We all form habits in childhood that may interfere with running a sound and profitable business.
For instance, did you procrastinate as a child, like not cleaning your room when your mom asked? Well, now you’re a mompreneur, and that nasty little habit can get you into a world of hurt in your business. You have to return phone calls promptly; you have to pay bills promptly; you have to write reports promptly. Well, you get the idea. Your livelihood depends on recognizing the habits that will hurt your business and learning a new more business-like habit.
Once you can recognize this baggage from your childhood, you can do something about it. Take a long, hard look at yourself and add up the good points and the bad. If the bad can hurt your business, be stern with yourself and start the retraining campaign. You can accomplish a lot just by taking note every time you slide back into the old routine.
Many years ago before the patches, the pills and the gum there was a smoking cessation trick that had the smokers put many rubber bands around the cigarette pack so that they were aware every time they reached for a smoke. It slowed them down enough so that they could decide whether they could do without. That’s what you need to do. Tie mental rubber bands around the bad habit, and every time you feel yourself slipping, you can stop and follow the new business habit.
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.
When is the last time you put your vision on paper. I am not talking about a 30-page business plan or the hottest self-improvement seminar that you went to and had to fill out a questionnaire or assessment. I am talking elementary school. Taking glue, pictures, colors and phrases and placing your vision on a board. This concept known as a Vision Board is a visual explorer.
It is our thinking, more than our surroundings, which determines our level of happiness. Hold a thought and you will create an emotion. That emotion drives a behavior, which in turn creates an event. To change your events you must first change your vision.
I was up one Sunday morning watching Joel Osteen and he was talking about visions and he stated that we must change our vision in order to change our lifestyle…he used chickens and eagles as an example. Chickens vision is limited, they only go after more of the same thing that is placed in front of them and they are always pecking down, they never look up for other things to eat. Eagles on the other hand uses his vision and soars, he chooses to get his food from afar, his vision is expanded and he uses that to survive. Which one are you? The chicken who just accepts what’s in front of him and continues to look for more of the same, or an Eagle who soars and reaching far to get what he wants?
The challenge, for most of us, is to move from pessimistic thinking to a place where your thoughts create feelings of hope and joy. So how do you do it? Simple, no secret, you create a Vision Board or better yet do what I do, have a Vision Board Party where you get a group of friends together with magazines, books, anything visual, and you cut out pictures that represent how you envision your life/business in the future. This whole process helps you turn your visions into reality and watch your goals come to fruition right before your EYES.
The concept of vision boards has been around for years; I actually started researching this concept last year and have conducted a Vision Board Party in Feb 2009. As a living testimonial, I was able to accomplish 80% of my goals for my life and business that I had on my vision board for 2009. Most people have a hard time creating a life plan or business plan and a hard time believing in the success of accomplishing their goals, but this visual process will give the motivation you need to go after “What’s been holding you back”.
Here are some tools you will need:
1) Create a vision board that includes pictures of things that you would like to have in life. Include things that you know you cannot afford right now, but if money were not an option you would have it right now. Items could include a vacation, a new house, a husband, wife, kids and of course more money and health. The pictures can come from anywhere such as magazines, computer printouts, and newspapers.
2) Place the vision board in an area where you’ll see it throughout the day.
3) Look at each picture on your vision board at least daily, and daydream about having that thing in this present moment. Allow yourself to be fully engaged in the daydream, and have fun with it.
Enjoy your visual creation and please keep your eye on the prize.
If you are in the NY area on January 26th you are invited to attend the Empire State of Mind Vision Board Party: click here for more information
