2012 Life Strategies you can live with

2012 Life Strategies You Can Live With

Nine days before the year end. Hmm, if you are like me you are thinking long and hard about what did and did not work in your life and in your business in 2011.  You are journaling, some of us are writing action plans to try alleviate some of the challenges we encountered.  Personally, I am thinking about what it is exactly that I want for my life and my business.  I am diligently thinking about my strengths, assessing my weaknesses, and with that information I want to create a strategic plan to reach my goals.

It is my belief that you have to take some time to implement some mini personal development exercises. This is the time when I try to meditate and zone in on my sweet spot.  What is it that I do, that I am passionate about, and what is it that brings me the truest reward. For me it is the place where I feel I am in the will of God for my life.  My center, my strength and my purpose lies there.  The key here is, how do you arrive at this place?

I have a few suggestions that I would like to share with you on how to can get there:

The Review

•        list the goals you set last year
•        check off the ones you reached
•        highlight the ones you didn’t reach

Identify

•         First decide if the goals you did not reach still make sense for your life in 2012
•         Then for the goals you highlighted(the ones you did not accomplish) honestly jot down  why you believe it did not happen for you.

Solve For

•         Now write 5 things you can do each day to make what you missed out on happen for you in 2012

Work it

•          Schedule time for the 5 things you listed and move forward.

This is just a strategy, I am sure there are more ways as my mom would say to skin a cat!

Love to hear from you.

Can you do a back bend? 3 Steps to let go of your fear and embrace opportunity

Can you do a back bend? This is not some type of cynical joke or set-up question.  Really can you do a back bend?  What is a back bend?  A back bend is a common gymnastics, contortion, or dance move, done by standing straight, bending the spine backwards, and catching yourself with your hands. When you do a back bend your abdominal muscles, and your legs are used to steady your body while curving backwards.  It’s a real feat! 

If you are thinking like me, in my mind I am feeling very uneasy.  I feel awkward just thinking about it.  It just makes me plain nervous.

So again, Can you do a back bend?  What I am getting at here is that in both your personal and business life there will be opportunities for you to STRETCH yourself beyond where you are.

I had the opportunity to conduct a breakout session for a group of people that were not my usual audience.  My usual audience consists of women entrepreneurs or leaders between the ages of 18-35. But today I found myself in the midst of some of the most intelligent and elite educators this side of the gulf coast.  Like the thought of doing a back bend, a nervous energy arose in the pit of my stomach.  I tried to figure out ways to get out of what I had committed myself to do.  I knew I had done this before.  But what feared me the most was not my actual presentation but the people I would be presenting it too.  Would they welcome my message?  Will they think that I was qualified enough to give this type of presentation?  Would they even like me?  I was shaking in my boots. The sad part about it is that while I was creating the presentation, I had a lot of blocks in my creativity because of it.  Then I thought about ways I can actually get out of the presentation entirely.  Being the person I am there was no way I would commit to something and not go through it.  That is just not in my DNA.  So what did I do? 

 Here are some steps that will help you should you find yourself faced with what I am now calling Back Bend Syndrome:

 #1 Step away from the computer

The minute you feel uncertain, anxious, and unconfident about what you are preparing for your presentation, you need to walk away.  Walking away is not a retreating mechanism but a reloading mechanism (Sarah Palin I think you are on to something) Walking away allowed me to clear my mind, organize my thoughts, pray, call on a friend for encouragement.  It allowed me to regain control over my assignment.

 #2 Clarify the initial assignment

Being clear about the objectives, the vision of the assignment you are completing is sure to be a confidence booster.  When you understand what you are doing, you can take that assurance and begin to build your working momentum.

 #3 Go ahead and JUMP!

There are times when you can not really be so analytical in your thinking.  You have to throw those unreliable emotions out the door. Know that the opportunity came your way, so God is going to see you through it.  You know what you know; you have done this before, just people with different faces with a higher IQ.  Intelligence can be intimidating but not to you because you have done your research, you have done your due diligence when it came to preparation.

 So there you have it!  I did my back bend for this week.  A good approach for handling obstacles that comes with my opportunities.  The presence of obstacles is usually evidence that I am in the vicinity of breakthrough.  The challenge is just a distraction, and you have to take it by the reigns and move forward. 

