Are you ready to go to the next level?

Two strangers walk into a workshop.

Both were natural therapists looking for similar outcomes but nervous as all get out. They had never met before but by “co-incidence” managed to sit beside each other.

As it turned out both these women did have something in common. They had both seen me speak at their industry associations in 2007.

I hadn’t heard from either of them in nearly three years but they were here today because their message had got bigger than their fear of public speaking.

Despite their own reservations, they were ready to find out if they were “good enough” to speak from the front of a room.

I quizzed them as to what it was that they remembered most from the talk I delivered to their respective associations. Both immediately came back with a vague recollection of a couple of things I had taught them during that brief 60 minute talk.

However both cited the reason they were sitting in the chairs, about to take themselves to hell and back, was because they remembered my story. They felt they knew me from that story and they trusted me to help them.

Both talks had caused me extreme discomfort but this short exchange showed the reality of speaking your truth. I felt honoured by their trust but I also honoured and thanked myself for having the guts to go and speak to them all those years back.

The talks these women attended were “walk in and talk” events both delivered in bleak environments. One in particular I remember being VERY nervous at because no one had mentioned my talk would be videoed. I’d driven for two hours that Sunday morning telling myself the worst that could happen was that I’d only bomb in front of a few people. The video going out to their national membership upped the odds dramatically!

The other talk had been delivered during the worst weather Melbourne could conjure up. I was tired and weary because I’d had to leave home three hours early because three out of the four exit arteries around my town were closed due to snow blocking the roads. The journey normally takes around three hours. It took me six hours this day as I progressively drove through snow, gale force winds and driving rain.

Despite these not so harmonious circumstances I made an impact on both occasions not because I was good but because the story I told resonated deeply.

It wasn’t a fancy story. In fact it was a rock bottom story without a happy ending.

It was however my truth.

These two women remembered me and my story enough to pay to attend one of my workshops three years later. Not only that, they chose to turn up to a workshop and let an almost total stranger help them overcome a fear most would rather die than do.

Back then I knew nothing about method. I hadn’t been taught how to work the energy of a stage. I didn’t know how to adequately roll out a learning set. I didn’t know how to put knowledge into conceptual bites that make it easy for people to understand. I probably broke all the rules at both talks but still my message came through because I knew how to earn the right to be in the room.

A well crafted “earn the right” makes you credible and memorable no matter what is going on because it demands you speak at the intersection of love and truth.

I influenced those women not because I was some fast eddy with slick sales techniques. I impressed because I had experienced and lived through every wart, every crinkle, every tear and every emotion I spoke about.

The power of emotional speaking is that it builds relationships.

Once you learn how to harness the emotion and tell your story from your heart, people will not only sit through a sixty minute talk without throwing tomatoes, they also remember you years later. This alone is marketing gold. BUT it gets seriously golden when people will come and work with you without you having to evoke hard sell marketing techniques to get them there.

Sure it’s not the fast road to success but it’s powerful, it’s genuine and it’s real.

The course they attended last weekend was called Sore to SOAR and man did everyone soar. One participant contacted me this week to tell me she has sent away for the material she needs to run her first workshop. She has been meaning to do it for ages. Difference this week is that she has done it.

But I get this feedback all the time. It is awesome and I love hearing every word.

However there is something more important for me than seeing participants float from the room espousing how much they’ve grown and how good they feel. What is truly remarkable is the undeniable fact that 80% of the participants who have attended fully have either spoken in public or delivered their own workshops within two months of completing Sore to SOAR.

That’s my point of difference – people actually step up and step out, some within weeks of attending the course.

The people who have done the course are just everyday people who have a dream in their heart and a burning desire to help more people.

Many who are breaking through are busy Mum’s, people just setting up in practice or people who have already had success in one aspect of their practice. To date they have been a bit “scaredy cat” about the next step but are good to go now.

They are the unseen heroes who have been standing beside a massage table treating people one on one or sitting at home knowing something is growing within them. Knowing their message is important for the world but they have no idea what that message is, how to find it or how to get that message out or even where to start. This eventually causes discomfort.

Discomfort is the one thing that makes most humans move.

