This is an article I published last year that is good enough to repeat…hope you enjoy!

You know how they say “life imitates art?”  I believe that life imitates business!  Lessons in our lives are the very same ones that we bump into in our business, so in this article I share with you the story of how an incident with my dog showed me one of the problems that business owners run into daily.  This lesson is called:

4 Steps to Leveraging Your Time and Talent

After his recent near death experience and a VERY expensive surgery, I had to take my eleven year old dog Colby back to the vet to get his sutures out. He had eaten a stuffed Easter egg (which didn’t pass through!) so ended up having to have it removed which left an 8 inch incision in his stomach.

On Saturday morning as I was ready to get him in my van, I discovered that no matter what I did, he wasn’t going in. I’d lift, push, cajole, and basically tried everything I could do, but my 80 pound elderly, weak-in-the-hips pooch would just slide under the vehicle. It occurred to me that one of us was gonna get hurt, so I did what every smart business owner would do….I called in reinforcements! OK, the ‘muscle’ in this case was my ex who lives about a mile away. (Yeah, we have that cool kind of relationship….) One quick phone call and in a few minutes the ex popped over and said canine was comfortably in the seat on the way to the vet.

Here is the application for your business … Support = success!

Now why in the world would I share this story about my geriatric dog and my need to call for help? Because it’s the perfect entrepreneur’s dilemma!

I had a ‘project’ I needed to do but didn’t have the resources to make it happen on my own. The theme for this article is to encourage you to see who can do the ‘heavy lifting’ and help you out in areas where you need some more support.

Below is my four-step process for embracing this really important principle in your business.

Step #1: Open your eyes! Take a look around at your business and where you either loose energy (bookkeeping maybe?) or where you are chronically overwhelmed, or when you know that if you just had a few key pieces in place….you’d really be able to take off. Sometimes it will be letting someone do the tasks for you, or maybe it’s the need you have to learn a new skill. What would it be for you? Make a list…………

Step #2: Visualize! The next step is to allow yourself to imagine what would be possible if you had this piece in place. This is where the fun is. If you could design it EXACTLY how you wanted, how would it look/feel/be? Now, everyone knows about getting ads posted on Craig’s List or putting up job descriptions, but what I coach my clients around is to make sure you put in the intangibles.  We all want someone who is skilled, etc, but this is where your values come into play.  Do you want to have your new team members be fun, or creative, or self starters?  Adding this one piece is critical! Your turn…dream big! What would you love to see in terms of support?

Step #3: Strategize! Now where do you find this person? There are two ways of doing it. The first is the ‘inner game’ way of just harnessing energy. Part of the ‘magic’ is if you just set the intention, the Universe conspires to support you. (Anyone ever watched The Secret?)

The next way is to do some research about who is out there that could ‘fill the bill’ for you in this area.

Using the social media sites like Facebook or LinkedIn are really fabulous ways to connect.  One of my clients recently needed a marketing manager, so I just put the question to my LinkedIn list and got over thirty people recommending folks! Using other people’s networks and referrals is the best way to go in this case.

Now it’s your turn…after putting out the intention, create a list of where you could find the support you need and a list of who you could go to for help finding it. Don’t forget the power of your network. Ask others who they know.

Step #4: Realize! Now that you have found that perfect person, how is it going to work? What has to happen for you to put them on your team? Maybe you just need an advisory board or possibly a peer run mastermind. In either case, explore what’s the win-win for all parties involved.

If you need to pay for some new team members, do a calculation about how much business you’ll need to bring in to cover the new cash outlay. Truthfully, many entrepreneurs get themselves stuck in the trap of “I can’t afford to pay anyone to help, but I’m so busy doing so much administrative stuff, that I can’t earn more money either.” If you find yourself in that conundrum, ask yourself the following questions -

1. What’s the minimum investment I’d need to make to move forward? (Example, if you can only spend $500/month…what could that money buy you?)
2. How long would it take for me (with the new people in place) to begin to see a return on my investment?
3. What is it costing me to NOT have these additional resources? This could be in time, money, or just stress! Be honest here.

Now it’s time to take action!  Plan for the projects that you need support with, and get the people in place to make that a reality.  Once you begin to work this way, you’ll never look back!

True confession time….

I don’t listen like most people.  25 years of being a psychotherapist has given me a bit of an ‘edge’ when it comes to hearing what’s said, what’s not said, and the energy around all of that.

So when I hear language that screams out a really faulty belief under the surface, you bet I release out my inner bloodhound and jump all over that!

Like the other day when I had a session with a client and we were discussing why she priced her product so low.  What she said about threw me out of my chair.

“Everyone knows women are cheap.”

I let it roll the first few times, but when she tried to use that again to justify her unrealistically low price point, I could no longer sit there!

Ya see, this is where my head goes -

If you have that belief, then YOU GET TO BE RIGHT and you’ll have a bunch of cheap women taking up your time and resources and never buying anything because that’s what you decided to be true.

