Bright Shiny Day

Did you hear about my 12 days of Giving event? Each day I'll offer a coaching session and the participant will choose a charity with 100% of my fee donated to the selected charity. What charities do you support? I would like to hear your thoughts on charities that should make out list. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Here's our initial post for the 12 Days of Giving event. Today, we focus first on self-love.

We woke up late this morning. Another rainy day. Strange how a change in weather can change all our patterns. If it wasn't for the workers next door, banging away, playing their Norteño music, we might have slept even longer. But guess what? That would have been perfect, too.

So, the cottage is warm and cozy. Chocolate cherry oatmeal is on. I love the big sweet cherries, warm runny dark chocolate and the balance of oatmeal.

There is a bit of a chill in the air. And it makes me think of things left undone. All the things that could have been done a little bit better.

I feel bad because my son is late to school. And he's worried what the front office will say, if his teacher will be mad, what the other kid's will think. I can hear what he is not saying.

And then this song comes on the radio.

And I gulped back a big sob because I didn't want my son to worry. But I heard the truth. About you and me. Deep inside we know it.t We are perfect just the way we are.

It doesn't matter if our laundry is undone, or the house is a mess and family is coming for the Holidays. The bright star on top of the tree isn't outside us. It's inside. We warm the room. We create the joy. We are all made of star stuff.

All of us do it: We down ourselves, negate our talents, underestimate our beauty.

Pretty pretty please

Don't you ever ever feel like you are less than Fuckin Perfect

Pretty pretty please

If you ever ever feel like you're nothing

You're fucking perfect to me!

I love you. Don't dim you light for anyone. If anything, shine it brighter. Shine it so bright that you are a beacon to inspire others. So your kids, the people you love, the lonely little girl down the street can see that it is okay to be who we are, exactly as we are. Bright lights in the world.

So, this is where we start. We start with loving ourselves. It is the first step on the path.

When we realize this, we can realize our world.

Find the little girl inside (or boy), take her by the hand and go play outside. Make some snow angels. Or go sledding.

No matter where you are, what you are doing, shine the light. Turn on your beacon so we can all see you.

Girl Effect

I've been thinking, pondering, wondering how to get my passion for this topic across to my readers. I want to stop you in your tracks, shake you up and say this is important.

How do I talk about something that I think is the most important mission I have on this planet second only to my family and my community. How do I explain why I know it is my purpose to help women and girls across the globe to be advocates and entrepreneurs helping their families, villages and people.

Perhaps, the only way for me to explain is to share the stories of girls from across the globe. I went to www.girleffect.org. I watched the videos and cried. I got it. I really got it. It was so much clearer than it has ever been.

So stop reading now. Go to www.girleffect.org. Watch the videos. Go now - this blog will still be here.

Can you imagine what it is like to be told at age 14 that you are going to marry a man today, a man you have never seen, who is much older than you, a man who does not believe that you should continue with your education.

Can you really imagine that?

All my life I knew I was going to college. There was never any doubt about it. I knew and nothing was going to stop me.

Now imagine being told that you can't go to school or college and your life has been decided for you.

Here in the West, in the U.S., most of us can't imagine what this would be like. We can attend school for free. and we are legally required to be in school whether we go to the local public school, home school or attend a private school. Most girls in the West have lot's of options.

In underdeveloped countries, education may not be available in the local village. The school may be many miles away. A girl may have to take a bus or a train or even walk a long distance to get to school. The school may be too expensive for a poor family to afford or not all the children will be able to go. As a result, many girls will not get an education. They may have to stay home to help with the younger siblings or work on the family farm or business.

The only way out of the crisis of famine, drought, violence and war is through education of all children. Education is one of the most important ways to eliminate cyclical poverty. Brilliance knows no boundaries. Every child deserves an education. And statistics show that a women who is educated is more likely to raise children who are educated.

So plant the seed, make a change and help a 12 year old girl today. 

Join us!

Resistance - or Commitment and Accountability?

