New Blog

I have moved my blog to another location – check it out here.

To Recession or Not To Recession?

There is most definitely a recession. People are losing their jobs, savings, and maybe even their home. However, I have chosen not to participate in a recession.

It is a fact that during recessions people invest in themselves – to grow, learn, and obtain new skills. What a better time to invest in yourself than now? Why? Because now is the time that entrepreneurs start a new business or another business. Serial entrepreneurs abound during times like these.

Part of my business is to bring the opportunity to learn from some of the best motivational, business and personal speakers. The best part? You don’t even have to leave your home – these speakers will come to your computer when you want – while you are working, doing housework, cruising the Internet.

iLearningglobal.tv uses cutting-edge technology -  only 7 companies have access to this technology: ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, Oprah, Disney, and iLearningGlobal.

A group of retired millionaires started the company. This new online learning resource brings great training/teaching to individuals with ease.

Bob Proctor is a guest faculty member. He is one of the few speakers that has chosen not to be a marketer.  Brian Tracy is our Chief Learning Officer and he is very involved in the business. As a marketer, he calls in often for the Saturday calls and other calls. Always cool to hear him introduce himself along with everyone else.

I use iLearningglobal.tv every day to listen to tips on productivity, reducing my taxes, setting goals, and I love the concept of guided learning – workbooks and audios/videos. We even have topics directed at teenagers and parents. How cool is that? One of my friend’s kids just love watching the videos. Real estate agents use the tools to help train for sales and dentists have the videos playing in their offices for their clients.

I encourage you to invest in yourself. If you don’t – who will? Not your clients. Not your family.

Let me know how you are planning to invest in yourself? Your business? Your family? Your life?

7 Things You Don’t Know About Me – Meme

@StacyBrice has started a meme – I have played variations of this game before and think it is so much fun. Thanks to Carol D’Annunzio for tagging me! The original post is here.

So here goes:

1) I shot the middle of a quarter out at a range of 100 yards with my rifle (however, it did have a scope on it).

2) I have broken my nose three times playing softball.

3) I have lived on 3 state parks in the state of Utah – my first husband was a park ranger. At the first park, we had to drive 17 miles to the nearest telephone and I had a new baby. We lived in a 12 x 52 trailer with bull snakes under it. Exciting times!

4) I have never done drugs.

5) I have bred, raised and shown Boxers in AKC obedience trials.

6) I learned to ride dirt bikes at age 46 and according to my husband, am the first woman to ride one up an actual tree.

7) I make my own soap, lotions, bath salts, sugar scrubs, and where we live we have to haul water.

There is lots more about me people don’t know to which my children are probably very grateful.

I am tagging @LauraJoRichins and @cardinalptb2b – wanna play?

Taking Risks

How many times in your life have you wanted to do something that is out of the ordinary for you and what people believe about you? Did you do it? Or did you tuck it away in the recesses of your brain and say, “Some day”?

There are a myriad of things that hold us back from reaching for the stars. It could be our family, lack of self confidence, money, skills, faith – you can put any number of reasons here. But, are they reasons or excuses?

“Paradigms power perceptions and perceptions power emotions” (The Shack, pg. 197). The emotions you have when thinking about an event, person, or experience are simply responses to perception – what you think is true of any given situation.

Many of us don’t try something new because we are afraid. Afraid people will make fun of us. Afraid we might appear stupid or incompetent. We are afraid that instead of being the rock that successfully skips across the lake, we skip once and sink to the bottom, never to see daylight again.

When you are thinking about changing something in your life or attempting a new business, adventure, or just plain enlarging your comfort zone, remember – live in the present. Not the past and not the future. Don’t try to figure out the future, but have some faith that you can do whatever it is you want to do. After all, the House of Certainty does not necessarily have a resident called Faith.

This may mean you need to reevaluate your paradigms and perceptions. Just because you may believe something awful or embarrassing may happen does not mean that it will.

Trust yourself and take that leap of faith! You can do it!

Speaking of Relationships

Being an AssistU graduate has many benefits. One is the ability to take classes with Stacy Brice. I recently took a graduate class regarding consultation practices and am implementing a new consultation process that involves (gulp) more than one call with a potential client.

I have put together some assessment questions and added a call to the consultation. This is to help both the potential client and myself make darn sure we are a good fit and that I won’t gloss over any warning signs or trigger words.

Some potential clients may find this process a bit intimidating or time consuming. But, I counter – some people do more research to find a dry cleaners or an auto repair shop than they do in finding a virtual assistant. This is meant to be a long-term relationship – not a drop n’ ship relationship.

Stacy has also just written a great Twitwall client tip about how to get the most from a relationship with a VA.

So, I say – let’s start off on the right foot for a dance of partnership and collaboration!

