I found it very interesting to walk the beaches and be approached by so many people selling their products or services. It amazes me how fearless they are in asking me to buy something. Imagine if we took that approach in Canada – so directly and with so much frequency. After all, sales is a numbers game. The most people you ask, the more likely are you are to get a sale.

One day, we headed to Bucerias, which is about a half-hour bus ride from Puerto Vallarta. Taking the city buses is great because the experience gives a real flavor for the Mexican culture. Each bus driver has the authority to decorate the front of the bus the way he wants. Each bus is decorated differently whether it be the flag of Mexico, a banner with the Virgin Mary, or colorful tassels. It became clear that the bus driver was truly in charge of who is allowed to get on the bus and make money during the journey.

At one point, a fellow started singing and playing his guitar. It was very enjoyable to hear his music while heading out of town. He performed at least four songs. After he was done, he walked around the bus soliciting payment from all the passengers. Many of us were happy to give him some change. I think he made a decent wage by Mexican standards for the length of time he worked.

This was a reminder to me that entrepreneurs are everywhere. In this situation, we had a chance to enjoy some wonderful music at a very reasonable price. It was much less than downloading one song on iTunes, yet just as memorable.

Of the eight questions, some reflected on events that happened during 2011 and others had us thinking about things we wanted to happen in 2012.

You may feel inclined to answer them, so here they are:

1. What are you most grateful for during 2011 (can be more than one thing)?
2. What is one thing you did in 2011 that you are proud of?
3. What was the most difficult obstacle you overcame in 2011?
4. What was your biggest learning or lesson in 2011?
5. If you could meet a specific person in 2012, who would that be (name and reason for meeting them)?
6. What is one thing in 2012 you want to do that you have never done before?
7. What project do you want to complete or start in 2012?
8. Who do you want to be this year?

I’d love to hear your responses to one or more of these questions. Feel free to post it on my blog.

The Book

The name for my new book is now confirmed. Thanks again for all of your contributions and ideas. They were very helpful. Pat Tripp sent me a long list of ideas and I was able to pull from these concepts.

The title is:

Lift Strategies – Quick Tips to Engage Customers and Elevate Profits.

The book will be available on Amazon early this spring. I will keep you posted.

During a sibling family reunion on the Sunshine Coast in B.C., my brother Brendan and I were looking for Christmas gifts for his wife. Since Brendan avoids shopping at most costs, I took a casual stroll with him down a quaint street in Sechelt in search of a late lunch. While cruising the strip, we wandered into an art and gift shop displaying items from local artisans.

We were both drawn to one particular artist who crafted driftwood into beautiful pieces including miniature Christmas trees and decorative pieces. Brendan verified that his wife found driftwood and rocks appealing. We both discovered items for her we knew she would love.

For me, when I am able to buy what I need while visiting other communities, it brings me great joy to know I am contributing however little it may be to keeping that local community alive. As a business owner who helps other businesses thrive and grow, it is important to me to live this mantra from the inside out.

What is your mantra?

I wanted to keep things simple and heard the food was great at the hotel restaurant, so I decided to have dinner on site. Once I figured out where the restaurant was (I wasn’t sure if I was just tired or if there was actually signage), I found a seat.

After about ten minutes of waiting without service, I got frustrated, got up from my chair and ventured out to the Lone Star restaurant beside the hotel. I had a feeling they would be quicker to respond to my tight time frame and my empty stomach.

Since the server who was taking care of my area at Lone Star was extremely busy, another server was quick to make sure I had chips and salsa within a few minutes of my sitting down. Once he understood my needs, he promptly took my order.

When my server became available, she checked in with me, brought my food and made sure that I was satisfied. After the meal was over and I was heading out the door, I asked where I could purchase some bottled water. She brought out two bottles for me and charged me for only one.

Great service. I was glad the Lone Star was the business to receive my cash while at the same time I was happy I didn’t stick around at the hotel restaurant any longer waiting to be served.

