Category: Overcoming Obstacles

The Productivity Secret That Will Change Your Life

One of the things I’m constantly struggling with: my plate is incredibly full. I just have way TOO many things on that proverbial plate and it’s constantly weighing me down.

I’m a Strategic Marketer & Product Launch Manager, I help people get things done, and here I am, revealing to you my own challenges with getting things done. 

Well, I’ve actually invested good money with experts to help me “organize” my office, my computer, and my life, as well as I got a new desk, bookshelves, and on an on. The interesting thing is after that expert gave me this “system” it wasn’t mine. So I had great difficulty in trying to use it and came across all sorts of obstacles that just reared their ugly heads a few weeks ago.

Before I tell you what happened, I actually would liken it to someone who’s trying to lose weight and just puts the weight back on—it’s because they’re not aligned somewhere with the process, or something just isn’t right.

Well that’s what I felt like, something with my new system just wasn’t jelling with me, it just wasn’t right. And unfortunately I didn’t really see that until the crap hit the fan last week and a few balls I was juggling just crashed—yikes—how did that happen?!

The cool thing is that I did ultimately find a solution, albeit painful to have to do so much learning—As Alex Mandossian has taught me—“You’re either winning or you’re learning!” No such thing as losing or making mistakes—my new lingo is “I’m learning.”

After the balls crashed last week, my wonderful client and mentor Alex Mandossian, pulled me aside and saw that I was obviously having some trouble.  He got to the root of it very quickly and explained to me about the benefits of “The Ivy Lee 6.”

In the early 1900’s consultant Ivy Lee approached Charles Schwab, President of Bethlehem Steel (not the investment company) and asked what it’d be worth to him if he could raise the productivity of his managers by at least 20%. Schwab didn’t have an answer but was definitely interested. This is where the “Ivy Lee 6” comes into play.  Ivy Lee taught him and his managers this proven technique.

Here’s THE productivity secret that will change your life:

Before you leave your office for the night, write down the 6 most important things to be done the next day and number them in order of importance. Prioritize.

Do the tasks from the most important to least important. I write these on index cards with the date at the top.  So have the card on your desk for the next day, and once you’ve finished one, take a highlighter (I like green) and highlight through it so that’s your sign it’s complete. Any unfinished tasks are rolled over to the next day.

It may sound incredibly simple, yet for me it was amazingly effective.  After my first week was done—oh my gosh, I had a stack of cards on my desks with lots of green on them. Just being able to visibly “see” what I’d done that week was psychologically empowering. I left my office Friday on a huge high.

The key is picking the 6 things that will give you the most results for the day, and write them down very clearly. For example— Don’t say— “Call several people to connect with them about our product launch.”  This is better— “Call Susie to tell her about our product launch” or “Call 3 key people who will promote our product launch…”

Using the “Ivy Lee 6” also utilizes the power of prioritization and requires you to number your tasks in order of importance with your most important tasks done first.

Don’t wait, try this now— I know you will be amazed at how this works and leave me a comment and let me know how I can support you to be more productive.

And if you’ve made it all the way down here to the bottom, thanks for reading, and here’s a gift for you. I want to give you 60 minutes of my time for free, with my compliments.   Maybe you’re:

  • Stuck in your business and not being able to increase your profits fast enough
  • Frustrated your launch didn’t go as well as you planned
  • In need of some help and guidance with your launch
  • Finally ready to create your online marketing funnel and don’t know where to turn
  • Searching simply for some strategic online marketing help, and hand-holding from an expert who’s got proven experience and helped thousands already….

Well, here’s the deal, you’re in the right place. I can help you!  Just click here and check out how I can help you and schedule a free 60 minute call with me. I’d love to see how I can help you create the business you so deserve and helping you help thousands more people.

It all Boils Down to Courage- Do You Have What it Takes?

