By Guest Expert, Jim Palmer – The Newsletter Guru

I’ve been in and around the business world for almost 30 years, and I can tell you that while most savvy business owners understand it’s important to maintain good relationships with their customers to keep them repurchasing for many years, most would be hard-pressed to give you a dollar amount if you asked them what the actual value of a lifetime customer is. This is shocking.

I think this is vitally important because once they knew this number; most business owners wouldn’t be so frugal (cheap!) on customer acquisition and retention.

Jay Abraham wrote a good book called Getting Everything You Can Out ofAll You’ve Got, and chapter 5, “Break Even Today, Break the Bank Tomorrow,” addresses this topic in an interesting way. The following excerpt is from Jay’s book.

“The current lifetime value of one of your clients is the total profit of an average client over the lifetime of his or her patronage – including all residual sales, less advertising, marketing, and incremental product or service-fulfillment expenses.

Let’s say that your typical new client brings you an average profit of $75 on the first sale. He or she repurchases three more times a year, with an average reorder amount of $300, and on each $300 re-order you make $150 gross profit. Now, with the average patronage life lasting two years, every new client is worth $975. You could theoretically afford to spend up to $975 to bring in a new client and still break even.”

Now, let me ask you, when you see $975 as the value of a lifetime customer, doesn’t it seem a little silly to be so frugal in both your customer acquisition and customer retention efforts?
I believe that the best customer retention tool available to any business is a monthly customer newsletter. When you consider that you could print and mail a newsletter for about a buck, quite frankly, that seems like an absolute bargain! I founded No Hassle

Newsletters to make quality newsletters available to any business, regardless of size. Visit www.NoHassleNewsletters.com to learn more about this wildly popular ‘Done-for¬-You’ program.
I’m known internationally for my tireless promotion of monthly customer newsletters. There is no doubt – let me rephrase that – there is not one grain of doubt whatsoever that a monthly customer newsletter will work miracles for your business – no matter what your business!

Here is what Bill Glazer, President of Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle says about newsletters.
“Who should be sending out newsletters to their customers/clients/patients/prospects? The answer is everybody!!! That’s right, there is not a business on the planet that couldn’t benefit BIG TIME with a monthly company newsletter. There is no better way to develop a relationship with people than sending out a properly written newsletter.”

In my opinion, newsletters are, dollar for dollar, the most effective marketing tool available. The following are some of the benefits of a customer newsletter.

1. Newsletters increase brand awareness.
2. Newsletters help build relationships with customers and potential customers
3. Newsletters are an awesome way to introduce new products or services.
4. Newsletters can enhance your reputation as an expert in your industry.
5. Newsletters have a longer shelf life than other types of marketing.
6. Newsletters are often read by multiple readers.
7. Newsletters are a great way to differentiate yourself from larger businesses that typically won’t do a customer newsletter.

Most business owners understand that the cost of acquiring a new customer is considerably higher than keeping a current one. Most business owners also understand the 80-20 rule which says that 80% of a company’s profits come from 20% of their customers. Jim Palmer’s 80/20 rule of marketing says that if that’s true – and I believe it is – then most companies would be wise to concentrate more of their marketing efforts and dollars on enhancing the relationship the have with their current customers and less on new customer acquisition.

In this shaky economy every business should be very mindful of not losing a single customer. If you’re already producing a monthly customer newsletter, congratulations and keep up the great job. If you’re thinking about starting one for your business, wait no longer – it will prove to be the best decision you’ve ever made!

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Jim Palmer is known internationally as the ‘Newsletter Guru, the go-to resource for smart, effective strategies for maximizing the profitability of customer relationships. Jim is also the acclaimed author of The Magic of Newsletter Marketing – The Secret to More Profits and Customers for Life and Stick Like Glue – How to Create an Everlasting Bond with Your Customers So They Spend More, Stay Longer, and Refer More! Jim is also the creator of the wildly successful No Hassle Newsletters.

Ready for three more “Get More Done” strategies? If you missed part one, read part 1 here.

3. Delegate Ruthlessly
A lot of time is wasted when a business owner is doing a task that someone could do better, faster or cheaper than themselves. Now granted, when the cash flow is tight, sometimes it’s really tempting to just keep it all in house and do it yourself.

