One of my favorite shows is The Biggest Loser. Why? Because it’s one of the most inspiring things you can see on the tube. In this article I’m going to parallel the contestants and what they go through with you – my entrepreneur tribe. As you watch their journey, I’ll show you how you can be reenergized in business.

Let’s start at the beginning. The Biggest Loser contestants have it tough. So much tougher than we “normal sized” folks do. Why? Because they can’t hide. If you look at them with 100 extra pounds on their frames, you could assume that there is something not working in their lives.

That’s the good and the bad news for them. The good is that it doesn’t allow for slipping into denial because their pain or dysfunction is publicly visible. And maybe that makes them just a bit luckier in some ways.

Luckier? You are probably well aware that if you pull the curtain on some of the success teachers, actors or athletes, they are hiding many, many things. Maybe they are hiding the fact that they aren’t really making the money they claim. Or perhaps it’s that they are having personal or relationship issues themselves.

I think that when we are in the public eye – and as an entrepreneur you are in the public eye – the tendency is to want to put just a bit of ‘spin’ on the less-than-great elements in your life. It’s hard to step up and be authentic about the challenges you have gone through or the things that haven’t worked when you have the ability to put the nice suit on, crank out a few more happy tweets, and just go about the business of not dealing with what’s real.

But not my Biggest Losers…nope. They bare it all, and on national TV. As the saying goes, “The only way around is through.” These folks work through their issues to get to the healthier, happier, and beautiful person underneath. Week after week they face their fears, get pushed past their limits, and find strength in themselves that they never dreamed existed.

Isn’t that what the entrepreneurial journey is about? That’s how I have experienced it this last year, and I want to share my formula with you, so you too may have the business that brings you joy.

It’s about having D.A.T.E.S with your destiny –

D – Decide to change – The contestants first have to come to a place where they decide that they can no longer continue to keep living in this way. What do you need to decide? How about that you will have more fun in your business? Maybe it’s that you will finally give yourself permission to put yourself more fully into the work you do. Or perhaps that 2010 will finally be the year that you bite the bullet and get the team support you need so that you can devote yourself more to doing the work you love. Whatever it is for you…DECIDE! Repeat that to yourself over and over and over…”I am deciding to ______________, or I have decided ________________.” There’s power in that!

A – Assess what’s true – within the first week on the ranch where the Biggest Losers stay for the duration, they are giving a full battery of tests to determine their level of health and fitness. This is where many of the final shreds of denial fall away for these courageous souls. Last season a woman who was 49 years old tested out at about 61 which shocked the heck out of her. Some times we want to run from the parts of our business (and life) that are a bit messy. We don’t want to see that maybe our books aren’t in order, or that we haven’t been charging what we should, but by not looking at that, it still has power over you. How about this….”You can’t grow what you don’t know.”

Here are a few things you should be assessing for the health of your business –

Your marketing: how frequent and how effective is it?
Your follow up: is it automated?
Your billing: is it done on time?
Your books: are you getting up to date P & L’s and reviewing them regularly.
Your wealth plan: is it growing?
Your networking: are you making new connections and building powerful relationships?
Your offerings: does your market want something new for this year?

Have the courage to make a list of all the things you want to assess and have courage to tell yourself the truth.

T – Train with the Best. If you have seen the show, there are two very different strength trainers who work out the contestants. One is a very open-hearted guy named Bob, who clearly loves the contestants and shows that. The other is a kick-butt gal named Jillian, who is also very much there for them, but does it in a ‘boot camp’ way that calls them out when they are giving up on themselves. She screams and doesn’t let them off the hook, and while I’d probably be a mess of tears, her “in your face” style does the trick of helping the contestants to remember why they are there.

So let’s replicate their success. Who do you train with? Who calls out your brilliance, even when you can’t see it for yourself or are too tired to go on? Who loves you, supports you, designs exercises for your growth, and is there cheering you on? Every great athlete has multiple coaches. You just cannot expect to grow your business without training with the best, so in 2010, make it your #1 priority to find the best coach or mentor out there and let them get their hands on your business the way Bob and Jillian do for the contestants. You’ll love the results!

E – Enhance Your Environment – The contestants live on “The Ranch” which provides an environment for success. Thomas Leonard, the Father of Coaching used to say, “Environment is stronger than will” which means that a well constructed environment can pull you forward, while will is something you have to push and work at. An example of a powerful environment could be a mastermind group. You just show up, plug in and get new inspiration. Another one would be to design your office so that you feel energized just being there versus dragged down by clutter. There are environments in what sort of things you are reading and taking in. Are you surrounded by thoughts and ideas that enliven you and bring out your best? If not, change it.