It’s All About the Relationship

For serious virtual assistants it is all about the relationship with their clients. Sure, we need to have the skills to do things or find someone who can do those things we may not be able to do or like to do, but if you don’t have a solid relationship with your client you are missing the best part of being a virtual assistant.

I love my clients and enjoy getting to know them beyond emails or business calls. It helps us develop a relationship of trust, confidence, and more.

Here is the best example – my annual virtual Christmas party with one of my clients. We have just done our 5th annual party! How does this work, you may say?

We pick an evening and gear up for a couple of hours of fun, conversation, our husbands’ bringing us goodies and filling our wine glass. It so happens that my client and I are just about the same age, have kids about the same age, and our husbands are perhaps clones. Last night, for example, we discovered that before they married us – they were *cat* people. Now, they are *dog* people, too.

We talk about our kids, parents, what is going on in our lives, our pets, and new things like Twitter, Facebook, some politics, and tv shows we love. We use Skype and webcams. Actually, the webcams just became a ritual last year and I would not want to have a virtual party without one. Our party this year lasted 4 1/2 hours!

Sure, you can work with a virtual team, with someone from India for less dollars, but do you have a relationship with that virtual assistant? Do they have one with you? Or is it more like an employer/employee relationship?

As my coach Stacy Brice says, “Virtual assistance is not meant to be the cheap way….” The relationships that should be developed cannot be stressed strong enough – so if you are looking for a VA, look at the skills, but more importantly — look at the personality, workstyle, and the potential relationship.

Productivity – My Next Step

Part of being productive is making strong decisions. Sometimes it is easy to make those decisions, but difficult to follow through, keep those decisions a part of your life, and maintain the decision you make through thick and thin.

A couple of decisions that I have made are exciting! They are:

• Develop a two-step consultation process for new clients
• Develop an assessment that potential clients will take
• Start coaching with Stacy Brice

The consultation process has been developed and I will be using it moving forward. Why a two-step process or even a three-step process? These different steps give the PC and I a chance to listen to each other’s voice during the first call (15-minutes) and then we can move forward to the second call (60 minutes) to discuss deeper questions and really get to know each other. Some VAs use a three-step process, but using two calls is the next step for me.

The assessment was a challenge. Thanks to Stacy and the other AssistU VAs, I was able to come up with questions that will help both the PC and myself determine if we are a great fit. Why is this important? Because sometimes while talking to a PC, I glaze-brain over very important aspects that they might say. Something like, “I finance my business on a credit card.” What does that mean maybe one or two months down the road? It means that they will have a ‘cash flow’ issue and cannot afford to work on retainer anymore. It also will help clarifying work style, expectations and more.

The next step will be one that I know is the right one for me. Coaching with Stacy will not only be good to shore up my wobbly floor, but also challenge me to find out why things happen or don’t happen. Out of all of them, this is the one that will provide the best ROI. I must admit, I am nervous about this. Why? Because it will make me think, investigate, and recognize practices or thoughts that are in need of change.

But, as was pointed out to me the other day, I crave freedom but without discipline freedom will not happen.

How about you? Do you crave something? Are you working really hard to achieve that something? Is it ever elusive or comes and goes?

Then your next step is to make a decision and find some solutions to support that decision.

Productivity Starts with Making a Decision

I working on developing new habits. Yes, old dogs can learn new tricks.

I am focusing on improving productivity among other things in my life and business. One of the best motivators that I am taking advantage of is Brian Tracy’s “Double Your Productivity” audio on iLearningGlobal. I make sure I listen to it every day to absorb each step that he recommends and discusses.

The first step, make a decision, is a very important one. How far can I get in increasing productivity or accomplishing something I want to do if I cannot or will not make a decision? Not far! As Brian indicates, new habits are learnable through practice and repeating an action makes it a habit. A decision can be as easy as “Do” or “Stop.” He also states that the best description of this is the ability to make yourself do what you should do whether or not you feel like you should do it.

My first “Do” was to clean and rearrange my office and keep it that way. For a clutterer, this is an awesome undertaking.

My second “Do” is to be very proactive about getting client work completed way before any deadlines.

So, I am actually working on two new habits at once. Since it takes 21 days to establish a habit, I only have 19 more to go!

Remember those “swept up in the groove” feelings you have when you attend seminars and come out them all jazzed about what you have learned or heard during the event? Then two days later, you have not even opened the notebook? Well, I am practicing that jazzed feeling everyday because I am such a believer in the power of iLearningGlobal and how it can enhance my business, as well as my life. I get that encouragement every day after either watching one of the videos or listening to the audio while I work.

This is such a “Do” for me! More about productivity later and I will so keep you up-to-date on the state of the office! (Husband thinks it won’t last!)

Blog Action Day – Poverty – It is Closer Than You Think

Today is an amazing day! Bloggers are writing and recognizing one of the most serious issues to hit individuals, families, and countries. Poverty. Today is Blog Action Day 2008 – Poverty.

