Good Coach, Bad Coach The relevance of Biofeedback –
So you get invited for your 1st game of golf? You’re new to the office, new to the job, you really are the new kid on the block, and now you get thrown in the deep end, pretty much ‘bossed’ into a golf game with your supervisor and the rest of the office.
Not only do you have masses of work to learn and start on, you now need to find time to hit the driving range in order to master hitting a tiny little golf ball into a tiny little hole using a very long shafted club.
There are plenty of apps available for your phone to take out onto the course or to the driving range and even a range of golf training aids that will assess your swing and timing. But of course, the best place to start is with a golf coach.
It’s a great idea to watch YouTube ‘how to’s’ from professionals like Andrew Fischer (Bubba Watsons Coach for 5 years) who are generous enough to share their knowledge. For the benefit of really starting well and ensuring you don’t end up with a Happy Gilmore style swing, (not that there’s anything wrong with that 😉 book yourself in for some of his online coaching while you’re there!
Once you’ve had a look and received some coaching, you know it will be time to step up and face… THE BALL!
Now all sorts of scenarios are running through your head…What sort of feedback you imagine coming from the boss or those playing nearby, who are probably thinking about their own swing, not yours but they are looking at you; and you’re going to get lots of ‘helpful’ tips and feedback from your mates who played golf on
the Wii too, won’t that be great…
However the most honest, critical, judgemental and harsh feedback you’re going to receive will come from a tiny little golf ball.
It’s called ‘biofeedback’ and it can be brutal, especially when you’re starting out.
Here’s what happens, you hit one ball, and while there may have been nothing wrong with your swing; and in fact it could have been quite good if only you had been an inch or 2 to one side or another, the ball acts as Judge and Jury and tells you otherwise. So you change something in your swing.
You hit another ball, something different happens, sometimes better, sometimes worse.
Ends up, each time you hit the ball something gets changed within your swing because of the biofeedback you’re receiving from the ball, and your golf becomes inconsistent as a result.
The sad fact is, instead of reminding yourself of the instructions initially received, you take the biofeedback from the ball that your stance or shoulder angle or backswing was incorrect. So you keep changing what you were doing in order to try for better feedback from your new golf coach, the little white golf ball.
The problem with listening to this evil little coach is that, like I said, there was probably very little wrong with what you were doing, it really could have been a matter of practicing your swing using your actual coach’s instruction.
This is where your GSRN Timing Improver is so brilliant! The ability to practice your full golf swing, and get the feel of your swing using the bio mechanical movement instruction from your coach while using the Timing Improver, allows your brain the time to create a memory pattern. Just 3 minutes a day is enough to create a swing pattern and because the trainer is compact, you can likely practice in your office.
(Check out our neurology blog, written with inspiration from Craig Sperling, to find out more about how your brain is connected to your movement!)
In effect, the Timing Improver is the ‘missing link’ between never having played golf, or played very little, to being able to play golf with some skill on your initiation to the game. (They will all call you a natural!)
So now when you find yourself ‘eyeball to golf ball’ with that evil little coach, because of the repetitive actions using the Timing Improver you will trust your swing and your brain will have cemented it so firmly that the odd negative feedback from the golf ball will be taken as much less relevant and certainly less of an insult!
Give yourself the benefit of a helping hand to the game of golf and pick up a GSRN Timing Improver today!
The Wicked Little White Golf Ball
You’re lined up at the 1st tee for your first ever swing at a golf ball. Having done a little research, you feel equipped enough, just enough to be dangerous. You swing and hit the ball and get your very first taste of what it feels to be a golfer and your first report card on how you play golf…
What happens in the game of golf, is we put a club in a new golfers hand, especially someone who’s never played the game before and they have no idea how to swing, it becomes very intimidating! The club starts on the ground, it’s usually longer than any equipment or club they may have used previously, no one’s given them any instruction and then on top of that, the bio feedback that exists with the golf ball makes it very frustrating!
When you take a swing at a golf ball and you miss it or you just catch a piece of it and you shank it, that determines in your mind that you’re doing something wrong…’What I did just then, that didn’t work.’
