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Blog Action Day ’09 - What Can One Individual Do To Address Climate Change? Take Action!

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

As with any major shift occurring in the world, one person can’t turn it around all by him/herself. But each of us can have a direct and significant impact, and that impact reverberates and spreads. Blog Action Day ’09 asks us to take responsibility today, speak up, and spark a global discussion on climate change. Join the discussion – add your voice!

Clearly, we are accountable for how we live our lives, for what we model for others and our children. We are responsible for the core messages we send to our family, our community, and the world about what we value, support, and wish to protect and nurture.

How each of us addresses this climate crisis is very similar to the ways in which we handle our own personal crises.

What’s the best way to deal with any crisis?

1. Get out of denial – Admit we have a serious crisis on our hands, and take concrete action to address it.

2. Get accountable – Take responsibility for your own actions and do what you can.

3.Treasure the good – Know what makes life worth living, and value and protect it.

4. Plan for the future – Understand yourself and the far-reaching implications of your actions. Think about the future and what you want to build and leave behind, not just of the present.

5.Commit to being the change you want to see – Step up, and realize that even one new promise or decisive action can create a shift and make all the difference.

In my family of four (with two school-aged children), we focus on doing what we can to contribute to slowing climate change. We use less energy, and cut down on waste. We turn off lights, appliances, and computers that aren’t in use. We’ve reduced our driving, and commit to carpooling wherever possible. We recycle, use energy efficient appliances, support locally grown food, keep the temperature in our house a few degrees lower, properly insulate our home and heater, and take shorter showers and fewer baths.

Another way we contribute to facilitating positive change is by supporting political candidates who care deeply about this issue, and who are 100% committed to enacting policies, laws, and endeavors that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Most importantly, we discuss the issue openly with our children and explore what new things they and their generation can do to help.

I hope people will continue to find their own ways to create breakthrough in how they address this serious crisis. In dealing with climate change, as in handling our personal crises, failing to understand that we’ve co-created the problem and need to shift our behavior, is simply playing the victim. That type of thinking, as we’ve learned, will never get us where we need and want to go.

For me, participating in this action day has spurred me to step up my commitment (for one, I will commit to stopping my use of plastic bags, starting today).

What one step can you take today to step up your commitment?

Thank you for sharing your voice and participating. Wishing our world many powerful breakthroughs.

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Can You Make a Good Living Being a Life Coach?

Monday, October 12th, 2009

by Kathy Caprino

Running a coaching and consulting company dedicated to helping women achieve breakthrough in their lives and work, I meet thousands of folks each year who want to reinvent, many of whom are considering launching a coaching or consulting practice, or other small business of their own.  They long to transition into coaching for solid reasons, and many come with great, top-level experience. 

As a career consultant, I help people evaluate if launching a coaching practice or other venture seems a viable step for them first by conducting a thorough assessment of their goals, abilities, preferences, personality, values, mission, purpose, and long-term plans.  As my book publicist Patti Danos asked me when I was launching my book Breakdown, Breakthrough, I ask my clients, “What do you want, and what do you really want, in doing this?”

After such an assessment, I have often recommended in the past, “Looks like it makes sense at this time to move forward, and that you’ve got a strong grasp of what’s required.  Go for it!” 

Now, however, in these intensely challenging times, I ask this new question, “Are you ready and able to do what it takes to make this successful? Are you 3000% committed?”

About becoming a coach, the average income of a life coach in the U.S. today is between $30,000 - $40,000.  Only 10% to 20% or so make six-figure incomes, and many more life coaches don’t make anywhere near $30,000.  It’s not an easy path, and clients simply will not fall in your lap.  Success requires time, action, commitment, and a good number of top level skills to differentiate yourself, and to generate a large enough community to continue to fill your pipeline of paying clients.

A coach from the largest coaching organization in the world told me last week that of all the folks that reach out to them to pursue coaching, only 40% are truly “coachable,” and of those, only 30% end up signing up for services.  Those stats apply to my business as well.

I realized something this week that feels like a real “aha” to me – coaching is for a group or culture that is at the highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – the level of self-actualization.  Today, however, our economic strife has pushed millions of people us down several levels of the hierarchy – to the level of “safety” — so that their primary focus now is on financial safety and security. 

