if you examine how different the juvenile industry marketplace is today versus 20 or even 10 years ago, you'll understand why you may be suffering from a case of manaGerial whiplash. knowing how to both adapt to changes and recognize new opportunities as the world around you evolves is a necessary leadership skill. but it's certainly not getting any easier.

Rapid change is, of course, not a recent phenomenon. During the 32 years I managed The First Years, our business model had to be substantially redesigned multiple times to deal with changes in the marketplace. However, the challenge for companies today is that radical marketplace changes are coming faster than ever and from all directions at once. 

What Has Changed in the Last 20 Years?

My thanks to the industry veterans and leaders who provided me with their insights for this post. Here's what they felt are the most important differences between doing business in the juvenile industry today versus 20 years ago:

Channels of Distribution

The degree of disruptive growth of e-commerce wasn't broadly anticipated 20 years ago. Not only has it changed the way products are delivered to consumers, but it has changed the way consumers make their buying decisions and what their expectations are regarding delivery and customer service. It's estimated that over 50% of juvenile products sales are now online. In contrast is the marked reduction in the number of specialty and mass merchant brick-and-mortar locations. 

Consumer Purchasing Process

Today's baby product consumer has a vast array of readily-available sources of product purchase advice as well as the ability to easily compare prices. Online reviews on Amazon and elsewhere, the proliferation of influencers, social media networks, Facebook mothers' groups, registries, baby tracker apps, and online parenting guides, are just some of the available resources. "Word-of-mouth" is no longer something that happens just among friends and family. It's now super-powered by social media. Add the fact that parents are waiting longer to have children and the result is that moms and dads are more knowledgeable and selective than ever. They know what they want and are generally willing to pay to get it as long as they're getting the best possible deal.

Marketing Strategy

The effect of all this is that marketing to new parents is radically different than it was 20 years ago with the need for companies to acquire social commerce skills and expertise. The good news is that marketing can be more targeted and less expensive than it used to be. The days of ad and PR agencies just asking you how much you want to spend are long gone. Instead, it's all about analyzing and managing marketing effectiveness using the data that's now available.

Competition

Consolidation has resulted in fewer, stronger, broad-line US juvenile product brands. But there are also more single-product or category-specific mid-size companies who have been successful by competing based on innovation. 

Over the past 20 years, Chinese suppliers have become much more technically sophisticated and savvy about global marketing and they are increasingly directly competing in the US market themselves. Platforms like Alibaba and Wish are examples of the ease of foreign competitors reaching globally. Of course, US companies have the same opportunity in foreign markets. 

Meanwhile, online channels like Shopify and Amazon are making it easy for US startups to gain distribution and test their product's appeal without heavy investment. However, long-term success for new entrepreneurs is still a challenge because of inexperience and regulatory hurdles. 

Sourcing

By the 90's, juvenile product production was pretty much consolidated in China with larger bulky products not requiring much assembly continuing to be made in the US. In recent years, the increasing US-China rivalry, tariffs, and the pandemic have been supply chain monkey wrenches that are accelerating the US company search for alternatives outside of China. 

Communication

Some of us old-timers can remember when the fastest international communication was Telex. Videoconferencing was just a futuristic novelty 20 years ago. The gains in efficiency and cost reduction from Zoom and its kin have been huge. It's becoming a transformational technology that has positively impacted every part of our business and personal lives.

JPMA's Role

JPMA as an organization has fortunately done a very good job keeping pace with the industry changes. In "the old days," helping members gain retail distribution was the major focus. The annual trade show was a key JPMA benefit and source of organization revenue. Today, JPMA's primary roles include acting as the voice of the industry, assisting members with regulatory and compliance issues, crisis management when the need arises, and responding quickly to individual member needs. 

