Create your Purposeful, Prosperous Vision

By Carlene Ashby

“What the mind of man can conceive and believe, It can achieve.” ~ Napoleon Hill

Mr. Hill was a manifesting master.  If you’ve read Think and Grow Rich, you know how important it is to keep your goals front and centre in your mind.  (If you haven’t, then finish reading this article and go get that book.)

A great way to keep your focus on your goals is to have a physical reminder of them.

I’m talking of course, about vision boards.  If you haven’t heard of a vision board, it is a canvas, a corkboard or a poster board that is covered in images and items that stimulate your imagination to experience the feeling of having that which you desire.

For instance, I have a vision board for my career that represents myself helping millions of people who in turn help millions of others.  I put things on there that represent wealth, joy, my ideal client, (which we’ll get into next,) and the team that I need to be successful.

You can use anything on your vision board that makes you feel fantastic.  Use photos, cheques, magazine images, drawings, whatever you want.  All that is important is that your vision board comes from your creative juices and makes you feel good when you look at it.

So here is your assignment should you choose to accept it:

Get your creative juices flowing!  Use your imagination to create a detailed vision for your future and create a physical manifestation of that vision!

Step 1:  Write out everything you want to experience in relation to your goal.  Success, money, love, joy, fulfillment, etc.

Step 2:  Then find or create an item for your board that represents each of these experiences.

Step 3:  Attach them to your board in whichever manner you please, and Voila!  You have a vision board that will be a powerful manifestation tool for you.

Step 4:  Put it in a conspicuous spot you will look at frequently throughout the day and let those good feelings flow!

© Copyright 2010 Carlene Ashby

Squash Your Gremlins

By Carlene Ashby

The hands-down hardest thing about being an entrepreneur when you’re starting out is keeping the faith.  When there aren’t enough clients and the bills are piling up, it can be really hard to stay focused.

It can be really easy to start listening to the gremlin in your head that says something like this: “You’re crazy to be doing this! Who do you think you are? You’ll never make a living at this! You should just give up and get a job.”  Sound familiar?

Everyone has their doubts and fears.  And almost everyone has at least one naysayer in their life who project their own doubts and fears on you.

The key to drowning out that toxic noise is to focus on why you’re doing this.  Focus on your purpose.  You have been given specific gifts and talents in order to serve a specific group of people.  And that group needs you!  They need you to serve them.  You have a duty to bring your gifts to these people to improve their lives.

And what about you?  Think about all the reasons that you want to do this.  Think about the freedom that comes from being self-employed.  Think of the opportunities to do what you love, to make passive income, to spend more time with your family, to travel, to refuse to drive during rush hour!

Focusing on all the reasons you want and need to make this successful can help you do the things that you need to do but may not want to do.  When you are feeling too shy to approach a colleague about a joint venture, or too intimidated to speak at a seminar, think of all those reasons to be brave.

Your Prosperity Assignment Should You Choose To Accept:

Create a list of reasons to be brave, to think bigger, to get more done in a day than humanly be possible and make your dream a reality.

Put your top ten reasons together and make several copies:

1. Make a wallet sized copy and put it in the clear, driver’s license spot so you can be reminded every time you open it.
2. Put a copy on the bathroom mirror so you every morning, you inspire yourself  to be great!
3. Put a big, colourful copy in your workspace where you can see it to keep you motivated throughout the day.

This sounds simple, but it works, I promise.  Don’t delay.   Don’t say, “Yeah, yeah, I’ll do it later.”  Do it now.  Make your list today, so that if a day comes when you feel worn out or hopeless, or just plain discouraged, you’ll have 10 good reasons to get up and give it all you’ve got!

© Copyright 2010 Carlene Ashby

How to Be an Entrepreneurial Ninja

By Carlene Ashby

Let’s talk about the number one entrepreneurial sin: Laziness!  We all through it from time to time; not wanting to get out of our pajamas, not wanting to make cold-calls or write that article.  Working for one’s self can be so freeing and rewarding, but with that freedom can come a lack of discipline.

Discipline is so important to an entrepreneur.  Discipline is the difference between creating a successful business and having a hobby.  This doesn’t mean you have to sit in your office from 6am to 10 pm, slaving away.  What it does mean is that you have a set schedule and a routine.

