“Making Time” for Play

The first time I heard Loral say that you don’t have a business life and a personal life, you have one life, I can admit I was a bit perplexed. Of course I have two lives! Then I thought a little deeper into the meaning of that statement. No, I really don’t have two lives. I have one life: one body, one heart, one soul, one mind, and one brain. So why can’t I have one integrated whole life where business and play can co-exist? What an amazing concept!

It’s true, once you begin to integrate your business life and your personal life, wonderful things happen. Business gets FUN! Suddenly, that trip to the golf course every week is a write off because you picked up a client there. That beach vacation? Well, you took three clients with you for a mastermind session. Suddenly, you are working and sunning yourself with a cocktail in hand.

Integrating business and play is about more than “making time” for play. It’s making work and play one in the same. It’s about going to cocktail parties with a stack of business cards in your purse and a clear intention of swapping your business cards for at least 20 others. It’s about going out to eat and striking up a conversation that ends up with a new client. It’s about enjoying life while that cash machine just naturally cranks along, giving you want you need to live and SO much more.

So I want to know, is this how you are living? Or are you still compartmentalized, separating work from play and feeling all stressed out when playtime comes along because there is more work to be done. Don’t be like that. It’s not fun. It won’t make you money and, as Loral will say, “any situation is a situation where you can ask for the cash.”

Live Out Loud About What You Do

What do you do for a living?

Depending on what you do (or don’t do) that popular cocktail party question either invigorates you or makes you a bit queasy.

If it’s making you queasy, it’s because:

You don’t know your talk track, so you don’t know HOW to talk about what you do.
You work for yourself on the side of your W2 job, so you talk about your full-time job – knowing in the back of your head what you REALLY want to be talking about.
You don’t have a cash machine and you are looking for full-time work to no avail.

All of this boils down to one central issue. You need to Live Out Loud about what you do (or what you want to do). If you don’t, you could have a hot prospect for your business or you could have an opportunity to discover your cash machine and not know it! There are few things worse than a missed opportunity, especially if you could have done something about it.

To Live Out Loud about what you do:

Know your talk track. Practice it and talk it every chance you get.
Circle a date on the calendar when you are leaving your W2 job and start talking about your business when you have the opportunity to network.
Figure out your fastest path to cash and go get it! The only person holding you back from success is YOU!

Now go get that money!

Choose Your Own Adventure

Life is a little bit like those Choose Your Own Adventure books. Remember those? If you went one way, you ran into a monster. If you ran the other way, you found the treasure. Then you had another choice, befriend the monster or fight him. Open the treasure box or walk into the room that is glowing in front of you.

Fairy tales aside, your business choices do affect what happens in your business. That is why I teach the power of Yes! Energy and how it relates to your cash machine. Because Yes! Energy is directly connected to cash flow. They are inseparable. If you don’t say yes to a deal, you don’t get the cash. If you don’t say yes to going to the networking meeting where you would have met your next big client, you don’t get that cash, either. Yes! Energy is all about taking the action that puts the Law of Attraction to work in your life. I have love for The Secret, I do. But, you can’t just sit at home and wait for a check to appear in the mailbox. Put it out into the universe all you want, it’s not going to happen. Put some Yes! behind it, though, and it will definitely happen.

Choosing your own adventure takes some guts, though. Positive change doesn’t come without a few butterflies in your stomach, a few sleepless nights wondering if what you are doing is the right thing, or some anxiety about whether you are making the right choice. Ultimately, though, if you want it – you owe it to yourself to go out and get it.

So what adventure will you choose? It isn’t a matter of WILL you go for it, it’s HOW. There is no option to sit there and do nothing. You have to make a choice. Now choose!

The Power of Accountability

This week, President Obama made a statement that infuriated some and others agreed upon. The idea was that no one does it alone. Now, when taken in the context of government help, no, they didn’t kick-start your cash machine for you. Unless you took a grant or did something of that nature, that idea and that hard work was all you.

What I chose to take from it, political leanings aside, is that there are no self-made millionaires. There are team made millionaires. Ideas come from individuals but to make those ideas into something great, to avoid burn out from trying to do everything (including those things you aren’t good at), you need PEOPLE.

It’s stunning what can happen when you activate the power of people in your business, particularly in the area of accountability. My Fast Cash Coaching program has 3 calls each week where you can get the accountability you need from my Master Coaches. Whether you are getting it from us or you are getting it from your own group of business owners, find someone to hold you accountable RIGHT NOW. Accountability closes the gap between goal setting and achievement by giving you a sounding board. Accountability groups keep each other on task and if one member of the group needs help, they hash it out and get that person on track.

Think about it in terms of losing weight.

When do you do better? Do you lose more when you are alone or when you have someone to report in to – someone rooting for you and celebrating your success? You will lose more with the second. Why? Because its really embarrassing to admit to your friend, coach, whoever, that you didn’t work out like you promised or you ate poorly.

Now just replace “make more money” into that statement.

Do you make more money when you are alone or when you have someone to report in to – someone rooting for you and celebrating your success? Think about it.

THAT is the power of accountability and why, if you don’t have it, you need it now. So go find some other entrepreneurs, or get online with Fast Cash Coaching and DO IT!

I’M the one holding you accountable here. Go! Go! Go!

The Danger of the Make-Wrong

I love working with entrepreneurs, the optimism, the motivation, the dreams. Just working with the Live Out Loud Community and introducing new entrepreneurs to it brings me so much energy. Unfortunately, there’s a nasty little demotivator out there that is killing the spirits of both full-time workers and entrepreneurs every day. It’s called the make-wrong. When you’ve been made-wrong, you know it. Someone will tell you that your business idea won’t fly. Or, they will go on and on about how now is the WORST time to start a business. “Why are you don’t this? Play it safe. You can never be too safe.” Sound familiar? The worst make wrong though is when at ANY TIME you are made to feel less than the superstar you are. (And I KNOW you are one!)