But have you ever stopped to think about what doing certain activities yourself is costing you? If you spend 10 hours a week doing billing then you aren’t focused on growth. With those ten hours you could be meeting with new clients, creating customer retention programs or even designing a new offering. You could be hiring new team members or even mapping out a new marketing technique. But no….you are convinced that you should be doing a $25/hour task yourself (at the expensive of generating tens of thousands of additional dollars.)

When your mind shifts into how powerful delegation can be to getting more done you’ll discover a lot of tasks that can be completed faster through other people. Or even better, how you can accomplish more of those “bigger dream” projects when you aren’t distracted by the every day minutia.

Here are a few key delegation areas to consider:

• Managing incoming phone calls and emails. A virtual assistant can handle 90% of the routine follow up and free you up to focus on more important tasks.

• Data entry. It’s a $10/an hour job at best – so find someone who can do it for you. Most bookkeeping and invoicing tasks fall under this category although you may pay someone closer to $25/hour.

• Online Marketing. Anything that you’ll have to spend more than 2 hours learning is probably more effective to have an admin or expert set up. For instance, if you spend four hours figuring out how to set up a Facebook or Twitter account when someone else could do it for you in 20 minutes, you’ve now wasted your time. Consider having an online business manager set up your social media accounts, squeeze pages, shopping cart, materials, affiliate programs, etc.

• Client Communications. By creating a schedule of regular communications, an admin support person can ensure that newsletters, blog posts or email updates are sent on time.

• Program Management. Membership sites and group coaching programs often require a lot of hand-holding and new customer training. Delegating this to someone who can stay on top of it not only makes sure you can accomplish brining on lot of new clients quickly – it also helps customer retention!

I’ve got over 101 different delegation ideas to consider but these are a few of the basics. If you’d like to see more ideas on delegatable tasks get a copy of the free resource 101 Ways To Triple your Income and Time Off.

4. Shore up Standards & Boundaries
Standards and boundaries are like castles. Beautiful castles were built in Europe for centuries by aristocrats – but they were vulnerable without to be protected from thieves and other warring nations. When a castle was designed they would build lookout towers to watch for potential danger as well as a drawbridge and moat to keep the castle safe.

In our own lives, our standards are our beautiful goals and lifestyle desires. The boundaries are what we put in place to protect our ability to sustain them. If we are constantly bombarded by distractions, energy drains, problems, and other people’s toxic influences, it can be very difficult to achieve new heights.
In my Extraordinary Results Academy I teach specific steps on exactly how to set up boundaries.

Here are a few ideas for you to get you started:
• Create a disruption free work space.

• Communicate proactively about deadlines, procedures and needs.

• Eliminate (or limit) time spent with negative people.

• Turn off your phone or email when working on projects.

• Stop solving problems for your team by coaching them on how to solve on their own.

• Set up reserves for key resources such as money, supplies, etc.

5. Simplify Your Approach
The other day I watched a friend of mine drive 4 hours all over the city to pick up mail, cash checks and get banking done. Honestly, I was perplexed. Now I get that some people still have checks mailed to them from their clients (aka not all businesses use online payment processing) but the fact that his mailbox is a good 30 miles away from his office AND it took him 3 stops to get it all done blew my mind.

Not to mention that it takes him about 30 hours a month to do the billings for his accounts. WHAT? Wow, what a time consumer.

So I threw out a novel idea. “What if you put all your clients on a monthly retainer. You could give them a price break for paying up front for your monthly services and save both you and your client a ton of time servicing the accounts. “ His response – “I love it.” Has he implemented it? Nope.

Back to the boiled frog theory. It’s easier to keep doing it the way he’s done it for 25 years even though it costs him valuable productivity time. But what about for you? Where could you simplify the way you are doing things so you can get more done (not to mention eliminate of a lot of stress!)

Here are some areas you might consider:
• Scheduling appointments. By using an online scheduling tool you can let other people pick from available appointment times and sync it right into your calendar. Two tools I recommend are www.genbook.com and www.timedriver.com.

• Using Contact Management Systems. Especially if you have more than one person who needs up to date information about prospects, purchases or affiliate relationships, using a contact management system like InfusionSoft, SugarCRM or Goldmine will make your entire team more productive.

