JaneMorrison.com

Let’s Make Life Easy

Jane — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:00:16 +0000

A common area of struggle for my clients is how to deal successfully with conflict in their lives. As much as we’d like it to never rear its ugly head, conflict is all around us. Maybe it’s with our siblings over the care of our elderly parents, with a client who is late on a payment, with an employee not doing their job, or occasionally with a spouse or child.

But I’ve got a simple to remember, easy, effective tool that once you learn it, it will make dealing with conflict oh –so – easy! And I’ve recorded the exact steps for you to listen and learn about it.

This 30 minute recording is my gift to you. Just click here to download or listen below. Learn WHY we all have conflict in our lives, and learn the 5 easy steps to deal with, and your life will never be the same – seriously!

Much love to you all
Jane

p.s. If the topic of standing up for yourself and communicating with more assertiveness interests you, join me at my next complimentary teleclass “How to Stand Up for Yourself.” You can find details here.

Ready to take a leap in your personal or business life? Jane works with executives, business owners, and people in transition who want to excel and skyrocket their business success.

As a Personal Branding Expert, she shows you how to “stand out for success.” Author of “Savvy Leadership Skills for Women Entrepreneurs” she is your advocate for marketing and mindset makeovers. Contact her at www.janemorrison.com

5 Ways to Make your Dreams Come True

Jane — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:00:41 +0000

The human mind is a powerful tool. It can solve complex problems, and also subconsciously sabotage our most amazing goals, things that we want to accomplish and just can’t seem to do because we hold ourselves back or defeat our best interests.

Sometimes the act of self sabotage is far too common, keeping you from making the moves that will reach your goals and dreams. You wind up frustrated, and beat yourself up with negative talk.

When I speak to audiences, one of my most popular presentations is on the topic of “Mastering your Motivation, 5 Secrets to Get From Where you are to Where you Want to Be”.

To make your dreams come true, make sure to have these practices in place:

1) Stop hiding. You were meant to be big, meant to use your gifts, meant to make a difference in the world. The world is waiting for you to do your calling, and be all you can be.

2) You must get support. To stay motivated and true to your dreams, you need a mentor, a coach, a buddy to support you in the journey.

3) Stop expecting perfection from yourself. If you do, you’ll quit right after that first bump in the road, and there will be bumps in the road.

4) Don’t give up if you fail the first time. Life is about learning lessons, and the Japanese proverb says, “fall seven times, stand up eight”. Tenacity is a human characteristic that will get you far. Everyone who accomplishes things does so because they stick to it.

5) Trust yourself and listen to your heart. You heart knows, and the head gets in the way.

SPECIAL OFFER: If you’d like to experience a complimentary coaching session from me, and want to “get out of your own way” please send an email to YES, I’D LIKE TO EXPERIENCE A COACHING SESSION or jane@janemorrison.com and that will be my gift to you.

What strategies do you use to create your best life?

Ready to take a leap in your personal or business life? Jane works with executives, business owners, and people in transition who want to excel and skyrocket their business success.

I blew it, but did I fail?

Jane — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:43:31 +0000

I didn’t expect to fail.

I really thought I was prepared. I had done it before and knew I could give a successful teleclass.

I took all the right steps, creating a thorough dynamic opt in sales page. I promoted it several times before the date.

I was excited to share my knowledge. I believed in what I had to say. I had written thorough notes.

I got myself mentally prepared, and was in a quiet place free of distraction. I ate a good breakfast,
and even refrained from that 3rd cup of coffee.

And then it happened. A few minutes into the teleclass, anxiety took over. It came out of left field.

All of a sudden my notes were a blur. I could not remember my content. What I was saying didn’t seem to make any sense.

I quickly connected to my audience to see if I could get things back on track, perhaps it was just me and I was making sense to them. The feedback I got was positive, so maybe I was just imagining failure on my end?

No, I was losing control. There were gaps of silence as I struggled to maintain control of the flow, to read my notes. I was going down the rabbit hole in a hurry, and couldn’t wait until the call was over. I rushed through some of the content, not given it the detail I wanted.

Once I got off the call, badly shaken, I felt ashamed. What had overcome me? I called my husband, who is always there for me. In tears, I told him I blew it. In his kindness and wisdom, he reassured me I probably was not as bad as I thought. And even if I was, so what? What would it take to be kind and gentle with my own human failure?

What would it take? What would I tell a client who felt like a failure? I would be compassionate. I would help them see their brilliance despite their perception of failure. I would be sure they knew they were awesome for trying, that just the initiative in itself, was not failure. And I would be sure to not let them beat themselves up.

