Creating my own business put everything in a different light. Suddenly things I had avoided because they were out of my comfort zone changed perspective. Those activities were now challenges to overcome. To strive toward my goals I had to become comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Joining a high-level mastermind group gave me the impetus to step out of my comfort zone and expand my belief of what is possible. Connecting with my mastermind buddies provides support as I take each next leap of faith.

Well this week was no different. My business coach offered me and several other members in the mastermind group the opportunity to spend a day with her. It would have been easy to make the excuse that I could not go because of the time and expense to just meet with her for one day. Instead, I grabbed the opportunity.

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I came back from my business mentoring completely WIPED OUT. I played some with my kids and then took a long bath. I slept 10 hours last night.

What is amazing is that today, the very next day, I have sprung back to my normal, “energizer bunny” self. It always astounds me how listening to our bodies when they tell us “slow down” …”take a break”…”get some rest”… really HELPS us on our journey to achieve great heights.

We simply CAN’T be highly successful without self-care along the way. The clients I see burnout or continue to go around and around in circles, without much growth, are the ones who don’t listen to their bodies’ plea for breaks.

Blessings to you as you listen to your body and take essential breaks when they are needed!

Mindset is so powerful, boosting you up or bringing you down. This weekend reinforced the power of preparation, focus and its impact on outcome.

As many of you know, I am an avid rower. One of my favorite things to do is row around the lake. Focusing on conditioning and training prepares me for race day.

Over the years I’ve learned about the value of practice, practice and more practice. Due to my commitment to the sport, continuing to improve my technique, I experienced some amazing outcomes this weekend.

Saturday was race day. I woke up really early and with fellow team members made the drive to the race venue. It was one I had raced at previously and was familiar with the course.

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Have you noticed you have more clarity and energy in the morning? For some of us, it starts early, between 5-7 am (me on most days) and for others, it starts more like 10 am (Mark, my husband and business partner). Some people, a minority, have the most energy and clarity in the afternoon.

Whenever your brain and energy works best, you want to be focusing on the Big Stuff to move your business forward. (Things like big-picture marketing and business planning, writing, brainstorming, creative tasks that require brain power, and so on). Also, don’t be afraid to take a 20 minute meditation/nap in the afternoons- research shows it revives you and re-energizes you.

Harness your energy and brain power while you got it!

As a small business coach and entrepreneur, I love to read customer service answers to questions that a business’s customers actually ask.  Here’s one that came to my inbox this morning:

Question: Do you take orders over the phone?

Answer: We can take orders over the phone, but we go through the same account creation process that you would go through yourself over the Internet.  If you want to phone in your order, we will be happy to help you, but you can do it all from the comfort of your own pc as well!

I don’t know about you, but as a customer I’d rather have a “hell, no!” than two “yes, buts” in one answer.  It’s obvious from the answer that the business REALLY wants their customers to go order by themselves on the Internet, right?  But some unwise person in the customer service department tried to wiggle around the answer and ends up sounding off-puttting and weasley.  This answer also comes off sounding like the business doesn’t REALLY want to be bothered taking your order over the phone.  Do you feel welcome to call in an order after you read their answer?  I doubt it!

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In sifting through emails from a R&D survey I launched a couple of years ago, I read the responses, and honestly, I wanted to cry. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I haven’t been aware that most solopreneurs have very low expectations of what could be made in self-employment (I’ve been at this for almost 10 years after all!), but I just didn’t know how LOW. Until I got the responses to the following question: “What is the most amount of mo-ney you see yourself making as a self-employed person?” Not just this year, but EVER.

Close to 200 solopreneurs (mostly female) wrote in and shared with me their “Most-I’ll-ever-make-in-a-year” numbers. What shocked me was that the number itself was really LOW and the majority of people wrote in numbers within a short range: between $50,000 and $75,000. Sure, a couple of them wrote in $150,000, but even THAT seemed like a far cry from what I *know* is possible, when you shift the way you work, get good marketing in place, create systems for everything, outsource, and set up leveraged and passive streams of in-come.

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I recently finished reading “The Open” by tennis prodigy Andre Agassi. I grew up watching him play and whereas I didn’t dig his temper tantrums, I loved that he wore his own style of clothes and didn’t automatically ditch his true self to fit in.

In reading his memoir, however, I learned how much pain he felt trying to meet the expectations of others- his father’s relentless perfectionistic goals that were impossible to meet and his first wife, Brooke Shield’s love affair with celebrities and social status- something to which he just couldn’t relate.

His shift from misery in what I call “other-centered” to true happiness in “authentic-centered” is beautiful to observe. Once he marries tennis star Steffi Graf and starts living his life in HIS terms- his business, his life, and his joy flourish.

Some great lessons here about our lives and businesses. As entrepreneurs, we have the freedom to create authentic businesses that are true extensions of who we are. We have the opportunity to be “authentic-centered” and to design our businesses in a manner that honors what we value both in and outside of our business.

Why would we do it any other way?

I have been paying close attention to the news about the economic crisis and listening to the deeper reasons.  I couldn’t help becoming aware of the new books, Slow Love and Unfinished Business recently brought to fame by Oprah.  They are the stories of two executives and how they built their lives after the economic crisis and how the economic crisis made it possible for them to face deeper truths.

I sincerely believe that there is something to be learned by the economic crisis. Perhaps a new understanding of the most important things in life, things we may not have been paying attention to prior to the crisis. We are now invited to do meaningful work that we love. When the security of having a set income goes away, we are free to choose our own path and writing our own destiny. That’s why many of people have finally chosen to follow the path of entrepreneurship, doing what they love after the economic crisis left them jobless.

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Knowing WHAT you want.

One of the reasons I transitioned from consultant to coach was that I kept seeing clients get stuck. Some Clients would put so much effort into getting clients, building their business and making more income and get nowhere at all. I started to question why. Then I realized those clients didn’t know WHAT they wanted, so they moved their business forward without any direction.

If you don’t know WHAT you want, then you’re not going anywhere. If you don’t know WHAT you want, you might create a business that is not in line with your values and priorities. If you don’t know WHAT you want you are not creating a business, you’re being led by it.

How often do you struggle in your business to get “what you think you want” only to hate what you end up with? How often do you work on your business with no specific direction, only to be disappointed with the results?

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Recently, I sent an email declaring my “wish for you” – the wish is simple in nature, although a bit more complex to achieve:

No matter where you are or what you’re doing, you earn passive revenue.

There are, of course, several things involved in achieving this goal:

1. You must have information which your ideal clients are willing to pay for (and it’s a good idea to know “who” your ideal clients are)
2. You must have back end systems in place to collect monies, automatically provide the digital product purchased and follow-up with your new clients
3. You must know how and where to market your product, and your business, so your ideal clients know how to find you
4. . . .and more.

And to note that the above is possible whether or not you have a shopping cart solution.

What’s interesting are the responses I received to the email.  There was the…

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