In the last blog post we asked if the stress you were experiencing was real or just something you had created by allowing it to ‘take you down.’   In part 2 of the series, I’ll share the first of my five-part formula for how to take back control.

It takes a bit of work, but if done properly, you can manage your mindset and stay on top of the stressful elements in your business because managing your energy is your #1 job!  Here are the first two ideas for you to begin working with.

Come Clean – Be honest.  You can’t do anything about a problem if you don’t acknowledge it.  So what does stress mean to you?  How does it look?  And what are your unique ways of doing it?

• Overwhelm because you don’t know what to do next
• Lack of sleep because your mind is going over and over and over…..
• Self doubt which causes you to under charge
• Loss of productivity (cuz you are just doing mindless busy work all day)
• A dip in revenue because marketing stops or slows down
• Immobilization because at this point, shutting down feels like a good solution

Stop the Spinning – Good for you.  You have acknowledged that you may be a bit stressed.  And now it’s time to get off the merry-go-round for a bit.  In this phase you will consciously notice that you have slipped into stress and now make conscious decisions to do something different.  Notice a lot of emphasis on the word CONSCIOUS because for most of us, getting out of our zone and on the stress-train is usually unconscious.  No one chose that destination, but suddenly we wake up one day and its like, “Holy Cow….how did I get here?  The big red sign that says “STOP” is just what you need to do right now.

Here’s what you do – Pick a relatively short term goal like 3 to 6 months out.  Then you will list all the tasks that need to happen in order to get that done.  After you list all the tasks via a big brain dump, you will calendar it.  What happens most often when folks are stressed is that they don’t know what to work on next and they have VERY unrealistic time frames set up. This method will allow you to not only stay focused on the bigger picture goal, but will also solve the “what to do tomorrow” challenge as well.  And one more thing….make sure you have a visual reminder of that big goal.  It’s easy to get lost and stressed about the minutia, so having the tangible thing to focus on can keep you in the game a bit more.

In the next post I’ll cover a the last two steps designed to get you turned around and get a handle on the stress in your biz.  And in the meantime, focus on the good!

Blessings,

Therese

Surely the scariest place for a business owner is when the phone isn’t ringing, clients are leaving, and you get that dreaded feeling….

“Oh crap….no one is buying these days.  What am I going to do?”

We’ve all been there and it just sucks!  But there is a way out.  In this post I’ll talk about some inner game and mindset strategies and the next article I’ll go over my thoughts on pricing strategies.  So know you aren’t alone if you have felt this, and that there is a way through it!

And if you are in that space of fear about money, the first thing you must do is to watch you thoughts! Instead of looking at what you don’t have or what you have lost, flip it to notice just how much abundance is all around you. Perhaps you have an abundance of beauty in your yard, or like me feel tremendous wealth in personal relationships. This is where the expression, “What you think about, you bring about” comes in. The more you focus on lack and fear, the more you will see and experience it.

Your number one job during these sometimes scary times is to manage your energy. We’ve all had the experience of having the desperate person in the bar hitting on us or the pushy car sales person who needed your purchase to pay his rent. And that energy is quite repelling, so you must be vigilant about knowing that your good is right around the corner, and stay in the positive mode of what you have that’s working right now.

Whatever you do, STOP the conversation about what’s going wrong!   Last year when I was in this very scary place, I spent loads of time sharing with my friends how things weren’t working. (Yes, my inner drama queen was having a hey day over it all!) Finally one of my best friends said, “Look, your business is called Happy in Business. If you can’t figure out a way to be happy right here, you can’t own that brand.” Quite the kick in the pants, but so true. I began to shift right then and there.

So after you stop the negative conversations, the next piece is to look at the possible gifts in your life even if you can’t see them in the moment.  Think of the farmer who has to have faith and trust that the seeds he planted in the ground he so lovingly prepared…will soon take root.  That’s the task for you my friend.  Finding that level of faith.

So just to restate it, the mindset tricks when you get scared or they aren’t buying are these:

• Stay in the day – don’t project into the future with fear
• Focus on what’s working and expand that
• Find the gifts so you don’t feel like a victim
• Refuse to give in to negativity – shift your energy
• See the abundance all around you and amplify it
• Reach out and let people support/love you
• Know there are seasons to everything and this will change too

Try these tips and let me know how it works for you.  Mainly … don’t give up!  See ya next time with my pricing ideas.

Blessings!

By the way – if you see yourself in this article and would love a BIG breakthrough for your business, go to www.AcceleratingYourSuccess.com/vip and you can save $100 off of my Bold Business Breakthrough Session.  Just use the coupon code VIP and you’ll be on your way to making the big shifts!

