Riddle:  When is a coach not a coach?

Sorry to be the bearer of sad news, but coaching as we used to know it and some people still try to teach it, is dead.  It had a feeble existence at best, which is why only the truly top coaches were ever very successful – because they dared to do things differently.

So, when is a coach not a coach?  Answer:  in the 21st Century, when he or she is a mentor… a consultant… a person of influence and persuasion who doesn’t follow the book.  Today’s successful coach combines the best of coaching with what might otherwise be called mentoring and consulting for optimal results.

The reason for our success even in the early days was because we weren’t “coaching”… well, we were, but we were also mentoring, consulting and using the wisdom and power of our influence, backed by our knowledge and experience, to persuade our clients to take certain actions that we knew would work for them.  Those who weren’t and were coaching strictly by the book were falling by the wayside and paying coaches like myself thousands of dollars to learn our “secrets” (which I gladly shared and still do to this day.)

There are many reasons for this change in the coaching environment.  The economy today is not what it was a few years ago, when coaching was still enjoying its flush of youth.  Everybody was enjoying healthy incomes back then and eager to spend it on self-development programs and coaching.  In fact, they spent it on all types of coaching, not just business coaching. Everyone who was anyone had a life coach, and in that coaching niche, this is where the coaching concept of “the answer is within you and I’ll help you get it out” finds its true home.

These days during 2008 and 2009, as a result of the global financial crisis, it’s a very different story.  People have had to tighten their belts and only spend what money they have on necessities.  They are prioritizing their spending and they want guaranteed and specific results for their dollar.

If your coaching isn’t producing these specific results, you are going to have a very difficult time earning six or seven figures a year in this profession.  This is the only reason I say coaching is dead.  It’s not that coaching as an industry is dead – it is simply that many coaching niches and ideas are dead or on life support.

Let me give you some background. I started coaching over a decade ago. I had then and still do have a passion for helping others.  I told people that I planned to make a million a year as a coach, and many of them thought I was bonkers… until they learned I had made just under $500,000 in my first year – then they stopped laughing at me and started listening to me.

When I started making 6 and 7 figures from my coaching business by changing the model of coaching, people stopped merely listening and starting asking me to show them they how they could do the same thing.  In a nutshell, my methods didn’t and still don’t involve the text-book coaching we were all taught, and it is not what I teach my own coaching students.

So, what was I doing differently?  A few things, including in-person coaching, seminars and masterminding with groups.  These days I include the option for clients to meet with me for one full day in my home and also attend seminars and mastermind sessions and have follow up telephone coaching for a year.  It’s a comprehensive program that packs a powerful punch.

The point is, I experimented and tried many techniques and I didn’t become a huge success by doing what everybody else did and was told to do.  I created a formula for success based on my own personal years of business experience, and I found as I put the pieces of the formula together that they began to work in harmony bringing even bigger and faster results.

What intrigued me was that as I shared my successful formula with others along the way, it didn’t create the same success for them as it was doing for me. This was another valuable lesson: knowledge alone won’t create a successful coaching business – but action and implementation of the formula will.

Not all coaches were ready to jump on board with my “radical” coaching ideas and I had to find honest and meaningful methods to influence their thinking and persuade them to give the new ideas a trial.  I suspect the most powerful of my techniques was simply walking my talk and proving my ideas worked by showing that they worked.  Then, with those coaches who did try my ways and succeeded, I encouraged them to do the same with their own clients.

As it turned out, there were other things I was doing differently to other coaches that also made a difference.

One of the other things I found different was that I was truly excited and passionate about my business and the coaching industry and driven to succeed with loads of self motivation and business knowledge and experience at my disposal.  But more than that, I was using this when coaching my clients.  I was not keeping my opinions to myself and I was out there offering my advice – of course, I didn’t force or expect anyone to take it, but I always put it out there and I was criticized by the general coaching community for doing so.

It’s like this, having a cheerleader on your team to motivate you is one thing, but if you pretty much know what you want and just want an expert to help you achieve it, the traditional coaching method is not going to help you achieve that.  This is also another reason why I don’t do personal coaching – people want to see and measure ‘value’.  Personal and life coaching are dead niches.  Why?  Well, while this type of coaching may help clients feel good or give them the courage to find out what they’d prefer to be doing and go do it, but it is entrepreneurial coaching that gives my clients financial breakthroughs, which is a serious and very tangible result that they are willing to pay for.

This bears repeating – my clients don’t pay me thousands of dollars just to have me ask them questions trying to find their inner answers.  They pay for my business savvy and advice – they want my opinions. When they ask me “What would you do…?”  I tell them.  When they ask me “What should I do…?”  I discuss their options and yes, persuade them to choose wisely.

I am a qualified and certified Master Coach and I call myself one – but I am more than that.  I am also a mentor and a consultant and I use all the techniques available in order to serve my clients in the best way I know.

If you are a “life coach”, consider working with small business owners.  Not only is not being successful in their small business a huge personal issue for them, they have work/life balance issues that go along with that.  By helping them create real financial value for them, you will also create prosperity in your own business.  I learned years ago that if I help other people create wealth in their business, then automatically wealth is created in my business.

I couldn’t have achieved this level of mutual success if I had stuck to the coaching methods I’d been taught.  It was because I knew how to positively influence and persuade my clients that we both saw these amazing results.

To make six and seven figures as a coach, you must learn and keep on learning how to bring your clients financial success fast.  Entrepreneurs make great clients because they are prepared to take a few risks, step outside the square and consider the possibilities.

Why do entrepreneurs need coaches?  Well, they read books, attend seminars, listen to home study programs, etc. to get the knowledge they need to move forward, which is great, except they often don’t know how to put that newfound knowledge into practice or they are overwhelmed and all over the place, lacking structure.  That’s where a business coach comes in, to help them implement what they have learned.

I think we’d all agree that shifting client beliefs is the basis of all coaching – helping our clients uncover beliefs that are holding them back and encouraging new beliefs to help them move past those blockages and move forward.  We do this with our entrepreneurial and business clients, too, although their challenges are not quite the same.  We still need to know how to shift our business clients’ business to become successful and I have a proven method for doing that and it doesn’t involve asking questions and letting my clients figure it out for themselves by the answers they come up with.

Coaching is not just about asking good questions and being a powerful listener.  It’s about having a systematic process that you lead clients through which results in their success.  You can’t do this using the coach training methods we were taught.  You have to know what you’re doing and what you’re talking about so you can talk confidently with your clients.  You have to realize they have hired you not for your clever questions and listening skills, but because they want you to tell them what to do or at least give them the options to choose from to help them move forward quickly. They want your expertise.  They want you to share your knowledge and experience with them.  That’s really what they’re paying you for.

Part of how I was able to easily persuade people to choose me as their coach was not just because I had developed a successful track record, but because I was influencing them on other levels to see me as the expert they needed.

When I held masterminds and interviews and teleclasses with people like Chet Holmes, Yanik Silver, Alex Mandossian, Raleigh Pinsky and other experts who were already seen as great coaches and experts, people hired me.  When I hired expensive coaches armed with knowledge like Scott Hallman, Jay Abraham, Dan Kennedy, Zig Ziglar, Michael Gerber, Joe Bauer, Paul Hartunian and others, my clients realized that by working with me they got to tap into many other experts and now were getting information from many top authors and coaches through me.