So here I am a week later, sharing my story. I did not ace it. I might have blown it, but did I fail? The definition of failure is not meeting your goals, falling short. Maybe I did not get the outcome I was striving for. But is that failure?

Do I need to beat myself up? Real failure is letting the act of failing get you down. Real failure is giving up, hiding, not trying anymore.

But I will try again. I will do another teleseminar. Why? Because I have wisdom to share. I have a message to give. I learned a few things that will help me the next time I give one, and you know what? It makes me really excited and I can’t wait!

Tell me – have you ever unexpectedly fallen short, and how did you recover?

Ready to take a leap in your personal or business life? Jane works with executives, business owners, and people in transition who want to excel and skyrocket their business success.

Trouble Deciding or Trying to be Perfect?

Jane — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:00:49 +0000

Arrrgghh, the agony of it all.

Creating, tweaking, putting it aside, asking other’s opinions, going back to it, misplacing it, reworking, second guessing, and never really completing it.

It doesn’t really matter what “IT“ is. It could be a new logo, business card, sales page, website copy – the bottom line is that when you are plagued by perfectionism, it can hold your business hostage.

Sound familiar? We all are impacted to some degree by the need to do it well, get it right, have people be impacted, even WOWED by it. But if your perfectionism is impeding forward progress, you need to get out of your own way!

3 Tips to Stop Perfectionism that will grow your business:

1) ASK IF YOU ARE RIGHT FOR THE JOB:Should YOU be doing the task in the first place? Consider if you are qualified. Do you have the right equipment, the right skill level? If not, do you want to invest equipment (software) and time to learn it? Is this an essential task in your job description, or could you find someone else to do it easier?

2) LEARN TO LISTEN TO YOUR GUT. Many times when I just can’t seem to make a decision while tweaking something, I’ll ask someone for help. Sometimes it’s my husband’s opinion, sometimes I ask a colleague to
proofread my copywriting, and sometimes I discuss it with my Coach. What usually happens? The answer I get is the right validates what my gut says and I can move forward. I’ve learned to listen and trust my gut more instead of seeking validation.

3) GIVE YOURSELF A DEADLINE: I work REALLY well under deadline. The longer you have for a project, the more time you will spend on it. If you really want to be productive, ask yourself how long you want to dedicate to a project, then set a deadline and write it on the project folder. This way you can be true to yourself, knowing when you’re getting in your own way.

What sort of strategies have you used to get over perfectionism? Remember the saying, DONE is Better Than PERFECT!

Ready to take a leap in your personal or business life? Jane works with executives, business owners, and people in transition who want to excel and skyrocket their business success.

Do You Ever Feel Like Puking?

Jane — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:00:29 +0000

My clients are incredibly brave. Maybe it’s because they have a great trust in me and know I come from a place of love, acceptance and no judgment, AND because I can often relate to where they are.

When they are hesitating, procrastinating, making excuses, trying too long to design the perfect logo, it’s often because growth is happening, and growth can be scary, and can make you downright uncomfortable and stop you in your tracks.

What’s the best way to know that you need to work through something with your coach and that fear has you in its grip?

Listen to your body and emotions.

Feeling anxious, anger, or crabby is a sign. So is a jittery feeling in the pit of your stomach, adrenaline running right under the skin of your arms, shaky hands and just plain wanting to puke.

Fear comes in all sorts of forms: fear of success, failure, being seen, or feeling stupid.

Even the most successful of people have fears they must conquer. Fear has often been called “false evidence appearing real.” Unless you work through it, it will hold you back.

A great tool I share with my clients is a book that explains all the fears, and walks you step by step to rid them.

ACHIEVINGYOUR DREAMS WITHOUT FEAR:

HOW TO OVERCOME OBSTACLES AND JOIN THE CONFIDENCE CLUB

This book will move you from a state of fear and caution to one of confidence so you can move forward to achieve your dreams. It’s a tool you can use over and over when you are in that next stage of growth.

Normally priced at $24.95, I want to share it with you for 50% off. Just enter the code word “EASE” when you check out and until the end of April, this is yours for just $12.47! FIND IT HERE

In this book you will learn:

How to identify if your fears are real
Why you’re choosing to be fearful
What causes your fear and how to change your belief in it
Strategies to overcome specific fears including: fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of change, fear of lack of support, and fear of the worst case scenario.

This book also includes, as a bonus, powerful fear crushing exercises!

I’d love to hear your stories about busting through fear. What’s something you’ve done even though it was scary?