If you’re interested in starting a practice/business as a life coach during these times, I’d ask you to seriously evaluate yourself, your abilities and talents, your passion for this, and your commitment to launching and maintaining a thriving practice/business.  These questions apply to you if you’re considering any entrepreneurial, small business, or consulting endeavor as well:

Ask yourself the following questions:

• What must I earn each year, to achieve the standard of living I need?  What have I earned before (and if I want to top that, what will I do differently)?

• What’s my risk tolerance?  Can I tolerate a lack of stability, fluidity, and security?

• What is my relationship with money today?  How do I deal with it, earn it, save it, invest it and grow it?  Are my actions around money, and feelings, and views powerful and healthy?  Are you committed to making the living you want?

• What is motivating me – consciously and subconsciously – to want to be a life coach?  Is there anything I’m running from that I need to address first?

• If I do everything I can to make my practice work for three to five years, and $30,000 remains my income, will this be acceptable and viable for my life and family?  If not, what will be my plan to grow myself, my knowledge and skill set — to be part of the minority segment of high-earners in the coaching field?

• Do I have the abilities, courage, confidence, perseverance and commitment to undertake all the facets of running a thriving practice/business, including: client development, networking, social media, marketing, branding, speaking, workshops, writing, business and financial leadership, and providing top-notch client services – all in one?  If not, where will I get support, learn new skills, and how will I fund this growth?

• Am I able to figure out what I don’t know or what I’m not good at, and get help all along the way to fill in my knowledge, power, and business gaps?

• Are you ready to give up a “build it and they will come” mentality, and step up to what it takes to run a successful business/practice?

• Finally, what are you looking for – a job or a calling?

I ask you to address these questions not to discourage you from following your dreams, but to present a realistic picture of what’s essential in running a successful business today.  If you conduct a deep exploration of your answers to these questions and come up ready to move forward to pursue life coaching as your career, fantastic!!  If not, then perhaps other avenues and outcomes of career reinvention are more suited to you, and will make you happier and more fulfilled.

If you do wish to move forward into life coaching, I’d say it’s time for you to explore it further and embrace the possibility. 

Here are some first great steps:

1) Research, research, research what it will take (start first with the International Coach Federation) and explore training programs, resources, and other coaches’ businesses and models.  Find a successful life coach to hire who could serve as your mentor business coach.  My specific tip here: Use a business coach who has already achieved what you long to.  (For info on the difference between a “mentor” coach and an “implementation” coach, stayed tuned to my upcoming posts.)

2) Get powerful with your money today – don’t wait.  Gain a thorough grasp of your financial situation – what you need to earn, what you spend, what you can cut back on, how you will fund your reinvention, and so on.  Get a great financial consultant to help you sort out your situation, and set realistic, stretching goals.  Get out of denial, and get powerful with your finances.

3) “Go where the energy is” – observe yourself in the process of exploring this path.  Does it feel exciting, energizing, enlivening, or daunting and discouraging?  For you to make a go of this, the predominant feeling needs to be excitement, possibility, and passion.

4) Receive training and education  – nothing moves us forward faster than powerful training and education to help us be and know more than we do today.  Don’t skip that step.  Coaching training and business skill development are absolutely vital to teach you how to be the best coach, and business owner, you can be.

5) Develop a sound business plan with concrete marketing strategies.  Find a great non-profit organization (such as SCORE the Women’s Business Development Center, or Count Me In) in your area, to help you create powerful business and marketing tactics, and a plan, to make your endeavor successful.

6) Finally, take my four steps to breakthrough:
- Step Back for an empowered outside perspective on where you are, and what you dream of doing

- Let Go of the thinking, behaviors, and patterns that have been keeping you stuck and holding you back in the past

- Say Yes! to your compelling visions.  If you really want to do this, then commit yourself 3000% to doing what it takes to be successful.

- Create It!  Develop a solid plan, complete with goals, outcomes, and milestones against which to measure your progress.  If you don’t plan it, you’ll have a very tough time creating it, or generating the necessary energy you need to build it.

For added support, sign up for my newsletters and my blog on career and life breakthrough to give you some ongoing assistance and resources.

Life coaching is a fabulously exciting and rewarding field.  Here’s to embracing your inner (and outer) coach, and being financially and emotional successful doing it!

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Are You Self-Sustaining or Community-Sustaining, or Better Yet – Both!