I bumped into a fellow dog owner recently. Tony is a wonderful and attractive man who has not had great luck with online dating over the past several years. Since this seems to be one of the main ways people are connecting these days in order to couple up, I asked him to tell me more about his situation.

Tony figured that his shaved head was one reason his online profile was attracting heavily tattooed woman as prospective partners. Tony is a salt-of-the-earth, love-to-hike and be-in-nature kind of guy. He’s not interested in the women who are currently responding to his profile.

He told me his profile was really funny and he seemed genuinely very proud of it. So when I told Tony he needed to change it, that was not the response he expected. As the saying goes, “If you do what you always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.”

As uncomfortable as it was for Tony, I took some pictures with his iPhone, some with his toque on and others with it off. I told him to post the pictures with the hat first. Give women a chance to see some eye candy before quickly judging this “bald guy”. Then I recommended he rewrite his profile to tell prospective women about his favourite outdoor activities and what type of partner he would enjoy doing them with.

It’s funny because Tony has a business and understands the importance of marketing, yet when it comes to himself, he has found it a tough go. I have helped other friends in this regard and they have found success meeting a partner they really liked.

When it comes to self promotion for business purposes, I think this is one of the most difficult things for us to do. I believe that’s the time to hire an expert to guide the process.

Either way, feedback from you would be greatly appreciated. As many of you know, I will launch my book featuring the best tips from years past early in 2012. One of my biggest challenges is coming up with a mind-blowing title. Myself and a few others I have consulted with have some ideas that may work well, however, I would really like your insight as you may have something that is a real home run.

What I need is a main title and a subtitle. If you are the one to come up with both and I choose to use them, you will receive two one-hour telephone consultations for your business, valued at $500. If you come up with either the title or the subtitle for the book and I use it, you will receive a one-hour telephone consultation. How does that sound?

Here are some title concepts that have been developed so far:

- Thrive
- Smart Lifting
- Lifting
- Lift Strategies
- Passion to Profitability
- From Passion To Profitability
- Turning Passion Into Profitability

Here are the subtitles. The combination of both the title and subtitle is equally important:

- Growing your business with passion and prosperity
- Profitable strategies for growing your small business
- Getting from passion to profits
- Accelerate your business’ profitability
- Quick tips for faster profitability
- Quick tips to foster profitability
- Quick tips to become more profitable
- Quick tips to help your business succeed
- Quick tips to grow your business
- Quick tips to passionately grow your business
- Savvy Tips for Entrepreneurs
- Smart strategies for small-business growth

Please email me directly at jen@liftstrategies.com with your ideas and feedback. I am excited to hear what you have to say.

As the story goes; out of sight, out of mind. The battery was working, so I didn’t make it a priority to have it replaced. The day I was scheduled to drive out of town, I got up early to take my daughter to a doctor’s appointment. There I sat, in my car, trying to start the car. Although this was a big drag for my daughter, I was immensely grateful that my car needed its battery replaced at the beginning of the day rather than at the moment I headed out the door to drive to the ferry.

I called BCAA and they came within 30 minutes and had the battery replaced in just over half an hour. The truth is, I was just lucky. If BCAA had been experiencing high call volume for battery replacement requests, I would have been hooped.

I realized that putting off an important task or situation or simply crossing my fingers and hoping I wouldn’t have to deal with it until a later date is risky business. I am grateful of this reminder to deal with small issues before they become big challenges or even catastrophes.

Can you relate? Is there any situation that could potentially have a huge negative impact on your business because you didn’t deal with it earlier?

I hope this personal story ignites some urgency for you to act now rather than deal with the stress and impact of putting out avoidable fires later.

If this sounds like you, you might want to try an inner work tool called Guiding Image.
A Guiding Image is a symbol or picture that comes from your inner world in response to your specific quest or question. Because the image comes from within, it is “worth a thousand words”, often containing deep meaning and insight in a single flash.