Keeping Up with Change While Preserving Your Sanity

I used to say that being a CEO was like being strapped to the front of a rapidly moving train having no idea what challenge was waiting for you around the next corner. The being strapped part hasn't changed. However, it's not a train anymore. It's a rocket ship! You can be sure the next 20 years will bring even more disruptions to the status quo than the past 20. Just think about the potential impact of robotics, machine learning, body sensors, self-driving cars, genetic engineering, digital currency, and geopolitical changes to name a few driving forces.

If future changes will be fast and furious, how do you survive and prosper in a rapidly changing environment? There's some useful guidance you can take from the Taoist philosophy of "going with the flow." It starts with accepting the fact that change is natural and inevitable. Therefore, the best thing you can do is not resist change but instead equip your company to be a rapid reactor. That means being aware of the "flow" and adapting to it quickly - continuously. That means:

• Constantly monitoring the environment to identify threats and opportunities as soon as the first signs appear. Subscribing to relevant news feeds and newsletters. Keeping an eye on direct and indirect competitors. Adopting lifelong learning as a personal and organizational priority.
  
• Creating a "light on your feet" culture in your company that embraces both continuous incremental improvement and the need for periodic transformational change. An example of an incremental improvement would be improving sales forecasting accuracy. A transformational change would be moving from subcontracting to in-house manufacturing, going from retail distribution to direct-to-consumer, or entering a totally new market.
• Being willing and able to access expertise in areas with which you are unfamiliar. At the same time, learning enough about new methods and technologies yourself so that you can oversee the work. Don't be afraid to learn from your competitors and other industries.
• Testing and experimenting with new processes and strategies continually to be on the cutting edge while avoiding dangerous financial risks.

Bottom line is that the companies that succeed in the future will likely be the ones that have made rapid response to change a core competency. 

As always, if you’d like more information or assistance regarding achieving your business and life goals or you just want someone to brainstorm, vent, or commiserate with, consider taking advantage of JPMA’s Executive Mentor Program by scheduling a Zoom, Skype, or Face Time session with me. I’d enjoy meeting you and helping you any way I can. Check the JPMA web site for more information or contact Reta Adler at radler@jpma.org.

Ron Sidman was the founder and CEO of The First Years, Inc. and former Vice Chairman of the JPMA Board of Directors. He is currently a business consulting resource for JPMA members and serves on the Advisory Boards of both the School of Entrepreneurship and the Dean of the College of Education at Florida Gulf Coast University. Ron is also the President of Evolutionary Success, LLC, a life and business coaching company.

life is a team sport. there are few meaningful things you can create or accomplish without support from or teamwork with other human beings. this is true in both our business and personal lives. but building relationships is something many people of all ages struggle with. it didn't come naturally to me. 

I was recently asked to be a panelist on a Zoom webinar for college seniors preparing for the challenging task of entering the job market during the current pandemic. The principal strategy discussed was the use of networking both to learn more about possible career options and to make contact with people who might help them land that first job.

Interacting with the students underscored for me both the incredible value of knowing how to build relationships with people but also how uncomfortable it can be for people of all ages to do it. As very much a private person myself, it took me a long time to appreciate the value and overcome my own resistance. My mentoring work with CEOs tells me I'm not alone.

Sometimes you just get lucky and meet someone who turns out to be a great contact, friend, or source of information. But most of the time, you need to make it happen. It's a skill that's well worth developing - even if, like me, you have to force yourself to do things that make you feel uncomfortable. Here are some suggestions based on the times I did it right. No doubt I missed a lot of opportunities as well.

Tips for Creating Beneficial Relationships

1. Follow Your Plan

Your time is precious and relationships take time to create and maintain. So, it pays to make sure you're spending your relationship building time on the goals you most want to accomplish. Connecting with the right people is often the best way to accomplish a goal.

Example: To counter new competition that was attacking my company on price, we needed to further differentiate The First Years brand. We chose to do that by becoming known for superior child development expertise. What we needed was an affiliation with a well-known child development expert. After identifying the ideal parenting guru, I networked through the development office at Boston Children's Hospital until I was able to talk with him on the phone. That began an extremely beneficial and rewarding 20-year relationship with Dr. T. Berry Brazelton and the Child Development Unit at Harvard University. 

