Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

Yes Spring Cleaning Can be FUN

I’ve been doing media interviews around the country the past several weeks on how to use project management skills to get your house in order.   Yes it is that time of year where we want to get rid of the old and make way for the new.   The origins of spring cleaning may in fact be biologically driven as we start to awaken from a winter stupor induced from less sunlight and have renewed energy from more sun and longer days.   It’s hard to muster up the energy in the winter to keep the house in order and when spring rolls around,  it’s time to clean up after a long winter siesta.

But where to start when you have piles of stuff all over the house, windows to be cleaned, gardens to be planted and a garage that is so choked with “stuff” you can’t get to the bicycles.

To help people get organized and stay organized,  my side kick Kristen and I created a forty hour course called the PM of Spring Cleaning.   In this course our students first learn how to prioritize their spring cleaning efforts, then they learn how to best leverage theirs and others’ innate strengths to tackle those spring cleaning projects.  Next they learn how to plan their spring cleaning projects with their family.   They end the course by learning how to put everything into practice in a way that keeps them and their families inspired and focused.   If you want to learn some great project management techniques and develop ways to stay focused and inspired for your spring cleaning efforts -  click here to register and use the promotion code - blogclean to get $100 off the price of this fun course.

Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

You know the drill - your to do list is miles long and it just keeps getting longer by the minute.   You get bombarded with text after text with things people want from you that need your immediate attention, your email in box has 50 unread emails with just as many attachments of material you “should” review.   Your phone rings perpetually with reminders from people who need this that or the other from you.   And if that instant message chime doesn’t stop on your lap top you are going to throw the machine off the balcony.

So what do you do - go look at your Facebook account and get lost in the minutae of the moment.   You end up getting NOTHING DONE.   Businessweek estimates we have $650 Billion dollars per year in lost productivity because of all these distractions that keep you from getting anything done.

Distractions are a powerful force programming our brain for ineptitude.   With every distraction, your brain triggers a small amount of dopamine which is a feel good hormone triggered whenever we satisfy an addiction.   However this comes at the expense of developing the pre-frontal cortex parts of our brain that helps us focus and achieve higher order goals.

You can start to overcome this very modern day addiction to distractions and you can start right now.   This is not another thing you “should” do - it’s just something you do do.   It’s a conscious choice you make on a moment by moment basis to choose a different reaction and a different way of being.   It’s a conscious choice you make to program your brain in ways that serve YOU.

The first thing you need to do - turn off your phone, your IM messaging, any alerts that tell you you have an incoming message and choose to focus for the next eleven minutes to focus on what we are suggesting in this article.   Focusing on one thing at a time while it may seem like a luxurious indulgence is an absolute imperative for you to do to beat the “nothing done” syndrome.

Because of modern day distractions, most people can only focus intently at the most for seven minutes.   At Cheetah Learning we know this and we switch up our curriculums to have their students shift their attention in new ways every seven minutes.   When you set up your day to focus in short bursts on the things that are truly important to YOU - you will start to notice you get things DONE.

Lets start with your kitchen.   When was the last time you just focused on cleaning the kitchen to the exclusion of anything else.   I have a daily practice to start each day with an “empty bowl” - that means I make sure my kitchen sink is emptied of all dishes.   It is an intense ten minute focus and it starts my day with a clean sink.   But it is so much more than just a clean sink.   This ten minute practice every morning sets me up for a day of knowing I can focus in another ten minute chunk of time.    Think about a ten minute practice you can do right now.   Maybe it’s cleaning up one pile of stuff on your desk for ten minutes to the exclusion of anything else.   Tomorrow do the same thing - pick ten minutes and focus on ONE TASK and only do that task.

In the world of Project Management - this is called “time boxing” - as you start to develop the neural networks for focusing you can extend the time you can focus.   Time Boxing can help you beat the “Nothing Done” syndrome in no time flat.

Get going, I figure you have ten minutes left of all your devices off - you’ll be amazed at what you get done in the next ten minutes.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Boston

Hope, Love, & Courage

Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

It is 2013, and the number of pages in the US Federal Tax Code is 73954 pages.   States, counties and towns are also becoming more aggressive in their collection of taxes - raising property tax, income tax and sales tax rates and increasing fees, licenses, registrations for doing any type of activity in their jurisdictions.   I run a small business and the time and effort (cost) we put into tax strategies and tax compliance is astounding.  It takes close to 7% of our gross receipts to pay for all the tax compliance services we require. This is NOT including the taxes we pay.   Besides the large chunk of change we are required to pay the federal government in income taxes, payroll taxes, medicare and social security taxes, we are also required to file taxes in every state, county and city where we hold classes.  And when any of these governments want to audit our books, that requires we hire a tax attorney to work with their tax professionals.   Anyone of these tax agencies can audit us at any time.  They can also require we pay exorbitant registration fees in the tens of thousands of dollars for the privileges of holding classes in their jurisdictions.  Despite this massive oversight effort and the costs these government agencies incur for this activity,  they have never once found us in any way deficient in how our licensed professionals comply with their tens of thousands of pages of compliance documentation.

