Answer The Call
There’s a nudge inside you.
At first, it’s like an echo or a faint whisper, and you’re not sure if it’s real or imagined.
Maybe it’s both.
There’s this unknown spot – where you feel like there’s great potential for… something.
And even though you don’t have a clue how it’s going to turn out, you somehow know it at least won’t be any worse than where you are right now.
In fact, it could be better. A LOT better.
It’s that moment when Alice starts following the rabbit.
When Harry takes Hagrid’s hand and leaves the Dursleys.
When Martin Luther wrote his Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences.
When Steve Jobs decided to take a calligraphy class.
And long before any of these folks changed their world, they changed themselves.
They made a decision to answer the call inside them to something…
…something more.
…something greater.
…something honest.
…something true.
…something that resonated within their spirit.
None of them knew what would happen – just that they needed a personal change of pace or scenery. And they believed – even if only for a moment – that what they were going after was going to be better for them than where they currently are.
For a long time, I’ve held a belief that we’ve grossly misinterpreted what Jesus was about in this world. One of the facets of that belief stems from a statement Jesus was purported to have made, wherein he says that we will be able to do all the things that Jesus himself could do, and even greater things than that.
It’s always fascinated me that we somehow have all this miraculous potential inside ourselves – to manipulate energy and make miracles happen – and yet most of us don’t have a clue how to do it, if it’s possible at all.
We just don’t know.
And yet, there’s a whole world of people pursuing alternative healing modalities – without drugs, doctors or invasive/chemical procedures. People who wield their own thoughts, fancy (or simple) meal plans, stones and more to shift the energy of themselves or others.
It’s quite fascinating, and yet no one knows with certainty whether any of it consistently works. It may work for some, sometimes.
But we just… don’t… KNOW.
And it’s something I’m keen to explore – and I know it sounds crazy. I’m blessed that my biggest health issue is my weight. I’m rarely sick, have pretty high energy levels most of the time and rarely take an asprin when I have a headache.
But there’s this part of my curiosita (curiosity, for those that don’t speak Italian) that won’t shake it loose. So I keep reading, and keep getting fascinated by the subject.
And it’s this curiosity that drives innovation in the world.
See, 200 years ago, people didn’t fly in planes – but daVinci had drafted this fancy plan for a flying machine a few hundred years before that.
Believe it or not, in the 1980′s Sir Richard Branson cracked an April Fool’s joke about creating a little “music box” to download your music digitally, years before Apple introduced the i-pod.
While I’ll probably keep playing around with healing energy for the remainder of my days (and may never get a concrete answer), I have other curiosities that drive me. I want to help entrepreneurs see what’s really going on in their work and lives. That’s why I launched the Real Results program – and gave people the ability to really name their own price.
And I want to do more than that.
When the new LisaRobbinYoung.com launches, the first project I’ve got planned is something so vital, and yet so unlike anything I’ve ever done before (at least in terms of the topic). It calls to me like nothing I’ve ever wanted to do before. It wakes me up at night, keeps me up some nights, and won’t let me work on other days.
So I have to answer this call, because I know that wherever it takes me, it’s got to be better than where I’m at right now.
What’s your idea? What’s calling you from the unknown into a place that feels better than where you are right now? When will you answer that call?
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The Hero In All Of Us
Last year about this time, I put together this video mashup of two scenes from Spider Man 2. In it, you hear Aunt May talking about how there’s a hero in all of us as an underscore to the big train rescue scene I spliced together to fit. YouTube suspended the video not long after I posted it (copyright issues, I’m sure), but then somewhere along the lines in the last year, they restored it.
The irony? I didn’t know about it until a few weeks ago.
Read MorePermission To Be Amazing: Granted
The past 6 weeks have been mind-boggling in all the right ways. Today’s video explains better than I can articulate in words:
My wish for you:
That you acknowledge right now, today, in this very moment, that you already have permission to be amazing. Take hold of it and ride it as far as you can go. And when the time comes that you must open your hand, don’t be afraid, recognize that it’s time to take another hand and ride on again.
Read MoreWebadventure Day 37: Where Your Heart Is…
“When you are not that interested in what you are doing you stop paying attention to the details.”
- Al Pacino
For the past year or so, I’ve been slipping. Or I should say, I’ve been letting things slip.
