I always find the time immediately after a holiday, as an exciting time in business.  Your thinking is clearer and more creative, and you are open to possibilities that you may not have been just prior to your break.  I know this has been the case for my VIP mentor clients and myself!  There is a buzz in the air around business, and it’s as if everyone has their mojo back!  Do you feel the same?

If so, you’re ready to do things differently……

You want to know what are the core foundations you have to put in place for your success in 2011.  You know that 2010 doesn’t count anymore, as this is the New Year!

So, here are two key foundations that you will want to put in place for your success in 2011… 

1.  Taking action, without any excuses!

Taking action and being persistent is the difference between the successful and the not so successful.  It’s something that I learnt many years ago in my very first business!  After studying successful business people and then being mentored by some of these individuals, I realised that the difference between them and myself, was that they took action.  They made their decisions and acted upon them almost immediately!  They believed in themselves and they trusted the vision they held for themselves. 

Unlike myself, who at that time, would…make a decision, think about it, research it a little more, maybe do a course about it, think about it a little more, second guess myself…. (I know, you get the drift here now)…and then wonder why I was still running around chasing my tail while making limited profits!  Sound familiar?

It wasn’t until one of these mentors stopped me in my tracks one day, and said: “Deb, it’s time for you to stop thinking about it, stop learning about it, and just start doing it.  You spend too much time ruminating and not enough time taking action.  It’s time for you to take action, especially if you want to be a successful entrepreneur!  Otherwise you might as well close shop and go home.” 

Ouch!!!! Closing shop and going home, just wasn’t an option, so it was time to take action and be persistent.  It was time to stop thinking and start doing.  Time to believe in the vision that I held for myself and my business.

I want you to ask yourself:  “What do I need to do today?”  Once you are clear on the exact tasks you need to do, make a commitment to do them!

Sounds straightforward? That is until the self-sabotaging behaviours begin to rear their ugly heads, which leads nicely into the next foundation for your success…

2.  Removing Those Limiting Beliefs that are Holding You Back.

These are the stories that you tell, to keep yourself ‘safe’, to keep yourself where you are currently.  To stop you from focusing on the real action you need to take.

Removing your limiting beliefs, can be as difficult as culling your wardrobe!  You know you should get rid of some of your things, but even through much of it is totally out of fashion, not very flattering and you’ve not worn it for years, you insist on hanging on to it all.  Every time you open the wardrobe, staring back at you, is that white jacket with gold buttons and big shoulder pads!  It gets in the way of all the other great clothes that you could be wearing, if only you could see them.

We do the same with our beliefs:  we keep them when we don’t need them any more, when we have outgrown them.  Some of them have been with us for years.  Despite the fact they’re not really relevant anymore, we find them comfortable and familiar and insist on keeping them.  It’s worth acknowledging that limiting beliefs sometimes hold us back as a form of protection against the very success we are striving for.  So if you want success rather than to be a wannabe, you’ve got to get rid of these beliefs.  Make room for something new.  If they won’t go, change them so that they work for you more positively.

It’s time to put away those beliefs that are holding you back, away once and for all!  Take a moment to think about what your future will be like, what it will feel like with your old beliefs put away where they belong.  Notice again how this looks, feels and sounds for you. 

So, here are two key foundation pieces that you will want to put in place for 2011 - TAKING ACTION and removing your LIMITING BELIEFS.  If you have been thinking about doing something different, now is the time for you ACTUALLY do something different.  Step out of the sea of sameness and make it happen in 2011.

I can’t wait to support you further and hear about what you are doing different in 2011.  If you have your 'must-does', why not take a moment and share them with us here.

Tweet

Who are your ideal clients?  Do you think knowing who your ideal clients are - is important to your business success?

Would love your thoughts, so please take a moment to share!  Not sure who your ideal clients are - then download my report of "Identify your ideal clients and what your profits grow.'  Tweet

I’m about to state the obvious - the key to success for any business, is your clients, your customers, those people who do business with you. And most people will start working with you, or buy something from you because of a service or product you provide that solves a challenge or problem for them. But it is the experience that they get from working with you that will keep them there, and will turn them into raving fans.