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

by Kathy Caprino

In speaking today with my fabulous digital strategy mentor Nettie Hartsock, we stumbled on an interesting concept, which is this…in the digital world, it’s all about open contributing and sharing generously, giving of yourself freely. It’s also about shining a light on others — pointing to the special brilliance and contribution of other colleagues and leading edge thinkers in a way that sustains and nurtures community, connection, learning and the global growth.

The underlying problem with this whole approach for so many small business owners, creatives, authors, consultants and entrepreneurs, is that this idea – this “movement,” shall we say — can feel in total opposition to how we’ve operated for years. Giving of ourselves freely (without asking for or commanding money for own gifts, talents, and services), and pointing to the distinguished talents of others, can feel in sharp contrast to the ways we’ve achieved success (financial, emotional, and otherwise) in the past. After all, our cultural worldview has, up until now, been about the individual hacking it out in the wilderness, and coming up with the bounty all by him/herself.

Thousands of individuals today have achieved fantastic results and accomplishments because of their intense and relentless focus on self – what they offer the world individually and uniquely that no one else can. So the idea of a shift from a self-orientation to a community-orientation can be daunting, scary and confusing. Giving away for free what folks have spent years honing and developing – the very thing that makes them different and sets them apart — seems counterintuitive, or bad business, to many.

Further, the ego – the part of the personality equation that is so often helpful in launching yourself powerfully in the world – can feel very threatened when we’re being asked to shift away from self-centric endeavors to community-building endeavors.

As a business owner who helps other business owners, practitioners, authors, professionals, etc. make money doing what they love, I know that balance is essential to a passionate, powerful, and purposeful life and career. Balance in all areas is vitally important - balance between work and family, between making great money and doing good in the world, AND balance between gratifying and sustaining your ego/individuality/self and supporting the growth of the world outside yourself.

These are not mutually exclusive endeavors, of course, though they can feel like they are. People say to me, “I don’t have one second to waste in my business. Times are so hard. I don’t have time to blog and tweet and follow others. I need to go out and make some money here!”

But finding a way to contribute openheartedly to the world WHILE sustaining and nurturing the self in a bountiful way is the key to a well-lived life and a successful business/career.

So to those who ask themselves, “Do I really have to participate in this online movement to grow my business?” I say this – giving and sharing of yourself – of your special knowledge, perspective, and wisdom — gratifies your soul and also directly benefits your business and your career. The return on investment (yes, that dreaded measure!) is clear. Give of yourself generously to the world, and you will earn financial and emotional success in return.

As you develop your community through generous giving of yourself and to others, you build a tremendously powerful network of like-minded partners and supporters in this world – people who find what you have to offer extremely valuable and will share that knowledge with others. These supporters will help you grow your business endeavors by connecting you with new and wonderful folks who will gladly utilize (and pay for) your products, services and special talents, for the greater good of all involved.

Don’t trust me? Take my challenge:
Kathy’s challenge: For three months, participate more fully (in specific, concrete ways) in the social media movement. Create a blog, share a newsletter, complete your LinkedIn profile, ask for recommendations on LinkedIn and give others a great recommendation, tweet about others’ fantastically interesting viewpoints – share freely and openly your wisdom and perspective. (Here are mine, for some samples: blog, newsletter, LinkedIn profile, Twitter).

Then measure what you get in return. If you don’t see a return that blows your mind, let me know. I’ll send you a free copy of my book Breakdown Breakthrough if you take my challenge. Write to Kathy@elliacommunications.com to participate and for details.

Thanks, and “see” you online soon!

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How to Do More of What You Love (and less of what you hate)

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

People ask me all the time, “Is now really the time to consider making big changes in my life, or reinventing?”  I say YES!  Crisis times like these are the perfect time to reinvent.  They push you to purify, shed what holds you back, and embrace what you want most in life.  Why?  Because so much of what you are experiencing today isn’t working for you, that you finally get it - you wake up to recognizing  that you simply can’t go on like this any longer.
 
But to generate positive change in your life and career, you’ve got to take action.  It’s work to make life and career change - both inner and outer work - and if you’re ready and committed to doing it, your life will most assuredly change for the better.
 
I’ve helped hundreds of people change careers, reinvent, start new businesses, apply their creative gifts to their careers, improve their relationships, gain empowerment in their current situation, and do more of what they love and less of what they hate to do in life and work.  The one common ingredient in all of these folks who are successful in making change is a deep and ongoing commitment to making their lives better and happier.
 