Pic-courage-quoteOne of my favorite quotes is “Fall down 7 times, get up 8” by Buddha.  It’s such a subtle quote and so much where I’ve been these past 8 months. I can’t believe I haven’t written since October of last year!  Or maybe I can after I tell you all I’ve been going through—and it really does “all boil down to courage…”

Have you ever had the rug pulled out from under you? Like really pulled hard and you land smack on your rear end in shock of what just happened.  Well that’s what happened to me… My relationship of 12 years ended back in September of 2012, and that was the beginning of the rug pulling.  Then we sold the house in February, and I had to move out and find a place to live, and then I was just simply exhausted from it all.  I had no energy left to work, so I decided to leave the job I was in…  I so just needed to take some time off to get my energy back and just simply take care of me—so that’s what I did.  March 8 I quit the job and took some time just for me.  It had been SOOO long that I took any time for myself, I had no idea what to do.  The good news is it didn’t take me long to figure it out. I traveled to Big Sur and did an amazing workshop at the Esalen Institute on Callings- How to figure out what you really want to do with your life, lead by the inspiring Gregg Levoy. It was life changing, and I traveled to be my family and hiked a ton with my dog and read, and read and read- the library was my “go to” place. (Some of the books I read- Broken Open by Elizabeth Lesser, When the Heart Waits by Sue Monk Kidd, Wishes Fulfilled by Wayne Dyer, Soul Money by Lynn Twist and Sacred Contracts by Carolyn Myss.)

So why am I tell you all of this— there are a few reasons— one, I wanted to share with you why I was absent from my blog, and two, the real reason is I want to inspire you to check in with yourself- to inject you with some courage to look and I mean really look hard at your life, your work, your relationships, your spirituality- Are you fulfilled? Are you happy? Is something missing? Does something need to change?

Do you have what it takes to really give a hard look at your life and have the courage to make the changes you need to live a more fulfilled life?

I know it’s not easy, take it from me, it’s REALLY hard. However, I had a really amazing support system I put into place to help me with all of these changes that happened in my life.  I had an inspiring and gifted therapist, a wonderful coach, and so many supportive friends.   There’s no way I could have made it these past 9 months without them and I’m forever grateful.

So don’t wait until it’s too late, take a good look at your life and make some changes for the better. We all deserve to live a wonderfully, supportive, happy and inspiring life, filled with people who love, care and support us.

5 Steps to Daring Greatly and Living Authentically

I was totally shocked when I realized I hadn’t written in my blog since July—yikes! I thought for sure I had written something in August— nope!  So I thought this post would be PERFECT to get me back on track.  It’s interesting how life throws these curve balls at you and even more interesting how you respond.  One thing I know for sure is that life is ALL about CHANGE—you have to simply just expect it and realize you absolutely have NO CONTROL What we need to do is simply prepare ourselves well with riding the waves… And that’s how this post came to be… the 5 Steps to Daring Greatly and Living Authentically…

It’s funny how things happen—because I certainly don’t believe in coincidences…  The whole month of July I was away traveling— only home for 5 days, and they weren’t even consecutive days!  And on my last trip working a very stressful 8 day event a friend showed me a TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) video by Brene Brown—  it was so PERFECT—I laughed out loud and even dare I say—cried too…  And that’s where this title of  my article came from—Brene Brown who just wrote another book called Daring Greatly, How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

I was lucky enough to be in the audience to see Brene on the new Katie Couric Show which is premiering this week.  Her focus is on how we can be vulnerable and how this will transform us.  Her background is a researcher and she’s a professor at the University of Houston Graduate College for  Social Work School.  She’s spent years studying, shame, and vulnerability.  She tells her story in the TED video, so check it out I won’t bore you with it here… She also did a follow-up TED talk which was equally inspiring and funny too. Her video is in the top 10 most watched video on TED.

What was even cooler is I was there because a good friend works on the show and surprised me by bringing me backstage to meet her. She was so gracious and as wonderful in person as on the show. They gave us all a copy of her new book, which I had her sign for me and I took a photo with her as well…  This was an inspiring experience for me, one that I will always treasure. I connected with her because she’s so left brained like me- we just want strategies and tools, we don’t want to have to deal with emotions, feelings and being vulnerable- yikes… As an aside—If you catch the episode of Brene, you will see yours truly for my 15 seconds of fame in the show- They did a man on the street and asked me a question—I had to answer the question- I feel vulnerable when…. So check out the show to see more…