As a coach it is important to be connected to other more successful coaches who will benefit your business and your clients’ businesses.  It sends out positive signals to your potential clients and influences them in their decision making about who to hire, but ultimately, they will hire the coach who can solve their problems.

Years ago when I first started coaching and ventured out with a formal business partner, we did a joint call and I was talking about helping people and solving their problems.  She said that as coaches we don’t help people in that manner and they have to solve their own problems.  She said that’s not the role of the Coach – we don’t solve your problems, we help YOU solve your own problems!

At that moment, I realized we could no longer be in business together – we were not in agreement on even the most basic points.  She believed what a lot of coaches were being taught, but I believed people hired other people and bought their products and services to help them solve their problems.  After all, if they could solve their problems themselves, why on earth would they pay you good money to stand on the side and cheer while they figured it out for themselves?

As a student also of human behavior and psychology, I know that unless you have a solid benefit of removing problems for people, you will never have a successful business because people are strongly motivated to buy something if it is going to solve their problems.

Entrepreneurs hire coaches like me because they want help to function as business owners and not as worker bees.  They want a business they love and that is successful – they don’t want a JOB. They want success and wealth and freedom versus a business that is struggling and taking up all their time and draining them as it sucks the energy from them on a daily basis.  They certainly don’t want to spend thousands of dollars and waste months analyzing their answers to my clever questions in the hope of coming up with their own solutions.

I am also an entrepreneur and I’m dealing with people who can be as headstrong as myself and just as determined and the only way I can help them step up to the plate and be responsible for their success and move their blocks out of the way is by being persuasive and being able to influence them to see things from other perspectives and try on new ideas.  If I sat back and got them to only follow what was inside of them and what they believed would be right for them, I could be sitting back watching them head for more of the same mediocrity if not absolute disaster.  And that’s not what they hire me for. After all, they’ve tried it their way and it isn’t working… now they’re ready to try something different.

In 1983, Zig Ziglar said “You can have anything you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.”  Truer words were never spoken!  From my experience, the only way to successfully achieve that involves stepping outside the confines of traditional coach training and sharing your knowledge.  It involves having the courage to influence your clients in the right direction rather than sit back and let them walk into mistakes.  They don’t hire me to help them make mistakes so they can learn from them… they hire me so they won’t make mistakes in the first place!

Don’t get me wrong.  My aim is to help my clients reach their goals and we work from their agenda, not mine.  It’s not about what I want… it’s about what they want.  But I will use my influence to persuade them to take certain other actions or see and do things differently when I know for a fact, from experience and my knowledge, that on this occasion, I do know better than they do.  After all, that’s what they’re paying me for.  I know some other coaches may cringe when they hear how I advise my clients and give them my opinions and suggestions… but do they share the same success levels that I do?  No.

If you know your client is thinking about or planning to waste thousands of dollars on a plan or idea that is inappropriate for his business and it won’t work, and you know he would be better off following a different course of action, how can you help him if you follow the traditional coaching methods, in which you, as Coach, don’t try to lead him because he’s “got the answers within him”?  He doesn’t have your knowledge or experience – his inner guidance is off because he doesn’t have all the facts, but you do.  And why should he pay anyone if he already has the answers in him?

I’ve had success with my clients because I don’t pussy-foot around in situations like this.  Of course, the final action is up to him, but generally, people don’t pay me $1500 to ask for my advice and then go and do something else. This client doesn’t need a cheerleader as much as he needs somebody with business savvy who knows what they’re talking about who can advise him and give him better options and tell him, quite frankly, when he’s about to make a big mistake and point him in the right direction.

Good coaches have been influencing their clients for years, despite the flack and negative attention we received in the early days from other Coaches who did it by the book.  They soon changed their mind when they saw our success and that of our clients.  Despite what is becoming a turnaround in thinking, there are still those who cringe at the notion of what I do and how I do it.  They think “persuade” and “influence” are dirty words.  What they don’t realize is we influence and persuade people every day, and so do they.

When we market our businesses, what are we doing?  We’re trying to influence people and persuade them to buy our products and services… sign up for our newsletters… click on our ads… follow our tweets and blogs… open our emails… attend our workshops and seminars, etc.  We’re certainly not asking potential clients to look within to see if using our services resonates with them!

Everybody is doing it:  salespeople, advertisers, copywriters, school teachers… we’re all trying to influence others and persuade them to do something.  We can’t just hand over the information and leave it at that, because as I mentioned at the beginning, I learned from personal experience that this just wasn’t enough.  You have to persuade them to take action on the information you give them – only then will what you are offering be of value because only then will they see tangible results.

Yet do we teach persuasion skills in our schools?  Do coaching programs include it in their curriculum?  Why do people only think salespeople need persuasion skills?  We all need these skills.

If you are a coach who has been coaching from the ‘old school method’, then it is definitely time you threw away your text books and stepped outside your box… the bottom line is if you don’t know how to persuade and influence people, you and your business will go nowhere.

By now,  you may be counting down the days to the start of Spring and looking forward to all that entails.  What is also a good idea for this time of year is preparing your spring cleaning plan. Have a brain storm with everyone in your offices and call for ideas.

Here are some spring clean tips and ideas to get you started:

• Filing and paperwork.  Are your filing cabinets in need of archiving?  Make room for more files and make paperwork easier to handle by “culling” your old files.  If you have those that you no longer need to keep, that are outside the statutory limit, throw them away if you think you will no longer be needing them.  Archive files you have not used in a long time.
• Computer system.  As with paperwork, computers hold many files that are not necessary to keep on the computer, but you may wish or need to keep the information.  Back up this type of information to disc and free up the space on your computer system.  Keep a copy of your backup and archive discs offsite – in case of fire – you want to be able to access that information again.
• Review your practices and procedures.  Are there any new or simpler ways of doing tasks?  Maybe your staff have ideas and now is a good time to consider them.
• Be ruthless and throw out that which is nothing more than clutter.  This may be broken, chipped mugs, old magazines and brochures, and anything else you may be hoarding but never use and will likely never use.
• Need a change?  Maybe rearrange the furniture, if practical. This will give you a fresh start into Spring.  Maybe there is a more efficient way to set up your room and the office in general?
• Would a fresh coat of paint help?  Have a look around.  If you ever thought of brightening up your surgery or office, now is a good time to do it.
• Do a swap of anything ornamental.  Change last years vases or paintings and photos with something more up to date, fresh and different.
• Go through all stationery cupboards and office desks and throw out everything that doesn’t work.  Many drawers hold pens and staplers  that have not worked for years!
• Update your magazines, brochures, pamphlets and anything else you have available for waiting patients.  If you provide a “toy” area for children, make sure all the toys have been cleaned and disinfected.  Throw away anything tacky or broken and replace with safer, newer toys.
• Mark the first of spring with a vase of fresh flowers – if possible, try to choose low or non-allergic varieties – think about your hayfever and sinus suffering patients!
• Spring clean your mind!  If your staff always work in perfect harmony, you are very fortunate, however, in some offices, disagreements and disharmony between staff members is not uncommon.  So, for you and your staff – suggest they all write down on a slip of paper any grudges they are harboring against anyone else in the office, any gripe about anything at all that affects their mood and productivity during their work day.  When complete, these little slips are rolled into small balls – so nobody can read them.  Collect them in a bowl and take them somewhere outside or in to the kitchen sink area and burn them!  Tell your staff they are spring cleaning their minds… ridding themselves of any old grudges, jealousies, angers etc.  Everyone starts the first of spring with fresh slates!

