We Are What We Repeatedly Do!

I was asked for my opinion of what the following message means

OK - here's my best interruption at 7AM in the morning.


We Are What We Repeatedly Do ........ it's along the same lines as:

"‘You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.'
Jim Rohn"

But because likes attract, eventually the bigger number of people will outweigh the smaller number of people, unless we do something to change the odds and change the mix of people we hang out with.

This article that I found on google goes deeper into the "average of five people" topic - you can read it here

So, if we hang out with people who are constantly striving to be better, who are honest and true - then we will be that too because who we chose to spend our time with, influences who we are.  If we hang out with a bunch of crack addicts who don't respect themselves or others and steal from and abuse others to feed their habit, then, if we don't stop hanging with them, we will eventually become like that too.

If we want to be poor we should hang out with people who are poor and have a negative poverty mentality, then eventually we will become that too because there are immutable laws that say "likes attract and negativity will always pull you downwards".

If we want to be rich, hang out with people who already have money because their actions, thoughts and deeds will be different to the people who are poor.

Same with weight loss - if you want to lose weight - hang with people who are skinny because their actions are different to people who are fat.

So if we are what we repeatedly do in the above examples - if we repeatedly hang with the crack addicts because we grew up with them and went to school with them and feel some sort of guilt if we don't - then by repeatedly ignoring the warning bells and still hanging with them - then despite the good we hold within, eventually bad will "out average" the good and we will find ourselves in trouble with the law.  Then we end up in the criminal justice system surrounded by more crims and we spiral downwards.

If we repeatedly ignore health warnings, those actions will eventually see us ending up sick.

If we want something in life, but don't take the steps toward it, we will not get want we want.

So for instance an Olympic athlete repeatedly gets up each morning and does their training - if they do it enough and have the right mindset, eventually they will make the team.  If they repeatedly lie in bed or keep the thoughts they were bought up with that say "you will never amount to much", then they won't make the team.

Going up to the olympics we often see someone injure themselves just before they get on the plane to go.  If we went down the burrow, despite their best training schedules and despite their talent, they will often be repeating a family mantra that says "something always goes wrong" - or "I'm not really good enough for this team" and bam by "doing" that thought, they attract an injury that will make those thoughts come true or they will over train despite being told to rest and hurt themselves on their very last session.

The people who hit the winning tape are the ones who are the best at repeatedly doing ALL the things that are best for the outcome they desire.

Same with people who are sick - often they don't follow to the letter what their health professionals tell them and wonder why they don't get well - what they are doing becomes what they are.

How often do we see people told to rest and they think better of that advice and do the opposite and wonder why they end up back in hospital.

If we repeatedly do negative behaviours that don't support our dreams - we won't get our dreams

If we repeatedly do the positive things that support our dreams and set our goals and do ALL the behaviours and actions that will get us to those goals, then eventually we will get what we want.

However, this applies to everything including our thoughts, so if we let negativity into our thoughts then we become those negatives - hence why it is so important that our thoughts, actions and deeds are in alignment.

Have a read of Keith Richards bio "Life" and you will understand why they became the Rolling Stones - in the early days all they did was play their guitars and live the life of a rock star - they literally slept with their guitars.

Bands that make it tour constantly - they just "DO" so often that eventually become what they want to be.

While watching the INXS doco recently it was plain their success comes down to the number of gigs they did.  Most bands fail when they stop repeating the one thing that will make them successful - playing!

No one would go through the poverty and loss those guys did in the early days, but they just kept doing it way beyond anything anyone else ever would put themselves through.

I heard Bono tell Elvis Costello once:  "For anything to be really amazing, there has to be a long obedience in the same direction."  You can read about that interview here

What I think he was trying to say was that you have to obediently do the right things over and over again for many years to get something amazing.  He was talking about how The Edge had the luxury of not being in the limelight so much so was able to just play guitar all the time whereas he doesn't feel he is as talented as The Edge because Bono was pulled off track by the political "earth saving" stuff. 

Let me know what you think "We Are What We Repeatedly Do" means below.

You can’t fly with eagles when you keep walking with turkeys

I feel like it has been a mad journey since October 2010 when I first made the shift to Infusionsoft, arguably the worlds greatest customer management system.

Then secondly I migrated my whole office from PC to Mac in December 2010 - I even have an iPad now.

Those who have followed my journey will notice I always take a quantum leap when I do things!

