To achieve this, I lead monthly confidential half-day sessions, in Seattle and local surrounding area, during which my Group Members share and discuss their toughest challenges and greatest opportunities with their peers. I also meet one-to-one with each Member on a monthly basis to focus on the issues most vital to their success and growth, their company’s success, and their overall personal success.

About CEO Global Network:

CEO Global Network is a CEO and senior executive peer group organization that leads opportunities for learning and development through peer group meetings led by experienced Group Leaders, targeted one-to-one mentoring, and focused learning and networking events throughout the year. Our Members are successful individuals who want to grow themselves and their businesses to unprecedented levels, while remaining balanced and fulfilled in all areas of life.

To contact Alanna Levenson email her at alevenson@ceoglobalnetwork.com

To learn more about CEO Global Network go to:
www.ceoglobalnetwork.com

The post How Peer Advisory Groups Inspire Leaders – CEO Global Network first appeared on I Love My Life Coaching.

Here is the order:
1. The Why people
2. The What people
3. The How people
4. The What if people

Watch to hear about a real life example of how this was used by one of her clients.

Alanna welcomes your comments, feedback, and questions.

To connect with her go to:
https://www.facebook.com/AlannaLevensonCoaching?ref=br_rs
https://twitter.com/alannalevenson
www.linkedin.com/pub/alanna-levenson/0/3a0/7a0/

The post Effective Presentation Skills – How to connect with your audience first appeared on I Love My Life Coaching.

A client shared how working in her business and just going going going is “like a hungry animal I have to keep feeding. There is a lot of pressure to keep producing then it’s easy to get depressed because we never think that we’ve made it.”

What do you do along the way to celebrate, rest or acknowledge what you ARE doing or HAVE accomplished?

To learn more, watch. Alanna welcomes your comments, feedback, and questions.

To connect with her go to:

Alanna loves hearing your comments and feedback. To connect with her go to:
https://www.facebook.com/AlannaLevensonCoaching?ref=br_rs
https://twitter.com/alannalevenson
www.linkedin.com/pub/alanna-levenson/0/3a0/7a0/

The post How to create and celebrate measurable goals first appeared on I Love My Life Coaching.

You can still work the same amount of hours with a different intention although I’m wondering how you can possibly negotiate a new way you work?

Alanna loves hearing your comments and feedback. To connect with her go to:
https://www.facebook.com/AlannaLevensonCoaching?ref=br_rs
https://twitter.com/alannalevenson
www.linkedin.com/pub/alanna-levenson/0/3a0/7a0/

The post Workaholism – Being a workaholic as a strategy – to what? first appeared on I Love My Life Coaching.

(If you haven’t read it yet, my suggestion is to read that first and then come back to this one.)

Ready for the next three?

#3 is…

3.  Lead by example.

Sometimes I coach people who in the beginning believe that there are leaders and there are followers, and that followers don’t necessarily have leadership capacities. I like to think about this in a different way.

What if you believed that everyone can be a leader?

An aspect I see in leadership is how you influence the world around you. How well you lead directly affects your ability to motivate and inspire others, as well as yourself.

In the S-Factor Leadership Process I teach my clients the difference between catabolic and anabolic energy and how that affects our leadership capacities.

The contrasting information below shows the difference between a catabolic leader who manages and the anabolic leader who leads.

Catabolic                                                        Anabolic

-manages                                                       -leads

-delegates fully                                              -project shares

-gives information                                         -shares detailed information

-self assesses                                                 -utilizes feedback

-works in crisis mode                                    -plans & develops accountability systems

-disconnects emotionally                              -utilizes emotional awareness (is sensitive to others emotions)

-useless brain analysis                                 -uses whole brain thinking

-deals with problems                                    -sees only opportunities (solution focused)

-utilizes personnel                                        -sees the true human resource

Which side are you on? Which side would you rather be on?

4.  Live in the now.

Do you ever notice how successful people have the ability to harness as much energy as possible to live in the moment?  They seem to have it all together, can do more than the average person, and you wonder how they do.

