I remember years ago I was in a small coaching group and I kept saying “something is in my way”. My coach finally said (in complete frustration!) “who cares what it is! Just climb over it, under it or around it and GO!!!”

I finally figured out what “it” was, but the point is that we all have things that ‘get in our way’.

I used to be a perpetual planner. I was great at the planning and idea creating!

Ideas don’t mean squat without ACTION!

I listen to and love a lot of authors and speakers and whether it is Andy Andrews or Anthony Robbins, every single one talks about this in some form or fashion (that should tell you something:)

You have probably created goals for the new year.

Have you created ACTION STEPS to reach them?

This is critical!

Have you ever made a list of goals only to come to the end of the year barely even able to remember what they were because you had not seen or thought about them since you shoved the list in your drawer? *HAND RAISED HERE*

This year, I encourage you to do the following:

• Break your goals up into categories. Mine are:

• Personal
• Health
• Family
• Professional
• Financial
• Home
• Education

• Put your goals in categories
• List the steps to achieve each goal
• Look at these steps. Are there areas that will trip you up? For example, do you not know how to do XYZ? Then add this to your list: “Learn how to ______” or “Find someone to _____________”
• Put those steps on your calendar!
• Keep them where you will see them everyday! (mine are on my office wall, in my journal and on the fridge)
• Once you know what your goals are and the steps needed to reach them, then you have to MOVE!

Nothing happens without action!

Sometimes we just need a good swift kick in the butt! So, consider yourself kicked!

If you really want to reach your goals this year, I encourage you to join me for my next teleseminar series and/or accountability program. Click here for info!

 

Do you want more out of life?

Are you tired of ending the year frustrated?

I understand how you feel!

It’s not your fault!

We all need help to get where we want to be.

No one ‘does it alone’! Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto!

I respect you for being here on this page and wanting to make your life better!

This is the only life you get! It’s time to stop giving your dreams, and those that you care about. leftovers!

You deserve more!

Commit to taking the first step here and now!

How?

Through a 3 step process:

• Simple plan

• Teleseminar series

• Success Group

• The simple plan is a free planning tool to get you started

• The teleseminar series: a part program for those who are truly committed to being, doing and having more in 2012! This will help you do more than just make a list that will end up buried in a drawer with no plan to get where you want to be! You will have the opportunity to connect with others like yourself and receive help and encouragement in achieving your goals!

            TUESDAY NIGHTS AT 9pm EST Jan 24,31 and Feb 7 by phone or computer!

•  Success Group: this is an ongoing group that will help you to stay on track ALL YEAR! Have you ever found yourself at the end of the year thinking about next years goals unable to even remember what your goals were for this year? Or remembering them, but realizing that you didn’t even come close? Stop the madness, end the frustration and end 2012 feeling GREAT about what you have accomplished!

You deserve more in life!

Many of us spend our time, money and energy on everyone else. In order to be all that we can be for those that we love however, we have to spend some of that on ourselves first!

You can’t give from an empty bucket!

You deserve more! When you decide to take the steps to be, do and have more, you will have more to give those you care about!

 ”With Heather’s savvy guidance, I’ve enjoyed great success with my business. 2011 was our best year ever, and I must give much of the credit where its due. By utilizing the skills acquired in Heather’s Vision course, my very small business saw a five-figure increase in sales and gained a global audience. Thank you, HeatherO!” ~Amy Dagen

Are you ready for 2012?

The first step in making a change is ALWAYS making a decision!

DECIDE TODAY that this year will be different!

LIMITED SPACE AVAILABLE! DEADLINE for this special pricing is Jan 13th!

For the Free Simple plan, email me: HeatherO at Heathero.com

Teleseminar:

Monthly Mastermind

Prefer not to use Paypal?Sign up using Google Checkout instead:(Click on the drop down and choose your option!)If you prefer to make smaller payments, email me at HeatherO@Heathero.com

4 Part Teleseminar – $77.00 Monthly Power Plan – $249.00 Teleseminar + Power Plan – $294.00

Choose your Power level

 

As you may know, I am a big ‘fan’ of facebook.
Someone recently made a snarky comment about the time that I spend on facebook.
I admit that I laughed, and rolled my eyes (believe me, considering the context, it was worthy of an eye roll:)

First, I will say that things are never as they appear. I do spend a lot of time online.
I don’t play games, etc. I use the time online to connect with others, and learn.

(I am also an avid reader)

I don’t spend time watching TV. Statistics show that the average person watches 6 hours of TV a day! Ironically, if you ask people if they do that, they ALWAYS insist that they don’t! (most do, track how much time YOU do:)

I have started watching more movies with my boys, but I still prefer FB to TV.