What’s weird is that these supposedly “ordinary” people already have the story within them that will gain them recognition and give them the confidence to leap up to the next level. Sore to SOAR allows them to connect with their story and we all have one. The true magic occurs when you learn to apply the “earn the right” formula to your story.

Sore to SOAR is not just another workshop it’s a personal expansion.

The two strangers left with an admiration for each other rarely forged in a weekend. One shared as she walked out the door that she felt she finally had all she needed to speak. It was an incredible honour to move her from feeling ordinary to extraordinary in such a short period of time.

Sore to SOAR gives people two ultimate gifts – confidence and no excuses.

If you are ready to go to the next level there is a Sore to SOAR intensive workshop running in Melbourne 26 and 27 June 2010.

Sore to SOAR takes you on a journey from a sore place of really hurting inside to one where you SOAR out the door on Sunday evening with a heap more clarity around what you do and how you can make a difference to a lot more people.

The early bird price is running out soon.

Book now: www.Sore-to-SOAR.com

Are You Addicted to Fear?

I had a big aha moment last week when a well loved client had her inner wimp out tap dancing on the table.

As the wimp tapped loudly she made a lot of noise but was really only treading the same old boards out of habit.

I realised just like drugs, alcohol and anything else toxic that become a negative due to overuse, habits often cover fear. This creates a vicious circle because our egos love fear. Above all our ego hates change. This gives our ego a vested interest in keeping us dancing on the spot.

Fear and ego are a formidable force and continue to provide rational reasons not to do things.

Once addicted our fear and ego begins to dominate our destiny.

Eventually we overuse fear to the point of addiction.

Not such a bad thing if the behaviour we get addicted to is positive because initially that at least creates forward movement. But when the behaviour is negative it results in a downward spiral.

Unless we create some sort of intervention program, the problem only becomes worse.

You know you are addicted to fear if you:

* Are not moving forward

* Under charging

* Over giving

* Feeling frustrated that things aren’t working out for you

* Know your actions (or lack of them) are limiting your potential

* Start believing the excuses you create to cover your actions or inactions

* Listen to your negative voice instead of ignoring it

* Have a great message or service that isn’t getting to enough people

FEAR is the root cause of all these points and this is the short list. There are a thousand things we are addicted to that hold us back.

However I believe the fear list can be distilled down to seven core items

1. Fear of failure

2. Fear of success

3. Fear of being judged

4. Fear of getting out of your comfort zone.

5. Fear of not being good enough

6. Fear of getting the things you actually want

7. Fear of your own greatness and light

All these fears are driven by internal voices that frankly just churn out a bunch of lies about you 24/7.

Call the voices whatever you like – the monkey voice - inner wimp – inner vandal – inner critic – inner “holding you back from being who you really are” hooligan ……. there are a thousand “inners” who stop us in our tracks.

After a while though the voices become comfortable friends that give us an excuse for not accomplishing all the things we want to do. Once that happens, your fear is now an addiction.

Addiction comes in many forms and there are many theories, including 12 step programs that assist people to break through their addiction.

I know for myself I attended a Debtors Anonymous meeting and experienced the full hit of facing myself head on in a 12 Step program. As I spoke the words “I’m Margaret and I have a problem with debt”…..and heard the response back “Hi Margaret” …. I knew I had gone too far.

My problem came because I set out on a crazy journey of self discovery, following a dream that was probably best left in the “do with more resources” pile. I didn’t start out with the right knowledge to go from a salary earner to someone who had to sell themselves to make a living. By the time I got the right knowledge I was way out of control and was addicted to maxing out credit cards.

I knew that I had to overcome the addiction because it was holding me back.

My first step was to recognise I had a problem and then I had to look at the root cause because the debt was only a symptom. The real truth of the problem was that I was addicted to expensive personal development workshops. I kept going to them to get validation and they kept selling me another course. I had found the source of the problem. An out of control positive habit and the fear of not being good enough.

The hard core reality check that meeting gave me sent me cold turkey and made me accept I had just been repeating my old “not good enough” inner talk. Once I got that I understood I could at least stop the debt growing by accepting that I didn’t need others to tell me I was worthy of personal and business success.

