Posts Tagged ‘industry leader’

Want to make it easier on yourself to get out of bed in the morning?        How would it feel to be excited about your work?  Imagine being more excited about Monday morning than Saturday morning?

You will always be more productive, more profitable and more emotionally satisfied when you are working in your passion.  When you are passionate about what you do for a living, it is easier to get out of bed in the morning.  You are actually eager to get to the office.  Does that feel like traveling in a foreign land without a map to you?  If being happy about your career is totally foreign to you, then it is time to seriously examine your career choice.

Remember as a child how you had wild and wonderful dreams about how life could be when you grew up?  What happened to that childish wonder and excitement?  As a child did you imagine yourself as wealthy?

Examine your wealth builders blueprint.  Did you forget to even make one or is it covered with years of dust?  Unfortunately, it is probably not gold dust.  Time to dust it off and reinvigorate your dreams.  Your dreams are the first step in your wealth builders blueprint.

What is a dream anyway?

D – Decide what you truly want

R – Refine it down to a specific goal

E – Examine all of the factors involved in making it come true

A – Action plan to achieve

M – Maintain consistent, persistent, focused action

Deciding what you truly want can be accomplished by paying close attention to your energy.  When do you feel the most invigorated and inspired?  What are you doing when time just flies by without glancing at the clock every five minutes or having the overwhelming urge to jump up and get another cup of coffee?  When do you feel the greatest sense of satisfaction?  Where does your mind wander to in your daydreams?  All of these are clues as to your passion – your area of highest productivity, profitability and satisfaction.

Refining all of these thoughts, activities and “what if” ideas into the one most important goal is a process.  Be careful not to talk yourself out of your dream by saying it can’t happen.  Approach the process as if EVERYTHING is possible.  When you want something badly enough and really focus on it, there is usually a way to achieve it.  Napoleon Hill said, “What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

Examine all of the factors involved.  Do you need more training?  Do you need to tap into a positive mastermind group who share your quest for achieving a dream?  Careful, no bar room benefactors, they tend to be negative; they are dream stealers.  Look at finances, education, and skills.  You will have to move.  Move your mind in a new direction; move your time priorities; move your seat off the couch and into action.

Form an action plan with step by step activities to move you constantly toward your goal.  It may not be fast but keep checking to be certain you are on course.  Revisit the plan frequently and be certain you have not veered off course.

Maintain consistent, persistent and focused action all headed toward the achievement of the goal.  This means daily.  Your dream becomes a 24-7-365 focus.  You dream about its accomplishment at night, take action on it during the day and daydream about how your life will feel when you are successful.

A wealth builders blueprint starts with a dream.  Live the life you desire and deserve.

Visionary leaders serve in the local community with food drives, clothing for the homeless, educational support through scholarships, and health and water projects on a global scale.  What is your passion?  Where will you carve your niche of service?  Visionary leadership means seeing a need and serving others.  The highest quality visionary leader is also a giver; they give of their time, talent and resources.

As a fellow successful entrepreneur and visionary leader, I absolutely subscribe to service to others.  None of our lives are one dimensional.  We also have our families, our careers and our spiritual life.  As a Rotarian, we have a 4 way test.  We have at least 4 major life areas which also demand and deserve our time attention and money.

If you ever think that your children are out of the nest and on their own, try sending one to college.  “Hi, dad and mom, please send money.”

Children fall into various groups,

Baby birds – they are still in the nest

Touch and go flight patterns – they leave but return for laundry, raid the pantry and financial assistance

Circle flight pattern – they left and were out of the nest and then move back

homeFlight squadron – they leave but return with spouse and your grand children

Not that any of these are bad, but to say that children are inexpensive or maintenance free would be a gross error.

Our careers are also emotional, financial and time consumers.   Our careers require our passion.  Every successful person owned, lived and breathed their passion.  Olympic athletes, concert master musicians, inventors and corporate moguls were all consumed with passion for their chosen mission in life.  Whether you have chosen an entrepreneurial mindset or a corporate mindset, employing visionary leadership remains consistent.