As usual I was overly optimistic about how hard this would be, and didn't fully factor in how long it would take. Infusionsoft was a beast of a thing to get set up, and I purchased just before they introduced all their cool new wizards. But now it's rolling I sit here daily and marvel at some of the things it does. I am really excited what it can do and I look forward to really being of much greater service to my customers going forward with all this awesome technology.


A strange thing occurred though as the technology bedded down.

As I started to get used to the new Macs (did I mention I have an iPad now) it has forced everything to a higher standard.

Same with Infusionsoft.

These companies can afford to employ some of the greatest innovative minds on the planet. So you either get into their mindsets and start to think like they do, or you have to return back to your old systems. I'm not a go back kind of gal!

There is a golden rule in the personal development industry that says, hang out with the people you want to be like, and a bit of them will automatically rub off on you ....... if you let it!

Another way of saying that is - you are the sum of the top 5 people you hang out with or even more simply - you are who you hang out with.

Or even more crudely from the Daggermouth song:

“You can’t fly with eagles when you keep walking with turkeys”

I have found this to be absolutely true, but until now, I hadn't fully realised that technology could have the same effect.

But its not just technology, it relates to everything.

When I've had clunky cars - I've been clunky myself. When the house is a mess - usually I have too much going on and no time to tidy up and the mess starts to drain me.

Your business is the same, if you aren't giving it the time, energy and effort it deserves, and implementing EVERYTHING I tell you, then you get naff results.

The only way to change a situation is to change something.

In the Attraction Program, one of the principles is to Tolerate Nothing. This involves going through and looking at every single thing that isn't working for you, from the button that is missing on your blouse, to really big things like relationships that aren't working for you.

Initially it seems a little bit negative to make a list of negatives!

But of course you become more attrACTIVE when you get more active and start changing or fixing the things on the list. So the idea is to switch the list to positives by systematically removing the negatives.

When I turn on "Big Mac" (with a 27 inch screen - bigger than my tv!) every morning, I save the TWENTY minutes it used to take for my PC to fire up. Big Mac is ready to go in under 30 SECONDS - I still marvel at that!

Imagine that: 365 days x 20 minutes = 7,300 minutes each year saved.

That's a whopping FIVE full days a year I DON'T sit watching a PC boot up. And no I didn't sit and watch it all the time, I would turn it on and go put the kettle on. That lead to multi-tasking and often I got drawn off to do other "stuff".

The difference is now, when I show up in the office - I am focused and working immediately. I find also I am thinking more clearly, planning more and getting more things done with ease, simply because my equipment is good to go when I am.

I am writing this on my iPad (did i mention i have one?) in bed, listening to the wind play through my trees and watching the sun send dabbled light into my room and enjoying the blue skies. Does that energy inspire and transmute to me - I'm reckoning it does.

I had been tolerating the waste of time and need to always be plugged into mains power for over a year as my PC died an agonising death.  That toleration was going on everyday as it crashed and burned it's way through the work load.

No wonder I was getting worn out!

I had been tolerating this for a very long time and it had been silently draining my energy.

Maybe do an audit of the things you have been tolerating and start cleaning them up as time and your budget allows.

Just about as attractive as my new iPad I reckon ........ did I mention have one :)

The Price of Perfection

Perfection is a wonderful thing when harnessed properly.

For most however, it is the personal curse they carry that stops them achieving all they could.

Perfection in and of itself is fine. Whilst standing alone it does not harm. Its when it gets between your ears that the problems start arising.

Perfection is the best friend of the “little voice” - that one that keeps telling you that you aren’t good enough.

So often I witness people who want something to happen really badly, but they spend so much time and energy waiting to get something perfect before they release it. What inevitably happens is that the project either stalls or they sabotage their success by creating a diversion around the release of their project.

Once sabotaged, it will never get to see the light of day, nor will it ever get to the right people to stamp their approval of perfection on the project.

I’ve seen people make themselves physically sick so they don’t have to go on stage. I’ve seen people manifest family disasters so they don’t have to release a project. I’ve seen people just disappear off the radar because their need for perfection overcomes their ability to deliver the so called levels of perfection they have set for themselves.

This behaviour is bogus because in business its not up to you to determine what is or is not perfect.

The people who are going to BUY what you are creating are the ones who determine whether it is perfect or not.

It becomes a very simple equation. 

If your customers buy your product or service or book a treatment with you and they don’t complain or they rebook or they buy something else in the future. Then your offering was perfect because it met their needs.

In business the only way you can figure out if your product or service offering is perfect - is to release it.