2. Join an Organization

Sometimes you don't have a particular person you want to contact but you know where the people you're interested in meeting hang out.

Example: In the early years of my company's existence, we were not members of JPMA. We joined when we thought we were ready to participate in the JPMA Show. Fortunately, I recognized the value of not only being a member but also of getting on the board of directors. It was one of the best business decisions I ever made. Joining the board was the beginning of great career-long relationships with executives from other companies as well as JPMA leadership and staff. It also gave me the opportunity to be aware of and have a say in all the key issues that the industry was facing. Finally, not to say that misery loves company, but the perspective I gained by talking to other industry leaders in my position was invaluable.

3. Create an Organization

If the people you want to meet aren't in an organization, you can create one.

Example: When I first created The First Years brand, I was a 25-year-old single guy with no idea what it was like to be a parent. In fact, I didn't have my first child until 15 years later. Talk about trying to land a plane on an aircraft carrier while blindfolded! We desperately needed an ongoing way to connect with expectant and new parents. So, we put an ad in a local paper and asked new moms to meet with us in the meeting room of a local motel to help us create new and better baby products. We promised snacks and an opportunity to meet other moms. The response was overwhelming. Eventually that evolved into a national community of moms and dads we called The First Years Parents Council.

4. Learn How to Make People Feel Happy

I still sometimes find it hard to believe that the best way to help yourself is to help other people. As the saying goes "what goes around comes around." People you help today will come to your aid tomorrow. It also just feels good. Fill your world with people who are appreciative of what you've  done for them. It's the best way to be relationship-rich.

Example: My father was my role model when it comes to this skill. In his relationships with buyers, he knew how to get people to talk about themselves by asking questions that they would enjoy answering. Then he would listen carefully looking for opportunities to help them with business or personal issues as a way to solidify the relationship. Times have changed and the relationships between buyers and company personnel are generally more professional today. But people are still people and it still pays to have that "how can I improve this person's life" mindset when you spend time with anyone in both your business and personal lives.

5. Learn How to Leverage Your Existing Relationships

Often the best way to meet new people is by introductions from people you know or who know you. Calling someone out of the blue has little chance of working. We all are wary of calls or invitations from unknown individuals. 

Example: In my "second career" after selling my company, I was interested in making a connection with nearby Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) to become a mentor to business school students. I mentioned this to everyone I knew who might have a helpful contact there. One day I expressed this desire to one of my squash buddies. Turned out he had a friend who was a professor at FGCU. That person introduced me to the head of the School of Entrepreneurship. And that led to me becoming a mentor and having the enjoyment of meeting and helping numerous students over the past five years, being a judge at business startup competitions, establishing friendships with many professors, and becoming part of the FGCU community.

6. Build Trust

Relationship building can be a way to break down barriers or overcome conflicts. But it can only happen if you first build trust by being open, honest, and genuine. 

Example: The best example I know is not from my life but that of Bob Iger, CEO at Disney. In his book The Ride of a Lifetime, he describes how under his predecessor, Michael Eisner, the relationship between Disney and Pixar, the up and coming computer animation company had imploded. The personal conflict between Eisner and Steve Jobs, at the time the head of Pixar, led to Jobs announcing he would never work with Disney again. Problem was that preserving that relationship was critical to Disney's future in animation. What Iger did brilliantly was to over time establish a relationship of trust and mutual respect between himself and Jobs that eventually led to Disney buying Pixar in a deal that has been a huge boon for both companies. 

7. Don't Forget the Maintenance

Like gardens, relationships wither if not attended to. If you've gone to the trouble of establishing beneficial relationships, keep them alive.

