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Ushering in a NEW era: The Transformation Age

on December 14, 2011 in Success Institute, Women in Business

Are you an entrepreneur who is facing challenges in your business? You’ve probably noticed that in today’s economy, what use to work isn’t working anymore. That’s not just because of the recession.

People have changed the way they make buying decisions.

 

I recently sent a survey to my clients. I asked them to share their biggest struggle in business right now. You may be able to relate:

• “I’m not making enough money”
• “I need more customers”
• “I feel completely overwhelmed and I’ve lost focus”
• “There’s not enough time”

If you can relate to any or all of these I have some good news. I will be sharing some ways that you can overcome these problems.

The Industrial Age started in the early 1900′s with the invention of machines that created manual labor jobs for the car industry and many other industries. This mass production seemed to make life easier.

The Information Age

In 1984, The Information Age began and the power of computers was placed in most homes in America by 1995. We had instant access to millions of products and information. Remember when it was cool to surf the net and hear “you’ve got mail”.

Today, your inbox is sucking the life out of you. We’ve reached a time when there is too much clutter and too many choices. The average person see’s 5,000 ads per day. You simply can’t make a living advertising to the masses anymore. The problem is people have gotten really good at ignoring ads, but their desperate to find good stuff to solve their problems.

Ushering in a NEW era: The Transformation Age

Your job as a business owner or sales person is to be the trusted advisor, and deliver the transformation (the results) they’re looking for.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:

Dog owners who hire dog trainers don’t want to read reports on the different breeds of dogs (that’s information). They want their dog to stop attacking other dogs and stop destroying their furniture. It’s not the information they want … it’s the result. If you can create a system and show proof that it really works your more likely to have an endless stream of new customers and referrals.

The game-changer is that you must not only show results but you must provide an innovative solution to their problem. If not, you risk being just like everyone else. Adding no cost, high value innovations to your product or service is a must for any entrepreneur to thrive in The New Transformation Age.

As seen on ABC’s Shark Tank, April Morris is the pioneer of innovation! Join April on the eWomenNetwork Success Institute Tuesday, 12.20.11 at 1:30 pm CST as she shows you the “The Product Innovation Method” – a step-by-step strategy for turning your product or service into The Next Big Thing.

 

Join the conversation! How have you added innovations to your product or service?

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Influence–How to Create it, How to Keep it to Catapult Your Business

on November 29, 2011 in Success Institute, Uncategorized

Do you have influence in your industry? Do people come to you for advice or follow you on your social networks? Do people read your blog and respond with questions and/or positive feedback? Are you an influencer on LinkedIn where people want to connect with consistently and engage in discussions you start?

If not, why not?

I have learned through the years that the more influence you have, the more what you want will come to you easily. When people trust, respect and remember you, they want to help, and go out of their way to tell others about you—now you have  influence. I remember just starting out many years ago listening to conversations during networking events and wishing I was the one they were talking about! Someone would mention an author or speaker and the person listening would light up and want to know more. The listener knew that person, or knew of that person and what they had to say would change how they did things. It created action.

Influence makes doing business and attracting clients easy. I love doing interactive sessions where I can teach people how to embrace the influence equation. Being authentic is one of the keys to influence, and it is more than being kind and giving.

The five languages of appreciation create authenticity and lead to qualities of influence and how to cultivate them. Understanding how influence can affect your life personally and professionally is something every woman should embrace to be a leader and create change all around her. It is what makes people give you a standing ovation when you walk onto a stage and off!

The highly sought after speaker, business coach and national best-selling author, Caterina Rando will be on the eWomenNetwork Success Institute Tuesday, 12.06.11 at 1:30 pm CDT to share her insights on Making 2012 Your Best Year Yet– Innovative Strategies to Embrace Today.

Are you a person of influence? What are some ways you have found to create influence?

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From Stage Fright to Spotlight

on November 16, 2011 in Success Institute, Uncategorized

A few nights ago I watched a speaker break a rule.