Have any questions, feel free to email me at Therese@HappyinBusiness.com and I’d be happy to get back with you.

Maybe you have a beautiful baby of a business just ready to come out….it wants to grow up big and prosperous.

Are you surrounding yourself with the right person to help birth it?

This article was published months ago but I thought you’d enjoy reading it as there are some inspirational nuggets inside.

This came at about 3am….it was pouring rain and I couldn’t sleep because it kept going round and round in my head…….

A bit of the back story first though – I had just signed up a new client.  The perfect kind of client that ‘gets’ the work I do.  The kind where there is an instant synergy.  It tells me that my marketing is working!  I had been pretty clear on who I wanted to attract, but I hadn’t been quite as BOLD and powerful about who I was being until my friend/coach Nancy Marmolejo took me through her Profitable Essence program and helped me find it!   It was there that I finally claimed that I’m not just about growing your business….that’s of course part of it, but its in transforming YOU that is the most rewarding.  You and your business get transformed by the work, and the results are amazing!

And since I have been putting that ‘vibe’ in the world, the coolest of clients are finding me!

So at 3 in the morning my head was swimming around, looking for a metaphor for this blend of me getting more clear about my work, and that magic is bringing the exact right clients in.

Then it hit me – the Midwife versus OB/GYN analogy.   I think of it like this…you go to an OB and it’s kind of on their terms.  You as a pregnant woman are pretty dis-empowered, and mostly have to submit to how they want things to go.  A midwife on the other hand supports YOU in creating the delivery the way you want it.  She will assist you in finding the strength inside yourself to do the hardest thing you’ll ever do.  Since there may be men and women who don’t resonate with the childbirth analogy, let me take you a bit further into the similarities.

See, most business owners don’t really know what to do to create a profitable business and certainly not how to  market themselves.  They go to a web developer who tells them what kind of site they need, they listen to some friends who tell them what they should charge and what to offer,  so very often what comes out is not a  pretty baby!

The cool new client that came to me is a beautiful and spiritual woman who had a dreadful website!  Here she is with a very soft and feminine side, yet her website was black!  Another one of my recent clients listened to someone who directed her to create a site that had not a single piece of her in it.  It was corporate and cold…nothing at all of who she is.

When these clients come to me they haven’t had the success they want, don’t understand why their marketing isn’t working, and they are sometimes even ready to give up.  That’s where the “Business Midwife” comes in.  Because my belief is that your perfect business- just like a baby – is inside of you, just waiting to be birthed.

Let’s look at how you know when you have birthed your ideal business?  It starts with how you feel.  Do you have fun?  Is it something that you are proud of?  Is there an ease to it?  Do you feel fully expressed in the business world?  That means, are you giving yourself permission to bring ALL of you to the table?  For this if you are spiritual, you be spiritual.  If you are quirky or analytical, be that.  And when you finally give yourself permission to be there….magic happens.  I call it the Dog Whistle effect.  Just as the dog whistle is imperceptible to the human ear, your perfect marketing message will only be heard by those eager souls who would love the work you do. But if you water it down by not showing up fully,  they miss it….and you experience the frustration that so many entrepreneurs struggle with.

I know from personal experience how to birth a baby!  I did it naturally two times, and my last son was born in a tub.  And I know how transformative that experience was.  Instead of having the “let’s just get this kid out” feeling that some women experience, it became the most pivotal experience in my life.  I took all the pain, discomfort, and struggle and turned it into the knowledge of my own power and strength as a woman.  Growing a business affords you these same opportunities!  You will feel stuck, you will want to turn back, you will experience pain and doubt, but if you persevere and allow for the transformation….you will be rewarded the most amazing creation of your life. That’s my hope for you.

I hope I’ve helped you to see over the last few posts that you CAN have the business of your dreams.  That you do have the power to make the changes that will set you on a course of victory over these traps that may have held you back.

Wrapping up the list of the money sucking mindset blocks comes #5 – which is the belief that I’m not ___________ enough to be successful. I coach a lot of coaches and other people who are service providers, and I hear this from them sometimes. It sounds like…

“I’m not educated enough”
“I don’t know how to market good enough”
“I’m not experienced enough”
“I’m not connected enough”

This one was one of my personal struggles when I started doing coaching back in the day. Partly because I have a Master’s Degree in Counseling and felt so proficient, educated, credible, and established in my old industry, that when I started something new, all my insecurities came flying up to the surface. I remember telling a more seasoned coaching all the reasons I “wasn’t enough” essentially and he looked me in the eye and said, “Give up your story…YOU ARE FULLY COOKED.” It was the first time I had considered that what I brought was valuable. And so what I did was to decide then and there that I’d figure out what more I needed to add to my skill sets and then get that so I no longer had the “but-I’m-not-enough-cuz-I-was-just-a-therapist-and-didn’t-have-a-corporate-background” crap I had been telling myself.

