Welcome to 2013!  I am so excited for this year and all that it will bring.

My coaching practice has been steadily growing over the past six years and I have taken each step of the journey with hope, excitement and sometime fear.  Being an entrepreneur is by far the most challenging thing I have ever done.  It tests your endurance, dedication, drive and your mental, emotional and sometimes physical limits.  Partly because many things are new and partly because you have to be on top your game all the time.  Learning, stretching, growing and optimally performing as often as possible.

I recently had lunch with a friend and entrepreneurial colleague and discussed an endeavor she is involved with.  We got to talking about strategy, vision and purpose.  We then moved into discussing marketing and social media, topics that I have been learning and adding to my tool belt since I started business.  My friend said “WOW you know your marketing!”.  I thought “me know marketing?!…Are you serious? Marketing isn’t ‘my thing’, COACHING!  That’s my thing”.   You see, there are a few things that engineers are often known for not being good at.  Writing is one and marketing is another.  And if you are in a corporate position other than marketing or sales, you may have also thought “marketing and sales is just not my thing”.

But in order to grow my business I had to learn about marketing and sales.  I have been taking classes and implementing the learnings with a true intention and purpose.  These classes were not part of a large curriculum like at Colorado School of Mines or Coach U.  They weren’t for a degree or certification.  These classes were individual classes that when put together have given me a solid marketing foundation that has ultimately served my business and my professional development quite beautifully.

I now have new skills to add to my Success Timeline (see Boost Your Confidence Master Your Mindset for details).  I am now taking inventory of ALL of the tools in my tool belt that allow me consistent growth and success.  There are many other skills that I have developed along the way but for now, I am going to do the happy dance that marketing and sales have become in part “my thing”.

Coaching Question: What skills have you formally or informally been developing that have unexpectedly become “your thing”?

2012 has been quite a year!  I have been blessed in business and personally in so many ways.  As I reflect on the year I have learned so many lessons from my successes, challenges and failures.  I will share with you the highlight learnings in hopes that they inspire you to take an inventory of your own learnings as well as learn from mine – no sense in reinventing the wheel 🙂

Lesson 1 – Energy is everything in being a successful entrepreneur!  Managing physical, emotional and mental energy allows me to be more effective, more connected, successful and have more fun 🙂

Lesson 2 – Personal Foundation holds my success structure.  Having a solid foundation in my relationship, physical environment, financial and health supports my ability to achieve success with more joy and less effort.

Lesson 3 – Values are my compass.  Allowing my values to be the basis for every single decision I make leads me to quick and easy decision making with confidence and surety.

Lesson 4 – Metrics are more than just tracking.  Measuring the critical areas of my business not only allows me to know where I am at and how to move forward more successfully, it provides me confidence in my abilities as a business owner and coach.

Lesson 5 – Down time is critical.  I don’t just mean taking a week vacation.  I mean taking a 10 minute break to regroup, refocus and realign with purpose or each activity

Lesson 6 – Knowing is only  small part of the battle.  The bulk of the battle is in managing energy, mindset, and taking action!

Lesson 7  – Accurate and inspiring messaging is more important than being an expert in your craft.  Even if you are the top expert in your field, if your audience doesn’t know that you are, how you are and why you are, being the expert is useless.

Lesson 8 – Your set of personal traits IS the Unique Selling Proposition (USP).  With the exception of the advanced technology and medical research fields, most things have been done before or are being done by someone else right now.  What differentiates you from the rest are your Unique Personal Traits (UPT).

Lesson 9 – Community is place where purpose is born.  We all have a purpose and if we really dig down to the core of it, we find that it is about serving our fellow man.  Serving in our immediate and extended communities are why each of us are on this planet.

Lesson 10 – Relationships are the glue that holds it all together.

Each of these lessons have inspired me to provide better coaching programs & workshops and serve my clients, friends and family in a more rich and powerful way.    Here’s to a prosperous 2013 filled with much joy, love and success!!

 

Happy Thanksgiving month!  If you are like most of us,  your thoughts of giving thanks extended beyond just last Thursday.  I found that people started gratitude challenges at the beginning of the month and was so inspired and pleased to see all the posts on FB and Twitter.

Think about all of those times when things just ran smoothly from start to finish.  Something like getting in line at a coffee shop and getting the exact coffee you ordered. Isn’t that something to be grateful for?  I believe it is.  I also know that 99% of the time my coffee order is correct but the 1% that I happen to take note of is that when something went not as planned.When I started my journey of gratitude, I mainly thought of the BIG things.  You know, “thank you for my family, my home, my health…etc”.  These are all the things that are obviously a blessing to me because I see that not everyone has them.  I also found that as I continued down the path of gratitude, there are smaller and smaller things to be grateful for.  Those things that get lost in the minutia of our daily living.  Things like a beautiful butterfly, a child laughing, a smile from a stranger, the printer working, and the things that make your day run smoothly.

As an entrepreneur, my day is filled with a variety of tasks and processes that my business is comprised of.  There are systems and processes in place that make my life and business run more smoothly.  Oh and by the way, there are also things that desperately need a process to create more efficiency and effectiveness and I’m working on those.  In both cases I am grateful when things run like a well oiled machine and when I know what it takes to get them that way.

As you go through your week, take note of the smallest of things that deserve gratitude. Things in your business, things in your personal life, and acts or examples of those which fill your life with ease and flow.

Coaching Question:  What is one thing lost in the minutia that you will be grateful for?

It is 4th quarter of 2012 and I am excited to be in a very creative mode.  I am creating new programs and gathering new tools for myself and my clients.

There are so many things to engage in…books, blogs, courses, workshops, webinars and the list goes on and on.  It can be somewhat overwhelming to determine all the right things that move business forward.  And it seems like there is always something new and exciting that can grab my attention and time.

In working with my own coach, I have been able to laser in on those things that are my true genius as well as value add programs for my clients.  Understanding these key components allows me to select the professional development tools to add to my tool kit for added value for my clients.

Here is the process that I go through to select the tools to invest in:

1. Identify /review my “genius”
2. Review the tools that I currently possess
3. Look for tools that will enhance the delivery of my “genius” to my clients
4. Plan, for the year, the professional development activities that fit in my schedule AND allow me to maintain the life that I love

Remember that while personal and professional development can be exciting, motivating and inspiring, it can also be a distraction if you let it.

Coaching question: What new tools can you add so your clients receive the ultimate benefit?