And then you try something else. And you try something else. And something else again.
The big problem with that is there was probably nothing wrong with your initial swing at all, the fact that you maybe missed it by just 1 inch or maybe an inch and a half and it hit the hozzle and it was a shank, made you really discouraged and disappointed. But under closer magnification, believe it or not, that may have actually been a tremendous swing and you shouldn’t have changed anything!
The power of a physical image like the golf ball can leave a lasting impression, unfortunately it gives us feedback that is not particularly positive, sometimes it’s very negative feedback!
And this puts us on the wrong track…
The often negative feedback a golf ball gives golfers, particularly beginners, leads to frustration and without good reason for a new golfers to keep playing, can lead to quitting or resigning themselves to being a lousy golfer!
Feedback from mates, your golf coach, or your father-in-law can be taken as encouraging or even though it’s meant well, patronising. But the most unbiased, impartial and blinding feedback of all comes from the golf ball.
For the absolute beginner, this is where having a Timing Improver is really advantageous! Because you don’t get to see, you can work on your proper golf movement, giving yourself time to train and master a really good golf swing!
Check out our PGA Pro’s tips on stance, swing, tempo and more using your Timing Improver in your office. Practice your swing until your brain is convinced of the correct swing (see our previous blog regarding how our brain trains our muscles) so that your first visit to the golf course – hopefully with your local golf PGA Golf Coach – is not affected by the feedback given by the wicked little white golf ball!
Facebook are floating the idea of a Dislike button, what will this mean for you?
We’re all accustomed to using the Like button for things we actually like as well as using it to show our sympathy or thoughts are with somebody when a post about loss or hurt is loaded.
It’s commonly accepted that this is not a Like of the occurrence but rather a ‘I’m thinking of you’
So how is a dislike button going to fit in when we’ve already evolved and adjusted the Like button for the purpose of Dis/not Liking something?
Will confusion reign???
Or will there be new ‘rules’ that come with the Dislike button???
Asylum Seekers is probably one of the hottest of topics that already drives a wedge in our communities, it’s very political (already a no no subject) and raises emotion in most of the population for one direction or the opposite.
Will the Dislike button open the door for the expression of sympathy towards causes like the Syrian asylum seekers? Or will the dislike button confuse us all and be used as a Dislike of their efforts to enter safer countries? Will it mean that you Dislike them entering other countries or that you Disliked the fact they are having to seek for
another country and that some other countries are making it very difficult for them?
Total confusion!
On a commercial level, what will it mean for businesses? Will there be a Dislike button there too? We already have the opportunity to leave our opinion on the star ratings reviews where people can express their approval or dislike of a company or business, will there be an option to Dislike it too?
Would this open the door to more bullying with the ability to Dislike a friend’s birthday party you may not have been invited to, or a general post where a friend was Tagged but you’ve left them accidentally or otherwise, untagged?
Perhaps it could just be that this button or the ‘That sucks’ button? Not in the way of ‘Ewww, that sucks!’ More like, ‘Oh that sucks’, but once again we’re at the whim of others emotions and the meaning we add to that emotion.
I can see the benefits of Disliking a spammy post or a video that is claiming to be ‘The best video in the whole world that you’ll ever see, EVA’ and it turns out to be proper dud.
There’ll be the Facebook diehards who know exactly what it means and in the correct context, however for the bulk of us it’s going to be a whole new set of rules in to relearn about Facebook!
Golf, the Ultimate Business Sales Model?
Today in business, the world of finding new clients looks like a desert! With an oasis here and there, we’re all vying for our next valuable client!So why not mix business with pleasure and hit the golf course?For those of you with a passion for golf but limited time, finding the drive and purpose, resources and equipment to IMPROVE your golf and as a result, your business edge can become a game in itself!
Proficiency on the golf course is a must for good business, good health and let’s be honest, good self-esteem! It’s only logical, if you’re going to invite a client for a game, you need to be playing at your best. Inconsistency on the golf course is frustrating, especially when you know it’s unnecessary!