Example: I had always used videoconferencing in my mentoring work. Some clients liked it and some didn't. Now the pandemic has made it much more universally accepted. To me this is great and ought to become the status quo. With my friends, family, and business partners, I've tried to be the friend or group member who takes the initiative to propose repeating scheduled Zoom or FaceTime sessions. To be respectful of others' time, keep the meetings short. Even a half hour is often enough and certainly no more than an hour. If you're like me, you might want to keep lists of things you'd like to discuss at the next session.

Next Steps

Whether you are an extrovert or introvert, consciously and proactively building and maintaining relationships can be one of the most life and business-enhancing things you can do. Take a look at your personal and business goals and identify new relationships that could help you accomplish them. Then start working on it today!

As always, if you’d like more information or assistance regarding achieving your business and life goals or you just want someone to brainstorm, vent, or commiserate with, consider taking advantage of JPMA’s Executive Mentor Program by scheduling a Zoom, Skype, or Face Time session with me. I’d enjoy meeting you and helping you any way I can. Check the JPMA web site for more information or contact Reta Adler at  radler@jpma.org.

Ron Sidman was the founder and CEO of The First Years, Inc. and former Vice Chairman of the JPMA Board of Directors. He is currently a business consulting resource for JPMA members and serves on the Advisory Boards of both the School of Entrepreneurship and the Dean of the College of Education at Florida Gulf Coast University. Ron is also the President of Evolutionary Success, LLC, a life and business coaching company.

the true test of your leadership skill is how you react in a crisis situation. and UNFORTUNATELY there WILL be no shortage of crises now or in the future.

We all remember where we were the morning of 9-11. I was in a meeting at our Avon, Massachusetts offices discussing a possible stock transaction with some investment bankers. As the unprecedented sequence of events unfolded, everyone including me was in a state of shock wondering what was really going on and what to do about it. At a moment like that, it's easy to get caught up in your own thoughts and forget about the critical role leaders play in crisis situations. And that's what happened to me. Our employees were looking for me, as the president of the company, to take control of the situation and acknowledge and address their fears about their own safety as well as the safety of their families. Regrettably I was unaware of this until later in the day and failed to quickly play the role I should I have played. It was an important lesson.

Whether it's an external crisis like the current spread of the coronavirus or an internal crisis like the loss of a major customer, the way a leader reacts can often determine the severity of any negative impact. And it also can determine how that leader will be perceived in the future. A crisis can raise a leader to greatness like Bob Iger at Disney or Mary Barra at General Motors. Or it can doom them to ignominy like Ken Lay at Enron or Jeff Immelt at GE. Here are some things about crisis leadership that I've learned over the years: 

Recognize Your Responsibility

Even if your management style is to hire great people and get out of their way, when things go wrong, it's the leader's job to take control. A crisis requires a rapid, big picture, coordinated response that only someone at the top can manage. You can delegate tasks but not overall direction. 

Get the Facts

Before you act, find out what's really going on. Understand both the situation and how your employees (and possibly their families) and customers are reacting to it. Listen to as many people as you can. You're going to have to deal with both the problem itself and possible fears and misconceptions. And it's important you are viewed as clearly up to speed and in control. 

Remain Positive and Confident

It's human nature that everyone watches the leader's behavior to determine how bad the situation is. In a crisis situation, the power of your every word and action is greatly amplified. You need to be the voice of calm and reason--even if you have to fake it. 

Manage Expectations with Honesty

But you've got to be straight with people when it comes to the facts. The quickest way to lose their trust is to say that things are better than they really are or provide incorrect information. 

Be Tolerant of Mistakes

In the chaos and confusion of a crisis, mistakes are inevitable--both for you and others in the organization. The worst thing a leader can do is create an atmosphere where people are afraid to make decisions or take action because of fear of repercussions. At times like this, your staff needs your full support.

Maintain a Long-Term View

When things are chaotic and the news is discouraging, the best medicine is reminding yourself and your employees of your mission and vision of the future--over and over again. Resume the discipline of evolutionary progress towards your corporate goals as quickly as you can. Setbacks usually seem worse than they really are and it's comforting to visualize how things will be once the crisis passes. 