The above statement is something that I believe in, and is something that I tell my mentor clients as well as my business building blocks members whenever I can. It’s something that I want to live up to for my readers of this newsletter as well. Reading the results of the survey has really helped me better understand the needs that you have, the challenges that you are facing, and how I can support you in your business growth.

I’ve been where a lot of you are currently at, a new-start up – struggling to understand how to best market your services to your ideal clients, wondering where the next client was coming from, and thinking about where you could actually find these clients. At the five-year plus stage, when my business was growing, I wasn’t sure what my next step would be. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted or needed to do to take my business to that next level that would allow it to grow and develop into what it is today. But at each stage, I was supported by mentors and colleagues who would listen to my questions and concerns, and provide me with the information I needed to keep moving forward.

To give you a snapshot of what you have been telling me from the survey, the following areas are where you would like to see improvements:

· Knowing how to market your product or services - 73.3%
· Getting new customers or clients – 60%
· Taking your business to the next level – 53.3%
· Professional development programs – 40%
· Pricing of products and services – 33.3%
· Achieving work/life balance – 33.3%

You would like further support, ideas and information on:
· Sales,
· Marketing,
· Networking,
· Building strong referrals,
· Understanding clients/customers better,
· Social media, and
· Staying motivated and being supported, to name but a few.

Many of you stated that you would love to work with me, but don’t have the budget to work with me one on one in my Fast Track Success Program. That is okay. Over the next few weeks, I will be letting you know about a group-mentoring program I will be offering to support those of you hungry to move forward. This program will be open to only five business owners and it will be very cost effective. So if you want to know more, or reserve your spot NOW, email me at deb@debpilgrim.com with ‘group-mentoring’ in the subject line, so that you are the first to hear about it.

I am also pulling together leaders within the areas of sales, social media, networking, personal development, internet marketing, web design, client retention, and client satisfaction, to run content-rich programs for you. Most of these will sit within the mentoring programs, and my Business Building Blocks monthly membership calls, but I will also be running some free webinars to support my Biz Booster readers. These experts are also excited to be sharing their information within the article section of Biz Booster as well.

My commitment is to support you in building the business you desire. Please keep talking to me, and sending your questions through via email and I will continue to support you. There are so many great resources out there that I am committed to bring to you the best of this information. I do hope to hear from you soon.
Tweet

Today’s article is a quick tip and I want to focus on one recurring question that is coming up in the responses to the survey. This is about marketing your products and services to clients and how to have clients understand what you are saying.

So I’ve put together these quick tips to assist you:

1. Make sure you really understand your audience. If you don’t know what your prospects or clients need from you, ask questions. You can do this very simply by doing something like what I have done this week. Survey your clients, ask them what you want to know and try and find out what they need from you. I’ve used a tool called Survey Monkey to help me understand more about you! It's easy to use and the information you receive is valuable in relation to how you can better support your clients.

2. Make sure you have the right offer in place. Once you know more about what your clients want from you, then you can make them an offer that speaks directly to their needs and wants. An offer that will allievate any issues or challenges they may facing

3. Ask yourself, “What is the outcome I want from this offer, from this newsletter, from this……?”. Make sure you understand how your audience wants to be spoken to. Than, be very clear on the messages you are sending out. Track and test your messages, and see which ones are having the greatest impact.

Remember, clarity in the understanding of your clients, in your offer, and in your message will support the continual growth of your business. If you're not sure where to start, don't stand there waiting, organise a Just-in-Time call with me, so that together we can get you moving in the right direction. Tweet

How good are you at listening? Is it something you really think about? Is listening really that important to running a successful business? I think so! You spend time developing clear messages for your prospective clients to read and hear, how often do you stop and really listen to what they have to say?

Listening is an important to skill to learn, and one that requires practise, especially to listening empathetically. When listening at this level, you can have a dramatic impact on your sales conversion. But, lets start by looking at the five levels of listening:

1) Ignoring – making no effort to listen,
2) Pretend listening – giving the appearance you are listening,
3) Selective listening – hearing only the parts of the conversation that interest you,
4) Active listening – paying attention to what the speaker says, and comparing that to your own experiences or requirements, and
5) Empathetic listening – listening and responding with both the heart and mind to understand the speaker’s words, intent, and feelings.