We’re trained to be doing something at all times. We’ve become a very doing culture. I love the quote “Don’t just do something, stand there.”  Chew on that one for a while.

What keeps us from being in the present moment? Fear. You may have learned the FEAR acronym as False Evidence Appearing Real. There is another acronym for FEAR – Future Events Altering Reality.

We sometimes try to have total control in the moment and when we do, it’s because we are worried about our future. That worry is coming from our perceptions and beliefs about our past. Because these two other time frames are distracting us, it ultimately takes us out of the moment.

I have an easy to use technique to address fear, concern or worry. Anytime you notice them rearing up, just breathe and ask yourself these two questions:

-Is what I’m about to do in alignment with what I want to achieve going forward?

-Is what I’m about to do in alignment with the person I want to become going forward?

If the answer is yes to either or both, then thank your fear for being there and just go for it! I said these are simple but I get that they might not be easy.

5.  Changing anything changes everything.

“My gift is the ability to make changes the easiest way for me.” Each and every one of us has this ability to create change and adapt to change. Use your gift to make the change so you’re empowered by it.

I once learned that it’s not change we fear, it’s the worry or concern that we are going to be okay or successful in the midst of change. That isn’t something anyone can predict. What if you just assumed you will be?

Here is the most insightful question you can ask yourself every morning to show up as your most powerful self… “How do I choose to experience the world today?”

You never know when you’re going to impact someone else’s life that makes a difference so share your gift!

Here is an exercise you can do right now to start shifting your success:

As of today I choose to ________________________________________________________________.

When I do that, I make a difference in the world by sharing _______________________.

Many others are inspired by me because I demonstrate ___________________________.

When I live this way everyday, I always feel ________________________________________.

I sometimes don’t know when people read my blogs or watch my videos. I love it when I hear people tell me they do, or they thank me for writing about something.

When I share my thoughts and passion for what I do, I just assume that if it impacts even just one person’s life, it was worth it.

Now are you ready to talk? I still am. Take the S-Factor Leadership Process and spend time with me for a private debrief to learn more about catabolic and anabolic energy and how you show up as a leader.

The post 5 Secrets of Successful People (Part 2) first appeared on I Love My Life Coaching.

Alanna Levenson with I Love My Life! Coaching talks about her big move to Seattle from LA. Are you wanting to make a big change in your life? Some examples might be starting a company, hiring employees for the first time, letting go of a long time loyal employee, expanding your business, changing careers, looking for a new job or even moving to another state. Alanna gives you a great suggestion about how to get started.

(The sound is a little off – tech glitch but still a good message.)

If you need my help, contact me. My consultations are complimentary.

To connect with me on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/AlannaLevensonCoaching?ref=br_rs

The post How do I make a change? Approach it like an exploration. first appeared on I Love My Life Coaching.

In the meantime, I’ve been purging and going through my belongings on a much deeper level to decipher what I want to take with me onto my next chapter and what I’m ready to let go of.

I’m going through clothes, my bookcase, files, and figuring out what furniture to sell or keep. In that process I came across some old notes from my coaching certification program at iPEC from 6 years ago.

What I found was a good reminder. The 5 Secrets of Successful People. After reviewing them, I thought it would be great to share them with you. They are simple to apply to your profession and your life as a whole.

I don’t like to share anything as if it’s a secret and information like this shouldn’t be. What I’m going to share with you also might feel like you’ve heard it before.

Yet, I hope you realize after reading these that you too can achieve a higher level of success by simply applying these principles – of course if you aren’t already.

In this blog I’m going to address #1 and #2. You’ll have to check back to learn about #3-#5.

1. Clear your personal clutter.

It’s not just physical clutter. In this case I’m referring to mental clutter.

There are 4 types of energy blocks that contribute to our mental clutter.

