Posts Tagged "events"

Mompreneur Success: Balancing Your Weakness

Posted by LisaYoung in Big Ideas | 4 comments

This morning I awoke from a vivid dream wherein I portrayed some kind of crime-fighting super hero. I nearly died because my fatal flaw – my “kryptonite” if you will, was flowers, of all things. And we were battling in a greenhouse.

Goofy, I know, but it got me to thinking about how moms are real-life superheros. And just like our make-believe counterparts, we all have a weakness – some fatal flaw that binds us up and holds us hostage in our lives.

If left unattended, it might even be the end of us.

Of course, I’m taking the idea to the extreme here, but one thing I’ve learned in my coaching over the years is that there’s always something – and it’s usually rooted in fear – that keeps us from putting on our golden arm bands, our lasso of truth, and being the superhero of our own lives.

For me, my business is my Achilles’ heel. I love what I do so much, it can become an addiction for me. I admit that I’m hard-pressed to shut down my computer and walk away from it at dinner time. I feel unproductive when I’m home and NOT working! And yes, I feel that way even when there’s plenty of housework to do that would otherwise keep me occupied.

If I’d let it, my business would be the death of me. There’s always something new, exciting and different going on there. I can connect with new people every day online and grow my business faster and faster every day. I’m an adrenaline junkie of sorts, because it becomes so much fun to watch everything unfold in my business.

It’s also the least important thing I could be focusing on.

In the grand scheme of things, my relationships with family and friends take priority. My spiritual development and my faith take precedence. Or at least they should. And when I’m living life in balance, they do. But when the adrenaline calls, sometimes it becomes incredibly painful to turn off the computer and walk away.

Every SuperMom has a weakness. Yours may be time with your children, or the need for adult conversation – or alone time with your significant other. Maybe you have a fear of success, or a mindset that says you need to sacrifice one area of your life in order to be successful in another. What’s holding you back from seeing the success you deserve in your life?

Until you can identify your weakness, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to defend against. The answer lies within you. Here are a few suggestions to help you tap your inner superhero:

1. Think about the grand scheme of things. Superman had Lois Lane. Tarzan had Jane. Every superhero has at least one someone in their life that’s more important than the service they provide to humanity. When you come to the end of your life, it’s those people that will remember you. The legacy you leave behind to you loved ones is far more important than any job you could ever do.
2. Keep the faith. You must believe in something greater than yourself. Whether it’s God, or “truth, justice and the American way”, there’s got to be a bigger mission for the roles you play. As a mom, you’re shaping lives of future generations. As a business owner, it’s got to be about more than just the income.
3. Have some fun! How many times did Superman take Lois out for a flight? You’ve got these super powers, take some time to use them to enjoy yourself. If you’re not making time to celebrate your success, you’re missing out.
4. Watch the pennies. If you’re growing a business, be mindful of the money you’re earning. Fun is important, but so is keeping a balanced budget and paying off debt.
5. Stay healthy. It’s easy to say there’s no time to exercise when your business is booming. There’s always plenty of other things to do that don’t involve exercise. It’s true when people say “if you don’t have your health, you have nothing.” Keep your mind, body and spirit in tip-top-shape by exercising them regularly.

These are just a few suggestions to help you keep your life in balance. When you focus on what’s really important in your life and work, the rest becomes somewhat easier to manage.

© 2010 Lisa Robbin Young.

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Embracing Eclecticism: The Multi-faceted approach to business

Posted by LisaYoung in Big Ideas | 7 comments

Think Richard Branson, Oprah, Kathy Ireland, and the like.

These multi-passionate entrepreneurs have gone big time by embracing their eclecticism, and there’s a good reason for it.

It works.

Simply put, embracing all the facets of who you are means you’ll feel more satisfied in the work that you do. I’m a direct sales coach, and a mom entrepreneur. I fought hard to carve out a niche in the coaching arena and realized that it was only a fraction of who I was, and the work that I do well. In reality, I like working with all kinds of entrepreneurs, and my heart most resonates with parents – and entrepreneurial moms in particular.

So do I give up coaching direct sellers? Hardly! Not only am I good at bringing fast results for direct sales professionals, I LOVE it. Why would I give it up?