What type of listener are you? Most people will either listen selectively or actively, but to really understand and hear what someone is saying we need to listen empathetically. Few people really listen empathetically, and not only does empathetic listening involve a deep shift in paradigm, it requires practise.

We typically seek first to be understood. Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply. They are either speaking, or preparing to speak. They are filtering everything through their own paradigms, reading their autobiography into other people’s lives.

“Oh, I know exactly how you feel!”
“I went through the very same thing. Let me tell you about my experience.”

These listeners constantly project their own home movies onto other people’s behaviour.

To listen effectively we need to put our egos to one side and focus on helping the other person express their thoughts, feelings, and ideas. The important thing to remember is that listening to someone is not the same as agreeing with him or her. We often feel that we give our power away by listening to someone else, but in fact listening is empowering. Learn to listen with your eyes, your heart as well as your ears.

To support your move into empathetic listening, here are the four stages you need to consider:
· Mimic the content of communication: simply repeat exactly what is said.
· Rephrase the content: put their (the other’s) meaning into your own words; this takes
thought or mental processing.
· Reflect feeling: we listen and look to the nature of the emotion behind the
communication, observing facial expression, body language, voice (tone, intensity,
volume), etc.
· Rephrase the content and reflect the feeling: we put both the other’s verbal meaning
and emotional content in our own words.

So the next time you are in a conversation with someone, stop and think about what type of listening you are doing. If you’re not listening empathetically, are you really listening at all? Tweet

The phone rang at 4.30 last Monday afternoon and it was a colleague of mine that I had spoken to earlier in the day.

“Deb, I just wanted to check in and see how you are feeling. When we spoke this morning, you didn’t sound too good and I was concerned.”

I said that I was fine, but really I was feeling totally wiped out! It was school holidays and I had been in bed for most of the weekend with a virus, but had woken up Monday morning, knowing that I needed to be up and ready to go. On top of this, my two-year-old daughter, Giaan, had woken up and I knew she had another chest infection coming on – the second within three weeks!

So, as you sometimes do, I raided the medicine cupboard that morning, took G to the doctor and got on with the day. When my colleague called the second time, I began to realise that I wasn’t actually feeling the best, but I knew I had a solid week booked with both family and business commitments. I couldn’t let anyone down!

As the evening wore on and I tried to concentrate on some work I needed to complete, I began to realise that Tuesday may in fact need to be a day of rest. But it was the second Tuesday of the month and I was was very much looking forward to this particular Tuesday. You see, I had spent the most part of the previous month re-designing my Business Building Blocks Membership and the first new and improved webinar was happening the next day, and I didn’t want to let anyone down.

Can you see what I was doing? I was so caught up on making sure that I didn’t let anyone down, that I realised by not canceling the webinar I actually would be letting everyone down. It took me most of the evening to come to the realisation that I needed to cancel the webinar and my other appointments for the day.

And that sometimes, Life Happens!

In relation to business, once I made the decision, I realised that I could do two things.

Firstly, I could beat myself up for canceling Tuesday and allow myself to sit in negative self-talk. This would probably of sounded like: “This is so unprofessional, what will my members think?” “Can’t believe that I canceled, really you’re not that sick.”; “What will my colleagues think?”. Etc, etc, etc.

Or

Secondly, I could acknowledge that Life Happens & I was not feeling the best, that my throat was sore and the level of concentration I needed for my members was not going to be there. That it was okay to cancel Tuesday, take care of myself, and my family. That I didn’t need to put this pressure on myself to be all things to all people.

I chose to do the later. I contacted all my members with an email letting them know what was happening, and then made a conscious decision to accept that life does happen and it is okay.

The reason I wanted to share this with you, is to let you know that there are those times when it is okay to let go and say “Life Happens". Be honest with what is happening for you right at that moment and know that those within your community will support you, as the members of my community did. It’s a great lesson that we can give others.

So the next time “Life Happens” for you, don’t go down the road of beating yourself up. Choose to acknowledge what is happening for you right now and ask yourself what you need to do to support YOU. Tweet