 How do you deal with your fear when faced with a new opportunity?

2011 the final countdown: 3 quick strategies to power up for the New Year

Well it is officially here or almost here 2011.  Over the last couple of weeks I have been diligently trying to prepare for the New Year.    I have been organizing not just my physical space but my mental space.  And it has been great challenge thinking about what I want 2011 to look like.  What goals do I want to set that I will actually commit to?  What are the things that need to happen in 2011 in order to stay in alignment with my life purpose; God’s plan.  It can all get a little overwhelming.  I have created checklist after checklist, action plans (I love those), and post it notes as reminders but I am still not totally sold that I am ready for 2011.  So, I am going to attempt to go back to the basics of what I believe each individual with a dream or passion for something great can do in order to get a clearer vision for 2011. 

#1- Revisit accomplishments for 2010

Taking an inventory of the prior year’s accomplishments are not for you become stagnated about in regards to your past success but to ignite and inspire you that great things can and will happen in 2011.  Sometimes we forget about those awesome things that were manifested as a result of our faith and hard work, and revisiting them maybe the small spark we need to build momentum for what’s to come.

#2 -Stretch your goal capacity even further

Usually in goal setting we are either on one far end of the spectrum by setting goals we have no intention seeing through, or we set goals that are way to easy and small for the life purpose and plan that God has for us.  I dare you to do something different.  I dare you to make a declaration in the form of goal and then do two things.  First believe that it can happen for you and then create an easy daily agenda- a checklist that includes bite- sized tasks that you can do everyday towards that goal.

#3- Refine your focus

One of the major life lessons I learned this year is that life happens.  What I mean is that no matter how much you plan there will always be those things that will distract you from your divine course.  We find ourselves not able to get to the things that have priority because of a situation, a challenge in a relationship, and of course uncalculated changes.  Shifts happen regardless if we are prepared for them are not.  So we should for 2011, accept that change is inevitable, deal with it, and quickly get back on track with our agenda.  Let’s not spend a lot of time dealing with something we can not control but focus more on the life lesson that emerges from it then refine our focus on the assignments that are on the table for us to complete.

So there you have it, my last blog post for the year 2010.   I close with this:  believe all things are possible with God and that 2011 will be an exciting and prosperous year!

What have you done to power up for 2011?

4 Simple Business Relationship Builders for 2011

Approaching the year end for most of us is a daunting task.  We spend a lot of time trying to plan for the incoming year and assessing the current year.  I have been thinking about specifically what things that I did accomplish this year, things that faired well as it relates to meeting my business and ministry objectives.  And those things that did not fair so well.  I think we should also be thinking about what things we need to actually do to meet our goals in the year 2011 and what things we need to simply to do better.  In all that I am assessing and planning the one thing that has really been on my mind is the importance of building authentic relationships.  Building relationships that go far beyond a networking experience.  Relationship building, I believe for 2011 will be the key for an increase and true advancement in any business endeavor.   Seeking out individuals and creating powerful collaborations is what I believe will allow all parties to take their business initiatives to the next level. 

I plan to implement a coaching model that teaches individuals how to construct business strategies that are more relational.  We should be creating and making efforts to get to know the individuals that are behind the wheel in the marketing place.  We should begin to listen more effectively to those people who drive the business goals for an organization.  And then we should take that information and begin to create products and services that have a balance of both the needs and the wants.  This approach will alleviate a lot of time spent developing products that our patrons, clients and customers have no interest in.

 So the question is, what type of things can we infuse in our business models that will allow us to begin to develop more functional and authentic relationships in the marketplace?

 Here are my recommendations:

 #1   Bring back the survey.  Creating and conducting a concise survey to your industry niche is a great way to listen and build relationships with prospects.  Making sure you ask short and relevant questions so that you will have exactly the information needed to introduce new products and services or even bring old ones back or maybe even revamp them if necessary.

 #2  Create a mastermind group.  The mastermind group is simply a group of individuals coming together who have similar interests to talk and converse about their ideas and concepts for doing business in area of interest.

 #3  Create feed back opportunities using social media.  Interfacing your business with FB and Twitter is a great way to solicit feedback from prospects not to mention a way to listen by investigating the posts of prospects.