So why keep persecuting yourself trying to make everything perfect, when really you aren’t the best person to sit in judgment. Wouldn’t it be better to just get that product out to your customers and if it falls short of perfect, you can always tweak it until it is.

Some of the best things I’ve ever created took two or three goes to get right. It was the testing and tweaking and feedback that came from my customers that invariably created the perfection.

Of course I’m not asking you to put anything sub-standard out into the marketplace. All I’m asking is that you at least let it have a chance to be seen by others.

So what are you waiting for - get that thing out that you’ve been waiting to get perfect - dust if off - get it to a “good enough” standard and release it.

You might be surprised how perfect the imperfection in that action really is!

The power of silence to solve a problem

An old boss had this annoying theory called "do nothing". He used it a little too often for it to be effective but as I reflect back he was certainly onto something.

There are many times when action is the answer, but there is also a place for doing nothing or saying nothing.

Silence can be our friend in many ways.

As a speaker sometimes the most powerful moments are created in the space without words where you give the audience time and space to digest what you've just said.

In the movies sometimes the scariest moments or most poignant moments are when absolutely nothing is happening on screen.

The silence we create in meditative moments often gives us the clarity to take ourselves to the next level.

We rarely meditate on our business though and it can be a powerful tool when solving business problems.

My Back Deck Office

We also don't need to be on a mountaintop to meditate. Sometimes it can be as simple as making a cup of herbal tea and moving to a different spot. I have a back deck that allows me to sit quietly with my trees. When I remember to sit out there - solutions seem to arrive a lot faster.

Silence can be our friend in many situations.

A speaker uses silence to bring their thoughts together while the audience "simmer" in the soup of what has just been delivered.

My old boss when confronted with something he didn't necessarily have an answer for or an immediate solution to the problem or it was just too hard - did nothing in the hope the problem went away. Most times it did!

Our busy, overwhelmed techno world bombards us with constant information. We take in so much all the time and rarely get the chance to simmer on anything.

But doing nothing all the time is not the solution.

I know from my forensic days back in corporate that doing nothing can cause the worst nightmares, so it is important to not relegate everything to the "do nothing" pile. But even in those nasty corporate situations I often found the answer to problems no one else had been able to fix, simply because I was only focused on one thing. I was frequently relegated to the darkest corner in the office, often working solo. It meant I was surrounded in silence and could get perspective on the problem and had time to look at all the puzzle pieces. I find if have all the required information and you focus on something long enough, the answer comes clear.

So in the action vs silence conundrum it's about finding the balance.

That balance is frequently achieved when we go to silence first, gather our thoughts - then take the correct action.

Getting things right the first time is certainly a gift and going to silence and really thinking and planning out the next step means you often short circuit the problem you are about to create by going out with a firm path in mind.

Silence helps find that path.

Silence also helps if you have a problem. Going within, listening to your heart, gathering ALL the puzzle pieces (not just the ones you want to look at) and allowing the magic within the void that silences creates to do your talking, will frequently bring a solution.

Silence allows us space to gather our thoughts, gain clarity and calm our senses.

What problem do you currently have that could benefit from some silence?

The Pro's and Con's of Discounting Treatments

I'm often asked if discounting treatments is a good way to build a practice.

Like everything involved in running a small business, there are pro's and con's to everything.

Lets start with the logic of discounting.

Before you rush out and send out a discount voucher to current clients (people you have already trained to pay your full price), maybe consider what you are building first.

I encourage people to get the foundations right in their business first, then build on top of it.

So if you are considering discounting, you need to go back to your Decide Dream Believe statements and look at what you were dreaming of creating in the first place.

Are You Samey or Are you Different?

You need to ask yourself how you are going to position yourself in the marketplace.

Do I want to build a K-Mart type operation or do I want to build something more boutique like and specialised.


So many therapists think that if the price is cheap enough, then people will book a treatment with them.  However, there is much more to why people book a treatment than the price.

If you want a K-Mart type solution, you are setting yourself up to work long hours and people will expect the cheapest prices from you.  They will also expect that discounted price as they consume the purchase - so they expect to walk in at all hours, get what they need and pay a cheap price for it.  Not exactly a great recipe for success in a small service based industry.

