As a long-time GET CLIENTS NOW! program leader and now Director of Training and Licensing for GCN, I’ve noticed that one of the greatest areas of misunderstanding for users of the GCN system is the relationship between Appetizers and Success Ingredient projects.

It starts with the misconception that Success Ingredients are separate action items. They’re not. They’re projects that you choose to work on, and Appetizers are either the specific actions you’ll take to complete your projects, or more accurately, the time you’ll set aside for writing, thinking, and research activities to complete your Success Ingredients.

You might wonder how you fit 3 (or 4, or 5) Success Ingredients into 1 or 2 Appetizer slots.

One of the tricks, suggested in the examples in the book, is to set aside a certain number of hours to work on your stated Success Ingredients. This is my favorite as it’s the easiest.

Sometimes you might have 4 or more Success Ingredient projects to work on. However, the way the program is designed you’re only allowed to work on 3 at a time. Here’s how this might work if you have more than three.

Sample Success Ingredients:

1. Write out 30-second commercial
2. Create 2 model marketing letters
3. Upgrade contact management system
4. Practice 30-second commercial
5. Research networking venues

You decide that #1, 2 and 3 are your priorities. (After all, you can’t practice a 30-second commercial until you’ve written it.) Determine approximately how long it will take you to write your 30-second commercial and your model marketing letters, keeping your chosen by-when dates in mind.

Let’s say you determine it will take you 4 hours total to do those 2 things. Depending on your by-when dates, you may decide to allot 2, 3, or 4 hours per week to complete your Success Ingredients. You could still have a second Appetizer for upgrading your contact management system, if you want.

Sample Appetizers:

1. Spend 3 hours per week writing or doing research.
2. Update my contact management system twice per week.

Those two Appetizer action items will handle your first 3 Success Ingredients. Once you complete your 30-second commercial, you might decide you want to practice it 10 minutes a day to get it in your bones. You could make this an Appetizer, or make it a Main Course item. If you make it an Appetizer, just plug it into the 3 hours you allotted for writing and research – no muss, no fuss. I would actually encourage you to make it a Main Course item, as follows: “Use my 30-second commercial once a day in conversation with someone.” Isn’t that the objective anyway?

More time has passed. You have completed your model marketing letters. Now you can add the research on networking venues. That becomes part of how you spend the 3 hours a week you allotted to doing writing or research, your first Appetizer.

“But oh,” you say, “I have to research networking venues right away too.” Well, no you don’t. This is a process — everything has its time. You decide what’s most important and create a workable game plan, one step at a time.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is your business.