 #4  Integrate online and offline forums.  We don’t need anyone to tell us that millions of people spend a lot time online or that there is steady increase of online sales but face to face and online venues together should be offered so that you have opportunities to connect with others on both levels.

These are few of my suggestions for building authentic relationships.  I also need to mention that I began a list of potential individuals that I can actually do some viable joint venture projects with and now I am beginning to strategize with them to see how I can help them take their business endeavors to the next level and vice versa.

 What do you think?  What are some ways you can begin to build authentic business relationships for 2011?

His Will or Your Will for 2011 PT2.

I was just sitting at my desk thinking; “Where has the year gone?”  I remember just last November, I was strategizing for the upcoming  year and now here  I am again thinking about what’s to come for the year 2011.  In my last posting God really pressed on me the idea that has we go forward we have to be sure that what We desire meets His desire.  Meaning that His will is our Will.  That the plan He has for us is what We desire.  This posting is pretty much a continuation of that idea.  That as I think about my life, my family, my business, my ministry, my career, that with each area I have to trust Him with it all.  Even as I write this post I stand to be corrected in that the use of the word ‘my’ is even an important detail that needs to be adjusted. 

As a believer, and as we begin to move closer into His purpose, that we must submit and subject ourselves to Him.  That every endeavor, and every opportunity must be birth out of the heart of God, planted into our hearts and then we may proceed with execution.

So a great exercise today is to review 2010.  Begin by listing out your accomplishments. After listing them I suggest you pose the following questions:

• Was this His will or mine?
• Was God pleased with the activity?
• Was the result or objective for the activity met?
• How can I create opportunities to do better next year?

This reflection exercise does two things for us:  It creates awareness about our alignment with purpose, and allows us to begin think about the things we should be accomplishing for 2011.   Let’s move in the next year with focus and clarity of vision.

His Will or Your Will for 2011

As we draw closer to the end of the year I am thinking more and more about what I need to be doing next year.  I have created several plans for the New Year but really I most desire to be in the perfect will of God for my life.  Meaning that I want to be in tune with the Spirit of God as it relates to my assignments for the upcoming season.  That I do not move ahead of him in zeal and in haste but move with Him in partnership for HIS ultimate purpose. 

With every New Year we are all guilty of creating goals, aspirations, and things we desire to accomplish for our lives.  But I am at a level in my walk with God that I am focused on being in the place, the area of service that he would have me to be.  I ask that you would too reflect and commit to praying on your upcoming journey for 2011 on what it is that God desires for your life, that we not fall into the temptation of following hard after ambition but we seek Him and is VISION for our lives—Destiny revealed in us through HIM!

Power Moves Coach, Nickcole Byrd on TBN

Today’s blog post comes from a place of excitement and a exceeding amount of gratefulness!   With the year ending, I want you to reflect on all that God has allowed you to accomplish in this season.  I mean in the midst of  uncertain economical conditions, you have decided to move forward in DESTINY no matter what.  I encourage you to keep the pace you have had all year.  As a matter of fact I suggest that you STEP YOUR GAME UP!   That we have come this far by FAITH!  It’s is not the time to throw in the towel, or to get discouraged by what we see in the media , but begin to  pray and seek God for strategies that will propel us further along in our success journey!

 My hope is that I can share with you that promotion is in the air!

The courage to tell it like it is

In my posting today, I thought it necessary to deal with some leadership issues and challenges that over the last couple of weeks have been popping up on my radar.  It is my observation as we lead, that we have to have some type of balance and check system in place to ensure that we are leading with the upmost integrity and are being the most effective as possible.  That system or structure should strategically set the leader in a place where she can make intelligent decisions for the organization that will propel the vision of the organization forward. 

With the everyday hustle and bustle of leading, business can sometimes allow the leader to loose sight of the vision of the organization.  Thus allowing us to miss something crucial that can hurt the organization or business along the way.   So it is very important that the inner circles, your board of advisers, are a people of courage.  That courage is needed because with any organizations, circumstances arise that challenge the effectiveness of our business.  So the advisors, have to have the courage to openly communicate with its leader should they find her getting of course of the overall objective of the organization. 

It is a simple act of accountability for the vision you bought into.