A. Gremlin – This is the voice in your head that tells you that you’re not smart enough, not experienced enough or not good enough in some way.
B. Assumptions – This is about allowing history to predict the future. Just because it happened in the past does not mean it will always happen again in the future. This applies to people or things. (Even if you’re thinking, “yeah but ________ always does _________.” What if you expected something different from them?)
C. Interpretations – It’s the way we view the world. Usually from the past. Which again, doesn’t usually mean that it will be that way again.
D. Limiting beliefs – This sounds something like “I am not good at ______.” What you don’t realize is that these types of beliefs limit you from trying, learning, or doing something you haven’t before. It can sound like a truth or what you declare as your identity.

Now you’re probably wondering, “well then how do I get rid of these?” Unfortunately you won’t ever get rid of them. They’ll happen, and sometimes happen over and over.

Although when they do come up, here is a process to address, confront and break through them.

It’s an easy 4-step process:

1. Awareness – You need to have the awareness that the block is there. Denial doesn’t get anyone anywhere
2. Identification – identify which block it is.
3. Intervene – Once you know which one it is, you’ll know how to address and stop it in its tracks!
4. Action – Take one small action to move yourself forward. Notice I said small? It doesn’t have to be a big action for it to be effective. In fact, sometimes small actions can be more effective in the long run.

2. Practice the distinction between what is “true” or what is “truth.”

True – What seems to be true to us is that which we believe. Our beliefs mostly come from one of the 4 energy blocks listed above so there usually isn’t a basis for reality for them to be true. Remember, it’s all past based. So what basis do you have it to be true for the future? (Again, I don’t want to hear the argument that well it happened before so?!)

Truth – Something that cannot be changed, it’s permanent. It’s true whether you believe it or not. The truth sometimes can be incomprehensible – like gravity. We can’t see it yet we know it to be truth.

I once learned that “suffering is derived from pleasure and pain, that is, the obsession with one and the avoidance of the other.” People want more of what they don’t have and less of what they don’t want.

There is a big buzz out there of people trying to achieve work/life balance. If you believe that everything has to be working to be happy, we suffer.

What if you looked at life as if nothing is as good or as bad as it is at the moment? With every high there is a low, with every low there is a high. What if you had the understanding and knowing that a high won’t last, and neither will a low? Nothing is permanent. Life is ever evolving and so are we.

Intrigued? Scratching your head? By learning the other 3 success principles, these may make more sense.

Want to learn about the other 3 principles to implement to achieve more success? Check back for the next blog post!

I’ll be talking about the difference between a Leader who manages versus a leader who truly leads. I’ll also share with you an insightful question you an ask yourself everyday, first thing in the morning, to live your most present and powerful life.

Ready to talk? I am too. My consultations are complimentary. A great way I like to start a new client is with my JumpStart Strategy Session.

The post 5 Secrets of Successful People (Part 1) first appeared on I Love My Life Coaching.

Here are a few methods to be able to bounce back more quickly. These tips for overcoming the layoff letdown address our internal emotional life and actionable ways to keep moving forward.

1. Acknowledge your emotions – When going through a layoff it’s absolutely normal to feel sad, disappointed, frustrated and maybe even a little angry. A layoff means that your world is about to change and your daily routine is going to be different. We are habitual beings so when we find ourselves unemployed we may not know what to do with our now found freedom. “That which we resist persists” so don’t try to avoid how you’re feeling.
2. Remember it’s not personal – A layoff is different than being fired. A layoff can come about for different reasons that have everything to do with the company rather than you personally. It may be a singular lay off or a round of layoffs where more than one person is given their notice. Layoffs happen for reasons such as the company doesn’t have the revenue to support the same number of employees; a project has been discontinued; or there is no longer a need for a particular position or a department. What are you making it mean?  Why not make it mean something positive and reframe it as an opportunity to learn something and be challenged in an exciting new way?
3. Check in with yourself and reassess – Being laid off can actually be a great time to reassess your career and career path. Take advantage of the opportunity to look at the environment at your previous company, who you worked with, the manager you reported to, and what your responsibilities were to see if they are a match to who you really are and what you value personally and professionally. What was your previous position or company lacking? If you could choose a new boss, who is that person? (What are their personality traits, their leadership style, and what are they a great example of?)
4. Take advantage of your time – I’ve worked with a number of people who were surprised at how busy they were after being let go from their job. They were able to spend more time with their kids, run errands, work on their home, take classes, exercise or just relax. A lot of people get caught up in a hypnotic trance of their typical day to day. Having a new found freedom and available time to spend it how you choose, you may develop some great habits you enjoy that you may want to continue doing once you start working again.
5. Strategize and create a game plan – Rather than getting caught up in the confusion, anger or even boredom of being laid off, spend some time creating a game plan to strategize your way to your next position. Doing this will get you moving forward and will get you focused on staying inspired from a place of personal growth. You can do this on your own or connect with a friend, colleague, mentor or coach who can be your support system, cheerleader and can help you brainstorm your way to what’s next.