There are six vitally important steps to moving away from what you hate towards what you love:
 
1. Understanding What You Want
This is not an easy task, but it’s essential.  Understanding what you want in life requires a thorough review of your whole life and career, teasing out for exploration and discovery all the experiences you had in your life in which you felt fully alive, passionate, powerful, appreciated, recognized  - in the flow - knowing why you are on the planet now.  You need clarity about where you want to go, and this clarity comes from recognizing when you’ve been your “highest and best” self, the most joyful version of you.
 
Then, it takes figuring out how you can bring more of these experiences into your life today - developing a new empowered mindset, and applying your special skills, talents, and abilities in the world, and making MONEY doing it.  It takes figuring out if you want a job or a calling, and also what you want in your life as a professional endeavor vs. an avocational experience.
 
Download my Career Path Assessment on my Ellia Communications website for a great start, or write me for a free 30-minute coaching strategy session to help you gain clarity on the “essence” of what you want vs. the right “form” of it for you and your life (and your marriage, family, financial situation, long-term plans, etc.)
 
2. Research, research, and research what you might want to do differently in your career and life.  After you’ve analyzed what it will take, determine your readiness to move forward.  Make a decision to commit to doing what’s necessary to bring into your life what you want
 
3. Stretch yourself and power up - start being more powerful in your life today, wherever you can.  Speak up where you need to, enforce your boundaries where they’re being crushed, and stop being the “victim” to outside circumstances.  Start being accountable for how things are, and for changing them.
 
4. Become incredibly powerful around money and develop a business/marketing mindset (forget about a “build it and they will come” attitude - that doesn’t make a new business or venture successful).  As Tony Robbins says (I love it!) - don’t look at your life or career with rose-colored glasses.  See it for what it is, but don’t see it worse than it is.  Then TAKE ACTION!
 
5. Get help/be teachable at all times - Reach out and ask for help now, and all along the way.  We all have gaps in our knowledge and skill-sets. Learn to recognize when help is required, and get it.
 
6. Finally uncover what’s really holding you back from making the life and career change you want most.
 
Most often, it’s an internal block in the form of the “stories” you’ve been telling yourself all your life, about your worth, abilities, who you really are, and what you can ultimately achieve.
 
Typical blocks fall into these key areas:
• I’m afraid to step up
• I’m not good/smart/strong enough to do this
• Who will want really want me/this?
• Selling is terrible - I hate to sell (myself and my services)
• It’s a lot of work
• I haven’t succeeded at this before - why would I now?
• I don’t know how to make money doing what I love (and there’s no way I can)
 
Which “story” are you telling yourself about moving forward to embracing doing more of what you love, and less of what you hate?
 
YOU CAN DO IT!  Get empowered help today to gain clarity, focus, and create a plan to reinvent your life or work.
 
Check out my book Breakdown Breakthrough and my four month, four step Achieve Your Life Breakthrough! Program to start you on your way to breakthrough.
 
Change in life will happen, whether you act or not.  The question is, “Do you want to progress and grow, and be more successful and fulfilled through life change, or not?”  If you do, then you must take conscious and directed action: clarify exactly want you want, and create a concrete plan to achieve your goals.
 
Please take one step today from the list above to start you on your way to breakthrough.
 

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Why Aren’t We Taking Action to Get the Help We Need?

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Today, I was chatting with my friend and colleague Beth Leas who runs a fabulous holistic health care center in CT called the Total Life Care Center.

In her work and her business, she supports hundreds of other practitioners to find new ways to network, build their businesses, expand their reach, and launch new endeavors through powerful marketing and community-building.

We were discussing what we’ve both observed in spades this year - that so many people who need and want help to create their own breakthrough in their lives and work, simply aren’t reaching out or stepping up to get it.

We speculated all the potential factors behind this trend (there are many!), and we also brainstormed the root cause of this inertia and paralysis.  As we did, something wild came to my mind.

Here’s my thinking:

1) Thousands of people need help today to build their businesses, make life and career change, make more money, find true success and fulfillment, get healthy, and figure out a new path that works for them.

2) People are talking to each other far more extensively now than ever before in history, sharing their views more openly through technology - through blogs and social media, for instance.