So, if you function in a role where a leader looks to you for sound advice, and expertise in your field, you must not be distracted from the vision, worry about hurt feelings, or be fearful about the loss of your position because you have sighted something that needed to be exposed or addressed for the sake of the organization.  It is your job; it is your duty, to be forthcoming with anything you see that could cause the downfall of the organization. 

 I wanted to today give three principles for having the courage to tell it like it is:

1.  Prayer and Meditation before you speak- Before you actually approach a leader I think it best to get clarity about what you see in prayer, and get a release of peace about the situation.  Jot down some notes about what you think is the issue to be sure the nature of the issue is clear to both you and the leader you will be approaching.
2.  Look at the organization in a macro aspect not micro- Just because you are assigned to one area you should not limit your responsibility or accountability to just your corner of the organization.  If you identify that there is issue you need to start a conversation with the leader.  The start of a conversation on the matter brings about clarity of the issue, and resolution strategies to bring about change to it.
3. Be sensitive to timing- When approaching a leader about an issue, make sure that when you speak on it you are in the proper environment and that the conversation is conveyed in an appropriate tone. Even if your leader has fallen short, you must remain respectful in your confrontation.  Be respectful but firm.

 My hope is that these principles would be a catalyst for leaders who support other leaders to start a conversation that would take the organization in the direction it was purposefully intended and bring about dynamic change to the leadership cohort.  I would love to hear some of your comments on this issue.

3 Quick Wins for Building your Business Momentum

Have you had just one of those days when you are just not sure what to do next in your business?  You know those days where you kind of know what you should be doing but can not seem to get your MOJO going.  Well sounds like what you need and need pretty quickly is a way to build your M-O-M-E-N-T-U-M!  Momentum in business is a very important element that many entrepreneurs loose sight of especially when you experience inconsistencies in clients and customers.  So today, I wanted to spark a conversation on different tips for building your momentum.

 Ask yourself, “What can I do right now?”

Making a short term list of actionable items will get those creative juices flowing.  Your list should be very simple and concise business tasks that if you accomplish them you will begin to see immediate results.  For example, if you like me and you are still trying to build your list of target customers and have not been consistent in the process, go ahead and begin to set up the proper tools to make it happen.  So your list would look something like this:

1. Set-up aweber.com account
2. Create a free offering in exchange for email information
3. Create two follow-up emails, a thank you and next invite to experience your next product or service in your business funnel.

 Another momentum builder would be to review those business tasks that you have started and are about 80% done and complete them now.  Ask yourself, “What things have you been revising and tweaking and have not fully completed?

And last but least, “Just Do it.”   There are some business ideas and marketing tools you have been talking about implementing for some time now.  Go ahead make it happen.  Attend that networking group you have been trying to connect with, write the article you been thinking about, or start your own networking group.

Business momentum are those small success wins that keep you going in business.  The small wins give you the push to move forward in those bigger tasks.  Your successful achievements brew productivity and productivity brews motivation.  Now, let’s make it happen.  I would love to hear your ideas for building momentum and post them here.

Coworking? What this all about

Recently I came across an action plan I had created for a women’s entrepreneur community network.  The plan like most of the work I do would service those women entrepreneurs who are involved in new business start-ups, for profit or non, consultants /coaches and of course freelancers etc.  Together we would share a physical space and other office resources but most importantly we would have access to each other’s knowledge base.  As I started to rethink this idea, I did some research and found a new concept that is new only in term called, ‘coworking.’  Coworking according to The Global Coworking Blog says that coworking is “redefining the way we do work.”

“The gist of the concept is that independent professionals work better together than working alone.   Coworking spaces agree to uphold the values set forth by those who developed the concept in the first place: collaboration, community, sustainability, openness, and accessibility.”

With this idea in mind, I decided to blog about it to start the conversation regarding this idea of coworking.  Is this something that would fit into the local Houston community?  There are a couple of coworking spots I found the Caroline Connection and the Katy Dock.  But they are mainly focused on the techies.   

So let’s talk about it! 

Are there freelancers out there preferably in Southwest Houston, that would love to get away from the distractions of the home office and network for REAL?  This would be opportunity for us entrepreneurs to make a real business connection.  It would be more about sharing the space and a couple of printers but about learning from one another and engaging one another in relevant and exciting business developments.  I would like to also think that this is just what some of us need to get some of those creative juices flowing and a coworking environment just may be the answer.  Please post your thoughts;)