• Automate Bonuses and Coaching Benefits. If you have a lot of moving parts, be sure to map out the entire sequence of steps and automate as much as possible using software. If you are using InfusionSoft, this is a great tool to pre-program deliverables.

• Billing and Invoicing Systems. Another area that can suck a lot of time is managing client receivables. Look for ways to stop the on- off payments and the need for monthly billings. Consider packages or set up retainers.

Getting more done starts by making a decision to do what works – not what’s comfortable or what you’ve become accustomed to over time. Make a commitment to implement even just one of these five ideas and track how much more effective you are – and how much more quickly you accomplish your goals.

Did you have a “get more done” breakthrough you can share below? Or maybe a tip you want others to know about? Would love to have you post in the comments below!

In our fast-paced society there is a constant feeling of “how can I get more done.” There is a study that revealed the average human being is bombarded with over 1,000,000 bytes of information in a minute. And that was before Twitter and Facebook existed! No wonder it’s so challenging to get things done. Think about how many times you ended your day wondering how your to-do list didn’t even have a dent made in it.
Most of us suffer with terminal “over-commit and under-perform” habits, especially when it comes to our own businesses. Some of it has to do with the habits we have cultivated for years. Some of it is due to the nature of how our businesses are set up. But a good portion of why we don’t get more done is because of the conditions we live in.

The conditions we set up in our life either pull us forward or block our progress. Most of us have unconsciously set up conditions that sabotage our growth and make getting things done ten times harder. The conditions we create for ourselves can be compared to cooking a frog. If you drop a frog into boiling water it will jump right back out because it’s just too darn hot! But if you slowly turn up the heat the frog doesn’t realize what’s happening and it…well…you get the idea.

If we jumped into a really frustrating situation that we weren’t used to it would not feel good and we would get out quickly. But most of us have been living with our way of thinking and doing things for so long that we have adapted to them. Thus, these sabotaging conditions become second nature and we don’t even realize there is a more effective approach to getting things done.

Here are some of the ineffective conditions people set up:
• Choosing to be in reactive mode because of a lack of discipline or habit of planning ahead.

• Working from home with inadequate work space or with family that constantly interrupts.

• Setting up client billing or work relationships that require constant attention or micro- management to accomplish the goal.

• Waiting until a resource (such as printer paper, computers memory, financial reserves, etc) is depleted to replace. This causes major disruptions and energy drains.

• Surrounding ourselves with negative forces, toxic people or non-supportive friends who pull you away from progress.

• Overly complicated programs or systems that have multiple steps, which provides way too much opportunity for breakdown and it sucks up your time.

I’ve been working with entrepreneurs for almost ten years to help them get the “edge” in their game so they can easily surpass their own goals and expectations. The ability to get more done can easily occur when we sharpen our “saw” (as Stephen Covey would say.)

Here are a few ways you can uplevel your game up a few notches to get more done.

1. Get Organized
After looking for an hour for that email on how to log into your membership site you now have no time left to download the library of audios. Feeling behind, you jump to the next task only to realize you don’t have all the information to complete your project. Deflated, you move on to the next project which requires a phone call with a client. You can’t get a hold of them. Frustrated with your lack of progress you shut down the computer and head to the T.V. for a Law and Order re-run.

Not being organized is a huge waste of time. With our rushed pace to fit everything in many entrepreneurs have horrible time management, let alone a process to manage the flow of data.

Here are a few tips to get organized to be more productive:

• When you join a new program, take five minutes to create an email folder and automatic rule for all information to go directly into that folder. Or, create a binder, print your important materials out, and put them directly in the binder. That way you can easily find what you need.

• Immediately schedule important phone calls, coaching calls, client meetings into your calendar with: Name, phone #, details of call, links to any important data. This will save you tons of time for the actual call (even better…have your assistant do this for you.)

• Take a few minutes to handle paperwork coming in so it doesn’t stack up and get lost. By using folders, binders or some type of paper management system, you can easily find any paper or note necessary. Use a system like Paper Tiger if you really want to get organized.