S – Step up and Play Big – The final contestants of the Biggest Loser all get a makeover and then their families (who have not seen them in months) get to see the new person that has emerged. The metamorphosis is unbelievable. That’s what I want for you. To step up. Do the thing you have been afraid to do. What part of your business could you make over? Maybe that website that has been languishing could use a revamp. How about adding some teleclasses to your offerings to showcase your brilliance. Or let’s get crazy here….why not write that book you have been talking about for years?

It doesn’t have to be a complete business overhaul, but you have to start somewhere. Ask yourself these questions…

What are three things I could do that would energize my business and my spirit?
What help/support would I need to pull that off?
What results would I like to see as a result?
When will I get started?

There you go. My thoughts on how you can be The Biggest Winner!

Be sure to leave a comment on what you are going to do on the blog, and know I’m here to support you. (Not like Jillian, but I’ll for sure hold your greatness ’til you can see it.)

Marketing, sales, Twitter, networking, VA’s, accounting, advertising…oh my!

It seems like there are endless things that need to be in place in order to get that business of yours to move from being like the middle school kid who has loads of potential (but a little disorganized and wacky at times) to the Ivy League graduate who is self sufficient and bringing home the dough.

What does it take? I’m asked all the time where to start. Is the key in putting more time, energy or money into marketing? Or will getting a great virtual assistant (VA) finally unlock all the pieces? There are so many possibilities.

But here’s the deal – you need a formula. Actually, you need my formula. Thanks to some great coaching from my friend and mastermind partner, Shawn Driscoll, I now have a formula that encompasses the work I do, and makes tons of sense. I call it the B.O.L.D formula for getting you and your business out there in a much bigger way.

The first place we start in the formula is in the area of beliefs, blocks and barriers.

What I know is that this is the secret sauce to make any coaching or marketing program get results. So many people have limiting beliefs that completely derail them, yet have no idea that this is why they see only marginal success. When you blast those limiting beliefs away, and then do the work to install ones that support your vision, you can begin to create the foundation that becomes a really strong container for you to put your dreams and goals in.

How do we do this? I have loads of techniques, but part of it starts with muscle testing. If you are interested, I’d be happy to send you the “how to use muscle testing” video I did as part of the Inner Guru Experience where we teach this in much more detail. Just shoot me an email by clicking here and you can start working with one of the most powerful tools I know. This can be eye opening for you to learn which beliefs you resonate with or not. (Be warned…it might surprise you!)

Next we have you own it!

You first own your vision. Is it yours, or is it someone else’s for you? Have you checked that this vision fits with your values and priorities? If not, there will be a part of you that will sabotage it, so make sure you do that work.

After you own your vision, you own your expertise. Yes, you MUST be positioning yourself as an expert. Some people balk at that word, but look at it this way. Who makes more, a pediatric cardiologist, or a family doc? Who is perceived as more knowledgeable – the generalist, or the specialist? Too many people undervalue themselves, and that’s one of the main things that I love to hammer away on with my clients.

And finally, you own your unique style. This is where marketing gets fun. If you are trying to do it like everyone else, you risk being invisible. If you are trying to ‘be professional’ your audience won’t resonate with you. I can’t say it enough…put your personality into everything you do with your marketing and your business. This way, the perfect clients will be really drawn to you.

The first two steps are the Inner Game work, and now we move to the Outer Game pieces.

After you understand what you want to do and put your unique spin on it, we look at ways you leverage your time, energy and money. This is where we make the assessment of what tasks you should be doing, and what things you should outsource. Remember – just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should! If you are a chiropractor and you are sitting around on the weekend putting up web pages or trying to do your own bookkeeping, you are missing the boat. Let someone who loves to do that stuff take it, and apply your time to what you can uniquely do that either no one else can, or is a revenue generator.

Here’s my coaching challenge to you…look at your business to try to find where you could gain 5 hours a week for yourself. What tasks would you have to peel off in order for that to happen? Outsource those, and in that extra 5 hours, do something that is either marketing related, or is bringing in more money for you. That could mean you spend more time writing, or possibly networking. Answer this question for yourself – “If I had more hours in the week, what three things would I work on to grow my business?”

And finally, we work on designing a business that you will love. This is where we also factor in your values, mission, goals, and dreams. This is where your legacy comes in, and where you put your stamp in the world. What kind of business model would you like? Is it a service biz, or an info-marketing biz, or perhaps a brick and mortar biz?

