Whatever you do, don’t lose control
If you think back over the most stressful times in your life – illness for yourself or a family member, loss of a job or major client, a death in the family – I would venture to say that there’s a common thread through all of these stressful times: Lack of control.
Because home-based entrepreneurs see themselves as pioneers, we pride ourselves on our take-charge attitudes and get-it-done approach to life. Therefore, not being in charge of what’s happening can cause us a great deal of anxiety. We want to fix things, now. When we can’t fix things, or we don’t know how to fix things, we can become very stressed and even freak out a bit.
When faced with a situation where you’re not in control, here are three ways you can maintain an even keel, despite the foul weather:
Find something you CAN control.
When the world is spinning away from you, it can feel like there’s nothing you can control. Not true! In any situation, there’s SOMETHING you can control. Let’s say your major client is having financial difficulties. You may think you are at the whim of their financial ups-and-downs, but you can start regaining a feeling of control by searching out other clients to replace this financially strapped client if they would need to part ways with you. Or you could get your own finances in order and do some proactive belt-tightening so that the loss of one client doesn’t send your world into a tailspin.
You are NOT helpless, and the sooner you find something to control, the sooner you’ll feel less anxious about the future.
Focus on the moment.
Stress comes when we stop focusing on the here and now and start ruminating over the horrible things we wish hadn’t happened yesterday, or about the horrible things we fear will happen tomorrow. If we ground ourselves in the present moment, we find we’re still alive, still functioning, and still able to make decisions. Once we lose site of that fact, though, the stress seeps in. When your thoughts start spinning out of control, gently reel them back in. Take a few deep breaths, remind yourself that you are okay, right now, and then find something productive to do in this moment to protect against what you fear.
This may be difficult for some people to do because they honestly don’t believe they can control their thoughts. It’s true that when our mind is spinning out of control, thoughts do seem to just keep popping into your head. One method health professionals use to quiet discomforted patients is with visualization and repeating positive phrases. This actually does help to quiet the mind so you can gain control, once again, of your thought processes. Once you have quieted your mind, you can choose to focus on the here and now and take back control.
Remind yourself of your expertise and experience.
Stress also comes when we are afraid we can’t handle the horrific scenarios we’ve created for ourselves when we doubt our competence. If our client goes away, then what? If the economy tanks further, then what? If our website crashes, then what? If we knew we’d be okay in the future because we have the expertise to handle these situations, the stress about the future would be a thing of the past.
One tip to combat that stress is to remind yourself of all the tough circumstances you’ve already navigated through successfully. Think about situations you went through in the past and how you handled them. While past success is no guarantee of future performance, as they say in the stock market, it still is a pretty good indication of how things will turn out.
“Sorry No catchy, salesy, promising
headline here?”
According to the marketing gurus and marketing rules of promotion it is important to have a keyword rich and powerful headline when preparing any announcement, sales page or promotion…So why I decided not to write one here you ask? Well here is three reasons why or why not.
- I have something very important to tell you and in order to you’re your attention, I needed to go against the grain to get you to read up until this point.
- I want you to focus on the important stuff instead of the fluff. So I will not include any testimonials, no bonuses, no last minute deadlines, no reason to believe.
- I want you to sign up because you are looking to take action in your personal and professional life. That’s it. This letter is all about taking action, and joining me for the FREE info call.
Please join the call if you:
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are committed to turn your vision into a reality
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looking to find and implement balance
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committed to your personal and professional success
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needing support, encouragement and guidance
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searching for your life work or purpose
On this call you will find out how to connect with
the right mentor or coach.
The New Year Mindset Mastery info call will be 30
minutes of action packed info, that will explain the
process of designing an easy and confident plan of
action for your next endeavor. You don’t have to do this
by yourself. There is someone out there who can
support you along the way.
If you are feeling a nudging in your spirit and a yearning
in your soul, then it is time to take a leap of faith
and let me help you package your passion and shift your
mindset to become a success magnet.
Take a look at your inner circle and see who needs a 72 hour eviction notice. Start drafting up your notices this week. We cannot move in action if we allow squatters to take up valuable space.