2. Batch Similar Tasks
For most entrepreneurs, the way we approach getting things done is like a ping-pong match. We jump on the computer to check Facebook, then we are writing an email campaign, then spend 20 minutes talking with a client, then off to seven other tasks. It s a lot of activity with very little traction.
Along time ago I read a magazine article about running errands. The article talked about “batching” errands and handling them in order, from the farthest away to the closest. It eliminates back and forth driving and saves a lot of time. Well you can do the same thing with tasks. By doing similar types of tasks at once you can create momentum and accomplish a lot more in less time.

For instance, what if you schedule a block of time to do all your financial activities, then a block of time for returning phone calls, then a block of time to complete email follow up, etc. What you are doing is giving yourself focused blocks of time to accomplish like tasks – allowing yourself to create momentum and traction.

Try batching your tasks by scheduling blocks of time (or even whole days) for activities like:
• Client and Prospect Meetings

• Self Care or Exercise

• Writing or Product Creation

• Administration, Planning and Team Meetings

• Phone Calls and Email Follow Up

Catch Part 2 of this article coming in 2 days.

When I first started moving my business to an online marketplace I was lucky enough to have a friend and colleague who showcased me as the “Get Out Of Overwhelm” expert to her list. We put together one call that channeled a significant number of leads for years.

Another colleague of mine invited me to speak multiple times at his event for small business owners. My ability to solve the problem of overwhelm that his attendees were feeling led to many immediate AND long-term sales.

But not all of my strategic alliances have been so fruitful. Once I had a colleague offer to promote my program by hosting a call only to realize he never sent any emails to his list. Needless to say there weren’t any callers. I’ve also encountered partners who start strong and then fade away leaving me wondering what went wrong.

Over the years I have realized that aligning with strategic partners for me is more than just a one-time “joint venture” deal. It’s about creating a bond that causes both parties to want to support each other. I like to call them Magnetic Strategic Partnerships (MSP) – two or more parties who generate significant buzz and excitement for the other’s offerings. Each supports the other by sharing the resource with their community via hosted teleclasses, email blasts, Facebook or Twitter posts or sharing articles.

The result – sell more, make more cash and elevate your prestige in a new community.

So what’s the magic formula for finding Magnetic Strategic Partners? Here are a few of the attributes to look for – whether you are searching or being asked to play.

1. Likeability
Have you ever had a project to work on with someone you didn’t like very much? You probably found that you procrastinated– or maybe even subconsciously sabotaged things along the way. To have a MSP you MUST genuinely like the other person. If not, why bother?

2. Passion for the Program
Another must-have element is a true passion and belief in the MSP’s program, product or offering. A good MSP is already bombarded with requests to promote stuff. When they love your offering it rises to the top. Plus their belief in you/your program shines through in all of their communication and creates a raving fan energy that will be contagious to their followers.

3. Pay It Forward Mentality
One way to open a door to a dream MSP is to be willing to give first. It’s the ‘be different” approach and it will soften their walls so they can see how wonderful you are. Too often strategic partners get caught up in “scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” Well, what if you just promoted because you love their stuff?

So now that we like each other and have enthusiasm for each other’s programs, how do we sustain it? These next three attributes are what keeps a great MSP in motion for years and years.

4. Collaborative Commitment
If you teach marketing strategy and I teach mindset principles, then our programs will compliment each other naturally. This makes for the easiest way to YES between strategy partners. It gets tricky when there is overlap. Having a collaborative mindset is about knowing there is more than enough for everyone.

Many times a collaborative commitment can create entirely new co-delivered programs when the commitment to play together is strong enough.

5. Aligned Values
When two people share a common commitment to something they experience instant rapport. I see it a lot right now in the movement away from “shock and awe” marketing. Many new MSPs are being formed by people in their zealous commitment to more authenticity and in having a real desire to be of service.

Take some time to explore what you each believe in before you jump into promoting each other’s stuff. That foundation can set you apart from the other affiliates seeking sales.

6. Integrity
No matter what happens, the golden rule of MSPs is to honor your commitments. Promote when you say you will. Pay what and when you said you would. If you break your word with an MSP the game is over. No one wants to chase you down to get you to perform (I’ve had to chase many a payment in my day and it’s definitely a buzz kill) so treat your MSPs with golden gloves.