Well guess what, this is the key to living a full and joyful life, not numbing or stuffing my feelings, but giving them space.  In fact I started rereading some terrific books by Pema Chodron, Start Where You Are, The Places that Scare You and When Things Fall Apart. All of her books are about being present, meditating and feeling and being with your emotions, but not letting them run your life…

So here in lies the real core message— these are the 5 things I learned from Brene on Daring Greatly and these are the things I’m striving for in my life so I can live it more fully, not matter what challenges I’m facing or going through…

1)    Overcoming Self-doubt

2)    Being more Authentic

3)    Practicing Self-Compassion

4)    Finding More Gratitude and Joy everyday

5)    Nurturing creativity, play and rest

If you can work on mastering one or two of these, you will live a much more joyful and full life. Of course mastering more than one, would be ideal. But you don’t have to be that ambitious, just take one step forward and tackle one of these today and let me know how you do!

PLUS– FREE 60 Minute One On One Call with ME!

If you’ve made it all the way down here to the bottom, thanks for reading, and here’s a gift for you. I want to give you 60 minutes of my time for free, with my compliments.   Maybe you’re:

  • Stuck in your business and not being able to increase your profits fast enough
  • Frustrated your launch didn’t go as well as you planned
  • In need of some help and guidance with your launch
  • Finally ready to create your online marketing funnel and don’t know where to turn
  • Searching simply for some strategic online marketing help, and hand-holding from an expert who’s got proven experience and helped thousands already….
  • problem or issue isn’t listed here… I know I can help….

Well, here’s the deal, you’re in the right place. I can help you!  Just click here. I want to give you a  FREE 60 minute call with me. I’d love to see how I can help you create the business you so deserve and helping you help thousands more people.

What Do Your Customers Really Desire?

I wanted to continue my blog from last week where I discussed “What Your Customers Want to Buy,” followed up by this week where the focus is on “What Do Your Customers Desire.”  This questions are incredibly similar because a lot of the focus is out the outcome, not exactly a product or service. Remember people buy on emotion and then they rationalize with logic AFTER they purchase.

That’s why what I’m about to tell you is REALLY cool and important. If you’re a student of Direct Response Marketing or a copywriter, or student of marketing, you’ve probably heard of Victor Schwab. If you haven’t, shame on you- get on Amazon now and buy this book— How To Write A Good Advertisement

In the book he has a ton of terrific stuff on how to write copy and ads that convert. The one thing that caught my eye and made a huge impact on my was on page 47 where he talks about what showing people an advantage, yet it helps when you know what those advantages are.  So here’s his list of people’s desires and what they want to gain, be, do and save:

1) People want to GAIN:

–      Health

–      Time

–      Money

–      Popularity

–      Improved Appearance

–      Security in old age

–      Praise from others

–      Comfort

–      Leisure

–      Proof of Accomplishment

–      Advancement- business, social

–      Increased enjoyment

–      Self-confidence

–      Personal prestige

2) People want to BE:

–      Good Parents

–      Social able and Hospitable

–      Up-to-date

–      Creative

–      Proud of their Possessions

–      Influential over others

–      Gregarious

–      Efficient

–      First in things

–      Recognized as authorities

3) People want to DO:

–      Express their personalities

–      Resist domination over others

–      Satisfy their curiosity

–      Emulate the admirable

–      Appreciate beauty

–      Acquire or collect things

–      Win others affections

–      Improve themselves generally

4) People want to SAVE:

–      Time

–      Money

–      Work

–      Discomfort

–      Worry

–      Doubts

–      Risks

–      Personal Embarrassment

My recommendation of what to do with these lists, is in your marketing promotion and copy, ensure that you tie into these advantages and focus on one or more things of what people want to gain, be, do and save.  And if you can do that, they will buy from you.

I’ll leave you with this terrific quote from Napoleon Hill (and if you don’t know who he is- buy his book here—Think and Grow Rich. It was originally published in 1937) “There are no motives to action: Self-interest and fear.” So to me he’s saying that people buy out of self interest- to gain, be, do and save and out of fear. Hence so much copy is fear driven and focusing on our problems and that’s why everyone has the perfect solution for us because that’s how most of us think.  When asked what we want, it’s easier to know what we don’t want which then gets us to what we want… Happy thinking, discovering and figuring out your customers desires!