Leverage the Opportunity to Improve

Crises have a way of exposing flaws—in processes, infrastructure, finances, culture, and people skills. This can be a good thing if you as a leader take advantage of the opportunity to make your organization stronger going forward. There are dramatic changes you would never dare make under normal conditions that would be accepted by everyone as necessary to prevent future crises from occurring. 

Next Steps

Airplane pilots carry a manual with a section of emergency procedures and checklists. To the extent you can, try to anticipate the kinds of disruptive things that can happen to your business and create at least rough action plans and checklists that can be implemented in different circumstances. In the initial fog of a crisis, this can help you react more quickly and appropriately. 

As always, if you’d like more information or assistance regarding achieving your business and life goals or you just want someone to brainstorm, vent, or commiserate with, consider taking advantage of JPMA’s Executive Mentor Program by scheduling a Zoom, Skype or Face Time session with me. I’d enjoy meeting you and helping you any way I can. Check the JPMA web site for more information or contact Reta Adler at radler@jpma.org.

Ron Sidman was the founder and CEO of The First Years, Inc. and former Vice Chairman of the JPMA Board of Directors. He is currently a business consulting resource for JPMA members and serves on the Advisory Boards of both the Institute for Entrepreneurship and the Dean of the College of Education at Florida Gulf Coast University. Ron is also the President of Evolutionary Success, LLC, a life and business coaching company.

While all leaders want to be positive, supportive, and proactive, there are times when the right thing to do is say no. Knowing when and how to say no to an opportunity or request is a critical leadership skill and a key to business success. But it’s often surprisingly difficult to do.

If you’ve read my previous posts, you know I’m a big advocate of positive thinking, continuous improvement, prudent risk-taking, and customer service. But when I reflect on my own career, there were times when saying no to customers, employees, or other stakeholders was the right although more painful thing to do. The problem is that it’s typically much easier to say yes and make someone happy than say no and have to deal with the negative fallout.

The best method I know of to make decision-making easier is to put the time and effort in up front to create both a clear “vision” for your business (exactly what you want it to look like in 5 or 10 years) and a clear “mission” (the means by which you’re going to achieve your vision). Then as each opportunity or decision comes along, you can ask yourself whether saying yes gets you closer to your vision. And, if so, does it do it in a way that is in sync with your mission. If you’ve ever wondered what visions and missions are for, this is it.

Of course, like all life and business advice, it’s great in theory but not always easy to follow. To illustrate the difficulty, I’ll tell you about a couple of instances in my own career where I fell off the wagon.

The First Years Vision and Mission

From the brand’s creation in 1972, we had a vision of becoming a leading juvenile product brand respected for helping parents make the first 3 years of life happier, healthier, and easier for themselves and their children. The mission that we felt would be the means to that end was to provide parents with “superior value from superior in-use performance.” In other words, we would attract customers via functional superiority—offering products provably superior to competition in doing what parents and their babies needed them to do. In fact, we did that quite successfully for many years by virtue of excellent designers and engineers, an outstanding product development process, our Parents’ Council, and input from child development experts. But then . . . .

Unbearable Temptation

In the mid 90’s, what was dangled in front of us was an opportunity that just seemed too good to pass up. Because of our reputation for product quality and child development expertise, Disney offered us exclusive rights to the red-hot Winnie-the-Pooh license for virtually our entire product line. Exciting and flattering as it was, it was clearly a departure from our mission. The appeal of a license is all about the graphics, not product performance. While I had some reservations, the enthusiasm of our marketing team and my own vanity persuaded me to go for it.

It was absolutely fantastic for a few years. Driven largely by licensed product sales, our overall sales and profits skyrocketed. However, as a consequence, we became more and more reliant on and beholden to Disney while taking away resources from building our core product line. It also made it less clear internally and probably to our customers what our company and brand stood for. As usually happens with hot licenses, gradually the bloom came off the rose culminating in a sudden precipitous decline in Pooh product sales. This could have been financially disastrous had we not seen it coming. I also always wonder what we could have done with The First Years brand had we devoted our full resources and attention to it rather than being distracted.

