Dealing with Worry

Have you ever had one of those days as a business owner where you got so worried about making enough money that you were ready to give up and get a job?  That happened to me recently.  And really, I have NO desire to work for someone else, it was just a very challenging day.  But the most wonderful thing happened.  Sugata (my husband) and I had a call with his business coach (KC Hildreth) and ended up realizing what a great lesson had come my way.

You see one of the things that has most killed my business growth from the beginning was worry.  Can you even count the number of times that you started worrying – if your service or product was good enough, if you were ever going to thrive as a business owner, if you were not cut out for this, if you had too many blocks to success, etc.?  Well I have had those thoughts in the past myself and they took up an inordinate amount of time and energy!  So often when we get into a worry mode, our fear rises and we then spend all our time trying to cope with our feelings rather than moving forward.  I’m sure if you’ve been there you’ll know how true this is.

So KC was coaching us on business development and he said when it comes to sales success, a tiny percent of sales people account for the vast majority of sales in any industry.  Why?  Because those few people have figured out how to deal with worry.  They recognize that it is there, and then get back to what they can control… which is to call the next customer or take the next action.  Imagine if you only gave worry 1 hour of space in an entire month and the rest of the time you remembered to just move forward and take the next step, having faith that your energy was best spent there.

When he said it, I knew it was true.  I swear it is that simple.

PS – and if you are so in worry that you can’t function.  Just take the first action needed to calm yourself down – call a friend, cry until you are done, write out your worries and then let them go, take a walk, eat an ice cream cone… you get the picture.  (Think how it is like not giving into a 3 year-old’s tantrum). Be loving, but no coddling!

Celebrating You!

It’s my birthday today and I wanted to share this hilarious picture of me at age 4.  My birthday has got me thinking about a great book I read recently. 

It is called Mutant Message Down Under and it is about this woman who is taken into an aborigine tribe in Australia for months and learns their ways.  One of the differences they discover is how they celebrate their lives.  She explained the concept of birthday parties and the tribe scratch their heads and say why do you celebrate just getting older when you don’t have to do anything to age?  Why not celebrate your own growth?

So they shared that each person in the tribe decides when they have truly grown and have something to celebrate.  The whole tribe then stops and prepares a full celebration  to honor them. 

I thought about this a lot and decided today to mix the two traditions.  I sat in meditation this morning to recognize my personal growth since my last birthday and appreciate myself for the work I’ve done. 

Sound egoistic at all to you?  If it does consider that self-love and appreciation are one of the most powerful gifts we can give ourselves. By cultivating our own loving,  we are more able to move offer all we have inside to the world.  In my experience, celebrating is also one of the keys to building momentum and experiencing success.  The simple willingness to shout WOO HOO when something great happens, is like fuel to the take off of our next stage of growth.  In my book, gratitude seems is a key to unlocking more support from the universe.  So cheer yourself on and enjoy all you’ve accomplished too!

Contest Winners for the Race to 500!

I’m so happy to report that although I did not win the race to 500 in the time frame that was set (a 2 week sprint), I did end up growing my list more than anyone after all and exceeded my goal because one very helpful friend shared a generous list with me!  I’ll be featuring her in my next ezine, because she is a powerhouse and it’s only fair to share.

So I definitely have some contest winners to announce. The following people will be receiving a digital download of my class session on “Taking The Ugh out of Business Plans.”

Here are the winners:  Cindy Keifer, Karen Anderson, Cindy Yantis, Diane Johnston, Alex Cary, Donna Ventura, Karen Karsten, Wendy Neuberger, Carrie Heinonen, Kate at ExecAssistLLC, Melissa Graces, Christiane Schull, Eve & Linda

Many thanks to everyone who participated and joined in to help me in my Race to 500!

Working with Distraction & Overwhelm.. How to Get Back On Track!

I’m constantly in discussion with other entrepreneurs and one of the most common things I’m hearing is that despite best intentions, they get sidetracked, distracted, confused or overwhelmed.  I’ve been there many times myself too. The key question is how do you stay really focused on your goals and make forward, tangible progress every day?

I think there are 4 keys to this:

1. Taking great care of yourself – so that you are not distracted by fatigue, emotional issues, burnout, etc.
2. Setting an overall plan in place for your business – so that you have a guiding vision, anchor or pathway laid out
3. Establishing daily intentions that support your plan 
4. Supporting these intentions with powerful action.