As women on the move, women in action, women of power of mothers of this earth, we have to be careful who we allow to stay and occupy space in our home, our minds, our business’s, our relationships, our life in general. We allow people to fill vacancies that need to be left alone. We are growing and need to have room for abundance and prosperity.
I barely watch TV but, I turned it on and wanted to see what the big hype was about with this new show called Hoarders. Well to my surprise that was one of the worst and gross shows I have ever seen. These people have allowed the past and the present situations and circumstances cloud their minds and their homes. They allowed so much stuff to pile up externally that the real work was needed internally, to really be healed. Many of those hoarders were covering up space with things, and the people around them have just adjusted to the lifestyle and did not attempt to make any changes. In my opinion they are worse off than the hoarder themselves because they were taking up space as well.
Let’s begin to flush out and clean up the mess we have inside and out. I always direct the question back to myself. Where can I begin to clean up in my life? What do I need to do to get my business in order? What do I have clouding my path to success? Is it my inner circle that is taking up space like a squatter or my outer circle which are people who I feed into more than I feed into myself? How much longer am I going to allow people, things and past situations take up space in my life?
If you have BIG dreams and aspirations and you know you have a destiny to fulfill you must begin within. I repeat you must begin within. Who do you need to give a 72 hour notice to? Could it be you? Getting out of your own way your friends, your family, your spouse, your job? Think about it and begin to hand out notices that in 72 Hours you will no longer have room for squatters.
Make sure you sign up for my newsletter so that you can get the first dibs on CMD is on a mission called Operation: M.I.A. Moms in Action. You can support us by telling 10 women/moms to connect with us here.
Get Paid More – Right Now!
By Barb Wade, M.A.
Do you dread hearing the words, “So, what do you charge?” Knowing how much to charge and confidently standing behind those fees is the Achilles Heel of many entrepreneurs.
In fact, some service providers feel so much discomfort when stating their fees that they squirm, buckle, stutter, or even apologize when doing so!
But those of us who are also moms have it even tougher because we tend to be self-sacrificing. Moms are so used to giving to everyone else – our children, our spouses, the church, the PTA – that it can feel odd or even “wrong” to give to ourselves by being well paid.
Here’s a fact: a significant number of coaches, consultants, and service-based entrepreneurs charge way too little – especially if they are also moms. They undervalue their worth and are quick to discount their already low rates when asked. And many feel that making real money and “being of service” are somehow incompatible. But nothing could be further from the truth.
You deserve to be richly paid for the valuable gifts you share with the world!
Your specific expertise, knowledge, and know-how, and its ability to enhance and transform your clients’ lives and/or businesses is highly valuable. Your clients desperately need the information and instruction that you have to offer in order to solve their biggest, most challenging problems.
So why is it so hard to charge appropriately for the tremendous benefits that you bring your clients?
There are many factors that make this a problem area, including “money barriers” — both internal (in your mind) and external (real, practical issues) — that block the flow of abundance. Here are some tips to help you master your response to that dreaded question, “so, what do you charge?”
First of all, answer this question only after you have laid the right groundwork for your prospect to understand the real value of what your are offering. Some people are “bottom line” types and want to get right to the price. You can gracefully redirect them by saying “I’m happy to talk about that with you, but first I’d like to get a little bit more information about you and your needs…”
In order to command higher fees, your clients must understand the incredible results that your coaching, consulting, or service provides for them, and the impact of those results! You are not selling your “time,” you are selling the tangible and measurable outcomes that your clients will enjoy, and that will solve their biggest problems. What are those results worth to them?
Explore where your prospective client is now, and what the cost is of their current situation. Hint: That “cost” is not just monetary, but can include lost time, poor health, bad debt, missed opportunities, broken relationships, or whatever pertains to their circumstances. Then, paint a vivid picture of what is possible for them with your assistance. What will they be able to do, have, or experience at that point that they don’t now?
It’s incredibly important to have “social proof” that allows your clients to trust that you can, in fact, get them to the results that they so desperately crave. One particularly strong form of social proof is to provide testimonials from “raving fan” clients who are thrilled with your services and the results they achieved from working with you.
Another form of social proof that is equally strong is your own personal story. Were you once in the situation that you find most of your clients in, and did you overcome the obstacles you faced to achieve a significant level of fulfillment and success? Tell your story! People want to work with those that they can relate to, and who are living examples of the success that they want for themselves.