Discovering How to Add Some Disney “Mouse” Magic Into Your Business

Here are my two favorite quotes from Walt Disney:

“Think beyond your lifetime. If you want to do something truly great. Make a fifty year master plan. A fifty year master plan will change your look at the opportunities in the present.”

“If you can dream it, you can do it!”

These quotes do an awesome job of giving you a birds eye view into Walt’s psyche and how he was able to accomplish so much in a given period of time. He was the epitome of driven and going after his dreams. After reading his book, “How to be like Walt,” I certainly was able to view how when you have a dream, you go after it and let NOTHING stop you or get in your way.

I had the recent pleasure of spending 3 days in Orlando and two of them I spent at Epcot, touring and learning all of what was in Walt’s plan and how his little city in Orlando came to be. It was a fascinating adventure for me.  I got an amazing glimpse into his mind of how he accomplished his dreams and the flip side, of how he wasn’t able to see his dream of his Orlando parks come true. Yet, how his brother Roy and his team made sure it came to fruition.  When I stood there, it was hard to believe that— he actually died before any of the parks were even build in Orlando—wow…

So I knew there were some lessons that not only I could learn, but that I could share with you… The one thing Walt was through and through was a salesman and here’s how he succeeded as one:

  1. Honesty- He was so honest and forthright and sincere, you couldn’t help but believe in him and his dreams. So how can you be more honest, sincere and forthright in your business?
  2. Enthusiasm– This is one I’ve got covered, when I’m enthusiastic about something it comes through my pores, people can see it written across my face and the same for Walt.  He was enthralled with his ideas and he was infectious and it was contagious, don’t ever forget that in your business.
  3. Confidence- Walt exuded confidence, even when his business was failing. It’s about having unrelenting faith in what you’re doing.  His confidence, like his enthusiasm was contagious and infectious.
  4. Courage- This is a big one- this biggest fear is the fear of failure and the fear of rejection, Walt faced this daily. After all his company was the first one to create cartoons as feature films, which was unheard of in Hollywood and his won his first of many Oscars for doing so.  His first cartoon feature film of Snow White, blew the critiques and audience goers away… He had courage for his vision and his belief in creating cartoons as feature films.
  5. Persistence– according to Walt, nothing that was worthwhile comes easy and he had to have perseverance and faith in his own abilities. So must you—don’t ever give up—or my favorite saying from my amazing Coach Debbie Phillips, (and Founder of Women On Fire) is “Don’t give up before the miracle.”

There are hundreds of more lessons to be learned from Walt Disney, I just hope you can grasp these few and implement them into your business and your life.
And don’t forget to tell me how you do!

What’s Holding You Back From the Success You Deserve?

This question I’ve been asked countless of times from coach’s, mentors, therapists, and many an event speaker. In fact, I just got back from listening to Larry Winget speak at the Glazer Kennedy Super Conference in Dallas and his approach was more like a baseball bat to the forehead, but I think it worked.  I know I GOT it- what he was saying… let me explain…

If you don’t know Larry he has several best-selling books out there- one called- Shut Up, Stop Whining & Get a Life, my other favorite is- You’re Broke Because You Want To Be. He has an interesting no holds bar approach to success and creating a better life for yourself. His approach for me was very refreshing and different from other personal development type folks out there.

The real thing that’s holding you back from your success is honestly, well— YOU!  I know that, I’ve known that about myself for a while.  If I don’t like my life, I have no one to blame but myself, I’ve created it. And I KNOW I will get a lot of people who won’t like this post, but guess what I’m ok with that.  I want people to either love me or not. I’m not crazy enough to want everyone to like me, I know that’s not possible, and I’m really ok with that.

So if you’re still reading—here’s a transformative exercise you can do right now to kick your success in high gear— Take about 20 mins and get out 3 sheets of paper.