Steve Jobs, the icon and founder of Apple Computers, credits his passion as his key to success. “You’ve got to find what you love.  Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.  And the only way to do great work is to Love what you do.  If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking.  Don’t settle.”

When I first started Mt. Castles, Property management, I got up early, stayed up late and had an insatiable drive.  The creativity flowed and every day was an opportunity for a new adventure.

I read every book I could get my hands on about property management; I went to Inc. conferences to learn from other successful entrepreneurs.  I interviewed female entrepreneurs to determine the specific challenges they encountered.  In fact I published a white paper “Gender differences in Conflict Management Style in the Workplace.”

I picked the brains of every successful property manager I could interview.  I took them to a long lunch and asked questions.  I interviewed second home owners, tourists and long term renters.  What is it you need?  What is it you would like to have that you do not have available now?  I looked for niches to fill.

Look at your career right now.  Are you fired up to hop out of bed every morning and soar with the eagles or are you content to walk the same circle on the ground as the chickens?

How many books have you read lately about your chosen field?

When was the last time you reached outside your industry for creative ideas which work in other industries but have not been utilized in your industry yet?

When was the last time you took a successful business colleague to lunch and tapped into their mindset for success?  Do you belong to a “hold your feet to the fire” mastermind club?

When was the last time you interviewed your customers, vendors, and target market to ask what they needed?  Ask what they like now and what they would change if they could.

When was the last time you did a blind test and shopped your own customer service?

Tap into your passion and you will find your genius, your productivity and your enthusiasm.  Tap onto your passion and take focused action and you will find your profit.

Join me at http://www.elaine4success.com/ and lets mastermind together to focus your time, energy and financial resources in your passion.

There are so many opportunities on the internet today it resembles the choices of a mosquito in a nudist colony. So how do you choose? Being an entrepreneur is fabulous, especially in the ideal situation for you.

Do you look for the one who promises the most money? Some are promising such outrageous amounts that it looks like you are winning the lottery every week.

Do you look for the one who claims to be the easiest? Just purchase your starter kit, sit back and watch the money roll into you bank account. No effort required.

Do you look for the one that claims to have a miracle product? Ponce de Leon, Spanish explorer, reputedly sought a miracle fountain in Florida in 1513. Legend says that anyone who drank of this fountain would have their youth restored. Some products on the internet today expound similar magical claims.

Hate to destroy your delusion; however, the word “business” means some time, effort and money required. The advertisements may tap dance around the word “business” by terming it an “opportunity” but few actually say “get rich quick.” The gurus at Google would go into cardiac arrest and shut the site down quicker than a shopaholic dashing to a blow out sale at Nordstrom if someone really dared to publish “get rich quick.”

There are genuine, honest, ethical business opportunities advertised on the internet. The challenge is sorting through all of the empty oyster shells to find the pearl. The pearls really do exist but not every business is appropriate for every entrepreneur.

No entrepreneur will make significant money for the long term without adhering to a few basic rules.  Take it from an industry leader:

1. Is the business legal? Is it registered with state and national governmental agencies? Do not be confused with having it listed on the Better Business Bureau. BBB is an excellent organization which does research companies; however, BBB is a “for profit” organization NOT a government agency. Research the company with state and federal attorney generals and look for the number of complaints listed. No one will EVER have a perfect record if they have any length of time in business and have reached a sizable sales volume. No one will ever satisfy 100 per cent of the people 100 per cent of the time. Business deals with people and personalities. Do look for a minimum of complaints and look at the resolution of those issues.

2. Is the business ethical? Of course no one is dumb enough to feature the comments and testimonies of highly disgruntled people. Ask to speak to recent enrollees as well as longer term members of the company. Just the fact that they will furnish names and phone numbers shows the people featured are real live individuals. Ask to attend a live call.

3. Is the product something useful for the long term rather than a trendy “pet rock?” Look for something which transcends the fluctuations in the economy. In the go go 80s you could sell almost anything. In a more challenging economy, people seek more immediate value which can not be located at the corner drug store.

4. Select a company and a product which fits your interests. Select either something you already have some knowledge or desire to gain knowledge about. You will always be more successful working in your talent, interest or passion.