It was time to set up my own courses and start teaching and silence that vicious inner wimp that was keeping me from helping others.

Now if I attend a course I ask three golden questions:

1. Is this educating a weakness or a strength?

2. Will I come out with a tangible skill

3. Are my guts churning? If they are, I know I’m facing a fear.

If not, then I have probably learnt the information already and haven’t been brave enough to put the knowledge into action, or my ego is keeping me in line.

Either way I take an action that will pull me into discomfort because I know that’s where the growth is. I have found facing fear in this manner and walking straight through it clears the fear. But you have to keep facing your fear long term.

Good learning will make your guts churn because it puts you outside your comfort zone where you don’t know the answers. It will also place you with people who challenge and inspire you, not people who are churning out what you want to hear and making you feel all warm and fuzzy.

I was told at one of those fancy PD events, “Margaret once isn’t good enough - you need to climb a mountain of fear every day”. I had just exhausted myself overcoming the very real fear of climbing a very real mountain in a snow storm where at one point slipping on the ice and falling to your death down a ravine was a very real possibility.

There will always be another mountain of fear and that day I got to the top by taking one small step at a time. I knew if I stopped I would give up. I didn’t take breaks with the others I just kept going. I’ve found taking action certainly helps keep the wimp in line and the mountain climbable. Even in a snow storm I eventually blitzed my fear and the ego that said I couldn’t do it.

So if you are like me and you like to take action and walk through your fears then maybe I have a deal for you.

The greatest fear most people have is to speak in public.

The greatest business and personal growth building skill you can acquire is to speak in public.

I’ve also faced the fear of speaking in one hit.

I was a total wimp but knew I had to master public speaking to get my message out to more people. So my first public speaking appearance was to a roomful of my coaching peers. I just went and did it with no training. As it turned out I broke every “rule” in the book that fateful night but they loved me none the less and I’ve never looked back.

Now I help others get over the fear of speaking and I find the type of people who turn up to my Sore to SOAR speaking intensive are “just do it” wimps.

They are as scared as I was that night I spoke to my colleagues. But deep in their hearts they know they have to take a leap of faith because, like me, they figured out:

“You speak when getting your message out becomes more important than your fear”

Once you walk through a fear you realise there is nothing on the other side.

Once you speak you realise you have a tool that will give you everything on the other side along with the personal recognition you so deeply desire.

Sore to SOAR asks you to tell your personal story to six workshop participants.

Its like me speaking to coaches – it’s a safe audience because they understand how you feel. You can’t fail because you know your story backwards and the others in the group give you the encouragement to voice it.

The really interesting thing for me is that many of the natural therapists who attend the course have been drug and alcohol addicts in the past or have endured and overcome more physical and emotional abuse than most humans need to.

They turned to alternative therapies to heal their wounds and then went on to train in the modality that helped them. When you learn how to put your story into a compelling format - your story becomes your glory - and people start to understand why they need to work with you.

To date about 80% of the Sore to SOAR participants after finishing the course have either spoken to groups or set up their own small workshops and have started to stand in their own power. These are extraordinary results because most people leave workshops with great intent but fail to implement the knowledge or like me end up in courses that don’t make you take action.

My 12 step experience made me swear to create programs that really drive people do what they sign up for at least once. I think the difference with Sore to SOAR is simply that you go cold turkey. You face the fear in front of your peers and once you have mastered speaking, which is the one thing most people would rather do than die, you just go ‘pah’ and get on with it.

The effect speaking has on a small business is remarkable because it gives you opportunity to get in front of more people, you become an inspiration to others for your braveness and it opens new doors.

If you have a message inside you that is burring to get out – I’d love to help you banish your “inners” and finally feel “heard” not just in your business but in every level of your life.

The next Sore to SOAR Speaking Intensive is 26-27 June 2010 in Melbourne. It’s limited to six people. It sells out fast. Book NOW www.SoreToSoar.com

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

Amazing Things to Learn From a “Do It Yourself Jigsaw from Hell

Audio version
MP3 File

Amazing Things to Learn From a “Do It Yourself Jigsaw from Hell
By Margaret Gill

Have you ever tried to assemble a flat pack desk or shelf?