Our speaker was reading directly from her notes as she spoke, but that was OK because she was a good reader and she was still able to make it sound personal. That’s not where she broke a rule. Although I don’t really like it when speakers read from their notes, I wouldn’t say it was breaking the rules.

Where she broke a rule is when she made a mistake while speaking and drew direct attention to it making it seem bigger than it really was.

As our speaker finished on one page of her notes, she turned to the next page and lost her place. She had to pause for a second to find her place again.  Now, the “rules” say that when you have one of those “pregnant pauses” you’re not supposed to draw attention to it, you should just let the silence be until you find your place as if it was planned all along. But our speaker didn’t do that. She made a comment about how she saw me staring at her, got nervous and went blank. She broke the rule and drew direct attention to her error.

Afterwards, she told me she knew she shouldn’t have done that. She knows that drawing attention to a pregnant pause is the wrong thing to do. But what she seemed to miss was the fact that the audience roared when she did it. She did it with such personality that she broke away from her well read, but read nonetheless speech and just started speaking with us for a few short seconds, and we loved her for it.

Yes, rules can help you deliver a more effective presentation or talk. But by breaking them a little along the way you can ingratiate yourself with your audience.

Don’t be so distracted by those “rules” that you can’t see the most important thing; your audience.

Join master speaker and executive trainer, Steve Lowell, 0n the eWomenNetwork Success Institute as he shares his insights on “How to Change Lives from the Stage Even if You’re Mortified to Speak in Public”.

We would love to hear your thoughts! What are some of your tips on delivering an authentic message?

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Achieving Breakthrough Success – Overcoming the Obstacles that Sabotage You

on November 10, 2011 in Success Institute, Uncategorized

Is your strategic planning innovative? Is it cutting edge?

If your strategy is not disruptive in your market space, then it isn’t going to cut it!

Could the way you think be holding you back?  You’ve probably heard that what you do is a direct result of what you believe.  Your beliefs manifest your thoughts, which then produce your actions.

If you believe you can be outrageously successful, why aren’t you achieving the levels of success you seek?

Understanding how your beliefs are formed and how they drive your behavior will help you overcome stutters and stalls and help you create the breakthroughs you seek.  Imagine if you will, that from birth your every experience is filtered through your personal perception.  Based upon your perception, maturity and reasoning abilities at the time of any experience you automatically define your experience and it becomes your perspective.  Your perspective about each experience is recorded in your subconscious database. Your perspective defines each individual experience and all of the perceived elements of each experience, including your definitions of them, are contained in little bubbles.  For visual purposes, let’s call these little bubbles, Belief Bubbles.

Inside each belief bubble many elements about the experience are recorded; things like:

  • Perception
  • Emotional feelings
    elicited by the experience
  • Kinesthetic feelings
    associated with the experience
  • Environmental elements
  • Intuitive senses
  • Your five senses and
  • Even the most minute environmental
    elements

Are your belief bubbles limiting your ability to chart the course for outrageous business success?

What if you could interrupt the automatic association of current events to past belief bubbles?  What if you could completely change the way you think, what you do and what you can achieve?  With conscious awareness and intention, you can change the way think and create the results you want.  You can begin to achieve dramatic breakthrough outcomes immediately.

What if, applying a few proven simple principles could catalyze out of the box thinking and breakthrough results personally and professionally?

The truth is, it can. Armed with a few simple, yet powerful exercises, you will be able to achieve breakthrough outcomes in business and in your personal life.

Join the breakthrough success expert, Sheri Taber, on the eWomenNetwork Success Institute 11.15.11 at 1:30 pm CST as she shares proven techniques to overcome your obstacles.

Join the conversation! What are some ways you have broke through a belief bubble?

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Facebook Privacy, Be Responsible

on October 26, 2011 in Social Media, Success Institute, Uncategorized

Tuesday is my Facebook privacy webinar and I have started to go through all the content that I want to teach.