Make-wrongs have a HUGE economic impact. Just look at the impact all of the negativity has had on our economy so far. Now people are waiting to see who the next president will be? What’s next? Wait for the weather forecast? Here it is straight. There are certain people in this world who are going to make wrong no matter how RIGHT you are. I’ve had clients who come back from 3 Days to Cash with thousands of dollars in their pockets have their spouses shake their head and tell them NO they can’t go to Loral’s Big Table. It’s too much. It’s too much risk. Just take your thousands of dollars and let’s pay off some bills.

If there is anything that is wrong it is THAT – limiting someone’s potential for excellence.

That’s exactly what a make-wrong is. It’s a big, fat, demotivational poster that hangs in your brain and tells you “NO YOU CAN’T” when, in fact, YES YOU CAN! You can do whatever you aspire to do. It stops progress in its tracks. It keeps that business failure rate way too high. It keeps people in their nice, not-so-comfortable, W-2 jobs. Why? Because the make-wrong plants the seeds of doubt, which grow into roots of discontent.

The only thing that matters is YOUR confidence and certainty, your Yes! Energy, and your action. Be your own make-right!

Use Fear to Move You Forward

Yes, I said it. Fear is normal – an absolutely 100% pure human emotion. BUT (and this is a BIG but here) you CAN NOT let it hold you back. How do you know fear is holding you back? You start polling yourself to death. You ask yourself should I or shouldn’t I more than you take action. So you stand there, absolutely paralyzed, unable to do anything but soak in the same-old, same-old. You might complain about where you are in your business or your current situation. I want more clients. I need more revenue. My investments just aren’t where they should be. Great. You’ve identified the problem. Now what are you going to DO about it? Complaining isn’t going to get you anywhere. You know what will? Action! Decisive action.

There have been many times in my life when I have felt some fear. Now I could have addressed that fear one of two ways. I could have let it paralyze me, or I could have let it MOTIVATE me. I chose the second. I choose the second option every time. It moves me forward and turns that fear into an energy asset versus a liability.

How do you use your fear to move you forward? Comment below.

Building Your Wealth Cycles

Wealth isn’t restricted to the privileged. It’s not! Sure, there are family legacies, but some of the most successful millionaires I know are first generation money. Their millionaire status wasn’t created by luck, it was born out of a deep desire to live differently, think differently, and make money differently. If an entrepreneur is willing to do those things, millionaire status isn’t too far away.

It is never too late to start building your wealth cycles. Start by doing what people with less money don’t do. Scrimping, saving, and squirreling away your nuts for winter doesn’t work. Wake up your lazy assets and putting your IRA, 401k, savings, to work for you. You can do that through a variety of means. I did it through real estate. I work with a number of experts who advise me on investment. These days, I’m doing quite well with property in Mexico and a tequila distillery. Write off business trips to Mexico? You bet I do! Investing in a downturn is different. You have to get more creative. You have to really dig and do your due diligence. Ladies, I’m especially talking to you. Investments aren’t the old boys club anymore and your financial literacy matters more now than ever. If you can’t read a prospectus, learn. You should be able to read numbers like they are a history book because, when you are investing, that’s exactly what those numbers are.

Today, my business is diverse. It entails serving as many people as possible and helping them reach their entrepreneurial potential. As a coach and leading entrepreneurial speaker, I have helped create thousands of success stories around the world by doing one thing – giving entrepreneurs the simple tools they need to generate cash. After all, that’s what most people want. Don’t you?

The Power of Affiliates

Would you like to have new leads flowing into your database every day?

Would you like to receive these leads whether you are out there, beating the pavement, or not?

Consider starting an affiliate program! Affiliate programs pay on percentage of sales, so they return actual results. They can be run manually or you can use a program like Infusionsoft to put it all on autopilot. A motivated affiliate can be your best advocate. All you have to do is give them the tools they need to promote you, make sure they know your talk-track, and track their results so they are paid in a timely manner. If you nurture your affiliate base by keeping them informed and motivated, the results they will deliver will make your head spin!

That’s it! Get out there, start turning your customers and vendors into affiliates, work through the leads they provide, and count the cash.

Want to know what it feels like to BE an affiliate? Why not apply to be one of Loral’s? Her commission structure is generous and the affiliate community is packed with tools you can use to get the most out of your affiliate relationship.

Apply right here.

Starbucks: Innovating to the Core

You may have heard the term “core competency.” Sure, it’s a nice buzzword. But what does it really mean? To explain it, I’d like to recall my visit to Starbucks this morning. See, I usually go there for my morning latte. Today, though, they had a new product. They called it a Raspberry Refresher, a tea-type drink with real raspberries in it. I was offered a sample. “I need my caffeine,” I replied. The barista responded, “this has as much caffeine as your regular latter and its only 60 calories. I perked up. Hmmmm…. worth a try? Of course it was. So I drank the Refresher instead.

It was good, but it also reminded me of something. Starbucks is darn good at sticking to their core competency, to provide caffinated beverages that become a bit habit forming in nature. Anyone who knows me can tell you, I want my lattes. I’m not giving them up for anything. Will I make the switch, likely not. However, this product extention gives Starbucks the ability to do what they do best (core competency) making delicious caffinated drinks and bring in some customers during the summer who don’t want a frappucino but still want something cold and refreshing.

So, what are you best at? How have you turned it into a Cash Machine? How much money are you making with it? Talk to me.

Think about it in terms of losing weight.

Now just replace “make more money” into that statement.

I’M the one holding you accountable here. Go! Go! Go!

What's the #1 Obstacle Holding You Back from Ultimate Wealth?