Your Prosperity Assignment Should You Choose To Accept It:

1. Set up a workspace where all you do is work. This area is not for eating, watching t.v. or napping.  Ideally it is a room that you can close the door on and put up a do not disturb sign.  Let your family and partners know that your workspace is where you do business and it is to be respected as a place of business.
2. Create a calendar for the week and decide what you will do on each day. For example: On Mondays I write articles, attend a mastermind meeting and work with my business coach.  On Tuesdays I work with clients and work on press releases.  On Wednesdays I work with clients and do administrative work, on Thursdays I work on marketing, joint ventures, networking and cultivating referrals.  On Fridays I work with clients in the morning and use the afternoon to treat myself to whatever I need, such as a massage, a manicure, a pedicure or even lunch with a friend.  Create your own schedule this way.  Make sure you have at least one day a week set aside for marketing.
3. Create time slots for each day for you to get up, exercise, meditate, eat breakfast, work, break for tea, work, eat lunch, etc, etc.  Perhaps you will only work until 2pm, that’s fine, just make sure you have an end point to your day or you could get swallowed up in work and we don’t want that either.
4. Set up a monthly calendar that you can see at a glance and use it whenever you schedule something with someone.  This prevents double bookings and lets you see if you are piling too much into one week.  Don’t burn yourself out by cramming too much into each week or booking too many meetings back-to-back.  I use a day timer for this and I couldn’t live without it!
5. For 30 days, follow your schedule to a T! Do not do anything that you do not have scheduled in your day timer during work hours.  If something comes up that you absolutely must do, sit for a moment and ask yourself if this is truly important enough to deviate from your schedule.  Family emergencies, illnesses and lunch with your hero fall into that category.  Lunch with your best friend, a sale at Pier 1 and watching YouTube videos do not.  If you decide this is truly important, put it in your day timer, make sure that there are no conflicts.
6. At the end of 30 days, evaluate your schedule for efficiency. Were some days of the week better suited to certain tasks?  Adjust your schedule accordingly.

And Voila!  You are now an Entrepreneurial Ninja!

© Copyright 2010 Carlene Ashby

Niche Selection and Branding for Coaches

By Carlene Ashby

Becoming a life coach is not an occupation one comes to lightly.  The decision to be a life coach has usually come out of a series of serendipitous events that led one down a path of spirituality and up a hill of accountability only to arrive at the summit of personal development and realize that there are no instructions for how to function up here!

By that, I mean that being a life coach is not just a career, it is a way of life.  And a relatively new one at that.  This young occupation is full of people who can coach anyone to excellence, but who are making less money than a Wal-Mart greeter.  Why?  Because there are very few people telling us how to run our businesses, craft our marketing and brand ourselves properly.

If you are an accountant or a doctor, not only do people understand what you do and what results to expect, they have a good idea of how much it should cost and how they’ll pay you.

The same is not true of coaching.  Coaching is unique, because everyone in the industry markets differently, charges differently, and produces different results.

Marketing yourself as a coach requires educating your prospects and enticing them with results and benefits, rather than systems and procedures.

According to Forbes.com, the salary of a life coach is six figures for only 10 to 20 percent of coaches.  The median annual income for life coaches in the United Sates is only $30,000 to $40,000 per year, which means that there are a LOT of coaches who are making much less than $30,000.

That is due to the fact that 85% of coaches have no idea how to market themselves in this unique forum.  The areas they typically fail in are:

1. Niche Selection- They choose a niche that is not profitable or too broad a niche that is impossible to market to.  Remember: If you are marketing to everyone, you are marketing to no one.
2. Branding- This includes your business name, your tagline, your logo and site design.  Most are named weakly, they have an unclear or weak tagline, the logo is forgettable or ugly or meaningless and the site usually looks cheap, crowded and unfocused.
3. Packaging- They only provide one or two types of services instead of having several streams of income and the packages are not compelling enough.
4. Content- Their site and their conversations around what they do focus on coaching, coaching systems, procedures, etc.  Remember: Nobody cares about coaching, how it is done, what systems you use, etc.  They only care about results.

When coaches are in the stages of business planning it is important to consider the above factors and consult an expert to ensure they are not investing their time and energy into a sinking ship.

When planning your business you must consider having several streams of income.  I like to explain this strategy this way:  Imagine your business as a big concrete platform a la ancient Greece.  On top of the platform is you and your family.  Now, would you rather have one column holding up the platform, or several columns holding up the platform?  I’m assuming you answered several, but I’ll explain why this is the best answer.  If one of the columns gets wiped out, your platform will not come tumbling down if there are several others holding it up.