3) Often, when we talk about our problems to others, we “feel” better for the moment, as it relieves our tremendous anxiety to share our worries and challenges.  This momentary relief, however, can actually rob us of the real impetus necessary to make true change in our lives and work.  We feel better for the minute by talking, and it lulls us to a more calm state, only to wake up in the same lousy dream we’ve been having for years.

4) Another potential issue (seemingly the opposite of #3 above) – people and their businesses and professional performance are so visible these days through social media, websites, etc., that they’re afraid to be truly authentic – to tell it like it is, and reveal their vulnerabilities and problems for fear it will reflect poorly on them.

Conclusion: Blogging, social media, and the digital movement are bad. (JUST KIDDING)!

Blogging, social media, and the digital movement aren’t bad.  What is bad, however, is that thousands of people who need help aren’t reaching out to get it.  They’re staying stuck, despairing and hopeless because they’re trying to solve their problems themselves without getting help or an outside perspective. 

Einstein said that we can’t solve a problem on the same level of consciousness that created it.  I believe this with all my heart.  In isolation by ourselves, stuck inside our limited minds, we fail to see that shiny new possibilities, opportunities, and miracles are just one small step away. 

That key step is reaching out to get help.

Question of the week: Why do you think people don’t reach out to get help when they truly need it most?  And what makes you finally say, “Enough!! I need help right now, and I’m going to get it!” 

I’d love to hear your thoughts and insights.  Thank you for sharing.

Here’s to many happy breakthroughs,
Kathy

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The Real Deal with Women Today

Monday, September 21st, 2009

As so much national research is revealing, women are sadder and sicker than ever before, and more so in midlife than in other times of their lives. 

 

Here’s recent Huffington Post piece about the sad and shocking truth about women.

 

There’s speculation abounding about why, but no real answers.  Further, with men still being named the research experts on women (so irksome!), the headway is slow in uncovering the real truth.

 

Based on my seven years of research with thousands of women nationwide, there are seven hidden reasons why women are struggling deeply today, and failing to find success, health, joy, or purpose:

 

1)       An Ill-Fitted Career Model: The current competitive career model simply doesn’t fit women

 

2)       An Extreme Overload: The current gender roles don’t work – women are still doing the vast majority of domestic responsibility even when they work or are the primary breadwinners

 

3)       “Who can I look up to?”  There are very few female role models – from the past or present — of successful, happy, powerful and healthy women who work and raise a family

 

4)       “I’m not supposed to!”  Women are culturally trained NOT to do the things required of them to lead happy, healthy, powerful lives (including: speaking up, feeling confident and powerful, displaying self-esteem and leadership, knowing what you want and having an intensive focus in getting it, putting yourself first, etc.)

 

5)       “What do I choose?” Women are paralyzed by all the options in front of them (children, work, domestic responsibilities, rising to high ranks, working out of the home or in, having their own business vs. corporate job, etc).

 

6)       “I’m ashamed.” – Women feel guilt and shame about where they are and what they feel today, and about pursuing steps that will help them gain power and self-actualization

 

7)       Women Are Tough on Women – Women are very hard on themselves and other women — critical and punishing in their actions and beliefs — especially to other women.  Why?  Because they’re struggling and have been for years, and people who are in pain and struggling are not generous and giving.

 

All of these obstacles hit women hard.  Men do not face these crises in the same ways. 

 

Wake up world!!  Women are radically different from men and that’s a good thing!  They differ in their values, priorities, dreams, styles, visions, but they’re told somehow that it’s not ok to be different.  Women are struggling hard, but ashamed of their differences, and continually hide or deny their suffering.

 

The time is now!  Let’s help women step up to what they truly want, to create a breakthrough in how they live and work.  For this to happen, women must accept who they are authentically, power up and step up to get what they want, and stop making excuses.

 

It’s time for women to give themselves permission to choose the life of their dreams, and get 3000% committed to having it!

 

Please reach out today (crisis is the perfect time to reinvent) if you need a breakthrough in your life.  Take advantage of my FREE 30-minute coaching strategy call to help you 1) gain clarity on what you want, 2) understand what’s holding you back, 3) create a powerful plan to achieve your goals. 

 

Every day you don’t move toward breakthrough, is a day that’s stolen from your life.  What are you waiting for?

 

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A Fine Line Between Failure and Success

Friday, September 18th, 2009

When we’re facing what feel like insurmountable challenges in our work or life, it’s vitally important to go back to basics – to purify, shift what isn’t working, re-focus, and commit 3000% to what you care about achieving.