Among the many entrepreneurial endeavors I’ve jumped into, one – Direct Sales Classroom – has been a constant, stabilizing force in my life for the past 4 years. What began completely by accident has grown into a significant chunk of my annual revenues (and profits, which is the number that really matters in business). Plus, I enjoy working with direct sellers. I know their pain intimately, having been in direct sales myself for nearly two decades. I speak their language, I get what they’re up against, and I’m fairly confident at helping them grow their business and still be able to have a life.
That “division” of my company has grown steadily in the past four years, and I eventually came to need help managing it. Some of you may know “my Bonnie”, as I often refer to her. She helped me handle a lot of the back end, behind-the-scenes stuff that kept DSC running like a well-oiled machine. Bonnie allowed me to free up my time to focus on IPA (Income Producing Activities & Important Personal Activities). It’s something I preach, and finally a division of my company was “big enough” to warrant the additional support.
But something happened along the way in the last two years with my Bonnie helping me grow the business:
I got “distracted” – not in a bad way, mind you. I got distracted from the nitty-gritty daily “grunt work” of running my business.
And I liked it – a LOT.
I also got to focus more on what really excites me: helping action-oriented entrepreneurs grow a successful business AND have a life. In the process, I launched two different websites, thinking they would be “THE” thing that would finally put my work into focus again. The Renaissance Mom was my attempt to hone in on a mom-preneur niche that ended disasterously with two failed attempts to bring a live event to market. To say I learned a few lessons is the understatement of the century, me thinks. I finally dissolved that division this year – and had to let my Bonnie go in the process. Before that happened, though, I launched this site, Business Action Hero, at the beginning of 2011 – quietly at first, and thrilled at watching all kinds of action-oriented entrepreneurs climb out of the woodwork to connect in this new sandbox.
And slowly, my attention shifted almost completely, to this new online arena. I kept creating products and programs for DSC, but BAH was where my heart was. I wasn’t “mailing it in” yet at DSC, but I was getting close.
I’ve already made mention of my weekend in Minnesota, and how it opened my eyes to more of who I really want to be am. Well, the return drive (all 12 hours of it), gave me even more clarity and insight into the next steps of my journey. But I was too scared to move forward.
Then, Godly enough, one of my brilliant clients, @LesMcKeown, offers up this post, explaining how bootstrapping is great, but also creates a hidden trap for people that want to grow beyond being a solopreneur.
“And it’s at this point that all sorts of subliminal stuff kicks in, testing the solopreneur’s commitment to building their business. Do I really want to do this? Is this worth it? Is there a financially viable future if I make this commitment?”
- Les McKeown
Les offers a few questions to stir the pot on making the decision to grow or stay put. In asking myself those questions, I garnered even more epiphanies:
- I’ve never really wanted to work on my own, but found that there were fewer obstacles if I just did things my own way.
- Most of my “success” happened because I knew I could help people in a way that wasn’t already covered. Now, there’s all kinds of direct sales coaches and trainers, and my heart’s not in it anymore, even though I love the people.
- I’ve always known (from the time I was three years old), that I was born to stand out – and contribute something to the world that is bigger than myself. 15 years ago, I decided to play it safe instead, since I was pregnant and all. Now, I realize that was
a mistakethe best choice I could make at the time. And it’s time to get back to the task at hand of impacting the world in a more significant way.
My heart is fully vested in reaching people with maximum impact. I recognize now that I can’t do that as a direct sales coach and trainer – or even as a coach to entrepreneurs. It’s a start in the right direction, but the reason I’ve felt so pigeonhole is because it is a pigeon hole.
Which means, eventually, I will have to say goodbye. That excites me and scares me all that the same time. It’s like leaving that job you’ve loved for years to take a better offer somewhere else in the world. I love what I do – and what I’ve done. I just love this new direction so much more.
And the “bump” Les describes really freaks me out. But now that I know it exists, I can make a plan for it. I can take my time and get ready for it. And I just might find a way to smooth it out – I’m always up for a good challenge, you know.
More than a third of the way into this launch, and I’m only now getting started on the foundational stuff like websites, etc. But I’m fairly confident I’ve picked the right “location” and the right “soil” on which to lay this foundation. Keep watching, because like a skyscraper, it will go up a lot faster than you might expect in the next 50+ days.
Matthew 6: 21 says, “For where your treasure is, your heart will be also.” It implies our heart is where our money is. But it also implies that what we focus on becomes more abundant in our life (and biz). What about you? Where is your heart (in your work and your life)? Where is your focus? What are you doing to feed your heart and nourish yourself, your clients, and your world?