This week in a frenzy of de-cluttering I realised more shelves were in order at International Headquarters if I was ever going to have a back office that matched the same sense of order that my front of house business has.

These apparently “easy to assemble” flat packs are a nightmare of tiny bags of nuts and screws, instructions written by someone with any language other than English and more parts to hold together than hands to hold them.

Flat packs require a good repertoire of swear words if you ever hope to complete the task. Luckily my days in a rock and roll band, where bad language is the universal language, stood me in good stead for the task.

In the process of completing this “Do It Yourself Jigsaw from Hell” I was reminded of a valuable coaching concept I learnt years ago:

The difference between commitment and trying

The big thing you need to know about me is that I’m not at this time, nor ever do I seek to be, a Domestic Goddess and or DIY Warrior. But I’m always up for having a go at something new.

As I unpacked the boxes and gingerly set my pieces in place I started to only partly hammer the pieces into their respective slots.

I thought I was being clever by leaving space for me to easily fix an error if I’d inadvertently locked the wrong pieces together. In the end I found I got less than satisfactory results with this tactic.

My first attempt was very wonky. In fact in a loud clatter of metal on carpet, the whole thing fell apart the minute I let go.

After I picked up all the pieces and bent them back into shape, I changed tactic and attacked the thing with gusto. I hammered the pieces together like it was never going to need pulling apart and guess what! I got the desired results.

What was different? The first time I was “trying” to get it right. I doubted myself and my ability and I hesitated.

When I got “committed” and was prepared to go and buy a whole new flat pack if I did stuff it up – the thing came together almost with the ease quoted on the brochure.

I see so many natural therapists “trying” to build a business.

They are “trying” to get clients and they are “trying” to put themselves in places that they might get clients and they are “trying” to find a WHO and WHAT or niche that will make the difference to their business.

They are often thinking about signing up for a course but never quite getting there, or procrastinate so long that they find someone else has beaten them into the workshop that will change their life.

Committed people however attack their business head on.

They take committed action and get tangible results.

They turn up at workshops happy if they only take one new piece of information home with them because they know the value of turning up.

So are you committed or just trying?

In these new energy times where we are being asked to turn up 100% in our purpose and as ourselves, we have no room to sit on the fence anymore.

“The magic happens outside your discomfort zone”

Margaret Gill

If we want clients we need to find out where they hang out together and go to those places. We need to get into our discomfort zone and talk to people about what we do and in some instances YES we need to market and sell to people so they can work with us.

These types of action take a high level of commitment but they get results.

I’ve found the best and easiest way to get clients is to interact personally with them by using small workshops and talks to grow your business BUT that is not always possible. You could be limited by distance, time, confidence or the funds to start your first live workshop. Your message might still be too murky to speak in public, but what I’ve found is that everyone knows something about something.

So the second best way is to run a workshop or course that interacts with people on the phone.

They are called teleclasses and are basically “learning on the phone”.

Teleclasses take a lot of the pressure off because they are usually done at low cost which lowers the expectations of participants. So it makes it easy to dazzle your participants, add value to the call and have them leave with a really positive experience. It’s those positive experiences that convince people to work with you.

To do a teleclass you really only need a heap of enthusiasm and something you are confident presenting. We all have something we do well – so why not encourage someone who is thinking of learning that thing you do well and teach them how to do it on a teleclass. You can even do the first few without participants until you feel confident enough to invite attendees.

The great news is that you never have to leave home to do teleclasses. They are low cost, short in duration, you don’t need to download anything and you probably have all the resources and equipment you need right now. Like anything else you have had to master in your business, teleclasses are really easy to do once you have been given the right information and have done the first one in a supportive environment.

The great thing is that if you know anything about any topic you can run a teleclass and they are a great way to promote your live events and talks.

You can also use the technology to record your newsletters which will allow you to give your customers the option to listen to your newsletter on an mp3 they can download to their ipod.

Teleclasses also give you the confidence to speak and mastering the teleclass format (ie learning to talk into a void) also sets you up very nicely to start recording product. I can’t tell you how much teleclasses changed my business.