Once you have an image, you can use it like a touchstone or beacon, calling it into your mind and heart any time you are unsure about a direction or decision. The image is a powerful way to get your bearings, and to access your inner knowing about a situation or challenge.

To connect with a guiding image, start with Groundwork (Tip #2), frame your quest/question as clearly as you can, and then sit quietly with your eyes closed, asking for an image to guide you. Wait in trust that an image will come to you, or perhaps, a sound or kin-esthetic feeling if you are not a visual person. Take a few moments to see and experience the image fully, and then reflect on what it means to you. This tool can be very powerful for setting direction at the outset of a project.

Is there something you are doing today that might benefit from a guiding image?
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Would you like to know that you are on track? Are you tired of the slow progress you are making getting your gifts out into the world? Check out Make Light Work: 10 Tools for Inner Knowing by Kate Sutherland. Its simple practical tools help with major challenges and also the little things that bog us down. (See a sample chapter). For a free newsletter, and for workshops, coaching and organizational consulting, see www.katersutherland.com.

Although there was a garden area with a big rhododendron bush, the rest of the garden under my front window was merely dirt and a large rose bush. I had a friend, who is an avid gardener, coach me on how to grow and keep the little sunflower seedlings alive and healthy.

The basic essentials were sun, water and support. I couldn’t guarantee the sun but I did set up support stakes for each flower and watered them regularly. As a result, I witnessed these beautiful flowers bloom. In fact, all four had multiple flowers. Some would die, and then others would bloom.

There was one mystery for me. The leaves that hung off each stem were either dead or dying. I didn’t understand why until I asked my friend the cause of the problem.

The issue appeared to be the soil. The soil in which these beautiful flowers were firmly rooted was terrible. It contained very few nutrients. So, even though I was giving good care of each plant, I did not consider a very important factor to properly nurture my sunflowers.

This analogy is similar to how we as business owners manage our business. If we don’t prioritize the foundation of our company or organization – such as having a solid marketing action plan in place or making sure our team is behind our promotional efforts – we will not get the best results. There may still be a positive outcome, but the full potential will not be achieved. In the end, taking a little extra time to tend to the pieces in place can result in an exponential outcome over time.

Next year, if I decide to plant sunflowers again, I will definitely start them off with a new bed of soil so they have the potential to grow and flourish fully.

How solid is your business’ foundation?

We are setting energy all the time, most often unconsciously. Common settings are drudgery, struggle, effort and conflict. We expect difficulties. We “hate meetings”, or family gatherings, or our everyday work situation.

The same way we choose to open up to life (as suggested in Tip #2-C), we can also choose what energy we want for the day or for a task. If you need to write, you can choose clarity and creativity. If you want a meeting to go smoothly, you can choose calm, or grace, or flow….

Once you have decided the kind of energy you would like, you need to “run the energy”. To set your energy for joy, for example, think of a time when you experienced joy. Recall the experience briefly in vivid detail, inviting the energy of joy to infuse every cell in your body. Then invite this energy to be with you for your task or all day.

Finally, let go, trusting that “as you have sown, so shall ye reap”. You might also try listening for what energy wants to come through you, and then setting your energy accordingly. For example, you might choose playfulness, but loving kindness might be more important.

Try it. You can set your energy now for whatever you’ll do next.

Two bonuses: you can set the energy for more than one quality; and you can reset your energy at any point. If you hit a bump, take a moment to do Groundwork (see Tip #2), and then reset your energy.

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Would you like to know that you are on track? Are you tired of the slow progress you are making getting your gifts out into the world? Check out Make Light Work: 10 Tools for Inner Knowing by Kate Sutherland. Its simple practical tools help with major challenges and also the little things that bog us down. (See a sample chapter). For a free newsletter, and for workshops, coaching and organizational consulting, see www.katersutherland.com.