In running my own small business through extreme times of hardship and recession, and helping others get what they want in their careers, I’ve returned to basics myself, and reconnected with the three essential ingredients that lead to success. They’re powerful and they work.

Without these, you might find success but it’ll be a far bumpier ride with some agonizing detours.

Here’s what’s needed to reinvent your life and career, and also to launch a new business endeavor successfully:

Intensive Focus
Someone recently asked me, “What are you – a coach, author, writer, blogger, speaker, workshop leader…what?!” The question was meant to remind me of my need to focus intently on the area that I most want to grow – for me, that’s my one-on-one coaching practice. Sure, we can do several important things at once. However, spreading ourselves too thin too often creates a dilution effect in our strength, time, and ability to build what we care about most. Figure out what you want most, and focus intensively with passion and power on that for several months, and watch what happens.

Generating Something from Nothing
In intensely challenging times like these, all around us we see despair, confusion and a lack of hope and energy. It’s contagious. We also see businesses drying up before our eyes. It’s scary indeed. But success comes from being your own source of positive energy, from finding a way to internally generate your own authentic enthusiasm, energy, and excitement about what you do, even when outside forces are pushing against you.

My young son came home last night and told me that his teacher asked the students this year to “be the change you want to see” (Gandhi’s beautiful request to the world). There’s such a keen nugget of truth in that for all of us – if we want success to come to us, we must first be success — embody and live the principles of the success you long for — and that will open the door to success. Energy attracts like energy.

Undying Commitment
To be successful in life and work, it takes commitment that doesn’t wane. It takes believing that you can create movement in your life and business, even when the waters are still and the 3D world is giving you evidence that you’re not going to make it to your destination.

But that doesn’t mean we should continue blindly, crashing into the rocks without modifying our course. It means that you know when you need help, and you ask for it before it’s too late. Commit yourself without doubt, without reservation, but do what’s required and be flexible. Realize that you have vulnerabilities and gaps in knowledge and ability, and work to fill them. Believe in yourself, get the outside help you need as soon as you need it, and keep growing and learning.

The fine line between success and failure is simply this – find a way to be success precisely when outside success is eluding you.

Question of the week: What do you do in times of turmoil to generate internal energy, enthusiasm, and light, just when the lights around you have gone out?

Wishing you many happy breakthroughs,
Kathy

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Being Real in Times of Turmoil

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

I had a fascinating call last night from a local woman in need of some help.  She had heard of me in the community, and was reading my book Breakdown, Breakthrough and found it resonated with her, so she reached out for some coaching insights about her current situation, which is very dire.

 

Our conversation brought something to light which I’m compelled to address now, because it’s vitally important to me to be authentic and real in my work, while at the same time offering help, comfort, and hope to people who are suffering intensely right now.

 

This woman indicated to me that in some way, she was nervous to call me, afraid I wouldn’t understand her, or accept her, because of what she’s going through.  She is feeling very lost and alone right now, and she said she felt intimidated because she viewed me as a woman who’d accomplished so much, one who doesn’t struggle, and as one who knows exactly what my passion is, and is “powerful”  in living that passion. 

 

This one-sided perception, while highly complimentary, is distressing to me, because it acknowledges only one side of me and my life – the light-filled side.  It disregards the shadow side, the dimension of me that is feeling burdened, confused, and hopeless like most everyone else in the country today.  I struggle in these very hard financial times and in my life, exactly as others do around me.  My business has taken a huge hit in the economic downturn, and I’ve been disheartened by the external view that life and career coaching and breakthrough work for women are endeavors only for the “good” and prosperous times, not for times when we can’t pay our bills.

 

When folks look at my website, programs and offerings, many see something that isn’t there – they see someone who only experiences success and power – one who, after some problems and challenges in the corporate world, somehow easily and seamlessly found a way to reinvent, and did it to great success.  What they don’t see (or don’t want to see) are all my flaws, bumps, blocks, and pitfalls– the challenges (in my personality, approach, thinking, and worldview) that created (and still do bring about) crushing and demoralizing obstacles for me.  They see in me someone who is invincible, who knew what she wanted and got it. 

 

For the record, it wasn’t, and isn’t, like that – seamless, easy, straightforward.  It’s the opposite.  For years, I had no idea what I wanted to do in my life, and spent thousands of wasted, unhappy hours feeling lost and confused – and feeling ashamed and embarrassed that, despite my “outward” success, I was breaking down.  Now that I do know who I want to be and what I want to do in the world, the challenge is in doing that successfully.