A ‘casual’ game of golf with prospective clients can turn into a nightmare if you’re off your game and haven’t had time to practice. And in this economic climate, prospective and current clients are gold!
You can be the best in the business, have the best service and the best product for the job but if you’re not adding value to your clients and ‘working it’, you won’t be their first call!
One of the biggest traps in marketing business is focus. There’s spending time and energy ‘working’ and then there’s ‘Working It’!
We all know it’s those who are ‘working it’ who get the job!
Golf is one of the best ways to get your game on, it’s the opportunity to put your best foot forward; a game of golf gives you 4 hours on the course to expound on yours and your companies abilities and talents to do the best job; and a day on the course gives your clients more value than anyone else is giving them and yet another reason to invest in YOU!
To make sure you’re ready for a game of golf ANYTIME, practice in your office for just 3 minutes per day with our PGA Professional approved Timing Improver. Pick one up from www.golfswingrightnow.com/shops/ today, so that when you hit the course, you play your best! On all levels!
Everyone’s New Buzz Word, ‘Innovation’
The marketing face of business is changing the way business does business, these days if you’re not ‘innovating’, business is dead in the water.It’s not just innovating the products themselves, but the way we sell them and how our clients access our products and/or services.
Using Apple as an example, Apple was solely a computer company for many years, all innovation was focused around the Mac. In 1996 sales waned and IBM took over the Mac in sales, many software developers stopped working for Apple and there were major layoffs in the company.
Apple came back from the brink in 1997 when Steve Jobs was brought back into the company, the innovative power was back! With the new innovation came the iMac, closely followed by the most successful music device ever, the iPod; soon after the iPhone and iPad arrived. Now, for many users, their iPhone has replaced their computer and Apple have ridden the wave of this transition from the very beginning, just by thinking outside the box!
On the subject of innovation in marketing, ‘Innovation’ is the most used word for google Search Engine Optimization (SEO). If you’re going to use it in your marketing, make certain you can use it a ridiculous amount of times in your blogs and landing page content for your SEO to be effective and get you anywhere near page 1. Or perhaps this is one of those ‘innovative’ moments where another idea is needed!
Standing out from the crowd requires more innovation too. There are a number of ways…
Offering more value to your clients than anyone else is offering. This can be added value in the form of free general information about your industry or something closely linked, competitions with prizes relevant to your market, amazing over the top service or simply more stuff on purchase.
Coming up with creative ways to market your brand to the world. With the absolute saturation of marketing bombarding us all every day in so many ways, what used to take 4 or 5 exposures to recognize a brand, now takes 16 viewing times before its recognized! That’s a lot, and it needs to be done in an unobtrusive, charming way so as not to be viewed as annoying. Funny ads and YouTube clips are great, even Tweeting about relevant news events can expose your brand.
Unique Selling Proposition (USP), what makes you better than everyone else?Could be a service no one else is offering, higher quality parts, could be your product can be used at a time or place your competitors products can’t be.
For example, when time is limited (isn’t it always) or the weather is foul, using GSRN’s Timing Improver can improve your golf timing indoors with only 3 minutes per day. There are plenty of flexible shafted golf aids for improving golf swings but none that can be used indoors that have a NASA engineered level of quality and ability; and certainly none with the flexibility in the shaft that can be used indoors as our Timing Improver. This becomes our USP.
Having a mobile friendly website is also vital to the survival of your business, 62% of visitors to your site will not return to your site EVER if your site isn’t easily accessed and read from a mobile. You can blame Apple for that one 😉
Know Your Numbers
We’re all in business for lots of different reasons…For some it’s our mission to help others;
For others, they are masters of what they do, artists if you like, and working for themselves is the only way to be able to express their skills in the way they feel is the best way;
For some it’s the thrill of the ‘game of money’, achieving risks and hopefully results and moving onto the next project, let’s call these the entrepreneurs of the world;
For others it is the opportunity to lead, to share their management skills taking business opportunities to the next stage, and for these guys, working for someone else is just not in the picture.