However, with a more boutique style operation, the owners encourage a more specialised and attentive service, you need to book early and you can expect to pay for that higher level of service.  Bed and Breakfast type operations are a good example of this.  They often have fewer rooms for sale, but you pay more for them and you get more personalised attention, like the owner greeting you and a personally cooked breakfast.  In a cheaper hotel chain situation, you will be presented with a bain marie full of eggs cooked hours ago and some crispy fat soaked bacon which was also usually cooked by the least qualified cook in the kitchen, because its the easiest meal to prepare on that mass level.

So your very first step in considering discounting for your practice is to consider - are you offering a fully personalised service that offers a lot of personalised attention and deserves to be well rewarded, or are you just happy to churn people through quickly at a lower rate.

On a "personalised and different" level, you need to see less people at a higher rate, and at the "samey" end of the business you need to see more people to meet your financial targets.

I find most people have never even considered the "Dream" aspect of their practice, so you might like to go to my Easy Solutions for YOUR Success website and download the Two Hours of Complimentary Audio and a Workbook on this topic.

If you don't have the basic foundations discussed in this workbook and a clear understanding of what you are trying to create in place, you will simply be chasing your tail trying to lure people in with K-Mart style offers each week.  Once you differentiate on price, you will be constantly competing to have the lowest price in your marketplace.  That gets tiring and expensive because it requires a massive advertising budget to keep the masses aware of your constantly downward spiralling prices.

You end up with an un-abundant practice, simply because people who buy at discount generally shop around and do not stay loyal.  If you go the K-Mart route, you will be constantly trying to rope new people in to cover the ones who are buzzing off to the person around the corner undercutting you by $5.

You will have figured I prefer the hi end, hi price, hi service end of the market, simply because that is the recipe for a fully abundant practice.

But its up to you how you go about setting up your practice, but please get the plan set out first, then go and decide how you discount your services.

Is It Time For YOU to Automate?

I am frequently asked how I manage to do so much stuff with just me in the business.
 

I always smile and say "I let machines do the work".

It was one of my pet sayings from my corporate days as well. If you embrace technology and don't run from it, there are many times when it can be your friend, saving you a lot of time and making you look really good.

You are in front of new clients all the time and if you can get the WOW effect - they will want to keep working with you too.

 

But to create a long lasting impression you need to create a miracle for them, within moments of them encountering you.

The best place to impress them is before they even come to see you.

If people get a good impression as they visit your value filled website, get drawn to click on the "book now" link and like magic find themselves booked in with you - then their first impression is good. If you WOW them in the session, it will make it incredibly easy for them to want to book with you again.

This is where technology can be your friend. Imagine how you would stand out from the crowd if you have an automated booking system that allows people to book with you anytime of the day or night. It automatically emails them a confirmation when they book. And then sends them a text to remind them of their appointment 24 hours before their treatment is due.

The lovely thing for you is, this can be going on while you are in a treatment with another client.

There is nothing more frustrating about wanting to book with someone and they have to get back to you.

This year I trialled three automated booking systems 

• Flash Appointments
  
• Clickbook
• TimeDriver 

Clickbook won because it did everything I wanted it to and I qualified for the f*r*e*e service - gotta love that price.  

Flash Appointments  also did everything and was slightly easier to use, but was $10 a month

TimeDriver  did a nice job of working in multiple time zones but wouldn't allow me to set the changeover time between sessions.

All these systems offer a free trial period and there are many other great products on the market and as always discern for self if they are right for you.

I'd have to say it took a little while for me to set it up and test it but the long term benefits have far outweighed that initial investment of time.

• No more naughty forgetful clients
  
• No to-ing and fro-ing of emails to get times set up (this used to drive me nuts!)
  
• Great reports in my inbox each day to remind me what I am doing

The system will only book people in the times I specify but I can over ride anything that is set up and book people whenever I like.

The challenges I see for someone who is a bit frightened of technology

• Trusting it can work for you - you won't know unless you try

• Letting go of your old systems - you can try before you buy

• Keeping your paper diary and forgetting to update it when you get a new booking

• Managing demand!

Seriously you wouldn't think the last point would be a problem, but there is a blog post on clickbook from someone who trialled the system for free but didn't go ahead because they got too many new clients and couldn't cope.  Good problem to have I would have thought!

Automation can also stave off the need to employ someone to answer your phones and take your appointments.  One of my clients has put a message on her answering machining telling people they can either leave her a message or book online right now.  She finds most just go and book themselves in online.

Clickbook offers people the next available appointment so you can fill gaps in the day while you are working with clients, maximising your takings for the day and not letting people down because they can't get hold of you to book.

People often comment on the ease of the booking process, which means they have been impressed.