5. Select a compensation plan which fits your short term and long term budget for start up as well as meeting your income potential goals. Some compensation plans allow you to earn from your first sale and other compensation plans make you pass up sales before you earn any money. Anyone on a tight budget may run out of marketing dollars before they pass up enough sales to start earning income for themselves. Look at all the factors and make a wise decision.

Selecting the ideal business for you involves a variety of factors. For personalized assistance in selecting the perfect entrepreneurial opportunity to fit your passion, your budget and your goals, come talk to me. There is gold dust in the air. The gold dust is an attitude backed by action. The key is selecting the right business at the right time for your abilities and goals. Join me at www.Elaine4Success.com. When the business opportunity fit is accurate and the correct action follows, the gold dust appears.

That’s where my business success coaching comes in.  Contact me.  Elaine Love at resultsforlife@gmail.com

You are in the business of creating WOW. Be so good that they can not ignore you. Be so good that the only question of doubt is who is second.  These are characteristics of an Entrepreneur.

Create your WOW with a gold dust in the air attitude and back it with solid goal directed action. WOW comes from a positive attitude. Attracting the top people to you stems from being a person others like to be around. No one enjoys spending time with grumpy, complaining people. It does not mean you have to turn cartwheels, most of us do not do that on a regular basis, but it does mean that you display a pleasing personality, zest for life and spirit of giving value.

Look at the WOW as W O VV – wealth of value value. The key to creating WOW is doubling the value received by everyone you encounter. When you interact with others in a spirit of giving value to them far in excess of the monetary exchange, you create a win win situation. Double the value and you double the win.

Look at life and business in the spirit of looking in the mirror to see what you can give of yourself rather than looking through a window to see what the outside world can give to you. Rotary Clubs International has a motto of service before self. That gold dust in the air attitude epitomizes the positive outlook on life and the mission of giving value to others. A person who is more concerned about giving value and excellent customer service than they are about their individual income in each interaction, will in fact receive more. Greed is short term. Value is long term.

Look at a W as two Vs put together. Create a gold dust in the air attitude by expecting good things to appear, acting as if the good will appear and serving others by projecting the attitude of giving value to them.

Creating WOW is as simple as focusing on the value you give to others. The top companies who thrive for the long term are always the top customer service companies. It always costs less to retain a customer than to attract a new customer. Customers stay where they are appreciated and receiving value.

Project a gold dust in the air attitude and others will feel good about being around you, customers will choose to do business with you and you will feel better about yourself and your business. It really is as simple as having a gold dust in the air attitude and backing it with positive action. That positive action starts with giving value and follows through with giving excellent customer service.

1. Gold dust in the air attitude

2. Give value which exceeds expectation and price

3. Give excellent customer service

Develop a gold dust in the air attitude and back it with positive action.

For more tips and specific techniques on developing a gold dust in the air attitude and a list of the top customer service companies, join me at www.elaine4success.net

“When you dare to dream, dare to follow that dream; dare to suffer through the pain, sacrifice, self-doubts and friction from the world.”

– Laura Schlessinger, talk-show host

What is it worth to you to have a reliable blueprint for success?  Think it is complicated?  Actually it is quite simple.

1. Find your passion
2. Convert that passion into the ideal business for you
3. Write out very specific, SMART, goals
4. Write a detailed business plan which takes you from your starting point to your victory line.
5. Take focused goal directed action toward your ultimate target
6. Constantly check your progress and make course adjustments on steps 3, 4, and 5 as needed.
7. Repeat until successful

Your blueprint for success is quite simple and logical; the problem is that it is not easy.

Your mind wanders to family activities, your feet wander out to the kitchen or the snack bar, and the lure of the internet tempts you to search for this or that rather than concentrate on work.

You flounder around like a fish out of water not knowing your true passion.  You spend endless hours, months and years working at something you do not like.  Why are you wasting your precious time?  Do you think you have no choice because you must make a living?  Are you paralyzed by fear of making a change?  Are you stuck in analysis paralysis?

Look deep into your soul and be objective.  If you keep doing what you have been doing where will you be five years from now?   In order to have a different result, you must do something differently.