In reviewing all of this, I’ve found that one of the most important things to consider when using Facebook is you are the user of the Facebook product and YOU control 100% what you share. That’s right – you may not understand your privacy settings, which I am going to cover during the webinar, but at the end of the day no one forces you to upload those party pics, the status update that says you are not home, or the rant about your boss being crazy.

The bigger challenge as I see it, when it comes to using Facebook, is judgment.

Are you taking into consideration the potential for the entire world to read your status update, see your photo, view your comment or watch that video you shared? Yes – I really mean the entire world.

Anyone can take a screen shot of what you posted and send it to the local news station, your boss, your mother and/or your spouse. It can be shared from one person to the next, and so on. And if there’s one thing you should know about Social Networks it is that once something goes viral…you can’t take it back. Words can’t be unread and pictures can’t be unseen. As soon as something is placed online it is as if you have created the perfect beginning for an avalanche. All it will take is one person with a loud voice (or many friends/followers on Facebook or Twitter) to share it and start the downhill slide.

So, my question for you when it comes to your Facebook privacy is this: Who is Responsible?

The only person who is responsible for what is on the Internet about you is you. Understanding your settings is key for sharing your content. I agree fully with that. But – there are no set of buttons that are going to filter poor judgment calls on Facebook.

Stop and think:

  • WWMT (What Would Mom Think?)
  • WWGT (What Would Google Think?)
  • WWIT (What Will I Think – ten years from now looking back?)

Use these filters to govern what you post publicly. I believe in freedom of speech, and I also believe we are all (myself included) 100% responsible for everything that happens in our lives.

The only person who can apply sound judgment to what is posted is you. Start by asking the question, WWMT before you press the share button.

If you want to learn more about how to navigate your Facebook Privacy settings, hear Lisa Larter live on the eWomenNetwork Success Institute on Tuesday 11.01.11 at 1:30 pm CST.

We would love to hear your thoughts and advice! How do you protect yourself on Facebook?

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The Top 5 Tips for Making the Most of Social Media

on October 20, 2011 in Marketing, Social Media, Success Institute, Uncategorized

By Cindy Earl, Founder of GetKnownGetClients.com

Marketing with social media is no longer an option for businesses. It is an essential part of any marketing campaign, and can lead to incredible growth very quickly. Your online presence can have a huge impact on how your business interacts with prospects, and ultimately attracts more clients.

Here are five tips for making the most of social media to produce more profit, boost credibility and build your business:

1. Have a strategy. First, determine how social media fits into your overall marketing strategy. What is your goal? Do you want to build a list, drive traffic to a website, or both? Keep in mind that your overall results with social media will depend on your ability to convert that list of traffic into paying clients. To get best results, you’ll want to think through your entire process, rather than just rely on social media as the new thing.

2. Write killer content. There is only one thing that will get you popularity in social media…your content (or written information). You need to create content that people want to read; the kind that grabs attention, solve pressing problems, and has a strong ‘pass-along’ factor. Great content will get you a loyal audience on social media networks. If you are not a writer, or don’t like to write, hire a copywriter.

High value content is in demand both in social media networks and on the web as a whole. Garnering valuable information is the reason people look to the internet. To drive traffic to your site using social media, you must have something that people want.

3. Give more than you think you should and then give some more. Social media can be a highly effective relationship building tool. To build good relationships, it is good to give before you get. Recommend resources, contacts, and give information freely.

 

4. Strike a balance between giving and self-promotion. When you have new content on your site or that you have submitted to a directory, send out an email or message via the social network to let your readers know about it. But, be careful not to overdo it. You’ll alienate people if you are always selling something. It’s important to find the balance between sharing valuable content and resources with shameless self-promotion.

5. Be time conscious. Social media is an attractive marketing tactic because there is no huge financial investment to get started. However, it can suck up an awful lot of your time if you’re not careful. And time IS money if you want a successful business. You need to get really clear on what you want to achieve and allocate your time accordingly.

Most of all have fun! Social media is a great way to promote yourself and your business online and build trust and credibility with your potential clients over time.