For instance, if you do only one-on-one tele-coaching and the proverbial well dries up, your platform, that is supporting you and your loved ones, falls down.

Now imagine that you also have group coaching, products for sale, writing gigs, speaking engagements, radio spots, etc.  That platform will continue to support you because there are so many columns holding it up.

Starting out as a coach is overwhelming when you do not have help, and if you believe in coaching enough to become one, then invest in one.  Not just a life coach either.  Invest in a coach that is specialized in business and marketing.  Trust me, you’ll save yourself years of stress and thousands of dollars by doing it right the first time!

© Copyright 2010 Carlene Ashby

Stretch your comfort zone to create bigger results

By Carlene Ashby

“To get something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done.”  ~Unknown

Do you want more clients, less stress, more fun and more money?  Of course you do!

Well then, my friend, you have got to stop doing what you always do and do something different.  That simple!

If there is a gap between what you want to create in your business and what you currently have, you need to bridge the gap by doing things you’ve never done before.

That can mean different things for different people.  For instance, if you want to attract many clients locally, and you know that public speaking would help you do that, but you are terrified of that, try other types of performing.  Take a dance class, join a choir, go to an acting workshop or something else that stretches your comfort zone without pushing you over the edge.

If you want to build your business by attracting clients via article marketing but article writing is not your strong suit, take a class at a community college or join a creative writing group who can help you flex your imagination muscles.

Stretching may not always directly relate to the area you are trying to improve upon either.  For instance, I have a client who has almost tripled her income since she started sticking to a strict diet that eliminates sugar and flour.  She swears that by showing herself that she had the discipline to commit to such a restrictive diet, she gained the faith in herself she needed to move forward with her business.

Whatever the stretch is, the key is to commit to it and follow through.  Keeping those agreements with yourself will lead to higher self-esteem, confidence and the ability to make quantum leaps in both your business and your personal life.

Your Prosperity Assignment:

1.      Write out 3 goals you have and beside each, write down why you do not currently have it.

Be honest with yourself.  Too often, my clients tell me they do not have any idea why they don’t have their goals yet, or worse, they say it is because of some person, circumstance or event outside of themselves.

Let me assure you that any reason that you come up with that is “out of your control” is total bullshit.  You are in control of your thoughts, beliefs, emotions and actions, therefore, you are in charge of your life.  If you do not have what you want, it is because either your thoughts, your beliefs, your emotions, your actions or some mixture of those is out of harmony with what you want.

2.      Identify a stretch that can help you bridge the gap.

For instance, if you decide that in order to get the success you want, you need to be more disciplined with your time, commit to a stretch of getting up one hour early to exercise or be in nature.  Committing to that on a daily basis is difficult, but very rewarding.

Your next stretch may be eliminating emails and phone calls during certain hours and allowing technology like voicemail to solve that problem.  Many of my clients’ biggest gap is that they do not see themselves as highly successful people subconsciously and to bridge that gap they must set up challenges and show themselves success.  This can be anything from losing weight, eliminating sugar or caffeine, finishing a non-fiction book a week, or whatever would best serve you at this time.

3.      Scare yourself DAILY!

Once a day, do something that is a stretch that scares you but is moving you in a forward direction.  This can be emailing someone you would like to joint venture with, hiring a Virtual Assistant or a Coach, trying a new food, asking someone to go for coffee or committing to a networking group.  Just find one thing everyday to do that scares you.  You’ll be surprised how much flow will come into your life when you start to do this.

4.      Set up an accountability structure.

Without accountability, nothing happens.  The resolve wanes, the passion fades and your goals slowly move to the back burner while you relax back into a comfortable pattern.  Does that sound familiar?  It does for most people, myself included.  Without my coaches, I’d be 20 lbs heavier, I’d have no clients because I wouldn’t have taken any of the steps I needed to, I’d have been too shy to talk to the man of my dreams (my partner, Andrew) and you certainly wouldn’t be reading this article because I’d still be thinking “Who cares what I have to say? Who am I, anyway?”  Pretty sad picture.   The fact is, we all need encouragement and accountability from someone who won’t take any of our BS or let us slide.  There are coaches for everything from quitting smoking to healing breast cancer to public speaking, so hire a coach, it works!