Your blueprint for success in business is the same as your blueprint for success in your physical fitness or your weight.  You do not become physically fit by sitting on the couch watching an exercise program or reading an exercise book.  You become fit by repeatedly performing specific exercises designed for your fitness goals.  You release weight (don’t want to lose it because you might find it again) by carefully planning the right foods to pass from your hand to your open mouth and then consuming only those foods.

Finding your passion is the essential first step to the process.  What activities inspire you?  What are you doing when you feel most energized?  What are you doing when you feel the happiest?  There are specific exercises you can perform to locate your passion.  These are a start in the right direction.

The next step is converting that passion into the ideal business for you.  Is it really possible?  Yes.  That conversion is more personalized.  Locating the perfect business for your passion encompasses the passion, the initial business investment budget, the time available to work the business, the ultimate goal and the ongoing budget.  Send me a comment in the “contact Elaine” section of http://www.elaine4success.com/ so that I may assist you.  Subsequent articles will cover steps 3 through 6.

Success starts in my mind.  Until you see yourself as successful, you may have a temporary flash but you will never achieve long term results.

Compare your entrepreneurial success to weight loss.  Most of us can relate to that yo-yo battle.  If you see yourself with double or triple chins, excess hanging over your belt, or having to shop in the “plus size” section, you will have an uphill battle to lose weight.  You may go on a great diet and lose a few pounds, but unless you change your mental image of yourself, you will gain it all back and more.

Form a mental image of yourself as successful.  Know exactly how success will look to you.  Does it mean a specific car, a certain size home in a specific neighborhood, a minimum amount of money in your retirement account, the ability for your children to attend any university they choose, travel or the freedom to give generously to your church or charity?  Know exactly how success will look to you.  Unless your target is crystal clear in my mind, how can you possibly know when you achieve it?

Write a detailed description of your ideal day, ideal week and ideal month.  When you clarify in your mind the long term activities of entrepreneurial success and the ideal results of those activities, your target gains focus.

Would you go for a walk alone in unfamiliar woods without a trail to follow, a map, a compass or a specific destination?  That is a clear recipe for getting lost.  Even if your cell phone might work in the forest, which it probably will not capture a signal; you would not have any idea how to tell the rescue party where to locate you.  Expecting entrepreneurial success without a clear image in your mind of exactly what the desired outcome looks like is a train wreck waiting to happen.

The principles are universal.  Decide exactly what success looks like to you.  Picture it clearly in your mind in living color.  Invoke all 5 senses in your image.  Repeat the image frequently, especially the first thing in the morning and the last thing before going to sleep at night.  Your subconscious mind is most easily programmed just emerging from an alpha state (sleep) or entering an alpha state.

Just as the directions on the shampoo bottle, perform and repeat.  Repeating your image of entrepreneurial success over and over in my mind reinforces the goal and keeps you focused.

For more specific guidance on creating the success you desire and deserve, join me at www.Elaine4Success.com

What you are thinking on the inside reflects in your attitude, words and results on the outside.

Guys, have you ever asked a female, “What’s wrong?”  You received the dreaded “nothing.”  You know better, she knows better.  Even worse, you are no closer to a solution.  Your thoughts, or at least the general tone of those thoughts, reflect to everyone around you.  I am just as guilty as other females of doing this “nothing” comment.

Have you ever asked your teenager “How was school today?”  Sometimes we receive a grunt and sometimes it is “fine” Have you ever asked your spouse “How was work today?”  That answer can either be a full dissertation on a word by word basis or that same “fine” which actually sounds like “I don’t want to talk about it.  Don’t ask.”

Locking emotions up inside prolongs the agony and stifles solutions.  Even more than avoiding any possible solutions to the issue, it makes everyone around you uncomfortable.  How do you feel when a boss, co-worker, family member or friend does that to you?

Entrepreneurial success depends on a positive attitude and open communication.  If you can not communicate with your employees, co-workers and clients, your business is doomed.  Equally critical is a positive attitude.  The more you lock off your communication, the more you chase away your entrepreneurial success.