An automated system has the potential to give you a competitive advantage over people who cling to their paper diaries.

Most who do automate, report clients loving the system and they find in most instances that people prefer the online option.

So why don't you consider making use of some downtime over the holidays and create miracles in your practice, simply by letting a machine do the work.

Full disclosure: NONE of the companies mentioned in this article pay me a commission for my recommendations - I mention them because they are quality providers

Do you want to be a chocolate, cheese and freedom mouse?

There has been a bout of pull-out-it-is in my practice the last few weeks. 

We often don’t notice trends until they start happening more regularly and the time frame between incidents start to shorten.

I’ve had two clients wanting to pull out of sessions this week and a bout of pull-out-it-is a few weeks ago on workshops. Too many to ignore and enough to call a trend. 

So I sat down to figure out what was causing this because if I’m getting it there

a) a message for me

b) a message my people (that’s you) can learn from

I think I’ve finally sussed it out. 

It’s the new energy asking us to step up to new levels.

This month for the first time I taught Masters. It was one of my most joyous teaching experiences. However, my biggest learning from the weekend was that my pot cupboards had to get rearranged. The current set up was a logistical nightmare but on a higher level I was being called to step up and get ALL my small details sorted. 

As you know once you start moving one thing – everything needs to change and I now have a very practical purpose designed new desk (not the folding barbeque table a friend gave me eight years ago when I literally had no money to buy anything). I also have new storage shelves in the admin office and am fighting the good fight with the resident mouse before the pot cupboard can get sorted.

The mice are of course part of my lesson. You know when you get small irritating things turning up in your life – you need to take care of the small things = DUH moment!

I bought this fancy “mice device” that humanly traps the mouse and then you take him somewhere safe and set him free. This thing is the Rolls Royce of mouse catchers at $25. I have released one little mouse and left him with 4 organic almonds and a piece of cheese to help him on his journey.

His buddy though is proving more elusive. The treats are getting more extravagant in the “mice device” and now include aged cheddar and chocolate ….BUT he’s not having a bar of that and is still pooping all over the kitchen.

I’ve just had a break point where I stood in the kitchen shouting – “it’s the chocolate, the cheese and freedom OR it’s the cheese in the old fashioned trap – YOUR CHOICE BUDDY!”

All the people who have been wanting to pull out of coaching sessions or workshops have all had good excuses. They haven’t done their homework, they have been sick, busy, had kid stuff on, had conflicting appointments, were down for no reason blah blah blah on went the excuses.

Bless them they made me step up and write back and give them a kick up the butt and remind them that the magic occurs in the dark times and in the hard places. These are the times the coaching will really work for them.

Yes, as a coach its great when the client turns up and it’s all love and light and everything is perfect. BUT I know for a fact that my very best learning experiences have come when I’ve showed up in those times when I didn’t feel great and in some instances when I really “should” have stayed at home. It’s the same for clients and workshop attendees – they get the best results if they have suffered a bit to show up.

I was to be seen at an event in Colorado passed out on the floor at the back from jetlag and exhaustion – but would I go to my room for a nana nap. NO because I knew I would still be in the energy of that room and picking something up.

The new energy we are moving into is bringing challenge and change with it. What I’m noticing is that it is challenging at the really basic levels, like cleaning up the pot cupboards. It is also asking us to show up in the hard places and deal with our dark side – those icky yucky horrible emotions and fears that we would rather not deal with.

Here is the segue to the mouse, the cheese and chocolate – you knew it was coming :-)

In the end the winners will be the ones who run into the arms of the people who are there to help them and care enough to have the humane trap lined with cheese and chocolate. 

They are the ones who are prepared to stand up, own their past mistakes, be seen as they truly are and be rewarded with freedom at the end of a scary experience.

However, those who keep pooping in the corner, not showing themselves fully to everyone around them and thinking they can live in an old paradigm will perish. Staying in your safe little hiding places where no one can find you will annoy someone to the point where they simply close the door on your behaviour.

You and your practice are the same. If you continue to hide behind your fears and lack of confidence, refusing to accept your greatness, in the end people are going to get sick of you and will just wipe you out of their life.

I also had someone step up to one of my high end programs today. She came onto the call stating she was sitting on the fence and she was sick of it. I reminded her that people who sit on the fence waiting for the right time to make their move will end up with one thing – pickets up their bum!