I live in a city on the western slope of Colorado. We have relatively mild winters, a strong economy in spite of the economic situation, and poverty. Here in Grand Junction, CO, rents are high because of the influx of energy workers/companies and lack of affordable housing. Most families have a median income of $30,000 or less. They work two jobs to survive. Many are just one paycheck from being homeless.

In addition, it is pretty common to hear that other cities buy the homeless bus tickets to come here.

How can we help? Get involved. Don’t turn your back and think that someone else will help and you don’t need to.

A local art center held their annual event for the shelters and Catholic Outreach this month. Local artists donate a handmade soup bowl and they are sold, along with homemade soup, and all proceeds are given to charity.

I help and donate at the local food banks.

There are lots of places to donate your time and/or dollars to help prevent people from living in poverty. We have a Treehouse organization that provides shelter, food, and community for teens who are homeless. Can you imagine not having a safe secure homelife for one of the most influential times of your life? I can’t.

Give. Donate. Volunteer. The families of the world are depending on you.

The Ultimate Wealth Workshop – Jim Bunch & Jack Canfield

I just came back from being a staff member at the Ultimate Wealth Workshop by Jim Bunch with guest, Jack Canfield. It was an amazing experience and I took several AHA moments away from the workshop. The major one? Make a plan! Build a team of advisors and experts to help you achieve that plan.

I received this article this morning and thought I would re-post it – so go forth and Make A Plan!

When Success is Slow, What Can You Do?
by Jack Canfield

Pop Quiz: Can success be sped up? Is there an antidote to slow outcomes despite arduous planning and actions taken? What is the secret for seeing huge results right now?!

I get versions of these questions frequently from people who feel frustrated at sluggish progress in their success journey – despite all the know-how and principles they rigorously employ.

But first, let’s get one thing straight…

When we admire someone else’s success, or even our own, we often focus on the end result and not so much on the effort, time, discipline, and setbacks that it took them to get there.

This can often cultivate unrealistic expectations and frustrations, especially the idea that overnight success can happen through careful strategy and execution of sound advice.

Truth be told, success typically follows a series of little events and achievements that include a few disappointments along the way, which challenges everything about you to the core–your stamina, courage, integrity, and even your willingness to keep going.

If you focus on what’s not working, guess what: You’re likely coming from a place of aggravation as your mind wraps around all that is wrong. You may even have negative thoughts like “I’m not good enough,” “It will never work,” or “Something must be wrong with me.”

What this does mentally is engender more of these counter-productive feelings. And given what we know about the Law of Attraction, you attract what you are feeling. Negative experiences, people, and results will beget more negative experience, people, and results. There’s not much success in that.

The key, then, is to focus on what IS working.

To do so, I recommend two simple practices: journaling and meditation.

Maintaining a journal (I call it an Evidence Log, Results Journal, or Gratitude Journal) is a great way to steer your attention to the positive and it helps to continually renew your vision for yourself. Start each day with reflections on what you are grateful for in your life (list them out!) and end each day with notes on what went right (again, write them down), however small.

Meditation can be a powerful tool for arriving at solutions to problems and shifting your attitude so you can attract success sooner rather than later.

The magic of meditation is its ability to essentially shut down the outer layer of your judgmental, highly-critical brain and allow your unconscious mind to take over. This is where you enter a deeper state of inner peace and joy, tapping into a higher level of creativity that will help usher in the results you want.

Through the practice of meditation you will begin to become even more aware of your subtle intuitive impulses, insights, ideas, emotions and inspirations.

Don’t know how to meditate? Lots of books and materials are available to guide you this practice. It’s easier than you think.

Okay, let’s say you’re doing ALL these things,
but you still aren’t happy with your results…

Then, I’ll ask you: Are you taking real ACTION? You may be taking the actions you are used to taking. But therein lies the problem: if you keep doing what you’ve already done then you’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten. It’s a matter of practicing some new behaviors. Shake things up a bit and see if you can take new actions or modify existing ones.

Remember the Rule of 5. Every day do five specific things that take you toward your goal. Change up the five actions regularly and be open to feedback so you know when you’re off course.

Lastly, I want to remind you about patience.

It’s natural to underestimate how long a certain goal can take, especially a profound one. When I set a goal to become a millionaire, the year was 1983. How long did it take? Eleven years. It took time for Chicken Soup for the Soul to hit the bestseller lists. You could say our tenure on the New York Times list was more than a decade in the making. That’s a lot of patience for someone who initially wanted overnight success.

So, yes, patience is a virtue. But keep at it, and in time, you’ll be only one week, or one day away from your ultimate success.

Remember… be grateful, reflect on what IS working and continue to take ACTION!

© 2008 Jack Canfield

Jack Canfield, America’s #1 Success Coach, is founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you’re ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com