Are you fulfilled in your life? How about in your work? Many clients we work with tell us they have a wonderful lifestyle, but as we start to dig deeper, we see that they are missing a great life. What is the difference?

Simple. A lifestyle is the external things which you gather, but a life is something fulfilling and sustaining.  Let’s look at some of the ways to be more fulfilled.

1. Stop focusing on earning more and buying more. Stop funding a lifestyle, and start creating a better life for you and those around you.
2. Stop looking for more gratification, and start being very grateful for all you do have.
3. Stop measuring your success in money terms, and start measuring emotional costs. If you work day and night to keep up with your lifestyle, you are giving up your life. Start enjoying your life and making it simple.
4. Ask yourself if you are working for a living or doing the work you love for life?  (I do what I love and love what I do … shouldn’t you?)
5. Focus on your energy, feeling joy, love, and having the time to enjoy the special people in your life – this is how to be fulfilled.
6. If your work drains you or doesn’t fulfill your intellectual, social, and emotional needs, make a change.

Can’t seem to make a change and blaming everyone else? Stop whining … don’t be a wimp … take back the power of your life … go for fulfillment … and get back in control!

ALREADY LOST CONTROL?

Most people are so unbalanced today that they aren’t even aware of it.  Are you one of them?  The answers you provide to the following questions will measure the degree of balance you have between the demands of work, family responsibilities, and personal time. Become aware of what and where your “gaps” are (gap – coach “talk” for the difference between what you want and what you currently have).

Answer each question with a number, with 5 being “always” and 1 being “never.”

AT HOME:

Does your family complain that you don’t spend enough time with them?
Do you often feel anxious about the demands of your family?
Do responsibilities at home make you resentful?
Do you expect your family to adapt to your career needs?
SUBTOTAL:

AT WORK:

Do you feel frustrated because your income is not enough?
Do you feel guilty about the time you spend on your career?
Do you resent having to bring work home?
Do you worry that your work interferes with family needs?
SUBTOTAL:

PERSONAL:

Do you feel there’s never enough time for yourself?
Do you feel guilty about taking a vacation?
Do you wish you got more exercise?
Do you feel you never get to do what you like to do?
SUBTOTAL:

TOTAL:

A total score of less than 20 indicates you’ve learned to balance family, career and personal needs successfully.
21-30 indicates a good balance with some need for improvement.
31-40 indicates a fair balance.
41-50 shows that you’re barely managing the juggling act of home, career and personal needs.

BALANCING ACT

Want to get into balance fast? Begin by keeping a journal for 3-5 days of your current time allocation. Notice where you are spending most of your time. Is your time being spent on your life values/priorities?

When you compare where you want to spend your time and where you are spending your time, don’t get discouraged. By learning and knowing this information you can then begin to make changes. This awareness has created for you what coaches call a “gap” – the difference between what you want and what you currently have.

Having identified what you want and knowing your current situation, you can now begin to change your everyday actions to move you closer to what you desire.

If you want some help on your journey, a professional coach can assist you to build a balance between work and play and to create more joy in your life. Don’t live your life out of balance. Don’t let your life slip by with you saying “if only…”. Make a decision today to move you closer to what you want.

IS TIME A PROBLEM?

Do you feel frustrated with the lack of time you have? Feel anxious that you just can’t get everything done, no matter how hard you work or how much time you spend?

Today’s society brings with it many things to juggle: career, family, home, shopping, activities, appointments, events and on and on. This leads us to feel we have no time and creates stress which can cause a variety of illnesses.

If you are serious about turning this around, or want to avoid this situation, here are some pointers for you:

1. Slow down – take many breaks during the day and keep telling yourself to breathe and relax.

2. Track one full day of your week by 15-minute increments – evaluate where all your time goes and ask yourself this question, “Is this how I choose to be experiencing my life?” – be honest with yourself.

3. Create delight breaks in your day – time to take a walk, call a friend, stretch, look outside, read a magazine, take a bath, etc.

You’d be surprised how much time you actually do ‘waste’ during a busy day.  Keeping a journal will identify times in which you really CAN take a walk, sit and enjoy a cappuccino, call a friend, etc.

ENJOYING THE MOMENT

It is all too easy to become so swept up in your work that not only do you not stop to smell the roses, you’ve ceased to even notice them. One secret to living life to the fullest is simply to enjoy today… enjoy the moment.

Until technology perfects time travel, it is impossible to relive the past or live in the future.  You CAN only experience “now”, so it is important not to waste it.

Ensure that the things you do and experience in your Present, are things that really matter to you.  Don’t waste these precious present moments doing things that other people think you should do.  Their perspective is only appropriate to themselves.  Set the goals that are best for you.

Don’t be hard on yourself.  You are human.  Humans, by their very nature, are imperfect creatures. Don’t condemn yourself over your weaknesses.  These things can be worked on if they are a real problem, and that’s why you are given a lifetime – for you to experience one day at a time.

Don’t compare yourself to others.  Instead, appreciate the very things which make you different; which make you special.  We will always find those who are worse off, or better off, and every single one lives in circumstances totally different from ourselves.  It’s like comparing a blade of grass with an iron bar.

Spontaneity is good – when it is appropriate, but bear in mind that your time, your actions, and your words can never be taken back.  Make each one count.

Finally, look upon each day as a precious gift.  You are not here to race through the days as quickly as possible, skimming over the details.  You are here to experience each step of your life’s journey, to learn from it, to savor it, to enjoy it. Yesterday is too late; tomorrow isn’t here yet… you only have today.

1. Finger-painting is great for your partnerships and business!  Well, okay, maybe not finger-painting per se… but things of a playful nature!  Do more fun things, more often! Seriously, we take the idea of our business and partnering WAY too seriously, and the paradox is that when you are taking things so seriously, you can’t be a vibrational match to more fun, more ease, more money, or fantastic partnerings! Your life really is a game – don’t take it so seriously.  Remember when you were in Kindy and you were playing dolls or cowboys?  The end result of the game wasn’t important – it was the playing that was fun. And in the end, it’s how you play the game that counts.  Have fun in your business partnerships – share jokes, help each other laugh and enjoy every day!  Be silly!  Silly is good!  It’s okay to be silly.  I know many professional people who have silly down to a fine art!  It really is okay to have fun in life – even in the serious business of running a business!

1. Live more in your head! Remember as a child when you just slipped off into a daydream of real and imagined wonderful things? Do more of that! In order to attract more of what you want, you need to activate inside you the feelings you would have if you had those things now… so how do you do that? Daydream!!  You exercised your imagination in kindergarten, little realizing back then that this was a “muscle” you’d really need in your professional life many years later, and then perhaps, some well-meaning “adult” told you to stop “dreaming” – and I bet that’s when life became a harder game to play and everything became a struggle!  Let your vision become real, and do it for the sake of the fun of feeling it – that is the power in it!  Share your imaginings with your partner – just as you did with your friends back in Kindy – the power of two people imagining the same vision should never be underestimated!