“Starck” Reality

Another time “no” was probably the right answer was when one of our biggest customers, Target, asked us to produce for them a line of private label products designed by renowned designer Philippe Starck. Again, this was clearly a departure from the substance of our mission. It couldn’t have been further from our strategy of building our own brand and relying on our own design expertise and product superiority to win the day. Understandably, our Target sales people desperately wanted to do it. Their rationale was that it would solidify our relationship with a very important account. I took the easy way out and agreed rather than risking alienating a large customer and disappointing my own sales force. 

To put it mildly, it was a disaster. While Mr. Starck was and I’m sure still is an excellent and successful designer of many things, I think it’s fair to say that infant products were not his forte. The products just plain didn’t sell and the whole program was discontinued within a couple of months. We lost money and I’m not even sure it improved our relationship with Target. In retrospect I could have and should have explained to Target up front that this type of product development was not our strength. They probably would have respected us more if I had.

Next Steps

You can clearly see from my examples that you need a clear vision and mission for your company and should resist the temptation to drift away from it. You can’t be all things to all customers. Every time you say yes to something, you’re taking resources away that could be applied to something else. Let your vision and mission be the guides to what to do and not do. 

As always, if you’d like more information or assistance regarding achieving your business and life goals or you just want someone to brainstorm, vent, or commiserate with, consider taking advantage of JPMA’s Executive Mentor Program by scheduling a Skype or Face Time session with me. I’d enjoy meeting you and helping you any way I can. Check the JPMA web site for more information or contact Reta Feldman at  rfeldman@jpma.org.

 Ron Sidman was the founder and CEO of The First Years, Inc. and former Vice Chairman of the JPMA Board of Directors. He is currently a business consulting resource for JPMA members and serves on the Advisory Boards of both the Institute for Entrepreneurship and the Dean of the College of Education at Florida Gulf Coast University. Ron is also the President of Evolutionary Success, LLC, a life and business coaching company.

THERE IS ONE COMPONENT OF YOUR LIFE UPON WHICH ALL THE OTHERS, INCLUDING YOUR BUSINESS OR CAREER, DEPEND. IF IT'S NOT PROPERLY MAINTAINED, EVERYTHING IMPORTANT TO YOU IS IN JEOPARDY. YET MOST OF US PAY LITTLE IF ANY ATTENTION TO IT UNTIL SOMETHING GOES WRONG.

Of course, I'm talking about your physical and emotional health. In my mentoring of CEOs and young adults, I now emphasize that you have to look at your life holistically. You can't effectively make business or career decisions without also addressing your vision for family & friends, financial condition, where you’d like to live, and recreation. But most importantly you need to pay attention to your health.

The importance of a healthy lifestyle was underscored for me a couple of years ago when I got a call from my new doctor in Florida. “Hi Ron. We got the results back from your cardiac heart scan. As I told you, I do this test on all my new patients. Well, if there was no plaque in the arteries of your heart, your score would be zero. Yours was 500!” He went on to explain the frightening implications. “That means you have a very high risk of having a heart attack or stroke over the next 5 to 10 years.” 

It’s impossible to determine how much of that unhealthy arterial crud was due to heredity or a diet that for most of my life was dominated by generous portions of prime rib, Caesar salad, veal parmesan, Chinese food, and pepperoni pizza. That’s not exactly a regimen consistent with the healthy eating pyramid and it undoubtedly didn’t help my cause.

While I had always exercised fairly regularly, until I sold my company, I never really confronted the fact that my diet and other aspects of my lifestyle might come back to haunt me at some point. Nor did it help that my previous doctor didn’t realize that because of my family history of heart disease, putting me on a statin drug years ago might have been a good idea.