Read MoreLearning to Survive
About a month ago, I went to Sarah Robinson‘s Creating Irresistible Presence event, and I’ve been promising you the breakthrough nuggets and lessons learned for a while now.
Here’s the first: Learning, for me, has been a survival mechanism.
One of the most significant epiphanies of my life, and it didn’t happen during the event itself, but rather during breakfast.
I was standing at the hi-tops with Al Smith and Tami Morello, and somehow we got on the topic of me being bi-racial, which I think surprises most folks when I first meet them. In the process of outlining my ancestry (it’s a great story, by the way), I found myself explaining how, as a first grader, I was hated by both the black kids and the white kids on the bus because I was not black enough or not white enough, as the case may be. Several of the kids were big, menacing bullies. I was afraid for my safety (I was 6. Work with me).
So my survival skills kicked into play – and I would adapt. I learned the mannerisms and vocal inflections of both communities, and learned how to use them in the right settings at the right times. It was my early introduction to acting, I think, but it was more than acting – I was assimilating. If I sat with the black kids, I would “act black”. If I sat with the white kids, I would “act white” – use your own imagination as to what that meant. I’m not trying to create a race war here.
As I recounted this story, it became clear to me that learning – anything and everything I can get my hands on – is my means of survival. Simon Sinek’s recent post articulates it about as well as I ever could.
In the moment of my epihpany, however, a flood of understanding (and a few tears) came to me.
It explained why I was never attracted to certain topics like medicine or law. Those require special training, so if I was ignorant about those topics, I’d be considered “normal”, and no one would fault/hate me for not having that specialized knowledge.
It explained why I was so smart – reading well above my grade level at a young age. I got transferred to my school district’s ”gifted” program. These cliques weren’t just artsy, musical, or sporty. They were SMART, too. I felt even more compelled to keep reading, staying at the top of my class, trying to earn the respect of this new group of kids – with whom I would spend most of my adolescence. I think it worked – at least a little. Some of those kids still talk to me from time to time.
My brain’s survival mechanism was rewarding me for all the learning I was doing. Each time I was able to assert my knowledge, get good grades, and generally excel at my schoolwork – without being beaten up by my schoolmates, my brain was self-reinforcing the need to keep learning.
So I guess, in a way, I was am addicted to learning.
It’s wonderful and sad all at the same time.
I mean, essentially I’ve had a gun pointed to my head for 30 years. I was told to “learn or die” - so I’ve been learning like crazy.
And you know what? I’m pretty darn smart – and kind of dysfunctional. I get along well with a lot of different kinds of people, but I don’t know enough about any one thing to be amazing at it.
Except maybe performing – because I’ve been doing that in one form or another for 30+ years as well. I’ve easily got my 10,000 hours in when it comes to performing.
Ironically, that’s where I feel most at home. Put a microphone in my hand, put me on a stage, give me a script, let me bring a character to life or tell a story, and I can bring you to emotion. Sometimes, you’ll laugh. Sometimes, you’ll cry. You’ll always be entertained – and usually you’ll be encouraged to think, too. But I haven’t had to be excellent at it – you know, like “get a paying job in hollywood” excellent at it.
Those closest to me say I’m wasting my time coaching -I should be on a stage somewhere. I’ve always thought they were mostly being kind – placating an old timer on the local boards. In Atlanta (and on the way home from Atlanta) two very interesting things happened that made me re-think that notion.
I’ll save that for the next post.
For me, I’ve found a nexus point that I want to pursue – and I want to put my own twist on it. I want to educate and entertain. I want to learn and help others do the same. I’m going way out on a limb here, though, because I’ve been so removed from the industry for so long, I’m not even sure what I’m doing now. And I’m really hoping this isn’t some early mid-life crisis talking.
I’d like to think that the last 30+ years of my life have not just been an exercise in survival, but a paving of the way for me to take the next big leap in my life.
What about you? Is there something you’ve been harboring in a box in your life? Have you been waiting for a “right time” to make something happen? What’s kept you from taking the leap? What’s your next step on that journey? How can I help?
Read MoreAbout Me
Storyteller. Transformer. Entrepreneur. I've won a few awards for writing, music and design, and I'm not resting on my laurels. I focus my energy on helping you succeed and get results. Be sure to say hi, leave a comment and get involved. That's how I roll. Coming Soon
