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10 Take-Aways from Ali Brown’s SHINE 2010


Spending time in Vegas is not my favorite thing to do. However, Ali Brown’s SHINE conference made it definitely worthwhile. And although I had many light bulb moments during those three days, I wanted to share with you 10 of my top take-aways.

1. Your personal income cannot exceed the work you’ve done on yourself.

This is something I know to be true, based on my own experience as well as that of my clients. I know that the more I grow inside, the more my business grows on the outside. Your business (and your life) IS a mirror for what’s going on inside your mind, your heart and your soul. The more you work on yourself, the more your business will grow.

2. There’s always turbulence before the next level.

Another truism! Take a moment and think back to how you were feeling and what was going on in your business just BEFORE you broke through to the level you’re at now. Did it feel rocky, off-center, uncertain? Even just a little bit? The higher level you aspire to, the more off-kilter things will feel. Remember that it’s an indicator that you’re on the right course.

3. People buy from people.

You may know this, but it bears repeating: people buy from people they know, like and trust. The more YOU you put into your marketing, the more people will get to know, like and trust you, and the more sales you’ll make.

4. When you are yourself, you have no competition.

Enough said.

5. Frequency will always outpull a single blast.

You have to get comfortable not with just asking for the sale, but with asking for it a lot. It’s taking a lot more marketing these days to fill programs, enroll clients, and sell products, so one of the best and most immediate things you can do for your business growth is to get really comfortable with increasing how much you market your offer.

6. Luck favors the prepared.

Are you ready for the next level of business success that you desire? Do you have the systems in place? Do you have the team in place? Do you have your mindset ready to receive the abundance that’s coming?

7. Your best ideas don’t come from sitting at your desk.

My best ideas come to me in the car. Or sitting on the dock in the early morning of summer. I created this business under a palapa in the Turks & Caicos. Where do your best ideas come to you? When you’re stuck or need to hit the refresh button, go where your best ideas are able to pop into your mind.

8. Does __________ represent where I’m going?

This one really struck me. Fill in the blank with all the pieces of your business.

For example:

“Does my website represent where I’m going?”
“Does my team represent where I’m going?”
“Does my photo represent where I’m going?”
“Does my brand represent where I’m going”
“Does my business model represent where I’m going?”

Etc.

Well, do they? If not, what do you need to do to make sure that they DO represent where you’re going?

9. Be serious about your numbers.

You have to pay attention to your numbers if you’re serious about running a successful and sustainable business for the long haul.

Track what’s coming in, what’s going out, how many people you have in each program, what that adds up to, how many subscribers/fans/friends/followers you have, etc.

It ALL counts – you need to know your numbers!

10. You’ve got to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Being an entrepreneur will bring up all your stuff. 🙂 Most of the time, that’s going to make you uncomfortable. You have to be ok with that and recognize that it’s just an indicator that you’re moving through whatever you need to in order to grow and reach the next level. If you can remember that, it’s actually pretty exciting, isn’t it?

3 Tips for Making Space and Opening the Flow in Your Business

Now that the fall is upon us, I’m already gearing up for 2011 – planning, organizing, strategizing, visioning, and more. There are many transitions and transformations on the horizon for me and my business, and much to do to prepare for them, so I’m making space and opening the flow.

Here are some of the ways I’m doing this in my business that you can do too:

1. Clean Up Your Business Time

Time is your only non-renewable resource. If you’ve ever experienced days when you don’t know where the time has gone, but you do know you haven’t accomplished much, then you need to take a serious look at just what is eating up those precious minutes.

My coach’s request of you is to track your time for the next two weeks. Like a food diary makes you intensely aware of what you’re eating, a time log will allow you to quickly and easily identify where you’re frittering time away.

Most likely culprits?…

Email and TV (yes, I know some of you are ‘watching’ TV while you’re online, and no, that’s not multi-tasking, that’s just pure distraction).

Once you are aware of where your time is going, make a conscious effort to redirect it to more productive – or even more restful – activities. Turn the TV off (or TIVO/DVR whatever it is you must watch and give it your full attention later). And don’t leave your email open all day long! Allot specific time to read and respond to it instead.

You’ll be amazed at how just doing this simple exercise will free up the time you want for more important (and fun!) things. (Be sure to read Part 2 of this article next week where I’ll share more specific and effective tips for handling email overload.)

2. Clean Up Your Business Space

Now is a great time to go through your files – computer and physical – and delete or organize them for moving forward into 2011.

I spent several hours going through my physical files recently, shredding lots of documents (I love to purge!), and setting up new files for my new Platinum clients as well as empty files for the ones yet to come.

During this process both online and off, I also found a lot of gems I’d forgotten about – pieces of content, systems and processes, tools, resources, audios, and more.

And now that I have a recent visual in my mind of what’s in my files, it’s literally at my fingertips as I move forward in building my business.

As for my computer, I actually went so far as to purchase a brand new laptop, and I’m being very discerning about what gets transferred over from my old PC to the new. Energetically and electronically, I can feel how much more open the flow is by doing this.

3. Clean up Your Business Circle

This one can be a bit difficult, but it’s necessary to prune the people you surround yourself with from time to time. It doesn’t mean you have to completely disconnect from them (unless they’re just weighing you down energetically), but do make a conscious choice to spend more time in the company of those who lift you up.

Let me give you a simple example. If you’re on someone’s ezine list just because everyone else is or you feel like you should be, but you either a) don’t read it or b) don’t feel good when you do read it, just unsubscribe and allow the space for something that resonates with you to take its place.

Or maybe you’re part of a mastermind group that you feel you’ve outgrown. Now is the time to graciously bow out. Once you do, you open the space for a new group to form around you that better supports where you are now.

How are you making space and opening the flow for the rest of 2010 and into 2011?