Designing a business that serves YOU is the most rewarding thing…but it takes courage! First, you have to know what you want, and next you have to be fiercely committed to seeing that through. This is where the dreaming happens. The crazy, out-of-the-box “what could I have if anything were possible” types of questions. Doesn’t that get you excited? I hope so! Because the world needs what you have to offer.

“What do you want to achieve in this session,” I asked.

“Can you review the new sales page that I wrote,” she said.

That’s where it started.  And fifty minutes later she had a completely different business model, had a plan to quadruple her income, and added a membership site for more leveraged revenue.

What a rewarding time!  Doing Strategy Sessions is one of my most favorite things because I can take the persons business, understand what motivates them, find what they desire, rip the heck out of their current model, then spin something really amazing out of all the pieces.

In this case we went from a business owner who sold only a $19 ebook, and turned it into a $97 Toolkit.  We then added a 90 day free membership for everyone who buys her  product so she moved from a one time purchase to monthly income.  How cool is that?!?  Let’s do the numbers – if she had 50 sales at $19 she’d be making $950/mo.  50 sales at the new price is over $4800!  Just one tweak and she’s rolling in the dough.

It got me thinking of how many creative entrepreneurs spend so much time energy and money, yet don’t have a business model that has the maximum revenue potential.

A couple of years ago I coached a woman who had a list of 22,000.  (Imagine that!)  She sold one thing – a $247 info product that she was getting ready to sink loads of money in to create videos and promotion for.  The problem was that this was a one time use.  So she had a huge list, worked her butt off to market, but once she made a sale, there was no other offering for those purchasers to get.

The solution?  We also created a funnel for her and added different levels of membership, and a higher end coaching program.   Finally, she could leverage that huge list and get loyal fans who kept coming back for more.

Now I want you to look at your business.  Is there a way to add more offerings?  Can you sell a upgraded version of your product?  Do you have a mechanism to have your customers return, or do they buy once and leave you?

An hour spent brainstorming these three questions can make your life (and revenue) a lot sweeter!  Think outside the box my friends……

And if you need some more support, get a hold of me and we’ll work some magic on your biz.

Blessings,

OK, here’s the deal…

You are going to spend at least one third to one half of YOUR LIFE working. So why not make it something that gives you joy?

Today’s article is about looking at your business not just as a ‘cash machine’ or a form of revenue generation, but more of something that becomes an extension of you…and your life’s mission. Deep stuff I know, but since we are gonna be putting in all those hours, at the end of the day, let’s find a way to make it matter.

Since this article is not your basic Marketing 101 type of article, I want to set up in the beginning who I’m writing to.

If you are the kind of business owner who understands that in some ways your business is like your ministry, I’m talking to you. If you feel called to fully express your gifts through your business, I’m talking to you. If it’s important to you to serve as many people as you can, I’m talking to you. And if you are passionate about leaving a legacy – then you are my people…So let’s get going…

Business as Your Ministry –

I’m not referencing here the traditional or religious sense of the word ministry. To me it means that you know that your soul’s purpose is being expressed through your business and the services that you provide. One of the definitions of ministry is “the act of serving.” You may be a coach or speaker or own a store. Your work can be done consciously or unconsciously. You can look for ways where you can show up more fully and be of greater service, or it can just be a way to collect a paycheck. You get to decide.

That’s the absolute first step. If you have the sense that your business is like your personal ministry, you stand in the knowing that you are here to serve and are committed to that. From that level of commitment and decision, everything else falls into place.

Fully Expressing Your Gifts –

We are here to make a difference in people’s lives. (OK, that may be my belief, but I like it and am keeping it!) Your business becomes effortless when you express your gifts in the world, instead of trying to be what other people want you to be. This is where fulfillment lives, where passion lives, and its cute little down the street neighbor, Fun, lives!

First you have to know what your gifts are. And a big hint…what you think is easy and comes naturally and likely gets overlooked as “Doesn’t everyone have that?” – That’s YOUR gift. Take an inventory of what you do easily that your clients are really blown away by. Notice your passion-meter. What gets you juiced to talk about or do? Show up more fully in your business and you’ll not only enjoy it more, but you’ll also attract the RIGHT kind of clients who will resonate with your unique energy, AND you’ll also make more money doing it.