Keep in mind that bad news travels faster than good news. An out of integrity partner will be talked about behind closed doors and you can’t afford to have your honor tarnished.

Now that you have these insights into creating your very own MSP’s its time to start forming them. I’ll give you a quick lesson straight from my Magnetize More Money Mastermind program. Make a commitment to contact one new person each week, explore if you are indeed good MSPs, and then follow up. I’ll give you more tips on opening up new MSPs in a future post.

Got a tip to add? Post it in the comments below:

If you have sabotaging elements in your life and business, every step forward you try to take will feel like quicksand and keep you from enjoying the flow of money in your business.

This quick video showcases 6 of the unsuspecting elements that can cause you feel sluggish and frustrated with your growth. But most importantly, these issues may be keeping you from doing the things necessary to increase or sustain your cash flow!

To discover additional strategies to turn your money flow back on (or maybe you just want to turn it up), join us for the Magnetize More Money Challenge. You may even qualify for a live hot seat if you enroll and apply before July 25th!

A few weeks ago one of my clients asked how he could stop missing deadlines and get more predictable results with his business. Now I’ve worked with this client for a couple of months and I had a pretty good idea of why he wasn’t able to achieve his goals on time. I asked him, “Jason, can you please tell me your strategy for predictable failures?”

I think he was a little shocked at first but then I explained. “Well, you have gotten very good at making sure you don’t get the results you want, right? So the good news is that when you have a strategy that gets you predictable results – even if its the wrong results – then you can flip it into a positive strategy!

So here is what I did with Jason.

First I asked him to explain step by step how exactly he made sure he screwed up a plan and didn’t get good results.

Here was his strategy for missed deadlines:

1. When I decide to start the project, establish a due date without looking at calendar or other commitments so it’s completely unrealistic.

2. Set up myself up so that you I multiple important projects going at the same time.

3. Keep the project plan in my head and wake up stressing every day about it.

4. Tell myself I’m going to work on the project then answer other peoples urgent requests via email and phone and don’t get anything done.

5. Guarantee I won’t finish anything by starting lots of tasks simultaneously.

When you start to understand the thoughts, behaviors and choices you make to get bad results you can “rewire” your process to get great results.

Then we took take Jason’s poor results strategy and flipped it into one that could deliver guaranteed results. For instance, if we did the opposite of each action from above, Jason would:

1. When starting a project, always look at calendar and other commitments before deciding on deadline.

2. Be realistic about other projects and commitments so I’m not over-committing and under-performing.

3. Spend an hour to map out all the steps in the project and transfer them to my calendar (or project planning system.)

4. Book chunks of time where I turn off phones and email and do NOTHING but work on my project.

5. Be diligent with my focus and complete one task at a time.

Successful outcomes happen when proven steps are used together. Most of us fall into a trap of habits that deliver poor results – missed deadlines, mediocre sales, stressful launches, etc. By “flipping” those bad habits into their opposite actions you can start to achieve improved results!

What will you try this on? Got a bad habit of missing deadlines that you want to improve? Share them below…

When I was in corporate America, it was so easy to take a vacation – I was getting paid for it! As an entrepreneur, I find months slip away and I’m still going full speed ahead. “Who’s got time for a vacation?” is a phrase I hear often from my clients and friends.

What is not taking time off costing us?

We lose our focus, spin in circles or even make horrible decisions. Our creativity gets blocked because the juices aren’t flowing. Or worse yet, we start suffering from the entrepreneur’s worst nightmare — fatigue (five cups of coffee later and you still can’t get in gear.) It is time to give yourself a break. For those of you who have great discipline and balance, you can stop reading now. You have probably already mastered this area. For those of you who rarely take time for yourself, let alone a vacation from the business, take good notes.

Why is this important? Because as an entrepreneur our most important and valuable skill is our creativity. And creativity flourishes when we are rested. Have you ever noticed that our best ideas come at times like when we are sleeping or in the shower? Maybe you are like me and they drop in when you are driving? Well, to tap into that cherished creativity more often, we need to have downtime. Let me introduce the idea of the “entrepreneur’s vacation.” You may not have the time or inclination to go to Hawaii, Europe or spend the week at the lake house with your in-laws, so here are 10 ways to give yourself a “mini-vacation” without losing momentum from your business. (And all ten are doable no matter what you say about your schedule.)