Why?

• TV is passive, FB is active.
• Most people use TV as a passive mindless “something to do” exercise.
• Through facebook on the other hand, you can connect with other people.
• I believe connecting is important!

Here are the benefits to facebook as I see it:

• I find/read great articles via facebook (I am a constant learner;)
• Giving to others: commenting on and engaging with others is a gift – for them, and YOU!
• Life is about the connections that we make! Connecting with & interacting with others is a great value to both parties!
• We often don’t get the opportunity to connect with people who ‘get us’ IRL. Via facebook, we can connect with people that we otherwise couldn’t or wouldn’t.

I will also add that over 70% of my business came through facebook last year!

(Here is a great webinar on facebook and marketing by the way)

What are your thoughts on facebook vs TV?

You can connect with me on facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/realheatherO

If you would like to learn more about how to use facebook, contact me at heatherO at heatherO dot com

(Feel free to sign up for my posts by email too

 

One of the most important things  for all of us, is our brand. Most people think of businesses when they hear the word ‘brand’, but we all have one. It is our image, it is how we appear to others, how we ‘show up’ in all that we do, and that includes our charisma (or lack thereof).

Many people don’t like to network, or even to engage on social networks. They don’t think they have any charisma or “wow factor”. They call themselves shy, or introverted. They often think of themselves as ordinary, or even boring.

The truth is, we are all extraordinary. We were all born that way. When we were babies we could light a whole room with a toothless smile or a giggle, and make even the grumpiest grin. Somewhere along the way, many of us lost it. Somehow, some way, or someone ‘taught us’ to cower, or to ‘be seen and not heard’, or to shrink into a smaller version of ourselves. Perhaps middle or high school taught you that attracting attention wasn’t a good thing.

Whatever the reason, you still have it. You can dig it out, dust it off and light up that room again.

This post was inspired by a great article in Oprah’s magazine. Martha Beck wrote about the ‘it factor’ and used a great example that I just had to share.

She wrote about UNO, the beagle who won the Westminster Best in Show in 2008. This is my version of her story, in my words, along with some of hers: 

Uno was the first of his breed to win the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. His victory was remarkable because beagles are so…basic. They’re the white cotton T-shirts of dogdom—they’ve got nothing to brush, fluff, or style—but when Uno took Best in Show, the crowd leaped up in a wild ovation. Newscasters announced his victory with goofy smiles. Everyone loved Uno’s extraordinary brand of ordinariness.

What can we learn from Uno?

1. Strike a pose: Your body affects your energy The whole word “pose” gives me heartburn. It sounds so fake and contrived. The truth is however, our bodies are always in one position or another. Whether we are aware or not, our physical posture affects our inner emotions, and what we project to the world. It works both ways.

I watched a Tony Robbins video once where he illustrated this well. There was a woman in the audience who had a history of depression. He asked her if she could close her eyes and ‘feel that state’. As she did, her posture clearly changed dramatically. It works both ways. Not only does our posture change to reflect how we feel on the inside, we can change the way that we feel inside by changing our posture.

When I was in high school my mother made me participate in beauty pageants. This couldn’t have been more “not me”, but nonetheless…I vividly remember one particular contest. I had no desire whatsoever to win, nor did I expect to (I was convinced my friend Samantha would for sure!). I was nervous however, and my mom told me  “just pretend like you are Erica Kane. Walk out there like she would” (my mom was a big All My Children fan, so I knew exactly what Erica Kane looked like). Even though my interest wasn’t in winning, it was in not falling down or making a fool of myself, so the minute I stepped onto the stage, this came back to me and I instantly transformed into my version of “Erika”. It immediately shifted me from self-conscious to self-assured.

Here’s a challenge: For the rest of today, stand, sit, and walk like the most charismatic person you know. Notice the moments when you feel foolish or embarrassed about projecting charisma. Those are the times when you have forgotten who you are. Persist for a few more days and you’ll discover that charismatic body language is a self-reinforcing cycle. As your physical bearing becomes more aligned with your real self, other people will begin noticing you more. Don’t let this affect your new behavior (in other words, don’t revert to slumping). Ultimately, you must become confident enough to drop your pose of unimportance for good.

2. Let go of doubt

When that time comes to step up, step. You can’t discover new oceans if you are clinging to the shore. When that moment comes to step forward, let go of the doubt (the moment of absolute certainty will never come).