Stuck on what your gifts are? Ask! Survey your clients or close friends/mastermind partners and ask what they see that you are gifted at. You will probably be surprised at what they see that you have overlooked. Next – assign a value to what they say that your gifts are. You have to really own how much impact you have, so discovering what your gifts are worth is a huge step in gaining entrepreneurial confidence! When you really get clear about how much value you bring, raising your rates and being paid what you are worth will be easy.

Leaving a Legacy –

What will your footprint be? When you are gone, how will you be remembered? By the lives you touched? For the contributions you made? From the children you so tenderly raised?

Is legacy something that you strive for, or a thing that just happens when you show up and do your work in the world?

It’s my belief that sometimes we get so bogged down with the daily ‘to-do’ list that it’s easy to forget that we are here to make a difference. What would change in your business if you regularly tapped into that place in you that could hold the longer vision of what’s possible.

This legacy stuff on one hand feels a bit big and scary. But on the other hand, it can be energizing when you tap into the knowledge that your ideas and contributions will outlive you. I remember years ago meeting a copywriter and her big dream was “to be an influence.” It hadn’t occurred to me at the time that my scope was any broader that the local folks I was working with, but her soul knew that her purpose here was to influence how people thought and to help them open up to new possibilities.

What will it be for you? It’s not something I want you to ‘work’ at or stress over, but do give it some thought. If you create that new product, can you see the ripple effect? Imagine that 100 people work with you, and that work effects 10 of their friends, and five more down the road, in their networks. Can you see the endless possibilities?

So my wish for you, my dear reader, is to really do some thinking about the meaning of your business and the difference you make in the world because of it. Own your vision in a big way! We need that from you.

I can see it now…..

A room full of grizzly looking, sleep deprived entrepreneurs sitting around wondering what happened to their dreams of success.

One by one they start to share their stories:

“Hi, I’m Amy.  I am an email addict.”  I sit down to work on the projects that would make me money, but every time that email alert pops in, I’m bouncing to check on who could have possibly contacted me.  So by the end of the day, I’m drained, overwhelmed, and have accomplished nothing!.”

Next is Dave, who has the tell tale dark circles under his eyes.  “Hi I’m Dave, and my life has become unmanageable as a result of the distraction of email.  My problem is that I can’t sleep until I know every email is done, sent, or responded to.  Its freaky…in fact, if I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, or can’t sleep, I will head straight to my computer to finish off the email that came in when I was away.  And can I share my biggest shame?  I secretly get a little bummed when it’s about one in the morning and I hit the send/receive button and nothing comes.  I’m a mess.”

But the saddest one of all is Ray, who sits in the corner, barely able to hold his head up.  “Hi, my story is sort of similar but it’s not just email that’s causing me to get off track and waste hours and hours and hours.  Mine is that damn Facebook and Twitter.  In the old days I’d give myself about thirty minutes to ’surf the web’ as we used to call it back then, but with the inventions like Tweetdeck, I’m screwed!  Now it takes all the energy I can muster to get anything done.  And you want to know the worst part of it?  As a coach, when I’m supposed to be listening to my clients on the phone, I secretly pop in and check on the tweets while I should be listening to them.  They are paying me good money, and I can’t even be present because I’m so addicted to distractions.  What they heck should I do?”

Now obviously this is a fictitious “12-Step meeting for email addicts” but many of you will read your own story in the three characters above.

The fist thing I want you to know is that you are probably (unfortunately) among the norm.  We love distractions!  Our cell phones have alarms, our Outlook tasks pop in to alert us, we get reminders of teleclasses, and all sorts of things that intrude on our space.  So what’s a ‘focus challenged’ entrepreneur to do about all this?  I have a few suggestions below.

1.  Turn off the email alert -yes….in Outlook you can stop the function that tells you every time an email pops in.  You may notice a huge void, but that’s the goal!

2.  Discover the cost of being interrupted constantly – I recently got ’spanked’ by my VA.  OK, not literally, but she scolded me because I haven’t yet contacted all the affiliates I need to promote my upcoming Happy in Business Mastermind program.  See I can tell myself the story that I’m so busy, but the reality is that the distraction of email/social media probably cost me at least a weeks worth of work in connecting with people that I need to.

3.  Schedule chunks of time for distractions – Give yourself certain hours where you’ll be on Facebook, certain times you’ll tweet, and certain times you will check your email.  It really is about discipline.   Have you planned your time?  Do you set up a schedule the night before of what needs to be accomplished, or do you just jump on the computer and just start responding to emails?  That is the kiss of death for any hope of productivity, so START NOW.  The deal is that you control your time, and not other people’s calls, requests, or emails.  Think like a singulary focused million dollar business owner.  Would they ‘twitter’ their time away?  Probably not.