The one reason we must all be in business for can sound a little crass and hard-line, it’s to make money. Some people who have had very successful businesses in every sense of the word (fulfilling their mission to help others and what they want for themselves) deem making money to be the most important focus of business.
If the business isn’t making money it lacks operating cash for the business to keep doing what it does best, supporting and providing services and products, thereby rendering it unable to support your mission or at times, you! Money is required for materials, leases and staff, without the stuff, your business grinds to a halt.
Keith Cunningham AKA Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad says, the really most important thing he’ll ever say (anyone who’s seen or heard Keith speak will understand this saying 😉 ) Once you work it out, you want to make money and keep it! This is the most important aim of the game!
Keith uses stories to cement the understanding in his teaching. One of them being in the form of a question…’How confident would you feel if as you boarded a plane the pilot loudly exclaimed from the cockpit, “Can anyone tell me what this dial is for?”
Sometimes, what you don’t understand or can’t see is what kills. If you’re at the doctors for a check-up and he sends you for tests, it’s to check what’s going on inside is normal.
If your business has issues you can’t see, or are choosing not to, you risk killing your business. Equally important ( yes, just as important as the previous comment, in fact you might want to write this down ) not reading your numbers, that is your balance sheet, profit and loss and cash statement, sabotages your business more quickly than any other disruption.
Learning the language of business, that is Accounting, can feel like too little too late, especially if your late getting your accounts information to your accountant, or even worse, your accountant is late. Getting updates on figures over a period of time gives you financial optics that are built on trends and relationships, much more reliable than your ‘gut feeling’. Multiple time periods and 10 or 15 data points are necessary to see what’s really happening in your business, and generally, what gets measured is what gets the attention! If there are hidden issues in your business, measurement may be required day by day, keeping in mind, what gets measured determines what gets done!
Generally, financially bad months are preluded by something happening that shouldn’t have happened, or something not happening that should have. If you’re measuring every day, small issues are dealt with quickly and the larger issues are dispensed of while they’re still small.
If you’re eating donuts and pizza every day, it shouldn’t be a surprise to see the scales hitting the ‘too heavy’ mark. What’s going on in your business? The accountant might be saying you have made a profit yet there is no operating cash in the kitty. Reading the numbers on a consistent basis is like a lifestyle change, not just a diet, but a correction that is lasting and productive.
Translating numbers into meaningful actions is a gift Keith Cunningham has been giving for years now and he is still exceptionally passionate about.
Another notable quote comes from Warren Buffet, to paraphrase, the 2 most fundamental rules in business:
Rule No 1: Don’t lose money
Rule No 2: Refer to rule No 1
As a side note for managers and business operators, what you choose to look at is what your staff choose to look at. If you’re looking at the back end of a rhinoceros, ie something not particularly important, so are they. A focus on key indicators on a regular basis from you creates a culture of generating information and taking action on key indicators from your staff.
Once you’re measuring results on a more regular basis, taking action by changing what you’re doing leads to different results, leading to different actions etc, starting a great cycle of improvements that haven’t taken huge $$ to implement. All that’s required is a little discipline and knowledge to get the profit with operating cash party started!
Measure in order to hold yourself accountable and your staff accountable, how can this be judged if it’s not measured? Pat’s on the back and a raise for a great year of profit, how can you tell? The proof is in the measuring over time periods and comparing indicators. Many a ‘Profitable’ business has hit hard times and even closure, leading to job losses and stock price drops of unfathomable levels. This may have been avoided by measurement of operating cash at an earlier time.
The business environment is always changing, the challenge is to be able to measure and adapt to the new challenges. Innovation is important however it can be expensive and innovating for the sake of hoping to change the bottom line but not knowing what the bottom line is, is counterproductive.
Get to know your numbers, if you’re not sure how to read them, find someone who can. Your accountant should be able to, if they can’t maybe it’s time for a new one? A CFO (Chief Financial Officer) is another option, these are becoming more affordable and available on contract. Dare yourself to find out, you may be shocked or perhaps even pleasantly surprised by what you find…