Have any questions about these tips? Contact Cindy Earl, founder of GetKnownGetClients.com or email info@getknowngetclients.com. Hear Cindy live on eWomenNetwork Success Institute 10.27.11 at 1:30 pm CDT. We absolutely love Cindy, and we know you will love her too!

Join the conversation! We would love to hear what some of your tips and strategies are. How do you make the most of social media?

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9 Things Leaders Must Stop Doing- If You Want to Lead a Growth Company

on October 7, 2011 in Success Institute, Uncategorized

Why do businesses fail to achieve breakthrough performance? Because they make things too complex. From the top down, everyone’s day is cluttered with tasks that don’t impact the organization’s strategy and goals.

Organizations that leverage a “Stop Doing List” accelerate achievement, create breakthrough opportunities and increase shareholder value. The Stop Doing List creates time and space to execute to goal aligned activities.

The Stop Doing List is also a vital component of your strategic plan. If your company doesn’t currently have a formal strategic plan in place – get it done – it is never too late or too early to get it done.

As the leader of your company, it is your job to spearhead the effective development of goal-aligned strategy and be the leading proponent of its execution and achievement. It is your responsibility to set standards, culture, ethics and to control how your company behaves.

Another very important aspect of strategic planning is the identification of the organization’s Vital Few Objectives (VFOs). These objectives clarify and direct the organization’s activity. They bring with them priorities and responsibilities. In order to attend successfully to the VFOs, leaders must develop, align and cascade Stop Doing List activities all the way down to the line people.

If you want to become a better leader, if you want to spend more time focusing on what matters, when it matters and if you are serious about creating a sustainable growth company, you’ll need to “STOP DOING” nine very specific things.

Sheri’ Taber’s “9 Things Leaders Must Stop Doing, If You Want To Lead A Growth Company” introduces “The Stop Doing List,” a powerful best practice principle and critically important step in the development and execution of successful strategy. She’ll teach you Stop Doing Strategies that will catapult your company to successive next level bests!

Sheri’ presents this powerful workshop for eWomenNetwork on October 11, 2011. Click here to learn more and to register.

800.513.6902

www.ThePPGinc.com

Sheri@ThePPGinc.com

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What are Mobile Business Cards and why do I need them?

on September 30, 2011 in Success Institute

Q: What are Mobile Business Cards?

A: Simply put, a mobile business card is the electronic version of your existing business card. Instead of simply handing out your card, the mobile business card allows you to collect the contact information on everyone who receives your card. Your contact information is delivered to them through a Short Message Service (SMS) text message. Example – Text Hilary to 88500

Q: Why do I need this technology?

A: Mobile business card technology gives you the ability to know who has received your business card. It also gives you the ability to communicate with your card recipients electronically at any time. When someone requests your mobile business card, your personal administrative Dashboard captures their cell phone number. Once that information is captured, you can edit that information to include email addresses, additional contact information and so on. So for networking, marketing or simple lead generation purposes, that additional information can be used powerfully. You can build your own personal database of leads, clients or combination of both that you can always be in constant and instant contact with.

Q: How do I know it’s a fit for my business?

1. Consider the facts… 90% of all business cards end up in the trash. A mobile business card requires action to be taken and  that provides you meaningful information from the client or prospect.

2. If you sell goods or services, you can add the web component to your mobile business card. When they text in, a personal or business mobile website (referred to as .mobi site) can be included with your mobile business card contact information. Your client or prospect receives your mobile business card with a link to your mobile web site. Mobile web sites can be created as a landing page to capture additional contact information or it can be developed as a complement to your existing company website. Mobile websites can support video, mobile shopping carts and any other features available using traditional ‘.com’ websites, but they are optimized for mobile use.

Join Mac McLaughlin on Success Institute 10.04.11 at 1:30 pm CST as he shares his insights on “Why Mobile Marketing”.

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Strategic Visioning: Know Your Worth!

on July 1, 2011 in Education, Motivation & Inspiration, Relationship Networking, Success Institute, Uncategorized, Women in Business

Guest Post by Dr. Venus Opal Reese, DefyImpossible.com

Your net-worth will never exceed your self-worth.