Ready to take a leap in your personal or business life? Jane works with executives, business owners, and people in transition who want to excel and skyrocket their business success.

Great resources for outsourcing

Jane — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:40:35 +0000

When business owners find themselves overwhelmed and overworked, it’s time to get effective reliable resources to assist. Reality is, you can’t do it all by yourself. The following article has some great resources on how and why to do that.

April 3, 2012

Some businesses can handle normal daily activities but need outside help to take on new projects that don’t justify another employee. Other businesses are just struggling to manage day-to-day business. Still others are seeking ways to get more done or cut expenses in this challenging economy.

There are many valid reasons to consider outsourcing, but here are some of the most compelling.

Focus on core business activities. For many businesses, the primary motivation to outsource is that it frees owners, managers and employees to spend their time on income generating activities.

Improve opportunities for growth. Frequently opportunities for company growth and a desire to expand business operations exist, but resources to make it happen are lacking.

Increase efficiency and effectiveness. In many cases, outsourcing allows access to expert talent. Outsource service firms can offer innovative approaches, the latest technology, and creative, cutting-edge solutions that otherwise aren’t available.

Improve your bottom line by decreasing your expenses. A skilled contractor or firm can generally perform work less expensively than a full-time employee can, and the costs of hiring, training, and maintaining employees are eliminated, as are taxes and benefits.

Here’s what you can, and should, be outsourcing.

1. Administrative tasks. Scheduling, travel arrangements, data entry, typing and other administrative tasks can usually be handled by a virtual assistant or administrative service. While these tasks are crucial to the proper functioning of any business, they are not usually core business activities.

Where to find help: Assistant Match, AssistU and IVAA help match businesses with screened administrative service providers and offer directories of professionally trained virtual assistants.

2. Lead generation and customer service. Sales calls are often a matter of numbers; more calls equal more sales and leads. Once the initial outreach has been made, closing the sale can be handled by the internal sales force. A talented salesperson’s skills can be better utilized to close sales and handle clients, rather than make cold calls. It can also be a great deal more efficient to outsource customer support than it is to maintain a qualified support staff, especially for product-based companies.

Where to find help: Global Response and The Connection are recognized sales and customer service providers to many of the world’s top brands. Resource Nation allows companies to get quotes from pre-screened business solution sources.

3. Accounting and financial duties. Accounting firms or individuals can help with many financial services including bookkeeping, invoicing and accounts payable and receivable, as well as financial reporting, analysis and planning. Outsourcing payroll processing alone can save considerable hours, headaches and dollars. Many financial contractors will bundle these tasks for even greater savings.

Where to find help: BookkeepingHelp is a popular source of experienced financial professionals. This is one area to be very careful when outsourcing. It’s a good idea to check with certifying organizations, such as the American Institute of CPAs or American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers.

4. Marketing. Effective marketing determines how both brand and company reputation are perceived in the marketplace. A marketing firm or consultant can often provide an outside perspective that an internal marketing staff cannot. Professional freelance writers can develop higher-quality, polished content that will improve marketing efforts. Website design, brand development, press releases and online marketing duties such as social media, blogging and search engine optimization are good candidates for outsourcing as well.

Where to find help: Guru and Elance are two of the best-known sources of freelance contractors. They cover many areas of outsourcing, but excel in the areas of writing and design.

5. IT operations. It can be extremely expensive to handle IT operations in-house. The average business has limited ability and knowledge to manage all of its IT needs. Unless you’re an IT company, IT is a maintenance and repair function, not a core business activity. The potential advantages of outsourcing IT tasks are enormous.

Where to find help: CrossLoop and Tech Guru both offer access to full spectrum of IT remote services.

6. Human resources. Employee acquisition and human resource functions can easily be administered by an outside agency. Outside firms are more skilled at advertising, screening suitable applicants and checking references. Using an HR or employment service to manage employee benefits can also be wise, since they must stay up to date on the latest employment laws and standards.

Where to find help: Ceridian and Trinet are both well-known HR service providers offering a wide range of resources from recruitment to payroll to benefits administration.

Final word

Often, the best way to locate high-quality outsourcing prospects is through recommendations from your professional network. A referral from someone you know and trust is a much more reliable gauge of quality and is usually based on the level of skill and not simply the cheapest cost. Professional groups or associations and LinkedIn can also be great sources.

Royale Scuderi is a freelance writer and success coach. She is the founder of Productive Life Concepts and has been featured on top rated blogs such as Stepcase Lifehack and The Huffington Post. You can also find her musings on life and business at GuardWife.com and Twitter.com/RoyaleScuderi.

