Well, it is ‘that time of year’. The kiddos have gone back to school, summer is over and there is 1/3 of the year left!

This is a good time to evaluate where you are and where you want to be!

Do you remember what your 2011 goals were? How are you coming along with them?

Don’t fret – there is still time

This is a great time to dust them off and revisit them!

Don’t feel like all is lost!

Many years ago when I was in Real Estate I saw the end of the year looming ahead. The previous year I recalled was awful! Christmas was miserable as I had no money. So this particular year I decided that I was going to make $40,000 by the end of the year. This was more than I had made ALL year that year, by the way! I didn’t know how I would do it, but I was committed to doing it! (Deciding is the crucial first step:)

1. Review your goals. Do you still want to achieve them?

2. Create bite-sized steps to get there. What can you do now? Talk to more people? Send notes? Ask for referrals?

3. Make room! Clean up your workspace! If you don’t have a home office space, create one! Even if it is just a big pillow in a corner on the floor! It should be all yours, and a place that you love to visit! Hang a beautiful picture to look at, make it comfy and make sure there is nothing messy in your line of sight. Visit this space daily!

4. Eliminate your Energy Vampires (or at least be aware of them!) – we all have things in our lives that suck the energy and motivation out of them. Think about and write down what these are for you. Now look for ways to minimize them in your life! It may be certain people in your life! There may be some people that you need to ‘love from a distance’. If htey are your spouse, or someone that lives with you, decide that you are not going to allow your self to be drained by them. Learn to walk away (even if it is just to another room:)

5. Value your time! Time is limited. We can make more money, but we cannot make more time. Make a commitment to manage your time better. Whether you use my DYD system, or some other system, find something that works for you. Don’t get caught up in the system though! Even if you just set aside time first thing every day to do something to move you toward your goals and HONOR it!!!

6. Value your SELF! Take time to do what you love to do! Take time to journal, and to walk, and reward yourself for your efforts! Reaching those goals won’t be so exciting if you are sick and exhausted!

7. Plan your reward/celebration NOW! How will you celebrate the end of the year when you reach your goals? Plan it now! Visualize it! Feel how great you will feel! Post a picture that represents it in a place that you will see everyday!

What suggestions do YOU have?

 

I am so excited to announce that I, together with some great local people will be organizing a TEDx event here in the Triangle area 2/11/11!

This will be an event NOT TO BE MISSED!
Limited to only 100 attendees, to be held at a secret location to be revealed at a later date!

If you aren’t familiar with TED, you soon will be! Be sure to check out the links, and info.

In the meantime, watch our brief trailer here, tell all of your friends and apply to attend today!

If you would like to attend, speak, or nominate a speaker, you may do so at

http://tedxrdu.com

Click here to view the embedded video.

• What is TEDx?

  In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxRDU, where x=independently organized TED event. At our TEDxRDU event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.

 

I have no doubt that people look at some of the things that I ‘put out there’ and wonder, ‘what does that have to do with marketing? Or with business, or social media, or…”

Well, I can explain…

I’ve learned a few things in my time here on this planet, and if there is one thing that I am absolutely convinced of, it’s that you will never feel fulfilled if you aren’t living your purpose. There are many who go to work every day, maybe have money, fame, accolades, whatever, but deep down inside we have an innate need to make a difference. We all need meaning in our lives. We need more than security and success, we need significance.

Ironically, not only is that the secret to fulfillment, it IS the secret to success! By recognizing our unique purpose, passions and talents, we discover the very thing that will bring us success AND significance! (Is God smart or what?:)

In the book ‘Tribes’, Seth Godin says “it’s not about getting your message out more, it’s about saying something that matters. It’s about getting people to care”

“Be Remarkable”, he says.

We are often stumped by that. How do you do that? We ask. There are many ways to be remarkable in terms of what we do and how we do it. The first and single most important thing that makes your business remarkable however,
is YOU!

When you discover deep down why you do what you do, when you discover the ‘seed of that desire’ as I call it, that is the ‘golden goose’.

You were given your passions and talents for a reason! To serve your purpose. Yeah, you might be thinking “I just want to make money”. The truth is, there are a LOT of ways to make money! Choosing the way that honors you, and what you’ve been given is the secret.

Being very clear about WHY you do what you is incredibly important!
Sharing why you do what you do, is just as important!

You see, there are a lot of people who do a lot of things. Why you do what you do matters.

Marketing, social media, all of it, is about people. People connect with people. They connect with emotions and memories and all sorts of things beyond “price and product”.

Yes, there a lot of people who ‘do what you do’, but no one else has YOUR story!

Social media and even ‘marketing’ is about creating connections. Connections with you and your business. Connections to your story!