Ali Craig - My Business BFF

If you find yourself doubting your ability, or worried about money, or scared about the future of your relationship, or stressed about your kids, or angry with your body for not being able to do what it use to, I would like to share some strategies that have made my transition from suffering to sailing through my growth process gentle and fulfilling. These strategies are part of my new series, “Net-worth through Self-Worth: Breaking the Inner Glass Ceiling” Blueprint!

Let me clarify: when I say self-worth I do not mean self-esteem. And I don’t mean self-efficacy. Self-esteem is a psychological term about your appraisal and evaluation of yourself in terms of your belief and your emotions. Low self-esteem means you think badly and negatively about yourself; high self-esteem means you think well and positively about yourself. The presupposition is that there is a “self” already there for you to think negatively or positively about. What is more, self-esteem is based on your own self-appraisal and self-evaluation. It is based on what you are saying to yourself. Self-efficacy is your belief that you can accomplish a particular goal. Both Self-esteem and self-efficacy are self-determined.

Self-worth, as I am using the term, is based on valuation. Valuation is a finance term, an ethics term, a property term, and a philosophical term with regard to personal valuation: dignity. Valuation is not dependent on internal measures; valuation is determined by outward assessment of an asset to a particular group, community, or market. When I am working with my clients, they don’t have a clue about the value they bring to all the lives they touch. Neither did I. I did not know my value so my sense of self-worth was completely skewed. I would give my services away for free, date people I had to convenience that I deserved respect, and kept friends around me that made me feel like cramp. I would only buy second hand clothes from Retheads and the Goodwill because I did not want to waste money on frivolous things. If I did not need it to survive, then it was a luxury. And all of the affirmations in the world where not helping me change my company or my behaviors. I thought I was going crazy: was I just a glutton for punishment? Was I out to sabotage myself? Was I mentally tied to my broken past?

When people focus on self-esteem and self-efficacy, they are looking inward for evidence that they are good and capable. But if you think you are a looser or stupid, how effective will it be to keep going to that well? When you shift your focus to self-worth you begin to look outside of you for evidence that your brain can believe. Have you ever noticed that no matter what anyone else tells you, you believe what you truly think, deep down inside? So short of spending thousand of dollars on someone’s coach, on self-help books or in program after program, perhaps its time to flip the script.

Please be clear: if you are not well, then please get professional help. This conversation is not for people are not well or who are clinically depressed; this conversation is for those of us who are disappointed and disheartened with life. We thought life would look a certain way or we would be further along than we are or we would have married someone rich. But life said no. Now we are making due: some areas are good, most are “OK” and others are just “fine.” I am speaking to successful, well people who are willing to do the real internal work to go from good to great and from great to exceptional.

Here are three Net-worth through Self-Worth strategies that will reveal to you your self-worth and move you forward in fulfilling your destiny:

1. Mirror Mirror: Go to a mirror in your house and if you are committed to immediate results do this in the buff. Stand in the mirror and utter the most powerful statement in the universe: I am. First you will notice how distracted you are with your nose or a pimple. Stay with it. Be with all of your imperfections. Accept them. Breath through them. Don’t give up on you. Stay with you. You are training your brain to not bailout on you. Say “I am._____” and keep saying it until you are moved to tears by who you are. Say as many “I ams” as you can think of. Let your body feel the sensations as you rebirth you to yourself. If you can speak you powerfully looking yourself in the eye and really connecting to you, you create new brain patterns of recognition of who you are for yourself. By so doing you bring dignity to yourself for yourself. Personal valuation.

2. What would your life look like if…: Pick 5 to 10 people you know who love you. Give each of them a call and or have lunch with them. Ask this question: what would your life look like if I had never been in it?” And sit back and learn the value you have brought to their lives. This is a life-changing exercise. It is the one that put me on the path of knowing my worth. Write it down for future reference.