I’m really starting to understand this new energy demands us to go to the next level or get off the fence. Yes I know how hard it is to face who you really are. I’ve gone from the wimpy quiet and reserved beige girl in the corner (that no one ever noticed) to someone who is really out there now. It’s not easy and it takes a lot of nuts and guts but the rewards when they come are HUGE in every sense.

All I did to change my reality was to make a choice to change and I learnt from people who had taken a similar road to one I wanted to travel. I kept showing up even when I didn't want to. I took their advice and I took the actions they recommended. That's all.

Maybe its time for you to figure out which mouse you are. The one choosing to show up fully in the humane trap with the chocolate and the cheese or are you content to continue scurrying around the edges, hiding and setting yourself up for a nasty big bang.

This was just going to be a quick reminder for those interested in learning to teach teleclasses but it has turned into a great article with nothing to do with teleclasses. 

BUT if you want to be a chocolate and cheese mouse and run into the arms of someone who will help you step up and learn a new skill that will add another revenue stream to your business on your terms – check it out here

Lessons to be learnt from a Vege Casserole

Last night I awoke in the middle of the night with a flash of the bleeding obvious and I am still giggling.

Getting all your ducks in a row is an important part of business growth.

One of the biggest ducks to have lined up is your own personal health and vitality.

I’d have to say that I’ve let that slip since moving to the country. A recent trip to the fabulous Prahran Markets in Melbourne City (where I used to shop when I lived in this trendy inner city suburb) reminded me of the way I used to care of myself before I leapt into the dream.

Back then I had a corporate pay cheque that ensured I could walk out of that market with a shopping jeep full of organic food and vegetables without thinking twice about how much it had just cost me.

During my journey to build my dream there were times in the early days when all I had money for was what I’ve lovingly dubbed the 3P’s =

1. Porridge
2. Pasta
3. Peanut Butter Sandwiches

You could buy a lot of the 3P's for $10 when on welfare payments. There was one horrible week I remember, when the only reason I had peanut butter sandwiches was because the local Bakers Delight store put a voucher in my mail box for a free loaf of bread. I wrote in to thank them for that voucher some months later and the owner was blown away that they had made so much difference to my life that week.

So somewhere in the nightmare I created in the early days I lost touch with vibrantly healthy food and ate what I could fit into an impossible fiscal situation. That certainly didn’t include eating take out or Maccas or KFC –it hasn’t been that I’ve been eating badly, I just haven’t been eating optimally and I have lost touch with is the joy of healthy, vital organic food. Now I’m ready to get back to that place and only accept food made or grown with “love” because I know it’s the answer to my next step up the ladder of success.

Sometimes the answers are right in front of us and don’t require a lot of effort to change. I live in foodie heaven and many of our farm gates probably supply Prahran Market – I’ve just got to get back into the habit of making trips out to their on site stores and making vital food a priority.

Health Coach Susan Living has been helping me get back into appreciating vital health. Susan’s enthusiasm for vital health and zealous support of “anything green” has been getting me get back on track. Who thought you could put spinach in your morning juice!

Part of my “homework” this week has been creating and implementing a healthy eating plan that will fit into my sometimes manic schedule. So I had a lovely time over Easter at the Castlemaine Farmers Market purchasing organic veges from the incredibly passionate vegetable aficionado at the Fernleigh Farms stall. Surrounded by all this enthusiasm I was pumped up to come home and start my vegetable casserole, guaranteed to rid sluggish livers of bad vibes.

Any of you who have met me personally will know that I’m not a domestic goddess – I can cook if I put my mind to it – but my future preference is a butler who will take care of all that. But the vege casserole recipe was pretty idiot proof really and went something like chop up healthy veges and herbs – put it in a casserole dish, add homemade vege stock and put it in the oven (my kind of meal!).

Everything was going well until I was required to place 3 tablespoons of LSA (ground Linseed, Sunflower kernels and Almonds) into the bubbling aromatic mix.

It immediately went all gluggy. So gluggy in fact I just picked the big bits out and the compost bin got the rest.

I was highly perplexed by this because I’d made a smoothie a few weeks back and the same thing happened – add LSA – glutinous maximus mess! But LSA is only ground up nuts – it really shouldn’t do that ............ so what was I missing?

In business we need to become multi taskers and we are constantly asked to put in time saving measures and do things once – do them well – all those good pieces of advice. I am a master at finding ways I can save time and automate and do several things at once, but it seems you also need to have a good memory to avoid unexpected knock on effects.