1. Ignore reality! The only way you got to where you are now is by holding your current beliefs so strongly that it created your current reality. So how do you change current reality? You have to activate something else. Think of how you feel when you think about the word money – what do you feel? What are your thoughts? Whatever it is, the first thing that comes up is your dominant thought pattern.  It can be hard when you have practiced this pattern over and over… just thinking about the topic can’t help but bring up this pattern.  To change the pattern, you need to activate something else, something that feels great and gets you off the topic! Yes… slip off into a place for a few seconds that feels great, just for a few seconds… how will that help you in your partnerships? When you are feeling great more often you will attract more people, things, and situations that feel great… sounds crazy, but it works.  You had no trouble ignoring reality back in kindergarten… you can do it now!

1. Share.  The more you share of yourself and your gifts and come from a place of serving, the more that will come back for you. Whatever you give out comes back to you multiplied.  It’s like when you were a kid – the more invites you gave out to your parties, the more presents you received and the more invitations you received in return.  By sharing, you will find other people and the universe will willingly share “theirs” with you too.

1. You can’t hold onto something tightly… we never really “own” anything… we may pay for something, but we can’t take it with us.  It’s all borrowed.  Apart from which, when you cling to something, you create blockages – you have to release the old to let in the new… close one door before the next one can open… and you have to keep circulating everything if you want better things to come around for you.  In Kindy, if you held tightly to something, your hands were full so you couldn’t play with anything new or anyone else… you were stuck with that same old whatever that you were clinging to with both hands – life is like that – be prepared to let go so your hands are free for better toys and opportunities!

1. If You Act Cute You Can Get Away with Things. This one’s pretty self-explanatory. And here’s another one… You catch more flies with honey!  Tantrums and stubbornness didn’t work in Kindy… and they still don’t work!  People find it more difficult to get cross with you if you are being “sweet” and sincere – it doesn’t mean they won’t still get cross with you, but they’ll probably forgive you sooner!

1. Play Nice. While it’s important to practice self-care, cooperation only happens when you pay attention to what the other person’s needs are too. If you grab or have a fit, things probably aren’t going to end up going your way. It’s important to treat others with respect and courtesy.  You may not ALWAYS get it back, but most of the time you will, and when you don’t, try not to take it personally… we’re all on different rungs of the evolution ladder… sometimes, we have to make allowances for those who haven’t caught up, in the same way, we hope, that those on a higher rung than ourselves will forgive us for our slip-ups!

1. Want to Play?  While it’s important to have time for yourself, you can have more fun when you have someone to play with. Collaboration brings excitement and laughter and creativity and joy!  Being in partnership allows the sum to be greater than the parts. Allowing yourself to play fully brings immeasurable rewards and satisfaction.  Remember the fun you had playing with your friends in Kindy?  Much more satisfying than playing by yourself, right?  This doesn’t change as we get older… just our games change.

1. Be a Friend.  You Are My Friend. I think you’re special. I hold you in a certain way and accept who you are. Even when I get angry or frustrated with you I get over it. I trust you and sometimes I overlook things because you are special to me. At the same time, sometimes I overlook things and don’t hold you accountable because I’m afraid you won’t like me anymore. I recognize I’m not really being a good friend when I do this.  Mind you, just as in Kindy, there are ways of being honest and holding your friends accountable… be gentle with your friend’s feelings.  If you have to say something that borders on harsh, find the kindest words to use before you say it!  And don’t backstab your friends – if you couldn’t say it to their face, make sure you don’t say it when they’re not looking.  Remember how that hurt, back in Kindy?  It still hurts now!

10.  Two Heads are Better than One.  Remember how, in Kindy, you paired off with a buddy to tackle something special – you were able to solve problems, do jigsaws, build fortresses etc. with his/her help and the sharing was part of the fun?  It’s hard to celebrate by yourself… not much fun!  Partnerships work the same way – having someone to bounce ideas off, solve problems with, and celebrate successes with makes business so much more enjoyable.

11.  Be Open.  If you can’t recall your own Kindergarten days, just look at small children now.  How open they are with each other.  If you ask for an honest opinion (and even if you don’t ask!), you will get it.  It isn’t intended to hurt or insult you – these little people just tell it like it is, in a manner that is impossible to be offended by.  You need to be this open and honest with your business partner – without offending them.  Just tell it like it is – it is your opinion being thrown into the hat, nothing more, nothing less.  Now, who can be offended by that?!

12.  Kindergartens are a place of learning – learning in a safe, non-abusive, non-offensive environment.  Let your business partnership grow like this – allow your partner (and yourself) to grow and learn in a safe environment.  Realize you don’t know it all yet and be patient with mistakes – ask your partner to extend the same courtesy to you.  Agree that you will help each other “grow”.  Allow for experimentation – honor your partner’s ideas and schemes, as you would want them to honor yours.

13.  Kindergarten taught you to “grow” and stretch.  Think of your business partnership in the same way.  Expect to change direction, try new things, expand, experiment and be open to all of this.  Of course, this doesn’t mean throwing common sense to the winds… but don’t throw away good ideas just because you didn’t think of them yourself, or because you don’t know enough about it.  Successful businesses and successful partnerships continually evolve.

14.  Security.  There is a sense of security when you are with another person or persons.  Going it alone is tough and it’s lonely and it makes everything you do much more difficult than it need be.  There is security in numbers.  A sense of belonging.  For the support factor alone it is worth considering partnerships!  The lonely little kid standing in the corner at Kindy – was he having fun?  Achieving anything worthwhile?  No, probably not.  That’s sad.  But the friends on the other side, doing things together, sharing a laugh, sharing a problem, sharing everything were not only having fun, but achieving worthwhile things too.  You “feel” more secure when you have people on your team – it’s as simple as that, and feelings are everything!

15.  See through the eyes of a child… Be interested and excited and curious in your business partnership possibilities.  Learn about everyone and everything.  Show interest.  Ask questions.  Try to understand.  View your business opportunities and partnership the same way you viewed everything new when you were in kindergarten – you didn’t knock new ideas or concepts back then… your “vision” of the world was not colored by the opinions of well-meaning parents or old-fashioned business gurus and teachers whose advice doesn’t fit “today”… you had a thirst to learn more, to understand, and to put it to good use.  The world was your oyster back then… it still can be… if you are open to it.  This doesn’t mean being naïve or ignoring experienced “gut feelings” – it means being open to the wonderment of new opportunities and ideas, and open to the concept that you and your business partner(s) can soar to great heights together on shared wings of enthusiasm and the spirit of adventure.

“zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…”

Are you ready to learn how to create more energy, more zest, more power and more success for your business?

Are you willing to hear more about your business being a living being?  That you need to feed it and love it and water it and speak to it and grow it and that if you don’t care for it, it will shrivel up and it will die…

What breed of health does your business have?

Are you tracking how it is thriving or are you ignoring it?

Each day do you track:

The number of prospects you have for the day?

The number of sales you have for the day?

The number of prospects you connected with and how many came through your website, ezine, blog, phone, email, snail mail, face to face meetings, etc?

The number of people you attempted to close?

The number of people you did close?

The amount of money you earned?

The amount of money you spent?

And do you know the answer to this question?

What is my profit for the day?

Are you willing to keep a spreadsheet and track this information each day?

Do you see a value for you in doing this?

Don’t you want to improve your profits?

Have you heard that 99.9% of business failures are caused by one thing: lack of customers/clients?

All your daily tasks must be focused solely on bringing in new clients/customers!

