Make your mark, make it count
& make it rain.
Profit from my real world, biz strategies to create an extraordinary impact with your message.
I have to confess…
I am not following my own best advice. At all. So many people are working from home these days. And I’ve gotten lots of questions about best practices for doing so-’cause I’ve been working from home since 2005 (yes, apparently, I AM old!). And one of the first things I tell people is
Everything’s canceled, isn’t it?
And now they’re trying to cancel your business too. Because there are far too many voices online trying to shame us into silence.
Let’s show them the difference between an idea guy & an entrepreneur, shall we?
That’s a fantastic idea. Thanks. So, what are you going to do with it? Sell it. What? Just the idea? Yeah, I’m the idea guy. Let someone else run with it. I want to get paid for the ideas. That’s my zone of genius. OH. Ok, genius.
Ready…set…don’t go! No, seriously.
It’s that time, isn’t it? When the clean slate of the New Year and all the thrilling possibility of what could be, is calling you to shake off the stagnation, the stuck, the spinning, and to leap, LEAP, I tell you, into action. And you’re heeding the call!
Stuck again? Maybe it’s time for you to be the boss.
One of the most delightful, I mean, hideous things about creating is that there are a million ways to get completely, bamboozedly stuck. Every time you think you that you’ve learned enough from past mistakes and you’re NEVER going to get trapped in that quicksand again, a new unsuspected pitfall appears on the path to suck you down to your doom.
No one is paying attention to you
I know it feels like they are. When you create your website. When you publish your first blog posts. When you choose the name of your business. It feels like a whole heap of people are watching you. JUDGING YOU. Noticing when you make a mistake, when you course correct, when you when you change your fonts, your title, your offers, your hair color. They’re really not.
How to make absolutely sure your business earns you what you really want
Do you want to be a millionaire? No, seriously. I want to know. Is that what you’re aiming for? I’m guessing it’s not. It’s not for me. What I really want is to spend six months each year in Spain and Latin America, connecting with friends new and old, speaking Spanish, exploring, having crazy adventures.
Are you running away from the money?
One of the trickiest things about working for yourself is figuring out what exactly to do next. It’s even harder when you are in a financial panic. When all you can see is the money going out the door and cannot see how that will ever be matched by money coming in. I have the answer for you.
You should just give up already
Have you ever worked at something that seemed unreasonably difficult? That took four times the amount of time you expected and was way harder than it should be? But, dedicated trouper that you are, you just kept your head down, nose to the grindstone, trying and trying to get it done. My next words may surprise you: stop trying.
Do you really need to get naked?
It’s the classic problem, right? You can’t do what you love because, first, you would have to quit your dayjob. And that can’t happen because: rent and food and shoes! So you’re stuck where you are, hating your life, watching those lucky people who seem to have this all figured out. Here’s the thing. I know this feels reasonable and practical. But it’s really not.
Is anyone listening to you? They should.
There are lots of gurus, mentors & coaches out there. Heaps of them, in fact. Smart, accomplished people with lots of things to say. Important, powerful things even. They want you to listen to them. And they may even deserve to be listened to. But, BUT. So do you.
Why are we doing this anyway?
Have you ever had one of those weeks? When every single thing you touch bursts into flames? When each teeny, tiny struggle morphs into a colossal, roaring behemoth that brings all forward movement to an absolute, screeching halt? When you start to entertain the idea that an actual, honest to goodness, Old Testament, bush burning, frog flinging, wrath wreaking divinity may be out to get you (and your little dogs too)?