© Copyright 2010 Carlene Ashby

How to Release the Doubt and Gain the Confidence

By Carlene Ashby

Becoming a successful entrepreneur is a matter of having passion, perseverance, focus and faith.

The kiss of death for an entrepreneur is doubt and confusion.  Those two elements will have you acting from fear, making choices and then changing your mind, never following through on courses of action that could bring results.

I’ve seen my clients and even myself, at times, suffer during these bouts of confusion and doubt.  But as Huruki Murakami said, “Suffering is optional.”

It is your mind that creates the suffering.  It is your thoughts that create confusion and doubt.  Therefore, you need tools to help you keep your thoughts focused positively and productively.

Your Prosperity Assignment Should You Choose To Accept It:

1. Let your emotions be your indicator. When you are feeling stressed, upset, sad, angry, frustrated, confused, or doubtful, you know your thoughts are not supporting you.  You cannot have a stressful emotion without a stressful thought.  So notice your thoughts.  What are you telling yourself? Write down your thoughts.  They may be something like this: “What if I am making the wrong choice?  I don’t know what I’m doing.  I always screw up.  I need more clients.  If I don’t get more clients this ship is going to sink.  I need to find more answers.  Maybe this person has them…”  And so the confusing wild goose chase for the next best answers ensues.  And there goes your focus.
2. Choose a course of action and stick to it. If you find a mentor or program you decide to work with, stick to that.  Getting too many opinions on what you should do will keep you from following through on any course of action that might net results.  A trap that many entrepreneurs fall into is buying info product after info product that promises to have the answers you are looking for.  The truth is that many of those programs do work – if you work them.  But taking bits and pieces from here and there and never following a program all the way through will serve only to confuse and frustrate you.  The same goes for working with too many coaches.  Having different people with different approaches giving you guidance doesn’t work.  That is why a ship only ever has ONE captain.  It’s not because other captains don’t know what they are doing, or wouldn’t be able to take you where you want to go, it is because having one captain simplifies everything and keeps the ship from going off course or taking a detour.
3. When doubt or confusion creeps in, don’t resist it, transmute it. Work with the energy of your emotions by meditating.  I learned this particular method from David and Kristin Morelli of EverythingIsEnergy.com.  Find a quiet spot where you won’t be disturbed. Put on some relaxing music if that helps you to let go of your thoughts.  Find a comfortable position to sit or lay in.  Now imagine that a waterfall of liquid gold is pouring into the top of your head, filling your head, your neck, your shoulders, your chest, your back, your torso, your legs your feet, and it continues to pour through your feet into a single stream that continues down into the earth, right down to the earth’s core.  Allow that energy to flow for a few minutes and enjoy warmth of it.  When you’re ready, focus your attention on the feelings within you that resemble stress, confusion and doubt.  Locate them in your body.  Now imagine that there is a bubble right in front of you with a magnet inside of it.  Intend for the magnet to pull out all of those uncomfortable feelings.  See the bubble filling with the doubt, confusion and stress.  It may look like smoke, or sludge, just notice it.  When you feel that all of the uncomfortable feelings or negative energy have left your body, see another bubble beside it the first.  It is a shimmering white or gold bubble with another magnet in it.  Intend for this magnet to draw all of your power out of the first bubble into the second.  See your power leaving the negative bubble and entering the shimmering bubble.  It may look like white light.  When all of your power has been drawn into the second bubble, decide what to do with the first bubble.  Some people like to pop it, some people like to imagine it being bathed in white light and floating off into space.  Some people imagine it being sucked into the golden waterfall and down into the earth’s core.  Whatever you want to do is perfect.  Now imagine the second bubble moving toward your belly, your core.  Intend for your power to re-enter your body and either pop the bubble, allowing your power to rush into you, or imagine the whole bubble entering your core.  Enjoy the wonderful feelings in your body.  When you are ready, wiggle your fingers and toes and become aware of your surroundings again.  Do this practice as often as you want.  Daily is recommended.
4. Set up a to do list on your own or with your mentor or coach. Schedule everything that you need to do to reach your goals for the next three to six months.  Each time you cross something off your list, your confidence will increase.  When you have completed everything on that list, then evaluate whether or not you need a new “captain” or not.  Keep in mind that some actions take longer than others to show results.  You do not get to eat the fruit the day you plant the seed, so be patient and make sure you have realistic expectations.

© Copyright 2010 Carlene Ashby