Some time ago I had been enjoying fruit smoothies for lunch (note the chuck it all in at once process I’m so fond of) and in my infinite wisdom had cut down the processing time by adding my Psyllium Husk Fibers to my container of LSA to save time.

Psyllium (Sellium) Husks do many good things for the body but at base level they are a bulking agent which helps with constipation.

So there was the learning lesson in the vege casserole – if you are going to multi task – at least remember what you’ve multi’d or you’ll end up in the poo :-)

Luckily I just picked out the big bits and discarded the sauce part or I could have been in BIG trouble this morning – because a smoothie only requires ONE scoop – THREE tablespoons would have really messed with my system.

Small Business Growth in a Turbulent Economy

I had the great honour this week to be invited by Gihan Perera of First Step Communications Pty Ltd to share my expertise and be part of a panel discussion on how small business is coping in this turbulent economy.

It was really interesting for me to hear how "big" small businesses are having similar issues as the "micro" small businesses I work with and more importantly that we all need to use similar tools to not just survive but also thrive in a recession. In fact I believe micro businesses have the best chance of lasting out the storm because they are so readily able to change to meet market demand.

I came away from the call reminded how everyone really just wants to have a successful business and still have time for family, friends and most importantly a happy and stress free life.

Therapists more than ever are required to help people manage stress and achieve a healthy balance and harmony in these far from stress free times.

Panel Discussion with Gihan Perera

MP3 File

Click here to find out more about Gihan Perera

Click here to find out more about John Highman

Click here to find out more about Domonique Bertolucci

Utopia International Retreat is On Again for 2009

Utopia International Retreat 2009 it's happening again!!

You may have remembered me returning from speaking at the 2008 event and just being in such a wonderful space after meeting all the wonderful participants and presenters.

This year is promising to be even better with a longer list of presenters, all with a unique passion in their specific area of expertise.

There is a very beautiful new website you can visit here where you will see me a picture of me presenting last year on the home page. The website production this year is sponsored by Kyrona and Rebecca at Inspired Insight and they have done a wonderful job.

I'm going to be interveiwing most of the presenters in the lead up to the event so stay tuned and get your ticket early this year.

The photo is from the closing ceremony in 2008 and it shows me getting a healing from the fabulous Jeremy Donovan who will also be doing the closing ceremony in 2009 but with Dr Stephan Farmer. People who have seen them work together in the past say they are AMAZING!

You can see photos of last year and read some of the testimonials from last year here


Listen to the First Interview

You can listen to the lovely Susan Joy Coombes and Simone Matthews who are the co-creators of this years event talking about what we can expect in 2009.

Utopia is a not for profit event and if you can get the message out in any way, shape or form, we would be very grateful and after presenting last year I can promise you won't be disappointed if you decide to attend - UTOPIA IS AWESOME! Click here to register

Utopia - Susan Joy Coombes and Simone Matthews Interview

MP3 File

How to Make More Money Without Working Any Harder

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is: "how can I make more money in my practice but not work as hard?"

It’s the 90 million dollars question in this industry because most natural therapists and health and wellbeing practitioners have to be physically present or working on clients to generate income. It becomes exhausting and eventually makes the practice unsustainable and burns the therapist out - that is not abundant!

My Guest GURU this month opened up a wonderful revenue opportunity for therapists by offering a website that allows you to use pre-recorded music, images and voice over scripts to easily record your own CD's and audio to sell or give away (or a mixture of both) on your website or in interactions with clients and prospective clients.

This includes your own ability to do voice over’s and if you want to, you can record a full CD of music, meditations - in fact there are all sorts of wonderful ways you could use this product including creating your own videos.

You can listen to the call below and get an idea of how easy this can be or you can get more information on The Chill Sessions website here

Having your own CD's not only puts your practice into a new professional class but it also allows your customers to take a little bit of you home with them when they leave your practice - just like you can take a little bit of a musician home to listen to again and again after the gig.

What struck me about this particular product was firstly that it does seem very easy and most of the hard work is done for you and secondly there are two human beings on the end of the phone who will talk you through any techno challenges you have with the creation of your product.

You can listen to the audio from the Guest GURU call here - just click on the slider below:

The Chill Sessions

MP3 File

Does Clean Underwear Make a Difference on the Highway of Life?

As a youngster it was imperative that I had clean underwear. In fact life seemed to revolve around underwear. It was either being washed, hung out to dry, ironed (seriously), put away, put on or being scrutinised for its suitability.

This has to be life’s number one learning lesson and it is a lesson that makes no sense what so ever...........or does it?