4.  Purge, purge, purge -  Do you really need 67 ezine subscriptions?  Take one whole week and everything that you would be tempted to say, “I’ll get to this later” GET RID OF!!!! You can always re-subscribe, but the enormity of getting hundred and hundred of emails a day leads to overwhelm.  (Don’t want to hurt someones feelings by unsubscribing?  Here’s a trick – set up a message rule in Outlook to send their email directly to the delete folder.  That way you don’t have to see it, and they don’t have to know you left their list.)

5. Have an assistant handle your email -This is where I am.  And truthfully, I am FIGHTING this one!  Because I admit that I’m like a crazy email junkie- the more the better in my book.  But I know what it costs me in terms of productivity.  So next week my inbox will be managed by Renee, my ass-kicking VA.  Actually the email won’t even come in to my Inbox.  It may take a few weeks to sort out, but she’ll only send me the high priority items, and the rest will be handled.  Out of sight, out of mind is the key.  Why did I finally surrender here?  Because I know that I will be so much better of a business owner when I’m not distracted and hitting that send/receive button every five minutes.  I’ll be able to do my weekly newsletter, write more articles, and gosh…maybe even have a life.  What a beautiful thing!

Those are my five tips.  Shoot me an email and let me know if you have any other ideas.  (And yeah, I’ll tell Renee to deliver that one to me!)

Blessings,

Did you ever just wish you could be a fly on the wall when great coaching happens?  People make shifts all the time in this process, so I thought I’d share one of my cool client stories with you so you get to ‘eavesdrop’ on the process and apply the questions to your own business.

A couple of days ago I did a strategy session with one of my newer clients, Karen Kanakanui of www.wordsareus.com.  Karen came to the call looking  to figure out how the info product she was working on would fit into her long term plans, but WHOA Nelly………..she got WAY more than she bargained for!

You see Karen is a copywriter who calls herself an “expert in using audio to grow your business.”  I often listen with an ear for how a consumer hears our ‘elevator’ pitches, so the first place I intervened was in suggesting to Karen that what she thought she was an expert in wasn’t really THE THING.  See, she’s really an expert in helping people drive traffic to their sites using copywriting, and then using audio to get them to take action.  (We call that magical concept conversion!)  We discovered that when Karen only spoke of the tools she used, her audience probably didn’t connect as powerfully with her because no one really cares about the WHAT….customers only want the RESULTS.  First big breakthrough……

Next we looked at Karen’s business model.  Oh, this is where it gets juicy for me!  She currently offers copywriting and voice over.  She has an idea for a product where she would interview people, then create an audio product (like an opt-in piece) do the technical stuff, write the ‘hooks’ and then get it back to them.  This is a good idea, don’t you agree?

But it came to me like a lightening bolt while we were discussing this………..

“How else can I consume you,” I asked.

Of course this is such a WEIRD question that Karen stopped and said, “WHAT?”

How else can I consume you,” I asked again…….

Let me put it a different way for you just as I did for Karen.  “If I were to want to buy some of your time or get more of you or your knowledge HOW ELSE COULD I DO THAT?”

See, as Karen was telling me the amazing things she was up to, I was getting really excited because I just happen to be her target market and could use her services.  But she hadn’t yet told me how I could! Do you see how big of a challenge this is?  Karen had one thing she offered – copywriting – yet she’s such an expert in so many areas that could help me as I design a new website and do marketing for my clients.

Breakthrough #2 was when I basically blew Karen’s business model apart and said, “OK, let’s look at all the ways folks could get access to your knowledge.”  We began with her audio product, then added two more components to it.  (Some folks are DIY’s – Do It Yourselfers – while others just want to hand it off and have it done.)  I then added a consultation level because there are some of us who may just want a few hours with someone who knows so much about traffic/conversion.

Karen started the call with the idea of adding a very one dimensional offering, and ended the call with about 5 new things!  It’s funny because when I called Karen the next day to ask if I could share this story, she said, “Yes, tell them that it was overwhelming, amazing, and mind boggling to walk away with all of this.”  I do have to admit that sometimes I get on a roll with these strategy sessions and it’s a bit like drinking water from a fire hydrant, but hey….it’s a gift!  What can I say. 

Your task, my dear reader is to sit in that question……….How can someone consume more of me? That one powerful question can literally generate thousands of dollars in new revenue.

I’d love you to comment on what you come up with as you ask yourself this wonderful question…

Go for it!