The post Bouncing Back After the Layoff Letdown first appeared on I Love My Life Coaching.

I’ve seen this 3 times just in the last few days. I’m not sure if there is a theme going around or maybe it’s the full moon from yesterday.  I don’t normally follow the moon cycles but it was hard to miss as it was intense, radiant and felt like it was going to drop out of the sky.

I’ve experienced these things too. With prospects and clients, I’ve felt devalued, unimportant, and I interpreted what they were saying as if I was being insulted.

Recently when someone was complaining about these things to me, in a lighthearted way I responded with, “welcome to the business world.”

I know, here is your ideal: attract easy-going clients who immediately see the value in what you have to offer, who respect your time, are easy to get along with, learn things the first time and won’t ask for anything more. Oh and can afford your fees and are happy to pay them.

It’s possible and there are people out there but that’s not always the case.

Here are examples of some instances I heard about over the past few days, have you experienced any of these?

-A prospect forgot you were coming after you just drove over a half hour (or longer) in traffic to get there.
-Being told that even though you were on time (and battled traffic) that because that person forgot you were coming that they now have to leave in a few minutes to get to another meeting.
-A client shows up 15 minutes late (and might do that consistently).
-A client has told you how to do your job (maybe more than once).
-A client asking for a style of service that you as the provider is uncomfortable doing.
-Going through the full consultation process with a prospect to then be told they can’t afford you.

When you get frustrated or start to lose your temper, rather than burning a potential bridge here are some things to think about:

Not everyone is a good fit.  Not everyone who is interested in your product/services is going to be a good fit.  You may discover that during the consultation process and you might not. If there is something about your work relationship that isn’t working for you and you’ve attempted to resolve it, it may just boil down to this reality.  Expressing this in a compassionate way can also be the easiest way to end a work relationship that isn’t working.

Although I wonder if there is something you haven’t tried yet?

We don’t have to take it personally that someone else has a hard time being on time or keeping a schedule. I’m an “on time” person so when people are late I notice it.  If this is you too, although it might feel disrespectful it most often doesn’t have anything to do with you.  Can it still be interpreted as disrespectful, yes.

An easy solution is to point it out to them. As an idea you can say “I’ve noticed that you tend to arrive late to our appointments. Is there another time that’s better for you that will have you arrive on time?” Keep in mind too that if they are late, it cuts into their appointment that they’re paying for and you get to end it as you had originally scheduled.

We attract who we’re being. If you want to attract generous people, then be generous. If you want to attract people who are flexible, then be flexible. If you want to attract people who are respectful, then treat others with respect. If you notice that you are dealing with people who are disrespectful, inflexible in a selfish way, or are holding their wallet close, then you may need to do a little bit of self reflection on where you might be doing the same.

I’ve also learned that when something annoys us it’s most likely because:

A)   That person is doing something that you know you do but it’s easier to point it out in them and wrong them for it than to take ownership of that behavior.

B)   They’re doing something that you wish you were but you’re not. So again it’s easier to wrong them for doing it.

We can express something that we’re disappointed about in a lighthearted way.  Growing up most of us are not given good communication skills or taught how to really listen to someone else from a place of non-judgment. We’re also sometimes taught to pick our battles, to not get angry or show emotions on your sleeve, or to make sure not to rock the boat. It can then get confusing as to how as adults we can practice telling others what we are experiencing or what is disappointing to us.