There is a big buzz around webinars at present but I just find there is way too much technology for most people to manage first up and I recommend you start with simple teleclasses that have far less to go wrong.

So to sum up:

Having a small business is a lot like assembling DIY products from hell:

• You have to implement all the parts or it just won’t work
  

• There are a lot of small pieces that make up the whole
  

• The instructions you give people have to be clear or it won’t work

• Just using one part of the puzzle won’t get the overall results you desire

• If you don’t get all the right parts in all the right places, then the thing won’t function correctly.
  

• There will always be a couple of left over screws you have no idea what to do with – but it was worth the effort to have them in mix, if only to find out they weren’t for you.

Speaking and teleclasses are only one of the small pieces that go into the small business jigsaw puzzle but the sooner you commit to at least trying new things and finding new ways to promote your business – you are going to spend less time swearing and picking pieces up off the floor and more time doing something that supports you and your business growth.

Many of you have been asking about how to teach teleclasses so I’ve decided to run a teleclass on that exact subject. There are more details on my website so get committed and click here

Amazing Things to Learn From a “Do It Yourself Jigsaw from Hell (Audio)

You can now listen to my newsletter article here or download the file to your favourite mp3 player - I trust you take me somewhere interesting :-)



MP3 File

I’ve found the best and easiest way to get clients is to interact personally with them by using small workshops and talks to grow your business BUT that is not always possible. You could be limited by distance, time, confidence or the funds to start your first live workshop. Your message might still be too murky to speak in public, but what I’ve found is that everyone knows something about something.

So the second best way is to run a workshop or course that interacts with people on the phone.

They are called teleclasses and are basically “learning on the phone”.

Read the full newsletter here

Have You Joined the Spectacularly Unsuccessful Club Yet?

Today two clients had the same experience – an event that had been a spectacular disaster.

They were licking their wounds and learning the lessons from the experience in stunning style.

Instead of the “build it and they will come” scenario they had planned, one basically would have been better at the beach on the day of the event and the other had to take a big bite of humble pie and cancel their event.

They entered the Spectacularly Unsuccessful Club with honours.

If you haven’t made the “Spectacularly Unsuccessful Club” many would say you just aren’t trying hard enough.

I’ve found the not trying hard enough concept, although harsh and hard, to be exactly true. If you aren’t pushing yourself outside your comfort zone and trying new things and new ways to present and promote your business then at best you are probably working within your comfort zone and are at worst in a rut.

I have found it to be 100% true that people who are prepared to have a go and accept failing as just an inevitable blimp on the path to success are the ones who get the most success in the long term.

Please don’t get me wrong I’m not saying set yourself up to fail and everything will be OK. What I am saying is be open to having a go at new things and if they don’t work out as well as you hoped they may, learn the lessons and gain the knowledge that will make it a success the next time.

Failing is only failure if you:

1. Don’t study and learn the lessons why the failure occurred.

2. You take the same actions or in-actions that got you in hot water the last time

So what went wrong?

As my clients and I discussed the finer details of their event implosion we got to the truth of why their efforts had less than bodacious outcomes. They both came up with exactly the same answer which was not enough targeted marketing action soon enough.

They both knew “the right actions” to take – they simply didn’t take them fast enough.

Lack of appropriate and timely marketing in anything you do will inevitably cause mediocre outcomes but when you put that in the event arena, no matter how big or small your event is - you are sure to have problems.

The reality of facing what really happened after all the “buts” and “ifs” were put to rest was enlightening for both parties. Both then dug a little deeper and realized there were messages for them at a much higher level. Both will have much more successful events in the future on every level because they got clear on their message and they got clear on what actions they had to take long before the event date was looming on the horizon.

The Magic Occurs Outside Your Comfort Zone

I celebrated both those gutsy women because I knew that they were truly “getting it” because they had set up events that really only got mediocre response. Does this mean I’ve gone completely barking mad? No, simply because I know they won’t do it again because they well and truly learned their lessons. It hurt so hard that the wisdom is now burnt in their brains.

Humans Are Drawn To A Lesson Like Bugs To A Flame

Sure there are sensible ways to learn our lessons. There are libraries full of books that tell us how to NOT do things a certain way and my website is full of things that will help you get it right the first time.