Are you willing to do the tracking and to commit to focusing on bringing clients/customers in?

You will find yourself filled with ease and dancing across the floor with joy and you will give up the usual twists and turns.

Would you rather be dancing along or twisting and turning and getting behind?

Are you one of these people who are just along for the ride, being lazy, wasting time away, dreaming of a business, having your head up in the clouds or are you really sincere about having a business that allows you true financial freedom?

Do you want to be EXTRAordinarily successful?

If no, stop reading this ezine.  Don’t you see you are wasting your time?  Will you go read something else because this ezine doesn’t apply to you?

If you are someone who wants to be super successful in life and work isn’t it time to stop toying with your business and wishing your business would magically grow?

Instead will YOU make it happen?

I want for you to achieve all you desire!

PS:  Did I offend you?  Apology sent to you.  You honestly do know where you are at now.

I remain devoted to helping you recognize what your business needs.

When people say they want to be ‘wealthy’, often it is not merely the accumulation of material possessions and a fat bank account that is behind the dream.  People define “being wealthy” in different ways.  Of course, having a healthy bank account, a mansion, the latest sports car, and being able to afford exotic holidays are all part of it, but often, when people dream of being wealthy, what they want is no more stress or struggle or unhappiness in their lives.

Maybe you fall into that category, or maybe you want to own your own business and be your own boss.  Maybe you do want the fancy lifestyle of the rich and famous, or maybe you would just like to be debt free, stress free, and never have to worry about how you’re going to pay your bills ever again.  There is “wealth” and there is “wealthy enough”.

Whatever your reason for wanting to be ‘wealthy’, you need to discover just what that means to you.  You need to be able to focus on what it is you really desire.  The wealthy know exactly what they want and are able to focus on it… like an arrow hitting the bulls-eye.  There are no vague ideas in their head about what they want and their focus is on the bulls-eye, not the rings around it.  So if you want to be “wealthy”, first determine what it is exactly that you do want so you can focus on it.

The wealthy also appreciate and give thanks for what they already have.  How about you?  You might not have much but are you grateful for it?  Realize that to somebody else, even with the little you may have, you are “wealthy” – because you have more than they do.  They’d be grateful to have what you have.  So take a good look at what you already have, appreciate it and be grateful.  The way it works is when the universe sees how grateful you are for what you already have, ‘it’s’ happy to give you more – because you honestly appreciate it.  “Spoiled Brats”, on the other hand, are less likely to receive more if they are not grateful and appreciative of what they already have.

The wealthy also don’t forget to live life while they are focusing on wealth accumulation.  So, do stop to smell the roses.  Not every wonderful experience in life comes with a price tag.  A beautiful sunset is free.  Sun glistening on a snow-laden tree is free.  You need to develop a “wealthy mind-set”.  You do this by looking around at all the things you can experience now, that you can afford to experience now, and feel how wealthy you already are.  Remember, if this is difficult, think of those less fortunate than yourself.  There are always others to whom you are already “wealthy”.  You need to be able to see yourself that way, too, in order to move on to bigger things.  Regardless of your financial status now, “feel” wealthy, appreciate what you already have and all the wonderful and beautiful places, events and experiences that surround you.

Another thing the wealthy do differently is they take action.  They don’t just dream or hope to win lotto one day… they take steps, even if they are little ones, every day that will bring them closer and closer to their goal.  What are YOU doing right now to take you closer to reaching your goal?  Or are you still dreaming about it?  You can go the rest of your life just dreaming about it, or you can take steps now to live it.

You’d be surprised just how events work in your favor once you start taking action on something you truly desire.  Some people call them “coincidences” and others call them “synchronicities”.  Whatever you want to call them, these wonderful little ‘miracles’ appear when you focus on achieving something.  Just when you need advice on something, you may meet a person who is an expert in that field and is happy to chat to you for free there and then.  You may be having trouble getting a loan from your bank, but then you meet another person who works for another bank who is happy to give you the loan at a lesser interest rate!  People and opportunities “pop up” just when you need them.  Of course, there is no reason for these opportunities to appear for you if you are still in the “dreaming” stage and are not actively working towards your goal.

This applies whether you are looking for a new job, looking for ways to get that new car, trying to sell your house to the right buyer for the right price, and so on.  Once you decide and start to take action and you are serious about achieving your goal, that’s when “help” arrives from unexpected sources.   But you do have to make the effort to do something every day towards your goal.  Look at it this way.  If you saw two men with a pile of logs to chop.  One man was chopping away every day, he wasn’t fast but he was making the effort.  The other man was sitting on his log waiting for a miracle – somebody to come along, feel sorry for him and chop his logs for him.  Now, if you were that miracle walking along, who would you help?

Another key ingredient is NEVER QUIT.  The reason successful people are successful and wealthy people are wealthy is they never quit.  If one idea didn’t work, they tried a different tack – but they never gave up.

Wealthy people don’t waste their time either.  When you are sitting watching a soap on TV, or surfing the net, or procrastinating in other ways, you are wasting valuable time that you could use towards achieving your goal.  Why not keep a diary of what you do each day.  Then you will see all the missed opportunities you had when you could have been working on achieving your dream.  The choice is always yours.  Wealthy and successful people choose to work on achieving their dream.

Another secret of the wealthy is that they ignore those who laugh at their dreams or say it can’t be done.  You will always find people who will tell you “You’ll never make it.”  These comments don’t necessarily come from those who don’t like you – even your own friends and family can be quick to douse your dreams with water.  Sometimes it is because they don’t want you to try and fail and be hurt.  Other times it is because they are jealous… jealous of your ambition because it shows them up and makes them feel less worthy…  jealous in case you just might make it and be more successful and wealthy than they are – and show them up!  You should adjust to the possibility that your path to wealth and success may be a lonely one – but look at all the successful and wealthy people in the world.  They made it on their own.  Don’t expect a cheering squad to support you, but know that if you want to make it, you don’t need a cheering squad.

Becoming wealthy isn’t all just “in the mind”, although, it’s a topic that’s on everyone’s mind.  You do have to watch the money you do have carefully.  Do you have a budget?  Do you try to save some each month?  Even if it is only $5.00, that is better than nothing – and with interest added, it does add up.  No, $5.00 a month isn’t going to make you wealthy, but it will develop a healthy pattern of saving to which you can add when you can afford it.  Instead of wasting spare change, add it to your savings.  Wealthy people don’t waste anything and they know exactly where it is spent.  Do you?

When you are working on establishing a business, even a work-from-home hobby business, running out of money is like hitting a brick wall.  Wealthy people never over-expend.  They know if they can afford something or not.  They save during the planning stages.  Wealthy people use a business plan.  You should too.  You can find many free business plan templates on the Internet if you can’t afford to pay a specialist to draw your plan up for you.  Business plans are not only necessary if you want to apply for a business loan – they help keep you on track – providing milestones for you to gauge your progress.

Seek financial advice if you are unsure how to handle money.  You should know that you will not get rich on borrowed money and you will never be debt free if you spend more than you earn and live on credit.  Likewise, you will never be wealthy if you are continuously paying off debts.  If your particular “dream” requires a  financial base to take off, then make sure you are living within your means now and have paid off your debts – don’t have these hanging over your head.  You can’t afford that if your ‘dream’ is going to also need to dip into precious funds.  You will simply join the thousands of other failed entrepreneurs who went bankrupt because they were careless with their money.