While I recently prepared for my radio show on Mindset Mastery, I went over my past experiences with resistance and self-sabotage. My time musing about mindset and a review of my own work on purpose resulted in some surprising revelations.

I used my method of tracking resistance to take a look at some old patterns from the past. Here's what I found out using my 4 step system:

Taking a look at past patterns, I saw how resistance would shift, change it's disguise. It was a chameleon that transformed it's appearance to match my new way of being. I saw how easy it was for a new mindset issue tto temerge and distract me from my purpose. Resistance was raising it's ugly head. In this case, it was surrounding issues of visibility.

For many years, almost as long as I can remember, I have been stepping back from the limelight. I have allowed others to take center stage even when an opportunity was given directly to me. My friends always said that I was shy. I realize today that I was never shy. Instead, I was afraid to shine brighter than others.

This visibility issue came up in my work with other entrepreneurs. Seeing opportunities to joint venture, I approached these entrepreneurs with my ideas. In each situation, I created a game plan and started tackling the tasks that needed to be accomplished. But in each case something came up. Somewhere along the line the opportunity bogged down. It sat there like a train that had run out of coal on the tracks.

Most of these opportunities didn't have a deadline. But one did. And somehow the deadline kept getting pushed back. When my joint venture partner asked me what was going on, I realized what was happening. It was resistance. And when I dug down deep, I realized that fear was at the root of my behavior.

What was I afraid of - success, visibility, judgment? Fear was holding me back from stepping into my power.  Fear of stepping into a greater role.

Once I saw what was happening and realized why I was holding back, things began to change. I re-committed to my path. I came clean and looked at how my joint venture partner and I could resolve the situation. We created a new game plan that was much better for everyone than the original plan. I enlisted my partner to hold me accountable.

Today, I use my own system to break through resistance. I see it coming. I know it even before it shape-shifts. I'm able to release the old anger, pain or other emotion before it stops me in my tracks.

Once we identify resistance, we must also exercise commitment and accountability. Commitment is absolutely necessary to accomplish our goals. Without commitment, we will do what is easy and not what is necessary.  Accountability gives us the support to do those things that we must do to succeed, even if picking up the phone to call a potential client scares us to death.

Commitment requires that we stay the path, instead of doing what's easiest. My dad would call this self-discipline, but I see it as a commitment to myself, my family, my community and my future. I realize that if I want to create an event, work with a new teacher or step forward to greater visibility, I must be committed to that path. Without commitment none of it will happen.

Every business coach will tell you that without accountability, it is easy to fall off the path. We all need someone who is going to call us on our resistance. Someone who will keep us going when we just want to give in and go home.

It's like playing baseball as a kid. There was always the coach who really believed in you. The one that kept up the positive reinforcement even when your pitching sucked and you walked three people, or you got hit in the neck with a line drive instead of catching the ball.

You stuck it out. You kept trying. Your coach was there to support you. He always knew the right thing to say to get you back into the game when you wanted to quit. After a summer of good coaching and plenty of practice, you actually became a decent ball player.

Commitment and accountability combats resistance.  One thing is clear: When resistance appears, it's a good sign. It means you are on your path. You are growing, releasing the old to embrace the new way of being.

Business Planning for the Creative Mind

Most businesses fail that do not have a business plan. What's your plan?

Do you remember your elementary school teacher and what he would say if you didn't turn in your project proposal on time: "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

Guess what: It applies to business as well.

Yet this is how many women run their businesses. They create great ideas and start to offer their products and services without any plan at all beyond a vague idea of how it all fits together.

Every business needs a plan and the only business that doesn't need a plan is a hobby. 

And I know your business isn't just a hobby.

Your business plan doesn't have to be one of those tomes that you read about in business books. A modern business plan is agile, flexible and changes with your business.

Having a flexible plan facilitates learning so you can rapidly adapt the business. It is essential that you continually make changes to your plan as the business grows, products are successful and your market changes.

