Boot That Guilt!

Gotta love this blog posting by Lisa Watts on kicking the guilt gremlin to the curb during a recent vacation.  And she set aside her Blackberry and the world continued to run with no catastrophic consequences!  Read it and smile.  More of us need to shake those guilty feelings – they’re a waste of time!

Leaving the Comfort Zone

Successful entrepreneurs constantly step out of their comfort zone.  You know, that artificial and mentally restricting area that sometimes paralyzes us?  As the theory goes, that false sense of security creates inertia. To step out of a comfort zone, you have to experiment with new and different behaviors and then experience the results. You might respond with, “I’ve already tested my comfort zone by making cold calls,” or “I’ve stretched by doing presentations to groups,” or “I raised my rates.”

I think the key is to recognize that every new step leads to another comfort zone; once you’ve raised your rates, where do you go from there? Try different approaches to the dreaded cold call, think of new and creative ways of making concise and memorable presentations, focus on bringing added value to the work you do at little or no expense to yourself.

Planning to achieve goals that make you stretch will release you from the fear of leaving the comfort zone.  How have you jumped out of your comfort zone lately?

A Formula for Progress

In business, there are factors that move us forward and factors that move us back.  I came across and now love using this formula:

Growth = Attitude + Competency + Action – Fears

Having the right attitude, developing competency in running and operating your business, plus taking action, move us forward.  Feeding doubts and fears move us back.  What are you doing today to add positively to the equation?

Blow Your Own Horn More Often

Too many people out there resist talking about what they are up to, what they have accomplished.  They don’t want to brag!  But this often means they downplay their accomplishments to themselves.  Not a good thing.  You need to be aware of what you are good at, what your successes are.  How else do you give yourself a pat on the back?  More importantly, how do you successfully land new clients, get that promotion or sell people on the idea of working with you if you aren’t confident about your own abilities?

There is a big difference between being a braggart and being confident about your abilities and your value.   Too many women end up making less money than they should because they undervalue themselves.  So get ready to start blowing your own horn by taking these simple steps:

If you aren’t prepared to blow your own horn, no else is going to.

Slow it down

Is anybody else surprised that March is almost over?

Are we rushing through our lives working too hard?

When I asked a few people these questions over the last few weeks, everyone said yes, without hesitation.  Not a good sign.  I know the days are jam-packed.  I know that we all have a lot of responsibilities.  I know that we need to make a living.

But life is short and we all need to have more fun and take some time to relax more.  How can it hurt?  I’m making a conscious decision to slow things down a bit.  To stop rushing through the days so quickly.  To stop and savour moments, to remind myself that there is more to life than just getting stuff done.

Anybody with me?

Stop giving too much information

This week I have received several phone calls from women explaining in great detail why they can’t do something that they had agreed to.  Why do so many women feel the need to share so much personal information?  It’s not good.   I was pondering this question when I came across this blog article from one of my favorite blogs – Musings of a Corporate Maven.  Serendipity!

Lisa talks about blurring the line between personal and business and why sharing too much information is never a good idea.  You can read what she has to say here.

Make It Easy for Your Customers to Pay You

I received a glowing testimony from a new client last week.   In our first session, I found that he needed three back-and-forth phone calls with individual potential customers before they could buy services from him, after learning about what he does in a class setting.  We changed the flow so that his customers could get all their questions answered and purchase from him within one conversation.  He implemented the suggestions, and successfully converted all his prospects into clients in his next class.  He is thrilled and said “Holy cow!! What a difference those little changes made!  Thanks again. Looking forward to implementing everything else we talked about.”

Are you losing customers because it takes too many steps for them to buy from you?  From running an online retail store to providing one-to-one services, you want to make it as easy as possible for your customer to pay you.  Do this exercise:  write down the steps a customer has to take to buy from you from finding out about you to paying for your service.  How long does the cycle take?  How many touch points are there?  Are there places where they have to work too hard to find information?  Are there places where they can get stuck and abandon the process?

Sometimes it isn’t about changing the macro stuff like marketing strategies or branding, instead it’s about making simple changes like enabling your customers to get all their questions answered up front.  Don’t make it hard for them to buy from you when they are ready.

Act with Confidence

Larry Farrell, author of “Getting Entreprenurial” identifies having a big vision as a key trait for success in entrepreneurs. They have to be rock solid in knowing what they want to build. Highly successful business owners dream, think, plan what they want their company to be. They have a clear vision of what they are working to create and don’t get sidetracked by what other people think. It’s a business basic.

Lately I keep meeting women in business who do not have this vision locked down. They are bright and work really hard, but they struggle with a lack of confidence. Which leads them to ask other people for input all the time. And then they get conflicting opinions, which makes things even harder.

You cannot build a highly profitable business, or sell your products successfully if you do not have strong confidence in what you are doing. People will sense when you are not rock solid during your sales presentations. Your reputation will suffer, especially if you seesaw back and forth on making decisions. Decide what you want to accomplish in your business. Sell more? Introduce new products? Go after different markets? Then go after it with confidence.

Toastmasters Tour!

On Friday afternoon I got the chance to have a personal tour of the world headquarters of Toastmasters – thanks, Jonathan!!  I came away so impressed.  I have always been a big fan of Toastmasters, recommending it to many people, but I learned a ton about this organization that I wanted to share with you.

- Head office is in Rancha Santa Margarita, a beautiful community in the Los Angeles area.  Toastmaster clubs are in 106 countries around the world.  Eighty dedicated, talented staff members run this international organization.

- They have amazing programs in both public speaking AND leadership.  Their vision is to empower people to achieve their full potential and realize their dreams.  The clients and business acquaintances that I know that have joined Toastmasters have not just learned how to speak well publicly, they have also developed confidence and poise.

- Toastmasters is not just for anyone who has to stand up and make a speech at a special occasion or for anyone who is terrified of speaking in front of others.  Their programs offer valuable tools to any business professional who wants to sound more confident and poised.   They teach people how to break the ice, so you can network more effectively.  And you get to build connections with other people in the organization, so it’s also a great business development opportunity.

If you need to improve your speaking skills, go check out Toastmasters!

Work With Your Energy Level

I am seeing a lot of tired, burnt out people out there.  Trying to juggle too much stuff, not taking enough time off and being relentless in beating themselves up for not getting stuff done.

For all of you out there struggling with this,  I suggest you read my posting for today on Sheteam.com.   Read the article here.