This may sound daunting if you are on a low income right now – but that doesn’t mean your dream is impossible.  Others in similar circumstances have found positions of wealth so it’s clear, you can too.  Another trick you can use to help you “feel” wealthy now, is to always carry some money in your wallet – don’t spend it – just leave it there.  That way you always have money on you.  Do you know how you feel when you always have money in your wallet?  You feel more confident.  You walk tall and walk like a person who has money to spare.  And that’s exactly the mind-set you need to develop and use every day.

You attract what you think about – so when your wallet is bare and you feel poor, you will attract more of that poverty to you.  With money in your wallet and a feeling of being “wealthy”, you will attract more of that to you.  You don’t need to know how this works, just know that it is a universal law that has been proven time and time again.  There is a famous expression that covers this concept well:  “Fake it until you make it.”  If you are not a millionaire right this minute, PRETEND you are. Think of yourself as a millionaire.  Wearing jeans and a t-shirt?  Not a problem, pretend your best clothes are at the cleaners.  Taking public transport?  Pretend you are doing this because the Mercedes you have ordered hasn’t arrived yet. Get the idea?

And as you walk down the street, in your jeans, pretending in your mind that you have a cool million dollars in your bank account, how does that make you feel?  Do you feel sorry for those around you – those poor people who maybe don’t have anything in a bank account, or a mere several thousand compared with your millions?  If you had that million in the bank you wouldn’t feel inferior to anyone.  You’d strut down the street, exuding confidence, looking everyone in the eye.  Millionaires can wear what they like and do what they like.  Money does that to you.  It doesn’t matter now what you wear, what brand, or where you live – in your mind, choose to think you are a millionaire.

Of course, if you come from a poor family, developing this mind-set is going to be a challenge for you.  (Fake it until you make it was written for you!)  Of course, wealthy families have a head start with this millionaire mind-set… rich people don’t teach their children to think poor!  Even if they do have a head start in life with financial backing from rich parents,  if they do not know how to make their own wealth, they’ll soon eat up what their parents have given them and fail.  Failing and being poor, however, are alien concepts to these people and that is another secret of the wealthy.  They only know how to focus on wealth and success and enjoy so many synchronicities (coincidences) because they are attracting what they are thinking about every day – that is more wealth making opportunities, more success, more money.

Wealthy people also engage in an activity called tithing.  They regularly give a percentage of their wealth to charities.  Sometimes it is because they sincerely care about a particular charity or cause, and sometimes it is because they simply want the public to think well of them – so it’s more a PR exercise.  However, there are others who follow another Universal Law that you may be familiar with – what goes around, comes around.  What you give away, you will get back in larger quantities.  You may not receive cash exactly, but the value of the opportunity or special ‘gift’ that comes back to you will be much more than you have given away.

Again, next time you are strolling down the street, in your jeans, fondly thinking of the million dollars sitting in your bank account, if you see an opportunity to toss some coins into a charity tin, make it a practice to do so.  Give what you feel comfortable to give. It will not only make you feel good, you will be hopping on the what comes around, goes around bandwagon and you make it possible for something good to come back your way.

The next thing wealthy people do is similar to a business plan, but this is a life plan.  Where do you see yourself in 10, 15, 20 or 30 years from now?  What outcome do you want for yourself?  If you have no plan, no idea, you’ll just drift along with the current and you could end up anywhere.  You give up your control to outside influences to take you through life because you don’t want control of it, and yet, you want the very things that taking control would give you – wealth, success, and so on.

If you just want to drift with the current and dream, you could end up being carried over a waterfall, be washed up on a bank, be swept down the wrong fork to a different destination than that you’d hoped for.  Now, if you take a paddle and sit on the log, you can avoid all those catastrophes and you can choose where you want to go, and you have a better chance of reaching your chosen destination – because you are in charge and you are doing something about it.

Consider this, too – if you have no idea what you want your life to be like, no idea what the ultimate destination is for you, then you also won’t know which roads to choose on your journey there.  You can end up anywhere, doing anything, and you may or may not be better off.  As George Harrison sang (and the Cheshire cat said to Alice), “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” Wealthy people know exactly which road to take.  They know where they’re going and even if they don’t reach that final golden destination, they’re enjoying the journey, amassing wealth and success on the way.

And when you say you want to be wealthy, don’t aim purely for monetary wealth as the be all and end all of your life.  Decide now how your wealth will affect your life.  Imagine this:  5 years from now you are a multimillionaire.  You own a huge mansion.  You own a selection of the finest cars ever manufactured.  Your wardrobe is stocked with big name labels.  You can afford exotic holidays and you’ve been everywhere!  You own a big yacht.  You have everything you want.  Is that all there is?  It can get boring at “the top” – which is why millionaires and billionaires never stop doing what they love.  Wealthy people know that it is not the destination that matters, but the journey.  Whether you do reach your goal or only make it halfway there, think of the interesting (and profitable) journey you’ll have on the way – compare that to how you’re traveling now.

But I digress… you need a plan, an idea of the outcome of all your efforts.  You need to know what it is you are working towards so you will know how to get there and recognize it once you have it.  This comes back to setting goals.  Some people are afraid to set goals.  They think it will restrict them.  A goal isn’t “law”.  When you grow out of your shoes you buy new ones.  When your weight fluctuates you don’t insist on wearing your belt on the same hole, do you?  The same applies to goals.  You change your goal as your needs or dreams change.  The goal is like a candle lighting the way through the dark – there is no law that says you can’t change candles along the way!  Sometimes, goals need to change, for many reasons, but if you don’t have one first, you are like the average Joe drifting every which way by the current.

Having a goal is like having a business plan.  It’s like a road map that helps you reach your destination.  Having a goal means you are better able to take actions that will not waste your time or money but will get you from where you are now to where you want to be by the quickest and most suitable route for you.

Use a journal and write your goal down.  Brainstorm ideas on how you can achieve that goal, and then every day, take one action towards it.  The more realistic your goal, the easier it will be to achieve.  All wealthy people set goals.

Wealthy people don’t quit, they keep working towards their goals, and they don’t let obstacles stop them from progressing.  If they get knocked down, they stand up again.  If a boulder bars their passage, they find ways around it.  If one door shuts in their face, they go knocking on other doors.

Do you need money to make money?  Well, it sure makes everything a lot easier, but the answer is no – and here’s your proof:

In 1976, two young men in their early twenties, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple Computers in a garage.  Six months later they were sharing a “monthly” salary of just $250.  Just one year later they’d taken on a partner, Mike Markkula who also invested in their computer enterprise.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Colonel Sanders started Kentucky Fried Chicken with his social security check!  (Yes, having investors helped too… these days, if you want investors, you’d better have your business plan prepared!)

And let’s not forget Walt Disney!  If he had let his bankruptcy stop him from chasing his dreams we wouldn’t have Disneyland or any of the wonderful Disney animations and films that came out of the Disney stable!

And surely you’ve heard of Sir Richard Branson – founder and CEO of the Virgin empire. He was not an impressive student at school.  He was dyslexic, but at the age of 17, he started a student newspaper.  He dropped out of school to focus on that and one thing led to another and need I say anymore?  Is there anybody who doesn’t know Richard Branson’s bio?