As a right brained entrepreneur, the idea of writing a dry business plan of metrics, analytics, calculations and forecasts may send you running for the hills or the local tea shop. It doesn't have to be that way.

In fact, what matters most is not the plan but the planning.  It is about bringing assumptions out in the open and letting you see the big picture while giving yourself over to the creative process of building a business.

Your planning process should be representative of you and your purpose. It should mesh with the way you work and how you view the world. It's about creating a living breathing process that continually changes, sometimes growing and sometimes cutting back.

In my Get Ready to Launch program, I help my clients embrace business planning through visualization, connection to purpose and other creative methods so it becomes part of their creative process. It's business planning for the creative mind - no MBA required.  Clients get a clear picture of where they are going with their business, and how to get there. And they are prepared for the inevitable changes that have to be made to reach success.

Want to Make More Money? Start looking at your Business Structure.

The number one thing that business owners want to know is how to bring in more clients or make more money. The number one thing business owners want to avoid like the plague is anything that relates to legal issues, accounting or other equally boring areas. So, when a business owner is not making enough money and refuses to look at her business, Is there a relationship between these two? You betcha!

What I have noticed as a business coach and a lawyer is that my clients who make a commitment to create a proper business foundation are rewarded by an escalation in income. Clients have doubled or tripled their bottom line after incorporating their business, implementing proper business contracts and protecting their intellectual property..

I would like to say that my client's money growth was all because of my legal work, but I know that much of it has to do with mindset and attitude. Some of my clients invested in the work because they came from corporate and knew they needed a proper foundation to have a serious business. Others were committed to upleveling their business across the board.

What is the business and legal foundation? Metaphorically, it is like the roots of the mighty oak tree. Without the roots, the tree has no anchor in the soil. It will be knocked down in a storm.

Your legal foundation includes the legal structure of your business- whether you are a sole proprietor or have a corporation. It also includes your contracts, your intellectual property (trademarks and copyrights) and appropriate insurance.

Your business foundation includes your financial analysis, accounts payable, accounts receivable, income projection and taxes. These are just some of the elements of your business foundation. Product development, marketing and sales are also part of the foundation.

In each and every client who invested in their business, I saw a transformation. They all become more confident, more business savvy and more attractive to potential clients. It is all about stepping into a bigger game, a bigger representation of who they are as business owners. Every one of these women stepped into their power.

I have also seen other women who ignore the legal and business foundation. They focus on marketing, sales, using language to seduce clients, niche building and making money. They always start by telling me how great business is and how much money they are making. They tell me how they have really connected with their tribe and clients are falling into their laps like ripe plums.

But when I check in with them on their business foundation and whether they have moved forward with incorporation plans, fear starts to emerge. Suddenly, they are not making that much money, not spending any money and they have a lot of excuses why they can't invest in their business.

What they are really afraid of is success. Success requires responsibility.  It is not all about the fun stuff. You must be willing to become a bigger version of you. You have to create a bigger container to attract success and more money.

The bigger version of you is you as a Queen or High Priestess of business. A Queen or High Priestess is a leader. She must make decisions about a wide variety of issues. She cannot spend all her time on one area of business or just having fun. A Queen must also look at the crop report, the grain reserves, and make decisions about planting or how much food must be set aside for the winter.

If you are not willing to address business foundation issues, the universe sees it as a statement from you that you are not willing to grow.  Remember the bible verse about the house built on sand? It is no accident that business owners who have a structure in place to regularly analyze and review finances make the most money.

What are you saying to the universe, if you say that your business and legal foundation is not on your radar or it is not important to you right now? What does it say about you as a business owner?

If you want to make more money, take a look at your business foundation. Where are the holes? What are you missing that could impact your bottom line? Calendar time in your diary to look at your business foundation. What's working in your business and what isn't? track the energy of what is working and what isn't. Use your intuition and follow the bread crumb trail. What comes up for you?

Is money an issue? If so, is it the consistent flow or money of the amount of money that is an issue? Keep asking the questions until to the core of the problem. Get started today.