As each new medical study is published, it becomes more and more clear how what we ingest, what we breathe, how and how often we move our bodies, how we think, and the medical care we receive impacts the quality and length of our lives. Fortunately, for the most part, these are all things we can control! Yet it often takes a negative medical test or, even worse, a heart attack or serious illness to get us to do what we should know we should do. 

With my wakeup call as the impetus, for the past few years I’ve been making an annual pilgrimage to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota to participate in both their Executive Health and Healthy Living programs. The former is an extensive physical examination and the latter a fitness assessment and educational experience. Here are just a few of the things I’ve learned on my annual “medical vacations” that you might find helpful too:

It’s Never Too Late to Make Up for Past Sins

You can’t always undue damage to your body that has been done. But you can most likely prevent further damage and counter-balance potential negative impacts. For example, diet and exercise changes can have profound positive benefits even if initiated at an older age. Learning how to relax through meditation or other forms of mindfulness can help you prevent or turn around stress-induced illnesses.

You’ve Got to be Your Own Health Advocate

The harsh reality is that no one really cares as much about your health as you do. Even the Mayo Clinic where they truly believe “the patient comes first” is after all a business that is servicing thousands of patients and is motivated to some degree by finances. So is your family doctor. No medical professional will lose sleep if you don’t do everything you can to live a long and healthy life. Doctors today struggle to even have the time to give patients the basic attention they deserve. And not all doctors are competent or knowledgeable. It’s totally up to you to seek the best physicians, ask the right questions, insist on proper care, and distinguish between fact and fiction.

Really Know What You’re Putting in Your Stomach

We all know that what we eat is important for good health. But it’s the hidden ingredients in foods that can hurt you. My blood pressure is a bit too high. Too much salt increases blood pressure. A Mayo nutritionist pointed out to me that while I never apply salt to my food, I was consuming much too much salt because of all the prepared foods and sauces I was eating. Read the labels! You’ll be shocked.

It’s About All-Day Movement, Not Just “Exercise”

You should certainly schedule dedicated physical fitness sessions multiple times a week. But if you sit on your duff all day in-between, you’re still doing your body significant harm. There’s even a name for activity that should be occurring outside of formal exercise times—"Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis” or NEAT. It includes things like walking, gardening, walking up stairs, doing the dishes, even just standing up if you sit a lot. Turns out your NEAT is just as important as aerobics and resistance training.

Get to Know Your Pharmacist

If you’re taking any medications or supplements regularly, how and when you take what you take makes an enormous difference—time of day, full or empty stomach, chewable or non-chewable, interactions between them, etc. It’s quite likely your doctor is not as up to date on the latest studies as a pharmacist is. That’s why the Mayo program includes a consultation with a pharmacist. It’s a healthful thing to do.

Next Steps

If health issues can jeopardize every one of your hopes and dreams, it certainly pays to be just as proactive about your health as you would about your business:
 

1.      Conduct a Situation Analysis Annually--With the help of medical professionals, thoroughly assess the state of your health. I highly recommend the Mayo Clinic or another respected medical institution with similar proactive, holistic, preventive medical care programs.

2.      Create a Vision & Goals--Create a long-term (e.g. 10 year) Vision of where you’d like your physical and emotional condition to be. Then establish 3-year, 1-year, and next quarter goals that will enable adequate progress towards that Vision. Make sure every goal has measurable success criteria.

3.      Create an Action Plan—Document the steps you will take to achieve your next quarter goals. Undoubtedly it will include blocking out in your calendar enough time each week to do the health-related activities that are essential. 

4.      Implement Your Plan—Start today pursuing your goals and monitor and react as needed.

As always, if you’d like more information or assistance regarding achieving your business or life goals or you just want someone to brainstorm, vent, or commiserate with, consider taking advantage of JPMA’s Executive Mentor Program by scheduling a Skype or Face Time with me. I’d enjoy meeting you and helping you any way I can. Check the JPMA web site for more information or contact Reta Feldman at  rfeldman@jpma.org.