So let’s go a little deeper and see how you can use these steps to your advantage.  

For self-care I actually guide my clients to establish specific, regular habits that support them and ask them to track their progress.  I suggest they pick goals that support them physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally which provides balance and a sustained level of support.  They don’t even have to be big… they can be as simple as taking a few minutes to appreciate yourself at the end of the day, taking time to exercise 3 times a week at a set time, spending time in the garden each weekend, listening to an inspiring audio class in the car regularly, and so on.  The key is knowing that you are worth having this support and demonstrating it to yourself in action!

In terms of a plan, I cannot emphasize enough how useful it is to put on paper your company’s plan on paper.. write out the WHY  - the guiding vision or purpose, the WHO – your target market, the WHAT – your product or service offerings, your USP (unique selling proposition), your specific goals, and the HOW  - the specific marketing, operational, financial and personal development plan and the WHEN you are going to do it by – this includes your timeline and project plan details.

Then this fantastic plan needs to be broken down into smaller pieces (in your project plan) so that you can use it as a GUIDE to set your daily intentions. I highly recommend using daily meditation and /or prayer to get quiet to center yourself and get grounded and connected to your HIGHER SELF before launching into your intentions and actions for the day.  This work to center yourself first, gives you the advantage of operating from the highest place or vibration you can.  You can use it to find your highest priorities, ask for specific assistance, get clarity when confused, and simply to establish your own peace and calm before acting.  

Then the last thing is to really be willing to act and take risks in the physical world.  Some people are great at this and others are prone to meditate all day.  You may benefit from looking at your pattern.  The ideal is to create or ACT from a truly powerful place inside and not overdo on one side or the other.  When we act without being in balance, our actions are limited and the energy they come out on is not that attractive to others.  Others can simply feel where you are coming from… whether it be neediness, joy, frustration, heartfelt service, etc.    Choose to ALIGN YOURSELF, tapping into that divine, creative, loving, empowered place inside first and then MOVE FORWARD!

Challenges of an Entrepreneur

Have you ever had one of those days being an entrepreneur when you were so overwhelmed, frustrated or discouraged, you were practically in the fetal position in your home office… or broke your personal pledge to stop drowning your sorrows in chocolate? Well I certainly have. One of the hardest parts of being an entrepreneur is that you are the force and energy behind all you do. If you don’t believe in yourself every single day, it is just not going to happen like you dream it to be.

It has become one of my personal truths that the path of entrepreneurship is one of the best self-development programs around. It is relentless in offering me feedback on what I do really well, what I don’t do well, what I need to learn to succeed and much more.

Some of the challenges I’ve faced along the path are:

• learning to have faith in myself day after day
• trusting the universe to provide financial support as I pursue my life purpose
• letting go of the old model of competition I learned in corporate america in exchange for a more cooperative, inclusive, abundant one
• embracing the skill of delegation
• being willing to put on countless hats as a business owner and be a constant student
• learning where my target customers “live”
• understanding how to write good copy

I would love to hear what your biggest challenges, blocks or frustrations are. Just comment below to share!

Looking forward to hearing from you!

PS – Your comments on this blog will enter you to win my audio class “Taking the UGH out of creating a business plan” See my prior blog details here!

Also, if you post about my blog on yours, please notify me at laura@embracingyourpath.com and I’ll enter you again to win the contest!

The Race to 500! Go!

The Race to 500! Go!

I have a fantastically fun challenge to share with you! I’m part of a great women’s coaching group that includes 6 other groundbreaking entrepreneurs – Susan Birmingham, Lisa Steadman, Delane Krumm, Keri Newell, Cheryl Hodgson and Amy Swift. We met this week and our leader, Gina Ratliff issued a challenge to see who could increase their email list by 500 first.

Now I have to confess that I’ve been beat out before in prior contests… (this is a pretty competitive and capable crew!) so in the spirit of fun and pure unadulterated competition, I’m offering a special deal to anyone who is willing to help me build my list! I have this great 10 week course on Uncovering Financial Success. I’m taking one of the best recordings from the whole class to share with you if you help me out.