1. Read a good book. No not another marketing or leadership book. Be really audacious – read a fiction book. Recently, I’ve been into Ken Follet. Maybe you are more of a Harry Potter fan. Or be real decadent and just read a trashy novel. Anything that will let your imagination run free and the creativity flow.

2. Hang out in a coffee shop. You’ll meet the most interesting people (especially in L.A.) I’ve run into Dr. Phil, Robert Downey Jr., and many others. Coffee shops are great for people watching. You can’t throw a wet noodle without hitting a Starbucks around here so I prefer the “local” places (like Aroma Café in Sherman Oaks.)

3. Go for a drive. Pick a place you haven’t been before. I’ll often jump in the car and drive down to the beach just to get my head clear.

4. Have lunch with a friend. You know, at one of those fancy, chi-chi restaurants with the great view. I highly recommend Shutters in Santa Monica if you are in the neighborhood.

5. Go to a mid-day matinee. Be really adventurous and make it a 2:00 showing. Plus it’s a great way to escape the summer heat waves.

6. Enjoy a hobby. Golf, tennis, knitting, painting, gardening, whatever it is, give yourself some time to have fun with it. Internet surfing and chat rooms don’t count! (But planting a few house plants does!) I’ve recently picked up my sticks again and hit the driving range once a week.

7. Play games with friends. Two of our family favorites are Guesstures and Balderdash. Games are an amazing way to let off steam. The idea is to laugh like a kid again.

8. Get some culture. Most towns have outdoor concerts for the summer that are free. Visit a museum. The Getty in West Los Angeles is a good one. Be a tourist in your own town.

9. Spend the afternoon with a child. If you don’t have any of your own, borrow one from a friend. Do something you would never do unless you were with a five year old! Make a fort in the living room couch or play hair salon. My 11 year old niece loves to go shopping with me or hang out at the pool for the afternoon. I’m always 7 million mental pounds lighter.

10. Treat yourself to a spa day. My personal favorite – massage. It is something that is good for EVERYONE! If you are really looking to decompress, head out to a spa weekend. A few of my favorites are: Palm Desert Marriott Hot Springs, The Bacara in Santa Barbara or a more reasonably priced spa is The Oaks at Ojai, California.

When my clients get stressed out, I give them an assignment to take time off. It always works like a charm! The pay off for taking breaks can be significant. Writers who suffer from writers block often say that the best thing to do is disengage for a while and do something else.

When you notice you are reading the same sentence over and over again or when you sit staring at the computer for over 15 minutes, trying to remember what you were just working on, it’s time to take a break! Have fun with it and just enjoy yourself for a few hours. I promise, nothing horrible will happen and you will be much more creative when you return.

So here’s an opportunity for you to integrate more time to tap into your creativity. Plan to do at least one of these 10 recommendations within the next week. Watch what happens. Realize how your energy is rejuvenated. Observe how much more productive you become when you take time for fun. Open your mind to the flow of creativity and new ideas. Pretty soon you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how nice an “entrepreneurs vacation” can be.

What other ideas do you have for a mini-vacation? Share them in the comments below…

I’ve been in my “upleveling the game” process – a process I do annually to access new levels of clarity about where I want to go with my life and business. From this process I have made some tough choices. Some of which will seem really strange as I reveal some big changes in the direction of my business.

However I know these decisions I’ve made are pivotal to me playing my biggest game ever. Now this upleveling process is based on 3 questions that I challenge myself to answer truthfully.

This video I created for you will share those questions with you – and I’ll reveal one of my biggest game changing decisions with you!

Here are the questions I asked myself to get this new big game I’m starting….I’d love to hear YOUR answers below:

Question #1: What Do I Really Want?

Question #2: How Much Do I Have of It?

Question #3: What Needs to Change to Have More of it?

Thanks for sharing your answers. I’m sad AND excited about this decision as I’ll miss personally working with entrepreneurs in my Fast Track to Lifestyle Business Coaching Program. But I know to have a bigger impact I have to focus on this new way to serve! I hope you’ll join me for this last series!