However, there are so many hours in a day. Any mom can tell you that. How do you bring all the things that you love under one roof? Here are my strategies for embracing eclecticism:

1. Focus on one project at a time. This is a challenge for entrepreneurs, but in order to find success in anything, you’ve got to focus on SOMETHING – even if it’s only for a short time. I completed my book and developed my coaching client base so that I had enough income to pursue other interests. The more money you have to throw at a project, the easier it is to keep multiple plates spinning at once.
2. Develop a reputation for excellence. If you sell crap, people will talk. If you deliver the goods, consistently, reliably, and with quality, people will also talk – and they’ll trust you when you branch out into other categories or markets. They’ll refer others to you based on their history with you – even if they’ve not sampled your new venture. When I launched The Renaissance Mom this year, I was able to introduce my existing clients rapidly to my new venture. I just launched the first product for the new company, The PEACE System, and I had more than 80% attendance on the live preview call (I’ve NEVER had that kind of turnout, and I’ve been told that 30% is more typical.) Some clients embraced it immediately, others sent me referrals because they knew my reputation for delivering a quality program. A reputation for excellence begets clients more rapidly.
3. Diversify slowly. Don’t throw 15 irons in the fire. Give your new project enough focus to have a fighting chance for success. Oprah incubates projects under her care. Branson has an entire panel of people considering new venture investments. When you decide on something, take action to make it successful, but take your time when adding to your business “portfolio”.
4. Grow your support team. Whether it’s support staff (VA’s, employees, etc.),  an emotional support team or a mastermind group, you can’t grow beyond yourself by yourself. A solid support team makes exponential growth easier, and more possible.
5. Enjoy your success. It doesn’t mean a hill of beans if you have an incredible team of people and a highly profitable business if you can’t take time off to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Find ways (even small ones) to reward yourself and celebrate your accomplishments. It’s a form of self-care that shouldn’t be ignored.
6. Rinse and repeat.

What about all those ideas you want to work on? Start with the low hanging fruit first – do what comes easiest, and add projects as time and money allow. I keep a mental lock-box of ideas for later use, and incorporate them into my PEACE System process each day. It’s fun to be able to pull them out (and dust them off sometimes), and figure out where they fit in the grand scheme of  ”my business empire.”

Don’t panic if you have a ton of ideas. Sequester them, assess them, and decide where to move first. Then you can come back later and add the others to your arsenal. You, too, can become the multi-faceted, multi-passionate entrepreneur you’ve always dreamed you’d become.

Game Changers

Posted by LisaYoung in Big Ideas, Faith |

Every other weekend, my husband and I make a 6-hour trek to visit our oldest son down in Ohio. My husband, being the shy sensitive type, is not one for much in the way of conversation, which makes these trips awkward at best. I, being the more talkative of the two of us, can get downright frustrated (to tears) when we travel for long stretches of highway with nary a word between us. Twelve hours of silence can really put me on edge!

But this weekend, we talked and talked and talked. And then we talked some more.

I had been praying for this breakthrough for a while. During the week before our departure, my husband suggested we create a list of topics to discuss on the trip so he could be “prepared”. Me? I don’t need preparation. I was great at impromptu debates and speeches in school. Give me a topic and I can talk for miles. Not so, my husband. So we made a long list. And we hit nearly every topic during our twelve hour ride.

We talked about football, politics, and my upcoming live event. We discussed marketing ideas, gardening, and the very sensitive topic of finances.

Then it happened: The Game Changer.

My husband said, in a somewhat off-hand manner, “I admit that choosing to keep our finances separate when we married was a mistake.”

Whoa.

I had to stop him. This seemingly trivial statement of hindsight changed the entire playing field of our marriage. Not only because he acknowledged making a mistake (draw your own conclusions, ladies), but because he vocalized it in a serious conversation with me.

I thanked him and observed how that small acknowledgment was actually a major Game Changer in our relationship. I then noted how often those kinds of off-hand, seemingly insignificant moments are the real Game Changers in our lives (and our businesses).

For me, there are BIG moments that changed my life – those are the easy ones to recall. Childbirth, marriage, moving across country, choosing a home-based career. Those are some of the defining moments of my life.

But let me tell you about a Game Changer that, once you hear the story, it might just change your mind about the details of your life.

I met my husband through an online dating service. We were ‘chatting’ and we planned to meet for the first time, just an hour later. It was very impromptu, with no real planning behind it. He lived about an hour away, so I figured we had plenty of time to make it to the appointed destination, which was closer to my home than his.

Not only did he arrive slightly early, he held in his hand a flower he had picked up on the way.

That flower was a Game Changer and neither of us realized it until this past weekend.

You see my husband watched me to see how I responded to the flower. It was nice, and I thanked him for it. As the server came to our table, I asked for a glass of water (no ice) for the flower. I didn’t really know what else to do with it, since I didn’t want to put it on the chair or the table because it might get squished. So I cut the stem, right there in the restaurant, and placed it in a glass of water for the duration of our meal.

Doesn’t seem like much, does it?

But my husband was impressed with how I cared for that flower – how I almost seemed to cherish it. I didn’t see it as just a toss-away gesture that some guys make when they’re trying to impress a girl on a first date. I was impressed that he managed to be on time AND stopped on the way to bring me the flower. We didn’t plan it, so he didn’t have time to strategize, and he’s not one to just keep a flower on hand in case an “emergency date” turns up on his calendar.