In the U.S. alone, there are millions of millionaires!  The number of millionaires jumped from a dozen in 1800 to 300 in 1860, 4,500 in 1902, 30,000 in 1929, 5,000 in 1932, 100,000 in 1966, and 4 million in 2000. (Source: Chief Executive, The,  May, 2002 by Kevin P. Phillips)

Looking at the track record of even just a handful of self-made millionaires who started with nothing; do you still doubt you can make it?  If you really want to?  And do you see a theme running through even just the few examples I gave you?  What is the one thing that connects these entrepreneurs – apart from being filthy rich?  The businesses they built were not just money-making ventures – they didn’t set out to become filthy rich.  It wasn’t just about the money.  Their businesses were their “dream”.  Their businesses were their passion.  They were working on something they loved.  So what does this tell you?

It tells you that wealthy people choose fields of endeavors that they love, that they are passionate about, that they can’t wait to jump out of bed to work on and in.  You need to find something you are that passionate about and make that YOUR business!

How fast you “make it” is up to you.  If you put all your time and energy into it (making time to stop and smell the roses, of course!), then you will reach your goal more quickly.  If you just treat it as a part-time hobby, you can expect it to take much longer.

Wealthy people love what they do – so to them it doesn’t feel like work.  They also know it is important to finish what they start.  No millionaire ever made it by leaving loose ends all over the place, or jumping from one idea to another, or spreading themselves too thin. They never lose faith in themselves, OR their ideas, despite what anybody else says.

One of the most important, if not THE most important, things that Wealthy people do is take risks.  It is a risk to go out on a limb and go after a dream that everyone around you is telling you won’t work and you’re wasting your time.  The best way to handle risk is be prepared – know everything about your plan and any risks involved.  What is the timeline for your intended outcome?  How long do you believe it will take to develop your idea and put it into action?  How much money will you need – not only to develop your idea but to put it into action?  This includes advertising and marketing, and you must also consider any applicable taxes.  How do you plan to sell your product or service?  How much are you going to charge for it?  Do you have any competition in the line of business you are contemplating?  Do you know the quality of their product – is it better than yours?  What do they charge?  How can you make your product better?  How are you going to manufacture your product or provide your service?  If you get more orders than you originally planned, can you get more manufactured quickly, or will there be any downtime (which you don’t want!)?  Have you got buyers lined up or parties interested at home and overseas?  The list of questions is almost endless and varies depending on what your proposed business involves, but by asking yourself the hard questions AND being able to answer them with confidence, you will understand what risks, if any, lay before you and your venture.

Another thing the wealthy do, apart from avoiding negative people, is associate with other successful people with an “I believe” attitude.  Further, they are not embarrassed to seek advice and ask questions.  No one person knows everything.  You can’t afford to be proud and arrogant if you want to be  wealthy.  Don’t let your ego get in the way of your progress.  Seeking the advice and knowledge of those who can help you can save you time and money. You also need to be respectful to those who work with you and for you and even to your competition.

Successful millionaires know that your reputation is everything and needs to be guarded carefully.  It is easier to maintain a good reputation than repair a damaged one.  You guard your reputation by being an upstanding citizen, kind and respectful to everyone around you.  You avoid situations that could cause you or your company embarrassment.  You don’t waste your money or your reputation on booze and drugs and “loose ways”.  You stay out of legal entanglements by keeping on the right side of the law.  Your ethics and morals should be impeccable and you should associate with those who share these qualities.

Millionaires know that it is easier to attract flies with honey than vinegar – good manners is not just a social want – good manners attracts the right type of flies that can and will help your business.

So, in a nutshell, “think wealthy”, plan carefully, believe in yourself, be upstanding, do what you have to do to make your dream come true, and NEVER QUIT!

As human beings sometimes we are caught up thinking about what we are missing, what we don’t have, what we wished we had and wallowing away in our sorrow and lack.   This is actually normal human behavior.  Some days we are feeling great and excited and we are thankful for what we do have and appreciative and we feel like we can accomplish what we desire and other days we can’t figure out how to do our work effectively and don’t feel like doing much.  On those days we are unhappy and focused on what we are lacking in our business and our lives.  The good news is there are 4 simple steps that are easy to follow and that anyone can do that will quickly put you right back into action.

First you need to know the 3 common mistake people make which causes them to have lack thinking and then you can apply the 4 easy steps to achieve whatever you desire in your business and your life.

Mistake One:

Focusing on what is wrong, what is missing, what isn’t right and getting into a spiral that is all about the problems at work and in life.

Mistake Two:

Hanging out with people who are “energy vampires” … you know those people who love to take all the joy out of life and who complain and blame and constantly talk about how bad things are at work and how their personal lives are a mess.  You know who they are because they totally take your enthusiasm away after you’ve been around them for awhile.

Mistake Three:

Negative self-talk that beats you down where you don’t love and appreciate yourself and you compare yourself to others and put yourself down.

You are Human

Ok, so you make some mistakes, we all do!  Welcome to the human race.  It is not your fault that you have been focusing on lack.  You’ve never been taught the right formula to change your thinking which changes your feelings and changes your actions to create more peace and success.  When I discovered these coaching “secrets” over a decade ago, I knew I had to share them with others so that together we could create more successful businesses and happier lives.  Here are the 4 secrets you can use to create EXTRAordinary success now!

Secret One:  Ask Yourself a Powerful Question

Keep asking yourself this powerful coaching question: What is going right? This question will get your mind thinking and your emotions feeling about what is going right and when you are thinking and feeling this way you’ll take positive inspired actions.  One of my clients who owned a bakery had an employee quit and found out that the local grocery store was going to start carrying fresh baked goods.  He kept thinking about how badly his business would be hurt, that he’d make less money, and he would be working harder and he would eventually go out of business.  Once he learned this question and began asking himself this question whenever he felt stress and lack he began to get new answers.  He discovered a lot was going right… he owned a store, his dream.  He worked close to his home.  His family might be able to help him out while he found a new employee and his cousin might come work for him.  He could approach the grocery store and offer to supply their baked goods.  This question changed his thoughts and feelings and he got inspired to take action to move himself and his business forward!

Secret Two:  Make a Powerful Observation about Yourself

When you notice you are feeling down or in lack stop and be honest with yourself.  Tell yourself what you are observing yourself doing that is creating this feeling and holding you back from creating more and having what you desire.  When I ruptured my Achilles a few years ago I was angry about being in a wheelchair for months and complained about how I wasn’t making money because I couldn’t work.  Then I found myself having a pity party and even when I was able to work all I did is complain and talk about my Achilles.  One day I got honest with myself and I said, “Terri, all you do is talk about your injury instead of moving on.  I see you choosing to be stuck because you aren’t talking about anything else”.  I still remember this because it actually stung a bit to know I was responsible for doing nothing but complaining and income was halted because I wasn’t taking action in my business.  Once I made this observation I got into action and re-connected with clients and potential clients and my business picked right back up.

Secret Three:  Make a Powerful Request to Get Moving

To break the physical state and the emotional state of focusing on lack and negative thinking make a powerful request of yourself to get back into action.  One of my friends recently got a new supervisor and they weren’t getting along well with this person.  So, she wasn’t putting her all into her work, she was getting there late, take longer lunches and basically not caring.  When I taught her this coaching technique she decided to try it out. Driving to work she said to herself, “Bonnie, I request you motivate yourself and find positive aspects of your new boss.  Today see if you can begin to write down good things about your boss instead of looking for the reasons you don’t like her.”  Bonnie called me and said, “It works!”  She found 97 things about her boss she actually liked including her hair, her car, her teeth, her memos and the fact her boss didn’t waste a lot of time holding meetings.  She had a new attitude because she made this request of herself.