The saving source for each and every audit we have experienced is our record keeping.   We have a phenomenal Vice President of Operations who is a stickler for setting up and following our internal information management systems.    We recently retained a new firm to handle our bookkeeping.   One of their first changes was to get us to use our smart phones to take pictures of our receipts as soon as we get them.   We then email them to their “shoe box” account.  No more aggregating receipts for the end of the year or when we get audited.   We follow an easy to use naming convention so they know how to classify it.

While there is no getting around paying tax after tax after tax - there is no need to pay more taxes than you are required to pay.   And the way to do that is to be able to defend every single deduction you take on your taxes so even if audited, you are in compliance with the tax code.

Our Vice President of Operations and I developed an online course several years ago that helps people learn Project Management while they do the project of organizing their family office (Cheetah Family Office).   It is this level of organization that can make tax time, while certainly not a pleasant time of year, far easier.   AND can save you tremendous time, money and aggravation in paying only the taxes you are required to pay - ESPECIALLY if you are audited.   (A little over 5% of individual returns are audited - that number is considerably higher if you and/or your spouse has any non-standard income or deductions as almost 20% of people in this category get the pleasure of having the federal government dissect their books).   The game of the auditors is to find people who are not organized as they can take a larger chunk of their hard earned income.

If you’d like to play the game to your advantage and pay only your share of taxes and not more,  learn how to use Project Management AND get your family’s life much more organized (and less stressful) - use the promotion code “organizemetoday” to get $100 off the Cheetah Family Office four week online course.

Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

Sometimes I get caught up in the joys of life and don’t even notice little things like not getting emails - well who would notice the absence of anything really. Okay so maybe I’m a bit slow on the uptake - but 40 days of no emails coming through with attachments? I did think something was a little odd that the only emails I got had no attachments - but then I thought that maybe that had become a metaphor for my life. Yes life is a lot easier without attachments. And life is also so much easier without getting any emails where people had attached a word doc, excel spreadsheet, powerpoint, picture file. I finally realized something might be amiss after asking several people to send me that email again as for some reason I didn’t see their proposal.

Oh back to reality - we figured out why I was not receiving my emails where people had attached a file. Forty days ago I had exceeded my storage limits on google - and it was going to take them a couple of days to upgrade my storage account. So I went and deleted all the past emails I had with attachments. Not realizing this created a filter that automatically put any new emails into the trash that had attachments.

What is so odd about this - sales have been the best they have been in two years during this last 40 days. Life without attachments really is much better.

Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

This is the one year anniversary of my Mom’s funeral.   I am very very lucky as I got to spend the first 50 years of my life with an amazingly creative, nurturing, disciplined and driven woman who shaped who I am today.   I learned so much more about her and her impact on me with her passing.   She is that guiding thought that keeps me keeping on through the darkest of times in life and in running a business.   When she was still with us, and I’d reach out to her for comfort during difficult times - her wise words of wisdom were - it will get better.   And it always did get better.   And it still always does.   Life at times is tough, but the tough times never last.  The clouds evaporate from the sun shine behind them as do the challenges of life.

Here is the eulogy I did at her funeral a year ago - thanks to a good friend who had the foresight to record it.

Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

I’ve had ten days of continual company - first was a big family party for my Father for his 80th birthday then some good friends stopped by for two nights on their way from Denver to Portland.   In the first round of company - I got the pleasure of perpetually cleaning the kitchen as it seems the males in my family have developed an allergy to picking up after themselves.   I discovered the more I resisted cleaning the kitchen, the harder the job was.   But when I donned these “sexy” hot green rubber gloves, I became a white tornado and had the kitchen cleaned in no time.   Realizing that like a colicky baby, this too shall pass and my family would be back to their own homes, I decided to change my attitude and stop resisting cleaning the kitchen as it was not helping me at all - and it was hurting my ability to enjoy my family.   And wasn’t that the reason we all got together anyhow?

I started thinking, where else in life is resistance to whatever also hurting my enjoyment of life.   My friend visiting on her road trip with her family shared with me this book she was reading - called “The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles.” It is all about how resistance to anything sabotages creativity.

I recently completed reading The Untethered Soul - and in that book the author teaches you how to become more conscious of how you are resisting pain and how this hurts your ability to achieve long lasting happiness and fulfillment in life.   Whatever you resist in life persists.

I notice this resistance element is what stymies my creative efforts, ability to grow, and ultimately my happiness.   When I just get down to just doing it, everything flows.  A sense of all is right with the world prevails.    And I experience this in every element of my life.  I used to resist exercising - then I got this device called the Fitbit.   Once I saw how sedentary I actually was, it increased my awareness and stopped my resistance to exercising.  Now instead of resisting exercising, I look for opportunities to move more.