3. Identify your angels, advocates, and ambassadors: For success in business and in life you need people who are not you or your family members to champion you to yourself through their actions and the world. I call them my Triple As: your angel takes care of you, has your back, and provides gifts and assistance based on what you will give the world through your genius. My angel is Kym Yancey, the President of eWomenNetwork.

Kym Yancey - My Angel

He has helped me see me in ways I would never have granted myself. He has done so by demonstrating his belief and faith in me by providing me opportunities, telling me what to do and where to go for training, and by putting his name on the line on my behalf. That’s an angel. An advocate is someone who will fight for you in your absence. This person is a warrior and will go to bat for you, even if it means they have to fight you for you!!! Lisa Nichols is my advocate.

Lisa Nichols - My Advocate

She fights for my bigness in spite of me. She gifted me her Ultimate Success package so that I could keep growing into my calling. She championed me to me and stood for me to keep going, no matter what. An ambassador is someone who will sing your praises from the hill tops, especially when you can not see the forest for the trees. I was at the See Jane Succeed Live event with Michele Dekinder -Smith and I had an upsetting “aha!” moment. We were doing an exercise and were directed to write down the people who were supporting us in our business. When I finished my list, all the names I wrote were family and friends. I did not have a single business person on my list. Do you realize how incongruent it is to have a business but not a network of business friends to help you with your business? I was devestated. Michele changed what she was talking about and took the time to let me know that I was making new friends and that it was like going school for the first time. And I said, “but I don’t have any business friends!!” through my tears. Michele said, “You do now. I am your business friend. Who else wants to be Venus’ business friend?” I got business cards, hugs, and hope. That’s what an ambassor provides.

Michele De-Kinder Smith - My Ambassador

In terms of self-worth, begin to look outside of yourself with regard to the asset you are to others and to the world. Let that determine the valuation you place on you, your time, and your talents. By so doing, you will commend a higher fee and speak yourself as a profound contribution to all the lives you touch. When you value you, you honor you by the company you keep and how you treat yourself. Treat you with dignity by virtue of all you give. You truly are priceless.

With all the love my heart can hold…

Join Dr. Venus Opal Reese on the eWomenNetwork Success Institute as she discusses “Breaking the Inner Glass Ceiling:  5 Secrets to Big Money and a Life that Defies Impossible!” 1:30pm CST, July 5, 2011

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Maximum Benefit from Your Accountability Partnership

on June 22, 2011 in Success Institute, Women in Business

Guest Post by Robert MacPhee, Heart Set, Inc.

Wow! I was talking to my dear friend Stephanie Perez this morning about accountability partners. Both of us have been in accountability partner relationships over the past several years with mixed results. You know this arrangement, right? It’s simple. You and your partner call or e-mail each other every day and make specific action commitments. You start the call by reporting on how you did yesterday and then make commitments for what you will get done today. The premise (a very accurate one in my opinion!) is that we will often do something when we commit to someone else that we would not do if we “only” committed to ourselves.

Stephanie and I both agreed that the hard core “do it or suffer the consequences” approach did not work for us with accountability partners, and that, in fact, it sometimes created ADDITIONAL resistance to taking action.  The five year old boy in me comes out, saying, “You can’t make me!”

So here’s the idea we came up with this morning, one that any accountability partnership can use: structure your accountability call using the Manifesting for Non-Gurus approach. Each day check in with your partner and tell him or her who you are, what your intention is, how you expect to FEEL when that intention is manifested, what attachments are showing up and what actions you are committed to accomplishing today. Wow. The conversation ends up at the same place – action commitments – but feels totally different than it does when we just focus on actions and consequences…  And it only takes a couple of minutes to structure the conversation this way.  Time well spent if you ask me…

Stephanie and I started this new approach to our accountability partnership today. I invite you to try it too.

Join Robert MacPhee on the eWomenNetwork Success Institute, 6.28.11, at 1:30pm CST to learn “How to Generate Results with Ease”.

Original post at Manifesting for Non-Gurus.com/blog

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