I got Mum a gorgeous Mothers Days card one year that said on the front –
Mum where would I have been all these years without you?
The inside said: probably driving down the highway of life in dirty underwear!

If Hallmark are in on the act, then perhaps there ARE lessons to learn from dirty underwear?

It got me to thinking about the connection between business and having clean or dirty underwear and its significance in our small businesses. There are a lot of comparisons that can be drawn between wearing underwear (clean or dirty) and having a small business:

• Like underwear we need to have a lot of different selling points
  
  
• We need to stand out in the crowd to be chosen at all
  
  
• We need to appeal in different niche markets and appeal to different people
  
  
• Others judge us when we are really just doing our best with what we’ve got
  
  
• Some things are out of our control
  
  
• If we stretch too far – we end up on the scrap heap
  
  
• We are constantly finding new ways to feel fresh at the end of long day.
  
  

The list could be endless when you start to think about it. Due to the seriousness of this issue I’ve decided to have a poll and see what you think.

So if you have ever been bailed up by the dirty underwear police at a crash scene or can find a business case or comparison for clean or dirty underwear – please leave a comment and vote in the poll.

How to Get Known as an Expert = FAST!

Welcome to 2008 – this is my first blog post since returning from the USA and you never know I might even blog a few posts on what I learnt in waist deep snow. But for today I’m on about forums.

Just when I thought my day was totally full and no room left for one more single marketing activity to do in my small business – I learn I’ve now got to be out there commenting on the forums all around the world. This doesn’t please me as I spend most of my life in front of a computer but it seems forums are yet another (very good) way of getting known in this virtual world we now live in.

If you have been doing my 90 Day Challenge or the Full Practice Building System, you will know how much importance I place on having a strong WHO & WHAT. Knowing WHO you work with and WHAT you do for them is imperative to building a strong practice.

Forums are where the rubber hits the road when it comes to WHO & WHAT because all you need to do is identify a few forums that gather together in your WHO market and you just go on and answer their questions or comment on what they have written. The trick is to be discerning and as always make sure you are adding value. Never just go on and get into a thread because you can. Only get on a thread if you can add value or give a constructive comment or answer a question or you are just like a large percentage of the rest of the world who are wasting their life commenting on forums.

Forums are one way you can quickly become known for your expertise as you start to jump in and comment on things you know something about. This last comment assumes you know something about something but it does seem ok if you know something about anything – there will be a forum for you.

So I figure if I have to do it – then you guys can at least know what you are not doing. You need to search for forums in your area of expertise and the best way to do that is a website called http://www.ning.com/home/

On the first page I visited there was a choice between the Occult and Pagan communities and The Fairy Society. Somewhere between those two there are currently 8.097 other social communities so you won't be spoilt for choice.

You could spend all day in these forums so please just don’t forget all the other marketing activities in your marketing train!!

Maintaining Work Life Balance in a Small Business

Question

My main focus is to get experience and immediate income by offering massage and life coaching from various areas, ie gym, healing centre and day spa. Eventually I want a spiritual healing centre. Am I doing too many things?

Answer

This is the classic catch-cry of people in their own small business. It comes down to being able to maintain a healthy worklife balance. I don’t believe there is such a thing as “too much” when starting out to grow your practice, so long as you look after your own health and don’t burn out!

The more you are in action getting clients, the quicker you will fill your practice.

The beauty of my system is that even if you end up in the wrong place initially you will learn and understand how the system works under any conditions. So the experience you gain now will set you up for future projects. When it comes to having your own centre you will know how to fill it quickly by simply returning to what you have learnt in this set up phase. Use this time to get out there and test the market and learn.

A word of caution is to stay focused and not spread yourself to thinly and be trying to work out of too many different places at once. Even if there are no bookings, it is important to be on the spot ready for non-booking walk in clients. If you are in too many places you often miss the opportunity to fill with walkins. For instance if you are at the gym and have no clients, put a sign at the desk in a plastic holder that says “free 15 minute neck and shoulder massage”. That will give you the chance to persuade the recipient of the neck and shoulder massage (who just happens to be in your target market and niche) to take up a 2-4-1 offer with you.

Any news is good news when setting up a new practice – the worst case scenario from giving away those 15 minutes is that the member now knows there is a good massage therapist at her gym! Obviously when you have bookings you bring the sign in.

A-boards at the front of the building also work well with these types of offers but just make sure you find out the rules from the local council – don’t get fined for illegally placing an A-board!