That flower, that seemingly insignificant gesture, led to 9 dates in 2 weeks’ time. Nearly 7 years later, we have a 4 year old child and a 5 year old marriage that would not have happened, had it not been for that little flower.

Game Changers aren’t the huge, defining moments of our lives, but very often, they are the details that make the difference.

It’s the admission of guilt, which doesn’t change the damage done, but paves the way for forgiveness.

It’s the invitation extended to a stranger to join you for lunch, in an otherwise crowded cafeteria, that paves the way to a big business deal.

It’s the unexpected in the commonplace.

It’s a small kindness that pays a tremendous return – without expectation of any kind.

Those are the Game Changers. And I had a couple this weekend. You’ll learn more about them in the coming weeks, but be assured that these small details are everywhere – if we’re looking for them.

This Game Changer reconfigures our financial landscape. What that means exactly is still being determined, but it’s one more positive step in the process of becoming a true partnership, not just two people married to each other.

What are the Game Changers in your life? Can you point to the seemingly little things that made a big difference in who you are and what your life has meant? I’d love for you to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals: Blonde Don’t Live Here No More

Posted by LisaYoung in Big Ideas, Faith |

Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals – BHAGs. These are the stuff entrepreneurial dreams are made of. BHAGs are motivating, inspiring, and often take more than a minute or two to complete. In fact, sometimes it can take years to bring a BHAG to fruition.

But there’s an even bigger, more hairy audacious obstacle that prevents many entrepreneurs from ever attaining their BHAG.

Distractions. Entrepreneurs have a horrible time with this. We’re constantly distracted by the ideas that float into our brains. Great ideas, though they may be, we’re often found floating from idea to idea, never really completing anything.

Several terms have been concocted to describe this condition. Shiny object syndrome is a pervasive problem amongst entrepreneurs. According to one study, about 50% of entrepreneurs demonstrate ADHD tendencies, and becoming distracted is a big issue.

So if you have big, clearly defined goals, what can you do to stay on track?

For me, it took dying my hair a bright, shiny, platinum blonde color.

From This...

To This

I took a LOT of flak for this change. And the comments (to my face) ranged from “Oh GAWD! What were you thinking?” to “Wow! You look AMAZING!” – and everything in between. I can only imagine some of the snickering that went on behind closed doors.

Deciding to go blonde had nothing to do with having more fun, or really even about being more visible – although those were possible side effects. For me, there was a deeper meaning to embracing my “inner blonde”.

It was a constant, daily reminder of three BHAGs I needed to accomplish in my life.

Every morning I wake up, I look in the mirror and see this face, surrounded by this hair – an unavoidable reminder of things left undone. Things that MUST be completed before my hair goes back to a more, um, natural shade.

I could have chosen a less outspoken color, but part of the shift that needed to happen in me was being able to embrace my outspoken nature. And the other goals I’ll talk more about at my live event this fall.

Some people can use a vision board, or write it down, or do a daily visualization and consistently hold those goals in their mind. Some people can plug it into a computer, a PDA or have someone else hold them accountable.  I’m not one of those people. Ink washes away. Strings break. Kids spill stuff on your PDA, delete your hard drive, and decide to color on your vision board.

I needed something indelible. Something that wouldn’t rub off, wash off, or get lost in the translation. So about this time last year, I made the leap from dark brown to blonde (with a pit stop at orange. There’s a picture somewhere on Facebook, I think. It’s horrible.).

In the intervening year, my “daily reminder” was met by occasional snide remarks – even from family and friends. The suggestions to “pick a more flattering color”, the questioning, and the outright assumptions on the part of most people were more examples of how people don’t always ‘get it’ when we want to accomplish something huge. Sometimes our closest friends think they’re doing us a favor. They think they’re being supportive, but in reality, they’re trying to fit our BHAG into their world.  People don’t understand (or care to understand) the motivation behind the transformation, they only judge the outward manifestation of the first step.

Crazy? Silly? Stupid? Unflattering? Perhaps. But I didn’t go blonde to please you. I didn’t even do it to please me.

The thing about changing your hair color to something VERY different from your natural color is that it requires work to maintain. You can’t just quit when the going gets tough – or another distraction comes along.

When the roots come in, you’ve got to decide to keep going or go back. Cut it off or let it grow. For me, this was a very visceral, tangible, and physical manifestation of my business and personal goals.

Do I quit just because it’s hard? Just because I haven’t reached my goal yet?

Do I cut myself off just because other people are telling me it can’t be done – or that I’m too (old, fat, young, smart, dumb, poor, educated, etc.)?

Do I keep going, or go back?

I chose (and continue to choose) to ‘let it grow’.

A couple of weeks ago, I hit goal number one of three. So blonde don’t live here no more.

My target is to complete goals two and three so that this whole “hairy goal” thing is ironed out by August – and settle on the final hair color for the rest of my 30′s.

Or until my next BHAG comes into view.