BUT humans tend to like to do things the hard way.

I from my own experiences have found that I’ve learnt my greatest lessons from my greatest times of darkness and my blatant need to express my stuff-up-ability at every turn. I reckon I’ve turned around and run straight back into the same fire many times until I finally learnt my lesson and stepped out of the fire and stepped up into my purpose.

Without Guts There Is No Glory

The “Kleenex Experiences” on my journey to make my dream of working positively with people come true have always been from gutsy moves. You know the ones that would have been better left alone and me following the tried and true path.

"Do not follow where the path may lead.
Go instead where there is no path
and leave a trail."
Muriel Strode

Frequently the mistakes outdid my triumphs twenty to one but when those triumphs finally came I’ve had something to meter them against and have truly revealed in the glory.

So if there is so much to learn in failure I have two questions:

1 Why do we feel so much shame when we make a mistake or have a go and don’t exactly get the desired outcome?

2. Why is the personal development industry so hell bent and setting expectations of perfection that most can never attain and if they do attain the perfection they can’t grow from it?

I don’t know the answer to those questions but they are worth us thinking about.

What I am doing is applauding loudly every time one of you does something that takes you outside your comfort zone even if the outcomes are less than perfect because I know you are putting yourself in a place where glory can find you. And who knows you might even get it right the first time!

The five key things I have learned about challenging situations are:

1. The sun comes up tomorrow and the situation never seems as bad as it was the day before

2. Take the hard decision as soon as you see the error of your ways

3. Make the error as “right” as you can as quickly as you can and then figure out how you can do better next time

4. Actually take the actions in step 2 & 3

5. Hang onto your hat because you are about to take a big leap forwards

As I’ve worked through the pain of some of my very memorable stuff ups my personal development has been gigantic to the point now where I seek to challenge myself at every chance. Sure I get myself in hot water from time to time but to date the world hasn’t ended. Instead awesome opportunities have always presented themselves once I understand and act on the lesson.

If you have joined the “Spectacularly Unsuccessful Club” why not leave a comment and share your story of how you grew from a not so pleasant experience.

The Top 5 Sizzling HOT Niches of 2010

I did a great teleclass this week with Kendall SummerHawk and Richard Shapiro and they shared what's Hot and What's NOT in niches or what my system calls YOUR WHO - the group of people you market to, so you can easily get more clients and make more money with love.

I was very interested in what they reported on the call from their research because I've found what they reported to be true from my own experiences and those of my clients.

The Top 5 Sizzling HOT Niches at the moment are products and services that meet needs in:

1. Small Business owners and Entrepreneurs

2. Marketing (Anything that genuinely helps people get more clients)

3. Relationships

4. Executive Coaching which is industry focused

5. Health, Wellness and Beauty

Their research, drawn from their experiences with clients and industry sources, has shown that people continuing to offer products and services in these five areas are doing the best out of everyone, even in a diminished economy.

Then they listed what areas are not doing well or are swamped with people offering vague results to people who don't want or need or won't pay for those offerings.

What's NOT HOT is

1. Life Balance

2. Services to teachers

3. Vague services offering more confidence, more joy

4. Mom-prenuers because they tend to spend money on everyone else but themselves

I was really interested to hear their findings because I've noticed very similar things. All the people I see that have been able to keep going and keep their businesses alive and often thriving in the last 12 months have been active in the top 5 categories WITH a highly defined WHO & WHAT.

Kendall and Richard said the real achievers are combining the top 5 to make powerhouse niches - the example they gave was a beauty therapist who offered high end beauty services to small business owners.

There are people who are doing well in the What's NOT HOT list but in general I find those people have specific products that solve very specific problems - one client had great luck getting into schools - others report its just a dead end because of time and budgetary constraints on the teaching industry in general. So if you are doing well in those areas - don't stop - if not maybe try to figure out how you can fit what you are already doing into the What's Hot list.

It was a great call and a warning to those who continue to offer flakey bakey service offerings to people who don't want and need what you have on offer.

Success awaits those who are prepared to own a niche, be shameless in their want and need to be successful and who are willing to do what it takes and take the actions that put you in front of your audience.