The world is a busy, noisy place. When you share your story, you give people the opportunity to ‘hear you’, to make a connection. It helps YOU to stand out, and it helps them to HEAR you.

I recently had a conversation with a young woman who has just started selling life insurance. A dear friend asked me to let her ‘practice her pitch’ on me. For some reason I resisted the urge to say “pitching is for baseball’, and agreed

After listening to the typical ‘this is how they taught us to sell’ presentation, complete with the little presentation book, I pointed out a variety of things. One was that she started out by saying “First, I’m going to tell you about me and my family, then I’m going to ask you about yours…”

She went on to say that she spent many years in law enforcement and had recently chosen to sell insurance because she wanted a better financial position for her family.

My brain responded by saying “so you wanted to make more money, and now you’re here to make it off of me, I’m touched!” I know that sounds terribly snarky, but it is truly what I was thinking.

I was feeling snarky because I was being ‘sold to’, and no one likes to be ‘sold to’! The interesting part is this…

After the presentation, we were just chatting, and I asked her about her ‘real story’. As I ask all of my clients, and others when I have the opportunity to, “What is it in your life’s history that makes you feel like this is important? That makes you believe that it is important to do what you do?”

Her answer:

“I got pregnant and married at 18. My husband died in a car crash when I was 19. If he had not had insurance. I don’t know where I would be today. It enabled me to go back to school, to have a career and raise my child. Not only have I seen its importance in my own life, but as a law enforcement officer, I saw what can happen every day. I saw it on the job, and in my job. I’ve had many coworkers whose wives who are now widows and whose life insurance made a huge difference in their childrens’ future.”

Now that’s a story!

I don’t know about you, but that made me a WHOLE lot more interested in life insurance! It made me feel a whole new connection to her too!

Think about it. What is your story?

Need help figuring that out?
I would love to help!
You see, my story is that I spent many years living an unfulfilled life, and my purpose and passion is to help you to avoid the same. My purpose and passion is to help you discover your story, create the story that you want your life to be, and to share it with the world!

If you would like to talk about it, feel free to call me at 427-7770, email me, facebook me. or tweet me…contact me however, and wherever you like.

 

As many of you know, I launched a 6 week group coaching program tonight called “2010 Vision”.

Getting Clarity in your business and getting out of overwhelm and into a do-able marketing plan is the purpose. I was so excited all day that I could hardly stand it! I cleaned my office, rearranged it and even accidentally went to a meeting at Town Hall in hot pink polka dotted socks! (you have to laugh!:)

My dear friend “The Fly Lady” kindly send information about it to her email subscribers about an hour or so before we started at 9pm. Now, for those of you who don’t know, The Fly Lady has nearly 600,000 subscribers on her email list!

So, as I was watching the clock waiting to begin, emails and registrations started coming in. Right up until we started at 9!

I was able to get links to the call out to a few, but not all. Since I intentionally make the groups small (so we can have a mastermind and people can share and interact), it didn’t take but a few to fill it up!

So, in order to serve everyone who wants to participate, I am adding a Wednesday morning group AND a Wednesday evening group that will start next week (unless I get really eager folks ready to register in time to roll tomorrow night! I’m ready if you are!
The morning group will be at 10am, and the evening at 9pm EST.

If you would like to join, please go here to Get Started

(Please note that the registration page will take you to the payment page and that page takes a few seconds to load!)

 

Out of curiosity, I decided to look back and see what my most popular posts of 2009 were. Based on the combined totals of page views and comments (here and on sites where they were re-posted), here they are:

(Drum roll please…)

#5 Rules of Engagement & Authenticity

#4 Business Owners Wear Many Hats. Are You Wearing the Right Shoes?

#3 Social Networking: The Old Way vs. The New Way

#2 The Go-Giver, The Grateful Dead and Social Networking

#1 What We Can Learn From an 11 yr old

I would love to hear your comments,

favorites and what you would like to

see more of in 2010!

 

The Go-Giver is a powerful little business book based on five “Laws of Stratospheric Success”. I find people who haven’t read the book often misinterpret the meaning of these principles. In fact, I talked to someone the other day who complained that (they thought) it meant that “making money is a bad thing” and that being “a Go-Giver” is about paying it forward.
That’s not ‘it’ at all!

I’ve also found that even those who have read and embrace the principles often overlook (or forget) a very important one:
The Law of Compensation

They provide value, they strive to serve lots of people, they are authentic and open to receiving, but sometimes miss the all important “…how abundantly you place others’ needs first”

Click here to view the embedded video.

More posts about “The Go-Giver”…

http://heathero.com/tag/go-giver/

http://quintessentialfeline.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/get-inspired-by-the-go-giver/

http://frostfirefarm.blogspot.com/2010/01/go-giver.html