(The funniest part? The thing that I was feeling my “not enough-ness” around is the thing today that makes me the most unique and is what allows me to command good money for my expertise. How crazy is that!)

When I work with my clients, one of my joys is finding those places where they don’t own their value and then turn it in to the pearl that makes them unique.

The trick here, like all the other mindset traps is to first become aware of your story. Next, do the Byron Katie work or other awareness exercises to turn it around, and then “act as if” so that you begin to start breaking the patterns that keep you playing small.

I’d love to hear from you.  Post a comment or shoot me an email and let me know your mindset blocks and how this blog series has helped you.

Blessings,
Therese

Feeling kinda soulful, so this may be a bit of a departure from the business oriented/marketing/mindset article.  It will inspire you though.

Just got off the phone with my coach Richard.  And I feel full.  Not just full, but loved.  Really deeply loved.  Does that sound weird?  And what does love have to do with business?

A couple of years ago when I decided to take the next step in transforming my life and business, I knew that I wasn’t to work with a business coach or a marketing strategist.  A bit of “been there, done that” going on, and I have loads of buddy coaches if I need biz advice.

What I knew I needed was to do the really deep work.  The kind where you tear away all of the old foundation, get ready and willing to let go of all you’ve ever known before, and face the scary places where you learn to create from desire versus fear. So much surrender….

That’s the work I’ve been doing the past two years with Richard, and it has truly changed the way I work with my clients.

But the session today has me ask myself these questions –

Do I let my clients know that I love them?

Do I tell them with all of my being how much I believe in them?

Am I a big enough stand for their greatness?

Because that’s what Richard does for me.  Totally.  Even the sessions where I have felt really hurt or lost or vulnerable, he still just loves me right where I am.  And it’s been the most powerful thing I have ever experienced.

But most of us hold back in expressing that stuff.  I know we feel it.  We want the best for our clients, but may believe we’d cross some lines or blur the boundaries if we really allowed our hearts to open up and let them know how we feel.

If you think about it though – isn’t that EXACTLY what your clients want and need from you?  No matter what the service you are selling, I know that your belief in them and your holding a container for their greatness is the very thing that will make all the difference in the world.

So why hold back?  I know for me, I was a little shy at first about telling someone I love them.  I do it from time to time.  Not as big and bold as Richard, but I’m learning when someone comes to a call maybe having a bad day or in a negative space to just ask them to take a breath and then I gently communicate that I love them right where they are.  You can feel them soften as they stop beating themselves up for a moment.  It’s like some magic moment occurs where they relax and can move forward with a bit more ease.

Is it radical to think that love would make a business run better?  No more so that to think that love would make a family run better.

I’m gonna challenge us all to open our hearts.  See if there’s a tiny bit of space to communicate more appreciation.  Notice the response you get.  I know you all have huge visions for helping, and I’m asking you to take a step deeper.  Take a risk.  Share how you feel.  And watch everything change.

Big love and blessings,

Therese

How about a bit of “back story” first, before I jump into the article content……….

Ever have those times when someone you totally respect and admire SEES YOU?  And not even just sees you, but GETS YOU and what you are doing in a huge way?

That happened to me recently.  My friend Dr. Melissa McCreery and I are hosting a three week “adventure” called the Body, Mind and Business Breakthrough Telesummit. When we decided that we wanted to offer this to our female entrepreneurial readers, the question was….”Who would the very best thought leaders in the industry be to share the message that you have to integrate your body, your mind and your business.”

Top of the list was Andrea J. Lee because of who she is, how she plays, and the amazing content that comes from her.

When we approached her about speaking, and not only did she say yes, she also asked us if she could interview us! Why?  Because she views us as thought leaders in helping women create more successful lives and businesses. OMG, that was a delightful surprise.

In this 30 minute interview, the three of us talk about many concepts, but the most important one is that of viewing yourself as “The Goose That Lays the Golden Eggs” in your business.

Remember that old fairy tale?  A couple found a goose that laid a golden egg daily, and in their insatiable desire for more, decided to kill the goose because they were convinced it must be made of gold.  Sadly it wasn’t, so the point was that they lost the very thing that provided them wealth.

Are you aware that YOU are the golden goose?  Andrea, Melissa and I share about how so often we don’t realize that we have to take better care of ourselves because if we don’t….no more golden eggs.