This has taken me a lot of practice too and there is plenty of more practicing to do. I’ve noticed that when I can communicate my disappointment or frustration to someone in a lighthearted way, they can hear it and most people have been receptive to doing something about it to make me happier or to improve our relationship. Not 100% of the time but at least I gave it a shot.

Not everyone will be able to afford or want to pay your rates.  This is a hard one because as no one likes to lose business because someone can’t afford it. There are those cases too where I’ve noticed that the person can most likely afford it but they are pushing back on price because it has more to do with what they are willing to spend their money on and how much they are willing to spend on it. It’s up to you decide how firm you are with offering discounts to get the client and when to be okay with letting that client walk away.

Here’s the thing, if they can’t that’s okay. They night know someone who can. If you handle the situation with grace, kindness and enthusiasm they’ll remember you when their friend who can afford your rates or is happy to spend money on services like yours. You never know, you could get a great referral, stranger things have happened.

We can always ask ourselves, “what can I do better?” or “how can I be better?” Although some people strive for perfection, which doesn’t really exist, we can recognize how we can do better and be better. There are many things I can do better – I can do better at writing more blogs, sending out newsletters, increasing my sales and profit margin. I can also be a better marketer, content and program creator and speaker. I love learning and growing. I would get bored if I wasn’t constantly improving myself.

So the next time you notice that you potentially are about to burn a bridge, how stubborn do you really want to be? Take a moment and think about how this might be an opportunity instead to build one.

The post Frustration, Losing Your Temper and Burning Bridges first appeared on I Love My Life Coaching.

“What am I going to get from working with her?”

(Which usually has to do with making money.) Or…

“How will working on my social media bring me clients?”

I’m sure some of you reading this have wondered why hiring a coach would help you, your career or your business. I certainly hope you’re thinking about these things. When you invest in a coach, you invest in yourself. It’s a time investment, an energy investment and a financial investment. An investment that’s worth it only if you’re willing to do the work and commit to the process.

Not all coaches are alike and we are not meant to work with everyone. And if everyone did want to work with a coach, there is a coach out there for everyone.

Some people might not be ready for coaching – although I’m sure there is also a percentage of people out there who are focusing more on why they think they aren’t vs. why they are.

So what did my client ask me and how did I respond?

Here is what she actually wrote to me:

“I realized I forgot to ask you two very important questions. I want to confirm that you’ve helped others get more clients through social media. What can you do for my business, how are you going to help my business?”

My response to her:

I can’t confirm that I’ve helped my clients get more clients through their social media per se, but what I can confirm is that with the energy you put into being more present and current with your audience, it sends out the message to them and the universe that you are:

A) In business, still doing what you’re doing, and available for hire. (I don’t get asked this anymore because people get it now, but I used to get asked, “are you still coaching?”)

B) Staying on their radar.  You never know who is going to see it and when they will be ready to work with you. (For example, I just launched my new website and sent out a new enewsletter to announce it – an old client I worked with 2.5 years ago replied back and we are going to start working together again the end of this month.)

C) Giving your audience a way to connect with you and get to know you. To see what you’re up to, what you offer, how much you charge for things, how you help people, etc.

And to answer your question about how I’m going to help your business, I’m going to help your business by helping you. I’m going to work with you on giving your business life, a new energy, focus, direction, and successful strategies to be implemented by you. When you give energy towards something it expands and grows.

My goal is to give you ideas, suggestions, introduce you to people that your company might need who provide a product or service, and tools you can use to create a vision for your company and support you in holding you accountable to taking action so your vision can become a reality.

Her response to what I said:

“Alanna,

Thank you for your beautiful email response. I feel better / grounded with your answers to my questions.

I will post the special next week.

Do you know any VA’s that could do website fixes? I’d like to do some changes to my website.

Have a wonderful evening.

I’m looking forward to our next meeting.”

I do and sent her the information. To my knowledge they have already been in contact.

If you’re reading this and you have questions about what coaching can do for you or your business, contact me. I’m just an email, phone call or social media message away.

The post 2 Important Questions – Are you asking them? first appeared on I Love My Life Coaching.