Also, cite any official credentials that you may have – degrees, training programs, certifications, etc. Anything that adds credibility will assist you in charging higher fees.
Finally, when it is time to answer the question, speak with authority and confidence. Tell them what you charge and use the word “investment” instead of cost, because no matter what the price, working with you is an investment in themselves or their business. Then be quiet! Let them think about it for a moment. It’s easy to want to start explaining or backpedaling in order to break the tension. Don’t. Wait for them to respond, then deal with any objections they may have.
Perhaps the most important factor in commanding the high fees you desire is how you, personally, feel about yourself and your “right” to be paid such amounts! For whatever reason, many women entrepreneurs in particular tend to discount what they know, and the value of that information. This is a terrible hindrance to your success!
A good strategy is to make a list of all of the contributions you have made to your clients’ lives and the results they have attained. If needed, ask your clients, friends, colleagues, mentors, business partners, and anyone else that you have worked with to tell you what you helped them experience, achieve or create.
You must also remind yourself that what comes so easily to you – either naturally, or because of years of study and experience, or from a combination – is neither obvious nor comes easily to those in your target market. Do not undermine their interest by being self-deprecating about your skills and talents – if you do, so will they!
So, in order to charge what you’re worth (and get it!), take the time to truly embrace the value of your personal skills and expertise. And then practice stating your fees with confidence and conviction.
For more information on our featured Corporate Mom Dropout visit www.barbwade.com
Having a plain-Jane blog with a few scattered keywords nowadays isn’t enough to
grab any search engine’s attention. The home-based working mom must choose her
categories and keywords carefully so her important pages will move to the head of
search engine’s list.
What categories does she choose? It depends on what her blog is about. For instance,
if she’s a life coach, and she posts affirmations often, she can use affirmations as a
category. The main thing is to make the categories reflect the subjects she posts about
most often.
Also, there should be no more than five categories, all of which must be short (two
to four words), to the point and keyword rich. Those categories have to be general
enough to have a lot of entries, however. Each category can reflect a different part of
the business. She mustn’t be whimsical about the categories; changing them means
anyone who has earmarked category will lose it. It’s better to add another category, but
not too many.
If the mom is having difficulty finding the right categories, she can go to http://
www.blumenthals.com/index.php?Google_LBC_Categories , which is a Beta site right
now, but has a search engine that offers a multiple choice of category names. Also,
http://google.com/analytics examines the Web site’s traffic so postings can be refined
to boost viewings. Warning: Google Analytics requires putting HTML code into the site,
so the working mom can have a knowledgeable person do it for her or give it a whirl
herself.
Keywords, also only two to four words, should appear in the title of the blog and in the
first sentence. They can also appear in other parts of the blog. The minimum number of
words for a blog is 250.
Remember, search engines look for pages not Web sites, so the categories and
keywords have to be so full of information that once visitors click on the search entry,
they’ll click through other parts of the site. Any mom from life coach to retailer can
maximize outreach and potential income with targeted blog categories and keywords.
Emails, even email blasts, work just fine for ordinary communication, but if the self-employed mom needs her clients to see something she created, for instance, a Web video, then she has two outlets: Youtube and Ustream. Everyone is familiar with Youtube (www.youtube.com), in a lot of cases thanks to Susan Boyle’s Youtube video that went insanely viral. Ustream (www.ustream.com) is slightly different from Youtube because it’s live streaming.
To effectively market a video posted on Youtube is to post it in your blog also. Follow this up with a tweet, a Facebook announcement and an email blast to your blog subscribers and to your alliance partners. Facebook friends can send to their friends and in that way spread the word about your products or services. Since you now have a Youtube account, the site will accumulate all your postings in one place. This means if you post on a regular basis whether weekly, monthly or quarterly, all your posts are in one place.
Ustream is a live feed and so lends itself to something like video conferencing because there’s a section next to the video for people to comment and ask questions. It’s a quick and easy way, pretty much set the camera and go, to brand your services or products and find a global audience. Again, announcements of when you’ll be posting the video are necessary to reach your subscriber base and outreach to others.
Make sure you get the word out there with your video it can make wonders happen for your business. Create and experience that goes viral.