My perpetual question has become - what am I resisting and why?  Sales have doubled over the past ten days in comparison to the previous ten days.  Is this related to my letting go of the need to “resist” and just allowing things to flow?   Whatever the reason, the desire and the choice to resist anything is no longer serving me and I’m letting it go as it appears.

Initial Mind Map of the Untethered Soul Book

Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

Everything in life has a cycle. The more in tune I am to those cycles, the easier life seems to be. One of my businesses is a cattle ranch. I got into this 9 years ago based on two different magazines I had with me on a trip to kick off a Project Management conference in Mexico City. One of the magazines had a cover story on the growing obesity epidemic in America. The other magazine was about Belgian Blue Cows - a breed of cattle that had a naturally occurring genetic mutation for not having any fat, but producing beef that is lean, tender and full of flavor. A big part of our obesity problem is in how we were producing our food. Corn fed beef is as bad for you as white flour and corn syrup. You might as well take this type of “food” and strap it to the outside of your belly as that is where it will likely end up anyhow.

One of my colleagues raised grass fed beef and I asked her if she could raise one of these cows for me. Nine years later, I have one of the largest herds of these cattle on the west coast. As we got into it, the whole business became more and more interesting. We discovered early on the big reason this breed does not do well in the open range cattle ranching practiced in the Western US was because they have a difficult time giving birth naturally. We set out on a program to develop a breed of this cattle that can give birth naturally. This is not a fast internet turn on a dime type of business. We have a one year cycle every year to see how we are doing. We have lost a number of cattle as we made a choice not to continue breeding bad genetics that caused the difficult birthing characteristics. Last season we had ten live births. We now have a breed of this cattle that can give birth naturally.

We have started selling beef. Next we are going to figure out how to sell the genetic material - primarily the embryos. Nine years ago, we got our first ten calves from a rancher in Texas who started his herd with embryo’s implanted in large daily cattle. It took nine months for those zygotes to turn into calves as well. Some things in life you just can’t rush. In the book “Patience: A Little Book of Inner Strength” by Eknath Easwaran - I was reminded: “You can achieve any goal you want when you are patient.” We are on our ninth gestation cycle and we are realizing our goal.

Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

Just like water flows into a pond from multiple streams,  sales flow into a business from multiple channels.   Working these channels to keep the cash flow moving is a big part of the marketing machine of Cheetah Learning.   Today we focused on two of our biggest channels - increasing the conversion rates of our google adwords campaigns and giving our PMI chapter affiliates more support in promoting Cheetah Learning courses to their members.   Channel partners are a valuable resource and we enjoy cultivating great relationships with them.   The key is to be savvy on how to improve those relationships.   We were approached today by a company offering to increase our google conversion rates and they only get paid when they are successful with increasing conversions.   I made sure we both agreed that a conversion was an actual payment received for the registration of a course    We shall see how it all turns out with them if they will work under this definition of a conversion…

Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

Being an entrepreneur means being impatient to see your ideas become reality.  And being impatient means that at times you have to figure out how to achieve your objectives with what you have on hand.   Many times I’m stymied to accomplish what I’d like to do because the technical solution to pull it off is just too complicated.  When I take a step back and look though at what is possible when I use what I have at hand, the results are usually pretty darn good.   This week was certainly a lesson in making do.   And making do with respect to creating videos for the business is becoming easier and easier.

In setting up the Haines Guest House - we used a small camera on hand (Canon PowerShot SX210, a point-n-shoot with decent HD video capturing ability) and repurposed an older Mac Powerbook with iMovie installed to create a welcome video.   http://hainesguesthouse.com/owner-michelle-labrosse-welcomes-you/

The February Sweepstakes for Cheetah Alumni.

I spent the week onsite with the Director of Marketing of Cheetah Learning - we brainstormed ways we could reward our Cheetah Alumni for excellence in Project Management.   We developed a sweepstakes where our Cheetah students can complete a PM Scorecard for free.  A PM Scorecard measures their project management performance - based on input from the Project sponsors, stakeholders, customers, and team members. The cheetah student who has the highest PM Scorecard ranking wins $1000.  All entries are due by March 15th and the winner will be announced on St. Patty’s Day March 17th.   When discussing this idea with our head of technical support, she mentioned that tech support gets a lot of calls because when registering for the PM Scorecard people get a little confused as to who to identify as the Project Manager.   So I wanted to make a short video clip that showed how to register for a PM Scorecard.   I was able to download a free trial version of Adobe’s Captivate.   I took a class on how to use Captivate on www.lynda.com for $37.50 and voila - our first software simulation video.   Check out our sweepstakes campaign with our instructional video on how to register for a free PM Scorecard for our Cheetah Alumni.