A positive attitude and open communication are Siamese twins; it requires both to achieve entrepreneurial success.  Without a positive internal attitude, you will never project a positive external attitude.  The best actor or actress in the world can only sustain a role for a limited period of time.  Hiding your feelings or “fake it until you make it” has a limited shelf life.  Just as you see through the mood of others around you, they see through your mood as well.  Consider for a moment how you feel when you believe someone is either not telling you the entire truth or is intentionally misleading you.  You lose trust in them.  Without trust, you will never achieve entrepreneurial success.
Hiding or faking your thoughts and feelings equals deception.  Pretending to think, feel or speak something different than the truth, will come back to haunt you.  How do you snap out of a funk?  Think of something which makes you happy.  Take a walk to clear your head.  Yes, you could go eat chocolate but that would not be a wise long term solution. Movement and reflecting on positives always increases the positives.

Get your head back into a positive thought pattern.  Bring your feelings back to positive memories.  Focus on all of the good things in your life.

Once your thoughts and feelings are positive, you can openly communicate.  When you open up, the others around you will communicate more freely as well.  The major turning point in your entrepreneurial success is your internal thoughts and feelings.  As Jim Rohn, noted business philosopher said “Work harder on yourself than on your business.”

Positive thoughts and feelings coupled with open communication and you are on your way to entrepreneurial success.

For more helpful tips, techniques and mindset shifts join me at www.Elaine4Success.com.

What is holding you back from being your most productive and most profitable?  Could it really be as simple as not finding your ideal business?  Yes, it really is that simple.

You say if you knew what to do you would already be doing it?  Would you?  Entrepreneurial success stems from being in the ideal business for you at the right time.  Step one is to select the ideal business for you.  Until you truly find your niche, you will never be your most productive and most profitable.  Entrepreneurial success takes focused time and attention to detail.  Spend your precious time and effort focusing on the ideal business for you.

Step one – Determine what you feel strongly about doing.  A florist shop may be a delightful experience for some and pure agony to others.  If you are a “sit on the couch and drink a six pack” person then going into a business selling health products would be a major disconnect.  If you are an exerciseaholic and a devoted to all organic foods then selling health products would fit nicely into your lifestyle.  You could “walk the talk” relating to health.

You have not discovered your passion yet?  Devote time to specific exercises designed to assist you in discovering your passion.  One such exercise is to write fast and furious for at least ten minutes.  Set a kitchen timer, the alarm on your watch or cell phone, or even the microwave timer.  Write everything you would ever possibly want to do.  Do not spend any time analyzing.  Do not be concerned about whether or not it might be possible for you.  Simply let your mind and hand flow freely with ideas.  When was the last time you allowed yourself to dream and freely record all of your dreams and desires?  For most people, it has been months, years or even decades.

Once the timer rings, take a deep breath and a sip of something.  Look carefully at what you have written.  There will be a common theme or even one idea which literally leaps off the page.  It may be something which has been lingering in the back of your mind.  You may have been unconscious of its significance to your entrepreneurial success.  The key to your future business, your entrepreneurial success, is contained within the words you recorded in those ten minutes.

Step two – Turn your dreams into action.  Now that you know in which direction to concentrate your entrepreneurial success activity, you can start your success plan.

The next steps in your entrepreneurial success plan refine the overall idea into specific sections.  There are a few different techniques for compartmentalizing the overall idea into manageable segments.  Which method is best for you depends on how your mind functions.  Some people think in time frames, others think in pictures and others in areas of their life.  Personal, Financial, Professional, Spiritual and Recreational are the more common categories. What is most important to you?  What is most urgent for you?

If you are making money but working so many hours that you do not see your family, then personal may be a top priority.  If you are like most Americans, income may be a serious concern; in that case, financial will be on the top of your priority list.  If you are in a job you hate, then professional may be at the top of the list.  Specific exercises exist to assist you in knowing which method is best for you and helping you determine which category receives top priority.

Once the prominent passion becomes clear, the category of top priority is determined, and the focus is narrowed to a specific workable idea, your entrepreneurial success plan starts taking shape.

Need help with each of these steps to personalize the information into your desired results?  No problem.  Personal individual coaching is available at www.Elaine4Success.com.