Instead of screaming, I very nicely said, “Hey…I gotta stop you here because women are not cheap.  I’m not cheap and the women I know spend tons of money on things they value.

I then explained to her that clearly she had that belief and it must be banished from her language, or that would be her reality.  She got it when I explained the value piece, because here she was paying good $ for coaching, so it must be true. 

Now if the word police followed you around for a week, what would they notice coming out of your mouth?  Our beliefs are revealed through the words we use.  (Did I tell you the one where a new client kept referring to her “little business” until I corrected her and requested that she only refer to it as her big business!  AHHHHHH…..This stuff makes me nuts, gang.)

The gift of watching your language is that you become aware of hidden beliefs that are holding you back.

So here is the exercise I suggest – ask someone you are close with to listen for certain things.  They could listen for self deprecating statements you slip out, or they could be on the look out for any statements where you play small – like “my little business”, or a new “little idea.”  Have them give you feedback on that, then correct it immediately.  The goal is to extinguish and correct this language, but you also may have to look at where it’s coming from and if you have some funky energy around something you just don’t know about.  Your language is like the window to this for you.

Truthfully, I just got busted by my mastermind group when I spoke some language that showed some weird energy.  My point is that no matter how evolved you are, how long you’ve been in business, or have been doing personal growth work, your language is rife with those little slippery places where you are showing some of your ’stuff.’  What it takes to change it?  AWARENESS!

That and a sassy business and mindset coach!

Let me know how this lands for you, and what tricks you use to avoid those pesky word police.

Blessings!

This is an article I initially published in February of 2007, and I want to republish it now because it’s so timely.

“Karaoke Lessons”

Life imitates art, so they say.  I think business imitates life as well.  How you show up in your life is how you are also showing up in your business.  My friend and mentor Melanie Strick always says, “How you do anything is how you do everything.”

So what’s karaoke got to do with being a successful small business owner you might ask?  Well….let me share with you the lessons I’ve been learning lately as I’ve just begun doing the singing scene…

I have started hanging out with my friend Andrea Beaulieu, who is an awesome singer.  She’s sung at weddings, churchs, travelled with singing groups, and has taken lessons for at least 15 years.  In my mind she’s a pro at it!  Because Andrea is so ‘overly trained’ she had been having the experience of not enjoying singing.  She used to get up there and was so focused on being technically perfect, that she didn’t have fun.  Now she’s desiring just to express.

Amongst the Elvis impersonators, the drunk lounge lizards, is my fabulous friend, just showing up and singing her heart out.  It’s like she’s finally able to claim her gift by giving herself permission just to do it, and not do it perfectly.

Business lesson – How many times have you thought that you couldn’t roll out your product or service until you were MORE.  More talented, more ready, more coached, more prepared.  The list goes on and on….

Here’s the deal - you are fully cooked!  Just get started. You can always tweak what you have once you roll it out, but don’t let that crazy perfectionistic part hold you back.  One of my marketing coaches used to say, “Done is Good!”  I love that.  Instead of worrying about the perfect offering, just enjoy your business and express fully from that place.  Show up, have fun, and watch the clients come your way.  People resonate with ‘real’ and not your version of ‘it has to be perfect before anyone sees it.’

My story is different than Andrea’s.  While she’s been singing for years, I’m a newbie. Okay I sing my heart out in the car, thinking I’m Melissa Etheridge, but I’m not stage bound just yet.  Singing on stage is BRAND NEW for me!  When Andrea suggested that I meet her at the little karaoke club, I decided, ‘what the heck.’  I don’t even remember the song I sung, but I remember it was after the Elvis impersonator, so I thought I’d be fine.  What I didn’t bank on was that darn sound system.  It seemed that every off key note I hit (or thought I hit) kept bouncing back, reminding me that I was certainly not likely to be the next American Idol.

After my song I came back to the table, feeling dejected, and a bit humiliated, because I focused on what I had perceived that I did wrong .  Being my good gal-pal, Andrea said, “You did great….at least you got up there and had fun!”  Yeah.  I did.  I took a risk and chose to go WWWWAAAAAYYYYYY outside my comfort zone.  So all of us that night…me, the lounge lizards, fake Elvis, Andrea, and the crazy young rockers who sang, “You Gotta Fight For Your Right to Party” had fun and fully expressed who we were.

Business lesson-  How many times do you compare your business with someone else and think you aren’t as talented, prepared, or skilled to get clients?  How does this hold you back?  When I finally shifted my focus to what I did right as opposed to looking at the few notes I missed, I had fun.  And, the next time I did my rendition of “Mama He’s Crazy” I felt like a much better singer.  Why?  Cuz I kept singing!

Where can you just keep showing up, even if you aren’t getting the results you want?  The world needs what you have.  The more you show up and express what you have and who you are, the bigger your game gets.

If you want to play a bigger game in business…play a bigger game in life!  Take risks, push into the places where you are uncomfortable, and watch the amazing results that you will see.

So, how big is your game?