I am offering you 3 ways to win… You can:

1. sign up for my list personally and/or
2. comment on my blog post about Challenges of an Entrepreneur and/or
3. post a link to my website on your blog …. (let me know when you do at laura@embracingyourpath.com)

Then you will be entered to win a free audio class on “Taking the UGH Out of Creating a Business Plan” In this audio class you’ll hear the compelling reasons to actually create a plan, understand how to do it easily and know whether you need just a simple plan or a full blown plan.

You’ll understand the basic structure to follow in writing your plan. I’ll even give you a summary document reviewing the components of a good plan so you can get yours out and on paper easily.

For every 10 sign ups to my list, I will give away 1 free audio recording with the handout.

If that isn’t enticing enough, just realize that if you drive any traffic to my site… you’ll be helping them succeed. They will get my free report “Discover The Five Financial Building Blocks To Success.”

And if that isn’t motivation enough, remember that every person that you direct to my site who signs up… is getting valuable information about how to build their entrepreneurial dreams on a solid financial foundation. It’s not like you are sending them to a site to buy chia pets! They may even thank you for turning them onto my great free report!

If you haven’t signed up yourself yet, subscribe here!

First Name:
Email Address:

I hope you join in for the fun…

With Love,

Laura

Living Your Dream

Today a YouTube video had me in happy tears.  I just could not wait to share it and the reminder it was to me of how living your dream could not be more powerful.  In this video a woman from a village in Scotland sings on Britain’s Got Talent.  She’s basically never sung any place other than at home and at her church.  She comes on stage with many people laughing at her and then shocks the world with her angelic voice.  Already 18 million people have heard her sing I Dreamed a Dream via YouTube.  Her song, and story of going from being unknown to daring to go on stage and sing in front of the (very critical) judges and now millions in the world just touched me.  It is an incredible reminder that being willing to live out your purpose can be so powerful.  Although my experience is not even remotely Susan Boyles’ I could relate to what courage it takes to pursue your dream, especially when others don’t see, understand or know the value of your path.

I also believe that when we step into our life purpose, we enter a path where the universe meets us and a pathway is created for us to be supported. I have been experiencing this for sometime now.  It took me so much courage to leave my corporate path and salary, not knowing what I was going to do.  It’s been 3  years now.  I spent two of those years going back to school in spiritual psychology and spent a lot of time simply figuring out what I wanted in my heart.   Year three was a journey in learning to be an entrepreneur and sorting out business ideas.  Even though my business is still in an early growth stage I have been supported financially in so many ways to keep pursuing my dream.  It came from places I never expected while I expanded my wealth consciousness, got past my own fears, experimented with business ideas and refined my skills in the marketplace.  The money is now flowing in the door and not just out in investments. I’m so grateful to have not given up and be standing here.

There were so many times I stopped in frustration to ask myself:  Could I keep going?  Would I be supported? What I have learned is that as long as I’m willing to believe, listening to my divine voice and acting authentically, I am supported. My dream is a reality for me now.  I am so grateful every day when I can assist another entrepreneur to create their heartfelt business through the principles of business, finance and spirituality that have benefited my life.

Here’s to everyone living out their purpose! Watch Susan and be inspired:

Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream on YouTube

Mixing Love & Money

Mixing Love & Money

Tuesday, I had a great time sharing how to mix love and money successfully with Susan Birmingham, on her teleseries, “Are You Woman Enough.” What we talked about was that through conscious attention to our money and how we relate to it, we can have a harmonious and loving relationship with it! And anyone who’s been in a relationship of any length of time knows that this can bring more loving interactions between partners.

Given all that is happening in the economy, we thought it was a great time to share these tips for consciously handling your finances in a relationship.

5 Tips for Mixing Money & Love Successfully

1. Both partners be “in the know” with what you make and spend each month.

2. Establish financial goals and values together and have a specific plan that supports achieving them.

3. Do your best to live within your budget and stick to your financial agreements.

4. Talk about major financial decisions before committing the money.

5. Communicate regularly about finances such as monthly before there are significant challenges or changes that need addressing.

All these things ensure that money is handled consciously rather than behind the scenes. Not paying attention or being willing to look at what is challenging is an invitation to create stress in a marriage. It is a very loving choice to deal with your finances proactively, which will support your ability to enjoy romance and intimacy in your marriage.