  1. First piece of paper-  Write down where you are in your life right now—in specific areas like finance, physical, spiritual, relationships, business, etc.
  2. Next, write down where you WANT to be
  3. Last, write down what you have to GIVE UP in order get to where you want to be—

The real key here is STEP 3—Writing down what you will GIVE UP.  Most people create a plan of HOW they will get there, not realizing that they may need to give up some things in order to get where they want to go. This is how you will reach true success—giving up whatever is making your broke, unsuccessful, unhealthy, and whatever is keeping you from being financially successful.  This is huge.  Don’t want, do this exercise now and let me know your thoughts and how you do.  The last key is you have to really want success bad enough to do WHATEVER it takes to get there. Come join me, let’s do that in 2012 together!

Are You Hard Wired To Fail?

Do you ever set important goals and then find yourself really struggling and not being able to meet them?

I used to have MANY sleepless nights when I first started my business. I would freak out about where my next dollar was going to come from or how I’d finish a project or what to do about x, y and z, it was endless. Worry was taking over my life.  Until I was able to read some terrific books on worry and learn about ways that really helped stop me in my tracks and enabled me to push past my worry and fears to create more success for myself.  The thing is there was definitely something stopping me and a lot of times I had NO clue what it was.

Have you ever felt like something was stopping you? You may be right: your subconscious mind can influence in you subtle ways to keep you from achieving your goals!

Here’s how it works: when you experienced a challenging event as a child – even something as seemingly small as your third-grade teacher yelling at you for asking a question in class – your subconscious downloads the details of that moment and marks the memory with a trigger. It’s like there’s a trigger in your mind saying, “There’s trouble here!”

If a new event activates that trigger, the creative problem solving part of your brain shuts down – stripping you of all the resources and capabilities you should have. So you stop moving forward. And you may not even understand why you stopped because it isn’t a conscious decision. Your subconscious is the one that decided to shut you down.

Want more information about how past events affect current performance, even without you being aware of it? Join my friends and colleagues Jack Canfield (America’s Number One Success Coach and “Chicken Soup for the Soul” author) and Pamela Bruner (Business Success Coach and EFT tapping expert) for a free video, “Are you Hard-Wired You To Fail: What’s Stopping You From Succeeding.” Details here: http://tinyurl.com/6o3d3u3

THE Way To Turn Your Annual Income Into Your Monthly Income!

Being addicted to learning is sometimes a hard road, especially when you’re an entrepreneur like me who LOVES to go after those shiny objects.  I’ve been doing a tremendous amount of travel over the past year, attending a ton of events and feeding my learning machine addiction.

Yet the one thing that’s eluding me after 6 years of being in my own business is “HOW” do I push my business past the 6 figure mark?  I’ve been incredibly successful over the past 6 years, yet I still want more for my business. I want to reach that 7 figure mark and I want to do within the next 3 years—is that even humanely possible?

Well I’ve had the incredible pleasure and delight of working with Alex Mandossian over the past year and I’m here to tell you with a resounding— YES, it’s totally possible. In fact, my work with him has really been focusing on growing his different businesses the past year and its been an incredibly fun ride. Now after a year, we’ve had several conversations about growing his business even bigger and he in turn is helping me grow mine!

Alex recently spent a bunch of time with me explaining the EXACT steps of how he was able to take his annual income and turn it into his MONTHLY income in less than 3 years.  This is a totally true story and it’s what he calls—THE MANIFESTATION BLUEPRINT.  And he gave me the green light to be able to share this with you—so here goes…

Here’s all you need to do this—

–  Flip chart Paper (or you could use 6 ½ x 11 paper— you will need at least 6 sheets

–  Markers for the flip cart paper (or a Sharpie for your smaller paper size)

–  What your annual income was last year

–  Open mind

–  Sheer determination

–  Consistency

Take your flip chart paper and write out the months of the year for 2012—turning it on it’s side—horizontal Landscape— works best. I was able to fit Jan/Feb/March/April/May/June on one flip chart and July/Aug/Sept/Oct/Nov/Dec on the other flip chart.   Then do the same for 2013, and for 2014, hence you need 6 pieces of flip chart paper.  If you do this on smaller paper, it will still work. Just know when Alex did this exercise; he did it on bigger paper so he then put it on the wall in his office.