You work 60+ hours a week just trying to keep things moving forward. You barely have an hour to eat dinner with your family let alone think about achieving that secret goal that keeps surfacing.

You keep that long list of projects and ideas that surface over and over again for “some day” when you have time.

Well I have a rude awakening for you. Some day never comes! You will always have more to do than time to do it in. If you don’t decide RIGHT NOW to make space for your real genius you will always have the “some day” list.

But even more importantly, there is a huge cost to staying busy serving your mediocre (or maybe it’s good enough) business. It shows up in one of two ways:

1. Anything not aligned with your genius will eventually fall away. And when it does, it is usually like having your arm ripped out. It hurts.

2. You exist but you don’t thrive. It’s like a little part of you is dying inside and it festers like an open wound. Constantly uneasy, you continually search for answers and you just never feel fulfilled.

Typically there are three core reasons why we stay comfortable in “good enough”:

Fear of failing when we try our “bigger” life

Not knowing how to get there

An utter unawareness that anything else can exist

But interestingly enough, when we shift out of the mediocre safety net and into a commitment to live in our genius, life becomes easier. We do things we are good at and say no to things that no longer serve us. So why do we resist it?

In Gay Hendricks book, The Big Leap, Gay encourages people to commit to living in their Zone of Genius. What if we all made a commitment to live in our genius? Then what? Well, most of us have some house cleaning to do.

Here are some ways you can shift into the Genius Zone.

1. Tell yourself the REAL truth. What do you really love about the way your business is – and what are you putting up with. Many of us squash that little voice that says, “This isn’t enough” or “I feel out of alignment.” Telling the truth is essential in this process.

2. Make a decision to only say yes to your genius. This step requires discipline. It’s so easy to follow the allure of a bright shiny object only to discover later it’s not a good fit. Use a tool like The ULTIMATE Success Generator to help you craft a “genius opportunity filter” so you look at fit – not allure.

3. Gather clues for what “genius level” looks and feels like. You may not fully know what your genius is yet because you’ve squashed it for so many years. People probably told you your genius ideas aren’t money makers. As you gather the clues your roadmap towards genius will be revealed.

4. Pay attention to obstacles. When you are hitting a wall or feel stuck, it is typically a sign that you are going away from your genius. Get a coach or do the inner work to let go of these obstacles. The ego can be very persuasive – pay attention to where you resist letting go!

Choosing to release being busy can feel scary. The rewards are worth it though…its time to uplevel your courage and leap forward. Are you in? Share your commitment to live in your genius in the comment section below.

It happened again.

A great idea just dropped in.

It’s the big one.

The one that will generate MILLIONS and make a big splash on the industry!

You jump in and start working on it. You share your idea with your team and everyone is furiously burning the midnight oil to get this program up and running in record time.

You launch, get OK results and sink back into despair wondering why it didn’t work.

Here’s my diagnosis: you didn’t actually plan it, you just reacted to a great idea and spit out more stuff.

Why do we resist planning?

Well, first of all, it’s not really fun. Secondly, because we typically feel it’s a waste of time and energy because of some ridiculously short implementation timeline we imposed on ourselves. Third, it’s not what entrepreneurs do best. We create. We lead. We inspire. We don’t like to slow down and think things through.

But when we take the time to slow down and plan we are able to consistent predict and deliver the results we desire.

A plan

…allows us to identify the connection between our vision and the steps to actually achieve it.

…reveals actual timelines versus the super-hero, in our head, make believe time tables we kid ourselves about.

…helps us utilize resources and cash flow more effectively.

…is the missing link between where you are and the level of success you desire today.

There are four types of plans you must have to achieve a great level of consistent results:

1. A strategic plan for achieving your annual goals

2. A revenue plan showcasing the potential cash flow from achieving the goals

3. A marketing plan that is the roadmap for generating the income and results

4. Tactical plans for each project or program launch (detailing each step, who is responsible and when it is due by.)

Make a commitment to learn how to use these tools and you’ll open up to a level of masterful business management that will quickly put you on the ‘who’s who of success’ in your industry!

If you’ve been stuck getting the level of results you desire then you’ll want to get your hands on this free training I put together on How To Map Your Mission to More Money. I reveal how to use these planning tools to achieve consistent predictable income in YOUR business.

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