 

What’s important for me to share right now is my vulnerable, frightened side – the shadow side of me that works day and night to create in the 3-dimensional world what I need and long to do.  I’m clawing through these times like everyone else – to pay my bills, to build a thriving business, to remain a source of light and hope for my family, and to provide uplifting help needed now more than ever – while still allowing myself the occasional time to “give in” and hang my head in my hands over the challenges I face.

 

So there it is – an authentic, real look at the inner workings of a formerly miserable corporate professional turned passionate life and career coach – potentially supremely happy, but in these times, doing everything in her power to keep the faith and to believe actively what her heart tells her is the truth: that each of us will weather these tumultuous times and find ourselves on the other side some day, with greater strength, courage, and wisdom than we ever thought possible. 

 

Here’s to keeping it real.

 

What do you do each day to “keep the faith” and keep it real in your life and work?  I’d love to hear.  Thank you for sharing.

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Getting Help to Build Your Business

Saturday, August 29th, 2009

In the past several years, I’ve coached a good number of other coaches, consultants, healing and wellness practitioners, and small business owners ways to build their community, develop a powerful speaking platform, get their books published and read, and launch successful programs.

I believe that as coaches, private practitioners, and small business owners, many of us were not fully equipped or prepared when we launched our businesses to do what it takes to build them profitably and successfully; instead, we had a “build it and they will come” mentality that didn’t generate results because it wasn’t aligned with powerful business-building strategies.

One key step that helps you build your community, attract great customers, and expand your marketing reach is to develop and deliver impactful seminars and workshops in your professional niche that educate and enliven your community, customers, and clients.

If you’re interested in developing seminars and workshops that really work – and sell – below are six key steps to launching them successfully.  These are essential actions that I’ve learned — the hard way — through my own years of development as a national women’s work-life expert and speaker:

1)       Identify the specific area(s) to focus on in creating your seminars

2)       Determine which programs you truly want to offer, versus those you think you “should”

3)      Build your community and audience through partnership, affiliation, and relationship

4)      Price your seminars so that you achieve a targeted audience and make money (and when to offer programs free)

5)      Title your seminars so they stand out and grab the customer

6)      Brand yourself and your business so that you are differentiated from the competition, and able to name and claim your “sweet spot” 

 

The key is to understand what truly holds you back from delivering successful programs and services, and move forward to overcoming these obstacles.

 

Entrepreneurs need straight talk and practical help to build your businesses successfully.  The Make Mine a Million Dollar Business programs and community give you just that – real, hands-on support to develop, and implement, effective strategies that work for you and your company.  Thanks M3! 

To support the cause, I’m launching a new teleseminar program created specifically for coaches, consultants, small business owners and private practitioners, called Developing Powerful Seminars that Work - and Sell.  Hope you’ll check it out.

 

Don’t wait until it’s too late to get the help and support you need.  Reach out today – to M3, a powerful business mentor or consultant, a business-building community or entrepreneurial network of your choice.  It’s just an email, phone call or meeting away.  It’s in your “vortex” to be wildly successful (as Abraham-Hicks says), and it’s up to you to claim it!

 

Wishing you many happy breakthroughs,
Kathy

 

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The Global Woman’s Crusade

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

Nicholas Kristof’s New York Times article “The Woman’s Crusade” of August 17th is very moving, about the plight of women and girls in our world.  Hope you’ll check it out here.

In response to Kristof’s “Half the Sky” competition for compelling stories of individuals who are empowering girls and women in the developing world, I submitted for consideration my inspiring friend and colleague Theresa Wilson, Founder of The Blessing Basket Project.  Here’s my post on Kristof’s blog.

The New York Times Magazine this Sunday is a special issue focused on women in the developing world, including an extract from “Half the Sky,” the new book by Nicholas Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn.   May it become a true movement that betters the lives of girls and women everywhere.

It’s truly amazing what one person can do to reduce world poverty and oppression. Each of us, in fact, can make a vast difference in our world. One small dream, followed by aligned action, changes everything.

Kristof’s work makes me want to do more, and be more, and it makes me think, “What else can I do today?”

May breakthrough be possible in ourselves and our world today,

Kathy

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