After you get the months on there, then you will need to draw lines which will enable you to create 3 rows below each month.  Then on the first row you will put all the way across on EVERY sheet of paper for 2012-2013-2014; you will write down your annual income in each box under each month.  Then the next row you will write down what you made for that particular month.  Then the 3rd and final row you will write down the difference between row 1 and 2. In the beginning this will be a negative number, and in fact it may go up and down.  This is ok—keep doing it.

Here’s and example that I just created using made up figures on what the first page of 6 months should look like.

So the key is to put this up on your wall. I’ve done it and have the first 6 months on my wall, that’s because that’s all I can fit. Then I have the other sheets of paper waiting in the wings. Ideally, having all of it on your wall is best.  When Alex did this, it enabled him to make his annual income his monthly income into a total reality and he did it before 3 years had passed.

I would love you to do this along with me and let me know how you’re doing.  I can already totally see how having this on my wall is really motivating me, along with my sign saying “Take Action! Nothing happens until something moves! Is this going to make me money?”  So every time I’m doing a task—I think is it busy work or is it genuinely going to help me make money.

If you like this PROVEN concept, then you’re sure to like so much more on this new site that Alex, myself and the team are creating—    Check out this site and sign up for the early bird— it will so be worth it.

As always, would love your comments!

Seek Out New Opportunities

Last week, I explained how overcoming setbacks is as an easy as A.B.C.
A-Ambiguity       B- Build      C-Commit
This week I am going to show you how easy seeking out opportunities is. It is as easy as N.O.W.

stands for “Never-as in “Never Giving Up!”  By making, a daily mantra of “I will never give up” means there is not a minute, an hour, or a month that you are not seeking out new opportunities.  New opportunities are the only way to completely come out of a setback.  The only way to find new opportunities is give it all you have every day!

stands for “Opportunistic”.  Before you see that word and think “I have to chase down every opportunity that comes my way”,-wait.  Have the spirit of being opportunistic but make sure it’s the right fit for you.  By going out of the box and chasing after something “just because” is not the smart way to do it.  Instead, figure out your niche and be opportunistic within that realm.  By being patient and not settling, you will find out it pays off in the long road.

stands for “Weigh-as in Weigh it all out”  When you do find those opportunities that fit your niche, do not jump in right away.  If time permits, make a list of pros and cons and see if this opportunity is truly right for you.  Sometimes people are so excited about that first job opportunity that they do not weigh out the pros and cons.  Six months later after the “Newlywed” feeling wears off, they find they are regretting their decision.

So that’s it…last week I gave the A.B.C’s of how to deal with setbacks and this week I showed you how N.O.W. will help you seek out new opportunities.

Avoid Focusing on Set-backs and Seek out New Opportunities

Avoid Focusing on Setbacks

There comes a time in one’s personal and business life, where a setback comes in and rears its ugly head.  When it does come, because we know at some point it will, a person has two choices. They can either sit there or focus on all the negativity that comes with it.  Or they can come to terms with the reality of the set back  and push forward.

It is as easy as A.B.C.

 stands for Ambiguity.   A trait that is tied to most entrepreneurs which holds the meaning: The possibility of interpreting an expression in two or more distinct ways. When facing a setback, especially one that leaves a person in a negative situation, the best thing to do is look at in an ambiguous way.  Instead of focusing on how negative this setback is, look at it in a positive way.  And turn a problem into an opportunity. Real Life Application:  Make a list of 10 to 20 positives you can gleam from this particular setback.   “I am not sure where I’m going but I still prepare myself diligently for the journey every day” ~Peter Baskerville

stands for Build.   A setback requires a person to start over or build from the bottom up.  Take the list that you made of 10 to 20 positives and use them to make a game plan.  Part of making this game plan will help you build confidence not only in yourself but also in keeping a positive outlook on this setback.  “Whatever good things we build end up building us.”
~Jim Rohn

stands for Commitment.   In this time where your environment as well as situation is unstable, you have to be committed.  More importantly, you have to be committed to yourself foremost.  Now that you have made a list, a game plan, write up a commitment contract where you outline what you are committing to.  “There’s a difference between interest and commitment.  When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstance permit.  When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results. ”  ~Tom Robbins