Listen to the call.  You’ll be inspired.  And to hear Andrea plus nine other amazing speakers, go to www.BodyMindandBusiness.com. It’s free to listen and there are some fabulous bonuses that the speakers have offered. Here’s the interview.

http://attendthisevent.com/?eventid=12844281

And we’d love to continue the conversation on the Body Mind and Business page on Facebook.  Ask a question, post a comment, or share your experience here:

http://bit.ly/cpLxSG

Much love and success!!

Therese

This series of blog posts has been discussing the important lesson I’ve learned from the experience of working with my dog, Kailee, and her trainer Susan. Susan made the point that “Yes, Therese. You can outsource having Kailee exercised…But you cannot outsource being the leader.”

Too often we get so good at and have such great results by delegating tasks, that this simple example with Kailee really showed me the downside to this way of being. We are over using delegation to not face the music or take personal responsibility when we use it to stick our heads in the sand and not have the courage it takes sometimes to be a powerful leader and work through the situations that are challenging.

Let’s break it down further….

Here’s a list of things you can and should outsource:
Marketing activities
Sending out newsletters/articles
Booking appointments/scheduling speakers
Research
Bookkeeping
Social media content
Client support
Word processing/data entry
Graphics/web design
Copywriting
Setting up teleseminars, events
Follow up via cards, etc.
Database management

But this is what you absolutely can’t give away:
Being the leader for your team
Speaking the truth when things are hard
Creating the culture of your company and sharing that
Visioning for the future
Raising the bar for expectations
Communicating what’s real
Taking responsibility – the buck stops with you

For me these are some pretty powerful distinctions. Leadership isn’t easy at times. It takes courage. You may not be popular and loved by all. Yet there is no more important asset to you as a business owner. And I also know it’s like a muscle that you can work to strengthen.

So that’s my challenge to you this week. Look at the places in your business where there are opportunities to outsource, and then find more opportunities to lead. What’s gonna change in all of this? YOU! You will find strength in yourself you didn’t know, and a resolve that will serve you well. Step up and step out! We need your gifts in the world.

Blessings,
Therese

Now that we’ve talked about how to leverage your personality to overcome procrastination and how to break through whatever is holding you back, let’s take a look at how procrastination can be valuable to you.

The Perfection of Procrastination: While we might have discovered where you are stuck or blocked, and so unconsciously sabotage yourself by not moving on your tasks, this piece of procrastination may show you that there is a very good reason for not getting it done. Imagine you are connecting with a person to do a project together. You both divide up the work, but for some reason you can’t get yours done. You try and try, and can’t figure out why you keep procrastinating.

Using some of the process above – meaning to tune into the energy of procrastination – is the way to discover the reason. Very often it can be that this project isn’t the right one to work on at this time, and the procrastination is an attempt to say no or get out of something that may not work out so well. Maybe this person has different values than you, or perhaps the work load isn’t equal, or a multitude of other factors that really point to the fact that you need to back out and say no. In this case, the procrastination is doing something for you that you haven’t been able to do yourself.

The point here is to reframe procrastination to something that may be trying to serve you versus viewing it as a character flaw.

There ya go….I’d love your thoughts and what has work for you with procrastinating and getting through it.

Blessings,
Therese

In my last post, I outlined the fear epidemic that plagues many business owners. I also outlined my B.O.L.D™ Business Growth Formula as a way to conquer that fear.

Too often we go into business thinking we have to be a certain way, or let go of some of the unique, fun, or quirkier parts of our personality to be ‘professional.’ The things we did or loved in the past seem to get left at the door when we don the title of “Business Owner.” And yet it’s these very things that when integrated, will give you far more passion and serve to attract the exact ideal clients that you’d love to work with.

I show you how to own your vision, your talent, and your unique style. It’s here that so many clients come to me and find a really profound transformation when are taken through the process of getting to fully own all they want and who they are.

Ask yourself these questions to see if you are stuck anywhere in this piece of the process:

In the area of vision – is it yours or are you living someone else’s dream for you?
When we look at talent – do you really embrace and promote the expert that you are?
And for unique style – are you showing up and expressing yourself fully?

Now let me share with you some of the signs that you haven’t fully owned your brilliance. You will experience procrastination, doubt and fear and indecision, do inconsistent marketing, not have a clear message so you won’t be getting referrals or be seen as an expert, and you won’t be charging what you are worth. The cost is really quite high on so many levels if you think about it!

Check back next time for 3 specific pointes on how to “OWN” what makes you magic.

Blessings,

Therese