DON’T MESS UP – 5 INSPIRING (but critical) STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS

Jane — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:00:54 +0000

My new client Jen was in tears as she shared how overwhelmed and stressed out she was, getting bogged down in the nitty gritty of building and running a business. She was in a panic and frustrated, with the hours of the day flying by as she lost perspective, and getting little done.

When I broke down her business into 5 main areas, she was able to look at how she was spending her time and rest assured, let out a big sigh of relief and feel good about herself. As long as she was working on one of these 5 key areas, no longer was she feeling like she wasn’t doing enough, and the focus paid off!

She quickly gained more clients, more consistent streams of income, and became a more satisfied business woman!

So let me share what I taught Jen and that I practice faithfully

Manage Myself – this is my first and most important job. If the CEO (you!) is not in tip top shape, mentally, physically and spiritually, your business will reflect that state. Instead of feeling guilty for spending time relaxing or working out, I firmly believe that the time I spend meditating, working on a healthy lifestyle is keeping me re-energized, creative and actually more productive.

Remember how valuable and awesome I am. What gets me out of a funk, motivated and raring to go? Knowing that my next client is out there waiting for me to give them hope, tools, focus and stop the overwhelm, stress and frustration they are currently experiencing. When I look at my business as championing as many people as I can to be the person they are destined to become, I remember that I am in my calling and my life purpose. This brings me passion and energy. Instead of thinking ‘sales and marketing,” I think “making a difference and being of service.”

Define my services and programs. As I grow in own skills and enhance my education through advanced training, mastermind groups, and mentors, I find my programs and services morph. I also add additional programs when my clients ask me for something. Having clearly defined products and services means I offer the most valuable transformational solutions that work for my growth and the growth of my clients.

Market my services. As I mentioned before, I think “who or how can I make a difference to others?” instead of the term “marketing.” This philosophy makes my work so much more real and meaningful for me. I use a combination of online and
office marketing strategies that I incorporate into my monthly calendar.

Take really good care of my clients: Actually, this step is my very favorite one. My clients come first in many ways. Their success is my success, and I am 110% committed to them. I go the extra mile to provide value to them, and seeing the transformational results that come about in their life and business….well, it’s just what I live for.

I have one more tip for you that I shared with Jen too. In order to fit these 5 Steps consistently in your business structure, you need to set good boundaries and delegate as much as you can to someone who can implement the technical and support pieces. I’ve learned the hard way that until you invest in both a Coach, and a Support Team, your business and income stay stagnant and below the energy you’re putting out.

Let me know what you think of my 5 Inspiring (but critical) Steps to a Successful Business, and make it a great day!

Much love,

Jane

Ready to take a leap in your personal or business life? Jane works with executives, business owners, and people in transition who want to excel and skyrocket their business success.

When is it Time to Ask for Help?

Jane — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:41:44 +0000

What do you do when you need to climb out of the hole but the hole is far too big to do it by yourself?

The other day I got a call from someone who I’d spoken to a few years ago. At that time, his life was not going well.

Disgruntled with his job, earning less than his skill level, not feeling acknowledged by his employer, working from home and lonely…..so many things going awry that it was making him feel depressed and worried about the future.

I presented options to him, explained how I could help him, but he was a stubborn German (by his own definition) and was going to figure things out by himself and was not going to accept or invest in help.

So the other day when he called, I was hoping to hear about his successes and that life had turned around. But to my dismay, things had only gotten more dismal…he more in debt, more fearful about the future, more withdrawn. And he was so close to things, he couldn’t see any options, and desperate for help.

So what did I do?

First, I told him that he deserves to be happy, that his suffering is a choice and it was time to choose another way.
Second, I reminded him of Einstein’s definition of insanity“ doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results” ( He saw some humor in that awkward truth)
- Third, I gave him some steps to “get into action” that would bring him back some confidence and resilience. He admitted he was a deep thinker, but I reminded him that thinking and analyzing will only get you so far, that it’s getting into action that will bring about change. He left the call with more hope and excitement about the future.

Sometimes, we are our own worst enemies. We are resilient in the wrong way. Suffering, depression, worry, stress are all signs that things need to change, that you need to reach out, ask for help, and get a different perspective. They aren’t signs to dig yourself deeper into the hole.

Your emotions are a compass, and when faced with negative ones, it’s time to find a new way to see things and follow that path of action – it will bring you relief, a glimmer of hope that will grow and grow. If you need a new perspective and think I might be able to help, send me an email at jane@janemorrison.com.

Has there ever been a time when you reached out to climb out of a hole?