You can also listen to our conversation via this link: http://www.audioacrobat.com/play/WnlYrrWs and hear the importance of holding your self and your partner in a compassionate and loving way regardless of the financial bumps and challenges you face. Enjoy and let me know if you found this helpful!

PS. You can read more about Susan at http://www.esteemprinciple.com/

Finding Your Center

Although you might not think about centering yourself as a skill relevant to your finances, I’ve found that it is crucial to success. It seems that now with the incredible restructuring of the economy occurring, it is more than ever a necessary tool. Fear seems to be ever available to drop into when thinking about money and prospects for the future for most people. And the crucial thing is that whenever fear is the prevailing feeling, the financial flow is blocked.

I had this crazy experience one day of stressing about bills and feeling unable to just trust the flow of things. The next day after I had found my center.. I reread some emails that were from the day before and realized that I had literally screened out some business development opportunities that were there in plain english. It seems my fear just “blanked” them out of my sight! It was an incredible example of how fear limits our minds’ ability to see the possibilities.

So next time you fall into the fear out there in the mass consciousness, just choose a practice that helps you see a higher perspective and feel centered. Some of my favorite practices to do this are meditating, writing out the fears to get them on paper and out of me, focusing on one way to be of service rather than focusing on making money, and saying a prayer of surrender and letting go.

Opportunity in the Financial Collapse

I was on a conference call recently that really inspired me to share an experience I had. It started with hearing a conference that Gina Ratliff’s held on the financial collapse our economy and where it has taken her business. What she shared is how the collapse has presented a unique opportunity for wealth to be created in a new way- a way that is more balanced between the masculine and feminine than in the past.

So the way I see it, (barring the gross over-generalization) the masculine way of operating in the business world is to be more direct, action oriented, logical and linear. The feminine way of being includes honoring the intuitive, creative, introspective and non-linear ways of doing things.

Finding ways of working and living that include both of these sides of ourselves is transformative in my experience. Over the past 2 years I have been immersed in this lesson as I’ve left the corporate and financial world which was very masculine and embarked on building a new career that has been my own to entirely define.

The funny thing was that after that call, I did something that was overly masculine in nature in making a decision. I pushed through a decision even though I didn’t feel entirely comfortable with it. The next day, with the help of my good friend Debbie, I realized that I needed a more balanced approach with myself. Parts of me that needed to be heard had been overrun and ignored. I stopped and did something that is more feminine in nature. I meditated and took some time to look inside.

What I discovered was a treasure trove of insights and reminders about what this new way looks like for me.

Here it is:

• My life includes space and time for me – time for self-care, time to breathe
• There is no urgency when I get new direction from inside (urgency is from the ego). I simply take the necessary time to get clear and then act from that place
• The smallest parts of myself are being cared for and attended to
• My children and husband feel cherished and know they are important to me, they know I have time for them
• My life is lived more slowly and is sensuous in nature
• I take time to cultivate my own health, beauty, creativity – whatever is important to me
• Rest and Relaxation are planned into my life and utilized
• Rather than forcing/rushing things, I live deliberately and thoughtfully
• I remember that there are always options, choices and many ways of getting to a goal in all circumstances
• I take time to integrate after a big growth spurt (there is space, a pause between things)
• I take time to vision regularly to maintain my connect to my deepest intentions
• I speak consciously
• I can laugh at myself and my human mistakes

I’m sure the list could go on and on, but it felt so great to me to ’see’ this new way of living in detail in my life. I also want to acknowledge that I use some very masculine structures to support myself in creating this. I have a tracking sheet with my self-care goals on it, to see if I am following through on my commitments to exercise, meditate, etc. I set time on my calendar to vision, plan and organize each week. Our family has a new schedule of one-on-one dates with our children to help them feel valued and heard in our home. The list could go on, but the point is that the blend of masculine and feminine ways of doing things has a lot to offer.

I celebrate knowing both ways of doing things and embrace the challenge to bring them into my work and personal life in a more grounded way!

P.S.  Gina is a thriving entreprenuer that works with women to execute their businesses in a suceessful that balances both the masculine and feminine ways of doing things. (You can find out more about her at estherexperience.com). She is fantastic!

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