Release doubt simply because doubt isn’t useful when [you're] on the brink. For instance, once Uno was onstage, he never seemed to worry that he might not be a champion (even though no beagle had ever won much of anything). His certainty eventually converted everyone, including the judges.

3. Focus on others

There is nothing more compelling than this in my opinion. Think of people that you have met that are charismatic, or people that you have seen. They are the people that can talk to you for 2 minutes in a crowded room and make you feel like you are the only one there. They are the people that can walk onto a seminar stage, quickly assess who is there and what they need, and deliver what is needed. They aren’t stressing about what they look like, or even whether anyone will buy their product after, they are 100% focused on providing value to others. They are the people at the cocktail party or business event that DON’T introduce themselves and shove their business card at you in the same breath.

The Westminster Dog Show is a multibreed festival of self-consciousness. On videos of the event you can see everyone, human and animal, thinking, “Are they watching me? Can they see my hindquarters? How’s my haircut?” Everyone, that is, except Uno. His eyes are on the crowd. When they cheer, he cheers back. When he howls to the judges, “Yo! How you doin’?,” the normally staid officials grin like kids. Uno is making the single most charismatic move possible: He’s shining his attention upon the beings around him.

4. Stand Your Ground

Being a giver doesn’t mean you cower and let people walk all over you. Being confident enough to gracefully smile and say “no thank you” or otherwise stand your ground commands respect.

Just because charismatic people focus intensely on others doesn’t mean they forget themselves. Quite the contrary. The very essence of charisma is projecting unbounded awareness of others while setting rock-solid boundaries. When an aggressive reporter pushed a microphone into Uno’s face, Uno unapologetically crunched it with his teeth before moving on to more courteous admirers. He showed none of the angry, aggressive boundary setting born of low confidence. Like any true charismatic, he had mastered the art of the clean response—in his case, a cheerful chomp.

If you are thinking “yeah, but…I’m not that glamorous, or special or…” remember this:

neither are beagles.

Uno outshined the glamorous and perfectly coiffed poodles, the buff shepherd and countless others who ‘were all that’.

Why? Maybe it was because he didn’t think he was “all that”, maybe it was because he was more more focused on giving the crowd his very best.

I hope this inspires you to recognize that each and every one of us has unique gifts, talents, and yes, charisma.

I believe that is it there, within all of us, or in the great words of Marianne Williamson:

“…It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

The world will never have another you. There is only one…or should I say,

“uno”

 

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

 

HeatherO 2 Pokens

At first glance, a poken is a cutesy simple little gadget, but it is actually deceptively powerful.

This video discusses the following reasons why it is powerful:
1. photo
2. updated
3. social links
4. common bond

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pokens range from $20-$40 and come in ‘cute’ styles as pictured above as well as more conservative memory sticks. Click here to view available types or go to http://bit.ly/getpoken .

 

There is no shortage of people looking for work, or businesses looking for more business these days!
We often talk about wearing different ‘hats’ in business, but this post asks

“What shoes are you wearing?”

Now before all of my fashionista friends freak out, here’s the disclaimer: This is is a metaphorical question! (I am not suggesting that anyone literally wear hiking boots to work! Although it may serve as a powerful reminder!)

Plenty of people want more business and just as many (or more?) want a job. Yet I am astounded by the number of people who are metaphorically sitting around in their slippers or flip flops wondering why they aren’t getting what they want.

There are different times and seasons for everybody and every business. Perhaps you’ve been in business a long time and thought that by now you would be able to rake in the cash while strolling down the boardwalk in your sandals. Perhaps you became an accidental business owner (read: lost your job and decided to be independent). Whatever the case, here you are!

You know you have to wear different “hats” as a business owner, but at different times in your business you need “different shoes”.

Dress Shoes: If you are a new business or reinventing yourself, you may need to be focused building your credibility.


Unique Shoes: Do you have a brand? Your brand is your image and most small businesses don’t have the ‘brand image’ they think they do! (a logo alone does not a brand make!)


Snazzy Shoes: Do you need to be creating awareness and attracting attention for your business?


Hiking Boots: Are you figuring out your plan and strategy? Are you really digging in and finding those that you should serve and the best way to do that?

Sneakers: If you have a loyal following you may just need to get out and hit the sidewalk! Get face to face, ask how you can do more for them or how you can earn their referrals.



No matter where you are in your business, this isn’t the time to sit around in your slippers and complain!

This is a GREAT time to be a small business owner! Marketing and many other needed services have never been more affordable, and it has never been easier to reach countless people than it is today.

But you need the right mindset and the right focus.

You need the right “shoes”.

 

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