excess items, business loans).

And I could go on and on.....

For today, create and make 10 requests.

In person is best (Best results, gets you out there, puts your goal more powerfully in the world, the other person is more likely to grant the request or at least offer something)

On the phone is second best

Over email or via mail is a third option.

Use all three methods, not just email.

I have found it helpful to let people know upfront that they should feel no pressure to say yes, that you will still be their biggest fan and friend, and they should not feel uncomfortable if the answer is no AND that you would be thrilled if they said yes. Always thank people for their consideration and be just as happy/perky as when you made the request. This is important for maintaining the long term relationship.

Be great at accepting a NO.

Be even greater at accepting a YES!

The requests blitz can be the most transforming day of the program. If you are having a hard time coming up with a robust and inspiring list, let’s talk and I will help you!

For those of you, like Jean, who have made some pretty big requests already and had success, have fun with this and add a few more requests if you can think of them (perhaps pertaining to another aspect of the project or aimed at someone else).

Go get em’ !!!

Lisa

Comments

[Chris]

Read an interesting passage in an article in this month's Outside Magazine, which I could see correlates to some of the "internal" challenges you (just me?) can come across in a program such as this. The article was entitled "The Calculus of Risk", authored by Mark Jenkins, and explored the differences between perceived and actual risks in outdoor sport, as perceived by the participants. The quote was "Disaster can strike when you overestimate your ability and underestimate the real risk. Conversely, undervaluing your skills and overestimating the risk - thus amplifying irrational fear- can be so inhibiting that chances are good you won't try at all, or fail in your attempt, confirming what wasn't true in the first place."

[Rob]

I finally plucked up the courage to talk to a potential client today. It went well and I'll hopefully be working with them soon!

It's all thanks to these words:
>> In person is best (Best results, gets you out there, puts your goal more powerfully in the world, the other person is more likely to grant the request or at least offer something)

Just being able to go up to someone and ask like I did today is something I've NEVER been able to do before, but every time I felt like putting it off, those words kept coming back to haunt me!

[Lisa Haneberg]

Rob - Just what every coach wants to hear - that their word haunt you! :-) Excellent progress, congratulations.

[Lisa Haneberg]

Chris - Sounds like a great article, I will check it out. Risk is a balancing act, for sure.

[Jessica]

I "accidentally" skipped yesterday (it was my birthday, so I met up with friends at about 11:30 for an early lunch and just never quite made it back to the office...).

So, today I've been catching up on lots of work but this request blitz sounds like a lot of fun--I'll make a list of people and requests I could make and start on that tomorrow--can't wait to see what might happen!

And, I'll definitely get to today's 2000 words before shutting off the computer.

[Lisa Haneberg]

Jessica - I would skip on my b-day too, I hope you enjoyed it!

[Nels]

Okay, so Jessica is obviously kicking my butt with her 2000 words. I did take the time to figure out approximately how long some of my favorite novels are, and have readjusted my goal (it's 575 words/day for a year now). I've actually been pretty close to that over the past week. I've also managed to make some requests (good for me since I'm an introvert) and recruit a couple "alpha readers" for my novel.

I've been really busy in and out of work, so I have been skimping on the daily practice, but I also recognize that it can be a great help. My workload is not letting up, but my personal load is, so I should have more time this week to put things into practice.

[Lisa Haneberg]

Nels - Good work. Let me know if you could benefit from another "nudge" via phone! :-)

[idylldiane]

575 words... hmmm. My goal is just to open the file. Then, I can pretty much depend on something happening.

I've been writing, and I had a breaththrough on plot.

[Lisa Haneberg]

Diane: A breakthrough on plot? Excellent! I am glad you are writing and moving forward.