Less Stress and More Peace

Forgive yourself when you get down.  Accept your being human and put these three coaching secrets to work.  With the right coaching formula you will find you enjoy your work and life more and can have less stress and more peace each day!

Men in our society view themselves as successful when they hold a high position, get a great paycheck and have material possessions they can show off.  The single woman has different aspirations.  Whether never married or married and divorced we find these women happy without a man and spending her time doing what she wants and what fills her life purpose, which is often not about a man or children at all.  In fact, in our society if a career is important to a woman she typically will not be married.  This is the case for example at Glaxo Smith Kline, where more than half the women in senior management positions are single. It’s the same situation at major companies like Unilever, Novartis, PICIC and Shell. And these figures do not include divorcees, just women who were never married.

What does this mean?  It means in our society to hold a powerful leadership role a woman who holds a demanding career doesn’t also juggle a family and husband.   It appears this is a choice that a woman makes.  Women are seeking to contribute to society through their work and feel to be successful in a corporate position they need to focus on late hours, stress, and being one of the “boys”.

In 2003, Fortune magazine ran a feature story called ‘Power: Do women really want it?’ Time Magazine also had a story that year called “The case for staying at home: why more young moms are opting out of the rat race.”  What showed up clearly in these articles is that if/when these women decided to be married or to have children they didn’t get the feeling of self-worth from their jobs any longer.  Instead, they got this need satisfied by being at home.  Additional articles appeared in the New York Times, Business Week, Fortune, Newsweek and Fast Company saying that women chose to leave top leadership positions when they decide to marry and have children.

There seems to be a trade off that women feel about holding a job they consider important and valuable and being married and raising a family.  I propose a solution so that women can feel successful whether married or single.  Living the life you want doesn’t need to depend on your marital status or job title.  Work is an extension of who you are and you can be happy with a man, with a baby or just with yourself.  They key, in my experience is for women to find a career that brings them great joy and passion and that is part of their life purpose.  If they want to have a family or get married, that career should allow them to do that and not drain their hours and energy.

Many women are becoming Life and Business Coaches using their natural skills and talents as well as work experience.  These women work from home or at a client’s site and get paid between $100-$500 per hour.  They get to do the work they love, using their natural talents and improving the lives of others, while making great money. This means they can work fewer hours, balance what is important to them, like relationships, health, fitness, wellness, community, spirituality, hobbies, etc.

You probably get invited to business seminars all the time.
Some make outrageous claims while others just look boring. Some are ‘get rich quick’ while others are for beginners.

This one is different. It’s for existing business owners who are doing well, but want to do better.

And it’s free. We ask for a $50 contribution to a sick girl who needs our help and we include lunch as well. Your only investment is one day out of the office, spending time working ON your business, rather than IN your business.

http://www.terrilevine.com/gifts/freeonedayconference

It’s practical, it’s results-orientated and it’s run by me and I have solid expertise in sales, marketing, public relations and marketing your business on the web. And I am good at teaching what I know so that you can apply the information to your business the next day.

The only claim I make is that it will stimulate your thinking and help you improve your marketing. And I have evidence from thousands of previous attendees to back that up.

http://www.terrilevine.com/gifts/freeonedayconference

Recent attendee Jemila Williams said, “Two hours with Terri turned into an additional $15,000 of business.”

Recent attendee Gail Shafer, said, “One day with Terri Levine turned into an additional $22,000 of business.”

Paul Patrick said, “I have come away with new ideas and simple strategies that won’t cost me money that I know will generate additional income.”

Barbara Evans said, “One idea I got from Terri instantly saved a large client I was about to lose.”

Randy Sanja said, “Just one idea I took from Terri will generate at least 10 new customers this week.”

http://www.terrilevine.com/gifts/freeonedayconference

You might think there’s a catch as we aren’t charging you for the day and giving you training and lunch and asking only for a $50 charitable contribution. There is. You will have the opportunity to find out what we do and audition me and see if you might want to apply to be on of my VIP clients. No pressure, zero selling and nothing to invest in at all.

Even if you do nothing else with us, you will discover, as thousands of business owners have before you, that this day is worth a lot to your business – possibly thousands of dollars in additional sales.

This invitation is going out to 43,762 business owners, but not all will qualify for a free place.

To see if you do, go here:

http://www.terrilevine.com/gifts/freeonedayconference

Best regards,

Terri Levine

Time is of the essence. So why waste it when you can profit a vast amount of money and be the boss of your own company at the same time? For those who seek success beyond unimaginable boundaries, entrepreneurship would be the answer. Probably this is what is running inside the minds of the renowned entrepreneurs of our economic era.

Empowered by determination and guts and eliminating the process of failure, an entrepreneur should always be on the grasp for suitable products to suffice the masses. This paved their way through stability, fame and power. Take it from these Top 5 personalities who gained so much from starting so small. Focus on their step by step challenges and experiences.

Bill Gates. As a billionaire dropout not finishing his education during his junior year at Harvard University, Gates is considered as one of the most famous individuals of our time. With a vision of personal computers emerging out of the mainstream, he teamed out with his colleague, Paul Allen who also studied in Harvard. Together, both of them left the university in exchange for a dream that led them both to their multibillion business, Microsoft Corporation.

Oprah Winfrey. At a very young age of 19, Oprah started her anchoring career for a TV station situated in Nashville, Tennessee. From there, she pursued her dream and traveled to Chicago. Not more than a month, The Oprah Winfrey Show was born and talk show was never the same. Surpassing other local networks, it was tagged as one of the best talk shows that entered national television. Aside from being a host, Oprah founded Harpo, Inc. and O, The Oprah Magazine.

Walt Disney. Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Pinocchio, Fantasia…need I say more? The man behind the world’s most famous mouse used to be a Red Cross volunteer during World War I.

With his talent as a cartoonist, Disney made his 1st debut with Plane Crazy, introducing our beloved black and white mouse. Riding with the flow of Hollywood revolution, he advanced from a silent cartoon to a talking Mickey Mouse. Then everything followed. His enthusiasm made him sit on top of Disneyland garnering 26 Oscars.

Sam Walton. Does Walmart and Sam’s Club ring a bell? Thanks to the undying loyalty of Sam Walton to achieving a retail business not benefiting only himself but also his fellow Americans, everyone can live like everyone else.

Born to one of the wealthiest families, Walton pioneered the retailing business by putting up stores that reached the whole of America like a caravan. Thus, he was recognized as one of the most influential people chosen among many by Time Magazine.

Ray Kroc. Mr. Hamburger guy here who once made a living as a milk-shake man envisioned a fast food company that can deliver quality service in the name of chow time. Rapid proliferation of McDonald’s franchises which were of reasonable costs generated massive income. Seeing this burger phenomena eat its way through, Kroc remained afloat with the priority of offering food and service perfection to customers worldwide.

As evidence, these renowned entrepreneurs made everything possible just by living up to their dream of becoming someone everybody could appreciate and look up to. Starting from scratch, but reaching to this point of earning so much cash. You too could be an entrepreneur. Point is, when you dream, dream big.